TD vs Equestria Girls

by BronyWriter

Detox

Well all things considered, it wasn't too difficult to get out of the cave. We managed to cut the vines away fairly quickly, and from there it was a quick bit of levitation from Twilight to fully free us. Whole thing probably took ten minutes.

"Well then, we should probably get back to the camp," I said, stretching out a bit. "Looking like that, I don't think she went back to start a marshmallow roast and sing-a-long."

"We have to stop her before she hurts any of the campers," Adagio said, instantly rushing in the direction of the camp so fast that we needed to run for a second to catch up to her. She glanced back at us, but clearly didn't care whether or not she was going too fast for us. I put on a bit more speed to get beside her.

"Good to know you're taking this seriously, but any plans for the moment? You know her best out of any of us."

"I'm working on it," she said through gritted teeth. "It's not like I had powers that could straight stop her over on this side of the portal even before you blasted my gem to pieces. I have to think that there's something left of Gloriosa in there, because she didn't straight kill us like she very easily could have."

"Hopefully us trying to stop her doesn't set her off to that point," I said. "Even beyond her hurting us, she could hurt the campers if she really went off."

"I know, so we have to be very careful about this." She shot me a glare. "So you may not want to be involved. If anybody is going to really set her off, it's you."

I frowned at that. Sure, I tend not to be too subtle, but I was smart enough to know the difference between a time when you have to shock and awe, and when diplomacy or subtlety is called for. I threw fire tornadoes around during battle because I was magically surging and trying to defeat an enemy army. I shot the Sirens with a shotgun because I had no powers and kind of ran out of options at that point. Gloriosa was definitely in a... delicate emotional state, and me being over-the-top in trying to stop her when she had powers and I didn't definitely wouldn't like the results. I didn't know if my alicorn immortality and hardiness translated to this side of the portal, and even if it did, it's not like Blaze, Rapids or any of the locals could hold up if Gloriosa got a hold of them and actually wanted to hurt them.

Ech. All things considered, the fist time I was over and had to stop Sunset went pretty smoothly. Not like she was a huge threat anyway. Why couldn't everything be like that?

We heard the screams of terror before we saw them, and the second we heard the first one, Adagio started straight booking it. I doubted that she even had a plan of what to do, but if she did, the first step was probably "get there and find out what was happening, then figure out step two." I'd had dozens of plans like that over the years I'd been in Equestria.

It didn't take long to figure out what was going on the second we burst out of the treeline. Gloriosa must have felt that the whole vines trick she did with us worked rather nicely, because pretty much every building had a large vine wrapped around it as if Poison Ivy had stumbled drunk into camp and decided to have some fun. The campers were all running around to avoid the leafy assault, while some had already been trapped in the buildings. So far it didn't look like anybody had been hurt, but that probably wouldn't last very long if this kept going.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long to find Gloriosa. She was floating in the air at the middle of the camp, spinning around and laughing like a maniac. Hoo boy. She'd gone completely off her rocker.

"Gloriosa, stop this!" Timber cried, running up to his lunatic sister. "You're going to destroy the camp! People are going to get hurt unless you calm down!"

That just made Gloriosa laugh harder. "No, Timber. This is how I'm going to save the camp! We can all stay here and have fun forever! Nobody could take it from us; not Filthy Rich, not any banks..." Unfortunately, that's when she spotted us. Her eyes narrowed, and she bared her teeth. "And especially not you!"

"Hey, I'm not here to take your camp. I want to see you succeed as much as you do!" I insisted.

"Liar!" she screeched. "You just want to take this place for yourself, or maybe burn it down like the god of war they say you are."

She didn't have to be that mockingly sarcastic about the god of war part of it. "Look, I didn't give myself that name," I said. "My subjects did. Just because I've had to defend my country during a brutal war doesn't mean that I'm here to burn everything to the ground!"

