//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 - Holding Out for a Hero part 3 // Story: The Foals of Harmony: Equestrian Rhapsody // by Rainy Meadows //------------------------------// “...only three o’clock in the afternoon, so we’re not even getting close to sundown.” “That’s a relief.” “You know, Ah-Ah know this is gonna sound awful, but... Ah hope Twilight doesn’t wake up. Ah mean, she’s been through so much, and Ah don’t want her to remember what happened to her.” “It’s okay. I gave her some industrial strength painkillers, so she wouldn’t be uncomfortable or anything. But I’ll tell you something right now: I do not want to know what they did to her. And another thing is that when (or if) she does wake up we can’t force her to tell us what happened to her. We have to let her tell us in her own time-” “Oh my gosh! She’s waking up!” “No, careful everypony, don’t crowd her. Give her space.” Twilight felt... cleaner somehow. And she couldn’t feel any pain anymore. And even though she was tired – no, exhausted – in a way it was almost blissful. It was like a massive weight had been pulled off her shoulders. It was so... so amazingly relieving. She felt a hoof gently stroking her mane out of her eyes and held it close, not wanting whoever it was to stop, and not wanting to let it go. “Twilight?” asked a familiar, masculine voice with an unusual accent. “Can you hear me?” She opened her eyes, and was met with the brightest, greenest ones she’d ever seen. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I can hear you.” “Twilight, you’re okay!” She felt a tiny pair of scaly arms wrap around her neck and hug her close. “We thought you were gonna die!” The purple unicorn weakly embraced her no. 1 assistant with a freshly bandaged foreleg, wishing with all her heart that she didn’t have to ever let him go again and that this moment could last forever, as a joyful tear worked its way down her cheek. “I thought I was gonna die too,” she whispered. She followed the terracotta hoof on her face to its owner, who slipped her a half hearted, lopsided smile. It was by a long shot the most welcome face she had ever seen. As consciousness worked its way back into Twilight’s mind, she became aware that a majority of her body was wrapped in warm, comfortable bandages. And all of her friends were here with her. They had all come to help her, just as they had when she was facing down Nightmare Moon, and she knew, just as she had back then, that they weren’t going to abandon her. “Are you okay?” asked Fluttershy. “We were all so worried.” “I... I’m a lot better now that I know you guys are here,” said Twilight. “I just- I can’t believe you all came here to save me. Thank you.” “’Course we came ta save ya!” said Applejack. “Ain’t we the first proper friends ya ever had? Give us one good reason why we’d just leave ya’ll here and forget ‘bout ya.” Twilight managed a weak smile. Normally, at this point, she would have winced in pain, but astonishingly she couldn’t feel anything. “I gave you some industrial strength painkillers I picked up in dimension 63, in case you’re wondering,” said Hex by way of explanation. “They’re the strongest painkillers in the multiverse. I guessed you would need some, seeing as when we found you, you were beaten up worse than an overused piñata and tied up with barbed wire.” “And that was just so absolutely dreadful,” said Rarity. “Darling, your injuries were simply appalling! I am one hundred percent positive that if we had discovered you just a few minutes after that exact moment you would have most certainly perished.” “I don’t know how to thank you guys,” Twilight said croakily. “You... you saved my life.” “Well actually, it was this guy,” said Dash, pointing at Hex. “He’s the one that beat us to the punch. He was down here hours before we even knew you were gone.” “Hex? He was the first one down here?” “Yes,” said the brown unicorn, “and he’s also right here.” “Yeah,” said Dash, “and you won’t believe what he told us-” “I think we should focus on getting out of here,” said Hex, cutting off the spectral maned speedster. “Twilight, do you think you can walk?” With his and Spike’s help, Twilight managed to lift herself onto her hooves, and took a few tentative steps, but her legs wobbled dangerously every time she put the slightest amount of weight on them and she came very close to collapsing like a pony-shaped sack full of jelly. “I’ll take that as a ‘no you can’t’,” said Hex. “It’s okay, I can carry you.” “Are you sure?” asked Twilight. “I wouldn’t want to-” “It’s no trouble, really!” Hex insisted, and the purple pony found her body wrapped in a bright green aura as she was positioned