16 - We Carry On
Muffin “Derpy” Mello - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH
Workshop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island
There were a lot of reasons I prefered living in a pegasus body to my draconic form. Most species are smaller than dragons. Most people are scared of big things with fangs the size of their hands. I have yet to meet a person I loved that could perform a lover’s duties with me at this size. Those are the big ones. The size issues.
Of course, there are more subtle things. In this case, Draconic hearing is much more potent than pegasi hearing.
“-but the best part,” Lyra continued to fangirl. “Was totally in chapter eight when Jack and Karen are escaping the Stratofortress and Karen has just got her leg blown off, so Jack-”
“I remember what I wrote!” Ayna yelped pleadingly.
For the fifth time.
“Yeah! But it’s so cool and Bonbon always mentally retreats when I try to talk about the Jack Boot stories,” Lyra giggled. “How did you come up with the idea of Karen using her leg to zipline down the-”
She’d been going on for the whole half hour after Sky said he’d take care of Chip personally. Sure it was horrible that the adorable little guy had gotten hurt but he was in good hooves. I wasn’t worried. Nor was anypony el-
“-and then they hit the ground and are instantly surrounded by all of those
AAAAAAA! Save me, universe! Please! SHE’S DROWNING OUT THE SOUND OF THE RAIDERS SMASHING THE SHIELD!
“Guaaah!” The attacking raiders screamed in unison, keeling over dead in perfect synch with one another.
I blinked several time. “Ummmm…” I said quite unintelligently.
After all, what do you say to that? A whole line of attacking raiders just keeled over like an assassin had simply killed them with his awesome. Or as if the Aneurysm Fairy had just flown by.
What the hay just happened? There had to be a reason!
A quick, but cautious, look around the area past the shield revealed no mysterious hooded men watching from a distance. Nor any smoke trails from bullets. Or telltale ripples of invisible creatures lurking amongst the corpses.
They had literally just keeled over and died!
“Wwwaaaaaaahhh?!” I demanded loudly, eyes dilated all the way open in incredulity.
My confused half-roared question snapped Lyra out of her rambling.
“Wait a sec,” she said to Ayna before calling out to me. “What is it, Derpy?”
“They- They all just keeled over! For no reason!” I exclaimed, wings rustling uneasily. “All at the same time too!”
“Don’t worry,” Ayna called up through the hole in the ceiling. “The shield will keep out chemical weapons too.”
I shook my head and continued surveying the terrifyingly bearen jungle. The hilltop was honestly completely and totally empty.
“It couldn’t have been chemical weapons, Ay. They all died at the exact same time. Biological and chemical agents affect people at different rates. This was literally all at the exact same time,” I elaborated, a frown forming on my face as I continued to find nothing.
Nothing at all.
“Huh… Let me just check some-,” Ayna said before stopping mid sentence. “Nope. Anti-Magic field is still up. Couldn’t have been magic if it didn’t leave a visible aura. Not if it was a spell powerful enough to kill a score and a half of people.”
I nodded, but Lyra agreed for me.
“Yeah… Concealing the aura takes more power then you can get here,” she mused. “Are they faking it? Trying to coax us outside? They might think we’re morons or something.”
I turned my eyes to look closely at one of the raider's bodies. No, it was still. Absolutely still. No breathing. Starting to cool even.
Now that was odd. Bodies normally stay warm for an hour or so. Perhaps this was a part of the method the people here had for resurrection? It couldn’t be a poison meant to simulate death. You body temperature wouldn’t drop this fast if it were.
Unless… Unless the heat loss is what killed them! No, no, that made no sense either, they weren't THAT cold yet. At this speed the only logical conclusion was something was draining the thermal energy from the bodies. This couldn’t be related to them just keeling over.
They literally all just died! For no apparent reason! All at once!
I felt my face go pale as I realized the only logical explanation remaining.
Ninjas!
I facetaloned and groaned mere milliseconds after that thought popped into my head.
“It’s not ninjas, Derpy,” I mumbled to myself.
“It could be ninjas,” Lyra called from behind me, having apparently climbed up onto the roof to look for herself.
“Don't say that!” I hissed worriedly. “If it IS ninjas, and you think it’s ninjas, they’ll kill you too!”
The light buzz of changeling wings accompanied her voice, Ayna flying up to see as well.
“Oh! Yep. Those are some dead dudes. With no apparent injury too,” Ayna noted as she hovered above the ceiling. “Maybe some kind of high energy radiation burst hit the station? The shield bubble would have protected us. I should check the power levels and-”
Ayna was interrupted as a distant electronic whine filled the jungle almost like a haze. I looked up, frowning as the wine seemed to come from the floating red tower. Were they supposed to do that?
The other two I could see hadn’t made any sounds yet. Then again We’d been here for less than a day, maybe-
The red light illuminating the tower flickered, sputtered, and died. Going entirely black.
“That- That shouldn’t happen,” I said with a worried frown.
Lyra nodded in agreement. “Yeah… That’s wrong. I don’t know how I know, but I know.”
The air beneath the formerly red tower cracked and warped, visible lines of energy exploded upwards, sliding across the air in a disjointed but seemingly intentional order. As if someone had made a net out of lightning bolts and spun it.
“I am so glad we’re behind fifteen centimeters of hardlight and radiation barriers,” Ayna said with a visible wince. “We definitely just took some kind of cosmic radiation pulse. That or the ‘ship’ is really a huge microwave and it’s magnetron just went ape-”
The energy net exploded like the world’s biggest flashbang. I blinked like crazy, trying to clear my eyes. By the time I could see again, a dragon stood beneath the tower, roaring in pain and rage.
A clearly feral dragon.
Almost twice my size.
A purple one.
Purple is more scary in terms of a dragon’s coloration if you grew up where I did.
“-shit.” Ayna finished meekly.
“T-the shield can resist an angry dragon that big, right?” I asked hopefully.
“For a bit, probably,” Ayna admitted with a nervous grimace. “The hardlight should be fine but… The power supply may not be able to replenish the shields faster than that thing’s mass can drain them. Um… I’d have to do math.”
“How about instead of doing math we get the guns ready?” Lyra said as she turned and jumped back down the hole into the house. “How much time to we have?”
I looked at the dragon. It wasn’t looking back at me. I knew it could see me if it wanted to. He was only five or so kilometers from me.
Instead he was looking down. And he was PISSED! Also apparently a bit sluggish from that teleport. Because he was having problems positioning himself to swipe with his talons at whatever was on the ground below him.
Wait…
Red tower. Two figures left this house for the tower. Chip said that Twilight left with a mare she’d fallen for.
“OH NO! Twilight’s over there!” I yelped, spreading my wings for an instant take off. “Girls, get the biggest guns you can, I’ll bait it over here, they won't stand a chance!”
Before anyone could say anything I jumped off the roof, feathered wings cracking as I used a bit of draconic magic to catapult myself up to full speed. The shield felt weird to pass through. Something like warm jello. It was over in an instant and I was flying above the trees in the open skies.
The massive purple dragon had looked huge at a distance. It looked positively colossal as I raced towards it. Easily mom sized. Probably bigger. Definitely bulkier.
It’s body was shaped less like a living creature and more like a weapon. Scales thick enough to probably repel cannonfire. Muscles that bulged and rippled with enough strength to tear apart metal like soft wood. Fangs shaped to puncture solid steel like taffy. Talons were actually beveled and tapered down to proper cutting edges on the inside.
Flickering lines of burning liquid seeping from the corners of it’s mouth like drool...
