12 Through the Fire and the Flames
Twilight - Day 16
Red Obelisk, Lava Island - The Center
The teleportation system used to move between ARKs was a horror show. The boss arena teleports didn’t have this problem. They had to be close by. The Center had to have been far away. Extremely far away.
I felt like a million tiny hooks had dug into my skin and ripped me from one place to another. No transition. No effects. One moment we stood beneath the obelisk on the island. And now we were in a steel box barely big enough for the two of us, with alarms blaring in our ears.
Had I made the right decision? Going straight for the Center… It wasn’t looking like the best plan right now.
Were the controls inside this box with us? Maybe we could leave?
“Yep, they blocked the pad,” Nyota grunted, clearly having expected this.
Her armor whined as she hefted her sword then plunged it through the side of our prison cell with a horrid metallic shriek.
“They’ll have auto turrets up. We’ll be going vertical. Step out, packs on, all the way to the barrier at the top,” Nyota ordered urgently. “Full throttle the whole way, lass!”
I nodded. “I understand,” I said, frowning nervously behind my helmet as I fiddled with the packs’ controls.
Who mounts a jetpack on switch to the side of the index finger?
Nyota pushed her blade through the steel, carving a line through three separate layers of steel plate. She swiftly withdrew her blade, plunging it through again, and beginning a second line in what looked to be a triangular cut. I could hear her groaning with effort as she cut the steel. The blade may have been impossibly sharp, but it wasn’t frictionless.
“YOU IN THERE!” A deep female voice roared, echoing strangely as it came through the cut Nyota was making. “There’s five hundred Magma Wyvrens in this outpost, and all of them have guns pointed right at your hole! You will remain captive until your natural death!”
I gulped nervously.
Nyota nodded.
“Aye, it sounds bad… But,” Nye said with a wink. "I have a plan!"
Nyota let go of her sword with her left hand to activate her implant, then squinted through the gash her cuts left behind.
I heard the sound of nanites working as Nyota constructed something outside the hole. A moment later the voice bellowed an order. “ROCKET TURRETS! SHELL THE CELL!”
Nyota shoved her sword upwards, finishing the triangular cut. A heartbeat later she kicked the triangular cutouts through the new hole in the wall, sending them clashing to the ground. Nyota immediately stopped, stepped through the hole, and activating her jet pack.
“The Dragonslayers are passing through! Fire one shot and it’s war!” Nyota shouted in bluff as she took off with a roar then vanished from my sight.
I ran forwards ducking through the hole and taking off myself. As my armor’s twin turbines roared to life and flung me upwards into the sky I saw what Nyota had built. A war standard. A simple royal purple rectangular flag.
Made from the hide of the Dragon, with a dragon’s skull painted on it in what was ether dark black-brown paint or blood.
Well, that’s one way to show your enemies you’re not to be trifled wi-
“FIRE! FIRE!” The commander ordered.
The air splintered with the sound of a thousand explosions. Bullets shot past Nyota and I as we climbed vertically. A rocket flew past my face, trailing white smoke having missed my groin by an uncomfortably tiny distance.
"Eep!" I squeaked, clenching my legs together reflexively at the thought of having taken that hit.
Could I fly upwards but have my head pointed downwards? That would be nice!
Sparks blasted outwards from my right leg as something slammed into my armor. To my shock, I didn’t feel anything. Had I not been looking down in fear, needing to see the next rocket coming-
My mind blanked for a moment as I took in the fantastical landscape below us for the first time.
The land below was a massive volcanic island, formed entirely from obsidian and shale. Lakes of lava bubbled, flowing rivers lead into the sea. Clouds of volcanic gas clung to the tops of the three lava belching mountains at the island’s core. Upon which the Magma Wyvren's base sat.
The base below us was massive. It sprawled across the mountains, filling every crack and crevice. A snake-like series of terraced platforms and walls, topped at regular intervals by large mounted guns.
A fortress of death, covering the petrified forest like a metallic tumor upon an obsidian body. Which was literally as on fire as it could possibly be. Like someone took the Dragon’s Arena and said ‘This isn’t on fire enough’.
It was as if the island had been created for a fantasy movie.
Oh wait. Half of that fire was muzzle flash.
"That's way too many bullets!" I screamed, willing my armor to fly faster.
I instinctively tried to teleport Rainbow to me. My horn glowed, then sparked and popped as the magic refused to happen. Silly Twilight. She's not even in this universe...
The bullets flew at us like reverse hail, slamming into the bottoms of my feet, my legs, and my hands.
My silver armor creaked and twitched under the lead sandblasting. I could see it slowly turn a dull gray as lead stuck to the surface. Yet I still didn’t feel a thing…
Was it the guns they were using? Assault rifles, that's what they were called, right? Were they just not powerful enough to hurt us?
“They’ll think we’re scouts. If we’re lucky, they won't use the big guns on us and save them for the ‘pending attack’,” Nyota said, her voice sounding distorted over my helmet’s radio. “Notice they stopped firing rockets?”
I looked down once more. Sure enough, not one trail of white smoke. Just the hundreds of humans and their handguns.
My vision flickered as a bullet slammed directly into my visor, temporarily disrupting its sensors.
“OW!” I yelped, having felt that shot like a back hoof slap to my left eye.
“What happened? Are they using a sniper rifle?” Nyota called, sounding panicked.
“Got hit in the face… I’m fine but it REALLY hurt,” I explained quickly.
“Oh yeah. The nanovisor material SUCKS at kinetic diffusion. That’s why I got rid of it on-” Nyota paused turning slightly in the air. “Oh, crap! We need to get the buck out of here! Look at the bay to yer left, Twi!”
