Fragment

by Heliostorm

Chapter 8: Drive

Chapter 8
Drive

“War is the pinnacle of equestrian achievement. Nothing else is so effective at rallying so many to a common purpose.”
- Puzzlebreak, Philosopher

“You did what?!” Twilight Sparkle cried.

Her shout echoed within the cavernous confines of the Solarium library, earning her a sharp reprimand from the librarian, whose voice issued forth from the front of the building. “Hey, be quiet down there!”

“Sorry!” Twilight called back, then turned to the two mares in front of her. One was a yellow pegasus, and the other...

“I can’t believe you did that!” Twilight whispered furiously to her twin. “You could have been caught and executed for treason! You could have gotten me caught and executed for treason!”

“But I didn’t!” her twin shot back, and glanced at Fluttershy. “And there was no way I would leave Fluttershy in that camp all by herself.”

Twilight sighed and her rubbed her head. “Alright, alright. What’s done is done.” She turned to Fluttershy, who was looking down at the ground apologetically. “Can you get back to Cloudsdale?”

“Um...” Fluttershy thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Even if I could get past the city guards without being noticed, there’s no way I could fly through the hurricane by myself.”

“Hurricane?” Other Twilight asked, eyebrow raised.

Fluttershy turned to her. “Ever since Cloudsdale moved offshore during the Second Rune War, it’s been surrounded by a big hurricane. It’s really hard to fly through if you’re by yourself.”

Twilight shook her head. “We’ll have to find a way to hide you, then.” She turned to her twin. “I’ve been authorized to have you stay with me in my quarters, but I don’t think the guards will take well to another pony showing up.”

“I can cast the invisibility spell on her again to get her past the guards.”

“Well, that’s one problem solved.” Twilight sighed. “As for you,” she added, jabbing a hoof accusingly at her twin, “we need to get you a disguise and a new name. I am not going to let myself get arrested if you do something else like this.”

Other Twilight blew her mane upwards. “Fine.”

As the trio exited the library and made for Twilight’s apartment, they exchanged ideas for false names.

“Umm... how about Sunlight Twinkle?” Fluttershy suggested.

Both Twilights made identical faces of disgust. “I’d rather not be called ‘Twinkle’ anything, thank you very much,” Other Twilight said.

Fluttershy lowered her head. “Oh... sorry...”

“How about Dusk Darklight?” Twilight suggested.

Her twin shook her head. “That makes me sound like a stallion.” She tilted her head in thought. “What about Starshine?”

Twilight snorted. “Sounds like the main character in a cheesy romance novel.”

Her twin squinted at the ground for a few seconds. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, her ears perked, and she jumped into the air. “I got it! Starswirl!”

“Hmm...” Twilight considered the name. “Yeah, sounds alright.”

“YES!” Other Twilight clapped her hooves together, her grin stretching all the way across her face. “I’m going to get the hat and the cloak and the beard—”

“Woah woah woah, wait, what?” Twilight’s wheelchair screeched to a stop. “A beard? Where did that come from?”

“Uhh...” Her twin rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “Never mind.”

They soon arrived at the guarded residential complex where Twilight lived. It was close to the base of the Solar Engine, and a private military route led straight to the Harmony Project research facility. After her twin cast an invisibility spell on Fluttershy, Twilight waved her credentials before the guards. They still had to take a quick magic test to prove they weren’t changelings, but it only took a few minutes to pass through security.

The buildings were crude and rectangular, and in true Solarium fashion, were covered in glowy lights and spinny things. The architecture always reminded Twilight of children’s toys, and had the unfortunate side effect of making it hard to sleep for somepony who hadn’t grown up in the city.

Twilight’s apartment was a spacious, two-bedroom affair—being Chief Director came with its perks, after all. The room was spartan, obsessively tidy, and filled with tables, most of which were covered in various machines Twilight tinkered with in her spare time, while the bookshelves that lined the back walls were the only source of color. The delicate forms of the machinery seemed to be quietly snoozing, as though at any moment the place could come alive.

She turned to the other two ponies. “Well, welcome to your new home.”

----------

The prototype Solarium airship was a sleek bullet of a vehicle, with the gondola integrated so smoothly into the envelope that it was nothing but a slight bulge on the underside. The airship had what appeared to be air intakes and vents on the front and back, respectively—something Shining Armor had never seen in an airship before.

The vessel was the size of a large house, but the passenger area was tiny, barely able to accommodate the four ponies assigned to it. Shining Armor had to squeeze uncomfortably close to the mercenary whose throat he vaguely wanted to slice open, but he didn't complain.

Crystalline, however, was not so tactful. “Why’s it so cramped in here?” she grumbled as the airship detached from its berth. A loud whirring noise reverberated from the rear as the rune engine spun up to speed, followed by a noise like that of a constant, powerful gust of wind.

“This is a Mark IV Airborne Deployment Vehicle,” Lieutenant Sparkstorm, the senior of the two Solarium shock troopers answered. Their full-body armor was gleaming white trimmed in black, and the portable rune engines on their back hummed quietly as they held their helmets at their sides. “It is designed to carry and deploy a single shock trooper squad with extreme haste. This Mark uses teleportation to send its squad to the surface and utilizes cyclonic engine technology for greatly increased power-to-weight ratio.”

