Chapter Nine - A Farmer And Her Blasted Plot, Part Two

The first thing I heard when I came to was the distant pings of cooling rock. For some reason, the sound was oddly comforting.

Even if it was mostly in a ‘Hurray! I’m not dead!’ sort of way.

Then I heard the crackling of flames, much closer by.

I opened my eyes, their lids feeling as if they were made from cast-iron.

Strange purple flames danced around me, as most of the lime still burned.

I stared at the nearest flickering flame, as my mind actually started grasping what I was seeing.

The lime was burning.

I tried to scramble to me hooves, but they didn’t have the strength to hold me up. I opted to turn around on my back instead.

It was foolish, but I gambled on that if I wasn’t dead yet… and I simply felt way too damn tired for anything else.

It took most of my remaining strength, and after I was panting hard.

That was when I noticed the dozen Apache helicopters hovering above the crater I’d made.

Weapons pointing straight at me.

The crater was so large, that they didn’t even have to fly in formation. They just hung in the air as sentries.

Against me.

High and far apart enough, that I would only be able to get one or two, before the rest unloaded their arsenals on me.

I looked down on the stupid pet-rock from my previous life that had caused this whole mess. I was hoping it might have enough juice left to actually get me out of it as well, but no such luck...

It was so drained in fact, that it had even turned so dark and lifeless it was nearly black… but there wasn’t a scratch on it.

And my flesh around it had healed so completely you could barely see the edge of it.

There wasn’t even a scar.

A booming voice echoed out. For one horrified moment my addled brain thought it must be Princess Celestia, here somehow to tell me that she was so disappointed in me, that she was stripping me of my crown, my Alicorn hood, my Element and then she was sending me back to magic daycare to restart my obviously completely failed education from scratch, my wife never wanted to see me again and both my moms and fathers were so very, very disappointed in me…

Then I noticed the voice was not only electronically enhanced instead of magically, but male and talking with a slight South-African accent.

And it was calling my name.

But I just couldn’t focus on more than that.

I tried to say something, anything, to make them understand that I was hearing them, but I was simply in no shape to answer…

Too late I realized that this would be very stupid and painful, but to my surprise my voice was barely raspy when it rang out. “Please, give me a moment...”

A cascade of clicking noises greeted my voice and the enhanced one grew quiet.

I hoisted my weary head up…

The clicking noise was the company of soldiers I’d missed when I focused on the choppers, having armed their rifles.

There were enough of them there that the group was almost a pluton.

There were even a few heavy-weapons teams, pointing rocket-launchers at me.

I tried raising my hooves in surrender, I really did… but I was too spent. They didn’t even twitch.

My eyes finally focused on a man in a uniform bristling with enough marks and commendations that even from here, he just screamed ‘General.’ Strangely, the uniform he was wearing was not that of the US, but instead the clear blue speckled urban cameo that the UN favored.

I gave the group another look. I saw paratroopers, regular troopers… I even saw a few navy SEAL’s insignias among the group.

And those were the ones I recognized. This was an international effort.

I gulped at that. Somebody had gone through a lot of trouble to scramble this response…

Against me.

The man I had already guessed to be the commander of this operation, once more lifted the megaphone to his lips. “Mrs. Sparkle, can you hear me?”

I put my head down. Noting how refreshingly warm the ground felt beneath me…

My ears darted around, as I heard the man put a finger to his ear and speak with somebody on a walkie-talkie through an earpiece. “She’s awake, but seems to be either confused or fatigued. Is there anything I can say that might reach her?”

I heard a buzzing answer him, but it was too distorted, low and far away for me to hear it. The man just nodded at what he heard. “Excellent. I will try that.”

He turned back towards me. “Your wife wants you to know she and the others made it safely to the storm-cellar. Your father and your wife suffered burst eardrums, but other than that they are fine. “

A wave of relief flooded me, so strong I almost passed out again.

Only to be replaced with a feeling of dread, as he continued. “And your daughter says hi.”

I almost started hyperventilating, but I fought the panic down with a breathing exercise… That I had learned from MLP: FIM recursively enough.

I steeled myself once I calmed, not sure if I wanted to hear the answer. “If you meant my son Mark, then that was a cruel test of my sanity, Mr. Please don’t do that again.”

I heard the smile in his voice as he spoke again, still using the megaphone. “Ah, please forgive me, Mrs. Sparkle. We had to be sure.”

