The evening was coming to an end as the sun was just barely over the horizon. Rusty Spring chewed on a few coffee beans trying to chase away the fatigue of last night’s endurance flight as he and his squadron idled on the deck of the Long Shot. He lazily traced a hoof along one of the holes in his blue furry leg to pass the time.
The gentle yet pervasive hum of a dozen aircraft waiting for take off at a moment’s notice drowned out all other sound, not that it bothered him all that much, though he wasn’t as enthralled by it like younger drones such as Greasy Piston.
Said purple mare was in the fighter adjacent to his own, and had her back legs propped up on the side of the open cockpit with her eyes closed as she relished the drone of so many engines. Part of him couldn’t help but to be a tad jealous of her breed. Like so many other pilots she was far more resistant to hearing loss and was genetically predisposed to find the guttural noise of the propeller engines exciting one minute and utterly relaxing the next. As for Rusty though, he had a persistent ringing in his ears that the last medical checkup had informed him was the beginnings of long term hearing loss, the first nail in the coffin of his combat piloting career. Might just take up that instructor position momma offered after we finally get out of this miserable jungle.
His musings were interrupted by a mental ping that drew his attention to the left of his biplane and towards a sister. She had several covered bowls of food in her magic which were twice the size of a hoof. <Here you go, team leader, a carrot filled pillberry soup just the way you like it.>
A smile crossed his face as he took the offered soup bowl and spoon into his magic while sitting up to eat. <Thanks. Any word from the queens?>
The serving drone couldn’t spare the time to hover face to face with Rusty, but she could still chat even as she flew away. <You’d know more than I would, wouldn’t you?>
Rusty took the cover off the soup and spat his coffee seeds into it, and blew on the thin soup to cool it off. <Never know how the grapevine will travel, but it was worth a shot. Thanks anyway.>
Rusty drank quietly as he witnessed Greasy Piston get jarred out of her nap by the waitress. With no word from his queen-mother Rainbow Dash, he took a moment to drain the bowl, trying to ignore the bland flavor.
He was halfway through his soup when Rainbow Dash’s voice boomed over the Link for the pilots. <The swarm’s incoming, all pilots action stations!>
Cursing the timing, Rusty choked down the rest of the soup, knowing he still had at least a bit longer to eat. <Alright Viper Squad, you know the plan. We stay back and screen the fleet.>
The engines of gathered fighters roared to life while the waitress frantically zipped back and forth trying to collect the bowls as the pilots tossed them out of the aircraft. Rusty Spring braced himself mentally, three, two, one…
<Woo hoo! Let’s kick these guys to the curb!> Greasy Piston hollered as her biplane was the first to grumble into the air and speed away.
Rusty grumbled at her, but knew she wouldn’t go too crazy and refrained from reprimanding her. <Viper Squad, let’s move out!>
Aside from Greasy Piston, Rusty led the rest of the squad up and over the side of the carrier. The Long Shot had concealed itself inside a pegasus-made cloud, so upon breaking through, Rusty spotted the fleet just north of the mountain hive. It had arrayed itself into a flat wall facing the oncoming swarm.
The swarm itself looked like an indistinct black cloud that had a thick carpet that trampled the jungle as it moved. Unlike the time Rusty had seen the swarm move with elegance and cohesion during the siege, now it moved far more erratically, but details were next to impossible to make out.
Rusty Spring caught up to Greasy Piston who allowed herself to slip back into formation. With the fighters on the move, Rainbow Dash watched it all through the pilots’ eyes along with three bombers who were regulated to bird’s eye overwatch above the incoming action. <Wasp group, cover the left flank, Hawk group, I need you on the right. Vipers, you get the center. May the Light of the Silver City guide our aim.>
Standing upon the troop deck of the Celestia’s Light, flagship of the fleet, Intel, Thunderfury, and Ferrum checked their weapons alongside a full contingent of unicorns. At the same time Rainbow Dash scrambled the fighters, the intercom thundered, rattling as the male officer barked the order, “hostiles sighted, all hooves to their stations!”
Heavy pulleys and ropes groaned as earth ponies turned the cranks that lowered several twenty foot wide and one pony tall sections of wall which then flipped out to serve as platforms that the unicorns stepped out onto. Intel and her two squadmates joined them on one such platform, finding themselves one platform back from the front most section. The front had a larger plank with a trio of large cannon crewed by four earth ponies each. She appraised the cannons quite poorly compared to the designs of the Phoenix Roost navy. Momma should have relented and sold the plans of our naval guns to them, but too late for that now.
Intel watched the ponies work to prepare themselves while Ferrum and Counterspell checked over the extra flamethrower tanks she had latched to her back. The ponies moved with more purpose and professionalism than she expected. Their gear was uniformly secure and each one radiated confidence in their place and the battle to come.
With the changeling Queens’ Guard and marines thinly scattered throughout the fleet, this was the first time any of the ponies around Intel had ever seen the changelings in full kit let alone their flamethrowers. A unicorn stallion with officer emblems on his chain armor paced the length of the unicorn squad, speaking in an upbeat authoritarian voice. “Rejoice in the victory Princess Luna has delivered us. By her hoof, the unifying mind and will controlling our enemy is dead!”
The unicorns snap-stepped in salute while banging the butt of their staves on the floor. “Glory to the Sun and Moon!” they yelled, causing the other squads within earshot to echo the call up and down the length of the flagship.
The officer nodded curtly. “Today we’re not fighting a battle, but pest control. The brain of this beast may be dead, but the throng arrayed against us still writhes. We here today get a special treat. A rare chance in history that will likely never be seen again in our lifetimes. The spellwork will be exhausting, but…” the officer stopped pacing right in the middle of the formation. “Oh so worth it.”
“Huzzah!” the ponies cried as one.
The four Queens’ Guard had watched the display with mounting respect. The four had seen and participated in such pep talks before, so they weren’t moved all that much. With the talk over, Intel spoke up. “I have to say, I’m too used to seeing Royal Guards. They don’t seem as… animated as you lot.”
The squad of unicorns made a series of condescending gestures and remarks about the Guard while the officer seemed to speak for the group. “No offense to the…” he cleared his throat, “honorable RG, but we didn’t join the Equestrian navy to be glorified police officers and living statues."
Ferrum laughed and sheathed his sword. “Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that.” He stuck his hoof out to shake, “Ferrum Altair, close quarters expert for First Squad QG.”
The officer readily shook his hoof. “Second Lieutenant Brimstone of the Royal Navy. Did I hear you correctly about being First Squad? We’ve heard a lot about you back on the Line.”
“You have?” Intel asked genuinely. “Squad Leader Intel ‘La ‘Gence, by the way.”
Brimstone was momentarily confused. I thought Captain Intel was a stallion. “Oh yes. Wouldn’t have believed a damn word of what you found above the Line if I hadn’t witnessed all the plant ponies and bat ponies coming back with you.” Brimstone's chuckling cut short after spotting Intel’s flamethrower. The stories surrounding the changelings’ signature weapon were gruesome and exaggerated beyond measure by the rumor mill working its magic for years. “I don’t suppose you’ll remember that we’re on a wooden ship if the enemy somehow manages to close the distance.”
Any response Intel might have had was halted by the sound of cannon fire and the propeller engines churning in reverse. Intel watched the fleet’s first volley of artillery seem to all but evaporate into the sheer mass of the swarm. “Let’s save this conversation for later, shall we?”
Brimstone cleared his throat and nodded. “You’re right of course.” He turned towards his soldiers. “Get ready for the call, stallions!”
