//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty-Eight: Rampage 
// Story: CRISIS: Equestria - Divergence, Book 3 
// by GanonFLCL 
//------------------------------//

Twilight lit up her horn and raised a defensive barrier immediately after she, Winter, and Dawn were teleported by the latter to their destination: the top of a building that had been built into the side of the largest volcano in the Redblade Mountains. 

Once again, Twilight was impressed with Dawn's teleportation capabilities; the trio of mares ended up exactly on target, and yet the only information that Dawn had was a grainy picture taken by one of those scouting AMP robots days ago. If they were off by even an inch, Twilight couldn't really tell.

There was a delicate hint of magic atop the material of the building, which Twilight recognized as similar to the barrier that she was generating at the moment, which had one simple but very important purpose: protecting those inside from the heat. 

"Just some slight adjustments to a standard barrier spell," she observed, "so that it also generates cooling functionality to protect those inside from the intense heat of the volcano. My barrier is similar, but mobile. And, since there are only three of us, I can keep the barrier small so that the cooling is more potent."

"Yeah, it's actually pretty pleasant," Winter noted, nodding with approval. "Like having good AC on a hot summer afternoon."

"So, this is where the cultists are making their base?" Twilight looked around, and from what she could see there was only one building. It was a large building of course, but Twilight had expected just a little more. "How are we going to get in?"

"Observe," Dawn said simply, lighting up her horn. She used her magic to carve a large hole in the roof of the structure, pulling out the remaining material so that it didn't fall through; it reminded Twilight of how a cat burglar would cut through glass in cartoons. She then gestured at the hole. "See? Simple."

"How did you cut through the material without affecting the barrier?" Twilight asked; the glow around the structure hadn't even fluctuated.

"I suspect that the barrier around the structure is designed only to protect from the heat, rather than acting as an actual defensive measure. To also be capable of the latter would imply that these cultists managed to discern the mechanics of Hope's Point's barrier, whereas just protecting from environmental conditions such as extreme heat is a technomagic capability we use in New Pandemonium."

"Where in the world would that come into play?"

"The Foundry, our large-scale smelting and manufacturing plant. Workers there employ suits that generate these barriers to protect them from the heat of the forges." Dawn gestured towards the hole and stepped towards it. "Shall we?"

Dawn jumped in first, then Winter, then Twilight, who dropped her own barrier for now while they were inside. True enough, the protective shield around the base only protected from the heat and Dawn hadn't damaged it in the process of cutting through the roof, though Twilight noticed it was noticeably warmer here than it had been inside her barrier and was growing steadily hotter as more hot air entered the room.

The trio moved to the nearest door that they could find, then quietly made their way through it and out into a hallway, which was much cooler than the room they'd just left. They moved through the hall slowly, doing their best to keep silent and to stick close to the walls so that they didn't attract attention, but after moving through the hall and checking out a few rooms along the way, there was really only one concern:

"Where is everypony?" Twilight asked as they came upon another empty room; it, like the others thus far, was clearly some sort of bedchamber: small, cozy, and spartan. It was also clean and didn't look like it had been used in days.

"Maybe they're wherever this ritual they're performin' is?" Winter suggested. "And if I were a bettin' mare, I'd say that that's inside the volcano itself."

Dawn nodded. "A logical assumption. We ought to proceed with haste, though caution would still be advised."

They continued through the apparently empty structure until they came to a locker room outside some sort of vestibule that, from Twilight guess—she was keeping track of their relative location from where they'd arrived—would lead into the volcano itself. The lockers were mostly empty, except for a few which still had some sort of strange-looking suits inside them. Twilight figured these were the same sort of suits that would be worn by the Foundry workers that Dawn had just described.

Unfortunately, they were of no use to the three mares; they didn't seem to have the elasticity that the Comet Chaser's diving suits had. As such, there were none big enough for Twilight, none small enough for Winter, and none just right enough for Dawn, either. They seemed to have been made to fit specific individuals, and the only one that would fit Dawn had space for wings, not a horn.

Twilight recreated her defensive shield before they proceeded into the vestibule, which did indeed lead into the volcano itself, as she'd suspected. Only it wasn't so much a tunnel that awaited them, at least not a small one, but a huge passageway, larger than even most of the tunnels leading through the Goldridge caverns. It had clearly been dug out with mundane tools rather than with magic, so the walls and ceiling weren't perfectly uniform or smooth.

The tunnel, to Twilight's surprise, descended right into the heart of the volcano, where the tunnel path circled around a huge pool of liquid… well, technically it was still magma at this stage as it hadn't erupted out to reach the surface. The magma was kept in check far below them by what looked like some sort of glowing "net" and was certainly straining against it, but not yet forcing its way through.

To Twilight's further surprise, it wasn't the volcano itself that was generating the smoke, as she could see clearly throughout the entirety of the volcanic cavern without any trouble. The smoke instead seemed to be coming from a tunnel far below them, which made little sense; the central crater was right above them, thus this should be the main reservoir and as such should be generating the smoke. 

There was something unnatural about this volcano.

As the trio descended down the path that circled around the magma below, Twilight noticed something and drew it to the attention of the others: "Why does it look like they've been mining the inside of the volcano?" she asked, gesturing at some mundane mining equipment near what looked like veins of iron in the walls.

"The Redblade Mountains are abundant with magic, hence why the volcanoes are in a perpetually active state," Dawn explained, eyeing the iron vein. "Volcanic iron, as such, is tinged with magical properties that make it more resilient than bog-standard iron. Naturally it is significantly more difficult to obtain; the costs involved outweigh the benefits."

"Then how are these cultists mining it without your resources?" Winter asked.

Dawn grunted. "How, I do not know, but they are evidently a resourceful bunch, to my continued consternation."

They came across a tunnel shortly after a few more iron veins, which was where the encircling path ended. "Well, looks like we're taking a detour," Twilight said, gesturing into the tunnel. "It looks like it leads around and out to another path below."

"Why doesn't Dawn just teleport us?" Winter asked.

Twilight blinked, then laughed. "Oh yeah. Sorry, I'm so used to just following the path when my friends and I go on our own adventures back home that I didn't even think of using such a simple shortcut." She glanced at Dawn. "You think you're up for it?"

Dawn stuck her nose in the air, her lips curled in a smirk. "Naturally I am 'up' for performing this incredibly simple task. I appreciate the oppor—"

Twilight held up her hoof. "Wait. Did you hear that?"

Dawn and Winter paused, then shook their heads. "Hear what?" they asked together.

Twilight gestured for the two to keep quiet and listen, then perked up her own ears for the sound again. Though it took a few seconds, she heard it again, somewhere off in the tunnel. A voice, it sounded like. It was so quiet from here that Twilight couldn't make out anything else about it except that it was a voice, not just some random sound.

"I heard it too," Winter said, her own ears perked. "Cultists?"

"Maybe," Twilight agreed. "Keep your guards up. We should check this out in case they know something useful."

Dawn tapped her hoof on the floor. "Would it not be more to our benefit to proceed to the caliginous tunnel below? Logic dictates that whatever profane ritual these cultists are preparing for will be executed in whatever lies within that tunnel."

"True, but if there are still any of Nihila's cultists around here, maybe they'd know how to stop the ritual?"

"Hmm. Potentially."

"Sure, as if they'd tell us anything," Winter grunted. "This ritual is supposed to be summonin' their 'goddess' to them, eh? I'd bet they'd give their lives to make sure it goes off without a hitch."

"If need be, I am capable of being quite persuasive," Dawn said with a little grin.