"I know you won't," she said, giving me a nasty grin that I didn't quite like. She raised her hand, which began crackling with black energy, causing a thick vine to rise up beside her. "You'll never stop me!"

Before I could move, she shot the vine at me that would have probably hurt quite a bit if it had managed to connect. However, half a second before it could grab me and probably throw me all the way back to Canterlot High, the vine burst into a pile of... skittles? Gloriosa must have been as shocked as me, because she didn't try to wipe me off of the face of the earth with another attack.

"What. The heck. Is going on here?"

Yeah, couldn't mistake that voice. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I'd hoped as long as she focused. The moment I saw her, My eyes went as wide as humanly possible as I saw my sister.

But... Uh...

Now there were two of them. Both of them were dressed identically with the exact same hairstyle, and, to top it off, each were holding a green lightsaber of all things.

"Oh great. What's going on?" I groaned. "Which one of you is my sister?"

"I am," they both said at the same time. They frowned and pointed to the other. "No, wait. She is. Or am I?"

I know that I wanted to find her to help fight Gloriosa, but that didn't mean that I wanted two of them running around. Kristen hadn't gotten strong enough to make an illusion of herself yet.

"Enough of this!" Gloriosa screeched, recovering from the shock much faster than me. "None of you will stop me!" With that, her eyes went white, and a giant dome of vines started covering the camp, which was less than ideal. Kristen One and Two both raised their hands, and the vines started turning into cheddar cheese. It became a fight between the two sides, one trying to stop the vines, and the other trying to close the dome. They seemed pretty evenly matched at the moment, but I began to worry that one of them would go farther, and we'd be in real trouble.

"Gloriosa, stop this!" Adagio cried, running up to her, but stopping before she got too close. Gloriosa turned to look at Adagio and bared her teeth.

"Keep out of this!" Gloriosa growled. "You'll see how much better things are when I beat all of our enemies and make it so that we can be here and happy forever!"

"How can you feel that? You think these campers don't have families; parents who would miss them?"

The vine dome shuddered, and she began pouring more power from her geodes into the air. I cried out in pain and grabbed my head, falling to the ground as the magical wave overloaded all of my senses. Blaze and Rapids were both sitting down, discomfort clearly on their face, but neither felt horrible enough that they'd started writhing on the ground clutching their heads like me. There were times when having several orders of magnitude more magic than everybody else was more of a curse than a blessing. Even if I'd had access to my magic, I doubted that I'd be able to utilize it and fight her. The same must have been true of Kristen, as both of them were barely standing up. It was all they could do to keep the vines away from the campers.

Long story short, things weren't going too well. If we lost here, there wasn't really anything we could do, short of Celestia and Luna bringing an army through the portal to take Gloriosa down, which they very well might do. They'd put my safety before the safety of this world, and they might be willing to burn the camp to the ground. Gloriosa almost certainly wouldn't survive that.

"We'll be happy here forever! Nobody will stop me!" Gloriosa screeched.

"You're wrong," Adagio growled through gritted teeth. She cracked her neck, balled her hands into fists and took another step forward. "I will."

Gloriosa's eyes widened for a second, but she scoffed and shot out a vine that wrapped around Adagio, bringing her face-to-face with her. "You really think you can? I thought you loved this place."

"I do love this place!" Adagio insisted. "Please just give me the geodes and we can help you!"

"Help me?" Gloriosa clicked her tongue and poked Adagio's forehead. "You can help me by letting this happen. Do that, and it won't take long before you realize how much better I've made things. We can have fun forever!"

"I'll never stop." Adagio turned to see a vine shoot straight at a group of campers. Principal Celestia threw herself into its path, which would have probably gone right through her if Kristen hadn't turned it into a stream of bubbles at the last second. Celestia acknowledged her with a small nod, then herded the students into a cabin that she then blocked with her body. Adagio growled and turned her attention back to Gloriosa. "You almost killed her!"

