Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 62: In Flames You Burn

Clang!

Sparks flew from white-hot metal.

Clang!

The hammer came down again, ringing like a bell against the broken metal.

I watched as Rockhoof paused, looked carefully at the blade of the shovel, then picked up the piece with long tongs and gingerly placed it back in the forge. He looked exhausted, his hooves shaking from the effort of only a few swings. The heat from the small forge was oppressive, even in the big, open room that he’d been given for it. There wasn’t any kind of real breeze, so the open windows were just barely enough to keep it from being an oven.

“You know, Raven could probably fix that for you,” I offered. She’d made the forge and everything else in the room, seemingly out of nothing.

“Aye,” Rockhoof agreed. He gave me a weak smile. He was covered in sweat, his limbs thin like a pony who’d been suffering slow starvation. “Aye. But it isn’t hers to fix. I need to do this.”

“Why?” I asked.

Rockhoof sat down, taking a moment to rest. “Because it wouldn’t be broken if I hadn’t been a fool. I gave myself up to the darkness, and for what? Nothing. I wasn’t able to help anypony at all…”

“You did help some zebras,” I said.

Rockhoof looked up from his hooves in surprise. “Now how do you know that?”

“I met them my first time in the Wasteland,” I said. “It’s been a long time, but they still remember you and what you did for them. They were also some of the kindest people I ever met, ponies or otherwise.”

Rockhoof smiled, his eyes wet. “Is that so? Maybe some things were worth doing.”

I nodded. “I don’t know what happened after you saved them, but I’m guessing it was some pretty bad stuff.”

Rockhoof’s smile faded. “Aye. Mostly ponies dyin’ in awful ways, and mostly because of other ponies. I was ready for times to be bad, but I wasn’t ready for ponies to have gone bad with them! Ponies killing each other for scraps of food and water. I did what I could to save ponies, and they’d turn around and rob me.”

He shook his head sadly.

“If I was just a little stronger,” he said. “If I was strong enough, I could have done something. That’s what I kept thinking. I could have saved a few more lives, made ponies listen to me and work together…”

“So if you were stronger, you wouldn’t need to have a forge to fix your shovel?” I asked.

“Don’t be daft!” Rockhoof scoffed. “The metal won’t come back together unless it’s almost to melting!”

“There you go then,” I said. “Unless people are… hot enough they won’t come together either?” The metaphor had been better in my head. “Can you pretend I said something really deep and meaningful?”

Rockhoof chuckled. “Sure, lass. I can do that. I owe it to you after what I did.” He glanced to the spot under my ribs that I’d been scratching at.

I moved so both of us could look at it. The wound had scarred over. Thankfully, my coat had grown back over the wound, but the skin was tough and the fur had come back a shade more grey and silvery.

“It’s not so bad,” I said. “I’ve been through way worse.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t give me the right to hurt you or anypony else,” Rockhoof said. “Did you have Meadowbrook get a look at it?”

I scoffed. “She was more worried about you, and I don’t really blame her for that. You’re friends and I’m… sort of expendable.” I could tell he was about to say something about that so I held up a hoof to stop him. “I’d already had a couple of healing potions by the time we got back. There wasn’t much she could do, and when she did get around to checking it out…”

“Aye?”

I sighed. It was embarrassing. “She said she really couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on inside me. Meadowbrook recommended either a vet or a mechanic, because a doctor can’t do much.”

Rockhoof raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

I raised my right forehoof and turned slowly. The light from the forge caught on the oily-looking metallic carapace, making it gleam wetly. “SIVA did a lot of damage to my body. I guess it changed me on the inside more than I expected. Raven said she’d take care of me, so at least I’ve got that going for me.”

“The usual thing to say is that it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but…” Rockhoof rubbed his chin. “Bah. I don’t even have a proper beard right now! You know what I mean.”

I smiled. “Yeah. Destiny is still a pony, and all that’s left of her is most of her horn and her ghost haunting it.”

Rockhoof nodded, trotting over to punch my arm. There wasn’t any real force behind it. “I’d have been happy to fight alongside you back when we were hunting monsters with Star Swirl.”

