Chapter 36: The Unstoppable Seamstress
Rarity hissed loudly, unsure if it was some curse or primal thrill of battle raging through her veins. She already ran out of blunt objects to smash the little devils, and even the walls were pockmarked with indented plaster and holes were she’d shoved more than one of the beasts straight through the wooden framework. She was running out of wall.
The skeletons were far more annoying than the other undead creatures. Although always swarming her en masse, zombies were easy enough to dispatch. The skeletons kept trying to pick her off with arrows from a distance. They weren’t too difficult to avoid despite how little breathing room the impromptu battlefield gave her, yet that did not dull the slow ache in her thigh where a broadhead had pierced the muscle.
For a while she had feared the creatures would attempt to attack Sweetie Belle’s still body. Small mercies could be found even in the middle of a fight as the beasts seemed intent on dealing with their central aggressor. Images—no, that wasn’t the right word for it. The burst of sensations that were drifting across her mind wasn’t simply sight alone. The smell of fetid flesh and bone dust, the irony tang of blood, each shuffle of fabric and her own thunderous heart painted a picture. A thousand bursts of color flashed across her mind’s eye. A million points of light that skittered within the walls were insects and dust mites milling about on their daily business, their only trouble being the gaping holes where she had punched through the walls and stout wood supports.
Each groan was a sign. Sight, smell, sound, and the inherent life flowing through every creature painted a map of her environment. The stress of a bowstring pulling taunt—how she heard it was lost on her—forced Rarity to sidestep until her cutie mark was forced against the wall. The arrow’s fletching sang through the air, the displaced air and the clatter of bones foretelling its trajectory better than any archer’s eagle eye. It was aiming center mass. She’d always had an eye for detail, but now it was if the fog had been lifted and she could see every minute facet of the world. How she knew the arrow’s path wasn’t in question. It wasn’t even a question. It just was.
Out of the original twelve, only two remained. The tight confines of the Boutique’s halls proved to be a nice means of bottlenecking the monsters. With her own overwhelming strength, fighting was child’s play. As long as they didn’t enter the bedroom and go for Sweetie Belle. Rarity wasn’t sure what kind of vitality Brimstone had given her to soak the damage, but even if she was on her last leg and devoid of strength, jumping in front of an arrow to protect her sister wasn’t out of the question.
The slight swish of an arrow tickled her snout as she dashed down the hallway towards the archer. Already it was preparing another projectile. It would never get the chance.
Rarity rampaged down the hallway and she swore the wood beneath her hooves warped and cracked under the force of her charge. A single zombie creature stood between her and the skeleton, completely oblivious to its comrade’s attempt to dispatch her. She didn’t even slow down as she forced the monster off of its feet and stampeded over its body. The beast didn’t even make a sound of protest as something compressed underhoof.
She tackled the last bony creature. Together they rolled, the nocked arrow clattering to the floor. There was as spider crawling on the outside. Eight little legs caused a slight vibration as it scuttled as noticeably as droplets on a still pond, it’s trajectory clear in her mind’s eye.
Why were they all the monsters empty?
For just a moment she stared at the beast she straddled. It was reaching for another arrow in its quiver. It didn’t even break its stride. All it wanted was to hurt and kill her.
Even the occasional termite shone with light. These beasts were hollow. Shells. No light, no vitality pulsed within them.
The skeleton didn’t even move to avoid the hooves coming down on its skull.
Rarity hissed again and again despite the lack of any more monsters to thrash. Each gasp was bringing in oxygen that didn’t feel adequate. Her blood sang in her ears and all she could hear was the constant thrumming of her own heartbeat like some great wardrum.
Ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum babumbabumbabumbabumbabum.
The primal thrill of war, that feeling of immortality that came with the rush of danger and the fear of death. That was all that mattered. Every wound was only proof that she was still alive. Bones were crumbling to ash and decaying. They disappeared in death.
Kill them...
There were more outside. Every drop of adrenaline surging in her veins commanded her to continue the battle. Yes... they would face this war mare tonight. Rip and tear. Each monster devoid of a soul. Golems of flesh and bone that none would miss. She didn’t even need her magic when her own hooves, those very limbs stained with ash and effluvial gunk, would suffice in tearing them apart.
Kill them...
Rarity bit into her fetlock until warm blood touched her tongue. Blood pooled from her own wounds, those both self-inflicted and not.
Kill them...
Were her bones groaning? She bit harder and her own body cried under the strain. Regardless, Rarity held firm until the slow throbbing in her soul understood she would go no farther. This wasn’t natural. Self defense was one thing, but this bloodlust? Ravage them. Maim them.
Kill them...
Her heart calmed. Her breathing slowed. Danger had passed.
Kill--
Rarity felt something give in her leg and was met with a burst of hot, wet iron flooding her mouth. No. No! The fight was over! Calm down. Her heart wasn’t slowing but the fog of war had receded to manageable levels.
“Calm down... Deep breaths...”
As carefully as she could, Rarity extracted her own limb from her mouth. Blood had started pooling on the floor and yet all the self-inflicted wound had garnered was a dull throbbing and the pungent taste of iron on her lips.
She took a moment to examine herself. Her once immaculate coat had already been marred by sweat, dust, the bite, and some minor wounds. The arrow had impacted just above her cutie mark, leaving the area flush with the bright-red hue of blood. It stuck out all the more due to the alabaster shine of her coat, and yet the pain that should have had her on the floor moaning in agony, or at least nursing a nasty wound, gave her no more than a dull ache of protest. She grasped the shaft with her teeth and tugged it out. The wound trickled red and further marred her coat with barely any pain to hinder her pace.
What exactly had Brimstone done to her?
Rarity scampered back to Sweetie Belle’s room. Despite the loss of half her vision it in no way hindered her ability to navigate the familiar environment. What sight beyond sight was this? To feel every inch of her environment as if all—
Sweetie Belle wasn’t breathing.
Even a good two meters away, Rarity wasn’t sure how she knew; she just did. There was air diffusing in Sweetie’s lungs, but her diaphragm wasn’t moving. Somewhere a loud screeching echoed across the Boutique. Sweetie Belle lay limp just as she had been right before Rarity smashed through the door. How long had that been? A minute? A second?
The screeching had come from her own throat. “Don’t you dare go back on your word now!” Rarity gently rolled Sweetie’s limp body onto her stomach. Taking a deep breath she blew a lungful of air into Sweetie’s mouth. Just as she put her hooves together on Sweetie’s chest for chest compressions, she hesitated.
She had just put a zombie-creature through a wall with raw strength alone. Whatever Brimstone had done, the king had given her a lot more than just a boost to her magic. If she wasn’t careful, she’d crush Sweetie’s ribcage with nothing to show for it.
Power. That’s what Brimstone had given her. The power to save, and the power to destroy. She blinked; the left eye socket felt strange. She could still see despite the loss of an eye. Sight beyond sight. She saw Sweetie wasn’t breathing before it was possible. Maybe, just maybe, she could use this brief gift to save her sister.
There was the surge of energy firing off in Sweetie’s brain and the dull thrumming of bodily processes. Dearest Sweetie Belle was still alive. That was good. Rarity repeated that fact in her head again and again as she slowly gave her sister chest compressions. She felt the rib cage complain at the motion, but the bones weren’t under enough stress to snap. Is this what Brimstone always saw? The integrity of her very bones? The cognition of the dullest fly? It would certainly explain how he was capable of hiding so easily.
Rarity closed her eyes and pressed once more against the velvety soft fur of Sweetie’s chest. Even blinded she could feel her bones creak under the strain, the motion of air exiting her lungs. Again, slightly harder. This time however she could see something give in Sweetie’s sternum, as if the cells themselves were crying in protest. That was the limit.
All in all, Rarity felt as if she was barely pushing against her chest at all.
Rarity repeated the motions, carefully monitoring Sweetie to make sure she didn’t accidentally injure her darling sister. She winced when one of her ribs groaned and cracked, but she needed to press on. Breath, press, press, press, press, press.
Breath, press, press, press, press, press.
Breath, press, press, press, press, press.
She saw it before she felt it. The tingle of energy gathered in Sweetie’s gut and her diaphragm contracted. She took in breath after breath, still listless on the floor. Sweet, glorious oxygen flooded Rarity’s own lungs as she took the breath she had denied herself during her task.
Sweetie Belle was alive. Sweet, beautiful Sweetie Belle was alive...
She was alive!
Rarity embraced her still sister and laughed. Ponyville was under attack, Luna was in trouble, her friends needed saving, and Sweetie Belle was host to an incorporeal spirit. The peal of laughter that echoed through the Boutique’s smashed halls was something more honest and pure than anything Rarity had ever experienced in her entire life.
“I will never let anything hurt you,” she whispered to the warm form pressed to her chest. That familiar scent was tainted with the stench of smoke and blood, but Rarity didn’t care. She wiped away the wet blood from her own face, only to see that it was nothing more than copious tears.
She needed her saddlebags. They couldn’t stay here.
Rarity gave herself one more moment of indulgence before pulling away. Just one more moment. Sweetie couldn’t fight, but this moment, the memory of two sisters embracing would certainly be enough to keep Rarity alive.
And with a quiet breath to collect her thoughts, Rarity set to work.
Her first objective was to raid her own gem stores. The local contingent of Royal Guardponies, acknowledging her skill with gems, had commissioned her to sharpen and restore what weaponry they had, at least those that could afford her prices. She opened the back chest of her own store. Gemstones, all polished to a mirror shine and cut to perfection. Steel throwing spears with razor sharp diamond-tipped points. She neatly stashed them in one of the pockets, closed them up, and continued her brief supply run.
Sweetie Belle was still quietly sleeping. The slight buzz of her sleeping mind was both a concern and a relief. Shouldn’t Sweetie just wake up with Brimstone in such a weakened state? That’s what it sounded like. Brimstone was just suppressing Sweetie while the king did his business. Why was she still asleep?
Rarity bit back the fear. There was nothing she could do for her dear sister in the Boutique. She needed a hospital, or better yet, Twilight. If Sweetie never woke up...
Rarity swallowed.
She had collected a few bolts of cloth, her own pitiful stock of spider silk, and a couple lengthy needles. Already she was loaded down with enough weight to make her bags bulge and complain at the seams, yet the extra weight didn’t bother her in the slightest.
Rarity perked her ears. She could hear the grunts and groans outside from a hundred different sources. She needed to get out, needed to leave. Sweetie was the last item on her list, and after carefully levitating her silent sister onto her back, Rarity finished her preparations by lashing her sister to her withers.
All was set. Rarity gave her shoulders an experimental flex. Same pony. At least on the outside.
“I can do this...”
Rarity shoved aside her meager barricades, each moving with little effort. With that, she walked through her smashed front door and into the rainy night.
The skies immediately flashed with a tongue of lightning bright enough to illuminate all of Ponyville. She tasted smoke and gunpowder, felt more than saw ponies running for their lives in the distance. The monsters, now that she had a good chance to examine them with her enhanced sight, were little more than husks compared to the embers of light coming from ponies. Rarity could see two of the zombie creatures across the street meandering about.
Despite her canter, she felt the intoxicating urge to simply dash into the night until her limbs collapsed from exhaustion. The endless well of energy that gave her the vitality to smash the supports of her own house as if they were nothing was at beck and call. Rarity flushed as a pleased sigh exited her lips. Every step felt like she ought to shake the ground. Oh, what a rush! Was this how Brimstone felt all the time? How was he at full strength then?
She tried to calm the heart she swore was beating far faster than it should. Right now she needed to do a little test, and now was not the time to become enthralled by her new abilities. Focusing her new senses, she examined the closest house. Despite it being undamaged as of yet, she saw the skittering little lights of a thousand different insects scuttling through the walls. Fairly spacious, but otherwise completely devoid of pony or monster life.
