110. The Trap is Sprung
The first rays of dawn peeked over the horizon, alighting the besieged city of Trotsdale. The battle had raged on throughout the night. Even now went on in the city, the sounds of snarling undead and the yelling of soldiers filling the air like some kind of twisted symphony. The landscape around Trotsdale is steadily burning, the flames eating their way across the once lush grass. A stream of undead pours into the smoking city through each of the gates and through multiple breaches in the walls.
The outer circle of the city is in ruins, demolished by siege catapults and rampaging undead. The Equestrian forces have pulled back to an inner circle, using the narrow streets to funnel the undead to them in manageable numbers.
I take a quick moment to catch my breath, resting my hands on my knees. I'm tired. I'm a college student. I wasn't built to do something like this. Even with all of the training and work I've done to bulk myself up, I was never really made for battle. I can still fight, but I'm breathing noticeably harder than before.
The amount of undead that we've killed thus far has started to pile up in the street, so Shining Armor had given the order to pull back further to a clearer location. Right now, we're formed up in ranks just in front of a gap between two buildings. In this part of the city, the buildings are arranged in concentric semi-circles around the base of the mountainside, with the town hall at its very center, much further in.
“Get ready, here they come again!” Shining Armor announces, once again wiping his brow free of sweat. I groan and lift myself up as well, gripping my sword. Applejack's idea of collapsing the buildings further up to slow them down was a good idea, but it didn't buy us more than a few minutes as the Oppressed climbed over the rubble to get to us.
The Oppressed reach street level once more and run towards us, two burly minotaurs leading the way. At Shining Armor's command, flaming arrows streak down from the rooftops near us, peppering the enemy lines and rendering any undead they hit alight. While initially ineffective, the flames would quickly eat away at their flesh until they collapsed, unable to move.
The pegasi drop boulders down upon them as well, hampering their progress even further. They've been much more cautious since losing several of their number to General Mist's attacks. Despite my efforts to keep her away, Mist is now in the city, hiding amongst her army. Every so often, she'll leap out of hiding to attack us with piercing beams of magic.
The undead reach us once more, and I rush to meet them along with the rest of our front line. I immediately find myself confronted by a countless number of undead. The first group I come across is a minotaur supported by several undead ponies. When the ponies leap at me, I lift my blade and slice into them, until they're reduced to chunks that fall on either side of me. The minotaur lowers its head and attempts to ram me with its razor sharp horns, but I'm more than ready for it.
I shove my blade in the street beside me to free up my hands, and then I catch both horns with my hands. The soldiers around me give me a bit of a berth when they see my magic flare up around me. The minotaur doesn't even budge me. Please, it has to be an Oppressed to give me any kind of threat.
With a yell, I grasp the minotaur by the head and hurl it overhead right back into the enemy lines, bowling over several ranks worth of undead with the creature's bulk. Without missing a beat, the sword is back in my hands and I'm swinging it overhead. An arc of cutting green magic emits from the blade and slices the minotaur apart before dissipating on an Oppressed beneath it. Yeah, it was Vanta that inspired that technique, but it's one of the only ones that I've figured out how to do with this new magic.
Beside me, Pterax and Applejack are fighting hard to keep any undead from slipping past our lines. They're working incredibly well together, as both of them are using solely physical attacks in order to beat down the threatening Oppressed. Pterax is now in the form of a large minotaur with steel blue skin, bulging muscles, and two razor sharp horns. Standing several feet above me, he makes an imposing sight.
“On yer left!” Applejack warns Pterax just in time of another undead minotaur approaching him. The changeling grunts in acknowledgment and rushes the charging minotaur. He cleverly sidesteps the monster's charge, grabbing its arm as it passes him. Using its own momentum against it, Pterax throws it through the air towards Applejack, who knocks its head right off its body with a powerful buck.
“Captain!” Rainbow Dash calls to Shining Armor from above, having just delivered a boulder of her own onto the enemy. However, she looks more frantic than pleased. Shining Armor looks up at the yell, his eyes fixating on her. Rainbow jabs her hoof towards the enemy. “They're heading for the side streets!”
“Damn, they're trying to flank us!” Shining Armor curses. I vaguely hear him from my position on the front lines. I had misjudged the momentum of a charging Oppressed, and as such there was now a cut oozing blood on my shoulder. Its talon had carved right through my magical protection as if it wasn't even there, living true to its nature.
When Shining Armor's words hit home, I gasp with alarm. If we're flanked, we're totally fucked. We're only barely holding them back as it is, and that's only going to last as long as we have fresh soldiers, or until the powerhouses like me get tired.
“Collapse the buildin's again?” Applejack suggests as she slams the heads of two Oppressed together.
