Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: Top of the Class, Part I

The situation on the bridge of the Rising Sun had not improved. It had only gotten worse as they remained trapped behind the frozen inner hatch and whatever soldiers they had managed to get to the upper deck had immediately been incapacitated. Now that they were learning that some of the steam lines were frozen, engineering was working furious to keep the pressure from dropping off so much that it would cut the propellers all together.

Yet none of that stressed the crew so much as the fact the day gauge had been at zero for four full minutes now.

“Where in the world is Flash Sentry?” the first officer shouted. “He was supposed to be back by now! Have they spotted his chariot yet?”

“Negative, ma’am!”

“What about the engines? Have we got more power yet?”

“They’re saying moisture from the ice in the piping is leaking into the system! They still need ten minutes before they can flush the system!”

“We don’t have ten minutes! We need to clear that ice right-”

A loud smacking sound cut the first officer off.

She froze in place immediately, but she wasn’t alone. The rest of the bridge immediately dropped their own tasks and the chamber became silent enough to hear a pin drop. Everyone’s attention turned to the bridge windows the moment the noise had been heard. Now they stared at it in horror.

A grossly enlarged and malformed bat creature had struck the glass. Its eyes glowed with the signature gleam of a Nighttouched, and its hideously twisted nostrils and snout were smearing a mucus along the pane. It gazed inside angrily and hungrily; pressing its twisted, leathery body against it and showing off all the veins and tendons throughout its wings. After a moment, it slipped off and floated into the night sky, now filled with similar gleaming eyes like spectral fireflies.

Another bat creature smacked against a different part of the window a moment later. A third soon joined this one. As the second one slowly peeled itself off the clouds outside the airship parted. In their wake, a long, snake-like head and neck rose out from the world below and towered to the same height as the airship in spite of how many hundreds of feet it was in the air. The beaked, reptilian skull was the size of an adult bear, and as it slowly turned its head to the airship two identical heads to the first rose from the cloud as well.

Suddenly the bats began to slap against the bridge windows one after another. It lasted only a few seconds before a crinkling was heard. A crack appeared and spread across the surface, and soon after another crack appeared. This time a chip of glass fell into the bridge.

One of the crew members began to whimper. Another began to pray audibly.

The first officer was far more direct.

“Clear the bridge! Abandon ship! Get to the Prodigy as fast as you can!”

---

Sunset took one more step before leaping onto the edge of the railing of the Rising Sun. Not that Twilight could see it from her position. By now, she was breathing hard and struggling to think of what to do next. She glanced to her side but all she could see was Rarity huddling behind her own barrier, although she could hear Applejack hissing and writhing in pain. The designer was even more nervous than her. After holding for a moment, she made a move. She held up one of her hands, began to draw a symbol, and started to lean her head out.

She cried out and yanked back a moment later as a shaft shot by strong enough to chip the edge off of her barrier. She grasped for her face in the same instant.

“Rarity!” Twilight cried.

The woman recoiled; her face clearly panicked as she thought the hit had been worse. When she pulled back her hand she gasped again on seeing bloodstains, but the tip had only lightly sliced her cheek. Even so Twilight saw how fast it had happened.

“Nice thing about the Archer role!” Sunset’s voice shouted. “I got the sight of a hawk! Care to see which one of us is faster, Twilight? I only need you alive and your hand intact! I makes no difference to me to put one of these arrows in your eye!”

The mage answered by beginning to cast a new spell, but after preparing the sigil she only turned her head to the side; clearly not knowing how she could pop out and use it without giving herself away as a target. She made no other sound or move.

“Decide quick! All I need to do is take one more step onto your ship and then I’ll see your little hick friend! I won’t miss the heart this time!”

“Leave them alone!” Twilight shouted back. “They haven’t done anything to you!”

“Oh, I disagree! By my count, they’ve stolen one of my ships, fired on another one, broken my magical weapons, attacked my crew, and have tried to steal what I have rightfully taken…namely you! But if staying free isn’t worth their lives to you…”

Twilight didn’t see, but Sunset took the fateful step forward onto the railing of the Legacy. At once, she got a full view of Applejack, clutching her bleeding shoulder still pierced by the arrow, cringing against the side, and now looking at her in shock.

She took aim at her chest. “Then you won’t mind if I start taking them!” She released the bowstring.

