A Fight to Remember

Chapter 1Where am I?

(Edited by StrayanPhoenix772)

Twilight lay completely flat in the complete and silent stillness, with the only audible sound being the steadily-increasing, rhythmic thump-thump of her own heartbeat for company, pounding like a drum and resonating throughout her chest. Her eyelids fluttered slightly, cracking open to let in the first stream of light for the first time in goodness knows how long.

That’s odd. There’s no light at all, completely blanketing her vision in darkness. It must be after at least one am in the morning then. Considering it was almost lunchtime when she left home, that meant she must’ve been unconscious for about...

Oh goodness, it hurt to even think.

She decided to settle with ‘A long time’.

Now to track down where her bearings went...

After such a hard landing like that, her initial fear was that she botched it and potentially broke something.

Hmm. On that note, it would seem that she had difficulty feeling her own body at all.

Basic motor-neuron control still works. Let’s try standing up then...

The ground beneath her didn’t really feel like it had any defining texture, while it was firm enough to support her weight and walk on. She slowly began feeling her way about, unsure of exactly where she was, and the dense blanket of darkness meant that looking for any visual cues was out of the question.

"Hello?" Twilight hesitantly called out. Her voice sounded rather scratchy. She frowned and cleared her throat, "*Ahem*... Is anypony out there?"

An unnerving silence answered her question. Of the numerous adjectives she could think of about her current situation off the top of her head, the words ‘inviting’ and ‘comforting’ were the very last ones she’d use, and she shivered in tense nervousness at what the darkness might hold. Or maybe because of how cold it was. She couldn’t tell.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a spec of light off in the distance. She twisted about to focus on it and slowly started to approach it. From where she was, she couldn't really tell what it was. An attempt to grab the spec proved futile, indicating that it was probably still further away. The strange spec seemed to glow, like it was alive, and she couldn't help but stare at this transfixing, illuminating wonder.

What is this thing? Twilight thought to herself as she gradually approached it, her scientific curiosity taking control.

It began to flicker and shimmer, glowing ever brighter as she drew near. The darkness around her gradually reduced to a soft gray, although still not enough to light up her surroundings, and the temperature in the air also improved to a more lukewarm degree.

Twilight could feel a strange sense of comfort and hope from the spec, which upon closer inspection was now more akin to just a simple orb of white light. As she approached the mass of light she swore she could hear a voice coming out of the bright mass.

"Twilight!"

It was barely audible, but at least her hearing still worked. She leaned in and held her ear up to try and amplify what it was saying.

"Twilight!" the voice repeated, slightly louder and more distinct this time. She frowned and leaned in a bit closer.

"Twilight!" the voice was now a clear yell, a grip of fear apparent in its tone. If she shifted any closer, she could almost touch it with the side of her face.

She suddenly felt herself slip, and all at once, the darkness dissolved and everything went white.

Twilight's eyes snapped open as Rainbow Dash practically yelled in her face, "Twilight wake up!"

Numerous issues immediately bombarded her mind as her senses fully reactivated. The first and most immediate problem was that every conceivable muscle and tendon in her body screamed out all at once in white-hot agony, and she swore she could physically feel every single knot and kink she had worked up.

The second problem was that it seemed her short nap did nothing to amend her lethargy, and she planned that the first thing she’d do when she got back home was to go straight to bed. Fortunately, there was a nice strong breeze on hand to keep her awake.

The third thing was that everything was incredibly bright, and she cringed as her eyes slowly adjusted to the change in visibility. After several seconds of absent-minded blinking, she glanced about to take in her new surroundings.

Oh dear, that is a long way down.

Fourth problem identified: Rainbow Dash was holding her around the abdomen, at about... two hundred feet up in the air, she guessed, and her flight pattern was uncharacteristically unstable. Twilight craned her neck around to get a view, aggravating her neck in the process, and identified the fifth problem.

It seemed that Rainbow must’ve experienced a rough landing herself, and was in such a rush to save her friend that she didn’t even bother to clean out her wings of debris such as stray twigs and leaves, restricting her movement and severely hindering her aerodynamics. On second thoughts, it was magic in its own right that they were even airborne at all in her current state.

