Bloody Mud
Night Patrol 2 awakening chapter 43
By Foxgear
Earlier in Apple Chopper 1
“Now approaching the Crystal Empire, ETA, ten minutes.” Azure Beryl’s voice said over the gemcom. To the four ponies in the back of the chopper, the words got their blood going. Well, it got three of them excited. Monster Squad Alpha was giddy, but their commander was asleep. This was impressive because even with the ear protection, the noise from the whooshing wind made speaking impossible without the assistance of the gemcoms.
Ruby Blaze was the brave soul that shook Sixes by the shoulder, stirring the black rinin awake, his orange-eyes opened with their usual hardened glare. Wordlessly Sixes stretched activating the fire organ in his stomach to warm his body.
Azure Beryl chatted over the coms, “This is AC-1, to FOB, we are making our descent.” No reply. “FOB this is AC-1, please respond.” No response, again. “Alright… Cloud base thirty-eight, come in Cloud base Thirty-eight. This AC-1, requesting a sitrep.”
“Cloud Base 38, copy, the situation is all green.”
“Cloud Base 38, can you contact the FOB?”
“Wait to confirm AC-1.” For several tense seconds, the five rinin waited with bated breath. “AC-1, we are unable to contact FOB Alpha, and all transitions with FOB-Bravo are static. Battlefield situation is unknown, sending warning level yellow to rear. Shall we send escorts?”
Azure looked to Sixes. “Orders, Commander?”
He sighed, tapping his gemcom. “This is Mage Killer, hold off on escorts, we’re gonna check things out. Standby. If we don’t report anything in fifteen minutes, send word to Admiral McGather, over and out.”
“Copy that Mage Killer, Cloud Base 38 out.”
“Everypony suit up! We’re going in blind! Azzie, this rig got weapons?”
“Of course, it does! What doesn’t have weapons in Night Patrol!”
Sixes laughed at her sarcasm. “Just double-checking. M Squad-A, prepare to go in hot! Azzie, provide air support to any friendly units.”
“Roger, beginning descent. The Empire’s dome is in sight, visibility unclear… sweet Luna’s teats!”
Sixes unbuckled and climbed into the front of the chopper, through the blowing snow he could barely make out the glowing blue shield that protected the Crystal Empire from the elements, outside the city was a massive rank of troops in winter camo, and they were filing into the dome.
“They don’t seem to have noticed us, what do we do Sixes?”
Sixes' claws tore into the co-pilots seat, his jaw clenched tight with anger. “Light them up! We breaking through!
“Roger!” They all shouted.
“Cloud Base 38, this is AC-1, engaging the enemy! Repeat AC-1 engaging!” Azure flicked a series of switches in a row, the final one had a green cover, which she also flipped and flicked the metal toggle up. A red light shined on the panel, the word armed written beneath it. “Weapons hot!”
The Apple Assault Chopper was equipped with an impressive amount of firepower. Its loadout consisted of two twenty salvo gem rocket pods, two Auto Gatling ‘Solid’ Gem blasters with two thousand rounds of ammo, and two nose-mounted ‘energy’ Gem Blasters.
Azure pressed her thumb claw on the trigger of the control stick, after a centering breath, she pressed the button.
A salvo of ten rockets, five from each pod, rampaged through the enemy ranks. Thanks to the enemy's tightly packed formation, dozens and more bodies were flung high into the air, with others being eviscerated on the spot. Azure increased speed, strafing through the enemy with the Gatling blasters, the projectiles pierced armor and flesh with ease. Flying through the shield, Azure grit her teeth at the sight of FOB Alpha entirely overrun. She circled around the west side of the walls laying down a storm of fire upon the enemy. The enemy soldiers hissed and shook their hooves at them, many flying into the sky to give chase. Azure rotated the chopper a hundred eighty degrees laying down another barrage of rockets and solid fire. The pursuit ended very quickly, and she turned the helicopter around, speeding headlong for FOB-Bravo.
“We planned for five thousand, but given the fresh look of these troops, they must have fifteen thousand or more. Not counting civilians.” Sixes really didn’t want to think about what Sombra had to do to repopulate this many ponies to field his army. They loosely guessed what percent of his army survived the first war with the Crystal Ponies population left behind, and his heart went out to the ones they hadn’t been able to save.
“Sorry,” He mumbled, looking at the negative visage of the Crystal City. On his forelegs jingled a gold chain on a cuff with many runes inscribed on the shiny metal. At the ends of those chains were golden hooks, with even more runes written on them. “I’ll set this right.”
Tapping his gemcom, the numbers of all the commanders appeared on his hub, “This is Sixes, any pony copy?”
All of the Commanders and Vice Commanders status signals were listed. He checked their last known locations. Feri was last recorded somewhere in the city limits, Topaz also disappeared there, Gloves had a WIA (Wounded in Action) last known location FOB-A, Trifecta was unknown, last known location was in the city, and AppleJazz’s was active, in fact, they were about to fly over her position!
Disregarding the unknowns, Sixes focused in on Jazz’s location. The 2-d holographic Hub map showed her position below them. Most likely, she was grounded. Her status was still alive. He synced his gemcom with everypony.
“Go to Jazz’s location, she’s in the thick of it. We’ll evac her to Bravo.”
Azure nodded while the monster squad did a final check of their equipment. “I’ll get you as close as I can… SWEET LUNA’S TEATS! I have a visual on Princess LUNA! Also, hostiles incoming!” Azure Beryl screamed over the coms.
Sixes followed Azure’s pointed claw and saw Luna falling out of the sky. A million thoughts went through his mind, such as why didn’t he see her location on the map, where were her escorts, why wasn’t Celestia with her, and other nonsense that he straight out didn’t think about because he already jumped out of the chopper bay door.
Dive bombing through the sky, Sixes folded his wings against his body, becoming a living bullet soaring through the air. Some foolish enemy soldiers tried to get in his way, that was their last mistake, his hooks caught the first pair of idiots like fish and at his speed, the hooks shredded through their armor and flesh nearly cutting them in half. He didn’t bother to look back and confirm the kills.
“For the glory of Sombra and the Obsidian Empire!” Another enemy soldier charged into his path, and Sixes' eyes shrunk to pinpricks.
Sixes stuck out his claw grabbed the fool by the neck, and tore it out, letting the wind take the dumbass’s windpipe. A fourth enemy appeared and wisely gave him the right away, wise, too bad he didn’t account for the hooks tailing behind.
Luna came into focus. Sixes could see her blood-spattered coat, her destroyed armor, her broken leg, and wing. He let out a roar! Luna looked up, finally seeing him. Teardrops pelted his face while she screamed out his name.
He screamed her name rolling his body tighter into a spin and unleashing a flame burst. He caught Luna in his forelegs, shifting to bipedal and came in for a hard landing, bending his knees and rolling. Luna yelped, her broken leg and wing pinned beneath him.
“Sorry,” He muttered, standing and cradling the Night Princess like a princess. “Sorry, I’m late.”
“You better be,” Luna said, doing a fantastic job of hiding her pain, but she couldn’t hide her blush, even though the situation was far from romantic.
(Broken leg, broken wing, middle of a battlefield? Not a novel setting.)
Ruby, Octane, and Hazel landed behind Sixes, Essex joined them, finally escaping Erebus’s weapons, and Shamrock appeared with her. The enemy army tried to encircle them, but a quick flyover by Azure pushed them back. They tried again while the chopper pilot repositioned, but a black stallion with white hair came forth and shouted.
“Stand down, rift raft should fight rift raft. These ponies are mine.” The Stallion shouted, every Obsidian took one look at him, and they resumed their charge, flowing around them like they were a stone in a river.
Behind the stallion was a sight, Bulwark lay bloody on the ground, Platinum was crying and clinging to his neck, Gloves was on the ground next to them with AppleJazz not far away. They looked worse for wear and qualified to be rotated out of the fight.
Platinum wiped away her tears, her eyes red and puffy, she snorted, trying to put on a composed face. The light of hope shined in her eyes. “Pere…”
Calmly, Sixes set Luna on her feet and gently pushed the Princess behind him. The others formed a defensive circle around her. He stalked toward the white-haired pony, chains jingling, bloody gold hooks dragging across the ground.
