//------------------------------// // Chapter 33 // Story: A New Dragon in the Crystal Empire // by Vedues //------------------------------// Yol Toor landed just outside of the Crystal Empire, close enough that his muzzle nearly touched the Empire’s shield. Not one hundred feet away, ponies had clustered on that crystalline wall, aiming bows, horns, and various other weapons at him. “I wish to speak with Celestia, Luna, or Cadance,” he called. “It matters not which, and I have no desire to harm them.” His voice would’ve carried easily in his battle form, but the ponies would likely take a battle transformation as a sign of aggression. Most of the ponies held their positions, but one did turn and leave, presumably to call one of the alicorns. “Thank you.” Yol Toor settled down to wait, idly studying the many Equestrian defenders that he could see. Most of them had the look of a warrior that knew they could be killed at any moment but had resolved to stand firm regardless. Such courage was admirable, and Yol Toor nodded to them as a group, though he doubted they would understand the significance of that act. Eventually, Luna appeared just on the other side of the shield. Her expression and stance were wary. Her mere presence told Yol Toor much, and little of it good. Luna was not the diplomat that her sister was, but her fighting style was highly physical, an effective counter to Yol Toor’s magic-negating aura. Celestia, on the other claw, focused more on spells. Equestria hadn’t sent her, even though she would be more likely to negotiate peace, but had instead sent the leader who would have the best chance of defeating him in a duel. They were expecting a fight. Furthermore, Celestia hadn’t joined her sister, which meant she was likely holding back to either ambush him or respond to other threats as they arose. Cadance also hadn’t come. She was the least capable fighter of Equestria’s four alicorns, and so the decision to withhold her was likely out of concern for her safety. They were expecting treachery. Yol Toor reminded himself that any representative was better than none at all. “Hail, Princess Luna.” “Hail, Lord Yol Toor,” Luna replied. “Why have you come here?” “To ask for peace once more.” Yol Toor curled up on the ground with his head facing her. “The Dragon Alliance will starve to death without the gem mines beneath the Crystal Empire, but we do not need all of them. Give us a piece of the Empire proper, and this war can end now. I can even show you which areas have suitable gem mines.” Luna scoffed. “You attack the Crystal Empire unprovoked, kill thousands of ponies, threaten to massacre civilians, refuse the piece of land we do offer, and now you think we will force our civilians off their land because it is more to your liking?” She also remained standing. Was it traditional for ponies to discuss these matters while standing, or was it an insult, visibly refusing to join him in negotiations? “It is not their land,” Yol Toor said firmly, though not angrily. “The Crystal Empire existed for less than four-hundred years before it was sealed away. The northern drake clans have controlled this land for more than eight-hundred years. Our claim upon it is at least equal to theirs.” “All of my other points still stand,” Luna said. “I will not force ponies from their homes when the Dragon Alliance could easily survive on shipments of crystals from the Empire. Consider it payment for the land, if you wish.” “The Alliance will never accept those terms,” Yol Toor said. “It would make us wholly dependent on Equestria’s good graces for our continued survival. You could force us to do anything, and we would have to obey or starve.” “If that ever happens,” Luna said, “you may declare war on Equestria and return us to this exact situation. What would you lose by at least testing our goodwill?” “You ask us to trust you with our lives, but you give no reason why we should, not even a token gesture.” Yol Toor shook his head. “Please, Princess Luna, consider our terms. Tens of thousands will die soon if we do not find peace.” “Consider our terms first,” Luna said. “The first shipment of crystals will be waiting for you outside the Empire the day after the Alliance announces that it will stop its attacks.” Yol Toor reached out through the wyrm link that connected him to the rest of the Council. The decision was nearly unanimous, they would not accept. He sighed deeply. “I am sorry, Princess Luna, but we refuse your terms. Please beg your civilians once more to evacuate the Crystal Empire. We will attack tomorrow. You have until then to get them to safety.” Luna stared at him deeply for a moment. “So be it.” Then she teleported away. -_-_-_-_-_- The next morning dawned bright and clear … probably. Talon would’ve have known, she was stuck walking through a dark cave, barely able to see her own muzzle in front of her. Her legs burned from all this walking, but Talon forced herself to pretend that she didn’t feel it. She wasn’t going to wimp out when one of the leaders of the Alliance was watching. “… What you need to do is think of the growth itself as another way of moving,” Silver Tail was saying, a few steps ahead of Talon, “not just a side-effect of switching forms.” Tornado nodded thoughtfully at the drake leader’s side. “And that will increase the effectiveness of my wind?” “A lot,” Silver Tail said, “but getting the timing right is a pain. It took me a few decades to figure it out.” This wasn’t exactly what Talon had had in mind when Silver Tail offered to give Tornado a lesson in wind magic. A lesson crammed in on their way to a mass murder. Talon pulled her thoughts away from that subject yet again. It wasn’t her place to second-guess the Hurricanes, no matter how much she wanted to. Crystal was on Talon’s left, wincing a bit with every step. On Talon’s right, Heart had her staff resting across her shoulders. “You know, I could just use some enhancement magic on you two.” Crystal shook her head. “I need the exercise.” She took a deep breath. “You don’t need to worry about me.” “All this walking is good for us,” Talon said, willing herself to believe it. “By the way, what was in that emergency message you got at breakfast today, Heart? Unless you aren’t allowed to tell us, that is.” The leaders of the Alliance had called a meeting right after the received it, so it must have been something important—and probably bad. Heart shook her head. “No, I can tell you. I want your thoughts on it anyway. Equestria is calling in reinforcements.” Talon paused as she digested the news. Equestria had a population of over one hundred million. Even a minimal draft would give them an army so big that the Alliance would have no hope of victory. Of course, that might actually be a good thing. Even the Hurricanes couldn’t keep insisting on war if there was no chance for victory. “How long before the Equestrian recruits get here?” Talon asked. “Actually,” Heart said, “there aren’t any Equestrian recruits. Celestia still refuses to force any of her subjects to fight unless they volunteer. They’re