I lay on my belly atop a Land Rover, my wings spread out like fans on each side of me. Cleaning up after the battle, which Celestia won in about three minutes, surged all around us. I couldn’t raise a hoof to help, for the most part because my wings had almost given out on me. However, I’d also managed to trigger Fluttershy’s injured baby bird reflexes.
“Argh, easy!” I flinched away from her hooves. Fluttershy fixed me with a tiny frown and went back to work. She hummed to herself as she massaged ‘Rainbow Rub’ into my tortured muscles. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Rainbow Dash endorsed a line of athletic creams.
“Twenty-three?” Applejack said, raising an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. “Well, that’s mighty impressive... for a greenhorn.”
Dash threw up her hooves. “Greenhorn!” She pointed at the pile of changeling bodies the Equestrian soldiers were stacking at the edge of the car park. “Does that look like something a greenhorn could do?”
“Heh, you’re going to say all those were yours?” Applejack continued, her smirk widening. “By my count, I added thirty to that pile.”
“Thirty! Try thirteen,” Dash shot back, taking to the air and getting right up in Applejack’s face. “You couldn’t beat me even if I had a hoof and a wing tied--”
“Girls!” A burst of magic dragged the pair away from each other by their tails as Twilight trotted over. “This isn’t the time for arguments,” she said, her tone chiding. “First, because the Princess is right there, and I do not want to deliver another friendship report in person. Second--” a sudden grin overtook her “--I have you both outmatched with my one.”
Applejack sighed and nodded. “Fair ‘nough.”
Dash’s jaw dropped. “One! We’re trying to figure out who's the best changeling slayer. How does one beat my twenty-four?”
“Because it was that one.” Twilight pointed.
The goliath bug, as the humans nicknamed them, was about the size of an elephant and seemed to be Chrysalis’ answer to tanks. It looked rather like a supersized drone, covered in thick armoured plates, with massive blades instead of forelegs. The head was misshapen, the eyes withered away to almost nothing and the exoskeleton twisted around a giant horn, making me think of some kind of monstrous ant. Drones were infiltrators at heart, mimics who avoided fighting unless they outnumbered their opponents. There was nothing subtle about the goliath bugs.
There had also been nothing subtle about Twilight’s solution. Half a telephone pole had been rammed through the bug. The human soldiers had given up trying to remove the pole and just attached chains to one end. A tank struggled to drag it away.
“It still only counts as one,” Rainbow Dash muttered, crossing her forelegs and pouting.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Princess Celestia wants to speak to us. Fluttershy, is Alex okay?”
“I’m-- argh!” The yell escaped me as I tried to move my wings. Fluttershy sighed and, with a soft touch, folded my wings back, somehow managing to avoid all my aches and pains.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Twilight said, in a deadpan. “Come on you two, we’ve got a Queen to defeat... again.”
“Wait, two?” I said, doing a double take. “Umm, I’m not sure Celestia will want to see me.”
Twilight smiled, the subtext flying clear over her head. I sensed Celestia had paraphrased our earlier ‘discussion’ somewhat when describing it to her. “Actually, your presence is requested too. We going to need every spell in the book if we’re going to win this one.”
I groaned, rolling to my hooves and flexing my wing muscles as I grumbled to myself. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”
“Alex,” Twilight snapped, shooting me a flat look. “You tore a hole in reality. Stop playing the misbegotten hero and step up. We need your help, and you know full-well you can deliver.”
I frowned for a moment, but my heart wasn’t in it. I couldn’t complain too much about the path I’d chosen. Even if my wings felt like someone had taken a blowtorch to my primaries, it had been my decision.
“Fine.” I sprang down from the Land Rover, followed by Fluttershy. Dropping into step behind Twilight and the rest of the Elements, we picked our way across the battlefield, dodging around soldiers, vehicles and the occasional pile of rubble.
The Equestrian relief force had arrived on the scene just five minutes after the human equivalent. The battle had concluded shortly after Celestia and the pegasi joined the fray. Lighting and fire falling from the sky had shattered Changelings and the sudden rush of magic had given Twilight a second wind. Arrayed against that, it was all over bar the shouting. It stuck in my craw that the relief force was French, I couldn’t hold it against them, though.
The airship, named the Hindenburg as ponies can’t escape puns, tugged on its moorings next to the ruined ITER building. Its golden filigree shone under the harsh light of the sun overhead, looking otherworldly next to the muted greys and greens of its surroundings. Under the light of one of the suns, that is. I glanced up at the searing orb above my head. There were times when I felt I had a grasp on how Equestrian magic worked. The moment a princess showed up, though, I’d ended up right back at square one.
Earth had two suns at the moment. One was the real sun, hidden behind thick, black clouds. As far as I could tell it was happily carrying on its existence as a terrifying inferno of heat, light and electromagnetism a hundred million kilometres away. It paid no attention to the mortals fumbling around eight light minutes away, nor the fact it might go out in just a couple of days. The other sun was Celestia’s, or perhaps, it was Celestia herself. To be honest, I didn’t dare ask. It sat a few thousand feet up, burning a hole in the clouds, a single pinprick of painfully bright light in the sky.
