Chapter 9: A Splitting Headache (Re-Edited)
Ponyville was especially busy this time of day.
Everypony was out and about in the streets, going about their mundane business. Every mare and stallion took their posts at the stands, vending goods to their fellow ponies. Little fillies ran around the streets, playing joyful games of tag and bouncing their ball to each other. Yes, the daily lives of every colorful pony in Ponyville seemed to go perfectly well today.
Everypony, except for three certain mares awaiting their feathered friends in the Ponyville Square. Applejack anxiously paced back and forth on the dirt road, creating a tiny rut left by her hoofprints. Rarity sat on her haunches, using her baby blue magic to file her hoof. Pinkie Pie bounced around the two mares in a complete circle, continuously chanting “chimicherry, cherry changa, chimicherrychangas.”
The three mares stayed still in the middle of the square, watching and waiting on the verge of impatience for any signs of their three equine friends. To their dismay, they never found any signs of their arrival. No Twilight Sparkle. No Rainbow Dash. No Fluttershy.
“Now what’s takin’ them so dang long!?” Applejack asked impatiently. “Princess Twilight is never late when she’s called fer an emergency from Princess Celestia!”
“Now, now, dear Applejack, you must be patient. I’m sure there is an explanation for why Twilight and the others aren’t here at this moment,” Rarity said elegantly, touch her chin in thought. “Maybe Twilight is having a little trouble with finding Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy. They’ll be along.”
Rarity cringed lightly as Pinkie Pie bounced around her with her repetitive chatter of her desserts ringing in her ears. “Pinkie, dear?”
“Uh-huh?” Pinkie answered while she continued to bounce in her circle.
“Will you please refrain from speaking those Celestia-awful dessert pastries of yours!?” the alabaster unicorn shouted, her speech once again dripping with venom. “You are making me lose my temper!”
Pinkie Pie stopped to giggle. “Aww, come on, Rarity! You know as well as I do that chimicherries, cherry changas and chimicherrychangas are soooooo good! Why just last night, I was thinking about chimicherries and cherrychangas and I didn’t know why, but I got hungry just thinking about them, so I baked a dozen of them last night and I ate them and they were soooooo good, that know I can’t stop thinking about how good they are!”
*Squee!*
An awkward moment passed for the three mares. Applejack and Rarity both stared at Pinkie Pie awkwardly while the latter wore a large, squeaky smile on her face.
Rarity daintily cleared her throat. “Umm...yes. I can see that.”
Pinkie began bounding in her circular path once more, returning to her cherry dessert wrap mantra, much to Rarity’s annoyance. Applejack approached the alabaster unicorn, still teetering on the edge of both impatience and worry.
“What Ah’d like to stop thinkin’ about mahself is why Princess Twilight and the others ain’t here already,” she complained. “She wouldn’t take this long jus’ ta respond ta Princess Celestia’s letter. Ah’m startin’ ta think there’s somethin’ bad mighta happened ta them while they were on their way here. Somethin’ real bad.”
Rarity chuckled in disbelief, waving her hoof down. “Oh, Applejack, you really must learn to be patient. Sure, Twilight is a bit tardy than usual, but if we know our friend like the back of our hoof, she’ll make an appoint to be here before the chariots arrive. Nothing more.”
“An’ if she don’t make it here?” the cowgirl pony asked pessimistically. “What happens if we keep the Princesses a-waitin’ on us?”
“Have a little faith, darling. Twilight will come along any minute now.”
“But--”
“Any. Minute. Now.”
All of a sudden, Pinkie’s bouncing and repetitive chattering was rudely cut off by a brief, but violent shudder in mid-air. The sudden quaking quickly halted the small discussion between Rarity and Applejack and they turned their gaze to their friend’s antics.
Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense was tingling.
The Pinkie Sense was one of Pinkie’s most outstanding features, next to her hyperactive demeanor and her strange ability to break the laws of physics. When one part of her body received a strange sensation, it was an indication that something was about to happen a few seconds before it actually happened. Pinkie’s twitching tail meant something was about to fall and her itchy nose meant there was an angry swarm of bees flying nearby.
