Night Patrol Ch 20
By foxgear
Emerald and her unit stalked the shadowy hallways of the factory. So far, there was no contact with the enemy. This worried Emerald. They were in the enemy stronghold, the heart of their operations, they should be fighting tooth and nail to keep it. Unless…
“Princess Celestia, Princess Celestia, do you read me?” Emerald radioed over the coms, static-filled the air, frowning when nopony replied. “Is anypony there?”
“We’re-here-,” A voice said over the channel, there was a lot of static, but the voice defiantly wasn’t Celestia’s.
“Who is this?” Emerald demanded, “Who’s in Command?”
“Firefly, Princess Celestia put me in charge to join the battle.” Firefly answered.
Emerald Cutter let out a groan, their least experienced Commander was in charge. They were really spreading themselves thin.
“Firefly, listen up, I need you to connect me with the other Commanders and the Princesses. Something is very wrong here. We haven’t met a single enemy since entering, not even a single booby trap. I advise we pull out our units and blow this place apart from the outside with the ship's cannons.”
“We can’t do that,” Firefly replied, “We still haven’t managed to locate the prisoners, and we are having trouble connecting everyponies’ coms. We couldn’t order a retreat even if we wanted to.”
Emerald clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth in frustration. They had no choice, they had had to keep moving forward.
“Buckle, BootStrap stay here and keep the com lines open. The rest of you with me, we will…”
“Wait!” Firefly screamed over the coms, the high pitch of her voice made the gem coms scream with a horrible sound.
“What is it?” Emerald asked, clenching her teeth even harder. She was about to lose her patience!
Firefly took a moment to clear her voice and perform a fake cough. She was sweating profusely from the tone in Emerald Cutter's voice. She was not looking forward to their next face to face meeting.
“Sorry, I should have said this earlier, but we have been receiving reports of enemy combatants engaging with our forces. That’s why Celestia left to join the battle. From the reports, the enemy combatants are powerful metal ponies, and that used to be the nobles. So far we have encountered Orangeblood and Redblood, it is safe to assume there are at least three more. Be careful.”
“Roger that,” Emerald replied, straining her ears for any hint of the enemy. All was quiet and then.
(THUNK, THUNK, THUNK)
“Look alive, we have company.” She whispered to her unit. The sounds came from up ahead, down one of the corridors. Softly Emerald snuck closer, hugging the wall with her body. She waved Buckle over to look around the corner for her. Her longhorn would give her away before she could even get a peek at whatever was down there.
Buckle crept quietly around her, looking around the corner. His eyes widened in shock and fear at whatever he saw, but before he even had a chance to back away, a blast of green magic hit him in the head! Chunks of bone and flesh pelt Emerald’s Crystal green coat. The monster pony could do nothing but gasp at the sight of her fellow patroller falling lifelessly to the ground.
“Everypony back!” It was too late, though. Another blast blew the corner apart. Debris flew like cannon shots hitting them with lethal force. All were dead or soon to be dead, safe for Emerald Cutter, who survived thanks to her Crystal hard coat.
Rising through the rubble, Emerald got a good look at her opponent. He was one of the metal ponies, no doubt, the metal body a dead giveaway, and judging from the color of his magic, it was fair to say this particular metal pony was probably Greenblood.
“Not so high and mighty now are you, you freak.” The metal pony said, walking right up to her. “I will take great pleasure in humiliating you as you humiliated me! No pony makes a fool out of Greedy Greenblood! Especially dimwitted mares like you and that damnable Dippy hoof that don’t know their place!”
“Sounds like somepony has an inadequacy problem, what daddy’s money couldn’t make your little stallion any bigger? Must be why you got rid of it, not much to miss when you don’t have any balls in the first place.” Emerald sneered.
“You little!” Greenblood snarled his metal teeth, clanking angrily.
Emerald charged her horn slashing Greenblood with it, the metal noble backed away from her assault, but she followed up with her front claws grabbing the metal pony by the neck and tossed him over the side of the railing down a pit. Watching with satisfaction, Emerald sent a rain of gems down after Greenblood for good measure.
