"Security breach. All teams stand by for immediate action.”
Twilight’s breath burned in her throat as she ran, hastily-donned armor and saddlebags pinching uncomfortably where a strap or clasp dug into her skin. Her limbs screamed at her as she ran, insisting that she slow down and take a moment’s rest to allow her oxygen-deprived muscles a chance to recuperate.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had run so hard, probably because she hadn’t. For the typically library-bound unicorn, ‘long-distance travel’ usually translated to either ‘train ride’ or ‘teleport.’ Of course, any meaningful form of teleportation ran head-first into the Exterior’s entirely unintuitive brain-warping architecture, thus rendering that form of travel entirely useless, and Twilight had yet to see anything resembling powered transport inside the endless miles of bleak blue-grey corridors.
Thus, she was forced to run. Her four teammates, however, were having a significantly easier time of it. Walleye and Lyra galloped in front, the two easily keeping pace astride each other. Rainboom brought up the rear, flying through the hallway at a speed that seemed considerably slower than the speed-obsessed pegasus would desire. Pinkie, of course, was Pinkie, somehow managing to keep pace despite her bouncy, pronking gait.
For a moment, she lamented that she had never taken the time to find a book on the subject of proper running practice, before the entire team took an abrupt right turn, swerving into the open expanse of Gate Three. Twilight took the opportunity to veer out of the way, collapsing into a heap on the floor as she caught her breath.
“Pinkie,” Walleye barked, skidding to a stop in the centre of the room while pointing to a recessed panel on the Gate’s wall. “Set our destination.”
“On it!” Pinkie replied, ever cheerful as she bounced over to the wall, pushing the panel away to reveal an intricate array of movable crystal mechanisms.
“So…” Lyra said, gazing confusedly at the pile of equipment bags Rainboom had just dumped onto the floor. “Why were we running?”
“Well, in case you didn’t notice,” Walleye raplied, grabbing her own bag-and-sling set and hoisting it into her back. “Security is on the warpath, so we’ve only got a few moments before they find where we are and ‘bushwhack’ us, or however you say it.”
“Right, next question then, why is Security chasing us?”
“Walleye wants to blow someone up,” Twilight wheezed, rolling the stolen thaumonuclear device off her back and gently to the floor. “With this.”
“Okay, third and hopefully final question, who are we blowing up?”
“Whoever,” Walleye answered, slipping her rifle into the sling and securing it. “Or whatever creature tortured Lunatic and cut off her wing.”
“And you need a bomb to do that, why?”
“I want to be sure.”
“With a nuke,” Twilight deadpanned.
“I want to be very sure.”
“This thing will obliterate all of Canterlot and most of the mountain it’s on,” Twilight pointed out, running the mental calculations for the blast radius. “And Ponyville, and probably set the Everfree Forest on fire.”
“Overkill much?” Rainboom chuckled, stretching her legs as she waited for Pinkie to finish aligning the Gate.
“What part of ‘I want to be sure’ do you not understand?”
“Can’t be sure until you see the body!” Lyra chirped.
“There isn’t going to be a body,” Twilight said dryly. “Or much of anything, for that matter.”
“Good!” Walleye barked.
“Aligned!” Pinkie shouted, slipping the panel back into place before tapping her beacon and vanishing.
"Security breach, Gate Three.”
“Did she just...?” Rainboom asked, pointing at where Pinkie had been standing.
“She did,” Walleye answered.
“Was she supposed to…”
“No.”
“Nicely done, Walleye,” Lyra smirked, patting Walleye on the back. “Haven’t even started this mission, and already our analyst is in the middle of the combat zone.”
“Horseapples!” Walleye swore, pulling the straps on her saddlebag tight. “Go! Twilight! Bring the bomb!”
Walleye, Rainboom and Lyra disappeared as they tapped their beacons, leaving Twilight alone on the Gate floor.
“Great,” Twilight muttered, gingerly hefting the nuke onto her back and securing it in place, sending off the mental command to her beacon.
