Denial, Acceptance, and Everything in Between

===============Denial, Acceptance, and Everything in Between===============

God DAMN, it’s been a long time. I’m sorry it took so long for me to get another chapter written, I’ve just been so caught up in things lately. For one, the trip I took to Kansas City for the Skills USA Robotics and Automation Nationals competition (placed 9th in the country, btw). All kinds of other junk too, just…..it’s a long story. Longer than the one I’m writing. So I’ll spare you the three-page author’s note and say I hope you enjoy the chapter!

================Chapter 11: Reappearance================

“So, what now, John?” Vinyl asked.

John considered it. There were so many things he needed to do. But at the moment, the list in his head was clouded over with a thick grey fog of sleep deprivation.

“I think…..I think I need some sleep before I do anything” He replied, yawning immediately afterwards.

She nodded, and he made an immediate beeline for the couch. All other thoughts were driven out of his head, except one. SLEEP. He needed it.

Before he knew it, he was stretched out along the couch, hands folded across his chest, eyes closed. The last thing he felt before being whirled away to dreamland was tiny hooves walking across him and then a little orange ball of fur nudging her way underneath his hands, then curling up and falling asleep underneath their warm secure feeling.

BAM!!!!

John’s peaceful slumber was interrupted by the sharp, strong sound of the front door to the library being kicked open, nearly splintering off it’s hinges. In a matter of a split second, John analyzed the situation. The front door was being kicked open, so it was obviously a threat of some kind. He was laying on the couch facing away from the front door, on his back. His firearm was in it’s hip holster as always, and one more thing: Scootaloo was still on his chest, though she was starting to wake up.

In one fluid motion, which was aided by military training, he curled his arm under the sleeping filly, stood up, grabbed his weapon with his free hand, jumped the couch, and within seconds was in front of the door holding a startled filly in one arm and his completely overkill firearm in his other hand aimed at the intruder. John made sure to put his best “shooty” look on his face, and looked down.

“Out of the way, human.” Demanded the uninvited guest, a light blue unicorn mare with a silvery blue mane and tail. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has business with the mare that is the proprietor of this library.”

“T-Trixie?!” Twilight exclaimed as she stepped out from a back room “What are you doing here?”

“Trixie has come to take her revenge on Twilight Sparkle for ruining her show and forcing her out of PonyVille! Have at you!”

The light blue unicorn pushed past John and immediately fired a beam of energy at Twilight. John was aiming his gun again, getting ready to actually use it for once, but before he thought about it, Twilight had shot her own spell that formed an umbrella shape and deflected Trixie’s blast. It made a burn mark in the wall where it hit.

“Trixie, I didn’t…” Was all Twilight got to say before Trixie powered up her horn again and fired eight spells that curved away from her and spiraled around to approach Twilight on all sides like magic missiles. Twilight fired up her horn and planted a hoof solidly on the floor, spinning in place and firing spells, shooting each one of Trixie’s magic missiles out of the air as easily if they were Tomahawk warheads. Each one hit the ground like a wounded bird and left a small pool of magenta fire in their wake.

John lowered his gun. He didn’t holster it, in case he needed it, but he DEFINITELY wasn’t stupid enough to get in the middle of a unicorn fight.

“I wasn’t the one who…” Again was all Twilight got to say before Trixie fired again, this time it seemed as if 7 tentacles of pure fire were sprouting from her horn. They sped off towards Twilight with incredible speed, and before she had time to react, whipped themselves around the startled mare.

“STOP IT!!!” screamed the little orange filly in John’s arms. She struggled out of his grip and raced across to the makeshift battlefield where Trixie was now attempting to strangle Twilight with her fire tentacles. As soon as she reached it, one of Trixie’s fire appendages released itself from Twilight’s horn and swatted the little filly away. She flew across the room and hit the wall, then slid to the floor unmoving.

“NO!” cried John, Twilight, and Vinyl, who had just stepped from the back room to see what the commotion was all about. Twilight fired up her now uncovered horn with all the reserve magic she had, and collected it in a ball at the end of her horn. Vinyl also fired up her horn, light blue energy raging across it.

John also aimed his gun at Trixie, thought as hard as he could about some form of nonlethal magic blast, flicked off the safety, and pulled the trigger.

THW-BOOOOOM!!!!!

The resulting amount of energy being fired from such a small object, overpowered as it was, knocked John back a few steps. Then, something amazing happened.

The magic bullet pierced Trixie’s magic shield, probably due to the starmetal, and released its energy inside the shield at the exact same time that Vinyl’s blast and Twilight’s energy ball hit. Since the bullet had already taken out the shield, all three energies met at the same time. The resulting combined energy formed an immense blue, purple and red form that seemed almost like a giant fist as it blew Trixie completely through the wall of the library and out into a tree. She bounced off the tree and came to a stop laying on the ground, coat blackened and smoking and her unconscious, but breathing. Twilight dropped to her hooves as the fire appendages that were suffocating her ceased to exist. John didn’t even take the time to marvel at the amount of energy that just got thrown around, it didn’t even cross his mind.