lengthways on her brainiac friend’s back, and then they set off again. “Twilight,” Pinkie spoke for the first time since announcing her friend’s awakening, “if you don’t mind me asking... where’s your horn?” Obviously terrified of what she might find, Twilight reached up and felt her forehead, and was horrified when she could only feel a cracked and jagged stump just above the level of her coat. “It broke,” she wept. “Deluminata, she drained my magic and it just-just shattered almost like it exploded or something, and then she said something about seeing her mother again and-” “Remember, Twi,” said Hex, “you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Twilight sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Thank you,” she said, and she wrapped her hooves around his neck in as manageable a hug as she could from this slightly awkward position, from which she couldn’t see his blush. “You’re welcome,” said Hex. “And let’s hope that Deluminata can’t bring back her mother, because she is considerably worse.” “In what way?” “She’s sane.” “How is that worse?” asked Dash. “Yeah!” said Pinkie. “Everypony knows that crazy ponies are oodles scarier than not-very-crazy-at-all ponies. All the bronies and pegasisters who saw the second-to-last episode of season one and the third episode of season two should know that.” “I’m not even gonna- The problem with evil people when they’re sane is they’re more likely to know what they’re doing,” said Hex. “If they’re sane, then they’ll probably be better at planning things, and in the long run will turn out to be worse. If the bad guy’s nuts, then they’ll mostly act on impulse, and not really put together a very good plan. That’s probably why she... hurt you, Twilight.” There was no response. “Twilight? You okay?” “I think she’s asleep,” said Fluttershy. And she was right: the young purple mare was now snoozing gently upon Hex’s back, snuggled unknowingly against his dragon leather jacket. ‘She’s so adorable,’ thought the teenage inventor, and he smiled quietly to himself. “Why are you smiling?” asked Pinkie. “Did you think of a funny joke? Ooh, ooh, tell it! Tell it! Tell it! I bet it’s hilarious! Is it the one with the chicken that crossed the road? That one’s sooooooo funny! Or is it-” “Pinkie, shush!” Hex whispered. “I’m just- I’m happy, alright? Twilight’s going to be okay, and we’re going to get out of here. And anyway, all the jokes I could tell wouldn’t be original, but I do admit that I know quite a few and they’re all pretty good.” “Really? Tell one!” “Okay then,” said Hex. “What looks like half a cat?” “Oh! I know! It’s-” Pinkie stopped, and looked thoughtful for a moment, before saying, “Umm... I dunno. Do any of you guys know?” “Can’t say,” said Applejack. “Nothin’ really comes ta mind.” “I must say that the answer escapes me right now,” said Rarity. “Um, I’m sorry,” said Fluttershy, “but I don’t know.” “I’m not the dumbest pony in Equestria,” said Rainbow Dash, “but I haven’t got a clue. What about you, Spike?” “Eh, I got nothin’,” Spike admitted. “Seriously?” asked Hex. “None of you know what looks like half a cat? I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed.” “Well, the rest of us don’t come from alternative universes!” said Dash. “Now tell us: what looks like half a cat?” Hex smiled, almost evilly. “You’re gonna be so smegged off that you didn’t guess it,” he said. “Come on, then!” said Rarity. “Tell us!” “Seriously,” said Hex, “you are all going to be sooo smegging angry when I tell you!” “Oh for cryin’ out loud, would ya just tell us?” Applejack demanded. “What looks like half a cat?” The terracotta scientist’s face split with a massive grin. “The other half!” he said. At this answer, virtually everypony slammed a hoof/claw into her/his face and groaned, except for Pinkie Pie, who being Pinkie Pie practically exploded with laughter. All except for one particular pony, who hugged Hex close as if he were her old Smarty Pants doll. “...and he says ‘I can see your house from up here’!” This time, it worked, and everypony burst into raucous laughter, although it kinda ruined the moment when Pinkie finished laughing about four minutes after everypony else. “Mmph...” Everypony fell silent, and Hex looked to the pony he carried on his back. “Hey, sleepyhead,” he said. “Have a nice nap?” “Best I’ve ever had,” said Twilight. “Where are we now?” “This is where we came in,” said Dash. “I’ll just fly up and let Soarin’ know we’re okay.” And with that she took off up the almost vertical tunnel, thankful to finally be able to stretch her wings. How long was this shaft? It felt like ages before she finally surfaced, and enjoyed the feeling of the