//------------------------------//
// Act 2, Chapter 5 - Who pulls YOUR Strings? 
// Story: Hoof and Claw Versus the World 
// by Chythar 
//------------------------------//

Nightmare Moon and I had finally found a sheriff's station, and were attempting to take it over - by force.







I walked through the now-open doorway, and moved to catch up to the dark mare just as she turned to her right to face the room.  Finally reaching her side, I did the same and tried to figure out what we had walked into.  The room was fairly large, longer than it was wide.  Windows to our left and behind us revealed that this was a corner room in the building.  The windows all had vertical blinds and were drawn closed, but the vanes were all turned so I could still see outside.

Beyond the small open space we stood in, which was now littered with smashed furniture, the rest of the large room was filled with two rows of four cubicles each.  The cubicle walls were about medium-height, tall enough to give some privacy but short enough so most people could stand and look over them.  An aisle to access the cubicles was on the left by the windows, and a double-wide hallway was on the right next to the opposite wall.  An open door could be seen at the far end of the right hallway, in the back corner of the room.  The walls of the room were painted some shade of off-white, and the color almost matched the gray fabric on the cubicle walls.

Bleh, how boring.

Several uniformed police officers were visible in the cubicle farm, all of them staring at us.  Some of the officers were standing in the walkways holding paperwork of some sort.  Others were poking their heads around or over cubicle walls.  I made a quick head count and came up with eleven officers.  The room was unnaturally quiet.  I expected to hear the officers talking to each other, or shouting at us to surrender.  But all I heard were a few whispered words and the hiss of the air conditioning.

None of the officers were moving to confront us.  And who could blame them?  They just saw a security door get knocked aside like it was nothing.  Then a black horse with silver armor and wings walked in, accompanied by a tall black cat also wearing armor.  Not exactly a common sight.

Using something just shy of the Royal Voice, Nightmare Moon announced her intentions to all within earshot.

"Good evening.  I am Nightmare Moon, and I will be taking over this facility.  Surrender now, or be overcome."

Her statement broke the officers out of their stunned silence.  All the ones in sight dropped whatever was in their hands and pulled out their sidearms.  The officers inside the cubicles used the flimsy cubicle walls for cover, while others chose to stand out in the open.  All aimed their weapons at the two of us.  The threat was plain to see, so the dark mare and I brought up our shields and the battle began.

Loud alarm bells rang throughout the station, informing all in the building that they were under attack.  For some reason, the noise made me think of the fire alarm drills from school.  Nightmare Moon and I split up, both silently agreeing that we should not cluster together.  The Moon Mistress moved towards the far windows, while I moved closer to the doorway we had just broken through.  This way, we provided separate targets for the officers and effectively split their forces between us.

But despite splitting up, I still had several officers to deal with.  And I really, REALLY didn't want to get shot.  So I laid down several physical shunts onto my shield, ducked down, closed my eyes and prayed for the best.  Within moments, several gunshots rang out into the air.  Even though I was expecting to be shot at, the loud sounds still made me flinch.  Yet, I felt nothing.

Did they miss me?

Opening my eyes, I looked around at the officers in the room to see if any of them were shooting at me.  To my surprise, some were.  I mean, I really shouldn't have been surprised - I was technically at war with them.  But I was expecting each shot to hurt, somehow.

Did we find the one sheriff's station whose aim is worse than a platoon of Stormtroopers?

All of the officers facing me looked surprised, probably wondering why I was not hurt.  One checked her gun to make sure it was loaded.  Another fired a shot at me.  My emotions had changed from scared to curious, so I focused on my shield to see if I could see the bullet hit.  And I did.  The bullet got stuck in my shield, like a dart into a dart board, then fell harmlessly to the floor.  Two more shots rang out, and this time I concentrated on the shunts.  I could feel them working, draining away the physical energy from the bullets.

They must be absorbing all of the kinetic energy of each round.  Guess I overdid it on the shunts.