Shining Armor nods and directs a group of soldiers to do as suggested. “Good idea, but all that's going to do is buy us a little time,” the captain reminds her. The way this area is structured is very similar to city blocks in my time. There are buildings running lengthwise, and they're packed closely together with streets running all the way around them. Because of that, the enemy can close in around us on three sides if they move around the buildings on either side of us. “Pinkie Pie! I need those cannons up and running! Get ready to intercept hostiles on the left flank!”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie obligingly positions her organ cannons in a row on the left side of our army. At the same time, the buildings adjacent to the ones in front of us collapse as their supports are blasted away by magic, barring the street and preventing the undead from flanking us for at least several more minutes.
“Seth! I'm diverting some ponies to the right flank, and I want you to lead them. You need to hold out until I can organize reinforcements.” Shining Armor surprisingly tells me next, indicating the street in question. Wait seriously? He's actually putting me in command of part of the army? When he sees me hesitate, he stomps his hoof. “Double time, you hear me? Get moving!”
“Yes, sir!” I snap out on instinct, as it's the first thing that comes to mind. I feel a little stupid for saying it like that, because I've never called anyone sir ever, but I don't dwell on it. I'm pulling back from the front lines, allowing Pterax and Applejack to fill in the gap I leave behind.
Accompanied by several scores of soldiers, I move to the right flank, where the ponies that had been sent to collapse the buildings are now returning from. Once we're in position, I merge with the first row of ponies. If I get surrounded, I'm screwed, and I can't afford to let that happen. I never thought I'd say this, but I have too much to live for to die here.
As expected, it isn't long before we spot the undead circumventing the fallen building and heading directly for us. From behind me, I can hear Pinkie's cannons firing, so I assume that they're getting attacked from that side now too. Seriously, where the hell are the other troops? This wouldn't be happening if we were organized enough to cover every side street.
Their lines meet ours once more, hitting us on three sides all at once. Shining Armor is leading the front, Pinkie is defending the left flank, and I'm here, hacking and slashing through any undead that gets close. However, our forces are spread out and their momentum doesn't ever slow, so it isn't long before we're pressed against the rest of our troops with nowhere to go.
“Sorry for the wait, everypony! I'm here with your relief!” From the other side of the enemies that we're fighting, another whole group of soldiers slams into their other side, led by Spitfire and Soarin, who were leading the Equestrian forces near the waterfront.
“Finally! Where the hell have you all been?” I demand, spurred on by the arrival of our reinforcements.
“The enemy cut off our retreat with a lucky shot by their catapults,” Spitfire answers, hurling a boulder down onto an Oppressed, crushing it. “We're through now; we're looking to meet up with the rest of you and reinforce the inner circle. Princess Luna's orders.”
Between Spitfire's forces and mine, we quickly dispatch the undead that had been trying to flank us, and we quickly set up a defensive line between the buildings. Pinkie's cannons stop firing and I hear cheers from our troops, so I'm assuming the southern forces are here now, reinforcing our left flank. Keeping the city's map in my mind's eye, I deduce that the entirety of our forces are now forming a defensive line along the entire semi-circle of the middle city. That would make the most sense to me.
With Spitfire's blessing, I return to Shining Armor's side. The captain doesn't look at me as I approach, as he's too busy fighting off several Oppressed at once. I quickly join him, running through the Oppressed on the captain's immediate left, earning a grunt of thanks from him.
“How many are there?” Rainbow complains, swooping down beside me and supporting my left side. I can't help but feel a little empowered, fighting alongside her. Together, we cut and punch our way through the enemy, keeping our lines from getting pushed back any further.
“Too many. I only hope the griffons or changelings get here soon,” I say, panting, even as I jam my blade in the jaws of one particularly nasty Oppressed. I curse when the creature claws at my wrist. I attempt to dodge, but it manages to leave a shallow cut behind that stings like hell.
“Don't falter!” Shining Armor calls out in an attempt bolster the morale of the soldiers around us. “As long as we stand firm, they will not...!”
In the middle of the captain's speech, a building that looks like it used to be a strip mall in front of our defensive line explodes outwards, a bulky Mega Oppressed powering its way through the stone and plaster like a battering ram.
“Shi...!” is all I can get out of my mouth before the monster's arm plows through our front ranks, catching me on the side in the process. I'm knocked against the wall along with several other troops, scraping my skin along their armor.
“Take it down! We can't let it break our lines!” Shining Armor yells frantically, picking himself up from the ground. The Mega Oppressed is making a huge mess of the front lines, stampeding over our ponies and inflicting heavy damage. This time, there's no ballista to help us kill it.
Pterax once again turns into a dragon and attempts to constrict the Oppressed's movement, slamming against it with his scaled body. The Oppressed roars and fights back, slamming its meaty fist into Pterax's chest and forcing him back.
I pick myself up and retrieve my sword, even though there's not much I can do against that monster. No, instead I attack the undead threatening Pterax. The best I can do is keep them off of him while he fights it.
Unlike before, Pterax looks to be unable to fight it on an even level. This Mega Oppressed doesn't have a weakness like the ballista hole in the other one. The changeling is fighting hard, but he can't seem to do any lasting damage to the monster.
