//------------------------------//
// 17: Gethar's Fury 
// Story: For the Hive 
// by law abiding pony 
//------------------------------//

There was a brief moment when time seemed to come to a halt. Twilight could not hear the hive mind as she stared over her drones towards the legion of lost ones. She stood stock still, surrounded by her children staring death in the face.  Many lost ones were in the air, but others crawled across rooftops and the biggest ones shook the ground with each step.

The diluted leyline that encompassed her, along with a whole sector of the city, vibrated with anticipation of the coming vindication of the law.  Gethar did not care about losses, the lost ones were better off dead anyway.  All that mattered to him at this moment was enacting righteous retribution.  The old laws demanded no less.

A slow almost lethargic voice, both in the real world and across the hive mind rang out from directly above her.  She looked up to discover it was Rainbow sweeping a hoof across the area in front of them.  “This clown thinks he can blame us for some long lost ancestor?  Screw that!  Fight for the hive, and your queens!”

The last thing Twilight heard before the world snapped back to normal speed was Veselov’s voice broadcasting over the local Link towards his gunners in the disturbing calmness that only a naval officer could possess in combat.  <Cauterize the area.>  He puffed on his cigar as the delightful boom of heavy cannons rattled the deck.

The underslung deck guns fired true, bombarding the elephant sized lost ones that were charging across the streets with shells the size of a pony.  Puffs of black clouds filled the air in front of the changeling formation, cutting down numerous lost ones before they came anywhere near the defensive line.

The lost ones on the ground couldn’t care less about the death raining down from above and charged headlong into the wall of fire and dust.  The Deception made no effort to spare the historic structures surrounding the queens.  Homes and businesses were riddled with holes or outright destroyed to get at the lost ones.  However, the warship was only a frigate, and as such, countless lost ones still made it through to the waiting changelings.

Aegis was in a low hover at the very tip of the chevron with her three clutchmates at her side.  She smirked in anticipation  while giving her flamethrower a kiss on the nozzle before activating the pilot light.  The lost ones were upon them in seconds once they got too close for naval support.  Four other flamethrower armed changelings took position directly behind the armored swordlings and waited for Aegis’ command.  They didn’t have to wait long.

Aegis brought her weapon to bear with a malkavian grin cleaving her muzzle.  <My queen?>

Rainbow held a restraining hoof up.  <Hold.  We need to make every shot count.>  We have to weather the first wave before we can start to advance.

When the time was right, she pointed straight at the broken palace in the distance.  “Fire!”

Aegis couldn’t be happier.  <Slammin'!>  Streams of burning oil traced sweeping ribbons of fire in front of the defensive line, burning everything it touched.  Screeches and wails of pain filled  the air as nearly all remaining lost ones were burned to charred meat.  Aegis’ grin only widened as a feral wolfish lost one slid under the streams of fire to charge Riposte.  She momentarily cut the stream and unleashed it again, straight into the gaping maw at the same time Riposte’s magic wreathed skysteel sword buried itself in the wolf’s chest.

Riposte yanked the sword out to find it covered in flaming oil.  The flaming sword found a new target as a warped lost ones dashed to the side.  He was barely able to bring the blade back in time to catch the monster’s claws just short of his neck. The creature roared in pain as the flames spread to its fur and fell dead to a bullet from Intel.

Three more broke through the wall of fire only to be gunned down before even reaching the blade line.  Aegis’s grin dipped a bit at the sight of a five lost ones she had just doused in oil were still standing frozen in time. It was only then that she realized that the enveloping red ley line had split itself to open a patch of clear air around the changeling line.  This is bad.  <My queen, if we try to advance, the lost ones could come back to life right in the middle of us!>

Rainbow saw more and more lost ones were starting to phase out of time along the route towards the palace.  Damn it.  It’d be a massacre if we try to walk through that.  <Twilight,> she shouted, only to find her sister casting shields around any drone who was about to get cut down.

<A little busy here.>  The split second distraction was almost enough for her to miss one soldier who nearly took a raking claw to the neck, only for the attack to be deflected by Twilight’s lavender-orange shield.

