The pegasus rockets quickly overtop the walls, making a wide circle- as if scanning the sprawling fort- before dropping down at the designated landing site. She makes a solid landing, folding her wings before she canters forwards urgently.
The officer watching the zone raises his eyebrow at her.
She draws to a halt in front of him, snapping a salute. “Private Dust, reporting,” she announces. “Fort Flurry has fallen. The enemy has possession of the Element of Kindness.”
“What?” somepony calls from behind her. “What was that?”
Dust turns to face the familiar voice, snapping another salute to the approaching cyan pegasus before repeating her message.
“They have Fluttershy?” Dash asks, wings priming for takeoff- despite having arrived just behind the darker-colored pegasus.
She shakes her head. “Only the necklace. The rest of the base staff were planning to acquire it and flee here when I left.”
“And you didn’t try?” The prepared wings sag again, her stance relaxing.
She shakes her head. “Captain Brick ordered me not to. They were targeting the unicorns and pegasi for extermination.”
She bows her head slightly. “They might not have begun just yet. There were about four hundred of the things when I left.”
Several ponies promptly spin in place and fall over. Dust only leans slightly away from the momentary rainbow streak through the base.
Fwoom!
The officers manning the Canterlot Transit Receiving Station blink as the freshly-arrived rainbow-colored blur whips by, leaving a burst of wind to throw them against their seats. “What was that?” One asks, for only a shrug in response.
Several guards throughout the Canterlot Compound blink at a rainbow blur from down the hallway- or, if it happened to pass down their passages or through their doors, go tumbling in its wake. This, of course, included the two flanking the main entrance.
Those two, at least, were left with no doubt as to exactly what had just passed; once outside, the blur curved directly upwards- and accelerated phenomenally with an echoing boom and an expanding prismatic ring. The ensuing trail then detoured directly towards Canterlot Castle, so the two declined to pass word to the Princess. The guards already at the castle would do that faster anyways.
The guards at the castle experience the same confusing bursts of wind- but since they only know one source of such a persistent rainbow trail, they’re all left with slight chuckles. They are also left knowing that what had just entered has the full authority to do so- even if she’s supposed to come in slow enough they can see her before she hits them.
Princess Luna leaps almost three feet into the air when the throne room doors rebound off the walls, striking off the back of her throne before the rainbow blur stops at the normal distance before the thrones and resolves itself into a pegasus. She blinks for a second.
Rainbow takes advantage of her slowness. “They’ve taken Fluttershy!” She announces, with similar speed to her entry. “Four hundred Minotaurs have taken Fort Flurry, and have her Element! Can we go take it back?”
Luna spends a couple seconds trying to process everything. “Rainbow,” she finally states, slowly. “You’re back.” She blinks again, then shifts to a more urgent tone, processing the message. “The Minotaurs have Fluttershy?”
“Yes.”
“They’ve taken her Element and which fort was it?”
“Fort Flurry. Dust told me herself, there’s four hundred of ‘em and Flutters was nowhere to be seen.”
Nod, before she breaks out her Royal Canterlot Voice. “Guards! I need an assault squadron ready for transit, target is four hundred Minotaurs in Fort Flurry, and I need it yesterday!”
The Guard out the door looks at something she can’t see for a second before looking back. “They’ll be on the pad in two minutes,” he answers- naming a time approximately one minute shorter than most emergency deployments.
Luna nods, losing the Voice, and looking back down to Rainbow. “We will accompany.”
KER-BOOM!
The guards watching the departure zone uncover their ears. Mass transits are always much louder than single tran-
ker-BOOM!
It’s not as loud, and comes from the arrivals section across the hall. They raise their eyebrows- back already?
The guards manning the arrivals section shake off their momentary deafness before looking to the new arrivals- and immediately taking a bow. “Princess.”
Princess Celestia’s voice floats back, sounding completely exhausted. The Princess herself fairly teeters as she approaches the door. “I must eat,” she states. “We discovered Fluttershy… then a dimensional anomaly killed her.” She shakes her head. “We can only hope Discord is successful. Where is my sister?”
One of the Guards looks at the departure zone. “She just left,” he states. “Fort Flurry, with Rainbow Dash and an assault group.” He looks back up at Celestia. “She didn’t stop to tell us why- but before they left, I heard her tell her party they’re teleporting into an enemy-held base.”
Celestia shakes her head. “Let me know when she gets back, please.” She then wobbles her way towards the mess hall; the castle, and her normal dining room, is a bit far for her current, starved strength.
“What…?”
Princess Luna mirrors Rainbow’s oration, upon rising above the base to examine the area better. Like the six thousand soldiers that had come, far more than necessary, they’ve been trying to find the base.
And, after following Rainbow’s pointed hoof, she believes they’ve found it.
Visible is the foundation of a shattered guard tower, resting next to the foundation of a shattered wall- or, of a very short stretch of shattered wall. All to one side had been included in the enormous Canterlot-sized crater the foundations are only barely outside; all to the other side seems to have been trampled by something truly enormous.
“What on Equus happened here…?”
