Secret Lightning [REWORK IN PROGRESS]

=============================SECRET LIGHTNING=============================

Well, I decided that having them all go around waking up all the ponies would take far too long, so I decided “screw it, I’ll make it interesting”. From what I gather so far, that was a really good choice. Now, we see the battle. And might I say, that while I am no good at writing battles, I shall try to make it as epic as I can. However, I have gotten a couple complaints about the fight going to be really one-sided. And as much as I love going full admin and being impossible to defeat, that just makes the story really boring, in my opinion. So for those who are saying they might as well have an instant win button, (you know who you are), I have one thing to say to that: don’t be so sure.

=============================Chapter 17: Into Battle=============================

Matt’s group half-jogged, half-ran down the streets of Canterlot. They did not wish to risk teleporting directly to the battle zone for a few reasons. First, they had no idea where they were officially going yet, second, they didn’t know what effects teleportation would have on their equipment, and third, this was kinda cool.

As they passed a flower store that was being boarded up by a unicorn and an earth pony, they heard Celestia in their helmets once again. “We have plotted the best course of action. However, it runs right through Ponyville. Normally, we would have you go around, but we lost communication with the Ponyville radio operator. So before you head for the mountain, see if you can’t help them out a little. Okay, I am sending your helmets the route now. Head for the armored chariot, and enjoy your ride to Ponyville.”

As she stopped talking, their helmets suddenly started downloading data. At first, a minimap appeared, showing their current positions, then shortly afterwards a transparent line that led through the streets in their main view. As they moved their heads, the line stayed put. They also noticed, thanks to the 360 view the helmets provided, that they were getting some very strange looks from the townspeople. They ignored it, however, and continued on. They finally reached the armored chariot, basically a steel box pulled by two armored Pegasus royal guards. They piled in, and began the painstaking descent to Ponyville. We shoulda tried teleporting thought Matt.

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The chariot finally came to a stop, and they all clambered out. Everyone was shocked at what they saw. So shocked, in fact, that they never noticed their “drop ship” fly off.

The entire town had been decimated, most buildings destroyed, with only a few left. Some were on fire, some just plain smashed. But what really topped it off was the skeleton and ghost soldiers wandering around, a few dead ponies at their feet. He did notice, however, that there were several soldiers clustered around a basement hatchway to a partly destroyed building, trying to force their way inside. There had to be survivors in there, he just knew it.

He was just about to investigate, when he heard a very faint sobbing. It was coming from underneath a piece of roof on the ground. Matt looked around. They hadn’t been noticed by any soldiers yet, so he decided to check it out. He lifted the roof fragment ever so carefully with his telekinesis power, his control magnified by the suit. Under the debris was the same little magenta unicorn filly he recognized as Berry Pinch. She looked upwards at him, tears already had been streaming down her face, and immediately recoiled in shock.

“What…What are you?! What do you want?! Who are you?!” she practically yelled, immediately attracting the attention of the soldiers that were wandering the destroyed town. They immediately started to group together and form an attack front, and began to charge. In the corner of his mind, Matt made a mental note that the undead soldiers were all humanoid form. That may come to use later.

He chucked the piece of debris he was still levitating with bone-shattering force into the crowd. Unfortunately, the crowd parted quickly, and the debris chunk only took out two slower skeletons. (I’m gonna call them “skellys”, minecraft force of habit). He glanced back at Berry Pinch, who looked even more scared than before, than uttered two words before moving into action. “Hang on”

He pointed his hands forward, palms out, at the crowd. The gloves on his hands shifted and moved away from his palms, as a dull whining sound, like a turbine powering up could be heard. Then, THOOOMMM!!!

The sonic rainboom blast blew outward in a small concentrated area, blowing all the undead soldiers back, temporarily disabling them. He knew it wouldn’t last long, so he had to act fast. He knelt down beside her, and lifted his visor. “Berry, it’s me Matt. What are you doing out here? Where’s your sister?”

Hearing this, she started crying even harder. “She….she’s gone, the…the  beasties took her.”

