Mysterious Invaders
Chapter 15: Mysterious Invaders
Fluttershy ambled sluggishly through a dark hallway. Her eyes barely open, she stumbled sleepily toward the set of double doors at the end. The doors opened as soon as she reached them, bathing the otherwise dimly lit hall with the morning light on the other side of the portal. Standing right next to the edge of the portal, Fluttershy lifted a hoof to her muzzle and let out a long, drawn out yawn.
“I’m… so sleepy,” she murmured. With her left hoof still lifted to her mouth, Fluttershy leaned too far toward her right side, falling through the portal and toward the ground below. Before she could fall too far, a yellow aura materialized around her wings. Her wings started flapping immediately, catching her in the middle of her fall, and she slowly rose back up. A mountain range covered the ground below her, with a single lake situated in the middle of it. Toward Fluttershy’s left, the rising sun illuminated the landscape and glimmered off of the lake’s surface.
“Sorry to drag you out so early, but we have an emergency,” Celestia said. Even as her wings kept her aloft, Fluttershy was snoring lightly. Celestia’s magic kept her flying in the air, so she had already drifted back to sleep. Celestia turned Fluttershy left, toward the direction of the sun. “We have a big problem, bigger than all of us gods.”
Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut as the morning sun shone directly at her face. The direct sunlight partly woke her up, and she tried to shield her eyes from the sun with her left foreleg. After a while, her eyes adjusted enough to the light that she was able to open them.
“Huh?!”
When Fluttershy opened her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. For a moment, she thought she saw an enormous island floating in the sky. She rubbed her eyes with her left hoof, but when she looked again, she saw that it was more than just one island. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of small islands clustered together in the sky.
“What is that?!” Fluttershy said. A closer look at the islands revealed to her several beams of light firing down. Each beam produced a crater in the earth below, adding to the hundreds of craters already littering the ground. Around each beam of light, dozens of displaced fragments of rock rose from the impact site and made their way to the islands above. “It’s… it’s ransacking the earth!”
“Enemies incoming!” Celestia said.
Looking back up from the devastation, Fluttershy saw hundreds of round buglike creatures flying from the islands. Each of the little bugs had the same spherical body and large green eyes, though their bodies all varied widely in color. Under any other circumstances, Fluttershy might have found the creatures to be adorable. However, several of them flew down toward her. They clustered together into three groups, and within seconds, each cluster morphed into a white, metallic triangle.
One triangle fired a spherical energy shot at Fluttershy. Fluttershy swerved away from the attack and aimed at them. Attached to her right foreleg was the Phoenix Arm, designed to resemble the hooked beak of a large bird. The arm fit like a glove, but with a green feathery sleeve extending over the cannon of her leg and a tuft of fuchsia plumage behind the upper beak. She fired a charge shot, consisting of a fireball, at two of them and took out the third one by firing two bladed feathers from her weapon. More triangular enemies advanced toward Fluttershy, and three lasers fired down ahead of her.
“They’re firing on me!” Fluttershy said.
“I’m not even sure what they are,” Celestia said, slowly leading Fluttershy toward the cluster of islands. Fluttershy shot down the triangular enemies. Above her, she saw that the lasers originated from three sets of connected poles. The sets of poles stopped firing and folded into white cubes before flying off. In their place, three green triangles traced themselves in the middle of the air. Fluttershy fired at them, taking down two of them, but the third launched a missile at her before vanishing into thin air. “They’re organized, but who’s giving the orders?” Celestia said.
Fluttershy swerved to dodge the missile. “Maybe they’re a new unit of the Forces of Nature?” she said.
“Come on now,” Luna interjected just as three more white triangles appeared with three Nutskis flying after them. “Doth they look ‘natural’ to thee?”
“Morning, do-gooders!” Discord chimed in.
Three more green triangles traced themselves in the air. “Are you two behind this?” Fluttershy asked, taking aim at the triangles.
“Sadly, no,” Discord said. “Though I do applaud any and all violence directed toward you.”
Fluttershy shot down the three triangles before they could fire any missiles. Meanwhile, two Monoeyes floated on ahead, only to be struck from below by two fast-moving objects. Several more of these objects shot up from below, each one appearing to be a coil tapered at both ends. Fluttershy looked down at the direction they were coming from. At first, she didn’t see anything except for the mountainous terrain. However, a flash of green light caught her attention. Glancing toward it, she saw another one of the glowing green coils shooting up toward her. She jerked left, and the object rushed past her and continued up. Two more flashes appeared below her.
“And thou should know that I would never work with Discord,” Luna said. “In fact, I was about to destroy him when they suddenly appeared.”
