//------------------------------//
// 439 - Resistible Force 
// Story: Lateral Movement 
// by Alzrius 
//------------------------------//

Applejack’s kick landed with enough power that it would have smashed any of the trees in Sweet Apple Acres to splinters instantly.

Augmented by a strength-enhancing spell that she’d studied under Twilight’s tutelage and cast just before she’d charged, as well as amplified by a concentrated burst of her natural earth pony magic that she’d learned how to use from Burly, and delivered with the muscles that she’d developed over a lifetime of working on her farm, Applejack’s hooves impacted hard against one of the rotating rings that made up the lhaksharut’s lower body. The thick metal instantly deformed under the force of the blow, folding inward with a heavy clang. The noise was immediately followed by several similar clashes of metal on metal as the damaged ring impacted the others that it had been so carefully avoiding, causing the lhaksharut to stagger, its wings stretching wider as it tried to keep its balance.

“Yee-haw!” whooped Applejack, unable to help but feel giddy at the impressive result of all her training. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Fluttershy creeping toward where Discord had fallen, and hoped that the thing would be too focused on the new threat to notice. “Now if you know what’s good for you, you’ll hurry up and get, ‘cause there’s plenty more where that came from!” 

“Damage sustained,” intoned the lhaksharut monotonously. “Severity: superficial. Self-repair systems: active.”

Applejack blinked. “Wait, self-repair what now?”

The question had barely left her mouth when it was answered. Right in front of her eyes, the ring that she’d damaged returned to its original shape, the indentation that she’d made in it fading away as smoothly as if she’d punched a pillow, rather than a substance that felt harder than steel. Instantly, the collection of rings resumed their unbroken orbits, once again spinning rapidly without impacting each other as the lhaksharut regained its balance, turning to look at her. “Secondary target recognized. Commencing termination procedures.”

Her shock turning into resolve as she realized that this was going to be tougher than she’d thought, Applejack tensed at the thing’s announcement that she was a target. But at the same time, she knew she couldn’t back off: out of her periphery, she could see that the dust obscuring the crater was thinning out, being dispersed by the flapping of wings. A second later, the image of Fluttershy became visible, her forelegs wrapped around an unconscious Discord as she dragged him out of the rubble. Twilight’s plan was working! Now she just had to buy Fluttershy some more time…

I can do this, Applejack reassured herself. Backing off wasn’t an option, but she didn’t intend to simply stand there and take the hits if she could at all dodge them. Still, some of them would almost certainly get through; despite the creature’s size, she’d seen how fast it had moved when it had unleashed its wrath on Discord, and knew that she’d be hard-pressed to avoid all of its attacks. Even so, she felt certain that between her armor, the force shield spell she’d used on herself, and using her earth pony magic to toughen her body – another trick she’d learned from Burly – she could stand up to whatever punishment it dealt out.

For a little while, at least.

But instead of moving to bash, slice, or pierce her with its collection of armaments, the lhaksharut extended its lowest pair of arms, the ones that had metal orbs affixed to their hands. The one with the flaming sphere was pointed straight at her, and the one that was crackling with electricity was aimed…directly at Fluttershy and Discord! Applejack had just enough time to realize that she hadn’t distracted the creature after all; she had simply made it split its attention.

And then a torrent of fire, which she knew she wouldn’t be able to block the way she could a physical attack, rushed toward her at the same time as a massive surge of electricity shot toward her friends.





“Please wake up!” whimpered Fluttershy, barely able to keep her voice down as she tried her best to get Discord away from that monster. “Please wake up! Please wake up! Please, Discord, wake up!”

But the draconequus didn’t comply, lying still in a way that made her heart hammer. In the time that she’d known Discord, Fluttershy had never once seen him actually get hurt before. Although he’d been drained of his magic by Tirek only a few months previous – and turned to stone prior to that when she and her friends had used the Elements of Harmony against him – anything less than that had never seemed to do anything but amuse him. It had been enough to make her think that, notwithstanding some sort of super-powerful magic being used against him, he simply couldn’t be hurt. Certainly not by simply hitting him with giant weapons!

But he looked hurt now, dirty and covered with cuts and bruises. One of his mismatched wings, the feathery one, was hanging at an odd angle that was painful just to look at, as was his hoofed leg. One of his horns, the antler, had broken off completely, and part of his lower torso was crushed in a way that didn’t look at all like cartoonish way he’d sometimes contort his body. 

The sight of him right now made her want to cry, all sorts of horrible feelings coming to the fore. Fear was the most prominent, the sudden battle causing her to remember the last time they’d been attacked by monsters from another world, back in Manehattan during the Elemental Bleeds. Not only had Twilight died in that attack – being brought back to life later by a powerful spellcaster on Everglow – but Fluttershy had been tortured by a monster that they’d encountered, an encounter that still left her trembling when she remembered it. 

But even worse than the fear was the sudden guilt that squeezed her heart. Discord had been trying to help, to really, genuinely help. He didn’t deserve this…especially since all he’d wanted was to be forgiven for what happened with Tirek. Just thinking about that made Fluttershy feel horrible now, recalling how she hadn’t invited him over for tea even once since he’d betrayed them. She hadn’t meant to push him away…or at least, that’s what she’d told herself. Instead she’d just found excuses not to ask him to come over. It was always because Angel was being too fussy or she needed to help Doctor Fauna with a sick animal or she was feeling too fragile because of what had happened to her in Manehattan. She’d even decided that when the Grand Galloping Gala came around in a few months, she’d invite her new friend Tree Hugger to come with her instead of Discord, telling herself that he wouldn’t like a stuffy old gala anyway.