sun on her face, even though it took her quite a while to get used to the bright light after spending what felt like hours underground in dark tunnels. She rubbed her face, trying to get her eyes to start working properly again. “Rainbow!” Wait a minute. Was he- “Rainbow, up here!” She flew up to a cloud where her coltfriend was perched, a snoozing foal by his side, and when she reached him he pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re safe!” he said. “I was so worried!” “Soarin’,” said Dash, “have you been waiting here the whole time I’ve been down there?” “Of course!” he said. “I didn’t want to move too far while this one was asleep.” “How is he, anyway?” Rather than picking him up, Rainbow Dash simply scooped up the portion of cloud that Lightning Strike was snoozing on so that she didn’t wake him up. It was like an extremely fluffy blanket. “Would you believe me if I told you he’s been asleep the entire time you’ve been gone?” asked Soarin’. “He’s inherited your laziness. Anyway, did you find Twilight?” “We did, but she’s in a pretty bad shape – she can hardly even walk,” Dash explained. “Normally I would ask for help getting her out, but... what is it?” Then she heard it: the panicked panting of a pale yellow pegasus (try saying that ten times fast) as she hurriedly flew up to them. “Fluttershy?” asked Dash. “What’s wrong?” “Twilight!” the animal carer cried. “She just disappeared! She didn’t run away or teleport or anything, she just vanished into thin air!” Slowly, as if terrified of what they might find, the three pegasi turned and looked down at the cave, which was still as pitch black as it had been the first time they had found it. “What the hay’s going on down there?” asked Dash in a frightened voice. Back here again? She had been returned to the giant chamber with the enormous vat of liquid magic, only this time she had landed teetering dangerously on the edge of the glass container, and came frighteningly close to falling in. Twilight had misinterpreted how thick this glass was: it was wide enough for her to stand comfortably with little or no danger of falling off, but unfortunately the same was true for the insane alicorn who faced her on the other side of the gargantuan vat. “Shame,” said Deluminata, “I was rather hoping you would fall in.” “But why?” Twilight knew that the alicorn was insane, and therefore completely beyond reason, but she had to try, right? “Why did you drain my magic? Why do you need unicorn magic to bring your mother back? Surely there has to be some other way.” “But there isn’t!” Deluminata cried ecstatically, and she telekinetically yanked Twilight across the width of the vat, and held her almost nose to nose. “This universe has the highest concentration of magical power in living beings in the entire multiverse! They don’t even have this much power in little Haydie’s dimension, and in that place there are people – there are people all over the multiverse in fact – who have been touched by the gods. The GODS! And they don’t even come close to the amount of magic in this world. And you, Twilight Sparkle...” Suddenly she twisted around and bucked Twilight in the chest, sending her sailing across the mouth of the gigantic cylinder and crashing into the edge of the wall of the far side, and she quickly twisted around and scrabbled at the ledge, trying to find some grip. Needless to say she was tremendously relieved when she was able to hoist herself up, but by the feel of things she definitely had a rib or two broken. That had been one hard buck. Surely not even Big Macintosh could pull off a kick that solid. “The Goddess of the Sun was impressed with your raw magical ability,” said Deluminata, and she started to walk around the rim of the vat towards Twilight, who kept trying and failing to pull herself to her hooves. “The Goddess of the SUN!! I mean, for crying out loud, I didn’t know whether to be alarmed or disappointed, because rather than being impressed that mare should have been scared out of her horseshoes. You have the kind of power that could easily tear this whole multiverse asunder. Or should I say... had!” This launched her into yet another bout of maniacal laughter. It was at this moment that Twilight realised; there was no way out of this. She was trapped on either side by a deadly plunge to certain doom – one into a shallow pool of her own magic, which considering how concentrated it was would surely kill her – and the other to a solid stone floor. And she was being approached from behind by the most terrifying thing in the entire multiverse. There was no doubt about it. She was going to die. “But I don’t get this,” said Deluminata. “Why