Satisfied with Greenblood’s demise, she pressed on going further into the factory. However, she didn’t get far when she heard what sounded like a gem engine roaring at supersonic speeds. Turning around, she just managed to catch a glimpse of Greenblood rocketing up from the deeps of darkness.
He zoomed around, making a circle in the vast chamber before flying right at her! Emerald formed a shield of crystals in front of her, but Greenblood rammed right through, his horn breaking through her crystal coat, sinking deep into her flesh and then coming out the other side of her left shoulder. Her left front legs went limb. With her right forelegs, she clawed at him, scrapping uselessly against his metal skin.
Greenblood chuckled as he smashed her against the wall, pulling his horn from her body he let her drop to the floor. Blood spilled from the wound profusely, a red puddle forming beneath Emerald.
“Not so tough now, are you?” Greenblood taunted, stepping on her wound with his hoof. Emerald screamed in pain as the metal noble dug his foot into the wound. She tried to charge up a spell, but he smacked her head against the wall before she could even gather the magic to do anything.
“This is your place, beneath me, you damn wench!”
Through swollen eyes, Emerald cutter glared at the noble pony and spat on his hoof. He hit her again, but she smiled anyway, she could still hurt his ego.
“Why you!”
He stomped on her again, but it didn’t matter, she was in so much pain she could hardly feel anything, probably nerve damage. Really what upset her was not the fact she was probably going to die, but the fact she was taken down by this poor excuse of a pony.
(Oh sweet Luna, that pisses me off!)
“Still trying to resist me? Oh, my dear, how much joy you bring me, but I grow bored with you.” Greenblood pressed his hoof against Emerald’s head and slowly applied pressure to her temple. She could feel the side of her skull cracking as more and more pressure was applied. Her skull would be crushed if she didn’t do something quick!
Igniting her horn, Emerald Cutter created an ethereal aura around her horn, drawing Greenblood’s attention. For a brief second, he lost his focus, and she managed to sneak out from under his hoof, stand up and stab the noble in the eye with her horn. His scream was like music to her as she jabbed her horn deeper into the empty armor.
“What’s going on? I shouldn’t feel pain! They said there would be no pain!”
Emerald chuckled darkly as she forced the noble onto his belly. She didn’t know what she was hitting to hurt him so much, but maybe stabbing a little deeper will finish him off for good. Casting another spell, the magic engulfing her horn grew longer, and with a raging whinny, she cut through the metal pony, cutting away half the right side of his face and the front right part of his barrel, revealing the inside of the armor. There, floating in a mist of green, was the green Alicorn Amulet.
“Well, what’s this now?” She asked, leaning closer to the amulet. Greenblood seemed to be in shock, his metal body may not feel pain, but his mind still could, and as far as it was concerned, he had just lost a fatal portion of his body. It would be sometime before he could process the fact he wasn’t actually hurt, not that he would have the time anyway as Emerald Cutter ripped the amulet free from the suit of armor. Greenblood’s soul dispersing into nothing.
Amulet clenched in her claw, Emerald Cutter limped over to where she thought the spot where coms worked was. She slumped against the remains of the wall, the feeling of warm blood running down her side, barely registering in her mind as she tried to call in.
“This Emerald Cutter, I have defeated Greenblood, I repeat I have repeated Greenblood. You need… you need…” Emerald’s vision flickered black. It was getting hard for her to think straight, she probably lost too much blood, and the head injury wasn’t helping. “I think I need a… medic…”
“Emerald Cutter? Emerald Cutter, are you there? Where are you? Emerald Cutter!” Firefly frantically yelled over the coms, she received no response. “Killing Perfection, I need you to check on Emerald Cutter, I think she’s badly hurt.”
“Roger that, I’ll find her,” Killing Perfection said, breaking away from her unit and diving down into a hole made by one of the earlier attacks. She flew with all her might, her concern for her friend pushing her faster and faster.
“Be alright Emmy, please be alright.”