"Then she shouldn't have gotten in the way. I was just trying to put the students into the cabin anyway. If everybody just complies, nobody gets hurt!" Gloriosa bared her teeth, and Adagio cried out in pain as the vine around her tightened. "And that includes you. You've been my most valuable councilor, but don't think I value you enough that I'll just let you stop me!"

"Then you're going to have to either kill me or mutilate me to the point where I'm a vegetable," Adagio said through gritted teeth as she tried to wiggle out of the vines. "I'll never stop until the campers are safe from you! I'll fight you day in and day out until every single innocent student is back home safe with their parents. Think of all of the blood you'll have to shed to keep a hold of your camp."

"If you just let this happen, nobody will get hurt!" Gloriosa screeched. "Why can't any of you understand that?! Filthy Rich won't get a single grubby finger on this place!"

"If you hurt them, or even kill me, you'll have more..." Adagio flopped down for a second, then took in a deep, shaky breath and straightened back up. If this didn't end soon, Gloriosa was going to suffocate her, or at the very least crush her to death. Somehow Adagio managed to straighten up enough to look Gloriosa in the eye. "Y-you'll have more problems than Filthy Rich." She jerked her head toward me. "Everybody from his side of things will come here to destroy you. Every soldier and cop w-will assault this place." Adagio took another deep, shaky breath in, and some of the defiance in her eyes faded. Gloriosa was killing her, and probably didn't even know it. "The camp will be a crater."

For the first time, the deranged smile flickered into unease for just a moment. Her gaze flicked over to Timber, who was also wrapped up in a vine. He gave her a pleading look and reached a hand out to her.

"Gloriosa. Please. Don't do this."

"I... you..." Her eyes narrowed. "Just... just let this happen! I can fix this! I... okay, maybe things have gotten out of control, but I can fix it. I can fix all of this, then you'll be happy here! You'll all be happy here!"

"I'll never stop." Adagio's words were slurred, and she could barely keep her head up. Her breathing was labored enough that she'd probably broken a few ribs already. "I-if I have to bite and claw through every vine to stop you and free the campers, I'll spend every breath I have left fighting you."

I had to help somehow, but every time I moved I felt like my head was being split open with an axe. I needed to help. Adagio would die if I didn't. I pushed myself onto my hands and knees, and the world started spinning badly enough that I started dry heaving. We needed to get the geodes away from her, or I might actually suffer permanent damage. I looked up enough to see both Kristens, Twilight and her friends rushing around trying to protect any of the campers in danger, but the pure magic bringing me down had started slowing them. One of the Kristens was actually leaning against the other one, though the second was barely standing as it was, the pure magic completely overloading them. I started regretting not actually bringing a gun. A bullet to the side of Gloriosa's head would probably solve all of this really quickly, and better that we lose her than everyone else.

"Maybe you and Timber will need to be put away somewhere until you understand how much better I've made things." Gloriosa turned her attention to Timber with a nasty grin. "Don't you agree?"

Timber's eyes widened, and he slowly started stepping back, his hand held out as if he could block her magic with the Force. "Gloriosa, you don't need--" But that was all he got out before he was covered in a dome of vines. Even more shot out of the ground and began wrapping themselves around Twilight and her friends. The vines that tried restraining the Kristens burst into Skittles the second they made contact, but whatever magic was in the air still prevented them from doing more than that.

"Well well well," Gloriosa said with a nasty grin. "Looks like nobody can stop me. Not the god of war, not the teens with the random powers, and not even the chaos god. Looks like you'll all have to stay here, Adagio!"

Adagio didn't move. She just laid there, flopped down in Gloriosa's vines. I couldn't tell from where I was, but I hazarded a guess that she wasn't breathing. Gloriosa's grin slowly faded into a frown, and she tilted her head, bringing Adagio closer to her.

"Hey, Dagi. Earth to Adagio." She tapped Adagio's forehead. "Come on, not the time for this. Hey, come on. Come on, wake up. Not nap time."

