Arcane Shadow (Re-Written)

The group waited patiently for their second batch of esteemed guests to be escorted to the office. As they waited, Twilight began asking Lance questions which made him shudder every time they left her mouth. "So… who taught you right and wrong?" was the first one, and by Godcat's life-giving teats, the answer was going to be a doozy.

Lance held a hoof to the side of his head like he wanted somepony to shoot him right where he sat. He rubbed the temples on that side, grumbling before he answered, "Matt, Natalie, and literally the rest of the army after they joined forces to set my ass straight."

Shining's jaw might as well have hit the floor. The same could have graciously applied to Blueblood. Fluttershy and Pinkie both stared at him with wide eyes, sparking with disbelief. Twilight gabbled, equally as flabbergasted, "Your 'parents' messed you up that bad?!"

Lance wearily nodded, hoof still firmly on head. "No morals, no laws, just 'do as we say and you won't get the iron hoof to the face,'" he muttered, shifting his head to lay it on the desk and bury it in his forelegs. "Took me less than two years after the geas was broken to understand right and wrong."

Twilight and Shining shared glances, barely able to believe what they had heard. Blueblood couldn't help but ask, "And how old were you when the geas was broken?"

"Eighteen, when I should have known better," Lance answered through his forelegs. "And that was…" He lifted a hoof and spun it around for a moment, wracking numbers in his head before daring to speak them aloud, "Matt and Natalie were fifteen at the time, so… three years between the asskicking and before Akron was accidentally released thanks to our dumb asses. Another year or two after that shitshow, before we found Anna. Two-ish more years before we had to deal with Godcat's divine wrath on top of that. All in all, roughly seven to eight years ago."

Twilight shuddered. No wonder Lance had his own committee to keep him in check, if he had to be taught basic morals and decency. And wasn't he still so… frighteningly young to have this gig? Then again, she wagered his hoof must have been forced. To have both his wings and horn crippled in one way or another must have been the ultimate insult for him, now that she thought about it.

"Did you have the gryphons under a tribe-wide geas?" Shining asked. Lance just groaned, glumly nodded, and buried his head deeper into his forelegs.

"Once my ass was kicked, it broke. I was never that good of a spellcaster anyway," Lance huffed. His ears twitched when he heard knocking on the door, and lifted his head to command, "Enter." The door opened, and in strode Alexander, a frown on his beak as he used his tail to wrangle in a gurney with Heather and her little one on it. Flanking the pair were the aunt, and two changeling nurses.

Heather cringed upon seeing the lit projection of Redpine Rock as it shifted back to its interior viewing. "That's bad place, auntie! That's bad Redpine!" she said, eyes widening as Lance turned to her.

"Listen… we just want to know how you got out of the bad place," Lance said in a gentle, tired voice. "Because one way or another, by Godcat, we're going to be crashing that whole house of cards."

Heather shied away to the furthest end of the gurney, jolting it with enough force to yank at Alexander's tail. "Bad red-eyed wingie pony! No want mountings!" she yelled, eyes fixated on Lance as if she were expecting him to do something. The aunt rushed to keep her on the gurney, but Heather began to shove her away in an attempt to leave the room.

"Wha, I—" Lance slammed his face against the desk again and groaned. Great, now he might be ousted from his own office because he scared the child by merely existing. Just what he needed.

Blueblood turned to the child, trotted to her, and lowered his head to be eye level with her. He grabbed her with his magic to make sure she wouldn't kick at him and said firmly, "He's not like your tormentors at all; he hates those who would dare harm young children such as yourself."

Heather looked at Blueblood, eyes widening further and sparking with disbelief. "But bad wingie ponies put me in bad dress, wanted me be with tall bad red-eyed alicorn!" she replied. "Wanted cast bad spells!"

Blueblood looked at her evenly, and used a hoof to gesture to Lance. "He had the bad spells cast on him. He'd rather slay your tormentors than let them live another day," he said. "Do you trust me?"

