• Published 22nd Jan 2013
  • 12,641 Views, 1,314 Comments

Re:Harmony - starcross7



A thousand years ago, the three pony tribes failed to form a unified nation, and war doomed the unicorns to near-extinction. Twilight and Applejack now seek the Elements in the hopes of ending the long conflict between pegasi and earth ponies.

  • ...
57
 1,314
 12,641

PreviousChapters Next
91 - Nemesis

Chapter 91 - Nemesis

Sweetie Belle knew that she and Apple Bloom should be supporting Applejack in the big race, or at the very least meet her at the finish line. Or perhaps they should have rode with Scootaloo in the escort ride along. It would not have mattered anyway. The fog was too thick to enjoy the Ghastly Gorge thoroughly.

Yet Apple Bloom had a strong inkling to visit the charred ruins of the city that bore her family’s name. On the night before, the yellow earth filly poured over an old map of Appleloosa she borrowed from Rainbow Dash’s library, and she even traced the tip of her hoof from Gorge to the apple orchards. Sweetie Belle had seen the worry Applejack had for her little sister, but the siblings exchanged no actual words to one another. They had communicated their understanding of Apple Bloom’s safety, and the orange pony gave the yellow filly her Stetson to use as a protection amulet. Of course, adult supervision had been provided for Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle, upon Scootaloo’s understanding, volunteered to accompany her as well. She did not know what she would expect, and all she knew that the city lay ruined after years of war.

Upon her arrival, the petite princess barely stomached the tragic sight. Here in Appleloosa, there were no standing buildings. Either they were blown up or toppled. Ponies lived there. In the streets, cars lay rusted and abandoned. Ponies drove in those.

Then Sweetie Belle trotted up towards the ruins of a toyshop with is roof blown off, and she was careful to not cut her hooves with the shattered glass that littered broken sidewalks. Like the buildings themselves, the dollhouses and all other assorted playsets ruined. A doll lay at the doorway with its left legs chopped off and stuffing spilling out from its chest. That doll would never find itself in the hooves a filly.

To think that her Empire could end up like this nearly drove her to tears, and if not for her accompanying big sister, she would be paralyzed with homesickness. She worried about her stepfather and her stepmother's well-being. She had hoped that Captain Shining Armor and the Royal Guard had held back Gaea's onslaught. It took a while to recover from her worries, and right on the spot she performed a quick calisthenics routine her sister taught her once every other morning. All right. Sweetie Belle felt better, and she set out to find her friend in this ruined city. Fortunately, Apple Bloom did not venture too far out, and Sweetie Belle caught up to her sitting by a dried up fountain in the city square, one of the few intact structures in the city. The young yellow earth pony uttered a sad sigh as she overlooked an incline to a ruined farmland and a grid of charred tree stumps.

"Are you all right, Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I'm lookin' at my cousins' farm," said Apple Bloom. "My big sis told that Gaea's army withdrew before they evacuated all the ponies from Appleloosa. My cousin Braeburn was among the ones who stayed behind, and he and many of my relatives and family friends fought to defend the apple orchards from the invadin' pegasi."

"Did they survive?"

"Nopony survived. Sweetie Belle, I jus' don't know why ponies can't live together. I wish it was jus' like the Crystal Empire."

"Well, we did have an attempted coup, but even then the Crystal Empire isn't perfect. We had to banish a few unicorns for their crazy experiments, and not a whole lot of ponies liked my stepdad. Also, my sister and I often disagree on a lot of things. For example, she would not even dream of walking out here without a palanquin, and I would be just fine on my own hooves."

"It's not like a lot of ponies died. Out here, the war's goin' for almost a thousand years, and I've already seen all the orphaned foals it creates."

"Then it is a good thing that your sister started this quest. I love my sister, but I wouldn't think she'd venture out of the Empire without a little pressure."

"Girls, we should probably get going," spoke Coco as she emerged with little warning from behind the fountain. Sweetie Belle had found it suspicious to see their adult escort dressed in a jet-black trench coat and stockings for her hind legs. As the Spitfire's resident tailor, she would have the dignity to dress in something colorful that Rarity would be proud of. Black was something ponies wore when they were depressed or wanting to hide something.

Sweetie Belle lamented on harboring these suspicions for Coco. She was like the long lost friend her big sister had found after so many years. They conversed almost endlessly on the fashions of the Crystal Empire and Gaea, and Coco amazed Rarity about the idea of creating franchise stores to spread their vision of divine beauty across the continent. Coco was the only other pony allowed to feed and brush Opalescence, and she managed to give her a bath with nary a scratch. Even last night, Sweetie Belle stayed up with Rarity and Coco on what kinds of stallions they fancied.