"Security breach, Gate Six.”
“...Waitaminute…”
"Security breach, Gate Two.”
The world went sideways and reformed.
Canterlot was in chaos, pillars of smoke rising from sites all over the city where mobs had set buildings alight. Screams and cries of rage echoed through the streets, ponies running from building to building looting what little remained. Soot-covered shattered glass littered the square where the team had arrived, abandoned weapons lying by storefronts where rioting ponies had smashed windows, doors, signs, and whatever else was within reach.
“Pinkie!” Rainboom cried, whipping her weapon, a compact thaumic carbine, from her saddlebag and loosing a single blast at the pony that was currently beating Pinkie over the head with a baseball bat, sending him flying as the collimated chromatic beam struck him mid-barrel.
Twilight ran forward, scattered information from medical and surgical textbooks flooding to the forefront of her mind as she quickly examined the fallen pony. Rainboom quickly took to the air, not hesitating to make liberal use of her carbine against any pony that dared to get close to the group of newly-arrived Outsiders.
“Is she okay?” Walleye asked, concerned.
“Pulse and breathing are fine,” Twilight said, calling up and casting any spell she had available for medical diagnosis. “She’s unconscious. Probable concussion, skull fracture, dammit, I don’t know what that means…”
“What a skull fracture means?”
“No, what this spell is telling me,” Twilight clarified. “It’s an old one I remember from the Canterlot Archives, designed for rapid diagnosis for paramedics. Medicine wasn’t really anything that I found especially interesting, I mean… I’d read it… But other stuff was always more interesting.”
“You’re babbling,” Walleye barked. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know!” Twilight yelled. “It’s throwing all this information at me, and it’s being very insistent about an… Epidural Hematoma? I don’t know what that means!”
“Neither do I,” Walleye said. “Can she be moved?”
“I… I think so.”
“Good. Lyra, carry her. Medical on the Exterior can handle her once we Exit.”
“Why don’t we just take her back now?” Lyra asked as Twilight levitated Pinkie’s unconscious form onto her back, hooking her legs into the straps of Lyra’s saddlebags. “It could be serious!”
“I need you here,” Walleye replied. “The city is in chaos, and I need all hooves.”
“Buck that! Just set the bomb here. If Twilight’s right about the blast, it’ll get whoever you’re looking to get.”
“I need to be sure that they’re here,” Walleye insisted. “We’ll head to Canterlot Castle, break into the throne room, and set the bomb there.”
“Because that won’t be hard,” Twilight muttered, reading a set of stunning spells as they moved down Canterlot’s main street towards the palace, Rainboom keeping overwatch from overhead.
To Twilight’s surprise, they managed to keep a relatively brisk pace. The occasional pony, seeing another potential opportunity for violence, had taken a run at them with whatever improvised weapon was at hand, only for Rainboom to smack them down from above with a well-placed carbine bolt. After the first three attempts, they were given a wide berth, allowing the team to proceed in unmolested relative silence.
Much like the rest of the city, Canterlot Palace was in chaos, pillars of smoke and flame issuing from locations where particularly daring rioters had flung bombs or spells. Hundred-year old masonry and stonework continued to crumble, sending echoing shocks throughout the area as they struck the ground and shattered.
“Where are all the guards?” Twilight asked as they cautiously made their way through the main gates. “I would have expected more ponies trying to defend the castle.”
“Guessing they all went for smoko,” Lyra quipped.
“Or whatever reason everypony outside is rioting was enough to get the Guard to walk off, too,” Rainboom added.
“It mostly likely had something to do with Lunatic escaping,” Walleye said, tentatively guiding them into the deserted entrance hall. “If this world is so caught up on killing alicorns, how do you think they’d react when they capture a pair and they both get away?”
“Violently,” Lyra answered. “This room looks clear, alright if we set that bomb of yours here and get out of here?”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Twilight,” Walleye groaned, turning to face her. “We came all this way and now you’ve got an issue with me setting it off? What, is this room too pretty?”
