Pumpkin's Struggle (Part 4): The Darkest Hour

Everything that could’ve gone wrong did go wrong. Ponyville was suddenly trapped within their own home staring face to face at the spirit of the very curse that once infected the young filly named Pumpkin Cake. While Pumpkin was left within the hidden lair of the former owner, Shadow Star, weak, and helpless, the town was slightly panicking over what they were going to do. Time was running out, and it seemed that their extinction was at hand.

The one who was the most devastated were Pumpkin’s parents; Mrs. Cake was dreading over seeing who she thought was her daughter and what she had become, “Oh dear, is that really our Pumpkin?”

“I don’t want to believe it,” said Mr. Cake hesitantly, “b-but I think you’re right.”

The spirit grinned and chuckled slightly feeling the fear within the residents of the town; it was enjoying the sight immensely, “Look at all of you, shaking and quaking in your hooves; you probably think that you’re all going to die right now, don’t ya? Always thinking about the obvious.”

“Pumpkin, we know that you’re in there somewhere,” said Diamond Star as he took a couple of steps towards her, “Unfortunately, if you attack this town, we will use any force necessary to stop you.”

“Aw, how cute,” the sinister filly said with a grin, “you still think that you can stop me.”

Nearby, Fluttershy was standing beside Twilight shaking like a cold, wet Chihuahua scared to death of what was standing before them.

“Wh-wh-what now, Twilight?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Cheerliee and the Mayor were there as well to try and help reach Pumpkin and get her to not cause destruction.

“Pumpkin, we’re all here for you,” shouted Cheerliee, “Me, Acer, your parents… everypony here is right here for you!”

“Don’t think we’re giving up on you just yet,” the Mayor added.

Suddenly, looking around, Mrs. Cake realized a couple of ponies that were absent and made her worry even more as she asked her husband, “Wait a minute, honey, where’s Pinkie and Pound?”

“I’m afraid that you’re all wasting your breath calling out to Pumpkin,” said the filly nonchalantly, “it’s no use.”

“And what makes you say that?” Mr. Cake protested.

Suddenly, Acer who was still laid out on Mrs. Cake’s back lifted his head and spoke out softly, “That’s… th-that’s not Pumpkin.”

Everyone gasped as they all looked back at Acer with concern; was he telling the truth or was he a bit delusional from his unintentional beating earlier.

“What did you just say?” said Mrs. Cake.

“I’m telling you… th-that’s not P-Pumpkin, it’s… the spirit of her curse.”

Pumpkin parents thought they heard wrong and so did everyone else there; but they didn’t. However, it didn’t seem possible to them at first glance.

“Are you kidding us?” said Rainbow Dash, “How can that not be Pumpkin; it looks just like her… except creepier… a lot creepier.”

Not up to continue watching the residents play the guessing game, the spirit let the cat out of the bag, “Oh, the young colt is quite correct. I only look like the wretched brat because I have resided inside her for all these damn years. But now I’m free… free to do whatever I want. Ah, and don’t worry about poor little Pumpkin, she ‘s fine for now; but I think you should all worry about yourselves first.”

Everyone couldn’t believe what they were seeing; the spirit of the dreaded curse was out of Pumpkin but it still looked like her but in a more demonic form. They were all still a bit terrified regardless, but Diamond Star had a little smirk on his face feeling quite satisfied of the sudden change of news.

“Well then, thank you so much for giving us that bit of intel.”

The creature leered at him feeling that she was being mocked, “Why are you smiling, Dr. knowitall?”

“Now that we know that you’re not the real Pumpkin, we don’t have to worry about holding back. We’re going to take you down right here.”

Twilight suddenly took a stand beside Diamond Star ready to fight, “I’ll help.”

“Thank you, Twilight.”

“Just what are you planning to do,” said the spirit with an evil glare.

“To erase you from existence,” Twilight shouted with magic emanating in her horn, “and rid Equestria of your cursed presence.”

Just then out of nowhere, dozen beams of light came out into the air and then came down to restrain the spirit. It was caught off guard and hissed as it felt the surrounding power holding it down.

“Wh-wh-what… is this!”

As Diamond’s entire medical team came out of hiding still holding on to the spirit, Diamond continued to smile as he said, “You probably remember this combined restraint spell from a couple of years back, except now since you’re not Pumpkin, we’re giving it all our power’s strength.”

