//------------------------------//
// Twinkle, Twinkle, little star 
// Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals: The Soul Thief 
// by kudzuhaiku 
//------------------------------//

The trash-strewn streets were quiet—almost eerily so. There was a lot of noise in the distance, but Twinkleshine found the near-silence of her immediate vicinity to be quite unsettling. She was in the middle of what was a bustling city, but the streets were almost deserted. All of her senses on high alert, her body ridged, twitchy, her axe held at the ready, she had to be mindful of where she stepped, lest she put a hoof down on shattered glass or jagged, crumbled bricks. 

Oh, and there was blood; enormous puddles and smears of blood. 

There were ruined brownstones around her. Some had doors ripped off, others had broken windows, while others still had tremendous holes smashed into the walls. It was as if something had swept through this area, invaded every home, and hauled away the residents. It was difficult not to imagine what had happened here, which was a dreadful, unwanted distraction. 

In the distance, a busted fire hydrant spewed water. 

Off to her right, she saw a pile of rubble, a collapsed set of stairs, and noticed a twisted, mangled leg protruding from the destroyed masonry. She approached, cautious, and examined the body, which was almost certainly dead. Using the pommel of her axe, she poked at the exposed frog, and there was no response. Pursing her lips, she spent a moment surveying the grisly scene, observing the poor mare buried beneath the rubble of what might have been her home, and a prickle of anger left her back feeling itchy. 

For the first time, she noticed the faint drone of the air raid siren way off in the distance. 

Leaving the dead mare behind, she continued down the narrow street. Her eyes darted in every direction as her ears pivoted, fearful that she might be caught unaware. It was not her eyes, nor her ears that alerted her to danger, but her thaumaturgical sensory organ. Horn tingling, she came to a halt and began to swing her head around. To the left, her horn tingled less, but to the right, a faint current could be felt in the base. She raised her axe and kept her eyes peeled, certain that danger was coming. 

A faint buzzing could be heard; her ears angled forwards while she bared her teeth in an almost wolfish manner. There were only so many enemies that buzzed. Bugbears, changelings, and bumbles—and she’d been warned that invading bumbles had come to Manehattan to exploit the chaos. Where they came from was unknown, as was the means by which they had come here. 

Bumbles were an insectoid race with weirdly mammalian faces. They had the appearance of bees—misshapen, mutant bees, and were about half the mass of a common pony. Each of their six segmented legs ended in a clawed hand, but the most dangerous part to them was their stinger. It functioned as both a means to inject a variety of venoms, but also acted as a magical foci, similar to a unicorn’s horn. Bumbles had a collection of rays, which did everything from stunning to domination. Their jelly completely corrupted changelings and turned them into bumble-drones. 

Twinkleshine didn’t know if she was ready, but she was prepared to give a good accounting of herself. Bumbles were dangerous; natural enemies of ponykind, and with a catalyst like Sumac to empower them—she didn’t want to think about what might happen. Gripping her axe, she ducked behind some stairs and waited in ambush. 



 

Sensing the incoming ray, Twinkleshine raised her mirror-finished axe before the blast even happened. She was lucky that she had her axe; ray spells could be deflected with any suitable reflective surface that could endure the blast and not be destroyed. Even a simple vanity mirror could stop a ray spell—once—but with a powerful ray, it was likely to shatter. Thankfully, her axe was made of sterner stuff. 

Rays, beams, and spells were all very different things, and she had learned about them extensively in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. A ray and a beam might look very similar, but were completely and utterly different, at least by matter of classification. Now, at this moment, she was putting all of her schooling and time spent in dueling club to the test. 

The reflected ray bounced as expected, and once reflected, harmlessly flew into a wall. Another ray was quick to follow. Rays were quick; like arrows made of light that delivered some magical effect. Twinkleshine returned fire with a beam, a continuous focused attack of heavy light, loaded photons that carried both a physical and magical element. The beam missed as the bumble dodged, and the stone pillar at the base of the stairs was cut neatly in twain by the stray blast. 

A third ray was fired, and this too was deflected; she swatted it away as if she were playing badminton with a dangerous beam of light. She marvelled at how quick she was, how impossible this, and was thankful for her schooling, which allowed her to sense the rays before they manifested. As the reflected ray passed through a window, Twinkleshine fought dirty, and hurled a steel trash can at the bumble. 

One segmented leg collapsed, bending in all the wrong ways, and the bumble buzzed in pain. 

