//------------------------------//
// Chapter 78: The Final Charge 
// Story: Daring Do and the Hand of Doom 
// by Unwhole Hole 
//------------------------------//

Carillon entered the room with an unmatched air of authority. Her armor was mostly lost, her magic was rapidly depleting, and the battle was doomed for failure- -but she was a knight, and she had a duty to perform. The few white Pegasi present- -many of them in their own battered armor, and many sporting recently bandaged injuries- -eyed her visitors somewhat suspiciously, but when they saw that Carillon had accepted them they accepted them as well. A few even recognized their sisters amongst the group, and some hope returned to them, even as they spoke amongst themselves in hushed whispers. 
One of the Pegasi approached Carillon. She was apparently functioning as a ranking officer, and she was dressed in silver power-armor that although largely undamaged showed several deep gouges carved into the sides. She looked nearly identical to White and the rest of the clones, save for the fact that her wings were badly atrophied. Daring Do guessed that she had never once flown, nor would she ever. 
“Report,” ordered Carillon, not looking at the girl.
The Pegasus nodded, not bothering to perform a complete salute. “Technical crews four, eight, and twelve have successfully installed the dampeners as per your request. Groups three, six, and nine reached their secondary objectives but were turned back with heavy injuries.”
“And the rest?”
“They failed.” 
Carillon frowned deeply, but allowed the Pegasus to continue. 
“We have driven back the rogue AIs in the southern wing, but infiltrators have stripped communications equipment during the counterattack to the east.”
“And the gestations bays?”
“We can’t reach them. Nor do we have soldiers stationed there. There were none to spare.”
“Then they’re defenseless.”
“No they aren’t,” said Daring Do. “Some of the clones are already hatching. We saw a few on the way in.”
“They’re not clones,” snapped Carillon. Still, her eyes widened in amazement. “Hatching? That’s not possible.”
“We saw what we saw. They’re trying to divert power to save the others.”
“Grand Seneschal,” said the Pegasus with the atrophied wings, “that means we have time. We can save the unborn.”
“If we could reach them.”
“We already issued the order,” said Softwings. 
“You don’t have the authority,” said the other Pegasus in awe. 
“I don’t care. I did it anyway.”
Carillon’s horn glowed, and a translucent square  plate appeared beside her face. She moved several of the units on it, changing the orders included within. “I’m sending the AIs I can to secure the retreat, but it’s not much. That’s all I can do without leaving our flank exposed.” She closed the interface and looked up. “And the Grandmaster?”
The Pegasus shook her head. “He breached the primary barrier, but we lost contact.” 
Carillon swore, using a word that was especially aggressive and that did not belong in the normal vocabulary of ponies. Even Rainbow Dash winced. 
“How bad is it?” asked Daring Do.
“Bad,” replied Carillon. “It’s using the Necroforge, or whatever it turned it into. There’s a powerful sheild around it. Too powerful for me to get into…but it lets things out.”
“What kind of things?” asked Rainbow Dash, gripping her spear.
“Rogue AIs.”
“Because they got hacked,” laughed Flock. “Which is what you deserve for using golems instead of slaves.”
“The slaves were incompetent and liable to rebel. Or grow up to be rival knights. And you are clearly a fool. AI’s cannot be hacked. They made a conscious choice. The wrong one, of course.” 
“And I suppose you have a plan?” asked Caballeron. He was keeping his distance from Carillon, eyeing her more suspiciously than the others were. “Unless you intend to wait here until the end? Contemplating your navels, perhaps?”
“I’m doing what I can!” snapped Carillon. “But the best I can do with what I have is to reinforce the shields that are keeping this whole place from going up in a phase-cascade schism. I’ve sent soldiers in, but they…” She trailed off and her expression grew grim. “That traitor is in there. Waiting for them.”
“What traitor?”
“Never mind, you’ll see soon enough.” Carillon paused, looking out at the landscape before her. Her soldiers had assembled makeshift defensive positions being a combination of rubble and portable defense fields, pointing what weapons they had at the gaps that led into something different, an area where the stone was completely reconfigured. It was not simply overgrown, but it had been rebuilt. Daring Do shivered, because as badly distorted as it was, she recognized the artificial sensibilities. In her dreams, a much more even form had filled the ruins of ancient towers overgrown with living crystal.    
“What do you need from me?” she asked, finally. “What can I do to end this?”
“We need to get Rainbow Dash close enough to Absence to use the Spear. That’s the only way to shut it down.”
