Chapter 6
The Storm Breaks
Finding Spike wasn’t hard, they pulled up to the hospital as he was being released and barely stopped long enough for him to climb in. Then they pulled into the Ponyville supply depot to restock their ammo and any other missing supplies they would need. Once they got back to Canterlot they figured it would be a quick turnaround as they were sent straight back out and wanted to be ready for their deployments. While those supplies were meant for the irregulars in case of attack they were happy to help the soldiers of the Armed Forces restock and before they knew it they were heading north again on the road that brought them to Ponyville their next stop, Canterlot.
The jeep was crowded to say the least, 6 mares and 1 teenage dragon kinda did that. Now that they were on a road instead of bumpy wasteland Rainbow took to sitting on the emergency seat on the front bumper, her legs crossed like she didn’t have a care in the world, while the rest of the girls rode inside. Applejack took one last look behind her before she settled on her seat for the trip ahead of them. It was nearly two hours by jeep to Canterlot and they had a ways to go.
“You ok Darling?” Rarity asked her.
“Yeah, Ah’m fine. Ah just miss the farm already. Ah’m thinking Ah shouldn’t have gone back.” Applejack told her glumly.
“Oh Posh, you needed to. You had to see how the farm was doing and you wanted to see your family again. Now perish the thought, you did the right thing.” Rarity told her firmly she was leaning forward so she could look at Applejack around Twilight and Spike. Applejack couldn’t help but to grin.
“Ya know, your right Rarity, your right. I’m glad Apple Bloom was doing so well.”
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In Ponyville the town hall also serves as the command and control post for the Ponyville Irregulars. Manned at all times by at least one folk the Ponyville command and control, also known as the PCNC, kept tabs on the war effort for the entire town. Many times in the past, before official word would reach the little country town, the PCNC already knew of it. Established not long after the fall of the Whitetail Woods, Ponyville stepped up as a central transportation hub for the southern war effort and a Lynch pin for the operations of the area. Many of the brass in the upper reaches of the Armed Forces, Celestia and Luna included, quickly saw the quirky town as a vital defense to Canterlot and the rest of the nation.
So why didn’t Celestia or even Luna sweep in and declare martial law and turn Ponyville into a fortified city? Why did Ponyville maintain its open arms policy? Why did this sleepy little town not turn into a hot bed of military activity? Why are there little to no soldiers walking the streets?
The answer can be summed up in two words: It’s Ponyville. Founded on acceptance, built on trust and friendship, shored up by goodwill the town quickly let it be known to every member of the Armed Forces who came to the tiny town to ‘shore up the defenses’ or ‘make the region safe’ that the town wasn’t going to play that game. The very core of the town refused to bend, the folk refused to conform to a military mindset. The town did it the way IT wanted to. Underneath the picture perfect town every member of fighting age regardless of: Gender, Ability or Occupation, was trained by soldiers who were wounded on the lines to be the best they could be. Every household, while greeting anyone who visited the town with a smile and open arms, had a small stock pile for the day Ponyville would be attacked. Ask any folk in town and the answer would be the same, it wasn’t a matter of if. It was a matter of when.
Everyone knew it and everyone prepared for it but refused to succumb to fear and hate. The sheer number of eccentrics, oddities and general weirdness was turned into a defense. The folk of the town of Ponyville found a place for everyone. Even the mailmare, despite being wall eyed or better yet because she was walled eyed, was a better shot than most of the town combined. The town of Ponyville felt ready, ready to do what needed to be done to defend their homes and families. The drills were ran, the escape paths noted by those unable or the very few unwilling to fight, the patrols were sent out to be safe. Everything felt ready…or so they hoped, only the Quil would show them if their preparations were enough.
In the PCNC a lone mare manned the radios that day when the call came in, it was a simple message but an important one. For Ponyville the message was simple, it was time to find out just how ready they were.
Fire Base 80 wiped out. Unknown force of Quil heading for Ponyville. ETA: Unknown. Reinforcements enroute.
The mare blinked only once before her training kicked in. Rolling her chair down the consoles she slammed her fist on the first of two large red button that glowed nearby then hit the second. Jumping from her seat she grabbed her weapon and ran from the room, her job there was done, now for her second job. From hidden sirens all over Ponyville a eerie wail ripped out across the quiet day. The folk of Ponyville paused for a second looking around in surprise. Then, nearly as one body, the entirety of the town rushed to positions. It was time to soldier up and fight.
From around the border of the town large crystals sprang from underground rising to float nearly twenty feet in air. Once in position tendrils of energy started to trace between the floating crystals then spread to cover the entire town turning into a town wide shield.
As the Irregulars dived into their caches of supplies for weapons and uniforms, those that couldn’t fight made for Sweet Apple Acres. There members of the Apple Family, armed and ready, started to usher those into the Everfree towards the Castle of the Royal Sisters. Leaving behind enough to protect a possible retreat, most of the Apples went into the Everfree on guard duty.
In Ponyville Mayor Mare pulled on a helmet and her Uniform, a white shirt with a brown vest. The vest had light metal plates sewn in for some protection. Fatigue pants and combat boots followed suit then a holster and pistol. She knew the plan, she helped to work it out. As she ran for the town hall she saw someone inside already started to open the roof. Shoving the door open she ran for the back of the main hall where a set of stairs were hidden to take her to the PCNC on the upper floor.
“Commander on deck!” A mare shouted as she stepped to the now exposed PCNC. While most irregulars barely had any structure to them, the Ponyville irregulars were highly structured. It worked for them, everyone knowing their job and duties.
Lining the edge of the deck were eight telescopes pointed out into all possible directions. A large table in the middle was dominated by a oversized map of Ponyville and off to one side radio equipment started to squawk with reports. Mayor Mare, now Commander or CO Mare, looked around at who was there. At each of the telescopes stood a folk ready to relay direct reports to her. A young Earth Folk mare sat at the radio, the only one on the deck not standing at attention. Two more mares, one a mint green Horned Folk, a bright cyan mane with a white streak in it by the name of Lyra Heartstrings, and the other was a cream skinned Earth Folk with a blue mane and a pink strip down the middle called Bon Bon, stood at attention by the map. Both of them held long polls with a wide flat end on the tip.
“I need a Sit Rep.” CO Mare asked as she pulled on a helmet one of the folk by a telescope handed her.
“No contact with enemy forces.” Lyra started. “Radio contact with Royal Guard was made at 1455 hours, Ponyville Combat Operations started at 1456. Non Combatant civilians, foals and elderly, have already made their way to Sweet Apple Acres with transport jeeps already returning to the depot for refit. We have ten squads of Irregulars in positions around Ponyville, five of the seven roads into town have been shored up and remaining squads are taking cover in the buildings around the edge of town to give fire support to the road squads. We have seven more squads gearing up now and deploying to their staging areas as we speak.”
“Thank you. Bon Bon, supplies and our little surprise?” CO Mare asked turning to the other mare.
“Supplies have been trickling in for almost two and a half years so we got quiet the stockpile. Short of a prolonged siege, we are good for food, ammo and medical supplies. We switched on the water filters only moments ago to prevent the enemy from messing with our water supply. As you can see the town wide shield has been deployed and is standing strong. Being a one way shield it should make our jobs much easier.” She paused a moment, looking slightly disturbed then gritted her teeth and carried on. “Ma’am, I have to say this. We never had cause to test this shield system so any flaws in it…we are going to find out the hard way. We have told the squads to NOT depend on the shield and fight like their lives depended on it.”
“Why is that?” She asked Bon Bon slightly puzzled.
