Filly Fantasy- Requiem of Ponies

CHAPTER VI: VIGILANTES

A lot of time had passed… days. It took quite a lot of time for the rescue squad to sift through the rubble looking for survivors. I looked towards the ruin, and saw Rainbow talking to one of the paramedics, though I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Rainbow finished up and proceeded to walk towards me. I didn’t want to wait, so I ran towards her to meet her. If I was going to hear bad news or good news, the wait would only hurt.

When I met up with Rainbow, I asked, “Well? What did the paramedic say? Is she alive?”. Rainbow shook her head and said, “That wasn’t a paramedic… It was a mortician. She’s dead, Twilight… the body was barely even identifiable. I’m sorry, Twi.”. My heart just sank when I heard those words. I may have barely known her by now, but to think that one of my old friends had died… the thought was inconceivable.

My thoughts were clouded with memories and feelings… an inundation of years and years of memories and feelings about her. But in this mental haze, something came through… I realized something. I said to Rainbow, “You’ve heard this beeping before, haven’t you? You said yourself this was that EXACT same beeping!”. Rainbow said dismissively, “Same bomb type I guess… what does it matter-”, but then Rainbow realized exactly what I was on to. She realized as well as I did that the bombings were connected.

Rainbow started walking away and called out, “Rarity, Twilight, follow me.”. As the two of us caught up to Rainbow, Rarity said, “Why, where are we going?”, and Rainbow responded, “Applejack’s Tavern. You’ll see why once we get there.”. I asked Rainbow, “You have a plan, don’t you?”, and Rainbow just simply nodded. I had a bad feeling about this… but I didn’t know why.

CHAPTER VII: SPECTRA APOTHECA

When we entered the tavern, Rainbow yelled out to Applejack, “Applejack, cellar!”. Applejack nodded, and bucked off the hinge on a trap door leading to the tavern’s basement. Rainbow said, “Follow me.”, as she jumped into the cellar. I followed suit, then Rarity jumped in, and then Applejack jumped in.

I looked around and said, “Oh… my… wow. Just… wow!”. The cellar was filled with rows of firearms and weapons, all of which looked like they would be very painful if they gave you a wound. There was also a table with several odd devices laid out and hundreds of test tubes of various colours on the walls.

Rainbow said, “Each of us has weapons. I stockpiled some for all of us in case we got back in touch. You’ve got daggers for me, ringblades for Rarity, guns for Applejack…”, and I said, “Wait… guns for Applejack?”. Applejack said, “You got it, sugarcube. I’ve had some… violent customers in the past.”, as she showed me her left foreleg, which had a small shotgun attached to it.

I said, “Hold up, how do you fire that thing? You’re an earth pony… and you don’t have hands!”. Applejack said, “Simple, with Spectra.”. I tilted my head in confusion, but before I could ask, Rainbow chimed in, “Spectra are the individual colours of liquid rainbow. I’ll explain how it works.”.

Rainbow put on her left foreleg one of the odd devices I saw earlier, a large and clumsy device. It was mostly flat, quite bulky, and contained several holes in the back along with small glass tubes on the center of the top. Rainbow said, “This device is called an Armarium. You place it on your leg, and it will stick several electrodes that are on the bottom of it on your skin.”.

Rainbow continued, “To use it, you have to load in vials of Spectra. The Spectra go in these slot in the back, and they will slide in and a mechanism will draw the Spectra from the vial into one of the glass tubes on the top.”. Rainbow took a red vial of Spectra and slid it into the leftmost slot, and the bottom leftmost tube filled with red Spectra. Rainbow explained, “You can have up to twenty-five Spectra combinations being used, one for every tube on the top.”.

Rainbow explained further, “When you mix two Spectra, you get a new colour entirely. Every spectra represents a magic type, and mixes will be an entirely new spell altogether. For example, green Spectra is for Wind magic and blue Spectra is for Ice magic. When combined, you get cyan Spectra, which is for Tornado magic.”.

Rainbow continued, “If you have more than one vial of Spectra for the same magic, you can expend more than one at once and create a more potent magic.”. Rainbow Dash walked to two small kilns and said, “These are Apotheca. When you put all several types of Spectra in, you get either black or white Spectra. The Black Apotheca makes black Spectra, and the White Apotheca makes white Spectra. These are the Spectra that correspond to the spells Meteor and Ultima. Putting black Spectra in a Black Apotheca will make Utma Spectra, which is reverse of a rainbow. Putting white Spectra in a White Apotheca makes Atma Spectra, which is the colour of a rainbow. Utma Spectra and Atma Spectra correspond to the spells Apocalypse and Ultima.”.

