The Reluctant Pilgrim
The shooting starts before I so much as reach the clouds. Artillery’s come a long way in Equestria, and so too do its shells, casting shooting stars across the night to brighten the eastern horizon with fire and smoke. With the wind filling my winds and my heart racing with anticipation, I drive towards the earth.
Low chatter fills my left ear from the Hippocrene forces tracking developments. Not only across the sea, but up from the sewers, from the cold north, from every inhospitable place have the forces of chaos disgorged themselves. It’s a party in Manehattan and everyone is invited.
My flight carries me north of the atmospheric collectors and into the suburbs west of the city, landing down among subway lines where they emerge from the earth after crossing under water and land. Colorful concrete walls cheerfully muraled over would have been pleasant in the daylight, but under the harsh light of police floodlights and hover vehicles that emphasize every water stain and flaw, it gives off a depressingly dystopian vibe. Saria hops on a police car to wave me down and I flap my wings, hovering nearby.
“Good! You are here, my blood.” She smiles, flashing sharp teeth. “The Adherent and your blonde friend have found the mine.”
“Have we opened it yet?” I ask, looking around.
“Marble insisted on–” She flattens her ears as a thunderous report sounds through the street. An entire section of subway flashes into steam, transmuted instantly from stone to water vapor in a brilliant flash. There, buried beneath the subway tunnel’s remaining struts, is a long shaft sinking diagonally into the soil.
I land nearby, my wings aching from three days of hard work, and after a moment’s indecision select my heavy revolver. If Redbud shows up, nothing heavier I have will hurt him, and if something ambushes us I don’t want to be caught swinging a longarm in a tight space. Lab Work remains at the entrance as Saria and I descend with the Adherent, Marble Stone, Priyana, and a contingent of nervous officers ready for anything.
Priyana lifts her hand and light pours from her Cup, illuminating the tunnels and heartening the ponies. White with traces of limestone, the caverns are large and branching, with dampness and pools of cold water seeped in through the porous rock. As ever in Equestria, crystals sprout everywhere, with beds of aragonite and fields of calcite glittering at every turn in reds and blues and pale milk hues. Our downward progress is halted when we hit the water table, and we spread out, looking for the remains of the quarry. At an officer’s shout we find a section of tunnel that has clear signs of being worked, following what must have been mineral veins and pockets of high quality limestone for use in the city. The wood supports flash by overhead as we race along, looking for the chamber Trace Prints described.
“Whoa!” I shout as we turn a bend, nearly skidding right into Redbud’s corona in the following tunnel. In six squeezes I unload my entire revolver into his face, stunning him with the flash and noise for a moment. “Back!”
We dive back en masse, sheltering behind the Adherent’s crystalline magic as Redbud unleashes an angry wave of heat that sizzles the stone around us.
After the initial wave, Saria snaps her sword free, answering formless heat with lightning. “Charge!”
And, driven by the winds of her magic, we do.
Pelted by dozens of rays from unicorn magic and faced with the combined magical fury of all four Knights, even Redbud is forced to retreat, his tail singed and his coat stained with narrowly-dodged flicks of lightning. He body-checks a pillar and the earth above us buckles, but Marble Stone fires ahead of us and blasts the ground, making a pillar of hexagonal crystal slam back into the ceiling and spread out roots to hold it together.
In a wave, we wash into the chamber, and a red-eyed Luster lifts his head. “Uncle Marcus!” he calls. Behind him, Wave Form’s horn hums and sings as it works at the form of a large winged figure in glowing bronze-colored metal.
“Weapons up!” I shout, not wanting the officers to accidentally hit a kid. Saria, of course, ignores that order, but then she knows how to cut without collateral damage.
“So you’re up, boy,” Redbud says, grinning tightly. “Good.”
“No delays. He won’t accept quarter.” I snap out a claw-blade of black goblin steel onto my hoof and advance cautiously, letting Saria take point. Wave Form looks so terrified, I can’t blame her for acceding to their demands. It’s not something I’d wish on any kid. She’s actually trembling.
He laughs. “And you’re learning!” Then he turns and darts over to Wave Form. “Finish it!” he demands, grabbing Luster in one hoof. I swear and charge forward with Saria. I can’t bring myself to ask her to stop.
Wave Form whimpers, her eyes filled with Luster’s terrified form, and shoves a crystal into the machine’s back.
