Chapter 4: Awaken
Come on! Come on! Come on! Is this the best you got?! Stark parried and narrowly blocked each ferocious blow from his hollow. He was on the losing side of this match, sporting a number of nasty wounds he'd have to deal with in the real world.
"You and I know this isn't," his breath caught as his right foreleg received a deep cut, "this isn't the most ideal form to be stuck in." Deep inside the void of his Inner World, Stark and Change fought. Change, of course, wasn't limited to an equine form, using the full range of his combative skills. Both wielded Kusari's blade, Stark's pommel adapting to his new form. Small chain lengths wrapped around his foreleg and hoof, securing the blade to him. With a thought, Kusari would respond and shift the chains allowing the blade to move however Stark deemed fit. It was by far no hand, but it worked well enough.
Well enough being not even close for his more savage, humanoid double. His blade was Stark's double, only the colors inverting. Stark wielded what could only be described as bright, platinum chain-blade; the guard and hilt a deep crimson. The chain wrapped his foreleg matched the blade.
For Change, the chain-blade had an air of death with the crimson lengths while the platinum hilt never dirtied as if saying he'd never be touched. The first time seeing Change hold Kusari's blade made him feel dirty. It wasn't his power to hold. Perhaps that was why could use it better.
"Bind!" With a swing of his blade, the chain extended, fully intending wrapping and burying deep into the enemy fiercer than any cobra. It was a split second, but Stark saw the grin forming on his double's face before speeding away with Sonido. Just out of reach of his extended blade, Change reappeared, his hand extended in a very familiar way.
Cero! Much like the Bala Stark used against Nightmare, the much more powerful stream of Reiatsu burned toward him in all its hazel glory. Retracting Kusari, Stark didn't have time to dodge. Well, two could play it that way.
"Bakudō number thirty-nine," placing his left foreleg against his blade, he channeled his Reiatsu, "Enkōsen!" A large plate of Reiatsu formed in front of Stark just in time for the Cero to slam into it. The Hadō actually cracked at the strength pounding into it, letting licks of hazel spiritual energy through. Gritting his teeth, Stark knew it was going to be a test of endurance. He couldn't move a muscle, and Change wouldn't let up. The only positive was that he wasn't actually wasting any Reiryoku since they were in his Inner World.
That's enough for now you too. Stark let out a sigh as the force on his Bakudō faded. He would had sworn he heard Change tsk in disappointment as Kusari approached, he arms folded under her bosom. You're getting better. Stark snorted, holding out his forelegs so she could see just how well he 'improved'.
"Doesn't feel like it." If Change really wanted too, he could had made ribbons of him like this. To be fair, with as many cuts he had, he felt like Change wanted to make that point obvious.
Today you actually wielded me. You couldn't even do that yesterday. Stark visibly flinched. Out of everything that happened yesterday, the pained, disappointed look Kusari gave after failing to wield her blade hurt the most. Stop blaming yourself child, I'm not mad at you. Sitting on her knees, she wrapped her arms around his neck. You are strong and I'll always be proud to be your partner. Stark didn't quite know how to return Kusari's affection in this form, but he settled on a single hoof hug. Even if Stark never admitted it, Kusari was more like a mom to him than his Zanpakutō.
Blah. How long are you going to make me watch this? Reluctantly, Kusari broke the hug, glaring at his other half. What? You wanna go? Stark took a step forward, a fire burning in his gut. Now that's the feeling I'm talking about. Harden up so we don't have to deal with these piss ants hurting us anymore than they have. With his final piece said, Change vanished, leaving the other two alone.
I can't help but agree that we've already been hurt once. It's fresh, we all feel it. You should stop running and confront it. Then we can move on and maybe ever return to where we belong. With her piece said, she vanished like Change. With those two bringing it up, his heart ached and memories swarmed him. They were good memories, fun memories, more than he ever imagine, but they were fake. He didn't know how she could do that to him: to tell him nearly two years of love was a lie.
