"Ms. Sparkle, I'm sorry. We are doing all we can to find the princess, but you must give us time. Please, PLEASE Ms. Sparkle, I need you to stay calm!" General Nightshade, overall commander of the Republic's ground forces, pleaded.
"I realize that, General Nightshade, but I cannot sit ideally by while my friends are possibly dying!" Twilight snarled.
They were standing in a command room inside the Capital Tower of the city, surrounded by scanners, computers, and other apparatus. General Nightshade stood hopelessly arguing with Twilight, while she paced the diameter of the circular room.
"With all do respect," replied Nightshade, "I clearly remember you being a loyal member of the Solar Empire, yet you claim the very leaders of the Republic and an Empire traitor as your friends?"
Twilight nodded. "Yes. In this almost month away from Earth, I have seen things I never thought I'd see. My pride toward the Empire blinded me to trying to look how the Republic feels. Because of that, I wrongly judged the NLR. If you had never kidnapped me, I would never have seen the truth. That was the original purpose of the mission. I will not allow those people that showed me that to die an unknown death."
Nightshade nodded. "I absolutely hate to say this, because I'm truly moved by that, really. But, I just can't send stallions down there blindly to look for them. If the A.I. of the city was working, we could severely shorten the search, but..."
Twilight stopped him. "Wait! Dusk! That A.I. transferred herself to the tram before it was blown. Even if she's cut off from the main system, she is able to amplify signals!"
Nightshade shook his head. "Nope. She must have been damaged and shut down, because no such signal exists at the moment. I hate argueing with you, but I have tried that already."
Twilight sighed and sat down into a folding chair brought up for her. She was on the virge of giving up. If only they could contact Dusk...
Twilight hit the roof. Literally. When she hit the ground, she started shouting. "That's it! The creation of an A.I. theoretically requires extreme magical power. An energy crystal of high ability, maybe!"
Nightshade nodded. "Yes. Dusk's primary storage unit, a small chip, has a Lunarium based core. But how does that help us find them?"
Twilight laughed. "It's obvious! A crystal that outputs power like that should be easily tracked!"
The general nodded, starteing to get at what Twilight was saying. "Ok, I see you want us to try and track the power source, but we have no possible equipment to track an energy crystals that are shut down. Again, I tried that."
Twilight nodded. "Too true. However, from what I know, Lunarium is a preciously rare element! Rarity, one of my old friends, taught me a gem-finding spell, and that spell can be tuned to frequencies to detect rarer gems. Energy crystals are no different. And, best of all, Lunarium is the rarest of the rare!"
The general nodded. "Could you tell me the spell? I may be only a bat pony, but I could tell my unicorn troops and send them to find it!"
Twilight nodded. Then, things got complicated.
A tech at a scanner turned to them nervously. "Um, your going to want to see this."
......
Gilda's eyes slowly opened. Her wounds had been treated, apparently, and she could stand. That was a relatively good sign.
She sat up, and saw she was still next to the crashed shuttle. Nearby, Drake stood over a fire.
She stood, a pain streaking through her ribs. She bore through it however. "Drake. I'm up."
Drake turned, and Golda noticed Fury and Luna laying together, still unconscious, but there wounds were also mended.
Drake walked over to her. "You've been out for nearly twelve hours. Be careful. I could stop the bleeding and close the wounds, but I need magic for broken bones. Here, drink this. Stay hydrated." he handed her a glass bottle of clear liquid.
Gilda eagerly grabbed the bottle and downed the drink. It had an odd salty tang to it, but it kept her hydrated. She placed it down and said "Huh. It's ok. I've tasted worse."
Drake nodded. "Made it myself. Concoction of our little remaining water and some things."
Gilda nodded and stood. "How are they?" she said, eyeing Fury in particular. His cloak still covered his flank, for which Gilda was thankful, but it was torn and in tatters.