As I was no longer worried about getting shot, I casually stood up and took my time looking over the room.  I guess I was expecting a firefight like I saw in the movies; hundreds of bullets flying around the room, with the smoke and smell of gunpowder covering everything.  But that's not what I saw.  The room was fairly quiet, with the occasional gunshot ringing out into the air.  But despite the gunshots, I could smell nothing but recycled air from the air conditioning system.  A glance at the officers facing me revealed that they had their guns drawn and aimed at me, but they were not shooting.

On the other side of the room, I could see Nightmare Moon simply standing in one place, and allowed the officers to attack her without retaliation.  Each attack, whether it be a pistol shot or a chair thrown at her, merely earned a frown or a roll of her large teal eyes.

From what little I remember of horse social behavior, they only fight to submission and will surrender if it's clear they can't win.  If Equestrian ponies think the same way as earth horses, then Nighty over there is trying to prove that she's too strong for the officers and they can't hurt her.  That theory also fits with what she told me outside the station.

I turned back towards the officers watching me.  As I turned, they tensed up and gripped their guns just a bit tighter.

And these officers aren't shooting at me because they can't get through my shield and I'm not attacking them.

Over the incessant alarm bells, I heard the voice of Nightmare Moon.

"I tire of this.  By not surrendering, you have incurred my wrath.  Have at thee!"

The crackle of lightning echoed around the room, then I heard a human scream.  The dark mare shouted over the alarm again, but this time to me.

"If thou art done sightseeing, We could use thy help with these guards!"

"Uh, yes Mistress."

With but a thought, I summoned paralyzing lightning into my hands.  The lightning arched and spat from my palms, making an awesome and fearsome light show.  More gunshots rang out into the air as several officers opened fire at me.  I guessed we had become a credible threat, since we had finally attacked an officer directly.  Looking around for an easy target, I focused on an officer who was both standing out in the open and shooting at me.  Just like throwing a baseball, I pulled my left arm back and prepared to hurl a ball of lightning.  However, I hesitated.  After a moment, I realized why.  It felt...wrong.

What am I doing?  I was about to attack a police officer!  Why?!  They're just trying to do their jobs, we're the ones that --

We're the bad guys.  Oh god, I'm a bad guy.  I don't understand why I'm doing this, it's all wrong!

Suddenly, the room began to spin.  Overcome with a wave of dizziness, I dropped the lightning spell and held my head in my hands.  The more I tried to calm down, to steady myself, the more the world spun around me.  I found I could not keep my balance any longer and I dropped to my knees.

I could hear nothing but my own blood rushing in my ears.  Every time I opened my eyes the dizziness got worse.  All I could smell was copper, and my body felt totally numb.  Just as I felt totally cut off from the world, a loud voice started screaming in my head.


OBEY THE MISTRESS


Yes...

Deciding I has dawdled long enough, I summoned up my illusion magic.  I had been thinking about how to shield us from the security cameras in the room, and simply blocking them would not work.  If I missed one, all my work would be for nothing.  And the snow would eventually melt.  So, how to confuse the cameras?  Well, Nightmare Moon was essentially a cartoon character brought to life.  Why not summon more of the same?

A mere thought, and the classic Scooby Doo gang were running around the room.  Another thought and the Powerpuff Girls were flying around at random.  I added HIM and Mojo Jojo just for the heck of it.  Three small toy-sized Iron Man characters, all in different armor styles, flew around and knocked papers off of desks with their repulsor rays.  Spongebob Squarepants appeared and kicked the closest officer in the shins, but he immediately popped like a balloon when the officer kicked back.

After Spongebob's 'death', I realized that the illusions had to be more durable.  So I added a new spell to them, the one that let illusions survive being hit.  Re-summoning Spongebob with the new spell, he not only survived another kick but he got back up and bit the same officer in the leg.

Excellent.

The constant movement distracted all the officers so much that they couldn't focus.  Some of them stopped firing their guns and just watched, while cartoon characters from their childhood cavorted around the room.  It was total chaos, Discord would have be proud.