Being the one with only a sword and pistol, Ferrum decided to be less forward focused at the moment and eyed his squad. He found Thunderfury wearing a stupid grin and bouncing on his hooves like a little filly. <What’s got you so worked up?>
Thunderfury squashed Ferrum in a crushing hug. <We’re famous! Isn’t that not the coolest thing ever!? We should totally start bragging about that next time we’re on leave outside the hive!>
Ferrum smirked at the idea. <Sounds like a good plan to me. All the mares, maybe some guys, and plenty of free drinks.>
For her part, Intel ignored her cohorts and focused on the cannon. She followed one cannon ball in particular, Intel witnessed the giant projectile impale two drones and one quasi griffin before losing sight of it. The living wall of death surrounding the fallen quasi halted in mid air, forcing those behind them to fly around, but most smacked right into the now panicking drones, causing a snowballing effect of creating a hole in the swarm.
Intel made a mental note of that and prepared herself for the rest of the now pockmarked swarm’s arrival. The next line to open fire was the trio of gunships stationed at the top of the formation with their single long range flak cannons. Intel wasn’t too uplifted by the puffs of smoke and increasing number of dead hostiles as there were always more to fill the gaps. She did however, notice another chunk of the swarm go feral as the controlling quasi was slain, further disrupting the charge.
“Platoon, stand ready for Bose Pattern!” Brimstone barked above the roar of the engines and growing buzz of the swarm. A small team of pegasi and earth ponies from behind Intel ran forward and presented a simple copper staff with a pointed gem on top to each unicorn. Counterspell couldn’t help but to scoff at it them while keeping his far more intricate and personalized staff leaning against his shoulder. <Intel, promise me if I ever use a standard issue staff, that you’ll tell me I should just go and quit the Guard.>
Intel rolled her eyes at him, all the while keeping an eye on the unicorns that were charging a spell with the staves starting to glow white hot. <Something tells me you might change your mind in a second.>
The quartet of drones saw the three nearest ships in the formation also had rows of white magic form along their hull. Brimstone barked an order, “all magi, advance to Bose stage two!”
While they couldn’t see it on their own ship, the Intel’s squad saw the rows of white light being pulled towards the pointed bow of each ship where a single unicorn with a single golden staff focused all the energy into a massive elephant sized ball of refined power.
Each of these master sorcerers unleashed the built up magic on their own accord, heaving the spells forward even as the cannon and gunships continued chattering. Intel and even Counterspell watched on in impressed surprise as the arcane spheres burned a path through the rapidly encroaching enemy. The swarm was sluggish to move out of the way, suffering from the lack of central command and control.
After penetrating deep into the swarm, the spells exploded in a flash of colors mirroring that of the unicorns that aided in casting it. Thousands of drones, living and undead alike, were incinerated with many more on the ground perishing as the dead rained down upon them. The shock of over three dozen prismatic explosions did what Intel thought she’d never see in a changeling swarm: it gave pause.
When a queen would have been heedless of the losses or at least able to come up with a counter-strategy, the living quasi could not. The living portion of the swarm, almost to the last, halted in their tracks. Only the undead and their lich masters kept marching forward, but most of their number were ground-bound. Worse still, the distance between the two forces was simply too great, leaving the ponies plenty of time to act uninterrupted.
Thunderfury whistled in amazement at the destruction while Ferrum was barely able to keep his jaw off the floor. <Now that’s one spicy meatball!> Thunderfury cheered approvingly and pumped a hoof at the spectacle. <Speaking of which, I could really go for some right now.>
Counterspell noticed that there was audible hissing coming from the magi, in particular, their staves which were bending and deformed by the sheer amount of heat the casting produced. The ponies discarded the ruined staves by throwing them overboard. It was an act that seemed almost too much for the unicorns who, almost to a mare, collapsed on the platforms with ragged breath.
“Move!” barked a mare from behind the Queens’ Guard, who barely pulled themselves into a tight cluster to allow a team of earth ponies to pick up the mana drained unicorns while a fresh second squad of unicorns took their place. <Why do I get the feeling we’re only here to watch?> Ferrum remarked to his squad, eliciting a nod out of Counterspell.
<We’re a backup plan,> Intel countered evenly. <You saw those unicorns, the ponies can’t keep this up for very long.>
Intel tightened her magical grip on the flamethrower. The throng of drones wavered, but only for a few moments until the quasi leaders recovered. <They won’t need to. This battle was over before it even started.>
Ferrum wasn’t so convinced as he witnessed the swarm once again on the move. Thunderfury shared the sentiment, and was only momentarily distracted by the unicorns renewing the spellwork, the ships glowing with lines of power once again. <You sure, boss?>
“Just watch,” Intel half-commanded as the new spell slowly reached crescendo. This time, the massive bose orbs had a shell of white light that barely contained a core of fluctuating black mass, twisting and turning in on itself in a uniform fashion.
Counterspell stared wide eyed at the spherical death that grew in front of every single one of the twenty pony airships. He instinctively took a step back from the bow of Celestia’s Light with terror in his eyes. <T-that’s gravity magic! They’re crazy for using this much of it!>
The hairs on the back of the squad’s collective necks raised on end as they felt gravity’s pull was no longer just straight down, but now ever so slightly towards the bow of the ship. With a stomach flipping lurch, the bose spheres were launched towards the swarm with half of the spells aimed at the enemy on the ground.
As expected, the majority of the thinned swarm was wise enough to veer out of the path of the spheres all the way down to the ground, only this time, as the sphere’s passed, there was no explosion. Far from the stabilization efforts of the master magi that unleashed them, the white shell of the bose spheres weakened and cracked until the gravity spell won out. Upon the shells breaking down, the spheres pulled everything towards it with forty times normal gravity.
Drone, undead, rock, or tree, nothing was spared as matter was pulled into the singularities. Some undead were ripped apart as conflicting gravity wells competed for prey. The fliers were almost completely ripped from the skies, while others on the ground tried desperately to hold on as the singularities passed overhead. Those who failed to hang on were pulled in and crushed under the their own weight and that of all the bodies, rock, and trees that came with them.
Wind kicked up around the fleet, rocking the ships. The earth beneath the singularities cracked and groaned under the strain. The entire swarm, even the undead, was forced to halt, lest they be swept up into the sky and crushed.
Thunderfury felt a chill run up his spine at the devastation. Even the fleet was forced to turn about and push full throttle away from the singularities. The very wood around the changelings creaked and groaned under the gravimetric strain, with distance being the only thing saving the fleet from a crushed fate. <Ponies have had this power all along?! Just what in blazes made the other races think they even stood a chance?>
Counterspell had to shake himself out of the stupor, and latched onto Thunderfury’s question to get his train of thought moving again. <This is a rare event, TF. It won’t happen again.>
Ferrum looked at Counterspell with disbelief, only to find Intel was more stern than stunned by the devastation that could remold the very terrain. <Well, yeah. This is probably why Equestria hasn’t been to war in ages.>
<I wouldn’t be so sure,> Intel interjected with a knowing tone. Even as he wrapped his legs around one of the supports, he watched the spells in awe. <The minotaurs are masters of nullifying magic. Siege spells like this would never touch them, or worse explode in the ponies’ faces. Griffins haven’t fielded a traditional army since antiquity, and yet have always given Celestia pause as a legitimate threat if they were given cause for war… Well, according to mother anyway.
