domain-of-friendship-blog - Tumblr blog

domain-of-friendship-blog · 6 years

Text

Episode 4-3

The long rays of the evening sun streamed in through Scarlet's window.

Curled up on her bed, she idly turned the pages of a book propped up against her pillow. She wasn't actually reading any of it; it was just something to do while she sat there, consumed by her thoughts.

Under different circumstances, she likely would have been more than happy to be here. Equestria was a fine place to live, all things considered - plenty to do, lots to see, and a great many wonderful people to meet.

But it wasn't home.

Home was something out of her reach now. She hadn't been willing to admit it to herself, but the work she had been doing with Twilight didn't feel like progress. They were learning a lot about teleportation, space folding, and even multiverse theory... but it just wasn't going where it needed to. Anytime it looked like they were close to a breakthrough, it would turn out to require something a million miles out of reach.

Plain teleportation was too obvious, of course. The amount of magic required increased exponentially with the distance traveled, and the distance separating realities themselves was theoretically infinite.

Why there was a book on wormholes in a small town library was anyone's guess, but that was no help either. The idea of creating one with a particular endpoint was laughable at best - not to mention it would take the combined power of twenty Princess Celestias just to stabilize it enough to travel through without being ripped apart by extradimensional forces.

What hurt the most was the complete lack of any clues explaining how they had been brought to this world to begin with; if it had been a spell of some sort, it would be a straightforward (if laborious) matter to reverse-engineer and redirect it.

Maybe...

Maybe there was a way to reason with Discord?

As distasteful as the idea sounded, even in her head, she couldn't bring herself to let go of it. The more she considered it, however, the less viable it seemed. They had returned him to his stone prison, and thus already done their worst; no threat would give them any leverage, now. She couldn't ask the princess to offer him his freedom as a bargaining chip either, as that would leave them in the very situation she had fought to prevent.

Scarlet heaved a noisy sigh and rolled onto her back. Was there a point to any of this? Learning more seemed almost counterproductive - instead of leading her closer and closer to an answer, all it served to do was show her a wide array of closed-off avenues, all the possibilities that weren't going to work.

"...let! Scarlet!"

A voice called to her from below the stairs. She ignored it, even as she knew that wouldn't make it go anyway. She just couldn't be bothered to care.

"Scar... let..." Spike panted as he climbed the last of the spiral stairs. "Come... quick..."

Scarlet sighed quietly, her gaze pointed at the ceiling but not really looking at it. "Unless this is urgent, I would like to be left alone."

"Just... gimme a sec..." Spike paused for a moment, leaning on the railing as he caught his breath.

That seemed a little strange. Why was he so winded? She sat up halfway to look at him. "Wait... Spike, is something the - "

"There's a monster!" Spike failed his arms. "A giant monster's in town, and it's got Twilight!"

Scarlet leapt instantly to her hooves and whirled around, the sudden movement knocking over her book. "Where? Where is it?"

"In - in front of the library!"

Scarlet leapt from the bed and snatched up Spike in her magic, placing him on her back. "Hold fast," she whispered.

Spike blinked. "Huh?"

A glow enveloped Scarlet's horn. Hardly a second later, in a flash of light, she and her passenger vanished from the bedroom and reappeared instantly in front of the library.

Slightly dizzy, Scarlet shook her head. "Ugh... does that have to be so disorienting...?"

"I, uh... I know what you mean..."

Spike toppled off Scarlet's back and landed in the dirt, his eyes unfocused and swirling.

"Oh dear," said Scarlet. "My apologies..."

In glancing down at him, however, she noticed the large shadow in which she now stood, and raised her gaze toward the figure casting it.

Backlit as it was by the setting sun, Scarlet couldn't make out most of its features, but she could tell several things about it immediately. One, it was distressingly large, nearly half the total volume of the library beside it. Two, the size of its limbs, head, and maw was no less distressing, giving it the appearance of a sort of mutated dragon. Three, the aforementioned maw held an occupant, a purple unicorn currently struggling for her life.

Scarlet gasped, staggering back in alarm. "Twilight!"

"Nngh...!" Try as she might, Twilight's panicked flailing did nothing to dislodge her from the monster's jaws. "Scarlet! It's - it's too strong, I can't - ugh..." She slipped an inch further. "It's too late! You need to... ugh... get out of here! Hurry!"

"No!" Scarlet yelled, shaking her head. "Hang on! I can still save you!"

