Avatar: Legend of Diamond Tiara. Book 3: Tirek

by Jeweled Pen

Chapter 20: Miracle

Blaze sighed while she laid in bed, staring at the roof. Finally… “Do you think I did the right thing?”

“Hmmm? Yeah… about what?” Prism asked before he instinctively reached out and pet her wing.

The mare rolled her eyes. “About Daring. Letting her run off like that...”

“Mmmm… She was gonna do it anyway when she found out, trust me,” Prism mumbled. “You made sure she had a firm grasp of everything...”

“But what if Meadowbrook IS involved in Sunset’s disappearance?”

“Not likely. What would be the point? It’d be a strange move. And having met Sunset, I can tell you right now there would have been some damage. That mare was dangerous.”

Blaze sighed and nodded. “I guess. Probably too late to stop her now, anyway. I hope she doesn’t get in over her head...”

“She’s Twilight’s daughter. She’s pretty much guaranteed to… but then to get out fine. That’s what they do,” he said with a teasing smile. “Avatars. Avatar’s friends. Their teachers. Anyone they share a cupcake with, their mailpony, their--”

“Prism!” Leadwing called, his voice raw with panic, making the two sit up in bed. They could hear the rush of wings heading towards their window.

Prism quickly moved to intercept, taking off out the window to stop the other pony from entering his room. “What? I’m trying to get some well deserved rest with my over-worked wife, something I surely deserve. So this better be important.”

“It’s Ironwing! He was attacked, Daring is in custody right now! Ironwing is in intensive care, they aren’t sure if he’s going to make it.”

Prism froze, his eyes widening. “Who knows?”

“I don’t know, I came to tell you as soon as I heard, I--”

“I’ll head to the hospital, Blaze, can you--”

“I’ll let Scootaloo know!” the other wonderbolt yelled before taking off like a bolt.

Prism nodded and then took off towards the city. “Dang it, Ironwing. What in Equestria did you do?”

------

Scootaloo’s heart raced while she did a tight, upwards spiral. She felt the gem against her chest, glimmering and a little warm, but not showing signs of damage. She then did three quick loops, before shooting up in a tight roll, only to shoot straight down at the ground as fast as she could.

She hit the ground hard, skidding on the metal pads of her horseshoes, digging into the dirt. She let out a low gasp of excitement, her heart pounding, before Silver ran forward to pull the gem out. “H-how was that?”

“Perfect!” Silver said with a grin. “Absolutely perfect. I see Hornclipper has been teaching you well.”

Scootaloo nodded with a cringe. “Yeah. It… I know it’s going to sound odd, but well…”

“It’s been feeling more natural lately?”

“Yeah, exactly!” the pegasus said with a sigh. “That’s normal?”

“Of course. You are a pegasus, after all. All of this is natural for you, you’ve just never used those muscles, so to speak. The magic ones. They’re going to grow more and more every time you use them,” Silver said while she examined the gem, before reinserting it. “This is very promising. Only mild signs of wear and tear.”

“Oh? You’re okay with me using it, still?” Scootaloo asked with a smile. “Usually you pop a fresh one in.”

“The next one should be the last,” Silver said with a nod. “As long as you take it easy and don’t do anything too intense, it should last you a few more days. The next should last a month, at least. Possibly a year if you’re calm enough.”

“Really? That long? That’s… wow. So it… umm… well, will it be… ready for...”

“It’ll be ready by the time you fight Meadowbrook,” Silver added. “And you’ll have time to test yourself with it, of course.”

Scootaloo let out a sigh. “That’s a relief. You’re amazing, Silver. I’m sorry to bother you with--”

“My father doesn’t need my help on the nullification project yet, I’ll have time to finish this and get to work on that,” the earth pony interrupted before she poked the gem a few more times. “However, on that note… if you don’t mind me asking, why are you going? You’re the representative of pegasi in Harmony. Don’t you have more important things to do? I can’t help but notice none of the other council ponies are going.”

