The Flames of Harmony

Chapter 6

Dreaming of Home

A deafening crash resonated out of the warehouse on the hill. The residents of Unicornia knew better than to question any strange occurrences when it involved the brother lords, particularly on their lunch break, but the grinding, smashing ruckus had been going on and off all morning.

Inside, Twilight was beginning to get frustrated.

She floated a few hooves above the floor of the cockpit inside the head of her silver metal doppelganger, suspended by scores of tendrils that reached out from every joint, muscle or ligament in her body, with two larger threads attached to the silver ring at the base of her horn.

She grimaced as she picked herself and, by proxy, her giant metal self, up off the floor for what felt like the hundredth time. Another crash sounded as she tried to take another step, putting one hoof forward in front of the others, just as she had been doing since she was a foal, only now she was suspended inside her cockpit.

The machine responded directly to her physical movements, the strings translating her actions into identical mechanical ones outside, from her legs, neck, head, even her wings and newfound claw. It was not as easy as Flam had made it out to be when he was trying to instruct her that morning.

She had heard little from Skylia, as if she could not talk when Flam was paying direct attention, but several strong emotions were being glowed in her direction. Compassion and encouragement, mostly, with tones of frustration and anger. These were not directed at her incompetence, she somehow knew, but at Flam and the situation he was putting her in.

Twilight could only move a few, slow steps before falling on her face, even with assistance balancing from her wings, once she remembered she had them, but she was increasing her limit one step at a time every few falls. Flam kept up a stream of dry encouragement, as if he thought he had better things to be doing than trying to teach her how to walk.

As the sun reached its zenith in the sky, she was managing to walk slow steps around the room, which did not seem anywhere near as enormous from Twilight’s current perspective.

“Alright Princess!” Flam called as she came to a stop after three successful consecutive laps. “That should be enough for the morning. You must be tired and even your magic reserves are not limitless. We’ll take a break.”

Twilight took a breath and looked inside herself to her magic pool, something every Unicorn learned at a very young age, and almost had a small, painful pang of amusement at Flam’s lack of knowledge and understanding of Alicorn magicology. Her reserves were barely affected, not even a bucket of water from a swimming pool..

But she navigated the machine over to where it was standing when she had arrived, positioned beside the lift so that Flam could ascend. Once she was in position, she saw Flam wave his horn and instantly, the cockpit went dark. It only lasted a moment, as the hatch door swung open, letting in the light from overhead and revealing Flam standing on the lift platform.

Twilight approached the doorway, only to see him look straight into her eyes and light up his horn. She screamed and dropped to the floor, expecting her mind to come alive with fire and agony.

Flam chuckled. “Princess, you need not fear me or my brother any longer. As long as you do as we instruct, I promise, we will not harm you in any intentional way.”

Twilight, still shaking, stood up. Flam lit up his horn again and surrounded her in a film of sickly green magic. Nothing else seemed to be happening, so when Flam gave a nod, she went to move outside.

As her head passed through the doorway, the consciousness she had grown accustomed to over the course of the morning retreated, pulled painfully from her body and mind like a layer of skin. The further out she moved, the harder it became until she was struggling to move at all. She got all but her rear flanks out when it all snapped, sending her flying into Flam with the sudden lack of pressure holding her back

With a pained groan, she opened her eyes to find herself face to face with Flam, who was quite stunned himself, not to mention blushing slightly.

Blushing? Why was he blushing? Twilight tried to get up, but her limbs were unresponsive. She felt cold and hollow, empty without her newest friend swimming through her thoughts.

She said nothing as Flam helped her to her hooves and let her outside where she blinked in the harsh midday sun. They slowly trotted down to the market district where they had lunch and once she had eaten, Twilight could fully move all her muscles again without them turning to jelly.

Then it was back to the warehouse where, by the end of the day, she could work up an indefinite but slow trot. The thunderous sounds of her hoofsteps shook the ground around the building. The whole city was built for that though, as Flam explained to her when she asked him about it on the way back to her house.

“Their supports are held in the ground with a magically-enhanced concrete that flexes as the ground shakes, but is still sturdy enough to hold the building in place.” Twilight nodded along, paying rapt attention for reasons she couldn’t quite explain. He left her at the front step, waiting until she closed the door with an odd expression on his face. Part possessive, part admiration, with so many other expressions thrown in, she couldn't decipher exactly what it meant.