don’t you just wave your magic little horn and make everything alright? Oh, that’s right, you don’t have one anymore!” “No...” Twilight moaned weakly – she felt like maybe a lung was collapsing, “please... no...” “What’s the matter?” asked Deluminata, and she sounded horribly close. “Is the little pony scared?” She punctuated the word ‘scared’ with a stamp on Twilight’s hind leg, and the purple pony was once more gripped with paroxysms of pain as she felt the bones shatter. She gritted her teeth, but refrained from screaming. “No, it’s okay,” said the alicorn in a voice tainted with counterfeit friendliness, “you can scream all you like. Not even my little buddies will be able to hear you. They aren’t here anymore. Haven’t you noticed that the magic level in this thing has gone up?” There was a pregnant pause, during which Twilight ground her teeth in an effort not to give Deluminata the scream she so obviously wanted. “Fine then, don’t look,” said the blood-coloured mare. “If you had looked, you would have seen eight rather ugly splats of black in that pool of purple, which used to be rather pretty.” She bent down until she was once again nose to nose with the agonized purple pony. “Just like your eyes,” she stated. “And your eyes are beautiful.” She pushed Twilight towards the edge, and Twilight could only hold on by her hooves to prevent herself from falling into the concentrated magic. “Please...” she wept, “let me go!” “Are you sure?” said Deluminata. “It’s a very long way down – far too long for a pony such as you to survive. But you know... that’s rather what I’m counting on.” She stamped on Twilight’s left hoof, and the purple pony yelped and pulled it away. “The fact is, Little Miss Purple, is I’m not sure I got all of your magic,” Deluminata continued as she raised her hoof for the final blow. “And do you know what that means? It means you’re too powerful to live!” And rather than slamming her hoof onto Twilight’s, as the student had expected, the alicorn smashed into her forehead, exactly where her horn had been. This momentarily stunned her, and sent her plunging into the purple liquid below. There should have been some kind of splash, or an explosion as she fell beneath the surface. Instead, it merely went gloop. Deluminata stood there and watched the gently bubbling mixture for a moment. Then she leapt off the edge of the vat and gently flew down to the solid stone floor, before striding confidently away. Today, Twilight Sparkle. Tomorrow, the world. But... wait a minute. Behind her, the purple mixture had started to throb with deep pink light. It had been gently glowing before, contrasting with the dim green of the vat itself, but now it was as bright as the moon, and growing brighter all the time. You may find it comforting to know that in the last few seconds of her life, Deluminata regretted everything and may have been bordering on sanity. Then she drowned in magic. A third pony, this one a bespectacled brown unicorn with extraordinarily green eyes and an electric cutie mark, was galloping frantically through the stone tunnels. ‘They really should be collapsing or something,’ thought Hex as he ran. ‘Just to add to the drama. If this was dimension 2 this place would totally be collapsing – but then again, I could just ride out on my giant flying motorbike and there wouldn’t be any problems.’ ‘Grrrr, FOCUS! Got to find that bloody crack!’ He checked his compass again, and it pointed left: straight at a solid wall. So he kept running until he found a left turn, and then turned left again, and finally he found the crack he was looking for. He looked through it and saw... ...nothing. Even the gargantuan vat was gone. “But-but how?!” he thought out loud. “There’s nothing in there- but- what- where could she have-” He became aware of a purple glow behind him and slowly, dreading what he was going to see, he turned around, and his jaw almost hit the floor. Standing before him was Twilight Sparkle. One of her hind legs was bent at an impossible angle for it not to be broken, and she was covered in small cuts which made it look like her skin had been stretched and she had almost exploded. Plus, she was drenched from head to hoof in the same thick purple liquid which had been in the vat. Her eyes were glowing pure, blindingly white, and protruding from her forehead was a wispy white spire, like the ghost of a horn. “Holy smeg,” Hex swore. The purple pony closed her eyes and bowed her head, the light from her forehead growing brighter and brighter all the time... ...and suddenly they were outside, at the base of the mountain, surrounded by their friends. Slowly, they lowered their respective