//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Shades of Gray // Story: Into the Black: A Mare's Tale // by shirotora //------------------------------// “Excuse me, Princess.” Twilight said, “Do you still keep that alcohol in that cabinet in your study?” All eyes shifted to the solar diarch. “Sister, I didn't know you indulge.” Luna said. “Only a glass after court to help me relax.” Celestia said, “My question is, how do you know of it, Twilight Sparkle?” The princesses gaze bored into her student, as Twilight smiled sheepishly, rubbing her neck with her hoof. “Well, I found it when you were... sleeping in your study.” Twilight said, “The cabinet was open.” “Sleeping...” Luna smirked, “Or passed out?” Celestia glared at her younger sister, “We'll discuss the terms of my silence later.” “To return to your question Twilight,” Celestia said, “Yes. Why do you ask.” “Because if I'm going to continue, I’m going to need a drink.” Answered the unicorn. “Is this another of your bad habits?” Shining asked warily. “No.” Twilight said, “I usually only drink socially, but what I’m about to tell you is...hard to talk about.” With a flash of her horn, Celestia summoned a crystal decanter filled with an amber liquid and a cocktail glass. She poured a glass and passed it to Twilight. Twilight took the glass and, to the dismay of her friends (except Rainbow Dash and Applejack, they were just impressed), downed it in one gulp. “Wow that's strong! I never took you for a whiskey drinker, Princess.” Twilight said, “OK, I think I can continue, but you might want to keep that close by.” --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Twilight and the others watched as the kids disappeared into the lunch crowd. “So what else is there to do around here?” Asked Twilight. “There's a theater just nearby.” Curt said, “I think the new Kinta Solu flick is out.” “I doubt Twilight wants to see some korg killing everyone in sight.” Seth said, “I swear that guy's in love with snapping necks.” “What?” Twilight said, “You guys watch killing for fun? That's just...” Twilight's expression became confused, then terrified, “I feel magic.” Too late, her senses picked up on the telltale signs of magic being used. A massive explosion tore through the station behind her. She and her friends were knocked to the floor by the shockwave. Twilight struggled to get to her hooves, as the others sat up, all in a daze. Twilight's mind was a torrent of stray thoughts, until one entered her mind that snapped her out of it. That explosion came from the food court! All the panicked unicorn could do was whisper, “The kids.” She got up and ran at a full gallop. The others ran after, but the quadruped was easily faster than them. Twilight disappeared into the flames just as the first shots were fired. The magic Twilight felt was a beacon being activated, allowing several Dratali to teleport into the station. Now they were all over the place, killing everything that moved. Twilight plunged into the burning wreckage of the food court. The sight was gruesome. The bodies of the patrons and merchants were everywhere. The smell of burning flesh permeated the air. She scanned the scene for the pizza place Hanna mentioned. Twilight spotted the large, round, faux pizza that served as its sign. Quickly, Twilight made her way to the shop, dodging burning tables and bodies. When she finally made it, the sight was something even the worst nightmare ever dreamed by a pony could match. The bodies of over a dozen children littered the eatery, and the body of her newest friend, Hanna, charred and clinging the small child that first greeted her, trying to protect him from the inevitable. Outside, Seth, Curt, Debby, and Aden knocked over a couple, mostly-intact tables, to use as cover. Seth and Curt fired using their assault rifles, while Debby and Aden used the soldiers' sidearms to fight. The opposite entrance was collapsed so there was no chance of them being flanked, but that also meant no back up for a while. “Twilight!” Curt called, “Speak to me! You need to focus!” It was no use. He could see the unicorn shaking, stroking the burned head of one of the children she had so happily entertained not fifteen minutes earlier. He was getting worried as he could see from the heat waves that it was an oven in there. Though with the Dratali, it still might have been safer in said oven. Curt put his focus back on the enemy. Fear hit him when he saw the crimson robes of a pair of adepts joining the battlefield. “Adepts!” He called to his teammates, “Twilight! You need to get out of here! Teleport back to the ship!” He turned back to the unicorn to talk her into leaving, but was stopped by what he saw. A wind was picking up inside the pizzeria, a wind centered around the Twilight. She turned around to face the them, with a look of pure rage. Her mane burst into flames and her lavender coat turned purest white. She vanished in a flash of light, only to reappear in between the Dratali and the soldiers, causing all to them to start at the sudden flash. “Twilight!” Debby yelled out to the furious unicorn. The Dratali soldiers opened fire on the mare. Not a single bullet made it past her shield. The unicorn countered by unleashing a blast of magic that tore through one of the soldiers. One of the adepts launched a bolt of his magic at Twilight, only to have it deflected by hers. She levitated him and launched the mage into a burning store. The soldiers behind her couldn't believe their eyes. The peaceful