Chapter 8. 1 Corinthians 13:3
Chapter 8.
"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing,"—1 Corinthians 13:3
"Thanks for the directions," Screwjob called back to Fluttershy as he and Highflyer exited her cottage. They were just about to head down the winding path from her front door when Highflyer stopped.
"You know," he said thoughtfully. "If we jumped over this little fence, down to that bridge, it would save us some travel time."
Screwjob looked where he was pointing. "Hmm, in that case... Race you!" With that, he knocked Highflyer backward and bunched his own body up in preparation for jumping the fence. However, due to his small size, Highflyer was already so close to the ground he just bounced right back onto his feet when knocked down. Before Screwjob had even reached the fence, Highflyer clamped his teeth onto the taller stallion's long black tail, and yanked him off balance. Screwjob crashed chest-first into the fence, and hit the ground hard.
"You're on," said Highflyer as he leapt over both his downed friend and the fence.
"You little sneak!" Screwjob shouted as he scrambled back onto his feet. "I'm gonna hang you by your own tail!"
"What tail?" Highflyer retorted, landing neatly on the bridge, and shaking his docked tail before taking off at a brisk canter.
"Your sawed-off one, runt!" Screwjob shouted, backing into a crouch again before shooting forward. This time he cleared the fence successfully and landed on the bridge right where Highflyer had been seconds earlier. "And then I'm going to smother you with your own mask!"
Not slowing his pace, Highflyer swung his body about so that he was running backwards, facing the oncoming pony. The fact that he was able to do this without stumbling was a testament to his athletic ability. "You're welcome to try, but you'd better step it up, slowpoke."
"I'll slowpoke you, stubby!"
Highflyer just smirked at this before whirling back around and putting on an extra burst of speed. Screwjob raced after him, quickly closing the distance between them, but when he had almost reached Highflyer, the earth pony suddenly seemed to check his speed.
Almost as if he wants Highflyer to win, Fluttershy mused as she watched them go.
Derpy had finished her mail deliveries for the day and was now weaving unsteadily toward home. The lump she'd received on her head yesterday had been throbbing on and off all day, making it even harder than usual for her to focus on flying straight. As she neared the house, its front door opened and Amethyst poked her head out. The pink unicorn looked up, saw her mother, and ducked back inside. As Derpy dove down toward the still-open front door, the window beside it opened as well. And not a moment too soon because despite her best efforts, Derpy missed the door and shot through the window instead. She skidded a short distance before crashing face-first into a conveniently-placed pillow. Looking up she noticed that there was a similar pillow in front of the open front door as well.
"Did you put these here?" she asked Amethyst, gesturing to the pillows.
"I did."
"How'd you think to open the window as well as the door?"
"Daughter's intuition," said Amethyst as she shut first the door and then the window. "And the fact that you were looking kind of wobbly when you flew off earlier today," she added as she floated the pillows back to the couch. "Want me to take your bag?"
After their crying session with Fluttershy the day before, Derpy and her daughters had been trying to cope by maintaining a forced cheerfulness and focusing on their usual daily tasks.
"Yes, please," said Derpy, shucking off her mailbag, and massaging first one shoulder and then the other to get some of the soreness out of them. She'd had an unusually big haul of mail to carry that day, and wondered if it might have been due to many ponies sending letters to family and friends, warning them to watch out for Discord.
Despite her determination not to think about it, she couldn't help shivering inwardly at the memory of leaving her daughters alone with him. To think that he could have murdered the two of them just as quickly and easily as Pinkie and Rainbow if he'd wanted to—
"Amethyst, is Dinky here?"
Amethyst had just been pulling the mailbag strap over her head, intending to go put it away, when she caught the anxious tone in her mother's voice. "Yeah, she's in the kitchen."
No sooner had she said this, then Dinky's voice rang out from said kitchen. "Hey, Amethyst! Can you help me drain the beans? My hooves are full."
"Sure, I'll be there in a minute." As Amethyst moved to put the mailbag away, Derpy headed toward the kitchen, trying to fumble out of her mail pony uniform at the same time, and thus being forced to travel in an odd hopping gait.
Once in the kitchen doorway, she stopped and just stood there watching her younger daughter work. Dinky was standing on her hind legs, back toward her mother, mashing something in a bowl on the counter. Though Derpy loved both her daughters equally, she always enjoyed seeing some of herself in her biological one. Of course there were the obvious physical traits like her gold eyes, and her blonde mane and tail, but there was also her love of culinary arts. Derpy's job as a mailpony had forced her to give up the time she had once devoted to cooking and baking, so she had been delighted when Dinky had expressed not only an interest in it, but shown a talent for it. So much talent in fact, that the family had fully expected her to one day get a cooking-related cutie mark. But instead Dinky's flanks were still as blank as the day she had been born.
"Excuse me," said Amethyst, scooting past her mother, and moving toward a soup pot on the stove which Derpy guessed must contain the beans Dinky had mentioned earlier.
Dinky looked up from her work to see her sister, and noticed her mother there as well. "Hey, Mom. We're having veggie loaf and barley bean salad for supper."
"Mm, sounds good. I'm going to go wash up. Might take a quick shower."
A chilly breeze ruffled Highflyer's feathers as he spotted Derpy's house in the distance, and he unconsciously spread his wings to beat them against it. Doing this meant he would be fighting a lot more wind resistance while running, but it was also the closest thing, apart from his wrestling acrobatics, that he could ever get to flying under his own power. He wondered, not for the first time, if the doctors, flight experts, and various other ponies studying the plight of flightless pegasi would ever be able to isolate and fix whatever defect kept ponies like himself and Scootaloo from being able to fly. While he had long ago come to terms with the fact that such a thing might never happen, he also hadn't completely given up hoping for it. Now he realized somberly that even if such a thing happened, he would never get the chance to fly beside Rainbow Dash rather than having to accept a ride from her.
He was suddenly pulled out of these thoughts when two pegasi appeared over the top of Derpy's house, one pale blue with a sweptback navy blue mane, and the other yellow with an orange-and-yellow streaked mane. That looks like two of Ray's Wonderbolt friends. Let's see, what were their names? Oh, yeah. Soarin and Spitfire. I wonder what they're doing here.
At that moment the two pegasi fluttered down from the roof, and Highflyer noticed the blue one, Soarin, seemed to have something on his back, though with all that wing-flapping he couldn't get a clear view of it. Then as the two pegasi landed beside the house, the thing on Soarin's back jumped to the ground, revealing itself to be a third, much smaller pegasus.
At the sight of that third pegasus, Highflyer slammed on the brakes and skidded to a sharp halt, eyes almost bugging out behind his mask.
The pegasus looked exactly like him! Right down to the shirt, mask, and tattoos!
Then Screwjob ran into him from behind, but he hardly noticed, he was so fixated on what was in front of him.
"Oof!" Screwjob grunted. "High, signal next time you're just going to stop like—" he broke off mid-complaint as he looked up to follow Highflyer's line of vision. "Uh, High? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
But Highflyer was already back on his feet and streaking toward the house, now moving far faster than he had earlier.
Dinky was kneading mixed vegetables into the veggie loaf, and Amethyst was draining the beans over the sink, using both her hooves and magic to balance the large soup pot, when they heard a knock at the front door.
"Who is it?" they unintentionally chorused.