It wasn’t a dragon. It looked like one. But it wasn’t. There was no intelligence behind it’s enraged eyes. Only death. That was a weapon.
And I was charging right for its barrel.
Tackling it would be insufficient. I twisted mid air, pointing all four legs forward, extending my talons, the points as straight as I could get them.
The dragon noticed me a half second before I slammed into his belly. He twisted, moving not to step out of the way, but to grab me!
I tucked my wings into my side, dropping down lower, his talon sliced over my head, clipping my eartip. I smashed into his right flank, my talons skipping off his hide, but the impact sending him stumbling backwards.
I dropped to the rocky platform beneath the tower, moaning in pain as my legs felt like I’d just slammed into a mountainside. The dragon roared angrily, spraying a line of fire into the sky as it stumbled back into the pit around the tower’s base.
I managed to shake off the pain and stand. The Dragon screeched and hissed, trying to find the leverage to pull itself out from the pit, stone scraping and cracking as its talons grazed the edge of the pit wall and the pillar I stood atop, cutting through rather than finding purchase.
But he wouldn’t be held there long. He just had to shift his weight a bit and use his forelegs more. He’d figure that out soon.
I turned around, looking through the jungle for any sign of Twilight. It had to be her this thing was attacking. Nothing else made sense.
There! A flash of purple and sapphire through the trees. Just inside the treeline.
I snapped my wings open once more, jumping twice before I could take off due to my aching legs. With how powerful the dragon seemed to be I didn’t dare waste any time, so instead I wasted a little power to accelerate myself and race towards the treeline above Twilight.
As I drew near, I could see that Twilight was part of a group. Her, a changeling, an older male unicorn with a stupid yet somehow awesome hat, a bipedal zebra with a great butt, a giant humanoid tyrannosaurus woman (with human proportioned arms) with a fluffy unicorn clinging to her head, and half an android held in Twilight’s arcane grip.
Not the weirdest thing I’d ever seen, but definitely up there on the list.
“We’re so screwed!” The android babbled in clear panic. “That’s not the standard boss version. It’s a production model. Living tank. Nothing we have access to will even scratch it!”
I needed to talk to them. I had to tell them to get under the shield as fast as possible, and to get Sky to build the return gate ASAP. He said the return gate would self assemble in three minutes. I could do that.
But they had to get there as fast as possible and waste NO TIME! And I couldn’t talk to them like this. They’d be too afraid to listen to a dragon right now.
I took a deep breath and focused as hard as I could, quickly casting a polymorph spell, the white light wiping across my body, returning me to the pegasi form I prefered… And sending me plummeting out of the sky because I forgot that I can’t move while changing.
I smashed down through the trees, bouncing off three branches before landing right atop Twilight with a thud, knocking her flat against the ground.
“Ooof!” We exclaimed together.
Twilight lost concentration, the android fell from her grip and smacked into a tree.
Twilight jumped upright faster than I thought she could, and almost punched me in the nose before freezing in shock.
“D-Derpy!? Oh my Celestia! THIS IS WHY MY MAIL IS ALWAYS LATE!” Twilight exclaimed as her wings flared open, clearly deep in shock.
I climbed to my hooves as well and shook my head, blushing with embarrassment. “Actually I’m a part of your rescue team because I’m not exactly from the universe you know me from. So um, I have experience with this stuff,” I explained quickly. “But there’s no time to explain that right now! Sky, Ayna, and Lyra are in the ruined house on the hill. There’s a forcefield up around it. Ay will let you in.
“Sky can have a return portal made in a few minutes, and um, your rex friend might not fit… Problems for Sky! I’m going to buy some time. I got it stuck but that dragon will break free very soon.”
Twilight’s eyes widened as her jaw dropped in awe. “You got it suck? How!?”
“I’m very good at arranging accidents accidently. Nice crown, by the way!” I said with a grin as I pointed to the simple silver circlet she was wearing.
Twilight eeped and immediately ripped the circlet from her head, making me blink in confusion as it went limp like a cloth headband.
“Holy crap! Why didn’t you tell me I was still wearing this, Nye!? It’s not safe long term yet!” Twilight exclaimed.
The Zebra frowned apologetically. “Sorry, I haven’t been thinking about that what with the whole we just survived getting spaced.”
Realizing we didn't have time to waste I turned to the injured android to speak to him. “Hi, Mister Android Guy! I’ve always liked robot peoples, nice to meet you. You know what that thing is, what will it take to stop it?”
To my surprise the android didn’t roll his eyes or snort. He could tell I was serious. “Unless you can produce the same amount of firepower as a heavy battle tank or a light gunship, and also keep your distance for a full minute or two, you will die.”
I flinched. “Um, okay. And how hard would it be for a copy of that thing to kill it?”
Perhaps that would give more insight?
“It couldn’t. The hide is too thick. It’s also got biological and technological regeneration. Nyota already though about using her monoblade on it. It will just regenerate and keep coming unless mostly vaporized,” he explained. “So yeah, Twilight, please pick me up and RESUME RUNNING!”
The poor guy’s face held more fear than you’d see in someone who had just seen a monster destroy something before. No, he had more intimate knowledge of this creature. He had studied it. Intimately studied it.
Crud! I needed a new plan.
Twilight frowned her ears flattening. “But how will you escape? If we use the portal the dragon will be right there and probably smash it! I won't let you die for us or-”
I reached back into my saddlebags, wishing they didn’t have to merge into my draconic form when I changed. I could really use some of the equipment in them for this fight. But right now I needed something else.
I’d worried about returning to place I had just left quite a bit myself. After all, I needed a specific book for each world I wanted to go to. Unless, I’d already been there. Because I’d learned how to make a ‘beacon’ of sorts. A book that I could travel to via the companion volume no matter where or when the beacon was.
I didn’t need to hold on to it right now. I had Equestria’s book on me and could just use it to go home if I had to. But if I gave the beacon to Twilight to hold for a bit, it might make her feel less afraid and stop wasting time she should l be spending running.
I pulled out the small red leather bound book and passed it to Twilight. “I know a kind of magic where you can use books as portals between worlds. This book is a beacon. I can always find my way to it. Take it with you. I’ll distract the Dragon and then use the linked book to go right to you, okay?” I asked hopefully.
Twilight nodded and took the book, her eyes lighting up in recognition. “I found some books like this a while ago! Once we escape-”
The dragon roared. Stone cracked and crumbled. Something huge toppled over with an earth shattering thud. It was free.
“Go!” I ordered, turning around and sprinting through the trees a short distance before exiting the tree line.
That was a mistake.
The Dragon had pushed the entire pillar of stone over after clawing the base apart!
I stood staring at the monster in horror for too long. It pulled itself up out of the pit squinted, noticing me immediately, and slashed me across the barrel with a talon.
I felt skin rip and bone chip as the blow threw me several meters through the air to my left. The wound was bad. I could have taken that hit as a dragon, but as a pony… I was going to bleed out.
I had to change, it would buy me a little time. But only a little. The wound would persist…
My chest burned as my Polymorph spell took effect, the wound ripping open deeper as my chest stretched. I’d never been able to cast better transformation spells. This wasn’t the first time it would bite me in the flank.
The moment the spell finished I stood up, doing my best to ignore the gash in my chest even as i felt my body trying to divert blood and coolant to non-damaged veins. The Dragon roared, swinging his other talon savagely towards my neck.
I ducked downwards. The swipe missed, the air rushing past my head felt like I had gotten slapped. I had to give this my all.
I inhaled, tipped my head back and let my lightning fly.
