//------------------------------// // "Exit, pursued by a Bear" // Story: Boast Busters - Extended Cut // by AdmiralSakai //------------------------------// “Aww, shit, it’s headin’ right for you and there’s not a whole lot we can do to stop it!” Shouted Pvt Parhelion. Capt Marigold looked up from the rune-inscribed golden disc of the clairaudio hub. She’d initially headed to the officers’ barracks with the intention of guarding her desk from Trixie. When ‘Trixie’ had proven surprisingly incapable of getting through locked doors, she’d hauled the hub and a card table onto the hill outside to get a better view of the efforts in Ponyville. Steel Shank, Granny Smith, Spike, and Amethyst Star had come out to join her in person a few minutes ago; she’d set up dedicated audio links to Fluttershy and the Mayor at the Town Hall, and 1stSgt Chamomile in town overseeing the troops. Parhelion’s link dissolved into noise for a few seconds, then reasserted itself with a faint ‘pop’. “Try and detour out of town if you possibly can,” Marigold shouted into the receiver, “Do not- I repeat, do not lead that thing into a populated area!” “We’re not tryin’ to,” Parhelion snapped back, over the sound of somepony else screaming bloody murder, followed by a distant, echoing roar, “It’s that idiot Trixie who doesn’t wanna go anyplace else! Sun-dammit you get back here…” “Understood. If you’ve got a shot at her, you take it, am I clear?” It wasn’t an order that Marigold enjoyed giving- with what was chasing them, even if they shot to wound her Guards would be effectively signing Trixie’s death sentence. But the showmare had already passed up multiple opportunities to end this sensibly, and now Marigold had to weigh her life against risking all of Ponyville’s should the Ursa follow her into town. “We’re trying, but we can’t line up a clear shot with that damned Ursa right-” Cpl Spark demanded, before his clairaudio spell cut out again. Grimacing, Marigold spun the disc in its wooden housing to a general address channel. “All units out in the field, fall back and regroup at the Town Square. Everypony in town, switch to combat ready posture.” Already, troops were starting to assemble in the square under Chamomile’s direction- polearms and armor gleaming in the moonlight, tourniquets wrapped around their necks for easy access. Individual squad leaders barked orders, reconnaissance flights landed and fell into formation, and off to the side a separate group of local Ponyville Militia readied ladders and filled fire buckets. Marigold looked back through the Station’s open hangar doors, and spun the disk once again: “Lapwing, what’s your ETA?” “Uh, yeah, Cap’n, I don't think our guns are gonna do it, this time,” Lieutenant Palisade shouted back. “Then get out there are distract it! Harass it, get in close and make it impossible for that thing to ignore you.” Marigold snapped back. “Are you seriously asking us to get into a knife fight with an Ursa? Because I only just fixed all the damage that hydra did!” Demanded Leafspring. “I'm asking you to do your job, airpony. Because the rest of the company is out there already, and because if you don't, dozens- possibly hundreds of ponies will die. Beca-” “Pre-flight checklist complete, clear the deck!” Palisade shouted again. “Sun’s nuts you think I was sitting this one out?” Not even bothering to extend the landing pad, the airship rocketed out of the hangar directly over Marigold’s head, almost close enough to clip her ears with the propellers. It drifted into a holding pattern directly over the town square. There was a flash of bright green, and the captain turned to watch Spike snatch a small notecard out of a cloud of magical fire. “The harbormaster up in Canterlot says she just found an air chariot that can transport ammunition,” he read off, “They’ve still gotta load the etheric rounds and get the flight crew prepped.” “How long?” Marigold snapped. “Maybe another hour just to get them here.” The captain cursed again under her breath. Etheric cannon rounds could phase through even their specially-designed containers if handled improperly. Packing them up unavoidably took time that Ponyville simply did not have. “Do you think we could evacuate the town?” Steel Shank asked. “That… that is a thing a pony can order, now, is it not?” “No time. Ponies will have to shelter in place,” the Mayor’s voice explained from the clairaudio set. “Get everypony in the Town Watch up and in position, too,” Marigold suggested, “At the very least they can help with casualties.” “Pretty sure they’re already present and accounted for, but I’ll double-check,” Amethyst Star called, then turned and galloped off down the hill towards town. “Fluttershy. Is there any possibility at all you can talk to that thing?” the captain demanded of the clairaudio hub. “Or… not even talk to it, just… lure it, scare it, anything that’ll get it to go somewhere less populated, even just temporarily?” “Oh! I… I really don’t know…” even without the ability to see her, Marigold fancied she could hear the pegasus ranger trembling over at Town Hall. “They’re so… so alien I don’t ever know where I’d start. Nopony does. Twilight and I were… were talking about it not too long ago, but then all this Trixie business started happening and…” Fluttershy trailed off, sounding just about like she was on the verge of tears. Marigold decided to let her be for the moment, and