25 The Brightness at the End of the Tunnel
Chapter Twenty-Five
The Brightness at the End of the Tunnel
We posted lookouts on nearby peaks to watch for imperial vessels, or even just scouting pegasi, but our mooring ground was well and truly out of the way, and we saw nothing in the air but birds for the three days we took to make repairs.
Nebula's envelope looked horrible, but it was sound at least, and the gas cell beneath was as tight as was reasonable for a field repair. We had exhausted our anti-magic coating, but I restrung the fine strands of the thaumic wire mesh across the patch, which would give us a bit of protection.
The most difficult task was removing the jammed engine bearing and then reforming the collar that held it in place to receive the new one. Once that was done, replacing the propellor and shaft was easy.[1]
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[1] Easy, but extremely messy. It was fortunate that grease and engine oil stains hardly showed on my black coat.
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The unskilled crew—mostly rebel unicorns—were kept busy with simple tasks like cleaning, painting, and pulling crossbow bolts out of the hull and deck.
We even had some time in the evenings to relax a bit. Sirocco found an old squeezebox in a storage locker and suggested a bit of music and dancing after supper. Nopony aboard knew how to play the thing, but several of the unicorns volunteered to sing acapella, and they were amazingly good. They hadn't been allowed to own much personal property, and certainly no musical instruments, so they had developed a style that mimicked instrumental sounds.
They sang us a hauntingly beautiful song with strange lyrics that faded away into profound silence. I think we were all too stunned to applaud. They also knew a lot of tunes that were perfect to dance to—another activity that they hadn't been expressly forbidden—and they immediately started another song that got all our hooves tapping.
On my suggestion, Cream Puff shared out judicious amounts of apple brandy, and the party got a bit raucous. When His Miniscule Majesty yelled up the companionway for us all to shut up so that he could get some sleep, the resulting laughter and catcalls shook the deck. Cream Puff took a mug of his special cinnamon and nutmeg hot chocolate (sans brandy) down to the colt as a conciliatory gesture, as well as a big pillow he could wrap around his ears.
"What are we going to do with that truculent little brat?" I asked Skyla and Ao as we lounged against the quarterdeck rail, watching the dancing on the main deck. "We can't leave him here. The ponies scrambling for power would make him into a political hoofball, if they didn't kill him outright."
"He would have died in that wreck, if it wasn't for us," Skyla replied. "Anything we do with him has got to be a step up from that."
"If this one may offer a suggestion," Ao said. "Bitter Grass has complained of the lack of help in her herb fields of late. The youngling is sturdy enough, and Bitter Grass is kindly despite her stern reputation. The colt needs a family. Bitter needs a new apprentice..."
"Not a bad idea," I said, nodding. "Bitter Grass is one of the few ponies I know that would have both the patience and firmness to deal with that little monster."
Ao sipped at her tea and nodded in agreement. "Magical herbalism is a good trade, and he would be able to make his living easily enough when he comes of age."
"Well," I said, clinking my mug gently against Ao's delicate porcelain cup, "that's a plan then, and another item on my list checked off!"
That was to be the last bit of eminent satisfaction I would have on that world.
Oh, things went according to plan for the next few days as we ran southwest across the plains, zigging and zagging a bit to drop off a few medallions at isolated towns, but it felt like clean-up work to me, and I was mentally done with the whole adventure and eager to be home again.
I fitted the big gate gem with a triple-alicorn sigil, and built connected settings for the additional gems it would take to power the portal. All that remained was to place the gems when the time came.
The first sign that things were going to go badly came after we'd fought our way back through the stiff winds of the southern pass in the Dientes Blancos Mountains. With our reduced crew, it would take a half day to fully recharge our nearly depleted power crystals, so I thought some scouting would be in order while the unicorns worked.
The last information we had about the Western Fleet was that the three surviving ships were anchored at Palo Verde, about eight leagues north of us. Skyla agreed that it would be a good idea to confirm that they were still there. I also wanted to deliver a load of medallions to the unicorns of the town, so I got a blast from the pegasus disguise gun, and Sirocco and I loaded up our saddle bags and flew north.
The ships were gone. Worse than that, they had taken every unicorn in the town with them.