But the shuddering she felt at the moment was different. This shuddering was a doozy. Pinkie Pie didn’t usually know what the doozy actually meant, but it meant something big was going to happen. Very big. The doozy knew exactly where the event would take place.
“What’s wrong, Pinkie Pie?” Applejack asked with concern. “Is it another doozy? What’s yer Pinkie Sense tellin’ ya?”
“I don’t know,” the pink pony said. “But the doozy says something’s gonna happen at this moment...” Pinkie Pie observed her second brief shuddering very closely. “...and it’s gonna happen at the meadow. You know, the one with a little stream running through and the forest on the other side?”
“The meadow!? Land sakes!” Applejack yelped. “That’s near where Fluttershy lives!”
“But if Fluttershy is anywhere near that location, then Twilight must also be there too!” Rarity realized with a gasp. “Oh my! Rainbow Dash could possibly with them as well! This is simply dreadful! What do we do!?”
“Ah’ll tell ya what we’ll do!” Applejack answered, tipping her Stetson hat forwards. “We’re gonna go get ‘em before that doozy of Pinkie’s happen!”
Rarity turned her gaze to the pink pony, feeling an overwhelming urge of uncertainty. “Um, Pinkie Pie? This doozy of yours. It’s not going to put anypony in danger is it?” she asked. “I nearly fainted twice when Twilight told what almost happened to my little Spikey-Wikey with that horrid hydra at that ghastly bog. I don’t want a similar problem happening to my friends again.”
“I can’t guarantee that, Rarity,” Pinkie said, her body shuddering once more. “Uh oh! Looks like the doozy’s gonna happen in 3... 2... 1...”
CRACK!! BOOOOOOOM!!
A clap of thunder and an explosion of light shook all of Equestria. All at once, everypony froze as the light flashed through Ponyville, blinding them for about seven seconds. Then, in the meadow down in the distance, a strange magenta light illuminated a quarter of a mile outside of Ponyville, shooting off rogue strikes of lightning.
All of this happened in the same meadow Pinkie Pie predicted where it would happen.
Everypony gathered at the square or the edge of the town, shocked and awed by the intense glow of magenta illumination. Most of the citizens stared at the lights with absolute silence, taking in the hum that resounded with the light, but different questions and murmurs were passed around like mad.
“What’s going on!?”
“What is that light!?”
“There’s lightning in the meadow! Didn’t the pegasus ponies schedule a clear, sunny day?”
“I don’t think those are thundercloud lightning bolts, guys!”
“Somepony check the muffins! Make sure my muffins are all right!”
“What on Earth could be causing that light!?”
Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie stared at the spectacle with much surprise. Though the citizens of Ponyville was unaware of what was causing the light show, it didn’t take long for the three mares to recognize the owner of the magenta light. They could easily tell from a mile away the magic light belonged to their dear friend: one Twilight Sparkle.
“Come on girls! Ah think Princess Twilight needs our help!” Applejack shouted, cantering off into the meadow with Rarity and Pinkie Pie following close behind.
==================================================================
“Twilight, you gotta calm your magic down!” Rainbow Dash called out to her alicorn friend over the loud hum of her giant-sized aura. “You’re letting your magic go outta control!”
Rainbow Dash’s pleas for Twilight to stop her magic fell on deaf ears. Twilight was suffering from too much pain to even look at her tomboyish friend. Her horn shot a barrage of magic lightning bolts, running amok at every speed and at every angle of the meadow, leaving Rainbow Dash to perform aerial stunts to avoid them and Fluttershy to cover. Her eyes, white and glowing as pure light, stared off into the great void, completely unaware of the newly created chaos she reeked among the lush green fields.
The objects fired in the range of Twilight’s lightning bolt were the first victims of the uncontrollable magic. The trees became giant pieces of peppermint candy canes. The stones from the top of the cliff levitated in Twilight’s aura, all shapes and sizes floating endlessly into the sky. The grass became a small circle of color-clashing diamond patterns.
