Soren the Alicorn Part 3: A True Hero?

by KingNyroc15

The Battle

Rainbow Dash caught up with Soren as they started flying side by side. Soren was making his way towards the palace entrance while giving commands for some ponies to stay inside. Flying through the main hallway, Soren looked at Rainbow Dash.

"Stay inside," he repeated flatly.

"No way, Soren," Rainbow responded. "If there's a fight, I'm helping." Soren landed, as did Rainbow. He walked up and got in her face.

"I'm being serious, Rainbow Dash. You have no experience with those things out there. I'm not asking you to stay in here forever, I'm asking you to stay so you can watch and learn about our enemies. Is that so much to ask?" Soren's acquired authority managed to cause Rainbow to be silent. "I have to go defend the palace. I'll be back soon." Soren took off again but stopped in mid-flight to say one more thing. "If you want to watch, go find one of our snipers on the upper floors." When Soren flew off again. Rainbow huffed and began walking back through the castle.

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On any normal day, ice creatures will appear and attempt to invade the palace. Luckily for the ponies defending it, the creatures don't appear every single day. Whenever the creatures do appear, the entire castle is ready for them, especially Soren and Star. Even though she looks young for her age, Shining Star is one of the best fighters of the castle. She uses a pistol-like crystal weapon and her telekinesis to defeat her enemies. Soren uses a dagger and a sniper. Together, they are nearly unstoppable.

Outside the castle, Soren is battling two ice ponies, a manticore, and three ice wolves. Star is fighting four ice ponies and an ice griffon. The two commanders are relatively far from each other but close enough to aid one another if they are in danger. The other ponies that are also defending the castle are fighting their own battles with various creatures. This is an average brawl for everyone.

Soren's battle was going smoothly. He took out the ice ponies with only his dagger and a big rock that he hurled at them. As of now, he was fighting the ice animals. Since he can fly, Soren easily dodged the wolves, but the manticore had wings so it followed him. Aiming at the manticore, Soren missed three shots with his sniper. Rolling his eyes, he gave up on the sniper for now. He pulled out his dagger and executed a loop over the manticore. The manticore tried to follow but couldn't quite flip as fast as the alicorn. Soren got the advantage, and he threw the dagger at the back of the manticore's neck. The beast went down, so Soren flew off to fight the wolves.

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From a sniper's balcony at the castle, Rainbow Dash was watching everything. To her, the ice creatures didn't look too difficult to fight. After all, she knew almost all of the animals. Even the ice ponies didn't prove much of a threat. She turned to the sniper.

"Does anyone think those ice things are a little too easy to fight sometimes?" The mare shrugged.

"As long as we defend the castle, it doesn't matter to us." That sounded reasonable to Rainbow Dash. She found Star on the battlefield and decided to watch her fight.

The mare had just used two shots from her 'pistol' to down the last two ponies she was facing. Star ran out of enemies to fight just as Rainbow Dash looked in her direction. Before Rainbow could look somewhere else, the sniper shouted something in alarm.

"Sweet Celestia! Soren's down!"

"What?!" Rainbow Dash quickly looked for Soren and saw him pinned by the manticore he was facing not too long ago.

"He's got no weapons on him," the sniper stated. "The dagger is in the beast's neck and Soren's sniper was flung away from him. I-I can't get a shot without potentially harming him!"

"Just shoot the thing! Soren will live." The mare shook his head.

"Sorry, miss. We don't take the risk of downing our own just to kill a single ice beast. I'm afraid to say—"

A shot echoed throughout the area.

The manticore fell just as it was about to finish off Soren. Rainbow Dash looked around and noticed a sniper floating nearby. 'Did Soren do that?' Rainbow thought.

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"You cut that a little close, Star," Soren said after he got up. "Couldn't shoot it any faster?" The young mare walked up to Soren and floated the sniper towards him.

"If I remember correctly, you were the one that got ambushed." Soren put the sniper on the ground.

"Doesn't matter. We defended the castle...again. I swear they're getting too easy to fight." Star nodded then Rainbow Dash flew down in front of them.

"You ok, Soren?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I've been through worse I guess." Rainbow Dash eyed the sniper on the ground.

"Curious?" Soren asked. Rainbow nodded. "Well, after a few weeks of fighting those creatures (which wasn't easy, mind you), our mechanics started crafting weapons to help defend ourselves. Since the empire is abundant in crystals, we used them as conductors for our weapons." Soren levitated the sniper to Rainbow's eye level so he can explain how it works. "Like all the shooting weapons we made, they run on magic. The trigger here starts the chain reaction. It causes a small crystal to strike the large crystal in the body of the weapon. The strike causes a spark of magic. The spark then travels to a skinny crystal in the barrel and fires out in such a concentrated beam that unicorns couldn't possibly copy it. It's not pretty, but it protects the ones we love."

"That's...so...awesome! So is it the same for Star's weapon?" Star nodded.

"The handheld just uses smaller crystals," she explained, "but it also decreases the speed and range of the shot. I think we should check on the Doctor's progress, wouldn't you say, Soren?" Soren nodded and the three of them left for the Doctor's lab.

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"So what's this project the Doc's been working on?" Rainbow asked Soren. The three of them were walking through the palace, almost at the outside lab, when Rainbow asked the question.

"It's called Project: Nova," Soren started. "When completed, it will wipe out whatever is causing these clouds. We started almost two years ago when the Doctor had an idea. I won't go into overly complex detail, but he realized that a strong sonic explosion should clear the sky. We predicted that it will explode into what we call an Energized Magical Pulse." Star started giggling. Soren rolled his eyes. "Go on, say it."

"It's like I'm hearing a second Doctor in front of me," she laughed. Rainbow Dash gave Soren a concerned look, but he returned it with a sweet smile to put her uneasiness to rest. Star calmed down after she saw this. "Try not to get too sentimental with Rainbow Dash near me, Soren," she said playfully. "I might get jealous." Rainbow tilted her head in confusion.

"Don't worry, Rainbow Dash," Soren assured. "Star just has a crush on me is all. I'll be honest with you: before you came back, I started having a little crush on her myself, but I still stayed loyal through these three years." Even though Soren was honest, it didn't stop Rainbow Dash from punching his shoulder.

"I deserved that," Soren said. "I know you're probably a little mad but we...need...to..." Soren trailed off as they stepped outside. The three of them looked upon a horrible scene. The Doctor was at his lab looking up at the dozens of ice ponies that have lined up on the protective wall. A specific pony caught the Doctor's and Soren's eyes. There was a red ice pony with burning white eyes in the center of the line up. He looked at the new arrivals and grinned.

"Soren the Alicorn," the ice pony said in a smooth, monotonous voice. "Welcome. I have a message for you from the Ones Above. The message is short and to the point. They say: You have until noon tomorrow to destroy this lab or we will send an army onto you." Soren told the mares to stay put. He then flew to the Doctor and stood by him.

"I hope that thing is almost ready," Soren whispered to the Doctor. After Soren whispered that, the two of them remained silent until the blood red ice pony spoke again.

"Not going to respond? Very well. The warning still stands. We shall take our leave." The wind picked up quickly, and one by one, the ice ponies started dissipating as the wind blew them away. Once the creatures were gone, Soren, the Doctor, Rainbow Dash, and Star were all alone at the lab.

"Soren," the Doctor began, "you know what has to be done." Soren looked down with his eyes closed.

"Soren?" Rainbow asked with concern.

"Will the EMP be ready by tomorrow morning?" Soren asked the Doctor as he looked back up.

"I make no promises, but I will be working all night on it. We are at the final stages and the timing couldn't be closer. It all ends tomorrow; one way or another."