Draconic Measures - Part II
A Bluebird’s Song
~~~
How do we now come to be
Afraid of sunlight?
~~~
Draconic Measures – Part II
As the two unicorns stood, inspecting their captured prey, Spike’s mind was whirling. Who were these ponies? What did they want? Why him?
“You’re sure this is the right one?” asked the blue one on the left, clearly a subordinate, his voice muffled a little by his dark blue hood. He closed the front door with a snap, and lowered his horn, the spell fizzling out, allowing his leader to maintain the immobilization.
“Green and purple baby dragon. How many do you reckon there are around here?” drawled the white-coated one derisively, in a lilting Trottingham accent, his horn sparking as he held the dragon and pony in place, pinned hard against opposite walls. “We need to head out soon.” He leveled his gaze at Spike. “You’re coming with us. Understand?”
Visible over his shoulder, Fluttershy’s eyes were wide and terrified. Spike felt a surge of anger towards their captors, overpowering his fear for his personal safety. He strained his arms, but could not move no matter how hard he tried. It occurred to him that the unicorn in charge was clearly a powerful magic user, made obvious by the fact that his spell was affecting a dragon, who were notoriously magic-resistant.
“Relax,” the blue unicorn sighed. “I’ve been following the little guy since he left the library. I heard him tell this one,” he jabbed a hoof at the statuesque Fluttershy, “that he was just passing by when he called in. Nopony outside this room knows where he is.”
They’ve been following me? What’ve I done? Spike thought, feverishly. He could not help but feel a little relieved; had he been honest with Fluttershy about his reasons for coming over, they would be taking him away much more speedily. They did not know that Twilight could come looking for him at any time, although he hoped to goodness that she was not too distracted by Rainbow Dash to notice his extended absence.
“Hey! We’re all set in here,” the white unicorn called to the door. With a sinking heart, Spike saw a third unicorn open up the door to look inside, this one a dull, mottled shade of grey. He was thin and wiry, evidently fast.
“No trouble?”
“Nope,” replied the leader, “you can deliver the message to Libra. As soon as you’re back we’ll be on our way.”
The new unicorn nodded. “I’ll just get away from here, so nopony can trace the teleport,” he grunted, disappearing from sight, closing the door behind him with a snap.
The white unicorn, the one obviously in charge, trotted over so that he was standing near Spike. He was utterly ignoring Fluttershy, as if she were an irritating distraction. “So, kid. I expect you’re wondering why we’re here.” He seemed at his ease, his horn still casting ripples of light around the room as it glowed.
You could say that, Spike thought, unable to articulate a response through the magical bonds that still gripped him.
“Well, your… owner, Twilight Sparkle, has made some mistakes,” he said, grinning sardonically when he saw Spike’s eyes narrow angrily at the use of the word ‘owner’. “We’re just going to hold onto you for a while, until we’re sure that she won’t make the same mistakes again. If she does, we’ll send you back to her. Bit by bit. Until she learns her lesson.”
Had he not been frozen, Spike would have been shaking with fear. It was not the threats so much as the coldness in the unicorn’s eyes, leaving him in to doubt that this pony would live up to his threats, without a second’s hesitation.
Fluttershy’s eyes were no longer wide, and instead she was glaring furiously at the back of the unicorn’s head, as if attempting to set him on fire with her mind. The blue-coated subordinate noticed her, and chuckled at her predicament. “You’re a fighter, aren’t you?” He smirked. “Hey, Dusk,” he called across to his leader, “what do we do with this one?”
“What did I tell you? No names!” snapped the unicorn named Dusk, and the other shrank back apologetically. His anger diminishing as quickly as it had flared, he cast an appraising eye over the immobilized pegasus. “Hmm,” he grunted. “As much as I’d like to clip her wings, she’s an Element. Libra says we can’t touch them. She’ll just have to be in on the deal.” He closed the distance to Fluttershy in a few strides, resting a hoof on her shoulder. “Look,” he said, smoothly, “I didn’t want to mix anypony else up in this, but now you know, the same goes for you. If you tell anypony about this, about what happened tonight… Well,” he glanced over his shoulder at Spike. “You might just get a few claws in the mail. Isn’t that right, little fella?”
