Hope comes in odd forms and odder heroes
An unnatural dawn spread much-needed light over the city of Manehattan, and Tarnished Teapot cringed as the light warmed his hide. It was a little past three in the morning or so, he wasn’t sure of the exact time, but knew that the sun should not be on the horizon at this time of early morning. While tampering with the natural order of things disturbed him, the fact that Princess Celestia was this desperate unnerved him.
One moment, he’d been working on an archeological dig in Baltimare, in Horseshoe bay, burning the midnight oil with Daring Do, and then without warning, he’d been magicked away to Canterlot. With little explanation, he was almost immediately magicked away to Manehattan—but something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. The small advance army that he’d been sent with was nowhere to be seen, and he was utterly alone in a city that was, at the moment, an active war zone.
Even worse, much to his consternation and ire, Maud had insisted on coming. Maud, quite pregnant, would not listen to reason and she had demanded to come. He was furious, but now also scared and quite worried, because there was no sign of Maud Pie. Not that she needed him to stay safe, far from it, but he needed her for his own peace of mind.
Alone, unarmed, with none of his usual weapons or his shield, without allies, Tarnish surveyed the austere, tragic dawn. Much of the city was on fire. Distant flashes of light suggested battles of a magical nature. The Ascension had come to the city, along with Queen Bumbelina, and a number of other dreadful foes had come to Manehattan with the hopes of claiming Sumac the sorcerer.
Tarnished Teapot had his own claim to Sumac; the colt was a major part of his daughter’s happiness, and he was determined to get the colt back, as safe and as sound as the situation permitted. Alone, in decidedly hostile territory, unsure of where to go or what to do next, he figured that his best move would be to head off towards the violence. Weapons would be needed, and he’d need to keep an eye out for whatever might be useful.
A subdued roar shook the city and the ground trembled beneath his hooves.
He was in the financial district, not too far from the train station, and with the flashes of light he saw, there seemed to be fighting there. It was as good a place to start as any, and no matter who he found there, he’d get some answers. By any means necessary. If he could save a few lives along the way, he would, but he already knew that he could not let himself be distracted.
Equestria’s future depended upon recovering Sumac, and he would do so…
Even if it cost him Pebble.
This is what peasants did when there grew to be too many of them; they built cities, places of criminality, despair, and vice. The sort of place where theft was necessary and the worst sort of behaviours were rewarded. A place where the respect of one’s betters, one’s providers was swiftly forgotten. This cesspool drove ponies mad; it made them only think of themselves, their own survival, and they abandoned all notions of the common good.
Dandelia Lion Lulamoon pursed her lips and cast her stern gaze around her while she got her bearings. Things had not gone to plan; she was alone, without an army to command, no soldiers with whom she could relieve the burden of heavy thought, as was her duty. Of course, this debacle wasn’t Princess Celestia’s fault; far from it, someone, or something had sensed their coming and had scattered them. It was a false hope, of course. This was little more than a peasant uprising that the monsters now took advantage of.
Before the day was over, both would be put in their place.
Preferably put down and out of their misery, as all monsters needed to be, the wretched despoilers of civilisation.
And perhaps the peasants as well, for their numbers had grown to far too many.
It wasn’t long before she was approached by monsters, just as expected. Calling them alicorns was distasteful in the extreme. For a moment, she considered obliterating them, for reasons, but then she thought better of her actions. These unwitting, dimwitted morons might be useful, and take her to right where she wanted to be. For now, she withheld her fire, all while smiling a most treacherous smile, the sort of smile that her cousins, the Darks, tended to favour.
“He said you would come.” The alicorn stallion’s voice was shrill and sounded as though he was in pain. “He sensed your arrival. Will you come along peacefully, so that he might speak with you?”
“Does he have my grandson, Sumac?” she asked while considering her next move.
“No.” The word was a shamed groan. “He does not. At the moment, the sorcerer’s whereabouts are unknown.”
A dreadful scowl contorted Dandelia’s face, but she was quick to recover. These… monsters were haughty. Arrogant. Believed themselves to be gods. Thought themselves infallible. Yet, they had lost their prize—her grandson. She had to keep her wits about her if she were to exploit these idiotic simpletons, these false-alicorns. Killing these two right here, right now, would gain her nothing. They would take her to the others if she let them, and then she could kill all of them.
It would be a struggle not to derive any equinal satisfaction from it, but she would try.
Oh, she would try.
“Will you take me to see him?”
“Of course, Daughter of Arcturus Capella Lion Lulamoon. He still holds hope that you will be his ally, just as your father once was.”
She flinched at the sound of her father’s name, and his associations.
“Without Arcturus, none of this would be possible. Come, Lady Lulamoon, we mean you no harm. At least for now. Mister Mariner is eager to see you.”
“Prince Gosling?”
Twinkleshine, disoriented and somewhat dizzy, found herself alone. Mere moments ago, she’d been standing between Prince Blueblood and Prince Gosling, with Night Light just behind her. They were gone; not just them, but the entire advance army. She was all alone, save for her axe, in a city that she was not at all acquainted with.
“Your Royal Jerkiness, where are you?”
Prince Blueblood did not answer, but that was expected.
“Tarnish? Maud? Trixie’s Mom?”
Uncertain, unsettled, she gripped her axe ever-tighter in her telekinetic grip.
