//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Might of the Light // Story: Harmonious Destiny // by OverlordCornutt //------------------------------// Chapter 3 - Might of the Light The next day, the six friends reconvened at the eastern edges of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was stretching out her wings, preparing for the task at hoof as Twilight explained once more how to properly apply the tracking crystal to the object. “Alright, just remember that you have to find somewhere flat on it, which shouldn’t be too hard” Twilight said, hoofing the crystal over to her friend. “Just be sure to avoid the part where the flames are and stick it near the front or middle.” Rainbow rolled her eyes at her worrisome friend, if she didn’t know any better she’d think Twilight was channeling Fluttershy at the moment. She knew of course to avoid the fire, and she already had a plan for getting this magic doohickey on the strange thing anyway. Be fast, be awesome. After all that usually worked out for her in most cases! She finished her stretches, casting a glance at the rest of her friends off in the distance. They couldn’t know how the…. thing would react to having a Pegasus chase it, so they were decked in camouflage gear and a hoof made trench similar to what they used during the dragon migration. They noticed her looking their way, and offered encouraging smiles. Each was ready to step in if she needed them, after all she would do the same for any of them. Twilight joined them, and began the long wait for their quarries arrival. The early morning air was chilly and silent, most would have thought it tranquil even. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and took a deep breath, filling her lungs and slowly allowing her senses to unite with the nature around her. She could feel the light breeze as it lazily passed through the trees, the field she stood in sat on the edge of the Whitetail Woods, right in the predicted trajectory of the strange machine. Her ears swiveled around, listening to every sound in the small field. The distant sounds of chirping crickets and croaking frogs. Birds taking flight from their nests, even the grass as it swayed to and fro beneath her. Slowly she picked up a different sound. Low and rumbling, completely alien to her. She smirked as she slowly spread her wings and lowering into a takeoff position. She could feel her heartbeat quicken as the sound began to grow louder, the rumbling slowly becoming more akin to a roar. The Everfree Forest is not a place most would consider calm, given the myriad of dangerous predators and chaos tainted flora that called it home. However in some small pockets and near its edges, it was far different. Small critters ran from place to place searching for berries and nuts, as birds sang in the branches high above. Some might even, very rarely, hear the distant chants of the Deer Kingdoms patrolling guard. As it stood right now though, a far more alien sound was currently besieging the forest. In the distance great beasts roared in pain and fury as a lone armored biped began to put his own plan into action. Cyrell saw as he ran through the tangled brush another of the strange large monsters desperately tried to flee deeper into the forest. But his Light had gifted him speed the foolish creature could scarcely comprehend, as he once again caught sight of it. Wasting no time Cyrell readied his pulse rifle, carefully lining up his shot at the creature's head and unleashing a deafening burst of hot light infused lead into its skull. He watched as the bullets found purchase, piercing through the hide and skull of his prey, spurts of blood shooting out of the new exit wounds. The falling creature's body allowed him to see another similar creature just in front of it. Cyrell took aim again. The forest once more echoed with loud almost thunderous cracks with each squeeze of the trigger, as Cyrell I loses the rest of the clip into the back of the second fleeing monster. Blood shot out as each bullet sliced through its hide as if it were paper, the large caliber rounds infused with his light making short work of his prey. As the second beast fell, a sudden chime sounded near it. Coalescing into the clearing, in strange soft white Light, was a triangular object. It flowed softly, wisps of light dancing around it as it fell silently to the ground. Cyrell quickly approached it as Selene reappeared next to him, eager to claim their prize. “I have to admit Boss, this was a pretty smart plan! Are you sure you aren’t a warlock with a shoulder pad fetish?” Selene chirped and whirred humorously to her companion. Cyrell grunted, rolling his eyes at her attempt at comedy and picked up the Mote of Light his hunt had granted him. The process wasn’t fast but the results were more than worth every hunt he had undertaken. Still he needed to hurry, at this rate it would be a month or more before escape was possible. That of course included gaining enough Motes of Dark as well, and he was afraid he might be running out of dangerous prey. Cyrell held up the Mote to Selene, as she quickly transmitted it into the ship's hold. He would need to start placing some of them into the Paracausal Engine soon. The Last City would no doubt need every Guardian it had for the war to come. “Let’s call the ship and get ready for tonight, I think we should start putting some of these Motes into the engine” Cyrell calmly mused, Selene quickly nodding her singular eye and sending a signal for the ship to make its return. As the pair slowly turned back towards their home base, they took note of the forest that surrounded them. It’s trees were large and gnarled, twisting branches like jagged knives reaching towards the sky and blocking out as much of the Sun's light as possible. Thankfully some rays managed to reach the forest floor, so instead of pitch blackness it was more of a deep shade that hung under the forest canopy. It was strange to Cyrell how similar this forest was to the same trees found in the Infinite Forests Haunted Forest. Perhaps the Vex were simulating this planet? No, there would have been more signs of their presence, Cyrell was sure of that. Slowly trusting along as he continued his musings on the forest's appearance, Cyrell barely noticed when they had arrived at a moderately sized lake, with the dark trees thinning slightly and allowing more light to shine down. The lake had a large rock that took up almost half of it, stretching from close to its center to the very edge of the shore. A smaller river flowed through as well, flowing quickly into and out of the lake itself and to parts unknown. Cyrell decided now was a good time to refill his canteen and save himself a trip. Walking to the muddy shore with Selene watching from a. Distance, acting as his sentry. Her lone eye flicking from one spot to the next, it’s skits narrowed in concentration. Cyrell pulled the canteen from