For the last couple of hours, Starlight Glimmer had been feeling as if the weight of Ponyville and the townsfolk were on her shoulders.
She, Gaige and a few others were in the final stages of a plan to ensure the safety of everyone in Ponyville. Yet, there was no telling if this gamble of theirs was going to work as intended. The idea was to cast a very powerful barrier spell to repel any invaders from coming into the town. However, since a consistent amount of magic needed to be used as a source, the current hypothesis was that the very tree they stood in could suffice.
While the plan could work, there was also a very high chance that what they were trying to achieve was going to backfire significantly. Especially since it was never attempted before. Twilight was always good at such things herself, but right now, she and the rest of the Elements of Harmony weren’t here to help with this. To make matters even more difficult, Starlight was the only pony in town who just so happened to be as adept with magic as the absent princess of friendship.
Well, there was also Trixie. But her friend was already occupied with trying to keep everypony calm with how badly things have been falling apart over the last few hours. Even with Spike helping her, it wasn’t exactly going too well.
“Starlight, are you alright?”
The question had Starlight blink, before looking back towards Gaige, “What? Y-yeah, I’m fine. W-why-?”
“You kind of seemed distracted for a bit.”
“No no, I was just… thinking,” the unicorn tried to reassure her, “Trying to clear my head a bit before we start working on anything. You know, not having any distractions?”
“Oh, I prefer distractions,” Gaige replied. For a moment, Starlight thought that she was being serious. Then, the mechromancer finished her sentence, “Gives me more of a reason to throw a wrench at them.”
The unicorn’s eyes twitched at that, a little unsure if that was supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing. Though, since it was Gaige, it was… sort of expected?
“So anyways, are you on board with the plan? Or do you need a refresher?”
“A refresher, please,” Starlight quickly replied, “I think I might’ve missed a couple of important points while I was… lost in thought.”
At that, Gaige brought out what looked like a rolled up blueprint. As she opened it up, Starlight found what looked like a rough sketch of the castle, “Well, when Angel took a moment to analyze a few things, we learned that the magic coming throughout the tree originates from its roots.”
As she continued, the mechromancer held out what looked like a marker as she began to draw out what the plan was. “Angel’s theorizing that these roots are where the magic gathers before its spread out throughout the castle. Are you with me so far?”
Starlight nodded, “I guess. But how do we get from that to-?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Gaige asked, “The current plan is to try and have that magic be redirected to a singular point in the castle, which will be up on the balcony. That magic will be used as a power source for the defense that we’re planning.”
“And… What is that defense? Is it a spell of some kind or-?”
“Currently, there are two possibilities for how we could be successful,” Angel spoke up as the Mechromancer set down the ECHO device, “The first one involves our friends back on Pandora. Since the original shield generator was part of Sanctuary, we could ask Tannis if she happens to have blueprints on the original shield generator and try to create our own. An effective plan, but I doubt that we have the time or luxury for such things.”
Starlight could agree with that. It was unknown if the creatures responsible for the attack on Ponyville would come back to finish the job, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to take any chances. “What’s the second one?”
“That happens to involve a little bit of magic,” Gaige replied, “Spike told me that Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor, happened to know a spell to put up a shield around Canterlot. So, the second option is to try and recreate it somehow. Though, the method of how this could be recreated… is something I’m having trouble trying to put together.”
“I’m sure something like that can’t be that difficult now,” the unicorn said. Though, her words had Gaige look at her with a bit of uncertainty. “C-can it?”
“Tannis thinks so,” Angel replied, “When Gaige discussed this earlier with Spike and had her on call, she grew concerned since the spell seemed to be a ‘talent’ of his. She… uh, what were the words she used to describe it?”
“She compared it to something scientific. Like… egh,” Gaige pinched the bridge of her nose, “Something like inherited traits. ‘Being able to do something so easily, without putting in any hard work for it’.”
“Yeah, like that. Unless this Shining Armor somehow comes knocking on the front door, we would have to learn the spell manually… and based on what Gaige told me about magic, who she learned from Twilight, it could take a long time to learn a spell depending on-”
Before the conversation could go any further, there was a loud knocking noise at the door that startled them for just a brief moment. Which was then followed by the familiar voice of Spike on the other side. “Uh, girls? I hate to interrupt, but there’s a visitor here that wants to see you.”
