//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 - Pressing Hooves // Story: Golden Age of Apocalypse - Book III: Legacies // by BlueBastard //------------------------------// Golden Age of Apocalypse Chapter 16—Pressing Hooves 45th Day of Spring—6:31PM “It’s so lovely to have a quiet spot of tea, isn’t it?” asked Col. Tea Kettle, using her magic to magically pour more of her honey lemon tea out for her two guests. “Especially since your, er, human friend is keeping those more rowdy recruits busy. I didn’t know humans could move so fast!” “That’s, well, unique to her,” said Fluttershy, holding the teacup in one wing and using the other to fan it a bit cooler. “She’s the counterpart of this world’s native Rainbow Dash.” “So, humans don’t move that fast?” Uncomfortable with her towering size even for a human, Embiggen gestured to herself. “I’m only in this form because I’m part of the human guard services now. I can assure you, most humans don’t move as fast as pegasi, much less anything approaching the speed that I’ve heard Lt. Dash is capable of.” “Well,” chuckled Kettle, “from the sounds of things, she’s certainly leaving a good impression on the troops.” But then suddenly, one of the enlisted ponies burst through the doors of the dining room. “Colonel!” he shouted, “Tazlwurm!” “Again?!” sighed an exasperated Kettle. “I swear, these things are becoming such a pain to deal with.” “It’s worse, ma’am,” the soldier added. “The human mare...she’s caught in one of its tongues!” At that news, all three tea drinkers immediately got up from the table and raced outside. Even over the walls of the fort, they could see the towering Tazlwurm wrestling with the struggling Rainbow Dash. “I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR SOME TENTACLE PORNO!” the Latina shouted, trying desperately to free her ankle from the tongue wrapped around it as she herself swung through the air. “Oh no!” whimpered Fluttershy, “Embiggen, what are we gonna do?” But when the timid pegasus looked over to where the Amazonian teen should have been, instead there was nobody—and Embiggen was already racing to the front of the fort, carbine in hand. “PONIES!” shouted Col. Kettle, “ANTI-TAZLWURM FORMATION ALPHA, NOW!” Immediately, ponies from both outside and inside the fort converged to form defensive lines just outside the base’s entrance, creating two rows on either side of the door. From the battlements on the front wall, several unicorn mages had popped up and were ready to fire localized earthquake spells to confuse and disorient the crazed beast.  “That human mare is still in its clutches, Colonel!” a pegasus stallion wearing the rank insignia of a lieutenant shouted. “We can’t risk hurting her!” “And what’s that other human doing?” another soldier added. “Is she actually running right toward the damn thing? She’s going to get both of them killed!” The ponies of Fort Nonsense called out to Embiggen to return to the safety of the battlements, but to no avail. The hulking figure was moving at a speed unthinkable for someone her size, weapon in hand as she headed straight for the towering creature and the rainbow-haired human in its clutches. 45th Day of Spring—3:25AM As Octavia slowly started coming to, the first thought she had was that she’d experienced the worst lucid dream—or rather, lucid nightmare—of her life. Her second thought was that the absolute amount of pain that suddenly roared up from her lower body made it clear that it had not been a nightmare: that Melody had somehow used that magic amulet to try to finally ruin Octavia’s life once and for all, and that she was now a half-monstrous parody of a human. Her third thought was to scream, but no sooner had she opened her mouth, than a bottle was suddenly shoved into it. “Tavi, I need you to drink this,” said Razz, her horn glowing in its bubbly purple-green aura. “It’s medicine from this world. I don’t know how much it’ll help, but if we’re going to get out of here, I need you to drink this and trust me." Quickly nodding, it was all Octavia could do to grab the bottle with her own thankfully still recognizably human hands. It tasted like a can of lukewarm tea that had been left open for too long, but as she drank it, she could feel the intense pain in her lower body begin to dial down towards the dull sensation of having worked out for too long. “Ungh,” she groaned, finally removing the emptied bottle from her mouth. “God...what the fuck is even happening?” “Utter pandemonium,” drolled Corner Shot, who finished undoing the lock and threw the cell door open. No sooner had she done that than did Tavi instinctively throw herself at Corner, pinning the pegasus to the ground with her hands around her neck. “YOU!” she seethed, anger in her eyes. “It’s your fucking fault all of this happened, you cunt!” “Yeah,” gasped Corner, trying to pry the human’s hands off her neck. She could have used knives, but stabbing the human probably wouldn’t have been wise given the deal she’d just negotiated with Razz and Lock. “Tell