Once the Moon Mistress realized that the officers were using the cubicle walls for shelter, she acted to eliminate their cover.  A brisk wind whipped up in the room, which quickly increased to hurricane force.  Then it was unleashed upon the cubicle farm.  The flimsy material could not hold up against such an onslaught, and it broke apart under the strain.  Fabric walls, desks, computers, chairs and unlucky officers all flew against the far wall to land in a messy pile.

As soon as the cubicle farm was reduced to rubble, the wind died as suddenly as it began.  Officers buried under the rubble groaned in pain and slowly began to free themselves.  Unfortunately for us, too few officers were trapped and thus their numbers had only diminished slightly.  We still faced several armed foes and more were likely on the way.

As if on cue, two officers ran into the room from the far doorway with guns drawn.  One of them stopped and stared at us, until her partner yanked her arm to get her attention.  A third officer ran in from the doorway that Nightmare Moon had smashed through.  All three joined their comrades and opened fire on us.

Something inside me pushed me to attack the new officers, to protect the Mistress.  But it just didn't feel right to attack them directly.  Instead, I kept them distracted with my illusions.  Some of the illusory creatures would kick, punch and bite.  But flying ones would dive at someone and make them duck.  Problem was, the illusions couldn't hit very hard.  And they could only take so much damage before they popped.  It only took a few good hits or a bullet before the illusion vanished.  I had to keep re-summoning them to keep the chaos in the room going.  To spice things up, I made the illusions move faster so they were harder to hit.

I was considering adding some more cartoon characters to the mix, when I heard my Mistress call to me.

"Student!  Attend me!"

Ignoring the officers, whose small-arms fire still couldn't penetrate my shield, I simply stood up and briskly walked towards the dark mare.  From what I could see, several officers had dragged over a couple of desks and had taken cover behind them.  They were then free to concentrate their fire on the Night Mare.  And much like when she and I sparred, her concentration faltered under fire.  Her shield held strong, but her attacks went wild.  The desks were covered in scorch marks, but the officers behind them appeared to be unhurt.

As soon as she saw me approach, the embattled mare beckoned me even closer.

"Come, shield for me while I attack!"

The officers heard her words, saw me approaching, and turned their fire upon me.  Their fire joined the other officers, which meant that every officer in the room was throwing high-velocity metal slugs at my shield.  The physical shunts on my shield were holding, but this time they couldn't bleed off the kinetics fast enough.  I felt like I was being hit by a barrage of rocks, even though I wasn't actually being hit.

Once I got to her side, Nightmare Moon somehow walked through my shield then dropped her own.  Thus, I was shielding both of us while she was free to attack at will.  Two shots of paralyzing lightning later, and two officers were down.

Then the tide of battle began to turn against us.  From across the room, I heard an officer shout.

"Our pistols aren't getting through!  Someone get to the armory and get us something bigger!"

To me, that meant automatic weapons.  Anything with explosive force would endanger the officers themselves, so I didn't think they would use them.  If the officers began to retreat, we'd have to be very, very careful.  I tried to think of a way to protect us from the incoming reinforcements, but the feedback from my shield kept me distracted.  Eventually, I simply ran out of time.

An officer entered through the far door with a pair of M16 rifles in her hands.  Or were they AR-15's?  I'm no gun expert.  Either way, they were big trouble.  As I tried to warn Nightmare Moon, the officer tossed a rifle to another nearby officer and they both opened fire on us.

Instant pain!  The physical shunts on my shield were barely holding, but they couldn't absorb the impacts of so many concentrated impacts fast enough.  I felt like I was being pounded with sledgehammers, and I was having a really hard time keeping my focus.  I tried to warn my Mistress that I couldn't hold out much longer.

"Can't hold--"

But I was too late.  In an instant, my shield shattered with the sound of shattering glass and we were peppered by bullets.  High-velocity metal ricocheted off our magically-enhanced armor.  Nightmare Moon's armor protected her for the few moments we were exposed, until she brought her own shield up.  But I was not so lucky.

Agony exploded in my right side as I felt my insides twist around, and something white-hot burrowed deep into my flesh.  The pain was indescribable.  I instinctively clutched my wounded side with my hands and collapsed to the floor.

