Pony Fantasy V: Exodus of the Void

by GMBlackjack

XXII - The Barrier Siege

The Doctor was a brown stallion with a young body that contrasted his wise blue eyes. “It’s all ready.” He said, turning to the group that had gathered. Griffons and ponies - most of which were soldiers. “May I present the Nautilus.”

Behind him, sitting on the ocean, was a metallic ship. However, unlike other ships, there was no obvious deck - everything was sealed, and the door led inside. There were no sails, only a large propellor on the back and a few smaller ones along the sides. Ridges and spines lined the ship, giving it the impression of a large metallic shellfish.

“This thing travels underwater…?” Rarity wondered aloud. “Amazing.”

The Doctor smiled sadly. “I… Wish it didn’t have to be used in this way. I designed the Nautilus to explore the depths of the oceans for science. Not for… this.”

Twilight nodded in sympathy. “I understand. I… created machines to harvest energy from the crystals. The machines weakened the crystals enough for Exdeath to easily shatter them.” She sighed. “Sometimes our devices get used for what we don’t want.”

The Doctor nodded sadly. “It is how it is. Please bring her back in one peace okay?”

Maud nodded. “We shall.” She raised her front right hoof. “Soldiers, load up.”

The pony and griffon squads rushed into the Submarine, leaving just Maud, the Warriors of Light, Starlight, and a few ponies (and a griffon) who wanted to see them off.

Gilda gave everyone a thumbs up. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

Fluttershy rushed Pinkie into a hug. “I don’t want to have to save you again…”

“You won’t have to.” Pinkie said, giggling. “I’ll be back just fine! And we’ll have cake!”

“We always have cake.” Fluttershy noted.

“And that’s what’s awesome about it!” Pinkie giggled.

Limestone walked up to Pinkie and fixed her with a steeled look. The angry outside broke down and the sisters embraced. “Don’t get yourself killed.” She said. “You either.” She said to Maud.

“Dying is never my intent.” Maud assured her.

Rainbow Dash looked at the three of them. “Wait. Pinkie. How many sisters do you have?”

“One more. Oh look! She’s right over there!”

Another grey mare walked up to them, but she said nothing. She was mostly covered in a long flowing cloak, her muzzle and eyes barely visible. Something about her eyes made them stand out, almost as if they were slightly glowing.

She looked right at Pinkie and Maud, then aggressively huged them both. Then she backed away and left without saying a few words.

“Marble doesn’t talk much.” Pinkie said. “But she’s really cool once you get to know her!”

“She rarely lets anyone know her.” Limestone muttered.

“Limestone!” Pinkie chided.

“Yeah fine I need to be nicer to my sister.” She sighed. “I’ll be organizing the armies, ready to strike at Exdeath’s little island of power the moment the shield goes down. We will make him pay.”

Rainbow Dash whooped. “You bet we will!”

“ALLLLL ABOARD!” Applejack yelled, wanting to get a move on. The mares walked into the submarine, leaving Gilda, Fluttershy, and the Pie Sisters behind. They quickly found that the inside of the Nautilus was extremely cramped, dark, and full of low hanging ceilings that unicorns hit their horns on regularly.

“Functional…” Twilights observed.

“But absolutely ghastly to look at.” Rarity shivered.

They made their way deep into the belly of the beast. While they maneuvered through the corridors, the door to the Nautilus slid shut and sealed itself. The bulky craft slowly sunk beneath the waves, the propellor revving up and driving the submarine forward. They descended beneath the waves, heading right for the exposed area of the tower…

—

“What was that?” Rarity asked, obviously the least comfortable in the surroundings.

“Just cut through a giant squid.” Maud commented. “Nothing to be concerned about, the Nautilus is designed to face off against all the sea monsters.”

“…That doesn’t make me feel any better Dear.”

Maud didn’t respond.

Rainbow Dash glared at the wall. “Are we there yet?” She asked for the hundredth time.

“Yes.” Maud responded.

“HOW MUCH LONG- wait what?”

