6 - Allies (Part 2)
Twilight trotted slowly along the tops of the stratocumulus that stretched over Brockton Bay. The sun was just beginning to set and the clouds above and below her where lit up in an amazing display of color. Another time and another place she would have been content to do nothing but simply sit and take it in as the setting sun and shifting clouds painted the ever changing scene like an artist working a canvas. She felt she understood Rainbow Dash a little bit better now.
She wished the mare was here, she could have used the flying lessons. It had taken her three days of effort to get to the point where she could awkwardly wobble in the direction she wanted to go. She never would have risked flying to the height of even the lowest of the clouds with her current ability had the situation been less dire. The long harrowing climb up to the cloud tops had been like riding a roller-coaster that you were pretty sure was going to collapse at any moment.
Twilight didn’t have any idea why she had undergone the changes she had and it added to the desperately long list of reasons why she needed to get back to Equestria. Her whole internal magic network had..changed, was changing still and she didn’t know why. She thought the number of unanswered questions she had discovered since arriving on this world had reached infinity, and though infinity was a concept and not a number that could be reached she felt that spontaneously growing wings justified the hyperbole just this once.
She needed Princess Celestia, she was the only one Twilight felt that could possibly begin to explain all of this. Twilight wanted to feel those great wings wrap around her and that soothing voice comfort her so badly it was physical ache in her chest.
Nevertheless when she had woken up three days ago to find herself in a fog bank she had somehow created in her sleep it had given her an idea. An idea that had required learning to fly, the not insignificant number of bruises that went along with that, and a new fear of spiders brought on by crashing through the wall of one of Skitter’s silk production rooms.
While faster and safer than her ungainly flight, walking on clouds turned out to be more complicated that it looked. The clouds were constantly moving and shifting in the wind, making little hills and valleys, and small eddies that spun her around unexpectedly. A few hours ago she had almost gotten swept off her feet by a sudden gust, and quite by accident discovered she could cause a section of clouds to stop moving altogether. After reveling in this new found ability and stability for a moment she had then struggled for the next hour to undo it. Leaving a trail of stationary clouds in the sky lacked a certain subtly and stealth that her plan required.
The entire time she had been practicing her ability to creatively bruise herself she had been nervously listening to Skitter’s radio and dreading each new report about what was going on in the city while she hid. The longer it took for her to figure this out, the longer it took for her to get out there and help, the more people died and the more likely it was that she would hear one of her friends’ names.
The morning after Skitter had returned from the cape meeting they had all been woken up by the sounds of shattering glass. Skitter and Mimi had explained that Shatterbird, one of the Slaughterhouse Nine’s members, had a talent in manipulating glass over a huge area. They had been lucky in that the only windows in the old fire-station had been boarded up long ago. Skitter’s terrariums downstairs, and the rest of the city hadn’t been so fortunate. Hospitals had been near capacity since Bakuda’s mad bombing campaign had begun and now they were overflowing with the injured, blind, and dead.
Yesterday the news reported that another one of the Nine, a man named Mannequin, had killed several of the scientists that had been working on the project to somehow contact Twilight’s world. Even though he apparently always targeted people that were actively trying to make the world a better place, Twilight couldn’t help but feel that it had been a gruesome message to her, and feel responsible for it.
She had cried off and on that whole day, but despair wouldn’t bring those people back and it wouldn’t help anybody else either, so she forced herself to continue working even as she sobbed. That Mimi had been ready with a bottle of water and a hug every time she needed a break had helped a lot.
Maybe most worrying of all however was the news that hadn’t happened. Of the the groups three most powerful members: Bonesaw, Crawler, and Siberian, no one had heard or seen anything. The feeling she got from talking to Skitter was that if they hadn’t acted by now, it was only because they were planning something particularly horrifying.
On top of all this the ABB still hadn’t stopped their war against the city. It had slowed down for a couple of days after the horrible night of the PRT building collapse and Lung’s escape, but now it was escalating again. Almost as if Bakuda was in some sort of sick competition with the Nine for biggest atrocity of the day.
She hadn’t yet thought of anyway to deal with the inaccurately named Slaughterhouse Nine, but maybe if her plan worked at least the ABB would be stopped. Following the slight tug on her horn she veered to the west and hopped over a small break in the clouds before jerking back at the sudden appearance of a tall black haired human in a black and grey costume with the image of a tower on the center of her chest. A heavy cape attached to the woman’s shoulders swirled around as she came to a stop a few feet in front of Twilight.
