//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: An Alloyed Hope // by computerneek //------------------------------// Ten minutes.  It had taken ten minutes to get the injured messenger, still wearing his full armor, into a chariot for the hospital.  He had tried to say something several times, but had been interrupted by the blaze of another arrival, somepony else’s shout, and so on.  As a result, nopony near the transit zone has a clue what his message was, or where he came from; only that he had been injured.  Such an injury could only mean one thing. At least they know they lost a base.  Once he regains conscience and recovers from the unsightly bruise on his head, produced by a mishap involving a teleport arriving on top of them, he can tell them which one. At the hospital, the medics consider leaving out the anesthetic for the removal of the arrow; his message could be very important, and that would be the fastest way to get it.  However…  Having him wake up in the middle of its removal could be extremely problematic, so they go for it anyways- but send for a unicorn skilled in the rapid removal of anesthetics even as they administer the drug. Unfortunately, the request falls on an empty list.  No unicorns are available; they’re all tied up with this, that, or the other thing.  Nor will any be available for some time. But perhaps fortunately, there is a procedure in place.  The request, thanks to the note alongside it about how urgently he had been trying to get the message out before he was knocked out in the transit zone, is elevated.  No unicorns?  No problem. By the time the medics have finished with their emergency surgery and closed his hide back up, Princes Luna herself stands ready.  Her skill with these drugs is imperfect; it takes close to a minute for her spell to do its job, but that’s exponentially better than the hours it’ll take before Celestia recovers from the last battle enough to cast so much as a simple light spell.  It’s also somewhat significantly better than the twenty minutes it’ll be before the next expert is available.  As a bonus, she can also wake him up from being knocked out- something most drug experts can’t do.  She sets her spell working as soon as the doctors give her the go-ahead, and assists in his transport to one of the wards, from the surgery room. By the time the panicked messenger finally awakens, he’s lying on the firm hospital mattress, with Princess Luna and three medics standing over him.  He gives a yelp of surprise and attempts to bow to Luna- not very easy, when lying on your back. “What have we lost?” He answers the question immediately.  “Fort Dash has fallen to the enemy- but kindness was there!” At this, the bed three down from his loses its crying occupant in a blaze of cyan feathers and a multicolored shockwave that blows down everything.  “She’s alive!?” The messenger answers this question immediately as well.  “She arrived, with her Element, right before the enemy infiltration showed itself.”  He scowls down at his forehooves.  “She might have escaped.” The rainbow mane has only time to shift three inches before Princess Luna teleports both of them to the command center. “General!  Fort Dash has been lost by infiltration- but Kindness was seen onsite immediately beforehand.” He nods and starts barking orders. The cyan pegasus, the red lightning bolt still hanging around her neck, drops to the ground, bowing to the Princess.  “Thank you.” A spider gently taps one of Fluttershy’s forelegs, drawing her attention away from where two more are busy sealing up the sergeant’s side with some weird thing she’s never seen before.  At least it’s painless, according to the seargeant.  She looks down at the spider, unwilling to look away.  It points one leg almost inquisitively at the Element of Kindness, still hanging around her neck. She tilts her head, rising one hoof- and, after the spider’s distinctive nod, touches the gemstone.  The spell comes active again, but comes back empty-hooved.  She shakes her head, but the spider seems to have somehow gotten the message already. Eventually, while the sergeant inspects his newly-healed side and tests his mended wing, she realizes what the spider must have been trying to tell her.  It thought she might be in range again- suggesting…  She touches it again. Her gallop is almost interrupted when her Element lights up again, and the telepathic connection forms.  At least she’s in range of one of her friends- even if she’s being forced to run away.  “Fluttershy?” she asks.  She’s not sure which response she would prefer- confirmation or denial.  One would indicate her friend was coming to help her out; she’s out of range of Fort Dash by now.  The other would indicate the presence of somepony else freshly in range- to whom she could report Fluttershy’s survival. “Applejack!” the response comes back- yes, it’s Fluttershy.  “You still okay?” The mare with the orange apple amulet hanging around her neck gives a wry smile to the terrain in front of her.  “I’ve been discovered, on the run.  How many have you got?” “Me and Sergeant Stone.  Everypony else…  Fort Dash has fallen.” “That won’t be nearly enough!” “We’ve also got my new spider friends…  Their…  carriage, of sorts, seems to have some scary weapons on it.  Some kind of explosive catapult, a bow with really long reach, some sort of lightning cannon.  I still don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s coming with us.  Oh, uh…  Sergeant Stone wants to make a rescue.” “Huh?  