"You're..." I dry heaved one more time before using the last of my strength to look up at her again. "You're crushing her. With your vines."

Gloriosa's eyes widened, and she let out a little squeak of terror before gently placing Adagio on the ground and unwrapping the vine around her. Gloriosa landed next to her and began shaking her shoulders. "Adagio! Come on! Wake up!"

The second Gloriosa landed, the magic overloading the air vanished, and I managed a deep breath of clean, pure air. The vibrations piercing my skull ceased, allowing me to think clearly for the first time since Gloriosa's attack. I instantly stood up and rushed over to Gloriosa and Adagio.

"Dagi, come on!" Gloriosa screeched, pulling Adagio into a tight hug as tears began streaming down her face. "I can fix this! I didn't mean to! Y-you and Timber... I... I need you! I didn't mean for it to h-happen this way!"

I reached the two of them and knelt down next to Adagio. A quick check of her pulse didn't find anything. If I had access to my magic, I might have been able to do something, but here I was just a normal person.

"I just th-thought I was holding her in place," Gloriosa sobbed as she gently stroked Adagio's hair. "I didn't know that I was hurting her!"

"You really couldn't tell that she was losing strength and barely able to talk to you or even hold her head up," I growled, glaring at Gloriosa out of the corner of my eyes.

"I didn't know!" Gloriosa sobbed, then looked over to me with pleading eyes. "Y-you're some kind of god, right? You can fix her?"

I grimaced and shook my head. "I don't have that kind of power on this side of things."

"Then bring her over to your side of things and fix her! You can do that!"

"Might be worth a shot if the portal were in one of these cabins, but not a four hour drive away." If Kristen was strong enough in her powers, we might have been able to teleport over there, but if we tried, the odds of failure were incredibly high.

Still, given that she had the widest range of magic, she was our best chance. I didn't care which one. Thankfully they must have noticed the issue, because they both came hobbling over to us. The one on the left collapsed onto the ground and curled up into a ball while the other leaned against me.

"Ugh. I think I'll need a vacation after this vacation. I didn't even know that I was capable of feeling pain anymore."

"Happens sometimes." I motioned to Adagio. "Anything you can do?"

"Oh, who knows?" she groaned before sliding over to the two of them and poking Adagio's shoulder. When she didn't respond, Kristen put her hand on her head. Her hand flashed green for a second, after which she pulled it back and shook it. "Well, the good news is that your friend is only mostly dead. I managed to find the smallest little pulse." She put her hand back on Adagio's head, both now flashing green. "I think this might... work... if I..."

Adagio's eyes snapped open, and she let in a big breath, then instantly flinched back with a hiss of pain, grabbing at her side. Kristen chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Yeah, uh... so that worked. Haven't tried much healing magic before, so I'm not comfortable trying more than getting you up again." She motioned to Adagio's side. "Not quite comfortable trying to fix the six ribs you cracked and broke. Should have dulled the pain a lot."

Gloriosa burst into tears and tried to pull Adagio into a hug, but stopped short once she remembered the broken ribs. She wailed and curled up next to Adagio.

"I'm s-sorry!" she cried. "I d-didn't me-mean t-to, a-and I just thought that..."

"Gloriosa." Her gaze snapped up to Adagio who was giving her a blank stare. "Give me the geodes."

Gloriosa gave her a look of confusion for a second before slowly nodding and unclasping the necklace and handing them over. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rapids take a half step towards us before Blaze put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Adagio stood up and walked away without another word to Gloriosa. She stopped for a second next to Sunset and tossed the geode necklace to her.

"Here. Do something with those. Don't care what. Grind them up and mix them with glitter glue for all I care."

Sunset slowly nodded and looked down to the necklace in her hands. She pinched one of them, and it instantly glowed yellow. The vines began receding, and it wasn't more than a few seconds before they were gone, leaving only the destruction they'd caused in their wake.