Suddenly a realization struck me out of the blue. One so powerful and cringe inducing that I failed to dodge the dragon’s next strike, and caught a savage slash across my left side which left grooves in my scales.
“I COULD HAVE JUST HAD THEM TOUCH THE EQUESTRIA BOOK AND GO HOME! I AM AN IDIOT!” I screamed, the sheer fail I had just failed to do completely numbing me to the physical pain.
The Dragon growled and snapped its head forwards to bite me. Crud! I couldn’t just break away now, catch up to them and use my books… I had to not die.
Lyra Heartstrings - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH
Workshop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island
The scaffolding under my hooves clanked and warped dangerously as I sprinted across the firing deck we’d established. There hadn’t really been time to put up proper walkways. The shield took priority, and these guns were just to keep the raiders off our plots long enough to get the shield up.
We’d planned on putting proper guns up on the roof after getting food. But then Chip got hurt, and-
SKY! Sky had no idea bout the motherbucking dragon!
I jumped off the scaffolding, landing on the rubble strewn floor with a loud thud and scrambled over the rubble strewn floor towards the gray messenger bag laying on the floor next to a portable workbench. The moment I reached the entrance I pulled the flaps open.
“Okay Chip, that’s everything for the hardlight armor. Go ahead and swish your tail, let’s make sure I didn’t accidently break something,” Sky said, his voice coming from the depths of the bag.
I still couldn't believe that it was LITERALLY a laboratory inside of a bag… I thought it was just a very sophisticated portable set of lab equipment. I should have known better.
Poking my head through the bag’s opening and into the decently sized workshop inside, I called. “Sky! We’re in deep shit! A Dragon like four times Derpy’s size teleported in and it’s PISSED! We think it’s chasing Twilight, get the portal ready to go and bring any big guns you have in here up topside!”
Sky looked up from the table Chip was laying on, the little troodon was rapidly swishing his currently unskinned plasteel plated tail back and forth, seemingly very happy with himself.
“I’m sure the shields will hold,” he said simply before blinking. “OH! You said you think Twi’s out there. Right! Covering fire. Got it. Get up there with your railgun and take every shot you can get. I’ll get the portal ready to be activated. Chip, we’ll have to wait to put the skin on your tail, okay?”
“That’s okay… Can we eat the dragon if you kill it?” Chip asked hopefully.
“I don't see why not,” Sky remarked.
I pulled my head out of the bag and turned around, heading for the wall I’d left the railgun leaning against.
Sure, I had major problems with using it against smaller targets. Wanting to eat the mess it made of them made me feel like an absolute monster. But with a thing that big? The weapon felt… Too small.
Grabbing the weapon by the strap with a hoof to save magic, I slung it across my back and raced for the roof ladder. I was up the steel rungs in a matter of seconds, enhanced speed bringing me to the edge of the roof in almost a second flat.
I could see the huge purple monster in the distance. Its sheer size making it seem close by. I could also see Derpy clawing at its left scapular, trying to amputate the wing. I’d ridden on her back earlier. We could have gotten six ponies up there. Now she was riding on it’s back.
I squinted slightly, seeing an odd red and blue line on the gray dragonesses chest. Was that blood? Yes! Yes it was. That was a gash! It had to be pretty deep for me to see it at this distance.
She needed help. And fast!
Quickly dropping to my belly, I brought the gun up into a firing position, and aimed it across the jungle at the dragon. At the rapidly approaching, very angry, presently burning a hoofball field sized patch of jungle into ash, dragon.
I winced. Equestrian dragons were… Different. Even the ones which amassed a big enough hoard to fully mature never became, well, evil.
You could see it in its eyes. The way they burned hungrily, seeking to destroy everything it ever saw. Absolutely content solely to rend asunder anything carefully crafted.
The same eyes as the Nightmare which attacked Bonbon and I.
I aimed at the dragon’s center mass, dropped the sights low and to the left to avoid Derpy, aiming for a point right between two scales, and squeezed the trigger.
The railgun thundered, the recoil scooting me back a slight distance across the slick roof top. I dug my rear hooves into the metal roof, willing them to stick like Vinyl had taught me to. I couldn’t tell if I’d hit the Dragon. If I had, it didn’t seem to notice. It was too busy clawing at Derpy’s back and wings with one talon while incinerating the jungle in front of it.
“DIE MONSTER!” I screamed in anger, pulling the trigger a second time, and a third time, then a fourth.
I saw the fifth round spark as it skipped off the dragon’s scales.
“... Well… Um… We’re bucked,” I squeaked, ears laying flat as I stared at the tiny black mark I’d made in sheer terror.
Ayna’s wings buzzed as she dropped back down on the roof, a large sea bag with a few weapons poking out from the top dropping down alongside her, suspended by her green aura.
“Why? What happened? Did Twilight reach the shield yet? I've got the scanner to let her in!” The changeling said quickly, running forwards to look over the edge of the roof. “Sky’s getting the portal ready to go. Not on, just standby mode.”
“This gun just singed a scale, Ay,” I said in disbelief. “It blew chunks out of those rexes, but it just gave that thing a beauty mark… I hit it with high velocity makeup!”
Ay’s ears dropped as well. “It- It ate a five-hundred gram tungsten rod? Traveling at Mach six?” She asked.
“It took whole mag. I made a little black dot!” I snapped, jumping to my hooves. “What the buck do we do!? We can’t stop that!”
Ayna’s eyes darted between the dragon and her bag for a second. “Ummmm….Magic’s a non option sooo,” the changeling ran back to her bag ripped it open, the buckle snapping before the leather, and pulled the first weapon out her hoof touched.
It looked like some kind of rocket launcher. Not very high tech, fairly crude actually. Little more than a green pipe with a scope and a handle. Like something the griffons would field.
Ay hefted the weapon up onto her shoulder, squinted through the scope, and fired. It wasn’t a rocket launcher. A brilliant blue-white beam of coherent light blasted from the weapon’s muzzle, shrieking through the air to lance into the dragon's hide.
The beam lasted for an instant, but left a white trail in my vision. The dragon roared, the ground seeming to shake as it screamed. Ay’s weapon ejected a spent gas canister from its rear. I saw one of the Dragon’s scales crack and crumble, falling away in bits.
“YES! Okay, I’ll reload, you reload, and I’ll fire after you so we can get some bolts under the scales!” I exclaimed triumphantly, grinning widely in hope of-
The scale grew back.
My heart skipped a beat.
It just grew back. At a visible speed. There had been sickly green flash visible for an instant then the scale just grew back.
“Okay. It regenerates. Noted. Go for weakspots only,” Ayna said emotionlessly.
She’d shut down. This happened to her under extreme stress. I wish it happened to me. My heart was starting to pound like a jackhammer, practically slamming into my ribs.
Ay tapped the watch strapped to her left leg. “Message Sky: Sky. The Dragon is capable of rapid regeneration. Finish the portal before Twilight arrives. Bring the siege gun to the roof. I estimate this is a job for armor number two. Which we don't have. We should have brought your suits. Lyra and I will attempt to deal what damage we can with small arms.”
I gulped and lay back down, grabbing a fresh magazine from my saddlebags and slotting it into the railgun. “So, you fire that laser and I put a bolt right behind the beam?” I asked just to confirm.
“Correct,” Ayna said as she pulled a fresh gas cylinder out from the bag.
“Aim for the rear knees. Let’s try and slow it down,” I decided.