Both of the unicorns looked at one another, before Starlight nervously spoke up, “A visitor? Who is it?”
“Well… there’s no way to put this delicately. Shining Armor is here and he wants to talk to you. Like right now.”
If there was ever a time where it felt like Discord was somehow influencing what was happening, now was less than ideal. “Uh… sure, send him in-”
Before the Mechromancer could even finish, the doors to the balcony immediately opened up as the impact of it almost knocked both mares to the floor. As the two tried to get back up, they now found themselves staring up at a familiar stallion with white fur and a dark blue mane & tail. A stern look on their face as he asked one simple question.
“What happened?”
That alone had Gaige internally panic a bit. It felt like she was getting scolded for doing something crazy on EDEN-5 again. Though, instead of a teacher or principal scolding her, it was the captain of the freaking royal guard. “Okay, let’s try and calm down a bit-”
“I am calm,” Shining sternly declared, the look on his face being the exact opposite of what he was saying, “Yet, everything I’ve been hearing is testing me to act otherwise. So, let me ask again. What happened?”
“W-what did you hear?” Starlight asked.
“That no less than a few days after we left you with Twilight and her friends that this town was attacked, my sister and her friends got foalnapped,” the captain then immediately turned to Gaige, “And that one of your people was responsible. I have members of the guard demanding an explanation as to why this happened and wanting to exile you, so I came to hear it from you personally.”
Those words had the mechromancer’s blood run cold. Yet, despite this, she tried to remain calm as she looked back at Shining. “Okay. But something tells me you’re not going to like what we have to tell you.”
“So, let me get this straight… all of you were minding your own business?”
“After playing a game of Bunkers and Badasses with Tina, yes,” Gaige nodded, before looking to the other mare in the room, “Even Starlight and Spike were with us.”
It looked like Shining acknowledged it, but he was more focused on trying to break down what Gaige told him, “Then, while you were on downtime, you heard one a shot ring out and find one of your team members had shot another?”
The memories of that were all clear, but a few unanswered questions still remained. “Yes. And before I could demand any explanations, I was knocked unconscious.”
“And when you woke up, you learned that Ponyville was attacked, your friends were abducted along with my sister and her friends, and your saying that someone you claim is supposed to be dead is responsible.”
“There’s a lot of things we’re still trying to figure out, but that’s the gist of it, yes,” the mechromancer let out a deep breath as she looked back at him. “Look, I know this sounds crazy, but I have no reason to lie to you. I want to get all of my friends back, but before we can do any of that, we need to make sure that Ponyville is safe in case Jack comes back to finish what he started.”
“And how are you certain-?”
This time, it wasn’t Gaige or Starlight that spoke, but Angel as she projected herself from Gaige’s ECHO device, “Forgive me, Captain Armor, but the person we’re dealing with is never satisfied with leaving something half finished.”
Shining was taken aback by that, unaware that there was somepony else that was listening in the room, “I’m sorry, but who-?”
“This is Angel. She’s an… AI project that Tannis was working on and sent to me,” the mechromancer replied, “She was also the one who witnessed everything that happened in Ponyville while I was knocked out cold.”
“She’s… a ghost?”
“More like Artificial Intelligence, but I can understand your confusion,” Angel remarked, “Regardless, that is not why I spoke up. Considering who we’re dealing with, Jack would go to extreme lengths to make sure that any resistance that stands up to him doesn’t exist. Back on Pandora, he massacred the town of New Haven and killed many in Sanctuary.”
We’ve been working on something to try and make sure that doesn’t happen here, but,” Gaige paused, before letting out a deep sigh, “It requires something.”
“What is that something?” Shining asked.
“Your cooperation.”
The unicorn raised an eyebrow, a bit taken aback by Angel’s statement, “Is that a threat-”
“No. But I can see how it would come off as such,” she replied, “Gaige and I have been working on a plan, because before we can deal with Jack, we need to make sure everyone here in town is safe.”
