Twilight Sparkle's Anguish

by Trailblazer Rocker

Taking The Heat

"This is not right! It just isn't a coincidence that those two thugs showed up when you all did. We need answers! NOW!"

The tour guide scientist cornered the seven into the back of the hallway, pressuring the seven travelers.

"And we're gonna! Don't get your panties in a bunch," said Trailblazer, disdainful at the tour guide's prejudice. "You want to give us a chance to talk here?"

"I want to know what's going on! Now, tell us!"

He scowled at the tour guide. "Keep that attitude up..."

"Please tell us what the hell is going on, I said 'please'."

Trailblazer stopped and looked to the side, and grumbled something to himself.

"Look, I'll explain..." Twilight said. "We're looking for these crystals called Sacred Stars, and that crystal that got stolen is one of them."

"How do you know that?"

AppleJack looked at the tour guide skeptically. "Out of all the ponyfolk we've met, YOU would be the ones that would know 'bout them."

"And why should I believe you?"

"AppleJack is the most honest pony you'll ever meet," Trailblazer answered, defending AppleJack.

"Plasma Beam, they're right about this," said Rock Solid. "Those things have been around ever since ancient Inyomaid. You know, I bet they're trying to close that Sario Hole."

"Is that what that purple hole's called?"

"Yeah."

The tour guide known as Plasma Beam stopped and thought for a moment. "Well, I don't like this whole deal one bit, but I'm going to look into it." He walked back downstairs to study the topic.

Twilight was still a bit rudely awakened by the fact of Steel Sword's motive, but she had to put it behind her. She shut out the memory as a trivial topic and got back in the present.

"Look, I'm sorry about our tour guide," Rock Solid continued. "He's quite a pessimist when something doesn't go his way."

"That guy, was like my dad," Trailblazer muttered, still frowning.

"Well anyways, I do know the history of the Sacred Stars we have in this region, and I do know that you need them to get rid of that Sario Hole."

"Yeah, that's what we're here for," Twilight responded. "We noticed the hole when we were all back in Ponyville, but we were told that in order to stop it, we needed the Sacred Stars."

"Now, Ah reckon Red Rover took it into that there volcano y'all have back there," said AppleJack. "It seems to make the most sense, but it's still just a guess."

"Here, let me take a look in the survelience room. Come with me."

They all followed Rock Solid into a room with many monitors. One of them was a heat-scanning one of the volcano. Among all of the red, yellow, pink, and white lines, near the vent were a few blue and green ones.

"According to this live view, a pony is in the vent of the volcano," Rock Solid said. "Might be Red Rover."

"All right, thanks," said Trailblazer.

"You stay safe, you seven," Rock Solid said. Then, in a softer voice, "Especially you, Twilight."

Twilight was flattered. She smiled and blushed. "Awwww, why, thank you! And don't worry about me. I will."

All of them left the research facility to scale the mountain.

"Wait... Here, let's make it easier," said Rainbow Dash. She wrapped her forelegs around AppleJack's body and got ready to give a skyride.

"Yeah, that'll help, just give me a moment..." Fluttershy got a hold of Rarity, and they lifted off. Rather than scaling the volcano, they were going to just fly to the top. They were dropped off on the top, and the two pegasi flew back down.

"Ooh, ooh, me next, me next!" Pinkie Pie said, hopping in place.

Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie, and Fluttershy got Twilight Sparkle, carrying them both to the top to join AppleJack and Rarity. Rainbow Dash flew back down to carry Trailblazer up to them.

As they all gazed down the vent, Trailblazer muttered something quietly and angrily.

"Is there somethin' botherin' ya, Trailblazer?" AppleJack asked him. "'Cause it sure does sound like it."

"That tour guide should've been a better listener," he said. "And he was acting a lot like my dad when he rudely pressured us. If I could, I'd punch that guy's teeth right down his ugly throat." He jumped onto the ledge inside the vent and started to head towards the bottom. "That ought to keep his big mouth shut."

AppleJack turned around and looked at Rainbow Dash, both unsure on why Trailblazer was speaking so rudely. "Do ya know what's wrong with him?" she asked the pegasus.

"I wish I did..." she answered. "And why is he this mad?"

Without answering each other, the six followed him on the ledge. There were many other ledges below them of varying sizes, creating some terraces two feet vertically apart from each other. They all climbed cautiously down the steps, trying hard not to lose their footing. A fall would send them plummeting down a 15 story drop to the bottom, either killing them from the fall or into a magma bath.

"Okay, where is he..." said Trailblazer, scanning the area he was level with. There were a few piles of rocks along several of the ledges, but no sign of Red Rover.

"Excuse me for this, but..." Rarity spoke up. "Could we have Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy hover below us? I'd really hate to have ourselves fall and perish due to carelessness. Perhaps you two could catch us, just to be safe...?"

"Hm, good idea, Rarity," Twight said.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got airborne and hovered below all of them. Dash flew a bit below Fluttershy to get a look at the bottom of the volcano. In a pool of magma, a rock floated above it. It was shaped like a cone, but with irregular ledges that acted like more terraces. On the flat top of the cone-shaped rock was the Sacred Star, embedded in a transparent crystalline rock, which stuck out from the top of the rock by a few feet.

