Midnight Mission Part 5
As soon as the chunk fell, a cloud of dust and debris issued forth. It was accompanied simultaneously by the sound of breaking rock, and a sound like someone getting the wind unceremoniously knocked out of them.
When the dust cleared, the heavy chunk of concrete was squarely atop Steve. The changeling's armored shell had protected Steve from being completely crushed. Still, Steve seemed to be unconscious and a crack was seen along his face. It was slowly dripping a viscous, glowing-green fluid that seemed in all likelihood to be changeling blood.
Chrysalis ran to Steve's side, trying to see if he was alright. With Luna's help, they were able to push the concrete off Steve.
There were smaller cracks in several places, only a few drops of the glowing ichor issuing forth from them. The segmented underside was still moving slowly, telling them that Steve was breathing, albeit labored. Both Luna and Chrysalis were looking frantic, but Chrysalis knew she needed to help more than she wanted to freak out.
"Kids, go get me as much liquid love as you can, and hurry! Steve is hurt badly, and if he doesn't get love fast..." Chrysalis began but couldn't finish.
Nevertheless, the changelings rushed off to the giant vat of liquid love and began a bucket-line stretching across the factory. Each changeling acted like a piece of a precision machine, testament to their bond even without the hive-mind.
By the time the first buckets of love reached Chrysalis, the members of the group that had until now been onlookers were gathered around. Fluttershy had flown straight to Steve, as she was the only one who had any sort of medical training.
However, it was clear to Fluttershy that she was out of her depth upon seeing Steve's condition. She gingerly examined Steve as much as possible without moving him, completely unsure what to do. Fluttershy stood back up after only a moment, a deep sigh of regret passing her lips as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"I'm so sorry, but I have no idea what I'm doing. Changelings are just too different. I don't even know how to get a pulse on him." Fluttershy told Chrysalis, taking several steps back.
Discord picked Fluttershy up and pressed her against his chest, comforting her. Discord briefly entertained the notion of trying to use his magic on Steve, but knew that it would likely only serve to make things worse. Chaos was chaos, and returning anything to normal that wasn't altered by chaos itself was a gamble Discord wouldn't place on someone's son.
Chrysalis was only barely aware of the others at this point. She was continually draining the buckets of love and turning it into magical plasma before forcing Steve's body to absorb it. Her efforts succeeded in restoring the minor cracks to barely noticeable hairline cracks, but only managed to slow the bleeding from the main injury.
Chrysalis turned away from Steve once she had a rhythm going, continually infusing love as it was brought by the bucket-line.
"I can keep Steve alive until we run out of love, but unless we figure out how to do something about the head-wound it'll keep seeping out." Chrysalis informed the group before returning her attention to Steve.
Luna turned to the group, looking just as disheartened as Chrysalis.
"Does anyone know healing magics? I imagine it would need to be powerful, but we are the greatest assembly of mages in the world. Surely someone here can help?" Luna asked the crowd as she began to cry.
Despite Luna's heartfelt plea, no one stepped forward or could even look her in the eye. Everyone made a noticeable effort not to look at the scene in fact, having been made to feel their own partial guilt at Luna's words. She was completely right. They were almost all of the world's best magic users, but none among them had ever bothered to learn medical magics, save princess Cadence who was a country away and still not a all that experienced.
All was silent as Chrysalis continued her efforts to try and prolong Steve's life. Or it was, until Cinnamint broke free of the death-grip that Bon Bon had on him. Cinnamint quickly weaved his way through the group, making his way to Pearl's portion of the crowd where she was in a similar death-grip, courtesy of Macintosh.
"Pearl! You've been practicing healing magic! You've gotta try and help Steve!" Cinnamint whisper-yelled at Pearl.
Pearl looked up to see both of her fathers looking down at her, surprise evident in their faces. Cinnamint looked a tad guilty, but forgave himself given the situation.
"Is that true, Pearl?" Macintosh asked calmly.
