//------------------------------// // 32 -- Destroyer of worlds // Story: A Method to his Madness // by Luna-tic Scientist //------------------------------// Discord seemed to be in no hurry, and let them glide towards him at a pace set by gravity and wind resistance. Her magic still functioned -- the Elements maintained their orbits about her head and her personal defences were active -- but it was like being separated from her power by a glass wall. Luna tried time and time again to dislodge those mental claws, but they were like little wedges forced into her skull; with each tap of the vivisectionist's hammer the bones were driven a little further apart. What made it worse was the grinning presence watching her every effort and blocking it with ease. "It's more fun when you fight," Discord said, his tired voice reaching her ears without crossing the multiple kilometres of air that still separated them. Her head turned without volition and she stared at Celestia. Her sister was flying as if somepony had tied a pole across her wings, all frozen and rigid, but her eyes were very alive, darting from side to side like they were trying to escape. "She's no fun anymore. Our recent dalliance has made her a bit of a pushover." The sharing was still open and Celestia was trying to form coherent thoughts, but it was like she had been pushed under the surface of a frozen lake and was scrabbling at the underside of the ice. Strange whinnies and grunts, coupled with the random thrashing burble of a mind failing under a carefully administered torment, came back down the link. "Get it over with, you monster," Luna slurred through lips not fully under her control. "I'll never give you the satisfaction of surrender." "Oh, I don't want surrender, anymore than I want your deaths," he said, with a voice that seemed to ooze through every crack and crevice of her being, tainting everything it touched. "Where's the fun in that?" "Then what do you want?" "A measure of revenge... you two have been a thorn in my side for quite a while, but I need you. I don't need the rest of them." Discord flew them both in quick, tight manoeuvres, so close that her hooves struck Celestia's rump. "I never mentioned this before, but I need the Elements to get out of this glass bottle of a universe. Alas! Fate has been unkind, and I can't use them myself." The smile in the voice grew wide, to the point where it must have unhinged the whole of his head. "But you can, my little puppet--." Lights, flashbulb-bright even in the noon-day sun, bloomed in a perfect circle on the horizon. Heat swept across Luna's coat, immediately damped down by her defences, and Discord's hold on her mind faltered, just enough that she regained control of her wings. Twisting violently, she slammed belly to belly with Celestia, legs tangling and wings wrapping around the other's sweat-soaked barrel. The pair tumbled and started to fall, but they were still many kilometres above the mountains and Luna paid it no heed. Her defences folded around them both, clamping down on the incoming thermal pulse, just as a second ring of lights flared. Off in the distance, visible even through the intense attenuation of the layered fields, the shape of Discord floated at the centre of a cone of blue-glowing ionisation that stretched down from a perfectly clear heavens. === The weapons left the atmosphere behind at over five kilometres a second, shedding their aeroshells as the pressure dropped and air resistance became negligible. Carefully engineered armatures expanded from tight-packed bundles of heavy metal rods, moving the dense filaments into position around the spherical 'physics package' that was at the heart of each projectile. Seamless, made of atomically fine layers of platinum and silicon carbide to act as X-ray mirrors in the first, frantic, nanoseconds of detonation, they held a few kilos of lithium deuteride wrapped around a magnetic trap for ten micrograms of antihydrogen. The filament bundles flanked the fusion cores, each three meters long and able to move independently. They flexed and twitched through self-test routines, settling back to point at a single location, just coming over the horizon. The flight of weapons started to draw apart under the influence of their slightly different launch velocities and the careful application of braking vanes biting the near-vacuum. Lasers connected them to each other and a multitude of sensors and computers on drones, aircraft and ground stations, providing a continuous stream of updates for the onboard systems. Momentum wheels rotated the vehicles, a gentle drift with sub-arcsecond resolution, keeping the target in view as they flew overhead. The three anomalies were stark and clear, highlighted by pronounced signals at various optical wavelengths, further confirmation provided by long baseline gravimetric interferometers buried deep within mountains over a thousand kilometres away. They were examined and compared against stored spectral profiles, all the computers reaching their own decision and voting on the one that best matched their orders. Two of the targets, the ones the system had originally been designed to attack, were rejected, and the massed weapon platforms fine-tuned their orientations.  