"I see it!" she shouted.

Three of them got eager to get down to the base inside the volcano along with Rainbow Dash.

"Still, no sign of Red Rover..." thought Trailblazer. "This feels like a trap."

Twilight Sparkle stayed behind. Fluttershy did the same.

"Hey, everyone! Stop for a minute!" Twilight yelled at them. But Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and AppleJack kept going towards the rock along with Rainbow Dash.

"We're almost there, Twilight!" Dash yelled back.

"Is her memory THAT bad?" Trailblazer asked Twilight. "Or is she just THAT naive?"

"Don't get me started," she answered back.

A couple rocks fell and rolled towards the magma pit below them. A bigger one flew past them and down towards the other four.

"What the-!" Trailblazer and the other two turned to see where the bigger one flew from. There, they saw Red Rover, standing on a rock pile that he just emerged from.

"Watch out!" Twilight yelled down to the others.

The four that were down near the Sacred Star didn't know what they were referring to. Rainbow Dash turned around and looked up to see a pony-sized rock falling towards her. Without a chance to react, the rock struck her, to which she let out a cry of severe pain. The inertia of the rock knocked her onto the cone boulder, unconscious.

"Rainbow Dash!" AppleJack yelled after seeing what happened.

Then, Rarity looked at the lava pool, and she put a hoof over her mouth.

"That rock's sinking!!" she screamed.

All the other ponies saw that ths bottom of the cone rock Rainbow Dash was lying on started to sink into the lava. With urgency peaking, the cowpony jumped on the rock and began to climb it to rescue Rainbow Dash.

The three near the top saw what was going on, shocked, knowing that they were in a terrible situation.

"I've got to get down there!" shouted Trailblazer. "Fluttershy, you come help too!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" replied Fluttershy, tense as ever.

"Wait, what about me?!" Twilight looked around, a bit afraid.

"Just distract that guy as much as you can!"

Trailblazer and Fluttershy headed towards the magma pool to help out the others. Just as Twilight tried to think of what to do, Red Rover landed right on the ledge she was standing on directly in front of her. This surprised her, but she managed to duck and avoided his hoof that swung at her. It collided with the rocky wall, breaking off a few chunks of it. Twilight gained some distance and started to fend him off with some magic.

While she did that, Trailblazer and Fluttershy reached the sinking cone rock. AppleJack had already reached Rainbow Dash and the trapped Sacred Star, to which they found her kicking the crystal, trying to break it. Fluttershy grabbed Rainbow Dash's body and flew her to safety.

"Hey!" yelled Trailblazer, catching Rarity's and Pinkie Pie's attention. "Get back up and help out Twilight! She needs it!"

They both looked up at Twilight Sparkle, struggling to fight Red Rover.

"Oh yeah, will do!" Pinkie hopped back up the ledges.

"Yes, certainly!" Rarity answered at the same time, as she began to teleport her way back up.

Trailblazer then jumped onto the sinking rock, and helped out AppleJack in kicking apart the crystal.

"We gotta hustle!" he yelled.

"Get goin'!" AppleJack yelled back.

Both of them worked at breaking the crystal. As they did that, Twilight was about to get knocked off. Red Rover smiled as he lifted his hoof to shove her off. Then, an ivory beam struck his foreleg, burning the part of the coat it connected to. Twilight turned to see where it came from, and saw Rarity on one of the lower ledges. Pinkie Pie jumped in and attacked Red Rover from behind.

As they fought Red Rover on top, the cone rock's peak the two earth ponies were standing on was about to go under. They kept up the pace at getting the Sacred Star trapped in the crystal. One last kick from AppleJack freed the star. It levitated and spun in place above them once it came undone.

"Got it!" Trailblazer got control of it and threw it above them near a ledge. It floated in place over there now. But at that point, the lava was only a moment away from submerging the rock they stood upon.

"Let's get off this thing!" Trailblazer jumped and landed onto a thin ledge that jutted out from the rock wall. AppleJack gained speed and jumped too, just before the cone rock sunk beneath the lava. She didn't quite land entirely on the thin ledge, and slipped. She hung on using her front hooves, as the rest of her body was dangling above the lava below her. Then, she felt her hooves starting to slip.

"Oh no-!" she yelped, panicking. A hoof slipped, and the other was doing the same. Her cry for help got his attention.

"TRAILBLAZER!!" screamed AppleJack quickly as the other hoof slipped. Trailblazer reached her and caught her by it, nearly losing his balance by doing so. He got steady once again, making sure that his feet were anchored in place on the thin ledge.

"I gotcha, I gotcha, just hang on," he said. Trailblazer gently pulled her back up, trying to keep himself steady. A hasty move would send both of them into the lava. After several seconds, AppleJack was back up and able to stand on her own on the ledge. She carefully got back onto the ledges near the rock wall, breathing uneasily.

"That... Was scary..." she panted. She was quite shaken at the near-death experience.

"Hey, you're still okay, right?" Trailblazer asked, a bit shaky himself.

"Yeah... Ah am..."

"All right. Save thanking me for later. We got to get back up and get rid of Red Rover."