Glancing down at me, Nightmare Moon verbally cursed me out.

"Useless!"

I was in no shape to argue.

The agony was so intense, I couldn't even think.  I had never been shot before, nor hurt worse than a sprained ankle when I was a kid.  In comparison to that sprain, this gunshot wound was absolutely excruciating.  Each shuddering breath I took shot stabbing pain through my torso.  Fragments of thoughts passed through my brain: bandaging the wound, being wheeled into a hospital, arrested and thrown into jail.  And something in my head pushed me to get up and protect the Mistress.  But above it all, I just wanted the pain to end.

Abruptly, the pain dropped down to a manageable level.  And I could feel something inside me...moving.  Had I gone into shock?  I had this overpowering need to look at my injury, so I gingerly shifted my body around to get a better look at it.  An injury which had changed again so it felt no worse than a pulled muscle.  While I watched, the weird pushing feeling from inside had reached the surface of my skin.  A moment later, a bullet slipped out of my flesh and fell to the carpeted floor.

What the...

Under my stunned gaze, the wound closed up and was immediately covered in re-grown fur.  It was unbelievable!  Patting down the formerly-wounded area, I could feel no sign of the injury and I felt completely normal.

Huh.  Looks like I got that Alicorn healing factor after all.

With my injury healed, I felt that I was back up to my full strength and could protect my Mistress once again.  I looked up at Nightmare Moon to see how she was doing, and she was not doing well.  Her shield had cracks all over it, and the grimace on her muzzle told me she was in trouble.  Looking outwards, every officer I could see was concentrating their fire at a spot on Nightmare Moon's shield, a spot right in front of her chest.  I watched an officer hand another a magazine clip; the clip was slammed home and that officer opened fire.  I also noted a growing pile of spent bullets and casings piling up in front of the shield.

Due to the nature of magical shielding, I knew each crack in Nightmare Moon's shield sent pain back into the dark mare.  It had to be messing with her concentration, and I wondered how much longer she could hold out.

I had my answer in moments.

Her shield suddenly dented inwards like a stubborn eggshell, and a second later it failed completely with the sound of shattering glass.

To this day, I still can't believe we got so lucky.  I was summoning up a special shield just as hers failed, sparing her from the ballistic impacts.  This shield of mine was about an inch thick, and rather than a full sphere it only covered the side facing the officers.  I had placed as many physical shunts on it as I had time for, and kept adding more until the bullet impacts felt like raindrops on an umbrella.

The Night Incarnate had closed her eyes instinctively as her shield failed.  She snapped her eyes back open as soon as she realized that, not only was she not dead but she wasn't even hurt.  She looked around frantically, probably trying to figure out why she wasn't dead.  A glance at my shield and another at me, and she had her answer.

Growling in frustration (and perhaps embarrassment) at her failure to guard herself, she exclaimed aloud in the Royal Voice.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!"

For the first time, I witnessed the Night Mare turn herself into a mist cloud.  Her ethereal mane and tail swirled all around her, then her physical form seemed to vanish and only the mist cloud remained.

So, she's now a floating mane and tail?

Whatever.

This mist cloud suddenly split into several pieces.  Each piece sought out an officer and clamped onto their face.  The captured officer reached upwards towards their head, perhaps hoping to dislodge the mist cloud.  But their hands passed right through it.  After a short struggle, the officer collapsed to the floor.  The small mist cloud released the now unconscious officer and zipped over to another unsuspecting victim.

In less than a minute, all eighteen officers lay unconscious on the floor.  Eighteen?  I counted again, just to be sure.  The extra ones must have slipped in to the room when I wasn't looking.  Nightmare Moon had worked so fast, she even got two officers who had tried to escape.  She managed to stop them before they left the room, close to the far doorway.  Beyond the mist clouds, the only thing still moving in the room were my illusions.  A few had survived and were still running around.

Nothing moved in the destroyed room, except for the bobbing mist clouds.  I couldn't hear anything except for the klaxon of the alarm going off.  I could only smell a hint of gunpowder in the air, even though this had been an intense gunfight.  The wisps of mist around the room coalesced into one cloud, then re-formed into my dark mistress.