He looked over to Twilight to give her the signal, “Well Twilight, up for the…”

“Implosion spell,” said Twilight finishing Diamond’s statement, “you read my mind. Everypony better stand back; it’s about time to send this foul demon back to where it came from!”

Diamond Star and Twilight Sparkle gathered their magic together and brought up as much power behind them as they could. Then with one swift blow, they both took the shot and the combined spell struck on contact and a huge explosion reacted. The medical team kept their hold to make sure that Diamond Star and Twilight succeeded.

“D-did we… get it,” asked Twilight as she was catching her breath.

The smoke was rising and everything was silent; but then, a chilling voice broke the silence, “You’re all fools.”

“What the…”

Just then, all of the restraints broke loose at once, and dozens of crimson beams shot up all around and then headed back down to the ground. Diamond Star stood there helplessly as he saw a beam land on each member of his medical team, and he heard their cries as they suddenly vanished out of thin air.

“Oh my!” shouted Fluttershy in horror.

Diamond feared that the worst had happened to his entire team; that they were all killed. His voice trembled, “My… my team; DAMN YOU!”

As the smoke cleared, the demonic spirit was still standing staring intensely at the frighten crowd, “If all of you know that not even Celestia could take me down, what makes you think that any of you have a chance?”

“That demon just vaporized Diamond’s entire medical team in one swoop,” said Mrs. Cake to her husband in a terrifying tone, “They’re gone… just like that.”

Enjoying Diamond’s enraged emotion, the spirit looked at him amusingly letting the moment last, “Don’t look so upset, they’re not dead; I simply transported them into a deep giant pit nearby where they can’t escape my grasp, as will the rest of you.”

“What?” Twilight wondered.

“You lie,” Diamond shouted, “you’re just trying to psych me out! There’s no way that you would show any form of mercy!”

“You don’t believe me?” the spirit chuckled, “Then why don’t you see for yourself.”

Before Diamond could react, he was suddenly struck down by another powerful beam and suddenly vanished in front of everyone’s eyes.

“Mister Star!” shouted Twilight as she saw it happen right beside her.

The entire town was suddenly on edge just waiting for the spirit to make its next move; and whatever happened next they expected the worst.

“Sweet mother of Celestia,” shouted Fluttershy, “we’re all doomed! We’re all going to die in a giant fiery blaze of glory, never to be seen or heard from ever again!”

“Way to darken our hopes even more than it already was, Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash sarcastically.

The spirit grinned menacingly as it walked towards the trapped crowd, and they all took a step back with each step it took, “Now then… before I enjoy in killing you all, I’m in the mood for playing a little game. It’s something you mortals like to call… tag,” Suddenly, the horn on its head began to glow immensely as it sets its sights on the pony residents, “and I’m it.”

Back inside the Everfree Forest, Pound was hot on the trail of finding his sister with Pinkie Pie walking close behind. The search eventually led them to an unknown cave that Pound noticed hidden nearby.

“I can feel her energy coming from inside that cave, Aunt Pinkie!”

“Whoa, that’s one dark, creepy cave.”

“Come on, we have to go in; my sister is in there!”

“O-o-okie dokie.”

Pinkie still felt very weary as they went inside the dark cave, but Pound wasn’t showing fear at all. He was determined to find his sister at all costs no matter how creepy the surroundings might be. They did made it all the way through and found themselves inside a huge crystal-like room; but then, some disturbing scent came Pinkie’s way.

“Whoa, something sure stinks in here.”

The feeling of Pumpkin’s energy was now closer than ever to Pound and he looked all around him desperately to find her, “Pumpkin; where are you, sis?! Please answer me?!”

Suddenly, a faint voice was heard nearby, “P-Pound… is… that y-you?”

Pinkie and Pound went to a nearby corner where they finally found Pumpkin laying on the ground; bruised and battered.

“Pumpkin; thank Celestia you’re alright!” shouted Pound as he hugged his sister.

“Well… mostly,” added Pinkie.

Pumpkin could barely move, but she was still glad her brother safe as she just smiled at him, “Th-thank goodness that you’re here,” but then that smile quickly turned back into a frown, “but I did something t-terrible; so terrible.”

“Don’t move too much, sis,” said Pound as he held his hoof on her body, “you’re seriously hurt.”