"It's Rainbow Dash's friend, Highflyer," said a soft raspy male voice on the other side of the door. "I thought I'd stop by for a bit, if that's all right?"
The two sisters exchanged startled looks. Granted they and especially their mother had been eager to meet the wrestler who had used his tiny size and lack of flight to craft himself into the perfect underdog, but they had never counted on it happening right while they were in the middle of preparing dinner, and their mother was in the shower.
"Um, hold on," Dinky called toward the front door, then still standing on her hind legs since her front hooves were smeared with veggie loaf, she hurried toward the stairs, and leaned against the wall to call up them, "Mom! Highflyer's here!"
"Now?" Derpy asked between splutters. "Well, invite him in and I'll be down soon."
Still keeping her front hooves up so they wouldn't brush against anything, Dinky hurried back to the kitchen. "Mom said to invite him in. Can you move that pot away from the sink? I don't want to answer the door with veggie loaf gunk on my hooves."
"How about I answer the door while you wash your hooves?" said Amethyst, moving the pot of beans back to the stove.
"That'll work."
As Dinky stuck her hooves in the sink, Amethyst hurried to the front door, opened it, and tried not to stare at the pony in front of her. She had known he was small but had never realized just how small "small" was until now. She mentally shook herself and forced a smile. "Hi, come on in, Mr., um, Highflyer."
"Thanks. If you don't mind, a few Wonderbolts also came with me." He tipped his head toward the side of the house, and Amethyst looked in that direction to see Soarin and Spitfire peeking around the corner at them. The two Wonderbolts smiled and waved.
"Oh, well..." Having one extra pony join them for supper was one thing, but three extra ponies... "I'm not sure we have enough for—" Amethyst was just turning back to Highflyer when she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. As she lifted her head to get a better look at it, the words died on her lips.
Racing toward them was a second stallion that looked identical to the one right in front of her! As if sensing something was off, the masked pony in front of her turned to see what she was looking at.
Just before the second masked pony tackled him.
Amethyst jumped out of their way, colliding with the door frame in the process and uttering a sharp yelp of mingled pain and surprise.
"Amethyst?" Dinky must have heard her sister cry out because she raced out of the kitchen, leaving a trail of wet hoofprints wherever her front hooves touched. She froze at the sight of the two Highflyers rolling about, punching, kicking, and flailing their wings. By then Screwjob had reached the house as well, and stopped out of reach of the fighting ponies. The two Highflyers were moving so fast he could no longer tell which one was his, and thus could not jump into the fight to help. Soarin and Spitfire evidently were having the same problem as they hovered nearby, looking anxious.
Then one of the Highflyers managed to get the upper hoof and pinned the other one down. "Alright, you imposter!" he snarled and clamped his teeth onto the forehead of the other pony's mask, trying to tear it off. The other pony let out a scream of pain so loud that a window on the second floor opened, and Derpy—her mane still damp and straggly from her shower—poked her head out.
"What's going on—?" Derpy trailed off as she took in the sight of one Highflyer trying to unmask another.
Suddenly pale blue flames erupted from the downed Highflyer's body, and the Highflyer on top felt something sharp slice into the inside of his cheek as the downed one snapped its head to the side, flinging him off. Highflyer landed on his side, but rolled back onto his hooves a second later, spitting blood from his cut mouth.
The flames surrounding the other pony extinguished, revealing a half-pony, half-insect looking creature whose black body was swiftly fading to glass-like transparency. Except for its horn which was coated in bright red blood. The revealed changeling sat up, wincing and rubbing at its forehead near the base of its horn.
Where I bit it! Highflyer realized, just before Screwjob lunged forward and pounced on the changeling, pinning it down once again.
Watching the fight from above, Derpy saw Soarin and Spitfire swoop forward. At first she thought they were going to help the earth pony stallion subdue the changeling, but instead they went for her daughters.
"Come on, we have to get you away from that changeling!" Spitfire shouted as she grabbed Dinky, Soarin grabbed Amethyst, and they pulled the girls outside. Most ponies might not have thought this suspicious, but it triggered an alarm in their mother. Why pull them out there? she wondered. Why not tell them to get back inside and lock the door behind them while you take down the changeling? The two of you outnumber it four-to-one if you include Highflyer and that other pony.
"Put them down!" she shouted at the two Wonderbolts as they started to take off with her daughters, but they ignored her.
Then Highflyer leapt into the air after the rising Wonderbolts. They both swerved away from him and for a moment Derpy thought he was going to come crashing back to earth, but he twisted about and managed to snag the end of Soarin's tail in his teeth. Both Amethyst and the Wonderbolt cried out in surprise as the sudden extra weight yanked them down, and Soarin beat his wings furiously to stay aloft. Glaring down at the little hitchhiker now dangling from his tail, Soarin tried to shake Highflyer off, but the masked stallion was already hauling himself further up the tail and onto Soarin's back.
"Get off me!" Soarin shouted, still trying to shake free of the unwanted rider who clung on like a colorful oversized bur.
"Worry about that later!" Spitfire shouted. "We have to get these two," she gestured to Dinky and Amethyst, "out of here fast!"
"But what about our mom?" Derpy heard her girls shout as the two Wonderbolts shot away with them. She didn't hear if the Wonderbolts responded though, because at that moment the changeling still pinned on the ground burst into pale blue flames again, startling its captor enough to knock him off. When the flames cleared, Fleetfoot, a blue pegasus mare with a sweptback white mane, now stood in the changeling's place. The earth pony rolled onto his feet and tried to go for another tackle, but the disguised changeling flew up out of his reach before zipping off in the same direction as the other Wonderbolts.
Then Derpy made a snap-decision and launched herself out of the window. She landed stumbling next to the earth pony, steadied herself, and crouched. "Get on."
He gaped at her. "What?"
"Get on!" she barked. "I need your help."
"You sure you can lift me?"
She nodded rapidly. "You put enough letters in one mailbag and you're essentially carrying a whole tree trunk. Now shut up and get on!"
He got on, and Derpy began racing after the fleeing ponies, beating her wings wildly to get herself and her passenger off the ground.
Highflyer felt hooves on his wings, and looked over his shoulder to see a pegasus that looked like Fleetfoot trying to pull him off Soarin's back. He might have bought the disguise if it weren't for the smear of blood across her forehead right where the horn would have been on a changeling. Twisting about, Highflyer reached behind himself, wrapping his forelegs around Soarin's middle so that they were back-to-back, and delivered a fierce double kick to Fleetfoot's chest, sending her spinning away through the air.
Then Soarin tried to shake him off again, this time nearly succeeding, but Highflyer rolled back around onto his stomach and managed to hang on. They were now flying so fast that hanging on was all he could do. Chancing a glance down, he saw that they were passing over the Everfree Forest and headed straight for Ghastly Gorge. He saw Spitfire swoop down into the gorge with Dinky, and a moment later his own ride followed. He steeled himself for the gorge's infamous quarry eels to start lunging out of their holes and snapping their huge jaws.
But strangely no eels appeared.
