6 - Battle of Ponyville
Lyra (Mirrior) - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH
Ponyville - Equestria
I jolted awake to the sound of an old air raid siren.
“Gaaaa!” I yelped, falling off the tiny bed in shock as the alarm began to fade.
“Three in the morning?” Rarity groaned as the sirine’s second scream began. “Who has fire drills at three in the morning?”
“Heck if I know,” Pinkie mumbled sleepily into her pillow. “Nnn… I was having a nice dream too!”
I sat up and shook my head rubbing my eyes with my hands and mumbling angrily to myself. I could never get back to sleep once woken up. The dim light coming from a small lamp lit up the room just barely enough to see by. I could swear we had turned that off before going to bed.
“Is it really three?” I asked groggily, yawning loudly.
Rarity nodded and turned the room’s clock radio to face me with a hoof.
Oh my gosh! Yes! Still transformed! Not a dream WOOOOO!
And it was also actually motherfucking three in the morning.
I felt my ears droop grumpily. “Ugh, great!” I groaned, standing up so I could sit back down on the edge of the bed.
The alarm began its third screech, prompting me to flop back down on the bed and clamp the pillow over my ears.
Rarity winced, shaking visibly. “Ahhh… Did not think this through,” she groaned, holding her hooves over her ears.
“Oh shit, yeah!” I exclaimed with a sympathetic wince. “Do you have echolocation, or just really good hearing?”
“Echo-” Rarity began only to be cut off.
“Citizens of Ponyville,” a voice I recognised as Sparkle called over what I assume was the siren’s speaker system (her voice was a bit lower pitched). “The Everfree Forest is growing around the city at a magically accelerated rate. Large numbers of timberwolves can be seen advancing with the treeline. The city will be surrounded in fifteen minutes. We assume this is enemy action. Please stay in your homes until an all clear is sounded.
“All Evening Guard members to action stations. All medics, healers, and doctors are to open doors immediately and prepare to receive wounded. Assistance from members of Adventuring Guilds, or other non military personnel is not required at this time. Please standby as potential reinforcements.”
“-FUCK!” Rarity finished, eyes widening in near panic.
Hehehe! Echofuck.
I felt my heart speed up. Not in fear, but in anticipation! Battle! YES! Actual real proper adventure, and they had called for people with experience to help maybe!
I fought a pack of wolves once, that was easy peasy. Just like a pack of feral dogs, kick the leader’s snout in and the rest run for the hills. I could totally help, especially with my Peacemaker. Which was in the truck. With quite a few boxes of 45-70.
“We need to get to my truck,” I said eagerly, grinning ear to ear.
“Uh, we were just told to stay inside…” Pinkie said holding up one finger questioningly.
I nodded. “Yeah, but they also wanted people with adventuring experience to stand by as reinforcements and I’m a Forest Ranger, I’ve fought wolves before, and I have my Peacemaker in the truck. I should get it so I’m armed and ready,” I explained, bouncing on the bed slightly.
Rarity rolled her eyes. “A little revolver won't help, they have soldiers. Besides, I doubt these are mundane normal wolves, Ly.”
I narrowed my eyes in irritation. “Little?”
“It’s a Peacemaker, daddy liked to shoot them,” Rarity said shaking her head at me. “I know some guns. That’s the little revolver police use.”
“Oh! Heh, no,” I explained. “I needed something that could put down a bear and didn’t want to carry a shotgun. So I bought a Colt forty five-seventy Peacemaker BFR. It’s actually a handcannon, not a revolver. The difference being it’s using rifle rounds, not pistol rounds.”
“A-and you shoot that?” Rarity stammered looking at me incredulously. “How many times did you break a wrist!?”
I rolled my eyes. “Fire it once and even an angry bear pisses itself and runs. Come on, truck. Gun, get. Be ready for ADVENTURE!” I exclaimed striking a triumphant pose.
Three knocks on the door halted anyone’s possible replies. As I was the closest I slipped out of bed and opened the door a crack to peek through. Seeing it was Lily, I opened the door the rest of the way.
“Hey, what’s up doc?” Pinkie asked before snickering as she held in a full laugh.
“Um, the attack?” Lily asked with a questioning eyebrow raised.
“We know,” I chuckled. “I’m eager to help!”
Lily winced and shook his head. “Nein! Nein! Das est Ponyville, I mean, this is Ponyville. This kind of thing happens every few months. It’s ridiculously dangerous, but everypony who lives here knows how to survive the disasters. It’s a trait you just learn over time. But you three are new here.
“My clinic is an old fortress. While this room is very well fortified, there’s a bunker in the basement, we have time to get you into it. There’s food, und water, und bathrooms. It’s meant to be lived in full time. You’ll be safest there,” he promised.
“That sounds like a good idea!” Pinkie exclaimed eagerly, jumping to her hooves and wobbling off balance. “WOAH! Not feet! Forgot! Do not try to stand tippie hoof!”
“How dangerous is it normally?” Rarity asked with a worried frown.
“Um, well, last time a army of super soldiers lined up outside the wall und threatened to destroy the city unless Twilight could best their leader in single combat,” Lily answered with a shrug. “Das war nicht- That wasn’t so bad. Comparatively. One time, my wife told me that a giant Tartarian centaur kaiju managed to eat everypony’s souls save for Twi-”
Rarity lept out of her bed and raced over to me, rearing up to grab me by the shoulders. “FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY TO YOU DRIVE ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” She demanded in a blind panic.
“Excuse me a moment,” I squeaked to Rarity, butt firmly clenched in fear. “Um, Doc… Did you say demon kaiju that eats souls?”
“Yeah… Um, that did happen once. Twice actually. He broke out of prison to come back,” Lily explained ears drooping as he realized what that must have sounded like to us.
“Getting the fuck out of dodge?” I asked, voice quavering as I looked over everyone else.
Rarity nodded. Pinkie nodded. I nodded.
It was a good plan, I was happy to be a part of it.
Gently pushing Rarity aside I knelt down to look Lily in the eyes. “How do I change between forms?” I asked.
“You will it, may take a little practice, but you just think about it, push with your magic, und then poof, just like a changeli- Oh no! No, don’t go out there! That’s a bad idea!” The effeminate stallion pleaded with the most adorable Bambi eyes I’d ever seen.
“Sorry, Darling, but I am NOT going to be trapped in a town by a magically growing forest that is probably being controlled by an evil druid hellbent on destroying all of civilization,” Rarity exclaimed adamantly. “We're leaving. Lyra, how fast is your truck?”
“Fast enough, let’s go!” I said as I stood up and pushed past Lily as gently as I could, running out onto the balcony.
“But- I- Ugh! Fine, I’ll patch you up once you get hurt,” Lily grumbled from behind me as I peered over the balcony.
My truck had been put in the clinic’s courtyard, to my delight she had been parked right under the balcony. I could actually drop down onto it by vaulting over the cast iron railing. In fact, I’d do that to save time.
Heaving myself up over the railing, I dropped down, landing in the bed with a solid thump, the shock of the impact flowing up through my knees a bit painfully. In a matter of moments I scrambled out of the bed, fished my keys out of my pants pocket, opened the door, slipped in, and slid the key into the ignition.
