Magic Vs. Machinery

by Exotic Butter

XXI.~Voices and storm

Twilight was standing up close at the destroyed ‘Canterlot’ Tripod, while around her, royal guards were helping unicorns from the cage.

“...Six, seven, eight, nine, ten…?” She stopped her counting, when the last survivor came out of the cage.

“This is weird. Until now, there weren’t more than three ponies in the other Tripod’s cages! What so sudden?”

Twilight shook her head to forget these thoughts. Celestia knows what more could come.

When Twilight turned away from the wreckage, she saw something in the air. Three dots were getting bigger and bigger, by every second.

When the dots gots clearer, she noticed that it was a fleet of three pegasi, not wearing royal armor, but ‘Equestrian’ camouflage. That means, these pegasi must be from ‘Wonderbolt squadron’.

“What are they doing here…?” She said to herself.

She then looked at the unicorns, who looked like they've been through something very, very disturbing. I mean…yea, they were.

Moments later, a trio of pegasi landed in front of a crowd of survivors and one Alicorn Princess. They trotted to Twilight and saluted.

“Princess, we were sent here to help and escort the survivors behind the castle walls.” White pegasus mare said.

"Oh? Who gave you that order? Aren't you three supposed to be in Appleloosa?" Twilight asked.

“We’re brought to Canterlot for patrolling. Soarin’ can confirm that. We, 1./ Slowing team, led by Rainbow Dash, before she left the command to High Winds with the last order; help the survivors.” Ice blue stallion said, then looking at the wreckage of the machine.

Twilight’s eyes lit up, hearing that name.

“Rainbow Dash?” She asked, which the pegasi trio nodded.
“Please tell me, is she okay?”

“Well…about that…” Wind started.

“A…different machine attacked the Friendship train, where in the end…an explosion badly injured Rainbow. If it weren't for her, the whole train would be everywhere but on the tracks. She got a broken wing and one of her front legs got it really bad. She’s in the hospital right now.” The pale yellow pegasus said.

After that, Twilight looked back at the Canterlot castle. She spread her wings and without a word, she flew back to the castle.

---

“Are you sure they aren’t in Canterlot? Canterlot is a big place with a high chance to get lost in fact.” A yellow earth pony mare asked.

“Ah swept my flank up and down, but with no result! So have ya seen them or no?!” Orange mare asked very loudly.

“Ma’am, you aren’t the only one who is trying to find their families. But if they are just like you told me, there’s a bigger chance that they are the lucky ones. I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen them. Celestia with you.”

As the yellow earth pony walked away, a white unicorn mare came behind the orange mare.

“AppleJack, I'm pretty sure they're here in Canterlot. I can feel it in my bones. But there's such confusion that there's a chance we're going in circles. It would be best to wait for EVERYTHING to calm down before we start looking.”

“Oh really Sweetie Belle? Then when we should start lookin’ again?” AJ asked.

“When the sun goes down. Everyone will slowly go to sleep and we'll go look for them.”

“*Sigh* Well, alright…” AJ sighed, as she sat down on the ground. Sweetie sat next to her.

“Hmm, when we sat down, have you heard about the ‘Attack on Train?’” Belle asked. AJ looked at her with a question mark on her face.

“Many ponies and creatures, who were on the train here to Canterlot, were saying…a ‘black’?...Tripod made them stop and then it attacked the train. What I heard, one pegasus in the end saved everypony.” Sweetie said.
“Little weird that, after the attack, that Tripod just vanished.” Belle explained.

“A black Tripod? Geez, what now? Is it some sort of a commander, or what? How many Tripods are here in Equestria anyway!?”

“Don’t know, AppleJack. There can be just five, or dozens of them.”

“Heh, Ah hope that there’s only one last standing.” AJ said honestly. Then, one thing came into her mind.
“Wait a minute...”

“What?” Sweetie tilted her head.

“Well...we could tell Twilight what aliens look like! You must be the only one who has seen them in their full beauty at the moment!” AJ explained.

“There’s nothing we can do until sunset, so… Yea. B-but…if she is inside Canterlot castle, how do we get inside?” Belle asked.

AJ opened her mouth to say something, but she shut it a second later, when she noticed something in the air, behind Sweetie.

AJ's pupils narrowed as she saw the purple Alicorn heading towards Canterlot Hospital…

“What’s wrong AJ?” Belle waved her front hoof in front of AJ’s face.

AppleJack snapped back to reality and stood up.

