//------------------------------// // Nightwatch: Through the Fire and the Flames, Part I // Story: Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// In spite of the still-approaching threat of the Tantabus, both Twilight and Rarity reared back on hearing what each other said. “Who are we?” Applejack echoed. “Who are you? And how are y’all glowin’ like us?” Dash frowned back and crossed her arms. “Might ask you the same thing.” Twilight blinked and raised the brim of her hat, looking a bit closer at the three across from them. “All three of you have Promethian Sigils? And you’re actually using them?” Rarity looked confused. “What in Greater Equestria is a ‘Promethian Sigil’? Are you talking about those symbols that appeared on our hands?” Pinkie lit up. “Oh! So that’s what the Magic Circle-y Circles are called! That’s…” Her face fell after a moment. “…actually pretty hard to remember. Can we just keep calling them Magic Circle-y Circles?” “Oh…they appeared on you too?” Fluttershy spoke up mildly. “Oh dear. I don’t suppose…um, well, that is…uh…have you three happened to notice anyone from Trottingham following you around?” Dash and Rarity gave the white-robed woman a deadpan stare for several seconds. Rarity’s eye began to twitch, and Dash slapped her palm across her face and ran down it as she grit her teeth. “Are you kidding me?!” Before anyone could say another word, the sounds of cannon fire burst from the part of the city already claimed by the Nighttouched. All six turned and looked. The fires from the ruined Steel Lion engine were beginning to rise higher and spread to the buildings around it, but it still served to keep the Nighttouched at bay. Nevertheless, the monstrous Light Eater was still closing, and at this point enough of it had emerged into the newly-cleared skies that they could make out its shape. Just like the smaller ones, it took the vague form of a real animal. This one was a horse, only with a wild, flowing mane, smaller manes on its tail and legs also flowing backward, and a long, spired horn protruding from its head. In addition, the space around where its snout would be parted occasionally, revealing a mouth full of crude teeth. The noise they had heard was from a single cannon deep in the city. It fired off another shell after the first, but the six saw both shots simply sink into the Light Eater’s body and ripple out the other side. Even if they hadn’t, the thing was far too big to be stopped by just a few shells. Twilight grimaced. “Don’t know why I really expected anything different…but it doesn’t matter how big it is. The Tantabus is still just a giant Light Eater which means nothing can hurt it.” “’Cept us,” Applejack spoke up, hefting her hammer again. She looked at the three in front of them. “Whoever y’all are, ya’ best clear outta here and let us save this city.” Rarity turned her nose up. “Excuse me, but we will not be ‘clearing out’ anywhere. Not when we’re here to save this city.” She paused, suddenly realizing what she had just heard. “Wait, excuse me?” “If you’re gonna try and save this city, do it somewhere else!” Dash interjected. “Some idiot set a gas fire that’s gonna be a signal beacon to that thing!” “Oh. We’re the idiots who did that,” Fluttershy quietly answered, before wincing at what she said. “I mean, we’re the ones who did that.” Dash and Rarity’s eyes bulged. “Are you nuts? Why the hell are you trying to bring that giant monster right over here into the middle of the city?!” Twilight let out a sigh. “Because we’re trying to keep it away from the ocean!” she nearly cried back. “That’s just nonsense! Why in the world would you rather it trample through the center of a major metropolitan area instead of…” Rarity trailed off in the middle of her scolding, suddenly realizing something. “Wait a moment…” She turned nervously to her two companions. “Ms. Dash, do you remember what was coming off of it when we came down the mountain?” Applejack gaped. “Hold on now…y’all actually went over that mountain chain? When that giant son-of-a-gun was walkin’ over it?” Dash ignored Applejack’s comment, but shrugged to Rarity. “You mean those big black spots that came off? What about ‘em?” “What do you suppose would happen if that monster polluted the ocean with them?” It took her a moment, but Dash began to look as nervous as Rarity. Pinkie swallowed anxiously as well. “I think that’d mean no one is going fishing again until, um…never.” “Unless we stop it right here and right now,” Twilight answered. “I don’t exactly know how we’re going to do it…only that Applejack and me are the only things I know of that can actually hurt Light Eaters. So you three really need to get out of here before it gets here.” “And…how do you plan on stopping it?” Rarity asked. The mage winced before nervously looking away. “I…I don’t know. I’m trying to think of something now, but…but we can’t defend anyone else while I’m doing that.” Dash snorted. “Who said anything about defending us?” She grinned and pumped her fist. “I don’t know what a Promethian Sigil is, but I know the three of us can all hurt Light Eaters too. We killed one just fifteen minutes ago at the most. If you need more ways to hurt that thing, then you need us.” “Yeah!” Pinkie chimed in. “The more the merrier!” Rarity looked uncomfortable at being volunteered at first. However, when she glanced back at the Tantabus, she sighed and looked ahead again. “I really, really don’t care much for heroics, but seeing as I know my rapier and magic tricks seem to be capable of doing some damage I don’t have the luxury of opting out. You can count me in as well, dear.