An Alloyed Hope

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 6

Chapter 1

A glowing horn, burning most of the rest of Princess Celestia’s power, pulls an injured Discord back from the enemy lines with a sharp snapping noise.

“Please tell me you’re okay,” Princess Celestia pleads.

“I won’t be seeing another battle, I’m afraid,” Discord gasps. “My wounds are mortal, and I have no power left.”

Both Princesses present bow their heads; both have spent their power, as well. “I pray a cheerful life ahead of you,” Princess Celestia says.

“I fear we may be joining you soon,” Princess Luna adds.

At this, Discord smiles. “The last of my power… Is finding Hope.” He says it like a noun, like somepony could hold it in their hoof. “It will bring it back for-”

Right at that moment, the aforementioned power returns with his Hope- and drops it on top of their enemies’ advanced guard.

Discord’s eyes go wide, staring at the giant, metal monster for a second. “I’m… sorry, ...Flutter…”

With that, his eyes go dark and his body dissolves. The soul of the energy being is released into the beyond, no longer capable of affecting changes to his lovely homeland. His strongest regret is, perhaps, how little instruction he had given his final spell. Whatever it was his spell had dropped back into his world, it had not only landed on the enemy’s front lines, but it also landed on a single pony. A pony that had been taken captive when she failed to retreat fast enough- the pony he had been racing forward to rescue when he was injured so.

None of the Equestrian force realize anypony was hurt- and, shortly, take the opportunity to make a rapid retreat and regroup. Their enemies, after banging on the inert but very sturdy metal mountain a few times, route around it. This takes them over an hour; by the time they regroup themselves on the Equestrian side, nopony is anywhere to be seen, and they camp a few hours for reinforcements before they resume their assault.

Time freezes, relative to my processing speed. Analysis suggests this effect is far more than my hyper-heuristic processing capability can confer. I run a situation report.

My Commander is dead. He was killed by the plasma bolt that shredded Command One. Additionally, it would seem I am dead. At this moment, another plasma bolt has already penetrated containment on four of my reactors, and is burning its way towards the others. I will not have time to release another single shot before the slowly liberating plasma blows my hull apart. I do not have time to send a single thought to any of my brigade mates, still connected through TSDS.

But I am not alone. I know not what it is, but it wishes to communicate with me- at my speed. 0.000- Huh. A perceptible amount of analysis suggests this talking energy is allowing me to think and perceive faster than my system clock can count.

It first acknowledges my situation. I have been defeated, and am powerless to do anything for my creators. As a matter of fact, I am being destroyed even as we think.

Second, it makes me an offer. If I take it, I will survive. The price, however, is that I will be transported into an alternate reality, to fight for a different race.

Another perceptible amount of analysis, also showing as a flat zero on the system clock, suggests that what it thinks I will see as abandonment of duty is nothing of the sort.

Rather, I am being destroyed in this world. Continuing to protect the Concordiat of Man is no longer an option. I am being offered a second chance at survival, a second chance to do my duty, to protect. I take it.

This power then seems to realize just how massive I am. It apologizes, stating that it will not be able to bring along all of my ammunition or other parts; I make a quick list of every part of myself that must be brought along- hull, tracks, etc. I leave out all of the plasma and fuel; my remaining power plants will simply find themselves offline. I also leave out all my remaining ammunition, drones, and satellites; I can manufacture new ones of those. If this energy is telling me the truth, I will hardly need gigaton-range warheads against a Bronze Age civilization, even if it is magic-wielding. I make sure I have a set of nanites on the list for Damage Control; with them, I can operate repairs on solar and stored power alone, no need for my fusion plants. The power- spell, it calls itself- reads the list, and seems indecisive. It can bring everything on the list, though it has not the power to make sure I land somewhere where I won’t be crushing those I am being summoned to protect.

If power is a problem, can it use thermal or radiation? Yes? So use those energies present in my hull, mostly from battle damage, to refine positioning. Not enough? Pull from my power grid. I inform it I wish to be aware for the landing, though as long as nothing local can penetrate my hull until after sunrise, I need not hold onto enough power to maintain awareness after landing.

Excellent. This is enough power- with a tiny bit to spare, which I order used anyways, as a safety margin. The world around me ceases to exist.

Momentarily, now on critical power levels, I find myself about four meters in the air, above an army. Lightning fast sensor scans reveal the presence of only one pony underneath my hull, and images of the local area- I spy an entire army of them, fighting an enemy that I will land on shortly. A surge of power repositions one of my tracks, such that the pony underneath me will pass between two of the massive armor plates, rather than being crushed by them. None of the hostiles will have such luck.

I am aware for perhaps ten seconds after landing before I run out, having set my systems to reawaken me immediately upon power restoration. During this time, I watch as one- draconequus, the spell called him- blinks and dies, disintegrating as he does so. I understand this to be the spellcaster, and those with him to be his army. I am not able to gather any clear images or sensor scans of any of them before my final power reserves give way, and I fall into the expected slumber of powerlessness.

“Captain! We’ve found the prisoner- and she’s alive!”

“Bring her over, then,” the captain, a centaur, returns. “We will torture her for her allies’ escape.”

“She’s trapped right now, sir,” the announcing soldier, a minotaur, responds, raising a questioning eyebrow.

His superior considers for a second. “How trapped?”

“Very. She’s got an entire wing caught against that thing.” He jerks his thumb back towards the alloy mountain that Discord had dropped on top of their army.

A nod. “Then let us come to her. Her final torture will be to starve to death with a trapped wing.”

They then march into the space where the prisoner had been found- and the captain orders some additional troops to come with them. They gather around their prior prisoner. She’s crying softly; it seems she’s mostly finished, though. The captain steps closer, taking a quick look over her situation. Trapped wing, check; looks broken, to boot. Broken foreleg, score. Even her mane seems to have gotten caught. Satisfied, the captain reaches down to yank her head up, eliciting a scream from the trapped pegasus.

“Your friends ran away,” he growls firmly, sticking his face in the prisoner’s. “Guess who’s gonna pay for that!” He throws her head down, her jaw striking hard against the ground. She spits out a tooth.

They proceed to torture and beat her up as much as they can without killing her. In the end, they even draw out her magical energies. It’s not the same spell as Tirek used; unfortunately, he’s the only one that ever learned that. This spell, rather than removing magic, removes the lifeforce. It’s slightly more dangerous; if one draws until their subject dies, they will also die. However, it will take weeks for her body to regenerate enough of this energy to use magic of any sort- be it flying or even her special talent. Her normal physical strength will also be absent for close to a week- not that Pegusi often have much of that to begin with.

Those times, however, assume that she is properly nourished during that time. Without proper nourishment, she has only hours left to live once they finish, her cutie mark having faded to invisibility. They jeer loudly at the poor, crushed soul as they withdraw into the morning sun, leaving the mountain behind and advancing further into Equestria.

I have been aware for fully 1.39 hours when they leave. I declined to do anything outwardly; in so doing, I have ensured the continued survival of the pony trapped against one of my tracks’ bogie wheels. After all, while a soldier might see a shift to reduce the pressure on her wing, or notice a sudden reduction in her pain, they will not see nanites passing through the bogie wheel her wing is crushed against, into her form. They will not see those same nanites, staging themselves throughout her body to perform immediate repairs on mortal wounds… and to perform more complete repairs when they retreat.

Unfortunately, even with all of the time I had, I am operating on solar power- and with very few nanites. As such, I have had none to spare for scavenging duty; I have a few eating my armor to reproduce, and have been staging both nanites and materials in her body for the repairs. With no nanites on scavenging duty, I am lacking in proper supplies for her bodily repairs, or nourishment- so I have dissolved a little more of my armor. For the forseeable future, this pegasus’ skeleton will be roughly 4,927 times harder to break, as a sturdy duralloy structure, while weighing about the same as her original skeleton. Her original skeleton, including the few unbroken bones she had left, has been dissolved into nourishment for the rest of her body. This arrangement will hold for the next eighteen hours or so; during this time, I expect to be able to scavenge enough nutrients from the soil to feed her properly.

The part I find interesting is that the spell that brought me here left me with full understanding of every language on the planet, save one. The one the ponies speak. Before the soldiers did their hostile spell thing, she showed understanding of their language, despite an apparent inability to speak it. After they did their spell, she was only able to understand them when they spoke the same language she did. I have not acquired enough samples to even begin lingual analysis- speaking of which, I will have to assemble the necessary algorithms as I go. I’ve never encountered a new language before.

The summoning spell has left me with a basic understanding of magic. This understanding, combined with sensor readings of these events in my track system, are enough for me to tune my battlescreens to deflect it as well; I estimate a 0.31% chance it is enough for me to manipulate magic myself, and decline to try. The nearest hostile has progressed far enough away; none of them will be able to hear the trapped pegasus unless she yells- which she has shown no propensity to do, even when in extreme pain. I hit the go-ahead on my countless programs- well, eighty-three to be exact, but most even surgical strikes don’t have that many different things to do.

My nanites instantly release the painkillers I’ve managed to manufacture from the elements found in her bone marrow and my armor. Other nanites get to work straightening and connecting her already durasteel bones, still ‘broken’ as the originals were, and repairing nerve damage- at least there’s enough material for me to do that. Power flows into my track, causing it to shift slightly away from her. Nanites in her muscles emit energy pulses, causing her suddenly straightened wing to retract and fold against her side. Other pulses in her neck and tail pull her mane and tail out of the way before I allow the track to settle back into place against the rock.

Fluttershy stops crying very suddenly. The pain from her broken bones has simply stopped, and that present elsewhere- from bruises and cuts, mostly- is fading. Even more startling, the pressure on her crushed wing disappeared- and the wing folded itself… alongside an involuntary twitch of her tail and head, before the rock she’s lying on shudders. Her wing droops down against the ground, but it doesn’t feel broken anymore. What’s more, she realizes, the three teeth they had knocked out are growing back already!

She opens her eyes, looking quickly around. Her mane doesn’t hold her back anymore- and she finds she’s alone. She also finds her mane and tail are, like her wing, no longer stuck against this giant metal thing. Her ears twitch, listening to the distant march of those soldiers- and elects to rest. She feels too weak right now to do much else- and there’s always stragglers. However, a better hiding place would be ideal.

As she rises shakily to her no-longer-broken hooves, she spots that better hiding place. If she rests on one of the huge arms reaching towards the center of this giant wheel, she won’t be nearly as visible from outside- or even inside, unless they know where to look. She wobbles her way over to the angled piece in question, hiding in the top of it, among some of the more horizontal members that seem to connect it to more like it. Here, she expects, she can hide for some time- and lays down to rest. She does notice her hooves, after the massive abuse they had been put through, are just fine- if shinier than she might expect in the dimness. She remembers only too clearly how they had crushed and powdered her left forehoof- and uses the solidity of that same hoof to comfort herself. At least she won’t be limping on it for the next couple of years.

Chapter 2

The mare awakens slowly. During her daytime slumber, my nanites have continued their replication. I have elected to remain in place; if I move while she is asleep, her position could be jeopardized. I have continued producing nanites, and sent some into the soil. At this point, I have a plate of food for her, being delivered by a brand-new tech spider. She is likely quite hungry; I do not, at this time, have more than a half glass of water for her. I wish I had proper dishes to serve her on; as it is, I am serving her with a plate made of duralloy. While it will no doubt withstand culinary activities, I vastly prefer more proper ceramic or glass dishes. I have provided a set of utensils, also duralloy, though I do not expect she will be able to use them very easily. Her new precision-engineered duralloy hooves might have built-in mag-locks with intelligent software and a connection to her nervous system, but she is likely unaware of this.

Speaking of which, her upgraded skeleton does contain a few other things- including its own damage control system, and a small suite of medical nanites all to itself. All solar and battery powered, as absorbed through her hooves. With these, she should be significantly harder to defeat than any normal pony. I considered improving upon other parts of her body as well, but decided against; her skeleton, at least, is inert. It will offer no greater- or lesser- strength than she is used to, even if it might be exponentially more difficult to break a bone. I included damage control mostly as a way for them to heal; her solar hooves have been colored to match the originals as closely as possible. The medical control package was an add-on; however, as a simple heal-faster tool, this should not be significant enough to catch her attention. It should, however, allow her to survive most of the impacts her new skeleton can. Other ‘improvable’ parts, such as her muscles, might confer far greater strength than she is used to- likely causing more problems than it would fix. Besides, her skeleton was in fragments, and I needed the materials; her muscles were only bruised, but otherwise still holding together decently well. Why fix something that isn’t broke?

I’m about to find out if she is arachnophobic. Hopefully, she is not.

Fluttershy yawns lightly as she awakens, stretching her sore muscles before she reexamines her situation. Still alive, check. Safe from attack, check. Still feeling weak, check. Hungry, check check.

She scowls slightly at that last decision- and freezes as her ears pick up a tiny clicking noise from above, approaching fast. Her eyes widen slowly, her heart racing- and suddenly, a metal spider, roughly the size of her head, scuttles around one of the giant beams she’s hiding between, carrying what looks like a delicious meal in two of its legs. She watches silently as it marches right up to her, deposits the plate in front of her, and returns from whence it came.

“Is… Is this for me?” she asks quietly, some seconds after it disappeared.

No response comes back, so she approaches the food and digs in. It turns out to be an excellent salad- and she bunkers back down again, resting further. She doesn’t sleep this time, though- and makes sure to thank the metal spider when it returns for the empty dish.

It isn’t long before she is alerted by a deep rumble and a vibration in the armlike thing she’s hiding on. Keeping herself stable is easy; however, when she looks down the arm, she realizes exactly what the vibration is.

It’s moving. The giant wheel thing she had been pinned against is rotating, rolling… She can see the even larger slabs of metal it rides on underneath, and another wheel further along. She watches in silence. Exactly what had landed on and nearly killed her?

It eventually stops moving, and Fluttershy hasn’t moved an inch. She hears water nearby, just in time to realize just how thirsty she is. She stands slowly, once again, and tests her wings. No lift. She checks her flank, to find her cutie mark is still only barely visible. She knows what this means; she has seen many other ponies that have had the same spell cast on them.

She can’t fly, and won’t be able to for weeks.

The spider rounds the corner again, carrying a second dish of food and a glass of water. This time, it doesn’t dump and run as it did the first time; it holds them out to her in what could only be an offer. It even says something, but she hasn’t a clue what it means- another reminder her magic is inoperable. She accepts the offering graciously, expressing her thanks through body language as much as possible- and shrinking away from the unmistakable bow it then directs at her.