Below in the bowels of the factory, Celestia, Applejack, Overheat, and Gadget scout the area where they found the tank. From the wreckage, they recover the body of Howitzer and thankfully found no pony else inside the tank.
“Look over here!” Applejack waved the others over to her, “Ah, found some tracks. Looks like Nightingale and Dusk made it out!”
The tracks were fresh, but they had been made in a hurry. Most likely, the two survivors had galloped away as fast their legs could take them. Applejack wandered over to the front of the wreckage where Redblood most likely would have been. She found another set of tracks, but they led in the opposite direction of Dusk and Nightingale’s. Why did he leave them be?
“Ruby probably went to look for Tangerine, they’re cousins, and have always been fond of each other, perhaps fonder then some would consider appropriate. They were big supporters of pure bloodlines.” Celestia said, looking over Applejack’s shoulder to get a better look at the directions of the tracks. She may not be a tracker, but even she could follow this trail. “Overheat, and I will give chase, I want you and Gadget to follow Dusk’s and Nightingale’s trail and get them to safety.”
“But…” Applejack began to protest, but Celestia shook her head.
“We can handle Redblood, don’t worry about us,” Celestia kneeled down to whisper in the farm mare’s ear, “I need you to keep an eye on Gadget, he doesn’t act rationally when Dusk is in danger. Reunite them as fast as you can, get them out, and then look for Luna. Can you do that for me, Applejack?”
Applejack nodded. “Come on, Gadget, we’re wasting time.” She broke into a light gallop knowing the graying stallion would tire himself out if they move too fast. At least this way, they could still make good time and hopefully prevent Gadget from getting impatient and run off on his own again.
As Celestia watched Applejack and Gadget disappear into the ruins of the factory, she hoped for their good fortune. Many have suffered today already, and no doubt, many more would suffer before the day was done, but at the very least, she hoped Dusk makes it out of here alive and well. She was much too young to already be in her second battle. She’s seen enough foals in wars that shouldn’t have been in, including herself and Luna.
“Are you ready to go, Princess?” Overheat asked her, already following Redblood’s trail.
Celestia nodded, “Yes, let’s end this battle.”
They follow the trail, which led to a tunnel made up of the factory’s engines. From the slag on the walls, it was apparent Redblood had made the tunnel. Melting the metal with his magic to create a path, what surprised Celestia was how fast he managed to make it. It couldn’t have taken them more than fifteen to thirty minutes for them to find the tank. How could have Redblood make such a tunnel in such a short amount of time? The size and length of it would take Celestia at least an hour or more. Even then, she couldn’t make one this long without getting tired, and Redblood before his transformation to the monster he is now was powerful, but he was nowhere near the level of magic needed to do this. There must be something else, something powering him beyond his normal limits. She knew of artifacts that could do such a thing, but the question is which one would it be?
Ahead of her Overheat came to a stop, causing her to nearly bump into him.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, igniting her horn with soft yellow light, trying to look past the large pony.
“The tunnel curves back! He tricked us! He’s going after the others!”
“We must hurry, Overheat!” Celestia yelled, “You follow the curve, and I will backtrack. Hopefully, we’ll make it in time!”
They separate, both galloping as fast as they could, but the tunnel, well large, didn’t allow them to run into a full gallop. Things were worse for Celestia, who always had to keep her horn lower to avoid hitting the ceiling, and her wings were rendered useless.
Redblood knew they would be coming, that’s why he set this trap, to separate them. He knew stronger members of the group would go after him first. But why, why was he going after Nightingale and Dusk? He was a snob like the others, but he was never really petty, was he upset about Orangeblood being attacked? Being hit with the tank? What was his motive?
So focused on her thoughts and avoiding the ceiling, Celestia never saw what happened next as Redblood broke through the sidewall of the tunnel, his metal horn piercing through her armor and into her flesh. He slammed her against the wall pinning her with his horn.
“Another trap within a trap, you are clever.” Celestia praised her horn igniting with magic, and in a flash, her axes tore through the air, destroying the tunnel and creating a much roomier battlefield. “But, your luck just rain out!”