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Ya’ say ya’ managed to kill a Light Eater, but I only see one of ya’ with a weapon.” Dash grinned wider. “Heh, I got all the weapons I need right here.” She hefted both fists. “It’s true, madame,” Rarity added. “Ms. Dash here punched one across the face not just a little while ago. It seems whatever these auras are that we’re radiating, it’s protecting us from being infected by these ghastly phantoms.” “Wait…what did you say?” Twilight suddenly exclaimed. “You’re saying you actually made physical contact and nothing happened? Are you sure?” “Sure we’re sure!” Pinkie added. “I kicked one too! I’m not sure if that’ll help that much against the big one, though.” Twilight hesitated. She bowed her head and began to think aloud. “I…suppose it would make sense. When you don a spirit, it fills your entire body. So if it has the ability to alter the nature of my spells so that they can harm their bodies, that same energy wavelength has to be permeating us. That would explain why Applejack’s hammer was able to hurt that one. It might actually shield us too so we could grapple with one if necessary…” “Uh,” Dash spoke up, “if you got any ideas over there, ‘Witch Hazel’, how about sharing them with the rest of us? Make it quick ‘cause that big thing is getting closer.” Twilight looked back up. She glanced over the three new arrivals for a moment. “Looks like…a Rogue…a Disciple…and a Magician type… They’d at least give us more options. But…” Applejack saw her hesitation, and finally frowned and shrugged. “Hell, Twilight, they got my vote. We’re more than a little short-handed as-is. We only got two of us to begin with…although I guess with what they’re saying, Fluttershy might be able ta’ jump in if we could get her a weapon.” “Um…we, uh, don’t really have to find out if we don’t need to…” she quietly muttered. Twilight looked up again and saw that the Tantabus had closed half the distance since turning toward the gas line. By this point, they could see its massive limbs tearing smaller buildings apart to walk forward. She stared at it a little longer, her mind racing, before she finally took in a deep breath and let out a long exhale. “Everyone…including new folks…gather around. I only have time to say this once so you’re going to have to go with most of it.” Applejack and Fluttershy readily stepped up, although the latter was a bit nervous. Pinkie also had no problem happily moving in. Dash and Rarity hesitated, but of the six of them that were gathered the mage was the one who spoke with authority and know-how, which was more than the rest of them could say. As a result, they moved in too. “If we try to outright kill that thing, I don’t think we have a chance of stopping it,” she began. “But I’ve noticed a lot of odd things about it that I’m starting to think about. First…the Light Eaters leave our world in a state of permanent night, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Light Eater, gigantic or otherwise, take the initiative. Every other time they’ve always made their surges during nightfall, and the world stays permanently dark the next morning. This one actually looks capable of ‘bringing night with it’. “Second…I noticed that the Light Eaters actually made a move that required planning this time. They staged a fake surge in Appleloosa so that none of the armed forces would be ready to leap on the Tantabus now. But think about that for a moment… Why? You just saw cannon shells go right through it. It was like Constable Gruff said. Even if everyone was fighting it, it should have just been able to walk right through it without stopping or slowing.” The women looked intrigued. They had been so busy trying to fight and stay alive none of them had really paused to think about that. “Third…it’s occurred to me that there seem to be two natures to Light Eaters. Like I said, just now we saw cannon shells go right through it. Along with bullets, blades, fire, and anything else that tries to hurt them. It’s like nothing physical in our world can interact with them. And yet look over there.” She pointed to the approaching monster, just as it stepped again and tore the edge off another building before flattening an abandoned trackless engine. “It’s interacting with this city just fine. It might have to in order to even move itself forward. More than that. All of that stuff it keeps shedding off of it has a physical quality to it that stays.” “You’re right,” Rarity suddenly spoke up. “Back on that mountain, I saw…” She hesitated, swallowing a lump in her throat. “I saw someone get struck by the material. It knocked him off his feet and to the ground. It wasn’t just ‘darkness’ but something tangible.” “And because of all these things, I have a radical theory,” Twilight spoke up again. “There’s a chance it’s actually straining itself to keep itself moving. That it actually takes a bit out of it in order to make part of it ‘solid’. That’s why pieces of it keep breaking off every time it takes a step. If that’s the case, then I think part of the reason it crossed the mountains and is moving in through Grifftham City is because it couldn’t risk a whole armed force trying to hurt it. If enough things were shooting at it, it would have to become so amorphous that it would deteriorate and fall apart because it wouldn’t be able to keep moving and negate everything.” “So what does that mean for us?” Applejack spoke up. Twilight took a deep breath. “I think if we can pin it in one spot long enough while Grifftham City is powered down, with all of its gas and steam engines cut off, the smog will dissipate and the sunlight will start shining down on it again. Even when we ran into it on the river, the sun was already headed down and it had the shadows of mountains to hide in. Here, it either has to blot out the whole sky or it’ll face the early morning or noon day sun. And I don’t think it can for long. Not without straining itself to the breaking point.” “Do you really think so?” Rarity asked. Twilight winced a little. “If you’re asking if I know for sure…no. Maybe it can blot out the sun no matter what time of day. I’m making a ton of guesses and crossing my fingers.” That wasn’t the most comforting note to end on, and all of them shared that sentiment as they looked to one another. No matter who they were, they were working with three strangers they had just met