Suddenly, Pinkie caught a terrible once again and yelled out in disgust, “Sweet mercy of Luna, what is that smell?! It’s like somepony crawled up in here and died!”

“S-somepony did die,” said Pumpkin weakly.

She then pointed their attention nearby where there was trail of blood that led to a half of a split-open carcass and the other half not far behind. The stench was terribly bad, but the sight of it seemed to freak them out even more; and it was obvious who might have done it.

“Oh my… oh, that’s not right!” said Pinkie as she tried to keep back any nauseating feeling she might have had.

“What the hell happened here,” said Pound, “and… who was that pony?”

“His name was Shadow Star,” Pumpkin explained, “He was the pony that the Mayor and Cheerliee were warning me about.”

“Wait, you mean all this time you knew about who it was?!” Pound suddenly protested.

“Yeah; but I didn’t say anything because it didn’t seem too important to me at the time. He tried to use my pain and guilt to make me give into his offer of casting the spirit of the curse out of me.”

Hearing that surprised Pinkie who was literally on the edge of her seat, “Whoa, there’s somepony who could do that?!”

“Apparently so; I really didn’t want to trust him, but when I hurt Acer again… I lost it. I couldn’t bear it anymore, so I finally decided to take upon his offer to finally rid myself of this curse.”

“And let me guess,” said Pound, “instead he brought out the spirit of the curse in physical form and left you weak and defenseless.”

“That’s right, and he was planning to team up with the spirit and conquer all of Equestria.”

Pound suddenly scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Typical.”

“So what happened?” asked Pinkie.

“The spirit betrayed him and violently ripped him in half… a-as you can see. Some of his blood got on me and it scared me immensely.”

Pinkie and Pound couldn’t believe what they heard. There was so much that was going on Pumpkin that they were left flabbergasted; unknown what to make of this situation.

“But… even though it’s good that he’s gone now, it doesn’t change the fact that my curse is now free to cause destruction to our home, and… a-a-and now e-everypony is going to die… just like nightmares predicted. It’s my fault; it’s all my f-fault.”

As always, Pound tried to convince his sister of not blaming herself for everything, “C-come on, Pumpkin, it’s not…”

But when he did, he received a little glare from her. There was nothing that he could do about it now because it was already too late.

“It’s over, alright,” Pumpkin protested, “and there’s nothing that can be done to stop it.”

So with the curse out of Pumpkin, and her left extremely weak, and now the fact that the evil spirit is now running amuck in Ponyville probably trying to kill as many ponies as it could, it did seemed to be all over; but Pound refused to believe it.

“No… it’s not over; not until I say it’s over.”

“Yeah, that’s right!” shouted Pinkie, “Wait, where are you going with this exactly?”

Suddenly filled with determination, Pound was now planning to fight for his sister, “I’m going to find that spirit and face it with everything I’ve got.”

“What; don’t be crazy,” Pumpkin protested, “That’s suicide!”

“That thing is going to try and kill all of us sooner or later anyway; so I rather fight and die than cower and die!”

Pumpkin was already feeling devastated, but hearing her brother willing to throw his life away for her just made it worse as hardly pleaded, “I’m… I-I’m already going to lose mom and dad… and Acer; I don’t think I can handle losing you too.”

Pound knew exactly how she felt; after all, he felt the same way about her, “Well… I’m afraid it’s pointless to argue with me about it now.”

Pound was about to head out of the cake and towards the town, but he was suddenly stopped by Pinkie who stood in his way, “I don’t think so, Pound.”

“Pinkie?”

“You need to stay here and be with your sister… and I’ll go instead.”

A scowl came on Pound’s face as he refused, “No way, I’m going and you can’t stop me!”

“Oh really?” said Pinkie arching her eyebrow.

Pound suddenly backed down a little as he smiled nervously, “Um… y-yes?”

“You 2 are twins,” Pinkie stated, “and twins shouldn’t be apart for too long. You’re going to stay here with Pumpkin while I go find Twilight and the others. We’ll stop this menace somehow.”

“But… but…”

“Listen to Aunt Pinkie Pie; she’s not asking you, she commands it!”

Pound finally yielded to Pinkie and listened to her orders, “Alright, fine. But if that thing comes back for Pumpkin, I’m defending her.”

“Okie dokie, that’s all I asking.”

