The Phantom Filly

by Lucar

Chapter 15: Ponyville Part 2

Infinite moved between ice blasts fired by the ice cannons of the feet of the Egg Dragoon as he approached the mecha. He readied his sword to pierce the shield around the cockpit of the head, only for the arms of the Egg Dragoon to suddenly transform into two giant blocks threatening to flatten him. Infinite quickly teleported, appearing behind the cockpit. He thrusted his sword, only to be parried by the tail of the mecha. However, he charged energy in his left hand and fired an energy blast at the cockpit, but the mecha teleported away and immediately used magic to fire from its arm cannon a dragon made of fire that flew toward the jackal. Infinite teleported to attack the Egg Dragoon again with his sword, only to be parried by the drill before the mecha teleported again. Infinite immediately followed it with a teleportation, and the two clashed, teleported, and clashed again a few times. Suddenly, as the two clashed, a second Infinite came from above, three times bigger than usual, and hit the shield around the cockpit with his sword, revealing the first Infinite to be a replica who disappeared afterward. Infinite hit the Egg Dragoon with such force that the mecha was sent crashing into the forest in the blink of an eye.

By the time the Egg Dragoon came back, Scootaloo had taken Infinite's place and used her power to create a huge storm. She then rapidly flew around the Egg Dragoon, trapping it in a tornado that made it spin, getting Eggman confused. Then, Scootaloo disappeared, and charged through the cloud coated in electricity before hitting the cockpit with the power of 1000 lightning bolts, and the Egg Dragoon crashed again in the forest with the filly. Finally, the shield around the cockpit was destroyed, but before Scootaloo could do anything, the Egg Dragoon's drill turned into a hand and grabbed her before throwing her to the air, and it immediately fired a fire dragon that hit her, badly burning her. The Egg Dragoon then teleported among the clouds and destroyed them with a shockwave that Scootaloo avoided with a teleportation.

Scootaloo appeared in front of the Egg Dragoon, far enough to think of her next action to attack the now vulnerable cockpit, only to discover that the Egg Dragoon was now missing its lower part, and Eggman wasn't in the head cockpit. Suddenly, she was slapped from behind and sent flying toward the upper body of the Egg Dragoon who prepared its drill. She quickly let Infinite take control, and the jackal parried the drill only to be hit at the same time from behind by an icy projectile, freezing him. The arm cannon was then about to smash him, but Infinite broke the ice covering him, and he caught the arm cannon in his other hand, stopping it with difficulty thanks to his strength boosted by the Phantom Ruby. He then threw the upper body behind him, right towards the lower body, only for it to teleport. While the upper body recovered, the lower body teleported at the opposite side, and Infinite looked back and forth between the two of them, spotting Eggman in the cockpit of the lower body laughing maniacally.

It can separate in two?! shouted Scootaloo.

Not answering, Infinite created hundreds of Phantom Cubes and sent them at both parts of the Egg Dragoon.

---

Metal Sonic was throwing magical balls after magical balls at Pinkie Pie, but the pink pony was constantly bouncing around seemingly randomly, somehow avoiding all the projectiles with her eyes closed! Quickly having enough of this joke, Metal Sonic charged at her, claws ready, only for Pinkie to sidestep in the blink of an eye, only leaving a hoof to trip the robot, again.

When it got up, Metal Sonic turned to face her, only to see that she had vanished. It turned to search her, but it saw her nowhere. As it thought that Pinkie ran away, it was suddenly bumped two times on the back of its head.

"I'm behind you!"

Metal Sonic immediately turned around, swinging its claw to attack her, only for her to duck. When it looked down, however, she wasn't there anymore! It was then bonked from behind by a squeaky hammer, sending it to slide face first on the ground.

"I told you I was behind you!" shouted Pinkie, using her squeaky hammer as a cane.

Metal Sonic stared at her. Where did that hammer come from? No matter! It got up and charged back at her, only for her to sidestep and trip it for the third time. This time, however, it was smashed by the hammer. Metal Sonic used its magic to grab the hammer and force it out of Pinkie's hooves. It then got up and crushed the hammer in its claws.

"Hey! That's not nice! I liked this hammer!" She took another hammer out of her mane. "You're lucky I have more of them!"

