Constant vigilance at last paid dividends. Moondancer trotted through the active battlefield that was Ponyville, ignoring minor threats and detonating anything that might get in her way. She had an antidote for the magic-nullifying dust and distributed this to those in need as she passed. Her mission? Find and recover Sumac at any cost.
It was a grim mission, with explicit instructions that the enemy could not be allowed to take Sumac; if he could not be recovered, alive, then she was to deny the enemy a strategic resource. She didn’t like these orders, not at all, not in the slightest, but she would see them through. But, oh how she would regret them. Even as she searched for the sorcerer, her anxiety and dread for the worst outcome grew within her like a ravenous cancer.
One of the cat creatures, like Catrina but not Catrina, was menacing a group of unicorns trying to defend a house. Wand in paw, he was weaving a spell, something no doubt awful, as nefarious green magic could be seen coalescing around the copper tip of the wooden casting implement. Concentrating, Moondancer ended the conflict by teleporting the invader approximately one-thousand feet straight up in the air above. Then, she passed several glass phials filled with antidote to the unicorns before she departed in search of the sorcerer.
Her ears pricked when she heard the distinctive sound of exploding harpy eggs; this was a problem, but not an unexpected one. It was a reckless choice and it showed that the enemy lacked real organisation. Harpies were indiscriminate killers and were just as likely to kill Sumac with their reckless assaults as capture him. Because Grogar lacked certain magical artifacts, harpies could be commanded—but could not be controlled. Still trotting with purpose, she clucked her tongue at the enemy’s carelessness.
A unicorn wearing the remains of a rat catcher’s outfit moved to intercept her and Moondancer was prepared. When the strange unicorn mare’s horn charged, Moondancer cast Rebounding Reflection, a powerful type of spell mirror, a spell that very few unicorns were capable of casting. Moondancer was not only capable of casting it, she had made improvements on Star Swirl’s defensive barrier.
The telekinetic bolt fired by the strange mare, though rather weak, struck the barrier and was returned to the sender with a great deal of multiplicative force. It rebounded at an angle and upon return, struck the unicorn mare in her left front leg—which was instantly pulped and turned into a fine red mist. She tumbled down with a cry, and then shrieked with agony.
Moondancer wasted no time finishing her off; a casual telekinetic flick was enough.
Carousel Boutique was under siege, Rarity was in trouble, and Moondancer found her objective. The roof of Rarity’s shop was on fire, reinforcements were arriving just as Moondancer had arrived, and Fluttershy—battered and bloody—was holding both Sumac and Pebble in the doorway of the burning boutique. Dead animals were all over the road and fallen ponies as well.
Harpies were coming in from the east, a group of Abyssinians from the south, and unicorns wearing rat catcher costumes from the west. Scissors and all manner of remorseless sharp things flew through the air in what could only be described as a telekinetic tornado as Rarity made her valiant stand. Beside her, Rainbow Dash pummeled anything that got too close. A bear, bloodied, was fighting diamond dogs and Abyssinians.
The timber roof of the boutique creaked as it burned ever-closer to a state of collapse. Smoke roiled from the upper windows. Rarity, seemingly unaffected by the nullifying dust, held her ground through sheer telekinetic prowess. Circumstances being what they were though, Rarity was losing, and with reinforcements incoming, Moondancer’s initial assessment of the situation seemed dire indeed.
Gunfire rang out; not the shotgun blasts filled with pellets and nullifying dust, no. Something bigger and nastier, something that was decidedly lethal. The harpies fired explosive eggs and the incoming Abyssinians began to prepare spells. Sensing that her objective might be in jeopardy, Moondancer took decisive action in the most spectacular way.
“No,” she said, her voice one of utter, inconceivable calm.
Moondancer did several things all at once, her magic not suffering in the slightest from being distributed over many tasks. Even more impressive, she did all of this at the same time. The roof was extinguished, the fire, heat, and energy sucked up and channeled into a destructive cone of ignition that set the flock of harpies ablaze. As for the incoming harpy eggs, each of those were carefully teleported and redirected into the oncoming crowd of spellcasting Abyssinians, with explosive, limb-rending results.
She wrangled the bullets too, harnessing their energy, their momentum, she liquified the lead and teleported it behind the false rat catchers. When it reappeared, it continued flying, as bullets were wont to do, and the enemy unicorns were pelted with blobs of boiling, fluid lead. Screams filled the night as invaders dropped, all of them maimed, burned, and incapacitated by Moondancer’s devastating assault.
