It all happened at the same time. That was the weakness. The blind spot.
How to take on near limitless power?
Don’t give it time to react.
- Clover the Clever
THUD THUD!
“Remember to go for the wagons only,” Twilight reminded her changeling dragon from several city blocks away. “The front line protesters will need to lead the counter if Baltimare is going to have any resident-led autonomy like Las Pegasus. We only need to take out the tools that would prevent that. Be sure to avoid any fire. They might be using live rounds and we don’t know if they’ve switched out the standard equipment for military-grade weapons.”
Chrysalis, in black dragon form, thundered down Bloom street. Her glowing green spines were sharp but riddled with holes. She had played with her appearance until she settled on a look much like her natural one. A long slender snout gave her a feminine face in spite of the bulky arms, legs, and abs she needed for this job. Her tail was pleasantly long and slender too, barbed with two spikes at the end that followed the curve of the tail. She kept from forming wings out of the desire to better surprise the police wagons when she came upon their formation on Rose boulevard. And also not to be shot out of the sky. She was powerful but that didn’t mean she was going to be stupid.
As much as she wanted to blow right through them with a two-story dragon form, she knew it would not be smart either for avoiding fire or keeping to Twilight’s plan. This Spike-sized form would do, especially since her black and green body was packed with sufficient muscle to handle the weight of those wagons.
Knowing how close Chrysalis was to her target, Twilight gave Applejack an affirmation over the hivemind.
Not that the tough farmer needed it. She could tell just as well as Twilight could how to time this. She was hunkered around the corner of a three-story inn located many blocks opposite of Chrysalis, with Twilight between them. This side of the city was darker and less cared after. AJ’s targets used that to their advantage but she countered that easily with somepony who knew this place better than even a group of skilled mercenaries. And that was what both she and her guide had confirmed. Mercenaries.
“They don’t live ‘round here,” Amethyst Oven whispered. He tone was quiet, but his deep voice still sounded coarse. “No more than that parasite, Swift Hooves, who’s messed up this whole neighborhood. That’s her warehouse they’re using over there.”
Applejack glanced again around the corner. There was a large series of buildings just a short distance down the road in that direction. Across the street was the warehouse he referred to, situated between two factories – both deserted. Any of the places could have been a landfill with the amount of garbage everywhere. But there was no denying, in spite of their attempts to appear otherwise, that the ponies coming out of the warehouse were not locals.
I know an ex-Guard when I see one, Direway advised while looking through AJ’s eyes over the hivemind. Careful, the one on the right looks too cautious. He might have served special duties like me.
I’d be guessin’ so, Applejack agreed. Makes sense the one with the most experience would be the one with the spell scrolls.
“That’s them,” Amethyst whispered. “You, uh, don’t mind if I give you some space, huh? I ain’t thinking of being like the toast I make at work, get me. Sure you can handle it? I could get some backup.”
“Nnnnope,” AJ imitated her brother with a smirk and ignited a black ball of flaming magic in her hoof. “I got this.”
She gave her guide time to get some safe distance before she spun around the corner. Five ponies were coming out of the warehouse front gate. They would be headed for the protesters with enough magical power to kill over half of them, but AJ wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Heeyaw!” she grunted as she hoped forwards onto a foreleg and used her powerful rear hooves to buck the void orb. It shot forward, snapping with dark tendrils of magic while growing as it traveled to its target.
The mercenaries were fast to respond. Especially the one she had aimed for with the scrolls. He managed to toss a scroll to one of his companions before dodging. It wasn’t good enough though. The void orb was like a black hole and, though it had far less gravitational force, it was far more than enough to suck the stallion in.
SNAP!
The orb collapsed, the merc and most of the scrolls now vanished along with it.
Applejack ignited another in her hoof, which pulled in a pair of projectiles two of the remaining mercs had fired at her. The farmer hadn’t seen those kind of weapons before. They were long, tubular, and blew fire out the back even though the can-like projectiles came out the front. Her void magic nullified whatever the danger was so she hardly cared.
“It’s timeout for foals who can’t play nice,” she shouted out as one of them charged her with a curved blade. She threw the orb at him before igniting one more in each hoof and tossing them up in the air. Flipping backwards so her rear hooves came out from below and forward, she kicked both orbs as they came down.
The first hit the charging stallion.
SNAP!
The second and third hit the mare and stallion with the strange weapons near the warehouse gate.
SNAP! SNAP!
“Well this was easy now wasn’t it?” Applejack smirked at the survivor.
His teeth were clenched tight but he didn’t look scared. The purple glow of his unicorn magic unraveled the bound scroll he had caught from the leader before he had been sucked away. “Mission accomplished,” he sneered.