Relief flooded me. “…Can I talk with her?”

He pointed down at the crater with his other hand. “You’re lying in burning lime, Mrs. Sparkle. My scientific advisors are banging their heads against the wall about how you’re even alive. Sorry, but until you get out of there and cool down the best I can do is forward a message.”

I rested my head back, grunting in annoyance. “…Just tell her I’m alright, please?”

He did so, getting a burst of static that sounded suspiciously like a relieved laugh from his earpiece in turn.

I gave another look around. The soldiers had lowered their weapons, but it didn’t take a genius to realize that they hadn’t even turned the safeties on. They had simply stopped pointing them at me, for now.

I turned my head to the general again. “…Am I under arrest, or something? And who are you guys, Mr.…?”

He scratched his chin, thinking his answer over for a while. “My name is General Maximilian Shade, formerly of the UN’s peacekeeping forces…”

I raised an eyebrow. I realized it was unlikely he would see it through the murk, and the heat-haze, but it was the principal of the matter. “Formerly?”

He did whatever it was that made me hear his smile through his voice again. “Now commander of the newly formed magic research and response team as part of Operation Warhorse. You’re something of a trial by fire for us Mrs. Sparkle. We haven’t even been officially announced by the UN yet.”

He scratched at his chin again. “As far as your legal status at the moment… I am sad to say that the best answer I may give at the moment is ‘complicated.’”

I let out a weary sigh. Here it comes. You’re not even a person legally at the moment and bla, bla, bla… “Humor me and try to explain, please…“

He hesitated, but only for a moment. “Very well, Mrs. Sparkle. I shall be blunt. I have several nations breathing down my neck with ‘suggestions’ about just shooting you in the head now with the heaviest munitions I may muster and making it look like either a misfire or an escape attempt.”

I heard some muttering in the ranks at that. I even heard somebody shout: “I didn’t fucking enlist to fucking shoot fucking Twilight Sparkle in the fucking head!”

The gentleman brony with the silver tongue got a glare from the commander for his insubordination, but it seemed clear his heart wasn’t in it.

I let out a laugh without a shred of humor in it. “And you’re telling that to me, because?”

He hesitated again… or perhaps waiting for the muttering in the rank to die. Either way, that was how long it took for him to speak again. “I have several rapports, both with eyewitness claims and without that in turn claim to know what happened here… May I have your versions of events, before we continue?”

Hmm, not leading a witness? This guy seems to know his stuff… I pointed a shaking hoof at the purple star in my chest. “This thing just popped up and telefragged part of my chest.” I swept a trembling hoof around the crater. “Then I kept screaming for a good while thanks to the blinding pain…” A new muttering broke out, sounding a bit weary this time. I stopped the hoof, pointing at General Maximilian. “And then I woke up with a small army pointing their weapons at me. Good enough?”

Another moment of hesitation. “…Screams, nothing more?”

I gave a shrug that barely made my shoulders move. “I think I might have gotten a magic surge at the end. I was too busy writhing in pain…”

He held a finger to his buzzing earpiece for a moment. “…Ah, your wife claims you performed the royal voice…”

“No. You don’t say?”

He put his free hand to his mouth and coughed once. “So this is what happens if you scream with it. Impressive.”

I rolled my eyes and swept my arm around again. “If you or your people are looking for a reusable sonic suicide bomb, you can forget it. I’m not even sure how I’m doing this and even if I did, I sure as hell wouldn’t let something capable of this fall into any hands, not even military ones…”

I saw him drum his fingers against the side of the megaphone for a while, before clearly coming to some manner of decision. “Have you ever thought of joining the military, Mrs. Sparkle? The UN seldom hires directly in such matters… but for you? I am certain I can make my superiors agree to that.”

I stared at the man grinning so wide I could see his teeth all the way from here.

I noticed in the corner of my eye, that almost all the soldiers were staring at him as well…

He took my silence as a sign to continue. “From what I have gathered, you got the magical equivalent of ticking nuclear football bolted to you and still held back your pain and panic for long enough to get away from any bystanders.”

The image of that poor bird flashed through my mind and started warping into other… familiar shapes. I fought it down with a shudder, before it could finish doing so.