Quarry eels don't hibernate, do they? Highflyer wasn't sure but he didn't have much time to think on it before the two Wonderbolts dove into one of the larger holes in the gorge wall. They didn't fly very far down the tunnel before flinging Dinky and Amethyst to the floor. Then Soarin flew toward the side of the tunnel and rammed his remaining passenger against it. Highflyer cried out as the rough surface scraped his back through his shirt, then locked Soarin's neck between his tattooed forelegs and twisted, forcing the bigger pegasus to turn. As they spun away from the wall, Highflyer lost his grip on Soarin and went tumbling across the ground. Instinctively he wrapped his wings around his masked head to protect it. Coming to a stop, he moved his wings enough to see that he was now facing the tunnel's entrance.
And flying toward him was Derpy with Screwjob on her back!
Suddenly Soarin and Spitfire shot past him, placing themselves between him and the oncoming ponies. Blue light flashed from the Wonderbolts' foreheads and surrounded Derpy. As if sensing this was bad news, Screwjob flung himself off Derpy's back, landing cat-footed on the floor below. This turned out to be a wise move because one minute Derpy was flying under her own power and the next she was hurling through the air past the Wonderbolts to smash into the tunnel wall! Her crossed eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed. She would have fallen to the floor itself if a narrow shelf of rock didn't catch her.
Soarin and Spitfire (Soarin-and-Spitfire changelings, Highflyer mentally corrected himself.) turned their attention to Screwjob, light flaring from their foreheads once again, but before they could attack, Highflyer sprang to his feet, leapt at the highest point he could reach on the nearest tunnel wall, twisted about, and launched himself off it at the two Wonderbolt-changelings. Seizing their manes, he bashed their heads together with a loud Crack! that made even him wince. Then the Fleetfoot-changeling from earlier was suddenly there, ramming into him from the side and knocking him away from the other two. Highflyer and the changeling hit the ground, Highflyer on his stomach, and the Fleetfoot-changeling straddling his back. He gritted his teeth in pain as her hooves dug into the raw scrapes that the wall had left on his back. He tried to swipe at her with his wings but she avoided them.
Then she was suddenly gone and, rolling onto his side, he saw Screwjob up on his hind legs, holding the Fleetfoot-changeling by the tail with his front hooves, and swinging her about like a club. The wrestler used his "club" to strike down the other two Wonderbolt-changelings, who were still reeling through the air, clutching their heads. In the space of just a few seconds, the Soarin and Spitfire changelings lay unconscious on the tunnel floor and Screwjob dropped the now-equally-unconscious Fleetfoot-changeling beside them.
Lowering himself back onto all fours, Screwjob turned to his fellow wrestler, his breathing hard but steady. "What's up?" he asked as casually as if using a disguised changeling to clobber other disguised changelings was something he did every day.
Highflyer was still trying to take in the fact that the fight had ended so quickly. His back was smarting, and he vaguely registered the fact that his shirt must have gotten torn when the Soarin-changeling had mashed him against the wall. Suddenly he caught movement in his peripheral vision and whipped about in that direction, wing feathers bristling out aggressively. He relaxed when he saw it was just the unicorn girls getting unsteadily to their feet, looking about as shell-shocked as he felt. He started to move toward them, but stopped when they tensed up just as he had seconds ago.
"Hey, it's okay now," he murmured, trying to reassure them. "Screwjob and I are the real deal." He paused then added, "Of course, I guess a changeling could also say that." He frowned, trying to think of something he could do or say that would prove he was the real Highflyer. "I suppose I could take my mask off to prove it's really me..." he mused aloud. "But you probably don't know what I look like without it, so for all you know I could be any old pony claiming to be Highflyer."
This observation coaxed a couple of laughs from the girls and both relaxed a bit as well.
"I believe you're who you say you are," said Amethyst and Dinky nodded in agreement as they came forward. The older unicorn sucked in her breath as she caught sight of Highflyer's back. "You're hurt! Your back—"
"It's not bad," he said quickly, then added, "We can worry about that later. It probably looks worse than it really is." Of course, considering he couldn't see his own back, he couldn't really verify if that claim was true, so he hurried on before anypony could point this out. "I guess you know my name—and now Screwjob's—but I don't think I ever got your names. What were they again?"
"Oh, I'm Amethyst Star, this is Dinky Doo," she indicated her sister, "and—" Looking up, she noticed the way her mother's head and tail were dangling limply off the ends of that narrow rock shelf. "Mom!" She and Dinky raced over and skidded to a halt beneath the ledge. "Mom, can you hear me?! Mom!" they shouted, but there was no response from the pegasus above them.
"Shh!" Worried that their shouts might wake the unconscious changelings or draw the attention of any quarry eels that might be hidden farther down the tunnel, Highflyer motioned for them to quiet down before taking a running leap toward the shelf. He caught hold of it with his front hooves and would have hauled himself up onto the shelf completely, except that there didn't seem to be enough room for both Derpy and himself. So he just hung there by one hoof while using the other to check for a pulse. Finding one, he let go of the shelf and allowed himself to drop to the floor, spreading his wings to help slow his fall.
"She's alive but unconscious," he told the girls. "Why don't you see if you can float her down from that ledge while Screwjob and I see about getting down out of this tunnel? I don't know if quarry eels hibernate during the winter, and that's why none have shown up yet, but I'd rather not stick around to find out."
The other ponies thought this sounded like a good plan and proceeded to go about their respective tasks. When they reached the tunnel entrance, Highflyer and Screwjob found themselves looking down an almost sheer drop to the gorge floor far below.
"Well, looks like climbing down isn't an option," said Screwjob after they had surveyed the gorge wall below them for several seconds.
Highflyer straightened up and turned to see Dinky and Amethyst hurrying over to them, but with a noticeable lack of Derpy. "Where's your mom?"
"She was too heavy for our magic to lift," said Amethyst.
Screwjob straightened up from where he had still been peering at the ground and gave the girls a considering look. "Hmm. I don't suppose you could float any of us down to the ground then, huh?"
Amethyst glanced quickly down at the gorge floor, then shook her head. "I don't think we want to try that."
"No," said Highflyer pensively. "But maybe your mom could fly us down. If she could carry Screwjob, odds are she could carry the rest of us. One at a time at least. If I jumped up on that ledge again and pushed her off this time, do you think the three of you could catch her?"
"We could do that," said Amethyst and Dinky but Screwjob didn't respond.
Highflyer glanced over at his fellow wrestler. "Jobs?"
But Screwjob had turned around completely so that he was now facing into the tunnel rather than looking out of it.
"Jobs, what's—?"
Screwjob's only response was a low "Uh oh," but that "uh oh," pretty much summed up the situation. Because as Highflyer turned around, he found himself looking not only at the Wonderbolt-changelings still sprawled unconscious on the floor, but at the shimmering outlines of what seemed to be at least a dozen more semitransparent changelings now blocking their path to Derpy.
For several long seconds the four ponies could do nothing but stand there, staring at the group of changelings. That is, until two changelings at the front of the group tipped their heads down and blue light flared from their horns, surrounded Dinky and Amethyst and yanked them toward the group of changelings. The two unicorns tried to get free—the pink and yellow glows of their magic turning the auras around their horns purple and green in the process—but their magic was no match for that of the creatures holding them.
Suddenly a red blur shot past them toward the changelings. Highflyer sailed through the air to drive a flying kick into the head of the changeling holding Amethyst. The changeling went down, causing Amethyst to get flung into the air before the aura surrounding her vanished and she fell to the floor. In the meantime, Highflyer double kicked the second changeling in the head as well—forcing it to release Dinky in the same manner—before several other changelings pounced on the tiny wrestler.