The arrow went flying from the bow, but no sooner had she let loose then she saw a flash followed by a cracking sound. She recoiled a moment later in sudden surprise.

Rainbow Dash, hand still extended in a punch and glaring angrily at her, was standing between her and Applejack. The two severed halves of the arrow shaft that she had punched right out of the sky danced in midair a bit longer before falling to the deck.

Twilight hadn’t seen the whole move but she heard the punch and the crack and seized on it. Taking the risk, she quickly popped out from the enclave. She didn’t have time to assess the situation or what had just happened. She simply aimed the sigil for Sunset and executed it. Sunset herself snapped to her, hearing the arcane incantation she was using, but it was too late. As the sigil executed it seemed to burn away into a black, opaque mist. The mist shot through the sky and streamed straight into Sunset’s eyeballs.

She shouted in rage and clutched for her face, staggering back. As for Dash, she was surprised at what had happened but didn’t question it. Quickly, she turned around, grabbed Applejack under her good arm, and accelerated in a blaze of speed to pull her away.

Twilight grinned. “Looks like the Archer role doesn’t have nearly the magical resistance of the Caster! I don’t think those keen eyes of yours will do much good when you’ve been hit by a Blindness curse!”

“You little…!” she began to sputter, before she stopped clutching for her eyes. A moment later, she instead drew another arrow, took perfect aim for where Twilight had spoken, and sent out another shaft. Twilight’s smug smirk evaporated at Sunset’s near dead-aim and she dove back for the enclave. Even so, she felt several of her hairs cut off by the arrowhead.

As for Dash, she had to go slower to yank Applejack away, but both of them began to run for the hatch back to the ship interior. Fluttershy, by now, had popped out of it as well; both her and Dash having arrived only seconds earlier. Spotting the two running to her, she quickly turned and beckoned. “Oh! Bring her here! I’ll-”

Unfortunately, the moment Sunset heard another voice, she drew another arrow and shot at it. Fluttershy let out a panicked cry as she saw a shaft head her way but, fortunately, the aim was just a little off. Instead the arrow shaft sank right through her hood and ripped her back off her feet, dragging her all the way to the edge of the ship before it embedded in the opposite railing and leaving her pinned in place.

Not stopping there, Sunset quickly listened and heard Dash’s running abruptly halt in surprise. She aimed her next shaft there and fired again. This time, the arrow bolt made contact with one of her feet and sliced right through it. Dash gave a pained yell and stumbled, dropping both her and Applejack to the deck as blood streaked out across the paneling. However, she quickly slapped a hand over her mouth and rolled to one side as Sunset reloaded and fired another arrow where her head had been. It embedded in the wood hard enough to splint it, but still missed.

After that, all six girls went as silent as they could. That was a bit hard for Dash and Applejack, as both now had arrow wounds, and Fluttershy herself was struggling not to whimper as she was now stuck to the railing with no way to free herself without making more noise. Fortunately, the ambient sounds covered up most of this, but the wooden deck would turn anything they made into an echo.

Sunset, teeth gnashed now, reloaded another arrow as she began to blindly walk forward. “Where are you…” she hissed, snapping the bow up. “Where are you?”

Twilight had poked her head back out but didn’t dare make a sound. From here, she could look around to everyone but all of them were helpless at this point. Spells would take too long. Dash might have been able to outrun the shaft, but not with an arrow wound in her foot. Rarity saw her, lying about five meters from where she was hiding. Moistening her lips, she slowly began to inch her way out, not making a sound as Sunset continued to listen for anything. It seemed to work as she slowly emerged and made her way over to the injured girls.

On reaching them, she held out her hand and began to whisper a chant.

The whisper was too loud. She barely got three syllables before Sunset snapped around and sent an arrow at her. The only reason it didn’t go through her head was because Dash, toughing through her own pain, threw herself forward and snapped out her hand to snatch the shaft right before it could embed in her skull. Even so, Rarity couldn’t help but shriek at what nearly happened.

Sunset grinned. “So you taught the Magician with you some healing magic?” She knocked another arrow and took aim. “Too bad she’ll never get to use it!”

“Hey Sunset!”

The sound of Pinkie’s chipper, cheery voice immediately got not only Sunset’s attention but that of the others. Much to Twilight’s alarm, she was fully out and was now prancing and dancing around making as much noise as she could. “Booga-booga-booga! Betcha can’t hit me! N’yah n’yah!”