“No,” Discord said. “They saved her at the last minute.”
Fluttershy was now firing her weapon down, trying to hit as many of the shooting coils as possible. The Phoenix Arm’s bladed feathers homed in on their targets and managed to hit most of the coils. However, a few were missed by her fire, and Fluttershy found herself swerving to dodge them. One of the coils shot a bit too close to Fluttershy’s face, and she flinched when it rushed by. “So you have no idea what they are?!” she blurted out.
“I’m sure know-it-all Celestia is just dying to illuminate us,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know any more than you do,” Celestia said. “I can only tell you that they’re not of this world.”
“You mean they’re… invaders from space?” Fluttershy said.
“They’re not just invading,” Luna said angrily. “This swarm is harvesting whole sections of the earth! They are like bees taking pollen back to whatever hive they call home.”
“Not to quibble over details, but I think locusts are a more apt analogy,” Discord said. “But whatever they are, they must be stopped. This is my planet to rend as I see fit.”
“Must I do everything around here?” Luna said through gritted teeth, before switching to a loud, booming voice to address her troops. “FORCES OF NATURE, DROP THE HAMMER!”
“I guess we Underworlders will get in the mix, too,” Discord said. “Shoot anything that moves.”
“Still can’t get along, I see,” Fluttershy murmured.
“Just do what you can, and try to stay out of the thick of things,” Celestia said.
Four Nutskis flew past Fluttershy as she approached the cluster of islands. Along the way, they ran into an enemy larger than any of the previous one, a white flying saucer with what appeared to be a nozzle underneath it. The Nutskis each stopped to fire a shot at the saucer before flying left.
At the same time, two Monoeyes, a Mik and a Gyrazor began to attack the flying saucer. Fluttershy herself got close to the saucer, but before she could take aim at it, she noticed more of the white triangular enemies spilling out of the nozzle underneath it. She aimed her arm at the nozzle and fired a charge shot, destroying the nozzle and trapping any remaining enemies inside. Her attack was followed by a tongue lash from the Mik and a wide blade of energy from a Wave Angler. The latter attack finished off the saucer, which fell apart and morphed into hundreds to the spherical bugs Fluttershy had seen earlier. However, instead of forming into another enemy, the bugs all burst into flames and were incinerated in seconds. The remaining Underworld troops flew off in another direction, followed by the triangular enemies.
Fluttershy made her way toward the cluster of islands. Along the way, she continued to shoot down more of the enemies. Upon being destroyed, every one of the enemies turned into a cluster of spherical bugs, which immediately fell apart from each other and burst into flames. By now, Fluttershy was close enough to a few of the islands to examine them. From what she could discern, each of them was almost identical to every other island in the cluster. Each one was square-shaped on top and tapered toward the bottom, as if they has risen out of the ground. A number of formations rose from the surface of each island. However, each formation had smooth edges and flat faces to it, giving them all a blocky appearance. Meanwhile, a series of laser shots was being fired in many directions from the islands below. Presumably, the islands’ external defenses had activated in response to the Underworld Army and Forces of Nature, though Celestia was still carefully guiding Fluttershy’s flight path.
“I’ve never seen anything like this!” Fluttershy said.
“These… things are tough,” Luna added.
“But what are they?” Celestia said.
Six more of the white triangular enemies advanced on Fluttershy. Fluttershy shot down two with a charge shot and dodged attacks for another two. She aimed her weapon at the next enemy. However, before she could shoot, a pale magenta fireball collided with the triangle she was aiming at.
“Huh?!”
Within a second or two, the fireball diminished in size, revealing a unicorn mare within the flames. The mare had a pale blue coat and an even paler blue mane. She wore a purple cape decorated with stars, one that was notably unharmed by her flames. Using her own magic to levitate herself through the sky, she moved in front of the remaining three enemies and discharged three small orbs of pale magenta magic at them. Each orb exploded on contact with one of the white triangles, destroying it. “Alien marauders are no match for Trixie!” she said.
“Trixie?” Celestia said incredulously. “As in the Goddess of all Equine Magic, Trixie?”
“The Great and Powerful,” Trixie said affirmatively. She flew further ahead and attacked three more white triangular enemies, as well as three green triangular enemies that were beginning to appear.
“Wait,” Fluttershy murmured. “That lunatic is a goddess?” Another dozen white triangles moved to attack her. She fired a charge shot from her Phoenix Arm, destroying two of them, and continued to fire bladed feathers at the others.
“That’s what she calls herself, at least,” Luna said, similarly skeptical.