<We can’t move forward or back with the mutants freezing along any direction we try to take.>

I don’t have time to think.  <Fulcrum!  Find out why the lost ones are suddenly active or how we can keep them from phasing back.>

The chief scientist was cowering a few meters behind his queen.  The ground quaked from the naval bombardment with the thundering hooves and claws only adding to his terror.  <I-I don’t know.  I’d need to take readings, but these are—>

A tear escaped Twilight when she was too late to save one of her children.  <Find it!  NOW!>

Particle wasn’t doing much better than her superior.  <If I may suggest a t-theory?>  Twilight could only grunt impatiently.  <Maybe it’s the ley line.  If we could disrupt it, it may stop that Gethar thing from bringing them back.>

With a bear-sized, tooth-filled lost one slashing at one of her children with bloodlust, Twilight relayed the problem to Cadista.  <Momma, you know of anything that can help?>

<Just a moment, I’m putting my hive on hold to think of a solution.>

<Please hurry.>  Twilight’s horn ached as the bearlike lost one was riddled with dozens of bullets but never stopped its brutal assault on the three drones.  It singled one out and slashed, finally shattering the shield and tearing the drone to ribbons.  Ferrum buzzed over with a rifle wrapped in his magic.  He landed on the bearlike lost one, bit onto its mane and pulled up so he could angle his rifle to fire down the lost one’s ear.   The shot liquefied the bear-thing’s brain, and it fell with a thump.

Ferrum jumped back behind the swordlings and tossed his rifle at Fulcrum.  “Don’t just sit there!  Help reload the firearms, go, go, go!”

Aegis cheered at each target that fell to her infernal blaze, but she was getting increasingly worried.  For every five lost ones she put to the torch, one phased out of time within spitting distance of the swordlings.  Already there were over thirty lost ones frozen in place directly in front of the formation.  Her grin faltered when the surge of burning oil from her weapon sputtered and died.  She growled while smacking a frothing mad lost one with the pommel of her combat knife and slicing its throat.   <Logistic company, we need rearmament, pronto!>





Veselov briefly noted several clockwerks and drones flying to rearm their brethren.  The constant chatter from the hive mind painted a grim picture to match what he saw below.  Yet he did not remain alone once Cadista barged into his mind and snatched his eyes and ears. <I need your sight, Captain.>  He felt compelled to turn this way and that to fully survey the battlefield.

He couldn’t help but feel a flash of indignation.  <Wouldn’t somepony else be more suited for this task at the moment?> Veselov grumbled.

<I don’t have the time, and your gunners are more than capable of finding targets on their own for a few moments.>  Cadista saw the gap forming in the ley line and the growing throng of frozen lost ones forming around her daughters’ drones.   The ley line…  <Ratchet Altair!>  she barely waited for him to acknowledge before speaking again.  <I need you and a team to go to junction 6B.>

6B?  That’s the primary cloak control center. A second heavy lightning bolt struck the Deception amidship, again doing little more than marring the paint.  But it did set everyone on edge.  <At once, my queen.>

Cadista released most of her hold on Veselov, but continued to make use of his eyes and ears.  <While I am still your mother, I am no longer your queen.>

<As you say…mother.>  He looked to his right-hoof changeling.  “Flint, you have the engine room.”  He then summoned four other engineers to go with him.  Ratchet ran out of main engineering and one deck down to the cloak control center. He barged through the door to find an intensely bored engineer mare inspecting the dials.  She jumped at the team of drones storming into the room.  It had been a while since Ratchet had last worked with the dizzying array of knobs, switches, levers, and dials spread out wall to wall.  “Rusty, I’m going to need your expertise with this one.”

Finally, something to do!  Rusty snapped a salute.  “Sure thing, Pops, what can I do?”


Cadista was not one to waste time on pleasantries, not even to give her son a chance to refamiliarize himself with the control layout.  <I have ordered Veselov to descend to one fifty meters.  Follow my instructions to the letter if your new queens are to survive this day.>

<Roger that.>  Ratchet designated positions for each of his team members as per Cadista’s instructions.  <So what are we doing exactly?>

<We queens know quite a bit about ley lines, and since Gethar’s power resides in manipulating them…>





Gethar tested the warship with a third strike of Judgment’s Hammer, only for it to once again shrug off the lightning as if justice’s wrath meant nothing to it. What sort of demonic magic allows a siege engine to withstand such power?

His indignation was put off as the vessel slowly sank towards the center of the sinners’ position. Perhaps it is less formidable than I gave credit.  Still, some might escape to breed again.  We can’t have that, now can we?