Something struck Twilight as rather odd, but also comforting at the same time. Rainbow was so desperate for her friend’s safety that she blatantly disregarded to keep the most precious things in the world to a Pegasus, as far as Twilight knew, in good condition if it meant she could find her missing friend as quickly as possible.

Well, she at least knew where the breeze was coming from now.

They were losing altitude at an alarmingly quick rate, and she gulped in nervousness as they passed above Sweet Apple Acres. She spotted Big Mac on the ground beneath them, looking up at them with a rather apprehensive sense of dread etched in his expression.

"Twilight, a little help? I’m losing control here!" Rainbow yelled, struggling to keep them airborne.

Twilight desperately glanced about for a suitable landing spot. A pile of hay, a trampoline, anything. The buffeting wind made the task rather difficult, and Rainbow’s constant jerking about to compensate for her lack of stability didn’t help things either.

“Twilight, hurry up! I’m stalling here, and all this crap is gonna hurt if I try and hover!”

“Err... hang on a minute... there! Rainbow, brace for impact! I have an idea!”

“What?!”

“Trust me!” Twilight concentrated her magic, much to the protest of her head, and a bright purple light enveloped them both.

They reappeared directly over a large pond, falling vertically. Or travelling forward parallel to the vertical axis. Whatever you want to call it.

“I think you got our orientation wrong, you egghea--”

Rainbow’s scathing remark was cut off as they plunged into the pond with a loud splash, kicking up a plume of water several feet tall.

Several seconds passed as they scrambled back to the surface, breathing heavily as they paddled their way to the bank. Twilight’s body demanded blood for the travesty that it had to work overtime to keep her awake, let alone alive.

She collapsed in a ragged, dripping mess on the shore, her chest visibly heaving in and out from exertion.

A quick glance to her left confirmed that Rainbow had flopped down next to her in a similar state.

A flash of pink in the corner of her eye alerted her to the presence of a certain Pinkie Pie, who was standing a short distance away, staring at them with an expression of awe.

She began hopping up and down as she giggled in delight at the display of what she just witnessed.

"That was amazing!" Pinkie rambled, “You two must have been going like, a thousand miles an hour! That was so exciting! I don't think I've been this excited in my life! Except for the time that I found the recipe for rainbow-flavoured cupcakes. *Gasp!* Oh-oh-oh, can I go next? Please! Please! Please!"

"Probably not a good idea, Pinkie," Twilight shook her head raggedly.

Rainbow grunted and ruffled her wings to clear them of water, "Never going treasure hunting again! It’s much cooler when Daring Do does it anyway... What about you, Twilight?  Are you alright?"

Pinkie crouched down and held her ear against her friend’s chest. The only response was the soft sound of snoring. She straightened back up with a concerned look on her face.

“As far as I can tell, she’s only passed out from exhaustion, but I'll take her to the hospital anyway, just to make sure she’s okay," Pinkie gestured towards the general direction of Ponyville, “Can you lend a hoof please?”

“She’s gonna pull through though, right?” Rainbow murmured apprehensively as she helped place the incapacitated mare across Pinkie’s back. If she were to be honest with herself, she was more than a little worried when she found Twilight lying in the middle of nowhere out cold.

Pinkie only shrugged and started trotting at a brisk pace, "I think so. I’ll meet you there, and you go get everypony else, ok?"

Rainbow nodded and gave Twilight one last glance and taking off.

It had been around half an hour since the five ponies plus one dragon had gathered in the hospital lounge, waiting for the news on their friend. The walls of the room that they sat in were a cream color with dull green trims. The chairs were all the same dull green. At the end of the room, there was a pair of metal doors leading into the rest of the hospital. A clean, sterile smell hung in the air, which did little to quell their unease. All in all, it was unanimously agreed that this was the longest half hour of their lives.

Rainbow absent-mindedly fluttered about near the roof, lost in thought. She wished that they never found that cruddy map, or go on that stupid hike to find that stinking treasure. It was all just a waste of time. Now her friend is in trouble and it was her fault. If they hadn't found that map, then maybe Twilight would have been okay. Instead, they were now stuck in the waiting room of the hospital and hoping for the best that she was fine.