It took us a while to learn what had happened. Fortunately, the stunning appearance of my disguise tended to shut off the average stallion's critical-thinking capabilities, and after an evening casually chatting with a number of very attentive ponies in the cantina, I was able to put together a picture of events.
The imperials had tested every gem they had for sabotage. It was a pretty simple test—they connected each gem to a dismounted ship's gun with a long orichalcum cable, put the gem on the other side of a large boulder that acted as a blast shield, then just fired the gun until the crystal was depleted. Or until it exploded. The crystals that remained intact were recharged by the town's unicorns while under strict observation.
Shortly after they had finished validating the safety of their gems and topping them up, they'd herded every unicorn in the town and outlying farms into the airships and headed west. I batted my lashes until I thought my eyelids were going to cramp up, but nopony had any idea exactly where the airships were heading, minus some implausible lies made up to impress me.
Sirocco and I discussed the news as we walked out of town. The majority opinion held by the ponies in the cantina had been that the ships would head for the imperial base at Ursa Negro where the new factory was being built, and use it as their base of operations. News of the imperial fleet's destruction had arrived in Palo Verde by exhausted pegasus courier two days after the ships had departed, and it wasn't clear whether the information had been conveyed on to the other towns of the territory or not.
"That would certainly have an effect on their plans," I said. "If they know what happened at the Black Gate, they'd run at the sight of us."
"Otherwise," Sirocco added, "we're just the pirate scum who embarrassed their governor, and they'll do their best to blow us out of the sky."
"Right." I nodded. "So that means we had better avoid running into them to be on the safe side."
"And that means scouting ahead and avoiding towns, which will slow us down." From the dejection in his voice, it sounded like he was eager to get home as well.
"Maybe we can find some more burro pack trains to give the medallions to. We've still got a good store of bits aboard to pay them in advance for distributing them, and hurting the empire that conquered their kingdom would be an added incentive." I looked back over my shoulder at the distant lights of Palo Verde. "I think we're far enough," I said, and unslung my raptor set.
I clicked the transmit button three times and within a few seconds got a reply. "Skyla here. We were getting worried. Over."
"We're fine, but things took much longer than expected. It's too dark to risk flying back tonight. We will see you in the morning. Over."
"Understood. Stay safe. Out."
Sirocco and I found a soft sandy spot to settle in and wait for moonrise, napping in turn as the other kept watch. The moon was near new, so we didn't get enough light to make flying safe until about an hour before dawn.
The Nebulas tried to put a brave face on it, but it was obvious that everypony was discouraged by our bad news. After a brief meeting with Ao and me, Skyla decided that we would head for the Badlands gate by the most direct route possible. We would distribute or dump our medallions whenever a likely opportunity presented itself, but we wouldn't risk approaching settlements that might be hosting a hostile flotilla of warships.
When she announced her decision to the crew, she got a bit of a surprise from an unexpected direction.
"Captain?" Loose Leaf spoke up from the crew assembled in the waist. "We could drop caches of the medallions with gold and instructions on a couple of the old smuggling routes south of Rocas Rojas. It wouldn't be far out of our way, and that way they'd be likely to fall into sympathetic hooves."
We had another quick little meeting that included Leaf.
"This one wonders how a mere scribe is so knowledgeable in the ways of surreptitious importation," Ao said, squinting suspiciously at the skittish little pegasus.
"Professional jealousy?" I whispered to Ao softly out of the corner of my mouth. Oh, the look she gave me!
"It's all in Flit Wit's A History of the Pre-Imperial Smuggling Trade," Leaf said promptly and proudly.
Skyla snorted and stamped a hoof. "You guided us through a treacherous pass on the strength of three hundred-year-old information you read in a book?" she asked, indignantly.
"Successfully guided us," I pointed out, while Leaf tried to stammer out an apology. But I had a couple of questions of my own. "If these routes are written down, aren't the imperials also aware of them?"
"Oh… uh… No, ma'am!" Leaf stammered out. "Y-you see, anything prior to the Empire is considered primitive and worthless. Most records prior to the founding were thrown away or left to decay. The copy I read was probably the last existing one."
"Who else might have read it?"
