A flash of light in the distance was the only warning they got before more than a dozen beams of energy shot from each cluster of Alliance forces.
Cliff could only stare in awe as a dome of purple energy exploded from Shining Armor just in time to protect the Crystal Palace. A deep roaring sound, like a prolonged explosion, filled the area as the beams and shield met. Cliff clapped both hands over his ear frills, as did every other dragon and pony that he could see.
“Blueblood,” Fire Eyes sent, “can you-”
Shining Armor cried out in pain as his shield shattered, and the energy beams sliced through the Palace above him. One of the palace’s four supports crumbled immediately, bringing chunks of the building down with it.
“-use your shields to support his …” Fire Eyes stared up and the gigantic structure, which was rapidly collapsing on top of all of them. “We need to get out of here!”
Cliff brought his body-enhancement spells up to full power and grabbed Blueblood. The rest of the team could get themselves to safety.
Suddenly the palace began to glow purple, holding its position mid-collapse.
Cliff glanced around and saw Shining Armor collapsed on the ground, struggling to get up. Twilight was next to him, eyes clenched shut, and a pained grimace on her face. Her horn was so bright with magic that it almost hurt to look at, and a crater was rapidly forming around her as some invisible force crushed her into the ground.
“Everfree, Solar Unicorns,” Spirit shouted from somewhere in the crowd, “there were some ponies that refused to evacuate. We need to get them out now! The rest of you, get as far away as you can!”
Fire Eyes paused as more detailed orders came through her link to the Platoon’s leaders. “We have the top floors. She turned to the rest of the team. Big Mac, you’re with me. Cliff, go solo. Use Empathy to locate survivors.”
A piece of a balcony fell off the main structure and crashed to the ground nearby, shattering into thousands of tiny pieces.
Debris bounced off her armor as Fire Eyes climbed onto Big Mac’s back. “Rainbow, give the two of us a lift to the top, then you and Blueblood will be in charge of carrying down anypony we can get to the outside. Now move!”
Cliff shot into the air on a wave of magic, latching onto the side of the Crystal Palace before running up it, thanks to the Spider Climb spell. “What about Cadance?”
“Minuette is grabbing her,” Fire Eyes replied.
He was nearly to the top before he picked up the emotions of a confused and terrified pony just on the other side of the wall. Unfortunately, he was no Big McIntosh, so punching his way through wasn’t an option. There was a window nearby, but it wasn’t very big.
Instead, Cliff ducked through a hole to his right and found himself in a small bedroom of some kind. Unfortunately, the pony he had sensed wasn’t in there with him. Deep cracks covered every wall in sight, and dust was starting to clog up the air. Cliff shoved open the door, trying to ignore how everything was shaking around him.
Outside, he found a hallway lined with doors, most of which were still closed. Following the emotions, Cliff pushed a door open and was finally rewarded with his target, a green crystal pony maid.
Time wasn’t on his side, so he skipped introductions and explanations and jumped right to the rescuing part.
Running through a collapsing building with a panicked and screaming crystal mare in his arms was every bit as difficult as Cliff had been expecting. He silently vowed to stick to all fours when rescuing the next one.
Once they got outside, a piercing scream erupted from the mare’s lungs, then she fell limp. In her defense, she probably hadn’t been expecting to hang from the side of a collapsing building when she went into work that day.
“Rainbow, I have one.”
Rainbow flew by just then, carrying two ponies. “Gimme a second.” She felt stressed and more than a little worried.
“I can get her,” Blueblood sent. A shield appeared around the unconscious crystal mare, gently but quickly lowering her toward the ground.
“Thanks.” Cliff ducked back inside. “See if any of these ponies know where the others might be.”
A shudder coursed through the entire palace, but then things actually got more stable. Cliff glanced out the nearest window. The magical aura surrounding the palace was now shifting between purple, gold, and dark blue. He hoped that meant Celestia and Luna had arrived.
Farther inside, Cliff picked up another set of emotions at the same time that he heard cries for help. He saw her moments later, huddled against the wall and trying to control her sobs. It was another crystal pony maid, though this one was blue.
The mare wasn’t completely panicked, and the palace was holding steady for the moment, so Cliff decided to try reassuring her. “Don’t worry, I’m here to help.” She didn’t resist when he tossed her across his back. That was a good sign. “Where’s the nearest balcony or large window?”
“J-just around the corner,” the mare finally broke down and sobbed as she held onto Cliff. “Please don’t let me die!”
Cliff didn’t bother to respond. The dust was getting worse and things were starting to shake again. He ran around the corner—and nearly fell right off the side of the palace. The balcony, and a fair chunk of the hall, must have collapsed sometime before he got there.
