Chapter 15 – The First Front
For most of Equestria, it was a night like any other. In cities such as Canterlot and Manehattan the ponies slept soundly in their beds, largely untroubled. True, there had been strange rumours recently, and some of them were rather troubling, but the concerns all seemed far off and, for the moment at least, less important than a good night’s sleep.
For the ponies of the Crystal Empire, the conflict was at lot closer to home. Just a short distance north in fact. Even those without friends or relatives taking part in the sudden battle were aware of what was happening. How could they not be? The sounds of the fighting were resounding through the clear night’s air. Very few were attempting to sleep, and many were in fact gathered on the cold streets.
It was not that they could see the battle from the streets. In the dark it would have been almost impossible to make anything out after all. No, they gathered for some sense of reassurance. They gathered to feel like they were all together, and therefore everything would be fine. Above all, they gathered because they still could.
For many of the guardsponies now fighting in the field of battle, it was those very crystal ponies that they fought for. Even those without friends or relatives back in the empire had motivation to fight. They fought to defend their home. They fought to defend Equestria. They fought because it was their duty, and because it was what they had been trained for. Above all, they fought because they still could.
A hundred feet in the air above them, Twilight and Cadance were fighting to ensure that the ponies below still could. As soon as the battle had begun, the two of them had swooped to engage Black Fractal as per their plan. For both of them this was the first time that they had seen the travesty of an alicorn for themselves, and it was not a pretty picture. Despite her foul jagged crystalline body, the resemblance to Luna was uncanny, and, for Twilight at least, this made her irrationally hesitant to approach the Shard.
She knew that it wasn’t really Luna; it was clear when Black Fractal’s head aligned with hers and Twilight could stare into the emotionless glowing pits that were her eyes. Nevertheless, it was distressing to see an image of somepony Twilight knew to be gone. It was almost too much to bear.
Cadance had not hesitated, wasting no time in engaging Black Fractal and blasting a fireball at her, before leading her upwards, away from the ponies below and the empire behind them. The hope had been that once the three of them were fighting, Black Fractal would not attack anypony else until their duel had ended. Obviously the two princesses were hoping that it would end with the Shard’s defeat. As Twilight had watched Black Fractal pursuing Cadance up into the sky however, she realised just how difficult this might be.
While Cadance’s quick spell may have only been intended to attract Black Fractal’s attention rather than deal any significant damage, Twilight would have still expected the Shard to be injured somewhat. Instead she had merely shrugged it off, before launching upwards to chase Cadance. And that led to the other concern: Black Fractal was fast.
Twilight remembered her brother’s ludicrous descriptions about the speed in which Black Fractal had moved. It seemed he had been right. She knew that all alicorns were fast. She knew that Shards seemed to somehow take the strength of the ponies they infected. But Luna could not have been this fast, could she?
Cadance had had a head start, but in an instant Black Fractal was behind her. It appeared as though she had rocketed up to Cadance without passing through any of the intervening space, but she was definitely not teleporting. In fact, their battle had been raging for several minutes now, and despite their prior expectations, very little magic was being employed at all. Twilight had launched several powerful spells at the alicorn Shard, including some that she had never before thought she would have any reason to use, but in every case Black Fractal seemed mostly unaffected. It was like her speed: alicorns were resistant to magic, but Luna could not possibly have been that resistant, could she?
As Cadance and Twilight had realised the ineffectiveness of their magic, they had instinctively swapped to an alternate strategy. While continually casting shield spells around themselves, which did at least still perform their intended function of protecting them, at least temporarily, from any physical attacks, they repeatedly flew around Black Fractal as if taunting her. Twilight doubted a Shard had enough intelligence to be taunted, but the strategy was still effective enough. Whenever Black Fractal sped over to one of them and struck against their shield, splintering it within moments, the other princess would attempt to get in a hit of her own.
