//------------------------------//
// Battle for Ponyville 
// Story: Cold Scales 
// by Konatra 
//------------------------------//

Dusk Shine paced around his messy room once again for perhaps the 1000th time today. In his telekinetic grasp, he held up parchment and quill and scribbled furiously on the paper, almost puncturing through it if he used a bit more force. Another week and still no sign of Spines...except for two days ago. He knew he saw her, he heard her voice and even felt her cheek. After that he was found by his friends lying flat on the ground. He told them what he saw as well as the odd black figure that moved behind her. Of course, Applejack and Rainbow Blitz told him he was just overworked from the searching and had a convincing illusion followed by a nervous breakdown. 

Of course he snapped at them and went off the rail in a fit of sleep-deprived rage. That consisted of yelling and long-winded ramblings. After that Illusive calmed him down and escorted him back to his room to get sleep...he had to admit he was tired but nothing in his mind could make up the flawless details of that moment with Spines. The smell, sensation and voice. It was her, she was here, he was certain of it.

And from the way she looked, scared, bloody and dirty. She was in danger from something...that black creature maybe? Even still there was no trace of her or anyone entering without his knowledge. All the books were in their proper place but he could see that the set of dust still left undusted, due to lack of Spines, and knew something was in fact here. Nobody would listen to him though and gave sad pitiful nods, what did they know? Poor sweet Spines has been missing for two months and the moment something like this pops up they say he's crazy, what nonsense was this?   

Dusk huffed in annoyance as he finished his letter. Another one of the many requests asking a nearby or far away settlement or city to have an alert out for a missing female dragon. He even provided an image of her to have posters set up. The cost of such a wide-scale search would have been high were it not for King Solaris himself to insist he just would void the fee altogether, of course the lord of the Sun cared about Spines. She was almost like a daughter to the King so having his help in this crisis was a huge weight shared. 

"I'll find you Spines, I promise." The price muttered as he teleported the scroll over to the Griffon Kingdom's lower village of Sky Point. Sending messages like this all day took a toll on the tired prince but a minor headache was worth it if it meant finding his dear number one as...his dear sister. He lifted the quill up to a map he had pinned up to his wall. Various locations were circled and x out. He placed a circle over the town he just sent the last letter to. The whole map was like a game of advanced tic-tac-toe of a wide-scale grid. "Where do I look next?" He asked to no one while biting his lip.

He eyed the largest circle once again in red ink. The entire location of the Everfree forest was one location he had high suspicions of, she went there often nowadays and while it hurt to assume this, he was almost sure she was lost somewhere deep inside the accursed plane. He and a team of search ponies combed the outer reaches of the place. Long hours and days of tracking yielded no results though. Not even tracking magic could give a real hint on where Spines went, there was a faint trail that resembled her magic signature but it was so oddly faint and tainted it hardly even resembled a normal living being. The investigation crew deemed the trail as some kind of wandering dragon sprite and was ignored immediately. 

What was even weirder was the sudden increase in territorial animals so close to the outer layers. Whenever a search party started to head deeper in they always encountered Manticores or Hydras and even packs of Timberwolves. These attacking creatures were much stronger than average beast creatures as they shrugged off damage like no one's business. The curious thing was how they only chased them away from a certain distance away from the deeper reaches, it was as if they were keeping them away from something. Even Pegasus patrollers were chased away by swarms of flying Everfree creatures, it was suspicious, to say the least.

"Something is definitely going on here but for the life of me I can't figure it out!" In one moment of rage, he let out an unfocused pulse of energy from his horn that left a small hole in the crystal wall. "I'm a failure of a guardian!" Before he could break any more of his room a small rumble of the floor snapped him out of his daze. "What in the world?" He stepped out of his balcony to see a large cloud of dust in the distance coming from the plains leading to the forest. "What...is that?" Luckily his telescope was already set up to stargaze.

Dusk positioned the scope downward and recalibrate the level of zoom to a mid-range distance. What he saw gave the price a cold feeling of dread. 

