The fight for Equestria

Twilight entered the dark room, for now it was only filled with basic necessities, a bed, curtains over a window, shelves, closet, and it’s own bathroom. A room right across the hall from where she slept, and Spike right next to this room. Twilight pulled the blankets back, and within the glow of her horn, lifted the still sleeping foal from her back and gently settled him into the bed. Once done, she lifted the blanket and covered him, carefully tucking him in.

Looking down at his sleeping form, Twilight could not help but to smile, she raised a hoof and pushed a strand of his mane from his face. Colt rolled over and gently grabbed hold of her leg, snuggling up to it. Twilight suppressed a giggle and leaned down and kissed his forehead. It took her a few minutes of slowly removing her hoof from his grip and keep from waking the sleeping foal.

With Colt tucked in and slumbering away, Twilight all but dragged herself back into the hall and into her own room. She pulled back the covers and settled into her bed and swiftly fell asleep.

Colt felt sluggish, and so tired. There was pain in his body, that seemed to come from everywhere, and yet parts of him that seemed at the edge of his body were so cold and numb. He was not sure why he was suddenly in so much pain. He tried to move, but his body would not respond. The pain, however grew into a white hot searing feeling he almost could not stand.

It was then, as he prayed for the pain to go away, that he could faintly hear a loud rapid beeping, and distant voices all around him. He tried to say something, but his throat felt dry, and also as if something were stuck in his throat. He tried to swallow to clear it away, but it wouldn’t work. He was confused as to what was going on. Everything around him seemed an unbodied form of chaos, and it scared him to know he could not do anything.

As he lay there, coming to terms with the fact he could not move, could not see, could barely breath, and could feel nothing but pain, his mind began to panic.

Finally some of the pain seemed to begin to fade away as something cold clashed against the burning hot pain at the center of his body. At that moment something pressed against his head, just beside his eyes. Some sort of cloth was removed and his eyes were accosted with bright light from overhead. A distant voice of a woman came through to him.

“Doctor, he’s conscious.” The figure of a bald older man peered over at Colt, before taking something small and shining another light into his eyes. He could still see perfectly in one side, but the other, he realized was nothing but a faint spot. He tried to say something, but there was only a strange faint gurgling sound.

“Now, don’t panic sir, you’ve been in a terrible accident, you need to try and remain calm-”

“Doctor, his vitals are spiking.”

“Give him a little more morphine, we have to try and keep his heart rate under control.”

Colt tried again to say something, but the same gurgling sound emerged, and little red spots appeared on the face of the doctor. He took it in stride and had an assistant wipe his face as he tried to keep him under control. His eye wide, Colt could only comprehend one thing now, as the pain returned with more intensity as he tried to get his body to respond.

It was too late as the doctors began to work harder and faster, suddenly Colt could feel his chest lurch up, more blood spilled out from his mouth, the beeping in the background changed from it steady fast paced beeping to a single long high pitched drone. His body fell back, and everything began to fade. The pain, the numbness, sound, and finally his vision.

“Alright... calling it....” Was the last thing he heard before he was drifting in darkness.

Colt awoke in his bed, a sliver of light coming in from the window. He could not breathe, or move, and panic seized him. He was not sure what was happening. There was not an intense amount of pain as when he was at that other place, but there was a strange intense ache through his whole body. His mouth opened and closed as his chest felt a tightening from the lack of oxygen in it.

“Stop!” Came a commanding voice in his mind, it was his voice.

“Calm yourself. Calm your mind first, then take a deep breath.” He did as it instructed, his closed his eyes and quickly emptied his mind, halting the panic. The turned his mind to taking a breath, and with his mouth open he was finally able to take in a deep breath. The air filled his lungs, and he was grateful. Now that he was no longer panicking, he knew what else to do. It felt as if he had gone through this about a dozen or so times before.

Once he knew he was breathing easily enough, he closed his eyes and followed through with the process of startling his body awake from the false belief of death. It took him some seconds to work his mind to regain  feeling in the top part of his body, he was able to move. Though it was more of a jerking motion with the top part of his body, he was able to get himself to the edge of the bed. HE could tell, by the tingling in the rest of his body, he still had to go through this.

With one last grunt and motion of his body, Colt forced himself over the edge of the bed. The very second his mind registered he was falling, his older instincts kicked it, sluggishly moving his body faster than his fall, his arms and legs shot out to hit the ground before he face planted.

