The Final Battle for Equestria

by Songbrony

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Blaze laid on a slab next to the wall. He looked at a worried looking Rainbow Dash. "I'll be fine Rainbow. Don't worry." he said and gave her a reassuring smile.

She nodded her head. "I know, I just don't want anything to go wrong." she said. She gave him a kiss on his forehead and moved to let Starbolt take her place.

"This is going to hurt just a teensy tiny bit." Starbolt said. She injected his side with something. He winced as the fluid entered his bloodstream.

"Well, that wasn't that bad. What was that? Something to help my body mend with the metal wings?" Blaze asked.

"No. That was Penicillin." she said as she picked up a metal pole the size of his torso.

"Oh...I see." he said. Iron Will held Blaze tightly to the slab. "Hey! What gives?" he said. There was a sudden sting of pain that shot up his side. He reflexively jumped, but didn't get far. Iron Will had too well of a hold on him.

"You can't be jumping around so much. That's why I need to hold you down with my muscly arms." Iron Will said as he gave a quick glance to Rainbow. Blaze glared at him.

"Now stop moving. I need to make these cuts exact." Starbolt said. She opened up his side and placed the rod inside his open body. He winced at every movement or agitation. She took a metal object that resembled the top halve of a Pegasus wing. She latched it with the rod and grabbed the bottom halve of the wing. After she latched it onto the rest of the rod, she stepped back. "Ok Blaze. You got through the easiest part of this. Rainbow, I'd look away if I were you." she said. Rainbow kept watching, not taking her eyes away from Blaze's.

Starbolt sighed. She nodded to Iron Will who applied even more pressure on top of Blaze. He winced as pain surged through his entire body. "Maybe you could watch it!" he grimaced. "My side is still open!"

"Maybes are for babies!" Iron Will said. Starbolt's horn began to glow a dark green. Unimaginable pain tore through Blaze's side and he screamed in agony. Rainbow closed her eyes at his screams.

Starbolt's horn stopped glowing and she fell to the ground. The pain Blaze felt left him, quickly as it had come. He laid there gasping and sweaty. He was too tired to get up after the ordeal. Blaze looked at Rainbow, exhausted. She smiled at him and ran over to him. "Are you ok Blaze?" she asked as she nuzzled his mane.

"I'm fine. I'm just a little tired." he said and gave her a hug. "Starbolt. Thanks for doing this. Will I really be able to fly though? It seems a little-" he stopped as Rainbow gasped. He looked at where her eyes were pointed. Starbolt was laying there with her horn broken in two. The metal halve was lying shattered on the floor next to her. She was lying on the floor, unresponsive.

Iron Will picked her up. Blaze hadn't realized that he had let him go. He poured a blue liquid into her mouth and she started to open her eyes. She coughed a few times and put her hoof to her head.

"What was that? Are you okay Starbolt?" Rainbow Dash asked. She nodded her head.

"I'm fine. I've never been good at doing large amounts of magic. It makes me weak and practically useless." she said as she stood up.

"What was that liquid? Some sort of rejuvenating potion?" Blaze asked. Starbolt nodded her head. "What about your horn? The metal is shattered." he said.

She reached at her horn and looked at the metal on the ground. She didn't seem fazed by what had happened. "It's fine. I didn't like the metal there anyway. It always reminded me I was just a clone." she said. "But that doesn't matter. What matters is that you have a wing now. You can fly and end Chrysalis' reign."

Blaze slowly and carefully got up from his slab. He tested his metal wing, making sure it moved comfortably and properly. "Everything feels fine on my bones. I'm glad you got it right the first time." he said. "But what about you? You can't use your magic anymore."

"Blaze, I'll be fine. Besides...It's not like I'm going to be around for much longer..." Starbolt said gingerly.

"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked.

"I used up most of my life force to put your wing on right. It involved transferring life energy over to you." Starbolt said. Blaze and Rainbow stared at her mouths agape.

"Why? Why would you do that?" Blaze asked shocked.

Starbolt gave a small smile. "It's because of Rook. I have these memories, but I haven't met him. I haven't seen him face to face in my life time. And now I never will." she said with a small tear in her eye. "But it's fine. I'm glad I could help you out. Rook always helped the police and other ponies out. I now know why. The look on Rainbow's face made me feel... I don't know, really well. Anyways, I'll let you two go. You need to tell Luna about what you can now do." she said. She started coughing violently. She sat down, suddenly very weak.

"You okay Starbolt?" Iron Will asked. She looked at him and shook her head.

"It may be sooner than I thought..." she replied.

"Sooner for what?" Blaze asked.

She coughed a few more times. "My time. You know when I was talking about life force? As a clone I don't live a long life anyways. And now that I have given you most of mine so you're wing would work right, I have maybe an hour left." she said.

"What?!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Starbolt! Why didn't you tell me that would happen?" Iron Will asked.

"Would you have let me if I told you?" she replied.

He didn't say anything. He just stared at her. "You know why I wouldn't let you." he said coldly. Starbolt nodded her head.

"So, what you're saying is, that you are going to die in less than an hour?" Rainbow asked. Starbolt nodded her head and started coughing again. She spit blood onto the floor and put her head in her hooves.

"Star...Rook loved you more than anything. He stayed and fought because of you. He helped us all get to this point and he helped me when I lost my wing." Blaze said. "There's someone I think you should meet. Would you like to go back to the camp with us and see all that he did?" he asked.

Starbolt looked at him, and nodded her head. "Want to test your wing out?" she asked with a small grin.

"I mean I can't feel it. It's not like an actual wing that I can feel with. But I'll give it a shot." Blaze said with a grin.

"Actually there are tiny receptors that signal hot and cold differences. They send signals to your brain when somepony or something touches them. They aren't active yet, since the procedure ended just a few minutes ago. Give it a few hours. You'll have feeling in that wing by lunch." Starbolt said, giving another cough. She spat more blood onto the floor.

"You should take her back to the camp." Iron Will said quietly. "She needs to see what he did for her own eyes."

Blaze and Rainbow nodded their heads in agreement. "We will. And you can come-" Blaze said but was quickly cut off.

"No. I'm not going. Too many memories in that house. Besides, now that she has used up her one go at this, I need to destroy all the other metal pieces we had. You know, in case the Leasath return. There's no point in keeping them just to be used by the enemy." he said sullenly.

"But why not let us take them with us? I'm sure Luna could find a way to use them to help us." Rainbow said.

Iron Will shook his head. "No. The magic requires life force. I knew Star had to give you some of hers, but I didn't think it would drain all of hers. I'm not letting the Princess and leader of the Aureolians give her life force to two ponies. It requires too much." he said as he started gathering the metals. "I'll need to go up and light the fire to get these hot enough to break."

Rainbow Dash lowered her head and sighed. "Ok then." she said sadly and turned to face Blaze. "We should go. No point in staying here with Starbolt like this." Blaze nodded his head. He got up and put a hoof on Iron Will's shoulder.

"Thank you for helping me get my wing back. It hurt like hell," Blaze said with a chuckle, "but I appreciate it." Iron Will gave a snort and walked up the stairs. Blaze turned and walked up the stairs behind Rainbow who was carrying a tired Starbolt up with her.