As the daemon steadied the soul shard rifle at the ponies a streak of burning pain was etched down its back. Letting out a cry of agony it turned to find Sarah falling back, dark blood dripping from a short sword in her right hand. Correction, her right hand had become a short sword, her AI granting the blade power beyond that of normal steel. Her left hand was an enlarged bony claw wreathed in dark fire, some combination of her other companions power. Once more Sarah charged forward, and her weapons bit deep into the daemon's flesh.
Secondary laser turrets sprouted from its shoulders, and red beams of death traced their way across the ground after the pest. Arrows plinked uselessly against its armor, though it kept an eye on the two larger winged horses in case they tried that magical bow again. The daemon tried with little success to box Sarah in, sweeping the lasers around to try and cut off her escape options. The deadly soul shard rifle hummed with charge as the daemon guided Sarah into range.
Its lasers swept in, pushing her towards itself and it hunkered down to prevent her from dodging between its legs. Just as she was coming into perfect range she leapt, her companions aiding her ascent in a glorious arc that carried her over its head and out of reach.
ATTENTION: HIGH JUMPS ARE ESSENTIALLY BALLISTIC. INITIAL VELOCITY VECTOR AND POSITION LOGGED. CALCULATING X(t) = Xi + Vi*t + g*t*t. END POINT FOUND
ThEn LeT uS rOaSt hEr!
The daemon swung the rifle around and fired at the spot where Sarah would touch down, trusting in the calculations the possessed machine half had provided. Blinding light filled the battlefield, tearing into anything in its path and racing towards the forest beyond.
Ex-Lord Herald, his clothes tattered, a length of broken chain trailing behind the cuffs still latched to each hoof, grinned up at the nightmarish black castle. It was abandoned completely since the shield fell. Even that cursed human was gone. There were no changelings, no gryphons, no zebras, no canids, no minotaurs, nothing.
It was his again. All his. No one was around to take it from him. No one could. He looked at the size and majesty of the place from just beyond the main gate, and couldn't keep the manic grin from his face. A laugh, slightly unsettling, burbled out of his throat and echoed through the forest.
His ears twitched at a sound, like distant thunder.
"What in the world is-?"
Herald's world went white. Even with his eyes shut tight the light was blinding. He could feel heat on his fur. Then there was darkness.
Herald blinked, waiting for the nothing that was before his eyes to return to the splendor that was his castle. Instead, he found himself staring at a long blackened trench. All that remained of the once great estate was the main gate, a few feet of wall, and the east wing.
Herald sat down heavily on the ground and began to wail.
"It- it's Just Not FAIR!!!"
Queen Chrysalis stared in mute horror as the weapon pointed at her and her changelings not moments ago tore a swath through the Everfree like it wasn't even there. The light burned her eyes and even at this distance she could feel the heat and pressure. She wanted to run. Every instinct in her was yelling that she should take what was left of her brood and get while the getting was good. The only thing stopping her were Sarah's words ringing in her ears.
"What did you think you were doing!?" Sarah yelled. "Full scale invasion?? Cocooning all those ponies including the Alicorn of the Fucking SUN!"
"We were starving!" Chrysalis screamed from where she hung wrapped in Nightmare tendrils. "We couldn't get enough from stealing."
"SO YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD STRIP MINE LOVE INSTEAD?!?" Sarah roared. "You need to decide if love is something wild to be hunted, or a crop to be harvested! Something to steal, or something to defended?"
So she had come to defend the ponies whose love she needed. But there has to be a limit. Against the power the daemon displayed, there was little chance she could offer any real assistance. The blinding glow of the monster's weapon began to fade, and the smoking path carved into trees and stone made her blood run cold. For a moment she could see no sign of Sarah, then a smile spread across the queen's face as she caught sight of the strange human. Sarah was hovering just above the weapon's destructive blast, hanging in the air on a pair of large dark wings that flapped slowly.
"CuTe," the daemon growled, "BuT yOu CaN't DoDgE fOrEvEr."
"We do not have to!" Sarah responded in a harsh shout. "A blast like that is costly! You have created and lost an army, and suffered grievously at the hooves and claws of your would be victims! We know the limits of your anchor, you cannot have much power left."