“Another interesting pony as appeared. I must say the way the Princess called out your name with such emotion, it piques my interest. Are you her lover? If my Prench is correct, that mare just called you father.” Erebus inquired, but Sixes said nothing. “Oh, how rude, I should introduce myself. Been doing that a lot today. I’m Erebus, first son of Sombra and heir to the throne…”
He didn’t get to finish. A gold hook was sent flying at him, the breaking wheel on his right intercepted the golden weapon. The chain snagged and wrapped around the Wheel. Sixes severed the chain before it could reel him in. Erebus didn’t think much of this, but when the wrapped-up Breaker Wheel fell to the ground, the spirit of his Aunt Rosy flew away screaming as glowing runes appeared all over the tangled gold.
Erebus tried to manually take control of his weapon. His white-colored magic washed over the Breaker Wheel like oil in water. The runes on the chain glowed, and his spell was dispelled.
“Anti-magic…”
“Did you do all this?”
Erebus faced Sixes, a cold tingle made his neck hair stand on edge, the black rinin’s tone was deathly cold as golden veins appeared over his scarred body.
“What was that?”
“I asked, did you hurt them? Luna, Platinum, Gloves, Jazz, and Bulwark. Are you responsible?”
“And if I am?”
The second hook and chain flew at him, Erebus took control of his remaining Breaker Wheel and deflected the chain. For a brief second, the wheel fell to the ground, but Erebus was able to recover it. In that second, Sixes closed the distance between them. Liquid gold spilled from the rinin’s mouth, forming another gold hook and chain.
“Don’t think I’m afraid you one-trick pony!”
Erebus willed his weapon out of the way and threw up a magic shield, the point of the hook sunk through the protective barrier as expected, but Sixes flew away, the discarded weapon shining and sparking. The hook exploded! Erebus grunted, shaking off the surprise attack and bringing his wheel in front of him as a shield.
“So, you know more than one trick! Interesting!”
The ground rumbled. Erebus braced himself as High Octane, rolled into a jagged rocky ball with pillars of blue flame jutting out of the vents in his body, and charged at him. The monster pony hit the Breaker Wheel, and Erebus dug in his hooves, but found himself being pushed back!
“Don’t think you can overpower me!” He cast an enhancement spell on himself and stopped moving, but two craved pieces of amber appeared on either side of them, honey-colored lightning sparked around the gems.
“Thunder Snipe!” Shouted Hazel Thunder, her horn glowing with an amber light.
Bolts of a Lightning shot from both gems. Erebus roared, slammed his weapon to the ground turning it white. A protective barrier formed around him. Octane broke off his frontal charge, reared back, and breathed fire from his mouth.
From within his shield, Erebus heard the roar of the chopper as Azure came in for a landing. Ruby Blaze helped Platinum, Jazz, Gloves, and Luna onto the flying machine, which took off towards the remaining Equestrian base. The dark prince felt a sense of delight as the hulking rinin was left behind, knowing how anguished the Equestrians would be to leave a pony behind.
His expectations were quickly crushed. Ruby Blaze reared up, her entire body alight with fire that grew and grew until it was about the same size the Chopper had been. When the flames blew away, Ruby, was the size of a small adult dragon. She grabbed Bulwark, cradling the bull rinin in her arms, and carried him into the sky. The mare who had appeared with Luna and the Green Rinin flew beside her as escorts.
(And here I thought nothing would surprise me.) The Dark Prince mumbled to himself, before unleashing a surge of magic that gave him some much-needed breathing room. Octane and Hazel regrouped and pressed the attack again.
The battle raged while Luna looked on from the cluttered passenger bay. Flying beside them was Ruby Blaze with Bulwark in her forelegs. The red rinin smiled and waved. Luna waved with her wing, smiling awkwardly, experiencing a massive disconnect from the little filly she once knew.
“She’s certainly grown.” She mumbled while Shamrock and Essex ran inference for Ruby. Keeping any would-be attacker at bay with brutal efficiently. Equinox skulls were bashed, clawed, and burned out of the sky by the green and black rinin.
Confident in her protectors, Luna looked over the others in the bay. Casting light healing magic to help in any way she could. Only to experience another moment of disconnect when standing over the transformed Gloves, who looked like a completely different creature with his cracked red lava rock like coat. If Platinum hadn’t told her who it was, she wouldn’t have figured it out.
“I’m fine,” Shouted Platinum over the noise when Luna started casting her spell. “Save your strength for somepony who can still fight. Without my prosthetics.” The Pinkish unicorn sadly waved her single leg in the air to emphasize her point.
Sitting next to the pinkish/white unicorn, Luna continued to glance sideways at Platinum while they rode through the enemy storm toward the base. Occasionally the chopper would jolt and careen as Azure maneuvered them to safety.
A pair of ear muffs suddenly appeared in Luna’s vision, Platinum’s magic surrounding them. The unicorn indicated for her to put them on, and she did. The noise of the chopper was muted, and Platinum’s voice came through crisp and clear.
“This is a private channel.” She stated through her gemcom. “Do you have something to say to me?”
After a hard minute of thought, debating whether now as the appropriate time or not, Luna gave in to her curiosity. “Why did you call Sixes… ah…well… why did you call him, Pere? Prench for Father?”
Platinum smiled warmly, placing her hoof over her heart. “Because he took me in after my family was killed in the Prench Civil war. He was the one who pulled me from the rubble of my home. He saw that I got treatment. He got me an education, a goal to strive for in life, and it was thanks to that I was able to meet my husband. I even had him give me away. I learned Equestrian just to tell him, thank you.”
Luna admired the childlike admiration Platinum had in her eyes when she spoke of Sixes, yet even though the unicorn was so joyful. The princess couldn’t help but frown her brow in confusion.
(Why didn’t Sixes tell me about her?)
As the chopper settled down into the base, Platinum and the others were extracted for medication attention. At Luna’s insistence, she made sure her subordinates were taken care of first, even though her leg was giving her hell. She resumed command of the army.
Everything was a mess.
“Sure up our defenses! Use long-range attacks to pick off their numbers and keep them at bay. Use explosives in moderation. Scarlet redirect Magic Artillery to the incoming troops. Squads six, nine, and sixteen keep an eye on the city. What’s the situation on the airships?” Luna barked a mass of ponies running around her like a twister to full fill her orders.
A random grunt approached her. “Colonel Spitfire and Colonel Bridge say they are halfway through the city, but the enemy’s resistance has hardened, what do you want them to do?”
“As much I hate to give up ground, we need those airships here.” It was the last thing Luna wanted to do, but retreating may be their only option. It would mean abandoning every pony, not in the base, but she had to face reality and come to a decision. For now, she would set the pieces for escape. Just in case.
Remaining rooted Luna received various reports from all fronts and gave her follow up orders before moving to the tent her sister was being kept, ordering Scarlet to join her along the way. Inside Celestia lay on a bed of pillows, two unicorns siphoning her magic to use in a mass casting ritual. She excused the two, telling them they were going to hold on the heavy magic artillery to give Scarlet a rest.
“What can I do for you, Princess?” Scarlet asked once they were alone. The red unicorn looked her age from casting Celestia’s signature spell, Radiant Star, even using Celestia as a power source. The technique was very taxing. Requiring as much mental endurance as magical.
Luna looked around the tent, making sure no pony was near. “I’m considering a retreat. What are your thoughts on a tactical level?”
“I think you should talk to Cobalt; he is the General.”
“I am aware, Scarlet, and I will, but you have first eyes on our present predicament. What is your gut response?”
Scarlet frowned, looking at the downed and mumbling Celestia, still suffering from a concussion and under the influence of drugs that made her loopy and giddy. The look she wore made it clear her thoughts on the current situation.
“We can hold out, but for how long is a huge question mark. Besides just being outnumbered. We have limited food, medical supplies, and our injured are piling up by the minute, and we have several VIPs captured or missing.”
Luna nodded, “That is our current situation, yes. What would be your call?”
The red unicorn frowned, “The same as yours, I bet, bring the airships in, load up everypony we can and get out of here and regroup at home. Is that it, or do you have something else in mind? Maybe Cobalt can come up with something better, but that’s all I got.”
Luna smiled, patting Scarlet on the shoulder. “Thank you.” She looked longingly at her sister. “I needed another pony to bounce off of, to be honest, but that is my plan more or less. It pains me, but we may have to cut our losses. That said, it will take time to gather up the wounded and load them on the ships. Until that time, we have one important job.”
Scarlet cocked her head. “What’s that?”
“We’re going to cause as much damage as we can. To be more on point, we need to kill as many of Sombra’s children as possible. Erebus, in particular, uses black magic. That gives him access to a list of dangerous spells, and the only way to counter black magic is with white magic or Purity magic as it was called in my youth. It’s a troublesome affair.”
Scarlet cocked her head, her brow frowned as she recalled her own magic studies. “Black magic I know is different from Dark Magic, but isn’t White Magic healing magic?”