Well that explains why it’s so cramped, Shining Armor thought. Shock Troopers typically operated in squads of three.

“Cyclonic engines?” Crystalline asked.

The mere sound of her voice was frustrating for Shining Armor to hear, and the urge to mete out justice for the death of two of his friends was hard to resist. He did his best to ignore it, and her.

“The engine uses simulated pegasus magic to create a miniature tornado around the rune cores,” Sparkstorm explained, “thus greatly increasing the speed at which the cores rotate.” She smiled brightly at Shining Armor. “Invented by your sister, no less!”

That’s creative. Shining Armor hadn’t really known what his sister had gotten up to after graduating from Canterlot University. That was around the time he had been promoted to Captain of the Royal Guard, an event that had thrown him into the fast-paced world of Canterlot politics. Trying to navigate the complex machinations of the Magisters alongside training troops and handling security had overwhelmed him, keeping him from spending any time in contact with Twilight. Learning what his sister had been doing was like rediscovering a lost keepsake that had been gathering dust for years in some hidden corner.

He coughed, turning to Sparkstorm. “I don’t think you should really tell her any more about prototype Solarium technology.” Sparkstorm’s eyes were curious—clearly she hadn’t been briefed on Crystalline, but she seemed to get the hint.

They continued to make conversation as the airship blasted through the sky. Shining Armor and the two Shock Troopers swapped war stories while Crystalline sat squished into the corner. It was an enlightening experience for the commando, who had never worked with Shock Troopers before.

“Uh, Captain?” A door on the front of the passenger compartment opened, and their pilot poked his head through. “We’ve got a bit of a problem.”

Shining Armor pushed past the others and squeezed into the cockpit. “What’s the matter?”

The pilot pointed to a sickly-looking mass of pink-and-white clouds that dominated view. “Chaos storm. Looks like low-consistency cotton candy mixed with your average clouds. Pretty light one though, must’ve formed at the edges of Central Y-Z.”

The commando weighed the options. Going around the storm would lengthen their trip by at least two hours, and time was of the essence. “Can you go above it?”

“Above it? No. We don’t have the altitude ceiling for that.” The pilot grinned. “But we could probably go through it.”

Shining Armor raised his eyebrows. “That seems dangerous.”

The pilot scoffed and leaned his head back as though deeply offended. “Please, you’re talking to the best pilot in the Second Airfleet! I was at the top of my division when we finished training! Trust me, I’ve done this at least six times in three different airships—”

“Alright, alright,” Shining Armor raised a hoof to stop the pilot’s bragging. “Do it.”

The pilot gunned the throttle, and the airship rumbled as it accelerated.

Shining Armor frowned. Flying through a chaos storm was risky at best, but the pilot seemed confident enough. The pink-and-white mass grew steadily larger in the window, until it finally covered the entire view. There was an ear-screeching grinding noise from the rear. “What the hay is that?”

“Uhh...” The pilot’s ears flattened against his skull. “I hadn’t thought about that...”

The commando had a sinking feeling in his stomach, and wondered if it wasn’t because they were actually sinking. “What is it?”

The pilot lowered his head sheepishly. “Um, well... I think that sound is the cotton candy getting caught inside the engine...”

Shining Armor’s deadpan expression said it all. You have got to be kidding me.

Lightning flashed outside, and the airship shook from the high winds. The grinding noise was steadily descending in pitch but increasing in volume. The pilot took a deep breath. “And that would be the cylinders slowing down.” He pursed his lips. “Well, at least now I can tell the boys back at the lab to upgrade the filters on this thing.” He stole a glance at Shining Armor, then smiled meekly. “In my defense, any other airship in the world would have been fine with this sort of thing...”

The airship lurched again. The sound of the rune engine fell lower and lower until it finally gave one last, low wheeze and died. Shining Armor blinked. “So is that it? Are we completely dead in the air?”

The pilot tapped his hooves on his dashboard. “Kind of. No telekinesis engine means no control. This airship isn’t designed to be fully lighter-than-air, so without our engine we’re going to slowly fall until we hit the ground. Hopefully we have enough momentum built up to punch all the way through the cloud. If not...” he shrugged.

“What’s going on up there?” Sparkstorm called from the passenger compartment.

Shining Armor ignored the question. “Can we still deploy through the teleporter?”

The pilot checked his gauges, then nodded. “Yeah, that’s independent of the telekinesis engine. Flywheel’s all spun up to max.”

Shining Armor shook his head and squeezed back to the other three ponies. “Genius up there decided to take us through the storm, and now the cotton candy got caught in the engine. So we’re going to deploy through the teleporter.”

Crystalline raised an eyebrow. “Into a chaos storm?”

“If we can’t make it to the other side of the storm before we run out of speed, yeah.”

Crystalline groaned. Serves you damn right, Shining Armor thought. Then light shone through the cockpit window and into the passenger compartment.

“Hey, we’re through!” the pilot yelled excitedly, much to their relief.

“How long until we’re dead in the air?” Shining Armor asked.

“About half an hour, probably! Though you might want to deploy now before we cross the river, it might be hard to get back to the other side!”

Shining Armor nodded and turned to the Shock Troopers. “All ready?”

The Shock Troopers equipped their helmets, any sign of the living ponies inside now fully masked by their metal carapaces “Suited up.” Crystalline, for her part, was content with being ignored.