Muffin “Derpy” Mello - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH
Workshop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island
Twilight and her new friends were running for their lives, hooves literally kissing flames as they could only barely outring the dragon’s breath. I had to slow him down! Divert his attention. Anything!
But it couldn’t! It was impossible!
My talons raked across the dragon's scales, digging into its hide and tearing away strips of flesh which clung to my metallic digits. The dragon healed as soon as my talon left the area I cut into. Like I was waving my talons through a hologram.
Absolute madness!
Bites fared a little better. They at least stayed for a few seconds as the pothole filled in. I’d fought regenerating creatures before, but this was ridiculous! This wasn’t regeneration, it was insulting invulnerability. You can damage it but the damage disappears wound by wound as you make them!
What can I hope to even do!?
I scrabbled along the dragon’s chest, moving down and around it’s chest to perch on the back between its wings. Maybe I could bite through enough of the wing joint to make it drop off. Regenerating that should take a good deal of-
I heard something break the sound barrier, and go plink as it hit a scale on the dragon’s chest.
He didn’t even notice it… And I was reasonably certain that had been Lyra’s railgun. I felt my heart fall. And loose just a bit more pressure too. I’d been hoping that fire support would be a thing. I couldn’t keep this up much longer. I was getting dangerously low on blood here.
Maybe that round has just been a bad one? Or perhaps it had hit at a poor angle and skipped off. Maybe the next would penetrate!
I bite into the wing’s base joint, gnawing as deeply as I could wishing I could breath another electrified cloud into the wound. Perhaps that would slow it’s healing, as it was I would have to scoop out as much flesh as possible between bites.
Five more cracks. Five more plinks.
Crap. There would be absolutely no fire support. I had to do this all on my own, that wouldn’t be remotely okay!
A blazing blue energy beam slammed into the dragon’s chest as I spat out another chunk of meat. The dragon noticed that one! He roared angrily, turning savagely towards the ruined house. He knew where that beam had come from.
I felt myself starting to get dizzy. My fangs touched bone. I was close! I could do this!
I ripped off another chunk of meat, spitting it out and turning my head to look closely into the rapidly closing hole, hoping to find some tendons to snip with my fangs.
Instead I saw the dull blue-silver of durasteel.
The dragon didn’t have bones. It had support struts. Made of a superalloy.
It was a cyborg too. Just a crappy non-evolved one.
“Poop…” I protested, the fight going out of me as I realized I lacked the strength to do any real harm to this monster.
The dragon jerked it’s wings, probably in preparation to fly. I couldn’t keep hold and slid off his back, falling to the ground atop a tree. The wood splintered beneath me, doing little more than scratching my scales… And delivering a very focused punch right into my ovaries.
I lay atop the splintered remains of the tree moaning for several long moments.
I couldn’t stop that thing. I didn’t know any attack spells that would help me fight it. It healed to fast. I needed something that did a ton of damage at once. And not an energy weapon. It seemed to take that pulse laser just fine and the shot had resembled a turbo laser too much for me to feel comfortable trying what few spells I did know.
I slowly pushed myself upright, searching for the dragon as my vision dimmed. I winced, realizing that I needed medical attention right now. And I wasn’t going to get it like this. Goodness knows Sky wouldn’t have anything that could help with Marathian Draconic Anatomy.
I had to return to my pegasi form for treatment. But if I did, I’d bleed out even quicker. I would never make it back to the shield.
I was doomed… There was nothing I could think of to survive-
My eyes lit up for a moment as a flash of clarity pierced the fog my mind was sinking into.
That was it! There was nothing I could think of. So I had to think like another pony. An adventurer. One who had stopped something like that dragon before.
Tirek was kinda like that dragon.
Twilight had stopped him!
Um, quick brain, keep it up, how did Twilight defeat Tirek?
I bit my lip as I concentrated, trying to force my brain to do it’s job and-
“Her friends! She got help from her friends!” I exclaimed happily as the knowledge finally came back to me.
I frowned wings drooping as I realized all of my friends were under the shield, armed with ineffective weapons.
No. No not all my friends. Just all my new friends. I had TONS of Friends. I was a Traveler who happened to be an Equestrian pony turned Cloud Dragon. I’d walked dozens of worlds. I’d made hundreds of friends. Many of them were dead now, age, disease, violence, accidents. But some were alive.
And some of them had access to really good medkits. And one of those friends also happened to be holding onto a locker of my stuff, and my favorite snacks. And I really needed a treat. And a really, really big gun...
Plan formed!
No! No plan not formed. I didn’t have a descriptive book for this world, let alone a linking book. If I left I couldn’t get back!
Wait… Didn’t I give Twilight my beacon book?
Yes! Yes I did.
I closed my eyes, focusing the last of my energy on one more change. It took several moments, but eventually the twin disks washed over me, burning the draconic form away and putting me back into the pegasi body I prefered.
I felt my chest instantly start to burn. No pain damping in this body. I had seconds.
I ripped off my saddlebags, threw them on the ground in front of me, tore open the side pouch, and quickly grabbed the mud colored cloth bound book, and opened it.
Realizing that I wasn’t going to be able to focus well enough to arrive exactly where I wanted, I tapped the first page, and whispered her name, hoping that would be enough.
“Nora…”
The world turned white. I could hear the faint, muted sound of cheerful music. Something smelled like muffins. Muffins, rust, and cotton candy. It smelled like Heaven.
Oh no… I just died, did didn't I? There hadn’t been enough time… Darn it!
“Holy fuck!” A woman’s voice exclaimed through about four inches of bus station speaker. “Derps, don’t materialize on a girl’s lunch like- WOAH! Curie, stims, now!”
Oh good. I made it.
Maybe. I remembered Curie being really slow to fetch medicine…
Crud. I could still die here.
Wait, is Nora hugging me? Something is squeezing-
Twilight Sparkle - Day 16
South Jungle - The Island
The heat of the flames singed my fur as we ran. I’d been near dragon fire before, this wasn’t anything like it. It wasn’t as hot, but it stuck to things like glue. There was no splatter or flow of the fire. Where the dragon breathed, the flames stuck and burned. Even when the trees had been reduced to ash.
Oh and did they ever turn to ash. Everything behind us was bare earth, ash filled air, and fire that burned things to nothing supernaturally fast! Sure a small patch of trees still existed around the purple dragon’s feet, but the entire three kilometers between us and it were just gone.
No Equestrian dragon could spit flames that far. I wasn’t even sure how arcane or natural physics could allow for that kind of range on the spray of a fluid. Austin had no idea either. He’d only designed the dragons organic systems.
Well, not really. His designs had been scaled up and reworked to be grown around a mechanical skeleton. The original dragon he’d made was the size of a house cat and acted like a puppy.
He had no idea who designed the other dragon. Nor where the hay did that second dragon come from?! I could only thank the stars it seemed to object to big purple’s presence. Not that it seemed to stand a chance.
I looked back over my shoulder and winced as I saw the purple monstrosity shrug the gray dragon off its back like some kind of minor irritation.
I felt sorry for the comparatively little thing. Particularly when I saw it smash groin first into the trunk of a tree just before I turned back to watch the ground ahead of me. Though not as sorry as I’d felt for us.
I looked back often. I had to I needed to gauge how much distance we had between us and the monsters.
We were close enough to Nyota’s house for me to make out the neon green hexical shield over it. I recognised that style. That was Sky Trigger. He’d brought his tech toys.
“Oh please have brought your collateral damage multipliers!” I begged, hope putting on a fresh burst of speed as I ran for the shimmering force field.
