32 - Star Drop
Sparks shot up from the deck and singed my fur as I ran. Almost all the counter-sniper advice Dad could have possibly given me was completely useless against an airborne sniper! Nopony builds any kind of cover for things that are above you!
What insanity was that?! A third of all ponies can fly! An ancient pegasi stratagem for winning every war ever was “fly up high, drop rocks”. WHY DIDN’T THIS DECK HAVE A ROOF?
“Don’t complain about a lack of a roof while on top of the roof. Run! Serpentine!” Imaginary Dad ordered.
I did my best to follow his instructions. The problem was that this sniper was very good. Every time I tried to turn they fired again, putting a shot into the deck right where I would have been if I wasn’t randomly varying my speed.
That wasn’t a trick dad taught me. I just remembered my Captain ordering the engine room to do it to throw off enemy shots.
I spared a moment to look at my destination rather than my heading. Getting in the door would be hard. Our sniper friend had to know where I was going. If he thought to stop shooting and just wait for me to enter the hatch and fire through it…
“Problem!” I shouted. “Sniper! Hatch! Obvious target!”
Vinyl’s hooves pounded against the deck. “I’ll go first!”
Yes. First. Canterlot ghoul. Unless he destroyed her brain, she’d be okay.
But he seems to reload fast.
What can we do to—
“Aerial target spotted,” Desi informed.
“How the buck can you see—”
“Alicorn! Pegasus eyes!” I yelled, cutting Vinyl off. “Shoot him if you can!”
“Complying,” Desi remarked.
The hatch was only seconds away. As were the Enclave troopers behind us.
Comply faster!
I slowed down to let Vinyl pass me. I could see tears in her suit sealing themselves as she ran.
“Firing Thaumaturgic Burst,” Desi informed.
High-pitch electrical crackling. Undulating green light. Loud fizzing. A shocked “Discord’s beard!” from Vinyl. Hatch reached!
I dove through the opening. Vinyl was staring up at the sky, open mouthed. I grabbed her and dragged her inside the ship. Desi was too slow. I took hold of her left hindleg and dragged her in, too. A quick look showed everyone was clear of the hatch’s swinging arc. I slammed it shut and spun the wheel, then pulled the locking lever.
The Imperterritus’ dim interior was dusty, stale, and stank of rotting rubber, spilled oil, and rust. Good! That meant not many other hatches were left open. It would be some time before the Enclave could enter… Hopefully. There were plenty of gangways to board her, after all.
A metallic ping rang through the corridor. Was that a bullet which hit the hatch, or the slam of an angry hoof? I had no idea. The armor was, fortunately, quite thick.
“We’re safe until they find another door or blast this one open,” I announced with a sigh of relief. “We should head below decks to the armory, see if it hasn’t been—”
“BUCK THOSE HORSEAPPLES!” Vinyl shouted way too loudly.
She lifted Desi with her magic and shook her at me. “This filly just launched a motherbucking Mana Torpedo from her bucking horn!” Vinyl spun Desi to make her look her dead in the eyes. “HOW THE BUCK DID YOU DO THAT?!”
“Science,” Desi answered with a classic ‘duh’ tone to her voice.
Vinyl nodded twice. “Yeah, sure, obviously, but how?!” She demanded. “Every nerd on term-link spent years of their lives trying to figure out if those things could be made real! Or make a spell to create the same effect, because that would just be bucking AWEsome! And here you are, two hundred years after the end of bucking everything, lobbing balls of anti-magic doom like it’s bucking nothing!”
I felt my various memory modules strain for a moment. “Wait, that’s what she did? How? Also we should get away from the hatch.”
Desi sighed and levitated her book from her bag to page through.
Vinyl nodded in agreement with me and started to trot down the corridor before stopping and looking over her shoulder at me helplessly.
I smiled and quickly trotted ahead of her. “We’re going down to deck seven, then working our way towards the stern.”
We jogged through the dim corridors in relative silence. Just our hooves pounding against the metal deck, and occasionally rustling pages from Desi’s book. Whatever she was looking up, it was going to be a long speech. Hopefully we would get to hear it.
As alien an experience as running down these passages was, I could still tell that some of the hoof-on-steel sounds were not our own echoes, but from one of a few other groups of ponies. The Enclave had found another hatch sooner than I thought…
I also knew less about the ship’s layout than I thought. I never actually entered these narrow, low, dismally gray corridors. I’d never stooped under the exposed pipes, ducts, and electrical conduits before. Was this how organics felt? Trapped. Isolated. Alone.
I remembered the open sea. The sky. The opposite of this…
I’m so sorry, Captain. I had no idea. This had to be awful!
I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment. With luck, my vague idea of where to go on where I remembered feeling the armory being in terms of a body part I shared with dozens of conjoined siblings wasn’t a fool’s errand.
…
When you put it like that…
Desi’s book closed with a soft thump, drawing my attention to her as she floated within Vinyl’s telekinetic grip.
Desi flicked her mane out of her eyes, inhaled sharply and created a little vector illustration with illusion magic. For a moment I thought she was going to show us a visual breakdown of what happened.
Nope. The glowing lines forming mid air were nothing but pure math. The scary kind that mom liked.
“Utilizing theta wave protostablization, mana particles can be polarized into their opposite-charge counterparts. Converted particles are not stable. Containment of unstable anti-mana can be achieved for brief periods with the application of a rotating magnetic field, as long as the total particles in a given field do not exceed a charge of 0.0005 nano-clovers,” Desi said before changing out her illusionary equations for another, even more complex set.
“Normal mana particles can be similarly contained, thereby making it possible to create a matrix of “containment spheres” of alternating mana and anti-mana particles to form an overall homogeneous mixture,” she continued, ignoring the fact her head flick had imparted enough rotational energy for her start slowly spinning in Vinyl’s telekinetic bubble. It didn’t seem to bother her at all.
It bothered me. I tilted my head to keep looking at her properly as she rotated.
Desi cycled her equations again. “A radiant telekinetic vector field can keep the magnetic bubbles from intersecting due to their charges, preventing premature mixture. Should the vector field be limited in charge to no more than 8 micro-clovers above the total charge of contained particles, it will collapse upon contact with solid matter or energy barriers and permit the particles to mix, resulting in a classic anti-magic detonation.”
I felt my eyes widen in alarm at the implications of what she just said, and had done a few moments ago. Unfortunately, Desi was on too much of a roll to stop and answer a question. Possibly literally. She was upside down now.
Wait, that's another pun, but does it count as a pony pun? Should I recalculate for... No this is not the time!
Desi’s equations cycled yet again. “The detonation will result in a disruption of the local thaumaturgic field, creating a void proportional to the energy content of the reaction. The accompanying cascade failure of physical laws within the affected region lasts for several nanoseconds. The vacuum-forces experienced within the disrupted region of spacetime overwhelm the weak and strong nuclear forces, allowing for normally stable matter to undergo nuclear fusion for a period of aproximantly 89 femtoseconds before normal physics is fully restored.”
Desi rotated back to a mostly upright position. “The damage incurred during the vacuum collapse is typically sufficient to,” Desi raised her hooves to make air quotes, “quote, wreck their shit but good, end quote.”
Desi’s vector-illusion shifted to two frame animated picture. It was a chibi pony, presumably herself, clapping while a building labeled ‘bad guy convention’ exploded. And the text ‘Thank you, Science!’ at the top.
Vinyl and I stared at Desi for several long seconds.
“C— Can you do it again?” Vinyl asked hopefully.
“Insufficient calories,” Desi said, sounding somewhat ashamed. “Please insert taco.”
My ears perked up hopefully. “Well, she probably don't need to! You hit the sniper, right?”
Desi shrugged her shoulders. “Unknown.”
“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked with a tilt of my head.
If there was some kind of active Advanced Theoretical Arcanophysics school somewhere nearby, they NEEDED a radio.
“Math!” Desi answered with a genuine smile.
Oh, my, Celestia! She’s so cute when she does that!
“Math is not a location,” Vinyl deadpanned for the both us us.
Desi shook her head and quickly referenced her book. “Math is where nature lives.”