"Adagio, I'm sorry!" Gloriosa wailed as her brother ran up to her. He knelt down and pulled her into a hug, holding her as she cried so hard she couldn't even speak. I took a deep breath and ran a hand through my hair. At least the camp was safe. The undercurrent of magic that I'd felt since the moment I stepped foot into Camp Everfree had vanished. Blaze and Rapids ran over to me as Kristen helped her twin up.

"Prince Antares, are you okay?" Blaze asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, all things considered I'm fine. Think I need a nap, though."

"Ugh, me too," Rapids groaned, rubbing her temples. "Not my best camp experience. Not my worst, but not my best."

Blaze scoffed and gave Rapids a disbelieving look. "And what exactly was worse than a magical overload like that?"

"Had a game of Truth or Dare at Flight Camp that went really off the rails." She waved her had at Blaze before he could respond. "Don't ask. None of it was illegal back then."

I sighed and looked around to survey the damage. Campers were starting to come out of the buildings, which was probably for the best given that some of them looked like they were going to collapse. The teachers were starting to herd them somewhere or other, while Twilight and her friends went around helping however they could. I noticed that each one of them had one of the geodes. Well, probably best with them anyway. The smarter move might be taking them back to Equestria with me, but given that they all seemed to be color coded to her and her friends, I got the feeling that they were meant to have them. We'd figure all of that out later. I turned to Blaze and Rapids and motioned to the camp.

"Make sure that everyone is okay and help however you can."

"Roger, Prince Antares," Blaze said. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to find Adagio," I said, looking at the direction she'd gone. "I get the feeling that she needs somebody to talk to."

"And who better than the guy who made her mortal by blasting her in the neck with a shotgun?" Rapids agreed with a nod.

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, we didn't have the best history, to put it lightly, but I got the feeling that I was the best person to talk to her. Content that everything would run smoothly without me, I followed Adagio through the treeline.

It didn't take terribly long to find her. She was standing at the edge of the water on the opposite side of the lake from the camp. It was a few minutes before I managed to reach her, but when I got close enough, I saw she was skipping stones.

"You know, I can do all kinds of cool stuff since becoming an alicorn, but skipping stones was one of those skills that I never really figured out."

Adagio glanced over at me and rolled her eyes. "What an icebreaker."

I shrugged and stopped next to her. "Yeah, I guess, but it's also true."

She grunted and knelt down to pick up a flat, smooth stone, then motioned for me to do the same. Mine didn't look quite as good as hers, but I wasn't practicing for a world championship here. "Yeah, that'll do, I guess," she said, a hint of irritation in her voice. "Then you go like this... hold the rock like this... no, I said hold the rock like this. There, that looks competent enough. Then you wind back and..." She flicked her wrist, and the stone hopped five times before sinking into the lake. I tried copying her motion, and actually managed to get it to bounce twice.

"Well, that's better than normal for me," I said with a wry smile. "You're a good teacher."

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled with a wave of her hand. "I have to teach at least two dozen campers every summer, so I've gotten pretty good at it." She picked up another stone and skipped it four times. "Sometimes it's what I do to relax around here whenever we get free periods."

"Hm." We stood there in silence for a few moments, her skipping stones and me lightly tossing the one I'd grabbed up and down in my hand. "So... you wanna talk about it?"

Her eyes narrowed, and she squeezed the stone she was holding hard enough that I wondered for a moment if water would start coming out. "There's nothing to talk about."

"If I want lies, I'll wait a few years then ask my daughters who took the cookies out of the cookie jar," I replied. "Come on, it's not healthy to keep it bottled up. That wasn't a small thing that just happened."

She squeezed the rock harder, and I began to wonder if she'd actually throw it at me. Instead, she just threw it into the lake, not even bothering to try skipping it.

"And why would I talk to the person who took everything from me?" she snarled. "You shot me in the neck with a shotgun and shattered my gem!"

