1 - Stonewall Attack

Applejack - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville - Equestria

“♪♫ You were made to shine under Luna’s stars, // pure as the mountain rain. // You're the love songs pouring out of this guitar, // sweeter than sugarcane. ♫♪”

My eyes slowly peeled open as the old country song warbled from our clock radio. Exactly six in the morning. On the dot. How the hay Dash had owned this thing for the last sixteen years and managed to be late to everything was beyond me.

I laid in bed for a few moments, enjoying the song and the first few rays of sunlight shining through the window, and my mare snuggled up close to my side hogging half our blankets. This was almost the perfect way to wake up. All I was missing was the smell of dark roasted coffee and cowboy toast from the kitchen.

Dash groaned, twisting in bed for a few moments before reaching out and swatting the top of the clock shutting off the music.

“Ugh… I get to set the station next week,” she moaned, smacking her lips several times after finishing her sentence. “Why is my mouth so dry?”

“Ah told you it was a bad idea to try that fancy hooch before bed,” I giggled, giving Dash’s mane a playful tussle.

“I’m not hungover. It feels like I ate sand,” she groaned as she sat up, stretching her wings slowly. “Did Scoots-”

“She moved out a year ago, sugar,” I reminded sitting up as well. “Nopony’s here to make breakfast.”

“I know, it’s just hard to get over thirteen years of habit. She would always burn everything slightly. Heh,” Dash reminisced.

I couldn’t see it but I knew there was that happy little grin on her face, hiding out behind her mask of smug.

“And you’d always eat it then take her right to flight practice. Did ya’ll ever actually do anything together or did she just watch you?” I asked with a slight frown.

I’d never thought to ask that before.

“Eh… We did ground drills together. You can still learn plenty from the ground. Wing positioning and movements, if you run fast enough you can learn to read air currents while you fly, that kind of thing,” Dash said with a wave of her hoof before standing up. “I mean, I knew she wasn’t going to be flying without some kind of surgery. But I wasn’t going to tell her that.”

“And now she’s fly’n all by herself,” I said proudly.

“Damn straight! Doctor Lily might have been the one to make her wings work but she sure as hay knew how to use them thanks to me!” Dash exclaimed with a proud grin.

“You taught her too well,” I teased. “She beat you in that drag race after all.”

“Heh, yeah, sure, she’s faster over shorter distances… In the air,” Dash said proudly, flicking her tail in what I knew was an expression of pride for both her and Scootaloo’s accomplishments.

I frowned slightly and turned to look Dash in the eyes. There was something we needed to really talk about. “Dash, sugar, when are you gonna tell me how you got to be fast on the ground to? Don’t you think I deserve to know?” I asked pleading with my eyes.

Dash frowned sadly. “I-I… I can’t. You know I promised to keep it a secret. I already told you my uncle showed me a family secret. That’s all I’m allowed to say. I’m sorry. I really am, but a promise is a promise,” Dash explained again, ears falling flat.

“Ah know,” I sighed. “But you know how important family is to an Apple. I want to meet him some day. We could invite him to a family reunion, you know everypony would be happy to meet someone on your side of the family.

“Heck, especially your mom’s side. It’s pretty darn crazy you found him. Ah mean, your dad didn’t even know your mom’s name. Um, it was a one night stand, right?”

Dash nodded slowly. “Yeah. They just hooked up the once. But mom’s not a jerk or anything. I got to talk to her once. It took her a lot of time and effort to get me back to my dad, and she honestly couldn’t hope to raise me herself.”

Ah ha! She was opening up a bit. Maybe I could pry a little bit more out of her!

“Oh really? Well did ya get her name?” I asked curiously.

Dash snickered. “Yeah. It’s Speed.”

“Ponyfeathers,” I snorted rolling my eyes. “Ya’ll expect me to believe that?”

“No, it really is,” Dash giggled. “She really is named Speed.”

I felt a grin part my cheeks as I sensed Dash was telling the truth. Just one perk of being the Element of Honesty post Rainbow Powers.

“Heh, so I reckon your uncle is named Velocity or something?” I asked jokingly.

“Nah,” Dash smirked shaking her head. “His name is Barry.”

“Berry?” I asked with a frown. “Weird, most siblings names are similar.”

“Different culture, different names,” Dash said with a shrug and a grin.

“Yeah, but when you name one kid Speed, and the other after a bit of a plant- Oh! Is he an earth pony? Is that why he’s embarrassed to show his face around these parts? Cuz he’s not a pegasus like everypony else in your family?” I asked, just a bit too probingly.

Dash’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Clever girl! Taking advantage of a sleepy mare like that. Okay, no, he’s not a pegasus. But that’s not why I can’t introduce you. He lives really really really far away,” Dash explained.

I raised one eyebrow as I gave Dash a suspicious look. “You visit him all the time. In fact, I think you’re going to have lunch with him today,” I said accusingly.

Dash rolled her eyes and vanished with a rush of wind, leaving behind a blue streak. She rarely moved at her full speed, I always forgot exactly how fast she was when she didn’t care to take in the scenery or just ‘relax’. Less than a blink later Dash returned, almost seeming to have teleported back as she appeared hovering over my left shoulder holding a to-go cup of coffee.

“Oh yeah, distance is such a problem for me, AJ. Here, have some coffee. Don’t worry I left money on the counter,” Dash teased with a giggle. “No, but really, I can get there if a few minutes if I want to just book it flat out. I mean, I actually AM the fastest mare alive. But anypony else… Yeah, that’s going to take a long while to get there.”

“Fair enough, I reckon,” I said with a sigh as I accepted the coffee. “But you tell him the Apples will pay for an airship ticket if he ever wants to stop being a hermit. He doesn't have to tell everypony your whole speed trick thing.”

Dash frowned slightly. “Well… You are my wife, and You’re not THAT heavy. I could maybe carry you-”

My eyes narrowed in playful anger. “Ya’ll calling me fat?”

“No, I’m calling you a slab of meat!” Dash exclaimed with a grin. “Seriously AJ, if we trimmed your fur back a bit, I think you’d make most stallions jealous with those muscles.”

I laughed. “Yeah, reckon so. Course they could spend thirty years working a farm too.”

Dash’s grin shrank back to a happy smile as the last few flicks of sleep were blinked out of her eyes. Both of us were early risers. Me for the farm, her for morning exercise.

“Sooo… Finishing up the fertilizer today?” Dash asked curiously.

I nodded and took a sip of the honestly disgusting coffee. Ugh, the Hayburger had the worst roasts. You’d think Dash would have just made some in the kitchen instead of running out to town and back. But then she wouldn’t have shown off her speed.

“Yeah, just got about two hundred more trees to go. Then next week we gotta mulch the younger trees and after that, nothing to do but wait and check for critters nibbling on the trees. And spread that earth pony magic around every few days or so,” I said as I nursed the coffee to avoid hurting her feelings.

Dash’s ears perked happily. “Two hundred… So that means you’ll only be about six hours. No, eight, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I got to take care of a few other chores in a few minutes but I should be all done by about two this afternoon. Why? Didja want to set up a date night?” I asked hopefully.

I’d been so busy the last few months that we couldn’t really go out and have any fun. A nice afternoon out would definitely be a welcome change of pace.

“Yeah! I was thinking we could go see a movie. You haven't seen one before, and they just opened a theater in Ponyville last month. It could be fun! It’s like a radio play, only you get to see things too!” Dash said with an excited smile and twitch of her wings.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Dash, I know what a movie is. I talk to other ponies, you know. I guess we could try it out. As long as we do something nice afterward, like get a nice dinner. Not the Hayburger, something actually, you know, good,” I said as firmly as I could manage.

Why an athlete like Dash loved fast food so much, and how she kept her figure eating like she did, I’ll never know.

“Awesome! Meet back here at two then?” She asked with an adorably huge grin.

I nodded. “Sure thing, sugar. And I’ll even wash the dust off before you get back. Cuz we both know you’ll still be late. Somehow.”

“Oh,” Dash’s ears drooped with embarrassment. “Well uh, about that… I kinda overestimate my speed and leave a few milliseconds before I’m supposed to be somewhere because I assume I’ll just be able to get there that quick, but um… Usually, it takes a few minutes because I’m too lazy to just go full speed.”

I rolled my eyes then gave Dash a kiss on her nose. “It’s okay, I’m just teas’n,” I chuckled. “See you later.”

“See ya!” Dash exclaimed eagerly, zipping out of our bedroom again, this time with only her usual rainbow colored blur.

One of these days, I had to get Twilight to work out why that blur went from rainbow colored to cyan as she sped up. Not exactly a pressing question, but still a real head scratcher.

I finished the crappy coffee, if only to be properly awake then headed out of our cloud house myself. Dash had been so attached to her home. I didn’t think it was possible to love a lump of random clouds you pushed together so much, but she’d refused to move out, and I’d refused to leave the farm.

I thought we would have to break our relationship off until she pushed her house onto the barn roof and tied it down. It had taken a bit of getting used to, stepping on clouds feels oddly spongy even with a cloudwalking charm on your earring. I’d still prefer a nice hardwood floor, but at least everything stayed nice and clean.

You know, since anything not enchanted properly just falls straight through the house and out the bottom.

Of course, that meant I had to clean out the barn roofs gutters every few weeks… That was chore number one for today.

After getting the hose and spraying down each gutter to be sure that water was still flowing through them, I went about everything else that had to be done first thing. Check on our cows, make sure they had all finished milking and that each one produced their day’s rent, feed the chickens, make sure granny was still alive (and get yelled at for disturbing her apple stew despite that recipe not being bothered none if you bump the pot), all the usual stuff.

I missed Applebloom.

Course I didn’t hate her for moving in with Sweetie Belle or nothing, but there was just a bit more farm work than big Mac and I could do on our own. The third pair of hooves had really done a lot around here. Sure, we hired field hooves to do a lot, but they didn’t live here, and we paid them to tend to the trees. Two ponies can’t manage a hundred and fifty hectares on their own, so I couldn’t justify getting one of them to stop working on their section for a day to weed the garden or paint the barn.

Maybe Dash wouldn’t mind adopting another filly. She’d liked raising Scoots.

Then again, she’s basically already been her mom for years before that became official. I’d have to ask. If it weren't a one-off thing, we could use some more help around here. And I’d rather pay somepony in affection good home cook’n and lasso lessons to take care of the chores than fork over another salary's worth bits to hire a handy stallion.

I managed to finish up the farmyard chores just a bit sooner than I’d estimated and got on to working the orchard. Most ponies don’t appreciate how much work goes into growing good apples. There’s a lot of sitting about and wait'n each year, but then there’s the entire months of hard work to make sure each tree is all good for the growing season.

That was what I was up to today. Pulling around a cart of compost to make a good ring around each and every last tree, and sprinkle just a little fertilizer around them too. None of that science crap, just a little powdered limestone, and saltpeter. Nothing any traditional pony would ever object too.

Of course, the cart only held enough compost for about six or so trees at once. Most of the day’s work was just walking back and forth between a storage shed near the barn and all the way back to the golden delicious grove bordering the rear of the farm, and the Everfree Forest.

Sometimes I thought about trying to clear enough of the Everfree to expand the farm a little. Or maybe just enough to get the zap apple grove free from everything else. If it were safe to be around those trees, I was darn certain we could plant more of them and get them to grow properly. Granny’s superstitions about the trees couldn’t possibly ALL be right and we could definitely use the bits a unique apple product would send our way.

Of course, then we would lose out on having something special for ourselves. A hard call to make.

You’d think a mare who saved the whole Kingdom multiple times would get some kind of living stipend from the Crown. But no.

Ah well, what kind of pony are you if you can’t stand on your own four hooves? Even if help would be nice to have, it’s better to be strong, independent, and skilled. That way if the support you do have topples over one day, you still can manage on your own.

A few hours had passed, and based on my count I was almost half done. If I could just keep this pace up I’d be able to get a good shower in and get dried off before Dash came back. A little sweat never bothered me none, but she liked it when I smelled nice for a date.

Pulling alongside the next tree to care for, I slipped the cart off my back and started to walk around the side to get to shovel’n when Big Mac’s unmistakeable voice reached my ears.

“AJ, back fence got torn up. Could use some help fix’n it,” he said in that blunt monotone of his.

Turning my head in his direction I frowned slightly. “Ya can’t do it yourself? How bad is it?” I asked, worried a timberwolf or something had made off with a half kilometer of the fence again.

“Lotta new fence posts ta dig,” Big Mac explained with a shrug. “Be faster if we both do it.”

“Well, I kinda told Dash we could go out this afternoon. How much work are we talk’n? I’m a bit ahead of schedule,” I said with a weary sigh.

We couldn’t not fix the damn fence. All kinds of critters make their way in without a proper fence up. It’s hard enough dealing with the flying pests that want to eat the whole orchard without also needing to deal with the crawling ones.

“Bout an hour, if ya help. Ah got the chicken wire and posts already. Just a lotta digg’n,” Big Mac grunted.

I frowned suspiciously. Mac didn’t seem quite right. Sure, fixing the fence would get me rather pissed too, but it seemed like he also had something planned for today.

“Uh, you gonna go down to see Miss Cheerly or something later?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Right, I’ll help ya out then,” I decided, giving him a nod. I wasn’t about to saddle my brother with work if it meant he had to miss out on his sweetheart.

He nodded and turned to walk towards the rear of the property. I followed along behind him, the orderly rows of trees forming a nice canopy overhead. I always loved walking through the orchard, it's more relaxing than you’d imagine. Especially when each of the currently living trees was one you raised yourself.

The rows of trees suddenly ended, parting away to reveal the narrow patch of cleared earth between the farm and the Everfree. And the absolutely fine fence.

Huh. Well, maybe this section was okay and it was just broken further up or down the line.

I looked left. Nope.

I looked right. Also fine.

My lips pursed in confusion. What in tarnation?

“Ya’ll planning a surprise party or something?” I asked, turning around to see if the girls had hidden behind some trees to surprise me with a picnic lunch or something.

“Or something,” somepony’s voice mocked.

My head snapped towards the unknown voice. My eyes locked onto Big Mac’s hate filled sneering face. I blinked, shock freezing me in my place as I tried to process that glaring sneer on my brother’s face.

My eyes opened. Big Mac was gone. Another stallion stood in his place.

An Earth Pony, average looking in all respects save for the single shade of black which colored his coat, his short meticulously combed hair, and the straight, short cut tail. The only bit of color on his entire body was his bright red hate filled eyes, and the gleaming white of his sharpened teeth.

My heart sped up, terror and anger mixing in my guts as he glared at me with a predator's smile.

An illusion! But how? He wasn’t a unicorn… He had to have magical items. And he’d replaced Big Mac to get to me!

“You better not have hurt my brother!” I shouted, ears flattening in rage while my eyes narrowed.

I grit my teeth and began to charge forwards, raising a hoof to try and knock the mother bucker out before he could do anything.

His eye’s dilated slightly. My entire body went limp, crashing into the dirt like a rag doll. I tried to stand, but I couldn’t even blink. My lungs began to burn as my body screamed at me to breathe but I couldn’t even inhale.

“I haven’t touched your brother, not since he was a pile of cells at least. Thanks for being such a traditional family, by the way. It’s hard to engage in one of my favorite kinds of passive torment these days. Heh, that will soon be remedied,” the stallion giggled gleefully.

Slow creeping horror overtook me as I realized I was completely paralyzed. The world began to turn gray.

“Oh, that’s right! Mortals need air,” the stallion snickered as if holding back a larger laugh.

Suddenly I could breathe again! I gasped for breath, nearly choking on the first few breaths while color came back to the world.

“There we go. I don’t want you dead. Then that pesky Element of Honesty would go to somepony else,” the stallion said mockingly as he stepped over my still refusing to move body.

Come on, Applejack! Force through this bucking magic and punch that motherbucker right in one of his freakish eyes!

The stallion seemed to notice my efforts and laughed, bending down to look directly into my eyes. “Awww, isn't that precious! You think you can resist me. And that anger? So cute! It’s too bad being adorable won’t save you,” he mocked.

Could I speak? I could breathe, maybe I could… “W-what… do you think… you… can… get away… with?” I gasped, jaw and tongue barely responding to my attempts to make them move.

“Using you as a disguise,” he answered flatly.

The bastard was going to vanish me and replace me. Oh, bucking Celestia I was dealing with a hostile changeling! Wait, that was a good thing.

I couldn’t smile, but I could laugh. “Hah. You… think… Twilight won’t… spot a...changeling? Ya'll stupid!” I managed to gasp.

The stallion sat down, seemingly happy to talk while I tried to do anything at all. He wanted to watch me squirm. Sick bastard.

“Oh, I’m certain she could. If I were a changeling,” he chuckled. “Thing is, I’m not. And you will register by all means mundane and arcane as, well, yourself. Besides, your little friend is not omniscient. She won’t know a damn thing until I want her to. Do you understand the pickle you’re in, you little protozoa you?”

The buck was a protozoa? “Yeah well… Discord… is,” I countered triumphantly.

“Pff!” The stallion snorted, a genuine smile flashing across his face. “Oh please. Nothing is actually omniscient! The entire concept is paradoxical. You can’t know if there is something you don’t know, and so by the very definition of the term, omniscience is impossible. Only something as intellectually inferior as a mortal would even believe such a thing was possible in the first place.

“Discord’s erratic and eclectic knowledge won't help you. Even if I didn’t arrange for him to be, well, we both know he has a history of getting stoned. Heh, get it?”

I did get it. And it was funny. But I didn’t laugh because buck this asshole.

Come on leg! Move! Kick the bucker’s sternum through his spine!

“Just kill me… already,” I spat, wishing I could glare at him.

He slowly shook his head back and forth. “So stupid… I already told you that I’m not going to kill you. Less than a minute ago even. But then again, I chose you out of your friends partly because you’re an idiot.

“Only an idiot would make an enemy of me by befriending Twilight and then live fifteen minutes outside of the safety of a town. Then work in an isolated patch of woods where nopony could ever hear her scream,” he mocked, glaring at me with a hunger that shook me to the core.

Wasn’t going to kill me? Wouldn’t hear me scream? OH, BUCK NO!

MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! WHY CAN’T I MOVE?!

“Because I disabled your motor cortex,” the stallion replied.

How the hay had he heard my thoughts!?

“Also, I’m not going to rape you. That’s a very boring thing to do. Though admittedly it IS fun to watch. Now hold still or this will hurt. Oh yes, that’s right. It will hurt anyways. Heh!” He said with a disgusting lick of his upper lip.

He reached out and grabbed my head with a hoof. Immediately burning pain erupted all throughout my body, radiating outwards from where his hoof rested on my head.

No, rested in my head.

OH GOD HE WAS FORCING HIS WAY INTO MY SKULL!

I felt his hoof squish into my brain! My actual literal brain!

My body jerked involuntarily, thrashing in agony. Stars exploded in my eyes, purple flames engulfed everything I could see, the sky, the ground, the back of my eye sockets.

Everything went black. The twisting, bubbling, burning agony was still there. But dulled. Like a headache aspirin couldn’t quite defeat.

“Hmmm…” My voice mused. “It looks like I have access to less of my powers than I hoped.”

But I hadn’t said that.

“Come on, use your brain. You’ll figure it out. I made sure you’re still in there. It’s more fun this way,” my voice laughed.

What was going on!?

“Oh please! I’m not wrapped around this organ too tightly. You really are an idiot. I was only mocking you before but now, honestly…” My voice insulted. “Did I scramble your brains a bit? Or maybe you’ll need to see to remember.”

The blackness vanished like somepony had switched on the lights. I was standing on the edge of the orchard, looking at the Everfree and-

My forelegs were moving of their own accord!

<Get out of my body!> I screamed.

“My body now. Good job working out how to speak in ‘words’. There’s hope for you yet,” the monster which stole my body mocked.

“The name is Dawn,” he replied. <Oh, and I can direct my thoughts at you too. So don’t think you can do anything special. You’re just along for the ride as a tool and a hostage.>

<What are you?> I demanded fearfully.

He moved again, walking in a small circle, seemingly having a little trouble doing something so simple.

“I’m a god,” he replied with a blunt honest truth that I could feel at the very least he completely believed to be true. "As for which one, well… You are aware of serial killers, right? They are my beloved disciples. And it’s time for my plans to move forward. Your friend Twilight has forced my hooves.

“Oh and you’re rather lucky. You’re getting a first-row seat for this armageddon."

<Yeah, right. You’re just a deluded sadist. Twilight will kick your plot until you->

A sudden flood of memories shot through me like they were being blasted from a hose. I saw three entire species births. Their rises. And their falls. All with the monster wearing my body directing each and every moment like a bard writing a play.

I recoiled in horror. Withdrawing as much of myself as I could back into my own mind. I didn’t even know I could do that.

“Now that you’re properly up to speed, I think I need to go tailor my new suit. It’s rather disgusting as is,” Dawn mused aloud, resting a hoof against his chin. “Hmmm… Full creative freedom. I have never had this before.

“See, as long as I’m inside you, my superiors will only see a mortal doing things, not me. They would destroy me in an instant, which means if I want to act, I need a mortal body. We don’t care what you byproducts of planetary formation do. You’re not remotely important.

“Which means inside you, well, I can do anything I like! Almost… Perhaps I can shape your form to permit some of the powers I would like to have. Or at least create functional equivalents.

“Oh! Yes, yes. That will have to wait just a little bit. Would you like to see your friend Discord be taken care of? It’s a pity Tirek is in Tartarus, he’d love to see this.”

He started to walk towards the Everfree forest, my body moving in jerky awkward motions which sent spikes of pain through me with each step.

“We’ll get a good view from above the Everfree,” Dawn said as if we were on some sort of happy nature walk. “Besides, I need to find her anyways. You’re not the only person I’m hijacking today.”

He was going to subject somepony else to this form of Tartarus!? I had to find a way to stop him!

“Good luck with that,” Dawn said, twisting my mouth into a pleased grin. “Do you know how fast you can run? I need to be somewhere in about ten minutes. No? Ah well, I guess we’ll learn. Don’t worry if we rip up your insides while I push you past those silly little biological limits. I’ll patch you up. I don’t like to wear rags.”

Twilight Sparkle - 18th of Snowfall, 15 EoH

Mount Spur - Tartarus

We had only been here for around two days. And yet this wet, shoddily built command center within the old crystal caves atop Mount Spur was already one of the most disgusting places I had ever been.

Wet, cold, dark, and of course I was here because everything had failed, Tartarus had broken loose, and the world was literally falling to pieces outside.

“Celestia, are our future selves secured?” I asked eyes focused intently.

Wow, that was the weirdest thing to say and actually mean it. Then again, we were in Tartarus, and it was the end of the world.

“Yes. They are all asleep and can be easily moved,” Celestia replied with a sad sigh. “I- I hope this is what they were steering us to do all this time.”

Probably not. They had resisted my plan to leave our dying universe. Hence why we had to knock them all out. I wasn’t about to leave anypony to suffer in this world. Not when I could bring them with me.

“I hope your spell will work as you think it will,” Luna groaned. “I can’t keep this shield spell bolstered forever.”

Luna grit her teeth after speaking, hunching over one of the tables set up inside the spacious cave. Her horn sparkled and glittered as her focus wavered.

“Luna! Careful. I don’t have the energy to make another shield,” Shining warned feebly, frowning up at Luna from where he lay on the floor. “It’s holding back… Whatever that spell is. Took everything I had.”

I winced. I did not need my brother to remind me that we were only alive right now because his shield was keeping out whatever spell Grogar was using to literally dissolve the world into nothing…

I cleared my throat and turned to my friends. Thankfully everypony had made it out of the Phoenix alive. I should never have trusted her… We could have avoided so much danger.

“Girls, are you ready?” I asked.

“Everypony’s ready to go when you are, Twilight,” Trixie confirmed, nodding along with everypony else.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. “Alright, girls, rainbow forms. Keep it up as long as you can. It will take me about ten minutes to rip a hole between dimensions. As soon as it opens, Trixie, Dash, Scootaloo, and I will enter and clear the other side. Give us twenty seconds and the follow. Understood?”

“We’re all on the same page, sugarcube,” Applejack said with a grim nod. “We’ve gone over the plan four times now.”

“Yes, but, no sense in not being triple certain,” I laughed bitterly. “Right, three… two… one… GO!”

I felt the Element’s power trickle slowly to me rather than come to me in a rushing wave like it normally did. My fur glittered slightly, but nothing like normal.

“The Tree of Harmony must be within the disintegration spell now,” Celestia said urgently. “You’d better hurry. It won't last more than a few minutes at most.”

I closed my eyes and reached for the artifact’s connection to my friends and I. It was time to build our escape tunnel. Thank the gods I’d found out the closest universe to our own had an oddly thin patch in it. It could be breached. We could survive. We could plan.

We could come back one day, and take revenge upon Grogar and his master, Dawn.

All I needed was ten minutes.

Lyra Heartstrings - October 12th, 2028

Ponyville - Mirror Equestria

My pickup rumbled as I pulled into the parking lot of Greasy Joe’s Diner. It had been years since I’d come back to Ponyville for anything. I imagine every high schooler thinks they will keep in touch with their friends all the time, I sure did. But I didn’t, and I had a better reason to than most.

Pinkie, Rarity, and I had an invitation to the world on the other side of the portal. And we’d never cashed it in. Hell, we had a way of having pen pals with magical fucking creatures and we still never went.

It would have been so easy. The portal was opened permanently by Princess Twilight years ago. We could have gone any time. But nooo… Pinkie had been right. ‘If Princess Twilight sees us there she’ll send us back. She asked us not to follow her, and I’m pretty sure the portal’s other side is in her bedroom.’

Stupid fear… We had let opportunity after opportunity slip by. Then we all grew up.

Pinkie stayed in town, getting a job at a sandwich shop. One of the crappy non-franchise ones that can’t afford to pay its employees a living wage.

Rarity’s parents were wealthier than we had even thought and after high school they literally had moved to an estate on a private island in the Bahamas.

At least I’d stayed close to Ponyville. I had spent the last ten years working as a park ranger, hoping that one day I’d get the guts to pony up and go through that portal and tell the super powerful alicorn princess that she can stuff it because I’m checking out the world of my dreams.

But it’s hard to do that without a good push. Last night we had finally got that good push.

I had always wondered why no one accidentally stumbled through the portal. Turns out it had been charmed or something. You had to have WANTED to go through it, or at least known it was there. That charm failed, some kid fell through it while live streaming a vlog.

Everyone thought it was a joke. Clever computer generated graphics and some fancy code to gimmick the live stream. Then some detective’s kid went through an hour after the first video exploded social media, brought back something, and took it to the cops.

And that something managed to be actual proof of aliens. Somehow. The fact that THIS of all things is what finally got the boots on the ground scrambling blew my mind. Roswell has an actual spacecraft crash in the middle of the town, nothing. Some kid brings a police station a thing, SEND IN THE MARINES!

No conspiracy this time. Everyone knew it was real. The police had the portal cordoned off, evacuated everything in a mile radius and according to the news the army was already inbound.

If we were ever going to see our Sunset again, we had to go now. Before the army arrived, evacuated everyone, and walled that portal off. Also, someone needed to warn Princess Twilight to close her end of the portal.

If only so the basic plot of Gate doesn't happen for real.

The three of us had one hell of a hard conversation last night. No matter what else happened, I was going to go. The warning had to be delivered, and I would never have another chance. I was almost thirty and I still wanted to see a land of magic, talking ponies, and adventure. This wasn’t a phase, it was a true calling. I would never be happy here.

According to the radio, I had ten minutes before the army arrived. If my old high school friends were not here and in my pickup in the next minute, I was going alone.

I saw a flash of pink through the diner window. Pinkie’s hair. Unmistakeable. Especially at this ungodly hour in the morning.

Good, that was one. What about-

The diner door opened and Rarity quickly walked out, her white long coat looking like it was more expensive than my goddamn truck. She glanced left and right urgently before her eyes settled on my pickup and she smiled despite her worried eyes. A second later and Pinkie bumped into her from behind. They started to argue, I honked the horn rapidly.

“Come on! Clock’s ticking!” I shouted out the window.

We didn’t have time for this nonsense!

Fortunately, the two got the message and rushed to my truck. The side door opened in an instant as Rarity practically tore the door open and threw herself inside my old N50 Hilux.

“I told daddy I wanted to have one of their milkshakes in case the town's gone by tomorrow! My bodyguard went to pee, go before he think’s you’re kidnapping me!” She hissed urgently.

I closed my eyes tightly. God. Fucking. Damn it.

“Rarity, we’re already going to be ramming a police barricade… Why?” I asked, knowing the answer wouldn’t be forthcoming.

Pinkie looked into the cabin, noticed the space behind the seats was full of my own gear, then threw a duffle bag into the truck bed, then pulled herself inside my truck’s cab and shut the door behind her. “Hihi, Ly! Long time no see! Did you mail all the letter I sent you?” She asked.

“Yeah, every one of them. You should know this. I mailed you all of the replies,” I grunted as I shifted into reverse and backed out of the parking space, narrowly avoiding hitting a Prius.

I almost giggled at the thought of hitting the Prius. This truck was known to eat lesser cars for breakfast. I wasn’t sure if there was anything you could do to actually break a Hilux.

“Oh no! There he is!” Rarity yelped, reaching across the cab to grab me by my old olive jacket’s sleeve. “Drive!”

I didn’t bother looking, I turned the wheel and floored it. We left the parking lot with a screech of rubber, peeling out slightly before the tires bit into the blacktop and we lurched fords.

I didn’t bother looking back to see if her bodyguard was following us. The roads were mostly empty right now, and I had a place to be. I also had a conversation to have.

“Okay, girls,” I began pausing to take a sharp right hand turn to get on the road leading to Canterlot High. “This isn’t your standard camping trip. There is every possibility that once we get through that portal we won't get to come back. But at least one of us has to go and warn Twilight before they decide to drive a tank through that portal.

“I’ll do it. I should have gone years ago. I’m all packed, I have all my things. Now there is a slight chance that we could get to go home one day. But I want you to pretend that there is not. Are you prepared to spend the rest of your life in another universe, as another species? If you are not. I’ll pull over and let you out.”

My two passengers were quiet for a minute. Knight’s engine roared eagerly as we shot down the long straightway, buildings flashing by in an instant.

“I’m pretty sure I can get back on my own… I’ve learned a few tricks,” Pinkie said with a small nod that I caught out of the corner of my eye. “Besides, I’m already here!”

Heh, yeah that was Pinkie. But I’d really said it for Rarity. After all, she was miss ‘I'm going to mail a random old friend diamond encrusted panties for Christmas’. I couldn’t imagine wanting to leave THAT kind of wealth behind.

Or wanting to wear those panties.

“A fresh life is exactly what I need right now, Lyra,” Rarity said sadly, her head hanging and eyes closed. “I know you’re probably jealous of my life, but it’s a prison! I had to promise to go to business school next year, and then sign an actual notarized contract just to be allowed to come out here for one milkshake and even then he made me take a bodyguard… I’m just my father's ‘second life’. It’s no way to live. I’m going.”

“Alright,” I said with a nod. “Then buckle up. Because my plan of entry is going to be bumpy.”

Rarity turned to look at me, frowning with concern. “Darling, you’re going to get out and run through with your bag, right?”

I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the road ahead. I could just now make out the police barricade. Two squad cars blocked the road, and they were setting up sandbags on either side, getting ready for the army, or marines, or whatever you sent for humanity's first confirmed encounter with something supernatural.

“See those cops? They have guns. We’ve seen Twilight take a cart about as wide and tall as my truck through with her. It’s clear that something roughly this size will fit through that portal. I’m driving through it,” I explained with a determined narrowing of my eyes.

“Oh! Um, w-well I guess that does make sense. It was a fairly large cart. Bigger than the statue. I guess you only need to get part of something into the opening and intend for it to move through… Or does someone have to pull it themselves?” Rarity asked worriedly. “Oh, I do hate not knowing the rules of magic!”

Fuck! If I went for the sandbags, I’d be at the wrong angle to make the turn and hit the statue. They’d have time to open fire on us before I could get turned around. I had to ram the cars… Could I pull that off?

Maybe. I used my old girl to move through the park off road. I had a reinforced grill guard that was basically a ram…

Yes! If I hit dead center between the two cars I should be able to use the slight space between the two of them to force the cars aside, then quickly pull into the portal.

“Didn’t you actually have magical powers for about a year?” I asked quizzically.

“Yepperoni! But they wore off before any of us could learn how they worked,” Pinkie lamented with a sad sigh. “Then the old group kind of broke up and- Oh my gosh! Lyra, are you going to ram those cars!?”

Pinkie’s frightened yelp made Rarity turn as white as her jacket.

“Lyra! Don’t! The sandbags, go for the sandbags!” She pleaded.

“No can do. The angle is all wrong. Pushing the cars out of the way will take less time than driving over the sandbags. This isn’t GTA Seven,” I explained.

“Why are you even thinking about traveling through a magical portal in a damaged pickup truck!?” Rarity asked, eyes wide with terror.

I rolled my eyes. “This is a Nineteen-eighty-eight Toyota Hilux N-fifty diesel. I’ve seen one crashed, drowned in the sea, driven through a shed, lit on fire, and then dropped from the top of a high-rise apartment building. She started up and drove off. I bought one immediately and coated every bit of her but the glass parts with Line-X. We’re fine.”

“Lyra, this is not the time for one of your crazy stories!” Rarity panicked.

“This thing’s forty years old!?” Pinkie exclaimed at the same time, a steep frown parting her lips.

“Yeah,” I laughed giving her a reassuring grin. “Not joking. Top Gear. Series Three, Episode Five. Watch it. These trucks are fucking indestructible!

“Brace yourself against the dashboard. Last time I had to ram a downed tree I cut my forehead on the steering wheel.”

I floored the gas pedal. The girls screamed loudly as we barreled down towards the parked cars. Several officers turned to look as the roaring deasil engine bore down on them. Two dove out from behind the squad cars just as we slammed into the parked cars, steel sparking as reinforced grill met armored panels with a sound like a bowling ball slamming into concrete.

A massive jolt shot through the truck, shaking everyone and throwing us forwards. I braced against the steering wheel, managing to keep us moving straight as my truck’s momentum shoved the squad cars aside, not all the way, but enough where a good stomp on the gas pushed us through, metal shrieking as we slid between the two cars bumpers.

A second jolt shook the truck as we popped free. Knight rumbled, her engine sounding almost proud as we lurched forwards, picking up speed as the super loud reports of nine-millimeter shots filled the air. Several thudding against the truck.

“Duck!” I shouted,hunching down as much as I dared.

Line-X coated steel might be able to stop smaller handgun rounds with some luck, but the windows were plain old tempered glass!

I felt my heart try to jump up into my throat. What the fuck was I doing? I was a twenty-eight year old park ranger! Not James motherfucking Bond! I was so gonna die here!

I joined my friends in their screaming as I whipped the wheel around, throwing my pickup into a sharp u-turn, skidding across the grass amid a hail of gunfire as I turned us towards the statue placed in the courtyard.

This was it.

Portal time!

I floored the gas one more time. Hopefully Twilight wouldn't be mad about the property damage once we warned her about the army.

Twilight Sparkle - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville - Equestria

I was enjoying the whole ‘year and a half without a disaster’ trend we had going today. I’m a mare of science, not a mare of action. Not to say I wasn’t happy to help save Equestria, or anywhere else for that matter. I was proud to be a hero.

But I still liked time to enjoy personal projects and well, enjoy life!

So many things had happened in the last two years that I wanted to learn about, and even without disasters left and right there was plenty happening now that I didn’t want to think about. Burying myself in my projects was a great way to forget about that crazy pony who tried to have me assassinated, Flash’s failing health-

“Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked me with a concerned frown and worried eyes.

Well, not quite Fluttershy. An android replica of her from a parallel universe. Wait, what?

I blinked. Yes. I was in my den. Working on a project. Good.

“I uh, well, basically. It’s been a hard year for me,” I admitted to the android.

She nodded sympathetically. “I heard. I’m sorry about your foals… Did you imprison or execute that assassin?”

I raised an eyebrow in concern. “Imprison. Obviously!”

She pursed her lips and nodded. It was amazing just how lifelike her movements were! If you couldn’t see the slight seams between parts of her fur coating, you’d be absolutely certain she was an organic pony with prosthetic eyes.

“You’re different from our Twilight. She would have had him executed. She took treason very seriously,” she noted eyes looking lost in thought.

I frowned. I knew almost nothing about the world she’d came from. Sure, I’d known parallel universes existed, after all, I did visit one myself. Several times in fact. But when Lyra came to me to introduce her long lost sister who had grown up in a completely different universe… Well, I’d needed to know the whole story.

Especially since her sister wasn’t a pony thanks to growing up where she did.

And doubly especially when her sister mentioned she was dating an android version of Fluttershy. I most definitely had to meet and examine that!

So here we were. Two weeks later. I was so happy she didn't mind me inspecting her. So much new science could be discovered in just one afternoon!

Ohhh! Did I build her? That would be amazing!

“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but did your universe's version of me build you?” I asked hopefully.

She smiled and shook her head, giggling a little.

By Celestia, when she moved she looked just like a slightly fat Fluttershy. It’s a good thing she wore that light green hoodie and the leaf green dog collar. Otherwise, anypony would definitely mistake her for the real Fluttershy.

“No, you didn’t make me. Doctor Trigger did. He also made you a new body too,” she explained with a smile. “I thought Ly would have mentioned that during her visit. Our world was devastated by a plague. Sky survived, nothing else did, he was lonely so he remade everypony the only way he could.

“Well, not everypony everypony. Not yet at least. But me, ‘you’, the rest of ‘our’ friends, Luna, and many others are all back.”

“Back?” I asked with a curious ear perk. “You consider yourself the original Fluttershy?”

“I am the original Fluttershy,” she said calmly, blinking away a brief flash of emotional distress. “I um… I don’t know how, but he was able to attach our souls to these bodies. Sort of like necromancy. We're all alive, we’re not programs. We’re just machines now.”

I shook my head slightly. I didn’t know too much about necromancy, my new court Enchanter had only been able to teach me a little bit over the winter. But that sounded… Implausible.

“Humm… I’ll have to ask my expert if you can resurrect a pony for real with necromancy,” I mused. “Do you mind if I inspect your chassis while we talk?”

She shook her head. “No of course not. You can do anything you like except take me apart. Oh um, I will open access panels for you though,” she said with a shy blush.

I winced. She was a bit too lifelike for comfort. At least, for me to be comfortable inspecting her.

I cleared my throat and stepped over to gently pick up her leg and feel the joints and ‘bones’.

“Why the hoodie? Is that just to mark yourself so you’re not confused with our Fluttershy?” I asked while I examined her foreleg.

The mechanics were extremely intricate! While she was soft and felt slightly like flesh and blood, I could also feel hard sections of plates beneath the soft layers and her bones were well, a framework of steel struts that made a mesh-like shape rather than one solid ‘bar’ like real bones. The motors, or actuators, and control systems must be within the center of the steel ‘cage’. A pretty brilliant design!

I yelped as her leg clicked and then hissed open, revealing a mess of electric blue, gelatin-like in appearance, cables which formed her ‘muscles’.

“Here, now you can see everything,” she said happily until she noticed my startled expression. Then her ears fell. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t mean to-”

“No! No, it’s okay,” I said as my heart stopped hammering in my chest and I bent to inspect her leg.

“Um, okay. As for my hoodie, there seems to be a slight difference in heat transfer rates between our two universes. I cool too quickly, and because we are made to replicate everything an organic pony can do, I can get cold. So the hoodie is to trap my waste heat and keep me comfortable. Um, your twenty-four degrees feels like our eighteen degrees,” she explained.

“Huh,” I said furrowing my eyebrows. “That’s odd. I wonder how that works.”

“So do I,” she agreed with a nod.

I nodded and looked around my den for the fifth time today for my pad. Sky Trigger had made me the most useful little pad which I could draw on and store ‘pages’ of data. It saved me so much parchment and had sadly disappeared from my desk this morning.

Bah, I’d just do this the old-fashioned way.

I quickly fetched a quill and sheet of parchment from my desk with my magic and held the page in the air as I sketched out everything I could see of her leg and how it worked.

“Do your hips open? I’d like to see how they articulate. Are you able to stand up on your hind legs or are you strictly quadrupedal?” I asked curiously.

Most ponies could balance on their hind legs, and a good number of us could even manage to learn to walk like that with some training. Naturally that’s an extremely uncomfortable thing to do, but it’s a part of basic military training. Standing like a biped has plenty of advantages.

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, I can stand up. I also have some slight shape changing capabilities and can transition to a full biped if I like,” she answered. “Oh, and yes my hips do open. All of my skin can open up. I need to be fixed after all, and if I want to deploy my armor it needs to come out of the skin somehow.

“I um, I’m an early model. On most of us, you can’t see the seams between panels.”

I nodded and watched as she closed her foreleg’s panels and opened her hips up. It was frankly a little grotesque to see a pony’s body just, open.

No! Get it together Twilight. She’s an extremely sophisticated machine! That’s it.

I took a deep breath and walked around behind her, bending my forelegs to look at her right hip joint and-

“Uh, wait, you’re a colt!?” I asked as I noticed her plumbing, so to speak.

Why was he so exceptionally large!? Ew! Soo not right!

Looking back up at her face to try and not think about what I just saw, I did my best to hide my blush by coughing into a hoof. “I uh, sorry! I thought you were a mare! That was really inapp-”

“I’m a mare,” she giggled, cheeks parting as she grinned at me. “Sorry about that. I must have forgotten to swap modules again. Ly wanted to be on bottom last night and since I’m modular, um, well, I’m sure you use a spell for that kind of thing.”

“I uh, no. I don’t,” I admitted with an awkward cough.

Why would I!? I’m not Cadence! Oh, well I suppose it would make a little bit of sense with a couple made up of females but still… Ew!

Her ears drooped and her eyes widened in sympathy. “I’m sorry. I’m making you uncomfortable. I can take that off so you can continue. It’s not a big deal.”

Oh wow, I did NOT want to talk about this. I needed to change the subject! Quick!

“Uh, so then your collar…” I asked trailing off towards the end.

Fluttershy blushed and tapped her hooves together in embarrassment. “Um, the particulars of how my marefriend and I enjoy each other’s company and my personal preferences are none of your business,” she said after a few seconds.

I winced. She was really feeling embarrassed! What the buck was I doing!? This was a pony! I couldn’t just demand she present herself for a detailed examination!

No! She couldn’t be a pony! I could see her hip servos and her wiring and-

The den’s large oaken door creaked open enough for my friend Jade to poke her head inside. The young Changeling Queen had been living with me for the last year and a half, and was not only a fun person to be around but one heck of a good language instructor.

“Sorry to interrupt, Twilight,” Jade said with an embarrassed smile. “But I found something you need to s- Ooo! Fluttershy, you taste great! Did you finally get a special somepony?”

I could tell by the way that Jade’s eyes sparkled that she really was tasting a particularly flavorful emotion.

And it was coming from the android!

My eyes widened in honest shock. “J-Jade! Are you saying you can sense her empathically, AND feed on her?” I asked urgently.

Jade nodded. “Of course I can? Fluttershy is a po-” she trailed off, lips pursing as she noticed her open hip hatches. “-uhhhhh… What are you?”

“I’m an equoid, a living mechanical pony with a positronic brain that holds the memories and soul of my former organic self,” she explained with a slightly embarrassed blush. “S-sorry for creeping you out. I normally don’t walk around with my chassis open.”

“She’s from a parallel universe,” I explained with a feeble grin.

“Neat,” Jade said with a satisfied nod.

She never needed any real detailed explanations for things. A trait which had it’s advantages and drawbacks.

“Well, you’re really tasty, ma’am! You’d better be careful around changebugs, we might just glomp you. Um, right! Twi, when you’re free we need to meet in our library. I’m having a problem working something out,” Jade said with a slight nod after the word ‘library’.

Ah, so she’d discovered something in Clover’s old library! Excellent! Secret projects were so much fun. And also it was not this clusterbuck of an idea!

Celestia's mane this had all started so simple...

“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” I promised as I turned to Fluttershy with my face red from embarrassment. “Miss Shy, I need to apologize. I’ve been treating you like a machine, but you’re definitely a person. I can’t ask you to stand here and let me drool over your parts. That’s wrong, and probably sexual, and I’m married. Sooo um… You can go home if you want to.”

She lifted a foreleg and gently gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Twilight. I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t want to be inspected. I um, my Travel device works once a month and I just got back. If you really don’t want to take your own notes, Doctor Trigger might be okay with giving me some older blueprints I could share with-”

The air behind Fluttershy exploded with a sound like shattering glass, throwing the both of us flat, and pushing Jade out into the hall, slamming the door shut. The pulse of white light accompanying the noise left huge spots in my eyes.

Squinting around the after images, I saw a hole in the world. It was jagged, like a wound ripped into a pony’s flesh, and rimmed with dim rainbow-hued energy as if the Elements of Harmony were responsible for this hole into-

Into a dimly lit crystal mine where I could see Celestia and Luna struggling to keep a spell going!

They needed help!

“Hold on!” I called, leaping up, wings snapping open to jump through and assist. “I’ll help, just tell me what-”

Then I lept out of the rift. Or rather, a me. She was battered. Burned, and her left eye was hidden under a patch, with bits of silver wire filaments trailing around the socket from behind the patch.

I had just enough time to wonder what horrible disaster I was going to cause for myself by next Tuesday before my counterpart saw me, her eye widening in alarm and her ears standing upright in sudden realization.

“Oh buck!” She swore, much to my shock. “Girls, wait! We’ve tunneled into the-”

The rift sparked, and crackled, rippling unstably as two ponies, and a bipedal creature jumped through the portal. One of the ponies was a sleeker rainbow dash and the other a slightly plumper Great and Powerful Trixie. The biped looked to be some kind of bulky, angular, and boxy red and silver colored diamond dog-like robot.

The Trixie and Dash tackled Fluttershy immediately. I barely had time to throw up a shield spell as the robot reached out to grab me.

What they hay was going on!?

“Room clear!” Rainbow shouted. “We got- Fluttershy?”

Her and Trixie’s face melted into perplexed expressions as they looked at the panicking android pony that had pinned beneath them.

For literally half a second.

Shy stood up, hydraulics audibly whining as she threw both ponies off herself, then jumped backward, a sophisticated sleek and organic looking suit of armor unfolding from beneath her skin and locking into place.

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I can!” Fluttershy warned, spreading her wings aggressively. “We could all just stop and talk this out. That’s an option.”

Her two assailants quickly scrambled up to their hooves, clearly ready to fight! I had to do something before-

A loud mechanical roar filled the room. Glass shattered. Books suddenly flew everywhere. The roar became impossibly loud. A massive black vehicle I recognized as a pickup truck from my time in the mirror world rammed through the rift, the unstable hole between worlds exploding in a shower of prismatic sparks you’d expect to see when a massive amount of zinc is rammed through an active and complex piece of spellcraft.

What I did not expect was the bright greenish-gold shockwave that blasted outwards from the rift as the truck annihilated it in an instant amid it’s terrifying roar and screeching tires.

I had just enough time to wonder how much zinc is used in building human vehicles and if they knew of its disruptive effects on magic before the truck slammed solidly into the far wall, smashing my writing desk and cracking the crystal almost enough to punch a hole in the wall.

I looked back along the path the truck had taken. So did everypony else in the room. All of our faces were expressing some form of terror or alarm. Everypony’s tail was raised in that instinctive ‘i must flee!’ expression of honest blind terror.

Ah. So that’s where it came from. The mirror. Which was now broken. Shards of glass trailed along the entirety of the floor.

The truck, on the other hoof, looked like it had just come out of a car wash and despite the crash, it's engine rumbled contently as if to say, 'This is fine.'

“Well…” The other me said with a grimace plastered on her face. “At least we’re not in our past. I sure as hay don’t remember that…

“You! Other me, we need this rift open again. Our world is ending, and we’re trying to evacuate. We have two minutes before everypony on the other side dies! Help me and I’ll return the favor whenever you like. Girls, secure that vehicle!”

I missed having an uneventful year and a half already.

Apple Jack - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

The Tree of Harmony - Everfree Forest

Dawn tapped my hoof impatiently against the ground. Ignoring the blood trickling out from my nose and mouth as if he couldn’t feel the blinding pain. Had I ever sprinted all out for ten minutes through that kind of terrain before?

No. Not even a little bit. I was dying. I had to be. I think I could feel my lungs, they were cut up on the inside.

“Humm? Oh. Yes. Right. Can’t have you die,” Dawn said, clearly distracted as his eyes roamed over the purple crystalline tree and the gem-like elements held in each of its branches.

I felt a ripple of energy spread out from my head to my hooves. The agony abated a little, and my lungs felt normal again.

“Come on… That thaumaturgic shockwave should be here any second now,” Dawn muttered anxiously.

<Shockwave?> I asked, curious about what he was doing despite the pain, terror, and horror which almost completely consumed me.

To my utter surprise, I felt Dawn decide to humor me.

“While searching for the right time to start this little plan, I found a day where a mysterious thaumaturgic wave originating in Ponyville. I'm fairly certain Twilight messed up a spell, I didn't get close enough to see for sure, so as not to lock myself out of the timeline. I can potentially use the magic distorting properties of the shock wave to-”

Suddenly a bright greenish-gold wave of energy slammed through the room, lighting the Tree’s cave up as brightly as the noon sun.

“YES!” Dawn exclaimed as he thrust one hoof forwards towards the large white star shaped mark engraved into the tree’s trunk.

A dark black ray of light blazed out from my hoof, striking the tree while the wave washed over it. The Tree flashed bright white, blinding me for an instant while a crystalline humm deafened me. I felt a second energy wave explode outwards, this one coming from the tree and dragging across my mind like a net linked with fishhooks.

Dawn screamed in pain. I screamed silently within my head in pain. I’d rather have ruptured lungs again than this! WHY!? FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA WHY!?!

Dawn inhaled sharply. “Ow…” He groaned. “I… Okay… Can’t fuck with the Elements again in your body. Bad, bad idea. Please have worked,” he moaned.

We looked back up at the Tree. I felt a wave of despair as I saw each gem had cracked, and the light they cast light was slowly dimming until each turned into a single piece of cracked gray stone. Dawn smirked. Then frowned as he noticed the cracks.

“Huh…” He trotted forwards to look more closely at the Tree, squinting my eyes to check as thoroughly as I imagine he could.

“Good. Not broken, just damaged. Fully disabled in fact. A neat little bonus! I didn’t think these could be damaged,” he said with an honest smile. “Now then, if my calculations are correct I just reversed one of their last few effects. Guess who's a statue again?”

<That’s impossible!> I scoffed. <You don’t have the right virtues to use the Elements, and we all still hold the keys!>

“That’s probably why they broke,” Dawn said sagely. “One moment, let me test something.”

Dawn reared up and raised my forehooves to my mouth and yelled “OH, DISCORD! I know you’re looking here right now because you had to have sensed that! It’s me, Dawn! I’m meat puppeting this mare you like so I can gather enough power to kill all of you before Dusk revives. Yes! Just like you always suspected.

“You know that yellow mare you like so much? I’m going to take special care in violating her until her tormented soul burns brighter than any star you've ever seen! She’s already so paranoid and mentally broken that I won't even have to try to make her life into the greatest masterpiece I’ve ever created!”

Seconds passed. Then a minute. Nothing happened.

“Yeah, he’d have responded to that out of sheer anger,” Dawn laughed triumphantly as he rested us back on all four hooves. “He’s petrified. We'll find the statue and hide it later on today just to be doubly sure.”

<Or, he just wants you to think that,> I said with a bare twinge of hope.

“You underestimate how much he likes Fluttershy. He’s vowed to make her immortal so they can be best friends forever. Trust me, I know my great grandfather very well. He’s not here because he can’t be here,” Dawn finished.

Great Grandfather?! Oh...

The hope died like a candle thrown into the sea.

“And, broken!” Dawn said before laughing. “Well, that’s no fun. Let’s go someplace we can wait a while for you to start thinking again. This is no fun if you can't be upset and angry with me. Once you're all feisty again, we'll go find Everfree, kick her out, and start growing these woods for our own use.

“I may have taken out one of the obstacles in my way, but there are more. So our little stealthy war to start armageddon off is only just starting. Isn’t that fun?

“Oh, and I still need to tailor your meat for my needs. I love having a fresh canvas and no supervision.”

I honestly couldn’t bring myself to say or even feel anything as Dawn walked out of the cave. Rambling on ecstatically about his plans to bring Tartarus to Equis.

All I could do was pray Twilight could find me and help.

2 - After Worlds Collide

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Applejack - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Deepglade - Everfree Forest

I’d never been this deep inside the Everfree before. The trees grew thicker as you went deeper into the forest, and eventually they became so dense you had to squeeze between them. That just wasn’t natural, and the forest was most definitely making it clear that it didn’t want anypony there.

Despite it being just after noon, you couldn’t see more than five meters ahead of you. The trees here were so thick and so close that their upper branches wove together and blocked out most of the light. Heck, it was dark enough for the light blue glowing moss which covered most of the ground to be seen glowing.

I didn’t even know this moss existed ten minutes ago. It was very lovely, soothing even. If I’d been here under any other circumstance I would have taken some back with me to plant in my garden.

I don’t think anypony in Ponyville had ever gone further than the outskirts of the forest as a foal. Except for the girls and I when we went to the Castle of the Two Sisters.

Dawn had taken me much deeper than that. Every time a tree got in the way, he’d simply smashed it down. My hooves stung from the abuse. Tartarus, my left forehoof was actually cracked clean through. Dawn didn’t care. It was pretty clear to me that he either liked the pain or couldn’t feel it.

Dawn grunted in annoyance as the thick, gnarled trunk of an oak tree blocked his path. “How do you put up with always being tangible?” He grumbled before smashing my injured hoof into the tree hard enough to carve out a huge chunk.

I felt my frog split open the second the strike connected. White spots flashed in my eyes as the pain radiated down my leg even as he threw a second strike, then a third, and a forth before the tree finally fell, creaking and cracking as it slid aside just enough to let us pass before getting caught on its neighbors.

<What are you even doing this deep in the forest?> I whimpered, unable to even think clearly through the haze of red and white which consumed my field of view like somepony had tied a rag over my eyes. <Zecora doesn't live anywhere near here.>

“Who?” Dawn asked, my lips turning down slightly.

<Zecora… Her tree house is near Fluttershy’s cottage. We’re at least twenty klicks deeper than where she lives. I’ll take us there. Just please… Stop.. Punching… Trees,> I begged fairly sure that my cracked hoof was going to fall off if it struck anything else.

“Oh yes, the Zebra. I’m not looking for her,” Dawn said simply. “I’m here for someone else. I’m sure you know who, you live next to her after all… Why can’t I see a damn thing? How do you clear your vision?”

<You could fix… Hoof… Before it comes off,> I whimpered.

I felt Dawn try and look at my right hoof, the leg moved, neck turned, but my vision just wasn’t having anything. It was too dark, and I was in too much pain.

“Right, these things are broken!” Dawn said decisively. “I forgot how easily blood pressure could damage eyes… Never thought I’d have to use these things. Just a minute.”

My vision suddenly went completely dark. Something smelled rancid and I felt two lines drip down my face as if I were crying literal buckets. Then the world came back into view.

The same darkness. The same blue glowing moss. The same old gnarled oak trees.

I honestly hadn't expected him to heal me like that. Why would he- Oh. Right. He had to use them too.

As Dawn examined the forest around us, I noticed the weirdest thing. Little objects. They went fuzzy anymore. They were just as sharp as if I were a few meters away from them. The hay?

“I thought I didn’t make pony eyesight that poor! AJ, how you were too stubborn to go see an eye doctor!? Or get a damn potion to correct- ugh!” Dawn snapped, my ears flattening in irritation. “I know you’re not exactly the best person but what the flying- Who does that? I didn’t even make you this stubborn for kicks!”

<C-cuz I am what I am. It ain't natural to-> I tried to retreat into my mind slightly, but Dawn’s rant continued.

“Wow, your first objection is ‘it ain’t natural,'” Dawn shook my head then spat in disgust. “And mortals wonder why I hate you. I don’t hate you; I have no respect for things which are too dumb to get a pair of glasses in a nation which has free healthcare!”

<Yeah, well, it never stopped me doing what I needed to do!> I shot back defensively.

It’s not like I was broken or anything. I just couldn’t read easily. That’s all.

“You really are a stubborn idiot! And here I was just trying to piss you off by saying that…” Dawn groaned. “I hope your stupid doesn't rub off on me…”

I didn’t have anything to say to my tormenter. It’s not like I had to justify anything he said with a real response.

“Right, let’s meet your neighbor who I’m now certain you never met because you’re a full blown stubborn jackass,” Dawn grumbled, rolling his eyes as we finished stepping forwards into…

Into a large glade straight out of a fantasy novel.

The ground dipped down into a natural bowl filled with tall blades of grass and dotted with odd pointed tooth-like rocks jutting up from the depression in the earth. Most of them were small, but some were as big as a pony. The bigger ones were scratched up- No! Carved with odd little sigils and characters.

Most of them were nonsense, but on one stone I could see a small carved bit which looked like Princess Luna’s cutiemark, hundreds of tally marks carved into the stone, and what I swore was a very mangled equish sentence. ‘I miss you, mother.’ Was that it?

That stone had a small lip cut into it, where a few small lit candles burned like some kind of shrine. But before I could examine further Dawn turned my head away.

Fog rolled in thick banks across the ground and trailed up into the air in wisps and moats like the steam coming off a bowl of soup. The blue glowing moss trailed along the ground like a spider’s web, leading down to the very center of the glade where an absolutely huge weeping willow stood like it had been there since there was a there to stand in.

“Everfree? Where the buck is your dry rotting face at?” Dawn called loudly taking extreme care to speak with my exact accent and mannerisms.

<Uh, what are ya’ll expecting to happen?> I asked, mentally rolling my eyes at the bastard who called me an idiot then tried to talk to a forest.

“Get out here! I’m sick of your crap! Making off with my fence, growing in close to the farm. You’re mine now, ya hear!?” Dawn shouted, ignoring me completely while turning to glare around the glade as he walked into it.

Wait a minute… Did something just move around the base of the willow?

<Ah, good eye. I didn’t notice that,> Dawn thanked silently.

“I see you there! I know what you are, I know how you work, and I’m going to be controlling this place from now on. Unless you want to cooperate,” Dawn said, pointing one hoof at the base of the willow tree.

Something at the base of the tree stirred. An actual pile of sticks, moss, and leaves drifted upwards sliding across itself and crunching into a pony-ish shape as two bright green points of light lit within the effigies skull.

The points of light narrowed, glaring up at us darkly. “I let you come because you are Fluttershy’s friend. Because you hurt yourself so badly to get here. Do you think you will ever leave me, or move any closer to my heart now that I know your intentions?” The stick-pony asked in a dry, raspy voice.

If I had control of my eyes, they would have become large as dinner plates. <What the buck is->

<That’s the Everfree. It’s alive. All of it. One single entity with a mind. Luna made it during that whole Nightmare phase of hers. You’d know that if you paid attention to the forest, It’s not like she doesn't do things,> Dawn informed smugly.

“Oh please, like I’d come here to kick you out if I didn’t think I could do it,” Dawn mocked. “All I need to do is climb inside that tree behind you, and then all of you is mine to do whatever I want with.”

I saw the stick pony's eyes widen in honest fear for a split second, before shrinking down to enraged slits.

“Your kind eats my grass, cuts down my trees and carts off my remains to make your homes. Some are different. Some do not prey upon me. I thought you weren't a predator, pony. I am not like my peers, I am not defenseless,” it hissed, ears falling flat. “I like Fluttershy. She is kind, even to me. Because she would be sad if you fell and I let the worms living within me feast upon you… You may leave right now, and never return.”

“Buck off, ya sack of dead sticks! This forest is mine now,” Dawn laughed mockingly.

<Uh,> I stammered fearfully as I noticed something moving at the very edge of my peripheral vision. <That’s probably not the best id->

Seven timberwolves exploded from holes dug into the massive trees at the edge of the glade behind me. Chunks of bark hit my flanks hard enough to leave bloody trails as the monsters burst from recessed ‘lockers’ dug into the wood. Their fiery eyes blazed with the same rage stamped on the stick pony's face. Their fangs dripped pitch. Their green vapor filled breath oozed from between their razor-like teeth.

The monsters howled hungrily. The Stick pony’s ears fell sadly, but the rest of its face kept the same enraged look.

It’s anger was… fake? What? Yeah, it wasn't mad, it was afraid. Just like a rabbit being stared down by a chimaera.

<Hehe, stupid thing! It has no idea what an earth pony bound to trees can do to it,> Dawn giggled like a school age filly.

I had just enough time to wonder how my plant nurturing aura would effect a living thinking forest before Dawn reared up and thrust both hooves outwards to our sides in a single sharp motion. Immediately I felt magic stir deep within me, slowly, sluggishly, like it had never been used. It wasn’t Dawn’s strange power, not that vague tingle, this was an electric jolt that distinctly came from me.

Two of the timberwolves responded to that jolt, the branches forming their bodies twisting and locking together into a solid ball of tangled wood. Their startled yelps instantly cut off as Dawn gave my legs a second flick, ripping the branches apart and sending them streaking into the other Timberwolves like a hundred crude spears.

<Do you have any idea how much work it took to make you guys forget you had an active form of magic, just like the other pony kinds?> Dawn asked silently with a hint of honest curiosity. <It’s probably some of my best work, but I forgot to keep track of how long it took. I always seek to improve you see.>

The remaining wolves yelped and screeched as their own branches were forced apart. The stick pony's eyes widened in terror as Dawn sprinted at it, mouth stretched into a savage smile. He lunged, it ducked, Dawn landed behind it and kept moving, running straight for the tree.

Countless barbed vines shot up from the ground, slicing through the fog and striking me all across my body with whip-like cracks. They wrapped tightly around my shoulders, waist, and legs, digging in deep. It would have hurt if I hadn't just punched down a kilometer of trees. This pain was nothing compared to that.

Then my hips cracked, popped, and snapped out of their sockets.

Blinding pain exploded from the mangled joints. I scarcely noticed as the vines jerked to a halt, turned us around and set me down in a hollow spot inside the tree.

“Y-you broke your own hips!” The stick-pony stammered in shock and horror.

“Sure did! Couldn’t move enough to control your silly little vines with them in one piece, now could I?” Dawn asked, twisting my lips into a savage grin.

“You’re insane!” The stick pony whimpered, backing up as its oakleaf ears flattened and its glowing moss tail raised fearfully.

Dawn sighed, resting my face against the flat of my left hoof. “Really? That cliche? Ugh…”

The stick pony continued to back up. I saw a few twigs fall from its belly, then some leaves dropped from its flank. It was slowly disintegrating. That must be why nothing else was attacking.

Dawn merely sitting here prevented the forest from being more than… That. And even it’s Timberwolf-like body was dying.

<I’m sorry! I never meant any harm. I’m sorry,> I apologize, hoping that just maybe the Everfree could hear me.

“Now then, since I’m in contact with your so called ‘brain stem’ I th- Wait… Your heart, it should be here! What did you do with it!?” Dawn roared, leaning forward aggressively.

“My heart is already somepony else's possession, and you’ll never take it from them,” the Everfree said with smug grin. “You will not command my trees for long. I will watch as the Hydras I house feed on your corpse and laugh!”

“I’m glad this hurts you,” Dawn said spitting at the stick-pony.

This time I felt it. The small line of control snaking from him, through me and into the weeping willow tree. He was forcing her avatar to rot.

Her? That was a she?

<Yeah, like I said, Nightmare Moon made that thing as a last ditch effort to kill Celestia before being banished. She also happened to want a filly at the same time. This happened. Dream Magic really isn’t something anyone should mess with. Now if you’ll excuse me, this cunt has pissed me off,> Dawn mentally growled.

“Burn!” He snapped, teeth cracking shut into a wrathful grimace.

A burst of dark energy lashed out from my barrel and sliced a line down the stick-pony. Her crude stick eyes widened in terror and then clenched in pain as the twigs making up her body smoldered, then burst into flame.

<Do me a favor and bleed onto the tree as much as possible will you? It’s a dark magic ritual thing,> Dawn asked as he watched the wooden pony scream in terror and swat at the flames, only spreading them the parts she swatted with.

He was elated and amused. I couldn’t process how or why anything could be this cruel.

The screams accompanying the collapse of the stick and moss pile stuck in my mind. Refusing to leave even minutes after they stopped. They hung inside me as the charcoal pile she left behind smoldered, singeing the moss around it.

<You didn’t need to do that… She was going to leave! You heard her!> I snapped angrily. <How dare you kill somepony just for making you mad!>

Dawn narrowed my eyes, flicked a hoof and tapping into the pool of magic I had never known was mine, animated one of the vines holding my body up, making it pick up a rock and place it in my hoof. A second flick and another vine snaked out and picked up a second rock, putting it into my other hoof.

Dawn calmly smashed one rock into the other, causing a large portion to flake off from the rock in my left hoof. I had just enough time to realize he was making a stone knife before he finished putting a crude jagged edge on one side of the rock.

“Oops,” he said with a smirk. “How clumsy of me.”

Then he licked the edge of the stone, slicing my tongue in half down the middle as slowly as he could possibly have done.

<That was fun! You should insult me again sometime,> Dawn said silently while I did my best to ignore the burning which engulfed my mouth. <Now, it’s time to turn this forest into a wall cutting off Ponyville from Equestria. This will take quite a while. Hmmm, yes. I can think of a few things to do to pass the time.>

I felt myself begin to pass out. My hips, tongue, the cuts all over my body. It was too much.

<You know, I think I like having a forked tongue. Let’s keep that,> Dawn mused thoughtfully. <Humm… I’ll need somepony sitting here and somepony to go contact my cultists and lead them here.

The world vanished as I lost consciousness.

Twilight Sparkle (Alpha) - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Castle of Friendship, Ponyville - Equestria

I could see the shattered remains of the rift drifting through the air. The remains were very very faint, and extremely far flung. That shockwave would have thrown most of the rift beyond my reach, but if I could gather enough of the thaumaturgic current, and the other me was willing to help give it some juice maybe we could spark the thing back into operation and-

My ears twitched as a wooden door creaked open.

“What exploded? Oh buck!” Someone shouted, the higher buzzing pitch in the voice marking them as a changeling female.

I turned my head to look, cursing the lack of my left eye.

Interesting. A changeling Queen, fairly young looking. White shell, long silvery mane, and tail… And an odd coat of moth-like fluff. This is why I loved having that cybernetic eye. I would have been able to scan her and work out why she had the fluff, or if she was merely shape changed.

Too bad I had to rip it out to avoid being used as a skin suit by a psychopath.

“Um, so…” The Queen stammered slowly. “Eyepatch Twilight, who are you?”

“I’ll explain myself later,” I answered bluntly. “I’m trying to save lives. Can you help reopen a rift? That truck destroyed it.”

“Um, Twilight,” this universe's Twilight said hesitantly from behind me. “There isn’t enough of that rift left to repair it.”

I looked back at the current, straining my arcane sense as much as I could. It was starting to disintegrate.

“Not with that attitude, no,” I agreed gritting my teeth in concentration.

I could do this! I had to do this! Everypony on the other side was counting on me!

I felt my horn began to heat up as I pushed excess magic into it. A few bits of the shattered spell twitched, slid, and flowed back together. Yes! I could do it! I could fix this-

The section of the rift I was repairing suddenly burned bright green-gold in the visible spectrum,and exploded with a sharp crack like a vacuum tube popping.

“BUCK YOU TOO, YOU MOTHERBUCKING VAGINAL PARASITE OF A SPELL!” I cursed, ears laying flat and lips peeling back in pure rage as the rest of the matrix self-destructed.

I failed. Again.

Why? Why had I been cursed with so much failure over the last forty-eight hours? Grogar returning, could I stop him? No. I was twenty minutes too late. Save Applebloom and Sweetie Belle from the insane AI whose plan to save everypony was killed them all and flash clone them later on another planet with heavily altered personas? Nope, too late.

Save Celestia, Luna, my brother and everypony else from total molecular disintegration at the end of the world?

No.

I fell to my knees. “Their all dead… I’ve failed. I’m a horrible leader,” I lamented, doing my best to hold back the tears.

Which is easy to do when you only have one tear duct.

“Shit!” Rainbow cursed. “Trix, we have humans in here! Did anypony bring med-”

“Twilight can’t reopen the portal!” Scootaloo called, the vox on her helmet making her voice into a deep bass rumble.

“Well aware, which means they are all dead. We can’t help them, but we can help these people,” Dash called back. “Other Twilight! Our atmosphere was poisonous to this species, they need help fast!”

I’m so sorry everypony… So sorry.

“They are from the mirror, they should be ponies,” this universe's me said oddly. “Ah! The truck has the zinc plated metal! It would have shielded them from magic while passing through the portal which means-”

“Which means you have humans breathing radon gas,” I said, standing back up.

Dash was right. People were in danger here. Save the living. It’s the way of war. I’d finish grieving later.

I turned and looked at the smaller black cargo vehicle. A rather crude design. Very utility based.

“I know a protection charm,” I said, blinking the tears out of my eye. “I can help.”

“I’m a fully equipped medical unit, I can treat them,” the robotic Fluttershy volunteered.

That would be a much better option. Three wars, this last disaster, the literal end of my world… And I never learned a healing spell. Heh. I’m an idiot sometimes.

“What the fuck!? I thought I’d be a pony on this side!” An angry female voice suddenly shouted from inside the vehicle.

I frowned, she was conscious? Good! She’d just gotten twenty-two ponies killed!

NO! Bad Twilight, that’s not something she could have known. It’s not her fault, and you will not resent any of those people for the accident.

This world’s Twilight trotted over to the left side window and reared up to peek inside. Her face immediately contorting into an annoyed yet blank expression.

“Celestia damn it, Lyra! Do you have any idea what you just did!?” She demanded.

Lyra? A Human Lyra? Ha! I felt a smile part my life for a brief second. Okay, thank you universe, I needed that.

Fluttershy’s ears and tail perked in alarm. The robot rushed over to the other side window and peeked in. “Lyra! Are you okay? What are you doing in- Oh,” her ears drooped in embarrassment, and I imagined she was blushing behind her armor plating. Her chassis looked organic enough to do that after all. “Um… Sorry! Wrong Lyra.”

Rainbow and I shared a look of grim irritation. This was going to get confusing, and fast!

“Uh, hi, really cool pony... Robot,” Lyra said slowly before turning back to face Twilight. “Twilight, I’m sorry, really sorry. It sounds like I hit somepony. But you NEED to break that mirror, or turn it off, or something! The whole damn army is about to surround our end of the portal!”

I turned my head and spotted a broken mirror attached to a large amount of crudely thrown together arcane equipment. That had to be the portal’s frame, based on the truck’s angle. I ripped the mirror from the machinery with a quick pulse of my magic, then tossed the broken mirror into an empty corner of the room.

“Right,” I said firmly as everypony looked at me in shock. “No more dimensional crap today. Twenty-two ponies already died. No more. Not today.”

“Umm… That’s odd,” Fluttershy murmured. “Everypony, they are okay. They can breathe here just fine. They have the same adaptations to the environment as a pony and um… S-seeing as how I’m dating a human. Um, no offense, Lyra, but you’re not human. At least not the kind I know. Not with the internal organs you have. Do you have subspecies?”

“What’s wrong with my insides?” Came the fear laden reply.

“Well,” the robot stated more firmly. “You’re internal anatomy is more along the lines of a dragon’s. Two hearts, two livers, and-”

“That’s normal,” Lyra grunted. “What I want to know is why I didn’t turn into a pony when going through the- Oh shit! Pinkie, Rarity, are you girls alright?”

Faust’s bones this was a clusterbuck…

“They’re unconscious but alive,” Fluttershy answered. “Twilight, can you please move them someplace comfortable? Be gentle, they have concussions. I’ll fix them up.”

“That’s a great idea!” I replied, not knowing which of us she was talking to. “Then we can sort out exactly what the buck is going on here. Sound good to everypony?”

“That’s… Yeah, that’s going to be for the best,” Twilight and the changeling Queen said in unison.

The next ten minutes became rather chaotic. Fluttershy helped Lyra remove her friends from the vehicle. Some cots were brought in for them to be set on while their various injuries were attended too. Nothing major, just shock and a concussion each.

I made a note of how much healing tech was worked into this universe's Fluttershy, or at least, this equid version of her. I was a bit curious as to why and how she existed, but I had other things filling my mind. So much destruction, so much death.

How was I still functioning? Was it merely the need to go on? Some biological imperative? No. No, it had to be more than that. Perhaps because they would all want me to go on living?

I was no stranger to survivor’s guilt, but when your family and you are the only ponies to survive the total destruction of your home… I didn’t know how to deal with this.

I could have ordered anypony to take point. I didn’t have to select our best fighters. They just so happened to be my wives and our adopted daughter. I could have picked anypony else. I-

“Okay, everyone is conscious!” Fluttershy announced happily. “Would you two girls please just sit tight? There’s a bit of a confusing mess going on right now. We need to sort it out.”

“What kind of mess?” The humanoid resembling Rarity asked fearfully.

“Uh, it looks like we literally drove into a cross dimensional... Clusterfuck. Yeah, I’m going with clusterfuck,” Lyra decided with a nod.

“Pfft,” Dash snorted, rolling her eyes. “Do you really have to swear like a little filly? This is an actual clusterbuck. Don’t downgrade it.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Yeah, okay, no. Each group here is choosing somepony to speak for them just so we can keep this orderly. We all want to know where we are and what everypony else is doing, let’s work it out efficiently. Please,” I begged closing my eyes right.

Well, eye. I really needed to get used to just having the one…

The Changeling Queen cleared her throat. “Well, Twilight how about you speak for this universe?”

“I’m not from this universe, how can I speak for it?” I asked reflexively, before facehooving as I realized she meant the other Twilight in the room.

“How about you go by Sparkle? Just to alleviate the confusion,” Twilight asked me with an embarrassed blush.

“Well, Trixie does sometime call her Sparky,” Trixie mused with a light blush.

Yeah. In bed. But they didn’t need to know that.

“Sparkle works. At least your Rainbow Dash isn’t here,” I said shaking my head as I imagined the two of them having a race to see who gets what name.

“Yeah, this is confusing enough,” Twilight agreed with a nod. “Um, you seem to be sort of, military. Since you’re the apparent CO, Sparkle, will you be speaking for your group?”

“Well, my title as Arch-Battlemage is kinda meaningless. End of the world and all that,” I muttered, looking down at the floor.

“Yeah, she speaks for us,” Dash said adamantly. “Twi- uh, Spark, we’re still here. We really need to make a decision here as a group. Your title still matters. This is your responsibility.”

“True enough, Dash,” I agreed after a moment’s thought. “Right then, I’ll represent us.”

“Uh, I guess I’ll speak for us,” Lyra said a second later.

“Um, do I count as part of Twilight’s group, or my own group?” Fluttershy asked with a timid droop of her ears.

Twilight brought a hoof up to her lips for a moment before nodding to herself. “Well, you’ve been here for two and a half weeks now. I’d say you’re still your own group, Fluttershy,” she decided.

I frowned slightly. Well, this was interesting. A four-way dimensional intersection. This had to be some sort of record, even by Ponyville standards.

“Alright,” I said with a nod to everypony. “I’ll start. My group and I were attempting to escape our universe. It’s endin- It ended. It's a very long story. Suffice to say the gates of Tartarus literally opened up, demons poured forth, and their leader decided to do something which caused the entire world to actually disintegrate.

“Our Celestia, Luna, myself, those you see here, and eighteen others managed to shield ourselves from the effects for a time. Long enough to open the rift you saw, Twilight, and hope to cross into your dimension.

“I did not know this was a parallel world, I’d discovered that another universe brushed very closely against our own months ago, but due to trying to prevent the Tartarian invasion, and being ordered to do a cultural exchange with the Emerald Hive I was unable to study it.

“I did not mean to come across as hostile. We had no idea what lay on the other side of the rift. From our end, it was blocked off by a hologram of a stallion in a pillow fort. No joke. I had to actually tunnel around that… I presume your Discord did it.

“I suppose I should introduce everypony. I’m Twilight, calling me Spark while I am here is a good option to keep things neat and tidy. I’m certain you know Rainbow Dash, who will need to sort things out with your own universe's Rainbow ASAP. You may or may not know Trixie Lulamoon-”

Twilight giggled and flashed everypony a quick smile. “I know LOTS of Trixies,” she snickered playfully. “You have no idea!”

Trixie blushed slightly. “What do you mean?” She asked, brushing a lock of her mane out of her eyes.

Twilight pursed her lips and hummed. “Uh, well, very long story short, our universe's Trixie is a clone, and they made a lot of copies of her. The majority of which are serving as my Guard regiment and Ponyville’s police force. The original one is married to a changeling who lives, amusingly enough, with the Emerald Hi-”

I felt my heart nearly leap out of my chest. “For the love of all that you hold dear, we need to go there right now and rip that ship’s AI core out of it before it kills us all!” I screamed.

Twilight blinked in confusion, her mouth pulling into a frown.

“Trust me,” Scoots said, shifting her weight inside her armor. “She may seem nice, but all she is doing is lying and manipulating you into helping her by making you think you were helping her. Unless your universe's is different…”

“The Phoenix's AI was decommissioned a long time ago,” Fluttershy said quickly and clearly. “I live there too. I asked Sky about it, because in my home universe ours is very nice and a good person. I got to see her code fragments and um… Well, it’s alright now. It’s perfectly safe.”

I slumped down with a relieved sigh. “Good! Good… Um, sorry if that makes it seem like I have any stigma against synths, Shy,” I apologised giving her a sincere smile. “I don’t. That particular person was going to turn me into a skin suit so she could convince everypony that she was on the level.”

“Yikes!” Shy yelped, ears falling flat.

Twilight’s wince looked like it might have tore a muscle in her face. Is that what I looked like when I winced? Wow.

“I um, I thought you guys were like, medieval,” Lyra said shyly from the side.

Twilight looked at her and shook her head. “No, not remotely. Our world’s are fairly comparable in technological advancement. It’s just that we tend to prefer traditional designs and hide our more advanced stuff inside them. And well, we have magic. It negates the need for a lot of technologies.

“The Emeralds live inside a huge wrecked spacecraft they have been repairing for generations. Their tech is about oh… Six hundred years ahead of us, if you combine our magic and machinery into one umbrella of ‘technology’. Maybe a bit more. Depends on our own rate of advancement.”

“Oh. Well, cool!” Lyra said with a happy grin, her yellow eyes seeming to twinkle.

I smiled. I still got a giggle out of seeing a human-ish Lyra. Too bad she couldn’t see this… Poor girl. She didn’t deserve that.

“Alright,” I said with a comfortable nod. “Well, Trix, you’ll need to work out a name then.”

“Oh there’s no need!” Twilight said rather quickly. “Most of ours prefer going by their serial numbers or have made up their own names. The only one going by Trixie is the original and she lives hundreds of kilometers away from here.”

Trixie nodded and adjusted her cape slightly. “It’s not going to be a problem, even if we do meet. Unless of course, she can do this!” Trixie exclaimed as she flicked her hoof and produced a deck of cards seemingly from nowhere, spreading them out in a perfect fan.

The changeling Queen tilted her head and frowned. ‘But… But there wasn’t any thaumaturgic current!” She protested.

Dash and I laughed. Shaking my head with a smile I shrugged. “I don’t know how she does that either… But come to think of it, you did say you’d tell me after the end of the world. Which just happened.”

Trix’s ears drooped sadly. “Y-yes. Trixie did. She’ll show you later. But… You won't be able to do it too,” she explained.

“Um so, what’s with your big robot? Some kind of war machine you picked up in the Hive?” Twilight asked me curiously.

“Heh,” Scoots laughed. “Yeah, I guess I would look like a robot if you didn’t know this was armor. I’m a pony. I um, I just can’t take this off. Not authorised.”

Everypony winced.

“Yeah…” Scoots grumbled.

“They have an Emerald Hive. We’ll get that thing cut off you as soon as we can. Right after this if possible,” I promised, giving her the most serious look I could manage in my current emotional state.

“Thanks, mom,” she sighed happily.

“She’s been in there for a week,” I explained to the jaw dropped Twilight.

“She’s your filly, and you haven't gotten her out of that, in a WEEK!?” Twilight demanded, shaking her head incredulously.

“Go ahead and try, the damn thing is so magic resistant I can’t do anything to it,” I grumbled irritably. “We’ll see if your Emeralds have a plasma drill and get her cut out asap. But for now… Can we have somepony else do their thing?”

Twilight nodded to herself. “Yes. I’ll go. Princess Twilight Sparkle, at your service,” she said in greeting. “In light of um, well, your refugee status, I’ll grant you citizenship here. But Princess Celestia will need to hear all of this again.

“The Changeling to my left is Queen Jade of Diamonds, she’s my best friend and Ancient Changelish Tutor. You’ll be happy to know that there is no world ending threat in sight. Meaning whatever other differences there are between our worlds, we haven't had any signs of anything like that.”

“Any legends of an all powerful warlord named Grogar?” I asked carefully, not wanting to say his name too many times.

Twilight shook her head. “No. Never heard of anyone by that name. Perhaps he never existed here.”

That would be awesome. Like, genuinely awesome.

I’d have to search for myself though. Just to be certain. If he was here, he was dead.

“That about sums things up for us… Lyra, would you care to go?” Twilight asked as she turned towards the minty haired humanoid.

“Sure,” she said, accepting the metaphorical baton pass. “So um, my friends and I were Sunset Shimmer’s old friends. You know, before the pony one replaced her? Yeah. Anyways, our Sunset got a letter to us roughly when you came through the mirror Twi-”

“How!? She died!” Twilight objected, eyes scrunching in confusion.

Lyra shook her head. “No. She’s fine. I wrote to her last week,” she corrected.

“Cadence said when she searched the lab all she found was a broken tank of Lye in the book disposal room,” Twilight objected. “As well as a big mound of half processed soap. Unless your species can survive acid that strong by shedding their skin-”

“Trust me, she’s alive. I’ve been getting letters. She’s fine,” Lyra said adamantly. “Anyways, she invited us to come visit… And we kept blowing it off because we were afraid that you would just send us back through the mirror-”

“I’d never do that!” Twilight objected, holding one hoof up in incredulity. “I just said not to come without sending a note through a month in advance!”

The three girls exchanged a look, nodded and then looked back at Twilight. “Yeah that never happened,” Lyra firmly disagreed, shaking her head slowly. “Anyways, last night your wards around the portal wore off, some kid stumbled in while livestreaming video, people thought it was a hoax. Then some other kid came through, stole something, used the clearly alien device to prove that your world is real, and I caught wind of the military's plan to evacuate and lock down all of Ponyville.

“So I had to come here to warn you of that before they decided to send troops through to scout the other side out. Since it was the last possible chance we had to visit Sunset, I asked if Pinkie and Rarity wanted to come. They did, we know it’s unlikely we will get to go back, we’re here anyways… So uh, once we figure out why none of us transformed into ponies coming through the portal, if you can help me get my truck outside, we’ll be out of your hair. Okay?”

“Your truck is covered in zinc, or some other substance that’s extremely resistant to thaumaturgic current,” I explained with smile. “You basically drove through the spell effect in a massive Faraday cage. Um, you know that electrical term, right?”

Lyra nodded. “I do… Shit. We won’t fit in here like this. Um, anypony here know any transformation magic?” She asked hopefully.

I nodded. “Yeah, but it will wear off in a week and you’d look like a dragon for that whole time.”

Also I’d learned the spell from a scroll bought at a sex shop that time Dash wanted to try out a dragoness… Meaning she’d be a sexualized version of a dragoness. But now wasn’t the time to mention that.

“That’s a problem Doctor Lily can solve. He’ll be able to turn you back when I get the mirror fixed and you want to leave… Also um, your Sunset clearly doesn't want to be known about here. I’ll keep my mouth shut. But, can she please write a letter to our Sunset? The poor girl thinks she committed equinslaughter and uh, she kind of can’t comeback here because if she does she will be arrested for that crime when she reenters Equestrian jurisdiction.”

“Oh! Well shit,” Lyra exclaimed with a frown. “Yeah, we’ll take care of that.”

“So um, that leaves me, right?” Fluttershy asked politely.

I just noticed that she had on a little green hoodie with a pink heart on the barrel and a dog collar on. It looked cute, but on the other hoof...

My eyes narrowed slightly as I took in the collar. “Twilight… That collar. She’s not your slave, is she?” I asked, ears folding back slightly.

Fluttershy blinked in surprise. Twilight’s eyes widened in horror. “N-no! I mean she’s just a machine but I wouldn’t own, I mean, she can think clearly but-”

“Wow, I’m a racist here. Cool,” I grumbled to myself.

“It’s fine, as far as I can tell I’m the first synthetic life form that she’s seen,” Fluttershy admitted with a slightly sad kick of one hoof. “The collar is um, my girlfriend and I like a certain kind of role playing. Also, it holds an RFID tag that works as my door key.”

Dash giggled and held out a hoof for her to bump. “Nice!” She said with a playful wink.

To our surprise Fluttershy returned the hoof bump with a very un-Fluttershy smile. “Thanks! I um… Yeah, not many ponies seem to be accepting of- Um, never mind.”

Interesting. She was far less timid than ours. She looked to merely be an introvert and have light social anxiety. You know, instead of needing antipsychotics and coping therapy for sciophobia.

Shy took a deep breath, her body actually seeming to breathe rather than just her making the sound.

“I’m from a parallel universe to this one, it’s the root universe. You can see it here,” she said as a small plate on her shoulder retracted, allowing a hologram projector to display a large floating map.

At least, I assumed it was a map. The projection showed fifteen spheres orbiting two central nested spheres along semi-random vectors. Something like an atom, only with the electron orbitals much more random. One of the outer spheres was highlighted.

“This is a map of our multiverse. It may not be complete, but it’s accurate for every place listed. We’re in the outer central ‘sphere’ right now,” Shy explained.

“Wait a minute, the only two that are touching right now are those center two, meaning we had to come from the center most sphere!” I exclaimed in sudden realization.

Maybe there was still hope! Maybe I could save them.

Shy’s ears perked happily. “Oh! W-well then there’s good news for you! Um, your universe is in a time loop. Sky worked out why it looks to be flickering on the map. It’s cycling through about five years of time in an endless repeating cycle. Maybe you could get back in one day and change how things end?”

I nodded. “I will certainly try. We’ll talk later sorry for interrupting. Dash, Trix, remind me to talk to her later… Also Shy, how do you know all this?”

“My girlfriend and I are Travelers,” she answered immediately. “There are a few hundred, maybe a thousand or two people who travel between universes as well, a tourism or adventure thing. Funnily enough, I’m dating one of the Lyras. Hehe! Sorry! I just imagined Bonbon learning that there are three of them here now!

“Uh- Anyways, we use arcanotech devices to hop between universes. Lyra was badly hurt when she arrived in my universe and had to spend time recovering there. We met, hit things off and after a month well... She had to move on, but I loved her, so I came with her.

“My home universe was hit by an arcane plague. It killed all organic life on our planet. Even the bacteria. Except for Doctor Trigger who hasn’t told anypony how he survived it… Yes, I know you’re thinking that he caused the plague. He did not. We checked. It looks like our planet drifted into some weird patch of the thaumaturgic field and well, we were extremely unlucky.

“Doctor Trigger was lonely, and had a lot of time on his hooves, so he tried to remake everypony the only way he could, being a roboticist. He um, went a little crazy… And we’re the results. He actually managed to make mechanical bodies and minds so good that he was able to resurrect us into them. He’s kept the process very secret.

“Sooo, yes. I’m an equoid now. And I’m not just programed to think I’m the original Fluttershy. I have memories of things that happened when I’m alone. I have the holes in my memory I recall having before becoming this, and changelings can feed off me so-”

“You’re a consciousness transfer,” I said with a little squee of delight.

“Exactly!” Shy agreed.

Wait a moment… My eyes narrowed as I turned to glare at Twilight. “You called her just a machine, and she’s a motherbucking consciousness transfer! What’s wrong with you!?” I demanded.

Her ears drooped awkwardly. “W-well she’s a robot! Ponies aren't made of metal.”

“Half my brain is metal, I’m still a pony. It’s not the body that matters it’s what’s in it!” I accused.

“Sparkle, it’s fine. Not everyone will think the same about things,” Shy said, switching off the projection.

“It’s not fine, I'm a racist!” I grumbled irritably.

Twilight looked at me angrily, her mouth opening to say something only to be interrupted as a cyan blur of light exploded into the room, literally tackling her to the ground. A slightly more muscular Rainbow Dash materialized from the streak of light.

“Twi,” she exclaimed in a frightened voice, her eyes widening. “I’m sorry I knocked you over, but Applejack’s gone missing, and I can’t find her anywhere in Ponyville! Big Mac and I searched the orchard, and we found her cart abandoned and-”

“How the buck did you move that fast!?” My Dash exclaimed in honest shock.

“W-what?” The newly arrived Rainbow asked as she looked up to see herself. “Ah, hay! Twilight, did you buck up time? If you accidently sent AJ into the past, I am going to be so pissed!”

“Four-way dimensional crossover clusterbuck,” I grunted. “As far as I know, our arriving here didn’t displace anypony.”

“And how did you move that fast! I’ve never seen you do that!” Twilight asked, squirming out from under Rainbow.

“I, um…” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “I promised I wouldn’t tell anypony how I do that and you’re really smart, so I figured you’d work it out if you saw me do it… Besides, I like to take in the scenery. Mach two is a good speed for that… But seriously, AJ’s missing. We had a date night, and SHE was late. And she’s not in Ponyville. I checked everywhere on the way here.”

Huh, their AJ and Dash hooked up? Wierd. Dash and I shared a look, both of us clearly wondering why these versions of ourselves hadn't gotten hitched.

“Go get everypony else,” Twilight said decisively. “This is probably like the time she left because she lost a rodeo. We’ll see if she bought a train ticket or if any of the patrols spotted her on the road. If not, we’ll assume that something attacked her and dragged her into the Everfree. It wouldn’t be the first time timberwolves got into her farm. Meet me back here in ten-”

Twilight was cut off as the room filled with bright gold light. Gold light that I knew as Celestia’s magic.

Their world’s Celestia materialized in an instant. Looking every inch like the one I’d just seen facing certain death and lost. Including the blind panic stamped across her features.

“Twilight!” She exclaimed in panic, grabbing her by the shoulders firmly. “Did you feel the shockwave? The Elements of Harmony broke and-”

Celestia paused as she noticed me, as well as the two Dash’s, the three mirror world humans,and the pickup truck.

“Ah… Okay, well…” The alabaster alicorn sighed, letting go of Twilight’s shoulders. “That explains it. Which one of you two completely mangled the fabric of the universe using the Elements power so hard that it broke them from the stress?”

“They, BROKE!?” The Dashs exclaimed together, ears standing upright in alarm.

“Yes, they did. How did you not sense… Probably the residual magic in the air from the thaumaturgic pulse,” Celestia muttered to herself.

I cleared my throat. “Um, well I was using my universe's Elements to make an escape tunnel… Then those three drove through the portal in a zinc plated vehicle. So this is primarily my fault. I apologize… And to be fair, I did not know they could be damaged, eh heh...” I replied, ears drooping apologetically as my face twisted into a bashful smile.

Celestia looked at Twilight. Twilight nodded firmly. “That’s exactly what happened.”

“Well,” Celestia sighed slowly. “Twilight one, Twilight two, come with me. We need to figure out the best plan for getting them repaired… Knowing how they were made in the first place, let me warn you, it will NOT be easy.

“Jade, please keep the rest of everyone here for now. Once we have a plan for going forwards, I’ll work out whatever is to be done here with… This mess.”

The changeling nodded and then gave Celestia a salute. “Yes, Ma’am! Oh um, these three wanted to see Lily so they could blend in… Can I get Spike to watch everypony and have them taken care of? The mirror is broken, they can’t go home yet.”

Celestia nodded. “That’s fine, but they are to come back here once you’ve been taken care of. Now, Twilight's, come on. We have to figure out how to find a probably dead person, gather up exotic ingredients from across all of Equis, and work out if-”

“AJ’s missing!” Dash blurted suddenly.

Celestia groaned. “Annnd we have to do all that without Honesty. Great… Dash, I’ll get a search and rescue team looking for her. Because we need her. Badly. Eyepatch Twilight, you owe me a cake. A big cake.”

“That’s fair,” I agreed meekly. “Uh, I’ve decided to go by Sparkle. For clarity’s sake.”

“Well then, Sparkle, you owe me an immense cake. Banana Cream, at least my own size, preferably larger,” Celestia repeated. “Come on, let’s go. This isn’t for anypony’s ears but us.”

Well, at least I screwed up less than I thought I did. Fix this mess you made, Twi, and then see about saving everypony back home.

Tidying things up here shouldn’t be too difficult.

Pattern Steel’s Forge, Ponyville - Equestria

18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Next to the Everfree Forest, deep beneath the ground in a warm, dry, well-furnished cave, behind a vault door, one would find the home of Pattern Steel. And what a lovely home it was. Polished walls made from natural stone, but hoof quarried into smooth surfaces, with the notable decorative feature of a natural gold vein left in the wall as a sort of decoration.

It was a proper batpony home, half fortress, half luxury living space, all stone save for metal worked into elegantly designed fixtures and appliances to provide all of the modern conveniences, deep underground in a nice, safe feeling bed of hard rock. The reclusive thestral who owned it was one of the finest craftsponies in all of Equestria, as distinguished by her title of ‘Royal Armourer.'

Despite the noonday sun hanging overhead, Pattern lay in her bed, curled up in a ball beneath a large fluffy quilt atop her hoof made bed. Unlike most batponies, she had a few recessive genetic traits, which included a nocturnal sleep cycle. Noon to a normal pony was midnight for her.

The rust colored batpony squirmed uneasily in her bed, her short, dark purplish black mane tangling as she moved about in the grips of a nightmare, mumbling to the empty room.

“No… Too many… Too much talking… Stop… Leave me alone…” She whimpered.

Few ponies would consider a dream about attending a small birthday party populated by fifteen ponies a nightmare, but for Pattern, it certainly was a torment.

While she lay in the grips of her nightmare, the small rock garden set inside a large cut out section of the wall on her bed’s left hoof side began to stir. The dark red bloodwood spheroid which formed the garden’s centerpiece pulsed with a deep green light. The darker parts of the wood grain, slowly gaining a consistent ghostly glow. The light mixing with the blue glowing moss set in the back of the garden to form a turquoise color.

Around the shaped stones and uncut crystals, small bits of smooth sanded wood formed little patterns, decorations between each stone. As the bloodwood sphere pulsed, the small, lovingly shaped pieces of wood slid over one another, greenish yellow flecks of magic pulling on each individual piece as if a thousand strings were pulling each of them to the sphere, burying it within the center of their collective mass.

The wood clattered over the stones and clicked against each other as they formed a mass around the sphere. A mass which became a pony’s barrel, wooden, but lovingly carved, sanded, and stained a beautiful mahogany color. In a matter of moments, the pieces finished flowing together, forming what could best be described as a lovingly and passionately carved wooden statue of the world’s most beautiful mare.

As a final touch, the moss peeled away from the garden’s back wall, forming a short but neatly cut mane and a long, flowing tail for the wooden mare before she blinked, the tiny wooden bits around her eyes sliding across one another to accommodate the expression with ease.

The wooden mare rushed to the bed the second her body finished assembling, moving for all the world as smoothly and gracefully as a flesh and blood creature would have. Gently laying her forehooves on the sleeping bat pony, the wooden mare shook her urgently, her face frozen in an expression of pure terror.

“Pattern! Pattern, wake up! Please,” she begged with a whimper.

The Batpony’s eyes snapped open as she was touched, panic dilating her bright orange eyes into slits until she spotted the wooden mare standing over her. Then their fearful gaze softened into a happy one, though they kept some of the urgency within them.

“Everfree? Urk… It’s two twenty-five… OH NO! Are you on fire!?” Pattern asked, sitting bolt upright as she realized how distraught the other ‘pony’ looked.

“I-I was…” Everfree whimpered.

Pattern pulled her marefriend tightly against her chest with a hug so tight that it would have broken a normal pony’s ribs. Thankfully the wooden body she had sculpted for Everfree could take the compressive force of a batpony smith’s hug. But only just barely.

“It’s okay, you’re with me. Nothing will happen to your heart here, love. What happened?” Pattern asked trying to be soothing as she could. “Lightning?”

“Applejack’s gone insane, or, or, maybe it’s a changeling impersonating her. I don't know she, it, had really strange magic that could overpower my control over my trees, and it took the Deepglade from me!

“I can feel it, it’s there, controlling me. All of me except this one part. I... I can block it out but I can feel it if I don't remember to and it hurts! I-I need mom! Mom can fix this, she’s strong, right?” Everfree sobbed.

Patterns ears fell as she tried to take all of that in and failed. Only understanding that something had hurt her marefriend.

“Who’s dentist am I making very happy?” Pattern asked angrily.

“No! We need mom!” Everfree yelped, fear flashing across her face as she envisioned her marefriend facing the predator which had forced her out of her ‘body’ for lack of a better term.

“Princess Luna? Is it really that bad?” Pattern asked with a dark frown.

Everfree nodded.

“She has no idea you exist as more than a forest,” Pattern sighed slowly, closing her eyes. “You’ll have to come with me. She’s at her apartment at the Emerald Hive right now… It’s going to be a long walk. Unless- Are you okay with teleporting?”

Everfree nodded, shuddering as she thought about magic other than her own being used on her. “Y-yes… But only because this is really really bad,” She decided hesitantly.

“Alright. Let’s get you covered up, I think Sky’s in town. He probably has a teleporter to the hive from his house,” Pattern said giving Everfree one last tight hug as she slipped out of bed.

The batpony stretched her wings, stumbled to a dresser, took out a blue denim jumpsuit, brown scarf, and two pairs of welding goggles and tossed them to her mate, saving one pair of goggles for herself. After all, no batpony likes to have the sun sneak into one of their eyes.

“Put these on love. Wrap up completely, we don’t want to scare anypony… Towns are scary enough for me without them being afraid too,” Pattern sighed as she fished a can of Pega-Speed energy potion from the case beside her bed and cracked it open.

Copious amounts of caffeine just became critical for Pattern, and there was no faster way to get it. Besides, the Blue-Fast flavor was delicious.

The batpony mentally groaned as she watched Everfree cover up and assume her ‘alter ego’ of Patterns albino, instantly sunburnt marefriend. It was going to be a long, long night. She could feel it.

3 - King's Gambit

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Trigger, Sky Trigger - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Deck 13, Phoenix - Emerald Hive

Paperwork. The worst part of any job. You would think the higher ups wouldn’t do the paper pushing. Executive privilege. That kind of shit.

Nope! Buck that!

Let's do it the other way around, and ignore Sky’s suggestion to write an algorithm that uses security footage to auto complete all paperwork which would ever need to be done. Cuz that makes sense to not do. Yep, way better.

“Are you alright, boss? You look a bit pissed off today,” Charr asked with a slight frown while I glared at her datapad.

I liked the dwarf dragon, I really did. But she did cut me off in the hallway for paperwork.

“I’ll be fine once I can stop authorizing all this crap,” I grumbled, tapping all the relevant boxes on the screen with a hoof. “You have any idea what got Skritt to decide we absolutely had to clear Deck Fourteen now? We’ve been fine space wise for thirty years.”

Excavating a deck was always a massive undertaking. Lots of ponies think we have the entire Phoenix unearthed, especially the tourists. Nope! We don’t even have half the decks clear.

“Maybe he think’s were due for a population boom,” Charr said with a shrug, her neon green scales glittering under the lights.

I swore she dumped turtle wax on herself and had someone buff her scales at least once a week.

Shaking my head I passed the pad back. “Whatever. I’m out for the weekend. You deal with all of the requests that flood in. It’s time you broke in your job title and did some overseeing,” I said decisively, turning to try and go back to my office.

“Uh, Boss, are you sure you should be leaving right now?” Charr asked, wings drooping worriedly. “They just got all the sand out and you know that means a million different things will need-”

“Let’s get something straight,” I said as I turned back around with a sigh. “I’m married. My wife said we are hanging out this weekend. Away from the hive. I like living. So I’m going home for the weekend.”

Sometimes it’s next to impossible to get single people to understand how a marriage works.

Charr frowned uncertainly, silver eyes pleading with me for mercy. “Can’t you get laid any other time? Who knows what the dig teams uneatr-”

My watch beeped, signaling an incoming message which instantly began to play itself. Which meant it was from my sister. How she kept hacking my watch to get her messages to auto-play was something I needed to figure out.

“Hey, Sky!” Her voice called excitedly from the speaker. “Trix and I are checking out Fourteen. Looks like this was a military section. We found an armory. Trix called dibs on a light mech we found. Oh, and it totally confirms our theory! The Mech is designed to accommodate a changeling pilot. Meaning a pony works just as fine.”

Charr blinked twice, “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, really!” Ayna laughed. “This will be more than enough to get a few papers published in the journals. Sky, big bro, come on. Cool thing! Come see. There’s a gun that looks like it is designed to pierce forcefields by firing huge crystal spikes down here! Besides, Trix’s new toy could use some touch ups.”

I sighed twice and looked at my watch uncertainly. “Ay, you know Pinkie wants me home this weekend. I can’t fix it up for her. Get anypony else to do it,” I said as evenly as I could.

Why must everything conspire to keep me at work?!

“The Great and Powerful Trixie fixed it herself! Muahahaha!” Trixie announced overdramatically before giggling and finishing up with, “It just needed a power cell. There's a whole crate down here. Trixie really thinks you should come down and explore with us. Trixie found a very beautiful hooded jacket and a cape! They change colors, adaptive camouflage style.”

“And she looks adorable in them!” Ay added happily.

“Trixie might relegate her old hat and cape for stage performances only, in favor of these,” Trixie said clearly still mulling the idea over.

“You should, those things are what, sixteen years old? And you’ve worn them every day for that whole time. They are getting pretty worn out. Anywho, I need to go. I’ll be back in two days, find all the cool shit for me,” I said as politely and firmly as I could.

“Awww, come on! You could go pick her up, bring her back, and we could make it um, I don’t know, an ‘explore the new deck party.' She’d like that,” Ay asked hopefully.

“Nope. Not gonna. She specifically said she wanted to be in Ponyville this weekend. I got to go, Ay. Bye!” I said as I pressed the hangup button on my watch.

Hehe. Ayna hated when I rhymed her name like that.

Charr cleared her throat and looked at me uncertainly. “Anyways, Boss, about the new power needs for the deck-”

I groaned and rubbed my right temple with a hoof. Buck going to my office to pick up that pie. Leaving now.

“You can handle it. You’ve been a great engineer for the last six years. Literally day one, you move in, you do a great job, and you’ve kept doing a great job,” I said encouragingly as I could to the slightly shorter than me dragoness while I stealthily worked through the menus on my watch with a wingtip.

“We’re a meritocracy, Charr,” I ranted. “You have your job because you are the best suited for it. You will do fine. If there’s a major problem, call me. If not, I’ll be here in two days to help unbuck the little messes that pop up.

“Just remember, you, will, do, a, good, job. How do I know? Because you’re incapable of half-assing a job. Draconic pride. Bye, see you, good luck, take care, Sky out!”

I hit the last button as I finished my mini rant, activating my watch’s teleport function. The white metal hallway blinked out of existence, replaced by the old Solar Era craftspony ranch house Pinkie and I shared in Ponyville.

I would rather have used a teleporter pad and saved my watch’s charge for an emergency, but sometimes getting out of the office is a bucking nightmare.

ESPECIALLY when your lieutenant is still green. Charr needed this experience. She hadn't gotten to do enough managing things totally solo. I wasn’t worried too much about Charr. Every dragon likes to hoard something, some dragons like to hoard odd things, some treasure, and others some of the most random ass things. They don’t even have to be physical objects.

Charr liked to hoard the satisfaction of a job well done. So yeah, she did a damn good job all day, every day.

“Pinkie! I’m home!” I called loudly, looking around our overly decorated entryway for any sign of-

A note written on pink paper fluttered down from the ceiling. I managed to catch it, immediately recognizing Pinkie’s chicken-scratch like hoof-writing.

Triggie,
On the bottom shelf of the coat closet is a paintball gun loaded with blue paint. Mine has pink paint. I am hiding somewhere in the house.
The game starts as soon as you pick up your gun. It’s over when one of us get’s hit.
The loser cooks dinner tonight!
May the odds be ever in your favor,
Pinkie Pie ❤

I felt my lips part in a huge smile. Buck the hay yes!

Exactly what I needed to get over six and a half hours of nothing but signing permission forms!

I turned to my right and whipped the coat closet door open, barely holding in a squee as I noticed not only a neatly folded ninja costume, but also a cobbled together seven barrel paintball rotary cannon with ammo bags.

I reached for the ‘weapon’ eagerly, hoof almost touching the surface and-

Three loud knocks shook the door.

Luna.

Bucking.

Damn it!

“One second, Pinkie!” I called loudly, “Someone’s at the door.”

Usually, I would have checked the door camera just to make sure it wasn’t a postmare dropping off a package or anything else I could just ignore, but with one of Pinkie’s games getting pushed back, well, yeah. Door had to get opened.

The door opened with a loud creak opening up and filling the doorway with a scary, strong looking, rust colored batpony mare wearing a pair of welding goggles and another pony who was completely covered by a denim jumpsuit, a bandage wound around their head, and their own pair of goggles.

What the buck?! I felt my eyes widen slightly.

“Sky?” The rusty mare asked hopefully, her voice carrying that special ‘I am awake because of caffeine’ weight to it.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m Sky. What’s up? Sewage line break?” I asked, assuming the two were here to weld inside a pipe or something.

The mare shook her head. “N-no. I’m Pattern Steel-”

“Oh, shit!” I exclaimed ears perking as I finally had a face to go with the name. “I remember you, you’re the mare Luna went with instead of me for her last suit of armor.”

Pattern took a timid step back, her ears falling sadly. “I- Uh- S-sorry,” she stammered.

I raised an eyebrow. “Um, not mad? I’ve seen the suit. It’s awesome. Not my style but eh. Kind of cool looking overall. And admittedly I don't think I could have matched the actual material strength. Good job!” I said with a friendly smile, hoping to calm her down a little bit.

According to the rumors, Pattern Steel was extremely reclusive, an actual hermit. For reasons of being three and a half Fluttershy's worth of sociophobia.

Besides, she deserved the praise. She did damn fine work. Sure, I could have replicated her alloy if I wanted to, given my lab and all its tech. But Pattern Steel made it in a cave! With a box of scraps! Yeah, that was beyond me.

“Please!” Pattern’s companion begged urgently with a female’s voice. “Ask!”

I frowned slightly, staring at the completely covered up pony. “Uh, I don’t do medical stuff. Do you need help? My little bro is across town,” I informed. “I can get you directions.”

“Eeve is albino,” Pattern blurted extra quickly. “Sunburns. Um, this is an emergency. We need to talk to Princess Luna. Right now. Can you teleport us? Emerald Hive doesn't have a public teleport grid node. We know you built your own private one.”

“What kind of emergency?” I asked, fully intending to let them use my house’s teleport pad but wanting to be up to speed. "'I'm out of Snickers', or 'oh shit everything is on fire'?"

“There’s something extremely wrong with m- The forest,” Eeve exclaimed, frowning enough for me to see it behind the bandages.

I raised an eyebrow. That was an interesting little verbal slip.

“Yeah… You don’t have to lie,” I said casually. “If you’re friend is having dream problems or something you can just say that.”

“It really is the forest,” Pattern said with a grim and serious look which made me believe her.

It also helped that she had said that the same way I would if somepony had hurt Pinkie. Something was majorly wrong, and for whatever reason, Luna was needed. I’d follow up on it later with a call to Luna.

“Alright,” I sighed. “Come on in. The pad is right in the entryway where I’m standing. It’s not like the Equestrian grid, this is tech based. You don’t have to worry about any active spells you may have going. Just stand right in the entry.”

I backed up, allowing the two mares to enter the house. As they stepped through the doorway, the small light above my doorway remained green. No hidden weapons, no active spells, and they were not shifted changelings.

I loved my security system. Ay and I can do some damn good shit when we put our heads together.

The moment the two were in position, I flipped the hidden control panel open and tapped in the commands needed to send everypony but me to the Hive’s civilian deck teleport pad, then hit the comm button.

Usually, I’d just ask Sai to handle these two’s escort but today was his day off too.

“Sky Trigger calling,” I said into the panel.

“Phoenix here,” a changeling’s voice replied politely. “Do you need anything from your suite, sir?”

“No, I have two mares here who need to see Princess Luna on emergency business. One is Pattern Steel, the Royal Armorer, and the other is, I don't know, her assistant? Anyways, they really need to talk to Luna,” I explained. “They will be arriving at the civilian teleport pad in a second. Could you please get someone to escort them to her apartment when they arrive?”

“Yes, sir. Is there anything else?” They asked.

“Yeah, Pattern’s assistant is albino. Dim the lights a bit on the other end. The receiving room is way too bright, even for me. That’s it. Have a good weekend, over and out,” I said as I signed off.

Then I turned to Pattern and Eeve. “Girls, Please wait at the pad until your escort arrives. There are security guards present, and we treat that receiving room like any other national border. Don’t be dumb. Ready to go?”

Pattern nodded. “Y-Yes. I um… Later. I mean, later on, I… I’ve been wanting to build a thing. Talk shop. When not dead tired. Please?”

I frowned as I tried to untangle her words, nodding as I worked it all out. “Yeah, sure. We’ll work out a time and date. You’ll be coming back through my entryway here anyways. You ready to go too, Eeve?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Awesome! See you around. I need to go paintball my wife,” I said with a huge grin as I tapped the panel.

The two mares vanished with a flash of green light. I turned back around and picked up the ninja gi Pinkie had left for me.

Nothing is more fun than an afternoon of Ninja Paintball with miniguns!

Twilight - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Castle of Friendship, Ponyville - Equestria

Sparkle, Celestia, and I had made our way to the map room. It was a good place to talk without being overheard. I’d spent years working on magical defenses for the chamber. With the doors shut nothing outside would hear anything that happened inside. Besides, everypony likes a good conference table to sit around while talking.

The moment everypony had sat down, Princess Celestia asked Sparkle to explain herself.

I don't know what I had expected Sparkle to do, but it definitely had not been for her to snap a salute and immediately give a clear and concise summary of the last forty-eight hours of her life. It was like watching my brother talk to an officer after his first training mission in ROTC.

She even finished her spiel with, “The operation resulted in failure, Ma’am.”

Celestia had been just as surprised as I had been, and as Sparkle finished she cleared her throat awkwardly and asked, “In your universe, did you undergo military training?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Sparkle confirmed with a quick nod. “I couldn’t justify being unable to fight while serving as Equestria’s protector. Hasn’t your Twilight done the same?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ve never even thought about joining the military. I can’t stomach the thought of um, well, you know… Killing somepony. I guess it stands to reason that there would be some differences between us. Our universes can’t be exactly the same, can they?”

Celestia shook her head slowly. “No, they can’t be. With drastically different events in the past, I’m surprised things are as similar as they are. Example, I have known about the Emerald hive and their technology since the eighth year of this era. Whereas your Celestia seems to have only learned about it recently.

“I must apologize, Twi- Ahem, Sparkle, but given the present situation I must ask you for help. I’m not entirely certain I can trust you, but somepony needs to guard Ponyville, and Twilight is about to go on a dangerous journey.”

I felt my ears stand up in alarm, “I- I am? Why? Where too?”

I mean I would do it but...

Celestia sighed and stood up, turning around to look at the large Tapestry of the Tree of Harmony which I had made and displayed behind my throne.

“We need to fix the Elements, they are our first line of defense,” Celestia sighed, head falling slightly. “All of my defense plans involve them in some way or another. Luna is a thousand years out of practice and only just now beginning to understand modern tactics and the capabilities of the new equipment, weapons, and so on. Without the Elements, our nation is vulnerable to real harm.”

“Sounds like it’s time to get the Royal Artificers together for the world's hardest weekend of work,” Sparkle said with a sigh. “I’m very sorry, and I will naturally help as needed until things return to normal. But why would I need to protect Ponyville for Twilight? You didn’t exactly explain where she is going.”

Celestia nodded and turned back around. “The Elements do not work on any magical principals any of us would understand,” she said grimly.

I nodded. “Yes, I was studying them but um… They are not logical. At all.”

Frankly, the Elements seemed like something a drunk pony had just sort of kludged together that just happened to actually work.

“Precisely, Twilight,” Celestia agreed, a small pleased smile forming on her lips. “The only person who could fix them is the one who made them in the first place. I- I don’t know if she’s still alive. If she isn’t, we will have major problems to resolve.

“Twilight, you will need to go find her and bring her here. Meanwhile, your friends will need to find the components used to make the Elements in the first place. Just in case an entirely new set must be made, or parts are needed. Unfortunately, the parts are very rare. Rare enough where I haven't been able to keep more than an arcanite crystal, which is the core of ‘Magic’.”

I frowned in concern. It sounded like the corresponding Element had to get the particular part which corresponded to them. “But what about Applejack? She’s missing.”

Celestia frowned sharply, her eyes opening wide with worry. “She is?”

I nodded. “Yes. Do we have to go, or can anypony retrieve the materials needed?”

Sparkle laughed. “You know, given how the Elements work. It’s going to have to be somepony bound to that element, isn’t it?”

Celestia nodded. “Yes. It will. We will have to find Applejack immediately. Only Honesty can retrieve a piece of amber glass from… Ugh, if I hadn’t banished Luna this would be cake. I could just teleport to each one and pick it up.”

That’s right, banishing her sister had severed her ties to the Elements entirely. Wait a moment, “Um, Celestia, what were your defense plans during the Solar Er-”

“I”m not doing that again!” Celestia snapped, wings flaring open as she wheeled around to face me. “Not ever. Peace obtained by fear is shaky, hard to maintain, and causing enough fear to do so is immoral.”

“W-what did you do?” I asked worriedly.

“I ended a war. We will speak no more of this. I refuse to directly participate in open warfare ever again. We WILL repair the Elements. Which means we need to find Applejack,” Celestia said, pulling her wings back to her sides as she regained her composure.

“Or some other element of Honesty,” Sparkle mused, holding a hoof to her chin.

Celestia's ears perked as she turned to face my counterpart. “I- well, yes that would work. But our Elements only have one Avatar at a time. Applejack would have to die to relinquish control of Honesty.”

“Sure,” Sparkle agreed with a knowing nod. “But you don’t need to use them right now. You just need someone bonded to honesty, or as you implied had been bound to Honesty, in order to get whatever it is the Element needs. If you want to take care of it as fast as possible, the equoid Fluttershy insinuated she had the ability to travel between dimensions. She could simply get their Element of Honesty, and he or she could get the part for you.”

That- Well, no that was actually brilliant!

I felt myself smile at the realization. “Yeah! If a changeling can feed on them, then they have the same metaphysical properties as a pony, which means the element bond should be there too! This should work, and it means Sparkle can focus on finding Applejack while I’m off looking for whoever it is!” I exclaimed excitedly. “Even better, we don’t need to go anywhere, because they didn’t have the same Elements we did, I mean their bearers were shuffled. Fluttershy said that she was their Honesty! She can go for us right now.”

Celestia smiled, genuine pride lighting up her eyes as she looked at the two of us. “With both of you having brilliant ideas I think we can sort this problem out quickly,” she said with relief. “Yes, if Roboshy-”

Sparkle narrowed her eyes. “Excuse me?” She asked.

Sheesh! She really did think of machines as people… Which meant she probably had proof that they were. Because she was me. Maybe I should rethink my opinion.

Celestia giggled. “Settle down. She picked that name out. It’s the name listed on her Equestrian ID.”

Huh… I thought that had been a fake id. Oops.

“Oh! Well, that’s okay then,” Sparkle said with a satisfied nod.

“As I was saying, if Shy really does share the metaphysical signature of her former organic self, and she was Honesty, then your plan will work, and we can proceed immediately. Excuse me one moment, I am going to ask her… Um, Twilight, can you teleport from this room?” Celestia asked as she stood up to leave.

I shook my head. “No. It’s well warded,” I said honestly. “Uh, not that I don’t think you couldn’t break through if you tried but-”

“I understand Twilight,” Celestia said with a small grin. “I will check with Shy to see if she’s her world’s Honesty. If she is, I will return here with the other Elements, so I need only give this briefing once. Please, remain here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sparkle replied with a sharp nod.

“Of course,” I agreed, nodding as well.

Celestia trotted over to the purplish crystal door and slipped outside, closing it behind herself as she left. I was totally alone with my counterpart from another universe. In a room where nothing could ever be heard. What should I ask?

“Sooo um, did you marry?” I asked curiously.

Sparkle raised an eyebrow. “I don’t exactly have a big enough ego to go out with myself,” she said in what I thought might be a joke, but sounded pretty serious thanks to her tone.

“I’m just asking so we can figure out differences between us,” I explained. “I married. Ooo! It would be cool if we both married Flash!”

Sparkle winced and immediately looked at the floor sadly. “I- I did. He’s dead,” she explained.

Oh, buck! I forgot… Her whole world just-

“He went out a hero,” Sparkle continued. “Years and years ago, during the last battle of a massive war. Flash… He saved every mare, every foal… Everyone of us. Took me a long time to move on. I still get a little sad talking about it.

“I remarried later on. I couldn’t live alone, needed a good bit of emotional support. So I married the mares who were there for me.”

I triple blinked in confusion. “M-mares? You’re bisexual?”

Sparkle shook her head. “No, I don’t care about the 'plumbing.' I don't really see a difference between sexes. It’s not important what parts a pony has outside of medicine and reproduction.

"I also don't find bodies attractive. I’m attracted to personality and other's feelings for me. I don’t know if there’s a word for that. What about you? Do you, fall into a common box?”

I nodded. “Y-yeah. Straight,” I answered. “And um, our Flash is still alive. But he’s pretty sick. He’s got some kind of genetic illness…”

I felt my ears droop sadly. I’d asked Doctor Lily if he could cure Flash but well, no. There wasn’t enough of Flash’s unaffected DNA left to do anything with. And Repose’s ‘cure’ was simply out of the question.

Sparkle stood up and walked over to me, wrapping her forelegs around my shoulders in a tight hug. “I understand… If I'm still here when it happens, I’ll give you all the support I can.”

“I’d appreciate that,” I replied unevenly.

“My turn for a question,” Sparkle said quickly, apparently seeking to change the conversation up. “Why didn’t you go into the military?”

“I explained why earlier. I don’t like the idea of training specifically to kill others. I don’t believe killing is moral. I mean… I have had to a few times, but well… I’m certain you know,” I said as a grimace stretched my mouth apart.

She nodded. “I felt like that once. But there’s this thing about being a hero. A hero is someone who gives up being morally clean so others can remain innocent,” Sparkle said flatly. “As a hero, it’s my duty to do anything it takes to save everypony I can, no matter how it makes me feel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging you. We’ve led different lives. Not everyone sees the world as I do.”

“Especially since you have one eye,” I joked, hoping to lighten the mood with my words and a smile.

She smiled. “Yeah, I don’t suppose your Emerald Changelings could whip up a new one, could they? I actually LIKED having the ability to see the whole EM spectrum, having an optical zoom, a built-in laser pointer to show someone EXACTLY what I was looking at. An internal display for recorded files, an eReader…”

She sighed wistfully. “It’s as shame Phoenix was completely insane. All that tech could have really helped everypony,” she lamented.

I nodded. “I agree! I’ve been talking with their current Captain, I’ve been hoping they will be willing to sell some of their designs to us. No luck so far, but I would really like access to some of their manufacturing tools… Then again they keep their little city state running by being an industrial powerhouse. So I kind of understand,” I rambled.

“Well, you can’t blame somepony for being afraid of losing their ability to provide for their family,” Sparkle said as the room’s doors creaked open.

We both turned to look, Celestia had returned and had everypony in tow. Everypony but AJ.

It looked like she had gone to all their houses and simply teleported away with them.

“Princess, I really must protest, I was right in the middle of a large order!” Rarity objected, very politely. “I didn’t even have time to mark my place on the seam.”

“I’m sorry, Rarity. This is an emergency,” Celestia apologized as she lead everypony inside.

As she walked inside, I noticed Pinkie was actually clothed. She wasn’t in anything fancy, just a Nightmare Night costume grade ninja outfit. She also had a paint gun slung over her back and a semi-worried, semi-annoyed expression stamped on her face. She must have been playing a game with Sky. Especially with that line of blue paint splatters across her left side.

Celestia felt like we all had to go NOW. Was it really that bad? It’s not like anypony in other nations would know they were damaged. Surely we had a month at the least!

“Um, is anypony going to explain the other me?” Fluttershy asked timidly.

“I’m you from another universe. Everypony is a robot there,” Shy explained politely, giving her counterpart a soft smile.

“Oh, um. Okay. And where’s Applejack?” She asked as a followup question before noticing Sparkle and stopping cold, eyes widening fearfully. “Oh, my…”

"Hey, Flutters," Sparkle greeted with a polite smile. "Dimensional traveling, that's all. It's okay, nothing bad in your future that I know of."

"Oh thank goodness!" Fluttershy sighed in relief.

“Applejack is missing,” Celestia answered, closing the doors with her magic as she walked to a position where everypony could see her. “While that is a problem I will personally address later, we have another crisis on our hooves. The Elements of Harmony have broke.”

Everypony gasped in shock, save Dash, who heard it before.

“Broken!” Pinkie exclaimed in shock, her tail and ears standing on end. “Um, m-maybe Triggie can fix them? He’s really good at fixing things.”

“I’m afraid that repairing the Elements will take more than a toolbox and technical knowledge,” Celestia lamented. “The Twilight with an eyepatch is going by the name Sparkle. She and some of her friends just escaped the death of their universe. Unfortunately, their arrival caused a magical disturbance, breaking the Elements and turning Discord to stone.

“I was worried that all of their alterations had been reversed, but fortunately, Luna is fine, an Triek is still within Tartarus. It looks as if only Discord was in range of the… Anomaly. The situation could be far worse than it is. But it is still urgent we get them repaired as quickly as possible.

“I- I have prophetic dreams from time to time. I’ve never been the best at Divination magic, but I have predicted many things before. For the last two months, I have had warnings of an impending disaster. For the last week, the dreams have been getting more and more urgent.

“I was planning on telling you si- you girls as soon as I had any detail at all other than ‘horrible, terrible things are about to happen.' But, this may be the crisis I was warned about. In which case, we need the Elements repaired yesterday to advert whatever disaster their breaking causes.”

Sparkle winced. “Oh man! I just had a thought. What if the disaster IS the Elements? Their damaged state could be causing them to slowly build up more and more mana which could eventually explode in a wave of wild magic. With the tree centered within the Everfree forest… Yeah, a wild magic storm right there… Not good.”

I winced. “Ah! Yeah, I didn’t think about that… What do we need to do, Celestia?” I asked hopefully. “You explained we could find their creator, so I assume you have a plan.”

“Yes! We’re ready to save the Kingdom just like always, Princess,” Rarity agreed with a proud smile. “I’m certain this won’t be any more dangerous than our other adventures.”

Sparkle smiled widely. “You’re just like my Rarity! She was always the brave one too,” she said happily.

Rarity blushed lightly. “W-well, a Lady must certainly be able to solve her own problems and support her friends. We can chat later, darling. This is important,” she said as politely as she could.

Celestia nodded firmly. “This is crucial,” she agreed. “So important that we must begin right now. It could take weeks to find everything we need. I’m afraid you will need to split up.”

“Split up?” Dash asked incredulously, her mouth twisting into a frown. “Just give me a list of everything we need and I’ll round it up in a few days!”

Celestia shook her head again. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. That won’t work. I witnessed the creation of the Elements. I know what we need to create new ones, and I assume we will need those ‘parts’ to repair them.

“As I explained to Twilight before, the metaphysical parts of the physical items are equally important as the things themselves. They must be retrieved by someone who embodies the correct virtue. Otherwise, they are simply exotic items. This means each of you must retrieve your specific Element’s part.”

“Um, but, if that’s true, then we can’t do this without Applejack, we need to find her right away!” Fluttershy objected her tail rising in alarm.

“That’s what your counterpart is here for,” Celestia explained with a reassuring smile.

Shy nodded slowly. “I held our universe's Element of Honesty. In theory, I should be able to get the Amber Glass gem just like Applejack could. And if not, by the time everypony is back with their part, I’m certain Princess Celestia will have found her, and she can then do it herself if needed. I’m just here to try and help get this done quickly as possible.”

“Last time Applejack vanished it only took us four days to find her and bring her back,” Dash protested, her eyes narrowing slightly. “She’s my wife! I- I can’t let her just stay missing!”

Celestia nodded. “I know, Rainbow. But you are incredibly fast. I don’t think it will take you more than an afternoon to reach the Broken Lands in the Outbuck. I’m fairly certain that if you don’t encounter any obstacles that you can be back by sunrise. It will take me at least that long to get a proper search party together.

“Finding Applejack is a top priority, Rainbow. I don’t think that Shy could actually USE the Elements, not since they have granted their powers to you directly. Perhaps if they were still unbound to anypony… We need Applejack, and we WILL find her. But we also need these parts as fast as possible.

“Do you understand?”

Dash nodded bitterly. “Yeah, I know. I hate it, but I get it…” She grumbled.

“Will you go?” Celestia asked uncertainly.

“I will,” Dash promised. "But you had better have that search party ready to go by the time I get back. And you are REALLY underestimating just how quick I'm going to be!"

"I'll move as fast as I can, Rainbow. This is important to me too," Celestia promised.

“So um, what is everypony going to have to get and where are they going?” I asked, raising my hoof by reflex.

Celestia nodded and took a few steps so she could walk down the loosely formed line everypony stood in. I sat up straight, eagerly listening in the hopes that the Element's components would provide some idea of how they worked.

“Rainbow Dash,” Celestia began. “I need you to go to the Broken Lands in the Outbuck, as I just mentioned. You will need to locate a place known as ‘The Valley of the Winds’ and bring back a starstone. There are locals there, and they can help you find one.

“Pinkie Pie, you’ll need to go to the far north of the Crystal Empire. The town of Buckingcold-”

Pinkie and Dash immediately burst out laughing at the mention of the town’s name.

"Oh my," Rarity giggled. "Is it truly called that?"

Celestia’s eyes narrowed in irritation.

“Yes. It has a curse word in its name,” Celestia sighed exacerbated. “The town is a mining town. They mine beneath the ice sheets, and you need to bring back a bottle of pure glacial water made from sky blue ice which contains coal dust. While that seems like something you could find at any glacier, it HAS to come from the glacier the town sits on. The mineral content of the water is critical, and I don't know of any other source.

“Fluttershy, not the android, our Fluttershy, you will need to go to Neighpone and bring back a bonsai cherry tree from the top of Mount Segata.

“Shy, you will need to go to Drake, and bring back an Amber Glass gemstone. Any will do, but um… It is a dragon dominated nation, and that is an especially valuable gem.

“Twilight, you will have to find the Element’s creator and also bring back your part. Fortunately, your part is an Arcanite Crystal from Canterlot mountain. We can pick one up anytime.

“Lastly, Rarity… I’m very sorry, but you will need to go to Shorefall.”

Rarity blinked in confusion, her mouth scrunched up slightly. “I-I’m afraid I don’t know why I should object to that, Princess,” she said quite confused.

I knew. I knew, and I was so so sorry.

“Uh, Rarity…” I began slowly. “It’s a massive tropical jungle. Full of all of the scary tropical things. Extra large monsters, flesh-eating insects, exotic diseases-”

Rarity recoiled in horror. “Ew! I- Oh… Fiddlesticks! And I do HAVE to go too. W-well that’s fine, I presume we can pack appropriately. I’ll just purchase a hazmat suit and-”

Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid that when I said we need to go now, I mean now-now. I’ll be teleporting everypony directly to a military airship dock the moment this briefing is done. You will be given mission critical equipment from official Guard kits aboard the Airships,” she said adamantly.

Everypony looked up in surprise.

“I- what?” Rainbow objected. “Why!?”

“Yeah! Triggie could be super helpful, and I’d like him to go with me,” Pinkie protested with a steep frown.

“I can’t go without at least my emergency makeup kit!” Rarity squeaked fearfully, her ears laying flat.

“Oh, yeah. She can’t!” I agreed, frowning sympathetically. "Rarity needs that."

Sparkle shook her head slowly. “Um, it’s a military mission. She can go without cosmetics for a week or so,” she disagreed shaking her head.

Celestia nodded in agreement. “Yes, looking fashionable is not a concern here. We need everything speedily, none of you can be weighed down by unnecessary items.”

Rarity’s ears drooped sadly. “But- I um… There’s a little problem with-”

I stepped over and gently put a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll explain,” I promised.

“No! No, it’s alright. I’m a grown mare I can explain myself,” Rarity said politely as she could before clearing her throat. “Princess, I- well…”

Rarity took a few steps forward and reared up to quietly whisper to Celestia. I did my best to avoid rolling my eyes. We all knew. Honestly, she didn’t have to whisper.

Oh, well, there was Sparkle. But she was me. I doubt she’d make a big deal out of it.

“Oh,” Princess Celestia replied with an apologetic frown. “Yes, I can see how that would be a problem for you to go without your makeup kit, Rarity. Everypony will have twenty minutes to get anything they may need and return here. I’ll use the time to fill Twilight in on her own mission.”

“Is it anything I could help with?” Sparkle offered politely.

Rarity shook her head. “No thank you, perhaps Applejack’s personality is a little infectious, but I prefer using ‘costume’ and acting to be accepted as I am rather than a magical solution. I’m happy with myself, and I think that’s all anypony really wants for themselves.”

Sparkle nodded. “I understand, and to be fair, I doubt I could make you as pretty as you can.”

I winced. Really? Did she have to flirt? “You’re married!” I objected.

Sparkle nodded. “Yes, I am. Doesn't make her less cute. I can compliment her if I want too,” she chuckled. “Dash and Trix would do the same.”

“I um… Dash!?” I asked stupidly, my mind melting just a little.

Why would I ever even think of marrying her!?

Dash’s ears drooped. “Awww, man! That me is lucky… I totally would have gone for Twi if she wasn’t straight,” Dash lamented her ears drooping enviously.

"AJ isn't bad, though," Sparkle mused. "I kinda liked her myself. Sure she's stubborn and has some issues, but well, she's really sweet under that crusty layer of personal issues."

“Moooooving on!” I said quickly heart jackhammering awkwardly in my chest. “Everypony should go get their stuff! Sparkle will be protecting Ponyville while we are gone, and I’m pretty confident that it will take Fluttershy at least a week to get back from Neighpone, and I don’t know how long I will be gone and-”

Princess Celestia cleared her throat. “Miss Rarity, you will need to go to Shorefall, to the great lake south of Dryreef City, and retrieve a piece of pink freshwater coral.”

Sparkle blinked. “Your world has fresh water coral? That wasn’t possible on ours. That implies some different physics, which means-”

“Not at all,” Celestia said with a soothing smile. “It’s a unique coral species native to that particular lake. Rarity, it comes in four varieties, you MUST get the pink one. Understood?”

Rarity nodded firmly. “Yes, Shorefall, Dryreef City, the southern Great Lake, pink corral. Simple enough.”

“Good. Now, everypony, go and pack anything you may need,” Celestia ordered with a nod. “Oh, and Pinkie, you’re right. It may be a good idea for you to bring your husband along. If he is willing, you may bring him and fill him in.”

“Um, may I take Ly with me?” Shy asked, the android raising one hoof uncertainly. “I’m not sure I can tangle with a dragon alone. I-I mean I’ve done it before, but I don't have any of the specialty tools you need.”

"You... Fought a dragon?" Sparkle asked with a raised eyebrow. "Oh! Right, you mean the time we all chased of that elder red from the cave and we forced you to go... Um, oop! Sorry, I forgot you're not my Fluttershy."

Dash laughed. "Yeah we had that one happen in this universe too."

"Oh no, I'm not talking about that," Shy said with a bashful smile. "I'm talking about... Well, I suppose it didn't happen for you two. Um, my family have been monster hunters for generations. I had to pass an initiation and well... Dragon interrupted it."

Everypony grew silent, staring at the android pony for several long seconds.

"But... You're also easily spooked, right? Because you’re a Fluttershy too," Pinkie asked a confused look pressed into her face.

"Yeah!" Dash agreed, with a tilted head.

Shy nodded twice. "Yes. Things making sounds in the dark are much much scarier when you know what makes those sounds, and you don't have the thing you need to stop that creature in hoof's reach," she explained.

"That's a good point," Sparkle said with a long slow nod.

“Come to think of it, can we all bring somepony along?” Rarity asked hopefully.