Spike looked desperately towards the window. The world outside the window was black, with no sign of Celestia’s sun to be seen. Surely Twilight was wondering where he was by now. It had to be at least ten or eleven o’ clock. The runner would return soon, and then he would be spirited away to Celestia-knows-where.
Come on, Twilight, he thought anxiously, but more in hope than in expectation.
*
“There, that should keep the draught out.”
Twilight released her magical hold on the final book, letting it drop into place. Dash looked on, half-amused, half-impressed. Over the last few minutes, the unicorn had entirely covered up the broken window using a pile of stacked books.
“I’ll get some board tomorrow,” she said to Dash, with a smile. “See? You really can do anything with books.”
Dash chuckled. “Got to give ya that one, I guess.”
The atmosphere in the library was still warm between the two of them, despite the worry hanging over their heads. Dash kept thinking back to earlier in the day, and the memory of that voice still sent a shiver down her spine. What would they do when they found out that their demands were being ignored?
Twi’ can keep us both safe. You know that, she reminded herself.
Twilight glanced out of the window, seeing the black night sky. “Ugh,” she groaned. “Spike needs to stop being out late like this. We need to get the Princess’s opinion on this.” She threw a worried look to Dash. “I mean, we don’t know if these ponies are just a bunch of cranks, or if they’re actually dangerous.”
“My bet’s on cranks,” remarked Dash. “I mean, come on. Lobbing bricks through windows? Not exactly professional, is it?”
“You might be right, but even so. Full-body immobilization’s tricky, apparently.”
“Apparently? Haven’t you tried it?”
Twilight threw Dash a withering glance. “I can’t say it ever looked like it was going to come in useful. I don’t go around blackmailing ponies.”
Dash laughed. “Who knows? You might have some very dodgy photos of me by now, just waitin’ to mess up my good name!”
“Yeah, that’s me. Twilight Sparkle, master blackmailer,” Twilight smirked, then she sighed, her eyes wandering to the package. “Do you reckon Fluttershy’s offered him tea? I’m kind of worried about him; he seemed really shifty when he was going out earlier.”
Dash cocked an eyebrow. “You reckon he knows anything about this?”
“No,” Twilight shook her head, “he doesn’t even know about the window yet, but even so, it’s an odd coincidence.” She thought for a few moments, and then came to a decision. “Let’s go to Fluttershy’s.” She scooped up the tied-up package with her magic, and Dash sighed.
“Seriously? It’s pitch black out there. It’s not like he’s gonna be eloping with Fluttershy or anything.”
Twilight smiled at this image. “She doesn’t seem the type, I’ll admit. But I need this sent. The sooner it gets to the Princess, the sooner we can get an answer. Besides, we might find out why Spike was being so furtive earlier. So, how about it?”
“Ah, fine then.” Dash rolled her eyes, but headed upstairs while Twilight checked the sheaf of parchment, and returned a few moments later with Twilight’s scarf, which she planted over the unicorn’s neck. “But I’m not gonna let you freeze out there.”
“Thanks,” smiled Twilight, pecking the pegasus gratefully on the cheek and opening the door.
*
As they approached Fluttershy’s cottage, the air was cold, the moon hanging above them, its light dancing in their manes. Dash had wrapped her wing around Twilight’s back as they walked through the streetlight-bathed streets, and held her tighter as they passed into the dark outskirts, heading for the pinprick beacons that shone from Fluttershy’s windows.
Twilight felt annoyed that their journey was such an important one. Had circumstances been normal, a moonlit stroll with her marefriend would have been a perfect end to the day. Unfortunately, the day itself had borne its fair share of imperfections, and it was these that weighed on Twilight’s mind as they walked. She could not put a hoof on the source, but she felt a strange sense of foreboding as they approached Fluttershy’s home. It was as if there was something she had missed. Some element of the puzzle that she had not picked up on.
