Saving Alicorn

“Kzzchht....come in...... core.... kchhhhht.... code....... run”

What?

“Fzzchht.... unable...... radio..khhhcht...............................”

What the hell was that? I’ve never heard a pony with a voice like that before.

Wait.

Spitfire.

Blood. That’s not good.

My blood.

“Come on, be careful not to get her conscious... And clean her up a bit, we need to prepare her for transport anyway.”

Aw, hell. Please no. I need to do something... anything... I knew something would go wrong, but we had no choice. There was no telling when or where we would have appeared, and if we had gotten hurt! Who knows what could have happened to Spitfire!?

They mentioned a she. Spitfire. How long had I been there, frozen in this state, floating in and out of consciousness? I need to help her. Anything!

I suppose now is a good enough time to recall my thoughts as any.

Ok. So, a long time ago there was a land known as Equestria. It was a magical and peaceful place. Equestria is no more, after the last alicorn died the world began to end. History? Check.

My name is Spark Plug, male, I’m a unicorn, and along with my former-wonderbolt friend we are the last survivors of our world. Immediate background? Also check.

Me and Spitfire. Living straight through to the end of time itself. Just an engineer and a fighter, trying to stop all this madness.  Living through those last days was NOT a feat I want to attempt again any time soon. Bit more of my personal background? Check.

Now how did I get here? Ah yes, the incomplete spell I had tried forming.. Have I arrived at my destination? Have I messed up? Reasoning is intact. I haven't lost my brain yet. Check.

What now?

A goal. A goal always helps. I need a goal for when I wake up.

One. Get out of here.

Two. Get Spitfire.

Three.

Save Equestria.

17 Hours earlier...

I was running through the lush fields, as happy as could be. The wind blew among my mane, feeling the grass run amongst my hooves. I could hear the birds singing in in the trees, and the frogs croak the local creek. How I longed to stay here longer...

Climbing on top of the hill, I got a good long look at the small town of Ponyville. It was so much more peaceful, before they built the electric fence. In the distance, I could hear my mother calling my name.

Spark Plug! Time for lunch!

If only....

Thump thump thump.

“mrnnn... 5 more minutes..”

“Dammit Spark, get up. It’s done brewing. You told me to wake you when it was.”

Spitfire. Right. C’mon, lazybones..

THUMP THUMP THUMP.

“Alright, alright! I’m coming.”

As I got out of the mess I call my bed, I put on my goggles, and my protective coat came on shortly after, as quick as I could go.

I opened the door out of the cramped room and stepped into the main floor of the observatory. This was probably the most cared for building in all of Ponyville, and after all, it's not like anyone’s left here anyway. The war had taken its toll on every single piece of land across this earth.

I passed the door that, when opened, would be a quick and shady sprint to the library. You could barely survive the heat outside. With Twilight Sparkle, being on the verge of death, the sun never rose. Never set. Just positioned in the last place for the past, what was it now? 3 months? Occasionally Twilight would muster up enough strength to move the sun to a different position, but until then, whatever was in the heat would bake. You needed a winter cloak to stop from freezing in the shadows, but it is far more bearable than the scorching heat roasting the hide of your back.

I shuddered, remembering the few times I had been forced to venture out, and continued on to the structure in the middle of the room. Spitfire was sitting next to the array of magical pumps and fluid ducts that lead towards the round cage like structure in the middle of the contraption which was my pride and joy. I had spent all my time working on this, from personal directive from Twilight herself.

“Hi, Spitfire.”

“Hey there. Bagel?”

“Sure.” Even the most basic food items were scarce these days, and even something as simple as bread or a bagel is a luxury to be savored. “What’s the occasion?”

“Well, I assume you could tell me. After all, it is your machine. Not really my area of expertise.”

“Yeah... Second last batch.. We should be ready some time during the next week.” I told her as I sat down beside her, and started to fiddle with the brewing machine to my left.

As she said, the latest batch of liquid magical essence was completed. One more, and we should have another few days of waiting ahead of us. As much as the magical resonance is overloading in this world, due to the dwindling number of unicorns and our ‘Alicorn predicament’, refining it into a usable state so that the spell caster doesn't overload their horn is still a lengthy task. I wouldn't even bore myself with it if I weren’t almost forced to.

Finishing off my delicious bagel, I began pouring the solution into the funnel, cleverly positioned so I didn’t need to strain my magic moving the solution.

“Same ingredients as usual? Or do we just dump the rest in, I’m sure that would give it an extra kick.” she enquired.

“No no, that would probably cause some kind of problem, I’m sure. Same as always, although feel free to throw the rest of that broadleaf thyme in there, we can’t have this batch failing us.”

“*Sigh**. Whatever you say, Spark.” She half mumbled under her own breath as she turned to leave.

Meanwhile, I started cleaning out the receptacle that used to be holding the oddly raspberry smelling liquid energy, a task that I had performed many times before.

Shortly thereafter, Spitfire came back with various potions and herbs in her saddlebag, which she had acquired from the storage cupboard down the hall.

“Spark, did you move the remainder of the poison joke extract? I thought we still had some left..”

“Not that I can recall. Did you look in the spare hazards chest?”

“Who do you take me for, someone who comes up lacking?” she replied with a sharp tongue.

“Yes I checked. Sorry, being cooped up here with no one but you can take its toll on a mare like myself.”

“You say that like its a bad thing” I replied with a smirk on my face.