The first time Twilight had successfully connected her forehoof with Black Fractal’s crystalline body, she had been relieved to see a crack start to form. Their foe wasn’t invulnerable, at the very least. Unfortunately it appeared as if this would be a long fight, and every time they got within range of Black Fractal they were opening themselves up to a counter-strike, and Twilight did not want to think about the potential damage that could do. Black Fractal was breaking through their shields far too quickly, and if she ever did get a direct hit on one of their bodies, it would surely be devastatingly powerful. Would she be even stronger than Luna as well? Never mind the fact that with her serrated legs, any strike would almost certainly pierce into their flesh.
The other reason why their battle was becoming a mostly physical one was that Black Fractal was not using any magic of her own either. In fact Twilight was not aware of the alicorn Shard using magic at all at any point. Could she even use magic? The unicorn Shards could, so it seemed odd that Black Fractal was not employing Luna’s undoubtedly devastating array of spells on them now. Not that Twilight was complaining.
As Black Fractal launched herself towards Cadance once more, who instinctively strengthened a magical wall between them, Twilight attempted a different form of attack. Putting as much of her strength into it as she could, Twilight created a magical barrier that completely surrounded Black Fractal. Then, trying to quash the sickening images of what effect this would have on a real pony, Twilight started to contract the makeshift cage.
Cadance immediately realised what Twilight was planning, and added her own strength to the barrier. Together the two of them poured all their magical might into shrinking the container, horns spitting off sparks erratically. Twilight was feeling light-headed. It hadn’t been too long ago that she had exhausted herself in a friendly duel with her sister-in-law, and she was feeling the effects of magical exhaustion already. And judging from Cadance’s expression, she was not finding this easy either.
Inside the container, Black Fractal was hovering in place. It was not yet small enough to restrict her movement, but it wouldn’t be too long before she was crushed. Why was she not reacting then? After a moment the alicorn Shard struck a hoof against the powerful barrier, but there was no sign of any damage. Was this going to work?
As the two princesses continued to contract the cage, Black Fractal suddenly turned to face them, eyes blazing. She raised a hoof, as if to point at them, and in front of their eyes it started to slowly change shape, as the jagged crystal lengthened and sharpened into a point like a spear. Twilight tried to ignore the ominous feeling that was slowly building in her stomach as she watched this, instead continuing to pour her magic into the barrier. Just a bit more…
There was a sudden resounding crunch and Twilight recoiled backwards through the air, the stars above seeming blinding as a searing pain ran down the length of her horn. Her first instinct was to teleport away, just in case she was in a vulnerable position, but when she noticed that Cadance had been afflicted similarly she decided that she could not leave her sister-in-law unprotected and so instead summoned a barrier around themselves this time. With the amount of magic she had recently expended, and the pain still in her horn, she knew this was a flimsy barrier, but it was better than nothing.
As the two stunned alicorns regained their senses, they turned back to their opponent to determine what had happened. Their magical container was still there, which was perhaps unsurprising considering just how much magic they had poured into it, but it was no longer whole. Erupting from one side was Black Fractal’s recently transformed hoof, having clearly pierced a hole straight through. In one fluid movement the trapped Shard swung the leg around like a scythe, shearing the container in two and releasing her.
She did not escape without injury though, as Twilight realised when she looked closer at the spear-like leg. It appeared as if several crystalline chunks had broken off it in Black Fractal’s escape effort. Twilight would have considered this more of a victory if not for how little Shards seemed to be affected by the loss of body parts, something she had witnessed for herself during her battle against the Shard version of Ragnar, the griffin ambassador. Still, it was at least progress.
Cadance turned to her as they remained protected within her shield, for the moment at least.
“Ready for round two?” She sounded as exhausted as Twilight felt.
Twilight nodded wearily.