his belt and unscrewed the top when suddenly he heard a shout! “Boss my scans are picking up some sort of paracausual energy! Can’t place it as per usual on this strange world but there’s a few of them and they are approaching fast!” Cyrell felt his body tense, and quickly scooped up the water as he pearled to face whatever it was the forest had decided to send him. As he looked up over the rocks to Selene though, he noticed something. There on the rock was a large yellow eye, with a red slurred pupil staring back at him. “Oh come o-“ was all Cyrell could say before the large creature's maw clamped around his midsection, and began to roll. Rainbow Dash watched as her target roared into Ponyville's airspace, quickly launching after it with a single magically infused beat of her wings. She, like many accomplished pegasi, had learned how to effortlessly alter the flow of her magic, allowing her already incredible skill and speed to literally skyrocket her through the air. As soon as she was off the ground she began to steadily build a rut hem, her wings beating faster and faster. Soon a rainbow control was all that could be seen by her friends, watching from down below as she neared the strange flying machine. “This thing is pretty fast for a hunk of metal! But not faster than me!” Rainbow thought to herself, as she slowly began to overtake the speeding behemoth of metal and fire. She took a second to ready her left hoof, Twilight's special tracker held firmly by the frog. Rainbow Dash stretched her hoof out, her eyes squinting as she concentrated on placing it somewhere flat like Twilight and said. She soon saw a spot where what must be a wing met the rest of the strange machine, a perfect spot! Sweat was pouring down her face and neck, as Rainbow steadily increased her speed more and more, getting closer to her target. She remained transfixed on the spot she had selected, despite the howling of the wind as she rocketed in the air. With a one swift motion she matched the machine space, place the gem on its designated area and watched as the enchantments held it in place, the runes glowing brightly along its side. With her mission a success, Rainbow wasted no time peeling away from the bizarre contraption and heading back to the ground. She knew Twilight had to have placed some weird magic spell to let her know when the tracker was placed, and that she would be eager to follow it to its source. And if she was being honest, Rainbow was just as eager. Twilight happily clapped her forehooves together as a secondary spell alerted her to the tracker's successful placement! Now all that was left to do was follow this thing back to its source! With any luck it wouldn’t be too far from their current location. But she had also prepared for an extended trip if the need arose. While her friends each began to wave to Rainbow Dash as she glided down from the sky, Twilight began to channel magic into her horn, casting her new Track It Down spell. Soon she was receiving all the directional data the tracker could give: this included its distance from her, altitude, speed and heading. She was quite proud of just how comprehensive this new project of hers was, a testament to her unequaled magical know-how! As she was lost in her data reading/self congratulations, Rarity and Pinkie Pie has begun to applaud their newly returned prismatic companion. “An outstanding performance as always Rainbow, you certainly showed that Metallic beast your prestige!” Rarity exclaimed as Rainbow landed on her hooves with a soft thud. “Like there was any doubt Rarity! Rainbows waaaaaay too fast for something that big and heavy to out race her!” Pinkie replied, her ever present smile as wide as it could be. “Ah ya know, just doing my thing. No biggie” Rainbow muttered, though the smirk she wore was practically begging for more of their praises. Soon Applejack and Fluttershy joined them, the farm pony gently leading the more timid pegasus. One hoof gently rubbing the yellow pegasus back to try and comfort her. Fluttershy looked like she had been on the verge of tears, though it wasn’t surprising given her demeanor. “Sorry y’all, ‘Shy was a bit spooked by the racket that dern contraption was making. Honestly I don’t blame her none, sounds like a monster straight from Tartarus itself” Applejack said as they rejoined the group, with the rest quickly coming to their shy friends' side to offer their own encouragement. As the group waited for Twilight to finish her going over a checklist she had brought, their thoughts once again turned to a question that had still gone unanswered: Who made this thing and, perhaps more importantly, why? “Alright girls, I’m all set! Now we just need to head back to the Map and see where this-” Twilight began, just as the object of their attention roared once more overhead. Twilight tracked its movements before realizing that something was wrong. It’s course was now set for the Everfree Forest, but it had never gone that direction in all her observations for today! Something had changed, and she needed to find out what. “Girls gather around, we need to get to the map right now!” Twilight cried, her friends quickly gathering around here for a mass teleportation. With a burst of lavender light the group was whisked away from Ponyville’s outskirts to the Map Room within Castle Friendship. Twilight upon rematerializing promptly began tracking the strange machine, noting that it had indeed veered wildly off course. During prior observations it had continuously gone past Ponyville towards the Canterhorn Mountains, before turning eastward again towards the distant shores of Manehattan. But now it was heading straight for the Everfree, or more precisely a portion of forest between the Everfree and White Tail woods. The others gathered around and watched in silence, the rooms atmosphere seeming to have stilled in suspense, as the object slowly came to a halt on the map. Each of the five mares turned to Twilight, their eyes brimming with confusion and concern. An unspoken question hanging in the air around them. “What does this mean… what do we do now?” Twilight gazed at the map for a few seconds, her mind furiously going over every possible reason that would cause the bizarre metallic object to have halted. After what felt like hours she came to one conclusion, one that both excited and terrified her. “If it isn’t going forward, and it was too high and fast for anything to stop it. Then that must mean it’s… landed” Twilight looked to her friends, their full attention completely on her. After a few tense seconds, Applejack was the first to respond. “Twi, where do we go from here?” Was all she had to say. Her emerald eyes holding a cacophony of emotions, but laced through ‘‘twas an unyielding resolve. Twilight swallowed a lump she hadn’t noticed had formed in her throat, before answering in a near whisper. “We go to it and get our answers, and hope for the best.”