Red would have landed on Giesu and crushed his skull if it weren’t for the gut instincts of general Romulus. Before he could possibly deduce where she was going to land, he reared up and threw his spear at her. It missed by a hair but came close enough to throw off her trajectory. She overshot Giesu, landing in a heap in the center of the terrarium.
A deadly spray of broken glass fell alongside her. A particularly large piece flew past Hypha’s head and stuck in the ground beside him. Another glanced Flannel’s knee, sending him sprawling.
Romulus dove over the prone form of Giesu, pulling up his cloak to shield himself and the senator from the shower of glass. Blue rammed the general, but she may as well have ran into a cloudstone wall. As she wound up to strike again, Romulus punched her in the nose. She staggered back into the shadows and disappeared.
“To arms!” Romulus cried down the hall. “To arms! To—” He ducked out of the way of a stray piece of glass. Blue’s outline shimmered in a dark corner. Romulus bared his teeth and advanced on her.
Red made a beeline for Hypha and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.
“Hey street trash,” she said with a cavalier smile. Her eyes froze on his prosthetic leg, and the smile twisted into a snarl. She whirled around, her gaze locking onto the cowering form of Flannel.
“It wasn’t him!” Hypha tugged her cloak. “He’s my friend.”
“You got bad taste in friends,” she growled.
To Hypha’s relief, she turned her attention away from Flannel and back to Romulus. The general saw her coming and went for his sword.
A whisper filled the air. A cloud of pale smoke poured from the shadows. The air hummed with magical energy. Visibility shrank to almost nothing.
Light bloomed in the fog. Hypha saw Red pull her forelegs into her chest. Blue orbs of energy coalesced at her hooftips. She drew a circle, then a flawless diamond made of two long triangles. A light orb appeared.
“Woah,” he said.
Red floated the light down the entry hallway. They saw twenty black-clad Derechan legionaries coming their way.
Hypha’s blood ran cold. “Red—”
She was one step ahead of him. She summoned two more lights orbs, then chucked them one after the other into the hallway.
The orbs burst like water balloons, dousing the guards in white-hot magical plasma. Skin seared. Armor blackened. Screams filled the hallway.
“You just gonna stand there?” Red shouted at Hypha. “Do something!”
The sound of his name brought him back to the moment. With his heart still pounding in his ears, he squared himself with the entryway and forced himself into the air.
He hovered at the top of the entryway and tapped the keystone with a hoof. Then the stone to the immediate left and right. Sure enough, the stone was solid, but the mortar holding the joints together was sloppy.
Hypha glanced at his leg and the intricate pieces within. Romulus had told him it wasn’t made for fighting. Hypha hoped he was wrong.
Feel it, receive it, let it go. His whole body hummed with energy. Blue light danced on the tip of his prosthetic hoof. He drew a blank circle in the air, coiled his metal leg, and punched it with all his might.
With no flesh to absorb the sound, the impact rang like a bell. The baseplate of Hypha’s leg jerked back like a recoiling cannon. The hydraulic piston within the leg absorbed the energy.
The walls had no such protection. The keystone splintered into pieces. Stones buckled together and shot out of the wall. Just as another wave of Derechan guards appeared in the hallway, the entrance collapsed, sealing them out.
“This is a city of pegasi,” Romulus called. “They’ll come in through the walls if they have to. Surrender.” He bit down hard on the handle of his sword. “Surrender!”
The shadows beside Romulus warped into a lithe, almost feline shape. He had just enough time to turn and face the anomaly before Blue appeared, careening towards him at full speed.
The steel plates of the general’s armor clattered as the two collided. They hit the ground and rolled.
Blue landed one good uppercut on Romulus’s jaw. The sword, along with one of his teeth, fell to the floor.
With Romulus distracted, Red sprang into action. She ran over to Giesu, who had almost picked himself up off the floor. She clocked him square in the face, knocking him onto his back. Then she grabbed the knife in his shoulder and twisted it.
Blood sprayed out. The old senator bellowed in agony. Red spat in his face and hissed, “We’re just getting started with you.” Then she pulled out a rope and hog-tied his legs together.
Once she secured the knots, she dashed back to Hypha. “Can you fly me out when we’re done?” she asked. Hypha didn’t answer at first. his eyes were locked on Blue and Romulus rolling on the floor, fighting for leverage and the dropped sword. “Hey.” Red forced him to look at her. “Can you fly me out?”
“One of you,” he stammered.
“Blue can get out on her own.”
“I wasn’t talking about Blue.” Hypha pointed at Flannel, who’d dragged himself behind a growing stone to nurse the gash in his knee. “We can’t leave him.”
