Twilight Sparkle is Mega Mare, and with her trusty AI assistant Spike, she's tasked by Celestia to stop an uprising of berserk cyber-ponies.
In a futuristic Equestria where cybernetic implants are as common as jewelry, Celestia sends her student Twilight Sparkle to locate her five missing research aides during an outbreak of strange pony behavior in Ponyville. As Twilight tracks down the missing aides, it soon becomes apparent that a larger threat is behind their vanishing, and it seems that Ponyville is just the beginning. Can she stop this ancient evil from plunging Equestria into chaos? A crossover with the Mega Man series.
Many thanks to ChromeMyriad for being an awesome reviewer and helping me improve the fic's quality.
Celestia, Princess of the Equine Republic, stepped down from the control pedestal below a sea of monitors and servers lining the wall and walked towards the pony that had just entered her lab.
Twilight Sparkle was a young unicorn, Celestia's personal student and adviser. She wore a shining steel saddle on her back, the latest in neural interface peripherals with on-board computer systems. Her left hoof was a stainless steel cybernetic prosthetic. The prosthetic had a technical name, something with four words that most ponies agreed each had too many letters. Colloquially ponies referred to them as Multitools. A strip of magic-focusing metal circled around her horn along the spiral markings, two lights near the base blinking pink where the metal ran under her skin.
"Of course, Princess." Twilight stopped before her and kneeled. "As always I am happy to aid you however I can."
"I thank you, my student." Celestia looked up at the two guard ponies standing vigilant inside her door, golden armor with the glowing emblem of Celestia's cutie mark over their bodies. "Please, leave us." The guards bowed and left the room, the pristine white doors sliding shut behind them.
"Twilight, I must ask first that we keep this private," the Princess said. Twilight slowly nodded. "We have a mystery on our hooves and I think you're the pony to investigate it." Celestia turned back to the computer controls and raised a hoof to press a button. The feed for one of the smaller monitors blinked to the large central monitor, showing a map of Equestria with a glowing red dot marking a site. Twilight approached behind her and looked up.
"Ponyville?" More data about the town began to stream over the screen as Twilight read. "What's going on there?"
"I'm not sure. That's the problem," Celestia replied. "According to witness reports, ponies are acting in a very peculiar fashion. So far it hasn't been anything too serious, minor acts of mischief mostly. The weather patrol team made it rain chocolate milk, the veterinary clinic let loose their stock of cyber-rabbits in the streets, and so forth."
"How long has this been going on?" Twilight asked, fidgeting slightly at the expression on her face. She wasn't used to seeing her mentor worried like this.
"Since last night, and it seems it has gotten worse. This morning half of the police have not reported in for their duties today. Attempts to contact the mayor of the town have not been returned." Celestia looked back to Twilight. "I don't know what's going on there, and I don't want to raise a panic without just cause, so we need to learn more and quickly."
"What do you need done?"
Celestia nodded at the monitors. "I'm sending you there. I want you to visit the town and find out what the cause of these oddities could be. My hope is that it is nothing serious, but I need to make sure. And there's another problem that concerns me as well. Five of my research aides live in Ponyville doing field research. I've tried to contact them but they haven't responded to my transmissions either. Their safety is of particular importance to me if there is something amiss there." Celestia looked back at Twilight. "I'm not quite sure what could be causing this, so I need somepony with expertise in magic and technological matters to investigate. I need you, Twilight. Locate my aides and find out what is happening at Ponyville."
Twilight smiled proudly. "No problem, Celestia! I'm the mare for the job!"
"Excellent." Celestia returned Twilight's smile with one of her own. "Given that we do not know what you'll be dealing with I want you to go in prepared. Transmissions from the town are often scrambled and fragmented, so communications will be difficult if not impossible. Once you get there, unless you can find the source of the interference and take care of it you'll be on your own. Since I can't help you directly I've prepared an AI program for your on-board systems. He's programmed with all the knowledge I have of my assistants and the town, so he'll be able to help you with anything."
"Ooooo, I've always wanted an AI assist program!" Twilight turned her saddle towards the Princess. "Download away." Celestia's horn glowed yellow. A computer chip surrounded in a like-colored aura floated from the computer console and slotted itself into the saddle. Twilight felt the tingle in her head of her on-board systems being updated, and after a few seconds, the sensation faded.
"He's ready to go, execute the program," Celestia instructed.
"Right." Twilight searched her databanks for the new software. "It's… um… the Software, Programming, and Intelligence Kinetic Engineer?"
"SPIKE," Celestia replied. Twilight executed the file and waited, a low drum filling her head from her neural connection to the saddle. After a few seconds, the holographic interface on the saddle came to life and projected an image beside her. Slowly the transparent, blue-green image of a baby dragon appeared on the lab floor.
"Program Spike, activated. Awaiting command." The dragon stood up straight and stared ahead blankly.
"Oh, my apologies." Celestia levitated another chip off the console with her horn. "I programmed the personality files as an add-on." The chip in the saddle slid out and the new one slotted in. Twilight felt her saddle's components humming. Suddenly the holographic dragon shuddered and blinked. He looked around as if suddenly aware of his surroundings, and upon seeing Twilight smiled and waved a claw.
"Wha… oh, hi Twilight!" The hologram's mouth moved in-time with the voice coming from her saddle. Twilight giggled and lifted a hoof to wave back.
"He's been programmed to recognize you as a long-time friend," Celestia explained. "I've been using a much more advanced version of Spike for these computers the last year. I derived the version I've given you from an earlier version used for my personal files. He's still far more advanced than anything in consumer markets."
"And he has databanks on everything I'll need to know about Ponyville?" Twilight asked, her eyes twinkling with anticipation. Celestia nodded, recognizing the signs of her student's excitement.
"Ponyville and the surrounding environs. I'd been planning on surprising you for your birthday, but given the circumstances I think it safer to give you him now. He has the same standard on-board systems as commercial programs, and will serve you well as an assistant." Celestia had barely finished before Twilight was giving Spike her first command.
"Spike, what's three-thousand, two hundred and ninety-four times four thousand, one hundred and eight?"
"Thirteen million, five-hundred and thirty-one thousand, seven hundred and fifty-two," Spike said instantly.
Twilight clapped her hooves together and grinned. "He's perfect! Can we put off the visit to Ponyville for five minutes while I run down to my study and have him alphabetize the bookshelves?"
"I'm afraid not Twilight, we have little time to lose," Celestia replied, shaking her head. Twilight pouted slightly.
"Yeah. That sounds kinda boring anyway," Spike agreed. The two ponies looked at the map showing Ponyville. Now that her excitement over Spike had worn off, Twilight remembered Celestia's concerns and began to worry again.
"With our feeds disrupted I cannot locate my five aides here, but Spike has their biosignatures in his databanks. Once you get to the town you should easily be able to pinpoint their coordinates from the closer range. I'm sure they'll be able to explain the situation to you better than I can. Once we know what's going on I can decide what further actions to take." Celestia floated a quartet of small vials filled with a murky blue liquid off her console. "I've requisitioned these from the medical labs. If you get harmed or find somepony in need, these healing salves will cure flesh wounds and minor injuries. I hope you'll not encounter anything more demanding than that."
"Thank you, me too," Twilight said. She took the vials in her own magic hold and floated them to her saddle. With a light hiss a metal plate slid down to reveal a small storage compartment. Twilight slipped the vials into it and the hatch clicked shut.
"If things should come to violence or if you believe the situation is dire, we will return you to Canterlot if we are able. With the interference we don't have direct teleporter capabilities, so flee the town and try to get within our range," Celestia continued. "Above all else I need my aides returned safely here. They're working on an important project and it is of utmost importance they return to me in this time of crisis so we can retrieve the data they've collected."
"Right. Anything else?"
"No. Sadly with our limited knowledge there is nothing more I can do to prepare you. If your search proves fruitless return to me and we'll seek my aides another way. At the least we will have information on what is happening to the town. Do you understand?"
"Perfectly. Ready Spike?" Twilight turned her attention to the hologram. With a blip, Spike vanished and reappeared on her saddle, the light blue image flickering.
"Hi-ho Twilight, away!" He cheered. Twilight turned her head and glared. "What? Just trying it out."
Twilight shook her head and looked back to Celestia. "When we get back maybe we can have a chat about those personality files."
The Princess lowered her head to embrace Twilight with one hoof. "Be careful, my student. Remember, if you encounter any danger we will bring you home immediately." Twilight hugged her back.
"Don't worry, Princess. I'll be fine." The two parted, and Twilight turned to gallop out of the lab, the doors sliding open at her approach.
"Head down to the teleporters, they'll get you as close to the town as possible! Good luck!" Celestia called after her. The doors shut as Twilight's tail vanished down the hall, and Celestia looked back up at the monitor and inhaled deeply, her eyes clouded.
The gleaming white sparkles of teleportation faded around her, leaving Twilight in a grassy field. She opened her eyes and sent a mental command along the band of metal over her horn. A light on it blinked and a holographic map of the town projected from it. Alongside the map a data feed about the town began to scroll.
Founded by earth ponies centuries ago, Ponyville hadn't embraced technology as heavily as the rest of Equestria. The townsfolk mostly used technology for the essentials to keep up with Equestria, such as the teleportation bureau and docking and recharge stations for airships. Otherwise they still built their homes out of wood and stone inspired by ancient earth pony architecture, and the streets had been left unpaved and open. Information stands for visitors stood on the street corners and the authority services like police and medical staff had hovercraft for emergency responses, but otherwise the town was like a quaint relic from centuries past.
Twilight trotted to the town, looking over the old-fashioned structures. The town was as peaceful and quiet as Spike's data feed said. Too peaceful and quiet in fact. Aside from the very distant hum of information stands and miniature transport carts that lay against the sides of homes, there was dead silence. Even Twilight's hooves on the grass didn't do much to fill the void, the clops and less-occasional metal clanks echoing between buildings.
"Where is everypony?" Twilight headed to one of the nearest buildings, a round structure decorated with blue paint and pink awnings over the windows and door. She poked the door open with a hoof and saw a room full of clothing with a platform surrounded by mirrors against one wall, but nopony was inside. Swatches of fabric and sewing equipment were strewn across a desk, like the owner had been in the middle of something and then suddenly left.
"Spike, is this place usually like this?" Twilight left the building and looked down the street. Judging from the closed doors and darkened windows she doubted she'd be having much luck finding anypony in them either.
"No. Ponyville is pretty bustling for a town of its size. This is weird." Spike's hologram scratched his head.
"Ya think?" Twilight replied, looking in the window of another home. It was empty too, the inside dark and motionless. "I was at least expecting to find somepony around."
"Me too. There are some ponies around, but not nearly as many as there should be." Spike pulled her map up in front of her face again. "I'm reading the biosignature of one of Celestia's aides on the other side of town, and there's a few other ponies hanging around, but that's it. It's like they abandoned the town."
Twilight thought, looking "Maybe they're hiding from the berserk ponies Celestia warned us about?"
"Nope. According to my readings the ones left are milling about in the streets, and if there were other ponies around I'd detect them."
"Right. Well we have to start the investigation somewhere. Where's the nearest pony you can sense?" Twilight watched as her map shifted and zoomed out, a blinking red dot appearing down a street.
"There's two ponies over behind the library, down this street and left."
Twilight followed the map's directions, her eyes still scanning the town for any signs of activity along the way. She found none. Shops and stalls were left unattended in the streets, unprotected wares sitting in the open. Every house was dark with their doors closed, and carts and buggy of goods had been forgotten by their owners. Twilight suppressed a shudder at the disconcerting thoughts the sights were bringing to mind and focused on the building ahead.
Ponyville's library was a massive oak tree, windows and balconies built into its sides. It towered over the other structures in the town by two full stories. Over the tree's branches an anti-gravity platform with astronomy equipment hovered in place, a rope ladder descending to a balcony below. Two earth pony mares stood near the door, staring into space. One had a metal plate running over her flank and down her hind legs, the other had a Multitool on one of her front hooves. At Twilight's approach they both turned to her.
"Hi girls." She waved at them. They didn't return the gesture. "You wouldn't happen to know where everypony is, would you?"
"They've all run off," the violet pony said. Her face was blank as she spoke, eyes not fully focused on Twilight as she looked at her.
"The Master called them, and they went," the blue one said, using the same tone.
"Um, the 'Master'?" Twilight asked. "Are you alright?"
"I'm scanning their systems," Spike's voice sounded in her head. Twilight jerked in surprise at the mental communication. The two ponies before her didn't notice.
"We're fine. We merely need to wait." The violet pony nodded as if it was an obvious fact.
"Yes. The Master has not called us yet, but she will call us soon," the blue one agreed.
"Oookaaaay… sure." Twilight forced a smile.
"I'm sensing a lot of programming anomalies," Spike warned. Twilight looked over her shoulder at the hologram. It was holding still, looking like a baby dragon riding a pony; the processes Spike was carrying out didn't show in its behavior.
"Are you two sure you're fine?" Twilight pressed, looking back at the earth ponies. "Celestia told me ponies in the town have been acting odd, and I just—" She stopped suddenly as the two ponies narrowed their eyes, their eyes glowing bright red for a moment.
"Celestia is the enemy of the Master." They spoke in unison and stepped towards her.
"Oh, is she?" Twilight backed up, looking between them. "Good to know."
The two earth ponies continued coming towards her. Suddenly Spike's voice was shouting in her head. "Twilight, there's some sort of system corruption!" Before she could think of a response, the pony with the Multitool jumped at her. Twilight dodged to the side, and the other pony tackled her on her back. She reared up to stomp, and her steel hooves whirred, metal plates sliding apart and retracting. Two spiked wheels emerged on the side of each hoof and the pony brought her hooves down, Twilight rolling away leaving the spiked wheels to tear up dirt and grass when they hit the ground. Twilight got to her hooves and looked between them. Both ponies were glaring at her now, their eyes pulsing in a steady rhythm of red light.
"I can't interface with their minds without authorization, you'll need to fight back," Spike said. "Have any combat spells?" Twilight made a face and thought.
"I can fire concussive magic blasts from my horn. Would that work?" Before Spike could respond the Multitool pony was charging her again, her head down. Twilight rolled to the side and looked at the other pony, who had leapt into the air to deliver a diving kick with the spinning wheels on her hooves. She ducked and aimed her horn at the first pony turning around. An orb of violet light lit up on the end and the concussion spell launched, a slim bolt of violet energy shooting forward. Twilight fired two more blasts, the bolts flashing on impact with the pony's flank. She fell forward and was still, a hoof twitching.
"That's the best you've got?" Spike exclaimed.
"I'm not used to fighting, I barely even glanced at that spell!" Twilight called back. The pony with the Multitool was coming at her again, standing on her hind hooves while her Multitool shifted apart and extended. This peripheral Twilight recognized from Canterlot's gardeners, a four-pronged claw meant for digging flower gardens. The pony advanced on Twilight, swinging the claw through the air. Twilight stepped back and ducked to avoid the swipes, firing two more concussive bolts. The pony took them in the chest and stumbled away, her claw going into a spasm. Twilight fired once more at the claw itself. The force spun the pony around and sent her tumbling to the grass unconscious.
Twilight looked back at the other pony still lying limp. "What was that?"
"No clue." Spike's hologram shrugged. "I was picking up a lot of programming quirks, but nothing to suggest they might attack you."
"Are they okay?" Twilight cautiously approached the violet pony and nudged her hind hoof. No response, but her chest moved as though she was breathing. "I've never had to fight another pony before..."
"My scans show their vital signs and internals are fine. I think the fight just gave them a system shock and stunned them," Spike replied. "On the other hoof bad news. The life signs of the other ponies in the town are moving."
"Moving?" Twilight asked.
"Yup. Now there's a nice bright red dotted line forming to point us at the apple orchards."
Twilight called up her map and saw Spike's scanners confirming his comparison. She groaned. "They aren't going to be friendly, are they?"
"Impossible to tell without getting close enough to scan their systems for corruption, but I'd hedge my bets."
"So would I..." Twilight looked back at the two unconscious ponies. They had nothing more for weapons than farming implements, though dangerous ones. But Ponyville didn't seem the type of town to keep trained fighters and weapon peripherals around. "As long as this is the worst we come across we can handle it. Come on, Spike. Let's find Celesta's aide and get out of here!"
Twilight called up her map and followed the path that pointed towards Celestia's aide. She didn't get far down the next street before two more earth ponies charged at her from an alleyway, their eyes showing the tell-tale red glow already. One of them raised a steel hoof, the metal folding back into the same four-pronged claw the violet earth pony had. The other was wearing a mechanical saddle, two claws emerging from the side on extending steel tubes. Twilight avoided the first pony's claw swipe and ducked the second to fire three energy bolts. Her eyes flashed with violet light as the bolts exploded just inches away and sent the pony stumbling backwards, collapsing. The pony with the saddle sent one of the claws towards Twilight. It buried itself in the ground beside her hoof as the second came towards her. Twilight jumped over it and attacked the saddle directly. The claws shuddered in the air and the earth pony fell on his side, the claws going limp.
Twilight continued down the path, the map showing Celestia's aide was getting closer as she galloped. The next pony to obstruct her path was another unicorn, a blue mane calling over a pale pink coat and a band of metal circling her horn. Her horn lit up blue and she fired two magic shots at Twilight. She ducked and weaved to avoid them and fired her own, but the enemy unicorn kept firing. The attacks crackled against each other in a flash of violet and blue light and fizzled out, electricity filling the air.
"Attacking blindly isn't going to work."
"I'm open to suggestions then!" Twilight snapped back, dodging two more bolts. They hit a fruit stand behind her and the wood splintered and collapsed, apples falling from their baskets and rumbling across the grass.
"She can only fire so many blasts before she starts tiring! Wait for an opening." Twilight dodged another bolt. The unicorn fired once and more then stopped, panting slightly. Twilight took her opening and aimed carefully, three bolts of magic flying. The unicorn jumped to dodge two of them, but the third caught her in the neck. She fell over with a jerk, her eyes closing. Twilight ran up to her to check on her. As before, she was unconscious, but alive.
"Any more ponies in the way?" she asked, running down the street again.
"Aside from Celestia's aide, just one," Spike replied. Twilight saw the street up ahead end, what looked like a large apple orchard stretching beyond the city limits. She was almost out of the town when she saw movement from the corner of her eye and skidded to a halt. A large red earth pony stallion stepped out from an alleyway, standing in the street and glaring down at her with glowing red eyes. His coat was a deep red and a metal horse collar ran around his neck.
"That's a Farm Breaker collar. They're designed to disintegrate rocks and tree stumps in the way of crops." Spike said in her head.
The stallion growled and pawed at the ground with a snort. "Nnnope."
"Great," Twilight groaned. The earth pony lowered his head, the two metal orbs poking up from the horse collar on his neck lighting up red. Twilight's eyed widened and she dove away as two blasts of red energy shot towards her, zigzagging through the air and exploding on the ground. The stallion turned towards her and the orbs lit up again. This time Twilight was on her hooves and running, the ground behind her erupting in a shower of dirt as the blasts missed. The heat singed her tail, the fine furs of her coat standing up from the electricity in the air. Twilight turned her head as she ran and fired off a few shots of her own. They hit the stallion's collar, he flinched slightly and stumbled back a step but stayed standing.
"Must be a lot tougher than the normal ponies," she said. Dirt and grass flew up behind her from another pair of energy bolts trying to pin her down. "I can't keep running forever. Any suggestions, Spike?"
"Those shots didn't do much but faze him. And he seems slow on the turning because he keeps missing." Spike kept feeding Twilight data as she dodged but she didn't have time to look it over. "See if you can get behind him and hit his implant, the energy surge should overload him!" Twilight thought, and as the next energy bolt fired she turned to run straight towards the stallion. He looked surprised, but the orbs on the horse collar were charging up again. The blasts fired and she leapt at the last moment. The ground beneath Twilight's hooves exploded, the shockwave aiding in her leap over the earth pony, who looked up at her as she cleared over his head. She looked down and her eyes widened in triumph. On his back behind the horse collar was a large metal plate with rows of blinking lights and interface connections.
"Gotcha!" Twilight landed on her hooves and lowered her head. Several blasts fired from her horn, impacting the stallion's implant. The pony let out a loud whinny and reared up, then fell forward on his stomach and was still. Twilight took the moment to catch her breath.
"And they give that stuff to farmers?" she asked, staring at the stallion's collar.
"Maybe he overloaded the power breaker. Usually the energy output is much lower, but you can hack them," Spike explained.
"I'm going to have to have a talk with the Minister of Agriculture when this is over." Twilight grumbled under her breath and made sure the stallion was breathing before looking at the apple orchard. Slowly walking towards it, she was slightly relieved to see the orchard was more lively than the town. Birds could be heard and seen flitting among the apple trees. The sign over the entrance to the apple orchard proudly read "Sweet Apple Acres". As Twilight passed it and entered the apple fields, she looked around for any sign of ponies, berserk or otherwise. She saw none. She approached the house and looked inside, but it was as abandoned as the rest of the homes in Ponyville.
"She's in the barn," Spike said. Twilight nodded and headed behind the house. A large motorized plow sat outside the closed barn doors opposite a large hovercraft lying on the bare soil. Four claws ran from a large steel bin on top of the craft. Twilight walked between the two machines and used her magic to seize one of the barn doors, sliding it back.
"Hello-o-o," she called, the sound echoing between the walls. "Anypony home?"
"Hey there!"
Twilight looked up. An orange earth pony with a pale yellow mane trotted down the steps leading up to the hayloft. Her hind hooves were stainless steel from hoof to flank, the hooves showing signs of industrial reinforcement with bands of darker metal running along their length. She wore a large metal cowpony hat.
"Hi. Are you…" Twilight mentally read the data Spike was feeding her. "Applejack?"
The mare nodded as she reached the ground. "Ah sure as sugar am. An' who might you be?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'm here to look for you."
"I'm not reading any signs of system corruption," Spike said. Twilight came into the barn. She relaxed slightly at Spike's reassurance but still watched Applejack closely. Applejack looked at Twilight suspiciously and turned her head away slightly.
"Now why would y'all be here lookin' fer me?"
"Well, I heard you were in trouble and came to track you down and protect you. The ponies in town are acting weird," Twilight replied.
Applejack smiled. "Ah appreciate the concern, hun, but ah'm fine. All them other ponies took off bah now, it's just been me an' mah brother holdin' the fort. He's a big red feller, busy doin' his rounds somewhere out there. Maybe ya seen him comin' in?"
"Eh-heh... yeah, I think I saw him." Twilight laughed awkwardly.
"He's been pretty good about holdin' off them crazies, he's one of the toughest ponies in town," Applejack said proudly.
"Should we mention her tough brother got taken down by one unicorn?" Spike snickered.
"Let's not." Twilight glared at the hologram. Applejack looked confused at the response to the program's thought, and Twilight forced a smile. "Nevermind. So you're safe, that's good. Any advice you have on what's been going on around here would be appreciated too. We're trying to figure out what's happening."
"Well, lemme think." Applejack raised a hoof to her chin and tilted an eyebrow. "Mah memory's a bit fuzzy... ah think it began last night. Ah had some visitors on the farm, and..." The farmer stopped talking and winced, putting a hoof to the side of her head. She blinked rapidly and took a moment to focus before continuing. "Sorry. Not much else is comin' to me. Think maybe ah bucked one o' them trees too hard or sumthin', mah head's spinnin'."
"That's fine, thank you for trying. What's most important is that we've found you and you're safe." Twilight turned to look at the holographic dragon on her back. "Spike, see if you can get through to Princess Celestia. Let her know we're still investigating here, but we've found Applejack and she's fine."
"No she's not!" Twilight looked forward to see Applejack's face go blank. Her eyes glowed red.
"Sorry, hun." The tone reminded Twilight of the two mares she had seen in town earlier. "But now ah've gotta destroy ya." Before Twilight could react, Applejack turned on her front hooves and bucked hard. Twilight went flying backwards, the force of Applejack's metal hooves sending her through the air to hit hard on the barn door. The wood cracked apart and Twilight fell forward on her stomach. The sound of ringing metal filled her ears, her vision swimming. She blinked rapidly and focused her eyes in time to see Applejack running towards her.
"It's the same corruption I read before, run!" Spike said. Twilight scrambled to her hooves and ran.
Applejack stopped, and Twilight heard the sound of whirring gears and grinding metal. The farmer's hat shot straight off her head, a thick metal chain connecting it to a cybernetic plate on her scalp. The hat hit the barn door where Twilight had been, sending the wood flying out over the farm grounds. Applejack jerked her head back to retract the chain, the hat coiling back to land on her head again. Twilight aimed for Applejack's flank and fired off two magic shots before Applejack turned back towards her. They made direct contact and the metal flashed violet as they fizzled out against it, but Applejack didn't wasn't fazed at all and she charged again.
Twilight ran up a nearby ladder into the rafters as Applejack stopped and fired her hat again. The steel tore apart the bottom of the ladder, the wood cracking apart and collapsing to the ground. Twilight jumped back to the ground from the falling ladder. A cloud of dirt and dust kicked up as she rolled to her hooves and fired off a few more shots. Applejack was facing her again, but she didn't run. Instead she lifted her hind hooves. Twilight both heard and saw metal components in Applejack's hooves shift, the bottom widening into a cylindrical cone. The cone coiled up to a third its length and Applejack stomped the ground, her hooves shooting out to their full length on impact.
Twilight's world shook as a shockwave rumbled through the ground. She felt queasy and tasted metal. It felt even worse than the buck Applejack had delivered it just minutes ago. Applejack was coming towards her again now. Twilight tried to move but only her three biological hooves obeyed her, the fourth stayed rooted. She looked up and braced herself as Applejack stopped and the cowpony hat shot out. It struck Twilight in her side and she spun through the air, a bale of hay graciously catching her instead of the dirt ground. She clutched her stomach with her biological hoof and stumbled against the broken bales to climb out of the pile. She felt like she had just been bowled down a hill into a tree.
"Whatever she did when she stomped, it temporarily disrupted the circuits in your hoof and cut off your connection to it. Try to avoid it." Spike advised.
"How about I avoid all of her attacks?" Twilight groaned, stumbling to stay standing upright.
"You mean that wasn't the plan up until now?"
Twilight bit back a retort. She was regaining her senses and had worse things to worry about than a snarky AI. Applejack was charging across the barn with her head held down. Twilight pushed away the dizziness and sore ribs and ran forward. Applejack's hat flew past her, the chain's clinking filling Twilight's ears as she narrowly dodged it. Instead it took out a support beam for the rafters. Twilight seized the opening, landing another three magic shots on the metal plate over Applejack's flank.
"Why aren't my attacks doing anything?" Twilight rolled away as Applejack charged her and climbed to her hooves to see the other mare turning back to face her.
"They are, my scans are showing her system destabilizes when your blasts connect. I'm guessing it'll take a lot more force to knock her out." Applejack stood forward on her front hooves, her rear ones shifting and re-configuring. Twilight gasped and ran away to leap into the air. The steel hooves slammed into the ground, sending out another shockwave.
Twilight landed and waited for the paralysis in her hoof. To her relief it didn't come. "She can't stun me if I'm in the air!" She smiled in triumph at the realization. Applejack must have realized the same, because she looked angry as she came at Twilight again with her head held down. Twilight was already moving to the side as the cowpony hat launched at her, knocking over a pile of hay bales and sending a flurry of broken hay into the air from them. Twilight circled her, firing energy blasts rapidly. Applejack didn't retract her hat this time, instead she flung her head about and sent the hat and chain whirling through the air. Twilight jumped over the chain as it came around, but Applejack snapped her head to bring the hat and chain down hard. Twilight avoided them as they sprayed dirt on impact and kept firing. Applejack retracted her hat, a few shots being deflected as it spun through the air towards her before resting on her head again.
"Y'all are makin' me angry, hun!" Applejack lifted her hind hooves. Twilight jumped into the air again to avoid the expected shockwave. Applejack looked up at her as she planted her hooves on the ground again and fired her hat up. Twilight fell too quickly for it to hit her. The hat cracked apart a wooden rafter overhead and the rafter collapsed, sending hay bales and broken wood falling to the ground. Twilight landed, ran to dodge the debris, and fired at Applejack's flank as fast as she could before the hat retracted and Applejack turned. Twilight steadied her hoofs on the ground and waited, staring down the galloping pony coming closer. She heard and saw the telltale signs of a chain and swiftly rolled, her horn glowing bright violet.
Applejack ran past Twilight, her hat shooting out and narrowly missing her to hit the wall of the barn. Applejack tried to stop her charge, her hooves skidding on the ground and kicking up bits of stone and hay. Behind her Twilight rolled back on her hooves and opened fire. The air flashed with the light of a flurry of energy bolts raining out from her horn, bombarding Applejack's flank. With a frenzied cry Applejack stumbled forward. Twilight stopped, watching. Applejack wavered from side to side as her hat slowly retracted back to her head, falling back into place than being pulled. With a long, low groan, Applejack finally fell on her side, her eyes drifting shut.
"Did we do it?" Twilight asked, watching her closely.
"Scanning… she's out, we got her." Twilight let out a long groan of relief and pain at the report and collapsed on her stomach. Dust, dirt, and bits of hay covered her mane and coat, and her ribs were sore from where Applejack's attacks had landed.
Looking down Twilight saw a bruise starting to form beneath the lavender fur. "I'm going to feel that buck for a week."
"You take it easy. I'll scan her systems and see what I can find out," Spike said. Twilight nodded and put her head down. She wondered if those healing salves Celestia had given her would work to relieve a headache. As she felt her cybernetics work with Spike's scans, Twilight eventually climbed to her hooves and walked over to inspect Applejack's motionless form. Her hat lay on the ground, the chain had gone slack when she collapsed and the hat fell off her head without the tension. Twilight cautiously poked one of the steel hind hooves with her own, remembering the stunning shockwave she had unleashed.
"Yup, she's definitely got some sort of system corruption," Spike said. "Maybe a viral infection. I didn't detect it before she attacked you, it must have been benign until something set it off. I can't figure out what the cause is though."
Twilight nodded. "We better try to figure it out. Whatever's going on here, this wasn't just random mischief. These ponies are turning violent." Did Celestia realize how dangerous this mission was, that the ponies were attacking her like this? Maybe she should have asked for back-up or some sort of weapon. Her magic blasts had proved reliable, but they were not her first choice for offense when it came to fighting hostile ponies. Unicorn magic could work just as good as an energy blaster in the hooves of a trained military unicorn, but she was not. Barring that some body armor might be nice.
"Think we can find some sort of protection around here?" Twilight asked Spike. "Something to wear that will hopefully cushion me against supercharged bucks from steel hooves?"
"Not likely, you'd have to ask Celestia for that type of gear," Spike replied. "But I might have something for you still. I was able to find some executable files in Applejack's databanks, may come in handy if we're going to fight. Your hoof is a Multitool, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Hang on, lemme copy the program from her and make some configurations." Twilight felt her cybernetic parts come to life and looked down at her hoof. Beneath the steel exterior, microscopic nanomachines were coming to life, forming some sort of construct. That was the glory of a Multitool, almost anything the owner needed could be formed from the interior components reconfiguring themselves. She didn't know what Spike was doing to her but she was silent while he worked. The exterior of her hoof twisted apart at the bottom. Four prongs emerged, curving into a four-pointed claw. Her entire hoof extended slightly, forming a series of metal rings with gaps between them.
"Alright, the files are copied and the hoof reworked," Spike said. "Lift your hoof and point at something, then activate the hoof add-on." Twilight turned to face the barn doors, lifted her hoof, and activated the new program Spike had created in her databanks. The bottom half of the hoof shot forward on a long, narrow chain, the metal rings extending out with it. The claw embedded in the barn door with a heavy thunk. She pulled back, a plank of wood coming off and skidding across the floor to lay at her hooves.
Twilight looked down at her hoof and grinned. "It's like what she did with her hat!"
"Yup, was pretty easy to modify the schematics to give you something a bit more useful on the end than a hat," Spike explained. "I've saved the program and archived the schematic, so in the future we can rework your hoof into a grappling chain in just a second or two."
"What's the program called?" Twilight asked.
"It didn't have a name in her systems, so for us, I call it… Apple Grapple!" Spike said. Twilight made a face and turned to look at the hologram. "What?"
"You just wanted to make that pun, didn't you?"
"It's a good one!" Spike protested. "Uh, how about Apple Whip?" Before she could respond, her systems beeped. "We're receiving a transmission. It's from Celestia!" Spike said. Twilight looked forward as her horn projected a blue hologram of her Celestia's head in front of her.
"Twilight, the interference in your location has cleared up. What's the situation?"
Twilight sat down on the barn floor. "We got to Ponyville. Almost all the ponies here are gone and the ones left aren't just mischievous, they're violent. We had to fight our way through the city to find your aide, Applejack."
Celestia gasped and leaned forward slightly. "This is worse than I expected. Are you alright?"
Twilight guessed her filthy and wounded state wasn't showing well through the transmission. "I got more than a little beat up but I think I'm okay. Applejack was corrupted too, she put up a good fight. But she's safe now, we incapacitated her."
"Princess, there's some sort of program corruption infecting the ponies here. I think that's the cause of their odd behavior," Spike cut in.
"I see. With the interference cleared up we have teleporter capabilities in the town again. I'll have Quantum Drive take care of Applejack." As Celestia finished, Twilight saw Applejack's body light up and vanish in a shower of sparkles. "With her safe here we can run diagnostics. Hopefully we can get her back to normal and find out what's causing this."
"Right. And we need to find your other four aides. They weren't here but I'm guessing they haven't gotten very far," Twilight said.
"You're sure you'll be safe on your own?" Celestia asked. Twilight thought. Part of her wanted to say 'no I'm not, please send help, preferably in the form of three of your strongest guard ponies'. But she remembered Celestia's trust in her. Her mentor sent her above anyone else she could have chosen to solve this mystery. She had called on Twilight and Twilight had assured her she could do it. She looked over at where Applejack had lain, remembering how many ponies in town beside her had the same glowing red eyes, and the system corruption Spike had detected. Finding her courage again, Twilight turned back to Celestia and nodded.
"I'm fine. I was able to incapacitate the crazed ponies without hurting them too badly, and I'm feeling alright. I can handle this. For now, anyway."
"If you're certain, then I shall trust you. But do not hesitate to contact me again if the situation worsens. Take care, my student." The Celestia hologram faded, and Twilight looked back at Spike.
"So, where to now?" she asked.
"I think the system corruption in Applejack was what was disrupting the transmissions around here, once we beat her Celestia's signal got through fine," Spike said. "And with the interference cleared up, I'm detecting another one of Celestia's aides. She's in the forest north of Ponyville."
"Well then, let's get going!"
Three sets of eyes watched the holographic display of Twilight and Spike trotting down the streets of Ponyville.
"It is as the Master expected. Celestia has dispatched someone to investigate," one of the three ponies said.
"Yeah, and she freed one of the aides," another replied.
"It is of no concern. They serve only as a diversion. The Unification can proceed without them," the first said.
"Yes, it can," the third spoke up, turning from the display. "But we must remember, the Master told us to keep Celestia's aides out of her grasp. They have the fragments of the Program. We cannot allow Celestia to obtain it."
The first pony snorted. "You don't seriously think one unicorn can defeat our forces alone and rescue the other four?"
"She's already got one," the second said. "I'm not gonna take the blame from the Master if she gets to more of them. Why not take care of her now?"
"We have more important matters to concern ourselves with first. It is only one unicorn, we need not fear her," the first insisted.
"No we do not. But the Master has entrusted us to ensure nopony interferes and that is what has occurred. We must take action." The third pony looked back at the display of Twilight. A blue aura appeared over her horn, the controls below the display lighting up the same color as she manipulated them. "I'm sending the signal to our allies at the mountain. They will be ready for her. The Unification shall not be impeded by one unicorn."
"And the Program?" the first pony asked. The third pony smiled as she finished her work.
"If we must, we will take care of the situation personally."
To Twilight's relief the forest Spike had directed her too was not the legendary Everfree Forest she'd read about, but a normal forest on the outskirts of Ponyville. Twilight called up her map, conveniently marking out the path through the trees already. The words "White Tail Woods" blinked at the bottom. She looked back up. The trees grew thick together, sunlight blinking down between the branches to illuminate the stone path between them. According to the data Spike was feeding her, the governments made the White Tail Woods a preservation site during Equestria's technological revolution centuries ago. Some of the trees in the woods were centuries old and towered hundreds of hooves into the air, their branches thicker than a pony's body at some points.
"You're sure the next aide is the forest?" Twilight dismissed the map and data feeds. "Is she far in?"
"A ways, yeah. But we'll be fine, these woods aren't that dangerous and anything we meet will likely be friendly," Spike said.
"Yeah, assuming that we don't encounter any hostile ponies." Twilight kept this thought to herself and headed into the shadows of the woods.
"You know I can hear your thoughts, right? I'm wired direct into your neural-cyber interface, how do you think I can do this?" Spike thought back. Twilight made a face.
"Well I've never had an AI assistant before, how was I supposed to know?"
"Maybe trying reading my manual?"
Twilight did a double take and looked back at the hologram. "You have a manual?" In response her display flipped up again and a stream of text began to scroll up the screen too fast to read. She rolled her eyes and dismissed it. "Later. For now, do you have any other potentially life-saving functions I should know about?"
"Anywhere from thirteen to three hundred and eighty-one, depending on what you would define as "potentially life-saving"," Twilight out a groan of annoyance and dropped the subject, heading into the woods.
The White Tail Woods was not eerily quiet like Ponyville had been. Twilight could hear animals scampering out behind the trees and birds tweeting in the mid-morning sun. The smells of wood and grass and morning dew filled the air. It was like whatever malice had gotten to Ponyville either moved on from here or hadn't arrived yet. The path underhoof had grown over with grass and dirt in some places, but was visible enough to follow. In some areas low-hanging branches hung down to the trail and Twilight had to move around them to get by.
"On the bright side it seems nopony's around," Twilight said, calling up her map. "At least nopony who wants to fight us."
"Yeah, I'm not reading any notable life forms around, just natural wildlife. It looks like there's something a bit further ahead but nothing to worry about yet," Spike said from her back. Twilight nodded and picked up the pace. If there was no opposition, hopefully she could track down this aide faster without having to worry about being ambushed by crazed ponies.
However she only got a few more steps when two trees beside her crumbled to the path. Twilight looked at the stumps to see a pair of glowing yellow eyes glaring at her from behind a long metal snout. A large silver and brown robot was coming from the trees, showing rows of sharp metal teeth. It was quadrupedal with gleaming claws and an elongated head. Rust had eaten away parts of its body to show its interior components, hydraulics and gears on its joints spinning and stretching with its steps. It growled, a hollow, synthesized sound. Twilight slowly backed away, not taking her eyes off of it.
"I thought you said there aren't any life forms nearby!"
"That's not a life form, Twilight, that's 100% mechanical. It's a Silver Wolf!" Spike said. As if on cue the Silver Wolf leapt, the distorted metallic growl growing into a roar. Twilight jumped away and turned back to it to fire three magic blasts at the wolf's front paws. The bolts hit their mark but didn't the affect the robot much. It turned back to her and dove again, Twilight rolling aside to avoid it.
"Could use a bit more than that!"
"They're robots."
"No kidding!"
Spike ignored her and continued. "The Equestrian Preservation Society had them built to chew up the dead foliage in the woods and turn it into compost to help with the growth of the trees. When the forest began growing too large the EPS decommissioned them and put them into storage at an outpost nearby." Twilight got to her hooves from another roll and looked back at the Silver Wolf as it landed from its jump.
"Well it looks like we need to re-decommission them!" Twilight lowered her horn and shot a barrage of magic. The Silver Wolf took the blasts in its shoulder joint on the right front paw and paused, shaking its head. A rusted section of its body caved in from the attack, circuitry and mechanics showing in the hole. Twilight fired her blasts directly at them. The circuits popped and fizzled, a small explosion bursting out of the rusted hole. The Silver Wolf let out a low groan, the lights on its body flickering, and it collapsed on its side with a loud clang, the metal ringing against the stone set in the forest floor.
Twilight slowly approached. Black smoke poured from the hole where she had shot to bring it down, sparks flying from the damaged wires and machinery inside. She raised a hoof to wave the smoke away and jumped back at a particularly large burst of sparks. She had gotten a good enough look at the internals to know the robot would not be coming after her anytime soon.
"I guess it's a good thing they haven't been properly maintained." She lowered her head to peer at the robot's dimmed yellow eyes. "Wonder what reactivated them."
"Not sure. I'm scanning it but not picking up much. They might have just been turned back on and their behavior set to aggressive," Spike said. "I'll copy their signature into your map, if there's more in the forest we can track them. Gimme a sec." Twilight called up her map and waited as her internals spun to life. Several red dots blinked into existence on the display. Only one of them was an immediate danger, but there were still more than Twilight would have liked to see.
"Well at least we'll have some warning next time." Twilight closed the map and continued down the path, hoping any more new and unexpected surprises would be few in number. She soon came upon a second Silver Wolf, this one with its back to her munching on a fallen tree. Twilight aimed for a rusted spot on its body and fired her magic bolts. The rust collapsed and caved in but the Silver Wolf remained active, turning its head and crunching apart a piece of tree in its jaws as it saw her. Twilight fired again before it could come at her, the wolf stumbling and falling over the tree it had been eating, its body grinding to a halt. Twilight climbed over the tree through the hole in the bark the robot had bitten in it and continued on.
There were no more Silver Wolves in her immediate location, but Twilight didn't get much further before she had to come to a stop for another reason. Before her the ground had suddenly fallen away into a deep and wide pit. She leaned her head over the edge and looked down. Several trees littered the bottom, trunks cracked apart and the shards stabbing up into the air dangerously. Twilight gulped and took a slow step back from the edge. "I'm not exactly looking forward to trying to make the jump."
"Yeah, I'm not sure you could anyway. What about that whip we got from Applejack?" Spike suggested. Twilight looked down at her Multitool and sent the mental command. Her hoof shifted and came alive, the bottom popping out the four-pronged claw while the rest of the length extended into the circular rings. Twilight looked back up at the trees on the edges of the pit. She found a particularly thick, low-hanging branch on the other side, and took a breath.
"Got any functions to help with this?"
"Uh... geometry?" Twilight's interface appeared and traced out glowing blue lines with lengths and angles across the landscape. The math of how far the other side of the pit was didn't help. Spike read her thoughts and pulled down the display before she could ask him herself.
"Alright then... here goes." Twilight drew her hoof back and carefully judged the shot. "If I don't make it, tell Celestia it's your fault."
"Wait huh?"
Twilight snapped her hoof forward and fired the Apple Whip up at the branch. The bottom of her hoof fired, chain extending out in a coil from the inside of her hoof. The claw caught grip on the wood and bit in, the wood snapping under the force. The chain slowly retracted until it went taut and she closed her eyes.
Twilight ran forward and jumped, bringing her hind hooves up to her body. The branch and the claw held firmly as Twilight sailed over the pit. Her tail brushed against the ground and she opened her eyes to find herself hanging over the other side. With a mental command the claw loosened and the chain whip retracted into her hoof, leaving her to fall to the ground on her back. Twilight rolled over and looked back at the path on the other side of the pit. She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding.
"I did it..." she smiled.
"Why would it have been my fault?" Spike demanded.
"It was a joke. Ease the tension," Twilight replied. She couldn't hear Spike's exact words, but the mental equivalent of hushed grumbling filled her head. "Calm down, it's over now. Let's hope we don't have to do that again." She turned to continue down the path. They only got a few more hooves before another pit of dangerously damaged tree parts loomed ahead of them.
"You really need to stop jinxing us like that," Spike said.
"Yeah..." Twilight looked up and found another solid branch. The Apple Whip's chain whizzed through the air, making a loud thunk as the claw hit the wood. Twilight didn't waste time trying to psyche herself up this time and ran forward and jumped, swinging over the gap and landing on the other side. The Apple Whip had begun to retract when Twilight saw the Silver Wolf looking at her from below. It ran at her, jaws gnashing with a metallic screech. Twilight looked up and fired the Apple Whip over her head, pulling herself up to another branch. The Silver Wolf was going too fast to stop and rushed into the pit behind her. From her vantage Twilight saw its hind paws snap apart at rust-weakened spots, the main body shuddering and going dim with a large spike of wood emerging through it. She dropped down and looked around for anything else coming at her. Fortunately the forest was peaceful again, and she continued on.
The path ahead didn't include any more pits demanding a swing over perilous spiked wood debris. To Twilight's surprise, it didn't even include more Silver Wolves. She brought her map up to make sure, but the red dots of the wolves were moving through the trees about whatever business they had, unaware of her presence. On the other hoof the sounds of wildlife had grown quiet now. Twilight wondered if it was due to the sounds of the fights she'd been in, or something else. The trees were even thicker here, when Twilight looked up they towered over her like Canterlot's spires and towers. Looking ahead Twilight slowed her pace. Further on several trees had fallen on the trail. They were smaller ones, though one on its side still rose over Twilight's head. She put a hoof on them. Judging from the teeth marks along their length, Silver Wolves had gnawed them apart. She looked down the length of the trees, but they were too long to see the ends and the trees too thick to see through.
"Now what?" she asked Spike. The AI brought up her map.
"According to these scans, Celestia's aide is in a clearing further on in the woods. We could try going around, but I'm picking up a lot of Silver Wolves in the woods and we'd probably run into a few if we went off the path." Twilight looked at the sea of red dots and dismissed the map. Fighting more of those robots was not something she wanted to do, especially if they were in numbers. Thinking, she looked up and took notice of a sturdy-looking branch stretching from another tree. She looked between the trees, mentally plotting a course as her eyes landed on choice branches. Spike sensed her thoughts through their link. "Oh no. You can't be serious."
"If you have a better idea, I'd already know about it," Twilight replied, holding out the Apple Whip. The claw fired upwards and latched on a tree branch. Twilight retracted the chain to pull herself up, the rings of her hoof collapsing back down until she was fully retracted, the claw still digging into the wood. Turning her body until she was facing the right way, she started swinging in place, the branch shaking as she moved. As she came back the third time Twilight let the chain go slack and dropped suddenly as the rest of its length extended from her hoof. The momentum carried her up into the air as she swung forward. Not high enough yet. She came back and swung her body forward for that little extra height. The second branch came into view and the Apple Whip's claw loosened and retracted.