asking their allies for help instead. The griffons, actually.” “How many?” Talon asked. “For that matter, what’s a griffon?” Heart shrugged. It was still weird to see a creature without wings do that. “According to our spy, Celestia sent the request out last night and hasn’t heard back from their kingdom yet. As for what they are, apparently they’re what you’d get if you fused the front half of an eagle with the back half of a giant cat. They’re pretty rare in Equestria, so there wasn’t much information available. We do know that they’re a lot more warlike than ponies.” “Fun,” Talon deadpanned. “Is there any chance their leaders will refuse her request?” “Not really.” Heart shook her head. “Celestia offered to pay them a lot. Apparently that’s all griffons care about.” “Maybe we could get help from the changelings to balance it out?” Crystal suggested. “Didn’t you say that they almost overthrew Equestria by themselves once?” “They did,” Heart said, “but Chrysalis, their leader, made it clear that the changelings wouldn’t be joining us on the battlefield any time soon.” “Why dirty her claws with taking out the Immortal Sisters when she can have us do it for her?” Talon muttered. “Our information network would be a hundred times as big if we let them join us,” Heart said. “We should be grateful that they want to help at all.” “If not the changelings, maybe some other race would fight alongside us,” Crystal said. “The wyverns are new to this continent, but the wyrms and drakes must have some friends.” Heart sighed. “Drakes aren’t well known for being social. I doubt they have any allies outside the other drake clans, and all of them that are willing to help are already here. As for us wyrms,” she cleared her throat, “well, we mostly keep to ourselves. There have been a few loose alliances with the minotaurs over the centuries, and one with the centaurs a long time ago, but both of them are steadfast allies of Equestria now.” There was an uncomfortable silence, filled only by Silver Tail and Tornado’s discussion about some drake technique that Talon didn’t understand. “There must be some nations that don’t get along with Equestria,” Crystal said at last. “Well,” Heart tapped her chin, “I don’t think they have any major enemies, but there are a few races that don’t really like ponies either. I guess it couldn’t hurt to look into approaching some of them.” Another idea occurred to Talon. “Maybe we could let something out of that special prison the ponies have. I doubt anything in there would have any problems with fighting against Equestria.” It would also be another shortcut to ending the war. Some of those prisoners were supposed to be obscenely powerful, and even a nation as mighty as Equestria might ask for peace rather than face them on the battlefield. “I’ll have our spies look into that too,” Heart said, “but from what I’ve heard, we might be better off facing Equestria by ourselves than risking an alliance with anything they locked up in Tartarus.” Silver Tail stopped, and the others all paused around him. “This is about the edge of the fallout zone.” He turned around to look at them. “You should all head back now. If we don’t see each other again, tell Yol Toor to write something nice about me in the Hall of Remembrance.” Tornado bowed. “May fortune lead you to glory.” Silver Tail ruffled the younger drake’s head spikes. “I’ll settle for not getting crushed, but thanks.” Then he turned and disappeared into the oppressive darkness. Talon glanced over at Tornado. “So, learn anything good?” Tornado unfolded his wings and flapped them slowly before nodding. “Many of his techniques are simply beyond my skill at the moment, but he did explain a much simpler maneuver that I should practice.” “Really?” Crystal asked. “What is it?” “Mixing high- and low-pressure zones to strike foes at a great distance.” He flapped his wings again, obviously thinking about the movements very carefully. “I do not understand exactly why it works, but Silver Tail said that it is extremely effective when used properly.” “Is there anything any of us can do to help you?” Talon asked, motioning for the small group to start heading back the way they had come. Just thinking about all those miles of tunnels made her legs ache. Tornado followed after her. “Perhaps you or Crystal could be my training partner. Your flight magic is similar enough to my own that you should be able to learn the technique as well.” Talon thought about it. Her schedule was about to get a lot more hectic now that the ceasefire was over, but she would probably be able to spare an hour or so a day for personal training. “I’m no wind wyvern, but I’ll give it a shot.” “I wouldn’t mind learning either,” Crystal said. Tornado smiled. “It will be an honor to train with you both. In any case, what were the three of you discussing?” “The ponies will be getting help from some allies soon,” Heart said. “We were brainstorming about where we might find some allies of our own.” “I’m afraid I don’t know of any groups that would be willing and able to help us,” Tornado said. “However, I cannot thank you enough for the aid that the the wyverns and wyrms have already given during this war. We could never have asked for more loyal allies.” He turned to Heart very deliberately and said, “Or more honorable ones.” Heart missed a step and nearly fell. “Did you just call a wyrm honorable?” He nodded. “You follow a different kind of honor than what most drakes recognize, but it is honor nonetheless.” Shaking her head, Heart said, “Well … thank you. For whatever it’s worth, drakes are a lot more selfless than I used to think.” Talon smiled. It was hard to believe that Tornado and Heart would have happily tried to kill each other a few short months ago. “Come on, you two. We only have an hour until the plan starts. We need to join up with the rest of the cluster before that happens.” -_-_-_-_-_- The Alliance had been scouting out this tunnel for weeks already. A few teams of pony guards had even been seen patrolling the caverns, but none of them had been harmed. After all, it wouldn’t do to let the ponies know that the Alliance had just gained a new way of reaching the Empire. Of course, everydragon knew they would only get to use the tunnel once before Equestria either collapsed it or extended the Crystal Heart’s shield to cover the underground as well. The only real question had been how to make the most out of that one use. The drakes had been split between digging for more gems and asking the Crystal Empire to evacuate all its civilians there so they couldn’t get hurt. Heart had suggested trying to steal back the Crystal Heart and hoping that Discord didn’t retrieve it this time. All of them had been outvoted by the Hurricanes, though, who had decided that the best use was to massacre ponies. Talon was starting to wonder if it was really for the best to put the Hurricanes in charge of all tactical operations for this war. She wasn’t stupid enough to voice that thought, though, especially not when they came around a corner and saw the rest