Chapter Eight: The Breaking Point

私の小さい馬：大きな鉱石の物語

MY LITTLE PONY: THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT CRYSTALS

Daihasshou: Ichitenki

だいはっしょう：いちてんき

第八章：一転機

Chapter Eight: The Breaking Point

“Rainbow Dash! Go and alert the others!” Twilight shouted. The rainbow-maned Pegasus saluted and quickly flew back the way she came.

“Wolves! Seize them!” Gash shouted, sitting back down on the throne.

The thirteen timber-wolves stood up, growling. They slowly began to walk towards the small group of mares and guards. Twilight’s horn shimmered with purple energy as she shot one of them back. The others started assaulting the wolves as well, bucking them and punching them. Pinkie Pie even had a cannon that she used to blast them away. One wolf managed to pin Applejack down.

“Darn! Somepony!” she cried, being slashed across the face a few times.

Rarity lifted the timber-wolf up with her magic and threw it out a window. Twilight further used this tactic to lift three other wolves up and throw them out of multiple other windows.. One hung on, however, and lifted itself back up. Not knowing, Pinkie Pie was now pinned down from behind, being scratched and clawed.

“Hey! Get off!” she cried, lifting herself up and bucking the wolf into the air. Twilight destroyed the beast with a blast of magic.

“We can’t…” she huffed, blasting another wolf, “…keep this up forever!” she admitted. “Fluttershy! Can you help us?” she shouted.

She got no reply. She turned and saw the butter-colored mare cowering, her head tucked into a wall. She frowned when she saw this.

“Guards! Cover me!” she shouted, galloping toward the mare. The four guards that were with them entered the fray, stabbing at the wolves with their steel spears. She crouched in front of Fluttershy, softly rubbing at her mane. “Come on, Fluttershy,” she softly pleaded. “We can’t do this without your help. We promise that you won’t be hurt. Please?” she begged.

Fluttershy turned around, her face still hidden behind her mane. When Twilight cleared the shy mare’s mane from her face, she saw that it was completely wet with tears. There was such horrid despair on her face, like a tacky, tattered blanket. It was almost frightening for Twilight to see her friend in such terrible condition.

“A-Are you okay, Fluttershy?” she stammered.

“Why?” is all she could ask.

“What?”

“Why does everything have to be this way?”

“I…I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

“Every single time we’ve had a conflict with someone or something, it’s always ended up in a fight, like this. Why does it have to be this way?”

“It’s the best way to preserve harmony, Fluttershy. I can understand why you’re so…hurt by it, but it’s the best thing we can do to stop this kind of madness,” Twilight explained, hugging the mare.

“…Okay. I’ll fight. Just give me a moment,” she gave in, taking a few deep breathes.

“Alright. We’ll be waiting,” Twilight said, turning around and running back to the fight.

Six more of the wolves had been vanquished, and things were looking up for the group. There were only three left. Gash looked over to Chrysalis and saw her with her back turned to the battle, just blankly staring into the wall. He got up and kneeled down next to her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, putting one hand on her right shoulder. She looked at him, giving a faint nod.

“I’m fine…” she said, looking back at the wall.

“Something’s bothering you. I can tell. What is it?”

“I was never one to fight. It always ends up in me getting hurt! All my life, I’ve been running, trying to escape from this hell, but it always keeps catching up! I’m so tired! Tired of being insignificant. Tired of being so weak…” she trailed, letting a few tears fall from her eyes.

“…Fine,” Gash said, standing up.

“Huh?”

“Stay back. Let me handle this,” Gash protectively stated, opening his book, holding it to his side.

“But…!”

“No. If you don’t want to fight, don’t. I’ll take care of this problem,” he said, a gust of wind blowing his spiky hair around. Chrysalis could only stare at her savior, as he stood in front of the throne. The last of the wolves had been defeated, and the group of ponies was waiting at the other side of the room.

“Gash! Just give up now, before you end up hurting yourself!” Twilight demanded.

“It looks like I’ll have to dirty my hands after all,” he sighed, the book glowing.