Pterax lunges forward with a hiss and extends his claws out for the creature's neck. The Oppressed powers through the blow seemingly unharmed and grabs Pterax's neck with one hand and slams him down on the ground, steadily choking him. Other soldiers rush to help, but the monster shrugs off any and all attacks by lesser weapons like swords and spears.
Applejack and I rush to assist him, but Shining Armor stops us with a barrier. “Stay back!” the captain warns us, just as the wind starts to pick up in the street in front of our defensive line. The wind intensifies to the point where the undead are physically being pushed by it. Holy shit, it looks like a fucking gale out there. What the hell is causing it?
Suddenly, a huge cloud of weapons surges from the street where the wind seems to be originating. Spears, swords, and arrows fly through the air like a storm of deadly hornets, thudding into the undead and obliterating everything within several meters of where we're standing.
Even the Mega Oppressed is knocked off of Pterax by the sheer force behind the wind and the many weapons ramming into its body. It hurtles end over end and bowls over any unfortunate undead in its path, until it hits a building and crashes into it. “What the hell is going on?” I ask, in awe of the winds of death that I just saw.
It starts to make sense when a smattering of cherry petals flutters through the street, just as the wind dies away. At that sight, the soldiers let out a rousing cheer.
“It's the Blossom Wind!”
“Commander Rose!”
On top of the building to our left is Rose herself, her eyes narrowed and riveted on the fallen form of the Mega Oppressed. Next to her is Twilight, and both of their horns are glowing with magic. That huge wind that we'd just seen must have been their doing, but I have no idea how they did it.
We don't have time to dwell on it. The Mega Oppressed stirs and gets to its hooves, looking like a misshapen pincushion with all of the weapons sticking out of it. However, the two unicorns are already on top of it.
Twilight grunts with exertion, using all of her mental strength to lift a huge spike fashioned out of rubble from the ruins of a nearby building. “Rose...hurry...” I hear her say, her voice strained from keeping that thing hanging in midair.
Rose obliges, her horn lighting up. It dawns on me what they're going to do once a massive pink hammer forms behind the spike. With a sound like thunder, the hammer slams into the back of the spike, just as Twilight releases it from her hold. The spike is propelled through the air with the momentum of a speeding train.
The Mega Oppressed stood no chance. Caught directly in the middle, the monster is pinned against the wall of a building, completely impaled. It flails its hooves around and roars loudly before finally falling limp.
“Yes! That's right! Stay away from my brother!” Twilight shrieks down at the undead, which are now climbing over the bodies of their fallen brethren to reach us. Beside her, Rose allows a rare smile to cross her face at their momentary victory.
“Reform the line! Get ready to meet them!” Shining Armor commands, spurring the troops into moving quickly.
“You all right there, sugarcube?” Applejack questions the changeling as she and I help him to his hooves. He's back in his normal form, but he's panting pretty hard.
“Yeah I'm...wait, what did you just call me?” Pterax asks, one brow shooting up. I would laugh, but there's no time to be amused. This surge of enemies is never ending.
“Skip it,” I tell him firmly. Now that he's on his hooves, I move back into the line. “We're holding them here, but I'm getting tired. I'm not sure how long I can last.”
“Don't worry. That's why we're here.” I'm surprised by Twilight hopping down from the roof and approaching me through the lines of soldiers. She lowers her head, her horn lighting up again. A cool feeling falls over my body, as if somepony had just upended a bucket of water over my head. Steadily, I feel the burning in my limbs ease, making it easier for me to move. “I can't keep you from being tired, but I can deaden the pain for you.”
“Thanks. And why are you on the front lines, anyway? You can't do a thing to them,” I ask, bending my limbs. Almost immediately, I have to turn and engage the undead that are charging at us anew. Twilight is just behind me, blasting any undead she can see that isn't an Oppressed. Anything her magic hits is blasted to pieces, revealing her strength compared to the average unicorn.
“The 2nd Regiment has been crafting powerful magical measures in the case of emergency. We've been ordered to come here and use them as we see fit,” Twilight answers, nailing an undead pony with her magic just as it was starting to approach her brother.
“Was that what that wind was?” I grunt, kicking away a wolf just long enough to deal with the two Oppressed menacing me. Three more take its place, causing me to take a few steps back in order to keep from being overwhelmed.
“Yes! It was Commander Rose's and my idea! We decided to use a magical amplification loop to increase the velocity of...” Twilight starts to explain, but then she cuts off with a squeak as an Oppressed orients on her. I shove her out of the way and cut the monster down.
“Idiot! Don’t explain the details in the middle of battle! Get back on the roof, like Rose is! Pick your targets from there and support us!” I yell at her. Twilight nods gratefully and teleports back to the roof, where Rose is firing beam after beam of magic downwards in an attempt to thin out the enemy numbers.