Axes raised Celestia attacked with the power of a hurricane! She flung Redblood away, freeing his horn from her body and quickly sealed the wound with magic. She didn’t waste any time and followed up her attack, swinging both axes with all her might! Again Redblood was sent flying! Celestia fires multiple blasts of magic after him creating massive explosions! Before the dust could even begin to clear, she sent her axes swirling in with the force of tornadoes, ripping the area apart!
“Had enough?” Celestia taunted approaching Redblood, he tried to get up, but she used her axes to pin him to the ground by the neck. Metal or not, a pony couldn’t get up with its head pinned down, and its front legs folded under their body.
Redblood growled unintelligently at her. She chuckled, knowing how frustrated Redblood must feel. “Oh, don’t pout, you did well, but I’ve been doing this long before your grandparents even conceived your parents. I have faced many opponents far greater then you could ever hope to be. Now it’s just a matter of finishing you off.”
Redblood snorted, “Good luck, I am immortal!”
Celestia smiled warmly at him, but it lacked the warmth and motherly affection. Instead, it felt almost sinister as her horn ignited with golden magic.
“That’s what the last one said, and I can assure you, he is quite dead. Now let’s see... ah, there it is!” Redblood wondered what she was talking about when he felt a tug from within his body, something moved inside him. He tried to resist, but Celestia’s magic was too strong, and with a violent tug, the amulet inside him was pulled free through his mouth.
“How many of these cursed things are there?” Celestia wondered, walking away, tucking the red Alicorn amulet into her saddlebag. She didn’t even bother to watch Redblood’s soul disappear into oblivion. He didn’t deserve the honor.
“Princess Celestia, are you alright?” Overheat ran up to join her. He was looked overwhelmed by the destruction she caused. She always thought it was cute when ponies witness her fight. They always seem to have a hard time processing the fact that she could indeed fight. It was probably the princess title.
(Maybe we should have gone with Luna’s suggestion of titling ourselves Valkyries, it does sound more epic.)
“Yes, Overheat, I’m fine, hardly even worth writing down in the history books. Come, we need to regroup with the others. They won’t fare very well on their own.”
“Right, I think Applejack and Gadget are in that direction,” He pointed to what was probably north, it was hard to tell inside the factory.
“Really, I swore they were that way?” Celestia pointed in another direction. “Hmm, this isn’t good, any landmarks?”
Both looked around at the crater that once had been Redblood’s tunnel, nothing was recognizable.
“Hmm, Firefly, this is Princess Celestia, can you make contact with Applejack? Firefly? Can you hear me?” There was nothing but static. “Well, this isn’t good. Overheat you go in your direction, I’ll fly above and try to spot them, I’ll call you if I spot them and you do the same. Let’s move! We may not have much time!”
“Roger!” Overheat took off as fast as he could, while Celestia flew into the air.
--break
“Come on, Dusk, just a little further!” Nightingale encouraged the young unicorn as they climbed over the wreckage of one of the factory’s gem engines. She had managed to get Dusk out in time before the explosion, thanks to Howitzer taking over the controls and continuing to attack Redblood. Both of them knew he was a goner. He had been bleeding out fast from the wound in his chest, it was impressive Howitzer hadn’t died the moment he was hit.
She remembered that stupid smile he had on his face as she dragged Dusk out of the flaming wreckage. It was the kind of smile that said he enjoyed his life. She didn’t know him really well, but like her and many others who came to join Night Patrol, their lives before hadn’t been the greatest. When she got out of here, she was going to find out what his life had been before, as well as any family and give him the eulogy he deserved.
A massive explosion went off behind them, probably the tank, Nightingale concluded pressing onwards. They didn’t get much further when another explosion happened, this one three times larger than the first and further away.
“That’s gotta be a battle. I wonder who's fighting.” Nightingale said aloud.
“Princess Celestia,” Dusk answered, staring into the distance. “Princess Celestia is fighting Redblood, and she’s winning.”
Nightingale looked at the young unicorn skeptically, “Really, how can you tell all that from here?
“I can see them,” Dusk turned to her with her eyes were pure black, which really freaked Nightingale out.
