By the end of the first day in the castle most everypony knew Pinkie Pie, especially in the kitchen.
But to Pinkie’s great regret, there was no time to throw a castle-appropriate party. She had the venue, she had the cavernous kitchen, but the development group had a mission coming up, so her priority was on that.
Twilight had come up with an plan to go after the village Chrysalis had told them about. Since they didn’t know where it was, it might be a long trip. Best to be prepared.
Princess Celestia was lending them a railcar again. They would be living out of it. Pinkie was packing food for a week. If the search took longer than that, they would have to resupply. Of course, they could just bring along an entire boxcar of food, but, well, maybe not everypony had Pinkie’s appetite.
Packing up the final crate for delivery to the Canterlot railyard, Pinkie looked upon her work. Not everything she wanted, but plenty of high-energy long-lasting meals that would give the team the fuel they needed to kill everypony that stood in their way.
Well, at least to get them to that point. Pinkie reminded herself that killing wasn’t the end, it was a means to an end. Well, okay, killing was the end of somepony, but in this context she was referring to war plans and that was Twilight’s territory, not hers.
Twilight was going to kill Chrysalis.
There hadn’t been much time to analyze the attack on the café, what with everything else going on. After looking the evidence over from every angle Twilight could conceive, there really was no better candidate than Chrysalis for who had sold them out.
At least the others seemed willing to help her, if only to correct what they saw as her misguided trust in Chrysalis. Twilight asked Cadance to post at the school gate to wait for Chrysalis-as-Twilight to come out that afternoon. Moon Dancer and Lyra thought Cadance was Twilight’s sister. Whether Chrysalis knew who Cadance really was or not, she would be compelled to go along with Cadance’s request to walk together, whereupon Twilight and the others would intercept them when they were alone.
But Cadance eventually showed up without Chrysalis. “Those two fillies came up to me and asked where ‘Twilight’ was. Apparently she didn’t come to school today, and didn’t even contact the school to explain an illness.”
Chrysalis must have intercepted the goodbye letters that Twilight had written to her friends in order to take Twilight’s place, but then couldn’t be bothered to leave one of her own.
It wasn’t even the betrayal. Without Chrysalis’ information, finding the village would be more difficult, and there would be changelings among the villagers. Would they fight the Elements? Or had Chrysalis decided to be truthful about that one aspect?
Well, first they had to locate the village and that was going to be task enough.
The next morning, the private railcar was hooked to the back of a train headed for Fillydelphia. From there, they managed to convince a freighting company to let them use a siding north of the city in a small clearing of friendly trees. It was in the middle of nowhere, but that was the point.
A trip in a train car was one thing, but cramming in six mares and one spirit of magic started to feel a lot more like camping. At least they’d left Spitfire and Soarin’ in Canterlot, on assignment with Cadance.
Twilight handed out maps and compasses to them all. She’d already divided up search areas in a radius around the car and assigned them based on relative speed. “Okay, if you find a town out there somewhere, mark it down and we’ll review it when meet up for dinner.”
“Mark it down with what?” said Rarity.
Twilight blushed. “Sorry. Let me get everypony else some pens.”
She quickly went back inside the train car to grab them from the charting equipment she’d brought. If necessary, they could use one wall of the car to put up a large chart or investigation board.
Ater handing out pens, they broke off into their groups. Twilight was with Rarity this time, which was good from a conversation standpoint, though most of that was her monologuing about the outdoors. The low, tree-covered mountains made for a healthy hike, but, “This is just going to ruin my hooficure!”
Twilight kept silent. Rarity’s problems were not really problems, in the grand life-threatening scale, so as long as she wasn’t complaining about something more pressing, it faded into the background.
She read the map as they walked. There was a small cluster of mostly-abandoned ruins to the west known as Hollow Shades. Twilight had deliberately given herself that sector, just to see it. While the geography wasn’t quite right and she didn’t think it was the hidden village Chrysalis had mentioned, it was a possibility. But mostly she justed wanted to see the ruins.
Another hour of walking brought Twilight and Rarity within sight of Hollow Shades. The place had mostly crumbled to dust, to Twilight’s disappointment, but at least that meant nopony was around. They moved on before Rarity started a new line of complaining.
They finished up the area Twilight had assigned them and headed back without finding anything else. There was always the possibility that Chrysalis had been lying outright and there was nothing to find.
Back at the car, Rainbow and Fluttershy had gotten there first.
“We saw some smoke,” said Rainbow.
“It was outside the boundary, though, so it seemed like a good idea to tell somepony first,” Fluttershy added. Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“Did you mark the location?” Twilight asked, reaching for their map.
Applejack and Pinkie arrived just then. They joined the others around the map. Twilight held it so they could all see.
“That’s pretty far out there,” said Twilight, looking at the X on the map. “Rainbow and Fluttershy could maybe get there and back in one day. The rest of us...well, I guess we could transform for extra stamina and keep up a fast jog all day, but really I should probably look at getting the car moved and we’ll try this again from another angle.”