The Princess stood on the deck of the airship, radiant in a very literal sense. The humans didn’t seem to notice the sheer amount of power pouring from Celestia, but the ponies could, and gave their princess a wide berth, even Tony and Louis. Just being on the deck was like standing under a magical heat lamp, and as we approached, my primaries began to buzz. Nopony was wearing aether rigs around Celestia. In the presence of the Princess, it was as easy to breathe as it was in Ponyville.
“Alex!” The moment I set foot on the deck, Pinkie Pie thundered over and swept me into a bone breaking hug.
“Gragh! Air,” I croaked, as my ribs creaked. “I need air.”
“Pinkie,” Fluttershy said, pushing the bouncing bundle of candyfloss off of me with weary ease. “What did Redheart say about hugging the injured?”
Pinkie seemed to wilt, and she dropped back onto all four hooves. “That’s how ponies get all their bones broken,” she said, head hung. She managed to hold still for three seconds. “Oh, but we’ve got to have a party!” she exclaimed, bouncing on the spot. “A rescue party-party. A cute-ceañera, party. A sorry for dragging you to another dimension, party. A--”
I stepped forwards and hugged her, which somehow stemmed her excited babble. “It’s good to see you too, Pinkie. I’m really glad you girls are all okay.” She squeezed me back, and I bit down on my tongue to stop from tearing up.
Rainbow Dash started making gagging noises, and we all glared at her.
“What?” she said, glaring back. “I’ve seen the Crusaders covered in less sap. Come on, we’re supposed to be saving the world.”
I sighed, dropping back onto my hooves. “She has a point.”
“No parties mid-quest, unfortunately,” Twilight agreed. “Now, Lieutenant Maynard has been shooting us sidelong glances long enough. Let’s not keep her any longer.”
Lieutenant Maynard managed to keep a straight face as we approached. She was bent over a table, sticking little flags onto a map of the South West of England. I think the map had been ripped out of an AAA book. “Ah, there you are,” she said, as if she hadn’t been watching our little reunion. “Good to see you. I’ve got everything we need for a briefing, so whenever you are ready, Princess.”
Twilight glanced at Celestia, who just nodded. “Let’s get this done,” Twilight said, stepping up to the table. It was a pony side table, dragged from below decks, and detailed beyond all reason. “When are the rest of your pon-- people getting here?”
Shaking her head, Maynard sighed. “No one is coming. This is a combat zone now, so no politicians or brass will be caught within a dozen miles. Right now, I am representing Her Majesty’s government, at least until we find someone more senior.” She glanced at Celestia. “Um, that’s my ‘Your Majesty’, not you, Your Majesty. Sorry, this doesn’t come up very often.”
Celestia smiled. “It is fine, please continue.”
“Right. So the situation has changed somewhat since my first briefing. With us dropping out of the loop, Command went on the offensive.” She pointed to the brightly coloured flags, which told me nothing more than that there was a lot going on in Wales and Cornwall. “So far I hear we’ve got some good penetration of Chrysalis’ lines, especially with tanks. Those Goliath bugs are murder against infantry, but they can't go one-on-one against a tank."
Twilight nodded, frowning at the map. “Changelings are always weaker the further they are from a queen,” she said, almost to herself. “Their strategy is to give ground and then surround any troops that get past their outer perimeter. Then they can focus against as small an enemy as possible and bring the queen up to deal with any extreme threats.” She paused a moment, chewing her lip. “Of course, here, Chrysalis doesn’t have a fraction of the ground such an action would require. Not to mention, her total number of drones and magic reserves must be limited by--”
Maynard cleared her throat. “Excuse me, but can I finish before we start strategizing?”
“Sorry.” Twilight blushed, shrinking down where she sat. “Um... go on. What is humanity's plan?”
“I think right now we’re all focused on getting a bullet between Chrysalis’ eyes.” Maynard shrugged. “Though how effective that’ll be, I don’t know.”
“Well, killing Chrysalis will disrupt the hive...” Twilight tapped a hoof on her chin. “I’m not sure a single bullet will get through her defences though.”
Maynard’s face darkened. “Well, with any luck we can run her over with a tank. Our plan A is pretty much that. Plan B, though, is to bomb the hell out of the power plant, until we’re sure there’s nothing left alive bigger than a mouse. Then we cross our fingers that she’s dead.”
“What?” I exclaimed, my wings screaming at me, as I flung them wide in shock. “You can’t bomb a nuclear power plant!”
“They’re pretty tough things,” Maynard grumbled, staring at the map. “If we’re lucky we only lose a hundred square miles to fallout. Or at least that’s what they tell me...” she took a deep breath. “Would that work?” she asked Twilight. “The bombs?”
Twilight hemmed and hawed for a moment. “It very much depends on how Chrysalis constructs her shield. If she were smart, she would construct an anti-oxidation field, then none of your explosives would function.”
“Gurh--” Maynard picked up her dropped jaw, and I smiled in sympathy. She shook herself. “Right, magic. Not our rules. There is a plan C if all else fails, but... but it’s a nuclear strike.”
My stomach dropped like a stone. “That’s insane,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Insane.”
