//------------------------------// // Chapter Eighty-seven // Story: Freedom Through Harmony // by Electricut //------------------------------// Chapter Eighty-seven Manehattan Safe House Phil “What? What do you mean company?” Phil demanded, pressing himself up against the wall beside the door. Trixie moved in beside him. “I mean, there’s a group of people outside, just kind of standing there, and it seems like they know we’re here. There’s... I count five of them, six if you count the unconscious guy one of them is holding. The one with him is wearing this heavy black cloak. Then one of them is just wearing regular old civilian clothes, and the other three have on what looks like some kind of uniform.” “Out of my way, let me see.” Soren demanded, striding straight through the door, almost anxiously. With a glance shared between Phil, Trixie and Misty, the three promptly followed. As soon as he saw the small group of people gathered, he paused in thought. The uniform the watch had said three were wearing was almost identical to the ones he had seen in both Soren’s and Misty’s belongings, the official uniform of the Wonderbolts. Standing before them was a tall figure draped in a pitch-black cloak, which, with a sinking feeling, Phil assumed must have been the same that members of the Order were known to wear. As soon as Phil noticed who was held in the figure’s arms, his thoughts abandoned him, and he found himself tripping forward. “S-Spike!” he shouted. “Oh no, oh man, what happened?!” The black-clad figure spoke quickly, but deliberately. “I was lucky enough to find him on my way here, after passing over the swamps of Eclipse. He’s been badly wounded, but as luck would have it, he’s not quite dead yet. He’s lost a lot of blood in the time he’s just been sitting there, though, so we’re going to need to work fast if we’re going to save him.” Trixie stared in shaky determination, gathering her thoughts. “But... but we don’t have a healer.” The Order member shook her head. “Maybe not, but if I’m not mistaken, Soren should still have that crystallized spell thing, am I wrong?” Soren, jaw slightly agape, nodded silently. Phil stuttered for a moment. “B-but that spell is supposed to cut your lifespan!” “Calm down, kid, and think for a second. This guy’s a Goldoan dragon, and his lifespan was insanely long to begin with. He’ll still have some life left to live once we use the spell, don’t worry. Plus, that may be the only way we can keep him from slipping away, because we don’t have a lot of time on our hands.” Phil’s eyes were stained with tears, but after a moment he nodded. “Right... Right. Please, Soren, just... use the spell. Make sure he’s alright.” “Just let me handle it.” The Order member stated, grabbing the crystal from Soren as she passed. “I’m notoriously much better at it than him.” She moved into the resistance safe house quickly and shut the door behind her, leaving the rest of the group to stand stunned outside. “What... what could have happened to him?” Phil asked, to no-one in particular. As he stood, another figure from the new group moved over and put a hand on his shoulder. Phil looked up, and did not immediately recognize him. He was about half a foot taller, and had what seemed to be a quiver of arrows on his back. He wore his olive hair fairly close-cropped, save for a lock that hung over his right shoulder. “She said that he fought with Celestia in that swamp.” the stranger stated. “I suppose we should consider him lucky that he’s even alive at this stage, and that he was found in time. Still... no matter what happens, it’s probably not possible to erase these scars Celestia gave him.” Phil lowered his eyes. Celestia may have claimed yet another victim... Oh, please let this work... “So... who are all of you? Were you traveling with her, that... I guess she’s a member of the Order?” “Order, huh... I guess so. Never heard of them. These three,” He gestured to the others of his party, “are none other than half of the original Wonderbolts. They were all gathered already when they came knocking at my door, asking me to join the resistance. I was reluctant at first, but when I saw that my old friend Spike was in trouble... Well, my decision was made for me. I guess you’re one of the two kids he raised ‘for Celestia’?” Phil nodded silently. “Name’s Fafnir. It’s good to finally meet you.” Soren was still in open-mouthed awe, and Misty moved in next to him, eyes wide. “Was that...?” she started. “Yeah...” he mumbled. “I... I think it was. And look... the whole gang’s all here...” A vague smile spread across his face, and the two slowly walked over to the other three Wonderbolts, all greeting each other after their long absence. Trixie moved over to the phoenix and the Goldoan after a moment, scratching her head. “So...” she started, “what does that give us now? Two Goldoans, and five Wonderbolts, plus the rest of the guys we recruited?” Fafnir shook his head. “Sorry, but only one Goldoan at best. I’m only sticking around until I know Spike will be okay. After that... I’ve got some extremely pressing business to take care of, that I should have done years ago. Spike should stay here though, because he’ll be safer off this way. I’ll fill in for his defense at the other town, because that’s where I’m headed anyway.” Phil nodded, and made a move to go inside to check on Spike. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, the woman in the Order cloak shouted back at him: “No. There’s barely enough space for me to work in here to begin with. Stay outside for a few minutes while I fix him.” For several long, agonizing minutes, the now larger party stood awkwardly outside their safe house. The original four of the resistance team were most anxious to re-enter, though Trixie’s motivation was simply to be less obvious. Phil was deeply worried about Spike, and both Soren and Misty both seemed anxious for the other newcomer to re-emerge. At long last, the black-cloaked figure pushed open the door, and leaned in the frame wearily. “Well, good news and bad news.” she said. “Good news should be obvious: he’ll live. Bad news is... well, as a Goldoan, before, he had something like five-hundred more years to live? Yeah... I’d give him about fifty now. His aging rate has been rounded off as well, putting him at... around the same aging rate as any normal Equestrian, I suppose.” Phil exhaled in relief. It may not have been quite the same, but his adoptive father was alive. “Can I see him?” “Huh? Oh, yeah, no problem. He should be waking up any time now.” she said simply, stretching her arms. Phil took a grateful step forward, but stopped when he heard Soren speak up. “Is... is it really you? Spitfire?” The cloaked figure sighed heavily, then reached up and removed her hood. “I really missed you guys.” she said through the smile on her face. She, Soren and Misty all ran forward and embraced each other like excited children. Spitfire was knocked back by the force of the other two colliding with her, and began to lose her balance, resulting in her tipping over and hitting the ground behind her. She didn’t seem to be hurt to badly though, and was still laughing in joy. Phil smiled, decided to let the three catch up on their own, and stepped inside. Spike was just pulling himself into a sitting position on his cot, his tattered shirt sitting behind him. A large scar was plainly visible across his bare chest, something that it seemed the spell was unable to heal. He looked up when he heard someone enter, and a smile graced his weary face. “Hey, kid! So, this is where I ended up...” Phil sat down next to him, and Spike gave him a comforting pat on the back. “Glad to have made it. To be honest with you, I didn’t think I was going to survive that... I had my will all written up and sent off and everything. Didn’t count on the lovely Spitfire finding me and getting help though.” “So, you pulled through, did you?” said another voice, and both turned to see Fafnir leaning on the doorway. “Good. Almost lost my best game-mate there.” “You still here?” Spike teased, then stood and gave Fafnir a firm handshake. “It’s been too long, old friend. So, tell me, did Spitfire say what the damage was? I know I can’t have as long as I used to anymore.” “You’ve got about the same lifespan and aging rate as anyone else now.” Phil informed him. Spike’s eyebrows rose in interest, which wasn’t the reaction Phil was expecting. “Really? Well... interesting. This is good... Oh man, if I can survive this, then me and...” A wide, excited grin spread across Spike’s face. “Oh, this is just perfect. Wait... hey, Fafnir, I had something rather pertinent to ask you.” “Don’t bother.” Fafnir stated. “I know. You figured it out. I messed up, big time. I was just on my way to town to... I don’t know, try and make things better. I know I can’t make them right again, I missed my chance for that a long time ago. But maybe I can keep them from getting worse?” Spike nodded and clasped the slightly younger Goldoan on the shoulder. “You do that. I think they’ll be open enough to give you a chance. I should warn you though! We did find Fenrir, and he’s there in town. If he finds out, oho man, I can only imagine what’s going to happen.” “Ha, no way! You finally tracked him down? That’s great news. Nah, I honestly think he’ll probably go for it, once I fix things. Anyway... Don’t want to waste any more time than I already have, right? I’m off. See you when things are over.” The three began to walk outside. “I think I’d better stay here...” Spike stated. “I’m still feeling a little stiff, and probably in no shape to travel... Besides, I think it better for Twilight to have a reason to fight. Plus, I want to keep the element of suspense on my side. Just think, after everything is over, and then I show up out of nowhere when they still think I’m dead? I can only imagine...” “Heh, true. Well, I’ll be seeing you, my friend.” With that, Fafnir stretched the muscles in his neck, then brought his fists together before him in the familiar move to transform from man into dragon. When the light faded from him, though, the form he had taken was vastly different than Spike’s. He was almost serpentine, with much larger wings and a more elongated body, and scales the same olive green as his hair. With a final wave back with large claws, he launched into the air and soon soared out of sight. “What... were you two talking about?” Phil asked curiously. “Him needing to fix something in town...?” Spike chuckled vaguely. “Don’t worry about it, kid. This is his business to work out, and I trust that he’s going to do what he can. Nothing much else we can do, or that we need to do. Right now...” He took a long look around at the small but growing resistance group around him. “We’ve got a rebellion to run.” _____________ Rainbow Dash “So... you’re saying you’ve decided to desert and join us?” Lyra asked. Twilight and I stood before her in the library, as I thought it would be best to let everyone know where her allegiances were. Twilight nodded. “I wasn't sure before, but my mind’s been made up for me now. Celestia took my father from me. I’m going to make her pay.” Lyra nodded. “Good, good. I mean, not good that you’ve lost your dad, I’m very sorry for that. But it’s good that you’re with us. Between you and me, Celestia didn’t include any special orders for you in her transmission. Either she expected you to join with the central army, as she did with the Silver Arrows, or found it perfectly acceptable for you to be destroyed along with the town.” Twilight shook her head, annoyed. “She never really... I’m sorry for being so dense before. She was using me from minute one.” “It’s alright.” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You couldn’t have known any different. What’s important is that you got things sorted out before it was too late.” Lyra spoke up again, though kept her voice low enough for only Twilight and I to hear. “We do still have something of a problem though. Even though we all know it wasn’t Twilight, we can’t deny that Celestia has an informant around here somewhere. She can’t have pulled all this information about the Elements and our actions here out of thin air, unless she just planned to do this regardless.” “Actually,” another voice interjected from the entrance to the library, “she more or less can.” All three of us turned, and my eyebrows raised when I recognized the tall, dark-haired figure standing in the doorway. “Xekora? What brings you all the way into town?” I asked. “You finally decide to fight with us?” He strode over to us. “No. I’m still to remain technically neutral in this conflict. My apologies, but I simply see this for the best for all involved. However, as I also believe I said, I’m not above giving a bit of advice here and there. I had come into town simply to keep track of everything going on. Now, I think it’s probably in your best interest to know that Celestia has no need of an informant." Eyebrows raised, and he continued. "Remember, Celestia is in the God Tier, so she has a lot of nasty tricks up her sleeves. However, I am also at this level of power, and have been for a slightly longer time, so there's nothing she has that I'm not aware of. I'm afraid that after a time, the God Tier affords some powers that will really make things difficult for you, that apply by default to most any god. One of these is a certain degree of awareness beyond one's self, and she was most likely able to predict your actions in their most basic form without any eyes or ears to physically inform her." I sighed in anger. That's just great. The last thing we needed was more crazy powers on the enemy's side. Now we can't even do anything without her knowing about it. Do we have any element of surprise left? Xekora continued, and my spirits began to raise again. "Fear not though, for her abilities such as these have their limits. She cannot see the future precisely, and can only predict larger-scale events. She knows about the war, and most likely knows that you shall put up a resistance to her army in this town. She may even know of the planned counterattack, but only of its existence. She knows not where it will come from or any more precise details, believe me on that. And during the chaos of war, her sixth-sense will be dulled yet further." I nodded in understanding. "So, you're saying she can know of future battles, but can only guess at the details. In that case, we'll just have to try to use techniques that will catch her off guard, such as Big Mac's Demon Sword and Fenrir." "Right, er," he started, "about that large crimson weapon your friend uses. If I may, I'd like to keep a closer eye on that, and request that you do the same. Another of our enemies, not necessarily allied with Celestia though, seeks to take it. This would not be in our best interests, as should be obvious. This enemy will not make a direct move to attack young Macintosh or take the weapon, but is certain that the Weapon will fall from hands to hands in due course. I'm afraid this does not bode well for Macintosh, so keeping an eye on him to make sure he, and his Weapon, stay safe is advisable." I nodded again, and Twilight spoke next. "Please, Xekora. Tell us anything else you know about Celestia, and the battles we are preparing to engage in. We must know our enemies inside and out if we're to stand a chance." The historian shrugged. "Not much else to tell that you don't already know by now. You'll need to pull out all the stops and use the skills your ancestors gave you to have a hope of winning. Remember, you'll do even better if you combine these strengths and create deadly combination attacks. Also remember that Celestia's godhood is not whole, and that she relies on Luna to stay immortal, and vice-versa. If all else fails, go for the younger princess instead." Twilight gasped. "You mean... Kill her? Sacrifice her to kill her sister?" "No, no! You misunderstand. I mean recruit her to your own force, and have her use her own God Tier powers to help you. She dislikes Celestia as much as you do, after all. Besides, I always had a soft spot for that poor girl, I could never advocate bringing her harm." Lyra shook her head tiredly. "That's all well and good, but are you sure you won't take up arms with us? Having a god on our side would certainly level the playing field." It was Xekora's turn to shake his head. "Can't do it, lass. I am sworn to half-hearted neutrality. I shall help to prepare you for the coming storm as best I can, but when the time comes, I must remove myself from the equation. In the mean, I could offer up my services as a merchant of information, and supply the troops with some rare and powerful spells, if you like?"