Gleaner Chronicles
Margot shivered in the predawn coolness outside the Mage lab tent. The sky was still dark and she wished for a few more hours of sleep. While she was still waking up, the changeling squad was waiting with perked up ears and bright eyes.
“I just realized that I don’t know if I can handle the speed of flying really fast,” Skybreeze said with a smile.
Margot yawned then covered her mouth with her right forehoof. “Well, I could conjure up a Flight Sickness Apparatus.”
“No, I think I’ll be fine. You need to save your power for dealing with those nasty shriekers,” Skybreeze said.
“Well, if you feel the need, face away from me or just aim at the shriekers,” Margot said. She watched as Nga'Devro walked up to the group. A blue blur landed next to the group while the sky brightened in the east.
“Are you ready to get this done?” Rainbow Dash said. Margot walked up to her and started summoning the fake chains. Rital’Harak walked up with his squad then they positioned themselves around Rainbow. The plan was to have the changeling squad be Rainbow’s guards, while Margot and Skybreeze would be support guards.
“Wait, wait!” The rescuers turned to look at the approaching ponies. Apple Bloom, Applejack and Princess Luna galloped up. After a quick bow to Luna, the rescuers waited.
“I came to wish you well on your endeavor. It’s one worthy of the best heroic tales,” Princess Luna said.
“Ah have a Blessing from Oonte for you,” Apple Bloom said then she closed her eyes as she raised her right forehoof. There was a blue flash around her. Margot thought she was touched by something, but she wasn’t sure.
“Rainbow, can we talk a bit?” Applejack said.
“Really? Can it wait?” Rainbow said while rolling her eyes.
“No! You ornery pegasus!” Applejack pushed.
“Fine,” Rainbow said then she walked up to Applejack. They walked a few paces away. Something about the quick glow on Luna’s horn attracted Margot’s attention. It took very little time for her curiosity to overwhelm her politeness. She hacked Luna’s sound blocking spell to hear what was going on between Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
“--They will miss you if something were to happen,” Applejack said.
“Those Shriekers, I want to kill them all and their crap king. So many friends lost...” Rainbow said with lowered tail and ears.
“Ah understand. Ah want to kick all of the gleaners and remnants out of Equestria! Kick them so hard they act like bags of garbage. Splittin open’, spewing bits all over the place. You know what happened to Granny Smith...” Applejack said while her ears drooped.
Rainbow put her right fore hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “AJ, I understand. When our friends are back we are going to give that Shrieker King, Slashscream quite a party...” Rainbow said with narrowed hate filled eyes. Applejack’s eyes echoed Rainbow’s hate for a few seconds. Both pony’s ears and tails went back up. Rainbow Dash went back to her guards.
“Ah wish you well, bring the Prophetess home,” Applejack said when she walked up to the rescue party.
Princess Luna walked up to Margot and whispered. “I like how you respect privacy. We should talk later,” Luna said then winked at Margot.
“Seriously? Let’s do this already!” Rainbow said with a jab of her left fore hoof in the air. Everypony turned on their illusions or transformed into shriekers. After that they silently flew up into the lightening sky.
Margot’s exhilaration ebbed as the group headed toward Skyshriek Tumult. She wondered how they were going to get through the sentinels and guards. After seeing shriekers in action, it seemed pretty stupid to fight them in the air. Up ahead, two shriekers flew at the group. The rescuers stopped moving and just hovered.
“What the heck? We finally got the blue nag!” One shrieker said. The other one flew up to the group.
“H-how did you do that?” The other shrieker asked. Margot had very little time to wonder how she could understand the shriekers. She flew up to the two.
“We lost a lot of our squad, but with this new spell, we caught the blue nag!” Margot said.
“Wow, I thought she would be bigger,” One shrieker said.
“Blue nag?” Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath. She struggled a bit making the chains jingle.
Margot spoke louder to drown out any more comments from Rainbow. “We have to get this prisoner to a secure holding facility before the spell wears off. You don’t want to be here when the spell fails.”