Screwjob raced in to help. He managed to yank one changeling off Highflyer, only to have it turn on him, hissing and trying to shove him away with its magic, but he hung on, dragging it from side-to-side in an attempt to keep the rest of the changelings from reaching Dinky and Amethyst where they were lying behind him. This was only partially successful because as he chanced a glance behind him at the unicorn girls, he saw their magic flickering feebly as they struggled against a couple of changelings that had managed to get by him.
Unable to reach them at the moment, he had to settle for shouting encouragement. "Come on, girls! Don't bother with magic, and don't fight fair either! Fight dirty! Hit them! Kick them! Twist their snouts! Chew on their ears! Throw dirt in their eyes! Anything you can think of!"
Then glancing down at Highflyer who was still struggling under two changelings, he added, "Hey, High! If you've ever wanted to be a heel ... now might be a ... good ... time!"
"Oh?" Highflyer grunted back from between the changelings. "And what about all that stuff about being a natural-born face?"
"Oh, like you actually bought any of that?"
"Well, when you put it that way." Highflyer suddenly chopped one of the changelings in the throat and it staggered away, choking. Then turning his attention to the other changeling, he got his hind legs up around one of its forelegs and flipped over onto his feet, taking the changeling with him. His hind legs came up, then down, both his back hooves slamming down on the changeling's outstretched foreleg, snapping it like a twig. The changeling screeched and flew out of the fight, favoring its now-injured limb.
"Very good," said Screwjob, chopping his own changeling in the throat as well before hurling it into the crowd. It was at that moment that he noticed the shimmering outlines of even more changelings pouring up out of the tunnel. Leaning down so that he was on top of Highflyer, he hooked his forelegs under those of the smaller stallion. "Now just do that about five-hundred more times and we'll be good to go."
"Oh, sure. Make me do all the work, you lazy bum."
"You know me so well," said Screwjob, rearing back to lift Highflyer off the ground so that the masked pony could kick them a path to the unicorn sisters.
Screwjob's advice to the girls about not fighting fair seemed to have worked because they were now on their feet and back-to-back. Unfortunately the changelings seemed to have decided to use that advice as well because several of them were now flying above the rest (out of the girls' reach both physically and magically) and using their own magic to pelt the unicorns with stones pulled from the tunnel walls to herd them back toward the changelings still on the ground.
"Toss me, Jobs!" Highflyer ordered, and Screwjob adjusted his hold on the smaller stallion to give him an extra boost as Highflyer leapt off him into the air. Highflyer wrapped his forelegs around the neck of a flying changeling and spun around it, kicking out at the others nearby and forcing them to abandon their rock throwing to deal with this new attack.
The rock throwing didn't stop quite soon enough though because at that moment a particularly large one came flying right at Screwjob's face. He ducked and the rock that likely would have broken his nose, glanced off his forehead instead. Then a changeling knocked him to the floor, but the wrestler brought his hind legs up and sent the changeling flipping over him onto its back. With his hind legs and the back half of his body still in the air, Screwjob swiveled them around to put himself back on his feet, taking the changeling with him and suplexing it on top of several others behind him before getting back-to-back with Dinky and Amethyst.
He swiped at his face with a foreleg, and at first the girls thought he was wiping sweat out of his eyes, but when his foreleg came away with its athletic tape wrappings bloody, they realized he was bleeding where the rock had struck his forehead earlier.
"Oh, of all the nerve," he muttered, sounding more annoyed than freaked out at the sight of his blood as he glared at the changelings surrounding them. "Busting me open when you're not even paying customers!"
Meanwhile Highflyer continued his battle with the airborne changelings. He kept jumping from one to another, using the many moves in his wrestling repertoire to kick, throw, or otherwise send them crashing into the walls and floor. But he was also beginning to tire. Granted he would often be flying about like this in a wrestling match, but there was a big difference between bouncing off a mat, and bouncing off stone tunnel walls. Not to mention an even bigger difference between working a match with an opponent who, despite all appearances, was actually taking care to protect you, and trying to take down an opponent that was actively trying to injure you. It also didn't help that any time his back got struck it sent needles of pain shooting through his whole body. He might have had a high pain-tolerance, but that didn't mean he could block it out forever. He had just sent another changeling hurling to the floor, and jumped clear of it, when two other changelings landed on either side of him. The next thing he knew the changelings had each seized his wings and given them a savage yank. He felt something pop and tear in both wings and the pain he had been feeling in his back was now nothing compared with the new pain in his wings.
Screwjob's ears snapped up at Highflyer's scream of agony, and he turned to see the masked pony trying unsuccessfully to tuck in his now-grotesquely twisted wings.
Then Screwjob's normally warm brown eyes went icy cold. "Okay, that does it! You can bust me open, but nopony maims High except ME!"
In that moment—with his eyes so cold, and his face so covered in blood it looked like a gruesome parody of Highflyer's red mask—Screwjob was nothing short of terrifying, and suddenly he was on top of one of the guilty changelings, seizing its wings in his front hooves, rolling back so that it was on top of him, and delivering a savage double kick that would have rivaled one of Highflyer's to its spine. The changeling went flying into the far tunnel wall without the aid of its wings.
Wha—?! Highflyer's eyes widened as the changeling fell to the ground and he realized that, in fact, it now had no wings! His gaze snapped back around to Screwjob and he saw the insect-like wings, their torn-off bases dripping some sort of clear fluid, (Is that changeling blood?) still clutched in Screwjob's hooves. But the earth pony was already flinging them aside, tackling the second changeling and giving it the same treatment. Despite the fact that they had just injured his own wings, Highflyer found himself cringing in sympathy for the two changelings. The idea of having one's wings ripped off like—
Screwjob swung around toward the rest of the changelings, the look in his eyes making it clear he intended to deal out the same fate to as many of them as he could, when he was suddenly surrounded by a green light that yanked him off the ground and sent him hurling through the air. His head struck the tunnel wall with a sickening Crunch! and he fell to the ground where he lay face-down in an unmoving heap. Highflyer didn't even have time to gasp before the same green light surrounded him and he too was flung against the wall. The pain this sent through his wings and back almost made him pass out as he landed on top of Screwjob. Then Amethyst and Dinky, both covered in bruises, were thrown on top of Highflyer which didn't do his wings or back any favors.
"Watch them," said a new female voice, and Highflyer looked up to see a new changeling—taller than the others with none of their semitransparency—who could only be their queen, Chrysalis. The rest of the changelings quickly formed a semicircle around the ponies, pointing their horns at them.
Then they all heard a groan above them.
"Oooh, I think I got another lump," Derpy moaned.
The changeling queen glared up at her, then magically plucked the pegasus from the ledge and dropped her next to the other ponies.
"What—?" Derpy started to ask but halted as she noticed how beat-up her daughters and the two wrestlers looked, and the way the changelings were surrounding them. Her eyes were drifting drunkenly about in all directions though Highflyer wasn't sure if that was due to her getting knocked out earlier, or if they just did that normally.
"Why did you bring that other wrestler here?" Chrysalis demanded of one of the changelings. "I told you we only needed the masked one. And why didn't you sedate any of these ponies?"