Celestia knew what would happen if anypony was struck by Twilight’s magic.
Fluttershy cowered behind the magenta sphere, covering herself from the lightning with her mane pulled down over her face with her hooves. Harold could only back himself up to the walls of the magenta sphere, no way out and no way to avoid the lightning bolts. The aura’s hum was like a loud bass resounding harmfully in Harold’s eardrums and he covered his ears to protect his sensitive hearing against the noise.
Harold couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Somehow or rather, Twilight was feeling the “sense,” the same damnation that bothered Harold since the moment he learned Equestria’s name. However, the way Twilight exhibited the symptoms of the “sense” was completely different. With her magic more powerful as an alicorn than previously as a unicorn, Twilight’s “sense” became a dangerous force to be reckoned with. With her magic out of control, Twilight would not last until that little spark of life finally diminished for good.
“Just what in God’s name is going on here!?” Harold thought, barely heard himself think over the noise.
“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy squeaked from behind the sphere, jumping to a lightning bolt striking the ground next to her. A ladybug struck by the lightning grew to the size of a cab carriage. “This is terrible! It’s like living the moment when Twilight first lost control of her magic as a filly!”
“And I bet we know who’s responsible for this, don’t we, Mr. Hue-Man!?” Rainbow Dash shouted brashly, performing a loop-de-loop and a few barrel rolls, narrowly getting hit by the lightning bolts before she hovered a yard away from the sphere. “Now I can see why Princess Celestia considers you a threat!”
“Rainbow Dash, you leave him alone!” Fluttershy yelled back at the tomboyish pony. “I can’t believe what you’re doing to Harold, Dashie! All you do is point hooves at him and blame him for everything that happened today because he intended for all this to happen!”
Fluttershy paused for a moment as a worried thought ran across her head. “Umm...I mean you never meant for this to happen, right Harold?”
“What? Of course not!” Harold replied, exasperated. “This was an accident! An honest mistake! I swear, I would never do things on purp--!”
KSSSHH!!
“OH MY GOD!”
Harold’s rebuttal was rudely interrupted. Out of nowhere, a powerful lightning bolt struck through the sphere, creating a web of slowly-expanding cracks. The bolt only struck the sphere just above Harold’s head, but the weight of this scared-witless boy was too much for the fragile state of the sphere’s floor.
CRASH!
The sphere disintegrated, and its human prisoner fell on the grass with an “OOF!” Harold gasped for the sweet-tasting oxygen, feeling free from the intoxicating feeling of claustrophobia. After a few breaths of air, Harold chuckled lightly, feeling so relieved that he was finally out of the sphere for what seemed like days to him...if only two certain things hadn’t washed away this exciting feeling away.
First off, there was the serious matter of Twilight Sparkle. Her magic was on an unstoppable rampage and there was no cover against the magical lightning bolts. Then there was Rainbow Dash. She called out for his blood for humiliation and for somehow bringing harm to her friends.
“Oh my! Harold, are you alright?!” Fluttershy called out, rushing to Harold’s side worriedly. She helped lift him up from the ground by his arm. “You’re not hurt from the fall, are you!?”
“I’m okay, Fluttershy. I only fell an inch from the sphere,” Harold answered, slightly smiling. A lightning bolt zipped by and Harold was reeled back away by a reflex. “Whoa! Come on, we gotta go find cover somewhere! I don’t want anyone getting hurt!”
Harold turned to run to a safe distance from Twilight’s magical chaos. Then he met the angry raspberry eyes of Rainbow Dash, hovering just inches away from Harold’s scared blue eyes.
“Oh no you don’t! I’m not letting you take another step away from here unless you fix this mess of yours, pal!” Rainbow Dash chided, roughly poking the human in the chest until he tumbled onto his rear. “I knew there was something about you from the first time I saw you that didn’t seem right, and by Celestia, I was right! You planned this out from the beginning, haven’t you!?”