The lights snapped on like twin spotlights as the key slid in, lighting up the early hours of the morning. Like I was ready to make a get away from an exploding warehouse or something else right out of a Bond mov-
The passenger door opened, Rarity climbed in giving me a deadpan look with her adorable batpony eyes as she squished herself into the middle seat.
“Such time saving. Much fast. Very cool. Wow,” Pinkie snickered as she slipped in and closed the door.
“Shut up,” I grunted bitterly and started the engine.
The truck started up with an oddly smooth and happy sounding rumble, almost a purr. The sound compelled me to gently pat the dashboard. “Alright girl, we need to escape town before the evil forest engulfs it. So please don’t break down,” I asked as I gave it another pat then began to slowly pull out of the clinic’s courtyard.
“Is it prone to breaking down?” Rarity asked with a worried grimace.
“No,” I answered.
“Do either of you know the way to one of the city gates?” Pinkie asked hopefully.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed smacking my head into the steering wheel.
“None of us know the streets! We’re doomed!” Rarity groaned.
“In six meters, turn right,” my GPS chimed happily in that creepy feminine synthetic voice.
I blinked and looked at the GPS wondering if Rarity had accidently touched the screen or something. How the hell was it working here? Scratch that, how was it working at all!? The screen showed no satellite connected yet the screen had a map on it with-
“Oh yeah! Twilight said she left a map!” I laughed happily. “Thanks, Twi!”
Pulling out of the clinic's courtyard I followed the GPS’s instructions and turned right. Immediately the next instruction popped up on screen, getting read out as before. I would have loved to follow them as fast as I could have, but the Ponyville streets were oddly narrow, and very windy. Not exactly the most conducive things to drive on.
“I hope we can make it out of here before the trees grow around the city,” Rarity said as I turned left past what looked like a post office.
“We should be fine. I can gun it full throttle as soon as we’re out of the gate. Black Knight is fully kitted out for offroad use,” I said as soothingly as I could manage.
In truth, I was feeling the tension too. I could see the little dots of white cloaked ponies scrambling on the walltop. And even hear the sounds of battle in the distance. I felt a few pangs of disappointment as I realized that the star wars blaster like sound had to be unicorn magic lasers or something else super cool that I was missing…
“You named your truck Black Knight?” Rarity asked with a disapproving frown.
“Yeah, cuz she’s invincible. Because Hilux,” I grumbled. Why did no one like her name?
“Um, girls?” Pinkie said in an odd tone, the sound of paper crinkling as she picked something up off the dash. “I um, I found a map. With Twilight’s hoof writing on it.”
I looked over, eyebrow raised. Sure enough that was a map. And it looked different artistically from the GPS’s map. It was also not a city map, but a national map. With drawn on navigation marks.
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“Destination straight ahead, one hundred and six meters,” the GPS chimed.
“Questions for later! GO!” Rarity urged, shaking my shoulder with a hoof.
I looked ahead, squinted through the darkness, flicked my brights on for a moment, and then saw the gate. It was straight ahead.
I also saw the guards on the walltop rush to the left, moving up to the ramparts. And start to fire bolts of pale blue energy down to the ground.
“Fuck!” I swore, then stomped the gas petal flat against the floor.
The pickup lurched forwards, throwing us back against the seat. Her engine roared loudly, several of the guards atop the wall while around, firing bolts at us.
Pinkie screamed as the blazing blue energy blasts zipped towards us, smashed into the hood and-
Fizzled harmlessly away, not even leaving a scratch. What?
“Oh! That’s right! It’s magic proof! Hehehe!” Pinkie giggled hiding an embarrassed blush behind her palms.
“Oh yeah, thank god,” I gasped, doing my best to focus on driving as we raced towards the very narrow looking gate.
Why was the gate still open? The town was under attack, you'd’ think that they would close the gate. Will we fit through the gate? Please fit through the-
“FORCE FIELD!” Rarity yelped, pointing at the blue glowing barrier which filled the gateway arch.
I yanked my foot off the gas, reaching for the break.
“Immune to magic,” Pinkie reminded.
God damnit! I slammed my foot down on the gas again, seating us into the middle of the archway, hoping to god that we would make it through.
The forcefield exploded in a shower of sparks as we hit it. The sound of metal scraping on stone overpowered it’s staticy screeching as our mirrors scraped along the stone on either side as we barreled on through. We were out in an instant, the wide open road stretching before us, with a little moving wall of trees racing towards us from the left side of the truck!
A whole kilometer long stretch of trees, moving forward at a visible speed, new trees sprouting up from the earth and growing to a good ten meters high in a few seconds.
“Come on, keep up this pace, I know you hate going full throttle for long,” I murmured to my truck, glancing down at the dash to make sure the engine wasn’t running too hot, or the RPMs weren't redlining.
They were not. Black Knight was running cool, and at a normal RPM. Despite me having her floored.
What?
“What are,” Rarity asked oddly before gasping. “Eeep! Uh, okay so um, those are NOT normal wolves!”
I looked back up from the dash, eyes widening to the size of dinner plates as a pack of over a dozen semi-truck sized wolfe-shaped masses of logs and dead brush burst from the treeline, running out to form a semicircle in front of the road.
Immediately bolts of blue magical energy peppered the pack, but the chunks blasted off their bodies simply flew back onto them with little jets of green energy. I gulped nervously, there was no room to steer and move around them, we were moving too fast, I would roll the truck.
“I can’t turn! Too fast!” I warned, voice cracking fearfully. “We have to ram them…”
“Well, we already rammed police cars…” Rarity mumbled to herself. “Buckle up?”
“Buckle up,” I agreed.
If any truck could smash through a dead-brush monster and keep going, it was my old pickup.
We raced towards the wolves, the grass and trees sailing by on either side. My eyes fixated on the wolves. They stood sort of far apart, we could maybe just clip one’s front leg and push on through if I just turned the wheel a little bit to the-
The truck rumbled angrily as I turned the wheel to avoid the collision. Even more terrifying it refused to budge. Like my turning the wheel didn’t matter.
“Ahhh! No, please no!” I pleaded, heart skipping a beat as I feared the steering column had somehow fuzed.
The middle most wolf turned it’s head, lowering itself to block our path entirely.
“Turn!” Pinkie yelped fearfully.
“It won't budge!” I shouted back, cracking on the wheel.
The truck surged forwards, throwing us backwards into the seat and holding the three of us there, the roar of the old diesel engine suddenly transforming into the shriek of an Aston Martin Vulcan at full speed. The radio clicked on, filling the cabin with what I swore to god was the Football on Fox theme. A heartbeat later we smashed into the wooden wolf.
The monster exploded, loose brush flying everywhere as it was thrown up and over the cabin with a clatter of wood on metal. The incredible burst of speed sent us hurtling through the line of wolves before any of them, let alone us, could react.
The engine’s noise died down, returning to the familiar diesel roar with a satisfied sounding rumble. The insane back force dissipated, causing the three of us to lurch forwards in our seats.
“The hell was that!?” Rarity demanded as she reached forwards to turn off the radio. “Do you have nitrous in this thing?!”
“Nope!” I said shaking my head slightly, face completely plastered with incredulity.
“Hey, how about we worry about this when we DON’T have a massive pack of monsters chasing us?” Pinkie asked as she looked worriedly into the rearview mirror. “You know, like um, we drive to Canterlot or something then figure out the whole truck mystery?”