Heather faltered for a moment, ears flopping downward. "I trust you," she said after a moment.

Blueblood nodded. "If he does anything untoward towards you, I'll punch him in the snout and let the others take care of him. Does that sound fair?" he asked.

Heather hesitated, then slowly nodded. The pegasus infant, who was quiet until now, squealed as he trotted over to reach for Blueblood. Blueblood turned to the baby, magically lifted him up, and plopped him on his back, earning some burbling for his efforts. Blueblood turned to the projection of the monument of sin and magically let go of the young mother. "Tell us how you got out of this hellhole, if you please," he said.

Alexander used his tail to slowly roll the gurney up so Heather could take a better look at it, and she trotted to it with shudders visible on her body. She studied the projection closely, then reared on her hinds to point at a cell that was occupied by another mare—more specifically, the bolted-up vent it housed. "This broken when I was there," she said, causing the group to turn to it, noticing that it was rusted and dented inwards, merely a few strong kicks away from giving out completely. "Glowing red and blue, heard angry voice in head, told me follow this out." Heather's hoof followed the vent all the way to where it rested outside of the volcano, and the image shifted to a zoomed-up picture of Redpine Rock's outside.

"Bushes here, hid in them," she said, gesturing to some bushels of greenery on the eastern side of the mountain that stuck out in clusters just big enough for an escapee to hide in. "Bad wingie ponies try find me, but no found." Her hoof trailed down the mountain, to a seemingly-innocuous town at the base of it. "Bad town had empty homes, hid there." The image on the map zoomed in on the town, revealing boarded-up windows and locked doors, save for one that swung in an open breeze.

Her hoof meandered its way to a beachfront on the far northeastern side of the continent, where a suspect red-and-blue glow resonated in something reminiscent of a portal. It diminished once the group looked at it. "Glowy kitty-cat took me away to Goldenbrick, went through bad Lankyroot for months," she said, sitting back down. "Tummy got big, hard to walk, but made warm fires with logs and vines. Learned to cook dead meat before get out of bad Lankyroot. But got to Ashwood, and bad tree, all in bad dress," she concluded.

Lance nodded, and lit up two crystals on the northern end of the largest continent, and three more east of Irongrey. One featured Whitefall town, and the second had several images in rapid succession: Greenwood, before and after the wildfire, the town when it was destroyed, and the forest made to replace it and Ashwood. On the eastern side flashed a jungle laden with more ordinary rafflesias than anything good in the sister worlds, and beyond that a town consisting of bricks with tile roofs, and a mountainous temple beyond that.

"Does this mean… Godcat directly intervened?" the aunt asked aloud.

Lance nodded firmly. "I'm certain She did. She probably wants Redpine purged as much as I do," he answered. The baby squealed, beat his wings hard enough to lift himself into the air, and flew to Lance to boop him on the snout.

Heather's eyes shrunk a bit. "Wingie baby trust you?" she asked.

The infant let Lance grab him and hold him in his forelegs with a burble. "Seems so," Lance sighed, turning to Heather again. He noticed light building on her flanks, and stood up to walk around upright to see it better. There, freshly materialized on her hips, was a campfire whose logs were smothered in vines. The baby squealed and flew out of Lance's forelegs to go back to his young mother, who looked at her new mark with bewilderment.

The aunt gasped as well. "Sweetie, you…" she trailed off.

"Well, it came a bit late, but it looks like an uncorrupted cutie mark to me." Lance reverted to all fours to look Heather in the eye, a warm smile on his face. "You know what it means?"

Heather turned to him, then back to her mark. "Good at living in bad forests?" she asked.

Lance idly nodded, head bobbing from side to side for a bit. "Of sorts," he said. "Your mark just came because you just realized what you were good at." He lifted a hoof and patted her head. "I think I should have you mentored when you're older, and the baby doesn't need constant supervision." The baby squealed and he added, "Of course, we still have to get rid of Redpine first." He booped the young mother on the nose and finished, "And we'll even let you watch the fireworks through this map here."