Immediately, Sunset snapped around and fired a shaft at her instead. Twilight expected Pinkie to use the Rogue’s agility to avoid it, which she did by arching herself to one way and letting the arrow shoot right by her, but rather than keep dodging she did something different.

“Ooooooooh! Ya’ got me!” Pinkie instantly yelled, falling to her knees. “Ack! Ugh! Urk! Right in the gizzard! Cough! Hack! Choke! It’s curtains for me!” She followed up with exaggerated coughing and writhing. “The pain! Agony! Agony-agony-agony! Everything’s getting dark! It feels cold…so cold!” She threw herself on the deck and thrashed and flailed about like a worm on a hook.

Twilight watched this exaggerated display for a moment as Sunset grew progressively more annoyed, before she realized the point of it. At once she wheeled around to the others and motioned to them. They stared back a moment before they too realized what was happening and responded. Rarity went to Dash’s foot and began to use her healing spell. Fluttershy pulled herself free of the arrow as fast as she could and began to move toward Applejack. As for Twilight, she fully rose up and began to quickly chant a new symbol.

“Ugh! Ugh… Guuuuugherg… If I had know it would end like this…I would have baked more cupcakes! Ugh! Tell Maud I love her! Tell Marble my secret cookie recipe! Tell Limestone I’m the one who broke the wheelbarrow…because I really, really never wanted to tell her that to her face…”

“Shut up, you idiot!” Sunset shouted. “I can’t hear-”

She trailed off, blinded-eyes widening.

“I can’t hear!”

She spun around, but it was too late as Twilight finished casting her own spell and executed it. Her voice spoke with a power that the girls had not heard before and a moment later her own aura blazed in lavender light before it condensed in front of her and her sigil. It erupted into a potent, concentrated mass of shimmering energy, transformed into a missile-like object, and sailed straight into Sunset.

Her cry was swallowed up by the sound of a magical explosion, and she vanished in a wave of concussive energy that blasted out the deck paneling around it. Moments later, her own body went flying from the blast and smashed into the ship’s railing. The impact was loud enough that the ladies could hear it resonating as her body sprawled onto the deck.

Rarity quickly finished her own spell, and while it didn’t heal her totally it was enough for Dash to snap back to her feet and get her fists ready. Fluttershy, distracted by the explosion, was still taking more time on Applejack. Gritting her teeth, the farmer yanked the arrow out of her wound, ignoring how much more it bled as Fluttershy quickly clotted it and glared out at the remains of the blast. “That was a big ‘un… How come you don’t do that more often, Twilight?”

The mage herself was now slumping partially over her enclave and bracing herself against the doors. “That’s a spell of raw force… It’s non-elemental but it takes a lot out of me…”

“Who cares?” Dash answered. “She’s not getting up from that kind of hit. That had to have broken half the bones in her body.”

The steam and smoke from the eruption slowly faded away, and Sunset’s sprawled body became clear. Part of her clothing was in tatters as a result of that blast and she lay still a moment.

Then, letting out an irritated mutter, she simply began to pick herself up again. She was slow and sore but no more than the rest of them.

“Wow…she’s really strong,” Pinkie gulped.

“What the-?!” Applejack sputtered.

“I told you!” Twilight moaned. “The more sigils you use, the stronger you are!”

When she finally got back to her feet, she did slump a little and had to spread out her legs to stay standing, but that was all. She only posed that way for a moment before her angry glower turned into a smile. She chuckled several times.

“Ok, ladies… I guess you want to have some real fun.”

She held her hand up in the air.

“Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Ray of Hope—Somnambula!”

Dash nearly took off for her, but ended up not only halting but shielding herself along with the others as power erupted from Sunset’s body. This was even greater than before. The image that streaked out of her and formed this time was a cheerful, smiling woman in ancient makeup and a headdress from the southern continent. It soon split and came over her. Sunset didn’t accept it as “gracefully” this time. Her body visibly tightened and stiffened, making her look like she was under true strain, but she bore with it as her clothing changed.

The dark colors gave way to a mixture of black and fiery reds, oranges, and yellows. The clothing grew closer to her yet; taking her from a hooded archer into a much longer, elegant slip that one would except from someone alluring at a high class party as opposed to a battlefield. Her hair was arranged and styled with an attractive, fire-shaped comb as more elaborate makeup spread over her face. Long gloves, boots, and large accessories spread over her arms and legs. In particular, thick bracelets went over one of her wrists, gleaming with gold and jewels like tumblers on a slot machine. As for her other hand, her glove still allowed her Promethian Sigil to show through clearly—now with three of the runes blazing.

