The Nine

I woke to the ringing of picks against rocks. I apparently had woken up very late, and had missed the leader’s speech. This didn’t concern me, though. What did concern me was the brute of a beast leaning over me. Upon seeing my eyes open, she spoke.

“I was beginning to grow worried you wouldn’t wake up. Now, if you please” she gestured to a pile of picks.

I got the message, and picked one out of the pile. I had to work on the only patch of open wall left, which happened to be right next to Fluttershy. She was making a valiant effort, but was getting very little done.

“Morning, sleepyhead. Have a nice nap?” she asked with a slight hint of anger.

“Yeah, I did. Are you feeling alright?”

She snapped, but quietly. “No! I’m not alright! Did you see what they did to the Everfree? They tore it down! Now it’s just a bare patch of dirt! All the little critters are now homeless, and I can’t do anything about it, so no, I’m not alright.”

I stared at her in shock, trying to comprehend what she had said.

“You seem angered, yellow one” our leader said from behind us. “If you let that anger flow, you could get a lot more work done.”

Fluttershy snapped again, only louder and more violently. She struck the alien across the face with her pick, making a small dent in her integument. “I don’t need some high and mighty alien whose race destroyed a beautiful piece of nature telling me that I’m not good enough!”

Fluttershy returned to the wall, fuming, while our leader left, with what appeared to be a smug grin. I had to admit, she knew how to get a worker to work harder. Maybe I could learn something from her. That would have to wait, though, since I had no idea how to go about asking her how to manipulate effectively without having it sound completely strange. Did how strange it sound matter? I couldn’t help but chuckle as I imagined myself asking her how to manipulate ponies. The look on her face was just too much.

“What’s so funny?” asked the biting voice of Fluttershy from beside me, snapping me out of my reverie.

“Oh, it’s nothing” I said, and she seemed to accept it.

After a while of working beside her, I had to pipe up. “Why can’t you just move on, Fluttershy? You’re angrier than I’ve ever seen you.”

She set down her pick and actually slapped me. I held a hoof to my cheek, more in surprise than in pain. “Your little boyfriend may be able to move on from a dead world, but just because I can’t doesn’t mean you need to shove your ways on me.”

“Geez, Fluttershy, I was just suggesting you lighten up.”

“Lighten up? LIGHTEN UP?!” she cried, drawing the attention of the others. “Why don’t you realize that our world is dead and that there’s nothing we can do about it?”

I pulled her in close, dropping my voice to a whisper. “There is something we can do, though” I was about to continue, but she cut me off.

“I know, I know. But, you weren’t awake to hear her speech. She knows all of us. She knows that I love nature, and knows that if I don’t flip out about it being gone, then something’s up. They’ve got Pinkie tied up in the bedroom, so I’m thinking we free her and get out of here.”

I was stunned. She was an excellent actor to have fooled me into thinking she had actually completely lost it. She grinned at my look of shock and returned to mining. I returned in time, but was absolutely sure they wouldn’t make untying Pinkie easy.

Eventually, we were sent to bed, and I saw what Fluttershy had meant by ‘tied up’. She sat in the middle of the crude room, a straight jacket apprehending her arms and a good length of rope keeping her legs pinned to each other. I waited for our leader to leave, and proceeded to inspect her bindings.

It was a regulation straight jacket, one quite easy to undo, and the ropes were in the same state. Of course, they were only easy to untie when I had magic. In my current condition, with only my hooves and teeth to work with, it was going to be difficult. I sighed and returned to my bed, and had the uneasiest rest I had had in ages.

It was troubled by dreams of the past. I remembered my entrance exam, when I was accepted into Celestia’s school. When I got my famous ‘Twilight eyes’, I saw a vision. It was a vision of beasts slaughtering ponies. At that time, I didn’t know who they were, but it was still scary. I tried to block it out, but when I did, I released the magic energy that allowed me to see the vision. It flowed from me into my surroundings, causing what had happened to happen to happen. Celestia realized what was happening, and dispelled that magic. She told me later what it meant. She too had these horrid visions, and knew her end was inevitable.

It had been heartbreaking, hearing her talk of her own death as a passing fad, but I knew that those beasts, whom I now call master, would eventually come to this world and destroy us all. As I progressed through her school like a thunderbolt, I continued to have these visions. I learned to listen to them, and saw my own demise. When I did, I could not accept the fact that I would die in a dead world. I vowed that day that I would not go down without a fight.