Clockwork whirls into gear and fire fills the workings of the creature, filling the air with a deceptively elegant ticking. It raises its horned head and spreads its golden wings. The mask of its face shifts until the metal reveals that of a very real, very living mare’s, and her eyes sear with brilliant light.
“Begone!”
Fire fills the room, leaping from cracks in the earth or spinning out of the air in hideous pyrotechnics. The mare raises a hoof, and the room begins to quake.
“Retreat!” I shout, buffeted by the flames, and we race back for the entrance at a full gallop. Even with the Adherent covering our back, many officers have to be carried out as they’re burned across their sides, backs, legs, anything. When we reach the tunnel mouth, a blast of superheated air blows the rest of us out. Dazed, I look around, stunned to find myself intact, but then see the Adherent, curled up in his shell. Fearing his death, I wobble over to check on him and am relieved to hear him breathing. Overhead, Rarity and Talon descend from a Hippocrene VTOL, and Trace’s coat flaps in the hot breeze.
The earth continues to quake more fiercely than ever, and we barely have time to clear the officers before it buckles. A water main snaps and cascades into the air, and the subway cables shriek and snap with blue electrical fires as the ground splits and rises before our eyes. When the dust clears, the clockwork alicorn, Redbud, Wave Form, and Luster ascend with the swelling earth. A pillar of light and fire pierces the clouds above, exactly as in my vision.
“Of course,” I mutter. “Because it would be nice not to have to go through it. Can’t have nice things, can I?”
My earpiece crackles. “Ranger Flores! Blind Chance on station. We are prepared to level that hill on your order.”
The airship, two kilometers away, is a long dark splinter. I look around at the officers, the homes nearby already cracking under the stress of the earth, and, most importantly, Wave Form and Luster on the hill. Titanspawn wing through the air, close enough to smell, and teams of pegasi and fighter jets zip through the sky after them.
“Negative,” I say. “Civilian casualties.”
“Sir, there’s going to be an awful lot of casualties of every kind if we don’t avert what’s coming to pass here.”
I look down at my hoof, examining the little microfractures and scuff marks and the soft frog on the underside. Normally, this is the part where I curl my hock in and long for the sensation of fingers closing. I look up at Trace and smile.
“Yeah, Captain, I know. I’ll take care of it.”
I snap the earpiece out and crack the joints in my wing-shoulders. With a running start, I leap into the air and beat my way up the growing pillar of earth and fire.
The angel turns, plates glittering in its own light. Just for the hell of it I whip my trusty Winchester bolt-action out and unload a clip, only to see the shells disappear in puffs of superheated copper that scatter off her. Was worth a shot.
“Marcus Flores!” she says, her voice echoing across the land while white static accumulates around her open wings. “Pure though your heart may be, you stand in the path of light! Turn aside and live!”
“Screw you!” I shout back.
“Then be judged.”
Power arcs along her wingtips and gears as white light accumulates and concentrates up her body to her horn. At the tip, it is far too bright to look at, turning the hill from night into day.
Undaunted, I race up. If I’m good, I can dodge, I can get through enough to save the kids or knock her off her pretty perch.
Frankly, though, I’m probably going to die, but at least it’ll be quick.
Then the sound of a loose, rattling gear fills the air and the mechanical alicorn vibrates sparks flying off in all directions. The light at its forehead shivers and scintillates, scattering in all directions as bright, colorful, but ultimately harmless light that rains down along the city. I yelp as a spark sizzles into my coat, but somehow I don’t think that’s what was intended.
Finally free, a gear in her body richochets off to bounce down the hill, and the energy accumulating about her wings fizzles and dies. Her eyes flare and she wheels Wave Form, whose face is split ear-to-ear. She stops grinning and leaps back as the flaming sword returns, arcing in front of her.
“No!” I shout, but it’s too late. Bright blood gushes in the air, and Wave Form falls back.
She stumbles, still alive for the moment, but screams in agony as she tries to cover her severed right foreleg.
That’s the thing about visions sometimes. Even from Daphne, they aren’t always perfect. And here I am, still at least twenty meters away and closing fast.
As the mare moves to finish her with a thrust, though, Luster leaps between them and flares his wings. “You leave her alone!” he shouts, and punctuates it with a sudden gout of intense, sooty fire.