“Ah, so you’re all together,” Trixie said. She moved back toward Fluttershy and attacked the four enemies Fluttershy hadn’t yet destroyed. “Good! Trixie loves an audience!”
“Listen, do you know anything about these enemies?” Celestia asked.
“Of course!” Trixie said. “They are the Parasprites, and this passel of floating islands is just one of their bases.”
“Just one of their bases?” Discord said. “How much more hell do they plan to raise?”
“Trixie shall explain everything,” she said.
“Splendid,” Luna deadpanned.
Trixie descended toward one of the islands in the cluster. Guided by Celestia’s magic Fluttershy followed her. Along the way, four sets of connected poles were positioned and firing lasers. Fluttershy launched a fireball from her arm, destroying two, and shot down the other two with bladed feathers. Before long, she and Trixie reached the surface of the island. She flew after the latter over the white, blocky landscape.
“It’s all in the Book of Divine Prophecy, chapter 84, section 3,” Trixie said. “‘Beckoned by destruction and corruption, the Parasprites are born from and return to nothing. They travel across the galaxy to swallow up the heavens, land, and seas.’”
“I remember not that passage,” Luna said.
“I’ll break it down for you,” Trixie continued. “The Parasprites are going to eat the entire earth! But stow your fear, for the Great and Powerful Trixie will show them that they picked the wrong planet to consume!”
“We can trust that mare, right?” Fluttershy asked.
“Um…” Celestia uttered, equally uncertain.
“Things are truly dire if that’s the pony we're listening to,” Luna said.
“Fear the wrath of Trixie’s unparalleled magic!” Trixie shouted. She rose up into the air and channeled her magic through her horn. Eight small orbs of pale magenta magic emerged from her horn, and one by one she hurled them at group of white triangles ahead of her. “Take that! And that! And that! And…”
“Yes… let’s let Trixie take care of this,” Celestia said. She guided Fluttershy to a narrow chasm that ran through a section of the island. Feeding more of her magic into the power of flight, she led Fluttershy down into the chasm. “We’ll take the other side of the islands.”
Fluttershy descended rapidly into the chasm. Like the top surface of the island, the walls of the chasm also had a blocky appearance to them. The chasm's ledges and outcroppings were smoothed down and rectangular in shape. As Fluttershy made her way down, flashes of green light were visible in certain sections of the chasm. Each flash was quickly followed by one of the coil enemies shooting from an alcove in the walls. Several coils nearly blindsided Fluttershy, who tried to dodge them as they passed. She concentrated on the magic coursing through her wings, and then on the Phoenix Arm equipped to her foreleg. She then unleashed a barrage of punches from the arm, launching the magical energy throughout the chasm and destroying any nearby enemies as she went.
Before long, Fluttershy made it through the chasm and reached the underside of the island. All around her, dozens of massive rock fragments were being pulled up to the underside of the side by a tractor beam. She moved past the beam and around the rocks.
“The Parasprites are blowing up the earth and then taking the pieces for themselves!” Luna said.
“Luna, it was you and Discord who lured the Parasprites to our world,” Celestia said.
“What?!” Luna said. “That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Trixie said that they are ‘beckoned by destruction and corruption,’” Celestia said. “They were likely drawn here by the war between the Underworld and Nature.”
“Convenient that thou would forget thy own conflict with the Underworld!” Luna shot back.
“Convenient that you would forget a massive Reset Bomb visible from space,” Fluttershy muttered.
“You, silence,” Luna said. “The Parasprites are the aggressors here. We’re the victims!”
“You’re absolutely right,” Celestia said. “Like it or not, we’re on the same side now.” She guided Fluttershy away from the underside and toward another group of floating islands in the cluster. In particular, she led her toward one island, which had a single tower in the center of it that none of the other islands had. “We’re heading to the center of the Parasprite islands. That tower is the key to stopping all this devastation. Prepare for land battle.”
“Okay,” Fluttershy said. The power of flight flared throughout her wings, and she found herself accelerating in flight toward the base of the tower.
* * * * * * * * * *
Fluttershy landed at the edge of a rooftop terrace of the tower. The beak of her Phoenix Arm opened slightly and slid over the cannon of her foreleg, revealing her hoof and allowing her to stand. Once she was firmly on the ground, she stared in awe at her surroundings. The floor beneath her hooves was white in color and arranged in tile-like rectangles. However, none of the rectangles matched each other in size, and the hard, smooth, reflective surface was made of a material she couldn’t even begin to identify. All around her, structures made of another blue-gray material stood, unless they were floating many feet above the floor. Some of these structures were rectangular, even blocky, though many of the floating objects were arranged in concentric semicircles. And many objects or structures in the area had holographic projections displayed over them, some of squares and rectangles, though many of nothing in particular.