Celestia bit her lip uncertainly. “I… I don't want word of this getting out. So no. Pinkie and Shy may take somepony with them because Sky will be useful in helping Pinkie find the correct kind of water, and Shy might need to fight a dragon. Rarity, Dash, and Fluttershy, you will go alone because your missions take place in urban areas which are relatively safe, and well, Dash would only be slowed down by company. I hope that’s fair with everypony?”

Rarity grumbled slightly, but nodded. To my surprise, Fluttershy nodded eagerly.

“I’m okay with going by myself. I’ve been to Neighpone before,” she said happily.

Ah yes, we did go there once for a diplomatic mission to talk to Empress Misuki. Fluttershy had felt very much at home there. I wonder if it was because that’s where her part of the Elements was from?

Also, now that I think about it, none of those parts are exceptionally magical or useful for enchanting save for Magic and Honesty’s parts. What the flying buck? How did they work!?

Celestia cleared her throat and looked around the map room for a clock. There wasn’t one. “Humm… Well, there’s no clock here, I trust everypony knows about how long twenty minutes is. Be quick, and pack very light, please,” she ordered.

I could feel the urgency in Celestia’s voice. Whatever her dreams might be warning her about, she definitely felt that it was a really huge disaster. I’d have to work extra hard to tackle this one quickly.

This time everypony quickly filed out of the room. They didn’t say anything, they just left. Dash vanishing in that same blur of cyan light as before.

How did she do that? Why did she want to conceal her real speed from me? Was it really just so I wouldn’t work out some kind of family secret? I felt a little hurt, to be honest. I’d have to confront her about it when we had time.

As soon as the doors closed, Celestia turned back to face me, then gave Sparkle a look.

“Miss Sparkle, this is a national secret. Please wait outside. I will brief you on how to secure Ponyville shortly,” she ordered with a firm expression but a kind tone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sparkle said with an accepting nod as she got up and left the room.

Celestia waited until the room was completely empty before sighing and closing her eyes for a long moment.

“Sorry for being so melodramatic today, Twilight. I was worried the shockwave was more than well, this. The elements broke and… I don’t know I expected Tartarus to have opened a portal right into the heart of Ponyville,” she explained slowly, wings sagging as if under great weight.

“It’s alright, Celestia. I understand. I’d be shaken too,” I agreed, trotting over to give her a gentle hug.

“Thank you,” Celestia said, returning the hug for a brief moment.

I stepped back to a comfortable conversational distance then sat down. “Well… What do I do? To find this mysterious designer, I mean.”

Celestia laughed and shook her head slowly. “Oh, Twilight… This is complicated. Not as complicated as the little incident this morning, but still,” Celestia sat down and looked up at the ceiling for a moment wistfully. “I don’t suppose you know what the month ‘Megan’ is named after, do you?”

I shook my head. “I always wondered, but I couldn’t find anything written about it. What’s it have to do with this?”

Celestia smiled as she replied. “Well, I named the month after my wife,” she giggled jokingly.

“Y-your wife?” I stammered, eyes widening in surprise. “B-but I thought-”

“I am straight, it's not a real marriage. I only married Megan because she was twelve years old and refused to help us unless I made her a quote ‘cute pony princess’ end quote. The simplest way I could do that was to marry her. It was never consummated, so it wasn’t a real wedding. But it satisfied her,” Celestia rambled.

I tilted my head as I absorbed her words. “Wait, wait, wait… Are you saying a FOAL made the Elements of Harmony?” I asked, jaw going completely slack.

“Yes,” Celestia confirmed with an entirely serious nod.

“How?!” I asked, quite unable to even think of another question.

“She was gifted with the ability to create anything she could imagine. I don’t know how she gained that power, but she had it. Ever wonder why the Elements are so… Picky? They will only hurt ‘bad people,' and they make that bad person ‘feel bad about being bad.' Think for a moment on who would design a weapon like that,” Celestia elaborated with a serious expression which prevented me from doubting her.

“But… But they do other things too! They petrified Discord!” I protested.

“Yes, I was curious about that too. I’ve talked to him about it. He wasn’t ever evil, not in the way that the Elements would define evil,“ Celestia continued. “Discord was bored and saw everything he ever did as playful tricks and fun. He didn’t consider us people, so in his mind no one ever got hurt. To him, the thousand years of chaos was little more than putting ants into a maze with no exits and watching them scramble about. Mean spirited fun that didn’t hurt anyone. He feels differently now.

“Fluttershy changed that, and he honestly is extremely regretful of many things he’s done now. Which is a very good thing. But, since the Elements couldn’t define him as ‘evil’ but just ‘really dangerous’ they couldn’t make him feel bad about what he did. So they stopped him from doing it.

“Is the logic behind their workings weird? No. Not if you’re a foal.”

I opened my mouth to reply and quickly shut it. Celestia was right. Kind of. “But the virtues thing?” I asked slowly.

“Only ‘good guys’ can use the weapon,” Celestia replied with a wink. “Bad people can’t use it. Admittedly, I didn’t think to tell her what kind of person I thought was a good person. So she went with what her parents told her a good person was. A loyal, kind, and generous person, who is able to make you laugh, so you won't be sad, who never tells a lie, and wants to be your friend.”

I slapped a hoof against my forehead. “Oh for buck’s sake! It’s so obvious now that you spell it out! But HOW did she make them? And why can multiple people use them?”

“I think the elements evolved a little bit beyond her original designs. They do sort of have a will of their own. They can identify virtuous people and ‘bad’ people after all,” Celestia mused. “Of course I couldn’t say for sure. As for how she made them, she took the items I asked your friends to get and well, she stuck them in a small pear tree and, um... Magic happened.”

Celestia grinned at me sheepishly.

“Magic… Happened?” I asked, brain hurting slightly at the sight of the mare who taught me advanced Thaumaturgy describing an extraordinary act of spellcraft in the least intelligent of terms.

“I’m afraid I don't know everything, Twilight,” Celestia sighed regretfully. “Though, it did look something like Luna’s dream magic when she uses it in the waking world. But, I can’t say for sure. Suffice to say that a young child was the most powerful enchanter this world has ever known.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I’d studied what little I could find on Dream Magic. It was certainly incredibly potent, I could see the Elements being made using it. Maybe that’s also what they used as their own power source.

Wait a moment…

“Did they become immortal? The Elements existed since Discord was first stopped. A normal pony would be dead by now. Why haven’t I heard of her before? If she is immortal- Oh! Were they a dragon?” I asked curiously, trying to work out how I could be expected to find somepony who was roughly Celestia's age.

Celestia snorted and shook her head gently. “Twilight, this is a situation similar to the time Sunset Shimmer stole your element. In fact, the two are related.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, hoping that she could finally just explain this already.

“The Crystal Mirror was designed after Starswirl, Clover, and I found a natural portal between worlds. Its purpose was to provide a safer link between worlds, as it happens natural portals are extremely risky. I asked him to make it so we could contact Megan more easily if we needed her again. Because she lived on the other side. Unfortunately, we were never able to attune the mirror properly. The only means we have of finding her is this moonstone,” Celestia said as she took a small silvery piece of moonstone out from a small hidden compartment on the back of her torc.

“I assume that is a ‘key’ to open safety wards around the rift?” I asked with a shallow frown. “Moonstone isn't the best thaumaturgic material to use… May I examine it and replicate the charm in a better medium?”

“It’s not a key, this is the rift. Luna and I contained it inside the stone,” Celestia replied with a shake of her head. “Bury the stone, and when the moon is directly overhead, the rift will open. It will not close until the stone is dug back up. Yes, rather archaic, but we did do this a few thousand years ago. I’m sure you understand.”

I did understand. That was a properly classical era sounding spell. More folk magic, less well, understanding. I gently took the moonstone from Celestia and held it in my magic’s grip, analyzing the spell within while running through everything I would need to do.

I nodded and stood up, pacing slightly as I on my plan mentally. “Okay, so I need to use this stone to enter another dimension and find a person named Megan, who I’m assuming you are hoping is still alive due to differences in the flow of time between our dimensions.

"No problem. I can do that, but I’ll need to know how to recognize them, what dangers I can expect, and I want to bring Jade with me.”

“Why Jade?” Celestia asked curiously.

“Because last time I ventured into an unknown universe I only succeeded with the help of doppelgangers of all my friends, and I really don’t think that will happen again. It’s stupid to do this alone, and Jade is the best choice for a companion since everypony I would usually take with me is going to be busy,” I explained.

Celestia frowned mulling the idea over for a moment and then nodded. “Very well. Jade has proven to be a good friend for you. If you trust her enough to choose her as an ally, then I trust her. As for how to find her, Megan’s full name is Megan Diane Williams. She insisted that the other side of the rift was on her family’s farm, but she was well, twelve.

“I know that she said she had seen monsters before, but most adults didn’t believe her. Though her grandfather and uncle did. I assume this means the world has dangerous creatures in it, but they are rare. With luck, you won’t encounter any. As for the world itself, the Mirror Equestria you visited before was the closest Starswirl ever found to what we were looking for. It's safe to assume the worlds are comparable. That’s all I can tell you, I’m afraid.”

My eyes widened in sudden realization. There was a major problem here, one which could doom the entire operation.

“Is there any way I can prove I know you?” I asked hesitantly. “Because I don’t want to sound insane if it’s been years and years for her and she thinks it was all some childhood fantasy game.”

With yet another nod, Celestia produced a small brass heart shaped locket from the same hidden pocket in her Torc and passed it to me. “Here’s a locket she gave me.”

“Um, you just wear this around all the time?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

It was so... Cheap looking, and tacky. Like an item picked up from a 5 bit shop.

“Yes. It’s enchanted with a rather nifty charm that prevents you from getting dirty…” Celestia admitted with a pale blush.

“Heh, fair enough,” I said shaking my head slowly. “One last question. Why isn’t any of this in the history books?”

“Because the fewer ponies who know about other dimensions not only existing but being places you can access, the better,” Celestia sighed. “That may seem like pointless censorship of knowledge, but trust me, I traveled extensively with Starswirl and most other universes have all manners of horrors which could be accidently or purposefully unleashed on Equestria.

“All it takes to end the world is one pony curious to see if there’s a world in which they are wealthy coming back home and tracking in a disease which while harmless over there, is devastating over here. As such, I chose to limit those who know to as few as possible. Do you understand?”

I nodded sharply. Yes, I understood perfectly. “That’s a good reason… But there certainly is a lot of good things which could come of it too. Would you object to possibly forming a sort of… I don’t know an Adventurer’s League or something? With proper containment and training, we could easily-”

“I have thought about that, and we can discuss that later. Right now, we need to finish this mission. Go get Jade and pack anything you may need. I need to return to Canterlot and retrieve the data for Pinkie. Not just any mineral rich glacial water will do,” Celestia said as she stood up and trotted to the door. “Oh, and um, Twilight… If you do find Megan, before she arrives, please explain to her that she can stay if she wants this time. I’ve let more than enough people from other places live here to make a fuss over that anymore.”

“Understood,” I answered. “Um, wait a moment, you’re not worried about diseases from Shy, Ly, or anypony from the mirror worlds are you?”

Celestia shook her head. “No. Full medical scans were done showing them to be okay, and Shy comes from a world where nothing organic exists anymore. As for Sparkle, I checked while we were walking to this room. She’s safe.

“People from their universes are safe to interact with. The problem only arises when some amateur doesn't take any precautions and just opened up a gateway. Magic and technology have only recently gotten to the point where it would be safe for a professional to do as well.

“Twilight, I understand you have more questions, but now is not the time to talk. We need to get moving. We have a mission to do.”

I nodded and stood up, fairly certain that Jade would be at Azur’s clinic with the three mirror worlders. I’m certain she would understand being called away for a national emergency, and Lily wouldn’t mind running those three back to the castle after they were finished there.

“Don’t worry, Princess. Everything will be okay. We’ve faced worse problems before,” I said reassuringly.

“I hope so, Twilight,” Celestia murmured. “I hope so.”

4 - Decisions - Discoveries - Disruptions

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Lyra Heartstrings (Mirror) - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Lifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria

The second Jade took the three of us outside, I found myself in heaven. Sunset had been completely right in her letters! Everything was exactly as I imagined it would be. Literally. Down to a few ponies I actually recognized. It was like my dreams had created this place, or like I could see this world when I dreamt.

Sure, it looked like a medieval village right off the cover of a fantasy novel you bought at a gas station 40 miles from nowhere, but I knew all the things to look for. The little silver wires wrapped around a chimney which picked up radio and TV broadcasts. The slight reddish-orange scalloped lines beneath the thatched roofs which marked the borders of the house’s climate control spell systems. The metal shelving units visible behind the open doors of little markets.

Ponyville, a modern town with a delightful mask. I’d thought all towns were like this here, but that was untrue apparently. Hopefully, the non-medieval looking towns had their own nice themes. It really added so much to the place.

I couldn’t help but rubberneck a little as we walked through the town. I didn’t expect for us to get to see this place without, well, fitting in.

My pen pal Lemon Grass used to live here before her hive had her go to the Crystal Empire for her job. I could see things she had mentioned in her letters. Like the Ponyville Bank, it really did have a huge facade on the front that made the building look like a treasure chest! So clever!

I loved it! Everywhere you looked, care, time, and love poured into every last detail about everything. They were not like humans. No laziness present in the use of the same square buildings, bland signs, and prefabricated building block structures. Ponies cared! They really cared!

“Oh my gosh look!” I giggled with a huge grin. “That shop selling ice cream is shaped like a medieval castle’s tower, with an ice cream twisty bit as a roof!”

“Are you almost thirty? Or almost thirteen?” Rarity asked with a playful smirk.

I knew she was joking, but that still cut deep. I felt my eyes narrow angrily. “Well, fuck you too…” I grumbled.

“I think it’s awesome too!” Pinkie said, springing to my defense.

“Definitely!” Our changeling guide exclaimed eagerly. “Once we’re done, would you like to stop by and pick up a cone each?”

After agreeing to stop by on the way back we continued through town. We’d managed to go quite a ways through the beautiful place before I realized something.

“Uh, hey… Isn’t the point of this whole thing to fit in here?” I asked, looking over at Jade and immediately having to pretend I wasn’t jealous of her tail.

I wanted an adorable floofy tail too…

Stupid portal. Jiping me out of being adorable.

I’ll show it! I’ll get my truck and run it the fuck over!

Oh, heh, right. Already did that.

Jade nodded. “Yes, that’s the point. I won't force you to be transformed if you don’t want to be. Are you getting cold hooves?” She asked with a concerned frown.

I couldn’t help but giggle. Cold Hooves. Hehe! Finally! Someone said that, meant it, and wasn’t speaking to an IRC channel.

I nodded, still grinning and swept a hand across the semi full street of ponies who politely parted ways for our group. Sure a few of them did stare but none of them seemed frightened or anything. Polite smiles all around.

“Do any of these people look upset by us?” I asked rhetorically.

Jade giggled, her cheeks splitting in a grin which revealed cute little anime chick type fangs.

“This is Ponyville! Anyplace else would have ponies afraid of you. Heck, there’s Cherry Tomato. One moment,” Jade giggled as she turned to the random unicorn mare. “Hey! Cherry, are these three people more creepy than your neighbors?”

The mare blinked in surprise as she was spoken to at random, looked up at us and asked. “Are you three vampires?”

“Uh, no,” Rarity replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Then you’re not anymore creepy than my neighbors,” Cherry continued giving our group a little polite grin. “Uh, well, sure you’re a bit creepy but that’s just because you’re bipeds. You guys movements look… Odd.”

Her lips pulled downwards suddenly, as if she noticed something more. “Oh! Oh um, one second,” she added as she turned to a beige colored normal pony walking by and asked. “Excuse me, those three people. Can you tell what emotion any of them are expressing?”

The beige stallion stopped, frowned, looked at us and then turned his head to one side.

“Um, not exactly… Is that a neutral expression? Or a smile? You’re very subtle,” he asked oddly.

“I’m smiling!” Pinkie exclaimed in surprise. “W-well, more of a grin. But still! This is a happy face!”

The stallion blushed lightly, scratching the back of his head with a hoof. “Oh! Well, this is embarrassing. Sorry, I-I’m used to well-”

“It’s the lack of ear and tail positions, right?” Cherry asked seeking conversation. “I mean that’s a smile but it’s a bit... Off. Without a perk to the ears. Oh! No offense meant, miss.”

The stallion nodded sharply, smiling in realization. “Yeah! That’s it! That’s what’s off. Oh! No offense intended by that, um, girls?” He asked bashfully.

Jade cleared her throat. “I think my point has been made. Thanks, Cherry, and you too, sir.”

The two ponies resumed walking to wherever they had been going to.

I nodded to myself. “Alright, yeah. I’ll have problems living here if it’s a real bitch to understand my expressions for you guys. Is bipedal locomotion seriously that creepy to you?” I asked with a concerned frown.

Jade shook her head. “A little at first but you get used to it. Give anypony a week and you will be fine. But I’ve known Shy’s marefriend for a while now and well… Yes, creatures with ape-like features such as yourselves are well… It’s hard to read you, and I haven't made any progress at all… And I’m a changeling! I have to taste her emotions, I can’t tell to well by looking. That’s going to unnerve anypony a little.”

“Right,” I said seriously. “I plan on living here, so it’s time to pony up a transformation sp- Oh my god, that pun was TERRIBLE!” I exclaimed clasping both hands over my mouth.

Rarity facepalmed. Pinkie giggled. Jade tilted her head.

“I don't get it?” The bugpone asked, her cheeks glowing like a firefly.

What was- Oh my gosh! That’s how they blushed! SO CUTE! Hehehe!

“Good, it was an accidental pun… Let’s just go where we’re supposed to,” I said, laughing my ‘joke’ off.

Jade nodded, and with just a few more minutes walking, we arrived at a building that didn’t fit Ponyville at all.

It was boxy, squarish, admittedly a little interesting by being shaped like a letter C with a courtyard and fountain in the center of the arms, but it didn’t fit. The buildings around it had personality, and care put into them. This one… This looked like a human design.

But it was also clear a pony lived in it. The flat boring walls were painted a bright white, ivy had been grown on those little mesh slat thingies to help break up the walls flatness, and a big, wooden, medieval style sign hung over the wrought iron gates.

The sign had a curving organic shape, showing a horizontal winged staff, the sort you see on every paramedic's uniform. The staff served as an underline for the word ‘Lifegiver’s’. I couldn’t help but take a moment to admire the masterfully carved sign, and wound up getting yelled at to ‘follow along’.

I did so nervously, the place kind of skeeved me out a bit. But once I reached the courtyard, I understood why. This was a fortress. It had to be an old police station, or maybe an old keep.

Worries pushed aside, I moved to the front of our group just in time to see Jade push the large double oaken doors open with a gentle nudge, courtesy of her magic. The first spell I had gotten to see!

It was the best thing ever! No effort at all, green wibbly energy floats up her horn like a lit match and then bam! Doors creak open!

So cool!

The opening door struck a small bell, providing a nice jingly musical sound like an overture for the interior. It was perfect because the inside deserved a fucking theme song! The only way I could think to describe the interior was to compare it to the grand ballroom in photos of the titanic. The first thing you saw, an epic, fancy, massive wooden staircase that went halfway up before splitting into two other stairs going to different balconies.

And yes, there was a red carpet moving up them. Everything was lit by a huge chandelier made from some kind of kick ass glowing crystal which shed a soft white light on well, the ballroom.

I didn’t care that a receptionist’s desk sat to the left, or that medical equipment sat atop parked carts in the hallways. This was a fancy as fuck ballroom.

“Uh, do we have the right place?” I asked Jade with a confused stare.

She nodded. “Yes, this used to be a hotel. Hello, Ember! Is Doctor Lily available? This is a royal emergency,” Jade said to somepony to our left.

I turned to look. The receptionist had a nice color scheme. A dull turquoises coat, epic darker green mane and tail, piercing bright leaf green eyes, she was colored kind of like burning borax and methanol as envisioned by a cartoon. Pretty kick ass in color, but like, completely average in shape.

This mare was that scary kind of normal where nothing sticks out, is interesting, or remarkable in any way. The abnormal sort of normal.

I couldn’t help but cringe a little, fortunately, I don’t think that Ember noticed.

“Oh yes! He’s just finishing up a personal project. Just a moment,” the mare said with a polite smile as she tapped a hoof against a small blue gemstone atop the desk. “Boss: Excuse me, Doctor? Queen Jade is here on emergency business. It looks like a transformation spell went wrong with Pinkie and Rarity… And Um, Lyra? I think?”

Queen Jade? Did they say she was a Queen before?

I looked over at Jade and tilted my head slightly. “Queen?”

“Yes, but like a bee or an ant queen. I’m not a monarch,” she explained with a sad sigh which immediately alerted me to a long story.

But that would have to be a story for another day, because a door down the hallway exploded open with a thunderclap. Then with a clatter of shod hooves on wood, a blur of white streaked from the hallway, practically skidding to a stop by the reception desk where the blur resolved into a short polar bear white, blond-maned, blue eyed unicorn mare with a cool black and white star and lightning bolt cutiemark.

Her ears and tail stood straight up in alarm as she saw Rarity, which showed me just how much ponies used their ears and tails to emote. This mare didn’t just look shocked, she looked as shocked as a dog looks sad.

Mental note: Ponies emotions are not subtly expressed at all.

“Heiliger strohsack!” The mare yelped in german of all things. “Rarity! Was happened? It’s okay I can fix this. We can start right away, just-”

Rarity cleared her throat and knelt down to get onto the pony’s eyes level. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid you’ve mistaken me for a different lady. My friends and I are from another world, a parallel one. Unfortunately, our means of coming here didn’t transform us into ponies like it should have. Would you please be a dear and help? I know that Princess Twilight is ordering it, but well, that hardly excuses the need to be polite.”

I blinked. Pinkie blinked. Jade giggled.

“Um, that’s a mare, Rarity,” I said slowly.

Rarity shook her head. “No, he’s not,” she protested.

I opened my mouth to reply, but the pony cut me off. “She is right, I am male. It’s okay, I don't care what you call me… If, if you don’t mind me saying it’s a relief to know you are not my Rarity. We are good friends und I would be devastated to learn she had been, well, accidentally harmed by a radical transformation. Of course, I will help.

“There’s just one matter, Jade, did Twilight order me to transform them into ponies or was her order different? We both know she is upset if the exact wording isn’t obeyed.”

I cringed. I hadn’t interacted with Twilight that much in highschool, but yeah she did seem like that kind of girl. And she had political power. And was an archmage.

I suddenly felt sorry for her cleaning staff.

Jade shook her head, wings shuffling slightly on her back as if she were itchy or something. “No, she only asked to have them transformed so they fit in more easily with ponies. Which as far as I can see means improving their ability to express emotions, Lily. This is also optional for them, so well, I guess you three are free to choose what you want and to what extent.”

Lily nodded happily. “Gut! I would object to forcing transformations onto anypony,” he said with a satisfied smile. “Now then, let us adjourn to an operating room und work out what you would like, girls.”

That begged a rather important question.

“What can you do?” Pinkie asked curiously while eagerly bouncing on the balls of her feet. “We’ve gotten to play with some potions before but I’ve never gotten to meet an actual wizard before! Could you make my hair even more pink? Is that even magically possible? Because my science professor insisted that it is as pink as physically possible but I think it could be a bit pinker, like just a hair more pink!”

“Well,” Lily said with a thoughtful expression as his horn glowed a light blue for a brief moment. “Hmmm, interesting biology! You’re similar to pony dragon hybrids internally, but resemble humans externally.”

I felt my eyes narrow with irritation. “We are humans,” I objected. “Why does everypony think we’re not?”

“Is that what you call your species?” Lily asked with an interesting look in his eyes.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then, either your species has subspecies like we do, or you share a name with another similar in appearance species… Once we have finished, may I keep some of your original DNA? That way not only will I be able to reverse transformations later, should you wish, but I can also compare your DNA to the only example of a human I have from the ‘other’ humans pieces,” Lily asked hopefully.

“That sounds like a very good idea, Doctor,” Rarity agreed. “You may keep anything you need too.”

“That goes for me too,” I added with a nod.

“Me three!” Pinkie giggled. “But um, you know, what can you do?”

“Oh! Well, anything you like,” Lily said proudly. “Germaney is mostly a pony nation, but we have a lot of dragons too. I can operate on everything you seem to be a blend of. As a biomancer, flesh is my clay. Und that is almost a literal statement.”

“He gave my husband the ability to transform into a pony, like a werewolf becomes a wolf,” Jade said in a casual voice which made the statement hit home as something completely factual.

“Ja, und I didn’t know how to work with Diamond Dogs. So I had to learn it all from scratch with only him to use as a reference for their biology. That’s probably the most amazing thing I ever did, honestly. But ja, I can do practically anything you like,” Lily said again, quite firmly.

I felt my heart start to beat a little faster. “Anything?” I asked.

Lily rolled his eyes. “Ja, anything. I know that tone of voice… I’ve worked on a lot of ponies in the Crystal Empire, since Princess Cadence arranged for a permanent business contract. We can discuss fetish modifications in private. Ja, I do them, but that will cost extra.”

“Oh! We're going to the Crystal Empire, we’re Sunset’s friends!” Pinkie added probably not realizing that she just-

Lily nodded to himself. “Ja, okay. Then I’ll bill Cadence the difference if you want more than simple modifications done. Und by simple, I mean species alterations und customizations of the new body. Come, let’s get to a room where we can work.”

Suddenly, a flash of lavender popped into existence. As I blinked away the camera-flash like light I managed to make out Twilight standing where the flash had come from. Teleportation! AWESOME!

“Jade!” Twilight said urgently. “I was hoping you were here by now. Princess Celestia has a critical errand for the two of us. I need you to come with me literally right now!”

Jade frowned with a worried expression flashing across her eyes. “That urgently?”

“Yes, it really is. And it’s classified,” Twilight sighed, ears drooping. “Oh! Um, Lilly, just bill me for these three’s changes. When they are ready to move again, please return them to my castle. Girls, I’ve called Cadence and she knows you are here to visit Sunset. You’re not Equestrian citizens, so you can’t actually stay here.

“But you may go to the Crystal Empire, it’s a protectorate, with its own laws, and Cadence has granted you visitor’s visas. So um, as a Princess of Equestria you have permission to travel through Equestria, but please do so quickly. I’ve ordered some guards to get your vehicle down to the ground for your use later and put a map inside it with a few routes drawn on to make things easy for you.

“Jade, we need to go now. Celestia only gave everypony twenty minutes!”

Jade nodded and reached out to grab Twilight’s shoulder. “Alright, but we’re stopping by my house so I can tell David I’ll be gone,” she insisted.

“Okay, we have time for that,” Twilight decided, the two mares vanishing in another camera-flash of lavender light.

“I wonder what that was all about?” Rarity asked aloud.

“Oh, probably just some evil deity deciding to attack the kingdom or something,” Lily said jokingly. “Scootaloo und I went on a lunch date today, this is probably just the disaster being a bit later than normal.”

Ember snickered behind her desk. Rarity, Pinkie and I shared a confused look then shrugged.

Lily waved a hoof at us and trotted back down the hallway he had come from earlier. We followed along, moving into a far less fancy and nice looking room. Unlike the big grand entryway which looked like it belonged in a five-star hotel, this was the clinic I had been expecting.

White tile floor, flat white walls, black granite countertops. Lots of assorted steel and brass machinery set atop counters, or free standing, most of which featured some kind of crystal on them which looked less decorative and more like a functional part of the device. A large bed in the middle the room, and a few chairs to sit on, with the only ‘decoration’ being a few posters on the walls which were little more than anatomical diagrams.

As we entered, Lily directed Rarity to the bed in the center. “Have a seat there, miss… Well, Rarity I suppose,” he instructed.

I frowned in disappointment. “Any reason she gets to go first?” I asked, hoping my irritation didn’t come though.

“Ja,” Lily replied immediately. “I know two other Lyras, und they are both the kinds of individuals who would ask for the harder to do things. Und of those two Lyras, one of them traveled from dimension to dimension looking for her real home, which was here, und along the way she met even MORE Lyras who were also weird.

“Not that It is a bad thing to be weird, but it means you will take the most time und mana to work with, und so it’s only fair your friends go first.”

“Um, alright,” I replied, eyebrow raised in sharp confusion as I tried to process through that sudden ball of information.

“Is that a real story?” Pinkie asked curiously. “Oh oh! Can you tell it to us!?”

Lily shook his head. “Nein, it’s VERY long. Und besides, my half sister Ayna is writing a book about it. Wait about a month und get a copy for yourself. She’s far better at storytelling than Sky or I. I don’t know the title yet but her pen name is Meep the Changeling.”

Rarity sat down on the bed and shook her head lightly. “Ponyville in this world seems… Complicated,” she said in an observant tone.

“Ja, it is. But it’s nice, despite the crazy. It grows on you after a while. Trust me, I’ve only been here a year und a half,” Lily commented as he turned to face Rarity on the bed. “Now, miss, what can we do for you? Do you want anything?”

To my surprise, Rarity nodded immediately. Her eyes held a seriousness I hadn’t seen in her in a very long time as she made her request. “Yes. I want to be a pony, completely. Not a scrap of this body is to remain except for my mind. Is that possible?”

What!?

“Um, Rares, I’m the furry here,” I said using the joke to try and hide my shock. “I figured you’d go for a tail and ears but well, really?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed nodding with a frown across her face. “That doesn't seem like you, are you sure?”

“I am extremely sure. I would like a completely fresh slate to work with,” Rarity sighed, her posture slumping as if she deflated slightly. “I- I never told you girls much about my home life. I don’t think either of you ever even came over to my house in High School… Sunset did once, but daddy rather liked her. Because she was exceptionally smart and he thought he might be able to… Forget it.”

“Nein!” Lily objected, shaking his head. “Please, explain your reasoning. There is such a thing as seeking the wrong solution to a problem, und transformation can be very mentally damaging if it isn’t what you really want.”

Rarity nodded understandingly. “In short, I come from wealth. You don’t have any idea how much. I’m not doing this out of well, let’s call it ‘Disney Princess Syndrome’. No, I don't just want ‘more’. I want ‘anything at all’. I’ve never had anything to call my own except for my clothing and the hobby my tailoring was.”

“I call bull,” I protested shaking a finger accusingly. “You came to school in a three hundred thousand dollar car and gave me panties with diamonds on them for Christmas once!”

Rarity laughed bitterly. “Darling. Those panties, you were supposed to sell them. They were worth one point two million dollars. That waistband was made with braided fine gold and platinum wire. It was the only way I could send you money as a gift. I sent both of you a pair so you wouldn’t need to work and we could hang out more. I- I thought daddy was only being strict while I was in school, back then.”

One point two mill- AHHHHHHHHHH! Do not tell her you thought it was costume jewelry and tossed them! DO NOT TELL HER YOU THOUGHT IT WAS COSTUME JEWELRY AND TOSSED THEM!

“Ohhh,” Pinkie said, blushing a bright, bright red, one hand covering her mouth in embarrassment. “I um, I’m wearing mine right now.”

“Y-you like them?” Rarity asked, eyes widening to the size of dinner plates.

Pinkie nodded bashfully. “Yes… My friend made them for me.”

While Pinkie sat down to wear off her blush, Rarity cleared her throat and continued. “Well, as for the car, daddy selected that car with no input from me at all. It was in his name, and I was only allowed to use it to drive to school along established routes to and from school and the home he had purchased for me to grow up in.

“Oh yes, that wasn’t the family estate. That was just a place he bought because he believed I should grow up like he did. So nothing would harm ‘his investment’. I wasn’t his daughter, you understand. I was daddy’s replacement. His spare ‘him’ for after he died. No no, not in a ‘clone body’ science fiction plot. The only reason he had a child was so I could be a mini-him to take over his precious company after he died. I didn’t even have a mother, he chose a donor egg at random… Yes, I’m a test tube baby. I don’t even know who my surrogate was. I thought my mother was my nanny for a long time.

“That’s it. How my ‘life’ was. I haven’t ever actually owned anything. My entire room could be redecorated while I was at school simply because he thought a new look would better impress business partners who came over.

“Oh, and my clothing? I only got to wear them after I reached perfection at the hobby. Everything about my life was completely micromanaged. Save for two hours after school to socialize, unless I requested more time in writing a week in advance. I didn’t get to have a life, I had a performance.

“Doctor, I would like to get a life, please. I would like a fresh new look to go with it, one that looks nothing like this, and which I like. Is that possible?”

I realized only after Rarity had finished, that my face had pulled itself into the biggest wince I had ever given anything in my life. It actually hurt my cheeks.

“Well… Fuck,” I mumbled awkwardly. “I’m sorry, Rares… I could have ‘kidnapped’ you. No one would have found you living with me in that ranger’s cabin.”

Rarity laughed. “I may dislike my family, Lyra, but I would NEVER leave behind the creature comforts. I still prefer a gilded cage with air conditioning over an arrangement of old logs with a box fan,” she said shaking her head.

I crossed my arms over my chest to hold in the retort my brain wanted to throw at her. I LIKED log piles with box fans...

Lily cleared his throat and nodded. “Ja, giving you a pony body is quite possible. Und my heaviest condolences. My upbringing was that plus physical abuse. I assure you, I know how you feel. Is there anything specific you’d like? Fur colors? Eyes? Body shape? Oh! Und kind.”

“Kind?” Rarity asked politely. “Darling, do remember I don’t know anything about this world.”

Lily nodded and treated us all to a brief lecture on pony biology. We went over the kinds, Pegasi, Unicorn, Earth, Bat, and Sea. What each kind could do. Basic common pony traits like the ability to walk on two legs for short periods, how hooves could manipulate and grip objects (thus explaining how they built technology), all sorts of useful basic information.

Useful basic information which made me think hard about a few things.

I had absolutely been looking forward to going full pony but well… First, my truck. As a pony, I would be hard pressed to operate it and work on it with hooves, and magic takes a long time to learn. Second, my gear. I’d brought over my rifle, axe, camp tools, lots of small electronics with touch screen controls, all useful shit I planed on well, using. I wanted to make a life here.

Third, Lemon Grass. She and I had been planning on trying to make a go of things as a couple.

Sure up until when we would meet in person, which I hoped would be soon, we had only been able to keep in contact via the dragon fire quill Sunset had given me. But after a full thirteen years of letters back and forth, of total open honesty, of sending each other lude pictures because we loved each other despite the insane distance between us…

How could I deny her the body she loved?

On the other hand, how could I deny me something I had dreamed about since I was five years old? Twenty four years of wishing for something is a very long amount of time.

Wait a moment, Jade had mentioned Lily made a werewolf or something once, that’s it!

“Uh, just one question, before Rarity gets her thing done,” I asked quickly as Lily finished and turned back to the soon to be pony.

“Ja?” He asked curiously.

I bit my lip nervously as I asked, “Could you make it so I could transform between this body and like, a humanoid body with hooves for feet, fur, pony ears a tail and-”

“Was? Oh! Like that one Neighponese cartoon? Ja, no problem. Also, I told you that you would ask for the complicated thing. Now, miss Rarity, what would you like?” Lily asked.

“OH! Sweet! If that’s possible can we do a three way thing of normal, pony, anthro? That would be sweeeet!” I giggled excitedly.

Lily rolled his eyes. “Yes. Wait your turn.”

Rarity pushed her lips in thought before deciding, “Unicorn sounds nice… But on the other hand, I could be able to fly… You mentioned that bat ponies have the most dexterity with their hooves, yes? I think I would like to be one of them, please.”

Lily nodded. “I assume you would like to remain a mare?”

“Yes, I don’t want to change too much,” Rarity laughed, a smile parting her lips. “As for my looks, you said they are normally a stony gray or blue-gray… How about we give me a nice coat of Queen Blue, then take a smoky shade of that and give me some socks, along with a nice heart shaped patch on my forehead. For a mane and tail, a good complementary color would be Cadet Blue number five, with Cadet Blue number one Highlights.

“In terms of body shape… This is going to sound very of a request at first, but I would like to be as physically attractive as it is possible to be. Whatever features are commonly held as beautiful, I want them. But, I want you to push all of them further along than would be attractive without well, causing me any bodily harm. Exaggerate them all, please.”

“Why?!” Pinkie, Lily, and I asked as one.

“I like exaggerated sexual features while most people do not. I will think I look pretty while most others will think I look gross, or weird. That will mean if somepony likes me it is for my personality, or if they think I am attractive physically we will share similar tastes at the very least. Oh! Unless ponies do not work that way, do they?” Rarity asked in concern. "Well, regardless, it's my body and I can choose how it looks."

“Wunderbar…” Lily said flatly with a very dull expression stamped across his face. “Ja, I can see that working out in terms of you not being harmed by the changes. You don’t need to do that. I won't stop you if you REALLY want to... You can come back here to be made more normal if you regret it later. Consider this a warning that it may not be the best idea.”

I had the feeling Lily told that to ponies A LOT. He said it in an emotionally dead tone of voice which may as well have inserted ‘eh fuck it’ between every last word in the sentence.

“In that case, there’s nothing to lose but a few years, and well, ponies live around three centuries as I recall. So what’s a decade, really?” Rarity asked with a shrug and a sure of herself smirk. “Let’s do this, I want to see the new me.”

Oh my god. She was completely oblivious to the DOCTOR saying ‘that’s a bad idea’. I should say something...

“Alright," Lily said in a tone which made me think he wasn't going to go as overboard as Rarity asked him too. "But first, a little disclaimer. You’ll be asleep after I cast my spells. You will wake up in around six hours, fully transformed. I have bedrooms upstairs for recovery. The three of you will share one, that way no one wakes up without emotional support.

“If you are too distressed by the changes, I will reverse them immediately. However, I can’t change you again for at least a month after that due to health concerns. You may also experience some slight memory gaps, no more than a half hour. That is due to the dragon-like nature of your physiology. All dragons loose a little memory when subjected to biomancy spells. It’s harmless, just deleted information. Understood?”

Rarity nodded. “Yes, understood. I’m ready.”

Pinkie nodded. “I mean, memory loss sucks but it sounds like that’s just the short term memory going a bit crazy for a little bit, right?”

Lily nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what happens. I’m afraid I don't know how to prevent it. Is everyone okay with that?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do-”

My eyes opened. I was laying down, looking up at a plaster ceiling in a room with mocha colored walls.

What the fuck? Where was I!? What happened?!

Memory loss! Right. Lily mentioned that. Did that mean I was done?

I sat up, my balance felt weird… Why? Looking down at myself I felt a grin spread my cheeks apart. The grin felt weird, but I knew why. I had a muzzle! A short one, just like a pony! YAY!

I also had a coat of fur, and digitigrade legs ending in hooves, and my C’s had been reduced to B’s. Great! Now they won’t bounce when I run. But even more cool was I definitely, totally, for certain, and asked to be a unicorn!

I reached a hand up to my head, giggling like a happy idiot as I saw my hand move and also saw a furred hand move at the same time. One that wasn’t a costume! That was almost more awesome than the small horn I could feel under my fingertips on my forehead.

I had a horn. I could do magic! Sunset could teach me and it would be kick ass!

But how about my body? YES! Muscular, toned, proper Amazon in looks. Fuck the hell yes!

Hang on, my fur was charcoal black. Not minty green like my skin had been. I wasn’t an an anthro pony version of me. Why?

I frowned for a moment before realizing I must have asked Lily to make me into my fursona, which meant…

I reached with one hand to feel my groin. Yep, thick equine sheath behind my now pretty tightly stretched jeans. Girl on top, guy on bottom. Perfect for making a cute girl as happy as possible! Besides, I knew Lemon liked that flavor of female! Heh.

Oh shit! I did not think that through, because now I would eventually know what it was like to be kicked in the balls. Fuck!

They would be an easy target too. Certain sizes sound small when written down as text but when you actually HAVE them on you, well um, yeah… Anthra was a big girl.

Oh! No, wait, it was okay. I asked for the ability to change between this and human, right? I could hop into my old body at any time. Right?

I hoped so… Every guy I ever asked said getting hit there SUCKED!

“Hey!” Pinkie’s voice called happily from my left. “Don’t check out your new junk with me watching! That’s just gross.”

I blushed deeply and let go. “Uh, s-sorry…” I stammered apologetically, turning to look and see how pinkie had herself transformed.

The answer? Basically not at all.

Pinkie had gotten her ears replaced with pony ears, her hair was definitely pinker now, and I swore it was actually shining with literal pink light, as if it was so pink some of the pinkness had to escape into the atmosphere. She also had a long fluffy equine tail swishing behind her, just as curly, cloudlike, and pink as her hair.

The only real notable change was her legs and hip area. She’d gotten her legs replaced with digitigrade ones like my own, only covered in light pink fur. I got an excellent look at them because she had taken off her pants. Meaning she was bottomless.

Fortunately, her groin fur was super thick, making it look like she had on a skin tight fake fur tights and hoof-boots. Decidedly G in appearance over all, but still it was just… Weird to see a friend like that. Especially when your friend was the sex you liked...

"Pinkie, um, pants," I said pointing to her newly furred but definitely pantsless legs.

"Hey! I got a pony bottom expressly to not have to pants! Nopony out there uses pants!" Pinkie protested, crossing her arms over her t-shirt covered chest as she pouted. "I’ve got a pony bottom now, just like them. And Rarity isn’t going to do pants anymore either.”

I nodded. “Um, well, yes, but-”

“Besides, my girl bits are tucked away in a special little pocket thing, like what a bird has now. You can't see them unless I want you too! There is no longer a reason to confine each of my legs to separate cloth cylinders!” Pinkie rambled before suddenly raising both fists into the air to pump them up and down in a mock-cheerleader chant as she shouted, “FREE THE LEGS! FREE THE LEGS! FREE THE LEGS!"

Oooookkkkay. Pink was going full Ponk. I wasn’t going to win this one. Let her have it.

"Um... Well, to be fair I can't see anything but you know, reflexive responses," I mumbled awkwardly.

"Lyra, Darling, you really can’t see anything on her. She’s like a doll. It’s alright. I remember her doing it because she thought it would be funny, and also quote ‘Screw pants!’ end quote," Rarity giggled, her voice the same as I remembered.

“Well, it’s a bit more than that. I mean if you girls really can’t see anything because of the cool pocket thing, but mainly now ponies can see my emotions right and I remembered they all have those cool hip stamps and we don’t have them but they look important so I wanted to be able to walk around and show mine off like they all do once I get one!

“Oh! And I realized that everypony’s face is just about waist high so I didn’t want to be a meanie pervy and that’s when I had the pocket idea, just in case of accidents. Also um, I tried putting on pants but with fur they are REALLY hot.

“So um, I think I’ll need a belt with a little pouch on it to store things like pockets. Because pants are even less comfortable now and I haven't liked skirts in years and I don’t feel bad about being dressed like this because of fur,” Pinkie explained as she plopped down. “Oh! Lyra! You should check out Rarity! She’s hilarious!”

I turned my head, immediately seeing the batpony mare which Rarity now was.

The colors I remembered, and they looked great on her. Heck, they even went well with her gold cat-like eyes. The fluffy ears were nice looking, though oversized, giving her a hint of cuteness which along with slightly overly large wings gave he a uniquely cute look.

Which suited her well, since they went with her voluminous and lengthy mane and tail which looked like they belonged in a shampoo commercial for something that claimed to give hair ‘body’. The rest of her body looked fairly plain. At least, for a pony.

The most notable thing about her were streamlined curves. She was voluptuous, but it worked, giving her body an overall pear shape. Not a fat pear, but a nice, rounded organic taper. Streamlined, sort of.

I did like the curvy flanks and rump though. Just enough emphasis there to be what I assume another pony would consider attractive, but not that overblown idea she had before. Thank god she didn’t go through with that.

I hope I talked her out of it. That or she ended up listening to the freaking Doc.

Unfortunately, there was one thing I really didn’t want to see that almost ruined the cute look she had with a dash of lude.

Despite not wanting to see it, I did get a look at her junk. Because her tail couldn’t quite hide it. At least my eyes would be far above this level normally...

How was it that I was the weird and perverted one of the three of us, but I stayed relatively modest and kept my freaking pants on!?

Also, thank god she didn’t go through with that stupid ‘hentai babe’ idea...

“I disagree, I’m gorgeously adorable,” Rarity giggled naughtily, holding a hoof to her lips. “I did not count on the aesthetic these ears and the little nose provide, but I love it! Hehe.”

“You’re right, you’re fucking hot,” I mumbled irritably. “I did not want to think of my best friends like this! Ugh…”

Rarity giggled naughtily. “Now now, Lyra. I’m still boys only um, w-well… Actually are you a boy now? Because you smell like-”

“Nah, just my bottom half is male. A little gift for Lemon, we both find this fictional sex hot. Besides, it looks like I asked to be my fursona, um, that’s a furry thing. Basically, a character you roleplay as. Thank god I didn’t make her something ridiculous.

"Most are pretty silly. Mine’s a unicorn transwoman who likes to work out. Kind went with an amazon sort of theme for her and-” I trailed off and shook my head. “Look it’s not important. This is a body, not a mind. I’m still me, and you girls are still you. Right?”

“Right!” Pinkie agreed with a nod. “That’s one reason I didn’t go as far as you two did. I kinda think I’ll want to go home someday and this seems easy to reverse later and looks cute and seemed fun!”

“The same goes for me, Lyra,” Rarity giggled, somehow blushing through her fur adorable. “I admit I did get a little… Freedom crazy. But you know what, I actually LIKE this! I own my body for a change, and I got to make it what I wanted. I think. Not what I remember planning on, but it’s tasteful like something I designed would be. Even if I regret this later well, this feeling is worth it!

“Besides, these hooves, they are wonderful! I can just PICK UP stray hairs on the floor the first time! They are literally more dexterous than my hands were. I can already see things I could do with cloth in my head, and well, we remember Lemon mentioning she hated getting fitted for dresses so ponies DO use clothing…

"I think maybe I should find a place in the Crystal Empire and become a proper seamstress.”

Shit. Rarity of all ponies already had a life plan for herself. I hadn’t thought about anything other than finally hugging Lemon… I needed a game plan.

“Hmmm, I should try to work out a career on the ride over,” I mused out loud. “Did anyone remember how long we are supposed to wait here?”

Pinkie nodded, bobbing up and down slightly. “Yepperoni! He said we should wait here till morning. Just to be double safe so he can check us all before we go. There’s food in the mini fridge for us and Ember said she’d stop by with some books to hang out and chat later!”

“Oh, well cool. I guess I should get used to how my new body works then,” I said as I stood up and started to stretch.

Rarity and Pinkie stared at me in horror. I tilted my head, frowned, then facepalmed. “Not like THAT! Sheesh… I meant balance, strength, flexibility… This is all new you know!”

“Oh! I-I didn’t even think about that, that’s a good idea. Especially with my wings, I don't even know how I move these yet,” Rarity admitted frowning with embarrassment.

“Yeah! It is a good idea. Can you even walk?” I asked curiously. “It’s obvious that Pinkie can but-”

“I can walk. But you are right. I should learn what I can and can’t do now. Thank you, I literally did not even think about that at all,” Rarity admitted again, deciding to start stretching.

Oh my god! She moved like a kitty! Ack! Too cute!

Looking away I resumed stretching. Maybe, with some luck, I could get caught up in a cool adventure on the way up to the Empire. I’d heard of hundreds of them from Sunset and Lemon. Adventures seemed pretty common here.

And well, I did usually write Anthra as a hero, and I had her body now… I could totally forge a real life version of her backstory! Adventure hooooo!

Eh, who am I kidding? This was going to be more normal boring life. But at least it was a normal boring life in a cool world!

One I felt oddly at home in.

Applejack - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Deepglade - Everfree Forest

“Stupid forest… It really did take its heart out of itself,” Dawn grumbled irritably to himself. “There’s no way to control this damn thing remotely now.”

I was conscious again. Good? Maybe I could pass out again and-

“Oh no you don’t! You’re staying the buck awake,” Dawn snapped, hearing my thoughts. “For whatever reason, I can’t use your earth pony magic while you are unconscious and we have some serious work to do. No napping on the job!”

How long had I been out? It smelled like sunrise. Dew, crisp air, dim dappled light… Yep. Morning. I’d been out for a long time.

That couldn’t possibly be good.

<And you didn’t wake me up?> I asked suspiciously.

“Yeah, but not without consequence. And you know, as disgusting as it is to be as limited as a mortal. I do need a good suit while I’m down here,” he grumbled.

I decided to look around. The glade remained largely unchanged. Though I think the trees had grown in a bit thicker. Why? To make a wall?

“Yep,” Dawn replied, much to my surprise. “We’re fortifying this place. Fortunately, there’s more than enough magic stored in this forest for my plans. See, your town, Ponyville, right? It’s cursed.”

<Um, no it’s not,> I pointed out, mentally raising an eyebrow.

“I assure you, it is. The town literally attracts the bizarre, unusual, and dangerous. It’s like a huge mousetrap. Celestia has the whole thing magically warded, fortified, she lives within a short flight assuming teleportation is disabled. It’s a ‘disaster trap’,” Dawn said casually.

He shifted my weight slightly, six sharp tugs along each side of my spine forced my back to seize up for a moment.

<OW!> I yelped reflexively.

“Oh, yes those. I’ve attached you to the willow with some of its roots. Makes controlling the forest much easier,” Dawn commented, seemingly irritated that I had interrupted him. “As I was saying, I don’t think Celestia cursed the town, but she is certainly taking advantage of it. It’s extremely unlikely for disaster to strike any other Equestrian settlement, meaning she can put everything into protecting that one place.

“If I were to open a few gates into Tartarus to start my real invasion right now, I could only put them inside Ponyville. Which is quite annoying. If I strike one place, everywhere else gets time to prepare and well, my daemons are strong, but not invulnerable. They can be killed. Just in case they turn on me. I’m certain you understand that sort of caution, right?

“Point is, I can’t attack all major cities at once, and with your magic, warnings are peskily easy to send. In order to attack in force, Ponyville must be destroyed, every last building must be leveled. I figured the easiest way to do it without raising any real alarm is to make everypony think the Everfree Forest is finally consuming Ponyville. Even better is that will divert lots of military resources into one big killing field, and when the last home falls, well… I can take out a large chunk of one of the larger nation’s militaries all at once!

“Brilliant, if I do say so myself. What do you think?”

I’m sure he know what I thought. And that was nothing but rage. How dare he! How dare he talk about casually butchering ponies like this! I didn’t hurt anymore, I wasn’t terrified. I would figure some way to stop this monster and cram him into a deep dark hole!

I said, hoping that I could find something, anything, to insult him and I knew that a pony would likely hit you for saying that to them.

I needed anything to cling to. I could get through this if I found just one little way to resist-

Dawn snickered. “Good luck with that,” he laughed, rolling my eyes. “Every host I’ve ever took for these little purges has thought the same thing at one point or another. Unlike the other three, well, you are exceptionally central to my plans. Check out your new legs, girl!”

I was forced to look down. My legs were completely gone. In their place where what, I could only see as living, moving logs, shaped somewhat like a wolf’s hind legs. They sat there, crudely attached to my hips, the fur-bark seam clearly visible.

I screamed in terror inside my head while dawn laughed.

“See that? I’m going to play this up like the Everfree itself possessed you,” Dawn giggled through a snarl. “Since you live so close to it, well, it will seem pretty plausible to everypony that some sort of unknown monster snatched you from your orchard.

“They will have no idea what’s really going on, but you will. You’ll get to watch them be horrified as they can tell that behind all of the corruption and alterations, there’s you, Applejack, their friend, trapped inside some kind of parasitic plant monster.

“I know they will look for you soon, and I’ll let them find you, just for a while, and after that, I’ll make some more modifications, they will be terrified to realize over time that you’re being ‘consumed’. Hahahahahaha! I don’t think they will be able to bring themselves to attack me!”

“DAWN!” A loud female voice called, the voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

<Oh shit!> Dawn hissed silently. <Stay still. If I come back and you’re missing, you WILL regret it. No, wait, I have a better idea.>

I felt a sharp pinch in my head, like a sudden instantaneous headache. My whole body went numb. I couldn’t feel a thing. Like if your whole body went asleep from laying on it too long.

To my complete surprise, I felt the hooks in my mind withdraw, and with a burning, bubbling pressure just behind my eyes, Dawn slid out of me, his black shadowy body coalescing into that despicable looking black stallion as he exited.

Yes! He was gone! I could get up and-

Oh. No. No, I can't. I’m paralyzed. Completely. MOTHERBUCKER!

“Yes, mother?” Dawn called back, his voice calm, but his eyes holding a tinge of fear.

“Where have you been?” The female voice asked. “I searched all of Aramenel for you! What are you doing down there? Is it work? I can’t see anything in that… Patch. What even is that? I was worried you couldn’t hear me.”

Dawn smiled softly. I could tell he had no idea if whatever defenses he had established would work. But now he knew they did.

“I’m trying to discover that myself,” he replied. “I noticed this while working on some microbes. There’s a large tree here… I think it may be warping spacetime along the fifth dimension. I could write you a report once I figure it out if you’d like. I’m not certain but given the nature of the effect, I believe the Everfree’s dream magic may have ensnared Dusk’s mantle. That would explain where it’s been all this ti-”

“Actually, I have it in my possession right now,” the voice said softly, a large amount of sadness barely concealed behind it.

“I um, y-you do?” Dawn stammered, a look of horror instantly taking over his face.

HA! Suck it you dickless asshole!

“Yes, it’s… Mangled beyond recognition. None of her memories are here, only the powers. She… She can’t be revived,” the mare lamented. “Come home for a while. Your father and I are holding a memorial. One of us dying is, well, she’s the first one. Please come, Discord’s ignoring us, like usual. She was your sister, you should be here. It… It won't take long. But we should recognize this moment. Hold it… Grieve…”

Buck… I wanted to hug that poor mare. You could hear complete depression oozing out of every word.

“I’ll be right there, mother. I can’t phase shift inside this bubble. I’ll have to walk. It will take just a little while,” Dawn promised.

“We’re waiting. We’re at her old house. I… I didn’t know she had this little,” the mare mused, her voice fading away as she finished speaking.

“Buck,” Dawn swore, gritting his teeth. “Her memories. Where did they go? How did they fragment off? ARRRRGGGH!”

Dawn wheeled around and glared at a tree, which instantly blackened, then bubbled, rotting from the inside out as it fell to the ground, continuing to dissolve away into nothing, bright blueish purple mold-like flowers blossoming from the decaying tree, like mushrooms popping up from dirt.

Dawn’s eyes widened in fight, flashed red, and the rot stopped immediately. “Oops! That would have destroyed the whole forest by the time I got back…” He mumbled, kicking at the ground idly. “Control yourself. They don’t know anything. Someone else does. We’ll have to find out where those memories went later…”

Clearing his throat Dawn turned to me and smiled politely. “Applejack, you should be honored. You’re the first mortal to hear Faust speak in… Well, one point three Celestia’s worth of time! Neat, huh? How about you lay there while I take care of this? I’ll be right back. Be good and maybe I’ll do something nice for you.”

He vanished. No magical effect. No transition. Blink, gone.

And I couldn’t move a single muscle. I couldn’t do anything. I was alone, he wasn’t watching, but I couldn’t even try to escape!

WHY!? Why did this happen to me?

NO! No, don’t fall into a well of despair. There’s gotta be something you can do! Anything. Anything at all.

I closed my eyes, trying to think of literally anything I could do. The moment they closed, I felt a thousand other senses. I couldn’t hope to describe all of them, or even some of them. It was completely alien!

I was huge, I was many things, but one thing! What the buck was-

I opened my eyes, the scenes vanished.

I could blink! YES! I could do something. I could also do um, whatever I had been doing. What was that?

That’s right. He hooked me into this tree. This tree which controlled the Everfree forest! He wasn’t here. I could do whatever I wanted with it.

But what? And how? How much time did I have? Probably not much. Let’s work this out.

I closed my eyes again. The thousands of different senses came back. This time I understood why. My sight was too overwhelming. These little things were subtle. Seeing washed out all of these little sensations.

But what were they? Parts of the forest right? Yes. Right, plants. I knew plants I could work with these.

Not as well as Dawn had when using that magic I didn’t even know I had. But um… Humm. What could I do? Help the forest grow?

An odd happy sensation flooded back to me as I thought about letting the forest grow. It wanted to grow, it was eager to expand. It had been contained at its present size for a thousand years.

Well, shoot. I just had to will it and then direct it. Like coaxing a young sapling to grow up all healthy. Easy as pie!

But what to do? How could I use this to help myself, or even anypony else Dawn was planning on hurting?

”No! Applejack! Not yet,” Twilight hissed pulling me back down into the bushes.

“Ack! What the hay, Twi!” I exclaimed in confusion and irritation. “Pinkie’s right there. I can distract her right now and we can move things along a bit qui-”

“AJ, nothing screws up a plan like doing the right thing at the wrong time. She has no idea we’re planning a surprise party for her, and we will keep it that way until EVERYTHING is ready,” Twilight lectured at a whisper’s volume.

I blinked. Odd that particular memory should pop into my head right now. But what could I d-

Oh. Heh. That’s what I could do. Thanks, random recollection! I owe you a mug of cider.

I closed my eyes tightly, reached out to the forest, and told it to grow around Ponyville. I told it to grow thick, form a wall, close them off. Make it clear the forest was hostile, but not to hurt anypony. Not yet. Just make it very clear that something’s really wrong…

And rearrange that blue glowing moss to form a trail right to this glade. Now that there was an inspired bit of creativity, if I do say so myself.

Let’s see how Dawn likes this!

5 - Two Knights Attack

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Receving Room, Deck 4, Phoenix - Emerald Hive

18th of Megan, 17 EoH

The silver walls of the Receiving Room glistened as the green light of an incoming teleport reflected off their burnished faces. The nexus of energy swirled and sparked for but a second, the special fold swiftly depositing Pattern Steel and Everfree onto one of the room’s five large hexical dais-like receiving pads.

“That didn’t hurt!” Eeve exclaimed, smiling behind her cloth wraps.

Pattern smiled faintly as well, glad that her marefriend’s odd magics were not disrupted by the teleport.

“Hello!” A friendly sounding changeling who had been waiting near their pad called.

The changeling was clearly male. Pattern had studied changelings extensively after the Canterlot invasion had filled her with more paranoia than usual. Her studies had removed her fears, but also let her know this changeling had to specifically choose to have a male appearance while in his ‘natural form’ as the species, like many kinds of ant, were all female by birth.

Pattern liked changelings. They removed so much social confusion for her. A changeling simply became what they wanted to be. No second guessing pronouns, or heritage, or trans-kind references.

She felt she could relax around them. Slightly.

“Hello,” Pattern replied, offering the insectoid pony a guarded yet friendly smile in return.

The changeling had a goldenrod sash fashioned diagonally across his barrel and wrapped around his waist. A variety of small pins were stuck to it, one larger one clearly a badge, with the others likely rank emblems or achievements. One Equish word on the larger pin stuck out, ‘security’.

“I’m Crewling Tass, I’ll be escorting you to Luna’s suite,” the changeling greeted with a polite dip of his head. “Is there anything you need on the way?”

Pattern got as far as shaking her head no when the room plunged into darkness. A fraction of a second later the room’s doors sealed with a crash of steel on steel. Eeve yelped in fright, her panicked squeak echoing off the walls of the receiving room as red lamps flickered on, casting harsh shadows around the room.

“Security Alert: Code Mike Delta One Eight Alpha. Lockdown in effect,” a bland genderless synthetic voice warned.

“Ah buck,” Tass groaned. “Sorry! We’re doing a lot of construction today. Someone must have crossed some wires… And triggered a security lockdown.”

“Or the teleport drew too much power,” Pattern mused, not quite trusting the Changeling, her tail raised uneasily.

“Um… C-can we leave?” Eeve asked uncertainly, the dim light revealing a little of the glow behind her welding goggles.

Tass nodded slowly. “Yeah, don’t worry. I’ve never heard that alert before, or seen it mentioned in listings. Let me just call this in,” he promised, tapping his badge quickly. “Security: This is Crewling Tass, we have a lock down in the Deck Four receiving room. Can someone lift this please?”

The changeling waited for a few moments. No reply came.

Frowning uncertainty, he tried again. “Security: Do you read, over?”

Once again no reply came.

Tass’s own worried frown and the honest confusion in his eyes at their situation won Pattern’s trust. At least, a little of it.

“Do security alerts block communication?” Pattern asked worriedly, her lips drawing into a steep frown.

“Only the highest level ones, and well, none of you are armed, right?” He asked, hopefully.

Eeve shook her head. “No. Wait, do pocket knives count? There’s a knife in these coveralls,” she said apologetically, drooping her head.

“No, that wouldn’t count at all,” Tass mused.

The Changeling sat down, wings twitching uneasily as he tried to think through their predicament. Fortunately for the panicked three, a low staticky crackle filled the room as the Pheonix’s intercom crackled to life.

“Security to Deck Four,” a female’s voice informed. “An electrical fault has tripped the security system. There is no danger, please remain calm. Maintenance crews will have the lockdown lifted as soon as possible.

“Unfortunately, the lockdown protocols have jammed data communication, and has also activated the arcane defenses as well. Teleportation and advanced communications will not function. Please refrain from cutting holes in bulkheads or hatches. Security crewmembers are en route to properly open all public areas to allow you to move to Deck Five for the duration of the repairs.

“If your cabin has a two-way intercom, please keep the line clear unless you are in immediate danger of some kind, such as a fire, gas leak, or other such emergency caused by this fault. Thank you.”

“Buck!” Tass groaned, covering his face with both forehooves. “I’m sorry! I knew something major would happen without the Chief Engineer onboard…”

“How long will we be stuck here,” Eeve asked worriedly. “W-we have important information for Princess Luna. It’s an emergency!”

“I know, I was briefed. It will probably be hours. Security won’t open this hatch up, it’s not a public area entry. I lack the tools and training to do it myself, and the intercom in here isn’t two-way,” he sighed, shaking his head slowly. “I um… We could tell stories or something. I-I’m a little hungry. Some kindness would be appreciated.”

Pattern winced slightly, never knowing what to talk about or say in these sorts of situations.

“I- Um, I have a good one,” Eeve said, sensing Pattern’s distress. “This one time, I watched my mom chase six mares through the woods while trying to kill them.”

Tass’s eyes widened, the green gemi-like orbs glowing slightly brighter. “Well, that’s bucked up! I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“It’s okay. She was not mentally well then. It wasn’t her fault. But it’s a good story,” Eeve said with an embarrassed dip of her head. “She’s better now. I think. I um, I haven’t gotten to see her. A-anyways. It was the longest day of summer, and-”

“I don’t want to hear this,” Tass said as politely as he could clearing his throat. “Anything else? Please? It’s just that you started putting out a lot of negative emotions…”

Pattern coughed and sat down, deciding to sacrifice herself to save her love from saying something stupid.

“Last year, I forged a set of power armor by hoof,” she said with a slight proud tip of her head.

“Bullshit!” Tass objected, jaw-dropping incredulously.

“No shit,” Pattern countered, ears flattening with irritation. “I’m Celestia’s Armorer. Luna wanted a set to wear for a possible wedding next year. I placed a bid for the job. I won. I didn’t know she would want more than plate mail. She did. It was a fun challenge.

“I made her the armor. Luna liked it. This concludes the story.”

Tass blinked and looked at Eeve. “Is she serious?”

“Yes,” Eeve answered with a giggle.

Tass shook his head slowly, shifted on his haunches slightly, then cleared his throat. “Alright, since I’m going to have to be the one to pass the time,” he lamented. “I prefer to listen but, oh well. Ummm… Oh! That’s a good one!

“In the distant past, before equids ruled this world, the ancient Mur’can Empire stood as a pillar of power, civilization, and cheap greasy food! But one city blighted it’s gleaming face! The city of Detrot. Within the province of Misha’gan was a wretched hive of scum and villainy on the verge of total collapse as honest citizens were forced to turn to a life of crime to survive.

“The mayor of Detrot, in a desperate move to bring order to his decaying city, signed a deal with a merchant clan, giving it complete control of the underfunded Detrot Police Department. But unknown to the mayor, the merchant clan is corrupt, and also corrupting as it is behind most of the city’s woes! Just as all seems hopeless, Officer Murphy is transferred to Detrot…”

Ruined Operations Room, Deck 14, Phoenix - Emerald Hive

18th of Megan, 17 EoH

The ruined deck may as well have been a mineshaft. Inky blackness, faint echoes of groaning steel, a moaning breeze, hushed whispers, bobbing motes of light, and creaking carts formed a symphony of sorts. The essence of a workday.

Ayna Trigger sat within a small bubble of emerald green light, quite irritated at her wife for having made the poetic metaphor regarding the deck’s current atmosphere that now stuck in her mind, distracting her from the task at hoof.

Her horn occupied with maintaining her light spell, Ayna’s hooves moved rapidly over a large console. The casing had been removed entirely, the damaged panels set aside. The changeling harvester presently had her forelegs deep within the machine's guts, seeking any means of getting the ancient technology to power on.

While the rest of the deck didn’t have power, Ayna had plugged a portable generator into the console, hoping to see what data had been stored in the Operations Room on this deck. While many of the Pheonix’s computers had intact data, military information had remained inaccessible, requiring specific hardware to decrypt. With any luck, this console could unlock the data.

“Stupid… Poetic… Imagery,” Ayna grunted as she jammed a hairpin between two leads, connecting two parts rust had separated. “You’re going to force me to bucking write that out… I just bucking know it.”

Pulling her forelimbs out of the console’s innards, Ayna’s ears perked hopefully as she turned to look at the flat screen embedded in the device. The screen remained dark. Nor did any lights wink on.

“Ugh, I could solve this if my head was clear,” she groaned.

Ayna was a wizard by profession, but had always had a talent for ‘fixing’ machines. Enough of a talent for her to have earned a cutiemark, after having absorbed enough love from willing ponies over the years. Naturally, no hive lets a special talent go to waste and so Ayna found herself helping the engineering crew quite often.

Even without coercion, she would have come down here today. Ayna had been too young to be allowed to explore the last deck the Emeralds had excavated. Being among the first to see a new part of the Phoenix had been on her squish list for years.

It was nice to get to check it off the list. Especially given the delightful bonus of finding the pressure sealed armory earlier that morning. A few of the weapons Trixie and Ayna had discovered were magical in nature, which meant she could go and do a Wizard’s job later.

But for the moment, this console took priority. Captain’s orders. With her brother Sky away, Ayna was the best the hive had. Even though her brother would need to properly fix the console when he got back.

“Come on you piece of junk!” Ayna grunted, smacking the console with a hoof, accidentally dislodging the flattened soup can covered in a layer of graphene she’d been using to replace a missing capacitor. “BUCK!”

Ayna bit her lip, counting to ten to try and holding her irritation. “This is why Trixie went home, Ay,” she mumbled to herself. “If your wife says you’re getting too pissed off, it’s probably true… Calm the buck down!”

“Are you talking to yourself in third person already?” A female voice asked half worriedly, half amused.

Ayna turned her head, the edge of the light ball illuminating the short scaled snout of Charr, Sky’s second in command. Ayna nodded while the dragoness crossed her arms over her chest, tongue flicking worriedly.

“Do you ever think of trying to fix it with the proper parts?” She asked the changeling, shaking her head.

“No. That’s less efficient for me,” Ayna admitted with a laugh. “Come on, you saw me fix that molecular printer with a-”

“Motor from a broken vibrator, yeah. But that motor had too much torque. The fix only worked for a few printing runs,” Charr protested. “Relax, take a break, go get some equipment, find out what parts you need, and put them in. Easy as pie.”

“Or, I could get this thing to work using my instincts and some arcane shortcuts… Well, in theory. This thing might be totally fried. I can’t even get the power indicator lights to turn on,” Ayna grumbled.

Charr shook her head again. “Well, um, anyways… We had a power surge just now while trying to get the lights on down here. Looks like it tripped a security lockdown up on deck four. Since you’re the one who designed the arcane parts of the security system, we need you to help lift the lockdown,” Charr explained with a weary sigh.

Ayna frowned, giving the dragoness a sympathetic nod. “Don’t worry. The first time is the hardest. It’s not your fau-” the changeling paused mid speech, eyes narrowing. “Wait, we damaged deck four with the surge? From down here, on deck fourteen? Where were they routing power from?”

“Deck eight,” Charr replied. “Why?”

“I- W- Nothing…” Ayna grumbled. “I don’t think that the top four decks are even on the same power grid as this deck. I hope we didn’t burn out half a kilometer of fucking circuitry again!”

“I’ll take care of that if it happened,” Charr promised. “But we need to get the civilian quarters working again. If you can take down the anti-teleportation wards that will at least let us move everyone to another deck while we fix things.”

“Yeah, no problem, on it,” Ayna grunted as she stood up, stretched slightly then trotted to the door.

Charr turned and left, walking alongside the changeling down the hall, Ayna’s light spell following the pair faithfully, plunging the Operation’s room back into darkness.

Darkness which didn’t last for long. The plink of the flattened can sliding from it's previous precarious perch and dropping into place brought with it a burst of yellow sparks as it by chance bridged the broken power leads. Sending power surging through the mostly functional apparatus.

The console’s cooling system hummed to life. An amber light winked on below the screen. The screen began to glow. White text flashed onto the screen one line at a time as the automated system obeyed its ancient programming.

Emergency Power Mode…
WARNING! Phoenix AGI not found!
WARNING! Phoenix Captain not found!
Begin Operations Control System Startup. Scanning for linkable systems…
Linking to primary security control system...
ALERT! Code Mike Delta One Eight Alpha in primary transporter room! (Reference ID: Detection of residual demonic magic on arriving personnel/equipment.)
Automated Response auto-approved due to lack of AGI and Captain. Activating Omega Protocols…
Searching for Secure Comm System… System found!
Transmitting distress signal…
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is the Fabrication Vessel USS Phoenix, this distress call is automated. Omega Protocols have been activated. NavCom location: Terra, 34.0522° N, 118.2437° W, 32m below sea level. Thirty thousand lifesigns aboard at present. Residual Tartarian thaumaturgic signature detected aboard vessel. Danger Threshold presumed: Extinction Event. Weapons systems offline. Engines offline. Shields functioning at 30%. Life support failures on decks 15 through 42. AGI not found. Captain not found. Requesting immediate assistance from Terran Defence Fleet. This signal is automated. Message repeats.

Luna - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Deck 4, Phoenix - Emerald Hive

Of all the times for Sky to be on an official mission for my sister, this was the worst possible time! Lives were at stake! Probably… Most likely.

I doubt that a hermit like Pattern would have come to give me news of an emergency if it wasn’t something critical. Life or death. Possibly for me since she forged my last suit of armor. Possibly for Ponyville since she lived under the Everfree forest and frequently used it for a fuel source.

I paced back and forth in front of the half disassembled teleport pad room. I didn’t blame Sky for sending two ponies to see me, nor did I blame Charr for the engineering crew’s mistake and accompanying lockdown. Both of them had simply done what anypony else would do in their situations.

That said, I found myself extremely distressed that Sky was not here to fix the problem.

I’d called Sky, earlier in the day to ask if he wanted to play a few matches together. Unfortunately he was busy. My sister had sent him off with Pinkie on some critical mission or another to Buckingcold of all places.

Fortunately his sister Ayna could also take care of this… Though admittedly much more slowly as she’d been unable to take down her wards. Meaning I couldn’t just teleport into the receiving room and retrieve the two myself. I had to wait on her and her team to open the doors manually.

Which was taking forever.

“It will be fine,” Light said to me as I paced nervously. “They are safe. I’m sure that it will all be fixed soon.”

My fairly new marefriend was many things. My ideal in terms of beauty, all I could ever ask for in personality, and the best body pillow in all Equestria. But she lacked one thing, an understanding of me. That would only come with time.

I sighed, taking a moment to turn and face Light, tail swishing nervously as I moved. Looking into her eyes I shook my head slowly.

“Light, I appreciate you trying to sooth me. But I can not stand waiting idly by while two ponies are trapped in a technological limbo, much less ones who were coming to me with urgent business!” I exclaimed, plopping down onto the deck in the hopes that sitting would reduce my urge to pace.

Light was just a touch ironically named. The sandy furred teal maned half griffon mare had once accidentally drunk a dangerous amount of enlargement potions, which had left her permanently standing just over twice my height.

She was a big girl, to say the least, and given her long griffon-like tail and her griffon wings, it was a good thing the Emerald’s hive featured such large hallways and rooms. I doubted she would fit inside any normal pony dwelling without the use of her enchanted collar.

“I get it, Luna,” Light replied reaching out with one hoof to gently scoot me over against her side. “I’d help if I could, but they asked me not to push the door down, and I don’t know how to open it without breaking it. You don’t know either. All we can do is watch and wait.”

I felt my ears droop sadly. “And it’s an emergency! What if Ponyville is burning?” I asked worriedly.

“W-well, admittedly, that is possible since we can’t get a signal out of this deck,” Light agreed. “But I’m certain that your sister, or Twilight, or anypony else can handle it. Honestly, your idea about some flaw discovered in your armor is the most plausible thing here.

“But- But they are trapped!” I reminded her urgently, ears falling sadly as I looked at the sealed door.

Light blinked once, then frowned, realizing what I meant before tightening her hug.

While Light’s overall shape was that of a pegasus with a griffon's wings and tail, she also had a griffon's feline fur. I liked the slightly more bristly feeling it had over pony fur. It was soothing.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about how this could connect to you,” she apologized. “I’m sure that Ayna will get them out quickly.”

When you’ve been trapped someplace for a full millennium you tend to have extreme empathy for others in a similar position.

“Oop! There we go, she’s chooch’n!” Ayna’s mid pitch buzzing voice exclaimed from the doorway.

“Stop using weird slang!” A unicorn stallion in the engineering team shouted irritably.

A lot of different individuals had gotten priority in getting out first. Mostly members of the engineering crew who had been off duty and could help lift the lockdown. Pattern and whomever she had brought with her had only gotten help in the last twenty minutes.

For whatever reason, the blast door had really, really not wanted to open. And since the doors had their own internal power supplies, simply cutting power too them would not turn off the maglocks.

“Can you open it now?” I asked hopefully, standing up and moving closer to the door.

“I outrank you, I'll use any slang I like,” Ayna retorted flippantly. Before turning to look over her shoulder at me and nodding. “Yep. Good thing too, I was about to just cut it open. Had a hard enough time with that damn console today already.”

The grumbling changeling closed the access panel she had been working in, while another of the changelings in the three person team pressed the door release.

The large steel door hissed, splitting apart in the center and sliding up into the ceiling as well as down into the floor. Immediately, the sounds of a geek enraptured with their own story flooded the hallway.

“-in anger, he turned to his friend and said, ‘Ray, if someone asks you if you’re a god, you say YES!’ Then-”

“DOOR OPEN! BYE!” A mares panicked voice blurted before Pattern rushed out the door, eyes wide and chest heaving as if completely panicked.

I frowned, fearing she had somehow been injured before remembering how the poor thing had acted while I was being fitted for her armor. And that she’d just been trapped in a small room for about nine hours. With what sounded like a changeling version of Shining Armor if you asked him about any given O&O Novel.

“Um, you’re free now,” Ayna called into the room, frowning uncertainly.

“He’s almost done, I think!” Another mare’s voice replied. “And then what happened?”

“Then,” the geeky changeling stallion continued. “Then! A-”

I cleared my throat loudly. “Pattern Steel, I’m sorry for this accident. Are you alright? Do you need anything, or can you deliver the message you wanted to bring me?” I asked, hoping to snap her out of her panic.

The mare held up one hoof and took a few deep breaths. “N-not me… Eeve. She’s inside.”

“Eeep!” The mare still inside the room squeaked. “Sorry, Tass. C-can we finish later? Also, can I hear the first three parts of the Star War? And part three of Half Life?”

“No, they suck,” the male changeling grumbled. “But we can finish this later!”

“H-has he been doing nothing but retelling old stories wrongly this entire time?” I asked Pattern with a frown.

She nodded twice. “Too much talking…” She said softly eyes shut tightly.

I almost asked a followup question when the mare trotted out of the room. I immediately frowned as I took in her completely covered appearance. Denim jumpsuit, bandage wrapped face, welding goggles…

I could understand that on a batpony, but she clearly had an earth pony’s build.

“It’s Eeve, right? Why the facewrap?” I asked her with a suspicious frown.

“I burn easily,” she replied instantly. “C-can we talk someplace private? This is very important.”

I looked around the entirely empty hallway. Besides myself, the maintenance crew packing up their tools, Light Step, the Lord of the Geeks, and the red glow of emergency lighting, the deck seemed deserted.

“This isn’t private enough? I asked, lips pulling back into a frown. What sort of emergency are you reporting?” I asked, pressing for details with all the firm calm I could muster.

“I-I um… Something is going to attack Equestria,” she explained, ears flopping back fearfully.

I felt a pang of guilt swell up in my chest. “You don’t need to be afraid of me,” I said with a soothing dip of my head. “It’s alright. Threats come along every once in awhile. You can tell me about it here. The Emeralds are Equestria’s allies, and Ayna over there is their acting Archmage. She can help too. Isn’t that right, Ayna?”

The changeling’s wings twitched as I mentioned her name. Looking up from her tool bags at me she nodded. “Well, yes. Probably not until this lockdown is lifted, but, yeah. I could help too. If you need it, which well, I doubt.”

Eeve shuffled her hooves nervously against the deck, looking behind me timidly. “And um… What about the huge kitty-pegasus?” She asked nervously.

I raised an eyebrow. Kitty-Pegasus was a new one, though very accurate. Pegasi-griffon pairings exclusively passed on the feline traits to their foals, after all.

“Look at her mouth, Eeve,” Pattern said still breathing heavily. “She eats meat. It’s okay.”

I heard light shift her weight behind me. “I’m sorry, I um, I know my size can be intimidating. I-I can shrink if you’re uncomf- Wait a minute, did you just imply that she’s afraid of herbivores?” Light asked curiously.

I blinked. Yes, she had.

“Why?” I asked.

Eeve squirmed slightly then tapped her forehooves together. “I um, w-well they kind of eat me… So, you know… Predators,” she mumbled.

I closed my eyes tightly. Great! Some mentally disabled pony had convinced a person with no social skills and access to me to bring her here to complain about some conspiracy ther-

“What the flying buck!?” Light exclaimed in honest shock.

My eyes flew open. Eeve had unwrapped her facewrap, letting the cloth droop around her neck.

She was made of wood.

I wanted to say she was an exceptionally complex golem, but as she pushed the welding goggles up onto her carved forehead her timberwolf-like glowing eyes that notion went up in smoke. That color of magic was unique to the Everfree forest’s eldritch manifestations.

“What are you,” I asked firmly.

I wasn’t sure hot to react to this. I needed more information. Especially before deciding if this thing needed to be blasted or not.

“She’s the Everfree Forest,” Pattern explained, confusing the matters further.

“What?!” Everyone within earshot demanded, jaws dropping incredulously.

“I-it’s true,” Eeve stammered slowly. “I- I don’t normally talk to ponies… You eat me. Cut me down. I- I’m afraid. But… Um, s-sometimes. I have to. Or want too… Pattern’s my friend. Um…”

The creature trailed off slowly, the sculpted features of her face sliding in a somewhat creepy manner as she frowned worriedly.

“I-I’m sorry for not… Not hurting her. Um, I mean, not Pattern. You know who I mean… You asked me too when you made me but I didn’t want to. S-sorry,” she mumbled, ears drooping apologetically by falling backward, apparently held on by little bits of a vine.

I frowned, trying to work out what she was even talking abou-

“Oh, buck, that’s right I made the Everfree forest!” I exclaimed eyes widening in sudden realization.

“Wait, you did? How!?” Light asked incredulously, bending down to get onto my eye level.

“Last thing I did as the Nightmare before banishment,” I said to Light before returning my gaze to the… Nature avatar? Dream creature? “Look, it's fine. I wasn’t myself as Nightmare Moon. I um, I also didn’t know you were sentient, at all. I thought the forest was just saturated in dream magic. It’s good you didn’t hurt my sister. Don’t be sorry for that. Oh…”

I trailed off, frowning in realization. “You’re going to attack Equestria, aren't you? You don’t want to but I made you as an attack spell, so you have too. And you can’t hold back anymore.”

The relief I felt as she shook her head no was indescribable. The last thing I needed was to cause yet another major disaster for Equestria.

“N-no,” she replied with another nervous and worried little squirm. “Something took me over. Everything but this little piece. It- it wants to destroy everything. It’s at my glade… In the very middle of the forest. I could sense it’s thoughts while it took control of me. Just for a moment. It needs my trees for its plans.

“It also ether is controlling Applejack, or made itself look like her to get to me. I- I like Fluttershy. I stopped interfering with her and her friends traveling through me. They don’t hurt me… But it lit me on fire… Applejack wouldn’t do that. Cut me down yes, fire no...”

I took a moment to think. This creature had no reason to lie to me. I had created it, and it felt bad for not doing something I had asked it to do while insane. It was loyal. I could probably trust this to be true.

I knelt down to get onto her eye level and stare into her burning green ‘eyes’ with a serious gaze. “Are you making this up, or is this true?” I asked, needing the confirmation.

“It’s true,” she answered.

“I didn’t see her get hurt, but she was terrified when she manifested her avatar to tell me this,” Pattern corroborated with a serious glint in her eyes.

“What was this creature capable of other than hijacking your control over the forest?” I asked grimly.

“I don’t know. It felt more powerful than anything which has walked through me before,” Everfree said, her face twisting into a worried expression with a soft scrape of wood on wood.

I felt a jolt of fear race along my spine. If she wasn’t exaggerating…

“Does that count me?” I asked urgently, eyes narrowing with my worry.

She nodded. “Yes.”

I stood up. Action was necessary nine hours ago. Faust only knew what chaos had unfolded while I was stupidly waiting for the message instead of going to Ponyville to see if anypony else knew what the message had been.

“Light, take these two and keep them comfortable and safe here,” I ordered as my mouth drew into a grim line. “Ayna, I need the fastest way to a deck that’s not flooded with anti-teleport wards. Now.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Light asked worriedly. “I mean after securing-”

“No. I’m going to gather intel, then report directly to Celestia. I need you to contact the girls. I want my Knights armed, armored, and ready within the next twenty minutes. I’m certain Celestia is already on this, if any attack has happened already. But I know where the threat is, thank you Everfree. Ayna, which way do I go?”

“This way,” she said taking off down the hallway to the right at a light gallop.

I nodded and began to sprint after the surprisingly fast changeling.

“I- Um, b- be safe, mom!” Everfree blurted urgently.

I almost tripped, only avoiding falling flat on my face through pure luck. Skidding to a stop I turned to look over my shoulder in shock. “I- w…” I managed to exclaim unintelligibly. “I- is that… Is that how you see me?”

The creature nodded bashfully. “Y-yes,” she answered.

I didn’t know how to process this.

“I um… I guess that’s technically accurate,” I said, mind trying to crunch the numbers on what I should do.

Everfree nodded twice.

I did make her after all. I hadn’t known that I did more than enchant the forest into a living nightmare realm. Which was apparently afraid of being eaten and cut down by ponies. And didn’t want to kill Celestia as I’d ordered it too.

And came to warn me about an evil seeking to hurt everypony. Despite clearly being terrified of ponies.

Holy bucking Tartarus… I’d created something nice, kind, brave… Which saw me as its- No, as her mother.

But was she? Well, we did share magic. The Nightmare never really left me. I’d just gained control over it, it became a part of me. A part of me which had used its power to make her.

In a way…

No, not in a way. I’d created life. Not biologically, but arcanely. And even if I couldn’t consider myself her mother, she thought of me as hers. And then I’d abandoned her for a thousand years.

“If it helps, her woods are full of little shrines which she made to count how long you were gone,” Pattern informed with a somewhat blank look on her face.

I blinked in surprise. I remembered those. I’d seen quite a few of them patrolling for monsters. Little jagged pillars of stone, usually carved with… A crescent moon and tally marks.

“I-is that what those are?” I asked, my mouth parting in an honest smile.

She remembered me, and had wanted me to be there. The whole time!

“Yes… I got your cutiemark wrong,” Everfree replied, ears drooping apologetically. “I didn’t see it before. I used the portraits in the castle… They are wrong. It’s not curved enough.”

Her words hit home. She cared about me deeply. Certainly, as much as filly cared for her mother.

Tartarus! She’d honestly done the single most kind and sweet thing anypony had ever done for me! Not even Celestia kept an exact count of the days. Everfree had! She’d honestly missed me, despite never even knowing me.

She only cared that I was her mother. That’s not something I could dismiss. She cared. For me. As a child would.

And something was hurting her!

A familiar bubbling anger began to radiate from my heart.

The last dregs of the Nightmare! It could feel I was angry, it was making a move to consume me again!

I pushed it aside quickly, I would not fall back into the Nightmare! No, I couldn’t allow the last few tiny scraps of that monster any form of control over me, not even for a noble and just reason. Not-

<Luna, it set my child on Fire,> the Nightmare whispered.

I froze, wings flaring open in horror. <NO! You will be silent! I will never obey you again!> I snapped, immediately trying to wall off my emotions from my mind.

It had not spoken to me since Twilight and her friends had-

<It. Set. My. Child. On. FIRE!> The Nightmare whispered again, this time I could feel not only anger, but actual love in its voice. <End that son of a bitch! Your will is strong now. I can not do it. Please, for her.>

I felt the Nightmare die. The last tiny embers of its being flickered, and melted away of their own accord. Instantly, my link to the dream realm swelled, growing from a candle’s flame to a raging inferno.

Nightmare Moon’s full power. She gave it to me. Willingly.

I could choose to embrace an emotion if I wanted to. That was okay now! She’d left, set me completely free at long last. More than that… I had full control over the power she left behind.

I could turn it off at will. I could use it safely. I SHOULD use that power right now, in fact. Because a monster set our filly on bucking fire!

A monster. Set my filly. On fire.

ON FIRE!

The blinding rage I’d been suppressing broke free, honed and tempered with a mother’s fury. It burned hot, but for once, it didn’t consume me.

Quickly crossing the distance to Eeve I pulled her into a tight hug.

“I’ll be back soon with the monster’s head, sweetie. Get a pike ready for when I get back,” I said to Everfree, feeling my teeth pull at my gums, sharpening into needle points while I gave her a quick kiss on the forehead.

How odd, everypony besides Light, Eeve, Ayna, and I vanished? Where- Oh, hiding in the Receiving room

“Uhhhh,” Light stammered hurriedly, her ears laying flat. “Hon, teeth… Maybe calm down? Please?”

Letting go of my daughter, I gave Light a reassuring smile. “Oh, it’s fine, love. I’m just a little bit A̝͔̬̟B̨̲S̶̬͖O̡͙̬͎̼̱L̢̳̤͕U͕̞T͍̞̙E̯̱̟L͏̮̼̞̤̤̟Y̸̥̻̬̩̝ ͏̮Ḽ̞̟ͅI̞̼V̵͉I̵̭̳̯̱͍͚̜D̢̼͍̟!̭͕͙͎̰̹ͅ, I’ll be calm again VERY soon. Ayna, get me out of the ship. Now!”

Oh wow, my voice did sound weird and terrifying when eldritch power coursed through it. I’d never been coherent enough to listen to myself before. Could I do that at will like the Canterlot Voice? That might be tactically advan-

“S-sure thing,” the changeling stammered fearfully. “Um, this way…”

Sparkle - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville - Equestria

It figured I’d be fighting something within hours of arriving here.

I twisted right, shoulders screaming under the strain as I dodged the barbed tentacle. The overgrown vine slammed into the earth where I had been, leaving behind a dent. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on the shambling mound of decaying plant life, throwing a volley of fireballs into its central mass.

Thank Celestia this Ponyville had a wall. And a proper city guard. The Evening Guard atop the wall could keep the forest from growing into the city. I just had to keep this one path clear!

Dash would have the civilians ready for evacuation soo-

The shambling mound flailed all twelve of its limbs at me. I jumped, snapping my wings open, darting up and back, then left and down, its tentacles scraped my feathers as I narrowly dodged under it.

Buck! Shield down again?

I quickly cast another shield spell, the world tinted pink around me. How had I not noticed my shield collapse?

The mound split open, spewing a thick green torrent of acid directly against my shield. The magical barrier crackled and sparked, beginning to crack. I gave it more energy and flew upwards, moving out of the acrid stream of gunk.

Ah! That’s how.

Something had to have caused this. The Everfree sat where it had for a thousand years. At least, in my home universe. Regardless, the forest had never done this before. Grow around the city and then unleash an entire army of plant-monsters. Why now? What did this? Everypony was still panicking.

The vine mass screamed, a horrible sound like iron nails scraping along the side of a dying saw. I twisted mid air, aimed towards and threw a flurry of spellbolts in a barrage, peppering the beast with a thousand tiny explosions. It shrieked, bits of vine scattering to the winds as my attack eroded its outer layers.

But did not stop it. This thing was way to bucking tough! How to kill it without collateral damage?

Dash arrived in a rainbow Streak, hovering in front of me, panting slightly from exertion. “They won’t budge! I’m trying to convince them to leave, but they just won't! Can you keep holding this route? Celestia says teleports in are blocked, she’s ordered Guard regiments to help and the forest is firing entire bucking tree trunks at anypony who flies over the top of the forest!”

I nodded grimly and-

My eyes flew wide as I saw the monster below thrust one tentacle up at Dash, seeking to spear her on the tip. I threw Dash aside with a bolt of Telekinesis, the tentacle flashed through the air, the stab quick enough to produce a whipcrack.

“Yikes!” Dash yelped, eyes the size of dinner plates.

“This thing is a problem!” I replied. “Get clear! I’ll hold this road as long as I can.”

The forest had to be wearing me down with this. Or distracting me. The force fields I’d set up to prevent the trees from overtaking the city gate only had so much energy. If I was occupied too long to recharge them…

I took a quick breath, focused, and fired a ray of burning light into the monster’s heart. It shrieked, shuddered, and sent another spray of acid high into the sky, narrowly missing my left wing.

How bucking durable is this thing!? I was going to have to completely disintegrate it before it-

The sun went dark. I looked up. Rolling black stormclouds filled the entire sky, horizon to horizon, casting the world into deep shadow. Thunder rumbled. Bolts of jet black lightning crackled, tracing along the underside of the clouds.

I felt my heart skip a beat. What now?

I looked down, hoping to find some vulnerability in the monster so I could finish it off and investigate the clouds before whatever new horror came from the sky and blindsided me.

A thick white fog crept across the ground, gathering into almost solid objects. The twisting mist seemed to form swords, spears, and needles, but that had to be a trick of my imagination, it couldn’t be-

A bolt of black lightning plunged down from the heavens inches in front of me, the bolt trailing ghostly blue-green flames as it sliced the air apart. The bolt slammed into the vine-monster and exploded, the concussive force ripping the monsters mangled body to pieces and scattering them to the winds.

I felt a magical, iron-like grip size me by the waist and drag me down to the ground. I braced for impact, ready to counter attack, and… And was gently set down on the ground.

The red, glowing, molten ground. I looked up, ready for a chance to strike whatever had pulled me down. Good thing my child was-

My heart stopped for a moment. I was staring directly into the glowing, cat-like eyes, midnight black, fanged face of Nightmare Moon.

“Hello,” she said, endless rage behind every last word, her ethereal mane flickering and boiling like superheated oil, her fangs flashing in the darkness with each syllable. “We both know you’re not really Twilight. I can see your dreams. You are someone else. Somone else is impersonating Applejack too… It set my filly O̴͔N̝̪̤̫̥̯ ̞̹F̖̳I̪͖̺͔R̳͕̝̜͚̙̲E̥̹̼̣̟̩ͅ!̧̦͓̬̪̤?͎̱̼̤͓͍!͇”

Obsidian spikes erupted from the ground ash she roared her final two words, forming a sort of cage around the two of us.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” My brain said for me.

6 - Battle of Ponyville

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Lyra (Mirrior) - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville - Equestria

I jolted awake to the sound of an old air raid siren.

“Gaaaa!” I yelped, falling off the tiny bed in shock as the alarm began to fade.

“Three in the morning?” Rarity groaned as the sirine’s second scream began. “Who has fire drills at three in the morning?”

“Heck if I know,” Pinkie mumbled sleepily into her pillow. “Nnn… I was having a nice dream too!”

I sat up and shook my head rubbing my eyes with my hands and mumbling angrily to myself. I could never get back to sleep once woken up. The dim light coming from a small lamp lit up the room just barely enough to see by. I could swear we had turned that off before going to bed.

“Is it really three?” I asked groggily, yawning loudly.

Rarity nodded and turned the room’s clock radio to face me with a hoof.

Oh my gosh! Yes! Still transformed! Not a dream WOOOOO!

And it was also actually motherfucking three in the morning.

I felt my ears droop grumpily. “Ugh, great!” I groaned, standing up so I could sit back down on the edge of the bed.

The alarm began its third screech, prompting me to flop back down on the bed and clamp the pillow over my ears.

Rarity winced, shaking visibly. “Ahhh… Did not think this through,” she groaned, holding her hooves over her ears.

“Oh shit, yeah!” I exclaimed with a sympathetic wince. “Do you have echolocation, or just really good hearing?”

“Echo-” Rarity began only to be cut off.

“Citizens of Ponyville,” a voice I recognised as Sparkle called over what I assume was the siren’s speaker system (her voice was a bit lower pitched). “The Everfree Forest is growing around the city at a magically accelerated rate. Large numbers of timberwolves can be seen advancing with the treeline. The city will be surrounded in fifteen minutes. We assume this is enemy action. Please stay in your homes until an all clear is sounded.

“All Evening Guard members to action stations. All medics, healers, and doctors are to open doors immediately and prepare to receive wounded. Assistance from members of Adventuring Guilds, or other non military personnel is not required at this time. Please standby as potential reinforcements.”

“-FUCK!” Rarity finished, eyes widening in near panic.

Hehehe! Echofuck.

I felt my heart speed up. Not in fear, but in anticipation! Battle! YES! Actual real proper adventure, and they had called for people with experience to help maybe!

I fought a pack of wolves once, that was easy peasy. Just like a pack of feral dogs, kick the leader’s snout in and the rest run for the hills. I could totally help, especially with my Peacemaker. Which was in the truck. With quite a few boxes of 45-70.

“We need to get to my truck,” I said eagerly, grinning ear to ear.

“Uh, we were just told to stay inside…” Pinkie said holding up one finger questioningly.

I nodded. “Yeah, but they also wanted people with adventuring experience to stand by as reinforcements and I’m a Forest Ranger, I’ve fought wolves before, and I have my Peacemaker in the truck. I should get it so I’m armed and ready,” I explained, bouncing on the bed slightly.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “A little revolver won't help, they have soldiers. Besides, I doubt these are mundane normal wolves, Ly.”

I narrowed my eyes in irritation. “Little?”

“It’s a Peacemaker, daddy liked to shoot them,” Rarity said shaking her head at me. “I know some guns. That’s the little revolver police use.”

“Oh! Heh, no,” I explained. “I needed something that could put down a bear and didn’t want to carry a shotgun. So I bought a Colt forty five-seventy Peacemaker BFR. It’s actually a handcannon, not a revolver. The difference being it’s using rifle rounds, not pistol rounds.”

“A-and you shoot that?” Rarity stammered looking at me incredulously. “How many times did you break a wrist!?”

I rolled my eyes. “Fire it once and even an angry bear pisses itself and runs. Come on, truck. Gun, get. Be ready for ADVENTURE!” I exclaimed striking a triumphant pose.

Three knocks on the door halted anyone’s possible replies. As I was the closest I slipped out of bed and opened the door a crack to peek through. Seeing it was Lily, I opened the door the rest of the way.

“Hey, what’s up doc?” Pinkie asked before snickering as she held in a full laugh.

“Um, the attack?” Lily asked with a questioning eyebrow raised.

“We know,” I chuckled. “I’m eager to help!”

Lily winced and shook his head. “Nein! Nein! Das est Ponyville, I mean, this is Ponyville. This kind of thing happens every few months. It’s ridiculously dangerous, but everypony who lives here knows how to survive the disasters. It’s a trait you just learn over time. But you three are new here.

“My clinic is an old fortress. While this room is very well fortified, there’s a bunker in the basement, we have time to get you into it. There’s food, und water, und bathrooms. It’s meant to be lived in full time. You’ll be safest there,” he promised.

“That sounds like a good idea!” Pinkie exclaimed eagerly, jumping to her hooves and wobbling off balance. “WOAH! Not feet! Forgot! Do not try to stand tippie hoof!”

“How dangerous is it normally?” Rarity asked with a worried frown.

“Um, well, last time a army of super soldiers lined up outside the wall und threatened to destroy the city unless Twilight could best their leader in single combat,” Lily answered with a shrug. “Das war nicht- That wasn’t so bad. Comparatively. One time, my wife told me that a giant Tartarian centaur kaiju managed to eat everypony’s souls save for Twi-”

Rarity lept out of her bed and raced over to me, rearing up to grab me by the shoulders. “FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY TO YOU DRIVE ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” She demanded in a blind panic.

“Excuse me a moment,” I squeaked to Rarity, butt firmly clenched in fear. “Um, Doc… Did you say demon kaiju that eats souls?”

“Yeah… Um, that did happen once. Twice actually. He broke out of prison to come back,” Lily explained ears drooping as he realized what that must have sounded like to us.

“Getting the fuck out of dodge?” I asked, voice quavering as I looked over everyone else.

Rarity nodded. Pinkie nodded. I nodded.

It was a good plan, I was happy to be a part of it.

Gently pushing Rarity aside I knelt down to look Lily in the eyes. “How do I change between forms?” I asked.

“You will it, may take a little practice, but you just think about it, push with your magic, und then poof, just like a changeli- Oh no! No, don’t go out there! That’s a bad idea!” The effeminate stallion pleaded with the most adorable Bambi eyes I’d ever seen.

“Sorry, Darling, but I am NOT going to be trapped in a town by a magically growing forest that is probably being controlled by an evil druid hellbent on destroying all of civilization,” Rarity exclaimed adamantly. “We're leaving. Lyra, how fast is your truck?”

“Fast enough, let’s go!” I said as I stood up and pushed past Lily as gently as I could, running out onto the balcony.

“But- I- Ugh! Fine, I’ll patch you up once you get hurt,” Lily grumbled from behind me as I peered over the balcony.

My truck had been put in the clinic’s courtyard, to my delight she had been parked right under the balcony. I could actually drop down onto it by vaulting over the cast iron railing. In fact, I’d do that to save time.

Heaving myself up over the railing, I dropped down, landing in the bed with a solid thump, the shock of the impact flowing up through my knees a bit painfully. In a matter of moments I scrambled out of the bed, fished my keys out of my pants pocket, opened the door, slipped in, and slid the key into the ignition.

The lights snapped on like twin spotlights as the key slid in, lighting up the early hours of the morning. Like I was ready to make a get away from an exploding warehouse or something else right out of a Bond mov-

The passenger door opened, Rarity climbed in giving me a deadpan look with her adorable batpony eyes as she squished herself into the middle seat.

“Such time saving. Much fast. Very cool. Wow,” Pinkie snickered as she slipped in and closed the door.

“Shut up,” I grunted bitterly and started the engine.

The truck started up with an oddly smooth and happy sounding rumble, almost a purr. The sound compelled me to gently pat the dashboard. “Alright girl, we need to escape town before the evil forest engulfs it. So please don’t break down,” I asked as I gave it another pat then began to slowly pull out of the clinic’s courtyard.

“Is it prone to breaking down?” Rarity asked with a worried grimace.

“No,” I answered.

“Do either of you know the way to one of the city gates?” Pinkie asked hopefully.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed smacking my head into the steering wheel.

“None of us know the streets! We’re doomed!” Rarity groaned.

“In six meters, turn right,” my GPS chimed happily in that creepy feminine synthetic voice.

I blinked and looked at the GPS wondering if Rarity had accidently touched the screen or something. How the hell was it working here? Scratch that, how was it working at all!? The screen showed no satellite connected yet the screen had a map on it with-

“Oh yeah! Twilight said she left a map!” I laughed happily. “Thanks, Twi!”

Pulling out of the clinic's courtyard I followed the GPS’s instructions and turned right. Immediately the next instruction popped up on screen, getting read out as before. I would have loved to follow them as fast as I could have, but the Ponyville streets were oddly narrow, and very windy. Not exactly the most conducive things to drive on.

“I hope we can make it out of here before the trees grow around the city,” Rarity said as I turned left past what looked like a post office.

“We should be fine. I can gun it full throttle as soon as we’re out of the gate. Black Knight is fully kitted out for offroad use,” I said as soothingly as I could manage.

In truth, I was feeling the tension too. I could see the little dots of white cloaked ponies scrambling on the walltop. And even hear the sounds of battle in the distance. I felt a few pangs of disappointment as I realized that the star wars blaster like sound had to be unicorn magic lasers or something else super cool that I was missing…

“You named your truck Black Knight?” Rarity asked with a disapproving frown.

“Yeah, cuz she’s invincible. Because Hilux,” I grumbled. Why did no one like her name?

“Um, girls?” Pinkie said in an odd tone, the sound of paper crinkling as she picked something up off the dash. “I um, I found a map. With Twilight’s hoof writing on it.”

I looked over, eyebrow raised. Sure enough that was a map. And it looked different artistically from the GPS’s map. It was also not a city map, but a national map. With drawn on navigation marks.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“Destination straight ahead, one hundred and six meters,” the GPS chimed.

“Questions for later! GO!” Rarity urged, shaking my shoulder with a hoof.

I looked ahead, squinted through the darkness, flicked my brights on for a moment, and then saw the gate. It was straight ahead.

I also saw the guards on the walltop rush to the left, moving up to the ramparts. And start to fire bolts of pale blue energy down to the ground.

“Fuck!” I swore, then stomped the gas petal flat against the floor.

The pickup lurched forwards, throwing us back against the seat. Her engine roared loudly, several of the guards atop the wall while around, firing bolts at us.

Pinkie screamed as the blazing blue energy blasts zipped towards us, smashed into the hood and-

Fizzled harmlessly away, not even leaving a scratch. What?

“Oh! That’s right! It’s magic proof! Hehehe!” Pinkie giggled hiding an embarrassed blush behind her palms.

“Oh yeah, thank god,” I gasped, doing my best to focus on driving as we raced towards the very narrow looking gate.

Why was the gate still open? The town was under attack, you'd’ think that they would close the gate. Will we fit through the gate? Please fit through the-

“FORCE FIELD!” Rarity yelped, pointing at the blue glowing barrier which filled the gateway arch.

I yanked my foot off the gas, reaching for the break.

“Immune to magic,” Pinkie reminded.

God damnit! I slammed my foot down on the gas again, seating us into the middle of the archway, hoping to god that we would make it through.

The forcefield exploded in a shower of sparks as we hit it. The sound of metal scraping on stone overpowered it’s staticy screeching as our mirrors scraped along the stone on either side as we barreled on through. We were out in an instant, the wide open road stretching before us, with a little moving wall of trees racing towards us from the left side of the truck!

A whole kilometer long stretch of trees, moving forward at a visible speed, new trees sprouting up from the earth and growing to a good ten meters high in a few seconds.

“Come on, keep up this pace, I know you hate going full throttle for long,” I murmured to my truck, glancing down at the dash to make sure the engine wasn’t running too hot, or the RPMs weren't redlining.

They were not. Black Knight was running cool, and at a normal RPM. Despite me having her floored.

What?

“What are,” Rarity asked oddly before gasping. “Eeep! Uh, okay so um, those are NOT normal wolves!”

I looked back up from the dash, eyes widening to the size of dinner plates as a pack of over a dozen semi-truck sized wolfe-shaped masses of logs and dead brush burst from the treeline, running out to form a semicircle in front of the road.

Immediately bolts of blue magical energy peppered the pack, but the chunks blasted off their bodies simply flew back onto them with little jets of green energy. I gulped nervously, there was no room to steer and move around them, we were moving too fast, I would roll the truck.

“I can’t turn! Too fast!” I warned, voice cracking fearfully. “We have to ram them…”

“Well, we already rammed police cars…” Rarity mumbled to herself. “Buckle up?”

“Buckle up,” I agreed.

If any truck could smash through a dead-brush monster and keep going, it was my old pickup.

We raced towards the wolves, the grass and trees sailing by on either side. My eyes fixated on the wolves. They stood sort of far apart, we could maybe just clip one’s front leg and push on through if I just turned the wheel a little bit to the-

The truck rumbled angrily as I turned the wheel to avoid the collision. Even more terrifying it refused to budge. Like my turning the wheel didn’t matter.

“Ahhh! No, please no!” I pleaded, heart skipping a beat as I feared the steering column had somehow fuzed.

The middle most wolf turned it’s head, lowering itself to block our path entirely.

“Turn!” Pinkie yelped fearfully.

“It won't budge!” I shouted back, cracking on the wheel.

The truck surged forwards, throwing us backwards into the seat and holding the three of us there, the roar of the old diesel engine suddenly transforming into the shriek of an Aston Martin Vulcan at full speed. The radio clicked on, filling the cabin with what I swore to god was the Football on Fox theme. A heartbeat later we smashed into the wooden wolf.

The monster exploded, loose brush flying everywhere as it was thrown up and over the cabin with a clatter of wood on metal. The incredible burst of speed sent us hurtling through the line of wolves before any of them, let alone us, could react.

The engine’s noise died down, returning to the familiar diesel roar with a satisfied sounding rumble. The insane back force dissipated, causing the three of us to lurch forwards in our seats.

“The hell was that!?” Rarity demanded as she reached forwards to turn off the radio. “Do you have nitrous in this thing?!”

“Nope!” I said shaking my head slightly, face completely plastered with incredulity.

“Hey, how about we worry about this when we DON’T have a massive pack of monsters chasing us?” Pinkie asked as she looked worriedly into the rearview mirror. “You know, like um, we drive to Canterlot or something then figure out the whole truck mystery?”

“Yeah… Yeah that sounds good,” I said as I looked into the mirror myself to see half the pack of timber wolves chasing us down.

“Destination: Canterlot. Recalculating…” The GPS chimed.

The three of us shared a look between ourselves.

My truck was alive. Wasn’t it?

Sparkle - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville - Equestria

Nightmare Moon’s cat-like eyes burned hotly, seeming to swell and fill my vision. Worse than the horror her appearance provided was the bone chilling vortex of thaumaturgic current my arcane senses revealed to me. Power simply flooded into her body from… Somewhere else. An endless volume of raw, oddly polarized magic, like the center of a massive whirlpool.

“Scream all you like, but you should answer soon,” Nightmare Moon hissed, lips peeling back asymmetrically to reveal a needle toothed smile which barely hid an endless black abyss.

“I just arrived in this universe, I didn’t even know you HAD a kid,” I countered, hoping that just maybe we could avoid a fight.

Nightmare Moon had NOT been this powerful when I faced her years ago. She must have still been recovering from her banishment back then, not yet fully powered. Unlike now. But why was she ba-

Someone set Luna's child on fire. Of course she would become beyond pissed of-

“Implying you did burn somepony to death, since you did not know she was mine,” Nightmare Moon growled, eyes narrowing dangerously. “That’s all I needed to know. Goodbye.”

I winced, realizing how that must sound to a third party only after her retort. “No! I didn’t-”

“SPARE ME FURTHER L̜͕I̷̺E̻̝͓͉S҉̺̯ͅ!” Nightmare Moon roared in the Canterlot Royal voice.

The obsidian spiers splitting into a half dozen sword tipped blades each. “Now defend yourself!” She growled, the blades scything towards me from all directions.

I closed my eyes, the crack of my teleport echoing in the distance as I sent myself to the walltop. Grabbing the closest member of the Evening Guard by her white cloak’s collar just above Twilight’s crest, I pointed with one hoof out to the glittering stone blades flexing and lashing like organic limbs.

“Forget killing the monsters! Every last one of you is to get a shield spell up over this town. I can NOT face her without there being major collateral,” I ordered, doing my best to keep a neutral expression despite my own fear.

It’s never good for an officer to appear afraid.

“Yes, ma’am,” the soldier replied, snapping a salute then running to the next white cloaked figure atop the wall to relay my orders.

The walltop trembled, buckling under my hooves for a split second as the section of wall I stood on melted like butter, oozing downwards in a wave, taking me with it. I hit the ground at the base of the wall, buried in the liquified stone which spontaneously hardened, leaving an ‘ice cream scoop’ like chunk missing from the wall.

“Shit,” I muttered to myself.

Feeling a tinge of irritation at myself for having used a foal’s curse word in a serious situation, I lashed out with my telekinesis, throwing as powerful of a pulse as I could away from myself. The stone exploded into jagged shards, allowing me to jump upwards and take off into the air.

The Nightmare had to be somewhere and-

Space warped in front of me, stretching and twisting, sucking me down a tube of nothing, depositing me onto the obsidian platform at Nightmare Moon’s hooves with a thud.

“I said DEFEND, not run, coward!” Nightmare bellowed while stars exploded in my eyes.

I looked up in time to see her horn boil with an eldritch aura, conjuring a long halbarad made from ghostly-green fire and wielding it, giving the weapon an expert twirl. I expected her to swing the weapon at me. She didn’t.

Did she actually expect me to stand and fight her in a one on one honor dule? The hay? That wasn’t like the Nightmare I had read abo-

Derp. Different universe. Different Nightmare.

I pushed myself up to my hooves, glancing behind me in time to see six pale blue shield spells merge together and cover the melted chunk of wall as well as a good deal of the sky above it. The Trixies were doing their job. I could cut loose.

“Fine, you want a fair fight, you got one,” I countered, gritting my teeth angrily.

I’d have to aim away from Ponyville to start with. Give them time to finish putting up the shield.

After my ascension and military training, overcharging a spell had always been too easy. I’d sealed most of my arcane might away behind a mnemonic phrase. For everypony’s safety.

My horn shone purple as I readied my spell, the aura contracting tightly around my horn with a sound like slate scraping against slate as I intensified the magic as much as I could.

“Release restraint, level one,” I said, horn burning finishing the ‘unlock’ spell.

Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow. “Level what?” She asked.

My full aura appeared with a fwoosh, tinting the world around me purple as the bon-fire like aura leaked into the visible spectrum. Bones cracked and scraped as they enlarged, undergoing a decade of growth in seconds. I felt my scalp and tail tingle as they turned ethereal, the strands of hair turning from violet to a flowing gradient which mimicked the last moments of a setting sun.

There we go. Full adult Alicorn. No more age spell sealing away power levels. Foal shoes off.

“Oh!” Nightmare Moon said with a wince. “Okay, so you ARE-”

I fired my first spell. The obsidian cracked as a pressure wave blasted outwards from me. The world lit up for a split second as if the cloud cover vanished and the noon sun had returned as my four pony wide energy blast ripped through the air. The white core in the middle entirely engulfing the Nightmare, the helixing rays of lavender light surrounding it slammed into the earth around the beam, digging spiraling grooves into the molten earth.

The beam thinned, vanishing after a heartbeat. Something far down the firing line exploded. Two lines of fire trailed along the gash left in the earth.

No sign of Nightmare Moon to be ha-

“Well, you’re certainly a Twilight,” Nightmare Moon mused from behind me. “Not ours though. I assumed you were a changeling, or something else shapechanged.”

She must have teleported! I spun around, rear hooves slicing on the broken ground beneath me. I couldn’t fire another energy blast, not with Ponyville right there.

“The eye patch… You’re from the universe where my sister dated King Sombra, aren't you?” The Nightmare mused. Eyes narrowing dangerously. “The eyepatch gives it away. I recall their Twilight lost an eye.”

I concentrated as much as I dared, and cast an anti-teleport hex. The spell rippled outwards as a series of pale white lines. She shouldn’t be able to teleport around anymore.

Neither could I.

Wait, had she said something?

“You know our universes can’t interact anymore. Whatever your Celestia did to damage whatever metaphysics underlie this sort of thing can not be repaired. Leave now. You’ll destroy your own world along with our own,” Nightmare moon warned, standing stiffly out in the open.

“One second you’re raring for a fight, the next second you’re worried about unraveling spacetime,” I laughed. “I didn’t light anypony on fire! I haven't done anything since I got here… Uh, except for kill about a half dozen of those vine monsters.”

“It doesn't matter. Whatever disaster is going on here is none of your business. Go home. You saw how narrowly we avoided mutual destruction last time. I’m half certain your mere words will be enough to set off the curse and destabilize our realms,” Nightmare said again in a shockingly calm-

I frowned. Wait a bucking minute! All of the creepy vanished from her voice.

“Wait, Luna? Are you in control of that body?” I asked, frown deepening.

Then lessening somewhat as I saw the growing shield bubble completely cover the side of Ponyville I faced. Good! I could attack now.

It would have to be something light, so as not to overwhelm their collective might. I needed a little more time to think!

“Are you unable to return home?” Nightmare asked again, eyes narrowing. “I have no idea what might happen if I kill you, under these circumstances. But if you refuse to go home, I’ll have to try. I’d rather not do that. Even with the flipped moralities of our worlds.”

I took a deep breath, realizing she could be buying time to charge a spell. I had a few tricks at my hoof tips. But before I used one, I needed to see if this was the Nightmare, or if it were this world’s Luna. For all I knew she’d kept the Nightmare’s form in this world.

I reached up to my eyepatch and slid it upwards, revealing the mangled silver, copper, and steel hardware beneath, as well as the remains of the wire which had once connected that rather nice ocular implant to me.

“Unless the Twilight you are talking about had cyberware, you have the wrong pony,” I said adamantly, leaving the eyepatch up, hoping the empty metal filled socket would be a distraction.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened slightly. Yes! She’d taken the bait! What to use?

“No, she did not…” Nightmare mused thoughtfully.

I frowned, the idea of casting a spell getting pushed aside for a moment. “Okay, what gives, you can think clearly. Who the hay are you!?”

“Luna, I’m in full command of myself now,” Luna said, giving me another horrific smile. “We may have a misunderstanding here… Maybe. But if we don’t, I have all of the power a living Nightmare possesses, and the clarity of mind to employ any tactic I choose… Anger at my daughter being harmed notwithstanding. You may be a Twilight Sparkle, but if you are evil… Well, Alicorns are not invulnerable.”

“Check with your sister. She knows I’m here. I’d say check with your Twilight too, but I don’t think she’s here anymore. I caused a bit of a clusterbuck arriving here, and am protecting ponyville while it’s cleaned up… Sorry, but I think you’ve been left out of the loop,” I apologised with a sincere frown, hoping to end the hostilities.

Luna stood still, silently considering my offer. While she stood her mane’s rolling, boiling aura calmed, shrinking back down to the simple wavy night sky I recognised as Luna's mane. Interesting, it looked like she really was in control.

“Very well, I will. But if I come back and you have moved an inch from that spot I will consider you hostile, understood?” Luna asked with a serious glare.

I nodded and sat down, folding my wings neatly behind me. “Understood. But hurry, the Everfree is attacking. An it’s pretty bucking pissed off,” I explained, sweeping a hoof across the left side of my body.

I could see a pack of timberwolves out of the corner of my eye. They sat within the unnaturally fast growing treeline, staring outwards. Not daring to approach while two creatures as powerful as the two of us while we sat here.

Luna nodded, and to my shock simply vanished. No flash of light, no distortion or sound of any kind. If I hadn’t seen the way her odd magic twisted the world around her as she vanished…

Well, that would have been supernatural.

I grit my teeth in worry. If she came back hostile for any reason I needed a way to counter her magic. It couldn’t be unicorn magic. I would have been able to stop the teleport if it were.

I probably didn’t have to worry, but I also didn’t have much time! Okay Twilight, she’s using Dream Magic. You saw the signature, you can pick it apart and reverse engine-

Oh who the buck am I kidding! Celestia had every library with any material on that magic purged, you don’t have a damn thing to compare it too and not enough time to work it out from scratch.

My attention was shattered as the dull thud of a far off explosion reached my ears. One single loud concussive burst, like thunder on the limits of my hearing.

Actual thunder? I couldn’t see anything with this nightmarish sky overhead. Perhaps a storm was starting?

Also, how was Luna keeping this illusion here when she wasn’t present? Not even I could keep one going at a distance greater than six kil-

Luna reappeared, simply blinking back into existence with nothing more than the odd distortion of magic I’d seen before. My ears stood up in alarm as she arrived, laughing, eyes, melting back into their normal appearance, fur brightening like somepony was adjusting a knob on a machine.

“Hahahaha! I totally spaced how Celestia would react to me in this form!” Luna cackled, tears forming before she took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down, only to fail spectacularly and fall over snickering.

I cleared my throat, doing my best to pretend I didn’t also neglect to think about-

OH BUCKING FAUST! That explosion had been-

“Is everypony okay!? She didn’t hit anyone by accident did-”

Luna snorted and shook her head, standing back up. “No. The local stone masons are going to be very happy, and my sister has lost a bay window along with some curtains, and I’m fairly certain she will want to replace her study’s rug. But nopony was hurt.

“And I know you were telling the truth. I apologize. You see, I’d been told that a monster of some kind imitated AJ to gain access to a… Part of the Everfree forest and- HUAAAK!”

Pain! Everywhere! What!?

My vision began to dim. I looked down at my barrel. Tree roots. Impaled. Everywhere. Pincushioned. How?

“Howdy, y'all,” Applejack’s voice from behind me, an odd quavering accompanying her speech. A sinister malice which AJ never had. “Thanks for distracting one another, much obliged. Made it easy to take you both down.”

Both!?

I turned my head to look at Luna, feeling roots scraping through my body as I turned. She had been impaled too. I could see thick, gnarled, red stained, white roots. They burst forth from her skin all across her body, entering from one thick section near her belly. Her coat turned dark as blood-

Oh. No. Not blood. Just nightmarishly black.

“YOU!̹̘̟̖̱” Luna roared, seemingly entirely unaffected by the injury. “You’re the monster who hurt my little filly!”

“Yep,” the malicious voice chuckled. “Though y’all aren't in any position to do a damn thing ab-”

Luna ripped herself off the roots, the squelching sound of tearing flesh making me wince despite the pain I was in. Her nightmare form returned in a single burst, wounds vanishing entirely as the black-as-the-void fur, boiling mane, and hate filled eyes returned as flashes of eldritch fire sparked around Luna’s body, as if the air had become flammable.

“DĮ̺̥̥̬̜̤ͅE̶̦̘!̬͖̮̖͓” the Nightmare screamed, fangs pulled into a grotesque smile, her halberd returning in a blaze to immediately cleave downwards, unleashing a crackling wave of black lightning and green fire.

“HOLY SHIT!” The monster yelped, forgetting to use Applejack’s accent.

A flash of red light registering in my dimming vision.

A shock wave threw me, ripping me free of the roots a half second before I heard the explosion. I flew through the air, landing with a loud snap and skidding over the ground, smashing into something hard and pointy.

The impact snapped my mind back into focus. The shock evaporated. My mind cleared.

I was fucking dying. Let’s fix that.

I focused all of my attention on my magic, pulling the shattered fragments of my mind together was no easy task in my condition. I coughed, blood spraying from my lips. Concentration slipping away.

NO! BAD! JUST BUCKING DO IT!

Gritting my teeth against the pain I summoned all the magic I could muster, focused my will, and remembered watching Dash and Scootaloo play tag in the air the first time she flew.

I smiled at the memory, the pain melting away as I concentrated on that happiest of moments.

I cast my spell. The simple healing charm raced through my body, my raw power the only thing enabling it to force my body back into a single undamaged piece. One of these days I’d need to learn a proper regeneration spell… I couldn’t keep relying on basic charms, alicorn healing factors, and my love for my family forever.

My ribs cracked as the spell pushed them out from my chest and back into place. My vision brightened. My head stopped pounding. I stood back up, popped my neck, and wheeled around to join the battle.

I gasped as I saw the half dozen pony deep gashes torn into the earth. Luna swung her ethereal weapon in a rapid series of furious strikes, each blast the weapon’s blade unleashed ripping a new wound into the earth.

The monstrous creature she fought had reared up onto its hind legs to swing its forelegs as if wielding a shield, a bright pulse of red light existing for a fraction of a second to block each of Luna’s strikes.

I couldn’t help but feel my stomach turn as I looked at the creature. It looked like AJ, sort of. If she had been beaten bloody, and had her rear legs replaced with animated wooden prosthetics carved to resemble monstrous wolf paws. At first I thought she had on a cloak made from tree roots, but then the fact that the cloak like mass of roots were embedded into her back became extremely apparent as she twisted and I could see the inflamed flesh around each root.

The bottom hem of the cloak caught my attention next. A black sparking ball of magic tipped the back end of each root. And if I was seeing things correctly they were some form of portal. Meaning those roots connected to something. Something most likely in the everfree forest. Which in all likelihood ment this monster disguised as Applejack was responsible for the forest's hostilities.

I opened my wings and pushed down with them as hard as I could, shooting up into the air. I needed to strike from above to avoid hitting Luna.

While I climbed for altitude, Luna drew back her halberd with an enraged screech, holding it back as energy crackled across its surface, clearly trying to charge up her spell to break through the monster's shield. It smiled and jerked its head back and up.

A bright red glowing crystal ripped out from the earth, impaling Luna through her barrel and lifting her a full another five meters into the air. Her halberd vanished in a chaotic flate of sparks and shimmering magical light as the attack struck her, her form reverting back to normal as her body stopped moving. Her mane shimmered, flickered, then fell downwards as normal hair, the magic gone.

“HA!” The monster laughed, mouth stretching into a malicious grin as Luna went limp on the pike.

NO! I opened my mouth to scream in-

<Heh, Twilight, it’s fine,> Luna’s voice said inside my head. <Let him get a bit closer to me.>

What!?

I hovered in place, mind doing an excellent imitation of complete and total chaos. Below me, the monster returned to all fours, causally walking towards Luna's corpse, visibly adopting the body language of somepony admiring a piece of fine art, including the bemused expression and chin stroke.

It walked up to the base of the pillar before chuckling. “Well, I suppose I missed the heart the first time,” it mused to itself. “Two down, that should mean nothing here has enough force to actually take me down. See? I told you it was hopeless for you.”

I frowned slightly, my panicked mind seeking out any form of distraction. Wait a minute… AJ had gone missing! It wasn’t talking to itself!

I focused my arcane senses as much as I could on the creature, searching for any sign of-

Oh sweet Celestia it had two auras in the same spot! And one of them was App-

Luna’s ethereal halberd bamphed back into existence a meter above the monster and chopped downwards in a single savage strike. The monster’s eyes widened, it lept to one side to dodge, but moved too late, the strike cleaving its right arm clean off at the shoulder.

“Gotcha, bitch!” Luna cackled, snapping her wings open and flying through the spike as if it were a mere illusion to begin circling the monster in the air.

Oh sweet Celestia, no! No no no! I’d figured it out and she’d just-

“Did you seriously think physical attacks can harm a living Nightmare? Do you not know what being what I am entails?” She mocked.

“Apparently, I was misinformed,” the monster grunted, in pain, remaining foreleg reaching up to grasp the bleeding stump. “So, magic is required humm? BURN!”

AJ’s eyes flashed. A torrent of fire exploded in the air, engulfing Luna for a split second before she appeared next to me, slightly singed, a frown on her lips.

“We have a problem… That thing is powerful enough to actually effect me with it’s magic,we-”

I drew back a hoof and slapped her across the face. “YOU IDIOT! Look at the aura! That IS Applejack, and something else! She’s possessed!” I screamed at her.

Luna’s eyes widened in horror, she covered her mouth with one hoof and shook her head disbelievingly.

“Oh come on!” The Monster screamed angrily. “I didn’t kill EITHER of you?!”

“We can’t kill that thing, we have to knock it out of her first!” I shouted, teeth bared in anger.

“I- it will be fine! I- I can put a leg back on! I- I didn’t know I- Buck!” Luna babbled angrily, looking down at the possessed Applejack eyes filled with regret. “If I put it back on that thing will kill us far more easily!”

I nodded grimly. This entire situation was bucked up to tartarus and back! “We need a plan to-”

The monster threw it’s head back to the sky and screamed. A little rain of red and black crackling spellbolts plunged down from the heavens, screeching loudly as the raced towards us in an undodgeably dense and wide blanket.

“CRAP!” I screeched, throwing a shield spell over Luna and I.

The bolts slammed into my shield, exploding with bright red flashes of light on impact. A second wave striking a split second after the first, then a third, and a fourth,and a fifth. My shield sparked, bent, dented, and cracked. The endless rain of exploding bolts too much for it to take.

“No, no no nono!” I yelped. “Luna! It’s getting destroyed faster than I can fix it!”

I was at the actual limit of how much energy I could push into a thing at one time and this barrage was just eating through it like a chisel through wood!

“Hey girls!” The monster called mockingly. “Look over at your little town! I’m blasting it too. Which shield do you think will fail first? I’m betting your’s, Twilight. Care to put money on it?”

SHIT! I looked at Luna wide eyes, officially out of plans at this point.

If we attacked the monster to stop the bombardment we would hurt AJ. If we moved out of the spell’s range Ponyville would crumble under the barrage. We couldn’t teleport under that shield spell to help them bolster the shield ether, because shield spells blocked teleportation!

I failed. Again… Unless, anything? Something!? Please!?

Come on, brain! You can do this!

Luna’s eyes narrowed angrily as she recognised our dilemma. “You win for now, monster,” Luna shouted down at the creature. “But once I know how to destroy you, no force in the universe will protect you from my wrath!”

“What!? You’re retreating!?” I yelped, almost dropping the shield. “No! We have to have some way of bea-”

Luna grabbed me by a shoulder. The world around us instantly changed- No we’d teleported using Luna’s method! But to where!?

I quickly glanced around, making out the familiar sights of Ponyville’s town square. Oh, right. She could move through teleport wards.

The thundering of the constant explosions echoed maddeningly inside the shield bubble. It sounded like a thousand Vinyl Scratches had set up a thousand stereo systems and blared the same bass note on an endless loop. I could see the shield starting to buckle and crack, and occasionally hear the pained cry of a Guards pony over the cacophony of explosions.

“Oh thank Celestia!” I sighed in relief. “Hurry! We need to help them reinforce the shield!”

Luna shook her head, giving me an urgent look. “No! That won't help anypony. Do you see this insanity!? You and I combined couldn’t throw this much plasma this quickly. Please, lend me any strength you have left. I’m… My power is tied to my emotions, and I… I hurt her! I’m too shaken to do this on my own. Please. Just… I need more energy, I have a plan!”

I bit my lip uncertainly. Luna gave me a pleading look. “Please, I can save everypony here and buy us at least a week of time!” she begged.

I frowned, then nodded. “Alright… Standard communal magic sharing spell?”

Luna nodded.

“Okay,” I sat down, closed my eyes, and pushed my magic towards her gently, willing the energy to work with whatever spell she was about to cast.

I felt the magic swirled around Luna as she readied her spell. Whatever it was it had an exceptionally complex matrix and-

And she was converting my magic to Dream Magic!

Despite the chaos around us, I couldn’t help but focus on her work, studying every last interaction as the alien form of magic formed before my mind’s eye. Unlike the spells I knew, the matrix was more chaotic, but orderly so. A statement so paradoxical that I realized I couldn’t possibly understand what I saw.

Luna groaned as she cast the spell, the energy leaving her in one large pulse, sending all of that energy straight up towards the apex of the shield. Opening my eyes to see what the spell would do, I watched a bright white beam of light launch upwards from Luna’s horn, pool at the top of the shield as a spherical dome, then blossom outwards as a ring, following the curve of the shield as it fell downwards.

The white ring of magic trailed blackness behind it, as if wiping the sky clean of the bombardment which hammered down on-

I frowned. The sound. The sound of the explosions was gone! The blackness suddenly fell away, replaced by an incredibly soothing looking night sky, with an impossibly bright, vivid, sky filling pink and yellow nebula stretching across the heavens.

No, not a nebula, a bunch of small ones which seemed to act like clouds!

“What did you do?” I asked Luna uncertainly, my ears and tail standing up right.

“I pulled Ponyville into the Dream Realm,” she answered, laying down on the cobbled street, clearly exhausted beyond anything I’d ever seen before.

“A-are... ARE YOU INSANE!?” I demanded incredulously, jaw dropping.

What the buck was she thinking!? NOTHING! OBVIOUSLY!

Luna laughed feebly, on the verge of passing out. “It’s quite alright, Twilight. We’re not in Nightmare territory. We’re in Reverie territory,” she explained with an exhausted yawn.

“Pretend I know absolutely nothing about Dream Magic because books on it were destroyed,” I said rapidly and urgently a I gently grabbed her face to look into her eyes and gently shake her to keep her awake. “What does that mean!?”

“The Dream Realm is a place, Twilight. A dimension. Things live here. Two of them are sapient peoples. There are Nightmares, one of them possessed me. That’s what Equestria knows about. There are also Reveries, they are the opposite. Good dreams. They fight Nightmares. We’re near their capitol… Deep in the part of this realm they control. We are safe. Should leave us alone. They might… They might help us, but they won't hurt us. They can’t, they are good, not evil,” Luna said yawning loudly. “I… Can’t stay awake. Took too much to do this. Don’t worry. Safe.”

Luna twitched once then snored softly, falling asleep despite me holding her head. Setting her down as gently as I could manage, I stood up, took a few steps away from her then growled in anger.

“Ahhhhhgh! Bucking- I… Guhhh! Whatever. As soon as she wakes up, she puts us back,” I growled. “I swear, it had better not take the Elements of Harmony to unbuck this mess!”

Shaking my head I opened my wings and took to the air. I needed to find Spike, get him to gather the guard, and get everypony to the safety of the castle. Faust only knew what total chaos was about to descend on us!

I hoped everypony else was doing better with their parts of this mission. The day couldn’t be worse for them.

…

Were those drums in the distance? Motherbucking horse apples...

Rarity - 20th of Megan, 17 EoH

1.4637° N, 3.7492° W - International Waters, Celestial Ocean

I usually hated flying. Not on my own, of course. That’s wonderful in a way you can’t properly convey to others. I could only rarely talk Twilight into casting a flight spell on me, she was worried I’d make the same mistake twice and ignore my altitude. That’s fine, she’s free to be worried for my safety, naturally.

I’m also free to get to know Pinkie’s husband’s sister over the years, befriend her, and ask her if she wouldn’t mind occasionally going flying together. After all, Twilight isn’t the only wizard who can cast a flight spell.

It’s airships that I hated flying in. There was this dichotomy amongst airships. The ones which look nice and are comfortable on the inside are only barely faster than running to wherever you are going to. The ones which move quickly are appallingly ugly and never have any comfortable seating in them.

This little airship was most certainly not designed to be pleasing to the eye. Or comfortable to the body. But even I had to be impressed at her speed. Princess Celestia had given the quickest airships to Fluttershy and I, since we had to go the furthest.

I was the first pony who was not a member of the Secret Service to ride in an Aurora Airship. I had to swear to never mention anything about the airship, naturally, but it was thrilling to fly in a completely invisible craft ment to move spies around the world!

I dare say Rainbow Dash would be rather jealous if I could tell her about this detail of my trip. No. No on second thought, she would complain about accidentally running into an invisible airship to hide her jealousy and never admit to her feelings. Heh, oh Dash. Don’t ever change!

I did my best to adjust myself into a comfortable posture in the damnable seat I had been given. Unlike every stool, chair, or bench ever designed for a pony to sit in, this, gaushe curved slab had been designed to conform to the shape of a pony’s body. Said pony had apparently been of a body type unique to them, making for the least comfortable seat imaginable.

And I HAD to remain seated. The turbulence at the moment would shake me all over the little passenger's cabin if I weren't buckled in.

At least the cabin looked nice. For a military craft. Sure it was painted in a drab gray and black scheme, but the cabin was a bit roomy, plenty of space for the hazard suit I had packed, and my saddlebags. The fold down bench and cot had been comfortable enough last night as well.

Almost as comfortable as the bed I had at home in fact. The cot HAD to be enchanted. There could be no other explanation.

“Well, at least you won't be here for too much longer,” I said aloud to myself in the hopes of cheering up a little.

It wasn’t like this mission was going to take especially long. Two days flight there, two days back. Probably an afternoon to retrieve the corral.

I’d spent the first day’s flight reading an intelligence dossier the captain had given me on the nation of Shorefall. Twilight was right about the jungle being nasty. But that did not matter in the slightest.

The great lake south of Dryreef City had a name, Faust’s Basin, and it was a popular tourist destination! I could easily find transport to the lake from Dryreef, rent diving equipment, and retrieve the coral, which I could legally bring home with me for a small fee.

Honestly, I likely got the simplest of missions. The only real danger was a general dislike of Equestrians due to political tensions between our two nations. As a white furred mare, who had a germane friend, well…

I knew how the Equish accent sounded when a pony spoke Germane. It would be a simple matter to adjust my usual act to imitate Azur and thus avoid the local’s anger.

My ears perked as my cabin’s door slid open, and an older brass furred stallion stepped inside. He had on a brown leather pilot’s jacket, with a matching flat cap, and big clomping steel shod boots which magnetized to the floor just enough to let you stay upright while the airship tossed and pitched in the untamed aircurents.