Scrambling backwards her wings spread to their full extension in an instinctive alarm response she hadn’t had a few days ago. In a response she was far more familiar with the clouds around them reflected the purple glow of her horn as magic gathered there in reaction to her fright. The woman tensed and floated backwards, her feet brushing through the wispy tops of the clouds without resistance.
“Easy,” the woman said in a gentle but confident voice as she came to a stop about five paces away. Twilight let herself calm down a little and examined how the human was effecting the magic field around her. Lacking wings and obviously not interacting with the clouds Twilight felt for and found a complex gravity manipulation field around the woman that was much like the one Aegis used.
Feeling her wings relax a little as she got over her initial bout of panic Twilight watched the hovering human carefully. She didn’t recognize her, and her meetings with unknown parahumans over the past two weeks had a tendency to go…poorly.
“Easy,” the woman repeated. “I’m not here to hurt you. I know you don’t know me, but my name is Alexandria and I’m one of the leaders of the Protectorate. We’ve been looking for you since you disappeared, a lot of people all over the world have been pretty worried about you.” Twilight processed this claim. She had heard several people in the PRT and some of her friends in the wards mention Alexandria. Aegis had even called his set of talents an “Alexandria package.” The combination of flight, strength, and durability apparently common enough to be named after the most famous and talented person to have exhibited those skills. Still, Twilight didn’t have anyway to know that this was actually the Alexandria.
“How do I know you’re actually her? I don’t want to doubt what you are saying, but…” Twilight trailed off, uncomfortable with the direction of those thoughts. “How did you even find me up here?” she asked changing the subject.
“We have satellites orbiting the earth above the city and power cameras attached to them. One of them spotted you a short time ago, your coat color really stands out against the white of clouds. That we found you walking on top of the clouds was almost as much of a surprise as the recording you sent to the wards a few days ago.” The person claiming to be Alexandria smiled a little. “I won’t even ask where you heard about that old movie quote.” ‘Movie quote?’ Twilight didn’t know what she was referring to, but found herself relaxing a little at the woman’s reassuring tone.
“As for proof of who I am?” She paused for a moment and then pulled a small device out of pocket on her costume’s back. “I can call Armsmaster and let you talk to him so he can vouch for me. He’s probably in front of the monitors watching us right now anyway.” Twilight let out a breath, almost convinced now.
“Yes. Thank you. I’m sorry about asking you to do it-“
“Don’t worry about it,” she said as she pushed a few buttons on the device. “You’ve had a rough week.” Seemingly satisfied she stretched the arm she was holding the device in out to Twilight who took it as her cue to levitate it over to herself. It was a little bit longer than her hoof and not quite as wide. One side was made out of a polished black metal while the other had a screen like the ones she seen in the conference rooms. Armsmaster’s face stared back at her as she flipped it over.
“Armsmaster! Oh it’s good to see you’re alright. I heard on the news that you had been hurt.” He seemed a little nonplussed at the greeting, but made an effort at smiling. Twilight had noticed when she had talked with him before that he didn’t do it often.
“It’s good to see you as well Twilight. I’m fine, my motorcycle got caught on the edge of one of Bakuda’s bomb blasts, but my armor kept me safe.” Before Twilight could inquire about everyone else the woman interrupted.
“Armsmaster, we have to keep this brief, could you let Ms. Sparkle know that I am who I say I am?”
“You can trust her Twilight, she’s one of the most powerful heroes on the planet and dedicated her life to helping people. I’ll let you two get back to your discussion.” With that the little screen went black. Twilight floated the device back with a small frown on her face from having to cut the conversation so short.
“Alright, now that’s out of the way. It’s a pleasure to meet you Twilight Sparkle, I’ve been looking forward to it since I heard the news of your arrival.” Twilight blushed a little at the implied notoriety and returned the greeting.
“Um, thank you, it’s nice to meet you as well.” Alexandria floated a little closer now that the introductions had been made.
“While I don’t necessarily agree with your decision to leave the protection of the PRT, I do understand and respect why you did it. In your message a few days ago you said had found a safe place to stay hidden from the Slaughterhouse Nine and given your greeting I assume you have found someone you can trust this secret to as well?” Twilight nodded, a little nervous, only for those nerves to be put to rest a moment later.
“Good. Don’t worry, I won’t ask who they are. The question I do have is: What are you doing up here?” Alexandria asked as she swept her arm out to gesture at the red lit clouds.