“Okay, somepony’s going to have to explain that,” Rainbow Dash interjected, crossing her forelegs. “What’s so insane?”
Twilight beat us to the explanation. “It would kill millions of people, Dash."
Rainbow stared, her muzzle twisted in confusion. “Why is that even an option?” she exclaimed, throwing up her hooves.
Maynard slammed her fists down on the table. “Because, when you have to choose between a country and the world, you choose the world!” The soldier took a deep, calming breath before continuing. “It isn’t going to come to that, though. Right?”
“Absolutely,” Twilight assure her, kicking Applejack under the table before she could say anything.
Letting out a relieved sigh, Maynard continued. “Good. So, if I might ask how you’d deal with Chrysalis? So far, shock and awe doesn’t seem to work that well on an enemy that doesn’t care about losses.”
“Numbers has always been the problem with changelings.” Twilight glanced back at the map. “Especially now, where Chrysalis seems to be able to draw on impressive reserves. Equestrian tactics generally focus on border skirmishes, breaking up formations, holding ground and so forth. Since the wedding débâcle, my brother has been trying to form a proper response, but to be honest, it’s almost impossible.” She sighed, glaring at a flag bearing a black queen as it’s symbol. “Chrysalis is powerful, incredibly so. She's a match for either the Elements or Princess Celestia in a stand up fight. If she is on a battlefield, the odds of any regulars taking her on are laughable. Humans have far better weapons than us, but even so, the smart choice is to remove her from the battlefield.”
We all looked at her askance, but Twilight ignored us, looking smug.
“Sugarcube, how are we supposed to scare her off?” Applejack asked, breaking the silence.
“Simple. We take her back to Equus,” Twilight explained, smirking. “We have three ponies here who can breach the barrier. If we do so while Chrysalis is close enough, we can drag her back through to Equestria."
Hold up, three?
"Doesn't that just leave us alone with a pissed-off changeling?" Dash cut in, before I could say anything. "That doesn't sound like it'll help."
"Actually, Rainbow Dash," Celestia replied, with another of her slight smiles."It will achieve three things; it will prevent Chrysalis from doing any more damage to Earth, it will isolate her from her army, and it will allow my sister to lend her weight to the battle." She frowned. "Which hopefully will placate Luna somewhat, after I left her behind."
"Heh, just keep throwing princesses at her?" Dash said, leaning back and smirking. "I can get behind that plan."
"Sorry, three?" I interjected. I counted two alicorns that could breach the barrier, and had my worries about who the final pony might be. “Twilight, I can barely fly right now. I’m not doing that again anytime soon.”
Twilight shot me her best placating grin. It didn’t help. “Don’t worry Alexis. I’m sure it won't come to that. We just need you along for security’s sake.”
I shot her a flat look. “And you’re planning to replace the combined efforts of two hundred pegasi with what?”
“Rainbow--”
“Me!” Dash cut in, puffing herself up to her full height. “Though... I was thinking of tying one hoof behind my back, you know, to make things fair.”
I pressed a fetlock to my eyes. I’m not sure what was more terrifying, that she might be serious, or might be right. “Okay, fine, I’ll be your third,” I said, shaking my head.
“Awesome!” Dash exclaimed. “Don’t worry Alex, nopony’s going to get in our way.”
Maynard just shook her head. “Well, I guess that’s as good a plan as we’re getting.” She placed a tablet in a rugged case onto the table. “Now, I’ve been yelling at some colonels to get us some transport.” It was hard to miss her self-satisfied grin. “I may have put my career back five years but we should be able to get to the site before sundown.”
We all glanced up at Celestia’s sun. It didn’t look like it’d be setting anytime soon.
“Or, at least before the thunderstorm sweeping in from the Atlantic gets there,” Maynard continued, without missing a beat. She pulled up some satellite shots of a monster of a storm sweeping in over Ireland. “I also have some stills from a drone that made its way over the site.” She tapped at the screen and passed the tablet into Twilight’s telekinetic field. “Take a look and see if anything jumps out at you.”
“You know, if you want that storm bucked, you have some of the best pegasi in the business,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing at her wings. “I hear you people don’t have weather ponies.”
Twilight answered without looking up from the tablet. “Not a good plan, Earth’s storms are nothing like Equestria’s. The electrical power stored in a Terran thunderstorm is titanic. It would be like... like...” her voice faded away as she stared at the screen.
She dropped the pad at the centre of the table. On screen was an industrial looking building by the sea, Hinkley Point at a guess. The roof had vanished in a haze of magic. The usual glow of spellcraft was so bright that the camera had caught only a blur in the vague shape of a circle.
“Oh, Celestia,” Twilight swore, eyes transfixed. “Look at the size of that spell. We need to stop Chrysalis! We need to stop her right now!”
Lieutenant Maynard must have set a record for getting us into the air, though I couldn’t thank her for it. Keening wails of machinery and the roar of the helicopter's rotors battled for supremacy in the cramped cabin. Turbulence would, without warning, hurl us across the cabin, and wild swings would slide us back. My inner pegasus ached to throw it all to the wind and fly myself, no matter how much my wings burned. Rainbow Dash, who very much put a voice to that internal pegasus, had already tried to escape twice. It was a good thing they locked the doors. For added reassurance, Pinkie Pie sat on her.