“Ok… I’ll take your word for it. Can you just stop with the freaky eye thing?” Dusk didn’t seem to want to listen to her as she kept on speaking, eyes still black.
“Applejack and Dad are approaching our location from that direction and… look out!” Before Nightingale knew what had happened, Dusk teleported, grabbing her and then teleporting again. An orange blast of magic hit where they had previously been.
Nightingale swung into action pulling moisture in the air to create a thundercloud in her hoof. “Dusk, run!” She ordered as she stared down the metal pony that attacked them, it was Orangeblood, and she didn’t look happy. There was no way in hell was she beating this thing, but she sure wasn’t going to let it get both of them!
“Go already!” She yelled again.
Yelling like a mad mare, Nightingale charged at Orangeblood and punched her in the face with the thundercloud! Lightning flashed as yellow bolts hammered at the pony’s metal skin, but none of it seemed to have an effect. A quick swipe of a hoof sent Nightingale flying, sending her crashing hard against the debris with blood dripping down the side of her skull from the hit.
“What are you doing run already!” Nightingale yelled, spotting Dusk out of the corner of her eye. She cursed her own stupidity as Orangeblood turned her attention towards Dusk. “Get back here! You’re fighting me!”
Dusk stood frozen as Nightingale attacked Orangeblood again, getting smacked aside just as easy as the first time, but she got back up and charged again, screaming for her to run, but she didn’t run. She couldn’t run. No, she would not run! She was tired of running! She was going to fight!
“ARGGH!” Horn glowing black with magic, Dusk unleashed a blast so powerful it sent Orangeblood staggering back! Before the metal pony could even recover, she fired another spell, the magic drill bullet spell, the one she learned from Luna in the Crystal Empire.
The magic bullets punched through the metal ponies armor, which seemed to surprise her, but Dusk didn’t pay the noblemare any mind and kept firing, creating hail storm of bullets that tore through Orangeblood making her look like Swiss cheese.
“I’m staying!” Dusk yelled angrily at Nightingale, though she was still crying. “And you can’t stop me! I’m going to fight! I’m going to protect the ponies I care about!” Dusk’s mark, the symbol of infinity, began to glow as her eyes whited out. “I’m not losing any more friends!”
Head held high with her horn pointed to the sky, and with magic flowing through her body, Dusk unleashed the most potent magical blast in her entire life! The explosion melted the earth and steel around them, Orangeblood fired a counterspell, pushing for dominance. Dusk dug her hooves in deep and pushed harder, making Orangeblood lose ground, she began to walk forward. Her blast engulfing Orangeblood’s entirely.
“Die!”
In a flash of light, Dusk’s black magic overtook Orangeblood’s magic, blocking out any traces of the noble pony. Nightingale uncovered her eyes as the bright flash of the blast receded. Spotting Dusk belly down on the ground, Nightingale rushed over to make sure the unicorn was alright, thankfully Dusk was still breathing.
“She must have exhausted all her magic and fainted,” Nightingale concluded, knowing unicorns that overuse their magic was likely to suffer from magic exhaustion. Dusk would defiantly be incapacitated for a while, unable to move very quickly and could probably suffer from random temporary paralyze, but she was alive, and that’s what’s essential. “Still, you sure did a number on her kid.” Nightingale whistled while looking over the damage. A vast trench left by the blast. No way was Orangeblood getting out of that!
Gathering Dusk on to her back Nightingale prepared to go meet up with Applejack and Gadget, who, according to Dusk, shouldn’t be far behind. However, as she began to walk away, she heard something. Stopping in her tracks, she turned just in time to see Orangeblood drag what’s left of her out of what should have been her own grave.
“Son of a shod pony, what does it take to kill you?” She growled, turning to face the now three-legged noble pony. A few chunks of metal were missing here or there, but besides that, the noblemare was still in fighting condition, and Nightingale’s only hope of defeating her was lying limp on her back, “Horsefeathers."
“You lowly scum,” Orangeblood cursed limping out of the hole. “I’ll…”
In the distance, another explosion, from the same place as before, erupts, a pillar of fading red light following it.