“Is this the future?” Fluttershy asked.
“The Parasprites must have stolen materials from all over to build these islands,” Luna said.
“I wonder how many other planets were harvested to make them,” Celestia said.
Fluttershy took a tentative step forward, followed by another, and then another. After awhile, she was walking across the terrace, warily eyeing her surroundings. “For being patched together, everything seems pretty structured,” she said.
“If the Parasprites are anything like bees, that’s no surprise,” Celestia said. “Bees are orderly colonies. Likewise, the Parasprites seem to act as one, and I doubt these drones have any sense of free will.”
“There’s all this activity here, but no actual life,” Fluttershy said. Two of the white triangular enemies, Tribytes, emerged from the right edge of the terrace and floated in front of Fluttershy’s path. Fluttershy stopped abruptly and held out her hoof toward them. The Phoenix Arm slid back into over her foreleg, and she fired a charge shot at them. The fireball punched through both Tribytes and set their remains ablaze, and when the enemies morphed back into groups of Parasprites, they were quickly incinerated. “There aren’t any animals here, or anypony. It’s just these things.”
“Poor Fluttershy,” Luna said sarcastically. “Art thou feeling lonely? Because I can summon one of my commanders to keep thee company.”
“That… really isn’t necessary,” Fluttershy stammered. As she explored the rooftop terrace, she found an entrance leading inside the tower. Three Tribytes descended in front of her and blocked her path, as well as a floating white cube. Fluttershy launched a fireball from her arm, destroying two of them, and took out the third one with a few bladed feathers. The white cube, a Jyok, opened up into four connected poles and fired a laser at Fluttershy. Fluttershy jumped to the side to dodge and fired four bladed feathers, destroying the Jyok. With her path clear, she approached the entrance leading into the tower.
Once inside, Fluttershy found herself walking down a darkened passageway. Three more Tribytes appeared at a corner, but Fluttershy shot them down with a fireball and continued on. The passageway sloped downward slightly, leading her down into the tower until she reached a door at the end. In front of the door were two comma-shaped enemies with thin tendrils hanging from them. The enemies each lifted one of their tendrils in the air and moved it from side to side.
“Are they… waving at me?” Fluttershy asked.
“They're not saying hello, if that';s what thou art asking?” Luna said.
“Those enemies are known as Zaurums,” Celestia said. “Their attacks have a disorienting effect, so don’t stop to say hi.”
Fluttershy lifted her hoof and took aim. Suddenly, a purple field surrounded one of the Zaurums. Fluttershy hastily jumped back, firing a charge shot from her arm. The fireball struck both enemies one after the other, burning through both them and the Parasprites that emerged from them.
The door at the end of the passageway led Fluttershy into a large chamber. The room was dark, just like the previous passageway. She reached one end of the chamber and was about to turn right toward the rest of it, but the ground underneath her started to move. Before she could step back, the section of the floor she stood on sank into the ground. The section connected to a platform about ten feet down, where two of the coil-like enemies were waiting for Fluttershy. However, instead of shooting at her like the ones in the air did, these Quoils simply rotated about their axis as they moved slowly toward her.
“An elevator into a torture chamber,” Luna mused out loud. “Convenient!” Fluttershy ignored the comment and fired at the Quoils, easily destroying them. However, once they were gone, she noticed a small blue treasure chest in the middle of the platform
“Discord,” Celestia said accusingly, “Did you put that treasure box there?”
“Me?” Discord said. “I would never!”
With nowhere else to go, Fluttershy cautiously approached the treasure chest. She was within a few feet of the box when it rose above the ground, supported by two hairless humanoid legs. “What the—” Fluttershy murmured.
“That’s strange…” Luna said. “How would a Mimicutie have found its way up there?”
Fluttershy and Luna watched in bemusement as the Mimicutie moved around the platform. Celestia, however, found the Mimicutie’s prancing on two feet more endearing. “Aw! Who’s a Mimicutie?” she said.
Suddenly, the Mimicutie slid across the platform and in front of Fluttershy. Keeping one foot firmly planted on the ground, it kept its other knee bent and pivoted in Fluttershy’s direction. What came next were a series of fast, sharp kicks all directed at Fluttershy. The assault culminated in one last painful kick against her chest, which tossed her into the air.