hooves/claws away from their respective faces and stared in shock and horror at the horribly injured young mare that now stood before them, whose strength then failed her and she would have fallen to the ground had a certain multicolour-maned pegasus not zoomed forward and caught her in the nick of time. “Oh my gosh,” Rainbow Dash whispered, “oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” “Is she...” Spike trailed off, unable to bring himself to say the word, while Hex galloped forward and pulled Twilight out of Dash’s hooves. “Smegging hell,” he swore. “She’s hurt. Badly. We need to get her back to Ponyville right now. And I need somepony to go up to my shop and get something for me.” “What do you need?” asked Dash. “When you go up there, you’ll find some tubes of glowing green stuff, and I need you to bring me one of them.” At that, and still holding her son, the weather girl whizzed towards the summit of the mountain. “Hang on a sec,” said Soarin’. “Since when were you the boss?” That might have been the wrong thing to say. For the second time in his life, the young stallion found himself nose to nose with the enraged brown unicorn. “Since I was the only pony with the technology that could save Twilight’s life,” said Hex. “OKAY?!?” “Okay!” Soarin’ squeaked weakly. Hex didn’t say anything else except “Follow me!” before he turned and started galloping in the direction of Ponyville, and more specifically the library. By the time he got there he was obviously exhausted, but still had the strength to carry Twilight upstairs and lay her on her bed, while everypony else waited in the main library area. When Dash arrived with the green vial, the brown unicorn took it without a word, and smeared the substance on Twilight’s forehead where her horn used to be. After that, he just waited. There was nothing else he could do. There had been less tension in the library when Rainbow Dash had been giving birth to Lightning Strike. At least then there had been some sound. Right now, there was nothing. As Dash had said earlier that day, ‘silence in the library.’ Well, not quite. Spike was hugging Pinkie Pie, whose mane and tail had deflated again, and silent tears ran down her cheeks. Applejack was comforting a gently sobbing Fluttershy, and the Rainbow Dash family was huddled together, Lightning Strike still snoozing gently. They all looked up when a stranger entered the library. She was a young unicorn mare with a coat of pink tinged with gold, and a long sheath of pinkish-purple mane, held back by a black headband with some kind of gold writing on it, which contrasted with a tail which was short, scruffy and black, with streaks of pink, blue, orange, green and purple. She wore a golden vest trimmed with something fluffy and white – her cutie mark was a pair of shining crossed knives – and she surveyed the room with brilliant blue eyes. She was beautiful. “I’m searching for Hex,” she said. “Do any of you know where he is?” Applejack indicated the upstairs with a nod of her head, and the young mare walked past and disappeared. “Who was that?” asked Dash. “Ah dunno,” said Applejack, “but she obviously knows Hex. Whoever it was, she ain’t got no ack-cent. Strange thing if ever Ah heard it.” Upstairs, Hex heard the hoofsteps and felt the newcomer sitting down beside him, but he didn’t need to look or ask who it was. He already knew. “Hi Zeph,” he whispered with a cracked voice, “how’ve you been?” “Not too bad,” said the newcomer. “Just came to see how you were doing.” Her sapphire eyes fell upon the unconscious young pony in the bed. “Who’s this?” she asked. “Just a friend,” said Hex, “although...” “You wish she were more than that?” “Yeah.” Neither of them spoke for a moment, the pony addressed as ‘Zeph’ trying to work out what to say in order to not sound like an absolute bitch. “I remember when I first met Justin,” she said. “I thought he was gonna be like every other guy who tried to win me over: arrogant, self centred, and basically obsessed with only picking me up because of my looks-” “-and then it turned out that he was actually a really nice guy,” said Hex, “who’d had a whole load of not so nice things happen to him. How is he doing, Zephyr? How is everyone?” “Not too bad,” said Zephyr. “Y’know, recovering. But it looks like Deluminata made a comeback.” “Just when we thought we’d locked her in the Land of the Dead forever,” said Hex. “ Guess you can’t keep a bad guy down, eh? She drained Twilight’s magic – that’s this one’s name, Twilight Sparkle-” “What? Seriously?” “Yes.” “That’s hilarious!” Zephyr exclaimed, but when Hex gave her an incriminating glare she said “Sorry.” “She drained her magic and tried to