//------------------------------// // 4: Twilight's Thoughts // Story: The Reiter Pony War // by ASDeckard //------------------------------// Twilight stepped into Celestia's guest room. The room's were, in theory, intended to house Celestia's diplomatic visitors, but the Empire had expanded to such an extent the area's not ruled over directly by Celestia herself were so distant that visits from their rulers were uncommon. The resurgence of the Crystal Empire a few years ago had changed that to an extent, but Princess Cadance and Prince Shinning Armor could only visit so often. The room, like all the others, was larger than it needed to be, with it's right wall dominated by a massive bronze framed bed. It was easily large enough for the two ponies to sleep together without disturbing each others rest, or putting their platonic friendship at risk. As the palace staff were never entirely sure what type of guests the Princess would be catering for, the bed was stacked with an assortment of pillows and comforters ranging from the firm style preferred by most Earth Ponies, to the fluffy and soft style championed by most Pegasi, as well as the full spectrum in between. While not all ponies bent to their breeds stereotypes, Twilight was fairly confident Rainbow would given her well known love of 'cloud napping.' Although that love very well may be more for the napping than the clouds, Twilight had to admit to herself. The left wall of the room was lined with a large table. It was easily long enough for two families to eat together with room to spare, but there were only four chairs present. The table was bristling with various types of hard skinned fruit; the type that could sit in warm air for several days before going bad. These rooms may have been completely excessive, but at least the ponies in charge of maintaining them were efficient. On the far side of the room was a wide doorway leading to the rooms balcony. I was not as large as Celestia's private balcony, complete with it's small garden, but it was large enough for even the largest Griffon visitors to have an easy time taking off or landing, which Twilight believed was it's primary purpose. Twilight's eyes wondered back to the bed, and it's assortment of plush pillows. It's been a long day, Twilight thought, stretching her wings for what must have been the twentieth time, if not more. "We should get to sleep soon," Twilight said, turning to look at Rainbow Dash. "I know it's only around three but Luna will probably send for us around nine, or at best ten, then we'll be up all night." Rainbow Dash was still standing in the door, partially obscured behind the door frame. "Yea," Dash said, looking down. "Hey Twilight, promise me you won't freak out." "Hmm? What do you mean Rainbow?" "Just promise me Twi." "Ok, I promise, I won't freak out. You are ok, right?" "Yea, I'm fine. It's not half as bad as it looks," Rainbow finished with a chuckle. "What's not? Rainbow, get in here!" "Ok Twi, don't yell. I mostly just need help washing the blood out of my fur." Rainbow stepped around the door-frame and stood sideways in front of Twilight. "Oh my, Celestia, what happened?" Twilight moved forward, looking over every inch of Rainbows side, trying to find the source of all this blood. "Your fur is more red than blue!" "I know, that's why I need help cleaning it. Seriously though, Twilight, you've never seen the results of a fight with a griffon before?" "Well, no, I haven't." Twilight was running her hoof across Rainbow's side, pushing her fur out of the way to trace the deep cuts. The muscles along Rainbow's side twitched periodically and she pulled away a few times. "...That tickles," she said when Twilight turned to look into her eyes. "It's ok, Twi, really. She hit nothing but muscle!" "Rainbow, you are nothing but muscle!" Rainbow was already blushing, but hearing Twilight say this she broke eye contact and looked away. "She could have speared you clean through, hitting nothing but muscle, and you'd still be bleeding to death!" "But I'm not, Twi," Rainbow muttered, her eyes on the floor. "She didn't get any arteries, or any major veins for that matter. I'm fine. Bleeding's already stopped. I just need to get cleaned up." Twilight went back to tracing the cuts along her friends side. Rainbow was, to an extent, right: after getting passed all the blood caked in her fur the wounds did appear easily survivable, if rather messy. Twilight also had a point though; Rainbow really was all muscle, reminding Twilight just how hard it was going to be to catch up. "Ok, Rainbow, I'll help you wash the blood out, but then I'm going to do my best to close these