Chapter 14
The reaction was fast enough that even Bree did not have to accelerate her perception of time not to get bored. A wave of tense energy passed through the natives, starting with the little green one and moving to the white one. The adult only looked stunned, like a punch to the gut.
“You lied to us?” Sweetie Belle’s voice no longer sounded melodious, but so shrill it almost shook the cabin. “You said… You said you were gonna save Canterlot.”
“That was no lie.” Bree nodded matter-of-factly, gesturing at the wall. “You hear that out there? I know you can’t see with those primitive bodies of yours, but… we’re winning out there. The changeling ruler has already fled, and their forces only hold parts of the castle. Within the hour we will have expelled or destroyed every changeling in Canterlot. Is that not honoring my promise?”
“Liberate Canterlot.” Chance turned on her, advancing slowly in her direction. “Liberate doesn’t mean to make into a vassal of the Steel Tower.”
Bree shrugged. “The definition of liberate is somewhat subjective. Liberate from violent oppressors and give into the hand of friendly allies is still a liberation.”
The little green unicorn was only a few feet away now. Bree wasn’t worried—even if that strange ability the natives called magic could blast this body to a billion pieces, her consciousness was elsewhere. She could detonate any piece of large hardware she had, including this APC. If the need required. She doubted it would.
“You’ve just done Equestria a service, Technocrat Bree. You’ve made an ally for your pack and your king.”
She leaned up, lowering her voice to a whisper. Of course everyone in the APC could still hear her. “It doesn’t matter if you intended betrayal or not… nopony has to know. Change your mind—when the battle ends, put the ponies back in control of their city. Otherwise…”
Her whole body tensed. Bree expected some kind of surge of magic, maybe all the magic this little native had been saving. Yet there was no sign of magic from her, only determination.
“Or what?” Bree raised an eyebrow. “You three are my prisoners. You can make no threats.”
Well, the white one wasn’t going to be making any threats any time soon. Her brief anger had been exhausted in seconds, and now she only sobbed. Sobbed into the sympathetic grip of the adult, babbling things like, “My fault… I helped conquer Canterlot… all my fault…”
Second Chance was harsher, and hadn’t relaxed even a little. “Not us. Think about it, machine.” Back to those stupid insults again. Bree didn’t really care what Federation crap the native spewed, no matter how vulgar the slur. “If your knight kills Tirek, then the biggest threat to us is gone. Equestria is a nation of millions. You can’t possibly hold a city in its center. Pony troops can come right through the shield, even if you do get it back up.”
Bree smiled. “You assume I haven’t considered all that, native.”
The pony was undaunted. “Well, suppose all the armies in all Equestria can’t take the city back from you. Suppose you know how to make them give up somehow…” She gestured up at the ceiling. “There are ponies so powerful they make the sun rise and set with their magic. Ponies that can seal a Hawking rift or create a living pony from nothing. I don’t know where they are, but… when they find out what you’ve done, it won’t matter how many puppet bodies you have.”
Bree gestured at a nearby wall, bidding the little computer to unfurl. The display grew to about two feet across, film-thin plastic. “You mean the princesses, right? Your tribal deities?”
Chance nodded.
Bree couldn’t help but grin; she was going to enjoy this. “You mean these princesses?” She gestured at the screen, which filled with the image from her drone camera. The drone was aimed at a vaulted ceiling somewhere in the castle, in a large hearing chamber they had only recently taken.
There were three pods attached to the stone with something like thick green glue, sticking it firmly into place. Each one had a pony inside, ponies Bree knew to be expecting from their frequent depiction in the books on mythology her dogs had stolen.
They were all Alicorns, with horns and wings both, and absurd things written about their power. There was no evidence of that power now, for each slept helpless. There weren’t even signs of struggle. “There’s good evidence they’ve been there for many hours. Yet the sun still set before our battle, without their involvement.”
Her images had the desired effect. The ponies stared in shock, mouths hanging open. Even the green one with her infuriating knowledge of human things and unbearable pride was silent in the face of such evidence. “B-but…” The disbelief was palpable in their faces, seeming almost to fill the APC around them.
Bree didn’t even bother trying not to sound smug. “Don’t feel too bad. It’s quite common for primitive societies to ascribe supernatural abilities to regular people. It’s a jarring experience to be confronted with the reality.”
