Raven Inkwell - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Young Moon’s Hunting Lodge - Hackamore Valley
Raven stood next to the field radio set, neck flicking between six separate screens to observe the battlefield outside while still checking the command network terminal as often as she could justify. Her teeth clenched hard, beads of sweat running down her face despite the climate control in the lodge.
Come on… There has to be someone else in response range. The fleet’s lost two a destroyer and a transport, and fourteen gunships. Infantry losses are… minimal, in this context. What darkened corner of Tartarian banishment did this demon ooze out of, and how do we send it back there?
The command terminal chirped as a message came in from one of the tactical groups Raven had flagged. She turned her attention to the new message, and sighed. It was the Venture’s Air Rescue wing.
[Medevac complete. Refueled and able to make a second run if necessary.]
Raven checked her notes, grimly noting how little she loved the rate at which casualties were exiting that minimal designation.
[Second run necessary. Landing site will be Evergreen Falls town center.]
Raven typed the order, then quickly sent a follow up message mirroring the order for another run to the infantry’s field medics to relocate the wounded for another round of desperate extractions and lifts under threat.
A small noise caught Raven’s attention, prompting her to look up and see the brown robed figure of Primary Source, the stalwart Library Mage. The wizard had simply faded into the background for her, and he was now hunched over a table looking at documents which may or may not be classified beyond a Library Wizard’s clearance.
“Source,” Raven said as calmly as she could manage from the hot seat. “What are you looking at?”
The wizard’s head popped up as his overfocus burst under Raven’s question. “Erm… What?”
“What are you looking at?”
“Oh! I’m trying to piece together Safety Lock’s notes on the investigation,” he answered.
“Can you not be of some help with the battle?” Raven asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“I could do a little, if you had a desperate need for perhaps a token fireball or maybe half a bolt of lightning every few minutes,” Source admitted. “But I believe I can do more with these. I was able to restore more of the damaged text using your spells as a base and—”
Raven cocked her head. “More?”
“Yes. It appears that he believed Grape Vine’s group had been intending on summoning that monster tonight. Its emergence is somewhat coincidental, as these indicate that their ritual was not, in fact, successfully performed. A touch of a saboteur, Lock. But, if I am understanding these coded fragments right, the beast’s unnatural resilience comes from modifications made to the observatory’s Deep Space Thaumic Detector Array. Take a look.”
Source gestured for Raven to join him. She quick-stepped to the other table and scanned her eyes across Source’s puzzle-piece arrangement of ruined paper. She could see the pale white join lines where her spell had reattached ripped fragments, and the yellowish not-quite-right sections she’d been able to magically “regrow”. Source’s work was more mystical in nature, glowing orange letters simply continuing off into empty space where missing paper had been.
“How did you do this?” Raven asked. “Is this a reliable method, or a proto-cast?”
“It is a new spell of my own design,” Source admitted. “I’m still working on it, though in a case like this I am most confident in its results. Ninety two percent accuracy is typical with documents mere weeks old, and these are from this morning. Consider my confidence interval high enough for me to have some faith in.”
Raven took a deep breath. “I wish I knew you could do this earlier…”
“Yes, a shame that you didn’t ask the world’s foremost expert on document restoration, here under your chartered request to restore documents professionally, to restore damaged documents. But, the relevant section is here, and my headache largely abated twenty minutes ago. Apologies for not double timing my cryptanalysis of steganographic fragments, and you are welcome, ma’am.” Source said, tapping one of the restored pages with his hoof.
Raven turned her attention to the page and read it several times. “I’ll be damned. They turned the array into a magic circle to tap power from the ruins.”
“Possible error permutations mean the power source could be something else, but I am certain beyond doubt that the array is in some way a magic circle empowering the monster. That much I know for certain, on my badge of office.” Source said with such iron Raven couldn’t help but believe him.
“Good work, wizard,” Raven said as she ran back to the radio base station and picked up the hoof set. “Raven Inkwell speaking. Somepony get me contact with Princess Luna immediately, over.”