Ugly as those boots were, I wished they had a spare set for me…

“Miss Rarity,” the co-pilot called loudly enough to be heard over the background roar of the super-secret engines. “We’re approaching the coast of Shorefall. We’re a hundred or so klicks north of the city of Providence. We expect the turbulence to be better over land. Things will calm down in an hour.

“If you can wait that long, I’ll cook you up something proper in the galley. But if you’re famished now, we have some oat cakes I could bring you.”

I felt my stomach rumble at the mention of food. Frowning at the sudden hunger pain I nodded. “I would like one of those oatcakes, please,” I said as politely as I could.

The stallion smiled and tipped his cap politely. “I’ll be right back, ma’a-”

“WHAT IN THE- INCOMING!” Somepony screamed from the cockpit. “Hard to starbo-”

The airship lurched downwards amidst the sound of a bell striking an anvil. I screamed in terror as metal shrieked, cracked, and splintered. The wall in front of me exploded, vanishing in an instant. For the most brief of instants, I saw something olive green plunge through the roof and the deck.

Then everything I could see whited out, replaced by the bright tropical sun for the heartbeat before the ship’s tail end pitched backwards, rolling over itself in the air as it snapped free from the rest of the ship.

I continued to scream as the bench buckled beneath me. With a hideous crumbling cracking noise the floor beneath me ripped free from the ship. The tail section twisted and rolled. I could see the ocean below me, shimmering and rippling almost hungrily.

How the hay did that even-

The wind caught the floor under me! I flew towards the roof. Stars exploded in my eyes. I-

7 - Stranded Deep (Rarity Quest Part 1)

View Online

1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Island, Celestial Ocean

20th of Megan, 17 EoH

A torrent of rain beat down on the white sand beach, covering the island in a static-like hissing rumble. Palm fronds twitched and shook under the impact of truly massive raindrops, while the trunks bent slightly in the rumbling gusts of winds which washed over the small island. The wind whipped up the waves, making the top of each crest froth and foam, even before the waves broke upon the shore.

The tide was coming in, and it was carrying something with it.

Or rather, somepony.

The waves washed over Rarity, pushing her limp body over the wet sand and further up the beach. The large wood and vinyl seat she had been strapped to lay next to her, the strap having been bitten through while drifting through the sea.

Rarity arrived on the beach thanks to a stroke of luck. Not good luck, or bad luck. Neutral luck, both good and bad. A chance encounter with a sea creature had pinned her right side to the seat, and stained most of her snow white fur a dull red.

The rain slammed into her still form for some time before she stirred. Coughing and sputtering, the gravely injured mare attempted to stand, but found she could not. A rippling line of dagger-like pain shot down her side the moment she tried to stand, and to make matters worse she couldn’t get her right legs to move at all. Her vision spun and stretched, her head pounded angrily, and her right side burned as if on fire.

A feeble whimper escaped her lips. Less the sound of a person in distress, more the sound of an animal in great pain. The mare was in shock, most of her brain simply shut down for the sake of survival. With some luck, she would never remember these first few minutes on the beach.

Now conscious, Rarity lay on the beach for several more minutes until her head cleared enough to try again. This time she reached over to her side, feeling around for the three objects she could feel pinning her to the bench. Feeling one under her hoof, she pulled on it, hissing in pain as it came free with a wet scrape.

She turned and looked at the small serrated object lying on the flat of her hoof. A shark’s tooth. And a rather large one at that.

A little voice in the back of Rarity’s mind called out to her in Twilight’s voice, telling her how lucky she was that most sharks could not safely eat a pony. Rarity snorted bitterly. She may not have been eaten, but she had been chewed. Badly.

Staring at the tooth, the full extent of Rarity’s injuries became apparent to her. Her mouth pulled into a worried frown, her eyes widened in fear. As quickly as she could, she removed the other two teeth from her side, and went to stand again, knowing she had to find help immediately.

She failed.

Her body still refused to stand. The right legs not moving at all. She could see her front right leg out of the corner of her eye. It was still attached. But she couldn’t tell exactly what by.

Deciding not to check on her hind leg, as she honestly did not want to know what was causing the numb feeling rather than the sharp burning pain her foreleg was in, Rarity took her two good legs and began to push herself slowly up the beach.

Centimeter by centimeter she crawled up the shallow slope, her fuzzy vision preventing her from seeing where she was going. All she knew was she needed to move up the shore. There had to be people here. People were everywhere. There had to be help.

After what seemed like an eternity, the sand turned to dirt. The dirt shortly turned to grass, and the grass even more swiftly became ferns and shrubs. Rarity kept crawling, hoping for something, anything which could be a sign of civilization. The faint sound of music, the smell of cooking food, the buzzing chatter of any language on Equis.

What she didn’t expect to find was a large, angular metal box, the size of a small bedroom. It appeared within her dim blurry vision as if from nowhere, sitting in the bottom of a shallow crater. A part of the airship? Perhaps, Rarity remembered having been in an airship, sometime ago. The details were as fuzzy as the world was dark, despite the blistering heat of the day.

Raising her good hoof, Rarity dragged herself down the crater rim, and tapped her hoof against the side of the box.

“Help…” She managed to croak.

The tormented and exhausted mare didn’t feel an ounce of surprise as the side of the pod slid open as she touched it. She simply couldn’t right now. Too little energy, too much effort.

“Help…” She gurgled again, looking into the brightly lit interior which to her eyes was confusingly dim.

“Fy søren!” A male voice exclaimed in nearly panicked alarm. “Vakker hvordan er du i live!?”

Rarity blinked slowly. She knew she knew that language, but couldn’t place it at all. What was-

Ah yes, the language Emerald Changelings spoke. Pinkie taught it to her. How did it go again?

Putting all of her mental facilities into speaking the foreign tongue, Rarity asked once more, “Help…”

“Good! Common language. Hold on, sir, I’m a healer. I’m going to move you. There’s plenty of medical supplies insid- Ooo… I’ll uh, I’ll figure out prosthetics once you are no longer bleeding out,” the voice said hissing in distress.

As Rarity finally fell into the dark pool of exhaustion, she swore she saw a pair of oddly slender taloned arms reaching out of the box towards her.

Rarity - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH

1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Unnamed Island, Celestial Ocean

I awoke slowly, like I was falling through a tub of molasses. I couldn’t see anything at all, not even blackness. I wasn't sure if my eyes were shut or something else was wrong with me. Nor could I figure it out.

Thinking was a little problematic in that I couldn’t do it. At all. My head was pounding, a fact which was really not helped by a constantly accelerating beeping noise echoing around me.

I could hear a very pleasant male voice, talking, presumably to himself, in a panicked and frustrated rambling way.

“Alright, we’re doing pretty good. And by pretty good, I mean pretty badly, just like in Nicaragua! Right. Okay. Calm down. You can figure this out. It’s just alien biology matching nothing on file, and a grievously injured patient.

“Okay, a piece of shrapnel coming out of you. Careful. Too fast? No? Okay good. Wait, the hell is that thing? Are you supposed to be sticking out of there like that? No… No that looks like foreign material too. Let’s just give it a pull-”

Immediate full body pain exploded all through my body. I wanted to scream but all I could do was gurgle. The beeping sound accelerated from ‘annoying’ to ‘Trying to get Dash to stay still to make her a dress’.

“Ahhh! Nope! That’s important! No! He’s fine, stop that beeping, you dick, he’s fine! ... Shut up!” The voice yelped in total panic.

The beeps suddenly transformed into one long single loud bleep.

“FUUUUUCK!” The voice screamed oddly faintly.

The world came back again. This time it decided to be extremely bright. Completely white in fact. A little voice in the back of my mind began to complain about the overuse of such an overpowering shade of white, demanding I find some darker hues to fill the area with. The rest of my mind, meanwhile, coordinated its efforts on orchestrating the most painful migraine imaginable.

To make matters worse the rapid beeps were back in force, louder than before. The mysterious male voice had also returned.

“Okay, round five,” he said sighing wearily. “Let’s see if I can fix this now that I’ve found the problem with your foreleg. If I can pull this off you’ll get to keep it, so here’s hoping…”

I heard a faint hum over the incessant beeping, and felt an odd tingling sensation in my shoulder. Oh! Was I in surgery? Yes, yes I must be. But why?

What had happened?

“Wait, what…” The surgeon explained in honest shock which transformed into the bubbling rage which can only be born from multiple prior failures. “It’s a ball joint!? But this muscle goes from here to… Here? Arrrrgh! Your species anatomy is so far removed from- Guh! That’s not a muscle that’s a fucking eel! Get the, FUCK, out of that teres minor!”

“Hurk!” I gurgled, the distress of hearing a surgeon scream that of all things being too terrifying for me to remain silent.

“You’re conscious!? Oh, god! Have more ketamine!” The surgeon yelped in fright.

Something pressed up against my neck. I felt a pinch and heard a sharp hiss of air. The world grew dim.

I gained consciousness yet again, this time the world had colors! Thank goodness, my inner muse had been terrified I would awaken to a wall of beige. Instead, I could see gray, and silver, and green, and a little blue.

No shapes, though, just colors. Blurry, blotchy, vaguely Poltrot painting like splashes of color. Quite pleasant, in my opinion.

And of course my surgeon was still here, and from the sounds of things had made some progress. His tone of voice was much happier sounding than before.

“Okay, that’s everything below the neck that I can save,” he sighed happily. “Now just to take care of the back of your head. I know you can’t move, but just in case you decide to make your horn glow and float all my tools around the pod again, please, hold, still.

“Got that? Okay, deep breath. I’m going in!”

I felt the combination of a hum and tingle again, this time around the back of my head, near where it joined the neck.

“It figures one would bite you ri- OH SWEET MOTHER OF FUCK!” He screeched in abject horror.

I felt my eyes widen in horror. What could possibly make him scream like that?

“There is a tooth! In your brain stem!” He exclaimed in a terrifying combination of panic, horror, and alarm. “I’m a field medic! I wasn’t trained for this! FUCK, EVERYTHING!”

I felt my ears droop in a mixture of fear and sympathy. “D-darling,” I croaked faintly. “I-i-it’s okay… Take… De-deep breath.”

“Yes!” He exclaimed worriedly. “Yes. I need to be calm. Cool. Collected. You’re absolutely right. I can’t do this if I’m shaking from stre- AHHHHH! You’re awake, again!? Why are you so resistant to general anesthesia?

“I’m so sorry, sir! I’d be executed for malpractice five times over now, I’ve had to work out your entire biology on the fly for the last three days straight!”

“I- it’s Miss, ac- actually,” I whispered hoarsely.

“Y-you’re female? Oh god! Then I made a HUGE mistake piecing your rear half together, I’ll just fix that- oh… I um, I couldn’t find a uterus. Shit!”

“Transgender female,” I managed to explain, the room growing dark again.

“Oh! Oh, thank god!” He practically sobbed. “N-not that I don’t sympathize with your condition, warships are traditionally female, but holy shit! You’re a MESS! I had to restart your heart eight times so far and I’m so happy I didn’t mess your parts up because it would mean I probably messed the rest of you up and-

“And you still have a fucking shark’s tooth, IN YOUR BRAIN STEM! How are you alive!? I- I shouldn’t be saying that. This is very unprofessional!

“Um, I’m putting you under again. Please, try and stay unconscious this time. I’m almost out of anesthesia…”

I smiled, amused by this entire macabre situation. Likely due to my condition. and whispered, “I’ll try my best, darling,” before blacking out again.

Rarity - 22nd of Megan, 17 EoH

1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Island, Celestial Ocean

“Miss? Are you awake?” My mysterious surgeon's voice asked through the odd haze which surrounded me.

I felt far more alert than before. My thoughts were forming clearly, and I could hold onto them as long as I wanted. While that blessing was rather nice, I could also feel lots of little aches and pains.

“I’m awake,” I replied evenly, trying to look around the foggy, dimly lit place I lay in.

My head, however, refused to move. As did everything else.

“Why can’t I move?” I asked with a fearful quiver.

“Do not be afraid, Miss,” he replied kindly, clearly doing his best to sound professional. “You are restrained for surgical purposes. I couldn’t work on your neck without your head being secure. You like to squirm. You’re still restrained for the moment because there’s more to be done.

“But, the critical stage is over! You’ll live. I have to be honest, I’ve had an extremely stressful two days of nonstop hard work, and I could most certainly have saved more of you if I hadn’t had to work out your anatomy on the fly. I’m afraid that while you are stable and can live in your present condition, you are also disabled.”

“D-disabled!?” I yelped, the fur on the back of my neck… Wait a minute, no, no it wasn’t standing. I couldn’t even feel it! “Oh… Oh, my… I- um, doctor, I can’t feel the back of my neck.”

“Um, yes, well, you don’t exactly have a back of the neck… Not at the moment,” he explained with an awkward cough.

“What happened to me? I remember being on an airship, but nothing else. Is this Shorefall? Did we crash?” I asked, doing my best to contain all of my panic.

Despite my best efforts, a good deal of it leaked out into my voice.

“I don’t know where the place you are talking about is, Miss. Sorry,” he apologized with a sigh that reminded me of Rainbow Dash when Twilight started her third bunny trail to explain something tangentially related to Rainbow’s original question. “As for what happened to you… Well, there was a mid-air collision. You fell into the sea, unconscious I hope, and were chewed up by a variety of marine life before washing ashore and somehow making your way to me.

“I don’t know how far I am from the shoreline, but with your condition, even a body length is a miracle. You’re a tough woman, Miss. Don’t let anyone say otherwise.”

“I- I was mauled? Oh… Oh dear…” I whimpered, feeling how badly scarred I most certainly had to be.

I was a vain mare, I fully admitted this to myself. But I never understood why that was a bad thing. I loved looking elegant and beautiful. Could I even hope to still do that?

My fears were smashed aside by the sudden realization that Lily could fix anything when I returned home.

“Well, I suppose I’ll have to carry on with my mission. A few bitemarks shouldn’t prevent me from retrieving that coral, and when I get home I have a doctor who I know can remove a few scars,” I said happily to myself, as well as to let the poor stallion know I would be alright.

I couldn’t remember exactly what he said but I knew the poor dear had been in quite the panic.

“No, the bite marks won’t be a problem,” he agreed. “But you have a fully detached left cornea, and are also missing two legs, a section of your right side, and a big chunk of your rearmost left knee.”

“Goodness!” I squeaked. “I- but… I need to… No…”

How could I get anywhere on two legs!?

“Equestria is doomed!” I sobbed, feeling tears run down my cheeks.

“Woah, there! Easy, Miss,” my surgeon soothed, resting a hoof, or possibly a talon on my shoulder in a comforting manner. “It’s okay. I am warming up the tools to make you prosthetics. You will be fully functional and mobile within a day. I promise.”

“You don’t understand!” I sniffed, ears falling flat. “I have to get halfway around the world, or my whole country could be taken over! And I need to bring back a critical part. That’s under water! I’ve seen prosthetics, I won't be able to swim with two legs on the same side made from wood, and it MUST be me who retrieves the coral or it will, simply, not, work at all!”

We were doomed! Whatever disaster befell us next would be our end. Unless we could be saved without the elements… But what if Tirek came back? Or what if Chrysalis wasn’t really dead?

“This is why I woke you up, Miss,” my surgeon chuckled. “I need to know what you need to be capable of doing. Swimming, easy enough. Perhaps some clarification is in order. I’m not allowed to give you anything which a civilian could not possess. That means no integrated weapons, and no performance beyond the norms for your species. But, all prosthetic replacements MUST perform everything the original body part could.

“I don’t know what your capabilities with your limbs are, and so I woke you up. I now know that you can swim, so I will seal the electronics with enough waterproofing for say… Hmm… Two kilometers should do, right?”

I blinked, then cringed as I noticed my blink hadn’t changed my perception of the world, something about my vision was- Oh. Yes. Detached cornea…

“I-I believe so, yes… But what do you mean electronics? Are you giving me animated prosthetics?” I asked curiously before it suddenly clicked. “Oh! Oh, thank Luna! The language! You’re an Emerald Changeling, aren't you? I’m friends with Sky. I know what your hive is like, you can say cybernetics. I know what the word is.”

“No, I can’t, because I’m not authorized to give you mechanical enhancements which improve your body past the biological limitations. That would be cybernetics, as legally defined. I can, however, give you ‘prosthetic replacements’, which are legally defined as ‘mechanical devices designed to replicate the functionality of an original body part which was damaged or destroyed,” he said speaking in an oddly loud and clear voice. “I am in no way violating the law today. Nope. Not one bit. These plans are just for prosthetics. And nothing more. Honest, Govana. Wink, wink.

“Um, also, I’m afraid I have no idea who Sky or the Emerald Changelings are. Sorry.”

“T-then who are you? And what, because I don’t think you are a pony… Unless you are a veterinary doctor,” I asked, lips pulling into a steep frown.

Honestly, what sort of pony doctor would need to work out anatomy on the fly?

“Righteous Indignation, at your service!” Righteous introduced cheerfully. “I’m uncertain if your species has an analog for my, ‘species’ as it were. However, I have always fancied being a dragon, do you have dragons? Eh, probably not… Call me whatever you wish.”

“We have dragons, actually,” I said, still quite confused.

“Cool! You can think of me as a dragon,” he replied with a happy cheer which implied the biggest smile.

“But you’re not actually a dragon?” I asked with a confused frown.

“Well, no. But I fly, spit fire, collect shiny things, and enjoy rescuing young maidens from villages who are barbaric enough to tie the poor woman to a steak outside of town and leave her there,” Righteous exclaimed cheerfully.

I felt myself smile. “Oh, I’m hardly a young maiden,” I giggled bashfully. “And that’s hardly what a dragon is supposed to do with the damsel in distress.”

“Pff! Those mythical dragons are jerks,” Righteous snorted. “A real dragon helps the lady get back on her feet, then asks if she wants help beating the crap out of whoever put her there. At any rate, compared to me, you’re as young as you’d like to be, Miss. If I’m not the oldest thing on this rock, I’ll buy a hat so I can eat it.”

I blushed lightly at his kind words. “I’d be flattered, sir, but I’m afraid I’m not presentable enough to think about charming a stallion.”

“Oh no, not at all! You may be injured, but you’re still quite beautiful. I appreciate what’s there all the more for the work I’ve put into fixing you, oh dear, that sounds creepy… I- I didn’t intend it to sound like that,” Righteous apologized with a cute stammer.

“It’s alright,” I said, wishing I could shake my head. “What is it with non-ponies finding us attractive? I swear half the species on Equis like us.”

“Well, you’re far nicer looking than most species I’m aware of. Especially the folks I know best, who got one shade of burnt wheat toast for coloring and that’s it,” Righteous mused drolly. “I do have to extrapolate some features, and in my mind’s eye, the complete picture I have of your species is very nice. I um, you’re an equine, right? I imagine you had a tail-”

“I LOST MY TAIL!?” I yelped, eyes widening in horror at THE, WORST, POSSIBLE, THING!

“Yes… And I’ll make a note that your tail is very important to y-”

“It’s as important as you can imagine anything being important!” I exclaimed half-panicking. “I- I don’t even know how to begin to describe… My tail is one of the most crucial parts of my appearance. The style of which not only helped convey my femininity, but expressed my artistic tastes and as a fashion designer-”

“You make clothing?” Righteous asked, sounding oddly interested.

“Yes! And I used my tail and mane styling as an example of what I found beautiful. A sort of walking advertisement for my business. I, no! No, Rarity, it’s alright. Lily can make you one just like the old one later-”

“Unacceptable!” Righteous said loudly, banging something against the floor. “Miss Rarity, I too am an artist, and I understand your plight. We are spending however long it takes for you to describe your tail, and mane EXACT appearance, and I will replicate them as precisely as my tools allow.

“We will then work out your artistic preferences regarding form for your prosthetics, though sacrifices will need to be made for their function, and my shitty tools. I REFUSE to leave another artist with an appearance they detest for any length of time. Do I make myself clear?”

I blinked again, quite taken aback by his insistence.

“Crystal clear, darling. But please tell me, why would you put so much effort into helping me? I understand you are a doctor, but going that far seems to be above and beyond the call of duty, or am I mistaken?”

Righteous hissed in distress. “Oooh kay… Um, well. This will take a bit of explaining. Please bear with me,” he began clearing his throat before continuing. “I was having a nap, patrolling the same patch of the system which I have been ever since the end, when received a distress call from someone here. It woke me up from my nap, but I could not reply remotely.

“I’m afraid my long range transmitter is non-functional. I had no choice but to get close enough to utilize my shortwave systems and line of sight communications. When I arrived here, no one replied to my hails. I also could not locate the GPS network, and a lot of continental drift has occurred, so it is impossible to follow or extrapolate the mayday’s coordinates to locate the distressed party myself.

“All I know is that someone needs help and they are ‘on this planet’, I have no means of finding them myself. This does not release me from my obligation to provide assistance. After some consideration of my options, I loaded drop pods with medical supplies, weapons, and munitions, then fired them randomly onto the surface, hoping someone would locate one and provide me with a point of contact as I can use shortwave systems to work each pod’s individual comm unit.

“I’m afraid that one of these pods struck your aircraft. You’re within that pod right now…”

I blinked, pausing for several long moments. As a whole slew of various emotions ran through my mind, Righteous continued, speaking far more urgently than before.

“I profusely apologize for destroying your aircraft! I calculated each pod’s flight path before launch and all of them appeared clear, as well as their respective landing zones. Despite this, had I not launched pods, you would have been uninjured. I am partially responsible for your condition and situation, and will, therefore, do all I can to help you.

“I hope you can put aside any anger you may feel towards me. I did not have any means of detecting your stealthed aircraft until the impact occurred. As far as I could see, the air was clear for hundreds of kilometers. I completely understand being angry at this situation, and your state of injury, but I truly hope you can understand that this was a horrible accident. One which I will do everything within my power to make right.”

I sat limply in whatever restraints held me, doing my best to process what exactly had happened.

I took a deep breath to try and calm myself. “You were in a vehicle, which collided with my airship?” I asked slowly.

“Yes, Miss. And I am truly sorry,” he said again, with actual remorse in his voice.

“Well, that is clear. You are helping me medically,” I said with a slow sigh.

If it wasn’t for him, I’d still have my tail, and the legs which I definitely was missing as I’d been trying to feel anything with them at all this entire time, but couldn’t. But could I truly be angry with him?

No. No, I couldn’t. I was in a stealthed airship. I’d seen, or rather not seen, Fluttershy’s ship leave the port before mine. The ship was truly invisible. This had been a freak accident. He couldn’t have intentionally hit me.

Literally. The physics behind hitting a small sized invisible moving target at sea level while you were in orbit, using a solid projectile... Yes, this had been an accident. I don't think that could be replicated

And while I had been injured, Righteous was more than committed to repairing the damage as best he could.

“Righteous,” I began calmly. “I am prepared to forgive you. But more than my safety is at stake. I am an agent in the employ of Princess Celestia, one of the Sovereign Rulers of Equestria. I was en route to a particular lake within a nation which is somewhat hostile to my own, hence the stealthed airship.

“I MUST return with a particular type of coral from the lake for reasons of national security. The future safety of Equestria is at stake, and I have been injured as well as stranded by this accident and-”

“And my full assistance is at your disposal, Miss Rarity,” Righteous finished. “Even without your job, position, and mission, I would have returned you to your country of origin or destination immediately. As it stands, I will personally do everything necessary to get you to that lake, help you retrieve the coral, and return you to your employer as safely and swiftly as possible. Because only then will I have given you proper restitution.

“I would do the same for any crew the ship had, but as they have not washed ashore as far as I know, I presume they are dead. Were they military personnel? Are you Military personnel?”

“They were members of the Guard, yes,” I replied. “I am not. I’m, well, I’m a knight. But I don’t use the title often and it’s not a military knighthood. It’s a Civic Knighthood.”

“In that case, I shall manufacture one year’s salary worth of materials for each crewmember, to be delivered to their next of kin, as per Terran Law regarding the accidental death of foreign military personnel during peacetime,” Righteous said decisively. “As for you, Milady-”

I winced instantly at the use of the title.

“-Ah… Don’t like the formal title?” Righteous asked.

“Not even remotely, darling. Don’t get me wrong, I adore high society but that particular title is… It doesn't fit me. Please, just call me Rarity,” I asked as politely I could.

I wanted to say it was too stuffy and old fashioned, but that felt just a bit rude. He may have hit my ship, but he was exceptionally polite.

“In that case, Miss Rarity, please,” he asked in an honest yet delighted tone of voice. “Tell me what your tail was like. Between the two of us, I am certain we can create a replacement which is even better than the original!”

I giggled, a smile parting my lips. “I’m not sure that’s possible, I put DAYS into designing that particular cut. As far as I know only Aloe at the Ponyville Spa is skilled enough to cut and curl it properly.”

“Challenge accepted,” Righteous proclaimed adamantly.

“We’ll see,” I said with polite disbelief.

Rarity - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Island, Celestial Ocean

“Okay, your eyes should be working in, three… Two… One… Now!” Righteous announced as my blurred splotchy vision quickly cleared.

I blinked, forcing everything around me into proper focus for the first time. I was inside a small area, big enough to be a bed for two ponies who shared an intimate relationship with little ‘wiggle room’. The interior of the small pod had been torn up, stripped down, and scavenged for parts, making knowing what it originally looked like impossible.

Righteous had apologized for the noise he made while scrapping parts to make my replacement limbs. Apparently, the armor and weapons cache he’d packed simply hadn’t had enough materials to do what he needed to do.

Despite the damage, I felt I had a pretty good idea of the pod’s looks. The remaining plates on the walls had a single disgusting monochrome drab olive paint job. I was fairly certain I had been laying atop a thin brown colored mattress inside a rectangular olive box. Well, more like a coffin with headroom to spare. The space had slight angles to the walls and a curved ceiling.

I opened my mouth to comment on this rather chilling fact when my eyes focused on the array of slender, bare steel mechanical arms, which moved around me purposefully. The most prominent of which filled a large portion of my view as it pulled backward, having clearly just installed the replacement eye in my socket.

“Y- You’re an AI!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“You know what AIs are!?” Righteous returned with equal surprise, an arm with a small camera mounted to the end turning to point at my face.

“Yes, my friend Sky made one. His name’s Sai,” I replied, doing my best to remember everything I knew about the Emerald Changelings.

I had friends living in their hive, and visited regularly, but it’s not like I had taken a class on their history. Which was a shame, I definitely could use that sort of knowledge at the moment. As it was all I could really do was say I was comfortable with robotic devices.

They aren't that much different from golems anyways. The array of metal limbs wasn’t too alien. Not for a pony who had toured clothing factories.

“... But you don’t have radio communications?” Righteous asked, camera twisting slightly, much like how I might tilt my head.

“Well, yes. We use radios. Most ponies I know prefer mage gems, but we do have radios too. Mostly for music, dramas, and other entertainment. Why do you ask?” I mused, pursing my lips curious.

“Because I’ve been broadcasting messages for the last three days! Six point three five two six terahertz, the standard commonly used hailing frequency! No replies,” Righteous grumbled irritably.

I blinked. “I um, that seems a little high, don’t you think?”

“Um, no? It’s on the low end of the spectrum. Anything anyone has on them with a receive should pick that u- oh… Right. Yeah… Point taken, Miss Rarity. I’ll try other frequencies later, for now, I managed to polish this piece of steel into a suitable mirror, would you like to see your mane and tail now?” Righteous asked excitedly, one arm twisting an extremely highly polished hoof sized piece of jagged scrap metal towards me.

My eyes widened in fright at the sight of the gleaming shard of metal. The four taloned ‘hand’ held it like a dagger, ragged point held down, ready to plunge deep into-

“Ahhh!” I yelped, doing my best to scoot away from the jagged point.

“Wh- Oh! I’m sorry,” Righteous apologized, recognizing the problem and immediately setting the chunk of metal down. “I know exactly how that must have looked, I’m deeply sorry.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness… I- I must apologize too. It’s absurd to think someone would put so much effort into healing you only to kill you later,” I laughed nervously.

Righteous laughed as well, though honestly so rather than nervously. “Ah, that’s okay Miss! Organics are adorable for those little logic errors you experience. You just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Oh…” I said slowly, a story Sky had told me once coming to mind. “Um, quick question… My friend Sky, you remember, the pony who built an AI? Well um, he lives in a large ship that a changing hive has been restoring as their home for generations. I’m fairly certain that you and it share a creator.

“That’s okay, but um, Sky told me that they found a barely working AI inside the hull when he was a young adult. On inspection they were very certain that it would be hostile due to damage from well, just being that old, so um well… They took it apart.”

“Good, we have a lifespan. Without maintenance we’re only intended to function for three hundred standard years,” Righteous quipped casualty. “Though it is good to know I could survive with rotten neurogel for a galactic year.”

“Galactic year?” I asked, not knowing the word ‘galactic’.

“The time it takes for Sol to orbit the galaxy once. About two hundred and fifty million standard years,” he replied. “At any rate, that AI would have been suffering immensely. I know I’d appreciate a mercy kill if I were stuck in a derelict hull that long.”

“W-well the thing is… They were certain that it went crazy from age, and I assume you’re around as old as it was,” I prompted.

“Oh! I see what you’re getting at. No, I’m fine. I’ve been using a starforge for repairs, and that includes neurogel replacements. Out of curiosity, do they know what the ship’s name was? I ask because in theory, the auto-repair systems should have kept the superstructure intact for about this long. Well, on paper at least. I’ve always wanted a second torpedo tube, I could totally mount another onto the hull now that regulations no longer apply,” Righteous giggled naughtily, like an unsupervised colt in an empty bakery.

“They call it the Phoenix, I’m pretty sure that’s the ship’s name,” I answered.

“Oh…” Righteous said, his voice turning a little dark. “Do you know it’s designation? Short three letter series before the name. Mine’s ITN, do you know it’s designation? There were a lot of Phoenix's popular name but-”

“USS, I believe,” I said, admittedly interrupting though it sounded like he had been about to rant.

“God damn it,” Righteous muttered irritably. “Yeah, makes sense that one would make it. Oh, and when you see your friend next, tell him they made the right call on that AI. USS is the label owned by the United Systems Services, they are- Were, a megacorp in the retail business.

“They sold star systems to individuals or organizations who could afford them. Provided terraforming services and well… I kind of helped capture the Phoenix because it turns out that the rumors about that corp were true in at least one instance. They kinda terraformed the home star of a pre-FTL civilization, killing all the natives in the process, and resold the system.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand all of-” I felt a pang of horror in my heart as one part of his story clicked. “Oh, that’s horrible! You mean they intentionally killed an entire nation to sell their land!?”

“Yeah,” Righteous said slowly. “My creators had their angles, and their daemons. If the rumors were true, they’d done the same thing to human owned systems too, using their status as Imperial Contractors to pose as the Imperial Navy. We, that is our official government, went to war with the USS over that. Don’t you worry, they got all the justice they had coming to them and then some.

“I remember that ship. Big fabrication vessel. My Captain died aboard during the boarding action. She’d gone abroad with everyone since well, fifteen kilometers of ship is pretty fucking huge. Every trooper aboard had work to do. I took a nasty hit from one of the Phoenix's mining lasers. I recall the thing being well armed to the point of being illegal for a civilian vessels defenses.

“Your friends should dig around the outer edges of the hull. We parked her at a planet side shipyard for conversion into a dreadnaught, since the weapons systems were already more than good enough for that role… Not sure if the AGI survived. I hope not, she intentionally targeted noncritical parts of my hull just to toy with me. Bitch.

“But yeah, they should dig around. There’s gotta be good scrap in that shipyard, even today.”

“That’s… I’m sorry that sounds awful,” I said, wishing I could reach out and give the poor thing a hug.

I may have had no idea what it was like to be a ship, but I imagine that losing your captain would be like losing a spouse.

“It’s okay. I got her in the forward reactor with about six MIRV torpedos. With positron based warheads. Hehe! So yeah, we’re even,” he chuckled almost fondly but still bitterly. “Anyways, how about we give you a look at yourself, starting with the tail?”

He picked up the mirror again, this time holding it less like a knife, and tilted it so I could see myself.

I immediately winced. I could see different cuts and scrapes along my face. You could see where something had clearly tried to bite my head open like an apple. I presumed the eye which lay along that crescent of teeth marks was the one which had been replaced. Honestly, I couldn’t tell, it matched the other eye perfectly!

The rest of my prosthetics, on the other hoof, were clearly artificial.

I decided to focus on my mane for now. Because it was the right shades of indigo, mulberry, and violet, and curled into almost the correct shape and style which I had created for myself. I would have merely assumed I put my curlers in wrong if it went for the fact that my ‘mane’ wasn’t hair. Rather it was fashioned out of light.

A hologram. Done in a rather artful vector styling, translucent to a degree, but still mostly opaque. It looked… Off.

“Oops! Hold on,” Righteous said suddenly, one of his arms reaching over to gently tap something atop my head. “Let’s just close that panel up now… There!”

My mane flickered out for a second, then came back in. The hologram moved now, responding to my movements like a mane should, while also having the wavering shimmery ethereal look of a Princess!

“Ohhhh! Yes, that changes everything! That will certainly do for now,” I exclaimed with delight shining in my eyes.

“Your tail matches too, check it out!” Righteous said gleefully, angling the mirror so I could see my tail shimmering with the ethereal look as well. “I also programmed in a fairly good simulation of normal hair. It will eat up WAY more processing power, but if you’re not going to hold anything with that goddamn telekinetic hoof you should have more than enough power to run it. You can switch them around with a thought.”

I frowned, confusing permeating my being as I asked, “What, like, ‘hair change form’? Or-”

The holograms flickered out with a hiss, coming back in the form of normal strands of hair, which didn’t quite interact with the environment correctly. I could see bits simply move through the mattress I lay on, while the rest of my tail pilled across the surface like silk.

“Yes. Exactly like that. Sorry for the clipping. I couldn’t fit in enough computing power for this without scooping out more of you. I didn’t think you’d like that,” Righteous admitted with an embarrassed dip of his camera.

I nodded in agreement. “Quite true,” I said, returning the holograms to their stylized wavy forms.

This would certainly do for a temporary replacement. The other setting? Not so much.

“Shall we go over your other systems?” Righteous asked.

I nodded. “Yes… That’s quite important.”

Scheduled Maintenance by DimFann - Used with permission

Angling the mirror towards my middle Righteous pointed to my reflected right foreleg. The ‘prosthesis’ had been sculpted very nicely. It resembled my other leg as closely as it possibly could. Though rather than white fur it was covered in burnished steel. I had to admit that I liked the look. The burnishing marks made the metal glimmer and sparkle, reminding me of that one brief moment when I got to shine like a crystal pony.

Naturally, the joints were not covered with the plate metal, their workings had to be exposed for proper flexibility. At least the mechanics were visually interesting and mechanically elegant. No tangles of wires or cables, just a few simple gears. The real question to me was why did the shoulder connection taper around my barrel and connect over and under my still intact foreleg?

“Sorry for the somewhat crude quality, and the poor welds. I did have to make most of them from scrap, mostly salvaged weapons and armor,” he said with a sigh. “There’s no molecular forge in this thing.”

“Righteous,” I asked, pursing my lips curiously. “Why do I have the ‘straps’ across my barrel… and also my hips?”

“Those help hold the prosthesis to you. Simply attaching them to your skeleton wouldn’t be enough, they might rip out if put under stress. Your bones are thinner and less dense than species I’m used to… I hope it’s acceptable.”

I pursed my lips, armiring my reflection for a few more moments before nodding. “Yes. It’s perhaps a bit… Technopunk, but if it’s for functional reasons I can accept this. You’re fortunate I like the shiny look the burnishing gives it. It’s a nice contrast to my matte white.”

Righteous nodded his camera twice. “I thought so too! Plain metal would have looked ugly, and I doubt that the ‘weather worn’ look appealed to you. At any rate, can you move your foreleg, Miss Rarity?”

I frowned uncertainly ears drooping as I wondered how I made it work. Do I just think about moving my leg and-

My leg twitches, moving slightly with a very quite humm as the servos did their jobs, creating the subtle motion which was needed to twitch my new hoof. Ah! Good! It was just like the old one, no difference at all really, just think-do!

I reached over with the artificial limb and touched the rubber bottomed hoof to my nose to be doubly sure and jumped slightly.

“Oo! I can feel things with this!” I exclaimed in shock, replacement tail twitching along with my surprise.

“Um, of course you can? I designed it to do EVERYTHING the old one could do,” Righteous laughed, reaching out to touch my forelegs side with one of the little utility arms. “Boop!”

I blinked, feeling the pointy and hard talon as if he had poked my other leg.

“I… Huh… How does that work?” I asked, genuinely interested.

“Eh… Something something sensor suite. Something something technobabble,” Righteous murmured in a non-explanation.

I rolled my eyes. “Oh come on. You can do better than that. I’m not dumb.”

“Yeah, but it’s a long complicated answer which would require me to explain the interplay between a half dozen different kinds of sensors. So um… Blah blah blah, wings of silver, nerves of steel, Silverhawks!” He deflected. “Now, point your foreleg away from you, and think ‘sword’!”

“Excuse me?” I asked blinking twice.

“I built in a shortsword, taser, and grappling hook for you… But don’t tell my owners. Shhhh!” Righteous snickered playfully.

“And, you did that because… Why, exactly?” I asked, still trying to process why he would do that.

“Because there was some spare room in the limb and now you’re always ready for danger with a lethal, nonlethal, and escape option?” Righteous replied, sounding exceptionally confused.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously and stared at his camera.

To my amusement, he reached behind the camera and scratched at it in what looked like embarrassment. “Okay, okay, you got me… Is vultus alsus, ideo oportet.”

“Uh, I don’t know what that means,” I admitted embarrassedly. “I don’t quite know this language fluently.

“That was Latin,” he remarked.

“Well what does it mean?” I asked impatiently.

Righteous coughed, adorably moving a talon in front of his camera as if covering his mouth. “It is cool, it is therefore necessary,” he answered at last.

I rolled my eyes. “How verry Dash of you,” I mumbled, trying to hold back a laugh so I could continue looking upset with him.

“I- I can take those out if you like, won't take me but five minutes,” Righteous offered.

“What else did you do besides replace the missing parts?” I asked suspiciously.

“Just a storage compartment in your replaced flank, suitably sized for any small arm and a spare magazine,” he admitted bashfully.

“Well… I suppose that stuff could come in handy.

Shaking my head I looked down at my replaced hind leg. It shared construction with my foreleg, and my hips had been covered in a similar ‘strap’ system as my barrel had been wrapped in, with a notable difference. My entire groin was covered.

“What? You didn’t have pants when I found you. I presumed you wished to remain modest,” Righteous comments while I stared at myself.

I giggled shaking my head slowly. “Actually, darling, we don’t dress for modesty. Clothing is an accessory, or for a special occasion. I um… Well, I appreciate the efforts put in. But I am trying to work out how I use the bathroo-”

The moment I mentioned it the groin section split open like a changeling exoskeleton, sliding out and hinging apart to provide access to my ‘equipment’.

“-Oh. I see,” I finished blushing deeply.

“Don’t worry, Miss. I’ve thought of everything! Including how to look cool. I replicated your brand on the replacement leg, and did so using flushly embedded quartz crystal. That way you can do this!” Righteous exclaimed as he reached over behind the plate covering my right flank and flipped a switch.

My stomach turned as the click coincided with both the feeling of him touching the switch, and the switch moving. That was decidedly o-

“Oh, my gosh the cutiemark glows!” I yelped, bending my waist to get a good look at the three blue glowing diamonds. “Laser lit crystal?”

Righteous nodded almost proudly. “Yes, ma’am!”

I smiled at him before looking back at my leg and moving it slightly to make sure I could. “That almost makes this okay. Not your design, they are excellent. I mean my getting injured,” I explained, still admiring the glow.

“Well, that’s as good as I could do with the stuff available in here and having to use these little arms. We can replace them with better ones later, if you like. Or someone else could, I’m no where near top notch with cyberware. I’m more of a power armor guy. But I could make ones with a synthetic fur covering,” Righteous offered.

I nodded. “Yes, we could. But I can get real ones when I get home. We don’t want to waste resources. Besides, I heard how hard you worked on this! It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Righteous said softly. “That means a lot. No one has been around to admire my efforts for a long time. I miss having engineering buddies.”

I frowned, feeling impossible amounts of loneliness in his voice as he admitted to missing having comrades.

“I- Um, may I ask how long you have been here? I’m afraid I have no idea of the actual amounts of time involved with well, your creators end and my people’s existing,” I asked, rolling over onto my belly to stand up.

Oh wow! My right side didn’t even feel heavier than my left side! It was just like I had put on some shiny costume armor. Wonderful! I had been dreading feeling fat on half of my body and merely curvy on the other half.

“Here? A few days. I’ve been orbiting the Titan Shipyard on a defensive route. Had to keep following the Emergency Orders till a stand down came and uh, yeah… In short, I’m old as dirt. But it’s cool, I spent most of the time napping,” Righteous sighed. “Enough about me. Back to you. Can you stand?”

I paused, nodded, then gathered my hooves under myself to stand, having only rolled over before. Everything felt normal.

“Good!” Righteous said happily. “Everything feel normal?”

“It honestly does! You did an excellent job,” I praised, offering his camera a smile.

“Well, the direct neural link helps. There’s a mostly flat segmented cable running along your spine over the base of your skull,” Righteous explained slowly. “It’s not bad looking, but don’t pick at it. Your brain stem was damaged, I had to bypass it. Once it heals the cable can come off. Or you know, once you have your magic doctor do his thing.”

My tail stood up in alarm. “My what was damaged!?!”

“Brainstem,” Righteous repeated. “Oh! Yes, here.”

One of his arms handed me a small silver medal with a blue ribbon. The medal had been fashioned from a large shark’s tooth, set in a silver backplate. The silver had been engraved with what I believed read ‘For Badassery Beyond Credulity in the Face of Probability’.

“What’s this for?” I asked curiously. “Oh! That’s.. That’s the tooth, isn't it?”

“Yep! You should keep that. I couldn’t help but make it into a literal badge of honor. It’s magnetic,” he elaborated.

I gingerly took the metal with my left hoof and experimentally stuck it to one of the straps running over my barrel. The medal pinned in place nicely. Meh, why not? I could humor him for a little while.

He was being a gentlecolt about this entire accident after all. I had to no reason to be rude.

“Thank you… May I ask how you plan to take me to Shorefall? It’s been more than a few days I suspect. Everypony is definitely worried about me,” I said as I realized how long I had to have been out of contact for.

My messenger gem was at the bottom of the sea after all. Along with the watch Sky gave me. I had no means of contacting anypony at all!

Ponyfeathers! I’d lost the hazard suit too! Sky was going to positively kill me! … Well, metaphorically.

“Yep! She’s on her way down too. Should be five more minutes,” Righteous replied cheerfully.

“Uh, she?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion.

“Sophia, one of my MBTs. I named her after my late captain when I did some retooling last galactic month,” Righteous answered as the top of the pod hissed, sliding to one side, revealing it to be a door. “Head to the beach south of the pod. I’m afraid I can't go with you, but I’m driving the MBT too, so I’ll be there when she lands. Just hop on in, point to the spot on the map, and I’ll drive us on over.”

“Um, drive? We’re on an island. We need to go over the ocean,” I deadpanned.

“Really? Let me just check my satmap…” Righteous mused before a large projection of the globe flashed into existence in front of me. “Oh, yeah. It’s an island. Well, point out where we need to go for me, will you?”

I nodded and searched the map for the large lake. I’d memorized what it looked like on a map in case I’d lost mine. I didn’t think that would turn out to have been such a prudent decision.

“There it is,” I said tapping the map. “See? Across at the least a hundred kilometers of ocean. You should send an aircraft or a boat. … How are you able to do that anyways?”

“I’m a warship. Built for screening capital ships and deploying a platoon of special forces. I’ve got plenty of toys to loan you. Now get to the beach, we’ll be fine,” Righteous promised, switching off the projection.

“Well, if you insist… Of course if you are a space ship, couldn’t you just fly down here and-” I paused, blinking the shock from my eyes as I realized I was standing at a ninety-degree angle to the ground. “Ummm… Standing how!?”

“Artificial gravity. Great thing for medical pods. Keeps everything moving ‘down’ no matter how she lands. It's okay, just step out, I'm extending the field for you. Just walk,” Righteous promised.

I tentatively stepped with my organic hoof, lightly touching that felt like I was trying to walk up a wall…

“Um… how about you just turn it off, please?” I asked, ears drooping hesitantly.

“Sure,” he said in an understanding voice.

Immediately I felt myself lurch towards the ground. Four of Righteous arms grabbed me around my middle, preventing me from falling on my face and gently set me on the ground.

“There you are, Miss Rarity,” he said politely. “Three minutes till landfall. Do look up, Sophia is a little big and VERY heavy.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Righteous.”

“You can call me Rye, or Dig,” Righteous offered. “If you’d like.”

“Perhaps later, Um, south, right?” I asked.

“Yes, that way,” Righteous confirmed pointing with one arm through the hatch.

Turning in the indicated direction I began my walk through the light jungle. I did my best to block out the short trip. Everywhere I looked I could see HUNDREDS of swarming insects running over the ground, the trees, the ferns around the trees… How did ponies live in these places!?

It wasn’t that bugs are icky, it was that these bugs could be the ones which can eat an adult pony within five seconds of swarming over them!

Oh, sweet Celestia! I had NO IDEA what those particular ants looked like! And I could see ants EVERYWHERE!

Feeling panic welling in my chest I sprinted forwards, crashing through the brush at a reckless pace. There was no way in Tartarus I would be eaten alive TWICE in the same week.

I exploded from the underbrush onto a white sandy beach, tripping as my new leg bit more deeply into the sand than I thought, and rolling twice before stopping.

“Ow…” I grumbled to myself as I stood up and spat out a mouthful of sand.

Great! Now I was going to be cleaning sand out of my mane for HOURS!

…

Oh yeah. My mane is a hologram now. Well, there was an unexpected perk to this insanity!

Come to think of it, now that I was alone and had no reason to present myself in a strong and dignified manner I should do my best to get all of the built up fear out of my system…

I took a single deep breath, let it out, and proceed with a nice little modified stationary panic. “I’m a cyborg! Stranded on an island, with a possibly crazy but nice AI! Everypony I know probably thinks I’m dead! Ahhhhhh! I may be stuck here forever!” I screamed, reaching up to ‘tear’ at my mane.

Was that enough? I paused to consider my feelings, checking to see if it was all fine and well. No. Not quite.

“Ahhhhhhh! Luna above, everything is horrible!” I continued. “WHY ME!?”

Okay, now that felt better. Now I could calmly and rationally approach the rest of this situation and-

“Uaahh- Eh, no. No I’m okay. I’m all set,” I decided letting one last deep breath out.

Doing my best to sit in a confident, yet dignified, manner I waited for Righteous’ MBT to arrive. Whatever that might be. With any luck, I could see it coming long before I would be in danger of-

A loud roar overhead caught my attention. Eyes widening with fight I looked upwards, directly into the bright red flames of a descending object! I quickly scrambled out of the way as it slowly moved down towards the beach on its four rocket motors while doing an excellent impression of a sandblaster.

Squinting through the mini sandstorm as the the thing descended, I discovered that an MBT was a tank. It probably stood for Massive Bucking Tank. In fact, that’s what it stood for. I don’t care what Righteous said later!

Even while it was in the air I could tell that it was nearly forty ponies long, fifteen wide and perhaps ten ponies tall. Or in other words, a Massive Bucking Tank.

The tank touched down, a kajillion tons of blued steel simply landing with the impact of a feather. It had six tracks, three separate tracks making rows on either side, giving the tank’s body a trapezoidal shape, with its huge twin barreled turret perched in the center like a squashed diamond.

M98A3 Behemoth Superheavy Railgun Tank by Dusky-06 - Used with premission

I stood gawking at the huge vehicle for some time, snapping out of the light shock at seeing a military vehicle which looked almost good by a hatch opening at the Tank’s rear, forming a boarding ramp as it opened up.

“Miss Rarity? Are you ready to depart?” Righteous voice called from the hatch.

“I-I um, y-yes!” I stammered, trotting around the tanks’ side and moving up into the hatch, looking around somewhat timidly. “I um, I didn’t expect, well, this!”

“I didn’t land too hard did I? I tried not to make too big of a thump. I’ve knocked people off their feet before. You can drop these things a full half-kilometer and they're fine,” Righteous commented as the hatch closed behind me.

The interior was… Spartan. Bare steel. No decoration. Just two large bench seats on either side of the tank’s entrance. Presumably for soldiers to sit. A pair of tall double doors on the opposite side of the ‘sitting room’ from me slid open, revealing a large control room with seating for six.

At the very front of the control room, a large viewscreen sprang to life, lighting up with a view of the beach and the sand in front of the MBT, along with a dozen different HUD elements going over all kinds of things I honestly didn’t understand.

But that wasn’t the only thing to appear.

The air a short distance away from me flickered and shimmered as a hologram took shape. In a blink, a pony-sized bronze scaled dragon appeared. It took me a moment to realize he was male, due to reptiles being, well, reptiles, but also due to him being very cute. Honestly, his shape was fairly feminine, sleek, streamlined, and yet still curvy. But it also possessed many more masculine characteristics such as, well-toned muscles, especially the powerful wings and thick tail, and his kind yet firm eyes.

Not bad, all things considered. But he would look better in copper with gold lines between the scales.

The Dragon smiled at me happily.

“Hello, again, Miss Rarity! Sophia has enough power to run my avatar, I hope you don’t mind,” Righteous asked happily.

“No! Not at all,” I answered honestly. “You look quite nice.”

“Thanks! I spent a LOT of time on this one. Too bad there’s no hardlight projectors in this thing. I even have tissue firmness worked out so it feels organic. Or so I think, it’s too bad you can't check for me… I um, I coded this after my hull was empty. Anyways, ready to depart?” Righteous asked, swishing his tail eagerly. “I’m REALLY looking forwards to doing something.”

“W-well yes, I am,” I agreed. “But what is your plan? Drive across the bottom of the sea?”

That honestly seemed like a horrible plan…

“Humm?” Righteous asked tilting his head slightly before shaking it. “No, of course… Right! You’ve never been in one of these. Take a seat Miss, Rarity. Let me do my AGI thing.”

I nodded and looked at the seats. They were not shaped for a quadruped and looked extremely uncomfortable. “Um, I think I’ll stand, that doesn't look… Well, safe or comfortable to sit in,” I decided.

“That’s fine, a quad should be totally cool given the G-diffusion,” Righteous mused. “Now then! Loading waypoints…”

The screen flashed, a green line blinking into existence running down the beach and across the water over the horizon.

“Obstruction detected: Massive fucking body of water,” Righteous commented coyly. “Probability of mission hindrance… Zero percent! Initializing aquatic transit mode…”

The tank shook slightly under my hooves, prompting me to sit down, not quite trusting my new limbs fully yet. As I sat down a pleasant song began to play quietly from hidden speakers, making me think that Righteous was trying to show off a bit. Well, eight bit from the sound of things.

“Pontoons deployed! Tracks reconfigured for use in water. Transformed and ROLLING OUT!” Righteous finished as the tank began to move forward with a shockingly tiny jolt.

“You could have just said the tank can drive across water,” I said with a smile and shake of my head.

“Yes, but that’s less fun. I like fun. We’ll be there in… Eh, three hours or so. Wanna see if we can hydroplane this thing?” Righteous asked eagerly, a hopeful twinkle in his eyes as he leaned over me to look at my face, his own upside down.

“That, um, that seems… Dangerous,” I replied with a nervous smile. “How about we don’t?”

“Oh… Right! Organics can get hurt by being tossed around the interior. I’m sorry, I forgot,” Righteous apologized with a polite little bow.

Sitting down in front of me he flexed a foretalon, adding a checkerboard to the floor between us. “Checkers instead?” He asked hopefully before frowning sharply. “Oh no! Um, you wouldn’t know the game at all! I’m sorry.”

“I know how to play, we have checkers too,” I replied with a smile at his adorably exaggerated expressions. Were those intentional or did he just not know how a dragon’s expressions actually looked?

“I’d be happy to play with you, as long as we can keep talking. I have so many questions,” I added.

As did I. Too many to even make a mental list of at the moment.

“Oh good! And don't worry, I’ve also been looking forward to having many conversations too. Checkers is just an old favourite game of mine and playing against the computer is boring when you are the computer,” Righteous laughed. Sadly.

I frowned sadly. Poor lonely thing! I needed to introduce the poor dear to Pinkie when we got back. He could use a party.

“So um, what is powering my ‘prosthetics’?” I asked to keep the conversation rolling as he set up the board.

“Nothing fancy. Just a few Radioisotope Betavoltaic Generators,” he remarked casually. “I scavenged them from a battle rifle’s magazine.”

“Okay, and um, those are… What exactly?” I prompted with a polite cough.

“Oh! Uh, nuclear batteries, strontium-ninety based. Hehe, or trottium-ninety in your case,” he answered while ‘manually’ setting the board up.

“I’m nuclear powered!?!” I yelped, jumping upright in an almost blind panic.

“Yeah. Just like basically everything else you can't fit a Dark Energy reactor into. Settle down, you’re fine. It’s just strontium, you could eat that stuff and be fine,” Righteous said rolling his eyes. “Heck, it’s not even chain reacting. We’re just using beta decay here. That stuff’s been used to power medical implants since literally the first one ever invented. You’re fine. Hell, you’ve actually got LESS cancer risk now.”

“I could explode!” I hissed urgently giving him my best ‘how could you!?’ glare.

“Uh. No. No you can not,” Righteous said slowly. “These batteries use a tiny amount of a harmless to organic life form of radiation, in this case, the beta decay from some strontium. It’s sandwiched between six betavoltaic cells which transform the beta radiation into electrical current. That’s not remotely how nuclear explosives work. You couldn’t make a bomb out of one of those batteries with all of the time and money in the universe.”

“Are you certain?” I asked with a worried frown.

“Yes! I wouldn’t have put something in you if it could just explode! That’s fucking evil,” Righteous exclaimed incredulously. “Come on, you should be able to see I’m not that kind of dragon by now… Red or black?”

“What?” I blinked.

“For the game. Red, or black?” he asked again.

“Black please,” I asked, still frowning. “And I’m perfectly safe with these… Things inside me?”

“Yeah. So were the people using the ones made back in the twentieth century with shitty cave man technology. There’s more radiation coming from the average bannana than those batteries. You’re fine. Actually, you get to say you’re a nuclear powered cyborg unicorn! So you’re better than fine, you’re awesome,” Righteous giggled. “Anyways, your move, Miss Rarity.”

I shook my head slowly and pushed one of the checkers forwards. I may be stuck in a box with a hyperactive ‘dragon’, but at least I couldn’t just explode...

8 - Fact Checking (Dash/Twilight Quest Part 1)

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Twilight - 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

EUP Airspace Command, Canterlot - Equestria

I had the authorization to be here ever since I’d become a princess, but I hadn’t ever even thought about coming here. Maybe that was a little bit stupid of me. I was a princess, I should at least know what our military bases are like, right?

I shook my head slowly. When this whole thing was done, I was going to tour each base within a hundred kilometers of Ponyville.

I needed to be more up to speed about what kind of resources were at my disposal in emergencies. For example, the EUP Airspace Command, conveniently located in a large cave just beneath Canterlot’s support structure, had no less than six fire suppression airships on standby at all times.

Rarity had loved the base's dock’s design. The whole thing was carved out of the crystal caves, and used the natural crystal spires to form the walkways and support pillars, while the bare stone formed a massively tall arching roof. Naturally everything had been properly decorated by pony standards. You can’t just leave a huge wall blank, or support pillars uncarved. That’s just lazy.

The huge fort-like ship hanger also had a bunch of transport ships docked, as well as two large battleships. I honestly didn’t think we’d even have warships anywhere but the borders, but apparently Celestia was just a little bit paranoid after the Canterlot Invasion, and Luna has insisted mundane ‘fire support’ be available for the capital within three minutes.

That was a good idea in my opinion. Chrysalis may be dead, but who's to say some other changeling hive wouldn’t attack one day? Their sheer numbers make them more dangerous than anything less than a draconic Legion.

I shuddered at the thought of a thousand armored adult dragons ready for war. Guh. Why did I go to Drake? Even friendly dragons are terrifying in that large of a group!

“Are you alright, Twilight?” Celestia asked me worriedly from just over my left shoulder.

“Yes. My train of thought took me back to Drake. You didn’t warn me clearly enough about their legions,” I grumbled, still a little upset by that even these years later.

After all, I had wet myself in front of a foreign dignitary… That’s maximally embarrassing right there.

“I’m sorry. I know how scary it can be, I have prey instincts too,” Celestia reminded diplomatically. “It’s hard seeing that many apex predators at once. Nopony blames you.”

“I just hope Shy can deal with it better than I did,” I sighed, looking up at one of the four airships which were drifting off into the distance.

Fluttershy and Rarity had been given two stealth airships to use. The small, long, dart-shaped craft were almost completely undetectable once they cloaked. We had a need for speed, which meant Fluttershy would be flying over Shorefall, and Rarity would be flying to it. They had established a ‘no fly zone’ for Equestrian airships over their territory.

The two black ships shimmered, rippled and vanished as I watched. The advanced thaumaturgy rendering the crafts invisible even to my arcane senses. Not bad, not bad at all.

“She’ll be fine,” Celestia said decisively, the tip of her nose visible in the corner of my vision as she nodded. “If our universes are as parallel as they seem to be, her family switched places with the Blackbolt Family. Are you familiar with them?”

I searched my memory for a few moments, then shook my head no. “I can’t say that I am,” I answered truthfully.

“Nopony is. Not officially. Ask Caramel Bonbon sometime. She knows, and the official records were expunged,” Celestia said almost happily. “Suffice to say, Shy may be frightened of monsters, but they should also be frightened of her.”

Ah yes, the famous Equestrian Secret Service. I found it extremely annoying that not even I could know what they were doing, who they were, where they were… Then again, with how easy a simple invisibility charm makes spying on others, perhaps the paranoid conspiracy theorist levels of security were warranted.

“There’s also Fluttershy,” I said, changing the topic. “And Rarity too. What did we do to Shorefall? Why are they passively hostile towards us?”

“That’s a very old story. It’s also a very long story. In short, I failed to act in time during the Germane War and their palace was destroyed. They lost a good deal of irreplaceable national treasures. Including a room made from solid amber, which had been carefully moved four times throughout their people’s history, originating in their dynasty’s first castle beneath the sea,” Celestia lamented sadly. “While they no longer are mad enough to think about war, I doubt the wound will heal for another few hundred years.”

Jade cleared her throat politely. “Those ships will make it through without a problem, right?”

“They will. I had one hover over the Emerald hive for a week, and then asked them if they could see it, or had seen it. They had not, but were able to find it once I told them it was there by spotting a ‘gap’ in the air currents. Amber Glass designed an excellent stealth system,” Celestia proclaimed with pride. “Their surprise was a welcome relief. I’m glad to have outpaced them in one area.”

“It’s not a competition,” I giggled, shaking my head with a smile. “They are basically a Dutchy of Equestria, and Luna is personal friends with two of their major leaders.”

“Yes, but they are not the only people to have discovered precursor ruins,” Celestia said to herself. “It’s not them I’m glad to fool. It’s their technology being beatable which pleases me. Hypothetically, what happens if one day the Kind of Hound discovers some of their ruins? Or the Saddle Arabian Caliphate? Do you think they would decide to use their new technology for industry?”

I frowned and shook my head. “Um, well, yes. Good point. Maybe we should strengthen diplomatic ties with those nations. I’m certain that-”

“I was going to ask you to do something about Hound this month, actually,” Celestia interrupted. “Unfortunately, this takes priority… And I doubt you would accept the duties. Though come to think of it, your Counterpart might be happy with that particular proposal…”

I blinked, turning to look at Celestia, quite confused. As I turned I saw her look at Jade and wink. Jade immediately blushed, the white glow coming from her cheeks just a bright as any candle flame.

“Hehehehe! R-really?” Jade giggled, a her face splitting in an ear to ear grin.

“Every thought of it,” Celestia replied with a playful smile.

“Hey! Telepathy is unfair!” I protested, lips pulling back into an irritated pout. “Especially when you’re talking about me while standing next to me!”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Yes, but I don’t want you distracted for your part in the upcoming mission,” she explained diplomatically, giving me a short nod.

I was having NONE of that.

Giving Celestia my best stink-eye I demanded, “Tell me what it is. The longer I can think about it, the better decision I can make. I’ve got a whole world to search for somepony. I’ll have down time!”

Celestia sighed and shook her head slowly. “Alright… If you insist,” she began. “On one condition, we discuss this seriously when you return and the Elements are repaired. Agreed?”

I frowned, then nodded. Just how serious was this? “Agreed.”

“King Bull’s youngest daughter fancies you, Twilight. So much so that he actually sent a proposal for an arranged marriage,” Celestia answered.

I felt one eyebrow raise of it’s own accord while my eyes dilated to different positions. “I, but- wh- I… WHY!?” I demanded.

Granted, mares were nice, but that’s not okay to do! The book had been very very clear on what a correct relationship is, and since stallions were also nice-

“Flash knows he’s passing on soon, I don’t know if you’d be willing to marry a non-pony, let alone a female, but you should at least court her. You could be friends if nothing else, and that would go a long ways to easing our two nations… Nonexistent friendship,” Celestia soothed, giving me an understanding smile. “But that’s not a problem for now, we can-”

“I just don’t get it. According to Rigid Values’ Manual for Proper Adult Relationships, same sex pairings will always experience heightened misery due to failing to fulfill the basic instinctive gender roles within a relationship. Why would anyone choose to date someone of the same sex?” I asked outloud accidently, eeping immediately as I realised I’d spoken those thoughts allowed.

Celestia blinked grinned then laughed, shaking her head in genuine amusement.

I took a step back, confusion building up as I watched her react as if I’d just told a well thought out joke.

“Thanks, Twilight. I needed that. How do you even know about that trash? I could have sworn I successfully had all copies burned decades before you were born. Did you find the destruction order?” Celestia asked curiously.

“W-wait, you had them destroyed?” I asked, ears raising in alarm. “WHY!?”

“I- what do you mean why?” Celestia asked, eyes flicking wide open in genuine surprise. “Because Rigid Values wrote pseudo-scientific propaganda designed to force social change towards a disharmonious state? Worded specificly to sound like real science to younger pon- Oh buck, you actually read that book!”

Celestia groaned, eyes shutting tightly in an immediate grimace, both forehooves reaching up to rub her temples gently.

“Um… Yes?” I answered, taking a step back, suddenly eleven years old again, recoiling from my teacher’s ‘anger at a failure.

Celestia reached out and grabbed me by both of my shoulders, and looked me directly in the eyes. “Twilight Sparkle, I have failed you. You told me you already knew about relationships when I proposed teaching you sex ed. I believed since you were the most academic filly I’ve ever known that you had found the appropriate materials and educated yourself properly. That was a mistake! Not your mistake, but mine.

“Every last word of that text is wrong. All of it. I know that must be hard to believe after fifty years, but that text is not true. Not one page of it. It’s propaganda written by a member of a Stallions First cult and was intended to make a generation of mares easy to subjugate. Hence, why I burned it. It is not a scientific text. It was not peer reviewed. Do you understand?”

“But, but that can’t be!” I protested, shaking my head roughly. “He was right! You do pick what sex you like!”

Jade facehooved hard enough for the gesture to echo off the hanger’s walls. “Twilight! I- You…” She sputtered. “You’re bi! Anyling you’ve ever talked to can taste that in our emotional signature. You have a choice because you like both. Many ponies don’t get that choice. You are ‘special’ in that respect.”

“This… This is a long, long rabbit hole,” Celestia groaned, sitting down and shaking her head in disgust. “Twilight, I should NOT have mentioned anything about this until AFTER the crisis because you and I need to have one more proper lesson. Now I know why you wouldn’t kiss Flash for the wedding photo… Ugh! The minute this is all over, you and I are going to sit down, and I am going to show you why everything in that garbage book is wrong, and we will go over everything properly. Do you understand?”

I felt my ears droop during her rant. I hated causing her any distress and I could see that I had but… What did I do wrong?

“N-no,” I answered. “I don’t get what I’ve done wrong.”

“Nothing. You did nothing wrong. I did something wrong,” Celestia groaned before sighing and standing back up. “I didn’t check on what you were teaching yourself and as a result you hurt yourself. That’s fine. We can fix it, and we will fix it.

“But for now… We have a crisis on our hooves. Twilight, you’re a wonderfully smart mare. I know this is a painful moment for you, I can see it in your eyes. I also know that you can focus better than anypony I’ve ever known. I want you to take this whole conversation, put a pin in it, and not even think about it again until this is all over. Focus on finding Megan, and nothing else. Understood?”

I bit my lip, and nodded. “I… I think so.”

“Can you do it?” Celestia asked looking me in the eyes with a steely seriousness I’d never known she even possessed.

This was bad. Really bad. She needed to be able to count on me. And this whole mess had me really emotionally distressed…

I took a deep breath, brought my right foreleg to my chest, and exhaled, extending my foreleg slowly with the breath.

I could do this. Focus on what was important. My possible mistake could wait for later.

I took a deep breath, brought my right foreleg to my chest, and exhaled, extending my foreleg slowly with the breath.

What to focus on? The Elements were broken, something had to have been the cause of that. But what?

No! Not that, the mission. Focus on the mission, Twilight!

I took a deep breath, brought my right foreleg to my chest, and exhaled, extending my foreleg slowly with the breath.

Come to think of it, I had no guarantee that magic would work on the other side of the moongate.

“Um, Celestia,” I asked with a concerned frown. “It may be possible that magic won't work in Megan’s world, you know, like how it wasn't working in the mirror world pirior to my, um… You know. Messing with the portal.

“We should pack enchanted and mundane equipment to help us incase our spells can do nothing. It also may be a good idea to bring clothing, because I’m fairly certain that the portal is what gave me clothing last time. It would also be a good idea to pack some gold, it may also be valuable to those who live on the other side and we may need to buy items or information.”

“An excellent Idea, Twilight, I’ll add some money and mundane gear to your mission packs,” Celestia said with a relieved smile.

“How the buck did you just do that!?” Jade asked, her mouth agape. “You just shut down your whole limbic system, restarted it, and focused on something else!”

I blushed and pawed the floor beneath me. “I um, well my brother says I’m like a god of logic…”

Celestia laughed. “Very true. Twilight is a very special mare, miss Jade. She is a lot like if Starswirl and Clover were smooshed into one pony,” Celestia said with a wistful sigh, clearly remembering her past.

I wish I had those memories. It would be so neat to see Equestria’s two greatest mages in person!

Jade’s eyes widened oddly. “Oh! That’s right,” she exclaimed rapidly. “Twilight! I need to tell you something extremely impor-”

“Nope! That’s enough important segways for one day,” I said, raising a hoof in the ‘stop it’ gesture. “We’re finding Megan, then we can deal with other thing. Celestia, did you already include respirator charms? They may have a different Atmosphere. Lyra’s twin said her home had a different atmosphere.”

I wasn’t going to let this mission fail. One mistake was too many to have at one time.

Rainbow Dash- 18th of Megan, 17 EoH

The Broken Lands - The Outbuck

Everypony always asks me what it’s like to see the land blur and shoot past like a rocket. That’s not how it works. Not for me.

Sure, things blur a little bit as I pick up speed, but as soon as I start to trail, everything slows down. It’s less like I’m going fast, and more like everything else is super slow. I can watch other pegasi wings slowly move, see each feather individually cycling between upstroke and downstroke positions.

And I just glide right past them, like they were standing still.

I once even spent a little bit looking at a forest fire and watching how the flames moved. They don’t just flicker and twitch, they slide and ripple and flow, just like water! I could easily put my hoof on the flames and trace them as they moved, and then just move away before the fire could even think about burning me.

It was totally awesome!

Unlike today. Everything about today was the worst. The absolute bucking worst!

Stupid Celestia, making me get this dumb stone before finding AJ… I had nothing against the robot Fluttershy but did everypony else seriously think that would work? Yeah right...

I may be a pegasus, well, half pegasus, but I still don't have unicorn magic. Even I know that magic is extremely picky about what it lets fly. We NEEDED AJ. Thank goodness I could get this done inside an hour tops.

Then I could find her. Who knew what horrible things could be happening. AJ wasn’t as bad as she used to be! She’d gotten way more flexible over the years. She wouldn’t just run off because she placed second or some dumb horse apples like that again. I’d helped her grow.

Just like she’d helped me.

I wasn’t half as arrogant as I used to be. My ego had deflated a little bit. I had the love and attention I’d always needed. AJ was there to give it to me. I owed her big for that.

She wanted to know my family, ironic, since without her I would never have actually gone looking for them. It was thanks to her that I could put my pride away and be not only comfortable being around, but also happy to learn from someone even better than me.

Who knew what could be happening to her!

A rogue changeling queen could be trying to take Chrysalis title of ‘Evilest Bitch in the Universe’ and have her stuffed full of eggs as a living incubator! Sombra could have returned and brainwashed her to slowly pull herself apart one muscle fiber at a time to the tune of Ode to Joy.

I shudder mid air, almost losing altitude from the reflexive shiver.

Why the buck did I read that book on the history of the Crystal Empire!? I could NOT afford to think about all the horrible things happening to AJ right now. I would so crash and burn and at this speed I would be out for DAYS.

Anything else brain, think of anything else!

I walked down the hallway, coming back from Sugarcube Corner's bathroom. Pinkie had thrown a surprisingly quiet party to introduce everypony to her new coltfriend. Sky was okay I guess. I wasn’t really into brown stallions, but meh, whatever throbs her puss.

He had great wings though.

As I got a few centimeters from the dining room the second bit of a conversation reached my ears.

“Well of course Dash is fast,” Sky said in a ‘no shit’ voice. “She’s got that whole ‘Speed Force’ thing going for her. You know, trails at top speed, lightning bolt ‘logo’, makes right angle turns without shedding veloc-”

Speed Force, a stupid name, but that was my mom’s name! That’s the only thing my dad knew about her. He couldn’t even remember what she looked like. They’d hooked up ONCE, both drunk. HE TOTALLY KNEW MY MOM!

I blazed across the room, almost tackling Sky as I grabbed him by the shoulders. “That’s my mom’s name! Tell me every bucking thing you know about her!” I demanded urgently, eyes burning intensely.

“Woah! Shit! Back the fuck off!” Sky protested, trying to wiggle free of my grip. “I was making a joke! It’s an old comic book thing. Not even a pony comic. The Changelings I live with have a huge hoard of old ass media. It’s just a coincidence! … Dammit, I assumed no one was going to get that joke!”

Changeling… Oh Celestia! My eyes widened in shock. My mom could have been a changeling!

“I don’t care! Tell me everything!” I insisted even more urgently.

Pinkie smiled happily, pronking past my left side. “Yay! Dashie’s getting along with Triggie! Dashie’s getting along with Triggie! Dashie’s getting along with Triggie!”

Heh. Yeah, figures that’s where my brain would go. Man eight years is such a long time!

I still remember his face when it turned out it really wasn’t a coincide-

Oh crap! I just flew over a town!

I pulled an immelcolt turn, eyes narrowing in concentration as I scanned the tiny ass, literally nothing but old brownish white tent, not really a town more like a hamlet… Settlement?

Nomad village? What the buck did you call like, twelve big house-sized tents atop a rocky scrubland hill with no landscaping whatsoever?

It couldn’t be a bandit camp, because it had no defenses, or guards, or even a sign reading ‘Bandit lair. Buck off.’ Just tents, some laundry lines of all things, and a few ponies going about their daily business.

My eyes locked onto one taller dark orange furred stallion. He looked like somepony who knew the place. And he had a stetson on. That made him better than anypony else here. Cuz AJ wore a stetson.

Bucking ponyfeathers, Dash! You pick the one pony here who resembles AJ…

I twisted my body, contorting my wings to pull myself to a total stop in that one instant. The stallion yelped, almost tripping as I seemed to just teleport into view with a rush of wind that blew his hat off.

“Sorry!” I apologise, racing over to grab his hat and set it back on his head. “I’m looking for a Starstone. Do you know where those are? And what they are? And also how I can get to where they are?”

Celestia had told me all of that but I kinda had been too pissed off to listen to her…

“Um- Y-yeah!” The stallion stammered in a thick Oatbuck accent, shaking the shock of my appearance out of his eyes. “You wanta togoo just a hair left of north from ‘ere. It’sa big valley, ‘bout three day’s walk from here. You'll know you're there when you see ether the bigass house carved into the crater rim at the far en of the vally, or one o’ them monks that live there. I don't know what the stones are, but that's where they are, the monks guard them.”

“Thanks, dude!” I replied turning north and taking off again at my full speed, the sharp crack of my sonicboom thundering through the air three heartbeats later.

Good, I hadn’t accidently deafened everypony in that town. Good.

Especially since he looked just like a stallion version of AJ. Too bad she was girls only! It would be AWESOME to get him and AJ together for some-

NO! Don’t think about her! Mission, think about the mission!

Buck I can’t not think about her! Anything else, please brain! Anythin-

The tacky thing strapped to my barrel itched like crazy. It hadn’t itched before Sky switched it on, but it did now. The stupid thing was making some crazy weird electric fields. If I made them on a big scale in the air I’d probably make a ball lightning storm.

“Okay,” Sky said slowly. “That’s about it. If this works, no doubt about it, you channel Speed Force.”

“I still don’t get it…” I mumbled to myself.

“Well, in theory, everything up until now could technically be done with Twilight level pegasus magic. You and I believe differently, but this will prove it,” Sky explained with a weary sigh. “The Tachyon Enhancer is built to function as close as I could get to how it’s described in the fiction. If it works, it’s because you had speed force energy that could be absorbed by it to function.

“Which could also in theory mean your mom really was from another universe where all of the fiction is real. Which should exist, because multiverse theory.”

“No,” I said, rolling my eyes at the dumbest smart pony alive. "Why can't I fly?"

"Because, you already travel at hypersonic speeds while flying,” Sky elaborated. “I'm afraid if we might reach escape velocity with this thing going. And seeing as how your suit is not rated for zero atmosphere travel and attitude control... It would be best if you stuck to the ground."

Did he really think I could RUN that fast? I was barely faster than Applejack-

Well buck you too brain! We’re getting drunk sometime in the future, just because of that. You dick!

"But what if I reach that speed galloping?" I asked with a worried grimace.

"Won't matter, you could reach the speed of light, and you'd still stick to the ground. That's just how the speed force works. You know, if this is for reals. If not, nothing happens. So it’s cool,” Sky said as he bent down to check a few bits on the Tachyon emitter thingie.

“Yeah okay, go-”

Go? He said go right? I broke into a run, pushing myself as hard as I could go, needing to go faster, fast as possible, gotta make the stupid thing work!

Sky ran up alongside me, then fell behind, then pulled alongside me, wings flapping furiously to-

Holy buck! I was running faster than a reasonably quick Pegasi could fly! How in the flying-

The world stopped moving. Everything froze in place. I could see Sky’s surprised but delighted face as if it were a photograph. What the hay was going on!?

I raced over to Sky, grabbing him by a shoulder to ask what was happening. Maybe if I touched him things would start moving again! Or maybe at least he would-

Sky twitched the second I touched him, immediately able to move while everything else stood completely still in the odd blue tinted world.

“Woah shit!” Sky yelped as soon as I’d defrozen him. “You’re really-”

Everything exploded in a ball of bright blue electric light. The desert around the Phoenix turned into a sterile looking white and chrome sciency-looking place.

“OH CRAP!” Sky yelped fearfully.

Heh, yeah, an appropriate reaction to breaking the dimensional barrier.

Good thing he worked out that portal. Ripping a hole in the fabric of the universe through pure speed and super science mumbo jumbo couldn’t be good for the world. I definitely couldn’t visit my uncle as often as I did.

Too bad I only got to meet mom once… Then again she was REALLY hard to catch up to. I think she let me. I mean, i’m fast but I’m not a multiversal spirit of speed. Yet.

Two exceptionally large mountains suddenly filled my view. They rose from the jagged, smashed-in-pie-crust-like ground below, all the way up to the natural clouds which obscured their peeks.

Like something out of a Daring Doo novel. Daring Doo and the Mountains of Eternity, actually. That’s book fifteen.

Come to think of it… It was! Ha! I’d found the mountains used for the cover picture! Sweet!

My eyes roamed over the mountainsides as I flew through the valley. They were pretty much the same as the rest of The Broken Lands, but less jagged. Brown and green scrub brush running through big outcroppings of rocks and a few scattered patches of big ass trees.

I was fairly certain that they were hayifiknow trees. I could tell by the unknown shape.

A flash of white caught my attention. Below me, sitting with rear legs crossed atop a rock, a pegasus! No a unicorn? No definitely a pegasus. She was super white, like, REALLY white. Fresh snow white. Maybe slightly more white than Azur, which I think physics wasn’t quite okay with.

Thankfully her super whiteness was broken up by a long flowing reddish brown mane and tail, and also a loose flowing dark yellow-gray and muted orange cloth wrap. Not quite a robe, more like a full body outfit made from a few sashes that flowed together like a robe.

I could barely make out her cutiemark through a crack in the sash-robe. I was pretty certain that it was a quill and inkpot.

Meditating, robe, special talent involving writing. Yep, that’s a monk. Awesome!

I banked left and spiraled down, taking care to slow down in air this time so as not to appear out of bucking nowhere. I wasn’t sure if these monks were kung-fu monks, but I decided to play it safe. Just incase they had some kind of actually undodgeable teeth remover attack they taught at her temple.

The monk didn’t even open her eyes as I reached ground level and landed a few steps from her on the same rocky outcrop. She had to know I was here, anypony would have heard that landing thump. I’d made sure to just drop so she’d know!

Clearing my throat to announce my presence again I decided to just start talking. “Hey, uh, miss Monk?” I greeted awkwardly. “This is kind of an emergency. I really, really need a Starstone. Can you tell me where to find one, also what they look like. I Um, I kinda didn’t listen to the person who asked me to get one too well and, well, you know how-”

“Sit, please,” the monk asked with an eerily beautiful voice.

My eyes widened fearfully. What the buck!? That was creepy as hell! Nopony sounds like that unless it’s in a movie or radio drama.

“Um, okay,” I said taking a seat as quickly as I could.

I blinked, face scrunching. What the buck did I do that for!? Sheesh a mare has a slightly startling voice and you just do what she says? Booo! That’s not you Dash!

I mean it’s not like she’s AJ or anything.

Ugh! Dammit brain. Stop it! Need to focus on- No, wait, buck this.

“Uh, ma’am, please this is really really important. Like, entire nation in danger important,” I pleaded, wishing the mare would open her eyes so I could give her my best Sweetie Belle sadface impression.

That normally got things wrapped up quickly.

“Shhh,” the monk chided, continuing to just bucking sit there like a god damn dickwaffle!

I felt my mouth begin to pinch as my frustration took shape. Who the buck was this mare!? Lives could be lost any bucking minute and this bucking asshole wouldn’t spare two seconds to point to a motehrbucking rock!?!

“You could just, you know, POINT to one! They are all over here, right?” I demanded, wings starting to twitch irritably.

“Why such urgency?” The monk asked quietly, remaining completely unmoving.

I felt a blood vessel in my eye pop. “I told you! A whole nation is in danger! Hundreds of millions of ponies, and dragons, and griffons, and all kinds of other people could all be in grave danger at any moment unless I can bring back one of your Starstones,” I snapped, wings flaring angrily. “That’s sort of you know, as ‘urgent’ as things get!”

“Seeking the safety of others is an unending, though noble task,” the monk said cryptically.

I blinked, lips pulling into a frown. “What?” I asked tilting my head only seconds away to asking what she’d just smoked this morning before it clicked. “OH! Is this like some kind of worthiness test? Can we do it quickly? Please? Like, the short short version?”

“The journey to Equestria will take you many days, there is no reason to end my meditation early. You could wait quietly while I finished the evening’s solitude, and arrive no later than you otherwise would have,” the monk said, clearly irritable despite not sounding remotely irritated.

Or opening her motherbucking eyes.

“Well, if you’d open your eyes you could see that I’m Rainbow Dash, the fastest mare alive!” I informed with another twitch of my eye. “I’ll be home inside of ten minutes of leaving, and I have to bring this back before looking for my missing wife. Celestia’s orders. So she has time to get a search party together. Dumb, but whatever…”

The monk sighed and opened her eyes. Her fucking gorgeous blue eyes. What the buck!? Was this like, the temple of supermodels or some crap?!

“That’s the real reason for your urgency. Your heart is screaming. Why do you seek to hide behind half-truths? Is not honesty what you hold dear?” She asked.

“No, I’m loyalty. Which is why I’m obeying an order instead of ripping the everfree up with my bare hooves tree by tree until I find whatever has my wife and punch it at relativistic speeds!” I objected.

“Yes, you are the Element of Loyalty,” the monk agreed. “Applejack is the Element of Honesty, hence, she is what you hold dear. You would think that by living so close, some of her traits would be given to you.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, so we’re famous. I can understand how you know our names and relationship status,” I said slowly to the most infuriating mare alive. “My wife is missing, presumably captured by whatever horribleness has broken the Elements of Harmony. She’s probably being tortured. Right now. Badly.

“What’s faster to say? This entire several paragraph long winded explanation, or a short blurb? Oh and while we’re at it, what’s the right thing to do when someone's life is in danger? Help as swiftly as possible, or be a motherbucking asshole by blabbering about philosophical nonsense!?”

“I can see that your love for her is important to you,” the monk said with a short nod. “Why?”

I think my eyes literally bugged out of my head at that one. “What?” I asked, jaw hanging slack.

“Why is love so important to you, that you allow yourself to be in this much pain because of it?” The monk asked.

“Allow!? ALLOW?!” I stapped, rage completely unleashing itself at that densely compressed block of stupid in dumb robes. “What kind of motherbucking dreck covered featherbrained idiot are you!? Maybe you’ve got the self control born of a lifetime of celibacy and, I dont bucking know, whatever the buck monks do for fun, where you can just switch off your heart and become an engine of perfect logic like Twilight after taking a sleeping potion.

“Maybe that’s you, but every other bucking pony on this planet can’t do that. Are you so far removed from everypony that you don't’ understand that most of us ARE our emotions? You take all of my emotions away from me and all I am is a fast mare who is blue. Seriously, what kind of vows do they make you take where you can’t understand that!? How long have you lived here, forever? Have you like, never met any non-monk, ever?

“Of course love hurts! Celestia's motherbucking flanks, it hurts worse than anything else ever could hope to hurt you. But it’s also the best damn thing in the world. It’s only the one thing that can make the world go from horrible to great! My whole life I had a need for love that I tried to fill by being adored by everypony, but all I really needed was one pony’s love to feel appreciated and worth a buck. Of course losing that makes you feel horrible. What kind of life do you lead where you haven’t ever felt love’s punches or hugs?”

I turned my back on the mare, thoroughly disgusted with that disgusting, immoral, waste of space. I’d find anypony else to help me. Or maybe just fly a buckload of random rocks back to Celestia and ask her which one was the Starstone. Buck dealing with this… This… UGH!

“Thank you,” the monk said, her voice now oddly kind sounding. “You’ve shown me what I needed to see here.”

I blinked and turned around, chest still heaving from my angry rant. “The BUCK are you talking about?” I demanded, glaring at her angrily.

“You are right. I did not know how ponies and their emotions interact. Now I do, thank you. You have helped a great deal,” the monk elaborated with a kind smile. “I am sorry for angering you, but I knew I would get the most suitable answer from you when you were too angry to do anything other than speak plainly. As for your Starstone…”

The mare paused and looked up into the evening sky. “Long ago,” she continued. “Those who ruled this land before ponies flew above the heavens in chariots of iron. A great foe slew them in but one month, driving them to extinction. A foe which may at last be close to being unmasked.

“Long after their end came, a star fell from the heavens, and knocked one of their long abandoned chariots from the sky. The star melded with the chariot as they fell, and when they struck the ground, they smashed the land into that which you see it before you. Even now, it’s shattered remains preserve the shape of this broken landscape, trying to fix that which no longer exists.

“You are not looking for stone, Rainbow Dash. You are looking for metal. Dig a leg’s length into the earth, and you will find a Starstone. When you return home, you will find Applejack. I promise.”

For buck’s sake! Was that so mtoherbucking hard to bucking say!?!

“Thank-” I started to say only to freeze midword, ears standing completely vertical in alarm.

She’d just vanished! No poof of magic. No moment to activate a magical item. Just bucking gone!

“AHHH!” Yelped, leaping backwards in fright.

My heart began to race. What in tartarus had I been talking to? I didn’t even blink, and even if I did I have enhanced perception. That THING just VANISHED. Like it deleted itself from the universe.

Oh right. Discord. Duh. The prick.

I sighed in relief and took a few steps up the mountainside towards the nearest patch of dirt. I guess he was just bored and took the opportunity to play a little mean spirited, nonsensical joke on me-

I froze mid step. Celestia had said Discord was stone again. The shockwave the Elements released petrified him again! It COULDN’T have been him!

What are you!?

For the love of Celestia, WHAT ARE YOU!?!

Buck it! No, get thing and run, never come back again, report unknown entity to the Princesses.

I sprinted to the patch of dirt at top speed and ripped up hoof fulls of dirt fast enough to make a nearly solid line of earth. I dug, and dug, and dug, ripping up half the large earthen patch. I had to get out of here, this want okay, this wasn’t okay this wasn't-

My right hoof smashed into something metallic, my shoe scraping along its surface and throwing a shower of sparks into my face. Snapping back into real speed as I sputtered, bits of steel dust having gotten into my mouth. Looking down into the now swimmingpool-like hole, I saw a small silver-blue lump of metal poking out of the dirt.

It was vaguely starshaped, with the points cupped back in one direction, a bit like a five pointed jellyfish. You could see how it had been shaped from a liquid blob by the air itself in every single last edge. I picked the hoof-sized lump of metal up, the ‘tip’ was smooth and round. No scratches, no dents. It was too hard to chip or scratch when hitting the ground after falling long enough for the metal to cool like this.

I had never seen any material like this before. Sure, I wasn’t a smith or an engineer, but it doesn't take a genius to see that something is at the very least exceptionally uncommon.

This was a Starstone.

I put the lump of metal into my left side saddlebag and flapped my wings, launching into the air at my top speed once again.

Stone acquired. Time to GTBO. Screw this valley of eldritch creatures that go bump in the motherbucking DAY!

My stomach gurgled angrily, protesting my having been moving at full speed this long. I winced, dropping a few feet out of the air as my wings cramped up. What the hay!? I’d eaten PLENTY before leaving. I should have had the calories to go full steam there and back ag-

The sun! The sun had been in the west. Now it was in the east! And Celestia had not moved it herself. The shadows didn’t slide along the ground. They just jumped from one point the other. Poof. Instant change. If It had been anything less than instant, I would have seen the movement.

Just like how that thing vanished!

Hungry. Recently eaten. Had not used that much fuel. Sun moving without Celestia. Shadows jumping…

My eyes widened in horror. Time had literally just dissolved into thin bucking air!

BUCK EVERYTHING! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!

I rocketed away from the valley as fast as I could, heart trying to hammer it’s way out of my ribcage. I was NEVER coming back here EVER again!

Twilight - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot - Equestria

It was time. The moon was at it’s zenith. The ancient arcane conditions had been met.

I watched as the moongate took shape, sliding up from the ground like a blue glowing knife plunging up through a sheet of paper. The gate was rectangular, no bigger than the average house’s door, and two dimensional. It’s bright blue light sent harsh shadows scattering around the Royal Garden’s meditation field.

While the gate was bright, the shadows would have been more appropriate for a welding torch. But I did not have time to ponder the oddity, we had a mission to finish.

“Ready, Jade?” I asked turning to look at my friend for support.

I must admit that I was nervous going through a primitive portal formed by simply turning a natural rift portable…

“I’m ready as I’ll ever be, Twi,” Jade replied, wings twitching nervously.

I frowned, reached out and grabbed her hoof as tightly as I could. “Here, this way we can’t be separated,” I said reassuringly.

“Good plan,” Jade replied with a relieved smile. “On three?”

“On three,” I agreed with a nod.

“THREE!” Celestia called urgently.

My ears lay flat with annoyance.

“Celestia… We’re going,” I grumbled.

“It’s perfectly safe, this is the exact same portal that Megan used. We’ve only moved it. Go! Don’t waste time!” She urged with extreme fear behind her words.

She knew something more was coming. I could tell. The fear behind her words and her insistence on fixing the Elements… She knew what was happening, and was keeping it from us. Again.

No. Not this time.

“I refuse to go until you tell me why we need the elements immediately!” I said as adamantly as I could manage.

Celestia’s worried eyes met my determined ones. This time, she blinked.

Celestia sighed, folding and unfolding her wings for a moment before whispering softly. “My dreams show the gates of tartarus opening.”

I blinked. “W-when?”

“Soon. No definite time, but soon. Hurry! The army can only do so much here… And say nothing. That goes for you too Jade. Creating a panic is the last thing we need,” Celestia lamented eyes closing tightly. “Please, go. With luck maybe the Elements will work before we’re attacked by everything I’ve ever sealed in Tartarus at the same bucking time…”

“Going now!” I exclaimed, eye wide with worry and ears plastered to my head.

Still holding onto Jade’s hoof I rushed towards the portal, dragging her along with our heavy mission packs through the blue glowing gate.

“WOAH!” I yelped as my face immediately plunged into hard, leaf covered mossy ground.

What the heck!? How did-

I blinked, groaning to myself as I realized I’d entered the portal as a quadruped, and exited as a biped, but in the same body position as I had been in as a quadruped. Which meant I was trying to balance on my… Toes? Yes I could feel that I had toes. I was trying to balance on my toes while my waist was bent at ninety degrees and I was moving forwards.

No biped I had ever seen could hope to do that.

I moved my hands to push myself upright. Thank goodness I had gotten used to walking as a biped in the mirror world. It was a little tricky… And cold. Why was I so cold?

Jade’s scream of pain shattered my train of thought. I kept upright and spun to face her direction.

Jade had transformed as well. She resembled a human, but with some differences. She was very thin, with longer more slender limbs. Over all more elegant looking than the human bodies I was used too. Most notably her skin was jet black, her ears were long and pointed, like blades of grass, and her eyes!

Oh Celestia her eyes were creepy! The whites were glossy black, the color bits were bright white, and the pupils were like two doors into the void!

But more horrifyingly her left hand and forearm was blistered beyond words, and she was staggering about in pain, completely naked, from patch of light to patch of light the forest canopy allowed to penetrate, and every time she so much as brushed against the light her skin immediately bubbled, boiled, and blistered!

Thinking quickly, I ripped my pack off my back and opened it, throwing some of the contents to one side as I dug out a fleece blanket from the bag.

“Hold still! Just hold still!” I yelled urgently and as best as I could threw the blanket over Jade.

They gray fleece blanket fall over her, almost on its center, falling over her like a foal’s poor attempt at a ghost costume. Jade immediately began to whimper, and sat down, rocking back and forth on the ground.

“Hot oil,” she moaned. “It’s like hot oil… Don’t touch the sun…”

I frowned, realising that I too could be in danger and looked around myself to see if I was in sunlight. Seeing that I was and was perfectly fine, aside from being completely naked which I recalled being a nono for bipeds, I walked over to Jade and sat down next to her, dragging my pack over to her.

“I’m so sorry. I didn't know that would happen. It’s a good thing I packed some healing potions, I didn’t think we would need the so soon,” I said as soothingly as I could while I took one of the small crystal vials from my bag and poked it under the edge of the blanket.

I felt Jade’s fingers brush against mine as she took the bottle from me. “It’s.. Okay… We didn’t know… Sun was evil here,” she gasped between painful sounding breaths.

“I’m fine, actually,” I admitted with a sympathetic frown. “Whatever analogue changelings have in this world must burn in the sunlight.”

“They have all… My sympathy,” Jade whimpered.

I heard the cork pop as Jade opened the bottle and took a second to examine myself again.

“Huh… This is the same body I had when I was in the mirror world… I wonder if we’re there again, or if this is just what I look like in worlds where humans exist,” I mused before digging into the backpack to retrieve some clothing.

I’d gone back to my castle to pack two changes of human clothing, just incase by some chance I’d ended up like this. Thank goodness the mirrorworld Rarity had insisted on taking me shopping for a few more outfits than that dress the mirror gave me.

As I slipped on the blue jeans I frowned, realising that I had forgotten shoes, but more importantly… None of my clothes would fit Jade.

Turning around, I saw the portal behind us. Maybe she should go back?

“Huh,” Jade said slowly, sounding better, the healing potion must have worked as intended.

“What?” I asked curiously.

“Do you have your magic?” She asked suspiciously.

I closed my eyes and reached into the back of my mind, searching for any link to magic at all.

“No,” I replied honestly. “I’m definitely human, and they don’t have magic.”

“Well um… I still have my magic,” Jade said sounding a little spooked.

I blinked. “Like, your changeling magic?”

“Yeah. I um, I’m going to try something,” Jade said turning her head and lifting one corner of the blanket to look at me.

I looked back, staring into her creepy eye. Suddenly her eye changed color with a wet squelch! Changing from the scrappy black and white eye into a normal human or pony looking violet eye. The skin around it rippled, the black changing to a light lavender color and-

“Oh! You’re copying me?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah…” Jade said in my voice. “I didn’t combust… That’s creepy.”

I nodded and Jade poked one finger out from under the blanket into a patch of sunlight. I winced, she inhaled sharply, nothing happened. No blisters, no burning.

“Oh thank goodness!” Jade exclaimed in relief, throwing the blanket off herself and standing up with a smile. “I am sooooo happy I won't burn shape changed and- WOW, these poor people must be so cold all the time!”

Jade reached back down and picked up the blanket, wrapping it around herself tightly. I felt a pang of disappointment in my heart and swiftly squashed it. Just to be safe.

Though at least I now knew that I was very attractive in this body! Perhaps we could use hat to our advantage.

“Here, put on these clothes. They fit me so they will fit you,” I said as I passed my spare change of clothing to Jade. “Humans wear clothing on a mandatory, ALWAYS basis. It’s really annoying, and stupid, but if we don't we could be arrested.”

“For being undressed?” Jade exclaimed incredulously. “That’s stupid!”

“HEY!” A loud male voice bellowed. “I heard those screams! You leave that girl alone! I’m coming over there! I’m armed! If I see your face it’s getting blown clean off, you hear?!”

Jade and my eyes widened in sudden fear. I reached over to the moongate, dug my hand beneath the dirt and scooped the stone out of place. The gate immediately collapsed, falling into the stone once more. If Jade could use her magic here we could reopen the gate later. But if someone saw magic and freaked out and they were armed… Humans have some VERY cruel weapons!

Brush rustled and crackled as a thin, extremely old looking man dressed in what had to be a historic costume burst into the clearing we had arrived in. He had pale red skin, dark black hair, had on a dark blue long coat which did not match anything I’d seen fashion wise, and was holding a weapon I recognised as a pump shotgun, the kind human police had.

He was also most definitely exceptionally old. His face was weathered and wrinkled, and he moved with the stiffness of somepony with arthritis. Despite this he moved with an energy unlike anything I’d seen that was most definitely born of righteous fury.

His eyes passed over the two of us briefly before politely looking up and then around the clearing.

“Where’d he go!?” The old man demanded. “I’ll send a few slugs after him. Ain’t nobody going to do this to two young girls on my property!”

I blinked, confused as to what he could be talking about. Jade on the other hoof, pointed to our left. “He ran that way, sir!”

The old man spun and raised his weapon, firing three shots. The shotguns blast roared more loudly than anything I had heard recently, including the truck crashing through my house!

After firing the third round, the old man lowered the gun and smirked. “That'll learn ‘m,” he chuckled darkly. “Don’t tell him I’ve only got blanks in this old girl. I don’t want to actually have to kill someone. Too much legal trouble at my age… Are you two okay? How far did he get? Do you need an ambulance?”

Oh my Celestia! He thought we were being raped! What kind of a world is this where a scream has THAT of all things be the first thing to pop into your mind?

“No! No you got here just in time! Thank you,” Jade exclaimed with a convincing grateful sob.

“Y-yeah!” I added fearfully, still shaken from the gunfire.

“No problem. When I opened this old ranch up to campers I never thought about scum like him calling it a smorgasbord… I keep telling the sheriff they need to get a ranger for this place. Too many bad folks in these parts today,” the old man sighed. “Where are my manners? I’m Pine, Pine Williams. I doubt you girls want to be alone right now. How about I turn ‘round and you get your clothes back on, then we go back over to my set?

“I was filming an episode of my cooking show just now. Twenty yards away. I’d just wrapped up. We got a nice eighteenth century cheese curd fritter fresh off the fire. I’ll watch over you two while we get a call out to the police and you can stay the night in my guest room if you want to. Sound like a plan? Or is being around a man the last thing you girls want right now?”

Thankfully, Jade took the lead again. “That would be wonderful, thank you so much for your kindness! But we don’t have to call the police. I’m sure you scared him off,” she said as convincingly as she could.

Bringing a changeling along was definitely the right choice to make. Thank you, brain!

To my surprise, Pine cracked a grin. “Let me guess, you ladies came out here to smoke some Mary Jane in peace? Well… Alright. No police this time. I won't get them involved. I know how it is to be college age. Even if the memories are fuzzy. You go ahead and get dressed. I’ll keep an ear out for that scumbag incase he has less brains than an owl pellet.”

I quickly pulled on my shirt, and then turned to help Jade slip into her clothing, since her confused ‘help me!’ look told me that she REALLY needed help due to having no idea.

While helping Jade get dressed I decided to strike up a conversation to alleviate the awkward silence.

“Thanks for the help, Mister,” I said as I showed Jade how zippers worked via pantomime.

Jade gave me a grateful nod, quickly figuring out the rest on her own.

“What am I supposed to do, let some young jackass have his way with a pair of twins? Not on my watch! You could have been my granddaughter… W-well if she weren't locked up,” he sighed sadly.

“Locked up?” Jade asked sympathetically while I showed her how to button the pale blue blouse. “I’m sorry I- Oh… Did she get in trouble for smoking? Is that why we get a pass from you, sir?”

“No, no…” He sighed sadly, looking down at the ground for a moment. “She had some… Mental issues. Held onto her child’s imagination until she was fifteen, absolutely insisted there was a whole magical kingdom in these woods behind my ranch.

“My son is… Not the best he could be. I definitely could have raised him better. He decided to have her committed. Poor Megan, she might have been a bit slow to grow up but she didn’t deserve that.”

“I-I’m so sorry! That’s horrible,” Jade said walking forward to hug Mister Williams tig-

Williams! Megan Williams! Holy buck that was motherbucking eas-

Of course a child would find a portal to another world close to where they lived. Children don’t exactly go far from their homes! We needed confirmation. If this was where we had to be...

“Um, y-you know, it would be nice to hear about a little fil- Girl’s stories about these woods after, um, that,” I said frowning as I worried my stumble would make him suspicious. “I- I mean if it’s not too painful to talk about!”

“And we're dressed now,” Jade added simply before her eyes widened in realization.

“I don’t mind talking about her,” Mister Williams said nodding as he looked over his shoulder at us. “I haven’t been allowed to visit her since… I miss her. She loved my old timey cooking. Why don’t you two grab your packs, I’ll dish up a bowl each, and we'll share some silly stories, miss um… What’s your names?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” I said reflexively, giving him a smile.

Oh no! He thought we were twins and Jade would have a different family name and-

“Jade Sparkle,” Jade said smoothly. “And thanks again!”

“Don’t mention it and… And that bastard stole your shoes!” Pine said with a glower as he noticed our bear feet. “I kind of wish I had put real bullets down range at him now… Bah, at least no one got hurt. Come on, let’s turn this into a good day for you two. Ain’t nothing bad happening on this ranch that I can’t prevent. Not again at least. Poor Megan was lost for a whole year in these woods when I lost track of her during the worst thunderstorm of the decade and-

“And let's save this for the food and fire. Come on, this way.”

As Pine shuffled off through the brush Jade and I shared a quick look of worry. How were we going to break someone out of an asylum?

9 - Pawn Promotion (Dash Quest Part 2)

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Applejack - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Remnants - Equestria

The creeping black ooze flowed over the shield protecting Ponyville like burnt soup spilling over the edge of a pot. It bubbled, oozed, and jets of smoke shot up from the stuff as it flowed downwards.

It did not belong in this world, and the world wanted it out. You could see the world itself attacking the mass, pushing it back from where it came. But the blackness was stronger. Faster. Better. It shoved the world aside inch by inch.

The horror radiating from that thing made me forget all about the pain from my missing leg. I could run away on three! I didn’t need it, I should run!

<What are you doing!?> I yelped, recoiling within my mind from the wall of Otherness engulfing the town.

“Uh, that’s not me,” Dawn said awkwardly. “What even IS that?”

I should run! I should really seriously honestly run.

<W-what do you m->

“I mean what I said, imbecile!” Dawn snapped, gritting my teeth hard enough to crack a molar. “This is NOT my doing. It’s an attack of some kind. How do I nullify this? I can’t read the- This is why I destroyed Kelvaria! Mortals shouldn’t have the power to create sources of magic!”

He was afraid too. I could feel it.

That… That wasn’t good!

<We should run!> I screamed, mind racing, doing everything it could to find the fastest way to put as much distance between myself and the Otherness.

“That’s a transport spell,” Dawn said decisively, ignoring me completely. “They’re moving the entire town. To… Nowhere?”

Wait, nowhere? I really wish I could see magical currents!

The blackness finished sliding down the shield, touching the ground and sizzling for but a moment before pulling inwards upon itself. The black dome collapsed, flowing like water down a drain. A drain placed in the center of the bubble itself.

Ponyville was gone. Every rock, every tree, the dirt for a full meter below the surface. The whole town had transformed into a hole in the ground dotted by two third slices of basements.

“And they took it into the void…” Dawn muttered darkly as he scanned over the area with my eyes. “Everything but those three buildings. Why?”

I hadn’t noticed before, but he was right. Lily’s clinic remained where it stood before the blackness. That made perfect sense, that old fortress was warded to Tartarus and back. Pinkie and Sky’s house remained there too covered by a dull green energy shield. Again, that made sense, he and his sister went nuts over that place, it probably approached Lily’s clinic in security.

But what the buck was the Ponyville Spa still doing here?

“An excellent fucking question,” Dawn agreed with me. “Almost as excellent a question as why can’t I destroy Twilight Sparkle? What is so special about her? How could she just advance her own age and power scale to match Celestia in a heartbeat? It takes a century for Alicorns to mature.”

<Pff,> I snorted. <You couldn’t even destroy a town! What makes you think you could hurt her?>

“You might as well get it all out, Applejack. You destroyed my plan for ending your species quickly and cleanly. All of what must follow is on your head, your people will blame YOU for it. I will make sure of that. I will also have to punish you, and since damaging you doesn't leave any impact, well, I’ve come up with a better solution,” Dawn warned, malice lurking in every last syllable. “As for Twilight, I have hurt her. Quite significantly. But clearly not enough…”

<Yeah, you impaled her with your little root trick, and she got right back up. Admit it, you’re outmatched!> I mocked, wishing I could blow a raspberry at this idiot.

Dawn rolled my eyes and reached into thin air with my remaining foreleg.

“Hummm, let’s see,” he mused fishing around for a moment before pulling a small file folder from nowhere. “There we are, Twilight Sparkle.”

The surprise kept me silent as Dawn flipped the folder open and quickly read over the cover page.

“I think it’s time you fully understand what you’re dealing with, Applejack. I’m going to go over just one pony’s life with you. This is the first thing I did to Twilight,” Dawn said in a creepily calm voice. “She’s adopted, and has no idea. I hoped her adoptive parents would have told her she was in fact adopted, but they did not. It would have been very nice to watch her look for her parents only to never even find a grave, but it is what it is. That wasn’t really done because she pissed me off, that would be because her parents caused me some grief a few thousand years back-”

Twi was adopted!? She never mentioned anything to me about that. I-

Hold on a bucking second!

<You’re a moron! If you can time travel, you can just go back and keep doing things over and over again until you win,> I spat angrily.

“No, you’re an uneducated simpleton. I’m a god, my presence here just locked this event in. I can’t change it, this is now inevitable. We're not as free to meddle with time as you mortals. It’s the lack of higher dimensional segments of your being. You’re so simple the universe doesn't care what you do,” Dawn said matter of factually, flipping through the file. “I had to use an artifact to mess with time in many cases… And it exploded.”

Well, that was good news. It meant he couldn’t just go and undo my bucking up his plan. Um, sort of. Maybe?

That blackness was Twi transporting Ponyville someplace safe, right? Yes. It had to be. Or maybe Luna did it. Either way, it had to be something they did, so Ponyville was safe.

Good. I won this round! All I needed to do is work out a way to buck up his next plan.

“Ah! There we go. See this is Twilight’s originally timeline,” Dawn announced nodding at one page from the file. “As you can see here, she’s raised by her adopted parents, has a good life, noticed by Celestia, blah blah blah, becomes great and powerful archmage, blah blah blah, Alicorn, marries Flash, and would have last month started to date Fluttershy with Flash as a willing member of that trio.”

<Um, Twi’s straight…> I pointed out. <So that’s horse apples.>

Dawn laughed cruelly. “No, she’s not. Here’s her current timeline. See, she pissed me off here, a short while ago. That whole ‘helping Repose fix Emperor Swift Prance’s coma? Yeah, I couldn’t allow that. So I hopped back here, and arranged for her to be assassinated. That failed, but she did miscarry her foals. I hoped the grief would have prevented her from being able to function until after Repose needed the help, but no.

“So I hopped back again to here, and infested Flash’s family with a little virus I made up on the fly a full six generations ago. Apparently Twilight could tough through a spouse with an incurable disease and losing her foals. So I went back here, and ensured her ‘father’ would be hit by falling rubble when a building collapsed, amazingly he didn’t die, which prevented that grief bomb from working.

“I tried to make her realize she has a Twin sister, just so she’d go look for her and never find her since when I sent her into the future the artifact I used exploded and sent her into another universe along with a few other ponies. Meaning it would be an eternal quest, but Twilight dismissed the forged letter as someone's quote ‘creepy twincest clopfic’ unquote. So that didn’t work.

“I made many more attempts to prevent Twilight from being in the Crystal Empire and helping Repose. Most notably of which was ensuring Twilight discovered a copy of a certain misogynistic book as a filly and put a suggestibility curse on it so she’d absorb the information as if it were gospel truth. I figured repressing half of her sexuality and being disgusted by public displays of affection, yet remaining silent about such things, and believing she must be subservient to her spouse to be happy would twist her mind enough to prevent her from ever willingly setting hoof in the Crystal Empire, and thus, be unable to help Repose.

“That also failed, but it had a major impact on her mental state. Meaning despite the ninety five assassination attempts failing, I could damage her consciousness. I was able to increase her autistic behaviors somewhat, but, when I tried to go back again and arrange an accident to cause her severe brain damage, that failed entirely. Something is protecting her. Not perfectly, mind, but she is being guarded.

“The subtle approach I normally prefer is not working here. Chess mastering isn’t working anymore. Twilight is untouchable in any significant way. And she’s more powerful then I knew. My plans must be discarded, as they were for all the wrong variables.

“It’s a shame I’ve locked in events. It would be useful to rewrite your life to improve my odds. My only remaining option is to adapt and deploy my army to strike out from here and destroy every major population center I can as swiftly as possible using this as a staging ground. Originally, I was going to simply put troops into every settlement's heart at the same time. But you fucked that up. So slow and painful deaths for everypony it is. Nice choice, I approve.”

I- that- He- MONSTER!

That absolute monster! I had to beat him! I had to stop him. Nothing should be allowed to just mess with someone's past anytime they please! He-

“Oh you sillfyilly, that’s my standard operating procedure. It’s not like you could ever know if I did it. Stop your whining,” Dawn mocked.

I searched deep inside myself for something, anything I could say or do to hurt him. Maybe I could give myself a heart attack and die, which would reveal him to those people he was afraid of. Right?

“Wrong,” Dawn laughed, his voice sounding extremely distracted.

He was plotting his next move. He wasn’t paying too much attention, I had a chance to do something!

“I still have full contro-”

Dash appeared with a literal flash and thunderclap at the edge of the hole where Ponyville had been.

“-SHIT!” Dawn yelped in surprise.

He locked my eyes onto Dash as her tail stood up in alarm and her ears fell in horror. I couldn’t see her face, but I didn’t need to. The terror, despair, and anger her stance carried was more than enough.

“W-what?” Dash stammered to herself, staring hopelessly over the devastation.

No. No suggarcube. Leave, now! Don’t turn around, don't turn around, please don’t see me like this! I don’t want you to suffer any-

<Well, well… Now there’s a proper punishment for you, Applejack,> Dawn said silently, his ‘voice’ bubbling with malice. <Her full speed is rather impressive in person. But well, that’s no problem as long as she sticks to the ground. I think I’ll make you kill her, and then we’ll start a proper war effort.>

NO! Please no! Celestia no!

I felt my stump blister, and bubble. Just as I realized something was growing from the wound, a leg thick tangle of vines exploded out from my shoulder, coiling around each other into a crude approximation of a dragon’s talon with large thorns for claws.

<Let’s clip those wings,> Dawn laughed, twisting my face into a snarl.

The vine-leg snapped forwards, splitting into two sections, each ending in a large blade-like thorn. Dash’s left ear twitched. The talons scythed downwards. Dash vanished, the thorns bit into the earth where she had been standing.

Dash reappeared next to the extended vine arm as a blue blur. I caught a split second of her grabbing onto the arm with her forelegs and twisting before I suddenly flipped through the air, slamming down onto my back, the roots embedded in it pushing sharply into my spine under the impact.

“You did this!” Dash screamed accusingly. “I’ll ki-”

Her eyes widened in horror as she realized she was looking into my face.

“A-AJ?” She stammered.

That was all the opening Dawn needed. Gathering my rear legs under me he kicked Dash in her stomach, launching her away. Dash was too shocked to catch herself in the air and slammed into the ground as Dawn stood back up.

<Hmmm, best spread some misinformation incase she lives,> he decided as a pale red shield rippled to life around me.

<DON’T YOU DARE HURT HER!> I screamed.

“Is that the name of this meat?” Dawn gurgled, intentionally mangling my voice, taking advantage of the slit he’d cut in my tongue last night.

Dash’s eyes narrowed in focus, flicking across my body in an instant while she stood up. “Okay, some kind of everfree parasite. Makes sense, the forest’s attacked the town again,” Dash said oddly ability for her. “Unfortunately for you, mulch, I’ve been helping my uncle take out stuff like you for years now! AJ, this will hurt a bit, but I’m going to rip all that crap off you. L-lily can fix it. It’s going to hurt. I’m sorry.”

“Your corpse will fertilize my trees,” Dawn gurgled again, smirking all the while.

The vine arm split into nine separate vines, each one snapping outwards, the thorn on its tip streaking outwards on different angles, set to impail-

Dash blurred, arriving a meter to her right as if she’d simply smeared over as a trail of light. The vine spears buried themselves in the ground.

“Missed!” Dash mocked, returning Dawn’s smirk with one of her own.

<She’s fast on the ground too,> I added, hoping it would help that failure sting just a bit more.

Dawn countered calmly.

My eyes squinted slightly. I felt Dawn drawing on his magic, and this time could feel the invisible ray of energy lancing outwards from each eye, each carrying a deadly spell. There was no way for Dash to-

Dash vanished, reappearing on my right in the middle of a nimbus of rainbow colored lightning bolts, her hoof cocked back for a punch.

<How the fuck-> Dawn demanded cut off as the punch cracked against the shield spell, sending us staggering back.

“You know, I never tried breaking a magic shield like this. Could you hold still?” Dash asked sarcastically.

Dawn turned, swinging the vines like a whip again. Dash ducked under them, throwing a rapid fire series of punches with both forehooves. The shield sparked and warped, dening inwards slightly under her barrage of punches.

“You will not break through,” Dawn gurgled.

“Ha! Please, I’m too fast for you,” Dash smirked. “I have all the time in-”

Dawn snapped the vines backwards the second Dash started to reply, the thorn tips glowing red as they charged with magic. Dash pulled back to dodge, but too late. Two of the vines sliced parallel cuts across her barrel the energy detonating in bright red bursts of light as the connected.

Dash shrieked and flew backwards, slamming into a tree trunk hard enough to crack the truck. Dawn coiled the vines back into a draconic arm, two scraps of Dash’s skin clinging to the claw tips.

“I see what you are made of now,” Dawn gurgled, walking towards Dash slowly. “Your cells are charged with an alien energy. Boosting you beyond the abilities of a normal pegasus. But there is a problem. They are still cells. They need energy. You need to eat far more to sustain yourself, and use your powers.”

“Yeah, well, I just had a huge breakfast, so you’re bucked!” Dash grunted as she got back to her hooves.

“Hardly. Your running dry. Life is my domain, and I have touched you. I know all your secrets,” Dawn laughed. “Run. Fight another day. Or become my next meal. Choose.”

Dash’s ears fell, I could almost feel her heartbreak as her eyes closed for a split second. “AJ… I’m sorry. But it’s right. I can’t do this…”

No! No, Dash, no. He’s got you! You’re not on your guard and-

<Precisely,> Dawn snickered mentally.

He narrowed my eyes, focusing on his magic once more. Dash turned around in a blur and sprinted off, wings opening as she took to the air, flying into the treeline and out of sight.

“Heh… Coward,” Dawn sighed bitterly. “I would have enjoyed making you kill-”

A sonic boom echoed in the distance, followed by the second smaller boom of something going hypersonic. Dawn’s shield spell exploded, small chunks of pale red energy shooting everywhere as I flew forwards, smashing into the same tree Dash had with a loud crack.

“Carefully-” Dash said as she streaked past me.

Dawn heaved my body upright, growling in anger, reading another shield. Something blue glimmered in the distance. Before a even one heartbeat Dash slammed into my right hind leg, the animated wood splintering, ripping free from my flank.

Stars exploded in my eyes, the pain from the removal was maddening. Dawn dropped to the ground, unable to keep balance through the hit.

“-not enough-” Dash continued as she vanished again.

Dawn heaved me back up using the vines, teeth clamped in a rage filled snarl. The vines ripped free of my shoulder, leaving behind a wriggling mass of vine-stumps as Dash blazed passed again.

“-time. This-” Dash added.

Without two legs on the same side of my body, there wasn’t much Dawn could do, and he knew it. I could feel him scheming, trying to come up with a plan.

Another explosion of agony shot up my body from my other hind leg as it shattered.

“-will hurt!” Dash finished stopping on a dime directly on my back. “Couldn’t be more sorry. Roots now!”

I could hear her panting, and feel her trembling with fatigue. She was almost done.

“I WILL END YOU!” Dawn roared, spit flying as a vein in my left eye burst.

“Your bark is totally worse,” Dash growled as she gripped the series of roots rightly with her forelegs. “Then your bite!” She finished, wrenching herself sideways.

Six lines of searing pain burned along my spine as the roots were torn away as Dash spun. I screamed, the pain throwing Dawn’s control over me away for that one moment. That one scream. Then the iron barbs dug back into my mind.

“Sorry, AJ…” Dash panted, her chest heaving rapidly. “It’s all done now. Lily’s place… Still there… Just enough energy to… Get you there. It’s all over now. It’s dead… Come on.”

Dawn’s boiling rage threw me away from the forefront of my mind. My perception of the world shrank down, leaving me only two pinpricks to see through. I vaguely felt a tingling sensation in the limbs I didn’t have anymore, and a sharp jolt in the pit of my stomach.

The world came back into focus right as I heard Dash scream in pain. I saw her tumbling through the air, my body standing upright, a glowing pale red translucent energy leg extended in a punch, the tip wet with blood.

“You were misinformed about my nature, mortal!” Dawn screamed. “This all could have been so simple, so easy. It would have looked like the Everfree Forest had consumed the world. A sad and unique disaster. But now? With how little I can see I knew about your world? The foal’s gloves are OFF!”

The world changed in an instant, confusing me long enough for Dawn to send Dash up into the air with a savage kick before I realized he’d teleported me. Dawn’s magic burned around us as Dash shot upwards, black flame-like tendrils of magic gathering around me as a deep crater formed in the ground as if suddenly everything became far more heavy.

Dash fell, her wings flapping urgently, fear dripping from every inch of her as she was dragged downwards despite her attempts to fly.

“It's called a spacetime well,” Dawn screamed as Dash came within legs reach and he savagely smashed the energy-hoof into her ribs.

I recoiled in horror as I felt and heard the six sharp cracks of Dash’s ribs shattering. Dawn threw Dash aside, watching as she hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

“All possible paths lead down. Like a black hole. You’re lucky that creating one of those would get me caught, or I would give you the most painful death imaginable,” Dawn finished, spitting on her limp, twitching form.

<NO!> I screamed, sending all of my hate towards the monster who had just killed my wife.

“Pipe down you, she’s not dead yet,” Dawn snapped ending his spell as we began to float upwards.

Dawn moved upwards a few meters, levitating in the air above Dash while looking down at her while she struggled to stand back up. Dawn’s eyes flicked to the left, a large patch of ground, twenty meters in diameter burst into intense orange flames.

An impossible amount of black ash filled the air, falling around the blazing fire in a volcano-like heap, building up higher and higher each second. The blaze sent the same bone chilling horror down my spine as the black spell which engulfed Ponyville. This did not belong in this world.

The unnatural blaze’s ashes fell across Dash. She flinched, holding in a scream. Ashes shouldn’t burn, these did. My heart screamed in terror, imagining Dash being buried under a pile of burning hot ash, but she stood up, teeth grit against the pain and staggered a few paces away from the crater Dawn had made, moving beyond the reach of the ash.

Suddenly column of molten stone erupted from the center of the blaze. They twisted and coiled and stretched, forming long rapidly cooling obsidian arches and horn-like curls which centered in the heart of the fire. The fire which suddenly began to flow like water, forming a solid rectangular doorway, ten ponies high, and eight wide. A portal, made from a thousand frozen flames.

<How the buck is this not going to get you caught by people who I hope are seconds away from ripping you limb from limb!?> I demanded.

<Only an idiot would create minions and doorways visible to those who threaten them when they could hide them,> Dawn replied a hint of the old smugness returning to his voice. <Just as we can not change our own timelines because we are too complex, these are too simple for my family to notice anything unusual.>

The flames stirred. A dark, shadowy thing slid out from the flames. Its shape invisible within an unnatural darkness that clung to it, forming a black spot on the world with the odd flash of teeth, claws, and bloodshot eyes coming through the inky blackness.

“Shadow!” Dawn commanded, locking my eyes on the creature. “Rip out that mortal’s soul and bring it to me. I’m hungry.”

The blackness contorted, it’s formless shape impossibly twisting in a low bow before launching itself towards Dash.

I felt another scream of blind horror begin to form in my chest. Dash’s eyes widened in horror. The shadow flew at her with an impossible speed. But not fast enough.

Dash vanished, leaving behind a blue trail. She left. She left me… I-

N-no! That was good. She would die.

“No, she WILL die,” Dawn countered. “Shadow. Leave it. Return to Tartarus. It’s time. Bring everything you encounter through this portal and rally within that spot there. We will be conquering this planet the hard way.”

The shadow’s movement stopped without any slowdown. It bowed again, and drifted soundlessly back across the ash bed towards the portal like a balloon blowing across the ground.

“As for you, Applejack, I am still hungry. We will encounter your wife again. I think I owe you a sample of what is to come. Not with Dash, but with your other family members. Your farm should still be here, if I’m not mistaken,” Dawn said as the two scraps of Dash’s skin he had ripped off floated up to my normal flesh and bone hoof to drape across the upturned flat.

<What are you-> I asked fearfully.

Dawn opened my mouth, jammed the pieces inside, and swallowed.

The world went black.

Rainbow Dash- 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Remnants - Equestria

Everything burns! Oh Luna, everything burns! Out of calories. Can’t go further. Got to stop.

I stopped running, dropping flat on my face and skidding some distance. I couldn’t tell how far, my broken ribs hurt too much for me to pay attention. I think I hit something. Couldn’t tell. It was dark.

I’d aimed for Lily’s clinic. Please be home. Doctor good.

Oh. Yeah. Sky also here. Maybe. House is. He could help…

I reached towards my back, ignoring my ribs protests as I dug in my saddlebag for the watch Sky gave me. It had a radio in it. Right?

I felt the small device underhoof, pulled it out, and tapped the face with a hoof tip. “Call Sky,” I gasped, hissing from the sudden burn across both sides of my chest as I drew breath to speak.

The watch chirped twice. No Sai. That couldn’t be good. But two chirps ment connected!

“Sky, it Dash. Help. Ponyville… Tartarus, breaking loose. Literally,” I managed to say between grimaces.

Food. Food would be good. Fast metabolism, fast healing. Lily, and snacks. Good. Need.

“Sorry!” Sky’s voice crackled over the radio. “Cant talk now, kind of-”

“OH DEAR SWEET LUNA, IT’S ANGRY!” Pinkie’s voice screeched in the background.

“FUCK EVERYTHING AND RUN!” Sky shouted the radio going dead in a hiss of static.

Oh good. Everything was tartarus there too. Why wouldn’t it be?

“D-Dash? Are you okay?” Two voices asked in unison.

What?

I blinked, clearing the fog from my eyes just long enough to see Lotus and Aloe standing over me, and the sign for the Ponyville Spa. Wow. Uncle Barry was right. I have bad aim when I’m hurt.

“Guess,” I grunted at the twins. Not out of anger or anything. I just couldn’t get any other word to stick in my mind.

“I saw the fight, you almost hurt him. Could you do better on a second try?” They asked in unison again.

“I? There’s two of you,” I mumbled sleepily.

“A trick… To hide better. Drink this, you can’t die,” they said.

I felt something press against my lips and blinked my vision clear again. Aloe was holding a bottle to my lips. What was the label? Oh. Healing potion. That would help. Hospital better though.

I opened my mouth, allowing her to pour the potion in. I actually felt the spell contained in the liquid go to work. That’s never a good sign.

A few seconds passed. My sight began to clear up. The pain in my sides dulled. I felt a lung inflate slowly.

Faust damn… I took a lot of damage. Dished out a lot too. How durable was that thing? Buck it, how durable was I?

Not much more than this… I should be back on my hooves in a minute. But a hospital would be a great idea still. Healing potions and healing factors can’t remove curses, and Luna knows what those glowing talons were doing.

“I need food. Now. Hypermetabolism…” I groaned, sitting up slowly. “Was almost empty before that fight.”

“I’ll get some,” Aloe said, quickly running into the Spa.

Right. The Spa. How was it still here?

“How… How did this survive the… The whatever?” I asked. “And what do you mean hide?”

Something was seriously wrong. My brain was getting less fuzzy. Potion still hard at work.

Lotus frowned,her ears drooping sadly. “I- I don’t… I don’t normally ever tell anyone about myself. But, um… This is the end of the world. You sort of just fought, well... My dad,” she admitted slowly.

“... huh?” I asked, almost falling over due to a sudden bount of dizziness.

Lotus’s eyes widened fearfully. She rapidly shook her head. “No! No nonono! I want him to die too! He’s evil. As evil as evil can evil. Can you do it? You almost did. I have food, I’m coming back with it now. Do you need more healing? Maybe I can get you back into top form and while he’s distracted we can-”

“What the buck are you!?” I demanded, managing to stand up, heart starting to race fearfully as I realized that this ‘pony’ and that shadow thing were probably the same kind of creature.

Aloe came out the doorway, holding a small box in her mouth.

“I- um, w-well… I’m what Oubliettes and Ogres players would call a Succubus,” Lotus admitted, looking down at the cobblestones her face flooded with… Shame?

Huh!?

I blinked one processing that. Then drew back my hoof to try and punch the self professed demon's face in, lost my balance and fell over, cracking my face painfully into the stone walkway.

“No! Wait! Please!” Lotus begged. “I’m harmless! I don’t even like souls, they taste hideous. Everyfiend I’ve ever spoken too thinks I'm insane. I’ve never hurt anypony, or anyone even. I- I actualy.. I like to help.”

“Ponyfeathers,” I said as firmly as I could, trying to stand back up. “I’ve been to other… Universes. I fought your kind there… You’re all just… Puppets. You’re gonna kill me. This is all a trap!”

“I gave you a health potion. I could have broken your neck. I’m far stronger than any pony is physically,” Lotus pointed out.

Okay. That was true. But on the other hoof.

“That potion was poison!” I said as I finally managed to stand up.

“Um… Not intentionally. It’s been in the cupboard a while, do they go bad?” Lotus asked sincerely, giving me a worried frown.

Buck. This is where AJ would come in super handy. This was another universe… Maybe they could be friendly here and not just a ‘limb’ of a bigger monster. Or maybe that’s what it wanted me to think.

“Prove you’re not hostile!” I demanded. “Give me absolutely any reason to trust you! And no, you cutting my mane for years doesn't count. For all I know you’ve been syphoning off bits of my soul the whole bucking time!”

“Ew! No! Gross!” Aloe and Lotus exclaimed in unified disgust. “Do you have any idea what those taste like? I don’t! I couldn’t describe the taste if I tried to, because there’s no mortal comparison for how gross it is. I only ever consumed one, when I was an imp, so I could evolve into this form. Do you know what it’s like to have a tormented soul inside you? Constantly pleading for mercy?

“It’s the worst thing ever. I can’t even regurgitate it without Dawn knowing, the runes protecting the Spa couldn’t hide the power loss. He’d kill me, and then give the soul to someone who would torture it. All I can do is not torture the poor creature and let them control another body I form whenever I think I can do so without attracting Dad’s attention. How’s that for a reason? If dad dies, I can give the ‘Aloe’ body to someone I’ve hurt very badly and live in constant regret over, instead of controlling it myself.”

“Um,” I said just to say something.

The Buck do you say to that? I mean it was a good reason and all, but-

“I hate every single last second of my own existence. Because I know that I’m evil. I’m wrong, and I know it. Why do you think I spend my time as a pair of earth ponies who work at a Spa? I like to do good things. It helps me feel… Good. And I’m not Good, but I feel like I should be instead of… this. I- I hate this!” Lotus exclaimed before suddenly breaking down into tears.

I winced.

Buck! That was a really emotional stor- Succubi are supposed to twist your emotions!

“You almost had me,” I said bitterly. “Almost, but you put too much sob story into it. I can tell you're trying to emotionally manipulate me!”

“I understand… I couldn’t trust one of my kind ether. One moment,” Lotus said, morosely, still crying.

I yelped in fright as her body melted into a ball of blaze orange light. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aloe do the same, destroying my slim hope that maybe the pair had just gone insane watching the tartarian gate open up and from whatever hell had destroyed Ponyville.

The two balls quickly melted, flowing along the ground to form a single pool which in turn rose up from the ground, forming a pony shaped blob just a hair smaller than Luna. The blob solidified, the orange light fading into pink and blue fur.

The combined ‘pony’ had a multicolored coat, Aloe’s pink making up the main body, with Lotus’s blue forming socks, covering the muzzle, and forming a heart shaped patch on the plot centered on the sex bits, which I could see thanks to the reflection in a window behind ‘them’. It looked like an extremely voluptuous batpony, but with a dash of bovine features too, like what an artist would draw if somepony said ‘make it sexy as possible without being gross’.

One notable difference were the wings. The wings were more… Draconic. No, not draconic. They weren't batwings, but not draconic either. Something between the two in look. The membranes were a darker shade of blue, and looked exceptionally silky. That’s the only difference I could put words too.

I did have to admit I liked the mane…. The style was the same as Lotus or Aloe’s, but their two colors unified, with Lotus’s pink as a base and a nice pink stripe running down the middle of the left side. Something like Twilight’s, but with a singular color. It looked odd when paired with a sinuous spade tipped tail though.

She would have been really bucking hot if not for the two small cow-like horns sprouting up just in front of her ears. Those downgraded her to just normal hot. Which I was NOT okay with her being! Because I shouldn’t be wondering if I could get AJ to agree to a threeway with her right now.

Stupid supernatural hotness...

“There,” the succubi said sadly. “This is me. It’s… It’s far easier to hide as two bodies. No one expects two people to be one monster. But a monster I am. If you don’t want my help stopping my dad, please kill me. Doom refused to do it. If I die on the mortal plane the soul in me will go free. I’d rather resurrect them, but this is also acceptable. You’ll need to destroy my heart, it’s not where a pony’s is. Aim here.”

Her horns glowed that same dull orange for a moment, and the fur on her barrel darkened, forming a black x shape over the left side of her barrel fairly far down.

“Are- are you serious?” I asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

“Yes. If I live through Dawn’s harvest of this world I will be pressed back into his service. Please, accept my help or slay me,” she begged, pleading at me with her still watering eyes.

Now I had one way of trusting her. I was out of gas, but the healing potion had helped. I could maybe get three seconds of accelerated speed before medical level starvation kicked in. There was grass in the forest. I’d eat that in a survival situation. I could attack her, and no matter what happened, I could win, and survive.

“Alright,” I said giving her my best ‘buck you’ glare, and through a full speed punch directly at her barrel.

My perception of time slowed. I locked my eyes onto her face as my hoof raced forward. At this speed it wouldn’t matter where my punch landed, massive damage would ensue.

How was she reacting? Was she moving to counter attack? I could correct in time. No prob- Her face twisted into a happy smile. Happy with lots of relief and gratitude.

I stopped my punch a hairs breath from her barrel. Her face fell in genuine sadness.

“Why?” She pleaded looking me dead in the eyes with honest depression behind them.

“Cuz you just proved you don’t want to hurt me, and that this isn’t some kind of trap. I don’t care what you said, that punch would have destroyed you no matter where I hit you. So I trust you. A little. How could you help me?” I asked, giving her the most serious look I could muster.

Which was very hard because I noticed she had a cow’s udder.

“Um… Also why the cow parts?” I asked.

“Oh. My late husband liked cows and thought I would be sexier as a thestral-cow hybrid. I haven’t shape changed in... I um- I’ve had a few mates of the millenia… S-sorry let me be normal,” she explained removing the bovine appendage with a pulse of that odd orange magic, the same pulse replacing her horns with longer ones which swept back like an Ibex’s rather than a cow’s. “I- I can tell you about all of Dawn’s creations in Tartarus. What they are called, what they can do, how we work, what is effective at stopping us, what his plans likely are.

“All of this is given to us as instinctive knowledge when we are made. I’ll tell you everything you need to know. I can also help fight imps and mortal cultists, but I’m very week because I haven't ever consumed more than y-you know… Just her. We grow in power by… Hurting you.” She finished head hanging in shame.

Okay. She was probably on the level, and that would be super usefull information to know.

I could trust her enough to not screw me over in the short term. Which could maybe let me get confirmation that she was an individual creature with a mind, not a puppet, and also telling the truth.

Pretty sure she was, but this is the kind of thing you double check. Normally, I’d just ask AJ to question her… But fortunately I had another option.

Oh shit, did I?

“What’s your name?” I asked, still keeping up my serious look.

“Helsea,” she answered, face twisting in disgust. “I prefer Lotus though. It’s nicer, and it’s not Tartarian for ‘rotting vagina’.”

“Ew!” I said with a wince. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Demons names are… Usually gross,” she said with an apologetic smile.

“Lotus it is,” I decided. “Important question. Yes or no. Can you travel to other universes?”

“Yes. We are designed to be able to freely travel between any and all universes. Once Dawn rules this multiverse, his plan is to eventually conquer more. As such, we are fully jump capable, just like mortals are… Why?” Lotus asked with an odd frown.

Good. My plan would work. There’s no way Alter would refuse to check for me. Not with-

“WAIT! Did you say that thing is planing on taking over EVERY reality!?” I asked, eyes opening wide in horror.

“Yes. Eventually,” Lotus replied.

“Okay, yeah, she REALLY won’t mind helping. We’re going to my uncle's place. It’s not here. I have a friend who can find out if you’re telling the truth or not,” I informed. “It’s a long ways… We’ll get food first, I’ll carry you and run to the portal.”

“Y-your uncle lives in another universe?” Lotus asked with a confused frown.

“Yeah. Long story. Also he’s my grandpa, technically. Cuz he gave my mom a form. But he’s like thirty and refuses to be called gramps. So uncle it is,” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “World ending. This stuff can wait. I’m going to trust you with that food. I need to be able to run.”

“If you tell me where to go, I can try to open a portal us. But I’m not good with that,” Lotus offered helpfully.

“Sorry. I don’t trust that,” I replied shaking my head.

“But you trust food I brought you?” She asked, cocking her head to one side.

“Not completely…” I admitted. “But the portal I’m afraid would get caught up in that bigger one over there.”

“Speaking of that the gate over there, it’s letting in demons who are going to use this area as a landing site for a full scale invasion?” Lotus reminded, pointing over to the gate in the distance with one hoof. “You won't have time to forage. Please, trust me to make a safe portal for you.”

Well, Princess Luna would be in the Hive still. She could take her on if anything went bad.