I turned to look in the direction Nye was pointing, but I didn’t see anything. Not at first. The hail of gunfire from below had whipped up a surprisingly thick cloud of smoke and-
Then I saw the huge boats. With guns. Gunboats.
I could see six through the smoke. There were probably more. They were short, very low profile trapezoidal prism shaped, metal hulled boats. Narrow, long, and with heavily sloped sides. Each one painted the same deep blue as the sea and given a nice glossy finish which mimicked the shimmer of sunlight on the water almost exactly.
Although, the camouflage ruined a bit by having a grinning shark’s mouth and eyes painted on the fronts. A SILLY grinning shark’s mouth. Somehow the emblem looked both sarcastic and sincere.
As I watched, the lead ship’s bow hinged open in two halves, revealing a massive concealed naval cannon. The other ships simultaneously opened hatches on their upper decks. Allowing elevators to raise large gun turrets into position, as the ships steamed towards the docks at the base of the fortress.
Whoever they were, they were here to take this fort.
“It’s the Megalodons!” Nyota exclaimed, her voice practically dripping with incredulity. “But they never leave The Island! I- I- No wonder I couldn’t contact them! I am so far out of the loop, Twi. This is NOT good. We-”
Nyota’s was cut off as a man’s voice managed to thunder even above the roar of our jetpacks, the gunfire, and the first volley of cannon fire.
“This island is now the property of the Megalodon Fleet. You are now trespassing on military property. At any time, you may abandon your position and return to your holdings on the mainland. Your ships will not be molested. Escort through active combat regions will be provided. Remain here and you will be purged. All beds will be destroyed. All hostiles will be shot. Returning to this island henceforth is forbidden,” the speaker announced.
“BUCK!” Nyota yelped. “They’re not fooling around, they’re setting up here just like they did on Herbivore Island.”
“Upside this means that-” I began, my words suddenly being lost as dozens of rockets began to explode below us.
Our attackers had shifted aim from us to the greater threat. Good?
“It means that the whole ARK is at war!” Nyota shouted over the chaos below. “The peace here was kept only through a delicate balance and now-”
Nyota’s voice cut off as the radio crackled. “Who's using the emergency band?” A female voice asked angrily.
My heart skipped a beat. By chance we had the same radio frequency.
“Uh, Dragonslayers. We’re just passing through,” I said quickly, hoping that would work. “We broke out of their holding cell around the obelisk right before you attacked.”
“Ah, then the Magma Wyverns don’t have Tek Armor. Good to know. Lieutenant! Don’t waste the seekers on the Tek. It’s a pair of Dragonslayers… Scouts probably. Let them pass,” the woman ordered.
“Um, so, why are you off the Island, Captain?” Nyota asked quickly, still audibly shaken.
“Wait! Nyota? I could ask the same of you. At any rate, we got board of ruling that sea. It’s no fun when no one challenges you So here we are! Funny you left Tthe Island. Some of my girls stayed behind to keep up the appearance we’re still using Herbivore Island while we move.
“I had a flotilla sent to officially gift you the island. Mostly to see if we could take it back from you in a few decades,” the Captain laughed. “Remember that time you trapped your coastline? That was fun! We want more of that.
“Well, you two have fun! We took the liberty of bombing some of the alpha tribes bigger settlements. While leaving insulting notes ‘signed’ by one of the other big tribes, of course. The whole place is one big active warzone now. We’ve got a proper vacation going! Now if you don’t mind…
“Lieutenant! Change our emergency band, then sail her closer to that dock. I want to hit them with my sword!”
The radio crackled again as they changed frequencies.
“Bloody psychopaths,” Nyota groaned. “They’re nice… When not looking for a real fight. But far too-”
“Bloodhungry?” I asked with a wince.
“Aye,” Nyota confirmed. “Looks like getting in to see Star will be complicated.”
Ponyfeathers! It was already complicated before. Did this make it complicated squared?
“Can we just fly to another obelisk and travel back to the Island then go try the outpost at the lake you mentioned?” I asked hopefully. My self-joke having helped allay my fears enough to regain some confidence.
“No, now break before you hit the force field!” Nyota ordered.
I quickly rolled my thumb across the pad. My jetpack transitioning into hover mode while Nyota circled around me, unable to hover with her customized pack.
“Okay… Here’s the problem. War zone below, long flight across now SUPER hostile territory to the other two obelisks. We got to head for the Beastfolk’s main base… Which is probably under attack right now. Also, we’ll be in the air for more than fifteen minutes. You’ll need to perform some mid air refuels for me-”
I nodded. “Yes, you already told me that. I’m certain I can do it!” I reminded.
“Aye, but I have enough fuel to get there. But not back. We didn’t have time to make more,” Nyota reminded. “We can do this but… Stick close. And if we die, we use the Jungle Mid spawn point. That’s where they are. Now, follow me. We’ll be flying for about three hours.”
Nyota stopped circling, banked to her left and began to fly towards the blotch of land on the horizon. I twisted to point myself after her and switched my pack back into flight mode.
“Don’t worry, I’m right behind you!” I called as I flew after her.
We skimmed along the top of the world for a mind numbingly long time. Nyota may have said it would be three hours, but it felt more like three months. Minutes into our flight the clouds below us thickened in a clearly unnatural way before unleashing a torrent of rain upon the world below.
Only the vaguest of outlines of tall, thin, rocky spires and distant mountains could be seen through the cloudbank.
We were following a Navigator Nyota had made, which made things worse. We found our straight line path once, and just kept going that way. The line taking us ever closer to ‘The Swallowed City’, a huge sprawling string of ruins the Beastfolk had fortified and called home.
That sounded like something I wanted to see. But I couldn’t. I could only barely tell we were still over water.