"MoRe ThAn EnOuGh FoR yOu AnD yOuR pAtHeTiC pOnIeS!!" it screamed, the rifle humming as another shot charged. "I jUsT hAvE tO pIcK a TaRgEt I cAn'T mIsS."
Queen Chrysalis felt her knees go weak as the terrible weapon was turned towards her and what remained of the resistance. Ponies, gryphons, canids and minotaurs cried out and began to flee from the gun as an ominous light filled the barrel. A great golden shield sprang into existence as Princess Celestia stepped forward. The dark blue shield of her sister formed just behind it a moment later, the princesses standing together in defense of their ponies.
The bright beam hit Celestia's shield, and the princess of the sun actually cried out from the strain of holding back the blast. Creatures were huddling in behind the shield, desperate for protection. Even that massive dragon was being guided down behind the shields by a yellow pegasus.
"Where is Shining Armor when you need him?" Twilight cried out, forming a small shield of her own. Around her unicorns lit their horns and interlocked their own small shields with Twilight's. It reminded Chrysalis briefly of some mulit-colored translucent caripace made of purples and oranges and greens-
The queen's eyes widened. Her changelings were there among the ponies. Some were limping and some were bandaged but none were disguised. They stood side by side with the unicorns, some leaning on a pegasus or an earth ponies. In place of the fear and distrust she expected there was respect and gratitude.
Princess Celestia cried out as her shield fractured and fell, and her sister staggered slightly as the wave of power hit the midnight blue shield. If Chrysalis didn't take her changelings and go now, there might be no escape.
The only thing stopping her was the sight of her changelings, naked of disguise, working hoof and horn with the ponies they had hurt not so long ago. Two races that should have little more than bitterness between them, working together in harmony.
This, she thought, a chance at acceptance and peace. This, more than love, is worth defending.
Her own massive green shield flaired out between Princess Luna's and the patchwork mess everyone else had thrown up. Luna's shield failed, and the queen bit down on a scream as the pressure hammered in her head. What reserves of love she had were burning faster than she thought possible. Everything hurt, every part of her was pushed to the limit.
It wasn't enough. Her shield fell, and she heard unicorns and changelings in the front crying out as the blast reached their own small weak shields. The light surged around her, and she closed her eyes, bracing for the end.
The light faded, and Chrysalis blinked her eyes and stared in wonder around her. None of the creatures were hurt. Tarterus take her, none of them were even slightly singed. A blast shadow was etched into the ground around them, and at the very front of that shadow just behind where the shields had been, stood Sarah. Her black wings outstretched and her arms merged into a single deadly weapon.
Ponies gasped as we staggered, and the wings broke off and fell apart like cigarette ash. Everything hurt and burned, and we felt utterly drained. Part of us wanted to just lay down and go to sleep.
"YoUr OwN rIFlE?" The daemon chuckled and shook its head. "ImPrEsSeD. YoU wAsTeD a ShOt To LiVe A fEw SeCoNdS mOrE."
Something nudged its way under our right arm, and we turned to see Twilight trying to get us to stand up. A claw wrapped around our other arm as Reggie aided her.
"Come on, Sarah. Please." Twilight begged.
"There's... there's nothing left," we gasped quietly, wincing as our friends touched our singed skin. "That was everything we had."
"Then we shall have to give you more," Princess Celestia said. Her horn glowed, and magic began to flow.
The daemon laughed, a deep rumbling sound that hurt our ears. "ThEy HoPe To GiVe YoU pOwEr ThRoUgH mAgIc? A wAsTeD eFfOrT, iT wOn'T bE eNoUgH tO sAvE yOu. It WiLl NoT bE eNoUgH tO sAvE aNyOnE."
We stood up a little straighter, still leaning heavily on Reggie and Twilight. We felt the power from Celestia and Luna pour into us, and we knew the daemon was right. However much power they gave me in what little time we had wouldn't be enough. The unicorns, the changelings, even Queen Chrysalis were feeding us but it was too little, far too slow. We looked back at the creatures gathered behind us, looking on with desperate hope. A few smiled and cheered a little as we struggled to stand.