Pearl nodded her head, but she was doing her best to shrink down into her hoodie. It was quite evident that Pearl wasn't very confident in her abilities. Spike craned his neck down, the practiced expression of a parent trying to keep a child calm on his face.
"Pearl, if that's true then you're the only person here that knows any magic actually meant for healing. That changeling is Chrysalis's son, and I can't imagine how we'd feel if that were you in his hooves." Spike told his daughter.
Macintosh nodded, looking a bit green just thinking about it. Pearl still couldn't bring herself to try and think about using her new magic on a sentient being.
"I can't heal a changeling! I've been practicing on trees! This is way out of my league. Let's wait for a real doctor to get here!" Pearl practically pleaded with her fathers.
"I doubt that would be possible."
Everyone looked over to Chrysalis, who was still infusing Steve with love at a steady rate. She kept her eyes on Steve, but continued to speak.
"Changeling magic is much different than pony magic. We may look similar enough, but our magics are incompatible in most instances. Pony magic flows fluidly and in relative freedom, making it like water. Changeling magic is more volatile and only reliable in controlled situations and occasional bursts for transformations. It's essentially fire." Chrysalis explained.
Cinnamint looked back to Pearl, renewed in his faith in her.
"See! Fix fire with fire! Steve needs you, he's our friend!" Cinnamint implored Pearl.
Pearl saw Luna sending her thestrals out for specialists, to whatever end. Luna actually seemed closer to losing it completely than Chrysalis, feeling responsible for Steve's injury. Captain Crunch was playing the role of a comforting teddy-bear, being almost crushed in the moon princess's hug. Chrysalis still hadn't moved an inch, but was beginning to look quite winded.
Pearl sighed, jumping out of Mac's hooves.
"You're coming with me." Pearl said as she grabbed Cinnamint by his front hoof.
Cinnamint looked back at Spike and Mac for help. Mac merely shrugged, and Spike mouthed what Cinnamint was certain were the words 'Roll with it.' Cinnamint looked ahead, Pearl having dragged him all the way over to Steve.
Cinnamint turned a shade of green when he saw the state Steve was in.
"W-what am I supposed to do?" Cinnamint asked Pearl uneasily.
"You stand here and let me hold your hoof so I don't lose it." Pearl replied in an annoyed tone.
"Oh, uh, okay. I can do that." Cinnamint replied with great relief and a minor blush.
Pearl looked over Steve's injury, ignoring how much she wished she could flip out.
After a moment Pearl looked over to Cinnamint who gave her a reassuring nod. Pearl returned it, feeling a little easier about things. She calmly let go of Cinnamint's hoof, eying Steve's injury.
Pearl took in a deep breath, and as she did so placed her hands in front of her chest, one atop of the other with a good six inches apart, palms facing each other. After a few more deep breath's Pearl let loose a trickle of her blue-green flames. Everyone watched with great interest as the line of fire curved itself between her hands, as if it was tracing around an invisible sphere.
With several more breaths the sphere began filling in, becoming what seemed like the miniature sun of an alien world in a sci-fi movie. Pearl stopped breathing fire once the sphere was complete, making certain that she got her breathing back to a steady level.
As soon as she was calm again, Pearl moved her tail in front of her. She positioned the spade of her tail at the very bottom of the sphere as she removed the hand at the bottom of the sphere. After she was certain it was safe to do so, she removed other hand from the sphere and let her tail balance it.
"Now I've gotta feed it magic. I tried just breathing fire and magic at the same time, but it didn't work out. I gotta put the magic in after the fire gets going." Pearl said aloud, likely to remind herself of the procedure.
Next, Pearl began moving her hands around the sphere, as it getting a feel for it. After a moment, both of Pearl's clawed hands began glowing with a dull blue-green energy as she continued her task. She briefly looked over to see Chrysalis continuing her task, and to look at Steve.
"This is the part I was having problems with when the dreams stopped coming and I lost my mojo." Pearl said once her hands stopped glowing.