"C'mon, let's find out what the noise is before we get ahead of ourselves," Twilight said, gesturing for them to follow.

They proceeded into the tunnel, moving more slowly now that they knew there was likely somepony nearby. As they moved along, the voice became a little more clear, until eventually what it was saying was easier to understand: it was weakly calling for help.

And then, as the trio rounded the next corner, Twilight discovered that the voice wasn't weak because it was far away. It was weak because the source of the voice was weak. Her eyes widened with shock when she came across what looked like some sort of pen that was holding dozens of equine creatures.

"Kirins?" Twilight breathed, glancing at Winter. "You never told me that this world had kirins."

"I didn't know this world had kirins," Winter said, her eyes as wide as Twilight's as she glanced at the other pens along the wall of the tunnel, each holding dozens of kirin just like this one. "What the hell is all this?"

Twilight noticed a difference between the kirins of her world and those of this one: their horns. All of the kirins she could see in these pens had horns that looked like they were made of pure iron, and each and every one of them seemed to have a unique shape. Other than that they were the same as the kirins she knew: equine shape, lion-like manes, scales on their backs, etcetera. Their colorations were much more earth-toned, however.

The kirin who had been calling out was positioned right at the edge of the pen against a locked gate. A youngish female, from Twilight's guess; it was hard to tell since she, and the others in the pen, all seemed to be malnourished, and all of them roughly this mare's age. She had a fiery-red coat underneath her obsidian-black scales, and her mane was a bright, sunny orange with white tips. Her horn was curved like a sickle, with the tip facing forwards.

The kirin noticed the sudden appearance of Twilight and her friends, and, to Twilight's relief, she looked right at them with wide, hopeful eyes. "Help!" she called, her voice raspy. "Please!"

Twilight turned to Dawn as they approached. "Dawn, get all these gates open," she said firmly.

Dawn hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "My initial concerns of them being a potential threat seem ill-conceived given their sickly appearances. One moment."

She lit up her horn and fired a tiny blast at the gate that the pleading kirin was next to, and the lock simply disintegrated; the blast then automatically chained its way over to the gate of the next pen down, then the next, and so on. Though the gates were unlocked and opened now, the kirin inside the pens seemed wary of leaving.

"It's okay, everyone," Twilight called out so that all of the kirins could hear her. "We're not here to hurt you. We want to help." She turned to the kirin mare that had called to her and gave her a kind smile. "What's your name?"

The kirin gulped. "My name's Kwake."

"It's good to meet you, Kwake. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Winter Glow and Golden Dawn. Can you tell me what happened here? Why are you all locked up in these pens?"

"The demon worshipping ponies made us their prisoners," Kwake said, tears in her eyes. "They found our village under the red mountains and took us from our homes, then forced us to mine and dig for them. They killed anykirin who resisted them. Most of the Obsidian Clan are dead because they tried to fight back."

"You're safe now, Kwake, I promise," Twilight said. "We don't have any food on us to offer you, but you and your people need to get someplace safe. My friends and I are here to… deal with these 'demon worshippers', and time is of the essence. It might get dangerous to be around here."

Kwake looked a little shaken. "Someplace… safe. Soon, no place will be safe…"

Twilight tilted her head. "What does that mean?"

"The demon worshippers have desecrated the Cradle of the Mother with their foul ceremonies, and they've said that their demon mistress has roused the Mother from Her eternal slumber. If She should wake, then all will burn. The Mother is a legend of my people, an unstoppable force foretold to bring an end to the world."

"Oh. Well… that doesn't sound good."

"You said that you're here to stop the demon worshippers?" Kwake said, looking among the three mares. "If you are, maybe you can stop them before the Mother fully wakes. Even if the odds are slim, we would still try to flee to safety, but… we cannot return to our home. There is nothing left there."

"Hmm. Well, how about you head east to the Wasteland beyond the volcanoes? There's a city there, New Pandemonium." Twilight gestured at Dawn. "My friend Dawn lives there, and she can help you all with food and shelter—"

"No," Dawn said simply.

"What?" Twilight asked, eyebrow raised.

Dawn shook her head. "It would be unwise to venture east towards New Pandemonium. The fleets are gathered in the skies above the Wasteland there, and there is most certainly to be a conflict that may present a danger. I am doubtful that they would even reach the Wasteland in a single day in their current state, but still, we know little of how the fighting may proceed.

"They should instead head west and approach Hope's Point from its east side. Queen Blackburn would be better suited to provide sanctuary at any rate; I have my doubts that the New Pandemonium citizens would be so welcoming of outsiders just yet." A pause. "Though naturally they will require enlightenment soon, I feel that now is not the appropriate juncture."

Winter tilted her head. "Really? You're just givin' up the chance to be a savior to these kirin?"

"Indeed. Needlessly attempting to accomplish feats to the potential detriment of others is unacceptable behavior; if anything it comes across as a pathetic rodomontade. I will naturally facilitate assistance with these kirin however I can, but as Twilight has said, time is of the essence. Best that we carry forward."

"Hooly dooly, ain't that a kick, eh? Good on ya, Dawn." Winter said with a pleasant smirk. She turned to Twilight and tilted her head towards Dawn. "Ya hearin' this? Somepony's growin' up."

"That's a very selfless thing to do, Dawn, even if that sounds… contradictory," Twilight said with a grin. She shook her head, then gestured at the malnourished kirin, who were now beginning to slowly trickle out of their pens now that the three pony mares didn't seem like a threat. "What about food and water? We can't just leave them like this."

"We will be fine," said Kwake with a firm nod. "There are plentiful magmaberry bushes along the western ridge that can serve as food, and my people do not require drinking water. If you are here to stop the demon worshippers, then we do not want to hinder you further."

"You're awfully articulate for such a young mare," Winter noted. "How old are you, like… twenty?"

Kwake frowned. "Twenty-two. And I learned to speak articulately from our clan's previous chieftain, my father. He is dead now, killed by these evil ponies… and so now I am the Chieftess of the Iron Clan. What is left of us, at any rate. The Obsidian Clan will join us as well, though I don't know who leads them now."

Dawn glanced amongst the crowd; her attention seemed drawn to a small number of kirin, only about twenty or so, whose horns were not made of iron, but of obsidian. Her eyes widened. "Ah… are these kirin here members of this 'Obsidian Clan' you mentioned?"

Kwake looked over, then gave a solemn nod. "Yes. Those are… those are all that is left of their clan. The demon worshippers made a show of killing them whenever anykirin spoke out of turn, even those from our own clan. They take their horns to make weapons and armor. I have seen them do it."

"I have encountered one such weapon, a dagger. Knowing now where it originates from is… horrifying." Dawn sighed and shook her head. "A truly immeasurable tragedy; such cruelty is despicable and will not be tolerated further. Those responsible must be held accountable for their actions."

"Where are all of these 'demon worshippers'?" Twilight asked Kwake. "They just left you all here? Why?"

"They left days ago. I wish that I knew why they left, but they clearly thought that we would starve to death," Kwake replied. "I believe that only two are still left here, whom the others called 'Leaders'. They remained here to perform their demonic ritual to wake the Mother, down in the deepest part of the volcano."

"Shit, then it's already starting. C'mon, let's get moving," Winter said, gesturing towards the other end of the tunnel.

"Right behind you," Twilight said. She turned to Kwake and gave her a firm nod. "Safe travels, Kwake. When this is all over, we'll send help for you and your people, I promise."

"Good luck, friends," Kwake responded with a wave. "You will need it if we are to survive."

