• Published 27th Jul 2013
  • 3,246 Views, 319 Comments

Wonderbolt Down - Rebonack



Sharing a birthday with three of my closest friends? Great! Discovering that we've all acquired the cutie mark of relatively minor Wonderbolts? A little awkward. Actually becoming said Wonderbolts? Now that's just downright creepy.

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Wherein There Are Some Explosions

A mission.

This is the first time I've had a mission in quite a while. The old habits and training come back so quickly. It's just like riding a bike, really. Hehe. I pause to think about how riding a bike as a hippogriff would turn out. Probably hilariously awkward. What purpose would a bike even serve to a flier? Great for humans though. Just another fun example of ingenuity. Come on Geneva, focus. Mind off muscle powered transportation and onto the mission.

The mission is pretty simple. I've been sent with a pony and human to sneak out and hit the road block to the south of town while Surprise and her team assault the northern road block at the same time. From what I've been told we aren't really expected to be able to take them. We just need to harass them and encourage the chaos spirits to pull in reinforcements from the airport. Once the defenses on the airport have been softened then everyone else is going to hit it as hard as we can manage. If we capture the airport then we'll have a strangle hold on the chaos spirit's reinforcements and we should be able to drive them out of town.

Maybe we'll even find out what they're doing here to begin with.

I've been wondering about that ever since we got here. This little town is out in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't seem to have any significance to speak of. Maybe they just like the weather?

Two others besides myself have joined me for our little adventure. Joseph is a human with experience in the marines while Bubble Wrap was a member of the royal guard before everypony was scattered. Both should come in handy when the horse-apples really hit the fan. I motion for my friends to lay low while I stalk my way up a small hill to peer over it.

Changelings.

Of course.

Like termites in society gradually chewing away under the surface until it's hollow and dead inside. And it doesn't help at all that a direct hit from their faerie fire could incapacitate any of us. We'll need to get rid of them, but preferably in a fashion that won't allow them to raise alarm or make too much noise. So that means any of my more spectacular tricks are out of the question. And Joseph's rifle, too. Maybe...

I motion with my tail to beckon my team mates over to me. Both crawl forward keeping as low a profile as possible.

“Hey Bubble Wrap? Can you make a bubble that will block light and sound?” I ask.

She nods slowly. “Yeah. Though that'll take a little longer to cast than usual. But I don't think I would be able to blow one big enough to catch both of those roaches.”

“Should I put a bullet in the other one?” Joseph asks.

I reply with a shake of my head. “No, too loud. If we can get to the road block and hit it without the spirits knowing we're coming that'll be a big advantage for us. I could try rushing him, but that would probably leave us with the same problem. Hmmm...”

Oh. Of course. I'll just need to sacrifice a feather. I really should have thought to collect the feathers I've been molting but like they say hindsight is twenty twenty. I run my claws across my wings until I find a feather that's loose. Perfect. Joseph gives me a questioning look as pop out a talon and gently caress the feather's edge.

“You aren't seriously going to blow a feather at that thing, are you?” Joseph asks in a hushed voice.

I give a small nod. “Mm, that's the plan. Flight magic only works on a griffin's body. But that restriction allows for the use of feathers even after they've been removed. I'll drop one and you bubble the other, alright Wrap?”

The mare gives a nod of confirmation.

“This I'm going to have to see,” Joseph mutters.

I gently blow on the feather and it streaks away with musical whistling sound.

Pegasus wind magic in concert with griffin feather enchantments. It's a sublime thing, really. A thing of beauty to hear the normally discordant notes of magic striking a harmony. The changeling can't really appreciate it since the steel-hard feather just made a clean hole through a few fairly important parts of the it's internal anatomy and sent it slumping bonelessly to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Its companion doesn't have time to cry out before being enveloped in a globe of inky blackness.

“Damn,” Joseph whistles. “You ponies don't dick around do you? All this killing doesn't fit so well with a kid's show.”

I flash a self-conscious grin. “To be fair slaying them doesn't kill them. Not in the normal sense,” I say as I carefully slink out from behind our cover to check on the dispatched changelings. My feather is imbedded in a concrete wall up to its quill. The feather's magic has been utterly spent and trying to pull it out would just destroy it. “They're spirits after all. They get banished back to Tartaurus. And, well, the show was sanitized a little bit from what I've seen of it.”

