Magical Harmony Spec Ops Friendship

by totallynotabrony

CH3: Reflex

“You’re so funny!” Pinkie shrieked, patting the shoulder of a stallion in a tweed suit.

“Er, I suppose there is a dry humor to the study of pre-Equestrian history,” he replied.

Their conversation was hidden beneath the other ponies talking around the room. The art gallery gala at the Canterlot Castle Museum had attracted fancy ponies from everywhere, all of them eager to socialize and be seen.

Pinkie was there in a simple red dress, her mane up, and wearing her usual necklace. Most everypony knew her, or at least knew of her. It wasn’t Pinkie’s party, but it was still a party, so she was there.

She disengaged from the history professor and made a circuit through the gallery. Soft music played to set the atmosphere. The event that evening was a special early viewing party of the newest exhibit for museum members. A collection of rare works from Andy Warhoof had been found and the gallery was dotted with splashes of color around the walls.

The paintings were nice. Pinkie did love nonsense pictures. But that wasn’t why she was here, or at least not the whole reason. A party meant there were ponies, and if there was one thing Pinkie was good at, it was talking. It just took a little subtle encouraging to steer a conversation any way she wanted. If she did it right, a conversation partner wouldn’t even realize that they had told her something she could use.

Putting clues together had led her to the gallery that evening. Collecting intel and building ops was a lot of work and incorporated a lot of intuition and leaps of faith. That was okay with Pinkie.

She said hello to a few acquaintances as she made her way through the crowd. The windows looked out on the city below, the museum being located on the castle grounds on the mountain above Canterlot. Spinning in place for a moment to the music, Pinkie bumped into a white unicorn in an extravagant dress.

“Oh, sorry,” said Pinkie, grinning regardless. “I was just on the way to the little fillies’ room.”

“Quite,” replied the other mare flatly.

Pinkie slipped to the edge of the crowd and down a hallway marked with restroom signs. However, the door she entered read staff only.

The event that evening meant that the museum was not only open late, but security was distracted. Based on what Pinkie had gathered, it was a perfect time for a heist.

She went up a floor and exited from the staff corridor into a darkened exhibit hall. This one held various stone carvings from ancient pony civilizations. Doing her best to move without a sound, Pinkie made her way through the room to one display in particular.

That was where she found a pegasus mare carefully cutting a hole in a glass box that displayed a number of round stones. The caption noted that they had been discovered in the Castle Everfree and were thought to have been left there by ancient magical scholars, well before Nightmare Moon had used the location as a base of operations.

“Whatcha doin’?” Pinkie asked, hovering over the mare’s shoulder.

“Eek!” The cutter slipped in her hoof. The glass shimmered with yellow magic, popping a few sparks as the cut lines fixed themselves.

The mare leaped away from Pinkie, who picked up the tool she had been using. “Huh, this looks like some kind of science project. I bet somepony was trying to fuse technology and magic in order to defeat the museum’s sophisticated security systems and break into the box that was holding these old rocks.”

Pinkie tossed it over her shoulder and put her hooves on her hips. “Wow, stealing should be a crime. And talk about unwise! Why, these particular rocks were probably put here to keep them out of the hooves of evildoers who would bring about eternal night or something. Aren’t you glad I came by and prevented that?”

The pegasus shook her head. “Are you dense or something?”

“Nope, I was just giving you plausible deniability, but maybe you’re dense for not just going with it.” Pinkie shrugged. “Well, I guess I should probably call the police if you’re going to be like that.”

In response, the other mare dashed for the exit. The narrow corridors prevented her from simply flying away, and Pinkie, despite her dress, was easily able to keep up utilizing her bouncing stride.

“You know, if you keep running, you’re only going to go to jail tired,” Pinkie advised.

In response, the pegasus turned in midair, only she wasn’t a pony of skin and feathers anymore, but an insectlike creature with black, chitinous features. It fired a bolt of green magic, which Pinkie ducked, before slamming through an emergency exit.

“Spike, connect,” said Pinkie. A different view overlaid her own vision, a perspective from the air over the museum. She could examine it by refocusing her eyes; otherwise it pretty much stayed out of the way. The alternate viewpoint clearly showed somepony flying away.

“Be advised, the target is a changeling,” Pinkie remarked.

Since the changeling infiltrator was no longer in disguise, Pinkie saw no reason to be, either. The grinning theater mask on her necklace began to glow.

The magic swept over her body, leaving behind red, paneled armor on her body and legs, and two curved swords belted at her side. The crowning touch, however, was the mask. Unlike the red armor and horned helmet, the mask was painted white, with bulging eyes and a snarling, toothy mouth.