Twilight and the others proceeded further through the tunnel until they reached the other end, which led them back into the large magma chamber. They descended further along the path until they reached the tunnel that was spewing smoke, whereupon Twilight adjusted her barrier spell to deflect smoke particles so that she and her friends didn't need to breathe it in.

Winter then suddenly paused and drew out her Timekeeper, which was vibrating and glowing green. "Fuck! We need to move—"

A tremendous laughter, followed by a bloodcurdling scream interrupted her; it was a masculine voice, from what Twilight could tell. Shortly after the scream, Winter's little pocket watch glowed even brighter.

Twilight didn't need Winter to repeat herself; she and the others moved more quickly than before towards the end of the tunnel. She could feel the intense magic in the air the closer they got. Something was coming, and if Twilight's prior experiences with this sort of thing were any indication, it was probably too late to stop it. That just seemed to be the way of it, didn't it? The heroes always arrived just in time… to not preemptively stop the villains.

At the end of the tunnel, Twilight and the others came to a large, domed room that had been clearly carved out of the rock with great care. There was a raised chunk of rock in the center of the room, atop which was another rock, this one egg-shaped and strewn with cracks which billowed thick, black smoke tinged with flames. The room was so hot that Twilight had to strengthen her barrier just to keep the heat manageable.

There was also a body here, or rather, what was left of one. Judging by the size and shape of the recently-dead corpse, it was a unicorn stallion with a yellow coat, though most of him was covered by a blood-stained black cloak that was otherwise untarnished. Twilight had seen a dead pony before—death was a natural part of life after all, and she'd attended funerals and studied medicine over the years—but she'd never seen one so mutilated.

There was also another unicorn stallion in the room, standing before the egg-shaped rock, looking right through the three mares who had just walked in. Twilight barely resisted the urge to vomit; the stallion's skin was gone and his muscles were quickly melting into nothing, then his bones. It all happened so fast that neither her nor Dawn could react, and Winter's reaction was to stare at her Timekeeper.

Then all of the air in the room instantly gathered into a point just a few feet in front of the egg rock, along with all of the light, smoke, fire, blood, and stray bits of rock. The air returned a second later, and with it, a vortex of darkness filled with unrecognizable nebulae and ribbons of magic. 

Twilight recognized the way the vortex looked without a glimmer of doubt: this was the same sort of portal that had drawn her and her friends into this world just one month ago, far more dangerous in appearance than the sort that had drawn them to the world seven years ago.

Winter frantically worked her Timekeeper in an attempt to close it, the entire reason she'd even come along on the trip, and for a moment it seemed like it was working; the portal shrank down from about a dozen feet across to less than ten.

But then there was another surge of energy, powerful enough that Twilight and the others could feel it through the barrier, powerful enough that it knocked Winter off her hooves completely, pushed Dawn back several feet, and even shifted Twilight slightly.

From out of the vortex stepped an alicorn, slender in figure and taller than any alicorn Twilight knew, even Celestia and Pandemonia. Her coat was absolutely black, such that the light in the room did not even shine off of the contours of her muscles or joints; her mane was made of white smoke, long and flowing like Celestia's; her wings were made of pure fire and her horn made of churning magma that did not drip in the slightest. Her eyes, Twilight's recognized, for those same star-filled eyes had stared back at her when she lost control of her viewing spell.

There wasn't any doubt in Twilight's mind who it was she was looking at.

"Nihila, I presume?" she asked, her eyes narrowed and her barrier empowered in preparation for an attack.

When Nihila spoke, she did so without a mouth, and yet the words were very clearly originating from where her mouth should have been. "How very perceptive of you, Twilight Sparkle. I can see why your pathetic comrades consider you 'intelligent'."

Her voice was… Twilight couldn't rightly describe it. It was discernibly feminine, but carried an echo to it that kept it ringing in Twilight's ears, and a sort of unpleasant alienness to it that made Twilight's head ache tremendously. This wasn't the voice of any living creature that Twilight had ever heard before; this was the voice of something beyond.

Nihila took a single step forward, her movement unnaturally amorphous despite her equine form; Dawn and Winter lit up their horns in preparation for combat… but Nihila did nothing remotely hostile, at least not at the moment. Instead she looked down at what remained of the corpse that Twilight had seen earlier; now there was little more than a cloak and a small puddle of blood.

"I see that you were too late to meet my 'Warden' and his brother. A pity. I believe that they had a grand speech prepared for you all. If I were to venture a guess, you were slowed by assisting those pitiful slaves with their escape?"

"If you mean the kirins, then yes, we ensured that they got far away from here, and from you. You can't hurt them anymore." Twilight dug her hooves into the dirt. "You won't hurt anyone anymore, not if we have anything to say about it."

"Oh, I am afraid that there is very little that you have to say—"

Dawn interjected by firing a blast of magic right at Nihila's face; Twilight noticed Winter briefly glance at her Timekeeper in the process.

Nihila didn't even attempt to deflect the blast, she just dodged it; well, not so much dodged it as she just molded herself around the blast as it moved so that it didn't make contact with her. The blast struck the wall behind her, ripping it apart with the force of a grenade; Twilight had watched some "vids" in Hope's Point to learn how things in this world worked, so she'd see what kind of weapons the ponies here in the north had built.

"—about it," Nihila finished.

"Enough prattle!" Dawn snapped, her horn still alight in preparation for another strike. "Your existence is a cancer upon our world. It ends now."

"Hmph, spoken like the worthless spawn that you are. A cancer, am I? Then what does that make you, I wonder?" Nihila laughed; though the alicorn's laughter wasn't quite so high-pitched, the sound still made Twilight twitch in irritation, like scraping a fork along a glass window. "You cannot hope to touch me, wretch, not as you are. You are weak. Pathetic. Irrelevant."

Dawn growled in annoyance, then fired another blast of magic at the alicorn; again, Twilight noticed Winter looking at her Timekeeper—was it glowing? Again, however, Nihila effortlessly defended herself, this time igniting her own horn—the magma glowed white hot—and deflecting the bolt off to the side of the room, where it exploded like a missile. The entire room shook from the impact.

"Dawn, be careful," Twilight said softly. "We don't want to bring down the entire volcano on top of us."

Dawn grunted, her teeth clenched with anger. "She should not be capable of defending herself from my magic so readily. She was not this powerful when we faced her last."

"Oh, did you think that this would be easy, little worm?" Nihila said, unfurling her wings. "Why? Because the last time we met your treacherous 'father' used a trap to force me from the Dreaming and into a weakened physical form? You faced me at a fraction of my power before; now, you face me at my full strength.

"I must thank you for that, of course," Nihila continued, pacing in front of the egg-shaped rock. "Your blind ineptitude allowed my loyal pawns to feed me with thousands of souls over these seven years. I have regained the power that was unjustly robbed from me, and now this world shall pay for your insolent refusal to heel."

Dawn snarled and fired another blast; this time, Nihila's horn ignited and the bolt evaporated into nothing.

"You're stalling for something," Twilight said, her eyes constantly tracking Nihila's movements and waiting for an attack, any attack at all, but still Nihila did not strike. "If you were so powerful, why would you need to stall? Why not just destroy us now if you're so confident?"

Nihila had no mouth, and yet Twilight was certain that the alicorn was giving her a cocky smile. "Ah, Twilight Sparkle, still so perceptive. You are right, of course; I am stalling, but that fault lies with those miserable piles of scrap that you call 'fleets'. They are not yet in position, and so I must wait. It troubles me not; I have all the time in the world."

"We already figured that you were waiting to spring whatever 'trap' you have waiting for them in the smoke. Well, unfortunately for you, you're not just dealing with the NPAF's fleet, but with the fleet of Hope's Point as well."