“Wait, really?” Bubble Wrap asks curiously. “Like what?”

I give a nod. “Ah... Well,” I reply as an uncomfortable tension begins knotting in my stomach. “For example? The battle for Appleloosa didn't involve any pies. Equestria has been having border skirmishes with the nomadic buffalo tribes for centuries.”

“What ever happened to sharing and caring?” Bubble mutters.

“An agreement was worked out with the help of the Elements of Harmony. But it has always been a hot-bed of contention. The buffalo still consider ponies to be invaders in their land and they really aren't too fond of our taming and terraforming practices,” I say as I grind my beak in thought.

We continue on in silence.

Yes... what about sharing and caring? The ponies once made war regularly. Against each other and against other races, too. All until the windegos drove them from Hyperborea and turned that pleasant land into a frozen waste. The ponies were scattered all over the world. But in Equestria we forged the Fires of Friendship. Though the diamond dogs and the buffalo weren't very keen on us taking their land they couldn't do much to stop the united ponies spreading across the continent.

The more I think about it... The more I think about it the more I realize that Earth as a whole really isn't that much different from... well... Earth as a whole. That's kind of awkward. Two worlds with the same name. Eerr... regardless... Equestria is largely peaceful, but that's only been the case while we've been ruled by Queen Celestia. And that really does make sense. Having an immortal benevolent demi-goddess running the country could probably improve things here in the States, too.

Except Queen Celestia isn't an immortal demi-goddess. Wait... She isn't? Huh. I guess she isn't, is she? Long lived, sure. But we got the 'sun has set' message. Maybe it was mistaken but I can't imagine anypony sending out that code unless they were sure. And certainly not a god of any kind. She had normal mortal pony parents of Princess Platinum's line. She and her sister were born about one thousand one hundred years ago. The griffins insist that she was foaled by Loki in the form of a mare, though. Loki... Not a god either. More like a griffin ancestor? But not really because he was adopted. His personality seems to be pretty similar to the human concept of him.

“Geneva.”

That's another point of convergence between our worlds, isn't it? Both religions are modified, but ponies and griffins believe in something akin to Greek and Norse mythology. A lot of important parts from both sides are missing. Still, it can't be a coincidence.

“Geneva?”

I wonder how far that reaches? Minotaurs, diamond dogs, buffalo, dragons, donkeys, zebras. And that's not even considering other pony nations scattered around the world that might have religious differences from the norm in Equestria. Come to think of it, I really don't know all that much about religions aside from those of the ponies and the griffins. It just wasn't ever important before. But here as a human I made a point of gaining at least a working understanding of other major world religions. These connections between religious concepts as well as the names of countries are really fascinating. I wonder what the chances are of meeting a pony who knows-

“Geneva!”

I give a startled squawk.

“You're zoning out,” Joseph says urgently. “We need you to focus.”

“Ah, hehe. Sorry about that. Our last conversation just got my mind a little side-tracked is all,” I admit. Geeze that was bad. It was bad enough that I would space out before on some random interesting subject but now that I've got a whole extra life-time worth of knowledge to cross-reference... Ugh. I should probably sit down and write ideas just to stop them from rattling around inside my head. But it's so exciting! All of this new information that implies a connection between Earth and Also-Earth! The similarities between the mythology of the one and the reality of the other are far too numerous and specific to be anything other than- no. No. Get a grip, Geneva. This isn't a good time to be fangirling over this stuff regardless of how Earth-shaking the implications might be. Right now the mission matters.

I take a deep breath through my nostrils and slowly exhale through my mouth. Okay. Game time. It isn't that long before we're hunkered down on a hill overlooking the roadblock some distance away. These guys really aren't taking any chances. They've got usual sundry barricades and a whole gaggle of disguised changelings and a few boogies rocking the men in black look. Off to one side of the road is a large corrugated steel shed that looks like it was assembled recently. Pretty much anything could be camped out in there ready to leap on anypony who causes trouble.

“Time?” I whisper.

“Another fifteen minutes before we hit them,” Joseph reports.