Matt was saddened at this. He didn’t know Berry Punch very well, but he knew she took care of her little sister. She would rather die than leave little Berry alone. Which was exactly where Matt’s train of thought was going next.

He glanced back. The undead soldiers were starting to get back up. And his team was just standing there. It occurred to him that maybe it didn’t help that none of them had probably ever fought before. He’d fought bullies at school, sure, but never any undead soldiers. Especially not ones with swords and torches. He knew he had to act fast, or all the things Celestia and Luna had given them would be useless. But first, he had to get Berry out of harm’s way. It wouldn’t do him any good to see the little filly get hurt.

His snap decision made, he grabbed the little filly rather roughly, (he regretted that, but he had to act fast) and put her on his back, making sure she was tucked underneath the strap for his broadsword. “Now Berry, I need you to hold on to me really tight, and don’t let go, got it?” before putting his visor back down.

She nodded, and the only reason he could see it was the 360 view inside his helmet. She put her forelegs around him as far as she could, and held on with a deathgrip.

Now that she was secured, Matt shouldered his shotgun and unsheathed his broadsword from his back, being careful not to dislodge or cut little Berry. A lot of good a shotgun with a muzzle was going to do to against a crowd of soldiers. Paige saw this and drew her katana. The rest of the group just kind of stood there. There would be words to have with them later, for now, they had some undead to own. He nodded to her, she nodded back, and the two of them crouched and sprinted into the crowd of undead.

The second the two of them hit the crowd, they both started kind of a “slice and pray” method, similar to the spray-and-pray, but with swords. So far, it was working fairly well, Matt and Paige sliced through most of the undead patrol, ghosts dissipating, skellys falling to pieces. They got about 60% of the patrol decimated, but then something impossible happened: the undead got smart. They figured out that if they just dodged their attacks, they could come up behind them. And that’s exactly what happened, two skellys sidestepped the oncoming attacks, and attacked from behind.

The one Matt had been attacking grabbed him from behind, throwing him off balance. The undead soldier decided to simply throw him down on the ground, thankfully, instead of doing something to Berry or him. Matt made sure to land on his side to avoid crushing the small filly with his weight. The skeleton stood over him, hissing like a snake, ready to attack. He looked over to his left, and saw Paige desperately trying to stop a skeleton from…well, it looked like it was trying to eat her, honestly, and her katana lay on the ground directly between them. The second she cried out in pain from the skeleton doing…whatever it was doing, Matt saw red. So much red.

He reached over, grabbed her katana, and slashed furiously upward, literally cutting the skeleton in half. He jumped to his feet, and rushed over to Paige, slashing at the skeleton so many times, it fell apart into about a million pieces. He screamed a war cry, and lunged with superhuman force toward the last of the undead patrol. He hacked, sliced, diced, dodged, pushed, and sliced some more. He didn’t remember much, just suddenly he was standing in the middle of a pile of bone fragments panting, holding a katana. But Paige was amazed. She had never seen him move like that, and it had been for her. She glanced back at the rest of her team, and anger instantly boiled inside of her.

“Why didn’t any of you help us? We needed help, obviously.”

“Well, we…we never fought before, and to be honest, we got a little scared.” Replied Applejack. She was the element of honesty, after all.

“Alright, whatever, we’re going to have a talk later, but we need to get this little filly to safety.” She said with clear annoyance.

“I shall have a talk with them, Paige.” Celestia commented in Paige’s helmet. Paige had all but forgotten about that feature. “You and Matt just get little Berry to safety.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Paige replied, and Celestia ended the connection.

She looked back over at Matt, who was investigating a basement hatchway door that the undead had been clustered around before. On his back, the little filly was still clutching to him, but looked like she was about to lose her mind. Paige figured she’d better do something about this before little Berry developed PTSD.

“Matt, could you hold still for a second? I’m going to take care of Berry here.”

“What happened? Did she get hurt?” Matt would never forgive himself if the filly that helped him out before, or anypony for that matter got hurt on his watch.