“It’s a subcategory,” Luna explained, lighting up her horn and casting a light healing spell on Celestia to hopefully speed up her recovery, if only a bit. “That’s what most ponies think White Magic is, but the bulk of the spells are counters to Black Magic, sometimes called Cursed Magic.”
“Ok…” Scarlet said slowly, feeling like she was back in school again. “So, can’t you just use this White Magic or Purity Magic to counter Erebus’s Black Magic?”
“I used to be able to about twenty-two thousand years ago, Celestia, too, but we’ve long since lost the ability to cast it ourselves without a proxy.”
Scarlet scrunched her nose, her brain working hard to make sense of the Princess’s words. “You can lose the ability to cast Purity Magic? How?”
Luna went stiff, coughed into her wing, and looked at the red unicorn with a cocked eyebrow. “I would think it would be self-explanatory. It is called Purity Magic!”
“Wait, wait, wait…” Scarlet said quickly, unable to hide the shock on her face. “You mean you have to be a…” Luna nodded. “Seriously?” Luna nodded again, and Scarlet buried her face in her hooves. “Does gender matter?” Luna shook her head. “Ok… there may be some hope.”
When Luna and Scarlet left the tent, Celestia stirred, moaning and holding her head as it throbbed. She laid her head against the soft pillows mumbling out gibberish. When she tried to sit up, the world went all hazy and upside down. She’s forgotten this feeling.
“Only Bluecross could make a drug strong enough to affect me. What is in it?” She asked in a moment of coherence. Laying her head back down, Celestia was distressed to hear a ‘beep…beep…beep…’ noise. It was soft and barely audible, but it to her sounded like somepony was ringing a gong beside her head
Irritated, she rolled towards the source, her vision an absolute roller coaster. Blindly she tapped her hoof around the floor to find the source of the noise and knocked over her helmet.
“Wha?” She picked up the piece of armor, popping it on her head and tapping the gemcom controls.
The beeps stopped.
“Ahh… that’s… BZZZZZZZ… better.” She grumbled as a terrible amount of static came over the com. Squinting her eyes, Celestia read out the signal she was communicating with. “4242… wait… that’s!”
A voice came through the static. “Ma.k.. al… loca..ti… pre…bo…ardm…t…thirty minutes…”
“Wait, I didn’t catch that! Hello! Please repeat!” Celestia dapped with the tuning, but never caught the signal again. Biting her lip, the Sun Princess focused all the magic she could and cast anti-toxic, flushing the medicine from her system. Her pain doubled, but she bore through it and stood firmly on her feet.
When Luna and Scarlet emerged from Celestia’s hospital tent, the Princess addressed the entire base with her Canterlot voice so all would hear. Everypony not engaged in fighting gave the princess their full attention. Expecting some brilliant, genius battle plan to save the day, all were eager for good news.
“IS ANYPONY HERE A VIRGIN?” The Princess shouted, causing jaws to drop and many to stutter and look away. “WE KNOW ITS EMBARRASSING, BUT IT’S IMPORTANT! PLEASE BE HONEST!”
Scarlet coughed, looking as uncomfortable as the rest of them, “Who among you has not laid with the opposite sex? Male or female. It doesn’t matter. We just need a virgin! I know it’s silly, but magic bullshit and all.”
A deep silence came over the base. Followed by ‘ohs’ of understanding. Not everypony understood magic, but they knew some magic had some strange requirements and didn’t question it any further. Still, many ponies awkwardly coughed, averted their eyes, and spoke in low whispers, but none volunteered to out themselves one way or the other.
“Please, your very lives hang in the balance!” The Princess pleaded with one hundred percent all seriousness. When no volunteers presented them, she looked began to look to those nearest to her.
“Essex?”
“Yeah, I’m a married mare, I’ve stopped being a pure maiden a long time ago.” The black rinin mare admitted with a blush. Shamrock grinned ear to ear beside her, she elbowed him in the side.
Luna turned her gaze to Platinum, who quickly shook her head and pointed to Bulwark, making a thrusting gesture with her hoof. Next came the elements, who all looked in different directions.
“Seriously? Even Fluttershy and Applejack?” Applejack hid her face under her hat, and Fluttershy practically crawled into her own hair. “Rarity, Pinkie Pie?”
“Well, business and pleasure tend to mix in the fashion industry.” Rarity blushed, looking off to the side. “What’s your excuse, Pinkie?”
“I’m a Party Pony, and sometimes ponies use icing and baked goods for other things, and sometimes I joined in.”
“Has thou never heard of chastity!” She scolded the crowd. After another awkward period of silence followed with everypony looking like a teenager that was caught with a Play Pony magazine by their mother. The silence was so deafening that even the sounds of battle seemed to fade, and then, some pony spoke.
“I’m a virgin, Princess.” An embarrassed booming feminine voice declared.
All eyes turned to the brave and very embarrassed pony in question. Ruby Blaze.
Luna smiled gently at the maiden rinin, sighing deeply with relief. “Let’s get to work then.”
The base cheered for victory, only to be stumbled entirely once again as Celestia came barreling out of her tent. Shouting something that made them all cock their heads.
“Huh… what did she just say?” Essex asked Luna as they watched Celestia climb to the top of the wall. Already soldiers were trying to stop her, thinking she was going to return to the battle.
Luna, too, cocked her head, not grasping her sister’s frantic message. “Something about BO? Wait, Celestia, what are you doing!”
Erebus fired a barrage of magic missiles, sidestepped left, fired again, then used his Breaker Wheel to block. The Dark Prince’s eyes darted wildly from side to side, his breathing slightly elevated. From the right charged the hulking rinin, High Octane, Erebus transferred his Breaker Wheel from his left to his right, stonewalling the rinin, his hooves dug deep into the earth. Octane blew fire out the vents his back, increasing his thrust and the heat. Erebus’s backed off, letting the rinin get in close and then shield bashed him, staggering Octane.
The Prince didn’t have time to rest. Behind him, five amber crystals spun. He teleported, as lightning shot from the gems. The beam of electricity scorched a black line across the ground in his wake. Erebus flung his Breaker Wheel, his Aunt Rosy took control of the weapon and shielded him, while he ran for his second Breaker Wheel to free it.
Predictably his third opponent got in his way, the rinin Sixes. The black rinin flung his chains, aggressively attacking like a wild dog. He rushed in close, wrapping Erebus’s left foreleg and hacked with the pointed end.
The veins in Erebus’s head popped as he growled. He flung Sixes away and created a magic shield in the shape of a cone and charged, aiming his horn at Sixes. Sixes adjusted his wings, landing with a skid, throwing his hooks again. The anti-magic runes shined phasing through Erebus’s defenses with ease. Erebus veered right to avoid the first hook, but the second snagged him, and the rinin pulled, taking to the sky. Without hesitation, Erebus grabbed the length of the hook with his mouth, removed it from his shoulder, and spat it out.
(Three on one is harder when it’s not with my brothers.) Erebus frowned his brow as he veered away, Rosy flying close, the Breaker Wheel orbited around him to protect him from every direction. (I hate to think I overestimated myself, but this wouldn’t be any fun if it weren’t a challenge.)
Grinning with glee, Erebus racked his brain. Inspiration hit him, and he quickly formed a new battle plan as the three rinin circled him like vultures. Cocking his head east, his gaze fell on Hazel Thunder and the seven amber crystals that floated around her. Honey-colored lightning fired from the gems when she noticed he had his eye on her.
Running headlong at the only female present, Erebus took a bet that she was an artillery caster type, close-range would be her downfall. Breaker Wheel in front of him, the lightning was absorbed by the shattered gem. He zigzagged as Sixes and Octane breathed fire to try and lead him off course. He jumped into the air closing the remaining distance between him and the mare. Through the spokes of the Breaker Wheel, he could see her panic as she reared back.
“I got you!” He stated confidently.
One of the gems moved in front of Hazel, spinning so fast it looked like a high-speed drill. Hazel’s horn crackled and sparked with electric power, a wide smirk danced on her lips.
“Don’t peg me for weak, fool!” Yellow lightning shot out the sides of the spinning gem before shooting off like a rocket. “Gungnir!”
Gungnir, an artifact of the Ancient Alicorn of the Skies, Odin. The weapon was a spear that could produce lightning and control storms from what Erebus remembered from his studies. As the numbness spread across his shoulder and he stared at the broken spoke in his wheel. He recalled there was an attack spell of the same name some pony created.