I mean, she wasn't wrong, but—
Just as it occurred to me that somepony might have named a post-war village “Math”, a bullet ricocheted off the wall next to me and whizzed down the hallway.
“Oh-buck-that’s-right!” Vinyl yelped as she dropped Desi onto my back. “Have-a-dorsal-Mana-Torpedo-launcher. RUN!”
We sprinted down the hallway, rounds bouncing off the walls, floor, ceiling, my chassis… Occasionally I could hear a small sizzle as Desi’s shield took a hit. They tore through Vinyl’s body, too. Her pained grunts and groans tore at my heart. There were bad ponies and I couldn’t make them go away. I needed a gun. Any gun!
There! The stairs down!
I put on a fresh burst of speed and moved towards the stairs, knowing there would be a hatch at the entrance.
A rifle round gouged a chunk out of my left flank. A series of system reports flashed in front of my eyes. I yelped in pain and almost fell flat on my face. I was fine. I had to slow down because a hydraulic line was nicked and compromised, but I was otherwise fine.
Vinyl ducked through the hatch. I bolted inside and slammed the hatch closed. The locking lever creaked as I pulled sharply.
“Down four decks! I think. Pretty sure!” I ordered as I started to run down the stairs. “Is everyone okay?”
Vinyl hissed and shook her head. “No! One of them hit me right in the cli—” Vinyl’s eyes dilated as if she were terrified. “I uh, mean, in a special place.”
The heck was she— Oh! Right, filly present. Organics dislike using emotional intensifiers around foals for whatever reason.
Wait, clitoris was a swear word? Process—
I ran into the wall with a loud clang. “Ow…”
“You okay?” Vinyl asked worriedly.
“Mostly,” I muttered before turning and running down the next flight of stairs.
I heard Desi’s book rustle as she began to look up how to say something.
We made it down another two flights of stairs. This was the correct deck.
I ducked through the open hatch and took a quick look around the hall, hoping the ponies who had worked on reverse engineering the ship hadn’t removed the navigation signs. Fortunately, they left them in place. In the original zebrican, too!
Armamentarium. To the left. Yay!
That was nice of them. They seemed to have taken down all the Imperial banners and decorations. I was pretty sure there had been silvered and bronzed skulls hung up on the wall to honor fallen warriors every few meters or so.
“This way,” I called as I ran down the corridor.
An explosion rocked the ship. Metal fragments pinged thought he stairwell like ping pong balls in a clothes dryer mid spin-cycle. About two tons of metal slammed into the deck half a heartbeat later.
The Enclave troops apparently had demolition charges. Great…
“Nice going!” my ringing ears picked up “You blew up the bucking stairs, featherbrain!”
“Shut up and find another way down!” someone else shouted.
“That’s lucky,” Vinyl murmured with a worried flick of her tail.
I nodded in agreement and galloped down the corridor towards the armory.
Bulkheads flashed by me on either side. I knew in my heart it was very unlikely for the armory to have been untouched, but the racks for recharging gauss weapons were in there. It would make sense to turn it into a lab to study them in. There had to be something left inside! Anything.
Even an M81R hoofcannon would do! And I was reasonably sure that might warm a tin of beans within two fireballs or so. But the Enclave wouldn’t know those sucked pure taint.
I skidded to a halt on the metal floor and pivoted to face the armory door. It was closed. Good?
I pulled the door release as hard as I could. The rusty hatch swung out into the corridor as the armory’s light came on revealing… A completely empty room.
No guns. No tables. No science equipment. No charging racks. A totally gutted room with just some of the charging port’s wires hanging from the ceiling.
My ears fell as I hung my head. My longshot had failed.
Vinyl ran up alongside me and sighed. “Well… That was a long shot. So… We try to get to your Assult-Pone-E friend?” she proposed with a hopeful smile.
“It’s the only other option,” I agreed. “Problem is, he’s sealed in. We’ll need to break that seal. We need time to do that.”
“And we’re being chased,” Vinyl finished for me with a groan. “Well, not like we have any other choice aside form let them kill us or try to run away unarmed.”
I hummed for a moment. “Think we’ll make it unarmed?”
“Well, Speed should be engaging the enemy about now,” Vinyl said with a thoughtful tail-flick. “With luck, Nika made it back to land and got to his guns, and Desi vaporized their airborne sniper. Loom’s literally a walking tank, but Nika did have that RPG… Assuming he didn’t just swim to the other side of the harbor. If we run, our companions might have weapons for us.”
I bit my lip to think. My ears perked. My eyes widened.
“Looks like you have an idea,” Vinyl said with a cautious frown.
“Rylanor is locked in the barracks meant for the landing force. We were captured in the harbor. Everyzeeb would have been in there, with their kit, ready to go!” I said as I spun on my rear hooves to run towards the ship’s bow. “Come on! There’s gauss weapons in there!”
Maybe even some gyrojets! The microrockets those things fired were always a little bit finicky about humidity, but if a case of them was still intact we’d have some small explosive rounds to work with.
“It would be safer to have guns before going out there, instead of having them tossed to us out there,” Vinyl said hesitantly before running after me. “What can we expect to find?”
“Gauss weapons,” I said thoughtfully. “You know, telekinetically accelerated bits of metal. Also gyrojets, probably. Maybe some traditional weapons too. Should be all special forces stuff.”
Her hooves clanked against the deck as she sprinted to catch up.
“Are you sure it’s safe to let him out?” She asked with a genuinely worried twinge in her voice.
I nodded. “Of course I am!” I said with a smile. “He understands the war is over. He said so.”
“He could be lying, hoping he’s let out,” Vinyl urged.
“True,” I agreed as I rounded a corner to avoid going through the mess hall (and the four staircases that lead directly into it). “But he’s not stupid. He knows what time is. He knows it’s been two centuries. The war is obviously over via a draw due to mutual annihilation.”
“I— I hope so,” Vinyl sighed. “Speed and I had a chat while you were with the council. Neither of us thinks letting him out is a good idea.”
I rolled my eyes. “Hon, the people trying to kill us. Who are they?”
“The Enclave,” Vinyl replied.
I nodded and swished my tail, taking a moment to duck under a collapsed section of heating duct so Desi wouldn’t be knocked off my back. “Mhm, now, the Enclave were…”
“Equstria’s air force. I’m well aware of—”
“Right!” I said cheerfully. “If Rylanor thinks the war is still on and we let him out, what will he do upon seeing Equestrian soldiers?”
“Oh,” Vinyl said, seemingly surprised. “That’s a good point actually.”
“Right! We’re civilians in a worst case scenario. He won't care about us. But, I mean, I think he’ll like to get back together with his little sister, you know?”
“I hope so,” Vinyl murmured.
“Provide context, please,” Desi asked with passable politeness.
“Good job on tone,” I said with a quick smile. “I used to be this ship’s fire control system. A war golem in the hold is still active, and remembers me. If we let him out, he’ll help us.”
Desi shivered on my back. “Alone is bad.”
“Guh,” Vinyl hissed. “Okay, Desi, you’ve got serious isolation issues.”
“Huh?” I asked then hopped over a partially closed flood control bulkhead.
“Her face. She doesn't express much, but she did there, and… yeah,” Vinyl called as she hopped over as well.
I took a moment to swivel my ears in the hopes of hearing anypony who might be sneaking up on us. I could hear hoofsteps other than our own, very faintly, probably echoing down a stairwell. They sounded a bit too close to us for my comfort, but if I was remembering correctly, we were near the barracks. Maybe another hundred meters?
A thought occurred to me. If Desi was afraid of being alone, since she was definitely better equipped to survive than us, odds were good she was worried we’d die and she’d have to hide someplace smol pones could go but big pones couldn’t. Say, an air duct. Where she’d be alone.
“Don’t worry, Desi. We’ll make it out of here,” I promised as we rounded another corner.
I heard pages rustle as the filly looked up her reply.
“Survival odds would increase dramatically if she utilized her arcane capabilities,” Desi said at last.
“Oh, uh… heh… About that,” Vinyl said, her voice oozing with embarrassment. “I um… Never learned combat magic.”
Desi shifted on my back and I could hear her telekinesis lift something out of her bag. “Here, learn.”