Today, Sweetie Belle felt a dark shadow hanging over Coco. Her cream-white coat somehow appeared paler, and her upbeat smile had vanished. Now a sickening smell started accompanying her, and while its odor was not enough to make the petite princess throw up, it made her uncomfortable. Sweetie Belle did not want to offend her, but at the same time she did not want to be near her.

When they made their way back to the finish line at the Ghastly Gorge, Sweetie Belle made sure she trotted in line with Coco and that she was between her and Apple Bloom, who was still preoccupied with the destruction of Appleloosa. She would not allow Coco to fall behind or trot ahead of them. Yet the fog grew the closer they reached Appleloosa's outskirts, and anything could happen in there. With her sensitive horn tingling, Sweetie Belle sensed that something was wrong. She stopped abruptly and then held out her foreleg to prevent her friend from advancing any further. By then, they could barely see Coco's outline.

"Why did you two stop?" Coco asked.

"Maybe it's not safe for us to go back yet," lied Sweetie Belle. "The fog is really thick."

"That's okay. Our aeroscooters should be close by."

"I forgot where we parked."

"My wrist computer should be able to track the signal. If we can't find them, then we go back to the Spitfire. I can pinpoint it from here."

"Uh, the fog is really getting thick, and I don't think it's safe for us to move forward. Can't we call for a pegasus to clear it off? Miss Coco? Coco? Where are you?"

The fog became so thick that nopony could see a few feet past them, and Coco vanished before they realized it. Panic set in for Sweetie Belle, and she chomped at Apple Bloom's tail to pull her away to heaven knows where. Apple Bloom, bless her heart, had no idea what was going on, and of all the fillies in their little crusading group she would already have the wit to figure out the deception. At the very least she empathized with Sweetie Belle's panic and soon she ran unassisted alongside her.

Then the fillies tripped upon a protruding tree root, and the pair tumbled off the edge of a steep hill and down into a muddy trench. Sweetie Belle subconsciously rolled herself side to minimize her injury, for years of roughhousing in the streets of Underton taught her about the fragility of unicorn horns. She landed in a painful thud, and watched as Apple Bloom lose her sister's Stetson hat as she rolled head-first to a rock. She was okay, but she groaned in pain, and then opened her mouth to expose her chipped incisor upon which she massaged with her tongue.

Yet Sweetie Belle cried out too late for Apple Bloom's safety right when the enemy manifested behind her. Coco Pommel appeared with a shimmering flash from the fog. With a cold stare, she grabbed a hold of Apple Bloom and then knocked her out with an aerosol agent hidden underneath her sleeve. Then like magic, both Coco and Apple Bloom vanished into the fog. The sickening smell intensified, and suddenly a trio of changelings decloaked. Their atrophied hooves planted onto the ground, and their gnarled insectoid wings extended from black thoraxes. Their segmented eyes pointed towards the frightened unicorn filly, and they hissed at her with their exposed fangs.

Right as Sweetie Belle screamed, a fourth changeling flew in and delivered a kick one of the first three. Did it want to take the credit in Sweetie Belle's demise? It did not look to be the case, and the rogue changeling continued to punch and kick away its brood-brethren that dared lunge or even snarl at the petite princess. Sweetie Belle's savior still had that slightly regurgitating smell, but she felt a lot safer being rescued by "her". In fact, it was the Spitfire's resident changeling, Doomie. Sweetie Belle knew it was her, for Doomie sported the blue scarf that Rarity had embroidered with gold thread when they ran into each other.

"Doomie!" cried Sweetie Belle. "We gotta rescue Apple Bloom!"

"I'm sorry, but we can't," replied the deep-voiced changeling. "You must run, petite princess. The enemy is deploying the swarm."

Doomie was right. The fog slowly gave way to reveal a swarm of enemy changelings surrounding Sweetie Belle and her rescuer. Above them, they could hear and see the menacing rumble of the enemy's aerial mothership breaking through the clouds.


Bombs? Not on her watch. Rainbow Dash shot off and initiated her Buccaneer Jump. Charge up the tip of your hooves with wind and electricity and then use them to slice through the weakest seam of every bomb you bounce off of. Three--no, thirteen was the number she touched, and after whisking herself to safe distance, the bombs exploded before they could even reach the ground.

Darn, she miscounted! Three more screamed down to the ponies down below. She hoped that Mad-Eye Gunner Derpy or Airwalker Flitter would take care of the rest, but it would appear they didn't. Lo and behold, a dome-shaped magenta barrier protected her entire crew from the explosions, and it disappeared to allow them to flee back into the Spitfire not too far from the Gorge's finish line. Rainbow Dash's eagle eyes spotted Twilight breathing heavily as she retracted her magic. That's a bookworm for you. It seemed that right now she was more concerned about saving pony lives than proofing this illustrious captain's guilt. Admittedly, Rainbow Dash did have to a lie a little, but she had a good reason. A really good reason, but she could not worry about that right now.