But I could hear. I could hear very well and the sounds of gunfire filled the air. It came from all directions. Some distant, some less distant. The Megalodon's captain had been right. The entire place was at war.
I didn’t want to think about war. Not even in a place where people couldn’t really die… Unless their wrist mounted soul-jar got electrocuted first. I wound up rolling over on my back to look at the sky and the force field above me as a distraction.
And what an effective distraction it was.
The sky was fake.
From a distance, the rippling force field hid the flaws within the projection. It worked well, even from casual observation when up close. But under close scrutiny, the hologram beneath was revealed.
First, it wasn’t quite completely opaque. If you looked, you could see objects behind other static objects in the sky. Such as the moon having some sort of craft visible near its center.
Second, pixels. The fake sky in the Emerald Hive’s park had the same problem. The tiny elements in the sky looked jagged when viewed up close.
Third, the Pierce Illusions spell I cast to see what was beyond the projection showed me a starry black sky. As well as dozens of colossal mushroom-shaped structures stretching off into the distance. They seemed to form a belt pattern around… Well, whatever was beneath this ARK.
We were in space.
Talk about a secure prison. There’s nowhere to escape to.
Except for the massive number of space faring ships which were parked oddly close to us. They somewhat resembled Neighponese warships. All steel, sleek curves, with obvious gun turrets protruding like blisters on a model’s flanks.
I wanted to study them more, but the anti-magic field sapped the spell's strength too quickly to give me that chance. And before I could cast another Nyota called for her third in-flight refuel. That turned into a minor disaster. The one notable thing on the entire three hour flight.
I'd dropped a promethium can, narrowly caught it before it plunged into the sea, then managed to refuel Nye’s pack. But it wasn't a real emergency. I'd had minutes to spare before the fumes it had been running on burned away to nothing.
And we could deal with losing one can. Probably... Okay, probably not.
I imagine that in a novel, the author would have punched the scene up a bit, to borrow a turn of phrase from Dash. But in real life? I just felt like a clumsy idiot who dropped a can. Adventure novels never really hammer in how boring the most common part of the adventure is. Getting from one place to another.
As well as minor decisions like dropping a few dozen meters to conserve fuel. Nyota’s armor burned more fuel to keep her at higher altitudes, and we didn't have much to spare.
I didn’t like that change. There were plenty of predators in the skies on The Island, and The Center was bigger, supposedly just to have a higher dino population.
But fortunately no leathery winged monsters dropped from above, and time marches ever onwards. Eventually we stopped passing over the sea and began to travel over land. An event I could only notice due to the clouds darkening as light reflecting off the water could no longer illuminate them from below.
After a few minutes of flying inland, Nye rolled left and begun to circle whatever lay below. I rolled as well, twisting so I could hover in place.
“Okay, if my map’s accurate, this should be the edge of their nation,” Nyota called, her radio crackling as if the mic was starting to go bad.
“What are the odds of you having a bad map?” I asked, a worried frown spreading across my lips.
Nyota waited until her circle brought her back in front of me and did her best to shrug through her armor while still maintaining her flight.
“Fairly good, I’d say. Yer not gonna like this Twi, but I’ve only been here, oh… Twice. Maybe three times,” she admitted. “The Island’s my home. I explored the others, I used to trade with some people on a few… But I haven't spent much time here.”
“And you do your own cartography…” I said doing my best to keep my anger from showing. “You know, you could have told me that BEFORE we came here!”
“Aye, I could have. And I’ll admit I thought I had. But clearly I didn’t and I’m sorry,” she said, passing through her circle to hold her her hands defensively. “But I DO have a good map of this area. I almost built a house here before Star and Clover arrived. I didn’t because the Magma owned this area and well, protection racket.
“My map for this general is very good, and well, I have a GPS. I know we’re over the landmass we want. I have the coastlines right for sure.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. “So we just drop down and hope we don’t land right in the middle of a guard training post or something?” I asked sarcastically.
“Um, no…” Nye said meekly. “We slowly fly down, and if we don’t see fighting below, we call out, then land. Let them know we’re coming. If it’s no good we can just take back off.
“Ye saw how this armor holds up to small arms, Twi. If we see big guns we just land out of range. We can take a little fire. It’s safe to make a few drops.”
“Yeah, but do you have the fuel for more than one drop?” I asked, throwing my hands up in the air. “Why did you make that thing run on gas anyways? It’s a major liability. I haven't had to refuel once!”
“Aye, but yer burning element for that, and I stuck forty grams in that power core. You’ve probably used thirty of them flying over here. Guess how much you get for killing the Broodmother? Or do you remember?” Nye asked defensively.
I felt my ears relax, my helmet preventing them from apologetically drooping.
“Twenty eight… I know, you explained it well. It’s not efficient to use element to get element,” I replied before taking a deep breath to calm myself down.
“Aye, an this suit was designed for killing the Broodmother, and repelling big raids on my house. Where I kept fuel stockpiled,” Nyota reminded. “I never made a suit for expeditions. I used my vest for that, and upgraded riot gear for assaults. I explained all this to ye, Twi. What’s really worrying you? Ye think Starswirl’s dead? I’d know if he was. Everyone would know.”
“I’m worried about getting back to the rescue party,” I admitted. “What if you burn too much fuel and we can't fly all the way back?”
“We’ll take a drop and risk deletion,” Nyota replied grimly.
“Right. Because the dinos here are that much more powerful, and can probably chew us up even while in these things, right?” I reminded using her own words as best I could. “So we need to conserve fuel. Now are you absolutely certain we’re above the edge of the Beastfolk’s territory, or-”
“You’re above our capital, Human!” A high pitched, screeching voice bellowed, having incredible volume despite the pitch. “Let me guess, you’re plotting another bombing. This navigation mistake will be your last!”