“Okay everybody!” Maynard bellowed, just audible over the howl of the engines. “We’re coming down in a town called Bridgewater. It’s spitting distance from Hinkley Point, and so, spitting distance from Chrysalis. This isn’t going to a gentle landing. Hold on to something!”
My stomach dropped like a stone as the helicopter plummeted. I tightened my grip on the webbing as we lurched back and forth. Flashes of green light burst beyond the windows, casting harsh shadows across the cabin, and the helicopter rang like a bell under the impacts.
“I don’t like this!” Fluttershy wailed, her hooves clasped over her head.
I gritted my teeth, straining against the urge to throw my wings wide. Generations of instinct were screaming at me that I was about to die, but I clamped down on them. As the noise of spellfire intensified, the engines surged, and we were all pressed down to the floor by the deceleration. A crash heralded our landing, and a soldier flung the door open. Fluttershy escaped first, a yellow and pink blur.
“Move it! Watch the rotors.” Maynard hustled us out of the doors and into the evening gloom. Our landing pad was a muddy field behind a row of detached houses. The earth beneath my hooves was a quagmire, dotted with craters and criss-crossed by deep tank tracks. Chunks of brick and masonry crunched underhoof as I tore towards the shattered houses. Soldiers in fatigues beckoned us on. Fire lit the sky above our heads.
Five helicopters had been enough to hold the entire Equestrian force and, with surprising ease, the military ponies poured out. Shields materialized above our heads, the arcing changeling magic rolling off the surface like some kind of hellish rain from an umbrella. The steady crack of gunfire echoed in the distance, punctuated by the occasional boom of a cannon, or an artillery shell. Before I could begin to panic, though, we burst through the ruins of a house and into a makeshift base.
Between the row of houses, the sounds of battle fell away. A few marques had been set up in the street, and soldiers were hurrying to-and-fro. A man strode from the crush as we approached. He was not tall, but was built like a wall, and greying around the fringe. He picked out Celestia from our party in a moment.
“Your Majesty,” he said, his voice sharp and every word clipped. He halted before her and saluted with impeccable form. “Welcome to the sharp end. I'm Colonel Ward. Sorry things aren’t more up to scratch. It’s been dicey ever since the bugs figured out how to launch their witchfire like artillery. I hear that you’re bringing your own brand of weaponry to the fight. That’s good; we need something." He pointed up at Celestia’s sun, now hanging low in the sky above our heads, glowing an angry red. "Is that it?”
“In part,” Celestia said, displaying her usual mastery of the half answer.
Ward frowned. “Well, I hope it works, I’ve got attacks all over my line. It seems the bugs really don’t like you being here, Your Majesty. I hope what you ponies are packing has some serious power, or we are going to be driven back in short order.”
“Driven back?” Twilight interjected, hurrying forwards. “No, no, no. We need to get to Chrysalis before she activates whatever spellwork she’s trying to cast. Given the amount of power she could have gathered, and the sheer size of the spell she’s casting, the effects--”
“Sir, we’ve just got word from up-top.” An aide tapped Colonel Ward on the shoulder. Twilight glared daggers at the interruption. “The changeling reserves up at Weston-Super-Mare are on the move.”
Ward grunted. “How many, and how fast?”
“Err... all of them, Sir.”
The colonel glared into space for a moment. “Your weapon,” he snapped, rounding on the Equestrians. “Range, power and reload.”
“What?” Twilight did a double take. “Oh, no. Umm. See there might have been a miscommunication.” Ward’s glare intensified. “See, it’s one shot. And contact.”
Colonel Ward rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I guess I should have seen that coming. One chance for friendship to carry the day, just like the show.” More than a few of the nearby soldiers glanced at him askance. “What are you all looking at?” he barked. “I have three daughters.”
“Sir, it’s worse than you think.” Lieutenant Maynard stepped in front of the flustered Princess. Ward’s glower intensified. “Sorry, Sir. Lieutenant Maynard, acting liaison for the Equestrian forces.”
Ward cocked an eyebrow. “Acting liaison?”
“I imagine that there’s a Lieutenant Colonel with the actual role somewhere behind the lines. Until he catches up, I’m the best we’ve got,” Maynard said, with a weak smile. “That’s not important. Princess Twilight here has intel to suggest things may be worse than we thought.”
“That would be impressive,” Ward said, icily. Sighing, he turned back to Twilight. “Very well, what is going on?”
Twilight seemed to ignore the slight. “Chrysalis is preparing a truly massive spell,” she explained, in a brisk tone. “I can’t tell you what she intends to do, but the last time she had access to this much power, she almost destroyed Equestria, so I’d say it’s nothing good.”
Ward glanced back at Maynard. “How bad?”
“End of the world b--”
“Get down!”
One of the houses exploded, sending burning bricks screaming across the street. We all dropped as green flames arced over our heads. A burst of pink energy bounced the burning masonry away from anything vital. Twilight grunted, her horn blazing like the sun.
“I hate changelings!” Maynard spat, scrambling back to her feet.