"Gah! Fuck it! It doesn't matter anyway." Pushing the blistering thoughts back down, he began wondering what to do. This new form was still nowhere near ready to open a Garganta strong enough to reach Hueco Mundo. He could keep training, but he did make a promise. Luna would need to be dealt with before he left. That would be just about as fun as shoving a searing pick through his eye.
Whispers. Murmurs. She didn't know when they started, but she wished they'd stop. Her head was pounding and her eyes were crusted shut. A grunt escaped her lips as her head lolled about. They stopped; the noise was gone. Thank Celestia.
"Twilight? Twi, you awake?" Why did they have to yell? Didn't they know her head was killing her? What made it hurt so badly in the first place? She couldn't remember a thing. Wait, did she get drunk? She had read enough books on what too much alcohol could do and this matched up pretty – ouch, okay enough thinking. Opening her eyes, the searing light made the task nearly impossible. "She's awake! Rare's get a nurse!"
"I got it!" Her ears folded, afraid the screeching voices would cause her brain to leak out. Now her stomach felt upset. If this was a hangover, she'd never touch another alcoholic beverage again.
"Thank you Pinkie." Lifting her hooves to block the light, her eyes finally caught different colored blurs. "Darling, are you okay? Is there something you need?"
"Quiet. Head hurt." The colors registered in her head enough to know the ponies: orange and white. A yellow one looked to be coming closer too. Good enough. The light was making her head split ever further. She covered her eyes with her forelegs, relishing in the slight relief. "What happened?" She was curious, but she wasn't upset none of them answered right away. The more quiet the better.
"Do–do you remember anything?" Fluttershy, even her nearly inaudible voice scraped against her eardrums. Taking a deep breath, she tried to recall the events. She had come to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Festival. She talked to many of the ponies about the event, most of them quite odd. By the time festival was about to begin, Princess Celestia didn't show up. It was–it was another Alicorn.
Nightmare Moon.
Everything flood back to her. The Everfree, Manticore, cliff, sea serpent, bridge, everything. She remembered the Elements didn't work and–she couldn't breathe. The pain, the searing agony, the desire to save everypony with her. She ignored the pain in her head, opening her eyes to look at the three ponies in her room. They all looked haggard and exhausted, but held a small relieved smile. The room didn't look familiar, but she was obviously hurt. A hospital then. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, where were they? They're okay, right?
"What happened after the Elements failed? I–I used a shield spell, but that's it. Everypony's okay, right?" Their smiles drooped. No, it couldn't be. It failed, she failed. Everything was her fault, all of it.
"Don't worry about Pinkie dear. She just went to fetch a doctor." Relief flood her. Celestia couldn't be thanked enough for that. But, wait, what about– "Rainbow Dash, um, I–I don't know what to say." Rarity was starting to cry. No. No! No! No!
"Rainbow, she saved us after ya passed out. Rarity thought ya were hurt pretty bad, so we had ta get ya ta the hospital. Rainbow stayed back ta distract that evil Alicorn." Twilight's brain ran a mile a second, the pain all but forgotten. It would be almost impossible to fight Nightmare Moon after just using the Elements. She remembered feeling exhausted, barely able to move after using them. Rainbow had to be feeling some of those affects herself. Even at her best, facing an Alicorn head on was suicidal.
"It wasn't long after we arrived that Rainbow Dash was brought in." Fluttershy's voice was cracking. Twilight knew it wasn't good news. "They had to bring her to the ER. She–she." It was at that moment Pinkie charged back into the room. Her forelegs dug into the floor as she tried to stop, but instead ended up flipping herself a number of times before slamming into the back wall, her butt sticking straight up. Pinkie being Pinkie, gave a huge smile from the floor.
"Hiya Twilight! I'm so happy you're awake!" The crash Pinkie made folded Twilight's ears as the pounding in her head doubled. Followed behind, a nurse and doctor had followed. The white Earth Pony nurse looked to be forcing a smile. The Earth Pony stallion, however.
"I'm Dr. Horse. Unfortunately, I'm your doctor." Dr. Horse wore quite the sarcastic smile. The nurse nudged him with her foreleg. "What?" Looking back at her, the doctor continued. "Now, I'm going to ask you a question. Answer honestly." Off-put by the doctor, Twilight nodded. "Are you stupid?" It took a second to register the actual question.