“If you take a look you will notice that two of the crystals are only partially covered by the shield, an error during deployment. IF the Quil can destroy both of those crystals the shield will fall. I already have a squad of Winged folk to guard the crystals but since we don’t know the stress being put on them, it might not take much to shatter. Since the shield is only a one way, if those squads pass through the shield, they can’t come back until we drop the shield. Which won’t happen until the Quil are defeated. So…” Bon Bon told her leaving the last bit hanging, Mare nodded at her knowingly. If the Winged folk squads go out they were out there until they were wiped out, no retreat.
“And the surprise?”
“That is ready to go. Granted it may only buy us time to try to retake Ponyville should the unthinkable happen because of the self correcting aspect.” Bon Bon glanced over at the Library with a slight worry on her face. “We have someone over there right now prepping it as we speak, might take a little time though. The package is set to detonate with this remote.” She handed a small box with a red cap covering a button. “We have a main switch here in the PCNC, but that button is in case we are forced to flee before we can hit the main.” Bon Bon pointed to a large red and white stripe covering over another button sitting between the two depressed red buttons.
“Good work you two, give me a look at our deployment.” Mare walked up to the map and looked down. Lyra lit her horn and a few dozen small blue figures floated out from a box under the table. Bon Bon started to place the figures across the map. Most of the figures showed an Earth Folk Stallion with a rifle up in firing position, a few others showed a Winged Folk mare with her weapon ready. It was a quick job, quickly flipping them over to see the number then placed it on the map, pushing it into position with her rod. Lyra pulled a few more figures out as Bon Bon worked. These were red, shaped like Quil, about a dozen in number some shaped like the Quil Soliders and a few like the Quil Airborn. Lyra used her rod to push them off the map. Once Bon Bon was done Lyra’s horn lit up again and the Winged Folk figures rose about six inches into the air.
“Ma’am, Gamma Squad, Carrot Squad and Melody Squad reporting as deployed.” The radio mare called out. Bon Bon placed the appropriate pieces on the board.
“Inform all squads to keep their eyes peeled for enemy movement. Look outs, keep your eye on the ground and in the sky. What about the six soldiers who were in town?” Mare asked.
“Last known intelligence showed them heading north on the Caterlot road.” One of the lookouts called out.
“Checking now.” The northern look out swung his telescope out towards the road. “I got them, they are a few miles out and they seem to have paused looking back. I guess they heard the sirens.”
“See if you can raise them on the radio, it’s not much but those six might be enough to help shore up some weak points. They are trained soldiers after all.”
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At Sweet Apple Acres, as the dozens of foals and elderly fled into the Everfree under the watchful eyes of the Apple Family, three teenage fillies looked at each other with solemn nods. While the Family was distracted with their jobs, the three fillies slipped into the orchard heading for an old treehouse.
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“Darling what in the world is that?!” Rarity asked as she looked up from the scope of her rifle watching the glowing dome appear around her home town.
“That is a shield covering the entirety of Ponyville! I never heard of a shield being projected on that level. Those crystals are etched with dozen of shield wards.” Twilight said in awe, she could see the etching from where she was. She could see the lines of energy that danced between them. “The amount of power needed to perform such a feat is beyond any Horned Folk or even Alicorn! The mana streams connecting those crystals are complex, weavable by only a master of the warding arts!” She breathed in awe as she lowered her binoculars. “How did Ponyville do that?! And that wailing sounded like an air raid siren. Are they expecting an attack?”
Pinkie snorted a giggle. “It’s Ponyville silly, we needed it, we did it.” Then she paused and looked down at her left leg as it jumped slightly from a twitch. “Girls, I think we need to get back to Ponyville pronto. That was the incoming attack siren.”
“Aww ponyfeathers. Twilight can you get us into that shield?” Applejack asked.
“Yes I can, I was able to see the cross lattice form as the shield went up. I can easily pry open a hole large enough for us to get in without putting an actual hole in the shield.”
“Lattice whatice?” Applejack asked then put her hand against Twilight’s mouth as she opened it to answer her. “Nevermind, it’s a Horned Folk magic thingy. Ah really don’t want to know what or how. Ah just need to know what we are going to do about it.”
Twilight looked at her, her eyes widening only slightly at the implied question. As Applejack’s hand fell from her mouth she looked at the other girls, each of them looking at her expecting something. Spike on the other hand nodded at her.
“You know what we got to do Twilight. Let’s do it.” Spike told her. He was already pulling off his shirt with an eager grin. After a moment Twilight nodded.
“Spike standby, you are not going to the air just yet. Everyone back into the Jeep we are heading back to Ponyville. Rarity, take the binoculars and keep an eye out for any Quil in our area. Rainbow Dash, scout ahead but DO NOT engage anything until you got backup. I need to know what the situation is. Pinkie, get us there ASAP! Move out!”
“Ma’am!” The group shouted as they jumped at the tasks given to them. Fluttershy tossed up Rainbow Dash’s rifle just as she turned and took off with a prismatic streak following her. Once everyone was in Pinkie stepped on the gas sending the jeep forward. Suddenly she turned the wheel and popped the emergency break sending the Jeep into a sliding spin. When they came to a stop they were facing back towards Ponyville. Disengaging the emergency break Pinkie sent the jeep back towards the shielded town, her foot to the floor. Rarity sat on the back of the seats scanning the area around them for any enemy movement using her magic to keep the binoculars to her face as she hung on with her hands as Twilight and Applejack started to pass out weapons and ammo for the fight.
Twilight pulled out her ear commlink, a small crystal set on a small ear piece, as her horn glowed a moment quickly followed by the ear piece as she readjusting it. Once the magic glow faded she put it in her ear. “Rainbow, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear 1st Sergeant. How did you do that?” Rainbow’s voice came back to her.
“Tweaked my commlink to get all types of radio signals and not just a select few. Keep me up to date on what you see we are on our way back now.”
“Roger that! From what I can see now looks like the town locked itself down and ready for a fight. I see nearly twelve squads of irregulars either behind walls barricading the ways into town or in houses. At least two more maybe three squads are gearing up in the town square…” Rainbow paused a moment.
“Report Staff Sergeant Dash!” Twilight called out. She motioned for Rarity to get a spot on Rainbow Dash and after a second Rarity nodded at her with a thumbs up that Rainbow was ok.
“Sorry, I see at least two of the crystals sticking outside of the shield with a squad of Winged Folk taking up guard positions on each. What does that mean?” Rainbow asked her. It took Twilight only a moment to figure it out.
“Those crystals are going to be a problem. If they shatter the shield will go down.” Twilight told her.
“That’s bad huh?”
“Maybe, depends if the town is prepared for it or not. A shield of this size is unheard of so maybe they have planned for the shield not working. Carry on Rainbow we are still about five minutes away from the shield ourselves.”
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Back at the PCNC things were heating up. “Contact!” One of the lookouts shouted. “Grid 17, dead west of town. Got a bunch of bugs heading right for us. ETA: 1 minute. Their coming at us at a full gallop.”
Mare looked up from the map as Lyra placed a Quil soldier figure on grid 17. With a small burst of magic a one minute timer appeared and it started to slowly move towards the nearest blue figure. The mare at the radio sent the message to all squads that contact has been made and where with the time for combat.”
“Mare, those soldiers are on their way back. They got a scout in the air and Pinkie is driving like a fruit bat out of tartarus. Oddly enough I don’t see any screaming…yet.” Another look out added. He swung his telescope around to watch other angles. Mare couldn’t help but to shutter about the last time Pinkie was behind the wheel in town. Shaking it off she looked over to the radio operator.
“Tell the squads to open fire once they are in range. And inform everyone else to keep an eye out, that can’t be all of them.” As the radio operator did so another voice called in over the radio. The signal was full of static but it could be understood.
“This is 1st Sergeant Twilight Sparkle calling Ponyville Central Command. Come in Ponyville Central Command.” Mare ran up and grabbed the spare mic and opened the channel.