“Heh, I don’t think so, Spark. I can barely stretch my wings as is.”

“Point taken. I’ll go look in some of the older observatory storage centers.”

Turning around to leave to the dusty storage center used by the science team once stationed here, I had the strangest feeling I would come up lacking.

Heuchera. Cannabis. Sage from Stalliongrad. As rare as these ingredients where, they were not the crucial ingredient I needed. If I didn’t get the batch done, I ran a high risk of burning out long before the spells completion, sending me spiraling to

Celestia knows where. Darn it. why does something crucial always need to go wrong? At least it can’t get much worse, with the world ending as it is.

Trotting up the stairs, I called out to Spitfire. “We’re out of poison joke extract! Fancy going to go get some?” I finished, reaching the main dome.

“You’re insane, the sun hasn’t changed its position in the sky for months. I’d cook out there.”

I continued trotting past her, and came to a stop at the closet at the other side of the room. “And that’s why we have.... the exosuit!” I exclaimed in a half dramatic voice. The suit itself, looked like it was cobbled together from aluminum foil and wires. Not my best work.

“I’ve been working on if for a while now, and it should suit our needs. It can withstand the heat outside and the freezing cold in the shadows, for about 20 minutes. With luck, that’s all you’ll need to go grab some poison joke, which the suit also protects against, and bring it here so we can extract what we need from it.”

With a sly look on her face, she started to respond. “Yeah... but one small problem there, Spark...”

“And what would that be?”

“The suit seems to be made for a unicorn, not a Pegasus”

Crap.

A short while later, Spitfire had me all suited up. I looked ridiculous!

“Well, not the prettiest attire. But as long as it works, right? Which it does... Hopefully.... You sure about this Spark Plug?”

“Yeah. We can’t delay any longer. We need that poison joke. Which is odd, because it has almost no useful applications... And besides, what's the worst that could happen? Even if the suit fails, I should have about 23 seconds before my body boils.”

All of the sudden, I’m a lot less confident. Thanks, Spark. There’s no way something could go wrong, at all, ever.

Just keep telling yourself that....

“Well ok, Spark. You just better come back, you hear? It’s going to be awful hard saving the world with a pile of goo.” I could detect a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“That’s funny, because the spectra in my gooey form would actually be a viable replacement for th-”

“You’ll do fine, Spark.”

I sure hope so.

Trudging over to the door, I prepared myself, both mentally and physically. Yep, keeping it together. Just open the door. Come on, magic. Open it. Now.

Holding a breath, I could slowly hear the metal handle creek from the lack of use over the years. I swung the door open, and one thought went through my head as I closed the door with my magic.

Run.

Avoid the shadows as much as possible. I don’t need the suit failing me because of the dramatic temperature changes. That... would hurt.

Dammit, stop thinking about that. You have Spitfire to go back too. She can’t do this without a unicorn and should never have to do this without a friend. She’d be stuck there for the rest of her life.

Also Equestria being doomed. Keep the big picture in mind, and off Spitfire’s.... Plot.

Shoot, missed the schoolhouse. Didn’t i just think about needing to pay attention?

As I ran up to the old, neglected, brown door, old memories flowed back to me. My first day. Boggling Cheerilee with my math skills.  Playing on the playground. Now before me stands a building, neglected by time and abundant with fungus. As I pushed onwards through the schoolhouse door, I spotted my prize.

On the roof, positioned at just at the right angle in relation to the sun, hangs a prism. From this prism, light is reflected towards Cheerilee’s desk, where an abandoned science project lay. In the middle of this piece of terraformed land grew the end to my quest, a few lone flowers of poison joke. Carefully picking half of them with my magic, I placed them into a jar on my belt. There, mission accomplished. Now to get back to the observatory.

I started into a full gallop, running straight out of the school building and start heading in the direction of the town square.

Thunk!

“Ouch! Stupid ledge!” I cursed at it, rolling onto my back and checking for lacerations in the suit.

Instead, I spotted high above me, Metal Dragons. Seriously? So much for not getting worse!

As they approached, I could see what they really were. Military projects put forward from the griffon empire, powered by souless dragons, that could devour whole cities to take the materials back to their homeland. Rumor was that they were building shelters of some kind.

Oh no.

The entire observatory is made out of metal.

RUN LEGS, RUN!

It took me a third of the normal time to reach the observatory. Opening the door as I got closer, I started shouting.

“Spitfire! Start up the teleport! We don’t have any time! Now!”

I bolted into the door, forced it closed, and ripped the helmet of the suit off.

“Spark! What's happening out there?”

“Dragons! We need to leave NOW!” I exclaimed as I threw the poison joke raw into the brewing pot Spitfire had set up. I stated stirring furiously, throwing in potions and herbs in an attempt to speed the fermenting process up. As Spitfire finished up activating all the valves, I poured the mixed up potion into the funnel, using my magic to force it down the tube.

“Everything ready? Valves set to full?”

“Yeah, Spark. Ready when you are.” I could hear the anxiety in her voice.

We both hastily scrambled into the machine, and I attached the device to my horn. Feeling the power flow into me, I started channeling it into the time spell.

Now all I need to do is concentrate. Come on..

It whirred to life, and I could feel the magic start to envelop us both.

Post reditum duodecim lu-

CRASH

Jerking my eyes open for a split second, I saw a metal beast head straight for us. I threw my arms around spitfire and tried to teleport us out, only to have my horn blown out.

Just like a candle.

ZRACKK