Romulus punched Blue in the stomach. She made a sound like bagpipes deflating.
“Hang on,” Red said, and darted off to help Blue.
Something large moved in his periphery. He turned and saw Giesu wriggling out of his hastily-tied restraints. One of his limbs was already free.
Giesu paused when he noticed Hypha staring at him. A slow, sickening smile spread across his face. “Help me,” he said, “or I’ll make things even worse for you.”
Fear, cold and unyielding, shot through Hypha’s body. Phantom pain shrieked in his head. Agony and submission. Only a tiny sliver of his rational mind held on. Fear forced him forward. He took a trembling step forward. Then another. Then he was right next to the senator.
Giesu held up his bound hooves. “I own you. Help me, and you’ll be safe.”
Hypha reached for the rope. It hovered a hair’s width away.
Then he reared up and brought his metal leg down on the blade’s hilt.
The old senator wheezed in agony. When he found his breath, he fired off a long string of curses at Hypha. “I’m gonna cut your other legs off and roll you off the edge of the city,” he sneered. “I’m gonna feed you to hyenas tail-first. I’m gonna boil your tongue and force feed it to you. I’m gonna—”
A shout stole Hypha’s attention. He turned just in time to see twenty pegasi of the elite Derechan fifth legion fly up through the floor.
The senator’s bitter laughter echoed in his ears. The sight of the advancing legionnaires left him frozen in stupefied shock. Every muscle in his body screamed, fly! Energy built up beneath him like a spring. Everything inside his head, with the exception of pure preservation instinct, vanished in a puff of pale smoke. He could leapt onto the senator and gain a few precious inches of altitude. He could fly through the hole Red made during her entry. He could leave. He could live.
The afterimage of a memory projected itself onto the moment. Visions of Cumulus and Hirruck danced down the legionnaires' armor. Wrender came into view. He was smiling.
Wrender.
He couldn’t run. Couldn’t fail his friends. Not again. That Hypha had died many times over. No more running. He had to fight.
Hypha launched himself into the air, passing through the ranks of the legionaries as they formed up. They were so shocked by the sight of an earth pony flying towards them that no one raised their weapon against him.
By the time they found their wits, Hypha had made it to the terrarium roof. He flew to a piece of glass three lengths long, drew a rune circle in the air, and kicked the metal skeleton holding the glass in place.
The frame rang like a bell. Whatever glass was left shattered into a thousand pieces and rained down on the ranks of legionnaires. That momentary distraction was just enough time for Hypha to get his hooves around the metal frame and pull up with all his might.
Keeping himself airborne was hard enough. Lifting a multi-ton piece of metal was next to impossible. But he didn’t have to lift it. Only dislodge it.
He jerked his body side to side. The frame groaned, then shifted. Sweat beaded on his forehead. The familiar ache of magical overstress bloomed in his head like a deadly flower. He pushed through it. Pure magic radiated out from him in waves. He felt his grip start to give.
The metal lurched. He grimaced and let our a groan of effort and gave a massive tug upwards, and for a split second he caught a glimpse of the jetstream high above him. His vision narrowed and the pain spread through his spine until every nerve ending in his body screamed in agony. Above all that internal noise and the shouting and the screech of twisting metal, he swore he could hear the whoosh of the air moving miles above him.
This was it. This was the moment. Feel it. Receive it. Let it go.
The skeletal framework came free with a deafening bang. It fell right through the floor, taking all twenty legionaries with it.
Red, Blue, Romulus, and even Giesu, paused in their deadly combat to watch them fall. Then the cloud floor recongealed, and they were gone. Silence fell over the room.
That’s it, Hypha thought. We’re winning.
Romulus snuck in a clever strike on Blue, sending her sprawling. Flannel chose that moment to make a stand and dove on top of Blue. His moment of glory lasted as long as it took Blue to regain her bearings and toss him across the room. He landed on a spray of broken glass and went rigid, like he’d been electrocuted.
Red dug in her hooves and charged Romulus again. But he’d already made his opening. He pulled his sword from its scabbard and swung it at Red in one fluid motion. The first blow came with the pommel, striking Red in the jaw. She stumbled backwards, her mouth ajar.
Romulus swung again, aiming for the same spot. His pommel struck true. Red’s face snapped to one side. Her jaw swung freely, tilting at an impossible angle. She tried to bite down and cried out in pain.
