In the tent, Pinion woke to hear commotion. She scrambled out of the tent to see Beat, moving on her hindlegs, a rapier in each hoof, slicing the air to and fro. She then dropped down to all fours as she took the swords in her magical grasp, continuing to strike as needed. She looked focused, as if she had been at it for a while and didn’t stop until Pinion had shown herself.
“Good, you’re up,” Beat said. “Let’s eat breakfast and get going. We’ve got an overblown caterpillar to stop and a world to save.” While Pinion offered to make breakfast, Beat started to slip on the armor; she did it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Where did you get that?” Pinion asked.
Beat told her.
“Okay, seriously, where did you get that?”
“I just told you. I know it’s weird, but it’s true.”
“You’re telling me that a human and an alicorn queen from another dimension gave you the swords and armor and told you to stop the caterpillar, because it’s got a fragment of the power that Discord is supposed to have but doesn’t because a book that’s now alive stole it?!”
“Yeah. I told you it was kinda weird.”
“Weird doesn’t begin to explain it, but…I’ll take it on faith that you did. After all, you did find this sword and said it belonged to me now. So what do we do?”
“We’re going to leave everything here. Don’t worry about it, we’ll come back for it later. But we have to catch up to that caterpillar. It’s had a couple of days’ head start and I’m really worried it’s going to do something dangerous.”
“How are we going to catch up? It’s several hours to fly back home as is,” Pinion said, “and going beyond that is going to—”
Beat immediately grabbed Pinion’s sword, then took the other mare’s hoof in her own and blinked—
—and a second later, after her vision shifted, Pinion found herself in the middle of a recently ravaged town. Relief ponies were everywhere and prismatic smoke filled the air as a result of rainbow-colored flames.
“What the…where are we?” Pinion asked.
“Roc’s Roost.”
“Roc’s Roost?” Pinion looked around. “Yeah, now that I think about it, this place does look like….” She then realized. “Wait – that’s a hundred miles east of where we were!”
“Closer to two hundred, actually, but not the point.”
“How did you—?”
“Not important right now; I’ll tell you later.” Beat looked around and saw who she was looking for, a naval officer. She was a griffon wearing a flight suit and had the pins of a navy commander. “There’s someone I need to get a hold of.” She then chased after the griffoness, calling out, “Excuse me, I need to talk to you!”
The griffoness stopped and gave her a weary glance. “Look, I already told the mayor that my forces are stretched thin. Half my fliers are wounded, and I have no way to call the reserves, plus Capt. Galliard already took off with the rest of our combat capable fliers. I don’t know if I can—” The griffoness looked at her. “What are the Church Knights doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be taking the lead on this operation?”
“I’m, uh, not with the Church Knights,” Beat told her quickly.
“Funny, you look like the type. Heavily armored, mostly focused on fighting monsters with swords and magic?”
“Trust me, I’m not – never even met one,” she explained, offering a hoof. “Anyway, name’s Beat. I work for, uh, Cpt. Divine Right, Friendship Guard.”
“Ah, him. Met him once; great guy. Anyway, name’s Gateaux, and I’m the XO of the Thunderheads. I take it the mayor pointed you in my direction?”
“No, actually, you’re the first one we spotted. We just got into town. Been chasing the Huqqa since it left the Unknown West.”
“Not moving fast enough,” Gateaux told her. “That thing is wrecking everything around it. We found out about it and were the closest squadron, so we threw everything we had at it. Didn’t work – it not only shrugged it off like nothing, but it killed some of my folk.” She pointed at a blue mushroom not far from them. “See that mushroom over there? That thing used to be Ens. Gallivant. He was only with us for a week, and now I’ve got to explain to his parents that he was KIA. And I’ve got a dozen like him. This thing…it’s Calamity-level, isn’t it?”
“Hopefully not, but we’re going to do everything we can to put it down.”
“Good. After Tirek, the Winter and now this shit with the Covenant and a new changeling queen, I don’t know how much more the realm can take. Even if Queen Luna’s a hoofbuster, everypony’s stretched too thin and I don’t think we can take another massive disaster.”