---
In the field far below the three clashing alicorns, the main battle raged on. The larger central front, led by the recently appointed Captain Jade Softhoof, had engaged a swarm of hundreds of earth pony Shards. In rigid formation the guardsponies were carefully splitting their opponents into smaller groups to face down. These Shards were nothing like as resistant as the alicorn Shard above them, and the guardsponies were not having too much difficulty with each one. What they lacked in resilience however, they made up for in numbers. Whenever a Shard was destroyed, another would immediately take its place.
In the air just above them, a higher paced battle was taking place between the pegasi Shards and the Wonderbolts, as well as some of the few crystal pegasi guards. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the agility of the Wonderbolts was no match for the strange pegasi mockeries, but once again the Shards had numbers on their side. Every now and then a flash of blue would strike a shadowy Shard and it would disintegrate, falling into the scuffle below, but the air was still crowded with dark shapes. It was taking everything Spitfire’s fliers had to hold back the pegasi Shards and stop them from crossing the field to enter the Crystal Empire itself.
And in the air above them, Fluttershy was watching with horror in her eyes. Now, more than ever, she was glad she had not been expected to join with the fighting. On more than one occasion she had seen a pegasi Shard clatter into a pegasus (which seemed to be all the Shards’ strategy consisted of) and Fluttershy could not imagine she would have been able to stay in the air after such a collision.
As such thoughts occurred to her, she witnessed a pegasus being taken by surprise by a speedier Shard, and they did indeed fall to the ground below. Fluttershy turned away in dread, not wanting to see what might happen to the plummeting pony. It had been one of the Wonderbolts, judging from their uniform, although Fluttershy had no way of knowing which. She had been making sure to keep far enough above the fray that she was not spotted by any of the Shards herself, and the thought of falling almost froze her in place. If she fell from this height…
Trying to distract herself from such images, she flew further north to try and locate any of her fellow reconnaissance pegasi, hopefully Winter Tempest. As cold as Winter acted, Fluttershy couldn’t deny that she had felt safe with her on their previous flights into the mountains together. She could really do with that feeling of safety now. Especially if she wanted to the confidence she would need to start being useful.
Part of Fluttershy knew that it would be better for her to try and help out alone. They had a lot of ground to cover after all, they could hardly afford to pair up like usual. But the idea of flying down into range of the pegasi Shards, for that is what she would have to do to get any valuable information about enemy movement, was a little daunting. Part of the reason Fluttershy was still hovering so far up was to try and gather the courage to make that plunge.
Unfortunately the air this high, as it had been for the previous few days, was blustery and chilling, and the wind was resounding in her ears. She was therefore almost shocked out of her skin when she suddenly heard a voice not too far from her.
“Hey you! Floatshy, right?”
Fluttershy spun around in panic, tumbling through the air a little as she was buffeted by a particularly strong gale. When she reoriented herself she found herself staring into the face of a turquoise crystal pegasus mare who she vaguely recognised from the reconnaissance team, although she did not think they had ever spoken and she had no idea of her name. The mare was also struggling with the wind, which seemed to have picked up in the last few minutes.
“Or was it Flapshy?” the mare continued. “No, wait, Fluttershy, right?”
Fluttershy nodded timidly, but didn’t speak up.
“The element of harmony, right? Winter sure knows how to pick ‘em. I suppose you think that makes you better than us?”
Fluttershy shook her head wildly and tried to say “No”, but the word was lost to the wind.
“Meh, whatever. I only came over because I wanted to ask if you know where Softhoof is. Got some critical info for her.”
The blank expression on Fluttershy’s face must have been telling, because the mare frowned at her.
“You don’t know who Softhoof is, do you?”
Fluttershy was breathing fast now, which was not entirely due to the cold conditions, and she slowly shook her head. Why did the pegasus mares she’d met over the last week all seem so intimidating?
The crystal pegasus rolled her eyes. “I knew you’d be useless. What are you even here for? This is a battlefield; it’s no place for anypony’s eye-candy. If I were you I’d get out of here before you do something stupid.”