So we didn’t have to switch cooperation channels after Enox, Raven grumbled to herself. I learned that lesson. I hope she’s alright. Our doctors don’t exactly have knowledge of her anatomy.
The radio crackled to life as Luna’s voice came through the speaker. “Raven, thank you for calling in a second evacuation. What did you need?”
Raven cleared her throat. “Primary Source has restored more of Safety Lock’s notes. We have reasonable confidence that the monster’s durability comes from the observatory’s Deep Space Thaumic Detector Array. Grape Vine altered the designs to form a summoning circle, but that was fouled by Violet’s reprogramming. Upside, summoning not as intended. Downside, cosmic resilience from the running array. According to the filings, the sweep did include a proscribed asterism. It was not properly reported as a concern.”
“They sought to summon this entity with their star scouring, and even fouled as such this creature draws vitality from my stars,” Luna said to herself, following the logic chain on her own.
“So Source believes. I still believe it was possessing Grape to free itself. At any rate—”
“The circle must be destroyed, or the creature cannot,” Luna interrupted.
“Exactly,” Raven agreed.
“We can’t spare troops for demolitions right now,” Cadence said, sounding more than a little out of breath. “It’s chaos out there, and the observatory is close to the pit. It's going to be practically flooded by shadow beasts.”
“Well… We could shift the bombardment, blow the whole thing up,” Raven suggested.
“Are you nuts?!” Raven jumped, ears standing pert and tail raised as Twilight’s voice came through the radio. “Do you have any idea how many Sols of power are in that thing’s concentric aurals? We’d kill everypony within ten klicks with the managlow alone. We have to shut it off properly. Hit the emergency stop and let it wind down safely. You can't just "kill" a electro-magical superconducting accelerator this big, we’d be looking at the largest uncontrolled quenching event since the Spell Wars.”
“Princess Twilight, good to see Celestia sent help,” Raven said, wondering how in the world she hadn’t noticed the young alicorn on her screens.
“I trust Twilight’s knowledge… And Cadence’s judgment,” Luna said decisively. “I believe I can reach the observatory, but I would need somepony to ward the flank I’m holding… And also I do not know how to operate the equipment.”
“I do,” Cadence commented. “The infantry can hold the shadows back. If we can find a way to occupy the big guy, then my having to lower the dome shield won’t be a huge risk.”
“My walls will remain active without me present for several hours,” Luna thought out loud. “The monster lashes out at a single target with each strike, seemingly retaliatory. If we can get it to focus on the airships—”
“Gunships. But no, I’ll draw its fire,” Twilight declared.
Raven flinched so hard, Source looked up from the notes he’d returned to examining and reconstructing. “Is there a prob—”
“I do not believe that is a good idea, after Tirek,” Luna said.
Raven sighed in relief. Thank the fates I didn’t have to be the one to tell her—
Twilight sighed and the slap of hoof on forehead crackled through the tinny radio speaker. “Luna, I was crammed full of power so far past what I am used to having that I could barely control it. And that was the first time I ever had to fight anything giant sized, ever! And I even won! Our combat lessons only covered things up to a dragon in scale. I was entirely out of my depth, and both you and Cadence let Celestia go through with her suicidal plan to make me fight Triek alone to ‘Show the people she alone can protect them when I am gone,’ despite both of you saying it was a bad plan! And look what happened? I barely managed to defeat him and our battle took out a whole forest and marred a historic mountain range, oh and set Canterlot and Ponyville on fire, killing bucking dozens and rendering me homeless!”
Several long awkward moments of silence passed.
“So,” Twilight said with a heaping tablespoon of bitterness. “I’ve spent the last few months studying up on Neighponesse Kaiju fighting, just in case something like Tirek ever happened again so I wouldn’t be the cause of a second nation-wide crisis lasting months. I have plans. I have strategies. I have tactics. Just. For. This. You owe me the benefit of the doubt, after last time. At least once. If I buck this up, then it’s just a thing that I shouldn’t get to be the one to fight giants.”