They had no more retorts. Tails fell flat, the three proud unicorns reduced to whimpers, worried stares, and barely repressed sobs. Somehow, Bree didn’t think conquering the rest of Equestria was going to be too difficult.
Bree casually reached over and took up her netgun, firing it straight at the stupefied equines. They fell into a limp bundle on the floor, almost not seeming to notice. So much the better—Bree wasn’t afraid of losing this body, but it would be unfortunate to need to print another.
* * *
Twilight Sparkle appeared with a bright flash of magic, indicative of her agitation and the lack of focus governing her teleport. It wasn’t as though she didn’t have the power to travel all around the planet in moments—maybe even further. Could Alicorns leave the protection of the planet the way regular ponies couldn’t?
Today was not the day Twilight would learn. Today she scanned the intersection with urgent eyes, easily piercing the gloom despite the faint light of only a few flickering streetlights.
Her target wasn’t hard to find. Most of the buildings she saw had clear, legal purposes obvious just at a glance. Then there was one side of the street, where a gap between two buildings made room for a single black storefront barely wide enough for a door. There was no signage, nor any sign of traffic. There was an ominous-looking, unlit stairwell with police-ponies on either side and barricades of yellow tape.
They were all staring at her. Twilight straightened, focusing for a moment so that the ethereal glow would fade from her mane. She was getting better at hiding that, though she wasn’t sure if there was much point anymore.
“Princess Twilight?” She recognized the police-pony from the many she had met during her last visit to Fillydelphia. His mane was fierce orange, gone white around the edges from age. He looked sheepishly away. “Didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”
“Mean Beat.” Twilight stopped only a few feet away, unable to keep her eyes from darting back down the opening. There was very little else to see—the ordinarily bustling streets were deserted, no cart traffic on the road. Fillydelphia was a ghost town. “I’m afraid my last visit had some consequences I didn’t expect.” There was no formality from her, no waiting. She didn’t have time for any of that nonsense with her daughter in danger. “Is this the harvesting center?”
His companion’s face seemed to lose some of its color, suppressing a weak sound of disgust.
Mean Beat nodded, looking darkly down at the opening. “Aye, Princess. That’s… one way you could describe it.”
“I assume your department has already cleaned the place out? Where did they take the ponies who were being held there?”
“Mercy General, a block that way.” To his credit, the old police-pony didn’t look away as he delivered unpleasant news. “The department hasn’t been able to go through the… ‘harvesting center’ yet.”
Twilight’s voice grew cold. The air around her did too, breezes seeming to curl oddly around her hooves. Even the stars seemed to darken a little. “I expect the chief has a very good reason.”
He nodded, looking past her to the empty streets. “If you’d been here a few hours ago, Princess… you might not have believed the chaos. First the telegram that Canterlot was apparently under attack, then the moon was a few hours late…” He shivered. “Then the first team of ponies we send in there come out carrying… victims, and word of that starts getting around…”
“Buckin’ mess, Princess,” the other police-pony muttered, staring at the floor. “There are ponies saying this is the end of the world.”
“Chief didn’t send any more ponies down there once the rioting started. Mayor declared a state of emergency, curfew, all that… Word is they’ll have the officers to go down tomorrow morning… assuming they can get anyone to do it.”
Twilight Sparkle did not have time for this. There was the guilt—guilt she hadn’t discovered the imposter sooner, guilt that she had been poisoned and been late setting the sun on the same day she had been late rising it. There was the rage at these ponies that they were too frightened by the victims to send them the help they needed. Fear for Fillydelphia straining under the stress of so much bad news. What was that about Canterlot under attack too? There was no end of it!
“Disaster is no excuse for us to act like monsters instead of civilized ponies,” Twilight muttered, forcing herself to exhale. “Both of you, bring every EMT and trauma doctor and volunteer you can find. I’m going to get everypony out.”
“You’re wh-” Twilight gestured, and the police-ponies vanished in two little flashes of light. She had put them right onto the steps of Mercy General, a few blocks away. Such an incredibly precise teleport, and when she wasn’t even involved personally, was ordinarily beyond her abilities. Not anymore.
If I couldn’t do that, I would have a harder time with this… Yes, she could’ve ran down there and told the ponies trapped inside how to get out. Yes, she could easily have dispatched whatever enemies or traps waited for her. There was nothing in the world that could stop a power like her.
Twilight stepped out of the road and onto the sidewalk, where Hard Beat had been standing moments before. She closed her eyes, unfocusing her mind and letting it drift.
