My sword flickers around me like a deadly steel hornet, slicing through any Oppressed unlucky enough to be near me. They're starting to group up and swarm us, just like they always do, quickly limited the space in which we have to move, and cutting us off from reaching the rapidly closing gates.
“Seth! That big guys comin'!” Applejack warns me frantically while bucking an Oppressed apart to keep it away from the wounded Rainbow. She flinches when a claw scrapes across her shoulder, but she doesn't give in, retaliating swiftly against the offending undead.
The Mega Oppressed is charging towards us at a high speed , bowling aside its fellow undead without any concern for their wellbeing. Its eyes are fixed on us...and Swift is the closest one to it. When the monster reaches them, Swift hunches down and gets ready to assault it. Trixie quickly moves to join her, slicing up Oppressed on her way. “Trixie will assist....aah!” Trixie and Swift then both have to throw themselves to the ground to avoid a deadly sweep of the monster's swollen arm that could have easily broken their necks.
Shit, I need to help. I turn to face the Mega Oppressed, recognizing it as the biggest threat on this field. However, as I'm turning to do so, a burst of white magic buffets my face, singing my skin and pushing me back. I grunt and clasp a hand to my face, one eye gazing out at General Mist, who has taken to the battlefield herself now that the gates are once again closed.
“Coming to face me yourself, General?” I say with a sense of calm falling over me. I recognize that I made a bad call...but now I'm starting to see a way to pull us out of this. Mist doesn't respond, glaring at me with her magic swirling over her form like a raging whirlwind. I plant my feet and hold out my sword before me, noting how the area around me is clear of undead. Mist must want to take care of me herself. “Come on then. I'll help you with the release you seek.”
“There's no hope for you,” Mist states in a wavering voice. Her expression turns pained, as if her statement was spoken with sorrow and despair rather than any sense of gloating. It's almost as if she wanted us to win. “You cannot defeat him. It's...it's pointless to even try.”
“Defeat who?” I ask, even though I have an idea what the answer is going to be. Mist starts to look fearful, even as she speaks the name.
“King Sombra. He is the one truth of this world....he is undeniable,” Mist reveals, her body shaking. Her muscles tense, and she starts to approach me. “But now, you are trapped in these walls with me. I will do you a favor, and put you to rest, so that you never feel the pain as your last hope is crushed.”
I scoff, and then stand up straight, seemingly lowering my guard. Mist pauses, wondering what I'm planning. Honestly, I should have done this before, to the point where my previous panic seems a little foolish to me. It may not have been the best idea to do this before, but now, it's a matter of life or death.
“Trapped?” I repeat. As Mist watches, I let my magical energy explode from my body, forming a small crater beneath me. Before she can stop me, I pivot on my heel and channel my magic into the blade. A surprising, yet familiar sensation passes through me. Instead of questioning it, I seize upon it, and magic rushes through the blade, transforming it into greenish crystal, with the luster and richness of emerald. With my powered sword in hand, I hold it in both hands and sweep forwards in front of me twice in an X pattern. Green waves of slicing magic emanate from the blade and surge towards the gates.
The magical waves collide with the gate and are briefly halted by a white barrier, telling me that Mist must have warded the door against magical assault. However...she's not anywhere near my level. I lower my sword and lift a hand, which flashes green with power. The shockwaves struggling against the barrier receive the extra power and slice right through the opposition, chopping right through the wooden gates. “Trapped? I think not.” I restate, smirking.
Mist's jaw drops as she sees her barrier broken so easily. She watches the gates fall apart, revealing the snowy wasteland outside. I'm not even looking at the gates anymore, because I know I can't make a run for it until my team is safe. “No...you won't escape! You won't!” Mist screeches, and then she charges at me, firing beams from her horn as she does so.
I stick my sword into the ground and meet her charge head on, her beams impacting my body and leaving burns. Mist cries out when my fist hits her right in the chest, halting her charge and pushing her back. However, she quickly turns around and rams a hoof upwards into my chin painfully. What the hell...I should be a lot stronger than her.
It then dawns on me. I am stronger than her...but right now, in my current form, we're at relatively the same level. I think I'm still higher, but for all intents and purposes, we're even right now. No...I only become alicorn levels of strong once I transform.