“Thanks,” I said. “So do you think Star Swirl is waiting for a dramatic moment to walk in, or what?”

The door opened. “How did you know?” Star Swirl asked, walking in with his usual amount of politeness, which was zero.

“I could just tell,” I shrugged. “I’ve been getting a sixth sense about people watching me.” It was like having eyes in the back of my head. I guess I’d seen enough combat that I’d finally started turning into one of those old soldiers that just seemed to know everything.

“A sixth sense…” Star Swirl muttered. “Hmph! More like dumb luck!”

“Was I right, though?”

“Emphasis on dumb,” Star Swirl said, not quite answering. “Since the ritual was successful with Rockhoof, I’ve been planning our next move. I made some refinements to the spell for the next mission.”

“I’ll be ready to go soon enough,” Rockhoof promised.

“You’re not going,” Star Swirl said.

“I won’t fall for the same tricks!” Rockhoof protested, standing up and poking Star Swirl in the chest. “Don’t tell me you don’t trust me!”

Star Swirl sighed. “I’m not going either.”

That seemed to take the wind out of Rockhoof’s sails, and he frowned. “What d’ you mean?”

“We still need to save Flash Magnus and Mistmane,” Star Swirl said. “But I’m having considerable difficulty getting a totem that connects to Mistmane. That means we save Flash Magnus first.”

“Aye,” Rockhoof nodded. “Makes sense so far.”

“Right. But he’s a pegasus, and there’s an excellent chance reaching him will require flying. Something neither you nor I can manage.” Star Swirl looked at me. “She can chase him, but she can’t perform the ritual herself. Which means…”

I looked at the door a moment before she appeared.

“It means I’m going to go with her!” Somnambula said. “I was also waiting for a dramatic moment. Was it appropriate?”

“It was great,” I assured her.

She smiled warmly. “Thank you. You didn’t even ruin my surprise!”

“We’ll need to act quickly,” Star Swirl said. “There’s a chance that they’ll realize all they need to do to break the spell is to kill one of us. Every moment we delay, they have extra time to figure that out and learn how valuable their hostages are.”

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“Flash Magnus leaves a trail of unnatural weather phenomena in his wake,” Star Swirl said. “Since there’s no natural weather here, it makes it possible to track him down. You’ll go out in one of the jumpships and track him down. It should let you maneuver much more quickly than the average pegasus can fly.”

“Then we’ll use his shield, Netitus, to break him free!” Somnambula said. She held up the small bronze shield.

“Hopefully ye won’t break it in the process,” Rockhoof said. “I don’t know how we’d reforge something fireproof to the point it can stop a dragon’s breath.”

“The improved ritual should put less strain on the artifact,” Star Swirl said. “I’m sorry about your shovel.”

“Tools are made to be used and broken,” Rockhoof shrugged. “If you’re too afraid of scuffing them up, then what’s the point of having them at all?”

Star Swirl nodded. “You’ve always been a wise pony, my friend,” he said.

---

“I was kind of hoping we’d have time for a shower and a nap,” I groaned, sipping on a foil pouch of something that tasted like some unidentifiable variety of citrus. The jumpship had an almost unnaturally smooth ride, the ducted thrusters an order of magnitude quieter than a Vertibuck. A changeling and crystal pony were piloting it, and a second changeling was riding in back with us.

“Sorry,” Destiny said. She floated next to me. “But at least you got some fresh clothing, right?”

I looked down at the bodysuit I was wearing. It was purple and glittered a little in the light. The material was slightly stiff, like it had been starched. “Why am I wearing this, anyway?”

“It’s ballistic fiber,” Destiny explained. “I hate to say it, but we’ve proven again and again that neither the Exodus armor nor your subdermal weave is all that good at stopping bullets. Magical beams aren’t a problem because of the thaumoframe, but the panels just aren't built to stop projectiles.”

“And you can’t keep a shield up,” I pointed out.

“Mm. Normally I could. It’s those Eclipsed places where magic doesn’t work properly, that’s what really worries me. The armor is almost useless there except for the support systems like the vector trap and the sensors. This underlayer will offer some protection passively.”