“Yeah… Yeah that sounds good,” I said as I looked into the mirror myself to see half the pack of timber wolves chasing us down.
“Destination: Canterlot. Recalculating…” The GPS chimed.
The three of us shared a look between ourselves.
My truck was alive. Wasn’t it?
Sparkle - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH
Ponyville - Equestria
Nightmare Moon’s cat-like eyes burned hotly, seeming to swell and fill my vision. Worse than the horror her appearance provided was the bone chilling vortex of thaumaturgic current my arcane senses revealed to me. Power simply flooded into her body from… Somewhere else. An endless volume of raw, oddly polarized magic, like the center of a massive whirlpool.
“Scream all you like, but you should answer soon,” Nightmare Moon hissed, lips peeling back asymmetrically to reveal a needle toothed smile which barely hid an endless black abyss.
“I just arrived in this universe, I didn’t even know you HAD a kid,” I countered, hoping that just maybe we could avoid a fight.
Nightmare Moon had NOT been this powerful when I faced her years ago. She must have still been recovering from her banishment back then, not yet fully powered. Unlike now. But why was she ba-
Someone set Luna's child on fire. Of course she would become beyond pissed of-
“Implying you did burn somepony to death, since you did not know she was mine,” Nightmare Moon growled, eyes narrowing dangerously. “That’s all I needed to know. Goodbye.”
I winced, realizing how that must sound to a third party only after her retort. “No! I didn’t-”
“SPARE ME FURTHER L̜͕I̷̺E̻̝͓͉S҉̺̯ͅ!” Nightmare Moon roared in the Canterlot Royal voice.
The obsidian spiers splitting into a half dozen sword tipped blades each. “Now defend yourself!” She growled, the blades scything towards me from all directions.
I closed my eyes, the crack of my teleport echoing in the distance as I sent myself to the walltop. Grabbing the closest member of the Evening Guard by her white cloak’s collar just above Twilight’s crest, I pointed with one hoof out to the glittering stone blades flexing and lashing like organic limbs.
“Forget killing the monsters! Every last one of you is to get a shield spell up over this town. I can NOT face her without there being major collateral,” I ordered, doing my best to keep a neutral expression despite my own fear.
It’s never good for an officer to appear afraid.
“Yes, ma’am,” the soldier replied, snapping a salute then running to the next white cloaked figure atop the wall to relay my orders.
The walltop trembled, buckling under my hooves for a split second as the section of wall I stood on melted like butter, oozing downwards in a wave, taking me with it. I hit the ground at the base of the wall, buried in the liquified stone which spontaneously hardened, leaving an ‘ice cream scoop’ like chunk missing from the wall.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself.
Feeling a tinge of irritation at myself for having used a foal’s curse word in a serious situation, I lashed out with my telekinesis, throwing as powerful of a pulse as I could away from myself. The stone exploded into jagged shards, allowing me to jump upwards and take off into the air.
The Nightmare had to be somewhere and-
Space warped in front of me, stretching and twisting, sucking me down a tube of nothing, depositing me onto the obsidian platform at Nightmare Moon’s hooves with a thud.
“I said DEFEND, not run, coward!” Nightmare bellowed while stars exploded in my eyes.
I looked up in time to see her horn boil with an eldritch aura, conjuring a long halbarad made from ghostly-green fire and wielding it, giving the weapon an expert twirl. I expected her to swing the weapon at me. She didn’t.
Did she actually expect me to stand and fight her in a one on one honor dule? The hay? That wasn’t like the Nightmare I had read abo-
Derp. Different universe. Different Nightmare.
I pushed myself up to my hooves, glancing behind me in time to see six pale blue shield spells merge together and cover the melted chunk of wall as well as a good deal of the sky above it. The Trixies were doing their job. I could cut loose.
“Fine, you want a fair fight, you got one,” I countered, gritting my teeth angrily.
I’d have to aim away from Ponyville to start with. Give them time to finish putting up the shield.
After my ascension and military training, overcharging a spell had always been too easy. I’d sealed most of my arcane might away behind a mnemonic phrase. For everypony’s safety.
My horn shone purple as I readied my spell, the aura contracting tightly around my horn with a sound like slate scraping against slate as I intensified the magic as much as I could.
“Release restraint, level one,” I said, horn burning finishing the ‘unlock’ spell.
Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow. “Level what?” She asked.
My full aura appeared with a fwoosh, tinting the world around me purple as the bon-fire like aura leaked into the visible spectrum. Bones cracked and scraped as they enlarged, undergoing a decade of growth in seconds. I felt my scalp and tail tingle as they turned ethereal, the strands of hair turning from violet to a flowing gradient which mimicked the last moments of a setting sun.
There we go. Full adult Alicorn. No more age spell sealing away power levels. Foal shoes off.
“Oh!” Nightmare Moon said with a wince. “Okay, so you ARE-”
I fired my first spell. The obsidian cracked as a pressure wave blasted outwards from me. The world lit up for a split second as if the cloud cover vanished and the noon sun had returned as my four pony wide energy blast ripped through the air. The white core in the middle entirely engulfing the Nightmare, the helixing rays of lavender light surrounding it slammed into the earth around the beam, digging spiraling grooves into the molten earth.
The beam thinned, vanishing after a heartbeat. Something far down the firing line exploded. Two lines of fire trailed along the gash left in the earth.
No sign of Nightmare Moon to be ha-
“Well, you’re certainly a Twilight,” Nightmare Moon mused from behind me. “Not ours though. I assumed you were a changeling, or something else shapechanged.”
She must have teleported! I spun around, rear hooves slicing on the broken ground beneath me. I couldn’t fire another energy blast, not with Ponyville right there.
“The eye patch… You’re from the universe where my sister dated King Sombra, aren't you?” The Nightmare mused. Eyes narrowing dangerously. “The eyepatch gives it away. I recall their Twilight lost an eye.”
I concentrated as much as I dared, and cast an anti-teleport hex. The spell rippled outwards as a series of pale white lines. She shouldn’t be able to teleport around anymore.
Neither could I.
Wait, had she said something?
“You know our universes can’t interact anymore. Whatever your Celestia did to damage whatever metaphysics underlie this sort of thing can not be repaired. Leave now. You’ll destroy your own world along with our own,” Nightmare moon warned, standing stiffly out in the open.
“One second you’re raring for a fight, the next second you’re worried about unraveling spacetime,” I laughed. “I didn’t light anypony on fire! I haven't done anything since I got here… Uh, except for kill about a half dozen of those vine monsters.”
“It doesn't matter. Whatever disaster is going on here is none of your business. Go home. You saw how narrowly we avoided mutual destruction last time. I’m half certain your mere words will be enough to set off the curse and destabilize our realms,” Nightmare said again in a shockingly calm-
I frowned. Wait a bucking minute! All of the creepy vanished from her voice.
“Wait, Luna? Are you in control of that body?” I asked, frown deepening.
Then lessening somewhat as I saw the growing shield bubble completely cover the side of Ponyville I faced. Good! I could attack now.
It would have to be something light, so as not to overwhelm their collective might. I needed a little more time to think!