It was only at that moment that Fluttershy realized that she’d completely cut Discord out of her life…and now she might never get the chance to tell him how much she regretted that now.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t try. “Discord,” she sobbed, wings still flapping as she kept trying to pull him to safety. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I never meant to stop being your friend! I-, oh!” She bit back a yelp as she almost dragged his broken bat wing across a chunk of the now-shattered conference table, doing her best to move him around it so that she didn’t accidentally hurt him any worse than he already-, wait, his broken bat wing? But…but it had been his feathered wing that was broken…and it still was. And yet his other wing was hurt now too…

For a split second she thought it was one of Discord’s pranks, that he was just pretending to be hurt in order to get her to forgive him and had decided to make himself look even worse in order to feed her guilt. But there was no telltale smirk at the corner of his lips. No cracking his eyes open to see if she was falling for it. He looked just as hurt as he did before…no, worse than before! Even as Fluttershy watched, new bruises seemed to appear on his body, and several of his cuts seemed to grow deeper. He’s getting worse! she realized, a sinking feeling developing in the pit of her stomach. Somehow, that statue-like monster had not only injured him, but was somehow making his wounds worse even now! She had to find someone who could treat him, who could-

A crackling of electricity made Fluttershy look up, her eyes widening as she saw that the stone-faced monster was holding out its lower arms. One was pointed right at Applejack, the sphere it was carrying awash with flame. The other was buzzing with electricity…and pointed right at her. 

And at Discord.

Her instincts screamed at her to run, to get out of there and save herself. But she couldn’t. Not when she’d already run away from Discord so many times before. Instead, giving a whimper of terror, she hugged him close and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the end to come. A second later there was a deafening reverberation, and Fluttershy tensed, certain that agony would follow it an instant later.

But when no pain arrived, she opened one eye just a little…only for both to widen at what she saw. 

The beam of electricity, which had to be at least five feet in diameter, wasn’t able to reach them. It abruptly terminated just a few feet away from her and Discord, creating a roar like a dozen chainsaws as it impacted a transparent blue wall of force that had suddenly sprung up in front of them. And standing between them and it, teeth gritted and grunting with effort as his horn glowed brightly, fighting to keep the wall from collapsing, was Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor.

The rush of relief almost made Fluttershy swoon, before she remembered that Applejack had been in the same position as her. Whipping her head around, she looked for the farm pony…just in time to see a flash as Applejack reappeared at the other end of the room, courtesy of a teleportation spell cast by Twilight in the nick of time. It was a good thing too, as the floor where Applejack had been was currently bubbling, nearly liquified from the fiery attack.

“Are you alright?!”

Fluttershy nearly leapt out of her skin as Princess Cadance suddenly appeared at her side. “Y-yes! But Discord’s hurt badly, and I think he’s getting worse! I-”

But Cadance wasn’t listening, having knelt down and begun chanting a soft prayer to Lashtada as soon as Fluttershy had said yes. Simultaneously, Fluttershy could see Princess Celestia hovering overhead, firing a beam of energy from her horn at the stony creature, impacting it to no apparent effect. Behind it, Fluttershy could just barely glimpse Luna and Rarity helping to usher Zecora, Line Byline, Pillowcase, Produce Aisle, Comfy Cozy, Willow, Grass Patch, and Soft Mane out the other door. Although the green field that the monster had use to shut down Discord’s portal was still blanketing that part of the room, it didn’t seem to prevent anyone from physically exiting the conference room-turned-battlefield, letting them rush out into the adjoining hallway without restraint.

There was one person who refused to leave, however. Soft Mane smacked her mother’s hooves away, doing the same thing when Rarity tried to usher her out a moment later, pointing at the far end of the conference room. A look in that direction revealed what she was pointing at, Fluttershy’s eyes landing on Spike. From his position right next to Twilight, the little dragon breathed onto the rolled-up scroll in his claw, the paper turning into twinkling smoke as it rushed out a nearby window.

But Fluttershy had no time to ponder exactly who Spike was sending a letter to in the middle of a battle, as Princess Cadance finished her prayer and reached out to lay a hoof on Discord. Instantly, his cuts and bruises disappeared, his wings righting themselves and his crushed middle filling out again. Even his horn was fixed, with his yellow eyes popping open a second later, blinking in confusion. “Did anyone get the number of that truck that hit me?” he asked, sitting up woozily, tire tracks suddenly appearing across his middle.

“Discord!” Despite knowing that it wasn’t the time for it, Fluttershy couldn’t help herself, throwing her forelegs around his neck and hugging him tightly. “Thank goodness you’re okay! I was so worr-”

But she didn’t get a chance to finish as the surge of electricity abruptly ceased impacting Shining Armor’s shield. The stallion couldn’t hold back a sigh of relief, sinking to his knees and panting as the strain of stopping such a huge attack caught up to him. Cadance rushed to his side, but before she could get a word out, the monster spoke again.

“Multiple secondary targets recognized. Calculating alternative tactical options. Calculations complete. Engaging axiomatic numinous field.”

Fluttershy had no idea what that meant, but she knew in an instant that Twilight did, feeling her blood turn cold at the look of sudden horror spreading across her friend’s face.