of the cluster waiting for them in the small cavern beyond. Many dragons were standing at attention near Typhoon, the Hurricane of Wind, who was studying a map on a small table that somedragon had set up. Light filled the cavern from a hole in the ceiling that hadn’t been there earlier. Apparently the rest of the cluster had been able to create their new exit without any problems. “Welcome back, Senior Wing Talon Storm,” Typhoon said dispassionately. “Were there any complications?” “None, sir,” Talon said. “What happened over there?” She gestured toward the back of the group, where several dragons were standing around something that Talon couldn’t see clearly enough to identify. She could make out Rune Field among them, grinning like a maniac. “A few pony guards were patrolling the farthest edge of the cave system,” Typhoon said. “They are unconscious but alive. Clodhopper did ask that we return with unicorn and crystal pony captives, if at all possible.” “It’s just like we expected,” Rune said loudly enough for them all to hear. “Their horns function along the same basic principle as our staffs. Think about all we can learn from them! I hope they don’t mind talking with me about their magic.” Typhoon cleared her throat, pulling the group’s attention back to her. “I imagine that more test subjects will yield even better results. As such, please follow our original plan.” “We will. Thank you for the update, sir,” Talon said. She bowed to Typhoon one more time and led the small group to the rest of Squad Five. She took her place with the venom team, as did Crystal, Tornado, and Heart. “I’m so glad our fearless leader and her pets could rejoin us,” Storm Front, one of the more outspoken objectors to Talon’s leadership, said quietly. The words had barely left his mouth when he collapsed with a gasp, pressing both wings against his chest. “You will respect proper authority, Senior Wing Storm Front,” Typhoon’s quiet voice echoed in the air around him. “Talon Wind is your squadron leader, and Heart Echo is a member of the Council. By disrespecting them, you are disrespecting all of us. Disrespect destroys obedience and unity, the only two things that have kept the wyvern race alive. To remind you of that, you will suffer near-suffocation and a heart attack for the next few minutes.” Talon shuddered and glanced at Typhoon. She was still studying that map like nothing had happened. No, Talon certainly wasn’t stupid enough to speak out against the Hurricanes. “Rune,” she said carefully, “Crystal, Tornado, and I still need our protective runes.” “What?” Rune looked up at them. “Oh, right. C’mon, Genesis.” She waved to her descendant, and the two of them got to work. Soon the three of them were covered in spidery lines of light. Tornado looked down at Storm Front’s gasping form like he was trying to decide if he should say something. Luckily, common sense won out, and he shifted his gaze to Talon. “With your permission, I would like to practice the technique that Silver Tail taught me.” Talon nodded. “Go ahead. Wandering Sky, could you observe? I want to know if it would be useful for the wind team.” The wind wyvern bowed. “Yes, sir.” Tornado stepped away from the rest of the Squad and reared up on his back legs. Apparently juvenile drakes walked that way all the time, but as they matured that pose became more and more difficult to hold. Tornado was fairly young, though, so it didn’t give him much trouble. He took a deep breath, then flapped both wings forward. It stirred up a small breeze, and Talon’s wind sense could detect areas of high and low pressure in an alternating pattern. “I think I recognize that,” Sky said. “It’s called the Wind Lance.” “Silver Tail referred to it as the Wind Spear,” Tornado said, flapping his wings again. “He also said that even a drake’s thinking form can generate the wind required to kill prey at more than one thousand feet.” Wandering Sky looked a bit dubious but didn’t try to argue. “Maybe drakes have more powerful wind magic than we realized.” “No, they simply put forth an enormous amount of time and effort.” Typhoon’s voice echoed around the group. They all froze. “There is no need to worry,” she said, still without looking at them. “I have always thought the Wind Lance is overlooked by many of our younger warriors. It’s a shame. When properly used, it travels much farther than any other technique.” She flicked one wing, and a series of holes appeared in the wall next to Talon. It was like a pattern of tiny four-pointed stars, all connected by their tips. They formed a rough circle, about a foot across. “If Silver Tail considers that to be a beginning wind technique, I must ask about his more advanced ones.” She rolled up the map in front of her. “Senior Wing Storm Front, get up and remember proper respect from now on. All of you should prepare yourselves. Silver Tail has reached his destination and is about to put the plan into motion.” “How does she know that?” Heart asked Talon. “Her wind sense is the most developed of any wyvern,” Talon said back. “She can probably feel the air currents they’re making.” A few moments later, there was a faint rumbling in the distance, and the ground beneath them began to shake. “To the air!” Typhoon ordered. She opened her wings and shot up through the hole in the cavern ceiling. The five squadrons of the cluster flew after her one by one, in the order of their ranking. The shaking had stopped by the time Squad Five took off, which meant that Silver Tail had either escaped or was dead. Talon passed through the cramped entrance and into the open air beyond. Brilliant daylight stung her eyes, but she ignored that and flew higher. Soon she climbed high enough that she could see over the small hill that stood between them and the Crystal Empire. It was obvious that their plan had worked. Silver Tail’s Void Fire had collapsed a huge part of the tunnels beneath the Empire’s largest marketplace, bringing the buildings down with them and probably crushing tens of thousands of ponies. Talon wished that it had never come to this. None of those ponies had deserved to die. It was hard, but she fought down her guilt and focused on the plan. “Attack!” A small cluster of ponies stood at the walls of the Empire nearest to them, but most of them were staring in shock at the collapsed marketplace. Not that it mattered if they were paying attention. Every single dragon in the Alliance was emerging from their hiding places nearby and rushing at the shield as one. A few clusters of Equestrian warriors would barely qualify as a distraction. It had taken all morning and afternoon for their illusionists to move everydragon into position for this, but the results were more than worth it. Silver Tail shot out of the ground in an explosion of blue light, about halfway between Talon’s group and the Empire. “Is that him? Is he okay?” Tornado asked. He flew easily, in spite of being in his thinking form and carrying Heart. Talon nodded. “Yeah, he’s fine.” “Thank the Ancestors,” Crystal said. Tornado switched to his battle form. “Then