against a monster that no one had ever faced. In the end, Applejack exhaled. “Got nothin’ better, so I’m in.” “Same here. Better than any ideas I got and you seem to know what you’re talking about more than me,” Dash added. “Very well,” Rarity sighed. “Ok…” Fluttershy nearly whispered. “Yipee!” Pinkie finally capped off. Twilight stared at them a moment. “…I’ll take that as we’re all in. Right.” She turned to Dash. “Um…who are-” “Rainbow Dash, the Sonic Rainboom.” She smiled and pumped her fist at that last part. “…Right, Rainbow Dash. You and Applejack pick a spot near that thing’s ankle and start attacking it every chance you get. There’s no way we can reach the main body and even if we could if it’s anything like a Light Eater it doesn’t have any vitals, but it’s limbs should be a true target. If we can lop off two of its limbs that should mostly cripple it like any real animal.” She turned to Pinkie next. “Alright, um…” “I’m Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you!” “Er, Pinkie…you don’t have a weapon or any way to attack, so what you have to do is run a diversion. Since you’re a Rogue type, you should be able to outrun it and dodge it so long as it can’t move any faster than it does now. If you can’t get its attention, try to distract anything else that might come up and interrupt us.” She turned to the white robed woman. “Fluttershy, you may be a Healer type, but without any spells the only way you can help us is either by accelerating our mana regeneration or natural healing, or by trying to exert your will on the Tantabus itself. You have to jump on any of us the moment we get hurt if we get hurt so we can get in and keep swinging. Don’t go out of your way to try and work your will on the Tantabus, though. Save it for any incoming Nighttouched and Light Eaters, and get Spike and the rest of the animals to help out if you can.” “Um…excuse me,” she spoke up nervously, “but…what did you mean by ‘the rest of the incoming Nighttouched and Light Eaters’?” “There’s going to be more of them coming to this fire along with the Tantabus. You’ve got to work to keep them off us so we can focus on it.” She sank a bit more into her hood. “Oh my…” Finally, Twilight turned to the last person. Before she could say a word, the designer sighed. “Rarity, darling.” “Rarity…um…what spells do you happen to know?” Rarity thought for a moment. “Well, I can hold my hand out at something and say ‘Fireball’ four times, and a little fireball comes out. Or I can hold out my hand and say ‘Icicle’ four times, and a few icicles come out. Oh! And if I hold onto someone and keep saying ‘all better’, they heal faster. Now let’s see…I think I managed an electric spark once…” “Those are your spells?!” Twilight nearly cried. “Those aren’t spells! They aren’t even cantrips! They’re things that students back at the academy used to do by mistake on their first day!” Rarity frowned. “Well, I haven’t foggiest idea what academy you went to, dear, but last I looked it is not part of the standard curricula in Manehattan to learn magic tricks.” “Ugh…a Magician who doesn’t know a single spell…perfect…” Twilight groaned. “Just…just do what you can. Aim for the same spot everyone else is hitting or use your sword or…or something.” She almost huffed at the insinuation that there was nothing for her to do, but she hefted her blade. “This is a rapier, dear, and I can assure you that I can handle myself better than you think.” “Alright then. Let’s head up the side street or we’ll run into the mass that got blocked on the road. Try to go around from the side and avoid everything you can but the Tantabus.” Twilight finally exhaled, turning around and readying her own wand. By now, the Tantabus had closed another quarter of the distance. Its massive head was lowering closer to the emerging pillar of fire. They didn’t have more than three minutes before it reached it. With that in mind, she held up her wand and shouted. “Everyone…attack!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash broke into a full charge, although between the two of them, and much to the former’s astonishment, Dash quickly took the lead. Twilight did her best to run up from behind, already beginning to manipulate her wand and chant her first spell. Rarity ran alongside, keeping pace as she held her own rapier at the ready. Fluttershy beckoned the animals on, causing them to fall in behind her, and Pinkie laughed as she skipped off into the fray. The side street was mostly clear, just as Twilight hoped. All of the remaining Nighttouched and Light Eaters were being attracted to the fire of the engine or the gas main. What few Nighttouched did get into Dash’s path she readily punched or stomped on to clear away, and whatever ones escaped her soon came across Applejack’s hammer so that Twilight and Rarity had smooth sailing the whole way. There were still airborne ones, but Pinkie quickly took care of that. As soon as she found the nearest fire escape, she leapt up and easily scaled it all the way to the top and onto the roof. From there, she ran across and nimbly leapt from one building to another until she approached a flock of Nighttouched hovering over the area. For a moment, they spotted Dash and altered their flight path toward her. Before they got too far she cupped her hand to her mouth and shouted. “Hey Nighttouched! I got the bestest candy in the world, but I’m not sharing! Nyah!” It was unlikely that they actually cared about what she said, but the fact she was loud caught their attention and confirmed to them she was a closer target. They quickly swooped around and went after her, but she merely laughed and began to hop away across the rooftops. The sound of her laughter plus spotting their companions turning to her caused the others wandering below to spin around and go after her as well; giving those below even more breathing room. Soon after, Dash spun down an alley and into the main road, just as the Tantabus’ massive limb, easily the diameter of a building