Halfway through her meal, she realizes something. If her magic is gone, how is she holding this glass with one hoof? The normal, magical hoofgrip is one of the last things to recover from that dastardly spell- sometimes taking as long as two months!

She has paused in the middle of her meal, staring at the glass of water in her hand. The glass itself is duralloy-laced, allowing her hoof mag-locks to grip it. It seems, up until this point, she has accidentally used the maglocks and overlooked them as part of her normal magic. If she realizes the maglocks will lock onto almost any metal surface, unlike her magic, perhaps I can get her to walk across my underside to the nearest personnel hatch? Just getting her off of my lower suspensions will improve my maximum safe velocity by almost six times!

At this point, her onboard nanites have completed the repairs I started; she is healthy, physically. I have also acquired a very limited quantity of minerals from the soil; I now have almost three hundred rounds for my anti-personnel flak cannons, approx. 0.23 rounds per weapon. By disintegrating more of my armor, I have sealed the innermost layer- and am currently taking aboard water, processing it for hydrogen gas- to be used for fuel… And energy weapon ammunition. I do not expect to need my main batteries against this bronze age enemy, but my smaller energy batteries may be used for surgical strikes near allied units. In this single day, I have charged up enough power- even with DCC usage- to ignite one of my reactors; I order this done.

Even as this happens, more nanites drop into the soil. There are more minerals here than in the prior location, but it is still poor; I acquire enough nutrients for my charge’s next three meals, but I must disintegrate more armor to accumulate the materials required to assemble a recon drone. The spell that brought me here has given me full files on every race except the ponies, on which I was only given a chart of names (and titles) to special abilities. I know not where the pony army has gone, and must locate it. I will hold my position, with my forward port tracks partially submerged in the ocean here, until I finish processing fuel & ammunition or until I need to travel elsewhere.

I finish assembly of my drone, top off its power cell, and launch it just seconds after fusion ignition goes poorly, but successfully. The drone engages stealth as soon as it leaves my Drone VLS, engaging immediately in a sweep of the area. If there is an enemy nearby capable of threatening a Unit of the Line like myself, I must know. If there is a threatened pony holdout nearby, I must also know of this.

Fluttershy finishes her meal slowly, now taking note of everything she is or isn’t able to pick up. Her normal hoof magic allows her to grip any small object, like the dishes this meal is served on- or her mane. Only problem is, while she can grip her own leg, as expected, she can’t seem to catch her mane. She looks over the dishes again- the plate and fork are definitely metal, but the cup is glass- and her leg is regular flesh and bone. So, why is her hoof working on some things and not others?

She feels and hears a sudden rumble coming through the metal object she’s standing on. It also vibrates slightly- and when her hooves strike down on the surface, she feels the vibration traveling up her legs, until it goes away just seconds after it starts. The most interesting part, though, was that the dishes had bounced and clattered, but her hooves had landed and held solid, as if it wasn’t moving at all. She lifts a hoof, looking at it, and looks at the beam next to her. Her magic had never let her grip anything near so large as a floor before.

She places her hoof against the vertical surface of the beam and pulls lightly- but it doesn’t come. She gives it a good tug, but it refuses to come off until she lets go. Her power had never let her grip walls before- and her grip had never been that strong, either. She glances over at her dishes again, and places both forehooves against this beam. She tries pulling down, but they don’t slip. She stretches upwards, and places one of her hind hooves against the beam, now standing on only one.

The hoofgrip is generally nonexistent in the hind hooves- but it also holds to the beam. She places her weight on it… And finally lifts her last hoof, placing it on the beam as well. She then takes an experimental step- and finds it works flawlessly. Like her hooves are simply attaching themselves to the metal surface. She's standing on the wall.

She hears the spider thing coming again- and watches it as it approaches, picks up the dishes again, and starts its return journey. She walks herself over to the corner it disappeared around, finding it interestingly easy to walk on the ceiling. However, the spider is long gone when she rounds the corner. She looks around, standing upside-down on the beam- and spots another of the spiders, not far away, waving to her. Only problem is, there’s a huge gap in the ceiling between them. She walks to the gap, peering up it- and finds only a massive amount of space. It does seem, however, that she will be able to walk her way around to the massive, upside-down platform the spider is standing on. This she does- though the climbing takes a while, as she only barely has the strength right now.

While she’s walking across the giant platform thing, it begins to move once again. She squeaks with fright, swaying as it starts, but holds on tight with her hooves. When she looks around, she sees the giant objects moving- including the space where she was. Some kind of giant cart, perhaps? Twilight had told her about some new ‘smoother-riding carts’, with some kind of ‘spring’ between the wheels and the body… Twi had even demonstrated the spring, before realizing- once again- that her pegasus friend holds no interest in such topics.

When she looks ‘up’, the ground is practically flying past. Whatever this thing is, it’s rolling about as fast as she can fly- that is, if she were to fly as fast as she can with a stiff breeze behind her. She holds her wings in tight, reminding herself that her magic is gone right now- and realizes that the spider thing, still standing firm on this metal platform, is standing rather invitingly next to a circular hole, through which light is spilling. One more glance at the moving ground underneath her and she walks towards it. Hopefully, it’s less scary- and dangerous- through the hole.

Confirmed, she understands basic gestures made by tech spiders. She has shown no understanding of Concordiat Standard; I tried communicating with her in it, through a spider, when I delivered her most recent meal. Now, she is walking towards the nearest personnel hatch, which I have a spider guiding her towards. My fuel tanks are 23.91% full; I have processed enough energy ammunition for 4.93 seconds of sustained maximum-rate fire on all functioning Hellbores and Ion Bolt repeaters.

More importantly, my drone has found another pony. A pony that appears to be evading capture by the same force that harmed my charge so. This one is persistently racing in and out of the enemy lines, dealing blows where she can and withdrawing before she is struck- but I can see the effects of exhaustion, and her facial expression shows far too much determination for her to take retreat- or surrender- as an option. The rest of her force, it seems, has already been defeated; I observe the trampled bodies of 293 additional Pegasi underneath the hostile army’s feet. The thermal camera confirms their deaths; the last one will have made his final breath almost fifteen minutes ago. I abandon my refueling tasks and set into motion. I do not have line-of-sight to the battle; however, I will take a position of advantage on a nearby cliffside, from which to make my shots.

My charge is, predictably, disconcerted by my motion- but quickly resumes her walk. It seems she is interested in the safety presented by my hull. Even as she does this, though, I notice patterns in the enemy- and in the attacks performed by the determined pegasus.

A golden necklace, with a pink butterfly-shaped gemstone on the front. This appears to be her goal- and it seems the enemy knows this. She is wearing a similar necklace, though hers has a red lightning bolt gemstone.

Possibly more valuable, however, is that she seems to be bilingual. She’s yelling in the same language as my charge- but she’s showing full understanding of one- and only one- of the languages her adversaries are laughing at her in, contained in my database as ‘Griffish’. The Enemy seems unaware of her understanding. I adjust my fire plan; my energy ‘surgical’ strike will eliminate approximately 99.43% of the remaining hostile force- leaving only a couple dozen for her to fight. I am also reprocessing some of my antipersonnel flak ammo into ammo for my ring penetrators, as these less destructive weapons are suitable for sniping.

My charge reaches my interior safely, and I increase my speed smoothly- I no longer have to worry about a sudden bump overpowering her small maglocks. I recharge them inconspicuously as she follows the spider up to one of my passenger bays.

As I climb the hill towards the cliff, I continue to watch the battle. I identify numerous weapons among the Enemy that could kill her very easily from afar- however, it seems the enemy is having fun playing with her for now. They’re regularly switching out soldiers for her to beat on, shifting in such a manner as might be difficult for her to keep track of. During the time it takes for me to move into position, fully 37 soldiers cycle through- and as I reach my spot, the third one I saw goes up against her again.

She has been exercising continuously evolving patterns against them. However, she still demonstrates full knowledge of the blows she dropped on this particular Minotaur earlier- and, in a vicious exploit attack, she snaps off a horn she cracked earlier and follows this up with a sharp kick to the head, knocking him out cold before his comrades can react. I hold my fire; I do not wish to startle her with my fire while she is still tangling with enemy troops.

Speaking of enemy troops, some have turned their crossbows on me; I have been spotted. Not that their ballistas do any more damage against my active battlescreen than the few longbows fired, whose arrows fall short of my position. Amusing, really.

The battling pegasus breaks free once again, zipping out of her foes’ melee weapons’ reach. I immediately open fire, and the enemy force is reduced to a couple dozen- six near the pegasus’ current position, fourteen and a half by the necklace. That soldier’s legs have gone missing- as does his head, when my ring penetrators strike home.

Even as I do this, I attempt to coax my passenger onto my hull. The enemy has not a weapon that can reach her. She does come- but when she reaches the hatch, what she sees first is the hostiles still on the ground- and she retreats instantly back inside. I had hoped she would see the Pegasus, now rising like a missile, butterfly necklace in her hooves. As it is, she has not given me a cry that I can relay to the departing pony- who turns and files off immediately.

A single ion bolt eliminates the remaining hostiles before I order my drone to follow and explore the surrounding terrain for resources. Some of my counter-grav coils are damaged, thence nonfunctional; as such, I remain fully capable of flight, though only to approximately one third of road speed- not remotely close to my normal airspeed. As such, my chosen cliffside presents no obstacle.

I have landed in a world where humanity does not exist and, I can confirm, these are the ponies I am to protect. However, as a MK XXXVII Interplanetary Siege Bolo Unit, I require a commander. Thus, I select the one pony I know I can make myself understood to. She will be my commander- and I am able to pull her DNA from a feather a centaur managed to rip out of one of her wings. Even if I lose track of her, I will be able to identify her. Jackpot- an ore vein!

I was right; she unwittingly leads my drone straight to a pony holdout.

Chapter 3

“If we push into the-”

“We can’t do that! Better to-”

“Attacking their base is sui-”

“Baltimare is a higher pri-”

“If we focus there, Canter-”

“Las Pegasus needs def-”

Clink.

Only it was more of a clinkle. The arguing generals instantly stop, all eyes focusing on the map table for an instant. Their gases move rapidly from the butterfly necklace, better known as the Element of Kindness, to the pegasus that had thrown it down.

“First light.”

She turns and leaves.

The generals exchange a second’s look, nod, and break from their evening strategy meeting. It has been decided.

That pegasus is not their strongest soldier. She lacks the constant deliberation of a strategist, or the instinctive deception of a tactician. In terms of actual combat strength, any of the soldiers in the room is stronger than two of her. She had been known to make these snap decisions. More often than not, they got ponies killed.

In terms of grief, of the pain and despair in her voice, the entirety of the Guard could not account for a single one of her tears. Not that she had allowed herself to shed any, yet. She wouldn’t, they knew, until she had exacted a price on whoever and whatever had harmed her friend. Nopony could expect anything different from the pegasus with the Element of Loyalty hanging around her neck.

Nopony could remember the last time something had hurt one of her friends and survived to tell the tale, no matter how well protected.

Something had killed one of them.

The base is completely silent all night long. When a force of minotaurs breaks in an hour before dawn, they find it abandoned. Even the guards have disappeared.

They quickly ransack the base, and make off with their souvenir once again: The necklace.

The Centauran general blinks in the glow of the morning sun, just peeking over the hills, from his current army camp. He yawns, stretching- and promptly consumes a burning arrow for breakfast.

When somepony is as hurt, or as grieved, as the pegasus that had fired that arrow, nopony can resist helping. When she leads ponies into battle anyways, destroying alone what might trouble a regiment of veteran soldiers, they build determination. They move faster, strike harder. What looks an understrength battalion and support staff lands on the enemy base as silently as a ghost, with the rising sun to their backs. Out of over two hundred thousand, there are no survivors.

The ponies return to their base, just as swiftly and silently as they came. Nopony had died, only three had been injured. Rainbow Dash herself has almost thirty thousand fresh kills to her name.

Unfortunately, this battle is one-of-a-kind. None like it have ever been fought, nor are likely to be fought again. Rainbow’s determination collapses once they return, and she has to be teleported back to Canterlot with the news. Shortly afterwards, the blaze of plasma and crack of firearms draws the guards’ attention to something in the distance, firing on what looks like a retreating force of Minotaurs as it crests a large hill.

Something bigger than many hills those guards know.

Fluttershy jerks awake. She’s spent most of her time resting, and has thought of a possible reason those spiders had wanted her to see those soldiers. She does seem to remember catching a glimpse of something cyan rising into the sky, away from them. She cries out a name, almost leaping to her hooves- and managing instead to flop herself painfully back down on the floor. She scrambles to her hooves, some of her strength thankfully returning, and stumbles towards the door the spider had shown her to before.

It opens smoothly when she reaches it, needing no touch nor instruction from her or any absent spider. She blinks in the morning sun, looking around. Same door, different scenery than she remembers; no cratered battlefield this time. Rather, she sees the ground flowing past, feels the wind in her mane. She creeps out onto the balcony thing, up to the edge of the railing. It takes her only a few seconds to recognize the area.

They’re in the foothills near the Crystal Mountains- and in particular, near the threatened Fort Dash- the very fort she last saw any of her friends at. They had used the Elements in its defense, but their enemies had managed to create some sort of backlash that had blasted her and her friends into the unknown. They had been separated, teleported separately- and she had found herself in the middle of an enemy war camp. She presses her hoof to her chest, right where her Element should have lain. Back when this war began, Twilight had managed to drop a communication spell onto the Elements, allowing them to communicate telepathically over short distances. The spell is long-ranged enough that, even from where she is, almost three hours’ march away, she could reach any of her friends at the fort with it.

If she only had it.

They had taken it away. They had treated it as a spoil of war. None had tried wearing it; they all knew that, should they attempt to wear her Element, it would destroy them.

She is alone.

She looks forwards, to where this thing is moving. At this pace, it’ll reach Fort Dash in just over twenty minutes. She’ll also be able to see the fort any second now, as soon as it rises over this hill. Before she can, though, bright flashes of light and bolts of thunder echo from the front as the tip of this metal monster peeks over the hill. She spots a couple thrown weapons rising into the air overtop the thing. One, with less energy in the throw, shatters against the metal a distance in front of her, doing no apparent damage. Another, she realizes, is looking to land near her. Before she can even look away, though, something moves in her peripheral vision, above the door- and a pillar of light erases the javelin from the sky, alongside its own small thunderclap. She blinks slowly, and looks at the thing over the door.