Pinkie hopped through the emergency exit and began to head down the mountain.

---

Minutes earlier, Rarity had been enjoying herself at the party.

“Spike, could you please check to see if my dress is still in place?” she murmured, quieter than the conversation around her.

Right away! said Spike’s enthusiastic voice, which she heard clearly, but not exactly with her ears. The connection was mental.

Rarity checked his view, looking in the window. The fabric still flowed grandly over her body; she needn’t have worried.

Sipping punch, Rarity approached a stallion in a particularly well-tailored suit. “My dear gentlecolt, where did you have this made?”

“In my own shop,” he said, smiling. “I’m a tailor.” His eyes roved her dress. “And you are?”

“A seamstress,” Rarity replied. “I see our professional eyes are working perfectly.”

He laughed. “One professional to another, you’ve really put together an interesting ensemble tonight.”

Just then, somepony bumped into Rarity from behind.

“Oh, sorry,” said Pinkie, not looking sorry at all, “I was just on the way to the little fillies’ room.”

“Quite,” said Rarity. Did Pinkie have to treat everything like a joke?

Pinkie wandered away. Rarity reluctantly returned to her own conversation. “I must beg your pardon. I want to check that nothing about that interaction has spoiled this dress.”

“I could help you,” he quickly offered.

“Oh no, I have certain...trade secrets. I’m sure you understand.”

“No problem. Have a good evening.”

Rarity excused herself. As she walked away, she sensed something that had the feel of jealousy, from Spike. Down boy, she thought. He isn’t exactly a competitor.

She walked out onto the patio. There was nopony around, as it wasn’t technically open for the party. Reaching into a hidden pocket of her dress, she took out her portable sewing kit for on-the-spot tailoring. Unzipping the case, she took out her silver thimble and held it in her hoof, waiting.

She sensed Pinkie pop into the link, Spike bridging communication between the two. Be advised, the target is a changeling.

Rarity clamped her hoof on the thimble as it began to glow with magic. She didn’t transform, but a hefty purple lance with a barbed golden tip materialized in the air beside her. Rarity grabbed it just as the fleeing changeling came into view.

She hurled the lance skyward. Perhaps her aim wasn’t as good as it would have been if she was fully kitted, but it still ripped through the changeling’s wing and sent it tumbling into the darkness off the side of the mountain.

“Spike, follow it,” said Rarity. She peered into the darkness below, trying to decide how she was going to descend. Her dress wouldn’t survive it.

With a sigh, she transformed. Interlocking metal plates coalesced from the magic, covering every inch of her body in steel. The armor was royal purple with patterned gold trim. Not even the smiths of the Royal Guard could have made such a well-fitted suit of armor. However, it wasn’t complete without the concave shield that the thimble had become.

Rarity gingerly stepped onto the shield and tipped it over the edge of the mountain. While she would never do anything so unladylike as surfing for fun, practicality did have its place. Magic cushioned the ride over mountain rocks, assisting her balance on the way down.

She pulled up at a slight flattening of the slope, where the changeling had come to rest. Aside from the destroyed wing, it hadn’t fared well in the tumble down the mountain.

Rarity picked up her shield, which was undamaged by the rocks, and walked over. She appropriated another lance from the aether and lowered the point to the groaning changeling’s throat.

“I...I thought the Elements had broken up,” they said.

“Nope,” said Pinkie, arriving just then. “Well, okay, we kiiind of did, officially. I just got out so that I could honestly say that I wasn’t with them anymore, which makes it way easier to lie about other stuff when I need to.” She shrugged. “If you’re gonna spy, you gotta lie.”

“I’m just a contractor; employment as needed.” said Rarity. She shook her head. “But back to the point: who sent you?”

The changeling’s eyes cut back and forth between the two of them. “If I tell you, are you going to let me go?”

“Yes,” said Pinkie.

The changeling licked its lips with a forked tongue. “We’ve been doing a few jobs for an outsider. Maybe like being a contractor. They wanted to steal those rocks.”

“Who are they?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t know. I’m just doing what the queen told me to do.”

“What will the rocks be used for?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hmm. Well, you’re not being very helpful,” said Pinkie. She drew one of her swords, flourished it in the air, and decapitated the changeling so precisely that the blade didn’t touch the ground.

She and Rarity changed back, something Rarity instantly regretted due to her dress dragging in the dirt. She looked back up at the castle lights in the distance. “Well, I suppose I’m not going back to the party.”

