Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
It had been a while since the five of them had last seen any of their friends, and Moondancer was worried.
Also impressed, when she'd realized what Sunset was doing, but by the time she had realized it, the other mare's teleport was already happening and it was too dangerous, for both of them, to interrupt it.
Once Sunset had vanished, she'd immediately turned to the others and talked them down from following in Sunset's hoofsteps. She'd meant it when she'd promised to watch over their new friends, and while they might have been able to help, sometimes it was best left to the professionals. Especially in the area of the Sextus dome where the explosions were happening.
Turning back to the others now, she saw Rarity and Fluttershy fretting, Spike at their side, and even the usually jovial Pinkie sitting in a corner, her mane having flattened more than a bit as evidence of her own worry after some of the strange motions she'd made earlier. Making up her mind, she trotted over.
"It'll be okay," she said softly. "I promise."
Pinkie turned and gave a strained smile. "I know," she said. "But my Pinkie Sense says that two of our friends are in a lot of pain... physically for one, emotionally for the other."
Moondancer felt her heart skip a beat. "Do you know which is which?" she asked.
Pinkie shook her head. "Not yet," she said, looking a little surprised. "You believe me?"
"I've seen stranger things than precognitive instincts," Moondancer said honestly. "If that's what you say is going on, then that's what's going on."
Pinkie smiled more happily at her, and Moondancer smiled back.
Really, she needed to introduce Pinkie to Minuette... those two would get along like a house afire.
Looking back at Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike, she saw Rarity and Spike doing their best to calm Fluttershy, and decided to let them be for now. The pair seemed to have things well in hoof, and Moondancer didn't want to interfere.
Rarity's good at what she does, she thought. Sunset's lucky to have her.
And Twilight's lucky to have Sunset.
For a moment, she felt a surge of jealousy towards the other mare. She accepted the emotions for what they were though and she countered it with how she knew Twilight felt about both of them. Twilight had made those feelings clear, and while it may not have been what she'd initially wanted to be for her friend, knowing Twilight felt that strongly about her still made her happy, and that was enough for the Lady of Self-Centeredness.
And no matter what Twilight wanted her to be, she'd long ago vowed that she'd always be there for her friend and now sworn sister, to help her when she needed it.
After all, that was what she did. For herself, and for others who needed her special kind of advice.
Her thoughts were interrupted when her PCA signaled, and she hit its answer button. "Hello?"
Shining Armor's face appeared on the screen, and Moondancer instantly waved Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy over. Seeing them, Shining Armor looked relieved. "Good, you're all there," he said in an annoyed tone. "Hang on, I'm setting up a conference call."
Very soon, Braeburn and Vinyl's faces were also on the screen, with Applejack and Octavia beside them, all looking very grim.
"What's happened?" Moondancer asked.
"You'd better brace yourselves," Shining Armor said. "We've lost the Orion."
There were several gasps at that from the Lunarians, and Shining Armor continued. "Somepony placed bombs inside the structure," he said. "It's so badly damaged that they'll probably have to start over; some parts might be salvageable, and thankfully the engines that were still in the testing phases are undamaged, but otherwise..." He sighed. "Twilight saw it and went into shock."
Moondancer's face went white. "Is she safe?" she asked.
"She's in the hospital, resting," Shining Armor said. "Sunset's with her - she's just fine - and Dad's on his way too." He looked grim. "But Rainbow Dash... she got hurt. Bad. Saved a lot of ponies in the process, but..." He shook his head. "They've got her in surgery now, and she's going to live, but she might not ever be the same."
Fluttershy squeaked nervously. "Can... can we go and see them?" she asked.
"I'll see what I can arrange," Shining Armor said. "But for now, it's safest if you all stay where you are. There are... some unpleasant," he clearly was censoring himself in front of the baby dragon and mares and Moondancer could only wonder what curses he wanted to say. "Rumours starting to fly and I want to make sure you are all protected before we bring you there."
He looked at the other three Lunarians. "I'm giving you all permission to tell our guests whatever you feel appropriate," he said with a sigh. "Not like there's any hiding it now."