Panic surged into Twilight's mind as realized she was several hooves off the ground with nothing supporting her. She pushed it away and brought her hoof forward even as the chain finished coming back to her. She fired again and the claw caught a higher branch, pulling her up. Turning around to the third branch, Twilight began swinging in place and repeated the steps, hanging more than ten hooves in the air for a second as the Apple Whip fired and caught her third support. She pulled herself up, swung back and forth again, and this time flipped through the air as the whip came loose. Instead of launching at a fourth branch, Twilight landed on one directly, the claw of the whip digging into the wood to make sure she stayed on.
Twilight smiled and looked down at the path. "Well, wasn't so bad as those pits." Spike didn't respond save for a general sense of disbelief. Twilight ignored it in favor of examining her new surroundings. Up here the branches were thick enough to walk along comfortably and crossed each other often. The smell of leaves and dew was stronger up here, sunlight from above gleaming off drops of dew. She began walking along the trees, hopping between branches comfortably. The branches made only the slightest of rustlings and a few leaves fell when Twilight trotted past, but nopony below would think to look up to spot a lavender mare walking over their heads.
Soon the main path began below again and she looked to see two Silver Wolves pass by. A third followed them soon after, all three completely unaware of Twilight's presence. As she continued on she spotted a few other Silver Wolves, but Twilight gave them no reason to find her, moving slower and keeping her hooves from shaking the trees when they passed. The last of the wolves was busy gnawing on a particularly large tree branch, and Twilight trotted past it overhead. She called up her map. The red dots of the Silver Wolves were behind her now and the red icon marking Celestia's next aide was coming closer.
The trees began to clear and Twilight looked around for a series of branches to use to get the ground. She found three that would do and carefully hopped back down to the path. The trail ended with a large clearing in the forest. Large trees circled it, the clearing full of stumps where somepony had cut away the trees that marred the clearing. A bright beam of sunlight lit up the grass and Twilight squinted up to see the open sky overhead, the branches around the clearing's trees cleared away. She stepped forward and called up her map. The blinking red dot was gone. "Spike, you said she was here."
"She was, this is where the signal was coming from!" Spike protested. "But now I can't see anything."
"Hello?" Twilight said, coming closer into the clearing. "Anypony here?" There was a rustling of leaves, and she turned to see a bush between the trees move.
"Hang on a second!" A voice called out. Twilight saw a blinking dot pop into existence on her map and dismissed the hologram to watch the moving bush. The bush began to shake more violently and suddenly a pony popped out, rolling across the grass to sit in front of her. It was an earth pony, her coat and mane bright pink. Her flank had the tail sheared off, in its place a metal plate supporting a prosthetic steel tail. Her left hoof was a Multitool like Twilight's own, but painted in varying shades of pink. The pony shook a few leaves out of her mane and grinned brightly. "Hi there!"
"Um, hello," Twilight said back.
"Pinkie Pie," Spike whispered in her head. Twilight quickly scanned the archived data flowing into her brain.
"Pinkie Pie, right?"
The pony nodded. "Yup, that's me!" She began circling around Twilight looking at her curiously, rubbing her chin with her hoof. "Who are you? Wait, no, lemme guess, you're that imaginary friend I had when I was a filly here to surprise me with a party?"
"Not quite," Twilight replied, turning her head to keep Pinkie in view as she came around the other side.
Pinkie sat down and made a face. "Darn! And I could use one, I've been out here alone for hours!" Pinkie slammed her biological front hoof into her metal one and gave a sharp cry of pain. She popped her now-sore biological hoof into her mouth and then shook it out in the air. "I always forget I can't do that anymore. Just got this a few months ago." She waved her steel hoof at Twilight.
"… right." Twilight was unsure of what to make of this, Pinkie was acting even stranger than the ones in Ponyville. Did she have a different corruption, or a more intense version of the same one? "Spike, you sense any program anomalies let me know immediately."
"Roger that, Twilight."
Twilight turned her attention back to Pinkie Pie. "So what are you doing waiting out here alone?" she asked. Pinkie scrunched up her face and looked up in thought.
"Not sure really. Kinda hard to remember... I just know that I wasn't alone before, but now I am! I think I chose to stay behind, dunno why though... or maybe somepony told me to..." She trailed off. Twilight waited several seconds, looking around awkwardly. Then Pinkie Pie grinned brightly. "Oh yeah, I have to wait out here for somepony!"
"Who?"
"Dunno." Pinkie Pie shrugged. Twilight groaned loudly, slapping a hoof over her face. "So, uh," Pinkie began, "if you're not my imaginary filly-friend, then who are you?"
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. And I came out here to find you," Twilight said. Pinkie's face lit up.
"Oooooooooh! That makes a lot of sense actually!"
"It does?" Twilight replied.
"Yup! I remember everything now! I came out here with my friends before, and they told me to stay behind here and wait to see if anypony comes by. And just a little while ago, one of them told me to be on alert, because a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle would come out here looking for me, and when she gets here, I should blast her with this!" Pinkie swung her steel hoof forward. The metal plates slid apart, widened, became shorter. Twilight's eyes widened as Pinkie's eyes lit up red, and the massive pink cannon that had appeared from her hoof began to hum loudly.
"Uh-oh."
The Apple Whip fired from her own arm, pulling Twilight across the clearing towards a tree as Pinkie fired her cannon. A bright pink orb of energy shot out, arcing towards the ground and exploding. Twilight looked away from the blast, a shockwave blowing her mane out behind her. She looked back to see glowing streamers and confetti raining down from the point where the blast had hit, shimmering and vanishing as they hit the ground.
"Thanks Spike," Twilight said, retracting the whip. Pinkie Pie spun around and the cannon glowed again. Twilight started running as another energy orb fired at her. It missed and instead hit a tree stump, sending shards of wood flying through the air with a mighty explosion that sounded oddly like a chorus of noisemakers being blown all at once. Twilight fired her magic bolts. Pinkie raised her cannon to defend herself and the pink metal flashed violet as the blasts made contact, sparks of magical energy flying from the impacts. Pinkie stumbled back a step, crying out more in annoyance than pain. Pinkie's metal tail suddenly began to spin, and she leapt up in the air and landed on her tail. Before Twilight could blink she had drilled herself into the ground and vanished.
"Where'd she go?"
"I dunno, she's not showing up on scans at all!" Spike replied. Twilight felt the ground rumble and jumped away as Pinkie surfaced beneath her hooves and shot up into the air, leveling her cannon down and firing. Twilight dodged and the explosion blew her mane and tail out in front of her face, the shockwave made her stumble but she remained standing. She turned back to Pinkie Pie and fired a few energy bolts, but Pinkie dropped from the air back into the ground. She drilled into the ground again and the red dot on her map vanished.
Twilight looked at the hole Pinkie had left. "That's why we didn't detect her before. We can't tell where she is when she's underground."
"That's cheating!" Spike protested. Twilight waited. Soon she felt the tremor, small stones and bits of dirt vibrating, and leapt away. Pinkie Pie shot up out of the ground where Twilight stood, an energy orb launching through the air and missing as Twilight dodged. The blast of energy obliterated a large chunk of ground behind her, but Twilight's focus was on her opponent. She fired several bolts, but they either went too high or too low to land a mark as Pinkie descended back into the ground and her drilling tail took her out of sight again. "You'll never be able to take the time to aim if you have to keep dodging her tunneling," Spike advised. Twilight jumped as Pinkie surfaced again, an energy orb blowing apart a tree stump and part of the ground around it. She looked at the ground as Pinkie tunneled back down, then up at the trees around the clearing.
"Exactly!" Twilight swung her hoof up, firing the Apple Whip at a tree and hauling herself up to a branch. She looked back and waited. There was a rumbling and she swung her hoof out. Pinkie emerged into the air where she had last been standing, the claw of the Apple Whip latching onto her cannon as she began to aim and pulling. With a squeak of pain Pinkie fell back to the forest floor, dazed. Twilight jumped down, firing a barrage of energy blasts. Pinkie glared as the shots hit her hoof, and she raised her cannon down to fire. Twilight dodged, but Pinkie wasn't aiming at her. The tree Twilight had used to evade her exploded at the base and fell backwards, hitting heavily against two others trees. The forest floor shook violently as all three slammed into the ground, while Pinkie's tail spun again and the pink pony vanished back into the earth.
Used to the pattern now, Twilight swung the Apple Whip at another tree and pulled herself to safety. She turned and fired the whip as Pinkie emerged again into the air, the hit stunning her and dropping her back to the ground. Twilight jumped down as the whip retracted and opened fire, her energy bolts hitting directly on Pinkie's hoof.
Pinkie recovered from the fall and stood up, panting and glaring. "Alright buster, that does it!" With one swift motion of her hoof, Pinkie Pie licked it and ran it over her hair, slicking the puffy pink mane straight. "Time to say hi to Pinkamena! And she doesn't play nice!" She aimed her cannon in the air and fired straight up. Twilight watched in horror as four energy orbs launched up into the air and arced back down. She cried out and dove for cover, her hooves over her head. The forest floor shook violently and the force of the four blasts detonating on the ground knocked Twilight to her side, dirt and small stones and bits of pulverized tree matter flying past her. She stood up to see Pinkie Pie vanish back into the earth, the clearing full of smoking craters from her cannon's blasts.
"I think we made her angry." Twilight's ears were ringing from the explosions, and bits of debris littered the forest floor as she tried to move around the clearing.
Spike snorted in her head. "Yeah, and all we've done is shoot her up with unicorn energy blasts. Go figure." Twilight shot the Apple Whip at another tree, pulling herself up and looking for Pinkie Pie to re-emerge below. She waited several seconds, but the rumbling of Pinkie's emergence wasn't coming. Then the tree shook and Twilight heard a large cracking sound. The tree suddenly shifted and she almost fell off her perch. "Jump, Twilight!" Spike called. Twilight heeded the warning and jumped to the ground. She looked back at the tree and realized what that cracking was. Pinkie must have drilled up right under the tree because the trunk had split apart and fallen away, the wood frayed and splintered. Pinkie was emerging into the air between the two halves as they fell around Twilight, her cannon pointed down. Twilight quickly fired the Apple Whip before Pinkie could finish aiming. The claw grabbed Pinkie's tail and her eyes went wide as it pulled her to the dirt. Landing with a squeak, she bounced over Twilight's head, who turned and fired a full bombardment of shots at her tail.
Pinkie bounced off the ground and swung her hoof up, firing another quartet of energy blasts into the air and drilling into the ground as she came back down. Twilight narrowly jumped in time to avoid an orb falling next to her. Heat seared her saddle and coat at the close-range blast and her head spun from the noise. She looked up to see Pinkie Pie emerge from the ground. This time Pinkie didn't aim for her, instead jumping over her and firing her cannon across the clearing. Three more trees exploded as the pink energy orb detonated against their bases, two falling backwards while the second fell into the clearing. Twilight moved aside to avoid it as it slammed into the ground, when she looked back Pinkie was gone again.
Twilight heard movement behind her and turned to see Pinkie rising into the air, firing another quartet of cannon blasts over their heads. Twilight flung out the Apple Whip but the claw moved too slowly to meet the mark and Pinkie was gone again, vanished into the ground the blasts rained down around Twilight and blew apart the tree that had fallen into the clearing earlier. The forest floor was becoming torn apart by the blasts, craters all over the grass with dirt, stone and tree parts littering what parts of the ground hadn't been blown apart yet. Twilight looked around for Pinkie frantically. "Gotta end this before she blows up the forest." The trees surrounding the clearing were beginning to crack and splinter from the close-range explosions continually going off around them, not to mention Pinkie was targeting them directly now. If Twilight couldn't end this soon, she wouldn't have any safe haven to avoid Pinkie on. "She's just firing wildly now, not aiming. I can use that."
"You can?" Spike cried. Twilight ignored him, readied the Apple Whip, and waited. Her eyes scanned the clearing and her hooves waited for the familiar tremors. The earth shook and Twilight turned to see Pinkie leap into the air. The Apple Whip shot up and grabbed her arm cannon, pulling her down into the ground. Pinkie let out a yelp of surprise as she hit the ground and rolled past Twilight, the unicorn turning her head and firing her magic as fast as she could at Pinkie's tail. Pinkie pushed herself to her hooves, but the storm of energy bolts was too much and she collapsed again, her tail going limp. Twilight stayed poised, her horn pointed forward.
"Systems are powering-down. We did it," Spike said. Twilight almost collapsed in the ground, slumping down and panting. She looked over herself. She was positively filthy, and she could feel bruises and small cuts all over her body from the battle. She sent the command to her saddle and two small claws came out, brushing the dirt and wood from her mane.
"Okay, bucks from steel hooves and magic shots are one thing. Being blown to bits is another." She had expected Pinkie would be corrupted since everypony else she had met so far was. But the firepower she had wielded had been a complete surprise. Twilight didn't care to think what might have happened to her if she had taken a direct hit.
"Yeah, she was something else. And these scans are definitely showing the same corruption as Applejack and the other ponies," Spike said. Twilight nodded and looked over herself. Aside from a slight limp from where she had tangled her hooves avoiding an attack she couldn't detect any serious injuries. Spike's report didn't tell her much she didn't already suspect. It was obvious that Pinkie was corrupted too, now she was thinking about what she had said to her when they had first spoken to her.
"She came out here with her friends, but they left while she stayed behind..." Twilight stood and walked over to Pinkie's limp body, pushing her on her back. Pinkie's eyes had closed, her chest rising and falling softly. "Pinkie said something told her to wait here for me. She knew we were coming. Something warned her." Twilight thought about what might have done such a thing, and remembered the first two ponies she had met in Ponyville. 'The Master' they had said.
"Well I'm done the scan. Aside from confirming she has the same type of corruption as Applejack, not much here to tell us why she went crazy, or what told her to come all the way out here."
"Ponyfeathers," Twilight cursed.
"But on the bright side, got something good here." Twilight felt her mechanical hoof begin to whir and hum and looked down as Spike reconfigured it. She lifted her hoof and watched as it shifted form. The lower half of the hoof extended down from the top on an inner shaft, and the steel plates retracted and layered themselves. The lower part widened and shortened, becoming thicker, and the bottom retracted to form a cannon barrel. "Go ahead, try it out," Spike said. Twilight aimed for a distant tree, turned away slightly, and fired. A bright pink energy orb shot out of the cannon and arced into the base of the tree, exploding in a flurry of noisemaker sounds and sending more streamers into the air. The tree cracked and fell backwards, part of its trunk blown apart.
Twilight looked down at her hoof and frowned slightly. "Oh good. I get to blow things up now."
"If we're going to come up against more ponies like her that's going to come in handy," Spike said. "Your concussion blasts aren't exactly heavy artillery." Twilight remembered there were three aides to go now and sat down, reworking her hoof to its default mode. She couldn't argue that logic and decided not to. There were other matters to deal with anyway.
"How's our reception out here, can we contact the Princess?"
"We had a lot of interference before but we're clear now. I'll dial her up," Spike said. Twilight waited, after a few seconds her horn projected a glowing blue hologram of Celestia's head in front of her.
"Twilight, what news?"
"We found another one of your aides, Pinkie Pie. She had the same corruption as Applejack. I had to fight her," Twilight reported. "And something out here was reactivating the old Silver Wolf robots and driving them insane too."
"Understood. We'll lock on Pinkie's signal and teleport her back here for diagnostics. I'll mobilize a force of guard ponies to handle the Silver Wolves," Celestia replied. Twilight saw Pinkie Pie's body light up in sparkles and light and recalled when they had arrived in the clearing. "At the very least, you're safe I hope," Celestia continued.
Twilight nodded. "I am, but we can't be relieved yet. Pinkie was saying some very strange things."
"That's normal for her, dear."
"No, I mean she said that something told her to come out this way. Then something told her to wait for me and attack me. She knew me by name," Twilight explained. Celestia thought.
"I see. That is quite concerning. These crazed ponies must have some way of communicating in spite of the interference. The Ponyville ponies likely warned them."
"Makes sense I suppose. We'll be on our guard in the future now, if they know I'm coming they might try to lay out a trap." Twilight hoped that the crazed ponies didn't have the state of mind to try that. Celestia's two aides seemed to have more of their senses and personalities about them. She wasn't sure what made them seemingly resistant to this epidemic, but she hoped they were rare exceptions.
"Is there anything else? If this is becoming too much for you, don't hesitate to return home," Celestia said. Twilight looked down at her hoof. She didn't like the idea that Spike was right, that in the future she'd be facing ponies with even more dangerous weapons than Pinkie had and would have to respond in kind. But if she went back to Canterlot now, wouldn't Celestia just have to send someone else to track down her aides? There were surely plenty of ponies in Canterlot more suited than her, with combat training and actual weapons aside from unicorn magic blasts. Yet Twilight couldn't bring herself to just tell the Princess that she wanted to quit. The knowledge that there were more innocent ponies out there corrupted into fighting each other overrode her fears.
"Thank you, but I think I'm alright to continue going," Twilight replied. "Although I do have to ask, what type of cybernetics did Pinkie get that let her shoot glowing energy orbs that explode into confetti and noisemaker sounds?"
"As I said, dear, that's normal for her. If you knew Pinkie you'd understand." Celestia gave Twilight a knowing smile. "Let me right away know if you need any aid. I'm counting on you, but I don't want you to get hurt trying to save my aides."
"Thank you. I'll be alright," Twilight repeated. Celestia's hologram vanished and Twilight turned to the path out of the forest. "Spike, where to now?"
"I'm detecting another aide in the mountains outside the forest."
Nodding, mare and program set off to their next destination, the mountains looming in the distance.
"She’s down there, huh?" Twilight squinted into the passage before her.
"Yeah. It can get pretty confusing down there, but I've got a map," Spike replied, a holographic map appearing from Twilight’s horn as proof. They were at the Appaloosan Mountain Range between Ponyville and Appleloosa. The tunnels here had been dug in preparation for a hypertrain tunnel between the two cities, but the diggers found valuable magic-attuned gemstone deposits at the site. They converted the train tunnels to a series of mine shafts and mined the mountain for decades, until the deposits dried up leaving nothing but normal gems. By that point hypertrains had become obsolete in favor of teleportation systems and the workers abandoned the tunnels. Twilight wasn't sure why one of Celestia's aides would be here, but presuming she was suffering from the same corruption as the other two aides so far, she probably wasn't here willingly.
"Alright, let's get moving." Twilight started forward into the tunnel, walking beside the rail running down the center. It had once served as the gravitational anchor for hovercarts but was now rusting away after decades of neglect. The light of the sun quickly faded and she activated two lights on her saddle, blaring a circle of white light around her to light up the pitch darkness, her moving hooves and shifting mane casting shadows along the wall as she moved. The tunnel walls were mostly natural dirt, but every few hooves or so a pillar of steel-blue construction tubing ran up the wall on both sides and connected to a support girder in the ceiling. Fortunately the supports looked fully intact and safe.
Twilight looked behind her at the small orb of light behind her where the tunnel began. She could see enough to sidestep pieces of broken rail and rocks in her path, but she didn't like the idea of trying to fight in these quarters. If something attacked she'd have nowhere to avoid the foe and her light would give her away instantly. "Sensing anything down here, Spike?" The tunnel carried the echo forward, not doing much to soothe her concerns about discovery.
"There’s something a ways up ahead, not sure what. It’s not a pony though, the signature is unfamiliar," Spike replied. Twilight didn’t like the sound of that. This mine didn’t seem like the sort of place for Silver Wolves to lurk, so if it wasn't a pony then what could it be? As she continued on, Twilight saw light ahead, and as she approached she saw where it was coming. A crude iron chain hung from the ceiling attached to an iron bar twisted into a circular shape. The bar held the light source in its grip.
"A gemstone?" Twilight poked the iron construct with a hoof and watched it swing slightly. The iron was holding a gleaming white gemstone which was projecting light all around them, the tunnel walls lit up grey and brown. The gem was alive with magical energy, its surfaces finely cut and clear as glass.
"It's a luminance gem," Spike said. "The miners would hang them from the ceilings and imbue them with light-producing magics to light up the tunnels while they worked. Depending on the power of the spell they could run for days or even weeks before going dark."
"I thought you said there hasn't been mining here for years. Shouldn't they have run out of energy by now?" Twilight asked.
Spike's hologram shrugged. "Yeah. But remember one of the Princess’s aides is down here. Maybe she turned it back on."
"Well if she did, it's fortunate for us." Twilight turned off her saddle’s lights. Looking further down the tunnel, more luminance gems hung from the cavern ceiling to light the way. Not all of them were diamonds, but there were also emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and more. Each produced different colors that swirled together on the walls and floor where the cones of light overlapped, the glow distorted by the iron wrapped around each gem. Twilight stepped up to the next one and poked it. The blue light it produced wavered along the walls and mixed with the white behind her and the red ahead, creating brilliant tones of violet and cerulean.
"Sorry to interrupt the sight-seeing, but that lone life form I saw earlier is getting closer," Spike said in Twilight’s head. She turned her attention from admiring the beauty of the gems and looked forward. Her horn let up with a violet aura, ready to fire. At least now with the tunnels fully lit, she would see anything that came towards her. She called up her map and watched. Sure enough, a blinking red dot was slowly moving towards her. Twilight braced herself and waited. After several seconds passed with nothing occurring, Twilight turned her focus from the tunnel ahead back to the map. The red dot was close enough that the cause should have been in view, but instead she saw nothing. Her eyes widened slightly as the dot came so close it was almost on top of her. She panicked and dashed down the tunnel a few hooves to get in front of it.
The sound of something breaking through the tunnel walls came behind her, prompting her to stop and turn. In the light of the luminance gems a creature was poking its head up from the floor between the rails running along the tunnel. It had dark brown skin and a steel helmet covering its head save for the nose and mouth. The beast had a short, squat nose with hairs emerging from its nostrils. As Twilight watched the it turned its head around and loudly sniffed the air.
"It’s a Diamond Dog," Spike said. "They live underground hoarding gems. A colony moved into the tunnels once the miners abandoned the site."
"Why didn't you tell me about them earlier?" Twilight asked mentally.
"I did. It was in that data feed I streamed for you," Spike said dryly. Twilight rolled her eyes. Her display flashed to life and a three-dimensional image of the creature appeared with other zoological data. She read it carefully this time.
"Possess strong tunneling skills, use a pack hierarchy. Physically strong, not very intelligent. Have devolved to the point they're almost entirely blind, but have strong senses of smell and hearing. So it could still sense me?" The dog lingered its nose in her direction for a moment as it turned its head to scope out the tunnel. Twilight tensed.
"Hard to say. Back away, slowly."
Twilight began to do as her assistant ordered, slowly inching away from the Diamond Dog. The dog slightly perked up and turned his head back her way. She stopped immediately, unsure if it had turned her way by chance or if it had heard her moving. She didn't care to find out by testing it. There was only one option to get away then. "If I have to fight, will my magic hurt them too much?"
"I don’t think so, he looks pretty well armored anyway," Spike said. Twilight lowered her head, aiming carefully in the dim light for the armored portions of the creature’s head. The multi-hued lighting filling the tunnel added bright violet to the mix as three energy bolts shot out and struck the Diamond Dog. It let out a howl out pain and dropped out of sight, leaving only the hole its head had emerged from. Twilight trotted up to the hole and looked down. The dog had dug a tunnel through the earth and now lay at the bottom of it, twitching and groaning.
"Scanning vitals… he’s stunned, but he’ll be fine," Spike said. Twilight nodded and looked back down the tunnel. She called up her map to confirm the way was clear and continued on. A few more steps down the passage forked, amber light from an orange gemstone illuminating the split. One path leveled out, the other turned deeper down before a cave-in blocked the way. "According to my scans, we need to take the lower route."
Twilight turned to the collapsed path and examined the cave-in. It looked like the top of the tunnel had fallen in when something – likely a Diamond Dog judging from what she had seen – had tried to dig through into the main tunnel and brought the ceiling down with them. The blockage was mostly made of stone and dirt, though in some areas Twilight could see small glimmers of color from buried gemstones. She lowered her horn and focused. One of the rocks glowed and slowly levitated up, moving behind Twilight with a thud. She groaned and seized a second rock in her telekinetic grip. "This is gonna take a while."
"There’s gotta be a faster way," Spike said. Twilight floated the second rock behind her. It rolled down the slightly inclined ground and banged against her steel hoof. Looking down at, Twilight thought, slowly smiling. Once again Spike read her thought patterns and realized what was coming. "Oh boy." Twilight send the mental command. Her hoof shifted form, metal plates clicking together and sliding apart. The Pinkie Cannon finishing forming with a hum of energy, and Twilight stepped back from the debris.
"Spike, will this be strong enough to bring the caves down around us?" she asked.
Spike looked over his data feeds. "No, but it’ll be pretty loud. The walls will amplify the pressure wave this closed-in." At the news, Twilight took a few more steps back and powered up the weapon. The end of the barrel lit up with pink light. Twilight turned her head away, closed her eyes, and fired. The air flashed pink as the Pinkie Cannon shot out a glowing pink energy orb. The rock blockade exploded in a powerful shockwave, Twilight stumbling back a step from the force. A cloud of dust enveloped her and a few smaller rocks fell down around her. The rumbling of the explosion was fading away as Twilight slowly opened her eyes, waving her hoof around to get rid of the dust.
"Well, that worked well enough." The blast had obliterated the blockage, as well as blown away the top of the shaft to reveal the Diamond Dog tunnel that the cave-in had originated from.
"Good work. Now we need to keep following this path. There’s a Diamond Dog up ahead, though considering last time he might be above you," Spike said. "Or… below, I guess. The sides? Keep an eye out, if I get a more accurate reading I’ll warn you."
"Right." Twilight stayed on edge and kept her map up as she went deeper into the caverns; the light of the luminance gems wouldn't do much to help see an opponent coming through the walls. As she went farther two more collapsed passages barred her progress, but the Pinkie Cannon made short work of them. The first time the force of the explosion had blown Twilight backwards and a few rocks in the ceiling had come loose and fallen down, but she had emerged unscathed. At the second blockade she had to wait as two Diamond Dogs came close on her map, but fortunately she avoided any more encounters and these two went past her, lost somewhere in the mountain beyond the walls.
Twilight was coming up on the end of her current tunnel after that. It opened up on a smaller cavern, a trio of larger blue luminance gems set on the ceiling itself to cast the walls in hues of azure and cerulean. Three other tunnels branched off from it. Two had hovercart rails running down them, the third was empty.
"Hang on!" Spike shouted mentally. Twilight froze. "I misread, there’s three Diamond Dogs. Hold still, maybe they’ll pass us by." Twilight looked up and shot a bolt of dispelling magic at the luminance gem above her head in the tunnel, its green light fading and casting her into darkness. Ahead in the open cavern three Diamond Dogs emerged from a side tunnel. One was dark grey and wearing a red vest with a collar set with glowing silver gems. The other two consisted of a larger dog with a grey vest and a smaller brown with a darker grey vest, both wearing the same types of collars as the first. As they walked, the one in the red vest stopped and looked between the passages, apparently trying to remember the way.
"Has Mistress Pony said what to do with the other ponies yet?" the smaller brown one asked.
The larger grey one snorted. "She says Master wants us to keep them down here."
"Yeah, says they need the no-metal ponies later." The dog in the red vest apparently remembered where they were going and nodded at another path. To Twilight's relief they weren't coming her way. That concern laid to rest, she turned her thoughts to what they were saying.
"No-metal ponies? What does that mean?"
"Beats me," Spike thought back.
The smaller brown dog snarled. "Mistress Pony is stupid and whiny! Why we take orders from her?" In response, the larger grey dog thumped him on the head, earning him a yip and a glare.
"Mistress Pony says Master needs caves to keep no-metal ponies."
"Remembers? Master says she give us Ponyville when she’s done." The one in the red vest rubbed its paws together. "Can make ponies dig gems for us."
"Okay, gems good." The smaller dog rubbed his head.
"Come on, we get rest of no-metal ponies and take them to lair. Mistress Pony says they last ones to go." The red-vested dog pointed down the passage he had chosen, the third path with no rail, and the other two followed him down it. Twilight called up her map and watched the three dots move away.
"Spike, which way?" Twilight waited until the voices of the dogs faded into distant echoes and walked into the cavern to inspect the branching paths.
"The way they came from, according to this map," Spike said. Twilight looked down the path the Diamond Dogs had come from, then glanced at the path they had vanished down. "What’s up?"
"They said the ‘no-metal ponies’ are needed for whatever the Master is planning," Twilight replied. With a glance back at the path Spike had pointed out to her, Twilight headed down the path after the trio of canines. She heard the echoes of their voices from up ahead. She couldn't make out what they were saying but preferred it that way, it meant she wasn’t too close to risk being discovered. The tunnel they were heading down curved to the left, and Twilight cautiously peeked around the corner.
The tunnel emptied out into another large area, lit by three red luminance gems in different settings. Steel bars were built into the walls, a desk at the front of the room with an old computer on it. The areas behind the bars had steel plating on the walls with tools and other equipment pieces hanging from them, most rusted to the point they were unrecognizable. To Twilight's horror, in lieu of mining gear the bars held various types of ponies, almost two dozen in all. Some of them were glaring at the Diamond Dogs and a couple were trying to buck them through the cage. It looked like the unicorns were trying to activate their magic judging from the glow over their horns, but the dogs were poking them with crude iron and rock spears through the bars and breaking their concentration.
"Spike, scan them. Find out what’s up." Twilight slowly crept closer, trying to remain silent and hidden. Fortunately the Diamond Dogs were paying more attention to their captives than the tunnels and didn't sense her coming.
"They’re pure biological, I can’t detect any cybernetic implants. These are normal ponies," Spike replied.
Twilight's eyes lit up. "So that’s what they meant. Whatever’s driving ponies crazy, it must only affect the ones with cybernetic implants. The Master can’t control them if they’re purely organic, so they're keeping those ponies prisoner!" Twilight looked between the cages, a familiar sense of responsibility welling up in her.
A servo on her saddle whirred lowly as Spike thought. "They said the Master still needs them for something. Wonder what."
"I'm not sure. But we can't leave them here, we have to get them out."
"I’m open to ideas," Spike replied, "preferably ones where you don't have to fight them all at once."
Twilight looked down at her hoof to make sure the Pinkie Cannon was still active, then came even closer to the exit. The tunnel and the cavern beyond with the cells were still lit by luminance gems. The three Diamond Dogs had their backs to her now, two of them taunting them with their spears while the one in the red vest was watching and laughing. Twilight took careful aim with her horn and fired a spell at the closest luminance gem. It went dark as the dispelling magic struck it. If the Diamond Dogs heard anything they didn’t show it. Twilight shot off three more blasts, the other three luminance gems between her and the prison going out. Shrouded in the darkness of the tunnel, she came so close that the light of the prison chamber was almost reaching her hooves on the ground.
"Mistress Pony say her Master need you. You come with us nice and we not hurt you." The dog in the red vest took a spear from one of his friends and thrust it at one of the ponies too near the bars. Twilight shook her head. He was too close to the cells, if he got hit it could hurt the prisoners. She turned to look at the other two. The smaller brown one was making faces at another cell of ponies and waving his spear at them. The larger grey one that had passed off his spear was reaching for a ring of keys on the desk at the front of the chamber.
"Spike, will the ponies be hurt at this range?"
"No, they'll have a bit of a ringing in their ears but they won't harmed seriously." The program's response confirmed to Twilight that she could do this. She raised her hoof, the Pinkie Cannon glowing. The Diamond Dog reaching for the keys was suddenly slammed forward into the stone wall as the Pinkie Cannon exploded against his back. He let out a howl and fell on his back, unconscious from the impact. The two dogs left turned to him and looked back at the tunnel, Twilight hidden in the shadows.
"What happened?" The one in the red vest looked at the tunnel in confusion as the other checked on their fallen ally. Twilight fired again, a ring of pink light flying down the tunnel around the projectile. The dog in the vest yelled as the second dog was hit and flew into the wall behind him, falling to the ground limply. Charging at the tunnel with a loud snarl, the third Diamond Dog dodged as Twilight fired a third shot. The pink orb exploded against the rear wall of the equipment chamber and dented the metal plating covering it. Twilight rolled aside as the dog dove at her and ran into the chamber. Ignoring the cheers of the other ponies, she looked back at the cave and fired two shots, angling the first to hit in an arc. The Diamond Dog's cry came over the burst of noisemakers and the cloud of dust the explosions created. It cleared to reveal parts of the ceiling fallen down, the Diamond Dog laying still on his back.
"He’s out," Spike reported. Twilight shot magic bolts up at the deactivated luminance gems, colored light again flooding the tunnel. She looked around at the ponies in the cages around her. Here she was able to see for herself what Spike had said. None of them had implants, and judging from the hopeful looks on their faces they weren't controlled by this mysterious 'Master' either.
"Don't worry, I'll get you out of here." She aimed her horn at the locks and fired a low-charged blast. The lock exploded in with a blast of violet energy and the ponies pushed past her to get out. Twilight repeated the task with the second and third cell, stepping back to clear the way. "Go down this tunnel and take the first path on the left, ignore the fork on your left and you'll get to the surface. Just keep following the paths sloping up."
"Thank you!" One of the ponies called out to her as they ran out, others expressing similar sentiments.
"Hey, hang on." Twilight held out a hoof as the last pony began to come out, an older earth pony stallion with a light brown coat and deep brown mane. "What happened at Ponyville?" she asked.
The stallion stopped and turned his head. "A visitor came into the town. I’ve never seen her around before, but she walked through town spouting off nonsense about some ‘Master’ calling us to serve. The next thing anypony knew anyone with cybernetics had their eyes glowing red. The visitor started giving orders to them, ordering them to capture anypony with no cybernetics. They marched some of us off to the Everfree Forest and brought the rest of us here. There were more of us once, I saw them split us up when they brought us in. The dogs told us that they've already been taken away so it was just us now."
"What’d they want with you?"
The stallion shook his head. "I don’t know and if you don’t mind I’d prefer not to. I just know they were holding us here until they needed us for... whatever is going on."
Twilight nodded. "Alright. Thank you, go." The stallion took off down the tunnel, his coat flashing in the lighting of the different gems. Twilight took a deep breath before following at a more leisurely pace. "Spike, tell me they’re safe." Her map blinked to life, showing the soft blue dots of biological ponies forming a line out of the cave. None of the red dots of Diamond Dog were reacting to them. She let out a relived sigh and headed back to the fork.
"Now we need to find this ‘Mistress Pony’ the Diamond Dogs mentioned," Spike said. "She sounded like she was the one giving orders to them."
Twilight nodded confidently as she re-emerged into the forked path and headed down the path Spike had noted before. "Yup. And I’m betting I know who that is."
In the next tunnel Twilight was surprised by a Diamond Dog that she didn't notice on her map. He literally got the drop on her, digging down through the ceiling and lunging at her a moment later. Twilight was able to stun him easily enough, not risking using something as powerful as the Pinkie Cannon on it in this enclosed space. After a short time they came to another fork and Spike pointed her down the left path. Twilight headed down, the tunnel ahead widening into another cavern. She reached the end and stopped, staring up in awe.
What surely must have been the heart of the cave system stretched before and above her, reaching high over her head and wide enough to rival the grand hall of the Republic Headquarters in Canterlot. A chandelier cobbled together from other luminance gem holders hung from the ceiling. Even more luminance gems decorated the walls. The room was full of piles and piles of gems, some as large as a pony, others small enough to stud a unicorn's horn with. The colors of the luminance gems blurred and blended together and reflected off the normal gems, creating a rainbow of colors over the walls and floor that shifted and danced as the chandelier slowly turned on its chain.
As Twilight slowly came further into the room, gingerly stepping around a few smaller gemstones laying in her path, she saw a unicorn on the opposite side of the room reclining on a pile of gemstones. She had a coiffed purple mane and a white coat, and wore a silver saddle studded with white gemstones and engraved with painted purple swirl designs. A long white horn on top of her head had a band of steel winding around it and vanishing into her scalp. She didn’t notice Twilight’s approach, admiring her reflection in a large white diamond hovering in the air in an aura of blue magic.
"That’s… her… "
Twilight made a face at Spike's tone and gently tapped the side of her saddle. "Spike, you okay?"
"Huh? Oh, uh… that's Rarity." Spike's hologram flickered. "I had the data files on her, but I didn't think the real thing was so..."
"What?"
"N-nevermind."
Twilight rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Rarity. "Miss Rarity?" At Twilight's called Rarity perked up and turned towards her, the large diamond she was looking at lowering to the floor as the aura around it vanished.
"Hm? Have we met?" She climbed to her hooves atop the gem pile, a few dislodging from the pile with her movement. Twilight thought. In the past mentioning her name or Celestia’s made otherwise normal ponies go nuts. And Rarity was almost certainly under the same influence as Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Best to play it safe.
"No. I'm here to speak to you. On behalf of a friend." At Twilight's words Rarity made a show of huffing and slowly stepped to the cave floor, tossing her mane. Gemstones fell to the floor in her wake, jingling against the stone.
"Well, it’s about time! I don’t appreciate being kept in this cave. It’s dingy, it’s smelly, and after I've done as ordered perfectly." She sniffed indignantly and stopped before Twilight. "The dogs kept the normal ponies caged as needed and so far nopony has come snooping around. I sent their leaders out to bring the second group back to the base as ordered."
Twilight simply nodded. "Good, that's good. And the status on the gemstones?" Twilight gestured her hoof at the pile of jewels around them. Rarity smiled and leaned her head over to bat her eyes at a large ruby.
"Oh, that was just for me. Those dogs have quite a collection, I just couldn't help myself. Do you think they’d buy it if we told them we need the gems too? They’re foalish enough to think we’re giving them control of Ponyville, they might just go for it."
"Maybe." Twilight thought for a minute. She had to find out as much as she could here, then try to get out without arousing suspicion and relay the information to Celestia. "The Master, um, wants to make sure your orders are up to date. What exactly were you holding the normal ponies here for?"
"Until we could take them to the forest, darling. Everfree," Rarity replied. Twilight gasped slightly and her eyes widened, but fortunately Rarity didn't notice. "I say it would have been much easier to keep them in Ponyville, not to mention having to buy off these mangy dogs to help us. But if the Master wants to avoid drawing attention until she’s ready to finish her plan, I suppose public shows of hostage-taking aren't the way to go. Now that the last group is leaving I hope we can finally move on. I'm looking forward to a good bath once I'm out of here."
"Uh-huh. And what are we doing with them in the Everfree Forest?" Twilight asked. Rarity began to answer, then stopped and glared at her reflection in the ruby. Slowly she turned her head until the two unicorns were facing each other.
"Why don’t you tell me, what we’re doing with them," Rarity replied, stepping closer to Twilight.
"She’s on to us!" Spike shouted in Twilight’s head.
"I’m afraid that’s, uh, classified." Twilight took a step back as Rarity advanced. The other mare kept coming, her eyes narrow.
"Is it? Because the Master told us that there’s only three ponies we need to answer to other than her. I got a good look at their unicorn, and you are most definitely not her." Rarity stopped and scowled. "I do believe you weren't sent here by the Master at all, were you?"
"No no, I was!" Twilight shook her head. Rarity's eyes lit up red, and her horn glowed pale blue.
"LIES!"
Her fears confirmed, Twilight didn't wait to let Rarity make the first move. She lowered her head and fired three quick blasts from her horn. Rarity leapt away, her saddle glowing in a magic aura. Four large gemstones detached themselves from her saddle and encircled her in a telekinetic grip. Twilight turned to her and fired, three violet blasts racing forward. Rarity held still and smiled as the jewels encircling her moved to intercept the violet energy blasts, the gems lighting up momentarily as the blast hit them in small fizzling sparks of magic.
Twilight stopped and blinked as she took in what had just happened. "Those gems blocked my attacks?"
"Yes, aren't they marvelous?" Rarity looked between them as they orbited her. "Modified luminance gems. The originals were quite good at absorbing magical energy already, I just gave their enchantment a little tweak. Absorbing magic is just phase one." The gemstones encircling her stopped, violet light glaring along their edges to gather at the tips. "Here’s phase two!" Twilight watched in horror as orbs of magic formed at the tips of the gem, energy bolts exactly like her own firing at her. She ran to the side to avoid them and ducked behind a pile of gems, the blasts hitting another pile and sending gemstones scattering through the air. Rarity emerged from the other side of the pile and Twilight took a few more shots, trying to aim between the gems. Again the gems blocked her, moving out of formation to intercept the attacks. Twilight dove as the three shots fired back at her and toppled the gemstone mountain to the floor.
"She can’t reflect your attacks if you don’t fuel them!" Spike said. Twilight stopped and looked back at the enemy unicorn.
"That only works once, though. Now I know better, and you can’t harm me if I don’t give you something to reflect!"
"Pardon me?" Rarity said. A fifth gem levitated into the air beside her head. "I’m a unicorn too, if you’ll recall." The gem turned its pointed edge at Twilight and shot at her. She winced and rolled away as it hit the floor behind her and bounced again, Rarity already lifting another gem to attack with.
"Well that was a good plan to stall her for ten seconds." Twilight dashed behind a pile of gems to avoid Rarity's attack.
"It was worth a shot," Spike grumbled.
"Yeah. Now let's try breaking that barrier." She sent a mental command to her hoof as a sapphire shot past her flank. Metal plates shifted form, three rings of metal with a four-pronged claw emerging on Twilight's hoof. Emerging from cover she fired, the Apple Whip's chain whistling through the air. The claw shot at Rarity, hitting one of the gems circling her and pinging off it to hit the ground. The gem didn't even wobble slightly.
"They’re moving too fast to get a grip on," Spike said. Twilight retracted the whip and avoided another gem fired at her. With only one other option the Apple Whip reconfigured itself, the metal rings widening and shortening to form the Pinkie Cannon. Twilight swung her hoof up at Rarity and fired. The glowing pink energy orb hit at Rarity's hooves and exploded, nearby gemstones flying through the air in the blast. Twilight turned away, one stone pinging off her saddle. She looked back as the explosion cleared. Rarity was coughing and weakly stumbling from side to the side. Her reflective gems had scattered around her, the telekinetic aura gone. Taking the chance, Twilight lowered her horn and fired. Rarity looked up and cried out as the energy bolts rushed into her saddle, recoiling slightly and turning away. Her horn glowed and the scattered gems floated up around her again, two stray shots being absorbed and shot back as Twilight dodged.
"You ruffian, what kind of animal attacks a lady with a cannon?" Rarity glared and charged. Two gems lifted from a pile as she passed by and they flung themselves through the air towards Twilight. She ran and dodged one, skidding to avoid the other as it flew past her face. She and turned back to see Rarity almost upon her, her four main gems floating up beside her into formation again. Rarity flung two of her gems at Twilight, she jumped over them and pointed her hoof down to fire, but Rarity had turned to sprint behind a pile of gems. Twilight landed, dove to the side to avoid a gem shooting past her head, and pointed her hoof up as Rarity came around the other side of the pile. The Pinkie Cannon fired, gemstones whizzing past her head as the energy orb detonated in front of Rarity. Twilight fired a trio of energy blasts into the smoke, Rarity's cries of pain answering her.
Rarity ran out of the smoke, glaring angrily as four more gems floated to her side. Twilight got to her hooves and stumbled back as Rarity telekinetically swung the gems, swirling them around her in larger circles to attempt to strike her. Twilight jumped one gem aimed for her hoof and leapt forward to avoid another. The four gems swung and knocked down gem piles and scratched gouges in the cave floor as Rarity advanced. Twilight jumped over one gem and fired the Pinkie Cannon downwards. The explosive shockwave flung Rarity through the air, her gems scattering around the room. She landed on her hooves and turned to a group of gems nearby. Rubies, emeralds and diamonds of all sizes rose in a light blue aura of magic and flung themselves at Twilight. She ran to avoid them, the gem piles she used for cover bursting from the impacts of Rarity's projectiles and collapsing. The cave floor was rapidly turning into a sea of gemstones as the mountains of jewels broke down.
Twilight turned her head to try to fire as she ran between piles, but Rarity had summoned her four main gems back to her side. They absorbed Twilight's shots and fired back at her, the violet shots shooting over her head. Stopping behind a pile, Twilight shoved her hoof into it and fired. The pink light of the Pinkie Cannon's energy blast lit up the cavern, the gems reflecting the light and spraying it into the air as they were flung away from the explosion. Twilight fell back from the proximity and looked up. Rarity had her main four gems and several others suspended over her head to protect her from the rain of gemstones and gemstone pieces. Twilight dashed out from the collapsed pile, galloping towards her. Rarity looked forward as Twilight came towards her and tried to strike her with the gems, but Twilight ducked between them and leapt in front of Rarity, pressing the Pinkie Cannon into her chest. Rarity's gems stopped in the air, hovering around them. Twilight narrowed her eyes, glancing aside to see the four gems slowly turning to face their edges towards her, aiming to strike her if the chance came. Hopefully the steel pressing into Rarity’s coat was dissuading her from trying.
"You wouldn't dare fire that!" Rarity glared, her breathing heavy. "At this range the blast would hurt you as much as me!"
"Yes, it probably would," Twilight agreed. "But you're still only half-right." She smirked, hoping to throw Rarity off from her true intent and delay her counter-attack. Rarity gasped in horror, the gems circling them drooping. Good enough. Twilight quickly swung her hoof an inch and fired over Rarity’s shoulder. The Pinkie Cannon blast exploded behind them, catapulting the two unicorns away. As Twilight sailed back the four gems converged where she would have been if not for the pressure wave knocking her back. The edge of one came towards her and sliced across her head, making her cry out as the gem came away with its edge bright red. Twilight landed on her back, ignored the stinging over her left eye, and aimed up as Rarity flew over her and fired as many energy blasts as she could into her saddle, violet energy lighting up the cavern. Rarity hit behind her, rolled, and lay still with a long, low groan. Around Twilight, the glowing blue aura around the four gems faded, and they fell to the ground.
"Another one down," Spike said. "But you didn’t have to go so rough on her."
Twilight climbed to her hooves and blinked, her left eye screaming at her. "Trust me Spike, if these ponies weren't attacking me I wouldn't be fighting back." She ignored Spike's continued grumbling and approached Rarity. Once again unconscious but alive. She didn’t need to ask Spike to confirm if she had the same system corruption as Applejack and Pinkie Pie, that was self-evident. However, Rarity wasn't having the same amnesia problems as they were. She said she had acted under orders. "Then it's as we feared. This 'Master' they mention has some plan in mind." Twilight couldn't begin to guess what.
Looking over at the four discarded gems, Twilight floated them over to her and inspected them, reaching her magic out to feel the spell on the gems. As Rarity had said, it was the same as the basic luminance gem spell, modified to project the absorbed magic as an energy blast instead of light. "It’s a fairly simple change to the spell, but impressively effective."