I knew something would come for us from above when we dropped altitude!
I twisted, turning to look upwards, my brain furiously trying to plan a way out of the ambush. And immediately realized that there was no time to plan.
Ten meters above us flew a squadron of mutant creatures I believed were once Dimorphodons.
The mutants most notable feature was a prisoner's implant grafted onto the center of their chests. While some were clad in flak armor, or thick hide vests, those without armor revealed their implants were crudely installed. They simply were set into the middle of a web of scars on their chests.
I noticed the implants even before taking in the fact that they all had six limbs rather than the normal four. A small pair of frail looking arms stuck out from their shoulders. Placed just far enough away from their wing’s joints to be useful. Their bodies were twisted into a vaguely humanoid shape; as if they were clay figures an amateur had done their best to resculpt.
Fifty of the pony sized, feathered, dragon like humanoid mutants hovered above us in a cloud-like formation. All armed with blades, lances, a few crude revolvers, and even the odd rifle.
“Well, shit,” Nyota swore angrily. “We come in peace and we’re not humans, but there’s no way ye’ll believe that even though it’s true.”
The squadron leader rolled his eyes. “No tails, no talons or hooves, access to Tek Armor, five fingered hands. You’re humans. Nice try. We totally don’t get this every day… Squadron! D-”
“Twilight, fall!” Nyota ordered.
Nyota cut her jetpack’s throttle, immediately falling like an anvil straight down while she flipped to face the ground, relighting her pack the moment she was reoriented.
Following her lead I cut my own pack as well, joining her in her dive. She was planning on using a gravity slide to gain more lateral speed and carry us out to sea faster by sacrificing altitude. Right?
It’s what Dash would tell me to do here.
“DIVE!” The squadron leader commanded.
The air shattered as the squadron screeched, racing down after us. Their war cries becoming ever louder...
Lyra Heartstrings - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH
Southern Jungle - The Island
“This jungle SUCKS!” I moaned, reaching up to wipe the sweat off my forehead for the sixth time in the last two minutes.
“Yeah it is stupid hot,” Sky agreed as he ducked beneath a low hanging branch.
“I can’t believe you’re sweating that much, Lyra,” Ayna said in bemusement. “You’ve been riding on Derpy’s shoulders for the last hour or so.”
“To be fair, I do reflect a lot of heat. So she’s probably hotter than either of you two,” Derpy remarked, stopping to push a tree aside, easily bending it out of her way.
The first time she did that, our surprised babble wound up getting her to explain that her physical powers remained about the same even when taking other forms. I no longer found myself wondering why she broke a lot of stuff by accident.
Instead I found myself wondering how the hay it could be so hot, IN THE SHADE OF A DENSE JUNGLE!
It wasn’t even muggy, or even humid. It was just plain old hot. WIth an ocean maybe three kilometers away. The air should be so humid here, in this tropical jungle. Nope! Arid.
“This weather can’t be natural,” I griped.
“Well, yeah. Now that I’ve been here for a bit, this weather feels managed,” Sky agreed, nodding slightly. “Admittedly, I could be wrong. I’m not exactly a weather pony.”
Ayna shook her head slowly. “It’s hilarious that I have a Weather Team Certification and you don’t,” she said quietly.
I was happy that Ayna was talking more with us all in a group. We’d been working on the same project for months, normally she just didn’t talk if there were more than two other people nearby. For a changeling raised by ponies, she wasn’t at all good with groups. That’s weird for changelings too, come to think of it.
How does a social insect raised by a herd based species have social phobias?
“Yeah, well why don’t you turn into a pegasus and tell us if the weather is being manipulated or if it's just a weird thing about this universe then?” Sky shot back teasingly.
“Because pegasi are uncomfortable,” Ayna answered simply.
“Wait, what?” The three of us exclaimed in surprise.
“I’ve seen you become inanimate objects!” I protested a heartbeat later.
“Yes. You have,” Ayna agreed. “Have you ever seen me be a pegasi?”
I frowned. “Um, well no.”
“That’s because to me, being in a pegasi body is uncomfortable. It’s like an ill fitting formal dress,” she elaborated.
Derpy tilted her head to one side. “But… You got a weather team certification?”
“Yeah,” the changeling answered.
“Why?” Derpy pressed curiously.
“To try and produce spell equivalents to those natural arcane abilities in order to construct weather machines to sell to non-pony nations. I failed,” Ayna casually explained.
I blinked as I suddenly realized something. “I like how we’re walking through an alternate universe full of super monsters, and just chatting about personal histories,” I snickered.
Sky laughed in agreement. “Well… There’s not much else is there? We covered everything. ‘This jungle is spookily empty’, ‘That’s a really big ass red glowy rocket thing’, ‘These bushes grow multiple kinds of berries. Weird’, not exactly much else that’s topical,” he said with a shrug of his wings.
“Good point there,” I admitted.
Ayna snorted suddenly. “Sky, the joke’s funny, but if it goes on longer it will be mean.”
… What?
Sky nodded. “Eh, fair enough I suppose. Lyra, these suits have climate control. Use the watch. ‘Activate AC’.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. “I hate you…” I said slowly, shaking my head, but smiling.
It was a good joke. It would be a lot better if I weren't the subject.
“Activate AC,” I said into my watch, immediately feeling the air beneath my jacket and pants start to cool.
I sighed in relief, and decided to take a better looked around the jungle now that I would be able to concentrate. Aside from coming across a swamp, immediately coming across a huge bipedal lizard thing which killed a rather phallic headed rhino-elephant-thing five times its own size, and decided to go around Nope Swamp.