She leaned her head against Dash, burying her cheek in the pegasus’s soft mane, trying to convince herself that she was merely being paranoid. She did not need paranoia on top of the very real problems facing them. A few times she caught herself wondering if she might not be better to simply abandon her work, burn her notes, and hope that these unicorns left them alone. She did not want to concede, but felt that it would be the responsible thing to do, for Dash’s sake. However, she knew that the pegasus would not accept it if Twilight were to give in on her behalf.
“Am I being stupid?” she asked Dash, her voice a little mumbled because her head was still in her marefriend’s mane. “You know,” she clarified, “about this whole carrying-on-with-my-research thing. Should I just stop?”
“’Course not,” replied Dash. “You can bet that if you give in to these ponies, they’ll just come back wanting more. Besides, you’re sticking up for yourself. That’s good, isn’t it?”
“But just yesterday,” Twilight sighed, “you were telling me that you didn’t think it was worth doing something stupid for the sake of pride.”
“Exactly,” said Dash, nuzzling her cheek encouragingly, “an’ I still say that. But this isn’t about pride, not really. It’s about right and wrong. I never said anything against doin’ something stupid for the sake of what’s right.”
Twilight laughed, softly. “Okay, I can live with that.”
They had just crossed over the bridge to Fluttershy’s cottage, her well-tended garden illuminated by the lights from the front room. They passed by Angel’s little house, seeing him fast asleep within, surrounded by a few half-eaten carrots. As they walked out the garden path towards the front door, Twilight saw Dash’s ears prick up, and the pegasus halted, pulling Twilight to a stop.
“Wait,” she muttered, her voice tense. She was obviously listening hard. “Something’s up.”
Now Twilight was paying attention, she too could hear something odd. There were voices coming from Fluttershy’s cottage, that did not belong to Spike or Fluttershy. Twilight’s heart-rate picked up, as she realized that there were at least two unknown stallions inside her friend’s cottage.
“They might be guests,” she suggested, lamely, in a whisper.
“At this time?” Dash glanced up at the moon, then back at Twilight. “Come on. We both know what this is about. Let’s have a listen.”
As she followed the pegasus tentatively across the grass, Twilight was suddenly gripped with fear, both for Fluttershy and Spike. Her ability to think logically had ceased to function out of stress, and she could not fathom what these unicorns could want with either of her friends, after all, neither of them had been involved with her experiment. Perhaps they had assumed that Spike was involved, seeing as he lived with her, but that made Fluttershy unnecessary. Expendable.
Oh Celestia. Come on, Twilight. Keep it together. You might need your magic.
Dash beckoned her over to the window, and she ducked down, joining the pegasus, crouched beneath the flower-box. She placed the package for the Princess on the ground by her feet. At this distance, they could hear the voices within. The current speaker was male, with a pronounced Trottingham accent.
“…She’s an element. Libra says we can’t touch them. She’ll just have to be in on the deal.”
“Libra?” Dash mouthed to Twilight, who shrugged.
She was still frightened, but her heart flooded with relief that Fluttershy must be unharmed. There was the sound of hoof-falls within the cottage, as the owner of the Trottingham-accented voice walked across the room.
“That’s not the one from my house,” Dash whispered. “He sounded like he was from Canterlot.”
Twilight nodded, and was about to reply, but the voice began speaking again, and they both fell silent to listen.
“Look, I didn’t want to mix anypony else up in this, but now you know, the same goes for you. If you tell anypony about this, about what happened tonight… Well.” There was an ominous pause. “…You might just get a few claws in the mail. Isn’t that right, little fella?”
Cold anger flooded Twilight at these words. How dare they threaten my little brother like that? Then, another thought occurred to her. At least we know Spike's in there. They’re going to dragon-nap him and use him to blackmail us! She looked across at Dash, who looked equally furious. “If they lay one single hoof on either of them…” Twilight growled, under her breath, and Dash grimaced, nodding curtly in agreement.
