Artemis

by gcsmith

Chapter 13 - Coco Bell

It was a cold, wet, windswept day. A small pegasus was flying over the forest below with determination. This particular pegasus was a milk chocolate colour with a dark chocolatey mane. Her name was Coco Bell and she had a mission. She had been escorting her friends to the front lines when Changelings attacked, she had stopped to fend them off while her friends went on ahead. She hoped they were ok.

Her fight with the Changelings had been successful but she had suffered a few scratches as well as a cut to her left wing, so her flying was unstable and took her a lot longer in the wind than it otherwise should.

As she neared the edge of the forest and the grass plains it boarded she heard the clash of metal on metal upon the wind. Her friends were alive at least. She reached into her saddle bag and withdrew a necklace. It was a peculiar trinket, fashioned of what appeared to be gold and had a single gem the shape of a butterfly attached to the front. The friend who had given it to her told her it was called an element, of what she did not know, but it had saved her life on several occasions recently. She was grateful for it, and was glad it was safe.

She was told it was necessary for what was to come and shuddered. The prospect of the fight to come didn’t fit well with her, and no amount of magical necklaces, rings or tiara’s would make her feel safe.

Coco Bell saw a large blue spear of light in the distance, she chuckled. Starswhirl had always been a gifted unicorn. It was he after all who had managed to, procure the elements for them to use. Thinking back to how they obtained them, it was risky, but he had said they were the only way to rid the world of the evil it had been enduring.

She got got closer to the sound of the fighting and could just make out her five friends surrounded by a mixture of ponies and shadowlings. Sighing she wondered what her friends got themselves into. She put on her necklace and sped up. One of the interesting effects of the necklace was that she could tap into it and feed herself energy, this she did now as she hurtled towards the battle, a cone of heat forming around her. She drew herself in, increasing the aerodynamics of her body and forced herself onwards.

She timed it just perfect and broke the barrier surrounding her, erupting into a sonic rainboom, just as she hurtled into the enemy forces. It was a peculiar ability she had, and as far as she knew she was the only one who could perform it. As it erupted around her, the force knocked many of the enemy to the ground. She zipped through the ranks of the forces around her attacking any who stood in her way at break supersonic speeds.

She could hear her friends cheering as she zoomed past. One friend in particular was her friend Sapphire Spark, a strange unicorn with the ability to zip around the place at will, which Coco could tell she was using between her giggles as enemy troops ran into each other.

“Yahoo,” the Blue unicorn with pink hair screamed as she tricked two more shadowlings to collide before zapping them with a bright blue bolt of lightning. “I can see the Coco-alvary has arrived.”

“Sapphire, can you please focus.” came the studious voice of Papyrus Reed, a green earth pony colt who spend most of his time reading books. “Even with the elements I only predict a 85% chance of success. We need all the focus we can get.”

Coco smiled, her friends were all crazy, but she loved them for their differences. She looked ahead of her in time to avoid a huge spout of flame. The flame cut a huge swath of destruction in the enemy ranks. She followed it back to its source and saw her friend Dragon Fire floating there, her fiery mane being whipped around lethally as she hovered in the air. She smiled, about time Dragon had a use for her constantly life threatening birth defect.

As Coco flew ahead a large brute of a Shadowling stepped in front of her, she tried to maneuver out of the way, but her injured wing and her velocity made it impossible. She collided with the Shadowling with a sickening crunch and fell to the ground. She sat there dazed as he picked her up by her back legs. Dangling there, her wings flapping in a mad attempt to free herself she noticed the beast prepare to swing a large spiked steel club.

She closed her eyes expecting the inevitable demise, but no pain came. Instead she saw a bright streak of blue and felt the beasts grip on her weaken. She flapped like a mad mare and soared into the sky as the beast toppled over. She looked down and saw a that the head had been removed, the wound cauterized by the magic. Coco looked over to Starswhirl who was standing triumphant at the shadowlings feet. “Always have to save your life Coco.” he chuckled looking up at her. “Seriously I think the stress you cause me will turn my beard white.”

She laughed, it did always seem like he was saving her life from one thing or another. Gazing down at the unicorn who was now fending off waves of ponies she started to laugh. He was an arrogant colt, as stubborn as a mule, but he was powerful. Not to mention some of the theories he had on magic had started to earn him some fame. Even at such a young age. She wondered if it was his new views on magic that had allowed him to understand the abilities of the trinkets they all bore, his tiara obvious on his brow.

She laughed again, the absurdity of one of the most powerful unicorns she knew using a tiara to help fight his battles. She shook her head, realizing what she had just seen, If Starswhirl was using his tiara then he battle was far more important than she had thought. Better take it more seriously.

Choco paused for a second, scanning the battle below. She could see each of her friends holding their own, for now. Taking a moment's respite to recover from her less than cautious entry she scanned the horizon, her keen eyes picking out dark shapes in the distance.

Her heart froze. This was not good, not good at all. In the distance was large military force, and heading it was... Him. She cursed, the forces below them must have been a scouting party of sorts. She drew more power from her element. Starswhirl had cautioned them that to do it often was to invite doom, whatever that meant. Still this was important, if they didn’t finish this small skirmish soon they were definitely doomed.

Coco took stock of the battle, rising in the air as she went. It was time, it seemed, for her experimental move. The sonic flash. She prepared herself and dived straight at the ground.