i screwed up - I know that feeling, I've had it skip me to a random chapter even though I actually did hit 'next' before.
KillerPhone - You'll just hafta read and find out. ;)
raritysman403 - yet...
PSYCHOPATH - I'm flattered you enjoy my story that much, thanks for the boost in confidence. I can honestly say I did not know that. Though I only have a DS Lite. I plan to have a lot of fun.
bronyman78 - Lol Nightmare Moon happened.
UnknownHero55 - Thanks, I tried my best to make it enjoyable. Lol I plan to.
centaurus2 - Don't worry, not this chapter. ;)
The Request Author - Lol yes I am. :) Don't worry though, I'm gonna be toning back on that a bit once I get back.
HYBRID BATTLESHIP INFINITY210 - I tried my best to make it edge-of-your-seat, so I'm glad I did a good job. :D
frytrix - Oh don't worry, I'm not gonna do that for my trip.
Zelfra1234 - I plan to cut back on that. I actually had this chapter planned since before I even had chapter one published.
A/N - Howdy again everypony! There seemed to be a bit of a misunderstanding about my last Author's Note, there were several readers that thought that I was going to leave for a month after a cliffhanger like last week's. I might be evil, but I'm not that evil. Today's update is going to be the last one before I go on vacation, and I planned it out so that it doesn't leave off on a cliffhanger. Don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly, enjoy!
Darkness… that was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes. I found myself floating in a familiar void, bereft of all light and substance. "Well great… here we are again."
"Heh heh heh. I can see why you'd think that; but no, you are in fact alive, if only just." A voice sounding like it belonged to a kindly old man said from behind me.
I turned to see a pony, dressed in a strange wizard's hat and cape, both adorned with small bells and bearing images of stars and moons. The pony had a grey coat and a stark white mane and, oddly enough, a long, full beard. "Hmm… lemme guess; Starswirl the Bearded?" I replied, more of a statement than a question.
The pony chuckled quietly. "That I am, though how did you know of me so readily?"
"I saw an exhibit on you at the local museum with some friends awhile back. Saw some pretty interesting things, though I'd be willing to bet a lot of it's exaggerated."
He nodded sagely. "I've no doubt it is, though we have other matters to attend at the moment."
As he spoke, the void morphed into an open field, the sun shining down warmly on us. "So, why are we here? I assume this place serves a purpose besides being pretty."
He chuckled again. "Straight to business I see; you remind me of a certain pastel princess I once knew. Very well, the reason we are here is because your full magical potential has been unlocked."
I cocked an eyebrow. "Is that a bad thing?"
"Not at all, you just need to be aware that you are far more powerful than you were previously. You see, when you sparred with Captain Flash, it cracked the barrier severing your magic. Your previous limited ability was due to your magic 'seeping through the cracks' so to speak, and when you saw your loved ones in danger, your subconscious shattered the barrier entirely. You'll need to know your limits, lest you accidentally hurt somepony." I looked at him skeptically. "Think of it like this; with your new magical strength, it would be like lifting a bag of concrete you expected to weigh fifty kilograms, but instead it only weighed two."
What he was saying began to sink in. "So in other words, if I tried to use the same amount of force to try to lift a bit off the table as I did before, then…"
He grinned. "It would probably shoot clean through the ceiling. So you'll need to be able to avoid that. Unfortunately, I just came here to warn you, I can't actually teach you how to do that in here, you're on your own for that. And to answer your previous question; no, this place doesn't serve a purpose beyond 'being pretty'."
"I'll try to be careful then, assuming I even remember this whenever I wake up."
The sagely pony smirked. "Good enough. Now, I'd like to pass some knowledge on to you, knowledge that has been lost by time but is for you and you alone. This is knowledge of the versatility of human magic."
And so we spent what felt like days going over various things that human magic can do that pony magic can't, like healing; apparently human magic is far more adept at it than pony magic for reasons that had never been fully understood, though no form of healing magic was capable of healing its caster. We also went over the ability of humans to 'charge' their spells, allowing them to feed magic into the spell over a period of time, allowing them to cast spells that would normally be beyond the caster. He explained that this was how Magi managed to cast their spells.