“We need to get them out. Fast,” Dash whispered.
“Wait,” Twilight gasped, looking down at the package in horror. “This is the only copy of my notes. If they get their hooves on it we’re back to square one, they’ll have got what they wanted anyway.”
“Leave it out here, then,” Dash suggested, but Twilight shook her head.
“Too risky. What if they overpower us? They could just pick it up.” Her eyes widened, and her voice dropped. “I’ve got an idea.”
Dash kept glancing nervously at the door. “Whatever it is, make it quick. I dunno why they’re not leaving yet, but if this is a dragon-napping they’ll be out of here soon enough.”
Twilight nodded quickly, and closed her eyes, concentrating hard. Her horn flared, and a glowing ball appeared on the grass in-between them, it turned in mid air, shrinking and coruscating brighter for a few moments, then fizzled out, leaving behind a quill and inkwell. Twilight looked triumphantly up at the pegasus, who did not appear wildly impressed.
“Look, Twi’, I know they say the pen’s mightier than the sword, but I’m not sure…”
“Shh,” hissed Twilight, “I know what I’m doing.” Flicking her horn, she picked up the package, and extricated the letter from the top. Dipping her quill, she hastily scrawled some words across the bottom of the letter. The lack of light and bad writing angle made the letters into a large, untidy scrawl, but it was at least legible. She showed it to Dash.
“Princess, we need you, they have Spike,” Dash whispered, reading aloud, squinting in the dim light cast by the window. She looked confusedly at Twilight. “Yeah, that’s exactly the problem. They’ve got Spike. How do we send it?”
Twilight sighed, steeling herself. “That’s the hard part. We’ll only have one shot at this.”
*
Dusk turned his back on Fluttershy, standing centrally in the room, and motioned the other unicorn to join him. “Where’s our runner got to?” he hissed. “He should be back now.”
“If anypony comes after us, they might pick up on his teleport trail,” replied the blue one, whose name Spike did not know. “We don’t want the guards sniffing around and following us home.”
“There won’t be any guards!” exclaimed Dusk, his flaring horn cracking in tune with his annoyance. Spike could not help but be reluctantly impressed by the length of time that he had held the freezing spell in effect. It appeared to be taking something of a toll on him, however, and beads of sweat were forming on his brow. “Sparkle wouldn’t dare report him missing. We’ll know if she does.” With a snort, he opened his leather saddlebag, pulling out a length of rope and tossing it to his subordinate.
“Truss up the dragon. We’re not staying here. The runner can meet us, he’s taken too long.” He stamped his hoof in annoyance. “This was supposed to be a quick swoop, I don’t get why Libra always needs to be so cautious.”
“If he wasn’t cautious, he’d be in jail by now,” noted the blue unicorn, moving towards Spike.
“As for you,” Dusk turned on Fluttershy, whose eyes widened. “You just remember what I said. If you squeak, then we’ll-”
He did not have a chance to finish his sentence. With a smashing sound, the front door was bulldozed for the second time that night. A rainbow-coloured aerial blur shot into the room like a bolt of lightning, slamming into Dusk and knocking him clean off his hooves. The entangled pair careened through the cottage, and he collided face-first with the rear wall, with Rainbow Dash on top of him, using him as a shield. He was distracted by this, to say the least, and his concentration broke at roughly the same time as his nose. The immobilization spell fizzled into nothingness, allowing Spike and Fluttershy to fall to the ground, gasping in surprise and relief.
Half a second later, Spike watched in astonishment as Twilight charged through the open door, hot on Dash’s heels, levitating a large sheaf of parchment ahead of her. The other kidnapper, the blue unicorn, simply stared in shock, momentarily immobilized.
What the hay has been going on today? Spike had time to wonder, before Twilight hurled the package at him.