That was our one wildlife encounter. Probably due to Derpy being a dragon at the moment. She did smell different, and while she didn’t smell like a predator to me, who knew what the lizards thought about her.
Unfortunately that made for an especially boring trip. At least we’d had time for Sky to get out the good weapons just incase. I’d never got to use a railgun before. I’d always wanted to take a shot with one too!
Maybe I’d get lucky and everything was so quiet because something HUGE was stalking us! I could kill it before it struck and gain more hero points! Sure, I wasn’t with Vinyl and everypony else, but they’d trust my word that I’d gotten another oh, six or so.
I leaned around Derpy’s neck, shouldering the navy blue and orange painted weapon’s stock inorder to peer through it’s scope. Personally, I prefered magical sights on my weapons, but the view through this one was good enough.
“Do you see something?” Derpy asked worriedly as she saw my weapon’s long barrel slide into her peripheral vision.
“Nah, just trying to see if anything’s hiding in the tree-” I said, starting to explain but stopping immediately as I saw a building through a gap in the trees.
It sat on the other side of a clearing which in turn lay fifteen meters through the trees ahead of us, on the top of the hill we were currently climbing. The building was heavily damaged, clearly having been hit by artillery or subjected to demo charges, as nothing else I could imagine could put holes through what looked to be foot thick composite titanium ‘tiles’.
From what I could see, many of the holes in the structure had been patched with crude log walls, indicating that whatever happened, the occupants survived.
“Building ahead!” I reported. “Looks industrial in nature. Heavily damaged… Recently based on how shiny the broken metal looks. No time to oxidize. Structure has been crudely repaired.”
Sky blinked. “It’s so weird seeing you suddenly go full professional,” he muttered to himself. Clearly thinking he hadn’t said that outloud. “Can you see anything else? We should be close to the point we saw the people fly away from.”
Ignoring the remark I turned and twisted to see everything I could through the treeline gap, managing to see a window halfway up the side of the building. And the fur clad, bone armored, humanoid hanging from the window by a grappling hook, swinging a machete at a small feathered reptilian person.
A feathered reptilian person with almost my exact coloration. Who was desperately trying to swat the humanoid off the wall with a frying pan, clearly afraid of getting hit. A frying pan which had half-cooked pancake stuck to it.
Before I could report this, two large chunks of the wooden wall blasted away in a cloud of splinters. Two faint cracks accompanied the ‘explosions’, audible only to my vampiric ears as nopony else reacted at all.
The little lizard guy was fending off raiders! With a frying pan! And they had guns!
“The building is occupied by at least one person, a pony sized feathered lizard. He’s currently fending off attackers with a frying pan. We should help,” I recommended with a determined frown.
“How many attackers?” Sky asked immediately while reaching back to his flank holsters for two heavy pistols he’d strapped on earlier.
“At least three. Two have firearms, they are using VERY good suppressors,” I reported as I squinted through my scope, hoping to find another gap in the treeline to look through.
If I could find the shooters, maybe I could-
The deep roar of a T-Rex shook the jungle, coming from the clearing ahead of us. Something cracked, instantly followed by a loud explosion. Probably artillery.
That settled it for me. You don’t attack your own place with explosives. The lizard guy owned that building. He was being attacked. I didn’t care why. If you want a person dead, you send a few people with weapons. This was a large force with artillery and what I assumed was a tamed attack Rex.
That screamed ‘bandits out to make life suck for others’.
“Derpy! Get me into the air,” I ordered, gripping her shoulders tightly with my hind legs. “We need-”
“No, we’re wasting me in the air and you on an unstable shooting platform,” Derpy countered. “I’ll drop you on the roof, and hit the rex. Sky, Ayna, you can flank. I’m sure you know basic tactics.”
I nodded. That was a better plan… Tactically speaking. Less cool than ‘shoot the bad guys from dragonback’ though.
“Yeah, we do,” Ayna confirmed, her horn blazing emerald green for a few seconds while she cast a spell.
The light around her seemed to warp and twist. Not quite rendering her invisible, but obscuring all details about her position.
Sky reached back, grabbing one of his pistols. The moment his hoof touched the dark gunmetal weapon, sections of it lit up, glowing a bright green color. The grip unfolded, wrapping securely around his hoof, forming a five fingered cybernetic hand in the process.
ALL OF MY WANT!
“I-will-give-you-all-of-my-money-just-let-me-use-the-other-one!” I yelped needily, eyes locked onto the weapon hungrily.
Sky’s ears twitched. “Ow! High-pitch much?” Sky said with a wince. “No idea what you said. Are they coming towards us?”
I went to repeat myself, but Sky reached back and drew the other gun, rearing up rather expertly, and using his wings to balance. Ah. He normally fought with two weapons.
Maybe he’d let me play with one later.
“Nothing, never mind,” I said halfheartedly. “Derpy, let’s go!”
“She fangirled over the gun gauntlets,” Ayna called as Derpy leapt into the air.
I couldn’t hear a thing over the sound of branches breaking, and the rush of air as her wings flapped hard enough to make a quiet thunderclap as we rose above the trees. The second the sea of green vanished, I saw what was really going on.
The bandits had brought TWO rexes with them, each one covered in crude blackened, rusty armor formed from jagged plates of thick iron. I could see at least forty of the bipeds, most of them were just arriving, walking out of the treeline a ways to the south. A small group of five counting the one clinging to the wall had been the only ones here before.
Advance scouts. For a war party.
I’d been right before. This was a raid by bandits. But not one intending to steal anything. No, this was a mission to slaughter everything and salt the earth.