"We didn't bring along either of the wrestlers," the changeling snapped, but quickly bowed its head respectfully as if to make up for its tone. As it did this, Highflyer noticed the drying blood on its horn. "I was disguised as the masked one when we went to capture that family and the real pony just came rushing in out of nowhere." The changeling looked up, and now there was a mixture of irritation and uncertainty under the respect in its voice. "Your highness, I thought he was supposed to be captured on the train."
Highflyer's ears twitched at this, but he quickly tried to look as if he were in too much pain to notice what they were saying. He didn't have to act very hard. The taste of blood in his mouth, the scrapes on his back, and the pain that ran through his wings with the slightest movement gave him plenty to focus on.
"He was," said another changeling. "We were right there in the boxcar, ready for him, when we heard that the train was going to be delayed and when we looked out to check on him, he was gone. What's it matter anyway? We've got them here now, so—"
This seemed to touch a nerve in the changeling queen. "It's no good to have any of them here now, thanks to—!" she choked off the words, clearly furious, and yet that anger didn't seem to be directed at anyone in particular currently there.
"Your highness," another changeling piped up. "As long as they're here, can't you at least use the spell on them? He at least deserves it for this!" it added, pointing at Screwjob's motionless form before turning to display the stumps where its wings had been.
Chrysalis looked down at the stumps and Highflyer expected her to fly into a rage over the damage that had been inflicted on her subjects, but instead she just brushed the wingless changeling aside irritably.
"Oh, stop complaining about your wings. They'll grow back and we have more important things to think about now—" she broke off suddenly and gave the group of ponies a considering look. "Still..." she murmured almost to herself. "We might as well find out what happens when the spell is done on several ponies at once. Stand back!" Her subjects parted just enough to give her a clear shot as she leveled her horn at the pile of ponies.
The changeling queen's horn flared with light but before she could fire, a gray blur shot toward her and shoved her horn up toward the tunnel ceiling, causing the beam to miss its intended target. Chrysalis tried to bring her head down, but Derpy had her forelegs wrapped around the queen's horn, using it like a handle to keep her head forced back. Chrysalis swung her head about, trying to throw Derpy off. The beam continued to shoot from her horn and the changelings scattered to avoid accidentally getting struck by it. The beam's light enveloped Derpy, shining so brightly she could barely be seen, but she hung on, beating her wings wildly, putting everything into keeping that beam aimed away from her fellow ponies. For their part, Dinky, Amethyst, and Highflyer could only huddle where they lay, trying to make as small a target as possible. Underneath them, Screwjob still lay where he had fallen with only the blood leaking from his forehead indicating that he was still alive.
Suddenly the beam died away and Chrysalis succeeded in throwing Derpy off. For the second time that day, the cross-eyed pony slammed into the wall and dropped to the floor in a heap. Chrysalis staggered as if the spell she had just tried to cast had taken a lot out of her.
Meanwhile Derpy was trying to push herself to her feet, but one of her back legs kept giving out on her. Frowning, she rolled onto her back and raised her hind legs to get a better look at them. One seemed to be swelling and shortening in a way that just didn't look right. Without even really thinking about it, Derpy pressed her other back hoof against the swollen one, as if to flatten it back into its proper shape. But the moment her hoof touched the swollen area it seemed to fuse there. Suddenly her hind legs twisted and molded together in an impossible way. There was a wet slapping sound and Derpy suddenly found herself looking not at a pair of gray legs, but at a mass of glistening ... insides?!
Unable to comprehend what she was looking at, Derpy reached forward with one hoof to try and find her legs, but the moment that hoof touched the glistening mass it seemed to fuse there too and began morphing the same way her legs had. Now she felt the same sensation traveling slowly but surely up her body as well—
A horrified scream burst from Derpy's throat as she suddenly realized what was going on. The next moment she was dragging herself about on the tunnel floor with her one free hoof, screaming in a blind panic as her body continued magically folding in on itself; veins, arteries, and tendons whipping up and snapping back down on the outside of her body, wrapping it like gruesome twine.
"Mom!" Her daughters' voices cut through Derpy's panic and she looked up to see them racing toward her. Then Highflyer lunged after them. He caught a hold of Dinky but Amethyst dodged out of his reach.
"Lemme go! Lemme go!" Dinky screamed at Highflyer, striking out at him with her hooves, but he countered by swiftly putting her in a submission hold that kept her from being able to strike or kick him, but also wouldn't injure her worse. She continued yelling at him to let go, and the gold glow of her magic briefly flickered on his limbs, but she couldn't even make them twitch much less release her.
Meanwhile Amethyst had reached Derpy and was now pulling desperately on her mother's free hoof, as if trying to pull her out of quicksand rather than from the mass that was her own inside-out flesh.
Seeing her daughter so close suddenly replaced Derpy's fear for herself with a much stronger one. What if any of that transforming flesh touched Amethyst and started working the same terrible spell on her?! "Amethyst let go!"
"I won't!"
"You could get pulled in too, Amethyst, let go!"
Amethyst shook her head, tears flying from her eyes as she hauled on her mother's hoof again. "I won't, Mom! I won't! I won't! I won't!"
"Amethyst Star, you do as you're told!" Derpy's normally soft voice went as hard and sharp as a whip crack.
Amethyst looked up at her mother with tears rolling down her face. "Mom..." she whimpered, her voice no longer that of a young adult but of a small frightened filly.
Derpy's gold eyes straightened long enough to lock with her daughter's purple ones. "I love you, sweetie," she whispered in a quick desperate voice. "Now let go."
Amethyst squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to release her mother's hoof. She fell backward onto her rump and her eyes popped unwillingly open just in time to see a large wet fold of inside-out flesh crash down over her mother's head and still-outstretched hoof.
"Mahhhhhh-om!" Amethyst heard Dinky wail behind her, but she couldn't take her eyes off the mass of bones, blood vessels, and internal organs that had been her mother just seconds ago.
"No!" she heard herself howl, now up on her feet and frantically circling the pulsing mound of body parts. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" You don't deserve this! she mentally screamed at it. You can't die like this! It's not right! It's not right! It's! Not! Right! Why?! Why couldn't I have stopped this?! Why do I have to be SO SUBPAR AT MAGIC?!
These words had scarcely gone through her mind when her whole body was jolted by a giant surge of magic. A blinding light erupted from her horn and with that light came an explosion that knocked everyone around her, ponies and changelings alike, clean off their feet. Dinky and Highflyer were thrown backward onto Screwjob's ribcage, forcing a loud "OOF!" from the unconscious earth pony, and a half-groan, half-gasp from Highflyer as his injured wings accordioned painfully against his back.
The light from the explosion vanished, revealing ... no sign of either Amethyst or the mass of inside-out flesh that had been Derpy.
Highflyer was still staring at the empty spot where Derpy and Amethyst had just been, when he heard a groan behind him and turned to see Screwjob slowly pushing himself upright, rubbing at his head, and blinking dazedly through a layer of blood. "Huh? What happened?"
"Those three have to die," said Chrysalis, jerking Highflyer's attention over onto her. She still looked drained from the spell she had done, but she was on her feet and glaring at the three ponies. "They've seen too much. Feed off them first if you want, but kill them."
"With pleasure." As the changelings stalked toward them, the three ponies scrambled to their feet and backed away. Several of the changelings laughed as they forced the three ponies to retreat toward the tunnel entrance. "That won't do you any good."
