Romance and the Fate of Equestria

It's been oddly streamlined around here lately plot-wise. Why, it's almost as if there's only one story going on!

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Seven

"All right, let's add a couple of tweaks to the fifth and seventh lines of the chant just to be safe, aaaaand… there we go."

Vorpal Blade finished writing on a scroll with an oversized black feather quill and passed it to Twilight for inspection. The pair of them were in the cage in the basement, along with Spike and the imprisoned Snarl.

Twilight looked over the scroll. Vorpal Blade had written out an incantation in gleaming bluish-black ink and very spiky writing. "Kind of ostentatious, don't you think?" she said dryly.

"You want me to fix your guy or not?" said Vorpal Blade with a smirk, taking the scroll back.

"Bupbupbup…" Twilight snatched it back yet again and looked it over. "I'll be the one fixing the guy, thank you."

"Leaving me the unknown composer of your celebrated performance," Vorpal Blade lamented. "C'est la vie."

Twilight carefully read over the spell twice before casting it. A narrow beam shot from her horn to the point between Snarl's mismatched eyes, and the entire space inside the force cage filled up with billowing black smoke.

Twilight broke out coughing. "Vorpal Blade, what is this?"

"No, no, you did this right," Vorpal Blade reassured her. "It went right… this is exactly what you wanted. The smoke will clear."

In short order, it did. Through the smoke, Spike looked into Snarl's eyes, to find they were both green.

Suddenly, a thunderous crackling and creaking sounded from above, and the basement ceiling collapsed. Skippmud dropped through the library floor into the basement, landing atop the force cage. With a blast of green energy from her horn, she shattered the cage and landed on the ground, instantly batting Twilight across the face with a wooden plank held between her hooves.

She tossed the plank aside and leapt upon Twilight, punching her in the jaw, then again, then a third time, before she spun on her heel and bucked her in the face, knocking her into a wall.

"Skipp!" Vorpal Blade exclaimed.

"Yeah, hang on," Skippmud said darkly.

Skippmud aimed a kick at Spike's kneecap, which connected with a loud crack, and briefly inspected Snarl, deciding to leave him restrained.

Twilight righted herself, her face bloodied, and spat out one of her own teeth. She had no time to prepare before Skippmud pounced on her, pinning her to the wall.

"Just who in the hell do you think you are?" Skippmud roared, bashing Twilight's head against the wall. "You think you can just steal him away from me like that? To make him do your dirty work on whatever kind of mad science you're cooking up here? Ugh! Every little thing you do just… pisses me off! I despise you! You think you're the center of everything, that everything's supposed to go your way! I hate you—so—much!" She slammed Twilight's head a few more times.

"Well, it's not about you," Skippmud growled. "You know why? Because you're the bad guy. And you're not even an especially interesting bad guy. All you do is stand in our way for no reason except we're the good guys and you're the bad guy and that's how it's supposed to go. You're unbelievable. But you know what, we don't need a bad guy, thank you, we have quite enough obstacles in our day-to-day lives already, so step off!"

Twilight smirked at her derisively.

"Ooh, so smug," Skippmud spat. "What, you think I'm wrong? You think you're the hero of this story, Sparkle? Well, you're not." She jabbed a hoof toward Vorpal Blade. "He is. And I will never let him fall to the likes of you. So the next time you think about messing with him you'd better go through me first."

She stalked over to Vorpal Blade, inspecting him.

"I suppose I should thank you…" Skippmud said softly. "For getting all that Thread and Mecha off of him. He looks well-rested. Has he been sleeping well?"

Twilight spat out a small stream of blood. "Yeah. And his mind's been getting sharper by the day."

"That's good. And the stuff?"

"It's under the stairs, in a bag," said Twilight.

Skippmud flittered over to the stairs and found the sack underneath, popping it open to find a bundle of Vorpal Blade's Thread and Mecha. Nodding is satisfaction, she crossed the room back to him, kicking Spike out of the way when she found him blocking her path.

"Hey," she said gently.

"Hey," Vorpal Blade replied.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to find you," Skippmud whispered. "I can't teleport, so I had to fly, and I can't fly all day, so sometimes I had to run… and then rest… but I knew right away who had to have to stolen you. I came straight here. I only wish I could have been faster. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

They kissed softly, and Twilight watched them carefully.

"Let's get out of here, babe," Skippmud said with determination.

"You got it, honey."

Skippmud opened the bag. "I can never remember, the wooden ones go in your cheeks, right?"

"No, no, wooden ones over my eyebrows, the steel ones in my cheeks."

"Right. And the gold one in your nose, marble one in your chin. I remember now. And the seven wings are easy enough to… well, we'll put those back in later. Horns?"

"Maybe later. I can teleport without them."

Skippmud's one visible eye lit up. "Later? Really? Okay…"

She turned to face Twilight. "Well… I owe you one. You brought him back to health… made him my guy again, the guy I was missing. I haven't seen him like this in ages. I owe you, and I'll never forget it… even if I do end up killing you before I thank you properly."

"Oh, and Smiley?" Vorpal Blade said brightly.

"Yeah?" Twilight grumbled.

"Something I ought to tell you about the spell… the bad personality, it's… it's not gone, it's not destroyed, I couldn't figure out how to do that." He gestured vaguely to the air around them. "It's… out there… somewhere… as a being of pure thought." He allowed that to hang ominously for a moment before cheerfully chirping, "So, just a heads-up there. But your guy? He's all better. It's just him in there."

Vorpal Blade wrapped an arm around Skippmud's shoulders, and in a flash of light, the two of them were gone.

Spike slowly got to his feet, and as soon as he found his balance, he limped quickly to Twilight's side. "Are you okay?" he said.

"I'm fine," Twilight whispered. "She just, you know, beat the stuffing out of me, but I'll live."

"You can live without stuffing?"

"Pretty sure," said Twilight, smirking appreciatively. "Get your brother out of those shackles, he's free now."

"Right!"

Spike hobbled over to Snarl and released him from his bonds. The larger dragon collapsed.

"Hey, Snarl," Spike said sympathetically. "How do you feel?"

Snarl swallowed. "Empty," he rasped. He slowly got to his feet and tapped on his head with a claw. "Very empty. It's uncomfortable."

Spike's lip quivered in concern.

"I can get… I'll get used to it."

Snarl scurried over to Twilight and helped her to her hooves.

"Thanks, Snarl," Twilight said exhaustedly, coughing up another little trickle of blood.

"No… thank you," Snarl said tenderly. "For doing this for me."

"Of course, Snarl. You're our brother."