When Fluttershy came back down, she landed back on higher ground. She brought a hoof to her sore lower jaw, which had taken several of the Mimicutie’s kicks. “Ow,” she uttered softly. She brought her hooves under her and stood back up. Her chest, forelegs and jaw all felt sore and battered. She used her hoof to wipe some blood from her lower lip before turning back toward the end of the chamber. Since the Mimicutie had kicked her back up, she decided to move on with the mission. Luckily for her, the first thing she saw at the end of the chamber was a pool of warm water with an unmistakable steam billowing from it. “Look, a hot spring,” she said. She eagerly trotted toward the hot spring. However, before she could get within inches of the spring, an entire section of the floor rose out of the ground, taking the pool of water with it. “Where’s it going?”
“Don’t worry, there are stairs to your right that will take you to it,” Celestia said.
In only a few seconds, Fluttershy had cantered up the nearby stairs and was now wading into the hot spring. She took another second or two to relax and make herself comfortable, and the soreness from her recent wounds began to melt away. “Ah, that feels better,” she said.
“I hope for thine sake that is a hot spring and not some other kind of… puddle,” Luna said.
Fluttershy blinked a few times, her state of relaxation partially broken. She looked down at the steaming water, which did have a sort of yellow color to it, presumably from any minerals dissolved in it. “It doesn’t smell like any other sort of puddle,” she said.
“Even if it did, I wouldn’t know where the Parasprites would find such a puddle,” Celestia said. “Let alone make one.”
“Fine, but say not that I never warned thee about jumping into strange bodies of water,” Luna said.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Fluttershy said lazily, trailing off at the end as she continued to relax. Meanwhile, several loud noises could be heard on the other side of the hot spring. Fluttershy leaned over and saw several Skuttlers and Quoils fighting each other. “I’m sure that’ll take care of itself. But there is one other thing that bothers me. Do you think that Trixie pony is really a goddess?”
“No,” said three gods simultaneously.
“She seems to be playing the role of the self-proclaimed sun god, Pyrrhon,” Celestia said. “Apparently, the author decided that turning Trixie from a magician to a pyromaniac isn’t an issue, since the most impressive magic she has ever performed on the show without augmentation is a pyrotechnic spell.”
“She’s probably just an above average unicorn who’s gotten a bit too big for her saddle,” Discord said gleefully. “Give it a few years. We’ll see what she has to say about her ‘godly’ status when she meets me face to face.”
“I give it a few days,” Luna said. “And that worries me.”
“I agree,” Celestia said. “In the midst of this Parasprite invasion, she may become more of a burden than an asset.”
After a few minutes in the hot spring, Fluttershy stood up. With the Skuttlers and Quoils long gone, she jumped down from the ledge the hot spring had risen to and made her way to the end of the chamber. The door at the end led her to an outdoor courtyard in the tower. The path ahead continued through the courtyard on her left, but in front of her stood a familiar looking vehicle. “Hey, look! An Exo Tank!” Fluttershy said.
“Hey, look! Who cares?” Discord mocked.
“This makes no sense,” Luna said.
“I certainly didn’t put it there,” Celestia added.
“You don’t suppose it belongs to anypony here, do you?” Fluttershy asked, but one quick glance around the area reminded her where she was. “No, I guess it doesn’t. But since it’s here, I might as well use it.” Fluttershy climbed into the Exo Tank. Placing her hooves on the controls, she drove forward toward the end of the courtyard. A few Monoeyes, Nutskis, and Tribytes floated in her path and attacked each other. Rather than try to attack them, Fluttershy drove around the groups of enemies, trying to avoid them.
Past the courtyard, the path continued on the outside of the tower, slowly dipping downward along the way. Fluttershy made her way around a turn in the road that spiraled down, and eventually reached another courtyard. At the end of the road stood another small treasure chest, much like the one she had found earlier. She slowly drove up to the chest. As soon as she was within two feet of the chest, it rose above the ground stood on two humanoid feet.
“Ugh, another Mimicutie,” Fluttershy groaned.
The Mimicutie slid toward the Exo Tank and lifted one of its feet, preparing to attack. “What elegance! What grace!” Discord said. But before the Mimicutie could unleash its barrage of kicks, Fluttershy hit the throttle of the Exo Tank. The Exo Tank ran into the Mimicutie, tossed it into the air and drove to a door at the other end of the courtyard. “What disturbing brutality,” Discord added after a pause.
Fluttershy drove the Exo Tank to the end of the courtyard, where a door automatically opened for her. The door led to a fairly large elevator shaft, where the elevator was already waiting. She drove inside, and the elevator began to rise toward its destination.
“Taking the Exo Tank with you?” Celestia asked.
“I didn’t think I would be a problem,” Fluttershy said. “I thought there might be some invisible wall or something that would keep the Exo Tank from coming in here at first, but there wasn’t one.”