He gave a slow clap, before continuing once more. “And you even survived the ordeal and several hours in the molten slag that resulted. Most impressive. “

I saw fire that had nothing with the pit I was laying in become reflected in his eyes. “I’ll shall once more be blunt, Mrs. Sparkle. We need you and your expertise. I and my men have scoured the world for real magic experts almost since this mess began… and we have only found illusionist, folklorists and charlatans who have begun to believe their own lies. Had this been an intentional attack in a population center we would have had no counter to it, short off turning up as fast as possible and… Well, hope that shooting the perpetrator in the head would actually work…”

The sound of the choppers and the flames where the only sounds as he let his words sink in. Then he continued. “Even if the frontlines are abhorrent to you… Well, your knowledge might still save untold millions, simply by giving me and my men the knowledge we are so lacking in at the moment. Would such a thing be of interest to you, Mrs. Sparkle?”

My jaw had fallen wide-open halfway through his little recruitment drive, but it was only at the question at the end I realized this. I gently closed my maw.

Then I felt strength return to me, as I pictured my family with weapons drawn on them. I felt my mane rise and my pelt turn a blinding white as the anger lent its strength to mine.

A few soldiers scrambled for their guns. Some started running. The would be sailor from earlier throw his gun straight into the pit and ran screaming about “Run! Run! Run you dumb bastards! The stupid bastard has pissed off Twilight fucking Sparkle! Ahhhhhh!” without even looking where he was going…

I made a dome of force around the rifle with a small effort of will, just before the ammo cooked off from the heat. I kept my focus there until the thing had not only fired its clip, but melted in the strange flames that still roared in several places.

When it let the dome collapse there was only a smoldering puddle of metals left.

I got on my hunches. To me, this place was a bit warm. Almost not even uncomfortably so.

Then I refocused on the commander with a glare that would have made Fluttershy proud.

But the man just raised his megaphone once more. Looking as calm as if this was a company picnic. “I have no intentions of coercing you, Mrs. Twilight… But I can understand why you might have come to that conclusion. As a gesture of good faith…”

He hung the megaphone from his belt, before once more activating his walkie-talkie. I saw him switch frequencies… “Now orders everybody. Fallback to camp in an orderly fashion. Thunder one to twelve, you may return to base.”

Almost immediately the choppers turned around and started heading from where ever they had come from. His men saluted, and the various subcommands started barking marching orders…

Before long only I and the man I was starting to believe must have some manner of Tardis like technology in his boxers were left at the crater. I felt my mane return to its more normal appearance of a flowing purple streak of glimmering light, rather than the flames that had outshone all the others in this place combined.

“…I must admit,” I started slowly and carefully. “The thought did strike me…”

He bowed his head once. “Forgive the misunderstanding. I hope you understand why the presence of my men where necessary?”

He wasn’t even pretending that I needed the megaphone and left it on his belt. Interesting, but I focused on the conversation itself. “You were worried I’d gone cuckoo for coco-puffs. I get it.”

I actually got a small chuckle for that.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “But if I ever learn of any threats against my family…” I swept my hoof around me, pointing at the blasted hellscape I was sitting in the center off. “This was a horrible accident with my new powers. Anybody stupid enough to threaten my or mine I will be very intentionally angry at. Need I say more?”

He straightened his back a little, doing his best to look me in the eye despite the heat and the distance. “…Ma’am, with all due respect… I have no such plans, and to any stupid enough to suggest it to my face I intend to show Akira…"

I let out a small, dark chuckle at that, not bothering with turning the royal voice off.

To my amusement it echoed strangely in my fiery pit.

The Commander just pressed on, not even faced. “May I make a small preemptive request of you holding back enough if such a horrible thing does come to pass as to not break the world? I realize it may be too much to ask, but I kind of like this pale blue dot of ours...”

I gave a small grunt at that, reeling my emotions in. The man with balls that clanked when he walks had a point. He must have heard it, because he nodded and I saw some tension bleed from his shoulders.

Back to business, then. “This offer of yours… If I say no, then…?”

“We will of course politely inquire if you may at least consider the role of freelancing consultant. If not even that is to your liking, we will politely go away.”

My eyebrow rose again, but in disbelief this time. “Nothing more?”

I saw his teeth again. “We might of course ask polity in the future if you have reconsidered your position on the subject… but nothing more. We have no intentions of antagonizing somebody that may throw skyscrapers like others throw javelins. If hiding away in this place is all you desire, I see no reason to not encourage that.”