“No, just…freaked out. Hold still.”

She walked over to where Matt was standing, and bent down. From his back, she got the biggest scared puppy dog eyes she had ever seen from little Berry. And she was shaking. Not good. She put up her visor, and approached Berry. She reached out and lifted her out of the makeshift sling made from the strap for Matt’s broadsword. It took a little bit of prying to get her off him, but finally, she came loose. In her arms, the little filly curled up into a ball, and started crying. Both Matt’s and Paige’s hearts broke at this. Paige cuddled the little ball of fur close to her, being careful of the horn, and quietly comforted her, stroking her back as she cried.

“Ssh, little one, no need to cry. It’s okay. No one’s going to hurt you.”

Suddenly, the little filly jumped up and grabbed Paige around the neck in a bonecrushing hug.

“It’s not me I’m worried about!” she choked out between sobs “My…my sister got taken by those things, and…and I think they hurt her.”

After a shocked second, Paige returned the little filly’s hug. She’s been through a lot, I know I would have broken down long ago. She’s pretty brave. Thought Paige.

“Ssh, it’s okay, we’ll find your sister for you.”

She pushed back a little, and looked at Paige with her huge, teary puppy eyes “You promise?”

Paige pulled the filly back into a hug. “Of course. Pinkie Pie promise. But for now, we need to get you to safety.”

The two broke the hug, and Berry shifted herself so that Paige was carrying her comfortably. She looked over to Matt. He was still investigating the door. It looked like there was survivors in there, small sounds could be heard from inside. She bent down, and shifting Berry to one arm, knocked on the door.

“Hello? Is there anyone in there? We got rid of the rest of the undead soldiers, you’re safe now.”

The door creaked open just a hair, and Paige could see someone peeking out at them. After a second, they could hear a bolt being unlocked and the doors swung open. The pony behind the doors looked a little surprised, but not totally shocked. That tended to happen when armies of ghosts and skeletons invaded your town and tried to kill you, nothing surprised you anymore. Matt and Paige stepped down into the basement of the half-wrecked building. There were several ponies hiding in there, from the undead soldiers.

Finally, Matt broke the silence, his visor sliding up so he could talk. “Is everyone in here okay?”

They all nodded. Matt also noticed that they looked very tired and weary. Battle does that to you, even if you’re not a soldier.

Suddenly, both Matt and Paige were paged. It was Twilight. “Guys,” The helmet’s speaker squawked, “I think you’re gonna want to get out here.” She sounded depressed. What did they find?

Paige put Berry Pinch down, and she looked rather annoyed. Paige hadn’t even noticed the little filly had fallen asleep in her arms. “We’ll be right back, don’t worry” she reassured her.

They walked back out, and finally found their group, in the back room of a mostly wrecked and partly smoking shop. Matt pushed his way through to see what they were all clustered around.

As soon as he saw, Matt’s heart sank. There, on the floor, was Berry Punch, Berry Pinch’s older sister. The earth mare was pretty beat up, and bleeding lightly from a few wounds, but it looked like she would live for the time being. Matt was pleased with this, at least he wouldn’t have to tell a filly her sister was dead.

He reached into one of the numerous pockets on his suit, and pulled out some long strips of gauze. He started to wrap the bleeding wounds on her, doing a little bit of first aid. She awoke suddenly, and started flailing around on the floor yelling incoherently, eyes wide. It took Paige, Colgate, Dash, and Applejack to hold her down while Matt finished bandaging her up.

When he was done, they released her, and she turned to look at him wide-eyed, and suddenly recognized him. “You! You…you’re Matt, right? My sister…..my sister! Oh, Celestia, I lost Berry!” she quickly dissolved into tears, mumbling about her sister. Matt reached out and put a comforting hand on her head. She looked up.

“Relax, Berry, your sister is safe. I found her under a piece of roof in the street. She is unhurt, but pretty freaked out. We’re gonna take you to the same place she is, can you stand?”

Berry Punch tried, rather unsuccessfully, to stand, only to end up falling back down. “No.”

