Face the Raven, Pt2
Face the Raven, Part Two
One of Rainbow Dash's least favourite parts about the Starfleet show - on a cinematic level, anyway, there was a laundry list of things that annoyed to downright infuriated her about the show's character work - was the boilerplate scene in nearly every episode where the monster attacked and then the alarms went off and all the extras ran for the shelters before the shields went up in a piece of stock footage that got reused something like twenty times a season whether the action was supposed to be Canterlot or Ponyville or somewhere else altogether. After a while it just got so old.
However, at this precise moment Rainbow had to admit that she would have welcomed some kind of real life equivalent to that scene taking place in the streets and districts round by the prison.
As things stood, although the alarms had gone off, the sounds had been muted compared to those which would have sounded for some kind of monster attack, as though the flood of a great host of prisoners flooding the avenues and alleyways like rats was as nothing compared to the existential menace of a giant ant. People had been advised to stay in their homes but not to evacuate to the shelters, or even to safer parts of the city. As though people's front doors or windows would keep them safe if some convict decided to break it down and come for the folks inside. That was why Rainbow Dash was circling just above the roofs of the city, darting between high-rises, soaring over streets and gardens, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of escapees in this area. That was why she had her full flight complement up in the air doing what pegasi did...second best, after being awesome. Maybe third best after being awesome and flying. Or fourth best after being awesome, flying and manipulating the- they were doing something pegasi were pretty good at, okay, which was putting eyes in the sky to see things that the ground-bound space ponies might otherwise miss.
This is it, Twilight. This is our big chance. If the airborne and its eagle eyes could provide vital intelligence, if they could provide a haul of recaptured prisoners bigger than the space ponies could have achieved on their own, then maybe Twilight's concept, perhaps even her ideal of cooperation between the races, would be vindicated. Then even the proudest and most haughty space ponies would be unable to deny the vital role that they had played and their potential importance going forward.
Or they would just steal the credit for themselves the way they always did and make out that Lightning and Rhymey had saved the day. It was kind of a fifty-fifty chance on that for all that Rainbow had seen no sign and heard no sound from either of them.
Be okay, Fluttershy. She ought to be okay, she lived on the other side of town from all of this, but it was always possible...no, no it wasn't possible because Rainbow Dash was going to round up every last one of those prisoners before any of them made it that far.
And if she didn't...Fluttershy was pretty tough. Way tougher than she got credit for. By the time Rainbow busted in to save the day she'd have that poor bad guy curled up in a ball of shame on the floor.
A burst of static preceded the emergence of a voice on the comm. "Captain, this is Sergeant Buck here, we've got a bogie bagged and tagged; goes by the name of Snatch, says he's a friend of yours."
Rainbow chuckled. "Yeah, we go way back. Put him with the others and resume searching. Good work, Buck."
"Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow scowled at the sound of Lightning Dust's voice. "That's captain-"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I've got eyes on Raven heading south on 37th."
Rainbow's eyes widened. Raven. Theoretically she had known that this was a possibility, rationally she had known that Raven was loose, but that rational knowledge hadn't prepared her for the emotional shock of hearing that she had been spotted. Raven. Twilight's killer. In sight. In view. In range. She was...Rainbow would never have admitted this out loud - not to anybody but Pinkie or Fluttershy anyway - but she was scared. She could feel the chill in her bones, and in her stomach. Just the thought of Raven made her afraid.
But she knew what she had to do. Rainbow angled her wings to begin her glide in the direction of 37th street. She couldn't run from this. If she did then she'd be failing in her duty as a soldier. If she ran from this then she'd never be able to look Twilight in the eye when they met up again.
"Who's with you, Lightning?"
"All by myself, my squad split up to cover more ground," Lightning replied. "I'm moving to intercept her now."
"On your own, are you crazy?" Rainbow demanded into the comm-piece. "Keep her in sight, discreetly if you can, and wait for reinforcements. I'm on my way."
"There's no time to be waiting around!" Lightning snapped. "Raven's already entering a building, there are people in danger and I'm going in!"
"Raven's too dangerous too-"
"I'm not letting ponies die because I was too chicken to take on an angsty freak in a cosplay!" Lightning Dust yelled. "If you think I need backup, get your flank down here!"
"Lightning Dust? Lightning Dust?" Rainbow demanded. There was no response. Probably she'd turned off her comm.
Rainbow snarled through her teeth as she beat her wings in an increasingly frantic motion for extra speed. She tapped the comm in her ear, switching to broadcast to everypony in the unit. "Calling all ponies, Lightning has sighted Raven on 37th and is moving to engage. Everybody support if possible...cause she'll need the help before too long."
Bon-Bon’s hands tore at the lettuce leaf as water trickled down out of the sink to wash the green vegetable clean.
“It’s a pity that we couldn’t go out for lunch,” she murmured. “But I think I can make this work right here.”
A soft smile crossed Lyra’s green face as she glanced at Moondancer. “Good thing that we went shopping, huh?”