“Oh, um, I had an idea. With some help from M..well from a friend I was able to create a long range tracking spell focused on fire based spells and their after effects. I’m hoping I can use it to track down Lung, and that Bakuda is with him. Since I have these now,” Twilight ruffled her wings, “I figured I would use the clouds to follow the spell without being seen.” Glancing upwards she said, “I guess It wasn’t as good an idea as I thought.” Alexandria paused for a moment seeming to think about this before continuing.
“What did you intend to do once you found them?” Twilight looked over her shoulder at the human backpack she had modified to rest on her back between her wings and magically unzipped on of the pockets and pulled a series of scrolls and small crystals out of it.
“I am going to tell all my friends.”
“Alright. I have a history with Lung myself, do you mind if I accompany you?” Alexandria asked in a tone that basically precluded Twilight from saying anything but no. Not that she would have anyway. Everything anyone had said about the human woman around Twilight had been praise, and she needed all the help she could get.
“No, please. Thank you for offering, and even if we don’t find Lung tonight I wouldn’t mind the company.” Twilight said as she levitated the scrolls back into her bag and zipped it shut. “It’s beautiful up here, but a little lonely too.” Alexandria nodded and fell in beside Twilight as she started following the gentle tugs on her horn again.
“It is serene. I sometimes take in the sunset over the ocean out in Los Angeles where I’m based, not just for the beauty of it, but also to spend a few quiet minutes in place where few are likely to disturb me.” Alexandria floated quietly beside Twilight as she walked for a few minutes before continuing. “The wings are new since the last time I saw you on Television. If you don’t mind me asking is it normal for your kind to grow them?” Twilight paused her steps for a second before shaking it off and continuing along the cloud tops.
“I, um, don’t mind really. Honestly it’s not normal at all. There are only three, well I guess technically four now if you count me, Alicorns in recorded history. I can’t explain it, and I have no idea why it happened.”
“Alicorns?” Twilight couldn’t see it with Alexandria’s helmet in the way, but she knew a raised eyebrow when she heard one.
“Yes, unicorns have magic mainly expressed through their horns, pegasi in their wings, and earth ponies through their hooves and diffused more generally in their entire body. Alicorns have all these traits combined. Somehow I’ve turned into one. Poof. Wings from nowhere that don’t ever want to do what I tell them.” Twilight trailed off with a grumble.
“You said that before you transformed there were only three alicorns known to your history?”
“Mm, hmm,” Twilight said a little distractedly as her horn pulled her a little more sharply to the north. “Princess Celestia, her sister Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance”
“So the only alicorns ever recorded are all currently living?” Still distracted by the strengthening pull Twilight didn’t notice the slight change in Alexandria’s tone.
“Of course. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have been around almost since ponies started recording history. They’ve ruled Equestria for over a thousand years.” Twilight suddenly jerked to a stop and her head swung down towards the cloud bank before she arrested the motion. “I think we may be here, or at least that is what my tracking spell is saying.”
Twilight braced her forehooves against the cloud in front of her and concentrated. All of the clouds motion within about twenty feet of her stopped and as she raised her hooves a perfect cylinder of cloud came up with them. With an audible grunt Twilight jerked her hooves upwards quickly and then let go. The cloud cylinder accelerated it’s upward drift and few seconds later a fifty foot pillar of cloud drifted above them. A perfectly cut hole through the clouds showed the unmaintained roofs of a run down residential area.
When Twilight turned back to look Alexandria, she found the human staring at her.
“Um..”
“You never cease to surprise, Twilight Sparkle. How are you doing that?”
“Oh, ah, pegasi have a…hmm, humans would probably call it an instinctive hydro kinesis when in contact with water vapor, it’s one of the things that came with the wings.” Twilight trailed of shyly before turning back to the hole. Her voice was confident when she spoke again. “My spell is saying that large building there has had a lot of fire based magic used in it very recently.” Alexandria floated over to the edge of the hole and looked down.
“I think you may be right. There are several people hanging around the surrounding block that give me more the impression of lookouts than loiterers.” She pulled out her screen device again. “I’m going to call Armsmaster and have him start coordinating a containment effort for this area. If you have been working with people you think can help with Lung and Bakuda give them this phone number so we can coordinate.” Alexandria said as she flipped device over and display a series of 10 digits.
Twilight pulled out two scrolls and a pen and quickly jotted down a message and the number. Rolling the scrolls up with her magic she lit her horn and the scrolls dissipated into a purple mist that shot away from them at speed.
“My friends should get them in about a minute.” Alexandria nodded as she slipped something into her ear and clicked it.