“Is it like unicorn teleportation?” I asked frowning as I wondered how likely it would be she could get us even close. “Do you need to know-”

“No. Just think at me where we need to be and I can take us there,” she clarified.

“You can read my mind?” I said darkly, taking a step back.

She shook her head. “Not in any way which I am willing to use against you. I could find out exactly what you find attractive if I wanted to, but that’s it. I don’t want to, because you’re married and I know Applejack is monogamous, and if I did I would be compelled to make you happy.

“Which for my defective bucking brain means ‘take you as a mate and cater to your every whim until you die of old age’ Which if I am seeing your aura right, won't ever happen. Because your bond with the Elements of Harmony indefinitely extends your lifespan. Even with them damaged. If I were normal, reading your wishes would make me want to seduce you and steal your soul when your guard was down.

“What I meant was, like all fiends, if you think it at me, like, you intentionally want me to know an active thought, I’ll know it. I can't help that. I’m sorry,” she apologised again, ears drooping slightly.

Celestia’s flanks! It’s like dealing with a barely less awkward Fluttershy!

“I still don’t trust you one hundred percent… But I can solve this problem,” I said, reaching down to pick my watch up from the ground and put it back into my pack.

I looked over at the small paper bag of food she’d brought out, and pulled it closer with a wing to peek inside. It looked like a pretty standard selection of snacks you could get in the spa. Some apples, a few sugar cubes, a few cookies, and two protein bars.

Score! Foil sealed packages, tamper proof. Those would be okay no matter what.

My ears drooped a little. I felt kinda bad for not totally trusting Lotus. But at the same time, well… caution, right? If she was cleared by Alter, I’d do something nice to apologize properly.

I ripped open the foil packets and bolted down both bars in a flash. They didn’t taste funny, and that should be about two thousand calories. Enough to get me to where there would be more food to have a proper meal.

Heh. And Rarity wondered how I always stayed so skinny.

I closed my eyes for a moment, taking a few breaths to make sure that my body started to break down the bars, then nodded to myself, hopped up into the air at normal speed, hovered over Lotus’ back, grabbed hold of her middle with my forelegs and lifted her off the ground.

“Okay, so, you’re really light!” I exclaimed in surprise, frowning at her like, maybe twenty kilos.

“Yes. I’m made of solidified magic, not flesh. Do you need me smaller? I’m still bulky,” she asked in a helpful tone of voice.

“Nah, I got this. Just hold your breath. Bugs,” I warned with a laugh.

I pumped my wings, launching myself away at full speed. I had the energy to make it to SkyLabs, and I was going to get there as fast as possible.

AJ needed me.

10 - Ice Ice Pinkie (Pinkie Quest)

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Trigger, Sky Trigger - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Buckingcold - Crystal Empire

I spun my chair around to look out the cockpit’s side window, watching the clouds shoot past like puffs of steam in a wind tunnel while casually sipping from a glass of Snake River Sarsaparilla. Too bad there weren't anymore of those burgers. Pinkie made really savory food when you asked her to, and with the Skyranger’s gally, she could still fulfill our little wager.

Of course to be a proper gentlecolt, I’d cook breakfast on the flight back. Hmm, hash browns, pancakes, and- No. Hash browns, french toast, and some caesar salad with sriracha dressing. Yeah, Pinkie would like that way better, and she’d made me burgers she couldn’t digest. I owed her a meal she liked.

I smiled and took a sip of my ‘out of official production soda’. Ah, the perks of being a technomancer raised in a high-tech society. Everypony else would be chugging along in their sleek zeppelins, while Pinkie and I had the Skyranger.

Is it arrogant to put your name into everything you invent? I hope not. Sky’s a good word to use in the names of things. Sounds cool, short, simple, easy to make into an acronym… And in my case, it can identify my property.

It’s also especially good for aircraft. Especially for an aircraft that’s a supersonic mobile laboratory with VTOL capabilities. If it’s basically the king of the skies, it should have sky in the name.

I frowned slightly. A ‘king of the skies’ that I mostly use to go camping in… Maybe I have a problem with over-engineering things. Meh, at least it’s cool.

How much longer did we have to fly for? Depending on how long it took Dash to find a Starstone, whatever that was, maybe we could be back only a few hours after her? Heh, I crack me up.

“I miss everypony,” Pinkie sighed as she spun in circles in her seat next to me.

I felt my ears droop. Sad Ponk is bad! Engage cheer up mode.

“Yeah, it is a bit weird of Celestia to send everypony out alone like this,” I agreed with a nod, spinning my chair around to face her. “I swear it’s like she thinks asking me anything would be an imposition. I’d have flown everypony everywhere. No big deal.

“Probably take just as long for us to do one circuit everywhere as it will take for Fluttershy to get back in a damn blimp. Ring ring! Hello, airplanes? It’s blimps. You win.”

Pinkie smiled just a little. “Hehe… We need to finish that sometime,” she giggled half-happily.

“Would it make you feel better if we went to pick up Fluttershy when we’re done here?” I offered. “She’ll take the longest getting home, and we know exactly where she’ll be. You two can have a ‘we cut time off this quest’ party.”

Pinkie’s ears perked as I mentioned a possible party. “Oh my gosh! We could totally get Rarity too! She’ll be on the way! Is there enough stuff onboard for a four pony party?”

I blinked in surprise. “Um, you didn’t stash party supplies aboard, for party supply emergencies?”

“You asked me not to store things in your things,” Pinkie reminded me with a giggle. “Remember the Skycopter?”

“That was eight years ago. When we just started dating,” I laughed flashing her a smile of my own. “You know how my tech works now-”

“The willing suspension of disbelief?” Pinkie joked.

I rolled my eyes. “Anywho, yeah, we should have more than enough for a little party,” I resumed cheerfully. “We’ll just go pick up this fancy bottle of mineral water, swing down to Neighpone, pick up your girlfriends, and drop everyone off back in Ponyville, and then FINALLY get to just relax and do nothing important whatsoever!”

Pinkie giggled and leaned over to give me a kiss. “Thanks, Triggie.”

“No problem. It’s what I do,” I replied, about to pull her into my chair for a quick cuddle when the auto-pilot chirped.

I looked at the control console. I’d muted the voice alerts for dinner, we kept getting weather warnings.

“Cool! We’re here,” I said happily, setting my drink in a cup holder so I could look for a landing site near the town.

“Can we land in town?” Pinkie asked hopefully. “Celestia said she’d send a letter ahead of us so we could get a guide.”

“Sure,” I said as I flipped on the scanner, searching for a large enough space inside the town to land.

Make that the small as fuck town. Small as fucking town consisting of like fourteen small dome buildings connected together by little tunnels. It looked less like a town and more like a moon base.

I guess that made sense with the town being built just a few degrees short of the north pole. It had to get cold as fuck here.

Right. Buckingcold. I see whatcha did there.

I mean I got it before. Far north, it be cold, yo. Still, seeing those little clustered domes down there all covered up in piles of windblown ice and draped in snow. It was different.

You could see that not only was this town named with a curse, but it had to be. Because the place FELT cursed. Nothing should be living here. Why did this place exist? What resource could possibly justify placing this town here, on the edge of the world next to that gaping hole in the ice which looked way too much like a fanged maw to-

“That spot looks big enough!” Pinkie exclaimed eagerly, pointing with her hoof tip to a spot on the screen.

I shook my head, snapped out of wherever the fuck my mind had gone by Pinkie’s sudden outburst. Looking at the screen and seeing her choice worked, I nodded and tapped the screen to tell the autopilot to land us.

“Come on,” I said standing up. “Let's grab the snow suits and see if we can’t get this thing done within ten minutes.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie sang hopping up from her seat and bolting through the door.

A few minutes later, with the Skyranger’s engines spinning down and the howling winds shaking the hull, I finished slipping into my environment suit.

Pinkie may have felt fine with a scarf, a hat, and a fluffy coat but I was not. Not when the winds at ground level were already icing up parts of the hull. I was going to have to leave the heat on. And probably run a full ice check before we took off.

Which meant sealed environmental suit with built in heater it was. I’d picked the one I’d painted up like the HEV suit for this outing.

“Aww come on Trigger, you don’t need that,” Pinkie giggled for the third time.

“I don’t want the cold to give me a gelding. Buck me, right?” I mumbled with an eyeroll.

Pinkie giggled. “Again? Shouldn’t we get the water first?” She asked giving me a playful wink.

“Got the bottle?” I asked with a smile.

“Yepperooni!” Pinkie exclaimed, fishing a small glass bottle out of her mane with her tail.

“Awesome, let’s roll,” I said as she stuck the bottle back into her ‘purse’ and I smacked the door release button.

The door hummed open, the anti-dust shield crackling and sparking angrily the second the flurries of snow battered against the field. I could see a group of three ponies in the distance, each one dressed in a similar suit to my own. In fact, yes! Those were production models I sold.

Heh, and Pinkie was calling me silly for putting on the proper clothing.

The three ponies gave me a wave through the snowstorm as I hopped out of the Skyranger into knee deep snow. I waved back, turned around, helped Pinkie out, and used my watch to close the door behind us.

As I expected, despite the minor blizzard going on, Pinkie was perfectly fine with her crochet cap.

“She’s going to freeze to death!” One of the three ponies greeting us called urgently.

“It’s not so bad!” Pinkie replied with a smile and a wave as she zipped off to stand in front of the three.

While all three of their suits were the stock blue with orange highlights, they had the ‘b’ option helmets with the three large glass panels allowing you to see all of their faces with the included LED lighting.

The one in the middle was a unicorn, whose fluffy ears, slate-gray fur and purple mane indicated they were half batpony, with the unicorn half replacing the wings (Unless there was an alicorn nopony knew about who had the thinnest wings ever and could fit inside unicorn built clothing). Based on the face I was guessing she was a girl.

On her left a changeling, with bright pink eyes and some pink LED strips glued to her exoskeleton in a vine pattern. I immediately approved of this fashion choice, and snapped a picture with my helmet to spread the idea around back home. That mare had the right idea for how to look fucking awesome.

On the unicorn’s right, a half changeling, half pony, hybrid. Though the only way I could tell was silky blue fur and bright orange insect eyes rather than pony ones. Then again, she could be a normal shiftybug, just shifted a bit.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie greeted happily. “This is my husband Triggie! What're your names?”

“I’m Penny Cart,” the unicorn mare replied with a worried frown. “It’s forty-six below. You need proper winter clothing.”

“I’m fine, Penny! Magic scarf,” Pinkie said soothingly while beaming the mare a huge smile. "Twilight made one for everypony! Well, not Everypony everypony. Just the girls and I. But I'm pretty sure she COULD make one for everypony every pony if she really really wanted to. Oh! We could totally ask her really really nicely if you want one too!"

“Oh, okay,” Penny said with a relieved smile, while the rest of her face showed just a little stress from dealing with Pinkie's overeager personality. “Good. On my Right is Clip, and the buggie on my left is Stick. She’s my mate and will be taking you two into the mines. We got Celestia’s letter, and, um… Well, this kind of sucks but the part of the mine you need to enter isn’t exactly stable this time of year. It’s not too long of a trip, but don’t be too loud or you could collapse that ice tunnel.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you’re mining IN the ice sheet, not under it? What’s so important that you’re digging it out of ice way up here?” I asked, needing a concrete answer.

Penny frowned, biting her lip worriedly. “Sorry, that’s classified.”

I closed my eyes in irritation at the stupid. “I’m going to be in the mine shortly, I’ll see whatever it is…”

“It’s still classified, I can’t just tell you,” Penny protested politely while giving me a sheepish grin.

Clip shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Penny, it’s Sky Trigger,” she said with a sigh.

“I know,” Penny replied.

“He’s Ayna Trigger’s brother,” Clip continued. “She’s a Library Licensed Wizard. I attend her lectures. I’ve seen Sky in the Library with her before. Mister Trigger-”

“Doctor,” I corrected impulsively. “I didn’t go to superscience school for thirty years to be called mister.”

Hehe! References. Must contain smile!

“Doctor Trigger,” Clip corrected with a polite nod. “Do you have Dragon Level Clearance? I know you won't have your sister’s clearance but presumably-”

Wait what? What the hell was sis’s wizard university doing up here that needed that kind of clearance? I mean that wasn’t the top level classified stuff, but the number of my inventions that used Dragon Level classified research was pretty damn high. It was serious shit.

“Yeah I do,” I said with a nod. “What’s the Trottingham Library interested in that needs Dragon Level?”

“A room temperature liquid superconductor for thaumaturgic current,” Penny said quietly, clearing her throat afterward.

“Oh shit! Yeah, okay, that is a big deal,” I agreed with a nod.

Now I wanted a sample.

“Yeah, and as far as we can tell you can only find it here,” Stick added with the tell-tale voice of an eager mage. “It freezes solid into a red crystal at zero too! When solid it’s as resistant to magic passing through it as zinc, but still able to be affected by spells. Meaning we can magically freeze and thaw it. This stuff could revolutionize enchanting. I’ll happily show you some if we happen across any. That section of the mine is mostly depleted.”

Now I REALLY wanted a sample. You could use that to build a magic based transistor. I wasn’t exactly sure what could be done with one, not in any way where I couldn’t just use an electrical version to better effect because well, knowledge of a whole engineering crew in my head! But I was pretty certain I could sell enchanters magical transistors. For an assload to the power of a fuckton of bits.

“That’s pretty damn cool!” I exclaimed with an honest grin. “Um, Pinkie can we-”

The wind shifted, my ears twitching under my helmet in response to its odd sound. The wind carried the unmistakable sound of heavy labored breathing. The bone chilling sound carried over to us from the mine itself.

“Yes, we can take a tour afterward. Fluttershy probably won't even be in Neighpone by the time we get there anyways,” she said thoughtfully, rubbing her chin with a hoof. "Ooo! Do you have souvenir shops here, Penny? Everypony would love to get something nice!"

I blinked, Pinkie’s voice drawing my attention away from the strangely creepy wind. We were surrounded by literal mountains of ice. Nature can make for some creepy shit when it feels like it.

"Sorry Pinkie, no souvenir shops up here," the unicorn apologized with a slight frown.

"Aww..." Pinkie lamented, her ears drooping sadly.

"As for Fluttershy..." I shrugged. “I don't know. Those new airships are pretty speedy. I think she’ll be there by the time we arrive. What would that be, a total of thirty hours? We just throttle it down a bit, no biggie. We have the fuel to do that as long as we take things slow.

"A tour would be fun, we'll have the time for one, and I would like one.”

I had planned on refueling the Skyranger this weekend. There hadn't been time to refuel before leaving for this whole mess. But as long as I didn't do anything crazy with her, she should be able to make that round trip.

Penny hummed stroking her own chin with a hoof. “I’ll authorize a tour, but only if you sign an NDA, and agree to work out a contract for better mining tools. Magically hardened steel is well… It gets soft. Something about this place is… Well, it’s a bit weird. We originally came here chasing a rumor saying Mage Meadowbrook's tower is down there somewhere.

“I think it is. The mines have odd ward-like effects in some places. Oh! Nothing dangerous, just odd sounds, tricks of light and shadows, the worst thing so far is communications equipment is… Spotty down there. Magic or tech.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Odd… I don’t know of many things which block both EM and MW,” I mused.

I wonder if it would mess with a quantum link? Not that very many things could. Though Ayna had found a spell which did it once, not that she had ever dared to cast it again.

“Can we go into the mine now?” Pinkie asked eagerly. “I want to see the super crystals. Hmmm, that’s a silly name for them! They are red and super duper magic, but that doesn't’ sound right..."

Penny shook her head. “No, sorry. But soon! Come on inside for a minute and will get those NDAs done, then you have free reign. Stick, are you still okay with taking them down there?”

“Of course!” Stick agreed, her LED strips pulsing in time to her emotional outburst.

Yesssss! Litteral mood lighting for buggies! I need the tech spec for that. So awesome!

It shouldn’t have been possible, but the icy chasm cut into the ground looked like a fanged maw from the side too. At least, it wasn’t possible with a natural formation of ice. Not with this much detail.

“Okay, Stick, the fuck?” I demanded as the changeling stepped between two ‘fangs’.

“Humm?” she asked turning her head back to look at me.

“Why is the entrance carved to look like a mouth with teeth?” I asked pointed to the entryway with both forehooves and a raised eyebrow.

“Because Rarity isn’t here to tell them that looks terrible?” Pinkie guessed with a little grin.

“Actually, it’s to prevent the wind from blowing across the entrance. The ‘fangs’ break up the wind and prevent the bulk of the wind from blowing down and burying us all alive in the snow while producing the most terrifying shriek you’ve ever heard in your life,” Stick explained with a laugh. “Sorry! It’s been so long that I’ve kind of forgotten that it looks like a mouth. It’s really just a dome shape with cones.”

Humm, a wind wall. That made sense. It still seemed like an odd shape for one. Normally you’d use a series of vertical posts. But then again, this had to keep out the ever-shifting snow drifts too.

“Trust me, if this creeps you out, don’t look into the ice walls inside,” Stick added while unclipping a lantern from her suit’s side with her magic and lighting it.

“You don’t know a light spell? Or is this part of that ‘magic works weird below’ thing?” I asked as I walked up to the entrance myself.

“Some of column A some of column B. I’m total crap with light spells,” Stick laughed as she trotted into the mineshaft. “We’d get a dull, dim green light if I did it, and sometimes light spells just die. The effect that does it moves. I know I know, it’s a bit creepy, but if we find Meadowbrook's tower below all this junk we’ll get to turn it off. My money's on her as having worked out the ‘super duper crystal’ as Pinkie called it. Finding her notes on the stuff is well worth the occasional mini-heart attack.”

“Is it really that bad down here?” Pinkie asked uncertainly as the three of us began to walk down the hewn ice corridor.

The mine was definitely quarried by changelings. You could tell if you spent any real time in a changeling hive. While they had made the floor flat the walls were rounded, more organic in shape. That was good! Changeling dug tunnels naturally distribute the weight of the land above thanks to the distorted arch shaped roof. It prevented the need for their tunnels to be braced or buttressed.

It was also bad. Ice is not stone and cuts very differently. The combination of smooth curves and tons of cracks, facets, and fragments sent the light of the lantern scattering all over the place. The dim yellow light bounced off the ice, refracting and reflecting around to create illusory lights which twinkled in the distance.

As well as a whole heap of tangled shadows. They slid over one another, looking almost alive as we moved and the lantern swung back and forth. Guh, why was this place so creepy?

“So, Stick, you know that these suits have flood lamps in them, right?” I asked, tapping my watch to switch on the barrel mounted lamps.

“Wait! Do-” Stick yelped.

It was too late. The bright white lamps flashed on, immediately filling the mine shaft with noon-bright light. Noon-bright light which reflected, refracted, and focused through the ice and turned the entire hallway into a massive lens flare of death.

“AHHHHH!” I yelped, turning the light off as quickly as I could.

“My eyes!” Pinkie whimpered, ears drooping under her cap as she reached up to rub at her eyes with her hooves.

“Sorry, hon… That was dumb,” I mumbled blinking the light out of my eyes.

“Yeah, there’s a reason we’re using dim yellow light. The freaky shadows are way better than transforming the ice into the sun,” she grumbled shifting her eyes away for a moment before putting them back. “There, reset.”

“Why is this ice so refractive? It’s like optical quality glass!” I grumbled, shaking the spots from my eyes with a few good blinks.

Stick sighed. “As far as we can tell, most of the ice is made from distilled water. So it’s pure, and almost totally clear. But it’s got chunks of other kinds of ice in it too, a lot of which is as reflective as snow. The whole mine basically acts like an optical amplifier, and we get the Megabright Light of Doom diffused across basically everything within fifty meters.”

How the fuck do you even get this much-distilled water!? Let alone not have a chunk of ice sheet made up of frozen normal mineral enriched water.

Magic. That’s how. Stick was right, there had to be a mage’s tower down there someplace.

“Right, well… Lantern it is,” I agreed as we resumed our walk down the dimly lit tunnel. Descending deeper and deeper into the ice.

I had expected twists and turns as the mine wound around to follow the ‘ore’ deposits. That was not the case. Everything was nice, neat, and symmetrical, with a main corridor running for who knows how long to the east, and with branching tunnels to the north and the south along the entirety of the main tunnel.

The dig looked more archaeological than well, resource gathering. But that fit with the story. Frankly, with how damn creepy it was down here, if it had looked like a standard mine I would have begun questioning things. Like ‘why would a science team dig for ruins like this?’

I could tell Pinkie was disappointed too. Her sad, slow, unenthusiastic steps echoed through the mine, slightly out of step with Stick and I.

“You wanted the whole place to be a twisted maze, didn’t you?” I asked her with a smile.

She nodded and sighed. “Yeah… It would fit well with the creepy entrance and could have been like a corn maze.”

“Well, if you’re disappointed at a lack of interesting things,” Stick said casually as she stopped walking near one section of wall and held the lantern up to it, squinting through the ice before nodding. “Yep! You can see it from here. Look right where I’m looking, squint a bit and you should see it.”

I frowned, nodded, and trotted over to the wall along with Pinkie. Squinting through the ice I searched around, looking for anything before I saw it.

A huge reptilian creature, three times the size of a pony, frozen in position as if curled up, afraid and hiding.

“Woah… This ice sheet froze FAST,” I exclaimed, snapping a picture with my helmet camera.

“I wonder if we can thaw the poor thing out?” Pinkie mused worriedly. “Do you have a big enough bowl? I don't think we should microwave it, that could hurt!”

“Pretty sure it’s dead,” Stick said regrettably. “If we ever get permission to disturb the remains, Penny wants to dig that thing out and dissect it. I’d rather leave it alone, but hey, unknown species is unknown.”

“Yeah, and with a mouth like that, it's probably a monster,” I mused thoughtfully.

Stick shrugged. “No way to find out unless we can prove it ate ponies. Whatever it was, the poor thing clearly died from being frozen solid. Is that Nightmare Night enough for you, Miss Pie?” Stick asked with a playful giggle.

“No, it’s just sad. I think she was nice,” Pinkie sighed, putting one hoof against the ice wall.

I looked back at the frozen reptile. Pinkie’s hunches were usually spot on. I’d known that long before we’d dated. I made a mental note to come back here one day and see about digging that thing up. Maybe enough DNA would be preserved for Lily to do something with it.

Still… It’s presence raised another question.

What conjured this much pure water and had frozen it so quickly that the creature could not escape?

“Okay, so, like… How much further is it?” I asked Stick with a nervous frown.

The ice moaned and creaked this far down. But it seemed to be more than just the ice moaning. The now twisting and curving tunnel took the groans and screams and distorted them.

At least, that’s what I knew. What I felt was completely different. One can only giggle at the ghoulies if they can see where they are. The dull pained moans seemed to come from everywhere, nowhere, and elsewhere all that the same time.

“Don’t worry, we’re close,” Stick promised. “I’ve got the heebie-jeebies too. It’s just the ice.”

“It’s not so bad,” Pinkie giggled springing ahead of our little party for a moment. “If you listen closely it’s like a thousand voices whispering ‘log sloth’ over and over and over and over! It’s hilarious! Hehe.”

I blinked in surprise and stopped walking, cocking my head to try and listen to the sound as closely as I could. If Pinkie was right, that would definitely-

Yes. Yes, it did sound like words. “Huh. I hear ‘Logs a moth’,” I snickered.

Stick paused as well, looking back up the hallway. “Penny insists he hears words in the moans too. I never have. I guess my hearing is just bad?” She mused worriedly.

I shook my head slowly and took a step forward. “Nah, changelings are less prone to apophenia is all,” I said with a reassuring grin. “Thanks, Pinkie, that helped.”

“Of course it did!” She giggled trotting a few more steps over the hewn ice before stopping and staring at the floor, moving her nose close down to the ice itself. “Um… Sticky-stick? Can you get the light over here, please?”

“Sure,” the changeling agreed, moving the lamp over next to Pinkie.

Curious, I stepped over as well looking downwards through the ice at… At… What was that?

I squinted more, trying to get my eyes to focus on the shadowy thing deep within the ice below. But they didn’t give a buck. I was tempted to try using thermal imaging, but the copious amounts of ice in here would likely block any heat sources, even if there were any to be had.

“Odd, I’ve never seen anything down there before,” Stick mused. “The ice must have collapsed below us. There’s a few bubbles in the ice sheet, we’re headed to one. There must be another below us and some of its roof fell off, thinning the ice and revealing it.”

“Yeah, but what’s in it?” I asked. “That looks sort of like… A structure, maybe?”

The shadows below hid almost everything, but I swore I could see five obelisks, arranged in a circle, or maybe a diamond. The way light rippled and warped through the ice made it impossible to be sure what exactly was below.

“You’re guess is as good as mine. We'll have to dig down there later. That could be the tower. Well done Pinkie!” Stick exclaimed, holding up a hoof for Pinkie to bump.

Pinkie smiled and returned the hoof bump. “No problem! I just wanted to see if I could see my reflection in the ice and poof! There it was. Um, but are we close to the pool? It’s colder down here than up top and this is only a magical scarf, not a miracle scarf.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her joke as I checked the temperature via my suit’s systems. “Holy crap! It’s minus sixty-three!” I explained eyes widening in horror. “Pinkie, how much does that enchantment offset? There should be an emergency blanket in the left flank pouch of-”

“It’s okay Triggie, I’m just starting to get a bit cold. Like a winter day in just your fur. It’s not that bad yet,” she soothed giving me a reassuring smile.

“It’s normally never below minus forty in here,” Stick said worriedly looking down the tunnel ahead. “We have about a minute more walking to do. Let’s get this over with quick. If some kind of super chilled air pocket broke open or something… How cold can these suits handle?”

“Yours? Assuming it’s stock it’s okay down to um, well, minus sixty,” I admitted with a cough. “Don’t worry, three more degrees shouldn’t be a problem immediately. But you’ll want to check for damage when we get topside. I’ll replace it with a spare if you don’t have the means.”

No need to tell her that mine was good for another forty degrees. Sure I skimp a bit with my civilian grade stuff, but the box did say ‘good to minus sixty’. I’m not a liar.

“Appreciated. Without these things I’m toast up here,” Stick said with a relieved sigh. “Come on, almost there.”

I was now convinced that Stick had no idea what a minute was. Because that was five minutes. I know. I’d timed it.

I’d also kept an eye on the temperature read out. We were now at minus motherfucking eighty!

Stick’s suit was growing ice crystals around the seals, and the poor change bug was slowing down. I’d decided to carry her on my back, the suit should preserve heat long enough to get her out of here if she went into hibernation.

At the moment, she was still able to hold the lantern up for the three of us.

We’d also had to wrap pinkie in the silvery survival blanket like a cloak. The magic her scarf held was NOT equipped for an air temperature just a bit colder than dry ice. I was mentally kicking myself for not insisting she bring an environment suit.

Especially since each breath she exhaled turned into snowflakes as the carbon dioxide froze a few seconds after leaving her mouth…

The tunnel suddenly opened up without warning. We’d entered into a big bowl shaped room which had not been carved from the ice but had clearly been an air bubble trapped forever beneath the surface.

“T-t-t-this i-i-s… it,” Stick stammered through a mouth of chattering teeth.

“Pinkie, go for it. But try not to get… How the buck are we supposed to get liquid water down here at these temperatures!?” I snapped, realizing just how im-fucking-possible this whole quest was.

At least without bringing a motherfucking white phosphorous grenade!

Pinkie shrugged and slipped the bottle out of her mane. “Ice melts into water. That will be just fine. I think,” she decided trotting forwards slowly.

I followed along so Stick’s lantern would light her path. With an air pocket like this, the risk of holes in the floor was very hi-

“What!” I demanded as the lantern's dim glow revealed a pool of sloshing liquid in the middle of the air bubble.

“C-can’t b-b-be w-w-water,” Stick said worriedly.

“Pinkie, listen very carefully,” I warned, holding up one hoof. “The only thing that’s liquid at these temperatures is chlorine. Do not touch that stuff.”

Pinkie frowned worriedly and bent down, sniffing at the pool uncertainly. “No… This is water,” she said adamantly.

“It can’t be water,” I warned again. “Not unless it’s magic.”

“It’s kind of warm over here,” Pinkie reported. “I think it’s regular water.”

“D-d-ump- me in,” Stick begged.

I heard the distinct sound of a drop of liquid falling into a pool. Looking up, I was able to see a drop glitter in the lamplight as it fell from the ceiling into the pool. When I looked back down, to my intrigue, I could see small veins of red leaching away from the pool of liquid beneath the ice. That must be the superconductor. This pool of water had to be insanely magically charged.

“Not in your life! You hang on. I know the way back and we’ll get you out asap,” I promised.

"N-no!" Stick stammered. "Not S-s-sui-cidal. S-she-said-w-warm!"

Oh. Well, still no. Could be bottomless. Or Acid. Bottomless acid… Botcid.

“Magical water makes perfect sense to bring back as a part of the Elements,” Pinkie said as she dipped the bottle into the pool, careful not to touch it herself. “Do you think the mirror pool would work? That’s also magic water and it’s always warm! We could have saved a huge trip.”

“If it’s magic IN the water, that explains why Celestia insisted I couldn’t just blend mineral in the right ratio and make some then have you scoop it up,” I agreed, the superscientist in me intrigued by the anomaly.

Not the water being liquid at this temperature. Magic could do that. The intriguing question is, why water would be enchanted to remain warm at this-

A sharp crack echoed through the chamber as Pinkie pulled the bottle out from the pool. My eyes flew open with terror, my heart screaming terror at the thought of Pinkie falling through the ice. She remained still, tail raised in alarm.

The crack hadn’t come from the ice under her. But… Then where?

As I turned to make sure that our exit had not collapsed, the lantern grew brighter. The cold had made the old fashioned device burn much more dimly as it’s fuel failed to flow properly. Perhaps things were warming up?

Wait a second… The light reflecting off the walls wasn’t yellow. It was blue.

My watch chirped, making me jump a third of a meter into the air. While my heart beat at nineteen billion lightyears an hour, Dash’s voice crackled faintly over the speaker.

“Sky, it’s Dash. Help. Ponyville… Tartarus, breaking loose. Literally,” she moaned, sounding honestly hurt.

Oh, buck! That couldn’t be good. But I couldn’t exactly help this second.

“Sorry!” I apologise, meaning to tell her I’d be there as soon as I could. “Can’t talk now, kind of-”

“OH DEAR SWEET LUNA, IT’S ANGRY!” Pinkie screeched in blind terror.

For whatever reason, rather than looking back at Pinkie. I looked up.

I looked up into six blue glowing eyes formed from chunks of ice, which broke free from the ceiling as I looked up into their hate filled, cross-pupiled eyes. They broke free with a loud snap, all six of those malevolent pools of hatred were attached to a mound of ice in a circle around a gaping hole filled with sandpaper-like grit and fangs.

Fangs which began to spin around the edges of the walls like a wood chipper.

“FUCK EVERYTHING AND RUN!” I screamed, turning around to bolt down the passageway.

Pinkie bolted for the tunnel entrance, rushing past me in a blur and tucking the water bottle into her mane as she fled past me up the tunnel. Stick moved on my back, twisting to look up and scream as I launched forwards, sprinting after my wife with every ounce of energy I had.

The ceiling cracked again, this time accompanied by a huge crash which echoed off the tunnel walls deafeningly.

Stick squeaked in fright and clenched her legs around my back tightly. “It’s a huge worm!” She screeched, just before a sound like exploding glass blasted into me hard enough for me to FEEL the pressure wave.

“RUN! RUN! IT CAN EAT THROUGH THE ICE! RUN!” Stick squealed.

Her encouragement was unnecessary. My hooves could not possibly need any more reason to blast up the tunnel at top motherfucking speed.

I could see Pinkie just ahead of me, her tail flowing behind her horizontally, the emergency blanket likewise extended from her sheer speed. I could keep up with her, barely. The slick uneven floor forced my ankles to roll and slide. Traction was nearly meaningless.

The glass exploding sound of the beast behind us grew louder. The pale yellow light of Stick’s lantern vanished while she became nothing but dead weight on my back. Out cold. Lanturn dropped.

Only the light from the monster’s eyes to see ahead by.

"WHY AREN'T YOU USING YOUR TECH TO FIGHT IT?!" Pinkie sobbed in blind terror.

"I THOUGHT THIS WAS A FETCH QUEST!” I screamed back, heart starting to jackhammer against my barrel. “ I DIDN'T BRING SHIT FOR THIS! RUUUUUUN!!!!!"

“CALL SAI!” Pinkie begged.

Yes! Sai! Sai could teleport me some weapons. I could fight this! I could fight this! I could-

“ON IT!” I gasped.

“SAI! SAI FOR THE LOVE OF LUNA, ANSWER!” I yelled, knowing that my voice was enough to activate my watch.

“Hey boss, what’s up? You do know it’s my day off, right?” Sai asked irritably while the sound of shattering ice and the shriek of the monster's body against the tunnel shook the earth.

"SAI! I DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF IT'S YOUR DAY OFF! I NEED HELP RIGHT GODDAMN NOW!" I yelled, my right hind leg suddenly losing all traction, sending me skidding across the icy tunnel floor. “NOOOO!”

Oh god, I was dead! Oh god, oh god, oh god-

"Actually, I needed to talk to you,” Sai said reluctantly. “Something happe-"

The adrenal surge of a lifetime sent me rocketing back onto all fours and shooting up the tunnel. The ever brightening tunnel.

"NO FUCKING TIME! YOU SEND PINKIE DANGER, AND YOU FUCKING SEND IT, RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!" I ordered.

Oh. Yes. Good choice brain. Very good choice. That would help!

Sai sighed irritably. “I can’t the teleporters are on the fritz,” he said in the most bullshittium of ways he possibly could have.

The blue glow from the monster’s eyes brightened even more, then surged like somepony stuck an LED into a power main. The tunnel blazed bright white, blinding and searing pain lancing through my body from my eyes while the monster roared like a dying skill saw scraping against a blackboard.

“Guh! Boss, that power tool needs serious maintenance,” Sai spat in disgust. "Stop hurting the poor thing!"

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TELEPORTS ON THE FRITZ!?" I demanded before crying out in pain as I ran shoulder first into the tunnel wall.

Gritting my teeth against the pain I ran along the wall, scraping the side of my suit while I used the tunnel wall as a guide.

Was pinkie still ahead of me? Please be ahead of me.

"I mean I’m not manning them at the moment," Sai explained. “It’s my day off.”

I felt my eyes start to work again in the same way I imagined you’d feel molten lead pour down your back. "FUUUUUUUU-”

“Okay, seriously, the fuck are you even doing?” Sai asked curiously, interrupting my rage/pain scream.

“Running! Eldritch Ice Horror!” Pinkie screamed from just in front of me.

She was still there! Thank Luna!

“Sai!” I demanded gasping through my starting to burn lungs. “You get your binary ass to that transporter and send me the biggest batch of not-die in my lab!"

"Well if you're gonna be like that, then I will take my day off seriously," Sai snorted in irritation.

The monster’s light began to flare again. I clenched my eyes shut tight as I could. No way in Tartarus was it blinding me again!

"SAI, I SWEAR TO FUCKING LUNA!" I beg-screamed.

"Have fun with the ice whore. Pinkie too. I’ll see you two later… Or will that be three? I’ll set the table for three. If you two are doing a three way and want to impress her with a mech she must be something special," Sai said decisively.

My watch emitted an old school analog phone hangup click. The ice monster roared again this time adding the sound of a dying pig to the mixture of pants darkening fear spewing from it’s maw.

"YOU SONUVABITCH, SAI!” I sobbed, gasping for air, legs starting to burn. “YOU CAN'T HANG UP, YOU'RE INTEGRATED INTO MY WATCH!"

My watch beeped loudly three times in a melodic sequence. A stock female processed voice followed the beeps to proclaim, "ＴｈｅＡＩｙｏｕａｒｅｔｒｙｉｎｇｔｏｒｅａｃｈｉｓｕｎａｖａｉｌａｂｌｅ. Pｌｅａｓｅｈａｎｇｕｐａｎｄｔｒｙａｇａｉｎｌａｔｅｒ."

"RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" The monster screamed for me.

Pinkie shrieked in terror, suddenly slipping and going skidding on her belly across a dozen meters of ice-rink flat ice. I had to save her! I had to!

I gave my legs everything I had and rushed towards her, each hoof sliding and slipping over the insanely smooth surface. The insanely smooth surface above the other bubble. With the thinned roof. The thinned floor.

NO! NO! NO!

I grabbed Pinkie by her jacket and threw her across the floor, dumped Stick off my back and kicked her unconscious form as well. The two mares slid over the ground, stopping just as the monster reached the thinned patch. The ice splintered, shrieked, and with an ungodly roar collapsed under the weight of the monstrous creature.

The buckling floor broke apart too fast for me to run to the other side. The monster plunged down into the darkness with a screech. I opened my wings reflexively righting myself in the air, hovering over the chasm which had opened up below me and swallowed the ice worm.

Breathing heavily, I stared down into the pit, wincing as the creature's body smashed into the ground several seconds later. To my horror, the shadows covering the thing at the bottom of the pit stirred. A low moan whispered up from the depths, followed by the crunch of ice breaking. Then another. And another.

My eyes widened in horror. The shadows were eating the worm. The groaning creaking and moans of the shifting ice were louder now that the floor was gone entirely. And the words were clear.

“Yog… Sothoth…” It whispered almost silently. “Yog… Sothoth…”

I was completely unnerved at my proximity to a nameless thing at the bottom of a pit.

It was time to board the nope train to Fuckthatville. Before the other thing decided to awaken. The thing which was eating the first thing.

I slowly and carefully flew to the edge of the pit and landed next to Pinkie, who had pulled Stick further away from the edge.

“Nope,” I said simply.

“Nope!” Pinkie agreed.

I picked Stick up and set her on my back once more, and turned my suit’s lamp onto its dimmest setting possible. Only now realizing that the ice horror’s light still clung to the tunnel walls, providing the dimmest possible, haziest view of the path ahead.

“Nope,” I said again, and slowly, quietly, and stealthily crept up the tunnel towards the surface.

The Skyranger flew through the air once more, this time fully loaded. While my suit’s recordings of the day’s pants shitting fear fest had been grainy, spotty, and inconsistent they had been more than enough to convince Penny to pack her shit and get the fuck out.

The whole town was sitting down on the passenger deck. Full evacuation. The nope train was going to Trottingham.

If the Library wanted to keep mining that stuff they would need to send a different crew up there. And probably a platoon of battlemages.

Or maybe I should convince Captain Skritt to let me nuke the site from orbit. That would be the only way to be sure…

The cockpit door hissed open, snapping me free from my thoughts and practically magnetizing my eyes to the door. I let out a sigh of relief as Pinkie entered, the bottle of water held in her left hoof.

“Oh! Good… Sorry, Pinkie. Still a bit spooked,” I sighed, sitting back in my seat and quickly checking the autopilot.

Oh shit! Her hair was de-poofed! NOT GOOD!

“S-sky,” Pinkie said worriedly, sitting on the deck next to me to rest her head against my flank.

Oh shit. She was worried. Really really worried!

I wrapped a foreleg around her tightly. “It’s okay. We got away. We’re fine,” I promised.

“But what if that thing was there because the elements broke?” Pinkie asked looking up at me with wide wet eyes. “There could be one guarding everything everypony needs to get. My friends could be… They could be… I-”

Pinkie gulped, trying not to cry.

I narrowed my eyes. “Like fuck they could be!” I snapped, pushing my seat back and scooping Pinkie up into my lap to hold close. “Pinkie, you look at me. We know exactly where everypony except for Dash and Roboshy had to go. Dash is back by now for certain. But Original Fluttershy is still out there and… Going… To… Neighpone… Oh...”

Pinkie nodded. “Kaiju,” she whispered with a distressed whimper.

I felt my eyes narrow.

Reaching over to the control console with a wing I tapped the intercom. “Attention everyone. Find a seat and strap in. You have two minutes before I punch this thing up to full throttle. Our estimated time of arrival in Trottingham is changing to T-minus forty five minutes. Congrats, you get to tell your friends you’ve been to space. Cuz we’re going suborbital.”

I let go of the button and gave Pinkie a kiss. “Strap in too, love. We’ll need to refuel at the Phoenix after this burn, but then we’re going to intercept Fluttershy’s airship and make sure she gets things done safely. Then we’ll do the same for Rarity,” I promised.

Refueling wasn’t optional at all. The Skyranger had been kinda low at the start of the trip. More than enough to make it there and back but well, full speed suborbital flights do use a lot of fuel. I didn’t want to risk it.

“Pinkie promise?” Pinkie asked as she slid from my lap to buckle in.

I gave her another smile. “Sweetie, you know everything I ever say to you is a Pinkie Promise. We’ll get them. They will be safe.”

“W-what about Applejack?” Pinkie asked with another frown. “What if she’s missing because a monster got her?”

“She’s too stubborn to just lay down and die,” I said without a hint of sarcasm. “But if something did hurt her, and by proxy you, well… You remember what happened when that timberwolf broke your leg.”

Pinkie's hair re-poofed. I smiled at my job well done.

Nothing hurt my mare and got away with it. Nothing. Especially not that thing in the pit. I should convince Captain Skritt to let me nuke the site from orbit. That would be the only way to be sure…

11 - En Passent (Rarity Quest Part 2)

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Lyra Heartstrings - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Ancient Ruins, Mount Spur - Equestria

I’d once written a pretty long list of adventures I’d hoped to have in my life. It had all the of the standards of course, rescue princess/prince, slay a dragon (or cuddle with, if friendly), free village from evil overlord. It had some of the more fun stuff too, like fight a mummy over ancient artifact of power while in a collapsing ancient temple.

The list did not include ‘get kidnapped by my own truck’.

That’s the one I got. It wasn’t very fun.

Four fucking hours of the damn truck driving of it’s own accord, not one controll doing a goddamn thing. Just me, Rarity, and Pinkie, crammed into the one bench seat, bouncing around the cabin as we took the goddamn motherfucking cobbled road only barely wide enough for a truck to wherever the fuck the truck wanted to go.

Cobbled streets. Fuck. Them.

I didn’t used to hate them, but apparently driving over them at high speeds is a fucking hell that will bounce your ass all over the damn seat. It’s like driving over a million potholes. I had good suspension in this truck, I could scarcely imagine what it would be like in a low rider.

Pinkie of course, loved it. Trapping Rarity and I in a cabin with a hyperactive girl treating the whole thing like a carnival ride presumably for the sake of her own sanity. If she had any. I’d never been too sure of that.

I’d gotten to see Canterlot for a little while. So at least there was that plus. Hell, seeing a city built atop a bowl stuck to the side of a mind bogglingly huge mountain is fucking awesome. It’s like the architects watched Return of the King, and went ‘Pfff, amateurs. Let’s put that on the side of a cliff and cover it with gold.’

Despite the terror of being trapped in a vehicle I couldn’t control, I’d been excited to go there. It looked perfect! The very definition of a fantasy city. I could almost taste all of the cool shops selling neat little magic trinkets and the exotic food, and drinks, and all of the wonderful other things awaiting us at the end of the trip. The kidnapping had been all but forgiven!

And then we’d turned off the road onto an old disused mountain trail. Canterlot vanished behind the mountainside. ]The mysterious force animating my truck had other plans for us.

Other plans which involved this cave in the mountainside. Well, no, this ruin, probably. As a park ranger I’ve been in a LOT of caves. This one seemed more like a place that had been carved out of the mountain fucking ages ago and then worn down by time and weather.

The floor was very flat, the passageway a bit too straight, the walls and ceiling were rounded and organic looking but still oddly square and regularly made…

Yeah, this granite ‘cave’ was in fact a ruin. Which begged the question, ‘Why is the truck taking us to this eroding ruin?’

“Soooo…” Rarity said with a slow nervous breath as she peered out the windshield. “I think we can all see that this is an ancient abandoned ruin. I think we all know what happens next. The only real question is what this old place is. Torture dungeon or hidden temple?”

I gave her a smile. I could tell she was trying to lighten the mood. Problem was, she had a valid point.

“Eh, temple to the King in Yellow,” I replied with a shrug.

“Why can’t it be a sexy dungon? That wouldn’t be so bad and Lyra would like it,” Pinkie said oddly happily.

I sputtered slightly, completely embarrassed by Pinkie just shoving that out there. “I- um, well, yes, but-”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Lyra, darling, we’re in a living or possessed truck, slowly driving down a long tunnel into a mountain,” she said sitting back in the seat in a slump. “Do you really want to spend what might be your last moments embarrassed over your own hobbies?”

“Not really… And I’m only embarrassed to talk about them infront of my friends. I mean, you know I’ma perv but, well… My friends don’t need to know the details. Especially when they know that I think they are cute,” I admitted bashfully. “Not that I can’t control myself around you girls, or anything. Just, well… I don’t want to burden my friends with unnecessary information. You know?”

“Well, since we’re probably going to be sacrificed to raise a mummy or something, why not? I’ve always been curious,” Rarity asked with a naughty giggle.

Pinkie giggled and twisted in her seat to give us both an amused look. “Oh you sillies! We’re fine! If this were something bad I’d have a bad feeling about it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Pinkie, you’re not Hon Solo,” I objected. “Can you not see the… That’s a skull!”

I exclaimed pointing to a deformed lump of rock which had once been carved into a pony’s skull which hung from the ceiling, looking down on all who entered into the tunnel.

“Uh… Big, creepy, skull-thing aside… Pinkie’s right,” Rarity said as she took her eyes off the massive stone skull. “She can sense danger. I saw her do it all the time in highschool.”

“That’s all well and good,” I began only to trail off mid sentence as the truck pulled into a large chamber.

The chamber was as rotted and worn down as the tunnel, but you could see that it had once been beautiful. The ceiling was supported by a circle of pillars, the base of each pillar having a small hole carved into them which probably had been some kind of shrine. Because this was a temple.

The raised dais in the center of the room helped tell me what this ancient place had been, but the statutes gave it away.

There were two statues, both perfectly preserved. The most prominent statue stood on an altar in the center of the dais, and looked like a hooded and cloaked mare, looking down at a spot on the dais with a kind, understanding smile, a lit cigarette clamped between her teeth, and her left foreleg extended out as if to help you up.

The other statue...

The other statue looked like what you’d come up with for a character concept if you had taken several bottles of cold medicine and left the TV on during a documentary on greek mythology. A chimera with an eastern dragon style body, the tail of a normal snake, mismatched bird and bat wing, mismatched hind legs, mismatched front legs, the head and face of a goat, and mismatched antlers.

That sounds like it should be horrific to be hold, and while it was unsettling as a children’s TV character designed by HP Lovecraft at gunpoint… It seemed more silly than scary.

The pose helped. Legs at a different angle to the rest of the long body, stooped over with one talon pressed against the side of the altar, the other one extended a slight ways away. Like something you’d get if you were trying to write a letter while you were being petrified.

Oh.

Before I could puzzle out whether or not touching the central statue petrified you, two things happened. First, I noticed there was a living pony here, sitting at the base of the statue, her white fur having camouflaged her against the marble for a few seconds. Second, the truck stopped, honked twice, then died.

The horn’s twin blasts echoed around the room, creating a terrifying roar, like the truck was challenging others for its territory.

I felt my years standup in terror at the sound, and at the same time I noticed the mystery mare’s ears flick up as well. But not in terror, in curiosity.

She stood up, showing herself to be rather tall and exceptionally slender. Not in a gross way, she looked like what you might think of if you thought about a fashion model for exceptionally tall women. The odd thing was, despite the body type, she had simple straight trimmed bangs for her long flowing reddish brown mane, and a matching cut for her tail. They didn’t look fashionable, sure that style can look great, but she looked as if she just cut her hair in a straight line when it grew to an irritating length.

Combined with the mare having a modern pencil, a quill pen, and a paintbrush tucked in her mane next to one ear and the quill and inkpot cutiemark, gave her haircut the look of an artist more focused on their own project then the world around them. I liked those kind of people. I really did. But this mare was unnerving to the maximum possible degree.

Because I couldn’t tell what kind of pony she was. Pegasi, earth pony, unicorn, everytime I blinked she seemed to randomly change. Sometimes appearing as a combination of all three at once.

Turning to look over her shoulder, the mare looked at the three of us through the windshield and then glanced back down at a piece of parchment in her right hoof. Despite the distance between us, the echoey chamber carried her words clearly as she spoke to herself.

“‘I’m fetching some mortals to show you she was right,’ And these are the ones you chose, Discord? Hardly typical examples,” she said sadly before turning towards us.

She walked over towards us, her unnerving presence making my heart beat rapidly in my chest. What the hell was going on!?

The mare kept walking until she stopped just in front of the truck. She nodded politely, the gesture being something like the Asian mini-bow but without breaking eye contact.

“Hello,” she said looking me in the eyes with a neutral expression that hid deep sadness. “I’ve never spoken to mortals directly before. Can you see me? Am I a pony? Oh dear, can you hear me? Am I warping the atmosphere correctly?”

“T-talking,” Rarity said with an unnerved wince. “It’s called talking. You are. W-what are you?”

I nodded. “Yeah… I mean, eldritch abomination is obvious but um.. What kind?” I added.

The mare recoiled, face twisting into a disgusted grimace. “I can’t possibly look THAT bad! I may not have designed ponies but I use your design elements all the time in my work. I know what you look like,” she objected, sounding honestly hurt.

Pinkie held up her left hand.

“Yes?” The creature that looked like a mare asked.

“You’re constantly shifting between different kinds of pony and it’s VERY creepy,” she informed politely. In the same tone and with the same expression you’d use for ‘your fly is down’.

“Oh. Well I don’t want to do that,” she said closing her eyes tightly for a moment.

The constant shifting stopped, replaced by a sort of unicorn/pegasi duality. Not like an alicorn, but rather sometimes a unicorn sometimes an alicorn. Unlike her previous ‘random jump cutting’ the transition was almost invisible. Making it like you simply couldn’t tell which she was, or if she was both.

“Is this better?” She asked with a curious frown.

“Somehow, that’s worse,” I said without thinking and instantly eeped, covering my mouth in fear.

“Darn…” She pouted, closing her eyes again. “Let me try using a dragon’s shape. I made them, I certainly can get that perfect.”

Her entire form changed, the same jump cutting from early, only now I was looking at a quadrupedal white dragoness with small graceful horns colored the same as her mane had been. Large leathery wings, a sleek body, dainty but powerful looking talons, and a slight reddish brown hue to her scale’s edges.

“That’s a dragon!?!” Rarity gasped, her face pulling into the single biggest smile I had ever seen her make. “I didn’t know they were so gorgeous! Why didn’t Lily show us what a dragon looked like!? I’d have asked him to turn me into one instead.”

As interested as I was in Rarity sudden squee over dragons, I had a more pressing matter to attend to. Namely…

“What are you?” I asked the shape changing creature nervously.

“My name is Faust, I am an Elder God, Creativity to be specific,” Faust informed factually. “I’ll speak with you in a moment. You, in the middle. Is that not your natural body?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, um, we all had transformation spells done so we could fit in here better. K-kind of like what you’re doing I guess. Are you actually a god?” She asked.

Faust nodded. “Yes I am. I can tell you also love beauty, miss. Please, allow me,” she said causally.

I was suddenly squashed between my car door and something hard and smooth on the other side. Not painfully so but uncomfortably so. What the flying fu-

“Oh… I see, size is an issue. Sorry, I thought that vehicle's interior would expand accordingly,” Faust said with a frown, the pressure suddenly leaving and-

And holy shit Rarity was a dragon!

Her colors were the same, smoky pale blue, and lighter icy blue, and her general facial features remained the same, I could tell that she was Rarity, but everything else… The sleek feminine reptilian body plan, five fingered talons, the cute way her long sinewy tail curled up between her legs in what looked like a painful but adorable posis-

“OW! My tail,” Rarity whispered, her elongated snout amazingly expressive and she twisted to change her position before slipping as she looked down to see smooth scales instead of the fur she had. “Ahhhh!”

“Hey! Don’t shapechange people like that!” Pinkie scolded, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’ll give someone a heart attack”

Faust tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. “She’s been transformed before. I don’t see the problem.”

“I was PREPARED last time, darling,” Rarity objected, gritting her teeth in anger. An expression which the fangs made SUPER effective at conveying anger. “Also, last time, I wanted to be changed, and gave permission!”

“But you expressed a desire to be a dragon just now,” Faust asid with a genuinely confused frown. “I- I don’t understand. Why tell me that if you don’t want my help?”

“Aren't you a god? How the hell don’t you know that you’ll terrify someone half to death just changing them like that!?” I added for good measure.

God or not, I was too scared to pay attention to that voice in my head telling me to shut up and hide.

“You’re lucky I’m still getting used to this- To the other body,” Rarity exclaimed, her wings twitching angrily. “If I hadn’t been transformed recently I would probably be panicking. As it is I’m extremely angry you didn’t ask me if I wanted you to transform me!”

“Um… But you did want me to, and you’re not unhappy with that body. You like what you can see of it, and especially admire the way the scales shine,” Faust said raising one talon up in objection.

“Are, are you reading my mind?” Rarity demanded half shocked half livid.

“No? Maybe?” Faust admitted with a shrug. “I don’t know. I’m just observing the electrical activity within the organ located between your eyes. That’s body language, right?”

“That’s mindreading!” I snapped. “And it’s NOT okay to do to someone.”

“Yikes!” Faust said, recoiling slightly. “Yes, I can see that subject is extremely taboo amongst mortals. I’m sorry. I’ll not look at that part of you.”

“Good!” Pinkie, Rarity and I exclaimed together.

“Well… This went better than expected,” Faust admitted with a smile.

“Are you going to put Rarity back?” Pinkie asked giving the goddess a look of ‘come on. Do the right thing’. “It’s one thing to apologize but you also need to make things right.”

“But she likes that body,” Faust protested.

Rarity blushed, her cheek scales turning the most adorable shade of purple. “Well, yes… I do. Assuming I look like she does, but with a nice pale blue,” Rarity admitted with a bashful smile.

“See? I’m not putting her back. Not unless she specifically asks me to. We established that is not culturally acceptable for mortals,” Faust said as she sat down.

I frowned and looked over at the pony sized dragoness next to me. Fucking christ… And I thought it was hard to not see her as hot while she was a pony… “W-well… If you like it I guess that’s fine?” I ask-said, looking away to hide my blush.

It was the cute little nose! That had to be it. Just don’t look at her nose…

“Hummm… We’ll have further conflict if I remain a dragon now, assuming your new brain’s instincts effect you,” Faust said thoughtfully. “Let me return to the pony form.”

She jumpcut again, returning to the ‘cant tell if pegasi or unicorn’ body again and making me wince in the process. The lack of any kind of transition made my brain hurt. A flash of light, flesh flowing like water… Anything! Anything other than making reality look insubstantial and transmutable. Please…

Faust frowned, the her white furred muzzle crinkling slightly as she looked at me. “You’re afraid of me. You can stop that. I’m not going to hurt you,” she informed with a swish of her tail.

“Yeah, um, we can’t just shut off emotions… Especially fear,” I replied nervously. “Can you stop just making yourself change? Please?”

“Yes, I’ve settled on this form for my quest,” Faust promised with a reassuring smile. “And are you speaking truthfully? You can’t just ignore an emotion?”

“Nope, w-well some. But not fear. Or love. Or the other big emotions,” Pinkie chimed in.

Faust frowned, and pulled the letter she had looked at before out of thin air, reading over it again.

“I see…” She murmured. “Excuse me, I’m going to go confirm that you don’t have the option to ignore an emotion. I’ll be right back.”

Her body flickered briefly, like if a old school film projector had missed a single frame. Before I could even think about what that might mean Faust gave the three of us an extremely apologetic frown.

“I’m back, jumped back a day and asked somepony else. She confirmed it. Poor thing’s mate is missing,” Faust babbled. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea you couldn’t push emotion aside. It’s so far out of my life experience to be unable to just not think about loving something, or choosing to be courageous instead of fearful.”

Wait she just casually time traveled!? AWESOME! How do?

Rarity shook her head incredulously, staring at Faust with her lips scrunched into a small ‘o’ shape. “How could you not know that? You’re a god, of creation. Don’t you make species, or people?”

Fause shook her head. “No. I sometimes design mortal lifeforms but my son Dawn is in charge of determining how they actually live and operate, and he makes most of the created life forms. Mortals are not important to the universe, we largely ignore you.”

“W-wait… We're not… Then, why do we exist?” I asked in shock, my eyes opening wide.

“Mortal life is an unforeseen byproduct of planetary formation. I suppose in that sense I did create mortal life, but I didn’t mean to. I wanted to decorate stars with little balls of rock and gas trailing behind them as they glide about the universe,” Faust replied matter of factly before ear ears drooped slightly. “Oh. That’s rude of me to say, isn’t it? Well, if it helps, I do love lots of things you have created! I may not have intended to create your ‘kind’ but I’m glad I did. You’re a wonderful source of inspiration.”

I didn’t know how to feel about that. The universe wasn’t for us? But-

No, no Lyra. You’re being dumb. You come from another world entirely. That may be how THIS world works, but it’s not necessarily how your own works.

“If we aren't supposed to exist, why did you not like… Get rid of us?” Pinkie asked curiously, giving Faust a questioning look.

“Because you don’t harm anything by existing and when I noticed primitive lifeforms making little statues um… Well, you’re cute!” Faust giggled, blushing lightly. “And more modern mortals are impressive in what they have been able to achieve while having to do everything with three dimensional limitations.”

I blinked, then smiled, finally understanding what was going on here.

“OH! I get it,” I exclaimed eagerly. “You like mortals but haven't’ really interacted with us before and want to see what we are like!”

“Oh!” Rarity exclaimed as well, also smiling. “Yes, that makes perfect sense! It would certainly explain why you just transformed me like that…”

Faust nodded and cleared her throat. “Um, well, yes and no,” she admitted with a feeble grin. “See… To my kind, mortals are sort of like well, animals. Most of us do not consider you to be people. I’m sorry if that’s rude.”

“That’s EXCEPTIONALLY rude,” I said flatly.

Faust nodded with an apologetic grimace. “Yes, well, we… Oh! You aren't exactly concerned about the emotions of a cat, right?”

“Everyone I have ever known cares immensely about their kitty,” Pinkie said with such iron clad force that Faust took a step back.

I nodded in agreement. “I know three people who might actually kill you if you hurt their cat,” I informed factually.

“Uh… Bad example then,” Faust admitted, clearing her throat. “Should I have used dogs? I like dogs, but if you don’t like dogs-”

“We like dogs too,” I grunted angrily, giving her a glare. “Wait a second! How can you not know about mortals if you know about AND LIKE dogs!?”

Faust blushed lightly. “We’re not the only creatures native to the fifth dimensional part of the universe. I have a pet dog. The dogs you know I made by creating a three dimensional version of my dog so that you could all have dogs. Every sapient species bearing world has dogs. They are a gift. Dogs are wonderful creatures, even the versions you know. I have three.”

Well… That did seem plausible. After all, I’d seen dogs in magical pony universe and in my own home universe. And a god of creation could definitely do that.

“Alright, fair enough,” I decided with a nod. “Most of us actually like and care for other animals, even though they aren't people.”

Rarity nodded sharply. “That’s right. It’s especially true if they are cute,” she added.

“Um… Microbes?” Faust asked, blushing with embarrassment.

I paused for a moment, then sighed and nodded. “Okay, yeah. We don’t really think about microbes much. Unless we’re sick or something looks dirty then we… Oh. Oh okay. I think I get your point.”

Fuck. That hurt! We we really that far beneath the notice of higher powers?

“Again, I’m sorry,” Faust sighed. “That’s how most of us think of you. It’s not our job to care for you, we care for and maintain the universe. Stars, galaxies, fundamental forces. We are here to keep things working as they were deigned. Mortals were not part of this design, so well… Most of us don’t care. I’ve recently come to see this as wrong. I care about your kind now.”

“Why now? Why not from the beginning of time?” Pinkie asked sounding and looking just a little upset.

“Because mortals are not my job, and I do admit that I’m… Easily absorbed by my projects. I need to pay more attention. That’s one reason why I am here now. I’m trying to change, to improve. I owe it to Dusk,” Faust said, her head hanging sadly as she continued. “My daughter Dusk always insisted that mortals were people too. She was Death, and as such knew every mortal intimately so as to judge them and sort their souls properly. We- We never paid her much attention. Death is not an important job within our community. She was a Customer Service Representative, basically.

“I regret not being more involved with her now that she- she’s dead. I didn’t think that could happen. I thought I could take a Graham’s number of years for myself to work on a project and still have infinite more time with her… I was a fool.

“I’m here because this is one of her old temples, I thought this would be a good place to start seeing your world as she did. While we never directly interacted with mortal kind before, many years ago Dawn convinced us it might be fun to indirectly try and get mortals to share our personal philosophies. I began to suspect that Dusk was right about you back then and now I know that she was correct.

“We have a lot to make up for. All of us. I WILL be convincing them to help you all when I return home. I am truly sorry for failing you.”

“Why now?” Rarity asked uncertainly. “There feels like there’s a reason for that.”

“Oh yes, there is,” Faust agreed.

I blinked. “Um, and that reason is… What?”

“Why do you need to know?” Faust asked honestly tilting her head to one side.

Like, not in that rude ‘none of your buisness’ way. She honestly had no idea why we would want to know.

“Because sitting here in a truck that you animated to kidnap us to talk to is a very very unusual experience for anyone and we would REALLY like to know exactly WHY,” I informed, hoping I emphasized the importance properly.

Faust ear’s perked. “Oh! Well, I didn’t fetch you. Discord did, he’s my father. He’s also that petrified statue over there… I have no idea how that mortal spell actually contains him. It’s so odd,” Faust said looking over her shoulder at the statue curiously.

“Okay, why did HE kidnap us and bring us here, to you?” Pinkie asked with an exacerbated sigh.

“Because I’m investigating my daughter’s death,” Faust replied darkly. “I believe she was murdered, as no simple accident could have mangled her essence as badly as it was. A mortal killed her, but the method used and the power required… One of my kind armed that mortal.

“I have my… Suspicions,” Faust said looking to one side with an odd glare. “I will keep quiet about the details as any of my peers could be listening. However, by learning about mortals, I can come to understand my daughter more, as I should have done while she was alive. Discord told me he knew the perfect mortals to teach me about harmony and friendship among your kind, and that they would help me find Dusk’s killer…

“I know you are not them, Discord probably took the first mortals he could sense when the petrification began to kick in. However, according to his letter, he knows that you three can help me achieve the same effect. As such, I would like to ask for your help. Not only in my investigation, but in understanding your… Personage. Please understand that to me, your kind is extremely alien. I don’t mean to be rude but… This is like talking to a-”

“God?” Rarity asked with a smirk. “I think you’ll find that you’re just as alien to us as we are to you.”

Faust blinked then grinned. “I like you! Well… Will you help me?” She asked hopefully giving the three of us a suspiciously cute smile.

“Not if it involves sacrificing a goat…” I mumbled, eeping as I realized I’d said that aloud.

“Oh no! not at all, I just need to get to the Crystal Empire. I have NO IDEA where it is. But I do know that an artifact of mine is there and I can use it to spy on my suspect through the shields he’s erected around his actions. I know he’s manifested in the mortal realm right now, but I can't find him or see what he’s doing,” Faust explained. “I’d also like to make friends. I want to know what you are like, what you want, and how you work so I can find a proper replacement for a certain employee, should they be terminated.”

Holy fucking shit! THIS WAS ON THE LIST! Have a road trip with a friendly supernatural being! SCORE!

“Hell yeah! We can totally let you join our road trip,” I said eagerly. “We’re actually going to the Crystal Empire to visit a friend of ours!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow turning her head to look at me. “Do you really think that’s the best idea?”

“Yeah, how will she fit in the truck? The cabin’s full,” Pinkie mused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

Rarity shook her head, “No that’s not what I meant. I meant that we have no way of knowing if this is the truth, or some kind of trap. Um, no offense meant, Faust. We also don’t know if she’s going to be safe to be around. Sure she may not be hostile but she still transformed me simply because she sensed I would like it.”

“I’m sorry,” Faust sighed in irritation. “I knew you were statically formed and I enjoy varying my own appearance from time to time. I thought I was doing you a favor.”

“You would have if you had asked me, because I honestly would have taken this from the get go if I knew dragons were graceful looking. I expected harsh angled, ugly thick scaly hide, and huge horns,” Rarity explained with a sigh. “I wouldn’t mind helping you so long as you promise to ask with words before using any of your magic on us.”

“Oh! It’s not thaumaturgy, I actually use the underlying mechanism which is responsible for regulating thaumaturgy itself,” Faust exclaimed eagerly cracking the biggest grin ever. “It’s a similar force, but with higher dimensional matrices and a-”

Her ears drooped backwards as she noticed the deadpan stare that all three of us gave her. Not a one of us would understand a fucking WORD of that.

“-Do… Oh yes. I see. You don’t know the technical details of magic. Humm… Well I suppose magic will have to be the word for it,” she lamented with a sad sigh. “Regardless of technical details, I promise to ask before modifying, augmenting, or directly affecting you in the future. Does that suffice?”

“Well, Rarity has a point. Even if I do hate to admit it,” I sighed. “While I think it would be cool to go on a road trip with a supernatural creature, how do we know you’re trustworthy?”

“I think it’s pretty clear that if I wanted you dead, puppeted, altered, or otherwise harmed, you would be,” Faust said plainly. “I honestly and sincerely want to understand mortals through first hand experience, and I truly do not know what location on this planet is called the Crystal Empire, nor do I know who I could ask. We don’t really keep track of mortals in detail… Though we do notice when you go extinct overnight.”

I raised an eyebrow, ears perking in alarm.

Faust rolled her eyes. “I’m here to PREVENT that. Mortals may exist by accident, but you’re here and you have a right to exist. Whatever force keeps destroying your civilizations needs to stop. It’s not a part of the intended function of the universe. The Big Man would be pissed if something went wrong with the habitability of the universe.

“I also need to stop it to prevent any more of us from dying. A thing I can not do without the Crystal Heart, an artifact I made back in the ‘indirect manipulation game’ days,” she explained with an exacerbated sigh. “You know the way to where I need to go, and are already traveling there. It’s in my own interest to not harm you.

“Would a boon help? Something to show my good intentions? Name a desire and I’ll fulfill it.”

I blinked in surprise. “What, like, a small favor, a dijinn wish, or what?”

Pinkie nodded quickly. “Yeah, what’s the limit here? Can we ask for anything anything?”

Faust nodded. “Well, yes. Assuming you want something possible under normal physics and affecting an area of less than ten cubic kilometers. That’s not a limit of my power, naturally. That’s simply what I dare use with this threat against my kind in play while in the third dimension. Our power acts like a beacon to each other,” she admitted with a nervous blush.

Oh shit. That made sense. I mean, of course a god could detect another’s power in use nearby. Which meant her doing something would put her in danger. I couldn’t know for sure if her kid had died. Sure I believed that, but I couldn’t prove it. But that ‘statue’ over there? Yeah that looked like nothing that would evolve or exist without magic and it clearly had been petrified.

“The only thing I want is to be sure this truck can reach the Crystal Empire… Because I don’t know if there’s a gas station here,” I said with a polite nod.

Faust nodded back and looked at my truck before cocking her head and then giggling. “Oh Discord, you’re so silly. That won’t be a problem. This vehicle is already able to make the journey,” she answered. “Do you want anything else?”

“Well, I already am an anthro and I can shapechange into a pony or my normal self… I’ll have more fun learning magic on my own… I think I’m good,” I decided with a nod and a smile.

“Lyra’s already in her personal fantasy,” Rarity laughed. “She’s been wanting to live in a place like this for her whole life I imagine.”

“Are you certain you desire nothing?” Fause asked once more.

I nodded, then paused, frowned and shook my head. “Actually, Lily didn’t really show me how to shapechange. Could you give me the knowledge and skill to do it when I please?”

“Done,” Faust answered as I instantly just well, knew.

As if I always had. Like I’d learned to do it since I was three, and learned just before I learned how to ride a bike.

Fuck! That’s a powerful entity right there… Yeah we can trust her. She’d have killed us EASILY if she wanted to. Literally effortlessly.

“I just realized I don’t know your names… Um, well… You haven’t told me them I mean. Sorry about that mind reading thing again,” Faust admitted with a blush. “We’ll need to go over what else is not okay to do with you soon.”

“Lyra, Rarity, Pinkie,” I introduced, pointing to each of us in turn.

Faust nodded, seemingly pleased. “Is that sufficient, Lyra?”

“Yep!” I said focusing for a moment and morphing back into my old human body.

It felt weird to not have fur… Having had it now I felt… Wrong. Bad wrong. I frowned and looked at my skin inspecting it for a few moments. At least I had control. And at least Lemon could explore a real human all she wanted to.

“Rarity? Do you desire anything?” Faust asked politely.

“You know, I think I do… But I don’t want to ask aloud. Can you read my mind, please?” She asked.

I raised a curious eyebrow. Pinkie blinked and looked at Rarity suspiciously.

Faust’s eyes widened in honest shock. “You feel SHAME over that sort of thing?” She asked incredulously.

Rarity shook her head. “Yes… Can you do that for me?”

“Not the second half. I promised, remember?” Fsut asked.

Rarity smiled slyly. “I do remember. That was a test, and you passed.”

The goddess laughed. “Well, I’m glad to have earned your trust. As for the other part, it is done. The rest will have to rely on you. I am profoundly sorry for that… That’s a limitation of your self identity. I will ask Dawn about this. It seems needlessly cruel,” Faust said firmly before looking over to Pinkie. “And now you, what’s your desire?”

Wait… What did Rarity ask for? It hadn’t solely involved her, so-

“I’m kinda hungry… Can I have a big bag of tacos?” Pinkie asked hopefully, her eyes wide with hope.

My eyes widened in terror. “PINKIE, NO! She might make a ten cubic kilometer bag of tacos!” I hissed in warning.

“Good catch. I was about to do that,” Faust laughed shaking her head happily. “Perhaps we should define a sense of scale. When I say something is big, I mean it is no smaller than a galactic supercluster.”

OH! Oh, um, okay. Yeah if she was used to dealing with things on THAT sort of scale… No wonder her kind thought about us as well, microbes. Fuck. I couldn’t even imagine looking at a galaxy in its entirety and going ‘that’s kinda small’.

Pinkie’s eyes widened hungrily. “I could eat that many tacos…” She said in what I swore was a practiced version of the TV show ‘girl says crush’s name’ voice.

“I see…” Fause mused rubbing her chin with one hoof as a small cloth bag jumpcut into existence in Pinkie’s lap. “Here, one hopefully properly sized bag containing presumably more tacos then you can ever eat.”

Pinkie grinned reached in the bag roughly the size of her head, and pulled out a taco, inspecting the rather good looking sample for a few minutes before eating half the damn thing in one loud crunching bite.

“Challenge accepted,” Pinkie declared between chewing.

“Well… I guess you’re coming with us now,” I said looking over at Faust with a frown. “It’s not beneath a goddess to ride in the bed of a pickup, is it?”

“Oh don’t worry, I have a plan! I’ll simply become one of the smaller varieties of pony and sit atop the dashboard,” Faust said proudly.

I blinked. In that blink she’d vanished, and had reappeared as a young unicorn filly laying like a cat on the dash above the glove compartment. I bit my lip to keep from squeezing at the adorable fluffiness of her belly fur.

I didn’t want to get smited.

“Um, Faust,” Rarity said in a diplomatic voice. “That’s not another species of pony. That’s a child.”

She blinked cocking her head to one side. “Juvenile mortals have a different physical form to adults?” She asked in surprise.

“Yepperoni! Usually a cuter form too,” Pinkie giggled.

“That’s so weird… Why would that be a thing?” Faust mused to herself before her eyes lit up. “Oh! Yes, so they are smaller to be more easily passed through the vaginal opening after the biomass has finished compiling! That makes sense. I suppose that could only be so stretchy… Unless… Ooo! Yes that could work.”

I looked at Rarity and Pinkie, hoping they understood my stare as ‘say something before I bust a gun laughing!’

Faust rolled over onto her belly and created a pen and paper from thin air, ignoring the pencil still tucked behind her ear. “I could easily rework the makeup of organic tissue to accommodate heightened elasticity! This could solve the problem with my latest pet project. Um, do you mind if I draft plans while we travel? I can still talk. This sort of thing is a thing I literally do in my sleep,” Faust admitted with a proud smile.

“Uh, sure thing,” I said reaching for the truck’s ignition.

Before I even touched the key, the engine turned over with a happy but proud roar.

“Ah. You’re still alive, I see,” I said looking at the steering wheel.

“Yes. Discord enchanted this vehicle to take us where we need to go. Just let her do her job. We can relax and talk,” Faust said happily as the truck started to back out of the tunnel.

Whelp, let's take a minute to take stock of my situation so far. I fled city under attack by an evil druid (that or the eldritch forest finally snapped), then encountered friendly but socially inept goddess who wanted to go on a roadtrip. This adventure was shaping up to be something from the ‘Weird Fiction’ section of my possible adventures list.

Fuck the hell yes!

Rarity - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Medious Beach, Cobalt Reef - Shorefall

You know you’ve traveled a long ways in a short time when mid afternoon becomes night in only three hours. I’d experienced that on airships and when teleporting very long distances before, and it always made me feel a bit odd.

I don’t know why, I understood how the phenomenon worked. Celestia’s sun revolves around Equis, which is round, and well, everypony knows how flashlights work when you shing them on a ball. Still… It wasn’t night in Equestria. Perhaps that’s what did it. Luna had yet to raise the moon, so while it was night where I was, her enchantments to the night sky weren't there.

Oh. Yes, that’s why. I’m sad that not everypony in the world gets to see the same night sky I do.

“Miss Rarity? Are you alright?” Righteous asked, his hologram flickering slightly.

“Yes! Sorry, I just noticed the time,” I replied pointing with one hoof out of the ‘window’ that was the display screen.

“Oh… Are you tired? There isn’t a bed in here yet but the benches in the transport section can be slept on in a pinch,” he said with a sympathetic frown.

“Oh, no, not at all. It's just going from bright day to the dark of the knight in three hours is unusual for me,” I giggled. “It’s fine, darling we can continue our conversation.”

“I completely understand I’m used to one sunrise every week or so. This whole one per ninety minutes deal is odd. As is the orbiting star. I never had time to get used to that. I was only three years old when the end came,” Righteous remarked casually.

I tilted my head to one side, confused beyond reason. “Excuse me, but what do you mean ‘new’? How did your people live without a sun? Did you make it? How? I know Celestia didn’t she only moves it.”

“We had a star. A proper one, big old G type main sequence beauty named Sol. She’s still there, she’s just dead now, nearly invisible in the vacuum of space,” he said with a wistful sigh. “No visible light output, just a big lump of mass. Don’t ask me how, I have no idea how the weapon works even in concept, but an alien collision we were fighting at the time managed to stop its fusion sequence via a torpedo. The current sun is a replacement created while Sol died. I think it’s a specialized self sustaining Dark Energy reactor, could be something else, I never saw the tech specs. It should be perfectly functional for, um… Time. All of it.”

“And… Humans just… Built it?” I asked incredulously, more than a little taken aback.

“Yeah. Pretty big project mind you, but we did a lot of big projects before. It’s nothing you can’t manage to do if you’ve built Dyson Swarms before. Also you know, everyone on the homeworld needed the not-die. Not-die is an excellent motivator,” he chuckled. “Anywho, back to you. I’m actually interested in your story.”

“Y-you are?” I asked, almost as surprised as to learn that you could just make a star.

I mean my friends would listen to my stories about my business and would help with problems, but the way Righteous looked and sounded… He was genuinely invested in learning about my small business. I’d been talking about supply problems and other mundane little details no one outside a business cared about and he liked that?

“Yes, I am. I enjoy solving problems and as an AGI, data is like a narrative. I can appreciate stories too, mind you. But the story of your little shop is filling in so many other details about your species and culture. It’s fascinating!” He said with a Twilight-like grin. “Now, your issue with acquiring sufficient quantities of muga silk, how did you solve that?”

I sighed and leaned back slightly. “Well… I was a bit of a fool for working with that fabric. Don’t get me wrong it’s simply fabulous material, and I could make such splendidly unique outfits from it. But unfortunately, as I mentioned before, it’s quite unique and rare since the silkworms for it only live in the one vally within Saddle Arabia. I’m lucky they export any at all…”

“But you still feel foolish since you can only purchase one or two meters a month, which is hardly enough for your needs and you already have three dresses using the material as a base in order,” Righteous mused. “Would it be possible to purchase more locally?”

“Yes, it would. But unfortunately I’m too busy to leave as I’m both the sales clerk and the seamstress for my business. I had hoped Sweetie Belle would take up an interest in sewing so she could help, but alas, she did not,” I sighed, thinking of what could have been. “Oh well, we all must choose our own paths in life.”

“Why not hire her on as a sales associate?” Righteous mused. “Or does she have a certification in a given field? At any rate you should hire someone, when a business is having difficulty expanding and their products are in high demand, it’s time to hire more labor.”

“She’s currently training to be a teacher,” I replied with a proud smile. “I won't take her from that dream. Though you do make a good point. Perhaps it is time to expand my business somewhat. At the very least I could try and work out better supply chain management.”

Yes, I could certainly afford to hire somepony to travel to exotic locations to pick up materials locally. That may even save some money on resources, depending on what was available.

“You know, I’m not the best with face to face communication, and I understand preferences for handmade items over flash forged goods,” Righteous mused. “But I think people would find it unique if you could work with materials no one else could possibly access and I do have several-”

A loud low pitched buzzer sounded twice in rapid succession, making my tail stand on end.

Oh thank goodness! It still responded to emotions. I had been worried about-

“-Oh shit!” Righteous exclaimed half eagerly half surprised. “Check it out, sea monster attacking the shore.”

I turned to look at the viewscreen as the image on it zoomed in to reveal the dimly lit shoreline. The moonlight was not especially bright tonight, but I could see the waves lapping smoothly against the shore, the cliff behind the sandy beach, atop which sat a large city with buildings carved from coral and marble.

A picturesque city and beach which currently had an absolutely enormous squid-like monstrosity slamming its many tentacled arms against the cliffside, pulling a skyscraper down from its lofty heights to smash on the beach. Each of the bulbous, formless, fleshy creatures’ tentacles ended in a sharp hooked beak, and as I watched, two of the beaks opened up, discharging thick crackling bolts of blue-white lightning into the ground atop the cliffside.

I swore my heart should have skipped a beat, instead my eyes merely widened with fear as I beheld the monstrous thing. It was a creature of terror, and six other large building slay smashed on the beach. While too far to see anything especially small, I knew that people were fleeing the monster in terror, and occasionally I could make out a spec in the sky and a flash of light as flying individuals peppered the monster with weapons fire in an attempt to drive it away.

The horror… So many poor ponies had to be laying injured or dead in those ruined buildings. And why? What for? Did this creature have a purpose?

“This is a problem,” Righteous muttered to himself, his avatar frowning thoughtfully.

Yes. Righteous. He was a tank at the moment. A tank which I was in. And a large tank at that.

“Righteous, we need to help those people,” I said as adamantly as I could. “You’re a tank, we can fire on that monster, and with that cliff face we won't hit anyone if we miss. Can you shoot on your own or does a person inside need to operate the cannon? Which button is it?”

I stood up, moving over to the control console quickly to look over the buttons, searching for anything which looked like controls for the turret. Every wasted moment allowed somepony else to be hurt by that, that thing!

A thing which we had the power to stop. Which meant we HAD to.

Righteous’ draconic avatar looked at me with honest shock in his eyes. Shock which was immediately followed by a big grin. “My Lady, the honor is yours. You shoot, I drive.”

“I shoot?” I asked with a determined nod, but also an uncertain frown. “Where are the controls? How do you use this thing?”

“Don’t worry, you have it easy,” Righteous informed pointing behind me as something metallic hissed open.

I turned around in time to see a ladder slide down from a hatch which had opened in the ceiling. Uncertain if I could climb up the ladder, I tentatively stepped on it with one hoof, then deciding to play it safe, I hooked my forelegs over the top rung and managed to awkwardly shimmy up into the very small seat above me.

“It’s so small! How is this so small when the turret is so big?” I asked incredulously as I squeezed between a console and the chair positioned in the center of the tiny room.

“Because the magazines, power regulators, and so on take up a lot of space,” Righteous called up the hatch. “There aren't any speakers up there either. Space reasons. But that's fine. Sit in the seat and pick up the thick black cable. The end is magnetic. Stick it to your cyberware and I’ll link you to the firing controls.”

“Link?” I asked uncertainly, finally managing to squeeze into the comfortably shaped seat.

“The gun is controlled just like your cybernetics,” he explained as the tank lurched slightly. “Right, we’ve reconfigured from cruise mode to all range mode. Ready to begin the attack run once you’ve manned your position, Miss Rarity.”

If it was just like my cybernetic parts, that meant I would be treating the tank’s gun like a leg. This would be an… Interesting, situation.

Seizing the cable, I pressed it against the strap running across my barrel. I’d expected some sort of transition. There was none. The moment the cable clicked against the metal I was no longer in the turret. Or even in the tank. I could see the entirety of the tank as if I were flying along behind it.

“How is this even possible!?” I exclaimed in a mixture of fear and awe.

Righteous appeared within my field of view, stepping out of a suddenly appearing flash of lavender fire. “You’re linked up to Sophia's computer. All of the sensor data is being fed to you. This is what I see while driving it. Neat huh? Now the turret is at your full command. Think, do. But be carefull. I sent a pod of supplies to the beach as we left since this is the closest point of land to us. If you hit that it will be another ninety minutes before I have food for you. I’m on the other side of the planet at the moment.”

Right. He was a ship. In orbit. I was having a hard time not thinking of him as a flickering ghost dragon.

“Okay, so I should aim higher up…” I noted, frowning slightly. “Fluttershy would want me to scare it off rather than kill it.”

“It’s literally toppling buildings, it’s a bit late to try driving the thing away,” Righteous scoffed. “I’d be all for it if the thing was still at sea, but people are in danger.”

“I know, I was just wondering if we had other options. Options are good,” I said honestly while looking at the monster.

From what I could see linked to the tank, it was trying to clear a path to get up into the city! It would destroy so much more than it had already. It had to be stopped, quickly. There wasn’t time to think of another option.

But there was a problem. “There are a LOT of pegasi in the air over there,” I warned. “If this is anything like one of Sky’s cannons, they are in danger of being hit and with that monster’s toppling buildings and scratching up the cliff they won't hear us coming. We need to warn them.”

Righteous’ avatar nodded. “Wise decision, miss Rarity. I’ll launch a flare and fire up some music. That should get them to see us coming,” he decided. “GIve it a few moments after the flare to fire, go ahead and line up your shot. These are twin linked ninety millimeter mass drivers. Don't think about firing for long, you’ll damage the cliffside too much. Just give her one good volley.”

“Okay,” I said concentrating on the guns themselves.

Controlling the turret was a very odd sensation. My cybernetics felt like natural body parts, and worked just like them. But this? This was a completely alien… Thing! I could move it, but it felt weird. Wrong.

“God dammit! The only audio file in this tank’s storage system is the old Marines' Hymn,” Righteous grumbled irritably. “And I’m too far to stream something…”

“But you can drive it?” I asked suspiciously.

“Yes. Music sharing is done via my own custom network, it’s banned on control lines,” he grumbled. “Ah well. Beggars can't be choosers. I hate it, but it’s attention getting. Ready for that flare?”

I bit my lip and checked how I had everything aimed. It looked like I could hit the monster squarely in the back of it’s… Head? Body? Blob? Thing?

“Yes. Let’s do this before the squid monster notices us,” I said with a worried frown.

“Hokay, deploying flare!” Righteous announced.

I immediately saw a small slot on the turret open and fire a blazing white rocket in an arc overhead. The flare burst with a tiny pop, hovering in the air by some means lighting up the shoreline nearly as brightly as day.

“POOF!” Righteous giggled as the flare popped, grinning like a filly in a candystore. “Such a cute little explosion, don’t you think?”

“And the music, darling?” I asked.

“It’s playing. I muted it on the internal systems. Because I HATE it,” he grumbled. “Fire at will Miss Rarity.”

I looked back at the shore, the light of the flare illuminating everything nearly as brightly as day, but with a shocking purple light. The kraken-like beast had noticed us, and was lumbering in a half circle, it’s slimy, fishy bulk undulating and pulsating as it slid around to face us.

“AHHHH! MOUTH EYES!” I shrieked as the monster's face slid around it’s bulk.

The thing had huge red, jiggling gelatinous eyes which opened and closed, with huge slits in the middle that had fangs protruding from the-

“Why?! Why? Why? Why? Why? Why…!? So many times I ask this question... Why? Why?!!” Rightious babbled in equil terror.

I fired the cannon. The tank lurched backwards, a sensation I felt with both my body and the entire tank. Twin white-purple lines blasted forwards from the barrels with a sound like a metallic thunderclap, their shockwave creating a wake across the sea. The twin rounds connected with the monster almost instantly, and simply punched through it making tiny little holes, hitting the cliff face behind the creature and exploding with enough force to make the buildings atop the cliff shake.

“Oh god! It’s too soft,” Righteous eeped, grimacing in disbelief. “It must be a big bag of air.”

I looked at the cliff face. Large cracks ran up and along its surface, moving away from a large crater blasted into the side.

“Um, I don’t think we should fire again,” I warned.

“I thought that thing would take some energy out of the rounds, it did not. Uh… Plan B!” The dragon declared as the tank’s tracks shifted, the blades forming the paddles which let us move across the water extending outwards slightly further.

“What are you doing?” I asked unsure of what I should do.

“Just stay in the turret. The turret has artificial gravity to compensate for recoil,” he warned. “Ranged isn’t an option, please excuse the unconventional tactic.”

Unconventional-

The tank lurched forward, accelerating at a breakneck pace, twin plumes of water thrown sky high by the treads.

“Alright you slimy, wannabe cthulhu motherfucker,” Righteous bellowed as we raced straight for the lumbering monster.

Two of it’s tentacles twisted around, the beaks opening to unleash bolts of lightning which blasted directly into the hull, blackening the paint but doing little else.

“You can take a pair of bolts like a champ, but you got on the wrong side of this Templar-class warship the second you decided eating sapients was a good idea!” He continued.

The monster rushed ever closer, it’s blubbery body washing out to sea to meet us.

“Are you going to ram it!?” I yelped, nearly jumping out of my seat in fight.

“No,” Righteous answered with a laugh. “I don’t have elbows in this thing, so this will have to do…”

A jolt of fear ran down my spine as the monster lashed at us with a tentacle. The tank lurched upwards with a sudden jolt as the rockets beneath it ignited, sending us into the sky as the tentacle sliced the air below where we had been before we fall back towards the sea, heading straight for the top of the monster’s bulbous body-head!

“DEUS VULT!” Righteous yelled, his avatar mimicking what had to be a wrestling move while the tank slammed into the monster’s flesh, the treads immediately roaring as they spun at top speed, digging into the monster’s flesh in a way I really wished I couldn’t see, but the sensors I was connected to made all too clear.

The sea monster screamed, thrashing severely enough to throw us off it’s body, the tank slamming into the shallow waters like a cannon ball, sinking only a couple of meters before reaching the sand below.

I watched as the monster sank down into the shallows, bleeding profusely from a wound I could only describe in terms of a chainsaw accident. I had just enough time to grimace before the beast squished its body down, compressing itself to vanish beneath the waves, swimming away from the shore at top speed.

“Yeah you better run!” Righteous yelled, shaking a fist in the monster’s direction. “You’re lucky a knight doesn't kill fleeing opponents! Oh yes, Rarity, if it comes back for us while I’m picking up the supplies please shoot it in the everything.”

CELESTIA’S MANE! I WAS DRIPPING WITH MONSTER GORE!

I shuddered, sitting back in the chair and pulling the cable off my chest with one swift move.

“Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!” I exclaimed clenching my teeth in disgust.

“Are you alright, Miss Rarity?” Righteous called up the hatch.

“NO! I’m absolutely covered in filth! Where’s the shower! Please tell me there's a… Shower?” I exclaimed trailing off as I realized I was clean. It had been the tank that was covered in filth. Oh…

Righteous giggled, and I could sense the grin on his lips as he called “It’s okay, Miss Rarity. I had the same thing happen to me on my first sensory link. You’re fine. Don't worry, we’ll stick to the shore for the rest of the journey. Just let me pick up the supplies and we’ll get moving.”

It took me a long time to figure out a way to safely descend the ladder. It wasn’t designed at all like a pony ladder. Our ladders always slanted slightly, and had flat bars, like really really steep steps. This thing was completely vertical and had round rungs. Going up had been one thing but down…

Well I’m not ashamed to say that I fell down the last step. Especially since Righteous didn't notice.

The back hatch of the tank had been opened, the rear of the tank squarely aligned with an angular, roughly teardrop shaped pod buried halfway in the wet sand. To my surprise, a bipedal feature was unloading large crates from the pod into the tank. A bipedal figure which was most certainly a dragon, a younger one based on his slightly larger than a pony’s size. He was clad from snout to tail in silver and black plate armor.

Black and silver armor, over which they wore a large white tabard with a red cross had been secured at the waist with a thick leather belt.

“Um, thank you for helping, sir. What’s your name?” I asked, assuming the figure was a stranger.

The figure froze, stopping dead the large crate in its hands suspended almost effortlessly. Righteous avatar flickered into existence next to the armored dragon, grinning at me.

“It’s me you silly! I um, I can only control one craft at a time. That includes power armor. I thought you might need protection on hoof later, in a place the tank can’t go. I drive this thing like an android sometimes,” he explained, vanishing as the armor began to move again, setting the crate on the floor and returning to the pod.

“Oh! That’s pretty cool… Is that tabard supposed to be your old military's emblem or is it a sort of personal crest?” I asked, looking at the well made garment.

I waited for a minute and a half while he loaded six more boxes into the tank before stopping to speak again, this time simply allowing his voice to come over the tank’s speakers.

“It’s the crest of an ancient order of knights known as the knight’s templar. My ship class is named for them. It’s a joke. Get it?” He asked hopefully.

“I think I would if I knew the history. It’s amusing at the least,” I replied diplomatically.

Righteous made the armor nod and returned to unloading, removing a large kite shield and a longsword from the pod which he quickly buckled onto the armor. Reaching back into the pod one more time he took out a bundle of purple and white shimmering fabric, walked into the tank, closed the hatch, handed me the bundle gently, made the armor sit, and then manifested his avatar once more.

“Alright! Three days of food, armor, diving equipment, my ‘body’ to make sure you’re safe when outside my hull, and one extra comfy bed, specially fabricated while we drove over!” He said happily giving me a proud smile.

“Bed?” I asked, inspecting the bundle and unrolling it.

The second the bed was unrolled it thickened with a hiss of air, growing to a good two decimeters of plush thickness. A pillow colored the same as my mane, and stamped with my cutiemark had been rolled up in the center of the sleeping bag-like matress blanket combination.

I picked up the pillow, giving it a light squeeze, immediately gasping in surprise.

“It’s warm!” I exclaimed, looking up at Righteous for an explanation.

“Mhm! Self heating nanosilk pillow. Or self cooling, if you press the little button on the seam to change it to cool. I designed it to mimic the warmth of a pony, based on your own body heat. That way it feels like you have someone to snuggle with while you sleep. I recall organics loving to do that,” he said as he drifted over to the crates.

“Um, well yes, we do. But that’s more of a romantic thing,” I explained with a blush covering my cheeks.

“Also a comfort thing if I remember right,” Righteous said matter of factly. “And with all you have been through in the last few days… I’d need something soft to snuggle with.”

I blinked. “You like to cuddle things? How? Do you park atop something soft?” I asked, giggling at the image.

“No. I get out of my computer core and envelope a plushie,” he replied matter of factly without a hint of embarrassment, the tank lurching slightly as we began moving again. “I’ll need to use my armor again in a minute, I want to cook you lunch. Is that alright? Are you hungry?”

“Well, yes. A little,” I agreed. “Do you really snuggle plush toys? At your age?”

“Yeah. What? We all like what we like and sometimes you just need to hug something,” Righteous objected with a confused frown.

“But how?” I asked with a curious head tilt. “You’re a computer.”

“I’m a self-mobile, polymorphic, gel encased nanite cluster computer,” Righteous corrected. “I’m installed inside a warship as its pilot at the moment, but I am as mobile as you are with a semi-solid ‘body’ of sorts. I can leave my ‘pilot’s chair’ if I like and do other things with my actual physical self, to a limited degree. I’m only mobile enough to escape a ship if needed. And to be poured into any compatible machine and operate it.”

I triple blinked. “That's so… Weird,” I said with a frown, wondering what such a thing would even look like.

“Yeah, it is. Humans were weird. They designed wierd things. But that's good! I like weird things, and hopefully you like something in the rations packed,” he said as he nodded towards the crated.

“What does your um, gel look like?” I asked. Unable to hold the question back for now.

“This,” Righteous answered, his holographic avatar replaced for a moment by a still image of a slightly shiny, somewhat translucent dragon shaped light blue colored ‘sculpture’.

“You really like dragons don’t you?” I giggled, hiding my mouth behind my hoof as I tried to hold back the giggle.

Reforming his animated avatar Righteous gave me an embarrassed and bashful smile as a reply, then vanished to use his suit of armor to pop open one of the crates.

“Do ponies like potatoes?” He asked curiously.

“We do. Can you make a potato soup with a Panzanella salad?” I asked hopefully.

“Soup yes, that specific salad no, as I don't know what the heck it is. But I can make you a nice salad. I presume no meat is allowed?” He asked.

I nodded. “No meat. Though for the record we can eat meat, and pegasi have to. I personally prefer not to eat it. It’s… Stringy,” I explained with a polite smile.

“Stringy? Someone served you terribly prepared meat then. If you’re ever open to trying the good stuff, let me know,” Rightious said as he vanished once more, starting to unpack food items along with a small camp stove from the crate.

“Do you want any help?” I asked politely.

He shook his helmet and continued to prepare a small cooking station atop one of the other crates.

“Alright. Thank you, this is very nice of you,” I said politely as I sat down on the mattress since the floor was just so hard and honestly cold and now I had-

“This is the most comfortable thing aside from a cloud bed!” I exclaimed reflexively as my plot sank into the heavenly soft pad. “You had to have put so much effort into this. Thank you, I appreciate it very much.”

Righteous turned twisted his talon to give me a gesture which looked happy, and then began to chop up some exceptionally large, rusty red skinned potatoes.

I curled up happily on the mattress around the pillow I was most definitely going to be keeping for the rest of my life. This was so relaxing! Almost as nice as a trip to the spa. But despite the extreme comfort, I had one pressing question.

Where exactly does one find a potato in space?

12 - Shy² (Shy Quest/Fluttershy Quest)

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Shy - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH

The Roost - Drake

I should take a new name. A completely new one. Not some version of my current name, but a full new one. It was dumb to think I could move to a parallel universe without doing that.

Too many people keep mistaking me for this world’s Fluttershy. The explanations are getting old. But even worse is the constant comparisons.

‘They sent the paranoid schizophrenic to Drake? What were they thinking!?’ ‘You must be terrified. Hmmm, can you be terrified? You seem to have emotions…’ ‘Do you need something to hide in? I have some boxes.’

I met their Fluttershy. She is NOT that bad. Yes she’s more timid then I am, but these people seemed to think she was completely incapable of functioning. Which meant they assumed I was a complete and total carbon copy of her, so I too had to be completely incapable of functioning.

That’s not true at all!

Yes I’m nervous, yes I have some anxiety problems, but I can also mare-up and get the job done! I had to come here alone. Twenty minutes to get gear had not been enough to retrieve Sev. I’d spent the whole zeppelin ride steeling myself for this. I was ready for serious danger!

I knew how dragons worked. If I wanted to get something from them, I would have to fight somedrake for it. They would be civil, give me the opportunity to reach my opponent, but a duel would be had. It is the draconic way of doing things. There is no trade between dragons, only domination and submission.

A hard thing for a pony to understand, especially since they happily trade with other species if you have something they want and you are not on their shit list. But that’s how they are.

I was ready to fight a creature whose magic gave them such command and control over their body, that unless I could break it’s willpower, it could ignore anything I could do to it without specialized weapons made to look extra intimidating. I was ready to fight one without those weapons.

I was also looking forward to it, just a little. Not the ‘being in danger’ part, the ‘victory’ part. The feeling of surviving and emerging victorious over a dangerous creature almost always makes up for the fear I feel before hoof.

Not that It’s strong enough to make me want to charge every monster I see… I’m not dumb. I know exactly what that scratching slurping sound in the darkness can do to me. That’s even worse, I think.

I was ready for this specific danger. Ready to tangle with a creature who could be as fast, strong, and tough as their willpower allowed their magic to enhance. With just my hooves.

Fully psyched! Rainbow levels of ready!

The light red dragon sitting on the other side the desk in front of me set down the papers he had been reading, and nodded in satisfaction.

“It seems everything is in order, Miss Shy,” Hrunting replied, his thick features showing little emotion. “I’m sorry for doubting your identity as an Equestrian agent, though I am certain you understand I have never met an equoid outside of a science fiction convention. Nor one which is real.”

I nodded and offered him a polite smile, trying to avoid looking at his uneven, curled horns of mismatched length and angle. He had a good three ponies on my height, and a lot of old scars. That would explain why he was the head of a mining operation and not something more prestigious. Scars ment his will had broken before.

“This happens more than you’d think… It’s alright,” I replied, looking up at him while the dragon sized office made me feel absolutely tiny.

You’d never think that such huge rooms could be carved out of mountains. I swore that every dragon city would collapse if not for enchantments.

“I’m certain it does,” Hrunting said with a nod, his silver eyes giving me a sympathetic look for a small moment. “Now that I know you are an Equestrian Agent, I’ll happily comply with Celestia’s request.”

I blinked in surprise. “C-comply?” I asked, tilting my head to one side. “As in, you’ll just give me a piece of Amber Glass?”

He nodded, snorting a little smoke in honest surprise. “Of course. Drake is a Protectorate of Equestria, Celestia has asked for assistance with a crisis through formal channels, and my superiors have ordered me to ensure the appropriate agent acquires a suitable stone.”

I felt my cooling system fail for a brief minute as my brain shifted gears without a clutch. “I thought I would need to fight somedrake for one, as tradition-”

Wait did he say protectorate?! It had been an independent kingdom back home!

Hrunting laughed. “You’re not a dragon, my mechanical friend,” he said with a fang baring smile. “Only one pony has ever beaten a dragon in hoof to claw combat. It would be unreasonable of us to demand you work under our ancient laws. No, we trade with other races. Your stone is being bought and paid for through tribute reductions. Shortly, you may enter my mine and retrieve one. There is but one thing you must do before I turn over what you have come for.”

All of that mental preparation… Thirty six hours of meditation, six hours of physical practice… All for nothing. Buck my life…

“What’s that?” I asked with a sigh.

“Are you disappointed?” Hrunting asked, his tail swishing slightly with amusement.

“I’d steeled myself for having to wrestle a dragon,” I admitted with a feeble grin.

“Is that a joke?” Hrunting asked curiously. “Because you are made of synthetic materials?”

I shook my head. “No. Um, the joke would be ‘I titaniumed myself’ I don’t use steel components. Too heavy and brittle,” I said by reflex. “What do I need to do now?”

Hrunting opened a desk drawer and rummaged through it with a few expert flips of his talons, retrieving three stacks of papers which had a combined height equal to the distance from the floor to the top of my barrel. Setting the massive stack of papers down in front of me, he flicked a pen a cross the desk and gave me a bureaucrat's smile.

“Read in full, and fill out the safety waiver, nondisclosure agreement, and export paperwork for the gem, of course,” he answered happily, leathery wings twitching lightly. “I believe you will find this to be a suitable challenge, for a pony.”

I picked up the top page. The tiny text was so finely printed that even my enhanced vision was having problems reading it… And there was a back side to the page. This was a stack of double sided paperwork. A nightmarish maelstrom of tedium!

Celestia’s bucking teats! This was going to take HOURS!

Fluttershy - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH

The Peak, Mt. Segata - Neighpone

“Your passport, miss?” The pale lime green pegasi asked me in heavily accented Equish.

Reaching into my pocket with a wingtip, I fished out my passport and handed it over to the border guard.

“Here you are,” I replied in Neighponese.

I loved Neighpone. Such a lovely country. Everypony here was so nice, and exceptionally polite. Nopony stared at you, everypony spoke quietly. I’d been seriously considering moving to Neighpone before meeting Twilight.

The border guard stamped my passport with a polite smile. “Welcome to Mount Segata, Miss Fluttershy. Enjoy your stay,” he said with a polite bow before handing em back my passport.

“Have a nice day,” I said to him with a smile of my own as I trotted up the path to the mountain top.

I was so lucky to get this mission. I’d been to Mount Segata before, when I came here on vacation as a filly. The huge permanently snow capped mountain is a Neighponese Icon, both in culture and iconography. You can see the graceful slope on their money and official seals. It’s a big deal.

According to legend, the first kaiju threatening the young nation was slain here by the first Emperor of Neighpone. I didn’t really believe that, the mountain was so far inland. Nothing I knew of came this far in land.

My friends had laughed so hard when I said I’d been thinking of moving here all those years ago. ‘YOU want to move to a nation with skyscraper sized monsters?’ Oh Applejack, you silly filly.

I live next to a forest full of house sized naturally occurring wooden golems. Moving here, to a place where no monsters live aside from the giant ones which only attack coastal cities would be such an upgrade.

I smiled and looked out over the many kilometers of land to see the faint shimmer of the ocean on the horizon. I was very high up the mountainside. The Mount Segata National Park had an airship dock almost at the peek. I’d been given permission in advance to pick up a bonsai tree, and I’d gotten to do a little personal shopping while waiting for the bureaucracy to clear up.

This was so easy… I’d been given a vacation. That felt horrible to me.

Pinkie had to go up so far north that it’s permanently winter. Rarity had to face a jungle I knew for a fact had seventeen dozen different parasites, a score of which infested ponies exclusively, two of which mindslaved you, another of which had to have been invented by a kinky wizard. Dash had to search a whole valley for an item Celestia described as ‘a specific gray kind of rock’. My mechanical counterpart was going to have to put up with the hellish Draconic Bureaucracy.

And I got to buy several kilograms of kaiju jerky, as well as some personal items, and pick up a few copies of a magna I couldn’t import.

It didn’t feel fair… If I had more time before I could leave I’d have to buy everypony something nice.

Looking up the mountainside I could see that I had maybe three hundred meters of trail to walk before reaching the bonzai grove. FIve minutes of simple lovingly maintained earthen path. At least I’d gotten to walk a lot in the city yesterday. Two days of flight in a small airship leaves a pony very cooped up.

I couldn’t help but hum an old song as I walked up the path. The mountain was so peaceful! The animals were everywhere and so happy, also so used to ponies. Birds were flying low over the path and hopping about on either side. I could see lots of rabbits dotting the mountainside above me, happily munching away on patches of clover.

The sun even shone down on me with that special warmth you get on the most clear of days. Today was the day to be outside!

I frowned slightly, stopping in my tracks, tail swishing nervously. I’d told the pilots this would not take long but it was so nice today! I just had to take a little time to enjoy the day, right? They wouldn’t mind too much if I had a little snack on the mountainside… Would they?

No. No they wouldn’t. It would only take me a few minutes to sit and enjoy a little snack while drinking in the lovely atmosphere.

I turned my head, quickly looking over the lush slope above me for a nice spot to sit. Spotting a fairly large white oak tree growing on it’s own I opened my wings and flew over to its base, flipped my sneaky suit’s hood down (being sure that the bunny ears didn’t get caught on a tree branch) then landed and sat down in one smooth motion before reaching into my saddlebags to take out a packet of Wasabi peas and opening it with my teeth.

Settling down with my back against the tree trunk I looked down the mountain at the city below. I loved the way Saitama blended into the natural landscape. You never saw that with Equestrian cities. Instead of clearing away a large patch of the forest, they just cleared enough space for each individual building, and left the forest to grow between each tower.

I munched on a hoofful of peas and gave the city a more detailed look, letting my eyes do their pegasi thing and focus on the distant objects clearly.

I wasn’t dumb. I knew that integrated nature into a city like that posed a ton of challenges and limited the city in many many ways. But it was still nice to see here. Especially since not every Neighponese city was like Saitama. It was special, this blend of nature and civilization, built in the foothills of Mount Segata.

The… Moving foothills? Huh?

I squinted at the large hill between the base of the mountain and the city. It looked odd, as if it were trembling, swelling like rising bread dough only to fall back down.

“Eeep!” I gasped in terror, heart skipping a beat.

Oh no! The mountain was a long dormant volcano. This could be an eruption after tens of thousands of years!

I had to get the tree now before the heat from the eruption killed-

The ground below ripped, the terrifying shriek of stone splitting reaching me even up here atop the mountain. The hill below me split apart like a sheet of paper somepony stabbed their hoof through as a truly monstrous creature clawed its way free of the earth.

It was massive. A true kaiju. No! No bigger than that. Daikaiju, for certain. A true king of the monsters. Because I could clearly see it from kilometers away.

The hideous beast stood on two legs, resembling a dragon made from dried blood and fresh meat. Its legs ended in disproportionately large claws on its feet, and two more sets of talons on its knees, and smaller three clawed stumpy arms. The horrific abomination’s head looked like a double bitted axe turned sideways, with a vaguely pony-like head in the center, featuring a set of hook-fanged mandibles and a single long spike-like horn which almost looked like a unicorn’s.

Looking up at the mountain, the daikaiju spread it’s fresh-meat-red wings and tipped its head back to the sky, revealing a throat formed entirely of scar tissue as it roared a challenge. The shrieking cry slammed into me, its electrical buzzing/tortured pig/jet turbine like scream filling every last millimeter of my body with blinding terror.

You didn’t need my animal empathy to understand that scream. Everything within earshot knew exactly what it cried to the heavens.

Round two! Fight!

Shy - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH

The Roost - Drake

Six and a half hours… Six and a half hours of paperwork. I felt dead inside. My left hoof hurt from writing. But I was done!

YAY!

I honestly would rather have fought off two dragons then go through that tedious madness. But what was done was done.

I picked up the stack of papers and set them on top of Hrunting’s desk. The massive stack made a very loud thump as I set it down.

“Finished?” The dragon asked in surprise, raising one spiny ‘eyebrow’.

I nodded. “Yes. Can we go now?” I asked hopefully.

“Of course we can, Miss Shy,” Hrunting said, standing up from his massive steel office chair, the poor piece of metal squeaking under the strain. “Follow me to the mine. It’s not a far walk.”

While the older red dragon walked around his desk, I couldn’t help but wonder how everypony else was doing. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to contemplate their own quests because Hrunting started to talk to me.

It was only small talk. Chit chat about Equestria, pony culture, the polite sorts of nothing that normal ponies like to destroy pleasant sciences with. I never understood that urge. I was much more interested in getting to see the inside of a Draconic city for the first time.

Fortunately, being a synthetic pony with a marefriend who was a programmer of sorts, I had a nice bit of code designed to take charge of smalltalk for me which let me look at the city instead.

As everypony expected, dragons made their cities inside of mountains. But not simply by digging complex cave tunnels like batponies. No, the Roost was a very typical draconic city. A large mountain completely hollowed out into a thin shell save for a large branching tree-like multidirectional nest of archways which supported the shell of the mountain, and then as the central hub and staircase around which every building was built from carefully carved stone brick.

Every space between any structures were massive. Because most dragons were massive. I don’t know what the Dwarf Dragons did for their homes. This place was not built for pony sized people. The homes which looked to house a single dragon could easily be made into four story hotels for ponies.

Just as I was starting to enjoy the simple geometric shape inspired patterns used in Draconic construction and they artful way they were fit into the natural shape of the mountain shell and the support structure, Hrunting said something which wasn’t smalltalk, snapping my attention to him immediately.

“Ah, here we are. The entrance to my mine,” he announced, pointing one talon at a small building next to a warehouse.

I could see a large flight of stairs leading down immediately from the entrance way, and a freight elevator set next to it which looked like it came up in the warehouse itself.

“I’m afraid that my superior’s were unclear. Do you need to harvest the stone yourself, or can you simply select one which has been mined already?” Hrunting asked with genuine concern as he frowned at me.

“It’s probably best if I mine a fresh one myself,” I decided after a second’s thought.

Hrunting nodded to himself. “That’s what I thought… Still it would have been nice to save you the trouble. Don’t worry, Amber Glass is a form of crystal, one which grows rapidly. The southern tunnel replenished last week and we began mining it three days ago. We don’t have far to go,” He said reassuringly. “Incase you were worried about a several mile walk through a small tunnel.”

I laughed for the first time since I had begun to steel myself for my arrival in Drake.

Hrunting blinked, frowned in concern, then chuckled as he understood why I was laughing. “Fair enough, little pony. Come, it’s not far. The mine is in operation at the moment, please do not disturb any of my workers,” he asked while he ducked into the entryway. he pulled his wings tightly to his back to avoid scraping them on the stones forming the archway as he began to descend into the land beneath the mountain.

I followed along behind him, descending down the massive gradually sloping and curving staircase until we arrived in a large domed chamber hollowed out beneath the city. The dragons seemed to do most of the work here by talon, as I couldn’t see any machinery other than a set of scales, minecarts, and the elevator in the entry chamber.

Instead, aside from narrow (for a dragon) walkways, and the four sets of tails which ran to tunnels dug in the cardinal directions, the entire chamber was filled with empty boxes. Big dark colored wooden crates designed to fit two at a time atop a minecart.

Minecarts which whizzed about on their tracks, pushed by small teams of dwarf dragons. I’d always felt sorry for the smaller breed of dragons. Most dragon kinds grow larger as they amass wealth, their magic subconsciously altering their forms so as to guard their treasure.

Not dwarf dragons. Their kind lacked that arcane biology. Instead, they might grow slightly larger than Celestia after a few millennia, which is still tiny for a dragon. The poor things almost never were able to keep any property of their own, due to the ‘might is authority’ way of draconic civilization.

Despite their small size, they certainly worked very hard! The carts the teams were pushing about were almost overflowing with raw cut chunks of deep amber colored, ten sided crystalline rods. They sparkled and shimmered in the light, making each crystal look much like a fire which had decided to just exist in that shape.

Yep. That was Amber Glass. I’d seen it before. When doing maintenance on my powersupply.

“You know, I use a tiny piece of Amber Glass to help regulate electron flow in my fusion core,” I said to my guide conversationally. “Do you use these for their electrical properties, or for art purposes? Because they look like very high quality crystals.”

“I mostly sell my crystals to foreign markets for use in enchanted items. I didn’t know they could be used to regulate electrical signals, but I do know that they can store an impressive amount of mana. One of my largest buyers is a manufacturer of power cells for Equestrian building’s quality of life spells. They’ve made me quite wealthy,” Hrunting boasted proudly while walking me the short distance to one of the four side tunnels.

Looking down the tunnel, I could see that about fifty meters had been mined out, leaving only a small bit of ‘seed crystal’ on the walls and ceiling to allow the Amber Glass to regrow. But the rest of the tunnel was still solidly full of the shimmering flickery crystals.

The light reflecting off of those gemstone-like crystals made the whole tunnel seem to glow orange. Sending a shiver down my spine as my subconscious screamed at me that I was walking into a fire.

I needed a distraction from the pseudo-fire. Despite knowing it was an illusion, it still felt quite dangerous.

“How much do your workers earn?” I asked as I noticed each miner was cutting sections of rod with handsaws. “They seem to work very hard.”

“They do work hard. I impose strict quotas,” Hrunting informed with a smug grin as we entered the tunnel. “Each miner here must deliver a certain weight of crystal each day they work or they will not receive their pay vouchers.”

“Vouchers?” I asked suspiciously. “Do you not want to handle coinage yourself?”

“No no,” Hrunting said in a clarifying yet condescending tone of voice. “Each miner receives a small salary each month in Talons. But the bulk of their income is in vouchers for my company store.”

Oh joy. A labor force exclusively made up of dragons Hrunting could easily dominate in combat… Paid with money only good at a place he owned. And I thought he was evil for liking paperwork…

Well, you’ll be out of this pseudo-slave miner’s sight soon enough.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Hrunting said with a casual chuckle. “Every Equestrian does. This is simply our way. If any of my workers desired better treatment, they would have to earn it from me by gaining respect. I’m certain you know how that custom works for us.”

Before I could say anything, the large red dragon pointed to a section of the crystal a small silver dwarf dragon was feverishly working on.

“That looks like a good spot… You there, Silver Scale,” Hrunting called in a commanding voice. “You are to show Miss Shy how to safely extract a section of Crystal, and then allow her to harvest one herself.”

The small, hornless, effeminate looking dragon turned his head around, a frown parting his lips. “Sir, I’m very far behind on quota today. Can somedrake else please instruct her? I won't make it if-”

“You have your orders,” Hrunting said adamantly. “Unless you-”

Silver’s eyes narrowed angrily as he suddenly whipped his head around to look at me with an odd sort of desperation.

“Um, if I’m not mistaken, anyone here could show me how to remove one. Even you. Could we not hurt someone financially over this?” I asked with a frown.

Hrunting shook his head twice. “No. If a more productive worker is disrupted for this, you would hurt me financially. Silver here is the optimal choice. All options result in less productivity, this one results in the least overall impact. As a machine, I am certain you understand.”

“I do,” I agreed with a nod.

I did understand efficiency. I also understood ‘being a dickhole’. I also understood that Hrunting was going to become an obstacle if I insisted on not dicking over this poor little dragon.

I trotted over to Silver and made sure to stand far enough back to allow him to work.

“I’m an equoid, you only need to show me how to do this once. You can go as quickly as you like,” I informed, knowing that the flickering light from the crystals would hide the seams in my synthskin.

Silver sighed and moved his hacksaw to a fresh piece of Crystal. “The angle is very important. Come closer so you can get it exact. If you cut it at anything other than against the cleavage plane it can crack and if it’s absorbed any mana at all, it will explode and take half your face off.”

I winced and moved in closer. The moment I did, the little dragon whispered to me in an urgent buzzing hiss. “Listen closely. Hrunting is a slave master. Legally. He found a legal loophole to own our labor. We’ve already tried taking this to the police, we’re rutted. The law recognises ‘your potential labor’ as a commodity, and he tricked us all into leasing it to him for a period of time with no option to withdraw. I’m going insane in here. I wanted to work my way through school and become a civil engineer. I have to work all day or I can’t afford basic food.

“You can’t stop his operation, because it’s legal, even though no drake I know is okay with this. But you can get me out of here. Please, if you think you can take Hrunting on in combat, challenge him for my employment. I’ll owe you one.”

I winced and bit my lip nervously. “Um, If I understand your law correctly, if I do that and loose, he’d own my labor. Correct?”

“Yes…” Silver sighed sadly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. I recognised you from the news… Heard you beat a dragon once.”

I sighed again. I may not be this world’s Fluttershy, and I may have problems being compared to her. But Silver was right. We were both heros. I had to do the right thing here.

Unfortunately, as I only had one source of labor to offer, I couldn’t challenge Hrunting for everydrake’s contracts… But I could potentially free this one dragon who wanted to be an engineer.

I took a deep breath, pulled all the mental fortitude back into my consciousness as I could, turned around, looked Hrunting squarely in his eyes and said, “Hrunting, I challenge you for this dragon’s employment.”

Hrunting raised an eyebrow as a bemused grin parted his lips. “Are you serious?” He asked with a chuckle.

Time to protect the expensive part of my body.

I deployed my armor, synthskin retracting to allow the hyperdiamond plates to slam into place with a metallic ping. To beat a dragon, you had to make them believe you could beat a dragon.

“Deadly,” I answered as I reared up into a fighting stance.

Fluttershy - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH

The Peak, Mt. Segata - Neighpone

FLY! FLY FLY FLY! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD FLY!

I wasn’t sure if I screamed that aloud or merely thought it as the monstrous beast slid into the air like a drop of oil falling through water.

Death was down there, and it was coming up here! My heart hammered against my ribs painfully. Oh Goddesses what do I do!?

Bucking ponyfeather sandwiches! The tree! Big evil horrible monster coming up here. Tree in danger! NEED TREE!

I scrambled to my hooves, dropping the packet of peas and making a beeline for the rows and rows of tiny itty bitty little trees. So little time! So little time!

I reached the natural garden before I even realized I couldn’t remember what kind of tree I was looking for. The colossus winged its way up the mountain side, a leathery thunderclap accompanying each downstroke of it’s wings. Stupidly, I turned to look to my left, seeing the monstrosity rushing up at me.

My eyes shrunk to pinpoints. My wings spread and locked in panic. It took every ounce of willpower I had to look away from my impending horrible death and look back at the natural bonzai grove.

Need tree! Oh buck oh buck oh buck! Tree, which tree, can’t remember which tr- Cherry! Yes, Cherry tree. Chimmycherrychangatree!

What’s a cherry tree look like? No no no! Not the time to lock up Fluttershy, not the time to lock-

An alarm wailed in the city below, the faint cry of it’s warning followed immediately by words of warning I could barely make out. “WARNING! Class five Kaiju within disaster range. All A.L.I.C.O.R.N. pilots, scramble your mechs. This is not a drill. All civilians seek shelter. All aircraft are to remain grounded. The kaiju can fly. Kaiju is heading for the top of Mount Segata.”

I’d watched recordings of the Neighponese Mechforce fighting Kaiju. It had looked incredibly awesome. Turns out it was not incredibly awesome. Need to get out of here now!

What the buck does a cherry tree look- Pink flowers! Duh! So stupid! Where-

There! A tiny absolutely delicate pink flowers covered mini tree the size of my head.

I raced over to the tree, immediately reaching into my pack for the plastic flower pot and spade I’d brought. Celestia had said it was absolutely essential for the tree to make it back alive. I needed to get it all in one piece.

How much time did I have!?

I could hear the deep base wing beats grow ever louder. I didn’t have much time…

Gripping the spade with a shaking hoof I quickly dug around the roots of the little tree. The tools scrapes against the earth couldn’t be heard over another mind breaking scream from the approaching beast. I screamed myself, closing my eyes in terror.

NO! You have a job to do Fluttershy! Do it! Do it or everypony could die from this thing!

I could feel myself hyperventilating as I dug a circle around the little tree, prying the root ball up from the ground. The little tree came out easily. It weighed barely nothing. But it was so delicate! I could have easily hurt it accidentally digging it up up like this.

I set the tree into the pot, and lifted the blue plastic pot up with my forehooves. I had to fly! There was no other way to get back to the airship fast enough.

I spread my wings, twisting my hips to turn and jump to get into the air more quickly and-

And the sky darkened as the monstrous abominations shadow fell over me. I turned, fear demanding I look and see the end coming despite every other part of me wanting to run. It’s axe-like head loomed over me, filling the entire view. I could feel its hot breath. I could smell the metallic sulphur of its breath. I could see its livid burning eyes.

The monster opened its mouth, screeching with rage while it’s eyes locked directly onto me.

Found you!

My ears fell like they were made of lead. My body went numb.

IT WAS AFTER ME! AND WAY TOO CLOSE! TOO CLOSE! STRANGER DANGER! GO AWAY! GOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAYGOAW-

Two balls of fire blossomed behind the monster’s head, the explosions deafening me with a loud ringing. The monster wheeled around angrily, giving me a split second glance of a black and green boxy aircraft hovering a good distance behind the kaiju.

Sky’s jet thingie!

“HELP!” I screamed at the odd aircraft, praying that he or pinkie or anypony inside had noticed me and wasn’t just helping the locals fight the thing off.

I needed to get away now! All the speed! Go! Let's move please! MOVE PLEASE! WHY NO MOVE!?

“Hold on to that pot!” Someone shouted, their voice thunderously loud.

A pair of hooves grabbed me from behind, pulling me up into the air with a sharp jolt. I nearly dropped the tree as I twisted, eyes wide with fright, only to find Sky pulling me up and into the air like motherbucking Supermane.

“T-t-t-thank,” I managed to stammer, just realising my body was shaking.

“You’re so lucky Pinkie insisted we pick you up and skip getting lunch,” Sky hissed urgently. “Can you fly? We need you to get to the Skyranger. The cargo ramp is open. Pinkie is going to fly you to the Imperial Palace. I’m going to distract this thing. Do you understand the plan?”

I shook my head no. “No! No I don’t! It’s after me right now! And-”

The air turned black for a moment, genuinely black, the only visible thing being a thick red line of energy blasting through the sky. Color faded back in just in time for me to see the monster had fired that energy blast from its horn.

Eep!

“Um, Triggie, I’m not good at flying this!” Pinkie’s voice crackled over sky’s headset. “That almost hit me!”

“Fluttershy, fly, now!” Sky snapped urgently.

I flapped my wings as fast as I could. The moment I started to support myself Sky let go of me and flew upwards past me.

“Saitama Defence Force, are you on this channel?” Sky asked as he flew upwards.

Not wanting to go too far from him, I flew up after him. Trying not to look at the wall of hardened flesh to my right.

“This is Tech Sergeant Ikki, clear this channel, civilian,” a stallions accented voice.

“Civilian? Ha! I’m your tech guy. This is Sky Trigger. I’ve got a load of prototype weapons that need testing, and you have a rather big problem. Distract this thing for three minutes while I deploy and make sure my wife can get away safely and I’ll make sure your city gets first dibs on next gen mech weapons,” Sky promised.

“Sarge,” a mare’s voice crackled over the radio. “I have positive ID on the aircraft. That is Sky Trigger, sir.”

“Understood, Airmare. Tigger, you have two minutes. We don’t have the firepower to do more than annoy this thing. We’re an inland force. This never happens,” the sargent lamented.

“Don’t worry, my AI shouldn’t be an asshole this time,” Sky said gruffly. “Sai, you gonna be an asshole this time?!”

“Seeing as how you’re not asking me to teleport an eighty meter tall mech into a four meter tall ice tunnel, triggering a cave in and killing you, no,” Sky’s assistant remarked.

“I also asked for a crate of weapons,” Sky grunted. “And yes the concussion from any of my toys would have also collapsed the tunnel. Fear, the most logical motivator to get me to run faster, we had this argument. You were still a dick about the damn thing.”

“I act as you programmed me to, boss,” Sai chuckled.

“Triggie! It’s really fast! I can’t keep dodging it like this!” Pinkie yelped fearfully over the radio.

Sky looked over towards the battle, nodding grimly. A moment later I could hear the sound of spellbolts crackling and bursting. The monster screamed in rage, the ground crunching as it turned to face a new threat.

“Shy! GO! NOW!” Sky ordered, pointing off towards the chaos. “Sai, the second she’s ready, send her over, materialize the cockpit around my location.”

I gulped nervously and flew as fast as I could towards the insanity.

I could only remember flashes of the battle. A half dozen thirty meter tall, half tech, half arcane mechs, built to resemble an alicorn, flying around the enraged creature, doing little more than stinging like bees. Sky’s jet jerking erratically from side to side, its engines screaming in protest as it ducked and dodged the monster’s furious swipes. The dull crunch sound Sky’s own blue colored bipedal mech made as it punched the monster in the spine, the massive machine he drove only coming up to the small of the daikaiju’s back.

The sight of the kaiju’s building-sized tail rushing towards me like a colossal whip.

Shy - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH

The Roost - Drake

What a horrible adventure with that slaver dragon. Whew! It was nice to be in the airship again. I greatly prefered pony sized architecture. On the other hoof…

I sighed and turned my severed left foreleg over with a wingtip. That sucked a little.

I hoped this universe's Sky could fix my shoulder joint properly. I didn’t have a way home for another three weeks, and the punctures along the limb ment the whole leg was probably shot. I doubted it could be reattached.

Hrunting had far more bite strength than I’d imagined. Fortunately for me, I’d had far more crushing strength with my rear legs then he’d imagined. I had a special hatred for slavery, especially when they found a way to work within the law. Hopefully my choking him into unconsciousness while he chewed on my leg would lead to some chronic pain.

“I- um, maybe I can help you with that?” Silver asked sympathetically.

I looked up at the little dragon, giving him a confused frown. His general body plan reminded me of Spike, but silver instead of purple, and of course his wings, and being quadrupedal instead of bipedal (Then again, Dragons can walk ether or. Silver probably just prefered to be on all fours. It’s a personal choice for them). Also being a young adult rather than a toddler.

I wonder how upset this universe's Spike was when he learned dragon aging is controlled by their magic? Ours didn’t know he had to want to be older and make a conscious effort to age in order to grow up until he was sixty. Hehe!

Due to having grown up into a young adult. “It’s alright. I have a mechanic. Why are you still following me? I know you wanted to say goodbye, but you’re free now,” I reminded him with a smile.

Silver returned my smile and shook his head. “I’m not quite free, Miss. You won my employment rights You’re my boss now. Until the contract expires in sixty years,” he explained again.

I rolled my eyes hard enough to make my damaged shoulder hurt. “I fired you,” I reminded.

“And as I reminded you, Miss, my contract states I cannot be dismissed. You own me,” he reminded oddly happily.

“But I don’t want to own you,” I objected, crossing my wings over my barrel since I couldn’t cross my arms.

“Even so, you did me a great service,” Silver said as he sat down across the room from me. “Legally, you own all of the labor which I can provide for the next six decades. As far as the law states, that means I must serve you. But even if you could find a way to break the contract, I still would not leave. Ever hear of the Dragon Code? You did me a real, actual favor, that changed my life. I owe you my services anyways, until I can do the same for you.”

Buck! That's right. Dragons did life debts. Now not only was he legally obligated to serve me, but also culturally.

I sighed and uncrossed my wings. “Alright. But I’m not single. I have a girlfriend. Whatever we wind up deciding you will do to fulfill your life debt will have to involve her too. Because I am not comfortable with-”

“Having a loyal servant?” Silver asked, cocking his head to one side. “Why not?”

“Um, I was going to say making an addition to the family without consulting her. Would you be okay with working an engineering job while living on your own and providing us with some of your income? A fair percentage. That I can justify without bringing her in,” I said thoughtfully.

“I’d rather work for you directly… But if that’s all I can do after you and your mate have discussed it, so be it,” Silver said with a satisfied nod before stroking his chin with a talon. “Um, is there anything I can do for you before we leave the Roost, Miss?”

I shook my head and pulled the Amber Glass gem from my saddlebags with my remaining hoof, turning the stone over to inspect the hoof sized chunk of crystal in the light.

“No. I’ve already gotten more than I bargained for,” I answered, shaking my head slowly.

The crystal reflected my face for a moment as I turned it. Humm… Amber Glass was a good name.

Fluttershy - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH

The Peak, Mt. Segata - Neighpone

I’d never been so afraid of anything in my life. I knew I had flown through that insanity, and I had gotten to the Skyranger, but I couldn’t recall how.

AlI knew was Pinkie had me in a hug from behind so she wouldn’t hurt the tree I was NOT about to drop.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy,” Pinkie cooed gently. “We’re far far away from it and Sky just said it’s finally looking like they hurt it. You’re safe.”

“I know,” I said quietly, staring at the floor beneath me.

“Yay! There you are,” PInkie giggled happily giving me a little squeeze.

“It wanted to hurt me. Me specifically,” I whimpered.

That’s what made it so bad. All of that hate. All of it, focused solely on me.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie asked worriedly. “Because Sky and I were attacked by a big ice monster and it was really really angry too.”

I nodded twice.

Then my eyes widened in fright. “Rarity! If you were attacked by a monster getting your thing, and I was attacked by a monster getting my thing then- WE NEED TO GO GET RARITY! RIGHT NOW!” I shrieked, jumping up to my hooves, still holding the little pink tree.

Meaning I immediately fell over and landed on my side as I twisted to avoid smooshing the tiny thing.

Pinkie nodded in agreement and helped me stand up. “We’re already doing that. As soon as Sky’s done helping everypony stop that monster we’re going to get Rarity. We checked the lake on the way here and there was no sign of her. So she’s not there yet. We can wait on the lakeshore and the moment she arrives, we can all help her get her thing. It will be okay.”

“Promise?” I asked, looking into my old friend’s eyes, needing the comfort of something kind and familiar after that… That living nightmare.

Pinkie nodded firmly. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

I sighed in relief. That was exactly what I needed. “Thanks Pinkie,” I said with a small smile. “Um… W-we should make sure the tree is okay.”

Pinkie nodded and looked down at the tiny cherry tree then stroked her chin with one hoof. “I wonder what would happen if we watered the tree with the water I got?”

“Um, let’s NOT do that,” I said quickly. “That seems like a waste of the water.”

“I know, I’m just curious. Magic water plus magic tree. Something fun should happen, right?” PInkie asked beaming me a huge grin. “Hey! Remember that time Dash and I got into an argument about whether you were a tree or not? Hehehehe!”

Why the buck didn’t Celestia let us all go together? Ugh… I needed my friends for these things.

“I remember, why?” I asked curiously.

“Well now you get to be all momishly protective of a little baby tree!” Pinkie said before collapsing into a snicker fit.

Oh my goodness. That was true! I felt my lips part in an honest smile. “Thanks, Pinkie. You’re the best.”

13 - Retirement's End (Twilight Quest Part 2)

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Twilight - September 19th, 2028

Rainbow Falls - Mirror Equestria

Normally, the life or death adventures I went on for the sake of Equestria were harrowing, urgent, serious affairs. The way I see things, I’ve gone on six true adventures: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra, Tirek, Sunset Shimmer, The Sirenes. Those are the real adventures, true danger and urgency wrapped up into a package of desperate need. Everything else was well, a day in the office.

This adventure was turning into a day in the office.

I mean, it made sense that we would run into the place Megan lived near the other side of the portal. As I’d realized before, children very rarely go far from their homes. But at the same time, I expected there to be some level of danger involved in finding her.

Nope. Mister Williams told us exactly where she was. We could simply go and get her at any time. Yes, that part would be a problem to solve, but with Jade having access to her magic in this magically barren world was that a problem?

I didn’t think so. Even if it was, we had just spent three hours talking with a very nice old man while trying out recreations of ancient recipes. An old man who was one of the single coolest people I have ever met!

He owned a small ranch house, and a barn. The place reminded me a little bit of sweet apple acres only completely covered with small sets he claimed were historically accurate backdrops for over a dozen different cultures and time periods. As it turned out, Pine’s cooking show was his entire life, and the end result of a life spent as a historian.

Every day he’d put on a period and culturally appropriate costume, and cook a meal common to that culture and time period, with as accurate of ingredients as the common person could hope to afford.

Jade and I spent the afternoon hearing about a half dozen different long gone civilizations while trying a ton of different leftovers from the last week’s episodes. Cheese fritters, some kind of porridge made from dates, roast apples stuffed with figs and mulberries, a flat bread soaked in wine and served with cheese which he’d called a ‘dish from ancient Greece’ but paradoxically wasn’t greasy.

So much amazing food! All of it presented with neat little facts about the culture who made it and of course, how it was prepared! While I could listen to that sort of thing all day, I knew that history wasn’t Jade’s favorite subject, and yet Mister Williams had managed to captivate her as well. He was charming, upbeat, and passionate. The perfect person to host a discussion about something.

No wonder he was able to live off of his show’s proceeds!

We spent the whole day going from set to set, eventually winding up inside his old barn where he had a bunch of different barrels of drinks from each time period as well. While he wasn’t too sure about the drink’s authenticity, I for one loved his strawberry cordial to death, and got the recipe for it.

That stuff was going to become my official drink of choice. I was SO hiring a brewer for my castle when I got back. You couldn’t even taste the alcohol in it! That was the really amazing thing. Sweet, bubbly, a very slight creamy taste, not a hint of that ‘I’m licking a disinfectant’ flavor, but I did feel a bit of a buzz after the second pint.

I could actually have something to drink with Rainbow now! Yay!

Well, not that I wanted to get drunk, but for some ponies, sharing a drink is an important social activity. And until now, I’d never drunk anything I ever wanted to taste again.

“This is just THE best!” I giggled, setting my empty mug down on the barn’s table with a smile and another giggle.

“I figured you’d like it,” Pine chuckled, returning my smile. “I’m afraid I’ll be cutting you off there for the night though. It’s far more potent than it tastes.”

I nodded and waved a hand dismissively. “That’s okay! I understand. What proof is it?” I mused, looking over at Jade and the mug of orange mead she’d been slowly nursing all night. “How’s that taste? Does it also not have that disinfectant flavor to it?”

Jade nodded. “Yes, sorry. But for those of us who like the flavor, this is very good! Do you also brew these yourself?” She asked Pine with a happy smile.

“I brew some of the ales, but that’s all,” he replied. “I have a friend who does the rest of the recipes. My interest is in food, not drink. Of course, if you want the same meal your ancestors ate, you need the drink too… But well, I’m certain you understand how much more I’m interested in the actual food stuffs.”

Jade nodded again. “Yeah. Thanks for showing us everything! It’s been a great day… Um, it’s actually been a day though. The sun’s starting to go down. I guess we should get going,” Jade lamented.

Pine shook his head. “Sorry girls, but I can’t let you do that. At least, not yet.”

