In which we learn while deterrence is preferable and passive, sometimes more—active—measures are required.
There was no time to plan, no time for measured response. Human and symbiote fused into one creature moving with absolute clarity of purpose in a perfect ballet of coordinated motion.
She slammed into the ground club first, willing the force of the blow forward in a wide cone that would encompass both ends of the wall of death charging toward the encampment.
Instantly a wave of liquefying soil and rock blasted outward, faster than a crossbow quarrel, slapping away most of the charging skeletons in an eye blink. The roar of affronted landscape drowned out everything else as the wall of white was suddenly a wall of brown and gray headed in the opposite direction, straight toward the rise containing the observing ponies.
The gargantuan blow shook the mountains as the force passed and triggered a series of landslides in its wake. Teagan watched clinically as the strange ponies turned to run, only to find themselves swept away by the fury of thundering stone.
A few dozen skeletal soldiers had survived the wave of earth by the simple expedient of being outside the cone of destruction. They poured down the edges of the cut, joining their two streams into a single unified front as they closed the distance.
“Fall back!” Teagan screamed in a hissing bellow provided mostly by Crush. She glanced at the pair of sentries who lost no time obeying her. Assured of their safety she and her bodyguards turned and raced away from the oncoming undead soldiers.
But no human could outrun ponies already at full gallop, even mere skeletons, and so she found herself brought to bay halfway to the dubious safety of the camp. She spun with the nearly supernatural speed borne of her symbiosis and smashed three of the oncoming skeletons before they could ram and trample her under hoof.
Crush snapped back into guard position as the second wave overran her—only for the skeleton to run straight into Crush. With a muted click it stopped dead.
If it was possible for a skull to exhibit surprise then Teagan’s attacker did so—for about half a second. That’s when the skeletons charging behind it slammed straight into the suddenly stationary bones.
The dry stationary bones. The brittle dry stationary bones. It’s a seldom appreciated fact just how much protection muscle, flesh, and fur confer to a creature’s skeleton.
If it hadn’t been so horrific it would have been comedic gold. Once animate undead skeletons simply folded up and disintegrated into individual bones. The collision completely destroyed a dozen undead and left four more hobbling on three legs. More importantly it broke the momentum of the undead army’s charge, giving Skrent and Flint time to leap to either side of their queen and swing those deadly narrow clubs like scythes and reap an undead harvest with each mighty blow.
Suddenly there was an ear-splitting whinny from above as a pegasus came screaming out of the sky and started to literally gallop across the undead soldiers’ skulls with devastating effect, each hoof fall smashing the dry bone under it like a hammer, the headless skeleton then falling to pieces.
It was the sentry pony Teagan had ordered to fall back doing this unholy carnage. His troll partner came roaring into the fight soon after, with a large axe, clearing a six foot circle around himself with every swing.
Teagan recovered, stepping to the side of the rather sizeable pile of jumbled bones in front of her, and charged into the melee with malice aforethought, smashing pony skeletons to dust with each magically enhanced blow.
No thoughts crossed her mind as she engaged in the Danse Macabre, her endless training, burning rage, and symbiote’s cold emotionless precision melding into a fugue state where nothing mattered but the motion of iron through space, each movement flowing into the next, the undead targets merely points in space to be touched and brushed aside like spider webs.
She was vaguely aware of the noise behind her and around her increasing, but nothing mattered to her except continuing the dance until every moving bone was reduced to dust.
Afterward she couldn’t remember any details of the fight—including how long it lasted. She came to herself in the middle of a mass of staring ponies and trolls. They were dividing their attention between her and the field of bone fragments that surrounded her.
“Is it over?” She asked tiredly, propping herself up with Crush. “Did we lose anyone?”
“Nei, min Dronning,” Hjördís said, bowing to her queen, a look of awe on her face. “You saved us from the Deepest Dark this day. All of us. No one fell.”
“Thank God,” Teagan breathed, a bone deep weariness overtaking her. She felt like a gust of wind could knock her over.
Beware! Two draugrs approach! Crush warned her. Wearily she closed her eyes, silently bidding her symbiote to tell her where the threat was approaching from.
“Fall back to camp,” She ordered with as much urgency as her weariness would allow. “Two draugrs are coming!”
“I must stay, Dronning,” Alene Hule said mildly. “You are weary, and will need my aid. I am well versed in battling the Deepest Dark.”
“Glad to have you, Alene,” She replied. She raised her voice. “These things are immune to most weapons, so unless you have a magic blast that can punch through stone fall back. I’ll deal with them. Move it, people!”
“We will stay,” Skrent spoke up. “Our place is by your side, Dronning.” His tone was grim and implacable.