“Armsmaster. This is Alexandria, I just sent you the GPS coordinates Twilight Sparkle and I believe may be Lung’s current hideout. Expect a call within the next minute from some friends of Ms. Sparkle, they are going to coordinate with you on this. It's a run down residential neighborhood and if Bakuda and Lung are on site we don’t know what they may do. I trust your judgment so put together a team you think suited for what could be an unpredictable situation. Let me know when you are ready.” She tapped her ear again and went back to watching the scene below.
As Twilight watched the scene below she tried to keep herself calm. Just the idea of what could happen in the next few minutes and the danger she was calling her friends to had her heart trying to accelerate out of her chest. Alexandria was talking quietly and Twilight assumed she was using the communication device in her ear again to speak with Armsmaster.
“I see. Well that goes beyond the unofficial truce we currently have arranged.” She paused, “No I don’t think it will be a problem, with as bad as things have gotten and as much damage as the ABB’s done I don’t think the public will object to much.” She shook her head. “Tell them we’ll treat it the same way we treat an endbringer fight. Full truce until hostilities are over and the wounded are treated, with the same consequences for anyone breaking it. Alright, see you in ten.” Alexandria kept her eyes on the scene below but spoke louder to draw Twilight’s full attention.
“You’ve made some interesting friends these past few days Ms. Sparkle.”
“Oh yes, they’ve really been very kind and even though some of them apparently don’t like each other all that much they all agreed to help stop the ABB. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to hear that after all the awful things that have happened since I got here.”
“Ms. Sparkle do you know wh- we’re out of time.” A van had pulled up in front of the house and a couple of other cars were coming down the street, a group of people one of whom could have been Lung walked down the steps towards the cars. “Armsmaster, the ABB are on the move. I’m going to go down, engage, and try to disable Bakuda and hold them here, I don’t like the look of the van that just pulled up. Twilight, help will be here shortly, do not follow me, we can not afford to have you injured or killed tonight.” With that she dove through the clouds so fast it almost appeared she teleported.
Alexandria landed in the middle of the group that had been coming out of the house and hurled the largest one through the air and then through the front wall of the building, Twilight saw the figure ignite as it made contact. Spinning around punched the shortest one in the stomach causing them to crumple to the ground. Then something strange happened, a half dozen people appeared from nowhere and surrounded Alexandria. When she struck at them they turned to dust and more appeared somewhere else. Twilight watched anxiously wondering if there was anything she could do since Alexandria had told her to stay aloft.
Then everything exploded.
When Twilight’s eyes cleared nothing recognizable remained of the neighborhood below. Every Building she could see was leveled. Some areas were burning, while others had simply ceased to be entirely. Looking around frantically Twilight saw one area that seemed to have frozen an explosion in time and at the edge of it was Alexandria struggling to her feet and missing an arm.
Before she even realized she had teleported, Twilight was by Alexandria’s side and wrapping the bleeding stump in a telekinetic field.
“Get..Away from here.” Alexandria said between coughs, “Lung, not safe.”
“I can’t leave you, you could bleed to death before anyone else got here!” Before Alexandria could argue further a large section of rubble shifted and Lung emerged from it letting out a bestial roar as he did. Trailing flames he charged towards them and Alexandria seeming to ignore the fact that she was missing three quarters of her left arm met him with a punch that hurled him a hundred feet through the ruins of the neighborhood.
Twilight felt a shift in the field behind her and instinctively braced her forehooves and kicked out with her rear legs. She connected with something and then feeling that something crack and give before the field shifted again. Spinning around she saw a human dressed entirely in black with a demon like mask laying on the ground clutching his chest before he dissipated into ash.
“Twilight shield now!” Twilight didn’t hesitate and translucent purple dome sprang around them just before a hulking tentacled monstrosity slammed into it. It looked like a cross between a giant panther and a bear, that is if someone had covered the resulting hybrid in armor plated scales, tentacles, eyes, gave it extra limbs and made it’s head the size of one of Celestia’s sky chariots.
“Ahh!” Twilight said backpedalling until she ran into Alexandria. “What is that thing! Nobody told me that the city had anything like that living in it! How could nobody tell me something like that?!” The creature clawed the dome and Twilight felt the strain on her horn increase to compensate for the damage it was trying to inflict on it. It opened its mouth and sprayed a stream of something over the dome that sizzled when it ran down the side and made contact with the ground.
“That’s Crawler,” Alexandria replied with remarkable calm. “He’s a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine. He started out human, but every time he’s injured his body regenerates and adapts to whatever hurt him. Not much does anymore and he travels with the Nine for the explicit purpose of drawing the attention of those that can still inflict damage on him.” She turned from Crawler tearing at the shield to a now much larger Lung running towards them. “How long can you maintain this?” Crawler interrupted Twilight’s response in a voice that was all the more disturbing for how human it was.