I’d be able to pass through it. His computers already knew my biosignature. We could get a quick scan of everyone else and be safe inside the shield!
“Who brought what?” Nyota and Austin asked in unison.
“Shield! Green, made of hexes. That’s Sky Trigger,” I explained. “Big fan of Mecha. Helps design them for neighpon. I really really really hope he brought the one that leveled half of Sweet Apple Acres that one time!”
Then again, if he had, I think he’d already be using it… DANG IT!
The dragon screamed. Not a roar, a scream. Not a scared scream, an angry one. One which may as well have been a sentence. Specifically, “I AM ANGRY THAT YOU ARE NOT DEAD YET!”
I suddenly discovered that I wasn’t running quite as fast as I could. My hooves bit into the earth, gouging out chunks of dirt as I practically jumped with each step, ducking around the last few trees before the clearing the house sat within.
We were so close!
We could make this!
My lungs started to burn, the extra speed coming at a visible and instant cost to my immediate health. The Dragon screamed again, the ground shaking as it began to run forwards, giving up on burning us to death in favor of a charge and chew.
No one made a sound as we ran full tilt. No one had enough air to speak, or even squeak. There was running. Running was the world. Just running and the dragon.
We must exceed its velocity along this trajectory. Or die.
I had some vague notion of beams of light flying overhead. Something was going boom a lot. Thing were happening around me. I didn’t care.
I had to run.
The earth shook more and more. Seeming to buck and heave as the impossibly massive bulk behind us sprinted ever closer. The dome shield creeped up, moving closer and closer but only millimeters at a time.
Suddenly I hit the shield, passing through the protective barrier like running through a wall of jello. I immediately collapsed to the ground, chest heaving like mad, vision blurry and gray. The sprint had taken far too much out of me to be aware of my surroundings.
We’d covered five kilometers in what, nine minutes or so? That had to be a world record. They say motivation is key to those kinds of things.
My legs. I couldn’t feel my legs… I just needed to close my eyes for a few minutes. That’s all…
Suddenly something sharp jabbed me in my right flank. Feeling spread across my body like a wave of fire. My EVERYTHING was sore! Literally everything. Even muscles that shouldn’t have been involved in running.
My vision cleared in time to see an emerald shelled changeling tucking a small syringe away into a medical kit. It took me a few seconds to recognise her as Sky’s sister Ayna.
“Get up!” Ay said urgently. “Your friends are safe. We need another gunner.”
I blinked a few times, the ringing leaving my ears, allowing me to hear the crackle of flames and the roar of wind. I looked up, and recoiled in terror. The Dragon was hanged over the shield, clawing at the outside while spitting fire down on top. And the shield seemed to be slowly dimming under the torrent of flame.
“It’s actually INJECTING energy into the system… Two of the fusion plants have already overloaded,” Ayna said nervously as she glanced up at the dragon as well.
“What kind of fire even is that!?” I demanded as I stood up. “And what did you inject me with? I have allergies to several-”
“Just epinephrine,” Ayna interrupted. “I have no idea what that is but it is NOT fire. No matter what it looks like. That monster is draining shield power faster than a particle lance mounted to a tank. We’ve got the portal up, your friends are already through it. But Roxie’s a problem.”
I nodded. “Right, because she’s huge… What are you doing? Why didn’t you wake me sooner?” I asked looking around for anypony else I’d been running with. Did we all make it?
My eyes widened in horror as I realized the only people here were Ayna and myself.
“Where’s Nye!” I demanded, grabbing Ay buy her barrel desperately. “The zebra mare I was with, where is she!?”
“In the hive,” Ayna replied as soothingly a she could manage, clearly sensing our relationship. “She’ll live. That run almost killed her. Irregular heartbeat, shallow breathing. All of you pushed yourselves too hard.”
“T-then why am I here still?” I asked with a frown. “And you’re CERTAIN she’ll be fine?”
“Completely. Lily’s on it,” Ayna replied. “You’re here because Alicorn. You were fine, just unconscious. We were hoping you’d get back up after a few moments because we need more hooves to help get Roxie out of here!” She stated before pointing urgently to the roof. “Fly up there! I’m throwing a teleport pad together so we can beam Roxie through the portal. She’s going last in case that collapses everything. Lotta energy to move at once for a small temp portal.
“We need someone to fire my positron cannon, anyone can do it, but everyone else was physically injured. We had to send them through for medical care and Roxie is too big to use the weapon. You were just exhausted, hence the epi-shot.
“Go! Shoot it! The only thing that seemed to even bug it was blasting it with my canon, Sky’s siege cannon, and lyra’s railgun in the same spot, in that sequence. We need seven more minutes!”
“Right!” I acknowledged with a nod, opening my wings and taking off, quickly soaring to the top of the roof.
I landed at the edge, wobbling slightly as my legs protested the sudden impact.
Sky waved to me with one hoof, the singed orange stallion had to take his hoof off of the massive, underslung, two pronged energy-weapon he held to do so, causing the weapon to dip slightly.
Thank goodness he didn’t fire.
“Hey, Twi. Long time no see. Gotta say, worst vacation spot ever,” he joked before nodding to a discarded tube of a weapon laying on the roof a few feet from him.
“Grab that and help blast this thing. If we annoy it enough, it stops breathing that super-fire bullshit,” he added before putting his hoof back on his weapon’s grip, aiming it towards the dragon and firing.
The weapon barked, sending a white-blue plasma bolt into the dragon’s face, trailing a vortex of ionized gas behind it the entire way. A genuinely beautiful display of energy control, in the form of a powerful deadly weapon.
Show off…
“Hi, Twi. I see you got your Alicorn mane while you were here. That’s cool! Sorry you have to help with your own rescue. Is it always like this here? With The kaiju type dragons and all?” Lyra asked in between taking three shots with her large, over-teched limbless crossbow.
“Sort of, yeah. We can talk later,” I said to Lyra as I ran over and scooped up the simple tube like weapon.
I couldn’t help but appreciate the design being so simple that I instantly saw how you were supposed to hold, aim, and fire it… But it still felt bland. Unrefined. No more than it needed to be, but less than it could be.
“What is this and how do I use it?” I asked Sky, just to be safe.
“Positron cannon. Ayna’s design. DO NOT accidently hit anything you DON'T want to atomicly annihilate,” Sky said before taking a shot. “It’s got a meter sphere area of effect on impact. Each shot depletes a helium canister. They eject out the back. Ay has… Um, eight more canisters in her bag there. Make each one count. Hit the head. I’ll hit right after you, then Lyra. That seems to hurt it a bit.”
I nodded and slid the bag closer to me with a rear hoof, then balanced on three legs to rest the cannon on my left shoulder to take aim. The weapon’s simplicity felt almost elegant in a way. There were no distractions at all for me as I lined the weapon up, and squeezed the trigger with the my left hoof.
The weapon pulsed, sending a beam of blue energy flying up into the dragon’s face. I couldn’t see how much damage it did through the crackling flames, but the monster hissed in pain. I’d hurt it.
Sky fired a split second later, followed by Lyra. The beast roared again, it’s talons smashing into the shield, enraged beyond the concept of madness at it’s failure to kill us. Then the unthinkable happened. A hardlight tile cracked.
“WOAH!” Sky yelped, eyes widening in terror. “It- it’s flames are hardening the- but- I- INCONCEIVABLE!”
“KILL IT!” I snapped, grabbing another canister from the bag and quickly reloading the weapon.
Lyra and Sky blinked in surprise at my outburst.