“Plan!? What are you talking about!?”
“What are you, dense as lead!? Look at what I’m talking about!” Rainbow Dash gestured a hoof towards the scene of chaos for Harold to see. Harold gasped lightly, now knowing the damage he’s accidentally created.
Overgrown cacti, houseplants and candy stood where trees used to stand. The stream of clear water was now a river of fizzy cola. The fish inhabiting the water puffed up like a helium balloon, wiggling their fins, desperately gasping for water. In the center of it all, Twilight began to wriggle slightly in her aura, causing her horn to shoot out a swarm of magenta beams. She looked like she was in a lot of pain.
And it was all Harold’s fault.
Harold looked down to the grass with his newfound guilt suddenly weighing him down. With this uneasy feeling giving him heartache, Harold said only one word. One word he regretted saying. One word that nearly sent Rainbow Dash flying up the wall.
“Oh.”
“‘Oh!?’ ‘Oh!?’ Is that all you have to say for yourself!? You create all of this chaos and the only thing you have to say is ‘oh!?’”
Rainbow Dash flew directly in Harold’s face, further intimidating the human. Harold inched himself backwards towards the river and the pegasus inched towards him at a similar pace. She was like a predatory animal, cornering its smaller, weak and defenseless before it made the big pounce.
“You come to Equestria, you stalk Fluttershy’s house, you damage my pride as Equestria’s Best Young Flier by crashing me into a tree and you let Twilight’s magic go haywire! And ‘oh’ is all that you can come up with!? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re a spy!”
Harold felt a familiar sense of fear coming form this unfriendly encounter with Rainbow Dash. It was the same feeling he experienced back on Earth, during all the times that Drake Singer and his boys backed him into a corner at school. He knew how this would go down and he needed someone to save him.
But this time, Lana was not here to save him and Harold knew perfectly well why.
Harold tightly gripped his locket, nearly breaking to the point of shedding tears.
“B-But... But I didn’t mean to... I... d-d-didn’t want this...”
“Oh, save it!” Rainbow Dash snapped, reeling her hoof back. “I’ve had enough of you and your lies!”
Rainbow Dash thrust her hoof towards Harold’s face. As if by instinct, Harold quickly shielded his visage with his hands, yelping distressfully as he expected yet another beating to happen. But the strike never happened. Harold peeked through his fingers and saw Fluttershy holding back Rainbow Dash’s attack. The gentle pegasus's face brimmed with sweat as she trembly held the striking hoof back with the full extent of her strength.
“Rainbow Dash, please stop! Violence is never gonna solve all of our problems!” Fluttershy grunted, her grip on Rainbow Dash beginning to break.
“Speak for yourself, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash replied brashly. “I’m gonna solve this problem before he does any more damage to anypony else!”
Fluttershy’s grip was nearly at its breaking point. Adding the sweat from the struggle of retaining Rainbow Dash’s hoof, it was only a matter of mere moments before the cyan pegasus gave Harold the beating of a lifetime. Harold whimpered, clutching his locket even tighter and covered his face with his other hand.
“Please, Rainbow Dash, don’t hurt him!” Fluttershy begged. “It wasn’t his fault that Twilight’s magic went out of control! This was an accident and you know it too!” Rainbow Dash looked to Fluttershy, still stewing in anger and denial as the yellow pegasus continued to keep her vise grip on the cyan hoof. “Please, Rainbow Dash. Don’t hurt him. I know you're angry with him, but you have to put it all aside! Twilight wouldn’t want you to hurt him and neither will I.”
With anger still taking hold, Rainbow Dash looked at Harold, his backside nearly over the edge of the stream. He kept one hand shielded over his face and the other hand on his locket. He was trembling and breathing shakily, tiny little sobs resounding from the cracks of his fingers.
Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight. There she was, Twilight floating in the aura, wriggling in intense pain. Beads of sweat dripped from the alicorn’s head down her face and evaporated into oblivion. A small tear formed at those burning bright white eyes and flowed down her cheek. She desperately wanted the pain to stop.
