Guardian

CHAPTER 14 – PEAK

The train to Canterlot had left a few minutes ago. The group of ponies on-board sat anxiously as they traveled across the rails towards the capital of Equestria. Looking out the window, Twilight tried to concentrate and clear her mind of all of the clutter that had filled it, gazing out at the mountains as the rails neared a huge gorge.

“Hey,” A muffled voice could be heard behind her. Twilight continued to focus on staring out, ignoring the voice. “Hey. Hey. Hey Twilight. Hey. Hey. Twilight Sparkle. Hey you. You there. Hey. Hey Twilight! Twilight! Twi-light!” The voice continued to grate against Twilight's mind before she finally turned and shouted.

“What?” She faced a white unicorn trapped in a thick raspberry orb.

“I need to pee,” Brimstone replied, “Do I just go in here or...”

“Are you kidding?”

“No I really need to go.” Brimstone squirmed uncomfortably in the orb, “Does the orb get rid of it?”

“No! Don't pee in the orb!”

“Then you gotta let me out so I can use the bathroom!”

“There aren't any bathrooms on the train. You'll have to wait.”

“I'm gonna be floating in this orb by the time we get to Canterlot.”

“That's gross.”

“I can't help it! When you gotta go, you gotta go!”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Well, you can let me out of the orb, then I'll go between the cars and pee off the side of the tracks while the train's moving. No one will ever know.”

“That's disgusting!”

“My bladder doesn't care right now.”

“Look, if I let you out, you're just gonna run off.”

“Twilight there's nowhere I can run.” Brimstone pointed out the window. The train was heading over a lengthy gorge. “If I jump off the train then I'm just gonna fall to my death. You don't think I'm stupid, do you? Now come on, I need to pee really bad.”

“Ugh.” Twilight groaned before standing up. “Fine. No funny business, though. Got it?”

“Got it.”

The mulberry unicorn stood up and aimed her horn, the rest of the group watching carefully as Twilight released Brimstone from the orb. The white unicorn fell to the floor and landed on his feet.

“Go pee and come right back. Actually-” Twilight looked over at Rainbow Dash, “-You go with him.”

“What!” The rainbow pegasus cried in shock, “Why do I have to go help the guy pee?”

“If he tries to make a break for it then you're the only one fast enough to catch him.”

“I don't wanna watch him pee!”

“I don't think I want her watching me pee either...” Brimstone added.

“All this talk about pee kinda makes me have to go too...” Spike spoke up.

“Look,” Twilight stopped everyone, “Just go stand by the door or something while he goes. Nothing difficult. Don't look at him.”

“As if I'd do that!”

“I wouldn't be surprised if you did.” Brimstone stated with a snicker.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, come on. From the moment you met me you haven't been able to keep your hooves off of me.”

“What! No! It's not like I-”

“Go pee!” Twilight roared. Brimstone quickly rushed to the door with Rainbow Dash in tow.

Stepping out between the cars, the white unicorn looked off of the edge of the tracks, feeling the wind blow through his mane. He stared down at the bottom of the gorge below, feeling himself get somewhat dizzy.

“Woah...”

“Well?” Rainbow Dash spoke up from the doorway, “Are you gonna go, or what?”

Brimstone thought for a moment and then nodded, looking up from the gorge below and then relieving himself.

“Ah... That's much better.”

“Guys are so gross sometimes.”

“You're just jealous that you can't pee off the side of a moving train.”

“As if I'd even want to!”

“Hey. Hey Rainbow Dash.”

“What?”

“Bye.” Brimstone suddenly lunged off of the side of the train and into the gorge below.

“What the-!”

“What happened?” Twilight's voice shouted from inside.

“He just jumped off!”

“Well don't just stand there! Catch him!”

Rainbow Dash dove off the side of the track, looking into the darkness of the chasm below as the train continued overhead. The white unicorn was nowhere to be found. As she continued into the chasm, she heard a noise from the side, then turned and shot forth at it, slamming into an object softer than the surrounding rock and pinning it to the ground again.

“Woah!” Brimstone's voice pierced the darkness, “I didn't think you'd have the nerve to jump in after me!”

“I should have guessed you would have been crazy enough to do that.”

“Yeah and I should have known you were too attracted to me to let me run from you.”