The light dimmed down, and Sunset panted twice, as if catching her breath, before looking out with a wicked smile.

“I mentioned the Gambler role, didn’t I?”

The six stared a moment longer. Finally, Pinkie snapped off of the ground, dropping her death throes, and instead aimed the weapon she swiped from Snails at her. “Think fast!”

She shot out twin streams of the gunk at her. Sunset merely kept smiling and stood there. The streams nearly reached her, before the wind about her abruptly changed into a stiff gale. It was just enough to catch the gunk and blow it away to one side, causing it to impact right behind her.

Twilight herself, in spite of the strain and pain, raised her hand and began to paint another symbol in the air. Yet just as she was about to complete it, the propped-up doors of the enclave suddenly slipped on their latch. Not only did it fall just as Spike was getting out to try a lunge of his own, trapping him inside, but the door’s swinging back down landed right on her toe. Yelping, she cut off the spell and hopped up on it painfully.

Dash grit her own teeth and took off after her. However, rather than appear in front of her, she only made it a third of the distance before one of the floor planks broke from previous damage and the huntsman hooked her foot, spun around, and went face down on deck…catching her chin right in some of the excess paste from Snails.

Sunset grinned. “That’s the nice thing about the Gambler. It has the lovely side-effect of manipulating luck and fate. Speaking of which…”

She raised her arm with the rotating bracelets and stretched out her gloved hand to give all three a spin.

“Let’s see what my luck says.”

Dash pushed herself up as the others recovered, just as the bracelets finished rotating one after another like a slot machine. As they watched, they clicked to show images: diamond…diamond…diamond.

The moment they landed, a light burst from the bracelet before all three diamonds broke off; going from images into actual gemstones. All three separated and hovered in midair over Sunset for a moment, gleamed, and then began to shed prismatic rays of light from all three at once. Twilight watched as one of the rays struck the ground, and went wide-eyed on seeing it leaving a burning incision along them.

“Take cover!”

The six scattered, even though Fluttershy had only partially finished with her healing of Applejack. Dash was forced to roll for it and tried to get up to run further before she was struck in the back by one of the rays. Fortunately, the actual mark it left was only a burning scrape across it, but the beam also had force. She cried out as she was sent sprawling back to the ground. Pinkie managed to dive and slip past the rays aimed for her, but as Rarity went for cover one beam lashed across her leg and sent her falling to a knee. Before she could recover, another struck her in the side of the head and she fell to the ground. Applejack, ignoring her half-healed arm, grabbed Fluttershy around the waist, hoisted her over a shoulder, and ran for it. Twilight alone tried to stand her ground, in spite of how much strain it was giving her, to make a shield of ice. Unfortuantely, several beams struck it and shattered it, pelting her with crystals and the force knocking her to the deck.

The gemstones crumbled in midair soon after, but Sunset noticed that Fluttershy and Applejack were still standing. Smirking, she held up her hand and made a gesture, causing a five-card hand to appear out of her palm in it. She flung one like a dart at the two of them.

It missed striking either one, but it did sail past Applejack and land in her path. She froze, looking down at it, and just had enough time to realize it was the Ace of Clubs before it gleamed and burst. In its wake, a massive armored hand, wielding a three-knobbed club, emerged from inside and swept around. It struck both women together and sent them crashing back against the deck.

Sunset smirked at the sight, but caught something out of the corner of her eye. Dash, using the most her speed could offer, had gotten back to her feet and was running at her. In spite of the paste, her full speed offset it enough to act as a normal run. Unfortunately, as Sunset saw her coming, she collapsed the cards and put them away only to toss a pair of dice at Dash instead. The huntsman tried to run right past them but couldn’t manage it. Both dice landed on the deck in front of her, tumbled a bit, and landed on a “four” between the two of them.

An instant later, they blew up in a series of four concussive blasts. The shockwaves caught Dash and flung her violently away.

Twilight gaped at what happened just as she managed to get her feet underneath her. Sunset herself shook her hand again, gaining a new pair of dice in them and tossing them up and down in it lightly. “Looks like I got more tricks up my sleeve than you and your friends do in this role, Twilight.” She began to rear her arm back. “If that was only a ‘four’, I wonder how much a ‘ten’ will be…”

She began to look around, trying to see which of the girls to use the next dice roll on. Before she could decide, however, she was interrupted by an unexpected source.