Then Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy, still holding back the raised hoof. Fluttershy’s face was saddened and scared, brimming with tears. She wanted Twilight’s pain gone too. Rainbow Dash turned back to Harold, who whimpered to tears underneath his hand. Even he wanted Twilight’s pain gone as well.
Rainbow Dash sighed sadly, lowering her hoof to her waist.
“Okay, Fluttershy. I won’t hurt him,” the tomboyish pegasus sighed. She turned to Harold, who uncovered his face after seeing her disarm her hoof. His eyes were still moistening from the fearful tears that leaked from his eyes, but he felt himself exhale slowly with relief. He was given the chance to live another moment today.
“But don’t think I’m not gonna take my eyes off of you for one split second,” Rainbow Dash stated, drawing her suspicious glower closer to Harold. “You may seem harmless right now, but you’re still that creature Princess Celestia warned us about. So if you as much as make a move on my friends, I’ll personally take you down. Capiche?”
Harold nodded his head.
“Good. Now what are we gonna do with--?”
“KYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH~!”
The two ponies and the human jumped to a shrill screeching noise. They knew whose voice it was and the amount of pain its owner was suffering from.
“Oh no! Twilight!” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy shouted in unison.
Twilight screamed a bloodcurdling scream before she flashed opened her white, glowing eyes. The aura began to quickly expand. The lightning bolts bulleted out to places beyond the meadow now: to the mountains, to the skies and towards the location of the two ponies and the human who took cover at the edge of the transmogrified stream.
In short, Twilight’s magic became uncontrollable, more so with every painful waking minute.
Even with Harold, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy huddled against the edge of the cola river, it would be a matter of those short minutes before Twilight’s magic lightning bolts would strike them all down, one by one. They could try and run away from the chaos, but it wouldn’t feel right leaving just Twilight behind to suffer. There was no way out of this situation, providing a miracle would come along and save them from a horrifying fate.
This also seemed unlikely.
“Poor Twilight. Just look at her,” Fluttershy whispered fearfully, curling up into a trembling ball. “She looks like she’s in absolute pain.”
“I know. Look at how much she’s struggling in there,” Rainbow Dash concurred, sharing the same worried feeling with her timid friend and the human she was still suspicious of. “It’s like she’s got a massive headache or something. If Twilight keeps creating this much chaos, then she may not live to see another day.”
Suddenly, something in Harold’s mind clicked.
“Headache... headache...”
“Oh. I just wish there was some way to help Twilight,” Fluttershy said.
“Help Twilight... headache... help Twilight’s headache!”
“THAT’S IT!”
Harold’s burst shocked both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy backwards and all three of them tumbled into the river of cola, just before a lightning bolt struck where they sat. Groping for the multicolored ledge, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Harold hoisted themselves onto the dry land, all soaked from head to toe in the sweet and sticky drink.
Rainbow Dash coughed the cola that seeped into her lungs and shook her self off to dry. Her wings were wet and sticky, so flying was made nearly impossible for her. “What’s...*cough, cough*...what’s the big idea, scaring me like that!?” the cyan pegasus sputtered to Harold, hacking out the cola from her lungs. “Now how am I supposed to fly with my wings all wet down and stuck down!?”
“Eh...sorry,” Harold stammered. “But I think I have an idea as to how we can save your princess friend. Fluttershy, do you still have some of that peppermint oil you used to cure my migraine with?” he asked the other pegasus, who also coughed out the fizzy drink, but with a more gentle volume.
“Y-Y-Yes...*cough*...Yes, Harold,” Fluttershy stammered, still shaken up from both Harold’s outburst and the dunk in the cola river. She reached back behind her pink, elongated mane and pulled out a familiar porcelain jar filled with the strong-scented peppermint oil she used on Harold’s forehead earlier today. She stashed it away for a special occasion just in case Harold’s migraine acted up again in the dungeons...if Harold was sent to the dungeons. That all depended on what Princess Celestia had to say first.