“If you hide behind the shield much longer, I will grow bored and instead try to kill as many people in this city as I can. I’ve come to see what you can do Twilight Sparkle, do not disappoint me.” Then the creature spun faster than anything that size should be able to and leaped out of the way of the charging body of Lung whose flames washed over the dome before he delivered a earth shaking punch to the shield. Twilight winced and the glow around her horn intensified.
“What do I do, what do I do?” Twilight spun in a short circle as if looking for an answer to appear before her. Lung launched a fireball at Crawler who made no effort to dodge it, one of it’s smaller tentacles burned away but otherwise he seemed unbothered by it. Crawler returned the favor by spraying a jet of acid at Lung causing him to bellow in pain and wash the whole area flames.
“Twilight, help is less than a minute away. Teleport away and drop the shield. I am invulnerable and neither Crawler or Lung is capable of injuring me.” Twilight stopped her spinning and stared at the stump where Alexandria’s left arm had been. “I am mostly invulnerable. I will try to hold them here. Do it Twilight Sparkle, I will be okay.” Twilight took a deep breath, collected herself, and focused on the field she had wrapped around Alexandria’s injured arm causing it to glow brighter. Nodding once she vanished as the shield winked out of existence.
Twilight reappeared fifteen hundred feet above where she had been standing and began to tumble erratically through the air. Getting her wings open they caught the air with a snap and turned her tumble into a slowly descending spiral. Below, Alexandria had somehow managed to sink her hand into the massive neck of crawler and was spinning the mutated human to keep him between her and an increasingly monstrous Lung.
The battle below seemed like a stalemate, none of the combatants seemed able to truly hurt any of the others and Twilight was racking her brain for something she could do to help. She had circled down to about half her original height when something flew in and blasted lung off his feet. Then an individual in glowing armor arrived and drove an arcing spear into Lung driving him farther back. Dauntless. Right behind him slamming a fist into Crawler and allowing Alexandria to disengage was Assault.
The Protectorate was here! Armsmaster was sprinting towards the battle with his halberd and Miss Militia was keeping her distance bracing what looked like a tube of metal on her shoulder. Assault jumped backwards and something shot from the tube and exploded against crawler’s side leaving pockmarks of injuries that healed over almost as fast as they appeared.
At the edge of the zone of destruction Twilight eyes were drawn to two gigantic humans marching towards the battle while popping sounds and small explosions echoed from the direction they were coming from.
“Twilight Sparkle!” Crawler screamed as Alexandria and Assault pummeled him from opposite sides. “None here can harm me, no prison will hold me, eventually I will grow tired of this and I will keep my promise.” He paused to leap backwards and nearly landed on top of Dauntless who just managed to disengage from Lung and roll out of the way.
The two giantesses and a storm of floating metal descended upon Lung freeing up Dauntless, Miss Militia, and Armsmaster to fight Crawler. Even with the newly arrived reinforcements Twilight couldn’t help but feel what the beast had said was true. The heroes could not seem to inflict any lasting damage on him. Someone was going to get hurt, people were going to die, people were probably already dead from that massive explosion earlier. Twilight felt inside herself for the harmony that had helped her reach Mimi, but it seemed distant, separated from her as if by a wall she couldn’t breach.
An idea came to her then and something settled heavily over Twilight’s heart. So much of herself had been lost when she arrived on this world, and a few days ago she had gotten a lot of that back. Now, she knew she was about to lose something of herself again. What did it say about her that she had even thought of what she was about to do? This was a decision that wasn’t going to be made it the throws of despair and half out of her mind. It was one she was going to make with malice aforethought, because she wasn’t smart enough to think of anything else. Horn glowing brightly, she circled lower to the battle as she concentrated on the spell she was going to perform.
With a flash she teleported to the ground beside Alexandria and cast a plane of force between the heroes and Crawler bisecting several of his tentacles in the process. Crawler backed up and his inequine maw opened to display rows of viscous and misshaped teeth in what might have been an attempt at a smile. Alexandria stood beside her while the other heroes used the temporary safety to back off and talk quickly with each other. About a block behind Crawler, a forest of twisting iron beams seemed to be hemming Lung in while a glowing white ball unleashed blinding beams of light from above onto his back.
“Are these shields all you can do?” Crawler growled dismissively.
“Please, stop. Why are you doing this?” Twilight asked with resignation and a last desperate hope as her horn grew brighter.