"I can't, I... I'm slipping...!"

With a gasp, Twilight slid down the monster's gullet and out of sight, her terrified screaming soon swallowed up with the rest of her.

"TWILIGHT, NO!!"

Scarlet's blood went cold.

This couldn't be happening.

The monster wasn't even moving. Was it satisfied now? Had it eaten other ponies along the way, or was Twilight somehow its only target?

It didn't change much at that moment.

"You have made your last mistake, beast!" Ignoring the tears running down her face, Scarlet began to concentrate. She reared up on her hind legs, her horn lighting up in an ominous midnight blue.

"GIVE HER BACK!"

Her hooves struck the dirt. The ground shook.

High above Ponyville, several objects that hadn't been there a moment prior began plummeting. The meteors glowed, picking up speed as they fell toward their target. Just as they reached terminal velocity, they struck the monster one after another, tearing through its body like tissue paper and kicking up a cloud of dust and debris that obscured the remains.

Scarlet collapsed as the glow left her horn. In its place was a scorch mark that ran almost to the base. Reaching up with a trembling hoof, she rubbed her horn gingerly, wincing at the painful mana burn; that would be her last spell for at least a couple of days.

Climbing back up on all fours, she stared at the scene before her. A pile of shattered rocks and a cloud of dust was all she could see; there was no sign of the monster... or of her friend.

She took a step forward. "Twilight...?"

There was no reply.

She stepped forward again, her eyes scanning the rocky debris for any signs of life. "Twilight, are you alright? Please, say something... anything...!"

The tears continued to flow. She wasn't sure if they had ever stopped.

Slowly, the breeze blew the dust away to reveal a glowing hemisphere of magenta encapsulating a completely unscathed Twilight Sparkle.

"Whoo! That was a doozy," said Twilight, shaking her head as her shield dissipated. "You have got to teach me that one sometime. A spell like that could oof"

Twilight staggered a bit as a red missile shot toward her in the form of a thoroughly relieved Scarlet, who immediately wrapped her in a fierce hug.

"It's okay, Scarlet," breathed Twilight, gently stroking Scarlet's mane. "I'm fine. Everything is fine. You did it."

Scarlet slowly released her grip. "But... what was it I did, exactly? What was all that?"

Twilight smiled, pointing a hoof behind the library.

"Um, Twilight? I could use a little help..."

Pinkie Pie stood flanked by stacks of newspapers and an array of half-empty paint cans. Several pages of newspaper were stuck to her mane and body via globs of still-drying paste. She shook each leg one after the next in an attempt to dislodge some of them, but her efforts had no visible effect.

"The 'monster' was made of papier-mache," said Twilight. "I was never in any danger."

"Wh, but - yes, you were!" Scarlet scowled, glancing up at her scorched horn. "That was the most powerful spell I know. It could have killed you."

"And that was the most powerful shield I know." Twilight plucked a dusty, half-torn scroll from the debris and showed it to Scarlet. "I wrote it myself. I've got a good feel for how your spells work after all the testing we've done together, so I tuned it to protect against you specifically."

Scarlet stared at the scroll for a moment, her eyes narrowing as her gaze met Twilight's once more. "So then," she growled, "was this a prank?"

Twilight flinched. "No, no, of course not! I would never!"

"Then you have not answered my question," said Scarlet.

Twilight smiled, putting a hoof on Scarlet's chest. "It was a reminder of your real strength."

Scarlet blinked. "I... do not follow."

"Ooh! Is it time?"

Spike, who had been watching the scene unfold from a safe distance, ran up to the pair. A golden necklace with an empty gem setting glittered in his claws.

"I think it is, Spike," said Twilight. "Pinkie?"

"Just - oof - a minute! I need to - waugh!"

Her hind legs cemented together by a particularly persistent patch of paste, Pinkie's attempt to join the group was cut short when she lost her balance and flopped on her belly in the dirt.

With a giggle, Twilight fired a bolt of magic from her horn. All the paste and newspaper stuck to Pinkie dissolved. With a grin, she trotted up to the group.

"Now?" asked Spike.

Twilight nodded.

Grinning, Spike placed the necklace around Scarlet's collar. Scarlet gasped but said nothing, simply glancing between the three of them.

