Act IV: Climactic Collisions
Chapter 9: Manikin Army
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The battle had begun and the sounds of combat could be heard well outside the city limits—for good reason. This was not some simple battle, but a war that would decide the fate of Equestria. Guards roared and stone crumbled as the full scale invasion began. While the numbers seemed overwhelming, it only served to fuel the guards to fight even harder. It wasn’t just for the homeland, but for their collective pride. Last time an invasion struck… they had been caught with their pants down.
This time, it would be different, though. This time, they were ready, driven like they had never been before. Lasers flew and weapons clashed as the guards stationed at the south gate fought to keep their sector in control. Even with the strengthened resolve, it was easier said than done as foes continued to appear.
“They’re climbing the wall, strike them down!” called out one guard as he and several others attacked the climbing creatures with lasers and arrows alike.
Other stone creatures were in full sprint, trying to get past the front lines, but that was not easy either. For each that drew closer, there was an opponent ready, and in an instant the gap between a mindless drone and a hardened guard was made clear as the drone came crumbling down with its brothers. Though this was just one of several guard posts, they were proving their mettle.
The guards weren’t the only ones to show what they could do, however. There were two others among them who were pulling more than their weight in this charge. Rainbow Dash, though surrounded by several attacking stone creatures seemed to dance between them as she avoided their relentless attacks. Though they were in no way slow, compared to Rainbow’s movements, they may as well have been standing still. More impressive still was the fact that Rainbow had yet to take to the sky since the battle began.
“Is this it?” Rainbow sighed, “C’mon, I haven’t even broken a sweat yet.”
A stone creature tried to sneak up behind her—emphasis on “tried”. Before it could strike, it was made to learn Rainbow was several steps ahead of it. Dodging its attack, Rainbow delivered a swift kick to its abs, cracking it lightly. The heel of her shoe, it turned out, had steel on it, much like Applejack’s boots, though not to the same extent. Rainbow didn’t need that to be; just enough to cause some damage. Her reasoning? If one hit was capable of causing light damage to them, several hits would give her the same result as just one of Applejack’s kicks.
“Don’t blink,” she advised, delivering several more kicks in rapid succession, causing the cracks to deepen and multiply until the creature’s torso could take no more abuse, and shattered to pieces.
“Not bad,” Not far off, John was dealing with a few himself, crushing another creature’s head in his hand. Just as its body fell motionless several more attempted to get a drop on the dragon, only to be taken care of by a hard swipe of his tail. After that, he caught the head of one creature and tossed it across the block into another in the distance. Neither the head nor the next creature stood a chance, both shattering into pieces.
“But I was kinda hoping to see your aerial performance.”
“On these chumps?” Rainbow scoffed, kicking a creature away, “Give me a break. After what I went through to prepare for this, I’m not showing a thing until I get a real challenge.”
To prove her point, Rainbow took down another creature before stomping on its head repeatedly until it was pulverized. John chuckled and looked to the creatures surrounding him.
“I know where you’re coming from,” John said. He’d fought hard for today, harder than anything he’d ever fought for in his life. But he couldn’t waste it on what was without a doubt meant to be cannon fodder aimed to tire them out. There was no chance of that, though; everyone had done too much just to show their hand on the first round.
“South is secure; no issues to report,” John said on his communicator.
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Though it may have startled them at first, the guards learned not to worry over the green blur that dashed around them. Each took a chance to notice what it was capable of doing at an incredible rate of speed. When it drew near one of the stone creatures it would knock it aside, breaking pieces off of before moving on to the next. However, nothing keeps momentum forever; the blur came to a stop when it was faced with a large blockade of opposition.
Corey’s shoes audibly skidded to a halt, dust coming off of them from the friction. “I’ll never get tired of that…”
Corey smiled as he walked towards the blockade in front of him. His horn glowed, runes shining around his fists as they started to glow. He scanned his targets one by one, letting the magic build. When his hands flashed, Corey thrust out his hand, fingers splayed open as a green blast of magic blasted out, demolishing one of the creature’s heads. But he wasn’t done; Corey continued to fire his lasers, taking down multiple creatures this way.
While his aim was the best it had ever been, he couldn’t quite hit everything. Some creatures managed to breach his wall of offense, sprinting at him. Corey didn’t falter. Magic still active on his hands, runes crackling on the surface, Corey thrust his closed fist into its torso, firing a well-timed laser straight through it, hitting the creature behind it as well. Right afterwards, the glow of magic in Corey’s hands changed as a set of runes began to form; able to form them even faster now, it was ready in an instant.