Finally, he had imparted all the knowledge he could to me. "Well, looks like you'll finally be waking up, so it's time for me to go" He said as he glanced around at seemingly nothing. "Oh, and one more thing before I go; do try to be more careful, Luna loves you dearly, and I'd hate to see her heartbroken because you got yourself killed… again."
I chuckled as a thought came to me. "I'll do my best. She'd probably bring me back just so she could kill me herself if I did." I suddenly remembered something important. "Wait! What about Twilight?! Is she alright?!"
Starswirl began to answer, but he started fading out as he did so and anything he might have said didn't make it to me. The rest of the landscape faded out as well and I suddenly felt myself lying on something soft. I groaned and forced my eyes open to see I was in a room full of various equipment; it didn't take long to realize the equipment was medical monitoring machinery. I looked around to see that I was indeed in a hospital room.
I also quickly noticed that I was alone. I tried getting up, but to no avail as I was heavily bandaged and covered in casts, restricting my movement to next to nothing. As I looked around for a nurse call button, the door creaked open. "Oh my goodness, you're awake!" The exclamation caught my attention and I looked over to see Snowheart with a bright smile on her face. "I'll fetch the doctor at once!" She said before dashing off to get him.
Less than five minutes later, the doctor came trotting in with a clipboard suspended by his magic floating in front of him. "Well good afternoon Mister Marshall. I'm glad to see you up and about… more or less. You're very lucky to be alive after Nightmare Moon blasted your chest open with that spell."
"So how bad is it Doc?" I asked, relieved that I was ok enough to do so.
"Well, it's not good… the list of broken bones is longer than the list of unbroken ones; you fractured your pelvis, all of your ribs are shattered, both of your tibias and ankles, your left femur and right fibula are all broken, there was a compound fracture of your right radius, your skull is cracked, and thats just the major breaks. You're lucky you didn't break your spine or neck."
I chuckled. "Well, that doesn't sound so bad." I said sarcastically.
"That's just your bones, you were hemorrhaging internally, and you lost almost three liters of blood, you're lucky we found a match for your blood type."
I grimaced. "Ok, that sounds worse. So, who was the match?"
"That would be my sister." Came Celestia's voice from the door as she entered the room. The doctor excused himself and left the room.
"Celestia, you're alright!" I exclaimed as I once again remembered something important. "Wait, what about Twilight?!" I asked frantically.
Celestia's face blanked. "She is…" She trailed off, causing my heart to sink.
"I'm just fine!" A voice from the hallway exclaimed before a blur of purple shot through the door and sailed through the air to land on my bandaged chest.
I stifled a groan of pain as the blur slammed into my heavily damaged chest. I looked down to see Twilight's teary-eyed smile looking back up at me. "Oh Blake, I'm so glad you're alright! When I saw what Nightmare moon did to you I thought… I thought…" She trailed off as she broke down into sobs.
I wrapped my arm around her as best I could. "Shh… it's ok now Twilight, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." She looked back up to me and I leaned in as well as my mummified body would allow and kissed her, gently, on her tear-soaked lips. I felt her melt into the kiss as she almost immediately began returning it. "There's something I've wanted to ask you for awhile, but I was too scared until now... Twilight Sparkle… would you be my marefriend?" I asked once we broke.
Her eyes filled with fresh tears as she wrapped her hooves around my neck and she began sobbing into my shoulder. "I'd love that…" She whispered.
"So what happened? I thought you were… I mean, I thought Nightmare Moon…" I asked once things calmed down a bit.
Twilight stroked my cheek as she shook her head. "You got her Blake… I don't know how, but you used your magic to throw your sword at her and pierced her heart with it. The spell she had been charging dissipated into the air and she turned into some kind of smoke or mist and flew away."
I was about to reply when a thought struck me. "So what about the scream I heard?"
Her face turned a deep shade of pink. "Well… some of the electricity might have kind of made its way to me, and it might have kind of… tickled…"
"… So I thought you were dead because you got tickled?" I asked with a hint of incredulity.
