//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Roaring Thunder // Story: My Little Equestroid: Stompin' is Magic // by ForeverChasingRainbows //------------------------------// **Thirty-Thirty** Thirty-Thirty stood gazing at the oncoming storm in wonder as the ponies dashed around their almost-packed camp. He'd never seen a proper thunderstorm in person before - the climate on New Texas wasn't exactly right for large-scale rainfall. The smell of ozone and fresh rain filled the air, and the temperature began to drop as the clouds moved closer. One by one the recently-risen stars were being blotted out by the churning mass, and a great grey wall of rain slowly advanced across the darkening desert. He'd woken just a few moments earlier, when the storm's appearance had apparently panicked his hosts. They had begun scampering about their little camp as he had stood and watched the storm, the rising wind beginning to pull at his mane and tail. Star had started a small fire in the middle of the camp to ward off the darkness, but it was guttering and sparking at the storm's approach. Thirty-Thirty assumed it was magical in nature - he was fairly certain a normal fire would have gone out completely in the harsh wind. Also, fires weren't normally purple. They sure are anxious about gettin' a little wet. We're supposed to be gettin' picked up soon anyhow. Just as he was considering trying to get an explanation out of ~Fluttershy~, another small equine dashed out of the darkness around the camp. Its bright amber eyes focused on him, then widened in shock. With a panicked cry it fell back on its haunches, scrambling to reverse course and get away from him. An' just what exactly are you? This one was quite different from the six locals he'd met so far. It was still basically equine in shape and possessed wings like two of the others, and unless Thirty-Thirty was being misled by his instincts this was yet another female. There the similarities ended, however. The newcomer's wings were leathery rather than feathered, and the pupils of its eyes were slitted like a cat's. A dark grey coat and deep purple mane were just visible beneath a set of what looked like heavy plate armour, also coloured a dark shade of purple. When her mouth opened to shout, Thirty was surprised to catch sight of a pair of sharp fangs in amongst the otherwise normal flat teeth. Summoned by the new arrival's shout of alarm, the other six ponies came running. As soon as the bat-winged pony saw the group she tensed and ceased in her efforts to flee. Thirty-Thirty saw determination replace fear on her face as she quickly placed herself between him and the other ponies, pawing at the ground and holding her wings spread aggressively. "Normally I'd oblige ya," he said to the strange new pony, "but it ain't exactly my style to beat up on li'l girls." Surprise flickered across the bat-winged pony's face as he spoke, but only for a moment. Her attention was only truly captured when the other ponies spoke up from behind her. At first it was just one of her tufted ears that turned, but after a few short, sharp exchanges of words the armoured pony took a few steps back and turned her whole self around. After some more hurried conversation she visibly slumped, some of the tension leaving her body, before straightening up - still glancing nervously in his direction intermittently - and gave Star what Thirty-Thirty couldn't help but think of as an adorable little hoof-salute. So this is one of the guards? Just how many kinds o' these little ponies are there? That put paid to his already-failing theory that the ponies he'd met so far were small because they were children - the guard would obviously be an adult, and she wasn't any larger than the others. Not to mention that she was saluting and apparently reporting to Star, which meant the purple pony outranked the guard somehow. Then the fact the armoured pony was alone, and without the promised transport, pushed his brain on to the next link in the chain. Where's the rest of 'em? The little bit of doubt in his chest grew to full-blown nervous discomfort as the guard gave what he assumed to be a report to the group, interspersed with occasional hoof-pointing in his direction. Now he had more time to examine the small armoured pony, she was in poor condition. The armour covering her body was scuffed and battered, the edges of her wings looked a little ragged and torn, and - based on the broken straps dangling at her neckline - she'd lost the helmet that went with her plate suit. Even worse was the expression on her face and the halting tone of her voice as she spoke. Based on the horrified and disbelieving reactions of the other ponies, something had gone terribly wrong. **Twilight Sparkle** "A-and then he told me to run and..." The exhausted guard broke off, head dropping as she tried to control her rapid breathing. "For all I know they're all-" she whispered, more to herself than the ponies around her, "I might have left them all to die." Twilight looked from the battered and bruised Night Guard in front of her to her friends. She could see the same horror and denial filling her own mind reflected in all of their faces. When she turned back to the guard, who had introduced herself as Nightshade, she had apparently collected herself a little. Raising her head she spoke again. "Princess, we've got to get you and the other Elements out of here, now. It's not safe." "If what you're telling us about this attacker is true, there isn't anywhere we can go," Twilight replied. "We don't have much hope of outrunning a pegasus on the ground, even before we take into account the things you've described." Drawing a lightning bolt out of clouds is