me something I don’t know!” “Tavi, let her go! We need her alive right now!” said Razz, who didn’t even wait for an answer before using her magic to essentially rip Octavia off the downed pegasus and suspend her in the air. “She’s our only ticket out of this madhouse!” “And you trust this bitch?!” “She’s the one who brought you that elixir, which is the only reason you aren’t in terrible pain right now,” said Lock, in a tone expressing she wasn’t happy about giving Corner credit but that the facts were facts. “Right now you have other things to be concerned about,” added Razz, “like seeing if you can still walk. I’m not going to abandon you, but as hard as it is right now, I need you to see if you can get back on your hooves—I mean, feet.” She saw Octavia wince at her verbal error, and frowned at her own gaffe. “Leave Corner to Razz and me, okay?” Lock insisted. “You focus on taking care of yourself right now.” “Fine,” Tavi huffed, though with her anger subsiding it was clear the fear and uncertainty was coming back. Suddenly, the gunshots sounded out again. “Was that gunfire?” “Gunfire?” Lock asked, unfamiliar with the term. “Yeah, sounds like the triplets are pissed,” Razz said sardonically, and despite the situation, Tavi couldn’t help but laugh. “That red band must have brought your humans here,” Corner commented, unaware of Razz’s joke. “I guess they’re showing that incident at the parade grounds with the griffons wasn’t a one time deal.” Loud ringing retorts then rang out again. “Trust me, I’ve seen them in action before. Your Covenant buddies aren’t going to last very long,” Razz noted. “Also part of the reason I’m saving your asses” said Corner, getting off the ground and dusting herself off with her wings, “I’m sure those three humans with the tiny shoot sticks particularly want me dead after I killed the pink-haired human.” “You killed one of my friends!?” Octavia gasped, suddenly feeling numb, and not due to the pain. Razz, however, having had enough experience with the relatively mercurial nature of human emotions, put a foreleg up to stop her before said numbness turned into murderous fury. “All the more reason to get out of here,” the mulberry unicorn said, trying to calm her own self down—the dead person was one of her friends as well, after all. She then turned to Corner, adding, “You have my word I’ll help you if you get us out...but even I can’t stop Sunset if you honestly killed one of her friends.” “A risk I’ll have to take,” Corner replied. “Now come on; I’m honestly surprised the Covenant hasn’t already tried to send extra guards here!” 45th Day of Spring—7:10PM Dinner at the restaurant in Cherry Groves Resort was going well, Sunny Side thought. The food was pretty good (if predictably cherry-themed) and her family seemed to be getting along well with her charges. Her father Iron Side talked a little about what was happening on their chicken farm in the past weeks (they’d just built a new coup and were ordering about a dozen new chickens). Sunny had then caught them up on her new assignment, and told them all about how she had come about it. “Let’s just say that Cmdr. Dusk was walking funny for the next couple of days, and not for the reason most mares like to be walking funny if you know what I mean!” Sunny said with a wink. Her father just gave her a glare and discretely gestured to Bright Side, who looked over to her with an innocent smile. “I like walking funny too!” the little sky-blue filly exclaimed. “Sometimes at school, I walk around on my hind legs and it makes all the other foals laugh!” Sunny hastily changed the subject to the reason she and her charges were here, inevitably bringing up the mini-concert planned for tomorrow. “So… Miss Fluttershy, is it?” Iron asked, clearing his throat. “What’s human music like?” Taking a moment to chew and swallow the food in her mouth, Fluttershy answered. “From what I can tell, it isn’t much different from the music of your world. There’s lots of different styles and genres from cultures all over the world.” “But I thought you said that humans were the only intelligent species in your world?” “We are, but there’s lots of different kinds of humans, just like there are different kinds of ponies. On our world, we have over two hundred different nations and around eight billion people. That, along with centuries, gives plenty of time for dozens of different styles of expression, whether music, art, acting or what comes to mind.” Iron nodded, but Sunny could tell he still didn’t quite understand. He was a stubborn stallion, her father. Not intolerant or completely unaccepting of new ideas, but he was still very much set in his ways. It was the reason, Sunny suspected, that he kept stealing uncertain glances her way as the meal went on. “So, you can change out of… that form any time you like, can’t you?” he suddenly asked. Sunny held up her right arm, where the magical bracelet remained around her wrist. “Just need to take this off.” “Then why don’t you?” Iron asked. “You’re off-duty