All three nodded, and after he'd promised to tell them what was going on as soon as they knew, Shining Armor hung up, leaving the other three still on the call.
"What is this... Orion?" Rarity asked hesitantly. "And why would seeing it destroyed affect Twilight so badly?"
Moondancer looked around at all of them. "The Orion is our first colony ship," she said. "The Lunar Republic has long dreamed of traveling to the stars, and we've been preparing to send a decent-sized population of ponies off on a long-term expedition to find new habitable worlds outside our solar system and create new settlements there. The Orion is our way of doing it."
That got a lot of wide-eyed looks, and Moondancer continued. "Twilight's been working on the Orion's more complicated systems for years. It's long been her dream to see it launch, so... it would have broken her heart to see it destroyed."
"My word," Rarity breathed. "I had no idea that your society's plans were so... grand."
Pinkie, for her part, looked very excited. "Okay. That... sounds... amazing!" she said cheerfully.
Fluttershy, however, looked a little nervous. "Does that mean... that you're all going away?" she asked. "Leaving Equestria behind?"
Moondancer shook her head. "Only some of us," she said. "I'm not on the list, and neither is Twilight, for... reasons. She's one of the team that's going to stay here, to help build more ships like the Orion." She sighed sadly. "At least, that was the plan. But now..."
On the screen, Applejack shook her head. "Can't believe somepony'd do that," she muttered. "Why in tarnation would they want to stop somethin' that's so important to y'all?"
"I don't know," Moondancer said. "Everypony's been so excited about it... going off and exploring new worlds, seeing what might be out there." She sighed. "We wanted to take our civilization and all its wonders to the stars, share it with other races we met if they were out there."
"Yeah," Vinyl agreed from her own screen. "It was going to be wonderful."
"It certainly sounds so," Octavia agreed from next to her, the two sitting side by side as if they belonged next to each other.
Moondancer nodded. "And that's one of the reasons Director Luna wanted to make peace with her sister," she said. "They've been apart for a thousand years, and if Luna was going to go out on that first trip, like she planned... she wanted to see Princess Celestia one more time, to at least say goodbye, before she went."
All five Equestrians looked startled at that.
"That's why she sent Twilight an' the others down?" Applejack asked.
Moondancer nodded. "She was hoping our two worlds could reconnect, become friends again, before she had to go," she said. "If Equestria wasn't willing to hear us out, then we might have all just left together. But if it went well, like it seems to be doing, then some of us will be staying behind to keep our ways and ideals alive here and help share them with Equestria, for the benefit of both sides."
Rarity nodded, then looked curiously at her. "You seem to be rather privy to her plans," she said.
Moondancer shrugged. "I work part-time in the State Department's offices," she said. "It's not a big deal. Plus, it's not like it's a large secret."
"Ah." Rarity nodded, though Moondancer was pretty sure she caught Applejack giving her a strange look, and hoped she wouldn't press.
When they've fully awakened and it's safe for them to know my Role, I'll tell them the full truth, she thought to herself.
Right now, she just hoped they could go see their friends soon.
"So what do you think these rumours are?" Octavia asked with Moondancer, Braeburn and Vinyl sharing worried looks.
"Ah hate to say it," Braeburn said. "But Ah'd be willin' to bet it's somepony tryin' to blame all of you for what happened." He shrugged. "Which'd be a load of roadapples, but it's all Ah can think might be the cause. Not everypony here was too thrilled about tryin' to talk to Equestria after everythin' that happened to make us leave for up here in the first place. Some ponies still hold a grudge over it and if they get it in their heads that yer responsible for what happened, it might get ugly."
Pinkie's mane instantly flattened, and Fluttershy began trembling. "Why would we do anything like that?" she asked. "None of us even knew about this ship until just a few minutes ago!"
"And none of us are capable of performing such a thing," Rarity said. "Besides, all of us have been within view of somepony from up here since we arrived. None of us has had the chance to sneak away, even if we wanted to - even Sunset was in full view that one time she stepped away from Twilight for a few minutes before the alarms went off the first time."
"Yeah," Spike agreed.