“Even so, you won’t be able to take the Exo Tank much further,” Celestia said. “The path forward ends at a ledge overlooking the island. Fortunately, I placed a pair of grind rails up ahead for you, though they didn’t turn out exactly as I hoped.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll see when you reach it.”
The elevator came to a stop, and a door opened for Fluttershy that led out to a solitary platform. Fluttershy climbed out of the Exo Tank and walked over to a pair of magenta rails. She hopped onto the rails, allowing their magic to carry her along them. It wasn’t long before she realized what Celestia was referring to. The grind rails continued straight ahead up to a certain distance and made an abrupt 90° turn to the right. Fluttershy reared on her hind legs just before the turn. Her back hooves reached the turn, and though her right leg changed direction a second before her left, causing some uncomfortable twisting and stretching, she continued on in the new direction without any problems.
“The rails are kind of crooked,” Fluttershy said, placing her front hooves back down. Several more 90° turns were visible further along, and she knew she’d have to go through the same thing at each of those turns.
“Something seems to have distorted them,” Celestia said.
“The nerve of those Parasprites,” Luna said. “How dare they meddle with thy godly powers?”
“Sorry about that, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.
Fluttershy continued to follow the grind rails, standing up on her back hooves every time they took a sharp turn. After a while, she noticed that the grind rails’ magic was allowing her to balance effortlessly on her hind legs, and even on only one hind leg. She used that to her advantage to move along the rails more easily. Along the way, she shot down a number of Parasprite enemies, including some Tribytes, a few Quoils, a Jyok, and even three of the vanishing green triangles she had seen while flying, known as Blits.
“Have you noticed that arms have the shortest range of any weapon type?” Celestia asked.
“Yeah, I have,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t really like to get that close to enemies. But it looks like this arm has a longer range than normal.”
“That’s because the Phoenix Arm’s continuous fire has nearly twice the range of its charged attacks,” Celestia said. “Its design is modeled after the Immortal Phoenix.” Fluttershy gave a frown and looked at the weapon with disdain. “… Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Fluttershy said. “This type of weapon isn’t for me anyway.”
“Thou seem to have more of a presence with that arm equipped, considering its size,” Luna said. “It’s like how driving an SUV or a big truck makes one feel more in control. But that’s a misconception. Driving a big car does not make the objects around thee any smaller, and thou must still pay attention to the road.”
“What’s an SUV?” Fluttershy asked.
“How is this relevant?” Celestia added.
Luna scowled at the two of them. “Fine, heed not my warning,” she said. “But if thou run down some poor filly’s parents, remember that I tried to warn thee.”
“You do know that I fabricated that entire story, right?” Discord said.
“Does that include the part about vehicular ponyslaughter?” Celestia said.
“Sure, why not?” Discord said.
As Fluttershy continued down the pair of grind rails, the rails frequently sloped downward in addition to turning at right angles. She expected the rails to lead back to the same tower and drop her off at a lower floor. Instead, they seemed to be moving away from that tower and toward a second, much shorter tower. “Why am I going over there?” Fluttershy asked.
“That way leads to the control core for this entire island,” Celestia said. “That’s your target for this mission.”
The rails finally came to an end at one of the floors of the second tower. Fluttershy jumped off of the rails and landed on the nearest floor, where a door led into the tower. However, she turned back to gaze at the first tower. “So then you landed me at the wrong tower,” she said.
“You could say that,” Celestia said.
Inside the second tower was an elevator. The elevator took Fluttershy down to the surface level of the island. Once outside the elevator, Fluttershy stepped onto a path that led to a third tower. Unlike the others, the third tower was smaller, cylindrical in overall shape, and emerged from a deep circular shaft in the ground.
“There’s a path down through that tower,” Celestia said.
Fluttershy stepped hesitantly toward the third tower. She stopped at the edge of the pathway, which overlooked the circular shaft and the tower in the center. The pathway led down into the shaft, spiraling around the tower as it went. “So I should just keep going down this way?” she asked.
“I’m picking up high energy readings from the base of the tower,” Celestia said. “You can head there… I think.”
“Aww, sounds like someone’s losing her nerve,” Discord said mockingly. “I guess I’d better step in! Get in here, boys! It’s time for some Underworld Army action!” Several Monoeyes, Wave Anglers, and Syrens converged on the tower from multiple directions. They swooped down into the hole to begin their attack, avoiding the spiraling pathway entirely. Fluttershy peered down at them from the edge of the pathway. Suddenly, several lasers shot up from the shaft. Fluttershy stumbled back from the edge of the walkway and fell on her haunches, avoiding any near misses from the lasers. The Underworld troops weren’t so lucky however, and were all incinerated by the laser fire. “Well that didn’t go very well,” Discord said, somewhat embarrassed.
