Chapter 79 – A Touch of Magic

She hurt everywhere, but at least she knew she was alive. The moment she could feel her mind start up again, the pain was agonizing. Rainbow Dash tried opening her eyes, the light blinding, or at least she thought it was. She tried again, this time, with no pain in her eyes. She hurt everywhere else, but not from this light. She knew it was bright, but it didn't hurt. 'Where am I' she asked herself, then she thought, 'Am I dead? No, if I were dead, I wouldn't be feeling like I just slammed into the side of a mountain from a poorly executed trick.' She grunted out loud, trying to move, 'I can't move.' she noticed, 'Hurts too much. But, at least it's warm.' she let herself relax, the pain faded a bit thanks to this, 'I hope I'm safe at least, no telling what creatures are out here.' The light seemed to be everywhere, she could only use her eyes to look around, 'I hope they find me soon; I could really some help.'

In the garage, the entire group was in shock, some gritting their teeth in anger and Pinkie Pie crying as Piks' family all comforted her. Twilight stood at the console; her eyes unblinking as the disbelief kept her stunned. "Twilight?" Applejack asked solemnly. The purple alicorn turned slowly to her, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, "You…alright?" she asked, her hat in her hooves and her voice gentle.

"This can't be right?" Twilight asked, "Rainbow Dash can't be…"

"Now." Applejack said quickly but with reverence, "We don't know nothin yet, we gotta see what the officials say first."

"But how?" Pilit followed up, "How did they get the spear?" she then turned to the others, tears in her eyes that had been silently falling staining her cheeks, "The spear WE found, the spear WE handed over to the council? How did something Lady Kiane promise to use only for helping the public turn into a deadly weapon used to KILL our FRIENDS?" she was about to be stopped by Applejack, but she started to sob from the silent tears, "How could something like this happen? WHY did it happen?" she sat down hard onto the stone floor, the tears now cascading down her cheeks as she let the thought out, "What do we do now?"

Writch quickly knelt down, wrapping her arms around Pilit and dragging the startled alicorn into the hug as well, "It's not your fault." was all she said and squeezed them gently. Twilight and Pilit both sat there, letting the words sink in, right before they started crying altogether into the arms of the female mechanic.

Applejack could feel the tears as well, but instead shook her head and turned to Blade and placed her hat back onto her head, "She's got a good question." she whispered to the stallion, "What do we do now?"

The stallion looked to the floor, he had known this pain before, not just when Shy was killed but also when those who called him friend sacrificed themselves to protect his brother and him, friends he would never again be able to enjoy the company of. Though, knowing the pain didn't make it any easier to bear. Fluttershy had her wings wrapped around him, tears of her own now stalled as the two mares waited on his answer. "I don't know." was all he said, and gently squeezed the yellow pegasus for some form of comfort. He was out of answers, and he hated that feeling.

It was some time, but there was a knock at the garage door. Tusks opened it up to find Sselekk standing there, a sad look on his face as stood there at the door. The moment Pinkie saw him, her tears of sorrow turned into tears of rage; she was furious, "YOU!" she called out, "What's the big idea? You think I'm gonna let you get away with this?" she asked as she dashed towards him and tackled the large lizard man to the ground, "What makes you think you can get away with hurting my friends?"

"We didn't know pink one." they all heard from the outside. Pinkie turned her head to see a female Sunik, one that bowed at her waist, her hands pinning her dress to her stomach. She wore what looked like a dress that was made of several sections, kept together in the middle by a metal belt and draped over her green-scaled shoulders and letting her bright orange hair fall over her face, "Mirikka is not one of us, we promise we had no knowledge of these events."

"Kkimira?" Sselekk asked with respect, he had not a clue what he was going to say and would have gladly let the pink pony pummel him silly if it meant she'd feel better.

"You say you didn't know, but I don't believe it!" Pinkie said and was somehow pulled off of the large Sunik by force.

"Calm down Pinkie!" Hulon said as she held the party pony into the air.

"My girlfriend doesn't lie." Sselekk said as he sat up, "We had no idea what she was doing. She was told to obey the sanctity of the race, but somehow she was able to get away with it. I'm also afraid it might be because of something she did to make the Council afraid of her."

"Like what?" Pinkie asked, somehow right in front of him again.

Hulon looked into her arms, and let out a startled cry when she found them empty, "HOW DO YOU DO THAT?"

"We think there's someone in the council that has been helping her." Kkimira said, "Sselekk told me that Mirikka said she was untouchable, so either they have a spy, a hostage, or both."

"Oh no!" Twilight said in a panic, "Lady Kiane?"