“Oh! A spellbook,” Vinyl said eagerly. “I might be able to cast something with a written reference. Let’s see what’s in here… Maybe, I could give us all a bubble shield or—”
Vinyl cut off mid sentence. I looked over my shoulder in terror, worried her silence meant Enclave troopers had caught up to us.
Instead, Vinyl was standing still in the hallway, stopped mid stride, holding a somewhat tattered, lightly water damaged hardcover book while looking at Desi with a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and something else I didn’t even recognise.
“Desi,” Vinyl said slowly. “This is an AP physics textbook.”
Desi double-facehoof and groaned, proving once and for all that some gestures are universal. She flipped through her translation book for a moment then turned back to Vinyl.
“Technology and magic is nature taught to do cool tricks,” she said before flicking through more of her book to say more.
Vinyl looked down at the textbook then up to Desi then down to the textbook. “Yeah, but that doesn't make this a spellbook!”
“Is rulebook!” Desi protested, genuinely angry based on her squirming. “Shows all possible moves!”
“Yes, but that doesn't mean it shows me how to make those moves!” Vinyl said as she pushed the book back towards Desi.
Desi took it and tucked it into one of her saddlebags, still squirming and upset. I resumed my running down the corridor, trying to stay focused on our goal.
“Sorry, kid, but I’m not the best at math,” Vinyl grumbled half heartedly. “I can’t just look at an old book and instantly realize how to throw balls of plasma! Especially not when we’re being chased through a rusting old hulk by psychopaths!”
Speaking of the Enclave, their hoof steps sounded kinda far away. Were we gaining ground? It was really hard to tell… so many echoes. At least they would have a really hard time tracking us by sound too!
Desi remained silent, and if I felt her motion correctly, had grumpily moved her head down onto the top of my flank so she wouldn’t be looking at Vinyl.
“Oh come on!” Vinyl exclaimed. “I know some autistic ponies are amazing at math and can just do it easily as the rest of us can read Equish, but you have to understand that we don't have that ability! It would take me months, maybe years, to learn a new spell, and that’s with the proper teaching tools.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. “Is she that mad at you?”
“Anger is self directed,” Desi mumbled into my flank.
“Why?” I asked as we ducked around what I thought was the second to last corner.
Desi grumbled, shifting on my back to reference her book for a few seconds. “She can’t do math efficiently. She can do linguistics efficiently. I can’t do linguistics efficiently. Communication too slow to transfer knowledge efficiently. I’m lowering our survival rate…”
I felt my core warm slightly. “Vi? Please hug her.”
“Already on it,” Vinyl said from much closer to me than before. “It’s okay, Desi. We’ll make it out of here.”
I rounded the final corner. The hallway ended a few meters ahead of us, capped by a large hydraulic door which would normally retract into the ceiling. It was sealed shut. Physically and magically.
The seams between the door and the frame had been welded, and by an expert no less. The bead was smooth, regular, almost as if a machine had done the work.
“Oh, for buck’s sake! I need a time travel spell and the address of whoever invented the arc welder!” Vinyl groaned as she noticed the welds.
The welds didn’t bother me. The door was a blast door, made from naval bronze and had been magically colored silver to match with the Impeterus’s silver and slate color scheme. The door had to be naval bronze, otherwise the speed which it had been designed to operate at would cause too much friction and make the door get stuck.
The door frame was steel. You cannot weld naval bronze to steel. You can braze them together, but a braze is not a weld. A weld fuses metals. A braze is just metal glue. The hydraulics would pop those welds off the moment they were engaged.
“The weld isn’t a problem… The circle is,” I sighed, closing my eyes tightly.
If I wasn’t so panicked right now I’d have felt the circle’s energy from at least half a deck away. It was powerful, it was durable. The etched circle, embedded gemstone dust, and fine arcanite wire formed a purely magical charm which strengthened the ship’s hull in a cubic shape, making it almost, but not quite, indestructible.
These kind of physical wards were expensive. Very, very expensive. This was the sort of thing which had once protected safe rooms in the Palace at Canterlot and the Imperial Palace in Zebrica. Big, powerful, expensive… and immobile. The circle had to be tuned for a precise thaumaturgic field strength and matched to the environment.
It would work in THIS spot, and nowhere else.
This glittering circle was proof that the Inperterritus was meant to never, ever sail again. It was also proof that whatever was sealed in there, the ponies had believed it could not be destroyed.
“What was I thinking…” I muttered to myself. “We— We shouldn’t open this.”
Vinyl sputtered, rearing up in surprise. “What?! But you just said—”
“The assault team had been tasked with trying to kill Luna. Everything beyond this door was the Empire’s best attempt at an anti-alicorn strike force,” I explained, closing my eyes tightly. “Nothing that dangerous should be freed.”
Vinyl took a deep breath. “Okay. Fine. Good point… We need to find another way off the ship then,” she began to pace back and forth. “Maybe we could find a—”
The MoA pin Loom gave me crackled and hissed as its radio function came to life. The signal scratched and screeched for a moment, then carried Gale’s unmistakable booming voice to us.
“Courier Whirling Gears, you’re not getting off this ship,” Gale said with what I felt was uncharacteristic calm. “We have troops at every hatch, anchor chain, drive shaft, gun turret, and window. The hull is masking Loom’s tracking charm’s signal, but we know you’re somewhere near the bow. I’m told that we can get a radio signal to you, and… as loath as I am to allow a zebra to take even one more breath, I have my orders. Surrender.”
I frowned for a moment as I debated surrendering. I didn’t believe Gale would take me alive… But Loom had asked me to surrender too. Gale was also too much of a psychopath to be in charge of any real army. Maybe his boss really did want me alive for some reason.
“And if we don’t?” I asked, my lips trembling slightly. “This isn’t the best position I’ve been in, but I’ve gotten out of similar things before, and with fewer resources than I have now.”
Technically true, but the enemy hadn’t ever been an organized military before either.
“Maybe,” Gale answered. “Maybe… But we have your little ship targeted with the mother of all artillery pieces right now. We agreed to leave this city standing if they turned you over to us, but this ship isn’t part of the city, now is it? Refuse, we’ll teleport back home, and increase the width of this bay by a few hundred meters.”
“Dear, he’s stalling for time,” Dad warned silently.
There aren't many ways we could escape from here, Dad… At least, I don’t think so. I’ve never been inside before. It’s hard to navigate. I think the best thing to try is to persuade him to stop.
Vinyl glared at the pin on my collar and leaned over towards it, her tail lashing behind her. “You know the war’s over, right?! You’re taking orders from a bunch of traitors and mass murderers who have nothing to do with the military you were a part of, buck they have nothing to do with the nation you were a part of! They have no claim on you. Why don’t you buck off to Zebrica and finish up that ethinic cleansing you loved so much?!”
I flinched. Valid questions… But, like… those are my people, hon!
“I intend to. As soon as my commanding officers give me permission,” Gale said with far too much calm. “We have no quarrel with you or the foal. If you leave now, my ponies will let you pass unharmed.”
“No, nononono!” Vinyl continued, her left eye twitching. “I need to get something through your apparently thick skull. Equestria, is dead! Gone! Buried under two centuries of rubble. All you are doing is letting a bunch of bandits conquer scattered tribes. That’s not what an Equestrian soldier swore to do!”
“Yeah!” I agreed with an irritated glare of my own.
“Equestria yet stands,” Gale scoffed. “My oath holds. I yet serve.”
“Horseapples!” Vinyl and I shouted in unison.
Desi slid off my back. I scarcely noticed, due to the sheer density of stupid I’d just been bucked in the eye with.
“Did you know Equestrian soldiers are required to obtain a college degree before we can be promoted to an officer rank?” Gale asked. “Mine is in Law. The General lied to me about how long it’s been. A sensible precaution. A lesser pony may have gone mad if immediately told centuries had passed and all they knew and loved had long since decayed. That was the only lie he told. Princess Celestia lives, therefore, so does Equestria.”
“She abdicated, you psudo-educated potato!” Vinyl snapped, stamping her left hindleg angrily.
