Fillies and Monsters

by Solaris Vult

Chapter 21: Cold Awakening, Frosty Landing

Twilight had just finished the final touches to Rainbow Dash’s weapon… It was by far the most complicated, the scope was infinitely harder to assemble due to all the strange silicon-based electronic devices inside, machines that were infinitely more advanced than even the most advanced electronics Equestria had to offer… Even if nothing else came from this whole event, the technological advancements this device, and the things that could be reversed-engineered from it, would cause, was going to change Equestria.

She loaded the pony’s weapons on to her back, all very strange designs, but most likely meant for use with those bipedal bodies. “We all ready?” She said once she marched up the stairs and into the living room of the library, there, sitting on cushions on the floor, were Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, Rarity, and Spike.

“Yes, darling,” Rarity began, “But what exactly are those?” She asked, pointing a hoof toward the weapons.”

“Weapons, weapons I have designed after the blueprints Discord had given me… I would have created them perfectly according to the schematics, but I added some of my own improvements... ” Twilight turned to Rainbow and Spitfire, “I haven’t tested your weapons yet, so while I know they’ll work perfectly, do not under any circumstances point them at anything you don’t want to destroy, I have no idea how powerful they actually are… Spitfire, your weapon I have dubbed the H.E.T.V-1-P.” At Spitfire’s confused look, Twilight clarified, “It’s an acronym for High-Energy Thaumic Vapourizer, Mark-Zero, Zero, One, Prototype… And Rainbow, yours is the H.E.L.R.R-1-P or High-Energy Liquid Rainbow Rifle, Mark-Zero, Zero, One, Prototype.”

Everyone nodded. As they did so, a presence fell upon the room, and slithering from up the stairs came Discord, “Wonderful, and right on time!” Discord said, snapping his fingers and transforming the ponies and dragon into four humans and… A thing. Spike had become a little larger, but was still about the size of a pony foal, his scales were sharper, larger, and his forearms were now merged with a pair of wings. His neck was longer and head smaller, sharper, more like that of a crocodile, so to was his tail, easily three times the length it used to be.

Spike yelled, “W-What am I! What are you!”

“Ah, Spike… I forgot to mention… While ponies don’t exist, at least in the way you understand them on this other world… There is a big old dragon underneath a certain mountain, and I have turned you into a baby version of that thing. Got to blend in with the locals after all...” Discord replied.

Twilight turned to the others, after taking a long, hard, look at spike’s new form. “Oh, yes, about that… Let me do the talking once we encounter other humans or faunus, we don’t want to reveal Equestria before we’ve taken a good long look at this other world and figured out a first-contact protocol.”

“You should also get those clothes on…” Discord continued, “It’s cold where you’re going!”

“Don’t worry, I have an environmental protection spell, but we will take your advice,” Twilight said, raising her hand, glowing a bright purple, and enveloping the others in fields of magic that quickly faded, leaving just the slightest glow, “It should last about five hours with the amount of power I poured into it.”

Rainbow dash moved to her bag and opened it. Inside was a thick coat, lined in fur, coloured like a wonderbolt’s uniform. It went down to her knees and she felt the armour padding on the front and back of the uniform when she slid it over her chest, the collar went all the way to her neck and she didn’t like how it felt on her throat, but wore it anyway. She was pleased to see a wonderbolt medal was already pinned to the front of the coat, as well as a large gold medal shaped like Celestia’s cutie mark, and it came with a rainbow-coloured scarf and thick, black, fur-lined, pants and thick, black, fur-lined, boots. Written on the scarf were the words: Die Rainbow Kampfflieger.

She slung her weapon across her back, it was some kind of long rectangular device with a handle and trigger on the back, just below the stock, and a long cylinder that protruded from the other end of the rectangle, a knife-like thing sticking out from the bottom. On the top of the weapon was a large box with a cylinder through it, much like a telescope but with a cross on its lenses, and a dial on the side, the words: Optical, Night-Vision, Thermal, Thaumic, and X-Ray were underneath a series of switches on the other side of the box. From the bottom of her weapon were a pair of tubes that went to a pair of tanks she mounted to her belt, one filled with a bright yellow liquid, the other with a bright red liquid… Both she recognized as types of liquid rainbow.