"W-well, if anybody else had read it, they're probably dead by now, judging by the amount of dust on it when I found it. See, I worked in the stacks at the Steelspire archive, and it got so lonely back there that most days I poked around back in the dead shelves for something interesting to read." Her voice steadied as she warmed to her subject. "That's where I found Flit Wit's book. Oh, and there was this other really good one on hydraulic mining for—"
"O-kay, then," Skyla interrupted her. "I suppose it won't do any harm to drop crates of medallions on these trails. I'll leave you to go over the charts with Sirocco and help him plot a course. Nothing too far out of our way, mind you."
We nosed around the edges of the Badlands for the next couple of days, dropping off caches of the medallions with instructions and bags of bits. We could have gotten to the gate much quicker if we flew a direct course, but the confusing jumble of crags and spires made that impossible unless we went for high altitude to get above it all. We considered that, but decided to follow the longer route we had originally come through rather than endanger our rough repairs with extreme flying.
And that's why we flew right into the ambush.
I don't know how they figured out where we were headed. Oh, we'd unintentionally left clues behind as to where we'd come from, but for them to be at the right spot at the exact moment we returned? It's entirely possible that the fleet had nothing better to do and had decided to camp out on the gate in the faint hope we might return. Never discount luck, good or bad.
Ao and I were up in the cupola with the cluster of crystals designed to power the gate and unlock the way to Twilight Town. We were planning on flying ahead as soon as we caught sight of the sandstone arch and putting the gems in place so that Nebula could fly straight through without slowing.
The first inkling we had of trouble was the sound of ornithopters behind us.
We traded one surprised look, and then sprang into action. I took the gem cluster and turned it sideways, shoving it as far down in the cupola as it would go. There was so much power contained in the apparatus that if an enemy shot broke one of the crystals, the resulting explosion would destroy most of Nebula's upper structure, not to mention anypony nearby.
Ao whistled up the quarterdeck and gave Skyla the report. I only heard half the conversation, but I could make a very good guess at the rest.
"If they let us know they were behind us before attacking, they are certainly waiting in front of us as well," she said.
I scanned the canyon ahead of us with my spyglass and saw nothing suspicious, but I knew Ao had to be right.
"Yes, Captain," Ao said into the speaking tube. "We can do it!" Then she put the plug back in and turned to me. "This one has committed us to a possibly risky course of action, Ms. Nightshade. Apologies in advance."
The roar of Nebula's engines speeding up confirmed my suspicion. "We're rushing the gate, aren't we?"
"Just so," Ao confirmed. "We are to keep to cover and then race ahead and place the gem cluster at the last moment."
"Swell," I said, snugging up the chin strap of my helmet. It actually wasn't a bad plan. The imperials probably assumed that we would need a lot of time to carefully place the gems and get the gate operational again. Until we did so, we'd be bottled up, a stationary target for them to leisurely blast away at.
I called the quarterdeck with a bit of maneuvering advice, then hunkered down to wait. It wasn't long.
The instant after the first shots slammed into us, Sirocco gave her full fins down, and Nebula's nose rose like a whale breaching. The enemy was unprepared for an airship to make such an abrupt maneuver, and their second volley went low, with only a couple of shots hitting us near the keel.
We could see two of their ships then, moored in little side canyons with a network of cables holding them steady in the narrow space. They had even unshipped several of their main guns and placed them on the canyon's rim to provide a better field of fire.
The gunners elevated their barrels, and Ao and I instinctively grabbed for hoofholds. Sirocco didn't disappoint us. Just before the enemy fired again, he cranked the fins full up and Nebula suddenly headed for the center of the planet. Cannon fire crackled just over our heads and we heard a great tearing noise as the top of our tail fin was blown away.
We peered forward hoping to get a glimpse of the gate. Our elation at spotting it was tempered by the sight of the largest warship moored almost directly beneath the great stone arch. Her forward gun turrets were aimed straight at us, and she had one up on top of her envelope as well.
"UP!" I yelled through clenched teeth. "Up, up, up!"
Sirocco couldn't have possibly heard me, but he knew his business. Nebula's fins swooped down, the starboard one actually scraping the wall of the canyon, and we leaped upward again.
