//------------------------------// // Chapter 48 // Story: My Little Pony: Morphing is Magic // by Tricondon //------------------------------// Chapter 48 Twilight To say I wasn’t having doubts about the plan would be lying. There were so many ways it could go wrong, which Ax seemed to delight in explaining how precise I had to be. If I only had a week or so to practice before the matter I would be more confident, but Ax — again — insisted that I simply didn’t have the time to prepare. Princess Celestia said she had the utmost confidence in my abilities, and with all my friends urging me on I felt like I could do it, but it wasn’t until I was on the giant metal ship and it lifted off the ground that I began to have second thoughts. “Ah’m sure you’ll do fine, Twi,” Applejack said, breaking me out of my mild depression. “If there’s any unicorn that can do it, you can.” “Yeah, and the guys on the ship’ll never see it coming!” Rainbow cut in jubilantly. “We’ll end this stupid invasion easy!” “Thanks, girls, but I don’t think it’ll be that simple,” I said softly. Rainbow gave a sharp laugh. “Since when has anything we’ve ever been in turned out simple? Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Changeling Invasion. We’ll get through this just fine.” “Oh wow,” Pinkie Pie suddenly piped up, her face pressed against the window. “Look how iddy biddy everypony is from up here!” Ax said. Prince Jake asked from somewhere in Ax’s fur. He and the others had turned into fleas due to the cramped conditions of having twelve beings in one ship, except for Ax, since he had to pilot the thing. The ship chose that moment to wobble and shake for a moment, sending a cry of alarm through the girls. Including myself, admittedly. Ax said after the ship had stabilized. Cassie muttered. Marco said; I had the slight suspicion he was joking. A soft gasp from my left made me turn just in time to see Fluttershy duck down from the window, cowering in fear. I moved closer to her and spoke softly. “Hey, Fluttershy. Everything alright?” She squeaked something in return, pointing a hoof at the window, then quickly curled into a ball once more. Outside the window was a vast, endless expansion of Luna’s night sky, filled with so many stars and shapes that I couldn’t possibly begin to count them all. I saw all the constellations: Orion, Draco, Cancer, and the rest. Did this mean that Luna’s night never truly went away? Was it just hidden by Celestia’s day? Before I could contemplate this something else caught my eye; below us was Equestria. I gasped softly as I pushed my nose up against the glass, staring down at Equestria. It only dawned on me just now how high I was; this was higher than even Rainbow had ever flown. Vast oceans covered the planet in a brilliant blue, broken by an almost shimmering green for land. We were up high enough that I could no longer make out cities or roads, just sprawling green plains, or a giant brown desert. Up north was covered in white, and all over clouds simply hung in the air, scattered about much like stars in the sky. “Wow.” Ax’s ‘voice’, if it could be called as such, brought me out of my reverie, and I reluctantly pulled away from the window, only now noticing both Rarity and Applejack pressed up against it as well. And sure enough, something was steadily appearing on the horizon. It was like a huge bloated black spider, but with a flat belly and only three legs that looked more like they belonged on a crab. Coming from the bottom were dozens of tentacle-like devices. “Awww, isn’t it so cute?” Pinkie asked. “Cute is hardly the word I would use to describe it with,” Rarity replied. “Y-yeah...” Fluttershy whispered. Ax said suddenly. “Right, prepare. Should be easy,” I stammered and gave a nervous smile. “Twilight, dear.” I glanced over at Rarity, who smiled at me in earnest. “Twilight, really. If I can do it, then I know you can.” “Shucks, Twi, Ah dunno why yer bein’ so nervous about this whole thing.” No, I thought. You don’t know, and I pray you never will. When I had that Yeerk in my head, I was forced to do horrible things to them all. Spike went through that... that feeling of helplessness. But even with all that this one Yeerk did, this Visser Seven — all this pain and treachery — that didn’t mean they were all bad. Illusion wasn’t a bad Changeling, Spike wasn’t a bad dragon, so that must mean that there are other Yeerks out there who aren’t bad — like the one Applebloom had. But do the innocent have to suffer for the crimes of the violent? The hosts have done nothing wrong... Still, I couldn’t burden my friends with this knowledge, and so simply smiled. “It’s just the furthest I’ve ever gone. And I can’t even see where we’re heading. It’s a bit unnerving.” “What’s there to be unnerved about?” Rainbow asked, flashing her good wing. “We go in, kick these aliens in the flank, and then we head home. Simple.” “Are we sure we couldn’t just ask them to leave politely?” Fluttershy squeaked out. Ax cut in. “Fine by me,” Rainbow said jubilantly. “We’ll show these guys that nopony invades Equestria and gets away with it!” If anypony else had said that in this situation I might have agreed. I might have nodded and put forth all my efforts like it was the Princess Herself giving a speech. But when I heard those words from Rainbow Dash, all I could think of was just a few hours ago. Of Visser Seven laying on the ground, and Rainbow looking at her with contempt. Of her hoof raising high, and coming down strong. Did the Visser really have to die? Ax said. He swerved a stalk eye towards me. “R-right. Ok, here