Chapter 44: Song of War

Marky jumped up atop a tank with a flip of his black wings. He shook his head and tossed his mane, watching the girls climb atop the other six tanks.

Dr. Hardy's voice came over his headset. "It's ready for control changeover on your order! Remember, you have to be near the weapon for it to work. It uses a close proximity link."

Marky inhaled deeply, closed his eyes for a moment, and nodded. "I'm sitting here right next to the cannon. Everyone is in position. Do it."

A moment later every tank powered down, the descending hum of their massive power circuits filling the valley. For a short time, the fighting stopped.

"System is rebooting. Ten seconds," Dr. Hardy's voice came. "Rarity is headed out to one of the tanks now."

Shub-Niggurath's army stopped attacking, apparently confused by the sudden shutdown of the human's primary weapons. The battlefield fell silent, for a moment that stretched into an eternity. Marky saw Rarity pop out of the Overwatch and run with amazing speed to the nearest beam tank, where she scrambled aboard.

Then the dark creatures of evil hissed in pleasure and moved forward again, eager for a quick victory now that the human's weapons were disabled

Marky quickly flipped through karaoke songs in Sanchez's player, which was linked to the primary external audio systems along with his ARHUD microphone and the microphones of the Mane Six.

"Five seconds till reboot."

"Well this will have to do." Marky clicked a song. "TUBTHUMPING" by Chumbawumba appeared in his ARHUD. "At least everyone knows this song," he muttered to himself.

The intro suddenly blasted out from the beamtank that Marky stood atop, and the lyrics scrolled up in his vision.

"The truth is, I thought it mattered.
I thought that music mattered..."

"Ohhh boy I hate karaoke..." he whispered to himself. "Here goes nothing." The first lyrics started, and he began to sing. As his voice blasting out of his tank, a dark blue beam of light fired from the cannon, the color and intensity pulsing with his rhythm.

"We'll be singing,
When we're winning,
We'll be singing..."

A yell went up from all the humans on the battlefield.

"I GET KNOCKED DOWN!"
"BUT I GET UP AGAIN!"
"YOU'RE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN!"

Twilight pumped her wings atop another tank, and began singing, her voice amplified by the external speakers of the tank.

"Pissing the night away,
Pissing the night away."

The plasma beam on her tank came alive, and this time the beam was purple. It pulsed and shifted with her voice and the rhythmic swaying of her body.

Rainbow Dash joined in from atop another tank, and the beam from hers was sky blue as her voice rang out in the darkness to join Twilight's. The demonic forces assembled in front seethed with rage and dismay. Where the beams struck, their shields crumpled and they were incinerated in bursts of melting light. Monsters ran back and forth on fire, hooting and thrashing about, trampling each other in panic.

The Voice of Shub-Niggurath spoke. "FOOLISH INSECTS! CEASE NOW, AND PERHAPS I SHALL ALLOW YOU TO LIVE AS MY SLAVES!"

This time, her words were greeted with raised middle fingers and bullets from all sides.

Four other beam tanks hummed to life. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had joined the song, their voices triggering a wave of color that blasted down into the enemy's ranks.

"YOU'RE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN!"

The enemy was in astounding disarray. Powerful rainbow energy beams lanced through their ranks, leaving chaos and smoking craters behind. The seven pony friends danced on the tanks, singing and smiling. Wings waved and flanks shook, and an outpouring of incredible, searing energy spewed forth from the human weapons beneath them. The harmonic magic of human and Equestrian friendship had a unique effect upon the beam tanks, giving them power beyond the wildest imaginations of their creators, and decimating the assembled forces of evil.

"YOUR DISRESPECTFUL, REBELLIOUS ANTICS CEASE TO AMUSE ME. YOUR CONTINUED DEFIANCE HAS NOW ANGERED ME." Shub-Niggurath's dark voice boomed. "I SHALL NO LONGER BE GENEROUS. YOUR SOULS SHALL NOW BE CAST INTO OUTER DARKNESS FOR ALL ETERNITY."

Something happened then. Shub-Niggurath's outline glowed a vile, unknown color, and abruptly Dr. Hardy's protective program ceased to work. The awful, otherworldly sight of the towering Eldritch Abomination caused humans and ponies alike to fall to their knees, clutching their temples in agony.

Simultaneously, a new appendage snaked forth from Shub-Niggurath's tangled tentacles in a revoltingly graphic manner, as if the creature were thrusting a sexual organ into the open. An obscene groaning sound filled the air. No one had ever before seen the thing which came to be, but some instinctive memory of nightmares of cavemen trembling in caves, of ponies running panicked under a swirling green sky, provided a name.

The Blasphemy Focus raised up, a mushroom-like, leaking pole with the glowing energy of a dead universe glowing at the tip. Ruptured galaxies and the corpses of stars swirled within an impossible vortex, the sight tearing at the foundations of the human and Equestrian minds. The beam tanks fell silent as the Focus sucked energy from them, absorbing their plasma into itself.