Raven bit her lip then mmmed. “Princesses? She won’t be alone. The fleet is still supporting us. And it’s unlikely another of their ships will be sunk if the creature is firing at Twilight.”
Twilight cleared her throat to drop her most relevant knowledge bomb. “It’s already unlikely. Its beyond-horizon attacks are basically wild guesses. Up in knife fight range, its accuracy is 98%, at range it’s like… 7% tops and I think the second shot was a fluke. That puts it in a class C on accuracy. Its durability is insane, and probably magically enforced, but right now it's at an S. Its intelligence is gods awful, basically an animal. So a D. Its speed and maneuverability are terrible too, two more Ds. Its attack power is absolutely an S given it just deletes anything it hits, but it’s not an S+ or neither of your shields would have held. 15 total points, six categories. The Kaiju Threat Scale rating for our evil oil slick is a C+. I rate a B- if we correct for bulk and the minions. It is an even match on paper for my current flat B, but it has no discernible strategy, just brute flailing. Sure, it’s invulnerable right now, but keeping its attention is way easier than killing it! I promise I have this.”
Cadence hummed. “Alright. I’m convinced. Two minutes to get to the observatory, five to find the switch, two more to power down. Add in four for complications and combat. Can you do that?”
“Probably! I— I do need to do more cardio, that’s still my D category,” Twilight admitted.
Luna took a deep breath. “We have no better options. Let’s—”
The radio crackled once more, this time as Fluttershy joined the conversation. “Um, a— Actually… Sam showed me that Violet added automated controls to the telescopes. I— If you get to the observatory’s maneframe and put your radio by the modem, I could, um, kinda sort of a little make it connect to my laptop? And I can ask it nicely to shut it down, um, remotely.”
“That’s way better!” Twilight exclaimed excitedly. “Who's our hacker mare?”
“I’m, um, my tag is Xx8lad37r0u7xX.” Shy said quietly.
“Did you just vocalize unicode?” asked an incredulous Twilight, to no response but a muffled eep.
“Well I say I cover Cadence and Luna, and they get that radio to the mainframe. Do we have a plan?”
“We have a plan,” Luna agreed. “Raven, retask one of your sensors with tracking Twilight. If she starts to falter, let us know. We will attempt to hasten our task.”
“Understood,” Raven reported, turning to one of her displays to start retargeting its scrying effect.
⁜ ⁜ ⁜
Night Sky - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Evergreen Falls - Hackamore Valley
Night was having a very, very bad day. Everything had been looking up. Princess Luna had given him the deal of a lifetime. His wife had agreed to let him try fixing their relationship. He’d made up with June, at least a little. Yet here he was, in the middle of a town under siege by the exact kind of ancient evil he’d sought to avoid.
The exact one Luna had warned him lurked below.
Night stood stock still in the middle of town, eyes locked on the towering black mass of terror now cresting the hill. It flexed a tentacle, slapping at a gunship which had ventured a little too close in an attempt to drop a ground strike munition on a dense knot of the horror’s summoned shadows as they consumed the distance towards the fighting line. The tentacle missed, smashed into the pit’s rim, and the sound of shattering stone echoed through the valley. The bomb didn’t, and that blot of oily nightmare never reached the line. Others did in droves.
‘Please? It’s a long train ride, I know, but it’s my only photo of my mother. You’ll get to say hello to June’ she said. ‘Sure dear. I’ll spare you the trip,’ I said, Night repeated in his mind. Thinking what’s the worst that could happen is absolutely a self-inflicted curse!
Night felt himself start to hyperventilate. The small framed photograph in his inner jacket pocket felt like a bar of lead and a newborn foal. I have to get away. I have to get out. They sent airships away with wounded. They’ll come back right? They’ll evacuate a civilian, right?
Night took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Breathe slowly. That’s what the book said to do. Just breathe slowly. Focus on the positives. Princess Cadence has a shield over the town. She protected all of Canterlot that one time. As long as she keeps it up, we’re—
The shimmering blue dome over the town flickered and died as Cadence took off for the observatory.