Clocks, accurate to within one part in a trillion, exchanged synchronisation pulses and counted down the cold microseconds. At an agreed moment, across two hundred kilometres of space, carefully shaped arcs of octanitrocubane detonated, generating a symmetrical shockwave that collapsed the lithium deuteride into the antimatter containment vessels. In a moment, no more than the time it took that ten-kilometre-a-second shockwave to rebound a clawful of microns, all the antiprotons had been converted to gamma rays and relativistic particles, flashing the fuel past its ignition temperature. Electrostatic repulsion overcome, the nucleons combined in an orgy of the strong nuclear force and liberated three orders of magnitude more energy than the antimatter provided. The pulse of gamma rays, travelling just ahead of the energetic helium nuclei, immediately turned the inner surface of the warhead into plasma, but not before a fraction of their number were reflected back onto the second stage. More lithium deuteride, much, much more, burned, liberating over fifty petajoules, mostly as hard radiation. Everything was falling apart now, the inside of the weapon at temperatures found in the core of an operating fusion reactor, but the laggard movement of atoms was no match for that of light. High energy X-rays, produced from the stripped atoms of the bomb's internal structure, shone out through the casing and illuminated the heavy metal rods, pumping inner shell electrons into highly excited states. Such things cannot last and, as the casing ruptured under the pressures of expanding plasma, all that briefly stored energy was released as a beam of X-rays. By their very nature, the bomb-pumped lasers were not efficient, and the thickness of atmosphere between them and the target further reduced the intensity, but over a petajoule of collimated X-rays reached their target, and that could not be ignored. This happened not once, but dozens of times, as all the twelve-megaton warheads detonated simultaneously, transfixing their target from all points of the compass.  Five seconds later another salvo arrived and did exactly the same again while, unnoticed in the electromagnetic storm, a collection of dark, stealthy projectiles fell through the centre of the ring of detonations, their initial velocity undiminished. === Luna bit and kicked and thrashed and stomped, pursuing the alien presence through the recesses of her mind, power and control increasing as Discord's influence waned. The flashbulbs popped again and she anticipated the flinch at the other end of the link, lashing out at the distant snake-like shape, making it writhe under the combined onslaught of nuclear fire and her own magic.  Suddenly, there was another presence in her head. Wet, shivering and weak, where the drowning pony had found a thin spot in the ice and fought her way free, but it was there. Luna... Tremulous, but getting stronger, the other mind added its efforts to her own, hitting Discord's probes from both sides. "Nukes!" Discord laughed, although it sounded a little strained, and clapped his mismatched forelimbs together. "Oh, how precious!" He snapped a claw and the next wave of weapons detonated early and off target, flash-vaporising the snow from mountain tops and setting sheltered valleys ablaze. The scratching at the edges of Luna's mind returned, the worming, stretching motion of alien thought forcing its way back through half-healed fractures. Something, barely felt at the edges of her awareness, bloomed overhead, shedding a dark rain of needles that dispersed violently before converging on Discord from all sides. Throwing caution to the wind, Luna left her defences to Celestia, galloping back along the link Discord had opened between them and assaulting his mind directly.  The shapes converged, allowed close by her distraction, and activated. Magic seemed to twist and distort, sucked away by whatever spellcraft mechanisms were within that multitude of machines. Kicked back into her own body, Luna floundered for a moment, only able to gasp and watch. There was a look of surprise and momentary confusion on Discord's muzzle, then he snarled and the drones started to explode with flashes of green fire. For the briefest of instants, Discord's hold on them vanished. His magic was sucked up into the drones, brilliant glowing butterflies as seen by shadow sight, dying like they were under a blowtorch. Luna grabbed at her power, slamming her defences into place, then drew on the Elements.  At Luna's side, still wrapped in her dusky-blue wings, Celestia stirred, head coming up to stare out at Discord. About her head the three Elements lit up, casting a lurid glare across her features. "Bastard." She coughed, great, wracking shivers making her whole body convulse. There was anger there, a hint of the pony who had stood at her side against all manner of foes from the deep past all the way to modern times. Luna pushed away, wings flicking out to halt her fall, watching as Celestia, after a few wobbles, managed the same. The magic of the Day Princess' Elements reached out, meshed with her own, the fractal plane of potential filling her shadow sight with endless possibilities. There was no need to speak; the desire was obvious. Rainbow light flooded the mountains just as the last of the drones vanished behind a green flash, a tangled mesh of polychromatic wires that collapsed around Discord's snake-like form and froze him into immobility. He fought the power, but was weaker from the fight and the after-effects of the spellcraft weapons, and his magic collapsed, folded away behind the gauzy and ephemeral-seeming shield. Clumsy, Luna thought, but it will hold for long enough to finish the job. He continued to struggle, but it did no good. Celestia and Luna flew cautiously closer, finally coming to a hover in front of his floating form. "Well, that was fun... best two out of