“Ruby… no… no, Ruby!” Orangeblood called out desperately as she watched the last of her beloved cousin disappear into thin air. Orange tears of liquid magic rolled down her face, yet she could not feel it, she could feel nothing, only the coldness of her skin and the loneliness in her heart.
“You… you…I…I… kill… I’ll kill all of you!” Orangeblood screamed, her magic raging out of control. Pointing her horn directly at Nightingale and Dusk, who tried to run, but a blast of magic got the wingless Pegasi in the leg. “Just hold still, this will only hurt for as long I want it to!”
(Well, this is it) Nightingale pushed Dusk behind her in a most likely vain hope of protecting the unconscious unicorn from what was to come. If there was one thing she regrets, it was dragging Dusk into this mess, and a second regret would be not seeing Fury again.
Nightingale closed her eyes as Orangeblood fired her attack. She held Dusk close, covering her as much as she could with her body. The light of the beam grew brighter and brighter, drawing closer every second, Nightingale braced herself for what should have been agonizing pain. Instead, a strange coldness overtook her body. She looked up, and all around her was orange. They were in the middle of the attack, yet there was no pain. Where they already dead?
The attack passed by, and Nightingale turned around to look at Orangeblood, who looked as surprised as her. “I’m alive?”
“Impossible!” Orangeblood sneered, pointing at something with her horn. Nightingale followed the direction and came face to face with the strangest earth pony she had ever seen.
He had an ethereal silver mane floating in an invisible breeze and a black and white coat, the white looks like painted bones. Before Nightingale could utter a word, he dashed past her, charging at Orangeblood, Nightingale screamed for him to wait, but he wouldn’t listen and kept charging. Nightingale thought for sure he would be skewered by Orangeblood’s horn as he practically jumped into her attack, but something extraordinary happened. The pony’s coat inverted, black becoming white and white becoming black, and right before her very eyes, he passed through Orangeblood’s horn, her body, everything! Just like a… ghost.
“Sweet Luna, I really am dead!”
“You’re not dead,” The pony deadpanned his color reverting to normal, “I’m number 0013, Shadow Specter, I’m a ghost pony.”
“That’s not really helping with the not dead argument!” Nightingale yelled as Shadow Specter changed colors again as Orangeblood tried to run him down, but she only ended up running right through him. Shadow disappeared in a mist and suddenly appeared beside Nightingale, nearly giving her a heart attack! “Was that really necessary?”
“Hard to say, but long story short, are you a good fighter?” Shadow Specter asked as Orangeblood plowed into a piece of debris, sending metal chunks everywhere. The metal pony was having a hard time positioning its self on only three legs, but it wouldn’t be long till she attacks again, “Yes or no, please.”
“Yes, I guess? No scratch that I’m a great fighter! I even won in this tournament…”
“Irrelevant,” Shadow Specter interrupted, “Fact is I am not a very good fighter, inferior in fact, but there is something that I can do that will assure our mutual survival.”
Nightingale blinked as Shadow started reaching for her with his hoof. She scooted away, but he changed color, and suddenly, the world became very different. Her vision changed to black and white, as did her coat, which took on the same black and white coloring as Shadow Spector, but the most disturbing or perhaps surprising thing was the ethereal silver wings that grew from her back.
(I call this possession; you can now fight, while I support you by allowing you to use my powers. Congratulations, you can now walk through walls.)
“Alright, let’s rumble!” Nightingale flexed her wings, oh how good it felt to do that again, and took off into the air with blinding speed, charging towards Orangeblood while gathering moisture in the air forming two thunderclouds, “High-speed delivery coming at ya, and no refunds!”
The ghostly Nightingale grinned like a mad mare as she flew through Orangeblood, leaving the thunderclouds behind inside the metal noble. She formed another cloud and dropped down from the air-punching the center of the metal pony’s spine, the shocks reacted with the clouds inside, which results in a massive blast of thunder!
“Yahoo! I’m back, baby!”