asked, “Actually, where in Tartarus is Twilight?” “Last I saw, she was still hunkered down at the Library?” Spike suggested. “Okay. Go get her and bring her here.” “Umm, why do you need-” “Just go!” “… right!” The dragon loped off towards town. Marigold turned back to the clairaudio receiver once again. With Salmon Salt out of commission, she was back to taking an active hoof in running First Platoon. “Okay, Chamomile, notify the NCOs, combat stims are at squad leaders’ discretion, and… prepare for the worst. Get somepony to grab Derpy Hooves, too. If things get real bad… we might want a cleric close by.” Far off in the dark forest, the Ursa roared. ‘Litter size varies between one and four cubs, typically comprising twins or triplets. Cubs are always born in the mother's winter den while she is in hibernation. Female grizzlies are fiercely protective of their cubs, being able to fend off predators including larger male bears52. Cubs feed entirely on their mother's milk until summer, after which they still drink milk but begin to eat solid foods-’ Twilight Sparkle was trying her best to ignore the unearthly roaring from outside, when she was ripped from her studies by the sound of the Golden Oaks’ front door slamming open. “Twilight! Twilight!” Spike called out, “We just got a message the Ursa’s up and moving around and heading this way! Capt Marigold wants to talk to you!” The scholar looked up to see her assistant dash into her study and pull up short, gazing wide-eyed at the disorganized piles of books and documents her hurried research had left scattered around the usually neat space. “Spike, it’ll have to wait,” she said, in a tone that she hoped brooked no argument. “Right now, I need you to find me any material we have on something called the ‘Musica Universalis’…” Even running full-out, without armor or her heavy Fair-A-Day harness, Trixie hadn’t quite managed to ditch the Ursa- or the two Guardsponies trailing along behind it. She was heading for her wagon outside Ponyville primarily because she didn’t want to lead the damned Royal Guard to her rendezvous point in the woods, although, she supposed, leading the Ursa to her rendezvous point would be just as bad. It was only when the faint grass track she’d been following turned into the hard-packed dirt road just outside of town, and the shape of her faithful wagon loomed low and dark against the night sky, that Trixie realized she had no idea what to do once she got to it. She could hardly hitch herself up and keep running, after all, when she was barely keeping her lead on the Ursa unencumbered. She skidded to a halt, intent on finding someplace to hide on the outskirts of town. The two crayon-eaters quickly followed suit- for all the good they’d done fighting monsters so far. More than anything, the soldiers were rapidly becoming something of an afterthought, although at least the prospect of imminent mauling seemed to have eliminated their personal grievances for the time being. Trixie did, however, take just a moment to mentally curse Rarity and her highly visible invisibility cloak. And her employers for getting her into this mess. And that ranger creep, for finding the monster in the first pace. And Rainbow Dash for her big fat mouth and inability to take ‘no’ for an answer. And, most of all, Twilight Sparkle for organizing every hurdle she’d had to leap over. She actually remembered Twilight, now, from her horrible stint at the School for Gifted Ponies. Spending ten hours in the ceiling of her own wagon had given her ample time to reflect, at least. The unicorn had been insufferable then, too- she was Celestia’s golden filly, the instructors wouldn’t shut up about her, and she’d given an intolerably dull commencement speech one year about Starswirl the Bearded, of all things. Trixie wasn’t in the least surprised that she’d ended up in charge of a clusterrut like this. At the edge of the dark forest, the Ursa roared. Trixie wheeled around, gazing up to face a blue mountain of concentrated starlight heading directly for her. Its eyes glowed sickly yellow as it squeezed cleanly through the trees of the outer Everfree, which buckled and collapsed somewhere inside of its shaggy torso. Then it was out of the forest and padding across open ground. “Don’t worry, the Great and Powerful Trixie’ll vanquish it!” snapped Pvt Parhelion, as she fired a wild, ineffective shot from her crossbow. “Wait, you thought I was serious about all that Ursa stuff?” Trixie demanded. She grabbed a length of rope from the front of her wagon and twisted it into the largest lasso she’d ever constructed. The Ursa actually stopped and stared, seemingly perplexed, as the rope looped around its neck- and then kept on going, passing cleanly through its shoulders to fall in a heap on the ground underneath. A moment later the beast started advancing again, carelessly slicing her rope into ribbons beneath its razor-clawed paws. “Stop goofin’ around and vanquish it, eh?” Subtle Spark mocked. Trixie stepped back, raised her hoof, and snapped off a quick trio of lightning bolts. Each, one after the other, diffused through the Ursa’s nebulous mass without doing it any apparent harm. Trixie decided she would have to include something similar in her projections for subsequent shows- assuming she survived tonight with her life and liberty intact, of course. The Ursa paused, sniffed at the air, and kept advancing- slowly, with