//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 // Story: An Alloyed Hope // by computerneek //------------------------------// She shudders.  Another fireball in Canterlot!  She hopes they’re not destroying the beautiful city.  They’ve already killed almost everypony- she wasn’t able to save very many. Then, the Pegasus scout- well, one could call her a scout, but she’s more appropriately called General Dust- lands down next to her, where she’s coordinating the remaining efforts.  The Solar Princesses are down, one presumed dead and the other incapacitated by grief. Princess Twilight is still missing, Cadence has disappeared with the Crystal Empire when they desynchronized it with Equestria again, to protect it against invasion.  Once the war is over, re-synchronizing it should be fairly straightforward, though it may take a year or two. Until then, nothing can enter, and nothing can leave. She turns to General Dust, an inquisitive eyebrow requesting the report.  She’d asked for a scout- and hadn’t expected the only remaining uninjured general to take the job herself. “I couldn’t tell what by,” the answer comes, “But they’re getting wiped out- with soap.  Whatever it is has some ungodly powerful bow, a really good firing foreleg, and a lot of arrows- not to mention the ones that jump away on their own, change course midway, and end with a fireball.  It has to be come kind of enchanted weapon- but it’s well beyond anypony’s skill level, save maybe Twilight.” “Could it be that ‘hope’ thing they ran into off Fort Dash?” Headshake.  “The reports made that out to be a mountain of metal bigger than the fort itself; this can’t be more than a half dozen times the size of one of the Princesses.” Another flash of light in the distance.  “It’s…” She trails off, staring. “I hope it’s friendly.” General Dust opens her mouth to speak, but is interrupted by the sudden glow of her conversant’s purple diamond necklace. Off in Ponyville General Hospital, Pinkie’s ear twitches as her element glows- and less than a moment later, a trail of shocked and startled doctors and nurses can be found from the ward to the front door. “Anypony in Ponyville?” Rainbow calls telepathically, after touching her element- she hadn’t realized her armor was designed to let her do that until she subconsciously reached to touch it. “Rainbow!” Rarity’s response comes back almost immediately- but she’s overshadowed by the other voice on the line. “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” “Awesome!  Is Celestia okay?” “She’s…  They don’t know.” Pinkie considers Rarity’s answer inadequate, and provides her own.  “She’s alive!  Nurse Redheart says she could die at any moment, but she could also live!” Rainbow pictures Pinkie’s hair drooping in the middle, popping back up at the end.  Her tone does that, at least. “Where?” “Ponyville General Hospital, ward C-3.”  An amazingly concise response, to be coming from Pinkie.  She must have heard the urgence in Rainbow’s tone. “On my way.” “Have you heard about-?” Rarity begins- but Rainbow predicts her question and heads it off. “They’re safe- Twi, Flutters, and Applejack.  They’re coming… two and a half days? Whatever.” Rarity’s eyebrow raises as they close the telepathic connections.  Her friend had almost used Griffish, a language none of her friends (save Gilda) know.  She turn towards General Dust, eyes glowing. The general raises an eyebrow.  “Where?” Rarity accurately guesses the intent of the question- but doesn’t answer it.  “Rainbow’s back,” she states. “She’s found the other three, and they’re on their way.” “Where?” “She didn’t say- but they’re safe, and going to get here in two and a half days, or so she says.” Pinkie pauses outside the hospital, waiting to hug Rainbow as she arrives.  She’d been dead a minute before- and now she lives! She could smile again! She- Drat, she’d left her party cannon in Canterlot!  Oh well- she should still have several dozen in Sugarcube Corner- but if she runs for one now, she might miss Rainbow’s arrival. As much as she’d like to throw a welcome-back-from-the-dead party, some things are more important.  Like- She screams as she shoots up into the air.  The pavement had suddenly, inexplicably, exploded in front of her- as if something had landed very hard.  She catches a glimpse of rainbow color vanishing into the building as she comes back down- and turns to follow.  Ahah! It’s… It’s Rainbow, all right.  Her head is clearly visible, the rest of her is still fading back in from invisibility.  She’s wearing some weird metal armor painted to match her coat- and on that, she’s wearing several long black things of various shapes and sizes- and a host of small black spears of varying sizes.  Suffice it to say, the trail of shocked and startled doctors and nurses is repeated- and Pinkie can’t seem to catch up. The disengaged stealth on Rainbow’s armor has faded only halfway by the time she bursts into Celestia’s ward, finds her, and rushes over.  Her helmet unfolds and snaps shut for a second, on her motion, and flips back open, refolding itself. “Her vitals are holding; she appears to be suffering major grief, possibly from the loss of Princess Luna.  I expect she has roughly 2.493 days to live in her current state; if Luna is restored to her, I estimate a 96.47% chance she will make a full recovery.  Shall I send the footage to Luna?” Rainbow nods- and answers the Griffish voice in her ear.  “Yes. Tell her…” She pauses, and switches to Equestrian.  “Ponyville General Hospital, ward C-3.” Just a couple seconds later, Rarity and General Dust cry out in surprise, staring at the two fireballs on what used to be the main body of the enemy force attacking Canterlot. Her big giant one ran out of arrows.  She switched to the next biggest, still punching through several monsters with each shot- though it won’t shoot itself like that other one did.  She still has to pull the trigger for each shot. She’s launched all of the smallest two sizes of javelin thingies, and has one of the four largest ones on her sides left.  The two on her back remain untouched- she doesn’t want to risk hurting ponies with them. Suddenly, a new image appears in her visual field.  It’s a projection, like the rest- and she can tell it’s on about a one-second loop…  But she sees the magic-powered heart sensor next to the bed- and in that loop, the needle performs the telltale flick of a heartbeat.  The injuries almost disguise the identity of the pony in the bed- but she only knows one pony with that color of tail. Her grief vanishes instantly, replaced by a boiling fury- and, in a glance over the edge of the wall she’s currently shooting minotaurs off of, she designates targets for all remaining ‘splode-o-spears. I’m not sure how she is using six weapons at once…  Was that a teapot!? These little ones really don’t have very many arrows in them- she’s already depleted many of them, back down to that second-largest one she’d been using before- and, she finds amusing, she still has targets to shoot.  The idiots don’t know when to give up. Unfortunately, if that icon in her vision is anything to indicate, this thing’s almost empty too.  Then, she hears a voice. Rainbow’s voice. “Ponyville General Hospital, ward C-3.” Now she knows where she’s going when she…  Well, right now. She just depleted the arrows in this thing- and slaps it back into place on her armor before taking off at maximum speed.  Her suicide charge- at least, what she had expected to be one- is over. Rather funny how not one of the minotaur or centaur weapons had been able to so much as scratch the paint on her new armor- and the defensive spells on her Royal Armor underneath hadn’t kicked in.  She swoops through Celestia’s bedroom one last time- sorry, walls- before heading for Ponyville.  As she does, she witnesses the two big spears touching down- and realizes she now has first-hoof experience in how mushroom clouds are made.