Doctor Somnolence looked up and across the table at a row of medical instruments that were attached to the wall over the heads of his two patients .
‘Two Patients!’ he quietly grumbled to himself, ‘How in the world did I let this happen. Bad enough this is the first time I’m trying this technique on a live patient, and I end up responsible for two at the same time.’ The crystal readouts was showing the effects of rising magic and chemical stress. Nodding he noticed that the graphs were finally leveling out.
He then looked in the other direction and saw Princess Twilight Sparkle sitting on the floor, her tail pressed against the wall, her eyes closed in concentration and her horn glowing so brightly that Somnolence had to squint just to make her out. Lines of magic force flowed from her to four highly stressed mana crystals.
“Princess?” he called to her, “Princess Twilight? The patients are stable. You can start lowering the power levels now.”
Twilight looked up and with a sigh of relief let the power drop. Slowly the ECP field faded and she stood up to join the Doctor and nurses. “This…” She paused to rub her horn which was smoking hot. “has been a very tiring morning.” She shook her head and looked down at the two patients.
“Are they asleep? After all that?” She asked.
“Yes, though I think they’ll wake in a few moments. The treatment is very draining.”
“I could tell.” Twilight frowned. “But was it successful? I don’t think I can do that for another hour let alone four more. Do they really have to go through this again, day after day for weeks?”
“The first treatment is the most difficult one, and the most effective. When they wake up in a few minutes, they should be free of the Cults hold. The problem is, that this will only last a few hours before the spell will start to reassert itself, in twenty four hours they’ll be mostly back where they started. It takes at least ten to fifteen treatments to purge the Cults spell. Luckily the remaining treatments are much more mild and easier. A daily forty five minutes of talking about their real thoughts and feelings while sitting in a mild ECP field and some mental exercises to suppress the cults spells effects. The key is to avoid depression and self loathing.”
“And you won’t need me again to power the crystals?” Twilight tried to hide how exhausted she felt but wisp of black smoke from her overheated horn belied her.
“No no no!” The Doctor chuckled. “That was an emergency. With two ponies suddenly in the ECP field, we needed to double the width and quadruple the power levels. Without you here, well, it was likely we would have lost them. In the future, we’ll be careful to only allow one pony near the ECP field at a time.”
“Well I’m glad I was here to help.” Twilight was starting to feel more like herself and smiled. “Please tell me when they wake up, especially Red Wood, it important to find out how long he’s been under the Cults control. “
She started towards the door, when there was a scream from the bed behind her. Surprised Twilight spun around and saw the Red Wood had already awoken,but was also trying to claw his way out from the sheets, yelling incoherently. The Doctor and Nurses were moving forward to press him back.
Twilight approached the yelling Stallion, “It’s OK Red Wood. It’s OK.” She tried to calm him.
“No! No it’s not!” He growled back. “The Cult, the Elder, He made me...He told me.”
Twilight continued to try to calm Red Wood. “It’s OK Red Wood, that was in the past. We’ll not let them hurt you again.”
“NO! THAT’S NOT IT!” Red Wood yell was loud enough that all the ponies too a step back for a moment before again moving to comfort him.
Taking a deep breath Red Wood gasped, then in a calmer voice said. “You have to listen. They made me plant bombs, a distraction so they can attack Princess Celestia!”
Twilight gasped. “Bombs! Princess Celestia?”
He nodded and gasped out again as if in pain. “I set alarm clocks to overload industrial mana batteries. Fully charged and thermally sealed to maximize the blast. What time is it?!”
Shaken Twilight pointed to the clock over the door.
Red Wood swore, “Shitting Horse Apples! The first few must have already gone off!”
“No!” Twilight cried. She ran to the door saying, “I told the guards not to disturb us. For anything. But if bombs were going off, certainly they would….”
She opened the soundproof door, and outside in the hallway ponies were rushing around, alarms were ringing. And there was no sign of the Princesses guards.
Twilight turned with a gasp, “Celestia I have to warn her!”
Red Wood was forcing himself out of the bed. The Doctor was trying to push him back. Suddenly Gentle Breeze sat up and rolled between the Doctor and Red Wood. Pushing them apart.