Chris, still near the Overwatch tank, grabbed Emmy in his arms without thinking and rushed into the vehicle, slamming the door behind him, adrenaline stabbing his heart.

"YOUR DOMINION OVER THIS WORLD IS REVOKED."

A beam of non-light came from the Blasphemy Focus. It tore forward and struck Twilight's magic force field. Sweat stood out on her brow as she strained against erasure with every particle of her being. She felt her strength rapidly ebbing, her magical powers fading from overuse. Just as her protective bubble collapsed, the beam stopped. Twilight fell to her haunches, exhausted. Almost immediately it blasted forth again, striking Rainbow Dash in the side as she launched herself into Twilight at top speed.

"NO!" Twilight shrieked as she fell off the tank. She reached out a hoof powerlessly towards Rainbow Dash, and for a split second they made eye contact.

Twilight couldn't hear anything over the sudden rushing in her ears. For a moment that froze in eternity, nothing existed in the universe but her and her dying friend. The fraction of a second lasted a hundred years, and she gazed into Rainbow Dash's horrified eyes as the nothingness devoured her. Rainbow Dash's mouth moved silently, and her last words were seared into Twilight's memory, even though the sound never reached her.

I love you.

With a single, lost howl of absolute horror and pain that echoed and faded across ancient, empty centuries, Rainbow Dash was blown forcefully backwards by the immense power of the Focus and was gone before she hit the ground, leaving nothing but a steaming crater to show she had ever existed. Multicolored sparks of dust floated in the air for a moment, then winked out one by one.

Twilight lay on her back in the dirt, frozen in shock, one hoof held out futilely above her. Her breath came in short hitching gasps, her entire body twitching. Her eyes were wide with shock.

Her four remaining friends had not seen the beam score a hit. They turned towards the place where Rainbow Dash had been, immediately sensing something was wrong.

"Where is Dashie?" Rarity asked querulously.

"She... She.."

"Oh no," Rarity saw the burned spot. "Did she-" The beam struck again, this time blasting Rarity sideways. Her terrified scream vanished into the distant hellish realities of lost worlds as her body vanished into vapor, leaving nothing behind.

"NO!" Applejack sounded as if she had been stabbed. "RARITY! NO!"

"GET DOWN!" Marky bellowed. "GET BEHIND SOMETHING!" He back flipped off his tank just as the beam struck the top, and landed behind, rolling up close to stay out of line of sight from the Oblivion Gate.

The sound of his voice broke their confusion, and the four friends leapt off their tanks. Applejack crouched behind hers and glanced left and right, checking to see if the others had made it. She saw Twilight and Pinkie Pie behind their tanks.

"Where is Fluttershy?"

"HELP ME!"

Fluttershy's frightened voice came to Applejack, and she risked peeking out from her shelter.

"Oh no."

Fluttershy had managed to get tangled up in a cargo net on top of her tank. She flapped her wings and kicked fruitlessly, attracting Shub-Niggurath's attention.

"DO NOT STRUGGLE, LITTLE ONE. YOU WILL NOT FEEL FEAR FOR LONG."

Applejack realized in horror that she was too far away to do anything. "Twilight! Can you help her?"

Twilight grit her teeth and strained until her vision blurred, but it was no use. She had exhausted her magical ability and nothing was left but a worthless fizzle of light motes. Suddenly she saw movement. Pinkie Pie was running faster than she ever had before.

She shadowstepped rapidly, disappearing and reappearing at incredible speed in her desperation to reach her trapped friend. In seconds she had reached Fluttershy's tank, and she swarmed up it like a cat climbing a fence. At the top, her hooves blurred as she attacked the tangled netting.

"Pinkie sense tingling! Pinkie sense tingling!"

Fluttershy suddenly fell to the ground, and in that same instant Pinkie Pie died with a single fading squeal as the erasure beam meant for Fluttershy claimed her instead. Fluttershy lay on her back in the mud, watching as the beam tore Pinkie Pie apart, sobbing wretchedly as her heart shattered into a million pieces inside her chest. She reached upwards just like Twilight had only moments before, her hoof trembling uselessly in the air as a glittering stream of dust cascaded over her, the last remnants of Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie! Oh, Pinkie. Not you. Please. Not you."

Tears poured from her eyes like a fountain as she painfully rolled over and crawled to safety though the mud, one hoof wrapped around her stomach, pressing against the invisible wound in her soul.

"Why Pinkie? Why? I wish it was me. I wish I died instead!"

"But you didn't. And I'm glad for that." Hamilton crawled towards her out of the mist with one arm, the other held to his chest, bloody and gashed. He grimaced. "I'm sorry about Pinkie too. But we will all join her if we don't keep on. There's no time to fall apart."

He rolled up against her, scanning the direction he had come from with his rifle. "We have got to find a way to take down the Blasphemy Focus, or we're done."