The next few days progressed much the same, until the huge space inside the warehouse became too small. Twilight then had to walk her MAC outside the city to a large, open field similar to her old training ground, where a watchtower and another enormous storage building stood.

Here over the next few weeks, she began galloping, jumping, even coming to sliding stops when a sudden halt was needed. She became as proficient at moving in her MAC unit as she was her real body. Flam seemed happy with her progress and she got nothing but encouragement from Skylia’s voice in her head, though they hadn’t had much of a chance to talk since their first meeting. She felt attached, connected at a very deep level with this other consciousness she now shared most of her waking hours with. The emptiness she felt when it was gone was just one more thing to bring the tears at night.

Things got more interesting one day when, after setting Twilight up and instructing her to do some basic warm-ups, he came walking out of the building several minutes later in his own mechanical facsimile.

This one was a commander unit too, like hers, only smaller. The gems in its eyes were green and it didn’t have wings, but it was styled just like Flam, down to the slicked back mane and an exaggeratedly long horn. It even had a moustache, likely so the brothers could tell their units apart when they were next to each other.

From then on, they sparred, fighting hoof-to-hoof combat in a complex dance that always ended up with Twilight slamming into the ground with impact after jarring impact. Flam was good. He had obviously been piloting his unit for a long time, running, dodging and sliding in a way few non-pegasus ponies could do with their natural bodies. Despite her larger size, Twilight couldn’t pin him down. He always slid under her reach or dodged to the side, always slightly quicker, always one step ahead.

Until, while blocking a kick to her torso, she stopped the attack with the open claw on her left leg. Seizing the opportunity, she used the claw to grip his hoof, her sharp talons leaving deep scratches in the metal of his MAC unit. She reared up and brought her right hoof around in a vicious kick, which she followed through with a bodyslam, driving Flam’s unit into the ground. She was left standing with her hooves pinning the other unit in the dirt, panting slightly inside her metal shell at the adrenaline rush.

She suddenly felt sick, drawing back in horror. She had hit him, hit Flam. A hundred scenarios of what he would do to her ran their way through her mind, from strapping her back to the bench to sending shock after shock of blinding pain through her head. What had she done?

“Princess, are you alright?”

She was brought back to the present, moreso from the tone, rather than the words themselves. He sounded genuinely worried about her. She said nothing, she didn’t even move.

“Twilight?”

Twilight?

It had been so long since she’d heard her name. It sounded odd, particularly coming from Flam, who had caused her so much pain. Particularly since it was said with an uncharacteristic amount of concern.

“I-I’m fine, Flam. Thank you.”

“That will be enough for today, Princess. You should go home and get some rest, we’ll start on spells tomorrow.”

The formality was mostly back in his voice, but Twilight was sure she could still hear undertones of compassion. What possible reason could this deranged pony have to show compassion to her?

She shook her head and made her way back to the storage warehouse on the edge of the field where Flam helped her out of her MAC. He even held up a helping hoof for her to hold when she was struggling to escape the force holding her inside the doorway. She still struggled with it, but she no longer fell flank over horn when it finally let go.

They slowly trotted back to Twilight’s house without another word spoken. Flam was walking uncomfortably close beside her, their sides almost touching as they walked.

As she was heading inside, something made her stop and turn around. Flam was looking at her almost expectantly, his hoof held forward as if he intended to hold the door open. He seemed almost bashful, nervous about something, like he was trying to make some big decision in his mind.

“Princess…” he opened and closed his mouth a few times, clearly struggling to find the right words. Twilight said nothing. She simply stood on the front step, waiting for whatever it was Flam was going to say.

Instead of saying anything, he ducked forward and kissed her.

It was a short kiss, straight on the lips, quick but passionate.

He pulled away. “Try to get some rest Princess.” Before she could say anything, or react in any way, he turned and left, almost running off down the street. He was well out of sight before Twilight’s mind finished processing what had just happened.

She turned and stumbled inside, legs suddenly weak. He kissed her. The thought churned her stomach and she rushed to the bathroom just in time to thrust her head over the sink and empty her stomach down the drain.