“I think it looks great,” Somnambula offered. She was wearing a similar suit. “I never had anything like this back in the old days, and that was when I was fighting monsters two or three times a week!”

“I just hope it’s thin enough to go under the armor,” I said.

“Want some help trying it on?” offered the changeling that was riding in back with us. I nodded to them and stood up.

“Thanks,” I said. “It’s a lot easier with an extra pair of hooves.”

“It’s no problem, Ma’am,” the changeling said, their wings buzzing. “We’re all really grateful for what you’re doing.”

“I don’t think there are a lot of ponies that could sit around and not help when they’re in the thick of it,” I said.

“You almost remind me of Stygian,” Somnambula said, giggling a little. It quickly turned melancholy around the edges. “He was a good pony. Until the end, when the Darkness took him.”

“What actually happened?” I asked. “Star Swirl is a little… frustratingly vague.”

“He doesn’t like having to admit his own faults,” she said. “He gets embarrassed by them and tries to hide away from them, but it’s knowing our weaknesses that gives us our strength. Stygian was a blind spot for us. He was a young pony. A good pony. I wish he was here today -- he had a talent for finding ponies who could help others.”

“That’d be useful around the wasteland,” I sighed.

Somnambula nodded, still smiling sadly. “Yes. But he was a normal pony whose special talent meant he was always around heroes and experts who solved problems and were praised for it, while he sat in their shadow with only a talent for begging others for aid. He never got the credit he deserved, and it broke him.”

“And the Darkness took him.”

“Yes. Star Swirl thinks of it as some great enemy to be locked up and banished like the others, but I am not so sure. I think it is as much a part of the world as magic itself. It carves away free will and possibility in the same way Chaos makes whims into reality and does the impossible. Harmony lies somewhere between the two, opposing both.”

I smiled and got the last bit of armor in place, wiggling a little to make sure the ballistic fiber underlayer wasn’t going to make me all stiff. “I think I like talking to you more than Star Swirl,” I said. “You haven’t called me an idiot even once yet.”

Somnambula giggled. “Star Swirl makes an effort to never show any emotion except anger. I believe it was very much in vogue in his time for stallions to be stoic and stately. Personally, I think he would feel much better if he allowed himself to laugh and cry more often.”

“How’s it feel?” the changeling asked.

I extended my wings. “Seems good. Thanks for--”

The jumpship rattled, sudden turbulence making us drop a few feet. The changeling stood up straight, suddenly on high alert.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “It’s just turbulence. I’m sure this thing can handle it.”

“There isn’t weather here. There can’t be turbulence unless somepony causes it,” the changeling said, quickly stepping over to the cockpit hatch. “Hey, what’s going on out there?”

“Barometric pressure is dropping!” the crystal pony yelled back. “A storm is forming!”

“That must mean we’re getting close to Flash Magnus,” Destiny said. “Star Swirl said he was causing atmospheric disturbances. Where is it centered?”

A feeling hit me, the distinct sensation of someone watching us. It was a menacing pressure, full of contempt, the kind of dull-edged annoyance a pony might feel for a mosquito right before they swatted it.

“He’s here,” I said.

“It’s centered on us!” the crystal pony said a moment later. More winds rocked us from all sides.

“If this gets much worse we’ll have to set down!” warned the changeling pilot.

“Start looking for a safe landing zone,” Somnambula said. “We’ll get out and look for Flash, then when he’s focused on us, you’ll be able to retreat.”

“No time!” I pushed forward to look out of the canopy window, then pointed. “There!”

He was above us, hovering in the dark sky, almost invisible against the stars there where the atmosphere was too thin to glow. Sparks cascaded around him, a lance of energy like a thunderbolt forming at his side, wrapped in plasma like the northern lights.

“Evasive maneuvers!” the changeling next to me snapped. The pilot immediately jerked the controls to the side, throwing the others around the cabin. I grabbed Somnambula before she could hurt herself, and she nodded in thanks.

I grabbed for cargo webbing on the bulkhead, bracing myself for what I knew was coming. The jumpship was rocked by an explosion, and lurched to the side and down, one engine going silent. A wave of energy hit us, and my vision was filled with stars. I lost control of my body, only held up because I’d hooked my hoof through the cargo net. It was the grey numbness I’d felt a few times before, my body going wrong and my thoughts getting distant and slow.