In the in-between, as she whisked along and among the racing photons, diving through the many quantum tunnels, she had felt a powerful disturbance in the magic that propelled them. Something had popped, for lack of a better description, and now, here she was, all alone, with none of her companions.
That changed nothing, she still had to find Sumac.
She’d given her word.
Her eyes stung from the acrid smoke and she could feel a hot breeze. An awful lot of stuff was on fire, and nopony was putting it out. She was surrounded by brick buildings—older buildings by the looks of them, and while she heard screams in the distance, no other ponies were immediately visible. Rather concerning, really.
The ground beneath her hooves trembled as something exploded, unseen, out of her line of sight.
The heaped pile of bodies happened to be quite revealing. There were bumbles, harpies, raptorians, changelings corrupted by bumbles, and of course, dead ponies. A smattering of Grogar’s minions, as well as known enemies of Equestria. Dangerous foes, to be sure. Bumbles were mind-warpers, with dangerous stings, mind-influencing magic, and fearsome alchemical weapons. Harpies too, were vicious, credible threats, with sharp claws, teeth, and explosive eggs. Of all the bodies, the raptorians worried Tarnish the most, as they had raw cunning that matched his own.
Pausing in place, he took a moment to look around him, to take stock of his surroundings. The fight near the train station seemed to be over, the flashing lights no longer flashed, and the scattered corpses were now storytellers, still, silent actors, mute witnesses of a dramatic fight. Tarnish could feel the wrongness of something nearby, the sheer unnaturalness of a soul-spliced abomination.
Something about his druidic nature found it revolting, and the hair on his neck prickled.
“See, I am a benevolent benefactor,” a booming voice said from within the train station. “Do you not see how I have saved you? Submit to me, do as I say, obey my commands, and you will be freed from the bonds of tribalhood just as I once was.”
Hearing this caused Tarnish’s eyes to narrow, and his ears pricked forwards.
“I offer you godhood… why must you resist me? Why do you fear me? I’ve come to set you free. Now be still, while we wait for my fellows.”
Standing amidst the heaped corpses, Tarnish wondered if the false-alicorn he sensed might know anything about Sumac, Pebble, and Moon Rose. Alone, with no weapons, without Flamingo, he wasn’t certain if he could take on a powerful magic user in combat. Alicorns, false or real, were quite dangerous. He knew the stories, he knew the intelligence reports; the Ascendency—spliced horrors that they were—were incredibly dangerous. What he knew made him hesitate. Fighting wizards, casters, and magic-tossers was not his forte. He was, at most, a distraction, most of the time, as Vinyl was the one who dealt with rogue wizards and spell-chuckers.
If he did go in there, he’d have to improvise.
He took a deep breath, and held it for a time, before releasing it as a resigned sigh.
There were ponies to save; he couldn’t walk away from this, plus, valuable intelligence might be gained. This false-alicorn could be a treasure trove of information, though some digging might be required. No, he realised, this was something he had to do, even though he knew it was risky and he had no idea how he would pull it off. Princess Celestia had made his objectives clear; recover Sumac at any costs, and should the opportunity present itself, save the innocent and helpless.
Once more, he looked around him, hoping for something helpful—like a sporting goods store, or something, anything. If he had a golf club or something, that’d be better than nothing. Or a hockey stick. Even a garbage can lid might be useful. But a quick scan of his surroundings revealed very little.
“Mmm,” he mmmed, almost, but not quite, procrastinating. “Aw, fronk it, I’m going in.”
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Any battles involving trains (and by proxy, train stations) should be epic. I'm sure Tarnish will find some potential weapons.
a 2-8-8-2 at speeds in the neighborhood Mach 2 should do the job nicely
this
https://www.american-rails.com/images/Bozeman4503.jpg
9617815
I have to question how well that particular beast would handle on the curves at that speed? If the likes of Twilight or Buckminster were involved it might be a viable weapon.
Tarnish would perhaps be a suitable replacement for the firebox if his horn were plugged into the boiler.
9617862
pick it up and throw it. I've often wondered why not throw rocks telekinetically. No idea what the limiting velocity would be. Just below the point that the rock vaporizes I guess unless it was shielded somehow.
9618046
Strength of telekinesis.
Flicker could hurl rocks at supersonic speeds.
There'd be a sonic boom.
This is what happens when you grow up on a farm and use your telekinesis to push around heavy farm equipment for most of your life.
If someone doesn't use a train as a weapon I will be disappointed.
Time to find some bad guys and axe them some questions.
9618308
Well, time to give up then, and quit, because that isn't what I had planned.
I wanted to go for something a bit more original. Bother.
9618677 Original!? How dare you! Only rehashing of existing ideas, please!
9618704
There is also the matter that Tarnish is defined by what he can't do. His strength and magic are not at all notable. For him to suddenly pick up a train, well, I would have some 'splainin' to do. So then, just how do I go about realistically dealing with the massive and sudden shift of power that seemingly happened off screen, between stories, without pissing off constant readers, who have come to expect consistency and continuity?
9618722 I never said it had to be Tarnish
Coal dust and a spark.
Big Bad Boom
I got an old school Ninja Turtle vibe from this, lol. Looking forward to the fight. Also, I appreciated the link at the end of the last chapter. Nice reference point.
Me thinks you meant uNwitting.
Oh goody! The guy almost highhandedly destroys the country with economics, only to basically disappear. It'll be nice to see him again.