three?" Discord smiled hopefully, uneven eyes wide and innocent. The ponies stared back with expressions of outrage, and he slumped a little. "You can't blame me for trying... go on, let me out and I'll help you fix everything, just to show there are no hard feelings." Luna snorted. "Never, Discord, never again. You might be becoming able to resist the Elements, but we are getting better. Every day that passes we understand a little more." Discord's expression changed, muzzle twisting with malice. "Take as long as you like. I can wait you all out... in the long run you will make a mistake, and I'll be waiting. It will make your ultimate defeat all the sweeter." Behind her, Celestia lifted her head, eyes having trouble focussing on the floating Discord. "Not today, and not tomorrow." She nodded at Luna, horn starting to glow. "No matter what happens to us, our ponies will always stand up against you." "Mortals," Discord said, his sneer becoming more pronounced, "little sparks in the wind. One gust and they are gone." "As individuals, perhaps... but it is the society you will face. You threw them into the fire, but they will come out tempered, not burned." "We'll see." His smile came back, wide and predatory. "I have plenty of time." Luna matched Discord's grin and lowered her head to look him in the eye. "One last thing before you go. Who do you think disrupted your spell, right when things started to go wrong for you? I'll give you a clue... it wasn't me." Discord looked uncertain and Luna's smile widened. "Our little ponies did pretty well for a first effort. Now they know it works, guess how much effort they are going to put into improving it?" Are you ready? There was assent and the power built once more, much more ordered and controlled than the hasty capture of moments ago, then pure colours washing over the recumbent form, his expression of uncertainty now frozen into immobility. The rainbow died and Luna captured Discord in her magic, before he could fall more than a few metres. She turned in the air, heading back towards the prison, suddenly stunned that it was all over. Or is it? He infected just about everypony with his madness. There will be consequences. She shook her head, then looked up into the sky, wondering if anything else was heading in their direction. "Come on, Celestia. Let's get under cover." Her sister blinked, brow furrowed, then her expression cleared. "Yes. I want to see if there is anything we can do for those poor ponies he was using." === Discord's light show washed over Nightstorm, the surge and boom of magics far beyond her experience, let alone capability. Dammit, I'm trying to work here! "Blevie, is there anything left of your medical supplies, or was it all trashed?" The earth pony was nosing through the random collection of junk before she'd half finished the sentence, and Night turned back to the gryphon. Waits was pinned to the rock floor by a fluted metal spike that looked suspiciously like a giant hair, complete with little scales on its surface. He panted shallowly, eyes half closed and forelegs trembling where he was stopping his body sliding further down the widening shaft. Her magic swept his chest and she relaxed slightly. "Waits, can you hear me?" A barely perceptible nod. "Discord wanted you to live for as long as possible, so that spike has missed every organ in your body." No accident, that; he'd shifted a chunk of the large intestine to do it. "You are going to bleed a bit when I cut you free--" Blevie dropped a pitiful collection of items at her hooves; little more than a few trauma pads and some antiseptic. "That's it? Cele-- Dammit. Waits, I'm sorry, but there are no painkillers. I'll do my best, but I'm going to be concentrating on getting this thing out." What I wouldn't give for another medically trained unicorn about now. She glanced at the huddle of Discord's prisoners; even in this uncertain and variable light it was obvious that nopony was in the right state of mind to be any more than lethally dangerous to the gryphon. She closed her eyes, feeling with her magic for the shape of the metal. The curve and orientation of the scales was making things difficult; pull it out in the wrong direction and it would rip his innards to shreds. "Blevie," she murmured, "grab a hold of the top part." The earth pony moved, a sensation of sweat and exhaustion, then mumbled something indistinct. "Three, two, one--" Night grunted, a sudden headache making her wince, then the field manifested with the sound of a crystal bell. " 'Loody Tartarus!" There was the sound of staggering hooves and a loud clang. "What was that made of... tungsten?" "Probably. Think you can support his weight a bit?" There was a gasp and sigh from Waits, then Night gritted her teeth and cast the spell again. The pain was worse this time and, for just a second, she thought it hadn't worked, then Waits stumbled sideways. She opened her eyes, guiding the hoof-thick and enormously heavy metal bar as it slid from his body. Some blood came with it, dripping in a steady stream, but not the life-draining flood that signalled a severed artery. The gryphon groaned, slumping to the floor and making odd little gasping noises as Night gently probed the hole in his chest. "Of all the ways to ensure you stayed put... sick bastard," she muttered, stripping the fur from around each wound and liberally spraying the area with antiseptic. Waits made a sharp inhalation and his beak snapped together. "Sorry. This next bit is going to hurt -- I have to get coagulant inside, and all I have is the stuff on these