He moved his gaze from his damaged weapon to the place his pauldron had been. One of the few pieces of armor he wore was almost completely gone, the metal sporting a canyon where the attack had hit, the flesh it was supposed to protect was charred and smoking. The skin must be dead because he couldn’t feel any of it. On closer analysis, he found he couldn’t move his left foreleg.
As Erebus took evasive action, running and zigzagging on three legs as the rinin pressed their attack, he laughed and sang his attacker’s praises. “An attack that pierces reinforced enchanted iron and numbs its victim. That sure is something!” He threw his head back, laughing with great joy. “This is fun! So much fun! I never would have expected that from any pony that wasn’t one of the Princesses! Hahahaha! You rinin are great!”
“Are we sure this guy is playing with a full deck?” Hazel asked Octane and Sixes as they chased Erebus. Even on three legs, the Dark Prince was fast! Jaw vibrating with a repressed snarl Sixes pointed ahead. “Right, sorry, pressing the attack! Gungnir!”
Firing another thunder spear, Hazel’s eyes widened when her attack, which had been dead on to blow Erebus’s neck out from the back, suddenly just veered off. Not the wind changed the trajectory or something like that, the attack did a completely unnatural ninety-degree turn and flew through dozens of Obsidian soldiers still keeping their distance.
“What was that shit, Hazel!” Octane berated her.
“Don’t look at me! The first time was spray and pray. That time I had him dead to rights! He should be breathing through a hole in his neck! Or be decapitated! I call hacks!”
Sixes' eyes narrowed as his two subordinates exchange insults. “Shut up.” The two promptly fell silent as he focused on their fleeing target. His eyes narrowing even further. “Why aren’t we closing the distance?”
Whether it was a trick of the eyes or Erebus was just that fast. The three Rinin weren’t gaining ground on the injured prince. Octane was falling behind actually, his massive from not lending him to sprinting. Hazel, with her six long sturdy legs, should have caught up to him by now or Sixes, who was flying beside Hazel. Sixes called for them to halt, and they did, the distance between them and their target never changing, even though Erebus was still running, and they were standing still.
“Illusion magic!” Gold veins spread across Sixes' body. He spewed molten gold, which took the shape of three monocles with a single rune engraved on the lens. “Put these on, quick!” He ordered affixing the item to his face. “All-seeing Eye, activate.”
The rune on the monocle glowed, creating a blue lens in place of the glass that would be on a normal one. The three rinin looked around with a blue filter in their vision. In the uncovered eye, they saw Erebus still running, but in the blue world, they saw nothing.
“Behind us!” Sixes spun, and sure enough, Erebus was behind them, still back where he had gotten hit by Hazel, casting a healing spell on himself. “What’s that…” his voice trailed off; Sixes squinted, noticing several floating pony shapes around Erebus. After a brief look around the battlefield, as he expected saw more of the same forms. “Ghosts, no,” looking again Sixes saw the spectral chains around the necks of the spirits surrounding Erebus, only they were all linked back to the specter riding on his back.
“What’s going on, Commander?” Hazel’s voice pitched with her question, she probably already knew but didn’t want to say it out loud. Understandable, until now, she’s only read about this twisted stuff.
With a deep frustrated sigh that made his shoulders sag, Sixes answered their worse fears, “Black magic, those spirits around Erebus were most likely tortured, killed, bound to the mortal plane and are enslaved, even though they're dead.”
“That’s horrible! Those poor souls!”
“Hey now, they could have been murders or something for all we know,” Octane chimed in, his lava rock-like face fixed into a deep grimace. “Still, that’s messed up.”
“Regardless,” Sixes grumbled, bringing an end to the chatter. “Our mission is the same, kill that bastard, you two remember Kira’s lecture on black magic, or do you need a fresher?”
The two monster ponies shuttered. Hazel vehemently shaking her head side to side, “Please, never again! Oh gods, the visual aids still haunt me!”
Octane more composed nodded his agreement stonily but still shivered.
Sixes crouched low; gold veins flared across his body as he prepared his assault. “Alright, you two know what to do, Hazel get ready to cast Purity Magic. I’ll hold him back.”
Hazel made a loud, very audible gulp that Sixes didn’t hear because he already took off, “Wait! Commander! I can’t do that anymore! I…” Hazel’s cream coat turned pink, but the words died in her throat as she looked awkwardly at Octane. “So… do you want to call him on the gemcom?”
Octane visibility deflated. “I suppose it is half my fault.”
“Who’s the other half?”
“Yours.” He snorted, sparing a grin at Hazel’s offended scrunched up nose followed by a smack on his head.
“Well, fuck you!”
“You already did.”
Erebus’s mouth ticked up in a smile as he finished his healing spell, his natural pure white aura overwritten by a menacing black one that swallowed all light and bubbled with venomous purple hues. It was the color of his mother’s magic. While he healed, he listened to her coos to soothe his anxiety as his flesh stitched itself back together.
His Aunt Lily suddenly appeared before him, pointing her hoof at the approaching rinin. He sighed, cocking his head to the side. “You couldn’t distract them longer?”
Lily bowed her head.
“No matter.” Ready for the second round, Erebus couldn’t contain himself, bouncing lightly on his toes as his second Breaker Wheel, now free, floated beside him. The set of Wheels took up defensive positions while a black void opened before him. “Now seems like the time to use this.”
From the dimensional pocket, a menacing dual bladed scythe with long jagged blades, a spear tip, and hooks on the backs emerged. From the Breaker Wheels, Erebus removed the two pieces of the crystal heart and placed them in the slots on both blades, the weapon hummed with power as he brought it to bear.
Making a few practice swings, Erebus got a feel for the weapon, his brow frowned. (Father gave me this. He had built for himself years ago, shame he never got to use it. Still, I guess there something poetic about using it.)
In truth, he didn’t like the weapon, it was hard to balance, hard to control, and required a lot more focus to use. That being said, it was very, very deadly. The bisected practice corpses were proof of that.
At the sight of the spinning scythe, Sixes skidded to the halt, his gaze narrowed at the weapon. The rinin spat gold into his palm, the molten metal forming to a long cylinder shape.
“Well, come on!” Erebus egged on, launching the scythe. It spun head over heel in a blinding blur of speed. Sixes rose to bipedal, pulling back his foreleg/arm with the misshapen glop of gold in his grip. Blight blinding gold light radiated from the hap formed weapon. When Sixes threw, it broke into pieces having a buckshot effect firing golfball-sized specks of light at mock speed. The attack hit the scythe, peppering it, Erebus clamped his jaw tight, pulling his head back to keep the weapon from hitting the ground.
The scythe wobbled, losing some of its speed. Sixes took flight shooting lava on the unwieldy weapon and gunned for Erebus. Instantly his Breaker Wheels intercepted the rinin. Sixes swung his chains, forcing the Breaker Wheels back and diving for Erebus. The Prince jumped towards the rinin, the two of them clashing. Erebus jabbed with his horn, and Sixes caught it between his claws, Erebus dropped his head, dragging Sixes along the ground.
Knowing he was in a tough spot, Sixes squeezed his claws tighter, digging into the base of Erebus’s horn. The unicorn grunted, but didn’t back off, so Sixes changed tactics, he pulled instead. Their trajectory changed as Erebus’s body followed the direction of his head unconsciously. Sixes kicked his feet up around Erebus’s neck and squeezed.
“URAGH!” Erebus made a hard stop and bucked wildly, shaking his head violently.
Sixes let go, and Erebus’s slammed his hooves down. The Rinin tackled the unicorn, and the two rolled across the ground. The lack of appendages worked against the dark prince as Sixes used his claws to lock his legs down. Sixes stood awkwardly with his left foreleg binding Erebus’s front legs and his back-right nails pinning his back. The black unicorn thrashed, and some mysterious force socked Sixes in the muzzle. This only served to tighten his hold as he reached with jaw and took hold of the unicorn’s neck.
Razor-sharp teeth punctured Erebus’s exposed neck; hot blood filled Sixes' mouth as he sunk his fangs further into the prince’s neck. Once he thought he had a good enough hold, Sixes pulled back, the flesh ripping as he did.
He would have ripped a mouthful right out of Erebus, but the same mysterious force that hit him before now held his head in place. “Nice fucking help, you got there.” Sixes mumbled with a full mouth.
“They are useful,” Cold sweat dripped down Erebus’s face, his left eye strained to see three of his spirits working to keep Sixes from tearing out his neck. “This is quite the in pass.”
“Afraid of dying, kid?” Sixes asked, wiggling his neck, slowly pulling the flesh apart.
“What pony isn’t?”