“Alright, then brace yourself.” He bent down and picked up the battered mare very carefully, making sure not to aggravate any of her bruises or other injuries. “C’mon, let’s get you out of here.”

The whole walk back to the basement, no one really said anything. Berry Punch just kind of lay there in Matt’s arms, and his team followed behind. They finally reached the hatchway, and Matt kicked it lightly several times. The door opened again, and Matt carried Berry inside, with Paige right behind him. His team stayed outside to guard the entrance.

He placed Berry Punch down on a blanket one of the other ponies had placed down. The second he put her down, he paused. He heard hoofsteps, very fast and small , heading right for him.

Before he had time to look or react, a magenta blur slammed into him at high speed, actually knocking him over.

“THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!!!” The little filly practically screamed.

Berry Punch moaned and opened her eyes. “B…Berry?”

“Hi sis.”

“Oh, I was so worried about you!” the older mare pulled the filly into as tight a hug as she could manage.

“Mmph! Thanks to Matt, I’m here.” She managed to say after being slightly muffled by the hug.

Berry Punch turned to Matt, the little filly still attached to her neck. “Yes, it would seem we both owe Matt our lives.”

Matt blushed. “Aww, it was nothing, really. Listen, I’d live to stay and chat, but we still have a big job to do. We’ll make sure your doors are secure before we leave, and we’ll give you some food and water. But we can’t stay too long.”

The magenta mare nodded. “You have to go stop whatever’s causing this, don’t you?”

“Yeah, hopefully we can before it’s too late.”

She nodded again, and Matt decided he was going to be there all day if he kept talking. So, he went and got some food and water, some from his and his team’s pack, and some from what they had found laying around after the undead patrol got done with the town. He also helped secure the doors of the basement, using some pieces of debris he found. His fire element could be concentrated, he learned, to make a very effective welder/torch. After he built the doors sturdy enough that he figured a manticore wouldn’t be able to bust through them, he was satisfied.

He said his goodbyes, making sure to let them know that if they were successful, he would be back for them, all of them. No pony seemed to want to let him go, but they all knew they had to.

As the team regrouped just outside the doors, Matt asked an important question.

“Since it seems, by my guesstimate, that swords have a better effect than guns, it is only fair to designate our swords as our primary weapons, with our guns only for use in an emergency, or if an opportunity arises, as a secondary. So I ask you: is there anyone among us who has any experience with swords?”

After about a minute, Colgate spoke up. “Yeah, I used to fence a while back.”

“Okay then. Here, Colgate, take this.” He unstrapped his thinner close combat sword and handed it to her. “You stay in the front with me and Paige, and the rest of you stay behind and cover us.”

Colgate nodded and shouldered her gun, strapping the sword sheath onto her side, and drew the sword. The rest of the team nodded, and readied their weapons.

Matt looked down outwards towards the mountain. The undead army was advancing on the remains of the town, and fast. They all sealed their visors and helmets, and nodded to each other. Matt shared one last broadcast over their helmets.

“Now let’s do what Celestia said, and give ‘em hell!”

With a valiant war cry, he lunged his body into a run in the direction of the army, broadsword at the ready. Paige and Colgate were directly behind, swords drawn and ready, with the other six taking up the rear, guns raised.

Matt decided to open one last inter-helmet broadcast as a motivator right as the army and Matt’s team converged.

“GIVE……’EM…….HELLLL!!!!!!!!!!”

============================END CHAPTER 17============================

There, I think that successfully made the fight a little less one-sided, FOR NOW. As much as I live adminning everything, it doth not a good story make. Also, Coal Buck, your story is amazing, how dare you make me wait a whole day for an update! (lol, just kidding, but congrats on such a successful story, man, i've been hooked since chapter two) also, I am introducing an OC from a fan, his name is Mandolore, and so is the character’s. I don’t have a lot to go off of, so if I mess it up, I apologize. Anyway, I also am going to add a few more background characters next chapter, I think, and we shall see where that goes!