//------------------------------// // ...our meeting (2) // Story: I'll be waiting... // by Zweiterversuch //------------------------------// ...our meeting I was sure that was the last chance I had to fix the whole problem. I wasn't about to let it go to waste. Gathering what little strength I had left I managed to once more stand on all fours. My legs trembled and twitched at the inconsiderate demands I made to them. They demanded rest, but I begged for their help just for a little while longer. As the smoke curtain cleared I was able to see a blurry figure move towards the giant crossbow I saw the hoofworkers of Märisch work on. Of all the the presents Theodore was the only one still thinking of Spike as an enemy. I ran towards him through the lines of hesitating soldiers using what was left of the smoke curtain to my advantage. Every step I took hurt like having a needle pierce the bottom of my hoof. Despite the hatred I felt towards Theodore, I was unable to do more besides tackle him. Fortunately I was able to bring him down to the ground, gaining so at least some time. "Tome? What do you think you are doing here? How did you escape? Bah! It doesn't matter now. Get off me already! You dare interrupt me in the middle of a battle?" Unable to come up with any new words, with the ones I had used before proven as useless, exhausted and about to faint all I could do was use my head. I smashed it right in Theodore's mouth. "Gah!" I drew blood immediately after the first headbutt. It ran down my forehead and out of Theodore's mouth. It's pearl white teeth were covered in the reddish mixture of his blood and his saliva. He cried due to the pain, but his eyes also reflected his anger towards me. "How....how dhare yhou!?" His lips quickly swelled and the words that came out of his mouth became harder and harder to understand. As a pony not accustomed to fight his body was quick to react when hurt. I must admit that I was like that once, but the many fights I got into in the pub had accustomed, somewhat, my body to the pain. Nonetheless I was unable to put a decent fight against the healthy cardinal. He smacked my face over and over again while I headbutted whatever part of his body I felt closer. Naturally his hits proved more effective than mine and after a while of wrestling he got the upper hoof. Theodore hit me relentlessly, with a fury I had not seen in him ever before. Often he quoted sentences from many important soldiers and commanders that partook in the great battle thousands of years ago. Luckily for me, despite the anger his punches had, with the passing of time they became weaker, once more surely due to the lack of exercise in Theodore's life. Noticing then that he wasn't inflicting as much pain as he expected, and being painfully aware that his strength wouldn't last any longer he reached for a loose stone in the ground and lifted it over his head. "...this will be the last one. It'll be the last blow, the last battle, the last day of war. Those were the words of the commander to his soldiers. Let this be the battle that puts and end to the war. Let this be the one that will claim victory for Canterlot, Equestria, and the Princess!!" The Cardinal was out of his mind. I wondered if by the time I met him Müllhound, under that mask of faith and devotion, already lurked this murderous, fanatic madness. Our eyes met. I then looked at the rock. It was obvious my skull would not withstand to be hit with it. It'd surely split open like a melon. When I looked back at him, Theodore's eyes were still fixed on mine. For an instant I thought he'd be unable to do it. Maybe, despite the madness that controlled his every movement, he still saw me as his former friend. But then I realized that he wasn't hesitating at all. He was merely preparing himself mentally to assume the guilt brought by giving the deathblow with his own hooves. Suddenly the earth shook once more. This time it wasn't caused by an explosion, Spike or the cannons. The earth merely shook because it felt like it apparently. But it did it so violently that the mountain above us began to crack and split. Fissures started to appear on every wall of the mountain and many of the soldiers began to care less about the fight and more about their own lives. "What are you doing? Come here!!!" With a single swipe of his tail Spike pulled towards him the soldiers closer to him as well as Wild Rose, protecting them from the falling rocks and debris. The earthquake was my window. As stone and dust fell around us from above and while Theodore was distracted I headbutted him once more, this time in his defenseless stomach. The rock fell behind his back and both of us had again the same advantage over the other, namely none. "Tome!" Wild Rose called my name. Certainly it was because she wanted to get me to cover me under Spike as well as the others. The earthquake continued. Neither I nor Theodore were close enough to Spike to refuge ourselves beneath him. The strength released by the earth under us was unprecedented. Somehow it was as if something wanted to emerge from the center of the earth. Theodore finally fell, and laid right next to me without being able to move a single muscle. We both, former friends that had attempted on taking the other's life were now at the mercy of luck, for if a single rock, large enough, were to fall upon our heads there would be nothing we could do besides hope it would kill us instantly. "You...you...damned..t-t...traitor..." "You...murderous...cleric..." I laughed and coughed a little of my blood. For some reason I couldn't stop thinking that before all this happened we preferred to be less formal when we were alone. As I looked at the ceiling of the cave while countless tiny stones fell upon us, I couldn't stop noticing that for some reason the rock started to lose their color. Maybe it was the blood loss or a simple delusion, but the stones even started to look transparent, to the point where I could distinguish silver clouds, the stars and the full moon above us. "W-what...what is happening?" "The...the cave..." "....it's disappearing!?" The comments of the soldiers made me realize I wasn't seeing this. The mountain, the sealed mountain was fading away, literally being disappearing from existence as if it had never been more than something we had dreamed about. In vain I tried to think about the possible reasons for what my eyes witnessed. If it weren't for Spike's words, I'd have believed that I was about to wake up from a dream and that I was still in my little house in Müllhound, waiting for the mailpony to deliver to me the decision of the sect about my transference to Märisch. "They did it! They have finally defeated the unnamed evil! Everypony, look, Canterlot is rising again!" As Spike said. The pearl white towers of Canterlot emerged from the ground as a sign of victory of the princesses over the unnamed Evil. The Castle and its city and the mountain they were on thousands of years ago were again for the entire world to see. Unexpectedly the Sun rose in the horizon and joined the Moon in the sky submerging the world in twilight. The world felt then somehow different. It was so strange. It was as if something we didn't know was missing had returned and had showed us once more what the world used to be like. I looked at Theodore. We were both covered in blood. The expression in his face was of shame and disbelief. "I told you...we just had to wait...imbecile..." Theodore didn't show me his face anymore. I turned to my side and saw how something else seemed to emerge from the depths. "A town?" "Some day these walls will fall completely, the kingdom will rise from underground and all the citizens of Canterlot and Ponyville will awake from their slumber. When that time comes, Tome. Come visit me. I'll surely have a place near a small town you have surely heard nothing about. I am sure you won't miss it. It has a fashion store shaped like a carousel and a bakery that looks like a cake. It also has a large oak three that serves as a library and huge fields of apple trees." "So this is Ponyville, huh, Spike? Looks exactly like you described it. I'm already...looking forward to visit you there... My friend... I'll go as soon...as I feel my legs again..."