Chapter 10: Grind
Twilight Sparkle walked into the forest of Everfree, the surface structures of the Enclave behind her.
She was on something of a personal mission at the moment, out to see Sovereign and question him. Twilight could have been doing any number of things of much greater use to the conflict with the spirits, but seeing the fact she was pregnant she could hardly take the risks she used to. Despite the fact she knew she was being responsible, she still felt really uneasy about it.
‘There are ponies out there fighting and dying, over and over again to protect others,’ Twilight thought solemnly as she walked through the forest. ‘And here I am on a walk to have a talk. I shouldn’t feel this way - I know I shouldn’t - but I can’t help it. My friends are out there too, doing what they can to help and risking their lives… no, I have to stop thinking like this.’
Twilight shook her head clear; it was doing her no good thinking about how little danger she was in compared to everyone else in her life. And the last thing she needed was to start feeling bitter about her condition as well.
‘Besides, I know this is important,’ Twilight thought as she entered a wide open flower meadow. ‘So much kept happening but recently Sovereign regained his memories and no one has really taken advantage of that fact to really question him about how spirits work. Maybe if I write down everything I learn from him and then examine it, we’ll learn something important? It can’t hurt and we’re bound to learn something useful.’
The flower meadow Twilight entered was lush and peaceful, with butterflies filling the air and bumblebees buzzing about. The flowers were daisies and were so thickly grown they nearly completely covered the ground. In the center of the meadow was an old and massive oak with a mess of twisting, gnarled branches that formed a large canopy. Twilight went over to this tree and, as she approached, she saw an odd formation of wood wrapped around the base. It could have easily just been mistaken as some weird warping in the trunk had the shape suddenly not stood up at her approach.
The unicorn stepped under the comfortable shade of the great oak and found herself looking up at a timberwolf. The wooden construct and avatar for the forest spirit of the Everfree was massive and loomed over her; it would have easily been a highly frightening experience were it not for her own previous confrontations with terrifying things. She recalled that Emerald’s own experience with timberwolves was that they had been rather crude constructs early on. Looking at what appeared to be an actual wolf of incredible size but made of roots, moss and wood, it was clear Sovereign had refined them greatly. He wasn’t alone, either.
In the shadows of the curling, claw-like boughs of the great oak and shadowy form lounged the Nightmare.
“You have come, no doubt, to ply me with questions,” Sovereign spoke in an imperious tone. Initially he seemed dismissive and was even looking down his wooden snout at her. But something seemed to soften in his gaze and he turned down his head to look at her properly. “I suppose I should not mind. Very well, mortal treasure. Speak.”
“...I would like to ask some things about the nature of spirits.” Twilight initially found herself greatly unimpressed with Sovereign’s tone, but kept herself from openly reacting. “How they are born, how they grow up to become spirits and then ascend to becoming greater spirits.”
“To begin with the obvious, we are not flesh and blood as you are,” Sovereign said. “No spirit alive has a parent. We owe our existence to the nature of power itself, magic. A spirit is born as a mote of light in the spiritual realm. These sprites have no set time in which they grow up as mortals do.”
“So a spirit child can spend anywhere from a single day to a thousand years to reach the next stage of their life?” Twilight asked as she took down notes with a floating notepad and pen. “What triggers the next stage of their growth, then?”
“When the opportunity comes, a sprite may descend to the material world and form a connection with the world, specifically a small part of it,” Sovereign explained. “This may be anything in nature or really anything at all. The easiest elemental aspects to form an initial connection with are earth, fire, water and air. There are other, far more specific aspects but most spirits represent these four in some way.”
“Hmm… are there limits to this?” Twilight questioned as she continued to write down Sovereign’s words. “Is there any reason a spirit wouldn’t just try to attune themselves to as many aspects as possible?”
“I suppose if one wished they could try to form a connection with as many or all aspects of reality,” the Greater Spirit of the Everfree replied. “But in reality, to do this would be to draw yourself thin in trying to form a deeper connection with all aspects. Even with an immortal lifespan, your connections with the aspects would remain shallow in spite of your efforts. Along with this, the aspects themselves may conflict with one another and eternally interfere with attempts to deepen one’s connection with the other. One could form a connection with life and death but such specific and opposing aspects would ensure a forever shallow attunement. There are ways around this, however. Instead of forming a connection with life and death, far easier would be to attune yourself to the aspect of plague for it is a form of life that brings death.”
“Oh… so why did you choose your aspects, Sovereign?” Twilight asked.
“Hmmm… my words imply that one can simply choose their aspects, but it is only an example,” Sovereign retorted. “Rare is the being that has ever chosen their aspects. Even as a sprite, I only recall simply falling into the forest and being drawn to a tree. Which brings up the final issue of trying to attune yourself to too many aspects. When a spirit first forms a connection with an aspect, they will find themselves overwhelmed with the desire to embody it or correct the surroundings of their world according to the aspect. Even a being with the strongest of wills shall find themselves being overcome by their aspects at least once.”
“Interesting!” Twilight chirped brightly, smiling now that she was getting into it. “But that’s just regular spirits, isn’t it? What causes a spirit to become a greater spirit?”
“Quite simply, it is more of the same,” Sovereign stated.
“Hmm…” Twilight looked over her notes, more than willing to try to make an educated guess rather than insist Sovereign explain more. “If it is more of the same, then… to become a greater spirit, a regular spirit must acquire more power, either by forming connections with more aspects - but not too many - or by deepening what connections they have. Hmm… would it be possible they’d have to compete with one another over specific aspects? Likely if the aspect is part of a specific place like Horseshoe Bay of Baltimare or the Everfree, but not so much if it was something more abstract.”
“I am connected to two aspects; the aspect of forests and the aspect of freedom,” Sovereign offered. “My forest aspect is represented by the place I first arrived, the Everfree Forest, and thus is tied to a place, but my freedom aspect is the result of personal philosophy. It is therefore tied to no place, but being that it’s my aspect and the Everfree is my forest, my aspect of freedom is linked to it but not tied to it.”
“And the end result is a forest that resisted all attempts to tame it and refused to be restricted in any way.” Twilight nodded before frowning and looking up at Sovereign from her notes. “So the whole of Everfree is yours… but I’ve heard from Emerald that several other spirits make their home here. A hippocampus lives in a river and in the spiritual realm… neighboring the forest I suppose, in the section of the realm next to the forest, is a group of spirits with ties to singular elements making their home there. If all of the Everfree is yours, how are they able to live here?”
“Hmm… the little ones make homes in aspects alongside the forest,” Sovereign explained. “In the earth around my roots, in the wind blowing through my canopy and boughs, in the rivers and ponds and lakes, in the purging and renewing flames. Even the Nightmare makes her claim on the lonely shade beneath the leaves.”
“I can’t help but notice how… shy she is,” Twilight said as she looked directly at the shadowy mass of the Nightmare, only for her to fade away and reappear from behind a much more distant branch. “It seems a little strange that she put so much effort to awaken the other spirits only to just be here and avoid them.”
“The nature of the Nightmare means she desires solitude, but she is only fine with it so long as that solitude is willing,” Sovereign replied. “The moment the seclusion was enforced by the other spirits being forced into slumber, she was no longer comfortable with her isolation.”
“But there were spirits awake. Emerald told me the river spirit had managed to get through whatever put them to sleep,” Twilight protested. “Surely there are others throughout the world who managed to do the same!”
“She was uncomfortable. It was reason enough,” Sovereign retorted with finality.
“I suppose…” Twilight frowned as she looked back to her notes. “Back to the subject of greater spirits. You are one, obviously, but Discord isn’t one, is he?”
“Discord is a Primordial. It is a title that is beyond mere age, for he and his sister are the youngest of them,” Sovereign answered as Twilight mouthed, ‘Sister?’. “To be a Primordial is to be a spirit of such deep connection to your aspects that you could affect the whole planet if you tried. Discord did this once before.”
