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// Chapter 16: Safe haven 
// Story: Equestrian Paradox: "Worlds at war" 
// by An Sturmmann 
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Twilight Sparkle felt herself slowly getting dizzy, her magic slowly drifting away of her, pouring out of her horn like a cold stream of tiny droplets, small specks of light emerging from the main concentration of energy in the tip of her horn, it was not too different from an small washbasin slowly leaking water out, drop by drop.

Then again, her magic had become way stronger than before, ever since her ascent to Alicorn, she had become more and more blessed when it came to magic, her reserves being leagues ahead of her unicorn self, however, right now that wasn't her main concern, she could keep that barrier up for months if needed, what she was actually focused on, was another completely different deal.

The sleeping giant resting in the corner of the room, he was the same thing that easily fought off several griffins, managing to dodge "bullets" as one of the colts called them, and was plenty of capable of dealing some nasty wounds to a full grown griffon hen, and yet, something felt odd, for such a powerhouse, the creature was so... fragile.

She could feel it, this thing should have been death by magic exhaustion by now, and yet it was breathing, not a single speck, spark or drop of magical energy could be felt, it was like looking at a rock, a talking, surprinsingly fast big rock.

On top of that, it wore clothing, while clearly torn and dirty, it still wore clothing, and a rather curious type, for while she wasn't a fashionista she could quickly understand that the fabric was something else completely.

It was far, far more endurable than any other fabric she had ever seen, not only that, but once the giant had fallen asleep she could notice several holes on the clothes, these holes... had bullets on them, the clothing protected him, it wasn't that he could endure several shots, or that he could dodge them, it was that the fabric was in fact some sort of soft armor on hindsight!.

Such a thing was a concept pretty hard to grasp, specially after milennia of metal armor, the concept that something so light could endure hits from such powerful weapons was pretty scary, specially after remembering how easily the griffins disposed of the guardsmares.

She could also notice something odd about the creature, it was clutching some sort of metal chain with his right hand, that chain had a small piece, or rather a plate made of metal in an oval shape, it had some text on it, written in what looked like oddly similar to the Equestrian alphabet, and yet, she couldn't make sense of the words on it, however, she could understand what one of them meant, mostly because of the small drawing that was alongside it.

This creature had a name, those words were its name, the thing is, she couldn't exactly make sense of them, she really couldn't no matter how hard she tried, maybe this was the effect of some sort of magic?

Twilight was cut short once she felt the ship rocking again, but this time, she even felt how her shield was hit by something,  on top of that the smell of smoke wich so so far had been quite subtle, was starting to become far, far more present, at quite the alarming speed, it was pretty much as if something was exploding out there, several times.

The rocking became harder and swifter throwing several stallions out of balance, making them fall face down to the wood floor, some of them groaning in pain, others focusing on not vomiting and the many young colts, with a few very coltish looking fillies were huddled together to the sleeping giant, certainly feeling safer near him.

Twilight herself felt a bit of envy of a pair of fillies, sleeping soundly on the giant's lap, she missed sleeping on her father's chest, to feel safe and beloved while being vulnerable, while she knew she could be vulnerable around her friends, she missed a bit the feeling of being a foal.

Despite what the weird ideas, Twilight knew that she had to do something fast, the griffins were trying to tear a hole in the barrier, they couldn't so far, but the sheer feeling of them trying... it was awful, it was just fast enough to force her to feel her magic reserves slowly being poured, but not slow enough to not be a bother, it was akin to having some small rock stuck on your hoof, it didn't hurt but it was horrid, a constant poke with every single motion.

"Is everypony here?" Twilight asked, and several stallions nodded, while one of them seemed a bit worried, noticing this, Twilight walked closer to him. "Is everything okay?"

"W...ell...." His voice was low, but not in the good meaning, it was the weak voice of someone who wasn't feeling allright, he was trembling, shaking, and yet tried his best to stand as firm as he could "There were... a few mares with us.... sisters... wives..."

A second colt heard this and sighed, before walking towards the older unicorn, offering an small hug to help him, he refused shaking his head, before taking an small pendant, it was hidden away underneath his chest tuft, despite being an stalllion, he was still an unicorn, and had quite the thick fur there as expected, the pendant had the photo of a Mare and a colt alongside the Stallion, they were fishing together.

"My son... was raped to death by the pirates... my wife tried to fight them, but we were dragged here... they teared her wings and threw her into the sea" The poor stallion began to slowly weep, and Twilight felt herself on the verge of collapsing upon listening to that, the mental image being far from comforting, however, as the stallion broke down, several colts came closer to help him stand up again "Thanks princess.... for coming to the rescue... thank you..."

Now Twilight felt guilty, but then again, there wasn't anything else she could have done before, she didn't exactly recall why, but she felt way more... weak... she felt weaker when she was trapped and chained down, it wasn't her magic being weak, it was her, she didn't felt capable of using magic at all while she was chained.

The mere notion that, if she had actually tried to fight back she may had saved more lives... made her sick, how could she call herself a princess if she had failed to do something like that?

Despite that, she knew what she had to do, and focusing, she let out an small cough to get the attention of everypony.