“Red Wood’s telling the truth! I was there, I ….I” She lowered her head, “ I helped plan it.”
The Doctor didn't like losing control of a situation, he reflexively pushed back at Gentle Breeze saying. “Please Miss Breeze, we've been going over this for hours, nothing you did under the control of the Cult’s spells can be held against you. But you can try to help make things better.”
Red Wood nuzzled his wife for a moment, then looked up a the clock again with a sense of urgency. “Princess! You have to send guards to warn Celestia, but not Royal Earth Pony or Unicorn Guards. Most of them will be in the cult by now.”
“How?” Twilight asked, “wait tell me later! I’ll send a pegasus...no! I’ll go myself!”
Red Wood shook his head and managed to dodge the Doctor long enough to stand up. “No send a guard, because there something worse! I...I horse apples! I set something up that is horrible! It's going to happen and we only have minutes to stop it!”
“Worse than an attack on the Princess?” Twilight asked disbelieving.
“Yes! The plan was for Celestia to become part of the Cult and then she would make an official announcement that the bombs were all the fault of the pegasi.”
Twilight sighed, “Well that’s the Cults usual M.O. isn't it, blame the scapeponies for everything. But they couldn't turn Celestia so fast, it takes weeks..,wait you saying the cult found a way to…” her eyes were shocked at the implications.
“NOT IMPORTANT NOW” Red Wood yelled at Twilight to make her pay attention. “To make it stick, to make it so the whole population would blame the pegasus, there had to be a real outlandish outrage. The first five bombs I planted, I set them up to damage building facades, to make a lot of noise and scare ponies, but not to hurt them. But the last bomb…” he paused and whimpered in pain.
“Where’s the last bomb!” The Doctor, Nurses and Twilight nearly all screamed at the same time.
“In the school, in Celestia’s school. In the part of the building where the youngest colts and fillies are housed. You have to take me there. I’m the only one who can disarm it in time. We have less than ten minutes.” Red Wood said this fast but quietly.
Gentle Breeze shot between Red Wood and the Nurses and stood in a defense position. “Go Red Wood! Please. Those colts and fillies! I can’t stand it!” She had tears in her eyes, “I laughed, damn me! I laughed!”
Red Wood leaped onto the Twilight’s back, and she ran across the hallway, spinning in the air to buck out the window across from the door. Still spinning she flung herself out the hole she made in the glass. Glass bits flying making a sparkly cloud around them as she fumbled to catch air in her wings.
A few flaps later and even before the majority of the broken window glass had hit the ground below, she and Red Wood were a hundred feet in the air and hurling towards Celestia’s School.
Turning her head to look over at her passenger. “Where on the campus did you plant the bomb!”
Red Wood eyes were locked on the ground, he was terrified of falling, but more he was terrified of being too late. “It was late at night, I couldn't get inside the main entrance but there was an open casement window for the kitchen storage room at the base of the Kinder tower. I was able to use my magic to float the bomb though the window and put it on a high rack shelf against the inner wall. I then packed it in by floating over some fifty pound bags of sugar and hay pellets around it.”
Twilight opened her eyes wide as she did mental calculations. “An industrial mana battery? Against an inner structural wall? The Kinder tower is thinner and taller than any of the other dorm towers! A bomb like that would make the whole tower fall. And this time of day, most of the students would be on break and heading back to the tower. “ She didn't finish the though, but redoubled her speed.
Red Wood had to hold on with all his might.
Moments later they were at the entrance to the tower.
“Remember I can’t teleport on school grounds, the inhibitors are still in effect” Twilight yelled, “we need to find the shortest path to the kitchens.” Red Wood was already running in front of her.
As they passed through the Kinder Tower’s lobby, a newspaper reading third year student was ponying the RA security desk. The student RA dropped his papers and yelled at the approaching adult ponies.
“You can’t just barge in here! You have to sign in!”
Twilight huffing and puffing gasped “No time, bomb, evacuate the tower! Royal order!” she gasped out.