She retched until her stomach ached and her eyes felt like they would pop out of her skull, then she retched some more until she didn’t have the strength to do anything but slide down onto the bathroom floor, completely spent.

It wasn’t the fact that he had kissed her that made her feel sick. It wasn’t the fact that he was partly responsible for all the scars that decorated her body and the stringy remains of her mane and tail. It wasn’t the fact that he had tortured her to within a hoof-length of her life and kept her there for Celestia-knew how long.

The fact that made her sick was that she had kissed him back.

~~~~~~~~~~

In the middle of the night, Twilight awoke to find herself in the discomfort of the bed they had given her. It was soft, far too much so after her months spent sleeping on a thin layer of hay on a hard concrete floor. She rolled off the bed, hitting the ground with a hard thud. She barely felt the impact.

There she lay, curled up on the floor, pondering her dreams until the serving ponies came with breakfast.

Her sleep had been unusual, as she had dreamed of home. Dreamed of her friends, their faces blurry, as if she almost couldn’t remember what they looked like. She had dreamed of her younger years, lessons with Princess Celestia or play time with Cadence, or even playing royal guard with her brother. She dreamed of her parents and their loving faces, only slightly marred by the fading of her memory. There she stayed, lost in her thoughts until the sun was starting to filter in through her window and a knock sounded at the door.

She was hesitant to open it, worried about what had happened between her and Flam the day before. The face that greeted her when she eventually cracked the door open sent her reeling back in terror.

“Good morning Princess,” Flim said, an expression of thinly veiled contempt on his face.

“F-Flim.” Twilight stuttered. “W-what are you doing here, where’s Flam?”

Flim sighed with a grimace. “My dear brother is unwell this morning, so I will be filling in in his stead.” He glanced at her prosthetic leg. “I hope there are no hard feelings from our last little… altercation?” The look on his face said he would tolerate exactly no hard feelings at all.

“O-of course not,” she managed to force out from between her teeth. “No hard feelings at all.”

“Excellent! Then we shall proceed.” He turned and trotted off, leaving Twilight standing in the doorway, stomach grumbling from the lack of breakfast until a shot of pain lanced through her head. Flim’s horn was lit, though he hadn’t even slowed down or turned around. Twilight had no choice but to follow.

Their walk through the city was silent, leaving Twilight to ponder what had happened to Flam. They passed the southern gate to the city, still as silent as the two monolithic MAC sentinels standing either side of the opening. Twilight knew from experience that they could see everything around them without the need to turn their heads. It wasn’t until they were approaching the open field, which was covered in holes and furrows from the days she had already spent out there with Flam, when Flim finally spoke up.

“We will do some warm-up sparring exercises, Princess, then we will begin with MAC spellwork. Be warned though, I will not be as lenient on you as my brother. I won’t hold back.”

Twilight said nothing, and Flam did not seem to be expecting a reply as they entered the warehouse. He did not ascend the lift to her unit with her, instead, walking straight over to his own MAC unit, which he must have had moved there sometime after she left the day before.

She glanced at the closed hatch in the back of her own unit’s head, unsure of what to do. Flam had always opened it for her and neither brother had revealed to her the trick behind it, as it had no handles or rungs or anything to grip, nor could she use her magic to pull it open.

She was beginning to panic in fear of what Flim would do if she could not even enter her unit when a soothing pulse of light washed away all her tension. A boom sounded and the hatch opened up by itself, so she quickly dashed inside.

She no longer grimaced from the shock of ice flooding into her brain. It was a feeling she relished, almost addictively euphoric. All her worries and fears were gone, all the pains and aches from her injuries disappeared, cleansed in the cold burn of the consciousness rushing in to join with her own.

She also no longer flinched away from the convergence of the wiry tendrils that emanated from the harness poles. Once complete, the connection heightened all her senses: she could see everything, down to the grains in the smoothed concrete floor and the grimace on Flim’s face as he glanced over on his way up the lift to his own MAC unit.

She could hear everything in minute detail, even Flim muttering under his breath about missing out on punishing her for not knowing how to enter her cockpit. She heard the sounds of the city just outside the warehouse and the commotion of unicorns going about their daily lives.