When another creature jumped at him, Corey threw yet another punch, the creature’s body exploding into tiny fragments on contact. The same fate would befall the other creatures which drew too close to him. When he was done, there was nothing left but the broken remains gathered around his feet. Finally allowing his magic to relax for a moment, Corey looked down at his hands. That spell he’d used was his first one ever. While it was foreign to him at first, now it seemed like second nature; highly effective, and seemed to take zero magic to use.
Now was not the time to pat himself on the back, though, Corey realized. There was still plenty of work to do today. Looking up, Corey could see some creatures were climbing the sides of the buildings, no doubt aiming to ambush someone unlucky enough to stand beneath them. Hoping to deal with them before then, Corey decided to take a direct approach. Horn lighting up again, runes writing on his legs, Corey ran towards one of the buildings as a blur, raising his legs towards the walls. With his rate of speed, he was able to defy gravity, sprinting along the wall of the buildings. The creatures stood no chance against his tactic; Corey ran along the wall, knocking the creatures off, the fall doing more than enough damage for some of them. When one wall was clear, Corey would jump to another and continue from there. His feat did not go unnoticed, either.
“You’ve improved a lot, Corey,” Twilight observed. Though Corey accepted the compliment, Twilight herself was definitely nothing to sneeze at. While she hadn’t fully adapted close-quarters combat like Corey had, her magic control was still on another level. With her horn aglow and her magic trailing towards her hands, Twilight’s display was both graceful and deadly. One swing of her hand sent out a wave of magic that cut through the creatures with ease. Any attempt to get closer to her proved near impossible. That said, keeping a distance from her was equally troublesome due to her range.
With a flicker of her magic, Twilight cast another spell that ran across the ground she stood on and stretched out for a few blocks. At first, it seemed to have no effect, but soon enough the ground began to shift. In small areas where the creatures stood, a fissure suddenly opened up, swallowing them whole before closing up once more. Dealing with these creatures was easy for her, and she could assume so for everyone else.
But the best part of all was the fact that, for the moment, they were dealing with lifeless puppets. There was no need to hold back, no need to worry about causing harm. It was for this reason that Twilight had no need to worry about how she used her magic at this moment. So long as a friend wasn’t in the way, she didn’t have to hold back.
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It was safe to say that Rarity and the other guards were glad Fluttershy was on their side in this battle. Since the wave began, she had done nothing but further prove her skill with the mace she had been given. Each creature she smashed, the others could almost feel the impact from the action. That said, this was still the Fluttershy they knew; her other side had yet to take over. Rarity could only imagine what she’d be capable of if ever they switched control.
“These things aren’t even worth the effort,” Fluttercruel noted, still unsure if she’d even be needed in this battle.
“Worth it or not, we still have to stop them,” Fluttershy said, smashing another creature’s head in with her mace. For extra points, she brought it down with both hands, smashing its torso as well. For her efforts, Fluttershy was awarded an impressed whistle by one of the watching guards. This, however, was met with a firm whack on the back of his head by a nearby Rarity. The guard quickly scurried off to rejoin the fight as Rarity continued to watch Fluttershy’s display of strength.
“Though I will not deny what I am seeing, I dare say you have changed the most of any of us,” Rarity observed. That said, Fluttershy wasn’t the only one capable of showing off some hard-obtained skills. And she began to show this as she grabbed two creatures with her magic and began levitating them around her. The blue glow of Rarity’s horn grew brighter as did the magic surrounding the creatures she’d ensnared. Soon, even their stone bodies seemed to change to match the hue of her magic, and their form began to alter, chipping apart only to reassemble as needed.
The two stone creatures also began to bend and twist without ever seeming to shatter, their material being remolded to fit the image in Rarity’s mind. In the weeks of pushing her limits alongside Twilight, Rarity had to come to terms with her magic’s true nature. Though she may have been capable of learning spells capable of destruction, her magic had always been better attuned in the art of creation. She’d known this most of her life, but up until the past month, she’d tried to fight against that nature in hopes of helping the others.
