//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Clinging to Vengeance // Story: The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee // by FlanChan //------------------------------// The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee Chapter 23: Clinging to Vengeance Twilight wasn’t even sure how she was supposed to react to hearing that she had been indirectly friendly towards the dictator that had ruined her life. Emerald Joy was someone that didn’t deserve the wonders of friendship, and yet she was the one that gave it to her. What kind of Bearer of The Element of Magic was she? She reacted the only way she knew how at that point, which Emerald didn’t enjoy too much. Being angrily slapped across the face was really taking its toll on her. “C’mon, is it really that big of a deal?” Emerald giggled. Twilight slowly stood up, jabbing her horn right between the ruler’s teal eyes. “...I’ll kill you.” “Well we can’t have that, now can we?” Emerald answered, her hooves easily breaking through the magical ties Twilight had restrained her with. With her freed hoof, she grabbed Twilight’s horn and flung it out of the way, bringing her own forward to shoot a burst of magic. Twilight quickly ducked, retaliating with her own spray of beams. Both proved to be quite skilled in dodging and firing, which Twilight quickly noticed, and after leaving behind a few more shots she stepped back to give her more room to fire larger scale spells. Emerald Joy took advantage of Twilight’s decision, and once her horn was laced with a pale green aura, the floor began to give way. Shards of emeralds shot out through the ground, accompanied by the cracking of the cement and metal. Twilight fell back out of their range, but not before she got uppercut by a few of them, knocking her head backwards. The moment she regained control, Twilight conjured up a whip composed of fire, using it to quickly clear the air of any remaining attacks. She managed to knock Emerald over with it before it fizzled out, but she couldn’t yet assume that she had the upper hand. However, Emerald’s previous spell was still in effect, with thicker gems now floating out of the ground. These stayed behind much longer, and after failing to hit Twilight, shot out a cascade of smaller gemstones. After a few moments of being pelted with them, she formed a makeshift shield above her to reflect the stones off of. Emerald’s magic was stronger than she anticipated, however, so by the time the shower of emeralds was over, her magic barrier was riddled with cracks. With a sweep of her hoof she retracted her magic, giving her space to attack. What she didn’t expect was the sudden geyser of water that suddenly burst from the ground under her hooves. The pressure was strong enough to carry her body upward, and not long after her body was forced against the ceiling. The water pushed her into it for a few seconds, then receded. Now gravity was the force controlling her, pulling her back down to the floor. She was aimed to crash right by Emerald’s hooves, and she could make out a green magical circle waiting for her. Instead of letting the forces do as they pleased, Twilight manipulated the air to create a wind tunnel underneath her. This not only slowed her descent and cushioned her fall, but it also gave her a clear target in the middle to fire. The concentrated tornado threw off Emerald’s balance, effectively canceling any magic she was planning. But Twilight wasn’t the only one who now had a clear target, which she quickly realized when she found herself face to face with a sudden barrage of magical daggers flying up towards her. Quickly using the resistance the wind gave her as a springboard, Twilight threw herself off to the side, landing a few feet away from where she would’ve met certain death. The impact was more taxing than she was expecting, and it took her a few moments to recover. It also only took a few moments for Emerald to walk over and overtake her, grabbing her by the throat and forcing her to stand. Twilight clawed at her hoof, trying to loosen it so she could breathe, but Emerald only tightened her grip, which made her dig in further. Giving up on trying to free herself that way and quickly losing air, Twilight flung her forelegs outward and shot a gust of wind directly in Emerald’s face. The pressure shot the two away from each other, flinging them at opposite walls. Emerald Joy got to her hooves the fastest, and judging by the size of the magic circle she created while charging, she was preparing to unleash another large scale attack. Her hair fluttered with power, and in one huge burst, a teal colored river erupted from behind Emerald. It forked once it reached her, but rejoined shortly after passing her, forming again into a giant raging rapids, with some unknown force keeping it from spilling out at the edges. Twilight tried to run out of its path, but the water shifted its course to accommodate her every move. Not only that, but large jade gemstones shot out of the ground around her, keeping her from moving around sporadically to try and throw it off. The coursing river tumbled ever closer, constantly whitecapping as one wave attempted to overtake another. Twilight shot a burst of magic into the frontlines, but the amount of magic she needed to actually do anything to stop it was too much to maintain for very long. She gasped, the rapids now on her. Once she was completely submerged, the river began shifting directions, dragging