“He was right, you know?” Twilight had her eyes squeezed shut, desperately trying to stop herself from crying. “I didn't treat him as a friend. I was just... annoyed by him, and tried to have as little contact as possible. I wish I could say that it was otherwise, but it's true. None of us treated him with any respect, except for you. Only you..."
Fluttershy bit her lip, but didn't answer.
“I failed, Fluttershy. I just...” A small sob escaped her lips. “My life was just too good to be true. It's a beautiful world. Equestria hasn't suffered from a war in a thousand years. I have wonderful parents, and even a big brother. I've been allowed to study magic from the princess herself. And then I even met you and made friends, the only thing which was missing from my life. I was given everything.” She stocked, and now she couldn't suppress the tears anymore. “And I threw it away! How could we... ever be so foolish. He is more powerful than all of us combined, and we didn't even take him seriously. How? We're smarter than this! The danger was right there in front of us, and we could have prevented it, but we didn't... I didn't...”
“Twilight.”
Drying her face with magic, Twilight forced herself to look up.
“There is no use dwelling on your mistakes now. Rainbow isn't here to tell you this anymore, so I have to do it. We need you. You're the only who is leading us. You need to pull yourself together. For Rainbow Dash.”
It was exactly what Twilight had expected to hear, but although she knew her friend was right, she didn't give an answer. Instead, she made a gesture towards the other side of the room, where Colgate was trying to calm down Rarity, and where Pinkie Pie was looking as if she would never stand up again.
“Why aren't you more afraid, Fluttershy? Why are you telling me this and not... dunno, anypony else?”
Fluttershy lowered her gaze down at her lap.” I think... I think I just have an easier time accepting that everything might end.”
For some reason, this answer provoked in Twilight the urge for defiance, more than anything said previously.
“Come.” Pressing her lips together, she hoisted herself up and shuffled towards the opposite end of the room. “Rarity, just because you are more afraid than others doesn't make you less good of a person. It just means you're more afraid.”
Colgate, who had been kneeing beside Rarity, raised her head at Twilight's words.
“That's what I...” But she stocked, and instead made a questioning gesture towards Pinkie.
Twilight shook her head. “I need to talk to you,” she said, pointing towards the staircase.
Colgate didn't protest. Throwing a final look at the still sobbing Rarity, she followed Twilight upstairs.
“We need to act,” Twilight said firmly. “We lost Rainbow Dash because we weren't prepared for things to happen this quickly. It could happen again. First things first, where did you put the changelings we captured? You dealt with them, didn't you?”
Colgate nodded. “I tied them up and pulled them into your cellar, where you have all of your lab equipment. Do you want to...”
“No. Leave them there.”
“But... If we're going out searching for them, we have to know...”
“We're not going to search for them.” At Colgate's questioning look, Twilight sighed. “We have no idea where our enemies are hiding. Do you want to look through Ponyville? The forest? No, we have to set up a trap. Whatever attacks us next, we have to be ready for it.”
“But that won't...”
“I know...“ Twilight tilted her head towards the stairs. “Rainbow has slammed one of these changelings right against the doorframe. The impact must have been heard across half of town. Other ponies live no more than thirty feet away. How come you think nopony has been alerted by all the noise?”
“You think Discord is going to help us if we survive long enough, just because he has isolated the library from the rest of town?”
“I think he wants us to play along. It's his game, he'll want us to give our best. We didn't prepare for the last attack, and we lost one player. If we react better next time, I think he's going to reward us. He needs to give us a chance for the game to be interesting, right? We wouldn't have a chance by blindly going outside searching.”
“Sure, but...” Colgate hesitated. “We have four of her minions as prisoners who probably know where we have to go. Are you sure that you aren't just afraid...”
“That's...” Twilight gulped. “That's not it.” With quivering lips, she sat down at the spot, not having the strength to stand anymore. “Yes, the idea of forcing information out of prisoners is harrowing to me, but if I thought it was necessary, I would do it. No, I... I don't think Discord wants us to torture them. He's unemphatic, illogical, and doesn't value pony life, but he's not sadistic. If we were just dealing with Chrysalis, it would be different, but...” She took a deep breath. “Let's just prepare for the next attack.”
Colgate didn't look convinced, but she didn't object.
“Okay. You want me to set up a trap?”
Twilight nodded. “Rarity's magical abilities do go beyond simple levitation. And with Rainbow Dash, we lost our greatest fighter. You, on the other hoof, just used a time slowing spell on one of the changelings...”
“Only because it matches my talent,” Colgate said, pointing at her cutie mark. “I'm not nearly as strong in unrelated areas.”
“I know that. Just do whatever you can.”
“I will. Uhm...” Colgate stocked. “What about the orange one? She's been impersonated by a changeling, but the real one...”
“Rainbow went to get her,” Twilight answered quietly. “We can't ask her what went wrong. And I don't want anyone to go find her now...”
An hour later, over two dozen winged creatures were sneaking up to the tree house. Some of them may have passed by citizens, but for some reason, nopony seemed to take notice. When they came close to the entrance, one of them pulled a small, black article from under his wing, holding the item in his grasp for a few moments before throwing it right at the wooden frame of the door. Even as it dismantled in an explosion of wooden bits, not a single villager so much as turned his head.
Before the last junks of woods hit the ground, the changeling army rushed into the building at once. As soon as the majority of the group had passed the entrance, they were caught in a field of radiant blue energy, causing their movements to slow down collectively. Barely a second later, a composition of various heavy items fell down from a net above them, dissipating any possible coordination in an instant.
What followed were two minutes of unrelieved, uproarious chaos. It took Twilight no more than few seconds to deal with each intruder, and both Pinkie and Rarity were taking on several of the heavily handicapped creatures each. Even Fluttershy, the physically weakest pony of them all, had joined the fight. It didn't take long; even though they were outnumbered heavily, the changelings were fighting magic with nothing but sheer strength, and Twilight alone had taken out over three quarters of their group.
However, when the last changeling was knocked into the ground by an angry beam of purple energy, the group quickly noticed that one of them was missing. Pain cut into her skin like knives when Twilight realized which of them had been wounded heavily enough to be taken out of the game.
Once again, it had hit the one who least deserved it.
“Twilight?”
Looking disheveled almost beyond the point of recognition, the last pony Twilight had expected to see came rushing into the room.
“Cadence?”
“Thank Celestia, Twilight. I need to...”
But she didn't get further. A black pile beside her suddenly jerked upwards, hitting its fangs into the neck of Twilight's old foalsitter. By the time Twilight could react, it was already too late. The first drops of blood hit the ground, and then Cadence disappeared.
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Topic: M61: It's a Beautiful World (Mafia and Discord win) (Read 93246 times)