"Oh yes indeed, and your all must think you are all so very clever in hiding your glorious schemes from me. I will give credit where credit is due, of course, as the reappearance of my former host in a physical form was not something that I accounted for. But it will not matter in the end."

Twilight snorted. "Whatever ships you've built can't possibly stand up against both fleets."

"Whoever said that my pawns were building ships?" Nihila laughed again, then turned and placed her hoof upon the egg-shaped rock. "Are you not wondering why they came here? Why they sought out this phenomenal treasure?" She turned back to Twilight. "This is the resting place of the Mother of Calamity. A legendary destructive force that will burn this entire world down to ashes.

"The minotaurs spun tales of her power. Within mere hours, she reduced an entire continent into a smoldering ruin. That was a power that I desired; the power to destroy everything so utterly that none would be able to stand in my way. And once this world was burned, I would seek out another, as I have done countless times before.

"But my plans changed when I saw what you have become, Twilight Sparkle," Nihila said, stepping back towards the group, her tone hinting at a wicked smile that wasn't there. "Now, the Calamity is merely a tool to crush my enemies in this world, no longer suitable as a host, just as Pandemonia is no longer suitable. I desire a new vessel for my essence, one with truly unlimited potential and power. That vessel… is you."

Twilight steeled her jaw. "Whatever you think you're going to do, it's not going to work. I'll never submit to you or whatever scheme you've got cooked up for me. My friends and I will stop you. Together."

"Hmm. We shall see. But now, ah, your fleets are in position and ready for the Calamity to descend upon them. You seem so confident in their ability to win, but I doubt that they will even survive. I do hope that no one important to you is present." She lifted a hoof towards the smoky ceiling. "Watch as this pathetic world burns."

The smoke ignited into the most intense flames that Twilight had ever felt before. Even through her barrier, she buckled from the sheer heat; she needed to expend more energy just to keep the flames from burning her and her friends alive. The flames continued all the way out of the tunnel, spreading through the smoke like it was gasoline and filling the chamber with a terrifying cry of anguish and rage.


*****


Blackburn was situated in a glass tube within the cockpit of the Wyvern, the flagship of the Hope's Point fleet and the personal airship of Her Majesty herself. Instead of her normal white jacket, she wore a flight suit, red and gold like the primary colors of her city, and a pair of goggles over her eyes to protect her from the wind shear in the tube. She still had on her green and gold scarf, of course; until she passed it down to Bluebolt, it would always be her good luck charm.

Over her wings was a black substance that all of the airships used so that their pilots could fly their ships. The substance was filled with nanomachines that interfaced with the ship's flight controls, giving the pilot precision control; the maneuverability of each ship in the fleet could nearly match a flesh-and-blood pegasus, and this material over the pilots' wings allowed them to fly as if they were, well, flying. It was what gave their ships the advantage over anything in the NPAF over the last few decades.

The tube itself was also filled with air that was constantly being recycled via fans and vents, which were in turn linked to external sensors outside the ship to mimic wind conditions; again, this was to further allow the fleet's pilots to fly with the precision that they would have even outside their ship.

Gadget sat a console in the cockpit, as she served as Blackburn's engineer and co-pilot. The co-pilot's job was threefold: one, control the weapon systems; two, monitor ship status and make adjustments to ship parameters to fit the pilot's needs, such as diverting power to other systems; three, provide moral—and tactical—support.

Right now, the Wyvern hovered in place over the western Wastelands, in position and prepared for combat with whatever happened to come out of the smoke cloud over the Redblade Mountains. Behind her was every combat-ready ship in her fleet, totalling at exactly thirty ships. The number was less than it would have been, say, six years ago, but the peace treaty with New Pandemonium had forced her to modify several ships so that they couldn't be used for war at all.

From here, she could just barely make out the small dots that consisted of the NPAF fleet that was joining her for this operation, led by their as-of-yet unused Dragon-class dreadnought, which was bigger than any ship the NPAF had ever or would ever build. Their fleet was also smaller than it should have been, in part because of the same procedures her fleet was going through, but also because Admiral Jetstream hadn't brought every ship that was available.

"Every ship in the fleet is being remotely operated by AMP Command units which in turn respond directly to me," Jetstream had said in the brief coordination meeting that morning. "I only have so many Command units, so I'll only be bringing the amount of ships that I can actually field. It's not as much as I'd like, but it's what I've got."

"Why so few?" Blackburn had asked.

"Spymaster Curaçao is concerned that, should there still be seditious elements—read: Nihila cultists—in the fleet's rank-and-file, we run the risk of betrayal from within. I'm going to be the only flesh-and-blood NPAF soldier on the field today, kids."

"Hmm. Acceptable choice," she'd replied. "Aware of your proficiency with AMP command, led to promotion through ranks to Commander; accusations of nepotism unwarranted, skills spoke for themselves. Unfortunate circumstances, but acceptable."

Pulling herself back to the present, Blackburn glanced over at Gadget. "Anything?"

"Negative, Your Majesty, no movement yet," Gadget replied after checking her monitors, holding a headset to her ear. "None of our ships are reporting anything either, and joint communications say that Admiral Jetstream's ships aren't picking up anything. Nothing but smoke at the moment."

"Hmm. Patch us through to Admiral Jetstream."

"Right away, Your Majesty."

After a brief moment of static, Blackburn heard Jetstream's voice crackle over the intercom in her tube. "Your Majesty. I take it that you're not getting any more data than I am?"

"Negative," Blackburn grunted. "Nothing but smoke."

Jetstream sighed. "Yup, same here. Y'know, the AMP scouts never actually saw anything being built. We only managed to find the cultists' hideout or whatever it is, and we sure as hell didn't see any facilities anywhere where they could've been building something."

"You think this is a false alarm." It wasn't a question.

"I've been thinking that for a while, but I figured that on the off-chance that we were right, it was better to be safe rather than sorry. Especially in this case."

"True. Still, potential for hidden facilities, unclear if enemy faction possessed such resources. Better safe than sorry, as said." Blackburn sighed and shook her head. "Don't like waiting, knowing friends, family, in danger while we sit. Makes me nervous."

"I hear ya, though for me it's more boring. I should be putting my AMP skills to use protecting the tow—"

A loud warning beep emitted from one of Gadget's stations. Blackburn immediately turned her attention to her co-pilot. "Report."

"We've got movement," Gadget said, sliding her chair along the monitoring station to the device in question. "Lots of movement, actually."

"How many ships?"

Gadget read through the data on her screen, then shook her head. "That can't be right…"

"Gadget. How many ships?"

"According to this, just one. It's big, but the movement is consistent with a single craft rather than multiple." Gadget shook her head. "Whatever it is, I don't have anything like it in my profile collection, so it's not some modified NPAF cruiser or something like that."

Blackburn hummed. "Reports from the rest of the fleet?"

"I'm getting the same info over comm chatter: one big ship."

"Jetstream?"

Jetstream grunted; he sounded disbelieving. "Yeah, I'm getting the same data on my end. Whatever it is, it's almost half as big as the Dragon-class, which just can't be right. This damn tin can is a half-mile long and cost the NPAF billions of bits in resources to build. How could they—"

A piercing screech from the smoke cloud filled the air, so loud that Blackburn could hear it from here. It sounded almost avian; had whatever ship was hiding just activated weapons systems?

Blackburn got her answer when the smoke itself ignited into flames as a gigantic flaming bird burst through the cloud like a missile. She squinted to get a better look, activating the zoom function on her ship's viewscreen. The bird wasn't just on fire, it was made of fire and lava together in some horrid, churning amalgamation.