Night squeaked, going entirely rigid. Ok now I can’t even think safely?
A bolt of lavender streaked across the sky, flared like a meteorite bursting in the upper atmosphere, then shot six spiraling beams of radiant death into the oily monster’s back. Twilight’s opening attack ripped into the eldritch being’s flesh, boring a visible hole down to its shaped-mercury skeleton.
“NO!” Night yelped, scooting backwards with a frenzied shuffle.
He recognized the color of that magic.
“Nononono!” He panicked, turning to run and immediately losing all sense of direction as the monster bellowed its psychic cry of pain and rage.
<G̸͇̔ạ̷̍r̸̝̒l̸̻̿i̴̳̿c̵̰̑ ̴̫̓p̷̬̐r̸̟̀e̶̛̙ș̸̽s̵̬̀!̷̭͆>
Night’s mind shifted without a clutch as his consciousness did its desperate and level best to comprehend why the monster scream-yelled ‘garlic press’ while also searching for every single possible escape route AND forgetting he could fly.
But why would anyone press a garlic clove? Is that the name of its attack?
Night’s panic stepped up to the plate and solved his mental conundrum by insisting he start running in frantic arcing semi-circles while screaming panicked nothings from the total-panic list of all time greatest hit singles such as; ‘We’re all going to die’, ‘It’s hopeless’, and of course ‘Run! Everypony run!’
The town square, quite full of wounded combatants from the nightmare pits of the quarry’s rim, responded predictably poorly to his injection of total panic, getting up to crawl for cover or falling back on their training and searching for a weapon to resume fighting with. Remarkably, they succeeded by the dozens. Ignoring their wounds, ripping open fresh sutures, standing on broken bones held in place with only a splint, and in one case flexing a broken spine to bring a seized rocket launcher to bear.
Night’s panic snapped like a twig underhoof as something grabbed him by the shoulders. He screamed and punched on pure instinct, his hoof connecting with a tan and black earth pony’s jaw.
“Ow!” The stallion complained as Night’s hoof glanced off his chin. His eyes narrowed, and he slapped Night across the face. “Snap out of it! Look at what you’re doing!”
The slap brought Night’s attention roaring back to full focus in the way only a mercifully administered earth pony hoof can. His chest heaved with ragged breath. “I— We— Everypony has to get out of here!” Night babbled.
The stallion bit his lip and hoped the emergency situation would keep him from being punished for doing exactly what CARE had, in saner times, ordered him not to do to a pony without direct supervision.
“No, we need to stay where we were directed. The soldiers need to stay put for the airships to come get them,” he corrected, keeping his voice perfectly calm, content, and ordinary. Like it was just a summer afternoon pool party and the commotion was some foals being rowdy. “You’re starting a panic. You need to calm down so they can calm down, okay? Focus on my voice. It will be fine. I’m Russet. What's your name?”
Night felt something like magic brush across his mind. He attributed it to the monster and stiffened, expecting to lose control of his body. Instead, a wave of calm washed over him, pushing away the outermost layer of his panic.
“I— It’s Night,” Night stammered, looking up at the monster towering over the valley just in time to see Princess Twilight deflect one of its ruby red death beams with a scintillating blast of her own.
The deflected ray sparked and shimmered, flicking upwards and flying out into the air, dispersing in the ionosphere, where harm was limited.
“Cool! Nice to meet you, Night,” Russet continued, keeping his voice perfectly calm and normal. “Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
Night sputtered and swept a hoof across the town. “Everything! Another ancient evil, another massive battle, thousands of monsters—”
“Hey, take it easy. Relax,” Russet said with a friendly smile. “We’ve got three princesses, my girlfriend, and the army protecting us, and that thing is a pretty lousy shot.”
Night felt another layer of panic peel back. He felt like he should be terrified by whatever was forcing him to calm down, but at the same time… why worry? That made no sense. He should take it easy. Relax a little. It just made sense.