Spitfire’s clothing was the most simple of them all, an insulated suit that looked exactly like a wonderbolt suit, but it was also the most armoured, covered in heavy metal plating painted white, with the exception of her right pauldron that had the wonderbolt symbol painted in gold on it. Her weapon was equally odd, it was also a large rectangle, but with cylindrical coils inside an indented area on top, on the bottom was a tank of liquid rainbow connected by tubes and hoses to different parts of the weapon. On the front was a long glass cylinder with a metal rod for a core, extending to a metal cap on the end from which protruded a long spike. Over the coiled part was some kind of rail with sights.

Rarity wore a long white robe with a sash around her waist that matched her mane colour, a golden tiara, and intricate golden and purple designs that looked like twisting fire trimming her outfit. It bore several intricate pieces of gold jewellery, including silver sabatons, greaves, and gauntlets, trimmed with intricate gold designs that took the forms of various diamond shapes. Her dress was held together by pins and broaches that held perfectly cut blue topazes that perfectly resembled her cutie mark, including one on her tiara and ones on the backs of her gauntlet’s hands, those two in particular radiated with magical energies.

On her belt-like sash was a shortsword, a very advanced shortsword. The blade was single-sided, like a thestral falchion, or a kirin katana, but unlike those other two examples, the blade was relatively small, straight, and short, more like that of a knife. The more unique part of the blade was the material it was made of, a transparent cyan crystal, perfectly cut too. It had been the perfect material to receive enchantments, and thus Twilight poured some magic into the blade to drastically increase its durability, making it far harder than steel. Around the base of her blade, right above the crossguard, or rather, lack of a crossguard, was a metal device of some sort. Below that was the handle with a swept hilt that rejoined the handle just below the pommel, said pommel being another blue topaz that looked exactly like the unicorn’s cutie mark.

Twilight’s clothing, was actually armour… Proper armour, not just the armoured boots and gauntlets of Rarity. She wore a bulky plate mail that, upon putting the whole suit on, suddenly felt different… There was magic weaved into this suit, and as she moved her body, she noticed the plates morphing along with her movements, merging and unmerging, flowing like water over her skin, moving in impossible ways as if it existed in more than just the standard three dimensions… It wouldn’t impair her movement at all… But, on the other hoof… Or she supposed she should say hand, it would make her stand out, she needed to place some kind of disguising spell on it. Her armour was some kind of black undersuit with blue armoured plates trimmed in brass, her right pauldron featuring her cutie mark, and left featuring Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks over each other. Amethysts decorated her knees, gorget, and the backs of her hands, the gems glowing with magic… With the light shining in their cores, the gemstones almost looked like eyes. Her gauntlets had sharp brass claws, and her boots featured high brass heels and a pair of spiky decorative claws that made her feet look like those of a raptorial bird. Her armour was covered in intricate brass designs, both spiky and flowly, like barbed vines… If one stared closely at these designs, one would see that they were moving ever so slightly and ever so slowly… Like winding serpents crawling across the ground.

Discord turned to them before speaking, “Anything more anyone wants to say before I send you on your way?”

“No…” Twilight said, looking around the room, after waiting for someone to speak up.

“Good… Now, one last thing, a warning,” Everyone looked nervous as Discord spoke, “This is the last I’m going to help, this is the last I’m going to manipulate and decide the events… From this point on, your actions are your own, and what you do I leave up to you…” Twilight gulped, Discord’s serious face gave way to one of amusement, “Now I’m off to have tea with Fluttershy! Off you go!”

And like that, they vanished.

---

Twilight was cold… Even behind her spell, she felt the chill in the air, but perhaps that was also because she had the least insulated armour, everyone else got fuzzy furry clothing, and she got the alien plate armour.

The snow was thick in the air and on the ground. Her boots trudged through meter-thick snow as Rainbow Dash and Rarity helped Spitfire from out of a pile of snow she had fallen into, unable to get up. It was the dead of night, Spike was sitting on Twilight’s shoulder, cupping his claw-wings together, breathing fire onto himself for warmth. “W-Where, are we?”

