Chapter 29: Aerial Dominance
"I was afraid of that," said Twilight grimly as she listened to Luna's dire pronouncement, "We figured that Wight Shade must be up to something." There were too many odd things about Flash Spark's escape and his coming to Ponyville. The unsettling silence and lack of any correspondence from Celestia after that had only made that all the more clear, along with the late rising of the sun. Luna's words were just the final nail in the coffin of Twilight's hopes that matters might have been resolved already.
"At least the Cult Solar has been dealt with already," said Dawn dourly from behind her, "They would probably be having a field day with this." Standing beside him, Fluttershy leaned down to nuzzle her son and try and sweeten his temper.
"That I don't doubt," said Luna, "The fact is, despite my sister's work, there are probably still plenty of members of the Cult on the loose. They might gain a little grounnd after an event like this. However, we can't afford to worry about that now, not with such serious matters demanding our more immediate attention."
Dawn nodded and carefully stepped to stand next to Twilight. He had to rear up to get a proper view of the table and its contents. On either side of him and Twilight, Arkenstone and Firefly also came to the table, apologizing softly to the Guards they displaced as they too looked down at the map (or rather, Twilight and Firefly looked down at the map).
"Why does it look like you're preparing to lay siege to the Royal Palace?" asked Firefly.
"When I heard what had happened, I returned to the surface immediately," said Luna, "My next order was for a complete evacuation of the Palace, all the residents, servants, and Guards. If Wight Shade is truly as dangerous as my sister says, and I don't doubt that he is, I don't want anypony in the vicinity when we have to confront him."
"That is probably wise," said Arkenstone soberly, "Though it might give him the opportunity to fortify his position, it's better leaving dozens of potential hostages and equine shields within his reach. Though, if he made no effort to stop your evacuation, it may be that he does not feel that he needs them."
The tent flaps flew open and a familiar orange and yellow mare, decked out in a blue and gold flight suit, came in at a hurried clip. Spitfire paused as she took in the new arrivals arrayed around the table before smiling a little. However, the smile fell from her face as she quickly made her way to the table, forcing yet another officer of the Royal Guard out of his place.
An orange stallion with a blue mane, standing beside Princess Luna, whispered into the ear of one of his subordinates, who quickly began to usher the rest of the Guard officers out of the tent, leaving room for the rest of Twilight's friends to crowd around the table and get a view of the map.
"I'll brief them later," said Flash Sentry, smiling politely at them.
"It's good to see everypony here," said Spitfire.
"When did you get here?" asked Arkenstone.
"A little after midnight," said Spitfire, "I've got the team keeping the skies around the Palace clear and on the lookout for trouble."
"From the look on your face, trouble is exactly what you spotted," said Firefly.
Spitfire nodded. "It looks like Wight Shade had some kind of illusion up. A few minutes ago, the Palace looked like it always did. Then, the next second, it looked like somepony had started up a thunderstorm inside the throne room. There were windows busted and cracked walls. We didn't want to get too close until we knew what we were dealing with, but Estelle said she saw scorch marks and a giant hole in the middle of the floor."
"That's not good," muttered Rainbow.
"Given what you described, I'm guessing that Princess Celestia confronted and fought Wight Shade in the throne room," said Arkenstone, "Given the fact that she was apparently in no condition to raise the sun this morning, I think it is safe to assume that she was not the victor."
"Oh no!" whispered Twilight, paling as she looked over at Arkenstone, "Do you think she's...?"
"I cannot say," said Arkenstone, "We don't know any details about the situation in the Palace."
"When I raised the sun, I could still feel the presence of my sister's bond to it," said Luna, "If she were dead, the bond would have been severed. So I know that she is alive. We can assume that she has been incapacitated in some fashion."
"Well, with those concerns out of the way, we should get down to brass tacks," said Spitfire, "What do we do now?"
"The answer is obvious," replied Luna, "The ultimate purpose of every fighter here, every Knight and every Guard, is to get the Elements of Harmony into a position where they can be used against Wight Shade. If my sister, with all the power she has at her disposal, was unable to defeat him, then it is likely that no amount of brute force shall be enough. The Elements of Harmony are likely the only tools capable of actually doing harm to that stallion."
"That's what I thought," said Twilight, smiling as she used her magic to open her saddlebags. From them, she removed five necklaces and one tiara, which she levitated onto the table. "It's a good thing Princess Celestia put them in my custody. I'd hate to think about how hard it would be to fight through the Palace to get them if Wight Shade has taken the place over."
"Agreed," said Luna, "However, we must be careful about getting you into the Palace. I have no doubt that Wight Shade has conjured or created all manner of obstacles to waylay you and keep you from disrupting his labors."
"Well...I don't know if all that'll be needed," said Spitfire, "The throne room is a wreck, but the Palace looks untouched otherwise."
Just as she finished speaking, there was a distant rumble and the ground beneath their hooves began to shake. Disturbed, everypony rushed out of the tent to look at the Palace as, to their horror, it quivered and shook, vibrating in place. Windows shattered and walls crumbled as spires of strange, off-white material that looked vaguely crystalline thrust out through the walls. From the windows, what looked like vines began to grow, though they looked an unnatural, sickly, pinkish color, sprouting thorns and weaving into a curtain of brambles around every opening, covering every window and wrapping tightly around and over every door, blocking every point of entry.