“Hey, watch out!” she shouted.

“Zakeru!” he cried, shooting a bolt of lightning at the mares. They dodged out of the way, before Twilight started shooting beams at him.

“Rashirudo!” he shouted, the giant defense shooting out of the ground.

The group split into two sections, going in opposite directions, with two guards and three Elements in one group, two guards and two Elements in the other. He cancelled the spell, as he noticed they had split up. Seeing this as a great opportunity, he cast another spell.

“Sorudo Zakeruga!” he cried.

“A new spell!?” Twilight shouted. “Everypony, stop!” she cried as each pony came to a sudden stop, one guard falling over from the inertia.

Gash drew his blade as it transformed into the magnificent blade of electricity.

“A sword!? You can’t be serious!” Twilight exclaimed. Gash turned towards her and had a grin on his face. He tucked his book into his mantle.

‘You appear to be the smartest out of the entire group. You’re going first,’ he thought, dashing down the steps, launching himself quickly at her.

He took a swing at her, but she ducked under it, shooting a blast of magic. Gash jumped over it and took another swing. She avoided the blade and kept shooting more magical beams at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rainbow Dash fly back into the room, and she was flying towards him at a downward angle. Smirking, he jumped back, catching her off guard. She landed on the ground, stumbling on her hooves. He used this opportunity to slash her up the side with his blade, sending her flying into a wall. He cancelled the sword spell, sheathing the foil.

“Zakeru!” he cried, shooting her with his electricity, knocking her unconscious. There was a small scar running down her side where the blade hit, and smaller burn marks running down her body.

“Rainbow Dash!” they all shouted, Pinkie Pie and Rarity running to her.

The two were being shielded by two guards, both of which had small, grey barriers around them. Gash simpered, drawing his reddened blade once again. He ran towards them, quickly side-hopping in front of them. His speed caught them off guard, and he used this opportunity to swing at one of the guards’ barriers. It was apparently weak, as it shattered under one swing of his blade. He swung at the guard, who used his magic to unsheathe his own blade. The two clashed for a moment, and the other guard used this as an opportunity to land a hit. Gash saw this, however, and immediately jumped back, causing the one guard to hit the other with his blade. The grey stallion shouted in pain as large wounds had opened up in his front legs.

“Gotcha,” Gash said as he charged a spell. At this point, the guards had split up from the mares, which were standing in front of Rainbow Dash, checking to see if she was okay, leaving them wholly defenseless.

“Zakeru!” he yelled, his lightning encompassing the two guards. He held his lightning out as the two collapsed, unconscious. He shifted his body to face towards Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and let the electricity shock them until they fell. He knew they were unconscious, and piled their bodies all in that one spot.

“Five down, five to go,” he muttered, turning around. He saw the mares and stallions approaching him at a quick pace. He smugly smiled.

“Fluttershy! Now!” Twilight shouted, as Fluttershy quickly flew up to him.

She landed on the ground in front of him and locked eyes with him. He didn’t know what she was trying to do, so he decided to humor her. In an instant, her stare intensified, locking Gash momentarily in place. He raised an eyebrow, and quickly caught on to what she was attempting. He closed his face in to hers, intensifying his own stare. It was their own kind of battle.

“Is it working?” Applejack whispered to Twilight.

“They appear to be in a stare-off. I’m sure that with the power of Fluttershy’s stare that she’ll win,” she swished to the orange mare next to her.

As soon as she said that, however, Gash gave a soft growl and his eyes glowed red, narrowing. Fluttershy tried to overpower his gaze, but found herself losing concentration, causing her stare to soften. He immediately saw this as his opening, and swiftly moved his head closer to the mare, terrifying her. She took a few steps back as he took a few forward. She was horrified, and ran to the very back of the room, where she trembled in her corner. The two other mares were shocked.

“Fluttershy’s stare…lost?” Twilight bewildered, staring at the mare.

“Unbelievable…” Applejack added, her mouth dropping.