“Hon, I’ve changed my mind. You have great taste in mares,” Dad said with a chuckle.
“That matters about as much as your companion’s life, miss,” Gale chuckled. “Upon the death of a sovereign, the heir apparent or heir presumptive succeeds to the throne immediately. The ceremony is a celebration, it is not a legal function. When Princess Luna died, she left no heirs behind.”
“Oh for buck’s sake!” Vinyl groaned, sitting down to facehoof. “Look I get you’re trying to stall for time, but you don’t have to use obvious bullshit for that. We’re trapped anyways!”
“Um, it would have technically gone to Princess Cadence,” I pointed out. “But she’s dead, so really if you want to argue about who would theoretically rule over the Heartlands, it’s Queen Katydid since she’s actually Princess Flurryheart, with some buggy additions.”
“No,” Gale said with audibly angry ruble in his already enhanced voice. “Princess Cadence was adopted into the royal family. Princess Cadence is therefore Naturally Dead, and can not become the sovereign ruler of Equestria. Hence why she was given sovereignty over an Equestrian Territory as an inheritance.”
I could hear the approaching soldiers’ metallic hoofsteps much more clearly now… If escape had been possible before, which I doubted, it wasn’t now. Everything hinged on either surrendering, or convincing him to stop. Maybe if we just understood his exact reasoning a little better…
“Luna had no heir. Princess Luna’s parents are dead, and thus couldn’t inherit the crown,” Gale continued. “While Princess Celestia’s abdication would remove her from inheritance under normal circumstances, the Invictus lineage is very stagnant. With no other full blooded members of the Royal Family, her abdication was rendered null and void. The second Luna died, legally, Celestia became the sovereign Ruler of the Kingdom of Equestria, whether she liked it or not.”
Vinyl pursed her lips, rage flashed across her face. It was clear she wanted to argue. Buck, I wanted to argue, but that logic was sound. Assuming Cadence was Naturally Dead. I admittedly wasn’t well versed in pre-war Equestrian Law…
Dad, is Princess—
“Yes. Adopted doesn't count. Has to be bloodline,” He sighed. “Why do you have to be fighting a real life rules lawyer with no sense of ethics?”
“Okay, fine, sure, but Celestia’s dead too,” Vinyl growled. “Equestria is ov—”
“NO!” Gale bellowed. “The record shows Princess Celestia is capable of communication in a sane and rational fashion. Furthermore, she is capable of opening a dragonfire portal, indicating she is still able to utilize magic. This precludes the nature of Her Majesty being that of a simple personality copy, as such feats require an intact soul. In accordance with the Constitution, Amendment 19 specifically, so long as the Sovereign's soul is intact and they are of reasonably sound mind they are fit to rule, no matter the state of their body. This amendment withstood trial on six occasions in history, including one where the Princess was on life support. This situation is no different. Princess Celestia is alive, and she is the rightful ruler of these lands. My oath stands.”
“I really hate lawyers,” Dad growled in the back of my mind.
I shuffledled my hooves then sighed. “Okay, you win that debate. She’s the Princess of Equestria. That doesn't mean anything. There’s no Equestria anymore.”
“Also false. No other nation has claimed her territories,” Gale scoffed. “A shame, I would have thought such elusive prey had to be educated to be as successful as you’ve been before now.”
I took a second to listen for the approaching soldiers. They were definitely close now… Yeah. We would need to surrender. This wasn’t going anywhere.
Unless!
“Um, hello? The NCR exists,” I said with a desperate smile. “Also, nopony calling themselves Equestrians occupied the land for two centuries!”
“Irrelevant, Stripe. Equestria is a diverse land of many peoples, unlike your monocultured, biggoted, theocratic, disgrace of a nation. Our laws include the clouds above the land as territory and those were occupied continuously by a group of ponies who very much still consider themselves to be Equestrians. What's more, they were under the protection of the Equestrian Airforce branch known as the Enclave.”
“Okay,” Vinyl said slowly. “But, that branch committed an act of treason by—”
“By closing the skies, the Enclave prevented the Zebrican ICBM’s targeting sensors from working,” Gale said with a twinge of anger, as if he felt personally insulted. “This significantly reduced the damage dealt to Equestrian cities, and seems to have mostly prevented the destruction of the smaller rural villages. While it is true that blocking off the skies prevented the use of Celestia Prime, we were still able to utilize other megaspell based counter-attacks.”
“So, you’re arguing that it wasn’t treason because it saved more lives than if we didn’t do it?” I asked with a title of my head. “But—”
“It’s not treason because the battlefield decision has yet to be brought up as formal charges,” Gale elaborated. “I doubt a tribunal would rule against the generals who made the decision. Especially as it preserved a large chunk of the Equestrian population, and our major cities were already lost.”
“Huh…” Imaginary dad mused. “Hon, he has a point. He’s also definitely a law-driven-pony. Maybe he’ll follow orders and not rip your head off if you surrender.”
Yeah, maybe not...
“Fair,” Vinyl said with a small, intrigued frown. “But wouldn’t that mean the generals would be, like, suspended from service until the trial?”
“A military branch is not disbanded simply because its leaders committed an act of treason,” Gale scoffed. “Command simply passes to the next in the chain of command. Like it or not, the Enclave is still officially a legal branch of the Equestrian government and military. Which means my oath to serve my nation still stands as there are citizens to protect, territory to hold, and a Princess to rescue from your disgusting, treasonous hooves!”
Vinyl and I shared a look. I didn’t know how to respond to that. Neither did she.
Um, dad? I don’t suppose you know anything that might be something we can say? Maybe convince him to stop? I asked silently, hoping that there was something, anything in my subconscious to help.
“He’s… not wrong. That’s exactly how the law goes here. He’s ignoring a few things, moral things, ethical things… But, by the book, he’s right. I don’t think you’re going to convince him to do anything differently. Not without having a law degree of your own. I also think those troopers are too close for you to run now. It’s fight, surrender, or die, sweetie.” Dad said sadly.
Buck! I turned to Vinyl and pleaded with my eyes, begging her to say anything. She had to have some idea!
Vinyl and I continued to stare at each other for several long moments. The sound of Desi messing with something metallic filled the air, muffled by the not-distant-enough, rapidly approaching sound of hooves on deckplate.
“It just bucking figures the psychopath is an uberpatriot,” Imaginary dad groaned in my mind.
“I—” I stammered.
The distant hooves grew closer. I could see the long shadow of an Enclave trooper in their power armor slide around the corner. They were almost on top of us…
The door behind us hissed open. I jumped with fright at the sound, half expecting a hail of bullets to rip me to pieces.
“Lock picked,” Desi proclaimed proudly as she telekinetically pocketed the gemstones which had been embedded in the ward, and tucked away a screwdriver with them. “It was… fun!”
The ward’s power was gone! Whether or not I liked it, Rylanor would be able to leave now. Whether or not that was a good thing, it was too late. But… My earlier logic held. And Gale Force was outside…
“I’ll be right out,” I said quietly into the MoA pin.
“Smart choice. Troops, stand down for ten minutes. If she’s not out by then, resume search and destroy,” Gale ordered.
I took off the pin and threw it onto the deck.
Desi reared up and booped the door release button with her nose. Before I could explain to her that’s not how those buttons were supposed to be used, the three ton door groaned, popped, and ripped free of the welds with a shriek of shredding metal, vanishing into the ceiling at the speed of…
I don’t know? Something poetically fast, I guess.
“Come on,” I hissed as I backed into the pitch-black space which had opened up behind us.
Desi moved in just ahead of me then moved to the side of the door. As soon as Vinyl entered, Desi hit the button to close the door, again using her nose to boop the button. The pistons hissed as it slammed shut. I winced as it clanged down into the deck. It was supposed to close quick to stop enemy fire from moving up the landing ramp and into the ship… But just… that had hurt EVERY time we tested it at full speed.
Desi’s green magic provided the sole light within the steel cavern as she placed some kind of shield spell in the door frame.
“Smart move, kid,” Vinyl said with a relieved sigh.
Desi smiled slightly. “Not much food… Shield dissipates soon.”
Curses! If only we had tacos… Hopefully that wasn’t all she’d eat.