Metal Sonic twitched before teleporting. Pinkie ducked just as it appeared behind her, avoiding its claw, then grabbed said claw with her tail and slammed Metal Sonic with it before crushing it with her hammer. Metal Sonic quickly teleported and reappeared further before it jumped, curled into a ball, and dashed toward Pinkie Pie, only for her to hit it with her hammer, sending it crashing into a building.

Pinkie quickly used her mane to dig a tunnel just before Metal Sonic came from above and smashed the space where she had been the previous second. Metal Sonic then turned its arm into a cannon and fired a powerful magical beam in the tunnel, hoping to get the pink pony this way. It didn't work, because Pinkie partially came out of the ground beside it, waving at it with a big smile. She ducked back in the tunnel, avoiding another magical beam, and came out elsewhere, only to immediately duck back in the tunnel to avoid another beam. Pinkie then came in and out of tunnels all around Metal Sonic, and the robot eventually roared and rapidly fired dozens of beams one after another at the pink pony each time she came out of the ground, but she was so fast that she avoided all of them. And yet, he was fast! Metal Sonic eventually decided to just charge a powerful explosive ball and to throw it in one of the tunnels. The blast spread to all the tunnels, and it sent Pinkie flying out of one of the tunnel. Metal Sonic quickly charged toward her and rammed her, sending her crashing into a building, causing a cloud of dust to rise.

Metal Sonic flew after her, only to be blasted by a cannon, ending up buried in a pile of dough. Pinkie then kicked her party cannon now on wheels to make it advance toward the pile of dough, and she jumped on it. When Metal Sonic came out of the dough, she grabbed its leg with her tail and put it in her cannon. She then targeted an airship just above them and fired, sending Metal Sonic crashing into the airship, apparently hitting something important because it caused a big explosion that sent the ship crashing on another beside it, and both ships dropped on some houses at the outskirt of Ponyville.

Then, a house beside Pinkie blew up partially because of a laser fired by one of the airships, and Pinkie quickly put a hoof to cover her eyes before she looked at what remained of the house.She then looked around, and climbed on a roof not burning yet, seeing that most Ponyville was now in the same state. The town had become a giant inferno, and the airships were continuing to rain lasers everywhere, destroying what hadn't been destroyed yet. In the distance, she could see Twilight fighting Tirek, avoiding his beams again and again, and not far, space distorted, the sign of a Phantom Ruby being used. Far in the forest, Scootaloo was still busy fighting the red mecha, now separated in two. Scootaloo levitated a tree and slammed it against one of the parts. Everywhere, she could hear the sound of battles between the equestrians and Eggman's robots, with explosions, and screams... and ponies dying...

Not far of her position, she spotted Berry Pinch beside her mother, Berry Punch, who was partially buried under a pile of remains of one of the destroyed houses, and she immediately went to help them. The filly was shaking her mother, trying to wake her, when she saw her coming. Rapidly, she moved the pieces of the house trapping the mare, freeing her, and she shook her too.

However, she quickly understood that Berry Punch will never wake up again...

And things like that were probably happening a little everywhere, friends dying... killed by those metallic monsters, and their creator.

As her expression became somber, tears streaming on her cheeks, she suddenly moved her head to the side, avoiding Metal Sonic's hand that was about to pierce her head. Her mane becoming flat, she then grabbed the arm and kicked the robot away, tearing the arm off it. She then signed Berry Pinch to hide somewhere before she fully turned to face Metal Sonic, now very damaged. Beside its now missing arm, many pieces making up its 'skin' were now destroyed, leaving its inner circuits for everyone to see, including one of its eyes. A part of the back of its head was also missing, and electricity was constantly coursing through the robot. Pinkie then approached the corpse of an equestrian soldier lying not far and took his weapon, one of the newly made magical guns, designed after Eggman's own weapons from his robots with some modifications.

The truth was that Pinkie was trying to hide from reality behind jokes and her usual pinkieness, but she couldn't hide anymore. Her town was attacked and being destroyed, friends were being hurt, or killed. It wasn't time for jokes anymore.