“Yes, I remember Emerald told me about how he smashed the continents of the world together when he was newly born,” Twilight replied with a frown.
“He was only able to do that because the Alicorn Empire had enforced such order upon the world that he was the only place that chaos could be,” Sovereign explained. “It is… incorrect to word it as if an aspect was a finite resource, but verbal meaning fails me… Discord was the concentrated core of a whole world’s chaos. For as long as he remained that core, he could do with the world as he wished.”
“We haven’t really seen or heard of any spirits of the level like Discord running around,” Twilight said with a strained smile before frowning again. “But then again, we haven’t seen Discord since before this conflict started, either. It makes me worry. I haven’t really thought of him as a friend as Fluttershy did, but I wouldn’t think he’d just disappear like this. I’ve seen the way he treats Fluttershy. I feel like he’d at the very least be around her home to make sure no spirits hurt her, but he’s just… gone.”
“It is not my place to make assumptions of one who I do not know,” Sovereign stated simply with an annoyed tone. “Do you have more questions? I feel proddings on the edges of my realm and must give retribution to those that dare test me.”
“No, I am okay for now,” Twilight waved off as she looked over her notes. “You’ve given me a lot to think about, Sovereign. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.”
“Hmph.”
Off in the treeline, a shadowy shape hid in the shadows under the canopy. It was a dark being like the Nightmare was, but unlike her its form was much more distinct and pony shaped, very much like a shadowy alicorn with glowing white eyes. It was staring off at the distant form of Twilight when it gave a startled gasp, barely avoiding a pair of jaws bursting forth from the ground.
“Begone, halfling mongrel,” Sovereign spoke in a low and dangerous tone, his voice echoing from all around, his eyes appearing on every tree.
“Wait! I am not here to-” The Pony of Shadows began only to gasp again when the roots burst forth with intent to impale and drag below. It was only thanks to it turning into a wisp of darkness and fading away that it avoided that fate.
“I do not care. Begone and do not return,” Sovereign stated, his apathy evident now that the intruder was gone.
Perhaps it would have been wiser to hear out the spirit. But the situation was complicated and currently such a move could be risky; not to him, specifically, but… his friend’s treasure was here and it would not do if something happened to her.
ALPHA
“Looking cool as ice over there, Dash!”
“Right back at ya, Dust!”
A vast formation of pegasi flew over Equestria. The vast majority of this formation was made up of Enclave equipped conscripts hardened by death and battle, but at the very lead was the Wonderbolts. Even for the Wonderbolts, desperate times called for desperate measures as they flew at the head of the formation with their most trained cadets in tow. Along with wearing either their Wonderbolt or cadet uniform, the Wonderbolts came equipped with Enclave gear like every other pegasus in the formation. Each one carried a rifle that was strapped to them with a harness enchanted to keep the rifle out of the way yet within reach if dropped. In small, compact packs on their backs were their emergency chutes, meant to go off on its own if the wearer fell to low altitudes at high speeds. And just between the wings was a small stone covered in runic sigils, the stasis stone meant to keep a body preserved so it could be potentially recovered and revived. Finally, strapped to their chest were half a dozen spirit strike grenades. Not everyone in the formation had these grenades, but the Wonderbolts and their cadets all came fully loaded with them.
Rainbow Dash flew in a v formation with her wingmates just behind the wing of actual Wonderbolts. It had always been her wish to fly with the Wonderbolts, to be a Wonderbolt. And now it seemed like it was coming true in the worst way possible. She had always thought her first time flying in her sleek blue and yellows would be above a cheering, appreciative crowd, not a raging battle below and one in the skies awaiting her. It wasn’t even the first time, either…
“Come on, Dash. Keep that grin up!” Lightning Dust encouraged. “Everyone’s counting on us to lead the way. We can’t look nervous while doing it.”
“I hear ya,” Dash said as she took a breath and bared her teeth in a way she hoped looked confident. It was just hard to pay attention to little things like facial expressions with the view she had.
Before the formation was a massive storm wall. The storm wall was raging out of control. Beneath it, hundreds of tornadoes tore up the land and lightning fell like rain, its deafening clamor resounding clearly over the many miles wide gap between it and the formation. But if all it was, was just a storm cloud gone out of control then all that would be needed was a good weather team and it’d be cleared up by the end of the hour. But within the churning mass of the storm wall, shapes occasionally appeared. The bodies of different animals made of clouds and swirling winds, glowing, glaring, hateful eyes staring out at them all.
A good weather team would be slaughtered here… had been slaughtered here.
The storm wall was essentially an enemy war machine - a weapon of mass destruction - and it was set to utterly ravage Equestria’s heartland if it wasn’t stopped.
‘We’ll stop it!’ Rainbow Dash thought as she returned the glares with one of her own. ‘No matter what, we’ll stop it! We don’t need Emerald to do everything and save us all the time. She can go out there and help everyone else in far off countries while we get the job done at home!’
“Rainbow Dash?” said a voice.
“Huh?” Dash said and looked about her, only to realize the voice had come from her radio. She pressed a hoof against her ear to reply. “Uhh, Dash here. Go ahead?”
“This is Simmons Howl of the gargoyles,” the voice introduced himself. “My wing is flying at the top of the formation.”
“Got a bird's eye view, huh?” Dash commented. “The Wonderbolts are front and center on this one.”
“My view is beaten only by spy satellites from up here,” Howl replied in good cheer. “I heard two of the Elements of Harmony were taking frontline roles in this one. It sounds rather busy down there, so I didn’t want to get in trouble with filling the line with a casual call. Though we have our own battle ahead of us, I am glad to be able to speak to you.”
“Well, I'm always happy to meet a fan!” Dash said with a grin Howl may or may not have seen. “Could use a distraction anyway.”
They weren’t the only ones clogging up the formation’s frequencies with chatter. Pegasi were having quiet, personal conversations with one another, praying they’ll either live or get revived to see another day, all trying to alay jitters for the fight to come. It wasn’t entirely allowed according to the protocol book Dash had given the barest of skims. But it wasn’t like the formation was made up of professional soldiers, either. The closest one could get to that was the Guard and the Wonderbolts, and they numbered very few amongst the greater forces of the formation.
“Indeed. I had in fact been hoping to catch you for quite a while now and challenge you to a race,” Howl said with a tone so lighthearted Dash could easily imagine the grin he had. “I, like the rest of my people, am quite capable of breaking the sound barrier. I had been so very interested to see if natural born talent can overcome engineered skill.”
“Ha! Well let me just tell you that Lightning Dust is faster than me and she is one of those podargy guys,” Dash said with no hesitation. “So if you are anything like her, then you are definitely faster. BUT! Don’t expect me to take that lying down! Even Lightning Dust has to work her butt off everyday just to try to maintain her lead, but I’m keeping up with her AND catching up!”
“That was the reaction I was hoping for!” Howl laughed. “But Lightning Dust isn’t entirely like me. She had her natural talent augmented by artificial strength. Whereas I am all artificial strength and skill. I had my power and skill from the moment I was born, unlike you and her. To be honest… I was hoping to race you, to give it my all and in the end… lose.”
“You want to lose?!” Rainbow Dash questioned incredulously.
“I am hoping to lose,” Howl clarified. “I will by no means simply give you the win. I want to put all my inborn power and skill against your natural talent and hard won strength and find myself wanting. What I want, Rainbow Dash, is to ignite my passions in such a race and loss and find that drive to push beyond my limits.”
“Oh, I see what you’re going on about now.” Dash nodded in genuine understanding. “Well when we get through this - all of this - we’ll have that race. Just you and me, big guy.”
“I am sincerely looking forward to it… I am already finding myself driven to survive to see that day come,” Howl said with an anticipatory growl to his voice.
For a long moment, Dash thought that was all the Gargoyle had to say, but eventually he spoke again.
“Those years ago when you realized you were destined for greater things - things greater than even the Wonderbolts - what did you think?” Howl asked.