She already got the gist of what was going on from Sweetie Belle, and immediately she flew higher up until she nearly crashed her head into the underbelly of a massive black airship. For a second, she thought somepony hijacked the Spitfire underneath her muzzle, but this airship was bigger, badder, and more rugged. It looked cool, but there were times that things would look too cool for their own good. This was one example that something as awesome as the Spitfire would never be improved on, and that Gaea, being the poser that they were, was trying too hard.

The enemy airship opened its side doors, and several black Gaean fighter jets fired out. They flew past Rainbow Dash before a trio of them flew back and started spamming her with a hail of bullets. The blue pegasus snorted at the predictability of this earth pony air force. They were always building new and faster jets, and admittedly some did look badass with their dark colors and sleek design. Yet Rainbow Dash was just one pony, and the jets needed to be almost as big as buses in order to match a pegasus's speed.

Even with Gaea's aerial might, the pegasi's domain was the skies. They were masters of the atmos particles that filled the upper atmosphere, and Rainbow Dash liked to think she subconsciously deflected these bullets with her erect wings. This trio of jets was small fry. They were not worth her trouble and not worth challenging. She allowed two to zoom right past her with their metal wings nearly brushing her own feathered wings. For the third one she engorged her wings atmos particles for her Fantastic Filly Flash Punch. Her electrified right hoof collided with the cockpit and shattered it, and she forced the faceless earth pony pilot to eject in a panic. His jet went down, and Rainbow Dash flew circles around it to use as a shield as she made her way to the underside of the enemy airship.

No doubt about it. The enemy somehow stole the designs of her beloved Spitfire, and just like the Spitfire its underside was lined with changeling shells crafted from their exoskeletons. At least with the Spitfire, the changeling shells they used came from those who had already died honorably from old age. The stronger sickening smell from this imitator felt like that they brutally sacrificed live changelings in this construction of the enemy airship.

Atmos Arts allowed Rainbow Dash to charge up hooves with static electricity, which then allowed her upside down on the enemy airship's bottom hull. She had to be quick since this was a temporary technique that lasts only a few minutes. That's plenty of time for her to jab the nearest machine gun turret with an electrically charged hoof. She was unsure if her plan worked when she did it, but Rainbow Dash never dwelled upon such things during battle. She knew only of results, and her desired result came when a nearby maintenance hatch popped open with a clone soldier's head poking out of it. Immediately she flew right towards him and then hurtled him and his backup partner down to the ground below. She felt a little bad for doing this, but then again the clone soldier were just as soulless and mechanical as the winged roboponies Gaea had been sending out recently. At least these clones had parachutes they deployed immediately upon their descent.

Rainbow Dash then wormed her way through the claustrophobic and dimly lit metal pathways of this metal beast, knocking out various clone soldiers along the way. Eventually, she kicked open a door that led into a massive hangar where they stored their fleet of fighter jets. It looked impressive, but this space was wasted on all these weapons and the three hundred armed clone soldiers surrounding her.

This felt familiar, and there was a term that the Spa Twins mentioned about when a pony experiences a familiar feeling as if she dreamed of it before. Dijon mustard, or whatever it was called. It didn't matter anyway. Fighting bison was one thing, but three hundred armed soldiers filling every nook and cranny would normally be an expert challenge for a filly pegasus. That filly became a mare, and Rainbow Dash licked her lips as her heart trembled with excitement. She folded her wings back onto the trunk of her body. She made two taps on her hoof and she shot off with her Highspeed Strut in play.

Hoofwork was just as important as flight, and years of training under Maud and Fleetfoot allowed her to become proficient in that technique. Even on the ground, Rainbow Dash moved as if she was on air, lightly tapping towards her target, knocking him out, and then bouncing off towards the next one, etc. She lost count on how many of the clone soldiers she took down. Maybe it was fifty or seventy-five. See, this was the disadvantage of high numbers. Too many ponies were sent to gun down just one pegasus, and all it ended up was creating confusion and friendly fire. Rainbow Dash had cut a path through the sea of clones as she made her way towards the main hallway. She threw a clone's body at the sliding double door panel to get it open, and she piled two more on the doorway just to keep it open.

From then on, it was a straightaway path, assuming that the enemy closely imitated the innards of the airship. Rainbow Dash effortlessly speared through the steel halls and bowled over a few wandering clone soldiers as she zeroed in towards the bridge. Things started become a little different at this point. The airship was bigger, but the bridge felt like it was further, wider, and heavily guarded. The number of armored clone soldiers protecting the elevators to the bridge increased, but she had no time to fight them off one by one. Instead, she swooped underneath their legs and headed it to the stairwell where it was just as heavily guarded. Still the soldiers' hail of bullets was no match for the blue pegasus's agility, and she zipped upwards and toppled the enemy down the stairs like dominoes.