Another fireball screamed through the air towards the camp, but it was met halfway by an explosion of blinding white light. By the time the spots cleared from my vision, the fireball was gone and Celestia stood, wings flared, ephemeral light pouring from her frame.
“I think it’s mutual,” Twilight growled, shaking herself, rubbing her smoking horn. “Is... oh no...”
In the distance, a pillar of light rose into the sky, miles away but clear as day, doing its best to outshine Celestia’s little sun. The clouds seemed to swirl around it, as if angered by the intrusion, and more of that sickly fire blazed through the air towards us.
“It’s started,” Twilight murmured. “Princess what--”
“Sir, artillery is hitting every position!” a different aide yelled in Colonel Ward’s ear. “They’re driving our men back!”
“Captain Bravewing, your pegasi shall attend me,” Celestia snapped, a halo of fire forming atop her head. “We will hold off this attack. Twilight, please hurry.” In a rush of displaced air she hurled herself into the air, her fighting pegasi a mere half beat behind. The evening gloom shattered, cast into harsh dawn as solar magic cut through the sky. A beam of pure light leapt from the Princess, tearing into some unseen opponent like the wrath of god.
“Colonel!” Twilight roared, rounding on the man, who was staring at the distant light of Celestia with his jaw on the floor. If we’re being honest, I was not far off, though, I wasn’t sure what I was more amazed by. A pastel pony princess throwing around deathrays, or the fact that Celestia had actually taken the initiative on something.
The Colonel shook himself. “Yes, Princess,” he said, regarding Twilight with what looked like the beginnings of respect.
“We need to get to the power plant,” Twilight informed him, shouting over the roar of Celestia's attack. “Can we do that in thirty minutes?”
The world went white for a moment, followed by an earthshaking blast wave that swept over us, threatening to blow us off our feet.
“Can we?” Twilight bellowed, wings spread wide.
Ward nodded, before turning back to his command. “All right everyone! I want every tank off the line and ready to go in five minutes. Get all the reserves, every vehicle, every gun and let’s get this done!”
The camp exploded into life, as if someone had kicked an anthill. Twilight let out a deep breath and slumped, her wings dragging as she walked the few steps back to her friends. “Now,” she said, staring out at the spear of changeling magic, “let us just hope we’re fast enough.”
The bombardment started just a few minutes later, along with the rain.
There’s no great military legacy in my family. I think my grandfather spent the Second World War in the post office. I hadn’t made it through life without watching a movie, or listening to war poetry, though. It was the poetry that spoke to me then, as the ground shook beneath my hooves from the weight of bombs. The shells screamed over our heads, wailing banshees that cut trails through the heavy clouds before plunging to earth. Individual explosions blurred into constant roar of death and destruction, which reverberated deep in my chest and kept my ears pinned flat against my head.
We couldn’t see the power plant from the motor pool. There were a couple of hills in the way, dotted with the shells of farms and houses. The steady march of high explosive rounds had torn the countryside to shreds before our eyes. Trees and buildings had been ripped apart, and craters dug in craters.
It was the human way of war, death and destruction on a terrifying scale. Metal and mud and the constant, soul crushing noise of battle, raining down on you. It had been fifteen minutes, and I was already a wreck. My wings twitched every time a particularly large bomb came crashing down, as if being in the air would somehow help. Fluttershy was coping better than me. She sat in the back of the open topped Land Rover, pointedly not looking at the bombardment, cotton wool stuffed in her ears. It would have been wiser to follow her lead, but, just as I couldn't flee, I couldn't tear myself away.
“I’m sorry,” Pinkie said, softly. She sat at my side, barrel pressed against mine, as we watched the ‘fireworks’. “I shouldn’t have made you come. It’s not fair.”
A tremor ran through me. “I think,” I said, at length, “that I could be anywhere else right now, and be happy, or at least too drunk to care, but I wouldn’t choose that path.” I glanced back at my new cutie mark. “I’ve spent a long time being powerless, and scared, but if the world’s going to end here, I want to be fighting ‘till the very end.” I sighed. “Does it get easier, Pinkie? Can you save the day so many times that it just... just... just doesn’t bother you any more?”
She shook her head. “No, you never can.” The weight of the world was on my wings. The shells rained down and the mud deepened with every falling drop of rain, as we sat there and watched. “Sometimes you want to run, but there’s no where to go. Sometimes you want to hide, but there’s no safe place left. When times are darkest, you have to pull yourself up on your hooves, and laugh, because there’s nopony left but you.”
“Stop,” I said, nodding and took a deep breath. “Breathe. Then, save the world.”
“And you know what?” Pinkie said, with a little giggle. “It’s actually number two that’s the tricky one.”
“Pssh, who struggles with breathing?” Rainbow Dash snapped, right next to my ear. Pinkie and I both started, and I leapt away from the hovering pegasus, my wing spread wide in alarm.
“You don’t need to worry about a thing, Alex,” Dash continued, puffing out her chest and holding a hoof across her heart. “I won’t let the changelings even ruffle one feather. Just stick close to me and we’ll get through this easy as pie.”
“Yes?”
We both stared at Pinkie, who just stared back, tilting her head in confusion.