Scootaloo sighed. “A mix of reasons. Sweetie and Applebloom are going to be there, so I couldn’t just say ‘no’. Not that they asked me to, they never would. But I knew… well. The three of us were a team. And we’re good at what we do, that gives us an edge. It’s during times like these, every friendship can make all the difference.”

“And the council approves this?”

“No. But they see that this Meadowbrook, whoever she is, is a threat that we cannot afford to let spread. We have to throw every resource available at her and I am, fortunately, a resource that can be used.”

Silver nodded. “That makes sense, it--” Her eyes widened when a yellow blur flashed by them, skidding along the ground. “Blaze?! What in… I mean, what are you doing here?”

“No time,” Blaze interrupted. “I just talked to Hornclipper, he was going to come get you, but I was faster. Scootaloo, you need to get to the hospital. It’s Ironwing, he’s in emergency care.”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened and her heart almost stopped. She turned to Silver, panic in her eyes. “Will the gem hold?”

Silver nodded. “Y-yes. I’ll bring a replacement. Don’t fly too high, but it should get you there at--” The rest of her words were cut off by the mare taking off like a bolt. “Does anypony else need to know?”

“Just Rainbow, somepony else is going to have to track her down, though. I’m heading to the hospital. Bye Silver!”

The earth pony nodded, staring up, stunned. How could something happen to Ironwing? How could he be in EMERGENCY CARE? What in Equestria happened? He had to be one of the most durable, obnoxious ponies she ever met! It just wasn’t possible! She wondered if she should head on over to check on him, but slowly shook her head. She’d check on him later, right now… she’d only get in the way. Instead she headed back into the complex.

Scootaloo was going to have enough things to worry about now. She needed to make sure her equipment wasn’t one of them.

------

Rainbow dashed into the waiting room. “Where is he? I’ll kill him! Is he okay?!” she glanced around the room, feeling the shifting winds and identifying the ponies quickly. Prism, Blaze, Scootaloo, Styx. Scootaloo was crying. Blaze was trying to comfort her. Prism was pacing. Styx was… just rocking back and forth.

“We don’t know yet,” Prism said, scuffing his hoof. “He’s still in intensive care. The healers are doing what they can, but...”

“What happened?” Rainbow asked, joining her son in his pacing. She wanted to go out, fly around, knock out some pirates or SOMETHING! Getting here and having to WAIT of all things was even worse.

Prism sighed and stopped. “We’re… not sure. According to Daring, he was ambushed by one of the Shadowbolts, Coppertip. She claims there were three others, but...”

“What do you mean, but? Somepony needs to get out there and find them!” she yelled in anger.

“It’s not that easy. She’s… being detained by the moon raisers.”

The blind pegasus froze. “… Why?”

“There are witnesses that she attacked Coppertip and beat him up, really bad.”

“Good!”

“And her standing over Ironwing. There’s a possibility that she attacked both of them and--”

“BULL!” Rainbow roared, spreading her wings and making the room rattle. “She is Twilight’s daughter! Buck, she’s our FRIEND! There’s no way she’d EVER attack Ironwing!”

Prism nodded. “Honestly, I agree. Unfortunately, Coppertip is claiming she ambushed them. And unless Ironwing wakes up… well… it’s her word against his. He’s claiming she likely did it because of her failure in the Shadowbolts.”

Rainbow growled. “Where is he? Give me ten, no, five minutes with him and I’ll have him begging to tell the truth.”

“The moon raisers were the ones who came on the scene and they are currently working to investigate it, along with the metal benders. There’s currently no Shadowbolts on the case, but as you can imagine they have ample reason to be involved.”

The cyan pegasus let out another yell of frustration. “There has to be SOMETHING we can do! Anything! Some ponies we can find? Somepony who’s BUTT we can kick? Something? ANYTHING?”

Prism sighed and shook his head. “Nope… all we can do now… is wait. Wait, and hope. And pray for a miracle...”