Why couldn’t she see it as it was? Blinking to clear her vision, Rarity struggled to focus her remaining eye at the house. There was the buzzing of life, screams and the constant hammering of rainwater, the acrid stench of fire on the wind. Each sense was cranked to its maximum to paint a picture. Where originally she’d have an oil color painting on cheap paper, now it was a canvas with an artisan’s deft touch on the brush.
White. White house, windows, and a fence.
How... dull.
The world snapped back to the canvas. She checked Sweetie’s bindings once more out of worry before setting out again. Pinkie lived closest to the Boutique. That would be her first stop, and then it would be towards Twilight’s library. As brash as she was, Rainbow could probably take care of herself. What worried Rarity most was Fluttershy and Applejack; both were isolated from town with nary a neighbor in sight. And in opposite directions.
Fluttershy or Applejack?
Was she choosing which one had a better chance of living? Which one would die?
Rarity swallowed again. She’d get to that choice in a moment.
Her ears perked out of reflex. She sensed movement up ahead. Three ponies, one far larger than the other two, were being set upon by some monsters. Rarity’s canter turned into a full gallop as she came upon the flower shop. Lightning flashed in the skies and was accompanied by an earth-shattering boom. Rarity skittered to a stop, turned, and dashed towards the florists.
Kill th—
“No!” she screamed.
Despite her call, Rarity yanked one of the spears out of her bags and threw it towards one of beasts. The shambler didn’t even flinch as the spear passed right through its rotting body and pinned it to the flower shop. It swung a sword at her in an arc that was easily dodgeable with her enhanced senses.
Bulk Bicep had two more wrapped in each foreleg. Without so much as looking at them, he forced their skulls together with all the force his considerable muscle could muster. There was a resounding crack and both monsters dropped like stones. The pinned creature writhed uselessly.
The two ponies who had taken refuge inside poked their heads out as the violence ceased. The flower shop was not nearly in such a state as the Boutique now was, but it would take some considerable time to repair. Rarity could smell a doused fire, and broken plaster was so plentiful she tasted it with every breath.
“R-Rarity...?” Bulk Bicep quietly asked. Strange; he never did quiet. “What happened to your—”
“Never you mind,” she snapped. That wasn’t a topic for now. “Is everyone alright?”
“Where’s Daisy?” Rose screeched and Rarity winced as the railroad spike of noise stabbed into her skull. “Have you seen her? She was here only a minute ago!”
“No, I am sorry but I haven’t.” Rarity looked around. No body heat, at least none that she could detect. Then again, there were an increasing number of fires sprouting up, so that wouldn’t help regardless. No slight buzz that accompanied ponies. No light.
A morbid thought sprung to mind. Could she “see” the dead?
“Listen, dears, there’s little time. I need you to accompany Mister Bicep here to...” To where? Another bolt of lightning flashed and an idea struck her. “to Twilight’s house.”
Bulk Bicep nodded, although he still looked at her thoughtfully. Rose and Lily finally exited the confines of their shop with a skittishness matched by Fluttershy. The flower ponies were known for their weak constitution, but the fear surging through their veins kept them conscious. Rarity was about to ask how the bodybuilder got here so quickly, but a quick sniff told her what the three of them and possibly Daisy were up to before the attack started.
Rarity gave Bulk Bicep a steady look. She couldn’t tell if he flinched either by the ferocity of her glare or her missing eye, but he stayed quiet. “We’ll take them there. Make sure they get there,” she said. He nodded again and began shuffling the remaining two outside. “I’ll keep an eye out for Daisy.” After a beat, Rarity chuckled at the irony.
The bakery was at the far end of the road and marked where she’d need to turn in order to get to the library. Seven houses marked the rest of the street. Pinkie was close at hand but a lot could happen fast this night. Sweetie Belle’s thready pulse beat against her back. Behind her, the two flower ponies followed Bulk Bicep with equal parts fear and hope.
Lightning flashed back and forth with increased frequency. With that, Rarity’s suspicions that this wasn’t an ordinary storm were further enforced. There was something wrong in the air. Storms had a certain feel that this one lacked.
“Not so fast, Miss Rarity,” Bulk Bicep whispered. Rarity halted her pace so the three could catch up. “Don’t know how you can see so well in all this fog with.... Erm.” He stumbled over his words before staying silent.
Rarity was about to scoff before she remembered the scene prior to the attack. The hideous spectral fog that waylaid the town was still present. That, coupled with her missing eye and the fact she was navigating the town so well in the shadowed and rainy blackness spoke of secrets best left until after the fight.
“I don’t have time to explain, dearie.”
She once more tried her best to look at the stallion with her regular sight. He seemed quesy, but whether that was due to the siege or once again looking at her missing eye socket was in the air. He was a beast of a pony trying his best to stay cool, but she could see even without her enhanced sight the tension around his eyes that he was barely holding it together. He looked at her for just a moment longer before nodding.
“I’ll try to keep up, ma’am.”
More creatures were nearby. “Stay close to them.” It was almost too easy with the call to arms still resounding hot in her blood. Fighting had come natural for quite some time, but this wasn’t a brawl. This was war.
Ponies were going to die.
These two trembling flower ponies were a hair’s breadth away from fleeing in terror, yet she couldn’t spend the precious minutes to comfort them. Safety or comfort? How odd that she had chosen the role of protector so quickly and easily.
Tilting her head to the side just a moment, Bulk Bicep was knickering soft words to the two mares. Whatever it was, it had to be enough.
The air was shattered by a cataclysmic explosion. The world flashed white and Rarity swore death was at her heels, scythe in hand. Pain burrowed into her skull. Someone was screaming. Was Sweetie Belle okay? Where was everyone!? White. White hot pain buried into her brain and gnawed at every little crevasse, every corner. Teeth buried behind her eye and yanked. She was going to die. She was barely out of the house and both she and Sweetie were going to die...
There was something here. Delicate and light. Another frantic and thunderous like stampeding hooves.
Hard. Sharp. Choking.
Burning. Cold, wet earth.
Shaking.
Noise.
Voices...
“...think she’s coming to...”
Rarity opened her eyes—both of them out of habit—and the world was split into white and black splotches. The white one moved and a neon pink took its place.
“Rarity?”
The canvas returned. There was something in the air around Pinkie. She knew it, but couldn’t place it due to the swaying in her brain. Many more ponies were near; their little heartbeats were pulsing amidst the thundering rain. Somepony was crying. Fearfully, she reached out and felt the warmth still lashed to her back and the accompanying gentle heartbeat.
“How many hooves am I holding up?”
“...All of them?” Rarity said tenuously. Four limbs cluttered her fuzzy vision anyway. Wait, how did she do that?
“Yeppers!” As Rarity was helped to her hooves, she saw that Pinkie’s cheer was not all that it appeared to be. Her uncontrollable frizz hung limp like seaweed across her face.
“Get down!” Rarity hissed. A quick sniff told her they were in a wooden building. It wasn’t the bakery judging by the scent, but Rarity could still smell cooking materials in the air. Wherever she was, a creature was scuttling across the roof and heading towards the front window.
Pinkie was already down even if her tail wouldn’t stop twitching back and forth. “Twitchy twitchy twitchy, Pinkie’s got an ichy.”
The house’s front window flashed green along with the lightning and a massive spider fell into their field of view. Rarity heard hushed screaming from somewhere in the room. The spider was engulfed in arcane fire and moved no more. It also crumbled into ashes like the monsters before it and joined the muddy earth.
“C’mon.”
Pinkie swung her rump and her limp tail wrapped around Rarity’s foreleg. She led Rarity towards the back of the store, and not a house as she initially thought. They were in the old tinker’s workshop across from Sugercube Corner. So far, his workshop appeared to be unmolested save for the cracked display window and a front door that had been jimmied open in a hurry.
Bulk Bicep was behind the front counter with the two flower ponies. Rose was out like a light and Lily continued to sob into the stallion’s chest. Poor dears. Perhaps now they’d have a little breather, but they still weren’t safe.
Pinkie nudged her head towards the office in the back. Bulk Bicep did his best to move Lily along, but the inconsolable mare only whispered her missing sister’s name over and over again. He quietly nudged his head between her legs and lifted her onto his back next to Rose. He followed Rarity while Lily held onto his neck and pined for a mare who may never see the coming dawn.
Mister and Misses Cake huddled in the back office with their children, who were bawling as children do. The pair were doing their best to comfort the twins, but no sweet nothings were going to help for now. Pinkie shook herself off, removing a layer of water and flour out of her coat. The white splotches were cut where the rain had run them through. Bulk Bicep followed them, but turned around to watch the door.
Cup Cake was the first to see them. “Rarity!” she said as she started to get up. Her eyes widened in horror as a hoof went to her mouth. “Dear Celestia, what happened, sweetheart?”
“It’s...” Rarity held a hoof up to her missing eye. Gone. “I lost it getting out of the Boutique.”
It was a terrible lie. No blood marred her face and what wounds she did receive healed with Brimstone’s regeneration, and that didn’t even cover how she was able to fight her way through the town. Rain had cleansed her her of most of the blood and dirt from her fight.
Pinkie twitched and fidgeted, and then gazed at her coolly. Heh, Pinkie Sense. There’s no fooling the fool.
“Is everypony alright?” Rarity interjected, hoping to divert the problem.
“Yes, thanks to Pinkie Pie,” Carrot Cake whispered. “She knew something was wrong before... before everything.”
“I loaded up the party cannon with flour and blew out the front wall.”
“You can do that?” Bulk Bicep asked a little too loudly.
“Flour’s explosive!” It was? “After a big badda boom and a little snicker-snack,” What did that even mean? “I got the Cakes out and we found Rarity unconscious.”
All Rarity remembered was sound and then pain. The sound of Pinkie’s cannon so near coupled with her own enhanced senses must have overwhelmed her.
“So what are you lot doing out and about?” Carrot Cake asked.
“We’re on our way to the library,” Rarity said. “With all of this ghastly fog about and the lightning rod atop the library, darling little Twilight is undoubtedly the safest in town. Old magics give the library strength, and she is an accomplished mage in her own right.”
Natural lightning or not, Rarity was willing to gamble that Twilight’s lightning rod was able to absorb the unnatural strikes if for no reason than Ponyville was a magnet for hellions and trouble; Twilight must have solved that contingency long ago. Cup Cake seemed to agree. “Excellent idea, Miss Rar—!”
Rarity’s hooves told her the entire building shook, but with her magic and sight beyond sight, everything shook. Something from the south flashed into the sky and lit it up with the force of a thousand suns. It made the lantern light of every soul present dim in comparison and forced Rarity to look downward to avoid being blinded. The burst of power flash forth and spread in a disk pattern outward, and like that it was gone.
“...What was that?” Lily whispered from Bulk Bicep’s chest.
“Something from the south, whatever it may be.... Likely near the encampment.” It was another thing to check up on once she got there. She received a few stares. Composing herself, she tapped her horn. “I believe it to be a spell.” She wasn’t certain, but it was better than saying she saw it through the aether. If so, the only unicorns she believed capable of accomplishing such magic were Princess Luna, Twilight, and the Archmage, but Rarity couldn’t make heads or tails of whatever the flare was supposed to do.
“We need to get going.” She expected the Cakes to say that, but it came from Pinkie’s mouth. “It’s not safe here.”
“Pinkie’s right,” Carrot Cake agreed. “I’m glad you’re all alive, and I’m sorry for your injuries, Miss Rarity, but this ain’t no place for foals. We need to go.”
“Sooner than later,” Bulk Bicep voted.
A few more voices expressed approval and the party was set. With the library as the destination, the ponies gathered their meager supplies and prepared to move out. Pinkie, however, pulled Rarity aside.
“I expected you would like to talk, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie just stared at her behind that curtain of limp hair. “Why did you lie to everyone?”
There was no time to lie, and no point. “I will tell it to you as straight as I can, Pinkie dear.” Rarity sighed. It was difficult for her to compress her and Brimstone’s lengthy dialogue into a brief conversation. “All of these monsters have been conjured by Herobrine. He’s here because he wants the Elements of Harmony, and if he can’t get them, he wishes to... kill those that can use them against him.”