“Never thought I’d hear you say we should kill something,” Sky said, shaking his head to focus on aiming his weapon again.
“This isn’t Equestria, it’s not a pacifist's paradise. This is nature! That’s a monster, we’re food, and we’re trapped!” I shouted, shouldering the cannon again. “Fire!”
We poured everything we had into the dragon. Each volley getting more and more anger and fury from the beast. Each roar brought more savage smashes. Each smash cracked more of the hardlight panels.
I could hear the shield cackle and shriek as the flames continued to pour over it, their alien properties stripping more and more protection away by the second.
No wonder pirates wanted to harm this company. They made doomsday weapons.
The shield was depleting, but it was holding, and still allowing our shots to pass through. It was doing its job despite the beating it was taking.
Perhaps if we’d had more ammunition, we could have done something…
“Last canister,” I called loudly.
“Shit!” Sky swore. “I knew we should have packed more of them. There’s no time to try to refill them!”
Lyra took a deep breath, shouting as loudly as she could to make her voice heard over the Dragon’s enraged screeches. “AYNA! THAT TELEPORTER BETTER BE DONE!”
“FIVE MINUTES! LITERALLY JUST FIVE! I’M CALIBRATING! I CAN SEE THE TIMER!” Ayna shouted back, her voice tinged with genuine panic.
“We’re screwed…” Lyra mumbled.
Sky shook his head. “We told Roxie we would try our best. We’ll wait till the last moment. The shield may hold out long enough… If not, we’ll have to leave her behind. But we’ll stay till the end. Understood?”
I nodded. “I understand. I just met her, but I won't abandon her unless we have to… I assume we already tried enlarging the portal?”
Sky nodded. “Yeah. Ay thinks she can but she’s not sure if it’s safe to travel through it after she does. Roxie has that option still. But it’s probably suicide.
“Damn it all! We were slowing it down. It wasn’t striking for a second or three after we hit it. And volley three interrupted it’s flames… Grah! I hate running out of supplies.”
“Let’s make this last one count… Aim for the back of it’s mouth. Let’s shut that fire off for a bit,” I decided, shouldering my cannon to take aim.
I squinted through the scope, tilting my head back and-
WHITE!
“AAA!” I yelped, blinking my eye to clear the camera flash like flare from my eye.
The white flash cleared to reveal, Derpy!? But- but she couldn't teleport!
Oh, right that book she gave me. Teleport books. How did I not know about those sooner?
The gray pegasus mare was shaking, as if she’d had far too many cups of coffee. A definitely old, very much not sterile and from age bandage was wrapped around her barrel. Two IV bags full of blood were crudely duct taped onto the bandage, and hooked into her left foreleg near the shoulder, right into a major artery via more duct tape and some old needles which looked more appropriate for heroin use than medicine.
She’d been hurt bad, and gotten some medical attention from a very, very crummy doctor. Or maybe a doctor who was very, very badly in need of fresh supplies. But that wasn’t what shocked me.
She was also glowing a light neon blue. Literally. As if she was a pony fur costume over a neon sign. She just stood there like that. Glowing the same blue as the grimy, tattered duffle bag held under her right wing.
Wait, w- But… But that bag had the same logo as Sky’s bag. A small circle with three little ‘wing marks’ on each side. Was there some kind of outlet I had never seen before? I swore Rarity took me to all the malls in Equestria.
“Derpy, where were you? ” Sky asked urgently. “And where did you get a Vault-Tec duffel? Did I make that for you? Why are you glowing light blue!?”
“I went to get supplies from a friend. I was hurt super bad so she tossed me into a river of Nuka Cola Quantum. It’s a healing potion for pegasi as well as a great soft drink! Side effects include glowing sweat! Use your glowing sweat to fuel SWEET RAVE PARTIES!” Derpy shouted, waving her forelegs excitedly. “Also glowing pee. Strontium ninety, it’s what plants crave!”
“Um… How hurt were you?” I asked worriedly, concerned she might have sever head trauma.
“I’m also on seventeen shots of morphine, WOOOOOO! Oh! And assorted other drugs too. LETS FINISH THIS DRAGON OFF!” Derpy shouted, turning to actually charge the colossal monster!
Then skidded to a halt at the edge of the roof, her wings refusing to move more than in little twitching motions. “Woah, I shouldn’t fly right now!”
“Are you okay to fight right now?” Lyra asked with an extra worried frown.
“YEP!” Derpy giggled. “I’m just a little bit UNCOMFORTABLY ENERGETIC! Let’s go before I crash. Oh wait, Quantum doesnt make you crash. It makes you make other people crash! HAHAHAHAHA! Ignore that, that’s the stimpacks and the blood transfusion from a human talking. I lost almost all of mine. I shouldn'ta done that, but I did. My bad! I’m going to need a non-wasteland hospital in like an hour because I’m pretty sure half these meds are expired by like two hundred years. Please don’t forget that!
“Oh! Lyra! My friend Nora gave me some pants to give to you, cuz I write all my former special someponies and send them pictures of my new friends and things and she thought you’d look cute in them, remind me later. Just FYI! OH CRAP THAT DRAGON IS CLOSE!”
I shook my head rapidly to get the confusion out and then demanded, “What the heck were you injected with? Liquid Pinkie Pie!?”
The shield shrieked, cracking more, this time a few tongues of flame oozed through the crack, the burning liquid dripping down onto the ruined roof. Lighting it on fire.
Lighting the metal. On. Fire.
“The buck does it breathe!? Chlorine trifluoride, post steroid abuse!?” I demanded of reality.
“Everyone focus!” Sky snapped, wings flared in a mixture of anger and fear. “We need to hold it off! The second Ay gets that teleport pad made for Roxie she has to use it. If the dragon touches it while it’s open it’s going to be beamed straight into my lab! That’s unacceptable!”
“Concentrate your fire! It’s closer, we’ll have more punch. Aim for the head,” Lyra instructed urgently.
Derpy shook her head three times and set down her duffle bag. “No! Aim for the chest. Make a big hole right in the chest I got this!” She promised with a grin and a twitching lazy eye.
She quickly unzipped her bag and pulled out a large shoulder fired weapon. Maybe?
I had no idea what that thing was. It looked like the bottom half of a bazooka, but made from a set of three steel rails. Which held in some kind of sled? An air pressure driven sled if the gas cylinder mounted to the side and the pressure gauge were any indication.
“Is that… Some kind of catapult?” I asked, raising an eyebrow since I didn’t really know how to properly express the sheer amount of ‘what makes you think this will work?’ my brain wanted to scream at her.
Sky turned his head, noticing the weapon, and pausing ears falling flat in pure terror. “Uhhhh…. Derpy, so, infinite universes means everything is real somewhere, I’m not surprised that those exist, and while I really loved that in the form of a video game weapon, please don’t fire a two hundred and fifty year old nuclear catapult within line of sight of me!”
“Don’t worry! The ammo’s only five years old,” Derpy said with a soothing smile as she removed a football-like warhead from her bag and set it on the sled.
A bright, cherry red, cartoonish bomb type warhead, with a bright blue glowing stripe below the nose cone, complete with an angry frowny face painted on it, and ‘You shouldn’t have hurt my Muffin but you did.’, ‘I have hundreds of these. All for you!’, ‘Make America glow again!’, and ‘You’ve made poor life choices.’ painted on the fins.
“You three blow a big chunk out of that monster, and I put this thing right in that hole and we blow it clean in two! That will do the trick,” Derpy said confidently as she shouldered the weapon.