The fighting continues, our lines moving steadily back under the onslaught of the undead army. Even though we're managing to hold out, we're being pushed back. The Oppressed come at us like a flood, nullifying all of our magical attacks and pushing us back with sheer momentum. Slowly, but surely, we're retreating towards the town hall. If that gets taken, we've essentially lost the city, and we'll have to retreat through the mountains.
A bright beam of white magic lances up through the air, causing me to curse and prepare my magic. That means Mist is trying to cause trouble again. However, there's no sign of her in my line of sight. Hold on a second, she was firing up in the sky. What the fuck was she aiming at?
“Incoming!” Rose calls from her position on the roof top. Casting my gaze upward, I notice a lone pegasus mare spiraling downwards from high in the air, smoke issuing from her left wing. The pegasus plummets through the air, looking to land right in the middle of the enemy forces, which would no doubt spell her end.
“I've got her!” Rapidfire swoops through the air and catches the falling pegasus, adjusting his momentum and path of travel to keep from injuring her even further. In the process, he attracts General Mist's attention, who starts firing up at him from her position behind her army. “Waah!”
“That's it,” I snap, and then I take to the air, speeding to Rapidfire and defending him from the beams of magic heading for him. “I'm sick of this bitch!”
I lift my hand and form a wavering orb of magic at my fingertip. With a yell, I thrust my arm forward and hurl the orb right for where Mist is taking cover behind a building. She looks up and she quickly scatters, right before the ground where she had just been standing explodes and erupts with a large pillar of lime green power, decimating any normal undead in the area and completely destroying the structures nearby.
I don't know if I got her, but at the very least she won't poke her head out for a while. Fucking coward won't face me head on, because she knows she can't take me.
When I return back to the ground, Shining Armor has fallen back from the front lines and is standing just inside the nearby building, next to the wounded pegasus. Spitfire and Rainbow are with him. In their absence, more of our soldiers rushed forward to fill the gap.
“What's going on? Who is that?” I demand, stepping inside the building as well. It better be important, because we don't have time to waste standing back here. Because I don't see any kind of armor on her, I'm compelled to ask, “Is that a civilian!?”
The pegasus lying wounded on the ground has a mint green coat almost like Lyra's, except her mane is a bright orange and slicked back over her head. She's still conscious, though she looks to be in shock, judging from how she's looking at her badly burned and useless wing with wide, disbelieving eyes. She's starting to hyperventilate, emitting pained cries from her muzzle.
“Hey. Hey! Look at me. I need you to calm down,” Shining Armor says to the pegasus compassionately, but firmly. The pegasus nods and attempts to breathe steadily, but she still looks terrified out of her mind. “That's better. What's your name?”
“L..Lightning Dust...” the pegasus manages to get out, looking up at us.
“Hey, I know her,” Spitfire emits in surprise, eyes sparking with recognition. “She's a really skilled flier from Cloudsdale.”
“Okay, Lightning Dust. We're going to make sure you get someplace safe,” Shining Armor states, still in that same firm tone.
“Okay...” Lightning Dust says, nodding shakily, but then she suddenly shakes herself, as if remembering something. “Wait, no, we don't have time for this! Cloudsdale is under attack!”
There's a shocked silence in the room for half a second, and then everypony reacts with shock and horror. Rainbow and Spitfire look the most impacted by that.
“What? Cloudsdale!? No way!” Rainbow gasps, looking understandably horrified. She mentioned to me once that she grew up there.
“Under attack by what?” Spitfire demands, taking a step closer to Lightning.
“I...I don't know! They were monsters, and...they came out of the ground!” Lightning answers, shuddering at the memory. “They were assaulting the city guard before we even knew what was going on...I came as fast as I could to warn the princesses.”
“Monsters? Out of the ground? That's impossible. We've been over the maps of the documented tunnels, and there's no entrances anywhere near Cloudsdale's usual resting place,” Shining Armor responds. “How did they get there without us seeing them?”
“They must have made a new tunnel,” I suggest, even though I'm trying hard not to hyperventilate myself at how much more complicated this whole situation just got. Even though we're struggling just trying to live here, Sombra has enough forces to attack Cloudsdale too?
“That would take much too long, and the resulting tremors that such an endeavor would cause would have alerted the smaller settlements in that area,” Shining Armor argues. “There's no way they'd be able to keep a tunneling effort hidden from us...unless...”
“They couldn't get messages to us,” Spitfire completes, realization dawning on both their faces. I start to get it too, and dread fills my heart. “It was a trap.”
“We've been so busy fortifying and preparing for an attack on Trotsdale; we never thought the attack could come from anywhere else,” I complete for them. “But why do they want Cloudsdale? It's just a bunch of clouds right?”
All of the ponies in the room look at me as if I'd just spewed pure idiocy from my mouth. I feel like I'm missing some important context here. “Seth. Cloudsdale has the weather factory,” Rainbow explains. Oh....shit. Somehow I completely forgot about that.
“If they take Cloudsdale, and control of the weather factory with it, they can lay waste to Equestria!” Spitfire shouts. “We have to stop them!”