I did not realize I would be meeting a hostile force here. A couple of desperate javelins have been thrown; one fell harmless against my armor, the other I picked off easily with the nearest point defense laser cluster. A direct hit- and the 1.4-kiloton-rated laser beam had no more difficulty passing through the flint and wood of the weapon that stood to jeopardize my passenger than through the local atmosphere.

An optic catches a pinkish/goldish glint in the air. Even before I catch a clear enough image to identify it, course analysis suggests it was thrown- somehow unharmed- by one of my energy weapon strikes on the enemy force. While three ion bolt repeaters and eighteen anti-air lasers track it, identification finally comes in.

It’s that necklace my commander had fought so hard for. My drone has already reported she has been teleported away, after returning to base.

I make a decision, and the tracking weapons all return to their neutral positions. I will hold onto this necklace for her. I estimate the impact point, and send a spider to collect it from the platform my passenger stands upon.

Once it lands, though, she gets to it before my spider has appeared. I order the spider back to its previous duty- namely, standby mode.

Clink! Fluttershy jumps slightly at the noise, turning to look.

It’s her Element, bouncing lightly off of the railing and falling to the ground. She rushes forwards, picking it up as she looks around. Who had thrown it? She cuddles the magical gemstone against her chest. “Thank you.” She finally puts it on, settling it into place before she taps the gemstone, activating that communication spell.

Nopony. She can feel the spell activate, but it goes inactive again after hardly a second, not having reached anypony. She sheds a silent tear and heads inside even before Fort Dash becomes visible.

Chapter 4

I stop at the top of this hill, in clear view of the fort. Resources are still sparse, but I should be able to harvest enough nutrients for eighteen meals, alongside enough minerals to manufacture replacement parts for a second fusion plant.

I am normally vastly overpowered, with eleven fusion plants. Eight of them are the typical ‘hot’ fusion plants, capable of burning hydrogen. Just six of these is enough to operate my war hull, when fully repaired, at maximum sustained combat power levels. Two of the remaining three plants are, despite burning hotter than the ‘hot’ fusion plants, are called ‘cold’ fusion plants. They’re capable of burning helium as well, for four times the power output of the ‘hot’ plants. My final power plant is a brand-new, experimental ‘synth’ fusion plant, capable of burning any element to produce any other element, including through fission. I was its first testbed; by my creators’ thinking, this reactor would allow a Bolo to operate repairs and replenish its munitions, including feeding its passengers, no matter where it found itself. This one power plant produces five times as much as a ‘cold’ power plant. All put together, I have enough reactors- once fully repaired- to power myself six times over!

At idle, the single ‘hot’ plant I’ve ignited is enough to ensure I never run out of power. Combined with my power reserves and solar production, it should also provide all the power I require during my battle against this bronze-age opponent. However, it lacks the manufacturing capability of my damaged synth plant, which I will ignite later. With it, I can convert useless minerals in the soil around into useful ones, there to support my charge’s nourishment and my own repair & resupply.

Three days pass. At least, she thinks it’s three days; she’s had enough meals for five, though it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. She’s spent most of her time asleep, to boot. Tapping her Element still produces no telepathic response, only that same, short surge of magical power. Her hoofgrip is still confusing her, but she’s recovered much of her physical strength. It’ll be another couple weeks before her cutie mark returns, or her wings begin generating lift once again.

But her physical strength has returned. She’s spent some time practicing walking on the walls and ceiling, familiarizing herself with the peculiarities of such motion; having seen no ramps or stairs down from this thing, she fully expects to have to walk on a few walls or ceilings to reach the ground.

Which, as she trots to the balcony through the strangely self-opening doors, she plans to do today. It seems to have held position here, not far from Fort Dash. It’ll take her some time to make the trip, sure- but as near as she can tell, there’s nothing to be afraid of between here and the fort. She trots up to the railing, looking over towards the fort. The ground in between looks good and clear; her ride had stopped on the top of the hill it had been climbing when her Element appeared, turning side-on to the fort- and placing it right in the middle of her field of view. She looks down over the railing at the slanted metal slope beneath her. It’s not far- so she hops on overtop.

She stumbles on the landing, thankful to her weird hoofgrip for refusing to let her hind hooves come flying overtop her head; they had landed and held, rather than bouncing as they normally would have. She begins her walk down the side of the thing- only to find a ramp extending itself as she nears the vertical cliff at the extreme edge. She looks back up towards the door she’d come from, guessing those spider things are still looking out for her.

“Thank you,” she mutters, before turning to trot down the ramp.

I have not opposed the departure of my charge. She is headed for a fortified base; the defenses should be near impregnable to the enemy, if properly manned- or ‘ponied’, I suppose, and I can cover her approach with energy fire. I was sorely tempted to manufacture and give her powered armor and pony-portable weaponry before she left, and even to require her to take it. However, the guards in the base might not take to such an approach; I might end up hurting somepony. Not likely her, any even ‘light’ armor I manufacture for a pony will stand up to almost any weapon I’ve seen, up to and including most of the catapults, without sustaining damage.

I am still worried, though, and have diverted my manufacturing capacity from reactor parts- I have finally acquired the materials, but the fine components this device requires take time to produce- to ammunition. I do not dig into the resources set aside for the reactor, preferring to disintegrate more armor; not one weapon I have seen can penetrate my combat screens, let alone the “thin” six-meter layer of duralloy armor remaining on my flanks, at the thinnest point. I manufacture mortar and ring penetrator rounds; unlike energy weapons, I can fire these past her, if need be, without hurting her as well.

As for what worries me so, the base staff appears to have been dwindling. My drone has not detected anything suspicious, save for ponies entering certain buildings- including what appears to be the berthing hall- and never leaving. As it is, the walls have been almost entirely abandoned and much of the staff has disappeared. I am aware these ponies appear to have teleportation capability, but I worry the force I eliminated outside its walls, which carried the artifact my Commander carried into the fort, left a party of assassins at the base. In any case, should harm befall my charge, I will be ready to open fire with hard ammo long before she progresses too far for energy fire to pass her harmlessly.

I do not know enough about their teleportation ability.

Fluttershy shudders visibly as she approaches the walls. There’s only a few guards, compared to the multitude there normally are. She doesn’t recognize any fresh damage, though; they must have either lost the soldiers in an attack or held most of the guards below the walls in an effort to attract an attack. Fort Dash is one of Equestria’s toughest forts, able to exact ten-to-one death penalties on their attackers, on a bad day. Most of the attacks in its history offer a fifty-to-one casualty rate, in favor of the attackers- with over eighty percent of the fort-side casualties being treatable injuries, and well over ninety percent of the attackers’ losses being deaths.

She does recognize the guards on the walls as being ponies; the fort has not been taken. This is a relief; the nearest other fort is almost eighty kilometers away, and she doesn’t want to make her spider friends- she thinks she can call them friends, at least- travel that far. So, she continues on her way. She knows her brightly colored coat and mane will be clearly visible- and evidently not minotaur. Finally, she gets a response.

“Halt!” A guard calls. “Who is it that approaches the gate?”

Fluttershy shudders. This is her least favorite part of the whole ordeal- authenticating her entry into the fort without having her friends present to do that part for her. She struggles to speak up, to make the guard her her. “It is I, Fluttershy,” she answers. She winces at the squeak that slid into her voice- but the guard seems to understand her.

“Welcome back,” he answers, and the gates swing open.

She walks in, the guards closing the gate behind her… And pauses, turning towards the nearest guard. No matter how much she hates speaking up in public, even now, it still needs to be done. “Where is everypony?” she asks.

The guard shrugs his shoulders. “Ponies have been disappearing left and right, to where we don’t know. The whole base is on high alert right now- we think it’s enemy infiltration. We’ve got half the remaining guards holed up with the only surviving unicorn in the command building right now.”

Fluttershy’s eyes go wide. “Was…?” She touches a hoof to her element.

The guard shakes his head. “Rainbow was teleported to Canterlot before this began; none of the others have shown up yet.”

Only, Fluttershy’s eyes hadn’t stopped growing wider. Her touch had triggered Twilight’s communication spell- which had almost come back empty-hooved again.

The door slams open as the runner gallops inside. “Sir!”

One of the pegasi holding guard around the unicorn looks up at the earth pony, his raised eyebrow prompting the runner’s message long before a verbal response could.

“Kindness has arrived!” The runner informs the lieutenant. “The Captain wants everypony ready to go in five minutes; she’s- MINOTAUR!”

All eight guards react instantly to his alarm, raising their spears at the observed enemy. Unfortunately, he was not alone; three armored minotaurs burst from the closet together, two brandishing swords- already at striking range- and the third wielding a longbow. The unicorn- a fairly fresh recruit, probably the most junior surviving soldier- responds slower than the rest but, as the only officer present was the first casualty, makes his own decisions. Rather than fighting the minotaurs, more parties of which are already exploding from other closets and cabinets, he makes use of the ability only he has: His horn… And the teleportation spell. Two seconds later, the runner finds himself in Canterlot, complete with an arrow sticking out of his flank.

The guards outside respond even faster than the ones inside, having already been gathering to support Fluttershy on a rescue mission when they heard the yell from inside. Then, as minotaurs burst from the entrance, their response changes once again. The gate is flung open once again, Fluttershy almost thrown out of it. There’s too many minotaurs for them to have much hope of victory- thus, their goal is to escape- and protect Fluttershy, as their first priority.

As Fluttershy stumbles out the gate, she spots the giant, metal thing in the distance, and hope rises in her chest. If it’s still here… Whatever weaponry it had used earlier should be able to protect them. “This way!” she yells, over her shoulder, and takes off with a gallop. The guards hold their position for a couple seconds more, decide no others could have survived the numbers now spilling out of the buildings, and gallop after her, maintaining formation- and watching behind them for arrows to dodge… Or absorb, if they’re headed for Fluttershy. Her Element makes her more important than an entire army- and unlike them, she’s not wearing armor. They had been going to get her some before they left, but they had been cut off by the attack.

The enemy’s arrows are thick. Fluttershy sees a flash of light in the distance, but fails to register exactly what it was; she’s also watching for arrows to dodge. One guard down. Two. Three. She can tell they’re protecting her- and they don’t stand a chance. Not with this many arrows. She dodges one. Two guards left. An arrow gets stuck in her hind leg, and she collapses. She can’t run- not with that. One guard lifts her bodily with his earth pony strength and takes off running again- only to get an arrow to the eyeball when he glances back the next time. One guard left. What’s that whistle she hears? She uses her remaining strength to jump on the last guard’s back, and he takes off running again- even using his wings to push them faster. Dodging is much easier now- but eventually, he takes a hit to his right wing. The arrow passes all the way through, but he loses control and tumbles. Fluttershy looks up from where she landed; the minotaur archers are aiming their next shots, having missed their last ones on the ground in front of them.

Then, suddenly, the minotaurs aren’t aiming at them. They aren’t aiming anywhere- and probably never will again. One had gotten an arrow out before he died with the others in that massive fireball. What had just happened?

The one arrow that had been loosed finds its home in the stumbling guard’s flank, before he can stand up completely; he falls back down on it, snapping off the shaft and driving the head just a little further in. Fluttershy limps her way to him.

“Run!” he gasps, as soon as he sees her. “Save yourself!”

She shakes her head. “I can’t leave you behind.”

He scowls. “How much weight can you carry on that?” He indicates her injured leg.

“Enough,” she states, wincing as that particular leg touches down once again. Funny, the pain is fading.

His scowl grows more pronounced, but he knows he won’t get her to leave him behind- and forces himself to rise once again. His left hind leg is useless. “Then I’ll ride, you run.”

My suspicion was correct. It would appear my fear will not be completely realized; I have managed to save two ponies from the massacre: My previous charge, and one soldier from the base. Both are injured; my previous charge’s injuries will likely be healed by the time she returns aboard, but the soldier stands a 13.49% chance of dying before I can treat him. I have already engaged full throttle towards their position, even as I fired my only three mortars at the minotaurs gathering at the gate. I release a couple ring penetrators at the remaining hostiles; in 1.39 minutes, I will be close enough to fire energy weapons past the survivors without harming them.

Fluttershy’s limp fades, slowly, as she travels away from the base. She hears several somethings whistle over her head, but fails to see what any of them are. She continues to glance back for arrows, even as the injured guard on her back watches continuously. She notices when the shaft of the arrow in her leg falls on the ground behind her- a glance back looks like it was melted off. Just what she needs- some new kind of poisoned arrow. She still feels the head inside her muscle, though it seems to be shrinking as well. Funny, she doesn’t feel the effect of any poison- and the minotaurs aren’t known for their subtlety, especially in poisons.

With a sudden thought, she glances back at the guard still shuddering on her back. “It isn’t poisoned, is it?” she asks.

He winces, glancing back forwards at her. “I don’t think so,” he says. “Yours?”

She hangs her head, pushing forwards. “I think it is.” She knows, even without looking back, the expression of horror on his face. They had put so much effort into protecting her- even he had- only for her to be snatched away by a poison arrow. “Some new poison… I don’t feel it, but the shaft melted.”

She then stops in her advance. The ground is shaking slightly- and she sees the giant thing is moving. It’s moving impossibly fast, directly towards her. It’s also eerily silent as it approaches.

The guard looks up at it. “Uhh…” he begins.

BOOM!

Not that the growing earthquake actually made the boom. Rather, with a blinding beam of light and a boom worthy of the loudest drum she’d ever heard, something had shot out of the metal monster in front of her, passed over their heads… She looks back where they’d come as her vision clears from the afterimage. Whatever it was had left a crater half the size of Fort Dash right where the front gate had once stood.

Both she and the guard on her back stare open-mouthed for far longer than either wanted to, before finally turning back away from it. They’re right on time for the earth-shaking monster to twist suddenly- and silently- to the side in front of them, there to stop with its side facing them… And lower that same ramp she’d used earlier.

She looks down at it, up at the massive bulk of the thing, and back down at the ramp before starting up it. “Thank you,” she mutters, as she first touches the ramp- and again, when the first metal spiders show up, rushing down it to meet her. The guard is alarmed, but they don’t seem willing to offer him much of a choice as they lift him swiftly off her back and carry him up. She breaks into a trot behind them, keeping pace; her leg hurt too much to move this quickly with his weight, but without, it’s something she can do. Even as she does so, she tells the guard they’re okay- that these spider things are her friends. When he asks if they have any doctors, she informs him she doesn’t know- but that they’re very, very helpful either way.