Gash rolled his eyes, but speedily observed the two were too shocked by this stupid act of attempted bravery by the mare to pay attention to him. He understood this as an opening to attack.

“Zakeru!” he shouted.

The other mares and guards had no time to react as they were surrounded by his electricity. He yawned as they shuddered under his current. He could tell that it wasn’t doing much damage to them by the fact that they weren’t falling. He increased the level of power going into the spell. After a few more moments, they all hit the ground, all unconscious, except for Twilight.

“Y-Y-You…” she growled, trying to stand up, but didn’t have the energy to. “You monster…” she grumbled.

“Oh, I’m the monster? I’m not the one blaming others for protecting themselves, and then acting like they were a murderer. The monster here is you, Ms. Twilight,” he blamed, walking to the other side of her.

“There were other options…you didn’t have to hurt her so badly,” she said, referencing the incident a few hours ago with Diamond Tiara.

“When someone hits you, you hit them back harder,” he said, charging for one final blast.

“Zakeru!” he clamored, shooting the ground in front of her; the electricity still hit her.

The resulting explosion launched the five ponies into the already existing pile of ponies. He was breathing heavily as he stumbled back up to the throne, sitting limply on it. Chrysalis looked merely in awe at him, as he closed his eyes, beginning to regain his strength.

“I-Incredible…” she mumbled.

“That was… nothing,” he stated, still breathing heavily.

“You defeated them all! It was a ten-on-one battle!”

“They’re all fools. A crowd doesn’t change that fact. They made incredibly obvious openings for me to attack them, so I did.”

“You can read their attacks so easily. How?”

“I just do. Maybe it’s instinct. In any case, I’m going to rest for a few minutes to regain my strength.”

“Okay…”

Five minutes passed, and the two battalions had gathered outside of the room where Gash was. Celestia and Luna were preparing themselves for the inevitable battle by practicing short breathing exercises. Luna turned toward the two mini-armies.

“Alright. Everypony, please be on guard. While we believe that we’ll have more than enough power to defeat him if he hasn’t already been defeated, he’s still dangerous. We don’t know what kind of power he is capable of releasing, but we can tell from experience that it is a vicious power. Stay at attention,” she requested.

The two armies nodded, being led into the room by the royals. They lined up in two equal groups, in 5x5 grids. Celestia stepped forward from her army.

“You must be Gash,” she assumed, Gash opening his eyes after having accidentally fallen asleep. He looked over the groups, everypony with spears or lances at their side. He sighed.

“You are well informed.”

“Before we start, is there any way to negotiate with you?”

“Why? So you can put my head on a block? So you can subject me to torture? So you can put me in a prison cell to rot forever? No thanks,” he answered. She sighed, knowing this would be the answer she received.

“Do you really want to fight us?”

“If you don’t leave me alone, I guess we’ll just have to. Let it be known that the last group that tried fighting me didn’t go so well,” he said, pointing to the piled up ponies to his right side. Celestia and Luna both gasped.

“You did that to them!?” Luna growled, charging her horn.

“Their own stupidity led them into that state. The only competent one out of all of them was the yellow one…Fluttershy, I believe,” he said, pointing to the mare in the corner, shuddering.

“Grr…”

“Why are you like this?” Celestia asked.

“I don’t know. Why are you ponies so persistent in trying to defeat me?”

“Because you are nothing more than frothy, Dismal-dreaming baggage!

“Luna!” Celestia shouted, poking her sister in the side. “Language!”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway, are we just going to sit here asking questions, or are we going to battle this out?” Gash asked, standing up.

“If this is what you truly want, fine. Be that way,” Celestia moaned, charging a weak spell from her horn.

Gash drew his book as Celestia shot the small beam at him. He ducked. She shot another one, and he side-stepped. She shot one more beam, which jumped over, high into the air.

“Zakeru!” he shouted, shooting his electricity. It fell over Celestia and Luna, who both shrugged under the spell.

When the spell was finished, Gash dropped back to the ground in front of them. He expected to see signs of moderate damage and pain, but was surprised to see only small scratch marks.