The big warship's main guns tracked us and fired. Nebula's hull shook from the heavy impacts that hit her somewhere beneath her bow, and then everything went to Tartarus.
It wasn't until well after the battle that I realized what had happened. The warship's cupola gun must have tracked us as well, firing on the order of the gun crew's officer. But as we rose, the higher gun's aim had intersected the stone archway, and when it had fired, the full blast went directly into the stone at the apex.
Right where the power crystals were designed to fit.
Portal magic operates within an extremely narrow range of variables. Usually, if everything isn't exactly right, nothing happens. Almost always, if something goes wrong, but the portal still operates, it merely leads to somewhere unintended and possibly unpleasant. In rare and appalling instances, the magic runs out of control and very bad things happen.
Anypony who witnesses little flickering rainbows of light at the edges of a dimensional gate is strongly advised to shut it down immediately, or failing that, flee as quickly as possible. We were a long way past the typical little warning signs of an unstable portal—the chromatic aberrations ringing the arch were lancing outward in long hissing flares.
If that wasn't bad enough, what appeared to be rips in the sky opened up, revealing vistas of other worlds. There's no point in giving advice for such a situation, because that's the buffering structure of the multiverse tearing away, removing the natural boundaries between universes. Unless there is a magically powerful expert present to immediately repair the damage, such an event usually results in the utter destruction of all the universes so exposed.
I tore my eyes away from the sky and looked at the archway. Beneath the arch, I could barely make out the wreckage of the bow of the big warship. She must have been cut in half when the portal tried to open.
The only good thing about what was going on was that mana from the other worlds was flooding through the rents in the sky. I felt light, almost giddy. I felt strong again.
I reached out and rapidly crumpled the barrels of all the enemy's cannons. Then I sent rock fragments ripping through the gas cells of the ships, causing them to slowly sink toward the canyon floors. It was a trivial matter for me to sense the power gems in the following ornithopters and rip them out of their mountings.
Distractions taken care of, I tried to deal with the universe coming apart at the seams. Skyla appeared at my side in a flash of teleportation magic.
"What can I do?" she asked, wild-eyed.
Unable to give her a short course in repairing the fabric of the luminiferous aether, I told her to collect as many of the unicorns from the warships as possible. The staccato pops of her teleportation magic and the startled whinnies of surprised ponies became a background beat to the ghastly ripping noise of the world coming apart.
I struggled with the tears in the sky, managing to halt the spread of the damage and slowly, ever so slowly, reversing it. As they closed, another problem cropped up. I was shutting off the flow of the magic that enabled me to make the repairs, and the chromatic flares from the gate were opening them anew.
"Ao!" I cried out. "We've got to stabilize the portal! Can you get the gems in place?"
She didn't bother replying. Her antlers lit, she lifted the cluster out of the cupola, and she flew for the gate.
"Be careful of the flares!" I called out to her and returned to stitching the universe back together.
I focused on the rifts again, barely able to keep them from growing until there came a loud crackle of energy from the portal and the destructive influence of the chromatic flares disappeared. I braced myself and poured all my strength into a sealing spell that hit the remaining holes all at once. They closed. I could feel the mana leaving me as they shrunk to tiny points and then disappeared entirely.
I dropped to the deck with a gasp. "We did it!"
Skyla stumbled over to me. "I think I got them all. I hope so. I can't teleport anymore." She leaned down and gave me a nuzzle. Then she looked up and asked, "Where's Ao?"
"She's…" I looked at the gate. The gems were in place, glowing softly. The surface of the portal was a smooth shimmering plain. Ao was nowhere to be seen.
"Ao?" I rapidly scanned the empty sky and screamed, "Ao!" There was no answer.
Skyla said something, but I really don't know what it was. I was already up and over the forward cowing of the cupola and flying for the gate. When I cleared Nebula's nose, I could see on the canyon floor far below, the body of my friend.
I folded my wings and streaked downward, hitting the sand way too hard and stumbling to her side. "Ao! Ao!" One side of her body was horribly injured, burnt and blackened by magical energy.
She moved and groaned, turning her head to look at me with pain-dulled eyes. She took in a shaky breath. "So, it has come—" She broke off with a sharp hiss of agony.