“Are you unable to return home?” Nightmare asked again, eyes narrowing. “I have no idea what might happen if I kill you, under these circumstances. But if you refuse to go home, I’ll have to try. I’d rather not do that. Even with the flipped moralities of our worlds.”
I took a deep breath, realizing she could be buying time to charge a spell. I had a few tricks at my hoof tips. But before I used one, I needed to see if this was the Nightmare, or if it were this world’s Luna. For all I knew she’d kept the Nightmare’s form in this world.
I reached up to my eyepatch and slid it upwards, revealing the mangled silver, copper, and steel hardware beneath, as well as the remains of the wire which had once connected that rather nice ocular implant to me.
“Unless the Twilight you are talking about had cyberware, you have the wrong pony,” I said adamantly, leaving the eyepatch up, hoping the empty metal filled socket would be a distraction.
Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened slightly. Yes! She’d taken the bait! What to use?
“No, she did not…” Nightmare mused thoughtfully.
I frowned, the idea of casting a spell getting pushed aside for a moment. “Okay, what gives, you can think clearly. Who the hay are you!?”
“Luna, I’m in full command of myself now,” Luna said, giving me another horrific smile. “We may have a misunderstanding here… Maybe. But if we don’t, I have all of the power a living Nightmare possesses, and the clarity of mind to employ any tactic I choose… Anger at my daughter being harmed notwithstanding. You may be a Twilight Sparkle, but if you are evil… Well, Alicorns are not invulnerable.”
“Check with your sister. She knows I’m here. I’d say check with your Twilight too, but I don’t think she’s here anymore. I caused a bit of a clusterbuck arriving here, and am protecting ponyville while it’s cleaned up… Sorry, but I think you’ve been left out of the loop,” I apologised with a sincere frown, hoping to end the hostilities.
Luna stood still, silently considering my offer. While she stood her mane’s rolling, boiling aura calmed, shrinking back down to the simple wavy night sky I recognised as Luna's mane. Interesting, it looked like she really was in control.
“Very well, I will. But if I come back and you have moved an inch from that spot I will consider you hostile, understood?” Luna asked with a serious glare.
I nodded and sat down, folding my wings neatly behind me. “Understood. But hurry, the Everfree is attacking. An it’s pretty bucking pissed off,” I explained, sweeping a hoof across the left side of my body.
I could see a pack of timberwolves out of the corner of my eye. They sat within the unnaturally fast growing treeline, staring outwards. Not daring to approach while two creatures as powerful as the two of us while we sat here.
Luna nodded, and to my shock simply vanished. No flash of light, no distortion or sound of any kind. If I hadn’t seen the way her odd magic twisted the world around her as she vanished…
Well, that would have been supernatural.
I grit my teeth in worry. If she came back hostile for any reason I needed a way to counter her magic. It couldn’t be unicorn magic. I would have been able to stop the teleport if it were.
I probably didn’t have to worry, but I also didn’t have much time! Okay Twilight, she’s using Dream Magic. You saw the signature, you can pick it apart and reverse engine-
Oh who the buck am I kidding! Celestia had every library with any material on that magic purged, you don’t have a damn thing to compare it too and not enough time to work it out from scratch.
My attention was shattered as the dull thud of a far off explosion reached my ears. One single loud concussive burst, like thunder on the limits of my hearing.
Actual thunder? I couldn’t see anything with this nightmarish sky overhead. Perhaps a storm was starting?
Also, how was Luna keeping this illusion here when she wasn’t present? Not even I could keep one going at a distance greater than six kil-
Luna reappeared, simply blinking back into existence with nothing more than the odd distortion of magic I’d seen before. My ears stood up in alarm as she arrived, laughing, eyes, melting back into their normal appearance, fur brightening like somepony was adjusting a knob on a machine.
“Hahahaha! I totally spaced how Celestia would react to me in this form!” Luna cackled, tears forming before she took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down, only to fail spectacularly and fall over snickering.
I cleared my throat, doing my best to pretend I didn’t also neglect to think about-
OH BUCKING FAUST! That explosion had been-
“Is everypony okay!? She didn’t hit anyone by accident did-”
Luna snorted and shook her head, standing back up. “No. The local stone masons are going to be very happy, and my sister has lost a bay window along with some curtains, and I’m fairly certain she will want to replace her study’s rug. But nopony was hurt.
“And I know you were telling the truth. I apologize. You see, I’d been told that a monster of some kind imitated AJ to gain access to a… Part of the Everfree forest and- HUAAAK!”
Pain! Everywhere! What!?
My vision began to dim. I looked down at my barrel. Tree roots. Impaled. Everywhere. Pincushioned. How?
“Howdy, y'all,” Applejack’s voice from behind me, an odd quavering accompanying her speech. A sinister malice which AJ never had. “Thanks for distracting one another, much obliged. Made it easy to take you both down.”
Both!?
I turned my head to look at Luna, feeling roots scraping through my body as I turned. She had been impaled too. I could see thick, gnarled, red stained, white roots. They burst forth from her skin all across her body, entering from one thick section near her belly. Her coat turned dark as blood-
Oh. No. Not blood. Just nightmarishly black.
“YOU!̹̘̟̖̱” Luna roared, seemingly entirely unaffected by the injury. “You’re the monster who hurt my little filly!”
“Yep,” the malicious voice chuckled. “Though y’all aren't in any position to do a damn thing ab-”
Luna ripped herself off the roots, the squelching sound of tearing flesh making me wince despite the pain I was in. Her nightmare form returned in a single burst, wounds vanishing entirely as the black-as-the-void fur, boiling mane, and hate filled eyes returned as flashes of eldritch fire sparked around Luna’s body, as if the air had become flammable.
“DĮ̺̥̥̬̜̤ͅE̶̦̘!̬͖̮̖͓” the Nightmare screamed, fangs pulled into a grotesque smile, her halberd returning in a blaze to immediately cleave downwards, unleashing a crackling wave of black lightning and green fire.
“HOLY SHIT!” The monster yelped, forgetting to use Applejack’s accent.
A flash of red light registering in my dimming vision.
A shock wave threw me, ripping me free of the roots a half second before I heard the explosion. I flew through the air, landing with a loud snap and skidding over the ground, smashing into something hard and pointy.
The impact snapped my mind back into focus. The shock evaporated. My mind cleared.
I was fucking dying. Let’s fix that.
I focused all of my attention on my magic, pulling the shattered fragments of my mind together was no easy task in my condition. I coughed, blood spraying from my lips. Concentration slipping away.
NO! BAD! JUST BUCKING DO IT!
Gritting my teeth against the pain I summoned all the magic I could muster, focused my will, and remembered watching Dash and Scootaloo play tag in the air the first time she flew.
I smiled at the memory, the pain melting away as I concentrated on that happiest of moments.
I cast my spell. The simple healing charm raced through my body, my raw power the only thing enabling it to force my body back into a single undamaged piece. One of these days I’d need to learn a proper regeneration spell… I couldn’t keep relying on basic charms, alicorn healing factors, and my love for my family forever.
My ribs cracked as the spell pushed them out from my chest and back into place. My vision brightened. My head stopped pounding. I stood back up, popped my neck, and wheeled around to join the battle.
I gasped as I saw the half dozen pony deep gashes torn into the earth. Luna swung her ethereal weapon in a rapid series of furious strikes, each blast the weapon’s blade unleashed ripping a new wound into the earth.