It took several seconds after the adult ponies had already passed him, for the RA to grasp what Twilight had said. He wasted several more questioning his eyes, “Princess? Here?” before the full meaning of her orders slowly came into focus.
“Bomb!?” The RA ran to the fire bell and started pulling the long rope.
Meanwhile Red Wood was running blind, he looked side to side, but had been turned around by the circular hallways of the round tower. “Which way the kitchen?!”
“This way!” Twilight took lead, “I stayed here for much of the time during my studies under Celestia.”
She ignored the main hallways, and ran through a public room, ducking into a small library and smashed her body against one of the shelves.
Red Wood was going to ask why, when the shelf gave way and spun like a secret door to reveal a hidden passageway to the utility hallway behind it.
“This way!” Twilight repeated, “We used to do midnight raids on the kitchens.”
They ran up a narrow passage and through another hidden door, Twilight knocked several cooks aside and then led Red Wood as they both jumped over a kitchen prep table to get to the store room.
Red Wood pointed to a wall across the storeroom completely covered with wooden storage shelves. Most of the shelves were full of common cooking ingredients, bags and rice, bales of hay, and a strangely large number of ketchup bottles.
Both Twilight and Red Wood swept the shelves with their eyes, it was only a moment until they spotted what they were looking for. At the top shelf was a large pile of heavy bags of food.
And there was a black wisp of smoke rising from under the bags.
Red Wood yelled, “It shouldn't be smoking! We should still have a few minutes!”
Quickly he started climbing the shelves like a ladder, but it was taking too long, Twilight tried to lift him with her horn, when she felt a spasm of pain on her forehead. “I over used my magic before with the PCE field! I can’t lift you with my magic.”
“Uhhhgh!” was Red Wood’s only reply as he continued to climb on his own power, but it was definitely too slow. The wisp of smoke was growing thicker and turning into a billowing cloud.
Twilight turned around looking for a ladder or other way to help, when she spotted her shadow against the wall, her wings fluttering about in silhouette.
“Oh right!’” She said feeling foolish. With a leap, she flew up and pulled Red Wood with her up to the top shelf, which was deep enough for ponies to stand on.
The two started bucking the heavy bags off the shelf, knocking food items away from the buried bomb and down to the ground. In a few moments they exposed the clock.
It was charred and smoking with glowing metal bits connecting the mechanical clock arms to a large metallic looking mana battery. The battery was glowing a dull red.
“What the!” Twilight exclaimed, “The clock parts are all baked. The second hands not moving! That means the timer can’t set off the bomb!” She smiled at Red Wood.
But the unicorn stallion frowned back at her. “No! It’s worse! By burying the bomb under the bags, it made it overheat ever worse than I expected! It on its way to going critical! I can’t disarm it, there nothing to disarm, but its going to explode anyways!”
“What!” Twilight looked again at the battery. “No! No no! We have to get it out of here!” She started to light up her horn again.
“No Stop!” Red Wood yelled.
Twilight looked confused, but stopped her magic, she really didn't have much power at this point anyways. “You're right my magic is on the fritz, you’ll have to do it.”
Red Wood blinked at Twilight surprised.
“What?” She asked, then her eyes open wide again in realization, “Oh right, magic on an unstable over heated mana battery. Yes that would have been messy.” She hopped down and started searching for a quill, “I need to calculate the force power needed to move a mana battery without making it explode! Do you know where I can find some logarithmic charts?”
“No Time!” Red Wood cried, “Wait Parker writing something….”
Twilight looked up, realizing this was the first time Red Wood’s mentioned Parker since this crazy day started. W’hat’s he saying?” She asked.
“Drop it in the lake.” Red Wood read aloud.
“Right water would suppress the explosion!” Twilight agreed, “But the nearest lake is at the base of the Canterlot Waterfall. How can we get it there?”
Red Wood lit up his horn, he still had nearly full magic reserves.
Twilight saw the glow and yelled, “You can’t magic there! It’ll explode right away!”
“No I’m not using magic on the battery, I’mm Uuhhhgh!” Red Wood yelled at the effort it took to cast the spell he was using. He wasn't a prodigy like Twilight, but this was a straightforward spell. He blasted the wall across from the shelves, right around the casement window.