He tightened his grip on the bloated ley line’s gap and prepared to close it the moment the ship crashed to the ground.  He took no pleasure in their deaths, only in carrying out a just sentence.





Rainbow Dash hovered above the line, watching the battle like only she could.  With her level of perception, the drones below her moved almost flawlessly to shore up any weakening point in the line.  No matter where Gethar focused the lost ones, Rainbow was always one step ahead of him.  Twilight was hardly idle.  Due to her sister’s raised position, Twilight focused primarily on shielding Rainbow from Gethar’s lightning and the airborne lost ones.  She leveraged her pony family’s expertise in shields to keep her flying kin alive.  

However, the battle was not the only thing on Rainbow’s mind.  <Granny Caddy, that’s has got to be the craziest idea I’ve ever heard.>  A sinister grin crossed her face.  <I like it.>

<Stop calling me granny.>  Cadista growled back.  <Twilight, Brace yourself for the pulse!>

Twilight sent a concussion wave harmlessly through her drones, only to have it blast five lost ones back far enough for the riflelings to fire, but unfortunately only two bullets found solid targets.  Five sets of field artillery along with their clockwerk handlers dropped down hard enough to crack the street.  Twilight barely acknowledged them locking down all around her as the Deception’s cloaking crystals were extending in an unusual pattern with them pointing downward.  <Everypony hit the deck, now!>  Every drone on the ground fell flat on their bellies while those in the air pulled up to Rainbow’s position.

Twilight mustered all her strength to form a tight lavender-orange shield directly above her prone children right as a bright purple sphere of light burst forth from the Deception.  The energy wave beat back the enclosing ley line, sending shockwaves of confusion and pain towards Gethar.  The pulse pushed the dense ring of lost ones back into phase.

A grim scowl tugged at both Rainbow and Twilight’s faces.  They unintentionally shouted in unison.  “Clockwerk squad, command, FIRE!”

“Acknowledged.”  With a deafening series of booms, the field artillery launched grape shot at the frothing horde, ripping dozens into ribbons in mere seconds.

<Reload!> Rainbow commanded, though she needed not have bothered as the changeling crews were already slamming the next shells into the breech.  What little survived of the lost one horde was tearing at the shield protecting the drones, only to be ripped asunder by the second volley.  The Deception’s gunners were not idle, and blasted away at the lost ones until a cloud of dust and smoke obscured their targets.

Gethar recoiled in pain at the pulse and withdrew the massive red ley line, shrinking it back to normal size.  Every single lost one for eight city blocks phased out of time within seconds.  His howl of pain rumbled the sand between the changelings’ hooves and rattled the windows of the warship.  “Damn you all!  I will not stand for this!  I will not be humiliated by you mortal gnats!”

Twilight saw the path towards the imperial district was clear of reanimated lost ones and a collection of seven ley lines were writhing as Gethar recovered from the pulse.  <Everypony, now’s our chance, advance!>

Rainbow located several of the logistics drones and focused on them as she surged forward with the air support.  <Get the wounded back to the ship.  We’ll come back for the dead.>

As one, the drones and remaining clockwerks charged forward, heedless of any remaining lost ones in their path in order to gain ground.  The Deception above followed closely behind, and readjusted its crystals back into a spherical pattern.

The ley lines tightened together and flung themselves at the warship.  Instead of passing through, five ley lines grappled the hull with one around a crystal boom and two more tightening their grip on the rear engines.  Veselov chewed on his cigar while his eyes darted back and forth to the red tentacles of raw mana trying to wrest control of his ship from him.  <Chief, I hope you have another pulse for us.>

Ratchet’s hoof rested on a large lever as he watched the capacitors recharge.  Even after ordering the boilers to redline it was still too slow for his liking.  <Just a little more…>  The sound of groaning steel and snapping cables resounded through the ship.  <Almost there, Captain.  This one should get his attention.>

 “If you have any sense of justice, servants of sinners, then cease all activity, and I will allow you to repent.”  Gethar’s voice echoed throughout the entire vessel.

A sneer cleaved each engineer’s face as the panel lit up to one hundred percent charge.  The general consensus from the crew was mirrored in Ratchet’s retort.  “We have our own justice, and do not care for yours,” Ratchet called out to the walls before he pulled the switch.