“Wha…”

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Luna provoked. He grinned, narrowing his eyes slightly and chuckling. He drew his blade. This shocked the princesses.

“So, you really did draw…” Celestia marveled.

“How could you lift that blade?” Luna asked.

“I put my hands around it and pulled it out of the pedestal.”

“But that means-“ Luna started, but was interrupted.

“Sorudo Zakeruga!” he cried, his blade transforming,  placing the book in it’s normal spot.

“Fall back, sister!” Luna instructed. Celestia jumped back, letting her wings carry her to the center of her battalion. Luna did the same. “Guards! You may attack!” Luna informed, as the mass of black, grey and white ponies charged Gash.

Gash ran forward, swinging his blade towards the guards. In the first few swings, he managed to hit some guards, but found himself being surrounded on all sides by the horses. He tried to swing around to hit them, but found himself being struck multiple times by their steel blades, piercing the mantle and skin, letting blood drip down. He jumped up, canceling the spell. He thought he would have a few seconds to decide his next move, but found that multiple blades and energy beams were headed his way.

“Rashirudo!” he shouted, releasing the shield from the wall nearest to him.

The weapons and magic were repelled off of the barrier, back into the crowd of guards. This severely injured a lot of them, needing them to be placed away as to not be in the way of the others. His shield faded away, but he saw the lunar princess headed straight for him.

“Zakeru!” he shouted, his electricity meeting Luna’s dark-blue energy, creating an explosion.

Luna flew through the explosion, catching Gash off guard, she nailed him in the chin with a fore-hoof and he flew up toward the ceiling. He snapped his head back to see the princess aiming for his neck with her horn. He put his right hand out in front to block it, and found himself shouting in pain as he was impaled. Blood splattered along the ceiling and was dripping down her horn. He delivered a swift kick to her stomach and she doubled-up in pain. He took his good hand and slammed into her face as a fist, sending her flying back to the ground. He dropped back to the ground in front of Chrysalis, who had been backed up into a corner by a few guards. He drew his blade and swung it, knocking them back, but not doing any real damage. This confused Gash.

‘Wait. I just slashed you with a sword, and no wounds or even scratches occurred. How does that work?’

“Gash!” Chrysalis shouted at him from behind, putting a “hoof” on his shoulder.

“What!?”

“Are you alright?” she asked, pointing at the large wound in his hand.

“It’ll be f-“ he started, but felt a beam of energy strike him in the leg. He collapsed down to one knee. “Damn!” he shouted.

He looked up to where the energy came from, and saw Celestia standing atop the steps. He saw a mass of guards approaching as well.

“Shit!” he muttered to himself, trying to figure out what to do.

He could see a light from the corner of his eye. He turned around, and saw Chrysalis’ yellow book glowing with intense energy.

“Chrysalis…?” he asked. He could see tears streaming from her eyes, with her fangs bared.

“Gash…” she started, “I promise…I won’t be a hindrance any longer! I won’t be a weakling!”

“If you don’t want to fight, don-“ he started but was cut off.

“No! Please, Gash…Let’s fight together…” she suggested, looking up at his face. He grinned..

“Alright. Let’s do this!” he shouted.

“Poruga!” she cried, releasing a light-green beam of energy from her horn towards the guards in front of her.

“Zakeru!” Gash yelled, as his energy knocked Celestia back. He felt a tug at his mantle, and looked back to see Chrysalis holding it.

‘What is she-‘

“Poruku!” Chrysalis cried. A large, white explosion of dust surrounded the two. Celestia used a wind-spell to clear the dust, and saw a catapult with Gash sitting in the launcher.

“Where’d that come from?” Celestia asked.

“I’m asking the same questi-Whoa!” he started, but was launched from his position to the other side of the room.

He face-planted straight into the wall, his body peeling itself off slowly due to gravity. He hit the ground and quickly turned around. There was another large explosion of white dust as Chrysalis flew over the mass of guards with her fly-wings. She landed besides Gash and helped him stand up.