Dashing around in a circle, Nightingale created a ring of clouds around Orangeblood, still reeling from the electric shocks couldn’t do anything to counter. The clouds blacken as Nightingale took to the air above Orangeblood, a small tuff of storm cloud attached to her hoof.
“Time for the coup de grace, Thunder Hoof!”
Nightingale dive-bombed hitting Orangeblood in the back with the cloud. Lighting arced between the metal pony and the clouds, sending thousands upon thousands of volts through her body, causing the metal noble to shake and spasm and then fall to the ground, but she got right up to Nightingale’s annoyance.
“Hmm, I thought for sure that would work,” Nightingale circled around the metal pony, looking for something, anything that could pinpoint her Achilles Heel. The Thunder Hoof seemed to cause some lasting damage or disoriented the metal pony in some way because Orangeblood wasn’t looking too hot as she stumbled around. Still, that didn’t mean she wasn’t a threat.
(Think I saw something inside her when I phased through earlier, perhaps it’s a power source?) Shadow Specter suggested as Orangeblood seemed to regain her bearings.
“It’s worth a shot, I guess.”
Nightingale dived, Orangeblood firing blindly with her horn, she fazed through the attacks and flew straight into Orangeblood’s metal body. For a moment, she was solid again, her hoof touched something, an orange gem covered in magic. Nightingale grabbed and fazed through to the outside of Orangeblood’s body and came to a stop in the dirt. Behind her, Orangeblood let out an ear-piercing scream as orange-colored magic poured out of her body and into the sky. The metal pony’s body shook violently and then simply fell to the ground in pieces.
“Well, that takes care of her,” Nightingale said, grinned victoriously, but she sure felt tired. She fell to her belly as Shadow Specter exits her body. He gathered her up onto his back and brought her to where Dusk lay in the dirt and set her down next to the unicorn.
“Thanks for the help,” Nightingale yawned. In the background of her vision, she saw Applejack and Gadget appear, followed by Celestia and then Overheat. She laughed weakly, she was probably in for an ass-chewing when she woke up.
“Dusk! Nightingale! Are you ok?” Gadget yelled as he ran up to the two. Much to his relief, they were both still breathing, “Oh Dusk, my sweet little Dusk. It’s ok, I’m here.”
Celestia walked up behind the inventor, amazed that the two were able to defeat Orangeblood all by themselves. They were genuinely talented warriors. She then noticed the pony standing close to the two. He was unlike any pony she had ever seen before, but she knew what those numbers on his flank meant.
“I assume you were the one who helped them?” Celestia approached Shadow Specter, who nodded nervously. He was probably intimidated by her size. “You have my thanks. These two mares, they… they are significant to me. I owe both of them a great debt. What’s your name?”
The black and white pony went rigged and gave a sloppy salute. “I’m 0013, Shadow Specter, I’m a ghost pony. You must be Princess Celestia.”
“That I am,” Celestia chuckled, “A ghost pony, hmm? My, my, the ponies of this place certainly are creative, I will give them that. I haven’t seen you or your number before, so I am to assume you are from this factory?”
Shadow Specter nodded rigged, “Yes, I was created here and kept here for as long as I remember. Till today was I a prisoner, but thanks to brother Sixes and brother Fury, I and my brethren are free, and we wish to help you rid the world of this place. The rest of my kin are with Sixes and Princess Luna, a few levels above us. We could feel the magical energy coming from below, so I, being able to walk through solid material, was selected to investigate. I just happen to stumble upon these two mares in need. From my count, that is one of four metal ponies killed so far.”
“Two,” Celestia corrected, “I finished off Redblood not too long ago.”
“I was unaware they had names.” Shadow Specter said offhandedly, looking at the pile of metal that once was living flesh and blood pony. “Shame they choose that fate for themselves, but at least they got to choose. Still, I never thought anypony would be that stupid.”
Celestia sighed, lamenting her blindness to the nobles' foolishness and greed, “Yes, it is a shame, but fear and greed can do that to a pony… wait, did you say four?” Shadow nodded. “But there are five nobles, shouldn’t there be five metal ponies?”