Largely made of fire and carrying a flaming sword or not, the unexpected blast knocks the alicorn back, and, reaching the edge of the pillar, the two of them tumble end-over-end until they land on a large spit of calcite that had once been Marble Stone’s pillar. I drop next to them, just as stunned as Redbud and the mare as I check for signs of life.
“How’d I do, Mister Marcus?” Wave Form whimpers, her pink hair smoking and her eyes bleary with pain and tears. I don’t know where she finds the strength to smile. “I included a flaw. Did you see?” Luster, whimpering, nuzzles at her while I whip out some gauze and quickly wrap it around the stub of her leg.
“I did, and you did great, kid,” I murmur, and lift my dangling earpiece. “Sure could use some air support right now.”
“We’re here, Marcus,” Rarity’s voice says over the radio. “Was that my baby? How did he do that?”
“I’ll explain later, love,” Talon answers.
All around the pillar rise my friends and allies, angry and armed. Atop the pillar, the mare stamps a hoof and sets herself. “So be it then, children of Rhea and Cronos. I will do what I must, e’en unto severing the part to save the whole.”
Rarity’s own horn burns with power, and she soars up ahead of the others. “I’m sorry, Miss, but I cannot allow you to harm my little ponies any further. You will have to do so over my dead body.”
“As you wish.”
Their magic meets in a ball of incandescent light, and everyone with a weapon opens fire. The alicorn fights back, leaping into the air, gusts of flame from her wings slicing through a helicopter’s tail and sending it wildly spinning, while the other pegasi try to bail out the crew.
Gathering myself, I leap up into the air, and turn barely in time to catch a dark red blur streaking at my left. Redbud, his eyes filled with zeal, bears me down towards the earth. Twisting in his grip, I manage to rotate and leap off him seconds before impact, enough to slow me to a tumble while dust and pavement bursts into the air around him.
He pulls himself from the hole, and I make to leave him behind, but his corona flares and I have to duck down as a sheet of fire erupts above me.
Landing, I face him across the broken street, civilian cars parked to either side. “Well, I won’t say I wasn’t looking forward to a rematch, but there’s more important people you could be sidelining right now.”
The wrecked helicopter slams into the earth behind him and its batteries erupt into flame, framing him in red and gold. “No, boy, I think not. I may not be a high-flying adventurer like you, but I know destiny when I see it.” He smiles again as he looks me over, his scarred face quietly approving. “Maybe you’re not 'boy' anymore, either. There’s something different about you. Just makes it more clear – you are the number one threat to my vision.”
“Yeah? That’s awful complimentary.”
“Take it as it is.” The amulet wavers as the air around it heats up. “There’s no holding back this time. You missed your chance last time.”
Stars, I feel insane. There’s simply no getting around the fact that he’s stronger, tougher, more experienced, and loaded with more potent magic than I. Even without the amulet, he handily beat me.
Strangely, though? This feels more honest. This feels more real.
I look up, searching the smoky sky. There, glimpsed in a brief parting of the smoke, is the green star, the one lost, troubled people the Nine Worlds over can look to and find hope. My friend.
Are you ready? Daphne whispers.
I square both sets of shoulders and spread my wings. “I’m ready.”
The light in his eyes intensifies. “You are. You’re ready to die, if that’s what it takes. You’re ready to kill. You’re ready to damn yourself, to save the people you love. Come on, then. We’ll see just how ready you are.”
“I don’t know about damning myself. I’m pretty sure taking you out will be perfectly just. Helios was a god of justice, wasn’t he? Not just the sun.” I grin. “Looked him up before I came around. Not very just to threaten an innocent kid, is it?”
Redbud’s eyes and the jewel flicker with just a moment of internal indecision, and I snap my wings and spring forward ten feet to crack him in the face with a rear hoof and somersault backwards off it. He reels back, dazed, and feels at his bleeding nose. I should be as surprised as he is that I actually hurt him in his present state, even if it was only sensitive cartilage, but I’m not.
His smile widens into a grin and he snaps the crick out of his neck. “Let’s go!”
If he was fast before, he’s terrifying with magic. He slams into me in a flash and I only barely spring back in time to avoid getting plastered right there. He keeps going, his leap carrying us up and over the nearby fences. Once again, I twist around, getting behind him as we crash through the living room of a startled family, roll past where they’re watching the battle on their wall screen, and out through the screen door into the backyard, where the dog barks at us as we tussle.