“You're right, but we don't have the troops to spare. Besides, only pegasi can go to Cloudsdale,” Shining Armor states, anxiety and fear on his face for the first time since the battle began. He then calls to one of the pegasi outside. “You! Soldier! Get this message to the princesses, and fast, you hear me!?”
“Yes sir!” The pegasus shoots off like a rocket.
“No troops to spare? To Tartarus with that! I can tell you right now: I'm going to Cloudsdale!” Rainbow asserts, determination stamped on her features. “Lightning Dust, how many monsters were there?”
“H-Hundreds!” Lightning stammers with fright. Shit, this really is the worst kind of situation. Send a huge force to Trotsdale to scare the shit out of us, and while we're running around shit scared, take the objective with a smaller force while it's mostly undefended.
“I'm going too. That's my home,” Spitfire states, stamping the ground with her hoof. She moves to stand next to Rainbow. “Even if it's just the two of us.”
“It won't be. I'm going with you,” I say, having an idea, causing the different ponies to look at me as if I'm insane.
“What? No, Seth, we need you here,” Shining Armor tells me firmly.
“Look, we don't have time to argue. I'd be of much more use at Cloudsdale. As far as I know, the Oppressed can't fly, so I'd be able to use my magic to its fullest there. Here, I'm just a foot soldier,” I explain quickly. Before Shining Armor can protest, I move to stand with Spitfire and Rainbow, both of whom look at me gratefully.
“You have a point...but,” Shining Armor starts to say, but then he's interrupted when a scroll materializes in midair just above my head in a burst of golden light. “Is that...Princess Celestia's magic?”
I grab the scroll and quickly unroll it, casting my eyes over what's written within. I can tell it was written very hastily, likely because Celestia is fighting herself somewhere. These are orders, sent directly to me due to the magical message link between us.
“Okay. I've been pretty much ordered to go to Cloudsale. Spitfire, you have command of the operation, and you have permission to take half of the Pegasus Corps with us,” I reveal, looking at Spitfire even though I'm essentially addressing everypony the room.
“Got it. Anything else?” Spitfire responds smartly. Next to her, Rainbow is sighing with relief, as is Lightning Dust.
“Yeah, one last thing. Celestia very specifically ordered that we take Pterax with us,” I answer her. They look about as confused as I do about that, but I'm sure that Celestia has a good reason for it.
“What? But...” Shining Armor starts to protest. No doubt he wants to keep Pterax around in case another Mega Oppressed shows up.
“Captain! We need your help out here! They're pressing hard!” a soldier cries from outside. The snarls from the undead is getting closer, meaning the line is being pushed back further. Shining Armor curses and picks up his bardiche, getting ready to get back to it.
“Damn, we have no time! Okay, you get going and take your pegasi with you. I'll keep up the defense and get Lightning Dust somewhere safe,” Shining Armor commands us. Rainbow salutes smartly, while Spitfire and I just nod.
“Can you hold out here without us?” I ask worriedly. It's been difficult even with us here. I can't help but worry that if we leave now, the city will fall because we weren't here.
“Don't worry, I'll do my job. As long as the princesses still stand, we will not fall,” Shining Armor assures me. “Additionally, it can't be too much longer before the griffons get here. Go. You can't let Sombra have the weather factory.”
“Alright. Come on, you two. You're under my command now,” Spitfire tells the two of us. Rainbow and I nod. I don't care who I'm following, as long as we're doing what needs to be done. “Let's move! We've got a city to save.”
Pterax is understandably confused when we pull him away from the front lines, but he quickly joins us in the skies when he hears the situation. He was confused as to why Celestia ordered him to go, however. At this point, I don't care. It's probably because he can fly and use magic at the same time.
While Rainbow and Spitfire go on ahead and rally the other pegasi, I fly above the front lines and fire streams of magic down on the enemy in an attempt to keep Mist behind cover. I don't want her figuring out what we're doing. For all I know, she can contact the force attacking Cloudsdale and let them know we're coming.
Now that I think about it, this explains why I haven't seen any flying undead attacking Trotsdale. I always thought it was a little odd, but now it makes sense. They've all gone to Cloudsdale while we were distracted fighting off the main force. Fuck you, Sombra, for pulling one over on us.
“We're ready to go, Seth. Let's get flying!” Spitfire orders me, swooping in beside me. In her hooves is a boulder, which she hurls down on the enemy forces just for good measure. Rainbow and Pterax fly in on my other side. Behind us are a flock of pegasi, each one of them looking ahead with hardened eyes, determined to save Cloudsdale.
Together, we climb into the skies above Trotsdale. As expected, we quickly draw Mist's attention, but there isn't much she can do apart from fire up at us, but even that halts once Twilight and Rose target her immediately.
Now, I get the first look at the battlefield from above. I wince, looking at the huge number of undead still left for the defenders to defeat. There's still hundreds of them, but at least now I can see the edge of their army a few meters away from the main gate. Compared to them, our defenders appear as a large circle of gold, holding fast against their defense. We've taken a lot of losses, but I can see from here that for every pony that's fallen, we've killed a hundred more undead. If we can keep that up, we might have a chance.