“Spike! Send this, now!” she yelled. More out of instinct than his own volition, Spike sharply exhaled, sending a plume of green flame into the air before him, catching the pile of papers and disintegrating them. He knew that, any moment now, they would reappear in the general vicinity of Princess Celestia. He wondered why the message could not wait, but there were more important things happening currently, and he supposed that Twilight had her reasons.
There was a moment of stunned silence within the cottage, except for the sound of Dash and the somewhat-dazed Dusk pummeling at one another from beyond the partition. Then, something rather surprising happened.
With an inarticulate cry of fury, Fluttershy hurled herself at the blue pegasus, who regained his wits just in time to turn and see the canary-yellow ball of screaming rage careering towards his head. The scene seemed to unfreeze, and Dusk kicked out strongly with his rear legs, launching Dash off him into the living room, and giving him time to clamber to his hooves and wipe the blood from his nose. Dash’s head collided with the corner of the coffee table, and she collapsed to the floor, semi-conscious.
Snorting in anger, Dusk's horn flared, ready to immobilize the new arrivals, but Twilight was ready for him. Staring him down, she too concentrated, her horn crackling, projecting a magic-dampening field into the room. Dusk redoubled his efforts, trying to break past her defences, but to no avail. The air between them rippled like a heat-haze, motes of light popping within it, as both unicorns dug in their heels. Spike ran across to kneel beside Dash, checking her head to see if she was alright, keeping his head down to avoid the sporadic flares of magical energy crackling around the room.
Suddenly, the third unicorn, the messenger, appeared at the door, staring in horror at the chaotic scene unfolding before him. He saw the two dueling unicorns, the concussed form of Rainbow Dash lying on the floor, and finally, he spotted his friend taking a savage beating from the infuriated yellow pegasus.
“Hey!” he yelled, slamming the front door closed and wading into the melee.
Fighting to stagger through the storm of magic in the air around him, Dusk advanced on Twilight, reaching into his saddlebag with his teeth whilst still battering at her magical defences. He extricated a small, conical, wooden object, gripping it in his teeth and squinting to see through the rippling air. Apparently forgetting his no-names rule, he yelled to the blue unicorn; “Frost! Pin the purple one!”
Meanwhile, Frost was weakly raising his hooves to try and fend off Fluttershy’s assault. He was relieved when he saw Swift, the runner, rushing over to relieve him. He felt the weight on top of him lessen as Swift tackled the struggling Fluttershy to the floor. Hearing Dusk’s command, he dragged himself awkwardly upright, painfully aware that he would have some impressive bruises the next day.
Twilight was only aware of Frost’s approach when she felt his hooves close around her neck, forcing her head down. She struggled, crying out, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Dusk approaching through the magic-haze, the cone-shaped object held in his mouth. With one last effort, she blasted a beam-shaped punch of magical energy out of the end of her horn, catching Frost in the chest and throwing him clear of her with a yell, but it was too late. With a triumphant snarl, Dusk raised the hollow cone, and slammed it down onto her horn, covering it completely.
Immediately, Twilight’s magic was cut off. She felt the cone clamp into place on her horn, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not raise a spark. Dusk smiled. “Yew heartwood. Laced with silver,” he spat, the anger in his voice evident despite his cold grin. “Not good for you spellcasters, eh? Oh yes, we planned for you, Miss Magic.”
Fluttershy was pinned against the sofa by Swift, the messenger. “This was gonna be so easy,” he growled, his voice gruff and scratchy. Angrily, he drew back a hoof, and Fluttershy cowered back, her anger suddenly drained away from her, and replaced with terror at what she had just done.
I hurt somepony! I actually hit him! She panicked internally, scared speechless by her own actions.
“This’ll teach you not to mess with things that aren’t your business!” Swift exclaimed, beginning to swing his hoof down. Fluttershy half-closed her eyes in fearful anticipation of the blow.