<The ponies can only get away with this today because those quasi are only barely able to think for themselves after Polybia’s death. They’re moving the swarm like a big blob with absolutely zero tactical maneuvering without Polybia to guide them. This,> Intel said while waving at the singularities ravaging the last vestiges of the swarm, <is just a slaughter.>
<Is that a problem?> Counterspell argued, ignoring the sour looks he was getting. <Strange that the liches would just let themselves be torn apart like this.>
The squad moved out of the way for the earth ponies to pull the exhausted magi off the platforms around the same time the gravity spells were winding down. By the time the platforms were clear, and no reinforcements forthcoming, the changelings noted that the clumps of rock at the center of each singularity were plummeting back to the Earth, kicking up huge clouds of dust in the process. The fleet stopped it’s slow reverse thrust to stand idle. Teams of pegasi were pouring out of the ships via the platforms and were starting to make their way to the huge dust clouds. The fighter squadrons were sent ahead of them, leaving the airships’ cannon to fall silent.
With dust obscuring everything, Intel had a moment to ponder Counterspell’s last words. She looked at him with confusion. <Why would the liches be any different? They were all quasi to begin with.>
Counterspell shrugged and lazily watched the formations of pegasi carefully approach the devastated stretch of jungle. Since neither queen commanded them to join the attack, he was content to let his guard down. <Well it’s just something Granny Caddy was talking about a few months ago. She was saying that the quasi’s intelligence was directly tied to their link to the queen. If there’s no queen most end up dead or close to brainless after a week or so. But that weakness is tied directly to their biology. So that shouldn’t affect an undead lich… right?>
Intel’s blood ran cold, with her stare at him going momentarily blank. Counterspell started to sweat at the fear in her eyes. “I reeeally don’t like it when you make that face.”
Rusty Spring and his squadron were taking it slow into the hanging cloud of dust that was still whirling around in the aftermath of the gravity spells. Animalistic cries of pain echoed loudly enough to be heard over his engines, but it was impossible to pin any exact location down. The pegasi gave each fighter and their propellers a wide berth as some of them acted to clear the dust away. <Keep your eyes peeled, Vipers, and switch to solid slug munitions. I don’t want any flak hitting allies.>
He received a round of acknowledgements, and decided to dip just barely below the cloud layer. Yet his search for targets got interrupted by Rainbow Dash all but yelling in his mind. <Attention, all pilots! Keep a sharp eye out for the undead. Be ready to introduce the-> Anything Rainbow Dash said after that was drowned out by ear splitting psionic screams. Nearly all of the pegasi managed to stay airborne thanks to their discipline and holy-enchanted leather armor. Pain lanced through Rusty Spring for only a few moments before it all but vanished as Rainbow Dash diluted that pain throughout the entire hive mind, with Twilight doing the same for her children.
He barely had a moment to thank her when the ghostly pale yellow head of a yak emerged from the airframe in front of him. The specter’s mouth was open far wider than a living yak could ever do, with ten rows of needle teeth lining the gums, and solid black eyes piercing through to his soul. <B-Banshees!>
Rusty pulled the control stick to the left and jammed the throttle. The yak took a swipe at him, catching Rusty in the foreleg, causing the entire limb to go limp and numb. Terror struck the pilot as he saw the banshee’s hoof yank out a part of his soul before distance forced its grip to slip. His jaw trembled at the silvery ethereal foreleg of his soul dangle outside of his body. It took a long moment, but he finally summoned enough wits to try and control it. If that’s my soul, then maybe I can force move it.
Through an act only possible because that piece of soul was still attached to the rest of him, Rusty Spring ignored descending into the cloud of dust as the silvery segment of his soul sank back into his leg, restoring feeling and control over it.
Having a moment to gather his wits, Rusty pulled above the cloud layer to find the pegasi had been thinned, either by falling out of the air from the strain of the psionic screaming still resounding through the air, or the banshees ripping their souls out from any chink in their blessed armor. Rusty didn’t need to hear the order his queen was yelling in his head to know what to do.
Leave it to Aunty Twilight to think of a ghost counter. Rusty pushed the throttle of his propeller engine as high as it would go while pulling a lever next to the Octavia controls. Three tubes full of the blue glowing fuel drained out and was replaced by a thin golden fluid. The pressure gauges sank into the red, and all of the lift provided by the Octavia engine cut out all at once, leaving only the propeller and the wings to keep the aircraft aloft.
The Octavia engine coughed and sputtered, with the tail of the fighter dipping every so often as Rusty fought to keep control. The normally invisible Octavia field became thinly visible as a golden bubble thirty feet out. Rusty spotted a squad of pegasi trying to fend off a trio of banshees almost directly in his path. “Here goes nothing!”
Fighting the controls of an aircraft that was begging to plummet out of the sky, Rusty roared past the pegasi with his altered Octavia field passing through them. The banshees were either punted off of the ponies, or were completely incinerated by the holy magic.
Rusty couldn’t risk looking over his shoulder to see if the pegasi were recovering. The droning buzz of a falling biplane was all the warning Rusty had to a fighter dropping out of the sky right in his path. He banked hard to the right, only catching a glimpse of the soul drained pilot hanging limply in the cockpit.
He spotted a large concentration of pegasi easily a hundred strong who were barely resisting the paralyzing effects of the banshees’ wail, and were fighting the specters off with wing and bladed hoof alike. “I hope you know to stay put!” Rusty yelled against the wind as he flew under the pegasi, running the field right through fifty banshees. Those spirits that weren’t ripped apart were weakened enough for the pegasi to finish the job.
<You still alive, boss guy?> Rusty ground his teeth at the smug voice of Greasy Piston. His wingmate raced down from above and leveled out on his left side. <Thought that ghostly had you for sure.>
<Cut the wax and take out those banshees, the more we take out, the quieter those wails will get!> Rusty barked back as he manhandled his fighter towards the nearest banshee he saw.
Greasy Piston waggled her wings and sprinted off to a different target. <Not as fun as shooting though!>
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash sat in the bridge of the Long Shot on the twin thrones, their attention spread out through all of the pilot’s eyes. Each queen let the pilots do most of the thinking and action, but directed them towards targets when individual pilots couldn’t find one on their own.
“You really think ghosts are all they have left?” Rainbow asked with genuine curiosity. “There can’t be much of anything left after those gravity bombs.”
“A safe bet with a swarm that used to be just under a million strong is to assume so.” Twilight Sparkle scowled at the state of the battle. It was going too well. Sure we lost a good number of pegasi and a few pilots to the banshees, but where is the rest of the enemy?
“Squashed I’d imagine,” Rainbow hazarded back. “You saw how they just clumped back up together after the first mega spells. We’re not talking about geniuses here.” All she got out of Twilight was a huffy pout, earning an exasperated glare out of Rainbow. “How about we leave getting a better idea on who’s left down there until after we clear out the ghosts and the dust first.”
Not being directly linked to the pilots like her mother, Intel squinted her eyes trying to watch the fighting, but the aircraft were the only things that didn’t look like black dots.
Ferrum gave a bored huff, but otherwise said nothing as he oiled the action of his pistol. With nothing to do, and the enemy distracted by the pegasi and aircraft, Counterspell busied himself with studying the aftereffects of the mega spells on the local mana currents. Thunderfury had given up on personally seeing any action and laid on his back and stared up at the intercom awaiting the all clear signal that was sure to come in the next few hours. “We have wings too, why can’t we get out there and fight?”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Ferrum snarked. He held the gun close to his eye and scrutinized what he suspected was a bit of dirt inside a spring. “Just let the ponies be the ones to bleed for once and be happy. The princesses are hell bent on taking this one for the team.”
Talk died down as the squad waited for something to happen. They didn’t have to wait long.