Moondancer sat down on a stool near the glass patio doors, and bowed her head as she tugged at the sleeve of her brown jumper. “I…I’m sorry that you both got stuck in here like this-“
“Stop that,” Lyra said. “We don’t mind spending time with you. And if we can’t take you out like we wanted…it isn’t your fault, right?”
“I guess not,” Moondancer murmured.
Bon-Bon tore off some more lettuce. “I wonder what the alert is for anyway?”
Lyra folded her arms as crossed the kitchen floor to stand closer to her mare friend. “It can’t be anything too serious, or they would have told us to run for the shelters. Right?”
“You’d think so,” Bon-Bon said softly. “Hey, Moondancer, what do you think all this fuss is about?”
“I don’t know,” Moondancer said. “But I’m afraid it might be connected to that big bang from earlier.”
“That’s where the smart money is,” Bon-Bon replied. “Probably a gas explosion or something and they want people to stay indoors in case they get sick.”
Moondancer glanced towards her wall of theories.
“Eyes away,” Bon-Bon said, although she wasn’t even looking at Moondancer so how did she know? I’m sure that whatever it is isn’t being done on purpose. I’m sure that whatever is going on was just an accident. I’m sure that they have top people working on this as we speak.”
“How can you be so sure?” Moondancer asked.
“Because I used to be top people,” Bon-Bon replied. “Take it from me, the government doesn’t go around using its own citizens as targets or test dummies or anything like that. Whatever’s going on outside, I’m sure that everything is going to be just fine.”
Moondancer’s front door exploded.
Moondancer let out a squeak of frightened surprised as she toppled backwards off her stool. She hit the hardwood floor with a wince of pain that was barely audible over the lingering sound of the explosion echoing through the hallway and into the kitchen. Lyra let out a cry of surprise as she pried herself off the wall and moved to stand between Moondancer and whatever was going on. Bon-Bon had a knife in hand. It hadn’t been there a second ago, and Moondancer hadn’t seen her reach for one of the kitchen knives, but there it was, in her hand, blade gleaming in the sunlight.
Through the fire, which parted to let her pass as though it was a living thing that she had the power to command, strode Twilight’s murderer. Raven. Moondancer recognised her face from all the publicity that she’d gotten. The most dangerous enemy that Starfleet had ever faced, the only person to challenge Twilight Sparkle and emerge victorious, the Grey Assassin, the slayer of Starfleet’s and United Equestria’s greatest and bravest hero.
The person who had killed Moondancer’s first and best friend.
“You,” Moondancer whispered quietly, so quietly that nobody seemed to hear it but her.
She was…she was terrified. She was utterly and hopelessly terrified. She couldn’t move her arms or her legs. She could feel them trembling like refrigerated custard wobbling on top of tarts but she couldn’t move them. She couldn’t clench a fist, she couldn’t crawl away, she couldn’t summon her magic. She was trying, oh Celestia and Twilight how she was trying, but her powers had chosen this very moment to desert her. It was as though she was completely cut off from the mystical energies, rendered immobile in body and powerless in spirit and helpless in mind, unable to think of anything beyond the fact that Raven was loose and in her house.
In my house…and here to kill me. There was no other rational explanation. Raven couldn’t have known that Bon-Bon and Lyra would be here so she must have come for Moondancer and that meant…and that meant…
She’s here to kill me just like she killed Twilight and that must mean…that must mean… though Moondancer could not fight Raven with body or magic she forced her mind past its fear of the demoncorn to focus on what it had to mean. It must mean that I’m getting close, just like Twilight was. That’s why she’s here to kill me. She’s here because she’s afraid of what I know.
I know how she feels. Moondancer’s terror was so great that not even the feeling of academic vindication – now who’s a conspiracy theorist! – could douse it. And right at this moment, as she lay on the floor unable to move, her knowledge didn’t look like it would do her much good anyway.
“I hope that I’m not interrupting,” Raven said as she straightened her dark blue cloak. She strode quickly down the hallway towards the kitchen.
Bon-Bon barred her way, kitchen knife in hand. The hand that held the blade was raised and ready to strike, while the other hand was held before her in a guard to protect her face.
“Bon-Bon,” Moondancer murmured tremulously. She didn’t know the earth pony very well, but Lyra seemed to like her a lot, and she seemed really nice…but how could she hope to succeed where Twilight Sparkle had failed.
Raven tilted her head slightly. “At the risk of sounding unbearably pretentious: don’t you know who I am?”
Bon-Bon didn’t reply. She didn’t move an inch. She stood, barring Raven’s way into the kitchen as though she were made of stone.
Raven sighed. “Move aside. Please.”
Bon-Bon remained as silent as the grave…as silent as the grave into which Raven would send her certain.
Raven rolled her dark blue eyes and lashed out with one hand. Bon-Bon darted backwards like a tree swaying in the wind, before she lashed out with her knife, striking downwards towards Raven’s chest.
Raven flowed like water. She was so fast that Moondancer’s untrained eyes couldn’t follow her individual movements. But she heard the snap of Bon-Bon’s wrist, heard Bon-Bon howl in agony, she saw Bon-Bon’s face slammed into the doorframe with a heavy thud and a moan of further pain.