“I said we’re there.” Maud said. “Come with me.” She announced, trotting out of the dark control room.

Starlight let out a breath of air. “Thank goodness, I was finding it hard to breathe in here…”

They walked back to the main entrance to the submarine. Maud pressed a few buttons and the door slid open, revealing a white wall in front of them. It was a little wet and water was dripping from the edges of the doorway.

Maud took in a deep breath. “Stand back. I have to break through the wall without breaking the seal we have keeping the ocean out.” She stood on her hind legs and pressed on of her her front hooves to the wall. She pulled back her hoof, and ran it forward with immense force and precision. A hoof-sized hole appeared in the metallic wall.

She looked in though the hole - the room was abandoned. She continued her work, sticking both her hooves in and peeling the metal back until it was large enough for everyone to fit through. She motioned, leading the task force inside.

“The power is being drained from something at the top of this tower. Since we do not have an explosive large enough to take the tower down from the base, we need to make our way up.” Maud looked at all the heroes and soldiers. “This is going to be a grueling fight to the top. Not all of us are going to make it. But we are going to take this place down.” She looked up at the ceiling. Then she leapt into the air and busted a hole through it, leading to the next floor. “Come on.”

All the winged members of the task force flew through the newly formed hole, while Twilight, Starlight, and a few Unicorns levitated those who couldn’t jump that high. The moment everyone was on the floor, Maud punched a hole through to the next.

“You know…” Applejack said. “It seems awfully empty here for an important part of Exdeath’s kingdom.”

“The tower is tremendous.” Starlight offered. “There is no way he has enough forces to man every part of it. He’s probably only manning the upper floors.”

“Hrm…” Applejack said, thoughtful. That made sense.

The floors began to blur together - white metal everywhere, each floor being mostly featureless. Twilight could sense that there was a lot of energy going through the center of the tower, so much that Twilight’s brain hurt simply from scanning it. What was he drawing all that power from?

She briefly considered breaking apart the central conduit, but realized that it was far too large to destroy and was likely to just vaporize anyone who tried to mess with it. They had to cut it off form the source.

Which meant going up around a hundred more floors.

“Who makes buildings this tall?” Rarity wailed. “What is the point?”

“To congeal all the energy into an easily useable and channelable state.” Twilight explained.

“English please?”

“It has to be this tall to work properly.”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “This was supposed to be a big epic fight! There’s nothing going on right now!”

“Careful what you wish for!” Pinkie said. Maud punched yet another hole in a ceiling and waited for everyone to come up. In the middle of this, a very tired looking gargoyle with a coffee mug in his hand rounded the corner and stooped dead in his tracks.

“Am I hallucinating?” He asked. “Did Frank put bounce dust in my coffee again?”

“Uh… no.” Starlight said.

“Then what is this?”

“An invasion.” Rainbow Dash answered.

“Oh.” He blinked. “Wait WHAT? Oh man I’ve got to report-“

He quickly found that Maud had appeared behind him and punched off his head with a simple movement.

Twilight blinked. “You can move like Pinkie?!”

“All the Pie sisters can.” Maud said. “She’s just the most in tune with it.”

Pinkie giggled. “Yep! We’re all pretty special earth ponies!”

Twilight’s eye twitched. She was’t sure how she felt about this.

“Come on!” Pinkie yelled. “It’s just getting started!”

—

Minutes later, they arrived at a floor where they could easily hear commotion above them.

“Ground floor?” Twilight asked.

“Possibly.” Maud said. “We will have to be more tactical about this one”

Rarity nodded. “Of course.” She lit her horn and increased the speed of everyone present and raised magical shields. “Anything else dears?”

“Draw weapons.” Applejack said. “This is about to get hairy.”

Maud pulled out some spiky shoes out of her saddlebags and readied her helmet. She looked ready for battle - save for her still expressionless face. “On three. One. Two. Three.”

She bashed right through the ceiling onto the next floor, blasting the servants of Exdeath away from the ground. The griffons and pegasi quickly filed in after her, using the power of surprise to mow down the dozen or so gargoyles in the room.