“How soon?” I asked with a worried flick of my tail.
+ Releasing personal Stasis Field. +
A worried flick which became a terrified flag as a terrifying, neigh-incomprehensible spiritual and arcane presence blossomed into existence to my left. The surge of magical power was accompanied by a low pitched thrumming of a massive turbine was slowly spinning to life, its whine muffled by centimeters of solid steel.
I could tell by Vinyl’s sudden jolt to a ready stance and Desi’s terrified, inequine, screech they felt the overwhelming ball of burning energy and hate too.
“When the shield is breached, the fortunate may have time to repent,” A deep synthetic voice boomed aloud, echoing through the landing bay-slash-barracks like thunder.
A dozen candles flicked to life. Their flames were black, though the light they shed was pure white. The anomalous light illuminated a massive gothic archway, built into the port wall of the ship. A shrine, adorned in gold, studded with geometric arrangements of gemstones which bled necromantic energies, and was equipped with servator-skeletons to attend to the shrine’s needs.
The shrine’s interior space was filled by its sole occupant. A war-golem, forged from solid orichalcum, fashioned to the very pinnacle of zebrican golem design. It took the shape of a walking tank, four massive legs carrying an armored sarcophagus with an angular but overall equine shape. Every inch of it was inlaid with looping patterns of platinum wire, most likely to serve as artful yet functional mana-pathways as well as contrast its red-bronze coloration.
A pair of ball turrets were mounted along the top of the boxy sarcophagus, each equipped with what looked like scaled up versions of an anti-machine rifle. I briefly wondered why the dorsal weapons were ballistic, and not gauss weapons. Then I noticed the laterally mounted sponsons on each of the golem’s sides. That’s where the gauss weapons were.
Infinite Repeaters, probably. Conjured matter only existed for a few seconds. That’s more than enough time for a bullet to do its job.
A flame talisman was mounted on the front on a small swivel turret. All four legs ended in hydraulic talons. No blades, just crushing pressure.
A pair of undead eyes glowed like coals in the darkness behind the sarcophagus’ single view slit. The power radiating from the war-golem like a small sun bled from that slit…
Lastly, behind the war-machine, there hung a crimson banner. A white zebra skull set within an eight pointed black star surrounded by four white stars. The symbol brought memories flooding back into my mind. Fragments of thought desperately struggling to be heard over my terror. To tell me something critical.
Ah. Yes.
Rylanor wasn’t a spirit name. Our names were more… Pony-esq. Rylanor was a zebra name… How did I forget that?!
And this was the war standard of the Legio Animatus. Zebrican elite soldiers. Their battalions consisted of alchemically enhanced infantry, golems, and rumored to be led by a powerful shaman who had undergone conversion into a warlock by merging with the spirit of a war-golem.
Oh.
OH.
OH, BUCK THE HAY NO!
The warlock stood up, the deck creaked under his weight. Dust fell from his shoulders and back.
“I am become error…” Desi squeaked quietly.
“Please don’t murder me,” Vinyl squeaked quietly.
"I have no quarrel with you. The Emperor welcomes the undead to His Empire, no matter your birthkind,” Rylanor thundered as he stepped towards the middle of the room. “As for you, Sleeping Kitten, I can sense you have forsaken the Empire for another master. Through my release, you have earned mercy, through circumstance, you have earned forgiveness. No harm shall befall you lest you bring it upon yourself.”
My eyes widened in horror. That was a Statement of Judgment. He was passing legal judgment on me. He thought the war was still on and the Empire still active. Oh sweet Celestia, NO!
There were TWO of them!
“Oh. Nevermind,” Desi said with a relieved flick of her tail.
“Shhh!” Vinyl hissed. “He may have a problem with you!”
Rylanor turned to look at Desi, bending his forelegs down to stare into her eyes. “Are you Princess Flurryheart of the Crystal Empire in disguise?”
“No,” Desi answered unflinchingly.
“Are you a part of the Invictus lineage?”
“No,” she applied equally calmly.
“Are you from this land?” Rylanor asked finally.
She shook her head. “No.”
“My spells indicate you speak the truth. We have no conflict,” Rylnaor said decisively as he stood up. “LIGHTS!”
Wait, wah? She’s not from— But—
NO! Stop warlock now, be confused later!
Actually she’s probably just lying because the death-machine asked an obvious if yes I kill you question.
This seems reasonable.
Hey, me? Please stop panicking and figure out how to undo this situation.
The barracks lights flicked to life. For the first time, I could see how much damage had been done to the barracks. Every wall was covered in deep gouges from where Rylnaor had tried to claw through the bulkheads and escape. The crushed, charred, and perforated remains of a dozen Steel Rangers, fifty EUP infantry mares, and a dozen more pony technician’s skeletons littered the area around Vinyl, Desi, and I.
Large rust patches surrounded each body pile. There’d been enough blood to eat holes in the deck… More than a few grenades had gone off in here, too. Scorch marks… Preserved by the stasis field.
Boxes of ammo, weapons, and equipment lined the rear wall. The remains of a dozen bunk-beds were scattered amongst them, clearly ripped apart and hurled in a fit of rage. Zebrican body armor poked out form the crate-bed-ammo-gun piles.
Ohhhh, kay… How the buck those pre-war ponies managed to even seal this place off is a mystery. Good thing they did. Sorry my people built thi—
The rest of the room was untouched, but not unoccupied. The main barracks floor was occupied by a company of nearly four-score top-of-the-line heavy-infantry Assault-Pone-Es. Row after row, standing shoulder to shoulder. Fully armed. Fully armored.
Oh… Oh, of course it gets worse!
They looked like zebras, but bigger, and with a single big eye in the center of their angular helmet-shaped heads. An army of buff bronze zebras, dressed in Imperial battle dresses. They were decorated. Each Assault-Pone-E was equipped with a heavy gauss or gyrojet rifle, and a variety of melee tools.
They were just standing there, alert but inert. Beneath the pale yellow shimmer of a stasis field.
I felt my core skip a dozen cycles as panic started to overwhelm me.
I did a very bad thing! Mom was going to be SUPER upset! I’m sorry! I’M SO SORRY!
“Disengage troop stasis field,” Rylanor ordered, his words layered with magic.
Verbal spellcasting. Willpower mixed with logic. If Mom hadn’t messed up the fusion between Jasmine and I, we could do that. If we wanted too.
The shimmering field around the Assault-Pone-Es vanished. Eighty blood-red glowing eyes flickered to life. Eighty spirit’s arcane signatures popped into my awareness.
“Brothers! The Dead Hoof has broadcast His final orders,” Rylanor intoned as he walked to the head of his forces. “You can feel His will emanating from the Imperial Palace. From beyond the grave, we are called to serve. You can feel the remnants of the Holy Fire unleashed upon this land two centuries ago. It was insufficient. There were survivors. Our orders are clear. No prisoners! Leave only rubble. Cleanse. Purge. Kill! RAMP, DEPLOY!”
The words carried the unmistakable amalgamated spiritual and arcane energy of a warlock. A simple command, and the broken machinery obeyed. The entire bow sagged forwards amid the deafening hiss of hydraulics. Truly massive pistons began to whine as hundreds if not thousands of tons of metal began to lower down to form the ship’s landing ramp.
“We bucked up! We bucked up, baaaaad!” Vinyl whisper-hissed into my ear.
“Y—yeah,” I squeaked.
“Hon, you got an uberpatriot war machine in here, and an uberpatriot war machine out there. Nothing you can do to stop them. Find something sturdy to hide behind and hope they kill each other,” Imaginary Dad recommended.
My ears perked. That… that wasn’t unreasonable.
“Okay,” I said quietly as I began to step backwards around the cluttered mounds of ammo crates and weapon lockers. “We grab some guns. Some ammo. We let them fight the Enclave, and we leg it to warn people who can do something.”
Vinyl hissed worriedly, spun around, and began digging through the clutter. “Good plan… What the buck even are these things? Any pistols in here? I’d like something with a high ammo-cap and low mass. Easier target acquisition. There’s going to be a lot going on out there and—”
The loud metallic click-shing of a gyro-pistol chambering a bolt echoed too close to the back of my head. I squeaked. Vinyl looked over her shoulder. A bronze equinoid leg stretched over my head into view and handed Vinyl what appeared to be an MQ9 gyrojet-carbine modified into a long barreled pistol, with a bulky sixty round drum magazine.