He chuckled, “Good point.” Sixes let go of Erebus’s leg, braced his foot, and pulled! The air filled with the sickening sound of wet meat being torn apart, followed by a panicked gasp.
Erebus rolled to his feet, his hoof pressed against the wound with a waterfall of blood spilling down his leg.
Spitting out the piece of meat, Sixes forewent any fancy finish and went straight for the kill with his bare claws. Much to his irritation, his claw was deflected by one of the spirits. He swiped blindly at the invisible entity that he couldn’t touch. He tried to break through but kept being repelled.
All the while, steam rose from the Dark Prince’s neck, new muscle fibers stitched up his raw throat. A bubbling black and purple aura mended the near-fatal wound instantly.
“Dammit!” Sixes swung again, tried to get closer, but to no avail. The spirits kept pushing him back! “Hazel! Where’s that counterspell!”
“Sorry, having some technical difficulties.” Hazels meekly said over the gemcom.
His eye twitched as another invisible punch hit him, the attack didn’t do much damage, but they were annoying. “What technical difficulties!”
“Well…” Hazel trailed off. Sixes growled, demanding she answer. “Okay! Before we took the petrifaction potion, Octane and I thought, hey, it would really suck to be stuck as a statue for possibly forever, so we thought before we take that risk, we’d at least not do it as virgins.”
“So, you can’t cast Purity Magic?”
“No.”
Sixes' hackles rose, his body igniting with gold veins, even his mane turned to gold. “Fuck plan B then! Fucking waste my time!”
Spitting molten gold into claws, Sixes quickly crafted three rings on his talons. “Ring of Focus+5%, Ring of Magic+5%, Ring of Dexterity+5%! Fast craft!” The remaining gold took the shape of a familiar spear, which Sixes grabbed just as Erebus’s wound healed.
The two warriors regarded each other. One burning with anger and frustration and the other calm and collected. Sixes struck a spear-throwing pose, while Erebus summoned his Breaker Wheels, now shining with the shattered gems again.
“The unstoppable spear or the unbreakable shield? Which will win, I wonder.” Erebus pondered, taking refuge behind his Breaker Wheels. Double stacking them.
The spear in Sixes' hand shined with light, the temperature spiking as the weapon cracked and shook from its hasty creation. “Spear of Solaris!” Sixes let loose the spear, which shot at mock speeds. The attack was a blink, and you’ll miss it.
When the dust settled Sixes panted, a smoking trench lead to Erebus where it ended just two feet from where the Prince stood. He was unharmed, but his eyes were wide with amazement. His Breaker Wheels, the weapons that were or had been his pride and joy, were gone. Only the fragments of the crystal heart remained, floating in the air where they had shielded him.
“Neither is the correct answer, I guess.” Erebus hung his head, staring at the red hot remains of his weapons, slowly cooling in the dirt. With a jerk of his head, he summoned his scythe through the void again, disposing the gems into the slot in the blades.
The scythe became engulfed with the magic of the shattered heart. In his gasp, Erebus thrust the tip of the blade forward.
“Round two?”
Grabbing his shaking wrist, Sixes massaged it, digging his talons deep, his claws moving in a sporadic jerky way. “Fine by me.” He growled; his teeth clenched so tight his gums bled.
The two combatants circled each other, ignoring the spectators in the form of Hazel and Octane. The two monster ponies were about to jump into the fray but yielded when Sixes motioned from the to say put. Erebus did the same to Segundo, who had been watching from afar, hiding under an illusion spell. He became visible under his prince’s command with a magic blast charged and waiting.
“Don’t go stealing my fun, Segundo.”
The Obsidian army officer shrunk, his horn blowing out like a candle in the wind. “Wouldn’t think of its milord.”
With that out of the way, Sixes created more gold rings on both his forelegs and back legs, for a total of twelve accessories. Each one engraved with runes.
Gold veins pulsed across Sixes' body, even his scars shined as he breathed more gold. “It’s cliched, but I’m not holding back, boy.”
Erebus twirled his scythe, grinning wide with excitement. “I’ll rise to the challenge.”
“Milord!
“Sixes!”
Sixes closed his eyes, mumbling something under his breath before snapping them open again. “Ring of Focus+10%x3, Ring of Dexterity+10%x3, Ring of Power+20%x1, Ring of Magic+20%x1, Ring of Agility+10%x1, Ring of Greater Strength+25%x1, Ring of Greater Magic+25%x1, Ring of Dues-All Stats+5%x1!”
As Sixes listed of the magic items, his magic grew brighter and hotter, gold mist rose from his body like steam. Blood bled from his eyes; his irises changed from orange to gold. His chest pulsed with energy, his scars lighting up like cracks on a hatching shell.
Erebus spun his scythe faster, enchanting it with black magic, the black blades became even darker, menacing purple mixed in with pitch-black void. What vegetation still lived through the battle thus far shriveled and died on the spot. Segundo took several long steps back as death spread through the earth like a disease.
“Well, come on! Let’s put that old phrase to the test, light verse dark!” The dark Prince egged on, black magic filled the air around him like the winds of death, while Sixes shined like the rays of the rising sun.
Sixes, his eyes entirely overcome with gold energy as he took his stance, held three globs of gold floating in his palm. “Multi-cast: Spears of Solaris Barrage!” One after another, Sixes fired the shining spears in succession.
In response, Erebus let loose his scythe, entirely overtaken by darkness, looking like a black hole that grew and grew threatening to swallow everything whole.
“Campe, Keeper of Tartarus! Shatter thy chains and return thy true form! Show these mortals your unholy might! Sinister Winds!” The whirling wind around the scythe became visible, extending the darkness even further, sucking the life from the earth, feeding its power even more.
Spears of light met darkness. Three explosions went off inside the dark void, which had stopped cold, the two powers now mixing, fighting for dominance. All looked on, their eyes glued as the massive sphere of magic continued to grow larger and larger. Rays of light would burst from the darkness and then be swallowed up, before shining again. Then the blackness compressed to the size of a golf ball with tiny gold electric arcs bouncing across its surface.
Then it exploded.
Three arrows of darkness and light fired off in random directions, massive domes of the polarized magic decimated everything in a mile radius of their center. Meaning for the massive Obsidian Army that was scattered on the open field, they were more likely to get it. Entire Battalions were wiped out in a blink of an eye. Those lucky enough to be caught within the dome of death were eviscerated into nothing. Those that were only partially in the sphere of death suffered as whatever part of their body was inside was erased, as if from existence. Ponies suddenly lost limbs, half their bodies, or chunks.
Some particular horrible cases were the ones that were bisected down the center or suddenly found themselves without their back halves or a quarter of their body. Those unfortunate enough to receive this fate cried out for death as they screamed, their minds unable to process what just happened to them.
At the source of this unholy attack of light and dark, stood the two users that brought this rain of death upon the army. Sixes breathed hard in his base form, stared at the smirking Prince with blood-filled eyes. The Prince’s head thrown back in deep, mocking laughter. When Sixes turned to see what was so funny, he froze, his blood running colder than the artic.
One of the two remaining Airships, by the most impossible of margins, had been hit. It's grave marked by the newly made clearing in the Crystal City.
“How tragic, killed by friendly fire. But I’ll take half of the responsibility, it’s only fair. Besides look on the flip side, more of my soldiers were killed then yours. Oops, I suppose you don’t have that many to spare.”
Sixes shook, grinding his teeth. He wasn’t a unicorn, he could use magic, but couldn’t guide it like they could. “Did you sacrifice your own troops just to aim one of those rebounds?”
Erebus tilted his head, looking bemused as he shrugged. “Possibly, hard to say isn’t? Maybe fate just isn’t on your side?”
Suddenly an explosion rocked behind them. The Equestrians turned to see that last and final Airship was a fire. Black smoke rose from where the black powder was stored. Seconds passed, and Sixes knew what was coming next.
A secondary explosion.
From inside the hull of the Airship, a massive fireball erupted, engulfing the entire ship and any crew that didn’t manage to escape the fiery remains that fell into the city. From that fireball two glowing spheres, one green, one blue emerged and flew towards them, landing beside Erebus. Who suddenly frowned?
“Get lost.” The First son barked foully, irritated by the sudden arrival of his younger brothers.
Scath and Schatten emerged from their respective colored transports and took up positions beside Erebus, whose frowned deepened. While opposite of them, Hazel and Octane jumped back into the fray beside Sixes, who struggled to stand.
“Fuck… you two leave. That’s an order.” He said to the two monster squad members, his eyes squeezed shut while bloody tears rolled down his face.
“Can you even see, Commander?” Octane looked worriedly at the commander officer, who looked like he just got his eyed pulled out.