“Huh…” Rainbow Dash blinked at the question before looking down at her chest where the Element of Loyalty hung from her neck. No one knew if it could even be used on its own here in Equestria, but the chance that it could save her life had been worth it in Celestia’s opinion. “Well, back then… back then I thought it was just meant to be. Of course someone as awesome as me was destined to be a hero! But over time I started to realize that big destiny came with a lot of weight, a lot of responsibility. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me! Sure, things are dangerous and everyone is relying on me to take on the brunt of it. I’ve got this element for a reason and I ain’t going to let anyone down! Not me, not my friends and not my home!”
“Well spoken, my friend!” Howl said with high spirits. “Now we just have to-”
There was a distant crackle and a blinding flash that Dash’s goggles just managed to block. The smell of ozone filled her nose and startled shouts of anger and dismay resounded from all around her. Dash turned to look to see dozens of pegasi fall from the sky, their forms still, charred black and smoking.
“THAT’S A NEW ONE!” Spitfire barked over the radio. “EVERYONE, EVASIVE MANEUVERS AND SPREAD THE FORMATION! DO NOT BUNCH UP!”
The formation rushed to do so and Rainbow Dash’s squadron of cadets followed suit. The flash happened again, but this time Dash had been able to see what exactly happened.
Off in the distant storm wall, the rain of lightning seemed to slow to a slightly less extreme rate. There was a build up of electrostatic energy so intense that it visibly surged and fought to be let loose. Then a face would appear in the clouds and open its mouth in a silent roar before a bolt of intense lighting would fling forth. It would fly in an instant towards the formation and hit someone before also instantly arching through dozens of nearby pegasi. Not only killing them instantly, but doing so in a way that almost guaranteed a permanent death.
Dash grit her teeth as her squadron of friends from the academy spread out just to ensure not all of them would die if one of them were hit. With her heart clenching in worry, she took one final glance down at the ground and the raging battle below.
‘Stay safe, AJ,’ Rainbow Dash thought grimly. ‘It would really suck if I got through this only to hear you didn’t.’
With that last thought, Dash focused on her maneuvers.
BETA
‘I wonder if I’ll get hurt or die this time,’ Pinkie thought as she followed her squad.
On the ground some miles away from a storm wall that was so large the distance might as well have been spitting range, a squad of ponies marched through the churned remains of a town. It was obviously the work of some jotun from the way the rubble had been crushed to pieces and mixed with gravel. They weren’t alone, as the rest of the company was scattered about the ruins, and besides that there was also a platoon of wolverine mercs supporting them.
‘Still haven’t seen another one of my sisters yet. Am I the only one in the army?’ Pinkie thought morosely. ‘Then again, that’s not something to want… I don’t know if I want to see my sisters or not.’
“Don’t fall too far behind, Pinkie!” a voice barked, snapping the earth pony mare out of her brooding. “You’re the one with the heavy armor and weapon, so you’re taking as much attention from the rest of us as possible! Celestia knows you’ve been lucky enough to manage that and live.”
“Sorry, Sarge,” Pinkie replied to an aggravated sigh of her commanding officer.
It didn’t help that said officer was actually the closest thing to actual military, having previously been part of the Guard. In Pinkie’s experience, the casual yet grimly cynical and sometimes cheerfully nihilistic atmosphere the army now had was a slap in the face to professional sensibilities the Guard had been trained in. Though that problem was also steadily solving itself as either the deaths and fighting broke the former Guards of their mentality or they just were permanently killed and thinned out.
“Like I said, stay in the middle,” the earth pony sergeant commanded as she pointed at her own suit of armor; the dragon scale mail was battered and scuffed from a long, unending deployment and even missing some pieces. Her rifle was in far better condition but still looked worn and scarred. “Not many ponies got that new, powered armor suit that you have. Fact, from what I hear the newest set of armor is just plate armor made of the same stuff the Warhounds wear. Not sure why you get the special treatment and get a special ordered suit of powered armor, but I’m taking advantage of it.”
“Yes, stay in the middle, got it,” Pinkie said tonelessly.
Some part of her wanted to feel both confused and guilty for the special treatment she had gotten. Here were her fellow soldiers slumming it up in their increasingly battered old rifles and dragon scale armor while she got top of the line gear. Her armor was powered and made of materials even harder than their scalemail. Her every movement was close to effortless despite being far more leaden down then they were. She had a heavy machine gun latched onto her armor via hardpoints and even had an underslung launcher for the full load of spirit strike grenades she was also given. They only had their regular bolt action rifles and only the sergeant had any grenades, and not as much as her. She should have been concerned, maybe even fearful about the fact her squad was so willing to throw her into the thick of it and draw as much attention as possible. Instead…
‘My sister is dead… will I die this time?’ Pinkie thought with little emotion, not even sadness. At the prospect of her death. ‘Though even if I die, chances are it won’t stick so why worry about it?’
CRUNCH
“What in Celestia was that?!” shouted one of her squadmates.
The sound had been like something meaty being smashed and torn, of bones being broken in great numbers all at once. They turned and focused on the origin of the sound from one of the rubble piles and cautiously climbed up to be met with a stomach churning sight.
It was a pegasus soldier.
The soldier had not only fallen from the sky, but their chute had been damaged and only succeeded in partially deploying. Then there was the smell; an unspeakable odor of flesh not only having been flash cooked, but even exploded and viscera exposed to open air from sheer tearing impact force with the ground. Besides that, there was no doubt there would be no revival from this death as the pegasus had obviously collided with the ground headfirst.
Pinkie looked up to see the sky steadily filling up with the successfully opened chutes of dozens of other pegasi. Her eyes widened and she only had an instant to avoid another pegasus body plummeting like a bullet right on top of her. This time the squad was treated to the sight of a flash cooked body hitting the ground at terminal velocity and not merely hearing it.
“Dear Celstia! Dear Celestia!” The sergeant backpedaled and started to lose her calm. This, of course, had the domino effect of making the rest of the squad start to lose their heads, too. Nearly all of them looked half about to scatter and try to find cover instead of continuing the search for enemy contacts in the area.
“What do I do…” Pinkie wondered aloud.
The pink armored mare was the only one not panicking. In fact, she was half thinking about how much effect the gristle was going to take to get out of the creases of her armor. She was hardly a trained military officer, though, and even someone that was supposed to be just that was also panicking. The most she knew right now was that she didn’t feel like panicking and started looking around her on the ground for enemies and in the sky for more dropping bodies.
‘Fighting has been sporadic,’ Pinkie thought as she kept both her head and weapon on a swivel. ‘Just… what was it called? Skirmishing? Yeah, that. It’s not been a full on assault from what I can tell, but it’s not like we on the ground can do anything about that storm cloud besides shooting blindly into the sky. Seems like what fighting we’ve had is just opportunistic cruelty. They didn’t have to smash up this town; the storm would have done that, but they did anyway.’
“All right… ALL RIGHT!” the Sergeant suddenly shouted to herself. She smacked the sides of her face with both hooves and shook her head. Once she did that, she looked around and scowled at the sight of her squad starting to completely break down.
“EVERYPONY GET BACK HERE! GET BACK HERE I SAI-”
Ratatatatatata!
From all around came the shouts of surprise and sudden gunfire from the rest of the platoon amongst the ruins. The ground shook and heaved beneath them as Pinkie looked about and saw shapes of animated elements tower above rubble piles. Her only warning of attack was the rubble pile she had been standing on start to shake greatly. She had barely managed to leap away when the ground exploded out from under her.
Following the explosion of earth and rubble, streams of water shot forth from the rubble piles all around and towards the origin of the explosion. Pinkie had time enough to spin around and see what was attacking them. Forming out of gathered water from the burst water tanks of destroyed homes, the hippocampi came into shape. A muscular toad took shape, its gullet bulging with visibly swirling water, eyes of whirlpools manically staring. It gave a singular, bone shaking croak before it suddenly spat a stream of water over the scattered squad. Pinkie had been lining up her gun but her eyes widened behind the lenses of her helmet and she shielded her weapon with her body.