“What-?” Applejack’s eyes widened as the scroll was activated by the mercenary’s magic.
A ball of fire much like the sun exploded into existence, consuming the scroll and the mercenary so fast that Applejack barely had time to react herself before the flames were upon her. Searing heat beyond anything she had ever experienced before. The street below her and the building around her melted away as the fireball expanded to the size of the entire city block in the blink of an eye.
CRASH!
The heavy armored wagon was flipped onto its side and crashed into the brick wall of the building it had been slowly passing. Chrysalis had thundered around the corner, bulldozed her way through scores of heavily-armored police ponies, and charged full force into the side of the wagon.
One down.
The second was close behind and she was not about to let them get a shot at her with one of those massive ballista-like weapons that were mounted on the top. It did not escape her notice that the hundreds of police ponies filling the street were carrying all manner of weapons from simple clubs to bows and even projectile-throwers like the ones from the wars of her past.
Chrysalis leaped in front of the second war wagon, grabbing the front edge and tossing it upwards.
BAM!
It flipped backwards onto its roof, partially crushing the enormous weapon on top.
That’s what these things were. War wagons. The ponies around her were armored so heavily that they resembled ancient knights clad in iron suits. Even the Royal Guard garrison in the city did not dress so heavily and arm so seriously. Police? These ponies were beyond even soldiers!
Chrysalis had not seen weapons or armor so severe since her youth. That was back when she had taken an entire city, used tunnels to defeat the inhabitants, and withstand the siege with less than half a starving hive. There had been weapons used there like some held by these ponies. Weapons that shot hot metal that could kill in a single blow.
Something soft was hitting her at first. She saw the small pellets pool around her as they bounced off her diamond hard scales. But then they were joined by red hot bits of metal that cooled quickly on the paved ground. They had held back since she was in the middle of them. Crossfire a real danger. But with defeat now a realistic fear, they lost their reservations.
It didn’t matter. Her scales were hard enough. The blows were irritating and prickly but not damaging. She moved.
The third wagon was in a hundred hooves. With a practically graceful pattern of lunges, she closed the distance. Passing by its side to reach the fourth wagon, she gave the third a hard shove. It rocked upwards but failed to flip over, coming back down on its six thick wheels with a BAM!
Chrysalis was already busy with the fourth just behind it though. Grabbing the front with her muscular arms, she tossed it over onto the restaurant tables beside the street. She would have to apologize to the owner later – there was just not much room at this portion of the road since a series of restaurants crowded outwards into the space.
The changeling-turned-dragon knocked away a group of police ponies who tried to grab her and switched her attention to the third wagon she failed to flip. This should finish her job. Once toppled, nothing short of a heavy-duty crane would get these things back in business – assuming none of their mechanisms were so rattled that that they wouldn’t operate.
Chrysalis swallowed.
The wagon’s top-mounted ballista had managed to pivot towards her in the time she had taken on the fourth wagon.
They wouldn’t fire so close, right?
BOOM!
Something had fired from the catapulting device. Something that exploded with extreme force. Chrysalis saw stars as she was blown straight through one of the adjacent restaurant’s front windows. Some of the police ponies that had been around her were also blown in various directions. As for the wagon, she didn’t see until getting back off the floor that the entire rear end had been crumbled inwards. One of the rear wheels was gone and the ballista was clearly split down the center.
That was a desperate move on their part and she was glad it hadn’t been enough to seriously wound her.
Chrysalis dusted herself off in the quaint little diner. Apparently, dragons were quite resilient when it came to fire and explosive force. In over a hundred years, it hadn’t occurred to her to do this. Well, she noted to herself, remember to use a dragon form in any dangerous situation. A simple lunge saw her out of the restaurant again. She quickly started getting away from the police-occupied street, not wanting to give the unofficial army too much time to recover from the haze of destruction.
It was a good thing Applejack had failed to detect any advanced magic users or scrolls in the counter protesters following the crowd. Twilight was worried for a moment about a spell initiating just seconds too soon. On that note, her own guards were turning out to be even more of an asset through the hivemind than in actual physical presence. Not that they couldn’t handle foes on their own, but Twilight needed a more refined strategy right now. AJ was putting them to good use in spite of the fact that they were still here protecting their queen.
As for herself, having Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash beside her was a great relief. They could provide a kind of peace that her three accompanying guards couldn’t. Partly it was her loving relationship with them but also partly her history with them going back so many years as close friends. Fluttershy especially gave her a sense of calm that reminded her of a warm soft blanket on a winter day.
Actually, it was rather cold out. 55th street was slowly but surely drawing a crowd in spite of the chill. The first ones to come up to her at the festive double-wide market road’s performance stage were, of course, the ones more sympathetic to the ongoing protest on 74th. Either that or family and close friends of the strikers. More would come, Twilight knew, but this was the beginning.