When I met the girls later, and was assigned to them, I found out that the Elements would increase my already great power, and that I could channel both my white-eye power and the power of the elements to double the magical output. This allowed me, and the others in a small way, to defeat both Nightmare Moon and Discord.

Of course, I had no way to invoke these visions voluntarily, so it was really chance that allowed me to defeat those two. Or possibly, the girls brought the visions. Who really knew for sure? Celestia probably did.

My mind tossed and turned as I did, and eventually came to settle on the topic of what the Elements really were. Celestia had said they were more than they seemed, not just gems, but if they weren't that, then what were they? I knew that the girls and I had restored them after Nightmare Moon had destroyed them, but did that really make them more? Were the gems simply symbolic, and the elements dwelled in every set of good friends? If that was the case, then why were we the Wielders? I had so many questions, but I had no idea who could answer them. If I found Celestia...

I shook my head and corrected that thought. When I find Celestia. Yes, I was going to find her. And she could answer my questions. Unless she was dead. No, she had to be alive. She couldn't just die. Alicorns just don't do that. They're immortal, right? Then again, the Tratchy had shut off all magic, so why couldn't they kill the unkillable?

But, then I remembered what Celestia had told me once. She and Luna functioned as a wellspring for the magic of Equestria. That meant that if the magic was gone, then so were they. Or maybe they had simply sealed them off. But, Celestia had said that was as likely as her dying. Of course, she had seen her death, so that was bound to happen, making the sealing bound to happen as well, right? So, if she had seen both her death and, in a roundabout way, the sealing of all magic, then which was it? Only escaping to Canterlot could get me the answers.

I tossed and turned for a while but eventually realized I couldn't sleep. I decided to rise, guessing it was only a few hours after I had first bed down, and went back to mining. Eventually, the leader came out to see what I was doing. Satisfied that I wasn't trying to escape, she left me to my thoughts.

My first thought was where everyone else was. Kiqo would probably make short work if escaping, if I knew him, and if the other three girls were together, I was sure they would make an excellent team. Ace could probably handle himself, so I wasn't too awfully worried about him.

So, if they were presumably going to escape, I had better set about untying Pinkie so we could get out as well. I set down my pick and returned to the bedroom, where she was konked out on the floor.

I went over to her, and started to try to untie the knots. It was a difficult task, since the only way I had done it before was with magic. I worked and worried the knots, and eventually got her legs undone. I then moved on to the straight jacket, and found that the belts keeping her forelegs in place were much easier to undo than the knots. I made short work of them, and roused her.

She stared up at me groggily, then held a hoof to her head. When she realized she could she wrapped me in a big hug.

With her indomitable tunneling powers back, we roused the others and left for Canterlot. We had to make a sort of conga line, so that we would all wind up in the same place. When we got there, I told Kiqo my tale.

"Wait, wait, wait" he said, holding a paw up. "You're telling me it took you a day to escape?" I nodded. "It took me a year!"

"Then that means" I trailed off, staring at Pinkie, who was socializing.

He followed my train of thought, which had arrived at the destination of: 'Pinkie can time travel?!'.

Shaking myself from that disturbing thought, I asked Kiqo what I almost didn't want to ask. "Where's the princess?"

He turned to me, sadness bringing his voice to a new low. "She's dead, Twi. I found her and Luna. I cremated them, since I've never been fond of burials."

"That's probably for the better. Nobles are usually cremated. What did you do with the ashes and bones?"

He took me to the throne room, and I saw Celestia's regal skull perched there, an urn on one side, her bones on the other. He told me that it was the same at Luna's throne, but I couldn't hear him over my own thoughts.

"Did Rarity give birth?" I asked him.

"Yes" he said, a little shocked. "Why?"

"I've got an idea."

I sought out Rarity, then Tom. He agreed to my terms, and followed me. I pressed a hidden switch on the back of the throne. A stairway descended from where there was once solid floor. Celestial had shown me this place some time in the past, and it was supposed to be known only to royalty. I descended the long stairs, the dragony right behind me. Eventually, we got to what I was looking for.

It was a golden fountain, and it shimmered with immense magical energy. I instructed Tom to drink from it, and he did. When he did, I felt the magic surge back into me. I knew it. The Tratchy had only killed Celestial and Luna, not sealed the magic. Of course, this meant Tom was now sealed as being the new immortal ruler of Equestria.

I then had him restore all the pegasi's wings, and he obliged. Every pegasus we had rescued was extremely grateful, and had a race, just to feel the wind in their manes again.