I was silent at that. The black vans and black choppers I’d been a bit afraid of when this mess had started had shown up…

And their Commander was not only treating me like an adult, but was also being polite while doing so.

And he was offering me a job.

A small part of me was screaming “What the everloving fuck? This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen!” but I fought it down.

He gave me another polite nod. “You need not answer now. But please, consider it.”

I just sank down on my stomach, feeling bone weary again. “…What happens now?”

He pointed at the flames. “We can’t make heads or tails of these flames. According to our instruments they keep shifting temperatures without rhyme or reason. We’ve even gotten a few reading of them being in the negatives. You have any idea what they are?”

I gave them a look, hoping for the quickening of a memory, but none came. “Sorry, not a clue. I was completely out of it when it happened. It might be literal hellfire, for all I know.”

He grew still for a moment, before just giving a shrug. “Well, hopefully pouring enough water on it will work. It is more or less what I can do about it, at the moment…”

A note of bitterness had made it into the Commanders voice towards the end, but I pretended not to notice. I could sympathize with a man suddenly out of his dept.

I swept my eyes around, taking in the strange flames, the horribly smelling crater and my own mostly equine and mare shaped body lying unscratched in the middle of it all.

It is not a pleasant feeling.

“Anyway,” he continued. “I have your word that you intend to cooperate, then? Forgive me for asking since you seem a polite young woman and I realize this is just as frightening to you as us, if not even more so… but it would make my higher-ups much less worried about this. I hope you understand?”

I gave the man a nod. “You don’t fire anything at me, and I will return the favor.”

He nodded, flashing me another smile. Judging from how wicked it looked he had spotted my unsaid promise of the opposite. Good. “I am very pleased to hear that, Mrs. Sparkle. Do you have any objections to me calling in the fire-brigade? It seems the simplest solution, but will no doubt lead to them asking questions…”

The unsaid question hung in the air. I bit my lip as I thought it over.

Did I want people to know about me? It would make certain things easier and others so much harder…

The Commander noticed my hesitation. “If you prefer, I may call in the equivalent from a military source to keep this more discreet… but they will probably not be here until tomorrow in that case. “

Ugh, more choices. That one sounded kind of good, but I would be stuck in this pit for longer…

Then I spotted the blade with which that particular knot might be cut. “Mr. Shade?”

“Yes?”

“I think I’m recovered enough to get out of here on my own. Would you care to trust me enough to allow me to get to one of the other irrigation ponds on the property?”

He hesitated for a moment. “…You are aware, that you are hot enough at the moment to burn people to death with a hug?”

I gave a shrug, exaggerating it enough for him to see it. “All the more reason to ask you for permission to try the idea. If you see a flaw in it, I would gladly hear it.”

He stroked his stubbly chin again. “…I must admit, it is an elegant solution that would allow us to both continue our negotiations in a more civilized form and leave this pit for later…” He raised his hand with one finger pointing towards the heavens. “But two conditions. You will follow the lead of me and my men, and if you try to approach them they will be allowed to defend themselves. Is this acceptable?”

“Is it alright if I fly or levitate? I would rather not start any grass fires…”

He gave a nod. “I see no harm in it, but please let me clear a path and inform my men first to avoid misunderstandings. May I ask where this pond you intend to dive into is located?”

“Just the other end of the field. Sorry, I’d point, but I got turned around by… Well, all this.”

He gave another nod. “I believe I saw it on the way here. Very well, just give me a few moments…”

I nodded back, before resting my head on my hooves. I perked my ears though. He seemed trustworthy, but that is the easy bit.

To the disappointment of the part of me that has always loved trashy spy novels, he just gave the info to his subordinates and before long, a few soldiers were back to act as escort.

He gave me a thumbs up. “Ready when you are, Mrs. Sparkle.”

I got on my hooves again. I was still a bit shaky, but the strength was already returning to my limbs.

I experimentally flapped my wings a few times, but I might just as well have done it with my hooves. No traction at all. I had kind of figured that with all the heat and fire, but considering the magical nature of it all I thought I should try.

I tried levitating myself instead. With all the magic in the air that was almost insultingly easy instead. I quickly had a stable spell going around me and just drifted out of the pit.