She fired at Metal Sonic, a small magical blast coming out of her gun, but Metal Sonic created a shield and protected itself. When the shield disappeared, it then fired its own magical beams at Pinkie. The mare grabbed her gun with her tail, then took her hammer from... somewhere, and avoided or parried all the beams while approaching the robot. Again, Metal Sonic created a shield to protect itself from Pinkie's hammer, which wasn't a squeaky hammer anymore, and surrounded itself in an electric forcefield that forced Pinkie to jump away. The mare then jumped again to avoid electricity coming from the forcefield and sweeping the ground until the forcefield disappeared, leaving Metal Sonic vulnerable. Pinkie took her chance and hit Metal Sonic with her hammer, sending it in the air. She then jumped after it and smashed it with her hammer, and Metal Sonic crashed. As Metal Sonic got up, Pinkie then placed the barrel of the gun in front of its face and fired.

Metal Sonic took a few steps back from the hit, missing a few more pieces, but quickly recovered and turned its remaining arm into a gatling gun. However, as it was about to fire at her, Pinkie slapped the arm away and fired again with her gun. Metal Sonic levitated chunks of ground to protect itself from the magic blast, and sent the chunks at Pinkie, hitting her with them before it fired its gun. Pinkie however dropped her hammer and grabbed two chunks of ground, then used them as shields, moving them rapidly to intercept all of the gun’s bullets. When Metal Sonic stopped firing, Pinkie threw the two chunks of ground at it, and while it recovered from them hitting its face, she grabbed its remaining arm and teared it off.

Growling, Metal Sonic levitated its arm (still in gatling mode but not working anymore) as well as the other back at it, and attacked Pinkie with them, using the gatling arm like a bat and trying to claw her with the other, but Pinkie used both hammer and gun to protect herself against the onslaught. So Metal Sonic fired all kinds of magical projectiles, but Pinkie either avoided them or used her hammer to deflect them. All the while, Metal Sonic stepped back as Pinkie tried to hit it with her hammer, and it avoided the magical blasts from her guns, but eventually, Metal Sonic flew away, only for Pinkie to fire at its jetpack, making it crash.

Before it could get up, Pinkie put a hoof on its back, placed the barrel of her gun against the back of its head, targeting the missing part, and fired, and fired, and fired.

Metal Sonic stopped moving.

Sighing, Pinkie looked around, seeing Berry Pinch coming out of her hiding place and approaching her mother again. As she shook her mother again, Pinkie went to her and placed a hoof on her back, gaining her attention, before hugging her.

"I'm sorry..." She then placed Berry Pinch on her back. "Come on. We must find a shelter for you."

"But, and mommy?"

Pinkie said nothing. The filly seemingly understood, as she looked at her mother, and started crying. Actually, she probably understood before, but refused to believe it. Like Pinkie, who refused to believe that her happy world was disappearing in flame.

With Berry Punch crying on her back, Pinkie advanced, gun ready to fire at any Eggman robots showing their face.

---

Discord snapped his fingers, and dozens of chains appeared to immobilize Fluttershy. But she easily destroyed them with the Phantom Ruby in her possession. Another snap, and Fluttershy's hooves were stuck in stone, but the stone broke. Another snap, and Fluttershy was trapped in a giant snow globe, but it broke too. Another snap, and a giant cake fell on her, only for the cake to disappear and reappear above Discord, falling on him before disappearing again.

"Discord! Stop this!"

"I can't! I can't let Tirek down!"

"What about me?"

At her question, Discord closed his eyes and snapped again, and Fluttershy was suddenly a rabbit. But again, with the help of her Phantom Ruby, she turned back to her alicorn self in just one second.

"You are having second thoughts," she said.

"Ah! As if!"

"Then why aren't you attacking me? Why are you only trying to stop me?"

"Erh..."

"You don't want... I don't want too..." Fluttershy looked around at what was happening, then at her Phantom Ruby, then at Discord. "But I must. If you still want to help Eggman and Tirek, if you still want to stop us from fighting back and defeat them, then I have no choice." She gave him a pleading look. "So, please, stop."

"I... can't..."