For the first time that night, real emotion, a constant outpouring of shock and horror, painted Pinkie’s face. “You... you mean all of this is happening because of us?” Pinkie pushed open the office door and looked out the window to see the destruction.
Rarity closed the door. “No!” she hissed quietly. “He’s here doing these horrendous and awful things because he’s mad! You are in no way responsible for this, Pinkie. None of us are!”
Pinkie didn’t look convinced. Rarity continued, “Herobrine has an enemy. We talked before the attack began. He’s why I don’t... have an eye. We were surrounded, and his offer was the only way I could save Sweetie Belle. I paid the price. I did so willingly.”
She didn’t even have to point out the hole in the story. “You didn’t answer my question, Rarity. Why did you lie to me?”
“Because there were many things we talked about that shouldn’t be spoken of just yet.” Brimstone being very able to harm Sweetie Belle in retaliation being one of them. “I want to tell you everything, Pinkie. I really do, but there is no time.”
Pinkie narrowed her eyes at Rarity. She reminded Rarity so much of that time when paranoia grasped Pinkie’s heart and twisted it. Those insecurities made Pinkie into a vastly different pony. Was that the front Pinkie was putting on now, the yin to her yang?
“I Pinkie Promise to tell you.”
Pinkie blinked. As the assembled ponies walked towards them, Pinkie lifted a hoof and crossed her chest, a gesture Rarity repeated.
“Let’s go.”
Pinkie opened the door and hung low. Rarity followed suit and the rest of the ponies came next. The magic in her sent a fire in her blood. With it she felt the ability to run miles and miles with no end, to fight the waves of creatures with her lonely self as the ponies’ vanguard.
Power. This couldn’t have been any normal pony magic. This was something much different. Primal. Powerful. If this was Brimstone at a fraction of his strength, what was he like in his prime? An even more terrifying question passed by Rarity’s head: how strong was Herobrine at full strength in order to beat an entire civilization with power like this? Taking a moment, she craned her head and kissed Sweetie’s brow.
Rarity stretched her senses out as far as they could go as she and Pinkie approached the door. Persistent rain was making it harder to discern the scuttle of legs from ambient weather. Splattering droplets was so very much like hoofsteps.
There. A wiff of decay. An empty husk.
Search for those with the missing light, the lantern compared to the husk.
“Anything, Pinkie dear?” Rarity asked. If anything, Pinkie would be able to confirm where ponies or monsters were located. Pinkie shook her head.
This was... wrong. Seeing Pinkie like this, apathetic, lifeless, and pragmatic, wasn’t right. Wasn’t natural.
The storefront was clear. Six blocks north led straight to the library and the safest haven there could be in town. There were none who matched Twilight’s raw talent with magic outside of Luna or the Archmage. She could see lights congealed in the vile fog ahead, both real and soulfire. There was something going on near the library. Good or bad?
Time to find out.
“Let’s go.”
Rarity pushed open the door and cantered into the stormy night. Pinkie followed close behind. The Cakes followed suit while Bulk Bicep guarded the rear while his charges clung to his back. Whatever was happening at the library, it was causing far too much of a ruckus.
Better make an even bigger one.
Before the party even managed to collect on the main drag itself, Rarity heard a sound so disgusting it nearly made her retch. Black, pustulous ooze sprouted from the ground. Some form clung to it. Something moving.
“C’mon, everypony!” Pinkie rallied and they all increased their speed to outpace whatever was happening. Even under the thunder and lightning the sounds of war echoed across town. Arcane energy, lightning, and screams became the cocktailed norm.
Something ahead of them lurched out of the fog. Armored and wielding a sword, it didn’t even look at the encroaching ponies as it lurched toward them with iron sword raised. Pinkie only increased her pace to a full gallop and lept. The monster swung with intent but was far too slow to compete with Pinkie’s athleticism. She cleared the monster entirely, taking special effort to buck her hind legs into its helmeted head.
The monster lurched towards Rarity. With a flourish of magical dexterity, the beast was ensnared in a bolt’s worth of fabric.
“Mow through!” Carrot Cake shouted. Rarity was only too happy to oblige and left the monster where it lay. They all had charges to protect.
The air was cut by a thunderous flash and a cold chill that ate her bones. Ahead of them, the Ponyville Fountain shattered and peppered the air with stone. “Mow through!” the stallion screamed again.
She could feel it near them. For just a moment, she was back in Sweetie Belle’s room waiting for the end. In the forest while an alicorn goddess plotted against them. With that icy touch of chaos that ate her soul until she was a hollow version of herself.
Something was coming.
The rain chilled her skin to the bone, her fur providing so little protection against it’s frigid bite. The sound she heard put that all to shame. It was like the cold finger of death stroking her spine, a voice that pierced her skull and rattled around her brain.
Something hissed in a way so unclean she swore it took ten years off her life. There was another flash of chilling cold and with a burst of lightning arcing across the sky, she was shown something out of nightmares. It made her want to scratch out her eyes and ears, to force out the noise until she clawed it out herself.
A creature black as midnight floated across the skies. Three desiccated heads clung to a long, gangly, emaciated torso that dripped more of the foul sludge that birthed these monsters. Its eyes, all six of them, were glinting through the darkness. From each mouth vomited arcane power and wherever it struck, the earth itself violently erupted. One of the heads turned slowly after it spewed its deathly magic and its infernal eyes met her own.
It was smiling. Grinning, even. A wide smile was painted across its bony, rotten face.
“Move!” Carrot Cake shoved her forward, breaking her gaze. “Keep moving!”
She had stopped running. He was pushing while Pinkie was all but dragging her forward.
The earth around them erupted into stone and pain. Rarity’s equilibrium was thrown off as the ground disappeared and all that was left was constant ringing in her ears.
Pain.
Pain.
Something hurt.
Get up a part of her said.
Everything hurt.
Get up!
Why was this happening?
Where was Sweetie?
“Get up!” Rarity hissed.
Everything was blurry, but blurry was still better than cold oblivion. Live to fight another day, another moment. She caught the pulse of Sweetie Belle on her back, the warmth of her breath, and only the scent of blood that came with minor wounds. Safe; Rarity had taken the brunt of the blast. As long as Sweetie was alright, nothing that happened to her mattered.
The little spark of life in each pony told her she and two others, most likely Pinkie and Carrot Cake, had separated from the herd. She was several meters away, while the other two were being dragged off by Bulk Bicep and Cup Cake. She almost laughed. Any other time, she may have been miffed at being the lady in distress with no one to look after her needs.
Stone had peppered the road. Something had cratered cobblestone and dirt where she’d just been standing mere moments ago. The monster?
“It’s not safe, Rarity,” she told herself. “Keep going!” The monster was still near.
She got to her hooves... only to collapse. A dull ache arched up her right foreleg. What she saw was enough for her to finally expel the bile in her throat that night. As she wiped her lips clean of dinner, she saw with morbid horror the strands of muscle tissue and bone exposed just above the knee, the leg itself jutting at an impossible angle. Blood hemorrhaged from her leg in time with her heartbeat. It couldn’t have been just a few seconds since the explosion and already her leg was drenched in a thick coating of her own blood.
With dull fascination, she saw that her leg had already begun to mend. This was just too much. They’d barely made it two blocks before she’d been taken out of commission, at least until Brimstone’s magic did its job.
But the bone... The bone, as she saw before the tiny muscle fibers arched over the wound and started the healing process, had grown together improperly; she could feel a bone spur as the two halves grew together at an angle.
“What have you done to me?” she whispered to the darkness. Sweetie did not answer.
Gingerly, she tried to put her weight on the half-healed leg. More dark humor sprouted to her mind and she wondered what kind of conniption Redheart would have upon seeing her in such a state. Could I trouble you to look at this, doctors? See what I can do now! Let me borrow that knife. Oh, don’t fret, dearies; the bleeding’s stopped already. See! Stop laughing!
Tears accompanied her own mad giggles. Try as she might, the laughter bubbled up from the depths and even the cacophonous night wouldn’t silence the mad glee.
“Just do it, Rarity!” she told herself.
It wasn’t like pain could hinder her now anyway.
“Do it.”
She sat down.
“Do it now.”
Put her left leg on the fracture.
“Do it!”
Pushed.
“Do it!”
The bone snapped like a twig with only a sharp sting in her leg telling her she injured herself. From her bags came forth several of her iron needles. With a flick of magic from her horn, she removed some ribbons and securely tied them into a splint so the bone could heal properly. In a few short minutes it wouldn’t matter anyway, but mere seconds meant the difference between life and becoming the giggling corpse of a madmare.
Rarity got to her hooves. Only the faint buzz of pain from a wound that should have had her bleeding out greeted her. Goddesses, she hoped this wasn’t permanent.
She took a step towards her companion’s sanctuary only to discover that Pinkie and Bulk Bicep were already upon her. She had been lost in her attempt to mend the broken bone. They both looked at her with looks of shock and horror, the cascading rain making tears pour down their still faces.
She hoped that was rain.
Rarity stumbled to her hooves and took a moment to check Sweetie Belle again. She was bleeding slightly from a few minor shrapnel wounds, but otherwise okay; dry cloth would have been better, but Rarity took some cloth and did the best she could while stuck in the rain. The monster was either a lousy shot and missed her head and chest, or expected the blast to kill her outright. If she didn’t have Brimstone’s legacy running through her veins and boiling her blood, she would have bled out in minutes.
“I’m... okay.” A statement not helped by the involuntary giggle. Pinkie looked scared. Bulk Bicep looked ready to be sick.
A quick look was all she needed. Carrot Cake was on his hooves, but hemorrhaging from his chest. Pinkie was the same, if not quite so bad.
“We need to go. Now!”
She wanted—needed—to allay their fears about her. Fate and time were against them. The flower ponies were tending to Carrot Cake to the best of their ability, raw fear of death keeping them conscious. Cup Cake was screaming something. Somewhere above, the monster hissed.
Everything was beginning to fade in the thunder and rain. Pinkie was saying something as Rarity removed another bolt of cloth, needle, and thread and did her best to bandage Carrot Cake’s wounds. They had taken shelter in a collapsed house, and although she sensed the monster hovering about, no more explosions signaled the attack. Ponies fluttered in the sky. Why fluttering?
“Rarity!” Pinkie screamed in her face.
Need to work. Need to make everyone safe.
“You need to breathe!”
Rarity popped.
In this little, broken house Rarity felt another surge of bile in her throat. Rarity staggered to a corner and emptied her stomach. The scent of bile and ash, blood and rotten flesh, clogged her throat. All the tension, fear, and pain came flooding to the surface. The constant threat of death towards herself and Sweetie Belle, the endless fear, the dying in the streets.
There were bodies right behind her she hadn’t even seen upon coming inside. Bon Bon and Lyra, each clinging together in a terrified embrace, motionless as if there were sleeping.
She wanted the tears to come. Were they coming? Was that rain? Rarity’s stomach stopped heaving and she finally got her breathing back down to a stable level.
"I’mnotokayI’mnotokayI’mnotokay.”
“Deep breaths, Rarity,” Cup Cake said soothingly. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be strong for everypony.”
She was stronger than everypony. She could tear an unprotected monster in half, rip each little leg off a spider and shove it down their throat.
Pinkie's soft and exceedingly drenched legs ensnared her. “Stop being so generous and worry about yourself, dummy.”
She wanted to cry. As hard as she felt like it, desired it, the tears wouldn’t come. Pinkie nuzzled the back of her head gently. She was not okay. Ponies were dying, her sister was possessed, evil infected the town like a plague, and so, so much was wrong right now! Brimstone’s task, as willingly taken as it was, seemed so monumentally impossible. Even if everything stopped right now, the damage was so catastrophic.
“It’s not my fault...”
“Shhhhh, we know, Rares.”
“...Is Mister Cake alright?”
“He’s fine. You’re doing just fine.”
The leviathan hissed and everyone inside winced. Again, Rarity heard the beat of wings through the sound of thunder and rain.