Twilight's ears pinned to her head and she looked away in shame. "I-I'm sorry… I- MMPH!" I cut her off by using my better arm to turn her head to face me and planted another kiss on her lips.
I pulled back and smiled. "It's ok Twilight, I'm just glad you're alright. Speaking of which, how is everypony else?"
"Thanks to your efforts, there were no serious injuries… aside from your own of course. What possessed you to take such measures Blake? You are no soldier." Celestia chimed in.
"Come on Celly, you should know me by now; if my loved ones are in danger, I'll go to any lengths to protect them. I died once to protect someone I cared for; you really think I wouldn't be willing to do it again?"
She bowed her head. "And we… I am eternally grateful for your efforts, efforts which have saved the lives of not only my sister and I, but the lives of countless of our beloved ponies as well." She approached my bed. "With that said, know that there would be many who would be devastated should you make such a sacrifice again."
I hugged Twilight close. "I know princess, and I don't plan to, but I'm also not afraid of it. Now, on to a happier topic; where is everypony else?"
"They all had to go back to Ponyville, they have jobs and families they can't ignore for so long."
I nodded. "Fair enough, though that brings up another question; how long was I out exactly?"
Twilight frowned. "Nearly a week, They kept you in a magically induced coma so your body could heal." She wrapped her hooves around my chest as best she could. "When I got to you, you were… you were… Oh Blake, it was terrible!" She began sobbing into my chest again as I whispered reassurances to her.
Celestia sighed deeply. "It truly was. The damage your body sustained was dreadful. It is nothing short of a true miracle that you survived your injuries."
I suppressed a chuckle, knowing the pain it would cause. "So I heard. Speaking of which, you said that Luna donated some of her blood to save me, but I haven't seen her yet, where is she?"
Celestia's ears drooped. "She… She does not wish for you to see her." My heart stopped as she continued. "She is afraid of what you will think of her after witnessing her… darker self."
I started struggling, trying to get out of my bed, the pain bringing tears to my eyes. As I did, two sets of magic enveloped me, keeping me still. "Blake, please calm down! I shall do what I can to convince my sister to visit you."
I calmed down and looked at her pleadingly. "Please Celestia, I don't want her to think that I see her any differently than I did before. I'll crawl up to her room from here if I have to…"
There was a knock at the door. "I'm sorry, but Mister Marshall needs to rest now. You can visit him again in the morning." Nurse Snowheart said from the doorway.
Celestia turned to leave and levitated Twilight with her magic. "No, not yet! Just a few more minutes, please princess!" She cried as she scrabbled to hold on to me.
"It's ok Twilight; I'll still be here tomorrow. Besides, you can tell Derpy, Applejack and our friends that I'm ok and awake. Then you can all come visit me together." I told her with a squeeze of her hoof as Celestia carried her out of the room.
The next morning, I woke up to realize that I had slept much longer than usual, as rays of Celestia's sun were streaming in through the curtains and bathing the room in a friendly golden glow. I shrugged this off, attributing it to my body giving itself extra rest to heal. As I was looking for the nurse call button to see about some breakfast, I noticed the door swing silently open on its hinges, followed by a familiar deep blue muzzle poking through the door.
I waited silently as Luna poked her head the rest of the way through the door, and I smiled at her when she saw me. Her reaction however, was disheartening; instead of looking happy to see me, she seemed afraid, cringing as our eyes met. "H-hello Blake; I am glad to see you are well…" She said in an uncharacteristically timid tone.
"Luna… why are you afraid?" Her head and ears drooped.
"Blake… You have seen the evil that once resided within me, how could you still care for me after that?" A knot formed in my chest as a single tear rolled down her muzzle and splashed against the floor.
I began struggling again in an attempt to get to her and comfort her. "Luna… I -Grr- I don't care about that. You and Nightmare Moon may have –Urg- been one and the same once upon a time, but that's no longer true. Besides, she even said –Argh- that your kind heart kept her from doing worse deeds than she did while you were a part of each other." She looked up to me and slowly walked over, nuzzling into my chest. "I love you Luna, and nothing's going to change that."