a catlike casual sadism. Trixie concentrated, grit her teeth, and poured every last spark of mana her exhausted frame could spare into one more lightning bolt. It crackled from her outstretched hoof and struck the Ursa square between the eyes. The creature uttered a horrifying sound- a cross between a low hiss and a yowl- as it staggered backwards with thunderous footsteps, shaking its head, its big yellow eyes screwed tightly shut. Then it reared back on its hind legs, bellowed, and charged forward, setting the very ground shaking beneath Trixie’s hooves. “Well, that was a dud!” Parhelion shouted, already wheeling around. “Yeah, c’mon, where’s all the cool explosions, and smoke, and stuff like earlier?” demanded Subtle Spark as both solders broke into a mad gallop back for town. Trixie turned and dove under her wagon, desperately scrambling to crawl to the other side. At that same instant, the Ursa's paw came down like a sack of anvils, crushing the suspension and pinning the showmare underneath. “I c-can't stop this thing! Help!” she cried out to the retreating figures of the Guards. “What kinda mage are you, then?” Parhelion sneered, pausing alongside Subtle Spark a safe distance away. “I’m a s-storyteller, okay?” Trixie shouted. “I made the whole thing up, and- GYUH- it doesn’t matter anymore.” Parhelion looked to the corporal. “So, do we go ahead and shoot her?” “Shoot me?!” Spark shook his head. “What’s the point, it’s already here!” They took off galloping again, leaving Trixie to her fate. The Ursa reared back again, and slammed its paws down on her wagon again. Trixie heard the roof cave in as the walls splintered and buckled outwards; but in the brief moment before the impact, the ruined shocks underneath raised just enough to let the showmare squeeze free. She pulled out her illusion charm- cursing as it burned the frog of her hoof, searing hot from overuse. Concentrating, she sent a duplicate running off to the left, then another to the right, then pushed her protesting legs back into motion again and dashed towards the dense and winding streets of Ponyville- moments before a luminous blue paw smashed her wagon’s roof apart completely. Up ahead of her, Subtle Spark skidded to a halt, twisted his head back, and shouted. “No, no, no, no, don’t go into town!” Only then did Trixie realize that other Royal Guards were dashing out of town to meet him- a lot of other Royal Guards, brandishing crossbows she was fairly certain were loaded this time. The Ursa paused, turned its great ponderous head to follow one duplicate and then the other, and lumbered off to the left. Trixie skidded to a halt, wheeled around once again, and headed back for her wrecked wagon. If she could just get back to the east road, she could probably get to the rendezvous point while everypony was still too busy dealing with the monster to put together a search party. “Thank you for… leaving my wagon alone…” Panting, she stopped and began pawing through the debris. “Maybe it's still in here….” The Ursa paused again, sniffed at the air, and then turned back around and headed directly for her. “No, stop, what are you doing…” Trixie muttered, nearly slipping on a glob of splattered peanut butter as she struggled to pry open what had once been a hidden compartment, “Why are you here, you’re supposed to be asleep!” Still the beast drew closer, seemingly already almost on top of her. Trixie knew she had to run; she’d barely survived her first encounter with it and that was only thanks to blind luck. She backed away, and looked on in horror as the Ursa tore apart the wreckage of her only real friend. “Bear? Bear! Why are you doing that? My wagon’s not food, it doesn’t even taste good!” With a final, futile gesture, the showmare took off running and did not look back. Mentally, Capt Marigold sighed in relief when Sundog and Sparky met up with the rest of First Platoon at the edge of town. When the Ursa destroyed Trixie Lulamoon’s wagon and sent her fleeing for the hills, the Guardsmare even permitted herself to chuckle out loud. Then, instead of continuing to pursue her, the Ursa seemed almost to shrug its massive shoulders, and turned back towards Ponyville. Slowly, the entirety of Able Company’s First Platoon backed away as a unit, peppering the beast with crossbow bolts. It didn’t even seem to notice, and kept right on walking past the first buildings on the edge of town, peering around and sniffing. Then it huffed, lowered its head and barreled right down Market Street. “Break off, break off, get outta the way!” Chamomile shouted over the shared clairaudio channel. Squad one-one broke west and galloped down Founders’ Street, temporarily passing out of Marigold’s view. One-two ended up pressed against the side of a low, broad wooden building on Ferrier Street- a wagonwright’s shop, maybe, or an old barn left over from one of the other farming families the Apples were rumored to have run out of town, Marigold wasn’t sure. On rearguard, Aqua Regia -one-two echo- bucked her armored hooves against the door once, twice, and then slammed it open with her third kick. The Ursa skidded to a halt halfway down Market Street, and with ponderous slowness, turned down Ferrier. “C’mon, c’mon, move, move!” Aqua called, as the last of her comrades disappeared into the building’s shadowy interior. Marigold was expecting the Ursa to stop, and possibly look around in confusion