The impact did the rest of the work for him, the sudden jarring stop shocked the rest of his body out of lethargy. Colt closed his eyes, grateful he was able to use his body again. Whatever that nightmare before, it seemed familiar, and yet completely different. Where his previous nightmares he could understand were not real, this, this was different.

Colt suddenly felt cold, he could tell his body was sweating. He opened his eyes to look at the ground and try to stand up on his legs. This resulted in him quickly falling over, barely catching himself on the edge of the bed. He looked down, and realized his body was different.

All he could do at that moment was to open his mouth and begin screaming in panic, again.

Twilight rolled over, she had just woken up, unsure of why. She had been in a deep sleep, and suddenly woke. The sun was just rising, and she covered her eyes with a foreleg. After a moment, she thought she heard a faint thump, like something heavy hitting the floor. After a second, she brushed it off as imagining the whole thing, until she heard the screaming.

Twilight jumped up out of bed, and promptly fell flat on the floor. Her back hooves were tangled in the blanket. She used her magic to remove the blanket as quickly as possible and run out the door, nearly running over Spike in the process as she made her way to the room with Colt.

As she entered, he looked up, his screaming coming to a stop, but his eyes were still wide, and he was breathing heavily.

“What?” He began to back away.

“Colt, its okay, calm down.” Twilight said, trying to take a step towards him.

His breathing was still too fast, and as he stepped back, she could tell he was becoming to unsteady as he hyperventilated. His eyes began to roll as he fell to the floor. Twilight sprung forward, wings out, and grabbed Colt in her hooves before his head hit the floor.

“Colt, Colt, please, wake up. Whats wrong?”

“I-I ... I died...” He said as he came back around only a second or two later.

“What? No, no Colt, you’re right here. You’re okay, it must have just been a nightmare. Just take a moment to calm down, okay? There you go, just take deep slow breathes.” She coached.

She could feel him shaking in her grip, and she settled the two of them down on the floor, and she began to hold Colt tight to her chest, slowly rocking him and stroking his mane.

“It’s okay, Colt. It was just a nightmare, you are going to be just fine.”

Spike watched from the doorway, he felt bad for the foal, after his scare. He turned and made his way towards the kitchen, deciding it would be better to have breakfast ready for the two when they were able to pull themselves together.

It was not long before Twilight and Colt joined Spike downstairs in the dining room. He was still working on breakfast but already had some cold apple juice, milk, toast, and some pancakes set up. He offered a smile as the other two settled in some seats, before turning and disappearing back through the door.

As Twilight and Colt set about getting some food, Spike re-emerged from the kitchen with some food for himself, evident by the collection of gems sticking out of some oatmeal, and a small apple dish. As everypony began eating, Spike leaned over and whispered to Twilight.

“How is the little guy doing?”

Twilight glanced up, the concern evident in her eyes as she cast them over to the foal. He only had one piece of toast and a single pancake with syrup over it. He ate slowly, mostly poking at the food.

“He still seems pretty shaken up. He wouldn’t really talk about what happened, even when he calmed down.”

“That must have been one bad nightmare.”

Twilight nodded in agreement, and explained she wanted to send a letter to Luna.

“Spike, Can you take him out to the market? I was thinking maybe we could have a special dinner just the three of us tonight. You know, give him something positive to enjoy, and definitely nothing sweet before bed. I should not be long before I catch up with the two of you.” Spike nodded.

They did not take much longer to finish breakfast, Colt having only been able to eat half of his food. Twilight had to admit, after his experience waking up, she was glad he had at least eaten anything at all. She suspected if they could distract him from whatever was bothering him, then perhaps he could get his appetite back, and even laugh. She liked his laugh, when she had heard it in the throne room in Canterlot, after he had claimed Pinkie Pie as ‘Mount Fluffy’. She wanted that smile and laugh back, she wanted to know what it would be like in the castle if his laughter echoed through the high vaulted ceilings throughout.

Spike did not take long to clear away the dishes and clean them before he spoke with Colt to let him know they were going out for a bit and Twilight would join them later. Colt at the time seemed to have a dejected kind of attitude and so went along with Spike without argument.

Twilight stood at the door, offering a smile and waving them off. As soon as the two were out of sight, Twilight turned and closed the door and headed straight for her study. Once there she uses her magic to levitate a blank parchment and quill over to her desk. She dipped the quill into the bottle of ink that had already been carefully placed and thought for a moment before beginning to write.

Dear Luna,

I know it is strange to write to you, since I usually write to Princess Celestia, but I need some help.