Situation: neutralised.
Not too far away, Moondancer noticed Vinyl Scratch engaging a mob. Everything was on fire around Vinyl, and so was Vinyl herself. From the looks of things, Vinyl had the situation in hoof—at least now that the incoming reinforcements had been dealt with. Smart mare, Vinyl. The magic nullifying dust could not affect her if it was burned away. Vinyl’s fireballs were the bane of Ponyville’s thatched roofs, but Moondancer didn’t have time to worry about that right now.
She had her sorcerer; as a bonus, she had her second objective as well.
“Give me Sumac and Pebble,” she commanded while she strode over to where Fluttershy held them.
“Get them to someplace safe!” Fluttershy’s voice held none of its usual timidity. “Go!”
Moondancer snatched them both up and before either of them could say anything, she teleported, obeying her instructions to the letter. With the sorcerer secured, Moondancer stepped through the aether, returning to Twilight, grateful that no horrid, drastic action had to be taken. Victory was hers, and she was glad to have recovered her friends.
“You’re back.” Twilight tried to control the faint, tremulous waver of worry in her voice. “You were gone a bit longer than I anticipated. But I see that you recovered both Sumac and Pebble. Excellent.” After taking a deep breath, she turned her attention to the two terrified foals. “Are both of you alright? Sumac, you’re bleeding. Looks like scratches. Cloudy should be able to patch you right up. Boomer came to me and told me that you needed help. Oh, there she is. She heard her name.”
Heaving a sigh of relief, she watched as Sumac pulled Boomer into a hug.
“Moondancer, report.”
“Teleportation remains difficult, though not impossible. I was able to teleport an enemy straight up with ease though. Whatever is causing the interference is at ground level and can be overcome with smaller objects with enough concentration.” Moondancer took a moment to adjust her glasses while thinking about how difficult her own teleportation had been and then she gulped in a deep breath. “What other objectives can I fulfill?”
“We need prisoners… for interrogative purposes. I want them alive. They don’t need to be very alive, just alive enough.” With a turn of her head, Twilight looked her friend in the eye. “But that is a secondary or even tertiary objective. Go out and restore order. I don’t care about the cost. The town can be rebuilt. Secure the area near the hospital first and foremost, because lives are much harder to replace. I’ll come to join you once I send Sumac and Pebble to safety.”
Twilight thought of one more thing. “Oh, see that Rarity is brought to the hospital. Nopony sews like she does. She can stitch up multiple ponies all at the same time. Get as many pegasus ponies in the air as possible so they can transport casualties. Go.”
“As you command,” replied Moondancer with a bow of her head; then, without further ado, she vanished.
“Catrina is here,” Pebble said while clinging to Sumac.
“I am aware.” Twilight lifted up a portal gem and began to charge it. “Using zap apples, I was able to duplicate Sumac’s magical signature. Spike was very, very brave, and he’s out there right now, spreading it around. Catrina will be kept busy searching for a while. I hope.”
“What if Catrina finds Spike?” Pebble asked.
“Spike understood the risks,” Twilight replied, and again, she had to struggle to keep the worrisome fear out of her voice. “He’s a very brave dragon. Just like Boomer. Okay, the three of you, hold on to one another. Just like last time, you’re going to the Rock Farm, where you’ll be safe.”
“I don’t wanna go—”
“Sumac…” Twilight’s voice was firm, but only because she forced it to be so. “You know what must be done. I’m sorry. As soon as I am able, I’ll come to collect you, and I’ll bring you home.”
She watched as the colt closed his eyes. Not a word was said. Pebble pulled him a little closer, trying to comfort him, and Boomer clung to him, but was mindful of her tiny, sharp claws. For a moment, sheer terror gripped Twilight, she had the most dreadful thought; she wondered if she would ever see them again. Of course she would—she immediately dismissed the thought before it could paralyse her into inaction.
“I love you… all of you. I’ll come for you as soon as everything is safe, I promise.” Before they had a chance to respond, Twilight sent them away. With a crackle, the portal gem, now fully charged, blinked with blinding light and she was left all alone.
Then, Twilight too, blinked out of existence.