“I’m doing this Twilight Sparkle,” He charged forward and smashed his claws against the shield causing it to ripple and shudder, “because you are not stopping me.” Then he spun and sprinted towards the capes attacking Lung. With a deafening crack Twilight cast her spell and Crawler’s sprint turned into an uncontrolled slide as his entire body from mid back to rear legs and the surrounding ground turned to water and splashed around what remained of him.
Crawler released an agonized gurgle and drug himself on three legs, entrails hanging behind him as he turned back to face Twilight. If anything that horrible smile was wider. She could see however that regardless of the catastrophic damage she had done, his body was repairing itself faster than she would have thought possible. Twilight panted in exertion while Miss Militia launched another exploding projectile and Dauntless rocketed forward with his electric spear and shield again.
“He won’t stop, why won’t he stop?” Twilight asked quietly as she charged another spell. “He’s not going to is he?” Alexandria still standing beside her didn’t take her eyes off the fight while she responded.
“No, he will not.” Twilight’s horn grew brighter still and her wings flared open as purple streamers of light began to flare of her feathers.
“Tell them to get away from him!” Apparently Alexandria had her communications device on because without her speaking the Protectorate capes broke away from Crawler instantly. Twilight’s and Crawler’s bodies were outlined in purple and connected by a thin strand of shimmering light. Crawler paused as if curious and content to see what Twilight would do. The strand of light snapped and Crawler launched skyward as Twilight dropped to the ground, eyes filled with tears as she watched the rapidly dwindling form disappearing into the atmosphere.
Alexandria didn’t stay, instead she flew over to Armsmaster who tossed her his halberd. She then flew towards the fight with Lung which had slowly been drifting farther from their location. Dauntless and Assault followed while Armsmaster and Miss Militia walked over to where Twilight was laying on the ground. With a bluntness Twilight had come to expect from Armsmaster he spoke.
“What did you do?”
“I, I reversed gravity on his body. He wasn’t going to stop. He said he would kill people, and he wasn’t going to stop.” Twilight said with a sniffle.
“Twilight,” Miss Militia said gently. “When will it where off? Where will he come down?”
“It won’t, he won’t.” Twilight paused and tried to collect herself. “Are the others okay? What are we going to do about Lung? Do they need help?” She got back to her hooves slowly and turned to look in that direction, but couldn’t see anything beyond the attacks of the flying globe of light and occasional eruptions of flame. Armsmaster spoke again.
“Alexandria has a plan for Lung. Miss Militia will stay with you, I’m going to meet up with Faultline, she say’s they have a lead on Oni Lee.” With that he ran towards his motorcycle and a minute later speed away towards the north. Twilight frowned after him and then turned back to look at ongoing battle with Lung and repeated her questions.
“Is everyone okay? Should we go help?”
“There were likely a good number of civilians and members of the ABB that were killed in the initial blast. Of those fighting the ABB I believe Alexandria’s injury is the worst so far.” Miss Militia said as she softly laid a hand on Twilight’s neck. “If Alexandria says she has a plan and hasn’t called for us, then I trust her. She is not one to pass up an advantage if our participation could provide her one. You have done a good thing Twilight Sparkle. Countless lives would have been lost had those bombs gone off someplace more populated. Crawler has killed many and would have killed many more had you not stopped him.”
Twilight flinched but didn’t respond. She had taken one of her precious memories, magic that Princess Celestia had taught her with love, and used it to kill someone. She believed what Miss Militia said, that her actions had saved peoples lives. She believed it and thats why she had done what she did. A selfish part of herself however, crying and wrapped tightly around her memories, disagreed. It didn’t think it was worth it at all.
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3857980
On Mimi - Many of the things you are thinking here will be a part of the next chapter
On hiding - Chapter 6, part 2 addresses this I think ;)
On wards, future accommodations - While it might be best / safest for Twilight, Twilight herself would need to be convinced she was not putting her friends in unreasonable danger by staying there, even if they were trying to keep it secret. Members of the Nine have found her 3 times now, so she's a little paranoid about it. Discussions along these lines likely to appear in chapter 7.
On Twilight Freakout over Alicornization - Alluded to this a little in chapter 6, part 2. Mainly though there are so many horrible things going on that she's had to push thinking about her change down her priority list, and so she's trying to do her best and just accept it for now because there are so many things to do/villains to defeat/friends to save. Worry and anxiety about it is lurking there under the surface, and will likely bubble up from time to time when she has a moment to catch her breath.