I lit my horn and bathed her side in the strongest pain-relieving spells I knew. "Don't try to talk! I'll get you aboard. We'll get you some help."
Skyla landed beside me then, and it was a very good thing she did. I was so exhausted, I doubt I would have been able to levitate Ao aboard by myself. Together, we managed it. Though we tried to be as careful as possible, she cried out several times on the way up. Each moan and gasp tore at me like a knife.
As soon as we had her safely aboard, Skyla charged for the quarterdeck, shouting for Sirocco to get us through the gate.
"We'll be home any minute Ao!" I said as I knelt beside her. "I'll get you to the hospital. You know Dr. Snapdragon, she can fix anything!"
She looked up at me and shook her head slightly. "We both know that adventurers seldom die in their beds, do we not, my friend?"
"Ao, I…" But her eyes closed and her head slumped to one side.
And that's when everything stopped.
Nebula shuddered to a halt and everyone but me froze in an aura of stasis magic.
"What?!" I leaped to my hooves, and there, gliding over the stern rail in a shimmering suit of golden armor, was… me. Her feathers were much lighter than my usual color, a shade of lavender so light it was almost white, but I knew who she was. Beyond her, Spike—a Spike perched on the canyon's edge in an equally polished set of plate.
She flipped back her visor to reveal a pale face and cold expression. "Bright 37," she said. "What is your designation?"
"Not now!" I screamed at her.
She scowled at me and the metal spirals set into her horn lit in a threatening manner. "I am Bright 37," she repeated, tapping the front of her chest. Sure enough, it was engraved into her peytral, followed by a string of symbols I couldn't decipher. But there were a couple of other things there that made perfect sense to me. "The map has shown thousands upon thousands of miniportals opening from this world, and on arrival I saw actual rifts in the aether! I was sent to adjudicate what might have been a violation of the rules, and I find a near disaster! You will provide me with your designation, and—"
"I am not a part of your stinking game!" I growled at her, stalking forward. "I want nothing to do with that insanity, so release my ship right now!"
She looked down at my peytral and frowned. Then, some fine lines of force sprang from her augmented horn and played over the surface of the portal. A glowing three-dimensional map appeared in front of her and she studied it carefully. "Unclaimed… unscored… but still within the boundaries. Interesting. I'm afraid I will have to... " She trailed off as I approached with my teeth bared at her. "Oh, please! What are you going to do? You're not powered! Your magic won't even—"
She was right. My magic wouldn't. But my hoof sure did. The left snap kick caught her right under the chin and rocked her head violently back. The right thrust kick that followed instantly afterward hit her directly on the starburst medallion that seemed to be floating above the surface of her peytral, and a dimensional portal vortex blossomed around her.
I flipped myself backwards to avoid being sucked in and only lost the last third of my tail.
There came an angry roar from the clifftop above me. I'd forgotten about Spike. Again.
He swooped down on the ship, green fire churning in his open maw. I leaped to the rail and shoved aside a frozen unicorn that had been operating a launcher, then swiveled the weapon to bear on Spike and pulled the release lever just as he began to breathe out.
The shot hit him directly in the chest. Thank the stars for standardization! The weights of the net package had hardly begun to spread out before they slammed into the big starburst medallion on his armor. The portal that yanked him back to his own universe generated enough thaumic spill to rock Nebula beneath her envelope, and it knocked me off my hooves.
I scrambled up and popped Skyla and Sirocco out of their stasis spells. The rest could wait. "Get us through the gate!" I yelled as I ran for the stern and leaped into the air. I dispelled the stasis line that had locked Nebula's keel to the ground and flew upward until I could get a good look at the top of the arch.
I knew my little trick on the Bright Sparkle wouldn't slow her down for long. She'd be back. We might be gone by then, but she knew the coordinates of our world, and with the three-alicorn sigil set into the gate, she could easily come through after us. And she would be very, very mad at me. I had to remove the sigil.
Oh sure, there were probably hundreds of unused parachute medallions lying around the Empire, but she didn't know about them yet, and that would give us time for the final refugees to arrive before we changed the lock on our world.