Flinging myself back, I land on my rear hooves and flick out a shotgun. He advances, unafraid, and I grin as a tongue of flame erupts right into him. Dragonfire rounds, beautiful stuff. Quickly, I launch into the air, getting some distance before he inevitably leaps after me. If I’d hoped to just dance out of his way I was mistaken, as bright wings erupt from his sides for a moment, just long enough to change his direction in mid-flight.
Clipped, I yelp and spin out, plummeting for the west bridge down below. With effort I snap my wings out and recover in a glide, while Redbud charges after me from where he lands. Burning bright, he plows through police barricades and cars alike. I dart past him, throwing a chain of grenades in front of him and yanking the pins in a rush. He flies forward and skids, but rolls back to his feet and comes on, faster than ever.
We meet again at the island in the center, a brief strip of road with a slight detour to a recharge spot and green park in either direction, as I dive down to collide with him and knock him spinning before pulling up again. I hit him again, quicker than I could have believed I was capable of, building up momentum as I go. Then I stop, diverting in anticipation of a counter. Sure enough, I dive to the side just before he can snap me out of the air with a buck and shatter every damned bone in my body.
“Hah!” He laughs as his eyes turn into incandescent torches. “You are learning!”
Beams sizzle at me, scorching the air and earth, setting fires wherever they go and blowing up great clods of dirt. I dance and weave and duck behind a huge pylon. The beams blast smoking holes into the pylon and the steel groans as it weakens. I look up at the column to where it attaches to the suspension pylon and hope it isn’t a critical element as I fly up, drawing his fire.
I feel the air sizzle and my teeth rattle as a huge ball strikes the column at its highest point, sending hot shards of concrete and still through the air and biting into my flesh. The whole piece groans again, and I fight through the burning pain in my side to slam into the top and push. It takes everything I have just to budge the top an inch to the left before gravity asserts itself, and watch as it tumbles to the ground.
The dust is prodigious, and the air is filled with it as I circle slowly, looking for any signs of life. Unless Redbud has learned to disappear, there’s no where he could have gone – he’s definitely right under the pillar. Above, the pitched battle moves closer to the city as the aerial defenders give ground to the horde.
I look back and groan as I see the center section of the fallen pillar glow a dull, angry red, progressing steadily up. It erupts, and a battered, bloodied Redbud leaps out, tackling me while I dodge debris and bearing me to the ground. His first punch cracks a rib, his second threatens to dislocate a shoulder. He’s locking me down again, and once he does it’s all over.
“I knew you had it in you!” he shouts as we tussle for advantage, rolling along the burning island. “Not just a human mongrel, are you? Not just pretending like you’re one of us?” He barks a laugh and tries to headbutt me, shattering a rock as I slip down, trying to slip under him and push off. We both roll again, with me on top flapping my wings to batter at him and get free. “You’re good, kid! I admit it, but we both know who’s the better stallion here.”
“I’m not a gods damned traitor!” I shout back, slamming a hoof into his face and pushing it up and away as he tries to bite me, pressing at his throat. If I hadn’t of lost my claw in the retreat from the mine, this might have been over already. He slackens his forelegs to shove me off, but his hind legs remain tight and we twist again. “I didn’t betray my princesses, my oaths, everything I love on a stupid gamble!”
“You can’t have it all!” He slams his hooves into me and I fly back, gasping. “You can’t be a lily white protector with your armor all shining and just trust the stars to never let you face a real threat, one that tests you, tests everything you believe in! I have, time and again. You may be a pegasus, kid, but you’re not a soldier.”
“No, and thank Luna for that,” I rasp and leap back to my feet, narrowly avoiding him as he slams into the ground where I was. “But if I am challenged like you were, you can bet I won’t blow it like you did.”
“This world is doomed! Look at it! Look at the blackness closing in on this little cove. Don’t you see that they’re afraid, that the titans are trembling in their chains?” He snarls and his eyes begin to glow again. “First them, then the other worlds! We will be free of monsters for the first time since Mother Rhea spoke the word that made the world!”
“I sense I’m talking to Helios, then, assuming there’s any difference between you two anymore.” I roll to the side as a solar bolt blasts beside me. “You should know better! You were there, or part of you was. It wasn’t one god who made the world, it was all of them, separately and together at the same time! This world isn’t worse off for its diversity, it’s better, and it’s sick to see you turn your back on what made our species great to begin with! We reached out, we made friends, we brokered the peace between nations.”