“...We can’t stay here, Pinkie.”
“I know.”
Mister Cake was being tended by the two flower ponies and Cup Cake. Bulk Bicep was standing guard with one eye watching the assembled ponies, pointedly avoiding looking at Rarity. Carrot Cake would live, but needed proper medical attention. That wound would bleed out if he wasn’t careful. Drying her nonexistent tears, Rarity stood tall and breathed a deep lungful of air.
“We need to leave and make it to the library, monster or no.” Should she say something more, some speech to raise morale? For the life of her she had no idea what to say. There was such a cocktail of emotions in Carrot Cake’s eyes that Rarity couldn’t even fathom a guess as to what he was thinking. Rose helped him to his hooves. He winced but could still support his weight. Red stained his chest, withers, and stomach. No one talked about Rarity’s incident, and for that she was grateful. As long as they could get to the library, there was a chance. Everypony just felt this inherent need to hurry, to rush forward, emotions be damned. No talking, no feeling, just moving.
They needed to go.
Rarity just hoped she wouldn’t break down again when the consequences could do some damage.
She once again lead the line out the door. She could hear the monster somewhere above, but at least not directly above, waiting for the squishy little ponies to leave. As soon as she left, the rest of the line raced out behind her like a bat out of Tartarus. The library was ahead. Not even two minutes away.
The monster hissed.
Wings again...
“Wa hoo!” shouted an oh so lovely voice. Rainbow Dash flew low, just skimming the surface of the rooftops like a bolt of lightning. Wings folded and flexed with an ease that only the fastest mare in Equestria could achieve. The withered creature shot bolt after bolt of deathly energy at the fleeing mare but she was far too agile. She dipped and dived, always staying one step ahead of the creature. Rarity was never more happy to see the mare.
Rainbow was alive! “Thank Celestia...”
“Fall back!” another voice screamed over the carnage. A second form cloaked in glittering armor darted down from the billowing clouds towards the beast while Rainbow beat her wings and disappeared into the night. Lightning blasted from the skies on the armored pony’s heels, but one thunderbolt arched too close to the library. The tree ahead was enveloped in light as the enchanted spire atop the tree collected pulled the lightning to its core. Tongues flashed so very close to the pegasus’ armored body. Rarity saw one in particular trail just a too far north and change path in mid air, right back to the pegasus. Bolt after bolt... wait, they were following him.
The pegasus—no, Rarity swore she could sense the taut, leathery wings of the Night Guard—flexed and weaved as lighting chased him across the heavens. He was no Rainbow Dash, but a soldier’s skill was on his side. One bolt cut a little too close and the acrid scent of burnt flesh was momentarily pushed onto the winds. Wound or not, that didn’t stop the solder as he smashed into the beast’s center head.
The screech resounded like a thousand talons raking across her brain. For a single, hopeful moment, Rarity thought the brutal skydive had vanquished the monster, but as the solder darted away into the skies, one of the beast’s heads turned and launched another attack. Now it’s attention was on him.
“Get over here!” Carrot Cake called out. Caramel, Thunderlane, and a mare Rarity recognized as one of the Apple’s many relatives followed a broad-chested stallion, likely an off duty Royal Guard. The Guard, a husky chestnut-colored stallion, ran parallel to their charge.
“Head to the library!” he called out to everypony.
As if that wasn’t obviously where they were headed already. The stallion pulled up beside Rarity and yanked out one of her spears with his teeth. Rarity bit back a snort; more war humor was dripping from the back of her mind and demanding he pay for it first.
Despite their increased numbers, they were going to be paying for sanctuary in blood. Already the library was getting swarmed by monsters despite the shimmering violet energy encircling the tree. Empty husks signaled an attacking force by the dozens. There were enough to even tear her part if she didn’t have her regenerative abilities. Lantern-like flames showed enough ponies outside combating the threat, while Rarity saw a good number huddled inside. There was a pony inside who shone like a bonfire that just had to be Twilight.
Guards and civilians alike had entrenched the library with makeshift barricades and sheer magic alone. Most were setting up bonfires and lighting torches, rebuilding barricades and carrying the wounded inside. The entire tree shined with illumination of every kind, pushing back the ethereal fog that hung heavy in the air. No monsters spawned from the revealed earth.
A soldier decorated in glimmering gold shouted and the barrier fell. Rarity prayed to whoever was listening that it was because they were seen.
Monsters scrambled forward as the barrier fell. A spider with a mounted skeleton rider crawled over the assembled monsters and fired pot shots at the defenders. The armored soldiers had little to fear, but the town ponies only had whatever ramshackle protection they could cobble together. Some arrows met their mark and screams filled the air.
Magic flashed ahead and the rider fell from its mount. Guards formed their phalanxes with regular ponies at their side. They needed help. They needed that barrier up now.
The soldier bit his lip and delivered a loud, shrill whistle. “We need to go right through! Rip right through their flanks and get inside! All civilians, fall back five paces and follow us through!”
Sounded good. That was right alongside her thinking anyway. “Pinkie!” she called. Pinkie accelerated to meet her on the left. She hesitated for only a moment before untying Sweetie Belle’s bonds. “Take Sweetie!”
Pinkie nodded and bumped flanks with her. Rarity secured the lashings with practiced ease. This time she did hesitate. “...Bring me back if I lose myself.”
The sad look Pinkie broke her heart but without a word, Pinkie nodded.
Rarity stampeded forward with the soldier and Carrot Cake quickly at her sides. The monster’s ranks were a good seven or eight deep. They’d see her group coming long before they got there, and even surprise wouldn’t be enough for a normal pony to punch through. Zombies and skeletons ruled the crowd with the the occasional spider. Whenever the soldiers spotted the flakey green monsters, however, they stopped what they were doing in order to destroy them even if it meant breaking the lines. There was only one robed combat mage and she looked burned out and dead on her hooves. The soldier closed ranks and pushed. They saw them coming and were going to punch a hole through the lines as best they could.
Kill them...
Head low, Rarity charged forward even ahead her two companions. Her blood boiled. Rip and tear. These monsters knew not love or pain, only to kill. She bared her teeth.
KILL THEM...
One block left. A bone crushed underhoof as she stampeded across the Void. One block left. Some of them turned to look.
They had no idea the hell she would unleash.
“Kill them...”
Rarity smashed through the lines with the force of a freight train. She felt pops in her legs and chest where no doubt some of her bones snapped at the contact alone. Some of them were armored. That didn’t matter. As soon as she lost momentum in the crumpled and flailing bodies, she reared onto her hooves and smashed through the skull of an unarmored zombie. It didn’t even twitch and it like its predecessors crumbled into ash.
Woven spider silk wrapped around a needle in a flash of periwinkle magic. Rarity stabbed it clear through the chest of another and shoved it forward. The needle went clear through with only the black offal clinging to the silver metal—no blood. Sheer kingly brutality fueled her dexterous but otherwise feeble magic. Back and forth it weaved until she had a small string of monsters stuck to each other with a material stronger than iron. Bringing it taut, she closed the loop and lashed them all together. Bound as they were in a material stronger than steel, each dumb zombie flailed on its own accord, none of them gaining any ground while their bonds held strong.
She felt the telltale pressure on her leg that signaled a wound far more egregious than it actually felt. She bucked wildly and her hooves connected with metal. It folded under the power she wielded and crushed the innards.
Headbutts and thrashes. She had weapons. If she ever ran out, she’d tear a hole through the horde with tooth and hoof. Bones regrew, wounds healed. Skeletons smashed and zombies slashed. Spiders skittered and ended up stomped under her hooves.
She could see everything in the Void; nothing could hide from her! The soul fire alone partitioned friend from foe. Her senses flared. Left. This one dimmed.
Rarity was thrown off her hooves as the ground erupted where the monster once stood. The little bugger managed to creep up on her! Ha! As if that alone would be enough to bring her down! The lights came.
She was tackled as she stumbled to her hooves but despite the momentum, Rarity did not fall again.
“Rarity!”
The lights encircled her, enough of them to yank her off her hooves and into their ranks.
Kill them...
“Rarity!”
Pinkie...
The magical shield fell once more, locking the majority of the monsters out. What few beasts made it inside were quickly finished off with no backup to help thin the numbers.
“Thank you, Pinkie.” The warm form of Pinkie got off and all but carried her inside.
Warmth. The air was crisp, clean, and carried the ever-present musk of books and parchment. Several lights—ponies— skittered about. Pinkie shut the door.
As if she were a marionette with her strings finally cut, she collapsed on the welcome mat. The fire was still in her blood. Every particle of her mind was ready to leave and run a marathon. Muscles were coiled, and bones were strong. She’d punch out a hydra and not even bat an eye.
She was so very tired. Unleashed god, angry king, destroyed homes, unconscious sister. Death and decay. Blood blinding her eyes. Her mind screamed to just shut down and cry.
Cry she did.
The ticking clock within her foretold Brimstone’s expired strength, but none of that mattered. She wasn’t even sure if it was Pinkie clutching her to their breast but the nearest pony wrapped their legs around her back. The hooves raked up and down her spine in the most gentle way. Unladylike. It was unladylike what she wanted to do.
Rarity sobbed and bawled. She cried for her ailing sister, the fallen king with all dear to his heart destroyed, the broken god compelled to rend. The senseless violence. The exchange. It hadn’t even been an hour and yet her life had been torn asunder.
She wasn’t sure how long she cried into the pony’s chest but she wasn’t given the slight reprimand. Back and forth went the hoof, ever comforting. Her wails died to sullen sobs and then just a slow trail of blubbering sniffles. Pinkie looked down on her, tears staining her own eyes.
“I-I,” she hiccuped, “I-I think I’m okay now, Pinkie.” The state she’d left her friend in, all covered in tears and snot on top of the sweat and soot made her reflexively pull a piece of cloth from her bags and offer it to the mare.
Pinkie chuckled lightly but accepted the offering. “Come on, Rarity. Let’s find Twilight.”
Horn alight, Twilight Sparkle wasn’t hard to find. She was bedraggled and tired, but far better off than Rarity felt on either the outside or the inside. The mare had been running races up and down the stairs, visiting each and every pony now crowding her domain while Spike distributed their meager supply of aid. The library was large, but even then, it was only scantily occupied on most days. Now that she had time to look around, she counted upwards of fifty or so ponies inside.
She wondered where the cakes were. Carrot Cake was speaking with the soldier who joined their party, while Cup Cake was busily attending to their children and his own wounds. Twilight ducked under an overhanging shelf, examined the children briefly, and then darted straight towards them.
“Thank Celestia you’re alright!” she exclaimed. “Wh—Rarity!”
She’d never hear the end about the eye, wouldn’t she, Rarity thought darkly to herself. “I know, I am absolutely hideous. I need a shower.”
That got another chuckle out of the sullen Pinkie Pie. They really needed old Pinkie Pie right about now.
“Rarity...”
“Can I pick your brain for just a few minutes, Twilight? There’s something I have to tell you.”
“It can’t be long,” she said quietly. Twilight looked her up and down. Her eyes widened after every passing inch. Rarity knew she was going to regret looking into a mirror. Huh. Now that she thought about it, it was much easier looking at the world through both her eye and new senses.
Practice makes perfect.
“Good. Lead the way.”
Pinkie untied Sweetie Belle but kept the little filly on her back. Rarity knew she was catching eyes and whispers as they followed Twilight. Some cried, some were fine and tasked with caring for the others. Most ponies were relatively unhurt. Pinkie’s wounds, now that Rarity got a good at them, were awful.
“Pinkie dearest!” A large portion of skin, nearly her withers to her flank on her left side, were striped of fur and an angry red. Lacerations arced back and forth where she too was caught in the floating creature’s foul magic.
“I’m okay, Rarity. Really.” Sweet, little Pinkie Pie. Always a constant beacon of cheer and wonder. Scarred for life.