The quartet were jarred out of their lethargy by a quick series of explosions and a raw mana wave that rocked the flagship. “What in Tartarus was that!?” Ferrum yelled.
“That mana wave came from below us!” Counterspell was the first to race to the platform and jumped overboard to get a better look.
He was soon joined by not only the rest of his squad, but several reserve pegasi and other drones stationed on the pony ships. Three warships were engulfed in emerald fire with two of them being completely broken in half amidship while the third’s balloon had burst with the ship plummeting to the jungle below.
The bottom row of ships were panicking to break formation to put some distance between the stricken ships. Intel and the others saw a thick green mist spreading across the ground with three long snakish monsters rising out of the miasma. They glowed with a deep dark green that painted the landscape around them.
“What in blazes are those!?” Thunderfury cried out even as one of the monsters bellowed a challenge with another coiling up before shooting forward and firing a beam as thick as a truck at the nearest undamaged ship.
Chaos roared over the local hive mind with both queens trying to get a clear picture, giving Intel a few moments to digest what she was seeing. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say those are grossly oversized tatzlwurms.”
“Since when did tatzlwurms get death beams!?” Thunderfury shot back with his twin shields held close to hide his face. “I can’t block spells of that magnitude!”
Ferrum witnessed pegasi racing to face this new threat while the fleet was breaking formation piecemeal as word spread slowly through the ranks. “We can figure that out later, let’s lay some smack down!” With that said, Ferrum turned into a steep dive straight down.
“Just don’t get hit by that gnarly beam!” Thunderfury roared after him, howling in sheer delight at getting to fight.
Not needing to wait for her queens to give orders, Intel chased after her squadmates with Counterspell falling in place behind her.
The squad found themselves in the middle of a platoon of pegasi swarming down to give the rest of the fleet time to reposition. Yet the tatzlwurms were not idle and fired their beams at three more ships. The recovered unicorns brought up a shield around two of the ships, with the third getting its balloon destroyed. Those shields buckled and broke within seconds, allowing the beams to rot and burn away at their victims in a spectacular explosion once the engine fuel detonated.
Ferrum’s charge faltered after seeing several pegasi ahead of him being cut down by invisible forces. “What the?” He scanned for any trace of spellwork cutting the pegasi down, and noticed blurs that seemed to meld with the backdrop of the glowing green cloud that continued to grow at the base of the tatzlwurms.
While confusion raged through the alliance fliers, Rainbow Dash saw what it was after seeing it through the eyes of her children. <Gimme your horns, kids, these guys are being cheeky.>
With Twilight acting in tandem with her sister, the forty eight purple and blue changelings charged their horns and launched a wave of energy down towards the cloud. Dozens of hostile drones were unmasked right in the midst of the pegasi. To their credit, the pegasi were quick witted enough to start cutting down the uncoordinated chitin bound changelings. Yet among their numbers were a dozen liches that upon being revealed, immediately started weaving spells to cut down anyone they could see.
Ferrum was more than eager to slice his way straight towards a griffin quasi lich with Thunderfury staying close. The lich saw them coming, snarling a grin and thrust both claws at them. Her claws glowed a sickly blackish purple before a lance of magic rocketed towards Ferrum.
<Duck back!> Thunderfury yell at Ferrum, prompting his squadmate to pull back on the speed, allowing Thunderfury to take the front. Both shields took on a violet sheen and took the beam head on. Thunderfury used both his telekinesis and forelegs to hold the shields in place, straining under the force of the blast. Ferrum ducked to the left and flashed his sword to catch the attention of the lich.
Assuming Thunderfury had been incinerated, the lich changed the beam’s direction, only to give Thunderfury the opening he needed. With a series of internal gearwork clicking into a different configuration, the shields took all the absorbed magic and blasted it back in a massively wide cone.
The effect blinded the lich, causing its attack to sputter out, giving Ferrum the opening he needed to swing in and decapitate the undead griffin. The corpse burned to ash as the magic keeping it together now ripped it apart.
Intel and Counterspell were not too far away, facing down a bat pony lich who had a jagged black horn that bubbled with black magic. Counterspell was hovering in place, his horn a beacon of silver holy light as he kept the bat quasi from unleashing his necrotic power. Intel was burning a path through the undead minions the lich kept pulling from other areas of the battle to keep Intel and her flamethrower away from him.
Twilight briefly spoke to Counterspell before commandeering his horn. His comparatively blunt and clumsy approach to blocking the lich’s magic was refined into a scalpel by Twilight. She noticed how hard the lich was trying to strong arm his way through Counterspell’s efforts, and corked the lich’s magic right at the base of the horn with a fraction of the effort. The built up dark magic around the rest of the horn went out of control and started dissolving the undead bone and tissue, eating the lich alive from the top down.
Intel whistled to her squadmates over the Link to focus their attention. <We have to punch through to the center tatzlwurm! Form up on me!>
She was not the only one to have that idea. Even as the others gathered around Intel, she saw several squads of pegasi and siblings alike were making a beeline straight to the center tatzlwurm.
The squad got close enough to see the giant beast had discoloration before it turned its attention skyward and opened its four jawed mouth as wide as it could.
<Get clear!> Twilight commanded over the Link.
Every last furry drone in the area scattered to the four winds, and yelled the warning to the pegasi. Intel and the others kept together and sprinted to the west, but the tatzlwurm struck first. Instead of a focused beam, a wide cone of caustic magic wreathed the entire dog fight and threatened to burn gossamer and feathered wings alike.
Thunderfury felt his wings stinging badly and freaked out when he saw the holes in them growing larger. “Wha - wha- that’s hot! Put me out, put me out!!”
Intel waved at her bothers to get in close. <Group up! TF, delta maneuver!>
<I don’t know if this will work!> Thunderfury braked into a halt and angled his shields downward towards the tatzlwurm. The rest of the squad piled up above him with barely a hair’s breadth of spare room from the torrent of magic.
As if the Silver City itself had blessed those shields, the magical tidal wave failed to break through, and curved around the shields like a rock against a river. Thunderfury hissed in effort to keep the shields angled properly. “Frack frack frack! I don’t know if my babies can hold this forever!”
Ferrum glanced around the green-tinted skies around him, watching pegasi, bat ponies, liches, and hostile drones alike being torn from the skies as their wings were the first to burn away. Those who fell, became green fireballs as they were reduced to charcoal. “Uhhh, it better or we’re toast.”
About that time, Rainbow Dash slipped into her son’s eyes while Twilight borrowed her three children. <Hey, Intel,> Rainbow spoke hastily. <Guys, I got in touch with the fleet shipmasters, they’re not going to risk the super spells this close to the fleet, so they’re going to focus on the two side tatzlwurms with normal weapons. That means you four get the honor of taking out the middle one.>
Intel shared an incredulous look with her squadmates, save Thunderfury who was too focused on keeping his shields in place. <You mean the one currently breathing a river of fire at us?!>
Twilight jumped in with her reassuring knowing voice. <I know it’ll sound crazy, but RD’s plan should work. Besides, that ‘river’ is ebbing. The tatzlwurm isn’t going to keep it up for much longer.>
Out of all of them, Counterspell was the most nervous of all, and not all of the sweat on his brow was from the river of fire. “I am really starting to question this plan, and I haven’t even heard it yet.”
Rainbow Dash grumbled before shaking the irritation away. <Alright look. As soon as the worm thing stops acting like a dragon, you four need to drop like you got your wings burned off.> The squad started leaning towards Counterspell’s sentiment. <The new wave of tangos that’ll pop out of the ground should ignore you. That way, you can get close to that dragon wannabe and bust him up.> Now the squad was leaning so far into Counterspell’s thinking that Rainbow could feel it over the Link. <Don’t worry, the fighters are being recalled to back you up.>
Without giving them any time to think it over, the tatzlwurm halted its attack, revealing the clear blue sky once again. <Go, go, go!> Rainbow shouted, causing the squad to instinctively stop flapping their wings, making them drop like stones.