Bubble Wrap is rubbing her hooves together in anticipation. A couple of those basic bubbles of hers lobbed up the hill would throw them into complete chaos. Well, not chaos. They're already complete chaos after a fashion. Complete disorganization would be more accurate.

“We should probably spread out a bit if only to avoid giving them one target to aim at,” I suggest. “I'll do what I can to draw their fire and attention. If this turns into a squall I want you both to hoof it. This is just a distraction. So long as we're being distracting then we're winning.”

Great. Now I just have to sit here for fifteen minutes watching the chaos spirits milling around looking bored. Or at least the changelings look bored. I'm pretty sure that boogies are incapable of any expression of emotion or personality aside from their droning conformity. I honestly can't help but wonder what they're doing here. We never did find out how they had all weaseled their way out of Tartaurus to begin with. It had been assumed after the changelings showed up in Canterlot on the heels of Cerberus' departure from his post at the gates we wouldn't see anymore vile chaos spirits skulking around Equestria.

Hmm...

It was the chaos spirits that left us spread so thin to begin with. And the chaos spirits that... weakened Queen Celestia for Discord. Maybe it was all an elaborate set up? That's a pretty long game plan for a being with such mercurial attention. Or maybe that's just what he wanted us to think all along?

Ah well.

Maybe we'll find some answers sooner rather than later. May as well get started on a rainbomb egg to start the party.

I cup my claws and begin fanning my wings to call out to the open skies around me. My magic draws a stream of air from high above and begins coiling it into a tightly knotted ball of sweltering gas and condensed arcane power. I weave together magic and sky until the crackling elastic orb has formed. And then? I give my wings a fluff, catch a drifting feather within the magical maelstrom, and set it to spinning like the central shaft of a dynamo.

All things considered the premise behind a sonic rainboom is relatively straight forward. A pegasus gets going fast enough to build up a wave of air in front of them, fortifies it with a tremendous amount of magic, and then punches a hole through the barrier they've created. The barrier loses equilibrium and detonates in a prismatic shockwave that launches the pegasus at incredible speeds. Of course there's only one pony with the correct combination of magical aptitude, raw wing power, and talent to pull the trick off. But I think my little rainbomb egg trick nicely replicates some of the fundamentals on a practical level.

In a wider sense that practical level is creating spectacular pyrotechnics for our air shows.

In the more specific sense that practical level is blowing things the buck up that are a threat to Equestria.

Such as all those chaos spirits over there.

I lob nine minutes and fourteen seconds of hard work toward the roadblock and watch the incandescent white, faintly prismatic egg streak toward them. Hmm... I probably should have warned my friends about how loud this thing is.

My ears go flat and I clamp my hands down tight right as it detonates.

It really is a beautiful sight to behold. Like a spreading wave of tiny crystal spheres, each catching the sun to create an iridescent sheen that ripples across its flawless surface. A single clear, reverberating note that splits the heavens with its overwhelming power and clarity. It's almost as though a massive pearl sudden grows into existence and then vanishes away into ephemeral glittering mist.

The rainbomb egg trick makes a really pretty explosion.

As usual the changelings appreciate neither the science nor aesthetics of my work.

What a bunch of philistines.

Changelings begin hitting the ground after being launched skyward, their gangly limbs splayed all akimbo. Those closest to the blast were likely destroyed outright whilst the rest are beginning to yell frantically about the attack. I can't really make it out since my ears are still humming from the rainbomb's note.

My friends thankfully have the good sense to recognize a sign to attack when they see it. Joseph opens fire on the disorganized changelings while Bubble Wrap begins launching her shimmering bubbles at them. It's almost comical watching the brightly colored orbs bouncing along like balloons only to become solid as a thick sheet of glass upon enveloping one of the chaos spirits. The changelings beat at the inside of their magical prisons like a spider scrabbling at walls of a jar.

I take to the sky and begin gathering air and magic again. Not for another rainbomb egg, of course. A simple thunderball is quite a bit more efficient when time is of the essence. If this were a show I would be taking the time to distill out individual hues from some rainbow to give the explosions more color and character, but the changelings have already expressed an utter inability to enjoy the finer details of my art and so they'll have to suffer through the colorless rippling pressure-waves.

Honestly I would rather treat them all to a nice cavitation cascade, but the atmosphere is so arid that I simply don't have anywhere to get the needed water from.