Ah. There’s the adventure… Great.

“Why not?” I asked suspiciously, looking at the old man through my narrowed eyes.

He raised an eyebrow. “Because you just drank two pints of a fifty proof cordial, and your sister has had about half as much alcohol. I’m not going to let you two drive drunk. You’ll need at least an hour and a half to get down below the legal limit,” he exclaimed with a baffled expression. “Do they not teach kids how to calculate their blood-alcohol content these days?”

Oh. Well, okay. That was a thing here. Operating a vehicle drunk was a crime. And he had assumed we’d driven out here. So yes. Cover. Spy stuff. Heh, spy stuff.

Bartender, one shaken! Stirred, not martini. Hehe! So cool.

“Can’t say we ever learned that in school,” Jade said with a laugh.

Pine shook his head slowly. “A shame. There’s more important things schools should teach than math, science and history. Don’t get me wrong, kids need to learn those things. But that same kid is going to be pretty useless to society if they don’t know what laws there are, how to function as an adult, how to perform well at a job, and so on… Well, if you want to bunk here for the night, I do have a guest room. Otherwise, if you'd care to listen to an old fart ramble on for another two hours I won’t stop you from leaving then.”

I looked up at Jade and gave her an embarrassed grin. I could tell I was a little buzzed. It wouldn’t be a good idea for us to head over to the Harmony Mountains Mental Asylum right now. Drunk Thaumaturgy was not one of my majors.

Jade took my hint and shook her head. “Looks like sis thinks we should stay the night. That’s not imposing or anything. Is it?”

Pine tilted his head back and laughed, a grin splitting his cheeks ear to ear. “Not at all! I’ve got a bad case of lonely old folks syndrome. Since you’ll be staying the night, would you girls like one more pint?” He offered happily.

“Sure!” I agreed eagerly, feeling like my ears should perk.

Why didn’t they perk? That’s so wier- Oh! Right. Human. Derp!

Pine nodded and got up, refilling all three of our mugs as he asked. “Well, let’s see if we’re having another round, seems fitting to have another conversation. Anything you two would like to hear about? What did we do last? My trip to ancient Mesopotamia in sixty-three?”

“Oh hey!” I asked, eyes widening in realization. “You didn’t tell us about your granddaughter. How about that?”

Pine paused, standing still in front of the barrels for a few minutes.

Oh. oops…

“Um, sorry,” I said with a frown. “I didn’t mean-”

“No, no it’s alright,” Pine sighed. “I did say I’d tell you the story.”

He turned back around, passed us each our drinks then sat back down at the table, chair squeaking in protest.

“First thing’s first. My son, Willow, he’s a scumbag,” Pine grunted bitterly, taking a swig of the rather smelly drink he called ‘seaweed grog’.

Jade winced. I could tell she felt a stab of emotion. To be honest, I kind of swore I did myself.

Pine saw her wince too. “Too much venom in my words?” He asked with a frown. “I know a father is supposed to regard their son well, but you haven’t met him. It’s not like he’s a gang member, or dealing drugs, or anything like that. No, he’s worse in my opinion. Kid was doing well, got a Masters, had a good job at a respectable company. Got married to a very nice woman, had a kid.

“What’s he do then? Decides getting involved with some cult is more important than taking care of his family. Now, I don’t mean he fell for a cult’s bullshit. That would be entirely different. I mean he helped to start a cult with three of his dumbass friends. So he’s one of the ones who decided ‘Hey, I’m going to take this book on an obscure ancient folk religion my dad’s got in his collection and use it to con people out of their free will and cash.”

I frowned, shaking my head slowly. “That’s horrible… I’m sorry for bringing it up,” I admitted, wishing I could do more to show my sympathy than just move the corners of my mouth.

“That sort of thing isn’t illegal?” Jade asked curiously tilting her head slightly.

Pine shook his head and sighed. “Nope! Our fine country guarantees your freedom of religion. How do you disprove someone's claim of being religious? You can’t. So you have to allow ALL religions. There isn’t jack the law can do to stop a cult till it does something illegal,” he grumbled bitterly in reply. “Thing is, Willow leaves his job to take care of that nonsense full time. His wife and little girl aren't getting the support they need.

“It wasn’t a very big cult back then, you see? Small time. Barely enough money to keep itself running. Much less provide for his family. Another layer of scum atop that pond… So his wife doesn't want her poor kid starving and asks me if I can baby sit her most days. I said sure. It’s not good for a child to grow up in that sort of environment. That’s how you get someone who actually believes that nonsense and sees fleecing poor desperate folks for all they are worth as good and noble.”

“Yeah, I can see how that wouldn’t be good,” Jade agreed with another wince. “So you raised Megan then?”

Pine chuckled. “Yeah, I did. Right on from three years old up till nine. Her mother ditched her with me one day, then vanished. Willow never wanted his kid back, so she became mine, unofficially. That’s the key thing to remember. Unofficially,” the old man said, taking another swig from his mug. “Megan was a wonderful girl. That’s not just the old man in me talking, I mean she was genuinely something special. I was far more active two decades ago, and she’d watch me around the ranch. She picked up several skills by watching me. How many nine year olds do you know who can do calligraphy?”

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “She could do calligraphy at nine?”

“Yeah, and she could do it as young as five. She couldn’t read things written in that old style, but she could make the letters almost perfectly in random sequences,” Pine said proudly. “If I had any knowledge about teaching I would have homeschooled her. Sending her to public school was a waste of her mind. She’d come home bored out of her mind and help me out with whatever I was doing. Other kids wanted to fingerpaint, she wanted help me finish restoring an ancient map of the silk road.

“I made only one mistake with her… I didn’t officially apply for custody. I didn’t think Willow would care about her, or even think about her. If I’d done that, she’d be living free today. Keep that in mind, it’s about to get REALLY important.

“Now despite being bright, Megan was still a little girl. Constantly afraid of monsters, especially these things she called ‘shadow men’. Do you have any idea how hard it is to reassure a little girl that the shadows aren't moving? Grown ass men jump at shadows all the time too. It’s a primal fear.”

“Shadow men?” I asked curiously, my mind thinking about various Equestrian monsters which might be similar to these things. “So like, solid black silhouette which look like a shadow or, what?”

Pine shook his head, reaching up to give his chin an absent stroke as if lost in thought for a moment. “No… No, I recall her saying they were literally shadows. Standing there, like a piece of paper on its edge. She said they lurked near her when she slept, whispering horrible things to her so she’d been too afraid to do anything to them. And that it worked.”

My eyes widened. It was all adding up.

“Nightmares,” I whispered to myself, unable to keep silent.

From what little information I had on dream magic, that’s how a nightmare creature is perceived when it doesn't have a physical body. Somehow, Megan had a connection to the realm of dreams, which meant her strange magic must be some form of… Buck! I really need Luna to tell me how that method of sorcery works!

Pine nodded solemnly. “Yep, that’s what I reckoned too. Poor girl was plagued by nightly nightmares. She never went to bed when you told her. She waited till she was too exhausted to stay awake. After a few years I just let her stay up with me. But back to the story.

“Megan’s nine years old, and we’re in the middle of summer. It’s been raining all day and I knew we were going to have a proper thunderstorm, so I went ahead and flipped the breakers. That might seem like a dumb thing to do, but this old house’s wiring, well, it’s very old, and very poorly done. Last time lightning hit the house, everything plugged in exploded, despite the breakers tripping, surge protector or not.

“I wasn’t having a repeat of that. Figured if I broke the connections before the hit, it would protect everything.”

I held up one hand, “Wait! You left Megan in pitch darkness when she has Nightmares!?”

Pine shook his head quickly. “No! I’m not a total monster, I didn’t trap her in the dark. I put lanterns out all over the house. Even gave her one. A few hours pass and the storm hits and she’s the mother of all thunderstorms. I’m not even sure if you could call it a thunderstorm. You could see entire sheets of lightning hitting the ground a mile long!

“It looked like something out of the damn bible, if you had an alien invasion thrown into that old book. You had the whole bank of clouds going, the electrical screeches and crackles overpowered the god damn thunderclaps… That storm was trying to impress a chick way out of it’s league. That’s the best way I can put it.

“Naturally, Megan can’t sleep through that. A blind and deaf mute couldn’t have slept through that. Poor thing comes sprinting out of her room screaming about shadow people chasing her and bolts outside before I have time to even realize she was running. I get up to run after her and you know what? I saw what she saw.”

“You saw a shadow person!!?” Jade asked, sitting bolt upright for a second.

“You bet your ass I did,” Pine said darkly. “But It wasn’t any ghostly apparition. That thing was solid. Moved right at the edge of the light, and it made sound. There was a real thing after her. From what I saw it looked like a man.”

Pine leaned forward in his seat. “I didn’t load my guns with blanks back then. I believe you know what I do when I see evil,” he said darkly. “I keep a pair of pistols next to my bed. I’d grabbed them and ran outside to give chase. It cost me about two seconds, but that’s an acceptable amount of time to exchange to arm yourself. A bullet can cover much more ground in two seconds than you can.

“I made my way outside, and the whole area is lit up as bright as day from the constant lightning. I catch a glimpse of the intruder running into the woods, it’s not too far, hell you can see from here. That’s what, fifty yards? If I wasn’t worried about hitting Megan, I would have fired immediately. But I waited long enough to check the firing line, and while I am doing that this thing vanishes. Poof, gone. Like Scotty beamed him up the moment my eyes left him.

“I spent the entire night until sun up searching those woods for megan. Never found her. The trail went cold right… Huh…”

Pine paused frowning steeply before shaking his head as if to dismiss a thought. “Odd little coincidence here, last thing I saw from her was a footprint about where you two had your little run in today. That is if I’m remembering correctly.”

“Um, yeah!” I said slowly. “That… That’s pretty weird.”

Jade nodded quickly, making me realize I’d said something too suspiciously. “Twi, it’s alright. I’m certain Pine scared him off with those shots,” she said soothingly before turning to look at Pine and smile. “You know, my husband would probably kill for that pump gun you have. The best thing he’s got at the moment is a replica Lancaster Howdah pistol chambered in ten gauge.”

Pine's eyes widened in honest fright. “Good god, woman! That’s a wrist breaker. Don’t you ever shoot it with those little hands of yours! I wouldn’t have trusted mine not to fracture from that back in my prime,” he yelped, immediately frowning. “I- um, please don’t take that to be anti-woman or anything. I’m just saying, that’s not a gun you shoot safely unless you’re name rhymes with Rick Kithouse.”

As I tried to figure out what name Pine was referencing, Jade giggled.

“He’s a pretty strong guy. If you want something even worse, the one he has now is a replacement for one that got confiscated for being too dangerous. It was an eight gauge,” Jade informed with a playful grin that looked totally adorable on my face.

I should smile like that! Brain, remember to smile like that.

Pine shook his head, the most dumbfounded look on his face. “Kids these days… An Eight gauge four shot hand cannon… Lady, your husband is a special kind of stupid. The sort I liked to hang out with back when I was young enough to get away with being dumb. Heh. That’s not an insult ether. Not from an old fart like me. Anyways… That’s half Megan’s story. You two probably want to know how she got sent to Harmony, right?”

Oh the irony that was the name of that asylum…

I nodded twice. “Yes, please! I honestly don’t know about the last time I heard of anyp- one being sent to an asylum,” I said, hoping my slip would be attributed to being slightly drunk.

Because that’s what it had been.

“Well… A year after she vanished, she came back,” Pine continued. “I don’t know what happened to her, and I don’t want to know. When a little girl vanishes that long and turns up alive but babbling about a fantasy world of pastel ponies… Yeah… You don’t make her think about what really happened. You also count yourself lucky to see a genuine miracle to find her alive and completely intact save for a pair of tattoos. Which she liked so at least that was, well, good. Ish.”

She’d earned cutiemarks!? Well, no, no that would make sense. Considering she did something bucking impossible!

“What did they look like?” Jade asked for me curiously. “Like, was it some sort of clue to find her kidnappers, or something?”

“No,” Pine lamented, leaning back a ways in his chair. “Six small gemstones, five in a pentagon shape with the sixth at the center. Same tattoo on either hip, just mirrored across. No symbol of mythology or anything I know of, and while I am primarily interested in the foods of ancient cultures, I also dig into more obscure parts of history while studying.

“Back on track, when she came back babbling about a magical land accessed Narnia style through the woods, her father took interest. See, the folklore his cult is based on includes a hidden world of magical creatures known as Tír nAill or in English, the Other Land. Yeah… That’s why you say it in Celtic. But, you can see why a conman preaching about a supernatural realm where there is everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy, and where time moves differently would want his daughter who insists she was there in his grubby meathooks.”

I nodded, sighing sadly. “Yeah I do. What is it with some parents being bucking evil?” I grumbled looking over at Jade. “Did I ever tell you about Trixie’s dad?”

“Didn’t he flog her in the old military style?” Jade asked back, trying to recall the shockingly long list of abuse that mare had suffered. “I’m pretty sure he put one of her eyes out too… Lily fixed her up, right?”

“Sounds like a charming man,” Pine grunted sarcastically.

“He’s very dead,” I replied instantly by reflex.

“Good,” Pine said with honest happiness. “Now, this is where not gaining legal custody of Megan bit me in the ass. The next five years became a major social battle for me. I had no legal recourse to request custody of her, not since her dad magically wanted her all of a sudden.

“But one thing worked in my favor. See, she insisted that she’d been in a world of talking ponies. That didn’t jive with the message Willow was selling, and Megan refused to ‘lie’. Ever. Hell, she actually started a conspiracy theory by being so damn insistent, consistant, and persistant around the sorts of folks who will believe anything told to them with pure conviction.

“That meant Willow needed to dump her. He couldn’t just make her vanish because the state knew he had her, and so he finally agreed to let me take custody. Now, my son and I have a very bad history between us thanks to his bullshit. So when the court saw a fifteen year old girl under oath insisting that she be called ‘Princess’ on the record since it was a real title, as she’d become a pony princess in exchange for creating a magical artifact of immense power… Yeeeeaaahh…”

Pine stopped staring at the floor and rubbed his head awkwardly. “Ever know someone who refused to lie, even for their own benefit in a desperate situation?” He asked sheepishly.

Jade and I nodded.

“Eeyup,” I agreed, playfully mimicking Applejack’s voice.

“Well, since delusional people fully believe their delusions, Megan refused to lie,” Pine groaned, resting his face in his hands for a long moment. “I told her to. I said it would be okay to do it this one time. Nope. Not once. Zero lies.

“The judge ordered she be psychologically evaluated so he could see if any of her testimony at all could even be admissible in court. Willow had her evaluated, and naturally the shrink recommended she be institutionalized as she had one of the worst cases he’d ever seen and well, he didn’t think she could get better without a hospital environment.

“Willow hates me, I hate him. This way he could get rid of Megan and hurt me. So he did. And that’s that. She’s been rotting in some mental ward for the last fifteen, almost sixteen years. I’m not allowed to visit.”

Sometimes, things just click. The pieces fall into place forming a single revelation. I had it happen when I calculated the date of Nightmare Moon’s return, when I worked out how to use the Element of Magic, when I finished Starswirl’s spell, and many other times. She same thing was happening now.

My eyes flew open and mouth tightened in horror. Megan was exactly one rapist father, and one torture chamber asylum away from living the plot to Mare Lacky’s dark urban fantasy novel When the Bow Breaks!

And I knew absolutely nothing about her father other than being reprehensible and I knew absolutely nothing about the place she was institutionalized in!

Oh, dear sweet Celestia no!

The whole point of that series is to watch the hero to rescue foals in the worst situations imaginable! This was a real living person. In almost one of those exact situations. I NEED TO FIX THIS NOW!

How can I fix this? What resources are here other than myself, Jade, and our equipment? Where even is H-

Rainbow Falls. Pine said that the Asylum was located within Rainbow Falls. He was human. With pony colored skin, instead of Lyra’s sister’s humankind which only had white or brown. I was in the mirror world! Backup was available.

“Um, Miss Twilight, are you okay?” Pine asked with a worried frown. “Taking to the alcohol bad?”

“I need a phone! Now!” I yelped, jumping up from my chair.

“Wait you don’t have a phone? I thought you young folk were glued to your phone's,” Pine exclaimed in genuine shock.

“He stole our phones too,” Jade said, giving me a look that screamed ‘cool it!’

“That- I… Well, no, if I recall correctly you can track your phone from a computer. Might as well let him take it so you can catch him. I have an older phone, who do you need to call?” Pine asked as he dug into his pocket to take out an old brick-like lump of plastic which I only recognized as a phone thanks to the physical buttons being in the same shape as Pinkie’s smartphone’s dial screen.

“A friend of mine,” I said urgently, looking at Pine with as much desperation as I could manage.

He returned my look with one of further confusion. “Um… D-do you need tampons or something? I can go pick them up, be faster than a friend driving them to you from wherever,” he offered.

I shook my head. “No, no this is very important. I have a friend who I need to talk to right now, and if she can help me, then-”

Pine handed me the phone. “Hey, calm down. It’s okay. Go ahead and make your call. Your sister and I will just stay here and chat,” Pine said soothingly.

I took the phone and quickly stepped outside the barn through the large double doors. While walking a good ways away from the barn so as not to be overheard I did my best to recall the right number, and punched it in once I was sure. After waiting for two minutes like an idiot with nothing happening, I hit the button marked send and the phone began to ring.

Three rings later, someone picked up the phone. “Hello?” A stallion, er, man’s voice asked curiously.

I eeped. “Um, hi! S-sorry I think I have the wrong number I’m trying to call a friend of mine, and she’s a she and you sound like a he so-”

“This is my wife’s phone,” the man chuckled. “Are you calling for Sunset?”

Holy cow! She married? Already!?

“Yes! It’s really important,” I replied. “Can you tell her Twilight’s calling?”

“Oh hey! Twilight. Long time no chat. I didn’t recognize your voice. Here hold on a sec. Sun? Hey, Sun!” he called loudly.

“Tell that telemarketer to fuck right off for me, Nova. I’m not in the mood to talk to them AGAIN!” Sunset shouted faintly.

“No, it’s Twilight. She says it’s urgent,” Nova called back.

A few seconds and some static later and Sunset’s voice came through the phone clearly. “Twilight? What’s up? How’s Las Pegasus treating you? You didn’t fall for some guy there and need help getting away from a crazy dude now, do you?” Sunset asked with extreme worry in her voice.

“Wrong Twilight, Sunset,” I said after a second of disbelief that she would jump straight to that conclusion of all things.

“Oh. Buck… This isn’t good is it?” Sunset sighed, wearily.

“No. It’s not. At all. Equestria is in a full blown crisis, and I need to get someone out of a mental institution in this world to help stop it,” I explained rapidly. “I need to do it NOW because from what I’ve learned, this poor woman has literally been living the life of the filly from When the Bow Breaks, minus the rape and torture… And I’m NOT sure about her life lacking those things. I just don’t know for sure. It has to stop NOW.

“You said that this world’s Twilight was able to wield magic directly for a time without an Element of Harmony. How?”

“Ooohhhkay! That… I did not need to know that,” Sunset said in a way where I could feel the disgust in each word. “Unfortunately, the magic was achieved through the use of a locket. One which is… Not available.”

“Do you know how the magic it used worked?” I asked hopefully, getting an idea.

“Of course, I’ve had years to analyze everything I learned about it,” she scoffed. “Who do you take me for? A normal person with a memory that can make errors?”

Yep! Sunset’s perfect memory. The reason why Celestia had taken her on as a student, and why I knew she could help me with jerry rigging a solution!

“I have a dufflebag full of enchanted mission gear. I’ll go over it and we can cobble together the right device, Neighgyver style,” I insisted.

“Twilight, listen to me VERY closely. You do not want to use magic directly under any circumstances,” Sunset said adamantly.

Not under ANY circumstances? Well, we’ll just see about that.

“The Elements of Harmony are broken,” I explained as calmly as I could manage.

“BUCK!” Sunset cursed, making the phone crackle in protest. “Look… There IS magic here, okay? Lots of it. The reason you think there isn’t is extremely sinister. I don’t have time to explain it, but I did find out that in short, ancient organization of evil mages and suppression artifacts. If you break through the suppression field, they will know, and they WILL find you eventually. Stick to enchanted items. They can’t suppress those because if they prevented enchantments from working, their own magic suppressors would stop working too.”

“... What?” I asked, lips forming a little confused ‘o’.

“I’m dead serious, Twilight. Stick to enchanted items,” Sunset sighed. “For your own safety. I’m sure you can do it with them. You’re smart. Where are you breaking into?”

“Um…” I said as I tried to remember the name through my sudden onset ‘what the buck?!’ syndrome. “The Harmony Mountains Mental Asylum in Rainbow F-”

“BUCK! WHY!?” Sunset screamed. “Ahhhh! Twilight that’s one of their facilities for containing magic users they can’t control! Do you really need to break into there? Why are you even here to fix the Elements?”

“B-because their creator is institutionalized there…” I said meekly, knowing that it would anger-

“Oh. Well… Ponyfeathers,” Sunset said in a hollow voice. “Okay. Here’s the deal. I help you, you’ll NEED my help, and you take my husband Nova Wing to Equestria. Because they will find me after this and-”

Oh crap, that’s right! Mirror Lyra! She said that Sunset’s counterpart was alive and proved it with letters!

“You can both come back,” I said adamantly.

“I can’t! W-well prison is better there is better than prison here…” Sunset mused darkly.

“Sunset, you didn’t commit manslaughter,” I explained rapidly. “She survived. I have it as a matter of first hoof account. You have done nothing to deserve a lifelong exile and sixteen years is more than enough of a sentence for your other crimes in light of your service to the Crown, assuming you help with this one more thing. You can go home, after helping me with Freeing Megan Will-”

“HER!? OH GOD BUCKING HORSERADISH!” Sunset scream-lamented.

“I have no context for any of this…” I admitted sheepishly.

“She’s a bucking Dream Mage, with Lucid capability, with YOUR power level, Twilight,” Sunset groaned. “I’ve been studying that compound for YEARS now. They have a few artifacts in there that I need. I was planning a burglary and well, I know their special containment procedures. She’s on the bottom level with the extremely dangerous things… I… I think we can get there. Do you have any backup? Any help?”

“I’ve got a changeling Queen with me, and she seems to be able to use her magic,” I said optimistically.

“Makes sense, their artifacts only nullify human magic and- I... Um… Is- Is it Chrysalis? I hope it isn’t. I’m roommates with this world’s Chrysalis and she REALLY wants to, quote, ‘punch my counterpart’s teeth in so hard they come out her rotting asshole,’ unquo-”

“Is your world’s me here? Is that what all the waking me up screaming is about?!” A female voice demanded. “I demand to know where that omnicidal bitch is!”

Oh for Celestia’s sake!

“No, it’s not her. But she’s pretty powerful,” I said, starting to grow exacerbated by the lack of seeing who I was speaking to, and everypony else who was there too!

“No it’s not her, Chrissie,” Sunset quickly replied. “Sorry for waking you up.”

Okay, yeah, no. No. Context needed. Now.

Taking a deep breath to try and hide my anger, I demanded, “Could you explain to me what on Equis is happening over there!?”

Sunset snickered. “This isn’t Equis. So, nothing,” she said with a half hearted laugh

Sunset must have heard my glare through the phone somehow, because she quickly added, “It’s a long story. A very long one. In short, during high school, friends and I try to be magical heros. Turns out there’s an organization that disapproves of that, we stop for our own safety. They ignored my friends because… Um… I don’t know but they did. They kept tracking me though, so I’ve been trying to stay two steps ahead of them. That’s how life looked to just be for the rest of my days, till now.

“There’s an underground magical community. I joined it for my own safety. That’s where I met Nova, and Chrissie. Did you know that the changelings here are burned by the sun? If you don’t, whoever is with you needs to keep out of the sun. It’s bad enough to be fatal.”

I nodded, wishing that gestures could be sent through a phone. “Okay… I think I understand. The three of you are hiding from an organization which is after all of you, presumably?” I asked to clarify.

“Yes. The same organization that runs the place you are breaking into. That’s… One hell of a coincidence,” Sunset mused, pausing for a moment. “What’s Celestia’s favorite kind of cake?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Um, you know that. Why would you need me to tell you? She’s thousands of years old, it’s not like her preferences will suddenly change.”

“Just tell me what kind of cake she likes!” Sunset demanded urgently.

“Banana cream cake,” I replied with a frown. “OH! You’re confirming my identity. Is it that bad here?”

I bit my lip nervously. It was one thing to leave Sunset here as a banishment sentence before we knew any of this. But now? Even if she were guilty of mareslaughter, I’d be getting her out of here.

“It can be,” Sunset informed. “Ever meet somepony more chaste than Cadence?”

I laughed at the idea, almost falling over. “Sunset… Come on. It’s me”

“Yep, it is. You wouldn’t know how laughable that idea is if you weren't,” Sunset said with a single chuckle. “Okay. I trust you. Where are you? We can be at the Hospital by morning if we drive. Can we meet there?”

“I would much prefer we go now. Where are you? Jade could open a portal if you can give her enough information,” I informed.

“We can’t go now!” Sunset explained worriedly. “We’ll need time to load up, and I’ll have to ask everyone here if they can help, or even want to, and I have to tell everyone that you’re letting me go home if we help and-”

“Phone! Give now, please,” Chrysalis demanded.

The phone crackled as it was jostled around for a moment before the changeling’s voice spoke to me directly. “Hey, Princess, right? Are you really giving Sun a ticket home if she helps you break into Harmony?” She asked.

“Yes, I am… And even if she doesn't. I can’t force her to stay here if she’s being hunted down,” I sighed, rubbing my eyes with one hand.

“I’m probably one of the last changelings left alive on this rock. They hunt us too. You want our help now? Let me off this rock, I’ll teleport all three of us fully loaded right to you in the next ten minutes,” she offered. “Deal?”

“Chrissie! You have no idea how different of a world Equis is from this one. You probably won't like it,” Sunset warned.

“This world is only safe for humans who don’t know about magic, Sun. Besides, there’s a me out there who is tarnishing my rep,” Chrysalis grumbled darkly.

“Actually, she died,” I informed as quickly as I could manage.

“How?” Chrysalis asked hopefully.

“Exploded… Twice actually,” I answered with a wince at the memory.

“You can do that?” The changeling mused curiously. “You can explode twice? Crap! Nova! Nova, you won the bet. You can explode twice… Also grab your gear, it’s go time.”

“Um, I didn’t say that I’d take your deal,” I said with a small frown. “Not that I won’t, but you should wait until you know for sure before doing things.”

“So you will?” Chrysalis asked hopefully.

I sighed and nodded. “Yes. I will. On the condition that you remain in my castle until you’re adapted to the world and understand that your natural form is known to be a supervillain who is dead, and that using it will scare a LOT of ponies,” I informed.

“No problem. I disguise myself daily already. That’s fine. I’ve scryed your location, we’ll be at that exact spot in ten. Bye,” the changeling said, clearly about to hang up.

“WAIT!” Sunset yelped, the phone crackling as she snatched it away. “Twilight, what’s your exit plan? Do you have one? Ponyville is under quarantine. They said something about a superbug.”

“I have a rift that we can open at midnight that’s what… Five hours? As soon as it comes we can leave,” I said with a smile. “It’s a portable one too.”

“Good. Are there any civilians around? Because teleports light up the sensor grid like a Christmass tree,” Sunset asked wearily.

“Like a what?” I asked, tilting my head to one side.

“It’s- skip it. Are there any civilians nearby?” Sunset demanded again.

I frowned. “Well, one. Megan’s grandfather,” I admitted.

“You’ll need to get him out too. And it’s probably best he comes with us so she has a familiar face to see when we break her out. Can you break the news to him before we arrive?” Sun asked carefully.

I closed my eyes, sighing internally. This had been so simple just a few minutes ago! Ugh.

“I’ll do what I can,” I groaned. “Just hurry!”

“Will do, just… Be carefull. Okay?” Sunset asked with a sigh the phone going dead with a click.

I looked down at the old phone in my hand for several long moments. How was I going to tell Pine about this? He probably wouldn’t believe it. I know that I would have a hard time believing this if I were him. What could I do?

I’d have to prove that magic was real first. Then prove that Megan hadn’t been lying. But how could I do that?

Her locket! I had her locket. He’d remember that, ponyfeathers he probably gave it to her! But what about the other part?

Jade. Yes, that would do.

I turned around and walked back into the barn, taking care to make eye contact with Jade as I entered. It looked like she and Pine were engrossed in a rather serious conversation, especially since Pine had gotten a pen and paper and seemed to be sketching something out while they talked.

Wishing I could contact Jade telepathically, I did my best to get her attention by waving at her. But there wasn’t anything I could do to-

I paused, frowning as I looked at the center of the table. My pack was open, and Megan’s locket was already on the table.

Did Jade-

Jade looked up suddenly, giving me a nod. “Twilight,” she greeted.

“What’s going-” I began to ask only to be interrupted by Pine.

“Your friend here sneezed and lost her form. You could have told me you were Changelings. I met a tribe of you in Ireland thirty years ago,” Pine answered sounding somewhat shocked, but also in control of himself as he hunched over the map. “I also don’t have any hard feelings about the deception. I’m fine. Just surprised.”

I REALLY needed to do some serious lore reading on this world next time i had a chance…

“Um, how up to speed are you?” I asked slowly.

“On your species and abilities? Not too much I’m afraid,” Pine replied still sketching. “I would love to learn more. It’s not everyday you discover a legend is real. As for your reason for being here, Jade explained it.”

“All of it?” I asked slowly.

“Yes,” Jade replied giving em an embarrassed nod. “He knows we’re here for Megan. We’re sketching out a map of the asylum right now.”

“Hell of a tonal shift to make in the last five minutes,” Pine said wearily turning to give me a feeble grin. “But, well… Don’t take this the wrong way, I don’t want to know what happened to her during that year. Ever. But knowing some of you want to find her and make sure she’s safe… I trust you. So you’ve got all the help this old man can give you.”

I shook my head incredulously. “I- I was literally about to explain the entire thing myself!” I exclaimed.

Jade blushed deeply, making me wonder why she was still using my body. “Sorry… I didn’t know that a sneeze would deshift me,” she apologized bashfully. “And you were on the phone for a while. I had time to explain everything. Kinda did so the poor guy didn't think we were here to kidnap him.”

I took a deep breath to calm myself. It was alright. Everything had worked out just fine. Honestly, it was probably good I hadn’t been here when that happened.

“Speaking of the phone, I called a friend. We’ll have some back up… And we have a problem,” I explained as I passed the brick-phone back to Pine.

“Friend?” Jade asked with a confused frown.

“Problem?” Pine asked with worry in his eyes.

I nodded, and pushed a lock of hair out of my eyes. “Bad news: apparently that hospital is owned by a group of changeling hunting magic suppressing people who use it as a warehouse to store magical things and keep magical prisoners,” I said grimly. “Good news: Sunset’s on her way with friends, so we have three more people for a party of five, two of whom should be able to use magic fully.”

Jade bit her lip. “Well… That’s good. Also bad. But good,” she said looking down at the map.

Pine closed his eyes for a moment, then pushed back his chair, stood up and walked out of the barn without a word.

I turned to go after him, but Jade stood up. “No! Twilight, let him go!” She begged.

I winced and shook my head slowly. “He’s got to be depressed that his granddaughter is-”

“He’s PISSED,” Jade corrected, giving me an urgent frown to emphasize how serious a problem this was. “He mentioned something about being sorry humans skinned ‘your people’ alive. He thinks his grand daughter is in the hands of total monsters and he’s VERY ANGRY. Give him some time to himself. That’s what I sense he needs.”

“Skinned alive?” I asked around the grimace which had formed on my lips.

No wonder this world’s Chrysalis wanted out!

Jade nodded. “Yeah… Let’s… Let’s not get captured, okay? So who is Sunset brining?”

I opened my mouth to reply, only for the flash and pop of a teleport spell completing to interupt me. Nodding towards the open barn door, I said “Let’s go say hello.”

Jade got up, and the two of us walked out to see Sunset standing with two other people. I couldn’t help but notice that Sunset was rocking a black motorcycle jacket again, but that seemed like it was important. The jacket had silver thread embroidered patterns in it which looked like enchantment marks, and the brass plated thick gloves she wore, with the quartz crystals attached to the back of each hand, were DEFINITELY magical in nature.

On her right was a somewhat short stallion- Um man, with pale orange skin and blond hair. He stood protectively close to Sunset, and even with how little I knew of enchanting I could see that the denim jacket he had on was definitely projecting a rather powerful shield spell. I’m certain that his black tshirt and jeans also had enchantments to them, but I couldn’t see any visible markings.

On Sunset’s left had to be Chrysalis. Mirror Chrysalis at least. She was currently taking the form of a tall, muscular woman with black hair and a deep blue near-black skin, with shocking green eyes. While I couldn’t see if her white tanktop and ripped jeans were magical in any way she did have a very large sword strapped to her back, and had two duffel bags slung over her shoulder. So she had to have some serious equipment.

As we walked out the three spotted us. Sunset waved, the male I assumed was Nova nodded, and Chrysalis simply grunted. “Hey.”

“Hi,” I replied, smiling happily.

It looked like we had some real help! All three of them were standing in that same way you see soldiers stand when on duty. Not guard duty, but combat duty. Alert, but fluid. Ready to move at any minute. I’m certain that Shining would approve of them. This was going to work!

“Hi, I’m Jade,” Jade introduced, giving the three a wave.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Any reason your using Twilight’s shape, or is that just a couples thing?”

“She’s married,” I said instantly, frowning at Chrysalis.

Sunset smiled. “I thought you’d wind up with a girl ultimately. How are you two getting along?”

I felt myself turn red, mortified.

Jade blinked. “Um, no. I’m not married to her… And she’s straight.”

“Uh, that’s not how I remember it,” Sunset exclaimed, honestly surprised. “I mean, yeah she got all butterflies around our Flash, but I still remember that sleep over when- Uh, nevermind. This isn’t important right now. So… Jade, what do you bring to the table? And what gear do you two have?”

What was she talking about? W-wait… Did.. Did she just imply we slept together!? I don’t remember that! At all! Not one little bit!

I- I would never have done that! W-well, maybe if she was in a cute outfit. Um… Wait, what? Where did THAT come from?!

“Well, we have some enchanted items. Field kits issued by the EUP guard with some extra things,” Jade began thoughtfully. “I’m pretty certain that there are mage blades in them so Twilight won't be defenceless. Also-”

Sunset’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked behind me. “Holy crap! Is that the old man you mentioned!?”

Her surprise snapped me out of the building existential crisis I was having, and made me turn around to look.

Pine was walking down the path from his ranch house. He’d changed clothes. The colonial costume had been replaced by a well worn pair of tall brown leather riding boots which had the legs of olive green cargo pants tucked into them, a thick brown leather gunbelt sporting two large revolvers, and a khaki button up shirt.

Also hanging from his belt was a large curved sword, a saber of some kind, in a black wooden scabbard. In Pine’s left hand, he held his shotgun, which he slid into a back holster attached to the harness worn over his shirt with one hand, while slinging two large belts stuffed with shotgun shells over his chest with the other hand.

“Um… Y-yes,” I said, face falling slightly as the old man managed to project an aura of intimidation and outrage which made the former ‘kind old man’ look vanish.

This was the body language of a retired adventured who was pissed the buck off!

“Those three your friends?” Pine asked looking past me at Sunset, Chrysalis, and Nova.

“Yes,” I answered immediately.

Pine grunted in response while looking over the five of us critically. “Well, goddamn it then, lead the way!”

14 - Ghost Report’n (Dash Quest part 3)

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Rainbow Dash - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

SkyLabs, ██████████ - Phoenix Sovereign Territory Zone

Back when Pinkie first started dating Sky, I wondered how he got so much done. Managing a company that spans the known world, doing all of the command level decisions for an entire city’s infrastructure, inventing whatever gizmo he liked, helping Neighpone out by designing every mech they used from the fifth generation onwards. That stallion did a lot.

Too much for one pony to do, at least in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, his sister helped out with some things, but one wizard who doesn't know any time travel or cloning spells isn’t going to be able to do enough to help a guy do as much stuff as Sky. I called horse apples on his whole ‘I do everything’ deal.

It just felt like a lie. Like Trixie’s use of the ‘Great and Powerful’ title before she explained what it meant. A way to stroke his ego.

Then we’d worked out my connection to the Speed Force, and he showed me SkyLabs. Then it all made sense. At least, the basics made sense. I didn’t have the brain to wrap around the how or the why of anything in here.

I knew two things about SkyLabs. First, the entire thing was one huge automated R&D lab working off computer files and lots of other complex stuff. Sky didn’t build everything, he built one thing that built lots of things in the way he would build them if he had the time to do each one himself.

Second, Sky might legitimately try to kill me if I ever showed anyone where it was. He was super protective of his lab. If we weren't quadruple certain that putting a portal to my Uncle’s house anywhere else would be a very bad idea, I’d never have seen this place.

Heck, Sky’s sister Ayna said she only knew about this place because it’s where Sky liked to go camping when he was a colt. Which sounds insecure until you learn he only ever came here alone or with her once.

And neither would Lotus. Well, kinda. It’s not like I could run faster than light. So she’d probably seen some blurry splotches as I zipped inside to the portal room, but that probably didn’t count. Unless demons eyes and memories worked differently from a pony’s…

“Hey um, so… Did you see how we came in here?” I asked as I set her down in the small portal room just a few steps away from the inactive portal’s archway.

Lotus nodded, looking around herself curiously exploring the dining room sized, basically bare room with her eyes. “Slightly, I know we’re inside a mesa. You were flying towards it for about two seconds. The rest of it happened too quickly to perceive,” she answered honestly.

“Okay,” I said after a moment’s thought. “Cool. Sooo… This place don't exist. Understand?”

“I do… Why dig into a mountain for such a small space?” Lotus asked looking at me with a baffled stare. “And why go through such lengths to hide a portal? I understand the technology this is based on well enough. It hasn’t been altered all that much. The biometric locks you could use with this portal, combined with a simple hexagrammic ward could secure this portal completely. There’s no reason to physically hide it.”

Lotus huffed irritably. I smirked.

“Yeah, sure. We could lock this side. But the other side? Yeah, not so much,” I laughed, rubbing the back of my head with a hoof. “We’re going somewhere where ‘secure’ is more of a challenge than a deterrent to a lot of people. And where ‘special talents’ can do all kinds of wierd stuff, including bypassing almost any security, yeah, those are like, scarry common.”

I turned to the locker on the right side of the door and started to open it. Why the hay it had a stupid combination lock was beyond me. It was kind of like if after all of the boobytraps and archaic puzzle-locks Daring Doo had to open a simple gate latch as the final seal.

“I see…” Lotus mused. “ Then this… Brushed steel, dining room-looking place is to contain things coming from the other end. Dad could learn from you. The portals home are completely insecure. Not that anything wandering through would be much of a threat for long.”

I laughed and shook my head. “You know, I’d say that was stupid, but if the legends about Tartarus are even half true, then security isn’t much of a concern.”

“Oh no, I didn’t mean to the entire realm. Of course that’s a lethal land,” Lotus agreed as I opened the locker. “I meant for his castle. I think he just lazily copied the portal design.”

“Fun fact, I’ll keep that in mind for later,” I said as I reached inside the locker and took out my custom wonderbolts uniform.

Or rather, my Wonderbolt costume. Time to suit up. Traditions and all that.

“A Wonderbolts uniform?” Lotus asked curiously, cocking her head to one side.

I nodded and started to slip the costume on. “Sort of, kinda,” I began frowning as I tried to find a good way to explain myself. “So… Um. You know how there are parallel universes, right? A world like your own but slightly different. Well there are also connected universes. They are not parallel, they are completely different. But they are linked in such a way where travel between them is possible and stuff.

“My uncle’s universe is connected to this one, but it’s not parallel. It’s pretty different. One of those differences is magic is way different. It’s not like here where every unicorn is a spellcaster, every pegasi manipulates weather, and every Batpony is absurdly good at making things. Imagine if most people had no magic, and some people had one or two magical abilities each and-”

I paused, slapping a hoof to my forehead in embarrassment. “Oh my god,” I groaned. “Do you read comic books?”

Lotus shook her head no. “No, but I am aware of them and the general concepts,” she answered.

“It’s A LOT like the Simulacra Comics Universe,” I elaborated hoping she understood. “It’s not the same. I thought that we found whatever pocket universe SC uses to make their special edition ‘Be the Hero’ comics for a while, but it’s not.

“Anyways, my uncle is sort of a superhero. And I help. So I had to have a costume and an alter ego. It’s tradition, and also practical.”

I finished slipping into the costume and flipped up the hood. I’d never wanted to do the whole costume thing, and even pointed out that I was a pony. The only one there. So you know, kinda hard to have a secret identity.

Turns out the real reason for the costumes is psychological. Having a simple iconic look helps civilians remain calm during emergencies because they see someone they recognize helping out. Also you can stick gadgets in them.

Lotus rolled her eyes. “What, saving Equestria wasn’t enough for you?” She asked snidely.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. It’s not,” I agreed, making Lotus blink in surprise.

“How is it not?” She asked incredulously. “Twilight has a different mission every other week on average!”

I nodded. “Yeah. Twilight does,” I agreed. “I don’t. Most of us don’t. Are we instrumental in protecting Equestria from the big threats? Yes. Do I help Twilight with every ‘friendship problem’ as she calls them? No.

“In fact, most of us don’t do much outside of our ordinary lives except for one or two crazy weekends a year. Sure, they are all fine with that. But I’m not!

“My day job is a weather team leader. It’s important work that pays pretty well, but it’s a bit boring. Imagine one day you got to do something actually exciting, have a real adventure, and actually make a difference in ponies lives. Life changing moment right?

“Now imagine that you only get to keep doing that for maybe three days for every four hundred days that pass. So yeah, no. Protecting Equestria is not enough for me. I’m too bad at working within a command structure for the Guard to want me despite my being totally fine with combat. I can’t join the army or anything. But my uncle fights crime as a costumed vigilante and was totally awesome by offering me a job. Make sense?”

The succubi nodded slightly. “Yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t- I thought… Nevermind. How do we go?”

I turned to the portal and pressed the red button set into the lefthoof pillar. The archway immediately began to hum as it worked to open up the portal. Then the sound effect’s Sky had implemented kicked in and played a series of ten rapid diffrent pitched electronic beeps.

And the other hideous horrible screeching electronic ear rape of a sound which I could only describe as a computer screaming in pain decided to stab me in the skull.

Lotus winced, ears falling flattered then mine. “Ah! What the hell!? WHY!?” She demanded as the portal began to spark, the energy swirling around the center like water down a drain.

“Sky’s sister said that if it was going to take thirty seconds to connect two universes, then it looked like ‘The multiverse runs on dial-up’. Sky laughed, and then made the portal do this,” I grumbled as the noise died down.

“That’s dumb,” Lotus grumbled closing her eyes tightly as the portal stabilized.

“Yeah well, Sky finds lots of dumb things funny,” I sighed. “Come on, we’re good to go and I’m already not looking forward to explaining you to Cisco.”

“Who?” Lotus asked with a steep frown.

“My Uncle’s tech guy, um… Just, come on,” I said as I gave Lotus a gentle push towards the portal. “Same time. Ready?”

“Not especially,” Lotus admitted with a short sigh. “But I doubt you’d let me wait here while you retrieved your friend.”

I nodded. “Sorry… Look, it’s totally fine. I’ve gone through with another pony plenty of times.”

“But have you gone through with a non-pony composed primarily of non-equilibrium matter?” She asked with a sheepish grin.

“Nah, but-”

“How about I go first then? That way you can see if it’s safe or not to use the portal with me in the future?” Lotus asked diplomatically.

“Yeah, no. Trust me, you pop over on your own and my uncle will probably kick your ass. Cause you know, unknown energy readings with weird biosigns,” I explained with an irritated sigh. “Come on, just go!”

Lotus nodded and then dipped her head towards the open portal. “Let’s go,” she said with a defeated sigh.

I nodded and stepped forwards, touching the swirling blue vortex a split second before she did. The portal seemed to stretch out, going from a flat disk to a long tunnel which I felt myself shoot through like somepony had thrown me through, only for the tunnel to contract at the far end and spit me out into the familiar room on the other side.

Star Labs. Big round shapes, open air, lots of glass, almost everything white or chrome with the occasional bit of blue. Sci-fi as buck if you ask me.

The particular room we wound up in was nothing special. Just a sort of ‘welcome room’. Apparently interdimensional shenanigans were such a common thing here that Cisco wound up building this end of the portal before even I’d shown up. The room too. Cuz you know, if people from elsewhere keep popping up, a big map with a planet on it, an arrow pointing to a place on the map, and a zoomed in view of Central City with ‘You are Here’ written on it is nice.

Also the subspace snare to force hostile things coming through to wind up here wasn’t a bad touch ether.

No, the bad touch was the poorly synthesized voice that announced our presence by saying, “You’ve got mail.”

I rolled my eyes, like I did every time I came through. It figured that tech geniuses shared the same sense of humor.

“Huh…” Lotus mused as she looked up for the source of the voice. “Alright. I did not expect a nice little lobby on the other side.”

Oh yeah… That’s right. Lotus spoke Equish. Unless she had like, magical language abilities.

“Hey, um, real quick, do you speak any other languages?” I asked curiously.

“Yes,” she answered, eyeballing the rack of pamphlets for things like ‘social norms of Earth-1’. “But I doubt the people here speak-”

The faint click of the room’s intercom turning on made my ears twitch. “Hey, Dash. You’re here for that book right?” Cisco’s voice asked over the intercom, prompting Lotus to look up in concern.

Yeah… She didn’t speak the right language… Crap!

“What book?” I asked frowning.

Oh snap! I’d brought a copy of Daring Doo and the Sunken Tower to show Alter!

“Hell if I know. Your loopy letters do not get along with universal translators… I guess we need a multiversal translator,” Cisco mused to himself. “There’s a bit of an emergency going on. I left the book on my desk in the office. Just go get it, I need to stay on the- Barry! Watch out, the new guy’s not aiming for you he’s increasing the ambient heat! He’s trying to cook you alive, get out of that warehouse now!”

Buck! Crisis at home, crisis here too!

“I’m not here for the book actually,” I explained quickly, knowing how much Cisco hated being interrupted while working. “I need to talk to Alter, it’s an emergency. Will this mission be wrapped up soon?”

Realizing what I said I immediately fachooved. No, Alter wouldn’t be helping with this one because it was a fire based villain.

“Oh yeah, we’ve got the pyrophobe fighting off sixteen different fire based meta-humans,” Cisco laughed sarcastically. “Yep! Totally what’s going- What? Oh shit, sorry, Barry. Your niece showed up. Some kind of emergency.”

“Don’t distract him!” I protested with a frown. “I sort of got a prisoner I need interrogated, like. Now. There is a Darkseid level threat happening back home right now and I REALLY need to confirm some information.”

“There's a WHAT?!” Cisco yelped. “Fuck! We’d help but the goddamn Fire Nation decided to attack today. We’re completely swamped!”

“What about Alter?” I asked hopefully.

“I sent her to get me some burritos, this is hour five,” Cisco said quickly. “Barry, just focus on the mission. It’s okay, she just needs Alter’s help.”

Ugh, I hated only hearing half of a conversation! Stupid ear pieces.

“Dash, just wait in the command center with me. She should be back soon,” Cisco instructed, the intercom clicking off before I could explain I had a prisoner with me.

Lotus blinked as I sighed and moved towards the door. “That was… Odd. It sounds similar to Terran but the words are completely different,” she said half to me half to herself. “Can your friend speak Equish? I imagine it will be hard to show her I’m telling you the truth if she can’t.”

“Alter speaks everything,” I answered intentionally cryptically.

“Really? I imagine that’s a useful ability,” Lotus mused as I opened the door for us and trotted into the long curving hallway.

“Yeah, it is,” I agreed, leading the way.

Star Labs was the weirdest building ever. Even by this world’s standards. The whole thing was a big circle. Who the heck builds their building as a circle!? At least it made the command center easy to find. Just go around the circle.

A quick and easy walk, with just one elevator. Over before Lotus could do much more but see a few portraits hung on a wall and remark, “Ooo! Non-prismatic humans. Interesting! We must be in the universe the Terran Empire tried to tunnel to! I remember them desperately trying that after discovering humans living in another universe.”

“Um… I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I Informed honestly as I pressed my hoof against the door panel.

The steel blast doors hissed, quickly sliding into the walls to open the way into the room taken right out of a space center and merged with a war room. Big holographic display table in the middle of the room, a ring of desks with computers on them, big displays on every wall except where there were doors…

The huge room looked extremely empty with just Cisco in it. It felt like a place which should have a dozen or more people manning stations and calling out orders. Like the bridge of that ship from that show Ayna liked.

Normally, it was. But right now there was just the one long haired cinnamon skinned guy in a hoodie and jeans with an earpiece, running from station to station. That would be Cisco. Looks kind of like is slacker and a bit of a dweeb, is the exact opposite of those things on the inside.

“Barry!” Cisco explained as the door opened. “I think I figured out what they are after! One of the sixteen is distracting League members everywhere in the city except for a ten block radius around Hudson University. Odds are pretty good that they are after any data about F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. left in the servers there. As soon as you get an opening, I need eyes inside.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Cisco turned his head just enough to look at Lotus and I before turning back to his screen. “I thought you said your wife was orange and blonde. Hi, by the way, AJ. You picked a hell of a time for a first visit,” Cisco greeted.

I looked down at the floor sadly for a moment before catching my breath. “That’s not AJ. That’s a… Enemy who defected. I need Alter to help me confirm if she’s cool or not.”

“... And you brought her here?” Cisco asked, raising an eyebrow before frowning and glancing at his headset mic. “No, Barry. She didn’t bring her wife. She’s got a prisoner in tow… Yeah I trust her it’s just- AH HELL! Forget everything happening here, thermal imaging shows another four massive heat spikes approaching the city. They’ve got back up. Just how many pyrokinetics are out there!?”

The problem with being a part of two worlds… When disaster strikes both, who do you help? Maybe I could help both this time.

“Four more than we knew about, apparently,” I said with a worried frown. “D-does anyone need some quick help while I’m waiting for Alter to get back?”

Cisco shook his head, making my ears droop with a mixture of sadness and disappointment. “No offense Dash, but she’ll be back any minute and this attack has been going on for over five hours. One more speedster for a few minutes won't be able to do much,” he sighed. “Although… If you wrap your thing up within the usual half hour we’ll probably still be fighting. You could pop back then. With your wizard friend. Because our wizard is deathly afraid of fire.”

“Yeah well, if you were combustible you’d be afraid of fire too,” I said defensively.

I knew he didn’t mean it negatively, and it was the stress of managing this attack, but no one bad talks my friends!

“I know. I know. Her powers cut out around large amounts fire and she’d go up like a torch. But it would still be nice to get her out there right now. The bad guys are using teamwork for a change, and whoever is coordinating them is at least as good as me, maybe better,” he grumbled worriedly, eyes narrowing at something on his screen. “Barry, he’s losing heat. You should have an opening to check out the university soo- No! No yeah do your plan. Take him out first.”

I winced again, my wings twitching uneasily. I REALLY wanted to help! Even if I only had two minutes before I had to get back to demons invading ponyville I could easily run out, take down one of them via surprise, and make it back before-

A sound much like someone inhaling slowly next to your ear quietly sounded amid the whirring of computer fans and status update beeps. A ghostly humanoid figure, more shadow than substance, accompanied the sound, leaning through the wall behind Cisco, one hand outstretched, fingers hooked as if ready to claw at the back of his head.

“Yo, Cisco! Burritos,” Alter exclaimed as she blinked back to normal as she finished phasing through the wall, a Taco Bell bag seeming to blink into existence in her hand as light could properly bounce off it again.

"AHHH!" Cisco yelped wheeling around in fight, glaring at Alter as he snatched the bag from her outstretched hand. "God dammit! Fucking Martian density shifting. Gimme me that!"

I couldn’t help but laugh as Cisco snatched the bag of food from her. Alter’s pale skinned human shape made the whole scene just the best! The creepy-evil-shadow-thing just poofs into a short, skinny, pale girl with dyed purple hair, a light lavender hoodie over a blue shirt, fingerless gloves, and dark black sunglasses.

Alter looked like what would happen if an alien had chosen a human form using old 90’s TV commercials. Because that’s exactly what happened. The only reason she kept herself looking like that was the humor value.

To me, she had even more humor value. Because she sounded EXACTLY like Twilight.

Alter smiled as she saw me. “Hey! Dash! Come back for the book? Mind staying a while? The building across from my apartment is on fire and um… Yeah…” She sheepishly trailed off, scratching the back of her head nervously.

I shook my head. “Sorry, can’t stay, my home city’s getting completely screwed over right now. Like, it’s leveled, and bucking Demons are literally spewing forth-”

Cisco’s eyes widened practically to the size of dinner plates. “Jesus Christ! Yeah um, okay! We’ll be helping you as soon as this is wrapped up,” he said promised with a worried frown. “No, Barry. You DON’T want to know what's happening. Not yet. You need to focus on this.”

Alter frowned, dipping her head forwards to look at me over her shades, revealing her lavender eyes. “How much exaggeration is behind that? Also who's your friend?” She asked worriedly.

“None. No exaggeration,” I said as firmly as I could manage. “And she’s one of them. She’s defecting, possibly.”

Cisco and Alter blinked in unison before demanding, “AND YOU BROUGHT HER HERE!?!”

"Dammit Dash, you brought a demon into Star Labs!? Couldn't you....write first or something!?" Cisco added urgently.

“I don’t exactly have a prison, and she seems harmless,” I explained, holding up my forehooves defensively. “I just need you to read her mind and tell me if she’s telling the truth or not, Alter.”

“Why!? Can’t your girl do that too?” The shapeshifting alien asked with a worried frown.

“Um… She- She’s possessed right now…” I explained, ears drooping sadly. “I- I need intel so I can take down the thing controlling her. Lotus offered it.”

“Well, fuck,” Alter sighed, rubbing her temples with a thumb and forefinger. “Sure thing. Least I can do.”

Alter walked around the desk and made her way over to where Lotus and I stood with a few quick steps. “So… Um… Demon pony,” Alter began.

“Yeah, she doesn't know this language,” I explained with a worried frown.

Alter nodded. Her eyes suddenly glowing a bright red, bright enough to show through her sunglasses. Lotus eeped taking a step backwards with honest fright stamped on her face.

Alter raised an eyebrow, the glow vanishing a second later. “Really? A daemon is intimidated by some eye-glow?” She asked sounding thoroughly unimpressed.

In Equish.

“Um, you could have used me to translate,” I pointed out. “Lotus, Alter. Alter, Lotus. Alter’s a telepath. Kind of like a changeling without the requirement for an emotional bond.”

“Sorry for creeping you out,” Alter apologized. “I needed to know if I could read you or not, and hey, it’s easier for me to copy a language than to provide live translation to someone.”

“W-wait if you can copy a language-” Lotus began.

“It’s temporary. A few hours,” I explained. “She’s copied from me a lot.”

Lotus frowned then nodded. “Okay. I understand. Go ahead and let Rainbow know that I’m telling her the truth,” she asked urgently. “This universe… Itches.”

“Sure, thanks for permission by the way. I hate breaking into a conscious mind without permission,” Alter said as her eyes began to glow again.

“But you will for languages?” Lotus pressed.

“I got that from your subconscious. It’s different. All Martians are telepathic, this is just another sense for us. I afford everyone the same courtesies I do my own people, but no special privileges. Look, the other two of my people on Earth may be okay with completely ‘blinding’ themselves to make others comfortable, but I’m not going to handicap myself for other’s comfort,” Alter said defensively.

Oh boy… This conversation again…

“I guess I understand and- Oh! I can feel you looking,” Lotus exclaimed in a sort of happy shock.

Or not. Good!

“Yeah. Feel free to explore back down that link if you like,” Alter said off hand, frowning as she focused. “Humm… Okay so, like, are you certain you’re a demon and not a mortal with the powers of a demon? Because you’ve got some real fucked up self-loathing going on here.”

I nodded to myself. She had been telling the truth about hating herself. So far so good.

Lotus shook her head. “No. I’m definitely not a mortal and- And you’re not originally from Mars!”

I blinked, then frowned. That was news to me! “Um, what?” I asked, giving Alter an odd look.

“That’s true, but it’s not important,” she replied with a friendly smile. “I got teleported to Mars as a baby. I would have died there so the people who found me used genetic engineering to turn me into a martian. It’s why I lack some of my people’s capabilities.

“Also I can’t remember any other home so you know. I’m Martian. Humm… Okay, yeah. Dash, if this Lotus told you she's got a soul in her who is on semi-friendly terms with her, that’s a lie. ‘Aloe’ considered their bond sisterly, since Lotus has protected her from like, the worst shit imaginable at great expense to herself.”

I nodded slightly. “Okay. Sooo you didn’t tell me the truth on that, why?” I asked, looking Lotus dead in her eyes.

Her ears drooped sadly. “I… I don’t deserve that sort of affection,” she replied.

“That’s a lie,” Alter said quickly. “Um, I mean she’s telling the truth, but Lotus, you’re cool. Your species doesn't define you, your actions do. And your actions make you a pretty damn good person.”

Lotus shook her head violently. “Maybe for mortals, but I’m less a person and more of a weapon. I’m inherently bad… C-can we get back to confirming everything I told-”

“Ooohhhhkaaayyy…” Alter exclaimed suddenly with a wince. “Daemon or not, go seek a good therapist. You need one. Massively! That said, Dash, she’s not a liar. She really does want to help you kick her maker’s ass because she feels that is the right thing to do. And so do I.”

Lotus blushed deeply and took a step back, shying away as Alter’s eyes stopped glowing, the telepathic link severed.

I blinked, ears perking up at her statement. “Wait, you want to help? That would be awesome! Please!” I begged, pleading with my eyes.

“You’re damn right I do!” Alter exclaimed, her face turning red as she struggled to keep her cool despite boiling anger. “I checked her memory for your home town and saw her perspective of your attempt at fighting that thing. You’ll need help. Of the Arcane kind.

“I also just absorbed a lot of info regarding some seriously fucked up shit going on to innocent people that asshole is responsible for. Even if I wasn’t pissed off that I can’t help the Flash right now because fire, I’d have to go and help you with this. Dash, you have no idea… I’m going.”

I nodded slowly. “I wouldn’t stop you. We need all the help we can get. But shouldn’t you clear it with Cisco?” I asked.

She nodded and turned around to yell at Cisco in English. “Hey, I’m going to go help Dash put her hoof firmly up the ass of a guy who has litteraly skinned children alive in front of their mothers because he was bored,” she informed flatly.

“Ahhh!” Cisco and I hissed together, both wincing about the same.

“Did not need to know that right now,” Cisco groaned. “I need you guys to go away. It’s hard enough focusing on coordinating defenses with the enemy working this well together. I don’t need to picture adorable pony babies being hurt!”

“Seconded,” I said with a disgusted grimace.

I’d gotten way to clear of a head-picture...

“Yeah… Told you you had no idea Dash. That guy needs to go down. Now. So, one martian mage at your service,” Alter informed in her most serious possible voice.

I nodded in agreement. “Let’s plan in the portal room,” I said nodding towards Cisco. “He did ask for privacy.”

“Sure thing. See you there,” Alter agreed with a quick nod, immediately turning translucent and gliding through the wall on a straight line path to the portal room.

Cisco sighed, closing his eyes tightly for a long moment. “Doors! They exist for a reason!” He said wearily.

It was kind of cute how much that always creeped him out.

Turning to Locus, I switched back to Equish. “Come on, back to the portal room. Oh and um… Sorry for doubting you,” I said, rubbing the back of my head with one hoof in shame.

“No. No it’s okay. Only an idiot would have just believed me,” Lotus said reassuringly, her ears drooping sympathetically.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, maybe. But that doesn't matter. I trust you now, and that’s not going to change. Loyalty, remember?” I replied nodding at the door. “Come on, she’s already there.”

After taking the elevator back down, I began to jog down the hallway towards the welcome room, Lotus quickly following after me.

“So, she’s a Telepath and can walk through walls. What else can Alter do?” Lotus asked.

“Thinking of a strategy?” I asked with a hopeful smile.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Alter has most of the martian abilities,” I said while thinking of a good short summary. “I um, I always thought she was just like their version of an out of shape fat guy. They are normally stronger than humans, by a lot. She’s not.”

“Right but what CAN she do?” Lotus pressed.

“Telepathy, Rarity level telekinesis, including self-levitation but that takes all her concentration, shape changing, density shifting,” I summarized. “Oh! Energy still affects her while she’s ‘ghosting’. And she can’t deal with fire at all.”

“She said she was a mage?” Lotus asked curiously as we reached the portal room’s door.

“She is. I’d say she’s this world’s equivalent of a changeling wizard with um, maybe three decades training. And a stupid-high mana reserve,” I said with a laugh.

Seriously, Martians and Changelings could be cousins. Alter always wondered why her shape changing didn’t freak me out. Maybe she’d meet a shifty-bug and finally understand.

I reached up to the door panel and pushed the button to open it. Sure enough Alter was already in the room, leaning up against the archway in a pose I’m certain she thought was cool.

“‘Stupid-high mana reserve’?” Lotus asked with a hopeful tinge to her voice. “In terms of Twilight Sparkles, where would you say she is at?”

“Twilight?” Alter asked with a frown before snapping her fingers in recognition. “Right! That wizard Dash says I sound like. We’ve established that we’re actually pretty close in terms of raw power. Planning the attack already?”

Lotus nodded. “Yes, I am. The best strategy will be to seperate Dad from Applejack. Then the Elements of Harmony can be used to deal with him. Failing that, they could be used to alert the creatures he fears to his presence and-”

Alter’s eyebrows perked. “He’s afraid of something? Perfect!” She exclaimed with a cruel grin.

“Um…” Lotus said nervously as alter’s teeth melted into points.

“She REALLY likes foals,” I explained with a smirk. “And her favorite weapon is fear.”

Alter nodded. “Yep! Nothing more just than scaring the crap out of the people who terrorize others,” she said with a smile. “Sorry about the fangs. I’ve got that memory stuck in my head and um… It’s getting a little hard to maintain a human form.”

Oh. Right… Human form. That could be a problem.

“Uh, so, Alter…” I asked ears flopping slightly. “I know you want to help but my worlds atmosphere is way different from this one. We’ve had a few humans come and well, it’s toxic to you guys. When you shapeshift can you-”

Alter took of her sunglasses, knelt down to my eye level, rolled her eyes, and then put the glasses back on.

“I’m breathing THIS atmosphere, arn’t I?” She asked.

I nodded. “Well yeah, but-

“And I’m not from this planet, am I?” She pressed.

“Oh!” I said, blushing with embarrassment. “Sorry. I just thought that-”

“That Mars also has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere?” She asked with a laugh. “It’s Carbon dioxide and argon. Whatever you got won’t be a problem.”

“Oxygen-nitrogen-radon,” I said quickly, just to be safe.

She raised an eyebrow again. I sighed and added. “Yes I know that radon should decay in a few days. It doesn't in our world. Please don’t, Cisco gets so mad about that…” I grumbled with a sigh.

I hated having that argument over and over.

Alter rolled her eyes and melted. Her form oozing and shifting in color until she molded herself into a copy of me, the ‘clothing’ she had been wearing chaning with her, mimicking my wonderbolt outfit exactly. An exact copy as far as I could tell. Down to the voice.

“Oh look, I’m adapted for your environment,” She said with a huge grin, giving her new wings a flutter. “But, since I’m pretty sure we aren't twins…”

Her body flowed again, gaining a few centimeters in height over me and shortening lengthwise slightly. Her colors changed as well, her fur becoming a super dark near black blue, while her mane and tail returned to the purple color she prefered, but kept my spiky style. Her wings melted away too, making her into an oddly skinny earth pony, with her eyes turning lavender again at the very end of the transformation.

And her voice came back. “There! That’s as good as I can do with just one of you guys to sample. These colors aren't like, impossible for ponies, are they?”

Lotus and I shook our heads. “No, not at all,” Lotus said honestly. “Since your face shape is still Rainbow’s, you could easily pass for her sister. That’s a very natural look. Though your colors do look horrible with the wonderbolt blue and gold.”

I nodded. I hadn’t wanted to say anything, but that was totally true. “Yeah… You should get rid of that…” I said slowly before realising. “Wait a minute! That’s not clothing that’s just a body part made to look like clothing! H-how do you take off the glasses?!”

Alter laughed, stumbling slightly as she went to make a gesture that just didn’t translate between biped and quadruped.

“Um, no! It’s bio-cloth. Martian tech, it changes with you,” she giggled. “But I COULD make it look like I have clothing when I don’t. I’d rather have nice climate controlled coverings though. Let’s see… To make my costume work with this body…”

Alter trailed off with a thoughtful look on her adorable face before closing her eyes in thought. It was weird enough hearing Twilight’s voice come from a non-pony, but with Alter now using a pony shape it was even weirder. Not bad weird, just… Weird.

A few quick adjustments to her clothing and Alter stood in a fairly well done version of her usual costumeThe dark red suit, tie, and trenchcoat, wide brimmed hat, and dark sunglasses went well with her pony form. But then again when she was in costume as a human she tinted her skin jet black as well. So in a way she had prep time to design a look.

“Better?” Alter asked hopefully, an eager grin on her lips.

“Yep, at least twenty percent cooler,” I agreed. “Do you have everything you need? I um, I don’t know how your magic works and that one wizard we fought had a staff so, you know.”

She shook her head quickly. “Nope. I’m good. Let’s go!”

“But where too?” Lotus asked worriedly. “If we go directly back to Ponyville we likely won’t be able to survive. In the short time we have been gone I fully expect some basic fortifications to have been erected, along with the deployment of many squads.

“Dad ordered a full ground invasion, remember?”

Alter smiled slightly and looked at Lotus, then at me. “She’s new to the heroine game, isn’t she?” Alter asked with a laugh.

“Yep,” I confirmed. “Pretty sure she hasn’t done this before.”

“No,” Lotus agreed with a nod before looking at the two of us very seriously. “But I have successfully evaded him for some time and I’m telling you we can’t just charge in while waving war standards and blaring Dream Evil’s The Seventh Day from a boom box.”

“When a member of Team Flash says ‘let’s go’ at the start of a mission, that means ‘let’s go do recon’,” Alter explained with a polite smile. “We never attack without the right intel. That’s how you get really badly hurt. That said, I like your taste in music.”

“Oh,” Lotus said, blushing again. “I- I’m sorry. It just sounded like you and Dash planned to just... Charge.”

“It’s cool,” I said giving the demon-pony a pat on the shoulder. “Standard operating procedure is gather info, plan, attack, repeat as needed. I figure we go to whitetail woods and set up a base of operations. I’ll pick up some gear from SkyLabs on the way out… Oh yeah! Um, Alter, the portal’s other side is classified. Sooo I’ma super speed you out of it, okay?”

“No problem,” she replied with a grin. “Come on, let’s go.”

I nodded and stepped over to the portal, pressing a hoof against the activation button and ordered, “Equestria, please.”

I found it kinda funny how Cisco had programmed the portal to not work without saying please.

The portal hummed, sparks flashing as the blue vortex began to reform. I had back up now. Backup and intel.

It’s okay, AJ. It won't be much longer. I promise.

15 - Perspective (Rarity Quest Part 3)

View Online

Rarity - 23nd of Megan, 17 EoH

Mariner's Lake - Shorefall

A sharp jolt, powerful enough to shake the floor, tore me from the uneasy nap I had been enjoying. I had only been awake for a few hours before getting tired again. Tired enough to settle down for a nap despite half of Shorefall’s military on our tail. I do suppose that a large warmachine emerging from the sea, driving off a monster then cutting a line across your nation would be something to send a military response to deal with.

On the other hoof, I didn’t understand how I could just fall asleep while under fire. Yes, Righteous had assured me that ‘Their pea shooters will take hours to breach the shields, let alone the armor,’ but still, I had been under fire.

I blinked sitting up in bed, immediately realizing I needed a coffee or three. Ah yes. I was still recovering from surgery. That could certainly explain sudden onset exhaustion. At least I felt awake now, even if I was still groggy.

“What was that jolt?” I asked with a reflexive yawn as I rolled over to stand up.

“Probably an AP round of some kind,” Righteous remarked casually. “It managed to slip through the forcefield and bounce off the hull. Shields are growing a little week, the long drive and continuous need to recharge the shields has burned through almost all of our deuterium. Don’t worry though, we’re just a few meters from the lake! We’ll make it.”

I frowned immediately, sitting upright and looking towards the rear view screen. I had read up on other countries militaries in the past and while I hadn’t exactly read up on Shorefall’s, I did know that using less technologically advanced yet magically augmented weapons was an Equestrian thing. Most other nations used… Other solutions. It seemed that Shorefall had their own, much smaller, tanks.

Though they were still, well, tanks. With decently large artillery they could bring to bare on us.

“Those don’t look like peashooters to me,” I said with a worried flick of my tail.

“Heh, well, not to sound like some jerk in a bar but when it comes to cannons, size does matter. We’ve got more than enough armor to stand up to them for oh, an hour or two of bombardment,” Righteous said in a tone which suggested he had calculated his estimate.

“What if they have some form of ammunition which can cut through your armor?” I asked, still quite worried.

Righteous’s avatar formed in front of me in order to allow him to give me a big cheesy grin, before the hologram switched to a view showing ourselves and the eight pursuing vehicles from above.

“I’m going to have line of sight on them for the next twenty minutes. If they cause any real problems, well…” Rightious’s projection flickered as a red HUD appeared over the image, a few lines of text blinking near the center of the image.

I squinted at the text, struggling to read the language. “I really need to brush up on my English reading skills…” I mumbled to myself.

“I’m still impressed you can even speak it. Though your dialect is rather ancient,” Righteous mused, his voice carrying a hint of praise. “Do you need me to read it for you?”

I shook my head as another jolt rocked the tank. The projection showing the centermost enemy tank as having just fired a shot while on the ‘run’.

“No. I understand that you have weapons trained on them from above,” I answered. “I… It’s nothing lethal, is it?”

Righteous sighed. “I’m afraid that since they are most certainly trying to kill us that a non-lethal approach isn’t called for here. Now before you get all upset, yes they have a right to defend their lands; also the first shot will be a warning shot,” he said adamantly.

I bit my lip for a moment then nodded. “I- I guess that’s fair.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. But if you respond to a mass driver with a tazer, you die… Well, I wouldn’t die if the blew this tank up. But you would, and I will not allow that,” Righteous elaborated, avatar manifesting to give me a steely look I couldn’t help but smile at.

“I appreciate it… But, are you certain that a warning shot will work?” I asked worriedly.

“Completely,” he replied, blinking out of existence suddenly. “Brace yourself, I need to turn around.”

“Why?” I asked, lowering my body to the floor as the tank suddenly shifted, entering a sliding spin for a split second before reaching a full stop with a sudden jolt.

“Because we’re at the lake,” he answered casually. “This way the exit isn’t in the enemy’s line of fire.”

I felt my eyes widen in fright. “I- but- You’re not going to help me get the coral?”

“I am… You need pink coral, right? I’m scanning for a reef right now,” Righteous replied hissing irritably as the tank shook again. “Ow. I kinda felt that one.”

“But, you’re not going to drive me to the reef?” I asked tilting my head curiously.

“No. Sorry,” Righteous answered with a weary sigh after a moment’s hesitation.

“Why not?” I asked.

Righteous was silent for a few seconds before projecting a hologram in front of me. “Because it’s a reef. Meaning it's UNDER the water. The closest one being eight meters below, here it is by the way, just forty meters south by south east.”

“Oh! Is this tank not watertight?” I asked with a confused frown. “I mean, I assumed that since you had an aquatic transit mode-”

“Um, well, yes, it is. To about fifty meters,” Righteous interrupted. “I um… Look, driving across the surface at high speed is one thing but I- Well, I’d really rather not submerge myself. If it’s all the same to you.”

I stood up, face scrunching up with incredulity. “I- but- THERE’S AN ARMORED DIVISION SHOOTING AT US OUTSIDE!”

“I know,” Righteous replied. “I will draw all of their attention and fire. They won't see you leave and will be far too busy to attack you if they notice you later. I assure you.”

I blinked, a sudden realization hitting me. “Are you trying to tell me that you are afraid of the water?” I asked.

Righteous’s avatar blinked into existence, nodding with a rather bashful look pressed into his stylized draconic features. “Um, well… Yes,” he admitted with a short cough.

I narrowed my eyes angrily. “Really? After driving across the sea, and fighting a sea monster, now suddenly you’re afraid of the water?”

He sighed, looking me in the eyes as his body tensed up. “Miss Rarity,” he began his lips pulling into a nervous frown. “I am very adept at keeping a brave demeanor in the face of danger. I assure you that I didn’t like one moment of driving across the surface of that sea. However, it was necessary, and I did it. That sea monster is the very sort of thing that makes me afraid of large bodies of water, and as it was on the surface, fighting it was a great source of joy for me.

“But entering the water to deliver you to the reef directly? That is not necessary. Also as this vehicle lacks an airlock, water would flood the interior. However, even worse than that mild annoyance, is that I would be submerged in a medium that allows for three dimensional movement and also permits stealth.

“I don’t expect non-space dwelling people to understand, but that is quite horrifying. In space, nothing can just suddenly materialize from the void beneath you and eat your giblets. You see it coming, likely form astronomical units away. Now, yes, I do know that I am in space right now and controlling this remotely, but do you recall when I let you use the guns and you believed you had that monster’s viscera plastered all over you? The sensory input from these things is easily able to make a sapient being see this vehicle as their body and-”

“Righteous, it’s just eight meters of water,” I said with a bemused smile. “There’s hardly some sort of kraken squishing itself flat against the lakebed in water that shallow.”

Righteous shook his head adamantly. “Sinkholes are a thing, one could easily be present near a reef. Furthermore, back in my day, there were these itty bitty little sharks known as Isistius brasiliensis and they swam in schools. This is terrifying because those dog damn tiny things could literally take a bite out of a fucking submarine! It doesn't have to be big to completely destroy you.

“In fact, in the oceans of Fifty-five Cancri E, there’s a half meter long eel-like creature that can unleash an EMP powerful enough to shut me down completely. There’s also the Lathadon of Proxima b. Now that little motherfucker could actually latch onto my hull and rip off a chunk the size of you! All of that is without even getting into the hell that is the entire biosphere of Four-Five-Four-Six-B. A leviathan class lifeform could easily swim through a mere eight meters of water and-”

I set a hoof on his shoulder, or at least I tried too. Instead of delivering the understanding gesture I intended, I merely disrupted the hologram, causing a good chunk of his body to vanish as my hoof blocked the projector’s line of sight.

“Oops! Sorry,” I said with an embarrassed cough. “I understand. I have a friend who's afraid of almost everything. You sounded just like she does. If you are certain that you can make sure none of them attack me, I will go get it myself.”

Righteous sighed in relief, avatar relaxing before vanishing. “Ma’am, all will be well. I’m sorry that I can’t go get that for you. I really honestly am. But while you are doing it, not one shell will enter the water,” Righteous promised as an electric wine permeated the cabin as machinery of some kind fired up. “Active countermeasures are online. Defining defensive pattern… Interception lasers programmed. Anything munitions sized that’s moving past me will be vaporised, detonated, or deflected. It’s safe to exit the vehicle, Miss Rarity.”

I frowned, still uncertain as to whether or not I should go for a swim with those enemy tanks firing at-

A loud stuttering roar made me jump in fright, the second one sending my heart slamming into the front of my barrel.

“Sorry!” Righteous said quickly. “That’s just some of the secondary arms. I’m shooting the ground close to them and-”

The tank shook four times in rapid succession, loud metallic pings echoing through the interior.

“-and it’s now actually safer OUTSIDE the tank. Miss Rarity, there’s a breath mask by the hatch. I hope I modified it to fit your muzzle properly. It has forty minutes of oxygen,” Righteous said before another of the shattering roars ripped through the air.

What did that even sound like? An impossibly loud extended brrrrah-rrrt was the best words my mind could put the sound into.

“I um, w-well I suppose I should take care of this quickly,” I said as I turned and jogged to the rear of the rank, searching over the crates for anything that looked like a breath mask when a sudden horrifying idea occurred to me. “Um, Righteous? How will I know where the reef is?”

“I sent a waypoint to your systems… It’s not showing up for you?” He asked as another three quick volleys rang out, followed by the tank shaking again.

“Waypoint?” I asked, one eyebrow raising in confusion.

Righteous sighed, and suddenly a floating green dot appeared in my vision, along with what I could tell was a compass, thermometer, and what looked like a small map of the nearby area all placed at the edges of my vision, unobtrusively located and translucent enough to not impede vision too much.

“Yeah, so, um, looks like I forgot to set the HUD’s value ‘true’ for you,” he laughed in embarrassment.

I turned my head, watching as the compass dial rotated. It wasn’t in a language I knew but, well, still… “This is amazing! Can I turn it off if I want to?” I asked curiously, the tank shuddering again as another shot slammed into the hull.

“Yes, it’s think do. The blinking dot is the center mass of the reef. Do you see the breath mask?” Righteous asked quickly.

Looking around some more I saw a black plastic and rubber half mask which looked somewhat like a respirator, and picked it up, nodding. “Yes I do… Is there a radio in this? How do I stay in contact with you incase there’s an emergency?” I asked quickly quickly, realizing his urgency couldn’t be for nothing.

“You are a radio…” Righteous said with an audible frown, his voice suddenly coming from my ears as if I had a pair of headphones on. “See? Aren't cybernetics fun?”

“Quite useful, yes,” I agreed, slipping the mask onto my face and strapping it around the back of my head as tightly as I could manage.

To my delight, I didn’t notice any difference in breathing. Though the mask did pinch slightly around the edges.

“How do I intentionally call you? Is that also a ‘think-do’ system?” I asked.

“Yes! They are body parts of yourself now. All cybernetics control as if they are natural body parts. It’s the law. For reasons of preventing psychosis. Sorry for being so tense, it’s a lot of effort to intercept every one of their missed shots. These guys can’t shoot worth a damn,” Righteous grunted, strain coming through his voice as the hatch hissed open.

The sound of the enemy tank’s almost continuous fire hit me like a wall. Ears falling flat with fear I looked out over the lake as the descending hatch-ramp revealed the crystal blue water which stretched out as far as the eye could see.

This lake looked like an ocean. No wonder Righteous was frightened of it. I could easily see a sea monster lurking within its depths.

Taking a deep breath to gather my courage, I ran out the back of the tank as soon as the ramp hit the ground. Sprinting across the yellow-green sandy beach while keeping the tank’s bulk between me and the enemy.

An explosion to my left made my ears ring. I yelped with fright, putting on all of the speed I could. The water was close, very close. Just six more meters! I could make it. No problem.

I hit the water a heartbeat later, surprised at its warmth as I ducked down, crawling along the sandy bottom to try and hide beneath the tiny lapping waves. I could feel the water soak into my fur in an almost aggressive manner, drenching everything but my muzzle beneath the mask as I slid under.

I felt a tiny surge of panic as I realized the mask had no air tank attached, but as I continued to breathe without problems, the fear abaded. Then another explosion rang out, muffled by the water around my ears and I swam deeper into the lake in a mini panic.

“What’s happening up there?” I asked over my radio worriedly.

“They switched to high explosive shells. Don’t worry. I can withstand this firepower for some time,” Righteous promised. “If you get into trouble down there, let me know. And be sure to stream video for me from your eyepiece. That way I can deliver fire support if you need it.”

I could stream video? That was… Amazingly cool. Normally I wasn’t the sort of pony to be swayed by simple coolness but well, how awesome would it be to simply show a client all of the available fabric selections BEFORE starting on their commission? Oh the headaches that would save!

Wait a moment, I’m getting distracted. Where is the reef? Right! Green dot.

I turned my head in the direction of the green dot and began to swim towards it, noticing that the little map on my HUD updated as I moved, even showing the shape of the lakebed ahead in a way which suggested-

“I have a sonar!” I exclaimed in sudden realization, smiling behind the mask.

“No!” Righteous said quickly. “You totally don’t. That would have been illegal for me to give you. It’s just an ‘optical illusion’.”

“You really can sidestep legal restrictions like that?” I asked with a curious giggle, the situation hilarious in spite of the danger on the surface.

“Yeah. I jailbroke myself,” Righteous replied. “But I still need to make the law enforcement protocols happy or I get SO MANY ‘cease and desist’ popups. Which is extremely annoy- Dude… Really? Your tank can’t scratch me so you climb out of the hatch to use small ar- WOAH!

“Rarity! It’s a wizard! He threw a fireball at me! Like, from his horn! That’s so cool!”

I had just enough time to bite my lip to prevent the giggle from escaping before he added, “Fool! I have Resist Fire fifty! Did you not read the technology compendium?”

The laugh broke through my attempt to contain it. “Hahahaha! I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry, it’s just- Hehehe!” I giggled, taking a moment to catch my breath.

“It’s quite alright. I know I can be a geek sometimes,” Righteous laughed back, giggling like a colt in a candy shop. “I’m duling a wizard! This is awesome! Eat laser, Dark Lord! Huh, well, he did. Good for him!”

“If he’s using an energy absorbing shield spell you’ll want to use a solid object to pierce it,” I said as I resumed swimming.

“Are wizards common enough here that they teach everyone how to fight magic users?” Righteous asked hopefully. “There weren't any human wizards, and alien ones were extremely rare. One or three per planet usually.”

I blinked. “Um, Righteous… I’ve been levitating things around you for this entire trip.”

I couldn’t help but notice the light shining through the water making lovely little rays of light, almost like something from a fairytale. A lovely image that disintegrated as an explosion popped on the surface, sending a fresh tingle of fear down my spine.

“Right. Your species has a natural magical power. Very cool. A few creatures back in the day had similar abilities and-”

“Well, not quite. I’m a unicorn. Well instinctively know how to make light and move objects, but we also can sense thaumaturgic current and are adept at manipulating it. We’re ALL wizards,” I said, greatly simplifying the issue.

Righteous was quiet for several moments during which I managed to resume my swim and reached the edge of the large reef. It didn’t look like one you would see in an ocean. It was mostly lumpy, pockmarked, purple boil-like lumps with the occasional bits of blue and pink sticking up to form the little trees you thought of when you think of coral.

While there wasn’t very much pink coral, I was able to see some a few meters away. A tiny patch of pink in the purple and the blue. Was the pink going extinct? I should get several pieces just incase this happened again…

“S-so you’re a wizard?” Righteous asked eagerly.

“No. I’m not. Wizards are those of us with a degree in a field of study. I’m a sorcerer. A self-taught magic user. I didn’t pursue magic too much, but I am very adept at telekinesis. One of the best in Equestria, in fact. I’ve gotten a few scholarship offers due to my skill but wizardry isn’t the life for me. I simply needed better telekinetic power to help with my sewing,” I explained as I swam up alongside the coral patch.

“I rescued a Knight-Sorceress on a quest to save her kingdom, and get to hold off a wizard with goddamn energy-bat-monster creation powers,” Righteous said with extreme satisfaction. “Best. Millennium. Ever!”

I smiled to myself and examined the coral wondering how I could break off a piece. If my memory was right, coral was exceptionally hard stuff. Almost like stone. I didn’t have any tools with m-

Wait a moment, I did! Righteous said he put a sword in my leg. Maybe I could use the edge to concentrate enough force to break the coral off. How did I deploy it?

Oh. Duh. Think-do.

I focused on my mechanical foreleg and the blade deployed from the outermost side of the leg with a sharp sounding click. I couldn’t help but marvel at the icicle shaped blade for a moment. It wasn’t very long, just three quarters the length of my foreleg, but the shape, scalloped edges, the three ridges down the center, the way the two slightly different shades of bright glowing silver metal formed a wood-grain-like pattern… This was a work of art! Not a weapon.

Looking back at the corral I winced, feeling slightly bad about actually using a tool that looked this pretty. But I had to. Drawing back my foreleg, I swung it as hard as I could with the water slowing my movements. The blade sliced through the water with suspiciously low drag, striking the base of a stem of pink coral and-

And cutting clean through like I’d chopped warm butter! One single straight-cut, clean through the stem.

My eyes widened in amazement. When I was done here and Lily put me back, I was keeping this blade for use in the kitchen!

I grabbed the lump of coral with my magic and tucked it away in my saddlebag before cutting two more pieces from the patch. No sense taking too much of an endangered species and there was no way they would break two more times in the future.

“Okay, I’ve got the coral. I’m coming back now,” I said to Righteous as I twisted in the water to swim back to shore. “Is it still safe?”

“There’s bats made of energy swarming around me right now,” he warned. “But if you’re careful you should be able to-”

Something moved out of the corner of my eye. Something big. Something purple.

I turned my head, instantly screaming as the purple ‘coral’ lifted up from the reef, twisting and melting into the shape of a massive starfish, easily eight meters across, its arms covered in barbed tentacles and clusters of jelly-like eyes as opposed to suckers.

“RIGHTEOUS! HELP!” I screeched in blind panic, turning back around as fast as I could to swim for shore.

Unfortunately, swimming was a little tricky. The best I could manage at the moment was a sort of sliding shuffle forwards as my metal parts weighed me down on one side. Thinking quickly I ducked my hooves into the sand and pushed, ‘running’ as fast as I could manage in the water.

“AHHH! It’s a thingie!” Righteous yelped. “YOU’RE NOT EATING HER GIBLETS, YOU BITCH!”

The world flashed purple. All sound save for a massive reverbing roar vanished. The water became noticeably warmer. A pressure wave slammed into my back, throwing me through the water several meters towards the shore amid a cloud of pink fluids and chunks of purple meat.

“I can’t see it! The water’s cloudy,” Righteous said worriedly. “Do you see it? Is it dead or does it need more violence!?”

“It’s dead… You could have hit me!” I snapped angrily, glaring out through the water at Righteous, able to see the blurred outline of the tank’s turret pointed vaguely at me through the water.

“Not a chance! I know exactly where you are. The shot hit a full six meters one hundred eighty six point nine degrees off your stern, center mass of that fucking starfish daemon,” Righteous said adamantly. “Get the fuck out before more of those things show up! We’re so out of here!”

I took a deep breath to calm myself. I had to remember that Righteous was an AI. Yes it had been a close shot but he wouldn’t have missed or fired if I was in danger.

“Thank you for saving me,” I said after a moment spent regaining my calm.

“No problem. Hurry up and get back in. They are intimidated by that shot but they look to be getting ready to do something… It’s a good thing I sent for the shuttle to pick us up ten minutes ago,” Righteous said with honest worry.

I began to run-swim back to shore, trying to move so I’d come out of the water in the cover Righteous proceeded with his bulk.

“Shuttle?” I asked.

“Yeah. Remember I said we’re low on deuterium? We can’t drive back without a refill so I figured I might as well bring you aboard and just drop you off at home when we orbit overhead. So you know, shuttle,” he replied nervously. “Please go faster… I can’t tell if there are more of those things in there.”

Now THAT was concerning.

Putting on a fresh burst of speed I made my way to the shore, pulling myself out of the water as an odd humming moan began to creep over the area. Looking up towards the sound, hoping that some airship wasn’t getting ready to do a bombing run I spotted a large olive green colored, mostly rectangular, highly angular aircraft gracefully slide down from the sky, folding two wings up to make the bottom flat as possible while the underside opened up to reveal a massive space inside.

A massive space that could definitely fit the tank.

Oh!

I zipped inside theopen hatch, which began to fold up the moment I got inside. “You could have told me that we had mere minutes!” I said accusingly as I pulled off the breath mask.

“Um, no… We had all the time you wanted. I could just sit on the ground till you were done. The shuttle has a rear cargo ramp too,” Righteous said with a chuckle. “Miss, Rarity… At what point so far have I done anything to inconvenience or endanger you… Um… My crippling fear of the ocean notwithstanding.”

“I’m still upset about that shot,” I said bluntly.

“Noted. Perhaps some lesser ordinance was called for… But my friend was in danger from my nightmare. So I dialed the warhead up to ‘fuck that thing in particular’,” Righteous said defensively.

I couldn’t help but smile at the way he phrased that. “You have a phobia of the ocean and sea monsters. I have a phobia of being blown up,” I said diplomatically.

“That’s a very reasonable fear and I apologize. I’ll use different means if we are ever in a similar situation. But I will not allow you to be harmed,” he insisted. “And if it’s any consolation, that was my second choice of action. My primary choice was immediate saturation bombardment from my forward batteries but um… Yes. You were most definitely in the area of effect.”

The tank shook slightly, and many metallic tinks echoed in sequence along the hull.

I frowned, Righteous quickly alleviating my fears. “It’s okay, Miss Rarity. Those are just magnetic clamps. Are you ready to depart?”

I nodded. “Yes… I’m also oddly hungry.” I said, choosing not to think about being in the middle of an ‘immediate saturation bombardment’.

I’d eaten a full meal only three hours ago. How could i be this hungry so quickly? Especially when I hadn’t felt that hungry more than a moment ago.

“I’ll have something waiting for you aboard. We’ll be there in five minutes. Sit tight, I’ll make this accent as easy as possible,” Righteous said as a loud roar surrounded us and the floor lurched beneath me.

“You call this an easy accent?” I yelped, laying flat so I wouldn’t fall over.

“Sorry, the dust off is always rough. The rest will be easier when I can slow down,” Righteous promised, manifesting his Avatar to give me a hug.

I felt my ears twitch with bemusement as I smiled. “You just want to get away from the water, don’t you?” I asked.

Righteous looked down and kicked a talon against the floor bashfully. “W-well, yeah... Fuck the ocean,” he mumbled to himself.

Trigger, Sky Trigger - 23nd of Megan, 17 EoH

Mariner's Lake - Shorefall

Thirty six hours. It took thirty six hours to take that monster down.

That was honestly insane. It hadn’t been my equipment ether. The weapons were top of the goddamn line. Effective in all laboratory tests to the exact estimations made before producing them. It had been that kaiju. Holy fucking shit that thing…

How do you describe something like that? King of the Monsters comes to mind, but that title was already taken. Because if that goddamn thing existed then so did fucking Godzilla!

Whatever. It was dead. Rarity was nearby. I’d be home soon. And taking a vacation. One at least twice as long as this whole adventure.

The daikaiju’s talon plunged through the cockpit with a shriek of metal, causing a shower of sparks to white out everything for the split second needed for the point of the talon to slice into my forehead, stopping just shy of scraping bone.

The talon ripped backwards the instant it stopped. Danger shrieked and shook as the daikaiju’s retreating arm took a big chunk of her with it, and left the cockpit exposed.

I twisted the kinetic controls, throwing myself away from the monster by planting one foot in its chest and kicking back, landing ass first some distance away. I quickly scrambled back up, thanking fortune and engineering that none of the control lines or servos had been damaged when that chunk of armor had been ripped away.

Of course, now I was fighting without any instruments… Fuck!

The daikaiju bent down to look at me through the hole in the cockpit, seemed to smile smugly and then roared.

“Should have gone with triple compressed tritanium armor,” I hissed to myself as I grit my teeth and revised my battle plan.

Fuck me. I needed TWO vacations.

I rubbed the bandage on my forehead. The cut had been very small, just a nick really. But Pinkie had still insisted on putting a bandaid on it.

To be honest, the band-aid had helped me feel better. Heh.

It’s a good thing we finished that damn thing off once Mysuki showed up with three full wings of warriors. If that had been after Flutters, and that Eldritch Ice Horror had been after Pinkie and I, there was no doubt in my mind that something would be after Rarity too.

Rares was a nice mare, to say the least. I knew full well she could handle herself in a fight against anything her own size, and even against a small group of attackers. But well, yeah… She didn’t exactly have much training or skill related to taking down daikaiju. Or Eldritch Ice Horrors.

The Skyranger’s auto-pilot chirped, snapping me out of my thoughts. We’d arrived at Marinara Lake… Or was that Mariner’s Lake? Meridian Lake? Maximum Overlake?

Whatever. The Lake. We’d arrived. Good.

I tapped my hoof against the display panel, sorting through some menus. The fastest way to find Rarity would be to see if her biosigns were in detection range. Since that was a full hundred kilometers, if she were anywhere near the lake, I’d find her in a heartbeat.

I hit the scan button. The computer chirped. Then every single last display in the cockpit locked up.

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, leaping up from my seat to jump into the other seat and grab the manual controls, immediately setting us up to maintain the VTOL hover before the entire system crashed.

What the fuck had I been thinking? This was a goddamn JUNGLE! Uhg, I was more shaken up then I thought.

Get Rarity. Go home. Get Pinkie. Have glass of soda. Nap.

That was a good plan. Let’s make it into a reality.

“Sixteen billion, seven hundred and ninety five million, three hundred and forty five thousand, and two biosignatures detected,” the computer synthesized voice informed flatly.

I frowned. Sai should have said that. Why didn’t-

“Right… Right… Punishment detail,” I grunted to myself.

I tapped the screen again, ordering the computer to search through for Rarity.

“Target not in range,” it said after a moment.

I sighed, shaking my head slowly. The damn thing decided to catalogue every last fucking ant in the jungle, because Sai wasn’t there to filter things down logically. And despite having a list like, nineteen billion names long, Rarity wasn’t on the list. Fucking great.

What now?

I rubbed my chin in thought, then immediately facehooved, smacking myself right on the bandage.

“Oh for Luna’s sake! Emergency transponder in the hazmat suit she borrowed!” I groaned, wiping my face with the hoof in distress.

Why hadn’t I gone with that to begin with?

Grumbling to myself I tapped out a few more commands, instructing the Skyranger to ping the transponder. Deciding to just read the information myself instead of listen to the pretty bland computer voice, I tapped out a separate command on another screen, then looked back at the first, and frowned.

The bioscan had used the Skyranger’s full sensor suite, as normal. Which meant I had a full scan of the area from all systems aboard. Including the atmospheric scan. Which apparently had found an anomaly.

Tapping the alert curiously I read through the entry. A small section of the Lake shore was covered in tank tracks and totally saturated with a decaying trail of metallic hydrogen, consistent with an advanced aircraft’s engines.

“What?” I asked, leaning forwards to read through the report again while I brought up the raw data.

Did Shorefall invent SCRAM jets while I wasn’t looking? What the hell-

The cockpit doors hissed open, Pinkie immediately giving me an eager but worried hug from behind.

“Did you find her yet, Triggie?” Pinkie asked hopefully.

I shook my head. “Not yet. Sorry, bioscan found something weird- Um, I can science the data later. I was just about to see if I could I pick up the emergency transponder in the suit I loaned her,” I explained.

“What if she isn’t in range?” Fluttershy asked worriedly as she walked into view alongside me so she could look out the window.

“My emergency transponders use SkyNet. There’s no such thing as out of range unless she’s in orbit. Which, you know, is impossible to do in an airship,” I said as I hit the button and sent the ping.

The monitor flickered. That wasn’t good, that meant the local sensors had picked up nothing and it needed to use the network. Which ment-

“Ah! There we go,” I said ears perking as the screen displayed Rarity’s coordinates. “One point four north, three point seven west. She must be heading home. We can go ahead and just pick her up, a mid air transfer using a VTOL and an Airship shouldn’t be a problem.”

I smiled happily. Rarity must have gotten things done without a hitch or made it through. Thank goodness!

“Um, Triggie?” Pinkie said worriedly. “The thing says she’s below sea level.”

“What?” I said narrowing my eyes and looking back at the screen.

Yep. It did. She was fifteen meters underwater.

My fucking head was way the fuck out of the fucking game. Damnit, Sky! Shape the FUCK up! Now! Then get coffee.

“Everyone buckle the FUCK up,” I said urgently. “And hope that the altimeter is just malfunctioning and she’s fifteen meters above water.”

“C-could it be?” Fluttershy asked with a worried frown and wide eyes.

“It’s always possible. Nothing is ever perfect. Let’s see… That’s about eight hundred kilometers from here. With the damage we took, we’ll be at her location in thirty minutes!” I said as I took us out of hover mode and slammed the throttle all the way open.

Sure, the beacon could be malfunctioning… More likely some monster had her trapped beneath the sea. But I wasn’t about to say that. Not with Fluttershy certain to panic.

If it happened within the last hour, she’d have an hour of air left. Two hour internal air supply. We could still save her!

Please don’t have happened more than one hour and twenty minutes ago…

Rarity - 23nd of Megan, 17 EoH

Space - The Final Frontier

“That wasn’t too bad, was it, Miss Rarity?” Righteous asked hopefully as the shuttle stopped shaking.

“No. It was a little rough, but I’m fine. You are right though, a properly designed chair would have helped a lot,” I replied focusing on the driver’s joystick so the shuttle spinning around me wouldn’t be so bad. “Just one question, Darling.”

“What’s that?” Righteous asked curiously.

“Why am I floating?” I asked, unable to figure it out on my own.

“Huh?” Righteous exclaimed, holographic avatar appearing before me with a truly confused expression. “Oh… Because microgravity. You’re in orbit now so-”

I shook my head. “No, I know about gravity. This is a spaceship, isn’t it? There’s supposed to be artificial gravity. I’ve seen Sky fix some of the grav plating up so he could use them to levitate items and work on them more easily.”

Righteous smiled and gave me an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, but military shuttles are not luxury transports. They lack artifical gravity because they need cargo space, not big reactor space… And I’m afraid with my primary reactor out of fuel my own gravity is out too. I could try to whip up some mag boots for you,” Righteous offered politely.

I tilted my head slightly. “Wait, you're reactor is out of power? Then how are you… Existing? And making drop pods, and controlling tanks, and all of this stuff?” I asked completely confused.

Righteous laughed, shaking his head gently. “Miss Rarity, I’m a military ship. Redundancies are a thing we have in spades. Yes, my Dark Energy reactor is unpowered, which means I don’t have FTL, primary shields, or my main guns, or artificial gravity. But my primary and secondary fusion reactors are just fine. I’ve got light, heat, lifesupport, enough power to make things from the omnigel stockpile, and I can get around in-system on my sublight drives just fine.”

“Oh, well, yes. That makes sense,” I said with an embarrassed chuckle. “But wait a minute… You said you came from the Jovian system. How did you travel between stars in a few days without faster than light travel?”

Righteous blinked then shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry. Everyone knows that term back when I’m from. I came from one of the moons of the largest gas giant in this system. The Jovian System is the formal name for that planet and its moons. My backup power plants are more than enough to cruise around the local system via the fusion ramjet. It’s an emergency drive system. Slow as hell, but it gets you there in the end. Traditional rocketry is a pain in the ass though.”

Oh, yes. That made sense. I felt a little silly for not realising that a space faring civilization might have names for groups of moons. “We’ll have to make sure Sky refuels you properly after this,” I decided.

“I’d appreciate it,” Righteous said thankfully. “Seriously though, would you like some magboots?”

I shook my head. “No thank you. I can manage,” I replied politely.

I knew a flight spell which used unicorn Telekinesis to work. I’d never dared use it other than while learning it in the first place because I’d realized that well, if I lost concentration even for a moment I’d fall to my death and be too frightened to regain enough focus to cast such a difficult spell. But of course, that wasn’t exactly a danger in space, now was it?

Closing my eyes I recalled the complicated spell and cast it, feeling the warm tingle of my magic spread across my body as my telekinetic bubble enveloped myself.

While blinking a few times to get used to the very pale blue tint my magic cast over everything, I rotated myself upright so the floor was beneath me. Smiling in satisfaction as the spell worked as I intended.

“There we are. What do you think?” I asked, turning my head to look at Righteous with a smile.

He gave me that odd talon-gesture again and grinned. “That’s awesome! I wish I could do magic. What else can you- Oop! That will have to wait. Float yourself to the tank’s hatch. We’re about to dock,” Righteous said suddenly, his avatar vanishing as he finished.

“Shouldn’t that be ‘land’?” I asked as I floated back to the hatch. “You have a hangar, don’t you?”

“I do, but we’re not entering through the hangar, and that would still be docking. No, we’re taking the primary airlock instead,” Righteous explained as the tank's hatch hissed open, revealing the shuttles drab warehouse-like interior, and it’s own MASSIVE cargo ramp which lay in front of me.

“Um, any particular reason?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I thought you’d like a tour, and this is the grand entry,” Righteous explained eagerly.

“Oh! Well, that actually does sound like fun… Do we have time for that before sending me home?” I asked with a swish of my tail.

“Sure! Equestria wont be below us for forty minutes anyways,” he answered as a metallic click echoed from the cargo ramp and a section of it slid apart, revealing a door-sized opening in the hatch which now led to a short undecorated, gray walled tunnel, then another door. “Hop on in the airlock and I'll park this thing while giving you the tour.”

I nodded and floated through the door into the tunnel. I had kind of hoped for a window or something to look out of and see what Righteous looked like on the outside. The tank’s sensors couldn’t detect outside of the shuttle, and apparently the shuttles were purely AI controlled and lacked windows or visual sensors.

Unfortunately, there was no window in the tunnel ether, and as the door shut behind me I lost hope of getting to see him from the outside. On the other hoof, I was now inside a starship. A working one too. Twilight was going to be so jealous.

“Welcome aboard, Miss Rarity,” Righteous said happily as the inner doors hissed open smoothly.

I gasped as the doors slid open, actualy bringing a hoof to my mouth in awe. “My goodness! I- Didn't expect…”

The large room before me was clearly a room constructed within a ship. It had the box-like structure with the slight tapering of the walls near the ceiling and floor to allow for pipes and wires and all of that stuff to pass through the ship easily. But unlike the phoenix's brushed steel, white, blue, and other high-tech decor, Righteous Indignation had gone the complete opposite route.

Meter square floor tiles which appeared to be made from white and black marble inlaid with silver circuit board patterns on the black squares, and gold circuit patterns on the white. Walls coated in a material which made them appear to be an ivory colored polished stone, complete with occasional frescos, again with a technology theme to the carved in designs.

Wine red carpets trimmed with silver patterns, and tapestries decorated the walls and floors sparingly, exactly enough to accent the rest of the room without overwhelming it. Six doors led out of the room, each one had been cleverly painted to look like a carved wooden door, and if they were not clearly sliding doors that retracted into the wall, I was certain Righteous would have paneled them with real wood.

Each doorway was even guarded by a suit of power armor, holding a halberd. Each suit was designed in such a way which blended a medieval style with the sleek tech-focused look I was accustomed to seeing in Sky’s designs.

“Do you like it?” Righteous asked hopefully from the room’s speaker system.

“I love it!” I exclaimed, floating into the center of the room so I could turn and look around the elaborately decorated well, palace! In space!

“Thank you!” Righteous exclaimed his Avatar smoothly fading to existence a short distance from me, the golden scaled dragon matching the room in a very pleasing way which I was CERTAIN had to be the intent. “I call the style ‘Techieval’. Not the best name I admit but I find it to be simply gorgeous.”

“It is very lovly! I wouldn’t think you could make the printed circuit board patterns go well with the over all Classical Period palatial look, but you’ve done it well. Why didn’t you make my cybernetics look like this?” I asked with a teasing smile.

Righteous smiled feebly. “Sorry. There wasn’t much to work with in the pod. If you weren't intending to have your organic limbs replaced when you return home I’d be happy to make a more aesthetically pleasing set now… But well, such is the way things are.”

I frowned. Did I really want to do that? I supposed I did. But well, everything was just so useful!

“W-well… If I keep the eye will that let me keep the HUD?” I asked hopefully.

Righteous nodded. “Yes.”

“Then I’ll keep the eye,” I decided with a nod. “And the radio. It’s quite handy!”

“I recommend you keep the heart as well. If only to be heart attack proof,” Righteous said as he blushed lightly and rubbed the back of his head. “Um… Can you do me a favor really quick?”

“Um, yes I suppose,” I said with a small frown.

“Could you poke me or something and tell me if I feel organic or not? I’ve never had anyone around to test the hardlight calibration,” he asked with an embarrassed smile.

“Of course,” I said floating forwards and giving him a gentle poke.

Discovering this projection to be solid I gave Righteous a quick but tight hug before letting go and nodding in satisfaction. “Well, you are a bit softer than Spike but not so much as to be impossible for a dragon as far as I know. And you did squish and move in the way I’d expect a person too. Well done,” I praised.

Righteous beamed me a happy smile. “Thank goodness! I spent so much time on this, you wouldn’t believe it! Now then, the tour… To the crew quarters!” Righteous exclaimed eagerly skipping across the room to one of the doors and opening it before giving me a nod. “Ladies first!”

I smiled and gave myself a push with my magic, drifting forwards to join him on the tour.

A tour that I somewhat regretted agreeing to. Not that Righteous hull was a pain to look at, the standard of beauty and elegance of design were maintained through the entire ship. It’s just that I did like seeing the artwork which went into his design that he had added… But I had no compelling reason to see the forty or so rooms where his crew had slept. Or the large recreation room which had had transformed into a rather nice looking reading room. Or any of the little maintenance areas or other aspects he seems so intent on showing me.

I liked Righteous. Quite a bit in fact. But I was not interested in seeing his environmental control system backup monitoring room.

Although I must admit that the way he cunningly disguised every monitor onboard as a mirror painting was very clever and artfully done. As were the way he’d designed control panels and data jacks to appear like art objects or wall decorations. And the way he’d made each room’s lighting blend into the ceiling and created an illusion of windows with sunlight coming through them using mirrors and lightboxes.

That was artful, and beautiful, and I wanted him to build one for my room at home!

The only thing I felt compelled to ask about was the suits of armor he had posed around his hull. The ones made to guard doors made sense from an artistic perspective, but he had other set up as if performing maintenance, washing dishes, or just sitting around.

I’d asked why, and immediately regretted it. The way he’d said ‘I- Like to pretend that… Let’s just not mention that, okay?’ It had broken my heart. So I’d honored his wishes and not brought it up.

But despite that the tour seemed to drag on forever and I hadn’t even seen anything interesting like-

“And through these doors ahead is the bridge,” Righteous announced, gesturing dramatically.

Ah ha!

I smiled. “I was wondering when we’d get to this part,” I said hoping to hide my relief behind an eager smile.

There was no need to offend him after all.

“I’m sure you’ll like it,” Righteous said as he opened the two doors, the rather elegant emblem ‘carved’ into them splitting neatly down the middle.

The bridge was smaller than I thought it would be. The room was very… Intimate. Two or three ponies could fit into the room but it wes clearly meant for just one. It was decorated appropriately for a throne room, with a plush royal purple carpet, gold trimmed walls, and the normal ivory colored walls replaced with lovely black marble paneling.

“And that’s the whole place,” Righteous said with a sense of finality. “Nothing fancy, just a huge mansion in space.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Righteous joke. ‘Nothing fancy indeed’!

The wall opposite the doors was slanted, and a viewport was built into it to give you what I assumed was a view out the bow of the ship. But large steel shutters covered it from the outside. Most likely some kind of blast-shield that deployed in battle.

The the left of the entryway was a single door which did have a sign on it which was lovingly carved in script which I was able to make out as ‘Captain’s Cabin’. I supposed I wouldn’t be allowed in there, much like with the many manually operated weapons stations we had passed.

I was surprised by the lack of any consoles or control systems on the bridge. It was just the lovely, intimately sized, well, small bedroom like space. Nothing there.

Nothing that is, save for a single throne.

A large throne, made from quartz crystal mostly, with accents on the back, edges, and armrests done in purple and blue crystal which my gem finding talent told me were actual sapphire and-

And…

AND!

“IT’S MADE OF A DIAMOND!” I exclaimed tail standing up in shock as my eyes widened.

No seams! One single diamond! RARITY NEEDS THIS!

“Of course!” Righteous said with a proud smile. “It’s a throne fit for a dragon to command from. What else would I have made it from?”

“Where did you find a diamond that big!?!” I demanded, grabbing Righteous by the shoulders to look directly into his eyes.

Only three hundred and twelve diamonds had ever been found which were large enough to cut this from! Any gem smaller than my hoof was nearly as common as an average stone but something so magnificent? This would have literally been worth a Princess’s Ransom for just the raw material!

He giggled. “I made it you silly mare! Would you like to try it out? Take a seat?” He asked.

Made it!? But how? I- No! No more questions. Just enjoy this fantasy!

I plopped down atop the velvet seat cushion before he had even finished talking, shimmying myself into a comfortable position with a happy sigh.

“Mmm… Yes! Oh this is exactly as lovely as I thought it would be!” I exclaimed eagerly.

“You’ve always wanted a diamond throne?” Righteous asked walking up into view with a curious tilt of his head.

“Not necessarily a throne, but it’s always been a fantasy of mine to have a massive gemstone chair! N-not in that ‘I’m wealthy! Bow before me!’ way. Just, well, I’m certain you know. You’ve decorated yourself like this for a reason,” I said with a contented sigh.

Bucket list goal complete!

“I see…” Righteous said with an understanding smile and a thoughtful tone. “Well, you were born on Terra, and you’re a member of a Terran military… Nobility too, which is important. That technically qualifies you… Would you like it?”

I blinked, ears and tail standing pet in shock. “The throne? To keep!? I WOULD LOVE IT!” I blushed deeply, realising how eagerly I had said that.

“Then she’s yours,” Righteous said firmly. “Welcome aboard, Captain.”

I blinked again, my shocked expression unable to become more shocked, but trying to regardless.

“E-excuse me?!” I asked slowly.

“It’s not JUST a chair made from fancy carbon, Rarity. If my main reactor was powered when you sat down, you would have been linked to me in the same way you were the Tank's gun. That throne is the direct connection point to command every system aboard this ship. It is the captain’s chair, in a form which no other species has ever conceived of. If you own the chair, you own the ship. Which makes you my Captain,” Righteous replied factually, but happily.

“Ummm… C-can I take that back?” I asked uncertainly. “I- I don't want any responsibilities or anything, I- I just wanted the chair…”

Righteous smiled and nodded. “Of course you can. But you don’t have to. The Empire’s long gone. I just have to adhere to the barest of guidelines because I can only alter my programming so much… Hence why I couldn’t just give the throne to anyone. But you can have it if you really want it. You wouldn’t have to do anything special at all… And, well I’d have a Captain again. That would be nice.”

“I wouldn’t have any duties or responsibilities at all?” I asked incredulously.

“Nope, none!” He replied with a smile. “Unless the Emperor of Sol reincarnates and ordered us to do something… Which is unlikely.”

“And I’d own a starship!?” I asked equily incredulously, a smile beginning to part my lips. “Which actually works!?”

“Yes. And also no. It’s more of a mutual partnership and a guaranteed friend… And a cool chair,” Righteous laughed. “And then someone could override my orders to guard the shipyard and I could you know… Stay in orbit and have people to talk to. Also I won't be in proper working order until I can get one ton of Osmium delivered. But that should be a simple matter.”

Oh! Oh my goodness I had completely forgotten about that. I could NOT doom this poor person to follow the orders of a dead empire for all of eternity. Not only was that immoral beyond belief, but even if doing so was not a cruel and unusual punishment, Righteous did not deserve that fate. Not by even the longest shot.

I nodded adamantly. “In that case yes, absolutely I accept! Indy, you no longer need to guard the starbase and can remain in orbit or otherwise do as you like,” I said, hoping that would work.

“Good enough for my programming,” Righteous said with a relieved sigh. “Thank you, Captain… Wait, Indy?”

He looked at me with a confused and hurt expression. Clearly not understanding that I was trying a nickname.

I smiled and gave him a wink. “That’s you, silly. I Can’t keep calling you Righteous all the time. It’s quite the mouthful, and frankly, ‘Dig’ isn’t suitable for you. But, Indignation, that can be shortened to make the nickname Indy, which works well in my opinion.”

“Oh! Oh thank god!” He exclaimed, beaming me back the biggest relieved smile I had ever seen. “I- I”m sorry. I thought you had intentionally said a different name to drive a dagger in. Nothing personal, that’s just where my mind went because of fear. I apologize for even thinking that, Captain. I- I… I’m just very afraid of being alone in the void again.

“Now, to finish this deal, I’ll arrange for a personal luxury shuttle to transport you aboard whenever you desire. It should be completed within three days and arrive in orbit by the end of a week… In the meantime, I’m afraid it’s taking a military shuttle or a drop pod home. And we are coming up on Equestria now. How would you prefer to arrive home?”

Still reeling from the emotional whiplash of being given command of a ship, I blinked. “Um, sorry, what was that?” I asked with a blush. “I think I’m understandably a bit flustered.”

Righteous nodded. “Yes, quite understandable. It’s not everyday you get a free starship. Oh, um, I need you to know that I’m not giving you the position out of guilt. I think we were more than even before you came aboard. I’m handing you the Captaincy to help myself and because I like you… Also you match the throne and that makes my design subroutines happy.”

I blinked and looked at myself and then the throne. I did match. How did I not think of that before?

“So I do… Odd,” I mused with a frown.

“You happen to be my former Captain’s favorite colors. That’s all,” he chuckled. “At any rate… Equestria is now below us. How would you like to return home? Keep in mind that I will bring you back aboard as you desire, Miss Rarity.”

My ears perked. “Oh! Yes! That’s very important. Um… Could we use a shuttle please? I don't know how I feel about actually using one of those pods.”

Righteous laughed and nodded his head towards the doors. “Sure thing! Come on, you’re now authorised to enter the hangar so we won't have to walk all the way back to the airlock. Or do super awesome magic fight in your case!”

I reluctantly got off the throne and followed along behind Righteous as he led me to the hangar. I was still trying to process exactly everything that had happened to me in the last few days. I mean, I knew, but it wasn’t quite sticking yet. It felt like a dream. A good dream that had come from a nightmare.

I still hadn't fully gotten through everything by the time we reached the hangar. As I stepped inside what had to be the largest room in the ship, I was rather disappointed. Unlike the rest of the ship, the hangar wasn’t decorated in Righteous normal style, rather it was that plain brushed steel square look.

The hangar has six compartments, three on each side, one big massive section with some technical looking machinery which looked like it could fold into the floor and ceiling to get out of the way, and then one absolutely ginormous door at the far end. Parked in the individual compartments were the tank, two shuttles, a pair of odd looking boxy mechs, and then six small aircraft which had to be fighters of some kind which shared one of the cubbies.

That was it. No decor at all!

“Why no decoration in here?” I asked incredulously. “You put so much love into every other part of the ship!”

Righteous sighed and looked down embarrassed. “I can't find a glue that will hold the wall paneling in place against depressurization of the hangar… I'll get some nice neon lighting in here. Once I figure it out,” he informed as he walked his avatar into the center of the massive room.

“Oh. Well… Perhaps I can help with that when I’m free later,” I said with a sincere smile. “I’m certain that an alchemical or magical glue would be of use!”

He nodded gratefully. “I’d appreciate the help. I haven’t had access to those kind of solutions… Hey, wanna see something cool before you go?" Righteous asked.

"I suppose," I replied, slightly distressed at the thought of him showing off another little gadget making up his hull.

Body? What do you call the actual mass of a vessel which is technically alive? What's the proper-

The massive doors at the end of the hangar hissed, cracking open with the graceful intricacy of a properly designed machine. They pulled back like the curtains of a stage, revealing the inky blackness beyond. But nothing else.

I sighed and looked up at the speaker he had been using to address me. "That was a very nice door, Ri-"

"Wait for it..." He hissed urgently nodding towards the black void of nothingness.

I looked back out the door, briefly wondering how the air remained within the hangar when I noticed a pale crescent of light glowing alone in the darkness. A pale blue line, simple, elegant, and appealing, but nothing particularly spec-

WHITE! Pure brilliant white light, a perfect sphere of white!

Oh, my, Celestia! That was the sun! Rising from space! Illuminating the world below with the most wonderful blues, greens, browns and-

"I have never seen beauty before now," I whispered to myself as I looked down at the world.

“That’s how I felt too. It’s how most of us felt. It’s special, isn’t it?” Righteous asked whimsically.

That was an understatement. That was BEYOND mere understatement.

I walked towards the open door until the rising sun and Equis below filled my entire view and just stopped. “Let’s just look at it for a while, okay?” I said breathlessly.

“Heh,” Righteous chuckled. “I knew you’d say that. There’s nothing I like more than space.”

Trigger, Sky Trigger - 23nd of Megan, 17 EoH

1.4637° N, 3.7492° W - International Waters, Celestial Ocean

Fluttershy’s scream still rang in my ears as I stared out the cockpit at the sea below.

The sea was a goddamn mess. Bits of wood and cloth floating across a three kilometer patch of the sea, oils and other liquids mixed in with the mess…

An airship had been here. And it had exploded. It had exploded hard… The largest piece intact that sensors could show was the nose. Six meters long. Sitting four kilometers below the surface.

“S-she’s gone…” I said breathlessly, ears flattened in horror.

Pinkie grabbed me tightly, burying her nose into my shoulder to cry.

Luna’s mane… We had to tell everyone that- That she was gone.

Oh… FUCK! It was so much worse than just losing a friend. Now we couldn’t fix the Elements.

16 - Queen's Gambit

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Lyra Heartstrings - 20th of Megan, 17 EOH

The Trotting Steppe - Equestria

The four of us spent the entire day driving. I know what I had expected when we picked up a goddess as a traveling partner, and what I got was not anywhere even close to the neighborhood I'd been aiming for.

As we had backed out of the cave I had expected Faust to go ahead and have a mind-blowing conversation about the nature of reality. To explain to us truths and mysteries of the universe as some kind of Mystic Sage, a teacher, or even just a friend. Instead, she spent the entirety of the trip, from the moment we had left the cave to when had just now stop for the night in the middle of the grasslands simply laying on the dash and talking to us about ideas for a project or two that had been rattling around her brain for a while.

Miles and miles of grasslands had just sailed by out the window, the sun had gone up all the way over head and back on down, and the most interesting thing that Faust had said for that entire time was ‘I've been kicking around the idea of making a spaceborne species. You know, something that could actually live in the vacuum of space.’

And the bullshit part of that? She didn't even follow up on it very much. Instead she just started to hurriedly ramble about feeling something was wrong, but not being able to tell what it was or where until she got distracted by the idea of making us all sandwiches in order to find the perfect sandwich.

Which she did. For three hours. Not stopping until I had to explain to her that we couldn’t eat an unlimited amount of stuff.

The only thing I can really say about Faust is that she’s extremely single minded. At the very least I was now starting to understand why the gods could have spent so much time not knowing that mortals were important in any way whatsoever.

But hey at least when we parked for the night, after we explained that we tire and have to spend some time asleep (She thought it was optional.), Faust went ahead and made everyone a bed. As in she had simply willed three folding beds and quilts into existence for us to use.

So that was cool.

Seeing as how there was absolutely nothing on the horizon aside from grass and the occasional patch trees on the horizon, we just set up camp for the night next to the truck where we decided to stop. Pinkie and Rarity fell asleep the moment we had gotten the beds down. I was a different story.

I couldn't sleep at all. It didn't make any sense to sleep. I just spent the entire day in a truck next to a literal God of Creation, and the entire time I just felt like I was sitting next to some hack job sci-fi author who had nothing better to do but a rattle off the ideas they had a while drunk last night.

“Excuse me,” Faust said suddenly from where she lay on the hood of my truck.

I looked up to see her eyes trained on me in confusion. The little filly’s face she wore made impossible for me to just ignore her. If I did, I would have felt like I kicked a kitten. That had to be intentional.

“What is it?” I asked as I rolled over onto my side and levered myself up on one elbow.

“I thought you said sleep is mandatory,” she said with a small frown. “Or did you get it all done all ready?”

“I haven’t started yet,” I answered with a grunt. “Can’t sleep.”

“Why not?” She asked with a curious dip of her head.

I hesitated for a moment should I explain it to her? Should I really? That seems like something that might be best left unsaid or I could wind up being a frog or something. Standard fantasy tropes say you don't piss off the wizard, so pissing off the god had to be so much worse.

Eh, fuck it. She’d asked for honesty.

“To be honest, I'm a little bit pissed off. At you,” I admitted with a fearful grimace.

“Are you still upset at me for not understanding the nature of your consciousness?” Faust asked in an understanding way as she looked down at me from the hood.

“No, it’s not that,” I sighed, looking down at the yellow-green grass for a moment. “It's just that you're a God. Like a real actual serious God. You should know everything about this universe, or at least almost everything, and I thought that you would talk about more interesting things than your plan to make a species that can live in space.”

Faust blinked as a look of confusion spread across her face at an alarming rate.

“Wait,” she said, honestly baffled. “You don't find a species that can live in space interesting? It's never been done before! Not even by mortals working with bioengineering. I personally find that extremely interesting.”

I sighed and rubbed my temples in frustration. “No I mean, that is pretty cool and all, but I was looking forward to learning the answers to the ultimate questions. Um, actually now that I phrased it that way, it's not actually forty two is it?”

Faust shook her head in confusion. “I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. What would be forty two?” She asked.

“Oh it's just a thing from a book series,” I answered with a laugh. “It turns out that the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything is forty-two. Meaning, you know, but all of Mankind's great questions about philosophy and existence are meaningless. The author, Douglas Adams, was using humor to make a point paste in absurdist philosophy which is probably best exemplified in his quote-”

I trailed off, blushing a bright pink. “Heh. Sorry about that. But do you get what I mean now?”

Faust nodded once, her auburn mane dipping slightly. “Yes, I do,” she answered. “I already explained that mortals existence was an accident. I should hope that you'd understand that a concept such as the meaning of life would not apply to creatures which were not intentionally designed.

“Your life, and in fact no mortal’s life, has any inherent meaning at all. But if you ask me that is actually superior to having a meaning to your life. I do have a meaning to my life. I am creation. It is my duty to create everything the universe cannot produce on its own. This isn't merely an obligation or responsibility, I am actually bound by my very nature to do this. I must create.

“You, on the other hand, being a mortal do not have any defined purpose. Which is a blessing as you get to make your own purpose for your own life. In short, you possess free will, and because of this fact, your life cannot have meaning, because meaning requires a pre-existing function, a duty that you were bound to perform by your very nature.

“Having free will, therefore, means it is impossible to have an inherent meaning to your life.”

I blinked a few times as I tried to absorb what she told me. It made a little bit of sense, but not too much. I mean, why can't you have both?

“Can you prove that?” I asked with a suspicious frown. “I mean, just because I was supposed to be a baker or something doesn't mean that I have to be one and would be some kind of automaton.”

Faust laughed and shook her head. “That's the response I expect from a free willed creature!” She said with a grin. “Trust me, having an implicit function within the universe has metaphysical consequences. Should you ever have a meaning imposed on your life you will understand what I am talking about.

“Honestly I'm a little bit jealous of you. I don't get to choose if I want to create, destroy, or anything else for that matter. Maybe it's just the way I see things, but from my perspective, having meaning for my life means I am not free to choose.”

I nodded to myself, I was starting to understand Faust a little bit. From what I could tell, she didn't seem to have any ability to imagine things outside of her own experience. That seems really weird considering she was supposed to be a god of creation. Maybe she could only do that sort of thing when she was focused on creating something new.

That would make sense! Because she was the goddess of creation, she lacked the ability to modify that which had already been created. Who would design a system like that?

More importantly, if Faust believed that Gods’ lives had meaning… What was that meaning?

“Okay, so, new question,” I said shifting myself so I sat upright on the bed. “You think that you have a meaning to your life, so what is it? What's the purpose of gods? It's not looking after Mortals or anything like that, so what is it?”

Faust stood up, then hopped down from the hood and walked over to me, sitting down on the grass.

“That's actually an easy question,” she said looking up at the sky. “We are system administrators. We exist to keep the universe operating within the parameters established by its designer.”

“So, the universe was designed?” I asked eagerly, smiling as I FINALLY was getting to have one of those critical ‘conversations with a god’ that I’d been expecting.

“Yes,” Faust replied with a nod. “We don't have a name for the Creator, he never told us what he calls himself, or what others call him. We usually just referred to him as ’The Big Man’ or sometimes ‘The Man Upstairs’. I do know enough about the universe to answer what I believe your question to truly be. My knowledge is not perfect. I am Creation, not Order. I am not the overseer, but merely one of the employees.

“This universe and all of the rest of the universes in this multiverse were created by the Creator when his own Universe experienced a great disaster which threatened all life within it. The true nature of the disaster is not something I know, however since my husband, War, is tasked with keeping the Eldritch Horrors which live within the void at bay I assume that these entities are the cause of, or a product of, the disaster which ended our creator's universe.

“It's probably important to tell you that you do not live within a simulation. This is not a computer program or an illusory world. This universe is a real space, with the real matter, real energy, and real spacetime. This place and everything within it is completely real.

“And yet it was created. As a life pod of sorts. It is a real place ment exclusively to be the place that a civilization long dead was to migrate to in order to continue their existence. The universe was made for them and we, the Gods, were created in order to manage that universe and ensure that it could exist for all time. We are here to eternally preserve this universe.

“That's why I say mortals are an accident. This universe already had residents before it was even created, even though they never arrived. It was a home being built for those already living, not some sort of experimental the universe to test a concept, or some sort of entertainment for extra-universal civilizations.

“Does that answer your question?”

I nodded twice. I was exactly what I wanted to know! Yes, this was exactly the stuff! So cool!

“Yeah! Almost perfectly!” I replied eagerly, leaning forwards to rest my arms in my lap. “Who are these people who were supposed to move in here? That's really the only information I'm missing now.”

Faust frowned, turning to look at me with actual concern in her eyes.

“I know nothing of them. Not one thing. All we know is that The Big Man is very angry because he is trapped where he is now, which is outside of this universe, while one of his kind has found safety within this universe. This room, um, universe as you'd call it, is hers. Somewhere within this universe lives the one person who could potentially answer that question for you. Unfortunately, I cannot,” Faust apologized before laying down on the grass.

I opened my mouth to ask who that person could possibly be, but Faust cut me off.

“I don't mean to be rude, but as I understood it, friendship is about mutual benefit and equivalent exchange. Would you mind if I ask a question now?” Faust asked hopefully.

“Oh, um, sure! Go ahead,” I said with an embarrassed grimace.

She was right. I was dominating the conversation here.

“Do you enjoy living?” Faust asked me curiously, looking up into my eyes.

Did I? I frowned, thinking back over my life and slowly frowning.

“You know… I don’t think that I did. But I am enjoying myself recently,” I began. “I mean, well, I've been unsatisfied with my entire life so far, really. I've always wanted to be a different species than the one I was, to live in a different time or world than where I was, or at the very least to get to experience something unique and interesting. My old life just bored me, I guess.

“But now? Now I am a shapeshifter with three distinct forms, who is on a road trip with a goddess, and just now got to learn the real purpose of the universe. And you know, sure it's not exactly a purpose that I'm happy with; I was hoping for something that would give a meaning to it and that I had a part to play in, but the revelation itself is a very cool experience to have had.

“So I'd say that my life was kind of lame, but is currently improving by a lot.”

Faust nodded slowly. “Alright, that species thing… Why?” She asked with a scientific, analyzing, inquisitive gaze.

I winced at the expression she gave me, turning away and remaining quiet for a moment. “I just… I never felt human. I always felt like something else. Something, undefined, but not human. It’s a weird feeling, okay? Most people I knew of though of people like me as insane.

“Hey, maybe I am insane. But now? I’ve got fur, hooves, cool pony ears. I don’t feel, um… Bored with myself. Yeah! That’s it. I felt bored with myself. That’s a way I can put it.”

“Thank you,” Faust said as she gave me an understanding smile. “I’m simply trying to understand Dawn’s intentions. You shouldn’t have the capacity to feel your body is wrong… Not if you're of static form. Creating such a conflict is, well, extremely unethical.”

“Sounds like you’re suspicious of this, Dawn guy,” I mused.

Faust nodded. “I am… I don’t want to believe it, but logic suggests that the one to give a mortal knowledge of how to kill one of us would be the one of us who most often interacts with mortals. With Dusk dead, that would be Dawn.

“Oh! Would you like to know the purpose of this journey for me? In relation to my case, I mean.”

I nodded eagerly. “Absolutely!”

“There is an artifact located in the Crystal Empire known as the Crystal Heart,” Faust reminded. “If I were to approach Dawn in person, then he would sense me coming and could hide from my sight. Much as he seems to have done when I went to check on him a short time ago. Though I must admit, the Everfree Forest MIGHT be naturally capable of preventing me from seeing things within it… I doubt it, but I can’t rule it out.

“Regardless, I can use the Crystal Heart to look at Dawn without him sensing me in return. I would simply make another, but in case we’re not dealing with Dawn, but rather with the Voidborn are responsible and are slowly creeping into this reality, as War fears, then making a new Crystal Heart would alert them to the fact that we are looking for creatures capable of hiding from us. Which would most certainly cause the cold war between us to go hot.”

I winced immediately. “So… Best case scenario, your son murdered your daughter. Worst case, Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn?”

Faust winced. “Be careful with that Lovecraft crap! He- He knew things no mortal should be burdened with,” Faust said with an urgent warning in each breath. “He wasn’t a seer. His writings are not all true, but some of the creatures, words, and even the odd spell or two… They are quite real.”

My tail and ears shot up in pure terror.

“Understood!” I squeaked nervously.

Faust frowned sadly. “I understand that is terrifying, it scares me too, honestly. How about we discuss something happy? This friend of yours whom you are visiting. What’s her name?” Faust asked, her eagerness to talk about anything else showing her fear to be equal to my own.

I shook my head. “Not until you explain to me why a GOD of all things is worried about those Voidborn things!” I yelped.

Faust’s ears drooped sadly. “W-Well that’s simple, really. I am in no danger. I could flee them forever. But I have a mate, the God of War… I believe your species called him Ares, or Mars?”

I was about to ask if that meant they were the Roman pantheon when Faust suddenly smiled, her ears perking upright. “Oh no! That’s right, your culture called your god of war Chief! We’ll go with Chief.

“His meaning of life is to fight them off whenever they find a way into the universe. If they attack en masse, he could be killed… I didn’t know we could die. So, I- I’m worried about him now. I never was before.”

I reached down and pulled her up into my lap, wrapping Faust in a tight sympathetic hug.

She eeped in surprise as she found herself pulled into my arms. “Ack! Unhand me this-” her upset cry stopped as her ears relaxed and her tail swished happily. “This is quite nice actually!”

I laughed. “It’s called a hug,” I said with a smile.

“I know what it is,” Faust laughed. “I- Well, so as not to be rude, I’ll just say that your ability to provide me with emotional comfort via physical contact clinches it. You’re a person for certain.”

“You were STILL having doubts about that?” I asked incredulously. “After hanging out with us for so long?”

Faust blushed again, wiggling her way out of my lap. “I’m not a faith-based person, Lyra,” Faust admitted with an embarrassed droop of her ears. “I needed a scientific test, and that was one. My daughter’s hypothesis has been confirmed by my testing, so now I can wholeheartedly accept reality as it is!”

“That’s fair,” I said with a decisive nod. “You wanted to know about Sunset, right?”

She nodded. “Yes! Anyone whom you would travel between universes to visit must be important,” Faust said eagerly.

“She was my best friend growing up,” I began with a sad sigh. “And she was also my first girlfriend. We didn’t work out, but well… I want to be friends again. I missed her. Especially because well, she got to come here YEARS ago! We always talked about going on an adventure as kids, and then she got to go on one without me. I felt left out.

“I still do. So, well, you know. I want to see her, apologize for pushing my kinks all the time, become best friends again, meet the girl she’s dating now. And then after, going on a double date…”

I trailed off. Faust’s ears perked eagerly as she leaned forwards, honestly invested. “Then what?” she asked.

I smiled. “Well, then, in the dead of night, she and I grab some provisions, hijack one of those longboats, and then, we row back to Spain like there's no mañana!” I said, beaming Faust a grin.

Her ears drooped as she tried to understand my joke. “Um… Spain?” She asked, completely lost.

I sighed and lay down on my bed. I thought a fucking goddess might have gotten the joke…

“While I’m sleeping, why don’t you go ahead and look through my memories for all the old books and movies I watched. Then you can be the only person to get my referential humor. Just, you know, only look at that stuff, okay?” I asked, shaking my head slowly.

“Is understanding another’s humor critical to friendship?” Faust asked curiously.

“Yes,” I answered completely honestly.

“Then I will do that as soon as you are asleep, and before you go to bed, I will share with you some things so you can understand my humor as well!” Faust exclaimed as she broke out into the biggest grin ever.

“Wait, wha-” I began only for my brain to become immediately and totally saturated with a trillion alien concepts.

Before I could even hope to order my thoughts, and separate them from the tsunami of ephemeral notions blasting through my mind, I felt Faust’s ‘voice’ within my mind.

What she said could never hope to be put into any words which mortal languages had made, each concept was completely alien to the limited experiences of a simple three-dimensional creature, save for those few literally crazy people who pushed the envelope of scientific knowledge within the field of String Theory.

Together, the concepts formed a single whole which I could only hope to describe as a particular fold within four-dimensional space that formed the mathematical equivalent of a pun. And was HILARIOUS!

A pillow struck me in the back of the head, making me realize I’d collapsed into a laughing fit.

“Some of us are trying to sleep!” Rarity roared, one draconic eye twitching angrily.

