//------------------------------// // Chapter 45: Snuff Out The Light // Story: Brightly Lit // by Penalt //------------------------------// “What’s that?” asked the Cormorant pilot, confused as he looked into the distance.  The helicopter’s eventual destination lay about five to ten miles ahead of them, and they had begun to consider their choices of landing spots.       “Some sort of... shockwave?” asked the co-pilot, as the rainbow-hued hemisphere expanded rapidly toward the flight of aircraft.     “Shockwave?” repeated the pilot, his eyes going wide as his mind calculated time and distance to the expanding bubble coming at them.  “Brace, brace, BRACE!”     A moment after he gave his warning, the twenty year veteran threw the craft onto its side, while pulling its nose up as hard as he could.  At the same time he also firewalled the throttles of both his engines. The combined effect was that in the space of a few heartbeats the helicopter went from flying towards Brightly, to leaping away from it with the full power of its main rotor in a massive sideways motion.     A secondary, and at the time much less important effect, was that the aircraft lost all lift and began to fall rapidly toward the ground.  Less important because the aircraft was due to be struck by the rainbow blast coming from the town far before it was going to hit the ground.       “What’s going on?” Trudeau yelled out, from underneath the engineer who had thrown himself over his Prime Minister to protect him from unknown danger.  “What’s happening?”     “Don’t know, Sir,” the engineer replied, over the howl of the turboshaft engines running at full military power.  “Stay down, and I’ll try to find out.”     “Okay,” replied the politician, as the flight engineer got off of him and made his way through the leveling aircraft just as the pilot rolled the craft back into its proper orientation to put his tail to the now fading detonation.       “What happened?” the engineer yelled at the pilot, when he reached the flight compartment.   “Not sure,” called back the co-pilot and letting his partner fly the craft.  “Some sort of shock wave or blast wave from Brightly. Oh gods, look at our escorts.”   The man pointed through the cockpit, and the engineer squinted as he saw a pair of twinkling metallic shapes.  Both CF-18 jets had been unable to turn as quickly as the helicopter had. Both of them had been enveloped by the rainbow light and were now clearly out of control.  The aircrew breathed a collective sigh of relief as one jet and then the other emitted a flare of fire from their cockpits, signaling the triggering of their pilot ejection seats. “Prince Rupert MCTS,” called the pilot over his radio.  “This is Blue Jay Flight, VIP flight out of Victoria. Blue Jay One and Two have crashed near the town of Brightly BC.  I can see two parachutes heading to the bush, please dispatch SAR. We are proceeding to Bella Bella with our VIP.”     “Cancel that!” ordered Justin Trudeau, and the intercom carrying his words clearly to the helicopter crew.       “What?” the pilot asked, turning to look back down the compartment to where Trudeau stood, braced against the frame of the aircraft.  “No sir, absolutely not. We are getting you to safety.”       “We have to go back.  We have to go to Brightly,” Trudeau pleaded with the pilot, using every ounce of his considerable charm.  “Please.”     “No Sir,” the pilot repeated, settling the helicopter onto its new bearing.  “You can fire me once we land, but I’m not going to be the pilot who lost his Prime Minister.”     “If we don’t go back and help the people down there, I will be lost,” Trudeau rebutted, before shifting his gaze to the flight engineer he had spoken with earlier.  “It’s perception.”     “What?” asked the engineer, a second before his mind made the connection.  “Oh! Perception! People will perceive—”     “That I’m a coward,” Trudeau filled in, nodding as he saw realization dawn in the eyes of the flight crew.  “If I run for safety now, no matter how justified it may be, I will always be thought of as ‘Prime Minister Runaway.’  The Opposition will address me as ‘Prime Minister Runaway.’ Kids trick or treating will go to ‘PM Runaway’s house.’ I’d never be able to live it down.”     “So you would rather risk your life and ours to save your career?” the co-pilot shot back.     “A calculated risk, but yes,” Trudeau answered, without flinching at the man’s harsh tone.  “Besides, we can help. I know we can.”     “Fine,” replied the pilot, banking the helicopter toward the sea.  “We’ll go back, but I want you to understand something, Sir.”     “And that is?” Trudeau queried.     “I’m the commander of this aircraft,” the man stated, firmly.  “If we do this, you become part of my aircrew and as such, you fall under my command.  You do what I tell you, when I tell you. No more, no less. If you can’t accept that... Well, I guess you’ll just have to fire me.”     “How can I refuse an offer like that?” Trudeau replied, grinning and leaning back in his seat.  “Aye aye, sir. Airman Justin Trudeau standing by for orders.”     “Is everyone okay?” Shield Maiden called out, shocked to her core.  The spell which should have just changed her and her friends had instead transformed everyone she could see, and maybe more.  The town hall was filled with writhing ponies who moments ago had been townspeople, reporters and dignitaries.       “What happened?” Medevac asked, as she trotted over the short distance from where she had been standing.  “Why am I a pony again?”     “I.. I… “ Shield Maiden stuttered, mind reeling.  “It was like something filled me up and then pushed out of me.  What do I do?”     “It’s okay, sweetie.  I’ve got this,” Foxfire said, as she stepped up to the microphone with Iron Heart close by her side.      “No Mom,” Seeker interrupted, just as Foxfire was about to speak.  “We did this, we have to fix it.”     For a fraction of a second, fury burned in Foxfire’s eyes, but it was just as quickly replaced with love and affection for her daughter.     “You sure?” Foxfire questioned, looking from her daughters to the struggling new ponies and back again.  Some part of her was screaming at her to take command of the situation, but as a mother she knew she needed to let her girls take the lead, or they would never be able to stand on their own.  So she stepped back and asked, “okay, how can we help?”     “You and the other ponies who know how to do stuff, help the new ones, okay?” Shield Maiden asked.  To which Foxfire gave a nod, and headed down into the crowd, Iron Hoof and the others at her heels.     “Everyone,” Shield Maiden called into the mic, a moment later, “don’t be scared.  It’s okay. People are coming to help you. Just take it easy until we get to you.”     To the townspeople, who already had an idea about what had happened, Shield Maiden’s words made sense.  To those from out of town, such as the reporters who were there to cover what they thought was a standard fluff piece, the day had turned into a confusing struggle.     “What’s going on?” MacCrae demanded, pausing in his struggles to get out of his suddenly too large clothes.  “Why can’t I move right? John, what just happened?”     “Not sure,” Wilcox answered, from beside him, “but I think we all just became ponies.”     “We’re WHAT?” MacCrae shot back, eyes widening as he took a look at what had been his right hand and arm.  “Oh, my God. That’s a hoof. Why do I have a hoof? You said we weren’t going to be harmed.”     “No one is going to hurt you,” Foxfire said, to the pegasus furiously squirming in a tangle of clothing.  “Just hold still for a minute and give me a chance to get you out of those clothes.”     “Hey!  Leave my pants alone,” MacCrae shouted, feeling his slacks being untangled from around his rear legs.       “Look, there’s a lot of people here who need help,” Foxfire snapped, horn glowing with dark purple power.  “You want to be able to start moving around on your own, or not?”     “Fine,” MacCrae grumbled. “You’ve taken my humanity, what’s a pair of pants compared to that?”     “Big city whiner,” Foxfire snarked, yanking off MacCrae and Wilcox’s pants with her magic.  “There, you’ll be fine now.”     “I’m sorry, it wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Wilcox pleaded, trying to make his old commander understand.  “The kids were going to show how they saved the dam. It was just supposed to be the kids turning into ponies.”     “Don’t be afraid,” Shield Maiden was saying from the podium.  “It’ll take about a half hour to an hour to start moving around okay.  Go slow and careful.”     “Slow and careful, my fuzzy ass,” cursed MacCrae, as he managed to get a single leg to move once in a direction he wanted.  “Wait, did I just say, ‘my fuzzy ass’? That’s it, I’m getting out of here, John. Are you with me?”     “Yeah, I’m with you,” Wilcox replied, managing to roll his body into a proper orientation.  “Where are we going?”     “My hotel room,” MacCrae said, his ice-blue mane flipping around as he rolled his entire body over the floor, wings flopping awkwardly to either side.  “I’ve got a military radio in there, as well as my Ranger gear.”     “What are you going to do?” Wilcox asked, trying to push his new body forward and almost succeeding.  “You aren’t going to open fire on them, are you?”     “Not unless I have to,” MacCrae replied, pausing in his struggles as he realized he had wings.  “These things work?”     “Fly like a bird,” Wilcox answered with a smile.  “Seen it myself.”     “Huh, maybe this won’t be so bad after all,” MacCrae commented, chewing a lip in thought.  “Still, we gotta tell people about this.” Wilcox repeated his agreement, and together the new pegasus and earth pony laboriously made their way toward the door.     “Should we stop them?” Darter asked, wincing as he watched the white and blue pegasus bend his wing at what had to be a painful angle.     “We’ve got our hooves full here,” Shield Maiden told him, gesturing to the new ponies that filled the huge room.  As she did her gaze fell on her younger sister, whose eyes had that faraway, unfocused look she had come to recognize.  “What is it? What do you see?”     “The magic,” Seeker whispered in awe, as her sight reached into preternatural realms, “it's everywhere.  Your spell went everywhere.”     “It did?  Oh crap.”     “‘Tia!  Are you okay?” Luna asked, as she limped her way over toward where her sister lay, barely moving.       “I… I’m bruised but okay,” Celestia replied, opening her eyes and looking up from the tangle of gaily painted metal pipes she lay among.  “What happened?”     “I do not know,” Luna replied, pulling a pipe off Celestia by main force.  “We broke through, there was a roaring sound and the next thing I knew I was flying through the air until a soft tree stopped me.”     “Trees aren’t soft, Luna,” Celestia commented, as she kicked away another fallen pipe with some sort of chain attached to it.     “They are compared to what you hit,” Luna said, with a sympathetic grin.  “I think this is some sort of playground for foals.”     “This is my fault,” Celestia groaned.  “Decades of magic, boiling up from Equestria.  Then I had to go and pull even more in to fuel our tunneling.  