“This is the PCNC, go ahead 1st Sergeant.”
“We are enroute to Ponyville, ETA 5 minutes. Orders ma’am?”
“Stick to the Canterlot road, when you reach the shield the lattice frequency is…” Mare started only to be cut off.
“67.8. I saw it as the shield went up, that is well within my magical range.” Twilight told her.
{She knew it just by looking at it?! Just who is this filly? That Frequency is high level magic, most can’t even get that high. I was going to give them a lower matching frequency just to get in, but she can completely null it herself!} Mare thought to herself in shock. After a moment she shook her head to clear it.
“Copy that. Inside…” She paused as another voice called out.
“Contact sector 10, AIRBORN! It’s a full swarm and they are already on us! Where did they come from? It was like they just appeared from nowhere.” A look out called. Mare turned back to the radio.
“1st Sergeant Sparkle, we have no air support at the moment reinforcements are inbound but we need to hold those Airborn off. Can you help in anyway?” There was a silent pause.
“I’ll send Staff Sergeant Dash to perform delaying and disruption actions. I’ll join her once the others are in. Spike…” The radio went dead a moment then Twilight’s voice came back. “See if you can radio for any other support.”
“Copy that.” Mare dropped the mic and turned around to view the map. The Quil Soldiers were attacking the shield edge as Carrot and Cake Squads were engaging the enemy there. Thunderstriker Squad were engaging the Quil Airborn to the south but they were out of their league just by sheer numbers.
“Mare, a prismatic blur just cut through the airborn disrupting their attack. Thunderstriker is rallying, but right now only the shield is keeping them alive.” The southern lookout reported.
Mare looked at the radio operator. “Send a general distress call any forces nearby that can come to Ponyville’s aid, broad range and all channels.”
“Contact! Sector 1! Quil soldiers ETA thirty seconds!” The northern look out called.
“Contact Sector 12, more Quil Soldiers, ETA now!” That came from the southwestern look out.
Grabbing her binoculars Mare looked around at each of the contact points. The Quil numbers were high, too high. {Did they bypass the front line somehow?} She thought as she looked around. Behind her she heard the radio operator call the distress signal.
“This is the Ponyville Command and Control to any allied forces, we are under attack by Quil Soldiers with Airborn support. We are requesting immediate assistance. I repeat, we are requesting immediate assistance from any allied forces.” The radio operator ended her transmission to focus on the battle when a hissing voice came back over the radio almost instantly.
“This is Captain Vorrn of the 10th Changeling brigade we are changing course to assist. ETA: ten minutes.” The radio mare’s eyes went wide and looked at Mare.
“That was unexpected.” Mare told her with a slight smile. She was sure they could hold for ten minutes. Then another voice cracked over the radio.
“This is General Celestia with the Winged Royal Guard, I am enroute to your position, ETA fifteen minutes.”
Everyone in the PCNC paused and looked at the radio in shock. Celestia herself was enroute to them. For nearly a minute they could only stand there dumbfounded. Then Mare snapped too.
“Get the word out to all squads including those soldiers out there. Help will be here in ten minutes and Celestia herself will be here in fifteen. Until then we are on our own.”
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Twilight watched Dash zip towards the Quil Airborn coming from the south. The shield was holding against their assault as a Squad of Winged Folk fired through the shield trying to keep them from pressing the attack. Reaching over she touched Applejack’s shoulder to get her attention.
“Get inside then find the hardest hit point and support them. We can’t get artillery support so we need to hold that shield as long as we can. Take Fluttershy with you, if they do break through, she will be more useful to you than to me.” Twilight told her. Applejack nodded her understanding of the orders as Twilight looked back up at the looming shield. After a moment she looked over her shoulder at Spike. “Now Spike!”
In one motion Spike shucked his pants and jumped out the back of the jeep aw Twilight’s horn glowed causing Spike changed into his full dragon form. As soon as he touched down on all fours he pushed back into the air with leap. With a powerful flap of his wings he started to follow the jeep.
“We got a radio sugercube, so we can stay in contact.” Applejack said touching the hand held radio she had with her equipment. She passed Twilight her weapon as she pulled out her shotgun. “Ah’ll keep ya up to date with the ground fight.”
“Please do, and be careful, all of you. I’ll see you on the flip side.” Twilight said as she stood on the back of the Jeep, her horn glowing brightly. As they neared the shield wall Twilight jumped, being caught by a waiting Spike, and fired her horn at the shield opening a jeep sized hole in the shield. As the jeep passed through the hole closed and Spike flipped Twilight to her saddle with a burst of Dragon Magic. “Let’s ride Spike.”
“Oh yeah, time for a real fight.” Spike grinned as he gained altitude. A small snort of green fire shot out of his nose as he suppressed a small laugh. “Twilight save your shield for a moment.” He said. Twilight nodded once, only her connection to Spike in this form allowed him to know the silent acknowledgement.
She saw Rainbow Dash zipping in and out of the Quil disrupting any real coordination to their attacks. But even then the sheer number of Quil was staggering. She saw Spike’s plan in his mind and wanted to shoot him herself. It was dumb, fueled by a want to do as much damage to these Quil as possible, and had merit only to Spike’s mind and yet somehow she was going to allow him to try. She nodded to herself grimly, it was time to face these Quil and not flinch.
Spike climbed to above the massed Quil, then with one powerful flap of his wings he shot down towards them. His wings snapping shut to his side for a free fall as he took a deep breath. Twilight would wait for him to make the first attack then she would join. Twilight watched the Quil closely as they fell, surprised none of them saw the two of them yet. By all reports the Quil took the Dragon Riders as either: Targets of Opportunity or as a serious threat. Either way being a Dragon Rider had a VERY short life span in combat. Twilight didn’t quite understand why. Was it the magical abilities of the Horned Folk plus the Dragon or was it the Dragon alone that made the Quil focus on the riders? She may never know or that knowledge may be short lived. Below one Quil did finally look up with its glowing red eye, the last thing it ever saw was a jet of green fire.
Spike’s plan was simple in design and execution. Using gravity to speed his assault he would simply cut through the massed Quil with flame and claws while Twilight fired into the mass as they cut through it. Simple and to Spike’s mind a simple plan had the best chance of working, very few steps to mess up, and should something go wrong a simple plan was the best to ‘make up as you go’. Spike was proud of it, simple and clean. It also designed to turn the Quil towards them thus relieving the pressure from the Winged Squad trying so valiantly keep the Quil from breaking the shield.
Quil, incinerated by Spike’s flames, fell to the ground in burning heaps. Those close to the flames were scorched from the sheer heat. Many of those scorched fell to the ground unable to resist the pain and heat. Of those that survived within that range Spike grabbed and with a quick squeeze finished the job. Twilight, sitting backwards on the saddle, was shooting Quil as fast as she could. It was almost a blind fire, but as massed as the Quil were at that moment, it was hard to miss her target. Before either of them knew it they emerged from the bottom of the Quil Airborn. Snapping his wings open Spike beat a hasty retreat from such a vulnerable position aiming for higher ground.
{Think they got my message?} Spike asked as he felt Twilight turn in her saddle and fire at the Quil from below.
{Maybe.} Twilight thought back as Spike started to gain altitude again. He twisted in air enough to fire a few fireballs into the mass sending more to the ground in burning heaps. Suddenly a prismatic flash pulled up next to her as Rainbow Dash fell into close formation. She was almost dancing in the air her eyes sparkling with something like Joy.
“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh! That was way cool!” She was almost squealing. Then she seemed to catch herself, visibly calming her excited look and adopted a cocky smile and a new found respect in her eyes. “I never seen something like that before and I have flown with some powerful Riders before. It takes guts to fly through the center of a mass of Quil like that and come out unharmed. I’m sticking close to you from now on. You know how to bring the action to the table.”