Applejack leaned herself against a wall, not in the mood to talk to anypony. Her feelings were a jumbled mess, and her mind churned in a raging torrent of thoughts. She was very grateful towards Rainbow for 'saving her hide', as she put it, but she was also upset that Twilight was now in the hospital, possibly hurt beyond imagination. She hadn’t even been able to get a glimpse of her when Pinkie brought her in, and she couldn't help but imagine Twilight trapped in a full body cast. The very thought scared her, with shivers of dread racing up and down her spine. She was snapped back to reality by the sound of crying.

Glancing across the room, she could see Pinkie almost directly underneath Rainbow. Rarity was sitting next to Spike, both of which were remarkably quiet, pondering whether Twilight would be okay or not and hoping for the best.

Applejack’s gaze continued shifting around the room until it came to a stop in the corner. Nestled in one of the hospital chairs was Fluttershy who was effectively reduced to tears. It always distressed Applejack to see her close friends like this. It was like looking at a filly who had lost their parents at a theme park, crying and helpless. She straightened up and walked across to the crying pegasus and placed a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. She knew that this would be a critical time for her to stand strong. Not just for herself, but for all of her friends as well.

A doctor trotted into the room through the big metal doors, dressed in a white lab coat that stopped just before his flank, displaying a red cross cutie mark. The five ponies stood up and walked to the colt. “Twilight Sparkle?”

"Where's Twilight? Is she ok?" Spike asked anxiously.

"Miss Sparkle is just fine,” the doctor assured him, “She has a sprained hoof and some cuts and bruises, but it’s nothing too severe. All she needs now is to rest easy for a few days, and she’ll be right as rain!"

Each of the ponies let out a sigh of relief.

"Can we go see her?" asked Rainbow.

"Yes, of course. She’s just down the hall in room 104," he replied.

Twilight was laying peacefully in a hospital bed, with several cords extending from under the sheets towards various machines around her. She was in the middle of a conversation with a nurse when she noticed her six friends come into the room. They looked like they had been crying, but they quickly brightened up when they saw her awake and healthy.

"Oh my goodness darling," Rarity exclaimed, "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Yeah, and wouldn't that be a loss," Rainbow remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Rarity gave her a stern glare, to which Rainbow simply laughed, making both of them giggle in amusement.

They all clustered around Twilight and bombarded her with questions, before she held up a hoof to silence them. She briefly explained to those unaware about the events that had transpired on top of the mountain, also explaining that she survived the explosion by putting up a shield around herself at the last moment.

"Wow, so yer tellin' us that you sort of created a rip in space n’ time when yer magic hit that lightnin' bolt?" Applejack asked, not quite fully understanding.

"And not only did you close the portal, but you protected yourself from that ghastly explosion with a shield?" Rarity added in.

"Yes, that's exactly what I just said," Twilight responded with a nod.

"Come on, you really think you opened some dimensional thingy?" Rainbow questioned.

Twilight shifted her gaze towards Rainbow, "Well, I read once in one of Starswirl's books, where he described of such an event. I think the biggest indicator though, was that before I blacked out, I swear I saw two other figures being blasted away from the mountain as well as myself, and they weren’t Rainbow or AJ."

The room was quiet as Twilight's words sunk in.

Rarity was the first to respond, "I'm sorry darling, but did I hear you say two other figures?"

"Yes I did," Twilight replied, "and I think they were two other ponies."

"But didn’t you say that you were the only one on the mountain when it exploded?"

Spike raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but that's what makes me think something or somepony fell through." Twilight nodded.

Silence hung in the air again, with not a single one of them wanting to speak the question on their minds. Fluttershy this time was the one who quietly murmured the question they all mutually shared.

"So... what now?"

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud scream coming from the side of the room, startling them. They all turning their heads to see a colt in the other hospital bed who was now awake and staring right at them.

His yellow eyes were wide with terror and his mouth agape as he continued wailing. He slowly began to back away from the group before bumping into the wall, his wings now fully extended. He had a black and white mane which was unkempt and messy, and a grey, matted coat. As his wings brushed against the wall, he jerked his head around as if surprised by something.