“Shut up!” Rainbow Dash stepped off of Brimstone, looking away with irritation and a blushing face. “Now come on, we need to get back to the train before it gets too far away.”

“Nah. I'm gonna go this way instead.” Brimstone turned and began to walk away towards a cave before feeling something holding his tail. He turned back around to see Rainbow Dash biting down on his lengthy silver hairs and holding him in place.

“No you don't!” She growled through her teeth, “You're not going anywhere. Now come here and let me take you back up to the train!”

“I don't wanna get stuck back inside of that cramped bubble. Do you have any idea how uncomfortable that thing is?”

“Do you have any idea how much I don't care?”

“Why are you being so mean to me?” Brimstone's sudden change of tone surprised the cyan pegasus.

“Do you really not remember?”

“I don't even know who you're accusing me of being. Sombra? Who is that?”

Rainbow Dash let go of Brimstone's tail and stared at him with some confusion. Before that point, she hadn't noticed how sincere Brimstone was in his lack of knowledge. She felt then that he was telling the truth, but couldn't disobey Twilight.

“Look,” She sighed, “Let me take you back up to the train. I'll tell you everything when we get there. There's a lot going on now and we're all a little nuts, so I'm sorry for being so rough at first.”

“That's another thing. You kept talking about stuff that happened that I have no clue about. Maybe if you'd let me in, I could help-” A loud noise above caught the attention of the two. The train appeared to have been stopped forcefully, the wheels on the steam engine grinding as it was held in place. “What's happening up there?”

“I don't know. Come on, we need to get up there!”

Rainbow Dash bit down on Brimstone's tail before he could react and flew upwards with the shocked unicorn. Upon reaching the platform between two cars, she dropped the unicorn and entered the car.

“What's going on? Why'd the train stop?”

“I don't know,” Twilight replied, “It happened so suddenly... Did you get Brimstone?”

“Yeah, yeah. I'm here.” The white unicorn walked into the car and suddenly stopped, feeling a wave of Psi similar to what he felt before pass through the car from the front. The intensity of the power and the wavelength of the energy assured him that this was the same user. He immediately charged forward towards the front of the car before being tackled by Applejack and held down by a pile of ponies.

“Oh no you don't!” Twilight stated, “You're not jumping out again! Not right now!”

“Get off! You don't understand! I've felt this power already! There's someone like me nearby!”

“What?” Twilight asked. Suddenly, her eyes widened as a familiar sense of dread filled her. The same fear she felt in the nightmare she had the night prior filled her, her legs shaking beneath her.

“Twi?” Applejack asked, noticing her friend in shock, “You alright? Twi? Twilight!” The orange pony jumped up and rushed over to the mulberry unicorn, taking her by the shoulders and jostling her slightly. “Twilight! Snap out've it!”

“I... I...” Twilight stood paralyzed for a moment, then her eyes shot over to the door at the front of the car. The rest of the group lay piled about randomly near the door and Brimstone was nowhere to be seen.

“Goodness!” Rarity shouted in surprise as she sat up, “I had no idea he was that strong!”

“Great!” Rainbow Dash shouted in irritation, “There he goes running again! I'll go get him.”

Rushing past her friends and into the space between their car and the one in front of it, Rainbow Dash peered ahead through the doors and noticed that Brimstone was not in any of the cars ahead. She then flew up above and caught the sight of him running along the top of them. How he got up there so fast, she was not certain, but she couldn't think of that at the moment, flying forward and catching up to him quickly, tackling him and holding him down against the cold metal of the roof of the third car.

“Get off, Rainbow Dash! I don't have time to play with you right now!”

“Get back to the car, then!”

“No! I need to figure out who this is! It's important!”

“I'm not letting you run off again!”

The two continued to struggle for a few seconds before Brimstone finally had enough. His eyes took on the same blue glow as before and the metal around him bent up and wrapped around Rainbow Dash, locking her in place on top of the roof. Passengers inside of the train looked up through the new hole in the roof curiously as the trapped pegasus began shouting at Brimstone.

“Hey! Let me go! Get back here, where are you going?”

“I'll let you go in a bit!” Brimstone shouted as he jumped to the next car, “I just need to figure out who is-” A massive shadowy figure erupted up from under the train, towering over Brimstone. Instinctively, the white unicorn took a defensive stance before the shadow as it opened its red eyes.