again. Instead, it kept pace and barreled into the side of the structure with an almighty crash of snapping timber. She was fairly certain she saw the roof go down and one of the walls topple inward before the entire structure vanished in a plume of muddy brown dust- which, paradoxically, swirled right through the Ursa’s starry blue form without the slightest disturbance. On the far side of town, a smattering of civilian ponies had emerged from their homes to watch the spectacle. Now they turned right back around and headed for cover- not that it would do them any good. “Able one-two, what’s your status! Respond, dammit, respond!” Chamomile shouted. Only the Ursa’s shaggy back was visible above the dust cloud- it had moved a few steps into the street on the other side, and its head was bent down low, but other than that Marigold had no idea what it was doing. The Lapwing charged overhead with a squeal of engines, now flanked by a pair of bat-winged Shadowbolts. The dust finally started to disperse under the wash of the gunboat’s propellers, and underneath Marigold could see that there was very little left at all of the original structure- just piles of smashed timber and scattered shingles, with a few isolated posts remaining more or less vertical. Figures in bright gold armor were still struggling to clamber back onto all fours. At least six or seven remained on the ground. Some were struggling, two were limp, and one was curled up in an expanding pool of dark red. “Awww, shit, we-” Cpl Spark’s clairaudio transmission dissolved briefly into gasping, choking coughs. “- We need a corpsmare over here! Sgt Phalanx’s holdin’ his guts in with all four hooves!” On the other side of the building, the Ursa began the laborious process of turning around, repositioning one massive, pillar-like leg at a time. “Able one-one, get back over there,” Marigold shouted into the receiver, mentally cursing opsec and Commander Shining Armor for leaving her in charge of such a mismatched ‘special company’. Technically, she had a second platoon available, but they were all administrative and support staff. ‘Every Guard a pikemare’ was a fine enough sentiment, but she wasn’t about to get those fillies killed by sending them out against something like the Ursa. Then again, her combat platoon didn’t seem to be having much luck against the Ursa either. Out in the town, the Lapwing wheeled around and opened up with all three of its starboard cannons. There was a tooth-rattling crack as the rounds slipped cleanly though their target, and kicked up plumes of dirt and shattered cobblestone in the roadway just behind it. “No, no, no, hold your fire, dammit, you’re just shooting up the town!” Marigold shouted. The airship crew were lucky they’d fired at such a steep angle. Otherwise, they could've easily blown through a building on the other side of the beast. The Ursa turned away from the ruined building and looked up, luminous yellow eyes fixed on the gunship. It reared back and swiped upwards. Palisade had learned his lesson with the hydra- the Lapwing’s engines whined as it pitched alarmingly to one side, and the Ursa's claws whistled past less than a meter from the hull. “Rut me, how do we stop that thing?” The pilot demanded, as the Ursa made a few more ineffectual swipes at empty air. “Go for the paws, I guess? Those sure are ruttin’ solid enough!” Suggested TSgt Leafspring. “Not sure how I’d even hit that kinda’ target, though.” With a rumbling growl that Marigold could feel in her chest even at the top of the hill, the Ursa swiveled back around again and took two more thunderous steps towards the ruined building site. “Aww, shit!” cried Subtle Spark. Almost at the rubble, Sgt Gooseneck from one-one held up a warning hoof, and the Guardsponies pulled up short. The creature was reaching out towards one of the wounded Guards with a massive paw, when Applejack, armored head to tail in her grandmother's Landsknecht full plate, dashed out from around one of the still-standing buildings. With an almighty bang and a flash of blue light, her warhammer connected with the Ursa’s left hind leg. It half-yowled-half-hissed and staggered backwards, then swiped downward. The farmer pressed up against the neighboring building's stone foundation wall and skirted along it, calling out, “Ha! Ya missed, ya big stupid sack a’ stardus-” With its other paw, the Ursa swept through the entire structure, instantly pulverizing the base and sending the rest toppling over. “-aww horseapples!-” Applejack barely had time to shout, before vanishing under a pile of loose stone and shattered timbers. “Dammit!” Marigold yelled. Seemingly satisfied with the destruction it had wrought, the Ursa huffed once and set off down the same alley the farmer had come from, squeezing with surprising flexibility through a space no wider than its head, even as it bowed in walls and peeled masonry off the corners of adjacent houses. One-one wasted no more time; they dashed forward to assist one-two's few still-mobile survivors in heaving rubble off their trapped comrades. “Okay. Okay, new plan!” Marigold shouted. “We’re not gonna stop this thing or even slow it down, but if we can steer it away from the rescue team until they can fall back to the next intersection… well, that’s gonna have to be good enough, okay?” “And… what happens after that?” asked the Mayor. She’d had the good sense to stay off the clairaudio