The monstrous creature she fought had reared up onto its hind legs to swing its forelegs as if wielding a shield, a bright pulse of red light existing for a fraction of a second to block each of Luna’s strikes.
I couldn’t help but feel my stomach turn as I looked at the creature. It looked like AJ, sort of. If she had been beaten bloody, and had her rear legs replaced with animated wooden prosthetics carved to resemble monstrous wolf paws. At first I thought she had on a cloak made from tree roots, but then the fact that the cloak like mass of roots were embedded into her back became extremely apparent as she twisted and I could see the inflamed flesh around each root.
The bottom hem of the cloak caught my attention next. A black sparking ball of magic tipped the back end of each root. And if I was seeing things correctly they were some form of portal. Meaning those roots connected to something. Something most likely in the everfree forest. Which in all likelihood ment this monster disguised as Applejack was responsible for the forest's hostilities.
I opened my wings and pushed down with them as hard as I could, shooting up into the air. I needed to strike from above to avoid hitting Luna.
While I climbed for altitude, Luna drew back her halberd with an enraged screech, holding it back as energy crackled across its surface, clearly trying to charge up her spell to break through the monster's shield. It smiled and jerked its head back and up.
A bright red glowing crystal ripped out from the earth, impaling Luna through her barrel and lifting her a full another five meters into the air. Her halberd vanished in a chaotic flate of sparks and shimmering magical light as the attack struck her, her form reverting back to normal as her body stopped moving. Her mane shimmered, flickered, then fell downwards as normal hair, the magic gone.
“HA!” The monster laughed, mouth stretching into a malicious grin as Luna went limp on the pike.
NO! I opened my mouth to scream in-
<Heh, Twilight, it’s fine,> Luna’s voice said inside my head. <Let him get a bit closer to me.>
What!?
I hovered in place, mind doing an excellent imitation of complete and total chaos. Below me, the monster returned to all fours, causally walking towards Luna's corpse, visibly adopting the body language of somepony admiring a piece of fine art, including the bemused expression and chin stroke.
It walked up to the base of the pillar before chuckling. “Well, I suppose I missed the heart the first time,” it mused to itself. “Two down, that should mean nothing here has enough force to actually take me down. See? I told you it was hopeless for you.”
I frowned slightly, my panicked mind seeking out any form of distraction. Wait a minute… AJ had gone missing! It wasn’t talking to itself!
I focused my arcane senses as much as I could on the creature, searching for any sign of-
Oh sweet Celestia it had two auras in the same spot! And one of them was App-
Luna’s ethereal halberd bamphed back into existence a meter above the monster and chopped downwards in a single savage strike. The monster’s eyes widened, it lept to one side to dodge, but moved too late, the strike cleaving its right arm clean off at the shoulder.
“Gotcha, bitch!” Luna cackled, snapping her wings open and flying through the spike as if it were a mere illusion to begin circling the monster in the air.
Oh sweet Celestia, no! No no no! I’d figured it out and she’d just-
“Did you seriously think physical attacks can harm a living Nightmare? Do you not know what being what I am entails?” She mocked.
“Apparently, I was misinformed,” the monster grunted, in pain, remaining foreleg reaching up to grasp the bleeding stump. “So, magic is required humm? BURN!”
AJ’s eyes flashed. A torrent of fire exploded in the air, engulfing Luna for a split second before she appeared next to me, slightly singed, a frown on her lips.
“We have a problem… That thing is powerful enough to actually effect me with it’s magic,we-”
I drew back a hoof and slapped her across the face. “YOU IDIOT! Look at the aura! That IS Applejack, and something else! She’s possessed!” I screamed at her.
Luna’s eyes widened in horror, she covered her mouth with one hoof and shook her head disbelievingly.
“Oh come on!” The Monster screamed angrily. “I didn’t kill EITHER of you?!”
“We can’t kill that thing, we have to knock it out of her first!” I shouted, teeth bared in anger.
“I- it will be fine! I- I can put a leg back on! I- I didn’t know I- Buck!” Luna babbled angrily, looking down at the possessed Applejack eyes filled with regret. “If I put it back on that thing will kill us far more easily!”
I nodded grimly. This entire situation was bucked up to tartarus and back! “We need a plan to-”
The monster threw it’s head back to the sky and screamed. A little rain of red and black crackling spellbolts plunged down from the heavens, screeching loudly as the raced towards us in an undodgeably dense and wide blanket.
“CRAP!” I screeched, throwing a shield spell over Luna and I.
The bolts slammed into my shield, exploding with bright red flashes of light on impact. A second wave striking a split second after the first, then a third, and a fourth,and a fifth. My shield sparked, bent, dented, and cracked. The endless rain of exploding bolts too much for it to take.
“No, no no nono!” I yelped. “Luna! It’s getting destroyed faster than I can fix it!”
I was at the actual limit of how much energy I could push into a thing at one time and this barrage was just eating through it like a chisel through wood!
“Hey girls!” The monster called mockingly. “Look over at your little town! I’m blasting it too. Which shield do you think will fail first? I’m betting your’s, Twilight. Care to put money on it?”
SHIT! I looked at Luna wide eyes, officially out of plans at this point.
If we attacked the monster to stop the bombardment we would hurt AJ. If we moved out of the spell’s range Ponyville would crumble under the barrage. We couldn’t teleport under that shield spell to help them bolster the shield ether, because shield spells blocked teleportation!
I failed. Again… Unless, anything? Something!? Please!?
Come on, brain! You can do this!
Luna’s eyes narrowed angrily as she recognised our dilemma. “You win for now, monster,” Luna shouted down at the creature. “But once I know how to destroy you, no force in the universe will protect you from my wrath!”
“What!? You’re retreating!?” I yelped, almost dropping the shield. “No! We have to have some way of bea-”
Luna grabbed me by a shoulder. The world around us instantly changed- No we’d teleported using Luna’s method! But to where!?
I quickly glanced around, making out the familiar sights of Ponyville’s town square. Oh, right. She could move through teleport wards.
The thundering of the constant explosions echoed maddeningly inside the shield bubble. It sounded like a thousand Vinyl Scratches had set up a thousand stereo systems and blared the same bass note on an endless loop. I could see the shield starting to buckle and crack, and occasionally hear the pained cry of a Guards pony over the cacophony of explosions.
“Oh thank Celestia!” I sighed in relief. “Hurry! We need to help them reinforce the shield!”
Luna shook her head, giving me an urgent look. “No! That won't help anypony. Do you see this insanity!? You and I combined couldn’t throw this much plasma this quickly. Please, lend me any strength you have left. I’m… My power is tied to my emotions, and I… I hurt her! I’m too shaken to do this on my own. Please. Just… I need more energy, I have a plan!”
I bit my lip uncertainly. Luna gave me a pleading look. “Please, I can save everypony here and buy us at least a week of time!” she begged.
I frowned, then nodded. “Alright… Standard communal magic sharing spell?”
Luna nodded.
“Okay,” I sat down, closed my eyes, and pushed my magic towards her gently, willing the energy to work with whatever spell she was about to cast.
I felt the magic swirled around Luna as she readied her spell. Whatever it was it had an exceptionally complex matrix and-
And she was converting my magic to Dream Magic!