Rainbow tossed me and Rarity Armariums, and we put them on. Rainbow said, “Questions?”. I didn’t know where to begin. It was so much. But I got most of it, though I had some things nagging me. I asked Rainbow, “How do you use these?”. Rainbow responded, “You two can easily use them with your horns, but me and AJ have to focus our thoughts. The focused mental concentration lights up very specific parts of our brain, and that signals the electrodes to activate. Because of the problems emotions draw in, non-unicorns need to keep a very clear head when they have Spectra loaded in their Armariums.”.

I said to Rainbow, “Makes sense. But one thing really nags me. You speak of these incredibly powerful magics and spells, but what is the catch?”. Rainbow said, “For one, the magic has as much an effect on you as it does the world. If you try to cast something you are not capable of or prepared for casting, you will either be hurt severely or die.”. Rainbow continued, “Also, non-Pegasi have to adapt to high levels of Spectra in their systems. Spectra can cause Rainbow Burn, which is where rainbow coloured fire starts appearing on your skin. So while ease of use goes to unicorns, ease of compatibility goes to Pegasi due to our heavy Spectra exposure.”.

Rainbow said, “Now, for a demonstration…”. Rainbow pointed her hoof at a wall, and stood very still. Nothing really seemed to happen… until I saw the Armarium start to glow. Rainbow strained as a ball of fire was appearing slowly in front of her hoof. As Rainbow’s sweat flowed and dripped onto the floor, the fireball grew larger and larger until it built to a point where it was bigger than her. Rainbow grunted sharply, and the fireball shot at the wall, creating a large explosion.

Rainbow collapsed, and I ran over to her, asking, “Rainbow, are you alright?”. Rainbow said, “I’m fine… I just am really out of practice…”. Rainbow got up and said, “Now, I’m going to hit the hay. Get some practice and get used to those. If you need help, ask AJ. She knows all about them.”. With that, Rainbow exited the cellar and Rarity and I got to practicing.

CHAPTER VII: FINAL ROUND UP

I felt the mastery of some of the basic spectra coming to me. After a week of training, I could feel this sense of power coming to me. But I already knew magic well… why did I need practice to feel this way? Perhaps only Rainbow really knew the mysteries of Spectra. After all, she was a pegasus. I’d only seen Cloudsdale once, and I never was introduced to where the individual Spectra were made.

Speaking of Rainbow, she had walked in the door already. Rainbow, reading my face like a book, said, “Relax, I’m here.”. Rainbow became more serious with her tone and said, “Now that we have gotten practice on using our Armariums, I will proceed with discussing my plan.”. Twilight said, “But why did we need practice? AJ was used to hers, and me and Rarity need no practice in magic.”.

Rainbow remarked, “Don’t fall into the vanity I succumbed to long ago. Your skills have atrophied from your clear lack of use of them. The most important thing is I needed to raise your Spectra tolerance so you can get to using higher level magic quicker. I needed to get you a headstart.”. Rainbow continued, “Now, for my plan. I’ve decided we are going to try and figure out who is the bomber. We are going to meet up with Spitfire and Scootaloo and get their help. They both have significant combat experience and, being Pegasi, have very high Spectra tolerance.”.

Rainbow continued on, saying, “Next, we need to figure out where is going to be struck next. The bombings have been attempts to kill your friends, Twilight, and they have proceeded in reverse alphabetical order. The bombs are tri-spectral lunar ordinance, a type of bomb using red, green, and blue spectra cores to excite lunar rocks coated in Atma Spectra.”. Rainbow explained the possible ponies, saying, “The only ponies that can access Spectra are Pegasi or flying creatures. However, Pegasi cannot fly to lunar height, so the only possibilities are Luna, a draconequus, or a dragon.”.

I remarked, “Luna went comatose due to a severe disease years ago, and Discord is still in stone. As for dragons, it can’t be the same dragon because most dragons were in their sleep cycle when you had your accident. Something else must be behind this.”. Rainbow said, “It doesn’t matter. We need to rendezvous with Spitfire and Scootaloo first.”. With that, Rainbow left the tavern and the rest of us followed suit.

When I caught up to Rainbow, I asked her, “Rainbow, I have a question.”. Rainbow said, “Ask away, Twi.”. So I asked her, “Are you doing this for vengeance for when you were hurt, or to avenge the death of Fluttershy?”. Rainbow said, “It’s more than that. I’m doing it because it is right. So many have died in just these two bombings… and I know a lot more ponies will die in this next one.”. I asked her, “How do you know? Where is it even going to be?”.