3857038
Scum of the city - in this fic you will likely get to see quite a few of them ;)
3854623
If the last line of chapter 6, part 1 was too much levity, hopefully the end of chapter 6, part 2 was dour enough for you
Thanks for the feedback and I hope it continues to entertain you as it progresses.
3859715
True on the wards and how Twilight might feel she is putting the others in danger with her presence alone, secret as it might be, but ... with how things went down in part 2, where a member of the slaughterhouse showed willingness to go on a random civilian killing spree just to draw her out, it has sort of become a situation of it not mattering where she hides out - because these guys seem perfectly willing to lash out at whatever is closest if that means ruffling her newfound feathers.
That being the case, I'd imagine she would want to stay in the place that is, at least, more full of people that can actively defend themselves in case of an attack in case she 'does' get tracked down, and if they lash out at random locations in the city, chances are she would have the fastest way of finding out if she is in the Protectorate building as they likely have the best/swiftest information coverage and someone should always be around to inform her.
--
That aside, dang, I liked the second part - especially the line in the end about Twilight feeling as if she has given up something precious by being forced to apply Celestia's teachings to kill. Though given what she was facing, I don't thin Celestia would disapprove too much - reminds me of what Luna said in one other fict when a similar subject came up: "When the life of a friend or an innocent is on the line, the worst you can do is stand aside and do nothing". I believe that sort of applies here (Hence the part of her that actually disagrees being the one labeled "selfish", no doubt. Well played).
Though I must say I wonder about one thing - why didn't Twilight try disabling the Crawler first? And by disable I don't mean obliterating half of its body by turning it to water (dang, that's pretty ruthless actually), but by transforming him in to ... i dunno, a hamster or a potted plant? Or something equally harmless, then put it away and figure out what to do with it later.
Her TK should also be quite capable of simply holding down whatever she wants to, well, hold down - she can easily exert force in excess of several hundred tons (a hell of a lot more actually, seeing how many and how big of a number of stones she levitated when fixing the dam in Mare Do Well), and once you lift someone off the ground they have no leverage to do anything anyway.
Granted, there could be reasons why either would have failed against that beast, but I would have sort of expected her to at least try before flinging him in to outer space (on that note, in this case I will go with a "I don't believe it's dead before I see the body - it could have adapted to airless environment, assuming it had to breathe in the first place at this point. Though granted, if the gravity reversal is indeed permanent, I guess it wouldn't matter much).
On another note, seeing how Alexandria reacted to the implications about Alicorn immortality (or longevity), I figure Twilight had failed to mention this aspect about her mentor before? :P More than that, I wonder if she has realized that she herself is sharing the same traits now, it almost sounded like she hasn't made the connection yet.
Though I guess it could be, as you said, her trying not to think about it and focusing on more immediate and pressing problems. While the change must be scary and confusing to go through, that's hardly the worst thing that has happened to her lately - quite the contrary, confusion and uncertainty regarding as to why aside. And she will probably need every single advantage that comes with it, heh. I loved how Twilight "improvised" in the face of lacing proper flight just yet and instead was conjuring clouds to walk on in order to claim the high-ground. (And having to learn how to undo her machinations in order not to leave a trail :P)
On another note, I wonder if Equestria's side of things will come in to play at all? In this chapter we had a mention there were scientists trying to figure how to contact Twilight's world, which makes me wonder if Celestia isn't attempting something similar from her own end to try and track Twilight down? And I imagine she, of all the parties involved, might have the best idea of where to start to replicate Twilight's little stunt. (Or Luna, if she has recovered enough).
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Though I must say I wonder about one thing - why didn't Twilight try disabling the Crawler first? And by disable I don't mean obliterating half of its body by turning it to water (dang, that's pretty ruthless actually), but by transforming him in to ... i dunno, a hamster or a potted plant? Or something equally harmless, then put it away and figure out what to do with it later.
In chapter 2? I think, Twilight mentions how there are two kinds of transmutations, temporary and permanent and that permanent transmutations require a lot of power and they all require extensive study to perform. We see her in the show struggle to turn apples to oranges, Crawler is enormous and to transmute that much mass she needed the simplest pattern she knew and enough power to nearly exhaust her. Her temporary potted planting of her parents was essentially a freak occurrence do to her power being out of control.
Her TK should also be quite capable of simply holding down whatever she wants to
True, and she could, but it also would require constant application of her power on a being that adapts to powers that are being used on him. Crawler attacked her shield several times so she knows the force she would need to apply. Essentially she took Alexandria and Crawler at their word "he adapts, few things hurt him, and no prison will hold him for long" which was backed up from her observations on how quickly he healed and how little actually hurt him.
