//------------------------------// // Chapter 47: Road to Union // Story: Fillies and Monsters // by Solaris Vult //------------------------------// This day marked the start of group combat lessons, teams vs teams… Sometimes, it would just be two or three team members, sometimes it would be multiple teams, sometimes it would be students from different teams mixed and matched together, all fighting alongside each-other against other teams, team members, or mixed students. “The purpose of this training is to bolster your ability to work together, even with other students not of the same team, to fight together, to learn the strengths of your allies,” Glynda said at the start of the day’s sparring matches, in that lecturing tone she always wore. “Hope you won’t go easy on us…” Scootaloo muttered. “We will not, Scootaloo, I hope you know that I have never been defeated in a fight, even in my childhood” Pyrrha replied. She didn’t like bragging about that, particularly since she had been forced into a life of combat, but her foes deserved warning, she wasn’t going to lose. The two teams were on either side of the auditorium, JNPR and TASS all had their weapons ready, other than Scootaloo, who was carrying a bottle glowing a pale blue. There was a countdown, and the moment Glynda said “Go” the two teams leapt into action. Pyrrha rushed forward with her spear at Scootaloo, but a shimmering green field appeared before she could score a hit, blocking the warrioress, and she leapt backwards before she could be counterattacked. Jaune rushed forward with his sword, slashing downward but his strike was blocked by Diamond, who raised her blade, wreathed in pink flames. Nora lunged forward with her hammer, swinging wildly at Apple Bloom, but before she could land a hit, blasts of fire struck the girl on the side and she tumbled down, quickly getting back up and chasing after her attacker, Scootaloo, who had run up a wall and was gliding on her smaller-than-average wings, and firing down on everyone below. Jaune was swept off his feet by a slash from Diamond, going at his legs, the boy fell to the ground, and Diamond raised her sword to stab downward, but Jaune moved his shield to his chest, then Diamond gave a grunt as a swarm of pistol rounds struck her in the back, and she turned to Ren, who had somehow moved behind her. There then came a large chain of explosions as Apple Bloom opened fire on Pyrrha, who was moving around, somehow dodging each of the explosive metal shells, Sweetie noticed a slight glimmer of black magic manifesting around each of the cannon rounds the moment they were fired. Sweetie launched herself after Pyrrha, running across the ground to meet her foe, but was intercepted by Nora, who swung at just the right time to send the girl flying across the auditorium, and right into Diamond, who was relentlessly swinging at Ren, who was backing away, on the defensive from Diamond’s aggressive tactics. The two fell to the ground in a pile, their long pink hair getting tangled together, and Diamond’s sword poking into Sweetie’s breasts as Sweetie’s halberd was resting painfully on Diamond’s head, “Get off of me you brat!” Diamond shouted, using her supernatural strength to lift Sweetie off of her and throw her to the ground, “Help me with this speedy little-” She said, staring at Ren who was reloading his pistols. “You don’t get to tell me what to do!” Sweetie angrily replied, right before Nora rushed forward and Sweetie summoned an arcane sphere around herself. Diamond scoffed and was about to respond, but she was cut off by a jab of pain as Ren had run up and started slashing at her with his knife-blades. Scootaloo downed the potion, and her body started to shimmer as if light was bending around her in odd ways, Pyrrha launched her spear at the filly, seeing that she had just boosted herself with dust, but the weapon simply bounced off her lambent and iridescent skin without taking anything from her aura… Scootaloo leapt into the air and the fields around her arms started to glow a bit brighter, and Pyrrha took a defensive stance. There came a flurry of pink explosions as Nora launched grenades at the floating figure, but Scootaloo ignored these strikes, the pressure seeming to flow around her body without affecting her. Apple Bloom took the chance to lunge and uppercut Nora with a twirl of Applebuck in its hammer form, and Nora was sent tumbling into the sky, smacking into the ceiling and coming to land in a crater, aura shimmering, then breaking. A buzzer sounded, and Glynda used her semblance to lift the unconscious girl out of the battle before she could be harmed by the fight. Jaune got back to his feet and leapt, grabbing a hold of Scootaloo’s feet and dragging her down, but a shimmering field of energy, a plane of blue light, appeared below her before she could fall down to the ground, Scootaloo kicked Jaune off and started to jump around, creating more platforms and firing down at JNPR with her pistols. Diamond leapt at Ren and slashed, but the boy was simply too fast, he leapt over Diamond’s back, stabbing her in the shoulders along the way, but was suddenly encapsulated in a minty field of energy and slammed to the other side of the room by telekinetic pressure, “He’s mine!” Diamond shouted as she ran at Ren, glaring at Sweetie Belle, who was next to scoff, but her reply was cut off by a crimson spear flying out and striking her in the side. Sweetie then turned her attention to Pyrrha, who was using her shield to block Scootaloo’s bursts of fire. A series of hexagonal planes appeared next to Scootaloo, and she raised her hand and flicked them forward like thrown frisbees, they stuck into the ground, edges monomolecular-sharp, then disappeared as she failed to hit her target, Jaune, who raised his shield, which now had an impressive gash in it from one of the hard-light