A World of My Own - XII. Fellow Feeling, Part I

It's 6:00am. We got back to our temporary HQ by midnight. We slept at around 1:00am. Now Tommy Boy's screaming to everybody to leave him alone so that he could get some sleep.
Not today, Thomas. Not today, unfortunately.
When we woke up, I decided to go outside and take a look at the surrounding area. I wasn't surprised as I walked further down the street - collateral damage sustained to the Times Square area. All fit for the fight of the century... and it's not Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. (It was a boring fight, by the way.)
I returned back to home base and took my breakfast from the kitchen, which was much more subdued: cereal with milk, apple slices, and animal crackers. Tunip was tired out from last night, so Dashi and I decided to give him the day off from cooking.
As it was yesterday morning, the TV was turned on to channel 4. We were watching the local newscast report on the damage at Times Square as we ate our food, but I couldn't help but notice that Twilight had a very solemn look on her face. I had a special, personal connection with her, so I couldn't help but feel bad for her. But at the same time, this fight she was gonna have to put up with Starlight was something she had to do without our assistance.
I felt helpless.
"Twilight?" I called.
"Yes, Shellington?" she replied.
"Can we talk? Like, outside?"
"Sure."

Both of us walked out of the shop and sat down on the sidewalk, a few feet away from the entrance.
Twily started the conversation and asked me, "What's up?"
"I... I don't know," I hesitantly replied. "This was supposed to be some kind of a working vacation. Now it's more of a mission where we have to bring Glimmer to justice."
"I know, Shel. I knew you didn't want to go through... whatever this whole thing is about her. But you and your friends - you decided to tag along anyway."
"We wanted to help-"
"And I thank you for that. But this is something-"
"That you have to tackle on your own. I understand what you have to do today. There's something else in my mind, however."
"What is it?"
I paused for a moment. "I, um... I've been learning a lot from this trip. Not only from that, but from you, my friends - even myself, really. I just wish... I just wish I learned about it sooner."
"Why's that?"
"Remember when I told you about my relationship with my dad?"
"Yeah."
"The more I'm learning some lessons from this adventure, the more I wish I should've made the right... choices, I guess."
"Look. I know how hard those mistakes you made had impacted you and your dad, but that's the past. I'm pretty sure your relationship with him has gotten better from that."
"Barely. We didn't interact as much as he wanted to since then."
"...Wow."
"I know."
"I'm sorry."
"But since when I first told you about it, I was thinking about how I could rekindle my relationship with him, make things right, make it better between him and I and the rest of the family."
"So that's why it's been bothering you..."
"Yeah."
"What's on your mind?"
"...I have been thinking about coming back home. I mean, the Octopod has been my home ever since I joined the Octonauts, but... There's another home I came from.
"I was born in Scotland, but my family and I moved to England when I was still a little toddler. About 8 months old, I think. We moved to an apartment in the city, and that's where I spent most of my childhood.
"My dad was the best dad I've ever had. He worked as a scientist, just like me. So sometimes, after school, he would take me to the laboratory he worked for, and he showed me some of the scientific experiments he and his colleagues were working on. That led me to study science as a whole, and then later on, marine biology, because I cared about what was going on in the ocean and wanted to learn about the creatures living within it.
"Our father-son relationship was budding until... you know what happened. The suspensions. My parents and I got over it, but my dad didn't quite understand why I made those mistakes. Sure, we had long talks and lectures about my behavior, but other than that, we kind of got over it. But it wasn't the same after that... and to this day, I still regret what I did. If I had known about this - what I'm going through right now - sooner, then maybe this wouldn't have happened. But like you said, that's just the past and I have to move on from it."
"That's right, Shel. So you want to go back to England to visit your father and rekindle your relationship with him?"
"That's what I want to do, Twilight. He influenced me to pursue science, and then I threw him under the bus like that... I want to apologize to him for what happened - and then maybe learn some lessons from him to go along with what I've learned from this trip so far and make up for it."
"Well... There's something I want to tell you."
"What?"
"I had a similar situation with my friends. Just like you, I neglected them, especially this pony named Moon Dancer. She invited me to a party and my friends asked if I could go, but I was too busy with my studies. Years later, now the Princess of Friendship, I regretted being a bad friend to her - particularly because she was introverted, kinda like me before I moved to Ponyville - so I wanted to make it up to her by throwing her a party, with some assistance from Pinkie Pie and Minuette. And, well... it worked! Even though it didn't quite repair the damage I had done to her, we made up and amended my past mistakes.
"What I took out of it was you can try to repair the damage, but it's still gonna be there; you're still gonna feel it. So try working around it. Try to do something to make your father feel better about you and make new memories out of it - and you'll be fine. Amending fences, you know?"
"Yep."
"Indeed. If you do come back home - remember that. Work around the damage you caused and you'll feel better about it, okay?"
"Alright. Thanks, Twi."
"No problem."
We hugged it out, sea otter to alicorn, alicorn to sea otter. I thanked her for making me feel a little better about my personal situation, and for being such a good friend I could look to. She is one great princess, I tell you - knowing her own mistakes and teaching me how to handle them - she's a nice role model. Now, she has a fight to handle - and God knows how that's going to go down.

All of us arrived at a desolated Times Square at around 11:55am. We heard a melancholy violin play its somber melody, the piano accompanying it with its chords, and then a string section came in to create a full, rich sound.
"Good luck," I told Twilight.
"Thanks," she replied.
The crew and I kept our distance from Twi so that she would fight Glimmer on her own. Glimmer soon appeared, facing against Twilight from a long distance down the street.
Around that time, a four-floor beat once again appeared, fading in, and a voice from somewhere said:

I cried, for I didn't think it could be true,
that you and I might have always known one another;
and that we could not only evoke, but conjure a place of our own;
and everywhere that has ever existed,
is all on the surface of our dream...

"Twilight Sparkle," Glimmer called. "Are you ready to be put out of your own misery?"
"Not if I'm willing to live," Twilight responded with conviction.

Now please... Hear what I hear.

Glimmer stroked first, sending a blast of lethal magic towards Twilight. The alicorn promptly defended herself with a shield, until it was her turn to attack.
No luck. Glimmer shielded herself, too.
All of this accompanied by dark, gritty sounds and the same dance beat, briefly buffering until it continued on. Another melody appeared, with short, punctuated notes, which gave way to even more dark percussion and other bits of sound here and there.
By that time, Twilight and Starlight fired simultaneously, until...
"UNH!"
She gave out. The force threw her off her hooves and she suffered a hard landing, knocking her unconscious.
"NO!" I yelled out.
"Twilight!" Dashi called in distress.

Let me explain
this ugliness, this cruelty, this repulsiveness;
it will all die out,
and now, I cry for all that is beautiful...

Now she was in the same position we found her back in Orlando, but this time, it wasn't a dream. It was real. The same spirit tried to hold on and let its body right itself.
But by that time, I had taken this into my own two hands. No more waiting. I couldn't let this happen...
I took one of Tweak's hammers out of her belt and the Staff of Harmony, which Twilight used in the previous battle.
You mess with Twilight, you mess with me.
"Shellington, what are you doing?" Tweak asked in frustration.
"Shelly!" Dashi called.
I love you, Dashi... but it's too late now.
There was only one thing in my mind right now... and that was to EXTERMINATE.