itself, smashed down on the street with pavement-fracturing force. It was so intense she actually had to hop into the air to avoid the impact knocking her over, but even then she found herself slowing in her step a bit on finding herself staring at a seemingly unbreakable pillar of starry blackness. Before she could lose too much resolve, she grit her teeth and charged right for it. As she reached the thing, she vaulted forward and leapt into the air with a flying roundhouse for her opening move. The side of her foot smashed into the edge of the leg and raked across. Like it was made of nothing but black goo, five gallons worth of its body were broken off and splattered to the ground; leaving more of the dark stained space around it. Dash herself landed a moment later and glanced at her leg, making sure it was good. Fortunately, what pieces of the material had landed on it were fizzling away like water on a hot burner. Nevertheless, she quickly had to backstep as the colossus lifted its foot forward a moment later and nearly swept her away. By the time it touched down again, Applejack was breaking out. Yelling a war cry, she barreled straight at the leg with her warhammer behind her head and unloaded on it far more ferociously. Three huge swings went out one after the other, smashing away huge chunks of black material with each strike. She tried to swing a fourth time, but by then it was moving again and forced her to back up. As soon as it landed again, Twilight and Rarity came out. Twilight was still generating her own spell even now, but Rarity moved away from her and aimed her own hand at it. “Icicleicicleicicleicicle!” She was pleased to see four darts came out this time and shot into the appendage, slicing out a cup full of material with each swipe across it. Applejack, on her part, gave Rarity an odd look on seeing her smiling at the move. As for Twilight, she finally stepped forward and aimed her wand, lighting up an icy blue sigil around her. Rarity’s satisfied smile turned into a frightened shout as she saw a monstrous, jagged icicle the length of a Steel Lion erupt from her own wand and shoot like a javelin into the Tantabus’ ankle region. It pierced in deep, shedding even more of the blackness, before it erupted in an even larger collection of ice shards that tore and lacerated into it. An entire tankard worth of its black goo spilled out from it. Only that final attack, however, had made a noticeable mark on its body. And as the leg stood there, the rest of its matter that constituted it rose up in inky tendrils to link together and reform the injury within three seconds. Dash groaned in disgust. “You got to be kidding me! That’s all we did?” “Well, don’t give up yet! If it’d be easy, it wouldn’t be so damn big!” Applejack shouted as she hefted her hammer. “Just keep chippin’ away at it!” “Um, I don’t mean to alarm anyone,” Rarity nervously spoke up. “But has anyone noticed that it’s stopped moving?” The four went quiet. Sure enough, the Tantabus was only standing there motionless now. They watched it for a second, wondering if their attack actually had an effect after all. Twilight finally spotted something. “Up there! Look under its belly!” The others did so. Something was happening to it. The surface was rippling without anything striking it. Bubbling, even. And it continued to get stronger for a few moments and protrude more from its body. Finally, a large piece of it bubbled off entirely and fell the long way to the ground. It landed there a moment later, but it didn’t splash or scatter like all the others did. Rather, as soon as it landed, it compressed and coalesced like a lump of slime momentarily, before it drew itself up, poked out six misshapen limbs, formed a head with pincers, and grew a pair of moonspot eyes. In moments, a new Light Eater had formed and began to scurry toward the four of them. Seconds later, five more plops hit the ground and began to grow into Light Eaters themselves, one with wings, one like a rat, one like a giant millipede, one like a starfish, and one like a land-crawling shark. More droplets quickly began to fall off as well, and as it kept shedding them the Tantabus started walking forward again. “I think we got its attention!” Rarity shouted anxiously. “Don’t stop attacking!” Twilight shouted as she quickly began to prepare another spell. “If we weren’t a threat to it, it wouldn’t be trying to stop us!” “That or it’s just swattin’ the flies bitin’ it!” Applejack shouted back as she ran right up to the insectoid Light Eater and greeted it with the claw of her hammer as it reared up to meet her. “But I’ll take that chance!” The rest of the newly forming Light Eaters quickly moved out, and the four responded. Dash followed Applejack’s lead and ran right into them fists swinging. She dove on the one with wings before it could take off and immediately put her fist through its body, then ripped it out and swept around to slice off three limbs from the millipede one with the force of her strike. Twilight struggled to keep her wand aimed at the Tantabus, but with more Light Eaters coming off and rushing to her she couldn’t finish the whole spell. She was forced to break off and send her next icicle through the body of the rat Light Eater to kill it. Rarity on her part continued to mostly stab and slash errantly, but it got the job done by slicing off pieces of the starfish Light Eater as it tried to crawl toward her. Dash finished breaking the millipede one into pieces and tried to run past the new ones before they could fully form, making a beeline for the Tantabus to keep attacking. Yet just as she was about to snap free of the crowd, the shark Light Eater suddenly snapped its body toward her. Before she could realize it was coming, it formed crude teeth and clamped down on one of her forearms. She cried out in pain and wheeled around to it, seeing blood already oozing freshly from where it had bitten. Not having time to tense about if it had corrupted her, she instead made a