Twilight chose that moment to arrive, trotting through the muck along with Rarity and Applejack. Somewhere, Rarity had managed to find galoshes. “Okay, is everypony ready?” Twilight called out, her horn flaring with magic as she boosted her voice over the roar of shellfire.
Around us, the humans and the Equestrian soldiers hurried into place. A dozen tanks and twice again as many small trucks and cars sat idling, many still bearing scorch marks and deep rents in their armour. Dash smacked her hooves together, the sound lost in the general cacophony.
“Lets do this!” she cheered, grinning like a loon.
“ONE MINUTE! ONE MINUTE WARNING!” a megaphone cut through the explosive roar. “LOAD UP, OR BE LEFT BEHIND!”
Lieutenant Maynard came hurrying through the crowd, half dragging another soldier. She dropped the unfortunate private into the drivers seat of the Land Rover, before calling shotgun.
“I’ll see you girls at the hive,” Twilight continued, shaking her head. “Rainbow Dash, are you ready to fly?”
“Born ready!” She paused, mid flap. “I’m lead pony though, right?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, Rainbow Dash. Stay safe, girls.”
The pair lept into the sky, joining Celestia and the rest of the pegasi. Across the valley the shellfire was abating, the rolling thunder going from a steady rain to the occasional bone shaking retort. The cries of ponies and men, as everyone struggled to find somewhere to perch for the desperate dash across changeling territory, echoed in my ears, and I found myself, mechanically, clambering into the Land Rover. Without a word, Fluttershy passed some cotton wool from her medical bag.
“Gotta’ say, you humans love yer toys.” Applejack had an assault rifle across her back, adapted for pony use by sticking a wooden dowel to the trigger. “Could use one of these next time them timber wolves come sniffing around.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure Cog will be churning them out soon enough,” I grumbled.
Pinkie took up position on the pintle-mounted machine gun at the back of the car. Rarity began laying out the ammunition belt with her usual precision. I just stuffed the wool in my ears, spreading my wings out a little as I tested the barrier.
Engines began to rev around us, deep sonorous booms shouting out the more restrained roars of the trucks and cars. “All units, all units,” a voice called over the radio. Ward’s I think, but it was so heavy with static I couldn’t make it out. “Move out. Keep it at forty, stay in formation and stop for nothing.”
The car jerked as we set off, wheels spitting out mud in our wake. The Element’s ride was at the very centre of the formation, along with the trucks and armoured cars that held the ground bound ponies. Challenger tanks lead the way, armoured behemoths that, with luck, would keep us safe from whatever the changelings could muster. I would have felt far more reassured if our route didn’t take us past the burned out husk of one of those same tanks.
A blaze of light and magic arced over our heads. The convoy began to pick up speed down the hill. Celestia and her pegasi swept through the sky, dropping lightning from the heavens over the next hill. Something supersonic cracked through the sky, cutting a swath just below the clouds. A half dozen missiles streaked through the air before vanishing out of sight. The detonations were almost lost in the general roar. I felt a shiver run down my spine.
“I hate fighting,” Pinkie Pie sighed, ears pressed flat. She held onto her gun with both forehooves as we bounced and jolted down the hill. “And I hate war. Especially human style.”
I could only see the back of Maynard’s head, but it didn’t take much to imagine her rolling her eyes. “Suck it up, princess,” she snapped, jabbing a finger at the distant pillar of light. “You don’t get any more of a just war than stopping that.”
Another distant boom rattled us.
“Girls, I’m scared.” The words escaped me before I could stop them.
Fluttershy put a wing around me. She said nothing, but just the presence of another pony helped.
“Contact, front!”
The changelings, of course, were waiting for us. A mass of black chitin came pouring over the brow of the hill, peppering the armoured column with green bolts of magic. Tracer began to pour back, lines of eye-searing fire tearing through the bugs like a blowtorch through ricepaper. It was all a prelude to the tanks, though. In less time than it took to slam my hooves over my ears, their main guns roared. Four high explosive shells crossed the hundred or so meters in an eyeblink and the entire changeling force evaporated. Perhaps one or two got lucky and hurled clear by the devil's own luck, but I saw nothing beyond a rain of icor and broken carapaces.
We rolled on, straight into the ambush just over the hill, which was obscured by the clouds of dust and smoke from the high explosive rounds until the very last second. Three goliath bugs exploded from the earth, hurling themselves at the lead tank. Two went down to cannon fire, armour piercing rounds tearing the mountains of flesh to shreds, but one came on. It didn’t bother with anything as complicated as magic; the beast put down its head and took the tank head on.
It must have been like driving into a boulder. The tank went up and over the goliath, tumbling in mid air before thundering to the ground. It flipped end over end, screaming in agony as metal tore like paper.
“Shit!” Our driver wrenched on the wheel, all four tires squealing, kicking up mud as he weaved his way past the stricken tank.
“Don’t stop, don’t stop!” Maynard bellowed as more changeling fire poured in.
Great gouts of magic cleaved through the air above our heads, launched from goliath bugs further into the valley. Lightning, screaming down from the heavens, raced back, along with more conventional weapons of war as the tanks went into rapid fire.