Twinkleshine seized the opportunity, but did not advance. Reaching out with her telekinesis, she lifted the trash cans by the stairs, six in total, and manifesting as much force as she could muster, accelerated them to astonishing speeds. The bullet train of steel trash cans smashed into the bumble, one right after the other, each of them causing extensive harm. Legs buckled, chitinous armor cracked, and with the fifth can, she somehow sheared off the bumble’s stinger. 

When the bug beast hit the sidewalk, she raised the final, sixth can, and brought the hard steel edge down upon the bumble’s neck, severing it with dull, blunt force trauma. Almost panting, Twinkleshine watched as the dying body convulsed, its broken legs twitching and flailing about. 

The bumble bled red; this, along with its strange mammalian face, left her unsettled. 

A growing puddle of scarlet spread out from the decapitated corpse, staining the trash-strewn cement sidewalk. Wary for more danger, Twinkleshine kept her guard up, but also took a moment to collect herself. She had killed. It was not her first kill, but something about this one disturbed her. Or maybe it was the fact that she was alone, without allies, and she was already somewhat fatigued after all the fighting in Ponyville. 

She didn’t know what it was, or why it was, only that she was perturbed. 

Avoiding the corpse and the puddle of blood, she took off at a brisk trot in the direction the bumble had come from. Would she find more? It seemed likely. Hefting her axe, she held it out in front of her face to examine it, and saw that the mirrored, polished surface was unmarred. The crescent moon-shaped axe head was unblemished, undamaged, and this was comforting. 



 

Buzzing alerted her to danger, as well as the tingling of her magic sense. Lacking any form of useful cover, she dove into a dumpster. Not a great place to hide—in fact, it was a terrible place to take cover, because it was full of wet garbage, warm with decomposition. She landed on piles of half-rotten, fly-blown fruits and vegetables, most of which were cabbages. 

She thought cabbages smelled bad when Lemon Hearts boiled them; somehow, this was worse, so much worse, and she made herself a promise that she would never complain about Lemon Hearts cooking cabbage ever again. Why, this was even worse than what happened after a meal of boiled cabbage.

Raising her axe just a teeny, tiny bit, she used the reflection like a periscope, and was able to see two bumbles. They were talking to one another in low, droning voices, but she could not make out what they were saying. These bumbles were different than the one she had killed, as these had more armor, and their stingers were barbed. 

Perhaps the creepiest thing about bumbles were the eyes, which were decidedly mammalian, and not all that different from a pony’s eyes. Killing a changeling was a whole lot easier, because they looked alien. Harpies were easy to put down, because they just looked evil as can be. But bumbles looked like fuzzy-wuzzy bumblebees, with relatable mammalian faces and eyes. 

These two had to die. 

After they had passed by her location, when their backs were turned to her, she popped up out of the dumpster, surrounded by a cloud of buzzing flies and adorned with rotten salad bits. She was remarkably quiet for a mare mucking about in a dumpster, and with her axe at the ready, she contemplated her next action with great care. 

Rather than try something new and untested, she stuck with what she knew and cast a Dizzy-Dazzle spell. An explosive burst of concussive light flashed just in front of the bumble’s faces, blinding them, and stunning them too. They fell to the ground, clutched at their faces, and cried out in pain. This was Twinkleshine’s signature move, something she’d specialised in from a young age. Axe ready, she lept from the dumpster and moved in for the kill. 

Before her hooves hit the ground though, she knew she was in trouble, because a whole bunch of bumbles swooped down from the roofs up above. Making a split-second decision, still airborne, she grabbed the dumpster behind her, and hurled it with all of her telekinetic might at the approaching swarm of bumbles. Some flew left, some flew right, some went down, and some rose up—but not all of them were fast enough to dodge a dumpster flying at subsonic speeds. 

Twinkleshine hit the ground running just as the dumpster smashed into the side of a brick drug store and soda shop, crushing everything caught between it and the bricks. She kept her axe between her and her enemies, using it like a shield, all while running for her life. There were too many, far too many, and in the frantic rush, she couldn’t stop to count them all. Rays came darting down from above and speared the pavement all around her hooves. 

A pair of bumbles moved in to attack, their clawed fingers extended. This was good and bad; with the bumbles moving in to finish her off, the others had ceased firing, which was good. The bad thing, however, was that they had the advantage of being airborne, while she was stuck on the ground. 

The soldier bumbles began to recover, and rubbing their eyes, sat up in the road. 

Perhaps it would have been better to remain hidden in the dumpster. 

