Chapter Twenty-One: Alternatives

I woke up to see Fluttershy in front of me, doing something to my side. I shifted, and felt pain shooting through my upper torso and side, and I had a splitting headache and a large bruise on the side of my head.

"Eep!" I'd startled her. "I-I'm sorry I woke you." I looked to my side, and I saw that Fluttershy had somehow fashioned a bandage for my wound.

"It's fine. Thank you." The others noticed me, and came in my direction. "How long was I out?" I asked.

"Only a few minutes," she answered. Twilight was first to speak of the approaching ponies.

"Zach, you're awake! Spike told me what happened. I'm so sorry." Her inflection was one to match.

"It's nothing, you didn't really do this, Discord did."

"Nothing? Nothing? I put a hole in your side, for Celestia's sake. I shouldn't have acted as I did, in any circumstance. I'm sorry."

"You ran me through with your horn because you thought I killed your friends with the gun," I said bluntly. "You acted as anyone, pony or human, would. I have a question, though. Why was your horn glowing when you struck me? What could that have been?"

"My horn was glowing? Maybe it was a zap spell." She lost her air of apology, and brought her hoof to her chin.

"It couldn't have worked, then. I didn't feel anything but the horn, which hurt a lot, by the way," I said.

I remembered the previous day, when Celestia tried to levitate the man that had the gun. She had failed. Magic doesn't work well on humans. Discord's had, but Discord isn't normal, I thought. My attention turned to my wounds. It was fortunate that Twilight hadn't penetrated my abdominal cavity, and I didn't think any of my ribs were broken. My head hurt, but it could definitely be worse. I carefully stood up, minding my injured side. My thoughts wandered once more, this time to our objective.

"That's all behind us now. What we need to do now is find another way to use the Elements of Harmony, as the gun is now... in your head, or something," I said. "Are there any other things we could imbue?" I looked around me, and saw little of use. The whole group was in my general vicinity now. None of us had any sort of weapons or even equipment with us, except for me. I walked slowly and deliberately toward my backpack. I picked up the backpack, and carefully put it on again.

"The only thing we do have is this." I pointed at it. "And I don't think it'll do."

"That's our only option now," Twilight said. I thought she was crazy. A backpack full of books isn't a weapon! It's just a bag! "Girls, come on, we're going to enchant Zach's backpack with the Elements of Harmony." I thought for a moment about any alternative. What about me? If normal magic didn't work on me, what would trying to imbue me with the most powerful magic in Equestria do?

"Wait, why not try it on me?" I asked. I was surely more suitable than my backpack, even in my current state.

"That's too dangerous. The spell is for objects, not ponies, and certainly not humans," Twilight advised.

"Do it anyway," I urged.

Twilight facehoofed. "Fine, we'll give it a try." The six of them arranged themselves in a circle around me, and practiced the enchanting ritual for the second time. There was a bright flash, then darkness.