“Somewhere cold… That’s for sure… Reminds me of the Crystal Empire…” Rainbow Dash said, flapping some of the snow from her wings, gliding a little bit off the ground to avoid trudging through the snow, followed by Spitfire who started doing the same thing… Both receiving rather annoyed looks by Rarity, who was forced into a fate of being half-buried in snow.

Then, Twilight made the mistake of looking up… There, in the vast sky, were none of the stars she recognized, nor any celestial objects, but that… That wasn’t the only thing up there. “Sweet Celestia!” Rarity gasped.

“Holy shit…” Spitfire whispered under her breath.

After a period of silence, a stunned Rainbow muttered, “Well… I wonder what Luna would say.”

Twilight wasn’t sure before now… Discord was unpredictable, part of her didn’t believe that there really was another world out there, the monster the creature summoned could have just been one of his creations, he could have sent the fillies to some other part of Equus, he could have just came up with humans off the top of his head… She was careful though, there was the possibility that the serpent had been telling the truth, that was why she agreed to this adventure, that was why she brought her camera with her in her saddlebags, but nothing she could have done to prepare would have prepared her for this… Up there, in the sky, sat the moon, one side shattered into thousands of pieces.

She was excited about the possibility of another world, but now, that excitement turned to fear… She had just thrown herself face-first down the rabbit hole, and if that warning Discord gave was true, there was no turning back.

“I-I” Rarity sputtered, “I didn’t believe it at first…” Spitfire was still swearing under her breath, meanwhile, Rainbow drifted higher into the sky, as if trying to get closer to the shattered moon.

“T-This…” Rainbow began, “This is awesome!” She yelled, “We get to explore a whole new world!” She yelled into the midnight tundra.

“Spike!” Twilight shouted, forgetting he was on her shoulder.

“Quiet down for Celestia’s sake!” Spike replied, holding his wing-claws to his ears, “What!”

“Write a letter to the princesses, now!” She said, allowing her panic to show in her trembling voice. She raised an arm and levitated out a quill and parchment from her saddlebag.

“I’ll try,” Spike muttered, “I don’t think these claws are good for writing.”

“Dear Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and Prince Shining Armor… It appears Discord was not tricking us regarding the location of the foals from Ponyville, as you had previously suspected. I have made my trip to this other world, and have seen for myself evidence pointing to this being a completely different planet. Just from a cursory examination, I can tell that none of the constellations, celestial bodies, or nebulae visible from Equus is visible from this planet… Even more concerning, this world’s moon appears to be broken, as if a portion of it was blown apart, I am unsure how it even stays in orbit or doesn’t collapse back into an orb, unless powerful magic is involved and I cannot feel it from my current location. I wish Luna were here to inspect the celestial body herself. The location I have landed is sub-temperate, possibly arctic judging from the lack of foliage, snow covers the ground at least a meter deep, and I cannot see any signs of flora or fauna in my immediate vicinity. Luckily, Discord had provided us with clothing befitting of this kind of weather, and I have cast a spell keeping us from environmental harm, unfortunately, the cold is so strong that it’s somehow chilling me, even with my spell in place. The far larger worry for myself and my comrades at the moment is lack of food. We will set out in search of civilisation immediately, and I will continue to report my findings… Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Spike finished writing down the last letter, even in his unfamiliar body, his claw-writing was decent from years of writing reports. With that, he rolled the scroll up and sent it off with a puff of green flame, the scroll vanishing in a pop of magic. “Well, at least the spell worked,” Spike said.

Spitfire had shaken off the shock of seeing the shattered moon and regained some of her stoic military composure. “Listen up!” She shouted, catching the attention of the ponies present, “Rainbow, grab Rarity and let’s all fly upward until we can get a good aerial look of our surroundings, and make note of any landmarks… From there, we can see if there’s any nearby civilisation, and make our way there.”

Twilight and Rainbow both nodded and took flight, Rainbow reaching down to carry Rarity in her arms. Soon they had taken off, they couldn’t go too high, the higher they went, the colder it got, and they didn’t want to risk dropping Rarity either, but even from just a few dozen meters off the ground, they could see a brightish light on the horizon, “Light, probably fifteen kilometres away, that direction,” Twilight pointed, “Looks white, so unless this planet doesn’t orbit the same kind of star, or has odd atmospheric phenomenon, I’m guessing it’s artificial and not solar.”