“Let her rip!” Shining Armor called to the pilot. The interior of the passenger compartment was filled with blinding blue light. Space-time twisted along with Shining Armor’s guts, and when the light faded he was standing on top of a red-and-yellow checkerboard hill. A slight wave of nausea passed through him—teleporting from a moving vehicle tended to do that to him.

The squad watched as their airship shot away into the distance, long strings of cotton candy streaming behind it. The Manehattanite crash site was several miles away to the north, far beyond the range of sight.

“Well, what now?” Sparkstorm asked, her voice slightly muffled by her helmet. The red insignias on her armor was the only thing that differentiated her from her brother Clacker, who had blue insignias.

Shining Armor sighed. They knew the Manehattanites would move south and attempt to link up with the Manehattanite division that was retreating for Solarium. The plan had been to fly south from the crash site, looking for them from the air. But that wasn’t an option anymore.

“I don’t know.” Shining Armor shook his head and grit his teeth, frustration boiling up in his chest. Why did the world keep conspiring against him? It wasn’t his fault he had been in Solarium when the attack began, it wasn’t his fault that Crystalline got into the bunker through stolen access codes, it wasn’t his fault that his young, reckless pilot had decided to fly through the storm. Time and time again the universe set him up for failure despite him not making any true mistakes of his own.

Growling with frustration, he kicked a small rock on the ground. The rock sailed through the air and clattered onto the bottom of the hill. Then it jumped up with a loud squeak and scurried away.

Whatever Shining Armor or any of the other three ponies had been feeling suddenly evaporated. He and Crystalline exchanged perplexed glances. Inside their helmets, the Shock Troopers had similar expressions. “Uh...” Crystalline broke the long, awkward silence. “Well, disregarding that, I have an idea.” Her long horn glowed as she pointed it down at the ground.

Shining Armor was both intensely annoyed and somewhat curious. “What are you doing?” he asked, intentionally filling his voice with as much contempt he could muster.

She rolled her eyes. “Using a gem-finding spell an old acquaintance taught me.”

The commando’s eyes bulged. Did this mare not understand the importance of their mission? “Are you seriously going gem hunting now of times?!”

Crystalline snorted and smirked. “Why yes, Captain. Have you seen what the Lord Magister wears? That mare has more gems on her than a Diamond Dog mine.”

Shining Armor couldn’t think of a comeback to that. She was right, but that just made him infinitely more annoyed.

“Found heeer!” Crystallined sang, then gestured to the southeast. “We’d best get a move on, we’ve got a long way to go.” She broke out into a canter across the yellow zone hills. Shining Armor followed, the vague desire to slit her throat he had been feeling now a very palpable urge.

----------

Applejack lowered her binoculars from the window once more and frowned.

The escape from the Solarium air force had been harrowing, to say the least. Pegasi and gunships had screeched across the sky, pursuing them through the rocky terrain of the yellow zone. For a small Earth pony like Applejack, there had been little she could do except be swift and pray that the diversion tactics worked, like a school of fish scattering in the face of a charging shark.

The strategy had worked, somewhat. But Solarium had been smart, blockading the entrance to the Obsidian Caves with a small force of tanks that had been flown ahead and dropped off. Unable to get past the bottleneck, the Manehattan forces were now stuck on the Imperial side of the Chaos Mountains, and were being steadily hunted down by Solarium airships. Applejack and about forty others had been lucky to stumble upon a hamlet several miles to the north.

Taking over the tiny village of less than four hundred ponies had been a simple task. It didn’t even have a name on the map. The inhabitants called it Boup—a nonsense word typical of yellow-zoners. And though Applejack still felt disquieted at kicking of them out of their homes to make room for the soldiers; seeing the way they had stared at her with their spinning eyes had left her unsure whether they were sane enough to know what was going on.

The chirping of a bird drew her attention, and she raised her binoculars again. Roughly twenty minutes ago, a Solarium transport had deposited a tank several miles out from Boup. A Timberwolf medium tank, Applejack was told. Now it was slowly approaching with its accompanying squad of eight soldiers. The tank stopped in an empty, rocky patch of the field, and two of the soldiers sitting on it hopped off and started walking towards the town. Applejack frowned, then put her binoculars in her saddlebag and went downstairs.

Eight sets of eyes greeted her, the commissioned officers of their rag-tag platoon. “They’ve stopped in the rock field,” Applejack reported, her eyes on the leader. “Two of ‘em are coming in from the south road.”

Tech Space, a large bluish-gray unicorn, nodded. “A shame they’re not stupid enough to drive the Timberwolf straight into town. But they obviously don’t think there’s that many of us here, or else they would have sent more infantry.” He turned back to the diagram laid out on the table. “So Skydust and the other pegasi will fly out and distract the tank, while Tinderjack’s team attacks from the east and my team from the south. I will try to get on top of it and unlock the hatch so we can kill the crew.” He looked up and met the eyes of the gathered ponies. “And yes, it has to be me. If any other unicorn tries, you’ll probably just trigger the safeguards.” He paused. “Those left will intercept the scouts.”

Seated on the far side of the room, Tinderjack crossed his forelegs and shook his head. “We’re going to get slaughtered.”