Drake sighed. "Their fine. I've been feeding them. Thankfully, their mouths will still accept soup. If not, they would probably starve to death. As for Fury, that friend of yours, I checked all his wounds..."
Gilda froze. Fury had had a secret, and had kept it from everypony but her.
Dake sighed. "Yea, I saw his secret. You like him, don't you?"
Gilda, defeated by this, nodded. Then, she turned. "Ur, I need to use the bathroom."
Drake nodded. "Here." he tossed the empty bottle, which she caught deftly. "Fill that up while your at it."
Gilda blinked and glanced at the bottle. Oh.
Twenty minutes later, Gilda and Drake were feeding upon a small soup.
Drake sighed. "Gilda, I know you don't trust me, or, at least not completely. But, I need you to understand that I left with you and the Crescent because, for a moment, I thought I was nothing. For a moment, I thought that really, the Republic were were nothing. The Empire is nothing. This entire war is nothing but a chess game for a tournament of chess games, run by one thing. That demon you claim possesses Celestia. If that was true, I thought, then I was just doing the bidding of the wrong side of the chess board. So I switched."
Gilda nodded. That made sense. Anyway, she didn't think he had anything to do with the attack. Well, at least not entirely.
They both had their guns up and loaded within seconds.
Drake whispered "You heard it too?"
Gilda nodded. She ran over to the shuttle and grabbed Dusk's computer chip, slipped it into one of her pockets. Then, she lifted Fury onto her back.
Drake, a Pegasus as he was, flew over Luna and loaded, prepared to guard her to the end.
"Well well well," a richly deep voice cooed. "What do we have here? A princess and a trio of soldiers. You should realize that Drake is correct. You are all part of a bigger game. A game in which my master wins either way, if the Republic loses or if the Empire looses. Although, I think it's the former."
Out of the darkness, to the pairs horror, came demons. Lots of demons.
...
"What do you mean, multiple portals are opening across the city!?" Nightshade very well screamed.
The tech flinched. "General, multiple portals, all leading to the fire plane of Tarterus, have opened across the city. The demons from the enemy troops must have created them to bring in reinforcements. The entire planet is suffering from a major demonic incursion."
Nightshade sighed. "Ok. Go code red. I want all planetside military units to hoof it to the city to protect the civilians. Also, signal the fleet. I want air superiority throughout this. Now!"
Twilight shook her head. "They can't be here for me! The changelings and them taking me back was just a diversion. Meanwhile, several demons could open the portals and bring the Republic to its knees. Nightshade, if we don't find Luna now, this war is over as we speak!"
"Ehem." coughed a tech, at a large magic sensing apparatus. "Actually, those demons may be the least of our worries."
...
Fury started as this all was happening, and he said one deft thing. "Gilda, if you love me, hold on tight."
To Gilda and Drake's surprise, Fury lept off Gilda's back, grabbing Dusk's chip as he went, and placed that chip up to his horn. Immediately, a blue shield surrounded the four, blocking the demons from getting close. A strong light began to propagate between Fury and the chip.
Gilda looked at Drake, and they both had a good idea of what was going on.
Using the Lunarium crystal inside the chip, he would power a spell to destroy the demons.
...
"I've never seen such a high magic output! Ever!" stuttered the tech at the paled faces of Nightshade and Twilight. "If such a powerful destructive spell misfires in any way, well, I can only guess what would happen..."
Nightshade shook his head wearily. "Must be the Lunarium crystal. Lunarium, unlike other crystals, has almost infinite energy. They must be using it to power the spell. I realize the consequences. ALRIGHT! You heard the tech. Code Black! All non-military units are to be evacuated OUT OF SYSTEM! Move it!"
Twilight knew better than any pony the possible backlash effects of the spell. "Nightshade, I need a squad of your stallions. I'm going to find my friends and help your troopers out there."
Nightshade looked at her helplessly, then nodded. Not like it mattered. Current output levels of the spell meant the planet and everything in a 100,000 kilometer radius would be nothing but dust.