Monsters from horror stories come to life, hordes of black creatures that defied the laws of matter, hulking giants with gigantic sets of armor, beast-like demons that resembled black lions with pulsing violet eyes. It was unlike anything the magic scholar had ever seen before. Thoughts raged in his mind of what this could be but the chill he felt, the way they rushed to Ponyville...he felt killer intent in those eyes. "Oh this might as well be happening, it's one bad thing after the next!"  The Alicorn stretched out his wings and flew up to the peak of his castle. He looked back to the residents of Ponyville who idling about unaware of the present danger. He inhaled. 'This is going to be killer on my throat.'

"PEOPLE OF PONYVILLE!!" The royal Canterlot voice was an excellent way to quiet a room or a whole town for that manner. Everyone stopped and stared at the small figure in the distance that could only be barely recognized as the recently crowned price by the voice alone. "WE HAVE A SITUATION OF UNKNOWN IMPORTANCE SO I ASK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SAFETY TO PLEASE GO TO YOUR HOMES OR A BUSINESS PLACE AND HIDE UNTIL I CAN GET THIS SITUATION UNDER CONTROL!!" And just like that everyone who was out chatting, eating, shopping, playing just chose to listen to the well-respected purple Alicorn and rushed inside the first building they could find. 

"Thank Solaris." Dusk sighed. Now for the scary part. He didn't have time to gather the others so he had to take this on by himself for the time being. 'I fought Tirek to a draw so this shouldn't be that hard right...of course, I was overcharged with 3 prince's Alicorn powers..best not to overthink it for now.' It became apparent that he was too sleep-deprived to make a real plan so this was pretty much a big shot in the dark. He spread his wings once again and flew down at high speeds a mild distance away from the group.

Once again he inhaled. "STOP!!" Actually now that he was at eye level with these creatures he could tell just how much bigger they were compared to him. The hulking ones looked like they could plow through a whole building without even trying and those razor-sharp claws on the stalker-looking ones could slice right through metal. They were not going to listen by the way they seemed to charge even faster than before. 

Even in the crazed state he was in Dusk could feel the approaching doom. Instead of running however, he chose to charge up his horn with a powerful stunning blast of defensive magic. 'Solaris save me.' But before anything else could happen a loud whistle of piercing air rang in his ears. Something just broke the sound barrier and was approaching a supersonic speed. Dusk raised his head to see two white pillar objects falling from the sky aimed right at him, by the force and speed they were aiming this could create quite the impact depending on what the material of it was made out of. "Buck my life." Dusk just about had it for today.

___

Spines braced herself as she felt her stomach meet up in her throat. If she had eaten a heavy meal beforehand she would certainly be seeing a reappearance of it by now. "Father save me!" Her suit showed her elevation level at around a thousand meters from ground level. How exactly was she supposed to survive the crash again? Click!

With that, the capsule around her broke away in several pieces now only leaving her falling at a far lesser but still pretty fast speed to the ground. Spines peered down at the field to see the hostile forces only a short distance away. 'Perfect timing.' The only reason she didn't fear for her life from this huge drop was due to her installed long fall boots that were made to do just that, these things could drop down the chasm of the abyss and still keep the wearer alive, at least that's what the androids told her. 

Her scanner showed a group of red dots clumped together and two green dots side by side to each other. That would be her and 5V who was only just a bit behind her drop level. The question was who was the yellow dot near her's? She looked down further to see who else but her brother. Some of the heat and color drained from the masked dragon's face. 'I should have predicted this.' She groaned internally. 'I expect nothing less.' She thought proudly.

This was her moment to show the world and the enemy her power. This entrance had to strike fear in the hearts of those who worship evil and be a beacon of hope to the weak. 'This is my moment Tendrix, I'm going to make you proud of me if you're watching.'

She let her body relax and buckled her knees, despite the safety boots she still feared the impact. 'Now!' She landed hard enough to leave a small crater in the dirt but she felt none of the force come back up to her thankfully. 5V landed shortly after with the same effects. 

The horde slowed their pace and seemed to be wary of their new opponents. The dust around the two flowed around eerily, Dusk was pushed back from the impact but could not help but look away from the two new creatures. Spines stood tall in an imposing manner against the spawn hoard. Dusk starred breathlessly at this armored figure.

