//------------------------------// // Part 8 // Story: The Fall // by Malicious-Badger //------------------------------// Searching. Rainbow awoke. She was not in the place she passed out, and she was barely hanging on. Her eyes were opening and closing drearily, the bursts of light she saw every so often continuously changed the environment around her. ___ Twilight was exhausted, but they had finally made it. Pushing herself to the limit, Twilight, had teleported the party of three bit by bit over the road to Canterlot. They were situated in the Canterlot library, the final point of Twilight's teleports. Observing their surroundings, Twilight could not help but notice that the Library seemed to be faring quite well. In fact, as Twilight took a gander out the window to the rest of the city below, the entire city seemed to be faring ok, it was very eerie. The masses amount of destruction that had been seen in Ponyville and the immediate area were not present in inner Canterlot; the damage they had seen from the distance was on the exterior, it probably came from surrounding blasts, not a direct hit. Even though the buildings still stood, and the grass was still green, or at the very least a sort greenish brown, the ponies were still dead. Dozens lay sprawled out on the street, they were neither charred nor brunt, instead they lay there rotting, they looked almost mummified. It was really intriguing that they lay outside dead. Judging by the fact that it seemed to be a poison that had caused the deaths, one would think people would be in bed, mistaking it for illness. The only other reason would be if the poison took instantaneous effect, why else would the dead ponies had continued their day to day lives, as if it was all the same; granted they didn't look unhappy. In any case, if it were an instantaneous poison the group would have to be careful. Twilight and Applejack knew and expressed their concerns about their other, dying friend. Because of such concerns, neither had the clear conscious to converse with one another, their minds were clouded by the thought of losing yet another friend, and no less, losing said friend in person; to be there, to have had let that happen. Though nothing was said, they did have the same thoughts; they knew this. There was no time wasted, and there was no time to lose, in the library Twilight had one thing to say, "Applejack, I know that's you, and you know that I'm me, and even if this is some weird crazy dream," She said, motioning her hoof in a circle movement by the side of her head, "you know as well as I do that that is Rainbow Dash over there, and that we need to do something about… well something about that!" Twilight ended pointing in disgust at the ripped side of Rainbow Dash. Applejack nodded in accordance, though her face suggested that her mind was blank, and that the nod was automatic. "Look Applejack, get this through your head: WE BEAT THE ODDS! Somehow we managed to survive. Somehow we managed to meet, but none of the matters, not if we don't do something about Rainbow RIGHT NOW! It's our responsibility! "I need you to help me, I have things to tell you, but not now; now I need you to help me help Rainbow. The first thing we need to do is stop the bleeding. Currently we're in the Royal Canterlot Library, its adjacent to the Canterlot Archives, I assume you know where we are. "We need some sort of cloth to wrap around Rainbow's body, it'll apply pressure which may hurt, but more importantly it'll stop the bleeding. We need that absorbent; I don't think she can lose much more. She's close to gone so go now. I will go to the archives; there might be a scroll of magic on restoration. I might not be able to reattach her wing, but I might be able to close up that wound." Applejack understood everything Twilight had told her. She wanted to say something but could neither find any words of encouragement or acknowledgement. Twilight walked by her, brushing past her shoulder; she was already on route to her own task. ___ Twilight had withheld the information from the letter; she thought it to be best. She thought that the telling Applejack the truth right now would only break her, and lose their chance at saving Rainbow. She dug through the multitudes of scrolls that were in the Archives. The scrolls were stacked, hundreds upon hundreds per shelf. They were all so neatly kept. Using magic, Twilight was throwing the scrolls all over the room, grabbing new ones every few seconds, she had yet to find rejuvenation spell of some sorts. If Pinkie were there the task would have surely been quicker, knowing that pony's uncanny luck for finding things. Thinking of Pinkie Pie made Twilight extend her thoughts to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. She wondered how they were so lucky, if you could call it that. She wondered why they had beat the odds, how come they had survived? And what were the chances that it had been them, specifically them, three very close friends; it must have been one in a million, it'd have been much more likely to have met a stranger rather than each other, but they didn't. Twilight didn't know whether to feel happy or sad about the fact that they had met. Yes it meant that they were not alone any more; that they did not have to live out the rest of their day in solitude, free to a barren world, however… Now they had met, it would mean devastation if one would leave. Consider all of them had accepted the fact that each other were dead, how could they live through losing somepony twice. It meant that in the end, there would still be one of them, one who would have to bear the pain of watching the other two pass away, until the likes of death came for them. In the end it would just be a tragedy. In the end they would die either way. In the end would it not better to have not met at all? Truth be told, all of it could be disputed, there would never be an end. All Twilight knew for now was, that before she could be happy, or at the very least at some ease, she would need to find a spell that would heal Rainbow: now that they were together she was not about to just let Rainbow slip through her hooves, no matter what. Not even because of the letter, that could wait. Twilight continued her searching. ___ Applejack went over what Twilight had said; it was true, they had beaten the odds, and in more ways than one. She wasn't a betting horse but, if there had been a chance, she would not have put money on their luck. Twilight's words rung in her ears, she spoke the truth; it wouldn't matter if they were alive if they could not stop themselves from dying. Applejack needed to get moving, Rainbow Dash needed her help. The walls of the library were barren at best; an odd picture was hung here and there to brighten up the place. However, from where Applejack's point of view she could not see the walls, instead she was roaming between the shelves and down the isles, between the bookcases. She walked down the isles to find their ends; she hoped that somewhere down one of them there would be some sort cloth, a tapestry or anything, anything but the curtains. Though the curtains were an obvious source of cloth, it was too thick, too heavy to wrap around Rainbow, as well as too large. The shelves Applejack found herself between practically formed a maze, a physical maze as it were, though if one were to try to read, and no less comprehend every single book there, one could also call it a mental maze, either way, it was all too easy to get lost between the shelves. Unlike normal libraries where the isles are lined up row-by-row like a grid, and the bookcases are barely higher than a full-grown alicorn, the Royal Canterlot library was much different. The bookcases towered high above any alicorn would ever grow, as if the sky was their ceiling, and in some areas where light was sparse, it became a challenge to see the books upon the higher of shelves. Besides the sizes of the bookcases, the mapping of the library itself was not what you would expect. The was no logic to the layout of the library, though Princess Celestia always insisted that back in the days, a thousand years ago or so, this layout made perfect sense. A thousand years ago was the age of odd Magicks, and perhaps if one were to map out the library it would bear some significance, but in all honesty even that was too confusing to even comprehend. It was best to just test your luck, and hope you come across what you're looking for; that's exactly what Applejack did. ___ Left alone on the floor, Rainbow Dash stayed in her dying state. She was conscious of her surroundings yet unconscious to what was happening to her. The bleeding had slowed and she was growing quite pale. Even through the red that stained her coat, the loss of blood was very clear; the patches of blue that did spot through were no longer their bright cyan colour, they had turned to a greyer shade, the kind of colour you would see the sky be on an overcast day. There was not much time left for Rainbow, if something was not done very soon, it would spell the inevitable death. ___ Eyes peered into the room; eyes of blue; eyes of malice; eyes of terror. The smell of blood rose in the air as the eyes were attracted to the body on the floor; was it dead, or alive? Whatever the case, certainly hadn't been there before, they thought. Ghostly mist, bluish of colour, seeped through the open doo, where the eyes watching. Slowly the mist engulfed the floor around Rainbow. She vanished and back at the door the eyes were gone too.