Pinkie waved a hoof. “We can party on our own. I’ll take you to this donut shop I know. It’s right near Twilight and Fluttershy’s school.”

“I’d rather spend my evening in,” said Rarity. “Though, talking of Twilight, how are we going to convince her to return to the group? I think Cadance is growing more frustrated than she lets on.”

“It would help if Cadance would share why she cares in the first place,” Pinkie pointed out.

“It would. I admit, I’m curious too. I don’t envy Twilight for returning to school with drama, and math, and acne, but I have to agree that being ‘out’ does alleviate one of much responsibility. I’ve found that distancing myself has done wonders for my beauty sleep.”

“Well, if that’s how you see it.” Pinkie frowned briefly before brightening again. “So, how about donuts?”

“Darling, I said no already.” Rarity hiked up her dress and began the rest of the trip back into Canterlot proper.

Pinkie walked with her, but more because they were going the same direction than anything else. They didn’t speak. As they came down off the rough mountainside and entered the blocks of homes and business again, Rarity glanced sideways in the glow of a streetlight. The small charm on Pinkie’s necklace wasn’t the happy theater mask, but instead the sad one.

Not her business, Rarity reminded herself.

---

The class was on its way to the Spring School Sojourn, heading for Baltimare Beach. The school sponsored a day out for students as a reward and incentive for hard work, and to get some of the more introverted ones some sunshine.

Lyra and Moon Dancer sat next to Twilight on the train. Both of them stared at her as she looked out the window and fidgeted.

Lyra picked up her drink from the seat tray table because it was rattling as Twilight’s hoof tapped the floor. “Uh...something on your mind?”

“What?” Twilight blurted, turning away from the window.

“You seem distracted,” said Moon Dancer. “You shouldn’t forget your lunch.”

Twilight glanced down at the sandwich she had packed. She wasn’t hungry. Her stomach hurt for a different reason. Well, okay, maybe it was a little bit of hunger, because she’d been so anxious about Cadance’s proposal that this wasn’t the first meal she’d almost missed.

“Sorry,” said Twilight. She picked up the sandwich.

“You shouldn’t be apologizing. You’re the one who seems to have a problem,” Moon Dancer said. “Can we help?”

Twilight’s mouth was full and she shook her head instead of replying.

“Seriously,” said Lyra. “It’s pretty clear something’s eating you.” She suppressed a smirk at her unintended pun.

For a moment, Twilight considered talking to them. Not providing details, of course, but framing it in some way that it was understandable but leaving out the part about her fighting monsters. She hadn’t come up with anything by the time she finished chewing.

Fortunately from the conversation standpoint, but unfortunately for her anxiety, Fluttershy came by just then, swaying as the train moved. “Can I sit here?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Lyra, scooting over. “So are you two already hanging out, both of you being transfer students?”

“Maybe a little,” said Fluttershy, sitting down. She looked at Twilight, who took another bite of her lunch. As she chewed, she calculated in her head how much conversation she could stall by constantly having her mouth full and glumly concluded that she should have packed a bigger sandwich.

She managed to stretch it out enough that the rest of the ride to the beach was quiet. Maybe she could find snacks to buy for the ride back.

Upon arrival, everypony disembarked and were called to huddle up by the teacher, who gave them the time to meet back for the ride home. The train station was within a block of the beach. The shops and restaurants around were touristy and festive.

“Come on,” said Lyra, “Let’s get to the beach and grab a good changing tent.” She ushered Twilight, Fluttershy, and Moon Dancer down the street to where the cobblestones turned to sand. Beyond, the blue sea stretched to the horizon.

“Why do we need a place to change?” Twilight asked as they walked . “We’re not taking anything off to put our bathing suits on. I’m not even sure why ponies have bathing suits in the first place.”

“Tradition, and the desire to appear fancy, which filtered down from upper to lower classes until it created a new paradigm of social requirement,” said Moon Dancer.

Twilight nodded. “I should have known.”

Moon Dancer went on. “Princess Celestia has typically been an island of stability in pony society, able to provide long-term continuity between generations in things like language and popular culture. With that in mind, I find it interesting that she doesn’t typically wear anything besides her royal regalia. Fashion seems to have evolved separately from her.”

“Princesses move in mysterious ways,” Twilight replied noncommittally.

“What would her swimsuit even look like?” Lyra laughed. “I guess she’s going to have to be the center of culture or whatever you said. In terms of immortal alicorns, two died in the Nightmare War. Well, Nightmare Moon was evil, so I guess it doesn’t really matter what she knew about fashion or how old she was.” Lyra put a hoof to her chin. “How old was she?”