pony that despised violence was systematically slaughtering the Dratali soldiers with ease. Twilight pulled the last of the Dratali to her, the second adept. “You,” She said, her voice dripping with malice, “It was your magic. I can smell it. You killed them!” Twilight lifted a metal support beam and slammed it into the reptile again and again, screaming a primal scream. Even after he was dead she kept on beating him, tears falling as her anger and grief was released on the now mangled mage. “Twilight.” Curt kneeled beside her and placed a hand on Twilight's shoulder. It burned a little, but he didn't care, “It's OK, Twilight. He's gone.” Twilight dropped the beam, as her color returned to normal. It was like a dam broke, as the mare wrapped her hooves around her friend and cried. She cried for the lives of the children cut short... She cried for the lives of everyone in that nightmare... She cried for her friends and family that she left behind... She cried for herself, stranded in a strange, violent galaxy with no way to get home. “Curt” Seth said, “We still have lizards running around.” “Come on Twilight,” Curt said, “You have to pull yourself together, OK? I know it hurts, but now is not the time to deal with the pain. You have to bury it for now. We'll deal with it together on the ship.” Twilight looked up at the soldier. She could tell from his expression that he felt her pain, he had been there before. Twilight nodded and took a deep breath, doing as he said and burying her pain. Another explosion wracked the colony. A voice rang over the chaos. “This is a class five alert. Evacuation of the station is ordered. Proceed to nearest lifeboat or available space faring vessel. I repeat, this is a class-five alert. the message repeated again and again. “You heard the lady, let's go!” Debby shouted. They made their way through the market and into the residential district. The Dratali weren't as heavy in this area as they thought, but there were still enough to slow them down. The three humans, the half-Aviva, and the pony fought through the enemy. Twilight's reservations about killing these monsters died with the children. Eventually they made their way to the docks, and found the place guarded by a towering metal beast preventing anyone from getting to the ships. “Shit!” Curt said, “They have a fucking Titan.” “What's a Titan?” Twilight asked. “It's a massive armored suit for adepts.” Aden explained, “It protects them while magnifying their power tenfold. One of them can hold off several squads of soldiers.” “So how do we beat it?” Twilight asked. “With just us, and its heavy shields.” Debby said, “We don't...we sit tight and hope for armored support.” Another explosion rocked the station. “Sit tight?” Curt said, “They're destroying the place. What do you think that thing's doing there? It's keeping us here so we die with the colony..” A small group of Aviva, a family by the looks of it, tried to fly past. The mech shot them down with ease. Twilight came to the grim realization that with that metal monster there, they were all going to die. The purple mage closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steel her nerves. “Get ready to get everyone out.” She said. “What?” Curt noticed her horn glowing, “What are you going to...do?” She vanished in a flash of light and reappeared on the opposite side of the war machine. “Hey, ugly!” Twilight's voice shouted out, “Over here you no talent novice! You couldn't cast your way out of a gazebo!” The behemoth turned to face it's taunter, finally giving Twilight a good look at the thing. It was twice as tall as a human, with rather short legs and long arms. A pair of cannons protruded from the forearms, one on each, and a pair of pods rested on the shoulders. Twilight didn't get to spend much time in the library on the ship, but she did read about Dratali weapons enough to recognize them as missile pods. It raised its arm to the unicorn, and Twilight felt a prickling at the base of her horn. That's not a canon. Twilight realized, It's a spell channel. Twilight opened her senses. She 'watched' how the spell formed, studied its make up. This, of all things was what she was best at. She could 'see' a spell cast once and be able to do it herself. That's how she learned to teleport from Nightmare Moon, and how to use shadow magic from Celestia. Now she was determined to learn combat magic from this Dratali, and he didn't disappoint. If the situation wasn't so dire, Twilight would have laughed at the simplicity of the spell. It was like a foal made it, nothing but a seek matrix, and what she assumed to be the killing matrix. She could cast that in her sleep... scratch that, she's cast more complicated spells in her sleep. Celestia still has that dresser in her art gallery. She needed to get it out of the way so the others could get to the ships. The only way to do that was to be the biggest threat. So she decided to show this amateur what real magic is. The seek matrix was the most basic type. It simply locks on to the target's form. Just as the spell was released Twilight gathered her own magic and formed a duplicate of herself from loose matter and put it just where she was as she teleported away. The bolt slammed into the copy, destroying it. So that matrix just releases a concussive force. Twilight observed from it's right as she readied her own version of the spell. “You really are an amateur.” She taunted him a second time. He turned towards her, “Let me show you how it's