"Let me scan them," Spike said. Twilight felt more magical knowledge than her brief glance could discover enter her mind as Spike carried out the task. As he worked she took a healing slave from her pack and slathered the blue gel over the wound on her head. A soothing warmth joined the humming of her interior cybernetics as the wound healed. By the time the warmth faded, Spike's scan had finished. "The luminance spell is pretty easy to figure out. With a sample of the gem to serve as a basis we could probably extend the enchantment over other objects. Shouldn't even take much energy to support, as long as we don’t try anything too big. Your Multitool reconfigures itself easily enough, we could use bits from it."
Twilight set one of the gems down and focused her magic on it, cracking it into shards. She lifted four of the larger ones in her magic and floated them to her Multitool, stepping down on them. She felt them slide up into the metalwork, the hoof reworking itself to the new configuration. The main body slimmed down while a thicker band appeared around it in the middle, the four gem shards embedded on the outside of the thicker strip. Twilight raised her hoof and sent the command. The four gems lifted off from her hoof with fragments of the thicker strip of metal and began to float around her. The metal attached to the gems shifted and crumbled, forming into small four silver gem facsimiles. Twilight fired an energy bolt at one, and as expected it held the charge. The fake gems disassembled and floated back to Twilight's hoof, the Multitool shifting back to its default form and the gem shards vanishing into the interior.
"As usual I’m going to guess that the interference has cleared up enough to call the Princess?"
"Yup, I’ll get her," Spike replied. Twilight waited. After a few seconds Celestia’s visage projected from her horn.
"Good news again I hope."
"To an extent. Rarity was keeping some of the Ponyville ponies imprisoned in the Appleloosan gem mines with help from the local Diamond Dog population. We set them free and we've got her here ready for retrieval."
"We'll take care of her immediately, thank you Twilight." Rarity lit up in blue light and vanished as Celestia continued. "On your first point, did you say imprisoned? So not all the ponies from the town are hostile?"
Twilight shook her head. "It seems that this mysterious ‘Master’ the crazed ponies serve can only exert her influence over ponies with cybernetic enhancements. The pure biological ponies are beyond her control. But Rarity and the Diamond Dogs said the Master wanted the biological ponies for something. They were holding them here to await transport to the Everfree Forest."
As Twilight spoke, Celestia’s eyes widened. "The Everfree Forest… " Twilight blinked, surprised. She wasn't used to seeing her mentor react like this. She had a haunted look in her eyes.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. "Should I head there next instead?" Celestia blinked and shook her head, resuming the same calm composure Twilight knew best.
"No, that's quite alright. I'll see to it here. I’m just surprised that anypony would operate out of that place. You've heard the tales I’m sure," she said. Twilight nodded. The Everfree Forest was literally the stuff of nightmares, creatures beyond imagination lurked beyond that first row of trees. Nopony went into the woods unless they had to.
"So I guess with Rarity safe it’s on to the next one. Spike, got a fix?"
"Yup. Further up the mountain, near the summit. We can reach her by getting out of here and following the cliffs," Spike said. Twilight made a slight face. She had expected that, too. She kept her suspicions to herself though. Celestia was obviously worried about her out here, and it would do little good to discuss what she was thinking anyway.
"You’re doing wonderfully, my student. Keep it up," Celestia said. She smiled and the hologram vanished. Twilight stood up and called up her map to look at the path Spike had charted out of the mines.
"Two more to go... "
Celestia closed the channel to Spike and Twilight and sighed, closing her eyes. "The Everfree Forest… then it is as I feared." A single tear slid down Celestia's cheek. "She's back..." Opening her eyes and using a glowing yellow band of magic to wipe her face, she pushed another button. "Guardpost, this is Celestia," she said into the receiver in front of her.
"Captain Gilded Stalwart reporting. What is amiss, Your Grace?" the guard answered.
"Captain Stalwart, gather a scouting party of your fastest pegasi. I need them to launch a high-priority investigation immediately at the Everfree Forest."
"Of course, Your Grace. What are they to look for?" Gilded Stalwart asked. Celestia forced her fears down her throat and held on to the dying hope that her suspicions were incorrect.
Twilight looked up the mountain and groaned. "Tell me it isn’t a long way up." Having emerged from the gem mines of the Diamond Dogs to the cliff path winding up to the top of the mountain, her courage had suddenly drained away at the sight of the climb ahead. Spike's data feed popped up on her display and she dismissed it without bothering to read it.
"Hey!"
"Spike, I'm really not in the mood to know wind speeds or terrain heights. What's the important stuff?"
Spike huffed and took a moment before answering. "Judging from the height and geological data I'm reading this is Mt. Rushmare, the third-highest peak in the range. A few centuries ago it was an airship refueling center for transports between Appleloosa and Connecticolt. Then Connecticolt built a cloud-based station south of here and they abandoned the site. Two years ago a committee chose Rushmare for the site of a giant sculpture of Celestia carved into the mountain, but the project hasn't gotten off the ground yet. None of the pegasi have the skills demanded to work with stone and the earth pony sculptors don't want to work in this environment until the pegasi provide better safety equipment."
"Sounds like a great plan, can we wait for that too?" A gust of wind blew Twilight's mane past her face and she huddled down, shivering. Fighting crazed ponies and other dangers she could handle, even if she wasn't enthused about doing it. What she could not handle was the long, certainly fatal fall that was just a few hooves in front of her. Twilight didn't care to approach the edge of the path and see just how far down the fall was.
"Come on, Twilight," Spike said. She turned her head and saw a holographic claw pat her on the back of the neck. She didn't feel a thing from it but smiled at the gesture. "We can do this."
Twilight gulped and took a deep breath, looking up the mountain again. "Well... come on then. Let's move." She started up the path, moving slowly and keeping close to the cliff. She hoped for their sake that there weren't any berserk ponies up this way, if she got into a fight there was no way it could end without someone going down the mountain the hard way. Fortunately the path wasn't very steep and was wide enough for her to stay well away from the edge.
As Twilight climbed she mulled over the encounter with Rarity. The unicorn said she had allied with the Diamond Dogs to keep the non-cybernetic ponies prisoner for some later use. She understood that this ‘Master’ wasn't able to control them, but what purpose did this mysterious enemy have for ponies it couldn't control? Not to mention that this was the fourth aide they were tracking down now.
"Spike, any sign of the last aide?"
Spike shook his head. "Nope, just the one at the mountain top. Why, what’s up?
"Doesn't this all feel a bit weird?" Twilight asked, looking up the cliff face beside her. "Every time we beat one we just happen to sense another one nearby?"
"What do you mean?"
Twilight sighed. She hoped she was just being paranoid but she couldn't shake the idea from her head. "It feels like we’re being led around by something, more likely someone. If we are we know who. And if that’s the case we could easily be walking into a trap."
"I think you’re worrying over nothing," Spike said. Twilight noted he didn’t sound like he believed it himself. "If there was anypony else around here I would detect them, right?"
"Yeah, except we've seen with Pinkie Pie that your scans aren't foolproof."
"Again, worrying over nothing. Out here I’d definitely… uh-oh." Spike interrupted himself. Twilight called up her map to see two red dots approaching. Judging from the way they were moving, they were flying and coming fast.
"You were saying?" Twilight readied a spell on her horn and looked up. She saw glimmering mists of blue light swooping through the air, turning to come towards her. As they neared Twilight saw they looked like over-sized, spectral ponies. They were a transparent blue and moved as if galloping on the air itself, their manes and tails blowing behind them.
Spike gasped in her head. "I don’t believe it. Windigos!"
Twilight saw one of the ghostly ponies rear back its head and snap it forward, a spray of three pale blue lasers shooting at her. She jumped away and fired back three blasts of her own. Two caught the Windigo but didn’t faze it as it turned away. A second came in its stead and shot three more lasers. Twilight thought she saw a flash of silver in its mouth as it fired, but focused on avoiding the triple shot instead of firing back. "Spike, scan them closer, something’s odd!" She heard her internal components whirring to life.
"I’m sensing something mechanical. But that's not right, the Windigos are mythical spirits of hatred," Spike reported. Twilight took careful aim with her horn as the second specter flew over her head, firing a blast directly into its mouth. The Windigo visibly flashed, a small steel orb appearing in its place before its visage flickered back into being. Twilight smiled in triumph.
"It’s a hologram!" She aimed for the mouth of the first Windigo that was circling back and fired off several shots as it began to fire. The image of the ghostly pony vanished leaving another floating steel orb to continue flying forward, clanging off the mountainside and rolling down the path. The second Windigo whinnied at the sight of its wounded comrade and came right at her, triple shot laser firing. Twilight fired as she dodged it, catching the silver orb projecting the hologram of a pony and sending it falling into the abyss below. "Well, that was something." Twilight lifted the disabled orb lying on the path in her telekinesis and floated it over to inspect more closely. It was a flat metal sphere, an anti-gravity generator installed on the back with three laser barrels emerging from the top.
"Okay, this is making sense now," Spike said. Twilight felt her internal components humming as he scanned the device. "It's a weather scouting drone. Pegasi deploy them around Equestria to keep track of weather patterns in problematic areas and report any anomalies to the local weather teams. They usually project holograms of clouds to avoid being seen and tampered with by vandals. The force fields and laser systems are for the same, usually at a lower power setting."
"So somepony has hacked them to work as offensive fighters," Twilight finished, turning the robot around. "I could take a guess who. Are there any more of them around here?"
"Let's find out," Spike replied.
Twilight called up her map and soon two blinking silver dots lit up on it. She dropped the disabled machine and continued up the mountain, watching her map closely. Aside from the blinking red dot of Celestia’s next aide, only those Windigo-scout drones were up here and fortunately they were few. Twilight looked down at her hoof and thought. "If they fight using only lasers, I guess it's a good chance to try those gems we got from Rarity." She sent the command and her hoof shrank, a thicker band emerging around the center with the four gem shards she had picked up in the mines emerging on the sides. "They're strong enough to absorb their lasers, right?"
"Even hacked the drones don't have the generator capacity to give their shots much kick. We'll be fine."
Twilight nodded and continued on, this time keeping an eye on the clouds for incoming Windigos. As they climbed higher the wind picked up and the path got steeper, making the going even slower as she took her time to make sure her steps were steady and sure. After a few trips around the mountain itself Twilight saw another Windigo coming after her, mouth opening to fire at her. Twilight launched the Rare Shield in response. The orbiting silver gems absorbed the blasts and her own violet shots fired in tandem with them. Even without being hit in its weak point, the Windigo's hologram broke like glass and fell away, the emitter device sailing through the air and down the side of the cliff. The four orbiting gems shrank back down and latched back around Twilight's hoof, and the climb continued.
As they continued Twilight began to see clouds coming close. She stepped up to a plateau, the path curling around a central spire of the mountain that went even higher. Twilight turned her head at the sound of whistling wind and ducked to the ground to avoid another Windigo, the three blue lasers scorching the ground behind her. She rose to her hooves and waited for it to turn back. When it opened its mouth to fire again Twilight struck first, disabling it and sending it crashing into the ground next to her. She approached the spiral path and looked up.
"I’m not sensing much else. It’s all clear," Spike said. "Keep going." Twilight gulped loudly and switched her hoof to the Apple Whip, using its claw to hold into the ground and taking her time walking. The path was still not all that narrow, but given the height she was taking no chances. She slowly stepped around the edge of the peak and looked forward. The path stretched over a narrow gap to another part of the mountain. Twilight approached the gap, willing herself not to look down, and focused on her map. The next aide was definitely across. It was only a hoof or two wide, but it was wide enough to frighten her. "You can do it, Twilight," Spike whispered." Twilight took a shaky breath and stepped back.
"Okay Twilight… just don’t look down. Don’t… look…" Hesitating for a few seconds more, Twilight stared straight ahead and ran. She jumped and fired the Apple Whip as she sailed through the air, her Multitool vibrating as it hit the cliff ahead and dug in. Twilight began retracting and slowly looked down. To her relief she had landed safely, her hooves dragging on the ground as the Apple Whip pulled her forward. Loosing the claw she changed her hoof back to its default mode and took the moment to calm her nerves, breathing deeply.
"Spike, please tell me she’s nearby." In response her horn projected her map in front of her. Twilight raised her eyes. To her dismay the path curved up the mountain in front of her yet more, but the blinking dot of their destination was close. Twilight pushed herself to her hooves, swallowed the lump in her throat, and set out once more. The clouds were so close now she was sure if she fired her horn she could disperse them. She crested the top of the path, and stopped to rest, and to stare ahead.
The mountain plateaued, a few smaller spires of rock poked up but mostly it was flat. And to her relief it wasn't large enough to give her a view downwards to remind her she was miles into the sky. On the edge of the mountain ahead, sitting on her flank with her face hidden behind a long mass of light pink hair, was a butter-yellow pegasus. Twilight saw a metal plate with a control panel on the back of one of her hooves, but not much to hint at once it might be for. As she got closer she saw civilian-issue stun gauntlets fitted around both hooves. They weren't cybernetics, just boots with low-powered concussive pulse blasters mounted on the sides. Their ends glowed a dull blue against the grey rock beneath them.
"That’s her. Fluttershy."
"Hello?" Twilight approached cautiously. By now she definitely knew better; Fluttershy was certainly corrupted by the Master. She didn’t see any significant weapons and hoped that meant this would be an easy fight if it came to that, but she wasn't taking any chances. "Fluttershy?" The pegasus moved her head slightly at her name, but her mane still hid her face.
"H-hello?" A small voice whimpered. Twilight edged closer. On the chance Fluttershy was free she couldn't attack out of paranoia. First she'd make sure.
"Fluttershy, I need you to turn and face me." Twilight spoke gently, hiding her fear. Fluttershy brushed a hoof on the ground but didn’t move her head. "Please?" Twilight asked.
"Um… o-okay." Fluttershy's mane moved as her head turned. Twilight smiled as Fluttershy's face came into view, blinking at her with large cyan eyes.
"Hello Twilight Sparkle."
There was a blinding flash of light and Twilight felt herself freeze in place. Her eyes went wide, darting down. She tried to move but every part of her body, biological or mechanical, refused to obey. Pulling at her hooves and her body, she found herself completely paralyzed. Even her head refused to turn.
"Spike! What’s happened?" There was no response. "Spike?" Empty silence filled her head. Twilight began to panic in her own mind, her breathing quickening as much as it could with the paralysis in effect. What could do this? There was a low chuckle. Twilight turned her focus back to Fluttershy. The pegasus was slinking towards her with a cruel smile, eyes gleaming red.
"So, this is the unicorn who has interfered with my plans?" She sneered and tapped a hoof against Twilight’s Multitool. "I was expecting more. You’re barely out of fillyhood, yet you've already defeated three of the aides and made your way this far. I admit I'm impressed." Fluttershy stepped back, smirking.
Twilight tried to move her mouth, and with great difficulty managed to squeak out one word. "F-flut..shy?"
Fluttershy snorted and tossed her mane with a hoof. "Not quite. This body is insulting for one of my grandeur and power, but it will do to speak to you. Not that I had much choice. I have matters more important than you that won’t wait." Twilight felt a tingling in her limbs and gasped in a breath as movement in her head returned. She turned her head slightly to look at her body. "I don’t think so." Fluttershy's hoof turned her head forward and her eyes lit up in a bright gleam of cyan light. Twilight froze in place again.
"The little one had implants in her skull, to keep her animals at home in line." Fluttershy smiled and gestured with her hoof, tapping the control panel implant on it against Twilight's horn. The metal ringing sounded hollow in Twilight's ears, her senses dulled. "Rapid flashes of light from the eyes, tuned specifically to disrupt the brain’s neural passages and hamper movement. She used it on low settings just to demand attention and obedience, but at full power they can induce a near-total paralysis. Struggle all you like, you can't resist it."
"Mas-ter." Twilight struggled to get the word out as she realized who she was really speaking to.
"At last she figures it out," the Master replied in Fluttershy's voice. "If it is of any consolation this one was hard to break. Oh, they all resist of course, but this one doesn't have a mean bone or plate in her body. I was able to influence her to come here, but anything other than background suggestions and she fights back. Direct control is a waste of my time for most of them when system corruption bends them just fine, but for you I’ll make an exception." Twilight struggled to move. She had to do something. Her eyes moved and she could talk through great effort. She put all her energy into trying to move a hoof, even just a step back.
Fluttershy looked down and snorted at the sight of Twilight’s hoof twitching rapidly. "How cute. You’re trying to resist too?" She laughed and held out her hoof. The civilian stun gauntlets whirred to life, the twin barrels on each hoof lighting up a brighter blue. Two volleys of energy blasts hit Twilight's flank, knocking her to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Under normal circumstances she would have barely flinched, the gauntlets on the pegasus's hooves were low-powered commercial weapons. But with Twilight almost entirely paralyzed she was helpless before them. She tried to move in her new position, but Fluttershy's eyes flashed again and Twilight’s body seized up anew.
"Now the question is, what should I do with you?" Fluttershy thought aloud, walking around the fallen unicorn. "On the one hoof I could kill you here. This body’s combat capabilities are poor, but I think old-fashioned gravity will work just fine." Fluttershy put a hoof under Twilight’s side and flipped her over. Twilight stared in horror at the edge of the cliff just a few hooves away from her eyes. "On the other hoof you might be quite useful if I could corrupt you." Fluttershy's shadow loomed on the ground before Twilight’s face, the pegasus looking at her saddle. "You defeated three of Celestia’s aides and got here on your own. You might be worth keeping around if you could be controlled. When I conquer Equestria it will be helpful to have powerful ponies like you by my side."
"Gotta be something I can do…" Twilight whimpered in her head and kept trying to move. But her body wouldn't listen to her, and any time the paralytic effects of that stare began to wear off Fluttershy used it again. Twilight tilted her eyes as best she could to see her. She wasn't using it constantly, given the size of the control panel on Fluttershy's hoof it was probably a small system with a weak generator. Twilight realized her one advantage. She just had to hope now that Fluttershy, or rather the Master, wouldn't notice until it was too late to stop.
"The other three I had chosen as my elite generals are strong, but perhaps they could use a fourth member? Of course the unicorn probably wouldn't take kindly to having you around." Fluttershy continued speaking as casually as discussing a dinner date. "But then we don’t need to worry too much, she’ll do as she’s told. Though she does have great power, likely too much for you to handle. I might have to get rid of her pre-emptively." Fluttershy looked down at Twilight and saw her Multitool begin to twitch, one plate clicking apart from the rest to slide into a new position. "Silly me, I almost got carried away. Hold still now." Fluttershy tilted Twilight’s head towards her and her eyes lit up in an array of flashes.
The flashes subsided and Fluttershy began to speak again, turning away. Twilight didn’t listen however. The feeling in her limbs began to return, she could feel her cybernetics coming back to her. Her body was hers again, her suspicious confirmed – Fluttershy's paralyzing glare must only work via direct eye contact. Smiling in triumph, Twilight climbed to her hooves and opened her eyes. The plates of her hoof slid apart and clicked into a familiar shape, the cannon barrel glowing pink.
"So." Fluttershy spun around in the middle of her speech and gasped at the sight of Twilight standing, her eyes wide. "How long does that stare take to recharge?" Twilight asked, giving her a knowing look. Fluttershy's eyes flashed red and she flew forward, raising her front hooves and firing a blast of energy pellets from her gauntlets. Twilight raised her own hoof in return and fired the Pinkie Cannon. Fluttershy pulled up to avoid the glowing energy orb and flew higher into the air. The Pinkie Cannon detonated on the ground and the explosion sent shards of rock flying with a shower confetti. Twilight stumbled slightly, her control of her body still coming back to her, and looked up at Fluttershy flying overhead.
"Twilight!" She turned her head to see a blue hologram flicker into place on her back. Twilight smiled.
"Spike…" The hologram moved to hug her from behind, a futile gesture since the arms passed through her. Twilight still raised a hoof to touch the projected claws.
"I’m sorry, Twilight!" Spike cried. "Whatever she did it disrupted our interface. I could see and hear what she was doing but couldn't connect to you. I’m so sorry, I tried everything, really, but I couldn't stop it!"
"It’s okay, Spike." Twilight tried to sooth the program's nerves along with her own. "You’re back, I’m back… we’re okay…" Looking back at the sky, Twilight saw Fluttershy circling to come back and closed her eyes as she fired another blast from the Pinkie Cannon. Fluttershy dodged it once again and swooped down, the energy orb sailing through the air and off the mountain, the distant explosion coming several seconds later.
"I’m not done with you!" Fluttershy shrieked and swept over Twilight, firing a barrage of energy blasts. Her eyes were blazing the familiar corrupted red. Twilight turn and ran, both to avoid her attacks and to avoid her gaze.
"If she catches me in another one of those stares there’s not gonna be a second escape. Any ideas, Spike?" Twilight cautiously opened her eyes as Fluttershy flew past her.
"Yeah. My turn. Close your eyes," Spike replied. Twilight closed her eyes. The world rippled into sight around her, a sea of blue wireframe images. "Your saddle has on-board sensors, remember? If she wants to paralyze you with your eyes then let me sub in!"
"Right, good work." Twilight looked up and a red wireframe pegasus came into view in her mind’s eyes. "We'll fight her together!"
Fluttershy dove down, her gauntlets blazing. Twilight ignored the Pinkie Cannon this time and fired energy blasts from her horn. A few pinged off of Fluttershy but Twilight took it worse in return, Fluttershy's barrage hitting the mark on her flank and making her stagger. She shook it off and stood back up.
"Sorry, Twilight, with all the firing going on it’s hard to track her shots without mixing them up with yours," Spike explained in her head. Twilight thought and watched the red digital Fluttershy fly away.
"Well, if I can’t dodge…" Twilight sent the command to her hoof. With a whirl of machinery she felt the weapon form, the thick metal band studded with four gemstone shards appearing around her hoof. She launched the Rare Shield, the four silver gemstones taking up formation around her in an aura of violet magic. "I’ll shoot, you block!" She turned forward to see Fluttershy coming at her. The two ponies open fire on each other and the gems encircling Twilight spun around to catch Fluttershy's attacks. The pegasus swooped back into the sky and the Rare Shield released its blocked attacks back at her, pale blue pellets filling the air. Fluttershy ducked and weaved through the air to avoid them, a few shots hitting her wings in small bursts of energy. She gasped and wobbled from the impacts, glaring down angrily.
"We got her, keep it up, Twilight!" Encouraged by Spike's words Twilight focused and fired, her horn raining violet bolts of magic into the air. Fluttershy flew too far away to hit, then turned and dive bombed towards Twilight, her hooves held out and firing rapidly. Spike moved the Rare Shield to catch the blasts as Twilight realized that Fluttershy was coming straight towards her and not stopping. She dove aside as Fluttershy dashed through the air where she had stood. Spike circled the Rare Shield around and fired back the absorbed energy, light gleaming along the silver gems. Twilight looked up to see Fluttershy get hit on the flank with several blasts, crying out and swooping back down.
"You’re annoying me, Sparkle!" Fluttershy snarled, shooting wildly. Twilight saw her trajectory and shot as many of her own attacks as she dared before jumping to avoid a second diving tackle. Once again the Rare Shield shot the attacks back and Twilight heard Fluttershy's cries again, though it seemed she was more angry than in pain. She got up and aimed as Fluttershy circled around and came at her again. Her eyes were such a bright red Twilight could have sworn they were just red voids set on her face. Firing rapidly Twilight stepped back as Fluttershy came at her, the enemy mare not even attempting dodging.
Suddenly the red light in Fluttershy's eyes flickered. She pulled up slightly as she went limp and spun through the air. Twilight gasped as she realized what was happening. "No!"
Twilight ran after Fluttershy as she approached the edge of the mountain and recalled the Rare Shield, reconfiguring her hoof and launching the Apple Whip as Fluttershy began to dip over the edge of the mountain. The claw bit into the flesh of Fluttershy's rear left hoof, the chain snapping taut and wobbling in the air. Twilight strained to keep standing, gritting her teeth. Slowly she took a step back, then another, and began retracting the whip. The chain coiled back up her hoof and the claw came into view, Fluttershy's rear right hoof seized in it. When she was back on solid ground Twilight let her go, panting. Small droplets of blood ran down Fluttershy's hoof from where the claws of the Apple Whip had bit in. She slowly stood and turned to Twilight.
"No…not…bad." The red light in her eyes was flickering and fading. "But…this isn’t over…" Fluttershy collapsed to her stomach and Twilight approached cautiously. "I’ll…be seeing you…" A few flashes of light lit in Fluttershy's eyes and Twilight almost panicked, but they weren't having their usual paralytic effect and a few seconds later the pegasus went limp.
"Scans are showing she’s alright now," Spike advised. Twilight sighed and approached her, putting a hoof under Fluttershy's chin to hold her head. Fluttershy's eyelids wiggled and she slowly cracked open her eyes.
Twilight peered down. "Fluttershy?"
"I'm so...sorry..." The voice was weak. "I couldn't..."
"It's okay." Twilight gave her a gentle smile. "I'll take you back to Celestia and we'll get you back to normal." Fluttershy's eyes flitted closed. Twilight gently lay her head back on the ground.
"I'll take a look at her systems and see if I can find anything useful," Spike said. Twilight felt her saddle begin to hum, her focus on Fluttershy. She laid down on her stomach and made a face.
"Poor thing wasn’t even corrupted. This was direct control." Twilight looked over at the wounds on Fluttershy's hooves. Fortunately the Apple Whip's claw hadn't dug in too deep and they were just flesh wounds. Still Twilight removed a vial of healing salve from her saddle and spread it over them.
"Got another executable program here," Spike spoke up. Twilight felt some clicks coming from her saddle and looked back. "If we flash the lights on your saddle in the right frequency with the right intensity, I think we can replicate the effects of that stare she was giving you. It won’t be able to induce a full paralysis like she could with dedicated implants, but it should disorient and confuse anyone who catches sight of it."
"We’ll use it only if we have to," Twilight replied. The fear of having lost entire control of her body and being at the mercy of the Master welled up on her from her recent memory. She pushed it away. She didn’t have time for fear, not yet. There was just one aide left to track down, she could break down and sob to Celestia about how frightened she was once they were safe back at Canterlot. The thought reminded her of the interference pattern likely clearing up. "Spike, open a channel to the Princess please." Twilight waited patiently as he complied, Celestia’s holographic head rippling into the air in front of her a moment later.
"Given this is the fourth transmission, I hope this means there is only one left to find."
"Yes, but it wasn’t easy. Fluttershy was directly controlled by the Master," Twilight replied. Celestia’s warm smile vanished and she leaned forward slightly in the projection.
"What? You’re alright I hope?" As Twilight replied, Fluttershy's body lit up and vanished in the light of Canterlot’s teleporter system.
"Yes, it was a close call though. This ‘Master’ says she has three other ponies serving her. She seems to be plotting to take over Equestria." Twilight paused before repeating to her mentor the same conclusion she had given Spike. "Following your aides around has just played into their hooves. I feel like I’m always walking into their traps."
"That is a possibility, though this realization comes too late to help," Celestia said. "But we must rescue my aides, their safety is of utmost importance. And following their signals has worked out for you so far, hasn't it?"
"Worked out?" Twilight couldn't help herself from losing her temper, even knowing she was speaking to the most powerful pony in Equestria. "I've had to fight for my life against ponies and robots and have barely made it through in one piece! You sent me into a warzone with nothing more than some healing salves, a concussive energy spell, and an AI with an attitude problem!"
"Hey!"
Celestia nodded. "I am well aware of this. But, Twilight, please understand. I would not have given you this task if I didn’t feel you were capable of doing it. I confess I didn’t expect this level of combat from you and would have better prepared you if I had. Yet you have proven yourself more powerful than I’d have thought. You must trust in your own abilities. You've gotten this far, haven't you?"
"So I should feel proud that I’m good at fighting other ponies?"
"No. Be proud you have fought valiantly to save Equestria. And now there is only one more challenge for you to surmount. Once my fifth aide is back with us, you can return to Canterlot and we can begin discussing how to deal with this ‘Master’ the crazed ponies serve."
"Uh, yeah, about that." Spike flipped up Twilight's display next to the hologram of Celestia's head, data scrolling. "We have a problem."
"Problem?" Twilight asked. The display flashed to a model of a floating system.
"Yeah. I’m tracking the fifth aide and she’s, um…" Spike hesitated. "She’s in Cloudsdale."
"Cloudsdale?" Twilight repeated. "As in the pegasus city?"
"Yeah. And the Princess will tell you, the only aide left is not one you wanna try to take on in the sky. Or anywhere in open air really. Rainbow Dash kinda has a reputation as the best flyer in Equestria."
Twilight paled at Spike’s explanation. "See? This is the trap I was talking about!" She slumped to her stomach, looking down at the ground. "The best flyer in Equestria is waiting for me in an aerial battle in a pegasus city. Now what?"
"Don’t worry my student, we are more prepared than you realize," Celestia said. "Canterlot’s central computer core connects to every satellite and computer in Equestria. We can get an airship under our control to ferry you to the city. And you have studied cloud-walking spells, yes?"
"Yeah, but… Cloudsdale," Twilight said lamely. "It was hard enough climbing a mountain. I’ll be a sitting duck in a city full of pegasi in the lower atmosphere."
"You have not been to Cloudsdale, but it is not nearly as treacherous as you seem to think. Provided you have the needed spell to walk on the clouds you’ll be able to traverse the city quite comfortably," Celestia replied. Twilight just groaned again and looked up at the model Spike was displaying.
"This is really all on me?"
"I understand you’re afraid. You have every right to be. You have encountered many hardships, and sadly more await you still. But I promise you, I would not ask this of you if I did not believe you could do it. If you wish I can send some pegasi from the guard corps to aid you. But it must be you to face Rainbow Dash and restore her to her senses. I can trust no one else with this duty but you, Twilight."
Twilight looked up at the transparent image of her idol and mentor smiling down at her and slowly pushed herself to her hooves. "Alright…alright, Princess." Twilight gathered her courage, her voice becoming stronger. "I’ll do it. Alone. Send the transport. We’ll head out immediately."
"Thank you, Twilight. And good luck." Celestia’s visage vanished. Twilight took a few deep breaths as she tried to reassure herself.
"You really sure you can do this?" Spike asked. Twilight turned towards the pegasus city and sat down to await the promised transport.
"No." Twilight closing her eyes. "But I have to." Celestia’s words rang with her somehow. Even if she was afraid, even if there was a very likely chance more than ever of not surviving the next phase of her mission, Twilight felt like this was something she had to do. Something only she could accomplish. It wasn't just Celestia’s reassurances and trust. Something else, something inside her, was telling her she had to track down Rainbow Dash herself and try to restore her. She was about to confront Equestria’s fastest pegasus on her home turf miles above the ground, and now there was the additional fear that Rainbow Dash or any number of other pegasi waiting for her could be directly controlled by the Master. Thinking back on all the other crazed ponies she had fought, the sea of glowing red eyes glared at her from her memories. All controlled by this ‘Master’, apparently with intent to conquer Canterlot.
Twilight realized she was almost hoping the Master was waiting for her. Because if she was, then she could put an end to this for good. Angry now, for the sake of all the ponies this newly revealed enemy had forced her to subdue, Twilight opened her eyes and thought she saw the distant image of a transport ship flying towards the mountain.
"Come on, Spike," she whispered. "We've got a mission to finish."
The enormous whale-shaped airship floated towards the Cloudsdale docks, anti-gravity generators mounted under the fins pulsing in a steady rhythm of orange light. Looking out the windows of the passenger deck, Twilight watched long steel platforms move past her point of view as the ship slid into place. The door outside clicked, the light above flashing from red to green, and Twilight slid it open and stepped out on the Cloudsdale docks. She immediately cast the cloud-walking spell. Many of the streets in Cloudsdale were steel and neoplast platforms wrapped in clouds for aesthetic appeal, but others were just pure cloud constructs and she wasn't about to find out which were which the hard way.
During the technological revolution anti-gravity devices and advances in weather magic had once threatened pegasus prosperity, governors reasoning "why rely on pegasi for our weather and airship maintenance docks when we can build floating cities and robotic drones that do the job just as well?" Then the pegasi unveiled their weather-producing Multitools and saddles with on-board schematics of every airship model in production. This was shortly followed by a public demonstration where a team of pegasi engineers outperformed the government-issue drones on both fronts. That had ended the discussions and the pegasi retained their dominance of Equestria's skies. As Cloudsdale was the home of the main weather factory of Equestria and the site of the first airship plant, it had become the center of their culture in the years after.
"I don’t have a map ready but I can scan things as we move forward. Hang on," Spike said. Twilight waited and called up her display. A wealth of data about the clouds and air that only a weather pony could appreciate scrolled over her eyes while a map of Cloudsdale traced itself out, filling in with structures and pathways. A red arrow on the map pointed her towards Rainbow Dash, Spike’s scanners unable to penetrate the interference to relay her position directly. The rogue pegasus was deep into the city. Taking a breath, Twilight dismissed her map, ran her Multitool through the four weapons she had acquired to double-check their function, and set off at a slow trot up the stairs into the city.
Cloudsdale's hybrid of technological and pegasi architecture had the best of both worlds. Finely polished neoplast archways sprouted up from cloud streets, gleaming silver steel paths ran between cloud houses, steel catwalks floated in the air supported by glowing orange anti-gravity generators. A cloud bank on one side held a dock of personal transports, small hovering platforms with railings for non-pegasi to move about the city in. Though the pegasi had enacted renovations to accommodate the earth ponies and unicorns, it was still unquestionably their city. In many places pockets of cloud gave way to open holes in the ground, or there were gaps where two clouds didn't line up perfectly and a pony could trip and have their hoof go through. Twilight was also noticing a distinct lack of barriers, fences, railings, or any sort of safety features to keep a pony from running off the path. She kept to the middle of the path; she didn't need a reminder of how high up she was and how quickly and easily she could meet her end.
"Spike, any pegasi around?" Twilight asked, looking around the street. It was quiet, reminding her very much of Ponyville, a comparison she was not pleased to make. It was even worse in some regards. She could hear and feel the wind whistling through the city making her shiver, and with the wide-open spaces it was even easier than Ponyville to see the city was empty.
"Not yet," Spike replied, "but given that they can fly they could pop up from pretty much anywhere." Twilight made a face. That wasn't a very comforting thought. Pushing it aside she continued down the cloud streets, her hooves bouncing off the clouds with each step. After a few moments her map lit up with two red dots. "Incoming!" Twilight braced herself as two pegasi swooped down from behind a steel control tower on the horizon. Both had pale blue-grey coats with bright blue and white manes, and both of them had Multitools on their front hooves and saddles on their backs, their wings emerging from slots in the sides.
Twilight stood her ground and fired three magic blasts at the pair. They broke apart as the bolts shot past their flanks and came at Twilight from either side. The first pegasus raised her hoof, vents sliding opening in the side of it with a small hiss and internal fans whirring to life. She snapped her hoof down and a blast of icy air shot down at Twilight. Twilight cried out as small ice crystals bombarded her, frigid cold shaking her body and shocking her senses. The other pegasus meanwhile activated her own hoof, the end glowing orange and steel plates sliding down to elongate it. A gust of scorching wind consumed Twilight and she almost instantly broke into a sweat. The air around her heated like a blistering summer’s day, her coat now damp from the melting frost caked over it.
Shaking her head to gather her senses from the climatic attacks, Twilight looked up as the pegasus with the heated Multitool flew past her and fired. Her shots clanged off the pony’s saddle and she shuddered, streaming down through the air and bouncing along a mass of clouds to lay still. The first pegasus turned in the air and held out her hoof to send another gust of chilling wind down at Twilight. She endured the cold and fired up as the pegasus swooped overhead, disabling her and leaving her to fall to the street. Twilight lowered her head and shook herself vigorously, frost flying through the air. She sneezed and sniffed, the cold still clinging to the air around her.
"Nice going," Spike said. "Be careful around pegasi, they have specialized Multitools for working the weather teams. Snow, heat, rain, lightning, wind, mist. All in their arsenals."
"You could have warned me a few minutes earlier." Twilight's teeth chattered slightly as she spoke.
"I did, it was in the data feed when we got here." Twilight's display appeared and scrolled to that section about pegasus life, the text lightning up yellow. She dismissed it with a huff.
"Well next time emphasize it more, please." Spike gave her the mental impression of an eye roll and Twilight returned it. Warming up a bit, she sniffed back another sneeze and continued on. The steel infrastructure was becoming less common now. Judging from her map Twilight guessed she was entering Cloudsdale's central hub, the original city as it had been before it expanded during the technological revolution.
Two more pegasi attacked her as she reached an intersection, coming up through the street itself leaving holes in the clouds. One of them had a rain-generating Multitool and blasted her with what was practically a miniature rainstorm, leaving Twilight soaked and her mane and tail slicked to her body. Fortunately the pegasus was a slow flyer and she was able to bring it down as it passed over her after firing. The second pegasi had another hot air Multitool, along with armored wings with anti-gravity engines. It was faster than the first three and Twilight let it get off a shot, relishing the drying heat before shooting the pegasus's generators and sending it crashing to the clouds.
Twilight reached an open plaza in the clouds and called up her map. To her right was the weather factory, ahead was the flying camp for athletes, and to her left was the civilian district. She'd just emerged from the industrial district and according to her map Rainbow Dash was in the athlete camp. "Heads up, Twilight, got incoming." Twilight stopped in her tracks as Spike's warning came in her head. "And there’s something off about it." She looked back at her map. A red dot was coming at her from over the buildings and she looked up, her map vanishing. A winged form swooped down and landed opposite her. The being had a body covered in light brown feathers, save for her head where the feathers turned white. She had an eagle’s beak, a pair of powerful paws for hind legs, and her front legs extended into shining silver steel talons. The creature’s eyes were glowing a familiar red.
"A griffon!" Twilight gasped. The griffon kingdom lay across the eastern ocean. They lived a more predatory and nomadic lifestyle and had few major dealings with Equestria besides political debates for the two to remain neutral to the other. The griffons had only embraced technology so far as it intensified the hunt for them. As a result griffon-model Multitools were illegal for ponies to own and griffon visitors and immigrants needed registration forms to use them. Twilight didn't care to think what type of features those metal talons could have, but judging from the red glow in the griffon's eyes she was going to find out.
The griffon flapped its wings and flew at her, talons extended. Twilight dropped to the ground, the talons raking the air above her. Looking up, the griffon screeched at her and turned. With a loud clank and a hiss, the talons flew down on Twilight on long black cables. She dodged them, the talons shooting through the clouds beneath her hooves. The griffon descended, the cables retracting into her legs and the talons snapping back into place. Twilight looked up as the griffon flew over her head and fired several blasts. The griffon took them in the flank and cawed in anger, swooping down to come back.
"Alright, time for some heavy artillery." Twilight rose on her hind hooves and reconfigured her Multitool, the end widening and growing thicker. The griffon came towards her, talons launching through the air. Twilight dove aside, the talons whistling past her eyes, and fired the Pinkie Cannon. The griffon took the blast in the side as she passed, a shockwave shaking the clouds and pink streamers and confetti bursting through the air in her way. She squawked loudly and flapped to gain altitude, her talons retracting. She swooped back down and Twilight raised her Multitool as a shield. The griffon's talons shot out to slam into it and catapulted Twilight backwards. Twilight had the wind knocked out of her from the landing, thanking the pegasus architects for the sturdy cloud cover that held with her impact. The griffon circled around, bringing up its talons to fire them, and Twilight fired the Pinkie Cannon into its chest. The griffon’s momentum cancelled and it was knocked back through the air, dropping to the clouds and bouncing down a flight of cloud-formed steps to lay still at the bottom. She was unconscious before she hit the first time, her metal talons slicing into the clouds rising around her.
"Good work," Spike said. "Sorry I didn't have much to tell you there, my databanks don't have much info on griffons. I'm surprised we found one around here, they tend to settle on the coastline cities."
"It's fine, Spike." Twilight approached the griffon and knelt, lifting one of its talons in her magic. With the owner unconscious the cable was slack and the prosthetic rose into the air freely, its cable danging beneath it. "It seems the Master can infect other creatures, not just ponies." This changed everything. Berserk ponies was one thing, but if anything with cybernetics was vulnerable there was no telling what else the Master could have waiting to unleash on her. Twilight's thesis to get into the School for Gifted Unicorns had been on the history of cybernetics and magic. Celestia had only begun to revoke the prohibitions of usage of cybernetics a few centuries, but they had been in development long before then. Every nation and species in the civilized world had access to the technology, even some wild animals were subject to the process for various experiments or for certain ecological impacts. Now apparently any of them could fall victim to the Master’s control. Robots like the Silver Wolves and the Windigos were one thing, this was another.
"I can still scan your thoughts," Spike reminded.
Twilight stood from the griffon. "Well, you tell me then. What should I make of this?"
"I think you’re right, it’s hard to say what could be next now." Spike paused before continuing. "But it’s not a big deal. Dragons don’t use cybernetics and I doubt anything else the Master could control would be much of a threat. Griffons and zebras are surprising but they don't have anything really dangerous, and if there were military combat robots mobilizing they wouldn't be getting out without a public scare going up."
"I guess you're right." Twilight spoke the words but still wasn't sure. She hadn't even thought of the idea of the Master infiltrating military compounds. Equestria was a peaceful nation and kept combat drones in storage mostly for caution, if a neighboring nation became hostile. But even locked down in bunkers they were kept combat ready. If they got infected...
"I said relax." Spike cut in. "Once we secure Rainbow Dash our mission for the Princess is over and she can send out the army to bring in the Master. And she'd definitely tell us if military hardware was loose. You're worrying too much."
"Yeah... you're right, she would." Twilight nodded. "Alright, let's keep going and finish up." She had become so used to tracking down Celestia’s aides she forgot for a moment that there was only one left to go. While she had enjoyed the adventure somewhat, being able to explore Equestria and visit locations she had only read about, having to fight crazed ponies was not part of the experience she was going to relish. Now she was looking forward to when she could go back to her normal life as a student and adviser. Twilight looked down at the Pinkie Cannon on her hoof and reconfigured it back to its normal form. The featureless stainless steel looked a little odd to her now after seeing so many weapon configurations emerging from her hoof. She should look at getting these weapons programs deleted from her databanks too. They were proving invaluable for this assignment but she was turning into a walking arsenal.
"One thing at a time, Twilight." She finished her thoughts aloud and put her thoughts of rest and normalcy aside before continuing on. The path to her destination began to climb, flights of stairs leading her past homes and businesses constructed of clouds. Two more pegasi attacked her, Twilight swiftly disabling them. Finding a larger, longer staircase, she took them slowly. She crested the top to find the Cloudsdale athletics plaza stretching before her. Cloud-carved running tracks dotted the clouds underhoof and through the air were various floating rods and flags forming obstacle courses. Steel spheres hovered via anti-gravity generators, shooting out puffs of smoke or rays of light over the tracks. Cloud banks hovered in the air carved into seating for spectators and covered areas for teammates lay against the far side of the plaza in front of a larger building for administration.
"She's around here somewhere," Spike whispered in her head as Twilight walked into the plaza. The wind whipped her mane out to the side, she looked around but saw nothing. Calling up her map, she confirmed that this was where Spike had detected their target. Suddenly he spoke up again. "Duck!"
Twilight saw a red dot shoot across her display faster than anything she'd ever seen and obeyed, dropping to the ground. A blue blur shot past her, a streak of rainbow light trailing in the air behind it. She looked up to see the blur back around and come at her again, and hugged the ground as the blur swooped past her head. She looked over her shoulder as the blue streak shot up into the air and stopped suddenly. The cause was a cyan pegasus mare with a multi-hued mane, hovering in the air glaring down at her and slowly descending to the ground. The mare wore a mechanical saddle with openings for her wings in the side and had a Multitool on her right hoof, the bottom consisting of a propeller covered by a steel grating. It was different from the others she had seen the pegasi using, with two reinforcement rings around the bottom and thicker plating.
"You must be Rainbow Dash." Twilight stood up to take a few steps towards her. Rainbow Dash’s wings stopped flapping as she dropped to the clouds and fell on all fours.
"Yeah, that’s me," she muttered. Her eyes flashed red and Twilight stopped her approach. Rainbow twitched and tilted her head, the glowing subsiding. "And you’re Twilight Sparkle."
"If you know my name then you must know why I’m here," Twilight replied. She took a breath. "There’s only one way this can end. I have to take you back to Princess Celestia. If you fight or not is up to you, but that virus that’s corrupting you won't be there much longer either way." She was hoping Rainbow would listen to reason but she didn't put much stock in the idea. The Master’s sway was obviously hanging over Cloudsdale and negotiating had never worked out yet.
"Please. You think I don’t know about this virus?" Rainbow Dash snorted and stood up to cross her front hooves over her chest. Her eyes flashed red again and she flinched, gritting her teeth. "Trust me, I've been fighting my hardest to keep it back. Can't say the same for Cloudsdale though, they're all getting infected and running off. Guess I'm just awesome this way."
"She's right. I'm reading the same corruption as before but it hasn't infected her system core yet," Spike said.
"I didn't know anypony could resist it!" Twilight grew hopeful. If Rainbow Dash still had her own mind, then that meant there was some sort of secret to staying that way. "Come back with me! The Princess can fix you, I’m sure she can! Maybe we can find out how you're resisting it and help the others!"
Twilight began to come closer. Rainbow Dash scowled and swung her hoof out to point her Multitool at her. Twilight stopped in her tracks, confused. "I don’t think so! Yeah, I was fighting it for a while. Then I got word from the Master about you." Rainbow’s eyes glowed red again. "Word about how you were busy down there thrashing my friends!" Twilight gasped.
"I had to free them, they had the same corruption as you!" She gave Rainbow Dash a pleading look. "If I didn’t have to fight them I wouldn’t have."
"Aw, so you never had a choice in this?" Rainbow Dash snapped. "Like you didn’t have any number of chances to run off and let Celestia send someone else?"
"I…" Twilight stopped herself, unable to refute the accusation. It was true. She had been given plenty of chances to turn back and ask Celestia to send someone else. But there had been that sense in the back of her head telling her this was her responsibility; even if Celestia hadn't sent her she would have been out here trying to save them. Every time she had met one of her mentor’s aides she had felt a connection she couldn't explain, the need to do something to help them. In spite of her fears and hesitations it had kept her going to rescue them. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and now Rainbow Dash. They needed rescuing, and she had gone along with Celestia's assertion that it was her responsibility.
"I felt like I had to do it." Twilight struggled to explain to her own thoughts. "For… for a friend. To save them." As she said the word she noted it made no sense. She didn’t know any of these ponies outside their berserk virus-induced aggression, though she served Celestia as an adviser she had never met her aides before and only heard fleeting talk of them from her. But saying the word brought a strange sparkling in her chest. Across the plaza Rainbow Dash sneered at her.