“If we have a really big bomb, we may as well use it,” Lyra urged, pointing with one hoof to the widening crack, more and more of the liquid flame pouring through as time passed.
Sky took a deep hissing breath. “Yeah… Okay. But don't miss! My personal shields are good but I don't want to test them out with that thing eating through hardlight!”
I nodded and leveled my borrowed cannon once more. It only took a moment to take aim at the center of the hunched over dragon’s chest. “Ready!” I called.
I heard the sound of everypony adjusting position.
“Aim!” I called, just to be sure everyone was on target and not just ready to shot again. “Fire!”
My cannon blasted once more, the beam lancing out and striking the dragon squarely in the chest, vaporizing a patch of scales. The scales immediately started to grow back, but Sky’s shot slammed into the regenerating tissue, blasting the thick under-scale armoring away. Lyra’s railgun cracked, the bolt striking a millisecond after Sky’s shot, blowing a deep hole in the muscle.
Thump, went Derpy’s oddball weapon.
I frowned. That didn’t sound very powerfu-
The warhead actually screamed as it flew through the air. It moved slowly enough to trek across the sky, sailing right into the closing hole like a fast pitch softball where it detonated in a flash of blue flames and an unholy rumbling THOOOM!
Blue flames that surged outwards, sending a visible shockwave through the air, and a small mushroom shaped cloud up into the sky.
Chunks of burning meat rained down, bouncing off the shield like grotesque hail stones.
The dragon’s hindquarters slid down one side of the shield’s dome. It’s head and neck slid down the opposite side. I couldn’t tell where the forelegs were, but the steel ribs which had made up its ribcage were currently clattering down the hill or embedded in the ground on the edge of the shield.
I let out a deep breath in relief. It was over. Thank Celestia, it was over.
“Problem solved!” Derpy giggled before laying down. “Okay… I’m going to not move now. I’d like another doctor please. And a full detox.”
“Yeah, that’s why I didn’t want her to shoot that… Those launchers misfire a lot in the games…” Sky mumbled half to himself.
Derpy curled up in a little ball, hissing in pain as something wore off.
“We'll get you to a doctor, Derpy. Twi, go ahead and walk on through the portal. It will take you right to my laboratory. Don't wander around, I’ll be right there as soon as we can get Roxie through, then we’ll go to Canterlot and let everypony know you’re okay,” Sky said, forming the plan as he spoke.
“I’d love that. But we’re making sure Nyota is okay first Celestia can wait another five minutes… And I imagine my friends will want to meet my marefriend if she can stand up,” I said with a smile. “Where’s the portal?”
Sky and Lyra looked at each other. “Marefriend?” They asked one another.
I nodded. “Yes… Long story. Flash didn’t want me to go through his death alone. He kept trying to get me to form a temporary herd with anypony else so I’d have emotional support. I never did… But um, well, turns out my mother’s a changeling so I actually need love and well… I like humanoids. They’re cute.”
Lyra beamed me the widest smile ever. “I know right!?”
I nodded again. “Mhm. So um, where’s the portal?” I asked Sky.
“Down the hole in the roof in the big room. No internal walls, can't miss it. You go ahead, I’m going to give Derpy basic first aid before we move her,” Sky said as he slipped a medical kit out of his bag.
“You’ll need help holding her down. I’ve seen mares coming off huge drug doses before,” Lyra said grimly. “Not medical ones, but she mentioned they were expired sooo… Yeah.”
I paused, considering staying to make sure they were okay and Roxie got through. But then again, my home waited for me, Nyota was hurt and on the other side already, and I was sick and tired of living in stress land…
I nodded and spread my wings to jump down to the ground floor. “See you on the other side, everyone.”
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*ANOTHER EPIC GUITAR RIFF*
Time for another cliff hanger. Glad Sky makes excellent shields. Derpy's little toy reminds me of Davy Crockett which also needs something like Sky's shield to use. Shoulder launched nukes aren't just a game thing
8221153 I’m well aware of the M28 Davy Crockett. The M28, brought to you by the scientific use of COCAINE!
8221162. Didn't know that last bit. Fun times
I am kind of glad it turned out to be impractical weapon. Though Sky's shields would help greatly
Pretty good chapter......also it's looks like end is nearly,well i was hope for some destruction/reality this corporation......maybe that pirates attack will do that job
Let's hope
8221163 They would probably have been overwhelmed in this case. That wasn’t a standard warhead.
8221172 Well, if it helps you feel better, loosing the station is a massive loss for the company, and deploying a bio-weapon to contain a prison riot in what’s advertised as a reform center isn’t good PR. So they are hurt by this. And Green is 120% fired at the very least.
8221173
Can I still wish more of the Traadons had went through the portal
8221176
8221187
........
I like it😁
8221184 They got one. Lily can make more if Chip wants friends and Austin wont play ball.
AS PS considering Derpys reaction I am extremely happy Pinkie Pie does not have access to Nuka Cola Quantum
8221206 It’s not normally that bad. She’s got a great tolerance (it’s her favorite drink, she pops back to Nora’s for a case every week), but the other drugs in her system at the time made it tact like her first time again.
Fun fact, the glowing sweat and urine are cannon side effects of Nuka Cola Quantum. It also has a mortality rate of 4% >.> Good thing it’s not dangerous at all for pones.
8221217
All logical well at least why it affected Derpy like that. Still don't want to see how it would affect Pinkie Pie
8221226 Probably like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq7YI4HY7yo
8221227
Nah, then no one would be there to party with her. Not at the same effective temporal displacement. That would make for a sad Pinkie
A desperate escape through the jungle while a giant machine of terror and death is on your heels. Mega Cute can't stop Giga Destructor 9000. Build more nukes!
So Twily must be really out of it not to realise it's Derpy. Well, at least I imagined get dragon form as Derpy with claws, scales, bigger teeth, scaled tail and metallic. But still Derpy
Damn, that's a tough monster. I wonder, does Twilight have anything that can fight that, if using the psi crown? I mean, I doubt it was worse than Tirek. I hope
I can just see an infuriated Lilly screaming at then for getting Derpy so banged up...
Aaaand now I can see her and Roxy doing a cute hat competition. That becomes a draconic fever in equestria. Because why not? It's Tuesday in ponyville, after all!
Oh, and spike now has a dragon friend in his town!
8221293
That’s exactly hwo she looks. but remember, Twi is scared out of her mind right then. A bit of mental slippage is 100% understandable. She’ll probably be snuggling up to Nye a night or two from now then sit bolt up right and “OH MY CELESTIA, DERPY IS A DRAGON!”
With her magic, Twi could have defeated it with a good deal of effort. It’s as dangerous as Tirek physically, but it’s just an animal. It’s not smart enough to understand complex strategy.
“Why is everything covered in lovecraftian horros made from frosting!?”
“it’s ponyville.”
“Oh. But why is nopony reacting to it!?”
“It’s ponyville.”
“Oh.”
He’s got Ember. Dragon Emperors rule for 5 years then retire. She did not retire on good terms and left her people. She moved to Ponyville, since she knew a dragon lived there allready and that ponies would be chill with her. Then she Tsundered too hard after Spike matured and understood what kind of behavior that realy was and now they are a couple.
8221227 I was thinking more “Over the Hedge” or maybe take you pick of speedesters like the sequence in X-Men Apocalypse or worse and for some reason leaning more towards teh worse side.
All of y’all sitting here talking about Fallout’s gonna make me eventually try one of those games. Maybe.