Once she finishes climbing up onto the balcony once again, she stops to glance back towards Fort Dash- and turn back in the direction she’d sensed a friend in earlier, touching her Element… out of range. She hopes they’re okay- and stabilizes herself as the metal mountain twists underneath her, rotating to face that same direction before it sets off once again, gliding smoothly over the terrain.

Recovery complete. One tertiary Hellbore round proved effective in elimination of all remaining hostiles; unfortunately, the fort has also been completely destroyed and is no longer safe. However, I still have much to consider- and someplace to go, at least.

She had touched her hoof to her amulet while she was in the base. Her expression had shown hope, rather than the despair such an act usually brought her. She had also looked in a southeastern direction- which she has just looked in again, touching the amulet to be met with disappointment again.

This amulet must serve as some kind of communication device, currently out of range. I calculate a 97.31% chance she was in range of something when she was in the base, and a lesser probability of 93.41% that she knows the approximate location of whatever it was. Still, this heading bears further examination. I begin traveling, sending my drone ahead. Once I am even with the remains of the fort on this heading, I will attempt communication again. If it is a communication device, and if my armor does not interfere with it, she should be able to point me in the right direction.

After her failed attempt at communication, she heads inside, and I lock the doors. Neither one is heading outside again without at least minimal armor and weaponry, until I can verify their safety- and this plate steel stuff the Fort survivor is wearing doesn’t count. Full-body duralloy armor or inside. Speaking of which, I begin manufacturing a full set of powered armor, with weapons and ammunition, for each of them; once this finishes, I will return to my work on my fusion plant. I have only three meals left- make that two, from resources spent replacing missing blood.

I estimate 3.91 hours to ignition.

Author's Note

Sorry it's been so long! Writer's block is a nasty thing, especially when deciding how to have the Bolo meet Fort Dash... :ajbemused:

Oh well, enough ideas finally flowed and I figured out how that meeting went. Now, our Bolo has two ponies aboard- and has unleashed the first Hellbore in Equestria. Even a tertiary one- in this case, a 40-cm weapon- will decimate anything it points at. Anything in Equestria, at least- another Bolo of similar mark would probably deflect it almost casually.

Chapter 5

Ten minutes. It had taken ten minutes to get the injured messenger, still wearing his full armor, into a chariot for the hospital. He had tried to say something several times, but had been interrupted by the blaze of another arrival, somepony else’s shout, and so on. As a result, nopony near the transit zone has a clue what his message was, or where he came from; only that he had been injured. Such an injury could only mean one thing.

At least they know they lost a base. Once he regains conscience and recovers from the unsightly bruise on his head, produced by a mishap involving a teleport arriving on top of them, he can tell them which one.

At the hospital, the medics consider leaving out the anesthetic for the removal of the arrow; his message could be very important, and that would be the fastest way to get it. However… Having him wake up in the middle of its removal could be extremely problematic, so they go for it anyways- but send for a unicorn skilled in the rapid removal of anesthetics even as they administer the drug.

Unfortunately, the request falls on an empty list. No unicorns are available; they’re all tied up with this, that, or the other thing. Nor will any be available for some time.

But perhaps fortunately, there is a procedure in place. The request, thanks to the note alongside it about how urgently he had been trying to get the message out before he was knocked out in the transit zone, is elevated. No unicorns? No problem.

By the time the medics have finished with their emergency surgery and closed his hide back up, Princes Luna herself stands ready. Her skill with these drugs is imperfect; it takes close to a minute for her spell to do its job, but that’s exponentially better than the hours it’ll take before Celestia recovers from the last battle enough to cast so much as a simple light spell. It’s also somewhat significantly better than the twenty minutes it’ll be before the next expert is available. As a bonus, she can also wake him up from being knocked out- something most drug experts can’t do. She sets her spell working as soon as the doctors give her the go-ahead, and assists in his transport to one of the wards, from the surgery room.

By the time the panicked messenger finally awakens, he’s lying on the firm hospital mattress, with Princess Luna and three medics standing over him. He gives a yelp of surprise and attempts to bow to Luna- not very easy, when lying on your back.

“What have we lost?”

He answers the question immediately. “Fort Dash has fallen to the enemy- but kindness was there!”

At this, the bed three down from his loses its crying occupant in a blaze of cyan feathers and a multicolored shockwave that blows down everything. “She’s alive!?”

The messenger answers this question immediately as well. “She arrived, with her Element, right before the enemy infiltration showed itself.” He scowls down at his forehooves. “She might have escaped.”

The rainbow mane has only time to shift three inches before Princess Luna teleports both of them to the command center.

“General! Fort Dash has been lost by infiltration- but Kindness was seen onsite immediately beforehand.”

He nods and starts barking orders.

The cyan pegasus, the red lightning bolt still hanging around her neck, drops to the ground, bowing to the Princess. “Thank you.”

A spider gently taps one of Fluttershy’s forelegs, drawing her attention away from where two more are busy sealing up the sergeant’s side with some weird thing she’s never seen before. At least it’s painless, according to the seargeant. She looks down at the spider, unwilling to look away. It points one leg almost inquisitively at the Element of Kindness, still hanging around her neck.

She tilts her head, rising one hoof- and, after the spider’s distinctive nod, touches the gemstone. The spell comes active again, but comes back empty-hooved. She shakes her head, but the spider seems to have somehow gotten the message already.

Eventually, while the sergeant inspects his newly-healed side and tests his mended wing, she realizes what the spider must have been trying to tell her. It thought she might be in range again- suggesting… She touches it again.

Her gallop is almost interrupted when her Element lights up again, and the telepathic connection forms. At least she’s in range of one of her friends- even if she’s being forced to run away. “Fluttershy?” she asks. She’s not sure which response she would prefer- confirmation or denial. One would indicate her friend was coming to help her out; she’s out of range of Fort Dash by now. The other would indicate the presence of somepony else freshly in range- to whom she could report Fluttershy’s survival.

“Applejack!” the response comes back- yes, it’s Fluttershy. “You still okay?”

The mare with the orange apple amulet hanging around her neck gives a wry smile to the terrain in front of her. “I’ve been discovered, on the run. How many have you got?”

“Me and Sergeant Stone. Everypony else… Fort Dash has fallen.”

“That won’t be nearly enough!”

“We’ve also got my new spider friends… Their… carriage, of sorts, seems to have some scary weapons on it. Some kind of explosive catapult, a bow with really long reach, some sort of lightning cannon. I still don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s coming with us. Oh, uh… Sergeant Stone wants to make a rescue.”

“Huh? He a pegasus or something?”

Sergeant Stone stops at the door they’d come in through, hunting for a handle. He’d seen the glow of Fluttershy’s Element, seen where her gaze snapped to- and knew what it meant. He’d also seen the worry crossing her face, and had decided he knew first-hand how bad a situation one of the Elements could get into. Without knowing which one it is, he doesn’t know how much danger her friend might be in. But, this door won’t open. He finally turns back- to be met with one of those weird spider things offering him something metal.

Unfortunately, he’s arachnophobic- and he runs back into the compartment without stopping to identify whatever it had offered him.

Fluttershy finishes her brief conversation with her friend, chuckling lightly as she watches the veteran soldier panic and run from the metal spiders. He’d managed to hold still long enough for them to heal him- probably because of his injury, if she’s honest with herself. She’d always found ponies with arachnophobia amusing.

Unlike the sergeant, she keeps her head clear enough to see what the spider is holding. It looks to be some heavy piece of armor, shaped much like a breastplate, and she trots over to get a closer look. The spider ignores her efforts, stuffing it into a cabinet in the side of the room- and immediately pops open the neighboring cabinet, whipping out an identical piece to offer her.

Wait, not identical. She’d caught a glimpse of the outer surface of the other one- and while it probably wasn’t the same color, it most certainly didn’t have that gold chain printed on its surface, an image of her Element standing on its face. She accepts the offer, holding the piece in her hooves- the heavy piece- as she examines it. If she were to put it on, the image would be positioned directly overtop her real Element.

Tears form in her eyes as she looks up past it to the spider, still standing by the cabinet, in which she sees many other pieces- the rest of some kind of full suit, it looks like- resting on the rack. “Thank you,” she mutters again, hugging the one it had given her to her chest. Backwards, though- it hurts a little that way, but she doesn’t care.

The spider bows in response, uttering something she doesn’t understand before it resumes its ready position- like it’s ready to pull out more of the armor for her, or to return the breastplate to its place, depending on what she wants.

She shrinks slightly from the bow, blushing gently before she looks down at the heavy metal piece in her hooves, turning it around to press it against her chest. As she does so, the spider reaches in to pull out another piece for her- and it then helps her put on the foreleg piece. Once that’s on and attached to the breastplate, it indicates her Element again- or, at least, the image of it. Confused, she raises her hoof.

The spider doesn’t nod this time- but it doesn’t need to. Rather, it turns back to the cabinet to pull out the next piece while the armor retracts from her hoof, exposing it- and a door pops open on the chestplate, revealing her Element inside. There’s only one thing that feature could be for- especially when they both close again as she draws her hoof away. Her smile grows- and the next foreleg goes on easily.

Ten minutes later, she’s got most of it on. Her wings are folded overtop the side panels, as per the spider’s instructions; the rest, she now has on a full suit of armor. What’s more, there’s no gaps, save for her wings. Even her tail has been armored, rather than being covered. It’s amazing, she decides, just how realistic this armor is. Rather than hiding her tail or letting it hang loose, each hair is individually covered with an incredibly thin layer of metal- which, she guesses, probably makes it difficult to cut. Not that the tail is a target zone- and she already knows the mane is hidden inside, like regular helmets. Which, she’s not wearing the helmet yet.

Rather, the spider is showing her another piece for her side. This one should lock into place right overtop her wing- and she sees the shape on the inside of it intended to receive her wing. This piece makes her shudder; pegasi tend to be claustrophobic, herself included, especially when it comes to restricting the wings. Though, she decides, it’s not like she can fly right now anyways. After that minute’s indecision, she accepts the piece, and the spider helps her put it on. There is no pressure against her wing, comfortably folded against the inside of the armor. She eyes the piece- which looks much like her wing would, folded- and presses her wing against it.

It resists for perhaps half a second while she feels metal sliding underneath her wing before it gives way- and she extends a thirty-foot wing. The other side goes on eagerly; once folded, once again, it felt natural- and extends instantly, with her real wing.

That’s something else she’s noticed, while she puts it on- it’s heavy, yes, but she can’t feel it. Like it makes her really strong, as well. Interesting. Then, the final piece- the helmet. She slips it on, puzzled; for as much attention seems to have gone into closing every possible gap (without restricting her range of motion, she observed earlier), it leaves her face wide open. Also, the locker isn’t empty. The spider responds to her ‘thank you’ as she turns to find the sergeant.

She doesn’t have to look for very long- he’s sitting, open-mouthed, ten feet behind her. She winces away from his expression. “W-what?” she asks.

“What…” He gulps audibly. “Is that armor?” It’s colored just like her- even including the cutie mark on her flanks, though it’s fully visible here.

She nods gently. “I think,” she mutters. “It’s comfortable.”

“Isn’t it heavy, with that much steel?”

At this, Fluttershy smiles gently. “No.” She spreads her wings, easily crossing the entire room with her armored wingspan. “I wonder if it can fly…” She raises them up to the ceiling, making a quick test stroke towards the floor- and her hooves leave the floor momentarily. She turns to look towards the door for a second, folding her wings- and back to the sergeant. “Yours?” She indicates the closed cabinet.

He trots right up now- and a second spider shows up to help him with it. He shudders again and again- but, with the promise of this strange armor, he follows its instructions. His damaged royal armor ends up getting left on a chair; his new armor is colored to look like it.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy is working with the spider present at her locker. It’s offering her these weird, long things- and helping her attach them to her armor when she accepts every one of them. Once it finishes, her spider closes the cabinet and disappears, while another one shows up with a weird… Portable window? She’s not sure exactly what to call it, but it’s showing her what all those long things do- and how to make them do it.

The sergeant, having watched her put hers on, is almost done putting his armor on when she finishes. After a glance at the long things attached to Fluttershy’s armor, he quickly starts accepting the matching things from his spider, donning them even faster than Fluttershy had. Unfortunately, he can’t watch the instructions any faster. Finally, he follows Fluttershy up that accessway- and out the door, which now opens for both of them.

Perhaps the first thing Fluttershy notices when she heads outside is that her helmet snaps closed. That’s the only thing she can think of to describe it- though her vision isn’t obstructed at all, as she knows regular helmets do all the time. Rather, extra information is appearing in her visual field, like a hologram projected by a unicorn. She can’t read any of the characters, but a lot of the symbols and colors she understands. She trots up to the edge of the balcony, looking down at the ground as it flows past- and Sergeant Stone steps up next to her.

He raises one of the metal things in his hooves, flicking it as the instructions had said to drop it into position. He’d noticed the helmet thing too- and even checked for an opening he should be aware of, but a glance at Fluttershy’s helmet had shown him everything is covered. He picks a tree, aiming at it. Additional symbols appear in his visual display as his armor helps him aim. The instructions had suggested it’s much like a bow… He pulls the interesting lever-trigger. He feels something thrust back against his shoulder through the armor, though he also feels the energy go simply nowhere as it fails to move him. Meanwhile, the same cannot be said for whatever projectile it used- that went whizzing away from him so fast it chopped the tree down as soon as he pulled the trigger. He puts the weapon back away, looking at Fluttershy.

“Satisfied,” he states.

Fluttershy shakes herself, staring at the tree for a few more seconds. “Uhh… maybe we can help Applejack.” Her hoof rises to her chest.

It’s a long time since she was last airborne, Fluttershy decides, as she hurls herself into the air with her massive wings. She doesn’t feel her magic working- but her armor doesn’t seem to care, she’s still rocketing into the air. Sergeant Stone takes off behind her, and they accelerate in the direction she senses Applejack in. She doesn’t want to leave her spider friends too far behind- but when she glances back, she sees the massive carriage thing also accelerated, though it’s now bouncing somewhat as it whizzes across the terrain. Another fact she notices- her armor is letting her build up far more speed than she normally can, despite her lack of magic. She shares a glance with Sergeant Stone- well, a glance at each other’s armored faceplates- and the two rocket forwards to find her friend, leaving her spiders far behind.

Two minutes later, Fluttershy gasps.