“I call first dibs on the shower,” said Rainbow.
“We could wait and see what Spike made for dinner first,” said Applejack. The rest headed towards the car.
Twilight stood by herself for a moment longer to examine the map. They could probably catch a mountain spur line out of Manehattan. Better remember to bring some wheel chocks.
She folded the map and started forward, but something caught the corner of her eye. She looked up, staring as a purple and black airship descended out of the clouds where it had been hidden. Two cannons on the bow fired.
Twilight barely had time to throw up a shield big enough to protect herself and the car inside it. With the limited prep time and as big as the hemisphere of magic had to be, it wasn’t hardly enough.
The cannon shells hit her shield and exploded, shattering it, the interrupted force still great enough to knock the car off the rails and toss Twilight head over heels back into the trees.
It took Twilight too long to get up, even though it was probably a matter of seconds. She was already transformed, which had apparently happened on instinct. There was no pain yet, so she used the lull to sprint across the clearing to the upended car.
The others were in various states. Fluttershy and Applejack were just getting to their hooves, apparently unhurt. Rainbow crawled out of the bathroom, which was now turned sideways. Pinkie was trying to extricate herself from a pile of broken window glass by figuring out which approach would cut her least, even though her blood was already everywhere.
“Again!” said Spike. “I get blown up twice in one week!” He seemed fine.
“What happened?” Rarity demanded, picking herself up. “I was just in the middle of slicing the carrots.” She looked down at the kitchen knife sticking out of her upper chest. “Oh.”
Twilight looked up at the sky through what was left of the wall. If the airship was reloading its guns, they were all sitting ducks. “Fluttershy, are you good?”
Fluttershy was already pulling the knife out of Rarity.
“Rainbow, Applejack?”
“Up.”
“Up.”
“Come on, we’ve got to get to that thing before they fire again! Spike, you too.”
Without waiting, Twilight yanked them into a teleport. Her face promptly slammed into the wooden side of the airship, hovering several hundred feet in the air.
Stunned, she started to fall, but Applejack grabbed her hoof. Applejack had stuck her scythe into the wood, hanging from it with her other foreleg.
“What-” Twilight blinked. “There must be some kind of antimagic shielding.”
“I’m going to take it down!” shouted Rainbow.
“Take out the weapons first!” Twilight yelled. She pulled harder on Applejack’s hoof, and, getting the message, Applejack put all her effort into swinging Twilight up.
She landed on the wooden deck, sword out. Applejack swung up behind her. Through her connection to Spike, Twilight could see Rainbow was already zooming in circles around the crew of the airship, who were either overgrown gorillas that needed haircuts or very overgrown hedgehogs.
Twilight started forward, but her sword clunked to the deck. She tried to lift it again, but only managed to roll it over with her magic. In desperation, she picked it up with her hoof, though it wasn’t nearly as secure as it had felt in her hand in the other world. Was the entire airship built to block magic?
Applejack and Rainbow didn’t seem to be having any trouble, and all three of their Elements were functioning. Rainbow hadn’t touched the airship, though, and Applejack’s earth pony magic was more subtle. With warning from Spike, Twilight dodged an attack by one of the beastly hedgehog creatures, rolling out of the way but unable to counter.
“Duck!” called Rainbow. Twilight did, and Rainbow slit the creature’s stomach open with her knife as she went by.
Twilight turned and managed to put her sword through another of the beasts, but its sheer mass kept it coming at her. She managed to get her weapon free and get out of its way before it fell over the side of the airship.
“Twilight, get-” Applejack shouted before she was hit from behind by a...more of a blue splash of magic than anything else, which seized her body. One of the hulking deck creatures punched her, knocking her all the way to the back of the airship.
A pony in a sleek set of maroon and black armor strode forward. Their body was completely covered, including a steel helmet with slits for eyes. There was a cage at the top for a horn, and Twilight could see a blue glow from inside.
Rainbow came around, firing her crossbow, but the bolts simply bounced off the pony’s armor. The opposing unicorn tossed their head and one of the lumbering henchcreatures reacted as if under direct control, pulling down a sail and rigging from one side of the airship that Rainbow had to abort her attack to avoid. She killed the beast in the exchange, though.
Twilight used the opportunity to advance from the other direction, but in her magicless caution wasn’t fast enough. The pony in armor turned to hit her with more of that strange, goopy magic that Twilight blocked with her sword, but just barely.
She stepped back but her hindquarters bumped into a furry belly. Without turning around, Twilight thrust her sword upward, spearing it through the jaw and cranium of the overgrown hedgehog creature. With as much muscle strength as she could muster, she leaned forward and used the flat of the sword to flip its body over her. It landed with a thud that shook the entire ship, though not on top of the armored pony as Twilight had hoped. They were too fast.