The exterior crystals rapidly became blindingly bright before sending out a riotous shockwave of lavender energy.  The ley lines disintegrated under the magic destabilization field.  The ship lost some altitude before the engines compensated and restabilized.  The same could not be said for the ley lines as the pulse burned them to cinders.

The shriek of pain came not only from Gethar, but the very planet itself.  The ground beneath the city broke apart.  Columns of earth shot up almost a hundred meters while other parts sank into bottomless pits at the loss of the local ley lines.

Twilight felt the wave front from the Deception coming and turned back to see the earthquake following in its wake.  <Holy shh—Everypony, in  the air, NOW!>

As one, the whole formation took to the air, only to have most of them fall right back to the ground as the wave destabilized the changelings’ ability to fly.  Several drones rolled on the ground at the sudden shift in momentum while others managed to land and keep running.  Rainbow and her squad of ten drones were blitzing through the air well ahead of the wavefront and somehow managed to outfly it before it petered out.  In a moment’s time, she scanned the area.  The last surviving visible ley lines were hanging limp in the air as Gethar fought to recover from the attack.  No lost ones were in phase with normal time, and Twilight’s grounded changelings were falling out of formation in a mad dash to flee the oncoming earthquake.  To her stunned horror, the quake was already spreading throughout more sections of the outer city.

<Rainbow, get to the castle!> Twilight screamed once she realized Rainbow was just hovering there.  <Find the center, if I’m right, Gethar has to be there!>

<What about you!  Can you fly yet?>

Twilight feverishly buzzed her wings as she ran.  At first she had only short hops, but they were slowly becoming longer and higher.  Maddeningly, the clockwerks were already fully airborne, except those five with mounted field artillery. One of their number was holding onto Arya who was dumbstruck at the devastation nipping at their heels.  <We’ll be fine, just get to the center before Gethar gets pissed!>

The thunderstorm expanded wildly to blanket the whole city with a torrential downpour to match.  <Too late for that, I’m on my way!>

 “Damn you all!  You compound your sins by sundering the very fabric of the world!  And here I believed your kind could not surpass your old sins, your hellish machine only confirms you are beyond salvation!”

Gethar summoned more ley lines and narrowed them down to a razor’s edge.  With his focus solely upon the Deception,  he largely ignored the changelings surging towards him.  Veselov was surrounded by the smoke of his cigar as he looked upon the cracked and shattered remains of the primary bow crystal.  <Engineer Altair, something tells me we don’t have a repeat performance in the cards.>

The cloak control room was belching black smoke that was flooding the whole section.  A few crewlings with gas masks were using fire extinguishers to control the flames in the walls while Ratchet was coughing up a lung as Resta provided first aid for his burns and cuts.  <No can do, Captain, even if we have any crystals left, the wiring’s completely burnt out.>

Veselov witnessed a few flak shells and deck guns fire on the incoming ley lines, but nothing even fazed them.  <Just as well.  All we can do now is buy time for the queens.  Get back to the engine room if you can.>

Ratchet waved Resta aside and started limping to his post.  <Aye, captain.  For the queens and hive.>

<Aye, for queens and hive.>  Veselov started barking more orders when a ley line stabbed through the windshield as though it were wet paper and impaled him where he stood.  The last thing he saw was his cigar falling from his mouth, and a phantom image of Twilight Sparkle.  Looks like this is it.  Give him hell… mother.

Hot tears spilled from Twilight’s eyes as she shoved her grief into its little box as the crew of the Deception bought her precious time with their lives.  Rainbow Dash felt the same pain.  Her wings burned as the deaths of each of her nieces and nephews spurned her to ever greater speeds.

When the steel armor of the Deception proved too strong, Gethar focused on the propellers, and ripped them off one by one until the ship took a nose dive and crashed between two pillars of stone, where it was wedged in place.  With the gunners slain, he was free to snake his ley lines in through the shattered windows and began hammering away at the sealed bulkheads.   “I will have your heads mounted on pikes and your entrails scattered out into the streets!”

His rage was so great and so focused, that he almost forgot about the queens until Rainbow Dash breached the outer plaza of the palace.   “Do not think I have forgotten you, demon.” 