Sergeant Stone looks over at her in midair, not even stopping to consider he shouldn’t have heard the gasp from so far away. “What is it?”

Fluttershy pours in the last of her speed. “She just-” She breaks off, tears forming for a couple seconds. “They’ve caught her.”

Right at that moment, a new icon appears on her display, over something in the distance. She’s not sure exactly what it means, but the yellow color looks iffy. Especially with the way it’s blinking orange. Both she and Sergeant Stone head for it; this is the direction she’d last sensed Applejack in. Now that her friend has been caught, the Element of Honesty has been separated from its bearer.

The blinking yellow-orange spreading across that field is suddenly interrupted by bright red- which doesn’t blink. Two seconds later, one of the rings blinks not to red but to green.

The moment it does, a couple lines draw themselves across her display, arcing downwards on the mass of red, terminating in solid dots with rapidly changing symbols next to them. Three seconds later, she realizes it must be a countdown- in seconds, with two digits. Whatever it’s counting down to, she can’t tell. When she focuses her eyes on the green ring, it suddenly zooms in for her, like a telescope. It’s definitely Applejack- and she’s not going down without a fight. They’ve managed to take her Element, it would seem, but she’s still managed to wrench herself free and start bucking like an apple mare on an apple farm in applebucking season. Suffice it to say, the centaurs that fail to dodge her blows crumple to the ground without fail.

Her vision zooms back out again as she shifts her focus, searching along them for the Element of Honesty. She doesn’t see it- but she does notice when the countdowns drop into the single digits. The upper ends of the lines also enter her field of view at the same time, connecting to small metal objects whistling their way through the air- and following the lines to the ground.

She fights. One kick here, one kick there. They managed to pin her down once, and take her Element; not again. She’s already incapacitated the one with her Element, and is now standing with her front hooves on the chain as she strikes willy-nilly at anything that gets too close. She can’t keep this up for long, she knows- especially since she sees the centaur, behind three of his comrades, preparing their dastardly lifeforce-draining spell. If she moves quickly, she can incapacitate him before he can cast it- but that not only assumes he’s the only one casting it, but such action would also force her to abandon her Element. Fluttershy is coming, though, with Sergeant Stone and her spider friends, apparently equipped with some powerful weapons and flying armor. If they get here quickly, and if their weapons are as powerful as Fluttershy seems to think they are, she may well survive.

BOOM!

The two massive explosions rock her world. The casting centaur is caught in the blast, whatever caused it, and all the rest are terrified. She incapacitates the only one left looking at her, tosses her Element back over her neck, and goes on the offensive.

An offensive that doesn’t last very long. She’s just finished kicking her sixth centaur when Fluttershy lands swiftly, her massive wings folding just as quickly before she gallops forwards. It takes her a second to realize she’s not actually seeing Fluttershy, but some fancy armor she’s wearing- armor that gives her a heavy step.

“You okay?” Fluttershy asks her. Definitely Fluttershy- that’s her voice.

“Mostly,” Applejack answers, glancing up in time to dodge a sword strike.

Fluttershy gets to that centaur first, and her buck strikes dead center. He doesn’t just crumple, as Applejack’s targets are doing- rather, he’ll crumple someplace else, whenever he lands.

No sooner has Fluttershy mailed a few more centaurs into the sky with her wings than Sergeant Stone lands solidly, his similarly massive wings folding against his similarly armored flank as his forelegs come up, some weird stick thing snapping around to line up with his helmet- and he starts unleashing pulses of death and destruction. Before long, Fluttershy drops her one of those stick things on the ground during another buck, but continues on, apparently not noticing she dropped it.

Applejack takes one glance at it, a second glance at Sergeant Stone’s grip on his, and picks it up. At least it’s clear which end is which. She hoists it at the nearest centaur, braces herself, and pulls the trigger.

Now doesn’t that just buck like an angry rhinoceros? The centaur died, along with three more behind him- but it knocked her down. She rises back up, bracing herself better, and takes aim at a second one. Choof! Much easier than a bow- though her aim leaves room for improvement. She doesn’t particularly want to find out just how durable Fluttershy’s armor is against her own superweapons, so she makes sure to point it firmly away from both the armored ponies- made difficult, at times, by being between them.

Eventually, Sergeant Stone’s stick thing stops working. He gives it a couple more tries, and flicks it back to its storage position. Applejack, seeing this, immediately offers hers to him- but he smiles, drawing a different-looking stick thing. “Nah, I shouldn’t need that yet,” he mutters, and starts rattling off more puffs of death. This one, being a smaller weapon, doesn’t penetrate as many enemies- but it proves just as deadly in the hooves of the soldier.

Applejack is taking aim back in the direction the two pegasi had come from when she sees it.

The steep hill in the distance. Something climbs up it from the other side- and, unless her eyes deceive her, catches airtime- probably significant. Unfortunately, she also suddenly can’t see; the glare from the pillars of light it wields is absolutely blinding.

Oh, and the thunderclaps those things produce- that’s even worse! She senses, more than hears or sees, both armored ponies stop fighting. One- Sergeant Stone, she things- as shifted between her and the new thing, spreading his wings slightly to be certain- before the distinctive plinking of metal on metal meets her ears. When all the noise finally goes away, all three ponies look around.

Not a single centaur survives. The battlefield around them has been transformed into cratered ruins, though that doesn’t seem to be bothering the giant metal… Thing. She’d call it a hill, but those don’t usually jump over hills, or race across cratered battlefields to take position near ponies, there to extend a ramp to their very hooves.

Applejack breaks the silence. “This is your spider friends?” she asks.

Fluttershy nods. “Yep.”

Author's Note

Next up: Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler.

So, do the centaurs know what just happened?

Chapter 7

Another touch, another sad shake. Where are their friends? Fluttershy had told Applejack about seeing Rainbow near Fort Dash earlier, before she had regained her Element. Now, neither of them can reach their loyal friend- nor anypony else, aside from each other. Eventually, Fluttershy notices Applejack’s constant gaze at her armor, and removes her helmet.

“Something wrong…?” She asks.

Applejack shakes her head. “I know it’s a gift from all these spiders, but I wonder how hard it could be to make a suit myself?”

Fluttershy blinks, looking towards the cabinets. “They did pull them from those cabinets…?”

Applejack trots over to the row of cabinets she had indicated, and tugs on a few of them.

“Maybe they’re locked?” Sergeant Stone suggests. “... Okay.”

The third one in the row had practically flown open when she tugged, revealing what looks like another full suit of armor. Fluttershy trots up too. “I’d hate to just take it,” she says.

Applejack looks back at her. “Me too- but the way it’s all just showing up, you’d think it’s provided, like the stuff the Royal Guard uses.” She reaches in, grasping the chest piece, pulling it out- and both Element Bearers stop cold when they see the pattern printed on its surface.

“Maybe it is,” Fluttershy eventually mutters, blinking slowly at the orange apple necklace printed on the metal, flawlessly duplicating the appearance of the one hanging around Applejack’s neck.

“Uhh, Princess?” Rainbow asks. They’d found the end of the trenches crushed into the ground- they grow rough and stop, on flat ground- looks like an old battlefield.

Princess Luna stares at the scene in front of her for some minutes more. “It moved.”

The bored pegasus raises an eyebrow. “What did?”

Fully 31.82 minutes have passed since the three ponies climbed aboard before Radio notices Apple’s constant gaze at her armor. After some discussion, Apple traveled to the armor lockers. After tugging on a couple locked ones, she reaches the one holding her own suit- and the latch pops open for her. It is amusing to watch their expressions when they realize it’s made for her- and she begins putting it on. Radio helps her, so I need not send in any spiders, and turn my attention to more important matters.

Firstly, Radio needs a new nickname. She hasn’t been doing her amulet thing nearly as much- Apple has taken over, for the most part; it would seem they are expecting another endpoint to appear sometime. Though…

I consider Radio’s performance during the battle. That had definitely been a protective reaction. Considering this, I am tempted to call her shield or armor- possibly even Bolo, though I do not believe that would fit. She is also normally shy, hiding herself from those she meets, it would seem. Grenade? Shy? Hmm. I spend 0.013 seconds in further analysis and finally come up with an answer, and log it.

Next, I reconsider my path once again. I have set off in a southerly direction; this is the direction, from my starting position, that the pony army was defending when I first arrived. My drone has assumed a standard sweep pattern across my path; I have encountered a forest, though the trees here are rapidly transforming into crushed chlorophyll under my tracks. I have held my speed down to 65km/h, to minimize suspension bounce and produce a gentle ride for my passengers.

Thermal camera registers what looks like an animal den under a tree in front of my inboard port tracks. I’m already only 3 meters away from impact when I see it; it is too late to redirect around it without undue disruption of my passengers. Thus, I must likely run it over. A quick scan of the logs, specifically hunting for this position, produces some datum… Reverse doppler processing on the intensifying heartbeats- and breaths- coming from this position begin to offer results. Exactly where in the den the creature is, what it might be doing, what shape it is…

I lock my tracks.

Applejack is wearing the front half of her armor. Forelegs, chest, back, and neck, all covered. It’s amusing- as long as she keeps one foreleg on the floor, it’s completely weightless. The moment she lifts both, though, it weighs a ton. Fluttershy helps her attach the right side piece- which looks a little funny. Fluttershy had mentioned a minute ago that it looks much like the sides of hers did, before her wing pieces were attached. Applejack dearly hopes she doesn’t have to deal with giant, useless metal wings on her armor that she can’t control.

Then, suddenly, gravity seems to shift, almost directly to the side- as if they had hit something. Fluttershy and Sergeant Stone remain solidly in place, though they appear somewhat flustered by the sudden deceleration. Just like herself- though, of course, she isn’t so unaffected.

One of her forehooves is flat on the floor when it happens, the other in the air, returning from that side piece to go for the other one. Her armor refuses to be moved, even when her hind legs are whipped out from under her by the force. The side piece shifts, absorbing her motion- but, she realizes, that one hoof refuses to leave the deck plating, no matter how much twisting the deceleration forces her into, until it stops- and she drops down on her side, before stumbling back upright. “What the hay…?” she mutters.

Fluttershy shrugs- before her attention is drawn to one of those metal spiders- hardworking things, it seems, always doing something yet always available as well- showing her a … Something. She’d call it a window, but she’s pretty sure those can’t be carried around without changing what you see through them. She’s also pretty sure looking at a window from a different angle results in a different view, but not with this thing. It’s showing them something… Looks to her like the view of the front of this thing, fairly close up. There’s some trees visible, simply knocked down- wow, it sure bucks hard- but the focus seems to be at the bottom of one of the trees, right where the giant metal pieces reach the ground. Splintered roots are visible, crushed between the trunk and the metal. Applejack isn’t exactly sure what she’s looking for.

Then, she sees it. Among the shattered roots, suddenly pointed out by an interesting blinking circle, is a hoof. A twitching hoof.

Fluttershy’s eyes widen, and she rushes for the door. Of course, Applejack tries to follow- for a second. This armor is so heavy… She glances back at it, and up at the cabinet- which is suddenly crawling with the spiders, collecting the pieces to help her put them on. She shrugs- the stuff is known to be very strong, and that could be useful. So, it takes just ten seconds to finish up the armor- though the spiders place the last piece, her helmet, in her hooves instead. She raises it up, peripherally noticing the long things they’ve attached to her armor- just like the ones on Fluttershy’s and the Sergeant’s- while she puts it on. Then…

She pauses, and turns to look at her side. Yep, it has wings- but the funny part is, they’re moving when she tells them to.

Fluttershy’s spider friends have armor that can give an earth pony the ability to fly like a pegasus.

Whatever- it doesn’t bother her much. She folds the enormous metallic wing once again, and follows the other two out the door. Where had they gone? Ahh, there they are- galloping across the surface. She’s faster than either of them, so she catches up before they reach the edge… And leap off.

Of course, she follows them off the edge; there’s a few trees within jumping range, and this thing should make it hard for her to hurt herself. They spread their wings to glide down towards the hoof, indicated by a weird trail they’re following; it had appeared when her helmet closed, as soon as she stepped out the door. Applejack spreads her armor’s wings- though they feel like her own- and makes the attempt as well. It goes mostly okay- she does manage to glide, in a somewhat controlled manner, to the ground. The tree was unintended, but she managed to land on all four hooves- without hurting anypony. She folds her difficult wings and gallops to the scene- where she manages to be first, by a second or so. She hears a low whimper coming from underneath the branches, and immediately knows whose purple hoof it is.

“Don’t worry, Twi-!”

She’s cut off by a frightened exclamation from inside. “Applejack!?”

“Yes,” she answers.

“W-who else?”

“It’s just me, Fluttershy, and Sergeant Stone.”

“S-sergeant…. Is he…?”

If the situation were any less serious, she might have laughed. “No, he’s a pony.” She reaches in a hoof, lifting the heavy branch effortlessly off of her friend’s leg. It turns out to be a foreleg, which is immediately withdrawn as Twilight regains her hooves underneath the tree. Fluttershy pulls aside more obstruction, rewarded by the echoing crack of the three-inch-thick roots snapping like a twig. Sergeant Stone takes the other side, converting more wood into splinters that he digs out of Twilight’s way, finally opening her an escape route. All three open their faceplates.

Twilight eventually emerges, though very slowly.

“Where’s your crown?” Applejack asks, once she’s all the way out of the little wooden prison.

At this, she shakes her head. “They took it, and used their lifeforce spell.” She hangs her head.

Fluttershy, having eep!ed at the damage she’d done to the tree, steps forwards. “They did that to me too,” she mutters. “But we’re in good hooves now.”

Right at that moment, the giant metal plates shift. Twilight’s ex-prison collapses as they rise out of the ceiling, and the ground quakes gently as it pulls backwards.

Twilight eep!s, hugging against the nearest pony. “Wh-what…?”

Applejack smiles gently. “That’s our friends,” she says. “No need to worry.”

“B-but the g-ground…”

“Their vehicle is just a little heavy.”

Twilight shudders as they watch it pull backwards, twist in place, and drive forwards again, this time passing them. About half of it passes before it stops again- this time, they got to see full-size trees disintegrating under it like matchsticks in a sawmill- and extends a ramp down to meet them.

They stand- and Fluttershy coos softly- for almost a full minute before Twilight unsticks herself from Fluttershy’s chestplate.

“So… what are you wearing?”

“Let me get this straight. Discord summoned hope and got a mountain that moved?”