“Sounds good.” Twilight said as she looked at the Quil Airborn. Most had stopped their attack on the shield and was looking at the three of them now. “Rainbow Dash, show me that speed you were talking about. They are going to charge me, I’m going to run. Hit their flanks and keep them from flanking me. Should be easy for someone as good as you.” Twilight said her horn lighting up to raise her shield. It was time to test a theory.
“You can count on me, I never leave my friends hanging.” Rainbow laughed as she pulled back from Twilight.
As one body most of the Quil rushed her but Spike was ready launching off away from Rainbow Dash. Rainbow gave a ten count and followed after keeping the Quil in check with her rifle.
{That’s nearly all of them, leaving a few easily cleaned up Airborn to keep attacking the shield. Guess they really don’t like us Dragon Riders.} Twilight thought grimly as she touched the crystal in her ear.
“Applejack report!”
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Applejack and Rarity were ducked behind the northern barricade reloading their weapons. The sheer amount of gun fire around them was almost making them go deaf but after years of the front lines it was nothing new, in fact they were almost tuning it out. Despite this was the hardest hit point, the shield looked to be barely fazing.
“How’s the shield holding sugercube?” Applejack asked as she glanced over the barricade. The shield was less than twenty feet from the barricade and the Quil bodies were starting to pile up. She stuck her shotgun over the edge and fire a few times before pulling back down. She was keeping her head down from the amount of fire coming from the Ponyville irregulars. No matter what they call it, Friendly fire isn’t.
“I’m no Twilight but I see no degrading to the mana lattice and no cracks forming either, granted I’m a Fashionista not a Battlemage.” Rarity told her calmly. An Earth Folk stallion stood up and with a yell fired a grenade launcher into the mass of Quil. The explosion made a number of the irregulars jump slightly but Applejack and Rarity barely noticed it.
“Rarity, Applejack, catch!” Applejack’s radio crackled. The two of them looked up to see Fluttershy hovering over the firefight two boxes of ammo in her arms. Applejack gave her a thumbs up and she dropped the two boxes that Applejack skillfully caught. With a wave to Fluttershy who started to fly back to the Depot for more ammo, Applejack opened the boxes and passed Rarity hers.
“Got to find you a better vantage point sugercube, ya can’t do much here…” Applejack looked around and spotted a house a few streets down. On top was one other sniper already.
“Feel like working with a partner?”
“Say what?” Rarity asked as she sat back down from firing a couple shots into the Quil. Applejack simply pointed at the house with the sniper on top and Rarity grinned. “Oh Darling, that was just what I was looking for. Ta Ta.” Rarity waved at her as both she and Applejack jumped up. Rarity making a dash for the house as Applejack turned and fired into the Quil until her shotgun clicked empty then ducked back down. The whole ‘covering her’ was pointless with the shield but normally they didn’t have such luxuries, why act if they did. With a trained motion she reloaded her shotgun then stood up to fire again.
“AJ DUCK!” A voice called out and Applejack reacted to it without thinking. She didn’t duck she didn’t drop, she went down as she did a split from standing. Putting her hands over the back of her head as she ducked it she felt something roll over to where she was standing just a moment ago then felt a and heard the low thud of a cannon going off then the presence was gone. Applejack looked up then behind her to see Pinkie pulling back a blue cannon on bright red wheels and she groaned. Pinkie was pulling her infamous ‘Party Cannon’ away from the barricade to reload it. She looked over the barricade as she pulled her legs back under her and felt a sense of déjà vu as she watched a bunch of razor streamers bounce around the Quil. Applejack rolled her eyes, it worked she wasn’t going to think on the how or why right now.
“Applejack Report!” Twilight called over the radio.
“Northern barricade holding fine, Deployed Rarity so she could lend fire support to either the northern or western barricade. Fluttershy is flying supplies as needed and Pinkie is…being Pinkie. Ground situation so far is under control. How’s the sky battle going?” Applejack said yelling into the radio. She took a moment to keep her head down and catch her breath.
“Quil has locked on to me, Rainbow is keeping them from over taking and Spike is giggling like a mad dragon. Nothing special to report.” Twilight told her calmly. At least Applejack would have believed that had gunfire from Twilight not been making it hard for her to hear.
“Right sugercube and I’m having a picnic. We thinned out the northern attack redeploying to the western barricade with Pinkie.”
“Copy that.”
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Rarity couldn’t believe her eyes as she joined the sniper on the roof. Two sights met her that caused her to pause a moment. One sight was the fact that there was a light purple Horned Folk filly with a pale blond mane wearing a irregular’s uniform with a small helmet on her head. Scattered about her was empty clips and boxes of ammo. Using both her hands and her horn she reloaded the clips as fast as she could to set them on a small pile next to the older mare, her blond tail swishing idly as she concentrated on her task, her tongue caught in her mouth. The second sight was the pale blue Winged Folk mare laying on the roof with a sniper rifle pressed to her eye. She too wore an irregular’s uniform but no helmet. Her pale blond hair matched the little filly’s behind her. But that wasn’t what caused Rarity to pause, no what caused to her pause was the fact that both of the mare’s eyes were open as she fired. One eye in the scope and the other was pointed downwards towards her.
“Well if you are coming on up, come on up.” The mare told her as she fired another shot. Rarity blinked she recognized that voice.
“Wait a minute. Ditzy? Ditzy Hooves?” Rarity asked as she pulled herself to the roof.
“Yep, that’s me. Nice to see you again Rarity. Have you met my daughter Dinkie?” Ditzy asked as she waved a hand behind her towards the filly behind her. The filly looked up and waved then went back to reloading clips.
“Yes I have but she was just a little thing then.” Rarity told her with a smile. She looked up at Dinkie. “Charmed to meet you again Dinkie.” The filly smiled but didn’t stop her work.
Rarity laid down and quickly had her rifle in place. After a few adjustments she fired her first shot hitting a Quil square in the red eye.
“Nice shot.” Ditzy said as she too fired.
“Thank you and nice shot yourself. You have some skill at this.” Rarity commented as she watched the Quil go down.
“Best in town.” Ditzy told her a small grin playing on her face.
“Really Darling, best in town?” Rarity thought a moment. “You know I’m not even going to question it. Mind if you daughter reloads for me as well?”
“Don’t mind at all, she’s pretty good at what she does. Isn’t that right Muffin?” Ditzy asked.
“Yes mama.”
“Hey Rarity that mare is trying to get ahold of you.” Ditzy said.
Rarity moved her gun down to see Applejack making a gesture at her. Rarity raised a closed fist in response causing Applejack to spin her finger and point towards the western barricade. Rarity signaled an acknowledgement readjusted her position as Applejack started for the western barricade followed by a party cannon armed Pinkie.
“What’s going on?” Ditzy asked.
“Gunny needs me to redirect fire to another location. Just following orders Darling. Don’t worry I’m not going anywhere yet.” Rarity told her. “Ditzy do you have a radio?”
“Yeah, why?” Ditzy fired another shot then reached over and grabbed the radio. She handed it off to Rartiy’s outstretched hand.
“Placing an order.” Rarity smiled to herself. She raised the radio and hit the button. “Oh, Sergeant Fluttershy, do come in please.”
*************************
Mare watched the map closely as Bon Bon and Lyra moved pieces as they heard the reports coming in. So far the town was holding strong. No casualties or fatalities yet in thanks to the shield, but Bon Bon was right. Who knows how long the shield will last? It truly was a matter of when not if. She glanced up to the two sets of floating numbers that were counting down, thanks to Lyra’s magic, telling how long until reinforcements arrived. Captain Vorrn was five minutes away and General Celestia was ten minutes away.