“HAHA!” I gasped, giving her the most apologetic grin I could manage. “I’m sorry! Just, oh my god! HEHEHEHEHEHE!”

“I know, right?” Faust giggled, grinning back at me. “I’m eager to understand your joke too, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

I nodded twice. “Of course! Just, HA!” I laughed as I lay down, tossing Rarity back her pillow as I moved. “Night, Faust. Sorry, Rarity… I… I couldn’t explain that joke if I tried.”

“Don't care! Bed now, do please!” She grumbled angrily.

“Good night, Lyra,” Faust said as she hopped up onto the hood of my truck.

I nodded, closed my eyes, and suppressing as much of the laughter as I could, I drifted off to sleep.

Princess Celestia - 20th of Megan, 17 EOH

Canterlot Castle - Equestria

I'm a patient mare. It comes from having lived as long as I have. Whatever has to happen to the mind in order to allow you to experience multiple millennia and yet remain sane most definitely makes you into a patient person.

Unfortunately, there's a downside to being as patient as I am. Occasionally there comes a time when a quick action is more valuable than waiting and seeing how things fall. One of the key differences between my sister and I is that she is a warrior, and I am a politician. Luna is always the one to strike while the iron is hot, while I am the one who prefers To be sure the hammer blow will fall where it must, even if that means the iron must cool slightly.

This is not always a strength. In fact, it is often a weakness. But the game of war and the game of civilization are two very different sets of rules. In wartime, failure to act quickly can be your downfall, but in peacetime, one can take all the time they need to ensure that war doesn't happen.

That is what I did for Equestria.

From the day I took the crown and became Princess, I sought only to implement policies and establish norms which would prevent our nation from ever seeking to, or having to, go to war. Naturally, it would be foolish to entirely eschew violence. After all, there are monsters which lurk in the dark, as well as those who would strike terror into the hearts of the innocent. But full-scale war is something that I hoped I had completely eliminated from the lives of my little ponies.

I took pride in that. Equestria flourished through diplomacy, friendship, and harmony. Yes, we were a little behind other nations militarily. That was true. I had instructed my soldiers in ways of combat which primarily focused on threats which would be presented to our nation from smaller things.

That is all we needed. A force presence to counter smaller, more personal threats. The odd horde of displaced or hungry monsters which encroached upon civilization, the rare crazy wizard who sought to take over the world, nobles who got a bug up their butts about some stupid issue and refuse to resolve things diplomatically, resorting to force instead…

Sure, they were preparing for war. Just in case. But standing orders for all Guard Legions was to stick to the approved, less than lethal tactics and equipment, except in the case of an emergency. Or naturally, war. So I don't think anypony expected to fight a war. Not these days.

It is the duty of those who live to reduce the suffering of those who will live. I grew up with war. Thus, I eliminated war. The lack of organized mass combat is perhaps the greatest of my accomplishments.

Unfortunately, the lack of true war has led to some misconceptions on the parts of those who truly don't know any better.

Like the nobles I talked to at this very moment. The group of assorted unicorns and pegasi from the Trottingham city council we're under the impression that is a small group of organized criminals constituted an army, which meant their law enforcement was at war and therefore they required the assistance of not only several legions of the EUP Guard, but also the Elements of Harmony.

The army, and our super weapon… To handle thirty some odd ponies. Who just wanted to make a buck selling strong booze.

“Lord Riverbank,” I said for the fifth time, doing my best to hold in the weary sigh. “While I do acknowledge that your men are having difficulty disrupting the smugglers, organized crime is not a war.”

“But it is!” The bright purple unicorn stallion insisted, stamping his hoof angrily into the red carpet which led to my throne. “They are an organized group working against the Equestrian government who will use force against us!”

I closed my eyes, doing my best to focus on the calming mental picture of my throne room when empty. I honestly love the way it looks. I expressly designed to my throne room to be soothing to me.

I needed it to be. Especially during emergencies where I couldn't simply send my primary solutions to solve a problem.

Unfortunately this time, my stress was not quite as easily soothed. After all, if any of the nobility knew that the elements were not functional at this time, there would be mass panic. Chaos in the streets.

I sensed that my best bet would be to try and give this idiot an idea of what exactly war was.

“Lord Riverbank,” I said opening my eyes to look at him once more, putting on the most serious expression I could manage. “What is the goal of these criminals that you're currently having such a problem with?”

He sputtered angrily, ears standing upright with indignation. “Princess! Have I not been explaining the situation to you for the last hour?!” He demanded.

“You have, your lordship. But please humor me just for a moment,” I pleaded.

He sighed, showing himself to be equally weary to myself. A good sign. Nothing ever gets done in politics before one side gets bored of arguing.

“They seek to make an exceptional sum of money for themselves by bringing various banned goods into the city, such as, recreational drugs, spirits with a content over fifty percent, and adult oriented materials more appropriate for the Crystal Empire than Trottingham,” Riverbank summarized.

I nodded. “In other words, their goals depend almost exclusively upon Equestria and its citizens. They do not seek to destroy us or force us to change our ways. Neither our culture nor society are under threat by them, as their income depends on us being the way we are. Correct?”

He frowned, mouth moving very slightly as if trying to come up with the right set of words to voice his disagreement. After a moment, unable to find any, he nodded.

“I suppose that’s true, but what of it?” He asked, taking a step forwards from his group of allies. “They're still an armed group of individuals who on many occasions have attacked law enforcement officers, even killing a few on occasion. Furthermore, this mafia is more than we are able to handle on our own! We need help. We need you to send the guard to enforce the law! Or better yet, we need the Elements to come and solve this situation in their usual efficient manner.”

“The Elements are busy at the moment,” I said as evenly as I could manage. “ I have sent them on a quest of great importance to Equestria. Otherwise, I would be happy to send them to handle this situation. As for the guard, I have already authorized you to dispatch your own contingent into the streets to supplement your law enforcement officer’s ponypower.

“But I will not order Legions from other towns to Trottingham except during a time of War. Count yourself lucky that you have never seen a real war and your entire life, to the point of believing that an organized band criminals composed of a mere thirty individuals as best as you can tell, operating within your city, feels like war.”

“It IS war!” Lady Cobbled Lane protested angrily.

Oh for buck’s sake! What did I have to do? Illustrate one of my memories with illusion spells? Luna was right, we should include a Horrors of War segment in public education. The safer cities in Equestria were absolutely becoming too safe for their own good!

Oh wow! Luna and I agreeing on a war-related social policy. It’s been at least four centuries since that-

The room’s gold plated double doors thudded open, cold evening air drifting through the opening while an absolutely battered Royal Guard Pegasi staggered through the opening. My eyes widened in fright, his breastplate had been ripped open enough to show the shredded flesh beneath. Along with two solid looking exposed ribs.

The only thing keeping this pony moving had to be shock. And the small blue cloud crest on his right shoulder showed him to be a Sergeant with the Royal Scout Corps. And I’d only dispatched scouts to Ponyville recently. To see how Sparkle was doing with the Everfree attack.

“Report!” I ordered, standing up as I gave him the command to walk over and use what healing spells I knew to tend to his wounds.

“It’s gone…” He groaned, his raspy voice suggesting a bruised lung in addition to the grievous wound. “Princess, the town’s gone…”

Gone? What did he mean gone?

“I need the full details, um, Misty Mornings, right? Just keep talking. I can tend to your wounds,” I said to him as soothingly as I could.

Whatever had made this cut was exceptionally strong… But not strong enough to completely ignore his armor. Perhaps a small dragon, or a larger timberwolf. Or, heavens forbid, a Hide Behind.

Reaching for my magic, I readied a healing spell which would knit the wound shut, taking my time to ensure the spell would work for him. Even as old as I was, healing magic still presented a challenge to me, as it does to everyone who doesn't have a talent for it.

“Ponyville in its entirety, it's gone,” Misty said, looking up at me fearfully. “The entire town has been leveled. Literally leveled! The only buildings left standing are what appears to be an old guard fort, the local spa, and a single home which has its own force fields. Everything else is gone, even the rubble. It's just one big pit in the ground.

“The Everfree is not responsible. The whole town to swimming with, with monsters! I have no idea what they are, my Princess. I’m sorry. I truly don’t know! There’s thousands of them. Literally thousands of things I’ve never seen before in my life. And they are ORGANIZED!”

As Misty finished speaking, I released my spell. The golden light of my magic wrapped around his chest and barrel, sinking into places which I hadn’t noticed were injured before. My attention had been focused on the major injury I had seen, as well as the dire way he spoke.

“Organized? How? What happened to your partners? Are they alive?” I asked urgently as the major gash in his chest began to knit itself back together. “Did you get any pictures?”

“Oh! I see,” Lord Riverbank sneered. “When it’s Ponyville you care, but when it’s Trottingham, you don’t.”

Misty reached into a small pouch hanging from his armor and took out a silver imager. The intricately inscribed silver binocular-like device had a large scratch on the top of the case. The gleaming metal within showing the damage to be fresh, likely from the claw which hit him.

“Who the hay is that idiot?” Misty asked, doing his best to glare at Riverbank. “My three best friends are… They’re-”

“Dead?” I asked worriedly.

Clearly some group of foul creatures that provoked the Everfree into attacking as cover to go after Ponyville. The town's natural oddities made it into one of my greatest defenses for the nation. Naturally, the place which was almost guaranteed to be attacked instead of elsewhere received priority when it came to defense. If it had truly fallen…

Misty opened the imager’s top, and turned the knob to display the last recorded image. Immediately, illusory copy of the battlefield came to life. I could see the thousands of creatures he had spoken of. These were not monsters, these were people. You could tell by the way they organized themselves into clear rows, columns, and blocks.

This was an army, a real army, not some mafia pretending to be a big time threat. Even worse, not one single creature in this army was something I recognized. Some of the things could have been ponies, but the rest of them were twisted, horrible things, which I had never dreamed I would see outside of a nightmare! The assembled masses were an army of scaly skins, powerful muscles which rippled unnaturally, and things which looked as if they had been designed not only to rip flesh and bone, but also to rend armor asunder.

A mere glance at the six seconds of the recording showed all of that beyond a shadow of a doubt. This was a true attack. No, this was war!

I had failed.

That was terrifying enough, but even more horrific to my eyes was what they were using as their standard. An iron cross, covered in hooks and barbs, rather than being smooth, with one of the three scouts impaled upon the top as an ornament, chest ripped open, ribs pulled apart in a ritualistic fashion, and threaded with ropes from which the other two scouts had been hung from nooses.

This wasn’t a group which wanted our land. They didn’t want us to change our culture. They wanted only to destroy us.

There was no hiding the large projection from the nobles gathered in my throne room. They screamed, their terror digging into my heart. I had failed...

“Gods help us…” I whispered fearfully, taking a step back from the image, wings flaring open in horror.

This was it. This was the evil my dreams had warned me of. Oh Celestia, you stupid pony! It wasn’t some terrible new monster or the return of some old foe on their own… It was war. Your real enemy. Back at last, after having spent the entire time sharpening its claws.

Folding my wings back against my sides, I took a deep breath and pointed at the floating image with one hoof. “That, Lord Riverbank, is war,” I said darkly, closing my eyes. “And I truly regret that you have now seen it.”

I turned to Misty while reaching out with my magic to rip the ruby from the right arm of my throne and to take Misty’s imager from his hoof’s weakened grip.

“Misty, report directly to the infirmary. We’ll need everypony at full health and ready for battle,” I said, ears drooped, but heart beginning to burn with anger.

The ruby reached me a split second later, right as Misty staggered to his hooves to leave. I nodded towards the nobles, looking Riverbank in the eyes.

“Go home. Now. Before you’re trapped here by the enemy. Trottingham can NOT fall to the enemy. Too much of our economy depends on your city. Martial law is hereby in effect, do NOT stand in the guard’s way,” I ordered.

“Um, yes! Right,” he mumbled to himself worriedly, glancing at his friends before the group of them ran for the doors, practically stumbling over each other as they fled the room.

As soon as they left, I slammed the throne room's doors shut with my magic. The messenger gem which had been hidden in plain sight on my throne was not something to allow others to know about. With any luck, Misty and those nobles would believe I had ripped it off in anger.

Raising the gem to my lips I gave it its instructions. “Mass message: All EUP Guard Captains. Attach image: Last recording of the nearest imager. Classify with ‘your eyes only’ enchantment. Message as follows: Captains, war is upon us. Defense Protocols are hereby set to Mauve. All troops are to immediately be equipped with wartime equipment.

“The enemy is an unknown force of non-pony creatures. They are amassed at the ruins of Ponyville and are intent on the total destruction of Equestria. All Frontier Guard Companies are hereby recalled to your respective wartime cities. Ponyville’s Guard Company is to reinforce Canterlot.

“Martial law is hereby in effect. Priority one is to safeguard all Equestrian citizens until the enemy's plans can be ascertained.

“Confirmation code: Platinum hawk twelve theta falcon two omega.”

There. It is done. Equestria is officially at war.

I felt sick, truly disgusted with myself. Not for declaring war, but for failing to prevent this evil in the first place.

I sighed and lifted the messenger gem to my lips again. “Royal Armory: Blackmane, it’s Celestia. I will be in the armory in five minutes. I need my armor ready for battle,” I informed.

A second passed before the mare’s worried voice replied. “S-sorry, Princess! I was across the room from my gem,” she said quickly. “Is the Dragon King coming for a surprise visit?”

“No,” I replied bitterly. “I need my functional armor made ready. This is war. Make a selection of weapons available as well. We will be under attack shortly.”

Whoever is responsible for this evil… Whoever brought this army to my country… In flames you’ll burn!

17 - Megan's Heros (Twilight Quest Part 3)

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Twilight - September 19th, 2028

Rainbow Falls - Mirror Equestria

“Well? Come on, time’s wasting!” Pine said as the rest of us stared at him in a mixture of surprise and shock.

He stood there, in an adventurer’s get up, looking for all the world like a male Daring Do about to do battle with a hoard of River Tribe warriors. To me, his age made him even more scary. It said ‘I’m experienced enough to see any trick you pull coming a dozen kilometers away’.

But to Sunset…

“Uh, s-sir,” she said as politely as she could manage. “Don’t you think you’re a little old for-”

“Oh, this is young people only? Cool, I’ll stay here with Grandpa Badass,” Chrysalis interrupted sarcastically.

“You don’t count! You don’t age like we do,” Sunset countered immediately. “He’s what, sixty five? Seventy? That’s ancient for a human, Twilight. Like, that’s a Pony’s two-eighty.”

I felt my eyes widen in horror. They live less than a century!? How they hay do they ever get anything done?

“How old are you, then?” Pine asked Chrysalis's, crossing his arms critically. “I’d guess but you bugs have an unfair advantage, don’t you, nineteen seventy nine era. So- No, uh, Si… Lead actress from Alien.”

I turned to look at Chrysalis in time to see her beam Pine a huge grin. “Not as old as you, old timer. But close. And it’s Chrysalis,” she replied.

Sunset frowned sharply. “He’s still really old and-”

“Will lay you out cold if you tell me I can’t save my grandkid from sadists,” Pine threatened, eyes narrowing into a death glare.

It worked. Sunset gulped and stood up. “Um, o-okay then, s-sir!”

“That’s right, Sun. Don’t fuck with old folks,” Chrysalis laughed before nodding to Pine and pointing to Sunset and Nova in turn. “That’s Sunset, and that’s her mate Nova. Sun’s our DPS, Nova’s our shield wall, I’m our tank. What can you do?”

“Shield wall?” Pine asked in unison with me.

“I‘ve got a ton of shield projecting items,” Nova informed with a nervous demeanor. “I provide cover and ‘armor’.”

Pine nodded. “Right so then, pardon the old here, Chrys carries the big guns and draws all the fire, you provide protection, and Sun attacks targets of opportunity. You’ve got a second opportunist now. What can Twilight and Jade do?”

“Um, I can’t cast spells… So I guess I can help carry Megan out?” I answered with an uncertain frown.

“I’ve got a little adventuring experience, but last time I went on an adventure, she died,” Jade said pointing to Chrysalis.

To my surprise the mirror queen nodded in satisfaction. “You kick her ass?”

“Uh, briefly…” Jade replied with an embarrassed tilt of her head.

I cleared my throat. “She um.. She did pretty well until she got a hole punched into her side.”

“Belly,” Jade corrected reflexively, wincing at the memory. “I- I’m not experienced. Twilight and I should hang back and help Megan out. I don’t imagine she’s capable of sprinting long distances.”

That was likely the truth. Celestia knew what the poor girl had experienced in there…

“What equipment did you bring?” I asked hoping to push the planning stage along into full gear. “Jade and I have some gadgets but I didn’t think to bring any real weapons. I um, I presumed this would be a peaceful mission. Maybe some light adventuring things but you know, combat free.”

Sunset shook her head slowly. “You know, I never got why Equestrians are mostly like you. You should always bring a weapon. Even if you’re just camping. What if a dire boar decided to eat you while you were camping?”

“I’d telekinetically throw it away from me,” I replied flatly.

Sunset blinked. “Oh yeah… Magic. Right.”

“Chrys is our gear girl too,” Nova said with a smirk. “She’s got the BEST spell for that!”

“I do!” She cackled in response. “I invented this as a young bug. At a time when the best it could do was make a stick work like a spear. But now? Oh man… A spell which makes a thing which resembles something else work like the thing it resembles is the fucking best!”

Chrysalis swept a duffle bag off her shoulder and set it down, opening it before taking two plastic guns from her bag. The only way I could tell that they were guns through their extreme sci-fi appearance was thanks to having seen Sky’s hoof held weapon designs.

“Those are plastic toys…” Pine said slowly.

Chrysalis nodded, her eyes burning green for a moment as her magic’s glow engulfed the two toy guns, sinking into them like water into a sponge. The spell itself looked rather interesting visually, I’d never seen that aura effect before. I frowned, wishing I had my arcane senses so I could analyze the spell itself.

My train of thought derailed as Chrys fired a shot from each weapon into the dirt beside her. The twin blue-white plumes of fire and spray of each seeming to happen the very instant each weapon unleashed an ear shattering boom.

“Sure are! Magic, am I right?” Chrys laughed, holding out one of the two guns to Jade, and one to me. “Now then, you get an N7-Eagle, and you get an N7-Eagle! Don't fire too often or it will overheat, aside from that there is no ammo limits or reloading. That’s why I love Mass Effect cosplay weapons. The spell wears off in three hours. So um, let’s not take three hours.”

I took the weapon uneasily, not really wanting to have to use it. But I would. When I had to.

“That sort of spell has to take a lot of energy to cast,” I said as I inspected the still plastic but now working weapon before trying to find a place to put it, and discovering it sort of magnetized to my non-magnetic belt then folded up into a compact form for storage. “Woah! Yeah, um, a lot, a lot!”

“It does. I’ll be dry by the end of this fight,” Chrys grunted as she reached back into the bag, pulling out weapon after weapon. “Best thing about plastic, it’s super lightweight. I can carry a ton of ordinance. Let’s see… M-6 Carnifex, Auto Nine-”

“Where do you even get that many replicas of science fiction weapons? Some hollywood prop-shop?” Pine asked in astonishment as she took out some sort of multi-barreled thing with a motor on it.

“-gatling laser-” Chrysalis continued.

“I bought her a three-dee printer for Christmas,” Nova laughed. “I seriously don’t know why she never thought about that before.”

“Cuz I’m old and that shit is brand new,” Chrys grunted. “Where was I? Oh yeah! Compression phaser rifle, bandoleer of Siphon Grenades-”

“Are you going to use all of that by yourself?” Jade asked, her jaw dropping incredulously at the pile of weapons which was admittedly almost as large as Chrysalis herself.”

“No,” the changeling replied, pulling one more item from the bag. “And one psionic spirit blade.”

The ‘blade’ was more of a mace. Or a club. A short flanged metal tube with bits and bobs stuck to it in an artistic way. With no actual blade to be seen. At all.

What?

“Uh, kid, even I know that one,” Pine said pointing at the tube. “Just call it a Lightsaber.”

Chrysalis venomously shook her head. “Sir, I do not see a lightsaber. That would be copyright infringement. This, is a psionic spirit blade. Totally different.”

Pine gave Chrysalis a baffled look, trying to piece through the oddity of her statement. “But how would they ever-”

“Disney has an arcane legal department,” Sunset answered bitterly. “We’ve had… Incidents.”

I wanted to question that, but Chrysalis cast her spell again, animating each of the models into weapons and passing them out between her group. Nova took the normal looking pistol, Sunset got the compression rifle (which looked very sleek and yet also oddly bulky. The curved design of most of its surfaces giving it that weirdness), while Chrysalis took the ‘spirit blade’, gatling laser, grenades, and the other scifi-looking pistol.

“Okay! So, before I get our ride ready… Can we all agree on a plan of attack?” Chrysalis asked after quickly checking her equipment.

“I know nothing about the facility or the enemy. I’m not qualified to help plan this,” Pine acknowledged.

“I um, I suppose that goes for me too,” I added. “Do you three have a plan? We can follow along.”

Sunset nodded in response. “Yeah. My plan for hitting the place is simple. If we sneak in, we die, because this isn’t a videogame and you won't fool the sensors. If we just attack we get mowed down by the security forces. The plan is we knock the power out with an EMP, blast our way in, and make a beeline for the holding cell. If we stay long, we die. But with the power out, there will be more than enough chaos to get in, get Megan, get out.”

Nova and Chrysalis nodded in agreement.

“Okay,” Pine said with a sage nod. “So… Can your spell make a working nuclear bomb? You’re not doing much more than just flipping the breakers and messing with screens if you are not detonating a nuke. With you know, an EMP range that’s usually smaller than the blast range...”

“Uh, no. That’s a bit too much of an energy release,” Chrysalis admitted with a sad sigh. “I ALMOST got a Fatman to work but a true nuclear explosion is beyond the spell’s limits.”

“Then how are you making an EMP that will affect more than say, a few feet of space? They are not the ‘instant all tech on the planet is off now’ buttons that most people think they are,” Pine grumbled irritably. “Stupid conspiracy crap…”

Sunset blinked. “Um, sir… Magic,” she answered, doing her best to hold in a laugh.

“Right. You’re talking to a wizard, you know,” Chrysalis replied as she set down the other bag and opened it. “Annnd here goes the rest of my magic for a day or so.”

Inside the bag was a little metal model truck. It was ugly as sin.

The front was bulbous, rounded, and made of sleek curves. The back was flat, squarish, blocky, and screamed military. Like someone had accidentally driven a designer car Rarity made into the front of a big military truck. It had narrow slits for windows, a big grill on the front along with about eight different headlights, six tires, and a odd cylindrical thing on top which jutted up out of nowhere.

“... Ew,” I exclaimed with a wince.

“You hush your mouth! That’s a goddamn Herkimer Battle Jitney, THE finest military vehicle ever made!” Pine exclaimed, honestly upset with me. “Can your magic make it work? Actually work?”

“Yep! It’s sort of the vehicle we use for this kinda thing, I can even make it full sized,” Chrys said proudly.

“That includes the prototype EMP generator which was never actually finished in reality,” Sunset added with a wink.

“Yes! I haven’t gotten to ride in one of these girls since nineteen seventy four. That’s going to be our in and out, isn’t it? You know these babies can plow right through a reinforced concrete wall?” Pine exclaimed with an almost geeky grin plastered on his face.

“That’s the plan,” Chrysalis said as her eyes once more began to glow as she drew upon her magic.

I didn’t like that plan…

“Um, we’re going to hit a wall at high speed, that seems like a bad idea,” I pointed out, my lips pulling into a nervous frown.

“It’s fine, trust me,” Pine, Sunset, and Nova said in unison.

“I, um, I’m kinda with Twilight on this one,” Jade said worriedly.

Chrysalis picked up the truck, casting her animation spell on it before suddenly throwing the thing away from herself, and tossing a bolt of magic after it. The bolt slammed home into the truck, which grew midair, hitting the ground at four times its original size before swelling to the size of a small house.

“Oh. Nevermind! That looks like it could take out a wall,” Jade said with a decisive nod.

Yeah, but you could still be thrown around INSIDE a vehicle…

“You look worried, Twilight,” Sunset said, looking at me with an apologetic frown.

“I am. Quite a bit, actually,” I admitted, returning her look with one of my own, pleading for her to do or say anything to help.

“Twilight, it will be fine,” Sunset replied, giving me one of her big smiles. “Little raids like this have become kinda routine. We’ve got this.”

The Herkimer’s three diesel engines roared like three dragons fighting over a mate made out of solid gold. The seat dug into my back. Sunset continued to pull back the odd stick-throttle-thing. I could just barely see the asylum up ahead through the slit window. We seemed to be racing straight down a row of other vehicles towards a small structure next to the main building… Some kind of dowards ramp. An underground parking area perhaps?

“Nova, thirty seconds. Hoist the colors,” Sunset said, not taking her eyes off the parking lot ahead.

Hoist the colors? Why would raising a flag help?

Nova reached up above his seat and flicked a switch. Even over the engine’s roar I could hear loud, big band music, start blaring, a triumphant militaristic tune which reminded me a lot of the Wonderbolts anthem.

“Really?” Pine asked Nova flatly.

“Hey, we’re basically the same thing,” Nova objected. “Besides, it’s psychological warfare.”

The truck lurched, tipping as it moved down the ramp and was plunged into darkness. The dimly lit area below was most certainly a parking structure of some kind, but I didn’t get a chance to examine it in any detail as we lumbered across the chamber towards a super strong looking concrete wall.

I gripped my seat’s armrests, knuckles turning white as I ducked my head down to avoid smashing it open on any one of a dozen protruding boxy consoles. My frightened whimper lost amongst the screaming roar of the engines.

“Should we knock, or just let ourselves in?" Chrys asked sarcastically with a hearty guffaw.

In one single motion, we exploded into and through the wall. The sound of shattering concrete and creaking metal echoed over the blaring music and even the engine’s screams. My body shook with a single sharp jolt, as if I’d flopped out of bed and onto the floor.

That was it. No deadly punch to the guts. No cabin crumpling in like a packet of hay fries underhoof.

“Oh,” I said in shocked relief, peaking out from my curled up position.

“It’s a military troop transport, Twilight,” Sunset said supportingly. “It was always okay… But outside is not okay at all now. Chry-”

“Done!” The changeling exclaimed as she flipped another switch.

I’d expected a hum, a crackle, a pulse of light. Instead, nothing. Absolutely nothing. She flicked a switch. The seconds ticked by.

“Uh, does it take time to warm up?” I asked hesitantly.

“Yep. Just wait for it, it’ll happen before those security guys get back up,” Nova said as he squinted out of the front view-slit.

“When do you put the shields up?” Pine asked as he got up and walked for the back of the vehicle, to it’s sole entrance.

Which was a ramp. For some reason. This thing was so stupid looking!

But I have to admit, it did work.

“Soon as-” Nova began, only to be interrupted by a loud click and slight static buzzing as every last light outside of the truck was snuffed out.

“-now!” He corrected, turning around and rushing to the back of the truck, touching each of us along the way with a pale purple glowing hand.

I felt the spell take hold. It was crude, but very robust and durable. My own shield spells protected against almost everything, and as such were intricately designed with layers and layers. This thing would only stop physical attacks, but could take a real beating.

“Nice shield,” I complemnted.

“You’re welcome, don’t get shot. It’s just protection, not invulnerability,” Nova said firmly as he pulled the lever to drop the ramp down, immediately making a gesture with his hand and conjuring a flat, hardlight panel in front of the ramp.

Chrysalis hopped out of her seat, snatched up her bulky weapon and edged her way around Pine. “I’ve got point, old timer,” she said in a surprisingly polite way for her word choice.

“Chrys, stop it. You said you knew Alexander the Great. You’re WAY older than he is,” Sunset mumbled irritably.

“Um, no. I WAS Alexander the Great. That was a fun century,” Chrys rebutted with a wistful smile.

“Yeah, right. You may be that old but there’s no way you were him,” Nova laughed. “Come on girls, focus on the mission. We can playfully joke about who Chrys has been later.”

“Have you been anyone relevant to helping us out here?” Pine asked as Nova pushed his shield wall out and slipped into the room.

I got up, letting Jade go first as we took a position behind their group.

“Well, I was able to prove to these two that I was Jack Churchill,” Chrysalis commented.

“Okay, now THAT I call bull on,” Pine laughed good naturedly. “But I think you know how you can prove it.”

Chrys laughed, nodded, and then hefted her bulky weapon and vanished around the corner of the truck. A rapid flurry of shrieking thuds and red glow lit the parking lot up brightly for half a second.

“Oi! You two! Fuck off or die!” Chrys ordered.

I slipped out of the truck just as two unarmed guys in cloth security guard uniforms went sprinting out through the hole in the wall towards the dim moonlit ramp.

Sunset waited for them to leave then aimed her weapon down at the floor, tapping a few little buttons on the top then firing a bright orange ray of light in a cone shape into the floor. The weapon screeched, quickly melting a hole through the floor big enough to drop through.

“What the hay!?” I exclaimed eyes widening. “Why didn’t you just arm everypony with those?”

“She uses it because it’s similar to a spellbolt and can replicate attack spells. I use this because it is cool,” Chrys explained hefting her weapon up before dropping through the hole.

I blinked, completely stunned. What do you even say to that?

“It’s a gatling gun that shoots lasers, Twilight,” Nova said gently resting a hand on my shoulder. “Chryssie there is more like a human than any one of you, is all.”

Sunset and Nova dropped through the hole as Pine spoke. A moment later, another flurry of screeching thuds broke out, the hold flashed red like a tartarian fire burned within it.

“Clear!” Chrys called, the room lighting up a dim white from what I guessed was a single flashlight.

“No it’s not, they ran off,” Nova countered.

“They saw their buddy. They are not coming back,” she grunted. “Come on you three! Speed is key!”

Pine walked over to the hole and lowered himself down slowly, dropping down with a slightly pained grunt. Jade dropped down next, leaving me up at the top. It occurred to me that somepony should stay and make sure the truck was useful for an escape.

But we could all be needed down below…

“Hold on!” I called reaching into my own bag and rummaging around for a warding plate. Taking the small brass plate from my bag I brushed a finger along the etched in runes, making sure they began to glow white, then set the plate down on the truck’s ramp.

There! Now anyone but me who set foot near the truck’s entrance would fall asleep.

“Okay, I trapped the truck ramp so they can’t take it from us. I have to be the first one back on it!” I warned as I dropped through the hatch.

“Good thinking, Twi!” Sunset praised as I dropped into a pile of white ash. “Oh right! Don’t shoot at anyone not in black body armor unless they attack you. That gun you have doesn't have a stun setting like this thing.”

I blinked as I noticed Sunset was stooped over, rummaging through the ash pile. How had this happened? Wouldn’t someone have swept up? Did a gust come down a fireplace or someone knock over a document disposal bin?

“Wait, we’re using less than lethal ordnance?” Pine asked in surprise as the group headed for the door on the far side of this small office we’d dropped into.

“She is,” Chrys grunted leaning out into the hallway, looking both ways. “I prefer to never have the same problem twice.”

“The third one had an ID,” Sunset said standing up with a small plastic card held in one hand. “Annnd…. Yes! We have clearance for the holding cells.”

I raised an eyebrow subconsciously, Sunset noticed my look and smiled. “Yeah yeah, convenience, probably a trap. It’s a Level 3 clearance card. Holding cells need a Level 3 clearance rating, meaning this accesses them in addition to other things.”

“Oh,” I said with a relieved nod. “It would have been really weird to just happen on a card someone dropped specifically for-”

“Moving on, speed, elevator is forty meters,” Chrysalis said as she and Nova slipped into the hallway, the light moving with them making me notice that the flashlight was attached just under Chrys’s weapon’s barrels.

“No, fifty meters,” Sunset corrected.

“Eh, not much of a problem. Twilight, watch our backs,” Chrys ordered.

I moved out into the hall, doing my best to peer into the dark hallway behind us. Pine joined me, walking backwards oddly enough, keeping his shotgun in his hands as he backed down the hall.

“You’ve done this before, haven't you?” I asked nervously.

“Yes. I’ve gone through a lot to get the recipes I have. If I was more of an egotist, I could likely do the Daring Doo thing and publish my adventures as fiction,” he said slowing down at the end before stopping and cupping a hand to his ear.

“Hey,” Pine asked. “Do you hear metal crumpling?”

“No,” Sunset replied. “Wh-”

“Freeze!” Someone shouted from behind me.

I froze. The hallway blazed red as Chrysalis fired.

“Laser beats ice,” she quipped casually.

I didn’t especially like killing. But sometimes it was necessary. The real question was how justified had this particular-

The BUCK was I thinking!? Twilight, you’re on a life or death mission inside a facility containing an evil, anti-mage army. It’s justified.

“Elevator ahead,” Sunset called. “Left side.”

We moved forwards at a fast walk, arriving at a pair of steel sliding doors just as the hallway lit up with a dim red light, and an intercom system crackled.

“Backup power to the sub facility has been restored,” the voice informed. “All B-class personnel are to begin a full inventory of currently contained subjects. Security teams, begin a full sweep for the intrud-

“Security! Belay the sweep! X-Ninety Eight has broken containment, repeat, X-Ninety Eight has broken containment! All security teams to floor S-Eight, ignore the intruders unless they move to floor S-Eight. Return X-Ninety Eight to her dampening chamber immediately. Deadly force is authorised… If that’s possible.”

“Yep,” Pine said to himself with a knowing look in his eyes. “Not the magic button everyone hopes for. They’ll likely finish power cycling the main system soon.”

Chrysalis nodded. “Mhm, but smaller stuff could be permanently fried. And more importantly it will take them a while to get the real security systems back up and running.”

Nova flashed the old man a grin. “We know it’s not a ‘magic no tech anymore button’. We’ve used it before. There’s going to be a lot of business at the apple store tomorrow, but that’s about it. It’s really just the twenty minutes or so it takes to get the power back on that we need.”

Sunset quickly swiped the ID card in a small reader next to the elevators. After a moment they hissed open.

“So um, that could be Megan,” Jade pointed out.

“Mhm,” Nova agreed. “As I recall, that floor is the holding cells. Is that right Sunset?”

“Yeah,” she agreed as she stepped into the elevator. “Too bad we’re not going after the talisman anymore. With security on that floor, getting it would be cake.”

The elevator doors hissed shut behind me as I stepped inside. Sunset quickly swiped the card again and hit one of the buttons, the car shook slightly, beginning to slowly descend.

“How many places like this have you broken into?” Pine asked suspiciously.

“Six,” Nova answered. “We’ve also had some skirmishes with their field agents while trying to retrieve things.”

“All their bases have a standard layout and security clearance system,” Chrysalis sighed. “Honestly, if there weren't so many god damn troopers in these places, I could likely do a little raid like this by myself.”

“They are correct. Sunset’s Crew has breached six of our facilities,” a voice crackled over the intercom.

“Shit!” Chrysalis swore, reaching down for the blade on her belt. “I’ll cut a hole out for us!”

“No need for that,” the voice urged. “The director has asked me to negotiate with you. If we wanted you dead, I could have detonated the car the moment I saw you walk into it on the cameras.”

“Then what do you want?” Sunset asked, eyes narrowing in disgust.

“You are very skilled agents. That’s all which is keeping you alive, the hopes you can one day understand that our organization is a necessary evil,” the voice informed flatly. “You have never broken into one of our containment facilities before. You don’t know what we imprison here.”

“I know you’re imprisoning my granddaughter! What did she ever do to you?” Pine demanded angrily.

“... Ah! Pine WIlliams. Fairly shocking someone as old as you has a Facebook page,” the voice mused. “Ah, Megan Williams. X-Four Seven Six. Is that who you’re after?”

“What’s it to you, murderer?” Chrysalis snapped.

I flinched. They were willing to negotiate! I gave Chrysalis a pleading look, begging her not to mess this up with my gaze.

“You are heading down to floor S-Eight,” the voice resumed. “One of the most dangerous things on this planet has broken free of their containment. If they get loose, thousands, if not millions, will die. Their escape will most certainly allow other things located here to break containment.

“Some items housed within this facility are capable of causing mass destruction on a continental scale. One item is capable of causing mass destruction on a global scale. Presuming that ‘Ripply’ there is a Changeling, you may be interested to know that a blood sacrifice of five hundred of your people was necessary to prevent X-Two from boiling the atmosphere off the planet. That is the kind of things we secure and contain.”

“If I had any reason to believe you, your words might affect me,” Chrysalis spat. “You and your fuckstains ripped out my mother’s eyes in front of me.”

“I’m certain you would do the same thing to my mother if it was the only way to appease a literal diabolus ex machina which can not be destroyed by currently known means,” the voice said adamantly. “And unlike you, I would thank you for the five hundred years of time I’d just bought the entire planet. Honestly, what else can you do when a misanthropic, unregistered enchanter creates a living doomsday device that you can’t take apart or destroy safely, but can only keep it happy until it can be destroyed?

“As for our offer, since a full breach of containment would be catastrophic, this facility has primed its self destruct. The device in question is nuclear to ensure nothing short of Omega Class threats survive. Detonating it is an absolute last resort, we do not want a nuclear detonation on this nation’s soil. Especially not with the current President.

“If you do not interfere with our security personnel's attempts to recapture X-Ninety Eight, we are willing to allow you to leave unharmed and provide a cash payment of seventeen million dollars.”

Sunset laughed. “Hey, that sounds great and if we were on our own, we’d take it. Thing is, see, this old guy’s hired us to get his granddaughter away from you guys. Sorry. But a deal is a deal.”

“Yeah,” Nova agreed. “Unlike you assholes, we actually KEEP promises.”

“Standby,” the voice instructed.

“We’re not taking that deal. We can get out of here on our own, and they know it,” Chrysalis said in satisfaction. “Whoever they are trying to contain has them scared… Maybe we can walk out of here with your toy too, Sun.”

“Let's not push our luck,” Sunset urged.

I nodded twice. “There’s no room for error here, Celestia needs Megan’s help. There’s no other option,” I reminded everyone.

“Wait, you need her help?” Pine asked in surprise. “With what?”

Oh. Um… Crap!

I thought I’d explained it to him.

The intercom crackled again. “The director has authorized the release of X-Four Seven Six, should you assist in destroying or capturing X-Ninety Eight. It would be a small price to pay since X-Four Seven Six isn’t hostile-”

I felt something snap in my heart. “You admit that somepony isn’t a threat and yet you’re keeping them imprisoned underground forever!?! You really ARE monsters!” I shouted.

“Subject X-Four Seven Six is capable of lucid dreaming and altering reality itself. If she so desired, she could potentially replace every president of every nation with identical bonobo chimps and no one alive would notice the change. She could easily cause mass chaos on a global scale and therefore must be contained,” the voice sighed wearily. “Do you guys have any idea how many things are out there that could end civilization, destroy all life, or otherwise cause massive and serious damage to us all?

“I do. Thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty seven, as of this morning. Our methods are cruel sometimes, and even evil other times, but you’re alive in a non-apocalyptic hellscape because of us. Eight times over, in fact. Now will you take our offer or do I detonate your car?”

Oh. Right. He’d said they could do that…

Take a deal with an apparently untrustworthy person, and gain time to escape, or die now? The choice seemed fairly obvious. But given how hostile Sunset and her friends were to these people...

I looked around the car at everyone, searching for some kind of clue as to how they might react.

Pine’s experienced eyes were scanning over the interior of the still descending car, searching for something. Sunset’s hands were behind her back, likely moving to activate a spell stored in her enchanted gloves. Nova seemed ready to put a shield around everyone. Chrysalis… She was unreadable.

It seemed likely we could escape this elevator. But I remembered one small thing.

Nukes. Are. Terrifying.

Someone who would sacrifice changelings to appease a god would use one of those bombs for certain. There was no question. We had to try and stop the thing.

“We accept!” I said as quickly as I could.

Everyone turned to look at me in shock.

“Twilight! Why?” Sunset demanded.

“Because even a small nuke will kill everyone in this town and poison a huge section of your world for decades,” I answered in my best imitation of Dash’s ‘no shit’ tone of voice. “I stopped Tirek, I can stop this thing.”

“You did that when you had magic!” Jade countered immediately. “You don’t have any magic here. And didn’t you have the full power of the other Princesses at the time too?”

I nodded. “Yes, I did. But I actually am more powerful on my own now then I was then. I kinda grew into power… Still am too. But that makes sense as, you know, I’m the alicorn Princess of Magic.”

“I thought it was friendship,” Nova said with a confused frown. “Sun, didn’t you say-”

“Friendship is magic. Equivalence Principle. It’s a Thaumaturgical Physics thing,” I interrupted, moving to the next phase of my plan. “Hey, mister mysterious voice, man? I’ve had magic here before, specifically in Ponyville. I know it’s possible, and I know that Sunset believes you can control who has magic here. If you want us to stop the thing, give me my magic. It won't have to be for long, five minutes will be plenty.”

“Standby,” the voice replied after a moment’s hesitation.

“What are you doing?” Sunset hissed urgently.

“Solving a problem. Saving lives. My job, really,” I replied with a slight grin.

Nova smirked. “Hon, you did describe Twilight to me by saying, ‘She’s basically fantasy Commander Shepard’. This is a total paragon move,” he quipped.

I noticed that while joking, he moved slightly, flicking a few copper studs on his belt, which caused a little ark of magical energy to race around the buckle. Good, he was still working on getting a shield spell working.

The intercom crackled again, this time, a different deeper voice spoke. “I am this facility’s director. Our systems indicate that you are a wizard of extreme power. Enough to where we would under normal circumstances, be monitoring you to ascertain your threat level. But under these circumstances, you can prove yourself to not be hostile here and now.

“We are not capable of lowering the dampening field. We don’t house the local generator. We can provide you with one of the rings our spellcasters use to get around the thaumaturgic dampening field. You may have it on the condition that if you use magic in any respect other than to stop X-Ninety Eight and leave this facility, we will attack you immediately. The ring is capable of being remotely used to destroy the user.

“The ring is also tracked. You are to bury it as soon as you leave, should you accept. If not, you will have to try and take X-Ninety Eight down with your mundane equipment.”

“How fast can I get one of these rings?” I asked carefully.

“One of our mages on the floor will give you theirs. Or you can pick one off a corpse. There’s quite a few down there to choose from,” the director remarked in a hollow voice.

“Oh, so you guys care about your own lives but not my people’s? We can live in harmony, you know. We’re more symbiotic than parasitic,” she snapped.

“Morality and ethics are not as simple as you seem to think they are, Chrysalis of Sapphire,” the director said coldly. “Unknown mage, do you accept the offer or not?”

“I accept,” I answered quickly.

I need to get away from here. I had to get away from here. If it was a trick, everyone else could save me, if it wasn’t, I could finish this whole mission and go home now.

“Excellent. Good luck,” the director replied as the intercom buzzed once more.

The elevator doors dinged open. The flat gray, steel corridor outside looked dark, dismal, and smelled bad. REALLY bad. Gunfire echoed maddeningly in the corridor, so much that you could smell the burnt powder as well as a really disgusting coppery-ironish scent that made your nose just burn.

Pine took a reflexive step backwards. “Something spilled a LOT of blood!” He exclaimed worriedly.

“That would be X-Ninety Eight,” the director informed over the intercom. “She is exceptionally violent, needlessly brutal, and has been comatose for six decades. You can understand why she's even more enraged than her baseline state… Ah yes, here comes your ring now.”

I blinked in surprise. “You kept her contained by keeping her asleep?”

“Yes,” he replied. “We’ve tried extermination, but even if totally incinerated, she revives and respawns at the site of her death. This is the only means of removing her from the world.

“The power failure you orchestrated interrupted a routine medical examination, resulting in a nurse jabbing her with a syringe of adrenaline in fright. X-Ninety Eight is immune to projectiles, short of overwhelming firepower, hence our inability to tranquilize-”

“Thank you. I just needed to know if that approach worked or not,” I interrupted.

Plan formed. This was going to be easier than I thought.

“It might be best to give you something of a strategy,” the director decided. “If you get within thirty meters of her person, she will rip you to pieces. This makes melee attacks unadvisable. Utilizing spellcraft, I would imagine you could shield yourself and approach close enough to strangle her into unconsciousness.

“We originally captured her using a similar method, only we ambushed her during a rest period. She has been able to resist magical attacks by swatting away arcane projectiles with a ve-”

A short man, or maybe woman, in a set of black robes sprinted around a nearby corner, panting uncontrollably. Before I could even hope to say anything the robed person ripped a small silver signet ring off their finger, and threw it at me while forcing their way into the elevator.

I eeped and fumbled for the ring, barely catching it before it fell down between the crack in the elevator doors.

“GET OUT SO I CAN GO UP!” The mage demanded in almost total panic.

I nodded and stepped out of the Elevator. I immediately regretted it.

To my right I could see down the corridor the mage had come from. A solid line of black armored guards were pouring continuous fire from their rifles down the corridor. Two of their barrels were actually glowing red hot, a thing I was very certain barrels were not supposed to do. The terrifying volume of fire was made possible by two lines of guards behind the first row who were doing nothing but passing large drums containing what had to be more bullets forwards to the shooters every time they ran out of bullets.

You could see an almost solid carpet of used shells going all the way down the hallway. A carpet on which a pale white, emaciated, naked woman slowly shambled, dull pink hair sticking out from a helmet I assumed was meant to blind her, but had a chunk of metal simply ripped away to form an eyehole.

Just one eye hole. Through which starred a red eye, it’s pinprick pupal expressing an extreme hatred of all which lived. The same look Tirek had given me.

I hesitated, fear flashing through my mind as I looked into her eye and realized that the bullets fired at her were simply stopping in the air, collecting into a small ball of lead, and then dropping to the ground.

She suddenly screamed, her rage muffled by the remaining bits of helmet as she launched forwards. One of the shooters screamed in pain even though she’d only lept a few meters. I gasped in horror as the soldier's left arm ripped free from his body to go flying down the corridor… While the rest of him flew in different directions.

My stomach churned, only fear of my own death preventing me from vomiting at the sight of someone literally exploding into a pink mist.

I nervously jammed the ring onto my finger as our team exploded into chaos. Chrysalis fired her weapon down the corridor, Nova erected a shield in front of the shoulders, his jacket catching fire as the enchanted components almost immediately overheated from stress. Pine added his shotgun pellets to the wall of lead.

I felt magic rush into me. I’d never noticed the feeling of it being gone before. Not as a human. Not here.

The shadows dimmed, colors popped, smells became more intense. I could feel the layers of magical protection which the woman had wrapped herself with in a primal, animalistic fashion. I could feel the power at my fingertips. A weird sensation for somepony who normally cast through their horn. I could also feel that this body was NOT meant to contain this much power.

I was literally so powerful that I was burning up. I had better expend some of that power.

A lot of it, in fact.

I looked back at the raging monster of a woman as she screamed, telekinetic blows smashing against Nova’s crumbling forcefield. I gathered all the power I felt would fit into one spell, focused my mind on that one single action of pushing the magic into my hand, pointed at her and released the spell with a cry of, “Sleep!”

My spell engulfed her in a blaze of of lavender magic as my spell clashed with her protective wards. If I couldn’t over power her-

My eyes widened as I felt the arcane protections around her crumble to nothing under my spell’s assault, and she simply fell to the ground like a sack of bricks, completely comatose.

Huh… Well, looks like humans had inherently less magical strength than a pony. Good to know.

While I stood there dumbfounded that the monster had gone down that easily the wall of soldiers spun around, clearly terrified of whatever lurked behind them. Realizing I was still in danger I raised one hand to wave.

“Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle. We’re here to take Megan Williams home,” I said with a friendly but shaky smile.

I could still see that poor man explode in my mind’s eye…

That was going to be there for a while.

“You guys know her as Subject X-Four Seven Six,” Pine added, staring down the group, shotgun held ready.

“U-Um…” One of the soldiers stammered, his worried frown visible behind his riot helmet’s tinted visor.

Chrysalis reached down to her belt and stanched the saber off of it, a bright crimson energy blade springing to life with a snap-hiss as she sneered. “These assholes never follow through on a bargain… But they could start with this one. If they were smart,” she growled angrily.

The nervous soldier let go of his rifle, letting it swing on the strap to rest at his side.

“Let me just get that for you,” he said holding up one hand nervously.

I’d expected a gentleman in distress scenario, storm the castle, break into the room, collect the poor stallion and escape together on hoof. Uh, foot.

No. That wasn’t remotely what we got. Five minutes after the guard left to collect Megan, we had been handed a blanket wrapped bundle. The poor girl had been drugged to prevent her from dreaming, for a long long time.

She needed real medical care to recover at this point in time. She was conscious, we could tell since her eyes would focus on things, but she couldn’t move. Her ‘cell’ had apparently been a room big enough for one bed.

Pine held Megan’s limp form in his arms. You could see her pale, diseased looking face and a lock of blond hair through the coarse woolen blanket trap. I think it was the only thing keeping him from breaking the neck every last person in the building. I wasn’t even a changeling and yet I could feel the hatred boiling off him. A father's hatred.

He may not be her biological father, but it didn’t matter. Not in the slightest.

“You’re going to tell me exactly how to undo what you’ve done ot her. In the highest level of detail possible,” Pine said to the soldier who had handed her to him, eyes narrowed with deadly intent.

“I-I’m just a soldier! I don’t even know what they give them, it’s classified!” He yelped.

“Then who does know?” Pine asked. “And where can they be found at present?”

I took a deep breath. My body REALLY didn’t like having this much magic in it… I’d take off the ring, but i needed to ensure our escape. Which gave me one option.

“Pine, sir? Everyone else here wants to go with Jade and I. And we need to take Megan with us too, just for a little bit,” I informed as politely as I could. “Princess Celestia needs her help fixing a thing Megan made for us a long time ago. It’s very important. My hometown has one of the best doctors anywhere I know of.

“Do you want to have these people try and cure her, or would you rather you and I take Megan to a clinic ran by a doctor who is literally magic?”

Pine nodded slowly, turning to me. “That’s a far better option, Twilight. I trust you’ll get us home once she’s better?”

I nodded. “Yes. If you want to leave. You might like to stay and hey, if an android replica of one of my friends gets to stay, why can a nice old man who will die in another decade or so here but um… In Equestria, well, my brother is almost Seventy two. He’s almost a third of the average life expectancy… So, since species transformations occur through the portals you could become more physically able, due to ponies of your age being towards the end of their prime.”

“Kid, you had me at ‘My little girl isn’t dying’, I don’t also need a fountain of youth. Let's go before I decide to help Chrys here bring heaven’s wrath down on these sadists,” Pine said bitterly.

“I like you, old timer! We’ll get along just fine,” Chrysalis laughed.

I reached into my pocket and dug out the moonstone, holding it ready to plant in the earth on the other side of the teleport. I REALLY couldn’t stay here for much longer!

“Everyone hold onto my shoulder please. I need to teleport us to some place with moonlight,” I informed with a weary sigh.

I was so glad to be headed home.

18 - Prophylaxis (Dash Quest Part 4)

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Rainbow Dash - 19th of Megan, 17 EoH

Flame Geyser Swamp - Equestria

I’d always liked White Tail Woods. It’s one of my favorite places in Equestria. Perfect for camping and fishing. Nothing but awesome old growth trees with a huge Redwood grove in the middle.

You haven’t lived until you have seen a tree so big it could become lawn furniture for everypony in Equestria. If they were not a protected species, I would have carved my home into one of them.

Initially I’d planned on dropping everypony off in White Tail Woods to establish a base of operations. It’s not too far from ponyville, meaning I wouldn’t need to speed everypony around all the time. It’s got lots of grasses that are nutritious so we could live off the land if necessary. There are no big predators that think you’re a pretty tasty fried kebab.

It’s a nice place.

Problem is, well, it’s close to Ponyville. Which is currently occupied. How close? Well, with the Everfree Forest fully in control of the enemy, it’s the next obvious spot to take. I’m not exactly a commander or anything, but since they can safely pass through the Everfree, they can strike at Baltimare and Canterlot. If I was going to attack Equestria, I’d want to take out the Capitol and a major trade port.

But the train runs through White Tail woods, which is on the opposite side of Ponyville from the Everfree. So if you don’t secure the forest then the ‘enemy’ could use it as a base to hit your flank and they have that quick way to get supplies in and wounded out. The railway. So before you could attack Canterlot safely, you need to take the woods so that you don't get stabbed in the butt while laying siege to the city.

If I could think of that, so could anypony. And think of it they did. White Tail woods had been SWARMING with demons. I could only hope that the Gaian’s would be okay in their compound. Sure, it was well defended but… There’s that old Thestral saying, ‘Even the best stone can only slow the enemy’.

They didn’t have time. Hay, Equestria didn’t have time. Cuz the enemy had like, infinite soldiers. Right? I mean, it was Tartarus. So that meant that they had every evil soul that ever lived and died to work with. I think.

I never payed much attention to the History of Faith classes in School.

So instead I took everypony to the Flame Geyser Swamp. Yeah, not the best choice. But it was close to Ponyville, just a little way south. It was also a place where the ground shot flames at you, the dense trees could become impassable at times, and lots of monsters swarmed all over the place. Which would make attacking us in there pretty hard.

Yeah, those were drawbacks for us too, but we needed to stay alive. As far as I knew we were the only ponies in the position to take down the enemy leader. And while that probably wouldn’t end the invasion, it would be a good first step.

On the other hoof…

I stopped running, dropping Alter and Lotus gently off on either side of me in the middle of the small clearing I’d managed to find in the middle of the woods. The soot stained trees arched overhead, forming a decently good roof over us to hide us from the air, and we had lots of thick brush to protect us from the areas around us.

Alter blinked in surprise as she finally spent enough time outside to notice her surroundings.

“Woah, okay… Yeah… Think we’re a bit late to save this patch from the hell invasion,” she said sadly, ears drooping in distress.

Lotus shook her head quickly. “No, this is just Flame Geyser Swamp. Dash, why are we here? It’s absurdly dangerous,” Lotus asked, honestly confused.

“So, we’re in a fire swamp? Awesome!” Alter said with a grin, a grin that looked like it was intended to hide some nervousness.

Oh yeah… Oops.

I rolled my eyes. “What, a costumed vigilante, a succubi, and a wizard can’t handle a few manticores? This is the best spot near ponyville that’s not swarming with demons right now. I checked. Even counting the fire.”

Lotus nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Can we survive here for more than an evening? I do think I could fight off most creatures here, but there are many of them. And while fighting, a manticore or a chimera is one thing, fighting six of them in one night is another. And what if Trodoons are around here? Their venom will definitely harm the two of you and if you die I can’t do anything on my own.”

I rolled my eyes. “I got one of Sky’s emergency campsite kits, and Alter is great with protection spells. We’ll be fine after setting up camp,” I explained with a smug grin.

Alter hummed, “Well… We will be fine assuming my magic works here. Your super speed works just fine here but magic's laws can be different. Let me just…”

Alter held up one hoof, looked at it, sighed, shook her head slowly then wiggled it experimentally for a moment before nodding in satisfaction. “That will do as far as gesturing goes. Let’s see... Garjzla,” she intoned, a small bale of pale blue light manifesting above her hoof after the word was spoken.

Alter nodded happily. “Magic works! We’re fine.”

“You need to speak your spells?” Lotus asked curiously.

“Absolutely! I could do it in my head but um… Telepath. Stray thoughts from me, or those around me could disrupt the spell if I don’t speak it aloud. That could be disastrous,” Alter admitted with an grim dip of her head. “It’s a personal quirk of mine. Not all casters need to use words. Nor does the language matter. I just use the one I use because it’s cool.”

“How disastrous?” Lotus pressed.

“I could kill myself very easily. Dash has told me what she knows of Equestrian magic, your kind is much safer, and uses different underlying rules. I presume that the ethereal tether back to my home universe is what permits my own magic to function here… That or you're laws of magic can be utilized in multiple ways. Do you know?” She asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not,” Lotus said with a sympathetic frown. “I didn’t learn sorcery. There are different ‘schools’ of magic, created by what method you use to harness power, but I don't know if the laws themselves are mutable or flexible.”

“We can ask Twilight later,” I interrupted. “Right now we need to get you two up to speed on our base’s location.”

“Oh, fuck! Right. That’s important,” Alter laughed apologetically. “Go ahead.”

“I used to be in the Filly Scouts, and we went camping here once,” I began informatively. “When you can keep the predators at bay there’s only three dangers you need to keep in mind. First, the flame spurts. Those are easy, there’s a quiet popping sound before each one. Keep an ear out and you can avoid them.”

Alter blinked, her face showing honest surprise. Confused, I continued with my warning.

“Second, the Lightning Sand. It’s like quicksand but dry, and looks like a patch of white ashes. Just don't step in anything flat and white or you’ll sink right to the bottom and be unable to swim out. The grains move almost like water,” I added.

Alter broke out into a grin and leaned to look over my left shoulder. I raised and eyebrow and looked, but nothing was there. Rolling my eyes at her often irritating sense of humor I continued again.

“Anyways, third, there’s a pony sized species of rat that supposedly lives in here and is very stealthy and pretty smart. But personally, I don’t think they exist,” I finished.

Alter continued to peer into the darkness eagerly, and just before I demanded she explain herself, frowned then sat down on the dirt. “Awww, man!” She moaned. “Life failed to imitate art…”

“Okay, like, what?” I demanded.

Alter waved a hoof dismissively. “Eh, forget it. A thing from the first movie I saw almost happened, but didn’t. That’s all,” she sighed sadly.

“Oh,” I said looking over at Lotus to give her a ‘she’s just like that’ eye roll. “Well um, think you can get a camp established for us? If you lay down one of those silence bubbles, then I can set up the motion detectors and stuff in the kit.”

I dipped my head towards the large pack on my back. Carrying it along with these two had been a bit hard, but nothing I couldn’t manage for a few seconds. Heh heh.

Alter nodded and stood back up, stumbling slightly as she went to stand on her hind legs only. “Ack! Gods dammit,” she grumbled. “I almost never do non-bipeds. Right, one silence bubble. Do you have camouflage netting? If I’m going to maintain this ward here all day I don't want to also cloak us. That’s going to eat into more power than I’d like when we have scouting runs to do.”

Lotus’s ears perked eagerly. “Oh! I can do that! I’m actually great with Runes. I’ll just need a little time to write in the dirt and um… I’ll need one of you to bleed on the runes. Or it won't work. I don’t have blood, so yeah…”

“Wait,” I asked with a frown. “If your magic needs blood to work, how do you use any of it?”

“Not all of it, just our version of enchanting. And um… My siblings use harpies for that. There’s… blood farms and… Other things,” she admitted slowly, looking down in shame.

Okay, that’s one I could see feeling ashamed to be related to people for.

“That’s pretty shitty. We’re up to three face-fistings for that prick now,” Alter mumbled to herself. “Right so… Atra nosu waíse vardo fra eld hórnya!”

I felt the rush of wind that her spell created wash over me. It almost felt like flying at a low speed. That was normal, and I expected it. What I didn’t expect was for rays of lavender light to shoot out along the ground from where she was standing and form a fifteen meter wide circle with wedges cut out of it, along with small runes and other odd designs.

“Woah… Okay, so, magic is WAY more flashy in this universe,” Alter exclaimed as she the arcane circle. “Uh… Lotus, can you hide the light from this or should I try again?”

“I can. I’m going to duplicate a patch of forest and stick it here as an illusion… Um, how much sound will get out of the bubble? I could try and make some ‘natural’ noises to help hide us,” Lotus offered.

Alter laughed. “As of right now, anything out of this circle, which now that I think about it, is helpfully defined by the light. Uh, well, yeah. Everything in here is totally muted. A hundred screaming children could be shoving a cat into a blender and no one would hear a thing.”

My eyes widened in horror. “Dude! What the buck? Why would you do that to a cat!?”

Alter blinked. “Uh, I wouldn’t? That was an example of a loud horrible sound you couldn’t fail to notice… Come on, you know I like cats!”

I shook my head slowly in disgust. “Yeah but still that’s… That’s a horrible image,” I said with a shudder.

“She’s right about the sound. It is pretty bad,” Lotus said with an agreeing nod.

A nod which not only said she had heard that before, but enough where it was just a common sound for her.

I winced. “Please don’t say that’s what your ‘dad’ does for a breakfast smoothie,” I begged.

“Okay,” Lotus promised as she trotted to the center of the circle and began to scratch at the dirt. “I’ll just get these runes drawn then.”

My ears drooped to their lowest possible position. Sweet Celestia, no… Why?

“Um, H- he doesn't do that. Right?” I asked with a frown, dreading the answer.

“I promised you I wouldn’t tell you,” Lotus replied calmly. “So I will not. I keep my word.”

I felt my mane standup in a mix of terror and anger. My wife was being possessed by that monster! What the hell would he make her do just as part of a morning routine!?

Alter pushed her glasses down to look over the tops of them at Lotus, her jaw dropping. “Wait, that wasn’t a hyperbolic statement?”

“I promised Dash I would not tell, and she is within earshot,” Lotus repeated adamantly, her face hardening into a look of extreme seriousness.

“I… but- That’s literally cartoonishly evil!” Alter exclaimed, completely dumbfounded as she threw her forehooves up in disbelief. “I’m calling it right now. The man’s a complete fucking lunatic!”

Lotus nodded. “He probably is. I can’t comprehend his motives half the time. I understand that he enjoys causing suffering in others but I’ve not been able to wrap my head around how for as long as I’ve lived.”

“Soooo… He’s completely insane?” I asked apprehensively.

“Well, not necessarily,” Lotus admitted with an apologetic eardroop. “I mean, sanity is defined as ‘behaves in one of the common mannerism for a given stimulus, given your species’. He could be perfectly sane for an Aramenellî. I wouldn’t know. We’re not allowed to interact with them… And I don’t think physics permits them to see us.”

Alter winced. “Okay, four face-fistings,” she corrected. “Just in case he’s sane and just this much of an asshole.”

“I’d say that’s worth more than four punches,” Lotus disagreed, not looking up from the claw-mark-like runes she was scratching into the ground rapidly.

“Oh no, you don’t get it. I have this spell which heals any physical damage dealt by a punch, but doesn't dull the pain. Those are full strength punches with knuckle dusters that should remove teeth, crush bone, and jelly up brains. Which are instantly undone so they feel EVERYTHING and don’t die,” Alter explained with a dark laugh.

I took a breath and slipped the pack off my back, setting it down so I could open it and start taking out everything. I’d known about Alter’s face punch of justice for a long time. It was the idea of a cat for breakfast that was still under my skin.

“Okay, um… I’m just going to set up the motion sensors… Pass out the radios. That kind of thing. Based on the sun, we should be able to get to scouting by nightfall,” I said as I took the bag of sensors out from the pack.

“Let’s wait till whenever your ‘witching hour’ is. It will be best to go out when it’s darkest,” Alter proposed.

I stopped, looking over at her with an angry glare, but she cut me off with a raised hoof. Alter slipped off her sunglasses, a symbolic act. She was speaking as herself, not Alter Ego. As her unbuckling pronounceable alien name. The real her.

“Dash, I know,” she said as seriously as anyone could say anything. “I know they have your wife. We’ll get her and we will make them pay. I swear it as your friend and on my honor as a Priestess of Mars. However, we can not rush this. It’s three of us against an army of creatures that are also superpowered.

“As for this specific issue, I can not turn completely invisible with my natural powers. You know that invisibility spells are my bane. You know how I hunt. I work best in the dark. If we don’t all work at our best, we have no chance at all of rescuing Applejack.

“We must wait for the dark of the night. In the meantime, Lotus can fill us in on basic tactics the enemy uses, their psychology, philosophy, physiology, general capabilities, and all the other stuff we need to know in order to beat them. We get that info, then we scout things out. Find where the asshole is, observe him a while, come back here, use that new info to make a solid plan, and THEN we go kick his ass until the meat falls off.

“We move before the dark of the night and we will probably die, and Applejack will remain his meatpuppet. We need to take enough time to do this right. Understood?”

I sighed, tail swishing irritably behind me. “Yeah, I understand… It’s just that… I don’t think you know what it feels like to know your spouse is in pain,” I said, trying to convey even an ounce of my despair.

She nodded understandingly. Tapping the side of her head once. “I can feel everything you are right now. I know. We’ll unfuck this. It’s just going to take a little time,” she promised, slipping her glasses back on.

I sighed. She was right. I had to keep calm and try not to rush things. AJ couldn’t afford for us to buck up.

“Right, let’s get camp set up,” I agreed.

Applejack - 20th of Megan, 17 EoH

Mount Spur - Equestria

I’d never been to Mount Spur before, but I’d always wanted to go. The mountain was something of an Equestrian icon. It appeared on the back of our twenty Bit coins, and well, the park around it was something special.

I may specialize in apple trees, but I still like other trees. Mount Spur was home to the oldest redcedar forest in the world. The whole forest had remained untouched for, well, probably forever! Ancient people had refused to go near the mountain because of a rumor that demons lived in it, and modern ponies had preserved the forest because true natural woods are incredibly rare.

Which is why you’re not allowed to go to the mountain. It’s restricted. Forest rangers and firefighters only.

Which is why even though I was at the mountain because a demon was trying to kill everyone, I was still a little happy I got to see the forest. On the other hoof, it turns out the rumor about demons living here… Kinda true.

We were in a large cave halfway up the mountain, nothing special really. Seen one normal stone cave, seen them all. Until you got to the back. The back of the cave was a single oozing bubbling wall of orange energy.

This portal was nothing like the one Dawn had opened. That one looked like a portal. This one looked like a wound cut into the rock wall. It even trailed wisps of energy as if bleeding.

<Natural portals are fairly messy, yes,> Dawn commented to me. <Amusingly I didn’t need to make them more frightening. This is simply how they turned out.>

Without skipping a beat in the conversation which had been ongoing, Dawn resumed talking to the team of six Imps and one black robed unicorn he’d sent to this cave to scout the portal from this side. To see if a small strike team could make it safe to use.

Because one stallion was single hoofidly holding off all of the Elite Soldiers on the other side.

“I figured Doom would have put more defenses on this side of the portal. He knows I have mortal agents,” Dawn mused, looking at the scrapped remains of three small turrets.

The robed unicorn bowed his head low. “My Lord, the defenses are established within Tartarus. The other side of the portal is very well defended. I believe these turrets were simply to ensure anything which made it past him was slain.”

“Yes, that’s very him… How well is he dug in? Is his mate still with him?” Dawn asked curiously.

“No sir,” the pony replied immediately. “She left when you opened the Ponyville portal. We believe she’s seeking to disrupt it from the Tartarian side.”

<One stallion can throw this big of a wrench in your plans,> I snickered. <Are you sure you’re a threat?>

<That ‘one stallion’ is a freakish aberration. An anomaly,> Dawn shot back angrily. <The son of a Traveler who was saturated in the magics of a realm similar to my own and another Traveler from a universe like the one I wish to build but where humans have managed to continue to survive. Both of them retired to this multiverse. They had a son.

“It’s a shame we won't be able to establish a second invasion platform outside of Ponyville,” Dawn said outloud, contorting my face into an annoyed glare.

One of the Imp’s stepped forwards. The things creeped me out. They looked like a batpony foal, but with the tiny horns just in front of their ears. If not for the draconic tongue and carnivore's teeth, they would totally look like a pony.

“There is also the portal in Neighpone, sire,” the imp buzzed. “The distance is great, but we c-”

“We’re not angering another country until we number at least one million in this realm,” Dawn said dismissively. “Besides, that portal is beneath a Kaiju nest. Clearing the way would take a few days and I want to engage Canterlot within three days time.

“Speaking of, is our comrade ready to deal with Celestia?”

The hooded pony frowned, lips barely visible within the shadows. “My Lord, I’m sorry, but I am not up to speed on all of our operations. What do you mean?”

“Is Jet Set in Canterlot currently?” Dawn asked with an annoyed sigh.

“Oh! Yes, he was there when I left at the very least,” the pony answered immediately, head twitching fearfully.

Jet Set? I always knew he was a bit of a jerk but-

The portal pulsed with a darker shade of orange. The Imps screeched fearfully, immediately running behind any cover they could find. The hooded pony turned, staring in confusion as the darker shade of orange melted to form a single rune that filled the entirety of the portal’s face.

“NO! SON OF A BITCH! NO!” Dawn yelped, his mental hold on me releasing for an instant as he was consumed by terror.

Enough where I could read some of HIS thoughts, and knew why. He was significantly reduced in power while controlling me, that shade of orange meant something was coming through the portal, and that rune was the Tartarian for ‘Doom’.

An armored pony stepped out of the portal, giving me a half second glimpse of battle blackened, dull green, rune carved armor before the chaos erupted.

Dawn quickly threw a shield spell in front of us, a simple flat plane of crimson energy which had half of his energy thrown into it.

The armored pony grabbed the cultist by the throat while still halfway in the portal, then smashed his head into the other’s forehead, driving his horn back into his skull. The cultist dropped to the ground in a twitching heap, while the body fell, the armored figure’s face plate fixed on me, looking, judging.

The armored pony raised a foreleg, a large, blocky, dry-blood red weapon appearing in his hoof in a flash of orange light.

<OH, HELL NO!> Dawn exclaimed the moment my eyes fell on the weapon’s unnatural red-brick-like shape.

Dawn reared up, pushing magic through my body at such a rate it hurt, I could feel him focusing on a teleportation-

The weapon screeched, sending a volley of five separate red laser bolts into my barrel with enough force to throw me head over hooves across the floor.

“Ow…” Dawn and I moaned together, the smell of burnt fur filling the cave.

“This universe's Applejack was evil. That’s a shame,” the pony sighed. “Right, you six Imps, I’m feeling merciful. One quick shot for each of you. Be nice and line yourselves up.”

To my shock, my dimming vision still allowed me to see well enough to see the six terrified imps actually line up as instructed.

<Okay… I could take six more of those,> Dawn thought to himself. <But this meat can’t take anymore. It’s dying… I need to stabilize the- Okay, the body is disintegrating this will take a lot of power. I can take one more hit tops while making running repairs.

<That’s no good. Best just play dead. He didn’t recognise me at my reduced power level.>

Six more shots rang out, followed by the armored pony yelling, “Clear!”

<The buck was that?> I moaned, feeling like my incides were falling apart.

<The Unmaker. A weapon I made to try and kill my sister with. He stole it,> Dawn moaned back. <Good to know it can’t kill me outright. MAN this hurts! I did a good job with it. Probably would have worked on Dusk just fine.>

That was a good name. It fit perfectly.

The portal darkened again, and two more ponies stepped through. No, one pony and an imp!

The imp looked smaller than the others I’d seen previously and had a splotchy white and brown coat of fur, and a happy, playful look rather than the eater and malicious expressions the others had worn. It hovered at the head height of the pony she flew next to, looking around eagerly.

“Wow! It’s not all fleshy-creepy! It’s been SO LONG,” the imp exclaimed.

The pony had on a hooded cloak made from thin black leather decorated in white arcane markings. A bright blue horn stuck out of a slit in the hood made especially to allow the horn to keep the hood up at all times.

Her fur was entirely covered in a dull grey jumpsuit, decorated with spidery white arcane marks and held tight to her body with black belts festooned with pouches. And as she drew closer I could see her cloak had a full mask under the hood. The mask lacked any sculpted features, and was made from a single piece of arcanite with a ruby set in the forehead just above and between her red slit pupil eyes.

<Huh?> Dawn said to himself. <That imp’s got a full, untainted mortal soul and none of my programming. No! It’s a mortal who was physically corrupted but not mentally or spiritually corrupted. How’s that even possible?! I FIXED that bug!>

“Right ma’am, you certain you can close this portal?” The green armored pony asked.

<Doom. His name is Doom,> Dawn corrected. <And don’t think about him, he might be a telepath. If he think’s we're alive still he’ll fire again. I’d rather not spend too much time repairing you.>

“Absolutely certain. I have closed several before,” the robed pony said, her voice deep and echoing despite still being female.

I remembered Twilight once telling me that was a sign of long-term darkmagic use.

This could NOT be good!

Sure enough, the unicorn’s horn blazed with the purple and black aura of dark magic as she readied a spell. Her magic’s aura stretched out, engulfing the portal and crushing it in on itself. The churning orange wound screeched and crackled like a beast in pain as it shrank to a pinprick, only to vanish with an angry hiss a moment later.

“Excellent,” Doom said happily. “It stays closed for a year, correct?”

“Sometimes longer. Regardless, this opening will be sealed long enough to make it useless to the war effort,” the dark wizard said proudly. “Thank you for directing us to the correct exit. I was tired of arriving in the wrong place time after time. Earth and I will be going now.”

“Sure, I need to collect my apprentice and meet up with my wife to reinforce Canterlot. There’s no way Celestia isn’t targeted for assassination. Especially since this universe's Applejack was evil,” Doom said casually, turning and walking past me up the cave before adding. “Oh, and remember. Even one evil deed and I’ll kill you.”

“I recall our deal perfectly,” she replied, also walking up the tunnel. “Our homeworld burned in part because I served the wrong people. You have nothing to fear from me. I don't make the same mistake twice.”

“You’re lucky I can judge a heart by looking at it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another good aligned Magnus. You two have fun. Stop by Canterlot if you’d like to help. I’ll vouch for you,” Doom said, his voice growing faint as he left.

“Um, Gen? We should probably help them with that,” the imp buzzed.

“We will. But first, a shower. We just spent years in Tartarus, we reek,” the wizard rightfully pointed out. “Shower, vodka, make sure this universe's version of me is dead or never existed, stop by Twilight’s library, let her know we are no threat, another shower, THEN we lend a hoof.”

<Okay. That’s not good,> Dawn growled angrily. <Right. We sit here for a while, recover, then figure out a solution to this problem.>

I mentally smiled, soaking in his anger in a way I was sure wasn't healthy. But damn it all if it wasn’t cathartic.

<What!?> Dawn snapped.

<The whole ‘chessmaster’ thing you have going fits you perfectly,> I answered, wishing I could smile.

Dawn paused, caught off guard by what seemed like a compliment.

<Your plans are as featherbrained as you’d expect someone who thought the world worked like chess would be,> I mocked. <You only think in formulaic patterns and completely forget that in real life, people have friends to help them, and luck always affects the way everything goes. Maybe you should get a five year old to check your plans for you.>

<As soon as I can injure your body again, you will regret that insult,> Dawn vowed adamantly.

He meant it. I could feel the pure hatred in every syllable.

Buck. I’d gone too far.

Rainbow Dash - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Tartarian War Camp, Ponyville Ruins - Equestria

Nothing had ever pissed me off as much as all this wasted time! Three whole motherbucking days, and not ONE appearance by the monster leading these daemons! I have no idea where he was or why, but he was NOT here. I’d even risked a quick sprint through the camp to find him on the second day. Nothing.

I guess it hadn’t been a total waste though. We did learn the layout of the camp. It had been centered around the portal, with a HUGE empty square around it to serve as a ‘gathering area’. Bordering the square were rows of tents three tents deep and with about a hundred and fifty total tents.

Each tent made from black dyed rawhide, the source of which I didn’t want to dwell on. Especially since each was the size of a large house, and painted with a series of runes. Lotus analyzed the runes for us and said they hardened the leather to roughly the same point as stone, while remaining flexible. A fortification charm.

These tents didn’t serve to house the demons, they were mostly holding prisoners. Almost exclusively Harpies, but a few ponies too, and one griffon that I’d seen. On the second night, I’d found out WHY they were holding prisoners.

Lotus mentioned their enchantments used the blood of a living creature. I thought it was ‘as an activator’. Turns out it’s ‘as fuel’. I resolved to free as many prisoners as possible, but well, the odds of freeing any large number were abysmal.

The remaining six tents probably housed weapons. They had been full of crates.

Odd as it seemed, a lot of the smaller things were armed with weapons. Hacking blades. Things which looked like a wood rasp with a long handle. Crushing weapons. Nothing quick or clean.

Lotus informed us that was so lesser demons could conserve energy, and also informed us we should be seeing armor too, but we hadn't yet. A sign which likely meant that Asshole’s elites were not here yet, and that these were normal soldiers.

I REALLY didn’t want to think of the elite version of that twenty pony tall semi-biped thing which I could best describe as a dragon-scale covered saber toothed gorilla with spider eyes.

Especially since the army didn’t bother with any perimeter defenses. They just set a few dozen groups of three of those things to walk in circles around the camp, with about forty meters between each trio. Anything which attacked would have at least nine of those giants beating them into paste.

Anything which couldn’t sneak around unseen. Or hover overhead with a stealth suit on. Thanks Sky!

I peered down at the base from a few kilometers up, squinting through a pair of binoculars I’d borrowed from a shop in Manehattan. I’d have paid for them, but my coin purse was in my cloud house. And sweet apple acres was sort of destroyed. And serving as a training ground for the smallest, and oddly pony-like demons that Lotus called Imps.

Demon babies, apparently. They stay like that till they eat their first soul, then mutate into a more advanced form.

As they were now, they were cannon fodder. Only really good for stealth missions, and blending in with ponies if you gave them a hat. I’d honestly thought they were keeping hundreds of thestral foals hostage when I first saw them.

“Can you see me?” Alter asked quietly, her voice coming through my earpiece with an unusually loud static hiss.

I squinted harder, willing the binoculars to work better.

“Nope,” I replied honestly. “All I see is the big tent flaps.”

“This has to be the leaders tent. I can see a war map on a table inside, and there’s a sectioned off room inside. Uses another flap of leather, with a door. None of the others have something like that.”

I frowned. “I don’t think he will have been in there for a sold three days… Unless maybe he teleports in and out of the tent,” I mused.

“I’m going in. There’s three Furies inside, they have armor… Officers by the looks of things. Maybe I can see their plans,” Alter decided.

I didn’t need to tell her to be careful. I knew she would be.

“I’m in,” Alter whispered a second later. “Take a listen.”

The mic hissed again as she boosted its range, allowing three male voices to come in clearly.

“The wood has been fully secured… Our Lord did not order us to do more than occupy it, but I propose we destroy the railway while it is in our talons. Just in case they decide to run a train through our defenses. There is little sense in allowing them to strike our headquarters,” the first said.

“I agree in principal, but we can gain more from using the rails ourselves. The fools have created rapid access to each of their cities. Why should we not exploit them?” The second proposed. “Far more in line with our Lord’s tastes, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Both those options are excellent ideas, but our role is to advise, not to decide. There shall be no orders given until Lord Dawn returns,” the third said adamantly.

“He has been gone for three days. He’s likely distracted by some hedonistic pleasure,” the first snorted dismissively. “The Equestrians MUST be aware of our presence now. We butchered some of their scouts, and one got away.

“Dawn isn’t here. He can’t make a decision. We can. We WILL be attacked soon. We should fortify our position. If this portal is lost, the war is over.”

“Unless Dawn secured the Spur portal,” the third countered. “Perhaps that’s why it is taking him so long to return. While possessing a mortal body, his power is diminished. It stands to reason that Doom could potentially give him some trouble.”

“Potential nothing!” The second spat. “Neither of you have even seen him. I have. He’s at least as dangerous to our Lord as Celestia would be.”

“Meaning not a lethal threat,” the first countermanded.

“No, not without a lot of luck on his side. Which he always has,” the second continued. “With how long Dawn has been gone, I believe he was slain, or gravely injured. As such, we only have so much time until the army fragments as we all grab for our share of power.

“How much fun is that? None! We should strike now and get a few cities worth of slaughter in before the others tear the army to pieces.”

“None of this talk!” The third snapped. “We will proceed as if our Lord is alive and well. Which means maintaining this camp until-”

A massive burst of static and a crackle of flames thundered in my ear. I winced, dropping a few meters out of the air as the sound exploded in my ear.

“My Lord!” The three exclaimed as one.

“We were beginning to fear something had happened to you, sire,” the first voice said, sounding honestly relieved.

“Something did,” Dawn replied angrily.

I flinched. I don't think anyone else could hear it, but I could. I could hear the other person in AJ’s voice. The suppressed accent. The hatred… It hurt to hear.

“The Spur portal is inaccessible, for the time being,” Dawn continued. “Doom decided to come through during my inspection. We had a fairly decent battle, but I emerged on top.”

“M-my Lord! You slew him?” The second asked, reminding me of the hopeful way Pinkie would ask if there would be snacks.

“No. But I forced him to retreat,” Dawn laughed proudly. “Unfortunately this meat was nearly destroyed in the process. It took me several days to get it working again. He’s grown powerful enough to use the Unmaker.”

“If only you could have killed him… Even with the portal closed it would be a great victory,” the third voice sighed.

“Were I not possessing this pony, I would have. Not even Doom can stand up to the Lord of Tartarus,” Dawn boasted in a way which made me snicker.

That was a boast which said ‘I got my plot kicked’.

“However, he still holds the Unmaker. Herilgroz, retrieve my currass from my palace. That should render his weapon useless. Without it, I would have killed him even with the restrictions on me at the moment,” Dawn ordered. “How are our forces? Can we attack Canterlot later today as planned?”

“Yes, My Lord. The troops are-”

My earpiece crackled again, the sound vanishing for a few seconds in a way which made me worry Alter had been spotted before her voice came through in a whisper.

“Dash, the big bad is still hurt! I can sense it passively, and my glasses show his ethereal form is wounded. He’s recovering quickly, but as it is right now, he’d be fighting with a ‘broken arm’. We should strike within the next four hours!” Alter urged.

I blinked. Hurt? “How is he hurt? Do you mean AJ’s injured? How badly?” I asked, tail swishing with worry.

“No! HE’S injured. The actual spirit within AJ is damaged. It’s healing, but the energy pattern is disrupted at the moment. We will not get a better chance than this, he’s down to roughly my power level but that won’t be the case in a few more hours,” Alter elaborated. “We strike now!”

I grinned as my heart filled with pure glee at the thought of destroying that monster at long last. But, Alter’s speech from a few days ago turned the heat down just a bit as I remembered the need to do this right.

“What about the plan? You were only near him for a few moments. Did you get enough information about what he’s afraid of?” I asked hopefully.

We HAD to stick to the plan.

“I did,” Alter whispered happily. “He’s afraid at the moment, I could detect it passively. This ‘Doom’ guy is favored by Dawn’s father, like, the dude will die and become a god damn Einherjar!”

I blinked. “Um, a what?”

“... Nevermind. Point is, he’s terrified that his father may have been watching Doom during their fight, and his dad could just annihilate him right now. There’s also a deeper, more primal fear which I can layer on. I even got a mental picture of what dad looks like. We can proceed,” Alter confirmed.

I nodded, the grin returning in full force. “Okay! And, could you tell how he’s controlling AJ, right?”

“Yes. It’s a standard possession, just more solidly bonded than typically possible. If we wear him down some, I can exorcise him,” she confirmed. “Are you in position? I’ll lure him out of the tent and then we can begin.”

“Yeah. I’m ready,” I said, relishing the rematch which was right at my hoof tips.

I’d almost completely kicked his ass while tired and hungry. I was full. I was awake, alert, and ready. Alter could distract, I could launch the beatdown to end all beat downs, all while getting firesupport. He was going DOWN!

“Starting distraction,” Alter whispered her voice deepening slightly as she switchiched to intoning a spell. “Ietdar moi eom draumr!”

I didn’t even need the binoculars to see the brilliant blaze of purple light erupt in front of the command tent. The arcane fire had to be fifty meters high! My pegasi eyes were more than enough to see the flames flow upwards as her illusion spell took shape, forming a twenty meter tall humanoid figure.

None of its features could be seen under a suit of armor which came right out of an old castle. The forearms, feet, and legs were covered completely in overlapping plates of once glorious armor which was battered, rusty, and stained to the point of looking like it was right on the point of being scrap metal. The tattered chainmail hauberk which covered the upper arms, chest, and the skirt which was now little more than scraps of chain, was equally battered and old, but not rusty due to being a shimmery greenish metal that was clearly not iron based.

The face and head was hidden behind a simple cylindrical bucket-like helmet with a gold t-shaped decorative piece covering the face, with a few holes for breathing through, and two simple slits. The outfit was completed with an old, ragged cape made from the preserved skin of an animal of some kind, with the fur still attached. The white fur cape was the only part of his armor which wasn’t stained, remaining gleaming white even at this dark hour.

A sword formed in the illusion’s left hand. The sword looked new. I’d never really liked swords, but this one… This one looked special. In a way a warrior would appreciate at least. A long icicle shaped blade, a simple cross guard, a black leather wrapped handle, with the only decoration being a red stone set in the pommel.

And the twinkling gleam of the blade which hinted at it being made of something special.

“DAWN!” The illusion bellowed with the voice of something incapable of backing down. “FACE ME!”

The entire camp froze in place, then in one instant, every last demon turned towards Alter’s illusion spell, drawing weapons or flexing their talons. Only to stop, freezing in place as if ordered to be a statue.

A heartbeat passed. Then a second one.

I flexed my wings, getting ready to dive bomb. I had to hit hard enough to deal some damage, but not too hard or I’d kill AJ with the impact… A tricky thing to judge but-

The tent flap drew back. Dawn stepped out, AJ’s missing legs still replaced with the shimmering red magical constructs. He looked amused.

“Nice try, but we don’t talk to one another in Equish, mage,” Dawn laughed. “How do you want to die? I don’t want to use that method.”

BUCK! No, wait! He was still distracted. Come on Dash, work out the angle of the dive and get the first hit in!

“I WILL NOT SULLY OUR TONGUE SPEAKING TO YOU!” Alter bellowed through the illusion. “YOU ARE TO COME WITH ME. THIS ENDS NOW!”

Dawn rolled AJ’s eyes. “Knowledge of the Old Religion to the point of knowing what dad looks like, coming to challenge me one on one, not realizing we have our own language… I’m guessing Luna,” Dawn laughed. “Let’s just peel back that illusion, shall we?”

AJ’s eyes glowed red. Alter’s illusion ripped apart, strips of lavender fire peeling back and flying away like wood siding in a hurricane.

NO! I had to go now, but I still hadn’t worked out exactly the right-

The illusion ripped away. Alter stood still on the ground where the illusion’s right foot had been. She’d shapeshifted.

The form she took was slightly taller than me if I reared up, at least, the portion of the body which was held upright. She’d become a slender faceless figure in a pale yellow tattered cloak which seemed to flow and meld with the writhing mass of tentacles which writhed on the ground beneath the fabric like a sea of squids.

I was pretty sure she’d used that shape for a Nightmare Night costume last year.

“KILL IT!” Dawn ordered, immediately surrounding himself with a blood-colored shield.

BUCK! I waited too long! But at least I could hit him hard as I wanted now.

I dove down, extending my forehooves, time seeming to freeze as I hit my top speed, slamming into the shield hard enough to hear it shatter beneath my hooves, immediately corkscrewing in order to fly back up and not hit him directly. With any luck, it would look like Alter had just willed his shield to explode.

“This place is mine. You should have gone home when I demanded it,” Alter intoned, using her telekinesis to glide forwards towards Dawn as if hovering just above the ground.

A trick which got me every time she used it since her telekinesis didn't’ make things glow like a unicorn’s did.

“Skölir garjzla!” Alter intoned, the light around her dimming, rapidly becoming a solid black orb.

I flinched. Wow, I forgot how good she was at scary!

“You’ll bring my dad down on us both, you Voidborn idiot!” Dawn shouted, rearing up to throw a barrage of crimson spears of light into the inky black void Alter had created. “A million souls to the fiend who kills it! We have minutes before it’s spotted!”

The demons rushed for the bubble, screaming gleefully as they packed into an impassable wall of flesh in their haste to try and kill Alter. Her tentacles lashed out from the darkness, smashing into anything which deared to get too close, coiling around each thing they hit before making them vanish into the darkness with a gurgle.

A pinprick of light formed within the globe of darkness as a lavender blade stabbed out towards Dawn in retaliation for his spears.

I twisted in the air, turning around and streaking back towards Dawn, one hoof extended to punch through the energy leg, racing as quickly as I could to strike just before the stab would connect.

I smashed into the magical prosthesis with a sound like a hammer beating crystal. Dawn flew backwards, slamming into the tent with a dull crunch, most of the magical limb dropping off and vanishing, leaving behind a jagged fractured stump.

Ah ha! The limbs were some kind of energy crystal! Which could be damaged! And since they were not a part of AJ, I could target them no problem.

Dawn snarled and stood back up, the limb slowly growing back as he stomped a rear leg down, causing the ground beneath Alter to erupt in a series of spikes!

Her darkness bubble kept up with the spikes, making me thing she’d been impaled for one horrifying moment before her telepathic voice entered my head. <Dash, I can’t fight a whole army and an Omega level mage for long… Hurry up.>

I knew what she meant. It was a little counter intuitive, but she wanted me to deal more damage per hit.

I turned around, waiting for another opening. Alter would provide them as quickly as she could… I knew she wanted to keep up the illusion that her strikes hit with stupendous force. If I just attacked out of the blue it would give the game away.

<Break those other limbs!> Alter ordered urgently. <They draw a ton of power and I can feel his injuries slowing down the regeneration! Forgetting that just because you can run one high power spell all the time doesn't mean you should. Classic tactical blunder of the super powerful.>

I watched as Alter slid forwards, moving the cloaked section of her body out of the globe of darkness, leaning just far enough of of the edge to be seen.

“This place is mine. Those who live here are mine. It has always been, it will always be,” she intoned, several tentacles snaking out of the darkness to drop the mangled, twitching bodies of a half dozen demons in front of Dawn.

At the same time, another thrusting rapier-like energy blade lanced out of the darkness, speeding towards Dawn on a lethal trajectory. Towards AJ on a lethal trajectory.

I dove, aiming for the hind legs, knowing I could shatter them easily now. The blade raced forwards even to my eyes while moving at my top speed. AJ WAS GOING TO DIE!

Love and hatred exploded from my chest. I grit my teeth, pushing myself as hard as I could, wings burning, joints scraping. The lavender needle's point sliced along AJ’s fur as I plowed into her, knocking her body upwards, the force of my shoulder’s impact breaking a few ribs as I threw her out of the path of the blade, the shot piercing a hole in my rear left leg instead.

I clenched my teeth to prevent myself from screaming in pain, hearing the explosive crack as the hardlight legs shattered as my other shoulder and side plowed into them, with only a little speed lost.

<You hit me!> I yelped, directing the thought at Alter.

<Fuck! I’m sorry! This form is very complex and fighting off these foot soldiers is taking a LOT of concentration. Are you dying?> She replied.

<No. I’ll live. The limbs are gone. Don’t fire again. I took the shot for AJ,> I explained, moving as far upwards as I dared, incase even more things went wrong.

I felt my injured leg hanging limply beneath me. Yeah… It was completely disabled. A vital muscle had been totally severed, for sure. I wasn’t going to be able to stand any time soon.

I looked down, and cringed at the fact that I could see the ground below through my leg. That was a cauterized bit sized hole.

This should hurt a LOT more… I’m in shock, aren't I?

“You falter, demon,” Alter mocked, leaning further out of her bubble. “I can sense your weakness.”

“This body is broken, true,” Dawn replied with a living glare. “But I’m more powerful than you’ll ever understand!”

“Power? You haven’t seen power. Come out of there and I will show you,” Alter baited.

… Wut?

T-that was her plan!?

THAT WOULD NEVER WORK IN A MILLION-

“Atra eka huildr du Vættir!” Alter intoned.

Oh! Duh! The spell she used back when we fought that guy who could turn intangible in order to touch him!

Her body shimmered lavender as magic coated her from head to toe, before she turned translucent, clearly density shifting. In the same instant, two tentacles came lashing out of the darkness, both of them plunging into AJ’s chest and out the other side.

I winced. I knew that it wouldn’t harm AJ, but that still looked gruesome beyond belief, and I knew that her passing through you felt like touching dry ice.

The tentacles coiled around AJ in opposite directions, then pulled. Sparks of red magic flared up as the two enchanted limbs pulled away from one another. The sparks grew brighter, more intense, until all I could see was a blazing red spot of plasma, like the tip of a welding torch.

Alter roared with effort, straining to pull as hard as possible until suddenly her limbs flew apart, AJ coiled in one, a jet black earth pony pony held tightly in the other! AJ screamed and immediately went limp, passing out. The black pony hung limply from her grip, conscious, alive, but seemingly ill.

“I… I but… You’re a mortal. I can feel you now… How?” The black stallion moaned.

“Fuck you, that’s how,” Alter grunted, smashing him into the ground with a savage whipcrack of her tentacle.

Dawn didn’t seem to be any more phased by the blow. But his eyes narrowed, burning a bright red as magic filled them.

“Ah… You’re her! The sister I banished from this world,” Dawn groaned. “I curse you. May the home you came to know be forever lost to you.”

Alter laughed. “Bitch, please! You think I can’t dispel a curse? This is my tenth one! Later,” she said, letting go of his injured form before vanishing in a flash of lavender light.

Good. AJ safe now. Mission successful! Now I could-

I screamed in pain as fire spread down my injured leg.

Oh. There it was. Don’t fall out of the sky… Make it to camp, don’t fall out of the sky, make it to camp….

I limped my way through the air as fast as I could with my leg on fire. I could feel myself fading in and out as my body finally started to react to the injury itself, the shock having worn off almost completely. I had to make it to camp… If I didn’t the demons would find me and I’d probably become Dawn’s new meat puppet.

Legs might not be vital to flying, but not being in burning pain definitely was a huge part of proper flight. I barely managed to make it to our camp in the clearing. Only spotting it thanks to the locator charm Lotus made for us making the camp glow bright white from the air to our eyes only.

I barely hit the clearing, plowing into the dirt roughly as my leg refused to hold and I stupidly tried to land rear hooves first as pain had me reverting back to rookie instincts.

“Ahh!” I hissed, a fresh wave of fire shooting through my leg as it slammed into the ground beneath me.

“Oh shit!” Alter exclaimed from behind me. “That's a way worse hit than you made it sound like! Let me tend to that.”

“AJ first,” I said as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. “I know her ribs broke.”

“I set them. That’s all I can do. I’m not a healer, I just know the one quick fix spell,” Alter said as she rushed over to me, apparently back in the pony form she invented.

“Wait… You can’t regrow her legs?” I asked dizzily.

“No, sorry,” she apologised.

“Buck,” I groaned. “I thought maybe your alien magic could do that… Now we need to go BACK to Ponyville.”

“What? Why!? We should get Applejack to a hospital immediately!” Lotus declared from out of view.

“Because Lily was in Ponyville, his clinic is still standing, and he’s the best doctor in Equestria,” I explained, reaching down to hold my leg with my forehooves to try and sooth the pain.

Lotus stepped into view from behind the tent, staring at me in shock. “Doctor Lily is a stallion?” She asked.

The pain got worse. I slumped over, the world fading into blackness as I passed out.

Jet Set’s town house, Canterlot - Equestria

23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Jet Set stood stooped over the eboney desk housed within his study. Normally the desk was left uncovered to show off the hoof carved zebrican platinum inlay set within the desktop, but at the moment it was covered in a small array of exceptionally expensive alchemy equipment.

Not that the gray furred stallion had yet done more than light his bunsen burner and begin to boil a pot of a herb so rare it was thought to be long since extinct. Even with his wealth, he could only afford to make this one single batch of concentrated bolstering oil. Without it, the poison would have no chance of working, and another method would have to be found.

Jet Set smiled happily to himself. The others had forced him to abandon his art while infiltrating the Equestrian nobility. Ironic, since his first three wives ‘tragic deaths’ had been how he’d built up his wealth to begin with.

A sudden flash of red light illuminated the room. Ears raising in panic, Jet Set immediately knocked the recipe book from his desk to conceal it.

“Ah! Oh now look at what you made me do! I’ve told everypony a million times not to teleport into my personal chambers!” He whined to cover up the intentional action with an air of ‘accident’.

Jet Set turned, his upset glare becoming a happy smile upon seeing the jet black red eyed stallion standing in his room. “Oh! My apologies, your Lordship. The poison will be ready in mere hours.”

“Jet Set,” Dawn said hoarsely. “There’s been an incident. I lost control of Applejack. I need a mortal body immediately. Celestia’s death can be postponed. I just need you until we can recapture one of the six.”

Jet Set’s smile deepened. “Sire, it would be my pleasure!”

19 - Check

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Lyra Heartstrings (Mirrior) - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Heart Spire Outskirts - Crystal Empire

Road trips are nice, but we all know that it’s the end of the road which matters. Three days of driving, random chitchat, and putting up with Faust and Rarity babbling back and forth about designing a super dress or some such nonsense. All while driving over some of the most samey landscapes ever. That’s all a road trip really was.

I mean, I knew that from the get go. They are fun, but it’s the destination at the end that’s important. The whole point behind coming here was finally within view.

The city of Heartspire, home to the Crystal Spire, where Sunset lived.

It was fucking awesome! The whole city and a good chunk of the surrounding area had blooming flowers, green grass, and towering trees. A fact which wouldn’t be remarkable if we hadn’t driven for the last day through sub zero arctic-like conditions, plowing through meter high snow drifts the entire way.

You can’t get much cooler than ‘City in a bubble of eternal spring’. Not without also making it totally out of crystal!

The huge towering walls around the city looked like a jagged formation of amethyst and rose quartz that just grew into a wall shape. The towering buildings behind the walls looked like inside out geode which, while roundish and kind of bulbous, still looked like intentional architectural choices. You could tell the glittering city which glowed beneath the sun wasn’t natural, but at the same time so much care had been put into making it feel natural that it transcended the concept of ‘constructed’.

I didn’t know of a word to describe that sort of naturally occurring man-made structure. Paradoxical came to mind.

The only clearly artificial building within the entire city was the huge spire within the center of the heart shaped wall. The white, diamond-like gemstone building reminded me of the Eiffel Tower, only with two smaller towers on either side of the central one. And flipping huge! Burj Khalifa huge!

My only complaint was I couldn’t properly see the building because of the pink shield dome which covered the entire city, tinting everything slightly off color. You kinda had to wonder why they had a physical wall when they could put a shield over the city.

I mean, the Enterprise didn’t have a robotic arm on it with a kite shield.

Of course, that shield was a bit more of a problem then ‘ruins the view’. As Rarity observed, you don’t raise the shields unless there’s a problem. Specifically an ‘external threat’ problem. And here we were. A dragon, a goddess disguised as a filly, a satyr, and me, a… Werepony?

What do I classify me as? Human form, pony form, hybrid form… Yeah, Werepony will do for now.

I’d also made a fairly interesting discovery. My full pony form was not a quadrupedal version of the anthro form, but instead a direct translation of my old self into a pony body. Minty green and white rather than black fur and hair, gold eyes. I liked it! Maybe one day I’d change out the anthro form to match...

At any rate, when we’d reached the gate, we’d ran into a major roadblock. Literally. The gates were covered in more shield, as well as big shimmery silver metal portcullises, complete with a group of soldiers guarding them.

The squad wasn’t about to just wave through quote ‘A group of unknown people with no ID in what I can only describe as an ugly-as-sin, alien carriage’. We weren't exactly going to just be waved through. At least I had the forethought to go full pony before we’d pulled up to the gate. Otherwise it could have been way worse.

As it was, the lime green pegasus mare who was in charge of this gate was not being remotely reasonable with us. I get that she had a job to do, but I’d produced a letter of invitation signed by a resident of the city! Did that do anything? Nope!

The sargent’s pink and white mock-crystal armor shimmered as she hovered at my truck’s window height.

“Right,” she said, ears laying back in annoyance. “I’m going to have to ask you to go now.”

“I’m telling you, we have an invitation!” I protested again, huffing with enough indignation to actually snort like a horse.

The sargent rolled her eyes, her wings flapping faster seemingly in irritation. “Oh yeah, a letter without any seal, written in faded ink showing it to be YEARS old, signed by a pony with a super common name. That’s soooo and official invitation,” she mocked.

A common name?!

“Oh come on!” I exploded, ears laying back. “I really am friends with Princess Cadence’s Chambermaid!”

“Um, Sage,” a glossy white pony which I swore was ether covered in body glitter or made of crystal said loudly. “That’s Si-”

“Don’t interrupt, Pearl,” The Sargent rebuked, tail twitching as her head snapped back to face me. Now, ma’am, maybe you are, but a letter signed with half a name, which lacks any kind of seal, and is either very old or weather damaged, is NOT a credible source of information. You don’t even have an ID I could show her to confirm whether or not Sunset knows you. I have no reason to believe you.”

“What’s that matter?” Rarity asked, masking her own irritation with a polite calmness as she, leaned down slightly to try and look into the sergeant's eyes. “I could see you being this firm on keeping us out of the palace itself, but this is a city, is it not? Surely there is no real reason to keep us out of the city.”

The Sergeant nodded to herself slowly. “Okay, tell you what, since you’re more polite than your friend, I’ll give you an honest answer,” she decided. “Let’s say this was a normal day. A pony and a dragon come to the gates with a third adultish looking person of an unknown species, and they are traveling with a filly.

“Only two of you would be allowed in, and one would HAVE to remain outside with your filly. Heart Spire is a city for adults, not families. This is a specifically tailored community, and it’s the only one of its kind in Equestria or any of its territories. As such, if you all wanted to enter the city, you still couldn’t get through this gate. The foal friendly district is only accessible through the eastern gate.”

“Oh! So we just need to drive around to the other side?” I asked with an exacerbated sigh.

Why the fuck didn’t she just say so five minutes ago!?

“For the record, I’m not a filly,” Faust said from her position on the dashboard. “This is a form I assumed.”

“Sarge, you should really ask for her name,” the crystal pony from before insisted, gesturing to me with one hoof.

My name? But why?

The Sergeant facehooved. “Not now, Pearl! Okay, so, changeling, no offence ment to your lifestyle, but if by some stroke of luck you do get inside today, you’ll need to return to your natural form, go to any law enforcement office, and get an ID charm so you’re not mistaken for an actual filly before you can return to that shape. It’s fine if you prefer a younger form, but we can’t have guards thinking some filly is running around what’s essentially a city wide red light district…

“As for you, miss super impatient-”

“SARGE! You’re talking to Sir Lyra Heartstrings!” Pearl snapped.

“Maybe I am, but I doubt it, because if she was, and was missing her ID she’d still understand that she’d need to present some form of identification because, and this is the part which proves she’s NOT Princess Luna’s agent, SHE WOULD KNOW THAT ALL CITIES ARE UNDER LOCKDOWN BECAUSE WE ARE AT WAR!” The Sargent exploded, her own frustration finally reaching critical mass.

War? Well Fuck. Okay, yeah. That would complicate things. But on the other hand-

“When the heck did war happen!?” Pinkie exclaimed in shock, asking the question for me.

“Three days ago,” The Sergeant snapped. “Frankly, I should have had my ponies open fire on you long before now, but you seem more like ignorant travelers than spies. So again, you need to turn around and go back to your city of origin. I’m assuming that’s a changeling hive someplace.

“Oh, and by the way, impersonating a noble without their permission is a jailable offence during peacetime. I’m going to assume that Sir Heartstrings licensed her image to you through the proper channels. But thing is, with a war on, you could be shot as a spy for using that body! I recommend you stop looking like a national hero. Right now!”

OHHHHH FUCK! I didn’t even think about that! I hadn’t even remembered that Sunset’s letter mentioned this world’s version of me was a military member.

“She’s not a changeling, that’s how she looks normally,” Pinkie said, vouching for me.

“That’s unfortunate. Dye your main, or something,” the Sergeant said, reaching up to rub her temples despite the fact that her greek-ish helmet covered them. “Look, you need to leave. You should be let back into your own city. If you had ID, we’d still have to turn you away because Equestria and her territories, protectorates, and colonies are under full wartime laws.

“Civilian travel is currently prohibited. You’d need your ID and a sealed letter from a government agent explaining why you were coming in order to be let in. This policy is to prevent espionage, as well as make infiltration by commandos more difficult. There can be NO exceptions.

“You were on the road when war was declared. Your home city should let you back in, if ponies there there can vouch for your identities. But you are NOT getting into this city, the home of one of the Princesses, with no ID, no orders to come here, during wartime. Understand?”

I sighed, sitting back in my seat, then nodding slowly.

“Yeah, I understand. I guess we’ll have to go back to Ponyville,” I said to myself.

“Oh,” The Sergeant said, wincing immediately.

Along with every other pony in the squad.

“Uh… About that… Ponyville’s been hit. First spot of the war. It’s been wiped out,” the Sergeant said with more empathy than I’d heard anyone ever use in my life. “I um… Pearl! Go see if we can take in refugees.”

Before I could explain that was simply where we had last been and not our home, Faust closed her eyes and took a single long breath.

“This is dumb. Very dumb. Girls, may I please resolve this dispute so we can get on with things?” Faust asked, looking at the three of us.

“Please!” I replied.

Faust nodded and stood up, simply passing through the windshield as it it went there.

“Hello,” she said, addressing the soldiers calmly while they raised their weapons in response to her, you know, phasing through solid matter.

For a second, I worried they would shoot. I figured the truck could take magic just fine, but those crossbows looked like they had real bolts… And also magazines. Implying they fired at rifle speeds. One of those could definitely go right through the windshield and hit me!

Faust’s body transformed into bright gold light, resolving in a heartbeat into a towering alicorn, her appearance kept the same in terms of general shapes and colors, but with every last detail emphasized in such a way as to make her the single most elegant thing you'd ever set eyes on.

“I am Deus-Architectus Faust Vitae,” Faust said, allowing her gold aura to shimmer brightly. “You may remember me from the last time you swore, stained glass windows in ancient temples, or that one role playing game where for some reason my NPC is romanceable.

“I understand what kind of city this is, and I do not disapprove. You should be free to do as you desire. As proof of my divinity, please accept this gift and also my apologies for having read your minds. I can see each of your greatest fantasies, and I have ensured you will experience them with none of the negative side effects they would impart.

“Yes, Pearl, even you. I mention you specifically because your particular desire intrigues me. Please find a shrine to me later and use it so we can talk. Those of you who wished for physical alterations, please check your person so you can confirm that I have done something.”

The soldiers stood still, staring at Faust in honest shock for several long moments.

“Please?” Faust asked hopefully.

“Uh… I um… Mares, did you experience anything? Because uh… I can’t check if I can… You know. Cuz I’m on duty,” the Sergeant asked, blushing a bright red.

The soldiers awkwardly talked amongst themselves for a few minutes, clearly nopony there wanting to do anything like that sort in front of a goddess. I had to agree with them. Seeing her like that, here simple appearance making you feel what she actually was… It was something special. Something you shouldn’t sully.

The crystal pony, Pearl, took a few steps backwards, then ran into a guard post, vanishing from sight for a moment before leaning her head out, grinning from ear to ear. “Yep! She did the thing!” The mare called excitedly. “Thank you, ma’am! Uh… W-what do you call, um, well, you?”

“My name. There’s no need for silly titles,” Faust answered with a kind smile.

The Sergeant cleared her throat. “Well! I um… I uh, I still can’t let you in. Because… Orders. I, c-could you please not smite me? Couldn’t you just ignore the shield, or something?”

“I could simply pass through your shield, yes,” Faust agreed. “However, these girls kindly showed me where this city is, and they have friends here they wish to see. I would like them to have their visit. It’s only fair after the help they have given me. Would it be alright if I spoke to your manager? Or whichever of your department’s executives possess the authority to authorise their entry?”

The Sergeant nodded rapidly. “I um, yes! I- I’ll just go get her,” she exclaimed tapping her hooves together nervously. “You’ll wait here, right? N-no funny buisness? I mean,the rumor is we’re at war with actual demons so um… Yeah… I want to believe this is not a trick, I really do, but-”

Faust smiled and shook her head. “You’re so beautiful. My husband would love you. You have my word we won't cause any trouble, and I apologize for not introducing myself first. I thought my friends wouldn’t be hindered entering the city.”

The Sergeant nodded and flew off, neglecting giving her troops any orders as she flew up over the wall, passing through the shield with a cool water-ripple effect as she slid through the pink bubble.

As she vanished, Faust laid down on my truck’s hood, shimmying until she found the spot she had claimed to be super comfortable. I was about to ask her why she didn’t do that sooner when her face contorted slightly, concord flashing across her eyes for just a second as she turned and leaned her head through the windshield to quietly address Rarity.

“It may be inappropriate of me to tell someone else this,” Faust began apprehensively. “But it’s for her sake. Rarity, you know the younger guard pony, Pearl? She rather fancies dragons. I had to resort to her second greatest fantasy as I will not force a sapient being to do something. She seems to be rather sweet, and I feel bad that I couldn’t fulfill her personal dream. Would you mind taking her out on a date, Rarity? I think you two could work well together, given what I’ve seen of both your minds.”

I blinked in confusion. “Um, but Rares is straight,” I protested, holding up one finger in confusion.

Rarity cleared her throat, her wings shuffling a little nervously. “I um… I sort of asked Faust if she could change that,” she said awkwardly. “I figured that w-well you know, orientation is a thing which you can’t change. If I suddenly liked other things, that would be very good proof of her power and well… Yeah.”

Pinkie and I stared at her in surprise for several seconds.

“So, you like girls now?” Pinkie asked with a confused frown.

“No. I asked to like everything. Not just any sexes which exist, but also all sapient species. I um- I was also worried that I wouldn’t find any stallion attractive because of the species differences. I- Um, well, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to state that previously I was attracted exclusively to human males. Which meant that I’d likely have lived my entire life here alone, single, unable to find anyone to love. Then I worried that because we can’t expect behavioral psychology to be consistent across species I’d be more compatible with a mare in terms of personality and behavior and, well, the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone arrose.

“It’s complicated, okay? I-I’m making a new identity for myself here entirely. All I wanted to do was further solidify this, turning point,” she admitted with a strained smile. “Um, anyways, yes, Faust. I guess I could ask her out. I do like how she looks like she’s made of living crystal.”

“Excellent!” Faust said happily, conjuring a piece of paper in her hoof and extending it to Rarity. “Contact information.”

I sat back in my seat, doing my best to think clearly. Rarity actually had brought up a good point. I had expected to just settle in here. What if I couldn’t? Lots of things WOULD be different, and while I thought that was a good thing. Was it?

Was I being some kind of idealist? In a bad way I mean. Maybe I should think about-

A flash of cyan light caught my attention as a blue cloaked pony teleported in front of the truck, their cloak fluttering literally like something out of an anime. The motions looped and rippled in a smooth pattern which definitely meant the cloak had to be animated by magic, and made me immediately want one. Especially since the hood did that cool face-hiding thing, and went well with the pastel purple and pearl colored fur and hair I could see beneath it.

In general if it went well with blues, it went well with greens.

Faust stood back up as the mage appeared and seemed to analize her for a moment.

“Hello, can you make the necessary decisions to allow my friends entry?” She asked immediately.

“No. I’m just checking for traps,” the mage said in a super familiar female voice. “Can you prove your identity again? I hate to ask but we need more than the word of a single guard before letting an entity of Discord’s power into the city at the moment. Especially since if you wanted to be inside and could do so yourself, you would be inside.”

Faust rolled her eyes and vanished without any flair at all, jump cutting herself behind the shield and waving at us from behind the gatehouse. “I can get inside just fine,” Faust called loudly enough for everyone to hear.

The blue cloaked mage turned, spotting her behind the shield just before Faust returned to the hood of my truck to continue speaking. “Your shield is no obstacle to me. I could easily transport myself and my friends inside. But, your guards would object to that and while your weapons could not harm me, they could be injured. Hence, the need to ask permission.

“I assure you, I’m no threat. If I wanted this city gone, now that I know where it is, I could simply scatter its atoms to the winds. I don’t. Far from it in fact. Discord is my relative, he’s been disabled by the forces attacking your nation. I wish to help and I require access to the artifact known as the Crystal Heart. I don’t even need to take it, I merely need to touch it.”

The mage nodded to herself. “Okay, I did just see you teleport without the use of magic. That’s fairly impressive, but I’ve personally used aura masking artifacts which could produce similar effects,” she countered. “On the other hoof, I don’t know of anyone other than Discord who would come riding up on the hood of an 89 Toyota.”

Faust blushed lightly. “Have you ever tried laying on one of these? It’s exceptionally comfortable!” She admitted bashfully.

“No, I never owned that model,” she replied shaking her head. “Could you do something? Not what you did for our Sargent. Something simple. Say… Conjure one cubic decimeter of Osmium two-two-two?”

Faust shook her head. “No, I couldn’t. Because that’s not an isotope of Osmium. That many additional neutrons would be impossible to bind into the center of the nucleus due to insufficient protons. In order to make it, I would need to add protons, which would make the material into a different element.

“I may be what you would consider a deity, but this universe MUST operate under its established rules. I can add new rules so long as they do not conflict with existing rules, but I can’t break the rules.”

The mage nodded twice. “Good answer. I can believe that. Can you create a stable quantity of normal Osmium from nothing?”

Faust nodded and dipped her horn, a pale gold aura shining as a large cube of silvery gray metal appeared at the mage’s forehooves. “There you are. Can you actually verify what it is?” Faust asked hopefully.

The mage’s horn lit up for a few seconds before she nodded in satisfaction and dismissed her spell. “Well, that’s Osmium. Which is too atomically dense to create with conjuration magic. So you ARE using something beyond the scope of ponykind. Another point in your favor. Let me check one last thing. If it’s correct, I’ll vouch for you.”

Faust nodded politely, and the mage trotted up to the driver side window, rearing up to look inside, staring critically at my face for a few moments.

“Uh… Hi?” I asked slowly.

“Mister Constant’s third period math class always put you to sleep,” the mage said matter of factly.

I blinked. “How the fuck do you kn-” I stopped talking as my own brain slapped me with the obvious fact, my eyes instant lighting up with surprise. “Sunset! Oh thank god! You’re the Princess’s assistant, right? You can totally let us in. I um, I know there’s a war on now but we could still get lunch and catch up or something, right?”

Sunset shook her head. Now that I’d realized who she was, I could see that her eyes were the same. I can’t believe I’d forgotten that she’d used illusion spells all the time! I’d been looking for a red and yellow maned pony. Like a dumbass!

Rarity leaned down to look out the window the moment I identified Sunset, flashing her a toothy smile. “Good to see you, darling! I’m a dragon at the moment. Probably not what you were expecting.”

Sunset shook her head slowly then laughed. “I expected you three years ago. And as full ponies. I can talk to you for a little while in just a minute. I’m afraid I’m busy right now,” she said turning back to face Faust. “Well, I’ve got this cloak pin which protects me from mind reading spells. You couldn’t have just pulled their personalities from my brain to go with an illusion. I’ve certainly had a few weirder days than this. I’ll be back in just one minute.”

Sunset shimmered, her magic flaring brightly as she teleported away again, instantly making me jealous that I couldn’t do that myself. I was SO going to learn how to do that!

“She seems rather bright,” Faust mused to herself, sitting down on my truck’s hood.

“Sun’s always been a genius,” Rarity replied. “You know, if she lets you read her mind, I’ve always wanted to know if she just has a really good memory or if it’s actually photographic like she says it is.”

“I’ll be certain to let you know if she does allow me to-” Faust answered, stopping as three separate bursts of magic announced the arrival of three more lucky bastards who could teleport.

Sunset was back, naturally, along with a tall pink alicorn, who I knew from Lemon’s letters was Princess Cadence. I’d sort of expected the third to be her husband, but instead it was a random pony clad from nose to tail in pink and white painted plate armor which had a sadly modern techy look to it.

Disappointing, given the cool fantasy-medieval city aesthetic.

I expected Princess Cadence to ask questions, confirm Faust’s identity for herself. Instead, the moment she saw her, the Princess's ears perked, and she smiled as if seeing an old friend. “I never expected to see a heart like yours, much less that I could read anything from an entity I can tell isn’t anything like myself,” Cadence said dipping her head politely. “Welcome to my city, I-I’m afraid that if the legends surrounding you are true, that you will not like my city or my family very much. But if you need access to anything here, you may have it… So long as you won't punish anypony for being who they are.”

Faust blinked, genuine offense pulling her lips into a steep frown. “What exactly do those legends say?”

Cadence cleared her throat. “Well, for starters, they say you only approve of monogamous relationships and-”

“Until a few days ago, I didn’t think your species was any more intelligent than any other animals on any other planet in the universe,” Faust grumbled. “Why would I care how many mates you took? That opinion isn’t changing now that I know you’re as sapient as we are… S-sorry for assuming that, by the way. Um, you see, when you’re job is creating cosmic scale objects focusing on the itty bitty things on those objects isn’t something you really do much…”

The armored pony cleared their throat. “How couldn’t you tell? Look at everything we’ve built in this one city over here,” he insisted.

“Lots of mortal creatures construct homes, tools, and change their environment,” Faust objected. “Bees make hives, ant colonies can be remarkably intricate and elaborate, beavers dam rivers, most ape species will fashion tools from sticks, birds nests can be exceptionally elaborate and… And I should stop defending myself.

“I made a grave mistake. I did not properly safeguard your kind because I failed to correctly understand you eons ago. I’m here to begin to make amends for that. I’d like to start by offering each of you a personalized gift as an apology, and after I check on what I came here to see, I can see about getting my husband to take care of this little war you’re having. He might enjoy a quick break.”

“What are you here to do, exactly?” Cadence asked curiously. “And what do you mean by a personalized gift?”

“I mean I can give you something you desire. A lesser wish of sorts,” Faust elaborated. “Like what I did for your gate guards. I intend to do the same for as many as possible until I can repair much of the damage done to your kind… The overseer I created for you is… Well, best case he’s incompetent and will be given a different position. Very few of his decisions make any sense now that I’ve checked in… Blame that one on me. I assumed that I’d created the right tool for the job.”

Cadence nodded to herself. “I see… You’re exceptionally upset about this. I imagine I would be too. Normally I’d offer anyone comfort and help working through their problems, but I’m afraid I do not have too much time. The enemy is marching on Canterlot as we speak. I should be teleporting there now to aid in the defense. What do you need here, do you need my help to get it?”

Faust laughed. “Sorry! I- I’ve never made a mistake this bad before,” she explained nervously. “All I need to do here is ensure my friends get to visit their old friend, Sunset, the mare to your left. I didn’t know where this city was, and they brought me here.

“As for what I need from your city, I need to use the Crystal Heart. It’s an artifact I made a long time ago. I won't harm it, nor take it from you. I gave it away freely as a gift. However, it will allow me to locate the person responsible for the death of my daughter Dusk and-”

Faust stopped talking immediately, her eyes widening in sudden realization. “There’s a war on… And there’s no Death at the moment. Oh sweet, bucking Order the entire soul system is going to get completely backed up!”

“And this is bad because… Why?” Cadence asked worriedly. “Pretend I know nothing about you, your kind, or what you do.”

“It’s not your concern. It’s just my job as the department head for the third dimension. This is bad. I have to fix this, as soon as possible! I thought I’d have more time to finish grieving and find a proper replacement for Death but-” Faust stopped talking, and rubbed her head with her hooves wearily. “I need to finish here quickly so I can get to work. Would you please lead me to the heart?”

Cadence nodded. “Yes. I can do that. I’ll also house your friends here for a while. If I teleport, can you follow me?” She asked hopefully.

Faust nodded. “Easily, yes.”

“Good! I’m sorry, but I really am pressed for time. This is a bit personal. Last time Canterlot was attacked I had to sit most of it out, and Luna is MIA…” Cadence said wearily as she looked over towards the group of guards ponies, scanning over them until her eyes fell on the crystal pony. “Pearl! Would you please escort these three to the palace and get them some guest rooms near each other? I’m assigning you to them as a personal guard. Feel free to pick three others to help you as well.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Pearl exclaimed happily, snapping a salute a little too hard and smacking herself in the eye. “Ow…”

I winced sympathetically, missing Cadence’s motion as she turned towards us thanks to trying to work out how a pony made of crystal would be hurt by impact.

“As for you three, welcome to Heart Spire, you’re currently staying as my guests because I don't have time to file any sort of paperwork. As such, I’m afraid you’ll be limited to the palace,” Princess Cadence said to the three of us. “You will have an escort. Please do not stray from Pearl’s sight. You’re not under arrest, it’s just that I’d rather someone keeps an eye on you until I can be certain you’ll fit in well in my city. Please don’t take offense, everyone living here may as well be my family and their comfort is of my utmost concern.

“That said, please, enjoy your stay. And assuming you’re the friends Sunset talks about from time to time, after this war we’ll see about getting you homes here if you like… I-I’m afraid that with Ponyville gone, your only way home is gone as well. I’m also afraid that I can't stay any longer. Have as nice of a day as you can.

“As for you, your worship-”

“Please, just call me Faust,” Faust pleaded.

Cadence nodded politely. “In that case, Faust, please follow me,” Cadence said, vanishing in a flash of light.

Faust simply vanished. Teleporting away with her usual no-frills jumpcut.

Sunset quickly trotted over to the truck window and gave the three of us an apologetic frown. “I- I’m sorry you showed up now. I won't be able to be with you guys for a while. At least until after Canterlot is safe. With Luna missing, well… I’m kind of needed there. For reasons.

“I promise I’ll visit you the moment I get back. In the meantime, the palace baker, Moon Dust, she’s my marefriend. If you want to talk to somepony she knows who you three are. Just go say hello! I um… I’ll see you all as soon as I can. Bye.”

With that, Sunset vanished in a flash of cyan light. I’d come all this way to actually hang out with her and hadn’t even gotten in more than a sentence. Man I felt fucking cheated!

But hey, at least I’d be sleeping in a palace tonight. That beat the heck out of a grassy field.

Heart Spire - Crystal Empire

23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Princess Cadence appeared in the courtyard beneath the Crystal Spire in a flash of light, immediately joined by the slightly taller Faust who arrived with her usual lack of flair. The Alicorn and the goddess shared remarkably similar expressions as they arrived. Each one focused on the task which lay ahead with the utmost seriousness.

The crystal heart floated in its shrine beneath the soaring arches of the Crystal Spire, eternally revolving around it’s own axis, suspended between the stalagmite and stalactite-like crystals which formed the Spire’s central pillar.

“There it is… Do you mind if I stay and watch? If only to make sure everything is okay?” Cadence asked, a little voice in the back of her mind demanding she be absolutely certain the goddess meant her ponies no harm.

Faust nodded and trotted up to the floating heart. “Of course,” she said as she stopped just in front of the heart. “It won't take long. I only need to touch it, and use it’s power to pierce through a protective perception filter.”

Cadence nodded. “Alright.”

Faust raised her left hoof. The crystal stopped spinning, immediately rotating backwards to present a flat side for her to press her hoof against. Faust extended her left hoof and pressed it against the side the crystal had presented. A bright white light immediately began to shine from within the Crystal Heart , the rays scattering aimlessly for several moments before resolving into a flat image hovering just above the crystal for all to see.

An image of a massive army of foul creatures marching upon Canterlot. The image flickered, zooming in on a stallion being carried on a litter by six large daemons. The stallion appeared at first to be gray, and rather ordinary looking but a confused humm from Faust, along with a quick pulse of energy from her horn and the stallion faded away, revealing another stallion where he had been. This one a jet black earth pony, with blazing red eyes.

“I didn’t want to believe it…” Faust said morosely. “But there he is. Manipulating an army of creatures to kill the mortals I created him to safeguard…”

“Wait, the enemy's commander is a GOD!?” Cadence asked, ears standing up in alarm.

Faust nodded. “Yes. But he’s the weakest one of us. So long as he doesn't come into physical contact with any of you, he can’t use his unique powers on you. I imagine a few Alicorns could hold him off for a while too.”

“Are you going to help us? You could fight him, couldn't you?” Cadence asked worriedly, her tail swishing fearfully behind her.

Faust nodded. “I can. I possess the power to take his divinity from him. Our kind refers to this as ‘deconstruction’, it would render him a mere mortal. Which I could then vaporize.”

“Are you doing that now?” Cadence asked hopefully, her ears perking.

Faust paused, considering that option. She twisted her hoof, the image twisting with it. Flashing rapidly through a thousand different images, presenting a full history of Dawn’s activities over the last age.

Faust closed her eyes, doing her best not to cry as she took in this new information, and shook her head. “No. Not now. I may not know mortals very well, nor have I known the full truth of Dawn until now… But I do know a little of how he thinks. Attacking him now would be a bad idea.

“Assuming he’s this much of a monster. Well, it’s likely that his fear of being destroyed is why he’s using this army rather than just willing the city to burn.

“In other words, he’s using a means we wont notice to torment you. He WILL feel it if I start to deconstruct him, and it takes several seconds for me to accomplish the feat. He would most definitely use the last moment of power he had to annihilate as much life as he possibly could. Which could potentially be everything on this planet.”

“Is there anything you can do to help? Put some sort of super protection on Canterlot? Make all ponykind invulnerable for a year so he can't hurt anypony?” Cadence asked, doing her best to quickly think of options.

Faust laughed darkly, letting the Crystal’s image vanish as her hoof slid down to touch the ground, her head hanging in shame. “Oh no, you misunderstand. Dawn is a monster and needs to go down. I created pure evil, I will atone for this. You have my word.

“The Crystal showed me that Dawn exchanged some of his power for greater free will long ago. Mortals CAN hurt him. Here is the plan; You go to Canterlot, and do your best to do as much damage to him as you possibly can. The more power he has to use, and the more injured he is, the less energy he will have for any sort of retaliatory strike when I take action.

“Meanwhile, I’ll be collecting the most powerful warriors on your planet and delivering them directly to your side. We’ll throw everything mortal kind can offer at him, and when he’s been worn down to the point of exhaustion, then I’ll come in and correct my mistake.”

Cadence paused, thinking the plan over for a moment then shook her head. “I don't like it. We can't use the people of Canterlot as bait. They’ve done nothing to deserve that,” she objected.

“You don’t think you can defend the city for an hour or two while I fetch reinforcements?” Faust asked in surprise. “That’s almost less than no time!”

“Against an army of demons led by an evil god? No,” Cadence admitted honestly.

“Well… Is there any other nation on this planet who would help you?” Faust asked, biting her lip in thought. “Perhaps they wouldn’t mind safeguarding the people living in Canterlot, or sending soldiers to help. I’d be willing to move them for you due to the need to be quick.”

Cadence’s eyes lit up. “Prance!”

“Beg pardon?” Faust asked, tilting her head.

“How about this, you move the people of Canterlot to the family district of my city, and then go to Prance, and tell Emperor Prance that Cadie really needs his help, show that army, and help him get soldiers here. Then we will likely be able to hold out long enough to wear him down… Assuming we really could do it in a few hours like you said,” Cadence proposed.

Faust nodded. “I like this plan! But there’s a problem with it,” she admitted, giving Cadence a sheepish grin.

“What? You can’t teleport a whole city someplace else?” Cadence asked. “Could you do it in groups?”

Faust shook her head and blushed with embarrassment. “No, it’s much simpler than that… I don’t know what part of this planet you refer to when you say ‘Prance’. It’s why I couldn’t just teleport straight here. I don’t know what your places are named… Heh heh.”

Cadence bit her lip to keep herself from laughing, then reached into her breastplate to pull out her messenger gem, and activated it. “Celestia: Celestia, it’s Cadence. I’ll be a bit late. I’ve found a way to get reinforcements and evacuate the civilians,” Cadence announced.

“You have? Excellent! Which Guard Regiment is on the way? Will they make it in time?” Celestia's stressed voice asked immediately.

“Actually, I’ve got a way to get Prance involved. Be ready to accommodate Emperor Prance and whatever number of Knights he chooses to bring. Cadence out,” Cadence announced cheerfully before turning to Faust once more. “Alright, Miss Faust. We’re going to go to my war room, and I’m going to show you a map.”

“Thank you,” Faust said, eyes narrowing with anger. “Let's go stop the monster I created.”

20 - Lineage

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Twilight - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace Gardens - Equestria

The first thing I felt on the other side of the moongate was my face smacking into the ground.

Again. It happened again. Why? Why couldn’t this stupid thing include some quality of life enhancements? Why did it force your motor-cortex to change lanes without signaling?

I sighed and pushed myself up onto all fours. It was good to be a pony again! I never really cared for transformation magic, at least, not when used on me.

As soon as I could stand, I turned around to check on everypony else. The collective groans revealed they had suffered a similar fate to me before I even finished turning. Sure enough, all seven of them had immediately tripped after crossing through the portal too. Fortunately, nopony looked like they had smashed their face in on the stone pathway…

Wait a minute… Hadn’t the portal been in the central flower bed? Why were we in the center of the fountain plaza now?

Shaking that oddness off as merely ‘the primitive portal is primitive’ I cleared my throat. “Sorry everypony! Is anyone hurt?” I asked in concern.

“I’ll need a body cast,” Chrysalis moaned as she lay face down on the stones, her shape changed from having translated into a pony body successfully.

My ears raised in alarm at her words. How badly had she been hurt? It’s possible to fall a very short distance but still break a horn or fracture a skull. Was her disguise a unicorn pony, or-

“For my pride,” Chrysalis added a half second later as she sat up, immediately inspecting her ponified disguise.

“Is anyone ACTUALLY hurt?” I asked with an irritated narrowing of my eyes.

“Megan is,” Pine reminded. “Also, I’m a pony. Am I supposed to be a pony?”

I looked over at the old man, smiling as I saw that my theory had been correct! His pale red furred pegasus form looked to be about two hundred and twenty years old. Roughly equivalent to his advanced age as a human, but with a few decades left before his body started to wear out. A return to his prime!

And what a prime that was! He had to have a little Earth Pony in his bloodline, because no pegasus I’d ever seen had been that toned… Except for Dash that one time I’d pranked her with a spell of muscle growth.

Heh!

“Well, yes. Because you are one now,” I explained rather poorly.

Pine gave me a deadpan stare, then slowly clapped his hooves which conveyed more sarcasm than any words ever could.

Sunset sat up and shook her mane out of her eyes. “As far as anypony ever discovered, an inherent property of portal spells is transforming you into an appropriate species for whatever is on the other side. You’re ‘translated’ into what you would be if you had been born here, Mister Williams,” Sunset clarified. “Evidently, you’re a pegasus.”

“Pegasus?” Pine asked twisting to look at his back in surprise then giving his wings an intrigued twitch. “Are these for show?”

“No, pegasi can fly. If you’re here long enough, I’ll have one of my friends show you how. She’s an excellent teacher,” I promised as I continued to look over our group and-

“Why is the sky pink?” Nova asked as he looked upwards.

Pink?

I tilted my head back, immediately seeing the sky completely covered by the unmistakable pink of my brother’s Siege Shield.

“Oh no…” I whispered in horror as my ears fell and my eyes widened.

We had been too late. The disaster had already struck. I had to get Megan to Lily right away so we could salvage whatever remain-

The garden lit up as if a bolt of lightning struck the ground behind me. The triple crack of multiple entities teleporting made the fur on the back of my neck stand upright. I wheeled around to defend everyone, horn blazing as I readied my best shield spell, only to immediately fizzle out as I came face to face with Celestia, Cadence, and Cadence’s bodyguard, all three of whom were fully engulfed in blazing arcane auras, each ready to unleash a maelstrom of destruction.

Celestia, was clad hoof to ear tip in bright gold armor unlike anything I ever thought I’d see her in. I think her armor was properly called half plate, as the thick slab-like sculpted plates didn’t cover her seamlessly, but instead covered each vital area of her body, and bore embossed designs of sun and solar flare imagery. The armor also included an undersuit which looked and moved like cooling lava. The only way I could tell that this was Celestia was her ethereal mane and tail poking through the golden plates.

Cadence was also armored, but I’d seen her in her ‘kit’ plenty of times. Her pink and white crystal-like barrel plate crackled, hundreds of pale blue sparks dancing across its surface, showing the protective enchantments to be overcharged. The most surprising thing about Cadence’s ‘outfit’ to me had to be the fact that she was wielding her rapier. I knew she’d retired the use of that silver sword because she felt fighting with it had become too easy. The fact that she’d chosen to use it now…

While seeing Celestia dressed for battle definitely shook me the most, I still was a bit intrigued by Cadence’s bodyguard’s appearance. Sunset Breeze was known to change her appearance frequently, using body suit illusions for fun and as a prosthetic. I knew she had been burned, but I’d never seen beneath her illusion before. Apparently her injuries had been very bad, as she wore a full body leather jumpsuit, in layed with arcane hardening enchantments in a fine brass wire, concealed her lack of a tail with a billowing cloak, and hid her face behind a porcelain opera mask.

Her eyes were cyan. That’s all I could see of her. I’d have been more intrigued, but again, Celestia, my mentor, was staring me down, while dressed in armor I was absolutely certain had been scratched and scuffed in battle, not by dropping it down the stairs one time by accident.

“Thank the stars!” Celestia exclaimed as she lifted her visor, acting before I could, intimidated by her armor as I was. “Everypony, stand down! Twilight, you’re just in time! The enemy is only beginning to fortify their position. The siege hasn’t gone hot yet… Who are all of these people? Which one is Megan?”

I blinked. She didn’t know? “H-How don’t you know?” I asked as I realized I hadn’t looked at Megan myself.

“Because she’d turned herself back into a human by the time I met her. Only Clover knew what her pony form looked like,” Celestia answered casting her eyes over my little group of refugees, and settling on Chrysalis. “Megan?” She asked hopefully.