“What the hell was that?”

“I used my ‘Poruku’ spell! It lets me transform into whatever I want to!” she explained.

“That’s handy.”

“It really is,” she giggled.

“Hey!” a voice rung out through the room from across.

Gash and Chrysalis turned their attention to where the voice came from, and he saw the six mares he had defeated earlier standing in a line on top of the stairs.

“How the hell!?” he loudly asked, frustrated.

“Healing magic is very useful,” Celestia said, her voice coming from right behind him. He tried to turn around, but found himself stuck. He could feel her grip tighten around his middle-torso as he began to struggle.

“How did the yellow one get there!?”

“You were so caught up in fighting that you didn’t notice her moving over to them.”

“Damn it all!”

“Now!” she shouted.

He looked towards the six, struggling harder, as they lifted off the ground, closing their eyes. They arranged in a circular pattern in midair, with Twilight in the front. The necklaces they were wearing were glowing, shooting out outlines of the patterns on their jewelry. After a moment, Twilight opened her eyes, which were glowing white, and her crown shined with an alabaster aura. Then, a giant, double-helix rainbow shot from the center of the group, heading straight upward before arching back down toward him.

‘Shit! What do I do? What can I do!?’

“No! I will not let you hurt Gash again!” Chrysalis shouted.

“Poruga!” she cried, shooting Celestia off of his back. She jumped in front of him, throwing her book to the edge of the room.

“Chrysalis! No!”

“Poruku!” she shouted, transforming into a wall in front of him.

The rainbow attack slammed into her, giving him just enough time to dodge out of the way before it destroyed the wall, shooting her off to the side in a bloody mess. He stood there, looking at what had just happened. He saw her bloodied form, laying there in a pool of her own blood. He took a step towards her, but was cut off when the giant rainbow bounced from the place it had hit, in another arch towards him. He snapped back to reality from his trance.

“I will not allow this chance that she has made for me go to waste!” he muttered forcefully to himself as the rainbow hit the top of its arch.

‘What can I do? It’s way too powerful for me to fight it with ‘Zakeru’ or ‘Sorudo Zakeruga,’ or to block it with Rashirudo! What can I do against this!’ he thought to himself. ‘Wait…that other spell! Maybe it can do something!’ he finished, putting all of his strong emotion into this new attack. He looked up at it, with a hopeful-looking smile. Celestia saw this.

“What are you-“

“The fourth spell: Jikerudo!” he howled, his book shining in his mantle, giving an ominous-looking glow on the front of his body.

“You had another spell!?” Celestia cried out, trying to hold him back again.

It was too late, however, as he aimed his hand upward, towards the oncoming blast of rainbow-colored energy. A small, pale-yellow sphere shot out of his hand. The sphere quickly surrounded itself with two rotating rings of light, one blue and one red. The entire spell was surrounded by a transparent, metallic-yellow aura. The spell hit the giant force and was absorbed by the blast, doing nothing to it.

“Oh, shit. It’s over…” he weakly said to himself, letting his head hang down, awaiting his impending fate.

Before the blast could strike him, however, it stopped. He looked up at it, wondering what happened. It had become surrounded in an electric-yellow aura, and was re-twisting itself back into its double-helix.

“What happened!?” Celestia shouted. “Why did it stop?”

There was no time for an answer, as it arched back up into the air, away from him. He saw all the spears, lances and other weapons that the guards had lift off of the ground and out of their grips and rustle in their sheathes, attempting to draw themselves; the guards struggled to hold them within. The weapons all had the same glow around them as the harmonic energy beam did. They all collided and bunched up in midair, giving off a much stronger radiance than the individual blades. The double-helix of pure energy shot straight towards the weapons, colliding with them and obliterating them in an instant. The massive rush of energy stopped once again in midair for a moment. The guards couldn’t hold back their weapons as their magic was cut off and their hooves violently knocked away. The blades floated in midair.