now, right?” “Actually, I’m on-duty as long as I’m with Miss Fluttershy and Lady Applejack,” Sunny said, the presence of the sidearm on her hip a constant reminder of that. She was only able to let her guard down as much as she was now because she’d earlier spoken with the Resort’s security team, who knew to inform her of any problems. “Okay… is there a time later on that you can?” her father asked carefully. “I’d like to see you once in your natural form before you’re shipped out to their world.” “I’m really not supposed to. Capt. Dazzle wants us all to be completely used to our human bodies before we ship out. Doesn’t want us to fall back on any of our ‘pony’ habits that might expose us when we’re over there.” “And you’re okay with that?” Iron said, the food on his plate slowly being forgotten. “You’re okay with just… losing your pony heritage?” “I’m not losing my heritage, Dad,” Sunny said, an annoyed tone taking hold of her voice. “You sure?” Iron persisted. “Because you’re being made to live as a completely different species, and you don’t even know how long it’ll be for….” “Dad….” But her father continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “There’s a term for that, Sunny: it’s called cultural assimilation.” “Dad, it’s not like that!” “Oh, then what’s it like, Sunny? Because the way it looks to me, these humans just showed up in our world, turned you into one of them, and are taking you back to their world....!” “Dad, I’m not being taken against my will…!” “...And the Princesses are just allowing this?!” Sunny became acutely aware of just how silent the rest of the table had gotten then. Fluttershy and Applejack were looking at each other, wordlessly trying to decide whether to say anything. Even Bright Side had gone silent, staring intently down at her plate as she ate. Sunny looked away from her father and returned her attention to her own meal. For a few moments she thought the rest of the dinner was going to carry on in that oppressively uncomfortable silence when Applejack spoke up. “Mr. Side, Ah c’n honestly say Ah unnerstand where yer comin’ from,” she said. “Lettin’ family go is hard, and well… Ah know how strange these human folk seem t’ us. There was a time when Ah trusted them even less th’n you do. “But in shunnin’ what was different, Ah ended up deprivin’ myself of what coulda been a lasting friendship. These humans are strange an’ different, sure enough. But they’re also good folk, an’... Ah was blind not t’ see it sooner!” Another silence followed the blonde farmpony’s short speech, but rather than awkward it was reflective. “Applejack’s right,” Sunny said after giving them all a moment to consider the Element of Honesty’s words. “There’s so much we can learn from these humans—so much that I’m already learning. They’re not the monsters from our bedtime stories, Dad.” With a long sigh, Iron said, “Right, I’m sorry. So much of our world is changing and, well… you know how well I cope with change, Sunny.” “It’s okay,” Sunny said, smiling now that things seemed to be civil again. “Trust me, you’re not the only pony who’s having a hard time realizing that these humans aren’t the monsters from our legends.” Fluttershy nodded. “That’s right. In fact, it’s the main reason why we’re here on this publicity tour.” Her eyes suddenly went big as evidently an idea just hit her. “Hey, how would you both like free seats at the concert tomorrow?” Bright Side gasped, and looked at her dad with big eager eyes. “Yeah! Can we go, Daddy? Please?” “Well…” “Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?” Bright exclaimed before Iron even had a chance to say one way or the other. “Please please please please please please please please please please please…?” “Okay, okay!” Iron said with a good-natured laugh. “We’ll be there.”  Soon everyone had finished their dinner, and Iron Side announced that it was time for him and Bright to go home. “It’s a school night, after all,” he reminded the little filly, whose response was an over-dramatic groan.  When the time came for Sunny to say goodnight to them, she couldn’t help but notice a little of her father’s unease from earlier in the evening had returned. “Hey, you know I’ll always be a pony at heart right?” she told him. “You know, I’m not sure that matters all that much to me anymore,” Iron said, standing up on his hind legs to give the human woman a loving embrace. “All I care about is that you’ll always be my filly.”  “Of course,” Sunny said, immediately returning the hug. “When I’m back from my first tour in the human world, you’ll understand why I did it. The humans are amazing! With their help we can further modernize Equestria’s military so that we never have to see another war like the one we fought against Tirek. That’s why I want to be a SIREN!” 