"You just had to say that, didn't you," muttered Firefly, glancing sidelong at Spitfire, who merely gaped at the spectacle.
"Getting the girls in may be a taller order than we thought," said Flash Sentry, shuffling nervously.
"Yes," agreed Luna, "Let us hope we can get them in at all."
"I see you've raised the defenses," said Kombu, looking up at the windows, which were now covered by a barricade of pink brambles. Up close, they looked dirty, their pink marred by blemishes of brown and black, as though they were afflicted by some sort of blight, though Kombu knew that they were not even organic.
"I don't want to make them too strong," said Wight as he paced around the perimeter of the hole they had opened in the throne room floor. Of to the side was the disk of solid marble they had cut out to make it, having been cut, moved, and settled without so much as cracking it.
"The stronger the vault, the more precious the treasure inside is thought to be," mused Kombu.
"Something like that," said Wight, "Though this is indeed a most precious treasure to me. After all, it is the labor of my entire life."
The Palace began to rumble again. Pieces of debris clattered as they skittered across the floor. From within the whole, Kombu saw something large ascending. The structure was like a broad cone, terminating in a round dome that was inset with what looked like a large, polished stone. The stone reminded Kombu of an opal as it shimmered with colorful fires, although they were colors that he couldn't put any words to. Looking at them for too long made his eyes ache and he had to avert his gaze.
As the object reached the level of the throne room's floor, it seemed to bend and warp in on itself, vanishing into thin air as it pushed up. A flicker of light drew Kombu's eyes upward and his jaw dropped as he saw the object seeming to warp out of thin air up above, now descending from the empty ceiling above, even as the rest of it continued to vanish at floor level, pushing up. It reminded him of watching a mirage in the desert. The unnatural sight made his stomach churn and made him briefly struggle to tell up from down. Unable to take any more, he closed his eyes and wrenched his head away from the sight before it caused him to throw up.
Finally, the rumbling abated and Kombu could open his eyes again. The array's central focus now hung from above, seeming suspended to a fixed point in mid-air like a stalactite of polished crystal. Aside from the varicolored fire of indescribable hues that shimmered at its rounded end, its length was dominated by swirling clouds of mist. In gaps between that mist, he fancied he could see something that looked like...land...like a view of the world seen from directly above. He grew so lost in trying to discern the details of what he was seeing that it wasn't until Wight coughed politely that Kombu forced his eyes away from it.
"Now that the focus is in position, would you be so kind as to help me fix the floor?" asked Wight with a wry smile as he gestured at the heavy disk of marble resting off to one side.
"O-of course," said Kombu. Between the two of them, they were able to lever the disk back into the space where it had been cut out. It had been cut out of the floor so that the edges sloped inwards, allowing it to slide right back into place. Under Wight's direction, they also made sure to turn the disk until the lines of all the tiles lined back up, only the faintest seam indicating that the piece of floor had been removed at all.
"Now everything should be ready," said Wight, smirking at their handiwork, "I'd paint a target on it, but that's a little obvious, don't you think?"
"I suppose..." said Kombu nervously, "Are you sure this will work?"
"I am certain that the components will function as they are supposed to," said Wight, "The input should also be drawn into the focus as well, even if they direct it at me. As for whether or not it will actually work out the way I want it to..." He shrugged. "...It looks good on paper."
"That's not very encouraging," said Kombu.
"On the bright side, if it turns out that I goofed, we won't have to worry about the destruction of the world," said Wight, "This close to the origin, we'll be consumed before we've even realized it."
"What a cheery thought," said Kombu sourly, "If I didn't have so much faith in your skill, I would be reconsidering my position as your friend and ally in this endeavor."
"I certainly hope that I can reward your faith in me," said Wight with a cheerful grin. He glanced at the doors to the throne room. "Is Perlin in position?"
"Yes, he's waiting in the main entry hall, per your instructions," said Kombu. "He's still rather upset about your deception in Ponyville."
"That is understandable," said Wight, "Fortunately, there is no more need for deception, at least so far as his instructions are concerned. You've told him to mind his tongue, correct?"
"Yes," replied Kombu, "Though I'm not entirely sure that such instructions will be followed. Perlin has been unusually willful regarding his contract lately."
"Also understandable, I suppose," said Wight, "But I don't believe he knows enough to jeopardize the array's activation."
"What about your other assets?" asked Kombu.
"They are nearly ready," replied Wight, "I think they should fulfill their purpose nicely. I'll have to be careful though. They aren't nearly as durable as Flash Spark is."
In spite of himself, Kombu shivered. Wight Shade hadn't so much as flinched at the idea of making use of the hundreds of imprisoned cultists, nobles, and their soldiers that had been sequestered in the Palace dungeons and the caverns beneath them. The evacuation ordered by Princess Luna had been so sudden and unexpected that the Guards had all but forgotten about the prisoners in their haste to escape. It was a cruel case of abandonment, however worthy the ponies imprisoned were of their punishment. Wight found it somewhat ironic that, after leaving the Cult Solar behind, he'd found one last use for its members when all was said and done.
"So...how do we get through this?" asked Spitfire, glaring at the nearly impenetrable barrier of brambles crossing over the Royal Palace's main gate.