"Turn that accursed noise off!"

Dropping my now-unnecessary shield, I stood up and ran back into the lobby.  Once there, I quickly slipped behind the reception desk.  My eyes scanned the area for some sort of button that said "ALARM", and I found a nice big shiny red one.  I slapped it with the palm of my hand and the loud klaxon immediately shut off.  But the equipment and monitors in front of me still flashed warning lights in red.

Crap.  Better let the Mistress know.

I ran back into the adjacent room to deliver my news.

"Mistress, the alarm is off obviously.  But there's a silent alarm still going off.  We're going to have more guards coming, and soon."

"Foolish, foolish mortals!  Why dost thou fight so harshly?  It was clear from the beginning that we were the superior force!"

I wasn't sure if that was the royal 'we' or if she did mean both of us, but I quickly decided it didn't matter.

"We humans don't think that way, Mistress.  While not as well-trained as the military, these guards are still trained not to surrender unless there was no other option.  They are also trained to work together and concentrate their attacks on one target at a time.  As they did when they focused their attacks on you."

"So I have seen.

“Speaking of such, you have my deepest gratitude for protecting me.  Had you not brought up your shield when you did, I fear I would have perished under their onslaught."

"Yes, well...you're welcome."

I had a sudden thought, one that was probably inappropriate at the moment but made me smirk anyway.

"Couldn't let that hot kisser of yours get hurt, could I?"

A small smile grew on her face as the ebony mare turned towards me.

"Always with you and the kissing.  Though I admit I am not entirely displeased.  Dost thou think of nothing else?"

"Sure I do.  But I knew saying that would make you feel better, and laughter heals many wounds."

The Moon Mistress's smile deepened, and her ebony fur glistened under the fluorescent lights as she shifted her hooves under her.

"Be assured that your efforts are most appreciated."

Suddenly, a gunshot sounded from behind the dark mare and a bullet ricocheted off of her silver helmet.  The Night Mare frowned, turned her head towards the sound then fired a bolt of lightning through the doorway on the far side of the room.  A short yelp was heard, and an officer collapsed across the doorway.

"Enough.  We must establish our hold on this fortress before reinforcements arrive."

As if on cue, several sirens could be heard in the distance.  I almost laughed at the irony.

"Right on time, Mistress.  Here they come!"

"Strewth!  I had hoped for more time to prepare!"

Thoughts of unlimited Stormtroopers from an old Star Wars roleplay session came to mind.

"Even if we defeat these Mistress, more will come.  Eventually, the military base nearby will be called in."

"And once they arrive, we shall likely fall.  Celestia's Bulbous Arse!  We cannot have fought so hard and still be defeated!"

Yeah, that would suck.

If we don't salvage this imminent loss into a victory of some sort, Nighty over there is going to get really pissed.

I watched the dark mare pace back and forth, frustration all too evident in her features.

And when she gets pissed enough, I can see her using lethal force.

That's not cool.  I don't want to have to KILL people just to conquer them.  Beat 'em up, knock 'em out, sure.  I don't care about THAT.  But there has to be SOME way to salvage this, some way to show Nightmare Moon that she can conquer this world without bloodshed.

While I was lost in thought, the sirens from the incoming police cars had been getting louder and louder.

At this rate, the cops will be here in seconds.  We have to do SOMETHING before we leave.  How do we get these officers to surrender without killing them?

I decided to share my thoughts with Moony, so we could brainstorm on a solution.

"The problem Mistress, is that the guards here did not want to surrender.  Do you know of some way we can subvert their will, or make them our slaves or something?"

The dark mare stopped her frantic pacing to consider my question, and brought a hoof to her chin in thought.

"There is one spell that I know of, but its progress is slow and is not always effective.  However, it may be our only option."

"And what is that, Mistress?"