Tell me something I don't know, Highflyer thought bitterly as he felt something grind painfully in his wing joints, a cruel reminder that even if he had been a proper pegasus capable of flight, his damaged wings were currently worse than useless. His eyes flicked to his fellow ponies. Dinky was trembling with every step, probably still in shock over what had happened to her mother and sister, while Screwjob was looking decidedly punch-drunk under the blood still running down his face.
Then one of Highflyer's back hooves slipped on the edge of the tunnel entrance and he realized they had run out of room to retreat! The smiles on the changelings' faces stretched. They seemed in no hurry to kill him and the other ponies, choosing instead—at least for the moment—to savor their prey's helplessness like a gourmet meal.
And it was in that moment that Highflyer suddenly found himself faced with two options. One was death for himself and his fellow ponies at the hooves of the changelings, but the other ... well, the other would still spell death for him, but there was a slight chance—a very, very, very slight chance, but a chance nevertheless—that his fellow ponies might survive. But he would have to act fast.
With no warning whatsoever, he grabbed Dinky and Screwjob by the tails and leapt out of the tunnel into empty air! The next moment they were all falling toward the gorge floor far below. Hoping Screwjob's muscle memory would kick in even if his memory memory didn't, Highflyer let go of the earth pony's tail, twisted about and kicked him higher into the air, willing the tall wrestler to get his feet under him so that he would land like a cat.
You know even if he manages to do that, a fall from this height will likely shatter his legs, if it doesn't just bust him like a watermelon, don't you? He did know, but it was too late to rethink this jump off the cliff.
"Get behind me, kid!" he shouted to Dinky as he swung her around onto his back, and began beating his wings—which made the poor appendages scream in agony—in an attempt to slow their fall. Out of his peripheral vision he saw Screwjob fighting air resistance as he tried to spread his limbs out.
Suddenly both wrestlers were surrounded by a yellow aura that flashed to green as it slowed their plunge.
Oh no! thought Highflyer. The changelings must have recovered from their surprise and were now hauling their prey back magically! But then the aura around him began shifting wildly between yellow and green, and he felt himself being jerked back-and-forth and side-to-side as if he were the rope in a tug-of-war game. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder, he saw that Dinky was surrounded by the same aura as he and Screwjob. Her body was curled in a tight ball and her eyes were squeezed shut in concentration as yellow light pulsed from her horn.
Suddenly the aura around the trio turned completely yellow and they flew forward as if propelled by a slingshot. Dinky had her hooves jammed hard into the sides of her head, her whole body trembling with the effort of lifting herself and the two wrestlers. They shot up out of the gorge, past the shimmering outlines of several startled changelings, and went rocketing over the Everfree back towards Ponyville.
But while they were still over the Everfree, the aura around them began to flicker. Dinky strained even harder to maintain it, groaning as if trying to lift a hundred-ton load, but the aura went out like a lightbulb blowing and the three ponies went crashing through the trees below.
Highflyer yelped as branches smacked against his already battered body before he cleared them and went tumbling along the ground. Which turned out to be cold wet mud. By the time he came to a stop in a small clearing he was coated from mask to tail in the stuff. Sitting up slowly and painfully, he spotted his equally mud-covered companions nearby. Screwjob was easing himself into an upright position with one hoof clutching his head, while Dinky lay on her side, eyes closed and face slack.
Then Highflyer heard a fierce rustling in the direction they had just come from getting steadily closer. Judging by where they had landed, he doubted whatever was heading their way was friendly, and judging by his own aching body it didn't look like running was currently an option. "Quick, Jobs! We have to find a place to hide!"
"How about over there?" Screwjob groaned, pointing with the hoof that wasn't currently clutching his head.
Highflyer looked in that direction and saw a large tree with sections of its roots showing above the mud. "That'll have to do." Moving gingerly to Dinky's side, he shook her shoulder, but she didn't respond. "Come on, kid!" he whisper-shouted, slapping her cheeks to wake her up, but that didn't work either.
All the while that rustling was getting nearer and nearer.
Giving up trying to wake her, he lifted her under the forelegs, and—feeling grateful that she was one of the few ponies still slightly smaller than him—he dragged her to the tree roots and shoved her as far under them as he could. Screwjob stumbled after them, still looking woozy under the blood and mud on his face, but at least having the presence of mind to sweep his long tail back and forth through the mud to hide their tracks. The two wrestlers squeezed under the roots next to the unconscious unicorn, and huddled down, hoping the layers of mud would camouflage their colorful spandex.
The rustling got louder and louder until its source burst into the clearing. Flashes of blue light lit the outlines of semitransparent changelings as they swooped about, blasting the leaves off trees and bushes and peering into the freshly exposed branches.
"They landed somewhere around here," Highflyer heard one mutter. "They can't have gotten far."
Don't think to look down by the roots! Don't think to look down by the roots! Don't think to look down by the roots! Highflyer mentally begged, squeezing his eyes shut as the changelings drew nearer and nearer to their hiding spot.
Suddenly the rustling of leaves was interrupted by the snapping of twigs and the sound of something hurrying away.
"After them!" Highflyer heard a changeling shout.
"It sounds like they're splitting up!" said another one.
"You go that way! We'll go this way!"
This was followed by a furious rustling and Highflyer's eyes popped open in time to see two groups of changelings flying off in different directions, still blasting leaves out of their path.
For several moments after the changelings had disappeared, the ponies just stayed where they were under the tree roots, scarcely daring to believe their narrow escape.
Fluttershy was in her garden, checking on Angel's grave, when she heard the faint patter of hoofbeats behind her a moment before she was slammed to the ground and one of her forelegs was pulled back painfully.
"Why didn't Screwjob's Aunt Moonshine go to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns?" a low voice rasped in her ear.
"W-what?" Fluttershy stuttered before a hoof grabbed her mane and pulled her head back, forcing her to look up into her captor's face. Sky-blue eyes glared down at her from behind a mud-splattered mask.
"Why didn't she go to that school when she was talented enough to easily qualify?" Highflyer demanded, increasing the pressure on her foreleg. "Answer me!"
A tiny whimper of pain escaped Fluttershy's lips as she searched her mind frantically for an answer that might make him stop. Why wouldn't Moonshine have gone to that school? I don't know! I didn't even know she existed until today! I don't know anything about her, except—
"You said she didn't believe in unicorns! Why would she go to a school for them if she doesn't believe in them?!"
At those words, the eyes under the mask immediately softened and he released her. "I'm really sorry about that," he said, gently—if a tad awkwardly—patting the foreleg he had just been twisting. "But I had to make sure it was really you."
"Really me? Highflyer, what are you talking about?"
But the tiny stallion had already turned from her and was waving urgently toward the Everfree Forest. "We're good! It's her!"
A second later another mud-splattered pony staggered out of the trees towards them with a third much smaller pony draped across his back. As he got closer, Fluttershy recognized him as Screwjob and the pony on his back as Dinky.
"Oh my goodness, what happened? How'd you three get all muddy? Where are—?"
"Went to ... Derpy's house..." Screwjob panted, sinking down onto his stomach as he reached them. "Ran into a bunch of changelings that tried to kill us... Fought them off... Just barely escaped."
Fluttershy gaped at him. "What?"