45th Day of Spring—3:30AM Pushing through the Covenant headquarters with a murderous fury, the SIRENs proceeded to introduce the enemy forces to human warfare as only they knew how—brutal and unrelenting. The three teams proceeded to “take the gloves off”, as Sunset had ordered and the Covenant ponies found themselves at a particular disadvantage, not having seen combat on a scale like this before. Gunfire and grenades went up against swords, magic and other weapons, firepower against pony arts of war—and it was quickly becoming clear which one was more efficient. The five humans present didn’t even bother to waste time dealing with the lines and ranks of traditional pony warfare, instead firing around corners, throwing grenades and treating magic bolts as if they were enemy tracer fire. Spears and arrows did no good, as human trigger fingers were far faster than even the fastest draw from a pony archer. Watching from his vantage point, Blueblood could only stare in awe as the “human” he was with showed what she’d learned from them in a quick amount of time. As the Covenant guards began to converge en masse on the invaders, Whiskey quickly pulled out her carbine and started firing, pausing only occasionally to pull out a leaf and use her innate kitsune magic to turn it into a giant shield with the strength of inch-thick steel to hide behind.  Voices came across the radio and carried through the radiowaves: “This is Sierra Three—tangos down, second wave incoming.” “Sierra Five, Sierra Two—I have Agency Six with me and we are engaging, repeat, we are engaging.” “All units, Sierra Six—push harder. Weapons now free, repeat, weapons free.” Hallways began to fill with bodies as the ponies watched gods of war at work, cutting down their opponents as if they were nothing. Some of the smarter ponies panicked and ran or flew as fast as they could, their natural instinct to flee taking over their minds. The ones that had been trained as warriors stood their ground, only to be met with 5.7×28mm small-caliber, high-velocity rounds straight into the head or worse as the SIRENs switched from flashbang grenades to the standard M67 “baseball” grenade and its deadlier ordnance. However, on the minds of three of the SIRENs present, there was a cold fury and rage as they pushed forward. One of their own—a sister, even if not a SIREN—had been taken, and there would be no quarter given. They fought on the order of their princess, but more so they fought because their sister had ordered them to save their other family. And if even so much as one hair was harmed on Octavia’s head, there would be hell to pay. Watching his charges via the radio communications and his orders, Sable grimaced. Once again, he was bringing what he felt were children into battle. But this time it would be different. He would be here for them in a way he couldn’t before, and he would see them through this. He had to, both because of the ties Celestia had to this family as well as his own personal ties to the triplets—he needed to protect them, even as they themselves protected others. The air between the two groups burned and sizzled with dozens of rounds crossing space in one direction, while a desperate attempt to put up a defense against the human ferocity looked more and more feeble and futile as the minutes went on.  The human race was, for the first time in history, actively teaching another species about the art of war. The “students”, in this case, were likely not going to survive the lesson. 45th Day of Spring—6:33PM “¡Déjame ir a la mierda, pedazo de gusano de mierda!” The tazlwurm was forty feet in diameter and roughly 200 feet long; a colossal beast that normal ponies would run away from, and even the guards at Fort Nonsense weren’t immune to the sheer fear that the creature projected. Normally, they resided deep within the wastes and didn’t come this close to settled land, but ever since the war their normal lands had been disturbed, one of Tirek’s more indirect tactics to cause trouble for the ponies. And while he was gone, the wurms were unlikely to return to their normal nomadic, solitary lives anytime soon. Naturally, Rainbow had thought she could kick its ass so long as it didn’t get its disgustingly wet tentacles around her. And naturally, she’d been wrong. Now she was being flung all over the place as if the giant disgusting thing was deciding if it wanted to eat her or not and there was nothing Dash could do about it much to her chagrin.  However, out of the corner of her eye, she was able to catch a glimpse of a familiar looking figure charging the giant worm. The fact they were human was a dead giveaway to their identity, but that confused the athlete: the impression Rainbow had gotten was that Embiggen being in the SIRENs was a complete fluke. This certainly couldn’t have been the same individual who made Fluttershy look like an extreme extrovert in comparison. Then the Latina saw Embiggen, while still running headlong at this giant monster, lift her carbine and apparently take aim right at Rainbow. She felt the blood in her veins go so cold that her normally tan skin probably went as pale as Rarity. Then she closed her eyes and braced for the worst, but the bullets only flew around her and suddenly she was falling—had