I grunt and get smart, dodging her next few attacks and retaliating with a burst of magic emanating from both palms. Mist deftly blocks it with a barrier and turns on her forehooves, her hind legs lashing out in a powerful buck.
Getting hit by a buck would hurt, so I sidestep and then grab her by a hind leg. Using it as leverage, I hurl her around into the ranks of her undead, near where Rainbow is fighting. That'll buy me a little time to take the heat off my team...
“Waaah!”
“Commander!” Both Swift and Trixie go hurtling backwards into the walls on either side of the gate, both of them completely overwhelmed by the indestructible nature of the Mega Oppressed. It's more than a match for any of us like this, and we know it.
Applejack and Rainbow move to guard the two as they rise, joining me. The three of us meet the wave of rushing Oppressed, preparing ourselves as the Mega readies itself for another charge. “Seth! Let's make a run for it. Ya opened the gates; there's nuthin' stoppin' us!” Applejack yells out to me as she lifts an Oppressed with her two front hooves and then throws it to the ground into a group of its fellow undead.
“Yes, we need to retreat!” Swift agrees, getting to her hooves and lifting her javelin. I nod in agreement. I can't fight Mist and the Mega Oppressed at the same time...and that's not even counting the hundreds of undead still left in the fort, all rushing towards us at once.
“Agreed. Let's get the hell out of dodge!” I confirm, and then the five of us make a break for the gates...only to stop at what we see on the other side. Shock crosses my face...and then a grin slowly forms.
“Hold your ground, valiant warriors,” Salamul's deep voice rumbles from outside the gates. The warlord, dressed in his imposing crimson armor and armed with that monster axe, stands on the other side, flanked by Iron and Pterax...and backed by the entirety of the Bleak Island elite forces. Salamul sweeps his axe down to his side with his magic, a snarl forming on his lips. “There will be no defeat this day! Islanders! With me!”
A rallying battle cry rises from the Bleak Island ranks, and they all follow Salamul as the warlord breaks into a gallop, charging right for the open gate and the ranks of undead on the other side. Mist, upon seeing the enemies outside, snarls in frustration and sends a thick and concentrated beam of snowy magic directly towards him...
Salamul roars and slices right through the beam with his axe, cutting it into two smaller beams that harmlessly impact the snow on either side of him. His charge isn't even slowed. When he passes through the gate, he leaps all the way over my head and lands right in the middle of the undead, annihilating a whole circle of them with a single sweep of his axe.
Iron is right behind him, and it isn't long before the entire Bleak Island force meets the ranks of the undead in a clash of epic proportions. The Islanders cut their way through the undead like a knife through butter, at last showing their true prowess in battle. It's almost laughable how easy they're beating the Oppressed, sweeping aside their clumsy claw attacks and slicing them apart with ease. In fact, some of the soldiers are even laughing in delight.
With a guttural battle cry, Salamul raises his axe...and then a fucking lightning bolt as thick as a tree slams down from the clouds above, striking his axe and causing it to resonate with electrical power.. Oh, so that weapon is magical? Well, good for him, but that's not going to do a thing against...
Salamul spins his axe in the air, the weapon releasing a whirlwind so strong that the air visibly dilates around him. Much to my utter shock, the Oppressed are knocked aside like ninepins, and that's not even counting what happens to the poor fuckers that get hit by his electrically charged axe. The one Oppressed unlucky enough to get hit is blasted to pieces by the electricity.
Oh my god. I look over at Rainbow and Applejack, who are equally as shocked as I am. Hope returns to me, and I lift my sword back out of the ground. “We can't give up now, team! You heard the guy! Let's stand our ground and bring the fight to the enemy!” I call to my team. As battered as we all are, I can see them nodding, morale surging among us now that a monster like Salamul is here with us.
“Geez, you numbskulls,” Pterax joins us with a scoff as all six of us charge back into the ranks of the enemy. He quickly turns into my form, wielding a weapon to deadly effect among the magically immune Oppressed. “I'm away for not even half an hour, and you manage to get the entire fort up in arms against you. How did you even manage that?”