Rainbow said to me clearly, “Think carefully. I said the bombings were reverse-alphabetical. Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack… those are the targets in reverse alphabetical order. That means the next bombing will be at Applejack’s Tavern.”. I said, “But AJ is with us!”. Rainbow retorted, “Bet your bits that the bomber doesn’t know that.”.

It really didn’t take long to get to the gentlecolt’s club. It probably was only a block or two from Applejack’s Tavern. I looked up at the sign once we got there… and it was a pretty terribly named shack. I said out loud, “The Gilded Pinion? Sounds like a dive, all right.”. Rainbow said, “The Gilded Pinion is notorious for being the gaudiest, vilest hole in the wall in all Manehattan. It’s a dump, that’s for sure.”.

Once we reached the door, a security guard stopped us. He looked strong enough to snap any of us in half. He looked at Rainbow Dash, checking out to see if she was a mare or a stallion. Honestly, it’s not the easiest thing to figure out with what she looked like. The guard said in a gruff voice, “You can go in, sir. Your lady friends will have to stay back.”.

Rainbow walked in, and looked like she tried her best not to be completely offended by the garish décor and filth everywhere. I asked the security guard, “Is it alright if I move closer? I need to be hearing what my friend is saying.”. The security guard said spitefully, “Why don’t you and your fillyfooler gang beat it? I don’t have time for garbage like you.”.

Applejack pointed her gun at the guard and said, “Please repeat that… now that this gun here is loaded.”. The guard backed off and said, “Fine, she can go in, just don’t kill me!”. With that, I walked in and proceeded towards Rainbow and Spitfire, who appeared to be having a spat.

Rainbow said, “Look, Spitfire, we need you and Scoot to help us! The bomber could strike at any time.”. Spitfire held onto the pole with her wing and said, “Look, Dash, this is your problem, not mine. I can’t be there for you all the time.”. Rainbow bitterly said, “It wouldn’t kill you to be there once for me, you stupid whore!”. Spitfire swung up onto the pole next to her upon hearing this, and swung around full circle, giving a vicious kick to Rainbow’s face, knocking Rainbow to the floor. Spitfire said, “You insult me one more time, and I’ll tell the guards your secret.”.

When I heard this, I snapped. I ran up to Spitfire and bucked her into the pole. I then shoved her up against the pole and said, “You listen to ME. We’ve got enough red Spectra to turn this place into a pillar of fire. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”. Spitfire pressed one of her Armariums against me and said, “You make me any angrier, and I will make you a living torch.”. Rainbow tossed a yellow Spectra into her Armarium and shot a bolt of lightning at Spitfire, knocking her away.

Scootaloo came in and said, “I heard fighting, everypony okay?”. Spitfire said, “Grown-up stuff, honey. Just let the adults do the talking.”. Rainbow said, “We need you and your mother’s help. There is a bomber who is trying to kill us.”. Scootaloo looked at us and said, “Wait… Twilight? Applejack? Rarity?”. Rainbow said, “And Rainbow Dash…”. Scootaloo ran up to Rainbow and said, “Can I help? Can I? Can I?”. Rainbow said, “That’s what we are hoping for.”.
Spitfire panicked and said, “Wait! I’ll give you whatever you want, just don’t take my daughter away!”. Rainbow said to Spitfire, “We don’t want you separated… we want you together. But if she accepts and you don’t, we WILL take her.”. Spitfire said, “Fine. Scoot, pack your weapons.”. Scootaloo said, “Alrighty, Mom.”. While Scootaloo was off, Spitfire kicked at the base of her pole, causing it to fall down, and activated a mechanism in her Armariums that caused it to have rudimentary digits. She then grabbed the pole with shockingly good reflex, despite the awkward looking “hands”.

Spitfire said, “You can see my profession has the benefit of giving you some fighting skill. The grace and agility needed to work the pole means you get quite a lot of strength, upper and lower body.”. Rainbow, bleeding from the wound Spitfire gave her, wiped her sleeve across her face and said in an irritated tone, “I can tell.”. Meanwhile, Scootaloo called out, “Ready!”, and came in.

On Scootaloo’s back was a lance, one that looked quite sharp. As Scootaloo walked up to the main group, Rainbow said, “Now, if we all are ready, we should start heading for the sewers. Rarity, I know you hate sewer, but it’s the only way. Let’s go.”. When Rainbow finished speaking, the six of us all walked out, and went towards the sewer entrance.