He a pegasus or something?” Sergeant Stone stops at the door they’d come in through, hunting for a handle.  He’d seen the glow of Fluttershy’s Element, seen where her gaze snapped to- and knew what it meant.  He’d also seen the worry crossing her face, and had decided he knew first-hand how bad a situation one of the Elements could get into.  Without knowing which one it is, he doesn’t know how much danger her friend might be in.  But, this door won’t open.  He finally turns back- to be met with one of those weird spider things offering him something metal. Unfortunately, he’s arachnophobic- and he runs back into the compartment without stopping to identify whatever it had offered him. Fluttershy finishes her brief conversation with her friend, chuckling lightly as she watches the veteran soldier panic and run from the metal spiders.  He’d managed to hold still long enough for them to heal him- probably because of his injury, if she’s honest with herself.  She’d always found ponies with arachnophobia amusing. Unlike the sergeant, she keeps her head clear enough to see what the spider is holding.  It looks to be some heavy piece of armor, shaped much like a breastplate, and she trots over to get a closer look.  The spider ignores her efforts, stuffing it into a cabinet in the side of the room- and immediately pops open the neighboring cabinet, whipping out an identical piece to offer her. Wait, not identical.  She’d caught a glimpse of the outer surface of the other one- and while it probably wasn’t the same color, it most certainly didn’t have that gold chain printed on its surface, an image of her Element standing on its face.  She accepts the offer, holding the piece in her hooves- the heavy piece- as she examines it.  If she were to put it on, the image would be positioned directly overtop her real Element. Tears form in her eyes as she looks up past it to the spider, still standing by the cabinet, in which she sees many other pieces- the rest of some kind of full suit, it looks like- resting on the rack.  “Thank you,” she mutters again, hugging the one it had given her to her chest.  Backwards, though- it hurts a little that way, but she doesn’t care. The spider bows in response, uttering something she doesn’t understand before it resumes its ready position- like it’s ready to pull out more of the armor for her, or to return the breastplate to its place, depending on what she wants. She shrinks slightly from the bow, blushing gently before she looks down at the heavy metal piece in her hooves, turning it around to press it against her chest.  As she does so, the spider reaches in to pull out another piece for her- and it then helps her put on the foreleg piece.  Once that’s on and attached to the breastplate, it indicates her Element again- or, at least, the image of it.  Confused, she raises her hoof. The spider doesn’t nod this time- but it doesn’t need to.  Rather, it turns back to the cabinet to pull out the next piece while the armor retracts from her hoof, exposing it- and a door pops open on the chestplate, revealing her Element inside.  There’s only one thing that feature could be for- especially when they both close again as she draws her hoof away.  Her smile grows- and the next foreleg goes on easily. Ten minutes later, she’s got most of it on.  Her wings are folded overtop the side panels, as per the spider’s instructions; the rest, she now has on a full suit of armor.  What’s more, there’s no gaps, save for her wings.  Even her tail has been armored, rather than being covered.  It’s amazing, she decides, just how realistic this armor is.  Rather than hiding her tail or letting it hang loose, each hair is individually covered with an incredibly thin layer of metal- which, she guesses, probably makes it difficult to cut.  Not that the tail is a target zone- and she already knows the mane is hidden inside, like regular helmets.  Which, she’s not wearing the helmet yet. Rather, the spider is showing her another piece for her side.  This one should lock into place right overtop her wing- and she sees the shape on the inside of it intended to receive her wing.  This piece makes her shudder; pegasi tend to be claustrophobic, herself included, especially when it comes to restricting the wings.  Though, she decides, it’s not like she can fly right now anyways.  After that minute’s indecision, she accepts the piece, and the spider helps her put it on.  There is no pressure against her wing, comfortably folded against the inside of the armor.  She eyes the piece- which looks much like her wing would, folded- and presses her wing against it. It resists for perhaps half a second while she feels metal sliding underneath her wing before it gives way- and she extends a thirty-foot wing.  The other side goes on eagerly; once folded, once again, it felt natural- and extends instantly, with her real wing. That’s something else she’s noticed, while she puts it on- it’s heavy, yes, but she can’t feel it.  Like it makes her really strong, as well.  Interesting.  Then, the final piece- the helmet.  She slips it on, puzzled; for as much attention seems to have gone into closing every possible gap (without restricting her range of motion, she observed earlier), it leaves her face wide open.  Also, the locker isn’t empty.  The spider responds to her ‘thank you’ as she turns to find the sergeant. She doesn’t have to look for very long- he’s sitting, open-mouthed, ten feet behind her.  She winces away from his expression.  “W-what?” she asks. “What…”  He gulps audibly.  “Is that armor?”  It’s colored just like her- even including the cutie mark on her flanks, though it’s fully visible here. She nods gently.  “I think,” she mutters.  “It’s comfortable.” “Isn’t it heavy, with that much steel?” At this, Fluttershy smiles gently.  “No.”  She spreads her wings, easily crossing the entire room with her armored wingspan.  “I wonder if it can fly…”  She raises them up to the ceiling, making a quick test stroke towards the floor- and her hooves leave the floor momentarily.  She turns to look towards the door for a second, folding her wings- and back to the sergeant.  “Yours?”  She indicates the closed cabinet. He trots right up now- and a second spider shows up to help him with it.  He shudders again and again- but, with the promise of this strange armor, he follows its instructions.  His damaged royal armor ends up getting left on a chair; his new armor is colored to look like it. Meanwhile, Fluttershy is working with the spider present at her locker.  It’s offering her these weird, long things- and helping her attach them to her armor when she accepts every one of them.  Once it finishes, her spider closes the cabinet and disappears, while another one shows up with a weird…  Portable window?  She’s not sure exactly what to call it, but it’s showing her what all those long things do- and how to make them do it. The sergeant, having watched her put hers on, is almost done putting his armor on when she finishes.  After a glance at the long things attached to Fluttershy’s armor, he quickly starts accepting the matching things from his spider, donning them even faster than Fluttershy had.  Unfortunately, he can’t watch the instructions any faster.  Finally, he follows Fluttershy up that accessway- and out the door, which now opens for both of them. Perhaps the first thing Fluttershy notices when she heads outside is that her helmet snaps closed.  That’s the only thing she can think of to describe it- though her vision isn’t obstructed at all, as she knows regular helmets do all the time.  Rather, extra information is appearing in her visual field, like a hologram projected by a unicorn.  She can’t read any of the characters, but a lot of the symbols and colors she understands.  She trots up to the edge of the balcony, looking down at the ground as it flows past- and Sergeant Stone steps up next to her. He raises one of the metal things in his hooves, flicking it as the instructions had said to drop it into position.  He’d noticed the helmet thing too- and even checked for an opening he should be aware of, but a glance at Fluttershy’s helmet had shown him everything is covered.  He picks a tree, aiming at it.  Additional symbols appear in his visual display as his armor helps him aim.  The instructions had suggested it’s much like a bow…  He pulls the interesting lever-trigger.  He feels something thrust back against his shoulder through the armor, though he also feels the energy go simply nowhere as it fails to move him.  Meanwhile, the same cannot be said for whatever projectile it used- that went whizzing away from him so fast it chopped the tree down as soon as he pulled the trigger.  He puts the weapon back away, looking at Fluttershy. “Satisfied,” he states. Fluttershy shakes herself, staring at the tree for a few more seconds.  “Uhh…  maybe we can help Applejack.”  Her hoof rises to her chest. It’s a long time since she was last airborne, Fluttershy decides, as she hurls herself into the air with her massive wings.  She doesn’t feel her magic working- but her armor doesn’t seem to care, she’s still rocketing into the air.  Sergeant Stone takes off behind her, and they accelerate in the direction she senses Applejack in.  She doesn’t want to leave her spider friends too far behind- but when she glances back, she sees the massive carriage thing also accelerated, though it’s now bouncing somewhat as it whizzes across the terrain.  Another fact she notices- her armor is letting her build up far more speed than she normally can, despite her lack of magic.  She shares a glance with Sergeant Stone- well, a glance at each other’s armored faceplates- and the two rocket forwards to find her friend, leaving her spiders far behind. Two minutes later, Fluttershy gasps. Sergeant Stone looks over at her in midair, not even stopping to consider he shouldn’t have heard the gasp from so far away.  “What is it?” Fluttershy pours in the last of her speed.  “She just-”  She breaks off, tears forming for a couple seconds.  “They’ve caught her.” Right at that moment, a new icon appears on her display, over something in the distance.  She’s not sure exactly what it means, but the yellow color looks iffy.  Especially with the way it’s blinking orange.  Both she and Sergeant Stone head for it; this is the direction she’d last sensed Applejack in.  Now that her friend has been caught, the Element of Honesty has been separated from its bearer. The blinking yellow-orange spreading across that field is suddenly interrupted by bright red- which doesn’t blink.  Two seconds later, one of the rings blinks not to red but to green. The moment it does, a couple lines draw themselves across her display, arcing downwards on the mass of red, terminating in solid dots with rapidly changing symbols next to them.  Three seconds later, she realizes it must be a countdown- in seconds, with two digits.  Whatever it’s counting down to, she can’t tell.  