His infernal screaming stopped as he started paying attention to his wings, like they weren't there before. Reaching out with his hoof, he started to stroke them like a pet. He stopped when his eyes met his hoof and stared at it in disbelief. He dashed across to the mirror, took one look at himself, and let loose another volley of screams.

Several burly-looking nurses waltzed into the room, restraining the colt and pulling him back towards the bed. He quickly started to struggle against them, lashing out with his forelegs, before he suddenly placed a hoof up to his mouth and spat a burst of fire at the nurses, startling them all.

Twilight was shocked and confused by the scene before her, and upon seeing the pyrotechnic display, she quickly cast a containment spell on top of the colt, trapping him inside it.

This did nothing to change expression of fear and anger on his face as he relentlessly continued to spit fire in their direction until the air was so thick with smoke, that he asphyxiated and passed out from the lack of oxygen. No sooner had he hit the floor, she lifted the spell, allowing the nurses to ventilate the room and stomp out any leftover embers.

The nurses quickly cleaned up the mess and strapped the colt back into bed before they left the room and called for a doctor.

Twilight glanced uneasily at her friends and said, "Spike, write a letter to Princess Celestia and tell her about what I have told you and what has transpired here".

Spike simply nodded and went to work.

"The Princess needs to know what happened. We might have a really big problem on our hooves here".

       The doctors examined his body from head to toe. Nothing about the mysterious pegasus was remarkably different just by looking at him, although for someone who was apparently found crashed in a ditch in the Everfree forest, he didn't have a scratch on him.

They were originally going to put it as a rare case of Pegasus durability and leave it at that, but after what had happened in the patients’ room and what the nurses had said, they figured it would be a good idea to perform a scan of his skeletal structure.

Twilight requested to be in the room observing when they performed the procedure. Initially, they rejected her, but when she told them that she reported directly to Princess Celestia, they had quickly lost all objections.

Princess Celestia wrote back to Twilight almost immediately after she had received the letter. She herself had felt the explosion from the mountain and was planning on going to investigate it, before her letter arrived which explained the situation. She herself would have visited to watch over the procedure, but more present matters needed to be attended to. Instead she had Twilight to watch over it in her absence.

Twilight was watching in silence as four assistants in medical outfits came through a pair of double doors. Each one took up a position around the colt strapped to the table. The doctor walked in close behind them and stood at the end of the table, before nodded to the to the four assistants to let them know that he was ready to start.

Twilight was on an observation deck above the operation room, staring down. There were other strange-looking doctors standing with her and each of them had a stern look on their faces. With a couple of nods from the ponies on the observation deck, the operation began.

There were no tools used in the procedure, aside from magic. The four unicorns’ horns glowed in a dim white light as they performed a spell that Twilight couldn't identify. The doctor at the end of the table placed his hoof on the colt's chest before it suddenly lit up, and the colt’s skeletal structure became displayed through his skin, like an x-ray scan. As the doctor moved his hoof around, different body parts were displayed on a screen behind him.

Twilight couldn't quite understand what they were looking for. His skeleton seemed normal for a Pegasus, with nothing out of the ordinary compared to what she saw in books. It was an interesting sight to see. There was the sound of clicking as photographs were snapped for later analysis.

The doctor glanced at the unicorns and announced, "Alright, now we're moving to stage two."

Twilight's eyes widened when she saw the skeleton disappear and be replaced with a heart, veins, and lungs. It was wonderful, and yet disgusting at the same time. She could see his heart beat and the blood pulse through his veins as his lungs expanded and contracted with each breath. They snapped several more pictures before moving on to the next step. Twilight forced herself to suppress a gag as they gave his digestive system a once-over.

Finally, after examining every part of his internal structure, they arrived at the last step: the nervous system. Twilight looked down at the brain and nerves, puzzled by what she was seeing. The brain and nerves had a grey glow, and while that wasn’t out of the ordinary for an operation like this, it was concerning for everyone present to see several blue lines snaking across his body alongside the nerves, all leading to a  big blue... ball in his gut, for a lack of better terminology.

"What isthat?" she glanced at the doctor for an answer. The doctor looked like he had about as much of a clue as she did.

"I-I-I have no idea, I’ve never seen this before".