Fluttershy was frozen in place, which was not entirely due to the cold conditions, and failed to defend herself as she knew she should. The other mare departed, flying erratically down into the melee below, leaving the butter pegasus alone in the chilling air, as though stranded in deep water. It was several moments before Fluttershy felt able to move again.
She wasn’t useless. She knew that. Of course she knew that. And she could definitely help.
Feeling more determined now, or at the very least, telling herself that she was feeling more determined now, Fluttershy started flying north again, eyes peeled. Shining Armor had said that any information on Shards’ movements would be helpful, so all she needed to do to prove she could contribute was find a section of the opposing army that was back from the front lines and see what they were doing. Then she could find somepony and tell them and she’d have proved that turquoise mare wrong, whoever she was.
She could do that. Of course she could do that.
Pushing against the battering wind, Fluttershy peered down through the mist that was swirling around her. The start of the Crystal Mountain range was visible below her, which she assumed was a good sign. The fighting of the central front was mostly contained to the field behind her, and while the east and west fronts were closer to mountains, they should be a good distance away from her. That hopefully meant that she would not be in too much danger as she started to descend.
As she dropped a little lower, some shifting shadows became visible in the mountains far below. It was still the middle of the night, and with only the moonlight to see by it was not clear exactly what was happening, but Fluttershy assumed she must be witnessing Shard movement. There was surely no way any ponies were this far north. This could be just the thing she was looking for.
She flew even lower, determination temporarily overriding trepidation. Before long it became clear that she had indeed spotted a collection of Shards, in this case unicorn Shards. Fluttershy knew that the unicorn Shards were dangerous, and so the thought of a whole group of them was unnerving. They looked to be heading around a nearby mountain, probably to join the western front; the front Rarity was battling in, Fluttershy remembered nervously. The rest of the mountains below were currently deserted, suggesting that most Shards were already engaged in the fighting on the field to the south.
A sudden sound from behind her caused her heart to leap violently against her chest and she spun around wildly, once again losing control against the buffeting winds. To her horror she identified that the sound had come from a pegasus Shard nearby. She had been so engrossed in watching below that she had forgotten that she also needed to consider her own safety.
As she stared in shock at the Shard only a few feet away from her, she wished more than ever that some of her friends were with her. They would know what to do. All she felt like doing was screaming, but instead she froze in place, as if hoping that somehow, somehow, the Shard would not notice her.
Of course that was impossible. The Shard slowly spun in the air to face her and then lunged forward without warning. Now Fluttershy did yell out, as she attempted to dive out of the way. Just as she flapped her wings however, another sudden gust, stronger than any thus far, caught her and she careered away through the air, tumbling head over hooves and still screaming. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another Shard and her scream increased in volume, and then, unbidden, images of the falling Wonderbolt she had seen earlier floated into her mind and she shut her mouth abruptly, petrified.
Slowly, uncontrollably, she glanced down to the mountains below. A long way below. With the blood pounding in her head, and her heart beating hard against her chest, she realised what was inevitably about to happen and knew she had no way of stopping it. Leaving her just enough time to gulp in a desperate breath, her wings suddenly snapped shut against her sides, and, with a final scream, she plummeted.
A small part of her mind that was still thinking clearly realised that since there were unlikely to be any ponies nearby, screaming would only be attracting more Shards to her, but she completely failed to shut herself up as she fell. The world was spinning around her, alternating between the ominous shadows of the mountains below and the pinpricks of light from the stars above. There was no way she could survive a fall from this height. Nopony could.
The turquoise mare had been right. Fluttershy was useless. Why was she even here? She was going to die here.
“No.”
Fluttershy, with the world still careening around her, widened her eyes in surprise at the voice. It was only when she noticed that she had stopped screaming that she realised the voice had been her own.
“No,” she said again. She would not die here. Not now.
With no idea of how close she was now to the end of her terminal drop, Fluttershy flared her wings dramatically, just in time as it turned out. As she caught herself in the air, one of her hind legs smacked into a branch of a lone tree on the mountainside, and she was overturned, landing headfirst on the ground at a painful but far reduced speed.
