//------------------------------// // The Work of Demons // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Rainbow's face slammed hard into the metal surface of the bridge. "Ooof!" She clenched her teeth hard, shivering from head to tail as waves of lavender energy fountained from the pedestal, washing over her in torturous waves. She struggled to stand up, but her limbs were limp as noodles. The pendant of Loyalty around her neck pulsed, almost as if burning feedback from the intense pulse of the machine world's new heart. She opened her mouth to say something, but only a pronounced howl of pain and confusion escaped her throat. "Rainbow Dash!" Kera's voice cried out. Somewhere across the luminescent hellscape, the filly clung to Zaid, struggling to stay conscious against the relentless onslaught of light and noise. "What's... wh-what's happening?!" "Worst flippin' lightshow ever!" Zaid cackled. "Where's a goddess-dang smoke machine when you need one?!" "Is it supposed to be doing that?!" Kera exclaimed. A rampaging pulse of energy rocketed outward, almost knocking her and Zaid clear off the bridge. "Rainbow!" Kera squealed in a hyperventilating tone. "Rainbow, please, wh-what's going on?!" "I don't... I-I don't..." Rainbow gnashed at her teeth. "I don't g-get it! What... wh-why...?!" She finally found the strength to push herself into a standing position. In doing so, she only raised her body into the direct waves of the outflying energy pulses. She tilted her chin from left to right, and a dozen translucent phantoms flickered on either side of her—that of a dozen antler'd creatures thrashing their necks and screaming into the luminescent tumult. Seconds later, and the multiple ghostly heads converged. As they did so, their eyes became one, and they flickered open with red and yellow brilliance. Flash! Rainbow gasped. She was flying. Soaring. A gigantic, curved world rotated beneath her, surrounded by stars and nebulae. Rainbow stared down into the endlessly twirling horizon beneath her. She saw continents, mountains, plateaus, shelves, ravines. Metal platforms loomed within the slivers of darkness. In the throats of each golden abyss, winged equines spun and spiraled. In various places, they fluttered to a stop, landing on reflective platforms. They approached shiny pedestals, armed with brilliant lavender torches. Murmuring unpronouncible words, the figures brought their flames together. The fire overwhelmed the pedestals. The machinery spun into motion, accelerating at a phenomenal rate. Seams flickered with bright beams of burning light. The ravines burst with overcharged energy. One by one, the joints of the metal world strobed like gaseous supernovas. The lights pulsed one last time, then went dormant. The canyons blacked out, going dormant. The mountains trembled. The continents shifted. Then—one segment at a time—the world split apart. The ring became many. The whole became twelve... Spreading... Drifting... Floating deeper and deeper into space... Where shadows of shimmering dark chaos clouded, collected, and consumed them. Flash! Rainbow sputtered for breath, lying limply on the rattling bridge. The red and yellow fled from her eyes, washed away by a cleansing lavender glow. When at last she had her ruby pupils back, she gave the bright pedestal a million-mile stare, her muzzle quivering. Kera was crying something, but her ears couldn't register it. Slowly, icily, she turned and glanced back at Nightshade. Nightshade was already staring back at her, as if she was waiting for it. Rainbow didn't hesitate. "You!" She spread her wings and let the pulsing energy shove her back like a sail, so that she plowed into Nightshade's body, slamming the mare into the floor. "Rainbow—?!" Kera gasped. Her and Zaid's heads spun to gawk at the scene. "What's happening?!" Rainbow snarled, gripping Nightshade's throat and shoving her skull hard against the metal bridge. "What did the flame just do?!" "It's too late to stop it now," the Madame calmly droned. "Darn it! Tell me!" Rainbow slammed Nightshade's skull again. "I saw it! The energy coursed through me, and I saw it all!" She hissed and snarled. "They overloaded the machine world! The winged ponies at the beginning of everything! They collected enough flame to short