kill her,” said the scientist, “and if it hadn’t been for us – me and the ponies you saw downstairs – she would have definitely succeeded. And Twilight, she-she would never have known...” He sniffed and wiped his eyes, and found himself pulled into a hug. “She would never have known you loved her,” Zephyr finished for him. “That’s right, isn’t it?” Hex nodded weakly. “If I were any other person I’d say that you were being unbelievably sappy,” said his friend, “but I’m not any other person, and I’m definitely not that heartless. On the contrary, I have two.” Despite himself, the brown unicorn smiled. “I know,” he said. “I was with you for about three years. You were the best friend I ever had.” “Were?” “Alright, you are the best friend I’ve ever had.” He pulled himself out of her hooves. “Why are you here, Zephyr?” he asked. “What did you come here for?” “To make sure you were doing okay,” said Zephyr. “Don’t you remember? I said I’d come and check on you after eighteen months. How could the biggest nerd in the multiverse possibly forget that?” “How many times?” said Hex. “I. Am. Not. A. Nerd!” “You do know I only call you that to see the look on your face, right?” “Well don’t!” After a moment of giggling, the two unicorns snapped back into the moment, and eyed the comatose Twilight carefully. “I won’t get involved this time,” said Zephyr. “I’d have to be a complete idiot if I didn’t know this was personal. Deluminata tried to kill the girl you loved, and you’re going to deal with it yourself.” “Too right,” said Hex, and they embraced again. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut this short,” said Zephyr. “Dimension 1 isn’t gonna take care of itself.” “Fair enough,” said Hex, and the pink mare stood up and started to glow at the tip of her horn. “It was nice to see you, Haydon,” she said. He waved to her as she vanished, and she did the same. “Same to you, Amber,” he said to the air. Everypony looked up as the brown unicorn descended the stairs, looking considerably more relieved than he had when he had gone up. Nopony asked what was on their collective minds – the situation seemed far too serious for that. “I did what I could,” said Hex. “She’s in a coma, but I think she might just make it.” Still, nopony said anything, but Pinkie summed it up rather nicely by running over to him and hugging him tightly, and he did nothing but hug her back. And the way he breathed... there was no doubt that he too was on the verge of tears. It was warm. Wonderfully warm. And comfortable. Was this what death was like? Was this heaven? Or was it hell, leading her into a false sense of security before bringing her confidence crashing down? It felt like she was in a bed. A comfy bed, just like her one at the library. And... and she wasn’t alone. She opened her eyes. In front of her, relief sparkling in his brilliant green eyes, was a terracotta brown unicorn with an unbelievably messy mane and a coating of several day’s worth of stubble on his cheeks and chin. But... how? Then she remembered: the vat, the alicorn, the massive drop into her own concentrated power... She tried to leap up, to run away, to escape from this world which was so against her, but gentle hooves pressed her down into her bed and hushed her into silence. “Careful,” said Hex. “Week-long comas can make a pony kinda stiff. Nanites can only do so much.” Even though her instincts told her to flee for the stars, Twilight laid back in her bed and tried to get comfortable again, but it was to no avail. All she could think about was the events that had transpired underneath that mountain. “I’m sorry,” said Hex. “I’m so sorry!” With emotions overwhelming her mind like a tidal wave, Twilight threw her hooves around her friend and helplessly wept as for the first time in her life, she felt completely and totally lost. NEXT TIME: Holding Out for a Hero part 4 “I really thought I was going to die down there.” “But-but why? Why would anypony do something like that?” “I don’t know! I just- I don’t know!” “If she can’t get her power under control, she’ll tear herself apart!” “Could you... sing for me?” “When she was just a girl...” Author's Note: Again, this chapter was extremely difficult to write. I have never been in a situation similar to this, neither do I know anyone who has, so how are you supposed to convey emotions such as these? Here's a little contest for you: the next chapter is going to feature another song by the silken voiced Hex. See if you can figure out what it is before the time comes. Not too long to go now, just hang in there, 'coz we're almost at the end of the story! And you guys are gonna love what I've got planned for a sequel...