Fluttershy sighed. "Then..." She activated the Phantom Ruby, and Discord was sent to a reality where he was vulnerable. Discord quickly acted and snapped his fingers, creating a spear of energy that flew toward the ruby to destroy it. However, Fluttershy jumped to the side, avoiding the spear, and placed the ruby in a necklace that she created. She then turned into a lion and ran toward Discord. The draconequus teleported away and snapped his fingers, and dozens of spikes came out of the ground randomly, but Fluttershy turned into an eagle and flew up to avoid the spikes. Discord then created a strong wind to force her back toward the ground, but she teleported. The next thing Discord knew, a gigantic snake wrapped itself around him and constricted him.

Discord, however, made himself a new arm and grabbed the snake by the neck before doing a knot with her body. But the snake then turned into a bear and slapped him. Just as he was sent flying, the bear, Fluttershy, grabbed his tail and slammed him on a stone appearing right on the way. She then materialized a boulder in her paws and smashed it on him. Fluttershy then turned back into an alicorn, levitated Discord, and Stared at him, crying.

"Please, Discord! Give up! It hurts me as much as it hurts you! You aren't even really fighting! You could go hoof to hoof against Scootaloo! You don't want this!"

Discord freed himself from the Stare and from the levitation, teleported back, and with a determined expression, rained hundreds of energy balls all over the area around Fluttershy. However, when the rain stopped, almost none of the balls reached her, and the few that did were easily avoided. Because of this, the whole area was destroyed except Fluttershy's position.

"See?" she said.

With a snap of his fingers, the ground turned into ice, and Fluttershy slipped, taken by surprise. Discord then teleported and appeared in Rainbow Dash's position, in the sky above Ponyville. The mare was destroying many flying robots by herself, including dozens of Mecha Alicorns, with her speed, before Discord decided to stop her.

"Woah! What are you doing there? I thought Flutters was dealing with you!" she shouted in surprise when she saw him.

As if his fight with Fluttershy never happened, he answered, "Oh, you know, I just-" only to be suddenly slapped by an ursa major, sending him crashing miles away like a meteor. Then, the ursa opened her mouth and gathered energy in it before firing a powerful beam in the direction Discord crashed, causing a huge explosion in the distance.

Rainbow Dash yelled in panic at seeing an ursa major in Ponyville, but to her surprise, the ursa turned to her with a gentle look and began to talk. "It's okay Rainbow, it's me." Recognizing Fluttershy's voice, Rainbow's jaw dropped. The ursa then disappeared, leaving in her place Fluttershy back to a simple pegasus. She looked at the Phantom Ruby in her necklace, frowning. "I used a lot of energy because of this..." She looked at the airships. "That's sad. I could have used this form to destroy some of those airships." She looked back at Rainbow, seeing that she was still staring at her with her jaw dropped. "What?"

"YOU TRANSFORMED INTO AN URSA MAJOR!!! THAT WAS SO AWESOME!!!"

Fluttershy blushed and looked away, hiding her face behind her mane. "It... It was nothing..."

Before they could say more, robots fired at them.

"It was not nothing! I would like to talk more about this, but we should deal with those guys first! Come on!"

"I will attack the airships," said Fluttershy.

They both nodded and went to attack.

---

Despite a brief interruption because of the shock of seeing an ursa major suddenly appear in the middle of Ponyville, slapping something, and firing a laser before disappearing, the fight between Twilight and Tirek was a really brutal one, as somepony could judge by the state of the surrounding area. Nothing remained, not even rubbles!

Twilight jumped left, and left, and left again to avoid a succession of beams fired by Tirek, and fired back, only for the centaur to protect himself with a shield. He then caught Twilight in his magic and slammed her at the ground, but she teleported and fired another beam, this one hitting Tirek directly on the head. But the centaur was now so powerful that he just flinched in pain a couple of seconds before he recovered, and fired dozens of magical beams in all directions, only for the beams to home in Twilight, trapping her. Again, she teleported, but Tirek teleported too, punched her, and quickly fired another beam after her. After crashing because of the punch, Twilight couldn't avoid in time the beam and was not only hit but also propelled in the air by the explosion it caused.

Despite this, Twilight quickly recovered and faced Tirek, panting. The fight was too uneven; it was clear from the start. In their previous encounter, they were tied, but now, Tirek had gained in power again, and so in strength and resistance too. Twilight still managed to land a lot of hits compared to him, but they were mere slaps compared to his attacks that were more effective. As a result, she was now hurting all over her body, almost drained of her magic and energy, while Tirek was in much better shape. He was also hurt and breathing strongly, but it wasn't as bad as the alicorn.