Heather grinned and began to prance in place, being mindful of the baby as he beat his wings again. "Bad place lots boom?" she asked.

Lance's grin widened. "Lots," he promised. "Thanks for the information, kiddo. Now we know what we need to do to take it down from here." With that, he nodded to Alexander, who turned to escort the small family out of the office. As the door closed, he could see the changeling nurses following as they went, and turned back to the group with gears spinning in his head. He waited until the distant sound of a lift being activated permeated the office before turning to Twilight. "Those forces we saw flying from the launch pad? If it's here they're coming, I'd wager six days before they arrive."

"And what will they do when they arrive?" Twilight asked, looking towards Pinkie as she kept twitching in place.

Lance smirked. "Oh, that's easy. They'll be shot down." He trotted around the desk and fished out the radio again after opening the drawer it was housed in. He fumbled with the knob for a moment, waited for static, and a voice Twilight didn't recognize filtered through.

"Blue Crow speaking, do you need me to scout something again, sir?"

"Not at all. This time… we have a possible front of geased alicorns and pegasi coming in from the southeast," Lance replied. "I want your squadron there to meet them as they arrive if they dare come to the Aerie, no later than six days from now."

Blue Crow sighed on his end. "... that means Redpine's finally gotten off their lazy asses, hasn't it?"

"It appears to be the case. If you need the ground support or something, let me know now so we can prepare," Lance ordered.

"Alright, how strong is this aerial force?" Blue Crow asked, a smidgen of impatience leaking into his voice.

"About a thousand strong at least. I'd give it three thousand at the most," Lance answered. "Looks like standard cannon fodder, too, with more blasters in their hooves than I could count. Expect some more standard weaponry, too."

Blue Crow groaned. "So we might need the big guns, then…" A rustle was heard on his end. "Golden Chalice, you might want to ready your airship!"

A feminine, regal voice filtered in faintly through the radio. "Whatever for?" the owner, presumably Golden Chalice, asked. Blue Crow went off-radio for a moment, his voice somewhat hushed and garbled as he did his best to answer her questions.

Twilight asked Lance in a whisper, "One of your soldiers has their own airship?" At Lance's nod, she frowned and pressed, "Alright, what makes it different from the ones we've seen?"

Lance whispered back, "Her airship has cannons all across its underbelly, magitek-based and with a variety of elemental beams and cannonballs. The cannon fodder won't see it coming."

It was at this point that the radio was rustled and Blue Crow returned. "Alright, we'll probably need some ground units to catch any falling stragglers. Do you want them executed or what?" he asked.

"Execute all of the incoming flock but one member. I want that one member you spare to answer some questions," Lance ordered.

Blue Crow snorted on his end, then seemed to remember who he was talking to. "Alright sir, I'll get everything sorted out on my end. If you want me to, I can pull all-nighters to make sure nothing invades the Aerie while everyone else is asleep," he said.

"Please pull all-nighters, but rotate. I don't want any of you becoming handicapped because of a lack of sleep," Lance replied, frowning a bit.

"Can do. Blue Crow, over and out," Blue Crow responded before Lance shut the radio off.

"Now what do we do?" Matt asked, lifting his chin up.

"We wait for them to come to our doorstep, and once the Crusaders get home with their homework done… and we're proofreading the homework to make sure it's school-appropriate Godcat-damnit, we're knocking down Redpine Rock's house of cards," Lance replied, rustling his wings and turning to the window, watching as the sun set over the vast horizon.

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A week had passed, and the Crusaders went home with their proof-read homework. On the eve of their departure, mere minutes after Discord's portal closed behind the Mythonian fillies and cat, Blue Crow and his small squadron saw shadows gathering in the distance. Their vessels were already out on the ramp in preparation for this, and Matt, Anna and Natalie stood by their side also watching the incoming storm with rapt attention as their war uniforms bristled in the wind. Beside them, Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash also stood to attention, along with the small retinue of royal guards that accompanied Shining Armor on his way to Fantasia.