circuit the whole thing, and they cast it all into darkness!" Rainbow hyperventilated, her voice cracking beneath the thunder of the rumbling pedestal. "And you just made it happen again, didn't you?!" "Rainbow..." Rainbow flashed a look aside. Kera pointed nervously at Zaid. The stallion winced as he held his soundstone up. The enchanted shard was brimming with electrical sparks. Tiny fractures formed in its surface. No more than three seconds later, Kera's tattoos started flickering uncontrollably, as did her horn. The little filly gasped, rubbing frightful hooves all over her emblazoned coat. Rainbow stared in shock, her eyes twitching. "Gotcha!" Ebon stammered, hoisting Roarke on board the Jury as Basso lifted her up within reach. He and Props carried the limp mare towards the middle of the deck. "Just hang in there, girl. We'll find a nice bed somewhere to tuck you in so you can recover!" "Stuff it, breeder," Roarke grunted, wheezing. "Or I'll make you eat that sailboat!" "Yaaaay!" Props chimed. "Roarke's back!" Just then, the entire Jury fell. "Whoah!" "Gaaah!" Belle slumped against Pilate as both fell towards the floor. Thud! The Noble Jury slumped against the mountain's edge, causing the gathered ponies to gasp and jump back in fright. "Whoah!" Basso yelped. "What's g-going on?!" Zetta shouted past cupped hooves. "You guys okay?!" "Grrrgggh!" Floydien slammed his cloven hooves against the cockpit's dashboard. "What the spit is up with this spit?!" Just then, his red eyes dimmed to a dull charcoal. He gasped, staring up. "My... my antlers..." "Sp-spark!" Pilate stumbled, his clear eyes bulging. "Beloved!" Belle shook him, squinting confusedly at his dormant manasphere. "What... what's wrong?" "I'm..." The zebra gulped. "Good heavens, I'm blind." He seethed through clenched teeth. "Belle, pl-please... speak to me." He reached a hoof out, trembling. "Tell me you're still there..." Belle nervously gripped his fetlock. Gulping, she spun towards the cockpit. "Propsy?!" "I don't understand it!" The mare was banging at a dead console with her bare hoof. "The manaconduits! It's like they're all fried! I-I haven't seen anything like it..." "K-kill me..." Everypony on the Jury spun about. "Huh?!" Ebon blinked. "Nnnngh... kill m-me..." Ebon looked down and instantly gasped. Roarke was grasping at her chest. Her legs twitched in an unrelenting spasm as foam gathered around her muzzle. "Grrrkkk... my... m-my manacore..." She hissed and sputtered. "I... d-deserve a warrior's d-death..." Stifling a moan, she gripped a hoof savagely around Ebon's throat. "Please... k-kill me..." "Hckkkt!" Ebon wheezed for breath. "Floydien... B-Bellesmith... s-somepony! Help!" Belle was too busy holding Pilate close, gawking over the ship's edge as the one Xonan in Basso's group stumbled limply about, his tattoos pulsing uncontrollably. As he moaned in pain and confusion, the stallions and mares around him quivered, their horns flickering like dying light bulbs. "Hraaaaaaugh!" Shell lunged at Arcshod, swinging his taser. Arcshod took the brunt of the blow through his shoulder. He stumbled back towards an overturned mast and slumped against it, chest heaving. He stared wearily out the corner of his eyes as Shell slithered towards him. Spitting blood, the Prime Enforcer raised his staff high, prepared to strike. Just then, Imre's horn flashed so hard it nearly burned a hole in the unicorn's vest. "Huh?!" He flashed a one-eyed look at it. Just then, his own horn pulsed. "Aaaaugh!" Shell fell to his knees. The taser rattled towards the floor, nothing more than a dull stick. Wheezing, Shell clutched his stomach and rolled sideways, gazing across the shattered deck. He saw the bodies of Xonans littered everywhere, and the tattoos on their corpses were strobing like lightning bugs. At last, his eye locked onto their pulsating horns. A scuffling set of heavy hoofsteps loomed closer. Almost gagging, Shell looked up. Arcshod stared down at the stallion. In spite of his bruises, he stood tall and strong. Unwavering. "Why... how..." Shell tasted vomit in his throat and he grunted, "How aren't you...?" Grinning wickedly, Arcshod marched his icy way towards a fallen corpse and began prying a scimitar from the dead Xonan's grip. With a grunt, Seclorum shoved