cuts." Twilight lead the way into the guest rooms luxurious bathroom; it was nearly as large as the main room. Twilight had spent a lot of time living in one of these guest rooms during her time as Celestia's personal student, and while her parents home in Canterlot proper was not quite as excessive as this, it was also quite extravagant. Judging by the look on Rainbow's face, she did not have quite such a privileged upbringing. "Whoa, what is all this? This place is bigger than my bedroom! Do you have spare rooms this big in your castle, Twi? If so, I may have to move in!" "No, nothing this... exuberant," Twilight said, suddenly feeling a bit like Rarity. There was a good sized shower along the far wall, but the center of the room held a tub easily large enough for Celestia to comfortably lay on her flank without touching the sides, and deep enough to allow her to submerge herself if she wanted too. Twilight stepped down into tub. "Wouldn't the shower make more sense?" Rainbow asked, but still followed Twilight into the Celestia sized tub. "No, this will do." The faucet was also far larger than it needed to be; it's opening was about the diameter of Twilight's head and was at about eye level. Twilight reached out with her mind and magic to throw the water on, and only took a moment to approximate the temperature. Rainbow turned around to give Twilight her wounded side. "This thing's more like a swimming pool than a tub!" "Remember, not all of the creatures Celestia rules over are ponies. Would it be more inconvenient to have a bathtub that's too small, or one that's too large?" Twilight asked, levitating a hoof sized ball of water from the stream exiting the faucet and splashing it down Rainbows side. "Is the temperature ok?" "I don't know," Rainbow said, with a grin spreading across her muzzle, "you tell me." Rainbow whipped her tail through the faucets small waterfall, blasting Twilight in the side with a truly impressive volume of warm water. "Rainbow Dash! That's not funny!" Twilight tried hard to suppress her own smile as Rainbow broke into her signature high pitched cackle. "Just let me get this blood out! We can have a water fight later." "Yea, ok Twi," Rainbow mumbled, looking away, a sly smile still gracing her lips. Twilight knew Rainbow well enough not to trust her with that look on her face, so she readied herself. Sure enough a moment later Rainbow whipped her tail through the waterfall again, but this time Twilight was ready. She cast a simple spell, using only slightly more energy than Rainbow had expended with the flick of her tail. The spell, guided by Twilight's quick mind, collected up the fine spray of water into a loose ball, then swung it around directly into the back of Rainbow's head, drenching her mane and rocking her head forwards. "Whoa! Twi, what the hay?" Her voice cracked a little; apparently she hadn't expected Twilight's reprisal. "Ok, ok; fine. You don't need to take my head off!" That's better, Twilight thought as she began to levitate more water onto Rainbow's side, working the blood out of her friends fur. "So, Twi? Are you ok?" Rainbow asked after a few moments. "Hmm? Yes, I suppose." The blood was coming out quickly, partly because it was still mostly fresh but also because Rainbow kept her coat trimmed extra short, even in these winter months. "Why do you ask?" As Twilight worked Rainbow's tail twitched in and out of the heavy waterfall several times, but she made no attempt to splash Twilight again. "It's just... it was just yesterday after noon you received Celestia's letter, and we learned... that we're at war. Do you even know anything about these...?" "Reiter ponies," Twilight finished for her friend. "No, not much. They live in the Northeast and their territory boarders the Crystal Empire, which means they boarder us now. They have a long history of great kingdoms and somewhat recently even their own empire, although it collapsed a few hundred years ago. I know a lot about their ancient history, but as far as I know they've done nothing of note recently." "But is Sombra really back? Didn't Cadance... kill him?" "I don't know. Celestia said we didn't have to worry about him anymore." "Well that didn't work, did it!" "Don't yell at me, Rainbow." "Sorry Twi, I just... I don't understand." Rainbow was watching Twilight work with a lack of interest in her eyes, but now she looked into Twilight's eyes as the Alicorn paused her work. "Why didn't we just kill him?" "Because killing is wrong." "How many guards-ponies died in the attack?" Twilight shook her head, feeling a bit uncomfortable under Rainbow's gaze. "Celestia didn't say, but... too many." "Killing is