"How are the ectoplasms not striking them down?" Blue Crow wondered aloud, even as he moved to board one of the smaller, pilotable magitek with a head in the shape of his namesake with a see-through dome on top.

The three wingless females seemed to be sizing up the opposition, and the rust red among them adjusted her pilot's hat and goggles with a frown on her beak. She turned to Blue Crow's magitek, whose rather pointed head was attached to a winged torso with jet engines on the undersides and tail to help facilitate flight, further emblazoned with Lance's cutie mark. Hatches rested on the chest, and two mounted miniguns rested on the wings with mana crystals locked and loaded for the onslaught.

Her braided brown feathers swayed in the wind as she watched him don his own goggles, keeping the lid on his vehicle open so he could hear her. "They have alicorns among them, right?" she asked. At his nod, she turned to the storm and muttered, "They probably have cloaking spells. Figures they'd strike on a clear night, too. They probably won't see our planes coming."

With that, she turned to board her own vessel, red with the stacked wings of a cutie marked biplane and a turbine on the front, also loaded with its own hatch and magitek miniguns. "Want to keep track of the killcount?" she asked Blue Crow as both revved up their engines.

"With pleasure, Red Barrel!" Blue Crow cried, watching as the golden wingless female gryphon with braided feathers of her own moved to board an airship bearing gryphon wings and a gilded bust. The last gryphon, a maroon female, adjusted her scarf and goggles as she boarded a magitek resembling a cross between a two-seat airship and a windmill. Her ride came with a massive turbine on the front, three pairs of wings stacked atop each other, miniguns on those wings, and burned with the symbol of Lance's cutie mark on its rudders. "And you, Rose Windmill?"

Rose Windmill revved up her ride and smirked, though her smile was oddly cool and collected. "Looking like it's time to tell the bighters their final howdy-do before we send them crashing down," she said.

Radios flared to life on all three of the smaller magitek vehicles, from which a female's voice came. "Golden Chalice, do you copy?" she asked.

"Copy!" Blue Crow, Rose Windmill, and Red Barrel replied in tandem.

Hatches closed on the rides of the pilots as they prepared to give the incoming pegasi and alicorns their reckoning. In front of them, their superiors drew forth their weapons, each wreathed in a red aura. Dark crystals once more grew on Natalie and her staff, forming into the wicked scythe that glinted ominously in the fading sunlight. Anna idly plucked the strings on her massive harp, seeming to choose a tune before nodding. Matt eyed his obsidian blade for a moment, then shrugged as if to say 'good enough.'

Another one of Discord's portals opened up, and from it emerged Spitfire and a whole fleet of uniformed Wonderbolts, each one with mana pulsing across their wings. They looked around for a moment, then turned to Rainbow Dash, who immediately stood to attention and saluted her with a "Ma'am!" the moment their eyes locked.

Spitfire nodded grimly, face hardening as the portal closed behind her and her team. "Discord briefed us on the situation," she said, turning to the growing storm of pegasi and alicorns. "I cannot believe how low the Fantasian pegasi stooped. Is Lance keeping any horsepower from the fight?"

"No ma'am," Rainbow reported. "We're to strike once the sun fully sets. Shining's gonna set up a shield over the Aerie once we take off, and apparently the wraithling is going to help… somehow." She shrugged. "I don't know how that's gonna work, and something tells me I don't want to know."

Spitfire nodded, and turned to look at the three Lieutenant-Generals with a glare that said 'you's got some 'splanin' to do later,' then redirected it to the coming tide of enemies. They seemed so slow, it looked almost time to strike soon. There were no flight formations that she could see, no calibration; it was all just one big mobile bundle seemingly without a leader and scarcely any direction. It was a miracle they could have even found the Aerie at all, and the more she thought of it, the more suspicious it seemed. "And to think we're going up against armed foes…" She flexed her wings and cricked her neck. "It's been a while since I've gotten into a serious tussle."