“It was my fault,” I answer shortly as he and I fight alongside one another. “I make a stupid decision and nearly got us all killed. You can all yell at me later.”
"I should have known," Pterax remarks, much to my annoyance.
“Ah told ya it was a mistake...but what's more important...” Applejack grunts while tangling with two Oppressed at once. “...is that we all git out o' this alive.”
“Commander Iron! Watch out!” Swift calls to where Iron is fighting with his trident and shield. He's currently combating Mist in a tense head to head skirmish, but Mist is obviously overwhelmed. Not only is Iron outfighting her, but she can't touch him with her magic. Every time she tries, her power is sucked into Iron's shield and sent right back at her through his trident. “It's coming!”
Mist steps aside and lets the Mega Oppressed charge past her, using it as a shield to buy herself time to lick her wounds. I start to move to help Iron, but a light red hoof stops me from going any further. “Nuh-uh. You stand right there, you stupid spindly thing,” Crimson Flare cautions me, a grin on her face. As I start to protest, she indicates Salamul, who's now at Iron's side, getting ready to fight the huge monster charging right towards them. “Watch. These are the two that brought our country together as one.”
“You ready, brother?” Iron asks Salamul grimly as the Mega Oppressed charges towards him. Salamul gives an amused grunt, hefting his electrified axe and waving it through the air threateningly, such that the very air hummed and crackled with its power.
“Please...this is nothing compared to what we went through. Let's show them what we are capable of...” Salamul returns, his expression stoic as ever. Iron nods, and then the two of them gallop directly towards the Mega Oppressed, meeting its charge head on.
The two brothers split right around the monster's charge, sweeping their weapons in a low arc and slicing right into the creature's legs, using its momentum against it to inflict enough damage to cause the creature to slow to a stop, staggering as it tries to keep its footing.
As the Mega Oppressed turns around, Salamul and Iron are ready for it. They easily weave their way in and out of its frenzied attacks and simultaneously slice up its torso with their weapons. Salamul's supercharged axe leaves a deep gash in its chest, electricity sparking from the point of impact and causing the monster to jerk spasmodically, as if the power is running through its limbs.
My jaw slowly drops as Iron and Salamul weave around the monster, slicing it to ribbons with their combined assaults. They are cooperating and coordinating with one another without even exchanging any words or glances, and the Mega Oppressed doesn't even stand a chance.
The monster is now on its hands and knees, as its legs are all but sliced to pieces and its torso is hacked to ribbons. It attempts to rise again, but its end is near. Salamul and Iron stand together a few meters away, their weapons crossed and touching. The metal of the two weapons seem to be connected by arcs of dancing electricity that gets more and more intense with every passing second.
With simultaneous roars, Salamul and Iron bring their weapons down to the ground at the same time. A shockwave of electrical power surges forward across the ground, tearing up the stone of the street and annihilating everything in its way. Despite its seemingly magical nature, it reaches the Mega Oppressed and slices it to bloody chunks, defeating it once and for all.
“All hail the warlords!” the Islanders cheer at their leaders' victory, even as they utterly overwhelm any undead in their way. From where I'm standing, I don't see a single fallen Islander among the dead. No kidding....400 Islanders is more than enough. It's almost like these are the pony versions of Spartans. Jesus Christ.
Mist reappears atop a building, looking fully charged and ready for battle. She looks as shocked as I feel to see the Mega Oppressed lying in pieces on the street, and even more shocked to see the Islanders utterly carving up her forces, while each individual laughs and jokes as they do it. She growls and starts powering up...but I won't let her.
“Stay here with the Islanders. I'm going to deal with Mist,” I order my team. Without waiting for acknowledgment from them, I take to the skies and charge right towards the general, emerald flame wreathing my form. “We're not finished, you and I!”
Mist quickly turns and meets my charge with a magically empowered guard, causing the building's ceiling to crack beneath the impact. She glares into my eyes, and then locks her hooves around my shoulders, bashing my forehead with hers. I yelp as her horn cuts into the skin of my forehead, and I then kick her in the barrel viciously. She doesn't let go, and as such we both go tumbling off of the building into a crowd of Oppressed...who soon spread out to give us room to fight. I'm guessing that's Mist's command.