"A Shadow Parasite, my student.  The magical parasite distorts the victim's perceptions and will until they are fully subjected to my commands.  Unfortunately, many subjects are able to resist.  Some few are able to break the hold upon them.  Others are only partially subverted.  Forcing the subject to submit suppresses too much of their conscious mind and they become naught more than an unthinking drone.  Not suitable for an effective army."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see flashing lights outside of the nearby windows.  It appeared that we were nearly out of time.  I turned to face the windows, and watched as police car after police car poured in to the parking lot.  Over my shoulder, I asked the ebony mare a question.

"How long do these parasites take to subject the victim?"

"Hours, perhaps days.  Too long to be useful now, my student."

"Do it.  Uh...PLEASE, Mistress.  We can always come back later and see how many of the parasites took hold, and perhaps salvage something here."

"As you wish, my student.  Though I am uncertain what good it shall do."

A moment's focus from her horn, and half a dozen purple blobs popped into existence in front of her.  Each blob was about the size of a softball or small ball, and each shimmered and undulated while it floated in mid-air.  The blobs were seized one by one in Nightmare Moon's magic, then floated over to an unconscious officer nearby.  The dark mare placed one blob on each officer's head, and when she let them go the blob wobbled like a soap bubble stuck on a surface.  After a second or two, the purple mass slowly seeped into the officer's skull until it vanished like it never was.

As Nightmare Moon summoned more parasites for the remaining officers, I switched my focus to the officers directly outside the building.  Numerous police cars with flashing lights could be seen out of all the windows in the room.  Officers hid behind their cars with guns drawn.  I could hear an amplified voice outside the building demanding our surrender.

I didn't want the officers outside to see what we were doing, so I used a bit of magic to pull the cords on the blinds around the room.  One by one, the vertical blinds snapped shut and hid us from casual view.  I figured that we still had some time left before the officers outside decided to invade the station and take us by force.  At least, that's what every cop show on TV told me.

Nightmare Moon continued creating her shadow parasites while I watched.  In short order, all officers in the room had a shadow parasite seeping into their skull.  Only then did the light from her horn dim and fade.

Looking towards the front windows, the Mare in the Moon observed the flashing lights that shone around the edges of the blinds.  A bullhorn outside demanded our surrender again, and threatened dire consequences if we did not comply.

"It is clear we need to flee.  Dost thou have any suggestions?"

I do, actually.

"I'm going to send these remaining illusions and a few more out the windows here.  While they distract the guards, we'll run back to the reception desk and flee out the windows in that room.  I'd prefer to escape on the other side of the building, but I don't want to waste time and risk getting lost.  When we blast through the windows, most of the guards should be off to our right and they should be too busy to shoot at us.  But just in case, I suggest we put up our shields and make ourselves invisible.  Sound good?"

"Nay.  The magic in our shields will disrupt the illusion spells.  We cannot do both."

Dammit.

"All right.  I'd rather have my shield than be invisible.  The rest of the plan sound good?"

The dark mare nodded.

A burst of my magic assembled the whole Scooby Doo gang, the Powerpuff Girls and as many of their villains as I remembered.  Another burst, and several copies of Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk appeared.  The surviving illusions lined up with the new ones, and patiently awaited their orders.  At my mental command, my cartoon illusions ran or flew towards the windows and passed through them as if they weren't there.

With the officers now distracted, I ran for the next room as the Night Mare followed close behind.  Once past the doorway, I snapped up my shield and summoned my wings.  Tables and chairs were pushed aside by my shield as I turned right and ran towards the far windows now off to my left.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a shielded Nightmare Moon running towards the other set of windows to my right.

We hit the windows at the same time, and the panes of glass shattered into tiny shards upon impact.  I exited the building posthaste, and ignored the officers to my right while I took to the air.  A few strong flaps of my wings, and I soared past the roof of the two-story building.  Nightmare Moon and I continued to accelerate up into the night sky as we made our escape.

I turned my head to look down at the parking lot, to see if our escape had been noticed.  My illusions were still running around all over the place, confusing the officers so much I doubt they noticed us leaving.  Calling to my Mistress, I told her it was safe to drop her shield.  I then dropped my own, and banished the illusions running around.  Our flying forms flickered, then vanished as we both cast invisibility spells and disappeared into the night.