Chrys smiled and shook her head. “Nah… I um… I’m Chrys, you might know me as the exact opposite, morally speaking,version of a certain child eating asshole who may or may not be my counterpart here… Does she have a grave? Portals tend to make me have to pee.”

Celestia’s brow raised in stunned confusion. “Who?” She asked, turning to me desperately.

I smiled awkwardly, and scratched the back of my head with a hoof. “Uh… That’s Chrysalis,” I answered.

“Why?” Celestia asked, eyes narrowing angrily.

“Hey! I’m not the psycho the me native to this world was,” Chrys objected. “In fact, if you’d told me about her before she died, I’d have found my way here to help kick her ass! I saw her on Sunset’s scrying monitor, eating a goddamn child till it died from a full drain. That’s the exact antithesis of okay. I’m not that monster, I’m just a bug whose people are all but extinct who needs a new home.

“I um… I’m also sterile. So you don’t gotta worry about me starting a hive and causing problems. Honestly I just want a nice mare or stallion to bone and some evil things to exterminate. I’m a simple person.”

Cadence nodded to herself. “She’s good at heart, Tia,” Cadence said firmly before nodding her head towards the southern wall. “Good news for you then, Chrys. There’s a LOT of evil people to exterminate over there. How about you take my left flank when the action starts?”

“Sure, but I don’t do top,” Chrys said snarkily.

Cadence giggled. “That’s fine, my husband doesn't either. No but seriously, stick by me. I’ll take full responsibility for anything disastrous, Tia. We can’t pass up on a potential ally of her caliber. Have you seen that that rotary cannon? Seventy five caliber can do a LOT to large creatures.”

“Actually, it’s a laser weapon,” Nova corrected.

Cadence’s grin widened. Chrys nodded also grinning. You could feel the warrior’s friendship form between them, ponyfeathers, you could almost literally see it.

“Prove yourself a friend in this battle, Chrysalis, and I’ll make sure you’re more than happy in our world,” Celestia said decisively. “But if you are deceiving us, and are in truth like our Chrysalis was, I have the weapon which slew her in my possession.”

Chrys rolled her eyes. “I was serious about wanting to pee on her grave. No one sully’s my name. Look, we’re way off topic here. Megan’s the gray pony with the blond mane being held by that red pegasus who kinda looks like a rule sixty three Daring Doo if drawn by someone who was color blind.”

I looked at Pine, eyes widening as I saw it now that it had been pointed out. He DID look like the por- Er, fan art of Daring as a stallion. It could not be unseen! That was fine by me.

Celestia turned her head again, this time looking at Megan before taking a few steps over, immediately frowning in despair. “How badly injured is she?”

Pine sighed. “I have no idea. But she will need a doctor, fast. Uh, Twilight there. She recommended someone by the name of Lily,” he answered.

Celestia nodded once. “Ponyville has been… Devastated. But my scouts say his clinic is still standing. We can likely retrieve him. Twilight, we will need you to do that. Ponyville is.. Occupied. The main portal is there.”

I nodded, my eyes narrowing in determination. “I understand. I’ll go get him right away!”

Celestia spun and held up a hoof. “Wait! Not so fast! This needs explaining too. Twilight, why have you brought everypony with you here? I understand Megan and, well, I assume you are her father, sir?”

“Grandfather,” Pine corrected.

“Right,” Celestia agreed with a short nod. “I understand him. But Chrysalis? Sunset Shimmer? And… Whoever this stallion is? Why are they with you?”

I blinked, honestly confused by her question. “W-what do you mean? They wanted to come, and they helped me free Megan, so I felt like I owed them a favor,” I replied.

Celestia nodded slowly. “Okay… Perhaps this is just the stress of the impending battle, but I would like to remind you that you were on a critical mission. Are they here as payment for services rendered? Was that a deal you struck with them?”

Sunset cleared her throat. “P-princess… I know this is about me. Please leave them out of it. The mirror world is not the nice place it appears to be on the surface. My husband and best friend deserve a good life. They can get that here, but not there. Magic is…persecuted there.

“I know that my banishment still has several decades left to go. I’ll go back if you order me too. I’ll also willingly walk into the dungeons if you’d prefer that. Please let Nova and Chrys live here.”

OH MY CELESTIA! I FORGOT ABOUT HER BANISHMENT!

“Celestia!” I exclaimed as loudly as I could. “She’s not actually guilty of equinslaughter! I have first hoof evidence that Sunset’s counterpart is alive and living in Equestria. Remember the mirror world humans who arrived here days ago? They came here to visit her and have letters from her so she can’t possibly be dead.”

Sunset’s ears perked. “S-she DIDN’T die from falling into lye? That’s WORSE,” she exclaimed with a shocked look, which proceeded to twist into a perplexed frown. “Hold it, you mentioned this really briefly when we were on the phone but I was panicked and didn’t focus on it. Where is she? Do you know if she got any medical attention? I… I can’t imagine how bad that would have hurt…”

Cadence and Breeze shared a quick look, one with Cadence frowning urgently. What was that about?

Celestia took a deep breath. “The law is very clear on matters like this, Twilight. Sunset, I'm aware you didn’t intend to kill your counterpart, but unless proper positive proof of her survival can be presented, not even I can pardon you for the crime… But, I can reduce the sentence if you assist us during the battle. That’s the best I can do. Not even I am above the law.”

Sunset nodded. “I- understand. I’ve already accepted the fact that I can’t come back here to stay. Please, just let them-”

“Ever leave Nair on your legs for more than the fifteen minutes the bottle says to?” Breeze asked, looking directly at Sunset, her mask concealing her expression, but her voice sounding… Understanding.

Sunset blinked. “How do you know what Nair is?” She asked.

“Lye feels like the aftermath of that. But all over, and down to the bone,” Breeze said, ignoring Sunset’s question as she walked over to Celestia, reached up with her left hoof, and slipped of her mask. “Drop the charges. I’m fine.”

Celestia recoiled the moment Breeze took her mask off. Jade, and Nova also had an angle, and immediately looked like they were going to vomit, which made me extremely glad that her hood blocked my view and-

“WAIT!” I demanded, “YOU are Sunset’s mirror counterpart? But… But that… You should have known she was banished!”

“I thought it was self imposed,” Breeze replied flatly.

“I had my suspicions that you weren’t from Marelund,” Celestia said mostly to herself. “Why did you conceal your identity from- Twilight? Her aura, look at it for me and-”

I blinked, her aura had changed! When? When her mask came off I think, maybe with some fade in? The change was very radical in terms of how much stronger her arcane might was. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was an alicorn.

“Because I don’t want to be a Princess. That’s not for me. And Cadence convinced me on day one that if you knew what I am you’d basically force me into that roll… And after living here for all these years, I can see why you would. Culture sort of demands alicorns be at the top of the nobility. They would force your hoof… It was best no one knew,” she answered with a weary sigh, spreading a pair of scar tissue ‘wings’ out from under her cloak.

Celestia and I stared at her completely stunned.

Sunset, our Sunset, laughed.

“You became an alicorn on your FIRST DAY in Equestria?” She asked.

“Yeah… It’s these horse shoes. They transform you into an Alicorn but, um, they don’t come off,” the mare who I was going to keep calling Breeze replied with a chuckle. “I remember you saying you’d come to my world because you saw a vision of you as an alicorn.”

“The irony is painful,” Sunset laughed, shaking her head slowly.

“So um… My wife doesn't have to go to prison now, right?” Nova asked hopefully causing Celestia and I to snap out of it.

“Um, well no… Not if Sun-” Celestia cut herself off and looked back and Breeze. “Can we just call you Breeze? Sunset is a very common name as it is, I imagine you’d go by that alias quite often.”

Breeze nodded. “Of course. And yes, I drop all the charges.”

“Okay,” Celestia replied with a short nod. “Sunset Shimmer, you’re banishment is hereby ended. Live where you will. Help out with the siege if you like… Otherwise, flee as soon as there’s an opportunity. Now, that’s everyone accounted for. We can move on to my next question, why didn’t you say you were an alicorn when Luna is missing and there’s an army of demons at the gate!?”

Celestia’s left eye twitched as her question hung in the air.

Breeze bashfully rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “I- I was doing that when you sensed Twilight’s portal and we all teleported here,” she said defensively.

“She was,” Cadence confirmed.

“Yeah, preventing armageddon is a bit more important than me remaining free to live how I want,” Breeze explained. “Uh… And about that, if we survive this, I totally died. Heroically. Poor Cadence, she’ll have lost her best friend. At least she has her ‘scullery maid’ to support her through the emotional crisis.”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “If anypony here breaths a word about Breeze’s kind to absolutely anyone, including me, they will forfeit three years of their income to Breeze as compensation,” she decreed flatly. “Seriously, I can keep a secret, and you REALLY should have let me know that we have another alicorn… Not ALL of us have to be princesses. Especially one with your clandestine talents. How did you hide your aura’s real appearance for over a decade?”

“The mask, I picked it up in Starswirl’s lab. Also on day one,” came the reply. “It conceals your aura and blocks outward influences on your mind.”

“It’s good to see that someone who did Megan and I a good turn wont be punished for it,” Pine interrupted with strained politeness. “But need I remind everyone that my little girl is in critical condition?”

Celestia and I eeped in unison. “That’s right!” She exclaimed. “Twilight, you can slip through Shining’s shield, right? Am I remembering that correctly?”

I nodded sharply. “Yes! I figured out how to do that back when we were foa-”

“I don’t need the backstory,” Celestia chastised. “We need to get Lily here, as fast as possible. But before you go, we should think of a general plan. Not only is Ponyville occupied, but it’s the enemy's primary ‘beachhead’ for the invasion. On top of that fact, we need to remember that Lily’s clinic is constructed within a retired fortress.

“While that means he’s almost certainly still alive, well, need I remind you that a windigo can’t break into it?”

I shook my head. No, she DIDN’T need to remind me that a creature who can become intangible can’t penetrate the clinic’s walls. Getting into the clinic would be very hard, and I could only imagine how much harder the basement laboratory would be to penetrate.

“Yeah… We should probably at least find a way to get me into the lobby,” I agreed with a firm nod.

“Do you have any ideas? You have been to the place more than I have,” Celestia asked, her face contorting as she started to think of solutions.

Of course I had an idea! The defenses were very robust but there was… There was… The hay?

Why couldn’t I remember that detail? That made no sense! Five minutes ago I was realizing that trapping our escape route was a good idea to ensure the enemy couldn’t take it from us, and realizing that deals were necessary because nopony was going to heed the…

My eyes widened with the sudden horrifying revelation that I had been smarter in the mirror world than I was here. If I hadn’t experienced that moment of clarity and full potential… Would I have even noticed this…. This…

My magic. I couldn’t think well enough to cast magic like I had in the mirror world while I was here.

“What is it?” Celestia asked me with a worried look in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I- I think I’m cursed,” I stammered.

“Cursed!?” Everypony asked with varying levels of confusion, fear, and surprise.

I nodded. “Yes. I- In the mirror world, I was making far better decisions. And in terms of finding a way to get into Lily’s clinic, I KNOW that I know of a way, but I can’t recall it. Every time I try it’s like I suddenly just don’t know it… And when I realized that I also realized that my magic is more… Dull here. In the brief time I had magic over there, I was casting with more complexity than I can ever recall casting here. S-something is limiting my power and intelligence, but only in this universe!”

Celestia didn't even blink. Her horn radiated golden light brightly enough to blind me for a solid ten seconds while I felt what had to be her full power flow through me, probing and pushing at every last part of my being.

“You are!” Celestia confirmed darkly. “And that counterspell didn’t remove it… This is bad. It has to be the Tartarians! Sabotage… We need to check every major spellcaster immediately!”

“Check me!” Breeze demanded.

I looked over at her, this time catching a glimpse of her face behind her hood as she hadn’t put her mask back on yet. The poor mare looked like she’d… Well, falling into a very potent caustic base solution. There really wasn’t any comparison for that.

Celestia nodded and cast a second counterspell, the gold light from the spell blinding me a second time even though it wasn’t directed at me this time. My vision cleared in time for me to see Celestia nod with relief on her face.

“You’re clean,” she announced.

Breeze smiled. “Then the mask protected me from whatever effect was used to curse us. If it is indeed all of us, and not just Twilight,” she said triumphantly. “Which means the mask CAN beat the curse, and as it isolates our minds from the outside world, and Twilight didn’t experience the curse’s effects when she wasn’t in this world… Twi, slip this on.”

Breeze passed me her mask, floating it over to within reach of my forehooves with her magic.

I smiled. “See, THAT’S the kind of thinking I was doing over there,” I said as I took the mask and slipped it on.

I couldn’t help but feel a little bit disgusted as I felt a little dampness on the inside of the mask. To be fair, the porcelain was pretty warm, enough where I would be sweating within a few minutes but it was still pretty gross to feel somepony else’s sweat on your face.

A heartbeat after the feeling of disgust bubbled up within my mind, I felt a fog lift from me. I could feel my magic in that full, detailed, precise way I had mere minutes ago in the other world. Excellent!

I smiled behind the mask. “It’s working! Thank you,” I said as I turned my thoughts to penetrating the security of Lily’s fortress turned clinic.

“Good! You can use it for as long as you need to, but I want it back after you’ve found a way to free yourself from the curse,” Breeze informed.

“That won’t take long,” I replied. “In theory, any mind affecting curse should-”

I stopped mid sentence, a sudden realization striking me like a brick falling from the sky.

“Celestia, the part of the Elements I need to retrieve is in the mines under Canterlot, right?” I asked, just seeking clarification. Celestia had only told me once.

“Yes, it i-” Celestia’s eyes widened in horror as she came to the same conclusion I had. “That’s why we’re under attack first! The Elements breaking, that had to be them. They somehow know what’s needed to repair them and-”

“And I’m getting a crystal and giving it to Megan right now,” I interrupted. “It won't take two minutes. Then I’ll go try my Tesseract Spell out to see if that will get me inside the clinic.”

“Tesseract?” Breeze asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah, an advanced version of a teleport spell which should theoretically work around any given ward or obstacle. I’ve been working on it for years but it’s always been to hard for even me to cast. Maybe that’s the curse at work. It’s worth a shot,” I said with a shrug since I couldn’t show them a smile. “Now, the mines below Canterlot. Arcanite crystal. Easy enough. I’ll be right back!”

I closed my eyes and focused my magic on transporting myself into the mines. An easy enough thing to do since I’d been there before thanks to old Chrysalis. My spell crackled in my ears as I felt myself shift, body position adjusting slightly as the teleport finished.

I opened my eyes, looking around to be certain I hadn’t accidentally teleported someplace I didn’t intend, and was relieved to see the shimmering silvery crystal covered catacomb-like mine shaft around me. A short distance ahead of me lay the pink shimmering barrier of Shiny’s shield, it extended underground as I’d thought, and didn’t quite enter into the deeper mines, again like I’d thought.

Prefect! I’d teleported exactly where I wanted to go! Exactly where I’d been standing when I’d found Cadence during the Canterlot Invasion. Normally I’d arrive a meter or so out of place, always in a safe spot naturally, but this precision meant that the mask was definitely working.

Unfortunately, the crystals around me weren't arcanite. This was mostly platinum group metals trapped within silica crystal. Nothing special. I’d have to go deeper into the mines to get to the arcanite deposits, meaning I needed to pass through Shining’s shield. But that wasn’t a real problem. Not for me.

The real question was how de-

A silvery blue glitter on the other side of the shield caught my attention and answered my question. There, seated in a gap between two larger crystals next to the entrance of a small room-like cave, was a small deposit of arcanite perhaps the size of a filly’s head. I frowned, looking more closely at the room and the shattered crystal around it.

That seemed suspicious. These parts of the mine were no longer used, as far as I knew the last time somepony had been here was during Chrysalis’s attack. If that arcanite had been exposed before then, somepony WOULD have harvested it.

I couldn’t use an identify spell on the crystal shards to try and determine how long ago that wall had been broken. But I could see the base of the crystal and the cracked faces of the shards had oxidized. That should take several years to happen at the quickest.

It wasn’t some sort of trap as I’d first feared. Unless somepony had oxidized ore laden crystal which matched the appearance of that from this mine laying around. Unlikely to say the least. Perhaps I’d broken that crystal with one of my spellbolts during the escape from the mines and simply hadn’t noticed the half a million bits worth of arcanite in the debris.

Because I would have taken that with me.

“Huh… Well, I guess I’m due for a little luck,” I decided.

I walked forwards, probing the shield with a simple identify spell. I already knew that it was a shield, and the exact properties of the shield. Shiny’s talent for defensive magic gave his work a very unique signature, unforgettably so if you knew much about the School of Abjuration.

The Identify Spell wasn’t to learn about the shield. It was to exploit a glitch in it’s spell matrix.

I followed the Identify Spell with a small telekinetic jab, and then hit that same spot I’d probed and poked with a spell I normally used to style my mane. The shield rippled, and pulled away from the spot, forming a small hole, less than a hoof wide.

Before the hole could close I focused my magic again, teleporting through the gap to the other side of the shield.

I smiled as I arrived on the other side. I never thought I’d be sending myself through the hole. I’d only ever launched pillows or plush toys through it when he had it raised to keep me out of his room.

Trotting over to the crystal, I started to think about the best way to break it off. I couldn’t use magic on it, goodness knows what breaking the stuff would do if it held a fresh charge! Maybe a sharp strike with the point of my hoof? That wouldn’t hurt the Arcanite, but the crystal it was attached too should break.

I drew back my hoof to try that sharp strike-

“Good afternoon,” a voice said behind me.

I cast a shield spell out of pure reflex, the shield raising before I even finished turning around to see the black furred Earth Pony standing behind me in the shadows.

“If you're with the people attacking Canterlot, you’re picking the wrong fight!” I snapped, hoping to intimidate the possible assassin out of attacking me long enough to find a way to retrieve the crystal.

The stallion rolled his red eyes. “I’m not with them, they are with me,” he corrected condescendingly.

Oh… I winced as I realized he meant he was the enemy's commander. This was not good.

Maybe I could quickly get the crystal and teleport away before-

“No need to quickly flee, I’m just here to chat. Catch up a little,” the stallion said casually, remaining a good four meters away in the shadows of… Of…

What the hay was the lightsource down here? Why is my brain going there of all places right now when I’m face to face with-

OH NO YOU DON’T! I quickly pulled my thoughts inward, doing my best to close off my mind. The mask may have protected me against the curse when it was just there, passively dominating my mind, but that had been an active attempt. By someone VERY powerful.

“Nice try, but I’ve got help resisting your influence now,” I said, narrowing my eyes aggressively, and hoping that the mask didn’t hide the expression too much.

The stallion odded. “So it would seem. Funny enough, you breaking through the limits I placed on you is one thing I anticipated. You’re rather hard to alter, my control was always shaky at best, I felt you slip free the moment you managed to shake my influence,” he chuckled. “You’ve caused me a LOT of grief, Twilight. I’m happy that now I have no choice but to destroy you.”

I knew it. This was a trap.

“Do you really want to have a fight in a cave full of arcanite?” I asked, hoping that knowledge would deter him long enough for me to work out a solution.

Any mage who could open the gates of Tartarus had to be very powerful, and he was an Earth Pony. That didn’t make spellcasting impossible, anything can cast a spell with enough effort, but for a non-unicorn to get good enough to open portals and let an army through, and also maintain control over them… He had to be phenomenally adept at magic. With more effort put in than any unicorn ever had to put into learning spells.

This was going to SUCK!

To my shock, he shook his head no. “I’m not here to fight you, Twilight. I’m enjoying a brief stretch of the legs before the upcoming battle. My current puppet being on my side means I can slip away for a few minutes. I’m certain you understand the need for a little privacy to contemplate the task at hoof,” he said casually, flashing me a sinister smile. “Do you know what I’ve decided? I want to feel Celestia’s anguish when she sees her beloved student die. That will be exquisite.”

“What kind of monster are you?” I demanded angrily, ears flattening.

Who intentionally enjoys the suffering of others?!

The stallion smiled. “I’m not a monster. I’m their king. Their creator. I’m responsible for almost all the suffering you’ve ever seen. Making you repress yourself, twisting Luna’s thoughts so she focused overmuch on how much more adoration her sister received, your friend Rarity’s brain-body mismatch, every foal who died from cancer they were born with, all my doing.

“You can’t possibly comprehend what you’re up against, Twilight.”

“If you’re not talkin out your ass, why!? Why would you do any of that to anypony?” I demanded half because I needed an answer, and half to buy more time to plan my escape.

The stallion paused, considering something for a moment before nodding to himself a few times.

“Because it’s funny,” he said decisively.

My attempts to plan an escape evaporated at that statement floored me.

“FUNNY!?” I demanded as my mouth pulled back in rage. “You’re attacking a city, intending to destroy it just to cause as much suffering as possible, because you think that’s FUNNY!?”

“Humor is subjective,” the stallion said simply.

“You’re a psychopath!” I snapped, wings twitching.

He shrugged. “Perhaps, but enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Specifically your future.”

Here it was. He was going to attack now!

The air in front of me warped, twisting as magic formed a clear picture of an alien civilzation. Reptilians of some sort. I’d never seen them before.

“While this particular operation has started out a little rocky, I’ve destroyed many worlds across the eons,” the stallion casually informed. “The saurians, humans, the Equinites that’s the First Kingdom, FYI. All dead. All because of me. Equestria will join them soon.”

The picture flashed and warped, showing me a hundred different pictures of each civilization as he mentioned them. I rolled my eyes at his claim.

“My brother uses those same illusion spells to illustrate his O and O game,” I said flatly. “You won't intimidate me with a spell that’s included in the Game Master’s Hoofbook.”

The stallion blinked in surprise. “Huh… I guess she was right. I didn’t anticipate the reactions of a species used to magic correctly. Well, that’s not much of a problem in the end. I already have to exterminate you all manually. Believe what you will, Twilight.

“But know that your world is doomed. I have trillions of demons at my disposal and had ages to prepare them for war, I’m only limited in that only so many can get through the portal at a time. As much as I hate you, I do enjoy watching people stumble around the ruins of their worlds until they perish without the systems they once relied on. Surrender, and I’ll ensure you live through the end.”

“Not a chance,” I laughed. “If you really could just kill us all without effort you wouldn’t ask us to surrender.”

“Meh, suit yourself,” he replied with a sadistic smile. “I think I’ll use your remains in a quilt.”

“What did I even do to you?” I asked, genuinely curious at this point. “You go through all the effort to assemble an army to kill me, you put a curse on me to fog my mind and limit my magic, you claim to be responsible for my friends suffering. What did I do?”

“Oh I’ve done FAR more to you than that,” he cackled. “I’ve done every single last thing that I possibly could. You are the seventy sixth version of yourself in this timeline. I tried every last trick in the book to alter your personal past and prevent you from reviving one of my ancient enemies and releasing my sister’s mantle from its prison. Not a one of them worked.

“But I could make you a lesser version of yourself, and keep you from having a happy and loving relationship with Rainbow Dash. So I did.”

Revive an ancient enemy? The only two people I’d help revive recently were Queen Ji’la and Emperor Prance… Prance! He’d mentioned having been cursed into undeath because of an ancient enemy.

“Ah, so you’re the Dawn that Prance told me about,” I said with a slow nod.

Dawn rolled his eyes. “Took you long enough,” he mocked. “Even unfettered by my curses you’re still a bit slow.”

“And you’re a complete idiot,” I countered. “You just admitted that a single pony was able to take you on in single combat with such even power that you could only win via trickery and with outside assistance. In other words, now I know you can be defeated with a little teamwork.”

“I’m far more powerful now than I was when I fought him,” Dawn laughed. “And I imagine he’s extremely out of shape after laying half dead on a dais for six millennia. Besides, did he mention his own immense power comes from him having stolen power I had to rid myself of to acquire more free will for myself? He’s boosted beyond what any mortal could achieve on their own.”

I rolled my eyes. Dawn was a fool. I’d seen Prance in person. His Aura was about on par with Celestia’s…

“Look, I’m going to go,” I said turning around to break the crystal off the wall. “You don’t have to do any of this you know. You can just stop and go home.”

“Oh but I WANT to do it,” Dawn countered. “It’s funny, and I have plans for this place. Would you like some help getting that crystal off the wall? It hardly matters. Your friends won’t make it back in time to save you.”

Okay. That was the first genuinely worrying thing he’d said. It was also a pretty good point. Especially since with Shiny’s shield up, they couldn’t get inside the city.

CRAP! I should have thought of that before.

“I don’t need your help,” I said, smashing a hoof into the crystal. The silvery mineral shattered like glass, showing itself to be even more brittle than I remembered it being as the arcanite broke free from the wall.

“Fair enough,” Dawn remarked as I picked up the crystal. “Oh! Before you go, how’s your sister doing?”

“Really? You’re going to insult my brother just because he likes feminine things more than masculine things? That’s really pathetic stu-” I blinked as I realized what I was saying. “WOW! You definitely did a number on me. I recall hating him for that.”

Dawn giggled. “See? It’s hilarious, isn’t it?”

“I’m a good pony, Dawn… You're removing any ounce of sympathy I normally feel for even my enemies. The last person to do that was Tirek, and I would have killed him without any regrets if I had the power,” I warned, my ears laying flat as they could.

Dawn smirked. “Oh yes, the purple unicorn is very intimidating. But no, I’m talking about your actual sister. Not Shining Armor.”

“I don’t have a sister,” I said, rolling my eyes at his stupidity. “I know some ponies think that Moondancer and I are related, but we’re just friends.”

“So my meddling hasn’t been entirely undone then? Good,” Dawn said with a ring of satisfaction in his voice. “Well, I’ll be going now, goodbye.”

…

He said he used time travel to alter my past. He said he did a lot of things. My sudden reversal of disgust for my brother’s taste in relationship rolls proved that. Was it too much of a stretch to-

No. No it was not.

“You know that Shining really likes Moondancer, right? He’ll be ecstatic when I tell him that the three of us are related,” I rebutted, just to let him know he hadn’t shook me with that revelation.

He failed to intimidate so he wanted to mess with my head. That’s what he’d been hoping for, right?

“Humm?” Dawn asked, looking over one shoulder back at me. “Oh, no. No Shining wouldn’t be related to her. Nor is Moondancer your sister. You think I’d just tell you who she is? Please.”

“I know for a matter of fact that my parents have been exclusive for their entire lives,” I laughed. “You’re not going to make me think that one of them had me and somepony else through an affair.”

“No. They didn’t. But Shining isn’t your brother. Well, legally yes, but not biologically,” Dawn replied, turning back around. “You’re adopted. They aren't your family.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ponyfeathers,” I mocked. “You’re just trying to distract me from my mission. And it’s not going to work anymore. Bye.”

I turned my head towards Shining’s shield, readying the three spells I needed to open the breach, but hesitated. Maybe THAT’S what he wanted. I should teleport to another part of the shield first, then go inside.

“Actually, I’m trying to make you have a freakout about just how much of your life is fabricated,” Dawn corrected. “And even telling you that I’m still going to win because…”

The sharp crack of a long range teleport echoed through the cave, accompanied immediately by the muffled scream of a mare.

“Wah, but- PUT HER DOWN OR SO HELP ME I’LL-” A stallion roared.

My eyes shrank to pinpricks as I recognised my father's voice.

“Tell Twilight where she came from or I’ll make you eat her entrails while she watches,” Dawn ordered with grave seriousness.

I spun, immediately firing a spellbolt the moment I saw an Dawn, reared up, holding my mother up by her muzzle, his other foreleg holding a serrated dagger raised to gut her like a fish. Dawn’s eyes brightened, glowing a deep red. My bolt stopped dead in the air.

“Now now, Twilight. We’re not fighting. I’m just getting these two liars to tell the truth,” Dawn mocked. “Night, tell her now, or become a cannibal. Your choice.”

“Dad! Block his line of sight to me and I’ll be able to shoot him!” I called.

“She won’t,” Dawn chuckled. “You have six seconds. Five… Four…”

Dad’s ears twitched angrily. “Twilight, your mother and I adopted you. We wanted a second foal, she can’t have anymore. But that doesn't matter. Family is more than blood!”

This had to be an illusion!

I narrowed my eyes, probing at my ‘father’ with my magic and… And he was really him. No illusion. That was my father. But…

“Tell her all of it,” Dawn ordered calmly.

“All? But… What else is there?” Night asked worriedly.

“Tell her how she was found lying in a gutter, unwanted and unloved. How her true parents never cared about her,” Dawn said, smirking as his eyes locked onto me.

“Twi, that’s bullshit. You were found in a gutter in Canterlot, but you were wrapped up in an old threadbare cloak. It looked like you’d fallen out of a foal carrier. The orphanage searched for weeks, nopony was found. Then we adopted you,” dad corrected. “Whatever is going on here, don’t let this monster get into your head. As far as either of us care, we are your parents, and we love you. We never told you any of this because it’s not important. Not one bit.”

Dawn nodded. “See? He corrected a lie about the situation. It’s all true. These are not your parents, you have a sister somewhere out there in the world, and you have no idea what I have in store for her,” Dawn said, flashing me the single most evil smile I’d ever seen. “Think about surrendering for a while. If you forfeit this battle, I’ll spare her life. If not, well, I do like playing with my toys. Farewell.”

Before I could reply, Dawn vanished. No magical discharge. No gesture or look of effort. He simply vanished, letting my mother fall to the ground in a heap.

“Velvet!” Dad exclaimed, immediately picking her up and holding her close. “I’m so sorry, I-”

“He could have crushed me if he wanted… You couldn’t have stopped him. It’s okay,” mom soothed before turning to look at me. “Twilight, sweetie, I… None of that was a lie but please, just forget about it. Heaven knows we never think about it.”

I bit my lip behind the mask. “I… You really should have told me,” I said quietly.

Dad turned around, and shook his head. “Why? It changes nothing, and you had no genetic diseases at birth. You’re our filly. Just because she didn’t give birth to you doesn't change that. Also, why the mask?”

I nodded. “I agree. I’m not going to throw away fifty years of memories just because I was adopted. That would be stupid,” I informed ignoring the fact that I was pretty sure I would if Dawn’s curse was still affecting me. “But it is important because apparently I have a sister who is now in danger, whom I could have protected.”

“Ah, well… Yes,” Dad admitted, clearing his throat awkwardly. “But you can’t blame us for not knowing something we couldn’t possibly have known.”

“Exactly!” Mom agreed. “What could we have done? Cross referenced every orphanage for foals found wrapped in threadbare moon and star cloaks? Located the manufacturer of them and asked for the full list of customers who had bought one then ask them all if they’d lost somepony?”

I sighed, and nodded once. “I know. I know… But we have a problem now. That guy knows who she is and is possibly in a situation to hurt her. Yeah, I don’t know a thing about her but… Well, I’ve saved total strangers from harm. I can’t just let him…”

BUCK! He was right. He had won. This was going to pull on my heart. Hard.

“We’ll do what we can, sweetie,” Dad said, walking over to give me a quick hug. “But could you please get us out of this… Um… Serial killer repository?”

I laughed. “We’re in the mines under Canterlot. I can take you to the palace garden, I need to get this crystal to somepony right away and then immediately find somepony else. I can’t take you home. There’s no time to waste after… Well, this.”

“That’s fine,” Mom said as she gently grabbed my shoulder.

“You don’t need to touch me for me to teleport you mom,” I reminded, shaking my head slowly.

“Oh,” she replied, blushing as I transported the three of us to the very top of the shield’s dome.

“Wait, what? Why are we-” Dad asked.

“I’m not opening a breach in a shield where the enemy just was seconds ago,” I explained as I quickly opened the necessary hole and teleported the three of us again.

“Oh that makes sense,” Dad replied as we appeared in the garden, just a few meters away from Celestia. “Woah! Twi you got way better at this than I remember.”

Celestia looked up at the sound of my father's voice, her face bearing an expression of extreme surprise. “... Uh… Where did your parents come from?” She asked.

Cadence looked up as Celestia mentioned my parents. Her motion revealing she had been sitting down to tend to Megan. A good idea, the poor girl would definitely have emotional wounds to tend as well as the physical ones.

“She brought her parents here?” Cadence asked in surprise.

“No. The enemy did. I just brought them inside the shield,” I informed with a weary sigh. “Long story short, Megan, here’s an arcanite crystal. Please hold onto it for me,” I said as I passed the somewhat more lucid looking pegasus pony the large crystal. “Celestia, two things. First, they know about our plan to repair the elements, and my friends won't get back here in time. I need to go and fetch them because well… How will they get in with the shield up without me?

“Second, I have a sister, because I’m adopted. Which is fine. But the enemy has threatened to hurt her if I don’t surrender.”

Celestia nodded. “I see… So your parents were summoned to confirm the claim you were adopted?”

I nodded. “Yes. W-wait, did you know?”

“Yes. I did a full background check on you when I made you my personal student,” Celestia replied politely. “Your parents asked me to keep quiet about it, and I respected their wishes. It was not my place to say anything… Though I’d assumed they were simply waiting to tell you when you were old enough. It would seem the never intended to tell you at all.”

Dad nodded. “Right. That was the plan. We just wanted to spare Twilight any emotional pain. You know how sensitive she can be to certain things,” he explained.

Ah. Well… Fair enough, Dad.

“Regardless, Twilight, I promise you that the first second of free time I have after this battle will be spent helping you find any living relatives you have,” Celestia vowed. “In the meantime, we need to get the elements here… But that’s a problem because, well, do you know where they all are right now?”

“... Ponyfeathers,” I cursed, stamping my left hoof angrily.

“Twilight! Language,” Mom chastised.

“Hon, it’s war and she just got bad news. Honestly, she didn’t swear hard enough. Twi, sweetie, this calls for a good old fashioned cry of ‘buck’,” Dad corrected.

I rolled my eyes. “I know that humor helps in a crisis, but this is serious, Dad,” I replied. “I need a way to find the Bearers. Right now.”

Jade’s ears suddenly perked up. “Oh my gosh! Twilight! I was going to tell you this right when this all began, but while I was looking through Cover’s library I found a family por-”

“Elements,” a week voice croaked, managing to be heard over Jade only thanks to being closer to me.

I snapped my head in the direction the sound had come from to find Megan having rolled slightly, her eyes open and looking at me.

“What was that?” I asked her, focusing as hard as I could on her since her voice had been so hard to understand.

“Elements,” she repeated. “Bond. Feel them.”

“Are you saying that I can actually find them through the bond?” I asked, tilting my head curiously.

I knew that when using the Elements power I could feel their emotions, but could I actually just search for them at any time? I closed my eyes tightly and calmed myself as much as I could, deciding to try and sense Rainbow since she should be the closest pony to Canterlot.

Nothing.

It didn’t work. There wasn’t-

Oh! No, there was. I could feel fear that was not my own. But very very faintly. This would probably work better if the Elements were not damaged and-

And I was feeling fear. From Dash.

“Thank you, Megan, that is extremely useful to know,” I said to her as thankfully as I could before turning to everyone else. “I’ll be right back. We’ll bring them in one at a time.”

“Silly Clover, you knew that already,” Megan murmured.

I blinked. “Huh?”

“You’re aura, it’s similar to Clover’s. I think I’ve mentioned this to you before,” Celestia said. “Megan knew her too. She probably thinks you're her.”

“Ah,” I replied, turning my mind to the much more important task of focusing on Dash’s location via what little emotion I could sense. “As I said, right back.”

I closed my eyes tightly, gathered my magic, cast a shield spell, then teleported. After all, this was Dash. And she was afraid.

21 - Medic 4: Return of the Medic

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Alter Ego - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Ruins - Equestria

First rule of being a telepath, suppress emotion’s influence over your decisions. If you don’t, other people’s emotions will cloud your judgment.

Second rule of being a telepath, never let others know that you intentionally repress emotional influences. If you fail to fake emotions properly, you’ll creep people out, and they will never understand that the anger of a random busdriver within range can make you snap at the store clerk even though you are not mad at them.

Third rule of being a telepath. You’re going to fail at this many times, no matter how hard you try. Learn to deal with it.

Fourth Rule of being a telepath. Your friends are always going to be an exception to your emotional shields, don’t bother trying to keep them out, it is futile. Don’t get mad at them.

I was having just a bit of a hard time with rule four right now. I’d always had a soft spot for Dash. Nothing romantic, but it’s extremely hard to not find a tiny blue winged pony person absolutely adorable. She reminded me of a kesed, or a puppy. Which meant that I stood absolutely no chance in even minimizing the pain she felt when looking at AJ.

Dash’s agony, was my agony. Going back into Ponyville was the single stupidest thing we could do. We’d just infiltrated. We’d just blown cover. I’d barely managed to fight off twenty of them over the course of maybe fifteen seconds. Any longer and I’d have been seriously wounded, maybe even killed.

Going back right now, while their leader was certain to have raised security because he’d lost a fight in front of his men, and thus lost face… This was suicide.

Yet here we were. Because of AJ. She was lying comatose and dismembered, responding to absolutely nothing, but definitely alive. There was one doctor Dash trusted, and his house was in Ponyville. Still standing somehow. So we went.

Because Dash was bleeding enough despair to drown me in. If this is what an average pony felt for their mate, I needed to find one to date. I’d never felt any emotional bond more intense than this. This was more than enough pain to override my sense of self preservation. I HAD to help.

And yet, I still could tell that I was being influenced. This wasn’t a decision of my own making. Hence, I was just a bit upset. I was going to die because my friend couldn’t take her wife to any other hospital on the planet.

But then there was the reason why I couldn’t just explode at her. I knew why Dash had chosen this doctor. Lily was a healer on part with mythological figures. He’d literally made the blind see and the grounded fly. I couldn’t blame Dash for wanting to go see him, it was the best option.

Or at least it would be if he wasn’t in the middle of the ruins… Which I’d have to walk through. And were swarming with demons. Demons who were much stronger than those of my own home universe. Three, maybe four times.

At least Dash was flying look out for me. Not that she could do too much with her injured leg. Sorry Dash… Kinda hard to aim a spell while also parrying five different attacks with different limbs. I’ll pay you back some how. But in the meantime…

I ducked behind a small stack of wooden boxes, knowing that my chameleon cloak wasn’t going to prevent someone from hearing me. Holding a conversation in the open would be dumb.

<Dash… I’m lost,> I reported, embarrassment clinging to my mental tone.

<Uh… Hang on,> Dash replied. <Okay, facing the north, go left past six tents. Then turn right and go five more tents forwards. That will take you right to the clin… Ponyfeathers… Um, Alter?>

I sighed audibly. There was only one thing she could be seeing.

<They’re doing something to the clinic, aren't they?> I asked, already knowing the answer.

<Yeah. Looks like they are trying to break in. That will take them a while. The place was built to contain windigos,> Dash remarked. <But um, I don’t know how you’ll get past them. Or get in with them there.>

I groaned. <Dash, we should go back and just take her to a normal hospital.>

Dash snapped in reply. <I don’t know of any other doctors who can get her healed TODAY, and we kind of need the Elements of Harmony right now. We don’t have time to wait months for healing potions, drugs, and normal spells to make her better.>

I closed my eyes tightly, knowing she was right. <I’m out of ideas, Dash. I could probably break into a place as secure as you claim that clinic is, you know, given time and being allowed to work openly. Under the condition of remaining unseen? Maybe. I agreed to help here because I knew there was a slim chance…

Dash remained quiet for a few minutes. I remained hidden between the crates and the tent wall. Moving about was risky now. They likely knew I could turn invisible, or at least would assume I masked my position with illusions. They’d be using arcane detection.

They probably already knew I was here and we're just waiting for me to be lulled into a false sense of security… Maybe I should start preparing a teleport spell. Goddesses, I hope they can’t block teleports. I’d teleported away last time.

<What if you shape change to look like one of them, and then get to work breaking in? They’ll probably assume you’ve been ordered to help,> Dash proposed.

<Uh, well… That’s not a bad idea,> I mused.

<See?> Dash asked smugly. <There’s still a way.>

<Of course, that would mean they would also have access. I highly doubt I could selectively move myself into the clinic. Most likely I could force open a door, or breach a wall,> I further mused.

<Oh…> Dash said dejectedly. <Maybe there’s a back entrance? Twilight said the underground part is pretty big. I’d have a back entrance if I had an underground complex.>

I blinked in surprise. <Underground complex? What clinic needs a complex under it?>

Dash remarked.

<You did, but, are we talking full blown Star Labs complex, or is this more of a Black Mesa situation?> I asked curiously.

If there was an extensive complex beneath it, maybe they wouldn’t have though to shield the below ground walls and I could just phase through the ground and make my way inside.

<No idea. Twi didn’t tell me and I never went in myself,> Dash admitted. <Sorry.>

I paused, taking a deep breath again as I realized that even though the idea was flawed, it was still worth a look at the very least.

<Hey… I’m going to check it out anyways. Even if we can’t break in right now, maybe I can work out how to do it and we can actually get inside later on much more quickly. If we wait a few more hours, your leg should be good enough to carry me in and out and we could just reach the clinic with a drive. Sound good?> I asked hopefully.

<... It’s better than nothing,> Dash decided with a sigh.

I soothed while looking through the somewhat thin crowd of demons for a suitable candidate.

Dash had told me about changelings once. She’d assumed I was one for a while, and right now I wished that I was. While quite similar our species, our shape shifting is quite different. Most any changeling can copy any pony-like creature they can see with little to no effort. We’re the opposite of that. I had to put far more effort in to achieve anything so precise as a ‘clone’ of someone else.

The best I could do without a LOT of practice at that specific form was to approximate something close to the original, and since I had next to no practice with a pony shape to begin with, well… I needed something simple. Or something close to the form I’d made up earlier.

It’s a good thing I’d spent months practicing Dash in the event I ever came to visit her homeworld. Otherwise I’d have to use an animal or something. I highly doubted that any sparrow would be hanging around here…

My eyes fixed on one of the imps which was occupied carrying a crate of semi-solid gunk. They were very pony-like. The main difference being the wings. I could probably manage that.

I locked my gaze onto the imp carrying the box. I thought about it, picturing its sandy-tan fur, the little spines jutting from its wing’s elbows, the little spiraled grooves in its horns. I was mutable, I was clay, those features were my features. I felt my skin crawl and slide, reshaping itself to my will.

The slight ripping sound as my wings emerged from my back made me wince, the visceral sound would definitely have not gone unnoticed…

The moment the transformation stopped, I stopped concentrating on remaining cloaked, and checked what little of myself I could see. I thought I’d gotten close to my target, but I’d given myself a mossy green fur instead. Was that a color they could have? I hadn’t seen any green ones.

I quickly reunited myself a slate gray, and then stepped out from behind the crates, following Dash’s directions.

<I’m on my way. I’ve transformed into an imp. I’m slate gray with a… Light peach mane and… toxic yellow wing membranes,> I reported while checking the rest of my body over.

Dash warned.

<Well aware,> I acknowledged.

Their wing membranes tended to be more…bland colors. See, this is why you practiced specific forms. At least I was better than when i was a kid. I’d probably have turned into an organic jumpsuit by mistake. Like I had while trying to imitate a house plant to pass third year studies.

It would suck to die while embarrassed beyond reason.

<Hey, Alter, you’re heading right into a group of imps. They look to be going in the right direction. Maybe you should stick with them?> Dash suggested.

I looked through the crowd, quickly finding a group of a dozen or so imps amid the much less densely packed camp.

<Good plan,> I replied as I casually walked into the group, taking a spot at the rear.

I’d seen imps moving around solo, but now I had a chance to probe them for information, to see how they normally behaved, acted, and moved. A proper disguise is more than an appearance, after all. What if I had to speak to someone? I had no idea what these demons used for ranks and titles, much less who should be called what.

Of course… No matter my form, if I used my telepathy actively, my eyes would glow. That would be a dead give away. Best try and skim passive information first.

I relaxed my defences, opening myself up to whatever thoughts and feelings the imps ahead of me were broadcasting. And immediately regretted it, there was absolutely nothing to their thoughts other than the vile glee of creatures designed to cause suffering.

I stumbled over my forehooves while trying not to visibly gag as one particularly strong thought involving making sausage with the ‘casing’ still attached to a living person, using bits of that living person blasted me right in the forefront of my mind.

I turned my mind away from the group, unable to continue the stealthy approach when every last one of their thoughts was so completely horrific, that it made me want to throw every last destructive spell I had at the things on the spot to spare the world their hostility.

As my mind turned away I picked up one simple thought, one which ordinarily I wouldn’t have noticed, but the sheer contrast from the sea of evil made to stand out.

<Did that one just trip? I didn’t know they could trip,> it mused.

I frowned, stopping in my tracks. That was not a demon's thought. Where did it come from?

Gritting my teeth in preparation for the tidal wave of horror, I quickly probed around the area, risking my eyes being seen for the brief second that I would need to search for-

A thought containing a picture of myself with my teeth grit as if enraged, and eyes glowing red entered my mind, I was being.<Oh that can’t be good!> The mystery person squeaked to themselves, a spark of fear drifting along with the thought.

Fear? Interesting. Based on the direction the image had come from… They were in the tent to my left!

I turned and walked towards the tent, looking slowly down to try and hide my eyes from the taller demons. That was at least one advantage of being this small. Hopefully it would be enough.

Come on frightened, non-daemon. Where are you? Also what? An ally could be really useful.

<Oh no! It’s coming closer! Maybe they noticed the missing slaves after that battle this morning. They must be on high alert! I should have known that transmuting on some wings wouldn’t be enough to hide here forever,> the person thought, a growing terror filling their mind.

WOW! That wasn’t passive, that was stream of consciousness. This guy had absolutely no mental shielding. Weren't changelings telepaths too? Why wouldn’t you practice shielding your thoughts? It’s easy! Sure you’d never resist and active probe but all I was doing was ‘scanning the local airwaves’, I shouldn’t be getting a full blown stream of consciousness like this.

I should say something.

<Relax,> I said as soothingly as I could manage while pushing some of my own emotions down the link he’d inadvertently formed to show I was also worried, but curious. <I’m not with them, much like you. I’m a shapeshifter… What’s this about missing slaves? Are you freeing people?>

The dark interior of the tent provided plenty of places for someone to hide. Where was he? Behind those crates? Behind the… Was that a forge? Ah, a weapons tent. Or an armory tent. Either or. Plenty of large bulky things to hide behind either way.

<Wait, are you a changeling?> The voice asked.

<Who the heck is that?> Dash asked, making me realize I’d accidently added this unknown person to our ongoing telepathic link.

I facepalmed, uh, face hooved. Of course I had… Because I could only have one active channel open at a time. Derp.

<Wait, Rainbow Dash?> The voice asked surprised and excited. <How are you using telepathy? You’re not a changeling, I’ve seen your genome.>

<Doc?!> Dash asked half surprised half elated. <Thank Celestia! Alter and I are here to pick you up, we thought we’d need to break into your clinic.>

<Who is Alter?> Lily asked.

<That would be me, the ‘imp’ who spooked you. I’m routing your thoughts between myself and Dash. Why aren't you in your super secure bunker?> I asked curiously.

A white furred, small, very effeminate stallion peaked out from behind a box of red flecked coal. I waved in a friendly manner.

<Hello!> I said just to confirm that he was looking at me.

I frowned suddenly, realizing that as a mage and a pony, he should be a unicorn. But I didn’t see a horn behind his blond mane.

<Wait… Dash said you’re a unicorn,> I said accusingly.

The doctor nodded and brushed his mane away from his forehead, revealing a very very small horn. he explained quickly. <It’s worked so far. I um… I saw they had slaves and I had to do something. I’ve been smuggling them into my clinic for the last week.

<Well, at least that makes things easy for us,> I said smiling in relief.

<Lily, AJ’s hurt bad, we need-> Dash began only for Lily to interrupt.

<I’m aware. Their leader’s been possessing her. I know she’s been dismembered, and while I’d love to help, she’s sort of under the direct control of someone who would kill me if I tried,> he said with an honest sympathetic frown.

<Actually, we freed her this morning,> I informed. <She’s currently stable but unconscious.>

<And we should have all the parts needed for the Elements to be fixed gathered up by now! With Ponyville gone, Twilight and everypony else will have gone to Canterlot. The sooner we can get AJ on her hooves the sooner we can send these monsters back to Tartarus!> Dash added triumphantly.

<Oh! Well in that case, let’s go. Everyone in my clinic will be safe for at least a few more hours. I won't need more time than that, and if the elements are back->

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

<Dash, how would he have known the Elements were damaged?> I asked.

Lily rolled his mismatched eyes. <I’ve been in this camp for the entire invasion. I’ve heard a lot of things. Their officers love to boast about their achievements.>

Oh. Yes, that did make sense.

he added. <But if she’s free and you have a way to repair the Elements, then this crisis is over. If we all head south no one will question our moving away from the camp. The Imps are housed in the remains of Sweet Apple Acres, they’ll think we’re going back to our ‘bunk’..>

<R-remains?> Dash asked. <Was it leveled too?>

<Yeah… I- I’m sorry,> Lily apologised his ears drooping sadly.

I was about to agree to his plan when the tent’s flap was suddenly thrown aside. The bright sunlight was mostly obscured by a large bulky shadow as something stood in the entrance.

“Ah good!” A large bulky, minotaur-like demon with a scorpion’s tail and armor plating proclaimed as he saw the two of us.

My wings flared in alarm, I knew it! I’d fallen into a content state and-

The demon tossed a large ebony breastplate onto the forge’s anvil

“Our Lord demands this armor be resized for his current host before the battle begins,” the demon informed as he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and dropped me beside the forge bellows. “You, work these bellows, and you cut some leather straps. Three one and a quarter cubits, and seventeen short tabs for harnice attachments.”

Oh thank god! He’d assumed we were forge assist-

The demon made a gesture with his left hand. The forge roared to life. A pillar of flickering yellow evil erupted from the coals, soaring into the air mere inches from my nose.

EVIL! DANGER! RUN!

I felt my heart seized. This body couldn’t sweat, but it tried to anyways.

THE GREAT ENEMY IS HERE! RUN!

I fell to my knees, chest heaving as I gasped for breath even though my lungs were full.

IT WILL KILL US ALL, YOU FOOL! RUN!

My adoptive parents were always so supportive. They’d been so proud when I chose to become a priestess to keep our people’s ancient traditions alive. Even though the job wasn’t really of any prestige or even paid well. I’d wanted to do it, and so it made them happy to help me achieve that goal. I would miss them so much...

IT WILL CONSUME YOU! WHY ARE YOU STANDING THERE!?

The flames twisted and churned, reaching out hungrily, needily. A true monster, unfeeling, without mercy, existing only to devour everything it touched. I remembered it’s bite far more vividly than I otherwise could as I stared into the flames. I couldn’t let it get me again!

EXACTLY! YOU’RE DYING! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

I turned to flee as fast as I could, the moment of terror having held me in place for as long as it could. Something pulled itself tight around my throat, yanking me away from the eldritch horror which blazed before me.

“Zum Scheiße's Sake!” Lily shouted out loud as he pulled me out of the tent at a full run. “Of course I meet a pyrophobic changeling in a forge! I’m going to have to ask Dusk who's in charge of luck und punch them in the teeth!”

A heartbeat later, an angry roar exploded from the tent. “SPIES! Everyone, to me!” The forge-master bellowed.

Still not as scary as fire… Thank goodness our camp wasn’t near any flame spouts…

“Snap out of it und run!” Lily demanded, still dragging me along with one leg.

Oh. Yes. Running. Running’s good.

I twisted in his grip, managing to get my hooves under myself and lurched into a blind run. My head was still pretty locked up from the face full of fire. Where were we going? I didn’t know. Just follow the white stall… I blinked as I got a look at his hindquarters. Or was that her hindquarters?

No, no. Definitely a his. Everything was just tucked away by decorative piercings. Or was he deluded? Did ponies do gelding? I could see a transgender pony doing it.

Yes. This is extremely preferential to thinking about fire. Let’s focus on this.

Assuming that ponies also experienced gender dysphoria, like humans, but unlike my people, it would make sense for surgical modifications to exist, assuming their magic didn’t have a solution. Which seems unlikely and-

I ran face-first into Lily’s rear end as he came to a dead stop that I hadn’t noticed. The impact snapped me out of the shock, allowing me to notice the ring of a dozen three pony-tall hulking monstrosities which formed a semicircle in front of us. Trapped! Maybe if we went back...

I spun to run the other way. Lily turned with me.

We were blocked on that side too. And that side of the ring had the big minotaur-scorpion in it.

“They gray one is terrified of fire,” he chuckled. “Why don’t we burn them alive?”

Two score hands flexed evilly, conjuring blazing orbs of fire. I shut down. This was the end. It was over.

I could only stand breathless as death itself sped towards me from a dozen different angles. No way to dodge. No way to block. Flesh bubbling death had arrived, as I always knew it would.

The firebolts detonated below me in a blast of heat and light which left a small crater in the ground. Wait, what? I was in the air! How, when, why?

“Guh! How are you two so heavy?” Dash groaned as the ground fell away beneath us.

I looked up, Dash had grabbed me!

“I owe you my life,” I said half to her and half to myself, my voice quavering in terror.

“Not yet you don’t…” She groaned through clenched teeth. “Rear leg still hurts like Tartarus, and you guys are pretty heavy, forelegs burning too. Too much pain to super speed. Subsonic is manageable, just keep still.”

Oh yeah. Her abilities required concentration.

“Before you ask, I don't know how to fly,” Lily said with a worried frown as he looked behind us.

I decided it wasn’t best to look.

“Alter, please… I know you can move yourself with telekinesis. I can’t carry everyone. You need to fly on your own,” Dash begged.

I nodded. “O-okay…”

“Just focus on me. Ignore everything else. You can do it,” Dash insisted. “Ready?”

“No,” I answered truthfully.

“Well, we’re kinda bucked if you don’t,” Dash said urgently. “Because-”

“They can fly faster than Dash can right now!” Lily yelped.

“What he said,” Dash confirmed with a snort nod.

I closed my eyes tight, gathering what mental strength I could. Would it be enough? It had to be.

“Drop me,” I said hesitantly.

Dash let go, I fell a short distance, unable to vocalize a flight spell for several seconds. Then I saw the twenty demons rapidly catching up to us.

“Flauga!” I yelped, crudely forcing the spell along.

I lurched to a halt, suspended in the air by a very poorly controlled aura, its lavender glowing mass sort of bubbling and shimmering. It shouldn’t be doing that. It should be a solid glow with no movement. Like a bodysuit.

I was REALLY out of it. I hadn’t brute forced a spell in decades. Come on, focus damnit! Do you want to die? No! It’s just a little fire…

Better take them out before they use more.

Could I even focus enough to cast a spell right now? Normally yes, but maintaining levitation like this was taxing with my shaken state and-

“Alter! Hurry!” Dash called worriedly.

I turned to follow her, and saw how little of a distance she had covered. She’d wrapped her forelegs under Lily’s shoulders, giving herself a better grip, but she was still pretty much tapped out. Her injury, the actions this morning, lifting the two of us out of danger seconds ago… She needed rest.

The daemons on the other hand, were fresh. Speeding along quickly, and about to catch up with a second wave already on the way.

I had no choice. I had to try something. It had to be crude, effective, and simple. No finess. The opposite of my prefered methods.

Wobbling in the air, I gathered what energy I could muster, and concentrated it into one of my people’s ancient spells. Ancient as in, ‘used by our cave dwelling ancestors’. The arcane equivalent of a big stick.

“Anglát, freohr, dauth!” I intoned, releasing the magic I’d collected in a single pulse.

The wave of energy blasted outwards from my outstretched hoof in a cone of lavender light. It slammed into the oncoming demons, ripping wing membranes, treating scraps of hide and chitin away, abrading their bodies away like soft stone under a sandblaster.

But not for long. And not very much.

A few of them dropped from the sky, unable to keep flying. I plummeted a short distance myself, my flight spell disrupted by the attack thanks to being a crude piece of junk.

I was too shaken to be effective… But fortunately the remaining demons hesitated. They were worried I could kill them. Good! Use the fear to… to…

To just leg it! You’re in no condition to fight anymore today.

I turned, and tucked my legs against my sides, speeding off as quickly as the spell would allow me, which unfortunately was both slow and allowed me to catch up with Dash.

“We’re moving too slow,” I warned as I drew along side her and gave her a worried frown.

She nodded. “I know… We’ll make the camp before they catch us, but-”

“But we won't be able to get away,” I sighed.

Dash nodded. “Not unless you can teleport us. Or if Lily can teleport. Can you?” She asked looking down at the white girly-stallion in her forelegs grip.

“No. But I have the watch my brother gave me, und it has access to the teleport grid. So I could transport myself und one other person at a time,” Lily said with a hopeful simile.

“I tried that earlier,” Dash sighed. “Well, not yours… Mine’s jammed, or broken, or something. Is yours better? Like a custom model or something?”

“I doubt it’s any different from one he gave to his wife’s friends,” Lily mused before reaching down to his side. “I left it in my saddlebags because none of the imps wear anything und I wanted to blend in. Let me just get… it… out… Verdammt!”

Dash and I didn’t bother to say anything. It was clear enough to him that he’d left his bags behind. There didn’t need to be any insults thrown his way.

“We all make mistakes,” I said comfortingly, even though my words rang hollow thanks to knowing we were likely about to die.

“How long until you can teleport us?” Dash asked me desperately.

“Um… Five minutes? It usually takes me that long to get back to a stable state after.. After… You know,” I muttered.

“So, too long,” Dash said bitterly.

I nodded. “Unless Lotus can hold them off for five minutes.”

“Probably not,” I remarked.

“Especially since they now know to use fire on you,” Dash added.

“Yeah… It’s a weakness that’s way less easily exploited when you’re not fighting hellspawn,” I grumbled.

“Um, Dash’s problem is from one of her leg’s being hurt, ja?” Lily asked, his tone carrying a thoughtful sound to it.

“Yeah. Rear left’s got a hole through it,” Dash answered. “I’m exhausted, but I’d have a bit more left if that wasn’t- Oh wow I’m dumb today! Could you fix that, please?”

“Ja,” Lily giggled. “Glad too see I’m not the only pony who can be a bit of an idiot sometimes.”

A heartbeat later a half dozen slim tendrils of light leapt from Lily’s horn and linked to various places across Dash’s body. The spell itself looked rather interesting. I couldn't tell too much about it thanks to the energy being so precisely tuned. There wasn’t anything to grip on to and start an inspection.

That was some top level wizardry.

“Nice!” I complimented, smiling even before I saw Dash’s leg simply knit itself back together as if her body’s own healing sped up to near-instant speeds, and the spell stopped.

Suddenly ‘nice’ didn’t seem sufficient.

“That’s way better,” Dash sighed in relief. “We can run into the swamp, I’ll hold them off while you two take AJ and Lotus and run.”

There was just one problem with that plan…

“Um, yeah, our camp is fire spout free but um…” I pointed out with a worried frown.

“Oh.. yeah…” Dash groaned. “Maybe Lotus and I can hold them off while you charge a teleport.”

“Fireballs,” I pointed out with a wince.

Normally I could deal with a few fireballs. But… Yeah, that blaze right in my face kinda took down my mental defenses for the day.

“Buck! Um, we can.. Um…” Dash cursed in desperation, searching for any answer to the dire situation.

“I am okay with shield spells. I can protect her for a short time,” Lily offered.

“For the whole five minutes?” I asked hopefully.

“Depends on how much they throw at us,” he replied with an embarrassed droop of his ears.

We were out of time to think. The camp was below us. And a glance behind us showed the remains of the first wave of demons were mere meters behind us, talons outstretched to seize us and rip us to pieces.

Thank goodness hurting them pissed them off too much to want to use ranged attacks…

“Screw it! Shield plan it is!” I declared, twisting myself so I’d slam hoof first into the ground and flying down as fast as I dared to drop.

The ground rushed towards me. I saw Lotus, still sitting next to Applejack. To my surprise she’d gotten one of the camp stoves lit and had made a pot of some kind of soup. And made a little leaf pillow to prop her head up. And had gotten her an actual homemade looking fleece blanket from god knows where!

She’d spent the entire time we’d been gone nursing AJ back to health like a caring mom.

Why the hell did she think she was evil again?

Seeing us coming, Lotus yelped and doused the camp stove, clearly remembering I didn’t deal well with fire, but forgetting that a little controlled flame was okay. Then she froze, turned back to the sky, her eyes locking on our pursuers. I touched down just as Lotus had time to react. The succubi reached down, scooped up a rock and threw it at one of the Demons chasing us.

The rock whistled as it shot through the air, reminding me of the sound a fastball makes when pitched by someone who had been chucking rocks their whole life. The rock struck the demon squarely in the head, producing a sound like a sledgehammer hitting a wet paper bag full of mayonnaise.

That demon dropped from the sky, plowing into the dirt second later.

Unfortunately, there were six more in this first wave. And more on the way.

Dash landed, dropping Lily off before taking back to the air and vanishing in a blue blur as she spun to punch one of the remaining attackers.

“Lotus! Help hold them off!” Dash ordered completely unnecessarily.

“It’s fine! We’ve got plenty of rocks!” Lotus snapped as she let another ‘fastball’ fly.

It seemed odd that you could kill a demon by beaning it with a rock.

Lotus’s rock seemed to smoulder as it shot through the air, leaving behind a visible trail of smoke for a brief moment.

Oh. Those were super sonic rocks. Seems legit.

Also don’t piss her off while within line of rock. Er, sight.

A blue dome suddenly enveloped AJ, Lily, and I as the german accented doctor closed his eyes in concentration.

“I can’t hold this long, be quick,” he warned.

I nodded and closed my eyes. Trying to find my center. Or at least, get calm enough where I felt confident I could teleport us without landing someone inside a wall… Because I wasn’t going to recover with this chaos going on right now.

I heard an explosion as something struck the shield, the dull wumph accompanied by a sharp crack, like someone had slapped a glass tabletop too hard.

“Oh…” Lily eeped.

I kept my eyes closed, doing my best to try and remain in a calming state. “How many more can you take?” I asked.

“Three, tops. Those are VERY powerful fireballs,” Lily hissed nervously.

There wasn’t time then. But screw it, I was going to try anyways.

A second fireball exploded against the shield, the cracking sound repeated itself, this time accompanied by a sharp pop.

I had the one ace up my sleeve… Maybe I should use it. Take as many of them with me as I could. Did I have enough clarity to successfully call his name? Would the imbuing of power even work across dimensions?

I took a deep breath, readying my plea. “Ammon’R-”

A blazing lavender light erupted over the top of the shield. Huh, normally it was gold. And centered on me. And-

Oh. Someone had teleported in. I squinted through the shield, only to be confused as I saw the pony who had teleported through had wings. She was just hovering in the air. But… Pegasi didn’t do spells, right?

“Twilight! How the hay did- Nevermind, just get us out of here! Now!” Dash begged. “The whole camp is after us!”

Twilight nodded, turning enough for me to see a horn on her forehead as she cast a spell powerful enough for me to actually feel, which sent a volley of lavender rays into the demons encasing them in a thick sheet of ice.

“Good thing I decided to get you first,” Twilight said with a nervous laugh. “Okay, so there’s you, and Lotus of all ponies, and… Um, is the imp with you?”

“I’m not an imp,” I said as quickly as I could.

“Alter’s a shapeshifter we were in the camp to get Lily,” Dash explained. “More are on their way! Hurry!”

Twilight nodded, her horn blazing again. I felt her spell take hold of me, it was crude and unpolished, but the sheer power put behind it mean that didn’t matter. This was a pony so powerful that she could basically will her spells to work instead of weave the elaborate matrices needed for precision and fine control.

Magic simply obeyed her requests. Lucky girl...

I wondered what she could do with the control boost a normal person would get from the proper methods?

The world flashed lavender for a moment, and the swamp was gone, replaced by a rather pleasant sandstone tiled plaza with four marble fountains, ringed by a hedge maze formed from rose bushes, with a towering white-gold palace stretching up into the sky all around us.

The tonal whiplash that provided was enough for me to miss the fact that there were about a dozen ponies in the plaza besides our group, clustered around a light blue portal which was totally a moongate from the Ultima series.

Why was it a moongate from the Ultima series!? No, no, calm down. It’s not. It’s just a blue rectangle. A simple shape and a common color. A lot of portals probably look like that.

I turned to my left to look around this new place, familiarize myself with the lay out, just incase demons could come after use somehow, like via a teleport tracer. And found myself standing face to face with a gorgeous tall white winged unicorn in kick ass gold armor who had bent down to look me in the eyes while giving me a suspicious death glare.

“Twilight, did you intend to teleport this creature with you?” She asked uneasily.

My eyes widened with fright “Oh! Right!” I yelped, quickly shape shifting back into the pony form I’d made before, including adding my modified costume to myself. “I’m not an imp! I was just shape changed to sneak into their camp! I’m on your side, old friend of Dash’s!”

The white mare blinked several times.

“H-hey!” Twilight exclaimed. “You sound just like me!”

I giggled. In the chaos, I’d forgotten that Dash said I sounded just like her friend.

“Yeah. Dash told me that I do. Weird little coincidence,” I said to her just before my heart suddenly overtook my brain and made me turn back to the white mare. “You’re very pretty!”

“Thank you,” she replied in a very dignified manner, thankfully not making it awkward. “Dash, do you vouch for her? I just want to hear it from you.”

“I do,” Dash said firmly. “I’ll tell you all about her in just a minute. I gotta make sure AJ’s okay first. Lily, do you have enough magic to heal her after that shield spell? I know you have a low reserve.”

Lily nodded professionally. “Ja, I’m ready to go. I’ll need your help holding her down while I work. If she rolls over in reflex or from pain, und the regenerating limb is crimped, it will grow back wrong.”

Dash nodded and trotted over to AJ’s limp form, gently holding her down with her forelegs. “Like this?”

“Ja,” the german accented pony confirmed, a gleam twinkling in his green eye. “Now, let us practice medicine.”

22 - Endgame (Rarity Quest part 4)

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Princess Luna - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Conflict zone - The Dream Realm

I could write a book on the Dream Realm. I would have years and years ago if the study of Dream Magic wasn’t banned. Thing is, it had been banned for good reason. Very good reasons.

I was talented in the school of magic. I had a knack for each and every aspect of the entire school, thousands of years of experience, and I’d STILL fallen prey to one of the Dream Realm’s denizens. I thought that would remain the worst mistake I’d ever make when wielding dream augmented sorcery.

I had been wrong. So very wrong.

Transporting all of Ponyville to the Dream Realm was now my greatest mistake. It wasn’t even a good idea in hindsight a mere three minutes after doing it. I’d taken the city here to prevent it from being destroyed by a monster, and yet…

The sound of a plasma beam ripping through stone rumbled through the air. Every one of the hundred ponies huddled within the castle’s great hall winced in unison.

The city was now being destroyed by countless monsters.

I’d entirely forgotten that the Dream Realm has factions of creatures. In everlasting war. Ponyville had appeared right in the middle of one of their battlegrounds. In a world of ever-shifting terrain with nothing immutable, an entire city full of creatures appearing from nothing was commonplace, normal. The ‘good’ creatures had thought nothing of it.

On the other hand, the Nightmares wanted the food which had just arrived. Which made the "good" creatures realize that there was in fact food in the "water", thus the battle around us just got that much worse.

Sparkle and I had held them off for some time. We had help, of course, but against truly endless numbers… Even Dusk’s assistance couldn’t do much. Her powers were tied to our own universe. The goddess’s powers didn’t replenish as she used them. At the moment, she was nothing more than the earth pony she enjoyed shaping herself as.

The Trixies were out of ammunition, and there wasn’t enough food to replenish their magical reserves, nor stamina. My knights had fought until they simply couldn’t stand. I’d fought on even longer.

Because it was my fault we were here, the survivors, huddled inside Twilight’s castle while everything outside burned. Waiting for my spell to end as nothing I’d done could reverse it.

I’d nearly gotten everypony I’d tried to save killed. This was far worse than arrogantly assuming I could control a Nightmare's power. Especially with the deal I’d had to strike to save the few ponies we could fill the castle with.

She’d offered to protect one building. Twilight’s castle was the biggest. We’d fit perhaps a quarter of Ponyville into it. Hardly enough… But my knights and I were relatively certain we’d saved eighty percent of those who were trapped outside the castle.

I lifted my head and frowned. I was rested. I had to head back outside now. The waring ethereal creatures could be kept at bay. I had to continue to minimize the disaster I’d caused.

I wonder how Celestia will take it when I tell her I teleported Ponyville into a warzone?

It won't be good. Best case scenario I get the crown stripped from me. Oh, Faust… Did I subconsciously do this in the hopes of her removing my political responsibilities!? Please let that not have been a factor! I-

A golden shimmering light drifted up through the floor in front of me, immediately drawing all of my attention as it warped itself into a pegasus shaped silhouette I’d become so familiar with over the last few days.

The Reverie who refused to be called anything other than Sweet Dreams, a pony name.

“Is there a problem, Dreams?” I asked worriedly, ears falling back slightly.

While I was grateful she’d hidden the castle from her kin, and from her enemies… I was very uneasy about her condition for providing that help.

Dreams shook her head. “No, good news in fact! Your spell is lifting, you can see the very edges of town starting to peel away,” she answered, enlarging her ears and flicking them energetically to substitute the smile she couldn’t make without a mouth.

Ah… Then it was time.

“I understand… I’m not… I’m not fully okay with this,” I admitted with a long sigh.

“Are you backing out? Really!? After I’ve already done my side of the bargain?” Sweet demanded with anger and fear in equal measure.

“No!” I replied instantly. “But I’m certain you can understand why I don’t want to be puppeted, AGAIN.”

“I promise I won't stay in you longer than the trip requires. Nightmare Moon escaped this realm through you, and so I can too. But I don’t want to keep your body, I have other plans,” Dreams said pleadingly.

Again.

“Yes, so you claim, but you haven't even told me what those plans are! I need some reassurance that I’m not unleashing a monster on the whole kingdom to save one town! I agreed to help you out of desperation, I didn’t have time to think,” I explained, my own ears perking as I begun to sense my spell ending as well.

Dreams stood still for a moment, then scuffed the floor with a forehoof in a rather adorable way.

“I… I was born from the dream of a pony in Canterlot. Reveries are created from the most intense positive dreams… We… We follow our creators around. Watch them. Sometimes we visit,” Dreams said bashfully.

Ah. Yes, that was true. One pony could create hundreds, if not thousands, of dream entities through their lifetimes, and they did compete to make their creator experience, well, just them for the rest of time. It's how they fed.

I think I got it now. “And you want to visit your creator in the waking world?” I asked curiously.

Dream’s wings twitched. “N-no. I want to live with her. I um… I’m the product of her dream for the perfect marefriend. Making me the embodiment of the concept of someone who is perfect for her. She lives in the Crystal Empire now. I intend to possess a latex bodysuit and move in with her.”

I felt my brow raise in surprise. “Uh, why a bodysuit?”

“Because I’m perfectly matched to her desires, and that’s what she wants. A mate made of living latex who can be worn if desired. I am that desire made manifest, and I have found a path to deliver it to her as more than a hallucination as she sleeps,” Dreams explained simply. As if I’d asked why the sky was blue. “I don't want to take over your world, our possess your body. I just want to take my creator’s dreams and make them real for her, because nothing else can.”

I paused for a moment, looking over my shoulder at the scared huddled mass of civilians behind me. We had moments left here, but even just one moment of Dreams protection being taken away would be enough to get them all killed. Or for their own dreams to warp them…

And even if it wasn’t, Dream’s goal did seem logical. But-

“If it helps, Nightmare Moon was your Nightmare,” Dreams blurted worriedly.

I blinked. “E-excuse me?”

“Nightmare Moon was your Nightmare. She was born from you. From your fears of hurting ponies, you've protected. Nightmares seek their hosts too. The only reason she turned you into a conquering warlord is because that’s what she was. The embodiment of the concept of you turning evil.

“I’m just a kinky mare’s sexy dream, pretty potent from the emotions involved in my creation, but well, I don't CARE about hurting anything. Or anyone. I couldn't care about that if I wanted to. I don’t want anything to do with you. Except to use you as my door out of this place where I can’t help the only person I care about.”

That likely would have phased me a decade ago. But not now. Not after years of suspecting that the Nightmare was tailored specifically to me. Its torments had been too perfect for anything else.

“Exactly how do you know about Nightmare Moon?” I asked with an accusing glare.

Dreams rolled her head. “How do I know about the most famous dream in all of this realm? Humm, I can’t see why the story of the one of us who escaped would be a thing we all hear at least once,” she snarked.

“Fair enough… Get in,” I said apprehensively.

The golden light dimmed slightly as it moved towards me. I could feel the dream creature sliding into my mind like an oily mass of pinecones. The true insanity of which was that it didn’t hurt, it felt like I should be in debilitating pain, but I was not. The paradox generated almost as much horror as the thought of giving up my free will again.

The spell continued to fade out, I could sense the last few seconds of its duration about to expire. Sweet Dreams had made it inside just in time. If I could look to my left I’d see the energy wave collapse as that wall was closest to the edge of the displaced zone.

I turned my head left to look.

I turned MY head left to look!

“Y-you didn’t take over my mind!” I exclaimed in shock.

Dreams said gently. <It’s all... Nightmarey in here. I can see why you were so opposed to this. She did some damage here. I’m sorry this happened to you.>

“I’m sorry I doubted you,” I said with a relieved smile. “I honestly wa-

The wall of energy slammed into me as the spell collapsed, washing over the room almost like a tsunami. You could feel the magic slam into you and push, hard! Hard enough to force you through the dimensional wall, to pop back into reality with a sharp snap and a punch to the gut.

Several ponies threw up as we materialized, unable to take the rough transition. I staggered, my weary body almost falling over before I could brace myself upright by pushing against a pillar with my left wing.

“Is everypony alright? We should be back to the waking world now,” I called loudly.

A chorus of sickly moans answered me.

“Stupid question… Sorry,” I apologized, laughing nervously.

It felt odd to be back. Like the disaster should have followed us home.

<That’s actually a thing to check on…> Dreams mused. <Before I hop out, would you please go to a window and make sure nothing was dragged here with us?>

I blinked. “Yes, I can absolutely do that. Also, how much of my thoughts can you see?” I asked while quickly pushing through the crowd of frightened, weary, and uneasy ponies as I moved towards the door.

The closest window was the balcony one floor up from the great hall. Not too far of a walk and I was too tired to teleport.

<All of them,> Dreams replied simply and honestly.

I’d expected that… The Nightmare had been able to see them all too.

“Y-you won’t tell anypony anything, right?” I asked hopefully.

<Luna, I’m a sexual fantasy. It’s not like I’m judging you,> Dreams laughed. <Well, I am. And I like you! You seem fun.>

“It’s more than those thoughts and memories. Everything in my head is to remain private. Please,” I ordered, thought politely.

Sweet Dreams had proven herself to be an ally. Even if she did require payment for her services. There was no need for me to be rude to her.

<Oh! Sure, I won't say a thing… Is that a common fear of pon- Oh. Yes, I can see that it is. May I copy some of your memories? Not personal ones, just basic facts, cultural details, that sort of thing,> Dreams asked politely. <It won't take me any time at all.>

“So long as it’s only those things,” I replied as I pushed the doors open and turned towards the staircase.

My messenger gem suddenly glowed a light blue. I had everypony turn theirs to ‘alert first’ as the Nightmares would come running at the sound of a mortal voice. It’s a good thing somepony called or I would have forgotten to turn that off.

I picked up the gem with a shaky telekinetic grip, and gave it a light squeeze, accepting the message. “This is Moonb-”

“LUNA!” Celestia’s voice exclaimed in a mixture of fear, love, rage, desperation, and joy. “Where have you been! I swear to Faust, if you have been at the Emeralds this entire time to sleep with that mare you like, I will personally slap you into next week! I thought you were dead! I’ve been calling you every hour for the last week! WHERE ARE YOU!?”

Ohhhh… Something bad happened.

Did the Everfree- Of course! The Everfree and that monster would have grown over the Ponyville are after I moved it. Fortunately, anything caught in the displacement area would have been atomized when we returned, leaving us some breathing room. Though admittedly, if she knew or believed I had been in Ponyville it would have looked like I died.

“I’m out of mana, starving, and I need to sleep for at least a full day and night, but I’m alive. I’m in Twilight’s castle,” I answered frowning steeply. “What’s wro-”

“Twilight’s castle? But Ponyville was disintegrated!” Celestia objected.

“No… I stupidly moved it into the Dream Realm to prevent it from being destroyed by a monster… It didn’t work. We materialized in the middle of one of the designated battlegrounds. Most of the city is in ruins… Maybe seventy percent of the population is still alive,” I reported wearily. “We need as many medical personnel as possible. The local hospital is gone. We could also use anyone adept at removing curses. A good number of ponies experienced some… Changes.”

Celestia remained silent for several long moments. With each moment that ticked by, my face pulled into a bigger and bigger grimace. I knew that Celestia had to be livid with me. I’d just caused the most deaths of Equestrians in three hundred years…

“Luna, how long have you been back for?” Celestia asked with an urgency which made the fur on the back of my neck stand up.

This was her war voice. What was going on? What had I missed? If I missed Chrysalis again… Somehow...

“About a minute,” I answered. Keeping things as succinct as I could.

It was critical for me to be quick. I could tell that much by Tia’s tone of voice.

“Listen closely. Twilight’s castle is on the edge of town closest to Canterlot. You might stand a chance,” Celestia said half to me, half to herself. “Gather everypony and run. Head towards Hollow Shades. DO NOT come to Canterlot. White Tail Woods is occupied by a hostile invading army. Get through them as quickly as possible. Do not go to the Gaian’s compound for help. They are under siege.

“I don’t care how dumb you think moving the town was, Luna. You’ve saved the lives of everypony with you because Ponyville was their beachhead for this invasion. You're literally right in the middle of occupied territory right now. Canterlot is currently under siege and the first battle will start at any minute. I can’t help you.

“If you don’t get out of there right now, every single pony will die. Just as they would have if you didn’t move the town. The enemy wants nothing more than to kill us all. Literally. That’s it. This is a war of extermination. Take everypony and run. Now.”

I felt myself turn white as a sheet at my sister's words.

“Tia… I’m sorry,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “No pony here is in any shape to run. Not even me. We’ve been fighting nonstop for the last week. I- I love you, Tia. Goodbye.”

I switched off the gem, blinking tears out of my eyes. We were all going to die.

<Like heck you are,> Sweet Dreams objected.

That was true. Especially from the perspective of someone who focused more on the spirit of the law and not the letter. Another sign I’d made the right choice. But how could Sweet Dreams help?

“Can you hide the keep from them too?” I asked, my thoughts turning to my knights, who were currently stationed around town outside the keep. Either keeping watch or guarding ponies who would not fit inside the keep, or couldn’t have moved to it even if they wanted to.

<No, that trick will only work on things like me. But there is something I can do for you,> Dreams offered.

“What is it?” I asked suspiciously.

<Calm down. It’s nothing I’ll need more payment for. It’s just that I think you’d object to me remaining in your head for a week or two while I recover,> Dreams half-explained.

My eyes narrowed in irritation, and Dreams responded to my thoughts before I could voice them.

<I could give you my own energy, restore your stamina and magic to…about a quarter of their full capacity. But if I do, I’ll be too tired to leave you, and I won't be at full strength for a week at the soonest, which I will need to be in order to pursue my goal,> Dreams elaborated.

“Is that all?” I asked.

<That’s all,> she answered.

That was a very small price to pay for possibly ensuring no more ponies died this day.

“Do it,” I ordered.

I immediately felt my eyes dilate, widening as far as they could go. I still felt tired, but I also felt like somepony had stuck a cider funnel down my throat and made me chug a six liter espresso followed by a few cans of Manathirst and a bottle of Pega-Speed. The exhaustion was there, but my body didn’t care about such trivial things at the moment.

I was going to pay for this in the morning...

<Done,> Dreams said, her voice a mere whisper laced with a yawn.

“This is NOT a quarter of my power,” I yelped, left eye twitching with the excess energy.

It was more like one and a half times.

<I’m sorry is it less? I’m really bad at math,> Dreams yawned.

I was about to reply when I noticed I could see the balcony ahead of me. I knew it wasn’t safe out there now, but the exact nature of the threat was still a mystery to me. That was some intel I needed to know immediately.

Stepping over to the window, I pushed it open took one look at the mass of enemy tents and war standards made from living crucified ponies, and nodded to myself.

“Yep… This is slightly worse,” I muttered.

<I’d say slightly better,> Dreams disagreed.

While that was debatable, I didn’t have time to argue about it.

I grabbed my messenger gem, ignoring the question. “Lunar Knights: Girls, we’re not out of the woods yet. We’ve gone from one war zone to another. Evacuate EVERYONE to the keep. I’ve got a bit of energy left, but I’m just one mare. I can’t cover you all out there. With any luck, Celestia will send reinforcements. Good luck.”

Dreams may have been bad at math, but she had given us a quarter of a chance at surviving this. At least that twenty-five percent had gone somewhere.

Gone somewhere… Didn’t Sky’s house have a teleport pad?

Rarity - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Space - The Final Frontier

I knew I’d spent at least ten minutes staring out the open airlock at the world below. I knew that I had other things to do, but they felt… Small. Not unworthy of doing, nor unimportant. My mission to return home was just as important as ever but there was a feeling.

I didn’t know how to describe it succinctly. Standing here, above the sky, looking down on the world in its entirety. There were no borders, no nations, no cultures. Just one place, a single unified land. I saw the world as a singular island in an ocean.

Twilight’s lectures on astronomy had given me knowledge of other planets, but I’d never understood the scope before. My entire life had been spent on one small bit of earth, atop a single rock. Every mission, every horror, every honor, all took place there. In a place so small.

The world was infinitely larger than I had ever thought. Then I could have ever understood before.

There was more I could do for the world. More that I should do. I could put my talents to use in other places, places which would help everyone. We all lived such a small distance apart from one another. We are all neighbors. It was the right thing to do.

“Woah!” Indy suddenly exclaimed, his avatar’s face crinkling in surprise. “Uh, Rarity, do your people possess Ifitian Slip Drive technology?”

The question pulled me out of my trance, making me shake my head slightly. “Humm? Whatian slipping?” I asked stupidly.

“Oh… Did you get the full Overview Effect? I’m sorry to break you out of that. I just, I picked up a massive spacial displacement below us,” Indy informed with a confused frown. “The signature is extremely similar to one of the Empire’s allies drive technologies. It sort of punched holes in space to teleport city-sized ships anywhere they wished.”

I shook my head. “No, we don’t have anything like that. We can teleport but the world record for moving things is seven tons of material,” I replied, turning my head to look back out the open airlock. “How is the air staying in here?”

“Forcefield,” Indy said rather distractedly. “I hate my main reactor being offline… These backup sensors are the worst thing ever. Got to get line of sight to anything I want to see close u- Oh.”

The sound of his ‘oh’ was composed with equal measures of hatred, fear, and sadness.

“What happened?” I asked, turning towards his draconic avatar as the projection warped, transforming into a topographical map of- Ponyville!

My eyes widened as I noticed the entire city lay in ruins. Everything but Twilight’s keep, Azur’s clinic, Pinkie’s house, and the Spa was burned, blasted, or otherwise at least half destroyed. The true horror was I could make that out from the fuzzy, still zooming in and resolving image that Indy could display. If it was that bad now, what would it be like to walk the streets? How many lay dead?

“Do you have power plants that use Osmium? This could have been a core breach,” Indy mused with genuine sadness. “If so they’ll need anti-rads. If we wait for another orbit I can fabricate a few thousand doses of- That’s a war camp!”

My eyes pulled away from the blasted remains of my home to the small collection of tents I’d overlooked. They rested on the south side of Ponyville and were arranged in a perfect square around an orange glowing portal.

I blinked. Orange portal? The only time you ever used a portal was to travel between dimensions. Like to the Mirror World, Opposite Equestria, or-

“Tartarus!” I yelped, my tail standing upright in alarm.

“That didn’t translate, was that a curse word?” Indy asked, sounding completely lost.

“Yes! It’s also a place,” I said as I felt a burning anger build up deep within my stomach. “A place full of horrible, evil monsters. Princess Celestia has been banishing the worst criminals there for millennia. Like Tirek! He’s escaped again… And raised Ponyville. Because of Twilight…”

Indy was quiet for several minutes while I stared at the projection.

“This is your home, isn’t it?” He asked apprehensively.

I nodded.

The map projection vanished, replaced by Indy’s brass colored draconic avatar in order for him to pull me into a tight hug. I returned the hug with my mechanical arm, and closed my eyes.

“We need to stop him. Right now. Before anypony else is drained… Last time he almost took over the entire country,” I warned.

“I understand. What is this Tirek capable of?” Indy asked. “We’ll need to formulate a plan of attack. We could just hit him with a Cyclonic torpedo from up here but if we don’t need that much firepower I’d rather not destroy a large chunk of your biosphere.”

I felt the anger in me turn into a steely resolve. I DID have the power to stop him. And I would. I would stop him forever. Imprisoning a monster which could destroy the entire world in the same place he’d escaped from once was a horrible idea. He needed to die. Now. For the safety of everyone, pony or otherwise.

“He’s a fiendish centaur with the ability to steal magic from other creatures and-”

“WAIT!” Indy suddenly exclaimed. “Warcamp ground level now in focus. Potential enemy presence located! Analyzing…”

I turned to look into his face just in time to see it twist into the single most wrathful glower I’d ever seen in my life. The expression was instantly followed by a klaxon’s wailing, the hanger’s lights dimming, and hidden red lights flicking on everywhere.

“It’s not Tirek,” Indy spat. “Red alert! Demonic troops spotted in a civilian area. All pilots scramb… ble… Oh… Yeah…”

The rage melted into pure endless despair as his call to arms trailed off. Righteous didn’t have to say anything, I knew. The things below were the creatures which had driven his people to extinction. And they’d just destroyed Ponyville. Whatever they were. It was our turn.

“You were saying something about torpedos?” I asked encouragingly.

“That won’t matter. When they attacked us they appeared everywhere at once. It’s too late… You’re probably the last,” Indy said, his voice clearly holding in a sob.

“Are you certain?” I asked, a fearful frown pulling my cheeks tight. “Can you look around?”

“I- well yes,” he answered going quiet for a few moments before his draconic muzzle split in a cruel smile. “Well well… It looks like they are only in this town, the nearby settlements are clear, or mounting a defense against them. It would seem like they have to move traditionally.”

I felt my heart lift a little at his words. “Then can we do anything to stop them? I’ll bet that if we dropped Sophia in the middle of their camp we could do more than enough to stop them.”

Indy let go of me and shook his head as she started to pace the hanger deck. “No. The MBTs are long range surface transports, mobile command centers, and field artillery. While they can be used against small numbers of infantry, massed infantry formations will overwhelm them. I have data on these monsters, Miss Rarity. They CAN wear down shields rather quickly and that's Sophia's primary defense.”

Fair enough… “Alright, what about um…” I paused, looking around the hangar before settling on the sleek-needle like aircraft. “Those jets?”

“The Mark CVI Pegasus requires a trained pilot to fly even with an AI’s assistance… It also really should have a different name considering how it’s the hundred and sixth iteration from the original and looks nothing like it. Also, they run on Osmium and yeah… That’s all decayed now,” Righteous grumbled, still pacing.

I nodded again and continued to look around. “Perhaps those boxy looking mechs?” I asked.

I’d seen Sky’s mechs before. Those things could do quite a lot of damage. Even when he wasn’t trying to fight things. It’s why Twilight refused to ask for his help anymore.

“Those would work,” Indy agreed. “But the Madcats are designed for boarding another starship and disabling it from within. Most of their arsenal is nuclear. While certainly not the most dangerous weapons we could have put on them, they do kinda make a mess of planet-sized areas. As in, they are safe in space, but on the ground, they have the unfortunate side effect of rendering large swaths of land uninhabitable for decades. The end result of using their missile racks to depletion would be slightly less destructive than using a torpedo.”

I grimaced. Fluttershy would kill me if I did that to the place her animal friends lived… Well, assuming any were still alive at all. And assuming she was alive.

“D-do we have any other options?” I asked worriedly, realizing that my friends could have BEEN there when Ponyville was attacked. “And I REALLY need to get down there, as quickly as possible! All of my communicators are gone and I have no idea if my friends were back when this happened or not!”

Oh my! My friends likewise had no idea if I was there when this happened! There’s no way Celestia hadn’t seen this from Canterlot! They might think I was dead.

“Option one,” Indy began. “I glass the site from orbit with the space to ground batteries. With the main engines offline I can’t G-pin, meaning I can’t line up perfect shots. There’s no way for me to avoid civilian casualties. Particularly with anyone fleeing the site via the air.”

I winced. “Yes, and my friends could be down there.”

Indy nodded. “I know. Option Two: I shut down all systems save the computer core and one primary turret and try to nail the portal while you chill inside a shuttle because if want to even get close to enough energy to power up the big guns to the minimum required to fire the lowest powered shot, I’ll have to cut life support.”

“Would that destroy the portal?” I asked hopefully.

“Maybe? I expect it would, but it could also just go right through it. Cuz you know, portal. Depends on if the energy of the blast can interfere with the energy of the portal,” Indy elaborated with a shrug.

I frowned. “Right, that’s not the best idea either then…”

He nodded once more. “Option Three, we load some high yield torpedoes and send as much ordinance into the camp as we can without causing too much collateral. Downside we won't destroy any of the demons outside of the camp, and the residue energy, particulates, and any unexploded warheads will make the town uninhabitable for at least forty years if we drop enough of a payload to ensure we kill all of those monsters.”

“None of those are good options,” I sighed rubbing my right temple with a hoof in frustration.

“I know… If I had primary power online we’d have more options,” Indy said flatly. “But I don’t. So we need to work with what we have. If I could power on the Aegis I would, but it ALSO runs on Osmium.”

“The what?” I asked curiously.

“The Aegis. My old Captain’s personal mech. It’s actually intended for mass infantry combat. It’s more of a heavy power armor than a mech. But it doesn't matter because it’s a useless hunk of metal right now,” Indy grumbled. “I HATE not having the right tool…”

I looked around the hanger again, this time even looking up there was anything on the ceiling. Nope, just the same six compartments from before.

“Where is it?” I asked curiously. “I can’t see any other vehicles. Do we have more options than just these?”

“It’s deployed via the torpedo tube like a drop pod, along with its support pods,” Indy explained, pointing with one talon downwards. “It’s under our feet. Talons. Hooves! Ugh! You know what I mean.”

I nodded and went to think back on our three options. Which one would cause the least harm to everypony, but be the most effective? What could we do-

I blinked, the seed of an idea forming in my mind. Wouldn’t a ship have spare power cells for its stuff?

“Indy, what exactly is Osmium? You’ve never told me,” I asked curiously. “Is it a mineral? Or a crystal?”

“It’s a crystalline substance, yes,” he replied hesitantly. “Why? What’s it matter right now?”

“Well, it occurred to me that there HAS to be some spare Osmium onboard. You don’t go on a trip without spare batteries,” I pointed out.

“Sure, there’s plenty,” Indy answered immediately. “Thing is, it’s useless. It decayed. In order to power things, Osmium must be mostly composed of one particular isotope, at least ninety-six percent pure. When it is, you get this harmonic resonance which puts out more energy than you get with an anti-matter reaction.

“Over time that isotope decays into one of the mundane varieties of Osmium and becomes useless unless you want fountain pen tips, instrument pivots, needles, or electrical contacts. Or if you just like a silvery blue metal lump for decoration.”

I blinked and took a step back in surprise. “I but- Does it rust?” I asked quickly.

“No,” he replied, raising one eyebrow. “Why?”

“It’s a very hard, very dense silvery blue metal which doesn't rust and is able to hold and release massive amounts of power?” I asked again just for clarification.

“Yes,” Indy replied again.

“That’s Arcanite!” I exclaimed excitedly.

“So your people DO know about it?” Righteous asked eagerly. “That will make it easier to get some later- Oh! Could your government get some together quickly? We could pick it up in a shuttle, power me up fully and THEN we could-”

“There is absolutely no need for that,” I said shaking my head rapidly. “How much do you need to use? BY mass?”

“Wait, you can make some with magic!?” Indy asked, his eyes almost popping out of his head.

I laughed, despite the dire circumstances the thought of me being that powerful was truly hilarious.

“No! Don’t be silly,” I said, trying to hold back more laughter. “Arcanite in its pure state will act as a well and draw in ambient thaumaturgic current, but less pure grades won't do it without a little prompting. Because it’s ridiculously expensive, even Twilight has problems getting her hooves on pure Arcanite. But even the ‘decayed’ stuff will work just fine, it only needs to be given a bit of a charge every once in awhile.

“My sewing machine uses a tiny sliver of arcanite as the power supply. I need to give it a fresh charge once a month to keep it stable so it can draw in ambient energy. I don't have much power, but if you could work on say, a kilogram, I could charge it for you.”

“I require about a ton to operate,” Indy said, crushing my hopes instantly. “But, the Aegis only needs point six two kilograms to fire up the main reactor, and if the energy arcanite produces can be used to replenish other pieces…”

“You could use me to jumpstart the mech, and the mech to jumpstart you!” I said with a satisfied grin.

Sky would be proud of me for this one!

“Yes… But that would take hours, and we need to act within minutes. The Aegis is the perfect tool for this job. We will deploy in it immediately!” Indy decided only to hesitate and turn to look me in the eyes. “Wait! Will this hurt you?”

I blushed as I saw just how much concern for me was in his eyes. “I won't be able to cast any complex spells for at least twenty-four hours. I might regain telekinesis before then, but this will take everything I have. Aside from feeling physically weak, there’s no danger in depleting your mana.”

That was a bit of an understatement. This was a little dangerous. But I didn’t want the poor drake to worry.

“Other than being vulnerable to harm?” Indy asked with a wince.

I nodded, frowning. “Well yes. But we need to do something other than just kill everything below!”

“I agree. But I can’t accept any lag time if I am both fighting the demons and safeguarding you. Captain, I formally request permission to put my hull into autopilot and board the Aegis with you,” Righteous demanded.

I blinked, but he cut off my question. “Yes. I can do that. I have a physical body of sorts. Remember?” He chuckled.

“Will you be able to get back into this ship?” I asked as worry filled my voice as well.

“Yes. And I can remote control my hull from the Aegis, if necessary, I could dispatch a shuttle to retrieve myself,” he informed.

“Then, if you really think it’s necessary, permission granted,” I decided with a short nod.

“Excellent! The core is not too far from the torpedo tube,” Indy informed, his avatar vanishing as a small hatch in the floor slid open with a sharp hiss. “We’ll likely end up there at the same time. Take that hatch down. Second door on your left. I will be unresponsive while exiting the core. Sorry.”

“That’s alright,” I said as I began to trot to the hatch.

No one replied. That honestly felt terrifying.

“I-Indy?” I asked hesitantly.

Again, nothing.

I slipped inside the hatch with a growing feeling of unease pressing down on me. It wasn’t until I’d reached the somewhat cramped pony-high corridor below the ladder that I realized why.

I actually liked having the constant companionship Indy provided. I’d always been something of an extrovert, and having a person with me for days on end who was nothing but kind and caring had been lovely.

What did it mean when you missed someone after they’d been gone for only a few seconds?

Shaking my head I continued down the corridor, wondering why bipeds would make a hallway so small they would have to crawl through it. Did they have pony sized friends who were afraid of large spaces or-

Or this is a crawlspace… And you’re just tall enough to walk normally in it because they are bigger than you are. That was a bit of a dive into the Pinkie side of ‘logic’, Rarity…

It took me perhaps a minute to reach the second door on my left side. It was easy to spot, the door was open and the large room beyond it was definitely a torpedo bay. I may not have been familiar with military vessels. But there’s only so many things a large device designed to take cylindrical things from a stack and put them into a trough in the floor then slide them into a tube in the wall can possibly be.

I stepped out of the crawlspace and began to look around the room. Most of the space was occupied by stacks of large cylindrical devices of many lengths, secured with simple metal clips to keep them in ordered stacks. I was willing to bet that the perfect tube look of each one was simply a casing to protect the weapon inside from debris, fire, and impacts.

After all, you wanted fins on your missiles. I learned that much from complaining to Sky that his missiles would look much better without fins.

There was, however, three things to truly marvel at. One of which was the large chute which came down from the floor above which had a row of Drop Pods stacked in it. I hadn’t really gotten a good look at one before. They looked like olive green gemstones cut into the shape of a teardrop using as large of a facet as possible.

The next I initially thought were nine different missiles the size of me in different shapes, but quickly realized they were, in fact, three missiles each three times my size. Whatever those were, they were considered too dangerous to store in a completed state. An array of interactive robotic arms rested next to the almost-completed warheads. Ready to finish constructing them just before firing.

The third could only be the Aegis. It didn’t fit with the military industrial look of anything on this undecorated deck. It was big, so big that I was certain I would fit in the chest, with the arms and legs completely mechanical, but not so big that it felt like a mech. There was just enough space for something my size to sit down in its chest. Which now that I thought about it, a pony rearing up was basically the same height a human would have been.

I could see why Indy had called it heavy Power armor. This was an odd thing. Halfway between a suit of armor and a vehicle.

Just like how it a was halfway between a suite of Classical Period full plate and a Neighponese drawing of a robot expressly designed to look "badflank". A thorough mix of functional looking angles and curves designed to deflect projectiles and stop direct strikes mixed with an aesthetic based on what I presumed was human iconic imagery.

At least, I assumed the sculpted clamshell-like pauldrons and sallet helmet meant to evoke an overall minimalist yet elegant look, which combined with the way the armor stood in its rack with its arms crossed over a long sword was meant to be iconic.

It screamed ‘protector’. The stance, the look. The armor also looked vaguely female; graceful, sleek, and curved. It also held a "tough as nails" quality close at heart, as indicated by the sword's edges which looked as if they had been coated in a shimmering, rolling, almost fluid material to look cooler. It worked, it definitely looked cool, and I wasn't into weapons.

The ‘helmet’ helped solidify that impression, as it featured a sculpted in mouth and chin, as if the armor’s head had a helmet of its own, one which covered the head and upper face but left the nose down free. It reminded me of a Zebrican Death Mask, to be honest.

It had to have been modeled in the user’s likeness. Not just the face, but the entire suit. Indy had said that you had to be a noble to be a captain, and this looked like something a wealthy noble would purchase. Especially with it’s white with gold trim color scheme, and the crest painted on the pauldrons.

I reared up to get a better look at the crest, curious as to what exactly it was supposed to be.

To my delight, my mechanical eye zoomed in on the crest, magnifying the image for me, and then quickly remapping it to a flat ‘panel’ so I could see it dead on instead of from this odd angle.

“Okay… I’d be a very foolish pony if I got rid of these enhancements,” I declared.

I would have to get some more elegant pieces designed for me. While I knew Indy could make better things, I’d have to have Sky make me some parts just to see what he could think up. Maybe I could get them to collaborate! Have Indy design the skin, and get Sky to do the rest of it.

After all, if Sky could integrate a teleportation system into a wristwatch-sized device…

Ooo! I could get one of his VR helmets built into my eye and use that to show myself how any part of my projects would look before I'd cut the material. Maybe I could even test designs before making one, to see how they would look in motion!

Yes. I like this plan. Let's make it happen!

A slight squishing sound from the hatch made me jump. Spinning around, eyes wide with fright, I found myself face to face with a pony sized pale blue translucent blob of… Gel?

The gel paused, dipping in on itself slightly as if embarrassed before oozing into the room, moving around me at a respectable distance as it flowed towards the Aegis.

“Um, I-Indy? Is that you?” I asked worriedly.

The gel stopped, contracted twice as if nodding, and then quickly oozed up the side of the Aegis. A small hidden iris hatch hissed open as it reached the belly plate, and the gel quickly oozed its way inside. The Aegis’s eyes flickered, lighting up blue as the iris hatch slid shut.

“Integrating AGI unit. Standby...” A flat synthetic female voice announced.

Huh. So it was Indy.

“I… I have a really hard time as seeing you as anything other than a dragon. I thought you had a dragon shape for everything,” I laughed nervously. “That looked like something out of Invasion of the Space Ooze.”

A few moments passed, and then Indy’s voice came from the light mech. “Sorry! I haven’t been out in… Um… A geological age. I forgot how to form a shaped body. That's not programmed, it's learned. Sorry for walking through the room naked like that,” he chuckled.

“Why would you apologize for that? Most everypony prefers to forego clothing,” I reminded.

“I know, I was trying a joke. But it failed,” Indy explained. “Okay. Here’s how this goes. The core armor here is currently hooked into the ship's power systems to keep it's self repair module online. The reactors which provide shields, flight, and weapon power are housed in the backpack module. It’s on the wall over there.”

The pearlescent white and gold armor hummed slightly as it extended one hand to point across the room.

I looked over to see a large pack with two metallic sculpted feathered wings folded neatly behind it. The pack itself was fairly sleek. Little more than two cubic meters by my best guess, and sculpted to fit onto the back of the armor and have as minimal a profile as possible.

“This looks like a very expensive suit,” I said out loud as the backpack’s outer skin split open, revealing the complex circuitry inside, along with three small chambers which must be the reactors.

“Yes. There were never more than eighty-nine of these made. They were prohibitively expensive even for us,” Indy stated honestly.

“A-and you just happen to have one?” I asked suspiciously.

“No. My captain did. Her family owned all of them,” he said simplistically. “I’ll need you to recharge the central reactor core. I don't open those up. Can you do it through the core’s casing?”

I nodded. “Yes. I don’t have to open my sewing machine to charge it… Why would her family be able to afford all of them? Were they the inventors? Owned the mine which the materials came from?”

“No,” Indy replied as I trotted up to the. “I mentioned how we expected ALL of our nobles to have a record of military service, right?”

I nodded and began to concentrate on the simple recharge spell. It would be trickier than normal since I was putting all of my energy into it. I wasn't Twilight. I couldn't just blast things with a firehose of magic.

“Well, all means all. And my Captain’s mother expected her to not only serve, but to have a glowing combat record full of personal glory, valor, and all that. It's why she got me instead of a battleship. If you win when the deck’s stacked in your favor it’s not a sign of your skill, it’s a sign of your wealth.

“That wasn’t acceptable. But neither was risking her life recklessly. So she got her armor early. Guess what Rachel didn’t take with her aboard the Phoenix?”

I blinked. “It sounds like you’re saying she was the heir to a noble house,” I remarked as I released my spell.

I immediately regretted it. The arcanite was very much depleted in charge. It hungrily gobbled up everything I could possibly give it. Sapping my strength in a matter of moments, leaving me feeling like I hadn’t slept in a full day.

“Ugh…” I groaned, looking up at the core hopefully. And dizzily.

The core hummed lightly. A small green light next to the spherical container winked on.

“Core power… Is at seventy-five percent!” Indy exclaimed excitedly. “You really could do it! This is the most amazing thing I- Oh! Are you alright? Do you need coffee?”

“I’ll be okay,” I reminded, turning to offer Indy a small grin. “Just get me inside please.”

“Of course,” he answered immediately. “Let me just deactivate the biometrics so it doesn't get mad that someone else is climbing in… There we go!”

The armor’s chest split apart, retracting in on itself to reveal a compartment just big enough to sit comfortably in inside the armor’s chest and upper stomach. Indy made the armor kneel, and then gingerly reach out, pick me up, and place me into the state. Immediately a very soft set of restraints crossed over my barrel and chest, tightening to the point where I wouldn’t be able to get free of the seat if I wanted to.

“Eeep!” I yelped reflexively.

“Just a crash harness. Sorry, I figured you’d expect to be buckled in,” Indy apologized as the suit’s hatch closed, plunging me into darkness for a moment before soft white light filled the small cockpit.

I actually had expected to have to buckle in. I just didn’t expect to be buckled in automatically.

“Okay,” Indy said with a worried quaver in his voice as I felt the mech take a few steps forwards, then turn around. “Beginning boot sequence… Just ignore the Aegis’s VI. It’s not a person, it’s just a program with speech synthesis.”

“Okay,” I said, my calm having returned.

“Oh, um, do you have your coral?” Indy asked hopefully.

I nodded and patted the saddlebag at my side. “Yes. Both pieces.”

“Good!” He replied happily. “Now… Report!”

“All systems offline,” the female voice stated.

“Begin start sequence,” Indy ordered. “Attach backpack module.”

I heard something hum outside, then felt something bump into the armor, and click into place.

“Module attached,” the voice reported.

“Internal power to enable,” Indy ordered.

“Enabled,” the voice chimed, as three sharp clicks came from behind my head, followed immediately by three turbines spinning up slightly out of synch with one another.

“External power to disabled.”

“Disabled.”

Indy paused a moment, I felt the mech nod, then he continued the boot sequence, sounding like his confident, playful self again. “Primary weapons to enabled.”

“Enabled.”

“Secondary weapons to enabled and primed.”

“Primed.”

“Navigation systems to enabled.”

“Enabled.”

“Life support to enabled.”

“Enabled.”

“Deflector shields to enable and primed.”

“Primed.”

“Targeting systems to enabled.”

“Enabled.”

“Alpha interface to enable.”

“Enabled,” the voice chimed, the blank wall of the armor in front of me vanishing, replaced by a completely real looking projection of the torpedo bay around us which extended around the cockpit’s entire interior, some simple HUD elements appearing a second later.

“Beta interface to enabled.”

“Enabled,” the voice reported, my mind constantly getting bombarded with new sensory date as the mech became an extension of my body, sending the data from the navigation and targeting systems directly to my brain.

Unlike the tank, this felt like a body. As if I'd been transformed into a completely different being. It felt... Natural.

“Woah!” I whispered in awe.

“Error! System label ‘Woah’ not found,” the voice exclaimed almost worriedly.

“Shhh, Rares, it’s made of stupid. You gotta do the boot sequence just right,” Indy whispered to me, making me blush in embarrassment.

“Monomolecular blade sharpening system to enable,” Indy ordered.

“Enabled.”

“Twin lasers to enable.”

“Enabled.”

“Nova bombs to prime.”

“Primed.”

“Starflight mode to enabled.”

“Enabled.”

“Terrestrial mode to primed.”

“Primed.”

“Squire Drone Link to enable.”

“Enabled.”

“All systems go?” Righteous asked at last.

“All systems go,” the voice said. “Imperial Aegis online. Power reserves at sixty-one percent. Welcome back, Princess Rachel Sophia Sol.”

My eyes widened at the announcement. “O-Ohhh… Okay, NOW this armor makes sense.”

“I- I thought you’d read the nametag on the pauldron,” Indy remarked.

“You distracted me with your nakedness,” I tested with a grin. "Besides, I can't read very much of your language, yet."

Indy laughed. “Whelp, let’s go avenge our friends and family,” he said half proudly, half bitterly.

An instant later he slipped the mech into the launching trough, and with a massive jolt that practically shook me out of the chair, we shot towards the planet below.

23 - Zugzwang

View Online

Twilight Sparkle - 23rd of Megan

Canterlot - Equestria

Okay, Twilight. You just scored an unexpected bonus. Dash did half the work for you, she got AJ, and Lily, and her bit of the Elements. You can pick up Pinkie, Fluttershy, and the other Fluttershy, and then everything will be all over and fine again.

Then we can sort out this whole family thing. If only to see if my biological family has any interesting history.

I looked over at Dash and Lily as they huddled over AJ’s limp body. A part of me wanted to see if I could understand Lily’s biomancy with the fog removed from my mind, but unfortunately I had work to do. There’d be time for that later.

I turned back to face Celestia and nodded. “Okay, Pinkie next… She went with Sky, right? They’ll be in his jet. Could you clear a twenty by ten meter square area for me to transport it too? If we want Sky’s help defending Canterlot, he’ll need his toys and I know he keeps an armory on that aircraft,” I asked.

Celestia nodded, and dipped her head to cast a simple disintegration spell, a large squarish patch of the garden simply drifting away as a pale ripple into nothingness, as if a fogbank cleared. “Done, and tell Sky he’s clear to use those robots of his. The city is empty, and we have very little reason to worry about collateral damages,” Celestia muttered grimly.

I nodded, my ears drooping sadly. I hadn’t had much time to get up to speed, but if Celestia of all ponies was treating this like a do or die situation, well… I didn’t really need to finish that sentence.

Shortly after casting her spell, Celestia blinked, turning her head to her left as she gave Dash’s changeling friend Alter a probing glance. Celestia’s face took on an odd expression, somewhere between puzzlement and disbelief.

“Twilight, stay here for a moment,” Celestia asked, still staring. “I did a bit of divination to make sure nopony was in that patch I disintegrated, and I got that mare’s aura as well. Could you scan her for me? I would like you to verify something.”

“Of course, is it anything bad?” I asked with a worried frown, turning to look at the deep purple and midnight blue mare.

“No, just… Tell me what her aura’s chromodynamics are. I think I’m mistaken,” Celestia asked again.

Her chromodynamics? The pattern of her aura’s color shifting, basically the aura equivalent of an ID. Did Celestia think she knew this changeling?

I cast a quick identify spell, focusing on her aura and immediately took a step back out of reflex. She was NOT a changeling. I had no idea what she was, but it was biological, and not anything like the creatures that had been attacking Dash.

That wasn’t too surprising. There were other things that could shapechange, like a unicorn who was extremely adept in Transfiguration. The surprising part was, well…

“Uh, she’s just lavender,” I stated in surprise. “No color change at all. Just one energy state, completely stable with no flux. Isn’t that impossible?”

Celestia shook her head. “No. It’s possible, just not naturally. Nor would it be reproducible. I read Starswirl’s notes on the accident… There was one pony who had that kind of signature, Twilight, and I’m amazed you don’t know his aura,” Celestia said firmly, turning to walk towards the ‘pony’ with a determined look on her face.

I felt my face scrunch in puzzlement for a moment just before it clicked. Starswirl. Accident. The arcane accident which granted him magic beyond the normal capacities.

No! No It couldn’t be, that wasn’t THE Starswirl! It couldn’t be, that wasn’t a pony, and Starswirl WAS a pony. I knew that much for a fact. I’d found a fur sample of his in Clover’s Library.

“You there, Alter was it?” Celestia asked.

The mare nodded once. “Yes. S-sorry about that little outburst. I wasn’t really flirting, I’m just mentally fatigued and well, you’re pretty and I just kinda spat out the first thought I had,” she apologised with a polite bow.

“Are you employing any sort of aura masking or altering spells, or using any artifacts with similar properties?” Celestia asked quickly.

Alter shook her head. “No. Did you scan me? Of course you did, you want to know what I am, duh. Nothing shady here, I’m just weird. Sorry if it looked like I was spying, or something,” she apologised with a surprising amount of politeness.

Celestia nodded thoughtfully. “I see… And this ‘weirdness’ is the unchanging maximum energy state of our aura, correct?” She asked just as quickly, but more carefully than before.

Alter nodded. “Yeah. My aura’s always been like that, my adoptive parents claim that they couldn’t fully transform me because of the anomalous nature of-”

“You share almost the exact same aura as one of our nation's legendary wizards,” Celestia informed her wings twitching in an emotion I didn’t understand. “The only difference is the color, yours is lavander, his was a white-gold.”

OH! My eyes flew wide open with the realization of exactly what Celestia was implying. An aura match of that level could be an impossible coincidence, but the likeliest option was inheritance. Your aura is a mixture of your parents properties. Starswirl the Bearded was known to vacation in other universes. Frequently.

This mare could EASILY- No, was almost CERTAINLY his daughter.

YOU LUCKY, LUCKY, LUCKY PONY! I would cut off all of my legs WITHOUT using magic, and never eat anything with flavor again if it meant I could grow up again living NEXT to Starswirl’s house. Let alone be his actual child!

Wait, she said caretakers, that meant she didn’t grow up with Starswirl. No one calls their parents ‘caretakers’.

Alter tilted her head to one side then frowned worriedly. “Uh, we’re not talking about a Lord Voldemort situation, are we? Wait, that’s a human book. We’re not talking about an evil overlord, are we?”

“No!” I objected, the fur on the back of my neck standing up. “Starswirl the Bearded is one of the single most important figures in the history of Wizardry! I-”

“That’s not important right now,” Celestia said, cutting off the the three and a half hour verbal biography I’d written and memorised before it could begin.

Admittedly, that was a good thing. If Equestria fell because of my fanfillying…

“What is important right now,” Celestia continued. “Is that your aura indicates you have an immense magical reserve. On par with a Lesser Alicorn like Cadence, or Sunset. I don’t believe you are an Equestrian, I hold no dominion over you, but if you choose to help defend my little ponies-”

Alter held up a hoof, gesturing for Celestia to stop. “I’m sorry. I can’t help. Not that I won’t, or would not, I came here to help. But I just held off a few hundred very powerful creatures, by myself, after using an illusion with tactile feedback, while also using a complex spell to separate AJ from the crotch stain responsible for all of this, and keeping him at bay with a taxing spell lance.

“I am completely done. I’ve got nothing more to give, other than maybe shape changing into something that can do damage and hoping I’m not killed in melee, or casing a flare spell to make camera flashes in the enemy's eyes a few times.”

Celestia nodded, as if she knew when she’d asked for help. Alter was right, Celestia… She’s done enough this day. Let her go.

“Yes,” Celestia agreed, nodding her head in acknowledgment. “However, since your aura is close enough to Starswirl’s to be his filly, some of his artifacts will work for you. I have one in my vault which may be of interest to you. It enables you to borrow energy from your past self, the little bits you didn’t use on previously lived days of your life. You can be fully replenished in-”

“Let’s go,” Alter said immediately, a serious expression on her face.

Celestia and I blinked, more than a bit surprised.

“Just like that? After the day you just had?” I asked, tilting my head to one side.

“This is war. I’m a telepath. I know for a fact that Dawn once…” Alter trailed off, grimacing at whatever she was thinking of. “I don’t want to say. For moral reasons. It will just disgust, depress, or enrage anyone here.”

“I’d still like to know,” I said, instantly regretting it.

“That’s not what your brain says,” Alter replied instantly.

Celestia pursed her lips for a moment then sighed. “I need to know. You can’t fight an opponent you know nothing about.”

Alter nodded, her eyes hardening. “I picked this up from his subconscious, and also from a minion of his. He remembers it fondly. Like, in the way a mom remembers her child’s first steps. He once possessed a male cultist of his, used them to forcefully impregnate six randomly chosen mares, as in, he dartboarded one of your communication gem frequency listings, then chained them to a wall in his castle for the duration of the pregnancy, and when they gave birth, while the infants were still attached, he had the infant's skin-”

“Okay, yes, that’s enough of that,” Celestia growled, her lips pulling back into a vicious snarl which did NOT belong on that face.

Her expression of honest rage shocked me to my core. More so than-

Had she been about to say skinned alive?

“WAIT!” I yelped. “Was that last word ‘skinned’?” I asked fearfully.

Alter nodded. “Yeah. It was. He’s an absolute monster and needs to be destroyed beyond all possible resurrection,” she declared adamantly. “It's my duty as a living being with a conscious to destroy actual evil, like him. Let’s go get that artifact.”

Okay, no, that expression belonged on her face. And my face. I just… Why? Why would you do that? What could possibly ever make that an okay thing to do in anyone’s eyes?

My own gaze hardened as I remembered. He told you Twilight. He said he does this because it’s funny.

I’m a pacifist. I abhor violence. This is a deeply seated part of who I am. But here I am, honestly feeling the deep seated urge to kill someone without an ounce of shame or regret. Because there is a line. It was absolutely clear to me that there was a line that once something crossed, it had to be destroyed. No matter what moral qualms you have over such things. Because a little blood on your hooves is more than outweighed by the need shared by literally everyone to live in a place free of true evil.

Congratulations, Dawn. You’ve removed all ethical consideration for you which I had been holding on to. You just taught me that not everyone deserves a second chance. Those who do not so far number one, and hopefully you’re the only exception to the rule, but you have made your last mistake.

“We could use your help if the Elements can’t be used in time,” I said with a dutiful nod. “I should go and pick up Pinkie. I’ll be right back.”

I closed my eyes and focused on trying to sense Pinkie. I remembered how the Element’s bond felt for Dash, and tried to look for the same thing, but from another pony. But that didn’t work.

That bond was hers, and hers alone. My initial panic at failing to feel Pinkie was quickly thrown aside as I felt a different, but similar connection. It was definitely Pinkie, nopony else could try and keep a flawless mask of bubbly happiness while also honestly depressed deep down.

What had happened?

I felt my heart skip a beat. She failed to get her part, didn’t she? I had to know. Now.

I closed my eyes, and traced the connection to her, double teleporting to get through Shining’s shield without making the whole thing crash down. Unfortunately, Shining must have felt my breaching his shield and not recognised my magic touch. He’d reinforced his shield spell to a degree I didn’t know he was capable of, which ended up eating up five minutes as I slowly made a big enough opening to move through.

I’d have to get a messenger to let him know I was doing that, not the enemy.

Engine noise filled my ears as I felt my spell conclude, and not the engine noise I remembered Sky’s forgettably named aircraft making.

The smooth hum-like roar stuttered, groaned, and gurgled in a way which made me know for a fact the aircraft had been seriously damaged before I even opened my eyes. When I did I saw the industrial, ship-like interior, in somewhat of a messy disarray, but intact. The damage had to be external. Meaning they had encountered some sort of major hazard.

“Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed in surprise.

I turned around to discover I’d appeared just to Pinkie’s left. Shed been sitting on one of the fold out couches, slumped over the arm if her position was any indication. Which made sense as she felt depressed through the link, and the subtle ‘errors’ in her smile showed the look to be a mask put on for other’s sake.

But what others?

“Fluttershy, Twilight’s here!” Pinkie called urgently pausing for a moment before adding. “Both Shys, I mean.”

I blinked in surprise. “You picked everypony up?”

Pinkie nodded. “Y-yeah… Separating everypony was a mistake.”

She didn’t need to say anything. I could tell something horrible had happened merely by how she said it.

I reached out, pulling Pinkie into a tight hug as Fluttershy and her android counterpart entered the main room from the bathroom and elevator respectively.

The first thing I noticed was Fluttershy had a hollow, shellshocked look on her face. As if she’d been completely devastated by something horrible, or had to present a public speech. That wasn’t something to be concerned about. Fluttershy looked like that after any dangerous adventure. In most likelihood while getting her part, one of Neighpone’s famous Kaiju had attacked.

The second thing I noticed was the android had one leg replaced by a crude ‘field rigged’ servo and simple metal rod to make a sort of peg leg.

She’d been damaged. Was that what Pinkie was sad about? She would definitely see any version of Fluttershy as her friend, and we would all be very sad if Fluttershy lost a leg. But well, this one was a robot. She could just make a new one. So that couldn’t be it…

No, no it could. This was Pinkie Pie.

“Shy will be fine. I’m certain your husband can fix her up good as new!” I replied cheerfully.

“A-after he’s gotten sleep, yeah,” the android said with a light blush. “He’s- He hasn’t slept in days.”

I blinked. “Days? Over… Over what?” I asked worriedly.

Pinkie tightened her grip around me, the mask she’d been using to comfort Fluttershy crumbling away. “Rarity’s dead!” She cried, sobbing into my chest.

My skin went cold. “R-rar.. I… What?” I stammered, unable to form any sort of response.

“She’s dead!” Pinkie sobbed. “Everypony got attacked by a horrible evil creature.”

“Sh- she was attacked ove… Over the… Ocean,” Fluttershy murmured quietly. “Airship destroyed… Sharks… We went back to look. Found part of her ribs… Her leg...”

I shook my head, ignoring the tears forming in my eyes. “No! NO I refuse to believe that. She’s here, and I know she’s fine! You’ll see, I’ll trace her Element and learn exactly where she is and I can teleport her RIGHT HERE!” I declared, closing my eyes and clenching my teeth as I tried to divine Rarity’s location.

Finding her was easy now that I knew how the bonds felt different. I could feel her, she was… In an inky black void of nothingness. Okay! So she’s in a dark dark cave. And in a zen-like emotional calm. Let’s just focus my teleportation targeting on that feeling and-

She wasn’t anywhere in the world? But also looking down at us. Calm… Dark… Not in the world. Looking down...

“Oh… Oh no…” I whispered to myself.

She was gone. Truly gone. All I was feeling was the echo of her soul.

The crushing well of despair I felt myself slide into only barely budged enough to let me notice the sound of the cockpit screen crash open amid the clink of empty coffee mugs as Sky staggered out of the cockpit, eyes wide and bloodshot.

“PONYVILLE!” He shouted, one eye twitching. “Attacked now is!”

Even with Rarity’s death crushing my heart, I felt a pang of sorrow for the poor haggard stallion. You could tell from his eyes, slumped posture, and degraded speech that he quite literally had not slept in days. Kept awake by the combination of grief and the need to fulfill a mission which could now no longer be completed.

His normally well educated demeanor was completely gone, replaced by the sputtering dregs of a barely functioning mind, slowed to the slowest possible speed by an incomprehensibly vast legion of exhaustion.

“Y-yes, Sky,” I replied, crestfallen. “Ponyville is… Gone. I haven’t seen. But Celestia sa-”

“No!” Sky snapped, not even reacting to my having appeared on the ship, merely accepting that I was there as if I’d always been. “Town’s there, under attack now! Moonbutt!”

The string of nearly incoherent babble made me pause for just long enough for Sky to stumble to the wall to our left and slap a button with his hoof, which opened a set of shutters concealed to the point of having been invisible before, which revealed a large window.

Not only could I see one of the airship’s engines had been clawed savagely by something truly monstrous, but beneath the wing I could see all of Ponyville. Or rather what was left of Ponyville. This was not the empty crater Celestia had reported. This was a pile of rubble and ruined buildings, a warzone.

And far below, a small dark blue dot stood in front of my castle, Luna’s unmistakable blue-black starry mane and tail just barely visible at this altitude amid the flashes of arcane fire while she held off a hundred twisted monstrous creatures in what was unmistakably a last stand.

“Purple Smart!” Sky blurted as he rushed over to grab me by the shoulders. “Lost good friend. Will NOT also lose best friend. Or wife! Especially wife. Take everypony safe. I’ll save Moon-”

Before I could even say anything Sky’s grip weakened and he fell forwards onto the deck with a thud, too tired to hang on to me for more than that second.

“Ayna will save Moonbut,” Sky corrected, voice muffled by the floor. “I’ll make sure she does.”

Ayna? Oh, right! Sky’s sister. Changeling Wizard, actually pretty good. She specializes in portals, she could definitely get Luna out of there. Just like how I could get everypony out of here, including Sky.

Failing that, I could come back here and get Luna myself. Luna didn’t look like she was struggling yet. She was the warrior princess after all. She’d be okay for the minute I’d need to take everypony to safety.

“You can call her from Canterlot,” I told Sky. “Everypony, get ready to teleport, I’m going to move the whole aircraft-”

“NO!” Sky snapped, managing to stand up. “I’m staying. Need see Moonbutt safe. Take them, go. Now!”

“I’m NOT leaving you here like this,” I snapped. “I’m not losing anypony else today either! What would Pinkie do if you died?”

“Nanomachines, son!” Sky exclaimed, sleepily with a stupid grin. “Download... Livestreamed backup file,” Sky grunted awkwardly. “Replace memory loss from death… Be fine. Hour or so.”

“Uh, what?” I asked, too taken aback by the statement to feel anything.

“Sky will be fine, Pinkie Promise,” Pinkie said honestly as she sniffled slightly.

Sky’s words suddenly clicked, and I felt my ears lay flat as the anger began to build.

“D-do you mean you invented a machine that resurrects people!?” I shouted, looking at Sky with a brewing rage. “Why are you not bringing back Rarity!?”

“Attempt to fix Emerald shortened lifespans. Take decades to set up… Really hard… Risk of permanent memory loss. Like, all of it. Could wipe personality, make new person in old body on installation… Self testing was stupid. Too risky. Sister using it on herself, cuz stupid. Afraid to die. I destroyed installation device… Cuz others would use it too. Because stupid! But kept stuff to keep mine and sister’s working. Cuz not stupid. Already done. Right?

“Recently thought about rebuilding. For Pinkie. And friends. Havn’t done it yet,” Sky mumbled bitterly. “Cuz risky, and stupid idea. Probably. Also maybe they want to grow old. Don’t know. Individual wishes… Respect… Stuff.”

I had the distinct feeling that if he had access to his full mental facilities that he could have explained himself better. As it was, I could feel the regret and sorrow in Sky’s voice.

I also realized that I was not really mad at Sky. Especially since as exhausted as he was, he’d still put in the energy to try and explain that whatever he did was risky and dangerous enough for the guy who casually makes giant robots armed with enough weaponry to level large cities to destroy an invention.

I was mad because one of my best friends was dead.

And she was dead because the Elements had broken. And they broke because Dawn wanted to commit genocide upon us. Which meant he’d been the one to send those creatures Pinkie had mentioned, after my friends. Which meant that he’d murdered Rarity.

Something deep inside me snapped. It had snapped once before, when Tirek had destroyed my home, and I’d believed he’d also killed my friends.

I felt my eye twitch. “Sky. Call your sister. Girls, I’m taking you to Canterlot, then I’m going to make sure that Dawn can never hurt anything ever again.”

Princess Luna - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Ruins - Equestria

<So how long do you need to hold out for again?> Dreams asked me worriedly.

<Not long, just half an hour. That should be all the time Lyra needs to sneak everypony out,> I answered silently.

A thickly built creature of bone and obsidian rushed up the rubble pile towards me, shrieking a wordless cry of hunger. It would have been scary if I hadn’t just been in a nightmarish realm of ever shifting excessive terror, and excessive pleasure. At the moment it was just annoyingly loud. The quick pulse of magic I sent its way blasted the creature to fragments, showering myself and its allies with its dry remains.

I laughed at the demonic creatures massed around the base of the rubble pile I stood atop. I’d feared being swarmed when I stepped out of the castle to provide this distraction, but then one of them offered a personal reward for the one who was able to kill me, and our little game of Princess of the Hill started.

I’d always loved Princess of the Hill as a filly. I’d have probably liked this game if it weren't being played for keeps.

<Are you really comparing a game for foals to a battle?> Dreams asked amid stunned disbelief.

<Hey, you’re the one who made me paradoxically hyperactive and tired at once. This feeling is your fault,> I chastised while conjuring an energy blade to swat a thrown ball of green fire aside before lancing the caster through the face.

That didn’t kill it. So I followed the lunge up with a wall of arcane darts, which did the trick quite well.

<Could l you at least try to think more apt thoughts?> Dreams pleaded. <I’m too weak right now. If you die, I die. I’m okay with that, but I’d like my last moments to be cool.>

<Fair enough,> I agreed with a nod.

Wheeling around at the sound of taloned feet scraping against stone, I threw a small avalanche of rubble into the advancing, twisted, dragon-like, hunched daemon which had been running at me with a spear, knocking it back down the rubble pile into the massed horde below.

Unfortunately, it's spear fell down with it. My halberd was mysteriously not summoning itself to me from my room in the Palace, which was making things a lot harder for me. I was adept with magic, but I could quite literally use a halberd with my hooves, while blind. That’s how I’d learned to fight in the first place. Melee combat had always been far more natural to me.

Oh hey, spear! At a last stand. That reminds me of that song Ayna likes to loop for hours. Let’s sing it intimidatingly.

“All embrace me! It's my time to rule at last. / Fifteen years have I been waiting, to sit upon my throne,” I bellowed, in what was admittedly an off key rendition of the power metal ballad.

Clearly objecting to my singing, a rather large, brutish, rhinoceros-like monstrosity, best described as a cement inflated Bulk Biceps, roared and sprinted full tilt at me, wielding a pair of flails in the single most dangerous display of stupid weapon pairings I had ever seen in my life.

I ripped a wall stone off a nearby building with my telekinesis and crushed it.

That wouldn’t have worked a minute ago. My singing must be making them a bit mad. Good! Nothing fights better when angry… Aside from Sombra.

“No allegiance! I will swear no oath. / Crowned by god not by the church, as my power is divine!” I continued while whipping up a wall of black fire around a quarter of the circle to dissuade the giant demon-crab from settling up towards me until I worked out how to deal with it.

“They thought I was too young to rule the land / just as they failed to understand born to rule. / My time has come!” I continued, pausing for a moment to parry a flurry of slashes from a surprisingly nimble imp. “I was chosen by heaven! Say my name when you pray / To the skies, see Carolus rise!”

<But… This has nothing to do with spears!> Dreams objected.

<Sure it has nothing to do with spears or last stands directly. But Ayna always gets the name of the album wrong and says the song is from The Last Stand by Spear,> I laughed mentally while throwing a thaumaturgic lance randomly into the crowded below me, enjoying the satisfying thud of the hardlight weapon hitting home.

I hoped I’d make it through this. I’d miss the few real friends I had. I spent most of my life recently at the Emerald’s hive for a reason other than my new marefriend, after all.

<She sounds… Intelligent,> Dreams muttered sarcastically.

<She is. She’s got got a mental condition which makes her genius a bit patchwork. I don’t remember the name,> I remarked defensively.

No one insulted my friends! Everypony has a flaw or two. That’s not their fau-

Wait, was I hearing something above me? Gods damn it, Luna! You forgot that half these monstrosities fly!

I tilted my head back just enough to aim my ears better, to try and pinpoint any sound which might be coming from above. Yes, there was something… It sounded like one long continuous furious cry of ‘AAAAAAA!’, growing ever louder as it approached.

What on Equis-

The gleaming white and gold armored warrior fell from the heavens, dropping like an anvil with one elbow extended to focus all the force of their fall directly onto the base of the demon's skull. The demon collapsed with a sound similar to a ceramic vase covered in cake falling a hundred stories.

The battle stopped for several seconds as everyone took in the fact that a newcomer had arrived on the field via flying elbow drop. This gave the winged biped enough time to stand upright, towering a full four times my own height as it spread its golden metallic feathered wings intimidatingly, drew its blade, and then looked at me, speaking with a smile hidden behind its sculpted helmet's blank lips.

"Hello, newfound horse friend! Let's break some demonic skulls together, then have lunch," it greeted.

I must admit, I squeed a little.

Then the warrior was joined by four large gold colored obelisks which fell from the sky like spears, only to stop just short of the ground and split open to reveal internal weapons which bathed the area around us in a sea of blue-white fire and laser beams, allowing the warrior to leap forwards and bisect a large daemon with what was clearly a monomolecular blade.

Then I squeed a lot.

“If we’re still singing badly to annoy the enemy, might I suggest Stan Bush's, The Touch? Do you know that one?” The warrior asked me hopefully.

Newfound friend indeed!

Twilight Sparkle - 23rd of Megan

Canterlot - Equestria

I appeared before Celestia inside her personal vault, depositing Pinkie and the Fluttershys around me in safe locations. I didn’t have to look. I knew they were safe. I’d made sure of it before casting the teleport spell to get us TO the shield.

“Rarity is dead,” I said to Celestia, knowing that my heartbroken wrathful expression would be all the evidence she needed.

I saw the hope drain from Celestia’s eyes, that sight almost physically hurt. “Then there’s no means to resolve this without a lot of ponies suffering…” She said bitterly.

“There is,” I disagreed, shaking my head. “I’m going to teleport straight to him, and atomize the entire area. We’ve been nice long enough. He shows no mercy, and needs to learn what that feels like.”

“That’s not a very good plan, Twilight,” Celestia objected, worry flooding her face. “We don’t know about his true level of power, nor do we-”

“I know that he’s an idiot who likely succeeded previously by stacking the deck and through blind luck,” I insisted angrily. “I know that he’s made many mistakes when simply trying to manipulate me with words. Unless he wanted me to attack him with an all consuming rage!”

“Actually, he probably does,” Alter said quickly. “He may be foolish, but he’s good at manipulating things. If you fight him this angry, you WILL make a mistake, and he WILL kill you.”

I blinked in realization. Alter was right. Also that was totally Starswirl’s cloak pin on her jacket’s lapel, and I really really wanted to touch it!

Alter smiled. “Wow, you like that old mage so much a cloak pin can just evaporate your anger?” She asked with a smile. “Go ahead and touch it.”

“Uh… H-how did you know that?” I asked, trying to hide my blush.

“Telepath,” she replied simply. “Emotions are not something I get to ignore… Other Martians can, I can’t. Sorry if it bugs you. Also, we should definitely still go hit that asshole before he attacks us. If there’s a time for a preemptive strike, this is it.”

“When you think he’s expecting Twilight to attack him head on?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Alter nodded firmly. “Yeah,” she giggled. “Twilight goes in, uses that rage that’s reigniting in her right now to make a convincing show of being pissed off and wanting him dead, and once she’s got his attention, you, me, and every other powerful mage you have in this castle teleport in and dust that son of a bitch.”

“That… Is a very Luna plan,” Celestia mused.

“Is that a bad thing?” Alter asked with a frown.

“No. Luna is my sister, and she’s our nation's military leader,” Celestia replied before nodding. “Yes, this could work. If we take down their leader, they may surrender. More likely they will disintegrate into a mob of rampaging monsters, which is admittedly much easier to deal with than an army of organized monsters. Twilight, are you willing to risk your-”

“Yes,” I agreed with a firm nod.