“She was imprisoned in the moon for a thousand years, so older than that,” Twilight said. This conversation was, if anything, even more uncomfortable than before, but she hoped that by taking charge of it, she could steer the topic.

“Where does somepony like that even come from?” said Lyra. “Like, there can’t be too many immortals, right? I wonder if Princess Celestia knew her before.”

“Aren’t you overthinking this?” said Twilight.

“She does that,” said Moon Dancer. “Let’s just get changed.”

As they approached the brightly colored changing tents, Twilight looked inside her school bag, into which she’d packed everything she needed for the beach. Her swimsuit was one piece, dark blue and plain. She’d also brought a book.

“What is that!?” somepony shouted

Twilight’s head jerked up, eyes following her ears. The water just offshore bubbled as four scaly heads rose from the waves. They kept rising, carried on long necks. The rest of the beast emerged, all four necks connected to one body. The entire monster was the size of a three story building.

“Hydra!” Fluttershy screamed.

“Run!” shouted Lyra. She and Moon Dancer galloped back across the beach as the hydra stepped forward out of the water.

Twilight had been frozen, but took one more glance at the monster and turned to follow them. Fluttershy grabbed her shoulder. “We have to do something!”

“Aren’t you good with animals or something?” Twilight said, without looking at her, eyes on the hydra.

“Look! Somepony’s hypnotized it!” Fluttershy pointed.

Now that she said something, Twilight noticed the red glow flickering in all eight of the hydra's eyes. It snapped its teeth and charged towards the fleeing beach crowd.

“We need to do something!” Fluttershy urged.

“The police-”

“Aren’t here! Ponies are going to die!” Fluttershy shot into a changing tent and had transformed by the time she came out the other side. Her outfit was white and flowing, paired with a folded hat and accented with red crosses. Pouches of various supplies and medicines were secured around her body, along with a bandoleer of syringes across her chest. Other than the two-inch needles on the syringes, she had nothing resembling a weapon, certainly nothing that would hurt a hydra.

Twilight stared for a moment longer. Her hooves were moving before her mind caught up, the rush of conflicting emotion coming before logic, but long after her instincts had already commanded her to do something.

She tore into the tent, hoof plunging into her school bag. Tossing aside the bag, she held up her pen, and pulled off the cap.

The magic hit her like a tidal wave, somehow harder than she remembered, but moving her in its wake less than ever. There was no time to feel it, only fleeting moments to act. The tent came apart around her, shreds of fabric parting like tissue paper before the sea.

The Element was like a drug, the feeling intoxicating. Twilight squared her shoulders. Taller, stronger, powerful.

The hydra had already made it to the street off the beach and was heading for the train station when Twilight caught up with it. Fluttershy darted back and forth in the air in front of it, trying to slow it down and distract it from panicking citizens. Twilight saw one of the hydra’s eyes had half a syringe sticking out of it and one of the other heads had some sort of chemical burn. If anything, though, it had only made the monster angrier.

With its several viewpoints, the hydra noticed Twilight sprinting at it from behind and turned around. This succeeded in preventing it from going any deeper in the city, but now it put its full attention on her.

From her off hoof, Twilight snatched a throwing knife from her kit. She didn’t know where they came from, but the magic of the Element meant they were always there when she grabbed for them. She whipped the knife forward and scored a hit on the other eye of the head Fluttershy had already partially blinded. That head roared in pain as the others dove towards Twilight.

She raised a hoof, supporting a magic shield that one gaping maw bounced off. From behind her cover, she stabbed her sword forward, driving it through the palette of the next head. The third head came at her from the side and she only had time to smack it away with the flat of her blade and leap out of the way.

Her dive brought her to the edge of the street, closest to the blinded head and Twilight took the opportunity for a mighty swing that sliced cleanly through the neck, toppling it into the street. Her sword ran with the monster’s blood, turning dark as it dripped off the blade, magically changed to ink by the time it splattered on the ground.

Twilight began setting up her next attack, but paused in surprise as the stump of the amputated neck bulged and two new heads emerged, each just as angry as those before, and unlike the severed head, with functioning eyes. Now, five heads glared down at her.

There was no time to be shocked. It helped that this wasn’t the most horrifying monster Twilight had ever faced. If cutting off a head didn’t work, then she would have to try something else. She rushed forward, ducking low to aim for the belly. The head she had sliced earlier came at her, and she had to smack it away to avoid chopping it off and creating yet another problem.