The battle was going well so far, as best as she could tell. While the Quil have pulled a few tricks out of their sleeves, so far everything was doing ok.
“Ma’am, the areas in front of the barricades are getting almost head high in Quil bodies but there seems to be no end to them. The Airborn have not been significantly thinned out yet, but thanks to 1st Sergeant Sparkle and Staff Sergeant Dash up there, pressure to the shield has slacked off. Gunnery Sergeant Applejack along with Sergeants Rarity and Pinkie Pie have helped between the barricades and Sergeant Fluttershy is helping by running supplies.” The radio mare told her keeping her up to date with the battle around them.
Mare didn’t even blink at the report watching the figures on the map closely. Things were going too well for them.
*****************
Twilight stopped trying to put any effort into firing towards the Quil that chased her. Her theory was confirmed, they saw Dragon Riders like her as a serious threat to them and did what they could to take them down. Dash was happily zipping around keeping the Quil from over taking her but she was running low on ammo, at least until Fluttershy came over the radio. Twilight smiled weakly, concentrating on keeping herself and Spike ahead of the Quil, at Rarity’s idea to get them all radios. She was able to bring the swarm close enough to the shield long enough for Fluttershy to throw a few clips towards Rainbow Dash.
“Hey Twilight, why is the swarm here barely going down despite all that I killed already?” Rainbow Dash called over the radio.
“Good question Dash, good question…” With a thought to Spike to keep them going Twilight looked around. Rainbow Dash was right in her question, the ground below where they were flying was littered with bodies of Quil, almost enough to double the size of the swarm following them yet they were still being chased. Then she saw it, a small shimmer in the air. “I see a magical vortex at 320 mark 298, do you see it Dash?”
“Not a thing…” There was a paused as Rainbow Dash dodged a Quil then put three bullets into it. “But then again I don’t have a horn.”
“True enough, follow me I’m going to plug it.” Grabbing the reigns Twilight steered Spike towards the swirling mana she could see marked the event horizon of the vortex.
She thought back to the lessons she received from then Princess Celestia. Every magical spell or effect had a magical lattice, a weaving of the mana so to speak. Each lattice has a different weave depending on the spell being cast and each lattice had a mana frequency. This frequency was where the spell ‘resonated’. Any spell could be counted by either a proper counterspell, which took a lot of magical energy or simple striking the mana frequency to cut through the mana field and disrupt the lattice. The higher the frequency the ‘harder’ it was for a spell to be broken this way since most Horned Folk couldn’t hit the higher ranges. But Twilight, her talent being magic as her Cutie Mark attested to, she could hit frequencies that only trained Archmages could hit. It was what she did with the shield to let her friends in, only parting the shield not disrupting it. It was what she did with the shields during her test before she left for Cloudsdale. She could see the spell lattice, she could see the frequency of the spell maintaining the vortex. But where did it go? Or more to the point where did it come from? Twilight’s horn glowed for a moment then she fired off two spells. The first a simple tracking spell to follow the vortex back to its origin and the second a disrupter. As the first spell started to track its origin the second slammed into the mana lattice shattering it with a visible flash of colors.
“Whoa, that was way cool.” Rainbow said from where she flew next to Twilight.
“Keep me covered Rainbow, I’m tracking where it came from.” Twilight told her. With a sharp salute Rainbow spun in air and fired at a Quil that tried to get to close then zipped away for a better shot. Twilight closed her eyes feeling the magical signal bounce back as it traveled. It came from the west as she figured it would. But as it neared what was the Quil island she felt the signal jerk a little. Without warning a large red eye appeared in her vision.
‘Submit to the will of the Emperor or die in agony!’ A voice rang in her head. It was loud but that was nothing to the sheer force of will that assaulted her mind. With a scream Twilight jerked her mind away from that vision and opened her eyes.
“Twilight you ok?” Rainbow Dash asked as she pulled up next to her.
Twilight shook her head. “I’m good but I saw something, something terrifying. The Quil have one more trick up their sleeves.” She reached up and touched the commlink in her ear as she saw signs of more teleportation vortexes appearing around the shield. “All forces stand by, something is happening. All forces stand by and ready yourselves. This fight is far from over.”
**********************
Applejack looked up at a Quil as it slammed into the shield just before she put a load of buckshot into it.
“What in tarnation did Twilight mean by that?” She asked herself.
“Don’t know, to the left please.” Pinkie Pie asked. Applejack side stepped to the left as Pinkie’s party cannon came by her. “All we can do is watch and see…gah!” Suddenly both her legs started to twitch and jerk all over, sending her falling to the ground.
Applejack looked over at Pinkie as she landed on the ground rubbing her legs. “What’s wrong sugercube?”
“Pinkie sense, something about Twilight’s warning.” She jumped up and grabbed her cannon and Applejack as she beat a hasty retreat from the barricade. “Fall back, set up another defense point twenty yards away. Get word to the other defense points to fall back and get those folk out of those houses!”
The irregulars around them paused a moment then saw the serious look on her face. It didn’t take them long to make a decision. Calling over the radio the irregulars did just that, falling back towards the town square. Moments later the rest of the irregulars did the same rushing for the center of town. As Applejack watched from Pinkie’s shoulder she was amazed at just how well trained the Ponyville Irregulars were. Breaking down the barricades and pulling out within minutes of Pinkie’s warning just as a low thud could be heard from the shield.
********************
Mare looked around the PCNC as everything ground to a halt from that low but loud thud.
“What was that?” She asked.
“Don’t know radio chatter says everyone is falling back to the square. Something spooked the troops ma’am.” Mare looked over at the radio operator, her mouth hanging open slightly.
“I got a new contact!” Mare’s head whipped to the look out who called out to her. “I got a big Quil, bigger than a soldier but looks like a bloated bug.” He pointed as Mare joined him and looked through the telescope.
The creature she saw was built like a Soldier, six legged with a overlarge red glowing eye. But it wasn’t the lean look of the soldier but a bloated lumbering Quil. The legs, six instead of four, didn’t end in tips but were broad and flat. No leanness to it, just bulges covered the body. Mare didn’t know what sort of Quil this was. What was its purpose? Why this when everything else was built to kill? Mare could only watch in part awe and part fear as it reached the shield and calmly walked up it. Somehow its feet gave it the ability to walk on a near vertical plane, even a shield. Once a few feet into the air the Quil stopped and planted all six feet wider apart like it was bracing for something. Then it drew itself up, stretching its legs as far as they would go. Suddenely it slammed into the shield. Mare wouldn’t have been too surprise if that was all it did, but instead of rearing back up for another hit the impact caused the Quil to explode in a massive fireball sending a thud throughout Ponyville. Even from where she was Mare could see the clear crack running up the shield’s surface.
“Order the snipers to concentrate on those bombers. We need just a few more minutes for help to arrive. Get the troops into position now. We are going to lose that shield!”
*******************
Rarity heard that order over the radio and didn’t need a second bidding. Her and Ditzy were in a kill count race to see how many of those ‘bombers’, as the CO called them, they could get. No sooner did the first one explode when more many more started to appear all over the place many of them appearing straight on the shield already. Those that died from bullets simply deflated as a brown looking gunk fell out of the wounds but more than a few of them managed to detonate against the shield sending larger and larger cracks throughout.
“Things not looking too good are they Rarity?” Ditzy asked as she fired a few more rounds into a bomber.
“Maybe not, I have been through worst though Darling. Applejack got me through that and I don’t doubt she can get us through this.” She looked up at the number of bombers still on the shield. “I hope…” She whispered to herself.
Ditzy looked over at her daughter. “Stay close to mommy, we will have to run soon. When we do, drop everything and hang on.”
“Yes mamma.” Dinkie told her. She smiled at her mother but Ditzy could see the fear in her eyes. With a small smile Ditzy turned back to her scope.