“You...” The shadow's voice boomed out over the chasm, “The pony that invaded my work...”

“So you are the one that used that telepathy. Judging by your appearance, it wasn't for anything good. Why was that mare crying?”

“It does not concern you. I can tell, though, that you will be a nuisance to me if I do not dispose of you right now.”

“I should have figured that the one guy I find that's like me would be evil. Wait a minute... I bet you're the reason the ponies here are trying to keep me stuck in a bubble!”

“Astute. You're not as thick as you make yourself look.”

“I have my moments.”

“Regardless, I cannot allow you to pose a threat to my work again. You almost ruined my vision for Cadance. You will not do it again.”

“Oh yeah? And just what do you think you can do to stop me?”

“More than you can do to go against me, Eiza Borealis.”

“What?” Brimstone widened his eyes in shock, backing up a pace, “How did you figure out who I was without me telling you?”

“It's very easy for me to read the mind of another psychic being. Much easier than it is for me to read the mind of one of these disgusting magical things.”

“Hey. They're not disgusting. They don't deserve that kind of treatment.”

“Interesting choice of words coming from a man that's been held hostage by six of them for the past half-hour.”

“I've seen how nice they are to each other. You have no right to take that happiness away!”

“And you have no right to command me. Hm... I can see familiar beings in your thoughts. Those six are the wielders of the Elements of Harmony. Excellent. I'll take out two birds with one stone.” The specter held out a claw and snapped his fingers, a silver shine coating the train and rocking it to the right violently.

“What are you-”

“Goodbye, Eiza.” The train tilted completely and Brimstone found himself falling backwards, the train upside-down and falling over top of him. Looking up to where the shadow had been, Brimstone saw that the specter had vanished.

His mind running at maximum speed, Brimstone watched the world slow as he concentrated, taking in his surroundings with an echoing pulse of Psi that reflected and image of the entire gorge back to him instantly from all angles. He knew what to do. Aiming his Psi downward, Brimstone caused a chain composed of rock to shoot up and wrap around him quickly, then pull him at a much-faster pace. As he made contact with the ground on all fours, he used his Psi to shatter the ground, softening the blow enough for his raw strength to keep him from being injured.

He then turned his attention upward and took a deep breath and exhaled as the train neared a distance of 100 yards from the bottom of the chasm. Rainbow Dash's screams could be heard echoing all about, the terrified cries of the passengers within resonating with hers and her friends in their own car as the train continued to fall.

Focusing, Brimstone opened his eyes and allowed the blue hue to envelop his vision, then felt the metal within the train come into the grasp of his Geokinesis as he caught the train in a blanket of Psi. Exerting himself greatly, he knew that he was too tired from not eating much to raise both the train and himself back up to the tracks high above, so he allowed the train to roll over and land softly on the ground in front of him at the bottom of the chasm.

Rainbow Dash, awestruck by the power of the white unicorn, forgot that she was bound by the iron roofing and jumped in surprise as it unraveled from around her. Still trying to piece together what happened, Rainbow Dash suddenly became filled with surprise as she witnessed Brimstone collapse to the ground before her and pass out. She quickly rushed to his aid as the passengers on the train filed out into the gorge.

“What happened?” Fluttershy approached quickly from behind.

“Brimstone saved us.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, but he definitely overdid it. He needs help.”

“What's wrong with him?” Twilight and the others approached quickly.

“He might have hurt himself.” Rainbow Dash looked down as a trickle of blood ran from Brimstone's nostril, “Okay yeah, he hurt himself.”

“Hang on,” Twilight knelt down, “I think I can do something.”

Enveloping Brimstone in a different raspberry glow, Twilight raised the white unicorn from the ground and attempted to heal him, but found it to not work.

“Is it working?” Rarity asked.

“No, I... It doesn't seem like it is... I don't understand...”

“What's wrong?”

“It's like his body is completely rejecting the magic... I've never seen anything like this...”

“That doesn't make any sense,” Rainbow Dash shot frantically, “Why won't it work? What kind of pony can't accept magic?”

“I don't know...”

The white unicorn was slowly lowered to the ground, resting his head in the embrace of a yellow pegasus as he continued to sleep.