Thunderfury’s instincts screamed at him to take control of his tumbling fall, but his queen was counting on him to do his part. So he decided to scream in bloody terror on the way down. “I really hate this plaaaaan!”
Wind whipped at Intel’s hair and the flamethrower’s hoses, forcing her to activate the safety and hug the nozzle close to her underbelly. <Aunty, if I die from this, I’m going to do some creative things with a woopie cushion to you in the Silver City!>
<If you die, I’ll let you get away with it for a year, then the prank war is on,> Rainbow snarked back. Only to get a deathly admonishing glare from Twilight. <Not that you will, cause my plans are foolproof.>
Counterspell hugged his staff in tight, hoping it wouldn’t slip away. He watched as scores of hostile black-chitin drones swarmed out of the green mists and prepared a shield spell.
At first, some of the closer hostile drones flying to intercept the ponies that evaded the tatzlwurm’s attack veered off to intercept Intel’s squad. Yet upon a few liches emerging from the cloud and seeing them in freefall, they diverted the drones back to the main assault.
Seeing that it was indeed working, Rainbow and Twilight directed their surviving marines to the flanks to make sure Intel’s squad got as little interference as possible. Intel was starting to get sick to her stomach while flipping head over heels on the way down. Why did I let TF talk me into eating a second helping of pancakes?
Feeling Twilight’s presence slide into her mind, Intel felt her horn power a spell that tingled all over her skin moments before the world went green as the squad fell into the cloud. Pins and needles blanketed her skin, causing the spell to flare, reducing the irritation of the cloud and making it feel like she was breathing through thin cloth.
<Hang on everypony, you might feel a bit of a lurch,> Twilight warned as a second spell washed over the squad, suddenly causing gravity to turn on its head, and sapping their momentum. They slowed down just enough that by the time they hit the ground, all four of them ended up rolling along a slant in the broken earth.
Being on point, Thunderfury rolled the farthest, using his shields to protect his horn and the other to save his wings. When he at last came to a stop, he took a moment to see if there was any pain. Upon feeling nothing worse than some scrapes and bruises, Thunderfury jumped up on all fours and cheered. “Woot! I wanna do that again!” in that moment, he finally took note of where he was.
Thunderfury stood right in the middle of a ritual circle that had been badly disrupted by him sliding across half of the diagram written in ash. But more importantly to his immediate concerns were six astonished quasi with their horns still aglow with the spell they had been casting.
“Uhh…” It took him a moment before an idea cropped up in his head. His initial excitement and adrenaline gave out just enough for him to feel the onset of nausea from rolling head over heels for so long. As a result, instead of a winning swing of the hoof, he ended up stumbling in a dizzy mess. “You have summoned the Great and Mighty Thunderfury! What is your bidding?”
A minotaur bull snorted angrily and kicked at the dirt. “We weren’t summoning moronic drones.”
Thunderfury’s stomach was already at the end of its rope, but between his theatrics and the stench of death leaking through the protection spell the last straw snapped. He puked his breakfast all over the the other end of the ritual circle, ruining the diagram even further. Thankfully the act quelled his nausea enough for him to function. He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his uniform and waved a hoof at the minotaur. “Well that would explain the nausea. You guys have crappy aim you know that?”
“Kill that idiot!” A female sphinx commanded even as she gathered a globe of dark magic in a hand and threw it at Thunderfury.
“Whoa now!” Thunderfury took one shield, adjusted the arcane wing it projected, and used it to rebound the globe towards a minotaur which proceeded to burn a basketball sized hole straight through the bull’s chest. The telltale roar of a flamethrower not too far away broke everyone else out of their stupor, causing the sphinx to throw a second globe of mana at Thunderfury.
With the thrill of combat widening his grin, Thunderfury used the same shield to bounce the second globe at a charging earth pony quasi and using the other to parry a clawing attack of a griffin. He bucked a pegasus lich sneaking up behind him, breaking the head off it's rotted neck.
“Eww, grooooss!” Thunderfury rolled away from a caustic mana whip and clocked a sphinx tom across the jaw, and jumped up and over the tom right as a third globe cratered the ground he had been standing on. “Girl, you really suck at dodgeball don’t you?”
With a laugh, Thunderfury switched the arcane wing on his shields, and rammed one into the quasi he just jumped over and threw the other at the sphinx flinging spells at him. The second shield sailed at breakneck speed at the jane, but she nimbly side stepped the teardrop shaped shield.
“Ah, you show promise for dodgeball after all, good!” Thunderfury congratulated, even as he had to use the other shield to bounce another globe, only to not have a readily available target to try and aim it at. Wish I figured out how to do a proper reflect.
“You can’t keep that up forever!” the jane challenged completely oblivious of the thrown shield speeding its way back to its grinning owner.
“Won’t have to,” he said with a winning grin, giving the jane pause right as the returning shield beaned her right in the back of the head. Thunderfury threw a foreleg up and caught the shield right by the strap and spun around in the air to bleed the momentum off the shield, hooting in excitement all the while. “Wowzers, we need to do this more often!”
The noise of a heavy fireball exploding some distance behind him, made Thunderfury turn around to witness the smoking remains of an earth pony quasi fly out of the mist and land in a crumpled heap two feet away. “There you are, TF,” Counterspell announced as he got close enough to be seen through the mist. His magestaff still glowing from use, “You see where the others went?”
“I heard the boss’s flammer-” as if on cue, the signature breathing noise of a flamethrower came from the direction of the great worm near the point where it stood out of the ground. “That’s gotta be Intel, lezz go!”
Nodding in agreement, Counterspell let his squadmate lead the way up a huge mound of broken earth and stone right up to the base of the worm. Upon getting close enough, the pair saw Intel and Ferrum standing near the gargantuan worm with a dozen burnt or cut apart corpses.
Ferrum flicked his sword to clean some of the sticky ichor off the blade. <Good you’re all in place,> Twilight praised with her pride and love flooding the squad. <Now, CS, I need you to be my conduit while the rest of you protect him as we work.>
A round of acknowledgements rang out as everyone got into place. They were not a moment too soon as scores of undead zombies started flooding up the mounds while a pair of liches joined in. Counterspell tried to ignore the fighting breaking out behind him as he took three vials of ether from his belt and downed each of the bitter potions one by one. The surge of power raced throughout his veins like fire. Such power would have overwhelmed him into a comatose state were it not for Twilight’s semi-puppeting effort. Together, they lifted his staff head to press against the worm. With all the excess power being funneled into the staff, the ruby gem that crowned the staff glowed like the sun.
Counterspell witnessed the spell start to carve through the flesh of the worm, eliciting an ear shaking shriek of pain as necrotized blackened flesh was exposed with thick crude oil like blood seeping out. The worm writhed and squirmed as the spell dug deeper into its body, cutting and blasting first a beach ball sized hole that rapidly expanded to that of a small car.
Counterspell had to sidestep and eventually fly above chunks of rotten masses of worm that sloughed off and dropped to the ground that reeked like rotten meat left out in the desert sun. By the time the growing wound was the size of a small apartment, the worm finally broke free of the liches controlling it and tried to kill the squad by slamming down on top of them.