“Ya can say that to her right now. She’s heading towards the hospital for some reason!” The orange mare said before she started galloping towards the hospital.

“Wha- Wait for me!” Sweetie Belle said behind AJ, before she started galloping after her.

---

“Oh come on, doc! I can work even without flying!” Light blue pegasus mare said on a patient bed.

“I’m sorry, Miss Dash, but your wing has two structural fractures right at the spine. At this point, your wing is literally hanging. And we found out that your front hoof is almost broken.”

“Does ‘almost broken’ even exist?” Rainbow put her healthy front hoof in the air.
“Because it sounds stupid.”

At this, the doctor just rolled his yellow eyes.

“Either way, you'll be lying here until your fractures heal. And if you'll allow me, you're not the only one with something broken here at the hospital.” The doctor said, as he opened the doors into Rainbow’s room.
“Somepony even have broken cervical vertebrae and is still alive.” The last sentence was almost inaudible.

The doctor exited Rainbow’s room and closed the door behind him.

“You are lucky.” Then a voice came from Dash’s left.

On her left side, at the other end of the room, a griffin was lying with a blanket over her.

The griffon was orange, with a yellow chest and head. Her ‘mane’ was orange too.

“Lucky?” Rainbow looked at her, with a raised eyebrow.

“You bet! I don’t know where you were fighting, but you could’ve lost your rear leg or even a wing!”

“Uh…you were fighting against the aliens?”

“Well…no. You know when the ‘Ponyville’ Tripod came back?”

“No…?”

“Well, I was hiding in one of the Ponyville ruins. I thought that they would pass me. But…”

“Laser?”

“What?! NO! Thankfully they only stomped on me! Trust me, when I saw one pony, who was hitted by the laser, he was…gone.”

“Did that Tripod break your spine or something?”

“Worst.” She said, as she took her blanket and threw it out of her.

Her hind legs were gone, leaving her with nothing but the remains of budding thigh muscles. Plus, her griffon tail was gone too.

Rainbow was watching it with a very shocked expression.

“Their machines are heavy. I can tell.” The griffon only added.

“For Celestia's sake, stop.” Rainbow closed her eyes and then layed down.
“Look, I know they are heavy. Heck, they are even filled with explosives, or what.” Dash commented.

“So you know how they work?” The griffon asked, before she put the blanket back over her.

“What I heard, Unicorn’s magic.” Rainbow said.

“Correct. And you know how they get it?”

“No...?”

“They are dragging unicorns inside, where they are using something to catch their magic. Worst of all; while their magic is being taken away, the unicorns are still alive and are alive, even after their magic is gone.”

Rainbow jerked her head back at the griffon.

“Alive?” She asked, as she remembered what happened back at the canyon and the pony on the railway.

“Yep. Pretty…chilling.”

Dash hasn’t had time for thinking anyway, because out of nowhere, doors into their room opened. Rainbow looked at who came to look at them.

“Rainbow!” A familiar voice called her name.

“T-Twilight?” The light blue pegasus said surprised, seeing her old Alicorn friend.

“What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked.

“I come here to look at you! I heard you saved lives!”

“Uh…you mean the train incident? Yeah… It was…a close call.” As Rainbow answered. Another pony entered their room.

“Twilight? Twilight!” A female ‘cowboy-like’ voice was heard.

It was AppleJack, who eventually caught up with Twilight. All three mares were shocked when they were between the six eyes.

“Rainbow?” AJ said, shocked seeing her like this.

“AppleJack?” Twilight and Rainbow said at the same time.

“…”

“AJ! I said WAIT!” Another creature entered the room.

“Sweetie Belle?!” Twilight said, surprised.

The mares looked at each other, trying to process what just happened. Until Twilight cleared her throat.

“Okay, what are you doing here, AJ?”

“Ah ran here cuz' Ah saw you flying here!!” AJ answered.

“And you, Sweetie?” Twilight asked next.

“And I was galloping behind her!”

There was another silence for a few seconds…

“So…what do you need, AJ?” Rainbow asked, with one eyebrow up.

“We were inside the ‘Ponyville’ Tripod! And Sweetie Belle was inside of it!”

Twilight gasped.

“So YOU were in that cage! I’m surprised you survived the fall.”

“We weren’t alone. Sky was there too. But when we got here, we said our goodbyes and started finding our families. But back to the important thing, Sweetie WAS inside that machine!” AJ said.

“W-what I have to do with this?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“I saw the aliens.” Sweetie said.

