Moon Unit Zappa

by RarityEQM

The Bridge

They came. They came galloping over one and other, flinging themselves in a great and terrible wave of crimson bodies. They poured out of the chasm in a scarlet flood of gnashing teeth and snapping fangs. Already, Bright Spark could tell there were too many for them to handle. The sheer number of the creatures was astronomical. From his position at the front of their group, he aimed and loosed as many bursts of magic as he could. Arcs of energy sizzled from his horn and danced through the air in frightful blasts.

With a tremendous crackle of mana, Bright Spark caught one of the creatures with a jolt of magic, right between the eyes, sending it toppling back into the depths of the pit. Two more took its place almost instantly, climbing over each other in mindless rage. Bright Spark had never seen anything like it- neither had Diamond Dancer.

"Ooooooh, this is bad! They are WAY outnumbered you guys!! " The filly squeaked from her hiding place. Nettleglum had tugged her and Dinky into the closest building she could. A structure of some sort that almost resembled a church. There was an altar at the far end of the room, and what looked like seating leading up to it. Diamond and Dinky had taken to peeking out past the entrance at the battle taking place close by.

"Astute observation, Diamond. If only there was someway we could have avoided this! It's almost like you shouldn't have given away our position with that rock, you idiot." Dinky snarled quietly. Diamond groaned and buried her face into her hooves. She'd botched the mission. Princess Luna would be lost forever in Tartarus, and it was all her fault!

"I know, I knoooow! I screwed up!! I screwed up bad! I wish there was something we could do to help!!" Diamond squealed in distress. Across the short distance, it was to the battlefield, the silver filly watched in horror as countless numbers of Flesh Foals swarmed her companions. Virga was in perfect form, taking to the air with a spirited flutter of his icy wings. The black pegasus brandished his powers with deadly force and accuracy and one stroke of his wings sent a flurry of icicles barreling towards the creatures like bullets. They skewered and stabbed, pinning numerous creatures to the ground, but more came still.

Full Plate seemed right at home, grasping the tiny creatures and hurling them across the room like a child angry with a toy. Dinky had heard stories of Earth Ponies possessing strength superior to other races, but only now did she have the opportunity to witness the extraordinary ability. The older stallion pitched his assailants into one and other as easily as one might toss a bowling ball down a lane, scattering monsters like pins. When they leapt on him, he threw them off, one at a time, with little effort. He was making far more headway than the other two, but it wasn't enough. They needed more help; reinforcements that didn't exist! As far as Dinky was concerned, this was all the fault of the idiot filly next to her. She shot Diamond a vicious look, but the girl didn't notice. She was transfixed on the tragedy befalling her teammates.

Dinky gave a miserable groan. She hadn't expected Diamond's rampant idiocy to be contagious, yet here she was in the depths of the underworld itself, following this idiot filly. And for what? To make sure Diamond didn't do something stupid and get herself killed?! Diamond couldn't be saved from herself. It was inevitable this adventure would end the way it did. Just last week the brainless filly had BEGGED Dinky to watch her newest trick. She dragged Dinky into the training yard where she had set up a circle of six training dummies. She proceeded to bounce around each one of them like a pinball colliding with bumpers. While it was impressive she'd managed to hit six targets in three seconds, she'd spent the entire day practicing the dumb maneuver instead of studying, and then she had the nerve to complain that Dinky was always 'acting' like she was smarter than her. Dinky gave another groan, pausing in thought....the moronic filly next to her was the brainless one, but sometimes she could be slow on the uptake herself.

"Diamond!" Dinky barked, reaching over to grasp the filly by the shoulder. "Do you remember that stupid trick you were working on last week?!" Diamond gave a frustrated snarl and shook her head.

"Nu-uh, it isn't stupid, it's called the Radiant Ricochet and-" she began, but Dinky didn't let her finish. Without another word, she wrapped Diamond in a burst of telekinetic energy and threw her as far as she possibly could towards the battle. The girl gave a shriek, tumbling through the air before she landed unceremoniously in a silver heap.

"I DON'T CARE! DO THE TRICK! DO THE RAGING RICOCHET!" Dinky screamed as Diamond climbed to her hooves in confusion. What on earth was Dinky talking about? How could she do the Radiant Ricochet without the target dummies she'd set up?! Now only a few feet from the raging battle, something strange happened. Everything froze, like a still life photo, only Diamond found she could still move normally, but more curious was the bright white line that appeared in front of her. The curious line extended from Diamond and took a short path towards a Flesh Foal adjacent to her. The filthy little beast had its eyes set on her, but like everything else in the battle, it was frozen solid. The mysterious line then moved from him to another of the flesh foals, and then another still. Suddenly, Diamond knew what it was drawing: A five pointed star and each point was one of the creatures. The line was a figment of her imagination; her brain charting a course for her to take and before she'd even realized it, she was off like a shot.