“EVERYONE!” Twilight yelled. “MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE TOP BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!”

The real siege had begun. Weapons of all kinds clashed - swords, axes, bows, and guns all plowed through their counterparts. Gargoyles fell like flies - but griffons and ponies still went down despite Rarity’s spells.

“Hey there!” Pinkie said to the gargoyles. “How would you like to dance?” She quickly ran up to one gargoyle and suplexed him into another, all while doing a tap dance. “Dancing is awesome!” She noted, dodging all the bullets and blades effortlessly, instead simply generating a ton of water around herself and flushing the gargoyles with it.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash were back to back, Rarity buffing Rainbow Dash’s every attack and Rainbow discovering that she had a new spell that ate away the very flesh of those it hit. “That… is disgusting.” Rainbow Dash mentioned.

“So? Since what has that stopped you from doing anything?”

“Good point. FACE THE WRATH OF THE FLESH EATING SPELL!” Her wings lit up a dark unpleasant green and gargoyles fell like flies, a green and red mist eating at them and muffling their screams.

Twilight found herself with the griffon squad, raising her magical shield to block incoming projectiles while the griffons returned fire. She discovered that griffons were great soldiers - scarily effective in how they used their weapons to take out the gargoyles’ weak points, sometimes in bloody and brutal ways. She winced more than a few times, but kept on fighting.

Starlight and Applejack found themselves fighting alongside Maud. Applejack found she appreciated the magistrate’s style - up close, personal, and down to earth. She rarely used that strange “moving” ability she shared with Pinkie, preferring to fight as things were, using her extreme strength to her advantage.

Applejack was using her sword and strength alongside Maud, fighting right alongside one of her mother’s greatest friends. She felt… good about it, despite the death happening all around her.

Starlight was just muttering to herself wondering why she came on this mission in the first place, blasting enemy after enemy with magic laser after magic laser.

Eventually, the entire room was devoid of able-bodied gargoyles. A dozen ponies and griffons had fallen in the fight.

“There will be reinforcements.” Maud said. “Let us not waste time.” She punched a hole in the wall, revealing the outside - sunlight poured into the room. “Everyone who can fly, grab someone who can’t and get to the top of the tower! We’re flying to the top!”

Rainbow Dash picked up Rarity and took off into the sky. Maud, to her credit, started crawling up the outside of the tower like it was a ladder, her hooves creating holds as she went. Pinkie was somehow hanging onto Maud’s tail throughout this. Starlight levitated herself with Applejack on her back out into the sun, leaving Twilight to be picked up by one of her new griffon friends. The task force flew up the side of the tower, a streak of rainbow energy leading them.

Then the lasers began to shoot at them. A few pairs went down.

Twilight began to raise barriers while her griffon carried her. “Everyone! Defend the fliers!” The unicorns obeyed, raising magic shields everywhere they could - but it wasn’t good enough. Whatever was shooting them was extremely powerful and cut through most shields.

“Buck!” Rainbow Dash yelled, realizing most of the lasers were trying to hit her. With Rarity on her back, she found it hard to dodge them. Rarity, meanwhile, was just holding on for dear life.

Maud ripped a side of metal plating from the tower and tossed to down to the ground where the lasers were coming from. The crunch was very satisfying, but it was not enough to destroy the laser machines. Pinkie reached deep within herself and summoned a tidal wave from her hooves, washing the ground far below them with torrents of water - but it still didn’t disable all the lasers.

Pegasi and griffons kept falling. Twilight was trying her best to protect the others, but in her folly she forgot to protect the griffon carrying her. In a blast of energy her pilot’s chest was obliterated, and the upward force of the wings stopped. Twilight began to fall.

She closed her eyes, wishing really really hard that she had wings. Or that someone would save her. Or that the water on the ground was soft.

…She didn’t hit the ground.

She opened her eyes, realizing she was enveloped in a cloud of lavender magic. She was levitating herself. She laughed. “HA! TAKE THAT STARLIGHT!”