Night frowned. “I— I guess it is…” he mumbled. “Wait, girlfriend?”
Russet nodded, his smile going from calm and relaxed to genuinely ecstatic. “Yeah! She’s great. I’m running her some drinks since she’s got to be kind of thirsty. She’s helping the town militia out.”
“Why are her drinks bags of blood?” Night said, his eyes widening as a layer of panic came rushing back.
Russet cursed himself silently and dialed his excitement back to calm. “It’s cool, she’s a vampire. An elder one even. Organized the militia just for this. We’ve got all kinds of local heroes out on the line right now. You should come say hi! They’d appreciate the thanks, and you could help me out by carrying some water and food for the non-vamps. You know. Everypony else.”
Night frowned, nodded, then in a slight daze looked around. “I— I don’t see any water. Where—”
“Right there,” Russet said, pointing with one hoof to one of the piles of emergency goods townsponies had piled up on the street corners before bunkering down in their basements. “Go ahead, grab one and let’s go. It won't take long. Just a few minutes. No big deal.”
One of the STF agents assigned to guard the wounded jogged up to the two stallions. Russet could tell by the look in her eye she knew what he was doing.
“E-894!” the unicorn mare demanded. “Are you—”
Russet quickly dropped his calm tone. “Yes! Sorry, he just needed some help. Remember, only stuff within reason. I’m just… Getting him to help out like everypony else.”
The agent paused, thinking for a moment, then nodded once. “Alright, but only because—”
“Hey, it’s cool. I swear. My file says how I feel about doing this. He was causing the panic. I had to do something. State of emergency and all.” Russet said, putting emotion into his words so she’d know he wasn’t being persuasive against her.
The agent silently nodded. “Carry on,” she said, turning to her post.
Night blinked, the fog in his head clearing somewhat. “I— What? What was I—”
Russet turned back to Night, forgetting to turn his anomalous persuasiveness back on. “We were going to make a supply run to the militia’s position. Remember?”
Night’s frown steepened. I— Yes. I think I did… Buy, why did I— Because I need to help. Obviously.
“Right,” Night said out loud, quickly moving to pick up a case of water bottles and tuck them into his saddle bag.
“This way,” Russet said, waving Night towards a side street. “We’ll have full cover all the way to the edge of town.”
Night nodded and quick-trot towards Russet, following the stallion’s tail nearly halfway across town in silence. Aside, that is, from the continuous jumble of roaring screech, spell blast, thundering artillery, and crack of weapons fire that, together, became one ignorable sound.
“This is not like Canterlot at all…” Night murmured as the panic began to set back in, but faintly.
Russet looked over his shoulder. “Oh man, sorry… Chrysalis or Tirek?”
“Both. Either,” Night murmured looking up to make sure nothing could see him.
The outline of the floating abomination was fully hidden by the brick walls on either side. Night breathed a sigh of relief. “I— I was almost hit by Twilight when she shot at Tirek. The beam went right past my office window.”
Russet flinched. “That’s rough, buddy. But, don’t worry. We’re down here and she’s got enough training to keep firing up and away from us… That thing doesn't seem to move at all.”
Despite Russet’s words lacking his persuasive touch, Night couldn’t help but agree. “Yeah… It doesn't move, does it?”
“No. Just sits there, spins, and deletes a few million bits in military hardware,” Russet agreed with a bitter laugh. “I mean, it did. I think our flycolts have the pattern down now. Though I heard it hit a second ship a while ago.”
Night winced as a barrage of shells thundered. “Must not have been a battleship.”
“Nah. Heard it was a submarine hunter and a landing ship,” Russet commented idly, noting the street would open up into the park on the edge of town soon. “Hey, you gonna be okay? We’ve got a quick dash across the grass to the drop off.”