wrong, Twilight, but so is letting other ponies kill each-other, or letting them kill us. We don't have a choice." "I know Rainbow, that's why I'm here, but that doesn't make it right... I'm scared Rainbow. I don't want other ponies deciding if I live or not." "Me neither. Twilight, don't tell anypony, but I'm scared too." The last sentence came of out Rainbow at a hardly audible wispier, and she looked away the moment she finished saying it. "Thank you Rainbow Dash; that means a lot coming from you," but shouldn't I be worried? Doing something that scares even Rainbow doesn't seem like a good idea. In only a minutes effort the last of Rainbows exposed blood was washed away, and swirled down the drain. Now for the hard part. "Rainbow, I'm going to do my best to close your wounds, but I don't think I'm strong enough to completely heal them." "What? Twilight, it's fine! I'll heal up soon enough." Rainbow started to walk away, but Twilight reached out with her mind and telekinetically grabbed her tail, dragging her back. "I know Rainbow, but I may need to heal far more life threatening wounds in the future, and I need to get what practice I can. Healing magic is very difficult; you need to put all the energy your body would normally use over months into a spell in just a few moments, making it extremely inefficient. Please Rainbow, will you be my test subject?" Twilight backed the question with the cutest sad face she could muster. "Wow Twi, that makes it sound much better... Fine, but please don't waste too much on me." Rainbow's eyes started wondering around the room again, and her tail strayed back into the waterfall. Twilight knew how hard it was for Rainbow to sit still so she wasted no time. She started with a simple scrying spell, that would map out Rainbows injury to give Twilight a more exact mental image of the wounds dimensions. Knowing this Twilight did some quick mental calculations to estimate just how much energy it would take to heal the gashes. It wasn't very accurate, but she realized quickly she would not be able to fully close all of them. So she opted for an alternative tactic; starting with the middle and deepest gash she focused on the edges of Rainbow's wound, and as gently as she could drew the wound closed with a telekinetic tug. She then began dumping raw energy into Rainbows skin, accelerating her natural healing process as much as Twilight could risk without bleeding herself dry of energy. "Whoa! That feels really, really weird! Like somethings crawling under my skin." Rainbow was twitching, her eyes wide as she craned her neck around to watch her flank. "Rainbow, hold as still as you can please," Twilight whispered. Twilight could feel her mental energy rapidly draining away to match her already tried body. She staggered back as the last of the center gash on Rainbows side closed. "Are you ok?" Rainbow asked stepping up to Twilight after spending only a moment checking her side. "You got the worst one at least," she said happily, a wide grin across her snout. "Yea... I'm ok. It's not really healed; all I've done is seal the top layer. You still have a bad tear underneath the skin that will need to heal on it's own." Twilight was having a hard time focusing as her vision swam and two Rainbow's drifted around the room, both staring at her with concerned looks on their faces. "Ok Twi, thanks a bunch for that," Rainbow said sincerely, sparing a quick glance at her flank. "It's not even going to scar now: you saved my cutie mark, but now I think it's time for bed." Rainbow turned the water off, then helped Twilight out of the tub and quickly rubbed Twilight's fur and mane down with a towel. Rainbow then stepped back, admiring her work. "Hahahaha, Twilight, you look just like when we met. Do you remember? When I dried you off with my 'rain-blow-dry?'" Rainbow doubled over, her laughter loud enough to hurt Twilight's ears. "Yes, Rainbow; I remember. It was right after you tackled me into the mud!" Twilight took a moment to stare at her reflection in the rooms great mirror; she didn't actually look half as bad as the day she met Rainbow, but her mane was still standing up rather aggressively. "Ok Twi, you seriously need some sleep. Go on, I'll dry myself off and be in in a minute." "Alright Rainbow, don't be long." Twilight wandered up to the bed; it appeared to be arranged softest to hardest pillows from left to right. Not really caring too much Twilight dragged herself onto the right side of the bed, and buried herself in the mass. Despite being only mid-day, her body and mind were both extremely tired and it took only moments for the exhausted Alicorn to slip deep into sleep.