The War of Ferus Island

Chapter 4

Scouting Ferus

The island was a pretty long flight from Baltimare, but the scouting party was made up of the fastest Pegasi in the Canterlot Guard. They made good time, which Rainbow was thankful for. The five Pegasi behind her were keeping pace nicely. They were nearly there after little more than half a day. Rainbow was still getting used to the armor of the Guard, but the Scouting armor was light and aerodynamic, so she had no complaints.

"Do you think there will be any more of those stones on the island?"

Rainbow turned her head and saw a dark brown Pegasus flying next to her. "I sure hope so. This plague needs to stop."

The Pegasus nodded sadly. "It took my brother two weeks ago. Now my mom's got it."

Rainbow gave the Pegasus a reassuring and sorrowful look. "Well, we're about to find out." Angling down, Rainbow made for a landing in a large grassy field on the island, just as Blue Stars had described. Folding her wings in as her hooves hit the ground, she took several steps forward. She scanned the horizon, making a quick spin in place. She had heard tales of the dangers of Ferus Island, but all she could see were some lumbering animals grazing in the distance. They hardly looked threatening.

"Okay, everypony," Rainbow said after the others had landed. "You know what we're looking for. They may just look like normal rocks, but they're heavier than rocks, and they may be glowing. Spread out and start searching."

Rainbow trotted over to Rocky Shield. He was a geologist pony, and they had brought along to learn more about the stones' formation. He already had his pickaxe out and had started digging a hole. "What do you think?"

Rocky looked up. "The island appears to have been formed by a volcano." Rainbow gave a start. "Oh, don't worry. It seems to be completely dormant."

Rainbow nodded slowly. "Let me know if you find anything." Heading away from the landing site, she began looking for any rocks poking through the dirt. She overheard one of the other Pegasi talking to his friend. "I can't believe we're being led by somepony who's little more than a filly." Rainbow grimaced, but pretended not to hear.

After an hour, they had found three stones on the surface. Rocky had brought four up from the small hole he had dug. Of the seven stones, all were glowing, albeit faintly. Rainbow Dash leaned over to examine the pile they had gathered. Picking one of them up with a hoof, Rainbow looked closely at the light it was emanating. It was constantly changing its color, and was pulsing slightly.

"Look at her over there," the stallion Rainbow had overheard before murmured. "Acting like she owns the place. A mare shouldn't be allowed to lead a scouting squadron, especially one so inexperienced."

"Shut your mouth, Arro," came the voice of the brown Pegasus Rainbow had been talking to before landing. "That's Rainbow Dash. She's the only pony to ever pull off a Sonic Rainboom. I saw it with my own eyes. Until you can do the same, you had better show some respect."

The memory of the Best Young Flyers Competition rushed into Rainbow's mind. The pure adrenalin as she prepared for the dive, the rush of excitement as she beat her wings as hard as she could, the feeling of pride as she looked back and saw the rainbow streaming out of her mane...

A blue bolt shot toward a nearby boulder from the stone in Rainbow's hoof. The boulder burst, pieces of it flying everywhere. Rainbow jumped back and yelped, dropping the now dark stone she was holding.

"What the hay was that?" Rocky asked as he poked his head up from his hole.

"I... I don't know," Rainbow told him. Gathering herself, she turned to the rest of the scouting squadron. "Keep searching for stones, but don't touch them. Bring them here wrapped in cloth or something, just don't touch them!" Rainbow looked back at the place the boulder had been and gulped.

* * * * * * *

Twilight Sparkle trotted through Rambling Rock Ridge. It was rather bland scenery. The thin road ran between rock-filled fields and the occasional farm house. The low sun cast long shadows on everything, making the scene only slightly more interesting.

Spike groaned on her back. "What's the point of these boring old rock farms anyway? Don't we have enough rocks?"

Twilight giggled. "The rocks aren't what the farms produce, Spike. This whole area has strong magical currents flowing underground. These cause valuable gems to grow on the rocks."

"Oh. So why does this place have such strong magical currents?"