Night squirmed in place for a moment, took a deep breath, then shook his head. “N— No… I don’t think I can…”
Night took a quick breath then pointed to the sky with a wing. “That thing… Probably won't kill us. It’s occupied. But its monsters. I— I can’t fight! I’m out of shape, I’ve never trained—”
Russet frowned. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re coming up on part of the line being held by the best our town has to offer, and they’re not giving a buck about what CARE’s told them not to do. I’m pretty sure I can hear my mare ripping those shadow spawn limb from limb all the way from here. We’re safe and clear! In and out, drop the supplies off, run right back to cover. No actual fighting,” he said with too much compassion for Night’s terrified state for his powers to work.
Night took another deep breath. “Yeah… Yeah! You’re right. I used to do track and field. I can make a short sprint. At least, there and back,” he said with firm determination that simmered down to a flaccid state almost immediately.
Russet grinned and nodded. “That’s the spirit! Race you!” he called, taking off down the alleyway and into the park.
Night nodded, gulped, and began to run at a dead sprint. He left the ally a few seconds behind Russet and raced across the park’s grassy field, doing his best to ignore the walking forest of shadow monsters flowing down the hill in front of him like nightmarish water from a burst dam of horrors.
Keep your eyes on the potato pony… Just keep your eyes on the potato pony… Night repeated to himself with each step. The mantra combined with his embarrassment at forgetting Russet’s name to form just enough of an emotional shield for him to make it to the line of random ponies he’d never seen before.
They stood behind a decorative rock garden full of boulders, firing spell, gun, and energy blasts into the frenzied melee before them. Night’s eyes widened as he took note of a gray and purple thestral mare at the center of the melee. He could tell she was a vampire even from this distance, the subtle differences stook out to his eyes like a split hoof.
The vampire had made a line in the dirt of the town’s graveyard, she strafed along the line, kicking, punching, and wing slapping her way through the shadow monsters as they drew close to the disturbed earth. Each of her blows hit with enough force to snap bone or throw a monster back into the sea of its friends.
Yet as powerful as she was, she couldn’t hold the tide back on her own. She was but a single pony and the enemy was uncountable. A pang of terror welled up in Night’s heart only to be pushed aside as Silkwing’s dozen or so friends let loose another volley of fire. Spell bolts, anomalous energy rays, bullets, and arrows ripped through the monster's ranks, cutting down the foes Silk couldn’t hold back, truing up her line.
At least, that’s what Russet saw. Night, blind to the town’s anomalous properties, saw a dozen normal ponies backing up one slightly less normal but not uncommon pony up with nothing but civilian weapons and spells. And together, the random ragtag group was holding back the endless tide.
I— He’s right. Local heroes. There are always local heroes. Night mentally stammered as his worldview began to crumble. I can't believe I didn’t think about—
“Honey bun?!” Russet called out, snapping Night from his thoughts. “I brought you some red. You want one now?”
“Please and thank you, sweetie dear!” Silk yelled back, not taking her eyes off her foes.
Russet took a blood pack from his saddle bag, reared up like the hoofball running back he’d been in highschool, and chucked the blood bag in a near-perfect spiral towards the back of Silk’s head. Hearing the bag coming with her enhanced senses, Silk caught the bag with a wing, kicked off from the pony-bear-pig chimera she had been giving a left hook, and drained the bag while her friends provided cover fire.
The moment the bag’s contents vanished down her throat, her pupils dilated, delighted to be running on a full tank. Silk grinned cruelly at the pony-bear-pig still shambling towards her, and spread her forelegs out, drawing on her eldrich vampire powers to suffuse the bones beneath her with new life.
Night watched in awe as the ground burst open, dirt flying into the air as the graveyard’s entire skeleton population animated and began to shred every shadow beast within reach. To his eyes, it was the town’s elderly and passers by joining the fight.
“In case you're wondering, the skelepones are on our side,” Silk called out to her friends. “Thanks for the blood, dear! I’ll need more in a few minutes to keep this up. Skelepones are expensive!”
“It’s cool, I brought a six pack,” Russet called back.
Night shook himself out of his sawestruck stupor. “Buck me… You’re right! Local heroes are everywhere, and they are good.”