“Why...why are you fighting so hard...?” Mist demands, dodging several slicing shockwaves of magic from my sword. “You can't win...it doesn't matter how hard you flail...how many battles you win...he'll kill you...”
“The better question is....why the hell aren't YOU fighting?” I shoot right back, meeting her punches with open palms. As we strain against one another, we glare into one another's eyes. “I heard about you from Shatter. You're crystal pony slave, aren't you? Sombra has enslaved and tortured your kind to the point where I don't even want to think about it! Doesn't that mean anything to you?”
“Stop acting like you understand!” Mist cries, punching me in the nose and causing me to recoil. She goes on the offensive, forming orbs of magic and throwing them at me in an endless barrage. “It doesn't matter what I do...there's no escape. Every last hope, extinguished...every rebellion...snuffed out...it's too much!”
“So what, you're just going to give up!? I demand incredulously, powering through her assault and planting my hand into her face, hurling her across the street and through a house. I quickly pursue her into the building, where the two of us exchange swift punches and kicks. “What about all of your friends? Your countryponies? You're okay with them living in slavery like this?”
“No...no...! But there's nothing I can do...I'll just die....” Mist expresses. She's starting to cry, tears welling up in her already reddened eyes. “It's better to just accept it...please, I just want the pain to stop...”
“So stop it yourself, you coward!” I snap at her, using my hands to propel myself away from the floor seconds before Mist detonates a magical rune there. “There's no excuse for what you're doing. You think you can live in this twisted little fantasy with your undead 'friends,' all while your real friends are suffering and dying?”
“You don't know what it's like! How dare you lecture me!” Mist screeches. She and I meet in the middle of the room, blowing out the rest of the building in the resulting explosion. Her words anger me, because on the contrary...
“I do know what it's like, you idiot! My race went through the same damn thing!” I tell her, causing her eyes to widen in shock. I grab her by the shoulders and lift her up so that she's forced to look at me. “My people went through worse, actually! Sombra's top general, Vanta, tortured and killed my kind with sick and twisted experiments to make the very same troops you're using right now! And do you know what I did? I blew that fucker to ash and made him pay.”
“I can't do that...it's not possible. No one can defeat Sombra...he's the one thing that will last forever...” Mist returns weakly. I throw her to the ground painfully, my disgust showing in my curled lip.
“Last forever? I don’t think so. Nothing lasts forever...certainly not tyrants like him,” I snap back at her. I glare at her, only one thing left for me to say. “Mist, I'll defeat Sombra.”
My resolute statement causes Mist to look at me in utter shock and disbelief. I plant my feet and tap into my innermost wells of magical power, releasing the strength that I've almost never used.
Mist watches in awe as my magical power rises by several fold. My aura circles up around me, filled with flowing ribbons of archaic cuneiform glyphs. My hair flows up around me, and those same glyphs climb up my body, glowing with an ethereal emerald light. Once my transformation is complete, I let out a wordless cry and plant my feet, sending out a shockwave that completely demolishes whatever is left of the house around me.
“I'll defeat him,” I repeat to her, lifting up a rune covered hand and clenching it into a fist. “If you want to make it up to your friends...you'll help me.”
Mist lies there with an air of shocked silence for a several seconds. For the first time, a little bit of hope seems to enter her expression. “Maybe...maybe with your power...we can...” Mist starts to say aloud...to the point where I think she's about to give in. But then, she clenches her eyes shut and shakes her head vigorously. “No...NO!”
Mist stands up, closing her eyes shut tight. When they next open, there's nothing but darkness coming from beneath her eyelids. A whispering fills the air, along with a feeling of eerie magic that's very similar to how Vanta's magic felt. She's using some powerful necromancy right now. “How dare you....instill this kind of hope in me...!” Mist starts to yell, her voice now sounding distorted and unearthly. “There is no escape for me....except death!”
Around her, Oppressed and other undead gather to her, clinging to her body. Bile rises in my throat in disgust as their skin and bones start to crack and merge together in a grotesque amalgamation of bodies. A twisted flesh construct not unlike a Mega Oppressed starts to form with Mist as the center of its torso. Once it's complete, white fur sprouts from the undead bodies, and sharp teeth and claws form from the “head” and “hands.”