may the battle be swift.” Even Heart Echo breathed a sigh of relief as she aimed her staff at the Empire’s shield. “I’m right there with you, buddy.” Silver Tail turned to the Empire and called in a magically amplified voice, “I’m sorry it had to come to this. Dragons of the Alliance, rush the walls! Kill everything that rises to face you, and pummel the Empire until it has no choice but to surrender!” Then he flew toward the shield, followed by Squad Five and the rest of the Alliance. -_-_-_-_-_- Spirit looked up at the wall of scales, claws, and teeth. They were only seconds from punching a bunch of holes in the Empire’s shield and crashing down on them. This probably wasn’t going to go down in history as his all-time favorite shift on the wall, even with the protective ceiling that the crystal ponies had built to defend against aerial fire. At least the Solar Unicorns had seen through the Alliance’s illusions a few hours ago, letting them quietly move forces around to deal with whatever was coming. One of those ‘forces’ was standing next to Spirit, shifting her weight from hoof to hoof. “It’ll be okay, Twi,” Spirit said. Twilight managed a weak smile, but it didn’t last long. “Do you think we can handle this? I mean, we really have no idea what the Hurricanes are capable of.” Fire Claws stepped forward, putting her hand on the alicorn’s shoulder. “Nothing’s going to hurt you as long as Torch and I are around, Twi.” Burning Torch repeated the gesture on Twilight’s other side. “The Hurricanes have been spotted,” Autumn sent. “Move north to support the earth pony companies!” “We’ll keep the rest of the dragons off you three,” Spirit said, already starting to move. “Just focus on taking out the wyvern leaders.” -_-_-_-_-_- As soon as the Shield Cracker rune activated, the swarm pushed through the shield, blasting away at the pony defenders below. At least, they tried to. As soon as they crossed the threshold, some invisible force wrapped around Talon and every other member of the swarm, freezing them in place. -_-_-_-_-_- In spite of the situation, Cliff felt a sense of grim satisfaction when the trap went off perfectly. He jumped onto Rainbow’s back and poured as much enhancement magic into her as possible. “Remind me to thank the Solar Unicorns for setting that up.” “Less talk, more kill,” Fire Eyes sent back. -_-_-_-_-_- Talon struggled in vain against the pony magic that held her. It felt like bands of metal had wrapped around her entire body, preventing her from moving. She wasn’t falling to her death, but that was the only good news. An all-too-familiar rainbow blur was shooting toward them from the south. That pegasus was responsible for nearly one quarter of the Alliance’s casualties just by itself. Just before it hit, the Hurricanes broke out of their restraints and poured their magic out in one synchronized flap. Talon could barely believe what her wind sense was telling her. A small mountain’s worth of air slammed down into the unfortunate pegasus, who had a wyrm on her back now that Talon looked more closely. Both were hurled to the ground below. The attack didn’t end there. Typhoon flapped again, and all the air around those two was pulled away, leaving a near complete vacuum in its wake. A shield formed around them almost immediately and rapidly contracted. It was the first airtight shield Talon had seen, and it brought the pressure inside it back up before any serious damage could occur to its occupants. Off to her left, Tornado shrank back to his thinking form. Somehow, that let him slip free of the magic that held him. “I’m increasing the power to your Energy Resistance spells,” Heart sent. “It should dissolve this spell more quickly.” A moment later, just as Squad Five started regaining the ability to move, a burst of purple magic on top of the Hurricanes announced the arrival of three new combatants, two wyrms and—was that an alicorn? Talon couldn’t even follow the blur of movement and techniques as the three of them engaged the Hurricanes. On the ground beneath them, the rainbow pegasus and her wyrm ally were climbing back to their feet. Apparently they weren’t done yet. Just our luck. Talon glanced from the duo on the ground to the group fighting with the Hurricanes, trying to decide where her squad would be able to help the most. At least two other squadrons were already moving toward the Hurricanes, and the pegasus and the wyrm looked like they were almost ready to take off. “Pin those two down,” Talon ordered, diving for the ground. “Whatever you do, don’t let the rainbow one take off again!” “Heart, call for backup.” She remembered facing the rainbow pegasus and her team once before and doubted Squad Five would be able to hold them for long. “On it,” Heart replied, jumping off of Tornado’s back and firing her staff at the pegasus. A ray of dark energy hit the pony’s armored back, stunning her long enough for Heart to land on top of her with a metallic clang. Talon had been meaning to crash into the wyrm, but he dodged out of the way just before she hit, making her hit the ground with a lot more force than her sore legs would have liked. Tornado hit the ground a moment later and charged at the armored wyrm, but his momentum ground to a sudden halt, then reversed as he was swung in a full circle and sent crashing into Ember, who had also just landed. Both drakes went down in a heap, nearly crushing Genesis and Rune, who had been on Ember’s back. A large male earth pony stood behind where Tornado had just been, coming back down onto all fours after the throw. Like the others, he was wearing that gray armor that seemed all-but indestructible. Meanwhile, the pegasus flipped over and knocked Heart away with a blast of concentrated wind. An armored wyrm dragoness ran past the earth pony. She motioned, and some kind of magic latched onto Talon and threw her toward the male wyrm. Green blades of energy formed around the male’s hands, ready to meet Talon. “Gem, don’t!” Heart shouted from nearby. Talon was barely able to flap her wings in time, killing just enough momentum that the wyrm’s blades missed her. Much to Talon’s surprise, he hesitated for a moment instead of pressing the attack. Half a dozen wind blasts struck the wyrm from above, violently knocking him flat, and announcing the arrival of Wandering Sky’s wind team. “Did you just call that wyrm Gem?” Talon asked. A shield went up around the wyrm as he struggled back to his feet. “Yes,” Heart sent back. “I don’t know how, but that’s him. His emotions are exactly the same as the Gemstone Aura we knew.” Talon didn’t have time to waste clawing at a shield that had withstood everything an entire swarm could throw at it. She spat a cloud of extra strong poison into it and flew away, searching desperately for the rest of her squad. “Sky, keep an eye on the wyrm in that shield. If he comes out, kill- take him prisoner.” Tornado was still disentangling himself from Ember, but at least they were both okay. Heart was bleeding from a number of deep wounds, probably from that female wyrm and her pink