Harold took the jar from Fluttershy and clasped it gently with both hands on the round sides and an idealistic spark flaring inside. “This is it! This is how we can save your princess!” Harold stated, boggled by the sudden shock of his idea. “All we have to do is apply some of this oil where her head hurts and the pain will be gone! Simple as that!”
“Yeeeeeah, I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash replied skeptically. “I mean, how do we even know that using that stuff would help stop Twilight’s magic? We don’t even know if a dab of that oil would even work on alicorns with headaches!”
“No, but that’s a risk we have to take,” Harold responded, holding the jar of oil to Rainbow Dash. “Besides, I’m not sure if just a small dab of this fine peppermint oil would do the trick myself. That’s why I’m planning to throw it all over her head.”
“Ah, no, no, no, no. I’m not gonna let you get Twilight covered with that stuff.”
“Why not?” Harold looked at his arms spread out to his sides, then down at his shirt. “We’re wet, sticky and we smell like cola. It’s only fair that we cover her with this sweet stuff before her magic spreads out past the meadow.”
“Except, we have to get through that.” Rainbow Dash pointed her hoof out to the scene.
The barrage of lightning bolts doubled within minutes of the trio’s dwindling action. Two lightning bolts came crashing down near the three. One lightning bolt expanded the height of a small ladybug to the size of a Volkswagen. Unsheathing its wings, the once graceful ladybug rapidly fluttered its wings, sounding quite similar to the propellers of an old air plane. The gusts from the wingbeats nearly blew the three mammalians back into the cola stream as the ladybug hovered into the air and into the the blue skies.
The other lightning bolt struck a little white flower with a yellow center. The flower grew in size, to the size of a two-story house. It grew sharp, vicious teeth, dripping green liquid that puddled underneath its jagged orifice. The flower bellowed out a roar at the three, spraying them with the green substance that drenched them in a slimy, wet mess. The roar left the hair on their heads sticking out behind them and their eyes as wide as dinner saucers.
“That does it!” Rainbow Dash broke the silence, swiping the jar from Harold and hovering in the air. The ferocious flora’s roar must’ve dried the pegasus mares’ wings off. “We’re splashing this stuff on Twilight’s head before this whole situation gets a whole lot worse!”
Rainbow Dash took off towards the lightning storm. Her intention to save Twilight in the eye of the storm was potent, despite the sticky and unsafe shape her wings were in. The carnivorous plant roared again and lunged itself into Rainbow Dash’s direction. Harold and Fluttershy gasped in utter horror as the flower prepared to devour the cyan pegasus.
“Rainbow Dash, watch out!” Fluttershy shrieked.
Rainbow Dash turned just in time to see the shadow of the flower’s upper jaw loom over her. Narrowing her eyes, Rainbow Dash backed herself out from the darkness of the flower’s maw in a flash. Then, using her ability of supersonic speed, the cyan pegasus darted forwards and bucked the flower in the jaw, knocking it down backwards in one shot. As the flower laid crumpled on the multicolored grass, Rainbow Dash looked down at the plant with a smug smirk.
“Ha! Think you could make a meal out of me, Equestria’s Best Flyer and current Wonderbolt in-training!?” she yelled triumphantly at the beaten flora, proudly holding up the hoof with the jar of peppermint oil in it. “Well, too bad, you overgrown weed! You’re never gonna eat me, Rainbow Dash, Equestria’s fastest--!”
KZZZZZT!
“WHOA!”
A random lightning bolt zipped past Rainbow Dash’s head, just inches from the left shoulder and her cheek. The shocked reaction caused Rainbow Dash to flail with her arms...dropping the jar she so carelessly carried in her grasp. The jar flipped in the air, the lid fell off and the contents spilled all over.
Fluttershy gasped as the final hope for helping Twilight was falling to the ground. Without a second thought, the timid pegasus broke out of her shyness shell and dashed out into the field and straight into the storm. With desperation and bravery acting as the adrenaline coursing through her veins, Fluttershy ran straight through the bullets of bolts, ducking, jumping and even rolling to avoid getting struck and end up as part of the chaos. Her eyes were fixated on the jar which neared its landing on the ground.