Both of them ran up the terraces to join the fight between them and Rover. While they ran up to the vent, Trailblazer grabbed the Sacred Star and tucked it away in his saddle bag. After this, they resumed running back up the ledges. Though by the time they got there, Red Rover was down.

"Taken care of," Pinkie Pie told them.

Both of them paused and looked at her. "Inpressive," Trailblazer said.

"Well, hold on now..." AppleJack spoke up. "Where's Rainbow?"

"Oh, crap, Rainbow Dash." Trailblazer climbed out of the vent to see if Fluttershy took her outside. She was lying near the vent with Dash lying on her backside, still unresponsive.

"Anything?"

"I can't tell...!" Fluttershy's voice was harsh and shaky.

Trailblazer walked up to her, and laid the side of his head down on Rainbow Dash's chest to listen for a heartbeat, and to feel her chest rising and falling. He then placed his right hoof on the side of her neck.

"She still has a pulse, and is still breathing," he confirmed once he stood back up straight. Fluttershy and the others let out a sigh of relief. "Now we just need a way to wake her up."

"Umm, maybe the ones back at that lab, might have something?"

"How about we get some water and give her a little wake-up call?"

"Oh, they had better have some...!" She grew a little nervous at this, but she flew and carried Trailblazer over to the lab. There, he found a watering hose on the side of the building, with a bucket near it as well. He grabbed the hose and poured water into the bucket, only heavy enough for him to toss it out. Fluttershy then flew him back to the other five to try to wake Dash up.

"Okay, this ought to do the trick." Trailblazer said as he walked over to Rainbow Dash with the bucket. He lifted it, and threw some water at her face. Upon connection, she gagged, sat up, and coughed.

"What-? What is this??" she asked with a raised voice.

"It's working!" Twilight said. "Do it again!"

He lifted the bucket and splashed her face again. She reacted by getting back up and reached for it, but Trailblazer pulled it away. "What was THAT for??" she shouted.

"You awake now?" asked Trailblazer.

"Yeah, so?!"

"Rainbow Dash... That rock knocked you out cold... We were only trying to help you out," said Fluttershy meekly.

"Yeah, you had us worried," Twilight added. "For a while, we thought that you weren't going to wake up again."

Rainbow Dash stopped and thought for a moment. "You mean, you thought that I was... Dead??"

"Well, you would've been if it weren't for AppleJack and Fluttershy."

Dash walked over to the vent to look down the pit, and she saw the cone rock that they worked on was absent. With her back turned to the others, they could see a few cuts and bruises on her back. "Did that thing... SINK into the lava?"

"Yeah."

Her pupils shrunk. "That... Is a scary thought..." she said, shivering.

"Well, we all got out of here alive, so, I'm thankful for that," Rarity said. Then, she got concerned. "Wait a minute, what about the Sacred Star??"

"I got it, I got it," parroted Trailblazer. He reached into his saddle bag and pulled out the blue crystal that they got from the sunken boulder, showing it to her. "This whole experience was a LITTLE too close though..."

"But we still made it," Rainbow said. She got up to fly, but she immediately touched down. "OW, owww, my back...!"

"That must've been from that rock Rover threw atch'ya," AppleJack thought.

Trailblazer pulled out one of his first aid kits and walked over to her. "Hey, don't fret, now. Where does it all hurt?" Upon closer inspection, there were a few scrapes on her back, and on her shoulders. Another cut was present just below her wing on her left side.

"Back, shoulders, and left side," she said.

"Right, now. Stay still, I'll take care of you." Trailblazer got out some bandages and cotton swabs to wipe a little bit of blood away, and cleansed the wounds. Rainbow Dash cringed, feeling that it stung, but she kept in place. After that, he used the bandages and closed the cuts and scrapes.

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh of pain relief. "Really. Thanks."

"It's all good. Just take it easy for now."

Twilight looked at Fluttershy. "I guess that leaves you in charge of taking us back down."

"Don't worry, I can do it," she answered softly.

Once all seven of them got back to the base of the volcano, where the lab was, the first four ponies that they met at the start of the tour greeted them.

"You're all okay!" one of the earth ponies said.

"Yeah, we are." Trailblazer did not say anything else with any fanfare.

"Well, what about that jewel thing?" Plasma Beam asked.

Trailblazer reached into his bag and showed them the Sacred Star they recovered in Mt. Terabolt.

"All right! I knew you could do it!" Rock Solid praised.

"While you ponies were getting that star, I looked into the ancient times of our land, and I now know why you need them," said the tour guide. "So, if you're going to get rid of the Sario Hole, then I won't stop you. You'll need those jewels more than we do."

A tremor shook them all for a little bit. This startled the seven travelers, but this was anticipated by now.

"Well, we'd better keep going. That hole's not going to patch itself up!" Pinkie said.

"Yes. You'd best keep going." The seven walked towards the exit and headed out the door. "Good luck!" Plasma Beam yelled just before it closed behind them.

The seven began their journey back to Rautsong to spend the night.

Back in the lab, Rock Solid looked a bit down.

"I'm going to miss Twilight Sparkle..." he said softly.