“We’re going to do everything we can. Do you know what direction it was headed in?”
“How can you miss it? Damn thing screamed, and I quote, ‘ThE QuEeN WiLl fEeL My pAiN FoR EnSnArInG Me! iT Is wRoNg aNd sHoUlD Be mAdE RiGhT!’ Pretty creepy if you ask me. But the good news is that for some reason, it seems to be headed not towards Canterlot, but the Everfree Forest. The bad news of course is that the nation’s Number One Disaster Capital is in the way.”
“Ponyville?” Pinion said, with the tone of someone who knew a long-running joke.
“Yeah, exactly. Personally, I would never want to live there. The insurance costs must be through the roof. Anyway, if you have a few minutes, I have a flier with us from Long March squadron. They’ve been coordinating information from both Army and Agency sources and can give you better info than I’ve got. As it is, I’m going to be busy fighting that thing’s partners in crime.”
“Partners in crime?”
“Yeah. Everywhere it goes, it seems to be turning bugs into massively-sized pains in the plot that are attacking everything, and I mean everything.”
“Well, we don’t want to hold you up. Thanks for the information, Commander; we’ll be getting on our way.”
Gateaux pointed towards an olive-green tent. “Flier should be in that command tent there; ask for Maj. Skysight. She should give you all the information you need and point you in the right direction. Anyway, do what you have to do to stop that…Huqqa, I think you called it?” Gateaux replied. “Too many chicks and cubs are in danger, and the whole country can’t take another blow like this.”
“On it. Thanks for the tip.” The two saluted each other and with that, Beat headed off to the tent.
“You’re…not military, are you?” Pinion asked.
“Not in the least.”
“Does she know that?”
“Does it matter right now?’
“I guess not,” the pegasus stated.
The two went to the tent, where a harried looking petite pegasus mare looked like she was one step away from a meltdown; the name tag on her flightsuit read SKYSIGHT and she had the appropriate rank insignia. “Guess you’re the one Gateaux said I needed to speak to,” Beat said.
“Not even going to ask why you’re here, paladin; just tell me I haven’t been fired yet.”
“You haven’t been fired yet. I’m here for information, Major, nothing else. Gateaux said that you had information on where the Huqqa went?”
“Is that its name? I think we’ve all come up with enough four-letter alternates as is,” Skysight said. “Anyway, yeah, it seems to neither notice Canterlot nor doesn’t care. It’s making a beeline towards Everfree Castle, and several towns, from Sunhillow to Ponyville are in the way. Last info I have is that it completely decimated Canterdale.”
“Give me everything you’ve got,” Beat told her.
“I’m sorry, but who are you? I know you say that Cmdr. Gateaux pointed you my way, but you know the protocol that was put in place since the whole Covenant thing: need to see ID.”
Beat tried to keep a sudden flare of worry off her face. “I, uh…”
Pinion got in her way. “I can’t believe you! We have an emergency right now and you’re asking Swordmaster Beatrix for her identification? Do we really have the time for this?” She turned back to Beat. “I’m sorry, Dame Beatrix, I should have taken the time to let the local authorities know of our mission.”
Skysight’s eyes opened wide. “Swordmaster?” she gasped.
Pinion pointed at the unicorn in armor and surcoat. “It’s a crisis right now. Who else runs around in heavy armor and throws their weight around to get things done? You think a regular Church Knight’s going to do that?”
“Okay, guess not. Sorry about that. Anyway, if you’ll come over to this table, we have the latest charts on the creature’s location as well as a recent report on its size – it seems to be growing….”
Several minutes later, Beat and Pinion left the tent. Beat had a horrified look on her face. “You told her I was a swordmaster?”
“Well, I couldn’t get away with telling her you were a vice master or even the grandmaster, right?”
“You know we could get exiled or thrown in a dungeon for impersonating a senior military officer, right?” Beat reminded her. “Maybe even thrown into a dungeon in a place we were exiled to or something!”
“Yeah, well, at least we won’t explode twice or whatever,” Pinion said. “I got us the info, right?”
“Yeah, and I guess I can get Div to cover for us.” A worried pause. “If he and Corner are okay.”