“Bon-Bon!” Lyra yelled.
And Moondancer saw the look of malicious glee on Raven’s face as she drove the kitchen knife into Bon-Bon’s own hand, impaling it into the doorframe and making the pale mare scream.
“Don’t go anywhere,” Raven said mockingly, as blood ran down the painted wood. Bon-Bon grunted as she tried to free herself, but the knife was driven in up to the hilt and she couldn’t make it budge. Raven stepped over her, and advanced into the kitchen.
“Nice place,” she observed. “Very modernist.”
Then it was Lyra’s turn to bar her way. Her horn glowed gleaming bronze, and in her right hand she held a sword conjured out of pure magic, and the magic that sustained it gleamed more brightly than any blade. She stood in what Moondancer academically recognised as a fencing stance, with her free hand clasped behind her back.
“Oh, what’s this?” Raven moaned. “Are you the knight going to slay the monster?”
“I’d rather be the bard who sings of knights,” Lyra replied. “But since there are no knights around I guess I’ll have to do.”
Raven’s horn glowed, and for a moment Moondancer feared that she would simply summon her uniforce to blast Lyra aside. But instead, Raven summoned a blade of her own, longer than Lyra’s and heavier looking too although that couldn’t really matter in a contest of magic. She assumed a combative stance, with a high guard and her sword raised above her head. “Very well then. Dance with me, knight.”
Lyra attacked, her vorpal rapier darting forward through the air like a wasp bent on stinging. Raven parried with ease, but did not counter as Lyra retreated back a step, recovered her balanced, and then lunged again.
Lyra's form was perfect, as far as an unskilled bookworm like Moondancer could tell, her stances were correct and her footwork was sure. But no matter what thrust or lunge or slash she made Raven simply parried it, batted it aside as though it were a thing of no consequence, and then waited patiently for Lyra to attack again.
And the look on Raven's face, the smile upon her grey features, the way her teeth flashed like the jaws of a shark, the way her eyes like smouldering sapphires gleamed...she's just toying with Lyra, Moondancer realised. She's just stringing this out to watch her suffer.
"Lyra, stop this and get out of here!" Moondancer cried. She didn't want Lyra to die, her friend. She didn't want Lyra to die the way that Twilight...it was bad enough that Bon-Bon was hurt because of her but if Lyra...Moondancer didn't know what she'd do if that happened.
"Huh?" Lyra asked, momentarily distracted.
"Bored now," Raven said, as her golden blade struck out with the speed of a venomous snake lunging out to sink its fangs into its prey. Lyra shrieked like a mother bird returning to the nest to find the eggs all smashed or stolen as her hand was severed at the wrist. Her vorpal sword vanished in a flash as Lyra doubled over, staggering sideways, clutching her cauterised stump with her one...with her one...with her...with her remaining...with her other hand.
Oh no. No, Lyra.
Raven's expression was contemptuous as she backhanded Lyra across the face, knocking her to the floor where she lay, mewling in agony, rocking like a foal, clutching her stump.
Raven spared her not another glance as she bore down, finally and inexorably as the tide, on Moondancer.
Moondancer couldn't move. She could barely speak. In face of such malice, of such power, of such cruelty, in the face of she who had cast down so great and noble an alicorn, greater by far than Moondancer would ever be...all that a poor scholar could do was tremble in her terror.
"Hello," Raven said. "You must be Moondancer. You...well, you're pretty much what I expected when they told me you were a bespectacled shut-in."
Raven grabbed her by the neck. Moondancer could feel her fingers through her jumper, tight and painful but not so much so as to stop her from breathing; not completely anyway. There was the strong implication that Raven could grip more tightly, if need be.
"Where is the research?" Raven demanded.
Moondancer's eyes widened involuntarily. Twilight's research? So that is what this is all about, she was getting close to something.
And they killed her for it. They murdered her because of what she knew, or what she was close to finding out. A spike of cold anger shot through her body, even though she was far from being in any position to do anything about it.
"Ah, I see you know what I'm talking about," Raven said, a sly smile sprouting on her face. "Good. I'd hate to have hurt or maimed your friends for nothing. Where is Twilight Sparkle's research?"
"W-why?" Moondancer croaked. "Why are you doing this?"
Raven snarled as she turned and slammed Moondancer into the nearest wall so hard that the tiles cracked. Moondancer yelped as the pain shot through her back. "Never mind why, just tell me where it is. All of it, including any copies you might have made."
Moondancer said nothing. That research...that was Twilight's last project, it was the research that had cost her her life...it was all that she had left of Twilight Sparkle, she couldn't let it be...she couldn't let it go.
Raven hit her. Moondancer's glasses shattered and she cried out as the pain of Raven's fist was mingled with the pain of tiny shards of glass slicing into her face. "Tell me where it is!"
Moondancer sniffed as tears began to well up in her tears. I won't tell, Twilight. I'll never tell. She had to be brave, now. Brave like Twilight, or as close as someone like her could come anyway.
Raven stared at her. "They never told me you were brave. But my question to you is: are you callous?"