Moondancer nodded. "And I'd vouch for you all on that," she said. "Not just because I know it's true. But because Twilight likes you and trusts you, and I'd trust her and her judgement with my life any day." She blushed. "She's been my best friend since we were little, and I... well, I probably know her better than anypony outside her family and Director Luna."
"Do you think Director Luna will believe those rumours?" Octavia asked, causing Moondancer to pause.
"She shouldn't; not with my word to back you up," Shining said, his image reappearing as a third screen reopened, causing Moondancer to jump. "Sorry for listening in but I will personally vouch for all of your whereabouts if such questioning comes up."
Applejack nodded. "We appreciate that," she said.
Shining Armor nodded back. "At any rate, Luna got our messages about what was going on, and will be transporting back as soon as she has the energy," he said. "I'll explain everything to her personally once she arrives. Right now, there should be one of my officers ready to take you to the hospital to be with Rainbow Dash." A face flashed on the screen, with Moondancer peering out of Twilight's window to see the same officer waiting for them in the hall outside. Signalling the girls to follow her, Moondancer saw that Vinyl, Octavia, Applejack and Braeburn were also being shepherded away, no doubt to join them.
"Let's go," she said, and the others all nodded.
Flash was barely aware of the fact that he had killed Meadow before he pulled back his spear but he didn't have any time to dwell on it as another turncoat police officer tried to grab his weapon. Thankfully, Nightingale had covered him by using her rifle to blast out the attacker's leg, causing the traitor to fall to the ground, screaming in pain. They were quickly silenced as the mob trampled over them as they tried to reach his Guards and the Princess.
"Back," he bellowed as he and the other Guards and Lunar squad moved in front of Princess Celestia, with one of his own on her back trying to remove that chain around her horn. "Get her inside; we will fight to the throne if need be!"
"No," Princess Celestia shouted as somepony from the mob tried to use a rope to drag her forwards. She might not have access to her magic, but she was clearly no slouch in combat as she used her superior strength to pull the traitor in question forwards and into the air. With timing that seemed to be supernatural, she speared the traitor with her horn, then shook him off of her before spinning around to buck the corpse back into the mob, knocking several over of the rushing attackers. "All will be lost if they get into the castle; they cannot be allowed to enter."
He didn't understand why but he trusted the Princess and would follow her commands. "Then not one step backwards!" he shouted as he continued to fight back the unruly mob with his guards and Sergeant Nightingale's ponies at his side to protect the Princess and Equestria.
Rainbow Dash woke up groaning in pain. Whatever she had done, it must have been some massive wipeout she'd had if she'd landed herself in the hospital.
Shuffling a bit caused a lot of ponies to gasp and then a sudden wave of a pink slammed into her chest.
"Dashie, I was so worried about you," Fluttershy said, burying her face into her chest, her oldest friend's face wet with tears. "We all were."
Rainbow Dash gave her a strained smile. "Thanks, Flutters," she said, before wincing. "Ow..." she muttered, using her wings to rub her eyes before everything seemed to slow to a crawl. She could see her left wing's feathers in her face, feeling their soft, natural touch. It was a feeling she had grown up with; one she was well used to and knew as well as the back of her hoof.
She felt her left wing, each feather there but her right wing...
"What happened to my wing‽" she asked, her heart suddenly racing. "Why can't I feel my wing‽"
"Rainbow Dash-" Fluttershy began, but Rainbow Dash was in a total panic now.
"What happened to my wing‽" she demanded, struggling to move and see why she couldn't feel her wing.
"Young lady." An unfamiliar pony was suddenly there. "Please stop struggling-"
Rainbow Dash glared at him. "First of all, I ain't no lady," she spat. "Second, why can't I feel my wing?"
"It's gone."
Those two words from Fluttershy cut through her haze of anger, and she fell back, staring up at her friend. "W-what?"
"It's gone," Fluttershy repeated sadly. "You put yourself between an explosion and some other ponies. You saved their lives, but your wing... it was too badly hurt. They had to amputate it."
Rainbow Dash stared at her, disbelieving at first, as her friend's words echoed in her head.
It's gone.
It's gone.
It's gone.
"Wha..." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You couldn't... fix it?" she asked nervously.