She could even feel the ground underneath the hooves and claw of her unit. It also meant that she felt the impacts when her unit was hit, or when she slammed into the ground, but after everything she had been through, she barely felt the pain.

Once outside the building, Flim gave her no time to prepare, immediately launching his unit at her before she had even turned to face him, sending her crashing to the ground. She rolled with the hit, using her momentum to propel her back onto her hooves in time to block the next attack, which came in the form of a wide left hook.

The kick turned into a grapple as Flim grabbed the leg she used to block and twisted her around, trying to force her to the ground. Twilight resisted, using her superior size to force the stallion’s weight off of her. Flam immediately spun, lashing his rear leg around into Twilight’s own, knocking her off her hooves and onto the ground. The impact knocked her breath away and as she lay gasping, Flim backed off with a laugh.

Twilight struggled to her hooves as her breath returned, but Flam gave her no more time to recover. He lashed at her with a series of fast and erratic attacks that kept her constantly on the defensive. His form was wild and unpredictable, turning most of his attacks into feints with brutal follow up blows that caused stabs of pain wherever he hit.

Eventually, Twilight began to notice a pattern in her opponent’s attacks. His bluffs and feints were all completely random, however he always moved in for a real blow in the same way, every time. He would recover from a feint or a blocked attack with a crouched approach that brought him under her guard, where he would use a shorter attack to strike at her chest, legs or head.

She used her right leg to block one more attack which Flim backed out of before ducking low and moving in close. Seeing her chance, Twilight shoved herself forward, slamming into him before he could attack, knocking him off balance. She then went on the offensive, striking with several guarded blows which he desperately blocked.

One more attack, this time with her clawed leg which she used to grab hold of Flim’s hoof when he blocked, allowed her to pull him into a crushing kick from her front right hoof directly to his stomach. She grinned as he was knocked off his hooves to crash to the ground himself, several score normal pony-lengths away, or two to three of their supermassive pony-lengths.

She heard him grunt in frustration, his mecha turning the sound into a guttural growl. He tried to climb to his hooves, but stumbled, and when Twilight stepped forward to help out of instinct, a beam of harsh, green light spat from his horn and collided with her chest, sending her flying across the now muddy field to crash down in a heap of metal limbs and pain.

As she herself struggled to her hooves, Flim was suddenly looming over her. He put a hoof to her shoulder and pushed her back down into the mud.

“You are dirt.” He said, almost calmly, but Twilight could hear the slight crack of barely restrained anger in his voice. “You are slime, nothing! I could crush you in a heartbeat.” He pressed down, squashing her further into the ground. “I could have killed you a hundred times a hundred times by now, so you will know your place when in my presence, am I clear?”

Twilight grimaced, but nodded.

“Good.” Flim released the pressure and Twilight breathed a gasp of relief. Flam gave her no time, however.

“Spellwork! Get to your hooves and show me a shield.”

Twilight winced as she stood up, several new aches adding themselves to the chorus already screaming through her body.

Flam’s horn was beginning to glow. “Shield, now!” He repeated.

Twilight blanched. He hadn’t shown her how to cast a shield, or any magic for that matter. Any magic she had tried to use up until that point had led to indescribable pain. She began to panic, until a soft pulse of light in her mind calmed her and showed her an image. It was of her MAC unit, and highlighted on it were several glowing lines reaching from the tethers on her horn, all the way up, through a series of what had to be focus crystals, to the tip of the horn on her MAC’s head.

Use me. Skylia’s voice echoed through her mind. Use me and no harm will come to you, I promise little one.

Taking heart in the words, Twilight calmed herself with a breath, and directed her magic up through her MAC unit, using it to cast a regular shield spell directly in front of her. The drain on her magic was significant, but the shield came up just in time to block a powerful blast from Flim, who was left somewhat surprised when the haze cleared to reveal her still standing, a shimmering purple wall separating them.

He scowled, and launched another blast that was dissipated harmlessly by her shield. Several more blasts and her shield was cracking, but Flim was shooting at her with such frequency that she didn’t have time to recast it.

Finally, when her shield could take no more, just as Flim was launching what he knew to be the last attack, she dove to the side and launched her own energy blast. His shot hit her shield and shattered it, sending fragments of solidified magic energy raining down on the both of them. Her shot came at him from the side, impacting against his shoulder and again sending him flying to the ground.

