Chapter 7: Forming Bonds

Volume 1: Rise
Arc I: Purge
Chapter 7: Forming Bonds
Perspective: Twilight Sparkle

I groan from a splitting headache as I slowly open my eyes and sit up, looking around me. I look out the window, and am disappointed to find that the moon is still out. I guess that means I failed.

I look around the room I’m in, duly noting it’s a room in the Ponyville Urgent Care unit of Ponyville Hospital. The whitewashed room is rather bland, nothing of note here other than some ‘get well’ cards sitting on the nightstand next to me.

I try to levitate them over to me using my magic, but I find that my magic fizzles out, meaning I suffered a burnout. That’s not good. I turn on the other side of the bed and reach for the cards, grabbing them with my hooves and opening the first, which has apples along the bottom.

The first one reads, “Get well soon now, ya hear? It’ll be no time at all ‘fore you’re better than apple cider at the Appleloosa rodeo! – Applejack.” It was nice of Applejack to send me one.

I set Applejack’s card aside and look at the second, which has floral patterns along the sides. It reads, “We all miss you. Please get better… F.” Heh, I guess Fluttershy was too shy to actually spell out her name on the card, so she just put her first letter instead.

I set Fluttershy’s card next to Applejack’s and move to pick up the next. It reads, “You’re a cool pony, and you make me look awesome, so get up and keep fighting! – RD.” Upon reading the card, I frown, then start laughing, finally noticing the cleverly inserted attempt at stroking her own ego.

I move to grab the fourth card, and open it to read the message inside. It reads, “Get well soon, then we may be able to let ourselves shine with the brightness of a thousand suns! – Rarity.” I smile when I finish. That was very well worded. I set the card down and open the last one, no doubt from Pinkie.

“Look to your left. – Pinkie.” I set the card down and look to my left, as the card said, perplexed by the request… and am promptly scared half to death by Pinkie, her muzzle right in my face, an ear-splitting grin on her face.

“How was your nap? Did you get enough rest? OOH! Any good dreams? Tell me you saw the bat pony! Any nightmares? I want to know-“ She starts asking a million questions, but I promptly interrupt.

“PINKIE! Enough! Sweet Celestia, you nearly scared the tail off my flank!” Pinkie stops in her tracks, before looking back to me with the same ear-splitting grin as before. “Thank you for the concern. Before I answer any of your questions, though, I need to know, where is everypony else?”

“Oh, that’s an easy one! Rarity and Applejack are still at the library! And Rainbow went off to do Celestia knows what! Hmm, I don’t know about Fluttershy, though. OH! She probably went back to her cottage!”
“And how long have you been waiting for me to wake up?”
“Only twenty seconds!”

“What?! How did you get in here so fast?”

“Silly filly, I came over as soon as I knew you were reading the cards!”

“And how did you figure that out?”

“Oh, that was easy! My Pinkie Sense went off! Floppy right ear, stiff left ear, twitchy front left hoof, sudden loss of sight!” What? Pinkie Sense? Sudden loss of sight?!

“I didn’t understand a single word you said, Pinkie. And before you get any ideas, don’t try to explain any of it again! I already feel a headache coming on…” It’s true. Whatever Pinkie was talking about, it’s giving me a headache. “Can you just go get the others, since I’m stuck in this room?”

“Okie dokie lokie! Bebackinasecond!” She turns right around… and barrels through the door, except there’s no sign of it being damaged. There isn’t even a sign it was opened. Ugh, now the headache is turning into a migraine. I’m just going to ignore whatever that was, for the sake of my own sanity.

About three minutes later, Pinkie takes courtesy to use the laws of physics and enter the room the proper way, followed by Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack, all of whom have concerned, yet relieved expressions on their faces. They all trot to the foot of my bed and take seats next to me.

“Hi, girls.” I’m very happy at their arrival, but I reflexively take a cursory glance outside and wince when the day and the sun do not greet me. I heave out a heavy sigh and turn back to the girls. “Well, all I can say is we tried.”

“That we did, sugarcube. Now don’t ya worry anymore; others are taking care of the problem.” What? It was just us, that can’t be.

“What? How? Wasn’t it just us?”