Derpy flapped her wings hard, hurtling through the air towards the building, twisting around at the last minute in order to land atop the roof with a solid thud that shook the building, facing the oncoming raiders. I slipped off her shoulders, landing on the now slightly dented roof, swinging my gun back up into a firing position and-
An actual thunderclap boomed just behind my head, my ears ringing even before the accompanying a shower of blue sparks flashed brightly enough to make me see spots in my vision. The hell had the ball lightning came from!? The sky had been cle-
No, wait. That was Derpy. She roared.
Holy bucking Luna’s tits that was loud!
My accelerated healing quickly stopped my ears ringing, just in time to see a large number of the raiders break off from the group, turning and sprinting back into the jungle, their panicked screams reaching my ears.
“Run away!” One screeched, surprisingly in English!
“COWARDS! I’ll flay you alive,” someone screamed wrathfully.
Who did that? The sound had come from the left, to the rear, and- Ah! There we go. Only one of the things dressed in a cape and jewelry. Evily McEvil located. Bye!
I swept my railgun’s sights up, put the reticle on her head, and fired. The weapon cracked violently, unleashing a huge flash of brilliant orange plasma as it sent a half kilogram bolt downrange. For a second I thought the railgun had exploded. Instead, my target had.
All I could see remaining of the bandit leader was best described as loose limbs lying in a puddle of chunky salsa. I winced, turning a little green and looking away from the gore pile.
I’d undergone the same combat conditioning as any Equestrian Knight, I could stomach killing for a just cause with no problems. But this weapon was a bit… Much. At least for anything within the pony size category which wasn't some kind of heavily armored robot.
The rexes on the other hoof…
Pushing past the urge to vomit I swung the barrel around, aiming center mass for the rex on the left. “Derpy, take the Rex on the right!” I called, warning her before firing a second shot.
To my horror the Rex took that shot, grunted angrily, and started to stomp towards my position, the remains of an armor plate dripping down its chest, but otherwise unharmed.
Oh. Great. Ether this thing dumps all its energy into the first object hit and nothing else or this universe has super iron!
To my surprise and horror, despite their leader exploding, the remaining bandits didn’t break and run. Instead, they charged, following the Rex forwards. The hay? That had been their leader, right?
I gulped worriedly, and raised my gun’s barrel, trying to line up a shot for the roof of the Rex’s mouth.
Derpy jumped off the roof, snapping her wings open, gliding forwards, allowing herself to slam into the other Rex’s left leg. I heard a snap like a tree breaking under the wind. The rex fell, screeching in an unfathomably wrathful hatred.
The Rex attacking me roared in response to its friend’s scream. I had the one chance! I fired a second shot, catching it in the left eye as the rex swung its head. The Rex swayed, staggering forwards another two steps before dropping limply, its head smashing through a wooden section of the wall below me as it fell.
I brought my rifle up, looking to provide Derpy with covering fire so I wouldn't have to shoot any of the humanoids with the railgun. Even against a war party of raiders, that just seemed excessively cruel… Also the remains were really gross to look at, but smelled GREAT.
So yeah. That was an inner conflict of epic proportions.
Sky and Ayna exploded from the treeline, charging towards the small group of remaining infantry firing a small hail of blue plasma bolts and scorching green energy blasts into their ranks. Bone plates exploded, hide blackened and smoked, some even igniting as the energy blasts slammed into the raider’s loose formation.
That was enough for them. The group broke apart as they turned and ran away from us, racing for the jungle in a disorganized mess.
I could have picked a few of them off. Ensured less harm in the future for others. But… I just couldn’t justify shooting another organic target that big with this thing. It was a great gun, and I’d keep it for the large monsters, but yeah… Definitely requesting another weapon for smaller targets. Or maybe less powerful ammunition.
I shook my head slowly as I watched them vanish into the jungle. What had this all been about? Whatever it was we were involved now, and no group able to field a force like that would send all of its members out to do something. They had to have a base someplace nearby, which would need defending. There were more. They might be back soo-
“THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!” A high pitched yet adorable male voice shouted in delight.
Oh yeah! The little Lizard guy.
I stepped over to the edge of the building looking down so I could let him know we were friendly and-
I saw the raider who had been trying to climb through the window. Laying on his back. Helmet shattered. Face exposed. His human face. Covered in delicious smelling blood.
Guh! Gore shouldn’t mix with appetizing smells! I was going to be sick…
Sky Trigger - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH
The Machine Shop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island
I frowned as the enemy turned and ran. Sure we’d hit them out of nowhere and caused a lot of confusion, but was that enough to-
I jumped slightly as something big snapped to my right. I spun, both pistols leveled, ready to fire, then flinched as I saw Derpy drop the gold and gray Rex’s head, having just broken its neck.
Luna’s mane, that had to have taken a lot of force! I REALLY hope she’ll let me study her musculature later. That stuff had major industrial and military applications.
“THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!” A high pitched yet adorable male voice shouted in delight.
Oh my god! That sounded just like the kid from The Incredibles! And it had yelled the line! HA!
I turned to look at the building where the sound had come from, just in time to see Lyra lean over the side of the roof and throw up. Leaving an orange line all the way down the fifteen meter high wall.
Ew.
Understandable. I mean, those were humans. She idolized them, we just fought some, and she shot at least one with an anti-tank rifle. But… Ew.
Derpy noticed Lyra’s distress too, turning her head to shout. “It’s okay Lyra! It’s going to be okay. They’re just like any species. Some are good, some are evil,” she called soothingly.
“No…” Lyra groaned, her voice faint but understandable from this distance. “I- It’s a vampire thing… I want to feed on the corpses…”
“Oh. Ew,” I summarized.
“So do I, I’ll cook em up for us later,” the little lizard dude called cheerfully. “I didn’t know all Equus ate meat. You’re adorable, by the way! Twilight said what she normally looked like but I didn’t really get it until now. But meat! I like that we can share it, that’s important. Twilight said she could eat meat but didn’t like it much. Oh! Those fire-guns are super cool! Can I have one?”