He slid to a halt and looked around. “Rainbow, Blueblood, can either of you get to me?”
“Sure,” Rainbow sent back, “where are you?”
“A few stories from the top, on the far eastern side,” Blueblood answered, much to everyone’s surprise.
Rainbow appeared in Cliff’s field of vision moments later. “Okay, I see you.” She dove in and grabbed the crystal mare in her forelimbs. “Don’t worry, I’ve got ya.”
Any response was muffled beyond comprehension by the mare’s sobs, and the fact that she was burying her face in Rainbow’s chest.
Cliff ran back into the palace, looking for any other ponies that might need his help.
A question occurred to him as he searched. “Blueblood, how did you know where I was?”
“I placed a magic marker on each of you,” Blueblood replied. “It allows me to locate you at a moment’s notice.”
“That’s a useful trick.” Cliff sensed the emotions of Fire Eyes and Big Mac on the floor just above him.
“I always knew you could be useful if you set your mind to it,” Fire Eyes sent. “Anyway, I think we got everypony on the upper floors. Spirit says they need a claw in the throne room right now and then to get out of here. The inside is starting to collapse, even with those alicorns holding up the outer walls.”
An explosion shook the hallway, blasting a hole in the ceiling and down through the floor. There was a brief flash of gray and orange through the dust as Big Mac jumped down through the hole he had just created, Fire Eyes still hanging onto his back.
“Shouldn’t we have just climbed down the outside walls?” Fire Eyes asked as they continued to free fall right through the middle of the palace.
“Faster,” was the only response.
Cliff jumped after them, landing at Big Mac’s side at least twenty floors down. The momentum he’d built up during the fall transferred into the air around them, blowing away the dust cloud that surrounded the three of them. As it cleared, Cliff realized that they were in the throne room, along with more than two dozen crystal ponies, most of whom were screaming and trying to hide from whatever had just exploded through the ceiling.
“Okay, it was faster,” Fire Eyes muttered, “I’ll give you that.” Then in a louder voice she called, “It’s alright, everypony! We’re here to get you out of here.” “We’ll have to take them all in one group. The other teams are already clearing out.”
Minuette appeared just then. The blue unicorn mare was holding her horn and groaning. “Fire Eyes,” she gasped, “thank Celestia. I don’t think I can teleport much more.”
“It’s fine, we just-”
A deep shudder passed through the entire room, throwing most of them to the ground. A crashing sound started up above them, getting louder by the second.
“Oh dirt clods.” Fire Eyes jumped up, and tendrils of fire shot from her arms, grabbing everyone in the room and violently pulling them toward her. “Blueblood, we need a shield around all of us! Now!”
The crashing had grown so loud that it drowned out everything else, and the scent of burning flesh mingled with the taste of dust in the air, making Cliff want to wretch.
A shield appeared around them all just before the room exploded. Cliff could only cover his ear frills as the sheer noise of it all pounded through him.
Then, after a few endless seconds, everything fell silent.
Cliff looked up and breathed a sigh of relief. Most of the palace interior had collapsed around them, leaving the outer walls more or less intact, like some sort of gigantic husk, but everyone was alright.
Fire Eyes pushed herself up. “Blueblood, I take back everything bad I ever said about you.”
The floor inside of the unicorn’s shield was the only part of the throne room still left. In fact, there wasn’t another piece of floor left anywhere around them. As far as Cliff could tell, they were floating in the air about ten feet above a pile of debris.
He wanted to collapse there and then, but these poor crystal ponies were covered in lines of charred flesh, and the stench of it still filled his nostrils.
One mare next to Cliff had especially bad burns across her forelegs and back. She looked middle aged, with a light tan coat and a purplish mane and tail. It was hard to be sure, though, with all the dust and grime that covered her.
Cliff tried to reassure her that she would be fine, but his words were completely silent. At least, he couldn’t hear them over the ringing in his ears.
The crystal mare must have been experiencing the same problem, because she grimaced and mouthed, ‘What?’ Or maybe she actually said it. Cliff couldn’t tell.
“I think I ruptured my eardrums,” Cliff sent.
“Yeah, ditto.” Eyes put a hand to her ear frill and winced. It came back with a small amount of blood. “Let’s just get everyone healed.” She helped up Minuette, who leaned heavily on her.
Cliff sent back agreement then moved his hand to the mare’s burned forelegs and cast a healing spell.
Relief washed through her expression as Cliff finished off her limbs and moved to her back.
He ended by healing her ears and then his own. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“No, thank you so much.” Her expression fell as she looked up at the destruction around them. “I can’t believe it. The Crystal Palace …” Tears rolled down her cheeks, leaving tiny rivulets in the grime on her coat.