Tech Space had an exasperated look. “We don’t have a choice outside of abandoning this town. That Timberwolf’s got more than enough firepower to level this village.”

Tinderjack grunted. “We might take fewer losses just hoofing it across country and taking our chances with the airships.”

“And we might take more.” Tech Space shook his head. “And you’re forgetting that if we succeed, we’ll have a tank.”

“Assuming they don’t blow it up to stop us from getting it.”

“They won’t.” Applejack didn’t know where Tech Space got the confidence from, but the way the stallion said those words was reassuring. “Now let’s move.”

----------

Four unicorns galloped across the yellow zone plain. Crystalline led the way, followed closely by Shining Armor. The two Shock Troopers, on the other hand, trailed far behind, hindered by their heavy armor.

It took only half an hour of running for Shining Armor to decide that the situation was untenable. They couldn’t afford to run at the reduced pace of the Shock Troopers. With difficulty, they agreed to have him and Crystalline go ahead while they would stay behind.

Now accompanied only by the mercenary, Shining Armor raced over the plaid, red-green grass. Ugly, discolored clouds brewed overhead, occasionally obscuring the sun as they passed forests of polka-dot trees and darted around herds of poisonous rabbits. It was familiar territory for Shining Armor, though chaos always had new surprises.

“Are we getting any closer?” he asked Crystalline.

The unicorn mare was breathing hard. “One second,” she huffed out between breaths as she closed her eyes. Her horn glowed, and she swept it back and forth towards the south. “Seems like it.” She paused for breath. “Their wounded must be slowing them down quite a bit. Still, it’s quite the distance. I suppose it’s lucky that airship got us most of the way.”

Shining Armor gave an annoyed grunt in response and looked south. Looming ahead were tortured badlands, filled with gaping chasms and dark cliffs. “I think we can save time by cutting across the red zone.”

Crystallined looked at him, one eyebrow raised, as though he were crazy. When she decided he was being serious, however, she turned her eyes to the sky nervously. “There’s storm clouds brewing, and the wind’s picking up. If it starts raining... well, there might not be much of us left.”

Shining Armor smirked at her. “It’ll be fine, I’ve run monster-hunting operations in this red zone before. If it starts raining I can just cast a shield spell.”

“If you say so.” Crystalline bowed her head, and the two resumed the chase.

The plaid grass soon gave way to charred soil that smelled strongly of sulfur, driven by the wind into great dust clouds that raged across the horizon. Fortunately, none were close enough to be a danger to the two unicorns. They soon came across their first obstacle: a great chasm that stretched for miles in either direction, the sides of which were hundreds of meters of sheer rock that dropped straight down into a stony abyss.

Crystalline peered down the canyon and glanced at the other unicorn. “Well? What now, O Fearless Leader?”

A twinge of annoyance pricked its way through Shining Armor, but he didn’t let it show. “Just teleport us across,” he suggested coolly, as though he were explaining to a foal why the sky was blue.

Crystalline sighed and held out a hoof. Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “It’s easier if I’m holding on to you,” she explained.

The thought of the mercenary grabbing onto him was almost enough to make him reconsider. Almost. Sighing in resignation, he walked over to the mare and let her wrap a foreleg around his back. Light enveloped them, and then they were on the other side of the chasm. Crystalline blinked and shook her head; evidently teleporting two such a long distance was more than what she was used to.

“Hope you’re not tired yet,” Shining Armor quipped cheerfully, reveling in the mare’s distress. “We’ve got a lot more chasms to cross.”

Three rifts and half an hour later, Crystalline plopped down onto the ground closed her eyes, rubbing her head. “That’s enough for me, I’m taking a break.”

Shining Armor looked down at her and frowned. “You can rest after we’ve secured the Lord Magister. We keep moving.”

Crystalline opened one eye, glared at him, then closed it again. “Then I hope you have fun crossing the next canyon by yourself.”

Shining Armor stomped the ground with one hoof. “That’s an order.”

“I don’t take orders from you,” she stated quietly, eyes still closed.

Snarling, Shining Armor flicked his left blade forward and pointed it straight at the mare’s chest. “You’re the reason we’re here in the first place,” he spat, filling every word with as much contempt as he could. “You attacked my city, kidnapped my leader, and killed two of my friends.” He raised the blade up to Crystalline’s neck. “I have every reason to avenge them right now, so for your own good you better not tempt me.”

Crystalline opened her eyes and looked away, down the canyon they had just crossed. “Empty threat,” she said, and the commando could almost hear the eyes rolling in her head. “You need me to get through the terrain here, and you need me to find the Magister. So you can take your patriotism and loyalty and shove it down Discord’s dead throat.”

Shining Armor growled, but the mercenary was right. So he retracted his blade and turned back around, shaking his head. Why in the world had General Blitz wanted to bring her along? There were hundreds of mares and stallions every bit as deadly and skilled as her in Canterlot; surely one of them also knew this gem-finding spell of hers.

He sat down, his insides boiling with frustration at each passing second that they weren’t moving. Too much tension was building up in his body; he needed to run, to kick something, to release all this pent-up anger and energy. I need to calm down, he thought. He looked to the sky, watching the way the sickly-colored clouds roiled around in the atmosphere, accompanied by occasional flashes of black lightning. The sight slowly cleared his mind, and he shook his head at the way he was behaving. So immature and emotional; he needed to take a step back and evaluate the situation more objectively. Hating Crystalline wouldn’t accomplish anything. Even if she was a traitor and mercenary scum, the fact remained that Shining Armor had no choice but to rely on her.