There was a moment of dust and rubble and the wall opened up with a large ragged hole.
“Can you fly us both though that hole and out of here?” He asked with a gasp.
Twilight nodded but momentarily confused. “How are we going to carry it! You can’t use magic and it too hot to tou,....”
But even as Twilight raised this objection, Red Wood had grabbed two sacks of flour and using them as improvised pot holders, picked up the battery with his hoofs. He then nodded to Twilight.
“It’s hot!” He mumbled, the sacks of flour already blackening.
With no further delay Twilight flew up, and allowed the stallion to hop on her back. He held the heavy battery up and over his head to keep it from burning Twilight's wings as they flapped.
She dived through the ragged hole Red Wood had made and then like an arrow straight towards the cliff edge of Canterlot’s mountain side perch.
“uggghhh!” Red Wood screamed in pain as the two flour bags burst into flames, fanned hotter by the rapidly moving air.
Twilight kept flying, she couldn't risk slowing down, the densest parts of the city was under her and there would be no safe place to drop the bomb before they got to the falls and the lake below.
Red Wood’s screaming was continuous now, Twilight smelt his hair and hoofs burning. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw the bright torch blue flame that was encircling his hoofs and forelegs. The pain must have been immense but Red Wood had his hoofs clamped on the battery, the flour bags no long protecting him.
Fretting Twilight nose dived down the cliff side, and yelled at Red Wood, “Throw it, Throw it now!”
Without an argument, Red Wood tossed the bomb, it flew over Twilight’s head and tumbled away. It’s glow growing brighter until it was unbearable to look at.
Twilight took her eyes off the bomb and dived through the falling waterfall.
For a moment she feared that the flowing water would knock Red Wood off her back, but he managed to stay one by clamping his rear legs against her sides. Twilight hovered in the large airy gap behind the waterfall. Though the rainbow colored water, she could still see the bomb spinning down, as it fell.
Suddenly it disappeared under the lake. For a moment nothing happened and both Twilight and Red Wood took deep breaths in relief.
Then the lake exploded.
Nearly the entire lake seemed to shoot up forty or fifty feet into the air in wild white water splash that flooded the surrounding park land. Luckily no ponies had been boating for swimming on the lake at the time and the only creatures mildly injured by the explosion was a school of passing fish.
Both Twilight and Red Wood gave each other smiles to reassure each other, then in large slow circles Twilight started to fly back up the cliffside, back to the city. Red Wood leaned over and cooled his overheated hooves in the flowing waterfall as they passed near it.
“Are you OK?” She asked.
Red Wood frowned at his burnt hooves. “I’m not going to be walking on these for a while. Hoofs burnt down to the frog. But rest looks OK, I held it above my head so most of the heat rose away from me. I think it should be fine with some healing.”
Twilight suddenly accelerated towards the castle. Red Wood had to hold on tight again to keep from being blasted back.
They were about halfway to the Castle, when there was a sudden flash of light from the top of one of the towers. It was so bright that both Twilight and Red Wood, still half a mile away, had to cover their eyes with their hooves.
“What's that!” Red Wood called.
But Twilight’s eyes had focused on the spot where the light originated. The windows and open balcony near the top of one of the towers. Celestia’s tower. “No! No” she whispered. “Princess Celestia!” She screamed. The tower seemed to be on fire.
For a long moment Twilight hung in the air, her wings barely beating enough to keep herself and Red Wood afloat. Flames still seemed to be pouring out of the Princess Celestia’s quarters. Twilight didn't know what to do, or where to turn.
Then like a burning comet in the sky, a glowing torch blasted through the balcony doors and into the air. It was hard to make out at first, but the bright white shape was silhouetted against the black and gray smoke covering much of the Canterlot due to Red Wood’s earlier bombs.
“It’s Princess Celestia!” Twilight yelled joyously.
“There’s somepony on her back!” Red Wood pointed.
“Let’s catch up with her! Hold on!” Twilight smiled at Red Wood and then dived to gather speed.
The two very different Alicorns flew to meet each other, each with their own news and terrors to share.