Twilight rolled with her dive, coming to her hooves just in time to fall from them with a scream as a searing pain burned its way through her head.

“No!” He screamed, leaping out of the smoke and dust, landing on top of her and pinning her to the ground, one hoof on her neck. He used his other hoof to kick a series of blows into her side that she almost didn’t feel through the pain in her mind.

He kept on kicking as the fire in her head grew more and more intense and her skull felt like it would melt from the inside out.

“Sky!” She screamed, desperately hoping her new friend could come to her aid before Flim’s outburst killed her.

Little one! I can block the pain completely, but only for a moment. Any longer could permanently damage your central magic system, so you have to act quickly. Finish him off if you can.

Abruptly, the pain vanished. Blissfully gone, replaced by a familiar blazing light.

She wasted no time. Pushing out with her rear hoof, she spun herself around, throwing Flim off balance, causing his next blow to miss. Grabbing his leg that he was using to pin her neck to the ground with her claw, she twisted, throwing him to the ground beside her. Pushing herself to her hooves with her remaining legs, she formed a blade out of her claw and thrust it straight through Flim’s unit’s neck, nearly severing its head.

He is still trying to immobilise you little one, you must finish him quickly! Skylia urged.

Twilight looked down at the hole she had created in the MAC unit’s neck and saw Flim, almost red with fury and spitting words she could not hear over the pounding of her pulse in her ears, climbing from the cockpit. He was glaring death at her and his horn was ablaze with light.

Now, little one!

Twilight raised her claw above the tiny speck of a unicorn and mustered her courage. He had been responsible for a huge amount of her pain. He had cut off her leg and painfully attached this grotesque metal replacement. He was the pony who had taken her from her friends and family and stripped her of everything she loved.

She brought the claw crashing down, but flinched at the last moment, smashing the chest of the giant metal pony instead. She dimly saw Flim get thrown from the debris in the impact, clear of all the destruction. He fell to the ground and lay, unmoving, as Skylia sighed with relief.

The pressure is gone now, little one, but he still may be alive. You should finish him off so he cannot hurt you again.

“I can’t!” Twilight shouted. “I won’t just end a pony’s life! I… I’ve never killed someone before…” There was a slight pause as she stood there trying to regain her breath.

Very well, Skylia conceded. But we must hurry from this place before he wakes up.

Twilight turned to face away from the city thinking briefly of home, of all her friends and family and all the things she would have been missing. She thought of how good it was going to be to see everypony again and how her life could go back to normal. She thought all of this, then turned around and galloped back towards the gate leading into the city.

~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight sprinted through the streets of the city, heading for somewhere central and elevated. The MAC guards at the gate had not been expecting her and she took them by surprise, using her claw to cut the head off one of the drones and blasting the other in the chest with magic. She was certain the two pilots survived, though their units were now completely inoperable.

Twilight, where are you going? Skylia asked. We must leave, return to your home-

Twilight cut her off. “I’m not leaving without Spike.”

Spike? The drake? Isn’t he no longer the small infant you grew up with?

“I don’t care how he looks, he’s still my little Spike. I know he’s alive and I won’t leave him behind.” She stopped running at around the middle of the market district, vaguely noticing the frightened mob of unicorns scattering in her wake. “Spike!” she screamed, using her magic and Skylia’s crystals to amplify her voice and send it echoing out through the city.

She waited a few moments, oblivious to the screams of all the citizens around her, unaware of even the few blasts of magical energy that were dissipating off her armour, shot by the few military unicorns that happened to be in the area.

She shouted again, louder this time, and waited.

She was beginning to get desperate as two more drones rounded the corner a few blocks away and sent beams of powerful magic at her, which she deflected with a quick shield. She was about to give up waiting and search the whole city, even if she had to raze it to the ground, when she heard a roar.

“Spike!” It was coming from the mountain on the far side of the city. She resumed her sprint, crashing straight through the two drones who were still trying to blast her, hopelessly crippling the leg of one and snapping the horn off the other. She did not stop.

Soon, her warpath led her to the base of the mountain, where she could hear Spike’s pained, desperate roars. She spread her wings.