“I must say Darling, why did you bring your daughter to a battle anyway?” Rarity asked her.
“I found her inside the shield and carrying all sorts of ammo for me. She hid when the sirens went off so she could help me. I didn’t have time to get her to Sweet Apple Acres before we were attacked.”
“Your daughter is very brave you should be proud of her and let no one say you don’t know how to raise her right.” Rarity emptied her clip and reached for another that Dinkie prepared. Popping it in her magic recocked her rifle and she started to fire at another bomber. “Anyway, what do you mean about the farm?”
“That’s our evac route should the unthinkable happen. We will fall back to the Everfree and to the castle in there. The Ponyville Irregulars will hold that castle as long as we can.” She glanced at the badly fractured shield. “Hopefully it won’t be our tomb.”
Over the din of combat the sound of cracking glass could be heard. Radio reports said the shield was breaking. Rarity turned to Ditzy yelling for her to grab Dinkie and move. In one motion Ditzy shouldered her gun as she spun to grab her daughter as something landed in front of the building they were hiding on. Rarity saw a massive shape as she looked back in time for a fireball to blast the building they were on to pieces sending the three of them flying to the ground.
A buzz filled Rarity’s ears as she pushed herself to her elbows. She hurt no doubt. Falling from a second story roof did that. She could see muzzle flashes from the irregulars as they fought the now charging Quil but she didn’t hear any of that, just the ringing. She managed to get one leg under her to try to stand but her other buckled and she went to the ground again, yet she felt no pain. As she pushed back to her elbows she saw her rifle next to her and in front of her Ditzy’s limp form held on to a trapped and crying Dinkie, who was trying to wake her mother. Ditzy’s wings were bent in wrong angles from the landing, even for being a Horned one and knowing nothing about wings even she could tell they were broken. She pulled herself towards the two of them fearing any moment either she or them would be killed before she could reach the two. She felt something loom over her and reacted with her years of surviving on the front lines. Spinning, ignoring her bodies protest against the action, she pulled her rifle up and fired not bothering to even aim. The Quil soldier above her staggered backwards as a large hole appeared in its eye, roaring with pain. As the Quil fell to the ground Rarity saw two more walking towards her as she glared at them.
{If this is how I die, then I will die with courage!} Rarity thought to herself. Sound returned to her world filling it with gunshots, roars and explosions.
Pushing to a sitting position she leveled her rifle and fired one shot to one then another shot to the other dropping them both. Taking a moment she scooted backwards towards the two behind her. Once there she turned and moved Ditzy’s arms and pulled Dinkie out.
“Run little one, run for the barricade, your mother and I will be right behind you! GO!” Rarity told her.
“Momma, I can’t leave Momma!” Dinkie said.
“GO! For your mother you need to Run!” Rarity said. She turned back and dropped another Quil as it stalked towards them then looked back at Dinkie. “GO!” Dinkie nodded and started to run for the barricade when a Quil soldier landed in front of her causing her to scream in fear. The Quil soldier turned and saw the filly raising its sharp limb. “DINKIE!” Rarity shouted. She pulled her rifle up to fire only to hear a click of an empty clip. As Rarity watched in horror, unaware of the two coming up behind her, the limb dropped toward the little filly when a shotgun ran out its death song blasting the leg clean off. Suddenly Applejack was there placing the shotgun against the eye of the Quil and pulled the trigger. As the body landed with a thud Applejack turned to the filly.
“Move it sugercube, Ah’ll get your mother.” Applejack told her as she stepped around the filly and went for Rarity and Ditzy. Beside her Pinkie Pie ran up pulling two SMGs from her hair.
“I got your back AJ!” Pinkie called out as she danced over Rarity to give the group covering fire. With small but precise bursts Quil fell around her as she danced between Quil soldiers easily dodging their attacks with giggles and snorts erupting from her mouth.
“Pinkie! Fall back!” Applejack called as she picked up Rarity and a limp Ditzy. Even as she lifted them up she could see Rarity’s leg was injured and thankfully Ditzy was still breathing. Turning she made for the new defensive line as fast as she could as Pinkie danced behind her still shooting Quil covering Applejack’s retreat.
Despite Pinkie Pie and efforts of the defensive line to lay down covering fire, the Quil were starting to surround them. Yet before the Quil could attack a hail of bullets rained from the sky. Applejack looked up to see a mass of Changelings swooping down. Many of them dived behind the barricade as quite a few more swooped back into the sky. Four of the Changelings came down and helped carry Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity and Ditzy behind the barricade where Fluttershy was waiting for them.
“They are in your good hands Flutteshy, come on Pinkie, back to the fight!”
*********************
The battle for Ponyville raged on. The Changeling reinforcements helped turn the grim tide for the Ponyville Irregulars. Twilight and Rainbow Dash took the command of the Airborn Changelings working to keep the ground forces from behind overwhelmed by Quil. Mare and her lookouts along with Lyra and Bon Bon joined the fight on the line leaving only the Radio Operator with two Changeling guards to protect her as she worked to keep contact with everyone on the ground and in the air.
“Twilight I got a group of Quil massing to the north for a stab at the defenses can you break it up?” The Radio operator called out to Twilight.
“I see them. Sergeant Back Lash, north of the barricade massing Quil, form up with me for a strafing run!”
With precision born of rigorous training a squad of Changelings following Twilight strafed the massing Quil soldiers breaking their attack before it even began. Again and again the Quil attacked the Ponyville Irregulars, while again and again the entrenched Irregulars pushed the attack back. But each attack had a cost of lives lost in the defense. Fluttershy and the medical corps worked hard to save as many lives as they could but with few supplies and more casualties than they could care for, but they valiantly tried to save as many as they could.
Everyone behind the barricade did their duty without question or hesitation. If anything could be said about the Ponyville Irregulars and the soldiers that fought that day not a one flinched from the duty, none of them blinked in the face of the terrible onslaught that faced them. But with no relief in sight, no ending to the Quil advance the conclusion was simple. They would need a miracle to survive this day.
Then they saw it, both a death knoll and their miracle at the same time. In the skies above Ponyville they saw a glint of gold, as the glint came closer it was not one glint but twenty. Led by a contrail of dark blues and reds. A cheer went up as the defenders saw who was coming to their rescue, General Celestia and her Royal Guard. The group merged with the fray before them like a scythe cutting through wheat sending Quil, both Soldiers and Airborn to whatever hell they believed in. While the Royal Guard used conventional weapons, Celestia waded through the enemy with her Solar Lance. Her celestial mane flowed with her rage as she fought to protect her little folk from their fate. But the Quil were bringing in the one thing to change the entire battle. From the west dozens of tiny Quil, humanoid but about the size of a foal with no obvious way of defending themselves, carried what looked to be a large circular object. From the air the object was clearly a ring about twenty feet wide. But the scary part was the sheer number of soldiers guarding the ring as it was carried through town. As Celestia flew through the air in pursuit of a Quil she spotted the ring and knew what it meant.
“All Soldiers you must prevent that ring from reaching the center of town!” She yelled in the Royal Canterlot voice that carried over the din of combat and in one voice every soldier, Irregular and Changeling all shouted back an acknowledgement as they concentrated all fire on the soldiers and that ring. Many didn’t know why the order was given but it came from Celestia they knew it was important. Yet as each Quil fell another appeared to take its place, the ring moving steadily closer and closer to the center of town.
As Mare ducked behind the barricade to reload her weapon something hit her about the ring. “Oh for the love of Celestia…” She breathed and called for a hand held radio that was quickly passed to her. “General Celestia! The ring isn’t going for the center of town. The layline nexus joins under the Golden Oaks Library! That is outside the defensive perimeter we got set up. Twilight, concentrate your Changleings towards the large tree to the south of the perimeter.”