Yet Rainbow Dash knew it was going to try that the moment it shifted its mass. <Get out, hurry!>
Each of them dropped their fight and fled to the east, with the liches getting just as panicked by the countless tonnes of tatzlwurm crashing down on them. Intel’s squad evaded the smack down that was powerful enough to clear the center of the cloud away, revealing dozens of ritual circles that were summoning dead bodies as soon as they were made on the battlefield and brought back to unlife to fight against their former comrades.
Upon finding a moment to catch their breath, Intel’s squad found themselves over two dozen meters away from the edge of the worm after the rust of air had shoved them back. <We’re not done yet, kids,> Rainbow Dash stated with pride fully coloring her tone. “You need to hit the other side so it stays down.”
The squad had stirred up the hornet’s nest as dozens of hostile drones surged towards them, flesh golems crawled out of the wounds inflicted upon the downed worm that struggled to lift itself back up.
A series of magic concussion waves ran through everyone, drawing eyes to the northern tatzlwurm. The fleet was not in any planned formation, but that wasn’t stopping the magi and cannon from peppering the leviathan with spell and solid shot alike. The beast tried to breathe a renewed attack, but the two Phoenix Roost gunships waited for it to open it’s mouth before firing two fifty-seven millimeter slugs of hot death down its throat. It wasn’t enough to kill the enraged wurm, but it kept the monster from bringing down more ships.
The third and last tatzlwurm was in the middle of ripping another warship apart, an act that caught Ferrum’s attention. <Look, that frigate jumped in the way of the attack. That worm is going after Celestia’s Light!”
Twilight came to the same conclusion and issued a command that had Rainbow’s unsaid approval. <The center wurm’s out of action for now, get over there and stop that thing from destroying the flagship.> Both queens saw the thickening skies of more hostile drones that were still crawling out of the massive tunnels the worms had created. <We’ll give you some cover to get in close.>
Intel mentally sent Thunderfury a flight plan to which he happily took point with his trusty blue and purple shields at the front. <Come on you bugs, you wanna live forever!?> Not waiting for an answer, Thunderfury sprinted away shout-singing, “Yo way yo!”
The song pulled the rest of the tiring squad up with new energy as Intel chased after him, giving a shout-sing of her own “Yo way yo!”
Ferrum and Counterspell were not far behind and joined in, “Vaiyo A-Rah Jevruun Vrunningee!”
The four kept singing even as they prepared to clash with the cloud of hissing drones barring their way, only for them all to be distracted by the noise of a dozen growling engines. The four Queens’ Guard pulled into a compact formation with Twilight using their horns to weave a powerful barrier.
The instant the barrier was in place, Rainbow Dash gave the pilots a single command tinted with all the glee she could muster. <Give’em the ol Razzle Dazzle!>
Flak exploded everywhere around the four Queens’ Guard. Most drones were simply torn apart by the rain of shrapnel while others simply disappeared in a puff of smoke after taking a direct hit.
Moments later, the fighters roared past Intel’s squad with a particularly uppity mare pilot waving both a foreleg and her airplane’s wings at them before pulling the aircraft off to chase down more targets. Numerous aircraft strafed what few ritual circles they could find under the gloom of the cloud. Each one that was disrupted thinned the blanketing miasma, thus clearing the air for more to be discovered and destroyed.
Rainbow Dash projected a new path in Thunderfury’s mind while speaking to the whole group. <They’ve opened a corridor for you, move out!>
<Aye, my queen!> all four replied back.
Even with the fighter support, Intel’s squad was too far away from the third Tatzlwurm to stop it from opening its great jaws again to cut down Celestia’s Light. Several aircraft peeled off to pester and distract the mammoth beast, but their flak cannons didn’t even tickle its armored hide or inner mouth.
Ferrum jabbed intel on the flank and pointed up at the flagship. “Those don’t look like normal mana bolts.”
Sure enough, the distant flagship spewed three dozen large multicolored energy rockets that raced straight down towards the tatzlwurm. What baffled Intel most of all was that each rocket had a pegasus escort that kept pace with its pair.
Her team admittedly had difficulty watching where they were going, and keeping an eye on the technicolored rockets all the way up until they both reached the tatzlwurm when the biplanes pulled away.
Each rocket exploded on the worm or the ground around it to reveal a unicorn of all things. Those that hit the side of the worm or on top of unstable ground had the pegasus escort swoop in to save the wingless ponies from falling.
With both other tatzlwurms either down for the count or under heavy suppressing fire, the remaining undead and the scant few living chitin drones left rallied around the last wurm.
Multiple pegasi were shot down by a lich before they could catch their unicorn, with one such event happening right in front of the squad. “Holy - I got you!” Intel cried as she rushed over and half-caught half-cushioned that unicorn’s fall.
The two tumbled and rolled the last ten feet of the fall before coming to a stop. Her squadmates engaged the throng of quasi and undead around them, allowing Intel and the unicorn to untangle themselves. Intel had ended up on the bottom after her flamer tanks caught against the trunk of a broken tree, allowing the pony to climb off first and offer her a hoof to stand back up. “By the light of the sun, I didn’t think to run into you again.”
Intel coughed up a leaf that had lodged itself inside her cheek and took his hoof. “Lieutenant Brimstone? How crazy do you ground pounders have to be to jump off that high?”
He laughed it off used his magic to pull off the twigs and leaves that clung to both of them. “Not too much I hope. We learned that rocket trick from the first Invasion of Canterlot. Never thought I’d use it in combat though.”
A deafening roar brought all eyes up to the head of the great beast as it opened its maw to bring down Celestia’s Light. Dark greenish black magic pooled in its mouth, but two shells from the gunships slammed dead center into the mass. The beam went wide, grazing a blackening hit on the flagship and causing the monstrosity to shriek in hate. The delay was costly though, as another pony warship was cut down by the third tatzlwurm.
<Everyone,> Rainbow Dash called out to all of the changelings attacking the tatzlwurm near Intel, <That was the last shot the gunships have, and it’s going to take too long to rearm them. I need every mage at the base of that worm and everyone else covering them pronto! Tell the ponies our plan!>
Intel and just about every changeling near a pony relayed the plan. Brimstone cringed at the sight of flesh golems peeling themselves out of the main body of the tatzlwurm. The misshapen faceless pony-shaped golems stumbled upon heavy legs as if not properly formed. “Well my fair captain, I’m ready when you are.”
The wink and a smile he gave her might have made another mare blush, but after living with Aegis for so long, it only tickled her fancy. Never been with a soldier pony before. “Then let’s get to it.” <CS, you’re up!>
Intel took point this time and roasted a trio of shambling flesh golems while Thunderfury and Ferrum tangled with a few of their own. Brimstone grabbed the last two in Counterspell’s path with his telekinesis and flung them at two quasi crawling out of a hole inside the tatzlwurm.
“So that’s how so many of these freaks snuck up under us!” Brimstone growled out of effort. He fired off a mana bolt while Counterspell got into position and downed his last three ether potions.
Intel turned to Brimstone and pointed at the hole he had just thrown the quasi at. “Cover me with a barrier, I’m going to smoke them out.” <Ferrum, TF, get our backs!>
Brimstone had little issue taking orders from someone higher up the food chain, even if Intel was of an entirely different command. “On it!” The two scrambled up the rough broken terrain, flying or jumping over downed trees and shattered underbrush.
Intel got up to the tunnel just in time to witness a quasi minotaur physically shove his way past the limp drones blocking the path. “Aegis sends her regards!” Intel challenged as she doused the minotaur and the crowded monsters behind it with a torrent of burning oil. Intel was wholly unfazed by the screams of unbridled pain as so many beings were cooked alive. Brimstone tried to ignore it as he zapped several more flesh golems peeling themselves off the side of the worm.