I scanned the desert below and selected a rock about the size of my head. I lifted it high in my magic, grunting with the effort, and flung it into a shallow arc. I watched it for a second to determine if it was on course, and then gave it a little corrective nudge. Perfect.
I landed on Nebula's starboard horizontal tail fin and continued to watch the rock arc downward toward me. I glanced behind me to where Nebula's envelope was vanishing into the surface of the portal. It was going to be close.
The best way to remove the sigil was to remove the gem it was attached to, and the best way to "remove" a highly charged magical crystal was to put a big crack in it. It would remove itself and most of the big sandstone arch with it.
The rock descended and I realized with dismay that Nebula wasn't going to quite clear the gate before it struck.
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Twilight Sparkle is the Sparkliest Sparkle. The council of twilights have no idea what is about to go down...
You and your cliffhangers! *shakes hoof*
Twi versus an army of light and dark versions of herself. That sounds like fun.
8353585
Does that make Spike her Morty?
8353700
I... Uh... No comment.
8353599
I know, right? They're a harder habit to break than smoking!
Wait a moment.
So what happens if they change the lock, and someone who otherwise independently walks the worlds is unable to get back home?
That someone’s going to be really, really mad. And sure, right now they’re probably not a threat… but they might find new friends.
8353737
Yeah... not a perfect plan, but she's improvising like mad right now!
I hate to ask this, but why didn’t a Game-playing Sparkle appear to adjudicate when Midnight Sparkle started ripping open portals from the Equestria Girls’ world? Too far off the map?
8353905
That probably about sums it up, yes.
i can't help but think of the Twilight from "the quest" and how she would react if she learned about this "game"...
8353905
8353912
Yup! Off the "board."
Liked it, caught us up, told us what was happening, and how, plus she used the mystic technic only practiced by a few in her single combat.
"Boot to the head!"
8353585
"Operating a portal that's not on the map, Radicalizing your niece Skyla, conspiring with the other team. How do you plead?"
"Ha ha ha ha yeah"
Please don't hate me, I had to do it.
8353915
It would certainly be... interesting.
8354385
You just can't go wrong with the classics!
8354450
8353905
The "main" ponyverse is unaccessible to the rest... unless you have the knowledge that will lead you to the center of the multiverse... The Twin universes G4 / EG Will not move unless a new Main ponyverse is discovered (unless Hasbro decides to do a reboot, the current MLP universe is set on the center of the My Little Pony Multiverse...)
EG might move, but only orbiting G4
Awww c' mon, dont kill off Ao.
8354781
Ao is best kirin, I seriously doubt iisaw has the heart to off him
Right, iisaw?
.
.
.
Right?
I wonder how good that sigil-lock system. It opens only on that world Twi , Lu and Tia magic or other worlds analogs can fool it?
Not my favorite character... please... I've had so many authors do that to me.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. Or an exploding portal gem.
No surprise that the Brights aren't any better than the Darks. If anything, they appear more hidebound and far less fun. Though that moght just be extenuating circumstances. Bright 37 certainly wasn't in a social mood when she came to this world.
In any case, here's hoping the stasis bubble will help keep Ao out of an even more critical condition. And that the majority of Nebula and her crew will survive the trip.
If you kill Ao, then I swear that I will be hauning you for the rest of your life after I die from grief!
Alright, and now to see what ELSE ends up going wrong here.
Hey, it shows that you are wiling to get your hooves dirty and help out, not that anypony on your crew didn't know that already. Still, at least small mercies, they managed to keep things together for this long. Though the Empire is likely to busy reeling over the loss of so many ships, the loss of so many unicorns, and the nobles all squabbling ans scheming to take power with the missing and apparent loss of the 'emperor.'
Ohhh, this is a really nice touch. And makes a lot of sense.
Twilight, you don't need to show off your vocabulary to these two.
Whoa whoa whao... so.. take him back to their world, no power, no wealth, and just put him to work as a 'commoner' farming and picking and tending to crops? Ohhh this needs to happen! So fitting, though, that would require him to survive long enough to do this and just just get SO insufferable and brattish, they just punt him into the woods.
So you hope, let's see if he really can deal with.... that...