“Copy that!” Twilight called back.
Celestia blinked, that was Twilight’s voice! She was alive! Apart of her mane lightened slightly at hearing Twilight’s voice but she ignored rushing to her. She needed to stop that ring at all costs. Veering around towards the south she quickly saw the library tree and landed in front of it as an elderly green skinned mare with a silver mane stepped out. She wore the uniform of the Ponyville Irregulars as she slowly loaded up a shotgun.
“So Celestia, Ah see you finally decided to get your sun graced flank down here to join the fight.” She said as she stepped up beside Celestia.
“Good to see you again Granny Smith, or should I say Sergeant Smith of the Ponyville Irregulars.” Celestia said without looking at the elderly mare that stood next to her. “May I inquire as to why you are here and not over there?” She asked pointing at the defensive perimeter near by.
“Meh, Ah was helping to set up a little surprise for the Quil. Inside is a crystal with a scrambler, don’t ask me how it works, Ah got nary the foggyist. The mayor told me it would knock out the nexus enough to stop the Quil mana sucker thingamajig.”
“So I see Ponyville has lived up to its reputation of eccentric ideas.” She didn’t blink when a shotgun fired off next to her. “Maybe I should have set my base up here. The ideas that has come from this town has impressed me time and time again.” Her lance shot out and impaled a lunging Quil Soldier and with a quick burst of magic the body shot off slamming into another Quil.
“But’cha didn’t no need to cry over spilt milk.” Granny Smith told her as she eyeballed the incoming ring. “Still we may want to make a run for it. If we fail, we are going to lose a whole lot of good folk. Something tells me, they are not going to quit.”
“No they are not. I am ashamed to say this, but we may be fighting a losing battle here. If I only got here sooner.” Celestia told her.
“Then call the retreat. Ponyville may be lost but you need ta live.” Granny stepped forward. “I’ll buy you time to get the folk out of here.” She lifted her shotgun but a hand landed on her shoulder.
“No WE will buy the time needed.” Celestia said as she reached up for her commlink. “All forces fall back. Get the wounded out of here and fall back!”
**********************
Mare heard the call and frowned and reached for her radio.
“You hear the General. All forces fall back, jeep crews start to evac the wounded towards the Everfree castle. Twilight give the ground foces cover as they fall back, they need air cover.” Mare leaned over the barricade and fired a few more rounds as she switched the radio to a channel for Canterlot. “This is a priority one message for Canterlot. I repeat this is a priority one message to Canterlot High Command. Ponyville has fallen, I repeat Ponyville has fallen!” Then she stood up yelling. “All forces fall back, fall back to the Everfree!”
*****************
Most forces would have broken and ran out right at the order, but somehow the irregulars and their Changeling allies kept it orderly. Each squad disengaged from the barricades once the wounded were clear of the medical tents. It was like marching backwards, firing as they went. Those at the supply depot grabbed everything that wasn’t nailed down or on fire and fell out behind the retreating forces as Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and their Changeling allies managed to keep the Quil from swarming the retreating troops. As the line neared the PCNC the radio mare and her two Changeling guards dived into the retreating line right after she hit the trigger for their special weapon. From the library a golden beam shot into the sky and every folk, Celestia included, shuttered as the magic all around them shifted as the magical nexus was dispersed. Celestia smiled as she spun around slamming her lance into another Quil, that should foil their plans for a while. Maybe long enough for them to mount a counter attack and reclaim Ponyville.
“Granny, time to fall back ourselves. Go ahead and start…no!” Celestia gasped as she felt the nexus reform behind her. The very earth itself fixed the nexus, she knew that was going to happen but not that quickly. The ring was close now, too close and still marching forward. She gripped her lance tightly knowing she had one shot and one shot only to stop them. With a quick spin she knocked the few Quil closing in on her away giving her the clearing she needed as reared back and threw her lance as hard as she could. The weapon flew true as raw power emanated from the Solar Lance only to have a hand appear from nowhere to catch it in mid flight. For Celestia time seemed to stop as the gray colored hand, reaching from nowhere, clutched her lance. Slowly a figure stepped out of a swirl of energy to reveal a humanoid Quil standing as tall as the Soldiers around it. Idly, Celestia saw that it wasn’t as tall as the Emperor. Like its Airborn counterparts, from the area of its wrists two elongated blades were visible. Like every other Quil its head was dominated by a large glowing red eye but this eye, this eye made it obvious there was an intelligence behind its gaze. This new Quil hefted the Lance, looking at it a moment. Then its gaze looked up at Celestia as its grip shifted on the Lance. Her mouth dropped as she took an unconscious step back. Her eyes on her own weapon as the Quil reared back and threw the lance right at her. She could only watch in horror as the lance flew straight for her heart. Just as it was about to hit she felt something hit her from the side knocking her out of the way.
“Gosh durn glaout!” Granny said as she picked herself up off of Celestia. Popping a shot off she reached down and pulled the commlink out of Celestia’s ear and into her own.
“Twilight, we need a pick up at the library. Get your flank down here now!” With that Granny Smith pulled the commlink out of her ear and threw it down on Celestia. “Get your sun baked flank out of here now! This is no time to stand around looking stupid.” Granny’s eyes never left the Quil in front of her as she fed a few more shells into her gun.
“Smith, old friend, I’m not going to leave you alone here.” Celestia said as she picked herself up off the ground. She glanced at her lance embedded into the wall of the library then to the over large Quil as Granny glared at her.
“Like Tartarus you will! Celestia, Ah’m old and my time is almost done. Ah live but Ah don’t inspire anyone ta keep fighting. You live, You inspire folk to keep fighting, simple.” Suddenly Twilight and Spike landed behind them. “Now git before I kick your flank up there myself!”
“Celestia!” Twilight yelled out. “Come on we need to get out of here…what is that?!” Twilight asked pointing at the large Quil.
“Its something new young’un, get the princess here and get out now!” Granny said, she nimbly dodged aside a Quil attack and blasted it off its feet.
“But…” Twilight asked. She was firing at a few Quil trying to sneak up on them as Spike launched a fireball at a few up front.
“No buts! GIT!” Granny said. With a speed that betrayed her age Granny threw Celestia up on Spike’s back then kicked Spike hard on the back leg. “GIT I say!”
Out of surprise or by the commanding voice from Granny Smith, Spike took to the sky flying for the Everfree. Granny watched them take to the sky a few Airborn Quil following them as they fled then turned and looked at the Quil and glared at them. Behind her she heard the sound of a magical teleport as the Solar Lance left to rejoin its owner.
“Ya took my grandson, then ya took my granddaughter, now ya taking my town and my home. Let’s see how many of ya I can take with me before I give ya my life.” She spat on the ground in front of them as the large Quil make a sweeping motion with its hand sending the many soldiers under its command towards her. With a blast of her shotgun she dropped one Quil then turned to another dropping that one too. One lunged at her as she dived aside, rolling to her feet she fired putting a hole through its glowing eye.
*********************
At Sweet Apple Acres the Apple family sent out a few of their jeeps to help the soldiers and irregulars make it to the evac point. One of the jeeps was ran by Scootaloo with Applebloom manning the large machine gun on the back. Next to Scootaloo sat Sweetie Bell holding a rifle in her hands. The three fillies weren’t allowed to join the muster in Ponyville but with Apple Bloom being the working head of the family the Apple Family took it upon themselves to teach them. While was the first time they ever had the chance to use what they were taught Apple Bloom wasn’t going to sit there and let her family do all the work. But speaking of Family, where was Granny Smith? She was missing since the sirens went off. But when the radio rang out calling for a pick up from Twilight Apple Bloom gasped as she recognized that voice, the voice of Granny Smith. She looked over at another jeep holding a few more of her family.