She nuzzled more firmly. "Thank you Blake, you have no idea how much that means to me. I was a fool to think that you would hate me for my past." She giggled suddenly. "By the way, is it true that you told my sister that you would crawl up to my cambers in order to see me?"
"Heh heh- ow… Sure is, and I meant it too. I didn't want you hurting because you thought something like that. I bet it would've looked pretty silly though."
She giggled again. "I am sure it would, though the thought is very sweet." She leaned up and kissed me gently.
We sat there and just cuddled for awhile, Luna hopping up onto the minotaur-sized hospital bed and lay against me in silence. After awhile, she began to drift off; as much as I wanted her to stay with me, I knew the hustle and bustle of the hospital would keep her from getting the sleep she needed, so I bade her to return to her room to get a good day's sleep.
Shortly after she left, Snowheart trotted in with a tray of food balanced on her back. "Good morning Blake!" she exclaimed in a sing-song voice. "I brought you something extra special as a thank you for saving everypony from that dreadful Nightmare Moon." As she talked, she wheeled a special tray over to my bed and set the food tray on it.
When she took the lid off the tray, my mouth began almost instantly watering. On it was Fettuccini Alfredo with shrimp and a side of breadsticks, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a cup of tangerines in syrup. Sitting next to it on the tray was a glass of apple juice with a bendy straw in it. "I had the hospital kitchen staff make this just for you. They were all too eager to once I told them who it was for."
I was stunned at her kindness. "Snowheart, I really appreciate this, but you didn't have to go through all that trouble for me."
She hopped up, planting her front hooves on the bed and staring me straight in the eye. "Blake, you saved my life, and the lives of countless other ponies. While we cowered in fear; you stood up to a tyrant and faced a small army of her minions to protect others, this is literally the least I could do to make that up to you."
I smirked. "Alright Snowheart, you win. Thank you for this, if hospital food here is anything like where I come from, I'd probably go crazy if that was all I got to eat."
She giggled as she hopped down from my bed back onto the floor, her hooves clicking as they hit the stone. "Oh don't think you'll get this kind of treatment every day mister. Though I'll see what I can do about getting the cooks to whip you up something once in a while."
Instead of leaving however, she just stood there, staring at me. "I just want to make sure you can feed yourself before I leave." She said, obviously reading my questioning look.
I looked around, trying to figure out how I was going to do this. Quickly realizing that my various wrappings wouldn't allow me a wide enough range of motion to bring the fork to my mouth, I decided to try out my new magic. Calling upon it, I used Twilight's teachings to cast the levitation spell on the fork. When it was enveloped in my aura, I attempted to lift the fork into the air.
Instead of simply rising gently into the air, the fork shot up and imbedded its tines into the ceiling. "Well, that was unexpected. Let's try that again shall we?" Snowheart could only look at the fork now lodged in the ceiling tile and blink.
The fork was once again enveloped in my aura and I gingerly pulled the fork out of the tile. Once it was free, I gently levitated it back down to me, the fork wobbling in the air as it lowered down to me. I wiped it off on my sheets and used it to grab a bite of the steaming mashed potatoes. Snowheart watched as I levitated the forkful of potatoes and gravy to my mouth and ate it. She giggled. "Well, it seems you have things under control… more or less. I'll be back later to get your tray." With that, she trotted out of the room to give me some privacy to eat.
I managed to eat the meal, although it took me awhile from the combination of being gentle with using my magic and wanting to savor the delicious meal. As if she had been watching me, Snowheart trotted back in and took my tray as soon as I finished my meal.
About an hour after Snowheart left with the empty tray, there was a knock on my door. "Come in." I announced. The door opened to reveal a familiar face. "Hey there Desert Star, I'm glad you're ok."
The Saddle Arabian mare smiled. "I'm glad to see you are well too. I wanted to stop by and thank you. Thanks to you, Celestia and Luna, two of Saddle Arabia's greatest allies and my closest friends came out of that terrible situation unharmed. You also managed to not only keep my guards from harm, but earn their respect as well."