done.” She released the spell. It slammed into him, launching him away from the civilians and into a small truck. It was easy to attach an explosive telekinetic matrix instead of a concussive one, thus turning it from a simple explosion into a mighty shove. It stunned him, but not for long. The metal monster got back up and fired off a volley of missiles. Twilight teleported away, but the rockets simply turned toward her again. If running wouldn't work than she'd just destroy them. A bolt of lightning at the center missile detonated it, causing the others to follow. The explosion rocked the entire place. Darn it. If we keep this up, the whole place might come down on us. Twilight looked behind her. Her spell was doing it's job well. A sheet of magic behind her hid the others as they made their way to the ships. Only a little more time. The sound of ship engines coming to life revealed her scheme. The mech looked toward the ships, and raised both its arms at the transports. Twilight had to act fast. She charged her horn, pouring all the anger, sorrow, and fear she felt during this whole thing into it. Her horn's glow darkened and a dark purple energy poured, like flames from her green glowing eyes. With a yell, she released the energy in a volley of smaller bursts the way pinkie made her do against the changelings several years ago. The bolts went unhindered through the mech's shielding and tore through the metal armor. When the monstrosity fell to the ground, Twilight finally let the spell go. Twilight watched it for several seconds before approaching it slowly. Her magic had torn a hole straight through several places and ripped it's left arm off. When she was right over it, she could see the operator through the metal. He was still breathing. “Alright Twilight.” Seth called, “That's all of them. Let's get out of here.” Twilight looked up at her friend, “Alright comAAAHH!” Twilight yelled as a metal hand grabbed her by her foreleg. She looked down at the Dratali adept's smiling face. He was casting a spell, or at least he was gathering energy in a containment spell. Twilight felt the energy building, but couldn't sense the spell's outlet. What is he doing? She thought, if he keeps this up, the spell's going to overload and... her eyes widened and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks with shock. She looked over to see Seth running toward her. “Stay away!” Twilight yelled and hit him with a much weaker version of the push back spell she used earlier. With only seconds to spare, she wrapped herself in a layer of protective magic and hoped it would be enough. Then... it happened. It was like time slowed down for the hooved scholar. The looks of terror on her friends faces. The soldiers she didn't even know rushing to her aid. The heat and pressure of the exploding mech beside her. It all moved so slowly, and then in an instant time returned to it's normal flow and Twilight was thrown into darkness. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Twilight slowly came back to her senses. She carefully opened her eyes to find a dimly lit, bleach white room. A hospital room. That meant she was still alive. Her shield worked. “He-he-hello?” She said far too quietly for anyone outside to hear. Regardless of her volume, an Avivan doctor walked into the room, “Hello, Ms. Sparkle. It's good to see you awake. My name is Dota Vilkir, doctor of veterinary medicine. I know you’re not just some animal, but your physiology is more akin to horses from Earth, than anything else known, so they called me. I'm sorry if you're insulted by it.” “It's OK, doctor.” Twilight said, her voice still weak, but getting stronger. “Twilight!” Curt said as he found his way to the room followed by Seth, Debby, and Aden. “Hi guys.” Twilight said and waved at them. The others cringed. Twilight took notice of their reaction. It confused her that they would act like that, but it also confused her that her leg was so light. She looked at the limb only to have her confusion grow. Something was very wrong. It took her a few moments to realize that 'something' was that it wasn't there. Her scream was heard in the birthing quarters. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- It didn't take long for the others to realize why Twilight recommended they keep the Princess's whiskey nearby. At the mention of the children's fate they each asked to get a drink of their own, even Fluttershy who never drinks. Twilight had a couple more herself. “That, Shiny, is why I said this was a good thing.” Twilight said with a slight slur, “I lost my leg so that hundreds wouldn't lose their lives. It's a small price, and one I’m proud I paid.” “I... I'm not sure how I feel about this.” Cadence said, “You willingly killed, but at the same time I think I might have done the same after what they did. I'm confused, Aunt Tia. I know killing is wrong, but it's also wrong to let others die when you can stop it. So is what Twilight did right or wrong?” “Do you want my honest answer?” Asked the white alicorn. Cadence nodded, “I don't know” Her answer shocked everypony there, “I could live my lifetime ten times over and still not know the answer, because there isn't one. Life isn't always so simple as black and white, right and wrong. Sometimes you just have to make a choice and hope it's the right one. Twilight, I'm proud of what you did.” Twilight couldn't keep it in any more. She leaped at her mentor and wrapped her forelegs around her neck, crying. “Thank you, princess.”