I spun around to face the farmhouse. To my horror, I saw an array of deformed lead missiles embedded in the shields. While the impacts spread over a target circle almost a pony-length in radius, most were above my head. I heard a buzz and a ricochet before I saw a burnt tunnel where one had actually drilled through but flown astray. It took me an instant to remember that an untested spell was by definition a bad spell—and to remember why I'd wanted Celestia no where near this confrontation.
In the precious seconds it took me to comprehend the situation, more lead appeared. The trajectory of each left a further embedded black trail. Each impact flashed blue, regardless of shield color, followed by a blooming of opaque yellow with red radiating out with the forward mass vector dissipated as heat. The size of some of the strikes was different. They may have been higher or much lower velocities than I'd deduced, coming from a different hoof-cannon. Each strike over time dug deeper. Like a glass laminate struck by multiple stones, the massed shield spell apparition was turning to snow and failing.
I heard the grunts of the unicorns feeling the feedback.
I flashed back to me on the telescope balcony of the Golden Oak Library. I'd trained the instrument at the centaur a mile outside of Ponyville. I saw his fisted claws and body tense as a ball of fiery magic bloomed between his up-curved horns. The bloom increased in size and brightened. The realization struck that Tirek had combined the magic he'd stolen into the equivalent of a force spell. The resultant plasma propagated toward me.
I'd jerked back in surprise, but hadn't frozen. I'd remembered Owlowiscious on his perch atop my desk that morning, his head tucked under his wing.
Had he not been still sleeping...
In those few instants, at least two bipeds had discharged their barking arrow at Princess Celestia. Suddenly seething, worse than I'd seethed when I'd been Lord Tirek's only target, I did not freeze this time either.
I teleported.
I found myself in Applejack's living room. The sofa had been shoved aside from the window and the table knocked over to form a wooden shield across the wide-open door. Shattered earthenware littered the floor.
I confronted two biped stallions, one hunched over because he was too tall for the room. If one could judge by pony standards, the smaller was also the elder. He had salt and pepper hair that was both short and mostly salt. His gray beard hung down like Starswirl's. Both bipeds wore tough blue pants and similar short-sleeved red flannel shirts. The graybeard had brown eyes and the other had blue.
I knew this because they looked at me in shock after hearing the exit pop of my teleport.
Though I wasn't an expert at barking arrow technique or technology, it looked like I'd caught the graybeard exchanging a discharged weapon for a reloaded similar one. These barking arrows were the heaviest duty devices I'd yet seen, and there were three different kinds with different muzzle sizes. Split cardboard boxes lay scattered on the floor beside three piles of brass-clad cannon reloads, positioned for quick teamwork.
The graybeard didn't freeze, either.