Somnambula was saying something but I couldn’t understand it. My senses constricted to a tunnel, everything on the left side of my body going totally black and numb. I was vaguely aware of my back legs twitching. Seconds flowed together in a messy deluge of time all hitting my awareness at the same time, my senses disjointed from it all.

I felt like I was falling. I think ponies were screaming.

---

I gasped and jerked back to full awareness. I felt like I’d been underwater.

“What happened?” I gasped, before I was even awake enough to start parsing what was around me. I was on the ground, next to the hull of the jumpship. One of the changelings was standing over me.

“She’s awake!” the changeling called out. “Stay there,’ she whispered. “You had some kind of attack--”

“It was the EMP,” Destiny said. The changeling was holding her up so she could see. Everything was dark, and color had been drained from the world. “Half her brain is a computer, and she’s got a secondary nervous system that’s all poorly-shielded circuits.”

“I have what now?” I groaned, sitting up.

“The wired reflexes implant is how you can move so quickly when-- it’s really not important, and it’s not the time for a lesson,” Destiny said. “How do you feel?”

“Hung over,” I said, rubbing my head. I looked around. We were on a dusty rock island surrounded by darkness and slightly glowing fog. “We’re in an Eclipsed place.”

“The ship crashed right down into one, and we couldn’t get out in time,” the changeling said. “We were waiting to see if you’d get up. I wasn’t sure if you’d make it, but…”

“I hoped you would,” Somnambula said. She offered me a hoof. She and the changeling helped me to my hooves. “It’s been about twenty minutes. I am glad you seem to be well.”

“It takes more than that to kill me,” I promised. “I hate getting knocked out like a cheap robot. Any sign of Flash?”

“No,” Somnambula said. “I don’t think he followed us in.”

“So it’s an oubliette instead of a battlefield,” I said. “Great. He’s probably trying to delay us. Rockhoof had been after something, too.”

“We can’t worry about that right now,” Somnambula said. “Our priority should be getting everypony out safely.”

I nodded. “You’re right. How’s the crew?”

“I’m okay,” the changeling said. “The others are just scouting the area.”

“What’s your name?” I asked. “I should have asked before, sorry.”

“It’s okay. You probably didn’t think you’d have time to get to know any of us,” the changeling said. “I’m Maxilla. The pilot’s name is Stylet, and our navigator is Gypsum.”

I nodded. “Chamomile. I offered her a hoof to shake.”

She laughed a little. “I know who you are, Ma’am.”

We shook hooves. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be polite. We’ll get you out of here.”

“Speaking of which,” Destiny said. “Here, put me on so I can connect with the armor. I can’t levitate out here.”

I took Destiny from Maxilla and popped the helmet on. Even with image processing, the oppressive dark made it hard to see details here. I looked back at the wreckage of the jumpship. It didn’t look like a hard landing, but it was already starting to decay, rust and ruin spreading across the hull like an allergic reaction.

“Do we still have the shield?” I asked.

“Don’t worry!” Somnambula said, holding it up. “I’ve got Netitus right here!”

The shield still had color, even in the monochrome void.

“Great,” I said. “You hang onto it. If Flash shows up, you’ll need it to do the ritual.”

“No problem!” Somnambula securely strapped it to her side.

“Using the Dimension Pliers I can figure out the way out of here,” Destiny muttered. The tool vibrated, the tip glowing faintly. “There. We’ve got a signal. There’s some weird interference but everything about this place is weird so it could mean anything.”

“I’ll take point,” Maxilla said. She was wearing a radio headset and tapped the earpiece. “We’ll rendezvous with the others while we’re on the move.” She hefted a curved, sleek rifle. I tilted my head, thinking.

“What’s wrong?” Somnambula asked.

“Nothing, it’s just that I think I’ve seen rifles like that before. Polar Orbit’s troops had them.”

“They’re a standard BrayTech design,” Destiny said. “There would have been some on the Exodus White.”