Pinkie was lightly skipping her way out when Pumpkin suddenly called out to her, “P-Pinkie, what if you don’t… come back?”

Without turning around, Pinkie stopped in her tracks and had a sad and troubled look on her face; but she didn’t wish to let the twins see her like that. She straightened her face and then looked back at them with a bright smile, “I don’t know, but know this; no matter what happens, just promise to be brave and laugh in the face of danger, okay?” She then waved and left their sight, “See ya!”

“’Sigh’ that may be the last time we ever see her,” Pound thought to himself.

“Brother, do you think you could… take me somewhere else to be?” asked Pumpkin feeling exhausted, “I can’t stand the wretched stench of this place any longer.”

Despite their position, Pound just smiled down on his sister and responded, “Sure thing; anything for you, sis.”

He bent down and scooped Pumpkin up on his back. But since they were close to the same weight, he did struggle a bit; but he didn’t mind one bit.

“I’m not too heavy, am I?” Pumpkin lightly chuckled.

“Nah, not really; but you should skip out on the pies every once in a while.”

Back in Ponyville, everything was up in chaos! The residents did their best to fight off the evil spirit, but nothing seemed to be working; and no matter where any of them ran to, there was no escape.

“That’s right; run, run my little ponies. Run away from me as fast as you can, it makes chasing you all down a lot more fun.”

The spirit was having fun terrifying everyone and causing as much destruction as it could; statues were shattered, and houses burned, and earth around them was being chiseled like a rock. At this point, the spirit struck down plenty of residents. Right at the get-go, it trapped and took out the Mayor and Cheerliee, and then Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Fluttershy, Acer, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake. After that, it just went on from there, finding and catching as many ponies as it could.

Many who were still hiding and running away figured that the ones that were caught were done for and gone forever, but the thing is that the statement the spirit made earlier was true. They weren’t exactly killed… yet, they were just transported to a different area; and by that it was in a deep pit made inside Town Hall, and there was a barrier over it to keep any of the Spirit’s prey from escaping. As everything was taking place outside the barrier, Twilight and some of the other captured ponies were doing their best to take it down, but it was no use.

“This is hopeless!” shouted Twilight, “Nothing we do seems to be effective against that barrier; I can’t even transport past it.”

Applejack and Spike were there with them as well wondering how things escalated so quickly.

“Ah was wandering through town tryin’ to find Big Mac,” Applejack stated, “and then all of a sudden this entire ruckus began! And once I found the source of the destruction, I wasn’t even able to throw one punch; I was suddenly here faster than a hog-wild hog!”

“I was trying to sleep,” whined Spike, “but all of the noise woke me up. I was soon captured but Owlicious was able to get away; humph, coward.”

“So where is your brother?” Twilight asked Applejack.

“He’s over there,” she said pointing behind Twilight.

Twilight turned around and saw Big Mac just standing there blatantly while Twilight awkwardly smirked, “Wow, it got you too, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Now Apple Bloom is out there without any of our help,” said Applejack, “I fear that she’ll be caught sooner or later.”

“That damn spirit is going to pay for this!” said Rainbow Dash, “It broke one of my wings and now I can’t fly; it hurts like the dickens!”

“Just be glad that it’s a broken wing, Rainbow Dash,” said Fluttershy, “You could be dead right now; we all could have been.”

Twilight suddenly noticed over to her side was Mr. and Mrs. Cake along with Acer. Acer and Mr. Cake seemed to be keeping their cool, but Mrs. Cake was a different story. She was laying on the ground sobbing to herself feeling that there was nothing she could do now to protect her daughter, or anypony for that matter.

As Twilight approached Mr. Cake she quietly stated, “How’s Mrs. Cake holding up?”

“Not too well, I’m afraid. She’s at her limit and just couldn’t hold in her emotions anymore. I did my best to comfort her but I had no luck.”

Suddenly, Twilight saw that Acer was now up and standing and came over to say, “Wherever Pumpkin may be now, I fear that she’ll never see any of us again. But …” he said with a slight smile, “at least Pound and Miss Pinkie are with her now.”

Dr. Diamond Star who was down with them with his entire medical team overheard their conversation and highly agreed Acer. But something else was worrying him so, “There is one thing that I’m sure is boggling all of our minds. How come none of us are dead yet; not that I’m rushing into things.”