A pegasus rockets up from below. “Princess! The unicorns have detected the residual signature of the Element of Kindness! It appears to have surged- like it met Fluttershy.” He looks down. “They’re looking for any sign of what happened next.”
“Boom,” Rainbow helpfully supplies.
He almost snorts. “We’re hoping for something a bit more descriptive than that.” He looks up. “They haven’t seen any sign of her death- and are, at the moment, assuming she survived.”
Rainbow nods- and touches her element, triggering the communication spell… before shaking her head. “She’s not nearby,” she scowls.
She shudders slightly as she approaches the door. A few hours after it had started moving, Celestia had lowered her sun, making way for Luna’s moon- and the frigid night. That was not a time she wanted to spend standing on top of this thing, in the bitter cold wind- but fortunately, the darkness had also revealed the light shining out through this door. She’d walked inside, calling to see if anypony was here, but nopony was. Only this multitude of odd, throne-like chairs.
She doesn’t know exactly when she’d fallen asleep on the floor of this warm, gently lit room. Whenever she had, she just woke up a few minutes ago- and now, this door is closed. She knows the thing- her savior, she realizes- hadn’t stopped moving while she had remained outside. At one point, she’d observed that it was moving at something like how fast it had moved every time it had been catching up to her- a couple times faster than she can run. She takes the next step towards the door. She doesn’t know if it’s stopped moving since- but she does know she’s beginning to get hungry. She shudders again at the thought of how far it might have traveled- and of how far away from familiar terrain she might be.
She jumps and bolts to the side as the door suddenly slides open in front of her. Then she sticks one eye out around the corner, peering out at the now open doorway- with nothing there. She steps out from her cover and makes her way out the door.
The cold greets her like a wall of ice as she emerges into the daylight. She shivers visibly, pressing her wings firmly against her sides as she looks around, crawling to the edge.
It’s not moving, that she can tell. But it’s sitting in the middle of a great big field of ice. She can see unfamiliar mountains for miles around.
She looks down at the ground. It looks to be solid ice.
She shivers her wings against her side. It seems colder here than at Fort Flurry- it must have headed north once again. Either that, or it’s still early morning. She gazes momentarily at Celestia’s sun, hovering just overtop those distant mountains. She hopes it’s going up, not down.
She gives a good shudder, shifting slightly back towards the door- and the inviting warmth behind it. She raises her hoof, touches her necklace. Who knows, there might be somepony out here.
It finds one of her friends. “Hello?” they ask.
She twists in place, staring in the direction her friend is in, straight through solid metal. “Applejack!”
The telepathic linkage Twilight’s spell generates doesn’t carry images, but it can carry expressions. She hadn’t understood the explanation- but she knows Applejack is raising her eyebrows at her.
“Is something wrong?” Applejack asks.
“No,” she answers promptly, before sending her honest friend a sheepish grin. “I had two… Near-death experiences recently. Almost crushed to death, then almost slaughtered by minotaur. You?”
Applejack sends her a laugh, making her flinch. She almost hides in the open doorway. “You make that sound normal,” Applejack states. “I’m in a cave under a Centauran base, stealing their food. I’m amazed I haven’t been caught yet.”
Her eyes widen. “Wait, you can do that?”
Applejack sends her a laugh. “Yep. Element of Honesty, stealing food. Remember, I was about as bad a liar as they get, back when I was a filly. I’m a bit rusty, though- and sneaking food from the storage tent just outside this cave is just a bit easier than telling a lie. How’ve you been doing- aside from the near-death?”
“After I was crushed, they beat me, cursed me, and took my Element. I… still don’t know what healed me. I ventured to Fort Flurry- where the Minotaurs had taken possession. They had- Wait, what’s that noise?”
Headshake. “You know I can’t hear it, right?”
She hangs her head. “Right. Probably just the wind anyways. Um… They had my Element, and I was able to get it back. I’m still not sure exactly what happened after that, but all the guards died… and all the Minotaurs did too.” She shudders.
“That’s… Strange. I ended up in the middle of this base after our move. In the supply tent, mind, not the cave. Good thing nothing saw me- if they did, I’d probably be dead by now. Do you know where- WHAT in tarNATION was THAT?”
She lets out a squeak, and actually hides in the doorway. After a moment, she slides further in, seeking the warmth. “What was what?”
“I… I think something just exploded. It’s getting all the Centaurs’ attention- I might be able to escape soon. Anyways, do you know where everypony else ended up?”
She sends a shake of the head. “No.”
“Drat. Do you know where we are?”
Another shake. “Also no… But I did meet… Uh… it’s a bit like a metal-”
“Gaah! Sorry, another explosion. Carry on.”
“Erm, like a metal mountain that moves. I’m pretty sure it’s what killed all the minotaurs at Fort Flurry- and I think it knows where we are.”
“Roger that… The Centaurs seem to be in a panic- unless I miss my AAah! Sorry… Unless I miss my guess, these explosions are rolling across their base- and they’re fleeing in response.” A momentary pause. “They’re coming from the same direction you’re in… Oh, here’s my opening.”