Anna looked to Spitfire, frowning. "I thought you were a bunch of showhorses!" she said.

Spitfire smirked. "And I thought you were painfully average for a soldier," she shot back, earning a groan from Anna.

Soarin flexed his wings, and turned to exchange a glance and a nod with Dash. "Usual tactics, or tornados?" she asked.

"I say we use tornadoes and lightning chains," Soarin replied, spreading a wing to gesture to the enemy. "I doubt they know how to manipulate any kind of weather, so we have the upper hoof on that front." He looked towards the bundle of enemies that was headed for them. "Wait a second, is it just me, or does nopony over there have any armor?"

Anna narrowed her eyes and scanned the mass. Soarin was right, not a single shred of protective gear or anything that could be construed as such could be seen on the enemy ranks; the fading sunlight would have tipped her off if they had been wearing any gear at all. "... you're right, none of them are wearing any armor of any sort. The only thing that might count for that is their weapons," she muttered.

"No armor at all?" Flash asked incredulously. Anna shook her head.

"Zero, zilch, nada," was Anna's reply.

"So… they don't even bother dressing up for a war…" Spitfire muttered, shaking her head. "What are they thinking?"

"Their heads are probably full of hot air," Soarin replied with a blaise shrug. "They are geased, right? It's probably overriding their entire thinking process."

"Just like almost everypony in Greenwood…" Anna muttered under her breath.

The sun finally sank beyond the horizon, its fading rays still tainting the skies in burning scarlet as it departed. At once, the Lieutenant-Generals moved as one, self-levitating with their power guiding them forward. The guards, spearheaded by Flash, followed after, followed by Spitfire and her Wonderbolts. The magitek was the last to depart, keeping careful to spread themselves apart to have room to maneuver as they raced to confront the opponent. The moment they left, a shield of pink went up over Irongrey, rippling with reddish energies and pulsing with chilled winds that swirled ominously around the mass.

"You won't keep the traitor from us!" cried one of the alicorns with an amplified voice and geased eyes wide and shining with the desire for blood, "We'll take him with us if it's the last thing we do!"

The Wonderbolts shuddered, but steeled their resolve and broke off into pairs. They formed trails of electrified clouds with their magic, chains of lightning dancing between the contrails as they were hastily zeroing in on their targets as the two sides raced to meet. Most of them had to duck their heads as Matt sent out a volley of screaming shadows, each one moving ethereally in the absence of light to strike random targets out of the skies. Hails of arrows shot out, missing teammates and moving to impale themselves on wings and in the grooves of horns with prejudice, some sprouting frost and crystals and others simply paralyzing them for just long enough to drop their owners.

Orbs of white-hot fire, tainted with shadows, surged onward and went on to explode into smaller pieces of flame as they slammed into targets, singing feathers and bodies alike. The Wonderbolts went ahead of all these volleys, whirling around in an intricate dance that managed to catch some of the enemy pegasi and alicorns off-guard as the lightning chains sparking between them caused them to jitter in place as they were caught and dropped.

Flash Sentry and his retinue went for the more direct approach: approaching members of the flock and simply punching them in the faces repeatedly until they went limp, and then dropping them unceremoniously. Those that were knocked out this way were further sent down faster by Dash, who beat her wings at blinding speeds to summon controlled tornadoes that swept them up and hurtled them that much farther to their deaths.

It took the pilots and airship some time to move around the smaller ponies, but the moment they were clear machine gun fire rang out, pelting the enemy and shredding wings and bones with impunity. The airship got above the flock and opened a myriad of hatches to reveal cannons lining the underside, all shifting as far down as they could before unloading their vitriol. Some of it was standard-issue cannonballs, and others were charged anomalies that sparked, singed, or froze some of the enemy to drop them.