The stream of water shredded near everything it hit like a chainsaw. Rubble, rock and dirt was obliterated and filled the air. The dragonscale armor of the pony soldiers actually held up fairly well but did nothing to protect from the sheer impact force, nor was the whole body protected. Pinkie heard her squad mates either sent flying to smash with bone crushing force into a rubble pile or had their body messily blasted out from within their armor.
Pinkie braced herself as much as she could, but even her power armor could only protect her from the impact force and not the fact it was enough to send her flying. Ears ringing from the force of the water trying to drill through her armor, Pinkie was just thankful she didn’t hit the ground so hard that she was buried. Looking around from her crater in a rubble pile made her swallow hard, however. Half the squad was down, most of which probably wasn’t coming back if the hollowed out suits of armor was any indication.
The armored mare grimaced and tried to get up as fast as she could when she saw the water spirit hadn’t turned its attention away from her. It was inhaling deeply and its belly bulged and shook as its watery contents swirled to high speed.
Fwoomp!
Pinkie blinked as she saw something sail into view and shoot neatly into the hippocampi's mouth. She saw a cylinder blur into spinning circles within the belly of the spirit for an instant before there was a flash of ethereal light. Pinkie heard an agonized croak cut short and felt an explosion of energy from the death of a spirit. Next came the water; not as focused and dangerous as the stream, but it had her rolling across the ground from the force of it.
Soon Pinkie found herself lying on her back, for some reason breathless despite the fact all she did was get thrown around. A second later, half a dozen towering, blurry shapes surrounded her.
“Hail, friend!” said one of the shapes.
The armored mare’s vision cleared after a moment and she found that she was surrounded by a circle of wolverines wielding heavy weapons and wearing bioplate armor. Pinkie wasn’t sure what to think about the mercenaries, but right this moment she was concerned about the state of her squad.
“My squad, are they…?” Pinkie began and rolled over. She was helped onto her hooves by one of the wolverines. Looking around, she found that half her squad was definitely dead while another third was badly wounded.
“Pinkie…” a voice said weakly.
“Sarge?” Pinkie said and saw one of her still unharmed squadmates dragging their commanding officer to her.
“You… you were supposed to draw attention from us…” Pinkie heard and quickly trotted over and frowned when she saw the missing forelimb and how the Sergeant seemed to be missing most of her face.
“S-sorry, Sarge.” Pinkie wasn’t sure why she was feeling upset right now. The Sergeant wasn’t looking too good, sure, and probably was going to die but that wasn’t an issue anymore. Her Sergeant just looked like she was dealing with severe blood loss and not any real head trauma. She’d be back and probably with a better leg.
So why did watching her dying hurt so much?
“Had a plan…” Sarge mumbled as her eyes started to glaze. “You were going to stand there in that shining armor… loud gun… getting their attention. While they were busy, we’d circle around and shoot them from behind. But… I panicked… they panicked… I…”
“Rest in peace, sergeant,” Pinkie’s squadmate muttered as their officer breathed her last and he applied the stasis stone to her chest. “You deserve a break. We’ll bring you back with the wounded and have a good ole hot meal, you’ll see. Sides, sounding like the fighting is dying down.”
Pinkie looked up and around. The sounds of gunfire and explosions were sounding increasingly distant and she didn’t see the usual towering shapes of spirits, so obviously they were winning, not losing this time. She looked at her remaining squad and judged that even if the Sergeant was the only dead worth carrying back, they still didn’t have the numbers to carry both her and the wounded. Looking towards the wolverines who were currently checking their gear, she nodded to herself and approached them.
As she noted before, the Wolverines were wearing bioplate armor - plated armor made of the same material the Warhound power armor was made of. They were all utilizing their greater strength to be armed with heavy weapons as well. Most had a heavy machine gun that looked like it should have been planted on the ground or mounted to something and were carried. Two, however, had an oversized grenade launcher with box-fed rounds.
“Hello,” Pinkie greeted the towering mercs. “We don’t have enough abled bodied ponies still standing to-”
Suddenly there was an earth shaking rumble so violent that even Pinkie in her power armor struggled to maintain balance. Her vision suddenly blurred and she felt herself go flying, the internal speakers in her armor crackled and popped as they filtered noise of dangerous volume. Even with her armor trying to protect her, she practically felt the noise through her armor as she tumbled and landed hard.
The armored mare, adrenaline coursing through her veins, quickly lept up onto her hooves and took stock of her surroundings.
The land was torn apart, rock ridges of spike-like stone formations lined the land in a way that, had Pinkie had a bird’s eye view, would have been seen as a spiral. Bodies were everywhere, still, obviously dead and stirring painfully to life. And coiled upon a newly formed stone pillar was a king cobra of immense size, body of copper from raw ore to pure metal of both oxidized green and shining, reddish brown.
Hissing in contempt of all around it, the cobra rapidly unwound the end of its tail and lashed out. Distant screams filled the air and were rapidly drowned out by the deafening crashing of the earth being split open. With another hiss, the cobra suddenly spat a stream of molten copper and this time the screams lasted much longer.
‘No one’s shooting,’ Pinkie thought, breath coming fast and hard. ‘Why is no one shooting at it? Why am I not shooting at it?’
Without another thought, not even checking to see if her weapon was undamaged from her hard falls, Pinkie aimed her heavy machine gun. Spirit strike bullets flew out in controlled bursts, the mare remembering what little training she was given that she’d be more likely to land hits with those. Pinkie felt a small twinge of gratification when the cobra flinched at her bullets impacting its body and she kept firing. In a state of utter emotionlessness, Pinkie kept up her controlled bursts as the titanic serpent looked directly down at her. When it inhaled in a manner she recognized as it about to spit, she reacted without thought.
Fwoomp!
The grenade sailed fast and true through the air, crossing the distance in a moment. There was a flash of light and an ear piercing hiss of utter agony as the greater spirit’s face seemed to crumble under the power of the ethereal light now in its mouth. Pinkie thought she had done it like the wolverines had done it before, and on a major spirit no less.
The mare wasn’t sure how to react when, instead of crumbling away, the spirit only thrashed in pain for a moment before suddenly looking back at her. The explosion had done its work but it wasn’t nearly as lethal as it had been for a lesser spirit. The serpent glared with murderous hate, jaw and snout crumbled away from the power of the spirit strike grenade. Before Pinkie could even think of reloading her launcher, the snake finished building up its spit and launched it.
Pinkie expected to be coated in molten copper and perhaps get stuck if she was unable to remove enough of it before it cooled. What she didn’t expect was the copper to fly harder and faster than what the toad had been doing with its water. The stream of copper cut through the ground like a blade of immense size and sharpness. Pinkie attempted to turn away and shield her weapon from potential damage only to suddenly find herself face first in the dirt.
Unable to feel her hind legs, she twisted around on the ground to see the damage. She froze when instead of perhaps a broken back, she saw nothing at all just before her hindquarters, the armor sheared right through, burning and charred black at the edges.
‘It… doesn't hurt,’ Pinkie thought numbly as she rolled onto her side, eyes locked onto the two smoldering remains of her rear pair of hooves. ‘I think it’s… it’s been burned closed. My gun… is my gun okay?’
Pinkie looked at her machinegun and saw that once more it came through unscratched. She stared at her weapon, her breath and heartbeat echoing deafeningly in her ears. She could still hear the crashing of the land and the fury of the great spirit as it continued to attack from its perch, but it was as if she was underwater and all noise outside of her body was muffled. She looked up at the spirit now going back to killing more soldiers. Without another thought, she aimed her rifle as best as she could at the serpent that bisected her.
Carefully aimed bursts of spirit strike bullets raked the form of the spirit and it hissed in fury and pain.