Rainbow Dash was overwhelmed by the chaotic disaster area of the palace grounds.  There was a blue light radiating from the shattered remains of the once magnificent seat of power.  The true marble walls and columns that once spoke of authority and might were shattered.  Fragments of marble debris that hung in the air were so dense that it made flight next to impossible.  What Rainbow noticed most of all, was the complete lack of lost ones.  Well over a hundred thestral imperial guards armed with archaic weaponry were frozen in a battle that lacked an opposing force.  It didn’t take long for her to realize that they had been fighting lost ones, but they had all been pulled by Gethar to attack the changelings.  Rainbow glanced around to see Intel and Ferrum were still at her side, along with eight other members of the Jevruun Vrunningee. All of them were exhausted by Rainbow’s grueling pace, but not a word of complaint passed between them.  Every last one of them could sense their siblings dying simply from how much quieter the local hive mind was becoming.

Rainbow didn’t like her new surroundings one bit.   We can’t fly with so much clutter in the air. The palace looks like someone took a giant hammer to it from the inside. To top it all off, the whole place is so thick with mana my horn hurts.

Her eyes darted across the frozen soldiers and then behind her.  Close to a kilometer back, the lead elements of Twilight’s formation were racing towards the palace on both wing and hooves.  <Squad, listen up.  We need to secure the area and wait for reinforcements.>

No sooner had those words left her mouth, when a red ley line expanded over the courtyard.  The imperial guards were thrust back into normal time with most of them shouting war cries and still amid swing.  It didn’t take long for confusion to set in for the changelings, who quickly rallied around Rainbow Dash who had ducked behind a shattered fountain to stay out of sight.  The guards glanced about at the sudden disappearance of their lost one opponents. 

 “Servants of the imperial crown!” Gethar roared to pierce through the confusion.  The soldiers immediately knew who was speaking.   “The empire has been betrayed by those you swore to serve.  Look around you at the devastation they have wrought.” 

Ferrum made sure his rotating four barreled rifle was primed to fire.  <My queen, what do we do?  We’re not going to kill these ponies are we?>

Rainbow Dash ground her teeth at the idea.  <The way their disembodied boss is talking, I don’t think we have a choice.>  Twilight might be able to talk them down, but I’m no good at it.  The uneven tiles under her hooves made her slip a little, and Rainbow looked down to resecure her footing only to spot the holes in her leg and nearly slapped herself out of the brilliance of the idea that struck her. The fact that she had practically forgotten her changeling nature didn’t help her mood either. <I got it!  We disguise ourselves as more of these guardponies.  We might be able to slip past them, and then sandwich them between us and Twilight.>

A round of affirmatives came back at her, prompting Rainbow to relay the plan to Twilight as she wrapped herself in the guise of an imperial guard.  <The earthquake stopped, and Gethar seems to have abandoned the lost ones for the moment.  We can slow down to give you some time to sneak past them.>

<We’re not going to try for diplomacy?> Rainbow questioned somewhat worriedly.  <These guys are innocent as far as I’m concerned.>

Twilight tried to keep her voice controlled, but the mounting losses of her children was taking its toll.  It was only with Cadista and her brood back at the hive bleeding off her grief that kept her focused.  <If we can talk, then we’ll talk, but I’m not going out of my way to avoid harming them if they threaten us.  And if Gethar gets it in their heads that we’re the enemy...>

Everyone in Rainbow’s squad heard her, causing most of the changelings’ tension to surge.  <It’s your call, Sis.  I’m just the military mule here.>  After double checking her disguise, Rainbow leapt over the fountain and galloped towards the imperial guardponies who had formed up into a box formation with two of their number stepping towards the palace.  The pair standing at the front consisted of a lithe mare covered in blood that was not her own, and a stallion in worn but well maintained armor.

 “Protect the palace at all costs, while I personally deal with the remaining loyalist troops.”

The soldiers stamped a foreleg and shouted over the torrential rain.  “For the restoration of the Empire, for Rookhaven!”

Ferrum furrowed his brow at the imperials.  <They sound remarkably clear.>

Riposte tsked at him.  <Of course they would, we’ve been translating their language for almost a year now.  There’s been no phonetic drift from the records we’ve unearthed.> Personally, i’m just glad the rain washed off all that funk Stick-wings slathered all over me.

Gethar’s gaze turned to the advancing disguised changelings.  At such close range to the palace, his presence felt like a heavy pressure wave.  There was a moment of deep concern as the group feared he could see through their disguises.   “Good, you have heard my voice from afar and have come to join your brethren.”