“That is strange,” Twilight agreed, “I mean if this wanted to kill us all just like in Pumpkin’s past dreams, wouldn’t it have done it by now?”

“Maybe it’s preparing us for something even more gruesome,” stated Acer, “I don’t like to think that, but it’s the only thing that makes sense here.”

It did appear to be strange to everyone of why the demon spirit wasn’t making any attempts to kill anyone yet. Was it true of what Acer said that it’s saving their time of slaughter for later? If so, then what for? Twilight couldn’t help but ponder on this fact… as well as everyone else.

“Just what is that evil spirit planning exactly?”

The constant destruction was still going on in town and most of the residents were already captured. However, there was still plenty more for the spirit to catch… or tag. But it was soon setting its sights on a certain, specific pony.

The young filly named Ruby Rose was hiding out a lot from the spirit’s sights; she couldn’t believe what’s she was seeing. What her mother had predicted did come true, but not in the same way that she thought. Once she had enough courage, she came out of hiding and sprinted off in the direction of where her mother was; at the Ponyville Prison Center . However, when she got there, the place was wrecked, and police ponies were knocked out unconscious.

She raced inside holding back any hint of fear in her heart and noticed that all of the prison inmates were gone; but hopefully they wouldn’t do anything bad during a time like this. But there was still one prison member who was still in their cell. Ruby’s mother, Envy Rose; she was just laying on her bunk contemplating to herself knowing exactly what was going on.

“Can you see it, Grandfather,” she thought in her mind, “it’s happening all over again. If only you were here to guide us through this tragedy.”

Just then, Ruby burst into Envy’s cell literally scaring the poor mare half to death; and Ruby was catching her breath from all her running. Envy was relieved to see her daughter still alive and well, but she was afraid that it wouldn’t last long.

“Mom, mom!”

“Ruby, thank Celestia you’re still alive.”

“Never mind that, Mom, we have to get out, now! That evil spirit inside Pumpkin is there causing destruction just like you said! But the thing is that it’s not actually Pumpkin!”

Envy didn’t quite get what Ruby meant by that; she felt quite confused as she arched eyebrow at Rubby, “What do you mean it’s not actually Pumpkin?”

“I mean the actual spirit is out of Pumpkin’s body somehow and has taken an actual physical form of Pumpkin; there’s no way to subdue it!”

This situation was definitely different to Envy than what her Grandfather told her; she couldn’t believe it.

“What; how’s that even possible?!”

“I don’t know,” said Ruby with her body shaking and looking around, “b-but it’s not safe here; we have to go!”

Envy’s knowledge of this demon spirit already proved to her of how powerful it was. But now there was no way to subdue it long enough to at least try and stop it; so Envy already decided to lose all hope.

“No.”

“No; what do you mean no?!” Ruby protested

“Exactly what I mean, Ruby. No matter where we may run, that god forsaken demon will still find us. It’s best to stay here and accept our fate.”

It seemed to Ruby that her mother was already giving up; she refused to believe it, “Do you even hear yourself?! I’m not going to wait for that thing to find and kill me!”

Suddenly, a giant explosion came from the back wall of Envy’s cell and literally startled both her and Ruby. Ruby screamed at the top of her lungs, “Ahhhhh!” and then jumped back and hid behind her mother. But then things suddenly got worse when they both realized who came to visit them.

“Knock knock, guess who?”

A terrified expression appeared upon Ruby’s face suddenly staring at the evil spirit face to face, “Holy crap, it found us!”

Envy just smirked seeing exactly what her daughter said was true; this thing really wasn’t Pumpkin, but it did resemble her in a way, “So, you really are out of that little filly, and into a somewhat physical form of her. How did you do it?”

“I had my ways,” the spirit replied with a small smirk herself, “Although, it’s none of your business.”

Envy’s smirk suddenly turned into a light scowl as she stared the creature down thinking of what it has done, “Just how many unfortunately lives have you taken so far, you monstrous demon?”

“Oh, I haven’t killed anypony yet. So far I had fun hunting them all down and storing them all in my containment pit that I made myself inside the Town Hall; and I’m close to completing my Ponyville collection. Anyway, from there, I will go into the next phase of my plan.”

The spirit had a plan; a more elaborate plan? Envy just thought that it was going to start rampaging and randomly slaughtering residents left and right. But now Envy was starting to realize that it was just gathering and collecting them all for something else; but what?