“I will kill you, and show you the same despair that I feel!” Mist utters ominously from her position in the center of her construct's torso. I lift my sword once more and hold it out before me. I know full well that with the Oppressed that are a part of that construct, there are likely to be parts of it that are immune to magic. But that's okay. I need to show her that no matter the odds, it's always worth fighting back.
“Come on. I'll break this despair of yours,” I challenge her, beckoning to her with my hand. Mist grits her teeth, and then the construct charges at me, with its thick claws held high. However, in this form of mine, I start to see things the same way I did when I fought Vanta.
Mist blinks when her claws slam onto the empty ground where I used to be. She turns, but is hardly able to follow me with her eyes as I circle around her with the speed given to me by this form. Doing what feels natural, I grasp one of the lines of glyphs in my aura and sling it out like a whip. The other end coils around the flesh construct's arm. From there, it's easy to upend the whole thing, dropping it on its back, earning a yowl of frustration from Mist.
I land in front of Mist and dash past her created body as it rises, dragging my sword across her arm, cutting a deep gash into it, to the point where it's only hanging on by a few strands of muscle and tendon. Before she can even retaliate, my sword stretches and lengthens into a length of chain, with a dagger attached to the other end.
“There is always hope!” I shout at her, flicking the chain out at her and slicing into her body with the dagger. I whip it at her again and again, tearing into her constructed body and slicing the surface into ribbons. “I learned that from ponies very close to me...ponies that I never would have met if I'd let myself fall to despair like you have!”
“Don't lie to me....I hate liars!” Mist reaches out with a massive arm and grabs onto the chain..but it dissipates in her hand before she can tug me in. “Friends die...and all I'm left with is a hole that I can never fill!”
Her unharmed fist shoots forward towards me...only to be blocked by one hand. It pains my hand to block it, but I can handle it. It seems like the merging of Oppressed and normal undead diluted that magical immunity, such that its only resistance now.
“I know how that feels...god do I know,” I return calmly, feeling a little melancholy as memories of Amaryllis fill my mind. Even now there's a hole in my heart where she should be, but it's only through accepting it and moving on can I keep it from taking me over. I feel sorry for Mist, that she never learned how to do that. With a grunt, I tear her construct's arm completely off and toss it aside. “But I'll never let it keep me from fighting back...and neither should you.”
Mist looks at me with terror as I power up even further. She takes several steps back as I approach her, as if that could save her. I hunch down, and then propel myself forward with an explosion of magic behind my feet. “No...don't....I'm not ready....!” Mist yells as I streak through the air towards her...and then I rip right through the center of her construct, wrapping my arms around her middle and taking her with me.
Mist screams as I land on the ground several meters away from her destroyed construct, which even now starts to turn to dust now that she's no longer supplying it with necromancy. I hold Mist tightly, my arms wrapped around her, almost like an embrace. Mist trembles in my grasp, hyperventilating and struggling weakly.
“And there's your answer,” I whisper in her ear. Mist tries to wriggle free...but when the meaning of my words sink in, she slowly settles down, looking up at me not with the cold dead eyes of Sombra's general, but with the frightened and confused eyes of a filly that never got to grow up. “You're not ready to die. Not yet. You still have friends out there, waiting for you to rescue them.”
Mist blinks as tears start to pour from her cheeks. All magical output ceases from her, and she throws her hooves around me, hugging me as she starts to sob loudly. I flinch a little from her sudden affection...and then I realize that I just managed to fight and talk down one of Sombra's generals. Holy shit, when did I get so persuasive?
All around us, the battle starts to die down. The moment Mist started to cry, the undead start to slow down. Eventually, they start to shut down entirely, the life draining from their bodies. Eventually, the rest of the undead army is just standing still, easy targets for the Islanders to wipe out. That means...she's relinquished control of her army. This means...the battle is over. I let my magic peter out, the runes disappearing from the air, my aura dissipating, and my hair flopping down to my shoulders.