weapons. Scootaloo felt something crackle against the hard-light field around her body, and she turned to see Ren, dodging cannon shells. Apple Bloom turned her cannon to track the agile Ren, but every time she had the boy in her ironsights, he leapt out of the gun’s way, another AP shell blasting a hole in the wall and kicking up dust and stone chips. Ren then flipped backwards, avoiding another shot, and wrapping his legs around Diamond’s head, the girl chasing the boy down. Ren then, in a fluid motion flipped forward and slammed Diamond’s head into the ground, stabbing down at the back of her neck with the blades of his knives… Apple Bloom fired, and Ren leapt, moving out of the way of the shell, which struck the dazed Diamond, who coughed and fell to the ground, pale pink field breaking, knocking the girl unconscious. “Crap…” Apple Bloom muttered to herself, “She’s going to be angry about that…” Pyrrha leapt, throwing her shield at Sweetie Belle the same time she launched her spear at Scootaloo. The shield was caught in a Sweetie Belle’s telekinesis and launched back, but Pyrrha was quick, and expected this, jumping on her flying shield and kicking out, Scootaloo blocked the spear, summoning a field of hard-light, but the moment she dropped the field when the spear flicked back to its mistress’s hand, the shield, flung by Sweetie and redirected by Pyrrha, slammed into Scootaloo’s head and knocked her off her platform, she fell to the ground, her body flickering with both the colour of her aura and the colour of hard-light dust, as her aura shattered. Jaune ran forward at Apple Bloom, who turned her cannon back into a hammer and swung Jaune like a golf ball, who hit one of the auditorium’s walls and passed out, white energy dancing along his body as his aura broke. But Ren was right behind and leapt on Apple Bloom, who tried to fend him off with her hammer. A blast of verdant lightning struck Ren and arced along Apple Bloom’s torso, the two cried out in pain, then both collapsed, aura broken. Pyrrha flung both her spear and shield at Sweetie at the same time, both were caught in telekinetic fields, but Pyrrha herself also charged forward… Although it was difficult, Sweetie’s attunement to magic saw the black fields, almost telekinesis-like, around Pyrrha’s hands, and her weapons. Sweetie felt something pulling on the things she had in her telekinesis, and extended her fields of force to encompass the running girl, but, between Pyrrha’s attempts to wrench her weapons free from Sweetie’s grasp, and trying to hold three things at once, the magic collapsed, and she fell over, Pyrrha drew her shield and spear back to her, and Sweetie raised her halberd to block, but Pyrrha slammed into her, shield-first, then jabbed at the girl’s torso, her blade moving between the gaps in Sweetie’s defences… Sweetie reached for the spell matrix, and a loud pop accompanied by a flash of light illuminated the auditorium, and the girl appeared on the other side of the room. Sweetie conjured a trio of magical blasts, hot and crackling with green lightning. Pyrrha was confused for a second, but turned and raised her shield right as the magic missiles flicked out, and she deftly blocked the blasts, Sweetie raised her halberd and charged, screaming at the top of her lungs, but she felt force pulling on her halberd’s metal head and before she could get a taste of the spell to disrupt it, her weapon moved, just enough to miss, and Pyrrha slammed her shield into Sweetie’s chest, she coughed, her body flickered, her aura broke, and she fell over, a buzzer sounding her defeat. The small airship, the same kind of vehicle that the four had destroyed, a dropship the humans called it, came to a landing, and Twilight, followed by the rest of her friends, left the bay and walked out to the streets of Vale… The sun was bright in the sky, the city was impressive, not quite as developed as Mantle, and especially not anything like the glimpses of Atlas the women had seen, but impressive nonetheless, “Come on, to this Beacon place, I don’t want to waste another minute separated from my Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, urging the others to follow, Rainbow nodded, flying next to them, drawing stares from a few of the other humans and faunus around, wondering just how someone could hover in place like that, she certainly wasn’t flapping her wings fast enough for flight. Twilight walked up to a stranger on the street, a large man with neatly combed black hair, “Hello sir, we were wondering where Beacon Academy is?” “It’s just up there,” He said, pointing to the giant tower overlooking the city from the cliffside, “You need to take an airship or go down that road there until you come to a road going up the mountains, but that’s a much longer journey.” “Thank you, good sir,” Twilight replied. “No need to thank me, come by my store if you’re interested, Tukson’s Book Trade.” “Books?” Twilight perked up a bit. “Oh boy…” Rainbow Dash commented from the back of the group. “This is Gold-1, coming around, engaging target…” Soarin muttered into the telepathic communications device in his helmet… He didn’t like flying with a helmet, nor armour, the entire thing felt wrong, he was too heavy, too bulky, and the tubular device mounted to his belly didn’t help… There was a fwoosh, and he felt something stab into his wing, he expected a burning pain and to tumbling out of the sy, either hearing his spine crack as he smacked into the ground or a sudden flash of green, a burning pain, then nothing… But there was no pain, just a slight ache. As he tumbled, he caught himself, and spun back upright… “Could have used some training beforehand…” He muttered sourly, but he took back that thought about not wanting armour. Crossbow bolts were whizzing through the air, fried from the shapes of large, white-furred, and armour-clad diamond dogs aboard airships. Other wonderbolts were engaging the flagship of this little splinter-fleet, it was always best when a leader could be captured, but the ship he was flying toward had nothing of interest, and it would be better destroyed.  