The doctor shook his head. "We had no choice," he said. "We tried, but the shrapnel damage it suffered... you would have bled out and died if we hadn't clamped off those veins. And by the time you got here, the internal damage to it was too severe. We saved what we could of that joint, but the wing itself was a loss."
Rainbow Dash stared at him, thoughts and memories flashing through her head. Memories of how she'd practically been able to fly before she could walk, all the races she'd entered and won. The Sonic Rainboom she'd performed that got her her Cutie Mark.
All gone now, no chance of ever doing anything like that.
Or maybe...
"Doc," she said. "Is there a way-"
That's when another pony walked into the room, and Rainbow Dash looked up in surprise. The pony was wearing a doctor's coat but they had an air of authority with them as Twilight walked beside him. "There is one," the doctor said, tilting his head at Twilight who was carrying something under a blanket. "Once she had heard of what had happened to you, she, and a number of others, sprang into action." Twilight gave her a smile as she pulled back the covers and relieved a sleek, metal looking wing. "We have created prosthetic limbs in the past for ponies who needed them, and with the help of your friend here, what we have now is the most advanced model yet."
Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as she looked over the wing, and as the doctor, himself a pegasus now that she noticed, continued. "It is fully functional, capable of interacting with your nervous and thaumatical system, and will be just as good as your old one, though there will be a period of therapy and general adjustment to it," he said. "We won't force it on you, but it is yours, if you wish."
Rainbow Dash looked at the wing one more time, then up at the doctor. "Tell me something," she said. "I've... I've always wanted to join the Wonderbolts, our number one flight exhibition and rescue team. Would this... would having something this advanced disqualify me from ever joining them?"
"I... it might," Sunset said, causing Dash to take in the room for the first time. Everypony she knew from Equestria - Flutters, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Octavia, Sunset and Spike - were there, and so were Moondancer, Braeburn and Vinyl. Flicking her ears, she could hear the sounds of a few other familiar ponies just outside the door. "There hasn't ever been any cases like yours but I don't see it being allowed, they'd probably say it gives you an unfair advantage."
Rainbow Dash looked at the wing, then back at the doctor as she made up her mind. "All right then," she finally said. "I can deal with that." Looking up at the doctor, she smiled. "Maybe I can't join the Wonderbolts anymore. But if I lost my wing saving lives, it was worth it. So go ahead, doc. I'll take the new one."
The doctor smiled at her as the bed she was on began to move out of the room. "I will personally see to your surgery," he said.
Rainbow Dash smiled back. "Thanks, doc," she said. "Say, I never got your name..."
The doctor smiled again. "Well Wishes," he said. "Director Well Wishes of the Department of Health."
"He is the best doctor we have up here," Twilight said as they headed towards the door. "You are in the best hooves possible."
"And you're getting one of the finest prosthetics I have ever seen," Well Wishes said, causing Twilight to blush. "You might have made a breakthrough here tonight, Twilight. But please, stay in the room where it is safe."
Twilight made a face, causing Rainbow Dash to snicker, but nodded.
The two headed out the door, and in the hall outside, Rainbow Dash noted that she'd been right - there were a couple of ponies she recognized, though there were also a lot of stony-faced guards standing around.
"Hey, Shiny," she said.
Shining Armor nodded as they passed. "Good to see you're feeling better," he said.
Twilight Velvet, who was standing right beside her son, nodded as well, as did an unfamiliar blue unicorn stallion, whom Rainbow Dash figured was Twilight's dad. "Be even better in a little while," she said. "See you once it's done."
All three waved, and then Well Wishes took her the rest of the way down the hall towards the operating room.
"Director?" she asked as the door shut behind them. "Can I ask you something else?"
"What's that?" Well Wishes asked as he went to sanitize his hooves.
"Well, down in Ponyville," Rainbow Dash said. "There's this filly, Scootaloo. She idolizes me. But..." She sighed. "She just can't get off the ground. Hasn't been able to turn thrust into lift, no matter what she's tried, and it really bothers her. We're pretty sure it's a real medical problem, not just that she's a late bloomer. Think you could look into it for me, or at least send somepony to check it out?"
Well Wishes nodded as he came back over. "I'd be glad to help her," he said.