Sure enough, a chorus of cheers rise up from the Bleak Islanders once they realize that none of the undead are fighting back. Now, instead of an invasion, it's become a cleanup mission. Of course, now I have to figure out what to do with the sobbing general in my arms.
“Your name...it's Seth, right?” Mist questions me, looking up at me tearfully. I nod solemnly. She sniffs and wipes her eyes with a battered hoof. “What...what do I do now? How can I rescue my friends?”
“You can come with us,” I tell her, pulling away from her so she has room to stand up. “However, you'll likely have to talk with the princesses. You were our enemy, so I doubt many of the ponies here will trust you.”
“I know...you can lock me up if you want. It's nothing that I haven't dealt with before,” Mist replies sadly, lowering her head. I shrug, not really knowing what to say to that. My species may have had it worse than hers, but I've never gone through anything close to what she has. “Can...I come with you?”
“Yeah, come on. The others are going to want to know,” I tell her, getting to my feet. I wince a little as all of my wounds start to ache at once. It really sucks that we don't have a healer like Celestia, Luna, or Chrysalis around. I guess I'll have to get treated the normal way. I look behind me to make sure Mist is walking with me, and then I step towards the Islanders, with whom my team is celebrating now as well.
I meet up with Iron and Salamul on the way, the both of them approaching me purposefully. They both take note of the timid Mist standing behind me. “I see you have captured their general,” Salamul observes. “A shame. I was actually beginning to enjoy myself.”
Iron shakes his head, giving Salamul an exasperated expression. “Are you alright, Seth? How are your injuries?” Iron questions me, his words betraying his concern, despite the fact that his expression is as neutral as always.
“I'm fine, more or less. I am really glad you got here when you did,” I express to him. Iron nods, accepting my gratitude stoically. “Next time, you lead the infiltration. I fucked this up something fierce.”
“You made a mistake,” Iron tells me sternly, causing me to scratch the back of my neck awkwardly. I don't think he even knows the details, but I guess he doesn't really have to. His next words are spoken with fervor.“You were lucky. Now, learn from this experience, and do not make the same mistakes again.”
I nod. I remember him saying something very similar back on the airship. I guess I should have paid more attention to him then.
“General Mist.” Iron then turns to the unicorn behind me, who attempts to hide behind my form again. Of course, you can't exactly hide from Iron, so it isn't long before he's staring at her in the eyes. “Do I have your surrender?”
Mist nods silently and timidly, unsure how to react in the presence of somepony that used to be her enemy. Iron nods and produces a set of shackles, no doubt given to him by one of the other Islanders. Mist quails a little, but then obediently presents her forehooves. Wordlessly, Iron snaps the shackles in place around her legs, and then slides an odd ring over her horn...which leaves a white web behind on her horn that quickly soaks into it. Oh shit, that's a really small nullification device. Smart. Now she can't use her magic even if she wanted to.
“Good job capturing her alive. We'll present her to the princess when we have established a base of operations here,” Iron says to me.
“Indeed. No doubt we be discussing our next course of action,” Salamul adds, placing his axe in a slot on him armor. That reminds me. I have a question to ask that really needs an answer.
“Okay, before we do anything, what the fuck is that axe, Salamul?” I demand, jabbing a finger at the weapon in question. “The Oppressed are completely immune to magic, but that didn't seem to stop you any!”
Salamul stares down at me for a few seconds, as if deciding whether or not he wants to explain. Eventually, he lifts the axe back out and presents it to me. “This is one of the two Storm Regalia. It does not use magic in the standard sense of the term,” Salamul explains. I reach out to touch the axe...and then of course get shocked by it because I forgot about that. “Its power stems from the fury of nature.”
“That's still magic, isn't it? I'm confused,” I point out. "You can't just say that 'it's empowered by nature.' That is magic!"
“It's a bit of a long story,” Iron rejoins before Salamul can answer. “Suffice to say, these are weapons with unique attributes that stem from...sources other than magic.”
“That's fucking cryptic,” I mutter, but drop it. I'm not going to look a gift pony in the mouth, I suppose. That axe could shoot rainbows and butterflies, but if it can hurt the Oppressed, I'm happy as hell that it's on our side. “Now what?”