Around us the army was pulling itself together. Apple family members stood shoulder to shoulder with changelings and gryphons. Neraby the element bearers, sans Twilight, were giving encouragement and aid to everyone they could. Fluttershy was even helping Queen Chrysalis to steady herself. The ponies and minotaurs and canids and everyone else became a tangled mass of creatures all crying out "Get up, Sarah!" and "You can beat that monster." Our friends lifted us up and steadied us as we stood.
Our friends.
We had friends.
We have been alone for so long.
In the moon In the Neither In the Network in the world
The daemon before us could kill them all, had come so close to doing so.
They were not running away.
They were standing with us.
Till the end.
How can we do any less?
There was an energy in the air, something other than the magic of the unicorns and changelings. It filled the space around us, flowing into us, but strangely invisible to the daemon before us.
We stood, taking a few unsteady steps forward away from Twilight and Reggie. The cheer that rose behind us was heartening, and that strange power surged.
"You should have done more research, sent more probes. You've already lost."
"Ha!" The daemon lifted its rifle. "EmPtY bLuFf, YoU hAvE nO hIdDeN pOwEr!"
"It's not me you've underestimated." We waved our hand at the creatures behind us. "It's them. These kind, generous, honest, loyal, funny creatures. They have a magic all their own."
The daemon snorted. "WhAt CaN tHeY dO? PeGaSuS cAn FlY aNd DoGs CaN hOwL bUt ThErE iS nO mAgIc In ThAt FoR yOu!"
Our arms merged back together into the soulshard rifle, and we pointed it defiantly at the demon. "It's not something like that, not the differences between them. It's something that unites every last one of them. For some, it is something that they've had for a long time. Others, you've given it them, newly forged in battle."
"YoU aRe GoInG tO wIn WiTh 'HoPe' AnD 'lOvE'? i DoN't KnOw If I sHoUlD lAuGh Or PuKe!"
The creatures surged around us, some offering little more than moral support in their presence. We grinned.
"Friendship," we said with laughter in our voice. "They have fought and bled together, and they are friends. Creatures that on any other day would hate each other. Creatures that have spent months hunting me are cheering me on." Our rifle started to hum as it charged.
The daemon just laughed. "YoUr LiTtLe BlUfF wOn'T wOrK, fOoLiSh HuMaN. ThOsE hOrN hEaDs HaVeN't ChArGeD yOu WiTh NeAr EnOuGh MaGiC tO fIrE tHaT tHiNg."
The gun shifted, expanding to try and contain the power now swirling inside of it. It no longer held a single shot, a single sliver of our soul. It now held a barrage, hundreds of tiny flechettes of energy gathered from all of our friends. It was no longer a soul shard rifle. It was now a soul storm cannon, the mere glow from the end of it was causing the daemons skin to blister and burn. The monster before me held up it's arms to shield it's eyes, stunned disbelief obvious in his features.
"They are our friends!" We yelled over the whine of the cannon. "Each and every one of them!
And in this world,
Friendship is MAGIC!!!"
The cannon fired a beam of blinding rainbow colored light, and the daemon was literately wiped from the face of existence.
Twilight's eyes recovered first, she having the foresight to cast a polarization spell upon herself. Before her was an utterly empty battlefield, the daemon was gone. As more creatures recovered, cries of joy and relief grew until the army was now a great party of celebration.
"You did it!" Twilight said, hopping about in joy. "You did it! Oh Sarah you did it!"
"Sarah?"
James wiped the blood out of his eyes and cursed at the conversion pod as its engines slowly spun up. His leg burned where he was sure the fall from his ex-companions had twisted if not broken his ankle. The last of the pod's subroutines on the built in computer finished booting.
[INTERDIMENSIONAL DRIVE READY]
[PRIMARY POD LOCKED]
[SECONDARY PODS LOCKING........ERROR: POD 7 NOT FULLY CLOSED]
"Override!"
[ANY OCCUPANT OF POD 7 WILL BE EXPOSED TO THE VOID.]
"OVERRIDE!"
[OVERRIDE ACCEPTED JUMPING IN 10.....9.....8....]
James leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He could faintly hear the sounds of explosions going off in the distance, but in another few seconds he wouldn't care.
Suddenly the pod shook as though something had slammed into it.
"What the hell?"
[POD 7 CLOSING. JUMP IN 3....2.....1....]
James shut his eyes as a tear in reality opened up and swallowed the conversion pod whole.