Shadowy shapes crept towards them, tentacles lashing in the mist. Hamilton rested the front grip of his rifle on his knee, looked through the scope, and fired with one hand. There was a sound like a watermelon being smashed with a baseball bat, and the dying squeal of something he was glad he couldn't see.

Shub-Niggurath laughed, a wave of rot-scented air flushing outwards from her obscene body. "THE PINK ONE, THE WALKER BETWEEN WORLDS, IS GONE. HER ABILITIES TROUBLED ME, BUT NOW SHE IS GONE FOREVER, AND IT IS YOUR FAULT, LITTLE YELLOW FOOL! YOU MADE HER SUFFER. YOU MADE HER DIE! SHE HAD VALUE, AND YOU ARE NOTHING. IT IS AN EXCELLENT TRADE!" Again, Shub-Niggurath howled with demonic laughter, the sound of death and fear and lost souls begging for mercy.

Fluttershy covered her ears and shrieked. "It's true! It's TRUE!" It's MY fault! I'm worthless! I should be dead!"

Hamilton looked back at Fluttershy, and winced as reached his wounded arm back to place a hand on her shoulder. His red blood flowed freely onto her grimy yellow fur.

"There are people who need you, Fluttershy. We're getting messed up out there. See if you can help anypony."

"I.. I.." Fluttershy swallowed and blinked hard a few times, then she looked at his wound.

He needs me. They need me.

Her eyes focused and her jaw set. "Okay. But you're hurt. I'm wrapping your arm first." She pulled out her first-aid kit, her suddenly decisive movements speaking of new determination.

***

Jeff watched the command monitor as multiple SIGNAL LOST warnings came up. A sharp pang of grief gripped his chest when he saw the names listed there.

He spoke into his headset. "Can anyone confirm? Visual? I see. Shit." He shook his head and blinked hard at the water in his eyes, then looked over to Celestia, sitting at her holographic weapon interface. "Celestia."

She looked at him, her already drawn face even more worried at the tone of his voice.

"I'm so sorry. We just lost three of your friends. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie are gone."

Celestia gasped and fell limply forward in her chair, her face in her hooves. Her shoulders shook and she moaned involuntarily, a hollow, wretched sound of such sadness that it stabbed Jeff to the core. He wanted to go put his arms around her, but he knew he had to stay at the combat command interface terminal or it could cost others their lives, too.

"I'm so sorry, Celestia," he whispered, his voice breaking, forcing himself to watch his combat monitors and wiping his brimming eyes with his arm while he highlighted targets. "I'm so sorry."

***

Twilight lay in the mud, her heart shattered. "No time to cry. No time to cry." She kept repeating this mantra to herself as the tears rolled down her muzzle. "I have to be strong. I have to help the others. If I don't get up right now my other friends will die too!"

Choking back another sob, she raised her head and looked around herself, squirming in the muck. Suddenly, she noticed a gigantic spider with tentacles instead of a face skittering towards her. The hideous creature had a leg span of at least four or five feet.

Revolted and terrified, Twilight instinctively tried to blast it with a horn beam. A tiny squirt of lavender light twinkled out, glittering in the gloom. Still empty on magic, Twilight. This is how you die. Used up and alone. Cold fear flowed through her as the spider-thing chortled and scampered towards her gleefully, ready to tear open her trembling stomach, hungry to feed on her soft purple flesh and steaming entrails.

It whispered to her as it closed in, stepping gingerly as its skinny, hairy legs sank into the slimy ground, the voice like the hissing of a punctured tire leaking air. "Pohhhneeee. Sooooft, waaaaaaarm. Pohhhnnneeeeeee. Yesyesyesyesyes."

Twilight whimpered in horror, trying to press herself back from the eager monster, cornered in the mud.

What a way for a Princess to die. Eaten by a bug while cowering in filth.

Suddenly something on her hip snagged against a rock. She abruptly remembered the holster containing the modified Glock pistol that Chris had insisted she wear along with everypony else.

"I fight with magic, it's what I'm good at. I really don't need a weapon like that. It's pointless."

"Please, Twilight. Take it. Just in case."

Hope surged into her heart.

She reached down quickly with her hoof, and there it was, strapped to her hip, designed for humans but ready and willing to save her. She drew it quickly, shoved it towards the mass of eager, dripping tentacles that were now only a couple feet away, and pulled the trigger.

There was a pulsing blast. The gun rocked like a living thing, angered at the evil facing its mistress, eager to do its part to vanquish the darkness. Recoil shook her foreleg as the glowing purple magic crystal-enhanced .45 hollow-point bullet lanced out from the pistol and through the center of the looming creature.

The spider's brain flew out its ass, along with most of its internal organs.

"Heeeee?"

It reared up and felt around the bullet hole for a moment, the tentacles seemingly curious. Then it fell onto its back and its legs curled inwards in arachnoid death.

"Better to have a gun and not need it, than to need it and not have it."

"Thank you, Chris," she whispered.