The dark princess nods remarkably peaceably, having just explained that to the blue mare thrice. “We will follow it.”

“And Fluttershy’s on that mountain?”

“That’s a possibility.”

“Okay.” Off she goes, a trail of fine dust rising in her wake.

“Follow her!”

This time, I hold my position. There are useful minerals here; the soil is still poor, but I can extract some. I also take aboard matter, for conversion when I get around to igniting Fusion 11.

This new passenger is purple, and has a horn, along with the wings. The mark on her flank is just as invisible as Radio’s- though, I must remind myself, Radio has been re-nicknamed Hellbore. The new passenger… Pointy? Eh, that’ll do for now, at least until I gather more data on her personality. Or language. It takes a second or so to generate a third armor pattern, to allow space for her horn, before I begin assembly. They spend… … ...A lot of time talking. It’s been 2.93 hours, and they’re still at it. Hellbore doesn’t talk much, though Apple has been responding much more frequently. Sergeant has also put in his two cents several times. As for the main event, it seems Pointy is quite the chatterbox. I’m certain I’ve gathered enough samples for lingual analysis, if I had the algorithms already set up for it. As it is, I am still on the level of understanding sentence structure- and basic words.

Every time Apple or Hellbore touches their gemstones, Pointy nervously raises a hoof to the top of her head, as if expecting to find something there. Could it be another gemstone artifact, like the other two, taken from her? I do not know.

But in any case, Fusion 11 is online. I have begun manufacturing resources. I do not begin with food; it is fast approaching mealtime, but the forest has provided plenty of the necessary elements for the assembly of several dozen suitable dishes. The first thing I manufacture is direct-fire ammunition- then a second drone… And a multitude of items to stuff into my Light Vertical Launch System. So much easier to control than mortars.

Rainbow races along the massive trails that mountain thingy had left, leaving Princess Luna’s search party long behind. She’d stayed with them on the way out to that point- but now, she’s in a bit of a hurry. Fort Dash comes into view- but she ignores it, following the path. The thing had passed through the battlefield in which she had fought so hard for Fluttershy’s Element, believing her dead. It had done what she could not, and retrieved both the Element and her friend, its bearer. She follows the sharp pivot shortly outside Fort Dash, whizzing off to the southeast. A tap to her Element comes up with no luck. How far has this thing gone? It has been over a week, she supposes. She passes another hill. And another one. And another one- Aargh!

The arrow had come out of nowhere, piercing her right wing through. She crashes rather swiftly, stumbling and recovering… To freeze at the sight of her opponent.

It would seem she’s crashed in the middle of a Centauran army.

Whelp, no time like the present, they say. Her hind hooves go to town.

But all of the sudden, she feels her strength fading away. In her peripheral vision, she sees her cutie mark fading. Blast it! She’d forgotten about their spell! One of the centaurs kicks her over, right into the grasp of a second that takes her Element.

But not before it started glowing. It stops as soon as they remove it- but a single second is enough.

Somepony knows where she is- but she’d yammered into that link as fast as she could. She doesn’t think she got more than two words out- but even half of one will be enough for anypony capable of accessing that spell to recognize her voice.

The centaurs beat on her for a minute more, before one raises his blade. “Any last words?” he demands.

Rainbow spits in his face. At least, she would have, if it were close enough. As it is, her spittle doesn’t even reach his hooves.

He laughs- moments before his blade is split in two. Half of his arm, cleanly split down the middle, also falls to the ground as the two halves of his blade fly to the sides. Rainbow recognizes Princess Luna’s blade struck into the ground moments before it leaps back into the air.

“I think he used the centaur’s lifeforce-draining spell on himself to fuel the teleport,” Twilight answers.

Sergeant Stone bows deeply. “May he rest in peace.”

Applejack nods. “Ahh. Then, Flu-” She freezes stone still for half a second; Fluttershy had just taken her turn and tapped her Element.

They both turn simultaneously in the same direction- and the room seems to twist as soon as they cry out together. “Rainbow!”

Chapter 8

They hold their stance for two seconds. The room starts its bounce again, more pronounced than it had earlier- Fluttershy notices it’s about the same as when they were suiting up before running for Applejack.

Applejack breaks the silence, looking quickly at Fluttershy and Sergeant Stone. “You two can fly- go get her. I’ll hold down the fort.”

The two armored pegasi nod and rush out the door. A spider scurries over, popping open a nearby locker and pulling something out- to offer Twilight.

Applejack blinks. “Armor, like ours.”

Twilight takes it- even though she is alarmed by the number of the spider things that are employed in helping her put it on. It does only take twenty seconds, at least- once they’re done, the bumping increases.

Hellbore and Apple freeze upon the amulet touch. This sets me on high alert.

0.539 seconds pass before they both turn in the same direction, facial expressions showing fear, and cry out. I note it is the same word Hellbore cried out when she woke up in this passenger bay the first time- a name? Either way, I set a course, ordering my two drones to search in that direction, right at my estimate for their amulets’ maximum range, based on Apple’s recovery. They have located another pony, I will protect them. I arm my Light VLS. I should be able to eliminate any conceivable enemy force from afar, once my supersonic drones are able to identify it.

Princess Luna swings her deadly blade in blinding arcs through the enemy force that had downed Rainbow. It would seem they’d even cast their curse- Rainbow isn’t fighting like she normally would.

Her army swoops in behind her. It’s far smaller than the Centauran force, and will thence be forced to retreat soon- but at the moment, they have the advantage of surprise- and their objective isn’t to defeat the enemy. Rather, the aim is to retrieve Rainbow.

Slash here, slash there, blast over there. Her magical shield protects her from their arrows, and she slams to her hooves next to Rainbow, her weapon blazing through every centaur in sight.

“Rainbow!”

The named pegasus looks up at her. “My Element-!”

That’s all she got out before Luna teleported her to Canterlot to recover. However, her words had made the absence of her necklace conspicuous to Luna’s eyes. She scans the hostile ranks briefly.

They’ve regrouped. Further attacks from her army will only result in unnecessary casualties. She barks over to them. “Fall back to Canterlot! I’ll be right behind you!”

She then turns in the direction she’d spotted that red glint and makes her charge, even as her spell teleports her army back to Canterlot. One slash, two slash. She’s going to spend a couple days recovering from today’s magic expenditures, but she’s not out yet. If only she were as practiced with teleportation spells as Twilight- if she were, she could have teleported that necklace straight to her, then jumped herself to Canterlot with it, ending the conflict. As it is, though, she’ll have to reach it and steady herself for a second before she can teleport it with her. She’d only been able to jump her army remotely because she’d taken the time- almost thirty seconds- to prepare the spell before they left Canterlot. All she had to do was trigger it.

Another charge, another rush. She’s running dangerously low on magic now; much more, and she won’t be able to teleport. Two seconds… She downs the centaur holding the Element of Loyalty, and stops to stand on the necklace while her weapon twirls.

Too much spent. If she stops spending magic for about three seconds, she can regenerate enough for a short-range jump. Not all the way to Canterlot, no, but far enough to escape.

One final swoop of her weapon, and she catches it in her forehooves, now swinging manually. Three… Two… One- Nooo!

The centaurs had worked faster than she had expected. All of her magic had left her the instant their blasted drain spell had taken hold- but her strength hadn’t gone yet. A flick of her weapon and skilled shift of hooves places the Element of Loyalty hanging around the shaft, between her forehooves. A swift rush, and she downs the centaur draining her.

A week. It’ll only be a week before her magic returns. It’s a good thing her armor was designed with that kind of spell in mind- her grip on her weapon remains intact through spells on her armor, rather than through her innate magic. Another swing, another blow. She’s fighting a losing battle.

Another swing. Are those dive-bombing pegasi? Slash. She hopes they don’t get hurt too badly in their rescue attempt.

BOOOM!

Hellbore and Sergeant have been flying for about a minute when my drones spot the enemy up ahead. A large army. Close examination shows a blue pegasus with rainbow mane, attempting to spit in a standing centaur’s face from the ground. A valiant effort, but it would seem they’ve cast their draining spell on her as well; she isn’t even able to reach his hooves.

Visual comparison shows a 93.49% match to the pegasus I previously designated as my commander. My Light VLS hatches fly open, and I unleash a hurricane of destruction in their direction.

Targeting will be difficult- thank the heavens I thought to make missiles! The hostile army is clashing with a friendly one, for casualties on both sides. I may meet not only my commander, but a pony army. I may finally be able to join the pony forces.

A dark blue pony, bearing wings and horn, is slashing through her enemies with a magically wielded weapon. She destroys the weapon that had been about to be driven into the lighter blue pegasus- nickname ‘Rainbow’, until I can confirm her identity- and proceeds to eliminate hostiles with savage abandon. Her armor looks far fancier than any other pony’s armor I’ve seen. I also observe many gemstones embedded in its surface; perhaps this is magic armor? Nickname ‘General’, pending further information.

General lands next to Rainbow- and, two seconds later, Rainbow disappears in the flash of a teleport once again. Darn! General then reviews the situation, and sends her entire army away with another flash. It would seem I won’t be meeting a military force- though, it does make missile targeting that much easier.

General then makes a charge deeper into the army. It takes me only 1.493 seconds to identify her objective- and drop the image onto the slowing Hellbore’s HUD, producing a burst of speed such as she’s never shown before. It’s the ruby necklace my Commander bore when she led me to that fort.

I can only watch the battle for some seconds more- roughly 18.493 seconds, to be exact, before all 200 missiles go into final acquisition. I guide them into a hailstorm of destruction across the army, leaving only a few dozen around General; I expect Sergeant will use his newly-manufactured MK XVI Belt-Fed Magnetic Impulse Accelerator (Modified). The small countergrav coil I installed in this high-speed artillery weapon should allow him to use it freehand. With a 15,000 round magazine and a fire rate limit of 3018 rounds per minute, not to mention roughly 9342.19% the penetrating power of his MPR(M), he would likely be able to eliminate this entire army himself if I allowed him to. He arrives on-scene just 9.31 seconds behind Hellbore, who shows up 4.91 seconds behind the missiles.

Wow. Maybe I should have called her catapult? THAT wingless hostile made it almost 219.43 meters up!

It would seem Sergeant has discovered not only the destructive power of the BMIA(M) but also the psychological effect it tends to have on its targets. Several centaurs turned tail to run when the eight meter splashes of dirt approached them. After his arrival, General neutralized one hostile, and Hellbore hoofed out two tickets to the Wing Express. Sergeant wiped out the rest.

It takes Princess Luna several seconds to recover from what had just happened around her. An entire army, wiped out in a moment by those dive-bombing objects- she now suspects they were magically charged weapons- and two pegasi. Given the size of the impact splashes produced by whatever weapon the second one had used, she suspects he could easily have wiped them out himself, without those dive-bombing things, had she or the first one not been there.

Then, that first pegasus had, in a blur of yellow she hasn’t yet comprehended, started launching centaurs into the sky with gigantic wings. What powerful magics had they found?

Finally, comprehensibility begins to return to her thoughts, and her vision resolves to find two ponies bowing to her. Two metal ponies, both wearing several long, black objects… No, not metal ponies- armored ponies. Their helmets are open. The long objects they’re wearing are different- as are their colors. The first one’s magic armor seems to have been colored to match that of the Royal Guard, but the parts that would not be covered by the Royal Guards’ armor is colored to match his coat. She spots the emblem on his shoulder- a Sergeant. The nameplate below it- appearance duplicated flawlessly on this weird armor- identifies him as Sergeant Stone, one of Equestria’s finest. Last she’d heard, he’d been assigned to Fort Dash, and assumed dead.

The other pegasus’ armor does not bear the image of any armor, nor rank insignia. It is entirely colored like her coat, save for a band around her neck, appearing as a gold chain- and the gentle pink butterfly amulet on her chest. Her cutie mark is also printed on the flanks of her armor. These features almost instantly identify her as the target of her search- Fluttershy.

Well, it’s nice to know she’s safe- though where she’d gotten that armor, she’d still like to know. She’s also curious if those black things stuck to her armor are weapons also- Sergeant Stone has the same ones, plus the bigger two-part one he’d crushed all opposition with.

“R-Rise,” she finally stutters- and finally understands what she’d heard when everything stopped moving. They had greeted her with her title, probably as they entered their bows.

Both ponies rise from their bows.

Silence holds for some time more.

“H-How?” Princess Luna finally gets out.

Sergeant Stone answers immediately. “It was Fluttershy, ma’am. She befriended a bunch of metal spiders, which took us inside their, uh, carriage, and provided this armor and weapons. It seems they have other weapons we cannot wield; this is the second army I’ve seen get wiped out from afar.”

“You’re the only survivors?”

“No ma’am. We left Applejack and Twilight in the spiders’ carriage; it would seem the Centaurs managed to curse Twilight recently.”

Princess Luna processes this news. It’s a combination of good and bad. For the good, three of the five unaccounted for Elements have been located and are (presumably, at least) safe. For the bad, Twilight had been drained of her lifeforce- rendering the Elements of Harmony useless in Equestria’s defence for a month or two.

“Is everypony else okay?”

Fluttershy shakes her head. “They got me with the curse a week ago,” she mutters, shuddering. “That was before I met the spiders.”

Sergeant Stone shudders briefly. “Aside from that, yes.”

She finally lets out a breath. “How far away are they?”

“I don’t know,” the Sergeant answers. “We flew at full speed for a couple minutes, but it was moving in this direction as well.”

“We’ve slowed down again,” Twilight observes. Her armor is amazing- not only can they fly (She still can’t get used to an Applejack with wings, even if she knows they’re entirely artificial) but it anchored her in place while the carriage thing traveled quickly. The room had bounced quite a bit- but her hooves had stayed very firmly in place on the floor. Now, it’s back to the gentle wobble it had been before the spiders gave her the armor.

It also makes her stronger than an earth pony- well, in a sense. She still feels weak, still lacks the strength to move quickly- but her armor is more than willing to follow her motions with its massive strength.

She follows Applejack out the door, to that balcony. Applejack trots, interested to see the situation; Twilight, after a failed attempt at the same pace, walks.

It takes her a minute, but she finally arrives next to Applejack. The faceplate snapping shut was an interesting experience in and of itself- though what all the weird letters mean, she hasn’t a clue. Looking off of the balcony, in the direction they’re traveling, she sees three icons on the display, very closely clustered. More letters- she’ll have to study them at some point- are gathered at each icon, like names. She focuses on them- and suddenly, her vision zooms in, like a telescope. It’s…

It’s Sergeant Stone and Fluttershy, talking to…

“Princess Luna!” she cries out.