"Um, no?" Twilight still wasn't sure why the doctor would ask her something like that. She was the most learned pony around in her own opinion. Maybe not in the medical field to be, say, a doctor, but she had read all about the equine body.
"Now hold yer tongue buster. What gives ya the right ta walk in and insult ma friend like that?" Applejack was heated about the insult. By the looks, the other three were on the verge of saying something too if Applejack hadn't first.
"See nurse Redheart, all patients lie." He commented with a dramatic eye roll. "If you weren't stupid, you'd never ran off to fight an Alicorn."
"What?" The seriousness to his tone nearly made her reel back. "If I–If we didn't do it, then Equestria would have been stuck in darkness forever! She had to be stopped!" How could somepony be upset about her selfless actions? Her new friends, they all threw everything they had to save Equestria.
"And how did that work? Four of you came back smelling worse than my nurse's litterbox, and the other two nearly died. Great job." Twilight felt her heart get stabbed by only one little word. Two. She wasn't the only one who almost died. In fairness, all of them nearly did. But right now, only five of them were in the room. That only left one other pony. She was about to ask when the doctor looked to his nurse. "And yes, that was a total quip about your cooch."
"Eep!"
The pure unprofessionalism behind this doctor was unbelievable. She didn't have the words to express it, but the nurse retaliated quite well. With a quick smack with her hoof, she left the room.
"You–You uncouth brute. How could you ever–" The doctor completely ignored her as he limped toward Twilight's bed. He didn't look upset about the slap in the slightest.
"I don't know what you were thinking and I don't really care either. If you weren't stupid, then you'd know there is a fine line between bravery and suicidal. Each one of you nearly took that jump. Your other friend might as well have." Too stunned to even mutter a word, the stallion reached out and grabbed her horn, jerking her head left and right then up and down. "No feeling. Because of your actions, you just lost your magic." With his final diagnosis, he ignored them all as he limped out of the room. Twilight realized what the doctor had done. It was an aggressive method to check, but it was quick. Any other time, touching another's horn, let alone jerking it about, would cause an involuntary reaction at best. A spark, a flame, something to get their horn free. Hers didn't do a thing. She could feel her breathing pick up. Her headache was all but forgotten as she pillaged her being for a spark of magic, anything. There was nothing. Her horn was nothing more than an ornament now. And that scared her.
"Shh, it's going to be okay. Just breathe Twilight, we're here for you." The feeling of Fluttershy's warm embraced eased her a margin. One by one, the others joined her, snuggling close to her.
"What happened to Rainbow Dash?" Twilight felt her friends tighten around her. This wasn't going to be good.
Stark had just exited Jinzen. His everything hurt. As he stood on his shaky legs, he couldn't help but sigh at the stain his injuries left in the grass. He was glad he took his training outside and into the open field on the outskirts of town. If anyone had saw him, especially witnessing an injury happen, they'd think he was being attack by ghosts. He didn't miss the irony either. Still, he wasn't at his best, but he had enough Reiryoku to stem the bleeding. Yeah, at current pace, it would be another few days before his Reiryoku fully recovered. Even then, his body wasn't used to the full power of his Reiatsu, so that would take even more time.
"Hey, have you seen Twilight. Purple unicorn, stands yay tall?" Stark took the few moments to watch what he could only describe as a bipedal lizard talking to the ponies with a rushed expression. He didn't look like he was having a good time. The unicorn shook her head before the little thing ran up to him. "You! Have you seen Twilight? Purple unicorn, stands yay tall?" He watched the little guy stand on his tiptoes. Even so, it did match the pony he met in the hospital.
"The pony who went to fight Nightmare with her friends?" His face lit up, shaking his head frantically. He didn't know who–or what really–this little guy was to Twilight, but he looked upset. "Yeah. I'm going to see them now actually. They're at the hospital."
"Hospital? Hold on Twilight, I'm coming." To see the little guy try and run was adorable as much as he hated to admit it. The fact that he was running in the wrong way was also kind of funny.