A wave of muscle movement under the giant worm’s rotten skin drew both of their eyes up towards the mouth as it opened once more at Celestia’s Light. Intel took a moment to look at Counterspell and the other magi. Their spells were only just now starting to eat away at the undead mass, but not fast enough to stop the beast.
As if sensing her fears, Thunderfury flew over to Intel’s side. “I don’t think we’re going to make it!”
Greasy Piston zeroed in on a pair of liches raining down hellfire upon the north side of the ponies surrounding the great worm and pressed her trigger with glee. Yet she was rewarded with nothing more than loud clicking from her cannons. “No, no! Why did I have to run out of boom booms now!?”
<All craft,> Rusty Spring called out, <return to the carrier for rearmament!>
Gritting her teeth, Greasy pulled out only to notice the great beast was still pooling a renewed beam in its open mouth. <Boss, that thing’s going to cream the flagship! Can’t we do something?”
<negative,> Rusty shot back with his best command voice. <Unless you can cast a big enough spell to stop that thing, then pull out, that’s an order!>
Greasy was only moments into her climb that an idea smacked her like a sledgehammer. <Boss, permission to use a big battering ram instead.>
<You’re not serious…> Off in the distance, Rusty saw Greasy’s aircraft turn towards the tatzlwurm and went full throttle. <Damn it, Greasy! Permission granted, but only so long as you don’t die so I can punch you later!>
Greasy Piston pulled back up just enough to get over the lip of the worm’s jaws before powering into a dive straight into it’s mouth. The controls rattled in her hoof, loosened badly from the countless pockmarks of damage her aircraft had absorbed. “Fly my boy, fly and make momma proud.> Greasy first kissed her left hoof and then placed that spot onto the dashboard.
Believing she was close enough to not miss, Greasy pulled herself out of the cockpit and jumped out. Using her momentum and wings, Greasy Piston barely cleared the gap between two jaws right as her fighter slammed into its mouth. The explosion broke off one of the wurm’s flailing tentacles which smacked Greasy across the back of the head and ripped away at her wings.
Knocked senseless she free fell out of the sky, but the great worm had been stalled once again. Several pegasi had seen what happened and broke away to catch her. The act left them exposed with many getting cut down by drone and lich alike. Were it not for the unicorns exploiting the distraction to counterattack, none of them would have reached Greasy Piston in time, let alone avoid the falling tentacle easily the size of a redwood tree.
The behemoth never had a chance to recover as the spells Twilight was channeling through her children came together and cut the tatzlwurm in two. Its massive upper body groaned and heaved as it toppled over like a freshly cut tree.
Everyone, alliance and swarm alike, ran to clear the falling tower of beast. Its crash into the ground was joined by its last triplet who finally succumbed to the punishment the remnants of the fleet was raining upon it. That tatzlwurm crumpled in on itself and collapsed to the ground, its undeath extinguished. A cheer rang out from the alliance members who rallied to cut down the dwindling numbers of the swarm and deliver the deathblow to the center worm, ending the battle at last.
With the undead tatzlwurms slain and the crushed swarm broken and dying on the blackened battleground, the alliance breathed a sigh of relief.
Intel led the small platoon of surviving Queens’ Guard and Marines in a joint effort with the ponies of the Royal Navy to sweep the ruined landscape looking and putting down any survivors they found. They culled the undead without conscience. Zombies and ghouls were killed a second time on sight, while a few liches had managed to get caught under rubble or were scrambling to put together one last ditch defense inside the tunnels. Those living drones that survived had either scattered into the jungle when the controlling quasi had been killed, or fought on like cornered animals.
With the equestrian fleet staying in the area to purge the necrotic taint out of the land, and to try to locate and identify the bodies of fallen naval crewponies, the navy would have to remain in the jungle for some time.
Presently, the Long Shot started its long trip back to Phoenix Roost once the Steamrunner linked back up to the fleet. The two warships brought as many wounded or dead as their hulls could carry.
Without a battle to oversee and their children returning home, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash sat in a two-seat sofa in one of the rec lounges. Over the first several days of the return trip, it had taken some effort to get the dead and injured organized. Both queens were currently gazing up at the ceiling and the sky beyond. It was starting to become a sort of ritual of theirs after a day of mourning. “It could have gone so much worse if Sticky Spit and Luna had screwed up,” Rainbow said absently for the twentieth time in the past week. “Poly would have creamed us with that swarm.”
Twilight hummed pleasantly, taking the time to enjoy her sister’s proximity. “We should throw Luna a parade when we get back. If you can believe Kreesus’ recount, Grogar was no match for Polybia in single combat, so it was all up to her to save us.”
Rainbow pulled herself off the couch, nearly causing her sister to fall down in the process. She stretched and popped some joints and looked around the empty rec room silently wishing some of their kids were off duty. “Speaking of that goat, any news on that contract of his?”
“Let’s find out.” Twilight sat back up in a pout at losing her warm backrest. She opened the conversation to Rainbow Dash. <Rolled Scroll, how’s that contract coming?>
The androgynous and cheery tone of her ambassador glided its way into her mind. <My most exalted queen, I received word not two hours ago that Luna’s lawyers have combed over every square inch of the contract, tickled every word and fondled every verb->
Fondled? Twilight shuddered. Don’t ask, just don’t ask.
Rolled Scroll rattled on unabated. <And jousted every term. I dare say if Grogar actually signs this then he is putting an awful lot of trust in us.>
<You’re saying Grogar is on the level with us?> Twilight asked in disbelief. <Why would he give up so much power?>
<I suggest you ask him that, my queen. Assuming he’s willing to give a straight answer that is.>
<Not a fan of being near the guy, but I suppose I have little choice if I want the truth, thank you, son.>
Twilight could almost sense her ambassador genuflecting. <A pleasure as always, my illustrious queen.>
Rainbow Dash chuckled at Rolled Scroll’s antics. “I gotta ask, sis, what did you put in RS’s incubator fluid to make him turn out like that?”
Twilight rolled her eyes and stepped towards the exit. “Not a clue.”
The pair barely made it out of the door before running into Kreesus who was being tailed by two changeling escorts. The elder queen appeared dignified, but her wavering purple emotional aura painted a much more panicked picture. She was sweating profusely, and couldn’t quite hide a nervous tick in her right eye. “Ahh, there you are,” she gave a shallow bow out of respect. “I must speak with you.”
Twilight gave her a worried frown while Rainbow smoldered a scowl. “Should we step aside for privacy?” Twilight inquired, ignoring Rainbow’s snort of disapproval.
<Why bother accommodating this traitor at all? Let her stew in embarrassment.>
Twilight gave Rainbow a mental kick, but outwardly remained diplomatic to Kreesus. For her part, Kreesus was able to calm down a bit to get her sweating under control. “That won’t be needed,” Kreesus glanced briefly at the two sky blue guards behind her. “Anything I tell you will undoubtedly filter down to your brood and I care not one iota if a non-changeling hears of this.” She took a moment to compose herself. “If you were headed somewhere, we can speak on the move.”
“Sounds fair,” Twilight took the lead with Rainbow Dash making it a point to trail after Kreesus while giving her ‘the look’. “We were headed over to Grogar’s cell. Turns out Luna’s lawyers think the contract Gorgar wrote is on the level, if a bit disturbing about having your soul as collateral if his egg is destroyed or is killed as a child.”
“How convenient,” Kreesus stated as emotionlessly as possible. “I was just about to ask if you could order those paladins aside so I could speak with him.”