Ferrum feigned ignorance and measured fright to mask his relief.  “Do you know what happened to our city?  To the imperial family!?”

 “I will leave such discourse to your commanding officers.  For now, Champions, I will grant you my boon.”

Two ribbons of teal mana emerged from the bright blue core of the palace and sank into the two lead thestrals.  Their forms grew as their bodies began to glow a magnificent teal light.  Their armor became more elaborate, forming engraved lines and sigils while the edges flared with artistic splendor.  Everyone stepped away from the pair of oversized luminescent guardponies as they grew to match Celestia in height.   “Arise, Scions of Justice.  Defend the palace until I purge the city of that accursed war machine.”

The twin teal ley lines remained attached to the new scions, but Gethar’s shift in attention was palpable this close to the center of the city in the form of lessening air pressure.  The disguised changelings slowly crept forward towards the scions in cautious curiosity.  Riposte couldn’t tear his eyes off the glowing imperials.  “What… what did he do to you?”

One of the scions found his spear had been warped into a staff with the crescent moon symbol of the Empire.  It was matched by his counterpart.  “I have been charged to be judge, jury, and executioner in His name.”  With a stoically neutral face and a flourish of his staff, the former brigadier general pointed in the direction of Twilight’s group off in the distance as they reformed around her.  They were close enough now that the gathered thestrals could see the changelings’ alien natures.  “He must have granted us purity of sight so that there would be no mistake.”

The scion mare looked up at the clutter making flight impossible.  “To think the imperial family has gone so far as to rip the nature of the world apart.”  She bit her lower lip until it bled.  “Just what sort of monsters did I spend my life protecting?”  Finding her staff moved with her thoughts, she leveraged the arcane knowledge granted to her by Gethar and blasted the air clear.

Rainbow’s squad was slowly filtering into the imperial ranks, but was stopped short when one of the imperial guardponies noticed something off about them.  While a changeling’s magic could disguise their appearance and clothing, it did nothing for their weapons.  A flamethrower wielding changeling was stopped by one of the lieutenants. 

“Hold it.” Everyone within ten meters froze.  “What is that thing you’re carrying?” 

A few other thestrals finally started to take notice of the newcomers’ strange equipment. The flamer drone sweated as he turned to the officer.  “It’s something I found lying on the ground when the Justicar brought me back.  I just assumed it was an instrument of his will.”

The other drones without swords caught on to the ruse quickly.  “Yeah, same here.  My old weapon was shattered.”

“He must have granted me this replacement when he guided me here.” Ferrum commented as he made sure to physically pull his rifle off his back.

“Wish mine glowed like you two’s,” Riposte gestured to his skysteel blade.  “Wish I was the favorite.”

Most of the thestrals seemed pleased by their responses, and refocused on the changelings that had started to march towards their position.  The scion mare however, was not, and watched them carefully. Something’s not right.






The remaining seventy eight crewlings aboard the Deception waited in nervous anticipation for either Twilight to end the threat outside, or for the unspeakable.  Ratchet and a couple of marines slouched against the wall of a lower corridor.  They were facing a sealed bulkhead that lead to one of the secondary defense turrets.  The door was banging constantly as Gethar’s ley lines tried to pierce through, but the steel armor held fast.  One of the marines checked her blunderbuss for the twentieth time in the past half hour.  “Hey, Papa.  You really think Momma and Aunty can pull through?  We’re stuck here with that tentacle monster outside.”

“Just because I’m the prime consort, doesn’t make me your father,” Ratchet replied dryly.  I’ll never understand why Twi’s brood feels the need to call me that.  I never thought of my sire as such.

The other marine huffed in amusement and playfully punched his mouthy sister on the withers.  “Ha, and here I thought only wet navies had to worry about sea monsters.”  His sister punched him back into his old sitting position. 

He laughed it off if only to ignore the amount of death it took to bring them to this point.  “Hey, Father, you think the bastard will finally realize lightning and pounding his hoof at us isn’t going to work?  That even with us grounded every ship in the fleet is practically invulnerable to that?”  He clanged his hoof against the metal hull.  “Grounding wires and steel’s pretty good at that sort of thing.”

