Ungrounded

by Lucien Chance


Chapter 18: War Preparations

With a title like that, what could possible happen in this chapter? Why am I asking you that question when you're just going to read it anyway right now and find out?

But before you do, here's this chapter's theme song.


Lucien kicked the front door of Bottom Line's house open with a loud slam that echoed across the eerily silent Ponyville. He held Balance in his hand and a smile on his face. The ponies that followed behind him, however, were much less enthused than the exuberant human.

"Lucien, are ya sure this is the best way ta handle things? With the five of us too?" Applejack asked unsteadily, eyes flicking between the back of the man's head and the chain wrapped around her hoof.

He waved a hand over his should and turned his head part-way. "I'll take the first couple ones that we encounter and we'll see how you feel then. This'll be fun! I guarantee it!" He put his head forward and continued to march through the shallow snow.

Applejack let out a sigh decided to just let him have his way. She looked up and tried to get her bearings, but the snow was falling too hard to make out just where they were in the village. "Shoot, does anypony know where we are? I'm a might lost in this dang blizzard."

Pinkie's chipper voice piped up from the back of the group. "Ooh! I know! We're at the intersection between Hall Avenue and Oates Street!"

The group paused for a moment and turned to look at her. Twilight was especially perplexed at the mare's knowledge. "Pinkie, how did you know that? We can't see anything out here!" she exclaimed.

Instead of answering verbally, Pinkie's smile grew bigger and she slowly raised a hoof to point at a sign located just to the left of the group. Sure enough, Hall Ave. and Oates St. were printed in large, bold letters on each wooden arrow.

There was a collective face-hoof/palm as the group realized how obvious the sign was.

"Let's just keep moving. There should be some Filth around here somewhere..." Lucien's eyes scanned his surroundings. "All this snow is getting really annoying. I wonder if I still have that Clear Storm spell written down." Acting on his thoughts, he immediately sheathed his sword, shrugged his backpack off his shoulders, knelt down, and unzipped it. After a moment of rummaging around, he withdrew his notebook. "Rituals... Crafting... Ah, Spell." he thought as he flipped through the pages.

He read it over carefully and winced. "This seems a lot more like a ritual than a spell. Maybe I'll transfer the page over sometime later. Might as well get started with it."

"What are you looking for Lucien?" asked Twilight, peering over his shoulder. She noticed the spell he had on the notebook page and the color drained from her face. "That... that's a spell? Seems a little drastic, Lucien, is that properly labeled?"

He zipped up his bag and stood up, notebook still in hand. "I know the process and requirements seem a little, well, extreme—"

"Extreme? That's going beyond extreme. Asking you to physically harm yourself—"

"Excuse me?" interrupted Rarity, "what exactly are you two going on about?"

Lucien sighed. "A spell I have copied down here that I can use to clear the skies around Ponyville for a good hour or so. More than enough time for us to get the job done. Sparkles over here seems to object to the idea."

She put a hoof down in annoyance. "Of course I object to it! I'm not letting you hurt yourself for a stupid spell that can be accomplished by Rainbow Dash in just a bit longer!"

"I'm doing it. It's not that big of a deal anyway. I get hurt all the time, this is nothing." He noticed Twilight's glare and decided to take a different approach. "I can just use a quick healing spell afterward anyway. I don't use this spell very often, and I think it'll be good for practice. Besides, you'll be able to learn a little bit about weather magic."

Her gaze softened a bit and Lucien knew he won. "Alright," she relented, "but just try not to bleed out," she added unhappily.

Rainbow Dash hovered above the semicircle that had gathered around Lucien. "Wait, what exactly are you doing?" she asked, completely lost.

Lucien pinched the bride of his nose and began to explain. "I'm going to use a spell - it's more of a ritual, actually - that will clear the skies around Ponyville for about an hour. Don't take it personally, it's just that this is faster."

"Ha! Nothing's faster than me—"

"Only this is. It's magic. You literally can't get faster than this without being The Flash. Just sit back for a minute and let me handle this, okay?"

Rainbow grumbled and crossed her forelegs, but she hovered to take a place in the snow next to Pinkie.

"Great, now let's get started." Lucien held the notebook out in front of him and let it drop. As it fell, a column of earth rose to meet it just as it left his hand. The pages fluttered softly in the slight breeze, and he brought up a mana shield to stop it, along with an overhang to catch the snow. His eyes never left the paper.

He held out his left hand and a small knife materialized in it. Without warning, he slashed his right palm open. Blood welled up in the wound and he closed his fist quickly, then held his hand over his open notebook. A few drops splattered across the page, then Lucien quickly performed a healing spell to close up the cut.