AKA, now shit gets rough, and time to just get the fuck away.
Wait, already at the gate? Which means, okay, so... wow how fucked up must thing go now, just, having it go that badly right at the end?
Oh wait, NVM, this is her prepping the gems to be used once they get there.
And now that they are onto what is going on, going to be putting what unicorns they have left under heavier lockdown. Or, just taking them to keep their own crystal's charged?
Casually, with lots of looks, maybe some light touches with a wing tip now and then....
Yeah, west is, certainly odd choice, why go away from the Empire... unless they all just want to say fuck it and are setting off on their own. Still, so, chase after them to free those unicorns? Also so it was the second option.
Assuming they are not idiots.
There best not being even close to good enough of course.
Ohhh very good thinking. Find other ways to get it done. Also, a great example of why rule by fear does not work. So many that will find ways to fuck you over for it if they find a way.
Oh, not going after the unicorns then? Shame, but I do get shy not, they really don't have the resources anymore, morale is low, everypony is tired, and, it's time to just get home, deal with all this later. They already crippled the Empire.
Ohhh and Loose Leaf pulls out again, see no end of people willing to stick it to the Empire and help screw them over. Tell us again how rule by fear works so well Dark Twi?
She learned it, from a book... of course she did.... Loose, you so picked the right pony to back.
That would require anything there to be given a shit about, and actually having anypony that gives a crap about history. Doubt any of them paid a lick of attention to this, that is what scribes are for after all. So yeah, can so see them not caring.
Oh, also this, just figuring, they are important, eternal, nothing before them matters. I hate them eve more now.
They knew the ship was heading for there, and set it up, so the unicorns hostages, or just spare battery chargers? Still, idiots.... enjoy getting your asses kicked.
That sounds about right, not like they really had anything better to do.
Stealthy they are not, but at least it gave you SOME warning.
Yup, maybe hoping to use the copters to flush you into a bigger trap. They may be stupid enough to fight this ship, but they aren't TOTAL idiots on tactics. Rigid yes, but experienced.
Makes sense, that is 'home' and once you get through it, you win, so, basically a "The Enemies' Gate is Down" scenario. Ignore them, rush to the objective, and laugh as you leave them behind. Or they follow, and a full powered, pissed of Twilight rips them apart.
Hmmm, not a bad idea, but that does make them stationary emplacements, and those have their own problems and weaknesses.
Well, fuck.... yeah they worked out this ambush well.
Oh..... fuck
That, cannot be good. So either blow it up, or super charge it and make it go nuts with the odd power surge?
And of COURSE this is going to be one of those cases. Granted this is Twilight Sparkle, and if the myriad number of fics where this happens can attest, she is more then used to that kind of portal mishap. Still, well now... way to just fuck it all up at the end Empire.
And one of the nice, big ships is RIIIGHT in front of it. Well one down.
Oh, shit, it's going full on dimensional breach? Ripping reality apart and opening holes to new ones... that is.. not good at all.
Wow, way to REALLY break it. Also, Twilight.... how many times have you seen this happen that you know both that, and exactly how it will progress, to the point of it being what 'usually' happens?
Oh. oh oh OHHHHHHH YES! OHHHHH YES! Time to fuck shit UP!
[insert maniacal cackling as they find out just who they were REALLY fucking with!]
Again where did you get the long course on it? Also, nice terminology
Well, fuck, that is a bit of an issue. So, try to rush it? Draw in a store to use? Tap into the gems? Should be some option.. or just hope the portal runs out of juice itself soon?
Stabilize works, get one stable portal to Equestria to draw magic through, seal the rest, and, Ao.... DO NOT GET HURT DOING THIS!
Don't you freaking dare story!
Story.. don't make me hate you!
Okay, still alive! And no it has not 'come to this' Twi is going to save your butt, it's only fair after how many times you saved hers.
Hence why they need to get you to a bed ASAP so you don't. just hold on till they get through the portal.
Ahem, Sweetie Belle, you're up.
OH COME ON!
Oh stuff it you bitch! Seriously are all brights this freaking stuffed up? IS getting a stick up your ass one of the things that's part of the initiation?
She isn't going to do shit for you. Seriously, this is how far you've reduced everything to? This far into being just a game?