I made that whole chamber into a massive vessel of pressurized magic.”     “So when we broke through—” Luna began, as she started to pull her sister free of the tangle of pipes.     “All that magic burst out in a single mass— LOOK OUT!” Celestia shouted, as she suddenly saw the danger coming at them both.     Godwindigo had indeed been lying in wait for the sisters, but even that preternatural predator had been caught by surprise as both alicorns shot from the tunnel entrance at speeds a stooping hawk would have envied.  However, as the dust settled and it became clear that the speed of its prey had been accidental and not intended, Godwindigo had moved back into position and held its strike until the perfect moment.       That moment came as Luna bent forward to pull Celestia upwards, their two bodies in line and close together.  Godwindigo let loose with its power, and a spectral spear of ice leaped forward on silent wings toward targets unaware and unprepared.  Only the spring sun, shining off the solid shaft of sleet, gave the briefest warning of the onrushing doom.       Celestia is not a warrior.  Hers are the arts of governing, of negotiation and compromise.  So when she glimpsed the spear, hurtling toward her sister’s back, her immediate thought was not that of a fighter.  She did not manifest a shield, or summon a solar sword in an effort to defend or strike back. In that critical moment, Celestia acted as a sister, pulling Luna behind her and placing her own body in the path of the sudden attack.     “‘TIA!” Luna screamed, turning back as a shaft of ice punched through the solar alicorn with a “chock” sound.  A distant part of her mind noted that there was no blood coming from her sister, none at all.     “It’s okay Luna,” Celestia murmured, sinking to her knees and seeing ice spread across her chest.  “Run. Get help. Find Lee…”     “‘TIA!” Luna screamed again, as the ice encased her sister completely, silencing the rest of her sentence.  Rage filled the lunar alicorn as she turned to deal with who or whatever it was that had hurt her sister.       “Hello, little mouse,” Godwindigo said, with a mocking smile as it fully revealed itself.       “You fiend,” Luna growled as she sunk into a fighting crouch, utterly unintimidated by the ten meter tall creature that now loomed over her.  “Prepare to feel my wrath.”     “By all means,” Godwindigo mocked.  “Let me taste what you have to offer.”     Luna leaped into the air with a snarl of challenge, horn and eyes flashing, only to crash to the ground a moment later.  Pain filled both appendages, and as she lay gasping for breath Luna realized the awful truth. Her impact with the tree had badly wrenched her wings, and her magic, which she had pushed beyond its limits, had finally failed her.     “That was terrifying, mouse,” laughed the icy creature of hate and despair, as it looked at the alicorn gasping for breath at its feet.  “My turn.”     Luna’s rage turned to fear as the creature, who looked very much like the wendigos of legend, crafted another icy spear of power which it then hurled straight towards her chest.  The dark alicorn threw herself aside at the last second, and while she evaded a direct hit, the spectral shaft pierced her right wing and pinned her to the ground.       “I am not… easy… prey,” Luna gasped, severing and shattering the spear with a supreme effort.  Even so, Luna’s wing was encased in ice within a few heartbeats by the remnants of the icy sorcery, thoroughly grounding her, and the alicorn could see her own vital warmth and energy being drawn off.      “Submit to my touch, surrender to your despair,” Godwindigo crooned, feeling its form swell and grow even larger.  “Already the other’s strength becomes mine. Yield, and I will make it painless for you.”     “No,” Luna cried, as misery filled her.  She had caused this to happen. It was her fault.  Grief and self-loathing filled her, and the Godwindigo’s smile became even wider as Luna’s anguish gave it what it truly wanted.      A plan came to the creature then.  A way to leverage Luna’s internal agony into a means to make all of Brightly feed it with the despair, self-loathing, and the severing of the bonds of family and community that were it’s true food.   It swung down what was in the process of changing from a massive claw to a hoof of equal proportions, and struck Luna full on. Luna was launched up and away like a golf ball, until she crashed through the roof and wall of the nearby Town Hall.     “What now?” Shield Maiden was asking the universe, when something exploded through one side of the auditorium.       Bits of wood and metal flew everywhere, causing every pony present to cover their eyes and faces as best they could.  The sun streamed in through the rent in the fabric of the building, and its light shone full on the battered and bruised body of a dark blue winged unicorn, who had been the cobalt cannonball at the center of the catastrophic crash.       “Fear me, Brightly,” called a voice like thunder from outside the building.  “Run. Run like your miserable lives depended on it. If you run hard enough, I’ll take you last.”     Screams of panic started to be heard through the damaged side of the building.  Fear began to grip those inside as they realized that on top of the mass transformation of everyone present, something terrible was going on outside as well.  Teetering on the edge of consciousness, Princess Luna reached out to touch a silver shod hoof against that of the unicorn filly she had fallen near.       “Please,” Luna croaked, blackness crowding the edges of her vision.  “Help.”