at Eagle Eye's figure. The unicorn backflipped nimbly, sliding to a stop in the middle of the muddy street. "Josho always did choose complete idiots for friends!" Seclorum spat. "Heh..." Eagle Eye twirled the sword at his side and scraped his hooves against the earth. "Well, then, let the best idiot win!" Floating the weapons along either flank, he charged Seclorum from a distance. "Rrrrrgh!" Seclorum readied himself with sturdy limbs. Just then, Eagle's horn shorted out. His sword and shield fell ineffectually to the side. Overcome with a splitting pain in his skull, he skidded to a stop with a slight shriek. He fell to his knees and glanced east, panting. His vision swam over his discarded weapons, past Josho's writhing figure, and towards the trenches where the battle had completely halted. Bodies slumped like a river of groaning misery. All of shells had stopped exploding; the artillery guns lay dormant. "What...?!" Eagle gulped and weakly tilted his head forward. "I don't—" Seclorum's massive hoof uppercutted him. "Augh!" Eagle Eye flew back. He landed with a splat in the mud, lying limply as Seclorum easily marched towards him. "Aaaa-haaaugh!" Kera clutched her horn, curling like a foalish infant in Zaid's arms. "Mmmmmm! B-Belle! Belle, it hurts! It hurrrrts!" Zaid glanced up, giving Rainbow a helpless look. Rainbow's ears were perpetually drooped in horror. "Khao was wrong..." Slowly, Rainbow pivoted until she was staring into Nightshade's face. The Madame was deadpan. "They weren't angels. They were demons. Who else would tear apart somehing that was so whole, so perfect?" Rainbow blinked. Slowly, the lines in her face hardened, and she punched the mare harshly across the face. "Nnnngh!" She shouted into her face. "You knew! All this time you knew!" Nightshade wheezed and rotated her bruised eye to stare back at the pegasus. "In sequencing with the fossils, I saw what you saw, yes. But I also saw the only means of saving this beleaguered Confederacy!" "And just how would bucking-up all mana solve an already bloody war?!" "It's not just mana that the flame affects..." Nightshade growled against the unnatural storm consuming the bridge. "It cancels out all technology! This flame... this magnificent beacon will eliminate all weapons of war!" "Yeah—and screw up all friggin' civilizations everywhere, you mean!" "A necessary cost." "How could you possibly get off saying that?!" "Technology is war!" Nightshade hissed. "You think Ledomare is the only victim of its own ambition and hubris? I'm to blame for how far this war has accelerated, and so are millions upon billions of other ponies just as headstrong and blind as me, the Queen, and the legions of Xona!" Her eyes narrowed. "My brother was reduced to a hunk of meat because of this holocuast! How many others around the world are suffering for the sinful 'progress' of ponydom?!" "Oh, and so one terrible holocaust deserves another, huh?!" Rainbow shoved the mare's shoulders against the floor. "Hypocrite! Belle told me all about the plans she found in your upstairs skyscraper! You had an entire steam revolution planned! You charged the flame from this pedestal to overload and you were gonna exploit this!" "I was going to rebuild from the ashes of yesterday's mistakes!" Nightshade hollered back. "From the corpse of Ledo's pathetic empire, I would usher in an age of simplicity, coexistence, and peace!" She gulped and stammered, "But from the moment I saw you, I realized that you were only going to interfere with the path towards harmony that had been paved out! Just like the ancients before you!" "Shut your lame, pathetic, coward-suckling muzzle!" Rainbow Dash kicked Nightshade and stood up, wobbling against the energy streams. "Nnnngh... What is one pathetic, lawless continent in exchange for the whole world?! Darn it all! I was right about you!" She shouted. "You're just as bad as Nevlamas! Why does everypony get so tripped up over something so friggin' simple?! That's not how harmony works!" "It's the only it can work!" Nightshade retorted. She sat up with a groan. "Why else was the flame built to perform its one task?!" Her brow furrowed. "Which is sundering." "Lady, my life is sundered!" Rainbow barked, planting a hoof over her chest. "And even in the face of death, I