When she focuses her eyes on the green ring, it suddenly zooms in for her, like a telescope.  It’s definitely Applejack- and she’s not going down without a fight.  They’ve managed to take her Element, it would seem, but she’s still managed to wrench herself free and start bucking like an apple mare on an apple farm in applebucking season.  Suffice it to say, the centaurs that fail to dodge her blows crumple to the ground without fail. Her vision zooms back out again as she shifts her focus, searching along them for the Element of Honesty.  She doesn’t see it- but she does notice when the countdowns drop into the single digits.  The upper ends of the lines also enter her field of view at the same time, connecting to small metal objects whistling their way through the air- and following the lines to the ground. She fights.  One kick here, one kick there.  They managed to pin her down once, and take her Element; not again.  She’s already incapacitated the one with her Element, and is now standing with her front hooves on the chain as she strikes willy-nilly at anything that gets too close.  She can’t keep this up for long, she knows- especially since she sees the centaur, behind three of his comrades, preparing their dastardly lifeforce-draining spell.  If she moves quickly, she can incapacitate him before he can cast it- but that not only assumes he’s the only one casting it, but such action would also force her to abandon her Element.  Fluttershy is coming, though, with Sergeant Stone and her spider friends, apparently equipped with some powerful weapons and flying armor.  If they get here quickly, and if their weapons are as powerful as Fluttershy seems to think they are, she may well survive. BOOM! The two massive explosions rock her world.  The casting centaur is caught in the blast, whatever caused it, and all the rest are terrified.  She incapacitates the only one left looking at her, tosses her Element back over her neck, and goes on the offensive. An offensive that doesn’t last very long.  She’s just finished kicking her sixth centaur when Fluttershy lands swiftly, her massive wings folding just as quickly before she gallops forwards.  It takes her a second to realize she’s not actually seeing Fluttershy, but some fancy armor she’s wearing- armor that gives her a heavy step. “You okay?” Fluttershy asks her.  Definitely Fluttershy- that’s her voice. “Mostly,” Applejack answers, glancing up in time to dodge a sword strike. Fluttershy gets to that centaur first, and her buck strikes dead center.  He doesn’t just crumple, as Applejack’s targets are doing- rather, he’ll crumple someplace else, whenever he lands. No sooner has Fluttershy mailed a few more centaurs into the sky with her wings than Sergeant Stone lands solidly, his similarly massive wings folding against his similarly armored flank as his forelegs come up, some weird stick thing snapping around to line up with his helmet- and he starts unleashing pulses of death and destruction.  Before long, Fluttershy drops her one of those stick things on the ground during another buck, but continues on, apparently not noticing she dropped it. Applejack takes one glance at it, a second glance at Sergeant Stone’s grip on his, and picks it up.  At least it’s clear which end is which.  She hoists it at the nearest centaur, braces herself, and pulls the trigger. Now doesn’t that just buck like an angry rhinoceros?  The centaur died, along with three more behind him- but it knocked her down.  She rises back up, bracing herself better, and takes aim at a second one.  Choof!  Much easier than a bow- though her aim leaves room for improvement.  She doesn’t particularly want to find out just how durable Fluttershy’s armor is against her own superweapons, so she makes sure to point it firmly away from both the armored ponies- made difficult, at times, by being between them. Eventually, Sergeant Stone’s stick thing stops working.  He gives it a couple more tries, and flicks it back to its storage position.  Applejack, seeing this, immediately offers hers to him- but he smiles, drawing a different-looking stick thing.  “Nah, I shouldn’t need that yet,” he mutters, and starts rattling off more puffs of death.  This one, being a smaller weapon, doesn’t penetrate as many enemies- but it proves just as deadly in the hooves of the soldier. Applejack is taking aim back in the direction the two pegasi had come from when she sees it. The steep hill in the distance.  Something climbs up it from the other side- and, unless her eyes deceive her, catches airtime- probably significant.  Unfortunately, she also suddenly can’t see; the glare from the pillars of light it wields is absolutely blinding. Oh, and the thunderclaps those things produce- that’s even worse!  She senses, more than hears or sees, both armored ponies stop fighting.  One- Sergeant Stone, she things- as shifted between her and the new thing, spreading his wings slightly to be certain- before the distinctive plinking of metal on metal meets her ears.  When all the noise finally goes away, all three ponies look around. Not a single centaur survives.  The battlefield around them has been transformed into cratered ruins, though that doesn’t seem to be bothering the giant metal…  Thing.  She’d call it a hill, but those don’t usually jump over hills, or race across cratered battlefields to take position near ponies, there to extend a ramp to their very hooves. Applejack breaks the silence.  “This is your spider friends?” she asks. Fluttershy nods.  “Yep.”