Twilight glared back at her, slowly lifting her forehoof to point at the other Twilight Sparkle that had just come into view at the top of the grand staircase, a jet-black hammer floating in the air beside her. Despite the multitude of bruises and cuts, she held herself with an air of regal determination, gazing at the newcomers with mild annoyance.
“I must admit,” she began, slowly descending the staircase. “This is somewhat unexpected. You are working with Luna, then? Rather an elaborate plan, I must admit. How did you manage to ally yourselves with the changelings? Even I couldn’t convince them to come peacefully! I had to resort to using elk as allies, and look how well that turned out!”
“What changeling?” Rainboom asked, confused.
“My doppleganger over there,” she replied, pointing at Twilight.
“Oh,” Walleye said. “Yeah, she’s not a changeling.”
“No? Then what? Illusion magic? It’s not surgical, she has my cutie-”
“Not relevant,” Walleye cut her off. “I take it you’re the maniac that was responsible for mutilating Lunatic?”
“Lunatic?” Twilight laughed. “Such an appropriate name, and you call her that as well! Oh, I wish I had thought of that one when I fought her the first time. All I got out of it was this lousy hammer. Apparently It’s made from cast lunar stone, an appropriate trophy to take from the Lunar Tyrant.”
“Answer my question.”
“Yes, I cut her wing off. My only regret is that that was all I got to remove.”
“All I needed to hear. Rainboom?”
Rainboom aimed her carbine and fired, only to have Twilight raise her hammer and easily deflect the chromatic beam harmlessly into the floor.
“You’ll have to do better than that,” Twilight smirked, twirling the hammer in mid-air.
Rainboom fired again, only to cry out in pain as the shot was reflected back at her, lancing clean through her wing. An echoing thud resounded through the room as she crashed to the floor, moaning.
Twilight swung the hammer around, glaring down Walleye. “So, you’re going to try next?”
Walleye reacted, releasing the straps on her rifle sling and bringing it up to bear. Twilight responded decisively, teleporting closed the gap between them before slamming the hammer into the side of Walleye’s head, sending her spinning into Rainboom, her rifle dropping unused to the floor.
“You’re naught for two,” she quipped, turning to regard her doppleganger. “Perhaps my duplicate will put up a fight worthy of a Princess?”
“I’m not a Princess,” Twilight replied, backing away fearfully.
“No, but I am.”
A crack echoed throughout the hall as the Tyrant Princess teleported the gap closed, her hammer already mid-swing. Twilight, reacting on instinct, triggered her own teleport, blinking out of the way of the hammer strike, causing the blow to land on the tiles, sending spiderweb cracks rippling through the priceless marble.
“You can dodge,” Princess Twilight smirked, pulling the hammer free. “That’s one better than your friends!”
“Friends?” Twilight breathed, distracted. The concept was foreign to her, she hadn’t ever entertained the possibility of friends during her years at the Royal School, and she certainly didn’t consider Team Fifteen to be anything more than workmates or acquaintances.
The momentary distraction was more than enough for the Princess to teleport again, bringing the hammer around in a devastating spinning strike. The sound of stone on metal echoed through the room as Twilight ducked a split-second too late, the bomb on her back sent flying through the air before landing next to Walleye and Rainboom.
Adrenaline flooded her senses, reducing her awareness to a relative pinhole as her brain shut down ancillary cognition in the face of imminent mortal peril. Millenia-old fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, autonomously polling her memory for any useful methods of self-defense as her muscles went into overdrive, preparing her to fend off the threat.
Dimly, Twilight noticed that the Princess’ strike had put the tyrant in a particularly vulnerable position, and her horn was now pointed directly at the Princess’ neck. While she was hardly an expert on magical combat, she knew from her limited reading that that was the last position you wanted to be in when facing off against another spellcaster. She had a momentary advantage.