CHAPTER VIII: A NEW ENEMY AWOKEN

When we entered the sewers, we couldn’t really see much. Like about half of Manehattan, it wasn’t lit at all. Rainbow said, “Hold up. I have a plan.”. She put a red Spectra vial and a Purple Spectra vial in her Armarium and said, “It’s about to get roasty in here. Twilight, I’ll need you to slowly release some blue Spectra on my signal. Keep it going for a while.”.

Rainbow then focused her red Spectra and shot a fireball at the base of the brown liquid of the sewers, causing a huge explosion to happen that filled the sewers. But before it could even reach us, Rainbow fired off the purple Spectra with lightning speed, shielding us with a spell. Rainbow said, “We’re safe now, the sewers are clean, and we can see. Now, Twilight, use the blue spectra slowly or we will burn up.”.

I did just that, and while sustaining the spell, I loaded a few more vials of blue Spectra in, but Rainbow cut me off at five. Rainbow said, “For every five Spectra you have, the sixth becomes a purified and enhanced version of the vial before. If you put in a sixth, you could freeze us.”. I asked, “What are the spells and their levels?”.

Rainbow explained, “For red Spectra, there is Fire, Fira, Firaga, Firaja, and Flare. For blue Spectra, there is Blizzard, Blizzara, Blizzaja, and Icestorm. For yellow Spectra, there is Thunder, Thundara, Thundaga, Thundaja and Maelstrom. For green Spectra, there is Aero, Aerora, Aeroga, Aeroja, and Tornado. For indigo Spectra, there is Gravity, Gravira, Graviga, Gravija, and Pulsar. For purple Spectra there is Shell, Protect, Reflect, Dispel, and Esuna. For orange Spectra, there is Cure, Cura, Curaga, Curaja, and Full-Life. Black Spectra, white Spectra, Utma Spectra, and Atma Spectra do not have levels. More vials just make them an incredible degree stronger. Thorough enough?”.

After all that, I didn’t really have much to say… Rainbow just spoke for two minutes straight. The bright side of that is that it took long enough that we had gotten to the ladder out of the sewers by the time she finished. Rainbow told me, “Load in some vials and fire off a Blizzara at the fire, so we won’t burn Manehattan down.”. I said, “But am I able to do that? I’m not sure I can tolerate that much Spectra without damage.”.

Rainbow said, “You’ll be fine. Just trust me.”. Rainbow loaded in the Spectra and lowered the shield. Without a second to spare, I fired off the Blizzara spell and made both the flames and the ice become nothingness. Rainbow said, “Now, up the ladder.”, and she ascended the ladder, with the rest of us close behind.

After traversing a few sets of stairs, we reached a boiler room that had a ramp going up to a catwalk. An unfortunately familiar beeping was slowly starting to become audible, and Rainbow dashed up the ramp saying, “Follow me! We don’t have time to lose!”. We tailed her as best we could, following her to an cloaked figure, who I assume was a draconequus, as they were standing on their hind legs with great ease.

Rainbow pulled out her knife and leapt towards the bomb. With a single movement, she kicked away the figure and tore the bomb off the wall, flinging it behind her. I acted on instinct, and used five vials of purple Spectra to use a high level Shell spell. The spell enveloped the bomb, and the explosion was contained when it went off. As Rainbow furiously slashed at the figure, the mysterious creature blocked every move perfectly, and when Rainbow missed, the bomber took Rainbow by the mane and flung her through the ceiling, into Applejack’s Tavern, and leapt through the hole.

Fearing what he’d do, we all clambered up to help Rainbow. The bomber and Rainbow were soon out the door though, and we galloped as fast as we could in hot pursuit. We saw them head for the train station, and saw the bomber leap on top of the train, Rainbow flying to its top as well. Spitfire saw a cart that was not being used, and she said, “Scoot, get in the front of that cart!”. Scootaloo nodded and yes, “Yes, Mom!”. Spitfire and Scootaloo saddled themselves up, and me, Applejack, and Rarity all jumped in the back. Spitfire then flew up to the train and we jumped off onto it.

Rainbow, however, was fighting a losing battle. Scootaloo, never one to think out her plan, bit down on her lance and started to join in the fight. Scootaloo was more impressive than I thought. For someone who didn’t fly until they were ten, she had incredible acrobatic skill, fighting like a graceful and perfect machine. Spitfire ran and said, “I’m helping her… she is a fast one, but not a strong one.”.