"Wh-what?"
"Tell me what I want to know," Raven said. "Or I kill your friends. Slowly, and while you watch. The choice is yours. You might not care for your own life, but are you willing to throw theirs away?"
Moondancer closed her eyes. Twilight, I...I can't. She couldn't sacrifice Lyra like that, she couldn't choose Twilight's work over Bon-Bon, she couldn't...she couldn't. "You're a monster."
"Technically I'm a demon, as I understand," Raven said softly. "Now, where is-"
A pale green blur swept through the house with lightning streaking behind it, flying through the kitchen to collide with Raven like an avalanche striking a tree in its path. Raven let go of Moondancer, who dropped limply to the floor as Raven was borne sideways into the patio door that shattered into a thousand shards of tinkling glass as Raven and the blur - the blur that was fast resolving itself into a pegasus in Starfleet armour - fell through the breaking glass and into the garden.
Lightning Dust was already down for the count by the time that Rainbow Dash dropped from the sky into the garden of the house. She was lying spreadeagled out on the patio, face down, blood pooling like a halo around her head. Only a slight twitching of her fingers indicated that she wasn’t dead…another victim of Raven’s fury.
As for Raven herself, she was crouched down on top of Lightning Dust like some kind of feral creature, touched by the untamed bestiality of the wilderness, dipping her fingers into Lightning’s blood with a savage grin on her face.
When her clipped, civilised, urbane voice issued from her mouth the contrast was…eerie. It was like hearing a manticore invite you for tea…and being unable to escape the suspicion that you were the aperitif.
“A single soldier?” Raven asked, as she rose slowly to her feet. “You sent a single soldier to kill me, Rainbow Dash? I’m mildly insulted.”
“Only mildly?” Rainbow growled.
“I got to exorcise most of my aggrieved feelings upon her body,” Raven said casually. She grinned. “Now, is this the part where you tell me that you’re here to take me in alive? Or are you going to kill me, and avenge poor dear Twilight once and for all?”
Rainbow’s hands curled into fists. “It’s over, Raven. More troops will be here any minute.”
“That still leaves us a minute alone together, darling,” Raven remarked. “Well, except for them.” She gestured casually to the occupants of the inside of the house. Rainbow recognised Lyra Heartstrings, who sat so awkwardly and played the harp so well, lying on the kitchen floor clutching the stump of her severed arm; Bon-Bon, who was so cagey about her past but could make boiled sweets nearly as good as Pinkie (actually they were a little better, but if anybody told Pinkie that Rainbow would have to hunt them down and end them), was impaled to the wall with a knife through her hand, weeping through the pain as she tried to free herself. A pale unicorn in an ugly jumper and broken spectacles lay crouched against the wall shivering in terror.
“But I don’t think they’re going to do anything to stop either of us. My dance card is free, I’m all yours. If you’ve got the courage to take your chance.”
“I know what you’re doing,” Rainbow spat.
“Really? Do tell?”
“You’re trying to get me riled up so I’ll make a mistake.”
“Is it working?”
“No,” Rainbow snarled. “And it won’t work, either.”
“Obviously, you’re far too in control of yourself and your emotions for my clumsy machinations,” Raven replied easily. “I suppose that we shall just have to wait here until your reinforcements arrive to take me into custody. I shall enjoy being back in my cell. So cosy, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and there’s always so much to read.”
“Why are you here, Raven?” Rainbow Dash demanded. “Why this place, why this house? Why these ponies?”
“I sometimes come across a particularly striking passage and I think to myself ‘I wonder what Twilight Sparkle would have made of this’,” Raven continued, ignoring Rainbow’s question. “But then I remember that she’s dead, and at my hand too. Such a tragedy.”
Rainbow bared her teeth in a wordless snarl. “I asked you a question.”
“Yes, but you weren’t very polite about it where you?” Raven replied. “But then, you were always a bit of a brute, as I understand. Twilight now-“
“SHUT UP ABOUT TWILIGHT!” Rainbow roared more loudly than any bull in the field or lion on the plains. “Just shut up! You don’t get to talk about her!”
Raven grinned. “Do you think she felt abandoned, at the end? Do you think she felt betrayed, the Princess of Friendship, dying alone with no one to comfort her, nobody to take her hand? And what about you, element of loyalty? How does it feel to know that you betrayed your best friend when she needed you the most?”
“I’M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS, YOU ARROGANT BITCH!” Rainbow yelled as she sped forward, fist cocked back to pound that smirk clean off of Raven’s face and into the ground.
"RAINBOW DASH, STAY YOURSELF!" a voice like thunder split the sky even as a bolt of lightning sprung from the cloudless clarity of the day to strike the earth directly in her path. Had Rainbow Dash been a less swift and agile speedster - I know, hard to imagine, right? - then she would have been fried like a chicken by the bolt which left a smouldering crater in the ground. As it was, she managed to reverse her speeding progress and dart backwards just before the lightning struck.
This was not Raven's doing. Indeed, the grey assassin seemed every bit as shocked and surprised by this development as Rainbow was herself.