Sixes looked at him, his eyes opened in a narrow slit. “Well enough to see you’re not fucking listening!”
Hazel stepped forward and pushed Sixes behind her. “If any pony needs to leave, it’s you, Commander. We’ve trained for this. Trust us. Besides, you’ll be in the way as you are.”
“I’m not blind, but flying isn’t an option. Who are the ponies that showed up? I can’t make out any details on them, but they look big.”
“Erebus’s brothers apparently. Must be hard, being the eldest, but being shorter.” Hazel laughed humorlessly; her body sagged at the sight of the new arrivals. “Fuck, we’re fucked.”
“Maybe not,” Octane indicated with his head to the brothers, bringing up the battle damage the two sported, the slight motion of their chest indicated they were more tired then they let on. “They must have just gotten done resting after a big fight. They can’t be fully recovered, maybe eighty percent. Even if they used magic to heal, they'd be fatigued.”
Octane shifted his weight lumbering toward Hazel and standing in front of Sixes like a shield. The half-blind rinin snarled and lashed out, he missed, as if to visibly show the crushing blow to their combat strength. “Hazel, how many Gungnirs do you have left?”
Hazel looked uncertainly at her fellow monster pony. Like Emerald Cutter before her, she could control gemstones that corresponded to her color palette. In her case, Amber, which she carried a lot of for various applications. Such as flight, defense, and attack.
The gemstones used for Gungnir weren’t just gems pulled from the earth. Of course not. The Amber for Gungnir needed to be created. First, it was mined, using only the purest chunks of amber, next it was carved and polished and finally enchanted and engraved with runes. Discounting the mining. It took Sixes a full day to make one Gungnir for her. It took Hazel two if she did the engraving herself.
“Six.” She whispered bitterly, patting her saddlebags where the specially carved stones were stored. “I was going to bring nine, but I didn’t finish the ninth, and then I used two already, so six, yeah.”
“Then save them for a finishing shot.”
Hazel looked at Octane with narrowed eyes. “Don’t tell me what I already know, Octane. Kira trained both of us.”
He bowed his head in apology. Both of them crouched, digging their claws into the earth as faced down the three sons of Sombra. Who bickered amongst each other?
“I took you two to leave! This is my prey.” Erebus restated again, brushing past his brothers to resume his battle with Sixes. Scath’s huge sword barred his path, the green-haired pony towered over his elder brother with a condescending grin.
“Time for you to go rest, Brother. You know the rules, if two of us rule against you, then you have to back down.” Scath reminded Erebus, but the first son retorted.
“That only applies to Zil, and you. Ombre and the others don’t count.”
“That was when we were teenagers, Elder brother, we’ve grown, you know.” Schatten pressed crossing his spear with Scath’s sword, making an X before Erebus. “Besides, you’re injured, your weapons are gone, and your magic is depilated. You’re a burden in this fight.”
Erebus’s eyed narrowed, black/purple magic blazed from his eyes. “If ya thinkin’ ye can take me, little brother, try it! If not, back down!”
Schatten bristled, his coat standing on end as he backed away from Erebus. “Of course not, but as the heir, your health is important.”
Upon hearing that, Erebus visibly relaxed. None of them could see it, but Red Rum was stroking her son’s mane, whispering into his ear and calming him down. To the younger brothers, it merely appeared their brother reined himself in.
“You two take the two protecting my prey, he’s half blind and tired, surely I can be trusted to finish him off? It is my right.”
Scath pulled his sword from the earth and brandished above his head. “I can’t argue with that! Right, Schatten? I’ll take the big guy on the left!”
“Well, your sword is more a metal club anyway; it would be better suited against him.” Schatten retrieved his spear, their opponents already waiting for them. He could only assume the reason they let them finish taking was to gain a few more seconds of rest and to plan.
“En guard!”
With that single word, the six ponies charged at each other.
Unlike the battle between Sixes and Erebus, which could be better described as a duel. The fight between the six ponies was a pure brawl. There was no banter, no waiting, no respect. It was blood in the mud beat the enemy’s brains out with a shovel at the bottom of a trench brawl.
Scath hit Octane with the side of his greatsword, bombarding the rocky rinin with fast and wild strikes, while he curled into a ball and tanked the attacks. Fire shot from Octane like thrusters propelling him forward. Scath used his sword like a bat to hit the rinin away, but he always came roaring back, faster, and with even more fire.
The time came when Scath missed his pitch, and Octane rammed him, running the unicorn over and pinning him to the ground. Octane unrolled from his shell, using his bare claws to punch, gouge and rip Scath’s body. The big stallion roared rising to his feet and flung the rinin off and flailed his forelegs. The armored hooves cracked Octane upside the head, but that didn’t stop him.
Octane rammed Scath, and the two clashed, rolled, and tackled each other over and over again. Blood poured from their noses, their lips were busted, fresh cuts and bruises adorned both their bodies, but neither of them noticed or cared. They were focused on only one thing, and that was killing each other.
Not far away, Schatten and Hazel fought a battle with slightly more elegance. Instead of exchanging blows like savages, the two danced a deadly dance of magic. They stood forty paces from another, circling each other with narrowed eyes and glowing horns.
Schatten fired a burst of three magic blasts, Hazel countered with a beam of lightning and fired Amber spikes as a follow-up, which Schatten blocked with his spear. The two of them galloped, each of them running faster and faster as they exchanged attacks at a distance. Some blasts pelted Hazel, scorching her skin and blasting off pieces of her armor, while Schatten was pierced by spikes of amber. Neither used defense, trying to cast such a spell would take time and focus, which would slow them down. No, in a battle like this, it was better dodge and put your shots on target.
In the few minutes the two have been dancing this dance, they exchanged over fifty ranged attacks. Such a thing was unheard up. The average magical shootout usually only used ten to fifteen shots at most.
Snarling, Hazel shot an electric beam, leading the crackling and unwieldy energy at her target. The attack bent and turned as it tried to catch up to its goal. Hazel grunted in frustration, canceling the attack, and switched to thunderbolts. Again, her anger rose as her shots fell behind her target.
(Come on, come on! Lead the fucker! Take a breath and aim!) She scolded herself, steading her breath as she zeroes in on Schatten. Several blue blasts kicked up dirt around her, but just like her, her opponent was also suffering from the lack of stability, spell recoil, and the opponent's speed and movements.
They may be circling, but they weren’t moving in straight lines. They were zigzagging, jumping, ducking, and everything else they could think of to throw off each other’s shots. In this situation, the common tactic was to put as many bolts in the air and hope for a lucky hit. Kind of like Anti-flyer fire. In most cases, it was a waste of magic and stamina. The winner decided by who could put out for shots before tiring.
It was a bad habit Hazel herself once had and one she still fell into. If not for her training under Kira, she would be blasting away.
(A clear and deceive strike is better than a hundred weaker blows.) The elder rinin’s words rung in her mind.
With a clear and focused mind, Hazel leaped into the air, summoning a Gungnir shell from her saddlebag and charged the projectile while calculating Schatten’s path. She could see that he saw what she was doing and, in a panic, chose to stop and block, the blue shield just started to flicker into existence when Hazel let go of the breath she held and fired.
The Gungnir fired straight and true like a shot from a rifled barrel.
“I got you!”
Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and blood was spilled.
Between the two other battles fought Sixes and Erebus. It wasn’t the brutal brawl of Scath and Octane, nor was it the somewhat elegant magic battle of Schatten and Hazel. No. It lay somewhere in between.
Sixes, half-blind, exhausted, and fighting out of pure sheer force of will. Didn’t try to dodge or block, but instead threw himself at Erebus with everything he could muster in his current state. For Erebus, who had exhausted much of his magic, could still fight thanks to his hidden support. It wasn’t enough to cast anything major, but it kept him going.
Unfortunately, what little power his aunts could supply him was being funneled to heal him. Not that he cared. His eyes were wide with disbelief and joy as Sixes, like a vicious cornered black beast, attacked over, and over, and over again! Every strike was brutal, the rinin’s claws cutting long and deep with every swing.
It was taking all the magic of his Mother and Aunts just to stay healed.
Erebus, who hardly ever fought bare hoofed before, found his attacks inefficient. He flailed a foreleg or kicked with his blacklegs, but his moves were too straight forward, too predictable. He shouldn’t be surprised, nor could he be upset at any pony but himself. He won most of his battles without hardly ever needing to move a muscle.
“Not bad for a blind pony!”