Thought left her mind, to be replaced by cold, unwavering instinct. Her forebrain immediately latched onto the idea of ‘neutralise threat,’ and fed it directly into the neural structures below her horn, responsible for coordinating magical work. Magic flowed through her, her adrenaline-addled brain overriding any conscious limits she would normally place on spell output, dumping every thaum of magical potential at her disposal, including the Outsider Powerstone’s reserves, into a single offensive blast.
A two-and-a-half-kilothaum pulse of barely-formatted magic left the tip of her horn, striking the Princess just below her jawbone.
An instant later, Princess Twilight Sparkle abruptly ceased to exist.
It took a few seconds before Twilight opened her eyes, her limbs shaking as the adrenaline flood finally reached them, arming them for a fight that was now entirely unnecessary. The base of her horn burned as the spell’s waste energy washed over her, dumping the unused thaumic potential back into the local field.
“Woah,” Lyra mumbled, staring wide-eyed at the crouching unicorn. “You just… That… was something.”
She gingerly rose to her full height, glancing at her teammates with an unsure look on her face. Walleye and Rainboom both stared back at her, their pain entirely forgotten and replaced with pure surprise.
“I killed her,” Twilight said, quietly.
“She was going to kill you,” Rainboom groaned as Walleye helped her to her hooves, her wing hanging limply at her side. “It’s a natural response.”
“But… I killed her.”
“If you didn’t do it, I would have,” Walleye reminded her.
“Fat chance,” Lyra said. “She smacked you down without even putting effort in.”
“Oh, rub it in.”
“I killed her,” Twilight repeated. “I killed her, and now an entire city is going to die because I was oh so desperate to get you to trust me!”
“Twilight…” Walleye began
“Walleye, I think it’s best you shut it for a tick,” Lyra said, resting a hoof gently on Twilight’s back. “Twi, It’s okay. We’ve all of us killed ponies.”
“But that’s not me!” Twilight sobbed. “I’m not a killer! I don’t want to be a killer!”
“Sometimes you get forced into a corner. Self-preservation is a fairly primal instinct.”
“When did you get all poetic?” Rainboom asked.
“Better than the bollocks you two are feeding her.”
“Oh buck up,” Walleye shouted. “She killed somepony who was about to kill her, boo-bucking-hoo. Everypony here’s done it, at least now she’s actually earning her place on this team.”
“No! Shut up!” Twilight shouted, notes of hysteria creeping into her voice. “I am not like you! You bigoted, unthinking nag! I should never have tried to earn your trust, I should have just run off the moment I got home and forgotten about all of you. You’ve turned me into a mass murderer!”
Walleye stopped mid-step, eyes fixed on the tiny green-black motes popping into and out of existence around the base of Twilight’s horn. “Okay, Twilight. Take it easy…”
“Uh, guys?” Rainboom piped up. “Is the bomb supposed to be doing that?”
Every head in the room snapped around to look at her, before slowly following her outstretched hoof to the bomb, malevolent red numerals floating over the damaged activation plate. They were counting down.
“Fix it!” Lyra shouted.
“Screw that! We’re leaving!” Walleye shouted.
In unison, they all tapped their beacons.
Nothing happened.
“Uh…” Rainboom mumbled, repeatedly tapping her beacon. “It’s not doing anything. It’s not even beeping. Aren’t they supposed to beep?”
Twilight fired her own beacon, waiting a few seconds for the return acknowledgement.
“There’s nothing there,” she said as the beacon quietly informed her that the call failed. “There’s no gate there to collect us. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Did they strand us here on purpose?” Lyra asked.
“No, Gates don’t work like that. We’d return to the default gate if they switched off the one we left from,” Twilight explained, taking the opportunity to lecture to distract her from the horror of the situation. “This is more like the Gates are just… gone.”
They all stared at each other, expressions mixed as they turned to regard each other, and the rapidly-depleting bomb timer.
“Oh good,” Walleye said, smirking lopsidedly. “For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble.”