You see, I awoke this morning to Colt screaming and crying. When I went to him, I asked what was

wrong, he was in a panicked state. He explained that he had... Well, died. I assured him this was

not so, since he was there, in my care.

Twilight halted in her letter, as she read it, and then re-read it, she failed to notice the small splotch of ink land lower on the parchment as she considered what she had written so far. It just did not feel right.

She shook her head as she used her magic to ball up the parchment and toss it into the waste basket, already grabbing the next parchment and beginning another letter. She had failed to notice, in her concern, the crumbled paper hit the tip of the waste basket and tumble to the side, bouncing off the floor and finding its way almost behind the waste basket where it settled.

Dear Luna,

I have some concerns for Colt. I know, I know, I haven’t been a real mother for long enough to already have concerns. But

With a frustrated sigh, she scratched the first sentence out, and continued a little lower, not wanting to already move onto another parchment already.

I have some concerns for Colt. I know, I know, I haven’t been a real mother for long enough to already have concerns. But

Colt awoke this morning screaming, I was scared and went to him. Once there, he told me he had died. I assured him it was merely a nightmare. I admit, I am scared right now,

“Oh, come on Sparkle, you can do better than that.” Twilight reprimanded herself. “You don’t want to seem like you’re already in way over your head, even though you are. And why am I talking to myself, but what do I know of raising a foal? Why did I do this? Why did I have to open my mouth, and say I would take care of the foal? Celestia had even tried to offer me a way out by telling me it took a lot of responsibility.” Twilight realized she was starting to lose her nerve, she bit her lip and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself.

She stood there, silent and still for a few seconds, before raising a hoof, placing it over her chest and breathing in deeply before slowly moving her hoof away from her body, straight out, and exhaling simultaneously.

As she opened her eyes, already starting to feel the effects of her calming exercise that Cadence had taught her all those years ago, seeming more than a lifetime; Twilight realized there was no reason to give explicit details, all she had to do was present her concerns, and ask Luna for a little help.

She balled up that parchment and began the next one, her eyes wide as she leaned in to the parchment, unaware of her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth as she scribbled away.

Once done, she looked it over, and smiled, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough. At the very least, it was short and straight to the point, with a simple request.

“Spike.” Twilight called out as she levitated the parchment and rolled it up, sealing it. It took a moment of nothing more than silence answering her, to remember that she had sent him with Colt to the market.

“Well, I could wait until later to send this, by Spike’s magic. Luna wouldn’t even be awake right now. Perhaps its time I try that spell I made that resembles Spikes ability to send scrolls to the castle.” She remembered all the precious parchment she had wasted while trying to work the kinks out of the spell previously, which included several other parchments catching fire. The tip of her horn  blackened and smoking more often than not with a partially burned scroll, and even one time she lost a very comfortable chair from the spell backfiring as it began its journey once it burned properly and simply exploded into a green fiery torrent over he chair.

Twilight shook her head, it was why unicorns practiced magic as often as they could and in safe places. Mostly. With her eyes closed, Twilight brought the spell to mind and focused on it, and its destination which were required, or else, she could lose something else, like the bookcase over there with the finely crafted wood intricately carved. No, this was no time for distractions. She refocused on the spell again, properly now.

A green ball of fiery magic formed and engulfed the scroll, burning it to ash, and then flying off through the nearby window. Twilight could feel the tug of the magic as it now was on its own, and she no longer needed to guide it. It was how some spells went, some needed full concentration the whole time to complete, usually sapping the unicorn of more strength than other spells. By finding a path in the world, and connecting her spell to that, she could feel its ebb and flow, and as she brought the magic to it, they seemed to almost reach out like kindred spirits. The moment it began to pull the spell along, Twilight knew she could release it and it would no longer have any problems reaching its proper destination. This form of magic easily helped reserve energy and strength for a unicorn, by allowing an already flowing concentrated magic to take control once she had everything else set up.

Once that was done, Twilight realized, as she glanced to the other parchments, she had not informed any of the rest of her family as of yet, of her predicament. Then, an idea came to her, who else could help her in her situation, why another mother. Her mother, had more than enough experience, not just with raising a foal, but raising two. Her thoughts drifted for only a moment to her mother, father, and brother.

Her next letter was to her mother, she explained only enough details to let her mother know she was helping a lost foal, and would need some help, preferably motherly advice. She promised, in the letter, she would explain more details as time went on and things developed from there. This was because, in all honesty, Twilight still was not sure of how things were going to go, whether she would be allowed to adopt and raise Colt as if he were her own, or anything else really.