I landed at the opposite edge just to avoid any misunderstandings…

And only then did I notice how black it was. Middle of the night black. I had been down there for at least a whole day.

Granted, with the military presence it kind of made sense…

“You were unconscious for almost three days, Mrs. Sparkle. We were just about to try pouring enough coolant down there for us to drag you out…”

I turned to the man and his… bodyguards, I guess. He was once more using the megaphone, more or less proving that it was more for his men, then me.

Seeing him as little more than a silhouette made me realize something more.

There was a lot of lights and gear around, but there wasn’t a single spotlight pointed at the pit. It was still shining as bright as day, all by itself.

I looked down. Small curls of smoke where escaping from the battered soil under my glowing hooves. Now when I was away from the pit, I looked more like a silhouette of living light, then a pony.

I thought for a moment if I should say my following sentence, but honesty won out. “…Did you try checking for radioactivity?”

The shadow I knew to be General Shade, oh the irony, throw out his arms. “Nothing but background. It was one of the first things we checked when we saw that glow. Thank you for your concern, though. It means a lot to me and my men.”

I gave a nod, before lifting myself again. I could barely see the purple tint to my form now that I was away from the pit, but I lifted without incident.

“…O-K, that just looks fucking freaky…” one of the soldiers mumbled, his hands trembling slightly on his rifle. I probably wouldn’t have noticed normally, but I saw the outline of the barrel dance, outlined in the light.

The General hushed him, but it made me imagine it from the soldiers’ perspective.

A figure made from blinding light just rising from a blackened pit where strange flames danced…

Where have I heard that one before?

I let out a chuckle. “So, would anybody of you be mortally offended if I made a joke about souls or contracts in blood?”

That actually got a few laughs from the soldiers. Mr. Shade just facepalmed though.

I took that as a sign of encouragement and floated up a bit out over the pit, spreading my wings and front-hooves wide over my head and rasping out in the creepiest voice I could muster: “The devil hath power, To assume a pleasing shape.”

Then I pulled my limbs in and gave out the most cackling evil sounding enhanced laugh I could muster.

The sight some of the soldiers taking steps back made me laugh normally so hard I lost concentration, in turn causing me to fall bouncing and cursing back into my pit.

I lay in a heap at the bottom, shaking my head. Falling into a fiery pit after making a joke about being the devil… When did my life start running on irony?

The soldiers were laughing so hard a few had to take a couple of steps back, just to not follow my example.

Even the General had joined them this time.

It amused me that I could see them again and clearly at that. My new eyes must have a scary wide field of light ranges they worked in… Or perhaps I was completely blinded in the pit, and my mind and magic senses were working in tandem to offer me this? An intriguing though, but one I had neither the time nor resources to test.

I opted to just float out again. Dignity be damned.

General Shade bit back his laughter and hushed his men. “You all right, Mrs. Sparkle? Sorry for laughing, but…”

I just waved him and his apology off. “No problem. My own fault for trying to laugh like a loon and levitate at the same time. It was almost a given.”

I pointed at the other pond. It was only a blacker spot in the night, but I knew the way. “But shall we? If what you’re telling me is true, then I haven’t had as much as a drink for three days. I would really like to get something to eat and some proper sleep…”

He pointed with his whole arm as well, before starting to lead his men a bit away. “You may lead the way.”

I drifted straight for the pond, keeping a leisurely pace as to not frighten, but not seeing much reason to go around the glowing hole I’d apparently slept in for a bit less than seventy-two hours. The rising thermal made my hair, tail, feathers and fur dance in a delightful way, but it honestly didn’t feel that warm.

I’d gone to Las Vegas a few times, and this reminded me more of a desert wind, then the thermal from an open pit of flame, to be blunt.

Them, just for my hubris, I hit the cold night air beyond the pit. I tumbled down again, my concentration broken.

It felt as if I had jumped headfirst into a bucket of ice.

I scrambled to my hooves, drawing shallow breaths as I shivered from the feel. I had to sit down on my haunches and try to steel myself.

I hate to admit it, but part of me just wanted to crawl back to my cozy little pit and just sleep there until it cooled.

The General and his entourage came jogging towards me. “Mrs. Sparkle, are you alright?”

He was close enough that he had stopped using the megaphone, so I returned the favor by not using the voice.

I gave a nod, my teeth rattling as I shivered. “C-c-cold!” Was all I managed to get out.