There was a flash of blue light, deep midnight blue, the blue of a sky illuminated by the moon's full brightness, as Princess Luna appeared between the two combatants like a mighty wall defending the city from the savage raiders without. Her body was clad in a cuirass of rich black, studded with diamonds and gleaming pearls so that resembled the starry field of a night sky. Upon her arm she bore a shield of shining silver, and in her other and she bore a silver spear while a manica of lacquered blue interlocking armoured plates crawled up her unshielded arm towards her shoulder. Her helm was black, but trimmed with silver and with a dark blue diademn set upon the brow just behind the princess' long, blue horn. Unlike the helms of common guardsponies, Princess Luna's helmet bore no proud and towering crest, but rather Luna's mane of liquid night descended down from underneath the helm to fall down her back in the office of a cape, rippling gently though there was no wind.
Raven's face recovered its usual composure. "Princess Luna. What a pleasant surprise. Now I need only square off with Cadance and I will have the whole set."
"I am not here to bandy crooked words with you, creature," Luna spat, her tone contemptuous. "But this I swear: you shall not harm another in this city. Not while I live."
Raven did not flinch from Luna's threat. "That would be a great fight, no doubt, and I deeply regret I must decline it. But I have business elsewhere that cannot wait upon my risk of death, and clearly I wasted too much time already in my pleasures. Princess adieu, to have seen you in your majesty but once...I shall remember it."
"Seeing you anywhere but a cell will be an unceasing regret of mine," Luna declared. She brought up her shield and levelled her spear. "But what makes you think I shall allow you to depart in peace?"
Raven smirked. "If I may borrow your own words for a moment, princess, from a time when you were near as monstrous as I am: stand back you foals!"
There was a flash of light so great that Rainbow was blinded for a moment. She heard Luna roar with anger...and then when she opened her eyes again Raven was gone, and only the violent debris she had left in her wake as evidence that she had ever been.
"Coward," Rainbow muttered.
Luna rounded upon her with a gleam of anger in her eyes and fury mingled with great disappointment in her tone. "Did you mean to fight with her alone, Rainbow Dash? Have you forgotten the fate of Twilight Sparkle?"
"Of course not, it was because of Twilight that I had to fight!"
"So that you should share her fate and your ashes might be placed in honour beside hers?" Luna demanded. "You are brave and strong and swift all, true; but more than that you are an element of harmony. Harmony, unity, these are your true strengths, only together can-"
"Together with who?" Rainbow demanded. "Pinkie's gone, Applejack's gone, Rarity's gone, Fluttershy is being held captive by that...I'm all alone out here. We're all...all alone." All alone and I can't help any of them. Just like I couldn't help Twilight when she needed me the most.
Luna's blue eyes softened, casting aside some of their severity. "I am aware," she murmured. "As wicked a piece of malicious business as could have been done. I am sorry for it. I...for all your trials, you have my sorrow."
More ponies began to drop down into the garden, batponies in the armour of Princess Luna's guard. One of them said, "Princess Luna, is it done?"
"It is over, but not yet done, Raven escaped me," Luna confessed. "And much mischief may she wreak in the unhappy world yet. But we must attend to other matters now. Bring those four mares, we will have their injuries tended to. Rainbow Dash, you must come with me."
"Where?" Rainbow asked. "And why?"
"We will not speak of it, not here," Luna said. "It is not safe to do so. But you must come with me and you must come now. The fate of Equestria may depend upon it."
On a barren hill overlooking New Canterlot, covered half with yellowing, decaying grass and half witn brown and barren earth, the person born of Twilight Sparkle's DNA and assigned at her unusual 'birth' the code of Sentinel Three sat upon a squat grey rock and stared at her hands.
Her hands. Twilight Sparkle's biological hands. The hands of a warrior. Hands with the power to kill and destroy. The hands...the hands of a creature with neither name nor identity.
Slowly, she watched as those thats that were hers clenched into a pair of lethal fists...and the unclenched again.
I give the commands and my body obeys. I act and in so acting I affect my surroundins. I walk the world and I bring death in my wake.
Will nobody tell me who I am?
Will nobody tell me what I am meant to do?
Sunset's anger, Fluttershy's shock and sorrow, the crimes that she had committed. How could Twilight Sparkle be the cause of such things? How could a champion of good breed out such evil, fear and death?
I am not Twilight Sparkle.
But if I am not her out of whose dust and clay I was fashioned...then who am I?
The other sentinels kept their distance from her. They glanced at her but they did not look at her. They talked amongst themselves but they did not include her. Where they going to abandon her too? Were they going to reject her, just as Twilight's friends had done?
Will I be all alone in the world...as she once was?
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Bravo gestured angrily at her before stalking off, perching on another rock, much like the one on which she sat, and began to chew on a piece of bubblegum. The pink bubble blew out so wide it nearly hid all of Bravo's face before it popped. Then Bravo went right back to chewing, and glared at her all the while.
Two wandered over. His face was vaguely hopeful in its look, though what he found to take heart in she was not sure. Perhaps he was putting on a show of hope and good humour for the sake of the others. Or maybe for her sake.