The energy beam pulsated rapidly over the next few moments, before splitting off into multiple, smaller sections, directly towards the weapons. Each weapon was annihilated, but the beams were so close to the ponies that they continued onward. The frightened guards were all crushed and vaporized under the pressure of the spell, leaving nothing left of them. The remainder of the beams shot down, into the floors beneath where the ponies were, destroying it and leaving many medium-sized holes in the room. The ponies dropped down to the ground from the spell, falling to their haunches from exhaustion. They had expected for that spell to have destroyed Gash, so they looked to each other with fulfilled faces, except for Fluttershy, who had been crying softly to herself, staring at the floor.

“ Princess Celestia! We did i-“ Twilight happily started, but was mortified when she saw Gash standing in front of the solar princess, in the exact same state as he was before the spell. “H-How…W-Wha? Why?” she stammered, unable to comprehend what was in front of her. When the other five saw this, they all collapsed down to a laying position in disbelief.

“That spell has proven to be more useful than I thought it originally could’ve been,” Gash said, breathing heavily now.

‘It appeared to have magnetic qualities. When it hit the rainbow-blast, it did nothing for a few seconds, but after a moment, it turned bright-yellow. It immediately shot towards a group of lances and spears, seemingly made of steel or iron, which had the same glowing effect around them. It magnetized the beam and the weapons, but not the ponies. Maybe this spell can only work if there is both magic and metal in the same area,’ he postulated.

“You should’ve been completely liquidated! How did you survive!”

“I used my other new spell.”

“You mean you gained two!?”

“You really are dumb,” he started, limping towards the other end of the room. “You literally had to put two and two together, but still couldn’t do that,” he continued, walking nearer to Chrysalis.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Celestia asked, running up to him from behind. He jumped out of the way, drawing his blade.

“Sorudo Zakeruga!” he moaned, channeling his electricity.

He was hunched over from his fatigue, and could barely stand, but still jogged toward Celestia. He swung the sword as hard and fast as he possibly could, hitting her square in the chest. She shouted as blood shot from her mouth and flew into the wall behind her.

“You will not continue any further, human! Your terror ends here!” Luna shouted from behind.

“Oh, shit! I completely forgot about her!” he shouted, turning around.

He tried to slash her using the momentum he would have from his spin, but Luna saw this coming. She crossed her horn with the tip of his blade, increasing its size with her own spell. Gash’s fatigue got the best of him in this situation, as his spell faded and his blade was knocked from his hand, also knocking him off balance. Luna took a few steps back and galloped straight towards him, impaling the right side of his chest. His eyes faded as a large volume of blood shot out from his mouth, all over her back and the ground. His yellow irises were all that were in his eyes as Luna swung around, throwing him off her horn and into Chrysalis’ body, which in turn flew into the wall..

He attempted to move, but every time he tried, more pain shot through his body and blood gurgled in his mouth. He could barely see what was going on around him, but could faintly hear voices and footsteps approaching him. Luna growled, lifting him off the ground with her magic, squeezing him hard. He weakly cried out.

“Now how do you feel, knowing that you’ve lost?” she asked, pulling his face close to hers. A tear dripped from her eye. “Knowing that you’ve caused the deaths of more than twenty ponies?”

‘Is this what pain is? This feeling of the life being squeezed from me?’

“Now you know what others feel like when you’ve hurt them. Do you have any idea now!?” Twilight asked.

‘What are they saying? I can’t hear…’

“And to think that he would even side with a changeling. Despicable!” Luna shouted, slamming him into the ground, more blood spilling to the ground from out of his mouth.

“W-Wh…”

“What was that!?”

‘What am I doing? This pain…This…fear…What is this other feeling I have? I feel…’

Tears started flowing from his eyes, the clear droplets sliding down the side of his face and onto the ground.

“Is he…crying?” Rarity asked, in mild disbelief.

‘It burns…did I really do those…monstrosities?’

“Maybe he fahnally understands what real pain is now,” Applejack suggested, tilting her hat down over her eyes.

‘Does what I do really affect others? Does it…really feel like this?’