He jammed his gun in its holster, not even bothering to unload it or put the strap or safety on, and ran over to where Scootaloo was laying. He gingerly picked her up and inspected her for damage. Her left wing was crumpled where she hit the wall, and he suspected by the way it was bent, that it was broken. At least she was breathing.

“We have to get to the hospital.” He commanded. “Now.” As he said this, he cradled the filly in his arms and immediately started to briskly walk towards the front door.

The two unicorns nodded and followed him, keeping pace as he sped up. “Bring her too” he motioned to the still unconscious and smoking Trixie on the ground as they passed.

“HER?! Why?!” Vinyl demanded “Why should we help her after what she just did to Twilight and to…Scootaloo?! And all over some silly grudge!”

“Because” John said simply as he stopped and turned to face Vinyl, a look of pure darkness on his face “After she comes to, you have NO IDEA how much I will make her regret that course of action”

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiine” the white unicorn groaned. She moved to try and lift the lump of blackened light blue fur onto her back, quite unsuccessfully.

“Here” Twilight said, enveloping Trixie in a purple glow and hoisting her onto her own back “I got this. I at least owe her this much”

“What do you mean?!” Vinyl exclaimed as they started their fast-paced walk to the hospital once more “After what she did to you, you shouldn’t owe her anything!”

“Allow me to explain” the purple mare said simply. Vinyl nodded. “About a year or so ago, this mare…Trixie…showed up with a big stage and all, performing ‘magical feats beyond belief’. She really just did a few magic tricks then started challenging ponies to beat her. Except when somepony challenged her, she didn’t actually best them at their own game, she just turned their own game against them to embarrass them. She even challenged me, but I didn’t play. Anyway, one of the stories she bragged about after growing bored of embarrassing ponies was about the time she supposedly defeated an Ursa Major. Don’t ask me how, but sometime in the middle of the night, two young colts ended up being chased by one, and they went straight to town with the thing on their tails. Well, who should the one they run to be than the one who says she’s defeated one before. Except this time…after some feeble tricks, like tying a rope around it’s paw, she admitted that she didn’t actually defeat an Ursa Major, and that she had no idea how. That’s where I came in. See, I had been doing research right before the thing hit the town, and knew that it was in fact not an Ursa Major, but actually an Ursa Minor-a baby. In the end, I ended up lulling it back to sleep and sending it back to it’s cave. But Trixie had run off before I could even say anything to her. I figure she probably lived in the woods for a while, her anger growing until she came and did what she did just now. But in reality, she was incorrect. I didn’t show her up. I didn’t bring the Ursa to the town. All I did was step up and defend my town and friends when she failed. But she was too caught up in her rage to realize that. I accept that. If she apologizes, I may forgive her, though not for what she did to Scootaloo. But for now, let’s just get Scoots to the hospital.”

“We’re here” Vinyl interrupted.

Indeed they were. They ran inside and checked Scootaloo and Trixie in immediately.

Now they waited. The three of them sat in the waiting room, which looked surprisingly like one from the human world, chairs and all. Twilight sat completely pony-like on the cornermost chair, while Vinyl chose a much different approach. She sat upright, exactly like a human would, right next to Twilight. John sat next to her, and she leaned into him, while he put his arm around her. John figured he would ask how/where she learned to sit like that later. Right now there were bigger matters to worry about. Mostly an orange and purple one.

“Mr. Connor?” John perked up at the sound of his name “Scootaloo is in stable condition and able to see you now.”

“How is she, doctor?” John tentatively asked.

“Well, she has a concussion and a fractured wing, but she’ll live. Now normally, if we have a foal come In in this kind of condition, we don’t let anyone see them until we’ve figured out what happened exactly. Policies. But I was part of the crowd at Ms. ‘Great and Powerful’’s show, and I’m sure I can safely assume she had more to do with Scootaloo’s injuries than any of you.”

“Thank you” John said sincerely, before practically running to the room Scoots was in. As he rounded the corner and came into the room, he saw that Scootaloo was laying on her back on the bed, her head and wing both wrapped heavily in tape, the latter splinted to stick straight out at her side. She had her eyes closed, and appeared to be sleeping.

“Scootaloo?” he asked softly as he approached her bed.

“D-daddy?” she asked quietly, her voice quivering.

“Ssh.” He whispered while placing his hand on her foreleg, tears of joy streaming from his eyes “It’s okay. I’m here”

===============END CHAPTER 11===============

Sorry to give you guys such a short one for all the waiting you did, but…yeah. I wasn’t originally going to go here with the story, but for the next part of the plot I have in mind, it’s an entire arc, and I need another character. Plus I kinda wanted to try my hand at writing Trixie. Anyways, I should be working on further chapters very soon. Sorry for the delay, and sorry about the Scootabuse!