“Yes, I reviewed the mayor’s orders,” Twilight answered a stallion who had started discussing his concern with her. “Technically, they are legal under the security mandate from fourteen years ago, but that was itself a violation of the Equestrian Declaration of Justice. Article 8 clearly rules out use of weapons in policing activities and sets clear limits for implementation of large-scale police forces.”
“Why was it not thrown out by the regional court then?” the stallion frowned, clearly not happy from the start.
Twilight’s right wing spread out to shield her eyes from the sun that suddenly decided to poke through a hole in the clouds and harass her eyes. “The Third East Regional Court was headed by Justice Platinum Gavel for the past twenty years. He was a member of the Elite party who was just recently removed from his position due to corruption charges and involvement in the coup conspiracy.”
“Judges are not supposed to have such blatant political biases. They’re supposed to be neutral so they can judge cases without conflicts of interest.”
Twilight frowned as well. She had looked into this herself some time ago upon receiving associated reports on the coup investigations. Her findings were hardly surprising given what she had come to learn about the inner workings of the Equestrian political sphere. Loop holes were so common that even Chrysalis’ forelegs could hold more water in comparison. “Judges are only required by the Canterlot Court to have no public conflicts but they can still have political and personal affiliations as private citizens so long as they don’t carry that over into their job.”
The stallion laughed cynically. “Are you kidding me? Like they won’t just drag their biases into their job? Who even decides if they have or haven’t? Themselves?”
“Yes, self-regulation,” Twilight confirmed. “This is why I would like to open up these kind of issues to you, the ponies of Baltimare. Las Pegasus has taken control of their own city and I believe that every city, town, and village in Equestria has a right to decide how it wants to proceed.”
Noticing the growing crowd around the stage they were conversing on, the queen turned to them. More ponies were lining up behind the stallion to talk to her directly and others were taking glances towards the stage from across the street. Guards from the Baltimare garrison were going down surrounding streets to announce the public gathering.
“I’m aware of the difficult situation that the Twenty Hours Coup has put Equestria in,” Queen Twilight called out. “But I’m also aware that there has been a difficult situation all along. It was the intention all those centuries ago with the Equestrian Declaration of Justice that a court be formed in Canterlot. All so that ponies across Equestria would be able to choose their own law makers that would better serve their interests. Interests that might not be understood so well by one or two ponies who only ever lived in Canterlot Castle.”
Rainbow looked over the crowd with a careful eye. Direway was next to her doing the same while Flash Sentry and Midnight Strike were just as cautious from the opposite stairway that lead onto the stage. Fluttershy was fidgeting just behind Flash Sentry, wondering if she might go back to the garrison to grab an extra scarf for Twilight. Chrysalis and AJ might have been on the job in the city, but their collective wisdom failed to rule out a possible attack here. After all, this was arguably where the rule of the Elites was most in danger.
“But that court was quickly filled with ponies who were more interested in themselves than their fellow citizens. They either came from privilege or quickly attained it, passing it down from one generation to the next. Forming a dynasty within the court was not the intention of its initial formation. It was no better for the ponies of Equestria to have ten or thirty ponies ruling them instead of one – ponies who were no more in touch with the reality of daily life than the throne.”
“Celestia was always good to us!” shouted out a voice from the crowd near the stage.
That made Twilight’s serious expression soften a bit. “Yes, Princess Celestia was very good to Equestria but she could not oversee the life of every individual town in the land. The ponies of Equestria should have the lives they so choose and I cannot tolerate the fear and oppression that has come from the tyranny here in Baltimare.”
“You are the only tyranny here!” shouted out another.
Twilight ignored the mare because the criticism was immediately defanged by her next words. “So it is my intention today to end it by relinquishing all legal concerns of Baltimare from its mayor and police forces to its residents. I will not dictate any terms except that how the city is to be governed – from taxes to policing – will be determined by all of its citizens. Nothing less than full participation of all citizens can be accepted. There will be no more silencing of voices or abusing of the powerless.”
That caused a stir. The crowd erupted into all sorts of responses. From cheers to gasps to praises and insults. Twilight could see one family closest to the stage. They were in tears but it did not appear to be sadness. The mare had two foals with her, one on either side. She began to reach up to Twilight’s hoof on the edge of the stage, a “thank you” on her lips-
BOOM!
The redwood trim that lined the edge of the stage exploded in a spray of splinters. Wooden boards beneath her blasted upwards in flame, knocking back both Twilight and the mare below. Another explosion followed somewhere but Twilight didn’t know where. She knocked her head back against the platform behind her upon falling, vision spinning and ears ringing. Sounds were warped as her mind tried desperately to put back together her consciousness that had just been tossed in ten different directions.