“My units are in there. I think…no. I know that they’re infected too. Dark wizard. Will this save them?”
“I don’t know,” replied Flock. “But I know that if the vandrare manifests, nothing will save them at all. They will be the ones who carry the disease to the rest of the planet.” 
“Right, then.” Carillon stepped forward and raised her voice. “Children!”
The Pegasi all looked to her, mostly in awe. Daring Do recognized the looks in their faces. Many of them were not meant to be soldiers; they were not born as strong or intelligent or as solidly enhanced as their siblings. They were afraid. Yet when they looked to Carillon, Daring Do saw trust in their eyes. They loved her deeply, whether because of their programming or because of some other reason that was less easy to quantify. 
Daring Do noticed this, and also the fact that it seemed to make Scarlet Mist deeply uncomfortable. 
“Children,” repeated Carillon. “We’ve reached a solution. We have one last chance. To fail here is to fail the Order, and Equestria as a whole. You are my soldiers, my literal flesh. I need you now more than I ever had.”
“What are your orders, mother?” asked the one with atrophied wings, speaking for the remainder. 
Carillon took a deep breath. “We will concentrate all of our forces into a single attack down one of the ventilation channels. We will cut a hole. Just wide enough to provide cover to this pony.” She gestured to Rainbow Dash. “And she will shut down the reactor.”
One of the younger, thinner Pegasi raised a hoof. “But what of our brothers and sisters? And of our eldest sister?”
“They will hopefully be freed. But not Absence. She will unfortunately be forced to atone for my failure. Though the Heartstrings bloodline ends with me, for my remaining years she will be treated as a hero amongst our greatest ancestors. And all of you will be remembered alongside her.”
The Pegasi nodded gravely. They understood. None of them had ever been taught it specifically, yet they had always known. They were expendable. They existed so that precious unicorns would not be lost in battles like this. What Carillon had said, though, steeled their hearts. For the first time that any of them could remember- -especially them, the defective and deformed failures- -being included as part of the sacred bloodline. And each and every one of them would do what they could to earn their own tiny place within it. 
For a moment, it looked like they might have a chance. Then came the screams. 
The ponies immediately turned to their guns and their weapons, preparing for defense- -but they recognized the screams. Even White and Softwings did. They were the screams of their siblings. 
White ponies poured out of the opening. Those that could still walk and run were dragging wounded, although few were escaping unscathed. Daring Do had to turn away, but Rainbow Dash did not. She was brave enough to look, but would much later wish she had not. Had these ponies not been enhanced, there would be little chance that they would be escaping under their own power at all.
“They’re coming!” cried the small stallion in the front of the pack. “Mother! They are coming!”
“Who?” demanded Carillon.
“Our brothers and sisters!” 
Then they came. Behind the wounded, trailing them rapidly, was an army. Their eyes reflected silver in the dim light, but they were red- -red and empty. Their faces held no expression. They were pale and perfect, moving rapidly under the orders of something unseen but felt by all. Amongst them were drones, and behind them AIs. 
Then, further behind them, something large approached, its hooves beating out a slow and uneven cadence on the stone floor. An enormous silver Pegasus appeared behind the clones. Solum finis looked out over the soon-to-be battlefield, smiling. 
“Defensive positions!” screamed Carillon, herself charging into battle as her armor ignited with orange light. The other ponies responded to her orders, reaching for their guns and their blades- -but they stopped. Their hooves were shaking, and they did not seem to be able to find the triggers. Daring Do understood why, and perhaps Carillon did as well. They could not bear to fight their brothers and sisters. They did not have it within them. 
The opposing side, though, was not bound by the same hesitation. When they came into the light of bright spotlights, their infection became evident. Thin lines of metal had started to spread over their bodies, growing like webbing. Occasionally it dived down into them, reaching and improving the implants that Carillon had given them before birth. Some had even started to develop armor- -armor that looked horribly similar to that of the Hand of Doom itself. 
“Do something!” cried Caballeron, kicking Scarlet Mist in the knee.
Scarlet Mist only stared down at him. “I could. But I only know how to do one thing. Are you sure you would like to pay that price?”
Caballeron opened his mouth to demand that she do so- -but found that he could not give the order. Even he, as hardened as he was, could not do that.