"Ever since we defeated Discord, I've felt like you were missing something, some aspect of you that was always there before... and it wasn't until I had the whole picture that I understood. There's a fire burning inside you, Scarlet - one that the coldest winds and the darkest nights can't extinguish... and by inspiring those around you to stand up for what they believe in no matter the odds, you light that same fire in our hearts as well." Twilight cleared her throat.

"Scarlet Starbeam, you represent the Element of Hope!"

Rays of light erupted from the empty setting in Scarlet's necklace. As they faded, a brilliant white jewel in the shape of a shooting star took their place.

For several seconds, all Scarlet could do was stand there, staring down at her collar. "I... but... er, that is... I, ah..."

Pinkie giggled. "Aww, she's speechless! That's so cute!"

Scarlet took a deep breath, wiping yet more tears from her face with her foreleg. "Goodness, but I have been doing so much crying of late..." She chuckled at that, in spite of herself.

"That's okay! Crying is good for you," said Pinkie. "It means you have too many feels built up inside, and you gotta get them out as quick as you can!"

"I suppose so." Scarlet's smile faded. "But... I do not understand. How can I have earned a symbol of hope, when my demeanor of several days now has been anything but hopeful?"

"Because you stood up and did the right thing when it really counted - you didn't hesitate to come to my rescue, even when you thought it was already too late," Twilight explained. "Bearing an Element isn't about being a flawless paragon of harmony all day, every day. We're only ponies, after all."

"A very important lesson, Twilight."

Three ponies and a dragon gasped as a tall figure approached them.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight immediately knelt before the princess, her companions following suit a second later.

Celestia smiled down at them. "Once again, I believe congratulations are in order - both to our newest Element bearer, and to my most faithful student - for a job well done all around."

Twilight's cheeks turned rosy. "I mean, I couldn't have done it without Pinkie Pie. And the rest of my friends, of course..."

Celestia nodded.

"I expect you will be wanting this, then?" asked Scarlet, her hoof resting on her necklace.

Celestia smirked. "I think that can wait until after your friends have had a chance to appreciate it, don't you?"

Scarlet lowered her hoof, beaming. "Thank you, Princess."

"Isn't this great, Twilight?" Pinkie nudged Twilight with her knee. "You finally finished your homework! You're free!"

Twilight frowned, her gaze drifting. "Yeah, great..."

Spike tilted his head. "What's wrong?"

"Um, nothing..." Twilight began slowly backing up, a nervous grin spreading across her face. "Hey, so I just remembered I really need to go, uh, sort my notes! It's, um, it's going to take me a good long while now, so don't wait up for me!"

"Twilight."

The voice of Princess Celestia brought Twilight to a halt.

"I am not here to bring you back to Canterlot, my student."

Twilight swallowed. "You're - you're not?"

"Of course not." With a gentle sweep of her wing, Celestia guided Twilight back to the group. "You've made such wonderful friends and learned so much in your time here. I wouldn't dream of taking that away from you."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "I was a little worried for a moment..."

Celestia turned to Scarlet. "And as for you..."

Scarlet tilted her head. "Yes, Princess?"

Celestia lowered her head until their horns touched, causing Scarlet to wince.

"Shhh," whispered Celestia. "Stay still. This won't hurt for long."

Celestia's horn took on its usual golden glow, which slowly spread to Scarlet's blackened horn. Gradually, the burn began to heal, returning to its usual bright red color. When she was finished, Celestia raised her head once more and smiled.

Scarlet rubbed her healed horn, her jaw slack. Lowering her hoof, she ran some magic through it, smiling as lit up in a bright sky blue glow with no pain or resistance in spite of her former injury.

"My word... Thank you very much, your highness."

"You are more than welcome, Scarlet." With that, Celestia turned to Pinkie. "Now then. I would say this calls for a celebration, wouldn't you?"

"You bet your patootie I would, Princess!" Pinkie grinned, revved up her hind legs until they were little more than circular blurs of motion, and took off in search of party supplies.

"I will remain here and help arrange things in the library," explained Celestia. "You three should gather the others and deliver the good news."

Twilight beamed. "Thank you, Princess!"

Scarlet nodded. "Of course, your highness."

Spike climbed up onto Twilight's back and saluted.

Celestia watched them gallop away. "Your hardest trials are yet to come, Twilight Sparkle... but I have no doubt that when the time comes, you will be more than prepared for them."

Episode 4 - End

Previous Chapter

To be continued on Fimfiction!

#mlp #mlpfim #mlp oc #my little pony friendship is magic #mlp fanfic #pony fanfic

0 notes