It turned towards her again and in utter incredulity of her continuing to attack him despite her likely mortal injuries, it stared for a moment. It reared up in a motion Pinkie thought belied another spit attack, but instead it unwound a greater length of tail. Pinkie stared as her rifle clicked empty and watched what was likely her first and final death raise high to come crashing down.
Suddenly the earth rumbled again.
Eyes above its ruined face widening in surprise, the serpent tried to turn to face something it saw out of the corner of its eyes. The greater spirit was far too late in its reaction and a massive shape charged into view and crashed into it. As two massive shapes crashed into the ground and created a brief, localized quake, a booming voice filled the air.
“YOU DARN YELLOW BELLIED SNAKE IN THE GRASS!” a female voice said with a certain southern twang. “Fight someone yer own size!”
“Oh…” Pinkie said aloud, head and body slumping against the ground. “It’s one of her friends… Applejack?”
What looked mostly like a massive armored horse tangled with the serpent. Its limbs were thickly muscled and powerful. Once pristine white armor over its whole body now looked muddied and blunted but unbroken. A great crest lined along the top of its neck and head like a mane, but its eyes gleamed like polished gems and glared unblinking. Audibly snarling, the massive being snapped with a mouth full of brutal canines even a carnivore would find excessive.
“That must be the… thing…” Pinkie frowned as a wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over her and made it hard to think. “It was called a… bio-gear. What was this one specifically called? Did I ever find out? I don’t think I did… I’m not sure if I’ll get that chance again… Is this what dying feels like?”
It was oddly peaceful despite the fact she was watching a brutal battle of titans just before her. The serpent coiled around the pony bio-gear, snarling with a crudely refashioned mouth and attempting to spit pressurized copper. The bio-gear’s greater mass and armor, however, made this act more like the spray of a water gun as opposed to the lethal mutilation it had been on Pinkie. With a bone rumbling growl, the bio-gear aimed a hoof at the entwined serpent’s body and let loose with built in autocannons.
The serpent hissed in pain and allowed its body to crumble away to avoid further damage from the spirit-strike-imbued rounds. It reappeared a moment later, bursting forth from the ground with face already crumbling away but Applejack saw the attack coming. The cowpony’s bio-gear sidestepped the serpent flying through the air at her from behind. AJ reached out with her bio-gear’s massive set of hooves and managed to snag the tail end of the spirit’s body then swung the snake above her head in rapid circles that stirred up typhoon strength winds before she let loose and sent it flying.
Pinkie watched the serpent disappear beyond her sight in a blur of movement followed by a distant rumble. She then watched the bio-gear spring forward in a gallop after the major spirit to continue the fight. And then suddenly she was alone, surrounded by death, destruction and the distant sounds of battles still raging. She wasn’t sure what was killing her, the shock of her injury or if her wound wasn’t as burnt closed as she thought. Either way, she lay in the mud and blood waiting to die.
The armored mare rolled onto her back with such inordinate exertion it had immediately exhausted what little strength she had left. She stared up at the sky; the storm wall seemed even closer now and the pegasi formation was now charging into its churning mass. She found herself thinking of other things, happier days.
‘My sister… I have so many but why did I have to lose any of them?’ Pinkie thought as she heard her heart begin to slow. ‘You were so cheerful even though you had such a moody fashion sense. Why did you want to go home so badly after the wedding? We were all together. We should have stayed like that just for a little while…’
Pinkie’s vision began to blur and her hearing became ever more muffled. A shape moved into her fading sight and she could hear a voice sounding so very distant.
“Pon-... -end… I fin-... get y-... -ack…”
‘You wanted me to find my own name,’ Pinkie thought, uncaring of the shape and voice. ‘You encouraged all of us to find ourselves and be more than what we are. I never did. I just never felt there was a hurry. I thought I had my whole life ahead of me. I thought I had all the time in the world to become someone new. But now… now I only have time to do one thing…’
Pinkie closed her glazed eyes with a smile as she breathed her last.
‘My name is Mina.’
GAMMA
“GET READY! ALL TOGETHER NOW! FIGHT! THAT! HURRICANE!”
Rainbow Dash joined her voice with countless others as the formation finally closed the distance with the storm wall. Despite the spacing the formation now had, hundreds of pegasi still had been zapped out of the sky as they approached. Much of the formation had blind fired into the clouds in an attempt to retaliate in some way, but the only ones to seemingly manage some hits were the gargoyles at the top. Dash had wondered what weapons they were using since she could make out which rounds were theirs quite clearly from the flak-like explosions they caused.
For a breathless moment, Dash was within the clouds and could not see a thing. It was thought that a pegasus’ natural inclination towards interactions with the weather could still be useful. That their mere presence in great enough numbers could disrupt even the spirits control over their storm superweapon. If that wasn’t true, if the spirits were still able to maintain absolute control over their storm then it was likely what the formation had done was little better then flying head first into a rock wall.
Dash held her breath and felt like even her heart was holding its beat. Next thing she knew, the clouds around her started to disperse. She heard a deafening noise like a million lightning bolts going off at once and knew the clouds had dispersed the unnatural build up of energy into the nearest, largest natural conductor: the ground. Suddenly Rainbow Dash could see her cadet squadron again and her vision only continued to improve from there.
It was now no longer like she was flying into the thickest fog bank she had ever seen. Instead, it was merely like she was flying amongst the worst out of control anvil storm clouds she had ever seen. Still pretty bad in her personal opinion, but it beat not seeing anything at all and death likely coming out of nowhere.
“Where are they?” Lightning Dust said over the radio. “They were just shooting lightning bolts at us and now they’re all gone.”
“I don’t like it,” Thunderlane said, anxiety seeping into his voice. “They’ve always just ambushed us right away or come charging right in the open. We know they are here, why aren’t they attacking?!”
“I think that’s the problem,” Lightning Dust replied softly in thought. “They do that, attack openly or ambush right away and we’ve started to really make them pay for that. A lot of spirits have been dying in the last few days. I think they’re starting to learn new tricks.”
“Let-” Rainbow Dash began only to be interrupted by a deafening crash of lightning.
Lightning bolts appeared from the storm clouds; they arced and struck at the formation, but unlike the bolts from before these were much weaker. They stopped after hitting a single pegasus and didn’t arc further, but instead of just one there were a lot of them. Pegasi dropped by the hundreds in a suddenly terrifying burst of lightning, but at the same time Dash could practically feel energy in the clouds drop.
“You feel that!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “The storm clouds lost most of their power! They’re not doing that again so long as we’re here! Come on, we can fight this!”
“Thunderlane’s DOWN!” Lighting shouted in anger.
“Wha…” Rainbow Dash felt a jolt to her heart at those words and whipped her head around.
Hundreds of pegasi were falling from the sky, their bodies plummeting to the ground far below. Despite this, Rainbow Dash caught sight of Tunderlane’s own body in a near instant. The squadron leader grit her teeth and pressed a hoof against her ear.
“Thunderlane, do you read me!” Dash shouted, hoping against hope she hadn’t lost a squadmate and fellow cadet under her watch. “Thunderlane! THUNDERLANE, DO YOU COPY!”
“Auuuuuugh… what’s with the shouting?” came the stallion’s woozy reply to everyone’s relief. “Everything hurts so much…”
“Thunderlane, go limp!” Cloud Chaser shouted. “Let your chute catch you! We’ll pick you when we’re done!”
Thunderlane’s only response was to retch and possibly puke over the radio.
“Heads on a swivel, people!” Rainbow Dash barked. “Evasive flying, don’t repeat maneuvers! Just like we practiced! No one else gets hit!”
“Break formation!” Spitfire commanded. “Form up into five divisions! Split up and start bombing those clouds! Flush out those windigos!”