She stopped in her tracks and removed needle, thread, and cloth. At the very least she could help stitch her up and prevent infection. As Twilight brought the trio to the upper balcony, Pinkie gratefully sat down and let Rarity continue with her task. It didn’t take long to finish up and Twilight even found a bottle of Granny’s special cider to help sterilize the wound. No doubt her own injuries were already sealed.
Pinkie shook her flanks to test the job. It was serviceable as long as the stitches didn’t tear. Deep breaths, Rarity. Both ponies were already waiting for her response.
Deep breaths...
“I know what is happening. This Herobrine figure was a god to a race of people very much like our Crafter friend, except after a time, he went mad and destroyed them. Only one is left. He told me half the story before we were interrupted. Sometime afterwards, he escaped and Herobrine was imprisoned. He also escaped, but he still carries a seal that locks away the majority of his strength. That is why he’s been skulking about, trying to steal the Elements of Harmony.”
And thus she filled them in on her conversation with Brimstone and the events up to their daring escape to the library. It wasn’t right seeing Twilight more expressive than Pinkie. She was normally so bubbly, always with something worth saying even at the worst of times. Twilight gasped, wrote notes on a conjured scroll, and even did something as mild as fidget. Pinkie was expressionless and unmoving.
“And then the attack came. Brimstone offered me some of his power so I could escape. I had no choice. I traded my eye in exchange. With it,” she looked at her own hooves, “I’ve been able to do so much, fight my way here. Still... I don’t know what he’s done to me.”
“You didn’t have a choice.” It was the first time Pinkie spoke up throughout the entire conversation. Rarity agreed—it was either that or death—but that didn’t make the option any better.
“I’d like to examine you at a later date, Rarity,” Twilight said slowly, “as time is not a resource to squander right now.”
Rarity nodded. “I agree. But right now, I needed to tell you about why Herobrine’s here right now, in town. He’s after us. All of our friends. If he cannot take the Elements himself, he is going to ensure that they cannot harm him. He... is trying to kill us.”
“Which would explain a lot,” Twilight added. “The vault in Canterlot wasn’t breached. It... makes a sick kind of sense.”
“Yes, it sadly does,” Rarity said. “If he cannot break his prison himself, he has taken up the duty of... um, “taking care” of those that can use it against him.”
“This Brimstone. He believes the Elements can stop him?”
“Indeed.”
“Where is he? I would like to talk to him.”
That was the one thing Rarity left out of her explanation. Was Brimstone still in Sweetie’s sleeping mind? The first and last of the original Crafter race was sleeping dormant atop Pinkie’s back, scuffed but alive? Would it be alright to tell Twilight? What would Brimstone do if he found out? He could escape, but could he know, weakened as he was?
Regardless, he’d be a hair’s breath from Sweetie Belle’s defenseless mind...
“Meaniepants doesn’t have a body. He could be anywhere!” True indeed, Pinkie. True indeed. She still needed to leave Sweetie somewhere. The library was as safe as it was going to get. Brimstone or not, Sweetie had to stay.
“I don’t believe he is in any state to answer questions after...” Rarity’s hoof drifted to her empty eye socket. “Right now the most important part is to stay out of sight. Herobrine’s target is us. Brimstone claimed he had set defenses in motion.”
“That would explain the flare as well,” Twilight said and jotted down a few more notes on her scroll. Her eyes went up and down her notes. “That was a high yield burst. It consumes a lot of magic, but it’d punch through just about any barrier. Princess Celestia would be able to feel it from Canterlot. The only question is where is Princess Luna?”
“Likely dueling the cur herself.” Luna the war mare. “There is also some kind of monster in the skies. Three heads attached to a torso. It seems to be much stronger than the others.”
“It aligns with the reports I’ve heard from the soldiers outside.” Twilight nodded in affirmation. “My theory is that this Herobrine created the monster to harry Princess Luna while he looked for us. She would pose the biggest threat, but her subordinates are trying to fight it.”
Their ears perked as a loud, shrill whistle pierced the walls. Twilight’s scroll vanished in a flash along with the glow around her horn. She all but dove downstairs and peered out the nearest window. It was time for Rarity to get back to work as well.
“Pinkie, I’ll take Sweetie Belle now.” Rarity carefully embraced Sweetie in a gentle hoof. “I’ll find a place to lay her down.”
There was something else that had been bugging Rarity, something that needed to be said for quite some time. “Are you going to be okay?”
Pinkie only needed a few seconds to respond. “I really don’t know.”
Rarity gave her a nuzzle. It wasn’t much, but it’d have to do. “They need you, Pinkie. Even if it is only one, solitary laugh, they’re going to need your help in order to pull through this.”
The mare smiled weakly. “I’ll do my best. Pinkie Promise. Just stay safe.”
“Pinkie Promise.”
“♫~Cross my heart, hope to fly.
Stick a cupcake in my eye!”
The two of them giggled at the childish jingle. Lightened spirits, however small the progress, was good enough. Rarity hugged the mare. “I love you, Pinkie.”
“I love me too.” There’s the Pinkie she knew.
The two parted, fresh moisture in their eyes. Pinkie nodded and slowly walked downstairs. It was time to cure some crying children.
Twilight’s bed was taken, but an ever-helpful Spike cleared off a couch for her ailing sister. She expected the little drake to try to strike up a conversation in these dark times, but he was already off giving blankets to a fresh stream of refugees coming through the door.
Rarity set Sweetie down carefully and covered her with one of Spike’s blankets. So peacefully she slept. Sweetie had been marred and bled slightly from the attacks on the way. It wasn’t bad enough for immediate medical attention, but she cleaned and washed the wounds to the best of her ability now that she had dry supplies to work with.
Rarity nuzzled those locks once more. Remember this moment. On her back were her wits and enough weapons to keep her alive. This moment... remembering this, remembering that there was something to come back to was something to live for...
“I’ll come back for you,” Rarity whispered into her sister’s ear. “I promise.”
She kissed Sweetie’s forehead and still the filly slumbered. “And for you. Even if you do escape your own guilt, think about what is left waiting for you, fallen king. I know you are not afraid to die, but have something worth dying for.”
Rarity parted from the embrace.
Pinkie and Twilight were safe.
Rainbow was with soldiers.
That left Fluttershy and Applejack.
Deep breaths...
She walked down the stairs. One of the soldiers devoid of armor was recovering on the floor. She gave him the remaining number of spears. She wouldn’t need them. An off duty Nurse Coldheart received her remaining needles and thread. The front door was before her.
“Rarity, what are you doing?” Twilight cried out. Her horn was alight once again. “You can’t go out there!”
“I have to!” Rarity screamed. Twilight's ears folded back as she stared at her. The twinkling of moisture clung to the corners of her eyes. “I have to... I am scared, Twilight. I am so very scared. I am scared that if I stop for even a moment, I am going to just shut down. As long as I can help somepony, if I keep going forward, I know I’m not going to curl up and cry.”
The buzzing library had gone silent. Soldiers and civilians alike watched and waited. “I can do this.”
Twilight stood there with her mouth open. What was there left to say? A plea to remain safe? Begging to stay? Rarity crept toward the door.
“Let her go, Twi.” Pinkie whispered.
“I’ll come back. I swear it, Twilight.”
The first drop rolled across Twilight’s cheek. Choking back sobs and words, she nodded. “Please come back.”
“I will.”
Before her nerve could fail her, Rarity turned around. There was a little mirror next to the door that gave Rarity her first real look at herself. Her hair was matted and messy, split ends and rats nest everywhere with a large chunk burned off. Blood, most of it her own, was smeared across the majority of her body with several rivulets carved by the rain. Fresh scars marked her regenerated wounds.
Her left leg was completely drenched and she discarded the impromptu splint. The skin had sealed and the bone underneath was bumpy, but serviceable. Parting her mane away from her face, she saw the most significant damage. She tentatively opened her eyelid. Nothing but a blank, empty socket stared back at her.
She turned around. Ponies. She’d known most of these ponies her entire time in Ponyville. Even some of the soldiers were familiar faces. They were scared, wounded, and frightened. Pinkie was scarred across half her body. Carrot Cake may end up crippled after everything was settled.
Two lives saved.
No.
The twins, Sweetie, Cup Cake, the flower ponies, Bulk Bicep, Thunderlane, Caramel, Brimstone, the soldier, and the Apple.
Fourteen lives saved.
She could do this. She’d gladly pay Brimstone’s price all over again.
“Deep breaths...” It’d almost become a matra tonight.
With that, Rarity opened the door.
Soldiers continued to rebuild their meager barricades in the rainy night. Most of it was constructed from timber scavenged from broken homes or scrap metal and held up with sturdy piping. Even the sign for Golden Oaks was repurposed for the defenders. The white mane of Ambrosia flittered about along with some of her work crew. Rarity passed a soldier holding up a nearly unconscious mage who was being helped inside. The poor dear had burned herself out during the few but hectic seconds whenever Twilight’s shield fell.
“Corporal Striker, ma’am.” The glittering soldier she saw before approached her and saluted. “Appreciate the spears. They’ll be savin’ some lives tonight.” The armorless guard she encountered was currently partitioning the weapons to the assembled ponies.
“Have to say, haven’t seen no mare fight quite like that.” There was something in his voice she couldn’t identify. Concern? Apprehension? “But what you doin’ out here? Get inside, ma’am. Not safe.”
This would be considerably harder given her current physical condition, but it was worth a shot. “I am dreadfully sorry, Sir Striker. However, I have only a few moments time. Ponies inside along with myself are wondering what you can tell us about these creatures. We’ve all been through a taxing ordeal, and any explanations, however irrelevant to survival, will ease my mind.”
She gave her tail and eyelashes a flick. It would have looked more impressive if it weren’t raining and she hadn’t been blown up twice. Striker narrow his eyes, but responded nevertheless.
“We’ve received reports of seven different creatures so far.” Seven? “Four are in the crowd right now.”
Striker motioned to the barrier. By Celestia, they were making a racket. The skeletons’ bones clattered and the spiders made some squeaking hiss, but the zombified bipeds were making no end of noise. The green creature, however, was completely silent. The skeletons and undead at least slightly resembled the Miner, but this one was different. With four short, stubby legs, it weaved back and forth on its stalk-like body, it’s dry and crunchy-looking skin looking quite fragile. It just stared at her, unblinking...
“Them spider buggers are fast enough and like to jump. I’ve been seeing them crawl all up over buildings myself. Thank Celestia for small mercies as they’re not poisonous. The skeletons are archers; haven’t seen none with swords, but on and off they’re armored. Quite a few are crack shots. Lost two bucks already. Shot right out of the sky.”
“My condolences.”
Striker only nodded. “Them other standing buggers are the footsoldiers and meat shields. Pretty tough, but rock stupid. Get in numbers ‘n they’ll take down anypony, though. They’re attracted to smell, I think. Impossible to sneak up on the buggers. Pretty much all are armored and armed to some extent.
“But those green, creeping bastards are the worst. Don’t make no sound at all. Completely quiet. Soon as they crawl up yer ass, the goddamn vermin explode. Suicide bombers.”
That was something to watch out. It’d also explain what blew her up on the way inside. Strange, to be thinking about getting wounded so dearly in such a casual manner.
“I’ve seen a monster in the skies. A creature withered to the bone.”
He nodded again. “I’ve advised me men to stay away from that thing at all costs. Captain Hawk and the rest of Luna’s guard were engaging it last I heard. Don’t know how they’re fairin’. Don’t have the men or time to find out.
“On the way here my troop encountered some small things. Vermin. Little insects or some such come right out of the ground. Silver little things. Good stomp kills them, but they’re fast and come in packs.
“Last is some kinda giant gel. Skin’s acid. Took a mage to bring it down. They’re big buggers, but slow. Don’t see much to stop them outside o’ magic; spears went right through it. Our mage had to blast it to bits, and even then the bits were movin’.”
Rarity nodded. Seven monsters, plus Herobrine. The Wither and the god were going to be targets to stay away from. All others were fair game. Well, there could be others about. Best to keep a sharp eye.