Luna is fighting hard on the southern line, blasting undead here and there, refusing to give up any ground to the enemy. On the waterfront edge, Celestia herself has taken the battlefield, and she's wreaking havoc. In a whirlwind of golden destruction, she annihilates Oppressed and normal undead alike with physical attacks and magical prowess, respectively.
I try to take a glance at the horizon to see if the griffons are on their way, but the view of Baltimare and the sea is blocked by the mountains. Eventually, we leave the battlefield behind, moving swiftly towards Cloudsdale. If we move as fast as we can, we'll get there in half a day at the latest.
According to what I've heard from Rainbow, Cloudsdale tends to move around depending on where it's needed, which is what Shining Armor meant by its “usual resting place.” According to the map, the usual resting place of Cloudsdale is a short distance northwest from Canterlot, just east of the railroad heading to the frozen wastes.
“You know, this is not how I wanted to go back to Cloudsdale,” Rainbow grumbles angrily from her position next to me, after several hours of flying. The three of us are flying ahead of the rest of the group by several meters. She and Spitfire are easily keeping pace with me, though Pterax is lagging behind with the rest.
“What are you talking about?” I ask her curiously. I regret it a second later, because it's obvious. She didn't want to go back to see it under attack like this.
“Because I was actually going to...uh...” Rainbow trails off for a moment, a light blush forming on her face. “...ask you to come with me sometime! It was gonna be so awesome! You and I were gonna see the sights, tour the weather factory, and visit all the cool shops! You know...so you could see the place where I grew up.”
I honestly don't have a response to that. All I feel is pure emotion. Love for the stupid, sappy pony next to me and...you know, I didn't think it was possible to hate Sombra more than I already do, but I've been proven wrong. I hate him even more for ruining Rainbow's innocent dream of taking me to her hometown.
“...Tell you what,” I say, an idea coming to mind. This is going to be pretty sappy, but it's no sappier than what Rainbow just said to me. I turn my head to look at Rainbow, who's looking at me curiously. “When all this is over and Sombra is six feet under...we should get away for a while.”
“Get away?”
“Yeah. Just, take a vacation and fly all over Equestria for a while. It would be just you and me. How's that sound?” I can't believe I'm saying all of this, but it just feels right.
“You mean like a cross country flight? That sounds so cool! We'd fly through all the gorges, over the waterfalls, through the mountains. We'd even go camping in the wild like Daring Do does, and then we'd...” Rainbow shoves a hoof in her own mouth to shut herself up before she gets too excited. She takes a deep breath, and then sighs. “Yeah. That would be awesome. You just better make sure you take down Sombra beforehoof, okay?”
I reach out and grasp one of Rainbow's hooves, ignoring Spitfire near us. It'll only be for a second anyway. “Okay. It's a promise.”
With that, we fall silent, content in our promise. Now, we can turn our gaze towards the future. Towards Cloudsdale, and whatever creatures are awaiting us.
I'm off to save Rainbow's hometown.
Stats
Page generated in 0.043 seconds
Total duration
1,070 users online
2,465,943 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Lovin' how this is progressing.
The battle had raged on throughout the night.Even now went on in the city, the sounds of snarling undead and the yelling of soldiers filling the air like some kind of twisted symphony.
Where the italics are, there needs to be a space. That's all the errors I saw, great job with this chapter! Can't wait to see the next one!
Hmm, undead somehow managing to dig an extensive tunnel from the deep north all the way underneath Cloudsdale without alerting anyone because somehow digging a large cave doesn't create any tremors or vibrations that someone might notice, and that Cloudsdale is FLOATING in the sky, so the only logical things that can get up there should be undead flyers and/or magic casters. I see the flaw of digging all the way there unless they have started digging way before the battle at the Crystal Empire and picked immediately Cloudsdale as an important target. And seeing how their forces mainly consists of undead, and people are dying all around them it would be wise to burn their dead to prevent them from coming back to kill them.
Man normal zombies are easy to deal with but when you throw in those that are capable of flying and/or magic and are immune to magic itself, that is just straight up cheating, they really need to start making guns and shit. Damn Seth your in for several harsh fights, you better be prepared to see more dead ponies.
aaaaw sh
now we are getting into the kind of fights i loves, the aerial combat, dog fights, and aces!....probably not how flying ponies fight but i will imagine it anyway. 
Fuck there no word to explain how much i liked this chapter and the emotion i got while reading it
Clicking on the music link and hearing an add for a crappy fast food restaurant that will remain unnamed kinda killed the bad-arse there for a second.
6015790
Adblocker, my friend~
Shit. Now one of them is going to die. Never make plans for after a battle. The rules of being a story will usually make it end tragically.
6016433 I'm too lazy mate. And it makes me feel like a dick when I go on sites like FIMFiction which are run by ads (the ones I like at least).