never stopped flying as fast as I could! Not so long as I could hold together what's left of me!" She stamped her hooves. "The one thing that all of my dead friends believed in! And when the faith of the dead make more sense than the ideas of the living, then—sister—it's a bad day indeed!" "Rainbow..." Zaid gritted his teeth, pointing at Kera's writhing form. "I... I think we're losing her..." "You think I would harm the filly?!" Nightshade shouted, shaking her head. "The energy overload is simply running its course! Give it time! Once it's through, every unicorn will recover, but technology will remain dead for years. Perhaps centuries!" She tilted her head towards the beam of light fountaining overhead. "The war will end, just like I promised Seclorum." She closed her eyes and took a tranquil breath. "Just like I pr-promised you, Novus..." Rainbow Dash teetered left and right, overwhelmed with dizziness. She limped towards the fountaining pedestal, but it felt miles away... and receding. She groaned, rubbing a hoof over her head as her pendant grew dimmer and dimmer. "Rainbow..." Zaid stammered over the sound of Kera's wheezing. "No..." Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. She spread her wings and faced the pulsating beacon. She didn't squint. "It doesn't work this way." Her eyes flickered lavender. "It will not work this way!" One pounding hoof after another, she stomped her way towards the dais. Nightshade opened her eyes and calmly glanced over. "It is useless, Rainbow. The tool of the ancients has been activated. All mana—including the very heart of the Machine World—will lay in hibernation, where it will no longer bring pain and agony to all that live and breathe." "And what of ch-chaos, huh?!" Rainbow sneered, marching into the penetrating waves of light. "What's gonna guard against that?!" "Nevlamas is a victim of her own hubris too!" Nightshade said. "The avatar of chaos will fall to the flame!" "Well, she ain't got nothing on this!" Rainbow hollered. With one burst of her wing muscles, she flew blindly into the maddening pulse. Zaid winced, hugging Kera tight. Dumbfounded, Nightshade stood up. "What are you doing?!" "You bet all your cards against the wrong avatar of chaos, lame-o!" Rainbow's voice echoed along the fluctuating light streams. "I... am th-the Spark..." Just then, to Nightshade's gasping shock, the energy shorted, flickered, and dimmed altogether. As the bridge came into focus, Rainbow could be seen, perched before the pedestal with the book in her bare hooves. Snarling, she ripped the glowing lavender tome from the platform and tossed it behind her. "...and the flame!" she finished. The book landed with a thud before Zaid's hooves. Kera instantly went slack, her body breathing normally. Zaid looked up, jaw agape. "Zaid!" Rainbow shouted, gripping the pedestal as the remaining energy pulsed all around her. Wincing like a mare giving birth, the pegasus climbed up onto the top of the dais, where her body literally caught aflame with lavender tongues of energy. "Take Kera, the book, and get the heck out of here! If I'm right... ghnnngh... the managlider will work!" She tilted her muzzle up and spread her limbs out. "Everything... is g-gonna work out!" "Uhm... Rainbow?" Zaid planted Kera's limp figure on his backside and shuffled forward. "Not to ruin you goin' all Super Saddle n'all... but..." His eyes narrowed. "Are you really supposed to be glowing like a living candle?!" "Will you friggin' go already?!" Rainbow stood up on her hind quarters as she became one with the pulsating light. "And if you see anypony... j-just tell them..." The hint of a devilish smirk, and then she was absorbed into hot burning lavender. "I got this!" "No..." Nightshade gasped. Nightshade sobbed. "No no no!" She galloped violently towards the shimmering pedestal with a snarl. "You're ruining it! You're ruining it all! The Confederacy! I've worked so hard—" A hoof slammed across her face. "Ooof!" Eyes rolling, Nightshade plopped coldly to the metal floor. Zaid rubbed his hoof. "Lady..." He smirked. "Ain't nopony lovin' this continent but you." With a deep breath, he clasped his teeth over the book, gave the pedestal one last look, then scampered back the way they all came, carrying Kera along with him.