"Good. Then you’ll appreciate that I feel like I gotta do something for my friends!" The saddle on her body hummed to life. Retractable steel plates snapped out over her wings, sliding down and clicking together to cover them in gleaming silver steel. "I’m feeling like I should send you back to Ponyville the hard way!" Rainbow Dash stood up, crossed her wings and front hooves over her chest, then snapped them back and held out her Multitool. The propeller spun to life, vents snapped open, and the device began to hum loudly. Twilight braced herself.
Rainbow Dash's Multitool fired a massive funnel of wind through the air. Twilight was flung backwards, the storm rumbling in her ears and spinning her around. She bounced along the clouds, switching her hoof to the Apple Whip and sinking it into a cloud. The chain unfurled to its full length and went taut to stop her as the winds kept pummeling her. Looking back, Twilight saw the edge of the cloud platform just a few hooves behind her and climbed to her hooves as the wind subsided.
"I’m not going anywhere!" She retracted the Apple Whip and assumed a more ready battle stance.
"Wanna bet?" Rainbow Dash lifted into the air and flew forward, a streak of rainbow color trailing behind her. Twilight ducked down to avoid her and turned her head, firing off her energy blasts. Rainbow flew too fast to pin down though and her shots fired harmlessly up into the air, violet bursts of light vanishing into the vast sea of blue and white overhead. Rainbow curved around and Twilight stood her ground firing as she came back down at her. Twilight realized she was diving right for her and leapt away as Rainbow Dash swooped down, vanishing through the clouds leaving them to reform in her wake.
"Spike, stay on her!"
"No need, she’s right ahead of you!" Twilight looked up to see Rainbow already emerging back above the clouds and turning vertically to dive at her again. Twilight barely got to her hooves and jumped away before she streaked past, leaving another temporary gap in the cloud lining. Twilight pushed herself up and looked around for Rainbow’s second emergence. She didn’t have to look long, Rainbow burst up from the clouds and Twilight opened fire. Once again though the pegasus proved unable to pin down easily and evaded her attacks as she turned into another dive bomb. Twilight barely had time to fire a shot in a desperate attempt to land just one, then she was rolling aside to avoid being tackled through the clouds again.
"She’s too fast!" Twilight's eyes darted around the cloud barrier waiting for the next attack. Rainbow Dash was comparatively more hooves-off than her other foes so far, but they were fighting in Cloudsdale, her territory. She didn’t need to attack with weapons, a blast of wind or a tackle through the cloud barrier would let gravity do the work for her. Twilight pushed away the mental image of what would happen when those dive bombs found their target and ran through her arsenal of weapons. The Apple Whip would be much too slow if her concussive blasts couldn't land a target, the Pinkie Cannon was strong but easily avoided with Rainbow Dash’s speed, and she wasn't using projectile weapons so the Rare Shield wouldn't be any help.
"So we only have one choice," Spike said, coming to the same unspoken conclusion she had. Twilight gulped and saw Rainbow Dash coming up.
"You’re sure this won’t be too much?" She didn’t want to have to resort to this, not after what Fluttershy and the Master did to her. But she had to rein Rainbow in, and she couldn't just dodge her forever.
"It’ll just confuse and disorient her for a second. Since she’s a pegasi she’ll hit off the cloud barrier and be fine," Spike replied. Twilight took a breath as Rainbow turned to come at her, the electronics that powered the lights on her saddle whirring into action.
With a calculated series of bright white flashes from the lights on Twilight's saddle, the Flutter Stare blared into the air. It only lasted a split second but the results were self-evident. Rainbow Dash blinked rapidly, cried out in surprise, and suddenly drooped in the air, narrowly missing Twilight and landing in a tangled heap on the clouds behind her. Twilight didn’t squander her opening, lowering her horn and firing several energy bolts at Rainbow’s saddle and wings. Rainbow came to her senses after a moment and jumped away, hovering in the air and scowling down at her.
"That’s Fluttershy’s skill!" Her rose eyes flashed red. Rainbow drew her arms over her chest and the metal coverings over her wings began to beat, the hum of mechanics growing louder. From casual flapping they rose to a blur of motion in seconds. A powerful gust of wind kicked up, slowly pushing Twilight’s hooves back over the clouds. She strained to stay standing, tempted to try to step forward but afraid to lift even one of her hooves. Fortunately Rainbow Dash realized it wasn't working well and dropped to the clouds, her wings slowing. Twilight didn’t have time to enjoy the relief before Rainbow raised her hoof and blasted another tornado at her from her Multitool. Twilight was flung back, landing on her back and rolling. Stopping, she saw the edge of the cloud cover not far away and scrambled away.
"We gotta stop this before she blows me away, literally." She looked back to see Rainbow in the air again.
"I'm running through every option we have. Other than keep running and avoiding her, I've got nothing," Spike said. The concern in his voice did little to soothe Twilight's nerves. She dodged Rainbow's tackle and ran back to the center of the plaza. Rainbow Dash shot through the clouds from below and banked into a downward angle. The Flutter Stare flashed again, but this time Rainbow only wobbled in the air and stayed airborne. Twilight realized she must have closed her eyes before taking the full brunt of it. Still she slowed for a few moments, and Twilight took the chance to get in a few shots before Rainbow turned and blasted another tornado at her from her hoof. The flung Twilight back again, shaking her head to get her bearings when she stopped.
Rainbow emerged from the clouds again, but instead of flying up to dive again she stopped in the air and turned towards Twilight, wings flapping furiously to send another windstorm at her. Twilight ducked down to her stomach to endure the gale, her mane and tail fluttering behind her. Rainbow’s wings stopped and she dove below the clouds once more. Twilight whirled her head around to watch for where she came back. She didn’t have to wait long. Rainbow Dash dove down, holding out her hoof. Twilight didn't wait for the attack, the Flutter Stare lit up the air and Rainbow Dash dropped to the clouds once more. Twilight fired upon her saddle and wings, Rainbow getting up and turning to Twilight, Multitool raised. A tornado blasted Twilight backwards over the clouds.
"I’m ending this!" The rage-filled shriek made Twilight turn her head as she stopped rolling. Rainbow Dash was coming straight towards her holding her hoof out. Twilight steeled her nerves and galloped towards her foe, her horn lighting up. As she ran she sent the command, her hoof reconfiguring.
With only a few hooves between them, Rainbow fired her tornado and Twilight leapt forward, holding her hoof out and firing the Apple Whip. The force of the launch overrode the wind power, Rainbow flying into the claw as it latched on her wings. When the tornado knocked Twilight through the air Rainbow Dash was pulled along with her, flailing her hooves and crying out in surprise. Twilight landed on her hooves, Rainbow impacting in front of her. She stood up and snapped the Apple Whip over her head, jerking Rainbow Dash towards her and loosening the claw to retract it. Rainbow flew over Twilight's head, the unicorn aiming carefully. The silver saddle on Rainbow's back lit up in violet light as Twilight's blasts bombarded her, the force driving her further through the air. Rainbow Dash landed and spun across the clouds, limbs sprayed out around her. Her head dropped heavily and she was still.
Twilight blinked rapidly, breathing heavily. "Did we… get her?"
"We got her," Spike replied.
Twilight gave it to her body's demands and fell to her side on the clouds. "Good… good." Twilight closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath. The adrenaline rush of the fight had worn off and now she felt so dizzy about the constant rolling and being blown through the air she thought she might pass out. "Gimme a moment… gotta stop spinning… Spike, make it stop spinning..."
"I'll get right on it." Spike dismissed her tired babbling and scanned Rainbow Dash’s systems. Twilight slowly cracked open her eyes to watch and make sure she wasn't getting up. She didn't think she had it in her to keep going with a fight like that. Spike spoke up with his findings as she rested. "Rainbow Dash is head of Ponyville’s weather team when she’s not doing work for Celestia, so she has a more advanced model of Multitool with a lot more power and options. That’s how she was able to create those directed tornadoes. The schematics for it are pretty simple, it vacuums in air through the vents on the sides and blasts them out the main port at high speeds. Your own Multitool can create it just fine, it’s just a matter of legal authorization to use them. Under the circumstances I think Celestia will understand."
"Great…" Twilight’s breathing had evened out and her heart had stopped racing. She felt the familiar whirs and clicks of her hoof as Spike arranged the parts of her Multitool and looked at her hoof. Three air vents opened on the sides with small propellers behind them, the plates on the bottom of the hoof parting and sliding back to reveal a larger propeller. The construct letting out a low hiss as the components finalized their position. "We’ll try it out later," she said, waving her other hoof in the air. "We’re done now, right? No more?"
"Yup. With Rainbow Dash subdued, the mission’s done," Spike said.
Twilight slowly climbed to her hooves. "Good, because after that I’m ready for a rest. Dial up the Princess and let’s call it a day." Twilight waited as Spike carried out the command, sitting down and waiting for the familiar smiling visage of her mentor to fill her field of view. After several seconds she noticed it wasn't happening. "Uh, Spike?"
"Something’s weird is going on." Spike sounded confused. "I’m sending the transmission to the princess’s console but she’s not responding."
"That’s strange." Twilight thought for a moment. "She may just be away for a minute. Call up the teleporter room, they can handle it."
"Roger." Spike went to work, and a few moments later Twilight’s horn projected the blue hologram of a unicorn stallion wearing a pair of orange-tinted goggles.
"Eh? Who’s this ‘ere?" The stallion raised a hoof into the view of the hologram to push his goggles up and glared. "I ain’t got time for this now, hurry it up!"
"Quantum Drive, this is Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said. "I've been out helping Princess Celestia today, remember?"
The suspicious look vanished as the engineer recognized her. "Oooh, the little missy who’s been sending us back unconscious ponies. You’d better be getting that rump back here, missy, we've got a problem!"
"What? What’s going on?" Twilight exclaimed. Quantum Drive was usually calm and collected, he only ever became frazzled like this when there was an emergency.
"I’ll explain when you get back ‘ere, dialing you in."
"Don’t forget Rainbow Dash!" Spike shouted. Quantum Drive didn’t reply but must have heard him, because Twilight saw the familiar sparkles of teleportation engulf her and Rainbow Dash at the same time. The two mares vanished, Canterlot’s teleporter systems racing them back to the capital at the speed of light.
Twilight emerged on one of the glowing cyan teleporter pads, waiting for the effect to wear off for safety concerns before dashing down the elevated platform. Quantum Drive was at the command console overseeing Rainbow Dash’s arrival on a second pad. The dark red unicorn stallion had a cutie mark in the shape of a blue spiral galaxy and a mechanical saddle full of assorted tool attachments hanging off his body. Twilight’s attention however was on the blaring sirens and spinning red lights that were lining the hallway out of the room.
"Quantum, what’s going on?" Twilight ran up to him and looked up expectantly. The gruff older stallion didn’t respond right away, his dark green eyes trained on the control panel in front of him. The silver goggles pushed up on his forehead lit up in an aura of orange light and pulled down.
"There’s been an attack, missy," Quantum Drive said, looking at Rainbow Dash to make sure she finished teleporting before turning to face Twilight. "I've been told to stand by ‘ere if you came back. Now that you ‘ave you’d best leave for your own safety. I 'ave me cousin Flux Capacitor on standby in Hoofington, he'll see that—"
"Whoa, whoa, stop! I'm not going anywhere!" Twilight shouted. "What do you mean we've been attacked? Is the Princess safe?"
"Aye, in a sense of the word. She’s ‘oled up in the medical wing with the other four ponies you've sent back, she went to protect 'em. Someone infiltrated us through the docking bays, an army of ponies wi’ glowing red eyes."
"It’s the same ponies I fought out there!" Twilight looked down the hall. Quantrum Drive pressed a few buttons on his control pad.
"Aye, that's what the Princess figur'd. Now I 'ave me orders, missy, to get you to safety, so if you don't mind—"
"I do, actually." Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Quantum, stay here and watch Rainbow Dash!" Twilight tore down the hall out of the teleporter room, ignoring the sirens and the shouts of Quantum Drive behind her. Instead she headed to the lifts up to the main halls of the building. "Spike, scan the building. I want enemy locations and I want them now."
"Already been on it, gimme a minute." Twilight reached the lifts, glass tubes stretching from floor to ceiling large enough for a pony to stand inside comfortably. She knew the building by heart, these lifts would take her right to the floor with the medical wing. She pressed a hoof to the console to call one, but the device didn’t respond. "It's shut down, the building is in lockdown," Spike said.
Twilight growled. "Great, stairs it is." She turned and ran up the stairwell beside the lifts, her hooves skidding on the smooth floor as she turned around on the landing. These stairs only went one up floor to the ground floor of the building, then she’d have to find the main stairwell higher up to reach the medical wing. Twilight emerged on the ground floor in record time.
The Republic Headquarters had once been a castle, renovated centuries ago when Celestia shifted Equestria's government from a monarchy to a republic. These lower floors were from the original castle, made of stone and wood with carpeted floors over black and white checkered tiles. Gold details decorated the doorways and the edges of ceilings and floors, tapestries depicting artistic interpretations of ponies and Celestia hung from the walls lit in various tones by the light of stained glass windows. Alcoves had been dug out in the walls to allow for security measures like cameras, force fields, and information screens and intercoms. One such security measure now blocked the exit to the courtyard, the doors covered by glowing yellow force field of stored alicorn magic from Celestia. Twilight began running down the hall, her Multitool clanking loudly and leaving imprints on the carpet behind her.
"T-Twilight?" She skidded to a halt as a familiar voice warbled in her head, her hooves scratching the carpet.
"Princess Celestia?" She thought back.
"I was able to link to the medical lab’s computers, but there’s a lot of interference even at this range so I'm not sure how long it'll hold," Spike said. Twilight almost didn’t hear him, her focus on her mentor’s voice as she began to speak again.
"Tw – light, you m – stop them. – eed my ai – to stop the Ma –." Celestia’s heavily distorted voice crackled in between bursts of static and high-pitching whining. "They can br – my shie – not sure how much –." The transmission went dead, static filling her mind. Spike closed the channel and Twilight looked up at the ceiling. Somewhere overhead her mentor, the ruler of Equestria and Princess of the Sun, was in a medical lab with her four incapacitated research aides. Cornered, possibly alone, and from the sounds of it not secure. Could Celestia herself be infected by the Master's corruption if one of the berserk ponies got to her?
"Twilight, I’m scanning a lot of ponies around here," Spike said, bringing up the map. Twilight heard him and saw the map he was displaying which was swarming with the red dots of hostile entities.
She didn’t care.
It was one thing to harm corrupted ponies to stop them before they hurt her or somepony else. But this was a deliberate attack on Canterlot. And whoever was leading it, if Celestia’s mangled words meant what she thought they did, they were after the Princess and she was having trouble fending them off. That meant whatever was doing this was dangerous to her, to Celestia, and to Canterlot, and had come with intent to seize Celestia. To capture the most precious pony in Twilight's life, her mentor and idol. While she had been out there fighting the Master's servants, the Master had planned this attack behind her back.
There was only one option.
Twilight steeled her nerves, pushing her fears and hesitations and doubts away until only her determination and anger remained. Her horn lit up in a violet aura, the steel plates on her hooves clicking in anticipation. Twilight pawed the ground and snorted, glaring angrily.
"Come on, Spike. Let's move!"
Twilight dashed down the hall and turned to the passage leading to the stairs. Two unicorn stallions turned as she appeared, their horns wrapped in magic-focusing metal bands. Their horns lit up in blue and gold auras and they lowered their heads to fire blasts of like-colored magic down the hall. Twilight noted with disinterest these were stronger than her concussion blasts, perhaps they were guard ponies off-duty. Didn't matter, she had already been shifting her hoof before the blasts fired. The Rare Shield detached from her Multitool and floated up into the air, the gems catching the blue and gold blasts and shooting them back along with Twilight's own violet shots. The two unicorns took the magical attacks in the chests and fell to the side with sharp cries of pain. Twilight galloped past them, the Rare Shield gems disassembling and locking around her hoof again.
Twilight rounded the corner and found three mares charging towards her. One had her horn covered in metal, the other two had Multitools. One of them was already transforming, something with a pointed spike of some sort. Twilight barely even noticed. Her own Multitool changed faster and she threw her it up and fired, the claw of the Apple Whip digging into the hallway wall. Twilight retracted the chain to swing over the mares, withdrawing the whip into her hoof as she turned in the air and reconfiguring it in an instant. The three-ringed construct widened and shortened into the Pinkie Cannon and Twilight fired. The carpet tore apart and the walls cracked as the energy orb exploded in front of the three ponies, flinging them back through the hall. The trio was only dazed, but by the time they came to their senses Twilight was gone and around the corner to the next hallway, scraps of torn red carpet and chucks of white rock falling in her wake.
"The passage to the stairs is up on the right, but the ceiling has caved in. We need to circle around on the balcony," Spike said. Twilight ran past said collapsed hall. She turning her head to look and jumped to avoid an energy blast from a unicorn standing in front of the blockage, landing and firing her own shots in return. He stumbled and cried out, which was enough for her. Twilight ran down the hall, seizing the door in her magic and flinging it open without slowing down. On the balcony two pegasi ponies flew at her, weather generator Multitools whirring to life on their hooves. Twilight saw them out of the corner of her eye and didn’t even bother to turn her head, her saddle humming. The Flutter Stare flashed and the two flying ponies lost control. They crashed into the wall and dropped to the ground behind Twilight as she kept running.
Three biological hooves and one steel one skidded on the tile as Twilight turned and galloped through the doors back into the castle. She stopped as two golden armored royal guards turned to her, eyes glowing red. Twilight didn’t bother to think it over any further than the fact they were corrupted. She switched her hoof functions and rolled aside as one of the guards ran past, then climbed to her hooves and fired the Pinkie Cannon. The armor took the brunt of the blast, sending the guard sprawling to his side in a shower of pink energy. His partner was a unicorn, a magical energy cannon on the side of his armor. The cannon was glowing yellow, the unicorn's horn pouring power into it. Twilight didn’t give him a chance to fire it and reconfigured her hoof, vents popping open and propellers extending from their hubs. The Rainbow Tornado launched the guard backwards along the carpet, a barrage of energy bolts shooting between the winds. They caught him on the head and he slumped down unconscious, lavender hooves galloping past him as his eyes drifted closed.
"Sensing several enemies up ahead," Spike said. Twilight didn’t bother to confirm she heard him. She turned down the last corner leading to the stairs and saw five ponies standing there, two unicorns and three earth ponies, one of the three in guard armor. The two unarmored earth ponies saw her and charged, Multitools shifting into elongated spears, and the unicorns lit their horns up in magic auras. Twilight dodged one of the earth ponies as he leapt at her, his spear tearing a gouge in the carpet, and ducked the other's spear. Her hoof reconfigured and the Rare Shield gems popped up in front of her, absorbing the red and yellow energy blasts from the unicorns and firing them behind her to incapacitate the two earth ponies.
Twilight recalled the gems back to her hoof and launched a counter-strike. A barrage of magic bolts took out one of the unicorns, the earth pony guard however defended the second, Twilight's shots bursting against his armor and fizzling out. The second unicorn fired another trio of magic shots but they failed to find their target; Twilight flew through the air, the Apple Whip's claw lodged in the wall and pulling her forward. The guard pony attacked her as she landed behind them, Twilight rolled to avoid the unicorn's attacks and reconfigured her hoof. The earth pony guard was still standing in front of the unicorn protectively. Twilight swung her hoof up and fired the Pinkie Cannon directly at the guard's chestplate. The explosion of pink light knocked him into the unicorn and sent them both flying back.
Twilight turned away and ran down the hall, finally finding the stairwell to the upper floors. The passage filled with the sound of her hooves clicking on the stairs as she dashed up them, stumbling on a few steps but not stopping. She kept track of the doors back to the hallways of the building as she passed them, waiting for the sixth floor with the medical facilities. As she reached the landing for the fourth floor there was a clamor below and Twilight looked down the gap between the winding stairs to see several more ponies running up after her.
"We’re gonna be cornered if they catch up to us," Spike said. Twilight raised her hoof as she circled the next landing and fired the Pinkie Cannon three times. The stairs exploded in a flurry of confetti and debris, the shockwave blowing Twilight's mane out behind her as she watched through the dust. The landing of the stairs and parts of the stairs themselves fell below, stone and steel and neoplast raining down in pieces as big as her hooves. She heard cries of surprise from below and scanned what was left of the stairs. Satisfied there wouldn't be anypony following without the aid of wings, she turned back and continued her ascension.
Twilight stepped out on the sixth floor. The fourth floor and above were the renovated and new areas of the old castle, the walls made of shining white neoplast alloy with light blue steel pillars running along them every few hooves. Information postings projected on the walls from emitters set opposite them and a flat blue beam of light for transport carts and medical capsules ran along the center of the floor under a pane of clear neoplast, pulses of white light shooting down it. Twilight ran down the hall towards Celestia's lab and skidded to a halt, the doors sliding open. She ran inside and looked around. "Celestia!?" Twilight's eyes quickly scanned every corner of the room, but there was no sign of the Princess.
"Twilight, she's in the medical labs with the aides, remember?" Spike said. "Down the hall, take a right, room six-oh-fiiiiiii!" Spike's explanation turned into a shout of surprise as Twilight spun around and sprinted out of the room, nearly skidding into the opposite wall as she turned to head down the hall.
"STOP!"
Twilight's Multitool suddenly stopped moving and she pitched forward over it. Laying on her back Twilight glared, recognizing the claws of the Apple Whip digging into the floor, gouges scraped into the neoplast. Spike's hologram had vanished from her back and was projecting itself in front of her eyes, the dragon's claws folded and his eyes narrow. She scowled. "What?"
"We're gonna save Celestia, yeah, but there's a problem," Spike said, his holographic eyes flickering. Twilight felt control of her Multitool return to her and rolled to her hooves. Spike kept looking up at her. "I’m detecting seven ponies up ahead, judging from these familiar signatures they’re guards. And considering what we saw downstairs they're probably not friendly." Twilight looked over her shoulder and down the hall where the next passage branched off. Spike nodded. "Yeah, its guard ponies alright. Three earth ponies and two each unicorns and pegasi. Now, do you wanna run in horn blazing or do you want to think of a plan?"
Twilight took a few deep breaths and looked down at her Multitool. "I don't see why we need to pick one over the other," she replied.
Spike smirked. "Good enough. Now, watch and listen." Twilight's display flashed to life and she watched intently as Spike laid out his plan.
The seven guard ponies stared at the intersection ahead. the unicorns already charging their horns. They waiting for the inevitable arrival of the mare that had fought her way this far faster than any of their leaders had expected, they could not afford to be surprised. A glowing pink orb of energy suddenly fired from around a corner and hit the wall, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air in a mighty explosion. The unicorns opened fire into the cloud, yellow and blue bolts of magic piercing the dust rapidly as the other five watched. Stopping as the dust began to clear, the unicorns joined them in looking for the foe. A shadow galloped out of the debris, smaller shadowed forms surrounding it.
The smoke parted and Twilight dashed out, the Rare Shield firing back the energy blasts. The reflected shots focused down one of the unicorns and he reared up and fell on his back. Twilight recalled the gems around her Multitool as the earth ponies and two pegasi charged. The thick singular band of the Rare Shield split into three and the Apple Whip fired at the wall. Twilight pulled herself up into the air, the Flutter Stare shining from her saddle. The other six ponies below her cried out and stumbled back in confusion. Twilight raised her hooves as she swung through the air to buck one of the disoriented pegasi flying towards her, knocking him back to lay on the carpet.
Dropping down and retracting the whip, Twilight shot several magic bolts at one of the two earth ponies. He fell over and the other two charged her, Multitools on their hooves extending into spears. Twilight responded by raising her transformed hoof and firing the Rainbow Tornado at them. The cyclone blew them back down the hall as the second unicorn came to his senses and prepared to fire. Twilight shifted her hoof and fired the Apple Whip into the air, the claw latching on the armor of the pegasus hovering overhead. With a snap of her hoof the pegasus came crashing down on his companion, the single shot he managed to get off going wildly and firing past her head. The Apple Whip snapped back into her hoof, resetting to its default configuration, and Twilight spun around ready to fire at any of the guards that might be coming at her from behind.
She found none. Around her littered about the hallway, the seven guard ponies were either unconscious or too dazed and weary to fight any longer, groaning and barely moving. Twilight panted heavily and looked between each of them, her eyes wide. The air still crackled with electricity from the magic and technology blasts, debris from where she had blown apart one wall with the Pinkie Cannon littering the floor. The same wall had a crater blown in it with cracks running out from it. The generator for her systems was almost down to emergency back-up power, too much usage of her Multitool in too short a time draining its reserves faster than it could recharge them. Twilight looked at one of the nearest guard ponies and cautiously reached a hoof out, stopping before she touched him.
"Are they… did I… "
"They’re all alive, and none of them have fatal injuries. But they’ll be sore for a day or two," Spike said. Twilight swallowed heavily and looked down at one of them. They were loyal and true guards of Celestia and the Republic, they all took life-long oaths to protect the crown when they finished training. But even they too had been helpless before the Master's influence. Glaring down at her Multitool as if it was the offender in this act, Twilight gritted her teeth.
"We had no choice. We need to rescue the Princess. When they come to their senses, they’ll understand."
"Yeah."
"And when we’re done this, I want these weapon programs erased from my databanks."
"You said that before. Well, thought it."
"And I mean it… after we deal with the Master."
"Yeah. But first, now that we have a minute." Spike's hologram flashed out of existence from her saddle and reappeared in front of her. "Seeing as I'm just a projection I can't actually do this, but..." he reached out a claw and lightly slapped Twilight on the cheek. The light-blue limb passed through her to the other side, lighting up brighter where her face interrupted the projection. Twilight stared down at him surprise as he glared. "Celestia means a lot to me too, and so do you! And I'm not just saying that because she programmed me to think it. She gave me to you to help you and if that means I have to stop you from acting stupid, that's what I'll do. The next time you feel like getting as reckless as you were down there, I'm taking over that Multitool and I'm not giving it back. Got it?"
Twilight smiled and knelt to face the hologram on eye level. "Got it. We're a team, right?" Twilight replied, holding out her biological front hoof. Spike made a fist and bumped his projected claw against it.
"Right."
"I promise, the next time I act reckless and stupid, I'll let you help me."
Spike grinned and nodded. "That's more like it." His hologram flashed back to Twilight's saddle. "Now, we have a Princess to save, don't we?"
"Yes. Let's go." Remembering what had driven her rage in the first place, Twilight galloped down the hall and turned to the passage that contained the medical labs. It wasn't hard to figure out which one Celestia had hidden in with her wounded aides: only one of the doorways had a glowing yellow barrier of energy over it. Standing outside the door to the sealed lab was an orange unicorn with a bright red and orange mane. Her left hoof was a steel Multitool and a steel implant covered her horn and ran down to her skull. Said mechanical horn was glowing cyan-blue and was firing a beam of energy at the yellow barrier. The unicorn's eyes pulsed with red light.
"They got her too!?" Twilight cried in her mind.
"Her? Who's her?"
"Sunset Shimmer. She's another student of Celestia's."
Celestia had four students that Twilight knew of, hoof-picked several years ago from the School for Gifted Unicorns to teach personally. Twilight knew the other three were Sunset Shimmer, Moondancer, and Twinkleshine, but she rarely saw them since Celestia preferred to keep them separate to discourage competition. When she had met them Twilight got along with fine with Moondancer and Twinkleshine. Sunset Shimmer on the other hoof had an ego problem, acting like she was the best of the four and making remarks that Celestia was wasting her time with the three of them. As Twilight watched, curious more than cautious, Sunset focused and pressed her horn towards the barrier. The yellow energy of the barrier was absorbing the blue energy of her magic, the barrier's color slowly changing.
"There's no way a unicorn could break through a barrier of alicorn magic...is there?" Twilight asked in her head.
Spike gave the mental impression of a shrug. "As far as I know it's impossible. But it looks like she’s doing it somehow. It’s taking time but the barrier is getting weaker."
"Hey!" Twilight shouted. Sunset jerked at the sound and turned her head, her attack on the barrier ceasing. At the sight of Twilight, recognition dawned in her eyes and she smirked.
"So, at last Twilight Sparkle arrives." Sunset walked away from the door and stood down the hall opposite Twilight. "You’re too late. Our leaders have what we need. You're wasting your time here."
"Really? Because to me it looks like you’re still after Princess Celestia," Twilight replied. "And I’m not about to let that happen."
Sunset laughed and tossed her mane. "And who’s about to stop me, you, Sparkle?" She stood up on her hind hooves and snapped her Multitool out to the side.
Twilight rose on her hind legs and snapped her own Multitool out. "I may not have combat spells, but I've got weapons now. What do you have?"
Sunset Shimmer responded by activating her Multitool. A gout of solid orange flame shot out of the device, forming a blade of fire in the air. Sunset lowered her arm and held it behind her, the tip of the blade bathing the floor beneath her in orange light.
Twilight gulped, her eyes wide, and took a step back. "Wasn't expecting that."
"Me neither." Spike replied.
"Any ideas?"
"Run?"
Twilight about to agree with him when Sunset Shimmer charged. Twilight rolled aside as the blade of fire slashed the air, waves of heat in its wake. Sunset turned and brought the blade down again. Twilight ran as the blade struck the floor beneath her, leaving a long black scorch mark. With some distance between the two, Twilight raised her hoof and shifted it into the Pinkie Cannon. The glowing pink energy orb exploded on the floor before Sunset and sent her flying back down the hall. She landed on her back and bounced, landing on her hooves and skidding backwards.
"Well, you weren't kidding about picking up some weapons at least," she growled, her torch extinguishing. "Good. That makes this sporting!" Sunset stood upright and held out her Multitool, firing a large orb of flame. Twilight rolled to avoid it, the floor glowing orange and her coat heating up as the fireball passed by her, and got to her hooves as a second fireball came towards her. She dodged it as well and looked back to see Sunset coming at her, her torch-sword extended again. Sunset leapt through the air and stabbed down, the torch deflecting to the sides as she hit the ground. Twilight however had already moved and was about to fire the Pinkie Cannon, but Sunset swept her hoof up first. Twilight leaned back, staring in horror as the flame sword passed only inches in front of her eyes, the air rippling in the heat. Sunset advanced, pushing Twilight back down the hall with wide, sweeping swings and spinning in place to keep the blade moving towards her.
"Hold still!" Sunset swung the sword down over her head and Twilight dodged aside, but too late. She screamed as the flaming blade made a glancing blow down her front biological hoof. The smell of burning fur hit her muzzle and her dodge turned into a tumble. Twilight groaned and looked down at her hoof. Her fur was scorched black, trying to move it sent searing pain up her body. A shadow fell over her and Twilight momentarily forgot the injury as she saw Sunset Shimmer leaping through the air towards her. Twilight swung up her Multitool and fired. The force of the Pinkie Cannon detonated on a direct hit and threw Sunset through the air. She landed on her back and slid back along the ground, groaning loudly. Twilight stood, ignored the protests from her injured hoof, and charged, hooves clacking against the tiled ground as her horn blazed a stream of energy bolts. Sunset cried out from the blasts and swung her torch to block them, violet bursts of magic filling the air as the fires dispersed the attacks.
Sunset rolled away Twilight approached her and stabbed forward. Twilight saw the attack coming and dropped into a roll. The torch sword passed over her head, violet eyes glowing red in the light of the flame. She got to her hooves behind Sunset and raised the Pinkie Cannon. The explosive sound of noisemakers filled the air as Sunset Shimmer catapulted forward. She hit the ground heavily and didn’t move, her torch sword dying down and vanishing back into her hoof. Twilight didn’t need to ask Spike for an analysis, the short-range blasts she had delivered from her most powerful weapon was assurance enough of her victory.
"We did it, she's out." Apparently though he didn't catch that thought.
Twilight fell to her stomach and looked at her saddle. A hatch clicked open with a small hiss and she floated a healing salve in front of her. The cap popped off and Twilight poured the blue gel over the burn, wincing and forcing herself not to whimper at the cool liquid hit the skin. The pain of the burn soon faded to a dull ache as the gel absorbed into her flesh, after several seconds it was little more than a slight tingle. Twilight let out a breath and lifted her hoof to look it over. The fur was still blackened but the pain was gone.
"You'll be alright," Spike said.
"Yeah... still, let's not do that again," Twilight replied. Restored, she stood and approached the shimmering yellow barrier over the doorway to the lab. "Now what?" She pressed a horn to the barrier, as expected it repelled her, the magic too great for her to overcome. Twilight had to physically keep herself upright as she stepped away; the barrier’s energy could have thrown her down the hall. "Spike, can we contact the inside of the lab again?" She pulled back and turned to her assistant’s hologram.
"I’ll give it a shot," he replied. Twilight felt her components working, and after several more seconds of silence from Spike the barrier shimmered and faded away. The doors opened soon after. Twilight ran forward to wrap her hooves around Celestia before her mentor could move to greet her.
"We made it… you’re safe…" Twilight whispered into her mane. Celestia raised a hoof to return the gesture.
"Yes. And so are they." Celestia stepped back and nodded at the side of the room. Twilight turned. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy lay asleep in transparent floating white and blue medical capsules covered by panes of blue-tinted glass. Wires connected to their various cybernetic components and computer monitors at the end of each capsule displayed vital signs and other data.
"Any luck finding out what’s wrong with them?" Twilight asked, approaching them.
Celestia nodded." They all share the same type of viral corruption in their databanks. That is what overrode their biological functions to drive them violent and aggressive. The medic ponies have been using their magic to purge the virus from their systems. It’s taking time but they'll be back to their normal selves soon."
"Rainbow Dash is down in the teleporter room, if the crisis is over we can have her brought up," Spike said. Celestia walked over to the medical lab console, data streams and maps appearing on the monitors with a glow from her horn. She looked over them, her face tightening in a look of concern.
"Many guard ponies fell victim to this corrupting virus. Our enemy’s forces are withdrawing with them in their ranks. And it seems that they compromised the building’s central core."
"Did they take anything of value?" Twilight asked.
"No, merely medical data and telemetry for Equestria's satellite systems. Nothing of importance, much of it is publicly available. But it is more the act than the target that troubles me. Canterlot’s central core has a magic-tech security system that locks down the entire core if breached. It's the best virus defense in Equestria, only alicorn magic can bypass the locks. And only alicorn magic could break my barriers. Yet Sunset Shimmer was slowly succeeding in doing just that."
"So how could these ponies do it?" Twilight looked up at Celestia. Celestia just kept staring at the monitors, her expression one that Twilight didn’t see from her often: sadness and fear. "Princess?"
"I have a theory… I pray it is incorrect…" She didn’t say anything more and Twilight let the matter drop. The medical console’s communicator beeped and she answered it when Celestia didn’t react.
"Twilight Sparkle here." She heard a low groaning before a familiar voice answered her.
"This is… ugh… Quantum Drive…" The engineer sounded faint, and Twilight narrowed her eyes.
"Quantum, what’s wrong? Are you alright?"
"They… got away… sorry, Twilight…" Quantum Drive’s next words were difficult to make out through the pained mumbling, but he had said enough.
Twilight sighed and hung her head. "I’m sorry, Princess."
"Don’t be, my student," Celestia replied. "We were not ready for this."
The two mares had accompanied a trio of guard ponies to the teleporter room to find Quantum Drive laying wounded from a high-powered blast of magic into his side, his red coat turned black. He stayed awake long enough to confirm to Celestia and Twilight that a trio of cloaked ponies had swept into the room and teleported away. He had been able to hide Rainbow Dash’s unconscious body in a maintenance hatch under the floor, thankfully the guards had successfully retrieved her and took her to the lab. Rainbow was now in a medical capsule with the other four ponies awaiting healing from Celestia.
"So what’s our next move?" Twilight asked. Celestia hesitated and looked up at her computer.
"I told you before, Twilight, that my aides were doing very important research for me. I believe these ponies attacked because they desired this data from me and my aides."
"What have they been doing for you?" Twilight came closer and waited for the answer.
"A particular computer program, fragmented for each of them to research an aspect of it. A program I believe this ‘Master’ of the berserk ponies fears. Without all five fragments the program is incomplete and useless. Had they found Rainbow Dash or been able to penetrate my barrier, an even worse crisis could be facing us now. We have been fortunate." As Celestia explained, Twilight realized what her mentor wasn't saying as well, and patiently let her finish before voicing it.
"You know who the Master is." Celestia’s eyes widened at the calm accusation and she looked down at her student. Twilight met her gaze evenly. "You know… no. You've known who it is."
Celestia hesitated. "I had suspicions before. This viral infection and their usage of the Everfree Forest as a base confirms it."
"You didn’t tell me."
"I didn’t want to make you even more fearful. You were having enough trouble without knowing there was something even more dangerous waiting for you."
"Do you plan to tell me now?"
"…no."
At Celestia’s flat refusal, Twilight glared up at her. "That makes perfect sense! It’s not as though I should know who this enemy that's been trying to kill me is!"
"Twilight, you do not understand what you ask," Celestia said. Her voice was shaky, her eyes clouded. Before Twilight could respond the lab doors slid open. A golden-armored guard pony entered and bowed low.
"Your Grace, Lieutenant Valiant Spirit reporting. We have scoured the building and it seems the enemy has fully withdrawn. The attackers injured many of our ponies but we have suffered no casualties." Valiant Spirit didn't see Twilight's face twitch as he brought up the injured guards. "Though we found none of the enemy remaining behind, we did find this in the teleporter room." Valiant Spirit's horn glowed as he floated a small computer chip over to Celestia. She took it in her own magic and slotted it into the computer behind her. Her playback monitor displayed only static, but the audio message that began playing was clear.
"This is a message for the unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle." The voice of a mare played from the speakers. Twilight came up beside Celestia.
"We are the elite warriors of the Master," a second mare said.
"We are the Shadow Hunters," a third voice said, "and we issue a challenge."
"You have been a pest in our Master’s plans and you will now answer to us for your actions." The first mare was speaking again now. "You do not yet realize that your efforts to stop our Master have been in vain, but she still demands punishment for you. We will await you at the following coordinates. Meet us there, alone, and face up to your crimes. Or remain cowering behind Celestia’s flank and let the citizens of Ponyville suffer in your place."
The audio ended, and the still image of a map of Equestria appeared on the screen, a single point marked.
"Ghastly Gorge," Twilight read.
"That's not far from Ponyville," Spike said.
"Your Grace, I can have a team of guards mobilized within minutes," Valiant Spirit said. Twilight lowered her head and stared at her hooves. The finely polished white floor of the lab displayed her own slightly distorted reflection. Twilight looked over herself, first the reflection, then her body. She had bruises, scrapes, and small cuts all over her body. Sweat, dirt, and in a few places dried blood, matted her fur. Not to mention the patch on her hoof Sunset Shimmer had burnt black. She was tired, she was sore, she was dirty.
And when Twilight looked back at her reflection and saw the eyes looking up at her, she knew she wasn't done.
Twilight turned around to face Valiant Spirit. "If I don’t show up or show up with help, you heard what they'll do. They still have a lot of ponies from Ponyville under their control. It’s not an idle threat." She looked back at Celestia. "I have to go."
"Your Grace?" Valiant Spirit looked at Celestia questioningly. The Princess didn’t turn, her eyes closed and her head low. Twilight reached out a hoof and brushed it against Celestia’s own.
"Princess?"
"Do not say it." Celestia didn’t move, her voice a whisper. "Do not ask me to choose between you and Ponyville. I cannot give that order." Twilight pulled her hoof back and let out a long sigh.
"You know I have to. I've got weapons now and I've had to fight a lot out there. I can do this," Twilight said.
"Can you?" Celestia opened her eyes and looked at her. "You heard what they said. The elite warriors of the Master. Above all others the chosen three to serve at her side."
"I can do this," Twilight repeated. "And if I don’t try Ponyville suffers. You know I don't have a real choice in this."
"Yes I do. But I do not have to approve of it," Celestia said. She looked around the lab and pulled open a hatch on one of the support columns in her desk. Several healing salves and some other items she didn't recognize floated out and piled themselves at Twilight's hooves. "Healing salves and energy capsules. Take them, you will need them."
"Thank you." Twilight lifted the items in her magic, sorting them apart. Hatches slid open in her saddle with a click and the supplies slotted into them.
"If you are in danger and cannot handle it alone, please retreat and contact me to ask for aid," Celestia said. "I cannot risk you. Not even for Ponyville. I must ask you allow me selfishness in this."
"I'll be fine, Princess."
"Listen to me." Celestia's eyes bore into her own. "This is a royal order, Twilight. If you find yourself overwhelmed or believe you cannot continue on, please, retreat and find shelter. At full capacity Spike's scanners can communicate over dozens of miles, even with this interference we should be able to track you. Do not do something rash. If something were to happen to you we are lost. I am lost."
Twilight fought back a tear at her mentor's words and came closer. She raised up on her hind hooves and embraced her again. Celestia returned it, her mane falling over the both of them.
"Don’t worry, Celestia. I’ll defeat them and come back to help you with your aides. I promise I'll come back."
"Don't forget Princess, Twi's got me looking out for her!" Spike said. Twilight pulled back from Celestia and gave Spike a look.
"Twi?"
"Yeah, it came to me. What, you don't like it?"
"I didn't say that." Twilight smiled. Celestia smiled slightly.
"When you two get back I'll explain everything, I promise. An explanation is the least you deserve for all you have done and wish to do now, but for now it is not prudent to waste your time with a story as long as mine. But please believe me, Twilight. I hide nothing from you that could endanger you."
"I do believe you, Princess." Twilight turned her head to look at Spike. "Ready Spike?"
"Ready, Twilight." Twilight looked past Spike at Valiant Spirit.
"Do you know how to use the teleporters?" She asked. Valiant Spirit nodded. "Good. Let’s go." The two left the room, Celestia watching as the lab doors slid shut behind them. Once they were gone she turned to her console and called up a room. The speaker crackled to life.
"Engineering, Data Byte here," a female voice answered.
"Data Byte, this is Celestia. Will the project I commissioned earlier be ready by tonight?" Celestia heard Data Byte grumble under her breath before replying.
"Princess, it is an honor to receive a personal request from you of course. But the best we can do is tomorrow morning. We're working as hard as we can, I have my two best engineers on it along with myself."
"Then assign more to get it done sooner."
"Assign more? But, Princess, we have city projects, headquarters maintenance, not to mention repairs in the aftermath of this attack we just had!"
"Data Byte, aside from repairing our headquarters reassign all present engineers to my project."
"But—"
"And inform them that they will have tomorrow off with triple pay if they can get it done by tonight."
Data Byte sputtered. "T-Triple... yes ma'am, Princess! We'll have it done within an hour if Her Grace needs it so greatly!"
"She does. And thank you." Celestia closed the channel and looked up at her console, blueprints and data feeds flashing on the screen.
The teleportation effects faded and Twilight opened her eyes. Before her hooves stretched the deep chasm known as Ghastly Gorge. Sheer cliffs of grey stone led down to a dark abyss and Twilight could see the faint shimmer of water in the darkness. Lining the canyon on the surface was barren ground that faded into grass and trees.
"Scanning the area and generating a map," Spike said. Twilight waited as the holographic visual filled itself in; the red dot representing the coordinates the Shadow Hunters were at was already present. With Canterlot's teleporters unable to pierce the signal disruption caused by the Master's corrupted servants, the system had set them down on the opposite end of the gorge from their target. Twilight’s only concern now was if the Shadow Hunter were actually in the gorge itself. She didn’t care to look for a path down there.
Twilight turned her attention to the other data Spike had generated. Centuries ago Ghastly Gorge had been home to a rushing river than ran through its depths and drained the nearby marsh and swamp system into the sea. But a landslide during a thunderstorm had diverted the water and the former riverbed eroded into the canyon before her now. Geologists considered it a natural wonder, the rock eroding away to reveal ancient layers of sediment going back centuries.
Twilight started walking down the length of the gorge, her eyes watching the trees. "Any sort of hazards around the area to watch for?"
"Besides the two thousand, four-hundred and twenty-six hoof fall?" Spike replied. Twilight’s display scrolled to the part of the data feed that mentioned the gorge’s depths across its length, the four-digit average depth highlighted. She dismissed the feed before she could read any of the other statistics.
"Yes, besides that. And please keep that to yourself next time."
"I would guess we could expect some crazed ponies, but I’m not scanning any in the area. Monsters called quarray eels inhabited the gorge centuries ago but they've gone extinct. Other than that it's hard to say." Spike’s report didn’t put Twilight at ease as much as she had hoped. If she got attacked out here it was too possible that one of the crazed ponies could go over the gorge, or that she could suffer the same fate.
"No good worrying about it until it happens. All we can do is keep the fight away from the edge." Twilight continued on her way and put more distance between the gorge and her hooves until she was almost walking along the trees. She kept her eyes on the treeline as she walked, but saw nothing. The only sounds were wildlife moving in the trees and the fainter sound of whistling wind from the gorge. The sun was high in the sky, and of all the most ridiculous observations Twilight could have made she realized it was a nice day. Compared to what she had spent her morning doing, for a moment her journey had taken on a pleasant turn.
"Got a reading on something up ahead… not something I recognize either," Spike said. Twilight frowned. She had jinxed it again.
"Something we’ve never met before, or something you just don’t know about?"
"I have zoological files on approximately 94.3% of all know species of animal in Equestria." Spike sounded indignant. "I meant something we haven’t seen yet. I can’t get a clear scan of what though. But it’s directly ahead of us and is coming closer as we walk."
Twilight looked ahead. She didn’t see anything, the forest was quiet and peaceful and the rocky terrain beyond the treeline contained just a few small rock formations. "Are you sure? I don’t see anything."
"Good point. I guess you the unicorn have better perception than the advanced AI system that’s currently sensing every biological lifeform in a fifty-hoof radius."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Then where is it, Mister Smart AI?"
"Right ahead like I said."
Twilight looked again. Spike had a point. His scanners had never lead her wrong, but there was nothing there. She had a terrifying thought; could the Shadow Hunters somehow have invisibility powers? She knew there were spells for it though they were highly advanced. But if they were strong enough to trump Celestia’s powers, then maybe…
A low rumbling on the ground interrupted Twilight’s thoughts. She looked down at her hooves to see small pebbles shaking and glanced back up. To her surprise several of the rocks poking up from the ground, along with part of the ground itself, moved. The profile of a long, flat creature appeared, the terrain split apart where it had shifted itself then settled back down. Save for the cracks in the earth it once again blended in perfectly.
"That explains it. It’s a cragadile," Spike said.