The pegasi and alicorns, in response, fired off their own vitriol, hoping to score a hit with their elemental charges that were miniscule in comparison to what was coming from above. The Wonderbolts weaved out of the way, breaking apart their lightning chains just to be certain they were clear of the shots. The royal guards used the ponies they were whaling on as shields to take the brunt of the onslaught, casting them aside once they were done shielding them from the attack.

Natalie yawned, conjured a shield, and watched it take the brunt of the blows before catching some of the vitriol, adding her own magic to make it stable, and sending it right back with impunity. Anna teleported out of the way, and Matt willed his shadows to simply form holes that the discharges harmlessly passed through. The slower magitek tried firing the vitriol out of the sky, but one scored a hit on the very edge of Red Barrel's left wing, causing the vehicle to wobble and tilt for a few seconds before reorienting.

Red Barrel fiddled with a lever, her claw slowly pushing it up as it clicked into place. She pressed a button on her control panel and announced to the rest of her teammates, "Missiles incoming!" Her ride opened its hatch, and sent forth a triad of slender missiles that took a split-second to trigger their ignition before they went screaming into the fray. The missiles wasted no time knocking three alicorns out of the sky in vibrant explosions that disoriented them and shredded their torsos in one go.

Blue Crow did the same, sans announcing it so the enemy wouldn't have time to react. The missile he released was far larger than a pony, and three times as long, having to use the magitek's inner workings just to materalize and pull itself from the hatch at the same time. It fell once it completed itself, only to ignite and home in on an enemy squadron in the flock and explode and brute force them away from the rest of the massive herd. Before it detonated, Spitfire had noticed a crude peace sigil sloppily painted on its side in bright pastel white, contrasting the light grey steel of the main body.

Rose Windmill had a widening smirk as she unloaded her own missile, the biggest one of all. It could barely get itself out of the hatch, and seemed to form from pooling shadows pulsing with red energy that coalesced into a corporeal body. Its tail was the most difficult to get out, because it had four curious protrusions on that end that moved on jointed hinges simply so it could free itself.

She announced three simple words that had the geased pegasi in her sights paling as she pressed the communications button: "Antimatter deployment, firing." And when the massive rocket freed itself, it shuddered as its ignition came to life, and zeroed in on its targets. It turned its bulky head and channelled a fell energy as it dove into the flock of opponents, pulling them together as it forced them away from the rest of their numbers. When it was clear enough to take them with it, it detonated, conjuring a house-sized pulse of darkness that collapsed on itself and shredded those it gathered with its power before it dissipated.

"Give them no quarter! We will draw the blood of those that stand in our way!" one of the enemy alicorns boldly declared, his horn glowing in red energies that built exponentially on itself. He swung his blaster, charging it with his magic as he took aim at Rose Windmill's magitek. Unfortunately for him, Rose Windmill proceeded to use her miniguns to shred him before he could fire, his charge dying as his body was perforated with burning crystals that smoked as they made new homes in his flesh.

"How are they stronger than us?!" a geased pegasus cried before Rainbow Dash used her speed to knock him out with both front hooves right to the head. He went plummeting down with a caved skull as scores more followed him to certain death.

Some tried homing in on Anna as they heard her playing out a tune across the strings. None were fast enough as a tornado conjured itself into existence in front of her and proceeded to wipe them out in seconds. Dash flew up to Anna, eyes wide. "You can whip up tornadoes too?!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, why?" Anna asked blaisely, even as she conjured more arrows to down more of the enemy.

"That would have been really helpful to know, I don't know, when we came back to Fantasia?" Dash replied, kicking away a geased pegasus that got too close for comfort. "Lance said he had nopony who could control the weather!"

"I don't have it as under control as you guys do!" Anna shot back, pointing to the tornado she had summoned. It was homing in on some geased pegasi, growing big enough to force the guards and Wonderbolts in front of it to get out of the way. "It's got two settings: off and go, and right now it's on go!"