8221328
Ponyville is getting quite scaly lately
I still want to see Snow dance on Rainbow, though
8221293
What are you talking about? Dash is a Speedster, remember? If anything, Pinkie would still be moving excruciatingly slow compared to her top speed. And also, Speedsters can share the Speed Force, so anyone Dash chooses could be accelerated. Leading to a "Slow-mo Party!"
Really? no one posted it? *sigh* kids these days not getting references.
Ok that purple...... that is not a dragon, but whatever it needs to get nerfed because OP!
Adorable dragon Derpy got injured, all the sad face. And we're back to fall out because EPIC!
Sky, you have a lab in a bag, BUILD A BIGGER GUN! you need like all the Daka with even more Daka attached to it! Nuke the damn thing! ...oh wait.
Quantum Derpy is funny, that is all.
I feel we here getting near the end here, but I hope we get some 'down time' for everyone before the end, Chip meeting his new parents, Nye getting introduced around, not to mention Twilight getting filled in on what happened while she was MIA
8221716 Who do you think came up with those chapter titles, hmmm? They weren't originally that, you know...
Also, the Gauss Cannon in Siege Mode is pretty fucking good for a heavy weapon in what is tandem mount to an emergency kit.
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/doom/images/1/1f/Doom4_Codex_GaussCannon.png/revision/latest?cb=20160601095102
It's official description has it as a railgun that shoots a steel flechette a high speed, and the siege mode adds a beam component to it. I extrapolated that out and replaced it with a 1kg tungsten rod. And from the appearance of the siege mode (A plasma ring that the round fires through), it appears that the magnetic field applied to to projectile is causing the plasma to stick to it as it flies through, dragging a beam of plasma along with it. Basically turning it into a hybrid linear accelerator/plasma cannon.
After a big adventure, nothing's better than settling down home and taking a rest.
8221690
that would be as hilarious as it would be batshit insane. And it would make pinks happy like no other. I aprove!
8221745
Hmm unless it diverted considerable energy to the plasma I don't think it would make for more than cosmetic effect (when in comparison with the projectile itself). Either that or you can't actually use most of your available energy to shoot the rod and then just use the rest to be (more) awesome instead
8221745
Lets try 180mm tungsten.
i.ytimg.com/vi/xFDDxj0KGWo/maxresdefault.jpg
8221406 Well, while I have my problems with Fallout 4 due to it not being an RPG, but an FPS with RPG elements (much like how Skyrim is not an RPG, its a dungeon Crawler with minimal RPG elements) I do recommend that you start with it, and if you like it, then work backwards with the series. The order isn't important because only 1 and 2 are direct sequels to each other. Everything else is an independent story thing.
8221716
It's not OP. It's designed to be dropped from orbit to completely wreck defensive lines. it's a world breaker bio weapon. They were trying to fight something with inappropriate equipment. It's like playing NWN 1 and trying to fight the final boss with the same enchanted sword you beat the boss o Chapter 1 with.
This tames time.
Most of that was morphine. She's allergic to it.
THere will be some of this.
Well, that's another notch in the success column for fissile problem solvers.
8221328
Neat tidbits about Ember I would've assumed considering how they age a dragon Lord would reign longer than 5yrs. That's nothing to a dragon
8222149 I'll probably take that advice. My issue is, I stumbled across Fallout: Equestria way back when the fandom was young, and that gave me a reason to completely ignore the games for the most part. So... yea.
8222226 That's the point. Every dragon gets their 'day in charge'. Eventualy only those who the others like as leader are left in the pool (along ith new comers) and you ahve power regularly rotating between individuals who have earned the crown by merit as a ruler, usually 4-5 dragons. ALso if the Emperor can keep their crown through physical force, they can go another 5 years.
8222258 The games are fun. The stories are depressing.
8221914 You have to stop thinking of the plasma as a projectile. While it does have mass and will do some impact damage, it is still an ionized gas. The key point of plasma is it's FUCKING HOT! Like, the kind these weapons use are in the millions of degrees. So the point of a plasma weapon isn't to blow holes in something, its to impart a lot of energy into it, and in case of flesh, flash boil it. The benefit to the Gauss Cannon becomes evident. The projectile is still a large mass traveling at mach 6, that is going to do all your impact damage, and blow a hole into whatever you are shooting. Then the plasma component is added to it, superheating the impact area as it is not only coating the round, but a large amount of it is trailing behind it, like a plasma beam. In the case of the dragon, it serves to flash boil its flesh and blow a bigger hole into it. By adding that, you basically add a plasma cannon into the railgun, piggybacking off the projectile already fired to accelerate the plasma, instead of its own mechanism.
Allow me to illustrate. (It actually uses twice as much plasma ammo)
8222524
Plasma is so hot I'm not sure there is enough time to boil before it vaporizes. Unless its designed to handle it or extremely tough
8222524
The projectile I was referring to was the tungsten rod, not the plasma itself. But then again, I was considering how much efficiently you could impart speed to the rod. Plasma does seem like a nice addition once you hit heavy diminishing returns - the point said (rather awesome) gun must have reached a while ago. One must wonder, though, what kind of personal defenses such weapons were needed to breach
And now you made me imagine Lyra grinning and running like a psychopath fighting demons with siege weapons & shotguns. Thank, that's a cool as hell mental image
8222652 Oh Fennec, yer so silly. Plasma is the 4th state of mater, beyond a gas. A super energetic, ionized state of matter. Ever see lighting? The answer is no, you haven't. Not the actual electrical discharge anyway. What you see is the ionized air it travels through. A nitrogen/oxygen plasma. The plasma doesn't vaporize, it can only impart its energy to the matter around to reach a state of equilibrium (Maximum Entropy (Thermodynamics, YO!)). It does this mainly through conduction, and to a lesser extent, radiation (light and other high energy photons). If you got it inside you, which is the point of this fictional weapon, then all that energy has to go somewhere. And that where is the surrounding tissues. Especially the water, as it has a high heat capacity. But there is far to much energy, so the water flash boils. Basically it creates a steam explosion, as all that gas expands at high speed, same as any other explosion.
8222666 Sky makes fictional stuff real, for fun. So he(me) has the entire Doom armory. It just so happens that his(my) favorite weapon in that game is the Gauss Cannon, in siege mode. And in general, it's an effective means of blowing holes in just about anything. Including vehicles, and doors, and walls... And monsters...
The universe delivers.
Well that's not good. So much for it being anything like an even dragon versus dragon fight.
Ooooo, but Derpy dives in regardless on account of the risk to Twilight. Brave, and I suppose she does have fire support.
That seems fair.
Dang, so even the railgun and Anya's laser cannon thing are barely even scratching it? Yikes.
Cross dimensional help is a good plan. With the multiverse and a long history of adventuring connections to draw upon, there's gotta be something available that can do some lasting damage.
Also yikes.
Awesome.
Seven minutes is a lot of time in this sort of situation.
Neat.
Vault-tec gear, Quantum Cola, and now this? A mini-nuke just might work.
Time to finally go home.
That shit works. I've had a few times where I showed up horribly undergeared for a boss fight and started chugging Quantum the moment my Stims ran out.
Come to think of it my designated "oh crap time to heal" button currently has Nuka Cherry bound to it. I really need to resupply on stimpacks.
Hoo yeah, tell me about it. I almost swore them off after a few too many times when a stray bullet clipped the warhead the moment it left the launcher.
Derpy, did you bring...
YOU DID! Atta girl!
Time to light some candles!
*double-take* Well look at that. Somepony's not using ponyisms anymore. Too much time around humans in that LARPship they call a prison, I guess.