I flit and dart and swoop to avoid the hail of sickly green faerie fire buzzing through the sky around me like a swarm of angry bees. With another powerful flap of my wings I gather a thunderball and send it racing toward the ground. Much to my dismay it doesn't explode. Quite the opposite, really. The tightly packed ball of air and magic is devoured.

“Mine!”

As soon as my eyes fall on the thing that just ate my spell twenty five years of human life quickly summarizes the creature. Demon. An honest to God demon just absorbed the thunderball I threw. Dark red thorny skin. Huge leathery bat-like wings. Cloven hooves and hooked claws. Long pointed ears and a horse tail split into tongues of red and yellow that waver and shift like flames. A grotesque grin full of malevolent mirth and jagged teeth is stretched across its face. I never saw a creature at all similar to this one in Equestria. But I had heard about them. Minions of King Plouton, the lord of avarice. Monsters that can devour a pony's magic with a touch. Greedlings.

I pause just long enough at the sight to take a glancing hit from a bolt of faerie fire and my left leg goes numb. Whoop, time to stop gawking and start moving Geneva! I throw myself into an erratic zig-zag to avoid the incoming attacks with renewed vigor.

Since that clearly isn't bad enough I spot the greedling spreading its wings to leap into the air with that rictus smile still twitching on its face. A nimbus of murky blackness is seething and throbbing around the demon's hands as it closes the gap and I consider my tactics. Spitfire had said to avoid contact with their hooves at all costs. And this thing caught my spell with its hands. So the ends of the limbs are still major bad mojo. If I'm going to fight it my best bet will be to hit it from behind where it can't reach me.

I may not be the fastest Wonderbolt by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm one of the most maneuverable. An aerial skirmish is about the worst place a foe could decide to engage with me. The monster surges up to seize me only to grasp at empty air as I perform an pirouette and lash out with a buck at the back of its head. Unfortunately my left leg still doesn't feel like listening to me. Whoops. End result? The greedling takes a glancing blow instead of getting knocked for a loop.

The monster whirls around, the black nimbus about its hands flaring moments before a claw-shaped field of cloying telekinetic power clamps down on me. My entire body goes limp and useless as a painfully intense feeling of pins and needles spreads through me. I'm rapidly approaching magical exhaustion. Which is bad. Dropping out of the sky and splatting against the ground sort of bad.

“Mine mine mine~!” the greedling sing-songs. Its voice sounds like it's coming from a long way off. Like an echo underwater. My vision is beginning to tunnel. Yeah... This is really bad.

Then the chaos spirit's head snaps sideways and its magical grip on me evaporates. A moment later the abomination detonates in a riot of pilfered magic. The good news is that I'm able to re-absorb some of the thaumic energy that was stolen from me. The bad news is that I just got battered out of the sky by an arcane explosion and the earth is rapidly rushing up to greet me.

Thankfully death by planet hugs is averted when a orange bubbles spread below me. I strike the cushion and it depresses with a rubbery squeaking sound. For one singular uncanny instant I'm brought to a complete halt and in that moment of clarity I can see the battle raging around me. Changelings caught in bubbles or shot through by rifle fire. Little sparkles of magic drifting out of the sky, remnants of the greedling's dramatic departure from the material world. A boogie trapped inside a magical prison furiously adjusting its tie.

Then the moment ends and I'm launched skyward again with a resounding Twang!

I flail about in the air for a moment to regain my equilibrium and level myself out. The remaining changelings are taking cover behind what's left of the shed and tossing pot shots at us now. Perfect. We've got them pinned down and on the defensive. It should only be a matter of time before they call in reinforcements if they haven't already. Our mission is thus far a success! Now all we have to do is keep them occupied until the reinforcements arrive. At that point we begin backing off while hoping that we don't get overwhelmed.

The changelings are gifted with a few more thunderballs tossed their way before I tuck my wings and drop out of the sky to take cover myself behind a convenient outcrop of boulders. That greedling really did a number on my magic pool and over-exerting myself isn't part of the plan. We still need to escape after this skirmish is over after all. So long as we keen bucking something threatening at the chaos spirits every now and again it should keep them out of our manes.