Namely the hull of the Rising Sun rocking forward and slamming against the Legacy.

The force was enough to shake the whole ship, making her waver and nearly stumble. She was surprised for a moment, before she wheeled about and glared at the ship angrily. “What in the world are you-”

She cut herself off as she saw the far side of the ship suddenly break out from within, the result of something punching a hole right through it. Planks, gears, and pipes flew out into the night sky, and as they did Sunset, as well as Twilight, finally noticed that the air around the three airships was now swarming with hundreds of glowing yellow eyes. Nowhere were they more clustered, however, then about the Rising Sun. At least a dozen were now clutching the hull or airbag in different places. With the ship’s side opened, the sounds of screaming, panic, and even weapons firing were going off all around.

“What…what the…?”

“Lady Sunset!”

The voice of Snips crying out made her turn. During her fight with the six, Snails had finally managed to pull his companion back on deck. He gaped in fear and pointed at the destruction. “The Nighttouched are on us! They’re tearing up the Rising Sun!”

She stared at him then looked back at the Legacy’s crossbar, before she growled in her biggest sign of irritation yet. “Damnit, Flash! I told him to get that Morning Glory! Not only did he screw that up he left it disconnected!”

“Lady Sunset!” This shout came from one of the soldiers still on deck of the Rising Sun, although all of the ones that were still there at this point were panicking and going for whatever weapons they still had to defend themselves. Two of them began to fire at large, bat-like Nighttouched trying to sweep over them. Others were trying to climb out of the ports. Some were making it on deck; but from the sounds of screams on the opposite side some of them weren’t.

“They’re all over us! There’s a big one that just ripped a gouge out! We need to disconnect from the Legacy so we can get onto the Prodigy from the port!”

Sunset took a fraction of a second to realize what that meant. “No! Keep us connected! We’re retaking this ship!”

“We don’t have time! They’re tearing us apart! We can’t even evacuate to the upper deck! We’ve lost contact with engineering already!”

“Lady Sunset!” Snips shouted. By now, the rest of the soldiers stranded on the Legacy were beginning to rise, but their full attention was on getting out of there now that the Nighttouched were involved. “Let’s just get on the Prodigy and go!”

Sunset ignored him and glared at the ones still on the Rising Sun. “Either cross onto this ship and help me get rid of these six or go down with that one! I’m too close!”

Twilight stared on at her a moment; her look growing increasingly incredulous at her reaction. Finally, she turned and looked to Fluttershy and Applejack. The former of the two had been using the opportunity to try and heal them both of their fresh injuries.

“Fluttershy, you and Dash didn’t reconnect the Morning Glory?”

She looked up from her spell. “We didn’t have time. We already heard Sunset shouting through the speaking hole and ran up.”

“Go do it now!”

The woman hesitated. “But…but you need me up here…”

“We’ll be fine! Just do it!”

She continued to hesitate, before finally looking at Applejack. The farmer herself paused but finally clenched her jaw and nodded back. Swallowing, Fluttershy got up from them and ran back for the hatch. Applejack forced herself back to her feet as she brandished her own fists, and Twilight quickly rose as well and got her wand at the ready.

Sunset snorted when she saw Fluttershy run back into the ship. “I should’ve known you were a bleeding heart all along. Real smart…wanting to save people who tried to kill you and your friends. No wonder you ended up spending most of the past eight years sleeping in gutters.”

“Don’t you care even a little about the people you depend on?” Twilight shot back.

“The only thing I care about,” Sunset sneered as she raised her dice hand again, “is the fact it’s now just five of you and you lost your Healer!”

A moment later, she snapped her dice out at Rarity. The woman was just starting to recover, grasping a head wound she was now sporting, only to pale on seeing the dice headed for her. Immediately, she cringed and braced herself as they landed and tumbled forward.

Soon after they came to a stop…on a pair of ones. “Snake Eyes”.

Both dice erupted a moment later, but only into a dull amount of smoke.

The group was rather surprised, but not nearly as much as Sunset. “What? That’s it?” Gritting her teeth, she instead raised her arm and gave the bracelets a spin instead. She aimed it at the women expectantly, and once again it clicked into place: a 7…a 7…and a cherry.