one thing, but not even Rainbow could follow that up by just pulling bolts out of thin air to throw in a fight. And no matter how hard she tried, I'm pretty sure she couldn't conjure up a storm this size - or buck an armoured guard through a tree either. "There's gotta be more than one," Rainbow Dash chimed in, pointing up at the storm, "no way can one pegasus do all this." "You'd better hope you're wrong," Nightshade replied grimly, "because if there's more than one of those things we're all dead. We're all probably dead anyway." Any response to that comment was drowned out by a thunderous roar from the direction of the oncoming storm. The sounds of the tempest merged into a twisted mockery of speech, rivalling the Royal Canterlot Voice in volume, as something bellowed a challenge into the night. It took Twilight a moment to realise there were words in amongst the sound and fury. "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" Twilight felt her ears pin back as the bottom dropped out of her stomach. Fighting down her fear, she turned to face the sound and planted her hooves. Concentrating, she created a ball of light at the tip of her horn and fired it into the sky, angled towards the clouds. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her friends lining up behind her, along with the guard Nightshade. The huge stallion was nowhere to be seen, but she was a little too preoccupied to look around for him now. The light from Twilight's spell danced across the rolling and churning clouds as it ascended, its glow occasionally supplemented by flashes of lightning from within the thunderhead. As it reached the peak of its ascent and halted, a figure emerged from the cloud bank high above. At this distance it was difficult to make out details, but it looked to Twilight's eyes like an ordinary tan-coloured pegasus. There was a small object hung around its neck, glowing bright red in the darkness. Applejack squinted up at the distant figure. "Are they wearin'-" Nightshade completed her friend's sentence. "The Alicorn Amulet, making it a category four magical hazard. Although that doesn't explain its extraordinary abilities, because it's a pegasus. Or at least it looks like one." Twilight glanced back at the guard behind her, confused. "Yes, the amulet only works for unicorns. I mean theoretically you could use a big enough piece of arcanite to make an equivalent focus for pegasi or earth ponies, but there's only the one Alicorn Amulet - and there hasn't been any arcanite found on Equestria in centuries." "Looks like somepony found some more," Rarity said, before muttering "and wasted it making a frightfully garish piece of junk, too." "It's not just a matter of ponies not looking for it," Twilight explained, "Princess Celestia spent several decades scouring the world with magic and gathering up every last trace of the stuff after the first incident with the Alicorn Amulet. There simply isn't any left. There are only seven arcanite artefacts in all of existence; the Alicorn Amulet and the Elements of Harmony. What little of the stuff is left over is basically powder, and there's not enough of it to make another crystal of any size - let alone another major artefact like-" Further discussion was cut short as the voice of the storm spoke again, this time at a slightly more bearable volume. It sounded almost jovial and friendly - or at least as close as it was possible to get to that when speaking at volumes usually reserved for forces of nature and angry royalty. "There you are. Oh, and I see you found the guard I misplaced. Well done getting away from me by the way. I'll have to find out how you did that sometime. Now, Princess. I know you wouldn't want any harm to come to your little friends, and I expect the guard has told you at least something of what I'm capable of." Nightshade flinched but held her ground, glaring venomously at the distant pegasus. The storm had halted behind him, leaving the wall of thrashing rain standing stationary just a short distance ahead of the group. The voice of the storm lost its jovial tone, a low rolling rumble of thunder accompanying its words. "Unless you want to watch me break them, you will surrender yourself to us." Twilight heard Rainbow Dash pawing at the ground behind her. "Lemme at him! Nopony talks to- hey! Watch the tail!" "Whoa there Nelly," Applejack said through a mouthful of multicoloured hair. Twilight glanced back at her friends, mind racing. They could try and use the Elements, but there was no telling what the effect of that would actually be. If they didn't work, and even half of what Nightshade had said was true... Then she remembered everypony standing by her that morning, and felt a familiar confidence begin to build - not confidence in herself, her own abilities, but in all of her friends. They would face this together. Twilight felt the air began to vibrate and hum faintly as magic gathered around them all. As the power built she looked upward to see lightning begin to crawl across the surface of the clouds, converging on the pegasus high above. "Regrettable," the thunderous voice proclaimed, although its tone suggested that a fight was exactly what the speaker had been hoping for. "You have been deceived, Twilight Sparkle. You do not wield the true force of harmony. That power is ours, and you will help us spread it... whether you want to or not." As the lightning massed within the clouds behind the pegasus, a hint of urgency crept into Twilight's mind. He can't possibly be trying to- no one pegasus pony can handle that much lightning! She couldn't imagine how it was possible, but it certainly seemed like he intended to throw the entire lot straight at her. Twilight