The two shriekers backed off. “Yeah, you keep going.”
The group flew forward again. Skybreeze faced Margot. “Maybe we can get the Prophetess without fighting?”
“I doubt that!” Rainbow said.
More shriekers flew up, and Margot had to tell them to stay back in case the spell keeping Rainbow Dash docile failed. Once they heard that the spell might fail soon, all of the shriekers found other things to do. The black spire grew larger as the group flew closer. Margot got a chill when she realised that there were no windows. When they had been watching the Prophetess earlier, the focus was on her and not on the area around here so Margot did not get a good view of the area. Now just a few feet away, the tall black building seemed to cast a dark pall over their morale. After a quick swoop, they were hovering in front of a black metal door flanked by guards.
One of the guards yelled. “They got the blue nag! Open up!” The door opened with an ear splitting screech. Margot and allies flew inside. The well-lit hallway inside was flanked by small cubicles in which alert shriekers watched as the group walked to the end of the hallway.
“Wow! You should get a medal from the King for this!” The guard gushed then he opened the door to the cells. Margot was surprised that no one had raised an alarm yet. She kept her mouth shut and kept looking for traps. The cell area only had two shriekers and one empty cell with some grey pegasus feathers in it.
Margot waited until the door closed before talking to the guards. “We need a space for the prisoner.”
“Not here, this is for the prisoners awaiting execution--” The shrieker did not get to finish before a green glow crushed him. The other guard was thrown against a wall.
“Rital’Harak wants to know where’s the Prophetess?” Rital’Harak said. The shrieker cringed, Margot could see the spines trying to shrink.
“Why would I help you? You’ll kill me anyway!” The shrieker said then a green glow covered it. The poor creature started to groan.
“Wait! Stop that Rital’Harak! We aren’t like that. Tell us what we need to know and I will see that you live,” Margot said. The green glow faded until it was barely visible. She could feel the attention of the shrieker switch from Rital’Harak to her. Margot did not understand how she knew that.
“Fine. The grey sky pony is heading to the Royal Spire. The King is going to spill her life ichor himself. If you fly fast enough, you can catch up with the guards,” the shrieker said. Before Margot could say anything, the shrieker blew up spraying green liquid all over the place.
“Rital’Harak! Why did you do that? I promised that it would not be harmed!” Margot said with narrowed eyes.
“Rital’Harak will not honor deals with enemies. Also it knows that we are not shriekers. Unless you are capable of clearing his memory of us, it is not worth it,” Rital’Harak said with a stomp of a fore hoof.
“How would you–” Margot tried to reply, but was interrupted by Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow focused and broke her chains with a grunt. “We’re wasting time, the Prophetess must be saved before she gets inside the Royal Spire. This is how we are going to do this. I’ll distract the shriekers while the rest of you go for the Prophetess.”
“My apologies but I think that plan is a suicide mission. There are too many shriekers out there,” Skybreeze said.
Rainbow Dash stood up on her hind hooves and crossed her fore hooves. “Nope. I’m not listening to anyone else’s plan. You’re wasting time.”
Skybreeze sighed. “Fine, how do we get out?”
“Rital’Ric has noticed that the hallway is full of shriekers and probably the levels below us are too,” Rital’Ric said.
Margot thought about blasting through a wall if it led outside. She walked up to a wall.
Skybreeze watched Margot. “This isn’t going to be quiet, but maybe we could blast through a wall.”
Rainbow Dash looked at Skybreeze. “No one does anything quiet here.”
“Stand away from the wall, Margot. The Squad will blow a hole through that wall!” Rital’Harak said. Margot backed away from the wall as the changeling’s horns started to glow. A section of the wall exploded with a green flash and poof. Rainbow Dash flew out and the group followed her. Rainbow Dash flew to the left.
“I have a bad feeling about this plan,” Skybreeze said while they flew among the blue-white spires.