The hivemind exploded with pain not her own. Even as her vision scattered and the world was flipped upside down with her body, she saw it. It was as if in slow motion, the left stage exit passing by her view. The horror of it was emphasized by her inability to do anything to stop it. The stage exploded in a fireball that erupted from beneath the wooden boards. Two ponies were standing there. The first, one of her guards, was thrown from the stage and burned along the way. The other was consumed in the middle of the blast. And the mare had been looking straight at Twilight when it happened, fear being her last expression.
Fluttershy.
Chrysalis stopped cold, the scores of army-style police still shooting at her but now ignored. Her transformation dropped in a flash of green flame as all of her focus switched in panic to her fellow hive member and love. “Fluttershy!” she shouted in fear. But she could not act. She could not fly away towards Twilight or the others.
The second her transformation had dropped, she had returned to being a changeling devoid of hard dragon scale. The exoskeleton-like protection of her changeling hide was much softer.
And the bullets pierced it.
“-ilight!” somepony screamed.
“Mommy!” some young voiced wailed.
“Traitor!” shouted another.
“Get him!”
“Someone get a medic!”
“Doctor! Please! We need a doctor now!”
“Chaos scum!”
“Two more!”
“Law and order will prevail!”
“Die, anarchists!”
“No, stop!”
“Get the kid!”
“Why are you doing this?!”
“Run!”
What went wrong?
What happened?
Twilight felt like she was going to throw up. Her vision was shaking and upside down. She was on her back on the stage, head against the wood. Three copies of the backstage view danced around, slowly coming back together into one. But even as she got herself back together enough to move again, she was pinned down against the boards by a heavy stallion holding up a spear.
“For Celestia!” he screamed, though she heard it no better than anything else. Her ears still rang and everything was muffled.
The spear was never driven into her heart, though. He was knocked over by a blue blur, snapping with lightning so powerful that Twilight’s consciousness was nearly knocked back again by it. Her nerves lit up but the pain was less than what it would have been had the stallion succeeded. Twilight tried to get to her hooves but was slowed as her muscles misfired from the electric shock. Her vision turned onto the other side of the stage where Rainbow had fallen with the attacking pony. She was on top of him, lightning snapping between them so bright that it was hard to make them out. It looked like she might have been fighting him but it was impossible to tell whether it was her hooves or his that were making the blows.
BOOM!
Another explosion. Loud and close by.
Crying.
“Get us out of here now!”
Twilight could finally tell who was saying what now. That was Direway.
“What are you doing?!”
“Fluttershy! Where’s Fluttershy?!”
Twilight could make out nothing more even as she tried to get back onto wobbly legs, her strength less than she expected. Pain started coming to her. Every throb of it threatened to return her to the stage floor. Or what was left of it. The world around her turned to white for a second and then…
She was in a green field.
The sun scroll activation and the stage explosions happened at the same time. Down to the second. The four most dangerous Elements of Harmony had been dealt with simultaneously. Honor Bound clicked her stop watch with a toothy grin. The dark room was illuminated by the magical screens around her, showing her every important point of interest in the city. It worked. It had actually worked.
Of course it had. She had always been smarter than those idiots in the Elite party. She wouldn’t have splintered into her own group if they had been smart. The fools were doomed now that all the brains had left their pathetic removed-from-power club. The answer to the problem of Twilight Sparkle was so obvious. Clover the Clever had lived through some of the worst times of political manipulation and assassination. He would know better than anypony. And so his writings were proven right.
“If an enemy can block five blows with one hoof then strike five blows all at once rather than in succession. Ponies only have four hooves,” she repeated Clover’s insight. “I guess a changeling’s dragon form is too tough but that one still worked out in the end. A shock in the hivemind from the Element deaths was apparently enough to snap her out of it.”
“Ma’am!” a voice called out from the passageway leading to the surface.
“What?” Honor Bound barked. “Can’t you see I’m enjoying myself for once?!”
“Sorry, ma’am,” the mare cowered. “But I was ordered to inform you when Red Fang moved per your plan. And he has.”
“Good,” Honor Bound extinguished the screens. She needed to bring up the one for the Crystal Castle and it took far more magic due to the distance. “Our mercs on 55th will finish off Rainbow if she’s still alive. Rarity and Pinkie Pie are the last two Elements of Harmony and they’re in the Crystal Empire. Red Fang will be more than able to get rid of their useless hides.”
“Spike’s a dragon too, though, and he’s not a runt anymore-”
“He’s a librarian’s secretary!” Honor Bound spat back. “Red Fang has been a killer his whole life and has never failed a mission. Spike will die as easily as the rest.”