Embiggen actually just shot the tentacles? Rainbow was too scared to open her eyes given she didn’t want to see the ground rushing up to meet her—a long time ago, the idea had been suggested by Sunset that when the girls ‘ponied up’ that Fluttershy and Rainbow should get wings, and Rainbow had thought the idea stupid. She didn’t think it was so stupid now. But then she was caught in thick strong arms. Daring to open her eyes, Rainbow was shocked to see that Embiggen had, in fact, caught her and was now running back to Fort Nonsense at full speed, paying no attention to the carbine flailing around behind her attached by nothing but the nylon strap wrapped around her midsection. As much as Rainbow hated being the damsel in distress—wasn’t her style—she didn’t object but instead just wrapped her arms around the teenaged Amazonian’s neck. “FIRE! FIRE FIRE!” shouted Embiggen as she ran past the defensive lines and back into the fort, with a voice and tone far different than the softspoken one she usually used. The ponies around certainly didn’t seem to notice, as they followed her cue and started to launch the defensive measures against the tazlwurm. The tazlwurm itself, already in pain from its tentacle tongues having been perforated with tiny metal objects, suddenly found itself bombarded by arcane earthquakes and ballista arrows. Evidently trying to grab that strange multi-colored creature had been a very bad move and it decided that it didn’t want to deal with more trouble. So, it let out a pained cry and then suddenly tunneled deep into the ground, the tremors indicating that it was moving deeper into the desert where nopony lived. “Embiggen, that was amazing!” gushed Fluttershy, feeling pride for her fellow shy pony. “Er, what?” asked Embiggen, who strangely seemed to have returned to her normal persona. Then as if not having even known what she was doing, she realized she was cradling Rainbow. “Oh, right, Miss Dash. You’re safe.” Rainbow allowed herself to be put back down before immediately launching into her own little episode of excitement. “What was that?! You...you were amazing!” Embiggen seemed to not quite understand what was going on. “Ah, uh...I know this is going to sound weird but, er...what did I do?” “You ran out of the base with nothing but your rifle looking like you were going to cave that overgrown earthworm’s face in, then you shot it in the face in a perfect enough way to free me, then you caught me and hightailed it back here!” “I did?” “How can you not know what you literally just did?!” Embiggen blushed, putting her two index fingers together nervously. “I dunno if you’ve ever experienced things like this but, er...I tend to black out in highly tense situations and only come back when the issue has been resolved, typically by me.” “But you make it sound like you pass out!” observed Fluttershy. “I, uh, kinda? In my old unit, when I did that, the other enlisted ponies said I opened up a can of butt kicking like I was Saddle Rager of the Power Ponies. In that absolutely insane thousand-pony stunt that the admiral and the rest of the SIREN command pulled, the last thing I remembered was a bunch of ponies and other creatures surging past me, then I blacked out, and when I came to I had several injuries, but I was standing over the Admiral’s unconscious body and, um...I think some of his blood on my hooves.” Rainbow just stood there, dumbfounded. She made a mental note to never, ever be judgemental of wallflowers ever again. What the internet said about being cautious around the shy people—humans, ponies, whatever—had just been proven. True, Rainbow had always thought this about Fluttershy, but Fluttershy wasn’t going to potentially clean Rainbow’s clock if she got on her bad side. 45th Day of Spring—3:35AM “C’mon, this way!” said Corner, leading the two unicorns and the very unsteady hoof-footed human through the corridors, with Corner quickly dispatching any and all Covenant forces unfortunate enough to stand in their way. Razz, meanwhile, was taking a less lethal approach: anypony behind them got their legs frozen in dark crystal. It was crude but it wasn’t like there was much time to perform more elaborate measures. “Ow, ow, ow!” moaned Tavi, feeling the uneven rock surface under her new hooves in addition to just the dull soreness of her transformed legs. The most insulting part was probably the fact she also had pain in her newly elongated tailbone, since now she had soreness being a literal pain in her ass. She gasped,“This shit better not be permanent!" She then took two more steps, then collapsed to the ground. “Hey, this is not a walk in the park!” Corner shouted back. “Get your ass up!” “She’s not used to walking on these legs, okay?” Lock called out. “Give her a break!” Lock did not point out the fact that Tavi might not ever have her normal legs back ever again. “Fine,” growled Corner. “This is just past the main kitchen area,” she added as she led the group past a slightly brighter area littered with what looked like higher end camping equipment specifically for large group campouts, “but if the main atrium is not loaded with ponies—which it shouldn’t be given the chaos going on right now and Lux throwing ponies at problems as usual—then we can make a beeline through the middle and get the fuck out of this hell!”  “And it’s just behind that door?” asked Lock, as Corner tried to open the door but found it locked. “Yeah, just behind this—" said Corner, rushing into the door and smashing it with her body weight. “—door.” Unfortunately, her prediction had been wrong and there were still plenty of ponies in the Atrium—including Lux and the Oracle. And naturally, their attention was all drawn to the noise of smashed wood, which surrounded Corner. “Why do we even have doors?!” she said, thankful that due to the bend in the corridor behind her, nopony else could see the other three Scions. “Sombradamnit!” shouted Lux, “what the hell are you even doing, Corner Shot?!” “A filly apparently can’t even take a dump without you bringing the damn roof down, Neon Lux!” she shouted, hoping that the ponies hiding around the corner behind her got the hint. “Well, it’s just as well you’re here,” said the Oracle, “since we need the Scions here now anyway—we have to get this ritual over with sooner rather than later since somepony has been negligent in preparing this cave for an attack!” “How were we supposed to know the humans would come in force?!” whined Lux, “and then there’s that other group apparently with that phoenix Raspberry has—how they got a bird to agree to go underground is anypony’s guess!” 45th Day of Spring—3:36AM “Phoenix?” whispered Razz, quickly having gotten herself, Lock, and Tavi hidden out of view after catching on to what Corner was saying. She perked up as she realized who exactly it could have been Lux was bitching about. “Heliodor!” He’s come to help save me!” “That bird really must love you to come into a deep hole like this,” Lock agreed. “But that still leaves the matter that there’s a crapload of Covenant between us and the exit—we’re going to have to take them all out if we’re getting all of us out of here.” “I’m sorry,” Tavi moaned, her face a mask of exhaustion and pain, “but it’s all I can do to keep up!!” “You’re doing fine, Tavi. Just keep it up and we’ll get out of this okay,” Razz assured her. She then eyed something in the kitchen area. “Lock, you stay with Corner and get going in the fight if it breaks out. Tavi? Come with me.” The two other Scions nodded and Tavi followed Razz into the kitchen.  “You need me to hide?” Tavi asked.  “Probably under that wooden box,” Razz said, gesturing to a large box left over from an unpacked large portable kitchen stove. “Get in and I’ll move you to the corner, out of the way.” “I never liked Metal Gear—that was Ari’s favorite,” Tavi mused. “Huh?” “Nevermind,” the human commented. “But what if whoever is here to save us comes in here? They won’t notice me!” “Tavi, listen,” said Razz, knowing she really didn’t have the time to explain this but Tavi needed to simply go with the plan. “Some time after I put you to sleep, there was this red band...thing...that appeared on your wrist. It must have been some kind of spell from Sunset, Twilight or one of the other alicorns, I dunno. I’ve never seen it before. However, the fact there is clearly somebody fighting against the Covenant? It has to mean somepony from Canterlot was able to trace your location. And whoever it is, I can only assume they won’t leave here without you. And, well, I can probably just tell them if all else fails.” “But you could die out there!” “Hah!” laughed Razz. “Please, I’ve died countless times—it’s getting me to stay dead that’s the trick.” With no further argument to be made, Tavi reluctantly allowed Razz to place the box over her and then the box was moved into the corner just inside the wall, so it wouldn’t be easily noticed. Then, Razz joined the other two pony Scions, in effect her own cousins if several generations removed due to their common ancestor having been around before the time of interior plumbing. “We’ll have to move soon,” said Corner, “they’re busy arguing with each other but they’ll eventually get wise,” “Then let’s go now,” said Razz, “when they’re distracted.” “As good a time as ever,” said Lock. “They wanted Scions? We’ll give them Scions, with all our power.” “Alrighty then, on my mark, we charge. One...two….THREE!” Together, the two unicorns and pegasus leapt out of the doorway and started throwing spells and knives every which way.  45th Day of Spring—3:37AM “You fools think you’ve won?” said a Covenant mare, tangled in vines, “It doesn’t matter how quickly you cut through us, you’re already too late. The plan is too far along to be stopped now!” “Oh? What plan is that?” Whiskey asked, the humanized kitsune standing victoriously over the trapped mare. The Covenant mare smiled, and for a moment Whiskey thought one of her teeth looked...sharper. “The only plan that actually matters,” she said. “You’ll see!” Knowing that she was unlikely to get any more information out of the crazed zealot, Whisky swiftly knocked her out with the butt of her weapon and the transformed kitsune gave it no more thought. The stealth on the mission had already gone sideways and now her orders were to go weapons free. She didn’t relish the thoughts of killing, but if this meant saving Octavia, that would be what she would do. A short distance away, Blu telekinetically slammed another pony—this one a stallion—into the wall with enough force to knock them out cold. Then he noticed something else about the wall. “Whiskey, come here a moment,” he said, gesturing to the humanized kitsune.  