But as confused as she was, Envy suddenly saw the intensity in the spirit’s stare on her change immensely, “Unfortunately for you, I’ve come here specifically to end your life permanently.”

“What,” Ruby thought while suddenly leaking tears, “no.”

Envy’s expression didn’t change much; she just continued to stare it down with a slight shake vibrating her body, “Heh, any particular reason why?”

“It’s because of your Grandfather,” the spirit suddenly shouted in anger, “he irritated me when he ceased my rampaging long ago, and he’s not dead because of me. Heh, but now… I can finally pay him back for what he did to me by murdering his Granddaughter.”

“Sounds like someone can’t get rid of a grudge,” said Envy with an amused little smirk, “You really are a spirit of rage and anger.”

All of a sudden, Envy’s heart leapt when her daughter quickly stood in front of her, “Stop!”

“What the…”

Her eyes streaming and her body shaking, Ruby stood her ground in front of the evil creature doing anything she could to protect her mother.

“Don’t take… o-one more step. I will not willingly stand by and allow you to k-k-kill my mother!”

“Ruby, don’t!” shouted Envy feeling worried for Ruby.

The spirit looked at the filly and scoffed at her demanding words, “I’m afraid that you have no choice, little brat.”

“If you want my Mother,” Ruby stated while still shaking in fear, “you… y-you’ll have to kill me first!”

Envy saw what her daughter was doing and she wasn’t going to let it happen, “Ruby, don’t be foolish; what point do you think that will make?!”

“Standing up for what… I love and care about!”

Ruby’s heart began to race as she was lifted into the air by the spirit’s aura and it was grinning menacingly at her feeling real itchy to impale her, “If you wish to die with mommy, I would be happy to oblige.”

“No; please spirit,” Envy desperately pleaded, “I’m the one you want! Leave her out of this!”

Ruby looked over at her mother begging for the spirit to spare her life, but its not what she wanted. All Envy was doing was trying to protect her.

“Mother!”

“Just… go ahead and kill me; just please… promise me that you will… spare my baby’s life.”

The spirit chuckled at how pitiful it thought Envy looked giving up her life for Ruby even thought it would prove to be useless, “Heh, well if you insist.”

It threw Ruby to the side and sends her crashing into a pile of rubble. By the time she got up and shook herself off, Ruby saw that her Mother was already being lifted in the air with the spirit’s horn aimed right at her. Envy still showed no sign of fear as it glared at the creature and spoke…

“Do your worst.

“No, don’t!” Ruby cried.

Ruby tried to stop it, but before she could even move an inch, Envy was suddenly pulled towards the spirit and Ruby helplessly watched as glowing horn pierced through Envy’s chest and deep into her flesh. Envy gasped as her body jerked from the impact and her wide eyes expressed a feeling of immense pain.

“So tell me; how does it feel to have such a fatal wound inside you?” the spirit said with a grin, “I made sure that you will experience a slow and excruciating death.”

Ruby watched in horror as she saw her mother’s blood run down the spirit’s horn; she was about to witness the death of her last parent. She just stood there traumatized not being able to say anything nor do anything to save her mother.

“Pleasure doing business with ya,” the spirit whispered to Envy before slinging her downward on the ground with much force that caused her to cough up her own blood and suddenly laid at a standstill.

“Mother, no!”

Ruby suddenly ran to Mother in anguish and laid over her trying to hang onto hope, but she could see the blood slowly flowing out; and at Envy’s age, she might not last long.

The spirit now felt satisfied and was about to make its leave snickering under its breath. Nothing looked more rewarding to it than seeing the life of a sole pony slowly drained away; and seeing another crying over the pony to boot.

“Count yourself lucky that I’m sticking to your Mother’s promise… for now,” the creature said to Ruby, “I’ll just leave you here to watch your mother die a slow, bleeding death. But don’t worry, when I’m done with my task, I’ll let you join your mother once again.”

Ruby suddenly looked over at the spirit with tears in her eyes feeling angered and enraged of what it had done. But it didn’t bother the spirit one bit as it went out of the building and back out into the town to complete its mission.

Ruby’s attention came back to her Mother when she heard her heavily breathing and coughing harshly. She cried to her, “Mother, why? Why did you just let that creature… straight –up impale you like that?! I was trying to protect you!”