Equestria itself was before her, a shining light of millions of souls. Most slept now, and she felt their uneasy dreams grating against her, drawing her toward them. They were only a few of the ponies who needed her help and would not get it tonight.
There were some who would, though. Twilight Sparkle focused on herself, letting the millions fade into the background. Their voices and dreams became little more than a dull roar, unsettling but not distracting.
Soon she could see herself, a brilliant inferno of magic and power against the darkness. She turned her mind downward, probing under the streets and buildings as she followed the stairs into the depths with concentration instead of steps.
There were ponies down there, all right. She almost didn’t recognize the first one, not compared with the numberless concourses of Equestrians teaming in the city. The first one she saw, collapsed in a hallway somewhere, looked very much like a pony. She had thoughts like a pony, and emotions like a pony. But just because she had those two didn’t mean she was intact.
To Twilight’s magical senses, this first refugee wasn’t even a spark. Equestria’s latent field, roiling in turmoil tonight, passed through her with as much resistance as the walls or the desks. Her cutie mark, which Twilight saw binding each pony to the planet itself, wasn’t even there.
This pony had been violated, in a way Twilight already understood. But hearing of it from Celestia was not the same as witnessing it for herself. The end result of Tirek’s jealousy of Equestrian magic might have been less horrific if it left ponies living without their heads. Twilight no longer wondered at the police’s reluctance.
That didn’t mean she would leave the victims to suffer alone. All space is one, Twilight recited in her mind, remembering the first time Celestia had explained teleportation to her. She willed it, and the unconscious victim appeared at her hooves. Twilight ventured further with her concentration, exploring every hallway and room.
The skilled wizard can see through the illusion of separation. Ponies appeared around her on the street, everyone butchered as the first one had been. Not one of them was dead, though Twilight wondered if they might be better off that way. She can order a change that better suits her will. There was some peace in the recitation, peace in something that was good and familiar and not another twisting of the world she knew.
Twilight’s eyes were open now, burning with the radiance of magic unchained. She could still see clearly, and watched each face for the one she yearned most to see.
The master mocks distance, and grows beyond her singleness of self. She no longer glimpses beyond the veil—she tears it open. Stone shook beneath her as Twilight lifted from the ground, her mane flickering in the glow of a sun that did not shine. Dozens of ponies appeared with every second, filling the intersection and the sidewalks. Twilight continued to search, until she had exhausted every last corner of the abominable facility and not a single pony was left trapped.
She wasn’t even out of breath when she landed, alighting on the sidewalk where she had been standing before. There were no longer any Equestrian ponies in the facility, and she slammed the door shut with a contemptuous gesture. Let the dozen-or-so changelings she still sensed wandering down there find their own ways out. She had not come for them.
“Second Chance!” Twilight set to wandering through the crowd, searching for a pony she already knew wasn’t there. “Sweetie Belle?” They were unicorns all, mare and stallion and foal. The changelings were no respecters of persons.
It wasn’t much of a crowd, really. There was no danger of the ponies rioting on her, not with the way they looked. More likely, it seemed like they might keel over and die. Few had been spared the awful treatment. Those that still had cutie marks looked shocked and hurt enough that they probably wouldn’t be causing trouble either.
A few seemed coherent enough to understand her, standing or leaning on each other in a near-drunken stupor. “Please!” she shouted, loud enough that the glass of buildings all around briefly shook. “I’m looking for my daughter, green filly with a yellow mane and a planet for a cutie mark. Also a white filly the same age, with a pink and purple mane. Has anypony here seen them?”
The ponies moaned at the noise, but most didn’t respond. One did, though. With a spear cutie mark, but a stern face and a silver mane. There was a little of the Canterlot Guard to her accent. “Aye, Princess.” She took each step very slowly, and lifted one hoof to a vague salute. “T-the green one claimed to be… p-please, help these ponies.”
Twilight Sparkle knew of only one way to do that. None of these ponies could hold Alicorn magic, even small fractions of it. If she wanted them to have their magic back, she would have to get it from the one who had stolen it. “I will. First, though… what happened to her? Why isn’t she here?”
The pony swayed, and Twilight offered her hoof to steady her. She wasn’t sure if any of her healing spells would have done any good. She could hear distant shouting from behind her, along with many galloping hooves. Her messengers had succeeded, then.
