A hoof met the ground and kicked a small stone up into the air. It flew against the wall of a building that had stood the test of time for more than thirty years. Now it had lost the fight and only a single wall remained, whereas the rest had collapsed into the neighbouring building.
Twilight did not notice the stone, but she noticed this house and all the others. Half the city, Lyra had said before and Twilight had figured it a lie, but now? There was the furious beast, slashing at reality itself, wanting to break through the barriers that held it away and every time it made itself felt, the city shook.
More parts would crumble soon, Twilight knew, and with every step, doubts rose.
But all she could do was run. There wasn't any time to question her actions.
She saw some ponies galloping away from the fissure, screaming in fright, not putting any mind to the six fillies who hurried towards it.
She noticed the smoke rising up in the distance. Fires had probably broken out in several more districts, but Twilight couldn’t tell how many. She didn't want to know, either.
Large cracks ran through the streets, and as they reached the main road, she even saw that a gorge had opened, running from the edge of the mountain right into the middle of the city.
As they ran past it she saw a colt and a filly holding on to something. It took her a second to realize what was going on, but then it hit her: A pony had fallen down the ravine and now held on to four tiny hooves.
Twilight wanted to stop, she wanted to help, but there were larger things to consider. She needed to fix the fissure in the sky, that was the important thing at this moment. Averting her eyes, she apologized to the ponies who couldn’t hear her.
“Just hold on,” she heard one of the foals yell.
Her eyes turned, then her head, and she looked back, maybe hoping to see somepony else help them, but she found no such pony. Not until one of their own little group gritted her teeth and turned around.
Raindrops spread her wings and had a look of determination upon her face as she hurried towards the two.
“I’ll help them,” she yelled back at them. “You get that thing!”
Twilight didn't know whether she should smile, whether she should answer. No, she should do none of that, all the filly needed to concern herself with was to advance.
The closer she got to her target, the stronger her legs became. To save everypony, she needed to finish off the fissure.
They ran, she didn't know for how long. Her eyes were fixed on the fissure, which rose up right in the middle of the city. They might have run for a few minutes, maybe longer.
Her breathing was still steady, her heart had stopped beating heavily against her chest. She took one turn swiftly, then another, she jumped over the rubble that was before her with ease. It all came so easy to her, like in a dream.
She was free and could gallop anywhere she wanted, yet her eyes lingered on the fissure in the sky. The heavens changed their colors around it, turning into a wild rainbow-like swirl.
Lightning erupted, reaching out from the crack into the reality of Equestria. Then the thunder would follow, like a howling hammer striking across the sky, breaking her ears. It was the worst sound imaginable and just one more thing to toughen her determination.
The filly sprinted past the Celestial Hall and noticed something in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw a small pegasus emerging from the hall. She hadn't the time to look why it was there, she hadn’t had the time to care for such matters. Magia was coming.
Octavia, however, made a different choice, and halted her advance.
"I'll take care of that,“ she yelled and ran towards the old hall where her grandfather had once held his concerts.
This was the right choice, Twilight knew. If they could help as many ponies as possible, then it would turn out fine. All she needed to do was to trust in herself, in her ability to stop that thing from breaking through. Then everypony would see magic was real.
She would save everypony, the entire town, even the entire world, and everypony would be happy then. It was perfect, just like in the stories she had read.
Take the dive.
It echoed through her head, the words from the dream, spoken by a distinct voice.
This was the right way, the filly told herself as the broken and burning ruins of Canterlot surrounded them. The streets were filled with a chaos utterly alien to Twilight. There were wounded ponies scrambling over the ruins, hobbling across the streets. There were soldiers and merchants, doctors and workers. All of them tried to escape from the rubble, to run away from the horrible, horrible tear in the middle of their wonderful Canterlot.
Some fell, some were trapped, some screamed and some just stared, but Twilight saw none stopping to help each other. She clenched her teeth, ground them hard and tried to focus on what lay ahead.
She heard yells and screams all around her, as with another bolt of lightning, the madness around her started to escalate. A pony bumped into her, another tried to stop them, but she ignored them all.
Twilight knew that she had to focus on the fissure if she wanted to save Canterlot.
Unintentionally, she took the city's smell in. What had already been a foul stench now reeked beyond description. She didn't know exactly what that new smell was that had overtaken the streets, but it smelt burnt and rotten and like vomit.
She noticed that some screams appeared, others vanished, she noticed the trampling noise of running ponies and then another bumped into her, leaving behind a wet, red mark on her face.
Ponies were dying around her.