“Stubborn idiots, both of you,” She said, smiling in spite of herself. “Hjördís, tell Søyle to get everyone out of here. We’re going to be moving through the night. Can’t let another army catch us, we have to make the safety of Hejm tonight.”
The troll frowned in thought. “It will be difficult, min Dronning. But if it is your will it shall be done.”
“Get them moving,” She said, “And somebody get some food ready for me after this is over. The more sugar in it the better, and double points if there’s chocolate.”
The crowd of ponies and trolls left, leaving the four of them to face the now clearly advancing draugr. Teagan fought down the gnawing hunger, knowing there wouldn’t be time for her to eat.
Behind them one of the unicorns sent up another magical flare, letting them see the pair of oncoming undead in uncomfortable detail.
ooOoo
Sombra roared in triumph as the deadly crystal spears crashed into the oblivious dragon, who was thrown sideways into the wall from the force of the blow. Thrown and pinned.
“It’s all over, you pathetic worm!” Sombra shouted in glee--only to blink as the dragon growled and smashed the black crystals to bits with a massive kick and swipe of a forelimb.
“Pathetic, am I?” Thunder growled, opening his mouth and breathing a raging blast of roiling fire straight at the unicorn.
Sombra teleported behind the dragon and launched another wave of spearing crystals at the dragon’s hindquarters. This time there was an outraged basso screech as the crystals found something sensitive.
“Die!” Thunder screamed, smashing the crystals with one blow from his tail, then reversing course by curling back on himself like a serpent. This time his fiery breath came from jaws that were carried forward by sprinting legs. Sombra hastily erected a shield, desperately back peddling as he did so, all the while readying an offensive spell even as he looked for a teleport destination.
There was a mighty boom as the dragon rammed the shield at nearly twenty miles per hour. It held—which was actually very bad news for the former king. Thunder weighed many tons and the shield was rigidly held a set distance from the unicorn’s body.
The result was very much like Applejack had bucked a soccer ball with her full strength.
Sombra didn’t so much scream in fear, soaring down the long corridor like a child’s ball, as bellow in anger. His horn scraped the ceiling with an excruciating shriek of horn against stone, leaving a deep groove in the rock. The sound was reminiscent of fingernails on a chalkboard, the pain knifing directly into his brain. It almost caused him to lose the blind teleport he was casting, delaying it until he was only three feet from a stone wall. Had he struck not even his sorcerously reinforced body would have withstood the blow.
Enraged at the unforgivable insult to his person, Thunder charged out of the fortress, intent on finding and eviscerating the dark gray unicorn and then ripping his legs off before he could die. But in the process at least the dragon was successfully diverted from the library Sombra had been so desperate to defend.
One draugr looked at the other questioningly, who just shrugged. Then they both sank into the stone floor, mission accomplished.
ooOoo
Well now, that didn’t go as planned, Hoë Towenaar commented mentally to his companion while still within the zompony shell, now crushed into a useless twisted mess. I had no idea the troll queen was so incredibly powerful. It would be helpful if we could recruit her, don’t you think?
That is not possible, Dark One, the other demon replied from within its own destroyed undead shell. I had considered the matter, but given King Fjell’s instinctive hatred of all undead his queen is beyond our grasp.
Ah well, such a pity. Still, seeing as how we were unable to kill her I believe driving her underground works nearly as well. I trust your fallback plans include a way to keep the pressure on them, so they stay safely bottled up? I would hate to have the trolls unexpectedly crashing our party on the brink of total victory.
I must admit the queen surprised me, Verlei said, oozing his way out of the zompony he’d been wearing like a suit. Hoë Towenaar soon joined him, the two bodiless shadows unconcerned with the solid rock they were now drifting through as though on a leisurely stroll.
I kept a small reserve of skeletons out of an abundance of caution but they will be insufficient to present a credible threat. Even with guile they will not suffice. I will need more forces.
Fear not, my dear Verlei, Hoë Towenaar said airily. I will have another two battalions sent to you as soon as a portal can be opened. Skeletons are so simple to make it’s not like we’ll ever run out of them. Zomponies are scarcely more difficult. I would have wished for more time to allow the good doctor to create more draugr, but we seem to have run out of it. There was a mental chuckle from the head demon.
At least, for now, eh?
ooOoo
“My dear princess, how wonderful to see you,” Discord said with a smile. “You rang?”
Celestia was resting on the bed in her newly repaired chambers that Tišina had wrecked. Discord floated about the room, obviously studying each and every detail.
“I must say your ponies have a way with design, my dear.” Discord continued. “Although they do favor the baroque, don’t they?”