“She… didn’t seem as hurt as the rest of us. Her and another mare… they said they were getting help…”
“They did.” Well, that explained how the police-ponies knew about this place. Twilight hadn’t even bothered asking that question, not before she got her daughter back. “What did the other mare look like? Did you know her name?”
The feeble guard pony shook her head. “N-no… not her name. She was, uh… blue-green, with… a light green and white mane?”
Could that be Lyra? Well, at least her daughter would be around somepony she knew. That didn’t help erase any of the rage she felt. Rage that ponies had been made to suffer this way. Furious, tearing guilt that she hadn’t been able to stop it.
Celestia gave me one pony and I couldn’t keep her safe. How am I supposed to protect all Equestria?
“Thank you, Miss…”
“Iron Spear, Princess…”
Doctors and orderlies and police-ponies tore down the street in a tight herd, very close now. White wagons lined up behind them, obedient to the will of a princess.
Twilight Sparkle could not find her daughter here. She couldn’t use her power to search for the filly through all Equestria, not if she had been violated as these other ponies had been. She could not sense a magic that was not there and search all the country at once.
When the police-ponies returned, Twilight asked what had happened to her daughter. They didn’t know, except that they suspected she might’ve stolen a train. Twilight clarified that if she did, it would’ve been at her royal request.
The doctors seemed a little better prepared than Twilight herself had been. She saw horror as they went through Tirek’s victims, but that didn’t stop them from doing their work. Soon the street began to clear, as cart after cart wheeled away.
The police-ponies couldn’t tell her where her daughter had gone, though she did confirm that Chance was alive and apparently with Sweetie Belle at least. Rarity’s sister had apparently escaped the torture, though nopony knew why. It wasn’t as though Twilight could ask Celestia.
I can’t keep looking for her. She’s alive… but Equestria is in trouble. I can’t just worry about one pony anymore. Twilight approached Hard Beat, clearing her throat.
As she expected, the police-pony stopped what he was doing, turning away from the medical orderly and bowing respectfully. “Princess?”
“I want you to get the word out. Talk to… whatever pony you have to. Tell them the princesses are alive and well. Tell them they still rule Equestria. When the sun rises tomorrow—and it will rise on time—this terror will end.” She gestured at the ambulance carts. “Reassure the families of these victims that their loved ones will be restored and those responsible punished. Understand?”
He nodded. “Aye, Princess. I understand.”
She turned away. She would need to find some proper rest before tomorrow.
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I'll be honest, I'm starting to get exhausted with the conflict at this point. It's not bad, it's just been a long time and I'm used to the story being mostly slice of life in the past bookd. Looking forward to knowing what happens to Amber and chance, but also can't wait for a lull in the drama.
Man, I'm starting to hate Bree.
Finally, Twilight's taking charge!
7306667 I think that's exactly what Starscribe is going for, heheh. Bree is going to get what she deserves hopefully...
7306667 ONLY starting to hate her? I hated her from the moment I got a gauge of her character, the way she thinks she's so superior over even those who share the same existence as her simply because she stopped her aging beyond that of a child. The way she manipulates the situation and is adamant that she will conquer the ponies for no reason other than she wants to even when ordered not to by the highest power in the steel tower and argued against by her second in command. I want so badly to drop a nuke on her that I am disappointed that I can't edit the story to make it so. Taking her power away and giving her a solid bitch slap would work too I guess.
Interesting the way that the trick of hiding the alicorn magic intended for Tirek is working on Bree for a different reason than it would have worked on Tirek.
For all that she praises her own intelligence, Bree seems to have missed the fact that the sun set late. I wonder will her come-uppance be from underestimating Twilight's magic or underestimating Chance's neuroboost link to Truth...
Small mistake, but the guard pony Iron Spear is described as having a spear cutie mark, and then immediately after that she "looks at her own bare flank".
I guess you guys have forgotten that Bree is corrupted by the void. And has very likely an outsider that is influencing her thoughts and behavior.
Oh, Bree. Falling for the "my race is superior to yours" fallacy.
I wonder what you'd look like as a pony?
Downvote fairies unite against commenters on this chapter apparently. Maybe try providing an argument instead of just anonymously hating on everyone.
7306837
I have no idea where you got that from, I never noticed any of that.
7307923
They've returned from the early chapters to torment once again.
I can't wait to see the little technocrat put in her place when twilight shows her what real magic is, and how the sun moves in this universe.
Please install pain dot exe and make her experience it constantly.
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