"Wrong way. You should follow me." The little lizard stopped in his tracks before looking over his shoulder. Just as quickly, he ran back to Stark's side. As Stark began to lead the way, he felt little claws dig into this back before a weight set on him. It wasn't anything, barely even noticeable, but he still glared up toward his unwarranted passenger.
"Um, sorry." His little faced flushed. "Twilight told me I shouldn't jump on other's back so freely." Sighing, he started heading toward the hospital. In retrospect, this was the fastest way, even with him just walking at his casual pace. "So, how do you know the others? I don't remember seeing you during the party."
"Pinkie found me in the forest during the Nightmare fiasco." Stark had been doing some thinking and found that keeping his particular skillset secret was the safest move. For now, the less who knew the truth the better. "The names Stark Change."
"Makes about as much sense as everything else." Spike huffed on his back. "I just woke up not long ago to find the sun out, but Twilight wasn't back. How long has it been since it came back up?" Stark pondered the idea. It had been about five hours or so. At best, he only managed a few hours sleep before getting restless. "Oh, uh, I'm spike by the way."
"Five, maybe six hours at the most. Last I saw, Twilight was still asleep so she may not be awake yet." The hospital was in sight and Stark was beginning to get a feeling of foreboding.
"I bet Twilight and the others mopped the floor with Nightmare Moon. I wouldn't doubt if Twilight sent her right back to the moon." Stark couldn't help but feel bad for the little guy. He had to be a young, uh, whatever. Twilight must be his adopted mother or something.
"Spike, before we go in, you should know something very important." Stopping, he looked at the kid on his back. That's all he could see when he looked into his slit eyes. "Twilight went through a bad ordeal. From what I know, she lost her Rei–err, magic. Be mindful of that, okay." The poor kid, he wasn't quite ready for that. His eyes widened and his claws dug a little harder into his back. He couldn't blame him. "Alright, let's head in."
Twilight couldn't believe it. Her friends bared her the bad news. Rainbow Dash, the prismatic, flight-loving Pegasus of the group was utterly mutilated by Nightmare Moon. She was alive, somehow, but how could she live? The crippling realization of losing her magic wasn't a candle match to this. This–This was her fault. There was no way, even if she had her magic, to make this better.
Then there was that stallion Pinkie spoke highly of. An Earth Pony, lost in the Everfree Forest, had come to Rainbow's rescue and defeated Nightmare Moon. That couldn't have been possible. The very artifacts designed to stop evil failed. Even the strongest Earth Pony likely wouldn't even be able to scratch an Alicorn.
But the proof was in the sky. The sun was out, setting normally now. That would be scary for a while: the fear the sun wouldn't rise the following morning. And what of Princess Celestia? Was she back now? She had to be with the sun in the sky. Then what was she doing? Could she help her, help Rainbow Dash? She hoped so.
She was pulled from her thoughts as a knock came from the door. It was likely the girls. They went to grab a bite to eat, her meal already finished. "Come in." The door swung open than she expected as an unfamiliar face greeted her. What caught her attention more was the small dragon run toward her. She instinctively reached for him with her magic, wanting nothing more than to hug the stuffing out of him. Her gut sunk as nothing happened, a brutal reminder of her burnout.
Spike hopped up onto her bed, both hugging the other tightly. She was so happy he was safe and sound. Tears streaked her cheek as she pulled him tighter. "I missed you Twilight. I'm so glad you're okay. I promise I'll help you even more around the library. You–You can count on me to be there Twilight." Her heart melted; her throat choking back a sob.
"Thank you Spike." He knew somehow that she lost her magic, but knowing he'd be there for her really helped. Baby dragon or no, it meant the world to her.
She wasn't sure how long she stayed like that, but she recalled a stallion at the door. Said stallion wasn't there anymore though. "Spike, who brought you here?" Backing off toward the side of the bed, he looked at the door too.
"Well, Stark did. He came to see how you were doing. Weird he just kind of left like that." Twilight smiled. She had to thank the stallion for giving her and Spike some privacy.