“I think we should just leave this to Fluttershy,” Luna said.
Fluttershy stood back up and moved back toward the spiraling walkway. “Oh, sure,” she muttered. “Do you want me to do your laundry too?”
“Now, now, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Luna has faith in you, and so do I. I know you can handle it.”
Fluttershy turned toward the tower, and then back at the walkway. Cautiously, she started walking down the walkway. “I’ll do my best,” she said, “but only for you.”
“She certainly is devoted to thee, Celestia,” Luna said.
“Only because she squeezes that head wreath if she doesn’t follow orders,” Discord said.
“You mean like… this?!” Celestia said.
Fluttershy froze in place. “No, please don’t!” she said. “You’ll squeeze my brains out!”
Celestia chuckled. “Just kidding, Fluttershy,” she said.
“Ha ha ha ha! Nicely done!” Luna said, joining in on the laughter.
“Thank you.”
“Who knew that our sourpuss Celestia possessed a sense of humor?” Discord said.
“Yeah, very funny,” Fluttershy muttered before continuing down the walkway. She met with very little resistance as she descended into the shaft. The lasers that eliminated the Underworld troops could only fire straight up, so they couldn’t aim at Fluttershy. That only left Parasprite enemies, which included eight Quoils and two Blits. At the end of the pathway, she came across a circular platform suspended over the rest of the shaft.
“The center of that platform is an elevator down,” Celestia said.
Fluttershy walked over to a circle in the center of the platform. As soon as she stepped onto it, the circle detached from the rest of the platform and floated down into the darkness of the shaft below.
* * * * * * * * * *
Once the elevator reached the end of its descent, Fluttershy was standing in front of the core of the Parasprite island. The core, glowing red with copper colored markings on it, was at the base of the cylindrical tower. Three thick yellow plates circled around the core, partially protecting it, but with gaps in between them large enough to expose it.
“So that’s what I need to destroy?” Fluttershy asked.
“Only one way to find out?” Discord taunted.
Three circular white objects floated in place just below the plates. They circled around the core at the same speed as the plates, but in the opposite direction. Fluttershy moved closer to the core and fired a charge shot from her Phoenix Arm, but her attack hit one of the plates instead. She then fired a stream of bladed feathers at the core. Some of her shots hit their target while others merely hit the shields. Meanwhile, one of the circling white objects launched a ball of electricity at Fluttershy. The ball moved slowly across the ground, allowing Fluttershy to step away from it and continue firing.
“Try circling around the core to get a clearer shot at the gaps in the shield,” Celestia said. “You might want to shoot those outer guns too.”
At first, Fluttershy tried to move with the shields while firing. However, she found that the shields rotated around the core more quickly than she could. Instead, she decided to move in the other direction. More of her arm’s shots struck the core, chipping at the body of the core and putting a few noticeably large scratches in it. Suddenly, a large section of the floor changed to a bright purple color, including where Fluttershy was standing. Two seconds later, the purple sections of the floor became electrified. The current shot up through Fluttershy’s legs, shocking her and leaving her momentarily paralyzed.
“Your little pegasus gets an A for effort,” Discord said.
“I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Celestia said.
“Aw, that’s really nice of you, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said, having recovered from the earlier electrical shock. “Actually, I don’t think there’s any god or goddess I’d rather fight for.” Her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink, though she still managed to jump out of the way of another slow-moving ball of electricity. As she jumped, she fired four more bladed feathers, three of which hit the core, and continued firing.
“It seems we a have a little mutual admiration society here,” Luna said.
“Isn’t that sweet?” Discord said. “And by ‘sweet’, I mean disgusting!”
“I wouldn’t expect you two to know anything about loyalty or devotion,” Celestia said.
“I know sappiness when I see it,” Luna shot back.
“Hear hear,” Discord chimed in.
“That’s enough from the cheap seats,” Celestia said.
After a while, Fluttershy had tuned out the gods’ conversation in favor of focusing on the battle. The floor beneath her turned purple again, but this time she ran toward a safe section of the floor. All the while, she continued dodging attacks from the core’s revolving guns while shooting at the core. However, the shields were still blocking some of her attacks. Wondering if she could find another way around the plates, she soon had an idea.
“Slip Shot,” Fluttershy said. Her equipped power immediately activated, and her body started to softly flash pink. She took aim at the core, not bothering to aim away from the shields, and fired a charge shot. The fireball passed through one of the plates completely and struck the core directly. Fluttershy continued shooting afterward, and each of her shots hit their target without being blocked by the shields.