"Not out here," said Highflyer. "Those changelings are still hunting for us and could show up at any minute."
This news snapped Fluttershy into action. "Quick, let's get the three of you inside." Once she had ushered them inside, she quickly went around, locking the doors and shuttering the windows before turning back to her three guests. Screwjob was sprawled on his stomach again, now with both front hooves pressed against his forehead, while Highflyer was hunched over Dinky's unconscious form, his wings sticking out at awkward angles.
"Let's, uh, let's get you three cleaned up." While she wanted to pump them for information, it didn't feel right to do that while they were dripping blood and mud all over the place. Lifting Dinky onto her back, she motioned for the wrestlers to follow her. "This way," she said, leading them toward the bathroom. "Highflyer, Screwjob, you can use my bathtub to wash up, and I'll take care of Dinky."
While Screwjob and Highflyer peeled off their muddy clothes, Fluttershy pulled out a wooden tub she normally would have used to give one of her larger animals a bath and filled it with warm water. As she worked, she kept her eyes averted from the two wrestlers. She wasn't really sure why she did this, but for some reason the idea of watching them strip down seemed rude.
"Jobs, watch the wings!" she heard Highflyer snap as the shower curtain rings rattled, the curtain itself swished open and shut, and the showerhead turned on. Looking over at the bathtub, she saw no sign of the wrestlers—unless one counted a pile of muddy spandex and strips of discarded athletic tape—but she could hear them splashing about behind the shower curtain, arguing about the water temperature, and describing each other in less-than-flattering terms. However, she felt now might not be the best time to call them out on this.
Turning her attention back to her own work, she gently lifted Dinky into the wooden tub. The unicorn didn't react to the water even when she was submerged up to her neck. On a hunch, Fluttershy soaked a washcloth with cold water from the sink and sprinkled it on Dinky's face to see if that would wake her up. Dinky's eyelids twitched minutely as the water droplets landed on them, but didn't open. Fluttershy wrung the washcloth, causing more water to pour over Dinky's forehead. The unicorn still didn't wake up but the water that struck her horn sizzled as if it had been dropped on a hot stove, causing Fluttershy to jerk back in surprise. Then she noticed that the water she had poured over Dinky's forehead had washed a good bit of mud out of the unicorn's mane, revealing that a large section of the blonde hair around Dinky's horn seemed to have been burned away.
Did the heat from her horn do that?
Dinky spent her whole session in the tub unconscious, so when she was clean, Fluttershy ended up carrying her back to the main room and setting up a cot for her to lie on. Fluttershy had just finished gathering up the wrestlers' clothes and tossing them in a washtub to soak, when the wrestlers in question emerged from the bathroom, each wrapped in a towel. Highflyer had been unable to get his towel up around his injured wings, and thus had been forced to cover his face with his hoof.
With all the mud scrubbed off them, Fluttershy was able to check them over more easily for injuries.
In addition to an impressive collection of bumps and bruises, and the fact that he still seemed woozy, Screwjob was bleeding rather badly from a split left eyebrow.
"Looks like we'll have to get that sewed up," said Fluttershy, before moving on to examine Highflyer.
"Well, what's the damage, Dr. Shy?" the tiny stallion asked after she had spent several minutes looking over his back and wings.
"I can't be sure without an X-ray, but I think your wings are broken. I can splint them and tape them down against your sides. I've done that before with my animal friends, but you'll still want to go to a real doctor before too long."
Highflyer laughed ruefully from behind his hooves. "You might as well just chop them off for all the good they do me."
Screwjob had been using a rag to put pressure on his split eyebrow, but now raised it to blink blearily at Highflyer. "And rob me of the countless opportunities to mock your flightlessness? How can you be so selfish?"
"Learned it from you."
Fluttershy ignored their jabs at each other, as she continued studying Highflyer's back. "Fortunately these scrapes don't look bad enough to be life-threatening, but I'd better put some ointment on them and bandage them so you don't get an infection."
As Fluttershy set about sewing up Screwjob's eyebrow (which they all agreed was the injury that currently required the most attention), Highflyer began telling her what had happened since they had left the cottage earlier that day. He described seeing and fighting his double at Derpy's house, the flight to Ghastly Gorge, and the battle in the quarry eel tunnel.
He got to the part where Chrysalis showed up just as Fluttershy finished bandaging Screwjob's now-freshly-stitched eyebrow.
"I don't remember that part," said Screwjob.
"You were too busy being unconscious." Highflyer looked away, and, judging by his tone, Fluttershy suspected he was grimacing behind his hooves. "I can still remember the crunch your head made when she smashed it against that tunnel wall."
"You sure that crunch came from my head and not the wall?"
Highflyer groaned the way one does at a bad joke, then yelped as Fluttershy's hoof touched his wing.
"Sorry," said Fluttershy. The story-telling had to be put on hold for several minutes as she and Highflyer went about the painful process of setting and splinting his wings. Fluttershy tried to be gentle, but Highflyer's wings were so smashed up it was no use. The tiny stallion whimpered behind his hooves as tears leaked from his eyes.
Finally Screwjob got up and stumbled over to the washtub where their clothes were soaking. He fished out Highflyer's mask, and began wringing it out before clumping back over to Fluttershy and Highflyer. He forced the still-damp mask over the smaller stallion's shaved head, and Highflyer's hooves sprang away from his face. Even with the mask's straps dangling loose, having it back on seemed to strengthen something in the tiny stallion, as he braced his front hooves against the floor, and his whimpering lessened.
"Thanks," he breathed at Screwjob.
"Big whoop." Screwjob muttered, stumbling over to the couch and collapsing on it, burying his face in the nearest cushion. "I just want to know what happened while I was knocked out," he added, his voice muffled by the cushion.
"Sure you do."
As Fluttershy moved from splinting his wings to bandaging his back, Highflyer went on with the story. But when he got to the part about Derpy's sacrifice he had to pause again, the nausea on his face clear even through the mask.
"Now I understand what Haystings meant about it being one thing to hear about a pony being turned inside-out and another thing to actually see it." But he soldiered on, describing Derpy and Amethyst's sudden disappearance, his own suicidal escape attempt, the ride Dinky had given him and Screwjob, and their final inexplicable deliverance in the Everfree. "I don't know what those changelings ended up chasing after, but I'm grateful to it, whatever it was. Once the changelings were gone, Screwjob and I knew we needed to get ourselves patched up, and get Dinky somewhere safe, but we were afraid to go to a public place like a hospital in case it was being watched. Then I remembered that those changelings knew about me going to the train station, but hadn't expected me and Jobs to show up at Derpy's place. And the only pony we stopped to see on the way there..." his gaze met Fluttershy's. "Was you."
Despite claiming he had wanted to hear the rest of the story, Screwjob had fallen asleep towards the end, and, upon noticing how dark it had gotten outside at that point, the two pegasi decided to let him keep sleeping. None of them were in any shape to brave going outside the cottage to find help, not at night with those changelings running around. Fluttershy finished securing the last of Highflyer's bandages around his middle, and they moved to check on Dinky, who was still asleep on her cot.
"Based on what you told me, I think she over-exerted herself magically when she lifted the three of you out of the gorge," said Fluttershy as she put a cold cloth on the young unicorn's forehead, taking care to avoid her horn. "She's always been so low-level magically that doing something that big would be like asking a couch potato to suddenly run a mare-athon, and she collapsed from the strain."