“I told you, I’m not blind!” Sixes raked his claws across Erebus’s barrel. He didn’t try to gain distance, no, he pressed his attack harder. Ignoring the Prince’s half-assed strikes. Sure, it hurt, but he’d been hit harder. He struck deep, trying to bury his claws into the stallion’s chest and rip his heart out.
Erebus’s wild blows succeeded in knocking Sixes away, and the Prince teleported away to start healing. Why the Prince didn’t teleport further away was simple. He was using most of his magic to heal himself. Treating the wounds Sixes inflicted took a lot of energy and focus. Even if he was outsourcing, there was no time to teleport more then twenty feet away. Before he could catch his breath, Sixes was on him again, like a hunting dog after it’s prey.
“You can’t do this forever, but I can!” Erebus boasted, even if his breathing was labored, he could heal and heal, and heal again. Unlike Sixes, who could only grow more tired and grew weaker with every round. The fact Erebus had time to even taunt was proof the rinin was slowing down.
Sixes ran towards the sound of the Prince’s voice, his vision only giving him a black outline of the stallion. Sucking in air, Sixes’s chest expanded and glowed, he spewed fire. Not having the time to create lava or gold.
The flames made Erebus give ground, shooting wild shots from his horn, while he continued to heal. Of the three he fired, two-hit Sixes, their rush casting made them weak and comfortable for the rinin to tank.
Sixes roared, snarling and snapping his jaws like a feral dragon. He leaped forward, and so did Erebus, his horn thrust forward. Sixes fell upon the curved appendage, raging in pain, the horn pierced above his lung. But he didn’t let this opportunity pass by, Sixes jabbed his claw into the side of Erebus’s head, his thumb sinking deep into the prince’s eye sock. He hooked his thumb deep into the socket, digging for the other stallion’s brain!
“RAGHA!”
“WHAHA! How do you like that! How do you like that bastard!”
“Milord!”
A newcomer entered the fray, Segundo, the equinox officer, shot a full charged magic shot and hit Sixes in the base of the neck. The attack was strong enough to dislodge the rinin from the unicorn’s horn and send him sprawling to the ground.
“Segundo! Don’t you dare!” Erebus’s tone lacked any gratitude. In fact, it was murderous as he searched for his lackey with his remaining eye. “He’s my kill! If you dare kill him, don’t expect to see tomorrow!”
Instead of responding to his lord’s threat, Segundo charged ahead, charging another blast, he’d strike the rinin point-blank and shoot a magic missile directly into his body. That should kill the rinin for sure. And possibly him, but it was the more honorable way to go.
(I’m sorry, Erebus, but I have to protect you, even if it makes you hate me.)
Sixes laid on the ground, barely twitching, but the rinin was still trying to get up. Falling like a newborn foal with every attempt.
“For King Sombra!” Segundo roared, leaping ahead for the killing strike.
Time seemed slow down, every heartbeat was slow and beat as loud as a bass drum. Excitement swelled up inside of him. Even if it would be his first and last kill, he could take pride that this rinin, this monster, would be his to claim.
“Sorry to upstage you, my friend.” As he careened toward the downed rinin, a sudden chill overcame him. The rinin half-blind, injured, that could barely stand, turned to face him. Through his blood-filled eyes he could see the slit pupils and the gold hue that surrounded him. The scars on Sixes' body began to glow, and because he was so close, Segundo was able to see something no pony else did.
The scars that marred Sixes' body weren’t just scars, they were runes. Carved into the rinin’s skin.
Gold fire filled his vision, Segundo screamed, his eyeballs melting out of his skull. “Impossible! HOW! HOW!”
“Shut up and die already you third string.”
Something jagged, and metallic pierced his throat. Segundo couldn’t see it, but it was a broken pierce of Sixes' armor. Thrown by the rinin and by extreme luck caught him right in the jugular.
“Segundo!”
In a moment of pure rage, Erebus forgot his transgressions against his now dead friend/underling and charged Sixes while ignoring his mother’s warnings. He didn’t need magic; he’d just trample the bastard beneath his boot heels!
(EREBUS, STOP!) Red Rum screamed to no avail. (In the sky, foolish boy!)
Before Erebus could register what, his mother was saying it was too late.
“GATLING BARRAGE!”
Dozens of magical blasts fell from the sky, pelting him hard and stopping his charge. He threw up a shield and looked up to see who dared get in his way. It was a pink alicorn.
A pair of whinnying roars shook the sky as Fierce Fury and Triple Thunder dived into fray, spraying fire and lightning all over the place.
“Keep the pressure, Princess! Don’t stop!” Fury roared as he zoomed around the battlefield, shooting fireballs at all of Sombra’s sons while yelling at Hazel and Octane. “Don’t just stare! Grab Sixes and go!”
“Yes, sir!” The monster pony duo replied, hurriedly breaking off their fights. Fury ran interference for Octane. Coming face to face with Scath again.
“I killed you!” The Second son stated furiously swinging his sword at the red rinin. Like at the arena, Fury was cut to pieces, but unlike last time. He quickly reformed and shot a stream of fire at Scath’s face.
“You’re not the first!” Fury taunted bombarding Scath with as much fire as he could.
“I’m not letting you get away!” Schatten chased after Hazel, but Triple Thunder blocked his path.
The three-headed rinin smirked, “Remember me?” He asked, earning a confused look from the fourth son. “Doesn’t matter. Let him have it!” The extra heads shot blue lightning at the fourth son, who was missing one of his back legs.
Schatten dodged, teleported, and threw up a shield to getaway. He spared a moment to look at the situation and made the best call he could. Charging his horn, he fired two, three, and then two more magic flares into the air.
The black horde, which had been running around them all this time, suddenly began to close in.
“Schatten!”
“It had to be done. You're selfish and foolish, brother.” Schatten calmly replied to Erebus’s rage. “We can’t let these ponies escape. They cannot be allowed to regroup and heal.”
“I know! I know…” Erebus trailed off, looking sadly at the Sixes as he was placed on Octane’s back. Even though the rinin killed Segundo, a pony he considered a friend, he respected the black rinin. “Death by trampling it not a proper death for him.” He said to himself, yet he could do nothing to save or finish off his prey.
As the horde drew closer and closer, and the rinin’s death was all the more assured. Something strange happened. A magic flare, bright and yellow shot from the Equestrian base. Cadence contestant barrage of fire came to a halt as the red rinin all but screamed for her to get to them.
As all the Equestrians regrouped, for some reason digging frantically in the dirt, even making the Princess move the earth for them. Erebus stared at the second magic flared floating above the Equestrian base and then a third over the castle.
“What’s going on?” Scath asked as he and Schatten stood beside them. “They’re acting crazy. Digging a hole.”
“No, they’re doing it for a reason…” Schatten trailed off as a loud whistling noise filled the air, followed by three massive explosions!
Behind the three brothers, three towering fireballs touched the sky, followed by three more, and another three. They looked around for the source and saw that it come from the east. They looked just in time to see another three flashes of burning light arc across the sky and explode somewhere behind them.
“What is that? A cannon? How far is that?”
Schatten gulped, earning his brothers’ attention. “Schatten?”
“Fifteen miles…”
“What?”
He repeated his statement, with fear and disbelief, “Fifteen miles, look in the distance, you can see them!”
Far, far in the distance against the back of the rising sun. An outline appeared. A massive silhouette, as tall, no, even taller than their castle. And there were more of them. Black smoke rose from their stacks as they rode across the clouds, massive guns, the size of which was beyond anything the brothers could imagine raised and fired another barrage.
One particular ship was more massive than the rest. Nearly double the size of the two battleships flanking it. The flagship of the fleet. From the brothers’ point of view, it looked like somepony dropped a castle onto an oversized boat. Giving the ship a boxy image offset by the two tiers of triple barrel cannons on the deck.
“What are those! What army is that!”
As the ships drew closer, they suddenly began to turn broadside revealing even more guns.
“Ship… Airships… and they're made of metal…” Schatten’s legs shook as the rear guns slowly turned towards them and when he recognized the flag flattering on the mast of one of the ships. Everything clicked. “Get under the flare! Now!”
Massive high explosive shells hit everywhere, the open plain, the city, wherever that wasn’t marked with a yellow flare. Bodies, guts, and earth rained down from the sky.
Smaller iron Airship began to encircle the barrier of the Crystal Empire and fired their own guns. Well, not as massive, they fired quicker, raining down even more death from above. The obsidian forces didn’t know what to do.
Some ran towards the ships, some ran toward the castle, some just stared up at the sky and waited for their turn to die.
“What… what is this…” Scath asked, not expecting an answer, but he did get one.