reached out to her friends and redoubled her efforts to marshal the magic of the Elements. This is gonna be close- Twilight's thoughts were interrupted by a crisp snap-crack sound in the darkness and building rain. It sounded a bit like somepony breaking two bundles of sticks one after the other, but with a faint metallic overtone Twilight couldn't place. As all seven ponies on the ground glanced towards the source of the strange sound, they were all startled - and partially blinded - when a brilliant crimson beam blasted upward from the shadows outside their camp with an echoing boom. As her eyes locked shut against the glare, Twilight stared at the afterimage flash-printed on the inside of her eyelids - their metal-limbed visitor, hind hooves braced wide and his strange weapon raised to his shoulder, unleashing a massive beam of energy from the hole bored down its centre. Okay, Luna was right. Even in the confines of her own head, Twilight's voice had taken on a slightly higher-pitched panicky tone. Definitely dangerous. **???** "Did you see that?" The mare's usually gravelly voice was panicked and rushed, to the point where she sounded almost normal. "What was that thing? What did it just do to him?!" He tried to hedge the fear and loss out of his own thoughts, but it was infectious. They had power, but the enemy apparently had something far more potent - an unknown. Something that wasn't just an outsider to their family, but to their entire world. A force of chaos and disorder. Everypony was nervous enough standing on the clouds in the first place, and now Stratus is gone. Without a pegasus we can't hold this cover together. Something had to be done to prevent a panic. They could mourn their loss later, if calm was maintained now maybe something could be salvaged from this mess. "We were warned that some foul thing had crossed over, intent on preventing the triumph of harmony. I tried to calm Stratus, but..." The unicorn looked to his companions, his family. "We still have a little time before the clouds disperse. We can observe from here for a while, learn what we can about this chaos-born monstrosity." He tried to fill his voice with his own confidence in their cause. "Caution and proper preparation will win out over the senseless aggression of chaos. We shall overcome it. We must." **Twilight Sparkle** Twilight and her five friends recovered from the flash after a second or two. Based on the sulphurous - and slightly archaic - swearing coming from Nightshade, however, the Noctral had also been looking directly at the flash. Twilight knew from her own research exactly what that would have done to her eyes while they had been adapted to the darkness. "Everypony okay?" Twilight said, rubbing at her own eyes with a hoof. It was only when a loud thump announced his encounter with the ground that Twilight remembered the pegasus. Immediately Rainbow Dash was on top of him, with Applejack close behind, but as Twilight approached herself it rapidly became apparent that their intervention was unnecessary. The fallen pegasus was lying in a decently-sized crater, a large blackened scorch mark on his chest the only trace of the amulet he had been wearing. Twilight had no idea how, but he seemed to have taken no damage from what had presumably been an uncontrolled fall - although there was no telling what the strange weapon or the destruction of the amulet might have done to him that couldn't be immediately seen. A short-cropped brown mane, slightly darker in tone than his coat, and a plain cloud cutie mark did little to identify him to anypony present. "I-is he okay?" Pinkie Pie asked, subdued. "What the hay was that beam thing?" Rainbow Dash asked nervously, looking back at the group. "Did the big guy do that?" "He's still breathin'," Applejack announced, leaning over the downed pegasus. Fluttershy had caught up to the farmpony, and Twilight saw her friend run through the first stages of a First Aid checklist. Fluttershy didn't seem to have a copy for reference, but she was doing it correctly regardless. "Not when I- damnit- Not when I get a hold of him he won't be," Nightshade growled, teeth bared to display her pair of small, sharp fangs. Her vertical slit pupils had almost completely vanished into her golden irises, and she sat down to rub at her red-rimmed eyes before she bumped into anything else. "Where the buck is he? Empty void, I'm gonna-" The steady thump of approaching hooves interrupted the burgeoning argument, as the seven ponies tried to process what sounded like an unnaturally slow pace - until they realised that the source of the sound had two less hooves than they were used to. The stallion strode through the crowd of ponies, weapon slung on his back once again, steadily pulling a length of white rope out of an opening in his metal thigh. Twilight was almost too distracted to notice, then she quickly tried to take in every detail. There seemed to be some form of spool extending from a tiny compartment about the size of her hoof in the stallion's thigh, apparently purpose-built for storing a rope or line. As soon as the tail end of the rope came off the extended spool, it snapped back inside its holder and the compartment closed, leaving a featureless metal surface once more. Ignoring the protests and questions of both Twilight and her friends, their large guest bound the fallen pegasus' legs together. After a pause for thought, he also wrapped a piece of rope around the pony's barrel to pin his wings before sitting down next to his unconscious form. The stallion said something in his strange language, drawing his weapon and resting it across his legs, and after a moment Fluttershy translated. "He says he's under arrest."