Shortly after the Royal Palace's...transformation...Twilight and her friends, along with the accompanying Knights and every member of the Royal Guard currently available mustered to get to the Palace gates as quickly as possible. Much to her consternation, Princess Luna had been forced to remain behind, Flash Sentry, the Knights, and Twilight all pointing out that, if anything happened to her, then there would be nopony left to raise the sun or the moon. Cadance might have been capable of taking over once she returned from the Crystal Empire, where she'd been presiding over the Hearts and Hooves Day celebrations of her subjects. But that was a very big maybe as she had never attempted to move the celestial bodies with her magic before and it might be weeks before they managed to assemble enough capable unicorns to do the job instead.
"Um...give me a minute," said Twilight, studying the barrier and comparing it with the knowledge of Dark Matter that she had gained over the course of her studies. She thought she recognized the material they were composed of. Said material was nearly indestructible, of course. However, from what she remembered, the shape was actually a product of the material's reaction with the world's natural ambient magnetic field that produced those long, vine-like shapes and wickedly-sharp points. Depending on the properties of the ambient magical fields around them, the shape could be altered or their growth could be redirected.
"Let me work out a spell for this," said Twilight, "It's going to take a few minutes."
The group currently stood in the outer courtyard. Twilight and four of her fellow Element Bearers were out in front, their Elements at the ready. Behind them was arrayed an extensive formation of the Royal Guard. Above them, pegasi, including the Wonderbolts, hovered protectively. Rainbow Dash, clad in her own mithril flight suit was with them, having convinced her teacher that she was needed to help keep the sky covered. Firefly had agreed, albeit reluctantly, which spoke volumes for how serious and desperate the situation was. Firefly hovered alongside Rainbow, while Arkenstone stood close to Twilight and her group on the ground.
Dawn was also with the fliers, casting a wary eye about as he looked for any signs of trouble. Their job was to make sure that Twilight and her group made it to Morning Star and that the Elements of Harmony were allowed to do their thing. Since said group included his mother, Dawn was especially motivated to see to their safety. As he continued to watch for trouble, his ears twitched as he picked up the faint sound of buzzing, a sound that he was familiar with and not very fond of.
"We might not have a few minutes," said Dawn nervously.
"Relax," said Rainbow, "If it's just Flash Spark, we can at least keep him away, no problem."
"I don't think that it's just Flash Spark," said Firefly, her normally composed voice dropping to a horrified whisper as she looked upwards at the source of the gradually increasing noise.
Once again, the sound filling the air seemed to hum into their ears and make their bones vibrate. Spitfire, anticipating another fight with Flash Spark, had once again equipped the Wonderbolts with earplugs. She'd also brought enough for the Guard pegasi to use. The noise was painful, but not debilitatingly so.
As the noise reached fever pitch, they saw him. Flash Spark rose from behind one of the Palace's towers, his bladed tail lashing the air. To their surprise, Flash Spark's armor was sporting its horn, which only seemed to appear when Wight Shade brought the insectile stallion under his direct control. That worried Dawn enough, on its own, wondering just how dangerous Flash Spark's Dark Matter was when it was under the control of a pony who truly knew how to use it.
However, those worries dwindled as they were replaced by the horror of what came behind Flash Spark. From behind another of the towers came another pony, clad in similar insect-like armor, with wings buzzing. A second rose up from behind the Palace's sloped roofs. A third appeared, then a fourth, then more... Soon, white-clad ponies were streaming out from behind every part of the Palace, assembling behind Flash Spark in a massive swarm that filled the sky above the Palace, all of them looking down at the Wonderbolts and Guardsmares.
"Yeah," said Rainbow, her voice emerging as a strangled squeak, barely audible over the collective hum of so many wings, "that's pretty bad."
"There must be hundreds," whispered Spitfire, "Where did he get them all?"
It was Flash Sentry who answered, his voice absolutely horrified. "The prisoners...the cultists, the nobles...they were left behind when the Palace was evacuated."
Dawn edged forward, his eyes narrowing as he strained to get a better look at the ponies arrayed behind Flash Spark. Unlike Flash Spark, their armor was not wholly opaque. Instead, it sheathed their bodies, looking like misty glass, actually allowing him to discern details of the ponies held within. He saw the colors of their coats, muted by the layer of armor over them. Behind the domed, eyepieces, he could see eyes that were wide with terror. These ponies were clearly not wearing this armor willingly. Just as with Flash Spark, their head sported horns, whether the pony encased within the armor was pegasus, unicorn, or earth pony. Dawn's eyes widened again when he picked out a familiar form amongst the ponies hovering there. Blenheim, Applejack's uncle and a member of the Cult Solar, was amongst the swarm.
"They're shields," said Firefly, "He wants us to hold back to avoid hurting them."
"If they're even half as dangerous as Flash Spark, that's gonna be a job and a half...at least," said Spitfire nervously.
Before they had set out, Dawn had noted that Ouranos was nowhere to be seen. Spitfire explained that she was having him keep clear of the fight. The Wonderbolts were the only ponies with the training to fight alongside her when she and her friend merged to unleash their full power. Under those circumstances, Spitfire's magic generated incredible heat, gradually raising the temperature of their surroundings until ponies and other creatures in her vicinity would start passing out from sheer heat exhaustion. The Wonderbolts had been trained to create isolated pockets of stable air to keep the heat of her flames at bay. Unfortunately, the Guard Pegasi were not trained in that skill.