"Is somepony else trapped in another ship?" She dreaded the answer, but had to ask, but, to her surprise, she got quite the pleasant response "No, so far no, pretty much everypony is here"

She could recall some mares being captured by the pirates back at the port, but then again she was blindfolded and that odd magical feeling made her unable to properly distinguish what was happening, with the current situation allowing her to calm down just a bit, she could begin to feel magic all around her again.

It was weak, most of the magic was condensed in this room, at least the pony magic, there were some leftovers out there, but she couldn't pin point anypony else being left behind.

With a silent prayer, Twilight closed her eyes, and began to focus, just as the ship rocked harder, this time her shield being unable to endure whatever was hitting it, breaking on one side, forcing the magic to rechannel itself to seal away that hole.

And yet, that wasn't what she felt worried right now.

The magic was... strange, the usual stream of energy she was so used to felt way different right now, as if it was a whole completely matter... energy was streaming down, like a waterfall, straight at her horn, poking right into her very own mind, pouring a constant stream of information she could barely understand right now.

This wasn't what she had in mind when she wanted to use this spell, it really wasn't, and yet, she felt compelled to watch them unfold, slowly but surely the magic took several shapes and forms, allowing her to sense everypony nearby, and not only that, but allowed her to see the outside of the ship, in quite an abstract manner, but just enough to get her to understand what was happening outside.

There were more ships, not only those of pirates, but these ones were bigger, far more organized and better armed, making quick task of sinking the black flags.

However, the presence was different, they weren't griffons, they were hippogriffs, just as the overzealous mare she met just an hour or two ago, and their auras were hostile, full of killing intent, fueled by a mix of faith and fury, shooting several cannons like the one Pinkie pie had back at home, however, with each shot, instead of a harmless confetti stream, there were huge round projectiles.

A courtain of steel and smoke was raining down against the pirates, wich were trying to escape, that was why they were so desperate when it came to breaking her shield, they didn't want their "booty" to fall in these newcomer hooves... or well, claws.

The feeling was overwhelming, with each shot, Twilight felt the entire weight and power, and she could sense how the magic simply snuffed out of the griffins that had the bad luck of being hit.

This wasn't a battle, this was a massacre, several griffins tried to take the battle to the skies, but the hippogriffs were faster, quickly taking to the sky with their wings, taking their weapons, charging and shooting, all in perfectly coordinated squads, the way they were together made a perfect mathematical sense, their rectangular formation allowed the first line to shoot, and then recharge while the second one poured another wall of death.

Twilight puked, the feeling was horrid, so far she had faced many horrible things... but now, she was witnessing something far... far worse... she was witnessing death, not like her brother had told her, this wasn't an honorable fight bewteen warriors, this wasn't a necessary evil for the greater good, this wasn't an old tale passed from generation to generation.

Shining always told her myths and tales about the days were warfare was still fresh in equestria, being a guard granted him the right to read some registers of those days, and he was clearly enamoured with the concepts of gallant soldiers fighting with honour till the last mare, not because they hated what they had in front, but because they loved what they had behind them...

This wasn't that, this was just a single set of motions, like an algorithm, like a machine, three simple steps, at quite the long distance, take your staff... charge it... and shoot... then repeat.

The battle she saw back at the port was horrible, those poor guardsmares never stood a chance, but this?, this managed to get her to have even some pity at these horrible griffins, they were being killed off like if they weren't even people, this wasn't something their murderers would take pride, or effort, or even remember, this was routine, like the cold gears of a clock... those beautifully made and coordinated gears...

With a loud cry, Twilight focused again, tears streaming down her face, as the shield expanded, breaking away the hull of the ship, throwing wood away, and leaving the group to stand inside what may as well be called a bubble in the middle of a battlefield.

Everypony's eyes were on her, and she knew it, but, she wouldn't fail again, she has only this one chance and she will take it, the magic inside of her demands action, logic demands her to take things into her hooves and solve this problem once and for all.

With a powerful cry, Twilight pictured the safest place she could think right now... Canterlot herself, the capital of Equestria, and just as the cannons roared, pouring a rain of steel and death against her and her ponies, the entire bubble holding them together dissapeared in a flash, just like the ship mere instants ago.

She did it... everypony was safe... and yet, she couldn't keep going any longer, the fresh imagery of death in the form of such organized manner... the mere idea that people would learn how to make such horrifying warfare... it made her weep, and fall down to her knees, in a rather pathethic display, her eyes closing, not because of tiredness, or magical depletion... but because of shock.

Her brain demanded rest, her soul demanded comfort, but logic demanded action, she couldn't just allow herself to fall like this... these newcomers... they would go after her... she knew it, their faith ignited the second they began to shoot at her, and their rage exploded in the mere split of a second she left them behind.

Crying, Twilight drifted to sleep, unaware that in her spell, she had fell right in the giant's chest, ironically sleeping like filly over her father... just hoping that maybe, this was just a nightmare... a single too dark and horrible nightmare... despite how real it felt.

But the magic was calling... whispering at her ears, telling her something she couldn't understand now...

But she hoped she could eventually do...