“That was quite the firecracker you set off,” Joseph comments from beside me. Looks like he had a similar idea regarding cover. “You might want to avoid any more hugs from the hellspawn, though.”

“Mmm, I was thinking the same thing,” I mutter as I begin coiling another thunderball. “The greedlings steal magic. Eat it, I guess. It makes them a fairly dangerous foe.”

“And eating bullets gives them indigestion,” Joseph snarks. “You're lucky I've got sure aim, catbird.”

“If I were lucky I wouldn't have got myself caught in the first place,” I point out whilst hurling an explosively charged mass of air and magic at the entrenched changelings. With my hands free once more I begin messaging my leg until feeling starts to return. The hair and skin are a bit singed where I was hit, but it isn't anything that some aloe won't fix. I'm not sure if we have any earth ponies with healing talents back at the school. If we do they're probably going to have their work cut out for them today.

“Really though. Whatever that first thing you threw their way was? You may as well have tossed a bomb into their lap. What the hell was that?” Joseph asks.

“Rainbomb egg,” I reply matter of factly. Oooh good, my leg is feeling quite a bit more alive. Only downside is that burn is starting to sting something fierce now. “I use my magic to do a lot of pyrotechnics for the Wonderbolts' air shows. They double as, well. You saw the result.”

“You ponies are seriously something else,” he mutters as he leans around the boulder and nails a changeling that had the audacity to stick its head out from behind its cover.

“The magic helps,” I point out whilst flexing my leg to test it. “And I don't think the little herd you've managed to rescue so far is a representative sample. There are an inordinate amount of royal guard trained ponies and or course two Wonderbolts to boot. We've been fortunate to shave the cream off the top with our pony selection.”

Personally I would consider Flapjack and Hashbrown to be off the top of pony selection as well after that breakfast. But that's ponies in general for you. We pour our heart and soul into whatever we do best. They just won't be quite as useful for assaulting a bunch of evil chaos spirits aside from what any earth pony brings to the stable. Namely four hooves and supernatural strength.

“We've got company heading our way!” Bubble Wrap yells.

Sure enough several black sedans are hurtling down the road in clear violation of the posted speed limit. Is there no law that's sacred to these foul chaos spawn?

“Start falling back toward the town!” I yell in reply as I begin hoofing it. Joseph falls in step beside me and I slow my pace a notch or three to allow him to keep up. Humans might have some pretty impressive endurance when it comes to walking long distances but their ability to keep up with a sprinting pony is sorely lacking.

A few stray shots are flung our way by our foes but thankfully they're moving to reinforce the barricade instead of giving chase. Perfect! The plan was executed flawlessly. With the enemy forces spread thin we'll be able to hit the airport in earnest. Joseph uses his walkie talkie to announce the results.

“I'm going to meet up with everyone at the airport,” I announce whilst lifting into the air again. “You two head back to the school unless we get new orders.”

One pair of affirmative remarks later I'm rocketing toward town for a quick water break before turning toward my final destination. Obviously blowing up changelings is thirsty work. But besides my own hydration needs some water will come in really handy in the upcoming fight. I land near a facet and guzzle my fill before extending a wing under the nozzle to send it spraying everywhere. Which, of course, creates a little rainbow. With practiced precision I begin collecting the magically charged water and before long I have an appreciable supply of rainbow droplets. Once loaded down with prismatic precipitation I take off again toward the airport whilst working my magic on the way.

How long has it been since I've made a proper chromatic cavitation cascade egg? Far too long, I think. Time to rectify that little problem. Let's see... Contain the rainbow mist inside a pressure sphere. Check. Allow the rainbow mist to condense into a solid mass. Check. Create a pressurized bubble inside the rainbow mass at equilibrium with the pressure sphere. Check.

I soar over the airport and turn my eyes on the melee below. Ponies and humans alike are swarming into the airport and unleashing havoc upon the disorganized chaos spirits. With their numbers thinned and the magic of friendship on our side they simply don't stand a chance!

The airport itself looks like a bleak landscape ripped from Tartaurus itself, ground replaced with dunes of ash and swaths of porous dead gray rock. Volcanic vents belch vile fumes and the taint of the tribes of hell can be seen everywhere. While the shapes of buildings are more or less intact they've all been twisted into nightmarish parodies of reality. There had been small patches of the town that looked like this but here? Here the whole area has been afflicted with this malignant blight.