“I’m sure they are—”
“There you two are!” Gateaux came up to them. “Look, we have an airship landing in two minutes, picking up whatever available troops we can – order is that they’re building the next line outside of Sunhillow, and that Queen Luna herself is leading the fight.”
“What?”
The griffoness nodded. “Yeah. Word is that if they can’t hold the line at Sunhillow, the final line of defense is being built between Berryville and Ponyville, and Princess Twilight and the Bearers are going to hold the line. If it gets serious enough….” Gateaux shook her head. “No, can’t think about that right now.”
“If what gets serious?”
“Sorry. It’s just…my best friend lives in Ponyville, and I’m worried sick about her. Have to keep detached, since I’m a military officer, but you know how hard it is, right?”
Beat didn’t, but everything that was going on and the worry she felt when she could do nothing to protect her own hometown? She knew all too well. “Don’t beat yourself up over that. You’re only pony, after all. Well, in a manner of speaking.”
The griffoness gave a humorless chuckle. “True.”
Corner crashed painfully against the ground, as the impact knocked the breath out of her. She bounced a few feet before crashing painfully into the nearby ruins of a house that was still aflame. She gasped for breath for a few seconds, then managed to crawl out of the way before a giant flea smashed the remains of the house. The town of Mountainview had been the most recent combat zone before final defensive lines had been planned for Sunhillow and Ponyville and Berryville, and now this line, like so many others, had fallen as if it were nothing.
“I am not your Celestiadamned playtoy!” she roared, flinging several knives at the thing. The knives sank into the bug’s exoskeleton before the magical explosive charge went off, tearing out its side, sending ichor everywhere. The blast, however, threw her further, where she came to a halt in the muddy banks of the nearby stream.
“Ugh,” she said, wiping the mud and ichor off her. “I am not getting paid enough for this. Sometimes I wonder if it was wor….” Her words trailed off as she saw the nearby corpse of a pegasus, just down the stream from her; worse, the pegasus wore the black and blue of the Agency Special Activity Squadrons, the same group she was a part of.
Biting her words off in shame, she went over and looked at the body…or what was left of it, as half of it looked chewed off. She immediately recognized who it was: Big Cookie. Like Corner, she’d been a Covenant member, but from a different cell and had turned in evidence against several nobles who were part of the Covenant. She’d ended up working in Squadron 2 instead of hers, and while they hadn’t really known one another, they did have enough shared experiences that they’d spoken a few times.
Corner remembered that Big Cookie was raising her little sister, after her family had died during the Winter. And now, that little filly was alone.
“Agent Shot?” Corner turned to see an Army medic coming towards her. “Cpt. Right sent me after you. He saw you go down and thought you might need some help.”
“I’ll be fine,” Corner lied. “But make sure her body gets taken care of. And let me know when it does; I need to speak to my command and inform them of…of her loss.”
“Will do, ma’am. But you might want to go see the Captain.”
Corner nodded, then flew off.
She found him in the middle of the town square, pulling his sword out of the head of a very nasty – and thankfully very dead – humongous scorpion. “This is starting to get out of control,” Divine muttered to nopony in particular.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” she told him as she landed. “How are you holding up?”
“Twi’s worried sick about me, but knows I need to do the job. Moreover, I’m more worried that if we don’t stop this thing, it’s going to make it to Sunhillow and it’s going to be up to my aunt and cousin to deal with it.”
“That and a regiment of Hooves?” Corner asked.
“Undoubtedly; probably the top ones as well,” Divine added.
“And if it makes it to Ponyville and Berryville?”
“I don’t even want to think that far. I know that Twi and the girls can handle themselves, but…that’s my job, you know? They shouldn’t have to put themselves at risk. Plus, if it gets that far, then Earth is potentially threatened and under the new regulations, the SIRENs will have to get involved. And you know better than I the bloodbath that’s going to cause.”
“Don’t remind me; I still get an ache in the knife and bullet wounds I got from them not all that long ago,” Corner admitted. “You don’t seriously think they’d do that, would they?”