Despite the chaos around us, I couldn’t help but focus on her work, studying every last interaction as the alien form of magic formed before my mind’s eye. Unlike the spells I knew, the matrix was more chaotic, but orderly so. A statement so paradoxical that I realized I couldn’t possibly understand what I saw.
Luna groaned as she cast the spell, the energy leaving her in one large pulse, sending all of that energy straight up towards the apex of the shield. Opening my eyes to see what the spell would do, I watched a bright white beam of light launch upwards from Luna’s horn, pool at the top of the shield as a spherical dome, then blossom outwards as a ring, following the curve of the shield as it fell downwards.
The white ring of magic trailed blackness behind it, as if wiping the sky clean of the bombardment which hammered down on-
I frowned. The sound. The sound of the explosions was gone! The blackness suddenly fell away, replaced by an incredibly soothing looking night sky, with an impossibly bright, vivid, sky filling pink and yellow nebula stretching across the heavens.
No, not a nebula, a bunch of small ones which seemed to act like clouds!
“What did you do?” I asked Luna uncertainly, my ears and tail standing up right.
“I pulled Ponyville into the Dream Realm,” she answered, laying down on the cobbled street, clearly exhausted beyond anything I’d ever seen before.
“A-are... ARE YOU INSANE!?” I demanded incredulously, jaw dropping.
What the buck was she thinking!? NOTHING! OBVIOUSLY!
Luna laughed feebly, on the verge of passing out. “It’s quite alright, Twilight. We’re not in Nightmare territory. We’re in Reverie territory,” she explained with an exhausted yawn.
“Pretend I know absolutely nothing about Dream Magic because books on it were destroyed,” I said rapidly and urgently a I gently grabbed her face to look into her eyes and gently shake her to keep her awake. “What does that mean!?”
“The Dream Realm is a place, Twilight. A dimension. Things live here. Two of them are sapient peoples. There are Nightmares, one of them possessed me. That’s what Equestria knows about. There are also Reveries, they are the opposite. Good dreams. They fight Nightmares. We’re near their capitol… Deep in the part of this realm they control. We are safe. Should leave us alone. They might… They might help us, but they won't hurt us. They can’t, they are good, not evil,” Luna said yawning loudly. “I… Can’t stay awake. Took too much to do this. Don’t worry. Safe.”
Luna twitched once then snored softly, falling asleep despite me holding her head. Setting her down as gently as I could manage, I stood up, took a few steps away from her then growled in anger.
“Ahhhhhgh! Bucking- I… Guhhh! Whatever. As soon as she wakes up, she puts us back,” I growled. “I swear, it had better not take the Elements of Harmony to unbuck this mess!”
Shaking my head I opened my wings and took to the air. I needed to find Spike, get him to gather the guard, and get everypony to the safety of the castle. Faust only knew what total chaos was about to descend on us!
I hoped everypony else was doing better with their parts of this mission. The day couldn’t be worse for them.
…
Were those drums in the distance? Motherbucking horse apples...
Rarity - 20th of Megan, 17 EoH
1.4637° N, 3.7492° W - International Waters, Celestial Ocean
I usually hated flying. Not on my own, of course. That’s wonderful in a way you can’t properly convey to others. I could only rarely talk Twilight into casting a flight spell on me, she was worried I’d make the same mistake twice and ignore my altitude. That’s fine, she’s free to be worried for my safety, naturally.
I’m also free to get to know Pinkie’s husband’s sister over the years, befriend her, and ask her if she wouldn’t mind occasionally going flying together. After all, Twilight isn’t the only wizard who can cast a flight spell.
It’s airships that I hated flying in. There was this dichotomy amongst airships. The ones which look nice and are comfortable on the inside are only barely faster than running to wherever you are going to. The ones which move quickly are appallingly ugly and never have any comfortable seating in them.
This little airship was most certainly not designed to be pleasing to the eye. Or comfortable to the body. But even I had to be impressed at her speed. Princess Celestia had given the quickest airships to Fluttershy and I, since we had to go the furthest.
I was the first pony who was not a member of the Secret Service to ride in an Aurora Airship. I had to swear to never mention anything about the airship, naturally, but it was thrilling to fly in a completely invisible craft ment to move spies around the world!
I dare say Rainbow Dash would be rather jealous if I could tell her about this detail of my trip. No. No on second thought, she would complain about accidentally running into an invisible airship to hide her jealousy and never admit to her feelings. Heh, oh Dash. Don’t ever change!
I did my best to adjust myself into a comfortable posture in the damnable seat I had been given. Unlike every stool, chair, or bench ever designed for a pony to sit in, this, gaushe curved slab had been designed to conform to the shape of a pony’s body. Said pony had apparently been of a body type unique to them, making for the least comfortable seat imaginable.
And I HAD to remain seated. The turbulence at the moment would shake me all over the little passenger's cabin if I weren't buckled in.
At least the cabin looked nice. For a military craft. Sure it was painted in a drab gray and black scheme, but the cabin was a bit roomy, plenty of space for the hazard suit I had packed, and my saddlebags. The fold down bench and cot had been comfortable enough last night as well.
Almost as comfortable as the bed I had at home in fact. The cot HAD to be enchanted. There could be no other explanation.
“Well, at least you won't be here for too much longer,” I said aloud to myself in the hopes of cheering up a little.
It wasn’t like this mission was going to take especially long. Two days flight there, two days back. Probably an afternoon to retrieve the corral.
I’d spent the first day’s flight reading an intelligence dossier the captain had given me on the nation of Shorefall. Twilight was right about the jungle being nasty. But that did not matter in the slightest.
The great lake south of Dryreef City had a name, Faust’s Basin, and it was a popular tourist destination! I could easily find transport to the lake from Dryreef, rent diving equipment, and retrieve the coral, which I could legally bring home with me for a small fee.
Honestly, I likely got the simplest of missions. The only real danger was a general dislike of Equestrians due to political tensions between our two nations. As a white furred mare, who had a germane friend, well…
I knew how the Equish accent sounded when a pony spoke Germane. It would be a simple matter to adjust my usual act to imitate Azur and thus avoid the local’s anger.
My ears perked as my cabin’s door slid open, and an older brass furred stallion stepped inside. He had on a brown leather pilot’s jacket, with a matching flat cap, and big clomping steel shod boots which magnetized to the floor just enough to let you stay upright while the airship tossed and pitched in the untamed aircurents.
Ugly as those boots were, I wished they had a spare set for me…
“Miss Rarity,” the co-pilot called loudly enough to be heard over the background roar of the super-secret engines. “We’re approaching the coast of Shorefall. We’re a hundred or so klicks north of the city of Providence. We expect the turbulence to be better over land. Things will calm down in an hour.
“If you can wait that long, I’ll cook you up something proper in the galley. But if you’re famished now, we have some oat cakes I could bring you.”
I felt my stomach rumble at the mention of food. Frowning at the sudden hunger pain I nodded. “I would like one of those oatcakes, please,” I said as politely as I could.
The stallion smiled and tipped his cap politely. “I’ll be right back, ma’a-”
“WHAT IN THE- INCOMING!” Somepony screamed from the cockpit. “Hard to starbo-”
The airship lurched downwards amidst the sound of a bell striking an anvil. I screamed in terror as metal shrieked, cracked, and splintered. The wall in front of me exploded, vanishing in an instant. For the most brief of instants, I saw something olive green plunge through the roof and the deck.