It had a walnut frame. Surprisingly new looking, too.
Oh. Yeah. Stasis field.
“Return weapon to Zebrican forces upon clearing the combat zone, civilian,” the Assault-Pone-E ordered as Vinyl took the weapon, wide eyed and slowly.
“Yeah, okay,” She said quietly before looking towards me worriedly. “S— So, I suck with bullet-shooty-guns… Any tips?”
“Don’t worry, gyrojets fire small rockets, not bullets,” I reassured as I turned my attention to sifting through the pile of crap.
“Oh… that’s way better!” Vinyl laughed nervously.
I closed my eyes for a moment. “Just… you pull the trigger, there will be a little kick as the rocket’s powder charge boosts it to speed, then a woosh as the rocket kicks in, and then anything it hits gets an explosion. I fired the full sized ones. You’ll be fine, just point it at the bad guys.”
A small black plastic mouth-grip caught my eye. I gave it a tug with my hoof and a SPG-34 gauss pistol came away from the debris. Skeletonized, probably had been under maintenance. It looked intact. It had an extended magazine.
I picked it up, ejected the mag, looked inside. Fifteen quills. Tungsten tipped. Armor piercing. It would do. Just three hundred meters to the gate where Nurse was guarding Feature. I could make it with this.
Assuming the power crystal was still charged.
The landing ramp continued to descend.
I flicked the power switch. The pistol’s power light was green. Good.
“Fifteen rounds is not enough,” Imaginary dad warned.
Fair enough. I agreed.
I searched the pile again. I only had seconds… There! Just under a box of ammo. The barrel of a gyrojet rifle. I pulled it out of the pile. Bulky. Square. Inelegant. Bullpup. Dark walnut furniture.
Typical. I think. These were mostly prototype weapons. They’d been testing them with elite forces as a cheaper means of stopping a Steel Ranger than the Anti-Machine rifles. Apparently those were kind of expensive to produce.
I slid the gauss pistol into my flank-holster, jammed a box of half-full magazines into my saddlebag, and gripped my temp-gun tightly in my mouth.
The landing ramp was almost all the way down… I could see the sky, and the tops of the naval base’s buildings.
Desi tugged on my shoulder. I spun, wide eyed, only realizing that I had been stationary here a moment after she did it. Desi flipped througher book, looked me in the eye and said. “Weapons fire is painful. We should stand behind solid matter.”
Vinyl’s eyes widened. She dove behind the pile to her right. I followed her half a second later.
Desi calmly trotted behind the pile just as the Inperterritus’ landing ramp hit the concrete dock with a cacophonous thud.
A thud instantly followed by somepony’s meek, “Oh...”
Followed instantly by what sounded like a terrified Loom yelling, “FIRE!”
Uncountable guns thundered. The junkpile’s shadows stretched and darkened. Bullets began to shred the rear wall of the barracks.
Rylnor’s voice cut through the gunfire like a pony speaking over a box fan. “A fine welcome for us, Brothers. Return the greeting in kind!”
The deafening noise of gunfire was joined with the sound of hundreds of small explosions occurring in near unison. I suddenly realized we’d taken cover behind piles of explosives with impact detonators.
“OH-BUCK-WE’RE-BEHIND-BOMBS!” I shrieked as I vaulted up and over the barricade to run far far away from the massive pile of explosives presently under MEW and gunfire.
I cleared the pile.
The docks were hell.
Too much to take in.
Rylanor’s flame talisman was actually a balefire talisman. Sickly emerald flames ate into the concrete near the bottom of the ramp. The concrete, was, on, bucking, fire!
Grenades went off in the middle of the Assault-Pone-E ranks, seemingly fruitlessly. I saw a Tainted trooper screaming, holding her own leg just before a crackling energy blade took her head clean off at the shoulders.
Artillery shells and rockets blasted the boarding ramp and barrack’s front in a senseless barrage as Loom, along with a group of power armored soldiers, poured heavy ordnance into the war golems’ ranks. A few of the brass golems fell. Others retrieved their weapons and continued to pour fire into the enemy's ranks.
Suddenly, hunkering down behind an explosion in progress seemed a lot less stupid.
“GO!” Vinyl yelled as she vaulted over the pile.
An Enclave officer began to fire in our general direction with a plasma rifle. Which was also the ammo-crate-pile’s general direction.
I scooped Desi up, tossed her onto my back, and ran three steps.
The junk pile exploded. The blast caught me square in the back. I saw the ceiling, the floor, the ceiling, then hit the concrete outside, sliding and rolling several times. By some miracle, I managed to keep my grip on my new rifle.
I lay on the ground, stunned. I wanted to stand, but every single system in my chassis just wasn’t ready to get back up yet.
I could see the Enclave lines better from here. They’d fallen back to a series of concrete road dividers, using them as cover. Loom was with that group. Giving everyone covering fire. Not that it mattered. Rylanor turned his flamer on them. The group vanished.
My hearing came back. The first thing to reach my ears was a stallion’s desperate cry of “Momma!”
Desi!
I sat upright, looking everywhere for the filly. She was to my right, helping Vinyl up.
The screams were coming from a stallion trying to push his guts back into his smouldering stomach.
I shot him.
It was mercy.
I twisted, standing up, ignoring the barrage of damage reports as my systems finally noticed how much of a beating I’d taken from the explosion. The moment I got to my hooves a familiar death-tornado reached down from the sky to sweep the docks.
Ah. Gale found more ammo. Somewhere. Good?
Kinda good. Also bad. Bood, I guess.
Well, it can’t get much worse than this… There’s something comforting about finding the bottom of the barrel of suck.
I limped forwards, moving as quickly as I could towards the gate house, just a few steps behind Vinyl and Desi.
Something moved ahead of us. Something green… metallic…
I focused my eyes, trying to see through the thick smoke and haze drifting from the battlefield.
Speed!
Thank Celestia!
I waved as she ran towards us. “Speed! Speed! Here!”
She kept running. Good. She had to have our weapons. She could help me limp along. Get out of—
Speed sprinted past me, squeeing as she vanished into the maelstrom of weapon fire. “Holdon, I’ma have a chainsaw fight with that guy real quick!”
Ah. Yes. She likes to fight. That makes sense, and pisses me off!
I pushed myself, catching up to Vinyl and Desi.
“Almost clear,” I panted.
Vinyl laughed. “You don’t even breath… still panting. Heh!”
“Weird time for observations like that,” I laughed back.
“Glowy-pony acquired concussion,” Desi reported.
Well, poop. Marefriend is hurt. Now it can’t get any worse.
I took three more steps before the Irony Gods decided to punish me for that thought. A shimmering beam of prismatic light from the heavens shone down on the concrete a few dozen meters in front of us.
“No…” I moaned over the sound of gunfire.
The beam pulsed, and I felt the teleportation charm at work.
Vinyl and Desi turned with me.
“NO!” I growled as I started to turn to run to the left towards some old buildings.
The beam vanished in a flash, leaving behind three dozen ponies. In power armor. Steel Ranger power armor painted with Enclave logos. All armed with an array of heavy weapons. Because buck me in particular!
“Son of a bitch!” I added to my previous growl.
The concentrated ball of ironic hubris saw us, and immediately opened fire.
Lasers. Plasma balls. Rockets.
Pain. Lots of pain.
Then, suddenly, I was in the building I had been running towards. A low coolant alert was blaring in my ear, as well as a small warning relating to a memory recording error.
I‘d made it to cover!
Based on the sounds of rockets, microrockets, grenades, and cannon shells exploding abso-bucking-lutely-every-bucking-where, things were only getting worse.
I looked around the crumbling, presently burning office building I had ducked into, desperately searching for Vinyl and Desi. They were here too. Just behind a desk. Desi was desperately wrenching off Vinyl’s helmet with her hooves, holding some kind of syringe in her teeth.
No…
Please no!