“But what about Polar Orbit?” I asked.

“Who knows?” Destiny mentally shrugged. “He’s got plenty of strange military surplus. Ask him yourself when you get back. He probably got it at the same place he found the Heaven’s Sword and his personal cloudship.”

“Mm…” It nagged at me for some reason.

“We have bigger concerns,” Somnambula reminded me.

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Let’s go.”

---

“I’m telling you, ponies really did build bridges like this,” Destiny said. I hopped up on a broken concrete ramp and looked around. It was four times as big as a bridge needed to be, with train tracks on the lower level and broken asphalt on a second level, like they’d build a road on top of an existing train crossing.

“Why?” I asked. “It just seems like a waste of effort.”

“You have to think like an engineer,” Destiny said. “There are only so many places across a river or lake where you actually want a bridge -- there has to be space on both sides, you want to cross over a spot with good soil and rock properties, and you’ve got to be near enough to something ponies actually want to use a bridge to get to.”

“Okay, I follow you so far.” I jumped to the next section of the bridge, hopping over a gap that should have collapsed the whole structure. Of course the entire section was floating like a cork, and bobbed a little with my weight. I gave it a second, then motioned for the others to follow. As the heaviest pony, I had the dubious honor of testing the path we were taking.

“Most of the weight of a bridge is from the structure itself, the dead weight. The live weight of ponies, carts, and trains is barely even worth mentioning. Adding another lane doesn’t make the bridge all that much heavier, and most of the bottleneck in building a bridge is sinking casements and spanning the gap, and neither of those gets significantly more complicated as bridge capacity goes up.”

“Oh yeah, lots of dead weight here,” I said, kicking a floating chunk of concrete out of the way. “Did you ever build a bridge.”

“Well, no,” Destiny said. “I was an electrical engineer. I wasn’t into architecture. It simply all seems pretty straightforward to me. Make everything more rigid and stronger and you’re good to go.”

“If they had bridges like this in Equestria I would have liked to see them!” Somnambula said cheerfully when she caught up to us. “We did not build many bridges in my homeland. There was only the one river, and I never had problems flying across.”

“Are you holding up okay?” I asked.

She smiled and adjusted the foil blanket she was wearing like a cloak. “It’s still very chilly, but this isn’t my first time in the cold. When we’re done, I think I’d like a warm cup of tea.”

“That does sound good,” I agreed. “How about you girls?”

“Huh?” Maxilla snapped her head around. Gypsum had a hoof on Stylet’s shoulder and seemed to be comforting the changeling.

“I was just asking--” I shook my head. “Never mind. What’s wrong?”

“It’s all this darkness,” Maxilla said quietly. “It’s like it’s eating me up inside, and I keep hearing voices. Whispers that I can’t make out, but it sounds like…”

“We’ll be out of here soon,” Somnambula assured her, when she trailed off. “Have some faith.”

“The exit should be on the island right up ahead,” Destiny said. “We’ve just got to make those last few jumps, then we’ll be out of here.”

“That sounds good,” Maxilla said, nodding. She wiped her brow. “I really don’t like this place. It tastes bitter, like every bad feeling ponies ever had, shredded and distilled.”

I nodded, looking around at the gloom. “I know what you mean.”

“Really?” Maxilla tilted her head.

“It’s oppressive, isn’t it?” I asked. “This whole place has an aura around it. It’s like when you start to fall and the bottom drops out of your stomach. Like a night terror.”

She nodded quickly in agreement. “Yeah, yeah! That’s it exactly. Like one big bad dream.”

I gave her a solid pat on the back. “I’ve gotten out of a bunch of these already. I’ll get you out of this one.”

She nodded, and I took point again, jumping to a chunk of rubble the size of a skywagon. It immediately tried to throw me off, spinning around like a bead on a string. I swore and dug in with my knife, holding myself there until it was upright again.

“I’m fine!” I yelped.

Maxilla giggled and hopped over. I tried to warn her, but the whole thing tilted again… and she stood there like being upside-down was no big deal.

“Being a changeling has a few perks,” she said. “How about we take turns?”

---

“I admit, this isn’t what I expected,” I said.