I lightly scoffed. "Based on everything that just happened and what you just said to Gloriosa, I'd imagine you'd know better than anybody why I'd do that." Her glare flickered for a second before turning back to the lake. I took the rock I was holding and flicked it into the lake, actually managing to bounce it three times. "Huh. I'm getting better."

Adagio let out a small, quiet breath as she lightly kicked a pebble into the lake. "Life... was hard after you defeated us. Sonata and Aria might have been content to just roll over and take it, but I wasn't going to debase myself by being some kind of trained lap dog for you."

I frowned at that. "Ouch. That's not--"

"I couldn't stay. I couldn't spend every day around the Rainbooms and my sisters trying to move past what might have been and accepting that I was a weak nobody." She took a deep breath, and I thought I saw her wipe her eyes for a moment, but if she did, the motion was quick enough that I couldn't be sure. "It wasn't long before I was hungry. Actually hungry in a way I hadn't felt before. The hunger mortals feel and the hunger I felt as a siren feel completely different. It's... difficult to explain, but for a short time I didn't even recognize it as hunger.

"I didn't have money. Before, whatever we wanted or needed we just took. One little siren song and it was ours. Cars, clothes, places to stay, we never paid a dime for it."

"Sounds nice at first glance," I said.

"It was. It was the way we'd done things for thousands of years, so to have to earn money felt alien. I needed food, and for food I needed money, and for money, I needed work. I went to a few homeless soup kitchens for meals and..." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I couldn't do it. To have to debase yourself by begging for charity was almost as bad as losing my gem. I found odd jobs here and there. All under the table, of course. I didn't have an ID, a place of residence, a birth certificate, anything. I scraped by with just barely enough to keep myself fed and sheltered in a place with a shower and bed. Some of them just needed an extra pair of hands. Some of them needed some menial job done that them or their normal employees didn't feel like doing. One of them..." Her eyes narrowed, and her jaw tightened. "Only wanted me for my body. He saw a helpless young woman and told me he could help. He took me to dinners and bought me clothes and said that he'd take me away to a better life."

Oh... uh... hm. We cracked down on that kind of thing pretty hard in Equestria, but it was impossible to completely stomp out. Tragic to know it was a problem on the other side, too. I uneasily rubbed the back of my neck. "So... did--"

"No," she growled. "I realized what was happening before it was too late. It almost was. He got a knife wound to his leg for his troubles, and I got out of town as quickly as possible. Managed to stumble across a job fair and rolled the dice. Timber and Gloriosa were there. We got to talking, and they invited me to the camp. After what had just happened, all of my instincts were screaming at me that it wasn't safe, but for some reason, I accepted their offer."

"Sorry that happened to you," I muttered before giving her a weak smile. "So... hopefully you really ruined that leg, right?"

She grunted noncommittally before continuing. "I barely said anything on the ride up. I kept waiting for something to go wrong; for some kind of catch or some other side of them to come out, and I'd be actually stuck that time. But no, they treated me more nicely than anybody in my life. It was like they were just happy to know me, and excited to share the experiences of the camp that they loved so much."

"Well, I'm glad that you ran into them, then."

"Hm. Yeah." Adagio slowly sat down, holding her side in pain. "We had our first group of campers about a week after I gotten here. Gloriosa suggested the haircut so that I wouldn't get it caught in branches and such. Turned out to be a good idea. During orientation, Timber introduced me and said that I'd be helping out." She managed a small smile. "I've had entire stadiums locked on me, desperate to hear my voice, but I'd never been so uncomfortable being looked at by a crowd than when those thirty middle-schoolers looked at me. I almost wanted to run and cry, but I didn't.

"The first activity was a hike. On the way there, one of the campers fell and scraped her knee. Timber walked me through cleaning and bandaging the wound, and when I'd finished, the camper popped up with a big smile, hugged me and said 'thank you, Miss Adagio.'"