As planned, Rainbow Dash’s squadron broke off to lead their own air division as the Wolderbolts and the cadet squadrons did the same. For the most part the formation was a mostly clean, spherical scattering of hundreds of v-shaped squadrons. They managed to keep this shape and move together as one. Dash, with her short time as a Wonderbolt cadet, had to fight to keep from cringing as this formation practically disintegrated when it came time to separate. Instead of forming five smaller formations of v squadrons, the non-Wonderbolt majority of the Airborne Infantry force instead became more like clouds of flies. Dash couldn’t even tell if each division had at least roughly the same amount of pegasi in each, only that barely anyone of the enlisted managed to maintain the shape of their squadrons.
“Spacing, people! SPACING!” Rainbow Dash barked a reminder.
“YOU ALL WANT TO DIE TOGETHER!?” Lightning Dust added. “GIVE EACH OTHER SPACE YOU LIMPWING IDIOTS!”
The plan had been to flush out the windigos with their spirit strike grenades, but the lack of cohesion in each division was slowing them down. Dash wasn’t sure who would act first, the spirits managing to charge up another barrage of lightning strikes or the Airborne Infantry.
Rainbow Dash turned her head towards a series of distant explosions. Within one of the anvil clouds there were flashes of purple light that Dash had quickly grown to associate with the spirit strike grenades. She looked up and saw the distant, bat-like silhouettes of the gargoyles flying above, launching grenades or firing off with whatever Enclave handheld wonder weapon they were entrusted with.
Suddenly there was an ear piercing wail and Dash thought she caught the outline of something caught in the blasting. There was no telltale release of energy typical of a spirit death, so it must have just been injured.
“HERE THEY COME!” Lightning Dust shouted with a point.
As it turned out, the pointing was unneeded. Spirits burst out of anvil clouds from all around. Windigos of all shapes and sizes charged in among the split apart formation before they could begin their attempts to flush them out. With the five divisions as badly formed up as they were, the result was instant chaos.
“Wha- HEY! HEY GET BACK YOU- fuck…” Rainbow Dash began shouting commands to her already scattering division before tailing off. “Ok, ok, MAKE DO! EVERYONE FIND THEIR SQUADRON! FORM UP AND FIGHT BACK! COME ON!”
The core of Dash’s cadet squadron shuffled their formation back on her in a diamond shape while Bulk Biceps and Lightning Dust took up positions on the edges. Bulk and Lightning let loose with a pair of LMGs their strength allowed them to carry. Tracers filled the sky along with smaller lightning bolts and miniature cyclones; everyone was fighting in a chaotic furball.
Dash chucked a grenade with precision and managed to mangle a flying cloudy turtle and force it to retreat back to the spiritual realm. Her squadron was doing the same, but not nearly as much as they could have had, had their division maintained formation. Every time her or one of her wingmates sighted an enemy to fire, they ended up having to hesitate because fellow pegasi were flying everywhere. Some alone, some together, but in the end completely unorganized.
“This is a complete and utter…!” Lightning Dust began before spraying down a spirit with gunfire and driving it away from a group of panicking pegasi.
“Clusterfuck?” Rainbow Dash offered as she tried to keep her mind off her squawking radio and Spitfire barking orders furiously as she tried to reform the divisions.
“I was going to say furball!” Lightning retorted as she tried to time a grenade so it didn’t catch any pegasi. “I heard of these in stories and legends! Doesn’t seem so awesome actually being in one!”
“I’ll say…” Dash agreed with a mutter as she took in her surroundings.
It was just utter chaos now. As far as Dash could see, the only people who managed to maintain any sort of formation were the Wonderbolts and the cadets. Anyone else had broken off on their own or grouped up with whoever they could find; their formations could only be called such if one considered a group of flies flying in the same direction a formation. Still though, as ugly and infuriating as it looked to her, Dash also could see they weren’t losing, either. A lot of pegasi were dying, but the spirits were dying in their typical bursts of energies and were further disrupting the storm to boot with their deaths. Not ideal, but at least they were winning.
Rainbow Dash almost froze in place of her own thoughts.
‘I… I can’t believe I just thought that,’ Dash thought as she struggled to maintain her focus. ‘People are dying all around me and I’m not even fazed anymore. Just glad we aren’t losing…’
“AGH!” Dash grunted when something smashed into her side and sent her tumbling through the air as a blinding flash filled the air.
The pegasus flipped and flared her wings instinctively and instantly went from falling to flying again. With a shake of her head, Dash looked to see what hit her. Her eyes widened when she saw a smoldering Lightning Dust trailing smoke and painfully coughing.
“Dust?!” Dash exclaimed.
“GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, RAINBOW!!” Lighting shouted before getting interrupted by more coughing. “Y-you almo-... you nearly got f-fried there!”
“Ri-right!” Rainbow said with a shake of her head. “Thanks for the save, Dust!”
“LOOK! THE WONDERBOLTS!” Starry Eyes shouted with a pointed hoof.
Rainbow Dash glanced in the pointed direction but also made sure to keep her head on a swivel. The Wonderbolts were flying together faster than she had ever seen them fly before. Initially, they were flying in a classic V-formation but as they zoomed towards a spirit they suddenly split apart in a manner that was obviously practiced. The Wonderbolts expanded out in a corkscrew towards a windigo, firing rounds and then dropping a grenade in their wake as they blurred past. The flying elite smoothly moved back into formation as the spirit burst apart in their wake. This wasn’t the end of it, however.
As one, the Wonderbolts continued their flyby assault on every spirit they saw. Their approach was the same but how they went about it wasn’t. They didn’t split the formation the same way too often, just enough to be unpredictable. Despite the fact they were as well acquainted with the Enclave weapons as everything else in the formation, they were already crack shots, landing hits despite flying at speeds approaching the sound barrier at times.
The rainbow maned pegasus felt her heart soar at the sight of the Wonderbolts cleaning up the enemy, and she wasn’t the only one. Cheers filled the air and radio channels alike as the entirety of the airborne infantry watched the famed elite make quick work of the enemy. And when the spirits began disappearing as one - when the storm clouds started to lose power and dissipate - Dash couldn't help but think they had won, as did the rest of the formation.
“SUCH NOISY LITTLE VERMIN!” A shrill voice drowned out the cheers. “YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR THIS ANNOYANCE!!!”
Dash looked around, and that was when she noticed that when she thought the storm clouds had been fading away they were in fact merely moving away. They now formed tall walls, like inside the eye of a storm. Surges of lighting constantly flashed through these walls and Dash had little doubt of what would happen if the formation attempted to simply fly through like how they entered.
A shape began to emerge from one of the storm walls. Initially a bulge in the wall that quickly took on greater details, the telltale curl of a shell, a different shade of light amongst the clouds that created a tiger stripe pattern. The shell made of churning black clouds rotated, and soon its opening was exposed. Eyes of crackling blue lighting and a face of tendrils that stretched out as far as needed, lightning arcing and surging along the many lengths.
“HA! IT IS I! THE REPRISAL TO YOUR ARROGANCE!” The greater windigo sneered. “MAKE YOUR PEA- Guah!?!”
A different form of thunder boomed from overhead and Dash caught sight of the gargoyles flying evasive maneuvers far above while letting loose with their rifles. Flak-like explosions covered the massive form of the greater spirit.
“STINGING GNATS!” the spirit snarled and fell back into the storm wall.
Dash made to look around for where the spirit could be coming next, but the moment it faded into the wall it instantly reappeared. Coming out of the wall opposite its initial entrance, the spirit appeared at a far higher up point. All its tendrils shot out towards the already dodging squadrons of the gargoyles. They all missed, but their passage kicked up incredibly high speed winds. The gargoyles went spinning off, even their powerful wing and natural talent for wind manipulation being utterly overpowered. Rainbow Dash could only grit her teeth as she watched the gargoyles end up spinning up and out of the eye or directly into the storm walls, instantly carried away.
“EVERYONE!” Spitfire began over the radio. “SCATTER! STAY EVASIVE! DON’T-”
The leader of the Wonderbolts interrupted herself as her own squadron darted apart briefly to dodge a tendril of electrified clouds swinging through the air. The rest of the Wonderbolts followed suit as the limb thrashed and tried to catch at least one of them. It wasn’t the only cloud limb they expertly maneuvered around, however; a small forest worth of tendrils filled the air with their sparking, stormy masses.