On another note, there's a few ways I can think of to kill a mega-opressed.
1) Rail-gun. Grab something to use as a slug, and a team of unicorns creating a unidirectional acceleration field. With a magnetic slug, this can be performed with magnetic fields instead, which means it can be performed non-magically if prepared in advance. (A lightning bolt arcing through a barrel will create some serious electromagnetic fields).
2) Moondust gale. Moondust is, unlike terrestrial sand, uneroded. What that means is that rather than small grains of crystalline lattice, they're sharp little chunks of powdered meteor and stone, anywhere from the size of a pebble to a grain of sand. If Luna could summon up some and then make a whirlwind out of it, it'd quickly start striping anything caught in it to bone. Alternately, if she can get a steady supply, treat it like a sandblaster. Anything organic or less than metal-plated is going to have an incredibly bad day.
3) Sunlaser. The ultimate 'Nope, you are going to die now.' Let us say Celestia really wanted something dead and momentarily stopped caring about her public image, or property damage. If she were to direct all of the light her star produces to a single area, even several miles wide, it would flash-burn everything living, and melt stone within seconds. Of course, a far more power economical version would be to only focus SOME of the sun's light to an area a few meters wide. Flash-fried undead. And since her magic isn't involved in the attack, it's just photons and physics. Of course doing this could proooobably have negative side effects like igniting the air around the beam of plasma but hey. It's a nice panic button.
4) Gravity-affected spikes. Something Twilight could do if it just occurred to her. Reduce or negate the gravity of something big and pointy to allow it to be maneuvered into position quickly (if she for some reason couldn't just with telekinesis), then flip that, multiplying the gravitational effect to drop that thing at either an appreciable fraction of terminal velocity, or better. Self-hammering corpse nails. Buy yours today!
5) Explain the concept of a gatling gun to Celestia. IE: A rotating barrel used to fire metal slugs via repeated controlled combustions of gunpowder at a phenomenal rate, such that a few seconds of firing is essentially creating a stream of saw teeth capable of cutting something apart at range, if the friction of the bullets doesn't cause it to burst into flame first. Even if they can't manufacture a human gatling gun, I'm sure she'll get all kinds of fun ideas.
6017713 What about a Tornado? They managed to make one in a mlp, it could be hard but maybe they could throw it to them?
6017799
Possibly, though the sort that'd actually be dangerous takes a LOT of pegasi to make, and I don't think it'd be applicable to a battle situation.
6018113 NORMAL Pegasi... The difference is that in the episode half of the pegasi take the flu and the others are normal pegasi civilians. In here, they are trained pegasi and after Cloudsdale they have also the Wonderbolts. Not to say the weather factory could very well send thunders to them.
And that also make me think... If Pegasi can make a Huricane, Earth Ponies can made a Quake or Unicorns summon a Tsunami?
6017713 You know who'd be handy when fighting Oppressed? Magnus from Kid Icarus Uprising, and his giant ass sword. That guy would whip all kinds of ass here. Ah, if only...
Damn this situation just got from bad to worse!
Starting off hours after the last chapter, Trotsdale is still under heavy attack from undead forces which have moved deeper into the city. The Oppressed are by far Sombra's best fighters and deprive the Equestrians of their greatest combat advantage, their magic. Though I have to question, how is Sombra spawning all these undead, and specifically the Oppressed? We know that Hawke stole a few dozen from the university, but there didn't seem to be immense numbers. Where the hell did these massive numbers show up? I mean they're undead and all, so obviously Sombra resurrected them, but the human race has been dead for 3000 years. Fairly certain any oppressed corpses would be completely destroyed by now, and those that aren't would be rotting bone and practically falling apart with every step. How the hell did Sombra get so many of them? The regular undead is less an issue of resurrection and more an issue of summoning. These are all corpses I assume, so how has he amassed these numbers so quickly? There can't have been that many bodies buried around the Crystal Empire. Did he teleport them from all over Equestria or something? Damn he is a powerful son of a bitch.
Anyway, Seth, Shining and their teams are still fighting strong, though they are all tiring. They all seem to be working really well together, covering each others backs and working like a proper unit. For all Seth's lack of combat experience, he certainly knows how to keep his friends safe when he has to. It seems that while the Oppressed are a massive problem, the regular undead are easily getting cut down. Seth just absolutely nails a dead minotaur and his magic has Flowing Mist constantly hiding like a little bitch. Gotta give her credit though, she's smart. Unlike Hawke and Sombra who are both arrogant bastards, Flowing Mist knows full well she doesn't have the power to take Seth on, so she's staying out of his sight until she can either get him overwhelmed by oppressed, wait until he tires, or find some other way to take him out without physically confronting him. We still don't know much about her, but it's clear why she is a general in Sombra's army. Still, the most OP thing on the field are the damn Mega Oppressed. Another one shows up, pummels past Shining and Seth before managing to take down a dragon shaped Pterax. he may be able to change his size and use his power to increase his strength, but it's still no match for the Mega oppressed, or at least a non injured one. Of course Rose and Twilight showing up certainly took the bastard down. While the magic itself may not hurt he Mega Oppressed, shooting a giant rock spike can.