“So, what do we do with him now?” Pinkie asked.

“There’s only one thing to do…” Celestia started, walking toward the group. Blood was dripping down from her chest, but otherwise, she didn’t seem to be in any pain. “He needs to be put down.”

“Understandable,” Twilight agreed.

‘Could this pain be…sorrow? Guilt? This weakness…this…torturous feeling…’

The tears escaping from his eyes began coming out in much larger volumes. Fluttershy had once again started to cry as well. Celestia’s horn was glowing with a dark-red energy, as she charged up for a much stronger spell than normal. Fluttershy looked at this and had a thought.

‘Maybe she doesn’t realize it, but he is at the beginning of change. He just needs a little more of an influence…Just a little more…’ she thought, already knowing what she was going to do.

Celestia’s spell had reached its maximum strength as she pointed her horn down toward his body. She took a deep breath before the energy started to spiral around her horn.

“No!” Fluttershy shouted loudly, ramming into Celestia.

She stammered over to the wall, her horn releasing the red energy. The dark-red magic shot through the wall, expanding rapidly as it broke the wall into thousands of tiny pieces. The magic traveled onwards for a while, creating a massive field of destructive magic that fizzled out. Fluttershy lowered her head and body down to the ground, to where Gash’s head was. She tilted his head. The rest of the ponies all gasped.

“What are you doing!?”

“Gash…”

‘I can see a light…it’s yellow. It’s calling out to me…’

“I know that you have done some very bad things, but I know that deep within, you are ready to change,” she began, letting her barrage of tears loose.

‘It’s crying…I can hear it…’

“It had to come to this for you to be able to realize that you truly felt guilt and sorrow for what you’ve done…to nearing death…to swallow your pride and learn…”

‘Her pleas…they’re strong…I can almost make them out now…’

“S-So please, G-G-Gash…” she sobbed, barely able to make her words. “We can start all over…from a clean slate...”

‘It’s the yellow pony…Fluttershy…She wants to 'start again'…’

“Fluttershy…” Gash moaned. “I’…m…sorry…” he let out. The tears were starting to cloud his vision.

“You could hear my voice…what do you say? Let’s…try this whole thing from the start once more.”

“I…want it…” he groaned.

“I knew you would!” she happily cried, lifting his head up into her arms.

“I…didn’t ever think that what I was doing had impact…Please, Fluttershy…Forgive me for being such a heartless fool,” he begged, looking into her eyes.

“O-Of course…I do forgive you,” she said, pulling his head to her chest.

He finally let the entirety of his emotions loose. His tears drained into her warm fur as he loudly cried, putting his arms around her. She cradled his head in her forearms, shooshing and nuzzling him.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone! All I've wanted was to be able to live in peace, but things that happened to me just kept pushing me further and further back! I just wanted…to know that I was cared for…I just wanted…someone I could truly call a friend-someone who would look out for me; someone who would be there when I needed them the most...Fluttershy…could we be…friends?” He pleaded.

“Of course,” she said, sniffling. “I’ll be your friend…” she smiled, rubbing her hoof through his hair. He beamed in her fur, slowly pulling away. Their eyes locked together.

“Thank you…” he gratified, closing his eyes.

“You’re very welcome, sweetheart,” she said, planting a small kiss on his forehead, pulling him back into a warm hug.

“Fluttershy…How could you do something like that? He’s still-“ she started, but was cut off.

“Sometimes, we all just need to be shown a little kindness,” she smilingly stated.

Twilight had a flashback to right after she first met the Mane Six after moving to Ponyville. They were traveling through the Everfree Forest, and had come across a manticore. They had tried to fight it separately, but that had failed. When they tried to group charge the beast, Fluttershy jumped in and stopped them, and then revealed to them that the manticore had a thorn stuck in its forepaw. When Twilight questioned Fluttershy about how she knew about the thorn, she replied with the exact same statement: “Sometimes, we all just need to be shown a little kindness.”

She looked at her friend, and then back to the Princess. She smiled.

“A wonderful answer as always,” she nodded. “Princess?”