“Thank you, corporal. Most informative.”
He nodded. “Glad to help. You best get inside. Got a scouting party headin’ back soon.”
“Apologies, but I will be leaving.”
Striker was preparing to see to his forces but that got him turned around real quick. She didn’t give him the chance. “Twilight!”
The librarian’s face was poking at the window before she even finished the call. “Let her l-leave, corporal,” her voice cracked.
“Sorry, ma’am, I can’t in good conscience allow th-.”
“By my authority, by House Sparkle and the authority granted to me by Princess Celestia, I order you to give her an opening to leave at the next opportunity.”
A soldier hardened by combat stared down a mildly overweight bookworm. Seconds passed. Rarity heard their heartbeats race in their chests. Striker was grinding his teeth, while Twilight was breathing slowly and deeply just to not pass out.
Striker spoke so slowly and clearly his accent vanished. “...As you wish, My Lady. But I will insist she leaves when we are able to afford an opening, no sooner.”
“Acceptable,” Rarity interjected in hopes that Twilight would not push the issue.
Twilight looked at her, her features trembling. “Agreed.” Rarity heard Twilight sniff and close the window. Rarity cursed her senses for allowing her to hear crying behind walls.
Striker stood by her side, clearly unhappy with this turn of events. “Understand that my priority is savin’ lives, ma’am. I object to this.”
“You do not need to worry about myself, corporal.” Rarity breathed deeply. Her heart didn’t seem to want to cooperate with her and thudded a mile a minute.
“I don’t.”
She blinked. That wasn’t what she expected. He continued, “I saw you fight your way in. Saw your wounds.” Or more likely, the lack of any. “‘m not concerned with you being able to fight your way out. I am worried about the ponies under my care that will get hurt when that time comes.”
He reached a hoof around her withers and pulled her head close. Her skull banged against his helmet and his eyes bored into hers. “You remember that.” He let her go and cantered off to see to the fortifications, leaving Rarity alone in the rain.
The next scouting whistle didn’t take long, but Rarity took the time to mull over her next moves. Finding and helping Fluttershy and Applejack took precedence over everything. Twilight’s words on the flare gave a tantalizing hint that Princess Celestia may join the fight, but even if she could hazard the flare’s meaning, it would take her precious time to get to Ponyville. Could Spike’s dragonfire reach through the oppressive Void? No doubt Twilight had already sent a dozen letters to her mentor, but would Herobrine have taken that into account?
There was no telling. Hopefully at least the flare did its job. Fighting Herobrine or the Wither was out of the question. That left rescuing two more friends, and getting the Miner into the fray.
Applejack or Fluttershy?
Applejack or Fluttershy?
Applejack or Fluttershy?
“Deep breaths...”
She could do this. She had the will, and the ability.
Applejack was closer, but she was also off road. It would be bad terrain for a fight. Fluttershy, although close to the Everfree and farther away, had a straight shot to town. All things equal, AJ seemed to be the best bet. She’d have more trouble reaching town, it was closer, and had her kin to protect. Monsters would be near no matter which direction she picked.
However... Perhaps there was door number three. It would take longer to reach Applejack in the end, but she could get to them both in less total time. If she headed to the encampment and requisitioned a task force to rescue one or the other—both if fortune was kind, both friends would get the aid they needed. Captain Barricade would have no trouble believing her especially if Fluttershy was threatened. Two parties instead of one would save a lot of time, and she could possibly get the Miner to come with as an added bonus.
It was the best plan she had. She got up and pawed the ground as the marshalled ponies prepared themselves to receive another group.
“Listen up!” Corporal Striker shouted. “New rules this time around! Not only are we receiving another group, we’ve got a pony here set to leave. She has her orders on what to do once she’s out.”
Striker narrowed his eyes at her for just a moment and continued to shout to be heard over the rain, “This is going to punch a hole in our defenses just a little longer than normal, so it’s up to our guest to tear a hole through these wankers to the best of her ability on her way out.”
Rarity nodded in agreement with the assembled ponies. Some ponies looked at her and the corporal nervously, unsure how to object to this new event. “Our mage is K.O.ed and until she recovers, so all we have for defenses are what we’ve built up and Miss Sparkle’s shield. We’ve got spears up top,” he nodded his head towards the tree branches just shy of the lightning rod, “and they’ll be providing some aerial support against the exploding assholes. No pegasus is to take to the air unless they absolutely have to. You go higher than five meters or leave the shield’s range, it’s your ass.
“After our friend here leaves, we’ll be receiving wounded and support. It won’t be any longer than three minutes, but a lot can happen quickly. Pucker up those assholes, everypony, and don’t hold back. If you haven’t already, find your inner shitbag and let that fucker go wild because this might get a little nasty.”
Rarity took point between two barricaded points, one of the defender’s killzones for creatures. That was a mild problem because it was also a path that the scouting party needed to enter the library.
She dug herself in as best as she could in preparation. The monsters had already replenished their numbers. Everywhere she looked outside of Twilight’s shield was a solid wall of writhing bodies. A solid wall of enemies, armor, and arms.
She got in. She could get out.
“On my mark! Miss Rarity! Miss Twilight!” Striker shouted.
She could catch the sound of stampeding hoofsteps. They were close. Some pony whistled. Rarity cracked open that door in the back of her mind.
Kill them...
“Mark!”
Rarity’s hooves dashed forward. She almost believed Twilight wouldn’t drop the shield until it fell just shy of her snout. She was set upon immediately.
Rarity had precious little room for a proper bull rush, but even the first four ranks buckled under the weight of her charge. Dull monsters slashed their blades at her; there was so little room to duck and weave in the crowd. Pain cut up her legs, withers, and face. Her skull impacted a skeleton and smashed the bone, but the beast didn’t go down. A quick thrust of the hoof smashed the monster against the armored chestpiece of an attacking zombie.
Utilizing her best weapons, Rarity flung her weight forward onto her forehooves and bucked with all her might. Even with armor, she felt the crunch of bone under her hooves. Gemstones flashed from her bags like bullets. More needles pierced flesh and crushed bone. Even the sheer strength of her own four hooves were enough to smash any advantage their armor would grant them. Beasts with sunken, milky eyes lashed out. Fletching cut through the air. Her flesh was pockmarked in seconds but she didn’t even feel that. All that was there was that moment, the heat of battle.
She would have gotten turned around in the crowd if it wasn’t for her unnatural sight. She could see the solid blaze of life coming from inside and the narrow stream cutting their way to her. Rarity bit into an offending limb and yanked, dislocating the zombie’s sword arm. The filth it left in her mouth made her regret the action. The sword dropped, but that wasn’t she was interested in. Her weapons were all but depleted, but getting out of the crowd was more important.
It took all of her willpower to suppress that killing urge. It had its purpose, unnaturally granted to her or not, but she needed to force an opening. Using that one crippled zombie as a shield, she shoved the monster forward through rows of monsters. The sound of arrows striking flesh made her gag. She wasn’t even sure if it was her own or the monsters shooting their comrade.
Rarity’s heart jumped into her throat. One of the Sneakers had entered the fray. It’s patchy surface looked more like plantlife than skin, yet she still saw it undulating little by little. It was going to explode right in her face. A lone spear come flying through the air and cut into the monster’s lower torso. It did not go down. Rarity could swear she saw flames in the back of its empty, black throat.
Mere instinct though it was, Rarity yanked back on the monster supposed to be her battering ram and forced it in front of her as the Sneaker erupted. Rarity was once more thrown for a loop as all semblance of gravity and pain vanished until she hit the ground hard. At least she was still alive.
She got up in time to see the results of her labor. Not many monsters fell in her brawl. She really needed to learn how to properly fight one day, even if it was to deal with all of the normal Everfree nonsense. The Sneaker’s explosion did do a fair number on the attackers. Already the scouts and a hoofful of ponies were fighting their way inside through the path she carved.
Groaning, Rarity struggled to get up. She was covered in slashes and arrows. Her ears rang from the explosion, a reminder that she’d been blown up quite enough for one day. The left side of her face and chest had been pockmarked by the explosion, but the wounds had already started the healing process. At least she didn’t have to reset any bones again.
Getting up caused her to fall flat on her face. Right. The arrows. Reaching around with her teeth, Rarity plucked a total of three arrows sticking from the thigh muscle. The sickening sound of tearing flesh made her dry heave against the shaft pressed to her teeth. One of the shafts broke in her death grip so it was up to a pair of needles to pry out the arrowhead.
By the time she came to her senses and hooves, the barrier was already back up, but monsters had set their sights on her formerly stylized tail. In the corner of her eye she saw Twilight’s face pressed against the window with relief and terror on her face. She caught Striker’s eye monetarily and he gave her a cool nod.
Time to leave. She didn’t see and more Sneakers, but she had far too much experience with them already. Her enhanced senses made their silence advantage moot, but they’d intermingled in crowds enough to make them difficult to spot before it was too late. What were the Miner’s names for them? Did he even tell anypony yet? Rarity wasn’t sure anymore. Sneaker would have to do.
The encampment was south of town, the same path she took from Sugarcube Corner. There was no time to waste. The soldiers were more than capable of finding survivors, and the precious few she could find on her route had already been marshaled to the library. Rarity poured every iota of energy she had into her legs and charged south.
Quills and Sofas passed in just a moment. Rarity slowed down and perked her ears for and signs of the Wither when she passed the destroyed Fountain. Where had it gone? Did the Luna’s guard and Rainbow Dash vanquish the beast? Even with her enhanced senses, Rarity could not make heads or tales of what happened after their daring escape from the monster.
“Form ranks!”
A small scouting party charged toward her. Surely they believed no pony in their right mind would willingly run from sanctuary and that she was another form of beast haunting the night. Of course they realized their folly in a few short seconds, and after that attempted to bring her along to the library, but her destination was set. She updated them on the most recent events while under the eyes of her neighbors and friends, and she set off.
Her only remaining weapons were her wits, eight needles, and a few bolts of cloth for entanglement. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do to make it to the encampment. A spider was drawing itself from the earth just ahead of her, the same foul muck coating its scuttling limbs. Rarity took a good leap and stomped the beast with all of her dainty weight. The creature convulsed, but was still alive.
“Ha! I am not fat, Applejack!” Nevertheless, another well-placed stomp to its skittering, furry skull ceased its resistance.
“Ewwwww,” she bemoaned and scraped the black gunk and mud buildup off her hooves. Monsters turned to ash upon death whereas this foul sludge stuck around afterwards. Monsters popped up from the ground like dandelions, but Rarity took them out whenever she could spare it.
Buildings flashed by with her unearthly stamina demanding she run herself to exhaustion. The sad and dark Sugarcube Corner, the clocktower burning and looking ready to fall, and town hall were in various states of disrepair. She contemplated returning home for a few more impromptu weapons, but she had made due so far. Her destination lay south and she would get there as fast as she could.
Her eyes caught something just out of her field of vision. Something moved, something far faster than it had a right to be, and vanished. She followed it as best as she could. She swore it was in the building across the street from her. She didn’t sense any monsters, although she was pretty sure...
“There!”
Monsters shined like empty shells, hollow and reminding her of lost potential. The soulfire of ponies was bright and lively, with some like Twilight surpassing them in splendor. This... this was nothing. It wasn’t just a lack of soulfire, but a dark, deep void of nothingness that blinked into existence and vanished.
Rarity almost missed it. A monster’s soulfire present in the room before the darkness came died out as it left. Eyes sharp, Rarity slowed her pace and watched the remaining houses as she cantered by. Walls meant nothing to her sight. Soon another patch of soulfire was snuffed out as the darkness reaped its bounty once again.
“...It’s killing them.”
Did the ponies have an ally? Was that Brimstone? No, it couldn’t be. He was far too feeble to help. Herobrine, perhaps? Unlikely. He would have no just cause killing his own creatures in such a cloak and dagger manner. Rarity watched another monster fall to the darkness before it teleported away.
Teleported...
The Farlander...?