The Wonderbolts seemed to draw the full attention of the greater spirit, Reprisal, as it drew forth more and more tendrils on them and away from the rest of the formation. In turn, the formation began firing their rifles upon the spirit and others were brave enough to fly closer and toss their few remaining grenades. It didn’t seem to do much more than annoy the spirit, the bullets acting more like pin pricks and even the grenades seeming to do the equivalent of tearing off a layer of skin.
“I understand you squirming things!” Reprisal would have been spitting in fury had it a mouth. “Led by these colorful shiny annoyances!”
What happened next would haunt Dash’s dreams and waking hours. The lightning surged along the tendrils ever more powerfully. They crackled and started to arc from one tendril to the next before there was a sudden explosion of light and sound. Afterimages of arcing lightning burned into the retina of all who bore witness to Reprisal’s attack. The rainbow maned pegasus’ eyes remained wide open through it all as she watched lightning fill the air the Wonderbolts had been flying in. When the light faded, she saw six blackened bodies tumble from the air…
And those bodies crumbled away to loose charcoal and ash as they plummeted to the earth below.
“Ahhhh! Let’s see how you fare without- hm?” Reprisal gushed before it stopped, its massive form turned as if it was scanning the area and searching for something. “That feeling… that energy! WHY IS IT SO FAMILIAR!?! WHAT IS THAT ENERGY?!?”
Dash barely took notice of the booming words as she started gliding, staring in shock at the continuously disintegrating bodies of the Wonderbolts.
‘It-it can’t be… not them…’ Dash thought incredulously at the sight of her heroes dead, gone beyond the power of the medical droids.
So great was the shock at the sight of the Wonderbolts killed all at once in a mere moment that she had slowed to a stop midair, and she was far from the only one. All around, tons of pegasi started gliding aimlessly forward or hovered in place at the abrupt deaths of the Wonderbolts. Even Lightning Dust hovered frozen in disbelief.
“YOU!”
Only jolting somewhat awake from her stupor, Dash looked up and it appeared the greater spirit was looking directly at her.
“DIE!!!”
Unblinkingly, Dash watched as a tendril bulged with new cloud mass of at least a hundred feet in diameter. It raised up into the air, its entire length surging electricity. Rainbow Dash thought she could hear Lightning Dust scream her name as the tendril came blurring towards her. Thoughts of dodging out of the way came far, far too late to her sluggish mind…
“AUUUGH!” With a startled shout, the tendril suddenly discharged its power but not towards the stunned formation of pegasi.
The power within Reprisal’s tendril arced out and away from the cloudy limb. It seemed to go out of its way to avoid hitting pegasi, snaking around the airborne infantry as the bolt of lighting shot into the storm wall but seemed to go further beyond it. There was a brilliant flash of light within the clouds as five shapes were illuminated within the storm walls. The storm itself seemed to lose power and cohesion, the winds dying down and the lightning growing less intense despite the presence of a greater spirit. Then those five shapes within the wall burst out into the open.
“This is Captain Clifford of the Great Fox!” said a voice over the radio. “All airborne infantry, form up on me! We can still win this!”
The full Enclave Airfleet had arrived, numbering only five ironclad warships of no clearly defined class. Nonetheless, their small numbers were made up by sheer quality. Each ship was a custom piece, heavily armored, heavily armed and covered in overlapping runic protections. One of said protections was even now drawing away lightning bolts and safely conducting it into one of the many lightning rods sticking out of the hull.
But they weren’t the only ships arriving.
In the clearing hole the Enclave fleet had torn through the storm wall came the Equestrian Merchant fleet, numbering in the dozens and covered in bolted on plated armor visibly glowing with exposed protective runes. The merchantmen ships had holes cut into the sides of their hulls for autocannons or, in lieu of that, had their decks positively bristling with bolted on guns. Their balloons were all covered by a number of tarps of various materials in an attempt to protect the ship's obvious weak point.
The battle to come would decide if it was enough…
DELTA
Eyes bleary and lined by dark bags, Starswirl the Bearded stared down into a powerful magnifying glass.
Starswirl was in the Enclave, deep underground in one of the many labs, hard at work. Initially he had set up shop in Canterlot but had quickly moved locations when he learned of the tools and resources the Enclave had at its disposal. The work he was currently pouring over was an experimental runic circuit. He had been pouring forth constant effort to perfect it but one failure after another had caused the circuit to fail.
He was close now, though; oh so close he could feel it…
“Starswirl?” a feminine voice said.
The famed unicorn didn’t seem to listen and continued to stare down at the circuit, high precision tools moving millimeters at a time via telekinetic magic. There was a clopping of hooves and Starswirl still maintained his focus even as a mare came to a stop right next to him. He finally reacted when said mare reached out and gently shook him at the shoulder.
“Yes, Somnambula?” the unicorn said with a sigh.
“I haven’t seen you outside this lab in days, Starswirl,” Somnambula said with concern and then took a step back as Starswirl also seemed to have not bathed in days either. “Have you been resting at all?”
“Wheatley?” Starswirl said.
“... You blacked out two days, thirteen hours, twenty four minutes and seven seconds ago, mate,” Wheatley deadpanned. “You woke back up four hours, forty nine minutes and ten seconds later. You’ve been awake ever since, you old ghoul.”
“See? I have rested,” Starswirl said before suddenly punching himself in the face when a powerful yawn threatened to unhinge his jaw.
“Starswirl!” Somnambula exclaimed with shock before leaping forward and restraining the unicorn. “Blacking out is NOT resting! You know you are important to the war effort, but staying awake and working yourself to death is not the answer!”
“I just need to finally make this breakthrough on this accursed runic circuit,” Starswirl replied, carefully averting his eyes away from his sole remaining companion. For if he saw the tears that were beginning to appear, he’d never be able to refuse her. “Then I’ll pass it along to Wheatley here and finally go to sleep.”
“Starswirl…”
“Please let me go, Somnambula,” Starswirl said tonelessly. “I do have a duty to the kingdom, to the world and, most of all, you.”
“Me?” The pegasus frowned before her eyes widened in comprehension. She looked down sadly to the floor and let go of Starswirl. After a moment of watching him go back to work, she spoke softly. “I know you feel responsible for their deaths, Starswirl. I feel responsible too-”
“You shouldn’t,” Starswirl said firmly. “You are no master of magic. You had no means of combating such a being. None of you had a hope of doing more than annoying that spirit, that hateful monstrosity. I should have had an answer; I probably did and simply couldn’t think or remember it at the time. I panicked and cast anything and everything that came to mind when it started killing the others. Finally something worked… and to my horror and eternal shame, I couldn’t even remember what it was I had cast that had actually hurt it.”
“Starswirl… I didn’t even notice you managed to hurt it,” Somnambula said sadly. “When the other Pillars… when our friends started dying, I panicked too and couldn’t even remember what knocked me unconscious. All I could think of was just to fly at it and try to make it stop, try to save somepony. But you saved me! You got me out, got us both out! You kept your head when I didn’t.”
“I’m surprised you’re willing to talk to me this way, considering…” Starswirl paused his work and closed his eyes for a moment as he struggled with visions of death and loss.
“I’m not surprised or hurt at the demand you made for your work,” Somnambula said with understanding and no little amount of personal shame. “It’s why I didn’t refuse when the princesses told me I am to always remain at your side and not fight in the war. You looked out for me and now it’s my turn to look after you. You’re in more danger of dying than I am right now, Starswirl. It’s possible to die from lack of sleep, you know, and from the sounds of it you’re getting pretty close.”
“After I blacked out, I made sure to create a wakefulness spell,” Starswirl said with a dismissive wave of his hoof. He then proceeded to struggle with another powerful yawn before answering. “It’s not perfect, but I should be able to stay awake as long as I need to.”