Rainbow groaned and stormed to a chair, throwing herself into it. Only to hop out and start pacing along with Prism. A miracle? She’d have given both her eyes and her bending for one of those ‘miracles’ right about now.

------

Acrylic paced back and forth, nervous as could be. He’d spent hours agonizing over what to bring, what to wear. Finally, he’d given up and just tossed on a dark blue tie. It melded well with his coat. Simple and refined. He wondered if he ran now, he could claim he’d been foalnapped by pirates. Or better yet, she might forget the whole thing. It was probably all a mistake. Heck, even if she was an earth pony, she shared some colorations with his mother, that was just weird. Though, he supposed that meant she also shared some colorations with him. And the coat really was more a silver than a white, and the blue was more like the sea than like--

“Acrylic?” a voice asked from behind him. The unicorn cringed and took a slow, deep breath. He could do this. He would do this. He’d tell her work had come up and he had to go. He slowly turned around.

“Pearl, I… I… I-I… I… you...” he said, the words trying to form in his head. The mare was standing there, giving a nervous smile and… just wearing a cute, small little white, gem studded ribbon. It was so simple. So… odd. He’d expected more, something wild but… it was so calm and refined. He felt a little red flood into his cheeks. “You… ummm… look… amazing.”

She smiled softly, giving a small nod. “T-thank you. You look really h-handsome. I ummm… S-shall we go?”

“O-oh! Right! Um! Yes, right… ummm...” He stared for a long moment, while she walked past him and headed inside. He shook his head and followed after her. Once they were seated, she nervously smiled at him.

“So… what would you like? You’ve been here before, right?”

“Not in years, I don’t eat out much,” he said with a shrug. If nothing else, he seemed to have complete control of his faculties again. He glanced over again and was relieved it wasn’t quite as big a shock this time. She… was certainly pretty, though. But not the prettiest mare he’d ever seen. Why, Silver was-- He frowned.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “I’m sorry, is this… did I put you on the spot? I’m sorry,” she said gently.

“What? Oh! No, not you! I was just thinking about… work,” he said. While he would be the first to admit he had very little experience with the fairer sex, even he knew better than to say ‘another mare’ there.

------

Silver walked through the halls of the hospital, trying to avoid getting much attention. One of the advantages, she supposed, of being a key member in Tomorrow Industries. It hadn’t been the first time she’d been here, and she had IDs to far more places than she should have. She suspected at least half the equipment in the hospital was manufactured by her company.

That was the issue with security. As long as you wore a name tag or had some pass, no one even looked at you twice. They just assumed you belonged there. It suited her just fine, though. The less people that noticed her, the better off she’d be.

She couldn’t help feeling stupid as she walked towards the medical wing. This was dangerous. Foalish. There was no telling what would happen if she was caught. If people found out what she was. But… Ironwing was a friend. He’d helped her, albeit grudgingly at times. She walked into an empty hospital room, closing and locking the door behind herself. She walked into the bathroom… Before the alicorn amulet appeared on her neck.

What she was doing was more than she’d ever done in her life. Tapping into the full extent of her abilities. But it was something she couldn’t NOT do.

A moment later she appeared inside the surgery room, a part of a medical display on the wall. She couldn’t help but move, just a little bit. Being such a two dimensional character felt odd. Being flat. She couldn’t even breathe, but she oddly didn’t need to. This was definitely a useful ability of his, though she wondered if he felt the same odd… sensations when he did it. As insane as he was, he probably had enjoyed it.

She then looked around, before seeing it. Three ponies milling about, trying to stabilize him. A wind bender healer, a doctor, a nurse… the odds weren’t in their favor, though. She could see it. It was faint, that soft needling that told her which path the story would take. She could already see it, like words on a page.

Her eyes glowed an ominous green…

Buck that.

Author's Note:

And so begins the continuation of Avatar! We're getting near the end, hope you're all excited for this book to finish up! Please enjoy! A nice setup chapter for what's coming. ^^

Comments

[Mocha Star]

Silver is such a goodie four shoes.
She is changing her destiny!