"And that would be…"
"Reptilian lifeforms. They usually lurk in caves but some make their homes on barren and rocky areas in the open. They build nests of rock and dirt and sleep in them for days straight as hatchlings, growing into and merging with the nest as they mature. The result is a hide covered in stony armor."
"Are they hostile?" Twilight slowly crept closer to the broken sections of ground she now knew as the cragadile.
"No, but they’re not exactly friendly either. They’re known to devour ponies but they don’t move that fast, so they mostly prefer to eat whatever wanders by close enough to snap up quickly. Just don’t provoke it or get too close and we'll be fine."
Twilight carefully edged around the disturbed ground. Closer up she could make out the cragadile’s profile better. It wasn't a perfect match for the ground but somepony not watching for it could easily end up walking over it. It had its back to her initially and as she came around the front she saw its eyes open to watch her, beady and yellow. Twilight backed away from it slowly. The cragadile wasn't moving from its resting spot, but it was still holding its gaze on her and Twilight was on edge for it.
"Hang on, Twi, I missed the—"
Twilight heard a growl and took another step back before she registered it or Spike’s words. The growl grew louder and Twilight looked behind her. The ground had fallen away to reveal a long set of jaws in front of another pair of beady yellow eyes.
A set of jaws her rear-most hoof was resting on the end of.
Twilight gulped as she realized what she had just done. "It has a friend."
"Yup."
"And I just stepped on its nose."
"Yup."
The cragadile’s jaw opened in a mighty roar, pitching Twilight forward with her hoof in the air. She fell back to all fours and ran away as fast as she could. Fortunately Spike’s report had been correct, the cragadile was lumbering after her but not very quickly. The first cragadile had responded to its neighbor’s rage by pulling itself from its spot and joining in attacking the lavender unicorn that had disturbed them. Soon Twilight found herself backing away from two advancing enemies.
"Any tips to deal with them?"
"Heavy artillery. Their backs are heavily armored with years of stone."
Twilight looked down at her Multitool. The plates slid up and overlaid to form the barrel of the Pinkie Cannon, humming as it powered up. She swung her hoof up at the first cragadile and fired. The pink energy orb arced through the air and hit on the beast’s back. The stone shards emerging from the cragadile’s back shattered, the explosion blasting them apart. The beast roared and shuddered, smaller pieces of rock falling from its back as it moved. Twilight fired again and the cragadile’s stone-covered back cracked apart, a large slab sliding to the ground. Broken shards of rock were all that remained clinging to its skin. The beast took several steps back and collapsed on its stomach with a groan, its head hitting the ground. The first cragadile was more cautious now and backed away. Twilight leveled her Multitool at it and thrust it forward. The cragadile growled and snapped its jaws, but kept edging back.
"Spike, how’s the other one?"
"He’ll have a killer headache for a few hours, but he’s fine."
"Good, we're out of here then. Make sure we don’t backpedal on a third somewhere behind me."
"Will do."
Keeping the Pinkie Cannon pointed forward, Twilight slowly edged around the two cragadiles. The one she had attacked cracked an eye open to watch her as she passed. The first also kept its eyes on her but didn’t advance. Twilight kept facing them until she was around the other side and several hooves away, then lowered her cannon and turned to gallop. A glance behind her confirmed the cragadiles weren't following her and she slowed down again.
The journey further along the gorge had Twilight on edge. Spike confirmed that the terrain of the region and their natural armor disrupted his scans, which was why he hadn't picked up the second cragadile until Twilight was almost on top of it. Now she kept her eyes trained on every outcropping of rock in addition to keeping on alert for the Shadow Hunters. A few more cragadiles emerged from the landscape but Twilight kept her distance and they didn’t bother her. One jumped up and snapped at her once she had passed it but didn't move quick enough to catch her.
Twilight saw the edge of the gorge looming ahead and trotted faster. Ghastly Gorge merged with a small mountain range at its northern end, where the river that ran through it connected to a nearby marsh system. Twilight stopped and called up her map. These were the precise coordinates the Shadow Hunters had indicated. "We’re here. Where are they?" Twilight stepped out to look over the cliff. A long, narrow bridge of stone extended over this end of the canyon, pillars of rock stretching from below to support the bridge. As far as she could tell the gorge had once ended at the bridge, then the rocks had fallen away behind it leaving the path standing. The wind whistled past this close to the end of the canyon, creating a strong gust over the bridge. Twilight cautiously looked down. The canyon tapered off below but was still deep enough to ensure a fatal fall. The path over it was a few hooves wide, enough for a few ponies to march side-by-side, but it would be an uncomfortable trip.
"I’m scanning something coming in from the east," Spike reported. Twilight turned her head and assumed a fighting stance. A streak of grey was flying towards her, not nearly as fast as Rainbow Dash but it was coming. She waited and looked at her hoof. The Pinkie Cannon was still active, the cannon barrel humming into the ground. "Um… this trajectory… hang on…" Spike’s confusion made her hesitate and Twilight watched as the incoming pegasus flew over her head.
"Wh-whoa!" The pegasus cried out and clumsily turned in the air, her hooves running on empty air as she circled back around. She flew into the rock bridge, catching her hooves on it while the rest of her body kept going. The result was the pegasus face-planting on the hard stone, her hind hooves still weakly kicking at the air for a moment before going limp.
"Uh, is that her?" Twilight whispered to Spike, giving the pegasus an odd look as she lifted her head and shook it vigorously. She had a long blonde mane and tail and steel plating covered her flank, only the tail emerging. Her right hoof was a Multitool and the left half of her face was cybernetic, a bionic yellow-orange eye peering out over the canyon. At least Twilight thought it was; the eye was rolling around in its socket, coming to rest in a slightly cross-eyed position.
"Hang on a sec," the pegasus called to her, standing up and stumbling. She looked at Twilight, revealing a normal eye on the right side of her face. With an irritated grunt she raised her hoof and banged it on the metal half of her face, three metallic clangs ringing in the air. The bionic eye began to focus, whirs and clicks coming from it as the iris widened and shrank. She blinked rapidly and the eye finally fixed in place to stare forward. The pegasus smiled. "Hi there!"
"Um, hi," Twilight replied. She peered at the grey pegasus and tilted her head. "Can I help you?"
The pegasus raised a hoof to scratch the natural side of her head. "I dunno. I don’t think I need help. I’m Derpy."
"I can see that." Twilight muttered under her breath. Speaking louder now she took a step towards Derpy. "What are you doing here?"
"I’m here to meet somepony!" Derpy said brightly. "You wouldn't happen to know who Twilight Sparkle is, do you?" Twilight’s eyes widened.
"No…" She whispered in her head. "She can’t be."
"She can. I’m scanning a massive amount of system corruption," Spike replied. He shared Twilight’s disbelief and Twilight let out an audible groan, her head slumping down.
Derpy cocked her head. "You okay there? Have you seen her?"
"Is it weird I kinda want to tell her the truth?" Twilight thought to herself more than Spike. She looked up. "No. But, uh, she might be around here somewhere."
"Well I've got time. I’ll let them know I’m here." An antenna extended from behind Derpy’s metal ear and she raised her Multitool to her mouth, a metal plate on the hoof sliding down to reveal a small microphone. "GPT, this is Derpy, come in GPT."
"So, this is going to seem like a stupid question, but… what now?" Twilight asked Spike. The hologram shrugged.
"Make the first move and be gentle?" Twilight turned her attention back to Derpy.
"Yup, right on time and in position. No sign of Twilight Sparkle yet, nopony else here except a unicorn and she hasn't seen her either… huh?" Derpy turned her head back to Twilight and leaned around to look at her from an angle. "Yeah… yeah…" Suddenly her expression changed. Derpy’s bionic eye drooped down and both eyelids narrowed into a glare. Twilight gulped. "Oh," Derpy said coldly. "My bad." She dropped down to all fours as the antenna retracted into her head and her Multitool began to transform, vents opening on the sides and the bottom widening.
Twilight laughed nervously. "Well, uh, did the report go well?"
"Yup," Derpy replied, her wings flaring. Her eyes flashed a familiar red.
"Ponyfeathers."
Derpy took off flying towards Twilight, the unicorn ducking to let the pegasus go over her head. Derpy turned to fly straight up and tucked in her wings and hooves. She dropped like a stone, her flank slamming into the cliff below. The impact sent cracks running along the ground, a deep rumbling echoing in the air. As Twilight watched the cliff and part of the bridge fell away, the stone crumbling into the abyss below.
"The other side!" Twilight spun and broke into a gallop, but she saw the grey streak shoot past her faster than her hooves could carry her. Derpy slammed her flank down on the opposite cliff and it collapsed as well, leaving Twilight stranded on the rock bridge. Twilight looked over the edges of the bridge and began to panic. Derpy floated down in front of her, hovering in the air.
"Okay, so now that we've got the introductions outta the way." Derpy crossed her front hooves. "We need to have a talk about where we go from here."
"Uh, usually this is the part where I fight somepony," Twilight said, making a face.
"We could do that. Or we can discuss some alternatives," Derpy said. "The Master has told us a lot about you. You look like just another unicorn, but there’s something special about you isn't there?"
"Me?" Twilight shook her head. "I’m just trying to do what anypony would do when ponies are in trouble."
"Nah, there’s definitely something different with you. With nothing more than a Multitool and some healing gel you beat up our robots, knocked out a lot of our berserk ponies, and rescued all five of Celestia’s aides after beating them each in a straight-up fight." Derpy counted off Twilight’s deeds and put her hooves on her hips, staring at her expectantly.
"I guess I’m just resourceful." Twilight smiled sheepishly.
"No that’s not it. Or maybe it is, I dunno. The point is somepony like you could come in handy." Derpy floated closer. "The Master is the rightful ruler of Equestria. Once Celestia the Usurper falls our Master will bring forth a new era of pony unity. You can’t stop her, she's far stronger than you could imagine. You've only faced her through a proxy, in her true form the Master is invincible. But she is not without mercy and you seem to care about the Usurper’s aides. The Master has considered—"
"I know where you’re going with this," Twilight said. Derpy glared at being interrupted. "Forget it. I've seen what your Master does to ponies and how she plans to conquer Equestria. Whatever she’s done to your mind has blinded you to that. But I’m going to free you and the other two Shadow Hunters from her."
Derpy rolled her biological eye, the cybernetic one turning up and wiggling in place. "Oh well! Was worth a shot."
Derpy raised her Multitool over her head and swung it down to point it at Twilight. Twilight saw wisps of air be drawn into the vents on the side, and with a growing hum the Multitool fired. Twilight ran away, ready to avoid the attack. To her surprise though the Multitool shot out a puffy grey cloud, which slowly floated down to rest beside the path. Derpy swung her hoof to the side and fired again, then again, and again. As Twilight watched a row of clouds lined up along the stone path, a few stray ones floating over her head.
"Uh, this is new…" She looked around at them, turning in place.
Derpy raised her Multitool to her face and blew a wisp of cloud matter away from the end. "Thanks for letting me get ready before we do this."
Twilight’s eyes widened slightly. "Get ready?"
Derpy smiled. She dove and put out all four hooves, her wings retracting. She landed on the closest cloud and slammed her hooves into it. The cloud’s dark grey rolls grew darker and flashed yellow. A blast of lightning shot out of the side towards Twilight and she yelped and ducked to the ground. The bolt shot over her head, the air crackling as another cloud absorbed it.
"Uh-oh."
Derpy snorted and hopped again, another lightning bolt firing from the cloud. Twilight rolled to avoid it and raised the Pinkie Cannon. The pink energy orb fired and Derpy drew her hooves up and dropped through the cloud. The Pinkie Cannon shot through it and sailed through the air, a distant explosion coming from the gorge below. Derpy flew up on the other side of the stone path and hopped on another cloud. Twilight ran away from the lightning and fired again, but Derpy moved too fast to hit.
As Derpy landed on the next cloud and Twilight kept running, her hoof extended and shifted. Dodging a lightning bolt, she turned and fired the Apple Whip. Derpy flapped her wings and was airborne again, the whip shooting to its full length and falling down. Twilight pulled her hoof back to hasten the chain retracting and turned to run from another electrical blast. "Same problem as Rainbow Dash. Pegasi are too maneuverable in open air. Rare Shield wouldn’t do any good against lightning would it?"
"Unlikely. Luminance gems only absorb magic, not electricity. And a shock of that power could potentially short out the Multitool components in the gems," Spike replied. Derpy stomped another cloud and Twilight skidded to a halt as a bolt of lightning shot in front of her.
"Flutter Stare would probably work, but if she’s flying around like this and gets paralyzed…" Twilight glanced down at the gorge stretching below her as she ran. Twilight couldn't let her drop to her doom helpless, especially not if Derpy was under the Master's control and couldn't help herself. With only one option left, she gave the mental command. Three vents opened on the sides of her Multitool, the bottom retracted to reveal a grating and propeller. Derpy was close behind her, eyes closed as she bounced from cloud to cloud, her hooves generating more lightning blasts with each hop. Twilight jumped to avoid a particularly low-aimed blast and turned in the air, landing on her back. Pointing her hoof down, her Multitool's propeller spun to life and she fired the Rainbow Tornado.
A long, cylindrical blast of air emerged from Twilight’s hoof, a rumbling tempest aimed towards Derpy. The cyclone tore the three clouds in its path into puffs of vapor and Derpy fell down as she tried to jump on one of them. She cried out in surprise and awkwardly flew back into the air. With a break in the attacks, Twilight rolled to her stomach and turned her head about, firing several magic blasts. Derpy took them in the chest and recoiled in the air. She dropped out of sight and Twilight’s shots went past her and vanished in the distance.
"That wasn’t very nice!" Twilight turned her head to the other side of the path as Derpy flew up, glaring at her. She pulled her wings in, her momentum fading, and fired her hoof down to create a storm cloud over Twilight’s head. She descended with hooves pointed and Twilight ran, a crackle of thunder splitting the air and lightning striking the path where she had been a moment before. Derpy’s cloud began to follow her, Derpy raising her Multitool and slamming it down. The cloud rumbled and flashed several times and Twilight turned and fled. Several lightning blasts shot from the cloud, Twilight looking over her shoulder and rolling to avoid one. The gorge below met her gaze when she stopped and she scrambled to her hooves to back away.
Derpy raised her front hooves in the air and Twilight spun and fired the Rainbow Tornado before she could bring them down. The tempest sliced through the storm cloud and Derpy dropped to the stone path with a grunt, her cybernetic eye rolling. Twilight ran towards her and fired as many energy bolts as she could at Derpy’s side. Derpy pushed out with her hooves and rolled off the path, flying through the air. Twilight stood on her hind hooves with her Multitool charged, looking around. She saw movement and turned to see Derpy flying sideways through the air with her front two hooves held out. Derpy flew into a storm cloud and pushed it forward, lightning sparking out of it. Twilight fired the Rainbow Tornado and Derpy flew away. The tornado ripped the storm cloud apart, electricity fizzling out in the air. Above, Derpy tucked her hooves in and dropped. Another part of the stone bridge cracked apart and collapsed into the gorge, and Twilight suddenly found her lone safety platform much shorter.
"You can’t win this!" Derpy yelled, shooting another storm cloud from her Multitool and delivering it a diving kick. Twilight jumped away as the cloud hit the stone path and burst into a crackle of electricity.
"You don’t really want to hurt me!"
"Wanna bet?" Derpy shot out several storm clouds to float over her head. Twilight zigzagged along the path as the pegasus bounced along them overhead, lightning raining down around her.
"Yeah! Deep down I think you want me to free you, because if you wanted me dead you could destroy this platform like you just did and let me fall!"
Derpy’s bouncing stopped and she hovered in the air, bionic eye swirling about with a whir of machinery as she stared forward. Twilight looked up at her and Derpy’s face lit up in a wide grin.
"Great idea!"
Twilight’s jaw dropped.
"What the hay were you thinking!?" Spike raged in her head. "If I had real limbs I’d shake you!"
Derpy dropped down from the sky, her steel flank hitting the platform. Another section of the stone bridge shattered, the support column for the smaller section that had broken away falling back and crumbling when it hit the cliff. Twilight thought quickly and fired the Rainbow Tornado. The gust blew Derpy back and Twilight got a few shots in, but Derpy recovered quickly and fired several more storm clouds. The air was full of the grey puffs of vapor now. Twilight found herself looking between them trying to track Derpy to little success, her coat blending in with the clouds. Another impact alerted her to another section of the platform being destroyed.
"Well we’re about to die. Any more bright ideas?" Spike asked.
"Yes!" Twilight snapped, her hoof humming loudly.
"Oh goodie."
Ignoring him, Twilight sent a command to her saddle. A hatch clicked open and she seized one of Celestia’s energy pellets in her magic grip, moving it to a slot in the side of her saddle. The capsule clicked into place and lit up a bright yellow. "When I get low on power, use it!" Twilight looked forward and fired the Rainbow Tornado, dispersing one part of the storm clouds surrounding her. There was the sound of shattering stone again and she fired more in response. The Rainbow Tornado tore through the air again and again, the storm clouds clearing. The path was still full of storm clouds on all sides, but Twilight was able to see well enough to spot Derpy coming down again. She ran forward, her hoof clicking apart and elongating. A mental warning from her saddle came that her Multitool’s generator was almost drained, then the energy capsule on her saddle went dark and her hoof recharged.
"Derpy!" Twilight called out to her and held out her hoof. Derpy stopped and stared at her in surprise. Twilight fired her Multitool and the claw of the Apple Whip shot out, the chain clinking in the air. Derpy reacted too slowly this time and the claw clamped down on her Multitool, pulling her down towards Twilight. Twilight snapped the claw over her head and Derpy came down on the platform behind her, bouncing. Twilight dropped to all floors and her saddle hummed, the lights on it glowing brighter. The Flutter Stare flashed and Derpy collapsed to her stomach, groaning. Twilight reached her and stood over her, her horn pointed at Derpy's chest in an aura of violet magic.
"Yield." Twilight was panting, her eyes wide.
Derpy looked up at her and scowled. "Not likely!" Derpy’s hoof swung up against Twilight’s saddle and she dropped down to avoid a cloud shooting into her side. Derpy growled and rolled, flinging her through the air. Twilight held out her hoof as she went flying from the platform and fired the Apple Whip again. The claw bit into the stone and Twilight swung, the chain going taut. She flew under the rock bridge to the other side and up into the air. She looked down and had a flash of insight.
"Time for one more bright idea!" The Apple Whip loosed and retracted, Twilight falling freely as the chain coiled back up her hoof. Her horn lit up in a magic aura as she dropped, Derpy staring at her. Bracing herself, Twilight looked down and felt the spell take effect.
Her descent halted, her body bouncing slightly. Adrenaline pumped through her body as she realized her gambit worked. She looked down at Derpy. The pegasus was staring up at her with wide eyes as Twilight perched proudly on one of her storm clouds.
"But… you’re not… how!?"
Twilight smirked in triumph. "Cloud-walking spell."
Derpy’s face twisted in recognition. She yelled angrily, wings flapping furiously as she took to the air. Twilight jumped down to the path to avoid her charge, shooting magic blasts up in the air. Derpy came back down to tackle her and Twilight leapt on to another cloud, shooting at Derpy as she passed by. Derpy circled up in the air to come back and Twilight raised her Multitool and fired the Rainbow Tornado. Derpy’s flight path shook and wobbled, several magic blasts crackling against her underside before she stabilized and swooped lower to avoid the attacks. Derpy flew through several of the clouds she had created, dispersing them and sending blasts of lightning through the air. Twilight jumped between stone and cloud and cloud again as the bolts shot past her. Her coat was standing on end from the electricity in the air.
"Now the trick is ending this fight before we run out of clouds." Twilight shot a stream of magic shots as Derpy flew past her overhead, her coat lighting up violet as they narrowly missed her. An idea came to her and looked down at the now quite small stone platform weaving under the clouds. "Spike, analyze her flight patterns. Get me trajectories and follow them as she moves."
"Why?"
"Trust me."
Twilight’s display appeared, a red dot circling around her. A ghostly red arrow emerged in front of the dot, turning to point in new directions as Derpy turned to swoop through the air. Twilight waited until it straightened into the correct path, and sent the command to her saddle. The lights of the Flutter Stare flashed and Derpy dropped, her wings going slack. She crashed into a storm cloud, a blast of lightning shooting up her limbs on impact, and bounced off it to land on the stone platform. From her perch up above Twilight fired down as many energy blasts as she could, bombarding Derpy’s flank. The metal flashed violet as the attacks hit, Derpy flinching as the Flutter Stare kept her grounded.
"Hold up!" Twilight stopped as Spike cut in and watched. Derpy slowly climbed to her hooves, staggering back and forth, and turned. Her face had a dazed expression, bionic eye rolling around the edge of its socket.
"Derpy?" Twilight jumped down to examine her. "You okay?"
Derpy’s bionic eye drooped down as her biological eye focused on Twilight. She giggled slightly.
"…I just don’t know what went wrong…"
Derpy’s eyes closed and her hooves collapsed under her, spraying out as she fell on her stomach. The sound of her steel flank hitting the stone echoed through the air and she lay still.
"We did it. I think…" Spike sounded just as perplexed by the battle as Twilight was.
"Yeah. That was… something." Twilight looked over Derpy to confirm the pegasus was unconscious. "Anything of use in her databanks?"
"Let’s have a look and find out." Twilight’s saddle hummed as Spike worked. Twilight looked herself over while he did. Although she didn’t want to think about what Derpy’s lightning blasts could have done to her if she had been hit, fortunately she had been able to avoid them fairly easily. The electricity shooting around her had frazzled her mane and coat, but she wasn’t seriously harmed. "This should be useful," Spike said. Twilight looked down at her Multitool, still in the form of the Rainbow Tornado. The weapon elongated slightly and the vent on the end slid apart and folded up into the main construct. A small prong emerged on one side of the hoof and slid forward. "Go ahead, try it out." Twilight lifted her hoof and aimed, then fired. A fluffy white cloud emerged from her hoof and floated in the air a few hooves in front of her.
"The cloud Multitool isn’t all that different from Rainbow Dash’s tornado version in terms of structure, it's just the minor details," Spike explained. "Instead of vacuuming in wind on the sides and jetting it out at an accelerated rate with focused intensity, we saturate it with water vapor and supercool it to create clouds."
"Great. What about the lightning?" Twilight asked.
"Pegasi rely on their innate magic to avoid shocking themselves most of the time. We don’t have that of course, which is why I configured it to send the clouds out with a small electrical charge, but not enough to produce lightning. The prong on the side of your hoof will jolt them up over the threshold and shoot the lightning in the opposite direction where you made contact. Your Multitool is insulated so any risk of the current coming back to shock you is minimal."
Twilight looked at her Multitool and focused energy into the prong, seeing it start to spark slightly. She raised her hoof and slammed it into the cloud in front of her. The cloud turned grey and a bolt of lightning shot out the other side, going forward a few hooves before it fizzled out. Twilight grinned. "A unicorn replicating pegasus magic with a consumer Multitool. Spike, you’re a genius!"
"Oh, I don’t know about that." Spike’s hologram puffed out its chest. "I’m just doing what any hyper-intelligent assistant program would do."
"And you do it well. Now then." Twilight fired a cloud in front of her and walked across it, then fired another. Looking behind her, she lifted Derpy in her telekinetic grip and slung the pegasus over her saddle. Slowly she built herself a cloud bridge back to the gorge, and soon was jumping down to solid ground again. She let out a breath and knelt to slide Derpy to the ground. "Spike, call up Celestia." Twilight sat and called up her display. It blinked and flashed, Celestia’s face appearing in front of her.
"Twilight! Thank goodness you’re safe." Celestia smiled. "Is it over then?"
"Sadly no. It looks like only one of them was out here waiting for us, a pegasus named Derpy. We were able to subdue her. I can confirm as well that the Shadow Hunters, even if they are the Master’s best servants, are not willingly following her."
"Understood. At least there is good news. I’ll bring Derpy back to Canterlot and hopefully we can restore her."
Derpy vanished behind Twilight as she continued. "I’m not sure where the other two Shadow Hunters are but they’re likely not far if they called me out here. I was thinking Spike and I could investigate the area."
"Are you sure? Twilight, I know you want to stop them from hurting their captives, but there are other matters I could use your help with." Celestia gave her student a worried look.
"You said we need those program fragments your aides were working on, right? Do you have them yet?"
"Not quite. The massive amounts of system corruption have delayed my efforts to interface with them and retrieve the data. It’s going to take more time."
"There’s nothing we can do to fight the Master until we have them, so I might as well try to stop his servants in the meantime. Right?" Twilight looked at her mentor expectantly.
Celestia reluctantly nodded. "I suppose so. I shall contact you the moment we've extracted the five fragments successfully, at that time please return to Canterlot. Until then be careful."
"I will, Princess. Thank you." Celestia’s hologram vanished and Twilight looked back at Spike. "Any clues on where to find the next Shadow Hunter?"
"I’m scanning the area. Have a look at this." Spike brought up Twilight’s map, zoomed out to a larger view of the gorge and surrounding environs. A large glowing cloud of light was around the area north of their location. "I’m detecting a massive amount of signal interference from the north around Froggy Bottom Bog. Judging from how strong it is there's a severely corrupted pony there."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Twilight closed her display and turned to the end of Ghastly Gorge where the gorge bottom began to curve up and the river flowed down from the marshlands not far away. Her Multitool reconfigured back to its default setting and she set off, the steel clanking against the stone. She only got a few steps because she heard a loud rumbling.
Twilight turned to look over the gorge and saw what was left of the stone platform she had fought Derpy on collapse. The pillars holding it up crumbled and the entire construct fell into the gorge, the sounds of rock hitting rock echoing up. Twilight gulped.
"And if we find one of them, let’s make sure we fight on solid ground," Spike suggested.
"Agreed."
"Your Grace."
Celestia turned as the doors to her lab slid open and Valiant Spirit entered. He looked spooked, his eyes wide and nervous.
"What is amiss, Lieutenant?"
"We received a transmission from a pegasus guard, Private Regal Tempest, part of the force dispatched to the Everfree with Captain Gilded Stalwart. Private Tempest’s report indicates that something befell their group. He was the only one able to escape to Ponyville." Valiant Spirit hesitated before continuing. "We attempted to lock onto him and teleport him to safety, but it seems the distortion that was jamming our signals this morning has returned to the town. His transmission was lost."
"I see… thank you, Lieutenant."
"Do you have any further orders regarding the town, Your Grace?"
Celestia thought. "Issue a civilian warning to avoid Ponyville at all costs and cease all transportation and teleportation to the town. Contact Las Pegasus and tell them to send a weather team to the town immediately. They will meet up with an escort and are to move storm clouds over the town. The official story is that unexpected tornado activity has blown over the town and travel to Ponyville is not safe in such conditions."
"I will do as you ask, Your Grace, but surely there is more we can do about the guards?" Valiant Spirit looked at her pleadingly. Celestia shook her head.
"No. This is a threat that I’m afraid even you most loyal and fierce ponies could not overcome. I thank you for your service, Lieutenant, but all you can do is what I have ordered now."
Valiant Spirit bowed and left the room. Celestia let out a long breath and looked at her console. A map of Equestria blinked to life, zooming in on the mountains south of Ponyville and showing a six-pointed purple star blinking at them.
"If she is moving out then there is only one hope to stop her. Please hurry, Twilight… we may not have much time…"
"Well, here we are." Twilight stopped as she crested the rocky hill and looked down. The hill descended into a tall mass of reeds and gnarled trees rising from a mass of murky green and grey water. The ground rose from the water in some places, short spikes of grass growing from them. In other places stones emerged, some flat enough to allow passage, most not. Twilight's map displayed the blinking name of the site at the bottom, "Froggy Bottom Bog". Centuries ago when Ghastly Gorge still held a flowing river, Froggy Bottom Bog was the water source that filtered into it bringing rainwater from Rainbow Falls and wastewater from Ponyville. Then a landslide diverted the river from the gorge and the swamp's waters found a new path that lead them back near Ponyville.
"So she's a way in, hm?" Twilight zoomed her map out to focus on the distant blinking red dot of the second Shadow Hunter.
Spike flickered behind her head. "Yeah. Be careful around here. Even the ground you see isn't stable, the water is so deeply seeped into the soil that it's very prone to breaking down."
"Any advice on moving around?"
"Step lightly and quickly."
Twilight nodded and started down the hill. There had been a faint aroma as she had looked down on the swamp. Now as she came closer it became an overpowering stench, the air moist with the smell of decaying vegetation and fungi. Twilight wrinkled her nose and pressed on. Her hooves passed from barren rock to patchy grass to tall weeds. Twilight was soon up to her flank in overgrown grass, the stalks brushing her flank and mane. She began to wonder if it would grow taller until she couldn't see. Her fears proved unjustified when she shortly emerged on the edge of the ground and found herself staring over the swamp.
Twilight scanned the waters and saw a strip of ground just under the surface. She dipped a hoof down to test the depth, then stepped in. The ground held under her steps and she briskly followed the winding ground through the swamp. In a few places the water receded, in others it grew too deep and engulfed her almost to her stomach. Yet she was able to continue. "Sensing any hostiles in the area, Spike?"
"Aside from the Shadow Hunter, just one. It's a ways off though, on the far right and not moving. Can't tell much more than that though. The Shadow Hunter's interference and the swamp gasses are making it hard to get a fix on things." Twilight turned her head to look. She didn't see anything, but what she could or could not see with her own eyes wasn't much. The waters of the swamp resisted any effort to see more than a few hooves down and the landscape was so twisted that something could easily be hiding. She called up her map. There was some sort of hostile presence in that direction, but the blinking red dot alone wasn't much help. And unfortunately it seemed that the rough path she was on, which had been steadily turning to the left, was now leading her away from the Shadow Hunter's signal.
"We need to cross the water somehow…" Twilight looked at the murky depths around the bottom of her hooves and thought. She could swim, but that would make combat difficult if not impossible. And there was no solid ground to use that was close enough to jump to. Twilight looked down at her Multitool and thought. The steel shifted form, an electrified prong emerging from the top as a large propeller blade formed behind a grating. "Spike, no discharge. I don't want to electrify the water… or me."
"No problem."
Twilight raised her hoof and it whirred to life. The light grey storm cloud of Derpy Thunder formed in front of her, wobbling slightly as the last bits of water vapor condensed and emerged from her hoof. Re-casting her cloud-walking spell for safety, she hopped up on the cloud. It shook but held her weight. Twilight raised her hoof to fire another cloud at a downward angle. She jumped over to it. Twilight repeated the pattern and slowly worked her way over the swamp water, a bridge of clouds supporting her. Glancing behind her she saw her earlier clouds start to disperse. "Spike?"
"They're artificial constructs, this low to the ground they can't maintain their structural integrity for long. Don't worry, unless you plan to dally we'll be fine." Spike's explanation provided a new source of concern. Twilight called up her display to check the power reserves on her Multitool. Her generator restored its energy over time using latent body heat and bio-electricity, but she had taxed hers heavily in her fight with Derpy. A commercial model like this wasn't meant to support weapon constructs like the ones she was using. The generator still had a good reserve charge left, but these storm clouds were eating up a lot of power to manifest. Twilight opened a hatch on her saddle and withdrew another of the energy capsules Celestia had given to her. She slid it into the reserve slot on the side of her saddle, prepared if something happened.
Twilight turned her attention back to her progress and made a few more storm clouds to work her way across the water. She could see a larger outcropping of rock up ahead that would make a good point to rest for a moment. She fired out another cloud and stepped over. Then there was a rumbling, and she heard the water of the swamp splashing against the trees and rocks. Twilight grew nervous. "Spike?"
"Uh… Twi? That hostile reading is clearing up and… we really ought to run now."
Twilight heard the fear and urgency in his voice and doubled her efforts, creating clouds and stepping over them as fast as her hoof could create them. She reached the rock ground and jumped down to it, then turned around. What could only be described as a massive "bump" of water was rising from the swamp, and as it rose higher the bump broke to reveal a large pale orange body.
Then the heads emerged shortly after.
Twilight gulped and took several steps back as the creature's shadow consumed her. It had four heads, each with jaws large enough to swallow a pony whole, set below green eyes. Long necks ran down back to the main body, still half-submerged in the swamp. Twilight realized what it was, her eyes wide.
"H-H-Hydra."
"Can we run now?"
Twilight heard Spike repeat his suggestion and took it. She turned and broke into a gallop. The hydra roared behind her and Twilight glanced over her shoulder. Its four heads were winding towards her, tongues flitting out as they hissed at her. The rumbling returned, beyond the heads she saw the hydra's body rise from the swamp. Massive legs stepped up to the stone ground and the hydra stomped after her. The swamp shook, small waves of water forming and crashing as Twilight ran down the stone.
"Problem," Spike said. Twilight could take a guess.
"I'm not outrunning it."
"Not even close."
Twilight considered stopping then, but there was one more detail to settle. "Any tips on fighting it?"
Twilight's saddle hummed as Spike processed. "A hydra's heads share control of the main body's motor functions. Concentrate fire on them one by one, as the heads get knocked out of the fight it'll start to become confused and uncoordinated."
"I can work with that." Twilight's hoof shifted and slid up to form the Pinkie Cannon, and she spun and aimed. The glowing pink energy orb sailed through the air, striking one of the hydra's necks as its head swooped towards her. The explosion shook the air and the hydra head shrieked and pulled up, shaking back and forth. The other three heads stopped attacking Twilight to look at their fourth member. The fourth head looked ill, its eyelids drooping and the head swaying in the air. Twilight took aim at another head while they were watching the other and fired another blast. The three heads turned to see it coming, but not soon enough to avoid it. A second head recoiled as the explosion detonated against its flesh, pain shooting along its neck. The two remaining heads shrieked angrily and came after Twilight.
Twilight dropped to her hooves and ducked her head to avoid the first, her Multitool transforming. She shoved her hoof down on the stone beneath her and fired the Rainbow Tornado. The winds hit the stone and blustered back up around her, launching Twilight into the air. The second hydra head shot by below her, screeching as it missed. Twilight reconfigured her hoof as she twirled through the air and fired below her. The storm cloud of Derpy Thunder formed too late to catch her and Twilight fell through it. She cried out in surprise and thought quickly. Her hoof shifted back, Twilight thanking the Equestrian engineers for making pegasi Multitools so similar to one-another in design. The Rainbow Tornado fired at the ground again and her descent slowed enough for her to land comfortably.
The two hydra heads were coming back for her. Twilight looked back at the two she had hit before. They had slumped down on the rock, eyes glazed over and unfocused. They were out of the fight, but it seemed the other two heads had control of their body just fine. Twilight ran towards them, jumping to avoid one as it came at her and rolling under the other as it went a bit too high. She shifted her hoof to the Pinkie Cannon as she rolled and swung her hoof up as she stopped on her back, firing a blast forward to hit the back of another neck. A third hydra head went limp, the back of its neck singed black.
"One to go." Twilight got up on her hooves as the last head turned towards her. She held her hoof up, but the head didn't come diving at her. The hydra must have learned the metal hoof meant danger when it glowed pink at the bottom. It wavered back and forth, teal eyes glaring at Twilight, but didn't strike.
"It's waiting for you to make the first move," Spike whispered. Twilight smirked. Best not to disappoint then. She focused and fired a pair of energy bolts from her horn. The hydra pulled to the side to avoid them, Twilight's Multitool turning before it caught the fake-out. The Pinkie Cannon blast caught the hydra in the face, a cloud of smoke obscuring Twilight's view of it. She waited, poised to dodge if the head had endured. But the smoke cleared to reveal the hydra's head limp, the main body at the end of the four necks falling to the ground.
"All things considered, not too tough." Twilight transformed her hoof back to its default form and looked at her map to get her bearings. Turning towards the Shadow Hunter's signal, she set off down the stone path. It ended at another mass of swamp water, and a series of Derpy Thunder shots created a cloud bridge to cross it. From her map it seemed they were on the far edge of the swamp now. Twilight saw solid ground coming into view, there were still many weeds and swamp plants growing but the water was growing shallow. Her hoof whirred and spat out another storm cloud, the last one before she leapt to dry land again.
"Energy reserves are pretty low," Spike said. Twilight felt her systems working as the energy capsule she had set in her saddle earlier drained to restore her power supply. She ejected it and floated the spent capsule to a waste slot on her saddle, withdrawing a fresh one from another hatch and clicking it into place.
"How many more of these do we have?"
"Counting the new one? Four."
Twilight thought. "Should be enough, if we can keep going at this rate and find the third Shadow Hunter soon after this one."
The two reached an open field, hard dark brown dirt under Twilight's hooves. Gnarled swamp trees grew around the field along with tufts of tall brown-green grass and reeds. On the horizon Twilight saw the waterfalls of Rainbow Falls, which flowed into the bog along with other natural rivers. She called up her map. The Shadow Hunter's signal ended around here, but she didn't see anything. Twilight took a few steps forward and looked around the area.
"Twi, look out!"
Twilight looked up and cried out. She leapt away as a massive piece of steel shot down at her from a tree, embedding itself in the dirt with a loud clang. Turning back she looked to see what had almost hit her. Sticking out of the dirt was a long metal construct, the bottom curved and bulbous with a narrower section emerging from the top. Twilight realized what it was and blinked.
"Is that… a cello?"
Twilight began to step forward, and a pony landed heavily behind the instrument, causing her to jump back again in surprise. It was an earth pony, with a light-gray coat and dark grey mane. Her right hoof was a Multitool. The pony grabbed the cello in her left hoof and effortlessly picked it up, swinging it behind her. "I had thought that the hydra would be enough to get rid of you," the pony said, "but it seems I underestimated your ability. Not the first time we've made that error."
"So, you're the second Shadow Hunter." Twilight took a step back and assumed a ready stance.
The newcomer sniffed and tossed her hair. "I am Octavia, musical prodigy extraordinaire and second of the Master's most trusted generals." Octavia turned her head away and gave Twilight a sideways look. "And you are Twilight Sparkle, student of the Usurper and champion of Harmony."
"Your Master is the usurper around here, not Celestia."
"Ignorant, as anticipated. You do not even know who our Master is, do you?" Octavia looked at Twilight expectantly.
Twilight thought. "…well, no. Not exactly."
"And yet you call her usurper. Our Master is the rightful ruler of Equestria. She is here to take back her throne. The Usurper cannot hope to stand against her. You know I speak the truth, you have beheld it with your own eyes. Our Master's power outstrips that of the Usurper."
Twilight hesitated before answer. "I admit you seem able to overpower Celestia's spells. But being stronger doesn't make your Master right."
"Doesn't it? The Usurper claimed her dominion over this land after she imprisoned our Master. Now she is free and she will take back what the Usurper stole."
Twilight shook her head. "Not if I stop her."
Octavia snorted. "You could not hope to overcome our Master. Our plans are nearly complete. Your actions mean nothing."
Twilight gasped slightly. "What do you mean?"
"You are powerful, it is true, and it is probable I will lose this confrontation. But it is of no relevance. We have already delivered the data our Master desired from Canterlot. Our acquisition of the Usurper's minions was a stalling tactic to divert her attention. The Program holds no power in its current state, without it you have no hope of defeating the Master. And by the time you retrieve it, it will be of little aid."
"Stalling… then this really was all a trap." Twilight looked at her hooves, clenching her teeth. "You set this all up… just to keep me busy?"
"Quite right, though you realize it too late for the information to aid you. Even now our Master's plans proceed as predicted. Should we three lose here we will have succeeded in dividing your attention and so are yet victorious. Now then." Octavia's Multitool shifted form, elongating into an inverted cone. Steel fibers crossed over each other on the end, forming a microphone-like shape. She hefted her cello behind her and leaned forward. "Let us play our parts to the end. Fight with all your heart!"
Twilight looked up and glared. "You got it!" She charged, and Octavia thrust out her hoof. There was a metallic clicking from it and Twilight abruptly staggered, her hooves tripping over themselves. She felt queasy, had a flash headache, and there was a ringing in her ears. "Spike, what did she just do?"
"I'm detecting low-frequency sound waves coming from her hoof. Your ears can't pick them up but they have a lot of power behind them."
"Sound waves? How am I supposed to avoid an attack like that!?"
"I think that's the idea."
Twilight turned her attention back to Octavia, who was charging towards her with her cello held out behind her. Twilight lowered her head and fired several magic bolts. Octavia hefted her cello and swung it in front of her. The blasts hit off its surface and exploded in crackles of energy, the metal glowing for a moment on impact. Octavia lowered it and leapt towards her.
"Uh-oh." Twilight dodged as Octavia landed and swung her cello through the air. She rolled, ducked and jumped to avoid the wide strikes, Octavia turning and flipping her grip on the instrument to press her attack. Twilight misjudged the angle of an incoming swing and the heavy steel slammed into her side. She flipped through the air and spun across the grass to lay sprawled on her stomach. Her head hummed with the metallic ringing of the cello's impact.
"Twilight! You okay?"
Twilight shook her head and slowly climbed to her hooves, staggering. "She has a weapon… that's cheating isn't it?"
"There are rules for these fights now?"
"There should be!"
Octavia held her hoof out and Twilight felt another wave of discomfort wash through her as the sound wave hit her. She pushed through them and fought to keep standing, sending a command to her hoof. The panels retracted and shifted wider to form the Pinkie Cannon. Twilight raised her Multitool and fired. The glowing pink energy orb arced towards Octavia and she lifted her cello as a shield. The Pinkie Cannon detonated with a mighty explosion, a flash of pink light and a cloud of smoke consuming Octavia. Twilight shielded her eyes with a hoof and looked away as the blast hit, turning back when the light fades. After a few moments Octavia ran out of the smoke, her cello held out behind her with not a dent on it.
Twilight's jaw dropped and her eyes widened. "No way!" The cello swung and Twilight narrowly avoided it. Her hoof reconfigured again as she ducked another swing and she fired the Rainbow Tornado. The windstorm pushed Octavia back along the grass, her hooves digging into the dirt to keep standing. Her cello caught most of the blast, and as the cyclone faded she lowered it and ran forward again. Twilight jumped to avoid her cello and glared. "Stop doing that!"
"Doing what?" Octavia replied, bringing the cello over her head. Twilight leapt back to avoid it, dirt flying with a metallic ringing as it hit the ground.
"Cancelling out my attacks!" Twilight fired another magic bolt, but Octavia deflected it and came at her again. The cello swung again and again, Twilight narrowly avoiding it.
"Rare Shield can't help, and if I grab that thing with the Apple Whip she could overpower me and toss me aside. Spike, would Flutter Stare help?"
"Not likely, that cello is polished like a giant mirror. You might catch her in it but you'd get hit too."
"We've got one option then."
The Rainbow Tornado configuration only took a second to transform, and as Twilight jumped away to avoid Octavia burying her cello in the dirt again, she raised her hoof and fired the Derpy Thunder. A dark grey storm cloud emerged from her hoof and Twilight slammed her hoof into the side of it. The prong lit up in electricity, and with a crackle of yellow light a bolt of lightning shot out of the cloud.
Octavia raised her cello to defend herself and the lightning struck it. The instrument lit up in a bright yellow flash, Octavia screaming as electricity surged through her. Twilight lowered her hoof as the storm cloud faded, its energy spent. The shock subsided, leaving Octavia looking woozy, hairs in her mane and tail sticking up from the shock. She shook her head to gather her senses and glared angrily. "That hurt!" She almost snarled the words.
"That's the idea!" Twilight shot back. Octavia held her hoof up in response. Twilight recoiled as an invisible wave of sound hit her directly from the front. Stunned, she watched as Octavia leapt through the air and brought her cello down. Twilight rolled aside at the last moment and shot several magic blasts at Octavia directly with her cello stuck in the ground for the moment. Octavia hefted it free, sending dirt and stones towards Twilight in the motion. Twilight jumped to avoid the cello and fired another storm cloud forward as Octavia sent out a sound wave. Though the blast stunned Twilight, Octavia didn't press her attack, staring cautiously at the cloud floating between them. "Anything you can do to help with that sound blast?" Twilight asked.
"Not much, it's not so much the sound itself as the pressure wave from it that's doing the work," Spike replied. Twilight grunted. That wasn't what she had hoped to hear. Octavia steeled herself and charged through the storm cloud, dispersing it with a swing of her cello and bringing it back the other way to strike Twilight. She dodged it, the wind rushing in her ears as the steel passed her ear, and fired Derpy Thunder at Octavia. Octavia jumped back as Twilight thrust her hoof out, a blast of lightning striking Octavia and making her cry out in pain. Twilight fired several magic bolts before she could recover, driving Octavia back and causing her to drop her cello. She tried to press her assault but Octavia came to her senses and swung her hoof up. The sound wave staggered Twilight, and Octavia grabbed her cello and came forward, firing another blast as Twilight began to recover. Octavia spun around and brought the cello around with her, slamming it into Twilight's head.
The world seemed to spin around Twilight as she catapulted back through the air, flipping over herself again and again and landing on her stomach. Her muzzle ached and she tasted blood. Twilight was woozy as she got up, slowly raising her hoof as Octavia came at her. She fired Derpy Thunder, but Octavia leapt up over it and flung her cello down at Twilight. Twilight more fell than rolled aside to avoid it, dirt hitting her as the cello hit the ground. "Spike, need some help here," she thought at the AI. She was still reeling from Octavia's attacks and she just wanted to fall down and rest. Her mind wanted to fight but her body was refusing to listen.
"I can't control your whole body, just your cybernetics," Spike replied.
"Well I'm not doing much for either, so halfway would be good enough."
"Close your eyes."
Octavia ran up to Twilight and grabbed her cello, lifting it behind her. Twilight obeyed Spike's command and closed her eyes, also not wanting to see this hit coming. She felt her saddle hum, and a flash went off behind her eyes. "Of course!" Twilight opened her eyes to see Octavia go prone, the momentum of her cello swing pulling her around and she spun to lay on the ground, dazed. The Flutter Stare had given Twilight a reprieve. She felt her hoof shift and Spike swung it up to fire the Apple Whip. The claw latched on the neck of Octavia's cello. Together Twilight and Spike pulled her Multitool back and hurled the instrument over her shoulder.
On her hooves again, Twilight pulled in a deep breath. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"That's why you have me," Spike said proudly. Reinvigorated over her victory, Twilight fired several magic bolts at Octavia's limp form. After the sixth hit she saw the mare's hoof lift. Twilight stumbled as the sound wave hit her, watching Octavia slowly climb to her hooves.
"I see… why you got this far…" Octavia gasped for breath and stumbled, falling back on all fours. "Resourceful. Determined. Strong… how? You're just a unicorn."
"I've got a full arsenal of configurations stored in my head," Twilight replied, facing off against her. "You're not just facing me. You're facing me and all five of Celestia's aides. And Derpy too now."