Clambering to her hooves, Fluttershy shook her head to clear her vision and found that she was staring directly into another Shard, this one a crystal pony stallion. For a second she tensed, but then the adrenaline running through her surged once more.
“No.”
The Shard stepped towards her, red crystalline body contrasting eerily with his glowing green eyes. Fluttershy held her ground and took a deep breath. As the Shard came within a few inches of her she stepped forward herself, locking her gaze with the glowing green orbs.
Then the world flipped around her as she fell out of her body and into the depths of green.
---
It was immediately obvious that something was wrong.
Usually when Fluttershy used her ‘Stare’, she felt as if she were gazing into the heart of the pony or animal she was facing down. She had never attempted to explain the feeling to anypony, but she would not have described it as particularly intrusive; it was more like forging a hyper-personal connection with the pony in front of her.
This was not that. Instead of feeling connected to the Shard in front of her, Fluttershy instead felt as though she had been drawn into an abyss. There was nothing in the heart of the Shard. Even more curiously, and unnervingly, Fluttershy appeared to no longer be standing in the mountains at the edge of a battlefield. Instead she found herself in the centre of a vast wasteland, with nothing but dusty earth as far as the eyes could see.
She attempted to pull herself out of wherever she was by un-focussing her gaze, blinking, shaking her head… anything. Nothing she did had any effect however, and she started to shrink to the ground as she realised she was somehow trapped here, the vast space around her suddenly feeling oppressing.
She remained stationary for several minutes, or maybe seconds or hours, it was impossible to tell in this timeless barren plain. Her mind did not seem to be working properly, and it was only when she felt a rumble beneath her that she was broken out of her reverie. Small cracks were slowly forming in the ground around her, and she stumbled backwards, as if expecting the earth to swallow her up.
To Fluttershy’s horror, a shadowy mist started seeping out of the cracks. It looked similar to the mist of the Infection, and she redoubled her attempts to scrabble backwards out of range. As she watched, the mist gathered and started forming the outline of a giant figure, and Fluttershy found she was uncontrollably trembling, the brief surge of courage and adrenaline that she had found while falling having completely faded.
Her eyes widened in horror as the shadowy shape started to solidify, and a monstrous beast formed in front of her. With a horrible feeling of resignation she glanced up into a pair of blazing yellow eyes and then cowered away, knowing that her Stare would not help her now.
But then there was a loud splintering sound and the world disintegrated, disappearing around her, and she was in the void once more.
“You with me, Floaty?”
The grounding of a familiar voice pulled her back to reality, and the world slowly reappeared. She was back in Equestria, back in the Crystal Mountains, back in her body.
She was very definitely in her body though, which was disconcerting. You didn’t usually feel like you were inside your body did you? At least not consciously? It was almost as if she were an observer of the events around her rather than a participator. Even the ground around her seemed somehow more distant than it should.
“Oi, Fluttershy.”
A final shape in front of her solidified into the image of Winter Tempest, the white crystal pegasus standing surrounded by red fragments, suggesting she had just obliterated the Shard that Fluttershy had inadvertently fallen into somehow.
“I’m… I’m here,” Fluttershy replied weakly. Her voice sounded far away, as though it were not herself speaking.
Winter stepped up to her with a determined expression and Fluttershy suddenly recoiled in surprise, having been struck across the face. She did not feel the pain she would have expected though, which was strange.
“What were you doing, you brainless idiot? You were supposed to be staying out of range of the Shards!” Winter looked Fluttershy up and down critically. “Are you okay? You look…” she trailed off, her expression turning grim.
Fluttershy whimpered. “Oh… I’m so sorry…” her voice was still sounding distant, as if it were somepony else’s. “She was right, I really am useless…”
Winter’s tone immediately shifted. “What? No, listen to me, you’re not useless. Who said that?” She scowled. “It was Haze wasn’t it? She said she’d seen you. That mare’s just jealous.” Winter’s gaze dropped to Fluttershy’s body once more and she bit her lip. “Listen… I’m gonna get help.”