When Dawn had expressed his concerns about her fighting with such a handicap, Spitfire had merely given him a cheerful wink and said, "Don't worry so much kiddo. If I was wholly dependent on Ouranos for my power, I would never have been made a Knight to begin with."
That confidence was nowhere to be found now and Dawn suspected that Spitfire was wishing she hadn't asked her friend to keep well away. Ouranos was supposed to be a force to be reckoned with on his own, but Spitfire had been anticipating a pitched battle in the Palace interior, where his flames might blaze out of control in confined quarters and nearby allies if they weren't careful.
"I hope Twilight finishes that spell fast," said Rainbow, swallowing hard, "'Cause here they come!"
Indeed, Flash Spark and the humming swarm behind him surged forward, cresting over the Palace like a wave and washing down from the sky in a literal deluge of chitinous fury. Dawn immediately surged forward, feeling the Wonderbolts and ponies of the Royal Guard following along with him. At this point, their primary goal was to keep the swarm off of Twilight as she figured out the spell needed to break through the barricade over the Palace gates.
Kicking out with his hind legs, Dawn swept his wings forward, lunging to throw the force of his entire body into the motion and extending his wings until the tips of his primaries stretched out past either side of his head, pointing straight at Flash Spark, his primary target.
A roaring blast of concentrated air went barreling straight at Flash Spark, who came to an abrupt halt. Dawn saw his wings pause for an instant, the veins lining them shifting configuration before they began to buzz again. He felt, rather than heard the change in the vibrations produced by the wings. However, rather than the spherical wave that Flash had produced in their previous battle, he instead somehow shaped the vibrations-not the air being vibrated, but the vibrations themselves-into a disk between him and Dawn. The cannon blast of compressed air launched by the Forward Wing Strike hit the disk shaped mass of vibrations dissipated harmlessly.
Flash Spark attacked next. This disk of vibrations in front of him began to extend towards Dawn, forming an elongated cone. Along its path, Dawn could feel the air it touched become dead, numb to his senses. He shot upwards above the cone and darted to attack directly from above. This time, instead of using a blast of air, Dawn instead began to produce vibrations of his own, the humming between his feathers burst into crackling arcs of electricity as he swept his wings through circular motions, accumulating the power before jabbing out with the outermost primary of his right wing, launching a bolt of lightning like a spear straight at Flash Spark's back.
The bolt slammed between Flash Spark's wings, sending arcs of energy skittering across his body. The electricity didn't seem to actually bother the armored stallion, but Dawn could feel the disruptive vibrations produced by his wings fading as the electricity arced across them. Dawn suspected that the buzz produced by the electricity itself was disrupting the precise frequency produced by Flash Spark's wings and canceling out its effects.
Dawn maintained the flow of lightning he sent streaming down his wing and through the air into Flash Spark's body. With his other wing, he executed a series of smaller circular motions, carefully accumulating more power into a separate point, even as he continued to generate the electricity he was sending constantly into Flash Spark. This was the most complex trick he'd ever tried to pull off as he condensed the electricity around his left wing and molded it into the air, forming stable plasma and continuing to collect and build its power. He kept it up and it grew and grew in potency. Dawn kept it confined to same small space, concentrating its power even more with each passing second. When he felt that it reached the absolute limit of what he could hold, Dawn kicked off the air, diving straight down at Flash Spark, twisting his body to bring the powerful bolt of pure plasma to bear in a point blank strike.
It was almost too much for him. The task of maintaining a constant stream of lighting while building up a separate charge on his opposite wing, while still remaining aloft and in control stretched Dawn's skills to their absolute limit. Acting automatically, he let his mind and body relax as he moved, calling forth an image of a white blade extending from his feathers as he slashed downwards at Flash Spark.
The bolt of plasma elongated and made an eerie whistling noise, cutting through the air in a manner similar to the vacuum blades Dawn could create. He aimed for the base of Flash Spark's wing. As he did, the motion forced him to retract his right wing and end the stream of lightning. Through his wind-sense, he could feel Flash Spark's wing once again moving to alter the shape of the vibrations it generated, forming them into something that resembled a blade extending out from the wing Dawn had targeted. Even as it did so, Dawn both felt and saw the other wing stop and then start again, the tone of the buzz it generated changing slightly.
Flash Spark's body twisted, bringing around the blade of shaped vibrations and swinging it to counter the blade of plasma extending off of Dawn's own wing. The two attacks collided with an angry-sounding buzzing crack. The collision between the two actually bounced Dawn away and he went tumbling through the air. As he righted himself, he saw a familiar flash of yellow and immediately kicked out to one side with his hooves, skipping to the side as a sonic lance screeched past him.
If Dawn had been uncertain before, he no longer was now. Wight Shade was most definitely the one pulling the puppet strings for Flash Spark. It showed in how refined Flash Spark's moves were, how much control he had. Flash Spark had shown no skill at shaping the vibrations his wings produced or being able to use separate wings for separate tasks. Wight Shade, however, knew the full extent of what the Dark Matter he had merged with Flash Spark's flesh was capable of and exploited that knowledge to its fullest.