“Maybe we can pull this off,” Margot said while trying to focus on her levitation spell. The changelings were starting to pull away from them then with a green flash, they flew away leaving Skybreeze and Margot alone.
“Damn!” Margot focused harder as the scenery began to blur around her. She thought she heard something from Skybreeze but it was lost. After a few minutes of peering around, Margot found the changelings, it took just a few seconds for her to reach them. One of the changelings, Margot could not tell who, had the Prophetess on her back. Several blasts from the shriekers landed near the poor changeling and it flipped over. The Prophetess fell like a gray stone.
“Noo!” Margot yelled and then she added more power to the levitation spell so she could move faster. The shrieker illusion spell was dispelled and she cast a spell to protect her face from the effects of blasting through the air. Then Margot swooped downward after the tumbling pegasus. After a few seconds of flying, she noticed that the Prophetess was hovering over the bottom of Skyshriek Tumult. Below her was a deep pile of stinking trash.
Margot flew up to the Prophetess. “Prophetess–”
“Please call me Derpy,” Derpy interrupted then she started panting. “My wing muscles are so sore after weeks of just lying in a cell. Thank you for saving me.”
Margot cast a quick levitation spell to keep Derpy from falling. “We haven’t saved you yet.”
A shadow covered them and Margot and Derpy looked up. Rital’Harak and two changelings flew down to Margot and Derpy.
“Rital’Harak suggests that we leave soon or everything will be wasted,” Rital’Harak said while he searched for threats.
“What happened?” Margot said.
“Rital’Ric didn’t make it. We should leave now,” Rital’Harak said.
“No, we should wait a bit more for Rainbow Dash and Skybreeze,” Margot said. Rital’Harak was getting on her nerves. On the other hoof, they could not stay here for long. Margot wondered what happened to Skybreeze and Rainbow Dash. After thinking a bit, she decided to make a distraction to help them out. Margot scanned the spikes near her. They were made of some sort of cloud stuff that was as dense as concrete. A few seconds later, Margot fired off three red orange blasts at the spikes that were some distance away. More seconds later, rumbling noises could be heard as the spikes began to collapse. Margot could also hear screams too.
“Rital’Harak is impressed, but now we must leave,” Rital’Harak said then he waved his left fore hoof at Rital’Tora. She flew up to Derpy. Margot watched as Derpy climbed on the changeling’s back.
Something warm and wet fell on Margot’s back causing her to look up. Rainbow Dash and Skybreeze had arrived. Skybreeze looked tired, but Rainbow was in bad shape. Blood dribbled out the corner of her mouth. Rainbow also wheezed like she was having problems breathing. Margot did a quick scan and sensed that one of Rainbow’s lungs had been pierced by a broken rib. Also there was some nerve damage to her left rear leg.
“Hey! It’s not that bad,” Rainbow wheezed. Margot cast a spell that would feed oxygen to Rainbow’s nose and mouth.
“Let’s bail!” Rainbow said. Rital’Tora led the group as the thunderous roar of the collapsing spines threatened to deafen them. Some of the junk rose up because of the falling spines and the group had to avoid that. Margot kept expecting to get blasted, but so far they were ignored as the group flew along the bases of the remaining spines. Finally, they left Skyshriek Tumult and headed for Lower Canterlot.
For a few seconds, Margot thought maybe the shriekers would leave them alone. The chorus of rage filled screams behind them changed her mind. Green-white flashes flew past them. Margot focused and cast some shields at the rear of the group. The protective spells shattered almost immediately. She could sense the changelings firing back, but the shriekers kept coming.
“You call this a power dive? Applejack can dive faster that that!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Apologies, Rainbow Dash, but you're only flying because of my magic,” Skybreeze said.
“Fine, but can we move a bit faster?” Rainbow Dash said.