Cliff gripped her shoulder sympathetically before turning to heal the next pony.
“I’ll check,” Fire Eyes sent, probably to Spirit or one of the other team leaders in the Platoon. “Is one of you called Fleur de Verre?”
“I am,” the mare Cliff had just healed said.
“She’s here, and she’s fine … Okay.” “Your daughter, Autumn, says you aren’t ever allowed to scare her like that again.”
“I suppose I’ll have to cancel my plans to go over Neighagara Falls in a barrel, then.” She chuckled mirthlessly before wiping her eyes, which only smeared the tear streaks on her face more. “Please, tell her I love her.”
Fire Eyes relayed the message as she worked with Cliff to heal the rest of the ponies. “Blueblood, any chance you can pull us out of here? Twilight and the Immortal Sisters must be tired of holding up the walls by now.”
Embarrassment echoed through the link. “Actually, I cannot. Moving a shield that was set around myself is one thing, but trying to move a fixed-point shield at a distance is something I never quite mastered.”
“That’s fine. We’ll just carry them out once we’re done healing everyone.” She looked over at Big Mac. “You okay?”
“ ‘Yup.” Big Mac was standing at the edge of the shield, looking around at the gutted ruins of the palace with an expression of quiet sadness. He turned away from the destruction and walked back to join them. “Let’s get out of here.”
By the time they emerged from the wreckage, most of the other soldiers were gone, leaving the courtyard almost eerily quiet. The only exceptions were a group of crystal ponies crying as they embraced their loved ones, and a group of armored unicorns that had started sorting through the debris with expressions of mournful determination. Princess Luna was helping them, giving out orders in a subdued voice.
Spirit, Twilight, and Autumn were with the rest of the Everfree Patrol, including Prince Blueblood, who actually smiled when he saw them. Nearby, Celestia had pulled Cadance and Shining Armor into a tight hug, probably a little too tight, based on the way Shining was gasping for air.
“Cliff, you’re safe!” Spirit rushed over to his brother and hugged him. “When the inside collapsed, I …” He shook his head. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Behind him, Autumn and Fleur de Verre were embracing as well.
“I’m pretty happy about it myself.” Cliff returned the hug. “Did everyone else get out safely?”
“The Everfree Platoon did, since you saved Minuette, but the Solar Unicorns had a few members still inside. Luna just finished a spell to check for survivors, but,” he shook his head, “there weren’t any.”
Cliff nodded. He probably should have felt worse about their deaths than he did, but he was just happy to still be alive. “What’s the Alliance doing?” He looked around, but couldn’t see any signs of battle to the north or south.
“Leaving. They stopped their attack as soon as they hit the palace.”
Cliff nodded again. “I guess that means it’s time to heal and clean up.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
It was well past lunchtime when they finished getting everyone healed and accounted for, and the entire Platoon retreated to the kitchen to enjoy what they could of their Hearth’s Warming day. The food was actually very good, but the mood was understandably sober.
“Hey, Big Mac,” Rainbow said to the stallion sitting next to her, “pass me another drink.”
“Seriously, Dash?” Sky Painter, Cliff and Spirit’s father, gave her an incredulous look from across the table. “That’s like your twelfth mug.”
Rainbow shrugged. “It’s non-alcoholic, so it’s not like I can get drunk off of it.” Out of necessity, the Everfree Platoon avoided anything alcoholic. Drunk wyrms were far more likely to lose control and go berserk.
Big Mac wordlessly filled Rainbow’s mug from the barrel on the end of the table, then he went back to his third plate of mashed potatoes and stuffing.
“Thanks, Mac.” She took a sip. “Ugh, I still can’t get the taste of rubble out of my mouth.”
“Agreed,” Cliff said at her other side. “Or the smell of burning flesh out of my nose, for that matter.”
Farther down the table, Fire Eyes and Blueblood both nodded.
Burning Torch, who was at the very end of the table, was caught up in a conversation with Twilight about something or other and didn’t seem to hear.
“Allow me to assure you,” Fleur de Verre said from her spot next to Cliff’s parents, “the smell is even more nauseating when it was your own flesh that was burning.”
Fire Eyes winced. “I’m really, really sorry about that.”
Verre rubbed a hoof across her chest, where the burns had been. “Your actions helped save my life. It’s worth the pain to still be alive.” She glanced at Autumn, and the two shared a look of sympathy and understanding. “I do have to say, though, I never imagined that staying at the palace for Hearth’s Warming would turn out this way.” The older mare looked out the window behind her to where the Crystal Palace had once stood.