we go.” I took a deep breath and, after a quick glance out the window to the ship, closed my eyes, feeling the surge of magic through me. Teleportation was not an easy spell even if it was just myself, but I had been practicing in small doses. And yet, this was so far beyond what I’d ever done before. The immense distance, bringing everyone along, not being able to see where I was going, popping in to a place that I’d never been before... there was so much that could go wrong. It wasn’t like normal teleportation, either. I had to extend my energy out, touching the others that would be coming with me, but I also had to restrict it so I didn’t bring the ship, or pieces of it, with me and blow Ax into space. And the Visser’s leaving already had me slightly exhausted. Still, I felt confident that I was going to do it successfully and released the buildup of magic. Almost immediately I gave a yelp of pain as what felt like lightning flashed up my spine, focusing on my horn, but my voice was torn away as I emerged into... ...well, I don’t know. It was like I was looking outside the ship and into the fast blackness of night and stars... but different. Where there should be black, there was dark blue that grew lighter near the center, which moved as if it were mist or fog. The stars were fewer, but varied in size and brightness. Oh no... I looked around frantically for my friends. They were all around me, flickering in the mist. Or were they part of it? I tried to call to them, but my voice had left me, and when I opened my mouth it felt like I was taking in... nothing. In fact, that’s what everything felt like. I wasn’t breathing, just floating in the air, curiously numb. A warning I remembered reading in my studies on teleportation cautioned about what might happen if you exited in a wall and I grew despondent. Oh Celestia, what have I done? My friends weren’t moving. Weren’t breathing. Every moment I was watching them get pull further from my sight as the mist swallowed them. No! I screamed, but the sound never left my mouth. The stars all seemed to shine a little brighter after that. Desperately I tried to move towards them, but the mist seemed to fight my efforts — what little there was. No! I won’t lose them! I won’t! Then, as abruptly as it had come, the light just simply vanished, my friends along with it. There was a moment of abject darkness as I hung in the air, then I just simply dropped and felt a cold metallic surface beneath my hooves. I barely had time to register this before my entire body seemed to be set aflame as my senses returned; I think I screamed, but I couldn’t be certain. At some point I fell over, laying on the floor and just panting for breath. Air! Sweet Celestia, air! I don’t know how long I laid there, just relishing in the simple act of breathing. The cool metal beneath me felt wonderful on my burning skin and I felt magically drained, but I was alive. There was some strange noise ringing in my ears, but I ignored it, thinking it was just my hearing returning. The noise persisted, however, growing louder over time. And was that a...voice? “...under attack. Repeat: the docking bay is under attack. All personnel are ordered to battle rosters.” I weakly lifted my head and looked around, trying to locate the speaker. The room I was in was average-sized for a living room, with several chairs set around a single table in its center. Sitting there was one of those draconic creatures the Yeerks used as hosts. It looked at me in confusion for half a second before abruptly standing and striding over to me in two steps. I wanted to fire magic, to get up and run, to do something. But all my strength seemed to have fled me when the dragon-thing reached towards me with a clawed hand. Then there was a flash of orange. A sickening crack, and the lizard beast went sailing into the far wall, unmoving. “Twi! You alright?” I blinked in the light until the orange blur finally decided to settle, revealing... “Applejack?” I slurred; I shook my head and groaned at the pain that rose from it. “Wha-what happened?” Applejack forced me to my hooves, letting me lean on her until I felt confident in my ability to stand unaided. “Ah dunno, but we gotta hurry. Prince Jake is already fightin’ an’ we ain’t nowhere near the bridge.” Without waiting for a response she took off again, running through what looked like a doorway and vanished, leaving me standing there in a stupor for a few moments before realizing she left me behind. “W-wait! Applejack!” I cried, hurrying after her as best I could. Luckily she didn’t get too far; I found her just at the corner of two adjoining corridors, slamming her hoof down on the head of another draconic beast. She didn’t notice the second one behind her, aiming its handheld weapon at her head. “Applejack, get down!” She didn’t even look to me for explanation, just ducking down onto the unconscious reptile as I fired a blast of magic at the one taking aim. My blast hit between his eyes, and he fell back with an anguished grunt, his weapon clattering against the ground. Applejack took a moment to look him over before flashing me a smile. “Thanks, Twi. Knew ya had mah back.” I nodded back weakly; it was odd, but firing that simple blast seemed to take far more out of me than it should have. “Applejack, do you have any idea where you’re going?” I asked, trotting over to her. “Naw, but Ah know standing around won’t git us there any faster.” She took a moment to look down the hallways before settling on one seemingly at random. “C’mon, it’s this way. Maybe.” Without pausing she bounded down