“Right, let’s get back to the ground and start trotting,” Spitfire replied.

With that, they floated down, heading in the direction of the light.

Author's Note:

A quick note regarding the name of this chapter... I couldn't decide whether, "Cold Awakening" Or "Frosty Landing" Was a better name for this chapter, so I decided to go with both. Either way, Twilight's at the top of the world now, and Discord's out of the picture for the time being... The pieces are in place, and now we just need to see how it all goes down.

Here's the drawing of the adult's weapons (I have yet to draw Rarity's, think of it as Raven's sword, but with the handle of a 40K Chainsword)

Twilight doesn't get one because she has magic. You'll notice that asides from Rarity's weapon, the other two are combinations of similar weapons from Warhammer 40K and Fallout. Spitfire's gun is a combination of the REPCONN Aerospace Plasma Rifle and the Mark III Belisarius Pattern Plasma Incinerator, meanwhile, Rainbow Dash's rifle is a combination of the Wattz 2000 Laser Rifle and the M36 Kantrael Pattern Hellgun. Rarity's sword has a dust-blade, much like Omen (Raven's sword), but as Twilight mentioned, due to Dust not existing on Equus, she's instead used a magical crystal... That, combined with the spells Twilight weaved into the sword means that it won't break, like Raven's blades do. (It's basically a lightsaber that makes sense)

Rainbow's weapon is the only one that has both a ranged and melee attack since she has a bayonet. I figured that the ponies, having a standardized military with standardized weapons and a lack of huntsmen or combat schools, rather military camps like the Wonderbolt's Academy, wouldn't make such fancy transforming weapons since they're harder to mass-produce and learn to use effectively. Discord would know this, so he gave Twilight weapon designs closer to what they would understand, and Twilight passed on those weapon schematics to Celestia.

A quick note about clothing, Rainbow Dash's uniform is based on that of a World War 1 German Pilot's uniform. Spitfire wears a more heavily armoured version of the war-time wonderbolt uniforms we see in the second war with King Sombra. Rarity is just wearing a really fancy dress with golden gauntlets and boots, with magical crystals to help with spellcasting. Twilight's armour is based on this image of a female Thousand Sons Sorcerer, because I like Warhammer 40K.

PS. Spike's a Wyvern now because it looks cooler that way.

Comments

[Argentyros]

Last chapter: Welp that train derailment came outta nowhere.

This chapter: Heresy detected, Preparing for purging.

[shance]

I-d enjoy Ironwood-s reaction to 4 supercompetent outliers.

[Zapper Frost]

PS. Spike's a Wyvern now because it looks cooler that way.

But isn't the Wyvern a grimm?

[Solaris Vult]

9977896
Yes, but I was mostly referring to his general shape.

[Zapper Frost]

9977943
Ahh, although that is gonna get some stares

[Liqwidice]

Twilight is going to be intimidating the fuck out of any militia they come across.
Heck they would probably scare the hell out of most from.

[Solaris Vult]

9978893
I'm sorry if I have, I didn't really notice.

[Argentyros]

Missed this the first time through, but like the Red Baron nod you tossed in there.

[HB_DS2013]

...the adults are OP af. Especially Twilight.

[Chrome Masquerade]

Everyone nodded. As they did so, a presence fell upon the room, and slithering from up the stairs came Discord, “Wonderful, and right on time!” Discord said, snapping his fingers and transforming the ponies and dragon into four humans and… A thing. Spike had become a little larger, but was still about the size of a pony foal, his scales were sharper, larger, and his forearms were now merged with a pair of wings. His neck was longer and head smaller, sharper, more like that of a crocodile, so to was his tail, easily three times the length it used to be.

So Spike is a wyvern now, I guess.

[RDDash]

I laughed at Rainbow Dash German name, but to be fair her armor just screams I am from Atleasian military

[FridayPie]

If Twilight knew she was cosplaying a rule63 of Chaos God follower from different universe, she'd be really irked, at self-serving draconequs and at author