Sumac hadn’t even had the chance to recover from the long-range portaling when he knew that something was wrong. His ears, though ringing, heard shouting, voices raised in fear. There was a storm overhead, a massive vortex filled with thunderbolts and dire, shadowy faces that lurked in the swirling clouds. With each flash of lightning came cannon-blasts that threatened to leave him deaf. Ears ringing, the colt tried to raise his head, but had to fight back a powerful wave of nausea that almost overcame him.
“What are you doing here?”
The voice was familiar somehow, but Sumac, in his current state, had trouble placing it. It was not a pony voice, it was feminine, but rough, scratchy, and a bit barky. Gulping, trying to swallow the rising contents of his stomach, he was snatched up from the ground, lifted, and held in front of a familiar face.
“It’s me, Kabuki. Don’t you recognise me? What are you doing here? Long Ears!”
At the mention of his name, he came running, and Limestone came with him. Sumac was glad to see them, but worried at the same time, because there seemed to be trouble. In an instant, Limestone was all over Pebble and Sumac heard crying from his friend and constant companion. There was no shame in crying… though Sumac struggled to keep himself from doing so.
“This is bad.” The voice of Long Ears sounded as though he was barely in control of himself. “An army approaches. You shouldn’t be here. Even now, they gather, off some distance away. The strange magic of this place keeps them from appearing here.”
Sumac knew this; he knew of the ley lines and how the Rock Farm made magic misbehave. He also knew how poison joke had an effect upon the phenomenon. But there was no time to have a good think about that right now. Kabuki had grown since the last time he had seen her, she had grown so much larger and he almost vanished in her embrace. It made him feel secure in ways he could not comprehend.
“Well, this has gone from bad to worse!” Cloudy’s voice cracked with almost every word as the mare circled around both Limestone and Pebble. “For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why an army gathered to attack us, but now it all makes sense. We have to get you out of here!”
“It takes time for the students to activate the portal gem—”
“Igneous, they’ve only done it during drills… we don’t know if they can do it under pressure. What if whatever is attacking interferes somehow?”
Igneous, who stood a short distance away, began to toss his head around in frustration. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, and the muted sound of falling rain could be heard coming from nearby. The wild weather grew worse with every passing second and the storm seemed poised to become a raging tempest.
Sumac sensed strange magic at work.
“The army amasses!” another diamond dog shouted, almost breathless as he jogged closer. “Already they march! The first wave is coming, even as more continue to appear!”
With a soft, worried whimper, Kabuki lifted Sumac, held him up for a moment to look at him, and then, with a pained expression, she placed him upon Cloudy’s back, where Boomer jumped up to join him. One paw came to rest upon the sword on her hip, and her gaze settled upon Long Ears.
“We’re running out of time!” said the breathless, panting diamond dog.
“We have time to prepare for our end.” Long Ears stood straight, tall, and proud. “We must buy time. The army must be held off so that there is time for the portal gem to be charged. Our friends must escape. If we cannot live as good dogs, than we shall die as good dogs, but good dogs we shall be.”
Sumac watched as Long Ears hunkered down, and Kabuki joined him. Together, holding paws, they prayed: “Black Hound, we ask for courage to meet our end. Carry us upon the divine wind, so that we might die as we lived, with honour and virtue. Hachikō gave us our honour back, let us be worthy of his wise tutelage.”
“Kamikaze!” Kabuki shouted as she rose.
“Kamikaze!” Standing up, Long Ears drew his sword while hollering the words for all to hear.
“For the Black Hound! Kamikaze run! Bring the Divine Wind!”
Swords and weapons were drawn. Bows were prepared. Sumac could feel some strange tension in the air, and then, that was when it happened. It grew dark. The light, what little there was, faded, retreating to whatever place the light went when the darkness came to call. A terrifying inky blackness crept over everything, and Sumac could see his breath as a chill crept over him.
The wind and darkness took shape. As the lightning flashed, it illuminated a giant made of swirling darkness. Eyes, glowing witchfire green could be seen as the figure took shape. The diamond dogs had prayed for the assistance of their god… and in an odd, scary turn of events, their god, their Black Hound had shown up.
As the thunder crashed and spears of lightning spilled down from the heavens, the Black Hound appeared, a giant hulking brute of a diamond dog. It was unlike anything that Sumac had ever seen, and his magic sense tingled in an overwhelming way. She held a glowing green sword that seemed far too tiny in her paws, and beside her, in the most curious turn of events so far, was a zebra.
“The mongrel hordes come!” Kabuki cried. “Let us sweep them from the field of battle!”