fist and smashed it in the nose as hard as she could. Bits of black material flew from the wound, causing it to angrily snap its head around and cast her violently aside with it. Her body slammed into a stack of garbage cans before hitting a building wall a second later. She only lay there a second before knocking the cans off of her and trying to rise, only to cry out in pain. She looked to her forearm and, although it wasn’t stained in any way, several free-flowing bloody wounds were gushing out of it from where she had gotten bit. “I’m coming, um…uh…Rainbow Dash!” She looked up, just in time to see Fluttershy, who seemed to have been cringing in an alley before now, pop out and run up to her. Several of the animals followed behind her, including Spike, Angel, and her bear. As soon as she reached her, she clamped her hands down over the wounds and began to speak so softly that Dash couldn’t hear her over the din. Yet after several seconds, she looked up and ahead of her. “Uh, you can’t do that any faster, can you?” Fluttershy glanced up and let out a panicked whine. Six of the “timber wolves” had focused on the two of them as the easiest targets and were moving in. However, now that they were close enough, they each snarled and ran at them both. The animals with Fluttershy quickly rushed to her aid. Spike ran up and charged right at one construct, causing both to topple to the ground and fight. The bear snarled and came forward, causing two of them to latch onto his arms. They made him roar in pain, but mostly anger as he began to slam them around on the ground to beat them apart. Angel tapped his foot a few times before rushing forward and launching himself at the fourth one like a furry bullet. On impact, he shattered it into bits. Unfortunately, all that was left for the final two were a couple mice and a woodpecker. That didn’t stop either of them from leaping into the fray, however. The mice dashed forward and onto the legs of the closing creature, then quickly ran up through its body and to the glowing yellow orbs set in its head. They gnawed frantically on both, causing the monster to howl and stumble to one side just before it could hit Fluttershy and Dash. Finally, the woodpecker did what it did best and hovered to a wooden part of the monster’s skull before pecking away furiously at it; hard enough to knock up wooden chips. The thing stopped, snarled, and tried to swipe and snap at it, but it merely flew out of the way a short distance before returning and pecking further. Soon the bear and Spike had finished their own opponents and turned to lend a hand with the others. For a moment, Dash risked a relaxed sigh. “Nice. Those critters of yours really bailed us out.” Fluttershy, who had been hiding under her hood again while helping out Dash, looked up only to tremble all over again. While the wood constructs had been torn apart, three of the newly formed Light Eaters had seen the two of them and were beginning to shift and lumber toward them. The animals turned to face them, but then immediately backed away as well. All of them seemed to have the intelligence to realize they were no match for them. While they tried to look threatening and at the ready, they were forced to back away as the three slid in closer. None of them wanted the animals, however. They saw the light coming from Fluttershy and Dash and were zeroing in on it. Tensing up, the Huntsman turned to her. “Let me up! I’ve got to try and stop them, arm or no arm!” Fluttershy didn’t move. Instead, Dash heard her audibly gulp, before her head snapped up and stared at the three of them with sudden ferocity. “Stop right there!” The surface of the three Light Eaters actually rippled and their moonspots contracted. As if pushed by an invisible force, they all slid back a few feet before stopping. They began to approach again, but Fluttershy kept staring at them and, as a result, they moved at a snail’s pace. She had more than enough time to hold onto Dash for a few more seconds before finally releasing. The Huntsman, a little surprised at all of that, looked down to her arm. The bleeding had stopped and the wounds had all scabbed over and healed partially. Enough to keep going at least. “Heh, you are handy. Thanks a lot!” Smirking again, she ran forward and put her fist through the first still-mostly-immobilized Light Eater. On the rooftops, Pinkie continued to happily bounce along singing a song; heedless of the flock of Nighttouched struggling to peck and claw at her from the air above and the ones below struggling to crawl up the building side to get her. One particular dog-like one managed to bound up a fire escape to the top, and took off for her snapping and snarling. She cheerfully bounded over him; letting him sail right by and off the opposite side of the same roof. The flock pursuing her gathered for a dive, but just as they moved in she dropped into a roll, somersaulted to the edge of the current roof, and then leapt off onto the lower, adjoining one. The monsters shot by and hit nothing but air. Pinkie spotted a bit of the flaming tar on her current roof and grinned as she ran over to it. She passed a weather vane along the way, and reached out to pluck off two of its arms. Holding them in either hand, she ran up to the tar, dipped them in, and pulled out a bit of fire on either end. After that, she spun around and began to run backward. “Come on, everybody!” she sang, waving them around in different maneuvers. “Come catch me!” The flock of birds and bats massed up together and attempted to charge again, but as they gathered Pinkie ran over to a clothesline with several linens hanging from it. As they dove, she quickly darted behind it. The Nighttouched were moving so fast and recklessly that after only a few passed by, some of them got hung up on sheets or the line itself. As a result, they caused a logjam that quickly led to far more getting tangled up within it. She giggled at her ingenuity, but even with them temporarily incapacitated