energy beams. Crystal flew into the enemy dragoness from behind, knocking her to the ground and holding her there with one foot while she spat more gas at the wyrm’s face. Cloud Breaker, Crystal’s battle partner, landed next to her and helped pin the armored dragoness down. Meanwhile, the rest of the venom wyverns were spitting poison at the earth pony, but he barely seemed to care as he retaliated with a series of rocks that made deafening explosions in midair. A shield went up over the fallen dragoness, knocking Crystal and Cloud away as it expanded. “Somedragon take out whatever is creating those shields!” Talon glanced around, trying to find the pegasus before she got away, but a rainbow explosion near the Hurricanes showed that she already had. “We’re trying!” Storm Front’s emotions crackled with anger and frustration. Talon found her and the rest of the thunder team attacking yet another shield a little ways away from the rest of them. Inside of it, a unicorn stood proudly, watching them with a faint smirk. His armor was elaborately painted and covered in jewels. Talon really hoped those gems didn’t represent rank or enemies killed or something. “Thunders, snipe the earth pony from up high. Maybe we can overload that armor.” “Venoms,” Talon called, “switch with the thunder team. Pump as much gas as you can into that unicorn’s shield!” “Heart, give them a wing. Has anydragon seen that pegasus who can stun dragons just by looking at them?” “I don’t think she’s here,” Heart sent. She healed herself as she ran toward the gem-encrusted unicorn. “Our backup is finally arriving.” Talon looked up and saw the rest of the swarm swooping down to help, but several hundred Equestrian warriors were nearly on them as well, and at least a hundred were wearing those gray suits of armor. “Maybe we got lucky and somedragon killed her in another battle.” She took a deep breath and shouted, “Stay focused, everydragon. We can do this!” Under her breath, she added, “I hope.” -_-_-_-_-_- Twilight winced as yet another wyvern attack connected. Even through her shield, the temperature dropped so low that it hurt to breathe, and that pain spiked right afterwards when more air was forced down her throat. She teleported away in Semi-random Pattern Thirty-seven-A. It left behind most of the frozen air that had been crammed into her lungs, but her chest still burned. Dropping the temperature in order to reduce air volume, Twilight noted, creating a vacuum that can be used to more efficiently pull in air, which would likely then be super-heated, causing rapid expansion within the lungs to burst them. She fought down a shudder. It had only been one minute and five seconds since appearing above the Hurricanes, and already she had been forced to teleport to avoid thirty-seven potentially lethal moves. She couldn’t just teleport once either. Any teleportation chain shorter than ten jumps always ended with one of the Hurricanes waiting for her at the end of it. Another new technique raised the temperature around her mid-chain, which made finishing the last two jumps of the sequence difficult. Twilight checked the line of metals on her left foreleg and saw that the tungsten wire had melted, but not the enchanted tungsten. That put the temperature of the attack somewhere between thirty-five hundred and seven thousand degrees Celsius. It was more than a fifty percent increase since their last heat-based attack. Twilight hoped that meant they were running out of new techniques and were opting to simply increase the power of previous ones. “Maze eighteen,” Burning Torch sent before filling the sky around them with a new wave of shields, all in different sizes and shapes. They weren’t very strong, and would only last a few moments, but they limited the Hurricanes’ maneuverability. They also gave Burning Torch a number of platforms to stand on. The Hurricanes all managed to dodge out of the way of the suddenly forming obstacles yet again and moved to surround Twilight and Torch, launching a technique that, thankfully, Twilight recognized. “Torch, Air Hammer, interception!” Burning Torch reversed his momentum suddenly, narrowly avoiding the descending column of air. Neither he nor Twilight had been able to return fire yet. The Hurricanes were all simply too fast and too agile to even attempt to hit them, especially while they were both completely occupied with staying alive. “I’m nearly ready,” Fire Claws sent. There wasn’t time for Twilight to look and see what her adopted grandmother was doing, but it involved Zecora’s speed potion, a life-drain spell, and the two squadrons that had tried to come to the Hurricanes’ aid. Twilight would have breathed a sigh of relief, if the air around her wasn’t suddenly filled with poisonous gas. Gas that was somehow eating away at her protective spells. She only had fifty semi-random teleportation chains memorized, and she was certain that the Hurricanes would realize the moment she started repeating them. She also needed at least one tenth of a second to recharge her horn enough to teleport again. It was a small opening, but an opening nonetheless. A burst of wind from her wings did nothing to drive away the poison, so she used Pattern Thirty-eight then immediately had to flap backwards when she reappeared just in front of a pair of downwards slashing talons. The Hurricane of Thunder had somehow predicted the sequence. Some kind of force, magnetism perhaps, pushed the wyvern’s talons right through Twilight’s shield, while simultaneously pulling her toward him. She felt a flash of pain as the talons raked down her forehead, slicing through the helmet with ease. Then Burning Torch crashed into her from the side, knocking them both away from the yellow wyvern. “Get out of there, both of you!” Fire Claws appeared behind the Hurricane of Thunder, little more than a blur of green fire, gray metal, and purple light. The thunder wyvern dodged out of the way, and a tornado suddenly appeared around Fire Claws, but a quick burst of magic from Twilight teleported her grandmother to safety. Another warped the three of them to the ground nearly a half a mile away. Fire Claws took a deep breath and released her fiery aura. “Thanks, Twi.” Dents and slash marks covered her armor, reaching all the way through to the scales in at least a dozen places. Blood dripped from more than one gash. The glowing purple liquid of Zecora’s speed potion still coated her hands and feet, but it was beginning to fade. “Remind me to thank Rainbow too. She saved my life at least twice back there.” After a deep breath, she pressed one set of claws to Twilight’s heart and another to Burning Torch’s. “Now let’s put that life-force I just gathered to work. You know what to do?” Twilight nodded, still breathing heavily as it started to sink in that she had been a few inches away from death. She ignored the warm blood spilling down her forehead, wove together five different emotions, and extended them toward Fire Claws through their link. The dragoness took them and six more from her husband before adding nine