Ratchet’s ears flinched as the pounding on the door picked up tempo.  “Just be glad your mother is Twilight.  I’ve never seen so many drones be apt enough at magic to turn away a ley line”  Even if it’s taking over half of the surviving crew to do it.  He remembered passing the infirmary of the bare handful of drones that had been pulled from the turrets before the doors were sealed.  “Otherwise we’d all be Swiss cheese right now.”

The mare marine smirked in satisfaction.  “Mother’s something else, that’s for sure.”

“Makes me wonder what Aunty’s kids will be capable of.”

The mental image of hundreds of cyan drones pranking the entire hive sent a shiver down Ratchet’s spine.  “I can’t wait.”

A massive impact rocked the side of the ship, knocking everyone off their hooves.  The mare growled at the noise echoing through the ship.  “So he finally figured a sledgehammer was better than a thousand needles?”

A second hit rattled the lights, dimming them briefly.  Ratchet listened to the tone of the noise.  “He’ll break through eventually, but…” He inspected his revolver.  “It’s too diffused along our most armored section.  It’ll take weeks.”

The stallion sighed in relief.  “Then we got nothing to worry about.  Momma will cream this guy long before then.  Too bad I won’t be there to see her do it in person.”

What little mirth that had filled the room evaporated when a new sound came from the door.  It was a noise Ratchet knew all too well.  “What the…?  That sounds like acid.”

“Acid?” one of the marines queried incredulously.  “Pah, that’d probably take longer than the-” *BANG* “the beating the ship is taking outside.  But I’ll give him props for being creative.”

“It’s too loud,” Ratchet warned, silencing his companions.  By now, the sound of hissing animals along with banging and scratches on the door were coming in loud and clear. They were interrupted only by Gethar steady beating on the side of the ship.  <All hooves, prepare to repel boarders. Get the warding teams to main engineering and protect them at all costs!>

The locking wheel on the door started to wobble before falling heavily to the deck.  A fast growing hole in the center of the steel door was forming as the steel dissolved away.  The mare saw the snarling lost one vomiting more acid on the door and promptly ran forward and shoved her blunderbuss in its face. The creature snarled a challenge, only to receive a face full of shrapnel and gunpowder.


*SCREEEEEE*

The piercing wail threw the marine off guard long enough for a second lost one to spit acid through the hole.  She yelped in alarm as her weapon started dissolving and jumped back to avoid a second attack.  However, instead of a glob of acid, a third lost one spat a trio of spines through the hole.  The mare cried out as one grazed her on the neck and the other two punctured deep into her chest. 

“Damn it, Screwy!”  The male marine grabbed her in his magic before she could collapse, and pulled her towards him.  “Papa, get her to a medic, I’ll hold them here!”  <I need reinforcements to junction 4D ASAP!>

“We don’t have a stretcher up here, I’ll have to carry her manually.” He gently flipped her over and placed the wounded marine on his back and faced the adjoining bulkhead.  “We can’t hold this position, fall back to the next security point!”

Both stallions fired at the quartet of manic lost ones trying to squeeze through the slagging door, entirely heedless to the acid burning away at their hooves and claws.  The marine emptied his five barreled blunderbuss into three more before flipping it around to use it as a club.  “You go, I’ll buy you all the time I can!”  He picked up the fallen corpses and used them to plug the ruined door, but the living lost ones were quick to rip and shred through the meat shield.

Ratchet nodded his understanding and bid a hasty retreat with Screwy coughing up blood on his back.  Say what you will about Twi’s brood, they understand personal sacrifice.  The chief engineer found a corpsling and two more marines waiting for him at the next point right as he heard the stallion’s death cry behind him as the lost ones tore through him.   “Patch her up, doc.  The rest of you, seal the door.”

Ratchet found a spare shotgun thrust in his face by one of the marines and took it with a grateful nod. 

<All hands, this is Lieutenant Rourke, and now the highest ranking officer on board.  Lucky me. I want all able bodied personnel to enact contingency plan, Beta Alpha Three.>

“Nooo! Are you kidding me!?”  Ratchet yelled as he bucked the wall out of fury.  “It’ll take forever to fix the place if we do that!”

One of the crewlings started running to the nearest armory while the three marines finished sealing the door.  One of their number clapped Ratchet on the shoulder.  “Don’t feel bad, Engy, this just means you’ll have the perfect excuse to renovate and improve the wiring and deck plating when this is all over.”