she didn’t have much time to rest. An entire group of Nighttouched began to crawl their way to the top of this lower roof, and as soon as they were on it they tore straight for her. The first was a fox-like one, which she simply matched leap-for-leap to get away from. Another was a hissing raccoon-like one, but as it swiped out for her she answered by holding her now flaming batons out near its outstretched claw, and the heat made it recoil in pain. Another dog-like one charged for her as she bounded back toward the edge of a roof. However, she simply did an extra tall leap to go off of it and onto the next one along, while the dog ran right off the edge and crashed into the alley below. She laughed as she hopped back along this roof a bit more, still swinging her batons at the Nighttouched massing on the other roof and readying to leap over. “Don’t stop, everybody! Everyone come and join along on the Pinkie Para-” Pinkie’s voice was drowned out by the sound of one of the monstrous lion creatures, just as it shot up and over the top of the roof in a massive leap, opened its jaws wide, and clamped them down on top of her enough to swallow half of her body whole. The rest of its momentum crushed down on her body and smashed her right through the top of the roof—sending them both into the building below. As a resounding calamity continued to rise from the hole, the other Nighttouched roared and snarled before leaping over to the roof and going down the same opening after her, just as the flock gathered and swept down and into it as well. The fate of their companion went unnoticed by the group on the ground below, who were still struggling to get whatever hits they could on the Tantabus against an ever-rising tide. Applejack, gritting her teeth and breaking a sweat as she smashed her warhammer through Light Eater and Nighttouched alike, struggled to dig her way through the flood coming at her. As she finished flattening the nearest one, she finally got an opening to go for the leg. However, she only managed two steps in its direction before a scorpion barb lashed out and smashed her in the face. Even with her fortitude, she was slapped into the street so hard she ground out several bricks of pavement. As the lion-like Nighttouched responsible sneered and began to stomp forward, trying to get a better view of its quarry, she had to lie still a moment before she could look up again. When she did blood was oozing out of her nostrils but her eyes were fiercer than ever. The thing growled and swung its tail at her again, but she quickly shifted to the side. The blow still struck where she had been and sent up pieces of stone everywhere. She crossed her arm to block her face, but one still struck her in the shoulder and caused her to wince in visible pain, yet she used her free hand to swing her hammer around and latch the teeth into the joint of the tail. When the monster yanked it back, it found out too late it was pulling Applejack up and to it at the same time. Before it could react, she used both her own momentum plus that of it yanking her to it to swing the solid part of her hammer into its skull. A few seconds later, she touched down on the ground again, groaning a bit and dizzy, but the lion-like monster fell as limp as piece of dead meat. She took a deep breath or two as Fluttershy pushed through the crowd to assist her. Twilight was having no luck whatsoever. With a constant stream of Light Eaters coming at them now, she had no opportunity to gather any real spells. She constantly threw fireballs at the ones that were emerging, engulfing them and trying to use their resulting flames to attract the others. Unfortunately, more kept constantly pouring out. In frustration, she finally held her wand skyward and painted a yellow, gleaming symbol. The sky thundered and sent out a large bolt of electricity which split as it neared the ground. Most of the bolts hit encroaching Nighttouched and Light Eaters, but one loose bolt managed to strike the limb of the Tantabus. It let out another few gallons of its body at that, but it didn’t slow. Dash, furiously pounding away at anything that came near, saw it rapidly getting near the gas fire. With that in mind, she looked above the crowd of opponents and focused on all of the Light Eaters that were going airborne. Gritting her teeth, she suddenly ran forward in a lunge and leapt as one slashed for her middle. She ended up not kicking it but landing on its head and using it as a vault to launch herself onto a slightly taller one. From there, she leapt again on top of a low-flying one, and then proceeded to use them as stepping stones to quickly cross over the crowd of enemies until she was clear to the Tantabus again. Tightening herself up, she vaulted off the last one, twisted around, aimed her heel out, and sailed for the limb. The resulting blow struck almost as powerfully as Twilight’s spell, knocking off nearly as much of its body. However, on touching down Dash couldn’t follow up. Two of the lion-like monsters had just arrived from the adjoining street, and on seeing her apart from the other Light Eaters and Nighttouched bellowed and began to charge for her. Dash had just finished straightening when she spotted them coming, and risked a moment to glance at the Tantabus again. It had hesitated just a moment, but then regenerated and resumed walking while still producing more Light Eaters. “Aw, come on!” she yelled. Groaning, she ran to meet the first lion monster. Rarity continued to furiously swipe her rapier away at anything and everything in front of her. The only good side to this was that, single minded as the monsters were, they mostly ran themselves right onto her blade. Nevertheless, it was all she could do to get a hand free and point at the Tantabus. “Fireballfireballfireballfireball!” Another melon-sized ball of fire shot out and hit true, resulting in a small fire that lasted perhaps all of four seconds before dying out. “This is ridiculous!” she bellowed as she