Nothing happened.

Needless to say, she began to fume soon afterward. Noticing this, however, Twilight risked a taunt. “Looks like luck works both ways!”

Sunset’s eyes flashed angrily at that before she spun her bracelets again. This time the order was a toy race horse…a toy race horse…and a toy race horse. Once again, the images broke off of her bracelets, but this time they rapidly began to enlarge as they spread out around to either side of her. They continued to grow until they were the size of real horses, and then suddenly broke like they were nothing more than images on stained glass.

In their wake, a herd of full-sized toy racehorses, each one made of metal and galloping as hard and fast as the real thing, broke out into a stampede right for the women.

Fortunately, as bizarre and offputting as this attack was, they had time to get ready for it during Sunset’s failed attempts at attack. Dash managed to rapidly crawl over to Rarity, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie soon fell in behind Twilight as they ducked behind the access hatch to the rest of the ship along with them. Soon, all five were huddled as the troupe of mechanical animals trampled all around them. They only ran to the edge of the ship before vanishing in flashes of light, but more of them kept pouring out from where the images had been.

“Ok…this is gettin’ mighty weird…” Applejack remarked.

“She’s actually calling a stampede upon us!” Rarity nearly shrieked; her wits fully recovered. “How in the world are we supposed to fight back now?”

“Everyone!” Twilight quickly shouted, getting their attention. “I’ve got a plan! All of us need to keep the pressure up on her and keep dodging and attacking! Even if we don’t land hits, we have to frustrate her enough so that she brings out the rest of her Anima Viris!”

The four girls nearly gasped at the suggestion.

“That’s your ‘plan’?!” Dash nearly shouted as she rubbed away at the gunk on her chin. “We can’t even hit her now! What are we going to do if she pulls out any more?”

“Just trust me! If my assumption is right, this is the only way we can beat her this time! Just know for right now this isn’t nearly as hopeless as you may think!”

“But how we s’posed to hit her if she’s got the devil’s own luck…fer real?” Applejack retorted.

“There has to be something governing that…and it has to work against her just like her own attacks did. The role’s name is the ‘Gambler’, not…I don’t know…‘Lady Luck’. That implies that sometimes things work against her. The moment I spot something I’ll give the shout. When that happens, we all need to hit her enough to get her to bring out another Anima Viri.”

Rarity ran her glove across her face. “This is nothing short of pure insanity...”

“Hey, you know what they say about crazy plans, right?” Pinkie grinned as she ribbed Rarity a little. “Sometimes they’re just ‘crazy’ enough to work!”

“…I don’t think anyone says that, darling.”

The sound of the trampling hooves began to die down. Soon after, the last of the mechanical horses ran by. Sighing, Twilight tightened up. “It’s now or never. Come on!”

To be continued...

Comments

[Djmill]

Nighttouched bats prompting an airship crew to abandon ship again, but this time they're real. Plus a rather large hydra?

How, exactly, does Sunset think she would put an arrow in Twilight's eye without killing her? Is she thinking of a glancing sidelong hit?

Seems Archer grants extremely enhanced hearing as well as sight. But not enhanced enough to pick out quiet noises through a masking loud noise. Pinkie's creative noise making is hilarious. Sunset could have continued shooting at her instead of shouting, but she probably figured she wouldn't be able to hit with Pinkie's Rogue dodging. One big hit from Twilight, taking advantage of the distraction, and it's time for our first look at a level three Role: Gambler.

Hmm, looking back at where Sunset mentioned Gambler two chapters ago, I'm guessing Enchanter is a level four Role, and the "secret" last one is Sunset's only level five Role. I expect to see both of them before this is over, if not more.

Gambler's basic power is extreme luck. Sounds fitting. Switching Roles apparently broke Twilight's blindness spell, too. Ah, the luck doesn't apply to Gambler's own other abilities, which keeps it from being completely ridiculously powerful.

Twilight's plan... Sunset seemed a bit strained by activating the third Anima Viri, is Twilight thinking that the strain of all five will be more than she can handle for long? It's also clear that Sunset has very little practice with the higher level Roles, to the point where she doesn't even have full intellectual knowledge of their abilities.

I got a glimpse of the end of the chapter when I scrolled down to the comment box before reading, and seeing mechanical horses mentioned without context was baffling. I had no idea how that made sense and was really curious to find out.