“That would be a fair assessment, but there are only four armors. The Doctors Madhoof and Hoofenstein like take us out of our cells every now then for further experiments and such, and sometimes we overhear things. Things like their other projects and future experiments, they tend to ramble while they work. Never the less, I can assure you, Princess, there are only four metal ponies in existence, not five. There is only so much Orichalcum in the world, you know.”
“Orichalcum!” Celestia gasped, the metal ponies toughness suddenly clear to her. “No wonder they were so durable. Though they must have weakened the metal when they added the Alicorn Amulets, the amount of magic the amulets produce would put a constant strain on the metal, it would take a few years, but at some point, the armor would have been destroyed from the power of the amulets. Still a clever idea to combine the two. I was wondering how Redblood’s body was able to stand up to the power resting inside of it.”
Shadow Specter shrugged, the Princess’s thesis going over his head, “It is beyond my understanding, but perhaps we should turn our attention towards defeating the final two armors. Currently, the one named yellow one is engaged in battle with Princess Luna, and my brethren above us and the last metal pony’s location is unknown.”
“Princess Celestia, Princess Celestia, can read me?” A statically voice called over the coms.
“Hold that thought, Shadow. This is Celestia, please report.”
“Thank goodness we got through!” Firefly’s voice said, “We just retrieved Emerald Cutter and extracted her from the battlefield. She had a run-in with one of those metal ponies but managed to defeat it, but she’s badly hurt. We wanted to get a warning to you, but we couldn’t get through!”
“Calm yourself Firefly, everything is alright,” Celestia said in her calmest voice, “Please take note that as of now, three of the four metal ponies have been defeated. I repeat the metal ponies, Greenblood, Redblood, and Orangeblood are all dead. Only Yellowblood remains and is currently engaged with Princess Luna and her forces, standby for our extraction call, we will be wrapping things up soon.”
“Roger that, we’ll be ready.”
“Shouldn’t we get Dusk and Nightingale out of here first?” Applejack asked after the coms went silent. “We can’t just leave them here, and it’s too dangerous to take them with us.”
Celestia nodded, “You are right, Applejack, but I fear splitting up at this point would be unwise. There may be other dangers lurking around that might be able to ambush the returning party at any time. Even if we sent Overheat and Gadget back with Nightingale and Dusk, their chances of getting out safety if attacked are low. Better to stick together and meet up with Luna and the others, and then we can all get out of here at once.”
“If I may suggest something Princess Celestia,” Shadow Specter asked, receiving a nod and continued, “Luna and the others are engaged with Yellowblood, but let us not forget the real masterminds of this place, Madhoof, and Hoofenstein. There is no doubt that they have already begun evacuating using the teleport room. That is why you have seen very few ponies running around, they are grabbing what they can and running if we hurry we may still catch them. Might I suggest that I and a few of the other able-bodied of our group go after them after leaving these two in the safety of Princess Luna’s group, where we can acquire more ponies to finish off the mad Doctors.”
“A reasonable plan Shadow Specter, we will do just that. Come, let’s put an end to this madness, once and for all!” Celestia declared leading the group, only to stop after a few feet and turn to Shadow Specter, looking somewhat embarrassed as she said, “Would you kindly lead the way Shadow? Being as you know the way to Luna and the others?”
The other ponies looked at her and share a quick laugh as they file behind the black and white pony, Celestia and Applejack taking up the rear. When no pony was looking, the farm mare waved for the princess’s ear and asked.
“Did you do that on purpose?”
Celestia grinned as they marched into the dark stairway to the upper levels. “Perhaps, a little humor in such depressing situations can do a pony some good. Some light in the darkness as they would say.”
“Ah, see, Ah, think we’re going to need a lot more light to get through this darkness, though.”
“Good thing the Princess of the Sun is with you then, right?”
Applejack smiled awkwardly as they walk deeper and deeper into darkness. Despite Celestia’s reassurances, it wasn’t the light of the sun she was craving for but that of the moon, for the moon was like the sun of the night that kept the darkness at bay.
“Hold on Luna, we’re coming.”