sliced her way through another Light Eater. “‘Magician’ my foot! What’s my power, pulling rabbits out of this fetching hat?!” At that moment, Fluttershy, who was still struggling to heal up Applejack, gave out a yipe as one of the Nighttouched squirrels leapt on her back and began to claw through her robe to the woman beneath. Panicked, she closed her eyes and shouted. “All of your monsters stop!” Just as before, the Light Eaters rippled before halting for a second, and the Nighttouched actually backed down. For a moment, the field was clear and gave the women a much-needed breather. Rarity, however, had another plan in mind. At once, she clenched her jaw and barreled forward through the crowd straight for the Tantabus. Twilight, panting from overuse of mana but still struggling to cast another spell, looked up in alarm. “R…Rarity! What are you doing?” “I’m not going to slay this beast throwing birthday candles and snowballs!” She brandished her rapier as she ran. “This will be far more effective!” “You’re not as strong as Applejack and Rainbow Dash! That thing only needs to shift to crush you!” “Desperate times call for desperate measures!” She held her blade aloft. “For Manehattan!” Finally reaching the side of the Tantabus’ leg, she took only a moment to ready herself for a proper move before thrusting her blade all the way to the hilt into the monster. Almost immediately, the area around the weapon began to smoke and bubble. It started off small but swiftly built in intensity, like water on a burner. Rarity continued to look fierce for a moment more before her look turned to puzzlement and finally a touch of anxiety. She began to more tentatively hold the end of her rapier as she saw what was happening… Suddenly, the space around her blade began to melt away and shot out in a jet of oily black liquid, spraying all over her. “GAH!” Crying out in a mixture of fear and disgust, Rarity quickly backpedaled in alarm. She frantically wiped at herself while shrieking. “Ghastly! Horrid! Wretched! Putrid! Oil-based!” She continued to throw a fit just as long as it took for her to realize the substance that landed on her was rapidly dissipating into nothingness from closeness to her aura. And as she calmed down, she glanced back to the Tantabus. It now had a gaping and free-flowing wound around where the rapier had pierced. At least, it did so for a moment. Then the rapier suddenly reverted back into the dull, iron poker it had been before, and as soon as it did it fell through and out of the monster as if it was no more than thrown into water. The wound rapidly closed itself up and the Tantabus resumed its trek. Rarity was left staring dumbfounded. As for Applejack, she finished tearing herself away from Fluttershy just in time to grapple with what looked like a Nighttouched bull. She dug her feet in and crossed her arms in front of her just as it charged, bracing it with her hammer and struggling, but also looking back up to the giant Light Eater. “Damn it all, don’t anythin’ make it stop?” Suddenly, a light went off in Rarity’s eyes. She spun around. “Keep striking it for a few moments, won’t you, darling?” she shouted before she quickly ran to the side of the street and began to look around. Applejack gnashed her teeth as Fluttershy quickly ran back to help the rapidly-weakening Twilight. “What’dya think I’ve been doin’ this whole time?!” With one final surge of strength, she flung the bull to one side. Not stopping to finish it, she took off in another charge for the monster. This time, she kept on running after pulling her hammer back, and swung it around in a great whirling arc as she reached it. Bits of the starry material flew everywhere in the wake of her assault, but for all she knocked off it wasn’t even enough to get it to pause. Still scowling, she planted her feet only to get her lasso free, tied it around the end of the hammer, and once again produce her “bolo” weapon. She swung it around several times and then lashed out with it, punching out a large section of the Tantabus’ leg. Still for nothing. It was simply too big and recovered too fast. She snapped her hammer back and got ready to fight again, only to feel herself pounded in the back and launched into the air by the Nighttouched bull. No sooner had she slammed back into the ground than it whipped around, aimed its horns at her, and dug her off to try and gore her death. Soon she was forced to focus entirely on grappling it. Twilight, on her part, was sweating beads as she struggled to conjure a big enough spell to leave a serious mark, but even with Fluttershy reaching her and struggling to help her out she saw there were dozens of Nighttouched and Light Eaters still coming and at the ready. By now, there were enough present where any one of them would have to deal with a half dozen at once at minimum. Still she struggled for all she could to try and at least squeeze off one more good incantation. Yet as she tried to take aim, she hesitated on seeing that the Tantabus had stopped moving of its own accord. Over the force of monster combatants, she looked down and saw it was right next to the gas fire. Its massive head region was staring down right at it. It was still for a second before lowering its head further. Its great shadow seemed to make its surroundings darker yet, and the gas flame itself visibly dimmed and diminished just from it drawing nearer. It paused once its moon spots were nearly touching the reduced fire and it held for several seconds more. Then, it raised one of its massive, tower-like limbs and planted it on top of it like it was no more than a snuffer for a candle. Metal groaned in its wake. After a few seconds, it pulled back, and revealed the fire and light was now gone. The pipe was bent in half. The Tantabus slowly rose from it and then turned its head another way…back toward the ocean shore. After a moment longer, it slowly began to pick up its huge feet and walk toward it again. “No…no!” Twilight shouted. “It’s going back to