I stumbled my way to Vinyl. The desk was in my way. Drawing on my magic, I ignored my damage as best I could, lifted the desk and threw it across the room.
Vinyl hadn’t escaped the barrage intact.
She was laying in a pool of her own glowing blood, or at least, her upper half was...
I screamed, grabbed the syringe from Desi, and stabbed it into Vinyl’s chest through her suit. Whatever the buck it was, it worked almost instantly. Vinyl thrashed on the floor, screaming in pain. Her eyes shot open half a second later, glazed, unfocused.
I hugged her to my chest. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” I whimpered.
Something exploded loudly in the distance. A rumbling voice carried across the battlefield.
“I’m happy to kill you again, Stripe!”
“The enemy Commander challenges me. I accept!”
Vinyl reached up and grabbed my collar, yanking me down to her level. She tried to speak, spat blood onto her visor, then gurgled faintly.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you out!” I promised as I stood up, looking for a way to carry her safely.
She’d regenerate. Right? Canterlot Ghouls regenerated. She could grow back from this. Right?
Vinyl shook her head, took a deep breath, and hissed. “N— No! Run… Dampening field, can’t be too big. Run. Desi… teleport. Campsite. Last night. Road to the radiation pit… I’ll meet you.”
I shook my head. “NO! I’m not leaving you behind.”
“Bigger target… if you carry me. Take… hours to heal this…” she moaned. “Been worse before. It’s okay.”
“We’re taking you and that’s final!” I said as firmly as I could.
Desi’s ears drooped sadly. “Insufficient calories to teleport the three of us.”
“Then we run!” I said firmly.
Vinyl took another hissing, wet breath and shook her head. “No. Safest for me… if I play dead. Safest for you... To run without… dead weight. Go!”
She pointed with her left hoof towards the west and glared at me. “I’ll heal… you… already need a mechanic.”
I started to shake my head. Desi’s eyes widened in horror, her tail flagged. She grabbed me by the shoulder and tugged on me hard. “GLOWY-REGENERATIVE-PONY-FINE! GO-NOW! BAD-THING! GO! NOW! GO! NOT SAFE! GO!”
This is not the sort of thing you want to hear a wizard say. Especially when they can see behind you right now. On a battlefield.
“I— I’ll wait for you as long as needed,” I promised, tears rolling down my cheeks.
Vinyl smiled and slumped to the floor. “I’ll be fine… always fine…”
Desi pulled on my shoulder hard. “INSUFFICIENT LEVELS OF GO!”
I nodded, turned, and ran through the building. Desi led the way. She jumped through the wall of flames on the opposite side of the building.
I hoped they didn’t reach Vinyl… she had survived for two centuries in the Heartlands… She had to know what she was doing. Right?
“Desi,” I shouted. “We can’t go! We need to take her.”
Desi poked her head back through the wall of flames to look me in the eyes. “Machine-pony self-repair, Y/N?”
“No.”
“GO ALL THE FAST!” Desi shouted, sprinting as fast as her little legs would carry her.
What the buck was it?! What could make her panic enough to emote like this?
Desi moved in a straight line, climbing over every obstacle in her way with amazing agility for somepony whose slower movements were so robotic. I followed her as best I could. My front left and right hind leg control circuits were stressed. Probably damaged in a significant fashion. I could feel each step draining my magical reserves.
Something fell to the ground behind me with a loud thump. I looked over my shoulder, terrified at the idea of an Enclave pegasus having landed behind me for a stable shot.
Nope.
An earth pony mare. Bright pink. Long braided blond mane and tail. Eyes wide in terror. The terror was how I recognised her. I’d fought her once. When the Tainted ambushed me after I was ripped apart by ghouls.
I must have been suffering from a robo-concussion because I stopped, waved, and said, “Hi!”
Her terrified eyes widened even more. She dropped to her knees, clasped her forehooves and looked me in the eyes. “Please don't shoot me! I'm just a cook!” She pleaded.
“Terminate conversation and exceed my velocity!” Desi yelled from the other side of a rubble pile.
The cook nodded frantically. “Yes! Run! They won't teleport us back, not enough time. Just the officers and power armor troops! RUN!”
Oh. Yes. Right. They said they had artillery ready to use… If Loom had been on the battlefield, and they were not bluffing…
Oh… Oh sweet Celestia. Desi had sensed them fire something big!
I turned and started to run after Desi as fast as I could. To my surprise the Tainted’s cook kept pace with me, her chest heaving with panicked, strained, breath. The kind a pony has if they are willing to run themselves to death.
“What is it?” I asked worriedly.
“Can’t stop zebra robots,” she panted. “Commander’s holding them here till last minute. General fired Star Drop! Tactical strike. Minimal yield. Run! Its small is still big!”
Tactical strike.
Minimal yield.
Big.
“Vinyl!” I screeched, spinning on my hidlegs to rush back to get her.
I felt a telekinetic aura grab me by my hips and pull me away from the burning office building.
“Desi! NO! PLEASE!” I begged.
Desi continued to run, dragging me along wordlessly.
“PLEASE! STOP!” I shrieked as my head bounced off a rock.
I had to go back! I had to get her. Vinyl was way, way too close to the Inperterritus for anything minimal yet big!
“PLEASE!” I begged yet again, clawing at the ground with my hooves.
“Dampening field clear!” Desi reported.
She pulled me to her side with a telekinetic heave, making the cook fly past me.
“Initiating site to site transport to clear probable blast zone,” Desi reported.
The cook reached out with one hoof. “Take me with you!”
Ribbons of green energy filled my vision. The world around me changed. The concrete, rubble, flames, and weapons fire melted away, transforming into a dusty gravel patch with distant pop-pop-pops of gunfire.
I could see the naval yard and ships in the distance. A few hundred meters away.
I spun around and grabbed Desi’s limp form by the shoulders. “SEND ME BACK! WE NEED TO GET VINYL!”
“Can’t…” Desi moaned, exhausted to her core.
“I should be with her, Desi!” I said, tears streaming down my face. “I need to be with her!”
“NO!” Desi said, shaking her head violently.
“Why not?!” I shouted back.
“Friend required for anti-sad applications!” Desi said, looking at me, seemingly pleading with me.
The buck is she talking about?!
“Please! There’s still time!” I begged.
She shook her head and pointed behind me with a hoof. “No. Look.”
I turned around.
Nothing. Just the naval base. “There isn’t—”
A bolt of white fire streaked through the sky and slammed into the earth. No light. No sound. Just a bolt of flame. Then a weird ripple on the horizon… A ripple which rushed towards me. A ripple which was, in truth, a blast of wind powerful enough to knock me flat. A ripple accompanied by the loudest sound I’d ever heard.
I lay on my back, stunned.
A meteor… The Enclave hit them with a meteor.
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As if a large rock could stop Rylnaor. He'll be back, though he's likely lost his cohort.
Well, shit. I expected RFGs, but I should've realized the foolishness of that. It's a magical setting, why the hell would crazy military engineers with nearly unlimited funds restrict themselves to fire only tree sized metal rods when they can capture meteors and shoot them?
Little Desi might not be able to communicate properly with organics, but damn she's a perceptive little scamp. Such as recognizing she'll be needed to help console her only (as far as she knows) surviving friend
Speaking on survival, Vinyl's still one with the best chances. She's a canterlot ghoul, so not only she can regenerate (and is still full of rads to do it with), getting tossed around and a little cooked will not quite manage to make her situation worse. What's broken bones and superheated air when you've already lost half of your body?
Speed's a murder machine and perfect soldier, she most likely knows how to survive something like this.
Nika though I have no idea. Let's hope the gang's well enough to survive that.
Well, that's one way to end a chapter. Throw a rock. A good sized rock traveling at a rate measured in miles per second. Zebrica sounds like a good place to be about now...
Or, to put it another way, OSCAR MIKE FOXTROT GOLF!!! (translation available upon request)
Or, to recall a very old song, 'Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day...'
Perhaps Gears will call up Rainbow now, since the Enclave obviously got the systems in Star Drop HQ running.