I sighed. "Why does everyone keep praising me? All I did was what was right. I'm not a hero or anything, I just wanted to make sure everypony was safe."
Desert Star walked over to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder with a smile. "My dear human, that is exactly what makes you a hero. Were it not for your efforts, Canterlot and possibly all of Equestria would be under Nightmare Moon's control as we speak."
"I think you should be attributing that to her poor planning ability. If she had brought a larger force, I doubt the Canterlot guard would have been able to defeat her. I'll give her credit for her blitz attack, but the rest of her plan was crap."
She nodded and scratched her chin. "Yes, the attack did seem… rushed. Perhaps she was on some kind of deadline, like her strength was waning or something similar."
"Well, whatever happened, I'm glad everything turned out alright. Hopefully now you'll get to enjoy the remainder of your holiday."
Our conversation mellowed out into idle chitchat until Desert Star excused herself and left me alone in my room once more. Fortunately, I wasn't alone for long as a large group of familiar mares trotted into my room, all with packages of varying size and color, except for Applejack, who was hitched to a small cart loaded with apple-related treats.
"Howdy Blake, how y'all feelin'?" The country mare chirped.
I was tackled by an orange and purple blob that launched itself from behind Rainbow Dash's package before I could answer my marefriend. "Whoof! Sc-Scootaloo?!" I cried in joy as the filly began incoherently babbling into my chest between sobs.
I placed a hand on her back and rubbed it gently, reassuring her quietly until she calmed down. "Daddy, I was so scared! I thought you were gonna leave me!" She cried before sobbing into my chest some more.
The others simply watched this reunion play out in silence. Once Scootaloo seemed to calm down again, I spoke up. "Scoots, I'm so happy you're ok! How did you manage to stay safe after the others got caught?"
She giggled through her remaining tears. "I'm not Ponyville's number one hide-and-seeker for nothin'!" she exclaimed proudly.
A cleared throat brought my attention back to the other mares in the room. "Sorry about that girls."
Twilight smiled. "It's ok. How about we give you your gifts?"
I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "Gifts? What gifts?"
Pinkie Pie giggled. "These gifts silly!" She exclaimed as she gestured to the multi-colored packages now neatly stacked on one of the tables in the room. "We were worried you wouldn't have anything to do, so we brought you some things to help you pass the time!" She explained as she bounced around the room in her usual energetic way.
"Girls… You didn't have to go through all that trouble for me." I had always been somewhat uncomfortable receiving gifts, but I was happy that they went through the trouble to get them for me.
"Oh, it's quite alright; after what you did for us, we wanted to try to make your recovery more comfortable." Fluttershy said from the back of the room in her usual quiet voice, making it hard to hear her.
"So, how about we get this started with my gift?" Rainbow Dash stated more than asked as she flew over to the table and grabbed a rainbow-colored parcel.
Before she could bring it over, I stopped her. "I've actually got a surprise for you all too." I said before waving my hand and activating my magic, levitating the package out of Dash's grip and over to me. I chuckled in my mind as I saw everyone's slack-jawed expressions. "Apparently the fight with Nightmare Moon somehow unlocked my magic." I explained as I experimentally twirled the box around in the air.
Twilight shook her head vigorously and regained some form of composure. "That's amazing Blake! I was afraid you'd never be able to use your magic."
I smirked playfully. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence Twi." I said with playful sarcasm. "Apparently you were teaching me right, it's just that my magic was… blocked off, I guess you could say. Now, how about we start opening these gifts you amazing ladies so thoughtfully brought me."
Since I lacked the articulation to do so the old-fashioned way, I used my magic to unwrap Dash's surprisingly heavy gift. Inside, I found an entire series of books, all of which had a Pegasus mare that looked exactly like a color-swapped Rainbow Dash, with a khaki colored coat, a mane and tail striped with varying shades of grey, and wearing what I could only describe as a stereotypical safari getup. Even her eyes were almost the same color as Dash's, making the resemblance kind of eerie.
The top book was titled Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, depicting her swinging over crocodile-infested waters holding a statue seemingly made of sapphire.
"This is awesome Dash!" I exclaimed, causing said mare to beam brightly.