If that is the case, thought Dawn, then what happens if I damage or destroy the mechanism of Wight Shade's control? HIs eyes focused on the horn extending out of Flash Spark's forehead. If that only appeared when Wight assumed control of him, then it stood to reason that Wight's control over Flash Spark would be broken if the horn was...not that having Flash Spark back in control of that monstrous body was a good thing. But it at least fell into the category of...less-bad.
Dawn frowned, but was forced to focus on keeping away from the strange vibrations given formed by one of Flash Spark's wings, while the other fired another sonic lance at him.
Nearby, Rainbow Dash wanted to help Dawn fight Flash Spark, but she was fully occupied as a trio of armored ponies swarmed in on her at once. One of them closed in with her, extending a foreleg annd swinging it at her in a slashing arc. Hearing the faint whistling that accompanied it as Rainbow ducked underneath the swipe, she realized that the ends of these ponies' hooves were razor sharp. Like Flash Spark, they also sported bladed tails that ended in wicked-looking stingers. However, within the armor, Rainbow could also see the trapped ponies' normal tails.
Still, that little detail was mostly unimportant as Rainbow dipped and dodged through several attacks as her attackers swarmed her from above and below. Kicking out with her rear hooves, she bucked one in the stomach, even as she lashed out with a punch, catching another one in the side of the head. The pain shooting up her hooves made Rainbow grimace. Just like Flash Spark's armor, the material encasing these ponies was as hard, if not harder than steel.
Worse still, just like Flash Spark, these ponies sported insectile wings that gave them almost complete freedom of movement in the air. All around her, she could see the signs of a hard fought battle. The Wonderbolts engaged their opponents freely, their superior training and light, mithril mail flight suits giving them a high level of mobility that allowed them to engage several opponents at once, using hit and run tactics to avoid being cornered. The pegasi of the Royal Guard weren't anywhere as mobile as the Wonderbolts, but they made up for it with solid group tactics, breaking into teams of four and covering one another's blind spots, allowing them to fend off attackers that converged on them from all directions.
Distracted, Rainbow nearly took a hoof to the head, but barely managed to pull back away from the attack. The bladed edge of the hoof being swung at her actually scraped against the mail over Rainbow's cheek. To her relief, it held. However, the force of the blow left the spot feeling sore. Rainbow figured she'd have a bruise to show for the near miss.
"Back off!" Soarin's shout heralded his descent from above as he dropped down, slamming both of his hind hooves into the spot between the buzzing wings of Rainbow's attacker, sending him tumbling downwards before he regained control and began to return to the fight.
"You okay, Dashie?" asked Soarin', coming to hover behind Rainbow so that they were now back-to-back.
"I'll be fine," said Rainbow, "It's just a graze."
Soarin' grunted and used a foreleg to parry a punch thrown his way before catching the pony throwing it with an uppercut. "You notice anything odd about these girls?"
"Besides the obvious, I assume," teased Rainbow with a roll of her eyes.
"I'm talking about how they fight," said Soarin', looking around, "Are you not seeing what I'm not seeing?"
It took Rainbow a moment to catch on to what he was talking about. Being dive-bombed by a pair of attackers didn't help her concentration. "None of those screaming laser things," she said after a moment.
"Yeah," agreed Soarin', "Also, it's kinda hard to tell with the ear plugs, but I don't think they're making the same buzz that Flash Spark is. It isn't painful. If anything, I think it may be drowning out his wings' effects."
"That'd be something," said Rainbow, ducking a bladed tail, "What do you think it means?"
"Well...I'm guessing that, when it came to arming these ponies up, Morning Star or Wight Shade, or whatever it is he wants to be called right now, didn't give these girls the full package. I think they're sporting a more basic version." Using his stomach muscles, Soarin' pulled up his hind legs and threw his body into a backflip, kicking in an arc over their heads and smacking the skull of a mare who'd tried to get the drop on them.
"Well...that's a relief," said Rainbow dryly, "Notice something else?"
"What is it?" asked Soarin'.
"We figured the ponies in the armor aren't exactly volunteers, right?" said Rainbow, "That means they're not the ones in control of what they're doing."
"That's true," agreed Soarin', "Wight Shade can't be controlling this many ponies directly...at least, I hope he can't be."
"So maybe if we figure out how he's controlling them, we can break them out of it," said Rainbow, "Even if we can't break them out of that armor."
Looking around, Rainbow had already spied another thing that all of their attackers had in common. "It's the horns," she said.
"Yeah," agreed Soarin', "So if we can do something about those horns, maybe we can break them out from under Wight's control."
"That sounds like a good plan," said Rainbow, "The problem is how we're gonna bust those things up. They're probably just as hard as the rest of that armor." She winced at the thought. Her hooves already ached from pounding against that unyielding substance. She was lucky that the ponies behind that armor weren't so heavy that they weren't knocked away by her blows or she was sure that her hooves would have shattered by now. As it was, the ponies she hit merely bounced away only to come back and press their attack endlessly.
During their first fight with Flash Spark, Rainbow and those who'd fought with him had worked out how to damage him, in spite of his powerful armor. While it seemed to be nearly indestructible, the flesh beneath it was not. They'd worked to strike in such ways that the joints of his armor were driven into the flesh beneath, turning the material's strength and hardness against the pony under its protection. According to Dawn and Firefly, that weakness had apparently been rectified by Wight, who'd apparently modified the flesh beneath Flash Spark's armor. From the looks of things, the rest of Wight Shade's army wasn't so equipped as the ponies beneath that armor looked much the same as they would have without it. The same tactic would probably work here.