link once the fighting had started, and Marigold had honestly forgotten she was even present. The captain just shook her head. “Rut me if I know…” Then, there was a muffled pop and a flash of magenta light behind her. She wheeled around to find Twilight and Spike standing in front of the Station’s hangar, the former blinking and gasping for breath. “Captain... hff... I've got... hff.... I think I've got it figured out....” Pinkie Pie leaped nimbly from joist to joist, easily scaling the framework of Ponyville’s central water tower. She was accompanied by Rainbow Dash, Hard Hat, Silver Spanner, and a few other Guards and locals she didn’t immediately recognize. Idly, Pinkie wondered how the stallion got through a workday without every interaction turning into an Abbit and Coltstello routine- “Have you seen Hard Hat?” “Yeah, it's on your head.” “Not my hard hat, Hard Hat!” “All right! What we need to do is drain and detach the cistern on this tower, so that the Lapwing can come and pick it up!” shouted Dr. Proper Verse, as she hovered a short distance away, some sort of architectural drawing held in her front hooves. She seemed rather more put-together now, with a giant celestial monster bearing down on her -so to speak- than she had facing a collection of schoolfillies. Pinkie found that rather odd, until she remembered that Spoiled Rich had also been attending the tour. She had that effect on a lot of ponies. “First, we’ll need to remove all the anchoring bolts from the perimeter…” They set in on the tower immediately with wrenches, hammers, and bare hooves. From her elevated vantage point, Pinkie watched a quartet of Royal Guards lead several civilians in a mad dash across the Town Square, pursued by a mountain of luminescent blue fur. One of the civilians seemed oddly reticent to be anywhere but in the very rear of the group, and with a start Pinkie realized it was Trixie Lulamoon. The Ursa made a wild swipe, and one Guard dived in one direction and three in the other. Most of the civilians, Trixie included, headed with the lone Guard- and, of course, that was the group the Ursa started padding towards. “Okay. Okay, okay.” Seemingly with some effort, Dr. Verse turned away from the impending carnage. “That thick red section of pipe on the bottom of the cistern is the overflow shunt regulation unit. Now, we only want to temporarily override it, so I’ll need somepony to unbolt the cover and carefully adjust each trigger spring in order-” Pinkie lashed out with a hind leg, and kicked the pipe segment free of its housing into a thirty-degree bend. Immediately, a jet of water shot forth with enough force to peel grass off of the soil below. Dr. Verse shrugged in midair. “Alright, well, I guess that works too!” Pinkie had already set in on the lower support beams, clinging spider-like to the underside of the cistern, a socket wrench clenched in her teeth. Down in the town square, Trixie, the unfortunate Royal Guard, and a few other ponies were pressed back against the side of Davenport’s shop. Quite unexpectedly, the showmare’s horn lit up and she fired a glittering bolt of energy straight at the looming Ursa. The bolt exploded into a cloud of thick silvery-white smoke peppered with flashing red and blue lights. The Ursa whined and reeled backwards half a step, swatting at the lights like giant bugs. Immediately, Trixie slipped past it down an alley and out of sight, as the other ponies dashed back across the square. When the smoke cleared, the beast peered at the empty dirt and cocked its head, confused. It made a halfhearted swipe at the building, tearing off a section of thatched roof in the process, then ambled over and began lapping at the pool in the bottom of the square’s ornamental fountain. “A whole company of Royal Guards, and we don’t have anything that can hurt that monster?” demanded Rainbow Dash around the spanner in her jaws. “I don’t see why we would,” Pinkie replied. “It’s basically a grizzly with superpowers- it’s a giant furry tank!” “Still, there must be something we could bring to bear against that beast…” muttered Dr. Verse. “I know,” Pinkie nodded. “The tension is just un-bear-able.” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “Pinkie, I don’t think mocking the Ursa is gonna help.” “Who said anything about mocking the Ursa?” Fluttershy dashed over to the ruined wagonwright’s shop, nearly unnoticed at the rear of a squad of heavily-armed Guardsponies. She didn’t know quite what she was going to do once she got there, but she couldn't just hide under her bed when there were so many ponies in obvious need of help. At least she had another set of hooves to offer, and her basic first-aid kit, and it wasn’t like she’d be much help in controlling the rampaging Ursa regardless of where she was. It may have looked like a bear, and shown some superficially ursine behaviors, but mentally it was nothing at all like Harry or any other creature she’d ever tried to commune with. The wagonwright’s shop was now a complete ruin- Fluttershy was no architect, but she couldn’t imagine how it would ever be rebuilt aside from simply clearing the lot and starting over again from scratch. A few bloody, dusty, unsteady troopers from squad one-two staggered forward to meet Fluttershy and one-one, two with insensate comrades slung over their backs. Some of the newcomers dashed forward and quickly guided them back down the street, out of