“You’re falling behind!” Starlight yelled back. “Come on!”

Twilight felt the tug of Starlight’s telekinesis add to her own and she flew up the side of the tower faster than ever before.

“ALMOST THERE!” Rainbow Dash yelled back, straining herself as much as she dared. Just as she cleared the top of the tower, a laser clipped her in the wing and she fell to the roof. The rest of the task force - or what remained of it - landed beside her. She picked herself up off the ground and made sure Rarity was okay before focusing on the top of the tower.

It was a flat roof, with almost no features on it at all. However, in the center was a gigantic black sphere, shooting unholy purple energy into the tower from above.

“What… IS that?” Twilight asked.

“No idea.” Maud said. “But it’s the power source. It must be taken out.” Maud reached into the ground and took up a large chunk of the floor and tossed it at the sphere at high speeds.

Nothing happened.

Twilight reached deep within herself and blasted the sphere with the strongest laster she could muster.

It twitched, but otherwise nothing changed.

“That’s not good.” Applejack said.

Pinkie frowned. “I know we can do something to it I just don’t know what…”

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked as Rarity healed her wings. “I have an idea.”

“What?”

“Watch.” She said. She blasted up into the air at high speeds, going higher, higher, and higher. Without Rarity on her back, she quickly escaped the range of the laser turrets. She passed the clouds, and continued flying even higher. She stopped when she felt her breath getting short. Then she aimed herself downward. “TAKE THIS!” She said, blasting downwards. She lit her wings with power - trying to pull all her spells together at once. The colors cycled, rapidly changing color faster and faster until it appeared to be an ever shifting rainbow of colors. Her entire body began to cover with the magical aura of many colors. A mach cone formed around her front hooves, and tears began to squeeze from her eyes as the rainbows covered her entire body.

“TAKE… THIS!!!” She roared, unleashing her power at once instant mere feet away from the black sphere. A disc of powerful energy unleashed, a spectrum of colors ripping across the sky and tearing at the fabric of reality itself. The light was blinding, forcing everyone to look away. Rainbow Dash smashed into the ground, breaking front legs into a dozen pieces and crying out in excruciating pain. Then she passed out.

In Exdeath Castle, Exdeath himself looked up from his plans and out the window to see the powerful spectrum of colors coming from the top of one of his barrier towers. “What the f-“ He calmed himself. “Well then, I suppose I will have to accelerate things. Sunset, I must be off. Make sure the castle doesn’t fall while I’m away.”

“Yes my lord.”

Back at the barrier tower, the sphere of black energy contracted into a minuscule point, the energy transference to the tower shutting down. The magical aura of the barrier vanished instantly, and the tower’s lights went dead.

“WOOHOO!” Twilight yelled. “RAINBOW DASH YOU- oh.” She winced. “Rarity can you-“

“This injury is extremely severe.” Rarity said. “Yes I can heal her, she’s not going to die, but she’s not going to be fighting for a few hours.”

“Which might be a big problem.” Applejack said.

“Why dear?”

“It’s not dead. And it looks angry.”

The ponies and griffons looked at the black sphere - which wasn’t as large as it was once before. But it wasn’t a sphere either anymore Instead, it appeared as a giant gaping purple maw with a vortex of galaxies inside it. It struck them all as some kind of unnatural portal to a different reality.

It roared, lifting a unicorn off the ground and sucking it right into its maw. The unicorn was vaporized the moment it touched the mouth.

Everyone reeled, save for Maud, whose expression didn’t change. “Take it out.” She said. “We cannot take any chances that the power will be reinstated. Destroy the Source.”

The Source apparently understood this remark and fired several black beams of energy at the offending individuals. The soldiers dodged them all.

Pinkie Pie produced her party cannon. “IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY SOURCE!” The cannon fired several wind spells at the Source. “And, hopefully, your deathday!”

“That was dark.” Starlight observed, blasting the Source with a laser of magic.

“Eh, I’m not always a chipper humor kind of mare. I can even do gallows humor!”