Using all the strengths in her hind legs, Fluttershy jumped, hooves extended outwards to catch the jar. Harold’s breath was still; Rainbow Dash chewed on her hooftips nervously. Fluttershy dove onto the ground just as the jar fell down...and down...and down...right onto her forehooves. The jar landed upside, all of the oil contents spilled inside and was topped off with the lid. Ten points to Fluttershy for such an amazing catch.
Everyone sighed in relief. But then, a swarm of magic lightning bolts attacked Fluttershy, striking near and around the pegasus. Fluttershy darted off to her left with the jar held daintily in her jaws. A lightning bolt struck right in front of her, blocking her escape and caused her to yelp. Fluttershy turned tail and ran the opposite direction, only to be stopped by another lightning bolt strike. She turned and ran towards Harold’s direction, but once more, another lightning bolt prevented her escape. Fluttershy yelled out in fear and ducked down flat to the ground, both forehooves covering her head.
“Oh no! Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash yelled, dashing in to save her friend. Her attempts to dive for Fluttershy was unfortunately cut off by an onslaught of lightning bolts, making flight nearly impossible for her.
Harold watched on in shock as Fluttershy was stuck in the line of lightning bolts. He knew it was only a matter of seconds before a stray lightning bolt would strike Fluttershy and turn her into God knows what. If that happened, Harold would never pay her back in kindness for all that she’s done for him. There was no way he would let that happen to her!
Quickly getting on his feet, Harold ran straight into the lightning storm, screaming his head off. Running into the field of freaky lightning was truly a terrifying experience for Harold. He dodged off to the sides, rolled on the multicolored clash and ducked away in order to avoid being hit by the raw magical energy dispersed all over the meadow.
Miraculously, Harold found himself lying on the ground next to Fluttershy. He crawled over to the trembling pegasus, still clutching the jar of oil close to her. Without a second thought, Harold scooped her up in his arms and proceeded out of the lightning storm.
“Are you okay!?” Harold asked Fluttershy.
“Y-Y-Yes. I-I’m fine,” Fluttershy squeaked. “But we have to go back! We have to cure Twilight’s migraine!”
“Are you kidding me!?” Harold said loudly, his arms sore from carrying Fluttershy. “You almost got hit with those bolts! There’s no way we can go back without putting ourselves at risk of getting hit again!”
“I know, but this oil is all we have left to save Twilight!”
Harold gazed down to the jar. He heard the peppermint-scented liquid slosh around in its porcelain walls with every stride he took away from the storm...and away from curbing Twilight’s painful migraine. Harold groaned exhaustedly as his arms became intensely sore and beet red carrying Fluttershy. He skidded his running to a halt, turned tail and dashed back into the storm.
“Woof! For someone who flies gently in the air, Fluttershy doesn’t feel light,” Harold thought to himself, running in the lightning storm with Fluttershy in his weakening arms. The pattern was becoming familiar for Harold: run into a lightning storm, try and get the oil on Twilight’s aching head, retreat back out because the lightning storm suddenly became stronger. The two were on the home stretch to Twilight and sorting out the magical mayhem once and for all...
...But then, fate turned a cruel hand. A lightning bolt struck the ground in front of Harold, causing him to stumble around and trip over his shoe in shock. The stumbling sent Fluttershy soaring out of Harold’s arms with the oil jar still in her clutches. The two landed belly-first on the grass, nearly grazed by the low-riding lightning bolts.
Rainbow Dash gasped as she saw her timid friend get caught in the line of fire. “Hold on Fluttershy, I’m coming!” she shouted, taking a mad dive into the storm. The lightning bolts made flying extremely difficult for the cyan pegasus, but she was driven by the urge to save Fluttershy and end this madness.