“We’re talking about a situation in which we’re still fighting the forces that Tirek left behind and then had to deal with the Winter and your old friends’ uprising,” Divine growled. “And now this – and Ponyville is the main access point to Earth. It’s not a matter of thinking about just ponies or even the species here on Equus anymore. Now we have to consider the humans as well, and take our own human forces into account, too.”
“Well, hopefully Twi and Razz and the others can take care of it before they unleash those three lunatics on that beast. Otherwise, I have no idea who’s going to come out on top.”
An ear-splitting roar sounded in the sky, and the two looked up. The reports had stated that the giant caterpillar had continued growing as it had made its way towards the populated portions of Equestria, but many dismissed it as hyperbole. The creature was now big enough that it was blotting out the sun and that had every pony obviously worried.
“Let’s get back into the fight,” Divine said with a bravado he didn’t quite feel. “I’m not going to let that thing near my fillyfriend.”
“I got your back, Captain,” Corner said, taking to the skies despite her own exhaustion.
Now growing larger and larger, the Huqqa knew it was all wrong and that it would be made right. As it absorbed the very magic from the lands around it and set its fellow arthropods free, the creature knew that once it reached its destination, it would have enough power to cocoon itself, and to turn from a mere caterpillar into an imago. And then, what sights would be seen!
It had seen so much already. The words whispered into its ears, telling it the truths of this world and that the Queen of this world had denied the Huqqa its due. That so much that it had known and believed in had been twisted, changed, mutated by the Queen – a mere horse that had dared to grow wings and a horn, as if it were some grotesquerie, a cross between a narwhal and an eagle! How mad!
It longed for the days when it would just easily live in its garden, surrounded by the beautiful flowers and mushrooms, not having to be concerned with anything else in the world. And all of that had been taken away from it, as it had been forced into a prison. Only the Cat knew, and only the Cat had the courage to free it from all this. And the Huqqa was not prone to violence, but even the most pacificist of creatures could be pushed too far.
Soon, this world would be its, and it would remake it into the paradise that it deserved to be. And while the Huqqa had no interest in being a king, he hoped that making this world into a utopia would remove the need for such.
All it had to do was to reach the castle to blame for all this – Castle Everfree.
“OhmiCelestia – would you get a look at the size of that thing?!” The group of troops, onboard the naval ship Slow Fast Hazel, looked in horror at the size of that thing. “We’re miles away from that thing and it looks to be the size of Canterlot castle!” one of the deckhoofs cried.
“Castle nothing – that thing looks to be the size of all of Canterlot!” cried another.
“Size or not, we’re putting that thing down,” the captain told them. “Bring us about midships and into firing position. We’ll put some cannonballs into it and show the beast what we’re made of, right?”
Before anyone could answer, a blast of rainbow light tore through the sky, lancing right past the Hazel. Behind it, the Hazel’s sister ship, the Cadriopo, burst into flames and exploded, taking the lives of all aboard.
“EVASIVE MANEUVERS!” the captain shouted as he spun the helmwheel. “We can’t take a hit like that!”
Beat rushed up to him. “Captain, what are you doing?”
“Getting away from that thing! It hit us from miles away, Dame Beat!” he told her. “Only our most advanced magic and weapons have that range and we certainly don’t have either aboard this thing!”
“I need to get to the Huqqa!” she told him. “I’m the only one who can stop it!”
“Yes, maybe, if you were Princess Celestia. But I’m not seeing wings to go with that horn, Missie, and as long as I’m in command of this ship, I’m saying, no, got that?”
“Then lend me all your pegasi. Combat fliers, deckhooves, hell, even the ship’s cook! If they’re a pegasus, I need them on the weatherdeck and I need them there pronto.”
“And I’m saying no to that!” the captain countered.
“And I’ll inform Prince Divine Right – you know, the nephew of Queen Luna, as well as a senior military officer in his own right? – that you turned down my request!” she countered back.
“Fine, fine. I’ll pass the order. But if I lose any of them, it’ll be on your horn, got that?”
“If I fail at this, it won’t matter if you have my horn or not,” she told him, then rushed towards the weatherdecks.