The problem was that, even if such a tactic promised to be effective, there was no way in Tartarus that Rainbow would be willing to use it. Given what Flash Sentry had said about the ponies left behind in the Palace, these ponies were the imprisoned cultists, nobles, and their loyal cronies who'd earned their place in the dungeons and prisons with their crimes. But she didn't think that the Equestrian code of law would ever come up with a punishment as cruel as this. However, bad the ponies beneath that armor might have been, they didn't deserve to be pounded until they hacked up blood for being forced into a battle where they had no control of their bodies.
Rainbow's thoughts were interrupted by a shrieking noise and an ear-splitting hum that made her bones rattle. Beside her, Soarin' let out a cry of surprise and pain, flinching from the sudden onslaught of sound and took a punch to the gut from a knife-edged hoof employed by an attacker who'd taken advantage of his momentary distraction. Fortunately, his flight suit took the blow and kept him from being disemboweled. An ebony form tumbled past Rainbow's vision, followed by a screaming streak of yellow that left her blinking.
Dawn lashed out with a forehoof, pushing off the air itself to change the direction of his spin and tumble, getting him just barely out of the way of the sonic lance Flash Spark had fired at him. The lance continued on past him, where a stallion of the Royal Guard was deadlocked against a mare trapped in armor. The lance sliced clean through both of them, cutting them in two. Blood sprayed in all directions as both of the mortally injured ponies cried out in agony, the pieces of their severed bodies dropping down towards the unforgiving ground below.
"That bastard!" screamed Rainbow, whirling to glare at Flash Spark, who was buzzing towards them now. Though he flew straight and in perfect control, there seemed to be a lopsided quality to his flight, as his two wings appeared to be buzzing at different frequencies.
Soarin' grimaced, but held his tongue, making sure that he restrained Rainbow with a hoof on her shoulder. Nothing good would come from her charging in a fit of rage. She'd be cut to pieces before she could get anywhere close, not that she could do anything if she did get in close. He was angry too. it was clear that Wight Shade cared nothing about the ponies he was using to shield himself and considered them disposable tools.
"Careful," warned Dawn, coming to hover next to them, "He's much more dangerous now than when Flash Spark is actually in control." An armor-clad attacker dropped in on them from above, but Dawn's wing blurred and a cannon blast of compressed air slammed into her and sent her into an uncontrolled spin until her armored body smashed into the wall of one of the Palace's towers.
"We need to take out their horns," said Rainbow, glancing at Dawn, "You got any ideas?"
Dawn looked back at her and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Maybe...Where is your teacher?"
Blinking, Rainbow looked around for Firefly. She spotted her teacher amongst a swarm of nearly fifty attacking ponies...all by herself. Firefly was still flying normally, but moved with a dancer's grace, effortlessly avoiding every strike that came her way, often using the bodies of attacking ponies to change the direction of her flight in unpredictable ways, causing two or more of her attackers to slam together. She moved about the battle zone, drawing attackers off of Royal Guards and Wonderbolts alike as they all focused on the much more difficult target she presented and kept them from getting swamped by the sheer number of enemies.
"Looks like she's doing just fine," said Rainbow.
"Look out!" shouted Soarin', suddenly bulling into her body from the side. At the edges of her vision, Rainbow could see Dawn blurring into motion as well. There was another shriek as Flash Spark fired another sonic lance at Dawn.
Dawn, however, sensed that something was different about this attack. At the same time that Flash Spark fired the lance, his other wing actively shaped the vibrations it produced, just as it had before. Only, this time, it shaped those vibrations into a lance not unlike the one being fired off the first wing. This lance was almost completely invisible to the naked eye. Dawn could barely perceive it with his gaze, marking out a faint blurring, matching the buzzing motion of the wing itself. Through the wind, he felt the change in the vibration's shape, felt the two different lances extend until they intersected a short distance away from where Dawn, Soarin', and Rainbow Dash had been hovering. When they met, Dawn's wind-sense was beset with the feeling of the air somehow cracking and breaking at the point of contact, as though it were a solid object.
Black lines, resembling cracks, appeared on the shining yellow of the sonic lance. In an instant, it shattered like glass, bursting into countless flechettes of yellow light, shooting off in every direction. Dawn had to dance and whirl to escape them, barely managing to avoid injury. He winced as he felt the edge of one of those shards of light clip a primary and slice part of it away completely. Two more shaved hairs off his mane. Yet another punched a hole clean through the hairs of his tail.
Other ponies in their vicinity, both enemy and ally, were not so lucky. Screams of pain and fear momentarily drowned out the buzz of insect wings as the scattered shards of Flash Spark's sonic lance pierced through flesh, bone, and Dark Matter armor with contemptuous ease, punching holes through wings and barrels. Blood sprayed out from half a dozen wounds where the flechettes had cut into critical arteries and veins. Nearly a dozen ponies began to drop from the sky.
"Soarin'!" screamed Rainbow, her voice cracking with hysteria as Dawn looked over at them. Rainbow had been successfully knocked clear of the attack and had been lucky enough to escape injury. Soarin'...hadn't. Dawn could see a hole that went clean through his mithril mail on one side of his back. Another had punched through the flesh of his haunch. From the gurgling noise escaping Soarin's throat, along with the blood bubbling up in his mouth, Dawn feared that his lung had been hit.