Yet, at the back of her mind, a memory came forward that she had forgotten about, considering all that had happened. It was just a small detail, of Colt asking where his hands were.

Hands. Perhaps... Yes, a portal randomly opening and closing, and a foal being found. He may not have even been a foal in the first place. The obvious place she could connect the knowledge of hands, was the other Equestria she had gone to, back when Sunset Shimmer had stolen her crown, and then again when they all had to face the sirens. The world of bipedal beings at the high school. After a few more thoughts, Twilight decided to store this connection away and speak to Celestia about, preferably face to face.

Twilight once again prepared herself another letter, this one to shining armor and Princess Cadence. As she began to write out the opening of the letter, her mind briefly turned to curiosity if she twisted the words around a little and played a bit of a prank on Shiny. She sat there staring at the mostly empty letter as her mind imagined what would happen if she said she had a foal, and did not know who the father was. She could imagine the fury her brother would be in. She could see him taking a full garrison of guards, hopping the next train and showing up on her front step with several stallions in tow from Ponyville, demanding who the father was. Flash would be top of that list-

Twilight halted her mind, and realized how far her imagination had already gone. She shook her head, there was no way she could do that to her BBBFF.

“Wow, I wonder where that strange dark thought came from?” She idly wondered aloud as she offered a more in depth explanation of the situation, including that she found the foal, and Celestia and many others were searching for the parents and for the time being she would be helping to take care of the foal.

That should more than explain the things as they stood now, and also did not have any form of misinterpretation of her previous thoughts. She hoped. With a quick P.S. She added that she had sent a letter to their mother and had also asked for her help since she had already had enough experience raising the two of them. She wanted to assure Shining that she was fine, and there was no need for concern or panic.

Once done, Twilight picked up her saddle bags for shopping from by the door and placed the two letters within. Once done she headed out to the market, with a quick stop by the post office, where, as it turned out, Derpy was just on her way out on her new added route and gladly took the proffered letters.

Derpy, for her part, had closed the door behind her, and began to take off immediately, only to be halted by the bag. Twilight briefly wondered if the bag may have been too big and heavy considering it was almost bigger than the poor gray mare. That is until she saw that a small corner of the bag had caught in the door. She helped Derpy out by opening the door, releasing the bag from its captor.

“Thanks Twilight, I just don’t know what went wrong.” She said as she brushed herself off and attempted her flight again, this time to not be impeded with anything going wrong.

Twilight couldn’t help but to chuckle, she had known Derpy for some time now, and she was such a good mare, very nice and friendly. The only problem she had were her gold colored eyes. They were slightly crossed, and could never quite meet in the middle to look straight. It led to a few incidents now and again, as well as a little klutziness, but no pony really tried to hold that against her. How could they, as nice as she was, as well as a hard worker, and very approachable, she was able to take some of her short comings and make herself better. She had no problems laughing at herself at times.

When asked, she had explained that she had been laughed at so much when she was little. “But, if I can get everypony to laugh with me, instead of at me, for any problems I have, they will remember sharing that laugh a lot more than my problems. They seem more willing to forgive me when something does go wrong. Its better to share a laugh, than to laugh at somepony.” They had been fairly wise words, and also proved true more times than anything else.

Twilight waved to Derpy as the gray pegasus mare turned and smiled, her own way of assuring she knew how important her job was, and she held that responsibility close to heart. It was the best way for ponies to communicate their love and feelings, ideas and opinions, as well as experiences. Derpy had also shared this bit of her understanding with Twilight once, and it proved how dependable Derpy was.

Twilight turned and made her way further into the market now looking for Spike and Colt. It was not long before she spotted the two, Spike already had a bag of a few items and they had stopped by a stall with books. A pony from out of town was trying to raise money for a bookstore in Ponyville, as least that was what the sign at the front of the stall expressed.

Twilight turned to start heading towards them when she bumped into something and fell back, the sound of a bag tearing and things hitting the ground. Twilight saw fruit rolling by and looked up to see a familiar pony also on her haunches, staring with a small frown at the food that had spilled. The frown, was not at all a harsh or in any way an angry one, just tired. Once she looked up and spotted Twilight, the mare stood and offered an apology.

“Oh, dear Twilight, I’m so sorry. I had so many bags I was trying to carry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“It’s no problem, here let me help you.” Twilight offered as she began to pick up the food in the aura of her magic, that was when a thought struck her.