“Let’s not right now.” Starlight said, plugging more magic into her attacks. The Source didn’t seem to care. It sucked in some griffons and made a strange gurgling sounds that suggested it was getting hungrier the more it ate.

Twilight shook her head. “What is this thing? It doesn’t seem to care at all about magic-“

Applejack went crazy in that moment, lifting her sword and charging right at the creature. “APPLEJACK NO!” Rarity yelled, but the earth pony wasn’t listening. She drove the sword right into the creature’s base. It was not happy at this, and attempted to suck her right in.

Twilight and Rarity instantly acted, pulling against the Source’s force with their own telekinesis. But Applejack was still slowly drifting towards the gaping maw. “BRING IT STARMOUTH!” Applejack roared, having lost all reason and swinging her sword around madly.

“Applejack!” Pinkie yelled, looking around frantically for something to do. Something to save her friend.

Then she saw Maud walking towards the Source, expressionless.

“MAUD! NO!” Pinkie yelled.

Maud turned to look at Pinkie. Her face broke - she smiled at Pinkie, a tear falling down her face. Pinkie understood exactly what that look meant. You need her. You don’t need me. There isn’t another way.

“MAUD! BUT-“

Maud was no longer listening, she walked right up to the Source, leaping up and pushing Applejack out of the way. Her face turned sour - eyes angry and her mouth scowling. “DIE!” She roared. As she was sucked into the gaping maw, she punched upward, hitting the mutant beast’s head form inside in the last possible moment.

Everything exploded in a murky blackness.

Then the dust settled. The tower was silent.

Pinkie’s hair went flat. “No…” She said. “No! I WAS GOING TO STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING!”

Starlight took a moment to look at Pinkie. Her heart twisted and she backed away, ashamed.

“CAN’T I CHANGE ANYTHING?” Pinkie yelled. “No? OH NO OF COURSE NOT THAT’S NOT. HOW. THINGS. WORK.”

“Pinkie…” Rarity said.

“Rarity I would stay away from me for the next few minutes. I can’t be held accountable for what I might do to you.” Pinkie said, deadpan.

Rarity wisely took a few steps back.

Applejack spoke next. “Pinkie.”

“What.”

“We’ve all lost someone.” She sighed. “And as much as I believe grief is needed, we don’t have that option right now. We don’t have time. We’re in a war. We have to move and grieve later.”

Pinkie sniffed. “Element of Honesty…”

Applejack nodded sadly. “Yeah…”

Pinkie looked up, her hair poofing up slightly. She walked towards the center of the tower and picked up Maud’s helmet - the only thing of hers left. “You will be remembered.” She stuffed the helmet… somewhere.

Then a ship descended from the sky, grey colored and emblazoned with the name “Shalebuster.” The door slid open and Limestone stepped out, a mad grin on her face. “You did it! The invasion can now begin! Hah!” She smirked. “And as much as I’d love to say you’re welcome to join us, I’m actually here to cart you off to the Stone Shrine.”

“What?” Rarity asked. “I thought we-“

“Marble received a vision.” Limestone explained. “Fluttershy is already there waiting for you. And- …Where is Maud.”

Everyone looked down at the ground.

“Buck.” Limestone said. “Get on. Get on the ship before I break something. Hurry. Now. Quickly. BUCK!” She roared, her eyes going black. “GET IN AND ACTIVATE THE DROPSHIP. IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE SHRINE. WE WILL BE MUTILATING THIS PATHETIC ISLAND.”

Everyone scrambled into the Shalebuster, the Warriors of Light and Starlight beelining for the dropship. Marble was already on board, and she was crying a pool of tears.

As the dropship left, Pinkie and Marble hugged each other, neither speaking. Both winced when they heard the roar of their sister going completely berserk on the armies of Exdeath.

The war had truly begun. And they weren’t fighting in it.

Comments

[the other sans]

then aggressively huged them both
rounded the corner and stooped dead in his tracks
ripped a side of metal plating from the tower and tossed to down to the ground where the lasers

1. Hugged.
2. Stopped.
3. It.