the hall, effortlessly leaping at a human whom came out of a side-room and knocking him out cleanly. “Applejack!” I shouted in exasperation as I ran to catch up with her. “You can’t just run off! We need to figure out where we are!” “Ah know where we are! Ah jes don’ know how to git to where we wanna be!” Applejack shot back. The inside of the ship was a vast metal corridor. It almost looked as wide as the interior of the Canterlot Palace, though far less welcoming and lacking any of the visual aesthetics. A red light illuminated the entire corridor and cast an eerie look upon the walls. “Ok, so maybe Ah don’t know where Ah’m goin’,” Applejack said sadly, though she was quickly silenced by what we heard next. “Ha-ha! Take this you jerks!” “Would you fools just shoot it already? It’s only one freaking pony!” “One fast pony!” “That sounds like Rainbow,” Applejack muttered. “Like you needed confirmation?” I couldn’t help but grin as I turned and ran for the voices as best I could. I spun a corner, running into the room where I thought Rainbow was, and nearly ran snout-first into one of those giant dragon-like things. I gave a yelp of surprise and backed away just in time for Rainbow to come up on the other side and punt it across the room. It impacted with one of the far walls, but wasn’t knocked out, just dazed. “Hey guys, mind lending me a hoof with these jokers?” Rainbow asked nonchalantly, though I could hear a tinge of pain in her voice. Before I could figure it out, however, she grabbed both me and Applejack and pinned us to the ground in time to avoid an incoming beam. I lifted my head, noticed the girl was already aiming at us again, and quickly fired a bolt from my horn, knocking the weapon away. Before she could react Applejack was already kicking her in the stomach, moving as fast as I’d ever seen her. The human went down, but there were still a few others we had to deal with. With my head throbbing from Rainbow’s actions, I couldn’t really make out what was happening. It all seemed to just be going to Tartarus. “Go for the unicorn! Take it out first!” “Applejack, behind you!” “Try to take them alive!” “Twilight! Little help?” In the midst of the confusion I somehow found myself huddled behind some form of console with several square pads. Behind me was a window that let me see Equestria again, as well as the moon. One of the bloated centipedes was lying beside it, but all of its legs had been snapped off in the fight, leaving it to writhe and hiss in anger. I ignored it and tried my best to formulate some kind of plan. From what I could tell there were at least five humans and two of the draconic beasts in the room still. No, make that only one draconic beast, courtesy of Applejack and Rainbow working together to trip it. One of the humans made a run at me but I easily blasted him back against the wall before he could get much closer, trying to ignore the pain that shot through my horn as I did so. TSSSEEEEWWW! I heard Applejack cry in alarm as the human’s weapon fired upon his impact. It went sailing towards Rainbow, but thankfully she’d seen and managed to jump just as the beam scorched the tip of her tail off. She leapt onto the other draconic thing’s head and bounded off it in one clean move, aiming for me. With a heavy THUD she landed on the console beside me, the thing nearly bursting at the sides from the sudden impact. Sparks flew out from around Rainbow’s hooves and she quickly hopped off. “Hehe, oops. Hope that wasn’t important.” No sooner had Rainbow jumped off the console did the ship suddenly pitch forward and everypony in the room was tossed around like a rag doll. The legless centipede went tumbling into the unconscious draconic beast and was torn open on its blades, which filled the room with a foul odor and disgusting green guts. “I didn’t do it!” Rainbow protested, though she was quickly drowned out by the alarm that went off, different from the first one I’d heard. “Bridge! Why are the engines off? What’s going on up there?” “You turned engines off?!” the dragon-thing shouted accusingly, pointing a claw at Rainbow. “It was an accident!” Rainbow shot back. The living collection of blades looked like he was about to get up, but a well-timed buck from Applejack made sure he stayed down. I took a moment to look around; besides the three of us, everything else in the room was unconscious — or dead, if the centipede had friends that Rainbow took care of before Applejack and myself arrived. I happened to glance out the window, but instead of the endless expanse of black I saw Equestria, brilliant blue and green...and getting closer. “Girls, we have a problem!” I shouted, pointing a hoof at the screen. Applejack’s face seemed to drain of colour. I ran around the room, looking for some switch or a lever or anything that had ‘Start Engines’ on it, or something to that effect. The ship rumbled and I stumbled, crashing into Rainbow, and the two of us fell to the floor in a tangle of hooves. I was momentarily disoriented, but managed to lift my head up and look out the window again. Equestria was still getting closer, close enough now that I could begin to make out some of the larger mountains. The alarm was still blaring, with that annoying voice shouting at someone to turn the engines on — part of me wondered why there wasn’t a way to turn on the engines right by them. I looked at Rainbow and Applejack, looked at the planet that was steadily getting bigger. I trembled slightly as I drew Rainbow into a tight hug, then did what any reasonable, sane pony would do in this situation. I screamed.