Yet Twilight Sparkle just galloped ahead. She felt the blood of the other pony dripping from her cheek, mixing with the tears she shed subconsciously. It was the strangest thing, for while her muscles felt strong, her legs still shook and felt like jelly with every step.
Every single moment she spent hurrying towards the fissure was a moment she felt herself growing more and more nervous. Twilight knew this feeling, this horrible, horrible feeling riling up inside her. The filly knew it, and yet she didn’t.
She wanted to turn around, go back to Nurse Redheart or even Hugh Jelly with his warm tea and the peacefulness of his and his sister’s home.
She had seen that creature once, yet she remembered it so vividly. Orbs had stared at her, a swirling redness inside them had laughed at her. She remembered the snipping noise, the clouds of cotton candy with their moustaches of sweet chocolate. She remembered that the air tasted of lemons and the grass had been the color of rainbows.
She remembered a pegasus being dismembered, she remembered blood gushing and a darkness eating the horizon.
The filly remembered a dream world forever swallowed by nightmares.
Twilight Sparkle gritted her teeth.
"We're going to make this,“ she shouted at the others and also herself.
She was a big filly who wasn't scared of nightmares and she had read that they weren't real. She wasn't going to be scared of this either, even if it was real. Right now she was strong and even though she wanted nothing more than to stop and hide beneath her blanket she kicked herself forward. Even if she was going to do it alone.
But she wasn’t, right?
Her eyes turned again, spotting her remaining friends beside her. They shared looks of fear, anxiety and a bit of hope. They believed that Twilight could do it, right?
Yes, they were with her and she would be with them. She had trusted Trixie from the beginning and even though Lyra was weird, she seemed reliable, too, and Derpy was so stubborn she would surely never run away. Twilight hardly knew any of them but decided to trust them with all her heart.
Because that's what friendship was.
The shaking slowly stopped as she took the next steps. The rain fell hard on her shoulders and left an uncomfortable feeling on her head, but she didn't care.
It felt like the final weight had been pulled off her shoulders. She wasn't the lone little filly in the hospital anymore. The one who always woke from dreams of a better life was gone, her heart would no longer burst out of her chest and her legs would support her own weight from now on. Twilight wasn't opening her eyes to a white room anymore and there was more to her world than books and a kindly nurse.
She was herself now.
Right now she was Twilight Sparkle and she felt like it, too.
She felt like a lavender colored pony who had her baby dragon by her side, read books and lived in an adventure. She felt like a smart, strong filly, capable of doing what she had to do.
She felt like she could do it, like she could bring a dawn of magic to this world and a bright and happy future to all these ponies who now cried and feared for their lives.
She felt like she had grown up in a matter of minutes.
Magic was returning and the little brown filly wasn't scared anymore.
She took the next corner.
And ...
With a loud noise another bolt of lightning reached across the sky, tipping the building they passed by that very moment. Light became fire, silence became sound, and with the mightiest of roars and the strongest of forces, the house was torn apart in a violent explosion.
Its stones scattered into the air, crashing into neighbouring houses and the ground below. The wall cracked and crumbled, then toppled under its own weight. Derpy stopped mid-flight and gawked as the building came falling down. Her friends never stopped moving.
She heard Trixie yell something, Twilight shout something back.
"Hurry!“
Yes, that was the word.
She didn't react. In the farthest back of her head she knew what to do, but her body just didn't want to move. All that came was a tear as she saw the stone closing in on her.
Everything seemed to move in slow-motion. She heard the crying and shouting in the distance, so slow and hushed that she could barely make it out, like whispers carried by a gust of wind.
She felt her heart beating slow and steady against her chest. With this steadiness, she gained a focus like never before as both her eyes fixated on the thing that would crush her in the next few seconds.
She felt her mane pressing against her coat, both wet and smelly from the rain. Her mommy wouldn't have liked that, daddy neither. She had to ask herself if she'd ever see them both again.
It was moving closer.
Her mommy had only starting smiling when guests had come home. Both she and Hugh, whom she likened to a father.
They would always be so much happier when the house was flooded with life. All the bleak moments when nopony but Derpy was at home, they’d been the same to filly as sleep.
Madame had told Derpy that once, she had had siblings, but two of them never made it into this world with their hearts beating. She had written that down for her and only recently, too. She had hugged her only trueborn daughter and thanked her for bringing Octavia, Raindrops and all the others into her life.
Muffins had been on the table that day and they had tasted wonderful.
It was moving closer.