Then, out of nowhere, Spike hurled himself at Swift, attaching to the grey unicorn’s head, and digging his claws in tightly, refusing to let go. “Don’t you touch her!” he yelled, loosing a gout of flame over Swift’s blue hood, catching it alight. Swift’s strike at Fluttershy missed as he careered backwards, ripping at the fabric with his hoof, and Spike jumped clear, his work done. The infuriated messenger finally tore his hood clear, an instant before it set alight to his fur, and then stamped it out on the carpet, looking around to find Spike, bent on revenge.
An instant later, Dusk’s horn flared. With Twilight unable to block his magic, he could easily control the situation. Twilight was wrestling with the yew-and-silver cone, but it would not budge. One by one, Spike, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Dash were all paralyzed, and hoisted into the air by Dusk’s spell.
In the moment of silence that followed, Dusk looked around angrily at the others, blood still dripping from his injured snout. Frost limped over to join him, a throbbing lump on his head where Twilight’s spell had flung him into the ceiling, and Swift reluctantly followed suit, his ears singed, glaring daggers at Spike.
“Come on,” said Dusk, coldly, his eyes flashing. “We’re walking out of here. The dragon comes with us. Just think, we could have done this the easy way. We still might be nice later, but as soon as we get back, we’ll send you his tail for your trouble.”
Swift smiled, his hoodless face gleeful. “Let me do it. I owe him one.”
Dusk nodded. “Fine. And I want to know what idiot thought that nopony knew where the dragon was. But later. Let’s get the buck out of here, before anypony else shows up.”
He separated the terrified Spike out with his magic, and hovered him over to Swift, who grabbed him. “We’re gonna have some fun later, little guy,” he murmured.
Frost cast a baleful eye over the hovering ponies. “You all know the score. You talk. We hurt the dragon.”
“They know, let’s make tracks.”
Twilight’s heart was hammering frenziedly as the three unicorns walked towards the door. They had Spike. They had hurt her friends. It was all her fault. She looked from side to side, taking in her friends’ faces, frozen in expressions of pain or defeat. She knew that she would never forgive herself.
With one last contemptuous look back over his shoulder, Dusk threw open the door.
A blast of light struck him, and he screwed his eyes shut. The light pulsed, and he skidded backwards across the floor, snorting in fear, a wild panic in his eyes as he gazed outside the cottage. A tall, blinding figure walked serenely through the door, surveying the scene before her. Nopony in the room could look directly at her, for none could bear to meet the anger in her eyes.
“Put that dragon down. Now,” commanded Princess Celestia.
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And Part II's here! It's official now, this is the longest thing I've ever written. (Actually, it's my first go at writing a story per se, but this now beats any other project I've done in terms of length.) For the record, this is both the first and the last legitimate 'fight scene' that this story will contain... I don't want this to devolve into a beat-'em-up.
EDIT: Yeah, my predictive abilities when I wrote this comment were not up to much, apparently.
Princess Badass and Epicshy
oh shit...celestias gonna fuck 'im up!
YES!!! Awesome action scene with Princess Celestia in the role of the cavalry. Excellent!
AWWWW SHIT, the definition of bucked lies before us: the three helpless unicorns, about to get destroyed by Celestia! Woooooooo
Saw it coming, but nice fight scene really.
Also can't wait for Celestia to kick some ass.
148716 Yeah, it's a tricky one actually. I keep repeating to myself; "Benevolent Princess, no disemboweling allowed!" I can say that she's not particularly happy, however...
149504 I must admit, I wanted the 'boom, it's the Princess' moment to be foreseeable, that's why I opened part one with her getting the message... It was kind of designed to 'bookend' the 2-parter, if you will. You know, start with Princess, finish with Princess.
Next chapter should be out either tonight or tomorrow. Sorry about the slightly shabby update frequency lately, real life is a pain.
Oh my god.... I was going to wait until i caught up to leave a comment but this chapter was too fucking awesome. On top of an awesome fight and threats about Spike that had me extremely worried. BADASS CELESTIA! FUCK YEAH!!!!