As for Harold, his luck was changed for the worst. He staggered up on his sore arms and coughing what was left of the wind that was knocked out of him. An oncoming electric hum immediately caught his attention...and not in a good way. Harold turned his gaze and saw a lightning bolt flying directly towards him. He tried to scream, but there was no sound coming out of his mouth. He tried to move, but he was frozen in both fear and exhaustion.
This was finally the end of Harold DeMatt.
Time seemed to slow down. Slowly and inevitably, the lightning bolt was just mere inches away from directly hitting him in the face.
Then he felt a rough shove at his side, causing him to turn to his left. He looked in fright as he saw Fluttershy pushed him away from the path of the lightning bolt with a scared and deeply concerned look. With a split second and her final effort, Fluttershy pushed the jar of oil from her hooves and into Harold’s chest.
The lightning bolt struck Fluttershy.
In a flash of horrifying light, Harold saw the scared and valiant form of Fluttershy drop down hard on the grass. The Fluttershy he knew for only a little while and loved was gone. There was only a statue, a lifeless stone figure of a pegasus with a scared face and outstretched hooves. A desperate move for the sake of a friend’s life.
“FLUTTERSHY!” Rainbow Dash glided above the grass speed down the barrage of oncoming lightning bolts at jet speed. In all the pandemonium that took place, Rainbow Dash was too distraught to even notice the single lightning bolt that struck her side. The cyan pegasus yelped in sharp pain, then fell to the ground. She looked back at her sides and made a horrifying discovery.
Her wings were sent to oblivion.
“No.” The cyan ex-pegasus whimpered before she scrunched her face up in intense sadness. Sorrowful tears began to well up in her raspberry eyes. She squeezed them shut as she cantered off to the lifeless stone body of Fluttershy, sadly looming over it. “F-Fluttershy? Fluttershy?”
The stone pegasus said nothing.
Stone was stone; cold and lifeless.
Rainbow Dash turned her head away from the statue, her eyes squeezed shut and the tears running down her cheeks. Silently, she sobbed to the ground to mourn her fallen friend, Fluttershy. Fluttershy, the timid caretake of the animals of the forests; the pony who represented the Element of Kindness; the pony who became Rainbow Dash’s first true friend. Now she was nothing but a formed piece of rock.
Harold sat on the ground, still as Fluttershy’s stone body. The lightning bolts all zipped past him as he stared off into the abyss, his mind torn apart by the witnessing of Fluttershy’s passing. His arms creaked and shuddered as he placed them on both sides of his drooping, weighing head.
“Why Fluttershy? Why did you take that hit for me? Why did you save a nobody like me?? Why did you even help me??” Harold shook his head violently as memories of that dreadful day began to deluge in his mind. The day his sister died in front of his eyes and in his arms.
“No. No! This is not how I wanted to repay you, Fluttershy! I never came here for you to make me go through this again! I didn’t make it this far on my journey for you to die for me! Please, Fluttershy, you have to wake up! You have to! I want to learn more about Equestria! I want to learn how to be friends! You have to help me get back to Earth because there’s too much riding on my sister’s last wish! So please, Fluttershy, wake up! Wake up!! Wake up!!!”
Harold opened his mouth, sounding off tiny cries. In a fit of sadness and the memories of the worst day of his life overwhelming him, Harold shot his head backwards and bellowed out to the blue skies above.
“LANA!”
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Startin' to get reallll tired of how faggoty Harold's being over Lana.
2925011
Wow, you never lost anyone close to you, have you?
2925067 Believe it or not, I have. Both of my grandfathers, and a close friend.
Did he just call fluttershy by his sisters name?
Well, that was unexpected XD
2925069
Oh! Burn...
Wow... that's sad... I remember my grandmother dying and my other grandmother's sister dying when I was in kinder.
The ending of this chapter made me tear up
I actually lost my dog a year ago. We had her for as long as I can remember. I'm tearing up just thinking about her. It's horrible to lose someone you love.
It's funny when you're dogs die, I lost three last year ! ;p
Hello Ditzy.
Oh, also the planet is named Equus,
not Earth.