I tensed slightly as he slid a hand into a pocket, but I untensed as soon as I saw that it was simply an industrial IR thermometer. He pointed it at me, it giving off a tiny beep that was soon followed by a low whistle from the man himself.

“W-w-what?” I stuttered out.

“I must congratulate you, Mrs. Sparkle…” He replaced the thermometer into his pocket as he spoke. “…You’ve just shattered the world record for highest temperature survivable by even microorganisms. You just might get a pic in the history books for this…”

I tilted my head in puzzlement. The distraction from the freezing air was making it harder to think, but not that hard. “D-d-didn’t you s-s-“

He held up a hand, cutting me off. “We thought your magic might be shielding you by somehow negotiating the temperature around you.” He nodded to my still glowing form. “But it appears you’ve kept the temperature of the pit, thus invalidating that theory…”

“H-h-hypothesis.” I corrected automatically.

A few of the soldiers barked out laughs at that. I even heard one of them mutter: “Yup. That’s Twilight, alright…”

But Mr. Shade just waved it off. “I know my skills and limits. Science has always been one of the later… But shall we get you that dip, Mrs.?”

I shuddered a bit harder at the thought of jumping into the water, considering what shivers just the night air was giving me… but he had a point.

As much a part of me wondered how long I might milk being the literally hottest girl in town just for puns… I was currently a danger to all around me. The sooner I got cooled down, the sooner they could start treating my more like a person, and less like The Blob’s cousin made from napalm.

“I-I-Is it O-O-OK if I t-t-t-teleport? I w-w-want this o-o-o-over with…” I stuttered out.

“One moment,” he said.

He activated his walkie-talkie again, and started talking into his headset. “Mrs. Sparkle intends to teleport the rest of the way. Do not be alarmed at the sudden crack or light. Over.”

His earpiece crackled to life again with what sounded like a string of the words “Yes, Sir!”

It soon grew silent once more. “Ready when you are.”

I didn’t need more encouragement than that. I raised my head, focused on a spot straight over the pond…

And with a yanking sensation and a flash I was there.

I barely had time to draw a deep breath and think: This is going to suck! Before I hit the water.

The water was so cold it felt like it was burning. I tried to swim to the surface, but the water was turning to steam against me, making me sink to the bottom like a rock.

For a moment memories from this life flooded me. Of creaking ice, a sudden plunge and a freezing dark that drove the air from my lungs…

I almost panicked.

But then I remembered the feel of air just appearing in my lungs and calmed down even before I hit the bottom.

If anything might kill me on this world so burning with magic, then I could not imagine it being a tiny pond and some water.

Not anymore.

I just settled down on top of the soft silt… and took the time to think a little bit.

Where they being honest with me… or did they want a magic attack dog?

I looked up. The surface was already swarming with searchlights. The bubbles of steam dancing towards the surface and the light made a sight beautiful enough I wished I had a camera.

I could actually feel the water warm, as I cooled. I had to blink my eyes, as a sudden dark came to the place as I stopped glowing.

I experimentally moved a hoof in front of my face. I could still feel heated water rising from it and me, but it was water now, not steam.

I took this as a sign to get to the surface before they started diving in to drag me out.

Or would they?

The thought made me pause mid-stroke. I had survived that pit for almost three days, after all… Perhaps they were just as sure of my survival?

Anyway, not important. I had no intention to test that, so the point was moot. I resumed my efforts and with only a few strokes more I broke the surface. I took a deep breath, but it was more for old habit then need…

That made me pause, even as every portable spotlight focused on me.

It didn’t even make me blink. The flood of light just stopped me from seeing what was behind its source.

And all that made me realize something.

I really wasn't human anymore. Fucking hell, I might not be mortal anymore.

How do you react to such a revelation? Do you scream with joy? Sink to your knees weeping?

Part of me was amused, that I mostly just wanted to go home and snuggle with my wife.

I let out sigh. But I don’t think I’m getting that anytime soon…

I swam in a small circle, before spotting a bit of shore without blinding white on it. I started breast stroking towards it and soon made landfall.

I gave a doggy shake, trading a bit of dignity for practicality. I expected laughs, but none came.

The place was dead quiet. I guess somepony actually doing the walking out of fire cliché in real-life will get anybody's attention.

I gave myself a once over… and was uncertain if I should be happy or disgusted.