After Jack and having the others tell her about the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine and what they do over the past few days, she was not willing to risk attempting to contain him with the possibility that he would escape and keep his promise to murder people indiscriminately. It's a decision that cost her something, regardless of how right or wrong it was.
I wonder if she has realized that she herself is sharing the same traits now, it almost sounded like she hasn't made the connection yet.
Not even a little bit, because that would involve acknowledging she was on par with Celestia. Which is a idea so foriegn to her that someone would need to hit her in the face with it for the connections to be made.
Worm?! Oh fuck yes, strapped in and ready for launch.
Except I need to read the whole blasted story first...
You'll see me later.
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On the other end of transformations though, we have her transforming four mice in to horses - a feat where each being ended up order of magnitudes larger than their starting state, and that one didn't seem to phase her at all - permanent vs temporary of course, but temporary would have worked well enough to figure out what to do with him, I imagine. I wonder what's the difference to make for such a large gap in apparent effort needed (I doubt she is so much more intimately familiar with mice and horses as opposed to apples and oranges that the former comes naturally to her
). Though I guess you could say that with Crawler it would have taken some trial and error that she didn't necessarily have the time to conduct.
Regarding TK though, it doesn't really matter how physically strong Crawler is - he could have the strength to tear the world in two and it still wouldn't even enter the equation, as all she need to do is lift him from the ground and watch him flail uselessly in the air. All that strength is meaningless if something isn't in reach to apply it on.
She doesn't necessarily need to try and literally immobilize him as a statue, not in immediate fashion at least, just keep him floating for a while - if for no other reason than to get a moment of respite and ask the others whether they have any ideas on how to deal with that thing. Though I can see how she would have wanted a more ... surefire ... solution. I don't think I would buy Crawler being able to adapt to TK though - that's simple exertion of force, and if he could "evolve" to the point where physical force doesn't work on him, then I imagine he would lose the ability to interact with the physical world ... which would be hilarious in its own right
Which means that someone is going to do so reasonably soon, I imagine (or not). Her reaction upon computing the fact should be quite amusing ... assuming her brain doesn't come up with a blue screen of death.
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This is all true, but remember - Twilight knows nothing about Crawler besides the general description she was just given in the heat of battle. She comes from a world where ponies cast a much more general and versatile brand of magic than parahumans, and her thinking defaults to that experience. In equestria counters to TK have probably been around for thousands of years. This would color her thinking even though she has picked up that humans use magic very differently.
I don't either
but Twilight doesn't know whether he can or not
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On the transmuting Crawler front, there's the additional difficulty that rearranging his physical body is literally what his power does, I don't think you could rely on changes Twilight made taking hold. She'd be fighting his power directly trying to keep him transformed, the same way she was fighting it directly injuring him.
Also:
Hah!
Just had to comment on this chapter because.
Now, back to catching up.
Only five of the nine left
Skitter should be grateful her lair didn't get obliterated by a rainbow-colored explosion.
So Crawler's not really dead, just banished
into deep spaceto the moon? Trollestia approves....you know, She really didn't need to freak out about Crawler. She didn't kill him. He's fully capable of surviving in space and will doubtless end up terrorizing space ships in the 23rd century. What she did to him was banish him...which is perfectly consistent with how Equestria handles their most dangerous malefactors.
Nitpicks:
were
The "In" before "another time" is optional IMO, but the "in" before "another place" is not.
...
subtlety
city, (comma)
Of the group's three
any way
While there is a grammatically correct interpretation of this sentence, I am pretty sure you meant "object too much" (object to great degree) rather than "object to much" (object to a large portion).
its
in flames, or
with flames
Crawler (caps)
Lung
Crawler's (caps)
in the throes
wear (not where)
says
people's
that's
Alexandria's injury seems to be a deviation of Worm's canon. She only had a glass eye due to fighting Siberian, the only one capable causing damage aside of Skitter. So losing half an arm doesn't fit my expectations.
6504840 It was caught in a time freeze bomb. Messing with time and/or using all dimensions at once can still hurt her.
wear*
Also, she launched him into space!?
yessssssssssss
9046123 Reverse gravity spell. Continuous acceleration upwards at 9.8 m/s. After 1200 seconds, or 20 minutes he will be past Earth's escape velocity. Actually, it will take slightly longer, because by the end of those 20 minutes, he will be 6000 km above the Earth's surface, where the gravitational pull is just over 1/4 of surface gravity, so the inverse gravity will also be 1/4.