And it was coming straight at the Hope's Point fleet. And fast; the sensors on the viewscreen indicated that the bird was traveling at almost supersonic speed; there was a huge cloud of dust, smoke, and ash billowing from the ground far beneath it as its sheer size and speed generated massive winds.

"That's… one big fuck-off bird…" Jetstream muttered through the comm channel.

"Your Majesty, the fleet is requesting orders," Gadget chirped.

"Have all ships prepare to fire, and have the Lightning Lance fire her long-range cannons," Blackburn said calmly.

"Sending orders through. Lightning Lance is charging cannons." Gadget glanced at the viewscreen and shook her head. "Golly, that thing is moving fast."

"Estimated time to reach fleet?"

"Thirty seconds." A pause. "The Lightning Lance is prepared to fire and is awaiting confirmation."

"Fire."

"Roger."

Blackburn watched on her viewscreen as a huge bolt of energy fired out of the long-range cannon aboard the Lightning Lance, which had originally been designated as a support-fire ship for a war that never happened, then was converted to a cargo vessel because of its size, and now was a warship once again.

The blast struck the huge bird in its left wing, and the avian veered and slowed a tiny bit… but it didn't stop. Considering that the Lightning Lance's main gun was supposed to be capable of piercing straight through durasteel, this was more than a little troublesome.

"Did that thing just tank a shot from the Lightning Lance like it was nothing?" Gadget quipped, eyes wide. "What the hell is this thing?"

"Inform me when it enters our maximum firing range," Blackburn said, her eyes focused on the bird as it regained its original flight path.

"Yes ma'am." A pause of several seconds. "The target has entered fleet attack range."

"All ships, open fire."

Blackburn watched as her screen was filled with the weaponry of every ship in the Hope's Point fleet as they fired on command, from energy weapons to flak cannons, missile launchers to straightforward bullets. 

The bird didn't just keep moving forward, it charged forward, beating its wings once—a gigantic shockwave of dust burst out from the ground below—and making a beeline straight for the Lightning Lance. It would still take several seconds for the creature to reach its apparent target, of course, and the airship was quite limber for its size.

Of course, since the Lightning Lance was above the main formation, there were about eight ships in the way. "All ships, evasive maneuvers," Blackburn said, still calm; this bird was unnerving, but despite its speed, her ships were faster and more maneuver—

Her train of thought crashed when the giant avian opened its beak and spewed a stream of what looked like liquid fire right at the Lightning Lance, and with surprising accuracy. The flame didn't just cut through the ship's shields, it basically ignored them, hitting the ship itself and melting a hole right through the main gun on the belly and coming straight out through the top.

"Holy shit!" blurted Gadget.

Blackburn's Wyvern and the rest of the fleet swerved out of the way of the bird as it flew up towards the damaged Lightning Lance and just slammed right into it; its sheer size alone meant that they were lucky that the rest of the ships were so agile, as it quite nearly caught several other ships in its way; they were knocked off-course a bit by the winds the beast generated just by moving, but that was it, thankfully.

Nevertheless, the Lightning Lance crumbled apart and exploded in an enormous fireball; the shot it had taken had so utterly crippled its maneuverability that it hadn't even been able to remotely get out of the way.

And yet the bird just kept going, as if it hadn't just rammed into twenty-two thousand pounds of metal, and though it was not as maneuverable as the smaller ships, it was still able to fly and turn in the air like a giant hawk, just less gracefully.

Luckily this meant that it was behind the Hope's Point fleet now, and all of the ship were in a full evasive mindset, including Blackburn herself, who shifted her viewscreen's view to one of the rear cameras so that she could monitor the situation.

The fleet had miles and miles of empty wastes to fly over, which they made use of to gain some distance. The giant bird gave chase, and for a moment it looked like that was all that they would need to do: lead this thing on a chase until whatever the other teams were doing succeeded. 

Blackburn figured that this creature was some creation of Nihila's; without her control, maybe it would stop, or die, or just disappear altogether?

To her surprise and horror, though, the bird was far quicker than its size indicated, and after a few flaps of its wings for acceleration—sending out more huge shockwaves of dust and dirt below—it was now flying fast enough that it quickly caught up with two of the slower, heavier ships in the fleet: the Fat Hornet and the ironically-named Slim Sabre. 

Like a hawk catching prey, it lifted up its massive talons and snatched the two ships up like fleeting mice, carrying so much power in its attack that their shields didn't even put up a resistance. 

It clearly had no intention of bringing them to its nest; it simply squeezed down and crushed both ships in its grip; molten metal rained down on the wastes below like breadcrumbs, complete with the smoldering hulls of what was left of both.

And yet the bird didn't even slow down as it continued forward, now starting to catch up to the faster ships. 

"Your Majesty, the NPAF is in range to provide fire support," came Jetstream's voice over the comms.

"Our last volley didn't affect it!" Blackburn called back. "So unless you've got something big, don't waste your time, just pull back!"

There was a pause. "I'll give the Dragon's main gun a shot, then; it's the most powerful gun in the fleet. Try to keep your boys and girls scattered."

"Roger that."

Blackburn didn't need to order the fleet to scatter; they'd already done it automatically once it was clear that the damned firebird could actually keep up with them.

The beast was undeterred; it just changed directions with relative ease and moved after some of the fleeing ships, then opened its beak and spewed out another quick-moving gout of liquid flame at the nearest ship to it, the Sky Hammer. The flames struck, ripped right through the shields, and literally cut the ship in half.

Beyond the sheer terror and surprise that their enemy was some sort of enormous firebird, Blackburn was awed by how much destructive power it wielded. The fleet's ships were constructed of military-grade durasteel, a metallic alloy with a melting point of roughly two thousand degrees kelvin; to melt through them with such ease would be improbable.

Not impossible, no; she'd seen Havoc do it with her own two eyes. But not this easily.

Her thoughts were drawn back to the moment when she realized that the Wyvern was the next ship in the bird's sights. She was more glad than ever that her ship was the fastest in the fleet, but she wasn't confident that she didn't need more speed; her shields were likely worthless, and her weapons alone wouldn't do anything noticeable.

"Gadget, issue order to all ships: divert all shield and weapon power to engines," she said, rolling her shoulders briefly before taking off towards the volcanoes.

"Roger that," Gadget said, performing the same adjustments for the Wyvern.

With the extra engine power, the Wyvern almost immediately broke the sound barrier and rocketed towards the Redblade Mountains, the firebird on its tail but losing ground fast. 

It opened its beak to spew more flames, but Blackburn rolled the instant she saw it do so; the gout just skimmed her starboard wing, causing some proximity alarms to go off in the cockpit as the heat caused slight damage to the metal. 

Another gout, another roll, this time much better; her portside wing didn't even get close to the flames at all.

Blackburn wasn't sure before if the bird could get angry—its targeting of the Lightning Lance earlier could have just been a reaction to actually getting hurt—but judging by the way it was chasing her now, she believed that yes, it could. Because it was.

It flapped its wings again to gain another burst of speed, and now it was able to keep up with her; the sonic boom had been so loud and powerful that Blackburn could feel it in the Wyvern.

Blackburn didn't want to chance the idea that she could outrun it. Instead, she abruptly dove down and focused more on her agility, bobbing left and right to make the damned thing chase her erratically.

Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect she wanted; instead of getting angry and chasing her down, it got angry and turned its attention elsewhere, veering off towards some of the other ships, which were indeed trying to get its attention off of the Wyvern.