Everypony stared in stunned silence, baffled by the sight before them. Wasting no time, the doctor scrambled to documented everything they saw.

As he finished up the operation, the four unicorns released their magic hold and stepped aside for some much needed rest. Twilight turned and left the room to find Spike so that she could report what they have found. Even though they now had a bit more information on this colt, the revelation only left Twilight with even more questions that before.

The blue orb in his chest did little to explain how on earth he was able to breath fire in the patient room, without a single trace of magic to show for it. For once in her life, she was as lost as a mosquito in a swarm of flies.

And she liked it.

Top Priority Patient One was quickly moved into a solitary patient room. That was the codename the hospital staff created for the stallion that could mysteriously breath fire like a dragon.

No one knew who he was, or where he came from. He had no form of identification on him when they found him, and the only clue they had was that he must’ve been involved with the explosion at the mountain. They also couldn’t really explain the odd blue organs that attached themselves to his nervous system.

Twilight, who had witnessed his entry through the portal, knew that he was by all means an alien somehow transformed into a Pegasus during his transit, and would probably think of them as mythical creatures straight out of a fairy tale. She had to admit that he wasn’t really that hard on the eyes, either.

He had quite a firm, toned build to him, and his face was perfect, except for a scar on his chin.

I doubt he even knows where he is, Twilight thought to herself, I wonder what his world is like...

Maybe they have ponies there? ... On that thought, no, maybe not. He was surprised by his own appearance when he woke up. I wonder what he looked like back in his world... He was probably just as handsome as he is now. I gotta write this--

Her train of thought was cut short by the sound of shuffling coming from the bed. The colt’s eyes burst open, and in an instant, he was screaming at the top of his lungs again.

Sweet Celestia, he had a decent set of lungs on him! Twilight quickly silenced him with a mute spell, surprising him. He frowned and started banging on the bed with his hooves, trying to make as much noise as possible.

Twilight spoke to him in a firm, but gentle tone, "Excuse me sir, but would you please stop making that racket, so we can possibly get some answers for the both of us?"

He continued to stomp on the table, as if trying to get help.

"HEY!" She yelled.

That seemed to get his attention, and the infernal banging came to a stop.

“Thank you. Now, if you’ll give me a few minutes, I explain about everything that has happened."

Twilight began her tale from the start, about where he was, to a brief summary of the different species of Pony, to the sequence of events since the explosion, to which he listened with close attention, absorbing every word.

"...And that's how you are here now. Is there anything else you would like to know?" she finished. The colt just stared at her blankly before shifting his gaze up to the ceiling in thought, and then back at Twilight, shaking his head in a positive motion.

"Ok then," Twilight began, "I'm going to take off the mute spell if you promise not to yell, ok?"

He shook his head again.

With a simply touch of her horn to his head the spell was undone. He took several deep breaths before he spoke.

"Is this a dream?" he asked, his voice surprisingly deep and rusty.

Twilight was kind of expecting a question like that, and who could blame him?

"Uh... no." she answered flatly.

"Then... have I died?" he questioned forcefully.

She was surprised by the amount of aggression in his voice.

"No, you’re still very much alive," she shook her head. He went silent for quite a while as if consumed by his own thoughts again, before he spoke up.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" He began, "Oh good one, no one informed me that the great Red Haring knew Genjutsu!"

Twilight was taken aback by the sudden outburst, not understanding, nor knowing what to think of it. The colt closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Blue sweat started to come out of the colt's pores and evaporated immediately, making it look like he was steaming. Such is the way to counter a genjutsu.

"RELEASE!" he yelled.

He kept his eyes closed expecting something to happen. Nothing did.

"Did you think that was going to free you or something?" Twilight asked not able to understand what he was trying to do. He opened his eyes and sighed.

"This is not a Genjutsu..." He said, the last bit of hope leaving his body.

"Now may I ask you a question?" she asked. He looked at her mischievously and said, "You mean two right."

"Wha-Oh I get it. Yes. What is your name?" He took a moment before answering, "My name is Tokishi Obitori Hetica."

An ominous ring hung in the air as Twilight thought the name over.

"Well, Tokishi, my name is Twilight and welcome to Equestria."

(this is Tokishi)