“If that was the case your eyes wouldn’t be glazed over like that,” Somnambula protested with a shake of her head. “Look at you! Your head must feel like it’s filled with thick sludge.”
“Hmm… thick sludge…”
Suddenly Starswirl was moving his tools with alert, frantic energy. Runes were erased and replaced rapidly as he seemingly redid his entire circuit from the ground up. In barely any time at all, the unicorn had finished his work and was holding his circuit up to the light. With a nod he walked over to a pedestal with a long wire attached to a somewhat distant, satellite-dish-like emitter. Starswirl placed the circuit on the pedestal before flipping a switch on it. The circuit lit up brightly; it sparked and sizzled dangerously yet Starswirl didn’t look the least bit concerned. After a moment the activity stopped and the emitter started to hum with growing power. A moment further and the emitter seemed to electrify the air and pressed down in such a way it made one’s ears pop. Finally, the emitter seemed to activate and perform its job…
A large bubble with a barely visible outline suddenly appeared around the dish.
“YES! SUCCESS AT LAST!” Starswirl reared up and raised his forelegs to the ceiling in exaltation. “WHEATLEY!!!”
“Wotcher?”
“I have succeeded at long last!” the unicorn shouted. “A means of ensuring the spirits can’t appear wherever they like anymore! My work is done! I leave the rest to you while I take a nap!”
With that, Starswirl remained in place, his hooves raised to the roof.
“Uhh… mate? You gonna head to your room?”
“Starswirl?” Somnambula asked with a befuddled look as the unicorn remained frozen in place. She hesitantly approached the unicorn when he slowly leaned backward before suddenly dropping to the floor like a piece of lumber. Despite the fact he was clearly alive and well, snoring loudly and messily, Somnambula darted to his side in panic.
“Starswirl!” the pegasus exclaimed.
Not too far away, in the shadows under a nearby desk, a shadowy being lurked. Its pure white eyes stared out at the comatose Master of Magic with concern mirroring that of Somnambula’s.
EPSILON
Endless, hippocampi and greater spirit of ice and water watched Emerald with a dispassionate eye.
Since his appearance at the former League of Nations headquarters, he hadn’t been taking part in the fighting. No, he had been spending his time keeping Emerald under careful watch. He had been busy before with finding and awakening his fellow spirits when they all awoke as one for some reason. But now he had time to properly monitor and learn everything he could about his greatest enemy.
‘She cares, but far too much…’ Endless realized as he watched Emerald move and fight.
Currently Emerald was in the skies over the Griffin Principalities, driving away greater spirits with her mere presence and killing dozens of lesser spirits before they could react. Then she was away in a flash of light and Endless was quick to follow her by dipping in and out of the spiritual realm. Now she was speeding along the ground like a bullet in the lands of the heron, yet again driving away greater spirits and killing dozens of lessers before they reacted fast enough to flee. Again and again and again this repeated itself with Emerald teleporting across the lands of the League members and fighting constantly. When she was close to driving herself to exhaustion, she would sit for barely an hour before she was at it again.
‘I had assumed she was an enemy we could never face openly,’ Endless thought with rising interest. ‘But she wears herself down, she grows weaker by the day and her bouts of rest recover less and less of her power. But it isn’t only that, I suppose.’
Endless stared closely as Emerald gasped and clutched at her chest as she leaned against a palm tree for support. Something had injured her badly, left her vulnerable in this critical time. Endless was unsure what or who had managed this, for if one of their own could have… well he probably would have worked with many others to ensure their destruction in the ages before their sealing. But as it was now, such an ability to wound a powerful risen deity like the creature before him was sorely needed.
‘No matter. Something can be done without another such attack in time. There are other threats to consider.’
With that, Endless briefly dived back into the spiritual realm before reentering the material world at a different point. The land was twisted and ravaged, but not by the conventional warfare of spirits fighting mortals. No, this was the result of infighting amongst spirits.
What was once a verdant valley sandwiched between two tall, snow capped mountain ridges was now an unnatural, twisted landscape. Land carrying faint remnants of life were warped and twisted like taffy, stretching this way and that and sometimes in a full loop up and around the valley. Storm clouds formed at the very base within torn rifts and rain and thunder fell upwards into the sky. What few lifeforms remained were twisted into unnatural shape but without the mercy of not suffering from their condition as they crawled and mewed piteously and endlessly. Pieces of land now floating and carrying faint remnants of life were the most normal of the sights in this changed land.
Those were not the only changes within this valley. Mixed in with the warped landscape was something its total polar opposite. Once idyllic grasslands was now a flat plane with a carpet of spikes seemingly made of a pure white, marble-like substance that did not reflect any light. Trees once lush and green were now tall, marble poles, their branches bereft of any natural bends, either sticking straight out at an angle or reaching out with right angle turns in their boughs. There was no weather of any kind within these areas. Even if the neighboring chaotic zones were storming with raging winds and pouring water, these effects ended the instant they reached the ordered zones. The lifeforms that had been caught in the ordered zones were changed as well. Deer and other four legged creatures were now floating, ovoid balls of white stone, four smooth nubs replaced their legs and another ovoid shape floated where their head had once been. Birds were the same, but instead of the leg nubs they had a pair of three long ovoids in place of their wings. These creatures did not do anything beyond run the same routines endlessly with no complaint or any hint they were actually living beings.
This landscape was the side effect of two primordial spirits fighting with one another, Discord and his sister, Order,
‘Despite the need for greater powers, I was hoping the Primordials would stay out of this. They have their own concerns and would complicate things beyond our control,’ Endless thought. ‘I have no idea why these two are fighting, but infighting amongst our own is becoming more and more common as time goes on. Our outrage over the mortals overstepping their place in the world is being sidelined by old grudges and rivalries. Unless something is done to get them refocused on the task at hand, this conflict may end with no resolution due to us fighting ourselves just as much as we fight the mortals.’
Endless growled in indignation as he began to go over memories of watching mortals as they encouraged or rounded up their own and made them focus on fighting the spirits. He did not like the idea of having to emulate such cretins, but if the alternative was letting the mortals win due to the spirits’ natural inclination to disunity…
‘So be it!’ Endless thought. ‘We can return to the old ways once the world has been cleansed and returned to its original state.’
First and foremost, however, was planning an ambush…
-TBC-
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gasp! it alive!
Thank you for the chapter!
I guess I'll start looking forward to a chapter right about when the next US election happens, lol.
Holy shit! You recovered from bloodtox!
Fuck yea the best series I’ve ever read is back
66.media.tumblr.com/bdac602c4e9fc1bae11921010cbd8497/tumblr_inline_o84dspTESL1qafrh6_400.gifv
I gotta give the ponies credit, they’re holding up to the riggers much better than I thought they would but damn if it isn't still painful to watch them get put through the ringer and by the looks of It the worst is yet to come. Luna’s sure gonn’a have her work cut out for her when the dust finally settles.
It's kinda hard to speculate on things since the chapter mostly focuses on the fighting but I'l hazard a guess the spirit Sovereign shoo'd away was the Pony of Shadows and he may have a hand in rallying the spirits that rely on biological life to exist.
legend never die!
Oh. My. God. An update! Huzzah!
now the question becomes do i just read this chapter or reread the entire series for the 7th time... yea time to go for 7
Oh yeah, Dash is wearing her Element
I'm paranoid enough to be extremely suspicious about this
Hmmm, did you do it... did you attack the spirit and knock out Somnambula?
I'm late but WOOO an update~
Just reread the series and absolutely loved it again!! Definitely one of my favourites. Wondering if the big Jotun type bio creations will make an appearance, and what the changelings are up to :0 looking forward to the next chapter :)
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Isn't Gilda dead?
Just reread the series and absolutely loved it again!
Good story so far. Would like to know if/when it gets updated.
my goodness, this was updated just under 2 years ago.
hope it continued and hope legionary is doing alright!
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I'm fine (despite two forest fires) and am just writing something else at the moment.