The Dimension Pliers had led us to something like an amphitheater, with some components that looked like clouds but were made out of a weird, spongy stone. We’d found the portal, but there was a problem.

“What the buck is that?” Gypsum hissed.

“That thing in the middle is the portal out of the Eclipsed Place,” I said. “And, uh, there’s a dragon skeleton wrapped around it.”

The skeleton was blackened and looked more like coal, with a fire burning inside the skull and ribcage. Just calling it a pile of bones was selling it short, but I didn’t want to make it sound too terrifying. I had the morale of the others to worry about.

“I don’t like the looks of it,” Destiny said. “It’s got to be some kind of trap. You see that shield around it?”

I nodded. It was an egg-shaped shell of shimmering white and black. “It looks like the same kind of barrier that Rockhoof had.”

“Right. And we don’t have a spell to break it.”

“There must be another way,” Somnambula said. “Magic is a useful tool, but it is not our only tool. Knowing that it is a trap, perhaps the correct answer is to spring it!”

“What do you mean?” Destiny asked.

“I think I know what she’s getting at,” I said. “If I run down there and make the skeleton angry, I might be able to get it to chase me. The portal shouldn’t move with it, and the rest of you can get through while it’s distracted.”

“I was going to suggest I do the distracting,” Somnambula corrected.

“I appreciate it, but I’m probably in a better position to fight off an angry dragon. I’ve had to do it before.”

“And you lived to tell the tale!” Somnambula smiled. “That is good. Having experience with these things is important.”

She gave me a pat on the back.

“Don’t wait up for me when it starts,” I said. “Just get through and I’ll circle around and follow.”

I didn’t wait for a reply. I ran down the stairs into the center of the amphitheater. I was sort of expecting the dragon to just wake up when I got close, but it didn’t even budge.

“Try taking a shot at it?” Destiny guessed.

I shrugged and fired DRACO, not really aiming. Like I expected, the shell just bounced off the shield. It flared with light, and for a moment I saw strings coming out of it. I had just enough time to register it before they faded and the ground started to shake.

“What now?” Destiny muttered.

“I hope it’s not Flash, because--” I stopped when I felt something grab my fetlock. I looked down, and a bony hoof had wrapped around it. A skeleton pulled itself out of the dust like a drowning pony struggling to leave the ocean.

It looked up at me with fire burning in its eyes and promptly exploded.

I was flung back into rocks masquerading as clouds, my back smashing them apart like loosely-packed gravel.

“Are you okay?!” Destiny asked.

“I think--” I looked at my right forehoof. The armor was blackened and cracked, and I could see the dark gunmetal of my carapace beneath it. I flexed it experimentally. “Yeah. I’m okay. My hoof is tougher than your armor, Destiny.”

“The structural integrity field is shot in this place,” Destiny warned. “The armor isn’t able to shield against impacts or penetration.”

I nodded and got up. Nothing really hurt, I was just sore. More skeletons were unearthing themselves from the dust, or maybe appearing out of nowhere -- they weren’t leaving holes in the ground when they emerged, a dozen of them standing up like they were just pushing through a veil.

“Let’s try not to get caught by another one of them,” I said. I looked around, trying to decide the best move. Without being able to fly, they were going to be a hassle. I’d have to use DRACO and blow a ton of ammunition on them.

“Everypony, covering fire!” Maxilla ordered. Rapid-fire plasma bolts rained down on the skeletons before I could decide where to start. The magical plasma cracked the bone and set them off, making them explode into shrapnel. I raised a hoof to shield my face, shards of steel-hard skeleton piercing the armor.

“Oh hey, the ballistic weave works,” I said. I could feel the shards poking me, but none of them had actually penetrated. I pulled a long fragment from my shoulder. “Nice.”

“Chamomile, look!” Somnambula waved. She’d broken open one of the rock clouds to reveal a black egg that gleamed with a pale un-rainbow in every shade of black from ‘coal tar’ to ‘the space between the stars’.

She hit it with a hoof, and I saw a threat of light winding from it to the shielded dragon.

“Smash it!” I yelled.