Luckily, before it could get too far and chase off after what looked like the Alpha Dog, a huge energy blast exploded into the giant firebird's side, and to Blackburn's delight, it actually worked. 

The damned bird tumbled and spiraled towards the Wasteland below, hitting the ground with such impact that it created a flat crater. Its body cooled such that it looked like it was made of smoldering embers and molten rock.

"Nice shot, Jetstream!" Blackburn called into the comm channel.

"Hell yes it was," Jetstream called back. "I don't think that did the trick just yet, though, so I'm charging another shot. Might take me another few—"

The firebird started stirring and rising back upright; its flames reignited, not to their original intensity, but brighter.

"Oh. Well shit."

The firebird screeched, then took to the air like a proper bird of prey and made straight for the NPAF fleet, all of which besides the Dragon-class were still in the midst of falling back to the city.

Blackburn turned to Gadget. "All ships converge on the NPAF flagship, full power to weapons, open fire on target."

"Roger that," Gadget replied.

Though it took the bird a few moments to regain its speed, it was more than able to do so before the Dragon could fire off another shot from its main gun. As it reached the half-mile flagship, it soared up and grasped both talons onto its hull; the Dragon had no shields—NPAF ships relied on weight and armor for defense—so it was able to do so without resistance, if any shields would've put up any resistance in the first place.

The Hope's Point fleet converged on the target as ordered, and, just as the bird opened its beak to spew liquid flame onto the Dragon, opened fire. With full power to weapons, even without some of the heaviest hitters, it was enough to shake the bird's grip and make it stumble. 

So instead it fired the liquid flame at a nearby Hope's Point ship, the Gold Nugget, piercing straight through the cockpit; the airship immediately spiraled down and crashed in the wastes below.

Blackburn had already been shaken, but this wasn't helping; nearly twenty percent of her fleet had been destroyed; she'd lost five good pilots and their ships' crews. And still, the most that they'd been able to do to this damned firebird was knock it on its ass once, and that wasn't even due to one of her ships.

"If your ships can get this fucking thing off my hull and somewhere under my ship, I've got the main gun charged!" Jetstream called out over the comms. "Any time now would be good! None of my ships are in position!"

"Trying to!" Blackburn snapped; if their weapons had any sort of real effect, maybe they could dislodge it.

As the bird fired another flame gout and took down the Tidal Wave, there came another crackle over the comms. "Your Majesty, this is Captain Rollerblade of the Noisy Cricket."

Blackburn looked about with her ship's cameras to try and locate the ship in question. "What is it, Captain?"

"I ordered my crew to escape pods and transferred all my power to the engines. I'm gonna ram this turkey."

"What?" Blackburn blurted; she'd finally located the Noisy Cricket, one of the largest ships left in the war fleet. "What are you—"

"A hit at full engine power with this much weight behind it oughta ruin its day, Your Majesty. Collision course has already been engaged.'

Blackburn paused; the Noisy Cricket was indeed barreling right at the firebird at supersonic speed; the sonic boom had even attracted its attention. "Thank you, Captain," she said.

"It's been an honor—"

The ship slammed into the firebird with enough explosive force to knock it right off the Dragon's hull, though its talons did leave a wicked gash in the ship in the process, and the Noisy Cricket's explosion didn't help matters.

But it was enough. "Eat shit, you overgrown chicken!" snapped Jetstream as the Dragon fired another blast.

The explosion sent the firebird tumbling through the sky again, where again it crashed into the Wasteland with an enormous thud, this time sliding along and leaving a gouge in the earth in its wake. The intensity of its flames died down again into smoldering embers…

Only for them to reignite a moment later, just as before.

"How many times do I need to shoot this fucker?!" blurted Jetstream. "I'm just drifting now, Blackburn, I don't think I've got another shot left in the Dragon. What's the plan? I'm running out of ideas."

If Blackburn could slump down, she would; she'd never felt more defeated in all her years. "Nothing we have is even denting it…" she muttered.

The firebird let out another screech towards the Dragon and spread its wings in preparation to take off again, but, to Blackburn's surprise, it paused. It paused, and it slowly turned its attention north.

It was at this point that Blackburn realized that the fighting, which was supposed to have taken place far enough into the Wastelands to be of no danger to anypony, had been drawn to about thirty miles from the walls of New Pandemonium City. The walls which were very tall, and which had even taller skyscrapers right behind them.

So, to Blackburn's continued horror, the enormous firebird took off, but instead of going back towards the fleet of ships that had been pestering it at best, it flew north.

"Oh no…"


*****


Fluttershy had all sorts of emotions running through her body right now, but most of them could be described best as different variants of "scared" or "nervous". Curaçao had made her feel like she and the young ponies here in the "Shadow Facility" would be safe, what with the elevators being disabled for the entire building and the doors all being locked and protected behind security passwords, but that only kept her from going into a full-on anxiety attack.

Luckily, she did have some calming effects present. 

The youngsters around her were one such effect, as she generally got along well with younger colts and fillies and this group here were all just the most precious little things. They all had their own outfits—though they looked like they'd been dressing themselves, mostly—and some even had little accessories to help them with their powers, the same way that Sunspire had his goggles. 

If they were older, they might resemble some sort of superhero team from Spike's comic books.

Another such effect was Hourglass who, while being young herself, was certainly acting like a proper adult and doing a good job of acting like a big sister of sorts to the kids. She was particularly doing so with Sunspire, who was introducing her to everypony who was here on the "learning" floor with them. These weren't all of the kids, Fluttershy noticed; some of them had likely decided to bunker up in their dorm rooms on the floors below them.

The other thing that was keeping her calm was that there was another real adult presence here in Shroud, Curaçao's wife. Though she'd brought their daughter Jellybean, an even younger filly, the other mare was taking charge to make sure that everypony was keeping quiet and calm so that if any bad ponies happened to be moving through the tower, they'd skip these floors for sure.

At the moment, however, Shroud was occupying her daughter's attention with some sort of game on one of those fancy datapad gizmos. The game looked relatively simple, just amounting to a matching game with colors and symbols, and it was quite vibrant so that it would keep the little filly's focus. Simple didn't mean easy, though, but Jellybean was still getting good scores as far as Flutteshy could tell.

Fluttershy, seated in the chair next to them in what was some sort of eating area, gave Shroud a pleasant little smile. "You and Curaçao have a wonderful little filly," she said quietly. "How old is she again?"

"She turned four a few months ago," Shroud replied, not looking at Fluttershy but at Jellybean, stroking her daughter's mane with her hoof.

"She's only four? Wow, she's so smart for her age, figuring out those puzzles so quickly like that."

"Curie and I agreed that since we can't give our filly a proper education like the kids out in the city, we were gonna do our best to teach her ourselves." Shroud tilted her head to gestured towards the other youngsters in the room. "No offense to Velvet and Pedigree, 'cause I think what they're doing for these kids is perfect for them. But it's not the same for a pony without their abilities."

Fluttershy glanced over at the gaggle of kids that were hanging around Hourglass, as some of them were showing off their "superpowers" to the young mare. One pegasus filly, Double Trouble, was showing off that she could make a perfect copy of herself; a unicorn colt, Black Bolt, showed off that he could generate and control electricity; an earth pony filly, Plum Crisp, showed off that she could turn invisible.

"No, I imagine it isn't," she said with a tilt of her head. "Not to mention that she'd be the only pony in the class at that age."

Shroud nodded. "Exactly. And Curie and I are results-focused hard workers, so we do everything that we can to help our daughter learn. We don't push her, of course; she's not old enough for anything beyond simple numbers and words and concepts. But that doesn't mean we can't try to make sure everything's educational and enlightening to her."