“I know!” Russet said, grinning like an idiot as he dropped off the remaining five bags next to the rock pile stockpile. “She’s great right? Uh, still, we should probably clear the buck out—”
“Or,” one of the militia ponies called over the crack of gunfire. “You could get me some more 5.56. I’m on my last box and they seem to be chewing through those skeletons pretty quick.”
We can do that. No! I can do that. I can get these brave ponies everything they need.
Night nodded.
“I’ll be right back,” Night promised, then quickly emptied his bag of the water bottles, and ran back towards the alley, this time with Russet on his hooves.
⁜ ⁜ ⁜
Princess Luna - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Hackamore Valley Observatory - Evergreen Falls
Luna backed further into the observatory’s control room. Her horn blazed brighter and brighter with each bolt of crackling moonlight she hurtled into the endless hoard threatening to spill into the room at any moment.
“Now would be wonderful!” Luna shouted to Cadence without taking her eyes off the hall and its writhing wall of shadowy flesh.
“Everything’s so old! I don’t know what a modem this old even looks like!” Cadence yelled back as she searched the room for cuboid wired objects in a near-panic.
“It's the thing that looks like an old phone goes on it,” Fluttershy directed over the radio. “Blocky, two holes. Offensively beige!”
“Got it,” Cadence said, vaulting over a bank of computer hardware to reach the modem at the room’s southeast corner.
Luna took a step back to dodge a massive mantis-scorpion hybrid’s flurry of slashing claws. She lowered her horn and poured mana into a thin cutting beam, sweeping the hallway, bifurcating monsters and gouging the concrete walls. “Cadence! I won't be able to secure our escape if—”
Cadence slapped her radio down on the modem. “Go! GO! DO HACK NOW!” Cadence shouted, holding down the transmit button.
Fluttershy’s hooves flew across her keyboard. The radio emitted a burst of static, drawing the modem’s attention, then sent it a sequence of dial tones. The modem responded in kind. A heartbeat passed. The monsters picked themselves up and began to fill the hallway once more.
“Damn…” Luna swore under her breath. This is why we don’t rely on mana potions. I’m too sore and tired to clear a simple hallway… That or they’re much tougher near the circle. Probably both.
“I’m in,” Fluttershy said, half distracted as she started to enter the shutdown command.
Luna didn’t bother replying. She tipped her head back and blew a hole through the ceiling with a flash of arcane fire. “Leave!” she ordered.
Cadence flew out of the observatory, turned, then fired a volley of spellbolts through the hole, past Luna, blasting the closest monsters back. Luna spread her wings and took off backwards, flying blindly through the hole, scraping the edge with her hind legs as she made her escape while firing down into the grasping shadows.
“Uh… itty bitty problem,” Fluttershy squealed through the radio.
Luna began to fly upward, gaining altitude just in case. “What?”
“I can’t— They did something to the control system. It’s not shutting down. I can trip the emergency stop, I think? Yes I can! It um… It’s warning me that it will break it. And probably send a lot of energy upwards.”
Luna groaned. “Twilight?”
“Kinda busy!” Twilight replied.
Luna winced and changed to June’s channel. “June, status report? We need you to—”
“We’re on it!” Trixie said into the radio over what sounded like a crackling arcane maelstrom. “Got a solution. It’s kinda work—”
Trixie was cut off by a male voice Luna vaguely recognised. “For the love of pie! Mare, CONTROL THE FLUX!”
“Gotta go!” Trixie squeaked. The radio went dead.
Luna took a deep breath through her nose. Buck it. If we don’t stop this monster here, it will be another disaster. We cannot endure another so soon after Tirek. I’m risking it.
“Fluttershy, quench it.”
“But—”
“We must stop this evil, here, and, now!” Luna insisted.
“Okay,” Fluttershy said and hit enter on the keyboard. “Oh horseapples. Uh. I forgot to key a timer so time of go is now.”
Luna grabbed Cadence’s foreleg and pulled hard, racing away from the observatory. Cadence caught on instantly and shook free, flying as fast as her tired wings could carry her. They cleared the observatory fence as a terrible hissing crackle welled up from beneath the ground. The crackle built into an electric screech.