There was no way to keep track of the battle. Screams, explosions, roaring engines and the constant rain of deadly magic and lethal steel fought for attention. I watched a tank die, a lance of green fire tearing through its armour like it was made of plywood. The ammunition detonated, rocking our car on its axles. A goliath bug was torn apart by a rainbow blast, called down by Dash, most likely, moments before it brought down its scythe like claws on a truck full of ponies. Changelings boiled from holes in the ground, only to be cut down by machinegun fire. Heat washed over me, as a jet, ripped from the sky, came down in a fireball just a hundred yards away. Pinkie’s gun beat out a deadly roar as it swept across the hordes, joined by a hundred other small arms as the drones tried to swarm the column.
Bombed-out houses flashed past. Broken bodies of changelings, ponies, men and more that I couldn't identify at a glance littered our wake. Every moment some new sound, or burst of light, or wave of heat or spellpower would strike. I could do nothing but hunker down in my seat and pray that somehow we would make it through the storm alive.
Hours passed, or maybe minutes, or maybe it all happened in a handful of bloody seconds that blurred into an eternity. A particularly deep rut near bounced me from my seat, and suddenly the roar of battle was just a distant echo in my ears. We were tearing down a hill, towards the power plant. It was a huge structure, a foreboding cube of concrete and steel even before Chrysalis had got her hooves on it, and now a ring of obsidian pillars surrounded the site. A green soap bubble shield covered the new hive, and rippled and shook every time a shell or missile slammed into it.
There was a deep crack and the column of light and magic began to fall from the sky. It fell straight, the hundred meter spear collapsing to a single ring at the apex of the power plant. It was unbearably bright, and a wash of magic buzzed across my pinions. A sudden rush of wings heralded Twilight’s arrival, and she landed, hard, on the rollcage.
“Twi’, what’s going on?” Applejack roared.
The alicorn fought to keep her footing as we bounced and jolted our way across the field. There was a flare of magic from Twilight’s horn. “It’s some kind of portal spell, but...” She shook her head. “That’s insane. It’s got a range of a hundred million kilometres or more. What could be that far away?”
My stomach dropped away as realisation struck. Chrysalis had said so many times that she wanted the sun. Had we ever stopped to wonder, which sun she was trying to steal? “The sun!” I bellowed. “That’s Earth’s sun.”
“Which is an inferno that produces more energy in a second than Celestia’s Sun does in a thousand years,” Twilight said in a rush, not taking her eyes off the portal. “And all that energy will be here in sixteen minutes.”
I could actually see the moment where she paused, her wings lying limp for just a moment. Then, Twilight took a deep breath and began to rattle off orders. “Right, the mission hasn’t changed. Get in there, shut down the reactor, and stop Chrysalis. Lieutenant, we’re going to brute force our way through the shield. Get those tanks focused on the towers, they’re a structural weakness. We’ll support you from the air.”
With a heave of her wings, Twilight shot back into the sky. Maynard was on the radio in a moment. “All units, all units. Starbuck says charge, focus on the towers and do not stop. Repeat, focus on the towers and do not stop until we’re inside the compound.”
The car rattled as we hit tarmac, the shattered road giving us a clear run towards the power plant. Our little column of armour seemed rather anaemic against the sheer size of the place; we were down to just four tanks and maybe ten vehicles. Even at a distance, I could see more changelings pouring out of the building in a never-ending tide of chitin. The tanks thundered, main guns pumping another volley of shells into the forces lining the shield. Countless drones were scythed down before my eyes, but more kept coming.
Then Celestia struck. For an instant, all sound ceased, and the world went white. A deep roar rose up, building and building until I feared a solid wall of sound would crush us. The blast was impossible to look at. Staring into the sun would have been kinder and, even through my closed eyelids, the sheer intensity burned like an electric needle. The whole thing lasted just a moment, but when the spots cleared from my vision, the world had been torn apart.
Chrysalis’ shield held, just, and was glowing a cherry red, but not a blade of grass, nor tree, still stood ahead of the column. Somehow, there were still more changelings to charge through the wavering shield and bolts of magic once more began to scream through the sky towards us. Celestia’s fury seemed to have done nothing but slow them down.
“What the hell does it take to kill these bastards?” I heard Maynard exclaim, slamming her hand down on the dashboard. Another tank took a bolt of magic between the turret and the body, and the whole thing vanished in a blaze of fire and magic. The three survivors salvoed again, shells whistling through the air to tear apart the changeling reinforcements. Another explosion split the sky as a prismatic blur shot over our heads and lightning began to fall amongst the changelings. Still, the magic screamed past us, flames licking at the sides of the car as Pinkie’s gun began to bark once again.
There was an explosion of multicoloured light as Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier. With a sense of deja vu, Dash hurled herself at the shield and, with a crack that they must have heard in Wales, it buckled beneath her hooves. For a moment, my eyes were fixed on the glowing dome, as if my will would be enough to drag it down, but nothing happened. It wavered, but stood firm.
A tank died in my moment of distraction, rolling to a stop with smoke billowing from all the hatches. That left the depleted column with just a pair of battered and scorched behemoths. The final pair didn’t hesitate, though, with just a couple hundred meters separating us from the plant they loaded a final pair of shells and let fly. The armour piercing rounds slammed into the flickering shield and went through like a hot knife through butter. Two of the shield's support columns shattered beneath the hammer blow and, like morning mist, the shield vanished.