The barrier between them did give Twilight time for a quick glance over her shoulder. The beast she had just killed seemed to be the last of any help the presumably-captain of the airship had left, save for a much smaller hedgehog closer to the back of the vessel that merely looked on from a distance instead of joining the combat. The decks were slick with blood and scattered with bodies. Twilight still didn’t see Applejack, but Rainbow was coming around again. She tried to time her attack to arrive simultaneously.
The quickest way was right over the adversary she’d just killed, and the armored pony realized that too. They spread magic over its back, coating the spikes and having the intended effect of deterring Twilight from taking that route. Her timing off, she wasn’t there when Rainbow arrived.
Rainbow ducked a ball of blue magic, which was too slow to hit her, but threw off her own attack. With their opponent sidestepping and managing to get a light hit into her side, Rainbow was now at terminal velocity without a target under her. Twilight heard the bones in her foreleg snap as Rainbow slammed into the deck.
Without a pause, though, Rainbow rolled to her back, raising her crossbow with her other hoof. The bolt glowed white hot with magic as she aimed it point blank for the center of her opponent’s helmet. She fired, but the bolt bounced off. A wave of absorbing magic washed over the armor, spreading out from the impact point.
It’s Element-resistant too!? Twilight could see only a small scorch that Rainbow’s attack had made. She’d seen those bolts go through several trees with no problem. And that probably stunned Rainbow more than Twilight.
The armored pony grabbed Rainbow by the throat, raising their other hoof. They stomped downward so hard the deck plank on the other side of Rainbow’s head cracked.
The only Element left standing, Twilight raised her sword as the pony in armor advanced. Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to plot a way to doing something to her opponent. Rainbow’s attack had, well, done something, but not nearly enough. Twilight was going to have to come up with more power, a lot more.
At least she had less to think about now, no attacks from the rear. Twilight tried an exploratory strike with her sword that her opponent simply blocked with their armored foreleg with the sound of steel on steel. They kept coming. Grabbing one of her throwing knives, she aimed for an eye slit in the helmet but was a quarter-inch off, the blade bouncing harmlessly away.
Twilight tried again, aiming her sword for a joint in the armor, but was unsuccessful. What was this stuff made of? She could see her attacks being absorbed, so if only there was some way to disrupt that counter-magic.
One more attack was blocked, but this time the armored pony tried to disarm her. Twilight kept her sword, but learned a lesson. Unfortunately, she suspected her adversary had too.
“Hiii-yah!” Spike came plummeting from the sky and tackled the small hedgehog. The armored pony, even though they’d been facing Twilight, seemed to sense it and turned to look. Twilight used the opportunity to charge again.
Her attack was either expected or the same sense warned the armored pony to counter. This time, Twilight’s sword didn’t even find the steel of their armor before being twisted out of her hoof. She received a glancing blow across the face that nevertheless spun her in a stunned half-circle.
Twilight had never been in this position before, unarmed, with an enemy at her back, and losing a fight. Worse, they had her sword, and if they tried to use it… Wait, would it even work? Could Twilight turn it back to a pen without touching it herself? You could still kill somepony with a pen…
It was strange the multitude of thoughts that forced themselves through her mind in that instant when she really should have been concentrating. But one memory broke away from the pack and rose above the rest, of Shining Armor visiting her years ago. Twilight had never used what he taught her because she’d never been in this position before.
Twilight put all her strength into it. Her forelegs bent and then released. Her hind legs kicked. She felt the crash of armor on her hooves, louder than any strike before.
The armored pony was knocked completely off their hooves, involuntarily flipping backwards. Twilight noted that there hadn’t even been any ripple of Element-absorbing magic this time. She reversed her position and dove forward, grabbing up her sword.
There was another crash as the armored pony landed on the deck. Their helmet seemed loose, and Twilight could clearly see two dents in it. She swung her sword low, the edge catching the bottom of the helmet and popping it loose.
Underneath was a mulberry-colored mare with a lighter mane. Her eyes were turquoise, one of them scarred. But the most striking thing Twilight found about her opponent’s face was the broken horn, blue magic dripping as if blood. The wound was sealed - it wasn’t fresh.
Twilight put the point of her sword to the other mare’s throat. She stood there for several seconds, both of them breathing hard.
The mare in armor said, “I yield.”
Twilight heard hooves stumbling towards her, but didn’t look up. Applejack said, “Boy howdy, I ain’t never seen a buck like that outside the farm.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll live, I reckon, but you should be more concerned about Rainbow.”
“We need to get this airship on the ground.”
“I’ll figure it out, one way or another.” Applejack went to find the controls.
Spike?
I’m here.
Who was that you fought?
He’s like some sort of dark spirit of magic! I’m holding him.
Now that was interesting. Twilight looked at the mare on the deck before her. No, not an Element, but was her armor powered by the same kind of magic? Twilight made a mental note to thank Spike for disrupting it.
Twilight felt the airship turn and begin to descend. Have Fluttershy meet us on the way. Rainbow really needs help.
She still hadn’t taken her eyes from those of her prisoner. Neither had the other mare.