“Really? How did they look?” Twilight asked, excited. Maybe she already knows the features of the aliens, but she doesn't know HOW they look like.

“They walked on two. Have white…skin?...pitch black line on the face and…they had…hands?...that could’ve held something.”

Twilight put a front hoof on her chin. Just like Gallus said, but more...precise. White skin? Pitch black line on the face? Nothing like the people she knows behind a certain mirror...

Twilight then looked back to Rainbow.

“Your team said that a ‘different’ Tripod attacked the train. Can you explain this?”

Rainbow, after hearing this question, looked at her left, healthy front hoof. Then she looked back at Twilight.

“This machine is a bigger threat than any other. Its head has sharp ends. It’s black, IT IS bigger than other machines and worst of all; it has two lasers!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Head with sharp ends and two lasers?”

“Well, that's what I saw.”

“Huh…interesting… And what happened after the explosion? What did the doctor say about your injury?” The Alicorn asked the pegasus.

“I passed out. Doctor said my wing is hanging,” She looked at her wing, which was fully in gypsum.
“...and I have a broken front leg.” Dash said.

“Well, I hope you’ll get better.” Twilight said to Dash, before looking back to AJ and Sweetie Belle.

“And you two… I think we need to talk about one small thing.” She said before showing them the exit from the patient room with her hoof.

And so the three mares that had appeared so quickly, disappeared one by one and closed the door. AJ just took one more look at Rainbow before closing the door and following her friend out of the hospital.

“Wait a second,” The yellow griffon started,
“How did they even destroy the machine, if the W-Weapon wasn’t even made at that time?” She said, as she put her claw under her beak.

Rainbow’s ear flicked. The griffon was right! Maybe…maybe that’s the thing Twilight wants to talk about.

“Doesn't matter. Now I want to know one thing from you.” Dash said, turning her head towards the griffon.
"Why hasn't any nation helped Equestria yet?"

Simple question, a bit late but simple.

“Uh...I really don't know. But the first possibility is that they probably didn't want to send their race against something with a damn shield. The second possibility is that he doesn't know about this extermination!” The gryphon replied causing Dash to look at her with offended look.

“Calling this an extermination is wrong!” Dash said out loud and then went quiet.
“According to certain sources, we know that the aliens let ponies and other creatures live AS SOON as they leave the borders of Equestria.”

“But… doesn't that mean the aliens know quite a bit about Equestria? What if... then they want to attack other countries?!”

“Well...they seem to want most of Equestria's hinterland, so...no.”

“But...okay, putting that aside, how long and why did they plan to leave their home planet and occupy part of Equestria?” The griffon asked, which nopony or nobody had an answer yet. Still, it made Rainbow Dash think...

How long have they been watching them so that their machines CAN use magic and easily resist strong spells?

We will have to wait a while for the answer to this question...

---

While Rainbow thought, meanwhile back at the 'Canterlot' machine, weird things began to happen…

At first, it looked like whoever was inside was trying to NOT let any-creature enter the machine. They know that. But after a few minutes, it now looked like…someone is talking inside that wreckage?

“Gallus! Thank goodness you’re here.” One royal pony pegasus saluted, as his commander finally landed. When the blue griffon heard that ‘Someone-is-talking-inside-that’ thing he dropped everything and flew to the crash site as fast as he could.

Gallus looked at his pal, who stopped saluting, and then he looked at the wreckage. There wasn’t smoke anymore. Just…the sound of galloping guards around him.

“So…what’s the report?” He asked the royal guard.

“After the Princess left, we heard sounds inside the wreckage that I and other guards, compared it to voices.” The guard answered.

“Are ‘voices’ still capable of hearing?”

“Pretty much, captain.” Another royal guard said, as he then waved his hoof, signaling Gallus to follow him.

As he and Gallus came closer, the blue grif looked up at the sky. He noticed something bad.

Not that the sun was finally setting, no, he was really glad... But...beyond the mountain where Canterlot was built, clouds began to form. Would it start to rain?

“Oh you gotta be kidding me…” He said to himself. Rain could seep into the ground through the broken walkways the machine had broken, and the wet ground would turn to mud in less than three minutes, and mud SLOWS down troop efficiency and orientation. So yes, he was not happy about the rain.

“Shhh…keep your voice down, keep away from their windows and lay your head to the surface completely.” The guard said, as they were right at the front of the machine.

Gallus noted, as he slowly walked to the iron surface of the machine. He laid his head on it and then listened.