“A rather…unexpected move from you, Fluttershy. We guess that we really were doubting your abilities to change him, when we really should’ve been supportive of it the entire time. For this, we give our humblest apologies,” Luna stated, giving a bow to Fluttershy.

“I understand. After what Twilight told us about you and Princess Celestia having bad experiences with humans in the past, it became a little clearer as to why.”

“Twilight told you of that?” Celestia asked, looking to Twilight.

“When you sent me the reply to that letter yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to share it with the others.”

“I understand.”

“So, what do we do with Gash?” Twilight asked, looking to him. She looked past Gash and saw the severely hurt changeling. “Oh, I completely forgot about her!” Twilight shouted, pointing to the changeling.

“Oh, the changeling?” Celestia pondered for a bit. “Well, she appears to be a friend of Gash, so…I think it would be a good choice to help her out, too. It would be unfair to give help to only Gash.”

“Okay. But, back to my other question-What are we going to do with Gash?”

“Well, I think we should put him back in the hospital, along with that changeling, to heal. I believe that he was living with you, Fluttershy?”

“That is correct.”

“I think it would be in our best interest to let him stay with you, then. I believe that you have what it takes to change him completely to good from his bad ways.”

“I’ll gladly bring him back in,” she complied, nodding and smiling. She looked over the changeling, and then the sword.

She gently set Gash’s head down on the floor, unclipping his sheath. She walked over to the blade, placing it in its sheath, then walking over to Twilight.

“Twilight, I think that you should keep this for now, until Gash needs to use it, if ever.”

“Okay,” she said, putting the sheath around her body.

“And also, if that changeling has nowhere to go…I guess I can take her in, too. She doesn’t really seem to be that dangerous.”

“Are you sure about that? We can understand Gash now, but the changeling? We think you may be stretching your burden, Fluttershy,” Luna said.

“Well, I think it’s the right thing to do.”

“Very well. The changeling shall be under your roof.”

“Excellent!”

“So, how about we get out of this murky castle?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“It sounds like a good plan to me,” Celestia agreed. The rest nodded.

Celestia gently levitated the changeling and her book over to the group. The rest of the guards that were still alive after the battle also joined them. Celestia’s horn glowed, and the group was teleported to the front of the Ponyville Hospital. Celestia levitated Gash and Chrysalis onto two guards’ backs and ordered them to check them into the hospital.

“Fluttershy, I’d still keep an eye out on them, even if they don’t seem dangerous. Do you understand?”

“Of course, my princess.”

“Wonderful. I will be sending chariots for the rest of the guards immediately. We shall be taking our leave now. I hope to see real improvement with Gash soon,” she said, stepping onto a chariot with Luna. “Good-bye, everypony,” she said, the chariot departing.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.

“Yes?”

“You’ve demonstrated kindness I’ve never seen before in my life, and it’s really opened my mind up to many more different ways of thinking. I think that we can all say that we’re proud of you,” she said, smiling. The rest of the Mane Six nodded and cheered for Fluttershy’s success.

“Oh, it was nothing, really,” she smilingly humbled herself, the rest of the group chuckling.

After all the guards had gone back to Canterlot, all of the Mane Six except for Fluttershy departed for home. Fluttershy walked into the hospital.

“Hello! How may I help y-Oh, good evening, Fluttershy! How are you?” the receptionist asked.

“I’m doing…very well right now. Is Gash available to be seen?”

“He’s asleep right now, so unfortunately not. Come back tomorrow morning if you want to see him.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you!” she said, smiling.

She walked out of the hospital and went on her way back home. When she got home, she was exhausted, so she fed her animals, and immediately passed out on the couch, not even getting a blanket or pillow.   It had been a long day-She had witnessed the extent of Gash’s current power, teamed up with the Elements and the Princesses against him, and in the end, still managed to start something new with Gash and the others. It was a day of sorrow, trial, and eventually happiness for Fluttershy, but she fell asleep, thinking in the back of her mind that it had been a really good day.