“What? No, don’t leave me…” Fluttershy wasn’t sure she could cope with being alone again. Not right now at least. She still felt like an intruder in her own body, and it wasn’t listening to any of her commands to move.
Winter reached a forehoof towards Fluttershy, in what was clearly an instinctive motion, but then flinched away for some reason when she realised what she was doing. She then dropped her leg to the ground, with an awkward expression on her face that suggested it had just occurred to her how weird her actions must look.
“I… uh. I’ll be back soon, I promise.” She jumped up into the air. “Stay here,” she ordered, unnecessarily.
Fluttershy watched blankly as Winter zipped off into the darkness. Why did she leave her? What was wrong? Why did she…
Her heart suddenly plummeted as she connected the dots. Looking down at what she had to keep reminding herself was her body, no matter how uncomfortable she felt, she spotted the inevitable signs. Of course Winter would leave. Of course Winter wouldn’t want to touch her. There were dark blotches spreading slowly across her chest which meant only one thing: Fluttershy was infected. She was going to die.
She suddenly felt very alone.
Fluttershy was just beginning to feel as though she was falling into blackness when she heard somepony yelling her name, bringing her back to the present just as a blur of pink resolved itself into the shape of an earth pony in front of her. A second later Winter landed beside the mare, fulfilling her promise to return. Fluttershy almost sobbed in relief.
“Oh no…”
Fluttershy turned to the pink mare who had just spoken; Pinkie, she suddenly realised. Pinkie. Her friend.
“Can you help her?” Winter asked hurriedly.
Pinkie’s bottom lip was trembling.
“Can you?” Winter repeated, even more urgently.
“Oh, um… oh! I know who to get.” Another pink blur and she was gone, leaving a stunned Winter behind.
As Fluttershy watched the colourful mare leave her field of vision, her eyes started to glaze over once more.
“Stay with me Floaty. I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you and I meant it.”
Fluttershy forced her eyes open, which took a surprising amount of effort. She needed to find that determination that she had found a short while earlier. She wasn’t useless. Unfortunately her body seemed to be becoming more and more alien to her, and the encroaching darkness was threatening to consume her once more.
It would be very easy to slip away. She didn’t feel as though she was really here anymore, the world around her seeming so distant, so unreal, compared to the barren wasteland she had been in a few minutes ago. Despite the threatening presence that she had encountered there, the memories did seem to be beckoning to her.
It was only moments later however, when a flash of colour broke back into her vision. She strained her eyes to focus on the three mares in front of her: A crystal pegasus, and two earth ponies, one grey and one pink. She still wasn’t alone.
“Please Maud, you have to do something,” said the pink one. Pinkie. Pinkie.
“And quickly,” said the pegasus, “she can’t have long, right?”
The grey mare stepped closer to her, and she would have backed away instinctively except that she seemed to have lost all control over her body.
“What happened?”
“She was facing down a Shard. Other than that I have no idea; I don’t know how she got infected. But are you saying you can save her?”
“Possibly. She’s not infected.”
“What?” echoed the other two voices.
“Not fully. The corruption seems different somehow. I don’t know.”
“But can you help her?”
There was a moment of tense silence, and then: “Yes.”
“Then do it. Get her out of here and to somewhere safe.”
“Yeah. Please Maud, you have to save her.”
The words were all fading away before the distant pegasus could understand them, but she did feel herself suddenly get launched into the air and land across somepony’s back like a ragdoll. She then heard a voice from beside her.
“Please stay strong Fluttershy! I’ll let the others know you’ll be okay.”
Most of these words faded away too, except for one that resonated with her: Fluttershy. Fluttershy.
“Hold on,” said a voice from below, and then the world around her started moving.