pads, understand?" She pulled apart one of the packs and held up a sterile dressing, twisting it into a tight cylinder. His eyes widened, then he clenched them shut. "Don't take too long about it," he whispered through a closed beak, the muscles in his cheeks bulging. Night nodded to Blevie and the other mare straddled Waits, holding him as still as possible. "Three, two, one," she mouthed, then pushed the trauma pad deep into the wound cavity. Waits let out a piercing hiss, like gas escaping under high pressure, then lay there gasping while she applied two more pads to the entrance and exit wounds. "All done; you'll keep until we get extracted." In a daze, he nodded, then started to stand. "I don't think so," Night said gently, pushing him back down, "just lie there for a bit." === High up on one ridge, just below the tree line, Echelon huddled with Willow in the space between a pair of parallel fallen trees. They'd landed as quickly as possible, taking advantage of the post fire-fight confusion to avoid discovery; the limited emergency supplies slung from each pony's underside were enough to make the improvised shelter tolerable, if not actually comfortable. Echelon's breath steamed in the cold air. He squinted upwards through the gaps in the canopy, leaden clouds just visible through the infrared barrier film he'd spread across the narrow space. The sky was darkening, as fast as if somepony was drawing a curtain over the world, and the temperature was starting to fall from an already chilly starting point. He shifted slightly, easing the stiff muscles in one wing, while the other tightened about Willow. The mare, still in a fitful sleep, twitched and muttered something indecipherable, moving a little closer. His injured leg was cold where it stuck out of the shelter, despite the blanket he'd tucked around it; being unable to bend it was moving from an inconvenience to down-right dangerous, especially if the temperature was to drop much further. His ears pricked and swivelled, tracking the faint whine of jet turbines as they passed somewhere to the south. And if they get close, what do we do? Are we still at war? Should I try and make it out? He gnawed at the inside of his lips, dipping his head to look at Willow. There were ugly streaks, almost like scar tissue, running the length of her horn, and the skin at its base was reddened. While her horn was mostly dark, those odd patches on the otherwise perfect surface glittered with their own light, as if infested with tiny, luminescent, ants. Something else caught his eye in the gathering gloom; a little movement at the end of the Willow's muzzle. "Tartarus, Willow, don't do this," he whispered, gently tilting her head so the thin trickle of blood missed her forelegs and soaked into the ground. She didn't wake up, just snorted quietly, spraying fine droplets into the trees. That's the third time in the last hour... she must be hurt inside. The only thing that had kept her alive during the episode of thaumic shock had been Red One's amplifier draining away the power, but it obviously hadn't been perfect. I'm hurt, she's hurt. This is only going to end one way. His ears flattened as a shadow flickered overhead, silent as a windigo. "Better a gryphon prison than a lonely grave on this mountain." He moved carefully, sliding away from the sleeping mare, but she awoke with a start and blinked up at him, her eyes large in the dim light. "What's happening?" she asked, then licked her lips, ears going back at the taste of blood on her muzzle. She dabbed her nose on one foreleg, staring down at the dark patch. Echelon was silent for a moment. "I think there are search teams in the area; I'm going to bring them here." "You should leave me," she said, distantly. "You could make it home without me." "It wouldn't be worth going without you," he said in a fierce whisper, the expression on her face making something contract in his belly. "You saw what we did to them... I can't imagine they will be very sympathetic to aircrew." She closed her eyes, ears drooping. "I don't want to be responsible for your death as well as my own." He gave a quiet, frustrated whinny. "We have not come this far to die on a mountain in the arse-end of the world!" "I need a unicorn surgeon, Lonny. I can feel it, a pressure in my head. My magic is going to kill me, sooner or later. There's nothing a gryphon can do for me." She opened her eyes again, looking up at him sadly. "Well, I guess one could trepan my horn bed... but I don't want to live out my days as a brain-damaged cripple." "No." Echelon's lips set in a hard line and he backed out of the shelter. "Get some rest; I know that too much activity just speeds things up with you unicorns." She stared back at him silently, then turned away. Jumping into a steady hover -- trying to walk over this terrain with one leg splinted into immobility was a slow and frustrating business -- Echelon climbed into the canopy, working his way to the gap left by the fallen trees. Here, despite the failing light, he could see gryphons criss-crossing the valley and circling over the mountaintops. Most of the shapes were dark, but here and there were those with strobes that flashed alternating red and white, brilliant against the evergreens. He blinked, the cold of his body and the pain from his leg making him feel slow and stupid, then broke into a wide grin. "Willow!" he shouted down through the leaves. "They've got civilian SAR teams out; hang in there, I'll be back with help." He sped off, ignoring the sudden ache in his wings, heading for the closest flyer.