“Would you like some tea?” Celestia asked placidly. “Or would you prefer chocolate milk?”
“Well, I can’t allow myself to fall into predictable stereotypes, now can I? Tea would be lovely, if you please.”
Discord chose to settle on Celestia’s bed, curling around the alicorn, almost, but not quite touching her.
“My, isn’t this just so cozy?” He said, waggling his eyebrows. “But whatever will the servants think? You know how they gossip! Oh, I can’t wait to see what’s for breakfast! I hope there’s going to be Prench toast. I do so enjoy it after a leisurely, fun-filled night, don’t you?”
Celestia just smiled gently and floated the cup of tea and its saucer to settle in front of Discord, who delicately picked up the cup in his eagle’s talons, the smallest claw genteelly lifted into the air. With equal aplomb he silently sipped as Celestia lifted her own cup from the bedside table.
“We can exchange innuendo for as long as you like, Discord,” Celestia said quietly. “I actually do enjoy it, partially because I so seldom get to engage in it. But I did have a serious reason for asking you here tonight.”
“Oh, my! This is so sudden my dear Celestia!” Discord exclaimed, setting down his teacup and using both lion’s paw and eagle’s talons to squeeze his muzzle until it puckered up, his cheeks turning fiery red. As little flames danced over his nose he seemed to notice he was on fire and batted at his nose until they went out. Now blaze free the draconequus returned his attention to the alicorn only a foot from him. Smiling a beatific smile he replied
“Of course I’ll marry you my dear Celestia! When should we set the date, my precious kumquat?”
“You misunderstand me,” Celestia said with a chuckle. “I would never dream of stealing your bachelorhood away, dear Discord. After all can you imagine it? Spending our eternal days of bliss together, never changing? One day following another, one nonstop unbroken happy time, utterly without end! With our combined powers there would be absolutely nothing able to break the march of joyous days, into the timeless future!”
Discord shuddered, turning deep chartreuse, his features twisting in horror.
“That was completely uncalled for Celestia,” Discord said coldly. “I was just having a light bit of fun.”
“So was I. But I do need to talk to you—about your sister. Specifically how she came to be in this world.”
Discord’s eyes narrowed as he turned his full attention to her.
“I’m listening,” he said quietly.
ooOoo
Agent Merriweather settled into the conference room chair, looking around at the dozen spooks already there. What struck him hardest was how ordinary they looked. Half of them were clearly computer types, dressed in jeans and tee shirts, two women in business suits and the rest in casual attire.
“Welcome Agent Merriweather,” the unit chief said, nodding. The only thing that marked the middle-aged balding man as anything other than an accountant or manager were his eyes. They were constantly flickering from place to place.
Frankly, it gave Merriweather the creeps.
“Thank you, sir.” Merriweather responded.
“Agent, I must inform you that any activities you participate in with our group are covered by the Espionage Act of 1917. Unless specifically authorized by myself or my superiors in the NSA it is an act of treason to reveal anything you learn here to anyone not already part of this investigation. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes sir,” Merriweather responded, wincing inwardly. He hated spooks and the shadows they insisted on.
“Good. Just to confirm, you are aware of Project Silverlight and the circumstances surrounding it? In particular the group code-named Fae?”
“Yes, sir,” Merriweather nodded. “I am the first agent in the project to view an artifact of interest.”
“Good. Now Agent, I don’t know what you may or may not know about NSA activities. I suspect like most people your view of us comes from television and spy novels, flavored by media bias over the Snowden leak. Let me let you in on a little secret.”
The man leaned forward and glared at him.
“All that stuff is pure, unadulterated, Grade-A bullshit,” he growled, and then leaned back in his chair.
“Yes, we keep secrets. Yes, we get really serious when people betray those secrets. But we’re here to do a job, Agent Merriweather. That job is to keep the United States safe from her enemies and potential enemies. Our view is the less they know about us the safer we are. But all that James Bond, Swordfish, Jason Bourne stuff is pure fantasy. That’s not how we operate. There are no code names, no magic decoder rings. My name is Brian Davis, Agent Merriweather. I answer to Chief, or Mr. Davis, or just plain Brian once you get to know me better.”
He waved around the table.
“Torch is the only one here that insists on being called by his nickname.” A red-headed computer guy waved. “We humor him because it’s not worth fighting over. The rest of us don’t use our titles because that would make us stand out if a civilian overheard us. We do everything we can to blend in, Agent. So from now on, so do you. Be invisible, Agent Merriweather.”
“My name’s Keith,” Merriweather answered with a grin.
“Good. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to work,” Chief Davis said in satisfaction.