Suddenly, Fluttershy felt something hit her from behind. The impact sent electricity through her a second time. As soon as it passed, she looked behind her and saw one of the same guns that circled in front of the core moving along the wall. In addition to this one, and the three in front of the core, two more of these guns were also moving along the wall.
“The core’s defenses appear to be activating little by little,” Celestia said. “It will take some time before they are fully in place, so you should have plenty of time to severely damage the core by the time that happens.”
“They must still be using dial-up,” Discord quipped.
After twenty seconds, the effect of Slip Shot wore off, and Fluttershy’s body stopped flashing pink. Fortunately for her, she was able to use it twice, and she activated it a second time. The soft pink flashing resumed, and she launched another fireball at the core. Several cracks, scratches, and scorch marks already covered the core. After a few more bladed feathers from Fluttershy’s weapon, the defense systems abruptly halted.
“Let’s see what happens,” Discord said.
Moments later, bright yellow light began to shine from within every crack in the core’s structure. Meanwhile, Parasprite activity was continuing as it had throughout the cluster of islands. That all changed after nearly half a minute when a tremendous explosion occurred at one of the islands. Only one of these islands exploded, specifically the one that Fluttershy had attacked. However, the explosion spread far beyond that one island and caught every other island in the cluster within its blast radius. Little by little, the islands fragmented and started to fall from the sky. At the same time, Parasprites broke off each and every island by the thousand, only to burn shortly after.
As the islands were caught in the explosion, a pale magenta streak moved from the cluster. Carrying Flutteshy with her magic, Trixie came to a stop outside the blast radius. “I’m sure you’re just eager to thank Trixie for boldly rescuing you from…” Trixie stopped when she heard a light snoring. She turned toward Fluttershy, who was now fast asleep again. “How dare you sleep through the Great and Powerful Trixie’s performance?!”
“You’ll have to forgive her,” Celestia said. “She just woke up.” A beam of light shone down on Fluttershy, pulling her away from Trixie’s magic, but still keeping her in the air. “We appreciate your help.”
After that, Celestia’s magic extracted Fluttershy from the area, leaving Trixie alone. The glow around Trixie’s horn flared. “Trixie senses danger,” she said. She turned toward another area of the sky, where a massive fleet of starships could be seen beyond the upper atmosphere. “And now, Trixie sees it.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.092 seconds
Total duration
593 users online
1,345,038 hits today, 2,707,512 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I had to fight the risk to stand up and applaud when you featured Trixie as Pyrrhon. Good chapter, sorry for the short comment.
Also, I am really enjoying all the original lines you've been putting in. Good show.
twilight would be a better pyrrohn but a FUSION of the two would be perfect! twilights knowledge and "rapidash" form, and trixies arrogance!
2492709 Well who else was going to be Pyrrhon? Or the Aurum for that matter? And believe me, I've enjoyed writing the original material. In some cases, it's been required to better fit Fluttershy's role in the story or the MLP part of the crossover, but there's a lot of fun to be had with it.
On the other hand, with each successive chapter, I've found that I'm adding more of my personal touch to the whole MLP/Kid Icarus crossover. You'll really see that once I reach the next arc.
2493309 A fusion? I shudder to think that there may be a Dragon Ball Z crossover featuring Twilight as Goku and Trixie as Vegeta. But on a serious note, I decided against Twilight because neither her personality nor her skillset matched Pyrrhon at all. Maybe Lunaverse Twilight would've worked, but I'm not working off of the Lunaverse. Even if I was, I'd have to actually read RainbowDoubleDash's work before doing that.
Besides, I've included Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Rarity so far. Who's to say that Twilight won't show up somewhere down the line?
2497846 Yeah. Personally, I would've put Scootaloo in the role of Pit. She just fits so well, you know? And I'm still curious to see what you're going to do with the remaining characters. Particularly Dyntos and the little kid from Chapter 18.
The Centurions aren't going to be Wonderbolts, are they?
2498984
fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/146/b/5/bahahahahaaa__rainbow_dash_laugh_by_misteralex-d515muw.gif
Oh, that almost took my mind off the fact that I haven't started writing the next chapter yet. I'm pretty sure that one was already covered.
The Wonderbolts? As the Centurions? About a dozen of Equestria's top athletes cast as the hundreds to a few thousand Redshirts at Palutena's disposal? Guess again. Although... if we go back to an earlier comment of mine, I posed a riddle for two of the roles I was casting. I said that they didn't count as characters in the game, but that wouldn't be the case here considering the nature of this crossover. Well, I'll add another hint:
They are twin roles, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be played by twins.
loved the game, but why the gore tag???