Rainbow Dash smiled. "Thanks, Director."
"You're very welcome, Rainbow Dash." Then he snapped a set of gloves on over his cleaned hooves. "Let's get to work."
Flash grimaced as the fight continued. It had been ugly fighting; more guards than he'd liked to have seen had been killed by those traitors using ropes to drag them forwards and then beat them to death with either their hooves or whatever they had on hoof. He was really hoping for a chance to take down the stallion that had already used the flagpole with the Equestrian flag to kill several guards. They deserved better than that.
"Where are they all coming from?" one of his guards asked, panting as they blocked a blow before returning a slash across the neck of the traitor. "It's like half of Canterlot is trying to invade!"
"I don't know," Flash huffed back, swinging his spear and knocking yet another attacker back head-over-tail, where they were quickly trampled by their own cohorts. "But we're not going to give up!"
"Never said we were, Captain!" the other guard replied. "I'm just sayin', there must be one Tartarus of a lot more of those 'avengers' out there than we thought, and now they're all right at our doorstep!"
"Doesn't matter, we will fight them to the end," Flash said with his guards giving a cheer as they forced back another wave of the mob with the Lunarians shooting over their shoulders. They had changed their charge from incapacitating to lethal; Flash had had no idea they had that kind of power on them but he was thankful they were on his side. He glanced to the side where Celestia was fighting; he knew subconsciously she had been involved in combat ages ago but it was another thing to actually see her help hold the line. "How goes the chain?" he shouted at the pony on Celestia's back. The first one to take that position had been killed earlier, as had the second, and the guard at work now was the latest one to throw themselves on the Princess to try and remove that damnable chain from her horn.
"Got another loo-" the guard said, cutting themselves off as they cast a quick shield to protect themselves when that Tartarus-damned shooter with the crossbow fired at them again. Flash also wanted to get that bastard; they were responsible for the deaths of the last two ponies who'd been at work on the chain, both of whom had served with honour and dignity for years and deserved much better deaths than what they got.
"Will somepony kill that thrice damnable demon spawn already‽" Celestia shouted as she slammed strong winds into the mob, striking down a few of the stragglers that managed to get close to her with her bloodied hooves. None of it was hers, as far as he knew, but even if it was, he had faith that her alicorn physique would be enough to protect her for the moment.
Before he could even process what happened next though, there was a pink blur and a thud in the ground, as blue waves of magic smashed into the mob. Large amounts of the ground rose up before the blue magic smashed it into the mob too, with strange silver weapons slashing at those who rushed at the newcomer, the alicorn standing untouched.
"Good one Luna," Celestia said to her niece before she blinked and shook her head, taking a step back behind a shield that Cadance had raised. "I... I'm sorry Cadance, for a moment there..." She blinked again. "Did you know you fight just like your other aunt?"
"I'll take that as a compliment," Cadance said. "By the way, I put you know what at the furthest point away from here; that is what took me so long to get here."
"Good thinking," Celestia said, even as she looked out at the mob that was still coming. "And it was a compliment; Luna was always the more creative of us when it came to open combat. I generally went for sheer, overwhelming brute force to win our fights of old."
"Remind me to invite you to one of our strategy gaming sessions then, to help you learn more about it," Cadance said before she narrowed her eyes at the pony with the crossbow. Forming a spell on her horn, she proceeded to fire it from the shield, blitzing as many of their attackers as she could. They promptly all fell to the ground, groaning as they were unable to move, and Flash saw Nightingale take the opportunity to fire a shot at the crossbow that had also fallen out of its owner's hoof, destroying it.
"What did you do, Princess?" he asked, amazed.
"Increased their personal gravity," Cadance told him. "They literally feel as if they're too heavy to move."
"Good job," he said as he stepped backwards to avoid another of the attempts of the mob to try and drag him down again, but to his horror, they instead managed to wrap the rope around Nightingale's throat and began to drag her into the mob. The mare gasped in surprise, her hooves grabbing the rope as she fought to keep herself from being dragged to her death.
Flash dived for her rifle and braced himself before copying what the Lunarians had been doing so far. With a silent prayer, he aimed at the pony trying to reel her in and fired.