“And then it was shattered!” he roars with an alicorn’s voice, thundering across the water. “Everything we worked for and loved was broken by humans and their damned Bridle! My friends, my family, my life! Pallas watched as her girls were beheaded in front of her! Even Mother Rhea, the greatest of us all, was butchered trying to broker peace, and she had borne some of their daughters and sons of her own body!” He’s so angry he’s trembling, and the rocks around him vitrify in the heat. His tears boil off before they even form.
“Not all of the humans, not all of the time.” I shake my head. “Most weren’t on board. You can’t destroy whole societies because of the actions of a few. You’re better than this, both of you are. Well, you are, being one person now. It doesn’t have to end like this!”
“Yes it does,” Redbud says, his voice lowering just a tad below deafening. “Like you pointed out, kid, I threatened an innocent colt, and now I’m threatening everyone else. I’ve already damned myself, and I will secure the future for the generations to come with the Guardians, so that people like me will have no place in it. People like you do, and it’s for that reason you have to do what you have to do.” His corona shimmers into view and the earth blackens around him. It grows, larger and larger. “Fight, then, Marcus. Fight, and bring your vision forth with blood.”
Worrying about how I have no chance against Redbud hasn’t gotten me anywhere yet, so I push the voice of doubt away and rise into the air, flinging cannisters at his feet that hiss and fill the air with acrid red smoke. Rather than escape, I start to circle him, but I don’t attack, either. I’d be fried if I got anywhere close.
“It’s over!” The smoke billows away as the air superheats and expands around him. Flares lick at me, but I dance around them, continuing to spin. “The hell are you doing?”
“Being a pegasus,” I say, and fly faster.
The air, responding to my magic, begins to stir. It’s a little breeze at first, and then more, and more. The fires whip up into burning columns of flame before snuffing out. Redbud’s power grows, and the ground around him melts as he lashes at me.
But I can’t be touched. I shift up and down and side to side and twist this way and that, keeping my momentum up even as I dodge. The water around the island whips up, lapping against the shores, then crashing into it.
Faster, faster. The world blurs, and then I can barely see anything at all as water is sucked up into the growing vortex.
Making a tornado is a bit like I’d imagine being trapped in a centrifuge is like. It’s not unlike those astronaut training rigs that spin you around with faster and faster acceleration until you pass out. I feel my fears, my doubts, my hard-earned insecurity slip away.
For the first time in my life, I feel clear.
As the brief tornado turns into a raging storm, a howling eye that rips trees off the island and pushes cars to the the side of the bridge, spots form at the edge of my vision, and I begin to trend inward, buffeting the moisture until it puffs under my magic, forming thick clouds that spread out and surround it.
At last, unable to resist and cling to the earth any longer, I see the bright ember that is Redbud ascend through the eye, spinning round and around as he tries to summon up his magic to pull him out.
Then I hit him.
I don’t hit him with my hooves, no, that hurts and doesn’t do very much.
I hit him with lightning.
Spinning in the opposite direction, I agitate every scrap of cloud I can, striking sparks as I go, and columns of light flash through the eye. Again and again, each time connecting with Redbud. The roll of thunder is a continuous peal, a roar of vengeance.
By now, I’ve created a beast too strong even for myself, and feel darkness slipping over me as I’m launched out of the storm. Instinct holds me into a glide, enough to see that I’m trending towards the water, and I manage to weakly beat myself up and away, heading west, where the battle with the Guardian is going. I can’t really tell how well it’s going, but going it is.
When I do land, it’s with an ungraceful flop into the yard of the very family who just received a new entryway courtesy of Redbud. They watch uncertainly at the ruined screen door, at least until their sheltie cautiously sniffs at me and licks at my side, where the shards from the pillar embedded themselves bloodily.
The mare gallops to my side with a first aid kid in her teeth. “Emergency services should be on the way. Just lie still.”
“Mommy, isn’t that Marcus Flores?” a colt asks, tugging at his mother’s hair.
She frowns and looks at me more closely. “That’s right, from…”
“The documentary. I know.” I groan and push myself up. The mare and her stallion try to push me back, but it takes one look at the hill not a mile distant to stiffen my resolve again. “One last ride, folks. One last ride.”
“Are you a prince?” the foal asks, his eyes wide. “You made that storm just now, didn’t you?”
I grin and ruffle his mane. “Nah, kid. I’m just a stallion.”