sight. Then they continued on to where others struggled or lay limp, still half-buried in rubble. Fluttershy turned to the pile of collapsed stone where she’d last seen Applejack. Seemingly of its own accord it shifted, and the pegasus heard her friend’s voice from underneath. “-rotten yeller flea-bitten son of a mule yeah you better run!” She dashed over and immediately began kicking away some of the more manageable fragments to expose the farmer’s steel-armored form beneath. “Um, Applejack, are you o-” There was a slight pause, before Applejack burst out of the rubble all at once, landing on all fours and scattering debris at least two meters outward. “Yeah, Ah’m fine, just madder’n a pack a’ hornets-, sheeeit! Thanks though!” she looked over to the town square and the massive shape of blue starlight visible over the intervening buildings, then dashed off without another word. “Hey! Hey, over here! I need some help!” Fluttershy heard one of the medics call out- a dark rust-colored pegasus stallion she vaguely recognized as Corpsmare Red Courage. There was a blinding flash of light in the town square, followed by raised voices that were quickly drowned out when the Ursa roared once again. Fluttershy slipped past Guards struggling with stones and broken support beams to find the pegasus medic crouched in front of a purple stallion with a sergeant’s stripes on his barding, lying in the middle of a still-expanding pool of bright red blood. A long, ragged gash ran along the sergeant’s left side, all the way from his groin up to just past his ribcage; nearby ribs and armor alike were visibly twisted and bent. “Get me that clamp in the bottom left pocket of my pack, okay?” Courage demanded without looking up, his forehooves buried in the sergeant’s innards nearly up to the elbows. Fluttershy flipped through his pack with one wing, extracted the device in question, and tossed it to him. Off in the distance, the Ursa roared, closer this time, accompanied by the sounds of crashing timber. “Crap, we gotta get this guy outta here before that thing comes back again!” shouted Aqua Regia. She tried to lift the Sergeant onto her back, but the other pony howled in pain as soon as he moved even slightly. “Crap, can you, like, give him some morphine or something?” “Rutter’s already got two syrettes full in him,” Courage replied, “He’s maxed out ‘till he gets to a proper hospital!” The private looked at him, confused. “’Zat thing on your back a stretcher?” “Yes, but I can’t fly him on it without another pony to pick up the other end, and he's not gonna make it if we go by hoof, even without that thing stomping around.” Before she could think better of it, Fluttershy held up a wing. “I’ll go with you.” Courage just nodded. Aqua yanked the stretcher off his back and snapped it open, and the corpsmare set about carefully rolling the new insensate sergeant onto it. He buckled the front end to his armor, and Fluttershy grabbed the other with both forehooves. “Okay, we take off on three. One… two… three!” Fluttershy yelped as they both took to the air, her wings already aching under the strain, and angled towards Ponyville's hospital on the edge of town. After a few minutes, the medic turned to look at her. “Hey!” he said in between breaths and wingstrokes. “You’re doin -huh - pretty good! -huh- These guys ain’t -huh- exactly light with all that -huh- gear!” Suddenly, Fluttershy found herself wondering just how she was managing- and thinking back to her dreadful experience at Flight Camp. The more she thought, however, the more her altitude started to dip, so she decided it’d be in everypony’s best interests to stop. “Well, he needed our help,” was all she said aloud. “I don’t mean to pry, of course, but… whyever do you have so much milk?” asked Rarity, as she levitated another steel canister into the wagon they’d parked out in front of Sweet Apple Acres. By her count, they had to have at least eight hundred liters already loaded in a dozen containers. Big Macintosh looked about to answer when Granny Smith spoke up from her perch on the farmhouse’s front porch. “Well, this here was supposed ta’ last us all the way through the winter…” She waggled a hoof in a vaguely accusing gesture. “Ah can’t figure what y’all’d be wantin’ with it, but Ah guess it’s mah privilege to contribute…” The old mare cocked her head to one side. “Hey, any a’ y’all seen Applejack since she ran off?” Rarity paused, the last of the cans still floating over her head. “Oh, right, she was in town with the others. The last I saw, a building fell on her, but she got up and walked away so it can’t’ve been too bad!” “Eeyup.” Big Mac nodded as he finished hitching himself to the front of the wagon, alongside three earth pony Guards from the support platoon- Pvts Bailey Blast and Half-A-Bubble, from the entrenching team, and Cpl Triplicate, one of the clerks. “There! That’s all!” called out Sgt Catseye across the wagon from Rarity. “Now, let’s go!” They set off all at once, heading for the edge of town, moving as fast as the heavy cart allowed- which, for Rarity and Catseye following alongside the wagon, worked out to be a little faster than a brisk trot. As they turned from Sweet Apple Road onto Carousel Street, the ground started to shake in a pattern disturbingly reminiscent of footsteps. A hazy blue form slowly drew closer and closer, looming over the rooftops to the right. “Can’t this thing