For the first twenty seconds, nothing. After the whole minute, still nothing. He wanted to say something to his pals, but then…he heard it…

A language he didn’t recognize. Words that were literally out of space. But the letters…sounded the same…

"Myslíš, že má smysl je opět volat? Co když tu nás prostě nechali?”

“Ale houby, určitě vymýšlí, jak nás zachránit! Kdybych jen věděl, že Italy zabili…ani nevím co to bylo, ale je to dost silné, aby to šlo skrz i náš štít!”

“No, silné to teda bylo. Já myslel, že náš magnetický štít nás dokáže zachránit i před největším kouzlem, ale tohle?! Vždyť to vypadá, jako by dokázali vylepšovat i svou vlastní magii!”

“Ať to je, jak to je, už dva naše to zabilo. Kéž Bychom věděli, co se stalo s Němci na Severu. No… tak to jdu zkusit znovu. EHM, uh, This is zero-two, zero-two. Calling zero-five! We need help immediately! They have something that can go through our shield! I repeat, they have something that can go through our shield!”

Gallus literally jumped back.

“They…can speak our language…? Wha- Ho- When?”

He slowly started to back up before bumped into the guard he was following.

“What you heard, captain?” The guard asked.

Gallus, at this point, was…shaking. Are the invaders a mimic type of alien? Do they look like a pony or other creature he knows? Can they transform into ANYTHING, like changelings!? What if aliens are already among them!? He MUST tell Twilight!

“Captain!” The guard shouted, as his commander spread his wings and with one swing, he was on his way into Canterlot castle

---

“Alright Twilight. What’s the one small thing?” AJ said as she, Sweetie and Twilight finally left the hospital.

Twilight looked at her and then at Sweetie Belle. She sighed, and then asked;

“Who destroyed that machine? How did…Sweetie survive?”

AJ and Sweetie looked at each other and nodded.

“Nopony destroyed it.” AJ said.

“We have a theory. I was sick, weak and tired before we were caught. I don't even know what disease I had, but inside their machine... They put something over my head, eyes, and horn. After that, when they put it on, I started to feel… better, but a little weird at the same time. I had the feeling that...the disease was being sucked out of me!” Sweetie explained.

Twilight cocked her head to the side.

“Sucked? So you’re saying that, while they were taking your magic, they also sucked some sort of a disease? That sounds pretty weird and stupid.” Twilight commented.

“How do ya then explain that the Tripod just exploded, right after they took Sweetie inside?” AJ asked.

“I…don’t know. *Sigh* But if it really was…your disease, or somepony else's, at least it destroyed the first Tripod of this war and opened up a new world of possibilities at the same time. There are so many things we can learn from their wrecks, new planets that we will observe anew, because this is proof that life is also on planets, not so far away from ours, and…weapons. But at the same time, it breaks several laws for us, regarding the meaning of controlling the Moon and the Sun.” Twilight waved her front hoof in circles in the air, looking up at the sky, which was slowly beginning to fill with dark clouds.

“Ugh… Which reminds me I have to now slowly lower the Sun and slowly raise the Moon. And…if I were you, I would go find a shelter very quickly.” The purple Alicorn said, before her horn began to glow. In the blink of an eye, she was left with only purple sparks from the teleportation.

“Uh… I guess we’ll go find a shelter, eh?” Sweetie said, turning her head to AJ.

“But- What she said? ‘Regarding the meaning of controlling the Sun and Moon’...? And what about our families?!” AJ said, looking up at the Sun and then back to Sweetie.

“Better find the shelter first and look for our families tomorrow.”

“Ya said-”

“I know, I said after everypony go to sleep, but I don’t want to walk here and there, around Canterlot in the rain, finding nothing.” Sweetie said as she looked around her, trying to find some shelter.

“UGH-! Fine! But promise, mah, we'll go look for them when the sun comes up.” AJ said, putting her hoof in front of Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie sighed, rolled her eyes and placed her hoof on hers.

“Fine.” She said and shaked her hoof with hers.

Right after their agreement, there was a loud crack-like sound.

*CRAKChmm!*

Both mares, and other ponies around them, startled and looked again at the top of the mountain, where the loud crack came from. What now!?

"Calm down, everyone! It was just thunder!" One Kirin said.

AJ and Sweetie Belle looked at each other.

"Better move our flanks up now or never." AJ said to which Sweetie nodded.

Comments

[David Silver]

Here is a review.