He turned the blade on her. The sharp end flashed. She jerked back in time to avoid being decapitated. But she wasn’t fast enough to avoid being hit entirely. The blade caught Red in the middle of her face, slashing through her cheeks. With nothing to hold her shattered jaw in place, it flopped down to her chest. A piece of her tongue fell out and fell through the cloud floor. The back of her exposed throat glistened in the light.
She leapt back out of striking range, three hooves on the ground, one hoof holding her mangled mouth shut.
For a second, Red just stood there, panting through her nose.Then the blood started pouring from her mouth. She fell to her side, desperately packing the wound with clouds.
Blue descended like a hurricane on Romulus. She slammed into him with a flying shoulder, disappeared into the general’s own shadow, then reappeared behind him.
Romulus rolled and raised his sword only for Blue to melt into the shadows again. She reappeared behind him again and landed two brutal punches to his head before he forced her to retreat.
He learned fast. When she dipped into the shadows to strike a third time, he turned around and swung hard. But this too was a part of Blue’s deception. She leapt from the same shadow she’d disappeared into a moment before, catching Romulus’s exposed side with her front hooves.
He went down hard, dropping the sword. It skittered across the floor, over to Giesu.
Blue got on top of Romulus and squeezed his throat. He let out a choked gasp and reached out to Giesu.
Giesu snatched the sword off the floor and appraised the situation.
"Sword," Romulus wheezed. "Give me the sword."
But Giesu didn't move. His eyes met Blue’s. She leaned into her chokehold, her lips drawn tight together, her nose wrinkled with rage.
A sick, greedy smile spread over Giesu’s face.
He slid the blade back across the floor to Blue.
Picking up the sword meant loosening her grip on Romulus’s throat. He took in a fresh gulp of air and hammered at Blue’s head with his hooves. “No! Giesu—”
Blue raised the sword above her head and plunged it into the general’s open mouth.
A sick crunch filled the air. Blood sprayed across Blue’s face. She opened her mouth and let out a guttural scream. The look of horror and betrayal on Romulus's face faded to a blank, glassy-eyed stare. His body trembled. He slumped to the floor.
Blue left the sword embedded in the general’s head and started towards Giesu.
Hypha froze, transfixed by the violence of that single moment. The crunch of bone. The way the general’s body twitched. The curtain of blood draping one side of his head. He’d been there just a moment ago. Just a moment. That’s all it took.
A gurgle of pain from Red brought him back. He rushed over to her and tried to assess the extent of her injuries through all the blood. Terror flooded her eyes. She tried to spit all the blood out, but the moment she took her hoof away her entire jaw flopped down. Hypha saw her uvula and a few blood stained molars.
More shouting came from below. Blue reached Giesu and reached for the knife in his shoulder. She was so focused on him she didn’t even notice another squad of guards fly up through the floor.
The lead guard inadvertently saved Blue’s life. He swung his spear wildly, catching her in the forehead with the wooden shaft. The blow propelled her across the room. If she hadn’t been as small and light as she was, if the guard had swung even half a second later, if everything hadn’t lined up just so, the rest of the squad would have pinned her down and savaged her with their swords.
The guards formed a protective barrier around Giesu. With a guard supporting each of the senator’s shaky limbs, the rest made a hole in the floor and whisked the senator out of the room. More legionaries flooded in, spears at the ready.
Blue, still dazed from the blow, got Hypha’s attention and pointed to the hole in the ceiling where the sunroof had once been. Out, her eyes implored. Then she dove into a nearby shadow and disappeared.
Red cleared the blood from her mouth in a violent, wracking cough. She nodded in agreement. Her eyes were downcast and unfocused. Blood loss, no doubt. Defeat. Her hoof found Hypha’s. She squeezed it with a tenth of her normal vigor.
“Hypha.”
Another familiar voice made Hypha’s ears perk up. He turned and saw Flannel limping towards him. A lattice of cuts on his underbelly wept blood onto the floor. His leg with the cut knee dangled limply, dragging across the ground.
Clutched between his teeth was a long shard of broken glass.
“C’mere Hypha,” Flannel said.
Red tugged on his mane. More blood spilled from the corners of her mouth. He hefted Red onto his back and tried taking off. A punishing lance of pain from magical overstress forced him down.
Flannel spoke again, “C’mere Hypha.” His eyes were blank. Like the general’s. “C’mere.”
Hypha went airborne again. Pain rolled through him in waves. His vision narrowed. Another moment of indecision and he’d lose control. It was now or never. He put his forelegs around Red and surged towards the ceiling.
A dozen black spears followed him up. A dozen black spears fell back down. The second attempt on senator Giesu’s life ended just as abruptly as it had begun.