“Twilight told me that you have specialty with defensive and shield based spells,” the mechromancer continued, “We think that something like that could be what the town needs, but we might have a way to make that spell stronger. Time is not exactly on our side, so the quicker we do this, the better.”
Shining had to take a long while to process everything. There were several details that didn’t quite add up, but Gaige was right on the fact that time was against them. To make matters even more annoying, she and this ‘Angel’ were the only ones who had any idea of what they were up against. A creature as Mad as King Sombra, but worse.
“Okay, fine,” he grumbled, “But on the condition that you include the royal guard in whatever plans you have. The ponies in this town are under our protection and I will not stand by and let such things happen again.”
“That can be agreed. In fact,” Gaige paused, scratching her chin, “I can think of a few ways that we can utilize your talents. After all, the more, the merrier.”
If there was anything that Handsome Jack hated above all else, it was loose ends.
Back during his prime on Pandora, he would lead any and all Vault Hunters that would try to come to his planet for riches to their demise (no offense intended). Their bodies end up being a pile of frozen corpses in the Windshear Wastes, and there would be extra cleaning services on each train he used. For several years, this worked perfectly. Yet, it was because a few stragglers happened to survive such schemes that was the start of being a thorn in his side.
Those same stragglers that ruined everything were here. But now, he had the upper hand. Now, they had front row seats to watch as all they had strived to try and achieve was going to burn right in front of them.
And to twist the knife even more, he had a ‘friend’ come join him. “Well, you’re rather quiet now Roland. Normally, you would have something to say.”
Roland could only look at Jack with pure disdain.
“Not much in the talking mood right now… That an issue for you for some reason?”
“Come on, now. You have a front row seat to the main attraction,” his masked face grinned, just as several loader bots with heavy artillery began to take positions. “I made sure that your comrades also have a good view of this too. It’ll be like New Haven all over again. Only this time, you can’t run.”
“Well, I hope something doesn’t ruin your precious time making this all happen.” Roland replied, hoping something goes wrong for him.
“Don’t bet on it. Because I’m making sure everyone’s coming out to enjoy this one,” He snickered, just before a massive loader bot joined them. The former soldier recognized this one almost immediately, because it was the same one that assaulted what used to be Firestone, and also guarded the Hyperion Information Stockade that Jack turned the town into when he was alive. “Alright, you damn bots! Places everyone!!”
Of course, there was one particular bot that stood out. Mostly because it had a human head… and, by all accounts, he should be dead.
“Wilhelm.” Roland growled out. “I see you didn’t want him to miss this party at all.”
The enforcer said nothing, not even acknowledging the soldier as he took up position. He had a look on his face of wanting to murder Roland himself right there… but there was no way that the consular would allow it.
“All of you, go rain hellfire upon those savages!!”
Roland could only clench his teeth in frustration as he saw the loaders start their bombardment. But yet he didn’t want to give Jack the satisfaction of him looking away.
Though, after a few minutes and the smoke started to clear, Jack soon realized that something was off. Even more so when the town was still standing… and being protected. “Are you F**KING KIDDING ME!?”
“Target destruction inconclusive…” One of the loader bots mumbled.
“I CAN SEE THAT! WHY!?”
“It’s a barrier,” Wilhelm’s cybernetic voice grumbled, “Like the one on bloody Sanctuary.”
“And how-?!” Jack paused, taking a deep breath as he tried to remain calm and composed. “You know what… fine. We’ll just run it back and do it all again-”
“Unknown movement approaching…”
“Oh, what NOW!?”
In the distance, Roland can now see something barely visible on approach. At first, it looked like just a figure on something… that was moving rather fast. As it got closer, the soldier could now see a very familiar figure.
For Gaige the Mechromancer was riding on one of the shoulders of Deathtrap, as a unicorn. Along with what looked like a self made army of recycled Hyperion drones following right after her. Just the sight of it being a mere insult to Jack’s ego.
“Hello boys!!” She cried out, a Conference Call shotgun wrapped around in a magical grip as a massive grin was on her face. “I’M BACK!!!”