But this was not the right choice. Instead, she chose to embrace it and make it her own. And through it, she came to a conclusion: creation may have been her destiny, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t apply that talent towards other purposes. This was reflected in her decision to repurpose the hardened shells of the stone creatures they were battling today. Both had finally taken the new form Rarity desired: a small shield for one hand and a rapier for the other. Both were still alight with blue energy, and indeed their color had also shifted a bit in that direction, but if one bothered to inspect it, they would find almost no trace of what her new armaments were.
With both on hand, she quickly went to work, blocking an oncoming creature’s attack. It recoiled back from the collisions, giving Rarity her opening. Swiftly, she trusted her weapon, its finer point having no problems piercing its own material. Adding a few more thrusts was more than enough to down it for good.
“I dare say this weapon suits me, wouldn’t you—“ Rarity was cut off when Fluttershy tossed her mace.
“Look out!” Fluttershy shouted, her mace now spinning through the air, flying past Rarity and smashing into the torso of the creature sneaking up behind her. Rarity looked behind her to see the freshly smashed creature before looking back to Fluttershy with a thankful smile.
“We can’t drop our guard, Rarity,” Fluttershy said.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Rarity said, tossing Fluttershy’s mace back to her. They then turned their attention fully to the rest of the wave, “It won’t happen again.”
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Applejack’s section was the last to be reached by the attacking creatures, its numbers slowly walking towards her area. But she didn’t move, continuing to stand in place, never once looking up at the approaching foes. In the eyes of anyone watching, she was alone, but she showed no trace of fear or worry. When the creatures finally grew close enough, though, her body finally moved, and she raised a single hand. This was enough to stop their approach, as though curiosity had brought a desire to see what she would do next.
“I have to ask, when you varmints are walkin’ around doin’ her biddin’, can she see us? Can she hear us?” Applejack still didn’t look up at the creatures, her Stetson still covering her eyes. The creatures made no reply, simply standing there in total silence, the odd tilt of the head seen among them.
Applejack could only chuckle. “Guess ya’ll wouldn’t answer if you could, but that’s alright. I don’t need you to.”
The sound of a train whistle once again was heard, even louder this time. “Give you’ve been watchin’ us since this whole dang game started, I’m just gonna assume you can. And I hope you’re listenin’, because I have somethin’ I’ve wanted to say to you for a while now.”
Another sound filled the air, the powerful chugging of train wheels pushing itself across metal, another strong whistle echoing all around.
“You didn’t just threaten my friends, you threatened our families, threatened my family. And the last thing anyone should even consider is pickin’ a fight with an Apple,” The chugging soon changed to the screech of brakes being applied, “And in case you didn’t know, I’ll tell you exactly why that was a mistake.”
The screeching grew louder. At that moment, something could be seen from the corner, getting closer.
“Apples are strong, Apples are loyal, Apples take care of their own,” Finally, the train came into view, making its stop right behind Applejack—she’d been waiting at the train station this whole time for this moment. From under her Stetson, Applejack managed a smirk, “And last but not least, if you pick a fight with one Apple, then you’ve picked a fight with ‘em all!” Applejack finally raised her head as the bell of the train doors chimed and they opened.
From inside walked out a near-endless number of earth ponies, each carrying their own homemade equipment, no doubt. Each had been told of what was to come, and what had happened, and needless to say, they were not happy. Today they collected, all taking positions behind the relative who had fought for their safety all this time. As they took their stand, the creatures before them seemed to be able to size up their position and took a step back. But they weren’t going to get off that easily.
“Alright, ya’ll, round them up and smash them to pieces!” On cue, each Apple let out a roar and charged forward. Applejack watched as her family fought against the creatures. Even in combat, they seemed to find time for some family fun.
“Well, Big Mac, you ready to throw in your hat?” she asked her brother, who was standing beside her. Big Mac, for his part, swung a large hammer over his broad shoulders and spit out the piece of straw in his mouth. Though he was a pony of few words, there were really no more needed than one…
“Eyup.”
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Each kick from her hardened legs broke through a creature’s stone body as if they were made out of papier-mâché. She’d never known she could kick this hard, and Applejack still felt she could kick even harder. But that was energy she didn’t need to waste, effort better left reserved for when she really needed it. Besides, it wasn’t like she was fighting alone; she had friends, and she had family…all several hundred of them.
“Shoulda brought a camera,” said Applejack as she watched her family fight side-by-side. If nothing else, it would have made for a great scrapbook for the next reunion. Today’s display was definitely something to remember. Earth ponies were always strong by nature, but the Apple family was known for being a step above the rest, and that was definitely being proven today.