However, five heads proved too many, and though Twilight made the hydra pay for its defense in small slashes, she couldn’t get through.

She backed off to reassess. There was something she hadn’t tried yet, but it took a few moments under pressure for the knowledge to come back to her. It was time for another approach. She was the Element of Magic, after all.

She pointed her sword forward, aiming for the pavement beneath the hydra. It chomped at her again, but she kept it back with slashes. However, her swordwork doubled for another maneuver. Her movements were careful, and precise, distantly scribing a rune on the stone beneath the hydra’s feet.

Twilight let the magic go. With a flash of purple light, the spell released, throwing the Hydra into the air higher than the roofs of the surrounding buildings and cracking the street beneath it. Twilight rushed forward, leaping upwards as the monster reached its apogee and began to come down again. Her sword sliced through its body for longer than she was tall. As it hit the ground, the hydra’s guts spilled out into the street, its body collapsing and heads falling to the cobblestones.

Twilight flicked her sword forward again, stabbing downwards through its heart. The muscle tried, and failed, to beat against the steel, and expired. The blood ran black with ink.

She pulled her sword out and stepped back, taking a breath. The hydra didn’t move. Twilight checked her surroundings, looking for other enemies, but the coast was clear. Everything was quiet.

She saw a face in a window, eyes wide. A hovering pegasus was visible in the distance, unwilling to get any closer. A block away, at the gate of the train station, she saw Lyra and Moon Dancer.

Twilight’s heart rate accelerated again and she turned away, walking quickly. She was still transformed. They wouldn’t recognize her. But-

The Element gave her the strength, the ability, and the look to be a hero. But under the glamour, she was still a scared filly.

She broke into a run.

Back on the beach, Twilight avoided the hydra’s huge footprints in the sand and grabbed up her school bag from the remains of the changing tent. She ducked into the next tent, and changed back.

She slumped there on the sand, breathing hard in the darkness of the tent. The light wasn’t good, but she could see that no blood remained on her pen. It had absorbed every drop fed to it, as usual. She put the pen back and hugged the school bag to her chest. Twilight squeezed her eyes closed.

That was how Fluttershy found her a few minutes later. “Girls, she’s over here!”

Twilight looked up to see Fluttershy, Moon Dancer, and Lyra crowding into the tent.

“Oh my gosh, are you alright?” Moon Dancer exclaimed.

Twilight had managed to get herself under control enough to smile weakly. “I’ve been here. What about you?”

“The Elements came!” said Lyra. “I couldn’t believe it, I thought they’d broken up.”

“Just two of them,” amended Moon Dancer. She suddenly looked disquieted.

This was a look Twilight knew, a feeling she’d felt, and she got up. “But you’re okay, right?”

“Yeah,” said Moon Dancer. “I’m not hurt.”

That wasn’t what Twilight was asking, but she didn’t push it. The four of them walked back towards the train station, but took a circuitous route blocks away from the dead hydra. Twilight caught a glimpse of it in the distance, but didn’t even want to see that.

Emergency ponies were already arriving. The sound that had disappeared in the moments following the battle seemed to have come back louder.

Nopony had been killed, it seemed. The four of them sat on a bench at the train station. The rest of their class slowly drifted in from wherever they had survived the attack.

Twilight sat between Moon Dancer and Lyra. She didn’t touch either of them. Maybe she should. Maybe they should talk about this. But she couldn’t bring herself to do either.

Lyra had calmed down again, somehow managing not to get mood whiplash along the way. She looked around the station at the still-terrified faces. “Tomorrow, this is going to be on the front page of every newspaper in Equestria.”

Tomorrow seemed a long way away. Especially considering the nightmares Twilight was sure she would have that night.

Comments

[Xergot]

Seems like an interesting story. I'll look forward to seeing where you'll take it.

[djthomp]

“Spike, could you please check to see if my dress is still in place?” she murmured, quieter than the conversation around her.

Oh my god, Rarity.

With a sigh, she transformed. Interlocking metal plates coalesced from the magic, covering every inch of her body in steel. The armor was royal purple with patterned gold trim. Not even the smiths of the Royal Guard could have made such a well-fitted suit of armor. However, it wasn’t complete without the concave shield that the thimble had become.

Oooo, nice. Rarity always gets a great look.

She slumped there on the sand, breathing hard in the darkness of the tent. The light wasn’t good, but she could see that no blood remained on her pen. It had absorbed every drop fed to it, as usual. She put the pen back and hugged the school bag to her chest. Twilight squeezed her eyes closed.

That's a slightly creepy pen.