“Help them out cuz, Ah know where Granny Smith is and Ah’m going after her. Drive Scootaloo we got to reach the Library and now!”
“Right, cover me AB.” Scootaloo slammed on the gas sending the jeep racing into town. Apple Bloom found plenty of targets as she cleared the path for Scootaloo with Sweetie Bell following suit with her rifle.
“There it is Scoots! Come on not far now!” Sweetie Bell called out pointing at the large tree before them.
“I see her, There!” Scootaloo yelled as she turned the corner.
They could see Granny Smith from where she stood fending off Quil until it looked like her gun clicked empty causing her to look at the weapon. Slowly she looked back up at the advancing Quil and set her feet intent on holding her ground.
“Granny! Run!” Apple Bloom yelled out. She turned her gun towards the advancing Quil, but they ignored the hail of bullets that peppered them intent on killing the one that stood between them and their goal. “Granny!” She screamed as one Quil lunged, its spiked limb raising high to cut the defenseless mare down.
As the limb came down there was a blur of green the blow never connecting with its target.
“Who is that?” Apple Bloom breathed to herself as they neared. As her brain made the connection her eyes widened.
*****************
Granny looked at the figure that saved her. Before her stood a strongly built Earth Folk stallion with red skin and a dirty blond mane with the tattered remains of the uniform of the Equestrian Armed Forces. One hand up to catch the spiked limb the other rearing back for a punch. With a twist of his body he punched down knocking the Quil back into the ones behind it.
“Enope…” Was all he said as he turned to Granny Smith. “You ok?”
“Big Mac? That you?” Granny asked.
“Yeup.” He nodded at her then spun to deliver a mighty kick to another lunging Quil as Scootaloo pulled up.
“Get in you two, we are making a break for it!” Sweetie bell yelled out with a wave for them to get in. As she turned back to hold off the Quil Big Mac grabbed his grandmother and threw her into the Jeep and climbed in. Sweetie Bell moved aside to make room for Granny Smith and Big Mac and passed him her gun. “Her take it I’ll make sure Granny is ok.”
“Yeup.” Was all Big Mac said as he took the weapon and started to lay down covering fire as Scootaloo spun the Jeep around and started to race for Sweet Apple Acres.
“AB, I think we don’t have any air cover! I see Airborn coming at us.” Sweetie Bell said looking upwards.
“Big Mac, get above Ah got behind.” Apple Bloom yelled at her big brother. She spun around laying coering fire at the Quil behind them.
“What in the world Big Mac?” Granny asked confused. But Big Mac ignored her for the moment, his concentration pointed up wards.
More and more Airborn were noticing them as they raced for the evac point and he was having a harder and harder time keeping them away. Another Quil dived at them and Big Mac reacted quickly to protect the jeep. Pulling the rifle over he aimed and pulled the trigger only to have a thunk sound from the weapon.
“Jammed.” His trained eye quickly saw the jam, the last fired bullet didn’t eject properly causing that and the next bullet to get stuck in the chamber. It would take some time to get out, time they didn’t have. With a grunt he flipped the weapon around to grab it by the barrel and with a mighty swing cracked the Quil across the head knocking it aside and into the wall of a passing building. He looked back up and grimaced. It wasn’t looking good as the Quil seemed to know his weapon was jammed and dived as one body. He hefted the weapon again, it was going to die taking as many of them as he could.
Sweetie Bell looked up in horror watching the Quil close in on them. Apple Bloom didn’t know what was coming concentrating at the task before her. Her eyes passed between the back of Apple Bloom’s head to Big Mac standing on his seat, the gun in his hands like a club, to Granny Smith’s worried face then to Scootaloo intense face.
{We are going to die…I don’t want to die not yet. I could care less about my cutie mark, I just don’t want to die here helpless.} She didn’t notice her horn start to glow. {I don’t want to die, not like this. I want to live: for my sister, for my friends, for my future! We are NOT GOING TO DIE!} A mulberry beam shot from her horn then spread into a bright shield covering the jeep. Sweetie Bell, standing behind Apple Bloom, her hands on the seat backs in front of her as she pointed her horn at the shield above them. A determined look on her face as everyone looked at her in surprise.
“Cool shield Sweetie! Hold it for as long as you can, we are getting out of here!” Scootaloo told her. She drifted onto the main road towards Sweet Apple Acres. Above them Airborn slammed into the shield and slashed as hard as they could trying to break it as they easily kept pace with the fast vehicle. Sweat poured from Sweetie’s forehead as she struggled to maintain her shield, her knees buckling from the strain.
Suddenly she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her from behind. “Ah got you Sweetie Bell, Ah won’t let you down. Hold the shield, Ah’ll hold you up.”
Sweetie Bell couldn’t help but to smile through the strain. She loosened up her muscles, trusting Apple Bloom’s honest word.
{I will not fail my friends and I will not fail my family.} Sweetie thought to herself. Her vision started to swim and fade slightly but she held strong. She needed to, for everyone. She
heard Scootaloo say something but her voice was muffled the sounds around her dulling out to the point she could barely hear. Then her vision and her mind went black.
************************
Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Celestia and a dozen changelings dived against the wave of Airborn Quil as it smashed against the mulberry shield, driving the Quil away and back towards Ponyville. Below the shield flickered then failed as the jeep it protected entered the Everfree. In the distance they could feel the mana in the air around them start to change direction towards the center of town.
“It has begun. Everyone fall back! Move it!” Celestia yelled as she started to fly towards the castle following the other before them.
Twilight paused watching the event unfold. Her innate curiosity keeping her from following the rest, not yet.
“Twilight, we need to run you know what happens when they take a new region.” Spike said a note of worry in her voice.
Twilight said nothing. She knew what he was talking about, she saw the reports on both the event and those folk caught in the blast that was to come. Once enough of the mana was pulled into that ring it would send a beam skywards that would arc to the Quil Island. Every region they took before the same beam could be seen keeping any mana from regenerating. The initial blast would ripple through the region breaking any residual mana loose from anything and everything nearby like enchanted items or even from folk themselves to be sent skyward. She shuttered at the thought, it was the worst way for folk to die a complete and utter mana burn could instantly kill folk, but in that instant would be the most painful ever. Those that didn’t die would soon die after since their body couldn’t regenerate the mana needed to recover. IT was the lingering death that made it so terrible. One could enter the wasteland that was the result of the Quil victory with no problem, being there when they took it, that was the problem.
But even then she needed to see it, she needed to see exactly what the Quil did. She watched carefully, waves and ribbons of mana moved towards the center of town building to critical. She watched as mana fields and lattices broke down and flow towards the ring like flowing water. Then in one moment it was like everything stopped as the expected beam shot up wards to the sky. She saw it, she saw it as clear as day. There was a clear polarity to the beam, in that critical moment something shifted just slightly in the collected energy sending it skyward. With a sharp mental command she and Spike raced away as fast as they could towards the castle hoping that everyone was out of range of the incoming shock wave.
{Its too fast Twi!} Spikes panicked thought caused her to glance behind her. They were just passing over the edge of the Everfree, the shockwave coming too fast to escape. As the grip of true horror touched her something happen, a curtain of energy a shield she never saw before and even with her attunement to magic itself couldn’t help her to identify what the shield was. But whatever it was it stopped the shock wave cold. As she flew towards the castle that terror she felt slowly drained out of her. It had been a long fight and now another, longer fight loomed ahead of her. The defensive line was broken, and soon Canterlot would be under siege. Yet her mind was buzzing as it processed the information she gained from the Quil attack. She needed a chance to study, a chance to put what she saw to the test. Maybe, just maybe they can find a way to beat back the Quil advance. At this point, they HAD to find away.