CHAPTER 19: The Aftermath
"You sure it's ok to just leave him like this?"
Hailstorm departed from Angel Island carrying only Seraphina. He was glad that there was a much lighter load, but he somewhat missed having the extra weight on board...
"His duty is to the jewel now," Sera stated. "He won't be going anywhere."
"Ok, I guess..." Hail looked away sadly. "But... what do we do now?"
"The only thing we can do," Sera answered. "We must consult the only friend who knows even a little about the jewels."
"Oh yeah... Twilight's bound to know something!" Hail said with renewed hope. "But it'll take us forever to get back to Ponyville..."
"Not with me on the case. Brace yourself."
"For wha- WHOA."
Hail's heart skipped a beat when the terrain below him changed from ocean to grassland in an instant. Looking ahead, he could make out the outlines of familiar buildings. Hail had experienced teleportation for the first time.
But something wasn't quite about the horizon... there was a dark fog covering the sky above the village. Hail flew closer, and he could see why... many of the buildings had been set on fire.
"..."
A team of pegasi zoomed out and about, transporting rainclouds over the burning buildings as quickly as possible. On the ground, unicorns loaded up ambulance carriages with injured ponies on stretchers as earth ponies drove them off to the clinic. But burns weren't the only injuries these ponies had sustained... many of them had nasty cuts and broken bones as well.
"What in Celestia's name happened here?" Hailstorm asked a passing pegasus mare.
"We were attacked!" she responded. "Giant turtles raided the village, and one of them breathed fire!"
"What? Why?" Hail continued in a panic.
"Who knows... but thankfully, nopony was killed... and only one pony remains unaccounted for."
Hail gulped. "W-who would that be?"
The pegasus glumly looked over at the area of town where the library used to be. "Twilight Sparkle." The two words that Hail would have given his left wing not to have heard. There was nothing left of the library but a smoldering pile of ashes and many half-burned books.
"This cannot possibly be a coincidence," noted Sera. "What about Twilight's dragon assistant? Is he all right?"
The pegasus blinked in response to Sera's voice in her head, but shook it off. "Why, yes... Spike is in the hospital right now... he wasn't seriously injured, but he was really shaken up."
"Hospital it is..." Hail wasn't looking forward to the sight of all those ponies in agony. "Thanks." He sped off to the busiest building in town.
Trying his best not to get in the way of the wounded ponies, he quickly asked around and was directed to a room on the ground floor. He entered the room and saw Spike, a tad blemished from the fires but otherwise healthy.
"S... Sera?" coughed Spike. "And... Hailstorm, was it?"
"Spike!" Hail practically pounced on Spike. "Oh man, it's so good to see you after what I just heard..."
"Ok, that's a little close," Spike complained, pushing him away. "I don't even know you that well."
"Sorry," Hail drew back sheepishly. "But um... about Twilight..."
"Oh man, it was terrible," the baby dragon recollected. "This big dragon turtle with a spiked green shell, two horns and fiery red hair... he came into town with this huge army of smaller non-dragon turtles, demanding to see Twilight and torching anypony who didn't talk..."
"That IS terrible..." Hail commented, cringing at the image.
"Any ideas where they might have taken Twilight?" asked Sera. "Or, who exactly they might be, or why they wanted Twilight in particular?"
"Beats me..." sighed Spike. "I've never seen anything like them before... not that I get out much..."
"We must be dealing with the denizens of a previously unencountered universe," concluded Sera. "If only Blah weren't in his trance, he would almost certainly recognize this turtle from the description."
Hail nodded. "...does Princess Celestia know about this?"
"Of course, I sent her a distress letter right away," Spike answered. "And she replied saying she was aware of the army before they reached Ponyville, and had already sent out a militia... which didn't return."
"Oh jeez," Hail reacted. "So, that's it, then...?"
Spike shook his head. "I don't know what'll happen next. Equestria's been peaceful and pacifistic for over a thousand years, or so Twilight's told me. We weren't exactly prepared for a war outta nowhere..."