of her own. Then she opened the gate to her newly augmented life-force and poured one thousand years’ worth of life into casting the spell. Twilight felt a surge of excitement in spite of the situation. There was no confirmed record of Supreme Insight having been cast in more than six centuries. This spell was perhaps the best example of her all-time favorite phrase: knowledge is power. The world around Twilight changed as the spell took effect. Every single blade of grass in the field around them stood out clearly to her, and she could see the tiny amounts of magic within them all. Twilight hadn’t studied the magic of grass in the Crystal Empire, and yet she somehow knew that it was meant to protect the plant from harsh temperatures. She quickly determined that there wasn’t anything else she could learn from the grass and turned her attention to something far more interesting, her grandmother. Fire Claws positively glowed with magical energies, sixty-one spells that Twilight could see. She knew fifty-three of them already, but the way the other eight were woven together made it obvious what all of them did. In fact, Twilight was confident that she would be able to cast them herself when she reached tier nine wyrm magic. I just learned eight new spells instantly. That thought made Twilight giggle, but the sounds came out oddly distorted, like slow motion. “Our minds are moving too fast for our bodies to keep up,” Fire Claws sent. “Get us back to the Hurricanes quickly, Twi. We don’t have long before this wears off.” Twilight tried to nod, but that was in slow motion as well. She gave up halfway through and started charging up for a teleportation spell. She gave up on that too when she realized that using the magic a different way would be more quick and efficient. When they reappeared in front of the Hurricanes, Twilight was amazed at how much magic surrounded the air around them all and how fast they reacted. A wave of air pressure was already forming around the wings of the Hurricane of Wind. It was a fairly simple technique that would generate intense sound waves, meant to deafen and disorient foes across a large area. Twilight could also tell that the Hurricanes were growing frustrated and using more energy than normal in the hopes of defeating either Twilight or her draconic grandparents. Twilight flicked one wing and sent out a wave of magically generated wind that would interfere with the wyvern’s technique when they met in another few seconds, from Twilight’s point of view, at least. “You just bought us a moment to counterattack,” Fire Claws sent approvingly as she landed on one of her husband’s shields. “Let’s make the most of it.” -_-_-_-_-_- Cliff grit his teeth. Why did we have to run into Squad Five? In the rush of battle, he had fought them like any other foe, but now it was starting to sink in. He was literally stuck in the middle of a battle to the death between two groups of friends and family. It wasn’t like he could just ask both sides to be nice and go find other opponents to kill. The Empathy spell let him listen in on everything the members of Squad Five were sending to each other. Heart knew that he was Gem. How long until she realized that he was Cliff also? He clenched his eyes shut before Talon’s poison could affect him too much. It was time for a good hard look at himself and his situation. Option one, he could kill Talon. Without her, the Squad would fall apart and need to retreat. Option two, he could do what Eyes told him to do, and try not to think about what was happening. Option three, he could try to make sure his friends in the Alliance got out of this in one piece. “Cliff,” Fire Eyes sent, “that emotion manipulator is headed toward Blueblood. I need you to stop her right now!” He hesitated. He could feel Heart’s emotions, a mess of shock and denial. She had heard Eyes call him Cliff. “And by ‘stop,’ you mean ‘kill’?” “Duh.” That was it then. Cliff stood back up, feeling oddly detached from everything that was happening. There was only one course of action he could really follow here, and there was no use pretending otherwise. “No, Fire Eyes. I won’t kill my cousin. I’ll see if I can convince her to retreat instead.” “What?!” the rest of the team shouted in unison, but Cliff had already gone invisible and launched himself in an arc over Heart Echo to land in front of her. Even if she couldn’t see him, Cliff knew that her Empathy spell would still let her locate him. “Heart,” he shouted, “you need to listen to me!” Heart froze. “Who are you, Gem or Cli-” She cut off suddenly as Cliff shot a gem through her upper leg, shattering the bone as it went. Her cry of pain was short lived, however, because another gem hit her in the chest. A green explosion lit up the battlefield for a moment, knocking Heart’s body away like a rag doll. Two more gems connected before she could even stop rolling, creating similar explosions on contact. “Cliff,” Fire Eyes asked in shock, “what the heck was that? I thought you weren’t going to kill her.” Cliff called out two more anti-aura gems and launched them across the battlefield at Genesis and Rune, who had been hiding next to Ember. He knew that the pain Heart had radiated when he broke her leg would briefly stun anydragon not used to sharing a link in battle. One gem each was enough to negate the protective runes they were both using, and then another finished the job. “I’m ending this as quickly as possible.” Taking out Heart first had been important. She was the biggest threat in Squad Five. Luckily, her Empathy spell had let her listen in on Cliff’s conversation with Fire Eyes. She had dropped her guard for a crucial second because she heard him say that he only wanted to talk. Just one more lie for Cliff to add to the list. Genesis and Rune had to go next. Neither of them were very talented fighters, but they would maintain a link to the rest of the Squad after losing Heart. Divide and conquer. “Oh Ancestors, Heart!” Talon’s voice reached Cliff over the noise of the battle going on around him. Just as he’d expected, she was flying next to Tornado, probably trying to set her next plan in motion. Cliff knew he wouldn’t be able to bring down Tornado by himself. The golden drake was a rank three berserker. Talon was a serious threat as well. She was fast, smart, and her poison wouldn’t be stopped by Everfree Armor at all. Cliff knew her weakness, though. He canceled his invisibility and launched himself across the battlefield toward Blueblood. More specifically, toward a certain venom wyvern among the team that was attacking him. A green energy blade pierced Crystal’s chest before she even knew he was coming. Cliff twisted as they fell so that she would land first, with him standing over her body and his blade in plane sight. If Talon’s scream before had been one of pain and loss, this one was of pure wordless agony. Cliff shot another gem at Crystal’s battle partner, dropping him, and turned to meet Talon’s heartbroken glare. “Eyes, that wyvern is distracted. Hit her with an anti-aura gem.” “Wait, you want me to-” “Just do it!” Cliff was past caring how his request sounded. “Tell everyone to switch to those gems. There aren’t any aura drakes nearby anyway.” “… Okay.” Fire Eyes pulled out a gem and relayed his message to the rest of the Platoon. -_-_-_-_-_- Any thought of the rest of the Squad, or the battle, or even the war shot out of Talon’s mind when she saw Crystal fall to that accursed wyrm. She flew forward, ready to tear him limb from limb, but then something crashed into her side. There was a deafening explosion, and everything went black. Thud. What … no … Talon fought back the wave of darkness that surrounded her. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear anything. Somehow, she was lying on her side on the ground with the taste of blood in her mouth. Just breathing was difficult. Talon bit down on her tongue and let the pain help her focus. Brain death didn’t occur until a few minutes after the heart stopped beating. If she could get Crystal and Heart to help fast enough, maybe … maybe there was still a chance. Talon latched onto that thought and forced herself to remain conscious. Her wind sense was still working, at least. Tornado was curled around her protectively. “Tornado.” She gasped for air. “Can you hear me?” He gave some sort of reply, but her wind sense wasn’t nearly well developed enough to tell what he’d said without also being able to hear it. “Order Squad Five to retreat.” Now that the initial shock had passed, it was getting easier to breathe, and her eyes could actually make out the blurry golden form of her battle partner. “Tell Ember to fire shift, grab our wounded, and get them to the first allied wyrm she sees.” Tornado relayed her orders, and Talon wrestled through the weakness in her limbs enough to be able to push herself upright. Her vision swam from the effort, but there wasn’t much to see anyway. Tornado’s giant form still surrounded her on all sides. Her wind sense could just pick up the foggy outline of that wyrm kneeling over Crystal’s form, with Cloud Breaker next to them. What was that monster doing to her friend? She tried to take a step and nearly collapsed again. “Tornado, lift me onto your back. We have to get to Crystal and Cloud, now!” -_-_-_-_-_- Twilight couldn’t believe that all five Hurricanes were still active. They were moving in slow motion, and yet they still coordinated so well that any attempt to harm one would be countered by at least two more. On the positive side, every second of the fight was teaching her things she had never even known that she didn’t know. She fired a massive energy ray at the Hurricane of Thunder, and watched in fascination as the wyvern almost instantly began manipulating electric and magnetic fields to direct the energy around and then back at Twilight. A burst of cold negated parts of Twilight’s magic signature with surgical precision, so the ray would effectively register Twilight as a completely different entity than the one who generated it. There was no way now for her to simply re-absorb the spell’s energy. “Uh oh.” There wasn’t time to teleport away before it hit. “Allow me to help,” Burning Torch sent. A ripple of energy, not quite a shield, formed in front of Twilight, deflecting the ray so that it flew harmlessly beneath her. The wyrm himself stood nearby, balanced on a small shield and surrounded by another one that extended just a few inches past his skin. Fire Claws was at the opposite side of the Hurricanes, standing on another shield as she sent out dozens of tiny balls of fire, which all seemed to home in on the enemy wyverns. Unfortunately, a wall of ice extinguished them before they could get close. The ice then shattered into tiny fragments filled with magic and shot at Fire Claws, forcing her to jump out of the way and throw out a protective shield. “Okay, fancy techniques aren’t working,” she sent as she flew through the air, “and the spell is going to wear off soon. Twilight, have you figured out their upper limits yet? We’ll have to settle for one kill.” She landed on a new shield and began crouching to kick off again. “Yes,” Twilight sent back. It was hard to ignore the sound of her own heart slowly beating in her ears. She was sure that it was actually pounding. “Most of them have less raw power than I was expecting, actually. It’s just technical skill that makes everything they do seem so overwhelming.” “I’ll use maximum power anyway. We’ve only got one shot at this.” “Understood, dear.” Burning Torch jumped as well. He narrowly dodged a wind blade that had been filled with poisonous gas and grabbed onto Twilight’s hoof. “Which one do I aim for?” Twilight asked, slowly adjusting to counteract her grandfather’s added weight and momentum. “It doesn’t matter. Just pick one!” Fire Claws pushed off, flying right into the middle of the Hurricanes. Heat energy from the Hurricane of Fire was already forming a circle around her, with ice magic taking shape directly above, and a net of magnetic waves beneath, but Claws ignored those and threw her willpower into surging Anti-magic. For a normal wyrm, it would negate magic outside of a living body in a small radius around the caster. Fire Claws wasn’t a normal wyrm though. The anti-magic energy shot out like a wave in all directions, dispelling the trap the Hurricanes had been generating and all of Burning Torch’s shields in the area. Most importantly, it ripped control of the air away from the Hurricanes. Twilight felt the wave hit her, and reminded herself not to panic as gravity reasserted itself. Her wings weren’t nearly large or strong enough to hold her up without pegasus flight magic. She concentrated energy into her horn. Like any insulator, anti-magic could be overcome with a strong enough charge. For example, an alicorn firing all of her magic through an amplifier and into the nearest wyvern, the Hurricane of Ice. The ray hit right in her chest, blasting through the heart, one lung, and a large part of the spine. It was the first time Twilight had ever killed another intelligent creature. She desperately wanted to look away, but found herself unable to. Her magically enhanced eyes took in every detail. The shade of the wyvern’s scales. Drops of crimson blood seeming to fall upwards as they plummeted. Even the look in her eyes. Time, already at a crawl, seemed to stop entirely as their gazes met. The Hurricane of Ice didn’t seem shocked, angry, or even frightened. The only emotion that Twilight could see on her face was one of resigned acceptance. She could almost feel the wyvern thinking, ‘So, this is how it happens.’ The wyvern’s magic field was slowly collapsing in on itself, unable to sustain life any longer. The Hurricane of Ice was dying. In some respects, she was already dead. Twilight couldn’t take it anymore. This wasn’t some test in a lab, it was a thinking, feeling creature, nearly as old as Celestia. She was one of the last champions of a dying race, and Twilight had just ripped her from this world! At last, Fire Claws ran out of willpower for her anti-magic field. The air beneath Twilight snapped back under her control, and she started flying again. The ice wyvern didn’t. She fell out of sight still wearing the same expression, trailing a ribbon of blood in her wake. -_-_-_-_-_- Something sharp connected with Cliff’s upper right arm. It punched through the armor and scales there and embedding itself in his flesh. Hissing in pain, Cliff threw up a shield over himself and Crystal. A small rock was sticking out of his arm, surrounded by the blood that was starting to well up. Another rock hit his shield, piercing through and driving itself deep into the metal of Cliff’s breastplate. This time, Cliff was able to follow it back to its source, a wyrm on the ground nearby. Cliff knew him from the Alliance, if only vaguely. “Blueblood, keep that wyrm off my back while I finish healing Crystal!” A shield popped up around him. “Who?” Eyes shot a beam of energy at the enemy wyrm, cutting deep into his side. The wyrm stumbled back behind a fallen drake corpse. “Crystal, the wyvern I just stabbed. I made sure not to hit her heart, but she could still bleed out if I don’t move quickly.” He glanced up at Tornado, who was charging at him with Talon clinging to his back. Cliff silently cursed himself for assuming that one gem would have been enough to knock Talon out. Behind Tornado, Ember had transformed into a giant drake-shaped fireball. Her body had split into dozens of tendrils and was pulling in all the wounded members of the Alliance nearby. “And tell the rest of the Platoon to aim their gems at Ember, that chunk of living fire. She’s a drake fire-walker, but anti-aura gems will still work on her.” “You know these dragons, Cliff?” Rainbow asked. She suddenly felt guilty, probably about all the ones she’d been killing. “Yeah,” Cliff sent back. “Why do you think I wanted everyone to switch to anti-aura gems?” The explosions they generated could still hurt their target, but they mainly worked by draining their target’s magic field to the point that they passed out. “How could you possibly know drakes and wyverns?” Heart asked. He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.” “Do I have to remind you that I’m still holding my breath over here?” Blueblood demanded. Cliff kept up the work on Crystal’s wound and glanced at Blueblood. The unicorn’s shield was full of poison gas. At least the rest of the venom team had followed Tornado’s shouted orders and were beginning to retreat. Unfortunately, it looked like most of them were going to get away, in spite of the anti-aura gems being fired after them. “Sorry,” Cliff sent, “you should be clear to drop that shield and find a patch of clean air for a new one.” “You and I are going to have a long talk once this is over,” Fire Eyes sent, exchanging ranged attacks with that one wyrm who threw enchanted stones. “Just focus on the battle,” Cliff sent back. He finished healing Crystal’s wound and pulled out two more anti-aura gems. Tornado and Talon were almost on top of him. Those were two more friends that he wanted to get off the battlefield until this whole war was over. For their own sake, he had to bring them down. -_-_-_-_-_- Talon couldn’t believe it. She had seen enough healing magic to recognize it now. That wyrm had been healing Crystal only moments after he had nearly killed her! Heart had also called him Gem. Was it really possible? Glancing around, Talon saw that the rest of the Alliance was starting to break off the attack. If Squad Five didn’t move quickly, they would be left behind. It was risky, but a plan formed in Talon’s mind. “Tornado, I might be able to distract that wyrm while you grab Crystal and Cloud. Get them to safety. Retreat without me if you have to.” “Never.” He growled over the gems that were exploding against his scales. His voice sounded distant, but Talon was surprised that she’d been able to hear it at all. The shield around Crystal, Cloud, and the wyrm disappeared, and the wyrm shot into the sky, arching over Tornado’s head to land on his back. Talon turned to the armored wyrm and shouted, “Gemstone, I always loved you!” Amazingly, her desperate, stupid, and almost-certain-to-fail plan succeeded. The wyrm hesitated for just a moment. Talon poured every last ounce of energy into one burst of speed, latching onto his closest arm with one foot then pulling him right next to her as she spat a cloud of poison into his face. She jammed the venomous barb on her tail into a rip in his armor for good measure. “Sorry, Gem,” she whispered breathlessly before kicking him away. Tornado nearly dislodged her when he scooped Crystal and Cloud up and took to the air. It was only by dumb luck that she fell toward the middle of his back rather than over the edge. Talon watched as the ground shrank beneath them. “Oh thank the Storm, we’re alive.” “You loved Gemstone?” Tornado asked, almost nervously. Talon coughed weakly and crawled farther toward the middle of Tornado's back. “So help me, if you actually just asked that, I’m going to break one of your wings.” A flash of color made Talon look up. Her blood ran cold when she recognized the rainbow pegasus coming toward them. “Tornado, I need you to shrink right …” she waited until that infernal pegasus was nearly on top of them, “now!” Tornado shifted back to his thinking form, leaving nothing but empty air for the pegasus to crash into. As an added bonus, he had been flapping down at the time. All that force transferred into his suddenly much smaller form, accelerating the four of them right through the gap in the shield, where they nearly crashed into Ember and the remains of Squad Five. Talon had just enough energy to call for a healer before she fell unconscious. -_-_-_-_-_- Cliff ignored Fire Eyes’ uncontrolled laughter as he pushed himself upright and finished healing his lungs. “She loves you? I can’t believe you fell for that!” Eyes held her sides as she rolled around on the ground. Pools of blood splashed against her, and mud clung to her armor, but she didn’t seem to care. “Sweet Stars in heaven, Cliff, how can you be so dumb?” “Oh shut up.” Cliff winced as he tried to stand up. Luckily wyvern venom didn’t move around much past the injection site. He didn’t have to worry about it reaching his heart, but it still felt like every nerve in his right arm was being electrocuted simultaneously. The venom was also magical in nature, making it resistant to healing. Eyes was finally able to regain some semblance of control. “By the way, Spirit’s coming over. He’s pissed that you changed orders for the entire Platoon without running it by him and Autumn first.” “We captured a lot of prisoners, didn’t we? Not as many as I would have liked, but whatever.” Cliff turned his attention away from the retreating Alliance forces and toward a certain wyrm dragoness lying on the ground nearby. She had been cloaked, thanks to his modest talent with illusions. Underestimating Talon had cost him the chance to get most of his friends in the Alliance to safety, even if it was the safety of a jail cell, but at least he’d been able to capture Heart Echo.