Carillon did not hear the exchange, but she saw that her soldiers- -her children- -refused to fight. She understood why. She had built them that way. Her design had capitalized on their sense of love, belonging, comradery. It had been the easier to manipulate. Except that it was not entirely artificial. She saw this, almost in slow motion as she passed them. Perhaps they were not wrong. In her youth, when she had been their age, she had held the same expression on her face when Dulcimer Heartstrings had first asked her to turn against her knight-brothers and knight-sisters, as was her bloodline’s destiny. She had been swayed, and she had done horrible things- -but perhaps her creations were superior to her in that they would rather meet their end than give in to the violence that had been meant to rule their lives. 
She turned her attention toward the oncoming horde. Unlike her children, she was able to do what needed to be done. She had done it countless times, quietly and with ostensible scientific order. Now, though, she did not have that luxury. Carillon charged her horn and prepared to win the battle. 
Then one pony emerged before her. One whose one artificial eye had begun to overgrow his face, driven outward by metastatic lines of silvery wire and quasi-organic growths. For the first time, she felt herself falter. 
He took advantage of her weakness. He charged, gnashing his teeth. Carillon stopped, her hooves skidding across the stone, and she understood. This was not their choice. They were not traitors. They, like Absence, were trapped. Perhaps in a great deal of pain, although they did not know it. Perhaps that stallion was trying his hardest to resist, but failing nonetheless. Perhaps they all were. 
In that instant she realized that she could not destroy them. She simply was not able to. At the same time, she could not allow her children to be hurt- -not those on her side, or the other. Yet the battle had to be won. There was only one solution. 
Her mind began compiling, and has her son lunged toward her with a mouth full of metallic teeth, she activated the spell. A shockwave of orange light spread outward from her horn, filling the entire room with its glow. In an instant, every white Pegasus stopped moving. Those who had begun to cower from the oncoming attack, holding each other in fear; those who stood, accepting their fate but refusing to fight; they stood beside those who attempted to rush to the aid of their mother as well as those attacking against their own volition. All her children save for two were trapped in the field and rendered unable to move. 
Carillon groaned under the strain. “Pegasus!” she ordered. “You have to go now! I can hold them- -but not forever! Something inside them is resisting me! I already sent my AIs to cover the retreat, I can’t- -”
“Don’t worry!” called Daring Do, running past her. “We’re on it!”
It seemed that she spoke too soon. Before she could even get past the frozen horde, she saw Solum Finis’s eye slowly turn. Then she saw him move.
He was trapped in Carillon’s field, as were the attacking AIs and drones- -but it had only managed to slow him. For a moment his metallic flesh groaned against Carillon’s magic, and then he tore free. The magic tried to cling to him, to pull him back, but it could not. His silver body was immune to it. 
“Magic,” he said. His voice was saturated with disgust, yet he still smiled. “Of course you would use magic.”
He began to advance, and in an instant Scarlet Mist stood in his path, her body swathed in her characteristic fog. Her gnarled horn ignited with red light, and she attacked. This time, she had not hesitated or asked who was willing to pay the price. Her soul- -if she even had one- -was incapable of comprehending such a burden, and she had elected to behave proactively.
A crushing blow of red magic struck Solum Finis, tearing into his body and seeking out the parts of it that were already damaged. He took a step back- -but retreated no further. Then he looked up, and even as red magic was arcing through the ruined remains of half his face, he smiled again.
His wings extended suddenly, tearing several drones in half and cutting deep gouges into the walls. The red magic suddenly arced off his body toward everything in range. Daring Do ducked but could not escape; she only avoided an impact by blocking with the whip of Moloch, which, like Solum Finis, was immune to magic. Rainbow Dash, who was relatively near, did not even need to block. The Spear of Extinction absorbed the outgoing energy harmlessly. 
Scarlet Mist had not expected this. The feedback caused her to collapse suddenly, and Solum Finis lurched forward. Despite his size and age, he was incredibly fast. He turned fluidly and bucked Scarlet Mist in the chest, sending her flying backward.
“NO!” cried Caballeron, grabbing her out of the air as they were both pushed back all the way to where Carillon was standing. 
“Of course it would be magic,” said Solum Finis. He was nearly laughing, and sounded as calm as ever- -but his voice lacked something. Something inside him was gone. “The trihorns thought the same way. It never occurred to them. That our bodies evolved to resist it. How many wars did I fight against them? How many fell in the name of the Golden Lord? And in all that time, they never learned.” 
He advanced, his one eye planted on Carillon. Daring Do blocked his path.
“Stop. Solum, stop.”
“No.” 
“Don’t make us hurt you.”
He looked down at her. His smile faded. “You can’t. Even if you cold, it doesn’t matter. She rejected me. Two and a half million years, and she refused. But I will continue. I will continue my mission. I will protect the Hand.” He looked up at Carillon. “So I will squish you both. It should be fun.”