In the distance, Fluttershy saw this.

Twilight used her magic to cover the area in a cloud of dust, blinding both her and Tirek. The centaur quickly blew the cloud away, only to see that Twilight wasn't there anymore. He looked around, even up in the sky in case she flew, but she was nowhere to be seen. But then, he was hit in the belly by something powerful enough to propel him a few feet in the sky before he dropped back, and he saw that it was a giant beam fired by Twilight who had been between his legs. This one really hurt.

Tirek got up and slammed a hoof, creating a shockwave that forced Twilight to fly, and he followed it by beams that the mare avoided with more or less difficulty while firing back. Tirek eventually caught Twilight in his magic and made her approach him, ready to punch her. Twilight teleported, avoiding the punch, and appeared in front of his eyes before she flashed her horn, blinding him. She then fired a point-blank charged beam before teleporting away. Growling, Tirek levitated dozens of chunks of ground, but before he could throw them at Twilight, something rainbow-colored of unimaginable speed rammed him in a huge rainbow explosion.

Twilight looked in surprise as Rainbow Dash came out of the rainbow explosion. "Rainbow?! What are you- Are you an alicorn?!"

"Yup!" shouted Rainbow Dash, proudly rubbing her new horn only to wince. "Wow. It's more sensitive than I thought."

While she talked, Tirek recovered, bleeding from the head and growling in rage, only for something to strongly hit one of his front leg, making him fall. Pinkie, now also an alicorn and still flat-maned, jumped in front of him and hit him in the face with her hammer, sending him flying a few feet away right toward Applejack, who was also an alicorn. As Tirek fell toward her, she bucked him on the head, sending him flying again. While in the air, Rarity, an alicorn too, came followed by hundreds of gems floating in her magic, and she fired them at the centaur, leaving him no chance. As he crashed and got up, Fluttershy appeared, and with the Phantom Ruby still in her possession, created dozens of ferocious animals that charged at Tirek to attack him. There was even an elephant who charged him!

Twilight looked in awe. "Girls! What...?"

Rainbow Dash answered her. "Fluttershy saw that you had problems against Tirek, so she warned us, and used what you gave her to turn us into alicorns so Tirek couldn't drain our magic! Oh, don't worry about Discord. Fluttershy took care of him."

"And I took care of Metal Sonic," said Pinkie Pie as she approached.

When she saw her, Twilight got worried. "What happened, Pinkie? Are you alright?"

"No..." answered Pinkie with a sigh, tears in her eyes.

Before she could say more, Tirek roared, sending the replica animals flying with a powerful shockwave. The six ponies immediately went to surround him. Seeing that Applejack was the closest, Tirek tried to punch her, but she avoided the punch and climbed the arm before kicking his head while Rarity fired her gems at him, not stopping. Already having enough of her gems, Tirek fired a beam at her, only for Fluttershy to use the ruby to raise a part of the ground and to use it to shield Rarity. Tirek was then rammed in the head by Rainbow before he took a beam from Twilight. Pinkie Pie then teleported behind his head and fired her gun.

In this onslaught, Tirek roared again and fired electricity from his horns, the electricity spreading into several arcs that swept across the area randomly, forcing all the ponies to move to avoid them while Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie continued to fire at him with magical beams, gems, and gun. Fluttershy eventually charged at Tirek and rammed him in the belly, sending him crashing many feet further. He got up again only for Rainbow to force him back on the ground with a charge from behind, and Applejack hit him many times on the head. Tirek slapped her before getting up, also slapping Rainbow, who was charging at him again.

But then, he was hit by a large and powerful magical beam that caused an explosion that badly burned him while also sending him crashing again. When he looked at the origin, he saw Celestia approaching while an army of equestrian robots led by Luna came and began destroying Eggman's army. For the first time, a new equestrian airship also came attacking enemy airships. A magical shield surrounded it, protecting it. It wouldn't be enough against the many enemy airships remaining, but they were already busy fighting back the hundreds of equestrian robots overwhelming them.

