//------------------------------//
// New Life 
// Story: Dark Ascent 
// by Wildluigi77777 
//------------------------------//

"Guys, I think he's coming to! He's waking up!" Lucian says excitedly. His friends eyes slowly opening.

Twilight catches her breath. The spell she just cast took a lot of energy and she was exhausted. A slight smile formed over her face however. She felt proud to have helped save a life. It turned out the state Wild was in put him near death, shattering the whole right side of his ribs. The ribs bounce inside his body and caused massive internal bleeding. It was a surprise the stallion didn't die soon after if not immediately. Twilight was very proud to have saved her student from certain death.

"Wild! Old buddy you lived! You don't know how worried I was. How do you f-" Chrono was immediately cut off.

"Why'd you go get help for me?! You should've stopped Darkblithe! He couldn't have gotten far then! Who knows where he could be now! If I had known this would happen, and you'd let him go, I wouldn't have resisted joining the horde back then! You fool! Who knows where he could be and how many Agrocht he's awakened!"

"Relax. Remember, he's not the original leader of the horde and he doesn't have the necessary cores. Remember. There were seven cores that gave rise to the horde and we scattered them after you disappeared. He won't be able to raise the horde for a while, Wild. Even if he got some cores, we kept one so he'd have to come by us later to get it. For now, we need to keep it safe... Hey Wild...!" Chrono smirks as he says his name.

"What..."

"How about we place the core inside you! We'll remove your beating heart and the core can replace it! The cores do possess great strength and lend their strength to you if you replace your heart with it! Come on!"

"Uhh, no. Let's no-"

"Pin him down!" Lucian yells as he and Chrono run to push him and hold him down. "Mind helping us here Twilight? Just take a knife, clean it up, then cut his chest open! We'll handle the anesthetics!"

Twilight enters the next room and grabs a knife. She rubs it down to a clean, sterile state then walks back in. When she returns, Wild is speaking incoherently.

"What did you two do to him?!"

"We put him in a state of... Euphoria, let's go with that."

"Uhhhh... I'm not even gonna ask... And do I have to make the incision? I don't feel up to this... I can't do this to my student just after healing him!"

Lucian stands up. He walks over to Twilight and takes the knife. "I'll do it, just hold him down."

Twilight slowly approaches her student and pushes on him to keep him still. He continues speaking and going on about Luna knows what.

The cold steel makes contact with his chest, too numbed and high to notice the sensation. The first cut is made into the pony flesh, causing small trinkles of blood to run down his body. The next cut it made with the same results. The next few cuts focus on deepening the wound, eventually reaching the end of the muscle. The cuts are slowly pulled away with help from Twilight's glowing horn. Lucian uses the knife to cut the vessels holding his heart. Slowly each cut is made with precision and finally, the heart is pulled out with Chrono's magic. Quickly Lucian throws the knife away and gently places the core inside his chest. He reconnects the vessels and Twilight closes the wound. They sigh upon seeing the core reaches up to the skin. A few hours later, Wild awakens to his friends conversing how to be rid of Darkblithe before the upcoming war. Wild sighs and walks out of the building.

"They went ahead and did it anyway... Ugh..." He walks through the streets and enters Ponyville's tallest building, the Serenity Spire. He climbs the stairs for a good 45 minutes before reaching the top. He stands on the roof, looking down at Ponyville.

"Hey, I'm going to head off... See you guys later." Twilight said as she backed out. She quickly went off in search of Wild despite her statement. She had but one question for the stallion. Her horn glowed as his trail appears in front her. Following the trail she is brought to the spire. She gulps and rushes in, climbing the stairs.