Her hind leg kicked the stairwell door off its hinges. Man, at first sight the bridge was as big as the Spitfire's dining hall, and its side walls were lined with two levels of soldiers managing about a dozen big screen computer terminals. At the very back stood an angular two-level platform containing the wheel and the target. On top she saw Scoots' new best friend tied up to a chair guarded by an older pink-maned officer of some sort. She didn't see Coco anywhere, but first things first. Rainbow Dash propelled herself towards Apple Bloom. She only had one chance in less than ten seconds to rescue the yellow earth filly.

In two seconds, her face slammed right into something invisible. Rainbow Dash uncooly slumped to their ground, and her wings fell limp towards the side of the body. She tried backing away, but she was blocked. She tried sidestepped left and right, but she was blocked. Slamming her shoulders against the transparent barrier weakened her instead, and she finally heard a droning vacuuming sound right above her. Fatigue soon set in, and as she looked up, she could see a halo of dull light flowing up to the vents above her. Talk about cheap. These anti-magic earth ponies found a way to suck all the glowing atmos particles surrounding a pegasus.

The lower platform door slid open, and out came a pink earth pony with a purple mane dressed in a dark blue military uniform. She appeared too glammed up to be a military mare. Her appearance would be the result if Pinkie Pie and Rarity were smashed together but kept the worst aspects of the latter. She approached Rainbow Dash with a mocking smile and a snobbish tilt of her head. The blue pegasus heard of her from somewhere. Her name was probably Admiral Suri Poli-whatshername, and that the one guarding Apple Bloom was Rear Admiral Prim Something-Someline.

The one who gave Admiral Suri her coffee was none other Coco Pommel, who was now dressed in an intimidating but cool-looking black ops suit. Coco's clothes and her stoic face explained everything, but beneath it all, Rainbow Dash could figure that Coco was hurting a lot in the inside. She was one of the reasons why Dash flew in here.

"A part of me want to believe that you would be smart enough to know that this was all part of a trap to capture you," Suri snorted, "but my darling Coco told me that you like to go head-first against the enemy all by yourself. You should have realized that I could have ordered any of my Clone Soldiers to shoot you dead, but I only sent enough just to force you here. You and the missing daughter of the Chancellor will be the most wonderful trophies that will earn my promotion once my invincible Nemesis shoots down your pitiful Spitfire from the sky, m'kay."

"That's a big claim you're making, Suri Whatshername," said Dash. "You copied my Spitfire and made it bigger, but you haven't copied my crew."

"You think just by gathering up a hodgepodge group of equine vultures and earth pony traitors makes you an effective captain? Not even the Spa Twins with all their discipline have the military experience to fend off against the might of the Manehattan Auxiliary Fleet. Your fondness of gathering helpless ponies will be your undoing. My darling Coco risked several years living in your dingy airship gathering data for me, including the weaknesses of your pathetic crew. Even before then, she was a spy who had to do many unspeakable things in faraway lands for the good of Gaea. Don't you get it? My darling Coco loves her country and she loves being with me, m'kay."

"Okay, I'll admit that I am a pretty bad captain. I'll sleep a lot, and when I'm awake I like to party and drink a lot of apple cider till I overflow the toilet. All we do is rob your transports of treasure and rescue anypony who needs help, especially the pretty ones. You might think Coco has been working for you the whole time she stayed with us in the crew, but you're wrong. I can see it in her eyes that she hates being with you and she hates being a spy. I'm willing to bet that you blackmailed her into working for you, and that you readily accepted her suggestion of keeping me alive. Coco's working against you, even if she doesn't know it, and I'm not giving up on her. I don't care if she's a spy. She's a part of my crew, and I'm gonna bring her and Apple Bloom back to my airship where they belong. But before that, I'm gonna wipe that smugness off your face by throwing coffee into it."

Suri took a bit of offensive to Dash's threats right as her smile disappeared, but then dismissed it right as she took another swig from her coffee cup. She motioned a gesture to Prim Hemline's general direction. Prim Hemline nodded and then pressed a button on her wrist computer. Almost immediately the fans in the atmos particle trap spun faster. The glow above Rainbow Dash became brighter, and she began to feel the air escaping her lungs.

"Rear Admiral," Suri spoke. "Prepare the Nemesis to fire the Geomancer Cannon. We're going to obliterate the Spitfire, and this blue equine vulture is going to watch. Let's see how this power of 'loyalty' you cherish so much hold up against the might of Gaea's military, Rainbow Dash."

PreviousChapters Next