Envy slowly looked up at her daughter with half-lidded eyes and a slight smile and answered her weakly, “I guess… I just didn’t want to… see you die… b-because of me. I couldn’t bear the emotion of l-l-losing you… like I lost your father.”

Ruby was easily getting freaked out realizing her mother’s blood getting smeared on her hooves and she shouted, “And you don’t think I feel the same way about you?!”

Envy suddenly had a request to Ruby, “Ruby, the… spirit isn’t g-going after you right now; so if you are able to, please… promise me th-this. Run, run as far away from this town as possible… and don’t look back.”

The thought of that monster coming back to kill her did seem scary to Ruby, but she refused to leave her Mother here to die all alone, “No… no, I’m doing no such thing.”

She quickly went into a bag that she had brought with her and began to rummage through it. Envy looked over asked, “Wh-what are… you doing, R-Ruby?”

Ruby came back over to her with some special healing ointments; and then she carefully rolled her on her back and immediately started to spread the ointments over the huge, deep wound. Despite feeling on all the blood, she wasn’t hesitant in doing her work.

“I’m not leaving your side, Mom, not for one moment!” Ruby then laid her horn upon the wound as it began to glow immensely, “I’m staying right here, and I’m going to save you; I refuse you to die!”

Envy couldn’t believe why her Daughter was risking life to try to save hers; she was becoming a bit impatient, “Ruby… I-I’m y-your Mother. I’m not asking you to do this, I’m ordering you to. It too late for me, s-s-so just leave already.”

“I SAID I’M NOT LEAVING!!!” Ruby roughly boasted.

Suddenly, Envy was silent staring at her daughter in slight shock of her rasing her voice against her own.  Ruby had her own reasons for not obeying her words.

“You think that you’re the only one of us that has problems dealing with emotions?!” she Questioned, “I felt just as emotional as you were when we lost daddy; I just didn’t choose to show it too much in front of you so you wouldn’t worry too much for me about. But… when I thought I was going to lose Acer that other day, I lost it; I was going hysterical. If Acer had died, it was going to be my fault, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself anymore! So if I have to live without you, then… I rather stay here and die with you.”

The words coming out of Ruby’s mouth left Envy speechless. She knew that her Daughter loved her very much, but she never realized that she cared for her so much that she would not abandon her and risk her life for her. Envy finally understood just how deep her family bond with Ruby that she truly had.

“I don’t care how much of my magic that I use, I’m going to try and save you even if it’s the last thing that I do!”

Ruby then laid her horn on her mother’s gouging wound again and began to activate her healing technique. Envy watched her and noticed something familiar about the spell that she was casting on her wound.

“Th-that healing technique… it’s looks more… ‘cough’ advanced than  what I taught you. H-h-how did you learn that?”

“I know that this was more advanced for me and you didn’t think I was ready yet, but… I went on ahead and secretly practiced it on my own while you were here; and I actually did pretty well. I figured that I might need it one day but I wasn’t exactly sure when.”

Normally Envy would be a little upset at Ruby for trying something behind her back, but instead she was quite proud of her. She smiled as she laid her head back trying to relax as Ruby was continuing her work.

“Ruby,” she said weakly, “if we don’t make it through this, I just want you to know that… ‘cough cough’ you’re the best daughter I could ever ask for. I kept trying to push you away from this, and y-yet… you still stayed and refused to leave me here alone. I’m sorry if I was being too selfish and not thinking about your feelings.”

“Don’t be sorry, Mom, you were only trying to protect me and was using your… mother’s inter… intu… ition to think what was best for me. I couldn’t ask for a better mother.”

Those last few words were like music to Envy’s ears. Hearing her own daughter say to her was the best thing that ever happened in her life; she suddenly felt at peace.

“Now hold still,” stated Ruby, “I need total concentration if I’m going to make this spell work.”

“Do you see her, honey,” Envy thought to herself as she continued to watch her Ruby, “our little girl is growing up. It seems that I was still a good mother after all. Unfortunately, everything that she is trying to do may not be enough to save me; and then… I will leave her and then join you.”

“Ugh, still not enough!” Ruby whined as she was struggling with the spell, “I need more time!”

“But if the worst possible thing does comes to pass… at least… we’ll all be a family again.”