He floats up his phone and instantly starts tweeting excitedly. I laugh and nod to the parents before getting a running start and lifting back into the air.
The Guardian flying about the peak has been in better shape. Talon’s spear has broken off inside her, and plates are missing, exposing her gears. The wings have been tangled up with Trace’s magic, magic she’s broken and is dangling in ethereal tatters. None of the vehicles remain, and I can’t see my friends on the ground, except for Rarity, whose battered body has tumbled near Wave Form and Luster. She has strength enough to curl around them protectively, but not much else.
“You lived?” the Guardian calls. “I would not have called that.”
“Yeah, I don’t blame you for that,” I say, drifting in the updrafts.
“Your friends served to delay me. Even without my light of judgement, I have battled true gods before, men and alicorns who stood before there was a cosmos to stand in. While they could shatter us by the dozen, mortals and childlike alicorns stand no chance.”
“Fair enough. Look, I could mock you and challenge you like I did Redbud, but there’s something else that’s kind of nagging at me.”
That catches her attention enough that she slows in her circling, hovering near the peak. Out of surprise if nothing else.
“I had a vision while I was out; a green dream, courtesy of Aquarius.” I gesture towards the city. “The place was in ruins. Burn the part to save the whole, right? But among the wreckage, there was this sad little filly, and she was depressed because she couldn’t save as many people as she’d hoped and wasn’t content with the few she had. She said that she might well be her parents’ sin after all.”
The mare dimmed, her fire retreating into herself, to a little burning coal deep in the workings.
“She regretted what she’d done. Can’t you?”
No answer.
“I called you Fire Wheel. Do you remember that? Did you dream at all?”
“No,” she says at last, her voice a carrying whisper. “I do not remember. I cannot regret, I cannot dream.” The fire builds, filling her steadily. The wind picks up. “And if I am my parents’ sin, then it is just that I be the one to cleanse this world of it.”
“I figured as much. The Adversary stripped out all the little bits that might keep you from turning from your course, I’d wager.”
“And now I will use it to save your kind instead of destroying it, you brave, foolish stallion.”
Like Redbud, her heart didn’t seem to be quite in it, but there she goes. Sometimes, reason isn’t enough. Even making an emotional connection isn’t enough.
A beam of azure light scatters off the Guardian from below, and we look down to see Trace Prints clinging to the side of the hill, hat and coat discarded somewhere below but her determination undimmed. Saria, bruised and battered, moves up the side of the cliff face with her. Even Rarity pulls her head up, limping as she gathers her magic.
“Brave to the end, just like your ancestors.” The Guardian lights up her eyes and horn, and the winds pick up again, burning around her. There’s not a chance in hell that my meager pegasus magic is turning that against her.
I have to do something, though. I fly closer in, pulling my Winchester out and firing again and again, putting shots into her gears, but to no avail. They melt and are crushed by the deceptively delicate clockwork, divine artifacts unto themselves. The last round of the clip pings against her face and she turns towards me.
Well, at least I got her attention.
White light sears around me as I dodge, but her aim is far better than Redbud’s. She sears the tip of an ear, the heel of a hoof, the skin on my back, my wings. She stops as lightning crackles harmlessly off her and I begin to tumble, while she sends a few bolts down to answer Saria.
“Mister Marcus!” Wave Form shouts, waving for my attention, the sound hard to hear in the increasing racket.
“Uncle Marcus!” Luster calls, adding his voice to hers.
I blink down at them. To my great alarm, they’ve climbed back up, unable to advance further with the Guardian’s winds but still way too high for comfort.
“The hell are you two doing! Get out of there!”
“No! You can do this, Mister Marcus!” Wave Form calls, and Luster holds up something shiny for her. The gear she sabotaged, in fact. Luster blows on it with little licks of fire until it starts to melt under his magical breath, and Wave’s horn thrums like an instrument as she molds and shapes it like she did her resin toys. “Remember, truth, love, and justice always win out in the end if you believe in yourself!”
I stare at her, unable to believe what I’m hearing at first, but the weirdest thing is that, after a night like this, after these last three nights, I find myself believing her.
“Hey, Wave? I do. I really do believe. I believe in you, too.”
She beams, and the reforged gear gleams in her magic. She launches it up, and I see it for what it is – a bullet as bright as a star. It flies above me and I launch up, hoof stretched out.