The outer walls had been lowered at some point, confirming once and for all that the building had been destroyed. By the grace of the Stars, the Crystal Heart was still functioning, though apparently it wouldn’t be able to convert emotions into a shield as efficiently without the palace to focus its magic.
“I can’t believe they actually destroyed it,” Verre said quietly.
“We should’ve seen it coming.” Spirit slammed his mug down, spilling some of the cider in it. “Of course they’d destroy the Palace, hoping to get rid of the shield. It’s the only thing keeping us in this war.”
His words snapped Twilight out of her conversation with Torch. “Spirit, we had no idea that the Alliance was capable of destroying the Crystal Palace from the edges of the Empire.”
“Twi’s right, Son,” Sky Painter said. “There’s no need to beat yourself up over it. Besides, we didn’t lose nearly as many soldiers in this battle compared to every other time Equestria and the Alliance have fought. That’s something to be happy about, at least.”
Cliff raised his mug. “Here’s to just how screwed up the world is that over five hundred deaths is something to be happy about.”
The rest of the table raised their mugs as well before taking a drink.
“Five hundred seventy-seven, to be precise,” Twilight said, “but Mom’s right. Our losses were over two thousand in both of our first two battles.”
Autumn raised her own mug. “A toast to those who have fallen, today and every other day of this Celestia-cursed war.”
Another round of agreement.
“At least no one from Everfree has died,” Fire Eyes said. “How about we make that a repeating theme?”
“Here here,” Autumn said.
“I will do my best to keep you all alive,” Blueblood said, “but that is going to be difficult if you keep running into collapsing buildings.”
“I certainly hope we don’t have to do that again,” Eyes said. “Just once was more than enough. Though I feel like I should add, ‘Stand inside of a building as it collapses,’ to my bucket list, just so I can cross it off.” She laughed softly, but it turned into a sigh halfway through.
“What do you think Shining and Cadance will do now?” Spirit asked. “We can’t leave the Crystal Heart in the open, but building another palace would just be asking the Alliance to blow that one up too.”
Twilight tapped a hoof against her chin thoughtfully. “Shiny was talking about putting a bunker around the Heart and moving the army’s headquarters into the caves for a while.”
“Wherever you put it,” Cliff said, “there had better be a lot of protective enchantments. Yol Toor and Silver Tail imploded a mountain with their Void Fire once.”
Rainbow coughed for a few seconds. “Wait, really?” She wiped the spilled drink off of her chin.
Cliff nodded. “To get rid of the crystal drakes that used to rule the north. That’s why Yol Toor’s clan is called the Shattered Mountain Clan.”
“That was all in those notes that Discord gave us,” Twilight said, looking at Rainbow suspiciously. “You know, the notes we were ordered to read more than a month ago.”
Rainbow blushed. “I mighta, kinda, forgotten about that.”
“Of course you did.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Breathing fire normally involves the accumulation of magic in an organ near the lungs that converts it into fire so it can be breathed out at will. Void Fire bypasses the conversion so that concentrated magic is breathed instead. As I’m sure you noticed, magic doesn’t disperse nearly as quickly as fire, so its range as an effective weapon is multiplied exponentially …”
-_-_-_-_-_-
As Twilight launched into a detailed explanation of Void Fire, Spirit leaned over to Autumn. “You know, we never did get a chance to talk about, you know, what we talked about last night.”
Autumn raised an eyebrow. The emotions flowing through their link made it clear what she was thinking.
“I know this isn’t the best time,” he said quickly, “and maybe this is just the near-death experience talking, but I was hoping we could maybe talk about it sometime soon. I don’t want to put the important things off anymore.”
Her emotions changed briefly, showing love and gratitude, but also regret. She knew it wasn’t a good time either.
Fleur de Verre noticed it too, because she nudged her daughter. Spirit could tell she was using her empathy to tell Autumn something.
After a few moments, Autumn nodded and bent down to pick up the helmet that had been sitting beneath her seat. She put it on and got up, motioning for Spirit to follow her.
“I didn’t mean we had to talk about it right this minute,” Spirit sent.
Autumn blushed a little under her helmet. “Just … walk with me, please.”
“Okay.” Spirit retrieved his own helmet and followed after her.
It was still a bright afternoon outside, which almost seemed wrong. Too much had happened today for it to bright and sunny. Luckily the streets were mostly deserted, giving the two some much-appreciated privacy.
Autumn led the way, walking silently up a ramp and past the remains of the Crystal Palace.
Spirit remained silent as well, letting her work out whatever it was that she wanted to say.
She turned to him when they reached the far end of the palace courtyard. “My mother thinks very highly of you, Spirit. She even told me once that it’s a shame that ponies and dragons can’t cross-breed.”