*****

Too many! There were too many of them! Bright Spark was doing his best to come up with solutions to the situations the Flesh Foals put him in. Three coming from the right. He shot a glance at the ground and felt the spidery language of magic spill past his lips. A patch of ice to send them tumbling to the ground. He was quite adept at casting spells mentally, of course, but he found it helped his concentration when he had to cast quickly to actively recite the verbal components. His spells were quick, effective, and simply spells like the ice patch was an efficient use of his magic reserves, but still more came! One of the creatures had flung itself at him, leaping into the air and diving at him with gnashing fangs. He plucked it from its brutish leap with a burst of telekinesis and redirected his momentum towards two approaching creatures from his left. They went down easy, but still more came!! There were too many!! Bright Spark was about to issue the command to retreat when something terrible happened. One of the fillies was on the field!!

He caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye. Diamond Dancer had come tumbling from the hiding spot Nettie had swept her into and now was sitting on the ground with a confused expression on her face. NO! She was a sitting duck!! What was she thinking!! Dinky had mentioned something about Diamond's supposed invulnerability but this was not the time to find out if there was any truth behind that!

"FULL PLATE!! THE GIRL! GET THE GIRL!!" Bright Spark hollered, trying to get the other stallion's attention. Now he had to keep an extra eye out for the girl and with trying to watch his own back, keep an eye on his allies, and defending himself from the horde of monsters, and that added up to a number of eyes he didn't have. UGH! If he survived this he was going to murder that filly. He shot another glance towards her a froze. She was gone. His eyes darted around the battlefield for a moment, but there was no sign of her. NO! Had one of the creatures already carted her off somewhere?! That's when he saw it: The ball of light zipping through the battlefield. He'd never seen anything like it before! It was a glowing ball of bright white light that bounced and crashed against every Flesh Foal on the battlefield. After five distinct hits, it would pause and reorient itself, before it shot forward again at blazing speed. In those short seconds where it stopped, Bright Spark could see the shape of Diamond Dancer before she zipped off again. Bright Spark had heard of Pegasi with super speed before, after all, everyone had heard of Rainbow Dash, or Spite fire, but he'd never heard of one being so young! Was this the true power of Princess Luna's Servants of Shadow?! She hit one after another after another, going so fast, Bright Spark lost track of her a few times. He could have sworn there were two or three copies of the girl bouncing around like a pinball! No- a multiball!

After only a moment of watching Diamond's performance, a plan started to cobble itself together. Diamond wasn't dispatching the flesh foals she hit, but her blows did provide a momentary stun he could capitalize on. With her help, they had started to make a dent in the army of monsters swarming them, but there were still far too many to defeat. They had to make a break for it!! It seemed like Virga had a similar idea, and dashed through the air towards the bridge.

"GO! GO!! ACROSS THE BRIDGE!!" He called, twisting around in mid-air to thrash his wings about. Shards of ice crashed around the broken terrain of Tartarus. Splintering and cracking, Virga crafted a barrier using the ice from his wings; a wall of sorts to shield his party from the vile creatures striking at them. Bright Spark took off in a gallop, throwing arcs of magic freely as he ran towards the hiding place Dinky and Nettie had gone.

"GIDDY UP!! GIDDY UP!! WE ARE MOVING PONIES!!" Bright announced, ushering Dinky and Nettleglum as quickly as he could towards the bridge. He froze when he saw more of the Flesh Foals, pouring out from the city where they just were, like some inaudible dinner bell had rung! The bridge was the only option now! He turned, heading there himself. There, Full Plate and Virga were holding off as many Flesh Foals as they could, keeping the path towards the bridge open. Now was their chance!! They raced forward through the chaotic brawl, dodging the creatures that they could. Nettle was first, fearlessly shuffling across the old planks of creaking wood, with Dinky hot on her heels.

The splintering snap of the wood had almost gone completely unnoticed by anypony in the fight. The number of Flesh Foals was simply too great to keep an eye on everything, but Diamond heard the snap of wood over it all anyway. One of the planks on the bridge had given way, just as Dinky was crossing over it. She only had a moment to scream before she tumbled into the darkness below.

Bright Spark hadn't seen what happened. He was too busy trying to keep the Flesh Foals from scrambling onto the bridge after his comrades. He hadn't noticed Dinky until Diamond had screamed her name in horror but he certainly noticed now! A split second after Diamond had shrieked, she pitched herself into a free fall, diving after Dinky into the darkness, and then she too, was gone.

Author's Note:

unedited for now.
Same deal, grammatical errors, punctuation, some capital letters where they ought not be. I'll edit this later, but for those of you who just want to see how the story continues, enjoy. ;)

Comments

[Olden Bronie]

Oh my gosh! This is fabulous work, darling, even unedited! So thrilling and frightening! I really like Virga's ice wings.
I love the Raging Ricochet! Diamond really is a cleaver girl! Pinball Filly! lol! I like how you ended this chapter, too. A literal cliff-hanger.
More please!