“It’s the Nippon Navy, a sky navy… Schatten muttered with a deep tremble of fear as the entire fleet of iron airships barreled down on them.
The leading battleship of the fleet turned broadside, written on its hull was BB-42, INN Emerald Cutter, it’s twelve triple-barreled eighteen-inch guns all trained on the chaotic Obsidian forces.
One second, two seconds, and three seconds, and they fired again. Unleashing death and destruction, the likes of which the Son’s of Sombra have never seen. The recoil was enough to push the ship backward despite its mass. When it’s sister ships did the same, BB-47 Overheat, and BB-52 Shinto. The destruction was unfathomable.
Upon the flagship, The Emerald Cutter, ponies scurried across the deck. A tall flight of stairs left up the multilevel staggered castle that made up the main body of the ship. A massive group of ponies in formal dress banged massive war drums, flutes let out a windy cry, and the twang of shamisens and battle horns blaring created a harmonious mix of music that offered death.
Up the ornate stairs, past the procession of war drums, past the communications officers directing the fleet, to the very top of the castle tower. Sat a single pony dressed an ornate white kimono with red patterns on it.
Surrounding this pony was over fifty other ponies in elegant armor that stood at the ready, katana at their sides. In the center kneeling before the throne where two white stallions. King Kusanagi and his son, Prince Kiri.
But who would the King of his own country bow to?
The answer was the white six-legged, six-winged, mare seated on the throne, the true eternal leader of Nippon, the Great Mother Queen. Though she was known by other names.
Night Patroller 4242, Kira Perfecta Shiroyama, The Goddess of Nippon, The Eternal Queen, The White Death, and the world's deadest grandma.
Chapter Bonus Stat Card 2
Stats
Page generated in 0.028 seconds
Total duration
905 users online
1,875,860 hits today, 2,139,894 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.®
It has taken me the better part of a week to read Night Patrol and Night Patrol 2, then it took me several days to figure out how to put my thoughts into words. Please brace yourself for a long and critical review.
First off (and most important in my opinion) spelling, grammar, and punctuation. It is so easy to see just how far your writing has come since the fist chapter of NP until now. I compliment and applaud you on the fantastic growth you have undergone to become the writer you are today and you should be very proud of yourself. That being said there are still a number of problems and bad habits that have survived the years, such as using the wrong words being the most obvious one. The best (and most amusing) would be calling foals ‘fowls/fouls’. Foal: baby horse. Fowl: bird. Foul: something bad. You have used the wrong word a number of times in NP and NP2 and it’s always jarring when I read it. I think your most recent error was ‘...we’re are...’ . ‘We’re’ can be broken down into ‘we are’ so your sentence reads as ‘...we are are...’. I can’t remember where exactly that mistake was, but it was more recent. Another big issue with words is your tenses, you keep flipping between past and present tense several times within one paragraph, sometimes making it difficult to determine just when an event occurs, or occurred. See what I did there? 😉
Moving on to content and plot. There is a lot of content to go through so I’m going to be breaking this section down into parts. When first reading NP the plot was fairly common, so much so that I could see where the story was going several chapters in advance, yet your writing was charming enough that I continued on. In NP you have used several simple and common plot cliches, it’s not a bad thing of course, just very common and thus many describe it as ‘boring’. In NP2 you have mostly broken away and started to come into yourself when it comes to plot, you still use some common plot cliches, yet you have grown as a writer to spin them and make them unique. To give and example of what I’m talking about I will refer to How to Train Your Dragon. It has two very common and simple plots of ‘boy befriends wild animal’ and ‘village pariah becomes village hero’, yet it spun those two plots together in a way that was amazing and fun. I must admit that NP2 is the better story with your growth as a writer showing and spinning the plot in fun ways that NP just didn’t.
Continuing with content there are a number of times in NP and NP2 where you write very simply and times where you write very in-depth. For the most part the in-depth writing happens when writing a battle scene which is both a good and bad thing. Good in that there is a lot going on and we as readers get to enjoy all of it, bad in that you tend to go too in-depth. I don’t know anything about guns, cannons, ships, or anything of that nature, so when you start with the fancy talk I find myself skipping paragraphs of text just to get past said fancy talk and back to the good stuff. As a result I end up disconnected from the story for a while until I can get back into it again. When it comes to the fancy talk of weapons/ships I have to say the NP was the better story since you really didn’t have too much of it in there, but in NP2 there is quite a lot, so I’m having a harder time reading and following along with NP2. As for the times when you write simply, it’s not too bad. There could be some more details included, but otherwise most of it happed in NP and your natural growth has eliminated the worst of it.
Let’s move on to story pacing. NP was excellent in story pacing, up until the end where it kind of fell apart. In NP you had everything flowing along at a great pace, nothing was happening too fast nor too slow until the end with the Lab and the aftermath where you threw everything at the reader all at once with no slowdowns or moments of calmness until the end. You introduced characters for only a few chapters before killing them off when I would have loved to have read more about them (P-rex in particular) and how they fit in with the rest and what adjustments the NP characters needed to make to accommodate them. NP2 is currently making a similar, yet opposite, mistake. Instead of tossing everything at the reader all at once, like you did in NP, you’ve been dragging it out way to much. Case in point; the Cristal Empire arc is currently at 14 chapters and counting. That’s too long and readers are starting to lose interest, if they haven’t already. I suggest you wrap it up within the next 2 chapters and move on to the aftermath of the battle before moving on to the next arc.
Speaking of moving on I would like to share what I would like to see in future chapters. More character interaction between canon MLP characters and your OC. You’ve really glossed over how the mane 6 react to how Sixes and Celestia interact, what Equestria as a whole thinks of the new characters, what Equestria thinks of the new military, what the castle staff think of the new characters, what Canterlot thinks of having a 1000 year old warship hanging around, and many other little things that can make or break a story. You yourself have mentioned how Luna hasn’t interacted much with the new characters that stoned themselves, so let’s see it. I also have do wonder what Discord thinks of everything that has happed, and has Luna created the Tantabus? Will she? What will the mane 6 think of Luna and Sixes relationship? What will Equestria think of their relationship? You started to expand things beyond the main characters, but then stopped. That being said don’t take too much away from the main characters or your story will stagnate. It’s a contradictory suggestion, I know, so take it with a grain of salt. I would also like to have more generic and less specialized explanations of weapons and airships, I don’t like having to skip over entire chunks of text like I have been.
I apologize if this review has been overly critical. I hope I haven’t offended you in any way.
9989767
No, not at all, I find it very helpful. I am aware of some of my weaknesses and try to cover them, but sometimes you're blind to them until someone points them out. As for misused words, I've been going through NP1 and currently on chapter 21 in editing, and found quite a few instances of that happening. I've been trying to catch them, but it's been a long road.
Yes, I fear the Crystal War arc has been too long. Actually, it's well beyond what I originally planned it to be, so I'm trying to wrap it up here ASAP. I'm thinking two to maybe three chapters, including the aftermath. Where I'm planning to cover the characters' thoughts and reactions.
The weapons and military stuff. I guess I could/should tone it down if it's not helpful to the reader, it's just I am interested in the stuff so I like to use what knowledge I have or have researched make a picture for the readers. I'll see about creating a better balance.
For the pacing issues, I'll see what I can do in NP1 since I'll be heading into that part of the story soon. NP2 after the Crystal War arc, everything should wrap up fairly quick. Well, I don't want to say that because I've been debating if the Final Arc (Planned to be 20 chapters) could actually end up being enough for a Night Patrol 3. Which I would rather not do, but might not have a choice. I think in hindsight I can see what could have been tightened up for the Crystal arc, but I would want to finish before going back and making huge changes like that. It was poor planning on my part to diverge from my notes that much anyway.
The word tense is a big problem for me, I know. Not to say I had it right the first time, but originally it was past tense, then a friend recommended doing present tense, so I started changing the story to that, and I know I'm changing back to past, and hopefully getting it right. Or close.
I'll be honest, my highest English grade in high school was a C. I didn't really pay attention to a lot of the rules and lessons (Becuase I wasn't interested in writing at the time.) and have been having to reeducate myself on grammar and related subjects. To varying degrees of effectiveness.
To sum things up, I am grateful you took the time to write this. I can't promise I can fulfill all your requests/suggestions to what they should be, but know I will do my best.
I just realized, this is “Goku to the rescue”.
9990175
I personally tend not to be critical of a fanfiction as long as I can enjoy the for what it is. I see fanfiction as teaching experiences for writers so whatever happens in the plot occurs as it is meant to happen and the writer simply tries harder/ better from it.