Hugh had loved to spend his time with the family, but it seemed like he was always needed somewhere else. Everypony always asked about him and was interested in him. Derpy had figured early on that he had to be the mayor or something, since he just seemed so very important. He had finally gotten around to be with his family just before the day Twilight had appeared and the huge quake had come.
Muffins had been on the table this day and they had tasted wonderful.
And it was moving closer.
And then her world shook violently as a mighty force took hold of her. It happened with a strength she had only rarely experienced, when Madame had been really angry with everything.
Her thoughts drifted for a moment.
There had been blueberry muffins on the table and they had tasted the best.
As she hit the ground all she could hear was silence, and all she saw was the rising dust. For that single moment Derpy experienced the most serene nothingness.
She didn't feel her body, she didn't see her surroundings, she didn't smell the muffins in her memory and her thoughts were so blank, it was like her head was filled with nothing but the color white. The filly didn't hear anypony shouting, she didn't have a taste in her mouth and she couldn't move.
Derpy asked herself what had happened.
Was she dead?
A sudden sting on her left cheek, wetness growing, and the uncomfortable, itchy feeling of her mane returned. She opened her eyes and saw the weirdest sight.
Normally the filly had a smile so wide that it should've hurt, but now she whimpered atop Derpy, babbling something meaningless, something sad. The white little filly called Lyra looked at Derpy, her teeth gritted and whispered; "Don't go. ...“
Derpy blinked and tried to smile.
"I can't even move,“ she said and tried to lift her hoof, just to show that she couldn’t.
The filly's hopes were dashed as she not only managed to lift her hoof up, but also found the strength to pull her friend into a comforting hug.
Fair enough, she thought as the feeling returned to her body.
The ground was hard on her hurting back and one look over Lyra’s shoulder told her how close they’d come to certain doom. All around them the stones did lay. Some had dug themselves into the street’s asphalt, others had left their mark.
She must've stared at it forever, dumbstruck. Derpy didn't even know whether she should laugh or cry, but even if she could’ve decided, her body didn’t want to move another inch. The filly couldn't even let go of Lyra.
She was shaking. The rain fell still fell down on her in an unrelenting manner, leaving her in its coolness. Not only that, but it also burned on her bruises. Oh Celestia, did she want to go home.
They had to be around here somewhere. If they weren’t, then surely they’d come find her. Mommy and daddy, they’d come and take care of them. Yes, right now they were probably looking for her and Raindrops and Lyra and all the others.
It just couldn’t be any other way.
"We need to go.“
Lyra was the one who said that. She had always been brave, although everypony else simply called it a madness of hers.
Derpy thought it a synonym but considering how bad it sounded, it probably meant being brave in stupid situations. So Lyra wasn't brave, she was heroic.
Derpy managed to steady her smile but couldn’t loosen her grip.
The grey little pegasus knew that they had to follow Twilight. The filly had changed the moment the earthquake was gone. With the rain falling on them and the thunder bringing the earth itself to shake, she had looked so strong.
She’d been much stronger than before and braver, too. That mad flicker in her eyes when she’d told them to dive into the chaos was of the same make as Lyra’s.
Twilight was a trustworthy pony, Derpy figured, because when she’d met Lyra, she’d looked the same.
"Come on,“ the hornless unicorn told her and stood up. Derpy, still locked tight in the hug, came up together with her and finally managed to let go once she was in a properly seated position.
"We need to catch up to Trix'n'Twi,“ Lyra said.
The signature grin moved itself onto Lyra's face again, giving Derpy the confidence she needed to spread her little pegasus wings and flutter herself back on all four hooves.
Saluting, she answered Lyra. “Yessir.“
They turned to get back on track, and were about to start into a gallop as a voice sounded up behind them.
“Are you two alright?“
They turned and found a brown mare with a dark brown mane approaching them.
Lyra looked at him, smile on her face. “Yeah, we’re just going to look for our friends. They need us.”
“It's not safe,“ she warned them. “The soldiers, they just received the order to evacuate everypony. They’ll get us out of whatever madness this is.”
The mare’s eyes turned to the fissure, worry reflected itself in them. “You should come, too. If your friends are still in the city, we're sure to find them and get them out of here. Just ... come.“
She reached out a hoof, but her face was unsmiling and had something callous about it. Derpy disliked it.
Lyra seemed unsure, but Derpy only ever knew that she should take one path and stick to it, her daddy had told her that and she would stick to it.
“No.“
“What?“ the brown mare said, completely distraught by the sudden back talking.
“We're going to find our friends,“ she said.
The mare blinked, and then moved forward. Her hoof connected with Derpy’s cheek. She felt a stinging bolt of pain as she was sent flying and a single tooth loosened itself. With a red trail its blackened form fell to the ground, just like the foal herself did.