Twilight's still as nerdy as ever, almost losing herself in a discussion about their magical attack until Seth saves her ass from an oppressed. Seth is still kind of a dick, but he certainly has taken well to having a command position. I can see the Equestrian soldiers gaining some large respect for him after this is all over (though he'll likely be more annoyed by it then appreciative). Mid battle, suddenly a new development occurs and lightning Dust showsup, only to immediately get shot down by Flowing Mist. Seth managed to protect Rapidfire and Lightning from further attacks, but Flowing Mist is one illusive bitch. I'll be really interested to see her in a full on confrontation and see what skills and power she actually has.
After attempting to take out Flowing Mist, Seth hightails it over to the med tent to see why Spitfire, Rainbow and Shining stopped fighting. Lightning Dust's message is rather shocking. Cloudsdale under attack. Tanks for the memories really gave us a decent idea of Cloudsdale. Having it become mobile was an awesome feature, but the weather factory just made itself a serious target. We saw the wide spread affect Rainbow had after screwing around with the water and the snow devices, and the room full of stored lightning of different types was really intriguing. In enemy hands, it becomes a walking death factory. Tornados, storms, hail, lightning attacks, if Sombra takes Cloudsdale he'll have his hooves on a super weapon! The fact that its mobile means he could strike anywhere in Equestria, and only a portion of the ponies could fight back against it. Sombra is a tactical genius.
Still I'm puzzled about the flying undead. I mean I figured they're were undead pegasi and griffins, and probably changlings too, but I figured their wings would be all degraded and deformed. How could they actually fly? I mean you could generically say magic, but even magic follows some conventional rules. Still, they certainly make Sombra's forces even more deadly. Lets just hope he hasn't created some kind of flying Oppressed. If he has, then getting back Cloudsdale will be almost impossible. Still, With Spitfire and Rainbow leading the charge, the undead will be cut back, and with Seth's magic, they stand no chance. Odd that Celestia wanted Pterax with them. It could be her wanting Seth to babysit him so he doesn't do anything bad, but Celestia is crafty so she likely has a reason. Perhaps she intends to send the Changling reinforcements to Cloudsdale first instead of Trotsdale. Having more winged defenders would help that situation well, though the Griffins would be a better pick, as the changlings shape shifting would be far more useful combatting the Mega Oppressed.
I'm also curious about Lightning dust. She is a civilian (this is taking place before Wonderbolts academy so she hasn't gone to the academy yet) so I can see why she wasn't prepared for a scenario like this. But from what we saw of her, she was basically Rainbow Dash without any loyalty. A brash jerk with incredible flying potential that could rival Rainbow Dash. I would think she wouldn't be as hyperventaly given all that. Still she was caught off guard and attacked both in her home town and then shot down just over a massive zombie attack. I can forgive her for being unnerved by it all. I wonder if we'll see her again after this. Because Wonderbolts academy hasn't taken place, Rainbow doesn't know her and will have no animosity to her, plus Spitfire is aware of her skills (I'm guessing she has had her eye on her and Rainbow far before Wonderbolts Academy). She may be a civilian, but once she recovers, I can see her wanting to help fight back like Trixie.
Taking off, Spitfire, Seth and Rainbow lead half of their pegasi forces (and Pterax) to save Cloudsdale. Along the way, Rainbow and Seth have another nice moment, with Rainbow upset she isn't going to be able to show Seth her home town in its glory, instead having to see it under heavy attack, swarming with zombies and likely littered with the dead. Seeing how much that hurts her just gets even more angry at Sombra. He already had enough reasons to despise the guy, but now he has hurt his marefriends dream. He is a dead man when Seth gets a hold of him. This little scene alone makes you think of someone going over and just kicking Fluttershy. Doesn't matter what context or whatever other crimes, that one act alone makes him scum. Sombra is scum. Still, seth manages to cheer her up a little, deciding that once Sombra is dealt with, the two will go on a flying trip all over Equestria. That's actually a really sweet thing to do, and it will be a good experience for both of them. Most of the time Seth either has to have Equestrian things explained to him, or Rainbow has to wrap her head around human things. Seeing places all over Equestria is something that Rainbow hasn't done, and due to her pretty bad reading and schooling, she likely doesn't have a massive knowledge of places all around, so this is an experience where they will be able to share something new together, instead of one of them having to explain something the context to the other. I really hope we get to see some of that as like an epilogue once Sombra is taken down, because that would be a really nice thing to read about.
I cannot wait until next chapter as we get to see Seth go full on badass with his magic, and have him fight side by side with rainbow to retake her home town. This will be awesome.
Damn. Every war has its wins and losses. I believe we could afford to lose trotsdale, but defiantly not cloudsdale.