The realizations were pelting him, ironically, like hailstones in a huge winter storm. There was no way to tell what this new faction's goals were, or if they would even stop with Twilight, but Equestria could fall at the drop of a hat. With Blah out of the picture, there wasn't much they could do to prevent it if they intended to take over their entire land...
"Aha, I had a feelin' y'all would be in here."
Applejack entered the room, her attitude serious as a church. "I was in Blahtown when those turtles attacked, and by the time I heard about it, I was too late. But if there's still somethin' I can do, I sure as sugar ain't gonna sit around no more!" She looked between Hail, Sera, and Spike. "Hang on, where's Blah...?"
"A different, yet most likely related incident," Sera stated. "He was put under a spell of some kind, and is stuck stubbornly guarding an ancient jewel. Twilight is the only one with any knowledge about the situation."
"That does sound mighty suspicious," Applejack agreed. "Well, anyway, another human showed up here not too long ago. I kinda hoped Blah would be here to meet him, maybe make some sense outta this mess, but we're short on time as it is..."
"R-right..." Hail muttered. "Let's go, then..."
The three turned around to leave the hospital room, but were interrupted by a hasty "Hey, wait up!" Spike had sat up in his bed, brushing himself off. "I wanna find out what happened to Twilight just as much as you guys!"
"Er, it might be dangerous..." Hail denied. "You saw what they did to the town... to Twilight..."
"Shoot, he can at least tag along to hear what this fella has to say," Applejack retorted. "Come along, sugarcube."
Hail sighed as the earth pony allowed Spike to mount her and the foursome headed out of the hospital.
The town was mostly calmed down now, as the buildings were sufficiently doused and the wounded had been safely taken care of. A small group of healthy ponies had gathered around the center of town, around a tall figure whose green hat poked up above the heads of the equines.
"I can't-a believe even he would hurt-a such an innocent village... full of harmless, colorful ponies... he must really have-a no heart."
Hailstorm and Applejack nudged their way into the crowd to see a lean, mustachioed, green-suited man in blue overalls. His green hat had the letter L on the front. He sat on the corner of the well, looking disappointed and mournful.
"Well, it could have been worse..." one of the crowd-goers said in an attempt to cheer him up.
"I don't even want-a to think about how it could've been-a worse..." replied the green human. "That-a Bowser's always done evil things, but this takes-a the cake..."
"So this 'Bowser' was behind the attack?" Sera projected. "What else can you tell us about him?"
The man timidly looked up, startled by the voice in his head as per the standard reaction, and saw Sera on Hail's back. "Um... he calls himself the Koopa King, and he has a castle on the edge of the Mushroom-a Kingdom." He glanced towards the edge of town. "We heard that he and his Koopa army was on-a the move, shortly after he kidnapped the Princess, so me and my brother Mario split up. He went-a to Bowser's castle, and I, Luigi, went after the army... and here-a I am..."
Sera did a few quick calculations in her head, borrowing some information from Luigi. The Mushroom Kingdom was a ways to the northeast, and on the edge of which was the location of another Jewel of Universe.
"Now wait just an apple-pickin' minute," Applejack cut in. "You say Bowser kidnapped the princess? You don't mean Princess Celestia, do ya?"
"Who?" Luigi asked. "No, Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser always tries-a to kidnap her for some reason, but Mario and I usually stop him. THIS time, however... he had-a some help."
"What kind of help?" Sera continued.
"It was a creature I had never-a seen before... a floating, yellow, triangle-shaped... thing, with two blue arms and a plain, unmoving face... it's incredibly fast and strong-a."
Members of the crowd exchanged glances. It didn't sound familiar to any of them, either.
"I don't know if Mario can handle-a this all by himself... he's done some amazing things in-a the past, but I'm always worried something might-a happen to him... and then what'll happen to Princess Peach, and-a the innocent ponies?"