Spirit blushed. “That’s nice of her.”
Autumn nodded. “Back there, she suggested my old bedroom again, if we wanted some alone time.” A small blush coated her cheeks, but it was nothing compared to Spirit’s bright-red scales.
“That’s … nice of her.”
Autumn chuckled softly. “You can relax. For now, at least, I only want to talk.”
“I’m okay with that.” Spirit rubbed against her side, ignoring the scraping sounds their armor made against each other. “What do you want to talk about?”
“What changed your mind.” She gave him a sideways smirk. “Your emotions have been far from subtle about the matter today.”
If it was possible, Spirit blushed a little harder. “I’m not really sure what changed.”
“Then tell me why you feel this way.” Her expression was hard for a moment before it softened. “Please. I have to know that you aren’t acting out of guilt or pity, or even just wild impulse,” she stopped and looked back toward the palace courtyard, “especially after what happened today …”
He followed her gaze. “Promise you won’t get mad if my reason is kind of silly?”
She nodded.
Spirit took a deep breath. “To be honest, if this only affected me, I still wouldn’t know what to do, but we both know that that isn’t the case.” He reached out and stroked her cheek, or rather, the armor over her cheek. “I love you, Autumn, and I want my actions to speak louder than my words. If there’s something you want, I want to give it to you, and I can only hope you’ll accept it.” He smiled. “I hope that’s a good enough reason, because it’s the only one I have.”
Autumn leaned into his hand. “It’s more than enough.” Love filled the link between them, but it was also tinged with worry. She looked up at him. “Are you sure you won’t regret this?”
He nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered. Nervousness echoed between them as she started to blush more heavily. “My old house is just a few blocks away … maybe we could … stop by?”
Spirit’s mouth was suddenly too dry to speak, not that he would have been able to form a coherent sentence anyway. Instead he just hugged Autumn Gem, the mare who had stuck by his side even after all of his selfishness and indecision.
They held that pose for several long moments before letting go. Still not trusting himself to speak, Spirit motioned for Autumn to lead the way.
-_-_-_-_-_-
“… and a drake’s aura acts like a magnifying glass for it all, resulting in a devastatingly powerful attack,” Twilight finished. “You really need to know these sorts of things if you want to fight against the Alliance effectively.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and frowned. “Fine, I’ll remember it.”
Twilight crossed her hooves over her chest. “How does it work, then?”
“By the, uh …” Rainbow waved her forehooves in front of her. “The thing that fire the … stuff?” She tossed her hooves in the air. “Whatever, you’ve forgotten things too.”
“Only about three in her entire life,” Sky Painter said. “Everything else is on a list somewhere.”
A round of chuckles passed over the table.
Even Rainbow laughed along. “Sorry,” she said after a moment. “I still have those notes sitting around somewhere. I’ll read through them tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry too, Rainbow.” Twilight sighed and then yawned. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I was letting the stress of everything get to me.”
“It’s okay, Twilight. This has been about the worst Hearth’s Warming Day ever.”
“Eyup,” Big Mac said.
“I don’t know,” Cliff said. “I got a hoof-made blanket from Fluttershy and a note telling me how much she loves me.” He smiled warmly. “Not even having a building fall on me is enough to undo all that.”
“You always were a hopeless romantic,” Scenic Trail said with a smile of her own. “That’s one of you better qualities.”
“Which you definitely didn’t get from me,” Sky Painter added.
Twilight chuckled. “I’ve missed having you all around. Things are so much more quiet now, even sharing a home with Fluttershy and Rarity.”
“By the way,” Cliff said, “does anyone know where Spirit and Autumn ran off to?”
“They wanted some romantic time alone,” Fleur de Verre said casually.
Silence fell on the table as everyone exchanged uncomfortable glances.
“Do you think that means what I think it means?” Rainbow whispered to Cliff.
“I think I’d be happier not knowing,” Cliff replied before clearing his throat. “Uh, Twilight, how’s Fluttershy doing?”
The alicorn looked like an epic battle was taking place within her between awkwardness and anger. “I gave him forty-three reasons not to,” she muttered before shaking her head. “Uh, anyway, Fluttershy is doing much better lately. She was really worried when we learned that a battle was imminent, but I’m sure she calmed down … after …” Twilight’s ears pressed down against her skull and her pupils shrank. “Oh no, I forgot to send them a letter to tell them that we’re all okay!” She jumped out of her seat and ran away. “I need parchment! Does anyone have a quill?”
The others at the table all watched her go for a moment until Sky Painter said, “I take it back. She’s forgotten four things in her life. Everything else is on a list.”