Rainbow started hovering in the air on her wings as she took over the conversation. “Well, that’s just it. Right after you went in to knock Nightmare Moon up something good, we heard the commotion. We came to check and make sure you were beating the hay out of her, and you were doing fine. Then we heard you cry out, and then it went silent. But then this creature – I don’t know what it even is, I’ve never seen it before – came barreling through the door, with a huge sword and a shield in hoof, and started basically teleporting around and smacking the stuffing out of her! Then three more showed up, one took you and brought you here, and the other two battled her over the city! Though she did have to leave, one of the other two got knocked out cold, I don’t even know if they’re awake yet. It’s in the bed right next to you!”

“Ooooohhhhh! Pinkie Sense!” Pinkie just blurts out at random, interrupting the conversation. Not two seconds later, the curtain the separates my bed from the one on the left is flung open by an unseen force of magic, and the bed next to us revealed a… What is that thing? I’ve never seen it before! It must be some sort of magical anomaly! I have to study it!

“I’m awake, have been for a while,’ the creature stated in a matter-of-fact tone… then it registers in my mind that it spoke. This creature is sentient?! My train of thought is derailed when the creature speaks again. “Well, I honestly expected this. Guess it’s what happens when a sentient species presumed extinct suddenly comes knocking.”

“Wait, what? You’re supposed to be extinct?”

“On your planet, anyways.” The terse conversation is interrupted when the door opens, admitting Nurse Redheart… and several more creatures with similar body structure to the patient walk in, all having to duck under the door, being so tall, they almost touch the roof. They take a cursory glance to the six of us, then turn to the patient in the bed. “Hey, guys. How’d the fight go?”

The one on the left, a pale creature with a sandy brown… mane?... and an amulet of some sort hanging off what I can only conclude is its neck, a source of magical power emanating from it. “Well, I had fun smacking her around, up until she turned the tables. Then, right as I was about to get her, she slammed me into one of those stone pillars near the castle entrance and put me out long enough to escape

The one in the middle, another pale creature with a dark brown mane and holding what I can only assume is a helmet with a pulsing gem embedded into a socket near the front middle, speaks up next. “Well, it went along well enough until she tried to get out of the castle. I went to chase after her, but then I remembered there was a severely injured individual leaning against one of the stone pillars. In fact, I don’t know if you guys could see it, but that individual and the… I think they’re called ponies here… the patient in the bed next to yours are one and the same. I had to take a detour and let her escape to get the pony here.”

The one on the right finishes the summary. “Well, I was doing fine until the bitch whipped out some sort of gravity manipulation! Then next thing I know, she’s flying off and I can’t do a damn thing to stop her! In fact, Galen, that gravity manipulation is the reason you’re here in the first place! I saw that hit, and the force that sent you into the ground could have blown through both sides of a metal train like tissue paper. I’m surprised you’re even awake, let alone in such a good condition!”

The creature in the bed, apparently called Galen, turns its head to look out the window. A few seconds later, it turns back to the other three. “Well, at least we kept it from hurting anybody else. But I can tell that Nightmare Moon has more tricks up her sleeve. Help me up, guys, we need to go. And Naruto?”

“Yeah?” the one on the right answers.

“Go help the pony in the other bed. I don’t know it yet, but I get the feeling we’re going to need as much help as we can get, and apparently, it’s important if Nightmare Moon wanted to attack it personally.”

The creature on the right turns to and walks toward me, and then it begins making various motions with its… hooves? Those are shrouded in a green aura and placed on my torso, and I feel a wave of healing magic pass through me, repairing all the damage sustained in my fight with Nightmare Moon, leaving almost no trace except a small tingling sensation in my horn. I slowly sit up in my hospital bed, feeling for my magic, and move to get out of the bed, when Fluttershy flies over to me and puts a hoof under my stomach, supporting me as I attempt to get back on my hooves.

I turn my head over to the one who healed me. “Thank you, mister…?”

“Naruto. And you are…?”

I clear my throat. “Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia.” Naruto extends his… hoof?... for a shake, which I take nervously. “Now, may I ask how you came to be on this planet?”

Over to my left, Pinkie suddenly gasps, jumps into the air, and dashes off, leaving a cloud trail in her wake… and I’ll just shelve that thought; it’s already giving me a migraine. The other girls look at the door askew as it slams shut of its own accord.