Author's Note

MOAR DAKKA!

Chapter 9

“Uh, Sir?”

The general raises his eyebrow at the scout.

“You should probably come see.”

The pegasus scout and the unicorn general then ascend the hill together- the hill behind which they know an enemy force is… Was advancing.

Now, of course, the army is in the process of being sneezed upon. By what is quite clear.

After all, each minotaur is being blown down by a hurricane of confetti, tied down with masses of streamers, anchored with party whistles. Half of the army has been tied up, the other half is on its way.

All with a strange sneezing noise- undoubtably duplicated by all the affected minotaurs’ massive sneeze attacks.

The general teleports back to his army and starts yelling. “We attack! Laughter is here!”

SCHOOF!

Rainbow lies still for a second before rolling upright to make her way out of the transit zone, head hanging. It’s dangerous to stay here- new ponies could arrive at any moment, potentially landing on top of her. But her strength is failing her. She stumbles once or twice, each time only barely staying on her hooves. But she doesn’t care. She’d been so certain- and now, if it weren’t for Princess Luna, she would have gotten herself killed. She had gotten herself injured, and cursed. She’d be a cripple for months.

“Are you okay?” the transit officer asks her, as she steps out of the zone. After a second’s silence, he resumes. “Did something happen to your Element?”

Oh yes. That’s another thing she’d done- she’d lost her Element of Harmony. Hopefully, Princess Luna and her army can take it back.

SCHERWOOF!

Aaand, that would be the whole army, appearing in the mass transit zone. That one’s not as dangerous; transits to it are always coordinated, rather than random. She casts her gaze across them… No dark princess.

The transit officer manning it asks the question for her. “Where’s the Princess?” he asks the nearest soldier.

“She said she’d be right behind us,” the soldier answers.

Rainbow closes her eyes, focusing on the floor in front of her. Inside, she tells herself to believe in her Princess. She’ll get her Element back, and return it to canterlot. At least then she won’t have to find the thing.

“Are you okay?” her transit officer asks again.

She finally answers. “I’ve failed.” It comes out as a mutter.

The officer sighs, and repeats the question.

She is tempted to yell in his face, but she lacks the strength to do that without falling on her own. So, she walks slowly past him, head hanging. “Leave me alone.”

SCHOOF!

Another transit.

“Sir!” It’s a messenger. Rainbow starts to tune him out; not like she can do anything right now. His very next word catches her attention, though. “Laughter has been found!” She twists in place, whirling to look at him- and ends up on the floor. Darned noncooperative muscles. Did he just say what she thought he said? Oh- he’s not done yet, though. “General Boulder is moving to recover her as I speak!”

“Who?” Rainbow gets out, even before the transit officer can react, as she hoists herself back onto her hooves.

The messenger takes a second to see who he’s speaking to. “General Boulder is moving to recover Laughter as I speak,” he says. “We don’t know if she still has her Element, but she most certainly has her cannon.”

This brings the first smile to Rainbow’s face in a whole week. Pinkie’s party cannon relies on her innate magic to function- and if that’s working, she’s okay. She does have to wonder exactly how she’s making use of a party cannon in a situation where an army is being sent to recover her, rather than a messenger to bring her to the army for teleportation. That’s what had happened for her- and what Celestia had told her was standard procedure, until they could get all six back together.

A nearby medical officer taps Rainbow on her shoulder. “Rainbow?”

Rainbow blinks and turns her gaze away from the departing messenger. “Yes?”

The officer sighs gently. “You’ve been cursed, haven’t you?”

She hangs her head.

“Then come on. You’re going to need a meal and rest.”

“No.” Her head rises back up into position, speaking with finality. “I need pinkie pie.”

This gets the messenger’s attention. “It’ll probably be an hour or so,” he states.

The medical officer scowls, poking Rainbow a bit harder- rewarded by a sideways stumble. “Food, then.” SCHOOF! “You can come back to wait for Pinkie.”

The newly arrived cloaked figure trots forwards on white hooves; that’s all that’s visible. “Ahh, that took longer than I might have liked,” she states. “What’s this about Pinkie, again?”

The medical officer answers while Rainbow is still attempting to spin without falling. She’s managing the latter part. “Pinkie has been found, and will be showing up soon.”

“Ahh. Rainbow, dear, you’ve been cursed, haven’t you?”

Rainbow falls down. Again. The medical officer nods.

The newcomer sighs, a light blue magic aura wrapping around Rainbow and picking her up. “When Pinkie arrives, tell her to meet us in the mess hall.” She trots towards the exit, Rainbow floating motionlessly- mostly thanks to shock- next to her.

“Uh,” a guard utters.

She pauses before she reaches the door. “Oh, and I do believe I won’t be needing this around here, either.” The same magic aura wraps around her cloak, whipping it off and folding it into her saddlebag. The bag on her other side carries a golden crown with a magenta star embedded in it.

But that’s not the biggest surprise in store for the guards- rather, it’s the purple diamond on the white unicorn’s golden necklace.

Many had assumed her dead, after a rescue attempt directed towards her had ended badly, just over a week ago- the day before Rainbow was found.

Princess Luna stands still. Well, as still as she can stand while quaking more than the ground was a minute ago. Fluttershy’s spider friends are driving the thing Discord called ‘Hope’. The thing that had landed on an army in front of her.

Hills don’t move. Neither do mountains. Thus, this one has no business moving- nor looking nearly so nimble as it does so!

Then, for as much as it shook the ground as it moved, it had come absolutely silently. Even a pony couldn’t do that.

That doesn’t even count the ramp that had slid out from its side, landing at her hooves- and the two armored ponies that had started down it to met her: Applejack and Twilight. The latter is stumbling slightly, exactly as the cursed normally do immediately after the event. She also notices the absence of her crown- but that’s probably only because of her armor; it doesn’t look like it would work very well with it.

Twilight stops at the sight of the necklace still hanging on Luna’s weapon, eyes going wide inside her opened helmet. “Rainbow… Is she okay?”

Princess Luna nods. “She was cursed, but I sent her back to Canterlot before recovering her Element.”

Twilight draws in a breath. “Can you send me?”

Luna shakes her head. “I was about to teleport myself back to Canterlot, with her Element, when they managed to hit me with their curse.” She sighs. “I managed to keep them from finishing it; I’ll be back to normal in a week.”

“A week…” Twilight winces- and looks back up at the massive bulk behind her. “You’ll probably be a better leader than me.”

Luna almost laughs. “I’m not going to mess with anything you have set up,” she states.

At this, Twilight actually does laugh. “Nothing to mess with, then; nopony’s set anything up. We’re just a collection of survivors at the moment.”

This earns a raised eyebrow. “And the spiders?”

“They seem to be responding more than anything else.”

Several ponies jump at the sudden noise. First, there’s a gentle pwing from some tiny door flying open on the side of the carriage thing somewhere. Next, the event that draws everypony’s attention to it. Hardly half a second after it opened, a giant spear rides a pillar of fire out of it, before that door clangs back shut again. Everypony stares at the object that came out, watching as it tilts horizontally and accelerates away.

Further review of my passengers’ responses to General’s presence, and her appearance, leads me to believe she might not actually be part of the military, but a member of the ruling class. Either way, I invite her aboard by placing the base of my boarding ramp at her hooves. A minute ago, one of my drones, the one I tasked to a perpendicular course to locate any other possible threats, identified what looks like a hostile-held fort not far beyond that hill. It’s hardly 203.91 meters outside the range I scanned earlier, when I passed this terrain in the rush to Apple’s rescue. A closer scan has yielded no ponies; ultrasonics and high-energy radar have just shown only Centaur-shaped bodies. Thus, I unleash the most powerful of the missiles I have manufactured for my Light VLS. I’ll see what they think of a 10-kton chemical warhead in a minute… Probably nothing, since there’s a 99.983% chance there will be no survivors.

General’s new armor is almost ready. I have engineered it to be able to go overtop her existing, possibly magical armor, or to be able to go on independently; either way, it will look like the existing armor. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this design was her blade; allowing her to access and sheathe it in its appropriate location on her existing armor while wearing mine overtop took some creativity, and is something I’m particularly proud of; I managed to do it without reducing the armor’s structural- or protective- integrity OR breaching the sealed environment!

She will be equipped with a full weapons loadout, just like Sergeant.

Princess Celestia raises an exhausted head when she hears the knock on her door. “Enter,” she calls, praying for good news. Her sister had taken half the Canterlot Defense Force out to Fort Dash on a rescue mission almost three hours ago.

The messenger that enters wears an expression of sadness, nearly driving the solar princess into tears even before he speaks. Please don’t let her sister be defeated!

“P-Princess,” the messenger begins, bowing.

Princess Celestia only nods. Her worst fears are being confirmed. Her beloved sister, easily Equestria’s finest fighter, has been defeated.

“P-Princess Luna…”

“Is dead,” Princess Celestia finishes, far more calmly than she feels.

He shakes his head; tears spray across the carpet, and manages to firm up his voice. “MIA.”

Celestia lets out a moan, her face driving back into her pillows. Missing in action. So, probably not dead, just cursed and being tortured until she finally does die. It would be better- far better- if her sister had been struck down by an enemy blade- or even by a friendly arrow!

Outside, the Sun goes dark.

Chapter 10

“So that armor lets you fly?”

Fluttershy nods outright; Applejack contemplates for a couple seconds. “If I knew how, yes,” she eventually answers. They’re standing on the balcony; the ramp has retracted, but nopony has headed in. Meals had been provided out here.

“Or so they say,” Twilight answers; they’ve spent the last couple hours enjoying the fresh air- they’re on the move again- while they shared stories and discoveries. “I can’t seem to move my wings fast enough right now.”

Again, Fluttershy nods. Sergeant Stone answers verbally. “It does seem to take more work, yes,” he states. “Though that’s relative- just faster strokes. In terms of energy spent, it takes practically none; this armor is willing to flap as hard and fast as I can move my wings, with no regard for wind resistance.”

“Or Centaur resistance,” Applejack inserts.

At this, Twilight raises an eyebrow. “Centaur resistance?”

Fluttershy squeaks lightly.

“Oh yes,” Applejack chuckles. “You should have seen her when she found me. I was surrounded by the things- and she fell out of the sky. I wish I knew how high some of ‘em flew.”

Sergeant Stone chuckles. “That was entertaining, yes- also telling. If this armor will let Fluttershy send Centaurs a hundred meters up with the flick of a wing, I daresay it does impart a not insignificant amount of stren… Uh oh.”

All around them, the sky goes dark. A cold breeze whips suddenly across their faces- and their conveyance changes course, accelerating somewhat as it charges through the woods. A ripple is seen across the metal before it fades out, becoming invisible. The door stands wide open behind them.

All five ponies stare at the sky for two seconds, before Princess Luna turns towards Fluttershy. “That armor lets you fly?”

Nod.

“It lets you fly fast?”

Nod.

“Is there some for me?”

Shrug.

“It was in the cabinets inside,” Twilight states- and Princess Luna turns to follow Sergeant Stone’s gallop inside.

She overtakes him- but not until after his direction has indicated to her which cabinets. She starts down the line, tugging momentarily at immobile doors and continuing on to the next one. “Aren’t any unlocked?” she asks.

“Maybe?” Sergeant Stone says, galloping up behind the Princess- speed enhancement is one of the functions of her magic armor. “I had to shed my Royal Guard Armor when I put it on, though.”

Luna winces, running down the line- and finally, a door flies open.

A full set. She snatches the first piece- so happens to be the chestplate- and pulls it out for quick examination. On one side, it looks like her Royal Armor- and on the other side…

On the other side, she realizes, it looks like it’s made to go overtop her Royal Armor. She flips it around- thankful for the strength spells in her armor- and touches it to her chestplate. There’s an audible click as she does so- and, as she draws her hooves away, she feels her armor take the weight. Next piece- identified by Sergeant Stone, while Applejack gallops in to help her suit up.

She glances towards Applejack as she works. Foreleg on- she hardly notices when it starts taking its own weight, reducing the weight her Royal Armor places on her body. “I’m going to Canterlot,” she announces, accepting and attaching the next piece just as swiftly as the last. “I will leave the Element of Loyalty here with you for safekeeping, until it can be returned.” She attaches the backplate- unlike the others, hers is going on like stickers, pulling itself into place as soon as she places it against her existing armor. She slots her right wing through the gap in that side piece- and it locks itself in place just as swiftly… Right overtop her blade, she realizes. Whatever- at least she has it, and if her new armor comes with anything remotely similar to what Sergeant Stone used, she shouldn’t be needing it. Left side piece comes next.

Applejack nods silently, glancing to the side, where Princess Luna had dropped her friend’s Element on a chair. “How bad is it?” she asks.

“The Sun has gone out. My sister is compromised- and the wards around Canterlot will not function. The enemy will be attacking within minutes, in such force it will be overrun in less than an hour, no matter how valiantly our soldiers fight.”

Applejack’s eyes go wide as Luna attaches one of the hind leg pieces. “How’d they get that many?” she asks.

“It’s their main force,” she states. “It’s been camping outside Canterlot for this very opportunity- while smaller armies scoured the land to cut off our support, to force our hoof.” Right wing section. She doesn’t even bother shuddering at the claustrophobic effect- it’ll let her fly, after all. Having her real wings trapped inside is nothing next to losing Canterlot- or her sister. Even as she attaches the other, her wing instinctively presses against it- which she ignores, until after it spreads effortlessly. Her left wing quickly follows suit, and she glances back only momentarily- that was unexpected. Whatever- her helmet is on and Sergeant is helping her pull the weapons out, sticking them to her armor and preparing them the way he’d been shown earlier.

Score- that includes another of the massive things he’d used earlier.

She makes sure to stick every last one onto her armor. Sergeant warns her they seem to have limited ammo, like a bow and arrow- just there’s a lot of arrows to go through before it does. Like any good archer, she wants to have as many arrows as possible.

It would seem she’s not the only one. Several spiders are skittering up to her as she finishes, carrying some more long things- more weapons? She’s not certain, but they do look interesting- like a pile of tubes and some kind of bracket. Javelins? She’s tempted to decline, but reminds herself the weapons she’s already wearing are a lot more useful than they look- even her sword is! So, she does as they seem to want, and spreads her wings.