“My brother and I will set up a command center in one of these buildings,” Iron explains. “We'll take care of settling our troops into the fortress. You can relax in the meantime. Go and speak with your team, and then report for medical treatment.”
“Got it. What about Mist? You're not going to hurt her, are you?” I question, uncertain as to whether or not I want to leave her with somepony like Salamul. I wouldn't put it past him to torture somepony for information.
“She will be safe in my custody. I do not hurt my prisoners,” Iron assures me. Okay, if he's looking after her, that'll be fine. I can trust Iron, I think. “Now go. Your team is waiting for you.”
“Yeah, I bet. They probably want to kill me,” I mutter, and then I take my leave of the two of them, conscious of Mist's soulful eyes watching me as I go. I'll have to check on her later to make sure she doesn't lose her mind again. That would be a little inconvenient.
Rainbow, Pterax, Trixie, Swift, and Applejack are all waiting for me together by one of the more intact buildings. Rainbow is sitting down next to an Islander nurse pony, who is treating and dressing her wing. They all look up at my appearance, displaying various levels of relief.
I notice Applejack and Swift staring at me rather intently when I arrive, causing me to raise an eyebrow. “Uh...what?” I ask hesitantly.
“Ah told ya so,” is Applejack's pertinent response. Swift nods emphatically. The whole scene is a little comical...or at least it would be, if it had been anypony other than me that fucked up, and in a less severe manner.
“Your original plan was better,” Swift agrees, making me even more regretful.
“Yeah, you're right. Honestly, if I'd have known that it was just Mist here and no one else more dangerous, I'd have blown up the gates sooner,” I confess. I move to join Rainbow, sitting down at her side, reaching out to brush her back. I'd hug her, but the nurse is in the way, and I don't want to hurt Rainbow. “Sorry about your wing. No doubt you wouldn't be hurt if we'd have just left Mist alone.”
“What? Nah, I was just too slow. Applejack's fat butt was weighing me down!” Rainbow remarks in good humour. Immediately, Applejack's ears perk up and she turns around with a glare.
“Hey! You talkin' smack, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack exclaims indignantly, earning a snicker from Rainbow. “Ah'll have Seth hold you down while ah give ya a good whuppin'!”
I shake my head at their antics, trying not to laugh too. Rainbow can make light of it, but I feel like I'm always getting her hurt in one way or another. “Seriously though,” I tell Rainbow.
“No, seriously yourself. You're stupid, we get it,” Rainbow interrupts me before I can say anything else. “I've always known you're stupid. But everything turned out fine, so I'm not mad.”
As much as I want to protest that I'm not always stupid, that argument would fall rather flat here, so I just nod. “Okay, thanks. You're sure you're not mad?”
“Nah...but...there is something you could do to make it up to me,” Rainbow muses, rubbing at her chin. I watch her expectantly, willing to do pretty much anything at this point. Rainbow soon adopts a grin. “You have to make me meals, whenever I ask, for a month when we get back.”
“Wha....” I can't even form a proper response to that for a good several seconds. Around us, Applejack is snickering, while Swift is just shaking her head. Trixie isn't even paying attention, instead whining to the nurse about her aching hooves. “Wait, before or after the trip we take around Equestria?”
Rainbow thinks about that for a moment before responding. “...Yes,” Rainbow decides, causing me to roll my eyes and rub my forehead in exasperation. Her dumb bullshit aside, I'm glad she's not angry at me. Heh, I remember when I used to not give a shit whether she was mad at me or not.
“There, that should do it for now,” the nurse says, finishing up with Rainbow's wounds. “You won't be doing any flying for a while, however.”
“Aw, c'mon...” Rainbow complains. She'll be fine. No doubt we'll be meeting up with the princesses at some point. She can get healed then.
“Commander, if you would come here?” the nurse beckons to me next. I try to protest and say that she should treat another pony first, but then both Applejack and Rainbow get up and force me to sit down next to the nurse and get treated. “There. This won't take too long. I just need to dress these cuts. Just lie back and relax.”
While the nurse bandages me up, I look up at the snowy white sky, reflecting over the events of this past mission.
It shouldn't be long now, before we take the fight to the capital.