“What the buck is happening down there?” Twilight demanded over the radio.
“Observatory e-stop, um, failed. Partially?” Fluttershy summarized. “It says ‘mana purge in T-30 sec—”
“Oh buck, the concentrics!” Twilight yelped.
Luna looked up, remembering that Twilight might be in the area. She spotted the lavender Alicorn above her and to the north, pulling away from the horror and diving to gain speed. A red light built up at the monster’ core. It was going to attack.
Luna spent the moment to determine where it was firing. The town! She realized, eyes widening in horror.
Twilight saw it as well. She pulled up from her dive, moving up instead of outwards, and fired, deflecting the boiling shadow’s ray with one of her own.
Which is when the observatory burst, sending a castle-width beam of broiling chaotic mana pulsed upwards as the rings of scanning auras began to exit theoretical space and intrude on the real world. The flash blinded everypony for several seconds as the probing, seeking surge of raw mana welled up. The monster bellowed gibberish cries of pain. Luna and Cadence were thrown forwards on a massive thermal wave, slamming into the ground at the edge of town.
Twilight flew past them, trailing smoke.
Luna struggled to her hooves, turning to look at the hilltop which now burned with arcane fire. The monster was wreathed in prismatic flames that ate into its flesh, seemingly for good.
“It burns!” Luna said, wincing as she felt what she knew to be many broken ribs. “Huzzah!”
Cadence started to stand, hissed and collapsed as her right foreleg folded over where a leg had no business folding. “Great… Health pot. Now. Please…”
Luna nodded and began to rummage through her bags for a health potion she hadn’t used herself.
Her radio crackled. “Hey…” Twilight said faintly.
“Twilight, are you alright?” Luna asked, still focused on her med kit.
“I’m good. Landed on a medic…” she mumbled faintly. “Her mane’s soft and she smells great.”
Her radio crackled as somepony took it.
“Sky here,” Sky Trigger reported. “Princess Twilight is down a hindquarters.”
“What?!” Luna demanded, her eyes widening in horror. I should have ordered her clear… Buck me I forgot to order every air asset clear! Damn this battle fatigue! “Get her to—”
“It's okay. She fell right into the field hospital. Hit my marefriend, actually. Great shot, one in a million.” Sky reported calmly.
“How bad is she?” Luna asked, finding the potion she was looking for at last.
Sky hissed. “Bad enough that I can’t describe it without making her the butt of a joke. Also we don’t have potions for Alicorns. Unicorn ones won’t work on her, right?”
“They will not,” Luna lamented. “Too dilute, you’ll need to mix and concentrate three doz—”
“It’s okay! Pinkie’s a surgeon, we’re in a field hospital, and I bought a bionics kit incase of tunneling accidents. It’s set up next to the trauma tent. We can rebuild her, we have the technology. You fix her right later, and end that bitch now! Or, hope your away team finishes this up soon. Pinkie! What’s her pulse like?”
“You tell me, you’re looking at it. Owsie wowsie… I hope getting hit by alicorn rump shrapnel leaves a cool bruise instead of a boring normal one,” Pinkie said as the radio clicked off.
Luna switched the channel to Raven’s and passed Cadence her last health potion. “Raven? Come in.”
“I’m here,” Raven said hastily. “I was on the other channel too.”
“How many air assets did we lose?”
“Three. I got the others clear in time. You’re welcome.”
Luna spent a moment grieving the loss of the crews. “Thank you.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. It’s been almost one and a half hours. Everypony’s tired.”
“Yes… But some of us must avoid mistakes at every turn we can,” Luna countered.
“True… The fleet’s running fresh rounds to the guns from the magazines while the barrels cool,” Raven warned. “Somepony needs to keep it occupied while they reload.”
Luna nodded and let go of her radio and took off.
At least war offers many chances for swift redemption, she thought to herself as she fired a scintillating ray of blue light into the burning and bellowing monster’s face.