Then everything I could see whited out, replaced by the bright tropical sun for the heartbeat before the ship’s tail end pitched backwards, rolling over itself in the air as it snapped free from the rest of the ship.
I continued to scream as the bench buckled beneath me. With a hideous crumbling cracking noise the floor beneath me ripped free from the ship. The tail section twisted and rolled. I could see the ocean below me, shimmering and rippling almost hungrily.
How the hay did that even-
The wind caught the floor under me! I flew towards the roof. Stars exploded in my eyes. I-
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Quite a bold choice you've made here.
7822451 Refresh, I fixed it. Godcs import error.
Thought you guys might want to see a funny interaction that spawned off that line.
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84836737/Random/Element_of_Gotcha.PNG
Explain to me again why not ONE inhabitant has decided to enlist the help of their resident and ever skilled biomancer to enhance their skills, abilities, strengths, and screw it, why not go full Blackwater Virus on this bitch?
You'd think at least one person would think "You know what? I DON'T want people constantly put in mortal danger. Imma become a superweapon."
Fuck, if it's a security risk then give them an off switch than only someone of authority can access.
I will always find something to argue about in every one of your chapters. I make it a point to.
You poor, poor, deluded bastard. Your enthusiasm is going to fade about the time a timber wolf puts in a damn good effort in ripping your arm off.
Adventures that just "happen", the type you're drawn into? They're freaking horrible. If you seek adventure out and are used to such a life like Daring Do, it's probably better, but Lyra here is, uh, how should I say, "naive" to a sad extreme.
Um...timber wolves aren't the same thing. Sure the guns will do some damage, but, well they will reform and injury just slows them down. You're not actually killing them that way.
Ah, now you're getting it Lyra!
I suspect this unexpected development and its implications will become relevant later on.
There we go. There's your lovely completely normal magical super wolves.
Okay, I suspected this Meep but I think it's a bit of a jump to assume the truck is alive this early. In fact, considering what they're going through right now, I would think this thought would only come after the fact after they've had time to calm down a bit.
Well, that chapter got fun quickly. Also Dawn is an absolutely terrible fucking actor. He broke character practically immediately. I have to wonder how pissed off he's going to be with these recent developments.
Incidentally, he's also screwed up a bit-I highly doubt he knew that the Twilight he was fighting wasn't this universe's Twilight. His plan, such as it is, is already running into obstacles.
Although, I am convinced this is going to end with him firing a massive bolt of pure destructive plasma at that truck and for it to no sale it and ram him into a portapotty face first.
7822497
Yeah. That's the problem with Green Adventurers.
I'm not sure a bullet would even hurt one, TBH. Mabey an incendiary round. They look like realy dry brush.
For anyone else? Yes. Rarity just assumes Magic has fucked up the truck a bit. Pinkie thinks somone turned on the radio and that Twilight magicked the GPS. Only Lyra jumped into the pure crazy.
It's like the Reaper's plan in Mass Effect. They assumed that the field was set up as per normal with no varriations or obsticles. Unfortuantly, there was a few small factors which changed the battlefield.
7822480 Somepony did. Twilight said no >>
7822515
Well Twilight's a fuckin' nerd who does friendship and stuff, not a commander. Maybe some people want to become obedient death machines.
Quite rude of her, honestly.
Good chapter. I really liked luna also the power requirements to pull a city town into the dream realm must be insane
7822967 Well, most of it anyway...
7822532 considering how much of a prude she is, did you have any doubt?
So, yeah... Rarity is in for a real adventure, the kind that begins with you falling to certain death. Our Lady would do well in getting ready to go down and dirty.
On enhancements, it would be logical that national heroes that face great evil in an AT LEAST yearly basis should be tuned to hell and back. Endurance, toughness, strength, raw magic power, reserves, agility, the whole nine yards. But noooo, miss book prude must ruin everything. I bet her denial would only be surpassed by Apple horse's.
They would know better by now, honestly
Ponyville needs some shotguns loaded with zinc pellets.
I'm curious how a magic-immune truck could become animated. It's probably plain old sufficiently advanced technology.
Is Rarity having a close encounter of the 42nd kind? Getting into an accident and having to stand around awkwardly and exchange insurance information while waiting for the authorities with an alien?
Lily was nearby. They should have decapitated AJ, then run her fresh carcass over there for treatment.
Or waited to make sure she didn't reanimate, and bring her slightly less fresh carcass to Repose.
As long as her head was mostly intact she'd be fine.
How is nobody noticing Dawn's exorbant power usage? He's exceeding the alicorns in raw power output, which should be both curious and detectable. Does his blind spot extend to ponyville?
7823276 Okay, lets get these in order.
Wouldn't work the way you think it would.
It wouldn't.
It's a game reference. You'll see.
Yeah, probably.
And they have. See question 2.
7823335
I meant somebody who could lay down the 6th dimensional law.
Does the Q in charge of Magic or Destruction or Body horrors not pay attention or something? Because this is the opposite of subtle.
7823345 Like I said, they have... Lets put it this way, when it comes right down to it, who is everyone pretty much guaranteed to be afraid of, you know, wrath wise? The one person who can strike fear into most everyone ever? I'll give you a hint, in Dawn's case, they have already had page time in this story...
7822967 Yeah, THat's honestly Luna's max power right there. Sending everyone into a daydream who are not on the sunlit sife of the world so they seethe night sky as looking fucking epic? Not at all hard, but slightly power draining. Taking a physical object too/from the Dream Realm? A reail pain, about as power drawuseing as her Enchanced Night spell. Transporting a small city like that? Easily her greatest feat.
7823205
Yeah, tropical waters after most defiantly getting a few cuts from a mid-air collision is NOT a good combo.
Twilight may have vetoed some who wanted to do that. But Luna's Knights did it, and Luna told Twilight to sit on it and spin when she objected, so don't worry, there is that.
They do... But Twilight is worried about health and quality of life risks from what would amount to super soldier enhancements. SHe's only had 1.5 years to study Biomancy and Lily has admitted there can be side effects in addition to whatever consequences come directly from the transformation. It's like the Anti-GMO nuts, only instead of 46 years of science (Since 1970) and thousands of corroborating studies saying it's okay, there's only 1.5 years of science and her own study, so that's a reasonable fear IMO. Of course, the Germanes have proof of it's safty if used carefully, but they DO NOT share ANY of their work on the subject.
7823276
That wouldn't work. Zinc isn't like cold iron vs Irish mythology, it's a thermatugicly resistant material. A single BB would not be thick enough to do much. But you COULD design a round that would penetrate magical defenses. You just need more zinc than that. A slug or a Sabot round would be your starting point. Problem is you'd want that to be almost pure zinc and I dont know how that would hold up coming out of a shotgun. The Zinc method requires 2.5 cm of Zinc to completely nullify thermatugic current. the 1cm thic coating on the truck makes it HIGHLY resistant, 80% so. It's not that it's immune, with that so little energy makes it through that it can't do anything.
A Twilight (unicorn) level wizard could easily brute force punch through the shielding.