She did as she was instructed, then looked where Blu was looking. “Sorry, I don’t see anything. These caves are dark, I can’t risk changing back and I didn’t bring any night-vision goggles.” “Heliodor?” asked Blu, and the phoenix perched on his back complied by letting out a small amount of emerald fire. It was enough to illuminate the spot that had caught Blu’s interest: a rock face that was flickering in and out of existence, in tandem with what could only be described as rock that had been dissolved by some kind of acid. However, soon even the fire from Heliodor became unnecessary, as the walls all over the chamber started to flicker like dying embers. Most notable was that the torches on the wall would shift between the warm, low orange glow of fire—and sickly green bioluminescent cocoon-like objects. “What are those?” asked Whiskey, instinctively putting her hand on her sword hilt. “Changeling light pods,” said Blu. “This doesn’t make any sense. Unless…” he spent a moment in deep thought, before coming to an enlightenment and moreover horrifying realization about the nature of their environment. “Come on—we’re in even deeper danger than I thought!” 45th Day of Spring—3:38AM “Ungh!” groaned Lock, pinned to the ground by no less than five Covenant stallions, her dark chains faltering and then disappearing into the ground as her focus was broken. Likewise, Razz was out as well. She was so sure they could take out what Covenant ponies were in the atrium, but then more showed up… and then more, and more. They had practically crawled out of the shadows like insects from the woodwork. “Foolish mares!” gloated Lux, who hadn’t even been harmed—namely because he’d run from the scene the moment danger was evident, only coming back when it was clear his life was not in danger. “You continue to fight your destiny, but in the end you will serve!” He then glanced around worriedly, realizing that only the two unicorns were down. “Wait, where’s Corn—" The feather knife that would have easily planted itself right between Lux’s eyes, right at the base of his horn, and driven itself right into his brain, was instead intercepted by one of the few still standing Covenant ponies—she was dead before she hit the ground. For Corner’s trouble, she was then tackled by two of her former fellow pegasus assassins. “I always knew Father Fields misplaced his faith in you!” Lux chided. “I’m not the one he misplaced faith in!” she retorted, trying to break free and failing. However, all attention soon was drawn to the dead Covenant pony who was suddenly enshrouded with green fire—and instantly turned into an equally dead changeling, the feather knife still buried to the hilt in its head. “Well, it seems even the changelings understand that the reign of Sombra is nigh if they’re serving our cause!” gloated Lux, clearly revelling in this reveal even though his own Covenant was getting their asses kicked elsewhere. “Not that I would blame them—that stupid bitch of a queen Chrysalis has been losing her touch ever since her failed attack on Canterlot. She can’t even hope to compare to us! Compare to ME!” Tiny, for her part, merely smirked. “If only she knew what she was doing—haven’t heard a peep from her in a long while. Too busy dealing with issues within her own hive, or so I’ve heard. She’ll get what she deserves soon enough—just another thing Canterlot failed to handle.” 45th Day of Spring—3:45AM Tavi, hiding in her box, only heard the sounds of raging battle and shivered in fear and pain, the adrenaline in her system still having kept her from fully grasping the fact she was half-alien horse from the waist down...that she was of alien ancestry, and related to her adopted cousin and sister figure in more than one way. But as long as she kept hiding out of the way, everything would ultimately be fine— “GOT ONE!” a voice called out, alarmingly close to Tavi’s box. Her worst fears were confirmed when the box promptly exploded outward, leaving her merely sitting on a wooden square, looking right into the faces of two angry looking ponies. What happened next was decided in the blink of an eye. More specifically, to the ponies who thought they’d gotten a lucky break, one moment they saw the abomination’s wide, purple eyes full of fear, then in that blink of her eyes, suddenly they were purple and green and emitting a purple haze. And then came the scream.