“So...” he started, back still turned to the unicorn mare, “you’re Canterlot ex-military?”

There was a long silence, during which Shining Armor thought Crystalline was simply ignoring him. Finally she answered. “For a bit. I got picked up by Intelligence early on though.”

“Ah. So you were a spy.”

“Assassin. I wouldn’t make a very good spy. I stand out too much.”

“Yeah, I don’t suppose you see many mares as tall as you.”

“You’re a pretty big guy yourself.”

Shining Armor smirked; he could imagine Crystalline’s bemused, one-eyebrow-raised expression in his head.

A tremulous rumble rose from all around them as the ground began to shake. Shining Armor quickly stood up, alert to the earthquake. But as quickly as it began the shaking stopped, leaving only the howling wind. Just a small one, a perfectly normal occurrence in a red zone. Shining Armor turned back to his thoughts, casting about his mind for another question. “So, uh... What’s your cutie mark supposed to be?”

“It’s a crystal flower. It represents how self-centered and stuck-up I am.”

“Really?” Shining Armor turned his head around, eyes wide, prompting Crystalline to giggle.

“No. It represents jewelry-making.”

The commando turned his head back around and stared again at the clouds. “And what does that have to do with being an assassin?”

There was a short pause. “Nothing.” Crystalline answered, eliciting a quizzical look from Shining Armor. “You know, just because your cutie mark says something doesn’t mean it has to be the only thing you’re good at.” When the commando didn’t respond, she continued. “What about you? Ever try anything else than being a soldier?”

Shining Armor stared at his hooves for a long time. Memories of his early childhood flashed by in his mind. As a foal, he had always wanted to be a soldier like his father. In a schoolyard brawl he had discovered his talent for shield spells and his protective nature. And, now that he thought about it, he had never really questioned his destiny. “No,” he finally answered. “Protecting the things I cared about was all I ever really wanted to do. Saving my friends and family from all the bad things out there. Ever since I was little, I only wanted to be...”

“... a knight in shining armor,” Crystalline finished, her clear, mellow voice as cheesy as a bad romance novel. Shining Armor chuckled; it was quite the appropriate name, wasn’t it? Her tone shifted. “Well, that’s very noble of you.”

Shining Armor frowned, replaying that phrase in his head over and over. Try as he might, he could not detect even the slightest hint of sarcasm in those words. But was there any way anypony could say something like that seriously, much less this mare?

“Well, I feel better now,” Crystalline said, standing up onto her feet. “Let’s get moving, shall we?”

----------

Applejack wasn’t stupid. Clad in light metal armor and gripping a sword in her mouth, she crawled through the cornfield on her belly, well aware that she was meant to be cannon fodder. It was not a coincidence that the low-ranking rookies were in this group while all the officers and veterans were with Tech Space.

“Psst!” somepony whispered through the thick forest of corn. “Orange! Keep up!”

Applejack could only assume that the voice was referring to her—the only sign of the other ponies through the corn was the sound of rustling. The field was short and immature, hence why they had to crawl, but it was still thick enough to completely obscure vision within a few meters. With her mouth full of sword handle, Applejack couldn’t respond even if she had wanted to. Crawling through the dirt had not been what she had imagined when she signed up to join the navy. Puttin’ the earth in Earth pony, she thought. She was ill-prepared for this kind of maneuvering; her life on the farm was more useful to her now than her naval training. If it hadn’t been for inter-service rivalry, she would never have been sent out to watch for the attack signal at Solarium, and she wouldn’t be here now. We’re almost as good at fightin’ ourselves as we are them, she reflected sadly.

Shouts rang out in the distance, and Applejack heard the clanking of the Timberwolf’s treads against the soil. She dropped the sword from her mouth. “What’s goin’ on?” she whispered loudly.

“Shut up!” a voice whispered. Moments later, faint battle cries echoed, followed by the sounds of machine gun fire nearby.

“GET UP!” the voice shouted, abandoning all attempts at subtlety. “Move, move, attack, attack!”

Applejack picked the sword back up and sprang to her hooves. About two hundred meters away she could see the Timberwolf parked, surrounded by a squad of Solarium light infantry, its turret pointed towards the south with the coaxial machine gun mounted next to the main cannon blazing away.

I guess we’re busted. Nothin’ for it now. All around her, a dozen and a half more soldiers rose from the cornfield. Most were Earth ponies and had weapons in their mouths; the few unicorns let out a battle cry, and together the group charged.

The Solarium infantry jumped, surprised at the appearance of the second group, but rapidly started adjusting their formation to meet the new threat. The Timberwolf’s hull turned and reversed to the right, away from them. The tank commander, his upper body poking out from the commander’s hatch, swiveled around the beam gun mounted on top of the turret and took aim at the charging infantry.

As cyan bolts of magic lanced forth from the tank commander’s gun, Applejack side-stepped and swerved, trying to make herself as difficult a target to hit as possible. Adrenaline pumped through her veins; there was no time for thought, only the run. The beams of pure magical energy filled the air around her. She ignored them as best she could, as well as the screams of the ponies unfortunate enough to be hit.