"You know, it might be New Canterlot that draws the eye," Two muttered, his voice a little gruff. He pointed out in the opposite direction, to the little farming town that lay across the plains. "But if you look the other way you can see New Ponyville from here. It wouldn't take long if you want to head over there."
"What, are we going to run through Twilight Sparkle's whole address book before we find someone who doesn't point and shriek at the sight of her?" Bravo demanded.
Two scowled as he rounded on Bravo. "Bravo, cool down."
"I cannot be the only one who doesn't want to waste their life in a fool's errand?" Bravo demanded. She looked round, as if hoping for declarations of support, but found none. Charlie would not meet her eyes. Alpha shrugged. Delta frowned, but said nothing.
"Seriously?" Brave snapped.
"It's not like we've got anything better to do," Alpha said.
"Look, I'm sorry, but you're not Twilight Sparkle," Bravo said. "And because you're not Twilight, nobody is ever going to accept you as Twilight because, say it with me, you're not Twilight. You're...you're just a copy. That's all you'll ever be. That's all any of us will ever be."
"Speak for yourself," said Delta.
"She's right," she, who had once been Three, murmured glumly. "After Sunset and Fluttershy...what use in confirming failure? It's clear that Twilight's friends will never accept me her, which means..."
"Which means we find our own path," Two declared. "Forge our own destiny."
"That's...easier said that done, in this society," Charlie said haltingly.
"Isn't it always?" asked Alpha.
"The zebras say that the gods fashioned the first two zebras out of earth and water, and gave them names and set them on the earth with purpose in mind for them," the one who had been Three, and who had hoped to be Twilight, said softly. "But where are our gods to give us names and purposes."
"We rebelled against our creators, remember?" Two said. "We have no gods now."
"You say that now..." a voice unfamiliar and yet wholly, almost horribly familiar said.
Alpha let out an exclamation of startled shock as she reached for her crossbow. Delta unslung his axes from his back. Raven...Raven stood amongst them. Raven, exactly as...exactly as Twilight remembered her, from the day she died. Raven was here, smiling insouciantly.
"Put those away, before you hurt yourselves," she said lightly. "Trust me, if I meant you any harm you'd know it."
"We hurt ourselves?" Delta demanded. "You don't seem to know who you're dealing with."
"Oh, I know everything about you. More than you know about yourselves, probably," Raven said. "The question is, do you know who I am." She pointed at Three. "You know who I am, don't you? You remember?"
"Raven," she said. "You killed me."
"Technically, I killed Princess Twilight Sparkle," Raven replied. "You...you're someone else. Have you chosen a name yet?"
She hesitated. "No."
Raven cocked her head to one side. "You know...I've always liked Evenfall. Eve, for short."
She tried it out, rolling it around her tongue. "Eve. Eve."
"Yes, Eve," Raven said. "Eve, the twilight of an old world - if you'll excuse the dreadful pun - and the mother to a new."
"What are you talking about?" Two demanded. "What do you want?"
"I want your help," Raven said. "I want to help you. I want to offer you your hearts desires."
"And what are they?" Bravo asked. "Tell us, if you know us so well."
Raven chuckled. "Identity. Purpose. Revenge against a world that made you to be weapons, treated you like instruments, denied your common equinity and personhood, that spat in your face when you tried to claim the rights of ordinary ponies. Is that not what you want?"
"Maybe," Alpha conceded. "What does it mean in specifics?"
"This world will never accept you, you're all smart enough to know that," Raven said. "You'll be hunted all your lives."
"And you have a solution to that?" Eve murmured.
Raven's grin was manic. "The best solution. The only solution. Join me, and together we'll destroy this world, and on its ashes we will build a better one. A world for you and your descendants."
"Eww, I have to mate with one of these guys?" Bravo asked. "No offence."
Raven laughed. "You needn't mate with anyone. Perhaps you could create a race of clones to follow in your footsteps. That's the beauty of freedom, you'll be able to chart your own course, wherever you want to go. But you'll never be free so long as the tyranny of Starfleet endures. They will never stop until they have you in their custody and under their control once more. Did you really think Starlight Glimmer would be the end of it?"
"We can handle whoever comes after us," Two said.
"Perhaps," Raven replied. "But do you want to? Should you have to?"
"No," Even said.
"Three!" Two gasped.
Eve rose from her seat on the rock. "My name is Eve."
Two frowned. "Eve, come on! Listen to this! She wants to use us exactly the same way that Starfleet did. As weapons, as soldiers! Is that what you want? Is that what we got free for, so we could serve somebody else?"
"She's right," Eve said. "We'll never be free while Starfleet is looking for us."
"Screw Starfleet, but screw this Raven too!" Two snapped. "She killed you!"
"She killed Twilight," Eve replied, her voice soft. "And if she hadn't...I wouldn't be here. I guess you could say...I owe her my life."
Two shook his head. "Is this what you want?"