Now, for somebody that had been unconscious in a hole so hot it was glowing I looked great…

But by normal standards I was a mess. A hot mess, but still. Details.

Bits of badly cooked or even burned earth clung to me in patches, making it almost look like I was wearing part of some shoddy sort of ceramic armor.

My ethereal mane and tail that normally was about as likely to interact with stuff without me willing it, as an politician is likely to take a vow of poverty, had somehow tied itself into two giant knots and was practically filled with debris.

I experimentally put my hoof in front of my face, blew out a breath and took a sniff… Huh, nothing. I felt my teeth with my tongue and they didn’t even feel grimy. I guess having the plaque boil away makes one hell of a toothpaste substitute…

I looked back… and almost winced when I saw my wings. There were feathers sticking out in all sort of angles everywhere. Some of the feathers even looked near mangled. I had no trouble believing I’d been unconscious for a couple of days after seeing them. I almost sat down and started preening, right then and there.

I fought down the impulse and opted instead to turn the biggest group of flashlights and gave a big grin. “So, how’s this as far as ‘We can rebuild him, we have the technology’ goes?”

General Shade stalked out of the light, giving a slow clap as he did. “Most impressive. I wouldn’t have minded a couple of soldiers capable of that back in Iraq…”

“Now imagine insurgents with that power, and energy-beams from their foreheads that you need to maim them to disarm…” I countered in a soft voice.

The lights danced as the group, including the General, shuddered. The General gave me a long look after that. “…So you do understand why I’m so keen on acquiring an expert, then?”

My mouth felt dry, as I all too easily could imagine it from his point of view.

He suddenly looked far older, and very, very tired. “I’m supposed to lead the best this world has to offer to deal with any new threats that might come because of these new phenomena… And at the moment, I have two choices in how to deal with them all. Two. I will be blunt, it scares the hell out of me, Mrs. Sparkle.”

I felt guilty that I wasn’t rushing to aid him. He just sounded so… sincere. But I have family. “May I ask what two? I think I know, but I want to hear them, anyway…”

He lifted his arms from his sides in a hopeless gesture. “Ask politely… or unload all barrels. Nothing in-between, at the moment.”

His arms dropped, but the sense of hopelessness he near radiated remained. “…No matter if I’m dealing with a would be dark lord… or a scared kid, having a surge from the horn he or she didn’t have a few days ago. “ He nodded at me. “Or a polite young mare that did her best when her powers went out of line, but still caused enough damage for it to look like ground zero of a concentrated napalm strike…”

My head turned off its own volition towards the pit. It was glowing so bright I could see it even though the portable floodlights.

All jokes aside, the damn thing did look like a slice of hell had burst forth on earth.

I blinked a few tears away. It was… far too easy for me, to imagine the blackened skeleton of the farm in the middle of all that. If I hadn’t pulled off that teleport…

I just turned my head back to him, suddenly feeling like I made a huge mistake in not snoozing in that pit… “Mr. Shade? Can we continue this at the farm? I… feel like I’ve seen enough of this place to last several lifetimes… and I would like to inspect the damage to my home.”

His face suddenly turned soft, something I did not expect to ever seen in the old man’s features. He kind of reminded me of my father actually, one of those men that just kept getting tougher and tougher as they aged…

The sudden flash of humanity cheered me up a bit, I must admit.

“I see no problem with it,” he said. “Are you well enough to travel?”

I was just about to say yes, when a wave of fatigue swept me, forcing my down on my hunches. I guess this had brought me to my limit anyway. “…I wouldn’t mind a stretcher.” I offered weakly.

General Shade fished out his thermometer again, nodding at what he saw. “A bit more than sixty-five Celsius. I wouldn’t recommend any hugs just yet, but a very good sign…”

I quickly did the math in my head. 65 x 9/5 + 32 equals…

“I’m a hundred-forty-nine degrees?!” I blurted out.

The General flashed me smile. “The center of that pit is hot enough to glow, Mrs. Sparkle. What did you expect?”

“But my fucking blood should be boiling my mind!” I shouted near hysterically.

He just tilted his head before answering in a calm voice. “Yes. Yes, it should. See why I’m so keen on getting your answer?”