Out of a hanger made of bleached bones and glowing metal the blazing form of a fury strides and I feel a knot of anger forming inside me. It was those things that... It's their fault that Queen Celestia is... Tears of frustration begin tracing down my cheeks at the sight of that abomination. I hate them. If not for them Queen Celestia wouldn't have fallen and Discord's vile curse wouldn't have ever begun. I hate them. I hate them! A grit my teeth and feel a freezing shiver run through me. I-

...I...

I need to calm down. Hate and anger aren't going to win the day here. Hatred will do nothing more than open my heart to the icy touch of the Queen in the Iron Crown. Discord's curse was a terrible crime against everypony. But... if it hadn't happened I never would have been born here on Earth. I never would have grown up with the love of my human family and friends. Even in the curse there was still a blessing, intended or not.

I can't fight these demons out of hate and anger.

I have to fight them out of love. Love and loyalty toward my friends and my home.

A deep breath in. A slow exhale out. My eyes fix on the fury.

Build a chromatic cavitation cascade egg?

Check.

Find a vile monster that could use some colorful cheer added to its life?

Check.

Hurl egg at said monster?

Check!

Cavitation is a neat process. Once equilibrium is broken between the inner and outer pressure spheres the bubble implodes violently with incredible heat and sound Usually it produces a brilliant magnesium white flash. Though when rainbow is used to create the bubble rather than normal water? Well... Let's just say that a rapidly expanding sphere of volatilized rainbow makes for quite the show stopper.

The fury has several limbs blasted off by the blazing prismatic shock wave while the rest of its abhorrent form is painted a cheerful kaleidoscope of color. Judging from the monster's reaction it isn't very happy. The fact that the rainbow has temporarily snuffed its flames probably did little to improve its mood. But then I doubt a creature of pure rage is ever very happy regardless of what's going on.

I tuck my wings and drop toward my foe as I pop my talons out. Feathers like arrows. Talons like daggers. Wings like axes and a roar like a thunderclap. With proper magical training a griffin can make her whole body a weapon. A weapon that I pull into a corkscrewing dive straight through the fury's back. For a brief moment I'm assailed by unbearable heat only to be embraced once again by the cool caress of whistling wind as I skim mere feet above the runway and away from my enemy.

I don't bother to glance back at the fury when it detonates in blast of flames and bone and stone.

After all, cool mares don't look at explosions.

Alright. That isn't true. I've looked at plenty of my pyrotechnics but those generally aren't the big fiery billowing explosions so that doesn't count.

A changeling in front of me is taking aim at an earth pony locked in combat with a boogie. I alter my course ever so subtly and sheer the chaos spirit in two with my wing.

Three feathers have come loose in the course of the battle so far, feathers trailing along with me like coppery satellites. With a pulse of magic I send them sailing away toward a trio of changelings taking cover behind a low concrete wall, the flight of feathers splitting at the last moment to embed themselves in the spirits.

A greedling is draining a unicorn. I pounce on the demon from behind, wrap my talons around the monster's head, and give a bone snapping twist. I brace myself for explosion of stolen magic and surf the pressure wave, using it to launch myself in a flying buck into a boogie's ribs. The mirthless monster is sent bouncing across the runway from the force of the impact. I land, take three leaping strides, and pounce on the G-Man like a eagle on a rabbit. My talons are humming with magic as I gouge into the monster, carving great furrows in its rocky body. Another slash. Then another before stomping the chaos spirit with my hooves and rocketing back into the sky.

I peak at about a thousand feet in the air and turn my eagle eyes on the battle field below. This looks like it's going to be a rout. There are a few injured or unconscious humans and ponies. Hopefully no one dead... Most of the remaining spirits have fallen back to the terminal and those still outside are being picked off. I won't be able to build up the speed needed to get really dangerous inside, but that's where our guard unicorns will really shine. I would hate to have to tangle with Star Field in an environment rich with tight spaces and heavy objects to hurl around. Surprise will be pretty lethal down there too. Not that she isn't lethal regardless of where she is. She's probably already inside and picking off chaos spirits that would try to prevent us from rushing the doors.