The Guardian’s ear flicks. It turns, ignoring a leaping attack from Talon, eyes turning to track the bullet and me as I near one another. Her horn glows. Her first shot goes wide as he slams into her side, blasting far to the left.
I beat my wings harder, every muscle in my body straining, every joint prone to failing. Darkness edges in at my eyes once again. The bullet and the stars are all I can see now, just a tunnel connecting me to heaven.
Come on, Marcus, Daphne whispers. You can’t give up now.
I hired you for a reason, Naomi says, her voice echoing from far off. You really are the best.
Hey. If you screw up now, I’ll never forgive you, Amelia adds tartly.
We are as blood, forged in battle! You shall not fail! Saria crows.
As my vision shrinks, I hear one last voice, and Leit Motif’s face swims into view.
I love you, my stallion. She reaches down for my hoof. It’s your time.
With a final beat of my wings, I take her hoof, and seize the bullet. As I complete my arc and begin to fall towards my back, I throw the bolt back, ejecting the last clip. With a smooth motion I slot the bullet in, not daring to wonder what propellant it could have, and ram the bolt home.
My Winchester, the rifle I first took with me into Equestria fifteen years ago, the rifle I learned to shoot with, glows and hums, scouring itself of dirt and grime and wear, until only the most-loved scratches remain. All in slow motion, I aim from my shoulder as I fall and past my hind legs, right into the ivory beam of death heading my way.
This is where I belong.
The bullet blossoms from the barrel in cascading arcs of brilliant purple light. It cuts through the Guardian’s spell, breaking through it with hardly a beat, before penetrating her mask and burying itself deep in her casing.
Then it explodes.
I look away, stars of a different sort in my eyes as I blink away the blast. Shards of ancient metal rain down all around, scattering into particles of golden dust that blow away in the fading wind.
Much to the offense of my dignity, I bounce once, then twice on the hill’s face before catching myself. My head is spinning, the world is spinning. Everything is spinning. I focus on my rifle, still clutched in a leg. It no longer glows, but parts of the mechanism have been somehow replaced by the same material as the Guardian’s body. Slowly, I slide it into my coat and out of sight and Vanish it.
Above me, the gentle flap of wings signals Priyana’s arrival from below. Her armor has been wrecked and her skin shows in places from where it’s been healed of blasts, and she tucks her hair back from her face as she looks down at me with a weighing gaze.
“It seems you have exceeded my expectations, Marcus Flores.” She kneels, presenting the Cup. “Drink, and rest. You have earned it. We will pick up the pieces.”
Oh, how I long to take a sip of that and to go visit Leit again, but there’s one thing I need more right now and I don’t want to waste it. “One piece is mine, first,” I mutter, pushing up. Priyana frowns and helps me to stand, then flaps her wings to aid me in my descent as I scan along the wreckage.
It could be anywhere, but a quick glance at the sky tells me all I need. The green star glitters over the house I’d trashed, and I limp along the slate until I find what I’m looking for. There, lodged in the rain gutter, lies a smoldering lump of something that looks like coal but isn’t. Testingly, I touch it with a hoof tip, then pick it up when I find that it’s merely unpleasantly warm.
“The nitor,” Priyana murmurs. “Legends speak of it as the ever-burning core of the Adversary’s legionnaires, forged from the heart of a living mortal consumed by their own need for revenge.”
“Well. Legends can be right sometimes.” I regard it for a bit, looking at it this way and that. After a moment’s consideration, after plumbing my feelings to see what intuition tells me the best choice is, I lift it up and swallow it.
“What are you doing?” Priyana demands, horrified.
I cough, tapping my throat and helping the lump down until it settles or breaks up. A gentle warmth suffuses my body, settling after a moment or two. “Preparing for the future,” I wheeze. “Cup, please?”
She rolls her eyes and sits next to me on the rooftop. I tilt my head back obligingly, and she pours the sacred water into me. It splashes over my face and body, swallowing me up, until I find myself drifting away in a current.
Aware, I think back on the last few evenings as I drift along the starry sea. Quite a few people died that shouldn’t. Wave Form’s leg was probably incinerated and there’s no way we could grow her a new one, maybe not even with the Cup or the Wand, lacking some divine healer. A whole lot of people got hurt, just because of a stubborn old soldier.
Yet, somehow, I find myself smiling. Maybe I could have done more, but I’d done the best I could.
And, finally, after so much hope lost, my best was just good enough.
* * * * * * *