The Miner ascribed the shadowkin as considerably more wily and difficult to slay than most, but monsters nevertheless. She hadn’t heard of any instance where it would actively seek out other monsters to slay.
Something exploded, and for once Rarity wasn’t in the blast. Putting the issue behind her, Rarity ducked behind an overturned produce cart and took a quick peek. Lightning lit the sky and what it revealed was something right out of legends of yore. Princess Luna herself, bloodied but not beaten, wings parted like an angry god, raised a hoof and arched the lightning towards her blazing horn. Her eyes were equally alight, but rather of mystical hues, they were of solid white.
Luna flashed forward, lightning arcing off her wings in thunderous armor. Herobrine himself, eyes piercing the darkness in white light, awaited her in the skies as if gravity was only a bother. The Void rolled off of him in constant waves and choked the skies. Lightning flashed—be it magic or not, Rarity didn’t know—and even that did not pierce the shadowy curtain. Great white chains of holy light wrapped around his form, utterly unshakable while they remained spiked into his flesh.
The two collided in air with such force that Rarity’s teeth chattered. Glass shattered and she heard collapsing buildings in the distance. The two parted, each appearing to be completely unharmed by the exchange.
Herobrine brought both palms together. The pouring rain and billowing fog focused in his hands, defying gravity. For a moment the sky lost its will to cry as the god collected water in his grasp. Rarity must have blinked, because one moment she beheld a ball of water the size of a pony, and the next is was a dripping ball of molten rock.
He thrust a hand forth. A thick tongue of superheated stone burst forth. Luna’s horn flashed and she was quickly armored in an arcane shield. Magma enveloped her shield with little droplets falling to the earth little by little. Rarity would have worried about fire if the rain wasn’t so heavy.
Herobrine’s hand clenched into a fist and the lava began to collapse. The shield buckled but held. Rarity didn’t have to worry about her liege’s safety for long as a burst of magic shattered her shield and flung the magma to the four winds. Gobs struck the earth, this time some of them large enough to start fires of their own.
Shadows erupted for Luna’s body. That was all Rarity could describe it as. Shadows. Even the flash of lightning did nothing to illuminate what powers Luna wielded. Eating light or not, they were solid enough to slash through the air with enough ferocity that she was rapidly gaining ground. Herobrine drifted backwards and pointed at Luna. Lightning cut towards Luna, and the very air in Rarity’s lungs was knocked out with the boom of thunder. Darkness cut through the light and Luna was shielded from the assault.
Rarity heard a blood-curdling hiss she had come to know quite well in such a short period and dove under the cart until she was hidden from sight. The Wither had come. Rarity felt more than saw the hellish magic erupt from each head and Luna screamed. Taking another quick peek, Rarity saw Luna drop from the skies before catching herself on a gale. She was alive, but far from well.
Herobrine turned to leave the fight, but Rarity’s heart lept with joy and fear as she saw a rainbow stream soar like lightning itself across the sky. A fair-sized brick smashed into its center head, followed by another cannonball run from another Night Guard. The Wither screeched so loudly it made Rarity want to claw out her soul. Why make such an abyssal creature?
Three more members of the Night Guard were on their heels but made no further attempt at assaulting the monstrosity. They flew together and in synch, one member turning and each following member mimicking the aerial ace perfectly. Of one mind they were, their task being performed with no wasted movement or decrease in speed. They followed Rainbow Dash and their brethren into the billowing clouds with the Wither hot on their tail.
Herobrine turned to deal with the new threat, but by then Luna herself had reentered the fray. Luna flapped her wings once, twice, and then a third time towards Herobrine. Rarity was almost thrown off her hooves as a windstorm stronger than anything she had seen before smashed through the air. Rooftops, stone, dirt, water, and even gouts of flame surged forth. Her own cart and lifted into the air and it was all she could do to claw at the dirt to stay grounded. As all four hooves left the earth, Rarity was prepared to scream for her life until the air was once again cut by a thunderous explosion to make her teeth rattle in her skull.
She wanted to help, despite Brimstone’s words, but seriously—how!?
She was tossed through the air and landed on all four hooves by sheer fate. Rarity didn’t look back and ran for her life. There was no way, despite her new gifts, that she could aid her dear friend and princess in this fight.
The consistent splashing of her hooves on the muddy earth. Her power held true and she broke nary a sweat on her path. Where houses were closer together in Ponyville, soon they became fewer and farther in between. As she crested the hill, she saw the encampment itself.
Whoever was still in charge seemed to agree that light, no matter how little, helped prevent the monsters from spawning; it worked for the Crafter after all. Great bonfires littered the camp along with the standard magical lighting. It was strange to see the rain part across a giant, invisible dome over the tents, but it was one of the few things that might have spared them some major casualties. She wasn’t sure if Herobrine himself was controlling the elements, but lightning strikes were an ingenious way to take down pegasi.
As she got closer, she could see without a doubt that all was not well. While the magi might have prevented the weather from hindering them, the same barrier did not stop the Void Fog. Fires and screams, although less than Ponyville, rang through the air. Despite the surprise, Rarity could see the discipline and ranks at work repelling the invaders as they appeared. A large force of earth pony troops had assembled in the northernmost section of the base. Perhaps they were ready for a counterassault?
Rarity ran into the base without a pause, the sudden lack of beating rain a godsend; she really needed a good shake of her fur and mane in addition to several hours at the spa. She knew from her time with the Crafter where the senior officers held their meetings. No pony stopped her. The base reminded her of one of Fluttershy’s beehives; everyone and everything had a role to place and did so without question or complaint. She received a few glances, some even glares, but not a one objected to her presence. Taking one final turn, Rarity scampered towards Site Command.
...Only to be blocked by two guards who were imposing enough to call dealing with ponies high on Rampage a “light exercise before breakfast”.
“Ma’am, no civilians or—”
“Oh, come on!” Rarity screamed in exasperation. Cleaning up her act and being a proper lady helped her raise Sweetie Belle, but now those old habits were seeping through the cracks. “I’ve fought my way through Ponyville and then back out. I do not particularly care what orders you may or may not have been given. I. Need. To. Speak. To. The. Captain!”
To their credit, the guards were utterly unperturbed by her outburst. She was supposed to be a dolled up mare used to attending the ball. She was now soaking wet, her mane and tail burnt and cut in several places, scarred in several more, and missing an eye. One of the guards was about to say something before the tent flap flung open.
A handsome, middle aged stallion with glasses peered out the door. He wore the robes of a member of the Council of Magic, but recent experience with Twilight and the Miner was enough to put a name to the face. “Professor Incantus!”
“Miss... Rarity, is it?”
Latching onto the lifeline before she could be escorted away, Rarity said, “I come bearing new of the town and of Princess Luna!”
There wasn’t much in terms of news concerning Luna, but at the very least she could tell the senior officers what she was doing and where she last saw the princess. Hexxus Incantus chewed over her words for a moment before saying, “Come inside.”
The tent was warm and well lit. A large table had been cleared of its contents and a map of Ponyville and the surrounding terrain had been placed on its surface. Rarity guessed the pins dotting the parchment had some military meaning. Several ponies looked up upon seeing her enter. She knew a few, but most were lower rung officers and noncommissioned troops. She recognized Captain Barricade and Doctor Hemos right away, both of them now decked out in full combat barding. A very broad-chested stallion bearing the rank of Second Lieutenant clung near the captain’s side; Rarity swore she’d seen him around before but couldn’t place the name. She expected to find the Archmage present, but the decrepit mare was nowhere to be seen.
“Miss Rarity. What a surprise, but we are quite busy and don’t have time,” Barricade droned out without even looking up from her task.
“Rarity here brings news of the princess,” Hexxus said.
That got her attention. Barricade put down her notes and looked at her with a glare that said Rarity would be chewing razorblades if she wasted her time. Barricade didn’t even bat an eye at her wrecked and wounded state. “Oh? Do tell.”
For the second time that night Rarity relayed her tale, but kept the details concerning Brimstone to herself. Barricade sighed in relief once Rarity got to Luna’s portion of the tale. Strangely it wasn’t Luna being alive and well and dueling Herobrine that interested the captain, but whatever scrap of information she had on the Wither itself.
“That’s Captain Hawk without a doubt,” she said after she finished the details concerning the fight. “He’d fight beside the princess to his last breath; death would have to take him in his sleep if he wanted anything close to a fair fight out of that old goat.” She shook her head, the slight smirk she had quickly dying. “Anything else of note?”
“Nothing after I snuck away from the battle.” Now came the hard part.
“You do me a great service, Miss Rarity. I won’t forget this, and your intel’s certainly of use. I’ll have one of my men escort you to the servant’s quarters; it’s been fortified and lit up to be our stronghold.”
Barricade nodded and one of the lurking guards stepped forth. It was now or never. “Misses Barricade! I mean, Captain! There is something else. A theory, mind you.” Wait, that wouldn’t do. She couldn’t count on Barricade’s maternal instincts alone if by chance they were short on ponies to help. This needed to be worth their time. She added, “I am certain I know why Herobrine is here.”
The other soldiers had been talking quietly among themselves. Rarity was sure they intended to be discreet with their conversations, but she still caught talk about renewed strategies, suspicion of her tale, and the like. Now they all, Barricade included, paused for her to elaborate.
“It was the events after the brief attack on Canterlot vault that got me thinking. If this Herobrine ruffian wished to utilize the Elements of Harmony for some nefarious purpose, but could not collect them, would he not ensure they could not be used against them? Out of all the places he could have attacked, he chose one of the few with a nearby garrison. I don’t think he is after the town, or even Princess Luna. I believe he is after... us. The Bearers themselves.”
Rarity let her words hang in the air. All was quiet, but she could see the emotions flash across Barricades face. It was so very slight and the only response Rarity saw the massive mare give, but her eyebrows rose ever so slightly. She reached the same conclusion as Rarity wanted her to find.
“Twilight and Pinkie Pie are at the library, Rainbow Dash is with Captain Hawk, and here I am. I requisition a task force to help protect Applejack and Fluttershy.”
The burly stallion was the first to speak. “Your logic is reasonable and sound.”
“Can we spare the forces, Skylar?” Hemos asked.
Skylar nodded. “A small task force apiece. I can spare two teams of four.”
Barricade nodded. “Make it happen. Rarity, show him where to find them.”
Rarity pointed out both houses on the map. Skylar saluted and quickly exited the tent. Tried to, anyway.
Noise. Rarity only just heard it as Skylar prepared to run off. The tent flap burst open and everyone flashed to readiness a hair before Rarity. Just as quickly as they readied, Skylar and Rarity both parted as a form was tossed into the tent. The Miner flew ass over teakettle before landing with a hard thud before the group. He was armored from head to toe and the blade that fell at Barricade’s hooves was stained with ash and blood.
“Finally!” exclaimed a pony. A bat pony cleared the tent right behind him despite the two guards muscling into the tent, her armor smoking and acrid with the stench of sulphur. “Sorry for the delay. I had to pick up a passenger. Had to drag his ass here from the mess hall.” Spotting Barricade, the bat pony added, “We’re getting swarmed from the ground, not the sky or any particular direction, Captain. It’s the fog.”
“As we have concluded ourselves, second lieutenant. We appreciate bringing our most honored guest, but care to explain yourself?” With her armor, Barricade positively towered over the Night Guard.
If the bat pony was kowtowed by the demand, she didn’t show it. She shook herself and light whiffs of smoke puffed from the seams in her armor. The Miner himself was very pointedly glaring at her at having been unceremoniously tossed pass the two walking meat lockers outsider. His diamond armor was smeared with mud and gore along with the ashy substance of slain beasts. They must have had a tough time making it here if the crack in his chest piece was of any indication. He waved at Rarity.
“Was about to start my shift before the attack went down and I figured what all the lightning meant. Raised the alarm, rounded up the mute, and fought our way here. Figured you’d like to know where he is.”
The only react her bluntness earned out of the captain was a raised eyebrow. “Yes, I’m sure you had quite the experience, Lightning Chaser.”