"No!" yelled Rainbow, desperately throwing her arms around Soarin' to keep him from dropping. All around the pair, more enemies came rushing in like a swarm of bees on the attack. Rainbow, in no position to retaliate, could only close her eyes and steel herself, hoping that her mail would absorb the worst of the blows.
Dawn flickered into position directly above her, vanishing so quickly that another sonic lance from Flash Spark speared right through the afterimage he left behind. The ebony colt's wings became indistinct blurs as he swept them out in several quick swipes in succession. Hammer blows of compressed air slammed into the attacking ponies knocking them away.
Flash Spark came rushing in to press his own attack, but Dawn wasn't having any of that. Turning about, Dawn swept his wings in exaggerated circles, as though they were joined by a bar that ran across his shoulders, a buzz of his own canceling out the sound of Flash Spark's wings. The buzz grew in volume, becoming arcs of lightning that trailed behind his wings as they continued to circle. Despite the fact that Flash Spark was closing in, Dawn continued to calmly prepare his attack, gathering his power.
Anger blazed in the colt's heart as his mind pictured the ponies that had been hurt by that last attack, including Soarin', somepony Dawn considered a friend, somepony he'd confided in and even turned to for advice. He let that feeling flow into the motion of his wings, building his power. The lightning crackled, fed by his angry feelings, threatening to burn his own feathers and scorch his own flesh. But Dawn relaxed by feeding his anger into it, keeping the power circulating ceaselessly, even as it built with each passing second. Working gradually, he reduced its area of circulation, concentrating its power and merging it with the air that was being swept up in his wings.
Flash Spark fired another sonic lance, but Dawn dodged without even thinking about it, barely moving his body at all so that the lance passed right over his shoulder, missing by mere millimeters. Flash swept the lance downward, aiming to cut Dawn's wing right off. But the colt rapidly slipped to the side without breaking his technique.
As Flash Spark closed in, Dawn turned sideways towards him, narrowing the rotation of his wings and sweeping them into tighter and tighter circles. As his side was facing the charging Flash Spark, the rotation of his wings closed until they were no longer moving in circles at all. Instead, Dawn lunged sideways, snapping out the wing facing Flash Spark so that the outermost primary was pointed right at the insectile stallion. As he did so, Dawn put the full force of his body behind the motion, feeding all the energy he'd built up into the air and lightning, merging them together into a spear of white-hot plasma that launched out from his wingtip and thrust at Flash Spark. Dawn let all of his anger flow into the attack, leaving him feeling calm and relaxed, his mind pleasantly blank as the spear of his rage flew at Flash Spark, filled with his intent to pierce into the stallion.
Flash Spark spun in place, using the wing that produced those disruptive vibrations to create an humming shield between him and the oncoming lance. But Dawn's attack seemed to punch through it, the vibrations fragmenting and cracking like glass. The lance thrust onward and burrowed into his side, punching through that white armor, burning into the flesh beneath it, and out the other side, leaving a hole as wide as one of Dawn's hooves through the middle of his barrel.
No sound escaped from Flash Spark's mouth, not so much as a grunt of pain. For a moment, the stallion hung suspended by his wings, like a puppet on its strings, spinning in place. Smoke poured from the hole Dawn's attack had punched through his body.
Momentarily suspending his full attention from Flash Spark, Dawn returned his attention to Rainbow Dash and Soarin'. The two of them had lost a fair bit of altitude as Rainbow was pulled down by the stallion's weight, too busy being distraught by his condition to devote her strength to keeping them aloft. The attackers Dawn had knocked away a few seconds ago were already returning. Dawn moved to rush to their aid...
A thunderous clap filled the air and the sky flared white and blue. Firefly, her wings transfigured into blazing constructs of light came streaking in. She twisted her body and her wings burst into streams of light that launched out at the swarming attackers like a barrage of spears, smashing through their armor and pounding into the vulnerable flesh beneath. Strangled cries of pain filled the air as several ponies dropped from the sky, their wings broken. Others were smashed into, or even through, the Palace towers and ramparts. A brief silence seemed to settle over that small section of the sky as Firefly came to a stop by Rainbow and Soarin', with Dawn coming in to hover a little behind her.
"Get him down to the medics," said Firefly, pointing down to where the Royal Guard unicorns and earth ponies had assembled in the courtyard. Already, the Guard medics were tending a dozen pegasi from their own ranks. A pair of blue and gold figures were also visible on the stretchers.
As Rainbow rushed to get Soarin' down to the stretchers, Dawn gave Firefly an angry look. She responded with a glare of her own. "Don't you start. I understand these ponies are victims, but they were imprisoned for a reason. If it comes down to saving their lives or yours, I'm damn well going to save yours, even if it means killing them. I know it's bad, but you've got to make the hard decisions at some point."
With a sigh, Dawn sagged. "I suppose you're right...but..."
"Hey," said Firefly, "I wish there was another way, but I can't figure one out."
"Their horns," said Rainbow, flying back up to join them.
"You shouldn't even be up here at all," said Firefly, glaring at Rainbow, "You weren't ready last night and you certainly aren't anymore ready today. You should be down there with your friends so that you can head right in once Twilight Sparkle breaches the gates."