Really hope that Vinyl's regen is as good as she says, and that Speed's armor is as powerful as it claimed in the armory. Hopefully Speed also realized that she needed to beat hooves as soon as the Enclave guys got ported out, since she would have been at the impact site otherwise. Otherwise, they both just died.
Hee
MY SIIIIIIDES!
Do not mess with desi.
Dáwww! I wanna hug her and feed her as many tacos as she wants.
I'm giggling all over again from that!
Hug the adorable pone, yus.
BOOOP!
damnit gears...
...
WELP!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckSoDW2-wrc&t=2m35s?
That's adorable
So they just to find a taco stand... or a place that has taco Tuesdays
That's... very concerning
I forsee no possible way this can become a problem in the future
Naturally
So when you finally do fuse, you'll be capable of that ?
I agree with him
Okay first of: Dangit, the bad guys get all the cool toys
Second: Dammit, potential loss of two to three party members/friends and lover
And finally: I don't think Rylnor is the kinda guy that will be courteous enough to be/stay dead and/or down for long just because you drop a meteor on his general location
Oh, its a 40K Primark Dreadnaught.
As for the wards being effectively indestructible? Tuned for precively that enviromental field. Desi just altered the field. Like a General Products Hull. Prick it, and it go boom.
I like the Mana Torpedo, reminds me of a cross between Solid Ozone Slush, Liquid Acetylene cryo stabilised mix, and the Confusor. Except down in the subquantum level. Without the self reinforcing Genesis Laser effect. Though if Desi happens to have noticed the open ended version of the effect, I hope she cross referenced it with UWB shield spells to put a limiting range on it. Otherwise, thats one of the six methods Ive heard of of erasing the whole of reality.
They dropped a Rock. Princess Lunas weapons projects? Or FoE version of the Hammer from Days Of Wasp and Spider?
I wondered why Vinyl was in trouble. If it had been a standard Tac, she wouldve had extra radiation to heal up, but as it it, shes taken the damage with no extra recovery assistance? just hope that the amount of glowy rads she was soked with is enough to Ork class, or at least Plant class, maybe end up as a filly, not enough soaked rads to fully regenerate?
Hope Speed had a Fridge. Maybe she surfed the War Shaman out of there?
I have only three words:
Metal as FUCK
Vinyl better live! I want to see DJ Pon3 interview DJ Pon3!
Also Gears losing a second friend to the Enclave would suck.
Desi, you sound like you have Twilight Sparkle's absolute nerd core in your head.
...carry on!
And that sounds like something Dashie would say. In somepony's impression of Dashie.
The good news is, it sounds like the Herd sold you out and betrayed you, so if he goes a little crazy wrecking pony military shite on the way out... no foul?
Oh... buck...
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp-animation/images/a/a9/MatureContentTime.png/revision/latest?cb=20150227153656
GEARS!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!?!?!?!?!
buffy.mlpforums.com/monthly_10_2012/post-6061-0-15453600-1349095088.gif
Bad things...
I'm fairly curious about what Desi just did to that sniper.
Ahh, so that.
Thank you science, indeed.
Sometimes Murphy works against you, sometimes he works against the other guys.
When put that way this seems like a win-win plan.
LOL
Well, there are alicorn level threats that need killing, or at least threats in that vicinity. Open it up!
You know, I wasn't expecting the rules lawyering, or for Gale to be making a pretty convincing job of it using the fine print. I really would have expected chaotic evil for him, not lawful evil.
Oh nooh yes, she's opening the door.What, no, that's clearly how they're supposed to be used.
Being led by Gale, nobody outside is going to be repenting.
That's a big war golem.
That's a concerning question.
Good thing that Gale thinks the war is still on, because it really is about to be.
Okay, now I'm starting to think this was a bad idea.
On the other hand, look how helpful they are!
I ever so slightly want to have sympathy for Loom, but she very specifically chose this fight. If you come intending to do violence to people you know don't deserve it, having it done to you instead is just fair turnabout.
Damn.
But apparently she'll heal from this?
Oh that's not good. I really hope we aren't about to lose Vinyl. She still has that Discord fang, maybe it'll be enough.
I suppose that had to be what a Star Drop was.
....how many people just died there??? Like seriously I'm gonna start calling you Gorge RR Martin if you keep killing off charters
9839064
If they were in Ponyville, this would definitely be Tuesday.
9838706
Well, I mean... If you count being trapped on Istvan III due to falling masonry crushing a transport, then a large rock in fact did stop-- Oh, uh, wrong guy :P
9838794
The meteors are a cost saving measure. Those rocks are already up there. It also takes surprisingly little energy to change an objects orbit if you get it at the right point of its orbit.
9838892
"Error, observable universe possesses insufficient mass for request fulfillment."
9838916 I mean... might as well make fictional hellfire as terrifying as real life hellfire.
9839064
A follower of Lord Adorable, I see.
Well yeah, that's like a Law of Fiction.
Well, his name is almost as cool as REGIS Mk 5, so... Possibly.
9839119
This is not a thing that exists. To my knowledge. It's possible that GW has decided to have one of the lost Primarchs return in dreadnought form, but if that's the case... Well, I'd know within hours of the announcement. What we have here is closer to a Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnought.
Huh, mabey I should read that fic sometime.
9839170 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPBPsTa5sdU
9839934
It's more like this in there, actually:
9840096
This, but without a Hollywood Magazine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIGxMENwq1k
And WAAAAAY less of a yield.
And also magic.
CHaotic evil is boring :P
9840183 Random rolls say... 348.
9840629
i wonder if you could do this to Desi
i have never wanted to murder a fuckin pone as bad as i wish to kill Gale and those who command him, i, i dont think vinyls gonna survive this one :(
9840629
Oh man I thought he was just a Contemptor. Those were the big boiis. O_0
9846439
How exactly?
9846936 Well, she split her soul 43 ways to make 42 soul jars while keeping one shard for her own body. Since the statues are her soul jars and are still arround, only 1/43rd of her died in the balefire blast and the rest are all Horrorcruxed. Since the Necromancer soul-jared to the Black book was somewhat alive, it stand so reason so is Rarity. Kinda.
9847113
Alright cool. It's odd that I didn't get a message from notifications.
Man these evil pones keep coming and ruin everything.
Now that first scene where shit hits the fan and Discord is letting his chaos loose, I have only seen a few writers use that trick, but I simply love love love your use of short rapid fire sentences. Very few people get how to capture the feeling of chaos, and those short bursts of rapid fire sentences are very very effective. So good work Meep, very good work with this chapter!
"The concrete, was, on, bucking, fire!" There are actually a chemical that can do that "Chlorine Trifluoride" The "nope!" chemical, able to set fire to anything... ANYTHING!
So after spreading the lore of the N-stuff... I am surprised that you are the first that I have found that weaponised that... I mean... it would be logical, really logical, and so many games does it, Final Fantasy is known to use it as a spell, and yet did the ponies never think about doing it before you just thought it up... My hat off to you Meep!
Nitpicks:
" My longshot had failed." Need a space, or else did she take a picture
" I asked with a title of my head." properly just a tilt
9875062
Thank you. It's the best technique I ever learned for giving an imagination a pace :3
I recognize that reference. :D
That had to spook the utter horseapples out of the researchers. Especially if they didn't (or maybe if they did) understand the significance...
Oh. Stardrop. Makes sense now...
...Uh, they do regenerate, right?
Also, how do you do the small-caps font that the robots were using? I've not figured out how that sort of thing works on this site.
pseudo
+1 for the pun counter... but her distraction can be forgiven in this case. Also, I want one.
servitor
Yeah, they either went full Warhammer, or someone got the wise idea of "They can serve even after death, as they did in life..."
I think Andur had a civilization that did that. Was it "Body and Soul"? (It's on RRL, but I'm not linking it because there are a few parts that may not fit the linking rules...)
Wow, that's more badass than the Bolo version. Those can technically run out of fuel... although not much is more effective than a large quantity of fractional-c fusing plasma.
Rylanor
wanted to
9998414
[smcaps]yourtexthere[/smcaps]Yeah, when the textbook wizard filly starts freaking out, run. God Rods, be they rods or rocks, are not fun to stand beneath.
I wonder how many will live through this.