Dash rolled her eyes. Of course, that wouldn't have counted as 'controlling the weather' in the Fantasians' book. And Anna was using unicorn magic to pull the feat off, so naturally her control wouldn't be as sharp and precise as, say, the standard Ponyvillian weathermare. But Dash realized her talents were more in obliterating the enemy than anything resembling coordinated weather, and that was what she was doing with a finesse all her own.

Which was a pity for the enemy, because they were gaining no ground. Three thousand at most? Pfha, they were but peashooters before the tiny force that Lance had sent, as well as that force's backup. These geased dunderheads had no grace, no plan, no formation; they seemed to have thought they could have just waltzed in and had their way with whatever and whoever they wanted to. Sure, a big airborne flock of armed ponies was frightening to most, but they made the mistake of coming up against an already-prepared force that anticipated the incoming strike from a mile away. A mistake that was, already, costing them big-time, if for no other inconvenience than that many fewer numbers in the inevitable numbers game they were playing.

Also unfortunate for them, they were up against three ponies who could easily take portions of Fantasia's surface, score it with magics stronger than they had probably seen, maybe do some light terraforming for good measure on top of using the few limited means they had to screw up the weather patterns, and then laugh in the faces of those who dared challenge them. Granted, the trio in question were holding their most destructive magics back, which made sense—those spells probably drained a lot of mana, and perhaps threatened their bodies, and this wasn't a situation that called for the use of such destruction just yet. Not that Rainbow had seen the full extent of it, but that didn't stop her from tossing her own musings around in her head even as she beat geased ponies into submission.

And not to mention the Wonderbolts, who were doing a damn fine job pulling their own weight in the battle, and the magitek pilots. For all their faults in being wingless, these pilots were naturals in the sky, dodging and firing with precision and a bulky grace that the enemy sorely lacked. The airship didn't even need to dodge; it was like an airborne glacier fitted with piping hot geysers of raw magic for artillery. Its armor laughed at the strikes sent its way, making any blow just glance off its underside with nothing more than a skitter.

The Wonderbolts, meanwhile, were swift and nimble, zipping out of the way of any strike that dared so much as glance at them one moment, and retaliating the next moment with some weather-based magics that the geased maniacs hadn't anticipated and could not have prepared for. Lightning chains, tornadoes, skillfully-used wind currents both coming on their own and artificially generated… plus whatever meager weather-based support Anna could whip up with her grossly oversized harp…

The guards were a little clumsier thanks to their armor, but for that minor fault, they were dishing out beatings like it was candy on Nightmare Night. One grabbed a geased pegasus by his tail, and started throwing that poor bastard around with a surprising amount of strength. The pegasus screamed as he was sent into his fellow ponies in a tangle of legs and feathers, the sheer pain of impact and being used to beat on somepony else like a living mace enough to drop both him and the ponies he was sent crashing into. The others were busy playing hopscotch with enemy heads, just pronking from one unarmored head to the next with enough force to concuss opponents and leave them vulnerable for the others to clean up.

Which was another crying shame for the enemy—none of them had bothered to show up with any shred of armor to protect themselves with. Few, if any, tried to dodge. Many refused to part with their weapons even as they were torn apart in various ways. It was as if they had expected an easy win from their foe, when instead the only thing that awaited them was certain death.

Well, before too long, geased alicorns began using their magic to pull their manes out over everything going catastrophically wrong for them. Geased pegasi were howling in frustration, some waving their blasters around like impromptu maces in the hopes that they could hit something.

Dash made a personal estimate on the rather one-sided 'battle,' as simple as they could come: before moonrise, one lone troop of the enemy formation would be all that was left, beset on all sides by those who wanted answers, and to probably cave the survivor's face in. That survivor would probably have his wings clipped, and maybe his horn broken if he had one, before he would start yakking. How much he would spill, though, was the ultimate question.

But as the sky darkened to its deepest navy, and more enemies dropped with plenty of perforations to keep them company, she and the others would find something most unusual about the particular geas cast on these unlucky bastards.

Needless to say, things wouldn't quite pan out the way she would have liked. Or a way that Lance would have appreciated.