They turn back to me as Fluttershy finally lets go of my midsection, trusting me to hold my own weight. I flex my legs, and upon finding the stretches do not cause any immediate cramps, I start doing some more complex maneuvers to limber my body up.

Perspective: Starkiller

Naruto turns to me after healing the pony who calls herself Twilight, and sets his hands on my chest. Chakra spews forth from his hands as he quickly heals my various wounds, allowing me to get out of my hospital bed and stretch. I stand in place and start performing the various flexibility exercises I learned training under Vader as Naruto starts a hushed conversation with Twilight.

As I’m performing my exercises, I let my mind go blank and draw upon the Force, sensing its ambient tension in the air around me, and slowly begin to pull on it. I elicit a response when my lightsabers start steadily floating in midair a short ways above the table they were placed on.

I exit my trance and open my eyes to find Naruto standing in front of me, tapping his foot impatiently. “Come on, dude. We have to check on the residents and figure out a way to keep the town safe!”

I nod in affirmation, and go to retrieve my gear. Upon equipping myself, I turn to Naruto as he runs out the door. Before I leave, though, I turn back to Twilight. “Keep safe.” That said, I turn and rush out the door after Naruto.

Perspective: Naruto

I run down the hallway as I use my chakra to get a feel for what I can’t see, finding a roof access hatch three levels above me. As I finish figuring out how to get there, Galen rounds a bend behind me and catches up, James in tow. “Alright, the other man is already on the roof, so we need to go meet up with him and see if he can help us figure out what to do.” I turn down a hallway on the left as James and Galen follow me, leading to a short flight of stairs.

A minute later, we reach our destination, a metal access hatch located above a small elevator platform. “Alright, one at a time. That elevator platform doesn’t seem safe. I’ll head up first.” I take the step onto the platform and find a lever next to me. I’m going to go ahead and assume this is what’s getting me up there.

I pull down on the lever, and with a rather disconcerting creak, the elevator starts moving. A minute later, I find myself below the hatch. I grab the wheel and turn it until I hear the familiar click of the lock being undone, allowing me to raise and move the hatch out of the way and grant unhindered access to the roof. Upon stepping on the roof, I find another lever that most likely drops the elevator back down. I pull the lever, and the creak noise sounds again.

My ascension complete, I turn to the far side of the narrow end of the roof, where the other man is standing, looking out over what I think is the north part of the town. I stride over to him, and he turns to acknowledge me as I come up behind him, coming to stand beside him.

“You are Naruto, right?”

“That’s me.”

The man extends his hand for a shake, and I waste no time in accepting it. “Blake Marshall, former Knight of Equestria. It seems I’ve been thrown back in time. All I know is that something bad is coming to this world, and it’s my job to stop it.”

I chuckle, before placing my free hand on his shoulder. “Well, I’m probably not the first or last to tell you this, but you can’t do that alone. I had a friend who only wanted revenge, and when he got it, he was determined to keep himself secluded from society for the rest of his life. Before I found myself here, I managed to convince him that life wasn’t all about hating others and breaking bonds.”

The man, Blake, nods appreciatively at the pearl of wisdom, before I sense Galen and James approaching, and we both turn around. “I’m not the only one, either. These are my friends, Galen,” I turn, gesturing to the tall, well-built brunette, who sharply nods and mutters a greeting, “and James.” I turn to James as he gives a polite yet shy smile and extends his hand. Blake takes his hand gingerly and slowly, taking care to not frighten James, who seems a bit squeamish. “Guys, this is Blake Marshall.”

Author's Note

Hello again, everypony! Now the gang (minus Miles for now) meets the Mane Six, though no words are had. Words later, action now. Glad to finally have this one done. Took a while to write, then Word deaded itself and I lost a whole page of what I had written. I only managed to not take even longer because Word somehow scrounged up an original copy of the document I had lost text from, so thank the heavens for that.

Well, review week of finals just wrapped up, and it was honestly a bit hectic. So I'm going to chill for the rest of the weekend and not do anything until next weekend or when finals are done. On that note, I bid you all a good day, so don't forget to comment on what you thought. Good thing Chapter 8 is already done, and Chapter 9 is in the works. See you later, everypony!