"Will she be all right?" Highflyer asked, taking Dinky's limp hoof between his own.
"I don't know," Fluttershy admitted. "All we can do is try to get her fever down, and wait to see if she wakes up."
"She's got to, Fluttershy. Can you hear me in there, kid?" he asked, leaning down until his masked forehead was pressed against the crown of the teenage unicorn's head. "You've got to wake up."
But what would she be waking up to? Fluttershy found herself wondering. Where were the young unicorn's mother and sister now? Were they even alive? Or would Dinky wake up to find herself facing a life without her family?
However, Fluttershy felt now was not the time to bring these questions up.
"Highflyer, you need to rest," she said, putting a hoof on his tattooed shoulder. "You won't do her or anypony else any good staying up now. Why don't you use my bed? I'll stay here, and keep an eye on Dinky and Screwjob."
Highflyer followed her reluctantly to her room, but didn't protest when she boosted him up onto her bed, making Fluttershy suspect he was actually a lot more exhausted than he had been letting on.
"You'd probably be more comfortable sleeping with your mask off," she said, tentatively touching the back of his still-soggy headwear.
"No!" Highflyer shouted, flinching away from her touch and wrapping a foreleg protectively over the top of his head. Then his ears went almost as red as his mask, making Fluttershy suspect the same could be said for the face under it. "I, uh ... I-I'd rather keep it on."
"Ok, that's ok," said Fluttershy, quickly raising her hooves in surrender. "If that's what you want." She started to leave the room, but paused at the door to look back at him. "Highflyer ... do you think ... do you think Discord still murdered Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie after what you saw happen to Derpy?"
Highflyer made a noise that was half-sigh, half-groan. "I'm not sure what to think anymore."
Fluttershy decided not to question him further, but as she made her way back to Dinky and Screwjob, her mind was churning.
Twilight was wrong! Discord isn't the only one powerful enough to do that spell! But what about the rest of Twilight's information? Could it still be trusted? And what about the eyewitnesses who said they had seen Discord? Hadn't Twilight said that even if a changeling was powerful enough to do that spell, it still wouldn't be able to mimic Discord's shape? Or had it been the other way around? Try as she might, Fluttershy just couldn't remember the exact phrasing and so much hinged on that. Had Twilight said that one changeling wouldn't have had that kind of power? Then how had the changeling queen managed to become powerful enough to do such a spell?
And what could this mean for the rest of Equestria?!
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Derpy nooooooo!
Why did Derpy have to die?!
Great Chapter! Very intense!!!
A new chapter from Sharkie on the day after Valentine's Day?!:D Happy Day After Valentine's Day to me! XD All the Valentines for me!
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And boy, what a chapter it is! 0-0 :D And I mean that in the best possible way:D Let's call this chapter "Plot Twist" cause there are just plot twist around every corner and things I did not expect at every paragraph I swear XD
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I mean, first we had two Highflyers at once; then, we had two Highflyers fighting at once; then, we had a changeling windiago hybrid's horn being bite off (nice touch with the whole Highflyer tearing off at a mask cause I didn't think about it but it makes sense that the "clothes" that the changelings take on with transformation are part of the skin because the clothes that these ponies wear are essentially part of the changeling disguise. Just wow :D!); then, Dinky and Amethyst get kidnapped; then, epic aerial fight in those canyons where the eels are; then, that changeling ambush when they entered the cave; then, (oh boy, there's alot of then's in this 0-0) that Highflyer and Screwy fight and especially at the part when Highflyer's wings got so twisted and pulled (oh man:0!); then, one of the biggest plot twists of them all, Chrysalis shows up :D! Oh my God, things are getting sooooo real!XD And then, Chyrsalis big inside out spell on Derpy and Depry's sacrifice :o! To echo my fellow reviews, Derpy noooo!:0 But then, this makes me wonder: because these changeling hybrids seem not to be totally loyal to Chrysallis, at least to me they do, I'm thinking that Chyrsallis made these changelings magically versus her usual Changelings coming out of eggs she laid and such. Specifically, my conspiracy that Chyrsallis is using this inside out spell to magically change regular ponies into these changeling-windiago hybrids:O To me it makes sense, even though it sounds too crazy to actually happen, but this inside out spell that Chrysallis is taking more magic out of her than it should. Especially since it's a killing dark spell. True, it is a fancy killing spell BUT, if she just wanted to kill them...she would have just magical tasered them down;) Anyway, and then we have the emotional Twilight powered stage Amethyst poofing her and Derpy away (I have a feeling that they are alive;)); and then, the remaining ponies of the crew survive and go to Fluttershy's cottage.
Phew! Oh wow :o :D! That took ALOT out of me, but in the best possible way!:D I can see why this chapter was hard to do 0-0 I mean all that gore and plot twists you had to do, dang!:o
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Thanks.
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*Chuckles* Yep, right between Valentine's Day and Do A Grouch A Favor Day. Interesting if a bit unintentional timing there.
Why thank you. Yeah, in the nudist colony that is pony society there are some advantages in being known for pretty much living in your spandex. And in Highflyer's case, not showing his exposed face in public for at least 15 years.
Yeah, I think Screwjob was actually the one who surprised me the most in this chapter. To quote my author's note on fanfiction:
Granted it seems those wings he tore off are just going to grow back, but he didn't know that at the time he was doing the damage.
*Grins slyly* Some of your theories are right while some of the others are wrong, but I'm not going to tell you which ones are which. You'll just have to wait and see. Mwahahahaha!
Thanks, I was a bit worried about posting this chapter for several reasons: *cough* How long it was taking to write, its lack of fluttercord moments, and its, um ... more gruesome moments (By the way, do you think I should give it a gore tag for what happened to Derpy?) so I'm glad to hear you felt the plot twists etc. made up for that.
So tell me, should I keep them? *Holds up Highflyer and Screwjob* Did these two bozos (and for that matter, the three bozos that make up Derpy's family as well) manage to earn their keep in this story plot-wise?
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*Rubs hands together with calculating look on face* Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Mostly.
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Haha lol the nudist colony that is Equestria, lol so hard XD! Oh my gosh wow he hasn't shown his exposed face in the public for 15 years:0 Dang son, dedication :0 Or is it secrecy?;) We'll have to wait and see lol;)
True, but still just the act of it and the blood of it all can just make you go....Dang son 0-0!
Haha lol you're too funny;) Something tells me that I'm on to something;) Lol jk, I can totally be wrongXD Everypony lets take bets on whether Missy's theories in this case are right or wrong, my money is on the fact that I'm wrong!:D Lol;) What? No pony said that I can't bet against myself;)
Um, probably since you put a cautionary gore tag on several of the other dreams like Fluttershy's balloon dream
Yes:3 Let's keep all our precious wittle boozos:3 <3
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That explains a lot.
Damn, those two sure know how to fight.
I am curious as to why they didn't bust their charms when the changelings attacked. Even if they were only meant supposed to be used for Discord wouldn't they want to alert someone they were in danger?
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I'm sure they would, but since Celestia never said what would happen when those charms are smashed, they probably didn't want to chance setting them off for a possible false alarm. (*Chuckles* Or maybe in the heat of battle etc., they just forgot about the charms.)