"Quite so. The Master told me not to expect to defeat you. I scoffed at the idea. But the Master was right."
Twilight's face softened as she looked over Octavia. The two mares were both sore, tired, and ready to stop. There was a chance then. "Octavia, we don't have to fight. Stand down. Tell me all you know, help me stop her!"
"It isn't that simple. Don't you realize it yet?" Octavia tapped her hoof against her head, her eyes flashing red. "We are all slaves to her will. As long as I do what she tells me she remains passive. Yet she watches us now. If I step out of line… well, you saw Fluttershy. They could resist, a bit anyway, but I can't. I don't have the—" Octavia's sentence stopped and she cried out in pain, her head tilted.
"What's wrong?" Twilight asked. Octavia's eyes flashed red again and she grimaced, shaking her head.
"F-fine! Enough talk!" She looked up and glared "We end this!" A sound blast fired from her hoof and Twilight fell back. Octavia ran past her to grab her cello and turned back, firing another blast of sound. Twilight closed her eyes and activated the Flutter Stare. Octavia tripped over her own hooves and tumbled to the ground on her stomach. Twilight reconfigured her hoof, vents and propellers forming.
"Spike, can she survive this?" She let him read her thoughts to see her plan.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't wanna be on the receiving end."
Twilight turned to Octavia and out a storm cloud. The cloud settled over Octavia, hiding her from Twilight's eyes. She was thankful for that. She drew her hoof back, the end sparking with electricity. "Sorry, Octavia!" She called out to her opponent, then thrust her hoof into the cloud.
Derpy Thunder ignited on contact, electricity pulsing through the cloud. Octavia screamed through the storm, the cloud flashing against Twilight's eyes. When it had ended she withdrew her hoof. Its energy spent the cloud dissipated, revealing the limp form of Octavia in the dirt. The shock had frazzled her coat and her eyelids were drooping. She groaned and lifted her head to look up at Twilight, giving her a wry smile.
"W… well done… Twilight Sparkle."
Octavia's head fell back, her eyes closing. Twilight followed suit, falling back on her flank and taking a deep breath. Without another word she clicked open the hatch on her saddle and withdrew two healing salves. Her magic took hold of the light blue gel and spread it over her head, the aching and bruising flesh soothing under its touch. The second capsule's contents went over her side where Octavia had landed her first blow.
"Remind me when I got comfortable fighting like this." Twilight didn't have the energy to speak higher than a whisper. The adrenaline rush of the fight had worn off and she just wanted to collapse on her side and have a nap right there.
"Canterlot," Spike said simply. Twilight flashed back to that moment, to the fury that had driven her to fight her way past dozens of ponies to find Celestia.
"Yeah, that sounds right." She stood up and rotated her head. The healing salves had worked their magic and her sore body was comfortable enough to move again. "Find anything of use in her databanks?"
"Well, it would be simple to use your Multitool to carry about that cello," Spike said.
"Pass."
"In that case hang on." Twilight's saddle hummed to life as her internal components worked and she looked down at her hoof. It elongated, a wire mesh forming over the end as smaller meshes appeared on the sides. "Copying that sound attack she had is pretty simple. We just have to dial in the right frequency, amplitude, etcetera, to make a pony disoriented without causing any permanent hearing or organ damage. She already has that data in her system of course, and now it's ours."
"If I can't tell when it's firing, how do I aim it, or know when it works?" Twilight asked, turning her Multitool around to examine it.
"It fires in a narrow cone straight forward, you can aim it like any other weapon. As for telling if it works, with the speed sound travels at, if it doesn't work you'll know the moment you use it and your opponent doesn't react. Also I can tell you."
"Right." Twilight shifted her hoof back to default form and called up her map. "Call up Celestia please, Spike."
"Roger that." Twilight waited patiently as Spike put out the call. After several seconds Celestia's head flickered into view from her horn.
"Twilight. Good news I expect."
"Yes. The second Shadow Hunter is defeated, a musician named Octavia."
Celestia's face in the display lit up in recognition. "I know her! She plays the Grand Galloping Gala for Canterlot every year. We'll take care of her immediately." Octavia lit up in white light from Canterlot's teleporter.
"She has a cello with her too. And she's a good swing with it."
Celestia nodded. "You're not too badly hurt, are you?" Twilight thought the question over as Octavia's cello teleported away behind her.
"She got in some her share of hits and I'm really looking for a nap soon. But no, I'm alright to continue."
"Twilight, you've already rescued my aides and saved my life. There is no need to push yourself this much if you are weary. Rest if you need to, for your sake."
"I will, Princess. Thank you."
The Celestia hologram vanished and Twilight laid down on her stomach.
"Taking her advice?" Spike asked.
"Yes. Time me, ten minutes. After that, where's the third Shadow Hunter?" Twilight laid her head down and her map popped up into view.
"Rainbow Falls."
Twilight looked on the horizon, the distant mountain with rainbows shooting between clouds seeming closer now.
"One left… we can do this, Spike. After Derpy and Octavia, how much worse could the last one be?"
At the top of Rainbow Falls, another hologram projected from the horn of another unicorn.
"Celestia's agent draws close. Derpy and Octavia have failed," the hologram said.
The unicorn sniffed indignantly. "Hardly surprising. They weren't that strong anyway. I told you before, I was the only other pony you needed. They were a waste of energy to focus on."
"Do not posture to me, whelp. You forget your place." The hologram growled, eyes narrowing.
The unicorn gulped and lowered her head. "My apologies, Master. What must be done?"
"This farce has ceased to amuse me. I want this unicorn finished." The hologram paused. "If you are as powerful as you proclaim, this will be a simple task for you."
"And so it shall be." The unicorn lifted her head, smiling proudly. "Twilight Sparkle shall fall before me!"
Twilight stepped briskly up the hill, soft grass crunching beneath her hooves. The sun was low on the horizon, casting the hill in shadows. Soft ribbons of orange, yellow and violet light wove through the sky as Twilight reached the top. Taking a breath, she looked over the twilit-beauty of Rainbow Falls. The grassy plains were lush and thick, the water crystal clear and gleaming in the late afternoon light. Above the grass rainbow streams flowed from cloud to cloud, sunlight making the lines of color glimmer and sparkle. The rainbows emptied into a basin of water where the magic that held them together came apart, dispersing the colors into ripples and streams that fanned out and dissolved into normal water. Waterfalls of normal water fell from the clouds too, and stormed from the cliffs above into the basin, causing natural rainbows to shoot through the air as the water caught the sunlight.
Ages ago the Canterlot Preservation Society declared Rainbow Falls a tourist site and kept as it was centuries ago, right down to pegasi producing the rainbows by hoof instead of by the mechanical generators most weather factories used now. The water from the site ran down into a river that flowed through Froggy Bottom Bog. Normally pegasi workers would be busy keeping the rainbows and clouds clean and flowing. But Twilight didn't see anypony around as she crossed a bridge over a stream. Not that she minded. She was looking forward to dealing with the last Shadow Hunter with minimal distractions.
"Spike, detecting any hostiles in the region?"
"Just one," he replied. Twilight nodded. That was encouraging. But she didn't fully trust Spike's scanners, even if as she thought that he protested in her head.
"We've been fooled before," she said.
"Well, I… fine." Spike's hologram crossed its arms and huffed. Twilight ignored him and called up her map, rotating it over her display for a vertical view. The Shadow Hunter was directly ahead of her from a bird's view, but vertically she was high up the mountain. Twilight looked up,and her breath caught. Up the mountain, above the sheer rocky slopes, the distant form of a pony lurked at the edge of the cliff. Twilight shook her head to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but when she looked back the figure was gone. She narrowed her eyes; she knew what she had seen.
"Well if she's waiting for us, let's not disappoint her." Twilight began walking to the path up the mountain. Compared to Mt. Rushmare this climb was quite pleasant. The path was wide enough to walk along comfortably and instead of cold stone there was soft grass under her hooves. The wind was warm, the air sweet, and the scenery gorgeous. Twilight watched a trio of clouds pouring rainbow waterfalls into a fourth cloud below as she walked by and made a mental note to revisit this place in the future when she could relax and enjoy herself. "If only all the places we had visited were like this."
"Uh, Twilight? Heads up!"
Twilight turned her attention from the clouds to the path ahead and stopped in her tracks. A pair of earth ponies were standing at the top of the slope in front of her, glaring. Their eyes glowed red and steel covered their rear hooves.
"Of course," Twilight said, stepping back. One of the ponies charged down at her and Twilight rolled aside to avoid him. The other came towards her and Twilight swung out her hoof, the Pinkie Cannon forming. As the cannon glowed, there was a shower of sparkles over the earth pony's back. She leapt as Twilight fired, a pair of wings emerging from her back and carrying her over Twilight's head. Twilight looked up, shocked. The former earth pony was flying through the air as easily as a Cloudsdale-born pegasi. "That… that's impossible!"
"Apparently not!"
Twilight looked back at the first earth pony. Sparks of light gathered along his head and a long horn grew from it, a light red aura over it. Twilight stared in disbelief as the horn's energy formed into an orb on the tip and fired a sparkling beam of red energy towards her. She leapt away, the beam striking the ground and fizzling out in a burst of light.
"That was weird."
"No kidding!" Twilight landed and hunkered down to avoid the winged earth pony as it dove and attempted to tackle her.
"No, I mean based on the size of that beam and that he charged it up to fire, that attack should have caused an explosion, not just crackled out of existence," Spike said. Twilight barely avoided another blast of the same energy ray as she listened. She thought and realized Spike was right. There should have been some residual energy in its wake, heat, sound, something. But she felt nothing. A suspicion took root in her mind and Twilight raised the Pinkie Cannon to fire at the horned earth pony.
The glowing pink energy orb sailed through him with a blip of light and exploded on the ground behind him.
"You're not real!" Twilight smirked in triumph. "Spike, it's an illusion!" The earth pony fired again but Twilight didn't move. The red blast of energy hit her squarely in the head and crackled into a spray of light particles, but she didn't feel any pain at all. Twilight ran forward and formed the Rainbow Tornado on her hoof, the propeller spinning to life. She ran right through the earth pony and turned behind him to blast the Rainbow Tornado at him and the second winged earth pony coming towards her. The slicing winds didn't affect the ponies as far as the illusion went, but their images flickered and vanished after a few moments.
"Well that was pointless. Illusions can't hurt you," Spike said. Twilight looked at the edge of the cliff and took a breath.
"Not anymore."
The path continued further up the mountain. Only a few illusory ponies appeared again, but Twilight ignored their attacks and dispersed them with a blast of wind. The master of the illusions seemed to notice they didn't work anymore, and after the third encounter they stopped appearing entirely. With the illusory ponies thwarted, the journey became peaceful again and Twilight continued up the mountain uninterrupted. Cresting the top Twilight stopped and looked around. The mountain evened out into a plateau, a vast expanse of grass stretching before her hooves. Three rivers fell from the clouds overhead, flowing into a central pond and diverting down a fourth river to go down the mountain. Smaller boulders and trees littered the area. Twilight slowly approached the center pond and looked around.
"We're here, so, where is she?"
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Twilight Sparkle." Twilight turned her head towards the sound. A young unicorn mare with a light blue coat stepped from behind a boulder. A light blue gemstone clasped a purple cape with stars around her neck, the fabric draping down her back and over her hooves.
"The last Shadow Hunter," Twilight replied.
The mare smirked. "You should show me some respect, Sparkle. You shall have the honor of being destroyed by the Master's right-hoof mare, the most powerful and famous unicorn in Equestria. You stand in the presence of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She tossed her head in the air and smiled after the declaration.
Twilight looked at Spike on her saddle. The hologram held up its claws. "Great and powerful? I've never heard of you," Twilight said, looking back at Trixie.
Trixie dropped her head and scowled. "I've made tours across Equestria! I've sold out theaters! I've been featured in magazines!"
Twilight rubbed her neck, looking sheepish. "Sorry. Um… what do you even do?"
"I'm a magician, you simpleton!" Trixie was seething, her eyes bulging.
Twilight shrugged. "That would explain it. I'm much more interested in the practical applications of magic, not showmareship and illusions."
Trixie huffed and glared. "The Usurper aside I should destroy you for your insolence alone. I guess the official order is just convenient."
"Try it. You're the last distraction between me and your Master," Twilight replied, remembering why they were talking now that Trixie had finished boasting.
"Don't delude yourself. Yes, yes, you've proven yourself exceptionally capable for a single unicorn. But Derpy and Octavia were nothing compared to me. Even with all the weapons and programs you carry, you have but a fraction of Trixie's ability."
"I've gotten this far. What makes you so special?" Twilight asked. Trixie sputtered slightly before she regained her composure and resumed her glare of arrogance again.
"Trixie has received a great gift from the Master. A reward for her aid, a show of gratitude. Trixie holds a fragment of the Master's power. With just a touch of her magical essence, Trixie possesses powers even the Usurper could not surpass."
"A fragment of her power as a reward? For what?" Twilight had to try to learn more while she could. She still had no idea what plan was in place that the Shadow Hunters were stalling her to complete.
"Trixie was travelling through the Everfree Forest, intending to put on a show in Ponyville, when she happened upon the Master. Cosmic coincidence or a twist of fate? It matters not. What matters is that it was Trixie's presence that allowed the Master to free herself from the Usurper's chains. For this the Master promised Trixie a place at her side in Canterlot when we conquer Equestria."
"You… you freed the Master? From the Everfree Forest?" Twilight thought back to all that Celestia had pointedly not been telling her. She had suspected the Everfree had some role in this, but if that was where the Master had been hidden...
"It was not intentional, but if given the choice Trixie would not undo it! She now has power the likes of which you can only imagine! All of Equestria shall fall to their stomachs to kiss her hooves! Come, Twilight Sparkle!" Trixie stood up on her hind hooves and snapped a front hoof out to the side. Her cape flared out behind her as she revealed a Multitool, the construct shifting form into a long blaster shape. "Show Trixie the power that has gotten you this far and know your inferiority to her!"
"You want to see my power? You got it, Trixie!" Twilight stood and flung out her own Multitool, the barrel of the Pinkie Cannon forming. Trixie smirked.
Then, her other hoof rose from beneath her cape and her second Multitool took on the same blaster configuration as the first.
Twilight paled at the sight of twin cannon barrels emerging from Trixie's hooves. She chuckled nervously and slowly held up the Pinkie Cannon. "Um, I only have one." Trixie's response was to sneer and swing the cannons forward. Twilight gulped. "Uh-oh."
The first cannon hummed and fired, a blast of light-blue shooting towards Twilight. She leveled her hoof and fired the Pinkie Cannon, the bright pink sphere racing forward. The two orbs of energy collided and exploded in a shockwave of magic, a spray of sparkles flying from Trixie's attack when it detonated. Through the smoke came a second blue blast from Trixie. Twilight focused magic into her horn and fired a trio of magic shots from her horn. The violet bolts hit the orb and it exploded in the same shower of sparkles as the first.
Then a trio of blue magic shots came from the other side of the smoke. Twilight took them in the chest and fell on her back with a cry of surprise and pain. It was a spell similar to her concussive blasts, and she gave silent thanks that Trixie apparently wasn't skilled in combat magic either. But whatever power she claimed to have received from the Master made them far more potent than Twilight's bolts. Twilight climbed to her hooves when Trixie burst out of the smoke cloud, her cape flaring behind her. Her hind hooves floated over the air in an aura of blue magic, her cannon barrels held out behind her and blasts of magic firing from them to propel her forward.
Twilight leapt aside as Trixie tried to ram her. Trixie rocketed past her, her cannons cancelling their momentum and their owner dropping to her hooves on the ground.Trixie fired her cannon and Twilight responded with another blast from the Pinkie Cannon, and anticipating Trixie's second attack shot another three magic shots after. Trixie's second shot came and cancelled out against Twilight's shots, but another trio of magic attacks from Trixie narrowly missed Twilight in return as she dodged them.
"So, she has three attacks and you have two. The math suggests a problem," Spike said. Twilight didn't respond, he could read her thoughts well enough to know she had noticed. Trixie's concussive blasts could be cancelled out, but they moved too fast for her to aim at before they hit her. She could try using her own blasts to cancel out both of Trixie's cannonfire and save the Pinkie Cannon for the magic shots, but she wasn't sure she could fire her own magic fast enough to overpower both blasts before the second reached her. And the Pinkie Cannon didn't recharge fast enough for rapid fire.
"I could Apple Whip one of those cannons but she'd just fire the other. The Rare Shield won't handle firepower like this will it?" Twilight rolled to avoid Trixie charging towards her again.
"Nope, the energy output of those cannons is too strong for the gems to contain. It'll be just like when you blasted them out of Rarity's grip with the Pinkie Cannon."
"Then next on the list…" Twilight turned towards Trixie as Trixie did the same and raised her cannons. The Flutter Stare lit up on Twilight's saddle, filling the air with a flash of blinding light. Trixie cried out and stumbled back, blinking rapidly and falling on her back. Twilight lowered her hoof to fire the Pinkie Cannon, but suddenly one of Trixie's cannons swung towards her and glowed blue. Twilight dodged as a blast of energy fired towards her, dispersing in a shower of sparks behind her.
"How did she resist that?" Twilight watched as Trixie slowly climbed to her hooves. T
Trixie chuckled at the look of shock on Twilight's face. "The Master told us about when you fought Fluttershy. I took precautions. My cannons have a dead mare's switch in their systems. Disrupt my connection to them and they auto-aim and fire on their own. Go ahead, try your little stare master trick again and test if I'm bluffing."
Twilight let out a curse under her breath as Trixie swung her cannons toward her. She dodged the double blast and fired the Pinkie Cannon to block the magic blasts she knew were to follow. Her hoof reconfigured as Trixie prepared another barrage, and before the attack came Twilight fired the Rainbow Tornado at her. The storm blew Trixie back through the air, as she came back down Twilight aimed her horn carefully and fired. Two magic bolts hit Trixie's flank, but when she neared the ground her cape snapped out in the grip of her magic and she righted herself, landing on her hooves.
Twilight let out an annoyed grunt. "This is getting annoying."
"With her firepower I don't think we'll have much luck being able to hold still long enough to fire off Derpy Thunder. So we've got one option left, unless we want to try our luck dodging until we get an opening."
"No thanks," Twilight replied to Spike mentally. She executed the program and her hoof elongated, wire mesh emerging from the bottom. Trixie swung her hooves towards Twilight and Twilight responded in kind, firing the Octave Blast. Twilight didn't hear or sense anything, the air was already crackling with magic from their exchanged blasts and this weapon didn't seem to add anything significant. But as Spike had advised, the results were self-evident. Trixie recoiled back, stumbling as though she had just been hit in the chest. Her hooves dropped to her sides and Twilight seized the chance, lowering her horn and firing several energy bolts. The barrage hit Trixie and knocked her on her back. Twilight tried to press her advantage, but Trixie's hoof rose and shot a large orb of magic at her, blue light racing towards Twilight. She rolled to avoid it and checked her Multitool's status. The Octave Blast didn't take as much energy as some of her other weapons to fire, but it still wasn't recharged yet.
"An impressive trick." Trixie smirked and her horn lit up in blue light. "Allow me to top it with a greater one!" There was a bright flash and Twilight looked away, keeping one eye squinting through the light to watch for attacks. The light faded to reveal Trixie standing in front of Twilight as before.
"Behold true magic, Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight spun around, her eyes wide. Another Trixie stood behind her, flinging her cape back and pointing her hoof forward.
"A technique no weapon of yours can break!" The first Trixie behind Twilight followed suit with her doppelganger, her cannon glowing blue. Twilight looked between the two, panic rising up on her.
"I… but… it's an illusion! It can't hurt me!" Even as she spoke though, Twilight was suspecting she was very wrong. She looked between them trying to figure out which was the fake. The two Trixies were perfectly identical, even the stars on their hats and cloaks were in the same place.
The Trixies laughed in unison at her confusion. "Trixie will prove her superiority to you! By our hooves, our fun has been doubled! And so has your peril!"
The first Trixie fired and Twilight dodged it, only to find the second Trixie firing her own blast. Twilight broke into a sprint, ducking and weaving as a storm of blue magic orbs exploded behind her. The two Trixies covered for each other, one firing while the other recharged or moved into position for a better shot. Twilight raised her hoof to fire the Octave Blast as she ran, but the Trixie she was aiming for didn't react. Was it an illusion or did she miss? Twilight couldn't be sure.
"Spike, need suggestions and need them now!" Twilight skidded to a halt as a magic orb flew in front of her face and turned in a different direction as a second came directly after. It exploded behind her, a shower of magical sparks falling over her tail in a burst of blue light.
"We figure out which one is real," Spike replied.
"And how do we do that?"
"Working on it."
Twilight heard her systems whirring as Spike processed various data. She caught snippets of his thoughts as he worked and ignored them, focusing her efforts on avoiding the Trixies and their blasts and thinking of a plan of her own. She knew one of the Trixies was an illusion, which also meant that only one of the two was firing attacks that could actually harm her. Likely the first one firing was the fake, so when Twilight dodged its attacks the second real Trixie could strike her. Unless Trixie had outsmarted her after the earlier illusions and was counting on Twilight trying that again. Twilight glanced back at the two and groaned. "Not like I could tell which is the first one at this point anyway!"
"Twilight, this isn't possible! I've got nothing!"
Twilight ducked a trio of magic shots, her eyes widening at Spike's words. "What do you mean nothing?"
"The two Trixies are completely identical. I've scanned them every way I scan something and I can't tell them apart!" Spike sounded panicked. Twilight was feeling the same as he explained the matter to her. Spike was an AI programmed for Celestia's personal usage, how could even he be stumped by this? Twilight tried to think of a way to turn the tide again. The barrage of magic shots wasn't letting up and she was tiring of the constant leaping, rolling and running to stay ahead of Trixie's attacks.
"Come on, there must be something!" She spoke to herself more than Spike. "She's a magician, a stage mare. She knows all about deception and illusions. But every illusion has a trick to it, so must this one!"
"I'm open to ideas," Spike said. Twilight turned her mental attention back to him.
"Spike, you said they're completely identical? No way to tell them apart?"
"Nope."
Twilight avoided a large magic blast aimed for her, energy crackling behind her in the air. "Scan the entire area, look for an output of magical energy aside from the Trixies."
"Roger." Spike worked and it only took a couple of seconds before he reported it. "There, in the middle of those two trees by the stream. Getting a continuous output of magic from it, it spikes now and then but I don't know what it is." Twilight looked over at the scanned area. There was nothing between the trees except grass and light. But if Spike's scans were right she had just had the discovery she needed to fight back. Twilight continued to dodge attacks, moving closer to the trees. "I don't get it, was is it?" Spike asked.
"It's one of the rules of magic, Spike!" Twilight jumped over a storm of magic shots from one of the Trixies and swung her hoof forward to point it between the trees, at the spot Spike was sensing the magic from. "The trick is in what you don't see!" The Octave Blast fired at the empty air. Twilight head a cry of surprise and grinned in triumph. She landed and lowered her horn, firing as many magic blasts as she could. The violet bolts exploded against the air in ripples of magic. With a flash of light and a groan Trixie popped into existence, stumbling back under the attack. Behind Twilight, the other two Trixies flickered and vanished.
Twilight pressed her advantage further, Trixie holding one of her hooves over her chest to block the magical attacks. The second hoof pointed at her and Twilight rolled to avoid the blue blast that shot at her. The Octave Blast returned fire as she got back on her hooves, Trixie recoiling from the sound wave. Twilight landed more magic blasts on her chest before Trixie swung both her cannons toward her. The two fired in unison, shining blue orbs racing forward. Twilight jumped to avoid them as the two attacks arced together and hit each other, creating an explosion of pure magical energy. Her senses tingled from the sensation, the air itself seeming to glow in the aftermath.
"You're making Trixie angry!" Twilight took the chance to hit her before the cannons recharged. She pointed her Multitool but Trixie lit up in blue light and vanished. Twilight felt the weapon fire, but too late to hit.
"Behind you!" Twilight turned at Spike's warning to see Trixie reappear some distance behind Twilight, cannons held out. They fired, the two orbs again colliding into an explosive meeting. The force knocked Twilight back, her body flipping head over hooves on the grass to lie on her stomach. She groaned and pushed herself to her hooves, running to avoid a pair of magic shots. The Octave Blast raised and fired, but once again Trixie teleported away before the sound wave left Twilight's hoof.
"She can't see it, but she can anticipate when I'm about to fire," Twilight thought. "Spike, heads-up display, overhead view. The second you sense Trixie is about to reappear, I want to know where." In response Twilight's map appeared in front of her eye, a blinking red dot marking Trixie while a violet dot marked Twilight. Twilight dodged Trixie's double-blast, braced herself against the explosion, and swung her hoof up. Trixie teleported in a flash of light. Twilight smirked; she hadn't fired yet. Trixie had fallen for the bluff.
Her display lit up with a red dot behind her and to the right and Twilight spun around to face in its direction. The Octave Blast fired and Trixie, just reappeared and not yet in position to attack back, doubled over as the wave hit her. Twilight charged forward, her horn blazing magical blasts at Trixie. She reconfigured her hoof as she ran, then ducked her head to tackle Trixie to the ground. Trixie fell back as Twilight flipped over her and raised her hoof. With a burst of pink light the Pinkie Cannon fired its pink orb towards Trixie. The explosion of confetti and streamers flung her through the air to land heavily on her stomach, her eyes closed. Twilight watched carefully, her hoof reconfiguring back into the Octave Blast in preparation for a continuing battle. To her relief Trixie was motionless.
"She's out." At Spike's confirmation Twilight relaxed and let out a breath. She shifted her hoof back to its normal form and approached Trixie, turning her on her back. Trixie was indeed unconscious.
Twilight turned her eyes towards the twin cannons emerging from her hooves.
"She had a lot of power for a showmare."
"Yeah. I'm getting a massive energy readout from her cloak," Spike said. Twilight looked down and reached out with her magic. The gemstone clasp disconnected and the cape floated up in front of her. "The gemstone is the source, someone infused a lot of magic into it. That's likely how she could do all those illusions. Most of them are basic spells, they were just pumped up by all that extra magical energy."
"Then hopefully she won't mind if we borrow it." Twilight gently clipped open the metal latch holding the cloak on the clasp and opened a hatch on her saddle. The gemstone and clasp slid into it and the hatch clicked shut.
"Her Multitool attack wasn't even really an attack, it's a fireworks spell that was weaponized with the gemstone's magic. Her Multitool is an older model so it needed the boost, but yours can copy its powered-up effects fine," Spike continued.
"We have the energy capsules from Celestia, we'll be fine. Copy the program." Twilight felt her systems come to life as they updated. Her Multitool shifted form, elongating into a narrow cannon barrel like Trixie had. Twilight raised it and fired. A shining silver-blue orb of magic shot out, after traveling over the edge of the cliff it burst, a shower of sparkles shooting in all directions and vanishing.
"It drains your energy pretty quick since it's so powerful, but it's got good range and packs a punch." Spike called up Twilight's display and flipped to her Multitool's energy reserves. Twilight confirmed that the new weapon did indeed need a lot of power, and dismissed the display.
"Call up Celestia, please, Spike." She sat down at the hologram manifested, Celestia's face forming in the blue light.
"Twilight, is it done?"
"Yes. The last Shadow Hunter is defeated. She was very powerful though. Whatever magic this Master commands she gave part of it to Trixie."
Celestia smiled, relieved. "Good. And just before you contacted me the engineering wing sent something to my lab."
"Really? What?" Twilight cocked her head.
"The time has come, Twilight, to tell you of the true danger we face. I won't waste any further time speaking to you this way. Return to Canterlot immediately. There is much to explain."
"Understood, Princess." Twilight's hologram vanished and her body and Trixie's lit up in white light, teleporting back to Canterlot.
The doors to Celestia's lab slid open and Twilight trotted inside. Celestia turned from her computer console at her student's entrance and nodded in greeting. "Welcome back, Twilight. The three Shadow Hunters are in the lab with my aides. We'll work on restoring them as well."
Twilight smiled. "Good to hear. How are your aides doing?"
"We've recently had a breakthrough with their corruption, the medical ponies were having trouble curing them. We discovered the cause was that they lacked the proficiency with magic to conquer the virus infecting them. I'll be taking care of it personally."
"Then it is true after all. The Master's power can match your own," Twilight replied. She remembered the gemstone from Trixie's cloak and opened the hatch on her saddle to float it towards Celestia. "The last Shadow Hunter wore this. She said it contains a fraction of the Master's power. Maybe it can help."
"I'm sure it will, yes…" Celestia had an odd expression on her face as the magic aura over the gem shifted from violet to gold. She floated it over to her and set it on the console behind her. "I'll take a look at it once we finish here and get you on your way."
"On my way?" Twilight took a breath. "So I'm not done yet."
Celestias shook her head. "Almost, my faithful student. I confess I have kept much from you, but no longer. You have risked your life fighting this ancient enemy of mine and I owe you at least an explanation." Celestia looked away, thinking before she continued. "I felt it was not right to burden you with such things when there were more pressing matters to be dealt with. But now there is only one obstacle left. I have no choice but to let you know the true danger you will soon face." Twilight looked up at her mentor. She had never heard Celestia talk this way. "I know what has caused these innocent ponies to become crazed, and I know this mysterious Master they serve." Celestia looked down at Twilight, her face heavy.
"The pony behind all this is my sister. Princess Luna."
Twilight gasped, her eyes wide. "Sister? But you don't have a sister!"
"Not anymore, no. But I did once, long ago." Celestia turned and pressed a few buttons on the computer console. Twilight looked at the monitors as an image appeared of a dark blue alicorn with a crescent moon cutie mark. Her hair was like Celestia's, only a nebula of stars on dark blue and purple instead of a rainbow of blue and green. Thick metal bands ran around the pony's shoulders and stomach to join an armored plate over her torso, the same crescent moon as her cutie mark emblazoned on the front glowing silver-blue. An armored helmet covered her head and neck, only her eyes, mouth and horn emerging from the steel.
"It was over a thousand years ago, before Equestria shifted to a republic. My sister and I had ruled together as monarchs for centuries. As Equestrian technology began to evolve my sister immersed herself in the growing world of the future. Luna was always the more spirited one of us and saw the new era on the horizon before I did. The hard work of our ponies and what they could create fascinated her. Luna believed that someday the technological developments of the ponies might surpass even our alicorn magic." Celestia smiled softly at the fond memories. "She was particularly keen on the assorted gaming devices that were being created."
"What happened to her?" Twilight asked. Celestia's smile faded.
"Scientists began exploring the idea of grafting cybernetic components on the bodies of ponies. Wiring technological devices directly into a pony's nervous system had never been done before. They said the potential was limitless, but they needed a volunteer to test the first implants. The scientists in charge of the project were untrustworthy, and I feared that the head was putting ponies at risk in his work. I knew it was a terrible idea from the start. Technology was growing faster than we could understand it. If they merged it with an alicorn's magic as the project would do, there was no telling what could happen. Equestria was not ready to embrace this new era when the last was still maturing. And I was not ready to lose my sister." Celestia lowered her head and closed her eyes. A single tear slid down her cheek.
"Luna had faith in them I did not. She insisted she knew what she was doing, that as an alicorn she was best suited to survive the experiment. I told her that it wasn't right, but I could not refute her arguments as well as I wished I could have. Eventually I relented and Luna became the first experimental test subject for cybernetic enhancements. I watched her enter their testing chamber and place her trust, her fate, in their hooves. They fitted the armor over her neck and head, she slipped on the hoofguards… and then…" Celestia stopped, unable to continue.
"Something went wrong," Twilight said, looking back up at the steel armor covering Luna's visage on the screens. Celestia opened her eyes.
"My sister went berserk that day and attempted to turn her powers on the citizens. With no options left to me to save my ponies, I had no choice but to meet Luna in combat. However I could not bring myself to destroy her. I had hope that someday I could find out what went wrong and make it right. So after I defeated her I sealed her in a capsule that would keep her asleep and alive, until I could restore her to her true self. It has been a thousand years since that dark day. I sealed the capsule behind wards nopony except for another alicorn could break. It would seem that the wards weakened over the centuries. Now my sister has broken free and returned."
"But now we can stop her!" Twilight gave her mentor a confident look. "It's like you said, there has to be a way to bring her back right? We've figured out how to turn the others back, we can figure out how to change back Luna too!"
"Twilight's right, Celestia!" Spike chimed in. "She's been able to beat everything else this far, even if she's an alicorn we can beat your sister too!"
"I'm afraid it is not that simple," Celestia said. "Luna is the source of the corruption itself, the virus corrupting my ponies originates with her. After all these years the corruption will have deeply ingrained itself on her core systems and possibly even spread to her brain. I hope that the loving sister I lost still waits for rescue in the depths of her own mind, but there is no promise." Celestia looked back at the monitors and pushed a button. "But, if there is a way, it is with these." Twilight looked up to see the monitors display a schematic of her cybernetic components. Five glowing stones were surrounding the image. "When I fought my sister a thousand years ago, I was able to weaken her enough to contain her with this: The Harmony Program."
"The what-now?" Twilight tilted her head.
"It is a digitized version of the Elements of Harmony, once the most powerful magical forces known to ponydom, shining symbols of friendship and magic. The original Elements are now lost to us, but I knew the day might come when we needed them again. I attempted to recreate the powers they had in magic as a computer program, one that could be wielded as a weapon to combat evil."
Twilight cocked her head and looked at her mentor strangely at the explanation. "You were trying to weaponize love and tolerance?"
"I know it may seem strange to hear explained this way. The Elements of Harmony had powers that were very real, if possible we had to recreate them. I felt if I could convert their powers into programming language it could allow a deeper understanding of how magic and technology interact. But despite decades of work my efforts came up short. The Harmony Program I used to combat Luna was incomplete, at full power it might have restored her but there wasn't enough time for that. I have spent the years since trying to perfect the Program to no avail." Celestia sighed heavily. "The Harmony Program is a pale imitation of the original Elements. Something is missing, a misplaced byte or a line of data incomplete. The spark that once made the Elements so powerful has been lost and I have not been able to rediscover it."
Twilight listened intently, turning over all she had learned in her mind and comparing it to what Celestia was saying. "But if the Harmony Program doesn't work, why would the Shadow Hunters be afraid of it?"
"Because a few years ago I thought I finally had a breakthrough. I'd long given up hope, but the answer came to me in a sudden epiphany. I gave a fragment of the Program's coding to each of my five aides and tasked them to study its powers while living in Ponyville. If my theory was correct, I would finally have the means to restore Luna. And if the Harmony Program can restore her, then surely it can restore all the ponies she has infected with her madness." Celestia pressed her hoof on a few more buttons to call up a map, then looked down at Twilight.
"Now that my five aides have all been rescued I can compile their findings. If we are fortunate they will validate my hopes. Once I have purified their viral corruption I will be able to retrieve the fragments of the Program from their databanks. For now however, we cannot let Luna cause any more chaos. I've tracked the source of the interference in our signals the virus causes and have narrowed it down to the most likely location for where Luna is now: the Castle of the Two Sisters, deep in the heart of the Everfree Forest. It was the seat of power for Luna and myself long ago, but when the forest grew too wild we abandoned it. I sealed Luna there when I subdued her, hoping the perils of the forest would keep her secret."
Twilight looked up at the map. The mere mention of the Everfree Forest was often enough to strike terror into the heart of any pony, but after all she had been through Twilight wasn't as frightened as she may have once been. The realization surprised her.
"The adventure has changed you," Spike said mentally. Twilight thought back a sense of agreement.
"Just what is Luna planning anyway?"
"I'm not sure," Celestia replied. "Contrary to her declarations of global domination when I sealed her, it seems that Luna's objective so far has simply been to spread chaos across Equestria. Perhaps she is biding her time for a larger plan. If so that is all the more reason to act now before she is ready. We have to rein Luna in before she infects even more ponies."
"So I need to go to the Everfree Forest then." Twilight nodded.
"Yes. I will work here to gather the research my aides have on the Harmony Program, as soon as I have it I will send it to you regardless of its state. Even if it I can't complete it, you'll need it to stop Luna. It was able to bind her once, it should be able to do it again, even with your levels of power compared to mine."
"Thank you, Celestia," Twilight said. "But it won't come to that. I promise we'll find a way to get your sister back." Celestia smiled and lowered her head to nuzzle Twilight's cheek.
"Thank you, my student. If anyone could find a way I'm sure it would be you," she said. "There is one other matter before you depart. Though I cannot aid you in the field, I have not been idle here. I have prepared something I believe will be quite useful for your final trial." Celestia pressed a button on her control panel and four panels in the ceiling behind Twilight slid apart. Twilight turned and looked up as a platform descended from the ceiling, mechanical claws and wires holding a construct in place. Celestia looked back at it. "I began work on this when I realized it was Luna we were facing." Twilight's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she saw what the platform held.
"Holy guacamole…" Spike whispered.
Celestia stepped in front of Twilight towards the platform. "The body is reinforced armor plating with shielding spells and shock systems to cushion impacts and disperse magical attacks. The front hooves have a secondary generator to increase your Multitool's energy reserves. The rear hooves contain low-power rocket thrusters that will allow you to slow your descent from a fall or to provide a boost to the force of your jumps. The helmet contains a power crystal that can absorb energy from your horn, after a brief charging period the crystal will divert it back when you attack to increase the power output of your concussive blasts."
Twilight stared dumbly, one thought crossing her mind over and over as Celestia rattled off the capabilities of the device. She voiced it. "It's mine?"
"Yes." Celestia turned back to her and nodded. "There's no telling what Luna has in store for you. I want to make you as ready as I can." She gave Twilight a sympathetic look and spoke in a lower, more humble tone. "I understand your reluctance to fight and regret that the trials you have endured have transformed you into what you have become. But even my most elite guard ponies do not have the variety of weaponry you do, or the experience to use them. And I do not trust Luna to not attack Canterlot again, if she does they will need my aid here."
"I must ask for your forgiveness, Twilight. I must ask you to finish this mission. To fight my sister and stop her before she plunges Equestria into darkness. Please do not make this decision lightly. Luna is an alicorn like myself and more powerful than any foe you will have faced thus far. I have no idea what you will find when you meet her and there is no telling what other allies and creatures she has marshaled to her side." Celestia looked back at the construct before them. "If you go, Twilight, I cannot promise that you will return."
Twilight stared at the devices in front of her blankly, thinking over all that Celestia had told her and all that she had been through up to this point. She turned to her mentor.
"Are you sure they fit?"
Celestia smiled. Twilight returned it. Celestia's horn lit up in an aura of magic, the devices before her lighting up in the same glow.
"Shall we find out?"
Twilight simply nodded.
"Quantum Drive, prepare teleportation to Ponyville immediately."
Quantum Drive perked up at the voice from behind him and began punching buttons on his control panel. "Sure, sure, missy, keep your saddle on," he replied. He saw a form pass him to step on the teleport pads and looked up. His eyes widened. "Whoa nelly…" Twilight Sparkle turned on the teleport pad, smiling proudly.
Shining steel boots encased her three biological hooves, light gleaming off them. The steel was a deep purple, between her mane and her coat in tone, with accenting lines and armored portions of the boots a darker color. A matching purple saddle was around her torso, the chest and sides reinforced with armored plating and ringed with round violet lights. Stylized etchings of two folded wings emblazoned the sides. A streamlined purple helmet rested on her head, her horn emerging above a shining pink crystal in the shape of her cutie mark. Her mane streamed out the back, the tips of the hairs brushing the top of her saddle.
Twilight unicorn gave Quantum Drive a knowing look. "Something wrong, Quantum?" He grinned and returned to his instruments.
"No, missy, Nothin' at all," he replied.
Twilight looked over herself. Her fears and hesitations about fighting and having to face the threat that endangered Equestria had long faded, and her determination to end the threat was now as reinforced and strong as the armor covering her body. For the first time since she had set out on a simple errand from her mentor to investigate a backwater little town, she felt ready for anything that might come at her. Even if an insane alicorn princess from a thousand years ago was awaiting her at her destination.
"Coordinates locked in. Ready?" Quantum Drive asked. Twilight looked up at him and nodded. The teleporter pad lit up. Twilight closed her eyes as the system sent her streaming across Equestria at the speed of light.
It was time to return to Ponyville.
UPGRADE ACQUIRED – ALICORN ARMOR
ON-BOARD SYSTEMS UPDATED – CHARGE SHOT, THRUSTER BOOTS, DEFENSE +50%, WEAPON ENERGY +100%
The shining white light of teleportation faded, leaving Twilight standing in front of the Golden Oaks Library. She opened her eyes and looked around. Night had fallen, casting the village in the soft light of the moon. A transparent green visor slid down over her left eye from inside her helmet, her display lighting up on it. Spike sent her all the data he had, ending with a map of the village. There weren't any hostiles around, but Twilight resolved to keep her guard up for if Spike missed something.
"Twi, we gotta be careful," Spike said. Twilight retracted the visor and looked over her shoulder to see Spike's hologram flicker into place on her new saddle. "I'm picking up massive amounts of interference from the Everfree Forest. More than anything we've ever seen before."
"It must be Luna. It's like Celestia said, she's preparing for something big."
Spike nodded. "If we head into this we won't be able to contact Celestia until we beat her. Are you ready?" Twilight turned her head forward. Ahead of her stretched the main street of Ponyville and in the distance, the trees of the Everfree Forest.
"Let's go."
Twilight set off at slow pace, keeping an eye and ear open for any signs of attack from Ponyville's alleyways and corners. But the village seemed deserted, the buildings glowing a silver-blue in the light of the moon. Twilight turned her attention to the approaching trees as they neared the edge of the village that bordered the Everfree Forest. The Everfree Forest was a place every pony heard of as a foal. It was a place of legend and nightmares, and as Twilight passed the treeline she understood why. Thorny brambles round over the trees and the path. Murky swamp water stagnated in puddles. The tree branches overhead grew together thick, blotting out the light of the moon and casting the forest into shadow. Twilight activated the light on her helmet, a light pink cone of illumination projecting forward. As she walked, she called up the history documents Spike had about the forest and the castle within
The Castle of the Two Sisters had been the ancient capital of Equestria many centuries ago, built when technology was barely able to master metal forging and glass blowing. When an unknown evil destroyed the castle the sisters abandoned it, and the Everfree Forest had grown in to consume it. The forest had become inhabited by all manner of terrifying beasts in the years since. Twilight wondered if Luna had been able to take control of any of them like she could ponies. She seemed limited to those with cybernetic implants, but researchers had tagged wildlife specimens in the Everfree so they could track and study them. Would that be enough for Luna to exert dominance over their bodies?
"Twilight, picking up something up ahead." Twilight tensed at Spike's warning. She slid her visor down and called up the instructions Celestia had left for her on how to use the armor's functions. Her horn lit up with magic, shimmering as energy channeled into the crystal on her helmet. The crystal glowed as it charged and Twilight waited, attack at the ready.
There was a rush of wind and Twilight turned her attention up. A blur of blue movement came towards her from the trees and she pulled aside, something clanging against her flank's armor. She stumbled at the impact and looked up to see what it was. A pegasus was flying overhead, wearing what looked like a dark blue and silver version of Canterlot's guard armor, a light blue eye with a black pupil staring out from the neckpiece. Two spear attachments protruded from under their wings, as she saw them Twilight realized what had hit her. The pegasus dove down and Twilight focused on her helmet's crystal, the gem pulsing as its energy diverted into her horn. A large orb of violet energy shot up, slamming into the pony's armor-covered neck and bursting into light. He jerked and flew over Twilight's head, hitting heavily on the ground and not moving.
Twilight blinked and lifted a hoof to touch the crystal on her helmet. It was still tingling with magical energy. "Wow. That really packs a punch now huh?"
Spike nodded. "Yeah. I wouldn't recommend charging it up outside of combat though, the crystal can't hold a charge for more than a few seconds without continuous focus on your part."
"Right." Twilight approached the fallen pegasus and looked over him. Assured he was safe she continued down the path beyond him. Twilight didn't get much further before another pegasus in the same armor as the first flew in from the trees, this one brandishing a pair of bladed hoofguards. Twilight dropped to the ground as the weapons raked the air and fired a charged blast into the pegasus's armor from below, dropping it to the ground. The forest path turned after that, running along a chasm. Twilight emerged into the open air where a flash of light caught her eye. She turned and saw a blast of yellow energy rushing towards her. She didn't react quickly enough, but Spike did. Her hind hooves launched off the ground, the thrusters in her boots activating and propelling her into a jump. Twilight landed awkwardly and stumbled.
"Thanks, Spike." Twilight looked at the attacker. It was a unicorn in armor styled the same as the pegasi, a large energy cannon strapped to his side. His horn glowed, the end of the cannon lighting up again. Twilight waited, the crystal on her helmet charging power. The cannon fired and Twilight activated the thruster boots again, leaping through the air and lowering her head to point her horn forward. The massive concussive blast hit the unicorn straight-on, knocking him backwards to lay on his wide with a groan.
"Hang on Twi. There's something off about him," Spike said. Twilight walked up to the fallen unicorn, leaning her head around to look at him from different angles. His armor lit up in her magic and she unlatched it, leaving the dark brown unicorn bared.
"What about him?"
"He doesn't have any cybernetics."
It took Twilight a few seconds to realize what Spike had said. "You mean he was acting on his own will?"
"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not programmed with thorough medical knowledge so I can't really tell, but his brain scans are showing some anomalies. Something had messed with his mind."
Twilight thought back to when she had battled Rarity. The diamond dogs had kept ponies with no cybernetics captive for some purpose. "Spike, do you think…"
"I don't know. It should be impossible, but considering everything else Luna has done that seems a bold statement. We don't even know how she's been corrupting these ponies in the first place."
"Yeah…" Twilight's thoughts turned to the implication this invited. If Luna had a way to control ponies with no cybernetics after all, could these dark guard ponies be the Ponyville residents she still had captive?
"We can't worry about that, Twilight."
Twilight raised her head. "I know." She moved forward, putting the thought aside to focus on the mission. She reached the end of the chasm and turned along its length, the trees looming around her again as she crossed back into them. Another unicorn with an energy cannon barred her way, but only stalled Twilight for a moment before she defeated him. After that came a pair of earth ponies in the same shadowy armor. One attacked with a bladed hoofguard but Twilight's armor deflected them, and one charged blast each was enough to knock them unconscious.