"Nothing quite like the affection of a child, is there?" I said with a smile. "It's often so... unconditional. No hidden agenda behind it. They're just happy to see you and be around you."

Adagio actually managed the first traces of a genuine smile at that. "Yeah. I think... I think that's the moment I started to feel like I belonged here. When we finished the hike, it was one of the best achievements of my life. I was hot and tired and sweaty and I had leaves in my hair and and twigs in my boots, but I was happy. As the summer went on, Camp Everfree felt more and more like home, and Timber and Gloriosa family in a way that even my sisters weren't."

Her smile faded into a glare, and she grabbed a handful of gravel that she began squeezing. "And then that bastard Filthy Rich. What I wouldn't have done to him if I still had my powers! He would have begged for mercy that I wouldn't have considered giving him! Then Gloriosa found those geodes and everything went wrong! She used their magic in small ways here and there; repairing some broken arrows, cleaning up some spill, removing splinters from the dock, but then there was more. There were always more things she needed the magic for!"

Adagio slowly got to her feet and began pacing. "By the time Timber and I really understood the scope of what she'd gotten herself in to, it was too late! We deluded ourselves into thinking that we'd be able to talk her out of using them, but they became her go-to solution for everything!" She stopped in her tracks and whirled around to glare at me. "And then you showed up. You and your soldiers. Whatever stability we'd managed to keep came crashing down!" She stomped a few steps toward me and bared her teeth. "Why is it that whenever you come along my life is ruined?!"

I returned her glare. "Hey, you know that's not true."

"It's--"

"You know that's not true." I scoffed and crossed my arms. "How much farther was it going to go even if I hadn't shown up? Did you or Timber see an end point? Filthy's going to take the camp at the end of the month. You really think she wouldn't have done what she just did then?"

"Of course she would have!" Adagio roared before resuming her pacing. "She went nuts and then she made me choose! Her or the campers! My sister in all but blood or the children we'd been tasked to take care of! I chose to fight her, and she almost killed me for it! If you or your sister hadn't been there, she would have killed me, and who knows how many other she would have hurt? Would she have accidentally killed Timber, too?" Adagio picked up a giant rock and, with a roar that would freak out a lion, threw it into the lake. The resulting splash sent out a small wave that washed over us.

Well, good thing I didn't have my phone, but did have a spare change of clothes in the truck. I wiped some of the water off of my face and took a step toward Adagio. This time I couldn't miss her quiet sobbing, and she was clutching at her side, both because she was cold and throwing a rock that big couldn't have been good for her ribs.

"Why, Gloriosa?" she whimpered. "Why did you do that to me? I loved you like my sister."

"'Loved' past tense?" I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She flinched, but didn't push it away.

"I... I don't know. I don't think so. I know she wasn't quite herself and desperate to save our home, but... she almost killed me. I used to be immortal. Death wasn't supposed to be something that ever crossed my mind, much less my path. Then she had me wrapped up in that stupid vine, and I was having a hard time breathing, and everything was fading to black. All I had was the knowledge that I was dying as the vine got tighter, and that my own family was doing it to me, and I couldn't protect the campers from my family no matter how much I wanted to..." She took in a shaky breath. "It was worse than when that pig said that 'because he'd done so much for me, was it alright if I did something for a friend of his?'"

"Yeah," I muttered. "Can't imagine. Won't try to. Won't say you're overreacting. I will say that she's probably never going to truly forgive herself for what happened, and she didn't mean to do it. Cold comfort right now, I know, but it's something to keep in mind. She doesn't have the geodes anymore."

"And in a few weeks, she won't have the camp anymore, and then where will I be? Where will we be?"

"Let's not worry about that for right this hot second," I replied. "You all have a lot to work through. The campers are alright. Buildings can be repaired. Take today to figure some things out. Worry about tomorrow later."

"I guess," Adagio muttered.