<Sounds like we can bake two cakes with one oven if you ask me,> Rainbow snarked as the group found the stairwell down to the lower decks. There was a minor announcement from Twilight to the crew to stay clear of the royals so their larger size wouldn’t cause traffic congestion in the narrow passageways.
<While I am glad you have managed to keep your mouth zipped, Rainbow, could you at least promise me to keep it that way?>
<Psh, whatever.>
Kreesus could sniff out a Link conversation when she saw one, but decided to hold her tongue on it. Rainbow Dash isn’t one for letting go of a grudge is she. “So there is no reason for you to deny him his request?” she asked with a hopefully even tone.
“Nothing from his end at least,” Twilight answered cryptically.
Grogar’s cell came into view with the four paladins keeping a tireless vigil. The four of them gave the royals a glance before returning their hard gaze back to the undead ram. Only the closest paladin kept his focus on the queens. “Sir Gleaming Shield, at your service, your majesties. What brings you here?”
“Well met, Sir Gleaming Shield,” Twilight greeted with a grateful smile. She noticed in the corner of her eye that Grogar was sitting quietly next to a leather-bound book. The necromancer had been scribbling away with a green quill, but paused upon the royals’ entry. “Word has it that Grogar’s contract is exactly as advertised. But I need to speak with him one last time before we go any further.”
The paladin scowled deeply with the lines of that frown visible from under his helmet. “If I may be so bold, your highnesses, trusting a demon is never wise. Contract or no.”
Rainbow Dash stepped up, pushing her way past Kreesus who was more than happy to stay as far away from Grogar as possible. “Believe me, pally, we know.”
With a curt nod, the paladin stepped aside, and gestured with his weapon for the rest of his four-pony team to stay by the two exits. Kreesus gave some short excuse to stay with the paladins, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash to approach.
Twilight kept a firm yet pleasant disposition, while Rainbow Dash leaned against the door frame of the drunk tank looking as if there was no real danger. Seeing this, Grogar closed his tome which proceeded to fold in on itself as if the very air was devouring the sacrilegious book. “Writing a do-it-yourself necromancy guide for your new life I take it?”
“Not for myself,” the hornless ram stated with his usual flat and emotionless tone. “I have other debts to pay with the knowledge contained within, and I am… putting my affairs in order, I believe is the modern term. And no, I will not be keeping this book or any other like it.”
Twilight and Rainbow Dash shared a look that betrayed some measure of reassurance. Twilight did her best to choose her next words carefully to get the most information out of him. “That is something that’s been troubling me about your efforts. The contract states you’re also not keeping any written form of knowledge, be it magical or the power structure or Tartarus. I can understand you needing to purge yourself of memories, but why not keep your written knowledge?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow butted in with her usual raspy voice, “that’s gotta be worth some bank to you at least.”
Grogar had to fake needing to sigh, for in truth he couldn’t feel exasperation towards them or anyone. “Because I want nothing to tempt my reborn self to ever follow back down the path I’m leaving behind.” He directed his gaze at Kreesus, speaking loudly enough for her to hear. “Given Kreesus’ weakened state, what with having no drone workforce anymore, I don’t want her to have the temptation to use dark magic as a crutch. Such acts would mar my future… childhood.”
“I see,” Twilight stated flatly, keeping her face unreadable. “In light of the agreeable terms of the contract, it will be signed the day of the ritual in one week’s time. But until that time, you will be kept under close watch.”
Grogar bowed his head, forcing a fake toothless smile. “I’m looking forward to it.”
At the mention of actually signing the contract, Kreesus gulped down the lump in her throat. “Ah, Queen Twilight Sparkle, may I have a word with you outside?”
Twilight glanced at Kreesus questioningly, even as the scaly queen was inching for the door. “Very well. We’re done here anyway.”
“Hey, you speak to her, you talk to me too,” Rainbow Dash called out as she followed her sister out into the hallway. Grogar hummed contemplatively at Kreesus’ hasty exit, take care you don’t convince them to do anything foolish. With nothing else to do, he waved a burning rune in the air. A small black portal materialized and coughed the book up along with the ink and quill. Grogar returned to his work while the paladins scrutinized him with righteous glares.
Outside in the well lit hallway, Kreesus was nonplussed by Rainbow involving herself, but still only spoke directly to Twilight once the hatch was shut behind them. “So you’re seriously going through with this whole rebirth the demon idea?”
“It’s mostly you, isn’t it?” Rainbow countered with a flick of her head to get her long mane out of her eyes. “Last I checked, you signed that contract, not us.”
“Yes- but-“ Kreesus was inches from dropping the dignified act for one of desperation. “I don’t have any drones except for those two quasi Grogar absconded with, and might I add that I might have to put them down due to how deep their dark magic corruption is. At least I have Fluffy’s egg, for which I am eternally thankful that you rescued, but that only compounds the issue. I can’t support a princess’ egg, let alone after she hatches.”
“Then why did you agree to it?” Rainbow demanded, knowing it would get a rise out of Kreesus.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Kreesus hissed defiantly. “It was either that, be killed by Polybia, possibly turned into a zombie for him, or be mutated into one of those horrific egg worms. And before you sass me again, Queen Rainbow Dash, do try to remember I sacrificed everything to buy the Steamrunner enough time to get to Polybia’s hive. My drones, the one princess I had left, and even my life!”
“Oh yeah, I remember a similar story with a place called Stripped Gear, ever heard of it?” Rainbow snarled back, shoving her face into Kreesus’ muzzle. “Save your martyr stories for somepony who gives a rut.”
“Alright that’s enough!” Twilight pushed the other queens away from each other, imposing herself in between. “Rainbow, you and I both know that if Grogar decides to call Kreesus out on this, he’ll take her soul and then run off to find a new body some other way.”
Rainbow Dash growled and let Twilight shove her back. ‘Why don’t you just say it, Kreesus, you want us to raise Kid Gar.”
Kreesus’ vindictive anger wilted, and sighed slowly. “…Yes. I can only place myself at your mercy.”
Twilight gave her a sidelong smirk. “I was honestly wondering how long it would take before you asked.” Kreesus blinked at Twilight, and glanced at Rainbow who only huffed at her and averted her gaze. “We were not ignoring your situation, Kreesus, and we’ve already come to a consensus about the issue.”
“Y-you have?” Kreesus asked with hope coloring her voice.
“Tsk, isn’t it obvious?” Rainbow fumed while making a show of rolling her eyes. “And before you ask, Grogar’s going into one of my eggs. Loyalty runs in my blood, and if we’re having to raise a former demon lich as one our own, I want every card in play to keep him on our side.”
Kreesus breathed a sigh of relief and stood a little straighter, her demeanor warming considerable. “For what it’s worth to you, I thank you, Queen Rainbow Dash. No doubt you’ll be successful.”
“Yeah, yeah, suck up all you want. I’m done here.” Rainbow didn’t trust herself in Kreesus’ presence any further and stormed off.
Twilight let her go and turned to Kreesus. “We can give you some food and love crystals to get you back on your hooves. But I strongly suggest not staying for long. Rainbow Dash’s animosity for you is going to filter down to her half of the hive and beyond.”
“I wholeheartedly agree.” With her near future no longer looking so bleak, Kreesus gave one final thanks and excused herself.
Left alone Twilight witnessed the crew reappear, numerous drones passing through the corridor now that the royal roadblock had moved on. Well, I better go inform Chrysalis’ puppet that she can taunt Polybia now. Better to let her vent this way than give her cause to hold a grudge against us for refusing her.