To her left was an appliance repair shop that had an intact window. With a hammering thud of telekinesis, she struck the glass. As it shattered into thousands of slivers, she gathered them up with her telekinesis and with high hopes for success, she hurled them at the two bumbles in hot, murderous pursuit. 

Hearing shrill, droning cries of pain, she cast a glance back over her withers and saw that her pursuers were now a bloody mess. Both had been blinded and their wings shredded by the dirty fighting. But with these two down, now the entire swarm moved in as one, and Twinkleshine began to suspect that she would not be captured. They weren’t even firing rays at her, but came at her as a phalanx. 

Though it was a tiring move, she cast a quick fireball, hoping to end this right here, right now. Mere seconds after the pea-sized blob of flame left her horn, the phalanx scattered, and the fireball passed through their ranks, failing to strike anything. Fearing her spell wasted, Twinkleshine manually detonated it, hoping that she might catch her attackers with the outer edges of the blast. 

She had no such luck. Though there was an impressive explosion, one worthy of Trixie Lulamoon’s admiration, the fireball was a resounding failure, and now, she was even more fatigued. The consequences of failure were steep, and she hoped that she would not pay for this with her life. 

Hooves skidding, she turned the corner and ran into the narrow space between buildings. A few carts were parked here, but she spotted nothing that would help her. The swarm was just behind her, getting closer with each passing second. Should she try another fireball? Perhaps the narrow confines would help. 

The skinny alley opened up onto a cobblestoned street, and there was a roundabout intersection with a few abandoned delivery wagons. It was still technically night time, even though she sun was shining, and a part of her mind wondered what traffic was like during the middle of the night. 

More bugs appeared, pouring out of a department store on the other side of the roundabout. Twinkleshine remembered that bumbles were hive minded, and she realised that the ones behind her had warned the others now in front of her. She was fronked and she knew it, so very fronked. There was no sense in running, she had to stop and make a stand. The hive-minded bumbles would just keep calling in reinforcements. 

With that in mind, maybe making a stand was a bad idea, and she took a brief second to consider this. She had no good options. If she ran, more bumbles would come to join the chase. If she stayed and fought, reinforcements would arrive, until she was overwhelmed. Her quick thinking put the pieces together, and concluded that the two soldier bumbles were probably dispatched to look for her, after she had killed a scout. 

She halted, ready to face her end, a lone unicorn against a growing swarm of bumbles. 

Baring her teeth, she raised her axe and eyeballed the approaching swarms. There were a few of the bigger, better armored bumbles, those with jagged, barbed stingers, and quite a few of the lighter, smaller types that she considered scouts. They weren’t attacking yet, for reasons she did not understand, and she wondered briefly if she would, in fact, be taken alive. The prospect of which terrified her. 

Perhaps they were silently conversing, deciding her fate. 

A few deep breaths restored air to her burning lungs as she tried to calm herself, she considered attacking them, but wasn’t sure what that might accomplish. They were planning something, silently plotting without words. Perhaps it would be best to run, and make them chase her. It was agonising not knowing what to do. 

The ponyhole cover in the street lifted and a dark figure wearing a birdlike mask spilled out. It was not alone, another figure came out, and other, and several more of them came up and out of the subway entrance. Mouth agape, Twinkleshine watched as the nightmarish masked marauders emerged from various locations. 

“We have you now, ja?” one of them said in a heavily accented mechanical voice. As he spoke, he raised a massive shotgun and waved it in the direction of the bumbles that had come out of the department store. “What did I tell you? If you run from me, you will die tired.” 

The bird-masked figures, many of them were armed with guns of some sort, and had swords as well. Twinkleshine suspected that she knew what the bumbles had been discussing, and why they had not attacked her—they were conveying the message that armed resistance had arrived. It was a tense moment, made more so when Twinkleshine noticed that some of the masked resistance were foal-sized. 

Heart in her throat, she thought of Sumac. 

“Master, I’m sick of mucking about in the sewers,” one of the foal-sized marauders said. “I’m ready for a bug hunt in the open. Give the word, Master.” 

Nothing happened. Guns were held at the ready, but no shots were fired. The bumbles hovered, no doubt coming to some silent consensus, and several of the cloaked, masked figures gathered around Twinkleshine, forming a protective barrier made of living flesh. It was so sweet of them to protect a lone, vulnerable mare, but if a fight started, and she suspected that it would, they would be quick to learn that she was no helpless powderpuff. 

When the first shot was fired, everything descended into chaos…