possibly go any faster?” Rarity pleaded, watching the great starry shape edge closer and closer. Big Mac grit his teeth and broke into a gallop. His comrades started to wheeze and struggle for breath, but kept up the pace. Then the Ursa leaped cleanly over a particularly low-roofed cottage and landed in the street behind them, cobblestones shattering beneath its claws. It bellowed and swiped at the cart, just barely scratching against the back panel- still the entire wagon began to lurch sideways, and only righted under the combined effort of Rarity and Catseye’s telekinesis. It swiped again, and connected more fully this time. Bailey and Half-A-Bubble both cursed, pulled sideways with the motion, and involuntarily the entire team wound up turning down Parkland Avenue. Rarity spared a brief look behind her- the Ursa was still following them, squeezing through the narrow space with surprising flexibility, barely slowing down. “C’mon, ya overgrown varmint!” The tailor heard Applejack shout, moments before the farmer dived out of an alleyway and charged straight at the beast, “You want’cher dinner? You gotta catch it!” She made a few abortive swings at its paws, but this time her hammer phased cleanly through- the Ursa didn’t even seem to notice. After a few seconds the farmer ended up behind it again, and had to skid to a halt and wheel around. “Aww, shit, this -haaaah- this ain’t workin’,” shouted Triplicate in between breaths. “I think it’s even -haaah- gaining on us!” “The river!” Catseye yelled, “Get across the bridge and lead it to the river!” She motioned to Rarity with one hoof and started to run on ahead of the wagon. The tailor nodded, broke into a gallop, and followed her around the corner. Cobblestones petered out into grassy parkland, and not far ahead, she could see the arched wood-and-stone bridge spanning the branch of the Snowborne River that cut roughly through the center of town. Risking another glance behind her, Rarity saw the Ursa take another swipe at the wagon, then another- it was definitely closer, now, and the wagon teetered alarmingly on two wheels before Big Mac managed to right it. Applejack jumped and danced around the Ursa’s legs, hammer sparking bright blue in the darkness, herding it further down Shore Street like an overgrown steer. “Weaken the supports!” Catseye ordered, and dived straight into the river, armor and all. Rarity skidded to a halt on the bank, mentally shrugged, and dived in after her, wading through the withers-deep water with some difficulty. It was ice-cold, and she struggled to keep her footing on the filthy, mossy riverbed; if her mane and tail had been in any presentable condition before they were certainly ruined now, but she supposed it couldn’t be helped. She set in on the grimy, century-old bolts with her telekinesis while Catseye went for a more direct approach, hacking at the wooden stanchions with her sword. The wagon rumbled past overhead just as a bolt popped free and pinged against Catseye’s helmet, just above her already-scarred left eye. “Balefire and damnation! The bridge is weakened, move!” she yelled, then set off back for shore. Rarity followed as best she could, fighting against the same swift current that had been assisting them going the other way. The Ursa charged across the park, turned with surprising dexterity, and leaped onto the bridge while both unicorns were still only about two dozen meters away. It took one step, then another, heedless of the beams creaking underneath its titanic weight… and then gave a deafening howl as its paw crashed through the cobblestones in the very center. The entire structure seemed to fold in on it in a split-second of splinters and noise and flying debris; it thrashed and roared helplessly, entangled in the rubble. Catseye gave a wordless shout of encouragement, and pumped her hoof in the air, splattering Rarity with water in the process. “Did… did we just turn that bridge into a bear trap?” the tailor asked. On the far shore, Big Macintosh nodded. “Eeyup.” With a low, angry hiss, the Ursa reared back and tore its paw clear of the wreckage, showering the area with debris. Inexorably, it started to ford the river, the current pushing it downstream as it paddled. “Ah. Figures,” was all Rarity could say. The Ursa finally managed to half-walk-half-float towards the far bank. It dragged itself onto shore with its forelegs, water cascading off and through it all at once, and bellowed again. “Alright, let's move out!” Bailey Blast yelled, before the entire group started hauling the wagon away again. “We can -hff- pat ourselves on the back when it’s not -hff- trying to kill us. Because it looks like it’s heading back for the water tower.” “… because it looks like it’s heading back for the water tower,” Bailey Blast shouted over the clairaudio spell in Rainbow Dash’s helmet. “How soon’ll that tank be drained enough for us to lift it?” asked TSgt Leafspring. She stood in the Lapwing’s open main bay as it hovered overhead, fiddling with the cradle of ropes that connected the little gunboat to the tower below. Dr. Proper Verse looked from the tank, over to the looming mass of fur and starlight already heading down the street towards them, then back to the tank again. She hovered for a second, silently mouthing calculations, then answered, “Not soon enough.” “Then we will see you have the time you need!” Capt Vortex shouted, audible both in