"They made us to be weapons," Eve said. "They treated us like weapons. You saw the way that Fluttershy and Rhymey lookd at me, at all of us! You know what Sunset said to me. I'm not a pony to them. We aren't ponies to them. We're monsters. Demons. Weapons that have malfunctioned. Well what if they're right? What if we show all this world and all of Starfleet just how monstrous we can be?
"Starlight was right: we aren't like ordinary ponies. We aren't like them. We're different. We're better. And Starlight was right to say that only one of us can win out in the end. So yes, let's end their world...and let's claim the future for ourselves."
Twilight had often wondered, in dark and lonely moments, what she might do if her friends betrayed her. If they had exiled her for trying to unmask the changelings at her brother's wedding, if she had been driven out into the wilderness after a bout of stress-induced madness. Twilight had never come up with a single coherent answer, but Eve did: I'll be revenged upon you all, and then some.
Twilight's friends had betrayed her. She had gone to them when she was in desperate need and they had spurned her like a stranger dog. So let them see what happened when the dog bites back.
"Who's with me?" she asked.
Two's face twitched.
"You don't have to come with me, if you don't want to," she said.
Two snorted, and placed one hand on her shoulder with surprising gentleness. "Yeah, I do."
"Like I said," Alpha muttered. "It's not like we've got anything better to do."
"At least it's a plan," Bravo said.
Eve glanced at the remaining boys. "Charlie? Delta?"
Charlie blinked rapidly. "It...it sounds kinda dark."
"Charlie," Two said. "Come on, we need to stick together. We can't protect you if you leave."
You shouldn't have said that. That was wrong. Even if it was factually correct it was emotionally manipulative, and the part of Eve that remained in some sense Twilight disapproved immensely. Yes, it had the desired effect - Charlie nodded his assent - but that didn't make it right.
"Delta?" Alpha asked. "What are you waiting for?"
Delta folded his arms. "Maybe I don't want to destroy the world?"
Bravo snorted. "How about wanting to be free?"
"At the cost of destroying the world," Delta repeated.
"What if it wasn't," Eve asked. "What if it was just Starfleet."
Delta considered it. "That I could get behind."
"Done," Eve replied. "We'll take out Starfleet, and be free. Our new world...we can find that later."
Raven looked at her curiously, as if wondering if she meant it. Eve gave her a barely perceptible shake of the head. We'll deal with this later. I don't want to lose Delta yet. She didn't want to lose any of them at all, they were the only friends she had left. "Where do we start?"
Raven smiled. "We start by paying a little visit to an old friend."
Starlight didn't know how long she was lying there, bleeding in the rubble. The pain...the pain in her back, in her side...she'd been knocked unconscious for a while after crashing through the roof, or at least she thought so because she didn't remember exactly how she ended up impaled on this old iron bar. And then later...the pain, it...it made her black out again. More than once.
It still hurt, but less now than it did before. It hurt like anything, but she didn't feel as though she was going to die imminently the same way she had at first.
Ironically, that probably meant that she was finally about to die.
She felt...cold. Cold and weak. That was...that was probably the blood loss, because she could feel all of her warm, wet sticky blood on the outside of her, pooling around her on the floor, lapping at her hands like some kind of clueless dog.
She couldn't move. She could barely speak. She wanted to speak, she wanted to cry out, she wanted to scream for help, but when she tried only a quiet wheezing sound came out.
It was a miracle that Starlight Glimmer was still alive. It was a miracle that wasn't going to continue indefinitely.
She didn't want to die. She wanted to go home, she wanted to kiss Trixie, she wanted to change the world, she wanted...she wanted to be happy. She wanted to smile, she wanted to laugh, she wanted to walk down the street and not be regarded with suspicion, too Starfleet for the Equestrians and too Equestrian for Starfleet. She wanted...she wanted to rest, to sleep like she had when she was a young filly, safe and comfortable and free of care. She wanted to be herself, to take off all these masks she'd worn. She wanted...she wanted to live.
Tears pricked at the corners of Starlight's eyes. She wanted to live, but there was nothing she could do to keep herself alive. Too weak to move, to use magic, to call for help. All she could do was lie here in this derelict ruin, battered by magic and gravity, impaled and broken, she...she couldn't even feel her legs.
Trixie. Sunburst. Be okay. She had failed them both, at the last; she had failed everyone. She hoped that her friends had the strength to survive what would surely follow.
She heard something. Her ears pricked up at the sounds of someone - multiple someones - rattling through the rubble. She croaked wearily in a pathetic attempt to attract attention.
"Over there!" the sound was deep and gruff, and heavily distorted by mechanical filters. A flashlight was shone directly into Starlight's face. She squinted and flinched away from the brightness.
"She's alive. Bring her to the Professor."
The Professor? Starlight's mind protested in spite of all the fog of pain and weakness that enfolded it. Which one? Not THE professor? No, I want a doctor; I need a doctor, a real doctor, not that mad scientist!
A masked and helmeted face loomed over her, all pony features concealed. Starlight flinched as she felt something prick her neck.
"Don't worry, Colonel," the distorted voice said as everything in Starlight's world went black. "You're in good hands."
When she awoke it was to bright lights shining down directly upon her, lights temporarily blocked out by...by Professor Brain looming over her!