As for how you could effect the shield without brute forcing through the coating, not all of the truck is covered. Sure the cabin is, the outcide of the truck is, but have you ever looked at a car? The axles, transmission, fuletank, and engine are all uncovered on the bottem. There is no 'floor' to an engine compartment unless the vehical is designed for taking hits from landmines. Take it out and there's a big hole leading to the ground.
You shall see.
Deffently. But hindsight is 20/20.
Somone did, and they are investigating. But it will take time. After all what a deity would see is a mortal using divine power. This is confusing, yes, and something to look into, a clear red flag that something is up, but would you make a move unitll you figure out exactly what is going on?
7823345 There isn't a deity for everything. Magic being one thing that's ungoverned currently. The fact that there isn't such an entity is a matter of philosophical inquiry amongst the gods. However, someone has noticed. Remember, a few decades to mortals can be mere hours to a deity. They don't experiance standard liniar time unless they choose to. Rest assured, somone DID notice that display and is checking out what caused it via exploring BOUTH of time's directions.
7823695
Darn. I was kinda hoping it would slow their regeneration, like silver against lycanthropes. (lycequipes?)
Zinc buckshot would still be kinda useful against shields, since it would proportionally much more energy to deflect. It wouldn't pierce the shield, but it would drain the caster more than other materials moving at the same velocity.
Zinc arrows would work, but would be awkward and could only be fired with hoof and mouth. Zinc longswords would be fantastic, but basically impossible for a pony to wield. Seems like anything with opposable thumbs could be a highly effective mage-killer.
7803495
Ok, this is a super important thing that deserves a LOT more than just an aside.
The sun makes sense, but what exactly happened to the moon?
7823831 In short, the dragons and minotaurs are some of the most feared by caster species out there >> Becuase hands/talons. Dragons especially, since their magic is 100% internal and they can use it even if armored with zinc plated steel and have the physical strength to move in armor that provides total arcane shielding.
Dang it, Popmannn... I was going to reveal that one here :/ TLDR; the Moon was converted into a massive starbase. It's also mobile, and could be repositioned to take the impact from an incoming meteor or ram an attacking fleet as a last resort. (Yes that would cause massive issues with tidal forces, but would you rather have the extinction event level asteroid hit you or suffer a really bad high tide and some quakes?)
7823847
Honestly? Asteroids aren't that big a deal.
They're a problem for us now, but only because we haven't bothered to invest the time and resources into countering them.
The hardest part is detecting them early, since planet-killers can both be small (~1km) and have a low albedo.
Once you detect them, how you deal with them depends on how early you found them. Get to them early enough and a nerf football moving at 10m/s can deflect a planet-killer. Less early, a small probe with an ion drive. Late, a nuke on an interplanetary ballistic missile (We could build those now (And we should!)).
Even if you can move the moon, using it to stop a planet-killer would only make sense if you detected it extremely late. Even then it would probably make more sense to have a ship like the Phoenix fly up to it, settle up against it, and give an engine burn.
Is THE MOON still operational?
Are its shields still online, or located on the planet?
Did the Empire carefully shield its exhaust ports?
Does it have a super-laser?
Was it built by contractors, or troopers?
7823847 Can we call luna's spellThat transported the whole city to the dream scape the matrix spell
7823847 "Thats no moon" now must be said by someone in universe meep
7823909
No, they are not. But that was still a selling point for the idea "And hey, if we really have to, we could intercept an asteroid with it." Normaly a defence batter would just disintegrate the thing with an hour-long barrage.
Or if for some reason no ships/stations were able to fire on it.
Sections of it, yes. Most of it? No.
There are none. It reclaims exhausted heat via thermal generators.
No. That sort of energy weapon was not possible to construct. It does have a battery of high yield torpedos though.
Robots, mostly.
STOP SCARING ME LIKE THAT YOU BUZZY DOOFUS!You made me think all my beebies were gonna die.
7823985 ? How did I scare you?
7823933 It has been, a lot. Emeralds make a tradition of saying it whenever anyone mentions the moon ever.
7824000
I could have made that joke, except it IS still a moon.
I like how nobody asked what happened to the sun. It's a warm feeling when everybody gets it. :D
Also, you might find this entertaining: http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0001.html
7824250 Um, cause it's been discussed in the stories before and in the official timeline? If you're talking about Sol, our home star, well it's still there. It's just had its fusion extinguished, SOMEHOW, by a pissed off race of aliens near the end of the Terran Empire. So technically speaking, it is the only Brown Star in existence. That's why all the planets are still in orbit. Also Beta Meep did make mention of it being dimly visible some evenings and mornings. You can check the timeline for a brief rundown on what the satellite sun is doing there.
is human Lyra getting one of these?
Sounds like Rarity has wing envy.
Could Sparkle use magic to regenerate her eye?
7824791
No, because she honestly saw the eye as a body part, not an implant or replacement. Since the spell is meant to heal organic tissue, not repair damaged objects, it can't do that, and it wouldn't push out the implanted tech and make a new eye because well, she saw that as HER eye. The magic just sort of... stops. It cant do anything.
7824862 what no response to knight rider! For Shame! lol
7824912
7824862
Good thing there's a fleshcrafter in town whose magic doesn't care what the target wants. I don't know if Sparkle would be interested in that, though.
7825001 No, she REALY liked that eye. Sky could replace it easily enough.
7823999 The rain of fire and death? Luna getting impaled? Sparkle getting impaled? luna getting impaled again?
7825129 Ah! GOt it. Faveroit characters in peril :)
>> Meep the Changeling is this going to be one of those things where everyone dies?
But you wouldnt do that would you?
7827310 I'm not George R.R. Martain. I only kill someone if it's nessicary to drive the plot forwards.
Don't tell Twi, she'll take it apart to find out what happened.
I kinda feel like Dawns plan is falling apart here, Ponyville was warned and thus ready for the attack, its also now out of reach so he can't even destroy it, Luna and Sparkle know AJ's possessed, and he merely inconvenienced Luna with his attacks.
Ponies 3 Dawn 1
And then we have the seen from Lost, well lets see where this leads.
7832440
Plus he doesn't know Dusk is alive, let alone out to kill him. And he doesn't know the Twilight he fought wasn't THIS world's Twilight. And he doesn't know that there's a SECOND Element of Honesty. And he wasn't expecting the Nightmare to give up and pass on (and still might not know about that). And he doesn't know Lyra-7 exists. And etc...
So that's at least Ponies 8 Dawn 1.
Do you want a magically sapient truck? Because that's how you get a magically sapient truck.
Never mind, too late.
Well, at least they figured it out reasonably quickly.
As always, it's good to see that sort of thing happen to Dawn.
Nice.
Don't worry so much about AJ, Twilight, she's tough. A little temporary dismemberment is no big deal.
So, a trip to the dream realm for Ponyville. I wonder if that canceled out the effect of the "everything hits Ponyville first" curse.
I'm sure those are friendly drums. Friendly wardrums? Well, we'll see.
Uh oh.
Awww and that is why we all love ya Lily(well one of the reasons...)
Yes, I think it is. Very much so.
Yeaaaaah that might just be a good idea. But Sweet Celestia! What a scene! :O
aaahhhh noooo how could you end it there? Right when I really should take a break and get some sleeeepppp
But ooooh colt, what a chapter! So much happening, and I just don't know what to say....