"We checked." Sselekk said, "She's been the only one missing for several days now and I have a bad feeling about it. They said she had planned a vacation."

"But that doesn't make sense." Twiggs said in the same thought, "Not with the Spear {snort} in the possession of the Council and her strong beliefs of the Egas' power. Something {snort} else must have happened."

Twilight began to hyperventilate, her breathing becoming erratic, "That begs the question, how did they get past the security?" the large Sunik asked, "From what I heard, they always had at least two councilors at the spear at all times, letting only one citizen in at a time upon scheduled requests."

"So, by appointment only!" Twiggs said as he placed his hand to his chin in thought, "That means that it had to be either someone at the {snort} gate or someone already inside with the spear."

"If it was someone at the gate, then it had to be the whole squad, they have multiple guards on duty." Sselekk told him as the two began to speculate.

"Not good, that means a spy in the council itself." Twiggs said with concern and looked up at the Sunik, "No report means that there was no {snort} way of knowing what happened until something like this happened, so no dead bodies and {snort} no broken equipment. It was an inside job."

"Or maybe not, I've got a few suspicions but I've got no evidence, so I'll keep this one close to the chest for now." Sselekk said, and was instantly interrupted by Applejack clearing her throat, the two turned to see Twilight as she tried desperately to get her breathing under control while Fluttershy rubbed her back and the orange earth pony glared daggers at them, "Uh…sorry for panicking you guys." he said, "I'm Sselekk and this is my girlfriend Kkimira. I'm a friend of Rainbow Dash and Krisskkil."

"I thought you were Rainbow Dash's opponent?" Pinkie asked.

"She…" he began and tried thinking of the right words, "…grew on me."

"Please tell me Rainbow Dash is ok." Twilight suddenly said through her panicked breathing.

"I tried looking for them, but I couldn't find either one of them before the official search team showed up." he said as he lowered his head in shame, and then lifted it up in pride, "Besides, Rainbow Dash has survived worse, like when she fell off of the cliffs in the second race. She'll be fine."

"Last time was an electrical blast. THIS time it was a giant Spear of Light. HOW was last time worse?" Twilight said in anger.

"Because this time it only hit their ship, not them. I believe in them." he said, getting the ponies to stop, and think for a moment as they all looked at him in wonder and surprise.

"You're right." Blade said, "I believe they're ok. They'll find their way back."

Fluttershy nodded to him and smiled, Rarity wiped the tears from her eyes, and with her makeup, a little smudged, nodded as well, "We're going to have to get a new ship ready for them, they'll want a rematch." Writch said.

"Where's Rainbow Dash?" they all heard from behind them and turned to see Breeze standing there, injuries still trying to heal and a very sour expression on his face.

Back with Rainbow Dash, she lay there, letting the warmth soak in. The pain had faded quite a bit now, mostly to the point where she could move her neck and head without causing her body to stiffen from it, so she lifted her head, and looked around. The light enveloped everything, covering the area around her, the ground solid but somehow comfortable. She had no clue where she was. "Where am I?" she asked and realized she had said it out loud, "Guess my throat's ok now." she told herself and placed a hoof to her voice box. She then turned her head and looked around as she placed her hoof back on the ground. She gazed at her surroundings, in awe of not just the light, but the majesty of it, "Am I dead?" she once again asked herself, and used her tail to slap herself in her cheek, it stung, and somehow healed rather quickly, "Not dead." she said, "But this light is trying to heal me. Just like back at the garage with the med bay, but I'm not suspended in the air." She lifted her wing, and flapped it once, twice, three times. It only hurt a little as she stretched and used it, the pain coming out as a bit of soreness rather than actual sharp pain. "How long have I been here?" she asked and a thought struck her, "Krisskkil?" she asked out loud, glancing around to find no sign of him. "Maybe he got thrown somewhere else." she said to herself and tried to stand. The pain in her legs was sharp, but not unbearable, and shakily she stood to her full height, "Ho boy, I hurt a lot!" she said and took a shaky step, hopefully walking off the pain. She made her way towards…wherever and found the ground slope a bit downward. "What is this ground made of?" she asked herself and used her hoof to tap the solid surface, right before she slipped, sliding all the way and hitting some kind of stone floor, "Ow." she said as she rubbed her flank, and turned again to see what she just slid from. As she turned, she noticed something a little off-color, it looked like something familiar, "Is that a half of a gate?" she asked, and watched as the other half slowly reformed itself, painfully slowly. "Wait…" she said, and then heard it. The breathing sound had always been there, but she had thought that it was her own breathing, now though, she could hear it coming from behind her. With a gulp, she turned her head, and came face to face, with a giant golden eye, one that looked as if it belonged to a dragon.