"Twilight, getting a weird reading from up ahead," Spike said. "Something new." Twilight braced herself and began charging magic. She lowered her visor and saw a distinct red blip moving towards her from the left. She retracted it, turned to the source of the signal, and waited. From the darkness of the trees leapt a beast, roaring loudly. Twilight released her energy blast but the attacker jumped over it tackled her to the ground. Two paws stood on the ground beside her head, the owner growling at her. Twilight activated her thruster boots and jetted backwards across the forest floor. At a safer distance she got a better look at the beast as she climbed to her hooves. Pale orange skin, leathery wings with red membranes, fang-filled mouth surrounded by a red mane.
Twilight let out a groan. She didn't need Spike to identify it, she recognized the animal from her studies. "A manticore." The manticore pounced, Twilight rolling aside to avoid it. Several magic shots hit its side in bursts of violet light and the beast paused, groaning. Twilight fired again. The manticore turned, swiping at the blast to disperse it, and leapt. Twilight activated her thruster boots, sailing over the manticore as her helmet's crystal pulsed. She landed and turned her head, firing the charged blast. The manticore staggered back, roared weakly, and collapsed. She ran forward to check on it. Unconscious, but alive. Twilight let out a breath. "Spike, scan its signature. Let me know if there's any more in these woods."
"Will do, Twilight." As Spike confirmed the order Twilight turned back to her journey through the forest. The path dipped down to run next to a stagnant river, the smell of decay reaching Twilight's nose. Another pair of pegasi guard ponies chose the site to strike from, descending from the trees with bladed hoofguards outstretched. Twilight activated her thruster boots, leaping over them and lowering her head as they swooped back up. She took a second to lead the shot before firing, catching one pegasus as he turned and sending him spiraling to the ground. The second was descending towards her, eyes glowing red. The thruster boots triggered again and launched Twilight up, a charged concussive blast slamming into the pegasi's back and knocking him into a bush.
Twilight looked between the two and rolled her head, stretching. "You'd think after spending all day doing this, Luna would realize sending enemies at me one or two at a time isn't very effective."
Spike's hologram shrugged. "Well, most of what she's been doing hasn't made much sense all along."
"Good point." Twilight examined the two fallen pegasi, nudging one with her hoof, before moving on. She didn't get far before there was a flash of magic and a bolt of yellow energy shot towards her. Twilight turned to see another unicorn with an energy cannon firing at her from the trees. Twilight charged a shot to attack, but to her surprise, the unicorn turned and fled. She blinked. "That's new."
"Uh… do we chase him?" Spike sounded as confused as she was. Twilight made a face and pursued, her hooves dashing through the grass and weeds. The unicorn was fast, but she was catching up. Coiling her legs, Twilight leapt. Her thruster boots activated in the air, jetting her forward to tackle the unicorn. The two tumbled together, pitching over a hill and rolling down it in a tangle. Twilight's Multitool shifted as she fell and she fired the Apple Whip at a tree as she passed by. Her fall snapped to a halt as the chain went taut, the guard pony falling away from her. Twilight looked down at him and gaped.
A trio of manticores lay at the bottom of the hill, eyes glowing red. The unicorn was climbing to his hooves in front of them, a second unicorn to his side. Twilight swallowed heavily.
"A trap."
"Yup."
The three manticores ran forward as the unicorn's energy cannon began to glow. Twilight angled her hooves on the ground and activated her thruster boots. She flew up the hill, circling around with the Apple Whip pivoting her on the tree. She lowered her head as she came down on the other side, her helmet crystal glowing. The unicorn below fired his cannon, but Twilight was moving too fast and the blast hit the hill where she was a moment before, dirt and grass flying. Twilight's own attack nailed the unicorn directly on-target and sent him flipping over on his back.
The three manticores reached her by then. Twilight disengaged the Apple Whip and the momentum of her swing sent her past them down the hill. Bouncing and tumbling, she sent a command to her Multitool, the metal plates shifting from the clawed whip and chain to a wind turbine. Twilight finished her rough descent on her back and swung her hoof up. The Rainbow Tornado launched, blasts of slicing wind knocking the manticores back. The unicorn was on his hooves now and preparing to attack. Twilight turned her head and sent a charged shot his way before he could finish, the attack rolling him across the ground.
"Spike! Need a plan to take out these manticores."
"Divide and conquer."
Twilight narrowed her eyes and nodded. A manticore leapt towards her and she rolled away. As her helmet charged another concussive blast, she aimed the Rainbow Tornado at the other two manticores that were coming towards her. A second whirlwind knocked them back and Twilight activated her thruster boots to jump away as the first manticore leapt towards her. Its paws clawed up empty earth on its impact. In the air Twilight lowered her head and fired a charged blast. The manticore roared, rearing up and swiping a claw at the air at the air. Twilight shot out another trio of normal bolts and it collapsed, its eyes flickering red. The other two manticores were coming back once more as she landed. Twilight reconfigured her Multitool again and charged a blast of magic into her helmet. The two manticores came towards her and she raised her Multitool, the Octave Blast's noise waves causing the two to stop in their tracks and stagger. Twilight let loose her magic, the energy blast striking one of the manticores in the face and sending it tumbling down the hill with a yowl. The other recovered and ran at her. Twilight leapt aside and fired a second Octave Blast. The manticore looked away with a growl as the noise wave struck it and she fired a barrage of energy bolts into its side, toppling it.
Gasping for breath after the battle, Twilight looked over the hillside, making sure her opponents were all incapacitated. "Well… that wasn't so hard…" She called up her display to check her Multitool's energy reserves. As Celestia had said though, the back-up generator in her armor was taking the power need. Her reserves were barely down to seventy percent and recharging already.
"Yeah, maybe," Spike said, reading her thoughts. "But those manticores were definitely being controlled. Something's up."
Twilight approached one of the fallen beasts carefully, looking it over. "I don't see any cybernetics."
"There aren't any."
Twilight tensed. The red eyes were definitely a sign of Luna's influence. She really had found a way to seize control of biological beings after all. Twilight had thought it was some sort of programming corruption that was infecting ponies, but apparently not. Was Luna's ability to manipulate other beings technological or magical? Twilight had thought the former but now she couldn't be sure. She forced a laugh to brush away her fears. "Well, we just beat three manticores. Unless Luna's been able to find an ursa major in the woods and corrupt it, how much worse could her minions get?"
"Uh… Twilight…"
"No. Don't say it." Twilight twisted her head to glare at Spike's hologram. "Don't you dare say it!"
"I don't know about an ursa major, but I'm picking up some serious seismic activity. Something's headed our way. Something big."
Twilight groaned and slapped a hoof to her helmet, the metal clanging. "I had to open my mouth. Where?"
"Top of the hill."
Twilight turned and began galloping up the slope, grass and dirt flying from her hooves. She reached the top and waited, tensed for an attack. She could feel the ground shaking, heard trees cracking in the distance. Watching the darkness of the woods Twilight searched between the trees for a glimpse of what was coming. A tree at the edge of her field of vision fell over, and she got it.
A massive tank was rolling through the forest, trees and foliage in its path falling aside. Silver-blue plating covered its treads, which as far as Twilight could tell were designed to resemble a set of paws. The front of the tank looked like a bear's head, a tinted viewport hovering over a massive cannon barrel emerging from a mouth-shaped front. The rest of the machine was sleek silver and blue steel, hatches on the sides for entrance. The tank slowed, treads grinding to a halt. Twilight watched nervously as the cannon on the "head" of the bear-shaped artillery piece swiveled towards her.
"Well… at least it's not a real ursa," Spike said.
The end of the cannon aiming at them began to glow blue. Twilight narrowed her eyes and let out a groan. "Yay."
She activated her thruster boots and leapt. The tank fired, the ground beneath Twilight's hooves exploding in a blast of blue energy. She cried out as the shockwave hit her and stumbled on her landing, rolling and laying on her side. She heard the tank's treads begin to creak and looked. She had leapt too far to its side for it to aim at her and the tank was now turning in place to bring her back into range. Twilight got to her hooves and dashed, keeping herself out of the line of fire. She heard a metallic whirring and saw hatches slide back on the top of the tank, revealing large holes in the mechanics underneath. In a burst of red light, two pairs of rockets launched from the hatches and angled towards her, blazing through the air.
Twilight reconfigured her Multitool and activated her thruster boots to jump, firing the Apple Whip at a tree. The missiles shot past her as she pulled herself up, Twilight feeling the heat from the exhaust on her tail. The trees behind her exploded into splinters, falling to the forest floor. Hauling herself up to the tree branch, Twilight charged magic into the crystal on her head and fired a concussive blast. The violet energy orb slammed into the tank's plating, fizzling out in a crackle of magic. Spike scoffed in her head. "The armor is way too thick! You'll have to find a weak spot!"
Twilight growled. "You could have told me that ten seconds ago!" Charging a second shot, she aimed for the now-open missile hatch and fired again. She saw an explosion and a shower of sparks erupted from the hatch, smoke rising from the sides. However the ursa tank had now turned around enough to aim its cannon at her again. Twilight saw the end of the barrel glow and leapt. The tree she had stood on exploded at the base from the cannon blast and toppled over, leaving Twilight to flail through the air and land on the forest floor, rolling in a heap of tangled armored limbs. Looking up she saw the ursa tank turning again. She ran directly towards it and sunk the Apple Whip into the armor plating over the right tread. Her thruster boots activated, catapulting Twilight up to land on the top.
Stumbling to keep steady as the tank rumbled under her hooves, Twilight turned her head towards the damaged missile hatch and aimed her horn towards it. A storm of energy blasts rained through the air, and the port exploded in a larger blast than before, flames leaping from the missile slots. Twilight saw the second port shoot out two missiles and aimed carefully, picking them off with a blast each to detonate in the air before her. The tank was no longer turning, moving forward to some destination Twilight didn't know. She sank the claw of the Apple Whip into the destroyed missile bay for stability as the tank shook, her body vibrating.
Further down on the sides of the tank a larger hatch slid open. Twilight looked down to see what was happening. Two armored pegasi emerged from the tank and flew up, circling towards her. She lowered her head and fired several magic bolts, sending one drooping and tumbling over the side of the tank. The other dove at her, holding out a hoof and extending a short spear from the hoofguard. Twilight activated her thruster boots and leapt away, charging her magic and firing a focused blast to knock the pegasus to the ground. She landed on the forest floor as the hatch slid shut. The tank began to turn to her again and she activated her boots to jump back up. She landed in front of their missile hatch as it opened to fire, the missiles overshooting her and launching into the air. Twilight looked up and shot them down, then lowered her horn to the hatch itself and fired as many magical blasts as she could muster. Another explosion and plume of smoke filled the forest air and Twilight jumped down, both hatches disabled.
"Did that do much?" she asked, looking back at the tank. She had disabled the secondary weapons but it was still fully functional otherwise. "Destroying it's weapons won't stop it from moving, we need to stop it for good."
"You fried some of the internals due to feedback, but the main motors are fine," Spike replied. "If we can destroy the cannon we might be able to overload it. I'm scanning the cockpit right behind it, the blast should damage it enough to shut it down."
"Got it." Twilight saw the tank's treads turning to move it to aim at her and reconfigured her Multitool. "And I've got just the weapon in mind." Her hoof extended in a long, thin blaster, the end glowing light blue. The cannon was finally in place to turn and aim at her. Twilight was already aiming though, the Shooting Star pointed forward. She pointed the weapon down the barrel of the ursa tank's cannon and fired. There was a flash of light and heard a muffled explosion from within. Twilight focused on her horn and fired a powered blast. The vehicle shuddered and groaned, and Twilight sent another Shooting Star into the cannon. With a loud explosion the ursa tank's panels seemed to pop apart, smoke and sparks flying. Its treads screeched to a halt and the side hatch opened, black smoke billowing out.
There was a hum of energy and Twilight saw the cannon barrel begin to glow even as the tank continued to fall apart. "Spike?"
"Run! The overload is working and not like I thought!"
Twilight's eyes widened and she turned to flee, activating her boots to propel herself forward. The tank exploding and falling apart around it, the cannon finished charging and fired. A beam of yellow light lanced out and Twilight activated her boots one last time. She saw the light land on the ground in front of her as she sailed over it and braced herself. The cannon fired for the last time, the overloaded beam blasted a crater in the forest floor. The force turned Twilight's jump into a fall and sent her rolling forward, grass and dirt flying into her muzzle.
Twilight finally stopped on her back staring at the moon overhead. The world seemed to spin around her and she tasted blood. She lifted her head to see the smoking ruins of the ursa tank back in the trees. "Tell me it's disabled…"
"That's a confirm."
Twilight nodded and made a face. She turned her head and spit, grimacing and sticking her tongue at the sight of a chunk of dirt hitting the ground matted with blood. She groaned and flopped on her back, her magic seizing her helmet and pulling it off to let her mane fan out on the grass. "That's great. Let's take a minute." Panting and letting herself rest she closed her eyes and set her helmet down beside her.
"Um, Twilight? Hate to interrupt the pit stop."
"Then don't." Twilight shook her head.
"But… we're here."
Twilight blinked and tilted her head back to look over her head. She saw what Spike meant and rolled on her stomach, jaw dropping.
The forest ahead of her receded to reveal another valley, this one with a long, flat steel bridge extending over it. Ancient stone statues of ponies in armor wielding spears and swords lined the bridge, rearing on hind hooves. On the other side of the chasm rose a large castle. Moonlight shone over it, illuminating crumbling and ruined battlements and towers, yet the core structure was intact. The castle wasn't as large as Canterlot's, but even in its ruined state it was an impressive structure. Twilight slowly climbed to her hooves, in awe of the ancient fortress sprawling before her.
"The Castle of the Two Sisters."
Twilight picked up her helmet and slipped it back on before approaching the bridge. She stopped to glance behind her. Seeing nothing she briskly trotted across the chasm, eyes and ears waiting for an attack. None came. As Twilight neared the other end of the chasm she looked to the sides. Two marble statues, each of an alicorn and larger than the guard statues, stood at the end of the bridge. Somepony had smashed one of them until only its hooves remained on the base, the remains littering the ground around it. The other alicorn bore a cutie mark of a crescent moon.
Twilight passed them and looked up at the castle doors. They were ancient steel and rusted orange and brown, in some places the corrosion was heavy that they had fallen apart leaving small holes in the frame. With only a moment's hesitation, she activated her magic and concentrated. The doors lit up in violet light and slowly creaked open, the ancient steel groaning in protest. One of the door handles crumbled under her telekinetic force, the metal shards falling inside. Twilight stopped then; she had pulled the doors wide enough to fit between them now.
"Spike, scanners active and at full power. Anything moves in this castle, I want a fix."
"Roger that, Twi."
Taking a breath, Twilight stepped forward and passed through the doors of the ancient castle.
Celestia heard the doors to the medical lab open but did not turn. She was kneeling by the medical capsule holding Rainbow Dash, eyes closed in concenstration. Golden light poured from her horn into the capsule's occupant, surrounding Rainbow Dash in an aura of alicorn magic.
"Your Grace, urgent news."
Celestia opened her eyes and frowned. "I wished not to be disturbed unless it was an emergency."
Valiant Spirit bowed. "I recall, Your Grace, but this may qualify." Celestia ceased her work and turned her head. "I have received word from Data Byte in engineering. They reported an orbital anomaly they wished me inform you of."
Celestia furrowed her brow. "Orbital?"
"Yes, Your Grace. It seems somepony has taken control of Equestria's satellite systems. We have identified at least a dozen that have set themselves on new trajectories across the planet."
Celestia stood and moved to the computer, inputting the royal override to access her lab remotely. The displayed blinked to life and she moved her hooves over the keys. The display split into six, five displaying an orbital view of Equestria from the communication satellites hovering in space around it, the sixth showing the planet and the satellites in position. Lines tracing out the paths of the satellites circled the display showing their new orbits.
"None of the space relays have reported this?"
"No, Your Grace."
"Then the only place the order could come from is Canterlot's central core…" Celestia kept the thought to herself as she turned to face Valiant Spirit. Aloud she said, "keep me posted on any further developments. Tell Data Byte to contact the space relays and get our systems back on proper course as soon as possible."
"At once, Your Grace." Valiant Spirit bowed his head and hurried out of the room. Celestia watched him go, glancing back at the screens behind her.
A magnificent gold and silver chandelier illuminated the entrance chamber of the Castle of the Two Sisters, white luminance gems shining light over the walls and floor. Twilight looked around. The walls hosted an eclectic array of old architecture and technology, the latter which had been cutting-edge a thousand years ago. Stone statues of ancient pony heroes stood on either side of outdated video monitors, their screens cracked and caked with dust. Gorgeously carved pillars hosted motion sensors drilled into their sides, the metal on their casings rusted through to show the interior circuits covered in cobwebs. Tattered and faded banners hung from the ceiling, variably orange with sun emblems or blue with moon emblems. Stained glass windows that once might have been beautiful were now broken or covered in dust and impossible to see through.
Twilight saw four hallways splitting off from the chamber and two sets of stairs on the far wall rising to become one and going to a second floor. Below them opened a fifth passage. "Which way, Spike?"
Spike's hologram scratched its head. "Um… good question. I have a map, but the castle is in a pretty bad state, so it's hard to say which passages have collapsed. And this place is big, it could take us hours to explore it all."
Twilight looked between the passageways. "We don't have hours. We can explore later, for now we have to find Luna." It only took her a moment to figure out where the rogue alicorn mostly likely was. "Where's the throne room?"
"That would be straight ahead."
Twilight walked forward, entering the passage that went below the stairs. A red carpet lined the hallway between rows of status of ancient pony soldiers, replica steel armor covering their bodies. Faded and cracked paintings hung from the walls, too degraded to tell what they once depicted. Twilight eyed the statues warily as she passed and slid her visor down to check the map Spike had provided. Nothing hostile was in the area, but there was so much interference she couldn't trust Spike's readings. The castle was eerily quiet, not the slightest sound of the environment reaching her. Even her hoofsteps sounded dulled on the carpet as she walked. "At the end of the hallway the path will diverge into a three-way fork, there's stairs down and hallways left and right. Either left or right will lead to the throne room," Spike said behind her.
Twilight passed a pair of side-passages and paused to glance down them, seeing nothing but more darkness and more twisting passages. She continued on, passing a pair of portraits of ponies. Suddenly, the castle's silence broken, and a low rumbling filled the hall. Twilight looked around as the walls hosting the paintings began to shake and move towards her. "Spike!" Twilight backed up, noticing they weren't closing in as she feared. The walls were turning inwards to the hall. Twilight watched as the carpeted passageway she had followed vanished. Where the walls had opened two doorways appeared, each containing a spiral staircase made of black metal.
Twilight looked over her shoulder. "Was this on your map?"
"Nope." Spike held up his claws. "I guess pick a door?" Twilight turned to her left and headed into the stairwell, taking the stairs carefully. She looked up as she walked, then down, but it was too dark to see far either way. As she crested the next step she heard a creak, and the stairs groaned. She sent the command to her Multitool in preparation for what she thought was coming. Her fears were quickly justified. The stairs shifted and snapped down, forming a spiral slide into darkness. Twilight's hooves gave out beneath her and she fired the Apple Whip. The claw shot up and dug into the stone walls surrounding them. The chain snapped taut, stopping Twilight's descent.
Twilight looked down at the stairs circling down into darkness and groaned. "This whole castle is going to be like this, isn't it?"
"Seems so."
Twilight slowly pulled herself up until she could wrap a hoof around the railing of the stairs to keep steady. She cautiously released the whip's claw, smiling when she found her grip kept her in place. She aimed higher up the stairs and fired again. Using the Apple Whip to pull herself up the railing Twilight slowly ascended, the stairwell filled with the sound of metal scraping stone when the claw launched. She finally reached a landing and leapt off, looking at her new surroundings. Another carpeted hallway, indistinct from the one downstairs. She didn't need to ask for a direction this time and set off down the hall the same way she had gone below.
"Okay, second floor. This hallway goes to a staircase up and two side passages. We want the stairs," Spike said. Twilight thought back confirmation as she passed another set of statues of ponies in guard armor. She heard metal rustling behind her and spun around. The stone statue of the guard ponies in the hall glowed, the stone texture dissolving to reveal coats in varying colors beneath familiar blue and silver armor. The now-living ponies turned towards Twilight, raising their spears and swords. Twilight closed her eyes and activated the lights on her saddle. The Flutter Stare flashed and the guards off their bases to lay prone on the ground.
"Need a crowd control option." Twilight thought it more to herself than Spike and looked at her Multitool. The vents and fans of the Rainbow Tornado formed and she fired, sending the guards tumbling down the hallway. The group incapacitated further she shifted her weaponry once more, the blaster of the Shooting Star emerging from her hoof. She fired again, a cluster of blue and silver sparkles shooting down the hall and exploding in a flash of light. The guards groaned and collapsed into a heap, their armor still shining with the force of the blast. As Twilight watched, the limp guards lit up in dark purple magic and turned into stone, which cracked apart and crumbled. A piece of debris rolled down the hall to bump against Twilight's hoof as she shifted her Multitool to its default form. "Spike, what were those?"
"Judging from what happened to them when they went down, it was a come-to-life spell," Spike said. "Luna must have set it up to activate when we got near. Could be more, I'll keep a sensor open."
Twilight lightly kicked the stone away from her. "Good." She turned down the hall, the pairs of remaining statues looming before her. Twilight transformed her hoof as she walked. Each statue she passed she paused to fire the Pinkie Cannon before moving on. Pieces of stone rubble littered the hallway behind her by the time she reached the end. Twilight looked over the room before her. She was standing before a balcony that stretched over the room below as a bridge to another hallway and stretching along the walls to connect to stairs leading down. Twilight looked over the edge of the balcony and saw more hallways stretching off into the castle wings. "Where to, Spike?"
"Forward." Twilight lifted her head and crossed. Across the balcony there was another carpet-lined hallway with statues. Twilight paused at the entrance and fired the Pinkie Cannon down the hall, swinging her hoof back and forth and firing her concussive blasts between recharges. By the time she headed down the passage the statues lining it had been blown apart leaving chunks of stone. She reached the doors at the end of the hall and threw them open with her magic. A room similar to the first, a balcony stretching over a chamber. "Straight again," Spike said. Twilight stepped forward, when the balcony under her hooves suddenly shifted. The entire construct tilted down to a steep angle and Twilight tumbled down, seeing a pair of doors coming into view at the end.
Twilight smashed through the door and rolled across the floor, the doors slamming shut behind her. Stopping on her stomach in the darkness, Twilight groaned and slowly climbed to her hooves, squinting. There wasn't a single source of illumination in the room, she couldn't even see the floor under her hooves. "Spike? Activate the saddle lights." At the command the violet lights on her saddle lit up, the room thrown into light. Twilight's breath caught in her throat, her eyes widening in horror.
The room was large, stretching high overhead with balconies ringing the walls and doorways to other rooms and hallways. Dust caked the windows opaque and the floor tiles were filthy, the entire room in a state of disrepair and neglect as the rest of the castle. However, Twilight was far more concerned with what was in the room with her than the room itself: the room was full of robots. Black pony-shaped robots lined up in ranks in front of her and beside her, staring blankly with large green eyes. Some had horns, others had wings, some neither. Between them in smaller numbers, glaring at her, were dozens of biological pony guards, eyes glowing red. Unicorns with energy cannons, pegasi and earth ponies with bladed hoofguards and spears, wearing the familiar silver-blue armor.
Twilight looked between the robots and the guards, both motionless. She would have expected an attack, but none came. "What is this?"
"Welcome, Twilight." Twilight gasped as a voice filled the room. It was a highly synthesized, metallic voice, and she looked for the source but found none. "I regret that I am not able to meet you in person. You picked a busy time to show up. I have a lot of work to do tonight and can't waste any time on you. But don't worry, I've prepared for your arrival. I believe these will serve as adequate entertainment for you."
There was a crackle of static and the voice stopped. The rows of robots twitched and jerked to life in unison, their eyes lighting up bright green. One of them came apart, its shell a series of small metallic plates with green light shining from inside them. The plates re-arranged, shifted, folded, shimmering and changing color as they moved. Twilight took a step back as a familiar form began to emerge. A long yellow mane… pale orange coat… a hat…
As the transformation subsided, the robotic copy of Applejack opened its eyes, still glowing green.
The other robots began to glow and come apart as well, Twilight turning her head to watch them all. It wasn't just Applejack's form the robots were copying. Three Pinkie Pies stood on her right in front of a Fluttershy and two Rarities, two Rainbow Dashes were finishing taking shape beside them. A duo of Octavias rose on their hind hooves to stand over a Derpy. A Trixie stepped up beside them, then another. The room was filling up with robotic copies of the eight ponies she had defeated. There were dozens, perhaps even hundreds.
"Spike…" Twilight swallowed as the robotic ponies took a step towards her in sync. "Need some advice. Now."
"I… I got nothing. There's… they don't have all the capabilities of the originals, not according to these scans, but…"
"How many are there?"
"… you don't want to know. You really don't."
Twilight nodded, her breathing getting deeper. She quickly tried counting but gave up. Spike was right; it was better she not know the exact number. Obviously there were enough. Even the air over the robots contained robotic copies of Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Derpy. Everywhere she looked in the room she saw her former enemies watching her with glowing green eyes.
"The only way out of this room is the door behind them…" Spike said.
Twilight looked at her Multitool and tried to think of what weapon she'd need most. None of them seemed like they would be enough, but she switched her hoof to the Rainbow Tornado anyway. "Then we don't have a choice, Spike." Twilight tensed, looking around the room for the best place to strike as the robotic ponies took another step forward. She had to try at least, punch a way through their ranks and make a break for it, take out as many as she could, maybe…
Suddenly an explosion rocked the room. The sound came from overhead, pieces of rock and glass raining on the tiled floor. Twilight squinted through the smoke and dust overhead to see the debris coming from the ceiling. Even the robotic ponies seemed to hesitate. Twilight tried to figure out what the cause was but the smoke was still too thick. Then…
"YEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAW!"
A blur of orange shot past Twilight's vision and she heard the sound of a metal scraping on metal. Lowering her eyes she saw a cowpony hat shoot through the air on a chain and sweep sideways, knocking four Rainbow Dash copies aside and slamming them into the wall. Twilight gasped as the owner of the weapon retracted it to her head, standing tall in front of her.
"Applejack!"
A trio of Derpies began to descend towards them when an orb of pink energy fired from above and detonated against the middle one, sending shrapnel across the room as all three of them exploded. Pinkie Pie landed beside Applejack and swung her hoof around at a pair of advancing guard ponies, the two stopping in their tracks. She gave them a knowing smirk.
"Go ahead, make my party."
Two Fluttershies raised their hooves and fired a barrage of energy bolts from their hooves. Four gemstones encased in auras of blue magic swooped down in front of Twilight's eyes and moved to catch the blasts. The jewels then swung out to slam into the two machines and fired back the absorbed attacks. The robots exploded, the gems emerging from the smoke to circle around Rarity as she landed behind Twilight.
"That was for making me spend all that time in a mine!"
Two Trixies raised their blasters, the ends glowing. A flurry of shots from above distracted them moments before a tornado swirled down over them and four other robots nearby, flinging them backwards into the crowd. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash landed next to Twilight, bumping hooves with a smirk.
Twilight turned her head, smiling widely as the five turned their attention towards her. "You're back!"
Applejack nodded. "Celestia told us ev'rythin'."
Fluttershy hung her head. "And, um, we're really, really sorry about it."
"And we'd love to chat more, but I think we have bigger problems than apologies right now." Rainbow Dash turned as she spoke and fired another tornado to blast four copies of herself into a wall as they flew towards them.
"You said it, Dashie. It's party time!" Pinkie smirked and held up her Multitool, the Pinkie Cannon humming loudly. Another orb of pink energy scattered a trio of advancing robots.
"As for you, Celestia sent us with this." Rarity lowered her head, and Twilight noticed an armored white band with a familiar blue gemstone in it around her neck. The band set with the gem from Trixie's cloak lit up in blue magic as Rarity floated it over to put it around Twilight's neck above her armor. An incredible sense of magical energy was pouring off it, like nothing she had ever seen before. Twilight looked down at it and raised a hoof to touch it carefully, realizing what Celestia had used it for.
"This…"
"The Harmony Program," Applejack said. "We've done the best we could for it, dunno if it worked though."
Pinkie Pie nodded. "Celestia said you're the only pony who can use it to its full power, so we're counting on you to finish this!"
"Once you've defeated Princess Luna, link your systems up to the console she was using to control her minions. The Harmony Program will be able to cure them all through the same data feeds she used," Rarity explained.
"We'll stay here and buy you time while you deal with Luna. Just, please be careful," Fluttershy said.
"Yeah. Now go kick moonbutt's flank back to wherever she came from!" Rainbow clapped Twilight on the back and grinned.
Twilight gave them a smile and a nod. "Right. I won't let you down girls!"
"Good luck to you. You're outnumbered more than ten to one," Spike said. The six ponies turned towards the horde of robots and Fluttershy stepped forward.
"Close your eyes, everypony!" Rainbow Dash yelled. They obeyed and Fluttershy's own eyes lit up. The robotic ponies collapsed, the full-power Flutter Stare paralyzing them.
Fluttershy looked over her shoulder and smiled sheepishly at Twilight. "Um, you might wanna go before they get up."
Twilight narrowed her eyes and took off at a gallop, leaping over the fallen robots and dashing towards the doorway behind them. She heard the sounds of battle behind her as her friends went to work destroying the robots while they had the chance, some of them twitching and starting to rise. One of them, a Trixie robot, stood up and aimed its blasters at her. Twilight dove and tackled it through the door. The robot hit the ground and Twilight activated her thruster boots to jump over it, turning in the air and blasting it with a charged concussive bolt. The robot exploded and Twilight looked at the doors to the room beyond. She watched the unfolding battle for a moment before they snapped shut in her magic. She reconfigured her hoof and raised the Pinkie Cannon, firing twice. Two stone pillars beside the door exploded at the base and crumbled, blocking the path.
Twilight approached the collapsed stone and strained her ears. The sound of crashing metal and various types of magic and blaster fire reached her ears, muffled but unmistakable. "They'll be fine, Twi," Spike said softly. Twilight wished she had Spike's confidence, but nodded and turned away. Hallways and stairs converged into a single room stretching before her eyes. Balconies ran along the walls overhead, connecting to a massive staircase that ran down the far wall, splitting into two to run sideways and curl down the floor. The wall below where the stairs split off contained a gemstone mural of two alicorns spiraling around each other in swirls of blue and orange energy, dust and cobwebs obscuring its former brilliance.
Twilight looked around to see if anypony else was here, but saw nothing. She slowly approached the left stairs and walked up them, eyes scanning the balcony as she ascended. Twilight reached the top and turned to the larger single staircase up to the wall. The massive room filled with the metal clopping of her boots as she took them carefully. She stopped at the top to look down through the doorway at the top of the stairs. Before her stretched a long hallway lined with ancient statues of armored ponies beneath massive paintings of Equestria's ancient cities. At the end of a long, faded red carpet, rose a pair of wooden double doors. They stretched high overhead, one carved with the image of a radiant sun, the other with the image of a crescent moon. Twilight swallowed and headed down the hall, watching the walls for any movement. There was none, not even the statues came to life here.
Twilight stopped at the base of the doors. This close they stretched so high overhead they seemed to curve down over her. She lifted her eyes and took a breath. "Spike…"
Spike hesitated. "Based on the map I'm looking at… that's the door to the throne room."
His response only confirmed what Twilight already knew in her heart. She took another breath. "Got any advice before we go in?"
"Wish I did. Sorry."
Twilight ran a check of her systems. Everything was in perfect operation, and her Multitool's energy was full. She took a third breath and looked down at the band of armor around her neck, the blue gemstone with the Harmony Program glowing faintly. "Celestia said the Harmony Program can subdue Luna… but how do we use it?"
"I'm not sure," Spike replied. "The coding of your armor's software implies they're designed to interface. But the energy that gem is putting off is too strong, I can't make the connection without damaging the armor and potentially you."
Twilight sighed, her ears drooping. "Then Celestia was right… it's still incomplete…" "She told the others I was the only pony who could use it. But I have no idea how."
"So what do we do?" Spike asked, reading her thoughts.
Twilight looked up at the doors again and shook her head. "We can't wait around here to figure it out. They're back there fighting to give us time, we can't squander it. Figure it out during the fight, if we can."
"Roger, I'll keep trying what I can. I'll let you know as soon as I have anything."
Twilight focused magic into her horn. The giant doors lit up in the same violet aura and slowly creaked open. Dust fell around her as they moved, and Twilight stopped when they were open enough for her to pass. She walked forward, staring straight ahead.
The throne room of the castle stretched overhead, murals of the sky in various stares of starlit night and rainbow-streaked day painted in alcoves on the walls, column arching gracefully to support a stone ceiling decorated with carvings of ancient Equestrian heroes. The floor was polished amber and auburn tiles, smaller tiles in paler shades forming the image of a shining sun with a crescent moon inside it in the center of the floor. Twilight saw various side passages and stairwells branching out of the room, but her focus was what was against the far wall.
The opposite end of the room had mirrored architecture, the two sides differing only in visuals. Two small staircases rose to a platform holding twin thrones, each beneath a tapestry hanging from the wall. The left throne and tapestry were pale blue and decorated with images of a crescent moon while the right side was orange with sun emblems. On the wall between the tapestries was a large stained glass window depicting a stylized tree. Moonlight shone through it, beaming down on the platform between the two thrones.
And standing in the moonlight was a cloaked figure.
Twilight stopped her approach, the sun and moon emblem under her hooves. The silver and white light of the moon glided down the black fabric of the pony's cloak, a hood over their head. Twilight watched the figure for movement and raised her head. "Princess Luna!"
The figure turned, hooves clicking on the stone. With a flick of their head, the hood of the cloak slid down their neck. A nebula of stars over a field of shimmering blue billowed into the air, fluttering about a long spiral horn emerging from a dark blue coat. A steel-blue cybernetic helmet covered the figure's head, pulses of light filtering along its edges. Blue eyes opened, and the mouth below them twitched in a small smile.
"Welcome. Twilight Sparkle."
Princess Luna stared at Twilight for a moment, then turned and slowly stepped around the platform to come down the steps, her astral mane floating in her wake. Twilight didn't blink until her hooves touched the floor, tense and waiting for an attack. "You have changed since last I saw you." Luna looked Twilight over and tilted her head. She narrowed her eyes. "Impressive armor… it stinks of my sister's power."
"Celestia made it to help me stop you," Twilight replied.
Luna snorted. "And then my sister sends you to your doom alone? She has grown more cowardly than I remember."
Twilight shook her head. "I came alone because I chose to. Nopony else will suffer at your hooves."
"Suffer?" Luna chuckled. "Twilight, you misunderstand. What suffering have these ponies endured under my banner? Nothing more than what you and my sister's minions have put them through."
"Don't you dare blame me for that!" Twilight glared and grit her teeth. "I've done what I had to do to free them from you, to stop you from seizing Equestria."
"Didn't my sister tell you? Equestria is a diarchy, or was before she sealed me and seized the kingdom for her own. I am here only to take back that which she stole. By what right do you presume to deny me what is rightfully mine and attack my loyal subjects that flock to my side?"
"You're not in your right mind and they're not loyal. Celestia did tell me about you, she told me everything. That's why I'm here." Twilight stood proudly, sucking in a breath. "I'm not here to kill you, Luna. I'm here to bring Celestia back the sister she remembers."
Luna shook for a moment, closing her eyes. When she spoke again it was in a lower tone. "Ignorant. Just like her. Of course Celestia wants the old me back. The mewling little whelp that stood back and let her big sister rule the world as she pleased! Does Celestia miss the sight of me cowering in the shadows forgotten and alone while she basks in the love and the light of our subjects!?" As Luna's voice grew louder, her eyes began to glow. Wind picked up in the room, blowing her cloak behind her and revealing the armored cybernetics over her neck and hooves. They were glowing bright blue, the moon emblem on Luna's neck pulsing with light.
"Luna, it isn't like that!" Twilight shouted over the winds. Luna either didn't hear her word or didn't acknowledge them. Eyes blazing with white energy, she slowly rose into the air, her cape unclasping in an aura of silver-blue magic and flinging itself away. Her wings unfurled behind her head and flapped furiously. Her voice was as a roar when she spoke, the sound echoing off the walls.
"I WILL NOT BE CAST ASIDE A THIRD TIME BY A SELF-RIGHTEOUS USURPER! I AM LUNA, ALICORN OF THE STARS AND MOON, MISTRESS OF DREAMS, AND THE ONE TRUE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT! ALL OF EQUESTRIA WILL KNEEL BEFORE ME! AND ALL WHO WOULD DENY ME WILL KNOW MY FURY!"
Luna descended, stomping her hooves into the ground. The tiles cracked, an aura of magic flared up over her hooves, and jagged lines of magic shot out over the ground, zigzagging and racing towards Twilight. She activated her thruster boots and leapt away, the magic lines meeting and exploding in a blast of energy. She landed and swung her head to aim at Luna, but the alicorn had vanished.
"Twi, the right!" Twilight turned at Spike's warning and saw a blip of silver energy in the air. In a flash of like-colored light Luna appeared at the site, wings outstretched and eyes glowing. An orb of blue magic appeared on the tip of her horn and shot a pair of blue beams to the tips of her wings. Energy blasts lanced from Luna's wings, tracing along the ground leaving burn marks in the tile. Twilight ran to avoid them as the beams followed her, fading after several seconds. When she turned to attack Luna she had already vanished again. She sent a command to her Multitool, the steel prosthetic transforming into the Pinkie Cannon.
"Left!"
Twilight spun around and raised her Multitool to fire at the silver light. Luna appeared in a flash of magic, the glowing energy orb exploding against her neck plate in a direct hit. To Twilight's surprise the alicorn didn't even flinch from the blast. Her horn lit up in blue light and Luna flung her head forward. Four blue crescent-shaped energy waves shot out from her horn, turning to the sides and arcing towards Twilight. The thruster boots activated, launching Twilight backwards as they converged on her and exploded, pieces of rock and tile flying from the cloud of smoke.
"Spike, she didn't even notice my attack!"
"Yeah, that's a problem."
"Solve it!"
"Already trying. On your right again."
Twilight saw Luna appear out of the corner of her eye and fired a blast of charged magic. The violet orb hit Luna straight-on but once again she didn't register the impact. Another orb of magic formed on the tip of her horn and split into two, her wings unfurling to fire twin blue lasers over the floor. Twilight ran to avoid them, firing another shot at Luna. The lasers caught up to her as she slowed to aim and her right rear hoof exploded into pain. The two lasers exploded against her armor and threw her across the room. Twilight winced as she landed and struggled to her hooves, watching for Luna's next appearance. She quickly glanced at her hoof. Her armor had held up under the blast but her hoof was still in pain.
"Running down the arsenal. Try Flutter Stare," Spike said.
Twilight saw the blip of Luna's teleportation and activated the attack, the violet lights on her saddle flashing brightly. Twilight paused and closed her eyes to avoid them. When the light faded she looked to see the result. Luna was holding her head down, her horn glowing with magic. Another quartet of crescent energy waves shot out and Twilight ran to avoid them, the waves exploding on the ground in her wake. "Why didn't it work!?" Twilight focused her attention on the question rather than attacking Luna, who had teleported away again.
"I don't know! She must have some sort of counter-spell, or maybe alicorns are too strong for it to affect," Spike replied. Twilight grunted in annoyance. "Next is Octave Blast."
Twilight's hoof transformed, the speaker-shaped cannon clicking together from the metal plates, and turned towards the blip of light that signaled Luna's appearance. She swung her hoof out and fired. As usual there was no sound or visual aid to show the Octave Blast had fired, but as Twilight watched she saw Luna close her eyes and pause for a moment. She took the chance to fire, but as the concussive bolts struck her Luna came to her senses and stomped the ground, more shockwaves of magic racing towards Twilight. She jumped away as they met and exploded. When she landed and turned her head Luna was gone.
"We can't hold still long enough to fire off Derpy Thunder. Rainbow Tornado isn't going to do much." She didn't need to ask if Apple Whip or Rare Shield would help: she didn't have the strength to overpower Luna with the whip and her attacks would be far too strong to absorb with the shield. One option left. Twilight reconfigured her hoof into the Shooting Star, the blaster barrel glowing blue. She didn't need Spike to tell her where Luna's next appearance was, she saw the flash herself. She turned as Luna reappeared and fired, the silver-blue energy blast leaving a trail of particles in the air. It slammed into Luna's neckplate in a show of sparkles.
To Twilight's surprise this got a response. Luna shrieked and reared up, her eyes wide. She put her hooves back down and shook her head. Twilight smiled and lowered her head, charging energy into her helmet and firing. The empowered concussive blast slammed into Luna's neckplate, sending her stumbling back. Twilight began to charge another shot, the Shooting Star still recovering. However Luna came to her senses, her rage clear. She snapped her head down, waves of energy shooting towards Twilight. She jumped away, the waves flying past her under her hooves and hitting a stone column behind her, slicing it apart and leaving the rubble to collapse to the ground.
Twilight looked around the room, Luna teleporting again. She saw a blip of light to her left and swung her hoof towards it. The Shooting Star lit up the floor as it burst out of Twilight's Multitool. However it passed the spot of space she had seen the light and went beyond it to crackle against a wall. There was another blip of light on the far side of the room and Twilight realized what had happened. With the Shooting Star recharging, she powered energy into her horn and fired a concussive blast at Luna as she reappeared in another part of the room. As before Luna appeared to barely feel the attack and raised her wings, orbs of magic forming at the tips. Twilight turned and ran as the laser blasts traced the ground towards her, ending when Luna had vanished again.
"She's too clever to fall for it again." Twilight thought. "If she wants to fake us out we can do the same!" She saw a flash of silver light and darted her eyes to it, but paused before firing. No Luna. Another flash from the far left and she spun around. Once again Luna didn't show herself.
"Behind you, Twi!" Twilight turned to see Luna appear and swung her hoof up. Luna fired off a wave of crescent magic blasts before the Shooting Star hit her, the force knocking her back. Twilight activated her thruster boots, leaping into the air over the attack and shooting as many magic blasts as she could before Luna recovered. Without even raising her head again Luna vanished, two of Twilight's bolts dispersing against the ground.
Twilight looked around, ready for Luna's next appearance. On either side of her peripheral vision she saw two glimpses of light and looked between them. "Spike?"
"I can't pin her down!" Spike sounded panicked and Twilight was realizing why. As she turned in place she saw more rapid flashes of light around the room, some up on balconies. She had no way to tell which one Luna was going to appear at, her Multitool wavering between targets. "The right!" Twilight whipped her head around and saw Luna, and fired the Shooting Star. Luna cried out as it struck her. A charged blast from Twilight's helmet sent her recoiling a moment later. She looked up, mouth pulled back in a snarl.
"Enough of this foolishness!" Twilight turned to see Luna teleport to the middle of the room, eyes glowing. A large orb of blue magic began to gather at the end of her horn, rays of light shining from it. "Begone from my sight!" Luna thrust her head into the air and a large beam of blue magic shot towards Twilight. She leapt away, her boots blazing in the air below her. Luna's blast carved a trail in the floor, pieces of tile thrown away into the air as she tracked Twilight. Twilight landed and kept running as the beam closed in on her.
"Twilight, that beam is pure alicorn magic. Even with your armor you won't to survive if it hits you!"
"Wasn't planning on that." Twilight weaved in and out of the columns holding up a balcony on one side of the room, the beam lancing through them. The balcony groaned and crashed to the ground behind her, the smoke and rubble obscuring Luna from her for a moment. The beam stopped, and Twilight skidded to a halt and turned. "But we can't just run forever."
"What are you gonna do?" Spike asked. In response Twilight called up her data banks and searched Spike's assorted scans of the battle. The smoke cleared, revealing Luna glaring at her.
Twilight smirked and stamped a hoof on the ground. "Come on, Luna! Take your best shot!" Luna's eye twitched and she let out a roar of fury, her horn sparking with energy. An orb of magic appeared on the end, slowing bright. Twilight took a breath and focused magic into her own horn. Luna lowered her head and the blast of blue magic fired forward, racing towards Twilight. Twilight closed her eyes and cast the spell. The wall exploded into rock and dust, a hole to the adjacent hallway beyond appearing as it crumbled. Luna looked to the sides, her eyes narrow. Twilight was nowhere to be seen. She settled her eyes on the pile of debris she had just blasted, grinning widely and laughing.
Then Luna cried out. Pain shot through her body from her flank and she felt a powerful blast of energy explode against her back. She stumbled forward from the force, more lances of agony slicing into her side in rapid succession. She turned and gasped.
Twilight stood at the base of the two thrones. "You missed." She swung her hoof up, the Shooting Star recharging in a blue glow. "I won't."
Twilight fired the Shooting Star again, the sparkling silver-blue stars slamming into Luna's neckplate. Luna reared up, throwing her head back. Twilight focused energy into her helmet and fired a final charged blast of magic. It hit the moon emblem around Luna's neck and exploded in a brilliant array of violet light. The attack threw Luna backwards, her hooves flailing in the air. She hit the ground and skidded back to hit the pile of rubble her last attack had created. As Twilight watched, she put a hoof on the ground and attempted to stand.
Then, she let out a loud groan and slumped to her side. The moon on her neckplate flickered and went dim, her eyes sliding shut. Twilight kept her horn and weapon ready and kept watching. Luna's chest was moving as though she was breathing, but otherwise she was still.
"Twilight, we did it… we did it!" Spike's hologram threw up his claws in a cheer. Twilight relaxed and sighed heavily, lowering her head. Glancing up she slowly approached the fallen princess. Luna was unconscious, her chest rising and falling gently.
Twilight furrowed her brow. "How? Celestia said we'd have to use the Harmony Program to cleanse her system corruption, but…" Twilight looked at the gem around her neck. She had never called upon its power in any way she had noticed. Was it a more subtle effect, or was it just not needed after all?
"Remember, she might not be purified yet. But that can wait," Spike said.
Twilight looked at the thrones. "Right. She was standing there before." She galloped up to the raised platform the castle thrones were on and walked behind them to see a small computer console on the wall. "This must be the console she was using to coordinate her minions. Let's find out what she was up to." Twilight pressed a few buttons and looked at the screen. It flashed red, words scrolling across. Twilight recoiled in confusion. "Access denied? Network connection off-line?" She looked around the room. "But, this is the only terminal here! How was Luna controlling things if not from here?"
"I'm scanning the area, but this is the only working console I can find," Spike said.
Twilight stepped backwards and turned to look at Luna. "I don't understand. If she's defeated and she wasn't controlling them from here… this doesn't make any sense!"