Applejack let out a whoop, right next to my ear, as the wall vanished, but any relief was short lived. There was an earth rending scream from the compound, and at the crown of the building, a flare of magic fire flashed into sudden fury.
“Twitchy, twitchy, twitch!” Pinkie Pie shrieked, and dragged Applejack and Rarity down into the bed of the Land Rover. The solid beam of magic still almost took their heads off, and I felt my fur singe under the blistering heat. A blueish white shield sprang into life above us, but Rarity’s magic just seemed to draw Chrysalis’ ire. The full weight of stolen magic bore down on us, an inferno separated by mere inches.
Twilight’s usual teleportation flash was blinding as she arrived between us and the beam. Her own shield bounced the blast into the sky, and the beam cut out as we screeched to a stop in the lee of the building. The girls leapt free of the car, and I managed to miss my footing and hit the ground with a bang as I tried to follow them. My legs seemed to have turned to jelly at some point. While I scrambled back to my hooves, the survivors of the column leapt into action. Men and ponies lead the charge into the building, laying down a barrage of suppressing fire.
“Come on, Alex!” Rainbow Dash landed hard next to me. The aether magic was pouring off her, like water from a fire-hose. Sparks leapt between us as she dragged me along after the herd. “Don’t stop now, we’ve almost got this.”
The unicorns kindled their horns as we poured into the power plant. The lights had been either smashed or just failed at some point during the battle, turning every shadow into a waiting drone. Chrysalis’ taste in interior design was giving me flashbacks to the ancient temple in the badlands, all shattered stone and ichor, but there was no time to admire the scenery. Guns roared, the screams of men and changelings echoing through the halls, and above it all I could hear Twilight screaming. “Follow me, follow me!”
Dash and I pushed our way through the soldiers, or rather Rainbow Dash ran forwards like a little missile, and I followed in her wake.
“I hope we’re going somewhere in particular!” I heard Applejack snap, as we caught up with the rest of the Element bearers.
“Main reactor,” Twilight said, between pants, as we thundered down a corridor. A pair of drones burst out of a side passage. Twilight didn’t even pause before slamming them into the wall with a burst of telekinesis. “Shut it down, stop Chrysalis gaining any more power, then head for the roof.”
We burst into a wide open chamber, lit only by the horns of Rarity, Twilight, and the half dozen unicorn soldiers who’d managed to keep pace. Alarm bells were ringing in the back of my mind, along with some real world sirens. Some buried human instinct was screaming at me that I was standing way too close to a nuclear reactor for comfort.
“Come on, this wa--” Twilight was lifted off her hooves by an emerald lance. The magic picked her up and tossed her across the room like a rag doll, slamming the alicorn into a tangle of pipes and cables. She dropped to the floor with a sickening bang, and vanished from our sight in the gloom as her magic failed.
“Twilight!” Pinkie screamed. She went to spring after her fallen friend, but had to drop to her belly as a second inferno blasted over her head.
Light exploded into the room as the unicorns sent up flares. Changeling drones poured from every nook and cranny, and a hail of magic filled the air. Gunfire roared as the earth ponies let rip into the mass of bugs and even some braver humans dared to enter the reactor room and join the firefight.
“Out of my way!” Twilight galloped back towards us as if her tail were on fire. Ponies jumped back out of their Princess’ path, shields falling before her as she scrambled back behind our defensive line.
I’d like to say that I noticed something was off about her; that I’d spotted some quirk, or tactical oddity which gave me that crucial half second to react. In truth, I was just as surprised as everyone else when green flames wreathed the princess, and Queen Chrysalis stepped out of the fire. Three ponies were dead before anyone had a chance to blink as she lashed out with a whip-like burst of magic. Applejack and Pinkie hurled themselves at the Queen, ducking and weaving under more witchfire, and tackled her to the ground.
“Now, Alex!” Rainbow Dash charged, her wings snapping open as she leapt into the air. I was a half beat behind the accelerating pony, who was doing her very best to break the sound barrier indoors. Aether arced between us like a lightning bolt, and, beneath my wings, the barrier began to sing as--
Chrysalis leapt forwards, blasting Applejack and Pinkie Pie away. Rainbow Dash jinked, and it was only a lifetime of dodging death by millimetres that guided her around a cloud of green magic. I didn’t have a fraction of that skill and flew straight into the cloying fog.
A strangled squeak escaped me as Chrysalis dragged me through the air towards her. I struggled, and kicked and desperately tried to punch the barrier, but if I budged an inch I couldn’t tell.
“Ah, Alexis,” Chrysalis said, a mirthless smile revealing her blooded fangs. A pair of ponies charged in, only to be batted away by another surge of magic. “I promised to kill you... Goodbye.”
Her magic hurled me away, faster than I would have believed possible, towards the nearest wall. There was no time to brace, or gather a scrap of aether to protect myself, just me and the cruel reality of physics.
I hit, head first, with a crack that echoed through the room. The impact caved in my skull, broke my neck, and I was dead by the time I hit the floor.