The tank’s main cannon boomed, the thundercrack ringing out across the yellow zone fields. From the corner of her eye Applejack saw a spray of dirt and dust burst into the air to the south, but couldn’t see anything else. She was close now—less than fifty meters to go.

A cyan beam struck, blasting dust into the air. Applejack felt a wave of pressure and heat that made her stumble and fall. Her sword fell from her mouth, and hit the ground with a dull shock of pain in her shoulder. A wave of panic surged in her chest. Instinctively she lifted her leg and looked.

It was unhurt. Applejack blinked, taking in the fact that she was not only alive, but uninjured. She spat, thinking something about embarrassment before remembering that everypony around would be too busy to notice, much less care. Swiftly she grabbed her sword again and resumed running.

Already the first Manehattanite wave had reached the Solarium infantry, and the sound of metal clashing against metal rang as the soldiers dueled. The Timberwolf’s main guns were still firing towards the south, while the tank commander’s beam gun was shooting up at the swarms of pegasi dogfighting in the sky.

Applejack ran past the nearby fights and went straight for the tank, desperately reversing away from the infantry duels. She quickly caught up to the clunky Timberwolf and leapt up onto the front, jumping again off the driver’s hatch and landing on the turret. The tank commander, a green Earth pony, yelped in surprise. Applejack swung her sword, but the tank commander ducked her awkward swing, diving down into the safety of his tank and closing the hatch behind him.

Mentally cursing, Applejack stared at the closed hatch, wondering what to do. She only had a few seconds to ponder before the tank starting swerving wildly, its turret spinning as fast as it could, trying to throw her off. She tried to grab the commander’s hatch, hanging on for dear life, but her hooves couldn’t get a good grip, and she slid off the turret onto the rear of the tank’s hull, then down onto the ground, dropping her sword. She quickly rolled, getting out of the way of the Timberwolf’s treads as fast as she could, and the tank sped past her. The turret swiveled round, and she saw the coaxial machine gun line up with her eyes...

It was right then Tech Space bounced up next to her, leaping onto the tank’s rear. The momentary distraction was just barely enough for Applejack to scramble and dive to the side the machine gun roared and bullets riddled the air she had occupied seconds before. The turret swung around to track her, but she ran forwards, keeping ahead of the rotation, and leapt onto the turret in a single bound.

Tech Space was already on top of the turret, his horn pointed down at the commander’s hatch as he tried to telekinetically disassemble the lock. In his concentration he failed to notice a Solarian jump up onto the tank behind him.

“Look out!” Applejack shouted, shoving him out of the way as the Solarian swung her sword. Before the Solarian could strike again Applejack kicked her in the chest, knocking her down in front of the Timberwolf. There was a momentary expression of panic, then a sickening crunch as the tank passed over her.

“Nice!” Tech Space shouted, and turned back to the hatch. The tank lurched again, trying to throw them off, but this time Applejack was ready and held her grip on the many protrusions rising from the turret’s surface. Bolts and rods flew out from the hatch as Tech Space did his work, and moments later the hatch swung open, followed by the tank commander as Tech Space’s magic lifted her into the air.

“Stop, stop! We surrender!” she screamed.

The tank crawled to a halt. Tech Space scoffed and swung his head, tossing her into the ground. He pulled out the terrified gunner, and grinned. “Good work,” he said to Applejack.

Applejack merely nodded, too out of breath to say anything. She looked around; the battle was almost over now, the Manehattanite’s overwhelming numbers having won the day. But even a casual glance told her that there were far fewer soldiers standing now than there had been a few minutes ago.

She closed her eyes and tried not to think about it.

---------

About time, Shining Armor thought.

After hours of running, their goal was in sight. His legs were burning, his armor was hot and uncomfortable, and sweat stung his eyes, but at last he could see it. From his vantage point on top of the ridge, he saw the Manehattan Rangers making their way across the plaid hills. Bound and gagged, the Lord Magister, though dirtied, still managed to sparkle even across this distance. Four of the ponies were carrying a pair of stretchers—likely injured in the crash, since none of them had been rendered unable to walk by their fight with Shining Armor.

He considered the situation carefully. Both he and Crystalline were tired from running for so long. He knew how much strength he still had, but he didn’t know how well the mercenary was holding up. But the Rangers had to be tired too, and all of them were at least lightly wounded. The teleporters were the most important—he remembered from their fight that there were at least three of them. One of the teleporters was on a stretcher, so that left the other two: the red stallion and the cyan mare. “Do you think you can snipe off the light blue unicorn from here?” he asked Crystalline.

The mare narrowed her eyes in concentration. “Probably.”

Shining Armor nodded. “I’ll take out the red one, then. We charge immediately after. Are you ready for this?”

Crystalline nodded. “Shouldn’t be that hard; you took on all eight of them by yourself, after all.”

Don’t remind me, Shining Armor grumbled mentally. The mercenary just couldn’t seem to stop making him recall that she had been the one to kidnap the Lord Magister in the first place.

The two unicorns lay down against the ground and pointed their horns to the targets. They took several seconds to steady their aim, taking care to lead the targets. “Ready?” Shining Armor asked.

“Yes.”