Rainbow’s helmet and across the street at the same time, as he arched up into view. He was followed by Sizzle, Descent, and Nightingale, flying in a tight diamond formation low to the thatched rooftops. One after another they broke off, dove down towards the Ursa, and sliced through it each from a different direction. It yelped, then looked around, confused, and most importantly stopped walking. “All right, new plan, we’ll just tear the whole tower down!” shouted Pinkie Pie. Rainbow paused in her attempts to unbolt a metal collar to give the baker a particularly skeptical glare. “Pinkie, seriously?” “The town won’t need water either way if there isn’t a town left, okay?” Quite unexpectedly, Proper Verse nodded. “She’s right! C’mon, see if we can shear off the intake pipe! Kick out the support beams on the side that still has bolts, and the whole structure’ll come apart!” Vortex and his ponies circled the beast as closely as they dared, diving and feinting. It growled and swatted at them, like an overgrown cat trying to kill a dangling toy. One particularly near miss sent Sizzle sliding into the dirt on her belly. She only narrowly rolled out of the way of another swipe that clawed long furrows out of the dirt beside her; then she struggled onto to all-fours and leapt back into flight, now favoring her right wing. The Ursa took another few ponderous steps forward. Doctor Verse yelped, shouted an incantation, and hurled a sheet of sizzling yellow-white flame directly at its head. The Ursa peered at it quizzically, made a noise that almost sounded like “Huh?”, and kept right on walking. “Well, that helped!” Pinkie Pie shouted, as she taped industrial blasting crystals to the last of the tower’s supports. Rainbow Dash ducked down for a moment and asked Hard Hat, “She got those from the construction site, right?” The baker grinned, and nodded in a very particular way that reminded Rainbow Dash of preschool teachers and politicians. “Yeah, sure, let’s just go with that!” Dash shrugged, pulled into a steep climb, and slammed both her rear hooves over and over again into the tower’s intake pipe. On the fourth strike it burst open, turning the steady stream of draining water into a torrent. Ponies below cried out and staggered, some involuntarily sliding back away as the ground around them suddenly turned into freezing mud. The Ursa stood up on its hind legs and swatted at Nightingale looping overhead- the bat-winged pegasus cried out as a single claw raked across her back, and fell into a barely-controlled downward spiral. With its front legs and snapping jaws, the Ursa could effectively track three targets at once, and the ‘Bolts had just lost their all-important fourth mare. Rainbow left the water tower behind and dove down the street into the fray. “Back, back!” Vortex called out, as he himself surged upward and snatched the injured Shadowbolt out of the air. Rainbow dived towards the Ursa, grinned when she saw its glowing yellow eyes focus on her and widen in surprise, and slipped through the very tip of its immaterial ear. Its head pivoted around and its massive jaws snapped shut, but the pegasus was already long gone. The Lapwing strained against its cables, engines squealing, and the superstructure of the water tower creaked and shuddered. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…” Palisade muttered over the clairaudio link. Vortex swooped downward, deposited his wounded comrade none-too-gently on the cobblestone street, and then pulled back up. He rolled to one side to dodge another paw, his form already going hazy and ill-defined at the edges. By the time Rainbow was able to circle back around for another pass, he was well above it and more an indistinct cloud of vapor than a pony. Then the Ursa reared back, bent its hind legs, and leaped upward. A paw spiked downward through Vortex’s misty form, carrying him with it; flung downward, he slammed cleanly through the roof of a nearby cottage and vanished from sight. “It can jump too?” Pinkie Pie called out, “That’s just unfair!” “Vortex? Vortex!” Rainbow called out. There was no response. “Aww, shit!” She abandoned the Ursa and dived towards the hole in the cottage. “Alright, everypony, duck and cover!” Pinkie Pie screamed as she slammed down on the detonator's plunger. With an almighty bang, the tower’s superstructure disintegrated in a cloud of dust and splinters. The Lapwing started to gain altitude, and headed for the rendezvous point on the south edge of town; the empty cistern dangling almost comically underneath it. Doctor Verse flew alongside, already prying at the bolts connecting the upper dome. The Ursa looked up, sniffed curiously, ignored the remaining two Shadowbolts, and padded right along after them. Rainbow glided into the ruined cottage, spotted a patch of purple leather in the rubble inside, and quickly set to work heaving snapped planks and fragments of plaster off of Vortex’s insensate form. “Aww, shit, shit, are you okay?” He appeared to be breathing, at least, and there didn’t seem to be much if any blood. The Shadowbolt groaned, and opened the one eye that was facing upward, and muttered “Others… are the others…” Quickly, Dash nodded. “They’re fine. They’re still at it. What about you?” He coughed, once, and tried to haul himself back onto all fours, then winced in pain. “Just once, I would like to return from a visit to Ponyville with all my ribs intact…”