"W-who are you?" He asked, not feeling the killer intent directed at him from the new party. 

'Good question Dusk, who am I indeed?' This wasn't Dark Scale so her persona needed a new name, didn't it? No time to think of a fancy one sadly. She spoke through her speaker in a genderless robotic voice. "Call me Carbon, now stay behind me prince, this is my battle not yours." Dusk wanted to protest but could not find a real reason to, nothing was making sense today.

Dusk did as instructed and hid behind the tall figure, though he still primed up a defensive spell and shield spell if the need was required. The now named Carbon and 5V stood side by side one another at the still horde group. Spines swallowed her fears and spoke in a dignified and authoritative way. "Blood Spawns!" She pointed to them. "I know what you want and why you are here and I can't say I will sit idly by and let such a thing happen. I'll protect these people starting now but I do believe in peaceful conclusions so I give you this one warning." The air grew still. "Leave this place-" Large black metallic, feathery wings shot out from her back and spread in full view. "-or die!" Her blade jolted out from its case and came to her opened palm. 

To Dusk the armored figure looked like a Valkyrie come to life from old Horse (Norse) mythology. He felt safer now than it was here. But how would the creatures respond?

...

......

.........

The largest and most powerful-looking beast roared a noise similar to tortured screams and charged them. The rest followed suit. Spines cursed at their decision and responded with a battle cry of her own. A secondary plate of armor clasped down her head to shield her face even better than before. She held her sword in her right hand while grabbing her pistol in her left. She coiled her tail around Dusk and tossed him as far away as possible from the incoming battle. "Stay out of this!" She warned as he flew. 5V showed off two plasma swords in each hand and began cutting through the smaller Nightmare creatures as they came. They sliced and dived at the android but he expertly dodged out of the way of every attack. 

Spines chose to take on the titans due to her superior power from her suit. She rushed the leader but instead of engaging him she dove down into a ball and rolled under his thick legs. She uncurled her ball and jumped up high in the air, her new wings flapped to give her air strafing abilities. Now she was face to face with a lesser titan who tried to wipe her out of the air with a slash attack she narrowly dodged. Another attempt was made but instead of moving she held her sword firmly in front of her and watch as the arm was sliced in two from his force alone, the blade was that sharp. 

The arm lumped to the ground and crushed several Nightmares in the process. The titan yelped in surprise which told Spines she had an opening. She flew forward and drove the sword right in the middle of its eye. She trashed around the blade for a second to ensure the monster would die. It did die for sure since its eyes stopped glowing as it toppled backward, crushing more Spawns. "Suck it!"

Before she could dispatch the next one a heavy fist to the back sent her careening to the ground with a thud. Shaken Spines used her augmented agility to re-positioned herself with a flip. She focused her inner furry and magic and lit the sword ablaze with green fire. A titan ran over to her but Spines threw the blade like a flying disk and severed the two legs of the monster in one cut. She held out her hand and saw how the still flying blade stops mid-twirl and shoot back to her at breakneck speeds. The return trip also came with the added benefit of tearing right through the heart of the already crippled titan. Another one down but still many left to go. 

5V was doing well for himself as he tore through a titan of his own and sliced its head off in one clean blow through the neck. "They're no match for us Lady!" He praised while rushing headfirst into a pack of Nightmares. 

Around her Nightmares and Beasts circled around her in an attempt to close her in but as they lunged in for the kill she spun around and let her bladed feathers cut through the opposition like grass. Piece by piece they tore apart and dissolved into a mist in the air and once they were destroyed she aimed her charged gun at the head of a near titan and blew it apart in one blue shot. Despite being small this pistol could pack a heavy punch when charged. 

"Lady, we have some stragglers trying to get past us, how do we proceed?" She snapped her head to see small amounts of Nightmares sneak past the duo and head for the town. If just one of them got to a resident and eat them then it would spell a whole new level of trouble. 

"5V focus on the ones getting by us, keeping the civilians safe is a top priority. I'll handle it here." 5V nodded and vaulted backward toward the escaping groups. For a second she looked back to see Dusk struggling to get up after the fall, she didn't throw him that far but he still looked pretty winded. The big problem of him being here was his status as flesh to the vile Spawns. Three of them made their ways up to him but were dashed to bits with the extended reach of her bladed whip. This had to end now or someone would be killed.