Each was capable of pulling their own weight and then some against the stone creatures, some managing to take several at once. Even among them, there were some who were faring better than all the rest. Big Mac was one of them, standing as one of the largest of the apples. The large steel hammer, heavier than most of the tools being used against the creatures, might as well have been a tube of cardboard to him. Each swing was faster than most could see, and though the hammer was a blunt instrument, it still sliced through the creatures like a hot knife through butter. And if one watched Big Mac’s face carefully as he swung, they could see a faint smile.
“Havin’ fun, Big Mac?” Applejack asked with a chuckle, knowing the answer full well. And if she was being honest with herself, she may have been as well. Pent up frustrations from having to stand back in the last attack had been difficult for her to keep down. Now, she could vent as much as she wanted, and there was a lot around her to vent on. Yet, there was one last thing she couldn’t keep out of her mind.
There was still someone missing.
“Party’s in full swing, Pinkie. I think it’s time for a grand entrance,” For a moment there was no reply on her communicator. For a moment, Applejack thought something might have happened, and was about to speak again. But just before she could, her ears twitched as they registered a sound: music. It wasn’t coming from her communicator, either. Looking around, she tried to find the source of the music until she finally saw something off.
From around a building, something skidded into sigh, something Applejack definitely hadn’t seen before. It took up most of the road—it was huge! She watched as it plowed through several dozens of creatures before seeming to head straight towards Applejack.
“Whoa now!” Applejack shouted, taking several rapid steps back, preparing to sprint straight out of its path if need be. But before she could, it suddenly started to drift, slowing its speed until coming to a full stop only feet away. After several seconds of nothing, a door on the side suddenly swung open revealing…
“Pinkie!?”
“How’s that for a grand entrance?” Pinkie puffed out her chest with a satisfied grin on her face. The look of total awe on Applejack’s face was more than enough of an answer for her.
“What the hay…” Applejack said, trying to make heads or tails of the thing that Pinkie suddenly rode into the block on. At first, it all seemed alien to her, but eventually the puzzle came together.
“That’s a train car… you modified a train car?!” she said, looking back at Pinkie.
“Cool, huh? Wasn’t sure I’d get it ready in time!” Pinkie jumped high suddenly, landing perfectly on top of the thing, “But, voila, it’s complete! Be proud, Applejack, because you are the first to be introduced to Pinkie’s one of a kind and patent pending Party Wagon!” On cue, confetti shot out from the top of the wagon along with the sound of several horns blowing.
“Is this thing even safe?” Applejack wondered. There were, after all, quite a few ponies on the streets right now.
“Totally! I have total control over this thing. It’s armor-plated, all-terrain, and has the safest power source ever!” Pinkie slammed her foot on the top, causing a panel on the side to open, revealing someone inside.
“Hey, Applejack,” said a buckled-up Spike inside of what seemed to be a furnance of his own green fire. Beside him was a bowl filled with what seemed to be a large amount of small gems for him. Applejack raised a brow at Spike before slowly turning towards Pinkie once again.
“Twilight know about this?”
“Please don’t tell her,” Pinkie was suddenly at Applejack’s feet again, kneeling and holding her hands together, “I would have asked! Really! But it was down to the wire and I wasn’t even sure how to contact her!” Pinkie jumped over to the wagon again and gave the side a solid knocking, “Besides, I made sure this part of the wagon was the strongest. Even if we crash, it’ll be nothing more than a bump on the road for him!”
Applejack wasn’t sure, but Spike didn’t seem worried, even after the crazy entrance Pinkie made. Still…
“If at any point this thing can’t move, you pull him outta here before he gets hurt, deal?”
“Deal!” Pinkie said, giving Applejack a hug. She then went back to the wagon and climbed in.
“So then, what took you so long to get here anyway?” Applejack wondered. From the looks of it, the Party Wagon had some serious horsepower behind it. She couldn’t imagine it taking too long to make its way up the path leading into Canterlot.
“Actually, I had to make a detour and pick something up,” Applejack tilted her head in confusion.
“Pick up, what?”
Pinkie gave Applejack a wide grin before pushing a button inside of the wagon. Next thing she knew, a hatch had opened and something shot out of it. Applejack watched as it climbed higher into the sky before dropping down and crashing into the ground with great force.