the sea! We have to…!” She trailed off. Monsters were closing in on her again even as she struggled to maintain her spell. Fluttershy was sporting several claw marks and scratches and her resolve was fading. Applejack was finishing pounding away at the bull that had charged her, but she was starting to slow. Dash had somehow managed to kill one of the lion-like creatures, but she was struggling to stay alive against the other. She couldn’t even see Rarity or Pinkie. On seeing all this, her pupils shrank as the realization slowly came on her. She had said herself that a small group of them would never be enough. That they’d need a hundred. Now it looked like it was true… “I say…tally-ho!” In the face of her growing despair, however, Twilight heard Rarity’s voice. She looked up and saw a rather bizarre sight. Barely managing to do so, she was propping up what looked like a Griffonstone flagpole with a pointed tip and rushing clumsily at the Tantabus like she was a knight on horseback. It seemed like the most reckless and ineffective thing she could have done. At least…for a moment it did. That was when Twilight noticed her aura was spreading to it just like any other article-turned weapon. It began to glow with the same light, and soon solidified and lengthened into a long, resplendent, silver lance. Using all of the enhanced strength she had to muster, Rarity grit her teeth and forced it up at an angle, and then for all she was worth plunged it into the leg of the Tantabus. She drove it in until a good fifteen feet of it was left embedded in the Light Eater’s limb. The entity, surprisingly enough, actually slowed a little. That limb seemed harder for it to move now, and soon it was clear why. Rarity kept clinging to the end and embedding it into the thing, and as a result its body was hissing and melting around it. Soon huge amounts of it were pouring out from the wound as its substance peeled away from the weapon like paper to a flame. Yet she left it in there and held for all she was worth, and as a result the wound would not heal. Its attempts to regenerate it only caused it to shed more of its body. When Twilight saw that, she understood. “Of course…” Fluttershy, in spite of her fear, risked a look up. “Wh-what?” “Our weapons! Anything we touch becomes…I don’t know…‘insulated’ like us! Anything we hold onto and in it becomes a weapon!” Before the monsters could get any closer, Twilight quickly snapped her wand around and finally discharged her spell. It wasn’t as powerful as she wanted, but it still made for quite a monstrous and massive thunderbolt. This time, it struck completely in the area where Rarity had opened a wound, and gouged a major rift right out of the extended limb. The Tantabus, just barely, actually faltered on that limb. The other three of its tower-like appendages halted where they were. It was forced to stop again. Soon, the regenerative efforts around Rarity’s spear doubled as it struggled to put itself back together again enough to get away. “Rarity, keep holding it there!” Twilight shouted, before quickly doing the first wind spell she could manage to force the encroaching attackers back long enough for her to do something better. “Everyone else, hit it in the wound!” As Twilight gave a shout, back on the adjoining street at the building that Pinkie, the lion creature, and the fifty other odd Nighttouched had crashed into, the doors suddenly swung open wide. The pink-haired woman walked out. A bit of loose fur and feathers were on her clothes, which she promptly dusted off, before she looked to her shoes. Seeing a touch of red liquid on them, she took a moment to wipe them off as well before perking up and looking around again. “Ok! Got to get back to Rarity, Twilight, and the others! Um…” her look grew confused. “It was easier to find my way around when I was on the rooftops… Oh well!” She immediately began to skip out into the street, looking one way and another for any indicator of how to get back to the main battle. She began to make her way to the sounds of the most commotion, glancing down the alleyways as she did. She passed the first one easily enough, but after passing the second, she froze where she was before skipping backward and looking again. Abandoned in the middle of that street, apparently by the Griffonstone army when they realized that Light Eaters were involved, was a fully primed, oiled, and ready field gun. It even had a few spare shells of ammunition next to it. Pinkie gasped in delight. “A cannon! A real honest-to-goodness cannon! I’ve never seen one up close!” She quickly shot to its side and began to marvel all over it. “Oh, there’s the wheels! There’s the barrel! There’s the fuse! There’s the long fluffy rod thing you use to clean gunk out of it!” She paused, then lit up. “Say, I bet this would help out a lot against all those Nighttouched!” She grinned a bit, but then paused and suddenly looked downcast. “Aw…but Ma said Gaitians can’t own firearms for any reason. Even when I just wanted a little cannon to shoot off at parties… I know what she’ll say…” She looked over to a nearby puddle, just shiny enough to barely reflect her face as she impersonated her mother. “Absolutely not, Pinkamena Diane Pie! Thou knowest we spurn all implements of warfare!” She looked anxiously back at the puddle. “But…but…it’s for a really good cause!” “Now, Pinkamena, thou knowest what the road to damnation is paved with, do you not?” She half-sighed, half-whined. “Can’t I make just one teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy exception just this one time?” “Certainly not! The Pies have forbidden to have anything to do with engines of destruction, and we never shall! Thou can not have a cannon!” “Aw…” she whined again, looking to the side for a moment. Suddenly, she lit up again. “Buuuuut…what if I only borrowed someone else’s cannon?” At once, the reflection smiled and nodded back to her. “I like the cut of your cake, Pinkie.” “Why thank you, mud puddle!” To be continued...