Somnambula picked up a rock and brought it down on the egg, and… the rock shattered, the egg remaining totally unharmed.

“I will find a bigger rock!” Somnambula shouted. “One moment!”

“Hold on, I’ve got an idea!” I yelled back. “Clear away!”

She nodded, and I bolted, running for one of the remaining skeletons. I twirled and kicked it, flinging it into the black egg. The undead exploded, and the burst cracked the black egg, the shadowy rainbow disappearing and the surface fading to mere graphite grey.

“That worked!” Somnambula reported. “Nice thinking, Chamomile!”

I took a shot at the shield, looking carefully at the flare when it repelled my round. “There should be two more!”

“Right! I’m on it!” Somnambula skipped off, giving the skeletons a wide berth.

“Let’s go after the last one,” Destiny suggested. “I think it’s over here.” She pointed the way, and I followed it over to a boulder somewhere in shape between a cauliflower and a cloud. I kicked it open and revealed an egg.

“Well this is easy,” I said. “Now we just need a volunteer.”

“Be careful,” Destiny warned. “I don’t want to have to put you back together if you get exploded.”

“That’s fair. I don’t want to get exploded!” I jumped on top of the boulder and yelled, waving my hooves. The skeletons came right at me. It was nice having such predictable enemies. I jumped over the heads, gliding to the ground a few paces behind them and snapping a kick back at them, knocking them into the egg. There was an earth-shattering kaboom, and they blew it apart in a chain reaction of bone-on-bone action.

The shield around the dragon skeleton flickered and vanished in a wash of static.

“They must have gotten the last egg!” Destiny exclaimed.

A moment later, the fire running across the skeletal dragon flared, and it started to move, uncoiling and turning to face the other way. I could see right through the gaps in its body, and Somnambula was there, standing right out in the open. She looked up at the huge undead beast, with no time to run.

“Oh buck,” I gasped, aiming DRACO and pulling the trigger as fast as I could, putting explosive shells into the dragon’s back. It flared its wings and ignored me, breathing white fire down on where Somnambula had been standing.

“No!” Destiny shouted.

The gout of fire stopped, and through the bones I could see… bronze.

“I’m okay!” Somnambula yelled back. She peeked out from behind Netitus, the shield holding firm. “It seems like it was a good idea for me to keep this!”

“Right!” Maxilla roared. “Focus fire!”

Bolts of plasma rained down on the scorched bones, the magical attack blasting apart a few ribs and getting its attention. The skeletal dragon turned with a hissing, grinding roar.

“Bullets aren’t doing much,” I said. “Destiny, give me the Cryolator!”

I charged towards the dragon, and the weight disappeared from my left side, the Dimension Pliers disappearing in a flash before the nitrogen-spraying cold thrower appeared in its place, the sudden heft of it making me stumble for half a step. I bit down on the helmet triggers and fired DRACO one more time, just trying to get the monster away from everypony else. The shot impacted near its eye socket, and it noticed me enough to turn slightly to focus on what I was doing.

A spray of liquid air hit it in the face, flash-freezing the bones. The fire inside it sputtered, trying to fight against the chill, and maybe in the real world that would have worked, but here the universe was tilted towards cold stillness. The flames died, and the dragon went still. The force holding it together faltered, and it fell apart, the fossil crashing to the ground in a heap. The few remaining skeletons exploded where they stood, the bones all sinking back into the dust where they’d come from.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said. I checked to make sure the portal was still there. “Let’s go! I promised I’d get you home and I intend to keep the promise!”

Comments

[Reese]

Chapter 61:
"putting the scroll on the ground and the shovel on top of it in the middle of the scribed circle."
What scribed circle? Should this have been mentioned before? Am I missing something?
...Ah, is the circle scribed on the scroll, rather than the ground?

Chapter 62:
"“Did you ever build a bridge.”"
"“Did you ever build a bridge?”"?

"and I saw a threat of light winding from"
"and I saw a thread of light winding from"?

"I jumped over the heads, gliding to"
"I jumped over their heads, gliding to"?

Thank you for writing!

[Ahsoka Tano]

I enjoy the story so far but something about the boss fights feels too easy, maybe i just read too quickly :P