He nodded to the pit, before he continued talking in a calm and slow, but slightly distant voice. As if the words were traveling from somewhere deep within him and he was not certain if he should let them fly. “…I’ve seen men die screaming in flames, Mrs. Sparkle. Many times. Most of them enemies, a few but still too many where friends and comrades... and my heart broke every time I could not help save a civilian from that fate. It is not a good end, Mrs. Sparkle. The only thing worse than hearing the screams are where your mind treads when they stop. Even if you may teach us nothing but how your body ignored that inferno, it would still be a grand thing.”

His distant eyes lingered on the glow of the flames awhile longer, before turning back to me. “I joined the service long ago, because in the hubris of a young man’s mind it sounded like the best way a poor farmer’s son might make a difference…”

His eyes unfocused, lost in memory. For just a moment I saw the image of a young white pelted and blue maned stallion overlaying his face. Looking just as serious, and having just uttered similar words…

The small flash of remembrance almost broke my heart and made me sag crying down… but I fought the feelings down and continued listening instead.

It seemed clear he was saying this for just as much his sake, as for mine. He took his helmet off, and pulled a gloved hand through his graying hair.

His men were barely breathing.

He gave me a long look with his tired eyes, letting me get a proper look on his face for the first time. A small well-trimmed mustache, high cheekbones and a long, thin slightly hooked nose served as the centerpieces of his long, creased face…

Aside from a slight dark tint to his color that suggested a mixed ancestry and his accent, I would have thought him a stereotypical English gentleman, rather than a South-African Commander and General.

He must have needed two sticks to beat the ladies off, once at a time… Now he mostly looked old and worn.

But it was the old and worn of a rifle stock, or the hilt of a sable, or a cavalry saddle… that had been pressed into service again and again…

And answered the call, every time.

He held up his gloved hands at was waist high for him and eye height for me, and opened and closed them a few times, palms up.

“I will not pretend it has not cost me…” He kept looking at his clenching hands as he spoke, a strange mix of pride and loss in his eyes, even as I heard the whirring of tiny electric motors and realized what that meant. “…but I would like to think, that yes, I have made a difference… Is that not all one may ask, in the end?”

He let his arms drop to his side, before walking over to me on legs that whirred and clicked softly enough even my ears barely heard it, as he walked.

From morbid curiosity, I extended the earth-pony part of my awareness and magic towards the man as he got closer…

And to my mind’s eye, he lit up like a boulevard on a Thanksgiving parade held at night.

He had tiny pieces of metal inside him, lodged almost everywhere… Dulled with age and biological buildup, but they must have been tiny razors when new.

And he didn’t have a single spark of life in any of his limbs. Just metal, plastic and thunder, bound together and to him, to let him stalk his next foe despite what cruel fate might will otherwise.

I sensed a tiny spark reach his battered and scarred heart, and followed it to its source with my inner eye. A tiny thing, no bigger than a novelty coin, was nestled near it.

The pacemaker gave his heart another jolt as I watched.

The implications were not lost on me. His very heart continued beating because he had willed it. A healer had simply aided in that task.

I felt… conflicted, at the sight.

A tiny part I had started to see as my ‘inner pony’ was disgusted by the sight. It saw no Harmony in this prolongation of a proud warrior’s suffering and decline. He should have been either been healed or allowed to return home or even fade, not be turned into this to once more stalk the killing fields…

But the rest? The big part that was getting annoyed at all this pony and flashes of memory and insight, nonsense… The one that wanted nothing but to get my life back on track?

Simply soared with fierce pride at the sight. The man was half-buried already, and this had not stopped him. It had barely slowed him down.

And he could still look down on his near shattered form with pride, because to him it had been worth it.

Because he had done his best. And if whatever gatekeeper he met when he joined the rest of his body in the ground disagreed, he would punch the creature in the nuts and stroll on in anyway.

He stopped right in front of me, extending his right hand before him. His smile was warm and infectious enough I felt my mouth twitch despite all that had happened.

An excited murmur rose from the ranks, as the men realized what their Commander was trying to do. Really trying, not just saying pretty words.

“What do you say, Mrs. Twilight Sparkle?” he said with his offered hand not even trembling despite knowing exactly what I was a capable off. His eyes twinkling, and once more reflecting a fire only his eyes could see.

His smile grew a bit wider. “Want to help me make the world a better place?”

Author's Note

I didn't think about it before, but this thing is actually long enough by now to count as my first novel...