Luigi's voice was starting to falter, and tears formed in his eyes.
Of all of the ponies in the crowd, Hailstorm felt Luigi's sadness and worry the most. He, too, worried - about Twilight, and Blah. 'But, where does worrying get you?' thought Hail. 'If you're that concerned, you gotta do something about it!'
"Luigi..." Hail finally spoke, after too long of a silence, "There's no need for any of us to sit around and worry, because we are going to march to Bowser's castle ourselves, help Mario defeat him and his accomplice and rescue Princess Peach and Twilight Sparkle!"
The entire crowd, let alone Luigi, was impressed by Hail's firmness and sincerity. Luigi looked up, and determination washed over his face. "You're right! Mario doesn't have-a to be alone, because he's-a got me! Us!"
"Now we're talkin'!" Applejack cheered.
"And then, perhaps we can find some answers..." Sera thought.
"Well, let's not waste any more time! To Bowser's castle!" Hail cried, rearing up and ready to charge.
"I guess this is the end of the line for me, huh?" Spike said to Applejack.
"I'm afraid so, sugarcube. Ponyville needs a way to keep in touch with Princess Celestia, after all."
"Got it..." Spike dismounted. "Just... please bring back Twilight safe and sound, ok?"
"You can bet your bottom bit we'll do just that," Applejack promised. She looked over at Luigi, who was already glancing at her nervously. "...Go ahead. Hop on."
"R-really?" Luigi said with brightened eyes.
"The sooner we get to the castle, the better," she nodded.
Hesitating for a moment and no longer, Luigi jumped on her back, and the party of four sped off into the fields.
"I can't believe it! I can't believe that I let that... MONKEY get to me!"
Knuckles slammed the table next to the bed, which shattered under his fist. "Ow..."
"Knuckles..." Sonic sighed. "You did your best. Nobody's perfect, ya know? You'll get the Master Emerald back, you just need to rest first."
"You don't understand!" shouted Knuckles. "Angel Island was all I had! And after all this time, I thought I was the only Echidna left, but the moment I find out otherwise, some chump steals it all away! Who knows what he's doing to my island, my legacy, as we speak!"
"It'll still be there when you recover..." Tails reassured him. "It's an ISLAND, after all. And even if he breaks the Master Emerald, you can always put it back together again. It's nothing we haven't been able to handle before."
"Yeah, we'll always be there for ya, Knux," Sonic added.
"I know, I know..." Knuckles took a deep breath and cooled down a bit. "For now, I just... need some time alone..."
"Sure thing, buddy," Sonic said. "Come on, let's let the guy have some peace and quiet."
Sonic, Tails, and Amy filed out of the room, leaving Knuckles alone with his thoughts.
As soon as they closed the door, there came a stern feminine voice from above them.
"I hear Blah took over Angel Island..."
The gang looked up in time to see a figure jump gracefully from the roof down in front of them. Sonic blinked at the eavesdropping girl, and her face brought about a feeling of deja vu. Her appearance matched the description of one that they had been told about very recently.
"...Are you the girl Blah helped out of Metropolis?" Sonic guessed.
The girl nodded. "The name's Astra, to be precise. When I first encountered Blah... he didn't exactly strike me as the island-hustling type."
"First impressions aren't usually very accurate," Tails shrugged.
"She has a point though..." Amy said. "When he was fighting Knuckles, I saw... something in his eyes. It was like he was a completely different person than the one we met at the Food Palace."
"Aha, I knew it..." Astra continued. She paused for a moment. "...I feel like maybe I can talk some sense into him. I'll need transportation to the island, if you wouldn't mind."
Sonic raised an eyebrow. He had the slightest feeling that she might have been hiding something. "How do we know we can trust you? The last stranger we trusted went on to exploit a friend of ours' weakness and then steal an island from him."
"Because, I happen to know about the Jewels that started this whole mess... and also, who's controlling him."