Everyone watched silently as the sphere unraveled into something like a winding snake of flames. As she moved her hands, the fire snaked it's way through the air in response. She seemed to be experimenting through a range of movements, trying to figure out how to control it better.
"The accuracy kinda bites, but if I can hit the mark this usually works." Pearl said to no one in particular.
It was evident that Pearl was quickly losing confidence in what she was doing. Her brow knitted in frustration and the stream of controlled fire seemed to wobble and shift back and forth in intensity.
"You're doing great. I know you can do this." Cinnamint leaned in and whispered encouragingly.
Pearl didn't dare look away, but nodded as the blush slowly returned to her face. The fire returned to it's normal state, and Pearl seemed to relax. She moved the fire experimentally, finding it was much more obedient than before.
With renewed vigor, Pearl kept one hand open while closing the other while leaving just her pointer claw out. Mimicking a cutting motion with her claw, a small fireball of the snake separated, floating under the control of Pearl's claw.
Pretending to jab at Steve, the fireball shot right at Steve's wound, stopping on the surface of the injury. Pearl opened her hand again and the fireball disappeared. A triumphant smile graced her lips.
"Steve's changeling magic is kinda like watered-down dragon magic. I think I can actually do this." Pearl informed Chrysalis.
Chrysalis smiled and nodded, stopping her work to let Pearl do her thing.
Pearl pulled both her hands back, waiting only a second before pushing them, and the fire forward. The strange colored fire flowed freely into Steve's wound, much easier than Pearl had anticipated. The wound began to glow with the same color that had been on Pearl's hands minutes before.
Pearl let out an exhausted sigh and let her arms drop to her sides. She watched with a smug grin as the flesh visible in the crack knitted together and the gap in the chitin lessened considerably. It was far from a perfect fix, but the magic had done it's work and not burned Steve in the slightest.
Pearl turned to Cinnamint and kissed him on the cheek.
While Cinnamint was trying to form words Pearl fell over, only to be caught by a pillow summoned up by Screwball. Spike had to hold Mac back, urging him to listen. Pearl had began snoring loudly, and Cob freed himself from her bag and took up residence atop of her as he often did.
Chrysalis finished infusing Steve with the last of a bucket of love and then let out her own sigh of relief.
"His condition is stabilizing. As long as I feed him love magically every few hours, Steve should be up and about in a few days." Chrysalis informed Luna with a small, but noticeable smile.
Luna dropped Captain Crunch who was picked up by one of the remaining thestrals and moved out of the way. He was bruised, but not badly.
"That is very good to hear. We can bring him to the castle to rest in a big, comfy bed if you'd like. All his brothers and sisters are welcome to stay in my areas of the castle as well." Luna offered, still feeling guilty.
Chrysalis nodded, a coy grin on her face.
"I think I'd benefit from a big, comfy bed as well. So long as it's big enough for two." Chrysalis replied before placing a kiss on Luna's cheek. "Just no more guilt. It tastes like sour milk."
Luna sat beside Chrysalis and they rested their necks on each other, looking forward to what could very well be a long, happy, relationship.
Celestia, who was now standing beside Spike and Macintosh looked to her son.
"This has been the strangest day I've had in some time. I never expected Luna to fall for the mare that almost broke my horn." Celestia told Spike as he watched Pearl sleep contently.
"And I never thought that my little girl would grow up so fast." Spike replied with a hint of sadness.
"Eeyup." Macintosh agreed.
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Great chapter. I'm glad Pearl kiss Cim, and that Steve was saved. Great job.
WOW just, WOW if anybody hasn't told you already (and they better have) you are amazing DM! just wonderful! I cold see the scene so crystal (Sombra: crystalllzz) clear in my head with out it being over filled with petty details! You sir are amazing!
Steve
Yessss!!! I'm glad Steve's okay, and Pearl finally kissed Cinnamint! Good chapter all around!
5517388 Luna X Chrysalis is one of my favorite ships, it's just really rare for whatever reason. They're kind of alike, so it seems kind of natural to me.