Pinion immediately joined her. “What are you doing?”
“Something stupid.”
“How stupid?”
Beat then explained her entire plan, finishing up with, “and you wanted to know how I could get us to Roc’s Roost? There you go.”
“You’re right – that is phenomenally stupid. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have a better plan.” As the naval pegasi started to gather on deck, Pinion called out, “Okay, anyone who is capable of flight, get over here and let me explain what has to be done, understood?”
“You don’t have to do this,” Beat told her. “You’re not involved.”
“Yes I am.” She held up the Sword of Airdrop. “You said this belonged to me, and that Airdrop was my ancestor. My ancestor apparently did everything he could to make sure your ancestor was able to win the battle. That tells me that what he did was in his blood, and it’s in my blood, too. And if you’re out there doing this because you’re the only one who can, you need somepony who can watch your back. I might not be the bravest or best one out there, but…I got you.” She offered her hoof.
Beat bumped it. “It felt like just a couple of days ago we didn’t get along.”
“Yeah, but I got over that. Besides, I’m not just doing this for you. I’m doing it for Grassie and Rorie, too. Even if you didn’t get along with us…they were still my friends.”
“I know. And that shouldn’t change, no matter what.”
Pinion smiled. “Thanks. Now let me go do what I need to do, and you get ready to do what you need to do. Good luck out there, Beat.”
“You too, Pin. You too.”
Cutting off the head of a centipede just as it was about to maul a mother and her foals trying to escape the madness, Corner came to a harder landing on the ground than she thought. She’d exhausted her knives, and while she was waiting for the reload spell to kick in, she fell back on the short swords she had as a backup. She remembered the magenta-maned human she’d fought against and how she used the short swords in a unique way; while Corner wasn’t sure that she was imitating her to the best of her abilities, she hoped that humanness would have approved, especially since they were now technically on the same side.
She heard a crack above and looked up to see one of the naval ships explode from a blast that could only be from the behemoth creature. The more that the battle raged on, the less chance there was that they would hold out here. Already the Army had moved some of their forces towards the second line of defense at Sunhillow and that only volunteers were remaining behind to help with evacuation and fighting whatever remaining battles there were. Divine and a group of hoof-picked ponies were staying behind to manage the fight and Corner requested and received permission to stick with his group – it felt like the right thing to do.
Besides, somepony’s gotta get justice for Big Cookie, she thought. I don’t know how her sister’s going to get the news that now that Cookie’s gone, that little filly’s going to be all alone in this world. Nopony deserves to be alone.
She looked towards the sky again and watched as the lead ship sent all of its fliers – and apparently not just combat fliers – out to do…cloud wrangling?
What?
Corner signaled for a couple other lower-ranked ponies to follow her. Forming up on her, the flight rushed into the air, meeting up with a mare who seemed to be giving orders.
“What in Tartarus are you doing?!” Corner told them. “Now is not the time for cloud wrangling!”
“Uh, yeah it is!” the mare told her. “My boss is going to end this, and to do so, she’s going to need a clear cloud path.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, since I’m exhausted from fighting for the past day or so, but isn’t putting clouds in the way the exact opposite of clearing a cloud path?”
“No, I said a clear cloud path, not clearing one. Trust me, it’ll make sense in a second.”
A few more clouds were pushed in the way and a burly pegasus called back, “Ho the chief! Last cloud’s in place!”
“Thanks! Now stand back and let her do her work.”
“This is crazy.”
“Yeah, but I’ve found out very recently that this is how she operates.” Reaching into her saddlepack, Pinion quickly pulled a signaling device out and sent the signal.
Aboard the Hazel, the captain looked at the sky and saw the signal. “And there’s your signal to go. Are you sure this will work?”
“Absolutely not,” Beat said, looking at the clouds. “But I have to make it work anyway.”
“This is suicide, madam! You’re not an alicorn!”
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do simply because I haven’t done it yet!” Beat said with a grin, and stepped forward, her body picking up immense speed as she took each step.