The pony fell to the ground, screaming in agony as his face melted, with Nightingale springing to her hooves, grabbing a broken bottle on the ground and smashing it into the face of an avenger trying to grab her before more of her squad came to pull her back to the safety of their side in the fight. She flashed him a smile and tipped her head. "Good shooting there, Captain," she said as she took her weapon back. "You even managed to take account of the recoil; really impressive for somepony's first time using one of these."
Flash just smiled back as he was given another spear and used it to slash at a daring pony that tried to rush at him again.
Then he saw another rope heading their way, and was about to shout a warning when Nightingale's rifle roared, the shot vaporizing the rope in mid-air.
She flashed him a grin, and then took aim and fired again, her fellows following her example, as Flash's did the same for him. Spears, magic and plasma bolts alike roared out over and over, as Royal Guards, Lunarians and alicorns alike fought back against the attackers.
And the battle continued.
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God dang.
Even more intense fighting, yikes!!!
Well celestia needs to do alot of pruging after this
Celestia needs to pull a Stalin and do a purge
I didn't think about this until just now, but doesn't the Lunar Republic have a problem with their populations genetic diversity, won't sending out smaller groups to colonize other worlds just increase the risk of genetic abnormalities, diseases and more?
I just recently (look above) came up with an actual good reason to prevent the Orion from being completed at this moment
Oh, I wonder which one you are?... or maybe it would be more accurate to ask "which one you will be?"
I just realized that what's going on up here was probably planned around the idea that Luna wouldn't be able to get back for a while, too bad that's not gonna be the case
I don't understand either, but I'm very curious
Personally believe that only some of the ponies in this mob are "avengers", I suspect that the majority are just fools swept up in their lie of Celestia and the Royal Guard being manipulated by Luna's magic... I'm worried, this is too open and upfront for an organization that has had to be sneaky for most of their existence, this is probably a diversion
Well now I'm just worried that, whatever it is, is the real target of the 'avengers' and that you didn't hide it well enough... on a completely related note, who's keeping an eye on Blueblood
Yeah, fairly certain this battle is a distraction.
The 'avengers' have been too careful over the centuries to just suddenly do an overt attack like this
I have also been curious about why the "'avengers'" don't have a capital A in their name, but that's just a minor thing I haven been wondering about
10872367
After this there won't be much left to purge... This scene seems to depict an insane amount of Ponies throwing themselves to death just to.. What idiot throws their life away in a mod attack of their country capital again...? And Just something else... Whats their plan after all this? y'know... when Celestia can't lower the sun? Cause I feel that would create an "Everyone VS Equestria war" Just like not lowering the moon would.
10872566
It was already said, in narration in this very chapter. And it's a Role that was mentioned both earlier in this story, and in another one of ours. (Though Moondancer wasn't either of its holders in that series.)
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
10872590
Ponies are clearly stupid
10872566
It's a certain ugly statue.
10872598
Completely missed that somehow
Who put the drugs in the kool aid? Normal, educated, intelligent creatures don't continue to rush forward against superior firepower as their fellows die horribly in front of them.
Excellent chapter, but I do have a minor nit to pick.
From a physics perspective, this would mean they'd be an attractant. In and of itself, that would work wonderfully to turn individuals into a katamari. To make them slow down, she'd have to increase the local (not personal) gravity in their area. Of course, that would also affect any weapons moving into/out of said field. ;)
No need to change the dialog. Folks don't always use the right terms. Just my science nerd (Nerrrrrrrds!) coming out.
10872917
That's not cocaine at work. Bigotry and fanaticism make cocaine look like tea sweetener.
I thought the moon would be the metropole for the future NLR colonies since it already has establishments and facilities to build more colony ships. But, since Luna is planning to join the expedition herself looks like there ain't gonna be a NLR colony, it will be an independent country and not a subject of the NLR since Luna has no plans to return to the moon if she leaves (Moondancer did say that Luna went to Equestria to see Celestia for one more time to make amends).
Would Luna keep her agelessiness when she gives up her role?
10882966
Wait'll you get to chapter 28; it'll be discussed and explained there.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.