The cylinder between his legs was… Uncomfortable, in more ways than one. The thing was large, and standing with it under him on the ground would have been annoying, let alone walking… Flying with it though, the thing screwed with his balance in the worst possible way, and it felt, strange, eerie, like standing next to a cage filled with angry, rabid, hungry timberwolves. He was right on target, and squeezed down on the mouth bit… There was a soft click, followed by a louder snap, and he felt a weight on his underside disappear. The cylinder fell free, seeming to float just beneath the pegasus. Then, there was a loud whoosh, and the cylinder shot forth on a trail of fire… He turned, knowing that he didn’t want to be anywhere near that thing when it hit the airship. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the ship bloom into a brilliant green light, then he felt the shockwave and ear-splitting boom wash over him… When he turned around, the ship had been nearly bisected, burning with acidic green fire, and splintering apart. Dogs threw themselves from the sides, screaming, burning, or panicked. He could faintly hear one shout “By the eyes or Orgon, retreat!” He turned back, flying to the Abyssinian base. Luna was watching over the arcane image of the battlefield, helpfully projected from chariot-riding battlemages, using scrying spells to inspect the combat both on the surface and in the air… Three Abyssinian airships, complete with the best soldiers the empire could muster, supported by two full companies of wonderbolts, with all the new weaponry Equestria could field, and several scout detachments. Luna was in her element and felt joy as she sent and received telepathic orders. There was a bloom of green fire, and a balefire torpedo struck its target, sending the Storm King’s vessel plummeting to the ground. She felt a spike of panic when she saw where the ship was going to fall, and quickly told her soldiers on the ground to run, not that they needed any orders to do so… There came a few flashes, and the eerie feeling of complex spells being cast, and the teleporters attached to the scout detachments successfully warped the ponies away from the falling ship, which shattered into broken metal and wood, some of which sizzled as chunks, burning with eldritch fire, splashed into the water. Mount Aris was a smoking ruin… Luna had to wonder what the Storm King had done with the lonely little archipelago, but she was a little disappointed to see that he had simply left it, not even bothering to do much other than posting a few airship gantries around the southern end of the isle. “Let us hope the hippogriffs are somewhere watching the performance, wouldn’t want them to mistake us for invaders…” Came the voice of Catrina, the sorceress watching the battle unfold alongside the alicorn… The voice made Luna hesitate for a moment, it was horribly familiar, reminding her of ancient times...  “Yes… Let us also hope that the war with the Storm King will be a swift one, my sister demanded that, at the very least, our world should be in peace before we make contact with this alien one…” “Is that why you demanded that you assist with the conflict, or is there more you stand to gain from this,” Catrina smirked, giving Luna a knowing look… Luna sighed, “It’s going to take time and resources to repair the damage the Storm King has done to this island, and most of all, money… It could very well be Griffonstone all over again… I want to help these creatures, and not leave them in three hundred years of poverty thanks to dealing with the aftermath of a silly war…” Luna let a little bit of anger slip into her words, and could see Catrina flinch… Someone as well read as her must be well acquainted with ancient stories, obscure history, and forbidden lore, she almost smirked at how terrified the cat was, standing in the presence of someone as powerful as the princess of the night. “If I had my way, I’d simply annex them, the griffons too, it would be better if we could all work together, and not be divided into these little nation-states… My sister wouldn’t agree, but my sister refuses to offer aid to those who need it,” More anger crept into Luna’s voice, her body went taught, and gravity started to fluctuate, as, out of the corner of her eye, Luna saw pebbles raising into the air, and the fur on the cat’s body rise ever so slightly, “My sister would give those creatures freedom, but at the cost of their livelihood, what kind of ruler is so-” She sighed, and everything returned to normal, “Forgive me, I let myself go a bit…” Catrina was clearly horrified at Luna, but hid it well, her voice trembled only slightly, enough that someone not as versed in diplomacy as Luna wouldn’t have noticed, “Yes, well, I’m sure if Abyssinia fell under Equestria’s rule, the King and Queen would be sorely angered, it’s as if you insulted their ability to lead and govern…” “What are your feelings on the subject?” Luna raised an eyebrow. “I don’t care who commands me, I simply care about my books, and my spells, and my enchantments… I work to learn and spread my teachings, I don’t care who learns them or for what purpose…” Luna didn’t respond, but turned back to the map of the battlefield… There came a voice in her had, informing her that the admiral of this little airfleet had been captured, and the rest of the airships were turning away… Good… Looks like the battle is neatly wrapped up, that display with the balefire torpedo was sure to give the fleets second thoughts about attacking again… Now, all that needs to be done is to find where the Hippogriffs are hiding.