I seriously punched the air and began cheering out loud when that happened. Nice work.
Shit just hit the fan so hard, that it traveled thru time and landed on the DeLorean's windshield.
Yes! I involuntarily cheered when I read the last line!
I hoped before reading this last chapter that Celestia and the Government were not involved, at least mostly... even greater to know they know about it. Not to see some action!
I would certainly mark this as the greatest fic moment I've read, if it weren't for Ponies Make War (The Immortal Game).
Still, by every other standard, not bad. Unfortunate you won't be revisiting the idea. Considering there's still 20 some odd chapters for me to go (and more).
550311 Glad you're liking it!
Given the story's more recent output, I realize I should probably revise that thing about 'no more fight scenes'.
OH MY GOD! How epic is that??? VERY DAMN EPIC; THAT IS IS!!!
Celestia's here? oh crap.
blogs.westword.com/showandtell/10%20shit%20just%20got%20real.jpg
wow...all i can say at the end is this...those guys are royally bucked
See kids, this is why your cabal needs a guy whose sole job is to point out the glaring flaws in your plans. I mean this is such a basic screwup that it should have been the first thing pointed out during the planning session.
That was awesome.
The entire scene was filled with so much tension, and then you had Fluttershy rage on the guy?
This story is amazing
You know you've fucked up when Celestia is pissed
5 .338 lapua's in a mag, one in the chamber.... just hold 'em steady Celly!
Flutter-Hulk and a Badass-entry Celestia? ...I'm having goosebumps here.
OHOHOHO GOOOOOD, BLOOD IS ABOUT TO FLY.
I gotta say it's pretty great to see Celestia not being used as 'The Worf' for once.
Sh*t just went from real...
to UTTER BRUTAL REALITY!
AAaaaaaaannnd in a heartbeat we go from a heartwarming and clever hurt comfort fic to another generic and boring Dark and Edgy evil conspiracy in Equestria story. You know I very rarely get the urge to stop reading something I'm in the middle of. This is one of those times. You even used the 'magic-blocking device' cliche writers use so their antagonists have a ghost of a chance against Twilight. At least it wan't a horn ring this time.
I'm just saying this to get it off my chest, but; it's weird hearing ponies other than Applejack say 'reckon'
I'm just saying this to get it off my chest, but; it's weird hearing ponies other than Applejack say 'reckon'
1793510
is so bloody overpowered that nothing short of a 'blessed' unicorn 
should stand a chance against her, at least the null-magic devices make sense in Equestria. This a world where the 'policia' have to have non-magical means of disabling unicorns, so that the earth 
and pegasi 
might stand a chance. Granted I have always secretely wanted to read a fic where TS 
makes a mockery of this sorrt of plot device by willfully destroying it to spite her captors.
I sort of agree, but you know some plot devices have to appear otherwise anything else just is too silly to contemplate. TS
Also gonna say Celestia makes for an impressive Gandalf the white entrance there.
1911536
And you...... Past Sins was amazing.... that is all.
Shit just got real.
Somepony is going to BURN!!
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Shit just hit the fan in a big way.
OH SHIT, BOY. "As soon as I finish this chapter, I'll take a nap so I'm nice and rested for work tonight." NOPE.
HOLY SHIT THINGS JUST GOT SERIOUS
Flutterfury, yes beat them up fluttershy!
I can say with complete sincerity that I had an involuntary fist pump at those last few lines.
Only upon the reread of this chapter did we realize how significant the poem at the beginning is. After what will come, we'd be afraid of the sun ourselves!
Magic dampeners got you down? Try Sol Invicta now, and burn those worries away!
fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/191/4/2/solar_flare_by_pshyzo-d7q1qc5.jpg
5070140 i agree
now you know what it means to face the fury of a goddess
It was at this moment they knew they fucked up
Here we go! Time for Tia to kick some pony ass!
Tick tock Ding! It's oh shit o'clock!