“On the count of three. One, two, three!”

Two beams of magical energy lanced out from the ridge, one brilliant magenta and the other deep violet. They struck their targets with deadly precision. The red stallion was knocked into the air by the force of the blast, while the cyan mare collapsed instantly onto the ground.

Shining Armor then focused all his power and raised his horn to the heavens. Tremendous energy surged, and an incandescent pillar of magenta light burst forth into the sky, where it climbed hundreds of meters until finally spraying out perpendicularly in all directions. The shimmering translucent membrane curved downwards to the earth, and the edges of the shield spell slammed into the ground, trapping the Manehattan Rangers inside.

“HOLY—” Crystalline yelped, recoiling in shock as the gargantuan shield manifested. “Ghosts of the Princesses, what in the world—”

“MOVE!” Shining Armor shouted, leaping off the ridge.

----------

Applejack sat in the gunner’s seat of the captured Timberwolf, peering through the scope of the main gun. Various markings and notches lined the sights as she peered at Tinderjack off in the distance of the rock field. “So the notches tell ya the angle...” she muttered to herself while consulting the crew manual, “and if ya know the size you can tell the distance... Tinderjack’s about a meter, so that’s... one hundred meters?” She stared at the manual, confused. That didn’t seem quite right...

“D-Discord’s black bones!”

Applejack turned around and peered up the hatch. “What’s goin’ on?”

Tech Space’s face suddenly filled the hatch. “Somepony deployed a theatre shield a few miles away! Stuff’s going down, we need to get out of here!”

Applejack pushed open the gunner hatch and peeked out at the gigantic translucent dome that had appeared out of nowhere. All around her the Manehattanites were swarming into motion as they prepared to evacuate. A shiver of fear ran down her spine.

“They must have an army coming!” Tinderjack shouted. “Let’s move!”

“No!” a brown pegasus shouted. “It was only one unicorn! I saw it with my own eyes!”

Instantly, the scene around her froze. Every single pony turned their head to look at the pony who had said those words.

“One. Unicorn?” Tech Space thundered. “You’re saying one unicorn did that?”

The pegasus nodded furiously. “I’m telling the truth! That’s why the shield’s pink instead of blue!” He paused for a moment, then added, “There’s a group of Rangers trapped inside, the unicorn’s going after them!”

A lot of nervous shifting ensued from the gathered ponies. Tech Space closed his eyes, deep in thought. An aura of awe and terror rose up in Applejack’s chest. “Get in,” Tech Space snapped to Applejack, then turned to the rest of the soldiers. “We’re gonna save them.”

Applejack’s jaw dropped. “Are ya crazy?” she shouted, jabbing her hoof at the gigantic magenta dome. “Ya wanna fight a pony that can do that?”

“We’re not leaving those Rangers to die!” Tech Space shot back. “If it’s just one pony, then there’s no way it can be as strong as an actual theatre shield. Get moving!”

----------

Shining Armor felt the impact before he heard it. A powerful blow against the upper area of his shield, then the boom of thunder. He looked up. Rolling over a distant hill was the boxy white form of a Timberwolf tank.

His first reaction after finishing off one of the Rangers was to wonder why a Solarium tank was shooting at them, but then he saw the dark green uniforms of Manehattanite infantry crawling all around it. It only took him a second to arrive at the conclusion that the tank had been captured.

Damn it. He and Crystalline must have chased the Rangers a lot closer to the Manehattan forces than he had thought. Sensing an attack from his left, he whirled around to parry a blow from another Ranger. There was a flash of light, and then Crystalline appeared behind the occupied Manehattanite. She stabbed through the back of his neck, and the Ranger fell down to the ground, dead.

That left only the grey unicorn that had grabbed the Lord Magister and ran away, dragging the old mare behind him. “Crystalline!” Shining Armor shouted. “Get the Magister and get out of here!”

The Timberwolf fired again. Shining Armor felt the impact against his shield then heard the boom of the cannon. Sweat dripped down his face as he grit his teeth. Exhaustion was taking its toll—using the giant shield spell was not easy. Only now did he begin to notice just how suffocatingly hot his armor was.

Crystalline blinked to the grey unicorn’s side, left front blade stabbing towards his spine. The grey unicorn swung around, deflecting the blade off his back armor, then counterattacked. Crystalline teleported again to the other side, dodging his attack and striking up at his neck. Had she the speed she displayed when fighting Shining Armor on the train, it would have been a killing blow—but the attack was just sluggish enough for the grey unicorn to feint to the side.

Three lights flashed around her, announcing the arrival of Manehattanite reinforcements. Crystalline blinked away behind a boulder as spears cut through the air she had occupied.

The Timberwolf fired again, and this time it was followed by a full-speed ram against the shield. Shining Armor grimaced as the magical barrier began to crack and splinter, and finally fall to pieces. He hadn’t the strength left to reinforce it.

Cyan beams and machine gun fire erupted towards him; he quickly cast a smaller shield around himself as he ran towards Crystalline. Bullets pinged off the barrier as he slid behind the boulder.

“Nice of you to join me.” Even now the mare had the energy for smart remarks.

The incoming fire stopped; Shining Armor peeked up from behind the rock. The Manehattanites were retreating, running as fast as they could back towards the tank. Seeing Shining Armor poke his head out, the tank began firing its machine gun again, and bullets peppered the front of the rock as Shining Armor ducked back down.