I blinked twice. Okay, good news. This guy’s seen Twilight. Weird news, he babbled at Ponk speed.
“I’ll happily give you a plasma pistol if you tell me where you saw Twilight,” I called as I holstered my guns so I could walk towards the window the little guy was leaning out of. “We’re here to rescue her.”
“Right now? Nope! She and Nyota left to try and find some friends before you got here,” he called. “They’ll be back soon! I think. A day or two at most. I guess they got your letter a day after you sent it. Because they made a whole timetable to get back here on time.”
Ayna dismissed her Blur spell, and squinted up at the window. “Um… Are you a Troodon?” She asked curiously.
“Yep!” He replied, flashing a fanged grin. “We’re all people, by the way. We just can’t make the sounds your languages use.”
Then how was he talking to us? I raised an eyebrow suspiciously before noticing a small collar around his neck. I couldn’t see too much detail on it, but it DID feature the tell tell glowing runes of Equestrian techno arcana. Twilight definitely knew him.
“Is that a translation collar?” I asked, just to be sure. “Oh, and what’s your name?”
“Yes, and I’m Chipfang. Um, you guys should come inside. There’s room for your dragon in here in the garage. Cuz Charlie’s gonna be pissed that you exploded her, and um, they kinda just get new bodies a few minutes after you kill one of them. And they REALLY want to blow this place up.”
I triple blinked. “The BUCK!? They respawn? The hell kind of universe is this!?” I demanded of reality.
“The kind where we’ll be defending this place until Twilight gets back,” Ayna said simply gesturing to my Lab-in-a-bag. “Let’s bust that thing open, get some shield generators up, and patch those walls up properly.”
I nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”
No sense chasing off after Twilight if we knew she was coming back here… Not until we could establish contact at least. After all, if Twilight could build a translator here, she could probably also build a radio.
“Lyra, use any debris you find to make some sniper posts up on that roof,” I ordered as politely as I could. “Derpy, if you can, see about digging a trench around the hill and getting that lake to spill into it. We’ll see how they like a good moat. Ayna and I will work on building a shield generator-”
Chip squeed. He actually squeed, clasped his little four talons together, and hopped up and down excitedly! Hurk! The cute! Must, not, have, heartattack!
“Ohmygosh! I’ve never gotten to see how those work, can I watch you make it? Please?!” He begged, somehow managing to give me Bambi eyes despite the distance between us and despite him being a predator.
“Of course you can!” I promised. “Just keep out of the way while we set things up.”
“Yay!” Chip cried happily. “Maybe I’ll learn how to make one on my own!”
I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh. We’d found lizard Pinkie who looked like sort of Lyra and had my hobbies.
I turned to look at Ayna and nodded before walking towards the ruined building. “Come on, let’s not disappoint the little guy,” I said with a grin.
I was going to build the coolest shield generator I could. After all, I owed the little guy a favor for keeping Twilight company. And probably safe as well.
I should have trusted Twilight of all ponies to be able to make friends regardless of circumstances. Her exile here had earned her at least four friends. Still, they likely had spent the entire time fighting for their lives against these respawning assho-
“Oh! After you fortify Nyota’s house, we can go get dinner at my tribe’s Pub down on the beach!” Chip called from inside the building. “It’s got a hot tub! I forgot to show it to Twilight when she was there last night. I made it myself!”
Wait… What?
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
1,026 users online
1,810,003 hits today, 2,073,628 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.®
*EPIC GUITAR RIFF*
Not gonna lie, this is my favorite chapter so far. And there are SOOOO many little references in it. Can you find them all?
Well I guess someone is having fun
Ahh, sheesh. Poor Lyra.
And I really hope, Twi and Nye can solve this without too much collateral damage.
Well, then, you once again made me smile with this chapter. Thank you.
I'm eagerly anticipating the next one.
~Nachtschwalbe
8178975 Yeah, just because you're a trained soldier doesn't mean you can handle everything you might have to do or see. If you can, you're not human (or pony) anymore.
8178984 Yep. This is why PTSD is a thing.
8178984 It probably didn't help that the gun mulched a part of Charlie rather than completely atomizing her or leaving a little less of a mess. Sadly for Lyra what she did to Charlie is mild compared to what Charlie would do to her.
Now Charlie has another reason to attack she is pissed off and I'm sure she wants those WEAPONS. I wonder what would've happened if Lyra had obliterated Charlie's implant
8179093 THe implant requires about a minute to transmit your consciousness into the cloned body. If its distroied during that time, or before it detects the body is dead, you're dead. After all it's technology. The device has to be intact to function. Nothing in the engram system is capable of destroying one (save for a stun rod, which wasn't intentional), but that rail gun most certainly is. But it would need ot hit the implant itself and no one aims for a wrist.
8179095 8179093 Derpy's electric fog breath, on the other hand....
I hope Charlie gets lost in a cloud of it.
8179108 Yeah that 12d8 per round is hell.
8179117 And if she has the Lingering Breath draconic feat...
So war broke out and Twilight team need to "march" through the conflict zone to their destination....
)
....and it's looks like, rescue team will play King of the Hill/Endless Waves waiting for Twi return
also it will be Interesting to see, if this conflict can break out even more (and destroy the entire ARK project
When I read this I immediately thought of an Imperial Guard tank commander yelling this, this is what I get for playing Warhammer 40k so much.
Ya flying right over the capital of a nation at war, your bucked. Let's hope they can get things straightened out.
I would hate him too, Pinkie no ice cream for Sky
You remember he is making you a whole suite, right?
so battle seen, have some music
How did I not see this before
I wanna come too!