"Well then, I'm sure she's going to grow up to be one smart cookie," Fluttershy giggled.

Her attention was then drawn to the datapad, as it had frozen the game that Jellybean was playing to show some sort of alert notification on screen which read: "Breaking News: Giant Monster Attacks City!"

"Mommy, what's this?" asked Jellybean, pointing at the note.

Shroud lifted the datapad up and out of her daughter's grip. "Let me see that, sweetie. Mommy'll give it back when she's done, okay?" 

Shroud then tapped on the notifications, which switched the image on the screen to some sort of news report; Fluttershy recognized the style from her last trip to this city seven years ago, only this one was more hectic. 

There was a reporter, an earth pony, in the field somewhere in the city, in the Outer District on the city's west side according to the text on the bottom of the screen. He was clearly just barely keeping calm, though Fluttershy didn't need to hear his voice to tell—the device was muted anyway. No, she could tell just by the look in his eyes that he was on the brink of a panic attack. She could sympathize.

Whoever was operating the camera then swiveled the camera up to look at something else, and Fluttershy's eyes widened in shock. 

There was indeed a giant creature attacking the city, a bird whose body looked like it was made out of pure fire and lava. It was the little details that stood out, though; it wasn't a giant hawk or an eagle, nor was it a buzzard or a falcon, nor was it an osprey or a vulture. The crest on its head and the particular shape of its wings and tail were all Fluttershy needed to tell what it was:

"Is that a… giant phoenix?" she muttered, watching as the aforementioned giant phoenix screeched into the air.

"I don't know what that is, so… maybe?" Shroud muttered back; Fluttershy chastised herself for forgetting that northern ponies here like Shroud didn't know much about animals.

The attack didn't seem to be happening too close to any of the Mid Districts, as could be told by the clear sight of the gigantic wall that bordered the city and supposedly kept big creatures like this out. Fluttershy had heard that there were big guns on the wall that would chase off things like Gargantuans before, and she wondered for a moment why they weren't doing anything now.

Then the camera shifted to show that all of the nearby guns had been utterly melted and destroyed, and that large pieces of the wall had even been cracked and broken. The phoenix was even perched on what was left of one of the cannons.

The outer city, near where the attack was occuring, was not composed of many tall buildings—the tallest was maybe three stories at best. It was, from what Fluttershy had heard about it, a slum in the best of terms. The way it looked now, though, made it look more like the site of some horrible disaster, no, disasters, plural. 

A hurricane had swept through the area and ripped homes apart like nothing; a wildfire had spread through and burned whatever had still been standing; a sandstorm had kicked up and filled the air with clouds of ashy dust. Ponies were fleeing through the streets in a desperate attempt to get away from the worst of it.

Then, the camera pony caught sight of one of those NPAF warships in the distance firing its guns at the giant phoenix. They didn't seem to have any effect whatsoever except to temporarily draw the bird's attention away, whereupon it opened its beak and fired a gout of what looked like liquid flame right at the cruiser.

The cruiser took a direct hit and drifted slightly to the side, but was still able to fire at the phoenix; was it trying to lure the bird away? If it was, it wasn't working, and all it did was draw more fire from its target, and a second gout of fire was enough to send the cruiser into a dive; it crashed on the other side of the wall, thankfully, and not into it.

But as Fluttershy watched the phoenix turn around and move towards the camera now rather than away, Fluttershy could see the expression in its eyes. The phoenix was enraged, yes, and fiercely so, but it was also in pain. Not physical pain, because if anything that cruiser's attack had done literally nothing to it. No, there was emotional anguish in that phoenix's eyes; this destruction wasn't normal behavior.

Fluttershy immediately stood up. "I have to go."

Shroud seemed just as shocked as Fluttershy was that she'd just done that. "You have to go? Go where?"

"That bird, that phoenix, there's something wrong with it. I don't know what it is, but something is making it do this. I have to help it."

Shroud blinked. "Help it? It's destroying the city."

"Because something is wrong with it. If I can help it, if I can figure out what's wrong, then maybe I can stop it from destroying everything." Fluttershy nodded firmly. "I have to do this. I'm the only pony who can. Can you help me get out of here? I, um… I don't know where the tower's exits are," she added with a nervous grin.

Shroud paused and stared for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about, but you sound like Curie does when she gets real adamant about something." She gestured over towards the window. "We never actually open any of the windows in the tower, but they do open. Little latch at the bottom."

Fluttershy smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

She headed over to the window and found the latch, which wasn't actually that hard to open at all. The window popped open, and Fluttershy slid out when it was just wide enough to let her through, then closed the window behind her. She instantly understood why they kept the windows closed: while it was faint, she could smell that atrocious "smog" again for the first time in years.

Her immediate thought was to just fly as fast as she could towards where the phoenix was—she looked west and could see the barest hints of the fires from here—but she knew that she'd take too long to make a big difference; the city was supposedly big enough that even at her best, she'd take nearly an hour to get there, if not longer. 

But she knew somepony fast enough to get her there in no time.

"Rainbow! Rainbow!" she called as she flew towards the top of the tower; she could see her pegasus friends doing a lazy circle higher up.

"'Sup Shy. What're you doing out here?" Rainbow asked, zipping over from her patrol route. "I thought you were staying with the kids?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Nevermind that now. Something's happened and I need your help to fix it."

"You need… my help? To fix what?"

"I was watching Jellybean play a game on her datapad, and then a news report came up saying there's a giant phoenix attacking the city!"

"A giant what?" asked Havoc, who flew over to join the conversation.

"A phoenix, a sort of magical species of bird that's associated with fire. It's different from the ones in our world, but I'd recognize the shape of one anywhere."

"And you say it's attacking the city? Where?"

Fluttershy pointed off towards the west, where from this high up the fires were even easier to see, though the smog wasn't making it easy. "Over there. The reporter was in the Outer District near the wall."

"So that's not just another fire?" asked Gray, also flying over to join the conversation. "You're sure that something's actually attacking the city? 'Cause we were thinking it was the cultists trying to distract us or something."

"It's very real, I saw it on the news and everything. It's destroying the wall, it's destroying the city, it even destroyed one of the warships that tried to draw it away. It wasn't a trick or a hoax. This is happening right now, and I need to get over there."

The other three pegasi looked at each other for a moment, then as one asked, "Why?"

"Because there's something wrong with it; it's lashing out in pain. It's not attacking the city because it wants to, and I think that if I can figure out what's wrong and calm it down. I'm the only one who can."

Rainbow crossed her hooves over her chest and nodded. "Right, gotcha. So you just need a ride? Sure, I can get you there in a couple of minutes, easy."

"Whoa whoa whoa, you're not just gonna go out there by yourselves, are you?" Havoc asked, holding her hooves up. "'Cause if this thing's attacking the city and it's associated with fire, then you're gonna need me to help you, 'cause I don't see how you're gonna do anything otherwise unless you're fireproof all of a sudden."

Fluttershy blinked; she hadn't expected the offer. "Oh. Well, thank you Havoc. If you want to help, then I'd be glad to have you along."

"I figure Dash and I can also run damage control or something. Put out the fires that this thing's starting and stuff, y'know?"

"Yeah, I can whip up some rainclouds easy peasy," Rainbow agreed. "And if you somepony to keep that thing distracted, I'm your mare."

Gray grunted. "I'm coming too. I don't like the sound of this at all, and I'm not letting my sister, my best friend, and my…" She shared a look with Rainbow briefly, tilting her head. "And my original go off on some dangerous mission by themselves. What kind of big sister, best friend, and clone would I be?"