Tirek teleported away, and the ponies cheered. Their cheer didn't last long however, they quickly separated to destroy the remaining enemy robots, Twilight and Celestia moving toward Eggman still fighting Scootaloo.

---

Scootaloo lew rapidly to avoid a storm of fiery projectiles from the arm-cannon of the Egg Dragoon's upper body, then spun while moving to the right to avoid an icy wave from the ice cannons of the lower body. She eventually flew right between the two parts of the Egg Dragoon and caused them to fire at each other, and she used the occasion to materialize bombs above them. Some bombs hit, but she had to teleport to avoid a tree levitated and thrown toward her. She then appeared above the upper body a ball of electricity in her hand, and she was finally able to pierce the head cockpit with it. The electricity spread to the whole body part, damaging it to the point that it began to explode while dropping toward the forest below.

"What?! That's impossible!" yelled Eggman from the cockpit of the lower body. The lower body was also rather damaged, the cockpit had lost its shield, and there were some cracks.

Scootaloo used his shock to teleport behind the lower body and grabbed the tail. She spun, and threw the body part before teleporting on its way and prepared to punch the cockpit, only for the body part to spin, avoiding the attack. But before Eggman could do anything, Scootaloo fired a beam that homed in the cockpit, but Eggman used the tail to stop it.

"Eggman!" suddenly yelled a familiar voice from the forest, gaining the attention of the two fighters. Looking down, they saw that it was Tirek, very injured. "We must go!" he shouted before teleporting away.

Eggman looked toward Ponyville and saw his army being destroyed, as well as Twilight and Celestia approaching. "What?! We lost?! How could we lose?! What happened to Discord?!" Growling, he then said to Scootaloo, "You somehow win this battle, but you will not win this war! In a few weeks, this world will be mine!"

Then he teleported just as Scootaloo fired a beam. As Twilight and Celestia joined her, she cursed.

"He escaped again!"

"At least you defeated him," said Twilight. "Now let's return to Ponyville and help the others finish what remains of Eggman's robots."

Scootaloo sighed and nodded before they returned to Ponyville, Eggman's airships dropping one after another.

---

Meanwhile, all over the frontline now assaulted by Eggman's troops, reinforcements came to help the ponies and changelings. All the ally troops that came to Equestria, griffons, zebras, yaks, and so on, joined forces to help stop the advance of Eggman's troops and avoid that the two outposts fell. Baltimare was saved from destruction by dragons, storm airships came to fight Eggman's troops above the desert of Appleloosa, and Chrysalis herself came to help the outpost South of Rockville.

Now, they had to act quickly, or they won't resist long against the endless assault of the robots.

Comments

[DavisSentoV5]

Damn that was a sad & very dark moment with Pinkie and that little filly... This war has finally become violent and I fear it's going to get much worse

[Spellflame]

Most Proto rubies!!!!!

[Lucar]

10140277
It was already dark since Manehattan. I didn't precise it, but seeing the state of some of the injuried ponies like Babs Seed, there were very certainly deads. I decided to not talk about them because I thought it was too early to go that dark. But now, the war has reached a new stade, so I thought it was time. Also, Berry Punch and Berry Pinch, while not as known as Derpy or Lyra, are still known and loved background characters that really helped drive home how much the situation in Ponyville was severe, for us, and for Pinkie. And also to remind that Eggman, despite his goofyness, can be a dark villain. I mean, the guy uses animals to power his robots, enslaves people, executes the ones who resist, pollutes the environment to the point of changing a part of Green Hills into a desert, build weapons that can destroy groups of stars in a blink of an eye, and doesn't hesitate to use said weapons to threaten the world and force it to surrender. And the list goes on.

[The Kelduo]

I think we can safely say that Pinkie Pie has Ultra Instinct after reading what she did to Metal Sonic.

[Lucar]

10157728
No, she has Pinkie Sense. When used seriously, it's much more effective than Ultra Instinct.

[Spellflame]

"What? Me? Having regrets? Never! Anyway, what do we do, now?"

"What? Me? Having regrets? Never! Anyway, what do we do, now?"

You did it twice

[Lucar]

10804022
Corrected, but you commented it in the wrong chapter so I had difficulty finding out where it was.