He immediately put his hand over the notebook. The pages began to rustle and glow a light blue. The ponies behind him gasped. He closed his hand shut in a crushing motion, and the page of the spell crumbled up into a ball, transforming into pure energy during the act. Lucien's fingers opened slowly and the ball floated into his half-open grip. He allowed a short moment to smirk at the girls, then he lobbed the blue ball of mana straight into the clouds above.

Lucien looked up to see that, starting where the pillar had struck the sky, clouds were disappearing, fading into the blue sky.

After a moment of silence, Lucien pretended to dust his hands off. "Well, now that that's out of the way, let's have a little fun, huh?"

The snow let up immediately, but the ground was still coated in the stuff. It made walking a bit difficult for Lucien, but he had been through worse. It wouldn't hinder his fighting too badly. The girls, however, he worried about. For the first time since they arrived in Ponyville from the Everfree, he began to doubt his decision in having them fight with him. In a split decision after the words had left his mouth, he spoke his mind.

"Uh, girls?" he opened.

Their ears perked up as they took note of his tone of voice. "Yes, Lucien?" Rarity said.

"I get the feeling I might have . . . rushed you into this. I want to know if you're all comfortable doing this with me," he said reluctantly.

There was silence for a moment while the five ponies took stock of their thoughts and considered how they felt about the situation. After a few more seconds, Applejack spoke up. "Well, shoot. Ah never thought Ah'd be doin' something like this. For me, it's a bit like bein' stuck between a rock 'in a hard place. Ah don't want to have to go out and . . . kill these things that you're talking about . . . but Ah have to. To protect mah kin and mah town." A fierce determination filled her eyes and the eyes of the ponies around her. "Ah believe Ah speak for all of us when Ah say that," she concluded.

The rest of them nodded, confirming her belief. Lucien spoke again. "Are you sure? Because I can just handle this all myself. It's not much of a challenge anyway. I don't want any of you getting hurt either." He paused for a moment, thinking that the statement required a bit more explanation. "I jumped on the opportunity because I thought that we'd all have a good time fighting. I know I always do when it comes to these things . . . but now I remember that none of you are like me. I doubt slaying droves of mindless creatures would appeal very much to you all."

He stopped again. "If you do back out, I won't look down on you for it, but I'm still going to give you basic combat training. If there are things coming out of my world, then you're going to need to know how to fight them." He took a deep breath and held out his arms openly. "Who wants to go home?" he asked simply.

A cold wind rustled through the town and ruffled Lucien's hair and the ponies' manes were tossed around. Not a single hoof was raised.

Lucien clapped his hands together. "Alright. That's your decision, and you can't go saying I didn't warn you." He took another breath. "Before I go and attract them all to us, I need to explain a little bit on how we'll be combating the Filth. Now, each of you has a specific fighting style, that much is apparent to me. Twilight's an obvious battle mage, Dash is a swordsman, Rarity can use a poleaxe and magic - don't really have a name for that; it's a weird combo - Applejack is practically designed for the chains, and Pinkie Pie . . . well, I don't really know what to say for that one.

"I'm going with my instincts on this one and trusting you all to learn how to use your weapons without hurting yourselves and anyone else, the Filth excluded. Think of them as target practice for now." He stopped for a moment to gauge their faces. Each was blank, devoid of most emotion. They were too hard for Lucien's inexperienced eyes to read. "So, the Filth," he began, "they're stupid. Really, really, incredibly stupid. Not an ounce of smarts in that mangled, tentacled thing that we refer to as a head. You'd think that they'd recognize an obvious trap when it's set? Nope, they'll walk right into it. You'd think they'd get out of the way of someone swinging a sword about wildly? Nope, they'll just keep walking right along until it takes off an arm or something else important.

"While we're fighting them, I have a few rules that you need to follow, closely." He began pacing back and forth in front of the group like a Drill Sergeant. "Rule number one: if you're in trouble, call for help. We can't help you if we don't know you're in trouble. Rule number two: don't wander off. Staying in a group when you fight is a great way to not die. Wandering off in the middle of a fight is only a good idea when . . . well, it's actually never a good idea. Don't do it! Rule number three: keep your distance! This is the most important rule and it applies to everyone, always! Even you, Rainbow Dash!"

The pegasus looked about in slight confusion and anger. "What does that mean?!" she demanded.

"It means that I know you're going to try to rush the Filth eventually, and I know that it's a bad idea, and it'll probably get you maimed or infected. If that happens, then I have to waste a shit-ton of energy or resources to heal you, and you'll be in a lot of pain the whole time. So no rushing! Always keep them at sword's length, unless you're in the middle of attacking them. You got that!?"

"Yes, sir!" answered the ragtag group enthusiastically. Lucien's speech had greatly improved their moods, and now they were rearing to go and retake Ponyville.

"Fantastic! Let's go!" Lucien shouted and took off walking towards Ponyville Park.