But most important of all I can hear the singing even from up here. It isn't until that moment of pause that I realize I've been singing along as well. A song about fighting for friendship of all things. A song of harmony of purpose. Of unity in friendship to dispel the mental taint of the chaos spirits. It makes my heart swell with the joys of companionship. The Fires of Friendship. Maybe... Could it be that humans are able to forge the Fires of Friendship as well? If humans can tap into magic that could very well change everything.

With renewed resolution I drop back toward the earth, wings tucked and heart soaring. It's time to put this conflict to and end and win the town back for good! I spot several blasts of garishly colored confetti erupt out of the shattered windows of the terminal announcing that Surprise has begun her... well... surprise assault. What else would anyone expect from her? In the confusion amidst the fluttering bits of paper the changelings seem to be having a difficult time picking out targets. Ponies and humans alike stampede into the terminal to overwhelm the already overwhelmed defenders.

I dive out of the sky on top of a boogie that's still wiggling a little too much for my liking before rushing into the airport compound along with my friends. Pressure bombs really aren't going to work so well in here. Even my concussive roar would probably cause more collateral damage than I would like. So that means I'm going to have to stick to wings and hooves and talons. Just as fine, I suppose. I'm probably going to get plenty more practice what with the gates of hell splitting open and vomiting forth demons to deal with.

Though the dust and and confetti and smoke I can make out Surprise popping from one location to another, each time dressed up in some utterly outlandish outfit different from the last. I learned a long time ago that questioning Surprise is just going to lead to hours of lamenting over the poor abused laws of magic and so I do my best to ignore the quirky pegasus so she can do her thing.

Fighting through the terminal is like treading down the maw of the abyss itself. The scent is unbearable and I'm almost certain one of the purple slimy walls is breathing. Thankfully our foes are retreating instead of standing their ground, so that means we will probably be finished here before the stink kills us all. The changelings seem determined to cover each others retreat while the boggles and greedlings are just fleeing without much in the way of concern for the well being of the other spirits. One changeling takes up position behind a black crystal pillar and begins firing on us only to have Star Field shroud the column and spirit alike in her herculean telekinetic field and crush both. Several more changelings round a corner and she rips a row of half-melted airport seats out of the floor and launches the whole thing at the demons.

I can't help but wince at that sight. Geeze... Need to remind myself every now and again to avoid ever getting on Star Field's bad side.

At long last we reach the end of the line. The point all the chaos spirits had been retreating toward. What would stand against us as the final climactic conflict in this our battle? The stage where we'll test our metal against the guardian of the airport! The gutted chamber certainly looks the part for it. Several humans and ponies are glued to the various parts of the chamber inside changeling cocoons. Though what really catches the attention is that towering gateway of pitted iron and polished bone. Of translucent green resin and glossy black stone. All shrouded in purple fleshy growths and seeping a cloying black haze onto the floor.

My body feels electrified, muscles tensed and wings spread wide. This is it. I'm ready for whatever comes next.

A tiny ball of purple muck drips off the ceiling and hits the gravely floor with a wet splat. It puffs itself up and gazes upon us with a single milky white eye. And then? And then it gives an apathetic “Blorp,” and melts into a runny puddle.

“That's it?” I hear someone behind me say. “All that for blorp?”

A hitherto unnoticed changeling makes a mad dash for the gate only to get itself snagged in Star Field's magic. The chaos spirit points its unfriendly looking organic rifle at the unicorn and she responds by tightening her grip around the limb. It's rather unceremoniously crushed into gummy green paste.

“This is the part where you start singing about the evil plan and what we do to stop it,” Star Field deadpans.

The changeling sneers at her with its fangily smile. “Why should I tell you anything, pony?” the chaos spirit spits. “You'll never make me talk!”

Star Field opens her mouth to reply only for someone else to call out, “Hey! The people in the pods are awake! They overheard the demons' plans!”

The black unicorn gives a little shrug and trots over to talk with the prisoners. Her imploding telekinetic field results in a gross squelching noise.

“This is the part where you start singing about the evil plan and what we do to stop it,” Star Field says to a recently freed purple earth stallion with a microphone for a cutie mark.

He responds with a rather silly grin. “You want that in rap, country, or opera?”