Fighters Don't Have Friends

by BackroundVoice

23 : Stand Up

"Vinyl?" I just couldn't believe it. She was here, right in front of me. But how? Everything around me looked like a blur. Gray, red eyed figures all around me, shouting and ranting at one blackened pony in the middle. They all moved so slowly. And I could hardly look up at Vinyl. But seeing her again, how could I not?

"Save your excuses for later, the fight isn't even half way over," Vinyl told me. Still scolding me to get up and keep fighting.

"The fight?" I started, struggling to simply tilt my head her way. "Didn't you see what just happened? I was destroyed, by an Alicorn!" I could tell my voice was barely reaching her. Or maybe that was her attitude. She was always not paying attention to what I had to say whenever we trained. Even now, she was just shaking her head like I was wrong. This was just a memory. I'm going insane. My last few breaths and I'm spending it talking to a fabrication of my own mind.

"You never listen to me!" I shouted.

"I always listen, you idiot!" Vinyl shouted back. I never heard her say that before. "I just choose what I want to hear," she explained, walking up to me. I reached up, trying to touch her, she merely avoided me, shaking her head again. "Sorry, Twi. It doesn't work that way. As far as we're both concerned, I'm dead. So let's just leave it at that and get back in the fight."

"V- Vinyl..." I stuttered through tears.

"Oh, geez." Vinyl looked annoyed as I started to sob suddenly. But I just couldn't help it. I didn't get to say goodbye to her. And I didn't even have a chance to help her. This felt like a blessing. Those things that religious ponies talk about all the time. A miracle. If I knew I could see Vinyl again like this, I would've let Nightmare lay into me sooner. I'm so happy. But one look into Vinyl's now, blueish eyes, and I remembered.

"W- Who did it?" I asked her.

"Who did what?"

"Who killed you?" I asked again, desperately. Vinyl only frowned.

"You're still on about that? Who cares? What really matters is that you stand up right now."

"But-"

"No buts!" Vinyl protested. I didn't understand. I didn't understand why I was seeing her now. I didn't know why she wasn't telling me. I didn't know anything. Vinyl sat down in front of me. "Your bucking attitude," Vinyl laughed. " You don't get to know, because it's not my life that needs saving anymore Twi, it's your's."

"My life?"

"Yes. I don't know how I'm able to talk to you. I don't even know how long this will last. But I do know that if you don't get up, you will die." I continued to listen, tears still falling from my face as I did. "Look around you, Twilight. There's a whole lot of hatred out there, and at the moment it's all directed to Nightmare Moon. And when you beat her, it will all go away."

"How do you know that for sure?" I asked.

"Because I've seen it happen before. Ponies are selfish. They won't leave things alone until they see an end to it. Cause, even if all these ponies manage to take Nightmare down, there will still be wounds. And they'll fester and spread if you don't take the brunt of it."

"Why me?"

"Ask yourself," Vinyl told me, "what did you learn today?" That question again.

"What have I learned? That you can't win every battle."

"Not that,"

"That you're an idiot for thinking you can change everything on your own,"

"You already knew that,"

"Then what!?" I cried. Vinyl only smiled.

"Okay, just this once, I'll tell you... It's that friendship is another form of magic." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"The fate of the world," I breathed through my words, "doesn't rest on me making friends!"

"But without them, where would you be?" Vinyl asked me. "Would you still be in Canterlot, studying? Would you still be here, fighting?" The answers to all of those questions were, of course, no. I looked away from her. I knew very well enough that I was wrong.

"And where will you be if you lose here? Your friends will leave if you die, and it'll all be your fault because you didn't stand."

"As if it's that easy," I muttered.

"Of course it isn't," Vinyl agreed. "Do you think it was easy for Rarity to get beat up as much as you and still live to tell the tale? Do you think it was easy for Pinkie to lose her eye? Or Fiona and Dash to lose to you? The point is Twilight, all of us get the choice to stand up and fight again. I chose not to, and look where that got me! And I'm not just about to let you make that same mistake. So stand up, you egg head!"

"I know, just shut up..."

"Stand up!"

"I know, I know..."

"STAND UP!"

"I KNOW!" I blurted. Vinyl stepped back, scoffing at how agitated my expression was. Mother of Celestia, she's still just as irritating in death as she was in life.

"So, do you know what you've learned?" Vinyl asked again.

"Yeah," I said, "I know that I'm not done fighting."

"Good, now stand up."

Comments

[Havoc in the Midst]

Oh ok she died basically and now she back

hey now, that's pretty cool.

[redsopine]

8700950
Twilight's on death's door/ vinyl was a element herself