Little one, I cannot fly. Skylia cautioned. Nor can I climb this sheer cliff. We have no way of ascending to your friend.

Twilight screamed in frustration, using her open wings to rear up and slam the cliff face with her closed claw, smashing the smooth stone and sending a small avalanche of rubble down around her hooves.

Reared up, she was almost halfway up to where Spike could be heard. She was so close, but she couldn’t do anything.

Even if we could get up there, little Twilight, the ledge is too small, we would not be able to keep ourselves up.

Twilight punched the wall with her claw again, trying to vent some frustration. She pulled her claw back for another strike, when she noticed that the limb was almost undamaged. Two powerful strikes into solid stone and the claws were barely scratched and still completely functional. An idea began to bloom in her head.

“Skylia, could we manage a teleport?”

A teleport?

Twilight could practically hear her companion’s thought processes buzzing away as she contemplated the possibility.

I suppose we could. The normal theories of teleportation hold. It would take a huge amount of magic power though.

She could see the heads of several more MAC drones making their way through the city to their location, so she acted quickly. Bending her knees and spreading her wings, she powered up her magic.

She released it all at once, jumping and using a flap of her wings to propel herself up into a short teleport, pouring all the magic she could into the spell.

With a flash and a crack that resounded out through the city and surrounding hills, she, along with her entire MAC unit, appeared up in the air, the vertical momentum from her leap still propelling her upwards a short way. She plunged her claw into the rock of the mountain and clenched, gripping the stone and flapping her wings to keep her from falling down.

The claw held and she was left hanging off the side of the cliff, right outside the almost-invisible doorway that led to the mountain’s interior. She could still hear Spike’s screams sounding out of that hole.

She lined her horn up with the sound and released a massive blast of energy that ripped through the rock like butter, hoping to Celestia that Spike’s armoured hide would save him from the attack.

Once the smoke and dust cleared, she peered into the enlarged hole she had made and saw Spike standing in the middle of the debris, seemingly completely unharmed, but holding a limp pony in his jaws.

“Spike!” she yelled again and the fearsome drake snapped his attention to her. The pony fell from his mouth as something glinted in his eyes. Spreading his wings, he shot forward and out of the hole, barely giving Twilight time to move to avoid having him slam into her head.

Several blasts of magic emanated from below and Twilight glanced down to see at least five MAC drones taking shots up at her. She closed her wings and loosened her claw’s grip, causing her to slide down the cliff, leaving a deep furrow in the otherwise smooth face.

Go right! She heard Skylia shout, just before she hit the ground. She gave a flap of her wings and threw herself at the drone closest to the cliff on her right, knocking him to the ground where she crushed the unit’s neck with a hoof. Immediately she was running, pulling up desperate shield spells behind her to ward off the magic attacks being thrown from the remaining pursuing drones.

She was faster than they were, and soon she outpaced them, their spells falling wider and wider to either side, or falling short completely. She was out, she was going to escape!

Twilight, watch out! Skylia suddenly cried.

Her warning proved too late, however, as Flam, in his own MAC unit, leapt up from behind a building right in front of her, his horn already charged and ready to release a full-force blast at point blank range. There was no time to shield, there was no room to dodge. Time seemed to slow as the green light from his horn reached its climax.

She almost felt she could see him, through the shiny metal exterior. She felt she could see the pain written on his face, see the regret from the action already forming in his heart. Why was he so attached to her? She watched the shot slowly coil out of the horn, spiralling along the contours and out into the air. It closed the gap swiftly, aimed straight for her head…

And flew straight over her shoulder to blaze a trail of destruction through a dozen buildings before exploding into the mountainside in a bright flash of fire and rubble.

He didn’t even try to move out of the way as she careened into him, knocking him to the ground as she charged through. She stumbled, but managed to keep her balance as she galloped away through the dust that was raining down over the city. She glanced behind her for a moment, and saw him lying on the ground, ruby eyes bright and staring at her, making no attempt to pursue, or even to get up.

She ran away, out of the gate, past the two drones she had destroyed earlier and off into the countryside, following Skylia’s directions and trusting her to get them home.