He raised his hoof over Daring Do and brought it down. Daring Do braced, but was suddenly pushed out of the way. She saw a flash of white feathers, and turned around just long enough to see White disappear beneath the hoof. She had been flattened.
“White!”
“Squish,” said Solum Finis, sounding more bored than anything else. He twisted his hoof, grinding White into the ground. Then he lifted it, only to see White very awkwardly flutter out from beneath it. She was dazed, but otherwise undamaged, despite the fact that the impact had been great enough to leave a vaguely White-shaped hole in the stone below. 
“What?” Solum Finis seemed mildly confused. “Why are you so hard to squish?” 
“Titanium bones!” cried Softwings, swooping from above. While White had distracted him, she had managed to get close enough to Solum Finis’s head to attack his eye. Unfortunatly, the lens was transparent silver; her attempt to break or scratch it were entirely useless. Solum Finis swatted her away, sending her careening into an AI. The impact caused it to vibrate, and suddenly it broke free from its suspension field. It began to move toward Carillon. 
“Argiopé!” cried Caballeron, shaking Scarlet Mist. Her limbs hung at unfortunate angles, and she was not moving. “Come on! Wake up! That’s an order!”
When she did not, he looked at the advancing AI, and came to the conclusion that it was not after him. Just Carillon. So he had time. He reached for the Masque- -only to have his hoof grasped by red magic. 
“I think I like this body,” said Scarlet Mist, rising up as if pulled on strings. Her limbs restored their normal structure. “It regenerates so quickly. Perhaps I will try another of this time, eventually.” She turned toward the AI and shattered it. Unfortunatly for her, its central core was undamaged. It sent out a signal, and its drones began to start struggling against the stasis field.
“You had better know what you’re doing!” screamed Carillon. “I can’t hold them!” 
Several of them broke free. Four of the first immediately fell to Zel’s spear as he moved through them, nearly dancing as he summoned spells of protection and power. They were not his goal, of course; Softwings had distracted Solum Finis long enough for him to target the area on his chest that was inexplicably crushed, where the tarnished metal was weakest. 
With one last rapid, rhyming cry, Zel slipped forward past Solum Finis’s hooves and drove the spear into the creature’s chest- -only for the blade to simply rebound. 
Solum Finis looked down at the zebra. He no longer looked mildly amused, or even bored. 
“You look easier to squish,” he said. “But later. For now, go away.” 
He flicked Zel, although to Zel, the effect was more like being slapped with a brick wall. He was thrown back a considerable distance, only managing to stop himself by digging his spear-blade into the ground in time to avoid an attack from several drones. 
“My body is hypercrystalline silver,” explained Solum Finis, now smiling smugly. “Your society does not even have the capacity to understand. Nothing you can do, or make, or comprehend can hurt me. I am a god among- -”
Sweetie Drops appeared in an instant below him. Solum Finis barely had time to look down before she slashed upward. The hypercrystalline silver of her blade met his in a plume of multicolored sparks. His body crumpled to the ground, inert. A few seconds later, his head clanged to the floor alongside it. 
For a moment, the head was still. Then its eye lolled, rolling in its socket to face Sweetie Drops. “Then it’s done,” he said. A smile crossed his face once more. This one was upside down, but for the first time truly sincere. “After all this time. Finally. Please, finish what you started. And use my body to make more of those swords.”
Sweetie Drops pointed the black sword at Solum Finis’s head. “Not likely,” she said. “At least not the finishing you off part. The Agency is going to want to have a word with you. For now, consider yourself under arrest.” 
She then immediately parried a blow from one of the drones. Except that with her sword, she ended up cutting it in half- -and the drone behind it. Solum Finis was impressed, and silently acquiesced. As he was missing his body, he went back to sleep. 
More of the AIs and drones began to free themselves. Some of the white Pegasi had also begun to struggle, but Carillon put everything she had into holding them still. She was visibly sweating and straining; keeping them this long was already far beyond what most unicorns would be able to withstand. 
“DASH!” yelled Sweetie Drops. “We have to hold the line! Get to the core!”
“But- -”
“MOVE!” ordered Daring Do, slapping Rainbow Dash in the flank. “I’ll cover you!” 
Rainbow Dash looked back to see the others fully invested in fighting- -save for Flock, who had become mysteriously absent as soon as any possibility of bodily harm had arisen. 
She nodded, and her and Daring Do were off.