"Do you think you can go find him for me? I want to meet him." Spike gave her a quick salute before jumping off her bed and racing off. She was beginning to get tired. She'd been out of it off and on since she first woke up. As she closed her eyes, it felt like only a second before she heard another knock.
"Sorry Twilight. I didn't think it'd be so hard to find him." She opened her eyes to see a large Earth Pony with brown fur and hazel eyes. His mane and tail were shorter than most, a red tint differentiating between his fur. He looked strong, but how in the seven pits of Tartarus could be beat an Alicorn.
"Hello Twilight. My name is Stark Change. You're awake, that's good." She nodded, not exactly knowing what the stallion wanted. She didn't want to be rude, and in part, she did have him to thank, she guessed.
"Y–yeah. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I heard you saved us from Nightmare Moon." It was minuet, but she noticed a frown on his face. She couldn't help but wonder what that meant.
"As far as I'm concerned, your friends saved you. As for your other friend, I just so happened to find and carry her back to safety." That–That didn't add up at all. The others told her that Nightmare was defeated and Princess Luna was saved. What was going on!?
"But, that doesn't make any sense! My friends told me you beat her and saved Princess Luna." Stark let out a sigh, taking a seat on the floor. What is this stallion up to? She couldn't help but glare at the stallion.
"Yes, I fought Nightmare Moon and recovered Rainbow Dash. Lu–Princess Luna also walked back with me before another Alicorn appeared and took her away." That poked her interest and relieved her more than she even knew. Princess Celestia was back. It was likely only a matter of time before she arrived to talk to her about everything, or, at the very least, send her a letter.
"But I think it might be better to say you and your friends stopped this Nightmare. There would be too many questions on how a lone pony defeated an Alicorn." She agreed with that. She was one of them that likely held the most questions about it. "It would be easier to believe a group of six ponies, two nearly giving their life, were the ones who saved the day."
"But that's not true." She debated fervently. "You did it, right. How did you do it?" The very Elements of Harmony couldn't do it, so she was extremely curious how he managed.
"See, that's a question numerous others will ask. The only fact you need to know was that I got lucky. She was tired and weak. It gave me enough room to knock her out and give Princess Luna control of her facilities." Luck, this stallion was going to claim he just got lucky? He was right about one thing: Nightmare Moon was likely very exhausted. Enough so that a single Earth Pony could knock her out? Doubtful at best.
"I wish this was just a bad dream." She meant to only think it, but her thoughts escaped her lips. Spike crawled back into her bed and snuggled into her. The stallion gave a light nod. "It's–it's going to take a lot of time to get used to having no magic. I relied so much on it as a filly, and now, it's gone."
"Yeah. Being separated from a part of yourself is crushing." She looked at the stallion, wondering how he knew what she was feeling. He didn't speak further, however.
"Do you know what hurts the most right now?" She looked the stallion in the eyes. She hated this feeling; it tore deeply into her. "Knowing it's my fault. If it was just my magic, I'd be sad, depressed even." As she sniffled, she noticed Stark shift awkwardly. Still, she just had to say it. "But knowing I took Rainbow's life from her, knowing she'd never flight, never even walk again. How do I deal with that?" She was crying hardily now. Her heart ached more than her horn ever did. "I–I wish I could just give Rainbow her life back."
Stark didn't know what to say. His heart went out to the sobbing pony before him. The guilt, he felt, would destroy this pony well before depression. What could he say? The amount of injuries the pony had, she'd never recover. Someone would need to look after her for the rest of her life.
Alright fuck face. Stop wracking your little brain about this shit. Stupid people do stupid things and have to deal with the stupid consequences. You know that from experience. Stark didn't dignify that with a response. He didn't have a clue on how he could help either of them.
Anything that could work would be dangerous and life threatening for all of us. Even trying to take steps to help them would be a bad idea. It wasn't often that Kusari agreed with Change. He had to remember his moto: There are always sacrifices for victories, but some victories aren't worth the sacrifices. Stark knew, even without an idea, if he wanted these ponies to have such a huge victory, it would take a huge sacrifice. For now, he'd think on it. If he came up with something that wouldn't hurt him, he'd let them decide.