“Applejack, I’d like you to meet my sister, Maud,” Applejack turned, seeing the pony in question standing tall in the crater she caused with her landing, “Told her about this whole thing and she said she wanted to help, and how could you say no to a face like that?”
Maud’s jaw was clenched, and her eyes were fiery—enough to send chills down one’s spine. Luckily, it was pointed at the stone creatures before her.
“You made my sister unhappy,” she said, taking a step forward, “No one makes my sister unhappy.”
Maud then dashed forward towards them, delivering strong punches to one, breaking it down as though she’d just went at it with a jackhammer. This was followed by her grabbing another and smashing its body into several others before throwing it as hard as she could. Its body finally came to an explosive stop several blocks down.
Applejack stared in silent awe for several seconds due to the feat seen before her. In the end, it was Big Mac to share his two cents as he stepped into the scene.
“I like her.”
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The creature’s numbers had started with many, much more than the number of those standing to protect Canterlot. But those numbers were quickly dropping as the time flew by since the battle began. Whatever fight they seemed to put up was now almost nonexistent and the momentum was completely on Canterlot’s side. But they didn’t feel accomplished. It was just too easy, and chances were, it was for good reason.
These were nothing more than fodder, and if anyone had experienced combat before, it was no doubt only the first wave—a way to size up the opponent and maybe even wear down some of their defenses before sending in the bigger guns, and that was something several members of their ranks was waiting for. Each of them were merely conserving their energy for when the real fight would begin, taking the time against the wave of manikins to warm up.
Each could not forget there was still someone out there they needed to confront—someone that they needed to handle on their own before the day was out if they truly wanted to see victory. But they could wait—that time would come eventually.
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Corey looked around the general area of North Canterlot, taking in all the work that had been done since noon. Creatures were lying pulverized on the ground, their remains slowly starting to crumble in the wind. Though the area wasn’t totally clear of the creatures just yet, Corey took a moment to rest, the guards clearly more than enough to take out the remaining ones.
“South Canterlot’s clear for now,” John’s voice came through the communicator.
“North looks like it’s in order too,” Corey said, “But yeah, who knows how long that’s going to last.”
“We still have a few more to clean up here,” said Rarity, “You all worked fast, just take care not to tire yourselves out.”
“I’m barely warmed up here!” Rainbow said into her communicator.
Corey breathed out, letting the conversation drift out of his awareness for a moment. It looked like for the time being they were getting a rest.
“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Twilight asked, landing down next to Corey now, “You’d think we’d have seen signs of the remaining escapees by now…”
“That’s for sure…” Corey said, “I guess that just goes to show what all that was meant to do… Although, this seems a bit too easy, considering the last couple of attacks…”
Corey paused for a moment. Then, he slowly took in a deep breath, closing his eyes. Twilight tilted her head in confusion, wondering what he was doing.
“What are you doing?” she said.
Corey didn’t answer for a few seconds. When he did say something, though, it wasn’t what Twilight was looking for. “I see… so I can’t sense the creatures too well at all…”
“Sense the creatures…” Twilight muttered, “Wait, Corey, about that sensory spell…”
“Yeah, I think I have a handle on it…” Corey said, “I can increase its range if I focus entirely on it, though, so give me a few moments…”
Corey’s consciousness seemed to leave him. He stood bolt upright, head tilted upward. Though Twilight couldn’t tell if Corey was casting a spell to do this, she simply waited for Corey to do something.
Though Corey’s eyes were closed, he still “felt” everything around him. Twilight was a few feet from him, her signature warm as he could have remembered. The guards felt the same way; no shadows of darkness within them. His senses extended past the capital; no sense of cold there to be found either.
As his awareness expanded, Corey found that if there were still any of those creatures left, he couldn’t sense them. Then again, it wasn’t so surprising. He’d assumed that a creature with no will of its own probably didn’t register as a blip on his radar—
The overwhelming feeling of cold that entered his forehead and sent shivers down his body, however, definitely registered. And as that chill blasted his nerves unrelentingly, Corey knew full well what it was he was sensing…or rather, who it was he was sensing. His eyes shot open at this moment, and he continued to look up at the sky, facing directly towards the south.
“Corey!?” Twilight asked, noting the shiver that passed over him. His face was set in a semi-glare, one of utter focus and concern.
“Everyone, watch out!” Corey shouted, “I’ve sensed Slayer down towards South Canterlot!”