She stared at them with an utterly cold expression, her eyes flickering. "I didn’t come all this way here for some stupid brats saying that they don’t want any rescue. You say something to me again, it’ll be even worse. You got that?“
Lyra nodded and Derpy did, too. Madame had been angry like that once. This didn’t hurt as much, but she didn’t want to provoke anything like that yet again. If they’d just follow suit, everything would be fine. I’m sorry, Twilight.
The mare smiled, but it only lasted for an instance, because Lyra started grinning two seconds later.
One second before Lyra did that, however, her hind legs connected with the mare’s chin.
Derpy saw her stumbling backwards, but didn’t quite understand what just happened. She didn’t need to, as a laughing Lyra grabbed her hoof and pulled her after her.
“Twily, we're coming!“
Lyra’s laughter filled the world and Derpy began to smile. It was just one road, nothing else.
Her daddy had taught her that much and he had taught Lyra the same lesson.
They heard the stallion cursing and he launched into a gallop, so Lyra let go of her hoof and they both accelerated. The wind was blowing through their manes and the rain was still falling. It was an ugly feeling, but Derpy felt good despite it.
Their target was the fissure in the heart of the city and they would definitely reach it. They wouldn’t let Twilight and Trixie down.
A screeching noise erupted and a bolt struck the ground before them. Lyra stopped. Derpy, too, and they looked at the smoke rising up before them. They heard the mare come closer, they heard her halt and say something, but Derpy wasn’t focused on that.
She knew that the mare, too, stared.
“What?“ Derpy asked, feeling a sense of dread.
A shape emerged from the rising dust.
“What?“ Derpy asked again, a chill running down her spine.
Never before had she seen a thing like this; something without shape, without face and without name. It was a being so foul that its mere presence was a distortion of reality. The sight made Derpy feel nauseous and utterly, utterly afraid. Lyra didn’t move, just gaped at it with an open mouth. The thing approached ...
And ...
Octavia sighed.
“I'm still here,” she spoke.
Though her voice only sounded softly, it was still loud enough for the other pony to hear.
She moved past all the seats, holding a jacket she had found on a street corner. Somepony must’ve lost it in a panic. Good thing, too, as it was still dry, unlike either her or the filly. But the rain still fell and she had to walk around the edge of the Celestial Hall so that the jacket wouldn’t get ruined.
It was all for the hope that it would keep them warm for a while, at least until Twilight finished whatever she wanted to do.
Sadly, the Wise Goat wasn't helping out. He had continued his talk about how they needed to go to the Lunarium and how Twilight was mad and that, if he could talk to her, he would've surely talked her out of something as insane as this.
Maybe he was right, maybe he was wrong, but Octavia couldn’t trust a voice that sounded so giddy as it denounced Twilight Sparkle’s efforts. Mad as she might’ve seemed, Twilight was a pony that Octavia chose to put her faith in.
Maybe, on a fundamental level, she held the same belief her grandfather had once with her. Maybe she just saw a grandness and force of will well beyond her own.
She sighed. Octavia wasn't a chosen pony, she wasn't an element of harmony and there was no magic in the tunes she was able to play on the cello. All she could do was what she did now, to help another tiny soul.
She moved past the many seats and up the stage of the Celestial Hall to where once the curtains were. There, she found a small filly, cowering, crying and very frightened.
“I'm back,” Octavia said and the pegasus looked up.
“Did you find mommy? Daddy? Is daddy with you? He promised he'd be back, he never came back. He said he'd be back. …”
Octavia looked at the filly that was as small as her, though she might’ve been a bit younger. She had her eyes closed and bandaged.
Rocks had hit her during the first earthquake and she’d been unlucky enough to only received the most basic of treatments. As the second earthquake erupted so soon after the first, everypony’s attention had shifted away from her.
So much that she’d just walked away and nopony seemed to care. Octavia was a bit worried about that part. No, she was very worried as no sane pony would leave a wounded filly all alone.
Yet, she had been wandering around the town and still thought that she could reach the doctors and her parents. This was how she had ended up at the Celestial Hall, crying for her mother and father to come, this filly with the six colors in her mane.
“I've brought something to cover yourself with,” Octavia said and spread the coat over the other filly, “and guess what, there's still room for one more.”
She huddled herself up, right beside the pegasus. “Is this okay with you, Rainbow Dash?”
She used the filly's name intentionally here, wanted to give her as much comfort as possible. The pegasus didn't speak, but moved a bit closer to Octavia, sobbing and silently whispering the same questions over and over again.