She thought about the clouds and how pegasi and other fliers operated. It was a magic unique to them, and impossible for non-fliers to achieve. Even spells that allowed non-fliers to walk around on clouds didn’t allow for fast speeds; the most they could move at would be a steady clop, but not an outright gallop.
But this…this armor she had on, the Armor of Wonderland, was given to her by Alice. The armor, the humaness had said, worked on the principle of the impossible – that it worked because it wasn’t expected to do so. And so she moved with the one spell that Alice had taught her would help Beat to catch up to the Huqqa, a little something that ponies had no need for, but in the impossible possibilities of the Armor, humans such as her used with little issue.
It was a spell humans called a “flash step” and it was essentially rapid-fire teleportation, moving so fast that she would literally not run on the clouds, but instead on the raindrops the clouds were made from. And now, as she blasted down her makeshift path, rushing fast enough that even legendary speedster pegasi like Rainbow Dash or Lightning Dust would be envious she focused on her path. Even with the running platform, she insisted that it stop a mile away from the Huqqa, as she didn’t want to risk the lives of the pegasi involved.
She continued to barrel along the path, the distance between her and the end of the runway growing shorter and shorter by the second, her body a practical blur of white, especially as she pulled out her rapiers. Another gift from Alice and from Queen Sunny, the vorpal blades had come from the book itself, created by it to stop the madness that had somehow come about. And these swords were truly powerful; Alice had explained in the human variety of Equish, English, that vorpal was a word that meant an object could cut through anything. And now she had the swords in her hooves, Gyre and Gimble, and even though she was pushing herself with just her hind legs, leaning forward enough that inertia was keeping her upright, it was still going to be a stretch.
She was going to have to clear that last mile of space between her and the Huqqa on her velocity, or else she would fail and the world would fall. But she wasn’t going to allow that to happen, because everypony depended on her. Moreover, she was the descendant of Blazing Lance himself – he wouldn’t allow himself to fail, nor did his descendants. She couldn’t – wouldn’t – be the first to break that noble tradition.
From being a zero to being a hero, all in a matter of days – was this how her ancestors did it? Or any other brave pony, for that matter? She thought about it briefly, but didn’t dwell on it, as she focused on pouring on that last bit of speed. And with that, as she reached the end of the cloud runway, she threw herself off, being probably the first unicorn in the history of ever to take flight without the aid of wings, spells or anything else.
As she hurtled towards the Huqqa, she roared, “HEY, I’VE GOT A MESSAGE FOR YOU! FROM ALICE!” As expected, the behemoth turned its head skyward to look at her, its sulfurous eyes filled with madness and a mind that was less and less there by the moment. This wasn’t just justice; this would be putting a creature out of its pain.
“REMEMBER WHAT THE DORMOUSE SAID!” she roared as she slammed onto its nose and brought up Gyre and Gimble for the final strike.
“FEED YOUR HEAD!” she then bellowed, slamming the blades of the two swords right into the creature’s eyes and poured all her magic into the spell. Her magic, nowhere near enough to affect the creature, went through the impossible magic of the swords and amplified, as the creature began to quickly turn to stone.
“It HaS bEeN MaDe rIgHt,” the Huqqa whispered, the last look on its face a smile as it was freed from the madness of it all. Then it completely petrified and began to crumble, falling apart like a great ziggurat surrendering to oblivion. Pieces of the now-dead creature plummeted to earth, big and small and crushing all within its path, even as the parts that still remained on the ground, crumbled into nothingness, leaving massive boulders of formerly living stone everywhere around the ruined town of Mountainview.
Unfortunately, this also meant that with nothing to hold her airborne any longer, even Beat had to succumb to the forces of gravity and what went up now was going down – and down very quickly. She felt herself fall, hearing Pinion’s cry from a distance and wondering if her friend would make it in time.
It didn’t matter, though, did it? She’d finally done what she’d set out to do: leave town and become better than she’d ever intended. Maybe her father was right: she could move on beyond the Guild. She didn’t need the Guild to accomplish what she had done and she didn’t need to wear Guild robes to succeed in saving the world.
The world felt so much lighter as she realized Pinion wouldn’t be able to save her in time.
The world felt so much brighter.