"Because the area is surrounded by a deep band of metallic minerals. This allows the natural magic flows to enter, but not to leave. They’re just reflected back into the valley. Because of the way they reflect and bounce, different areas of the ridge are better for gem production at different times, so the farmers rotate the rocks to whichever field is getting the best magical reception at that time."

Spike's eyes had lost focus. When he realized Twilight had stopped talking, they snapped back to hers. "Oh, that makes sense."

Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile and kept walking. Cresting a hill, a large farm came into view. Light came from the windows, as the sun had finished its descent below the horizon. Twilight sped up to a canter, heading for the sizable farmhouse. Knocking on the door with the bottom of her hoof, Twilight was surprised when it opened nearly immediately. A middle-aged gray mare stood before her. Her expression was solemn.

"Hello. I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm a friend of Pinkies..."

"Ah yes. Come in, Twilight Sparkle," the mare said, gesturing for Twilight to enter. "Pinkie's told me much about you." Her expression never changed.

"I understand one of Pinkie's sisters is sick," Twilight said, entering the house. The main room was full of people. Most of the ponies looked to be farm-hooves, but Twilight saw some family resemblance in several of them. "May I see her? I'm studying the plague for Princess Celestia."

The mare looked over Twilight before nodding. "Follow me. The doctor is with her now." She led the way back to a small bedroom. Pinkie was there, standing with a doctor over a bed. On the bed was a mare who looked younger than Pinkie by at least two years. Also in the room were two brown stallions, one with gray hair and one with black, and a gray mare about the same age as the one in bed.

Pinkies looked up as they entered. Her face was drained of her usual exuberance, and she merely nodded to Twilight as a greeting. The heavy coughing from the mare on the bed would have been explanation enough, even without the patches of skin visible through the pony's molting hair. The doctor was busy listening to the mare's heartbeat. Twilight approached him and said, "I'm here to attempt a magical healing of the plague."

Everpony in the room gasped, save the one coughing on the bed, who looked unaware of everything around her. The doctor looked doubtful. "It's impossible. Nopony has enough power to heal something this serious. You're wasting your time."

"I've been sent with the authority of Princess Celestia," Twilight said. "If you have a problem, you can take it up with her." The doctor stared back at her with a furrowed brow before shrugging and backing up.

Twilight had spent the entire night before studying up on healing magic and it's uses. It was a delicate art, and required many separate flows of magic all working together. Even with the stones, it would take an immense amount of focus to get it right. Stepping up to the bed, Twilight sent some feeler flows into Blinkie. This was her first chance to examine the plague first-hoof. They confirmed all her suspicions, verifying all the causes of the symptoms she had prepared the healing spell for. She took a deep breath and looked around at everypony in the room. "I need you all to be quiet," she said. "This will take all my focus, and I can't afford to be distracted." They all nodded.

Turning, Twilight brought the stone out from her bag. It was glowing brightly, fully-charged with magical energy. Gazing into it, she ran over the spell one final time in her head. She closed her eyes, depending on the far more accurate magical feeler flows to guide her. Taking a final breath, she began.

The flows wove themselves around each other, twisting and turning through the body of the young mare, grabbing hold of damaged bits of flesh and binding them together, flushing out the bacteria from bloodstreams, weaving their way through the lungs and fixing the massive amounts of damage found inside... The number of flows was nearly impossible to comprehend all at once, much less control, but using the stones energy instead of her own meant Twilight could focus all of her mind on the task at hand, rather than using it to produce magic, as she usually had to.

It seemed like hours to Twilight, but finally the last flow had worked its way through Blinkie carrying out its purpose. Letting the flows go, Twilight took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

Blinkie looked... different. The patches of hair were still missing, and she was still coughing. But after a moment, her coughing stopped. She opened her eyes, looked up at everypony, and said, "What... what happened?" Her voice was clear and strong.