“Where's Mommy? When will daddy come home? Is he here yet? Is she here yet? Will they both be there? He promised ... He promised to take me to the wonderbolts.”
Octavia looked over the burnt hall, remembering the warmth of the fire despite the cold of the rain. It was all happening over again, just with this filly. She leaned in on her new companion.
“Don't worry,” she said, “They're probably still searching for you. They’ll come and find us and then everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see them again, definitely.”
Octavia found herself struggling for words.
What could she say in this situation? What could she possibly talk about?
Her eyes went over the empty seats and she remembered how he had played the strings, how he had silenced the entire audience. Nopony in the entire auditorium had been able to say a thing, to think of anything but the little seapony's journey home.
Think ...
“Rainbow Dash,” she suddenly said, and the other pony looked up, lips quivering. “Could you tell me about the wonderbolts?”
The other pony waited for a moment, before she stuttered, “Y- You don't know about th- the wonderbolts?”
Octavia shook her head, but immediately realized that Rainbow wouldn’t notice that.
“No, I don’t know much about sports in general, but I'd like to hear about them anyway.”
There was another moment of silence and then Rainbow Dash managed to stop her sobbing. As she opened her mouth, her thoughts drifted away from her lost parents, her blind eyes and the fear of the darkness all around her. Suddenly, the most important thing in the world was something much more simple.
“They're Equestrias best fliers, and by that I mean the best. They're so awesome. There's Spitfire, she won the great Dragonbridge Race a year ago. A volcano broke out as they were right above it and Spitfire saved eight different racers from falling into the lava. She was so cool, they even gave her the price, even though she finished last, oh, and a medal, too. And there's also Soarin, the youngest member, he eats pies. A lot. Oh and he's also the only pegasus to ever win at the Manehatten Diving challenge. Also there's Fire Streak, he once flew so fast that he set himself on fire. He won last years Wonderbolt Derby and is the most senior member on the team. Ooh, and Wave Chill who's so lazy he once slept through an entire race and still managed to be placed tenth, out of a hundred. And Misty, she's also pretty young but she accomplished herself by the Easter Cliff Rally two years ago and she also bakes pies. A lot. Then there's–”
She talked on and on and a smile formed on her face, growing brighter and brighter as she reminisced about her idols.
All Octavia would have needed to do now was to say 'uh huh' and 'yeah' every now and then and keep herself occupied with something that interested her more. Instead she listened to Rainbow Dash gushing about how awesome her most favorite flight team ever was.
Then she started rambling about the Desert Dusters, the flight team from Appleloosa or the Thundernados from Manehatten. Thereafter she started talking about the history of the uniform design and just to top it off she recounted the most important Wonderbolt members throughout history.
“You're pretty awesome for knowing so much about them,” Octavia told her after Rainbow Dash had finished.
She meant it, too. Most little ponies played games and didn't think much of the world around them, but every now and then one would discover the magic of a certain thing. For Octavia it had been music, the same way it had been being completely bonkers for Lyra.
Rainbow Dash turned several shades of red just then. “Thanks ... I always wanted to join them.”
She started to look much sadder then.
I always wanted to play there.
“And now I can't.”
Not ever.
“Why?” Octavia asked.
“I ... The doctor said I probably won’t ever see again. There’s never been a blind racer.”
The sky was tinted in the orange of sundown, the world was growing even darker and Octavia could only look at Rainbow Dash. It was the same sad tale, repeated again. Seeing somepony else like this, it was something she couldn’t stand.
“You also said that he couldn't do much for you there. There's still a chance, there's still hope and hey, you could still make it, even without eyes.”
“How?”
“I-” she paused right there, “I don't know ... But if you put your mind into it, you can. Do …”
Her voice trailed off.
They sat on the large, desolate stage with its curtains that had become ashes long ago and were scattered in the wind. They were surrounded by rows and rows of chairs, enough to let the whole city in. And the hall was quiet.
Her grandfather once stood right here, she remembered, near the edge of the stage armed only with his cello and all the nervousness he had shown beforehand had vanished. Then he had looked at her and his concentrated expression changed into a smile even he didn't seem to notice.
“Anything,” she finished. “Rainbow, how about we make a deal?”
“Huh?”
“From now on we'll watch over each other's dream, you get to become a wonderbolt and I will rebuild this hall here and then we'll both fill all their hearts with the magic of joy.”
A moment of silence lingered between them, but Rainbow Dash’s smile grew again, as she nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’d be awesome, Tavi.”
And …