Dragonforce
Okay.... Now, Twi and Nyota are in deep shit. X)
Also : Chipfang fangasming to the rescue team... XD
And Sky, you summed up pretty much Chip. XD
8179192 Actually....
i.ytimg.com/vi/tytiJ6AJmos/maxresdefault.jpg
This might be why
So, I wonder, how will those beastfolk react to finding out they attacked their King & Queen's daughter? Quite literally, their princess
I can't see Derpy as anything other than cute. Even as a giant lightning-breathing pony dragon. Seeing something that cute barrel into your formation and killing one of your death-mounts must be confusing
Chip being adorable, aww
A hot tub too?!? You do realize the Island will become a tourist attraction for interdimensional ponies if this keeps up, right?
This will all end in Shawarma, won't it? I bet it will!
8179132 It just might have some interesting spillover... But no spoilers.
8179192
Not when I'm intentionally using the meme XD
Yeah, but those allready exist now and are here :D
To be fair no one did XD
So do I :c
8179248 I see your Dragonforce, and I counter you with Dream Evil
8179420
Actually....
Also, that commander's full quote list is HILARIOUS! SO over the top. The VA was having so much fun with the role XD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0MKLnTqjLM
The only way she can be scarry is to use the D&D Dragon Fear Aura ability. TLDR Derpy's only scary with the aid of magic.
SO MANY REFERENCES! ITS HAILING THEM!
8179838 nice
here is your comment you asked for, also lyra needs a HCAR to use, sniper/light automatic rifle. its one of the few weapons that i have seen updated from the world wars that does not make we want to install new hardware onto the owner/operators, though it does not have iron sight...
8180245 Well, being a vampire and all, Lyra' doesn't actually NEED sights. Looking along the barrel is enough. The only time she uses signs is for thermal detection, and thermatugic field amplification.
8179838 bit even magic. Her innate cuteness is so strong it subverts great effects into hnng-my-heart ones. You don't save for fear, you save for insulin and heart attacks
Meh on the VA. I always imagined it as a got blooded exaltation in the midst of battle. He's too collected in that one
8180269 i cant stand a gun without dedicated built in sights, its like i cant think of a good one right now, its just one of my querks. Its like they lost the point of the item, scopes fail iron sight are built to be reliable. a emergency exit that has to have power but has no backup power system/manual system.
8181476
It's actually quite factual. Her universe's dragons actually are the result of a gray goo type WMD breaking down towards the end of its run and assimilating rather than annihilating a species of lizards.
Good thing for that armor, no wonder Nyota made it out to be so necessary.
Hmn, the Megalodons. Weren't they mentioned last chapter as a group that an outside half of the their pirate fleet tried to free? I feel like the "learn peaceful cooperative civilization" goal isn't quite taking with them.
Well then, at least they aren't just indiscriminately violent. Nyota and friend aren't the current target, they can freely leave.
Nice.
Ooo, Twilight just realized where the prison is set up.
The welcoming party in case the rescue mission for Twilight turned out to be hostile, I'm guessing?
Ooo, the beastfolk finally. They could be a little less instantly violent, but hey, it's a rough world.
That was a mean joke, Sky. Tactically speaking it would have been a pretty big mistake to intentionally let a party member become overheated in a situation like this, but hopefully someone would have intervened before that happened.
Well timed arrival, just in time to save Chip and the facility in general from further damage.
Charlie is collecting a great set of pony-caused deaths. Maybe there'll be one final Derpy electrical breath one before this whole adventure is over.
Perfect reference.
It'll be interesting to seeing how thoroughly Sky and party can reinforce the base before the next attack. They aren't limited by the Ark system so this could be something to behold, and more importantly nothing that Charlie would be expecting.
8188638
Fun fact: The original imprisoned Megs were freed. The current ones are the half that freed them. They swapped out because "It's realy unfair that you're getting a vacation while we arn't, Captain!" "Humm... True enough. Okay, we'll swap out. They'll never see that coming."
They would have. Also, she's a vampire. It's not like she'd get heatstroke. Still, too misserable to think and react quickly is bad for any fight.
Real question is 'if she's incapasitated due to the heat, how fucking hot is it?!'
They also have a wizard who's good at enchanting, unlike Twilight.
After all this time...
I just realised why they are named charlies
Also, Lyra is a surprisingly badass sniper, godamn
8189872
Cuz I picked the name randomly from the phonebook? Why what did you think?
Of course she is. She's a vampire. Just imagine Alucard here as Luna. That's what Lyra's training as a knight was like.
https://youtu.be/TgnIjJexut4?t=1m1s
Have I said how much I love Chip? As I LOVE that little guy! Oh colt, totally my favorite character of this story I would say.
He is just so cute, funny, and I want to wrap him in a big hug and try some of that food at his tribe's pub. 
Trying to play catch-up is hard. x.x But I shall do it!
the first Troodon I tame will be named Chipfang
9483181 Send me a screenshot if you manage to tame one! That would be a true honor :3
A Big Mek-Boss once had a thunk that maybe there could be 'enough dakka'. Possessing no ready concept of 'consequences' or 'safety' or even of what 'enough dakka' might look like if he found it, the Mek-Boss constructed two epic devices, festooned with big shootas and rokkit launchas and combi-weapons of all varieties.
Painted the brightest yellow, these two devices were positioned pointing at each-other, in a configuration the Big Mek called a 'Supah-Dakka-Collidah'. With his enormous WAAUGH! for an audience, the Mek-Boss fired the weapons.
To this day, the site of the experiment is a massive void in space, manifesting even in the cosmic background radiation.
To this day, that has not been regarded as enough Dakka. Git gud scrub