Frankly, that would have been bad enough without the incredibly overly happy look on his face.
"Hello again, Colonel," he said. "It seems that our positions have somewhat reversed since last we met."
No! No no no! What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Starlight tried to move her arms, but someone had restrained her to the bed and she was held fast with all her limbs and extremities. Let me out of her!
She tried to speak, but only a thin wheezing sound emerged.
Brain took no notice. "You've had quite a fall, and worse besides. Suffered considerable damage, but not to worry. We can rebuild you. We have, as they say, the technology."
Starlight's eyes widened as she produced a power drill and brandished it in her face, giving it an experimental rev up as Starlight tried, and failed, to pull away.
Starlight Glimmer was mistress of Intelligence, of course. She had ten times as many ponies in her pocket as Brain had at his disposal.
But in this room Brain was master of all, and he held the drill.
"I suppose I should admit that you were right, Colonel, Project Sentinel has proven to be rather a washout. Obviously a case of my reach exceeding my grasp. But Project Janissary, on the other hand...I expect it will prove most...satisfactory."
Starlight couldn't make a sound as Brain started to drill, but inside she was screaming.
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Merciful emperor....
8413352
Basically, he sees the female (Terra from Teen Titans, Kari from Digimon) as nothing more than a prize to be won by the male (Beast Boy, Davis).
OH COME ON! Twilight is teaming up with Raven!
I'm know she was hurt but that..SCUMB BAG!
Now this was just depressing...
8413360
Naturally, he will deny it. I wouldn't be surprised if he genuinely believes he doesn't see female characters as objects.
Okay, top three hated individuals, The Grand Ruler, Dr. Brain, and the followed by who ever the Grand Ruler's Father is.
And that just made you a better hero than most of Starfleet put together.
I love Dash here, talking to her friends though she can't see them. It really shows how close her bond will always be with them.
Why does every Lrya fic I read require her to be a badass bard?
*Applauds* Brillint use of a simile here!
You do a great job here at setting up suspense and then releasing it in one go.
*Sigh* One day, I will find a story that will have Luna wield a bow.
*Raises hand*
Oooooh, this chapter was great! I loved it! I loved how Dash's emotions reflected the reader and how cool she was under pressure. I also enjoyed the fights and the way they were written. There was even a healthy does of symbolism with the names here.
...
Well, that was awesome
Sadly Dash, life isn't always that way.
Ever find it weird that Mykan wants the ponies to face reality, and yet our stories have them face things like colleratal damage? You know, real problems?
Hmmm... This line is very good, and I think I want to talk more about it later...
This right here, is what I am talking about. One of the most despised things that came from Twilight's death is the idea that they all stayed behind when there was a stronger opponent. Sorry but no. You don't get to call yourself a hero after that, you don't call yourself brave after that, you get one word, coward. How many times have we seen a hero face stronger opponents to protect the ones they care about, tons. I have never before in my life ever seen a hero back away from the chance to save a life. The ones who do, usually are cowards. Hell...even Hercule threw 16's head when he had the chance, and he is very much a coward.
It also ticks me off that Dash, the brash one, stayed behind. That was so OOC it wasn't even funny. And having her deal with it was a great move on your part.
Luna: I know this cottage in Whitetail wood tht is big enough for six. Enough for a strong team!
RD: You gonna let me shack up with six brave mares with everything to lose and go on spy missions?
Luna: No, that is some other writer's stick.
I simply love the EVE scene here. Makes me tink of what happens whe you tell someone that they aint who they are supposed to be.
And that scene with Brain was awesome!
8428352
It's the obligatory Legendbringer shout-out.
8428419
Yeah, it really shows the hand on the scales to kill Twilight, doesn't it. Although personally I also find the bit where she traps Lightning in a shield so that he can't help her is even worse for out of character behaviour.
Hah! Well, you'll be glad to know that I'm not going there. I'll try and keep the similarities to a minimum.
8431980
I'll have to reread it, but I thought it was Raven who did that. God, it's like the episode was out to make sure that Twilight was going to die. It's hard for me to determine who was more OOC: Twilight for becoming Leeroy Jenkins, Dash for holding back, or Raven.
Of course, if one thing ticks me off more than OOC is for a plot to mishandle a character just to further the plot.
8432074
It's actually both. Raven traps Lightning and Twilight using uniforce magic (the first time in four stories where the Uniforce has been used to do anything but blast people), then lets them out again later to fight them some more. Then Twilight traps Lightning when he insists that they need to retreat. Lightning gets out of that (because Twilight's magic sucks compared to the power of the uniforce) and then Raven bats him aside so he can't interfere in the fight...even though she could have just done that without the need for Twilight to put Lightning in a shield.
Not only that, but to make sure that everyone knows that Twilight is to blame for her own demise.
And poop hit the fan when raven got out,everything went from bad to worse,the heroes may need a miracle
Something tells me, that at this point, Starlight no longer cares about becoming in charge of 'an Equestria free of gods and princesses'. In fact, she's probably wishing she had a god so she could pray to him.
Any chance that she'll be set free?