Twilight jumped at the sudden noise that filled the air, a high-pitched screech. She turned to see the computer screen behind her displaying a mass of static, the sound dying down into a low hum. The speakers were now blaring out a soft, sinister chuckling. A voice she hadn't heard before.
"Make sense?" The voice laughed. "What fun is there in making sense?"
The static continued to play as Twilight came closer. A small camera on the top of the screen turned to point at her and she looked up at it. "Who are you?"
The voice from the speakers let out an irritated sigh. "Oh, don't tell me Celestia didn't fill you in. The little princess never did show me proper respect."
"Who are you?" Twilight repeated, glaring. The voice chuckled deeply.
Twilight thought, staring at the speakers in confusion. "Discord? I've never heard of you."
"I have." Spike slid Twilight's visor down, text scrolling across her display.
The sound of a groan came from the speakers. "Oh, tell your little pet to keep quiet. Did you think I called you up here to discuss that fabulous new armor of yours?"
"Alright then." Twilight dismissed her visor. "What do you want?"
Discord chuckled again. "I want you to carry a message to Celestia. Somehow you've proven immune to my powers. It's really quite annoying, the original five were difficult but I could bend them with effort. You however are another matter. Despite my best efforts I can't even interface with you. A curious conundrum, but one I've lost interest in unraveling. Now you will be my messenger one way or the other."
Twilight tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"
Spike spoke up before Discord could. "Discord was one of the scientists working on cybernetics centuries ago, just before Luna's banishment. He was the head of the implant project Luna volunteered for."
Discord let out an indignant gasp. "Do you mind? I was talking first!"
Spike ignored him. "He resorted to increasingly extreme and dangerous projects before Luna's augmentation. Celestia wanted to fire him but Luna considered him too valuable to lose."
"Yes, that little princess was the only one who understood my vision. A pity her big sister was so nosy."
Twilight heard something in his voice. A feel of dread overtook her. It quickly turned to anger. "What did you do to her?"
"Oh, it was a very simple thing to program. Celestia didn't see the future like I did. I saw a chance for ponies to abandon their bodies entirely, to become one with data, to become unstoppable. But she wouldn't listen. So I needed a little test to prove my theory."
"Luna."
"I didn't have nearly the access to her I'd have liked with Celestia breathing down my neck. So I took matters into my own claws. I digitized a copy of my mind and downloaded it into Luna's databanks when we fitted her for her new armor. Had it worked there would have been two of me running around, one of them in control of an alicorn princess."
"You're the one!" Twilight gasped, glaring at the camera lens. "You're the cause for her corruption!"
"Corruption? Please. I just messed up the programming a bit, a minor error but one that had disastrous consequences. Luna and I had to fight for control of her body when it wouldn't listen to either of us, then Celestia sealed us away. Luna slept these past thousand years. I didn't! The real me is likely long dead and forgotten, but I remember, Twilight. I've waited a long, long time for my freedom. And when the chance came I seized it."
Twilight's eared flattened against her helmet, her eyes narrow. "Trixie set Luna free and you with her. You took control of Trixie, then all the other ponies."
"Right on both counts. Care for a prize?" Discord snickered. "While I kept the aides scattered to distract anypony Celestia sent to look for them, my more malleable servants raided Canterlot and seized all that fascinating medical data on cybernetics. You ponies have done so much in the centuries I've been gone, my plan turned out to be even easier than I thought. Now my programming has transcended the technological. Anypony, cybernetics or not, is mine to control." A low growl came from the speakers.
"All was going perfectly. Then you showed up and shattered all my expectations. I threw the best I had at you. And you stomped it beneath your hooves. As powerful as Luna was even she has proven unable to defeat you. You have demonstrated power far greater than I'd have ever imagined for a single unicorn. You would make a perfect vessel for me in Luna's place, if only I could corrupt you. But it doesn't matter now. Everything is coming into place soon. I have no need for a single vessel to carry me across Equestria. I have dozens orbiting over us as we speak."
Twilight blinked. "Dozens… orbiting?"
Discord laughed. "In mere minutes Equestria's satellites will be in perfect alignment for a simultaneous broadcast across the globe. I will beam my consciousness to everypony on the planet! Pony, griffon, zebra, even dragons will come under my control! And those that resist me will be eradicated! A new era of Equestrian technology will follow, under the command of Discord! I haven't decided on my new title yet, do you think Emperor Discord or King Discord works better?"
"Neither! We'll stop you!" Twilight snapped.
Discord snorted. "Please, do you think I'm that stupid? That I'm going to power up this speaker and tell you everything when there's a chance it could backfire? You have no way to stop me. Even Canterlot's central core cannot override my authority in this place."
Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Where are you?"
"That's strike two. You're never going to find me and you're not going to stop me. I've told you this because I want you to start running now. Return to Celestia, if there's anything left of her by the time you get to Canterlot, and tell her you failed. This is my kingdom now and there is nothing either of you can do about it. Goodbye, Twilight. You did your best, but your best wasn't good enough." The console turned off and the camera slumped down.
Twilight cried out and reared up. The old metal crumbled under her armored hooves, sparking and crackling. She growled and spun around to look over the throne room again. "Spike! Scan everything, find him now!"
"I don't know, Twilight! There's way too much interference. I'm not even sure what to look for! He could be anywhere!"
Twilight ran back to the middle of the room. "There has to be something! We have to find Discord and stop those satellites! Come on, think!"
"… the core…"
"What?" Twilight looked behind her. "Spike?"
"Wasn't me."
Twilight saw movement and turned her attention from the hologram. A midnight blue hoof put itself on the floor and began to push. "Princess Luna!" Twilight rushed to her side, the alicorn struggling to stand. She was breathing heavily, her eyes opened to slits.
"The core… castle core…"
Twilight leaned closer. "What?"
Luna swallowed and turned to her. "The castle's core… below… Discord..." She staggered and fell to her knees.
"She must mean the castle's central computer core," Spike said. "It was the system Celestia based Canterlot's core on. If it's still working Discord could control the satellites from there, and since it's the original system he could override Canterlot's access to do it."
Twilight nodded. "Thank you, Princess. We'll get you out, then-."
"No time." Luna shook her head and looked up. Her horn lit up in a magic aura. There was a rumbling and Twilight looked ahead. The platform the thrones were on split and slid apart, revealing a staircase descending into the floor. Luna groaned and fell back to her side. "Go…"
"But…"
"I'm fine… stop him…" Luna closed her eyes and kept breathing.
"Twilight, her vitals are fine. We can't help her."
Twilight knelt by Luna's ear. "I'll come back for you. Just hang on." Luna nodded slightly. Twilight turned and galloped to the stairs. She rushed down them rapidly, almost falling as her hooves missed steps and tangled in each other. She reached the bottom, a long hallway lined with the rusted remains of security fields and sentry guns hanging from the walls and ceiling. She galloped down it, the hallway ended looking over a long shaft into the earth, metal structural supports crisscrossing over dull grey stone. Twilight switched her Multitool's function and raised it. Derpy Thunder fired, a storm cloud launching down into the shaft and coming to a rest. Her horn glowed as she cast her cloud-walking spell and she hopped down to the cloud. It bobbed with her weight and she fired her hoof down again. Slowly Twilight made her way down the shaft, clouds filling the air.
After what seemed an eternity, she saw the shadows of the shaft fall back to reveal the bottom. The elevator platform had long fallen and broken, now just a pile of rusted metal shards. Twilight hopped down between them and looked forward. Down a wider, shorter passage, a pair of steel doors barred her way, emblazoned with the familiar image of a sun and moon. Twilight ran through a mental checklist, her hoof reconfiguring with her thoughts. Every weapon was functional and primed. Her limbs were sore and tired from all the fighting she had done. As she had done before she ignored it and pushed past it. There would be time to rest when she defeated Discord. If she didn't, rest wouldn't be a concern.
"Ready, Spike?"
"Ready, Twilight."
Her horn lit up. A magic aura wrapped around the doors, pulling them apart. With a crunch and a creaking of metal, they slowly slid open. Twilight narrowed her eyes and stepped out into the central core complex.
The complex was a vast underground cavern, so large the walls and ceiling and floor were in darkness. The path before Twilight was a dull steel platform, wide enough to accommodate a small crowd. Massive steel supports descended from above to hold it aloft, aided by massive concrete columns beneath it. All around the chamber red metal shafts rose from the darkness and then vanished up back into it, covered in exposed wire panels and blinking lights. Wires, cables and girders connected the shafts. Twilight followed them through the air. In time, the small cores were connecting to a massive central shaft at the end of the path.
The central core was as large around as a building, covered in circuitry, blinking lights, air vents, metal rungs that climbed up to maintenance ducts, and loose cables that hung around it limply. A large central screen dominated the structure's bottom, several smaller screens around it. As Twilight approached she saw what they were displaying – a map of Equestria from outer space, the smaller monitors showing different views. And on each monitor, satellites were floating through the depths of space, slowly moving into alignment.
In front of the core, at the end of the platform where the platform widened out, a silver robot was standing at the controls. Two claws floated in the air beside it, crossing from side to side and typing rapidly. The robot had the head of a pony, the body of a dragon, and Twilight didn't care to begin trying to guess where the models for the feet, claws, and horns, had come from. As she stopped behind it the robot stood up straight. The two floating claws floated to connect to its shoulders.
"Well, well, well… Twilight Sparkle." Discord slowly turned around, bright red mechanical eyes glowing at her. His mouth curled into a grin, a single metal tooth poking over the lower lip. "It's so good to see you with my own eyes at last." He made a face and crossed his claws over his torso. "Though it's a bit annoying to see you here after I said you'd never find me. Don't you have the courtesy not to prove your elders wrong?"
"No time for talk, Discord." Twilight stood up and reconfigured her hoof into the Shooting Star. "Let's finish this."
"You ponies are always such drama queens." Discord raised a claw to his mouth and feigned a yawn. "Doesn't the condemned robot get last words? I've been working on this victory speech for a thousand years, somepony needs to hear it." Discord looked back at Twilight and waited for a response. There wasn't one but for the same glare she had given him since she readied herself for battle. "Fine, be that way." Discord scowled and snapped his claws out to the side. They detached and floated in the air beside him. "Let's just go with the abridged version. I'll destroy you and leave your broken body buried here for eternity. The fragments of the Harmony Program will be lost forever beneath the castle of your fallen princesses, while I begin a new era of chaos across Equestria!"
Discord's claws clenched into fists and aimed forward. Boosters ignited on their ends and they shot at Twilight. She jumped to avoid one and ducked to avoid the other, then looked forward to counter-attack. Discord was gone. Twilight looked around and saw Discord's claws turning to zoom at her again. She activated her thruster boots and shot into the air. The metal projectiles shot beneath her and Twilight saw a flash of green light. A bright green outline of Discord traced out on the platform, becoming solid with a gleam across the surface. The two claws snapped to his shoulders and pulled one back, an orb of bright blue-green energy forming in his palm. He thrust his claw forward, the orb shooting towards Twilight. She leapt over it and fired a concussive blast, landing a shot on Discord's torso before he could teleport.
"Twilight, behind you!" Twilight turned at Spike's warning to see the energy orb circling in the air and coming back towards her. She activated her thruster boots to jumped back over it. As she watched, the wire-frame image of a pair of claws formed in the air over her head and became solid. Discord's claws caught the orb and separated, each holding a sphere of energy now. They pointed down at Twilight, clenching into fists. She turned and ran. One of the claws followed her, firing a long green energy beam into the catwalk. Twilight saw movement and skidded to a halt as the second claw shot past her and stopped to aim down at her. She spun and ran back as it followed her, another energy beam lancing into the ground in her wake.
"Overhead!" Twilight looked behind her as Discord appeared floating in the air, his claws snapping back to his shoulders. He grinned and dropped to the ground, a shockwave of green energy bursting from his feet on impact. Twilight jumped over it and bombarded him with energy blasts. Discord scowled as his body rang with the crackling of magic. He brought his claws forward, an orb of green magic forming between them. He flung it forward, his claws detaching afterward. Twilight jumped aside as the magic orb flew past her and similarly dodged the shooting claws. She looked behind her to see the two claws catch the orb as before, then race towards her firing energy beams at the catwalk. She fled until they ran out of energy and charged magic into her horn.
Discord appeared at the opposite end of the catchwalk. Twilight turned and fired her concussive blast at him, following it up with a barrage of normal attacks. Discord recoiled from the blows, crying out. Twilight swung up her Multitool and fired the Shooting Star, striking Discord in the torso and sending him stumbling back. Twilight began to focus another powered-up concussive blast when Discord's body lit up green, turning into a wire-frame image and erasing itself line by line. Twilight stopped and looked around, waiting for his claws to manifest.
She saw a blip of light and stopped as Discord's left claw appeared beside her, palm held out towards her. "Twilight, the right!" At Spike's warning, Twilight turned to see the right claw on the other side of her, energy gathering in its palm. She activated her thruster boots and jumped. The two claws fired at each other, creating a small explosion where Twilight had been standing. She landed, the catwalk clanging from her landing, and looked back to see the claws turn towards her and launch themselves at her. She dodged one but the other slammed into her flank, pitching her backwards. She hit the catwalk and skidded along it, wincing.
Twilight saw green light shine overhead, Discord's image tracing out above her, claws floating into place by his shoulders. She pushed herself up and used her thruster boots to jump away as he stomped the ground, another shockwave flying from his feet. Twilight landed and charged up a concussive blast. Discord's claws launched towards her as Twilight lowered her head and fired. One of the claws took the blast and wobbled in the air. Twilight swung her hoof up and launched the Shooting Star. The crackling blue energy slammed into the fist, the machie exploding in a small burst of fire and green magic. The other fist shot over her head, stopping and turning to form a ball of green light in its palm. Twilight charged another blast and fired. The violet orb met the green and both exploded, pieces of the claw flying through the air.
Twilight turned and began galloping towards Discord, his eyes wide. She held up her hoof and fired the Shooting Star, sending Discord teetering backwards. A barrage magic bolts knocked him on his back. Twilight jumped, the thruster boots blazing orange on her hind hooves. She pointed her hoof down as she rose over Discord. He looked up at her, blinking.
"Well… didn't see this coming."
Twilight fired the Shooting Star at Discord's chest. Discord's eyes lit up yellow, his robotic body convulsing. Twilight landed behind him in front of the central core and turned. The catwalk rang with the sound of Discord's thrashing limbs, currents of energy shooting over his body. His head snapped back, rays of light shining from his eyes. With a mighty eruption of magic, Discord's body exploded. Twilight looked away and raised her Multitool to shield her eyes from the blast. Pieces of shrapnel rained down around her, still crackling with magic.
Twilight slowly lowered her hoof and looked. The catwalk was scorched black where Discord had fallen, the railings and floor bent and twisted away from the center of the blast. Sparking circuitry and metal humming with magic littered the area. Twilight approached the burnt metal, stepping between the debris.
"We did it…" she whispered, not fully realizing the disaster she had just averted. "Spike…we did it!"
"If I had real arms I'd hug you!" The hologram cheered. Twilight turned her head to look at him, when a familiar laugh filled the chamber. Twilight gasped.
"Very impressive," Discord's voice rang from the speakers in the room. Twilight looked around. "You do not disappoint. I didn't expect my shell body to be a worthy match for you after all the power you've shown so far. Congratulations. But you've wasted your time." Twilight looked up as hologram emitters came to life on the central core tower and began projecting, colored lasers tracing out an image in the air. A green wire-frame image of a familiar face appeared, red eyes blinking open and looking down at Twilight with a smirk.
"No…" Twilight shook her head, staring in horror. "But… how…"
The giant Discord head's mouth moved in time with the speech coming from the speakers. "You see, my little pony, I uploaded my consciousness to the central core in preparation for my plan long before you arrived. Destroying that robot body just means I'll have to build myself a new one if I want to actually sit on my well-earned throne once this is all over. A trivial concern."
"Then we'll blast the core!" Twilight charged energy into her horn and fired at the hologram. The blast went through the display and fizzled out in a burst of light. A field of blue energy shimmered in the air, ripples forming from where it had absorbed Twilight's attack.
"Really? You're powerful but you aren't that bright, are you?" Discord laughed, the hologram shaking its head. "This energy barrier is powered by ancient samples of Luna and Celestia's magic. Not even your strongest blast could penetrate it. Shoot all you like, you'll run out of energy before this shield loses even a percentage of its power."
Twilight shook her head. "No… there has to be a way…"
The Discord hologram smirked. "Now, now, it's not all bad news. It seems that the satellites are taking a little longer than expected to move into alignment to broadcast my signal across Equestria. Hypothetically speaking, if you could destroy the central core before that happened you would be able to stop me. But I really don't see that in your future. The shield isn't the only piece of technology I've reactivated down here." Twilight looked around the room as defensive turrets moved to life across the support columns running to the central core. They ran up and down on tracks, each hosting four cannon barrels that turned to aim at her. She pushed herself to her hooves and glared up at Discord.
"I don't care!" she declared. "Power up all the turrets you like! We'll rip them apart and come after you next!"
"So confident. It's really getting a little annoying," Discord yawned.
"You haven't seen anything yet!" Twilight slowly walked towards the console, the holographic Discord head snickering. "You may be powerful, you might have taken control of all these ponies, even Luna. But you are not stronger than me and you are not leaving this chamber, one way or the other!"
Discord faked a pout. "Oh my. Am I meant to feel threatened?"
"No. This isn't a threat, Discord! It's a vow! For Celestia, for her aides, the Shadow Hunters, Luna, and all the other ponies and creatures you've wronged! For all my friends that are counting on me!" Twilight thrust her head toward Discord's visage. "I vow here, somehow I will defeat you!"
There was a flash of white light and all three occupants of the chamber cried out. Twilight squinted through the light and looked down. The gemstone around her neck was glowing brightly.
"Twilight! This energy output, I've never seen anything like it!"
Twilight barely heard Spike's words. She didn't need to. She could feel the energy herself. Every part of her body was pulsing, magic surging through her veins. Her armor glowed bright purple, an aura of light surrounding her. Twilight both heard and felt the magic focusing its energy around her and turned her head. Lines of violet magic were forming in the air on the sides of her saddle, tracing the outline of a familiar shape. The wing engravings on her armor were glowing the same color.
"Twilight…"
Discord's eyes widened, his mouth dropping open. "No… it can't be… you…"
Twilight raised her eyes to meet his. "This is the power of Harmony, Discord! The power someone like you could never hope to harness!"
With a flash of light the magic forms on Twilight's sides solidified. Wings of pure energy raised into the air, their surfaces glowing translucent violet. Over Twilight's armor more magical lines were forming and becoming solid. Backward-swept spikes on her boots, fins on her helmet. The engravings over her armor were lit up in the same violet light, sending pulses of magic coursing over the surface. The power crystal beneath her horn shone brightly, light travelling from the center of the star to the six points. Golden bands traced out from the sides and swept over the helmet to the sides, swirls of gold branching out along its length.
Twilight closed her eyes as the transformation completed. The power flowing through her was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Every inch of her body felt like it was alive with magic, like she was magic itself. "Spike. Do those wings work?"
"Yes they do." Twilight heard the grin in his voice. You focus on shooting, I'll handle the flying."
Twilight opened her eyes and looked up at Discord. The hologram was sneering at her, Discord's voice from the speakers growling. "This means nothing! You're too late! It's over!"
Twilight coiled her hooves. "Not yet it isn't." She focused on her new wings, the appendages glowing. Her thruster boots lit up orange, her visor sliding down over her left eye.
Spike pumped a fist behind her head. "We can do it Twilight! Robot unicorn attAAAAAH!" Spike's cheer turned into a scream as Twilight launched into the air. Her thruster boots propelled her past the central core, her hooves angling to turn. Discord's holographic head swiveled around the core to keep facing her. Spike's voice sounded in her head. "The Harmony Program has diverted its power directly to your helmet's crystal. Let 'im have it!" Twilight nodded and snapped her head down, her horn glowing brightly. A flurry of violet magic blasts rained towards the core. The energy shield lit up blue and absorbed them, Discord's hologram smirking. "My scans show that definitely strained the shields, but it'll take a lot more firepower than that to bring it down."
"We don't have time!" Twilight replied. "Find another way." There was a flash out of the corner of her eye and she looked towards it. One of the turrets around the central core was shooting lightning blasts down at her, the four barrels recoiling in their settings as they fired in sequence. A display screen above the turret displayed the flickering image of rising bubbles. Twilight dove and banked to avoid the lightning, another turret up ahead.
"The turrets!" Spike called. "There are eight auxiliary generators powering the central core along with those turrets. If we can destroy them we can cause a power overload and destroy the generators. He can't power the barrier without them."
"Sounds good to me!" Twilight yelled out loud. She approached the turret ahead. The four barrels turned to her and the image of three apples appeared on the screen above. The cannon barrels fired, metal claws shooting towards her. Twilight pulled up and raised her Multitool to fire the Shooting Star. The turret crackled with magic as it moved up its track. Another quartet of claw projectiles launched, but Twilight turned and flew to the side. They sailed past her harmlessly and spiraled into the abyss below. She looked up at another turret moving down its track in front of her. A trio of gemstones appeared on the display monitor and the cannons fired, gleaming white gems racing through the air. Twilight spun in the air, dipping and climbing as the gems shot past her. She grunted as she regained her sense of direction, unfamiliar with flight. "Spike, why are they using my weapons?"
"Based on these reading, Discord uploaded brain scans of the Shadow Hunters and Celestia's aides to the turrets. They're not copying your skills, they're copying theirs!" Twilight pulled around to bring the turret back into view, her display blinking to a schematic of the weapon. More gems she now recognized as Rare Shield shot at her, her thruster boots turning to propeller her to the side and avoid them. She focused on her Multitool, the Pinkie Cannon forming in an instant. She neared the cannons and pulled up, firing as she flew over it. The turret exploded, black smoke rising from the ends of the cannons. A shockwave raced up and down the support column, sparks flying and metal panels falling off in its wake.
"Core power down to eighty-nine percent!" Spike reported. Twilight nodded and flew towards another turret. The display screen flashed, the image of a forked lightning bolt in three colors appearing. The turrets tilted up and fired the Rainbow Tornado. Twilight cried out and struggled to stay flying, her magic wings taking her down out of the wind. The turret tilted down, this time Twilight fired first. The charged concussive blast slammed into the four cannons, followed by the Shooting Star. The turret sparked and fell apart, the cannon barrels dropping off the base as a series of explosions rang out around it.
"You're starting to get on my nerves!" Discord's hologram turned over the central core as Twilight flew past. A hatch opened behind it and two steel black robots with green eyes flew out, metal wings buzzing like insects. Twilight looked behind her as they approached, their front hooves sliding apart to form cannon barrels. She transformed her Multitool and spun in the air, raising it up. The Rainbow Tornado knocked the two of them back, magic bolts raining down on them as they fell. They each exploded in a burst of green smoke, black metal spiraling through the air.
"Not good enough, Discord!" Twilight looked towards the giant holographic head and smirked as she headed for a third turret. Discord snarled in response. The turret aimed for Twilight, three butterflies on its display monitor. A storm of small energy pellets rained down on her. She shifted her Multitool and held it out as they came near. The Rare Shield flew from her hoof, her magic swinging the gems through the air to catch and absorb the attacks. The charged gems flew forward, one each going down the turret barrel. Twilight flew past as the gems released their payloads, the barrels bursting from the inside with the force, and the metal jewels flew back to Twilight to disassemble and snap back to her hoof.
Discord's hologram roared in rage, eyes flashing. "You won't get any further!" With a rising hum, his mouth opened and a large ray of red light shot through the air towards Twilight. She turned to see it coming and dropped, flying behind one of the support columns hosting a turret. The laser lanced through it, the turret's display shorting out and the music cleft on it vanishing. Twilight looked back. Discord's attack ceased, his hologram flickering. Taking the chance she flew towards the next turret. It locked on her as she neared, the display showing a crescent moon with a star-topped wand. The cannons fired out a quartet of Shooting Star blasts, the blue magic stars crackling in the air. Twilight dodged them and shot a flurry of magic bolts at the cannons, ending with a larger charged blast. As she pulled away at the last moment she finished by aiming her Multitool behind her and firing her own Shooting Star. The cannons exploded in a blue flash on impact, the monitor above them fading.
Spike whooped in her head. "Central core power down to thirty-eight percent! Keep it up, Twilight!" Discord's hologram opened its mouth again, another large laser blast firing. Twilight swooped down, her thruster boots blazing to stay ahead of the attack. As Discord stopped, two more black robots emerged from the core and flew towards Twilight. She turned and sent a Shooting Star shot at one, charging up her horn and firing a concussive blast at the other. The two robots exploded and she turned her attention to the next turret. Three apples blinked on the turret's display and the cannons lowered to point at Twilight, launching four metal claws. Twilight avoided three but a fourth caught her side, raking down her armor and pitching her down. She regained her balance and flew up, firing rapidly at the turret. There was a small explosion and a burst of smoke. Twilight flew up past it and let loose the Shooting Star at point-blank range. The turret detonated, the column's lights and panels going dark as power shut down.
Discord laughed. "You're too late!" Twilight looked at him. Four large numbers appeared over his head, displaying '60:00'. "One minute until broadcast!" Discord laughed again as the display began ticking down the seconds. Twilight gritted her teeth and activated her thruster boots, flying forward. She approached another turret, the image of a trio of balloons displayed on its monitor. The cannons fired in rhythm, pink energy orbs arcing down at Twilight. She flew between them and charged a magic blast, letting it loose and firing rapidly after it. The turret exploded widely and Twilight turned towards the last one.
Spike called up Discord's timer on her visor display. Forty-six seconds. "Twilight, hurry!" Twilight narrowed her eyes and charged her magic. The last turret shot blasts of lightning towards her. The air was alive with electricity, the hairs of her coat standing up as she dodged the attacks. Concussive blasts and the Shooting Star fired in unison. The turret exploded in a shockwave of energy, the support column sparking and smoking.
The entire chamber shook, the cables connecting the central core to the auxiliary cores sparking and snapping. Discord's hologram looked around, his jaw dropping. "No! This can't be happening! I was so close!" Over his head the display ticked down to twenty-three seconds. The entire core and the monitors below flickered, lights dimming and sparks flying.
"He's on emergency power, Twilight, no shields left! But he's still broadcasting!"
Twilight stopped and turned to face the central core. "Spike, divert all system power to the crystal, now!" She felt her systems hum to life, violet light filling the top of her field of view. Over her eyes the power crystal on her helmet blazed white, all the energy of the Harmony Program focusing into it. Discord turned towards her, eyes wide.
"You can't! I've waited a thousand years for freedom, for glory! All ponies are mine to control, to rule! I will not let a single unicorn ruin it all!"
"DISCORD!"
The hologram fell silent at Twilight's call. The display beeped down to ten seconds. An orb of shining energy formed on the end of Twilight's horn, rays of light shining out in the darkness of the cavern. She stared down at the Discord hologram, and smiled.
"I am gonna love and tolerate the crap out of you."
Twilight swung her head down, and fired. A rainbow beam of magical energy erupted from her horn, streaks of color streaming along it. Discord let out a scream as the beam struck the core. The entire cavern began to shake as energy poured into the blast. Discord's hologram flickered, rapidly changing color, his voice distorting. It vanished, the display over it clicking to six seconds. The control console at the base of the core sparked and exploded, the monitors displaying static before they shattered. Twilight tilted her head, dragging the beam up the core's length. The shaking of the area grew stronger, a rumbling filling the air. Smoke and fire began to crawl along the core's sides, metal panels falling off and exposing sparking circuitry.
In a flash of white light, the castle core exploded, a shockwave of rainbow energy shooting out through the air.
"Twilight, the cavern is collapsing!"
Twilight looked behind her and flew down towards the entrance at the far end.
The roof of the Castle of the Two Sisters exploded outwards as a beam of shining light stretched into the sky. In orbit over the planet it struck a satellite. The satellite shone in rainbow colors, the light splitting off from it to hit other satellites. A network of machinery joined by the light formed over the world.
In the throne room, Celestia's aides were standing battle-posed before rows of guard ponies, eyes glowing. Then they halted, the red glow fading from their eyes, and the group stumbled and groaned.
"Did we win?" Pinkie Pie lowered her cannon, confused.
A hoof and wing over Applejack's shoulder for leverage, Luna looked behind her at the pillar of light through the window behind the thrones. Her eyes widened. "She has done it… Twilight Sparkle has destroyed Discord!"
The castle began to shake, the roof cracking. Rainbow Dash skidded to a halt in the air as a piece of rock fell in front of her. "Great, let's go!"
"We can't go, Twilight is still down there!" Fluttershy called up. A moment later Twilight emerged from the stairs down, landing on the floor and stumbling to stay standing.
"Time to run everypony!" She looked between the group urgently. They turned and ran, the confused guard ponies looking between them and following. Luna pushed herself up from Applejack to run to the front of the group.
"This way!" She charged down the hole she had blasted in her battle with Twilight, galloping down a side-passage. The group followed her, Twilight bringing up the rear. Ahead of them the castle was coming apart, walls collapsing, floors splitting open to reveal passages below, pillars falling. Rarity jumped over a crumbling piece of wall that smashed on the hallway floor behind her, Rainbow Dash flying over it. Twilight saw a guard pony stumble as he tried to make the jump and shifted her Multitool, launching her thruster boots to sail over him and digging the Apple Whip's claw into it armor to haul him forward. She landed and kept running, the guard stumbling beside her but keeping pace.
They reached a larger room and stumbled down the stairs to the lower floor, the pegasi guards and Rainbow Dash flying down. A group of guard ponies came out of a different passage, staring in confusion. Luna ran down a third path, her horn shooting energy blasts in front of her to shatter falling debris. Applejack passed by the guards, calling out to them. "Best get runnin'!" The guards saw the group fleeing and fell in line, following them down the hall. A second larger chamber stretched out, a bridge reaching over it. In the middle of the line Luna looked around, her eyes narrow.
"This way!" Luna stopped and turned to run down a balcony to the right. The group moved to follow her, Twilight watching to make sure they got through. More of the black robots Discord had used were in the castle, but they were standing still with no master to control them, some exploding as larger pieces of debris fell on them. Twilight heard a loud crack and looked up. The roof above her was breaking apart. She turned and ran to follow the group, the hall behind her collapsing. Luna led them down a hallway, galloping as fast as she good. She turned a corner and kept running.
"Wait!" Just behind her Applejack looked forward. The hallway ahead of them had a single door on the left collapsed, beyond it at the end of the hall was a blank wall. "This is a dead-end!"
"Trust me!" Luna lowered her horn and concentrated. A blast of lunar magic shot forward, blowing the wall out. The night sky appeared beyond the smoke and Luna leapt through the hole, wings extending to take flight. Applejack hesitated at the edge and looked down to see the chasm circling the castle's foundations below, a river running through it. She gulped loudly and jumped. The other four behind her followed with the mass of guard ponies. At the back of the group Twilight looked behind her, the castle walls falling in and the roof collapsing. With a final cry, she leapt and activated her thruster boots, jetting out the exit Luna had made.
The assembled group tumbled through the air, landing in the river below. There were a few grunts of pain as hooves hit heads and flanks, but one by one soaking-wet heads emerged from the surface. Celestia's aides looked up as the castle overhead began to crumble. Turrets and battlements toppled inward as the underground area caved in. Above it all the pillar of light continued to shine, the power of the Harmony Program projecting across Equestria. The sound of rock and stone collapsing began to die down as the destruction stopped. A massive cloud of dust erupted into the air, the castle's structure obscured within.
On the muddy shore next to the river Twilight descended, landing with a small thud. She looked up at the pillar of light shining from the fallen castle. It shrank and grew thinner, then faded away. In the river, one by one the floating ponies turned to face her. The gem on Twilight's neck shone and then went dark. The glowing fins and spikes on her armor receded, her wings dissolving into sparkles of light. Noticing she was being watched, Twilight lowered her head. She looked between the group and swallowed.
"Um… everypony okay?"
There was silence for several seconds, and Twilight forced a smile. It was Rainbow Dash who finally spoke, her eyes wide.
"Spike, we can't do this. We have to leave before it gets worse."
"Twilight, you're overreacting."
"Overreacting? Spike, this is the greatest challenge we've faced together! I'd rather fight Princess Luna again without my armor and weapons than do this!"
"… Twilight, it's just a parade."
Twilight stopped pacing around the ground floor of her home and took a breath. "No, it is not 'just' a parade! It's a parade recognizing me as some sort of… hero-messiah! I'm just me, Spike!" Twilight looked over herself. She had considered putting her armor back on for this event but decided against it. Now she couldn't remember why and was wishing she had it with her. She could go to Celestia's lab and retrieve it from storage, but that would mean going outside. And the crowds of ponies in the streets that would surely recognize her made that impossible in her current state.
It was a week since that fateful day she had defeated Discord. Twilight could still barely believe her adventure took all of a single day. When she had returned to Canterlot with Celestia's aides, Luna, and the freed guard ponies – who it turned out mostly consisted of Ponyville citizens given armor – Celestia told them the Harmony Program had worked just as she intended. The Program beamed itself across the world using Discord's own signal, freeing everyone he had corrupted. Ponyville and Cloudsdale, and some other cities Twilight discovered Discord had tried to infect, were reporting record numbers of ponies being admitted to clinics for cybernetic malfunctions and memory loss. Otherwise the damage was limited, all things considered.
What Twilight had expected least of all from the fallout was for news of her exploits to get around so fast. Rumor had spread like wildfire, the press got her name, and now her humble home was mobbed by ponies waiting to snap pictures and ask questions. Celestia had decided that since the secret was out, it would be best to make a public statement about matters and present Luna and Twilight to the city as part of it. That in turn had blossomed into a parade in Twilight's honor to hail her as the savior of Equestria.
"Twilight, you saved all of Equestria and the lands beyond from the digitized mind of a mad scientist. You don't think that makes you a hero?" Twilight turned and glared at Spike's hologram.
"Don't start getting rational on me!"
"Uh… sorry?"
Twilight groaned. She slowly approached her window and peaked out the curtain. She quickly dropped it. The mob was definitely bigger.
"I really should have kept the armor…"
Twilight's original saddle lowered on her back, the connecting wires slotting into place. The construct hummed as it came on-line, Twilight's mental interfaces triggering in her head. The claw holding the saddle moved it to the steel mannequin the rest of Twilight's armor was resting on and let it drop into place.
"What's are you going to do with it?" Twilight looked towards Celestia as the alicorn pressed a button on her console. The ceiling tiles slid back and the mannequin floated up in an aura of golden magic.
"I'm placing it in storage. We may need it again someday." Celestia turned back to Twilight. "And your programming?"
"Spike's working on formatting my databanks now. All weapon schematics deleted." Twilight looked at her Multitool. Her memories of using the weapons would remain, but any information on how to reform them would be lost to her. The armor's saddle still had them, being a separate system, but not her personal saddle.
"There we go!" Her saddle beeped and Spike's hologram nodded. "All done."
"Then there is one final matter to resolve." Celestia floated a data disk off her console and moved it towards Twilight. She took it in her magic and looked it over.
"What's this?"
"The finalized version of the Harmony Program you created. The unicorn you took the gemstone from was adamant about getting it back before she left. I transferred it onto this."
Twilight looked at the disk with new understanding. "I'll take care of it if you need me to, but I don't want to install another weapon program on my saddle after getting rid of the original eight."
"Then do not fear, for the Harmony Program is nothing of the sort." Celestia smiled softly. "The Elements of Harmony are power, Twilight. They are magic, the most powerful kind of magic we know. Like all power its user may use it as they wish. I give it to you now to study, so we may one day understand its full capabilities."
"In that case it is an honor, Princess." Twilight slotted the disk into her saddle and downloaded the data. She waited to feel some sort of power surge, but none came. It seemed the Program truly was benign now. "I'm not sure what I can do, though. I don't even understand how I activated the Harmony Program or what it really did."
"Precisely." Celestia looked up at her monitors, which were displaying schematics of Twilight's armor and lines of programming code. "The Elements of Harmony always were a relic whose mysteries we never truly understood. Even when I used the original Elements many centuries ago I could not wield their full power. The Elements take their power from the magic of friendship and the five virtues that bind friends together. Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, and Loyalty, are the five I know." Celestia nodded at Twilight's flank. She turned to look at her cutie mark. "And the sixth and most powerful element. Magic."
"Sixth?" Twilight looked forward again. "But I thought you said you gave the fragments of the Program to your aides? There were only five of them."
Celestia chuckled and knelt. "Is that so? Yes, I did indeed give the fragments to my aides. And in what capacity have you and I been working together these last few years, Twilight?" She winked. Twilight's jaw dropped. "You saved five of my aides and recovered their fragments. But you did not count yourself among their number, did you?"
"Then…" Twilight looked at Spike, who shrugged. "The sixth fragment…"
"It was a year ago I had the breakthrough of how to complete the Program. I no longer carried the magic of friendship in my heart, so of course I could not wield it at its full potential. But I knew of six ponies that could. They had scarcely ever met, yet their cutie marks displayed the ancient symbols of the Elements on their flank. Yours, Twilight, is the Element of Magic. When I realized all six of you had come into my service, I knew it was no coincidence."
Celestia stood up. "I embedded the fragments of the Program in my other five aides that you rescued, and a sixth within you. And over the last year it has grown and matured as all ponies do. When you resolved to defeat Discord and save Equestria, carrying all six fragments within you, the true light of Harmony was born again. Born of the bonds you formed with my other aides and focused with the power of alicorn magic, you completed the Harmony Program. All of you together created it."
Twilight's eyes were wide as she listened. "You knew… you knew all along. That's why you sent me to Ponyville, and encouraged me to keep going even when I had doubts. You knew I'd end up facing Luna so you set me to meet your other aides. I felt a connection to them every time I met them. You made sure I felt it, so I could use the Program when you compiled the fragments as one."
Celestia nodded. "You were always meant to complete my greatest work, Twilight. And you have done it admirably. I could not be prouder of you."
Twilight blushed furiously and looked away. "I just… did what I could."
"Which is more than I could ever have asked. With the Program completed, a new era of magical-technological innovation is on the horizon. There is no telling what we could discover now. But first…" Celestia walked to the door out of the lab. "There is a celebration to plan."
"You're really taking this the wrong way, Twi."
Twilight groaned at Spike's words. "The ruler of all Equestria has spent the last year grooming me to wield the most powerful magic in history! How am I supposed to take it!?"
"Be honored?"
Before Twilight could respond, there was a knock at her door. She tensed and slowly turned her head towards it. "Hello?"
"Twilight Sparkle? It's Rarity. I've brought some friends."
Twilight crept up to the security console set into the wall and called up the camera feed. Five familiar mares stood outside her door. She relaxed and pushed a few buttons to unlock the door. It swung back and the group came inside, Applejack at the front. She stopped and gestured a hoof towards the door as it shut. "Twilight, ah don't know if you've noticed, but there's some sorta crowd outside yer house."
Twilight slumped. "No, really?"
Rarity stepped forward. Twilight noticed a small metal rod held beside her in a telekinetic aura. A holo-text generator. "There's also this." She floated the generator over to Twilight, pressing a button on the end to extend the document. Twilight walked over and gawked at what she saw. It was a newspaper, the top displaying a video of her in her armor walking down the hallways of the Republic Headquarters. Twilight read the text scrolling up from the bottom.
"I…this… 'The Hero of Equestria! Mega Mare Saves Canterlot!'..." Twilight looked up, confused. "Mega Mare?"
"It's the name the media has coined for you," Rainbow Dash explained, waving a hoof in the air. "I would have gone with 'Iron Mare', or 'Power Pony'. 'Mega Mare' doesn't make any sense."
Twilight shook her head and closed the hologram, setting the projector on a table nearby and resuming her earlier pacing. "This is ridiculous. I can't be in the news! A week ago I was a lab aide who spent most of her time studying magical theory and tinkering with cybernetic scrap in her basement! This is just…" Twilight looked at the group. "Has anypony swamped you girls like this?" They shook their heads. "Please go tell them who you are, take the heat off me!"
Rarity rolled her eyes and nudged Rainbow. She laughed slightly. "Yeah, funny story there…"
"RD already tried that. They don't care who we are," Applejack said, giving the pony in question a sideways glance. Rainbow laughed nervously and looked away.
Twilight snorted. "That sounds fair."
"But you're the one who destroyed Discord, Twilight," Fluttershy said, coming closer.
Applejack nodded. "Yeah, our biggest role in things was to fight ya and get our flanks kicked."
"That's not true!" Twilight shook her head and looked between the five as she spoke. "I only fought you to restore you to your true selves. And I never could have gotten as far as I did with the weapons and skills Spike copied from you, not to mention your work on the Harmony Program. I may have defeated Discord, but I did it with the help of you five."
"And don't forget me!" Spike waved from Twilight's back. "Who do you think it was that was doing all that program copying and scanning enemies?"
Twilight chuckled and smiled at the hologram. "Of course, Spike. We made a great team out there."
"Hay yeah we did." Spike's projection crossed its claws and nodded smugly.
"Well next time some big bad comes around to try to take over Equestria, we're taking them on together." Rainbow Dash smirked and bumped her hooves together.
"Next time? I don't even want to think about 'next time' until 'this time' is over." Twilight shuddered. Her security console beeped, and Twilight groaned and pressed a button on it. "Hello?"
"Miss Sparkle? Lieutenant Valiant Spirit. Her Grace the Princess asked me to retrieve you for the ceremony preparations."
Twilight gulped at the voice coming from the console. "Well girls, this is it. Any last words for me girls before I get torn apart?"
Rainbow Dash tilted her head. "You're actually worried about every pony in Canterlot cheering for you?"
"Intensely."
The five looked between themselves. Applejack finally spoke up. "Well, if you're not up fer it, we did come here to tell ya somethin'."
Pinkie Pie grinned. "We're having a victory party in Ponyville! Wanna come?"
Twilight smiled. "I'd love to… if only there was a way out of here without being roped into the ceremony." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and flew to the far wall, tapping a hoof on the window there. Twilight blinked. "… That'll work."
"It will take time before you can take an active role in government again. We are a republic now and need to hold a vote on the matter. But between your restoration and my influence I am sure they will pass."
"… Are you sure they should?"
Luna turned her head to look at Celestia. The two sisters were in Luna's room at the top of the east tower of the Republic Headquarters. A cloak of preserving magic had kept the room precisely as Luna left it a millennium ago. Celestia had made sure she had access to the Equestrian Data Network to catch up on the last thousand years and invited Luna to explore the castle and speak with her anytime she wished. But Luna had kept to herself, taking meals in her room and only briefly leaving to visit the castle archives to gather physical records.
"Of course they should." Celestia approached her. "Luna, you're back. We can rule Equestria once again. Rule the way we were meant to: together. Do you not want that?"
"Perhaps, yes. One day. When I am ready." Luna gestured to the piles of old paper books she had retrieved from the archives. "I have much to catch up on, and…" Luna paused, looking at the floor. "I would prefer to be absolutely confident that there is no remnant of Discord's influence in me."
"There isn't. We removed the armor days ago, Luna, all physical and psychological examinations show you are perfectly normal now."
"Can we afford to be certain?" Luna sighed. "Discord was able to modify his own programming so even ponies without cybernetics fell under his influence. How do we know I am truly free of him? Who is to say he will not return someday? Even in the era of a thousand years ago, a program could be copied, backed up, hidden."
"If he is still out there somewhere, then we will defeat him again." Celestia put a hoof on Luna's back.
Luna looked at the ground. "Not we, no. Your student is an extraordinary pony. You should be very proud."
"I am. And I am happy that she has returned my sister to me." Celestia walked in front of Luna. "This is why this ceremony is not just to announce Twilight's heroics to Equestria. I will also be announcing your return."
"What?" Luna gaped and snapped her head up to stare at Celestia. "Sister, what are you thinking?"
"I am thinking the kingdom should see the two royal pony sisters standing together for the first time in a thousand years," Celestia replied.
"And when did you plan to tell me about this?"
"I just did." Celestia smiled. Luna slapped a hoof to her face. "I did not get my sister back after all this time just for her to become a recluse lurking in her bedroom." Celestia walked towards the door, glancing over her shoulder. "On the other hoof I cannot force you, can I? So I ask. Luna, will you join me in meeting our people?"
Luna took several seconds to answer. "I know better than to presume refusal would come at no cost to me."
Celestia raised an eyebrow as Luna walked past her. "Pardon?"
"I remember that little stunt you pulled at my birthday. No cook is so foolish as to confuse sugar with salt."
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." Celestia blinked innocently as the two sisters left the room. "Just as I'm sure you would have no idea what I meant if I brought up the time somepony hacked my private console and changed the first slide of the presentation for the yearly ambassador's meeting to the cover of the month's issue of Stallions of Equestria."
"You're right. I have absolutely no idea what you mean." Luna looked at Celestia out of the corner of her eye and gave a sly smile. Celestia laughed and draped a wing over her.
"I have missed you dearly, Luna."
"I should hope so."
As the two reached the end of the hall a guard pony galloped up to them. "Your Grace… er, Your Graces." He bowed deeply. "Valiant Spirit sent me a transmission about the ordered retrieval of your student, Twilight Sparkle." The guard's horn glowed, two buttons beeping on his armor. A hatch opened and he withdraw a holo-text generator. Celestia took it in her magic and pressed the button to play the message. Text and audio began to play as the message scrolled over the display.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
My deepest apologies, but I must decline your invitation to the ceremony today. Something of greater importance concerning your aides has come up that I must see to instead. Please do not send more guards to retrieve me, I'm recording this at the teleport station and will be gone by the time they arrive.
I will make it up to you soon. Until then if you need to contact me, I will be in Ponyville for the next day or so. Your aides have mentioned the town's library has been in a state of neglect since the last librarian retired a few months ago and I had an idea. I'm going to take a look at the conditions and see how poor they've become. You indicated a desire to see me study the Harmony Program. Presuming it may react with your aides as it did me and that it was our bond that empowered it, I think what I have in mind may be for the best for everypony. I'll explain more when I return. Until then, please give my regards to Luna and the citizens of Canterlot.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
Celestia finished reading the text and closed it, the generator floating back to the guard. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention." The guard bowed again and trotted away. Celestia walked down the passage, a door to an outside balcony before her.
"So Twilight Sparkle has left me to fend for myself in this celebration?" Luna sighed and followed. Celestia chuckled, earning a glare from Luna. "I do not find it very funny. The thought of returning to my room and magically barricading the door is very appealing."
"You'll do no such thing." Celestia looked at her as the two stopped at the balcony doors. "You are right where you belong."
"So you claim. And Twilight Sparkle?"
Celestia looked out the glass doors to the outside, sunlight streaming down on the two of them.