Barricade walked around the table and faced the Miner. He had conjured a loaf of bread and was snacking before he caught her eye. Stuffing the rest down his throat in the most undignified manner possible, he looked at Barricade hesitantly and tilted his head to the side.
“Want to kill some monsters?”
Wait, what? Rarity fully expected Barricade to not let him out of her sight, let alone out of the base.
The Miner flinched, looked outside, looked back towards the captain, and then pointed out the front door. “Yes, I want to send you out in that.”
“Captain? Skylar interrupted. “A brief word?”
She let him chew over her words while his babysitter tried to get her armor to stop smoking. What were whispers on the other side of the room on a stormy night were caught easily with her ears.
“Are you sure this is wise, letting him go like that? With Princess Luna’s suggestions as to why he’s here?”
The princess knew why the Miner was here?
“I’m taking the chance. If she’s right, then there’s nothing to do about it. If you can’t stop the arrow from firing, at least control where it’s pointed.”
The two of them returned to the center of the room. Barricade looked on at their guest. “What say you, Miner?”
He gave the open door one more look. He leaked nervousness but nodded in agreement. “Very good. Private,” Barricade looked at one of the assembled soldiers, “please escort Miss Rarity to the servant’s quarters.”
“No!” Rarity protested. Surely the mare only meant well, but she was no going sit by! “As long as I am able, I will help my friends to the best of my ability! I fought my way out of Ponyville. I can fight my way back in.”
Rarity felt Hemos move towards her, but still jumped as he wrapped a leg around her neck comfortingly. “This is a military operation now, miss. Take no offense, but consider how our efforts might be hindered if we had to worry about you. I have no doubt that you will if it become necessary, but one mare alone cannot fight an army, and that is what we face. I assure you I will forward all reports I possess to you as I am made aware of them.”
She removed his leg. He did not resist. In fact, he seemed suddenly very interested in her if his heartbeat was any indication. She took a step away from the stallion. “Then I shall help thin the numbers until you get there.”
Barricade laughed, the first sign of genuine humor to squeeze itself out of the wreck of a night. “You have gall, Miss Rarity. I’ll give you that. Here I thought you were a nance like the rest of the Canterlot court.” She chuckled. “We can’t stop you if you want to leave and I’m not willing to spare any soldiers to babysit you and make sure you keep your hooves to yourself. Right now, we have to discuss strategy. You’re dismissed.”
Soldiers were set to help Applejack and Fluttershy and the Miner was on standby to fight. Brimstone’s plan might just work after all.
“Momma’s over here?”
Rarity’s ears perked up again. Movement. “Somepony’s coming.”
“Oh, what now?” Barricade groaned. Even without word from their superior, the accompanying guards moved towards the door.
A waft of flowers. Spices and salves. Earth and animal stench.
“Wait!” Rarity’s cry was too late. The potential of danger had clouded the mind of everyone present, a flag raised by her own tongue.
Something big and rolling with muscle swiped at the door flaps and one of the walking refrigerators outside flew into the tent and collapsed in a heap. A large grizzly with a buttery ball of fur on its back waddled into the tent, teeth bared a the assembled crowd.
“Harry Bearington!”
The bear was about to get dogpiled by no less than a dozen guards before they, and the named bear included, froze in their tracks at the intensity of that voice. The all-too familiar voice and tender little heartbeat atop Harry’s back sent a wave of relief through Rarity’s boiling blood. Fluttershy the pacifist, the gentlest creature in all of Equestria and so fearful of trauma she was scared of Nightmare Night, was riding a bear through a warzone.
“Sit down!”
The beast complied without question, even going so far as to lie down on all fours. Fluttershy wasn’t even all the way off he bear’s back before she was in Rarity’s hooves. That sweet scent, the smell of earth and woodlands. By the goddesses, the mare was never more beautiful than she was now.
“R-Rarity, you’re crushing me...” Rarity released the mare as the tears began to flow. Two guardponies that were between her and Fluttershy just a moment ago were picking themselves off the ground with looks of disbelief in their eyes. Hemos the doctor was looking at her with a neutral look. Barricade, on the other hoof, was looming over the pair of them.
Rarity didn’t even get a word out before she was shoved aside by the massive mare. For a split second, she swore Barricade was going to follow suit and hug her daughter. Holding up a hoof, she hesitated, and then wrapped a hoof around Fluttershy’s neck and leaned her head against her child’s.
“Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” Barricade’s voice cracked. The Crafter looked at the display of affection as silent as ever. Hemos opened his mouth, but Skylar put a hoof on his shoulder. Good. Rarity would have given him a few of her own choice words for not granting the captain this peace of mind.
“Right.” Barricade pulled away and composed herself. “Right. Lightning Chaser, step outside for a moment but don’t go anywhere; I need to talk to you in a moment. Stay with her, Miner.”
The mare nodded, saluted, poked at the Miner to follow her, and walked out. At least her armor stopped smoking. The Miner picked up his weapon and exited next.
“Fluttershy, I would love to have a chat, but there is very little time. I’ll have a few words with you, but please wait outside. Don’t go anywhere.”
Fluttershy looked like she was about to object before Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder. The shy mare forced the words down, swallowed, and nodded regretfully. She was about to put up even more of a fuss once she spotted Rarity’s missing eye, but Rarity silenced her with a quick, “Later, honey.”
Fluttershy walked outside. Rarity caught the smell of herbs. Strange. Some of the smells she’d only known to be from Zecora’s flat. Where was the zebra?
“Ahem, Fluttershy?” Fluttershy poked her head back in. “Erm, your friend here need not stay.”
Harry had not moved a centimeter since being given the command. “Oh! Um, Henry? I know you don’t like it here, but can you come outside please?”
The massive, shaggy creature got up onto his paws, his considerable weight shaking with every step. The guard Harry had knocked silly was only now getting up, having been forgotten by recent events.
“Holy shit, what hit me?”
“A fucking bear. Oh my god, even her daughter’s badass,” a guard in the corner whispered.
Barricade only smiled. “And for you, Miss Rarity. I know you’ll not take this lying down, so I’ll have a proposition for you in a moment. If not, I ask you to do what you have been doing. You know the town better than the rest of my men, so that knowledge will come in handy. I need a vanguard team for our defense of the town. Are you willing to take part in a task force of your own?”
A task force to help clear the town? Well, she had planned to go to either help AJ or dear Flutters. Given Fluttershy was fine, AJ would be getting the lion’s share of help now. What was left after that? Brimstone’s instructions did not extend beyond what she had already completed and simply surviving the night. What now?
“I accept.”
The smile that greeted Rarity was wide, but something lurked within her glee. Something primal and violent leaked behind those eyes, a mad sort of glee. For a moment Rarity wondered if that was what she looked like whenever she opened that door in the back of her own mind.
“Excellent.” Whatever it was, it was gone. “Step outside. I’ll have details for you in a moment. Everypony except senior officers, dismissed.”
Hemos and Barricade watched the pair go as they dismissed the remainder of their soldiers. Barricade thought of her daughter. She had just a few, precious moments with her. She didn’t even remember seeing any wounds on Fluttershy. Did she? Goddesses, she hoped not. Let her be okay. This was no place for a mare as weak-willed as her daughter.
Thought she did admit, seeing Fluttershy beat the stuffing out of one of her toughs while riding a bear sent a particularly warm thrill through her heart.
“Think we’ll make it through the night?” Skylar asked.
“Don’t see why not,” Barricade said. This was what they trained for. This is what some ponies died for. She flexed her wings to their fullest extent, and winced. The Miner’s arrow wound had not fully healed.
“That was friendly of you,” she commented.
“Hmm?”
“Talking to Hemos. Rarity. Putting a leg around her.” The doctor was still watching the party despite them being consumed by the darkness, natural and not. Hemos was never known for his tact or bedside manner, only his aptitude. The thought crossed her mind that it was for ulterior, likely penis-related reasons—she would be quite the catch if she wasn’t fifty percent cosmetics or drenched like a sewer rat.
“Oh. That,” Hemos said.
There was something in his tone that made her turn toward the stallion. “What is it?
He met her gaze. “I took her pulse.”
Long practice gave her a more than adequate poker face. Keeping silent, she let the doctor explain himself. “Your average pony would have a heartbeat of about thirty to forty beats per minute. You’d get higher under stressful conditions, and that’s normal. She was close to hyperventilating, and coupled with her description of events, it got me suspicious. No wounds, but a plethora of scars? A missing eye with no sign of trauma? I don’t buy it.”
“She had to fight her way to get here,” Skylar said simply.
“Of course, and it’s normal to be stressed. But she’s been at rest for almost fifteen minutes. Adrenaline would have burned off by then. I’d expect somewhere around eighty beats tops. She’s running at around two hundred twenty.”
Medical training was a prerequisite for becoming an officer. “She should in a world of hurt.”
“She should be dead.”
Barricade took a moment. The Miner. Herobrine. Rarity lying. Their mysterious benefactor. The war. Ponies dying. Smoke and screams on the wind. So much happening right now. Finding out why was Rarity lying to them for apparently no reason seemed pretty low on the list of priorities right now. Still...
“Any guesses why she’d be withholding the truth? Of what’s wrong with her?”
“Not right now, and there’s not enough time to find out.”
Agreed. When this was over and done with, she and the prissy mare were going to have a chat. “Right then. Saddle up, Hemos. Skylar. We have a war to win.”
Their tactics had already been finalized, but knowledge of the Wither creature changed many things. Barricade sent a wing and a prayer that Luna’s personal guard were skilled enough to take the creature out. There were none in the world better trained than Luna’s elite guard. She hoped being short staffed by one little shit of a bat pony didn’t hinder matters, something she needed to check up on now.
The three of them cantered out the tent with Barricade leading the charge. Fluttershy’s bear did a number on beating the sense out of her guard, but he’d have to suck it up tonight. Two guards saluted on their way out, one of them bleeding a little and looking a bit cross-eyed. Fluttershy and Rarity were talking animately while a zebra clung to the shadow nearby.
“First Lieutenant!” The batpony was chatting with the mute. He still looked a little disgruntled merely looking at her. Lightning had that effect on ponies.
The mare walked over to her. “Gotta be quick, cap.”
Ignoring the insubordinate comment, she got right to the point. “Will you be searching for your mistress now that you’ve brought the mute here?”
“That was the general idea.”
Being part of Luna’s guard, and a Night Guard at that, Barricade held no true authority over the mare unless given it. Lightning reported to Captain Hawk or Luna herself. If she said no to Barricade’s request, there was nothing she could do to stop her. “Our mages have already expended a significant portion of their magic calling for help, so I can’t count on the Council being my trump card. I’m assembling a task force as a first strike against the forces besieging the town. I’d like you you and the Miner to be apart of it.”
“Him for his experience in dealing with these monsters, and me for my military service,” she concluded. “But you can send any soldier and get the same result.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, you are actually good at your job. But I don’t just want your considerable combat experience when leading the charge.”
“I thought as much.”
“Are you willing or not?”
“Depends on what else you need me for.”
Barricade looked at the Miner. Luna had thought that there might be some sort of link between his and Herobrine’s mind. Were they allies? Enemies? Or as improbable as it may be, blissfully ignorant of each other?
Lightning caught her gaze. “Him?” Barricade saw her put the pieces together. “You and I are the only ones to have fought him.”
Barricade nodded.
“He a threat?”
“Unknown.”
Lightning chewed it over. “I’ll help, but if you put a gun to my head, if I absolutely have to choose between Luna and your mission—one or the other and both are situation fubar, I’m picking her.”
Lightning was crass, arrogant, and a narcissist, but no one could say she wasn’t loyal to her princess. “It’ll do. Your mission is to clear the town and protect the library to the best of your ability. Your secondary objective is this: if it ever looks like the Miner will turn on the task force, if he is a willing participant in these events, kill him.”
There was only a moment of silence.
“Done.”
Minecraft/MLP:FIM crossover.
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