Margot could sense the shriekers moving in on them like a lowering cloud bank. More shrieks flashed past her. Rital’Tora started to pull away from the group. Margot focused more on her levitation spell, and the ground began to blur underneath her. Then there was a scream and a changeling head flew past her before several shrieker blasts hit it. The sight of the head almost made Margot lose focus, but she regained her composure. Margot focused and tossed a lightning spell at the pursuing shriekers. Ozone filled the air as several shriekers got torn apart by the arcing electric bolts. She threw more of the lightning spells behind her.
“Ahh! Yeahh!” Rainbow Dash said then she had a coughing fit.
Exhaustion was creeping up on Margot. The constant drain of focusing on the levitation spell and trying to dodge shrieker blasts was taking its toll. She didn’t know how much more she could do. Again Margot dodged a blast. It seemed like Lower Canterlot was so far away.
Then a wave of green energy went through them. It was like being in a bathtub when someone throws something electric in. Pain thrilled through her nerves. Margot lost control of her body. It just twitched and jerked painfully. The levitation spell faded away. Even the changelings could not fly anymore. The ground seemed to rush up at them.
Margot managed to focus and cast a levitation spell over the group so they could survive hitting the ground. It was so hard to do, her legs were still moving spastically. With a squeal, Margot hit dirt and grass hard.
A few seconds later, Margot regained consciousness. Her body felt like it had been pummeled by hammers. She figured every muscle in her body had clenched and released. On that note, a quick sniff showed that Margot had soiled herself. While Margot was still trying to decide whether to stand up, she heard two sets of hooves walk up.
A tired glance showed that it was Skybreeze and Rital’Harak. They managed to carry Rainbow Dash on some sort of levitation spell. Margot felt something poke her side.
“Rital’Harak wishes for you to meet your death on your hooves and with a fighting glow on your horn!” Rital’Harak said with a stamp of his left forehoof.
“Too bad, I’m going to meet my doom smelling as though I tumbled into a latrine. It would be so much better that I got a chance to clean up first,” Skybreeze said. Margot struggled to her hooves. She noticed that Rainbow Dash wasn’t moving.
“Is Rainbow Dash...” Margot asked.
“No, but if we don’t get help for her soon...” Skybreeze said with lowered ears.
Margot faced Rital’Harak. “Did Rital’Tora make it?”
Rital’Harak just shrugged.
“Well, I do have to say that spell that made us twitch is something I didn’t expect from shriekers,” Skybreeze said.
“That spell wasn’t from a shrieker, it came from their king. Don’t worry about your smell. You won’t be around for much longer,” Rital’Harak said.
Rital’Harak looked up at the massed shriekers above them. “They come!”
Exhaustion pulled at Margot, she wanted to lie down on the grass and rest. Somehow she managed to find some power left to cast a spell to shield the group from shrieker blasts. Skybreeze and Rital’Harak fired blasts at the massed enemy above them. It seemed like for every shrieker that was killed, three more would replace it. Margot poured the rest of her magic into the shield, but it was starting to crack under the strain. Already several blasts landed near Rainbow Dash’s body.
The strain of keeping the shield intact was hurting Margot, her nose was starting to bleed. A quick golden flash caught her attention. It was swallowed up by the blue white and green of the oncoming shriekers. Just when the shield finally shattered under the green shrieker blasts, a golden shield appeared above them. An exhausted Margot sunk to her knees and closed her eyes. Darkness took her.
“Hey! Hey! Can you hear me? Somepony get a stretcher for this one too!”
Margot heard voices, her eyes just refused to open.
“Rainbow Dash? Is she okay?”
“She won’t be unless we get her to the hospital tent!”
Margot felt her body being lifted and placed on a gurney. The wheels squeaked and squealed as a pony galloped. Over the drumbeat of the hooves, she heard more voices.
“I’m amazed that they lasted this long.”
“Well, they’re lucky that the princesses showed up in time or we’d be looking at four smears of blood in the grass.”
“At least the Prophetess is safe.”
“Thanks to that brave changeling, yeah.”
The voices faded as Margot went to sleep.