“I hardly call setting land mines inside the ship a good idea!” Ratchet barked back.

Scant seconds later, the lost ones were at the hatch, banging away with wild abandon far out stripping even the most vicious predators of the southern jungles.  Everyone knew it wouldn’t take long before this door was breached as well. 

“Sorry, Pops, but I don’t think we got a choice in the matter,” the sergeant replied.  “For every second we keep that justice guy focused on us, Mother has that much longer to do her thing.”

The familiar sound of dissolving steel filled Ratchet’s ears.  Hurry, Twilight.  Please, hurry.





Twilight Sparkle had waited long enough.  She and her remaining escorts of just over sixty changelings and eight clockwerks marched straight at Gethar’s scions along with their one hundred strong imperial gaurdponies.  Several of her best mages warded off the nigh constant bombardment of lightning and stabbing ley lines from striking anyone in formation.

Rainbow Dash primed her magic as she held onto her disguise while standing near the two scions, and waited for the right time to act.  <Sis, you’ve got the freak himself attacking you constantly right in front of them.  I don’t think they’re going to want to talk to you.>

<I have to try, Rainbow.  If I can get them to talk, then no more of our drones have to die.>

 “Damn your wretched hide, sinner!  Why won’t you die!” 

A snarl circled Twilight’s lips at the being who had ripped so many drones from her, and was continuing to do so.  “Your spellwork is as archaic as your sense of justice, Gethar!  A foal could deflect your magic.”  She stopped a hundred paces from the two scions who crossed their staves in open defiance of her.  “You wouldn’t bother trying to stop me from proceeding if you weren’t at the center of all of this, now would you?”

“You will not harm our lord and master,” the mare scion shouted flatly at the encroaching queen.  “I’ve seen your Arcanum work before, but your destruction of our beautiful home is all the evidence I need that you must die here!” An emotional tremble colored her voice, but her stance remained rock steady.

“We did nothing of the sort-”

 “I will suffer the royal family’s serpent tongue no longer!  Kill them, justice demands it!”  

“You heard him,” the thestral commander shouted to his troops.  “Blades of the Empire, take a long look at what the true colors of the royal family!  They have finally taken on the monstrous forms that truly defines them!  Cast aside any remaining loyalties to these monsters so that Rookhaven can be rebuilt stronger than ever!”

Even as he spoke, Gethar unfroze more surviving guards from around the fragmented imperial district and dragged them through his ley lines and deposited them towards his champion scions.  The glowing champions were a known symbol and served as an instant beacon for them to rally around.  It didn’t take long for Rainbow and her squad to find themselves in a throng of soldiers numbering well over three hundred. 

 “End this, and together, loyal sons and daughters of Rookhaven, we can remake the empire as a model of morality and justice!” 

Twilight Sparkle was not idle as her enemies gathered.  Her drones formed ranks with clockwerks and swordlings up front, riflelings directly behind them, and the remaining three artillery clockwerks aimed down range.  The only thing staying her hand was Rainbow and her infiltrators who were trying to quietly filter towards the rear of the gathering thestrals.  Each of them laced their presence in the hive mind with a locator spell so they would appear bright lavender to the other changelings.

Arya was heartbroken at the presence of the scions. My blasphemy against the lord is not enough, oh harsh fate?  I must aid in his blessed ones’ demise as well?  May my ancestors forgive me for what I must do.  She stood guard in front of Twilight and eased out her wooden wings and focused her innate magic into them.  The bark hardened to match steel, and the tips of her branches sharpened to cruel barbs.  “This one stands with you, imperial one.”

With a mighty surge of lightning that left four of the mages in a daze, Gethar signaled the attack.  With a bone-chilling war cry, the thestrals charged in to carry out their master’s will.

<Today, you are all Jevruun Vrunningee.  Let’s show these guys what that means,> Aegis challenged as she primed her flamer.  Intel started to hum an old battle song  over both the hive mind and aloud for the Queens’ Guard.  He was soon joined in by Aegis and all the other changelings as they stared down the imperials while the scions hung back to remain in the center.  The field artillery blasted almost the entire front line of soldiers, but Gethar’s ley lines intercepted one of the shells, allowing the thestrals’ morale to remain strong under his protection. 

The front ranks of the imperials came into range of the rifleling second, and the last verse of the war song signaled their first deadly volley.  It would not be their last.