BUWHAHAHAHAHA! OH FUCK YEAH TWILIGHT!
Wow, very nice job and, geeee, maybe having a giant 'hit here to get rid of me' sigil that open to attack is not a good thing. Then again, if this was a scouting mission, could be meant as a quick return deal. Still rather convenient . Still FUCK YEAH TWILIGHT!
Timed explosive charge, or staying behind to deal with her? We know she makes it out so, there is that.
Still this should be fun. Though umm, you kind of left that sigil ALL OVER this world so, that might slow them down, but not stop them.
At least you know it's only a 'yet' and oh, right she can just go grab one of them to get home easily.
And yup, change the lock, though sucks for any late comers that find a medallion and want to escape a bit after that.
Ohhh, perfect idea, and that works well, hit it and make a big boom. Still get through.
So, stay back and slow it down, or push Nebula in further? Plenty of ways this could get worked out, so not that huge a deal. Still, DUN DUN DUN!
Okay so, Bright Sparkles showing up now too. And, that one was an ass, but to be fair, had no idea what was going on and wasn't given much time to learn, though still a bitch, don't see much "Beacon of goodness and light" to her.
Ao... not buying for a second you are going to kill her off, not with how much you KNOW everyone loves her, you aren't THAT huge an asshole, and not in this way, if she was going to die it would be done by now, now that she's in Equestria, GO GO MAGIC HEALING! So yeah not buying that at all.
Still ALMOST back to Equestria, Twi got to show off how badass she is, and smart And now, IT IS ON! In regard to the Bright and Dark. BRING IT!
Also, 8353585>>8353700>>8354450 ALL OF MY YES!
8355725
And actually not all that uncommon in slave cultures. People are endlessly creative, even when they have next to nothing.
That mare has seen some shit, man!
Eh, she's not that great. I mean, it took her three whole seconds to wipe out the opposition.
Referees are professional dicks.
Glad to hear my "moderate" asshole status reaffirmed!
Come now, Miss Nightshade. Are there not safer means by which to illustrate the cross-section of an airship?
8356408
I love Twilight's "NOT NOW!"
Giants in the playground... Order vs Chaos. One of the Order Twilights just showed up.
Order Vs Chaos
Leave Twilight unsuspended for just a second and see what happens. Everythings gone to pot!
[propertyfile] /Users/matthewl419.prop
[propertyfile] /Fimfic/story/360348/the-skyla-pseudonym.prop
[propertyfile] /Version 25/the-brightness-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel.prop
Building response......
Building response......
Warning: response unavailable
/reaction.exe is in error state
/feedback.exe has failed
/sassy reply.exe is not valid
/plothole locater.exe has crashed
Localizing......
Localizing......
Warning: system out of date. Update to version 26 required.
Beat-boxing unicorns?
Transit's a cappella cover of Marc Broussard's Home comes to mind:
8374555
That's wonderful!
I'm wondering if the Midnight of the Equestria Girls universe had created just such unstable portals?
Hmm... When you think of it, maybe that's what the Game needs to be ended: A wildcard that nopony was expecting, like Daydream Shimmer. Someone with the power and will to confront and defeat Twilight but who is outside of the Game and thus cannot be considered bound by the rules?
8380973
Exactly what is needed.
Isn't this usually two words?
¡Oh Great! ¡More hostile Twilights, but from the other faction!
Having just reread this, I cannot fathom that I never noticed it before: It's quite ironic how the two other Twilights act basically exactly opposite of what one would assume from their dark/light theming.
Midnight, while appropriately menacing at first for someone on the side of authoritarianism, quickly acts rather jovial and has no problem letting Twilight and her crew bugger off, even extending an open invitation at Twilight's leisure.
Bright 37, on the other hand, has the appearance of a soulless beaurocrat, focusing only on procedure, uncaring about the rather extenuating circumstances, foregoing names in favor of designations and even going so far to apparently consider forcefully drawing Twilight and her world into the game. Quite the behaviour for someone supposedly on the side of moral paragons and glowing examples on how to behave themselve to achieve harmony. Though this might also be due to the rather limited amount of literary screentime she gets, who knows?