"I'm a Wonderbolt," said Rainbow firmly, "So until Twilight breaks through, this is where I belong."
Firefly opened her mouth to scold her impetuous protege when Dawn cut her off. "You mentioned their horns, I had the same idea."
"What's this about horns?" asked Firefly, looking annoyed at being interrupted.
Dawn gestured to the armored ponies around them, many of whom were once again closing in to attack. They all sported horns on their heads, whether they were unicorns or not. "Flash Spark's horn only appeared when Wight Shade assumed direct control of him. Presumably that means that the horns are how Wight Shade assumes control over all of these ponies. If we remove their horns, then they might not be enemies anymore."
Firefly looked around at the ponies hovering around them. "You might have something there," she said, "It's just speculation, but it's better than nothing. Let me test it out."
"Can we even break those things?" asked Rainbow.
"Firefly can," said Dawn, "After all, she can break through their armor easily enough."
"You could probably do it too, kiddo," said Firefly, "But you haven't mastered the technique well enough to hit such a small target yet. Just leave it to me."
Spreading her wings out, they once again burst into light, transforming into wings of pure light and energy that made the air around her hum. She shot off into the sky, becoming a streak of light, zipping around faster than the eyes could track. She zeroed in on one of the enemy ponies and charged straight in at the armored stallion. He noticed her approach at the last second and began to reverse direction. But Firefly was already on him. One of her shining feathers seemed to transform, thinning out and elongating until a long, slender blade extended out as Firefly swung the wing at her target. The edge of the blade hit the pony's horn. There was a brief pause as it made contact. For a moment it looked as though the blade wouldn't penetrate the Dark Matter. But then it suddenly accelerated, slicing through the horn like a hot knife through butter.
The severed horn went spinning through the air, whilst the stump it left behind glowed red hot after the passage of Firefly's attack. The pony who'd just been hit froze in place, his body hanging in the exact pose it had been in when Firefly's attack had connected, as though his armor had locked in place and kept him from moving. For a moment, Dawn and the others feared that he would resume attacking after a second. But then...a crack formed in the stallion's armor. It lengthened, branched out, spreading all across his body. His wings froze in place and his body began to fall. As it fell, the armor began to peel away, flaking off and revealing the earth pony underneath.
As he fell, the pony let out a bloodcurdling scream and began to flail his limbs wildly as he plummeted towards a messy end down below.
"Oh stop screaming you big baby," snapped Firefly as she came up along side him, rapping him sharply on the head. Somehow, the blow seemed to knock the stallion unconscious instantly, allowing Firefly to catch his limp body and lower him to the ground. Dawn and Rainbow followed, fending off other attacks as they went.
"Well that worked," said Dawn as they settled onto the ground.
"Bit of a problem though," Rainbow pointed out as Firefly settled the stallion on the grass.
"Playing catch-the-cultist is gonna get old after a while," admitted Firefly.
"Why don't you leave that to us."
The three of them looked up to see a familiar pony approaching them. "Hey, Shining Armor," said Rainbow with a grin, "Finally caught up to us, huh?"
"Yep," said Shining, returning her grin, "If you can keep the battle directly above this space, me and the other unicorns can work on catching them."
"I think we can manage that," said Firefly, "This isn't gonna be easy or fast though, not with so many of them."
"It doesn't matter," declared Rainbow, "Let's do it!"
"Hey!" shouted Firefly as her student shot up into the sky. Firefly took off after her, muttering under her breath. "Stupid...reckless...I swear, she's just like me when I was her age."
Dawn chuckled and moved to follow them. However, he paused as a familiar buzz rattled his bones. Looking up, he saw Flash Spark, who, until recently, had been hanging limply from his wings with a hole through his barrel, descend on Rainbow, his wings blurring and the air around one of them beginning to shimmer. Through the other, he felt that strange disruptive vibration beginning to build again. He's going to do it again! thought the colt in horror, recognizing the preparatory steps to that burst of sonic shrapnel Flash Spark had launched at them briefly.
Firefly saw Flash Spark too. Already, her wings had blazed into light once again and she charged at him headlong. At the last second, Flash Spark changed his action, shaping his vibrations instead into a disk-like shield that he held between him and Firefly. She slammed bodily into it and rebounded, blood streaming form her nose and mouth as her wings of light shattered like they were made of glass, leaving behind her normal pegasus wings.
"Look out!" shouted Dawn, rushing towards Rainbow, who had seemed oblivious to Flash Spark's approach.
Dawn's words prompted Rainbow to look around and see the insectile stallion coming for her. Though he'd abandoned attacking with the disruptive vibrations from his left wing in order to block Firefly, his right wing still launched a sonic lance straight at Rainbow. Dawn's warning was barely enough for her to twist out of the attack's path, narrowly missing it slicing right across her throat by a few centimeters.
Her eyes narrowed in anger as she glared at the approaching Flash Spark. Even after he'd been banished from Ponyville, he'd continued to cause trouble. He'd embraced the enhancements that Wight Shade had offered, menaced her friends, terrorized the ponies close to her. And now, he'd hurt Soarin' too. How badly, Rainbow couldn't say, but the fact that Soarin' was hurt at all was enough. That Flash Spark was currently under Wight Shade's complete control didn't matter. He'd have done it, perhaps even gleefully, if he were acting of his own volition. Rainbow intended to put him down...permanently.