Despite a skillfully done and impeccably performed onslaught of steel, the bomber just countered everything with unbelievable perfection. I called out to Rarity, “Rarity, mount a ringblade on AJ’s shotgun! I have a plan!”. Rarity did so and Applejack said, “What do you need me to do?”. Twilight said, “Improve the power of that gun with Firaga spell. Fire on my signal!”. Applejack said, “Firaga? Are you insane?”. I just yelled, “Do it! Now!”.

Applejack primed twenty vials of red Spectra, and fired her gun. A tremendous explosion erupted, and the ringblade went forth at an unbelievable speed. They tore through the bomber, and blood starting pouring out of him. He ran off, toward the end of the train, and slid down into the conductor’s car. I said, “He has the power to derail the train and kill us. Just let him go.”.

We went over to Rainbow and helped her up, asking her if she was alright. Rainbow said, “I’m fine… But we need to stay on this train. He’s headed for Canterlot.”. Rarity asked Rainbow, “Is he going to bomb more ponies in Canterlot?”. Rainbow said, “No… He’s on his way to kill Princess Celestia.”.

CHAPTER IX: CHASING GEESE

I felt something happening… something odd. We were slowing down, but the rest of the train was speeding up. Rainbow said, “Feathers! He disconnected the car! We’ll have to make a break for it.”. With that, the six of us leapt off the car and galloped as fast as possible to make it to Canterlot in time.

As we bolted down the track, Rainbow said, “Quick, everyone mix five vials of green Spectra with five vials of purple Spectra. Use it, and we’ll go very fast.”. I asked, “Wait, what does that make?”. Rainbow said, “High level Haste. Now, mix!”. Rainbow signaled all of us to stop, and we mixed the Spectra, then loaded it up.

Rainbow said, “On three… One… two…”, and as we prepared to fire off the spell together, Rainbow said, “Three!”. We combined the Haste vials and started running like there was no tomorrow. Everything had become a blur of light, and we figured out very soon we were going too fast. The reason we found this out is we slammed into the back of the train, which had purposely been abandoned to impede our progress.

When we got up, Rainbow said, “Canterlot can’t be far. We’ll just have to run at a reasonable pace. No doubt more obstacles are coming.”. So we were off, and as Rainbow guessed, Canterlot wasn’t far… because we were at the train station when we hit the train. Five bits says Rainbow saw the station sign and played dumb on purpose. Nevertheless, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt on that one.

We WOULD have gone out the station the normal way, but debris covered the archway. Rainbow said, “A terrorist who plays mind games. Just peachy.”. With that, we took the long way around by going OVER the arch. I can’t imagine me and Rainbow were the only ones sick of these dumb tricks. Everypony might have been keeping a straight face so they wouldn’t snap.

CHAPTER X: BLACKENED SUN

When we got through the castle, we found a massacre had occurred. Many of the guards were dead. Scratch that, all of them. Even my brother was dead. Rainbow said, “How could he kill this fast? I don’t understand… we were right behind him.”. Rarity said, “He probably used a high level spell. Those seem to be incredibly destructive.”.

While others were talking about the bomber, I just looked at my brother. I loved him so much, and now he is gone… killed by someone I haven’t even seen the face of. Rainbow came over and put her hand on my shoulder, saying, “Twi, I’m sure he fought honorably. His death will not be in vain.”. I said, “Whoever did this… I will kill them.”.

Rainbow said, “Be careful. There is a thin line between avenging and vengeance. Do not let hatred fuel your motives. It will kill you from the inside out.”. I got up and said, “Like you would know. You haven’t lost crap. You are the only of us who hasn’t lost someone they loved.”. Rainbow pulled me close and said seriously, “I loved Soarin. And he died.”, and she walked towards the door.

I said spitefully, “Just because you bed somepony doesn’t mean you love them. Get that straight.”. Rainbow turned around and cold clocked me, making me fall to the ground. Rainbow said, “I tolerate a lot of crap. I don’t tolerate cheap shots.”. Spitfire yelled out, “Enough! Both of you! We’ve all lost a lot. Fighting can’t bring anyone or anything back to us.”.
Rainbow said, “She’s right… Sorry, Twilight.”. I replied, “I’m sorry too… Let’s… just do this. I’m hoping we got here in time.”. I got up, and Rainbow signaled us to keep moving. For being past friends like we were, we sure have bad chemistry now. But… why do I say “past friends”? Shouldn’t we STILL be friends?

The six of us then walked in the castle, and when we got inside the throne room, we saw something horrible. Celestia laid cold and lifeless, limply draped on the seat of her throne, with the blade of a long rapier in her skull. Upon her sat the bomber we had chased. He pulled down his hood and said, “Greetings. My name is Silemn. Let us talk.”.

END OF PART TWO