her along the circumference of the throne room. Emerald stood in the center of the raging chaos, giggling with delight as Twilight struggled to keep the little breath she had in her lungs. The pulsating of the waves pushed more and more wind out of her body, and she had to hurry before the last of it was forced out. Finding a moment of relative calm in between waves, Twilight seized the opportunity and released the last burst of air she had in her. Taking the air bubble in her magical aura, she expanded its size to hold her whole body. She also magically reinforced its edges to not pop so easily to give it the power to withstand the horrid river and giant jades pointing out of the ground every which way. She had hoped that she could rise to the top of the river and ride along it to ambush Emerald Joy, but her weight kept that from being possible, so she would have to ride along the current underwater until the attack subsided, which would probably be whenever Emerald believed she had drowned. That was probably for the best, since the moment she saw the bubble she could no doubt attack even harder to pop it. Just because it was reinforced didn’t mean that it was invincible. The waves continued pelting at the bubble’s edges, which wavered, but thankfully never gave. After a few more moments, the water redirected itself again, this time bringing her to the wall that she recognized as the one holding The Elements of Harmony along with her best friends, who remained unconscious and unaware of the chaos going on outside of their preservative tubes. She looked up at them longingly, wishing that they could be awake and fighting there by her side… Her thoughts were interrupted when she turned back around, the walls of the bubble slowly shrinking around her. She looked up, and found with dismay that a good portion of the bubble was showing. Twilight could only assume that Emerald had saw, and increased her firepower, going all out to diminish any source of air she had. Twilight shot out as much magic as she could to try and push back, but quickly found that it was no use. She gulped, climbing onto the throne to try and get out of the water, but the rapids were too high up. She pushed her body against the wall, inhaling as much as she could before the walls of the bubble were pushed to their limit and burst. That was it. She was out of plans, out of last-minute attacks. The stronger pummeling of water made it impossible to focus enough to cast any sort of spell, and it also knocked the breath out of her at an even faster rate. Considering how many near-death experiences she had that day, she was surprised how real this one felt. She was completely at the whim of Emerald, and she knew for a fact that she wouldn’t let up for any reason. Twilight gripped the wall as if her life depended on it, her back being pummeled with wave after wave. Her breath started trickling away, and she could feel her life going with it. If only The Elements could work. If only she could do something. If only she could do anything. If only it could all end. Why couldn’t she be stronger? Why couldn’t she have made The Elements work in the first place so none of this would have happened? Water ran down her face, and she couldn’t tell whether it was from the river or from her own tears. Eventually everything faded away, and she couldn’t feel anything anymore. Her physical exhaustion was gone. A light erupted in her vision, blocking out everything else. Did that mean she had failed? But wait, she didn’t feel like she was out of her physical form yet. Her eyes flew open, though she didn’t remember ever shutting them, and she saw all of the water below her, though it was a bit hard to make out through the multicolored light emanating from behind her. No, there was no way that this was happening. There was no way that she could have accessed The Elements of Harmony for a second time. And yet, that was the only answer to how she felt. Though it was different this time. She didn’t feel the same rush of energy channeling through her. She just felt the same magic that had always been within her, along with the magic her friends held within them… No, she wasn’t using The Elements of Harmony, she was using the power that was solely from her friendship. It was strange how different the two felt, and she couldn’t exactly describe how so. This feeling was warmer and more personal, and probably more encouraging, as opposed to the grand, cosmic feeling she had before. Saying she was using the magic of friendship seemed so arbitrary and cliché, but that’s exactly what it was, and it made her heart swell with happiness. And with a giant blast that shocked her with its grandeur, a rainbow of her own emerged from her light. It raced against the magical current, effectively evaporating all of the water it touched. It was too far away to be able to make out Emerald’s expression, but Twilight could only assume that it wasn’t a very happy one. The rainbow closed in, spiraling around and compressing Emerald’s body the same way it did to Twilight before, only this time she could tell that it was showing her no mercy. The calming sound of the phantasm Twilight was in blocked out any noises of distress, so she couldn’t be completely sure if it was working as hoped until the rainbow swirled away and dissipated. And as the light cleared, lowering Twilight down onto the dried ground, she saw that’s what it did. And in that moment, Emerald Joy was no more.