In order to keep the target off of Dusk, she increased the volume output in her mask and gave a furious metallic roar. This seemed to do the trick as the scattered forces seemed to stare at her with prime interest now. "TRY IT!" With all her might she swung the flaming whip around like a ball and tether the perfect height to cut the Nightmares down to size, in one swing already they were down their smaller groups. A titan landed a fist down on her location but she jumped back just in time with several backflips. Her recovery jump was joined with her throwing the whip-like a grappling hook around the enlarged neck of the titan, it struggled to tear the burning thing off but Spines simply pulled back and witness the blades tear through the titan like a chainsaw. It fell dead shortly after. 

For a brief moment, she was too caught up in the carnage to notice the flying kick from behind but luckily her suit did by bracing the armor to the back wings that only slightly pushed her forward. She stumbled but looked behind her to see the leader titan make its way angrily over to the defender. Spines felt she had enough of this mess and decided to use one of the suit's tricks. She lifted her right arm up and charge a new beam that came from the inner slots of her arm, the shield and energy charges in her suit decreased suddenly, doing this put her at a risk due to lack of shield but this needed to end now. A purple chunk of an ice-like rock pumped out from the slots in her fist and impacted the hulking titan. This did nothing to stop its charge though but instead of backing down, Spines rejoined her blade and jump forward to her adversary.

In normal circumstances, the weapon she held could not cut through the armored flesh of a titan without several attempts or a lot of force but the ice chunk spread around the titan like a sponge to water and left it in a violet glow. In one thrust she cut right through the body effortlessly, then she did so again at a different angle and again and again until she fell. In front of her, the high treat fell to the ground in pieces and dissipate into mist shortly after. The ice chunk is capable of reducing tough flesh into the soft matter for a short time so the armored titan had no real way to defend itself.

Without the leader, the remaining forces fell quickly to the combined power of Spines and 5V. Less than a minute later were all enemies destroyed. The only evidence that a battle even transpired were the craters in the ground as everybody that fell faded without a trace. She stood still for a moment in the now silent and peaceful setting, she felt a rising joy in her heart knowing she could do something good for Ponyville. 'I did it.' And the way it wasn't that difficult raised the confidence of her ability to defeat the source. She placed her sword back to her back hostler.

5V came to her side and bowed. "That was a fantastic display of strength and power Lady." She smiled at his words.

"You did well yourself 5V, I wouldn't be able to handle all of them alone." 

"You flatter me."

Before any more dialogue, she went over to the still dazed prince. She felt the tension rise in her chest again but she had to be sure he was okay. "Are you hurt?" Her tone was still and lifeless in order not to link herself with her true identity. 

Dusk got up slowly and dusted himself off. "Um, I think I just bruised my hoof a little." She sighed in relief silently. He stared up in a mixture of fascination and fear. "What are you?"  

"That is none of your concern prince, what I can tell you is this." She spoke sternly as to get her point across. "We are allied to the innocent and foil to evil. As long as I function I will defend your land and the lands beyond this. I suggest right now you go back to your life but be aware now of the dangers that come from the Everfree, close it off to the public bring those who live within it out for now it is too violent a place to live." This was in regards to Zecoro assuming if he was even alive at this point, she hopped to Solaris he was. "Do not linger too near it or you will be killed, raise your defenses and build walls around your town...even move far away if possible. I cannot promise we will be able to save all of you but be vigilant and be safe." Her false wings began flapping which raised her off the ground. 5V Began hovering as well due to his pulse gets on his back. 

Dusk began moving up as well, his wings beginning to flap to chase after them. "Hold on! I have a lot of questions to ask!" He demanded but just before he went airborne the two mysterious strangers bolted out into the sky at speeds that would crush Rainbow Blitz's ego. The sudden force pushed Dusk back down. "By Solaris..." He sat silently in the empty field trying to take in all this overwhelming information. 

He turned back to see a large mob of ponies and his closest friends rush up to him, all having concerned faces on them. "This is going to be a long day..." Maybe he should have stayed in bed as they asked.