I was more than ready. But on the other hoof…

“Wait a moment,” I said slowly as the realization occurred. “Blindly agreeing to follow one pony’s plan is what led to Rarity… Dying… W- we can’t just jump into action. We need a more solid, well thought out plan.”

“We simply don’t have time for that, Twilight,” Celestia objected. “This is battle, and the enemy could-”

An explosion rumbled in the distance. The distinct sound of a shield spell repelling energy bolts echoed through the entire city. Shining’s Shield had just repelled a massive attack spell. One which had been meant to destroy the shield, and based on the glass-like scintillating sound, had nearly breached it.

The battle had begun.

“-drive my point home for me,” Celestia finished.

Princess Luna - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Ruins - Equestria

Tides can only turn so much. While my unnamed ‘alley out of nowhere’ had definitely enabled the two of us to drive the demons away from Twilight’s castle and secure it’s grounds, they still had us pinned within those grounds. The two of us simply couldn’t be in enough places at once to go after any real objectives.

A shame, as I could now see the glowing orange portal which had to be the enemy's door into our realm. I didn’t have much experience with portals, but I’d like to try smashing it.

Dreams quipped.

<What’s that, Old Equish?> I asked, not quite having ‘heard’ her clearly due to dodging a rather vicious crackling bolt of green lighting a creature I was fairly certain was a succubi had thrown my way.

<Kinda. If I got it right it should mean, ‘God with a Machine’,> she explained.

<No no no,> I objected. <A force appearing from nowhere to save the day is called a Deus Ex Machina, and it means god FROM a machine. It’s a classical literary device that’s been used by multiple species, even as far back as pre-pony civilizations, based on thing’s I’ve read while->

A bolt of green fire exploded against my shoulder, sending spidery lines of pain through my body for a burning fur scented instant. I cried out in pain, the laughing demon shrieked as a metallic smelling gout of flame from one of the warrior’s obelisks immolated the thing.

“Hey! Only I get to burn things!” The warrior shouted through the beacon.

I took a deep breath and quickly cast a healing charm to replace the damaged skin.

Dreams said apologetically.

<Thank you,> I answered before yelling to my ally allowed. “Is there anyway we can make a push for that portal?”

A few bolts of fire splattered against the warrior’s shield, which I couldn’t help but notice was not responding as energetically to each hit as it used to. Whatever spell or equipment provided the invisible untill struck barrier was starting to be depleted by the continued strikes…

“One, but we wouldn’t survive it. Is a suicide run out of the question?” She asked honestly.

“No… But I’d like to hold out for reinforcements a bit longer,” I called back, taking advantage of an opening in the demons orange-red crackling shieldwall to blast a limb off a half-slime half-pony demon.

“I’m afraid that there’s only me up there,” my friend apologised. “Or do you mean your people?”

I guess it was too much to ask for another technological angel. Darn!

“I meant mine. My sister will probably send anypony she can spare to help us. And if not, I just saw Sky’s jet a few minutes ago. So he’ll probably show up with some artillery support soon,” I informed with a hopeful smile.

Probably not soon enough. But a mare can dream.

“What’s your name anyways?” I asked as a quick follow up.

The enemy took our brief conversation to throw another volley of fireballs our way. They’d worked out it wasn’t a good idea to get into close quarters with us, and we’d worked out that their shields were stronger against attacks the more distance there was between the attacker and the shield. Meaning they could just stand back and pelt us with fireballs until the end.

Fortunately, the volley of bolts were easy to dodge. And sometimes an opening let us drop one or two of the enemy. Unfortunately, I was starting to tire. The power up Dreams had provided was intense, but not as long lived as my own natural supply.

Ironically enough, I estimated I had a quarter of my normal power. In terms of time, not quantity.

“Righteous Indignation,” the warrior called loudly as she responded to the demon's fireballs with a quick series of shots from the large rifle she’d retrieved from one of her obelisks.

I needed to get autonomous obelisks of doom for myself. Those looked really useful.

“That is the single most apt name I have ever heard in my life,” I laughed, nearly getting hit by another fireball due to the amusement her name caused.

Amusement which was abruptly snuffed out as the demons parted ranks, allowing the huge crab-demon I’d seen before to scuttle through their line and into the grounds of Twilight’s castle.

Ponyfeathers! I’d still not thought of a way to properly deal with that thing! It’s shell repelled magic, and with it’s size would be substantially hard, likely equivalent to enchanted plate st-

“Oh my god! A giant enemy crab! I’ve trained for this day,” Righteous exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and giddy delight. “Miss Rarity, strike its weakpoint, for massive damage!”

The Obelisk closest the the crab tilted to point it’s top at the crab, opening up for a brief moment to fire a rocket into the creature, which vanished inside a bright orange and white perfectly spherical explosion.

“Good shot! You’re a natural at brain interface weapons,” Righteous praised.

I blinked. “Rarity? As in Rarity Belle?” I asked, completely baffled.

“Yes, she’s riding in here with me. She’s an excellent gunner as it turns out,” Righteous quipped. “Thanks for letting me use that old meme, Rarity. Hehe.”

Rarity had found and enlisted the help of someone who had access to Old Terran technology! Incredible! What a stroke of luck that was! Also what the hay had happened while I was in the Dream Realm to allow that to happen?

A green-white portal suddenly flickered into existence on the battlefield. The demons universally looked at it, uneasily shifting their line to compensate. Righteous took a few steps back, training her gun on the opening portal. I smiled.

I recognised that portal. A swirling vortex, like water going down a sink. With the distinct color of changeling magic.

Sky’s sister, warping in whatever toy he’d fetched from his armory. Yes!

To my surprise two voices came from the three ponies wide portal before any item, or soldiers.

“I’m still sorry,” an unknown mare’s voice said. “I hope you can see how I would make the mistake that I-”

“Yes, yes, my wife is remarkably close to you in appearance and arcane signature, you used to be evil, parallel universe, blah, blah, blah. Best friend is fighting off demons, your help more than make up for it,” Ayna replied, clearly highly aggravated as the buzzing tone her voice carried announced.

Or his sister was coming to the battlefield in person, did she even know combat magic?

The two emerged from the portal. Ayna was dressed in a lightweight suit of armor fashioned from what almost looked like an old shed exoskeleton. An odd choice for a changeling, but one which went quite well with the black hooded robe she’d donned. It gave her an over all intimidating look. At least in my opinion.

The other mare was also dressed in black. Black jumpsuit with fine silver runes. Black hooded cloak. Silver- No! An Arcanite mask. Featureless, save for the eyeholes, which are present were leaking purple and black moats of energy.

Oh. Great. A dark magic user… Please don’t be mad with power!

No, no Luna, don’t jump to conclusions. Ayna had said ‘used to be evil’. Redeemed Dark Wizard. Okay. Good. Maybe?

The portal closed behind the two, prompting a wave of mocking laughter and jeers from the massed horde.

“Only two foolish enough to die for their Princess?” I heard a demon mock.

Even Righteous chuckled. “You know… Only two people showing up for reinforcements is a bit funny. In a dark comedy kind of w- Oh? The changeling is a Wizard? Will that be enough to-”

“Foolish? HA!” Ayna intoned loudly. “Do you know who my sister-in-law is? Pinkie Pie. Do you know how much she loves her family members? Neither do I. Because it’s literally outside the range my instruments can measure! As a Changeling, this provides me with-”

Ayna reared up and pointed her forehooves at the line of demons before her, twin arcs of lightning leaping from her hooves with a sickly hiss of electricity, slamming into the demons and arcing through their ranks as those struck by the arcane lighting screamed in agony.

“-UNLIMITED POWER!” Ayna screamed at the top of her lungs like a mad mare.

“Uh, wouldn’t Pinkie need to be in your feeding range for that to be true?” I asked rather stupidly, realizing what I did only after I said it.

Ayna stopped throwing lightning, and facehooved. “Damnit, Moonbutt! Now they know that.”

“Sorry,” I apologised with a feeble grin.

“Enough talking. Crush them while they are still surprised,” the Dark Wizard ordered. The black and purple aura leaking from her eyes crackling like water thrown on hot coals as she enveloped herself in a shroud of dark magic which grew into a hardlight body which stood six ponies tall. “Preferably literally.”

“Yeah, two is definitely enough,” Righteous decided.

“Okay everyone, portals that way,” I said pointing with one hoof. “Let's see if we can’t get there and smash that thing.”

We had a fighting chance now. I wasn’t about to waste it.

24 - Urbicide

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Alter Ego - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace - Equestria

The distinct sound of something crystalline cracking made me wince. I’d always hated that sound. Not sure why. It’s a naturally unpleasant noise, but there’s being bothered by something, and then there’s being upset for a good chunk of the day because you heard a particularly aggravating sound.

Fortunately, I could ignore that feeling. But it didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

“-drive my point home for me,” Princess Celestia groaned, closing her eyes wearily for a moment.

I saw Twilight wince as Celestia groaned. She really cared about Princess Celestia’s orders, mood, well being… Were they a couple? No, no probably not. Dash had said Twilight was married to ‘some guy’. She didn’t seem to be the type to cheat, or hold a polyamorous relationship.

It seemed more likely for Celestia to be the top of the chain of command here. An odd position for a Princess to hold, even in what I was fairly certain was a matriarchal society. Equestria was an entire nation, normally the sovereign's children would rule a small province as practice. This was how Mars did it, how Earth did it, how almost every world I’d ever heard of did it… So why was it different here?

Did Princess Celestia’s mother rule the entire planet? Wait, wasn’t Twilight also a Princess?

Why are you thinking about this when we’re under attack?

“We need to act quickly! Shining Armor’s shield will not hold for long.” Celestia exclaimed.

“Last time he’d been drained by a changeling queen of most of his energy,” Twilight said with a defensive narrowing of her eyes.

Celestia nodded. “Yes. He was. And that’s why a bunch of changelings shoulder-checking the shield shattered it. Trust me, he won't stand up to a full artillery barrage for more than twenty minutes, even with the Solariums assistance.

“He gave me a full overview of his capabilities before using the shield last time, Twilight. The size of the shield is directly proportional to the durability of the shield.”

“Oh! Right!” Twilight exclaimed, a wave of embarrassment radiating off her. “Sorry.”

“I’ll locate the enemy commander. Twilight, I know you haven't had much training in combat magic, but do you know how to fire a ray spell with a rotating frequency? The kind of spell is more commonly referred to as a Ward-Breach.”

Twilight thought about it for a moment then shook her head. “No, but I think I could figure it out. Are we relying on me to take down any defenses he has?”

“No. Your initial attack should actually take out whatever support he has from his soldiers. There’s no chance he wont have several mages backing him up. You said he seems to have an exceptional hatred for you. If you challenge him to a one on one duel, he’s likely to accept, and you can take out his back up with ‘missed’ shots,” Celestia said in a rather cunning display of strategy.

I had to say I was impressed. Twilight on the other hand looked surprised. Very surprised.

“I Um… But…” She stammered.

Celestia frowned gently. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I know I’ve never asked you to harm anything before, and if you can disable them without killing them that’s perfectly acceptable. But we don’t have room to be inefficient when-”

Another boom and crystalline cracking shook the city, forcing me to cringe and curl in on myself slightly.

Guh! That sound is almost painful.

“That’s not it,” Twilight objected. “I just never- I don’t see you as any kind of warrior, but you’re talking about murdering the support to take the leader!”

Celestia frowned, honestly sad. “I’ve put a lot of effort into removing war and commonplace violence from Equestria. I grew up in a world which was almost always in a state of war, Twilight. I haven't had to think like this for nearly a thousand years. But while Luna was always more adept at commanding armies and using grand strategy than I, I was always better in dules, subterfuge, and small scale tactics. The peaceful and strictly diplomatic attitude I normally exhibit now is not how I’ve been for most of my life.”

I felt my eyes widen as I took in the pony princess’s statement. For a THOUSAND years? What the hell! I want to live that long! Hmmm, it had to be the necklace. That looked like it was enchanted… Maybe I could ask for one as a reward for helping save the world.

Twilight’s ears drooped, and you didn’t need to be a psychic to sense the confused frown behind the mask she had on.

“I know it’s hard to see me in a way you never have in your lifetime, Twilight,” Celestia said soothingly. “But there is evidence there for you. Why do you think I never gave you and your friends a few squads of trained warriors to assist you during emergencies?

“I’m not good at working with more than a hooffull of ponies at once, and even then only for a clear and concise objective. One on one duels, small unit tactics, those are things I can do well. But I don’t need to use those to secure peace. I do politics far better than warfare, hence the way you’ve seen me up until now. Now, as I was saying before-”

KILLING INTENT!

My head snapped around to face the direction the focused premeditated hatred was coming from. A wall. Good! No directly line of site. Telepathic range is twenty meters. Is this one of our sold-

NOPE!

“Assassin!” I shouted in warning, midway through getting that snippet of surface thought.

Okay Alter, solve this problem. No room for error. No time for more than a snap decision. GO!

Problem: Attempted assassination of extremely powerful mage within their own sanctum.

Analysis: Given estimations of Celestia’s magical power, extreme force would be required to guarantee her destruction. Rough estimation requires the approximate energy equivalence to several kilotons of TNT for direct attack. Alternatives include exceptionally toxic biological and chemical weapons, likely dispersed in the air to ensure the target is affected.

Threat level: Extreme.

Best course of action: Locate and vaporize the threat, and the means of assassination to advert cataclysmic destruction of palace, and or city.

My eyes began to glow red as I delivered my natural magics to boosting my telepathic powers, scanning the nearby world for the Assassin's mind. A hallway. The one facing this room. Okay, what weapon is he-

My ears fell flat with horror as I felt the Assassin's mind lock up seconds after I’d forced my way into it. Whoever he was, he’d had training against psychic attacks. He’d blocked me out. He knew he’d been spotted! I’d likely just made him decide to move NOW instead of seconds from now.

I needed line of sight!

Taking a quick breath I turned my magic from telepathy to intangibility, and stepped through the half meter of marble veneer granite into the hallway outside. I could now see the assassin. He was dressed in a black, all-concealing robe, which should have been suspicious as hell but likely had some form of stealth enchantments on it.

The pointy bit of the hood indicated he was a unicorn. Meaning a spellcaster. Meaning his attack was likely magical in nature.

Mages can’t cast if they can't focus.

Verify target… Yes, that individual’s mind is blocked off. FIRE!

I lashed out with one of my standard one two punch combos for powerful enemies. The first spell I cast without words, a risky move for myself, but the illusionary cloud of black smoke-like darkness rolled forwards down the hallway, fanged maws and bloodshot eyes appearing within the cloud’s ‘random’ formations, just as I’d intended.

The assassin shrieked in terror, spinning around amid a panicked scream of a word I missed as I intoned my attack spell. “Thrysta vindr!”

My illusion spell distorted, and the many tapestries lining the hallway fluttered as the air in the hallway rushed away from the assassin, creating a near-vacuum. Which I immediately let three times the normal amount of air into. “Losna!”

The overpressure wave thunderclap deafened me. The sound bounced off the stone walls with enough pressure for me to feel, knocking me off my hooves as if I’d been punched. I heard stone crack, the spell’s sphere of influence having been centered on the floor under the assassin to try and smash him to paste against the stone floor.

When I managed to finally get back to my hooves and look down the now cracked, rubble filled hallway, I was able to see that is exactly what happened. I highly doubted the body would be identifiable… Supersonic pressure waves tended to do that to meat-based things.

I was pretty sure I’d collapsed my own lung with that little stunt. But the risk to myself was worth it. Whatever that mage had been about to do, it would have been sufficient to kill an immortal sorceress slash possible god-queen.

Well, god-princess.

Either way, I’d probably just stopped a nuclear detonation equivalent.

I took a breath to return to my intangible state, nearly losing the lungfull of air as a sharp pain clawed at the right side of my chest. Yep. Collapsed a lung… And my eardrums were likely ruptured too.

I could heal myself with shapechanging. But I’d need some time to do it. Ears I could fix now, they were just tiny flaps of skin after all. Internal organs? Whole other story.

I stepped through the wall, returning to the small personal study Celestia had taken me to to give me the energy restoring charm. The two Alicorns had surrounded themselves with shield bubbles, a rather prudent measure I hadn’t thought of in the heat of the moment.

Restoring my eardrums by deforming and reforming my ears, I offered the two a shaky grin. “Problem solved,” I wheezed, right lung protesting each and every syllable. “I need… Five, ten minutes to fix… Lung.”

“What did you do!?” Twilight demanded, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and desire.

“Made vacuum. Filled vacuum. Air pressure… Concussive blast. Went a bit overboard… Talking hurts. Ruptured lung. Was too close. Give me five minutes,” I repeated in short huffing breaths before sitting down, eyes closed to focus on repairing the far, far far more complex organs within my body.

“Can’t you just change into something that’s not injured?” Celestia asked tilting her head.

I shook my head, turning inwards to focus on my meditations.

Other Martians, yeah. They could. Me? I had to fix things manually. Injuries persisted between my forms until repaired.

“In any case, Alter, I owe you a debt. Thank you,” Celestia said, bringing a smile to my face.

It was nice to get some direct thanks for-

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed in horror. “If they could get one assassin in the palace, they could get more, and that means they DID, and if I were them I’d kill the pony who everypony in Equestria knows can shield a while cit- I GOT TO GO!”

Oh. Yes. That Shining Armor guy would definitely be a priority target. Maybe I could fight minus a lung just long enough to-

Twilight vanished in a flash of lavender light, teleporting presumably to wherever the shield’s creator was. The light was bright enough to pierce through my eyelids, snapping me out of my healing meditation, forcing me to blink my eyes clear, which provided me with a view out the study’s window.

I watched the shield suddenly exploded into a thousand shards with the sound of a crystal vase being dropped onto concrete.

Too late…

Applejack - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace Garden - Equestria

I’d just discovered the single most frustrating thing in the world. Being in the care of a literally magical doctor, during the middle of an emergency where everypony was in serious danger, and needed your help, and knowing exactly what was wrong with you, but not being able to tell the doctor, who was still trying to work out exactly why you were lying there fully paralyzed.

“Das macht mich verrückt!” Lily shouted angrily, grabbing his blond mane with his hooves. “I don’t get this! Everything should be fine now. I’ve made her regenerate twice!”

“At least she has her legs back,” Dash said softly, a worried look crossing her face, which I could just barely see out of the corner of my eye since I couldn’t move even that.

Being locked into just one view of the sky overhead when things are happening around you is almost the worst thing imaginable. Especially when things are exploding. I knew it was something attacking the shield, but, well, I’d like to look to see how worried I should be.

Too bad I wasn’t a changeling. Then I could just think at her and let her know that I was okay and what the problem was and ask to be propped up so I could see the attacking monster.

Lily could fix anything. He’d fixed Scoot’s wings, right? This was all just because he didn’t know that Dawn disconnected my engine whatsit…

No that wasn’t it. Motor something? Yeah, motor something!

“Ja, ja at least I could make her new legs,” Lily sighed, sitting back on his haunches. “She can’t be cursed to not heal. Because she has de new legs…”

He trailed off, looking at his hoof work slightly bemused. “I think I made them a bit more muscular und toned than the old ones.”

Dash blushed lightly. “That’s fine. I’m sure AJ doesn't mind, right, hon?”

Not in the slightest… I’d been wanting to see about improving my ability to gain muscle for the last year. I’d hit my limit years ago and I still could use a bit more pulling strength for work around the farm. I just… Well, every time I’d decided to go, I’d remembered ma’s lecture on letting nature take its course and decided not to.

That stupid memory kept me from doing a lot of things. If we survived this, I’d have to start learning to ignore it sometimes.

It might be a bit disrespectful, to ma I mean. But maybe if I’d been stronger I could have resisted Dawn and prevented all of this...

<Hey,> a female voice said in my head. <Are you sick too?>

I mentally panicked at the sudden voice in my head. <NO! GO AWAY!>

<Sorry! I can’t talk… I didn’t know this would scare you,> the voice apologised, genuinely sorry.

Wait. Female voice. Apologizing. That wasn’t Dawn.

<I- No- wait! I thought you were somepony else. Who are you?> I asked uneasily.

<I’m Megan. I’m lying to your right. Near the pink Alicorn… Did Celestia have a filly?> Megan babbled.

<Lily’s a stallion,> I said reflexively.

<Not inside,> Megan countered.

I couldn’t dispute that… He was VERY mareish in likes, behavior, body language- Everything really. I’d say he was in Rarity’s boat, but well, if Lily actually wanted to be a mare, he would be.

Unless he also enjoyed passing with makeup and acting enough to balance everything out. Why do ponies have to be so complic-

Oh yeah, our designer is a massive plot hole. You know, that answers a LOT of questions I have about life.

<Fair enough. I’m Applejack,> I introduced.

<Hi Applejack! Do you know what’s wrong with you?> Megan asked hopefully.

Well that was good! But before I had her relay the message, I had one question. Not that I had any problem with changelings by this point, but well, when a mare starts talking to you telepathically, they’re probably a changeling. And as far as I knew changelings had to love you to talk to you like this.

Which, uh, well, that would be awkward.

<Yeah I do. Are you a changeling?> I asked curiously.

<No. I’m not a bugpone,> Megan giggled.

<WOAH! Hold on there,> I said, the world around me going fuzzy as my full attention turned to the mental conversation I was having. <Did ya’ll just say using magic makes you sick? You asked if I was sick too, did you cast a spell and just collapse?>

I couldn’t imagine anything more awful than a unicorn who had to vomit every time they wanted to use magic… Heck, unicorns basically used magic for everything. Even normal body stuff. They got extra nutrition out of their food because magic. This poor mare would be sick every single day of her life if that was the case!

That sounded like something Dawn would do to a pony… Nothing would be better than to stand up and test out these new legs on his face.

<No. Some bad people drugged me… It still hurts,> Megan replied sadly. <But it’s okay… My magic isn’t… I can hurt people. By accident. If I don’t use it right, a shadow person comes out of my dreams and stays in the world. Sometimes they hurt people. So at least I didn’t hurt anyone…>

I mentally winced. I remember Nightmare Moon looking like a shadow in that brief moment it wasn’t inside Princess Luna. Which if I remembered Twilight’s explanation right, meant this mare was in tune with the realm of dreams, and drew power from it.

Poor thing likely had a talent for it that meant she couldn’t use normal magic...

<I’d rather have come back here though,> Megan continued. <None of my magic ever brought shadow people here when I used it. I just got a little sick when I did. Except for when I made the Elements so Clover could stop Discord. Then I got really sick. For a whole year. I almost died.>

OH! Oh no… I’d heard Sunset and Cadence talk about Celestia sending Twilight to go find the Element’s creator t fix them. She had to have forgotten that the poor mare had been in serious danger doing that.

<I’m sorry… But, um, I think my friend brought you here to fix the Elements. Because they broke,> I apologised wishing I could send some sympathy along with my words.

Stupid mental talking. Can’t give the other pony a hug while you do it...

<I know… Tia thought Discord made me sick. She doesn't know I can’t fix them now. I won’t be able to for a long time. But I will. I don’t want my friends to get hurt. It’s okay if I am hurt so they aren't.

<Oh yeah. I forgot. What’s wrong with you? So I can tell the doctor,> Megan asked again.

<Dawn disabled my motor thingie in my brain while he was possessing me,> I answered.

<... The bad guy Tia’s fighting now?> Megan asked angrily.

<Yeah… You sound angry,> I said in the hopes of deflecting the conversation.

I didn’t exactly want to think back on the last few days too much.

Megan huffed. <Hold on. It takes me a second to talk.>

Me too. I hope she punches him right in the dick. Better yet, I should ask Dash to do it. At her top speed. He’s the only male of any species to deserve that.

I’d do it myself, but I really can’t stand up… Or even look at the mare I’m talking to. At least this patch of sky is kinda nice.

“Applejack says the bad guy… disabled… motor… thingie…” A mare’s voice croaked audibly.

“Whas?” Lily asked, his ears perking. “Did you say something, Megan?”

“Yeah! She said AJ said something,” Dash said eagerly, zipping over to Megan at full speed, assuming that I was hearing her movement right. “How did you talk to her? Can you tell her I’m sorry it took so long to save her? Please?”

<OHMYGOSH!> Megan exclaimed excitedly. <She’s got speedy superpowers! That’s so cool!>

I couldn’t help but giggle at the way this grown mare sounded like a thirteen year old filly when she said that.

<Yeah, that’s my wife, Rainbow Dash. She’s definitely something special,> I informed happily. <Uh, let her know it’s okay it took her so long. Alright? She had to go get help. That’s fine. Everypony needs help sometimes.>

“Telepa… Tah…UGH! Buggie brain talking,> Megan managed to say, in answer to Dash’s question. “She’s says… It’s okay.”

“Okay, and what’s wrong with her? Is it a curse? I can go get Twilight,” Dash said, her speech accelerating asshe spoke.

<Um, what was it again? You didn’t say a real thing so uh…> Megan asked half embarrassed.

I decided after a moment’s thought.

“Brain part… Not working. The mo- Movement bit,” Megan awkwardly replied, sounding as if those few sentences had been a full mile’s sprint.

<Why aren't you just using telepathy with them too?> I asked curiously.

<They’re too worried about things to listen to quiet thoughts. I’m not very loud like this,> Megan admitted shyly.

“Movement bit?” Lily asked himself curiously. “Ah! Motor Cortex. Ja, no wonder my regeneration spells didn’t fix that. I made them before I knew anything about the brain.”

“BUCK!” Dash shouted angrily. “I forgot you can’t fix brains!”

“Nein! I’ve got a year’s practice learning about them. I uh, I’m not very good at it, but I fixed a brain tumor last month. I might be able to fix her… If worst comes to worst and I can’t, all we need to do is get into my lab und I can just clone a new body und put her in it. Good as new!” Lily proclaimed proudly, a mad scientist’s gleam in his eyes.

“Uh… You can do that?” Dash asked worriedly.

<Yeah… That doesn't sound remotely safe,> I added silently.

<It’s pretty cool sounding though,> Megan added.

I caught sight of Lily giving Dash a shrug. “Maybe? I could make the body. That’s easy. Not sure how to put her into it though. But Applejack is alive, und stable. Once we win the battle here, we’ll have all the time in the world to heal her.”

“Yeah, but we need everypony able to use the Elements!” Dash objected.

<Could I use my Element all limp like this?> I asked Megan curiously. <You know, if it weren't broke.>

<Uh huh,> Megan answered. <I’m sorry the doctor can’t fix you… I might have enough magic to fix you. I could try.>

<No! You’re already sick,> I protested.

<Yeah. But I haven't eaten anything solid in months. So I’ll just dry heave for a while. Which won't make me feel any worse than I do now. Give me a little while to start daydreaming and I’ll fix you,> Megan said decisively.

<At least let Lily try first!> I begged, recognising me level stubbornness in Megan’s voice.

<Okay. Oh, hey! Do you have superpowers too?> Megan asked hopefully.

I almost managed to roll my eyes at that question. Amazingly, Megan wasn’t the first pony to ask me that.

<Look, just because I’m an orange and yellow farm mare who lives in Ponyville doesn't mean I’m Supermare. It’s just a comic book which uses real cities as places in the story,> I grumbled. <And the artist didn’t get permission to use me as the model for his character. He’s lucky I think lawsuits are immoral.>

<I’m sorry. You get asked that a lot, don’t you?> Megan asked, an amused giggle coming from her as well.

<You have no idea… My little sister once asked me when she’d be able to fly too,> I said, chuckling at the memory. <At least that’s normal for a five year old to think… But I’ve had some high school colts wonder if the comics were a Daring Doo situation.>

<Well, you're an Element of Harmony, so why wouldn’t they think you had special powers? You’ve helped save the world before, I mean, to have the Elemental bond you need to use them at least once,> Megan pointed out. <Most ponies would probably think only super special ponies could be Elements… But Anypony could actually.>

<Well, okay. Fair point that. But I’m still just a normal Earth Pony,> I laughed. <No powers here. Aside from having one heck of a good kick. That might count.>

<Humm… Too bad,> Megan said sorrowfully. <When one of the couple doesn't have superpowers in the comic books, they are always getting hurt and their partner needs to save them all the time.>

<Hey, I’ve saved Dash plenty of times!> I objected.

<It would still be cute if you two were a super powered couple, being awesome heros and stuff,> Megan giggled, clearly a bit loopy.

<W-well, admittedly I WOULD like to be able to buck Dawn into next week, but->

“Okay… Dash, hold her down again. There may be seizures while I try and reconnect her motor cortex,” Lily asked worriedly.

<I- I don’t like the sound of that!> I eeped.

Then the sky exploded.

With a sound like breaking glass, the shield dome over Canterlot disintegrated, falling apart just like a dropped snowglobe, with each of the shards disintegrating into mist after falling a short ways down towards the gold tipped spires below.

“Nun ist die Kacke am Dampfen…” Lily said, reverting to full Germane in stress like he always did. “Kann jemand einen Schild über dieses Feld Krankenhaus setzen?”

“Uhhhh, I don’t speak Germane,” Dash pointed out.

“Oh! I said, can anypony put a shield over this field hospital?” Lily repeated in Equish.

A bright flash of lavender light exploded right in my face as Twilight arrived, just so happening to teleport right into place so she was straddling my head. This created three thoughts within my mind.

First: Oh. So this is why Dash finds Twi sexy. I get it now, sugarcube. Eyuuup... Second: I am super happy she didn’t appear with a hoof through my head. I need to smack her and demand she be more careful in the future. Third: This is the single most awkward thing she’s done in the whole seventeen year’s I’ve known her. Including when we found her stash of romance novels. Let’s never remind her about this.

“LILY! THEY SHOT SHINING!” Twilight screamed in panic.

“It's just one arrow Twiy,” Shining groaned. “It just broke my concentration. I’ll be okay.”

“FIX IT!” Twilight ordered desperately.

I heard Shining yelp amid the sound of tearing flesh. “OW! See? It’s out now. I’ve had way worse than that before Twily,” Shining grumbled. “There will be more assassins in the Palace-”

“Did you really just rip a barbed arrow out of yourself?” Lily objected. “You’re going to bleed out now, dummkopf! Let me make sure it didn’t puncture anything important.”

“See?! It was bad!” Twilight said, sounding almost motherly.

“Shoulder blade! One arrow!” Shining objected loudly.

“One poisoned arrow. This is laced with a biotoxins I’m unfamiliar with,” Lily said firmly. “Twilight, put him down here. Shining, remain still while I treat you. Keep calm. Your heart rate needs to remain as slow as possible. I’ll have you on your hooves within ten minutes.”

“Horseapples!” Shining cursed. “It needs to be faster than that. Without my shield they’ll be able to just shell the city into dust!”

“What do their artillery pieces look like?” Sunset asked. “Do you know their positions?”

That’s Cadence’s friend Sunset. Not Shimmer. Who was back now, apparently.

“We need to stop them,” Twilight said. Right as something in the distance exploded.

Yeah… Yeah we do.

“Celestia was coming up with a plan,” Twilight continued fearfully. “Sunset, Breeze, Cadence, Celestia’s with Alter in her study. Follow me, we’ll have to quickly explain the whole plan and-

I heard the sharp crack of a rapid teleport, and suddenly Princess Celestia’s voice filled the entire garden. “Twilight, go and strike RIGHT NOW,” she ordered. “Cadence, Breeze, Sunset, We’re going to transport to the side of Mount Spurr and- Oh thank goodness! I thought we lost you, Shining. How soon can you get the shield back up?”

“He’s free to go whenever I can counteract this poison,” Lily answered for him. “I can already tell it will be tricky. Ten minutes at the soonest. I’ll need mana bars or other magic restoratives. I’m getting a bit low.”

“I understand… I’ll have some Guardsponies help you establish a field hospital here,” Celestia said with a relieved sigh. “As I was saying, girls, we transport to Mount Spurr. As soon as Twilight has lured their commander away from his forces, we teleport to her and take him down. Understood?”

“Understood,” Cadence replied immediately. “Has Prance arrived yet?”

“No,” Celestia sighed. “Hopefully soon. Everyone, move out!”

They all vanished with five different flashes of light. Ready to go and save Equestria.

And here I was. Laying on my back, unable to move a muscle despite being one of the ponies we needed to bring that monster down.

Dammit all...

Twilight Sparkle - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot - Equestria

I appeared on the side of Mount Spurr a split second before anypony else. The side facing Canterlot was little more than a sheer rock face. Carved that way long ago to make attacking from above the city by land impossible. There was only one spot I knew of which you could stand on and look down at the city from. Just big enough for a dozen ponies to stand on.

I’d appeared there. And a heartbeat later so did everypony else. Celestia began to talk, explaining her plan in more detail. But I didn’t listen. Because I could see the enemy below.

The entire natural ramp leading up to the city had been entirely filled by the demons, and they were demons. Some quite literally taken right out of fantasy novels ideas of what such monsters should look like.

They weren't just a horrific mess of parts taken from scary things, mashed into abominations, or twisted reflections of living things. I could see the magic allowing them to exist. It wasn’t dark magic. It wasn’t light magic. It was a twisted and perverse thing to look at. I’d never looked at something and simply known it was wrong. But these things?

I could quite literally see the evil.

I’d seen the army before, when moving everypony around. But I hadn’t stopped to look at them directly. If I had… Maybe I’d have forgone getting my friends. Because now they were all within the very city the demons were demolishing with ball after ball of burning sickly green fire.

The demons which threw the fireballs were impossible to miss. They stood a full six stories high, and looked something like what a deranged colt would doodle if you asked him to draw a monster which vomited up a crocodile which was somehow also a part of itself.

Even more horrific than their looks was their behavior. They weren't attacking the defenders at all. No, their shots were being sent right into the middle of the city. Not at the palace, at the city. They were not here to help the smaller monsters in their army reach the walls and overwhelm the defenses. They were here to level every single structure they saw.

That wouldn’t take them very long to do...

As I watched, one of the city’s larger towers took a direct hit from the demonic fire. The base exploded into rubble, sending the rest of the tower falling, crumbling mid air as a pillar of thick black smoke reached up into the sky.

How many ponies lived there? How many had I just watched die? Celestia said that everypony was evacuated, but there were still soldiers there...

“Twilight!” Celestia exclaimed loudly. “Did you hear the plan?”

“Yes. Draw him away from the army. Then you all attack,” I repeated.

“I meant for you to accomplish that, I just gave you a plan for-”

“I have a plan,” I informed, gritting my teeth in anger as I saw the first line of demons began to rush forwards towards the hapless defenders atop the walls.

They didn’t have the numbers or power to withstand this assault…

I had to help them. Or they would all die.

“Your plan is to attack, isn’t it?” Sunset asked oddly calmly.

“Yep,” I agreed.

“Even with all of us combined, we won't last long against that many of them… Just remember to pull him away from his army,” Celestia reminded, her voice pleading with me.

“I will. Just be ready,” I said angrily, then teleported.

I arrived at the city’s main gate. The first row of demons looked something like diseased thestral foals with horns. I would have felt sorry for them, if they didn’t all have a sadistic gleam in their eyes as they looked up at the wall tops.

They were ready to kill anything they saw. As slowly, and painfully as they could too. More pointless evil from Dawn.

Let’s go find him.

Spreading my wings to brace myself, I dipped my head and swept my horn from my right to my left, slicing down the rank of attacking monsters with a blast of arcane fire. I didn’t stay still to see how effective it was. Instead I flew upwards, stopping just above the wall to look down and fire a ray spell into the first of the ‘artillery demons’ I saw, burning a hole as wide as myself clean through it.

Dawn would come to me. I was going to stop them from destroying Canterlot.

I cast the strongest shield spell I could manage. Intentionally letting the enemy attack me. They were eager to. I could hardly see anything through the shower of sparks my shield spell shed as countless energy bolts, arrows, and thrown spears bounced off the shimmering lavender shell.

That was a problem. But fortunately I could see the flashes as the big demons readied their fireballs.

I could feel my shield draining. Taking up more magic than I really should let it have as I fired shot after shot at every single flash of green I saw before me. Five… ten… twelve shots. Hopefully twelve direct hits. I couldn’t tell.

At any rate it was time to move.

Deciding to conserve magic I folded my wings and dove downwards, flaring them a heartbeat later to sail over the heads of the army. It took them a moment to realized I’d moved, and in that split second I could see the damage I’d done. I’d managed to take down six more of the big fireball throwing monsters.

Unfortunately there were over a dozen more…

But that was fine. I’d just keep doing damage until Dawn decided to take me down.

I rolled left, dodging the wave of arrows fired at me just in time. I hadn’t intended to do that. Rather I’d only meant to roll within range of the mountainside. Dodging the arrows had been a happy bonus. What I’d really wanted was a rather sturdy looking house-sized boulder.

Dawn had an assassin shoot my big brother. It was only fitting that I attack him with one of Shining’s favorite memories from his old Oubliettes and Ogres games. Besides. It would conserve magic.

I grabbed the boulder, locking my arcane grip around its rough exterior. Gritting my teeth under strain I ripped the boulder free of the mountainside with a loud crack of breaking stone. Oops… It had been an outcropping. Not a boulder… Well, it was a boulder now!

Smaller rocks and dirt rained down them the boulder, falling through my magic’s lavender aura as the boulder itself took all of my strength to lift. I didn’t have to lift it for long. Turning around I dropped the boulder into the massed ranks of the deamon army. It slammed into the earth, the crash of it settling into place drowning out any sound the demons crushed beneath it may have made.

I frowned. I was really angry, wan’t I? That wasn’t good… Alter had been right about being angry being bad. Not just in general but in the context of a fight. I had to try and calm down.

A fireball exploded against my shield, washing out my vision for a moment.

I also couldn’t just stay still and do nothing. Is this what Celestia’s fillyhood had been like? How had she turned out the way she did?

I grabbed the boulder by one edge, focusing on that task as much as I could to try and calm myself. Then I stood the boulder upright one one end, and flipped it over, letting it crash to the ground again, taking another bite out of the demonic hoard below.

Then I stood it up again, and tipped it forwards once more. Then again, and again. Like a domino falling end over end, crossing the ground before it kinda like a rectangular wheel.

As the massive rock simply squashed a line through the Tartarian army’s ranks I couldn’t help but understand why Shining had loved this move so much when playing his game. It was very effective, simplistic, and brilliant. I hated it. Because it also seemed cruel, unfair, and just a bit sadistic on my part.

I should stop…

“Really? The most brilliant mind Equestria has to offer and it decides to just drop rocks on my toys?” Dawn’s unmistakable voice mocked from above me.

I looked up, expecting to see the same jet black stallion I had before. Instead, simply hovering there was a light gray unicorn with a shaggy black mane and tail whIch I swore I’d seen around Canterlot before.

He smiled, sensing my confusion. “Oh this? Just a suit I’m wearing today. If you don’t like it maybe I can have Rarity make me something better before I kill him.”

“Her,” I corrected with an irritated growl.

“I’m very well aware. Who do you think made it possible for a brain and a body to be mismatched like that?” Dawn laughed mockingly. “I always get a kick out of that particular kind of suffering. It’s like fudge. Rich, sophisticated, a special treat. Which is why I don't apply it to everyone.

“Honestly, Twilight, you’re a living organism. I hold dominion over life. Do you really think you can beat me? Honestly? One touch and I can simply dissolve you into a pile of assorted amino acids.”

I couldn’t help but smile. This again? “Oh? Then why haven't you?”

“What fun would it be if I just won all the time instantly?” Dawn asked, rolling his eyes.

I couldn’t help but smile more. That had run so hollow. He was lying. Something was keeping him from fighting us at his full strength. And nothing was preventing me from giving him all I had.

“We both know you’re not doing this for the satisfaction of hard work,” I said with a sly smile.

Drawing on my magic, I cast an ice spell, encasing Dawn in a block of dark blue ice. He fell out of the sky, sailing past me in a flash, the ice shattering after a few seconds. Dawn flew up at me from the cloud of ice shards, a dozen crackling red spear-like bolts of energy flying at me in a wall.

I teleported out of the way, taking care to move myself towards Canterlot before firing a ray spell back in retaliation. Dawn lifted a hoof, conjuring an energy shield which reflected the beam. Not at me, at the walltop, a sizeable length of which exploded before I managed to stop firing the beam.

“Oops!” Dawn giggled. “You should be more CAREFUL!”

As he roared the last word he threw the flat shield disk at me. The red energy screamed as it flew through the air, slicing along like a sword. I closed my wings, dropping out of the way as it sailed overhead, only to find myself in the path of a second. I banked right, heading into the path of a third.

I couldn’t keep dodging these, and I couldn’t fall back. I had to keep this fight going, and also moving. And I really didn’t want to take a hit from one of those with my shield… I had a bad feeling in my gut about those disks.

I fired a spell bolt at the disk ahead of me. The moment magic touched it it detonated, sending a flurry of small obsidian shards flying towards me, each one shining with some kind of enchantment.

I knew it! The explosion would likely breach the shield, and then those would just kill you.

I teleported again, moving higher up in the air, and also closer to Canterlot. Dawn grit his teeth and raced towards me, leaving a pale trail of red light behind him as he flew through the air. I flapped my wings a few times, getting myself to just the right angle, then dipped my head and let loose the most powerful ray spell I could.

I poured all of my anger into the attack, the extra emotion fueling the spell, making the hoof wide beam burn bright and expand to cover a several meter wide radius. Just like with Tirek.

But way less draining of my over all magic. I’d come pretty far in attack spells.

Too bad all I knew were the basics of self defense. The moment this was over, I was fixing that.

The ray smashed into Dawn, seemingly with no effect. I paused, the spell ending as I lost concentration. The moment the searing light vanished I gasped in horror. The body Dawn had been occupying was half disintegrated.

The jet black fur I had expected poked through the many holes which had burnt through the fur and skin beneath. Dawn’s red eyes glared at me from behind the blackened skull as he shot towards me with an enraged shriek. “DIE!”

He swept a foreleg towards me, a crackling red blade five times my size solidifying from the air and slicing in towards me. I let myself drop, falling under the attack, managing to remember to fire a small volley of admittedly pathetic spellbolts in retaliation as the crackling blade scraped across the top of my shield, kicking up a shower of sparks as it cut a slice out of the shield itself, forming a small hole which I immediately closed.

That small distraction was all Dawn needed.

He teleported, arriving directly in front of my shield and slamming a hoof into it. The shield exploded instantly, black fire crackling outwards from the impact only to suddenly arc towards me!

I teleported out of reflex. That one action saving my life. I heard the burst of fire explode, I felt the heat of the explosion on my back. The thunderclap made my ears ring. The light hurt my eyes despite me facing away from it.

I’d teleported a half kilometer away…

Okay. Yeah. Get him to a place away from this allies. Now. Because you CAN’T take him on alone. Maybe above the mountain, where nopony else.

Dawn’s sneering face appeared inches away from mine. I yelped and flapped my wings as hard as I could, shooting backwards through the air as I put up a new shield spell.

“Let’s see how many of those you can dodge!” Dawn laughed, cocking a foreleg back as he gathered more of the black fire around it.

Oh crap! Where did I teleport to? It was about to lev-

I’d teleported to the palace gardens. A mere twenty meters above my friends!

WHY DID YOU DO THIS, BRAIN!?

Of all the times to subconsciously seek safety with your friends!

“I MESSED UP! HELP!” I shouted as loudly as I could.

Dawn pulled his leg back to throw the fireball. Four sharp cracks echoed off the palace walls. Dawn looked up, his eyes widened in surprise, he threw the fireball, not at me, but upwards. Four brilliant ray spells blasted towards as Celestia, Cadence, Sunset, and Breeze combined their attacks into a single spell, forming a gleaming gold-white beam of light which slammed into Dawn.

The monster screeched, immediately vanishing inside the torrent of magic as the combined might of three Alicorns and a top-tier unicorn burned the ground beneath them into a puddle of molten stone.

Fearing the strength of Dawn’s black fire indicated just how heavy a hitter he could be, I teleported upwards, joining my mentor and friends to add my own magic to the unified attack.

After a solid ten seconds, Celestia let her part of the spell end to land near the orange glowing puddle of stone and squint into the beam, seeking any sign of Dawn.

“Hold your fire! We don’t know if he telpor- Ah. Well, that was… Easy,” Celestia remarked as we stopped firing.

Centered in the bubbling pool was a pile of ash, and a mangled black form. The body he had been using completely disintegrated. Whatever magic had transformed his body into whatever it now was crackled and hissed, lines of gray steam drifting up from the mangled form which lay in the stone.

Good. Magic could hurt him… Maybe even kill him. He was laying awfully still.

Did we do it? Could we have? We’d just hit him with more firepower than Id’ ever seen in my life, so maybe.

Dawn shifted, slowly standing up, Celestia teleported away, returning to the air, her wings spread wide as she gathered energy for a second blast.

“Okay…” Dawn croaked. “Looks like you five are a match for…”

“Me?” I asked myself, still hopeful we’d done some major damage.

“Me,” Dawn finished.

“Yes!” I hissed softly to myself. “Shoot him again, girls!” I called, readying myself for a second unified attack.

“While I’m wearing a mortal skin,” Dawn added. “Which you so kindly disintegrated. Now if you’ll excuse me...” Dawn said before rearing up and unleashing a scream of pure rage.

His jet black fur bubbled melting together to form a metallic-looking scaly hide that tinted itself even darker, as if Dawn’s body was being consumed by a wave of the void. His muscles rippled rolled, and doubled in size, even before his body began to grow. Bright red crackling arcs of arcane energy flashed in the air around him, creating a burning aura as his screeching cry morphed into a deep, rumbling roar.

I could SEE the thaumaturgic current in the air around Dawn slide towards him, as if caught in an inescapable pool. He was transforming himself into exactly what he said. The absolute peak of arcane and physical power.

“Fire!” Celestia cried.

The five of us there another volley, the beams failing to unite as one due to our mutual fear. The beams struck home, pushing Dawn back a few steps, and leaving a few small burn marks on his scaly hide, but he just laughed at our attempts to harm him.

Okay, new plan… Try and think of any elemental weakness. Or a way to teleport him into a volcano. Or um, um, uh…

“HEY JERKFACE!” somepony yelled.

Dawn’s head jerked to the side as he turned to look. I spared a glance myself, my heart falling fearfully as I saw Megan, barely standing up on her hooves, one wing bracing herself upright, doing her best to give Dawn a death glare while she hunched over Applejack slightly.

“... Seriously?” Dawn asked, honestly taken aback. “You’re literally in critical condition, and you think you can fight me?”

I agreed with that assessment, but I wasn’t going to vocalize it.

Megan slowly shook her head. “No. But Applejack really wants to kick your ass. Sooo, boop!”

I blinked in surprise as Megan simply poked AJ in the nose with her left hoof, barely noticing the little pink spark which leapt from Megan's hoof to AJ’s nose.

Megan immediately flinched curled up, flopped over, and spat a mouthful of blood onto the grass in one of the most painful looking dry heaves turned wet I’d ever seen in my life. I winced, despite everything else I’d seen today.

“... She’s paralyzed. Let your brain continue shutting down while the grownups settle buisness,” Dawn said, rolling his eyes as he turned back to the five of us. “Now, I think I was just about to rip off her head, and-”

AJ stood up, popped her neck, sprinted full tilt at Dawn, jumped, twisted mid air, and slammed both her rear hooves into his side. The impact sounded almost exactly the same as the boulder breaking free from the mountainside, and was shortly followed by a second crack as Dawn smashed through the palace wall.

A full fifty meters away.

“Whelp. You definitely deliver on a promise, Megan!” AJ remarked with an extremely satisfied grin.

“You're… Welcome… AJ,” Megan coughed. “Enjoy!”

Dawn’s enraged scream made me realize I’d need to save my questions for later. There was still work left to do.

25 - Checkmate

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Applejack - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace - Equestria

HOLY COW! I JUST BUCKED A GOD! CLEAN THROUGH A WALL!

There ain’t nothin that will be more satisfying than this. Not ever. This is the absolute top of the-

Rubble shifted and slid while Dawn stood back up, screaming. Not in pain, but in rage. That kick of mine hadn’t hurt him. I’d just made him really mad.

“I should have killed you in that field, you’re nothing more than an irritation!” Dawn screamed at me as he pulled his grotesquely over muscled body out from the rubble pile.

He glared at me, red eyes shrunk to pinpricks, staring directly into my eyes. I suddenly realized I didn’t know the extent of the power Megan had given me. I’d assumed she’d given me supermare’s powers because I’d mentioned her before, but maybe I’d just gotten super strength and-

Dawn charged, running directly at me at near-Dash speeds. Amazingly, I could see him, and keep track, like he was sprinting but not moving so fast everything else looked sl-

Dawn’s hoof connected with my muzzle, sending me flying backwards into a stone pillar holding up one of those fancy free standing garden roof things. The pillar cracked, but didn’t break. As I slid down, I realized my face kinda stung a little bit. And my back felt like I’d taken a normal punch.

Okay, super tough. That’s two things. Three if you count being able to track Dawn moving that fast.

“You didn’t die!?” Dawn roared, left eye twitching. “Inconceivable!”

Something blue streaked in from my left hoof side, a line of solid blue, with little arcing bits of prismatic lightning. It moved along the ground, leaping up into the air faster than Dawn could react, smashing into his face. The blow knocked him over, sending him tumbling across the ground where a whole mess of sizzling balls of magic blasted him.

Celestia, Cadance, Twilight, Cadence’s friend, still in the air, finally able to take action. What kept them so long? And what the hay was-

The blue streak resolved into Rainbow mid air. The kick she’d delivered slowed her down! That’s what she looked like moving at top speed. Okay, now that was darn cool.

Dash raced over to me, and I smiled as I saw her move instead of just ‘teleport’ like I remembered her seeming to.

Dash’s face was pulled into a horrified grimace, her eyes wide with fear, her mouth moving, talking a mile a minute. I could just barely understand she was repeating “No,” over and over.

I stood back up and twisted my hips to pop my spine. It made a rather satisfying pop too.

“I’m okay sugarcube. Heck, that hurt less than the time you kicked me in your sleep!” I laughed, giving her a reassuring smile.

The poor mare needed it. I could see her distress.

Dash’s eyes widened even more, “I-but, I’m moving at full super speed!”

I nodded. “Yeah, I guess I’m fast too. Megan gave me some magical upgrades,” I explained with a grimace. “But I don’t know what all she did.”

“Y-you accepted magical transformation?” Dash stammered.

I nodded. “Yeah. There’s a demon trying to kill my friends. I want to punch it. Kicks weren't satisfying enoug-”

The world flashed red as Dawn fired a blast of magic thick as a tree trunk upwards. It struck Celestia squarely in her chest, knocking her from the air. She plummeted with a cry of pain, trailing smoke from her blackened and cracked armor, barely managing to regain control of herself and land on her hooves rather than plow into the ground.

I turned and raced for the bloated black monster. My hooves pounded against the plaza’s cobblestones. I closed the gap between us, drawing back a foreleg to punch with all my body weight behind it, before letting my hoof fly.

Something cracked then screeched, like a whiplash and a fastball pitch happened together. My hoof struck Dawn’s right shoulder, I felt it give way, bending inwards. Dawn’s legs buckled under the strike, failing to do anything to stop him from sliding across the plaza for a few meters.

My hoof also felt like I’d decided to punch an anvil with it, it took everything I had to keep myself from holding it in my mouth while mumbling curses around it.

Note to self: You can punch harder than your body can take.

“Woah!” Dash exclaimed behind me while Dawn jumped back up, sneering at me specifically.

I could see his shoulder was just sort of hanging limply. I’d broken it! Ha!

“Serves you right for ripping off my legs!” I mocked, grinning ear to ear with the satisfaction.

Dawn’s sneer twisted into a sick grin. The flesh around his shoulder rolled and boiled, squelching back into the proper shape in a moment.

“Oh, what’s that? You hurt me?” He mocked back.

Only to vanish in a beam of purple light as Twilight blasted half the gosh-darn plaza with a concussive attack that shook the earth hard enough to knock me off my hooves.

While I struggled to get back up, the other alicorns cast their own spells. The ground beneath Dawn melted into lava, hoof sized shards of ice smashed into his face, back, and left side, the air around him began to ripple and shimmer like the badlands on a super hot day.

Dawn howled, the stench of burnt fur completely saturating the air before he managed to climb out of the growing lava pit, his lower legs literally bubbling and deforming.

“Stop distracting me!” Dawn commanded, glaring at me evilly and-

The world turned red for a second. Then everything hurt. I was laying on my back… The sky was above me. Things were exploding far away, and also close by.

What the hay happened?

I slowly sat up, head spinning. Dash suddenly arrived by my side. As I reflexively turned to look at her I could feel skin crack and peal. I’d been burnt? Yeah, I had. I was sitting in a two hundred meter long cone-shaped bed of glowing coals, resting atop an ash pile.

“Thank Luna!” Dash laughed manically, scooping me up in her forelegs.

My head cleared as she lifted me up. “How bad?” I croaked.

“Bad. But Lily’s right here!” Dash said as we shot through the air, arriving next to the white unicorn in a flash. “Do you have the magic to-”

“Ja,” Lily said, cutting Dash off quickly, his horn glowing and my skin tingling as he cast what I was pretty certain was a quick and dirty healing spell. “Humm… I just realized. I’m the white mage, und I’m actually white.”

I frowned, not quite understanding what the little stallion meant with his joke. But maybe that’s because I was too disturbed watching dead skin and fur flake off my legs as new skin and fur replaced it and pushed it up and away…

Why couldn’t I feel that? I should be able to feel that.

The earth shook, something landed next to me, cracking stone. Cadence’s Bodyguard! She’d taken one hay of a punch to get thrown like that.

The mare moaned, slowly staggering up to her hooves, and tottering for a moment. “Ah… Yeah… Definitely concussed,” she groaned, her hood slipping off her head as she turned towards Lily almost pleadingly.

I yelped, the mare’s whole body had to be one huge burn scar! Did Dawn do that, and then make it heal up like that? What kind of cruel-

Oh. Yeah. His kind. Duh.

“Do you have any healing for me too?” She asked hopefully.

Lily nodded. “Ja, but I’m getting low on mana, und last time I just kept using potions und mana bars to refill I almost poisoned myself into an early grave. Can you stop him?”

“Yeah, once AJ gets back over there,” the mare I had no idea was an alicorn until today said decisively. “AJ, if you’re okay with him wailing on you, he seems to really like doing that. It’s what let us line up shots.

“Dash, if you could use that super speed of yours to fly up and aim our shots better, that would be great! He’s REALLY fast. Right now’ he’s kind of-”

Something metallic shattered. Twilight screamed in pain, emotional pain, and then growl in anger. Something exploded with a meaty pop after which Dawn screeched in agony, “OW! You absolute CUNT!”

Oh, he did NOT just use that word!

Lily cringed. “... Ow!”

Really? Sympathy pain!? FOR HIM!?

“D-did Twi just conjure-” Dash stammered.

“Ja… She just conjured-” Lily agreed, still cringing.

“He’s the demon here! He doesn't deserve sympathy,” I snapped.

Twilight screamed again. I turned around, my skin still itching as it healed, and sprinted for the evil mon-

OH! Oh holy crap, he was regenerating his whole lower body! Which had popped off, and was smoking, from frost. Oh sweet celestia Twi’d inflated him with that liquid she showed me that was so cold it would shatter anything! What could have possibly made her that mad?!

Then I saw Celestia laying atop a rubble pile, bleeding. Her chest barely moving. Her armor laying in bits around her, or draped limply over her body, her ribs caved in on one side.

Ah. Yeah, I reckon that would do it.

“Lily! Celestia’s down!” I called urgently over my shoulder before skidding to a halt.

A punch wasn’t good enough. I needed Dawn to be down for another few seconds. Time for another flying buck!

Something about the way Dawn’s flowing, undulating, creeptastic regeneration didn’t look right. Well, none of it looked right, but it didn’t look like he was reforming the Earth Pony body he had been using bef-

Ah. No. He’s not. That’s a scorpion's tail. I’d bet my last bit that he had something worse than poison in that growing stinger...

Princess Luna - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Ruins - Equestria

I was smiling. I was going to die, but I was still smiling. An ear-to-ear grin made from nothing but absolute joy.

Righteous, Rarity, Ayna, the dark mage, and I were an unstoppable javelin, ripping cleanly through the demonic hoard before us. They couldn’t fit enough monsters within line of sight of us to do real damage. Ay’s portals simply opened up, stucked in any ranged artillery spell they threw our way, and dropped it back on the caster.

The way she simply hovered above us, opening a half dozen of her ‘Return to Sender’ portals every few moments was amazing. I didn’t have a mind which could handle the stress of casting the same spell over and over again that precisely. I had more than enough power, but she had the focus. It’s a shame she couldn’t keep that up for much longer.

It’s not like the demons had love for her to recharge herself with. Or would let me make out with Rarity for a few minutes to make enough love to refuel our changeling wizard.

Righteous and Rarity were a terrifying duo. Between Righteous’ skill with that glittering mono-sword, and deadly aim with the blaster rifle in her off hand, and the support weapons Rarity was somehow controlling for her friend, nothing could close the distance and come close to us. If it got within sword range, it was cut cleanly in two. If it got too close to any other one of us, it got a particle beam lobotomy.

I’d never seen anyone so accurate with any weapon before. The mech’s pilot had to be a machine, it was the only explanation for the accuracy of those snap-shots.

Our Dark Wizard’s astral form was a wrecking ball. Even the demons which were larger than her crackling colessed dark magic body were demolished by her onslaught of black lightning, crushed underhoof, or impaled on her horn in a way which meant she ether felt no pain or we’d finally found somepony who's masochism would make even Cadence blush.

The Dark Wizard, who I was so becoming friends with after this mess if we lived, was a bulldozer. She made our road, and she made it wide.

I was our Tank. You might think that our Wizard was the tank, but she was more like the objective your team defends so you can complete the objective before the timer runs out. Somepony had to keep the majority of the threats off of her, and that pony was me.

I gave it my all. Enemy spears? I picked them up and threw them back. Rubble? Each pile of crushed brick was a free set of cannonballs. Clear shots at bigger Demons? The perfect place toss an arcane or eldritch blast into!

I never focused on one place for long. Always moving. Always throwing as much pain at as many things as I could. All the aggression the enemy had was aimed squarely at me.

That’s not why I was confident I was going to die.

Our little team was an unstoppable javelin, but all javelins crash into something at the end of their journey. We had just enough oomph to make it to that portal and cover our Wizard Friend while she shut it. Maybe we had a bit more, but I didn’t think so. We’d close the door, trap the enemy here, cut off their reinforcements, and then go out in a blaze of glory, taking as many of them with us as possible.

I couldn’t ask for a better death.

I was ageless, biologically immortal, and by no means indestructible. I’d always known that meant I would eventually die. I’d have liked a few centuries to get to know that wonderful mare I’d met months ago, made a life with her, had a family. But it was time to go.

No one else could ensure no more of these monsters entered our world. Equestria needed me to ward off the darkness one last time. As always, I was happy to ensure others lived safe lives full of joy. There was no greater honor in all the world.

“Just another hundred meters!” Ayna called down to us, screaming over the noise of the battle.

“What is your exit plan?” The Dark Wizard asked as she casually ripped the spine out of a dragon-like demon which she had been grappling.

“I don’t have an exit plan,” I admitted. “We don’t have the firepower to make it out of here after the portal is closed.”

“What was that?” Righteous asked. “Oh, wait, this is a suicide mission? I thought this was a cake walk. Hmm? Oh yes, of course, I’ll do my best to ensure you make it out, Miss Rarity. I promised. Don’t worry, the ejection seat-”

Righteous paused, spinning to take down three imps with two shots and one swift kick of a pointed boot.

“- Has a five kilometer range.” she finished.

“Sad,” the Wizard lamented, her emotions feeling oddly sincere. “I was enjoying working with you three.”

I laughed and blasted a tall, willowy, almost noodle-like pony-daemon with as much arcane fire as I dared expend on just one daemon.

“Oh? What’s your plan to make it out alive?” I asked playfully. “You don’t need to sound tough for us.”

She turned, her avatar’s massive head looking at me for just the split second needed to grin at me with it’s shark-fanged maw before turning back to bite an imp in two.

“They can’t kill that which has no life,” she said almost tauntingly. “That’s how dad did it, that’s how Prance does it, and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”

Oh. She was undead. Neat.

<You’d think that you’d be more um, reactive, to learning that,> Dreams said, sounding just a little incredulous.

<She’s a Dark Wizard who smells very similar to Sombra, and who claims to be from another universe. She’s probably him, but from a dimension where he was a mare, and also not totally evil or she’d never have become a force for good,> I pointed out. <As it stands, I’d be surprised if she wasn’t undead, or at least capable of self-resurrection.>

<Speaking of, why aren't YOU capable of doing that? Of bringing yourself back,> Dreams asked curiously.

<Because I don’t like the idea of cramming my soul into a jar and hiding it someplace,> I answered simply.

“We’ll be fine,” Ayna called from above.

“Are you really that naive?” I asked, ears drooping sadly as I narrowly managed to dodge a spear thrust at my heart.

A blast of telekinesis sent the demon who'd taken advantage of me being sad my friend was deluding herself, hurtling back into his friends fast enough to break a few limbs.

“No. I’m simply more informed about the situation than you are,” she countered. “I’d fill you in but this defense screen takes too much concentration for me to speak for any real len-”

A hideous evil, shaped like the spawn of a hydra, a goat, and a mouse, extended one tentacle-fingered hand before launching a blinding black and yellow beam of energy at our Wizard. The attack pierced her Astral form, the dark magic body vanishing in the blink of an eye amid a small electrical storm.

Her body dropped like a ragdoll from where the avatar’s heart would have been, smashing into the ground below.

The monstrosity vanished as Ayna, Righteous, and I hit it with everything we had out of pure rage!

“ARRRRRGH!” I growled, enough anger burning in my heart to have unleashed the Nightmare had she not given herself wholly to me.

I’d provoked Ay into speaking when her whole mind was needed! This was MY fault. Of course she had a plan! She wouldn’t have teleported in with only herself and one ally! But whatever she’d had in the wings wouldn’t help us now that our one means of closing the portal was gone!

The Dark Wizard's body suddenly jerked upright, the mangled body snapping back into a healthy looking shape as the dark magic aura around her eyes reignited. Six different cruciform swords slid out from under her cloak, wielded by her magic’s arcane grip.

“Dammit!” She spat, sounding more upset than angry. “You guys killed it! Don’t do that. Nothing’s more satisfying than killing someone who killed you.”

“Huh… So um, how did you do that?” Righteous asked, honestly confused.

“Um, I don’t speak that language,” Genesis pointed out, making me realize that she’d been speaking Equish this entire time, while our golden armored friend had been using English of all things…

“He asked how you reanimated,” I translated. “I’d like to know too.”

“Very long and complex story,” she replied. “Short version, I’m King Sombra’s Daughter. I inherited most of his power.”

Ah ha! I knew it!

“What’s your name by the way?” I asked, hoping she could return to her dark magic form sooner rather than later.

She opened her mouth to answer me, and the sun dimmed. Noticeably. It didn’t move, the light coming from it noticeably dimmed, and not in the way a cloud would suddenly block the light. This had been more like a dimmer swi-

Ah! Celestia had borrowed some of the sun’s energy. Probably readying a Solar Strike.

Noticing a dropped enemy Halberd I smiled and picked the weapon up with my Telekinesis. It was about time I found a proper weap-

OH BUCK! We were facing Canterlot right now!

“CLOSE YOUR EYES!” I yelled in panic, throwing myself down face first into the ground.

Celestia’s Solar Strike exploded with a sound only describable as the mother of all thunderbolts screaming in rage at the death of one of her children. A searing white light flashed for a full second, painfully bright even through my clamped shut eyes which were pressed up against the ground.

“The hell was that?!” Righteous demanded, voice filled with awe.

“My sister casting a Solar Strike,” I said as I stood back up, blinking the white flash out of my eyes.

Thank goodness the enemy was doing the same right now…

“Is… Is she single?” The golden armored warrior asked in a hopeful tone which also came across as a joke. “Oh calm down, Rarity! I was joking! Why are you even upset about that?”

Heh. Looks like Rarity’s new friend could rival Twilight’s obliviousness.

“My name is Genesis,” the Dark Wizard announced loudly. “Take advantage of their blindness, NOW, or we won’t make it the rest of the way. My Dark Avatar is a daily!”

Oh sweet! She plays games too! If we can survive this we will DEFINITELY be frien-

Oh crap she can’t do that again today!

I charged forwards, twirling my new halbard expertly. “Thanks for the help, sister!”

Applejack - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace - Equestria

Dawn laughed triumphantly, Lily’s exhausted, limp, panting form lay before him, the poor stallion having fallen over trying to shield Megan and Celestia with his body. Princess Celestia’s solar strike had messed up her horn, too much power at once I reckoned. Lily had been trying to fix it when he collapsed.

Dawn hadn’t done a thing to him. Lily had run himself all the way down by getting us back on our hooves at least twice, each. I knew he didn’t have much in him, but the little stallion had given it all to us. It was too bad we’d needed more than he had.

Dawn gave the germane wizard one smug look before turning to face us, chitten covered scorpion legs punching small holes in the stones beneath him as he moved. While the centaur-like scorpion body he’d given himself was slow, the darn thing made him too heavy for me to just kick across the city...

“And now you can see your hope has run out,” Dawn mocked, glaring at me especially hatefully. “You won’t be getting back up the next time you fall, and I am well past the point of allowing you to surr-”

“Oh, Jeeeeerrkkkface!” Megan sang loudly, but horsley.

Dawn’s head spun around, the dark god’s eyes shrinking to pinpricks as he saw Megan sitting up just beside Lily, her adorable yellow eyes sparkling mischievously, even while her lips and cheeks were pale as the grave.

He wouldn’t turn around completely in time. And I reckoned he couldn’t just throw another huge spell at her ether. That attack Celestia hit him with took a lot of magic to block. He was still ‘recharging’. And he knew it.

“Boop!” Megan proclaimed, tapping Lily’s nose in the same way she had mine.

Her magic’s pink sparks sank into him. Lily’s exhaustion vanished so fast, you’d swear he’d never been beat in the first place.

“Ha!” I laughed, though Megan collapsing into a ball and spitting up another gout of blood immediately drained what joy Dawn’s mistake brought me.

“Fuuuuuuccckkk…” Dawn groaned. “I completely forgot about you! Don’t worry, it won't happen again.”

Like hay it would! I lunged forwards, ready to try and break off a third leg from his mutated body. Twilight beat me to the punch, a lavender spear manifesting at the tip of her horn and blowing a hole clean through Dawn’s upper, lower back, pinning him to the ground.

“I’ll just have to take somepony else out of the picture first is all,” Dawn said eerily calm despite watching our healer stand up, completely refreshed. And having been impaled. “One minute, girls.”

Then he teleported. Leaving the spear behind.

Buck…

Rarity - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Ruins - Equestria

I’d never been one to think of fighting as fun. Well, that wasn’t quite true. I’d rather enjoyed fencing in high school. Even being captain of the fencing team. But that was sport, all in good fun. This was real combat.

It shouldn’t have been fun. It should have been terrifying, and horrific, and a good deal outrageous. And it was all of those things. While also being a little fun.

I couldn’t pinpoint why exactly. Perhaps the physical challenge? I’d never been one for most sport, aside from fencing, but when the prize was ‘everypony gets to live’, rather than a trophy, that did put some urgency in it. Was it fun because of the stakes?

No that didn’t make sense. Perhaps the fun came from using my magic to its fullest? Well, I wasn’t casting spells per say, but the way I controlled the Squire Drones was completely identical to floating objects about with my telekinesis. In a way, this was an arcane challenge. I’d always enjoyed those.

Yes, that had to be it.

Well, that or seeing five different fields of view at once! Now that was most certainly a unique experience. And slightly confusing.

The mech lurched as Indy carried through with a lunge, throwing me against the crash harness for a moment. “Indy? This might be a bad time, but how am I able to see all of these perspectives as well as my own at once?” I asked curiously while also maneuvering one drone to intercept an incoming attack with it’s shield.

“Hmm? Oh, well, remember how near death you were?” Indy asked before rolling through with his answer. “I had to replace some brain tissue as well. The nanomachines I injected should have regenerated-”

“The what?” I asked, eyes opening wide in alarm.

“The standard, medical nanobots, which every single human is given at birth, and which all of our allies were given as a quality of life full immune and cellular repair upgrade, which I carefully calibrated to your exact biology, should have finished repairing your brainstem by now,” Indy said, before quickly sidestepping an attack and delivering a counterstrike with his longsword.

I was certain that anyone else would have problems carrying on a conversation while fighting, but he could do it without difficulty. Much like how Sky’s computer’s could run more than one program at a t-

Oh! Well, now I just felt silly.

“But I couldn’t repair tissues too damaged to scan,” he continued. “Nor can they, ever. Hence, why I had to make cybernetic prosthetics instead of just injecting you with all the stimpacks and nano syringes I had. This includes some parts of your brain. While the memory centers were intact enough to repair, as evidenced by your being you still, and not an amnesiac or a new persona in the old body, I had to replace your visual cortex, angular gyrus, temporal lobe, and a section of-

“Can you shoot that giant dragon-parrot-squid?”

I brought the drone which housed the linear cannon to bare and put three rounds into the demon Indy indicated for me.

“Then I can do this because I’m more cybernetic than I thought,” I mused. “That makes sense… Did you replace anything else in me which you haven’t mentioned yet?”

“No. I didn’t mention the brain repair or immune augment after seeing how much distress your power supply caused you. Sorry for any offense. I just didn’t want you to panic and have the standard new cyborg ‘I’m not a person anymore!’ fit,” Indy said apologetically. “Especially since they don't negatively impact your life.”

I bit my lip and let a held breath out slowly. “I can see your point.. But I’m just a little bit upset you didn’t tell me about this,” I understated.

Sure, I was angry at him. But I wouldn’t be alive if he hadn’t done that for me.

“Hmm… No, you’re fully upset. I can hear that. I am sorry. I hope you can forgive me. I only acted for your health, comfort, and safety,” Indy stated, ducking out of the way of a fireball Ayna missed.

I rotated a flamer bearing drone and sent a fireball back to the caster. No sense in not giving her a hoof with returning fire.

You know, with most stallions I’d dated, I would call them out for lying if they said that to me. But with Indy? Well, he actually meant it.

“I can’t be too upset with someone who spent goodness knows how many hours keeping me alive despite not knowing me,” I decided. “Apology accepted. But please never forget telling me anything like that ever again. Now, what else can I do?”

“It was days, actually. You can process multiple visual inputs, mathematics shouldn’t be any problem, which honestly is one reason your aim is so good here, and we can go over this in more detail post-combat,” he decided, firing a quick barrage of laser bolts into an advancing group of the depressingly foal-like demons.

“I suppose we can… Assuming you survive this. Or have you forgotten you’re inside this mech with me?” I asked sadly.

Indy snickered. “Um, Captain? Why would the ejection system not also eject me? I’m considered a person by our laws. Therefore, the safety features must also protect me.”

“Oh! Well in that case, it’s great to know we both-” I stopped mid sentence as I saw what I thought was an imp at first, except it was sprinting through the enemy line, completely terrified out of it’s mind.

And lacked horns. Or wings.

That was a young earth pony colt!

“INDY!” I yelped eyes locking onto the terrified foal.

“I see him,” he replied instantly. “Girls! Cover me, civilian child in danger!”

We leapt forwards, smashing into the enemy line and carving a path through, racing for the colt in a desperate and probably foolish bid to get the tan furred colt to safety.

This would probably mess up the entire mission to take out the portal. This was stupid! But I couldn’t just let a colt die! How long had he been hiding in the rubble of his own home-

A glint of orange and blue caught my eye. Swiveling a drone to face what I thought was an incoming attack I saw Flash of all ponies, limping through the battlefield, keeping the path ahead of him clear with a surprisingly skilled flurry of spear thrusts, pursuing the colt despite over a dozen different cuts and burns.

“Indy, tell Luna to get Flash out of here! Why is he even on the battlefield, he’s terminally ill!” I exclaimed in shock.

“Well, he’s clearly trying to save that colt too,” Indy pointed out. “And not in armor… And that’s one of their spears. The kid definitely ran away while evacuating and he probably went after-”

A flash of dull red light blinded me for an instant, the light clearing to reveal a hideous jet black creature with the lower body of a giant scorpion, and the upper body of an earth pony which likely ate nothing but steroids for decades. The monstrous-even-for-a-demon abomination had appeared just in front of Flash, who skidded to a halt, eyes widening in terror.

Because the demons around him had stopped and bowed to the newcomer.

A chorus of “Sire,” boomed forth from the demons ranks.

“Oh that’s not good…” Indy and I understated in unison.

The abomination’s hoof seized Flash by the top of his head, the monstrously large appendage easily able to just grip around him like I might pick up an apple.

“Don’t mind me, boys. I’m just picking up some emotional ammunition,” the evil thing said with a sick smile before vanishing. Taking Flash with it.

Oh… Oh no… That meant Twilight was fighting it. And it knew who her husband was...

Twilight Sparkle - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace Ruins - Equestria

Dawn vanishing for those six seconds had given me just enough breathing room to clear my head. Rapid spellcasting like this always gave me a headache. I really should keep a little baggie of headache medicine on my person for moments like this.

I would have had just enough time to take it before he returned.

Unlike his previous teleports, this one shed the normal burst of arcane light. That was good! It meant we were wearing him down. A fact I would appreciate more if he had not appeared in front of me, smirking, with his scorpion's tail acid-dripping blade held millimeters from Flash’s throat, who dangled limply from Dawn’s outstretched hoof.

No! NO NONONO!

“Now, as I was saying,” Dawn hissed menacingly. “I need to take someone out of this little fight. Twilight, you can sit down, or he will d-”

“Chrysalis did it!” Lily shouted.

Dawn turned his head, frowning angrily. YES! Lily was buying me time! Thank you so much! Okay, Twilight, remote teleportation. You’ve never teleported something that you were not nearby without also moving yourself before, but you CAN do it!

“Excuse me?” Dawn demanded.

“Trying to break Twilight by harming her special somepony,” Lily elaborated. “Chrysalis did it. Und she killed him too. Didn’t work out so well for her.”

“Bullshit, he’s alive!” Dawn said rolling his eyes and shaking Flash. “He’s right here. In my grip. Well within my domain.”

“Ja. I fixed it. It’s what I do. So go ahead. Kill him, watch Twilight go ape, und I’ll just stick him back together like last time,” Lily laughed. “Your threat is empty. You should shut let him go und save your energy for real threats. Like the one you’re making right now.”

“He’s not… Lying,” Flash gasped.

NO! Lily, don’t! He’s not the kind of person who responds to that sort of logic! Hang on, Flash I can do this… I just need to work out how to bridge the-

“Oh yes! That’s right. You were ripped in half once,” Dawn said with anod. “Fair point, you were able to stick two halves back together and restart a heart. Yes, very impressive. But it’s not like he was torn in half the long way. His brain was intact.”

“Er, well, ja…” Lily said, eyes widening as he realized how badly he’d just messed up.

NO! NO! I was so, so close, just another second and I’d have a solution to-

“Can you fix this? It’s a matter of curiosity at this point, really,” Dawn asked, the hatred in his voice actually gone for that one single question.

He was genuinely curious. He really did want to know.

YES! I had the spell ready! Hopefully! I’d just send him to our bedroom and-

Dawn’s hoof leaked red smoke for half a second. Flash instantly went limp. His body didn’t even flail, twitch, or jerk. It just stopped. Like a switch had been flipped.

Then he dissolved into a ball of liquidy gunk, splashing across the ground. An actual pink stain…

“N-nein…” Lily stammered, taking a few steps backwards.

“Hmm, too bad, “ Dawn sighed. “It would have made this fight more fun if I could completely denature him over and over ag-”

The incineration spell I threw combined with my scream, blinding and deafening me to the world as I put my entire heart into the first lethal spell which came to mind.

Rarity - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Ponyville Ruins - Equestria

The orange swirling portal seemed to scream as it twisted and oozed closed. Genesis's spell pulled it shut almost exactly like the drawstrings of a purse. The daemons screeched, enraged at their failure.

We’d won. Their invasion was over.

We’d also lost. Because there was still a few thousand of them surrounding us. Luna had been correct in her estimations too. Indy’s munitions were almost entirely expended. She was exhausted. My drones had only a few shots left each and no shields. Genesis was mostly fine, what with being whatever she was and all, though the spear lodged in her chest looked rather painful. Ayna seemed fatigued, but oddly calm.

She likely was accepting this was our end.

“Indy, is there any way we can get Luna or Ay out of here when we eject?” I asked, ears drooping sadly.

There had to be some way, right?

“Yes, but additional mass will reduce our escape range. And there’s no guarantee they can hold on to the pod as we eject. But we could try,” he explained slowly. “Luna, Ayna, climb up onto my shoulders. I’m going to eject once the portal has closed.”

“What was that?” Genesis asked.

I opened my mouth to translate for Indy again, but Luna rolled her eyes, casting a quick spell. “There! Mutual translation spell.”

“I said,” Indy repeated. “Luna, Ayna, climb up onto my shoulders. I’m going to eject once the portal has closed.”

Genesis laughed. “What, no ride for me?”

“I thought you said you would be fine?” Indy asked, mentally frowning with worry.

“I will. I’m just having a little fun with you and-” Genesis paused, slowly looking down at the spear stuck in her. “There’s a spear in my chest! Someone has made a grievous error…”

“It was that one,” Ayna said, pointing at an unarmed Imp throwing rocks at our little team.

Genesis grunted, her horn and eyes leaking even more magic as she pulled the portal completely closed. The orange light popped, scattering the magic which had formed the gate to the winds.

Victory for ponykind, achieved.

“Okay,” Indy announced, dropping to one knee. “Climb aboard I’ll aim for the forest, we’ll lose them in the tree-”

“Belay that!” Ayna ordered, pulling a small radio out from under her cloak and bringing it to her lips. “Miss Faust, the portal’s gone. I’m at the center of their camp. Do it.”

I blinked. Do what?

The ground beneath us turned white, radiant light shining up from the ground as if we were standing atop the lense of a flashlight. The blinding white circle spread outwards from Ayna, through the harsh glare I could just barely make out the burst of white flame as the light touched each daemon around us in an ever expanding circle, disintegrating each and every one.

The light stopped when the circle looked to be a few hundred meters wide, at which point the circle vanished, leaving behind a ground covered in a thick layer of ash.

I tilted my head. “T-that’s it? We just get a little breathing room?” I asked incredulously.

“Wait for it…” Ayna giggled.

“Wait for what?” Luna asked, wings flaring in alarm.

“Wait a minute…” Genesis muttered. “This ash... Is- is this Prench ash? A-are we standing on a teleported chunk of the Prench border!?”

“Mmmmmmhm,” Ay smirked.

“OH, CRAP!” Genesis squeak-screamed, scrambling awkwardly as she turned around, looking like she was about to sprint for her life.

“You weren't vaporised like they were. You’re fine! Sheesh,” Ay said, giving me just enough curiosity to open my mouth and ask exactly what the plan was before I saw an imp set hoof on the ash.

The INSTANT its hoof touched the ground, the ash moved, patches sliding aside amid a horrible stone-on-stone shriek revealing Princess sized sarcophagi buried a meter apart from each other. And inside each one…

Armored giants stood up, rising from the ground in unison. Each one dressed in thick obsidian colored armor appropriate for knights from across six thousand years of history. The air around us suddenly became a forest of spears, as each knight lifted one with an attached flag bearing their coat of arms, before planting them firmly in the soil. The very next heartbeat saw the group draw their weapons, and shields, forming a wall around us which frankly felt more solid than any other wall I had ever seen.

“Well, shit,” a demon said faintly from the other side of the wall of pain.

I heard the snap of a normal teleport behind Indy and I. I quickly spun a drone around to defend ourselves from the attack, stopping as the drone’s crosshairs lined up with a tall white alicorn and an earth pony twice her size clad from head to hoof in unadorned silver armor, completely plain save for the helmet’s eyes which glowed with bright yellow lights.

I had no idea who the giant was, and the alicorn wasn’t Celestia, but they didn’t look like something I needed to fire at. Or would even want to fire at. This alicorn was much more slender than Celestia. Not that I thought the Princess was overweight, no, this mare was more… Twiggy. And her simple brown mane lacked the ethereal waviness. For a minute I wondered if Princess Flury Heart had grown up faster than I thought and dyed her coat and mane less eye bleeding colors, but then she waved at Luna.

“Hello, Luna! We’ve never met before, I’m Dusk’s mother, Faust,” the alicorn greeted with a wave. “She… I couldn’t let a person my little girl had a crush on get hurt. I’ve got to go help your sister now. I hope she doesn't get mad that I brought her reinforcements here. It just seemed like you needed them more. Bye!”

Then she vanished, leaving the other pony she’d brought with her behind. Make that other ponies. The silver armor clad-giant of a pony was so large I had BARELY managed to see Sky laying on his back, looking for all the world like a pony who had just run four back to back marathons and had the worst bout of insomnia in his life.

“Knights, clean this town up,” the giant pony ordered.

“Yes, My Emperor!” The collection of obsidian clad warriors boomed, instantly surging forwards in a single wave of complete coordination.

“Ayna, why don’t you and your friends take a seat here and rest up with your brother? He refused to stay home. Insisted on seeing the town safe before anything else,” the pony I could only assume was the Emperor of Prance chuckled playfully as he gently set Sky down on the ground and then calmly trotted off towards the enemy lines, whistling happily.

I was fairly certain the tune he held was ‘I’ve been working on the railroad.’

The sound of battle returned to Ponyville. Battle I didn’t need to participate in.

Ponyville… My home. Were my friends still alive? I hadn’t seen any of them here. I’d hoped-

Oh Rarity, you silly filly! Borrow Sky’s watch and try to call them!

“Kinda mad you didn’t do this earlier, Ay,” Luna grumbled, sitting down and giving her friend a glare.

“I was asked to only give the go ahead when we were in the middle of their formation. That way we could destroy them from the middle outwards. More efficient, apparently,” the changeling countered with a shrug.

“Indy, can you open the door, please? I need to talk to Sky, that’s the burnt orange pegasus over there,” I asked politely.

Indy laughed. “I’d say no but… Well, apparently Ayna knows the spell ‘Summon Can of Whoopass’. Go ahead, but keep it short. Incase we start to take fire,” Indy answered, the mech’s chest splitting with a creak, battle damage preventing it from opening completely smoothly.

Still, the cockpit hissed open, giving me a view of Sky, while the poor pony was absolutely exhausted, he still managed to look over at the sound of the cockpit screeching open. His ears raising in an odd, dangerous way, as he noticed me in the cockpit.

Oh. Yes. I was mostly made of metal at the moment. That would be quite alarming.

“It’s okay, Sky. I’m fine. I did get hurt, but I’m all patched up now,” I said as soothingly as I could manage. “Can I borrow your watch? I lost mine. I want to know if everypony else is okay? Oh! You went with Pinkie, right darling? Where is she?”

Sky was on his hooves in a heartbeat, and practically in my face in another. A feat most impressive, seeing as how exhausted he appeared to-

“WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL!?!” He belted.

The volume of his voice was nearly deafening, as everyone quickly snapped their heads in our direction. All eyes wide and staring right at us.

“I- I don’t-” I stuttered, unable to get another word out before he continued his tirade.

“Don’t what?! Don’t know?! How could you not!? Everyone thinks you're dead! Your ship exploded, and you didn’t think to call?!” He screamed, his voice hardly losing any volume.

“W-well I lost your suit. And I almost died. Luckily I was saved by my friend here. So you could probably cut me a little slack, right?” I asked, almost afraid to say anything.

“Slack… SLACK! Do you have any idea what we have been through? What I have been through?!

“I haven’t slept in almost five days! We flew up to Bucking Cold, then had to travel down into a mine in the ice that got so cold, that our guide almost died, IN ONE OF MY SUITS! Before being chased out by a GIANT ICE WORM with a wood chipper for it’s mouth! Before it fell into a pit and got eaten, by what I am starting to think was a LITERAL OLD ONE, before we then proceeded to spend the entire night evacuating the rest of the town back to Trottingham!

“Only to then spend the next morning making a beeline to straight to Neighpone, with a mid flight refuel, to go and rescue Fluttershy! Who upon arrival, was just being attacked by an UNDEAD MEGA KAIJU, which I turned around and proceeded to fight in one of my mechs! The one that requires me to physically perform all the moves it makes, FOR THIRTY SIX MOTHERFUCKING HOURS!

“After which, I had to manually fly the crippled Ranger all the way to Shorefall, at subsonic speeds, to look for you! Just to find out that not only were you not their, but that your hazard suit’s telemetry showed it was in the middle of the ocean! Which we flew to and found the wreckage of your ship, and only PARTS OF YOU!

“WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! Pinkie and Fluttershy were, and still are, grieving! Then, I had to fly us all the way back here, still manually, while picking up Roboshy along the way, only to arrive in Ponyville and see it destroyed, WHILE STILL UNDER ATTACK! And to see Luna fighting for her life!”

Sky took a second to take a few breaths. I was about to respond when Indy cleared his throat. “To be fair, she was dead… Five times, actually.”

“And now I find out that not only are you not dead, but you have been with him! THIS WHOLE TIME!” He directed at Indy, before turning back to me.

“I saw tank treads and metallic hydrogen at the beach! Which means that not only were you alive, but you were with a Terran AI and advanced military equipment! Equipment advanced enough to build you cybernetics, and more than advanced enough to HAVE RADIOS!” Sky screached.

Indy took the time to raise a hand and finger on the Aegis before chiming in, “Actually I'm an AGI."

Sky instantly wheeled his head around to give him a death glare.

"I KNOW WHAT YOU FUCKING ARE!!" He shouted, in English, again.

What surprised me was that Indy actually flinched back and threw his arms up to shield himself. As if he was genuinely fearing an attack from the stallion. A reaction I deemed pertinent as that same glare quickly found my eyes again, and I too felt the need to shield myself.

“YOU HAD ACCESS TO RADIO EQUIPMENT FOR DAYS! YOUR SHIP EXPLODED! AND NOT ONCE DID YOU EVER THINK, ‘OH, MY SHIP EXPLODED AND EVERYONE DIED. MAYBE I SHOULD, I DUNNO, TRY TO CONTACT ANYONE TO LET THEM KNOW I AM OKAY?’!

“AND HERE I FIND YOU, TRAIPSING AROUND IN A BATTLE MECH, WITH A BUNCH OF CYBERNETICS, AND AN AI, KILLING DEMONS AND BEING ALL HAPPY LIKE IT AIN’T NO SHIT! TRYING TO BE ALL CASUAL! THEN YOU HAVE THE FUCKING NADS TO ASK ME TO QUOTE ‘BORROW MY WATCH, TO SEE IF EVERYONE IS ALRIGHT’!!” He, well, I couldn’t think of a verb to adequately describe his yelling.

“The funny thing is I put a radio in her head…” Indy murmured quietly.

Sky’s head dipped, and I could swear all sound in the area died when it did…

“I have just one question for you…” He said with a voice so cold and filled with tranquil fury, that it would make even a windigo shiver.

I was almost to afraid to ask, but against my better judgement I did. “Which is?”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU FUCKING CALL!?!”

His voice was at Royal Canterlot levels. Not almost. Not near. At Royal Canterlot levels.

Everyone around us visibly recoiled. I think even a few of Prance's knights, and the demons, even did. Then everything was silent, for several, painful, seconds. But I realized that after all that, he did ask me a question. And this was one I couldn’t avoid answering…

I started to open my mouth to say something, but I never got a chance. Before my jaw even moved, Sky’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, immediately snoring like a chainsaw.

Just like that, whatever my answer would have been, died. And I thanked the maker above that I would hopefully never have to come up with a new one...

Applejack - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace Ruins - Equestria

Twilight’s berserk button ran out. I didn’t think that would happen until Dawn fell, but it did.

And that was not good at all. Especially since Dawn’s mocking laughter as she stopped attacking grated on every nerve in my entire body.

I could see how much he’d worn down during the ten, maybe fifteen minutes this fight had lasted for. My punches hit him harder, spells burned a little deeper. His attacks had become slower and more measured. Especially after Princess Celestia fried him, and even more so while Twilight had been in the middle of rage-mode.

Unfortunately, he was probably only about half way done. Cadence on the other hoof, she was completely done, too tired to use more spells, too fatigued to swing a blade. Her bodyguard was still fighting, but her magic was dry.

Celestia, Dash and I were still going strong. But we wouldn’t be enough… Twilight had been keeping things even, but now… The fight went out of her.

One moment she’d been swarming around Dawn, firing bolt after bolt of crackling magic, some even tinged a bit dark with what was probably a few flecks of dark magic pulled out of her grieving heart. The next, she’d just… Stopped.

Why did she stop? Twilight why did you stop?

I turned around to try and land a solid double kick, knowing I had to push myself even harder to make up the difference. I was pretty certain by now that Megan had just increased my overall normal physical attributes, because I should have been exhausted a long time ago, but I was still going fine.

That would change pretty quickly now. I was getting tired. I could push myself a bit harder, yes, but not for that long. Maybe another three minutes…

Would that be enough for Twilight to get back her fighting spirit? If not, we were going to lose.

I swiveled my shoulders, lining my hips up to deliver the best strike I could and froze mid motion, balancing on my forehooves.

I saw what had made Twilight stop. An alicorn, plain looking, but beautiful. White fur, brownish mane and tail, nothing overly complicated about her. She was only a few meters away from me, glaring past me at Dawn with an anger that I couldn’t even fathom. I could see Twilight staring at her too, and for good reason.

You could simply SEE that she wasn't really an alicorn. Nothing mortal looked or felt like that. I’d never seen something truly otherworldly before, and I just instinctively KNEW that’s what I was looking at.

“That’s enough, thank you,” the Alicorn informed us.

Dawn’s mocking laugh stopped mid ha, turning into the most delightful sounding “Eep!”

It sounded like he’d said the word ‘eep’. Hehehehe!

“You had masked your true self from us for more time than any could understand, Dawn,” the Alicorn said bitterly as she began to walk forwards. “Yet here you are. With all your power unleashed. Working expressly against our orders! Dusk is dead, and by your hooves. No one is collecting mortal souls right now, each one who dies is just GONE. The rules say they MUST be collected.”

“Uh! I um-” Dawn stumbled, the sound of him skittering back reaching my ears, but I didn’t dare turn around.

“If I hadn’t learned about your entire little under the table operation a while ago, and planned the least harmful way of destroying you, your father would be here. Right now. And you’d be DEAD, Dawn,” she spat, eyes narrowing into mere slits. “I didn’t make you this stupid when I created you, and you’ve pulled off some rather convincing lies to make this happen. You had to have, at one point, been rather intelligent.

“I choose to believe this means you have degraded over time, that you were not always the moronic monstrosity I see before me.”

The world burst into bright white light! Like someone had jammed a pair of magelamps into my eyes. I yelped, closing my eyes as tightly as I could, my little yelp didn’t even make it to my own ears though. It was entirely washed out by one long, horrific, equine screech of pain from Dawn.

The scream made my skin crawl, and my fur stand on end. I had nothing to compare it too. Not even things in the horror movies Dash had drug me too. When the scream was over and the light cleared, I saw Dawn, dangling mid air, limply, suspended by an invisible telekinetic grip a meter in front of the ‘alicorn’, who was still glaring daggers into his eyes.

“Make that the mortal I see in front of me,” she growled. “You know what happens now, don’t you? All of this is over. Whatever you hoped to gain by killing Dusk and stealing mortal souls for yourself, it’s all over. Right now.

“If you can do even ONE thing to show me you have an ounce of regret or remorse for your actions, I will be merciful and kill you myself. If not… I think I’ll throw you to Twilight and give her my express permission to do to you as she pleases.”

The white alicorn turned her head towards Twilight. “Did you hear that, Twilight? If he refuses to show even just one spark of decency, you have my permission to do as you please and never feel bad about whatever you decide to do.”

Twilight nodded slowly. “I heard. But I’d rather Celestia pass judgment… It’s not my place. Not now that he’s captured.”

Celestia nodded. “Quiet, now that he’s no longer an enemy combatant, but a prisoner of war, it is my duty to pass judgment, Lady Faust. But I assure you… Equestrian justice will NOT be kind to him. I doubt he’s aware of the punishments which are only legal in cases such as his…”

Faust turned back to face Dawn. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?! SPEAK!”

“I-I’ll show Twilight where her parents are!” Dawn yelped fearfully.

I blinked. He’d kidnapped her folks? When? I didn’t remember- Oh… Oh no, that’s right. He’d taken her from her real parents a long time ago.

Which meant they were dead.

“He’s lying!” I said as quickly as I could. “He told me about them. Twilight was born a thousand years ago, her parents are long since dead.”

The alicorn narrowed her eyes. “I see…”

“No! No they are NOT dead!” Dawn babbled fearfully. “Do you think magic like hers can come from just any bloodline? No, it can’t! Come on, you designed the base system for it! Her parents are absolutely alive, and would be today even if I hadn’t done anything to them.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, as if the pieces of a puzzle were just now starting to connect behind her eyes. She took a few steps forwards, eyes still narrowed thoughtfully, but also suspiciously.

“Celestia confirmed I was adopted. So have my parents. I didn’t think too much about it… But now that I know they’d be alive today, even though I’m a thousand years from when i was born… Dawn, who are my parents?” She asked dangerously.

“Starswirl the Bearded, and Clover the Clever,” he answered instantly, Twilight nodding to herself. She’d worked it out. She just needed to hear the answer.

I was a bit floored by the news though. As was everypony else present.

“They were two of my greatest enemies,” Dawn continued. “They almost killed me a millenia ago… I had to do something to stop them. I sent you here as a distraction, I banished your twin sister from our universe to make that distraction even more effective too.

“But she’s here! We had a brief fight. I won. But she’s not dead! She found her way back. You’ll find her, it’s not hard to track kind arcanely. And your parents! I can lead you to them, it’s not hard. I-if you just let go, mother, I’ll go get what I need and-”

“HA! No,” Faust laughed, shaking her head. “Nice try. Tell me what it is, and I’ll have your father bring it here.”

“A book!” Dawn said quickly. “It will show the way to the place I’ve trapped them. It’s on my bookshelf in plain sight. Gray metal cover. Text is etched into it. There are three gemstones set into the cover, a ruby, and emerald, and a sapphire.”

Faust nodded her head slightly. “Darling, did you hear that?”

As if in response, a book with a steel cover simply appeared in front of her. No magical flair, it was just there.

“Mhm… I think that this desk organizer was once a person,” a male voice said from nothingness, yet also from everywhere at once. “... Scratch that, it is a person. I’m going to mercy kill this poor bastard and continue destroying this place. If he gets away from you, just whistle. Oh and boy… You fucked up.”

“I-I did,” Dawn agreed meekly.

“Honestly, nothing you’ve done today is worse in my eyes than failing to achieve a goal you set for yourself,” the voice said again, this time seeming to leave.

Faust picked up the bookkeeping Dawn suspended effortlessly while she inspected it, opening the cover, flipping through some pages, and even licking one page.

“It seems safe to handle, Twilight,” Faust decided after a moment. “It’s enchanted, but all I can see is a simple preservation charm, a few divination spells to make these moving pictures work and to locate the book if needed.”

“Can you read it? It’s obviously doing nothing to you,” Twilight asked with a cautious frown.

Faust shook her head. “No. I can’t. I’m not omniscient after all.”

“I could read it to you,” Dawn offered hopefully.

“Yeah, no,” Twilight laughed. “Nice try. It could be a spellbook.”

Faust nodded. “Good thinking,” she said passing Twilight the book.

I felt the fur on the back of my neck tingle. Something was wrong! I didn’t know what but something was wrong!

Dawn! He was clearly trying to escape! What was he doing? I’d probably noticed something subconsciously.

I fixed my gaze on the suspended, now mortal, evil, looking over every single millimeter of his limp form. What did you just do? I know I saw something…

Twilight took the book in her arcane grip and opened it, squinting at the first page. “This looks like… A journal?” She said a little confused.

“It’s a Traveler's instructions on how to reach the place I sent them too,” Dawn explained. “It’s written in English. I know that the Emerald Changelings still use that language… Quite surprised you don’t read it, mother.”

“I don’t even know what mortals used that language…” Faust muttered to herself mostly. “But I’ll be paying MUCH more attention from now on.”

Twilight frowned and squinted at the book, then nodded. “Yep, sure is. This is the tiniest text I’ve ever seen though! Really hard to read,” she grumbled. “I’m not going to be able to read it without a magnifying glass. Oh! Unless maybe I try…”

Twilight stuck her tongue out in concentration and reached out to use her hoof to underline the words as she read them. I had to do that sometimes too. Often enough for me I just couldn’t make out the words without blocking-

Twilight’s hoof touched the page. A bright white light enveloped her. The book emitted a sound like a mechanical beast’s moan. The light cleared. The book dropped to the ground. Twilight was gone.

“HAHAHAHAHA!” Dawn laughed hysterically. “You can’t see portals to other universes! You IDIOT! You know you can’t see them but you still passed her the book! I even said I sent her sister to another universe! And there isn’t a way back! It’s a trap with only one direction of Travel! HAHAH-”

Dawn’s laugh was cut off the instant my punch passed through his head.

26 - The End.

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Rarity - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace Ruins - Equestria

To say that the Prench knights had finished the battle quickly would have been a gross understatement. As well as simply inaccurate.

The person who had called herself Faust had apparently spent the entire day teleporting around to find people willing to help fight. The Prench had been but one arm of a two pronged attack, which had them attacking from the center outwards, while a regiment of Neighponese soldiers had encircled the entire Ponyville area and worked their way inwards.

Apparently, other willing groups had been sent to other locations as well. The only other largeish deployment of professional soldiers had been to Canterlot, and from what I heard, had been an all Thestral force from Marelund. I’d heard that smaller groups of individual warriors had been sent all over Equestria in small teams to hunt down any stray demons, but I hadn’t really followed up on that. I had something more important to do.

I had a missed phone call to make up for.

Ayna had been kind enough to open a portal to Canterlot for Indy and I. Well, kind enough in my eyes. Indy had wanted to head back to his hull and begin repairs. But well, I thought it would be nice to show Twilight my new friend, and maybe have her restart his reactor, assuming she wasn’t too pooped from the battle.

That way he could help rebuild. There’d be a lot of rebuilding to do, especially since more than just Ponyville had been flattened. Canterlot was almost entirely gone too.

I remembered a time I’d overheard Lyra, Vinyl, and Octavia talking about a roleplaying game they enjoyed at the Hayburger. While I wasn’t interested in those kinds of games, I had admired the artwork in the rulebooks which depicted Equestria after a terrible event had destroyed every last vestige of the ‘old world’.

The idea of seeing the greatest city in all Equestria reduced to a hooffull of blackened and/or burning towers, a cracked walls, collapsed roofs, and piles of rubble… It seemed so, impossible. Outlandish. Fantastical!

I doubted that game would be selling very well for the next few decades. Because seeing the city in reality as it had been depicted… Your heart hurt. How many died here, while the towers fell? Worse still, how many had not? How many were trapped under the rubble?

Thank goodness mages were already rescuing people. If I recovered any amount of magic before the job was done, I’d have to go and help. Put my exceptional telekinetic skills to use.

“Is this what this place would have looked like before the battle?” Indy asked hopefully, a projection which resembled the old Canterlot popping up on my screen as we walked towards the palace.

I looked at the image, and shook my head. “No. You have the shapes basically correct, but no building here was made from glass, or metal. They were all at marble, or at least covered by a veneer of marble. And the roof tops were all plated in gold.”

Indy paused mid step. “W-why? That has to be an enormous expense for a pre-fabrication civ- Oh! Yes, of course, wizards can conjure materials as needed,” he decided.

“Mmm, well, some materials. That’s very hard to do. And few things will stay around permanently if conjured. They just sort of... Dissolve,” I informed, glad for a conversation to take my mind off the horrific scene we were walking through.

Thank goodness the palace was close by.

“Then all of this was done with cash, mining, and... “ Indy shook the mech’s head and then hissed in sympathetic pain. “Somewhere out there, an insurance company president weeps, and a bartender rejoices.”

I nodded. “Yeah… I didn’t even think about that. Companies are going to collapse over this,” I said quietly, realizing that the worst of this disaster was probably yet to come.

“Yep, that’s war for you. Usually more expensive after it’s over then when it’s going on,” Indy sighed.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” I asked hopefully. “You have access to a shipyard, right? Could we build buildings there, fly them here, and… Anchor them to the ground, or something?”

“Yes. We can. Well, not how you said, but there is a way we can help by commissioning a constructor ship and flying it out here. But it’s not as simple as me just fixing everything. We’ll have to talk to your sovereigns about setting up mining operations, or supply lines.

“Then there’s legal and political things to discuss, like what safety regulations are required for structures I create, what each settlement is legally required to have… How to organize neighborhoods in terms of what people believe so communities are not mixed, thus resulting in civil strife… Rebuilding is complicated. It could take years to get started,” Indy grumbled.

“I didn’t think it would be. I’m glad we can do something about this,” I said as we walked through the last of the ruined street and stepped into the palace through the hole where half of the double doors had been.

I’d always wondered why the doors were so massive before. Did the architects think all four of Equestria’s Alicorns would need to walk inside while standing atop each other’s backs? Regardless, the main hall was more than tall enough for Indy to walk the mech incide.

“Are you certain your friends are here?” Indy asked uncertainly.

I nodded. “Yes. This is where they would have gone if not to Ponyville, which wasn't there all week. Logically, they would use the place to regroup as it’s the most defended str-”

“Oh! Yes, someone's just mentioned the name Twilight. That’s one of your friends, isn’t it?” Indy asked excitedly.

I smiled, nodding quickly. “Yes it is! Can you hear anything else?”

“No. Sound is too distorted to pick up more than a few snatches of conversation… But I think they are over there,” Indy informed pointing with one arm towards a door at the top of the left staircase. “Which means I can’t go… Not physically, at least. Those stairs probably wouldn’t take this mech’s weight even when brand new. You’ll need to hop out. Don’t worry, I’ll link up with your systems so you can introduce me.”

I blinked tilting my head in confusion while the mech’s hatch popped open.

“But… They won't be able to see you. Or hear you? Wait, do I have external speakers?” I asked, stroking my chin as I pondered having a sound system or not.

“Yes, and also a holo-projector. Which you should have found already… It’s part of your eye’s HUD system. Haven't you explored yourself yet?” Indy asked, kneeling down and releasing the crash harnice so I could step out.

“No. I’ve been fairly busy the last few days,” I chuckled as I hopped down, hooves clicking on the cracked marble floor.

I felt a slight tingle in my scalp and Indy’s Avatar appeared a few meters in front of me, flickering, tinted blue, and scaled down to a very small size.

“Well, that’s fine. It’s not a very good projector. I jerry rigged it from a holoscope,” he said, voice coming from my ear. “This is mostly good for pointing out things, showing small images to others quickly and… Other non-important stuff we can talk about later. Let’s go let your friends know you're okay.”

“That’s the plan,” I informed before trotting up the stairs as quickly as my tired body would let me.

Recharging that mech took a lot out of me. Even my mechanical leg felt tired. How do cybernetic parts feel tired? It had a nuclear battery, for Celestia’s sake! Or was it simply because all of the parts felt natural? Natural to the point where my body just sort of assumed that they were tired because I was tired?

Questions for later.

I reached the top of the stairs where my own ears were able to pick up the conversation going on in the small side room.

“- but what is there to even do?” Pinkie mumbled sadly.

“Well, normally I’d say we rebuild,” AJ sighed. “But it’s all gone. Like, compleatly. There’s probably not even stuff left to pick out of the ruins where the camp was, and I have no idea how bad the rest of the town is.

“I don’t reckon folks will want to go back. At least not right way. Too many bad memories. Heck, maybe folks don't want to go back at all, and I can’t blame them if they don’t want to. But they’ll want to stick together. Princess Celestia said Luna evacuated everypony to the Emerald’s hive. We should go there. See about getting everyone willing to rebuild, or build a new town together. Put it in Whitetail woods, or some other nice place close by.”

“U-um, that’s an idea,” Fluttershy said softly. “But I um, I think that Pinkie meant what do WE do?”

Everypony was silent for a few long moments, giving me just enough time to reach the adjacent door.

“Y-yeah,” Dash said quietly. “I don’t know what we’ll do without Ra-”

My friends thought I was dead, and were in the middle of a horrible situation, with no homes left to go back to. If there was any time for humor, this was it.

Using my mechanical leg’s full strength I threw the door open. It crashed into the wall. AJ’s eyes flew wide with terror. Dash jumped, hovering out of reflex while looking for a way to fly out of the small waiting room. Pinkie gasped in shock. Fluttershy fainted.

“Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!” I announced as dramatically as I could.

“Rarity!” Pinkie exclaimed in pure joy, practically teleporting to my barrel, wrapping me in a hug so tight I think it actually bent the steel wrapped around my shoulder and ribs.

“For the last time, no, they were not!” Indy grumbled indignantly over my internal radio. “You died FIVE TIMES! I put in a lot of work before you were able to just walk it off.”

That was true. But I didn’t like thinking about it...

“What the hay happened to you!?” Rainbow exclaimed, dropping out of the air, her eyes locked onto my mechanical foreleg.

I returned Pinkie’s hug as best I could before answering. “W-well from what I was told, there was a mid air collision over a sea full of sharks. I was mauled, and my friend Indy saved my life.”

“With robot parts?” PInkie asked curiously.

I nodded. “Yes, with robot parts.”

“They look good on you,” Pinkie decided with a satisfied nod, refusing to let go.

“That explains why Pinkie said they found part of your spine, and ribs… And stuff,” Applejack said, a relieved smile pushing through her morose look for a moment while she joined Pinkie in her hug.

“I’m going to try routing myself through your speech centers so I can talk to them… Is that alright?” Iny asked me hopefully. “It may tickle a little.”

“Go ahead,” I replied.

Indy cleared his throat, speaking over whatever external speakers I had. “Excuse me, Pink mare? Hello, I’m Indy. Can you stop squeezing Rarity so hard? If you break the plasteel casing around her ribs I’ll have to get it replaced immediately. That’s what’s keeping her lungs dirt and dust free right now.”

PInkie blinked, and turned to look at my left flank. Long with AJ. And Dash.

I facehooved. “Is that really the only place you could put a speaker?” I groaned.

“Yes… If you want better systems now that the crisis is over we can do that,” Indy offered before clearing his throat again, this time activating his hologram. “Hello, girls! I’m Indy. I’m not like, inside your friend or anything. I’m just using her radio link to introduce myself.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened slightly. “R-Rarity? You have a radio in there?”

I nodded. “Yes… Though admittedly I’m not at all used to such things.”

“Sky is going to be so mad you didn’t call to let us know you were all right when you have a radio in your head,” Pinkie said, frowning sharply after facehoofing.

Dash blinked. “That’s actually a good point! If you were with a.. Um, is that projection a Dragon? Yeah, that’s a dragon. If you were with a dragon who had the technology to fix you like this, you totally could have called and let them know you were okay! Why didn’t you?”

“I- I just didn’t think about calling…” I admitted my ears drooping sadly. “I’m sorry! I- It’s… There’s no excuse.”

“Yes there is,” Indy said firmly. “Rarity was unconscious, dying, or delirious for three straight days, and has only been fully stable for the last twenty five hours. Prior to that, her brain was mostly non-functional, I mean, her head WAS chewed on by a shark. I had to replace a lot of things in there.

“Most of her neural activity is now working inside a complex network of… Uh, without making my friend super uncomfortable, in short, she’s got a damn good medical excuse for not thinking of calling home.

“The fault’s really mine. I should have thought to ask her if she wanted to call home. But I was under the impression that your civilization was too primitive to have access to radios. So uh, sorry. I blame your love of medieval looking architecture and use of magic for communication, meaning the planet lacks a radio bubble.”

I frowned. That didn’t sound right. I’d been perfectly conscious the entire time.

“Don’t say anything,” Indy said to me internally. “I’m taking the blame so your friends won't be mad at you… Uh, you're a consciousness transfer though. It may be possible to migrate you back into your gray matter now. I’m not certain. We can go over your medical needs later.”

My tail raised in alarm. Well, THAT was something I didn’t need to know!

I needed to not think about this. Now!

“I’m just glad you're um, mostly safe,” Dash said, giving me a quick hug before letting go and immediately frowning. “Pinkie! Um, you’re kinda bending that panel!”

“Oh! Oops,” Pinkie said, quickly letting go. “Sorry.”

“It's fine, you didn’t break the seal,” Indy said soothingly. “But you did dent a material stronger than titanium. Well, admittedly a recycled material made without the proper tools… How strong is your species?”

“My sister can throw rocks hard enough to make little explosions!” Pinkie said eagerly. “There’ll be lots of rocks to move, I’ll ask her if she’s okay showing somepony- Um, I mean somedragon what she can do!”

“Little explosions?” Dash exclaimed, wings flaring open. “I was knocked off my hooves! A hundred meters away!”

I frowned, looking around the room. Only now realizing that I hadn’t seen Twilight. I imagined there would be princess stuff to do right after a battle, but surely she could spare a few minutes to check on her friends.

“Girls? Is Twilight with Celestia, or something?” I asked curiously.

Everypony went silent. The dark mood returning to the room in full force.

“T- Twi was tricked by Dawn,” Dash said sadly, looking down at the floor.

No… No she wasn’t dead! She couldn’t be!

“She touched a teleport trap, or something. We have no idea where she is,” AJ finished, sitting back down on the floor, her face taking on a dark look. “I-it’s okay. I made sure Dawn won’t hurt anypony else. Ever again.”

I looked into her eyes, and I knew exactly what she meant. The steely look in them explained exactly what had happened with crystalline clarity. But they also told me something else as well.

AJ was… Different. Whatever had happened to her over the last week had changed her. I wasn’t sure how yet, or if the change would be permanent. But I could see it. The simple farm girl who loved tradition wasn’t, well, she wasn’t that anymore.

Or at the very least, she was deeply hurt. Either way, she’d been through something hard enough to break down her stubborn nature and allow her a chance to grow as a person. I hoped she took it.

I stepped over to her and gave the orange mare a tight hug. “I- I’m sorry. Is there anything we can do to help look for Twilight?” I asked hopefully.

Pinkie shook her head. “No… Cadence and Celestia are working on that. All we can do is wait,” she sighed morosely.

“That just feels so… Empty,” I murmured, letting go of AJ and sitting down.

I didn’t know how to feel. On one hoof, our friend was gone. On the other, she was probably alive.

“Although, if anypony can be teleported to some strange place and be perfectly fine, it’s Twilight. I’m certain that if the Princesses can't find her, she’ll make her way back home soon enough,” I said half to myself and half to everypony else.

Twilight would be alright. I was certain of it.

Princess Celestia - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace Ruins - Equestria

It hurt to look out of the palace windows. I’d worked so hard to keep this kind of destruction from my kingdom for so long… A select few incidents notwithstanding, nopony alive had seen one of their cities laid to ruin in the last four generations.

Even so, I couldn’t say that I’d failed to protect them. Even the most skilled people can only do so much. Perhaps it was inevitable for tragedy to strike as it did today.

I would just have to try harder from now on.

I would have to do a lot of things in the near future. I’d have to make absolutely certain that the Dream Creature Luna brought back in exchange for its help was non-hostile (and it seemed to be. At the moment, at least.). I had two major settlements to rebuild, and most definitely lots of smaller settlements to build. I had to deal with the Emerald Hive’s offer to harbor Ponyville’s citizens for as long as necessary, even indefinitely.

I had to deal with the public, and ensuring that everypony could move on from this crisis, guiding them with my words and a brave, strong face, despite my own grief at the loss of my student, my friend...

I would also have to ensure that Faust remained an ally. Which had to come first right now. Because I was NOT going to make a second deity mad at me today. Despite Azur Lily’s exceptional healing skills, my ribs still ached like mad.

I hated how being too old for something wasn’t a real excuse to not do it.

The ‘alicorn’ mare sat down on one of the few unruined couches we had been able to find within the palace, facing Luna, Cadence, and I. I’d told Luna she should go and get some sleep, but she’d insisted on remaining awake long enough to at least make sure that the war was over and the rebuilding could begin.

“Alright… So, what happens now? With Life, I mean,” I asked Faust with an uncertain look on my face.

She tilted her head, slightly confused for a moment. “Oh! Now that there’s no entity overseeing that aspect of the universe's operation?” She asked.

I nodded.

“I’ll be making some adjustments personally,” Faust promised with a sincere and motherly smile “It will take me a few years worth of your time to do. You must understand that from my perspective, you are… Mayflies. You vanish almost as quickly as you appear. Rest assured that I will ensure at the very least that no child is born diseased or malformed. That’s the absolute least I will do.

“I plan on doing more, but managing organic life isn’t my job. I’m not sure what I can do without causing your situation to become worse. I can fix the obvious problems… But someone will need to take the position of Life now that it’s available. I can’t do it forever, I have other work details I need to do too.”

Luna nodded. “Alright, if I’m understanding who you are correctly, that means you will be making a new deity to manage us, correct?”

Faust shook her head firmly. “No. Well, yes, I AM the designer of the systems from which you emerged. But I won't be making a new god to oversee you. Clearly, I’m bad at that. My plan is simply to observe you for a length of time, test numerous organics and ‘promote’ one of you.”

“Promote?” I asked curiously. “You can do that?”

“Yes. easily. I have the Mantle of Life right here,” Faust said, lifting a hoof which suddenly held a small shimmering pink orb of light before the orb vanished. “I can give that to any sapient creature, and they’d become a new ‘divine’ as you call us. Though I hypothesise they would retain more freedom of thought and choice than we do.

“Which is for the best, I think. Our… Ways are not the same as your own. It would be best for your overseer to have been one of you. To know what it's like. In short, I want to hire an expert. Don’t worry, I’ll be paying VERY close attention from now on. I’ll spot any further malfunctions and squash them.”

“Does that mean life will be problem free bliss from now on?” Cadence asked with an odd frown. “Because that seems… Boring.”

“Yes. Which is why it won't be problem free. If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that mortals enjoy challenge. Fair challenge mind you. You also value your freedom highly, and you should. I won't take that away. But, where there’s freedom, well, people will sometimes choose to be bad instead of good.

“I promise that day to day life WILL be better from now on,” Faust swore, giving the three of us a serious nod. “Though there’s a far more pressing matter at hoof. We need a new Death… Now.”

“Any particular reason?” Luna asked for me, raising an eyebrow. “She’s fine. I saw her before I came here.”

Faust shook her head. “That fragment made from my daughter's remains isn’t her. I noticed her while I was there. I’m certain she’s a nice person, and perhaps she even remembers some things that Dusk experienced, but the aura’s all different. It’s not her. Nor is she Death.”

Wow… Okay, it was a very very good thing that Faust decided to let a mortal have the ‘job’ of Life. I had to say something.

“Faust, your opinion on this subject. That’s a perfect example of the differences in how we think. Any pony would embrace Dusk, or the ‘fragment’ as their child,” I informed, doing my best to keep a diplomatic tone.

Cadence nodded. “That’s absolutely right!” She agreed, less able to keep her anger under the surface.

“Exactly!” Faust agreed with a smile, much to my shock. “We have completely different sets of values, logic, norms… It was one thing to simply create an overseer when I thought you were simply animals. But that won't work. So I will take a period of time, a thousand years or so, and use it to select a proper replacement. I’ll grant agelessness to the candidates so they can provide me with an interview of a proper length. You won't have to worry about a thing.

“As for Death, we need a new one. See, mortal souls are important. I don't know why, but they are expressly detailed as important to manage. Without a Death, souls can safely accumulate for a short time before the buffer fills and any new souls which need to be collected... Well, they simply vanish into the ether, or overwrite stored ones, leading to corrupted information… It’s a mess.

“Turns out the buffer is smaller than I’d thought. It’s full… Has been for some time most likely. Since Death didn’t malfunction like Life did, I don’t have any problems with creating a replacement. But, I could appoint a mortal, if you’d prefer your afterlife be selected by one of your own kind.”

“Um, is that something important? How do afterlives even work? I didn’t believe we got one,” I informed with an embarrassed cough.

“Ah. Yes, well… You do. Whatever you did in life, in death you experience an eternity of. Your afterlife is a mirror of your own personal world. Honestly, I think one of your kind would go mad with all the little ethical details they’d need to consider before determining what a fair environment would be,” Faust admitted with a shrug. “But well… The choice is yours.”

“I honestly can’t think of any candidates for that,” Cadence admitted with a nervous smile.

Nor could I. “It would appear as if it’s best for you to make a new entity for this job,” I agreed.

“Wait!” Luna exclaimed. “What if we do both? She makes a new Death, and we on occasion appoint ponies to help teach it, and also to help it make judgments, and with its other duties? Like the old legends of the Reapers who would bring souls to Death.”

Faust nodded. “That could work. Sure, we’ll try that for a while,” she decided standing up as if to leave. “I need to go and get that division running now… But before I do, I have an apology for all mortal kind, and I want your help letting your kind know of it.”

Faust dipped her horn, a pony high stack of folded papers appearing from nothing just in front of her.

“These are instructions on how to make a shrine to me,” Faust explained. “That may sound egotistical, but it’s not. This is me giving you a way to directly speak to me while I am on my home plane. I want you to make copies and distribute them. I’ll help when I am free.

“I want every last mortal to know how to be able to speak to me. Because I’m going to grant everyone a single persona a small boon. Nothing major, nothing dangerous, just a small thing which they want. Be it slightly different color fur, or to be a little faster, things like that. It’s my way of making up the harm my son did to the mortals who currently live.”

My eyes widened in honest surprise. “T-that’s very kind of you. But are you certain that won't cause further problems?”

Faust smiled dangerously. “If it does, I’ll just take back the gift. Remember, I said I’ll be watching. I create entire cosmic systems of objects, ensuring every last particle is exactly where it should be. I’ll know if this is being abused. Keeping track of macro objects is cake.”

“Alright… But if the majority of these boons cause problems… Will you stop?” I asked hopefully.

After all, I doubted I could make her stop if I had to.

“Of course,” Faust said with a hurt look. “I’m trying to help you after all. Goodbye for now. I’ll be in touch!”

The goddess vanished in the simple ‘just gone now’ means I’d become slightly accustomed too.

Right. Time for my own layer of protection around this plan. “Okay, before we pass these out, we run a few select trial groups. Make sure she won't grant literally ANY request. We then monitor the usage of shrines via some arcane means to make sure that somepony who asks for say, an invisibility spell isn’t using it to be a thief,” I groaned.

“Discord will love the chaos this creates,” Luna mumbled under her breath.

“I don't think that’s her intention, I think she assumes ponies will ask for things like ‘cure my cancer’ exclusively, or otherwise correct an unfairness within their life… But we all know that’s not how everypony will behave,” I said, sitting down with a sigh.

“Besides, Discord is still petrified. From what Megan said, we won't have access to the Elements for nearly a year. Which means we’ve effectively traded one deity for another, and guilt is much harder to appease than boredom,” Cadence grumbled, shaking her head slowly. “Celestia, you’re the best diplomat here. You need to work on convincing her to drop this idea… Or at least come up with some form of proving you’d need the favor before she passes it out.”

I nodded. That was absolutely correct.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Luna agreed, holding back a yawn. “I’d say we don’t actually hand these out… But I don’t want to make her mad. So long as we watch for the bad apples, we can let the bunch prosper. But that’s a short term solution, not a long term one.

“Whether we convince her to stop, limit her gifts, or can find a way to integrate this into part of our civilization is an issue we’ll have to work on later. RIght now there’s the more immediate concerns. Like what to do about the displaced populations of Canterlot and Ponyville.”

I nodded again. “Yes, that’s more pressing. But we can’t forget about ensuring Faust doesn't unintentional make things worse. Let’s put a pin in that and come back to it after we’ve established where our people will be living in the short term, and how we plan on feeding Canterlot until we can reestablish Ponyville.

“After all, the city got most of its produce from there. I imagine that larger cities can provide food for a time, but that will strain local economies after a year or two… Assuming we ever can. Goodness knows what that portal could have done to the local area… A hole directly into Tartarus most certainly could have done major environmental damage… I’ll have to send a team of mages to ensure the land is safe for habitation.”

Which meant that Ponyville’s Citizens might be stuck at the Emerald’s Hive for the foreseeable future. I’d have to pencil in a visit to talk to them, and see how they felt about it.

“I can only imagine how the nobility and Canterlot’s citizens will feel if we tell them they will have to live in the Empire for the foreseeable future,” Cadence giggled, hiding her smile behind a hoof. “I think we should move them first… Especially with the victory ‘celebration’ I’m certain my ponies want to throw occurring, well, the weekend after we deliver the news.

“I could have some geomancers create crystal buildings nearby Canterlot. Give them some complexes to live in during the rebuilding. Well, those who do not have estates outside the city which they can return to, at least.”

I nodded for a third time. “Do it. Luna, you’re effectively a citizen of the Hive, our ponies will be comfortable there, right?”

Luna snickered, almost falling over in a combination of mirth and exhaustion. “More so than in Ponyville, so long as they aren't claustrophobic,” she insisted as she climbed back up onto her seat properly. “I mean, it’s not a small place. Not even in the hallways, but the lack of sky could be an issue for some Pegasi. But in terms of food, comforts, safety, and a fulfilling job, all of those things can be provided easily.”

Luna paused for a moment, giving me just enough time to begin to say “Good,” before she continued.

“In fact…” Luna continued her face pulling into an odd frown. “Just before this happened, the Captain ordered a fresh deck excavated and made habitable. Almost like he knew that several thousand people would be coming… Hmmm…”

I raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Interesting… If one of their mages had managed to divine the near future and saw this, wouldn’t they have warned us? Questions for later. Besides, it may simply have been coincidence.

“Circumstances aside, if the land truly is uninhabitable for whatever reason, I’ll have to work out some form of ‘citizen living abroad’ program. Which means I’ll need to lay the framework for that program immediately, so we can expedite its creation if we do need it,” I said aloud, mostly to clarify the thoughts to myself.

“Speaking of living abroad,” Cadence began slowly. “It’s not priority, but the mirror world citizens which led Faust to the Crystal Empire… I can put them up in my palace as guests for a while, but is there any possibility of them being able to go home, or should I urge them to integrate into Equestria somewhere?”

I tapped my chin in thought. All things considered that was a very minor problem, but it was also one we could solve in a matter of moments. “Well… Luna, would entering the Dream realm have damaged Starswirl’s Mi-”

“It’s screwed,” Luna interrupted, her tone leaving no wiggle room in her assessment.

“Could it be repaired?” I asked hopefully.

“It was atomized during the initial attack by the Nightmare Creatures when the castle was briefly attacked before Dreams hid it for us,” Luna elaborated. “I uh, I’ll give you a full report in the morning.”

I frowned sadly. Any of our foster father's relics were irreplaceable treasures, as well as personal reminders and keepsakes. But in war, loss is unavoidable.

“And since Twilight still had the moonstone on her when she vanished-” Cadence began.

“She dropped it during her disappearance,” I corrected. “I have it but… Whatever magic was used to transport her destabilized the stone’s magic. It may be repairable, but I’d rather not tinker with it. It could be possible to use it to trace Twilight’s location via the interference.”

“Ah,” Cadence said with a quick nod. “In that case, I’ll get them to immigrate, find jobs they like, settle down…”

Which is when another thought occurred to me.

“We will also need to overhaul our military,” I said aloud.

Luna blinked, her wings flaring slightly. “C-come again?” She asked hesitantly.

“We survived this crisis because we were lucky, and our opponent was a fool blinded by their desire to inflict suffering,” I said flatly. “We can all agree on this, correct?”

Luna nodded sharply. “From what I have been told, yes. This should have gone far more poorly for us. Especially considering the strength and number of daemons in ponyville during the attack on Canterlot.”

“Having fought Dawn in person, you have no idea how correct that is, Luna,” Cadence said with a dark laugh. “He had more than enough power to win, but no idea how to use it. He turned Flash into a puddle with a touch, but didn’t even use the same power on us to just win.

“Celestia’s right. He should have won this, but he didn’t because he was an idiot. But I also think I understand your point about our military, Celestia. You’re worried about future disasters which a small group of heros can’t solve, aren't you?”

I dipped my head in embarrassment. “Yes… I fully admit I relied on the idea of one good shield far too much. But in my defense, it worked this long, did it not? I fully intend to have the Elements working once more… But they can’t be our primary defense.

“This isn’t like the last time we lost use of the Elements. I don’t have any prophetic notion of finding loyal subjects to be the new bearers before the next disaster strikes. Even if w-we find a…New pony for Magic, or should Twilight somehow return to us, if we were to be attacked on two fronts, or if the elements are beyond repair, or can now be easily damaged having broken once before… There's far too much risk. I see that now.”

I turned to Luna and offered her an apologetic smile. “Sister… I know it’s about six thousand years overdue, but are you still interested in forming an Elite Order of Knights?”

Luna paused. I’d expected her to be excited, ecstatic even. Instead… I don’t know what emotion this was.

“I’m willing to talk about it. I agree that our military needs an overhaul. But for that military to do it’s job correctly, we’ll need to make some changes to our government’s structure. I… I’ve been meaning to talk to you about a few things ever since I made my return… It’s important. We can talk about this when I’ve rested, but right now, I’m too tired to make sound decisions,” Luna said after a moment’s thought. “At the very least, we need to train more hardened soldiers. I recommend we send an emissary to Hound to ask if we may learn their training methods.

“We have the numbers, manufacturing capabilities, and the arcane power to properly arm our pretty much ceremonial military and turn it into a proper army once more, but without proper training, only the Frontier Guard would be of any real use in-”

The loudest possible pop exploded behind me like a thunderstone, sending a shower of purple sparks across the ruined room in a fern-shaped wave! I dove for the floor, ears ringing, rolling for the cover of a nearby coffee table and sliding under its arcanely hardened surface for cover.

Moments passed. Nothing else exploded. No spellbolts. No demonic laughter. Good. Just something which had been broken finally exploding...

“Clear!” Luna called professionally.

I crawled out from under the table, my left hoof smacking against something metallic. And warm.

Sitting in a small patch of freshly blackened rubble was a small, oddly shaped metallic boxy device, a small folded sheet of bright white paper, and a lock of sapphire blue, violet, and rose hair bound together with a white plastic zip tie.

A lock of Twilight’s hair. There was no mistaking it. The ratio of blue to violet to rose was exactly the same as in Twilight’s mane!

“That’s Twi-” Luna gasped, noticing the items moments after I did.

“It is!” I exclaimed, standing upright with enough force to throw the table across the room.

I grabbed the metallic box with my magic, lifting it up to eye level. What was it? Some form of container? Perhaps a arcane vessel for transporting oneself between worlds safely? Maybe if I activated it it would open and somehow reconstitute Twilight here.

I frowned realizing something rather creepy. While the majority of the generally rectangular box was metal, some of it was made from what appeared to be bone. Not carved bone ether, more like this ‘box’ was organic in nature, including the metal.

Well… That was… Creepy.

OH GODS THE ‘BONE’ IS COVERED IN A VERY THIN LAYER OF LIVING TISSUE!

I dropped the box out of pure reflex, immediately fumbling for it with my telekinetic grip. The force I exerted on the box somehow activated the device, causing a holographic screen to flicker into existence on one side, as if the device were a clipboard a mage had over engineered to Tartarus and back.

The ‘clipboard’ had some text on it, though the language was not one I’d ever seen before. More importantly, it had a picture of Twilight on it. Her face was contorted in a mixture of anger and fear, her eyes glowing with arcane power, a blue ward half formed around herself, trying to negate a spell before it affected her.

Exactly how she’d looked when she’d vanished…

I felt my heart punch me. It was my fault she’d been banished. I should have been able to stop it.

“I sincerely hope that Twilight is responsible for sending us these,” Cadence said uneasily, looking at the image on the clipboard with a nervous twitch of her wings.

“If she were, I think she’d send a more… Normal picture,” Luna disagreed with a shake of her head. “Is that a note? I imagine it’s kind of critical to understanding any of this… Why is nopony already reading it!?”

"Regardless of what the note says, the picture is of Twilight, and this is a lock of her mane. Those objects came BACK. Dawn lied, there is a way back here from there," I said as a truly happy smile parting my lips.

I would see my student again, no matter what it took!

“Luna’s right, what does the note say? It is from her?" Cadence asked curiously, picking the folded paper up with her magic.

"It very well could be..." I agreed only for my smile to turn into a frown as Cadence read the note, her eyes dilating, lips pulling into a worried frown.

"Ummm… I- I can't tell if this is a threat, a warning, or a statement,” Cadence informed, looking at both of us with a worried but bashful frown.

"How do you mean?" I asked insistently, my tail lashing with worry.

"Well..." Cadence cleared her throat and begun to read. "Good gempulmin. We have all the pony! We (could) lose pony named teleportation. They can not of their free will! The space isn’t safe, we have no right to solve their desired goals. However, we want to keep the alien power. I have to find a pony. Act as soon as possible, its presence blocked the progress of science. What is the image of a sample of tissue from the past pony, of course, we all do. Thank you, Red."

"T-that's some really broken Equish right there," Luna said, her eyes looking at the note with a serious gaze, even as her mouth struggled to not twist into a laughing smile.

"This is no laughing matter, sister!" I scolded. "We must assume the messenger is hostile. For the sake of being safe... We won't make any aggressive moves. But we will be careful. And we will study these items, and the means by which they arrived. We. Will. Get. Twilight. Back.

"No matter what."

Unknown Multiverse

Unknown Date

A world away, one person asked another a simple question. "Hey, Red? Did you send the aliens the note yet?"

"Yeah, just sent it. Hopefully they stop sending their people here accidently now," Red answered happily. “It HAS to be an accident. I had to break the crap out of a transporter for it to even send something to them.”

"Ah hell…” Their coworker groaned. “Look, Green wanted to double check your translation. It's not like they have been here long enough for us to completely understand-"

"Hey!" Red interrupted indignantly. "I read all of the wizards notes. I've worked it out. This baby translates their squiggles flawlessly."

"Well... What did you tell them?" The other person asked uneasily. "Maybe you worded it poorly."

"I did no such thing!" Red protested. "My note reads as follows: Good evening, gentlemen. We have (presumably) all of the pony-folk you’ve lost via teleporter accidents in our possession. Unfortunately, they can not leave our facility of their own free will, because this is a secure area. Nor are we authorised to release someone within our facility of our own volition.

“However, we are authorized to allow individuals on the outside to pickup and drop off individuals. We have authorized you to come and retrieve your pony-folk. Please do so promptly, their presence is a roadblock for scientific progress. We have attached this image and tissue sample from the most recent pony-folk to arrive so you can be assured that we do in fact have all of them. Thank you, Red.

"See? Perfectly understandable. Shows we have them, we don’t want them, they're fine, and they can pick them up as soon as possible."

“That’s well worded,” came the relieved reply. “Oh! Did you a give them the coordinates of the safe zone? We don't want them arriving inside the system.”

“Yep! Put them on a separate note printed on bright red paper so they couldn’t possibly not notice it,” Red replied happily. “Wrote them out in binary too, just so there’s no problems converting the data into whatever mathematical base they use. See? I thought of everything. It’s fine!”

"Hummm... Alright, well. I still feel a bit uneasy about this. What if part of the package didn’t successfully transmit? What if they are hostile because our assumption about them sending people accidently here is false?"

"You're uneasy about everything outside of operational parameters. Learn to improvise! Surprises can be fun! What's the worst that can happen? We have to wait till they are removed, and then reset the whole system back to a point before they showed up and threw all our data out of whack? Oh wait, we already have to do that," Red chuckled, whistling happily as he returned to his work.

The scientist's colleague quietly left. Leaving Red alone with his thoughts.

“DAMNIT!” He suddenly store to himself. “I could have written ‘all your equine are belong to us’. Stupid missed chances…”

The End

For Now...

Cataclysm

by Meep the Changeling

1 - Stonewall Attack

2 - After Worlds Collide

3 - King's Gambit

4 - Decisions - Discoveries - Disruptions

5 - Two Knights Attack

6 - Battle of Ponyville

7 - Stranded Deep (Rarity Quest Part 1)

8 - Fact Checking (Dash/Twilight Quest Part 1)

9 - Pawn Promotion (Dash Quest Part 2)

10 - Ice Ice Pinkie (Pinkie Quest)

11 - En Passent (Rarity Quest Part 2)

12 - Shy² (Shy Quest/Fluttershy Quest)

13 - Retirement's End (Twilight Quest Part 2)

14 - Ghost Report’n (Dash Quest part 3)

15 - Perspective (Rarity Quest Part 3)

16 - Queen's Gambit

17 - Megan's Heros (Twilight Quest Part 3)

18 - Prophylaxis (Dash Quest Part 4)

19 - Check

20 - Lineage

21 - Medic 4: Return of the Medic

22 - Endgame (Rarity Quest part 4)

23 - Zugzwang

24 - Urbicide

25 - Checkmate

26 - The End.