Everypony in the room smiled and ran to her, hugging and kissing her. The commotion brought more ponies in from the main room, all pushing to see what was happening. Twilight snuck out against the torrent of ponies, and sat down on the sofa. The spell had not exhausted her as she had feared it would. In fact, she felt exhilarated. It was the same feeling she had after finishing complex math problems in record time. She felt as though her mind was on overdrive, taking notice of every little thing.

Looking down at the stone still in her hoof, she saw how dreadfully close she had come to depleting the supply of magic. The glow was too dim to see in the well-lit room. She took a deep breath, and smiled. She went about refilling the stone, since she would need it pretty soon anyway.

A dark brown pony with black hair broke out of the bustling crowd in the room, and trotted to Twilight. "I thank you for what you did in there. Blinkie... she means a lot to me." Twilight gave the pony a questioning look. He smiled and said, "My name is Stone Tumbler. Blinkie and I are getting married next spring."

Twilight smiled. "Congratulations!"

"So what is that thing, anyway?" Stone asked, nodding toward the dimly-lit rock.

"It’s a stone that can hold magical energy. It was found on Ferus Island. We're not quite sure how they work yet, but Princess Celestia is gathering them up to use to end the plague. This was the first field-test of it, but it seems to have worked."

Stone laughed. "Good thing too." he frowned. "The doctor said she only had another day to live."

Twilight's eyes widened. "How long had she been ill?"

"Several weeks. At first it didn't look that serious, but she just wouldn't get better. That's why we wrote to Pinkie."

Twilight nodded. The stone was nearly full again. "Well, can you call everypony in here? I'd like to clean everypony's systems to kill any bacteria you all may have picked up while in contact with her."

Stone nodded and headed back to the crowded room. After a moment they all gathered in the main room, including Blinkie, who looked tired but was smiling, walking side by side with Stone Tumbler.

"Okay, everypony, listen up. As most of you probably know, the plague is very contagious. That's why I need to cleanse everypony’s bloodstreams. Normally, this would take a long time, but I think with this," she held up the brightly-glowing stone, "I can get it done in a couple minutes." The flush of the bloodstreams had been a very minor piece of healing Blinkie, and Twilight felt confident that she would be able to get everypony in the room at once. "I'll also try to clean the walls and furniture, killing any of the bacteria."

Everypony nodded and looked back at her, all of them smiling and laughing. Twilight smiled to herself before starting the cleansing.

* * * * * * *

My dearest sister, Luna,

I am writing to inform you of my intentions concerning the stones. My scouts have been sent to Ferus Island in search of more of them. I shall be receiving their report sometime tomorrow. Assuming they find more of the stones on the island, a small force will move out by land toward the island, with the intention of securing as many of the stones as possible. Twilight Sparkle is testing a magical curing of the plague as I speak, and if it goes well, I intend to use the stones to banish the sickness from all of pony kind. I wish to help the ponies who have traveled to the moon during this time as well, as I'm certain the plague will make the jump eventually if it hasn't already.

I continue to feel no ill toward the stones, and am anxious to help you find out what causes your fear of them. I hope to bring an end to it before bringing an end to the plague, so that I have your full support in the healing. I hate being apart from you, and hope to visit you on the moon before long to discuss things in more detail. Don't hesitate to ask me for any supplies you or the ponies there may need during the trying time.

Always remember that I care for you, Luna. I need you.

Your loving sister Celestia.

Celestia set her quill down and read over the letter. Satisfied, she rolled it up and cast the spell to turn it into magically guided smoke. Placing the lid on the inkwell, she turned and trotted out of the study toward her bedroom. The past couple days had been tiring beyond belief. She could only hope Twilight was successful in curing the plague, and that the scouting party would find more stones, and... She sighed. Too many ifs.

* * * * * * *

Straining, Shadow Light held the green smoke in a bubble of magic. Sending in feelers, she managed to rip the fabric of it apart before she collapsed from exhaustion. Intercepting smoke-messages was not an easy task, but she was more powerful than she let other ponies believe. Taking a deep breath, she read through the torn letter before holding it in a candle's flame to destroy it. Taking out a quill and inkwell, she went about composing a replacement.

Soon...