"You're my little sister, Gray," Havoc quipped.

"Semantics, shortstack."

"Won't that leave the tower vulnerable if the cultists try to attack while we're gone?" Rainbow asked.

Gray shrugged. "Maybe, but we can't just let this phoenix thing burn down the city, and we can't let Shy go off by herself either."

Havoc clapped Rainbow on the back. "No worries, Dash, we'll take care of this real quick then we'll get back here to thump any jerkoffs that we can find. Hopefully the others leave some for us, yeah?"

"Alright, sounds like a plan." Rainbow swung around behind Fluttershy and grabbed a tight hold of her. "Clench up, buttercup, 'cause we're goin' supersonic."

Fluttershy gulped. "O-okay—"

And off they went.


*****


Curaçao waited patiently on the topmost floor of Pandora Tower, looking out one of the huge windows that covered an entire wall. All of the windows on this floor were like this, actually, she just chose this specific one to stand by and gaze out of. From here, she could have the best possible vantage point of the goings-on around the tower; only the roof provided a better angle, but she preferred it in here.

The top floor had been designed as a sort of zen garden, a calming room that her father apparently frequented in years long past when he was in a particular state of stress. She could understand why; the garden had a lovely, relaxing atmosphere. 

The entire floor, except for a walkway around the edge and a walkway down the center, was made of fine, white sand—it wasn't imported, either, but made from rocks found in the Wasteland that were magically cleansed of their impurities and then carefully flash-eroded with clean water. 

Other rocks were strewn about the sand in specific locations to influence the room's aura, some of which had been carved into specific shapes, and one of which had been carved into a large fountain which constantly cycled clean, potable water. Not that anypony was meant to drink it, of course, but they could.

Curaçao had never really bought into the whole zen concept before, but she had to admit, this was rather nice.

Then, she spotted something odd out of the corner of her eye: was that Fluttershy flying up to meet the other pegasi on their team? What was she doing out of the tower? The group was engaged in a conversation, and there was some pointing off towards the west; Curaçao could see the barest hint of what looked like fire in that direction, but she'd assumed that it was an attempt at a distraction by the cultists to draw some of them away.

If it was a distraction, it worked; all four pegasi flew off towards the edge of the city, with Rainbow grabbing hold of Fluttershy, Havoc flying on her own just behind them, and Gray bringing up the rear. 

Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom was far enough away that it didn't cause any damage to the tower and thus shouldn't to any buildings below her. Havoc went supersonic shortly after—what was her version called again?

And Gray… just flew as fast as she could. Which was actually pretty fast, just not supersonic; Curaçao didn't know the logistics for how Gray used her gravity powers to turn a horizontal flight into a vertical dive—that was how Gray described it—but it seemed to work well enough.

"Hey sis," came Gray's voice through their telepathic bond. "Just a heads up, the girls and I are heading out to the west edge of the city. Fluttershy saw something on the news about a giant phoenix attacking the area and she's gonna try to stop it from destroying everything. Just thought you should know.'

Curaçao blinked. "A giant… what?" she replied.

"I dunno, Shy said it's like a bird made of fire, or something like that, I didn't really ask too many questions. Point is, we're heading out to deal with it and we'll be back when we're done."

"Ah… oui. Be careful."

"Will do. You guys stay safe too."

"Was that a Rainboom I just heard?" Applejack asked, coming up behind Curaçao; she and Sir Zircon had chosen to take this floor as their station, as it had plenty of naturally-formed earthy materials for Applejack to make use of.

"Oui," Curaçao replied. "They're heading towards the fires out on the western edge of the city. Fluttershy said something about a giant 'phoenix' on a news report. Merde. I should have kept my datapad on me. I would like to see what she's talking about."

"A giant phoenix, huh? Shucks, tonight's gettin' off to a weird start," Applejack snorted. "But hey, if somethin' like that's causin' trouble, I know Fluttershy'll handle it right quick." She clapped Curaçao on the back. "Let's just worry 'bout what's goin' on here, y'hear?"

Curaçao nodded. "Oui." She paused for a moment as a funny thought struck her. "You know… I think that this is the longest conversation that you and I have ever shared together as ourselves? Strange, isn't it? Considering that I was cloned from you and all."

Applejack scratched her head. "Yeah, but I mean, we ain't never really had much chance at a conversation before, 'cept when y'all were hidin' out as ol' Gumshoe. So it's weird, sure, but it ain't that weird."

"Hmm. True. Still—"

The room's PA system interrupted her. "Attention. Intruder Alert Detected in Pandora Tower. Attention. Intruder Alert Detected in Pandora Tower. Attention—"

"Quoi? An intruder alert?" Curaçao muttered to herself.

"Welp, looks like it's time ta get started, I guess," Applejack grunted.

"Oui, but something is wrong if we're getting an alert so soon. I have not received any reports from the perimeter guards of any hostile sightings." Curaçao tapped her to indicate to Applejack that she had a communicator. "The cultists would have needed to go through them first."

"Maybe they snuck by 'em?"

"Unlikely, as they would have to be a large group if they expected to have any chance of defeating us and stopping Pandemonia. That means that… hmm. They must be coming in from below the tower. Unfortunate, as that means they are at full strength."

Applejack tilted her head. "What? How?"

"I do not know, but that is the only logical conclusion as it's the only potential ingress point; we would have seen them coming from above." Curaçao shook her head. "Luckily this does not change our plans much as they will still need to climb the stairs to reach us up here, and that will take some time."

"Right on, then we'll be ready 'n' waitin' for 'em."

Curaçao communicated telepathically with Insipid and Velvet next. "Sisters, the enemy has breached the tower from underneath the ground floor. They will take some time to reach us here, but they are making their move. Be ready."

"Yup! I'm all set and ready to go here, sis," Insipid responded. "Pinkie and I are gonna kick some bad guy butt."

"Curie, you're sure that these guys can't get into any other floors of the tower, right?" asked Velvet.

Curaçao paused. "Considering that they knew how to dig under the tower without us noticing, I would not put it past them to have other knowledge of the tower's layout. While they are not publicly available, the construction blueprints can be accessed by Taskmaster Concrete and anypony else who he would provide that access to."

"Right, so… look, I know we're supposed to be defending the top floors, but I'm gonna head downstairs to make sure the kids are okay. I have a bad feeling about this."

"D'accord, Velvet, that is sensible. Just remember you'll have to take the stairs down. And if you're going down there, check in on Shroud and Jellybean, would you?"

"Roger that, sis."

Curaçao then pressed her hoof to her ear. "Captain Iron Sights, this is Spymaster Curaçao. The enemy is coming in from underneath the tower. I need the perimeter guard to converge on the lower floors."

The captain of the tower's security grunted back in her ear: "Roger that ma'am."

Curaçao paused a moment in thought, then turned to Applejack. "I will leave you two here to defend this floor. I have someplace else that I need to be."

Applejack tilted her head. "Huh? Where would you— oh! You're probably gonna head down an' check on yer wife 'n' kid, ain'tcha?"

"Non, Velvet is doing that for me. I have something else that needs attending to. Au revoir for now."

As Curaçao headed towards the stairs, Applejack scratched her head and replied, "Uh… yeah, sure. Me 'n' Mister Thou o'er here got this floor covered. Good luck wit' whatever you're doin'."

"Oui. You as well."

Curaçao then shifted her skin and coat so that they were invisible before making her way out of the room and towards the stairs. She'd originally had no intention of moving from this position, but she was suddenly overcome with a powerful hunch that her presence would be needed elsewhere.