No. He would not fail again, not having come this close. He couldn’t. There was no way he could let that happen. “Teleport us onto the tank!” he snapped at Crystalline.

“Are you crazy?”

“We can take them!”

Crystalline’s expression was incredulous. “You might be able to. I can’t.”

Shining Armor stared at her, chest heaving with every breath. “Do it,” he snarled.

“No.”

All the pent-up frustration from dealing with this mare suddenly burst his dam of self-restraint. He flicked out his blade and brought it to her neck, spitting in fury. “Do it, or so help me I’ll cut your damn head off!” Crystalline only eyed him cautiously. “Go on! Give me a damn excuse! I’ve been waiting for this!”

Crystalline scoffed, an expression that brewed in Shining Armor a terrible revulsion. “And how’s killing me going to get your precious Magister back? You’re too good and noble for that.”

It would be so easy. Just a single, simple motion of his arm. The edge of his blade would cut across her throat, spilling the deep red blood that always ran so easily. He had nothing but disgust for this marble tomb of a pony, beautiful on the outside but filled with nothing but revolting decay on the inside. She deserved it, and Shining Armor knew he deserved to avenge his friends. But...

She was right. He couldn’t do it.

Damn it. All his strength and magical potential, all his training and years of experience, and he was helpless here now, his goal within sight. He brought down his foreleg and turned away, punching the rock, his face twisted in agonizing frustration. The sound of bullets continued to echo across the yellow zone. Not again. Not again. Not again...

--------------------

Declaration of War by the Interim Government of Solarium (excerpt)

Be it enacted by the authority of the Supreme Commander and the Secretariat assembled that war is hereby declared to exist between the city of Solarium and the governments of Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Cloudsdale, and Trottingham. Whereas these states have committed unprovoked acts of war against Solarium and her allies...

Declaration of War by the Republic of Manehattan and Northeastern Territories (excerpt)

... the governments Solarium, Canterlot, and Baltimare have violated in the most flagrant and increasing measure the survival of the city of Manehattan and its dependencies, and have been continually guilty of the most severe provocations against this city...

Declaration of War by the Cloudsdale Federation (excerpt)

... These states have declared their intention to deny us the resources necessary to ensure our survival, turning a blind eye to our suffering and ignoring our need. They have made it abundantly clear that they view us, not as fellow ponies struggling to live in an increasingly harsh world, but as an enemy and competitor to a goal that should be shared by us all...

Declaration of War by the Baltimare Hegemony (excerpt)

... They deny us our inalienable rights to use our resources and technology as we wish, to make alliances with whom we desire, and to exist under our own sovereign government. Instead, they would dictate to us our actions, to be carried out at their leisure and for their benefit, instead of the good of the ponies of the city of Baltimare and her allies...

Declaration of War by the Magistracy of Canterlot (excerpt)

... This has been deemed by the Magistrates to be an unacceptable threat upon the ponies of this city. So let it be known that that the generals of Canterlot are authorized to direct and deploy the entire military forces and the resources of the Government to whatever extent is necessary to bring the conflict to successful termination, so that the races of ponies shall not perish from the earth.

Comments

[Hoof of Approval]

Facts:

We WILL be running into Rarity if Crystalline is any indication.
We WILL be seeing a lot more of Applejack if this is any indication.
Shining Armor is in a bit of a pickle right now, but is there something redeemable about his new partner?
Twilight and Alternate!Twilight will be living in the same place... and that will be interesting.

Questions:

Where's Pinkie?
When is Shining finally going to snap and kill his temporary companion?
Will the Manehattan forces escape with the Element of Magic? Did they just ruin one of the few chances to reunite all of them?
How will Twilight deal with a much more jaded and cynical version of herself? Will she even be able to reach her?

Request:

Moar plz.

[batran]

great

[uNkwOwn]

Damn, Shining's like Commander Shepard in this universe.

[kingtiger666]

Well shit.

[Arkeus]

2441842
I don't really know why you want Shining to kill Cadance...

[Hoof of Approval]

2444700
So THAT is who Crystalline is. Thank you so much for revealing that to me.

The question still stands. Will he avenge his comrades, or spare this ruthless mercenary that cost him quite a bit?

Not saying I want him to actually do it.. but I MUST KNOW.

[Heliostorm]

2446311

I'm pretty sure that was just a typo on his end, Crystalline is Crystalline and Cadence is Cadence.

[Arkeus]

2446834
Yeah, it's not like having an abnormally sized poney with a crystalline cutie mark who is having UST relationship with Shining Armor, a possibly 'dark past' (wing got torn off? she never got her wings because the crystal empire got annihilated and she is THEIR princes), as well as her physical description are all screaming HERE IS CADANCE.

I thought that it was pretty muc common knowledge here, given the extremely heavy foreshadowing you are having there since the first chapter

[GBscientist]

2450282

Crystalline could theoretically be Fleur de Lis as she also broadly fits the description. I'd really like to see the mystery resolved though.

[thewookie1]

2450282>>2453915

I had this theory earlier, but the author told me actually she's an OC pony that was in another story of his.

I hope we won't have another 1 month+ wait next time

[Heliostorm]

2454396

I hope so too.