"I'm gonna head back to camp to check in on everything. I'll see if I can't find somebody to help you with your ribs."

"Sure. Thanks."

When she didn't say anything else, I slowly nodded and walked away, leaving her to her thoughts.

Author's Note:

Was going to have Kristen wake Adagio up with a chocolate-coated "miracle pill" but I thought that would kill the mood.

Comments

[KnightOfZaku]

Thanks for yet another awesome chapter!

The talk Antares had with Adagio in the aftermath was almost as intense as the confrontation with Gloriosa. There are now two things I'm hoping will happen now. The first is that Antares is able forge a strong friendship with Adagio before he returns to Equestria. The second thing is that Adagio will one day make a visit to Equestria and join Antares on one of his adventures.

th.bing.com/th/id/R.0b36510246cf8f3302991784f518d450?rik=8A2sErAK21ztyg&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

[Kichi]

Well, Antares have enough money to buy the camp a couple of times if need

[Theresa]

I think as soon as his kids are old enough to take over part time he and Celestia will be taking vacations away from the crazy.

[harts fire]

Adagio has grown a lot, i am hopping she keeps growing.

this is a grate story.

[Scarheart]

But the chocolate coating makes it go down easier!

[P-N-GS]

11109542
Goes well with a nice MLT - mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe.

[redandready45]

Poor Adagio.

[Theresa]

11105336
Yeah he could probably get what be worthless jewels in the pony world and still more than enough to save the camp and it probably wouldn't take long and he could put sunset as a part owner.

[Kichi]

11155106
Sunset could be part owner but in theory she is still a teenager in the eyes of almost everyone, not sure if that could be the best idea

[Theresa]

11155732
Well glory and her brother don't seem to be much older and Plus this way the camp is saved sunset has a source of money for the future .

[Kichi]

11155853
True, but there is also the problem that Sunset is a magical horse from another world, sure, there is the human Sunset somewhere but the current Sunset have no papers to her name. No Passport, no ID, nothing.

And she also have no idea how to manage the camp.

[Theresa]

11156011
Considering he set up a bank account and bought a ton of stuff and nobody cared about paperwork I don't think she will have any problems. And she just has to make sure that camp doesn't get into money trouble. The day to day stuff will still be in the original owners hands and I'm sure at least one siren can help her study the books and rarity can help to Considering she wants to run her own business so understanding that stuff is something you should have the basics of before college.

[BronyWriter]

11156011

11156019
In the early chapters, TD does take steps to get things like a driver's license/ID which helps him get a bank account and such. No reason to think Sunset doesn't have any IDs of any kind.

[Kichi]

11156028
Except TD is a Isekai protagonist and grow up in modern society before going to Equestria and know everything, unlike Sunset.

TD also look like a adult, had money and two guards, while Sunset look like a teenager girl.
11156019

True, I guess she could leave the working of it to the others.

[Theresa]

11156068
While technically he looks like a teenager in that world too and both of them are adults and the fact that he shows up and trouble follows drives Celestia crazy. She knows some of the things he been through and she knows that if there was an easier way to get this done he would do it and although he doesn't act like he takes it seriously it because he needs the tiniest hint of a break he can get considering all the things he has on his plate.

[Twisted Code]

you know, Gloriosa's dawning realization of what she was doing might've taken a bit longer if Adagio wasn't down a few hit points from Rapids beating her up earlier...
Also, love the "only mostly dead" line. Very subtle other than the italics, but I caught it.

one small criticism regarding Adagio's exposition about what happened to her... I feel like this was a missed opportunity to show rather than tell. It works either way just fine since she is actually talking to someone, but you could've switched to a flashback perspective if you wanted to be really fancy, you know?

that potential improvement aside, this was REALLY good. I like it when I can only find one or two small things to criticize. IN ANY CASE, I'm REALLY good at finding flaws when I have my editor spectacles on. (Sorry about that!)