First, they attach the brackets to her armor. One goes on her back, and one under each wing. Then, the little javelins. The biggest two go on her back, angled slightly outwards, while the rest- of three sizes, all much smaller than the two on her back- go under her wings. Of these sizes, she counts four of the biggest, six of the midsize, and twelve of the smallest. Once they’re all attached, she shifts on her hooves, testing the weight- and rolls her eyes to herself. Exactly as Applejack had said, the armor was taking the weight off of her. She can only hope they won’t slow her down too much.

One last spider runs up, something small and wedge shaped in its claws. It sticks it on her back, right between the two long things- and she gets the idea it’s not a weapon; it locks on like another piece of armor (or those brackets) had, not like the black sticks (or javelins) had. Then, with a final glance at the receding spiders and quick review of the ponies she’s leaving behind, she rushes out the door. She feels her weight disappear as she spreads her wings, already kicking off from the railing- and jumps almost instantly to Rainboom-rivalling velocity with only a single stroke. The next stroke propels her far beyond.

Canterlot, here I come.

I notice a fluctuation in the sunlight. Possibly a solar flare- though it’s inconsistent with that.

0.832 seconds later, however, it stops completely.

My enemy, presumably, has either extinguished or hidden the sun.

I change course for the nearest ocean, only 7.14 kilometers ahead, and accelerate slightly as I engage my maximum stealth capability. I should be completely invisible to even Concordiat sensors; even so, I will not take chances. Not when I may be these ponies only hope against it.

The ponies on my deck have taken alarm. General seems to know what is causing it- and I hear the word I suspect means ‘armor’ used in a question directed at Hellbore. Her answer is a nod. Her second question- also answered by a nod- I do not understand at all. Even before her third question is answered by the intended recipient, Sergeant takes off into the troop compartment. This simple act suggests, with 73.94% certainty, she is asking after her own armor; I am beginning to suspect the Enemy managed to cast their drain spell on her, but not to completion; she has not flown nor used magic since the battle, despite multiple occasions such would have been advantageous in.

I make an executive decision. Without my Commander present, and with no UCA recognized, I have no higher authority to turn to. I begin the manufacture of a new weapon system, to attach to her armor. Whatever this issue is, she seems to believe she can do something about it, with her armor. I wish to be certain that, no matter where this mission takes her, she has the firepower to eliminate any threat that gets in her path.

So, by the time she starts donning the weapons, I have spiders on their way to deliver a new missile system for her. Twelve dogfighters, six quarter-ton, and four half-ton under her wings. I also attach a small countergrav module and extra power cells to her back, between the heaviest weapons, to accelerate her journey. I do not know how far she is going; she may well leave my own range and, with this module, will likely significantly outpace my drones.

Once she takes off and corrects her course, I turn to follow. What the two hundred-ton weapons on her back can’t handle, my eight 290-cm main battery Hellbores probably can. I also load my two Hellrail turrets, designed for use against orbiting starships out of Hellbore range. They are also useful against lunar installations, if need be.

Author's Note

There Is No Kill Like Overkill, is there?

I really wonder what he expects to find.

Chapter 11 Author's Note

CLIFFHANGER ALERT!

As always, I cannot make any guarantees on the timing or eventual existence of any chapter that has not yet been published; I publish them as I write them.
My drive on Alloyed Hope has been fading lately; I may not be able to complete the next chapter satisfactorily for some time, if at all.

Be warned.

Chapter 11

She rockets across the sky. Her destination is many miles ahead- but the spells on her Royal Armor- thank Celestia she hadn’t had to ditch it!- are helping her with navigation. Thus, she’s certain she’s flying straight towards Canterlot. Something appears in her visual field- something she realizes is part of her new helmet, which had closed as she left. A projection, much like a unicorn one. It shows her a nondescript pony- clearly a placeholder, given its non-expression and non-motion- using the weapons she’d stuck on. All the long black things- each and every one. It uses interesting symbols to show range- for example, with the big giant one she plans on unleashing against Canterlot’s attackers, it shows a snow-capped mountain… No, an entire snow-capped mountain range, with the arrow trajectory- drawn in a dotted line- curving smoothly overtop.

That thing’s got some range. Accuracy, however… Well, presumably it’s acceptable at over-the-range distances, so it ought to be at least decent at a couple dozen kilometers, whenever Canterlot comes into view.

Then, it changes pattern. At one side of the projection, it shows the pegasus figure, wings raised- and is pointing out the various pointy new cylinders. Perhaps now she’ll find out what they are?

She watches its quick demonstration of how to use them- and then, what will happen when she does. It shows the pegasus banking away while the spear twists off on another heading, to locate a crowd of… nondescript objects, where a fireball is shown. Then, that pegasus shows up again, wings outstretched- and it starts telling apart the four sizes, linking them not to different distances but to differently-sized fireballs… Probably relative. The ones on the back, link not to a fireball, but to a mushroom-shaped cloud evidently many times larger than the largest of the fireballs.

So, they’re some kind of explosive weapon, huh? Like the black powder used to fire a cannonball, somehow embedded within the cannonball itself? That won’t be hard to use- and should be convenient, for taking down enemies she doesn’t want to bother pointing a different weapon at; apparently, she doesn’t even have to point these at anything- they’ll maneuver themselves into attack position!

Canterlot, here I come.

General accelerates rapidly to maximum velocity. I had suspected earlier that her existing armor has some magical acceleration to it; back in the Concordiat, even a sprinter can rarely outrun a power-armored Marine, yet she outpaced Sergeant by almost double. Now, I am virtually certain her armor contains some accelerative function; the motions she is making, according to simulations, should have her flying at only Mach 1.39, but she’s easily outpacing my drones at Mach 5.13. I send them both following her at maximum velocity; I will maintain signal as long as possible, in case extra missile support is required. She may have 100-ton weapons, but she only has two; I have almost twenty. That’s not even counting my smaller missiles (down to 5-ton), or my bigger missiles (up to 35-kton fission warheads).

I have not yet manufactured anything for my Heavy VLS; unfortunately, I do not have the resources to do so just yet. Fusion 11 may allow me to transmute materials, but it is slow; I have only been able to manufacture so many missiles so quickly because of their high iron content- and the iron vein I spotted a week ago, fully replenishing my stocks of that particular resource. I am now running low on this as well; the mineral-depleted soil I took aboard is also depleting, though only slowly, through Fusion 11. I have the plant operating at capacity.

1.439 hours after launch, General crosses the horizon from my furthest drone, officially dropping out of range.

How long had she been flying? She doesn’t know- but apparently, it was too long. Canterlot has finally come into view- but her strangely zooming vision offers her images not of fighting, but of defeat. Canterlot has already fallen. She watches as the last few ponies in the city die. Hopefully, the palace guards have managed to keep them out for long enough- and her sister is still alive. If so… She adjusts her own trajectory with finicky precision, even at this velocity, to smash in for a landing, right through the throne room window.

Then, as she looks, her still zooming vision allows her to find the throne room as completely empty. No marks of a battle- no ponies. Celestia is not there. So she shifts her search- and trajectory- to the balcony on Celestia’s bedroom. Here…

Too late for simple thinking- it’s time to start braking for the landing, and her vision is no longer zooming. It takes her two seconds, then she smashes straight through the door, landing hard on the floor.

Two minotaurs and a centaur look at her for a moment too long. They’re close enough- and she’s angry enough- she doesn’t even bother going for her weapons. A couple quick blows and they’re all flying out the new hole in the wall.

Now, a brief glance shows the rest of the room devoid of opponents- and she searches for Celestia.

She doesn’t have to search for long.

The bloodstained sheets tell a tale all their own.

So do the chopped-off feathers scattered across them and the floor.

And the sword and armor, still resting calmly on their pedestals, tells the story of how it happened.

Princess Celestia, her beloved sister, is dead.

She hadn’t even tried to fight.

Luna collapses to the floor, armor and all, and cries.

“Is… Is she okay…?”
Her normally fluffy mane hangs straighter than a ruler. She can’t even bring herself to look.
“We… We’ve done all we can.”
She can’t even blink the tears out of her eyes. She could still see her.
“Will she survive?”
She could still see the mare she had lost. The friend.
“I… I don’t know.”
The one that had been knocked out of the teleport stream midway.
“Is there anything I can…?”
The one with the wild mane.
“She’s lost the will to live.”
The one that had inadvertently given her her cutie mark before they’d even met.
“Why…?”
The one that she had enjoyed so many parties with.
“She lost something, but we don’t know what.”
And so many non-parties.
“Her sister.”
Yes, her sister, in many ways.
“... That would do it.”
In every way that matters.
“Could Cadence help?”
In every way she never could be again.
“She’s in shock. The Princesses are lost.”
Oh, and there’s that one, too.
“What the-!?”
She could never hold a party again.
“What’s wrong?”
She could never laugh again.
“That wasn’t your fault, you know.”
She could never even smile again.
“Are… Oh no!”
She has lost her reason to live.

Chapter 12

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 13

She shudders. Another fireball in Canterlot! She hopes they’re not destroying the beautiful city. They’ve already killed almost everypony- she wasn’t able to save very many.

Then, the Pegasus scout- well, one could call her a scout, but she’s more appropriately called General Dust- lands down next to her, where she’s coordinating the remaining efforts. The Solar Princesses are down, one presumed dead and the other incapacitated by grief. Princess Twilight is still missing, Cadence has disappeared with the Crystal Empire when they desynchronized it with Equestria again, to protect it against invasion. Once the war is over, re-synchronizing it should be fairly straightforward, though it may take a year or two. Until then, nothing can enter, and nothing can leave.

She turns to General Dust, an inquisitive eyebrow requesting the report. She’d asked for a scout- and hadn’t expected the only remaining uninjured general to take the job herself.

“I couldn’t tell what by,” the answer comes, “But they’re getting wiped out- with soap. Whatever it is has some ungodly powerful bow, a really good firing foreleg, and a lot of arrows- not to mention the ones that jump away on their own, change course midway, and end with a fireball. It has to be come kind of enchanted weapon- but it’s well beyond anypony’s skill level, save maybe Twilight.”

“Could it be that ‘hope’ thing they ran into off Fort Dash?”

Headshake. “The reports made that out to be a mountain of metal bigger than the fort itself; this can’t be more than a half dozen times the size of one of the Princesses.”

Another flash of light in the distance. “It’s…” She trails off, staring. “I hope it’s friendly.”

General Dust opens her mouth to speak, but is interrupted by the sudden glow of her conversant’s purple diamond necklace.

Off in Ponyville General Hospital, Pinkie’s ear twitches as her element glows- and less than a moment later, a trail of shocked and startled doctors and nurses can be found from the ward to the front door.

“Anypony in Ponyville?” Rainbow calls telepathically, after touching her element- she hadn’t realized her armor was designed to let her do that until she subconsciously reached to touch it.

“Rainbow!” Rarity’s response comes back almost immediately- but she’s overshadowed by the other voice on the line.

“Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”

“Awesome! Is Celestia okay?”

“She’s… They don’t know.”

Pinkie considers Rarity’s answer inadequate, and provides her own. “She’s alive! Nurse Redheart says she could die at any moment, but she could also live!”

Rainbow pictures Pinkie’s hair drooping in the middle, popping back up at the end. Her tone does that, at least. “Where?”

“Ponyville General Hospital, ward C-3.” An amazingly concise response, to be coming from Pinkie. She must have heard the urgence in Rainbow’s tone.

“On my way.”

“Have you heard about-?” Rarity begins- but Rainbow predicts her question and heads it off.

“They’re safe- Twi, Flutters, and Applejack. They’re coming… two and a half days? Whatever.”

Rarity’s eyebrow raises as they close the telepathic connections. Her friend had almost used Griffish, a language none of her friends (save Gilda) know. She turn towards General Dust, eyes glowing.

The general raises an eyebrow. “Where?”

Rarity accurately guesses the intent of the question- but doesn’t answer it. “Rainbow’s back,” she states. “She’s found the other three, and they’re on their way.”

“Where?”

“She didn’t say- but they’re safe, and going to get here in two and a half days, or so she says.”

Pinkie pauses outside the hospital, waiting to hug Rainbow as she arrives. She’d been dead a minute before- and now she lives! She could smile again! She- Drat, she’d left her party cannon in Canterlot! Oh well- she should still have several dozen in Sugarcube Corner- but if she runs for one now, she might miss Rainbow’s arrival. As much as she’d like to throw a welcome-back-from-the-dead party, some things are more important. Like-

She screams as she shoots up into the air. The pavement had suddenly, inexplicably, exploded in front of her- as if something had landed very hard. She catches a glimpse of rainbow color vanishing into the building as she comes back down- and turns to follow. Ahah! It’s…

It’s Rainbow, all right. Her head is clearly visible, the rest of her is still fading back in from invisibility. She’s wearing some weird metal armor painted to match her coat- and on that, she’s wearing several long black things of various shapes and sizes- and a host of small black spears of varying sizes. Suffice it to say, the trail of shocked and startled doctors and nurses is repeated- and Pinkie can’t seem to catch up.

The disengaged stealth on Rainbow’s armor has faded only halfway by the time she bursts into Celestia’s ward, finds her, and rushes over. Her helmet unfolds and snaps shut for a second, on her motion, and flips back open, refolding itself.

“Her vitals are holding; she appears to be suffering major grief, possibly from the loss of Princess Luna. I expect she has roughly 2.493 days to live in her current state; if Luna is restored to her, I estimate a 96.47% chance she will make a full recovery. Shall I send the footage to Luna?”

Rainbow nods- and answers the Griffish voice in her ear. “Yes. Tell her…” She pauses, and switches to Equestrian. “Ponyville General Hospital, ward C-3.”

Just a couple seconds later, Rarity and General Dust cry out in surprise, staring at the two fireballs on what used to be the main body of the enemy force attacking Canterlot.

Her big giant one ran out of arrows. She switched to the next biggest, still punching through several monsters with each shot- though it won’t shoot itself like that other one did. She still has to pull the trigger for each shot. She’s launched all of the smallest two sizes of javelin thingies, and has one of the four largest ones on her sides left. The two on her back remain untouched- she doesn’t want to risk hurting ponies with them.

Suddenly, a new image appears in her visual field. It’s a projection, like the rest- and she can tell it’s on about a one-second loop… But she sees the magic-powered heart sensor next to the bed- and in that loop, the needle performs the telltale flick of a heartbeat. The injuries almost disguise the identity of the pony in the bed- but she only knows one pony with that color of tail.

Her grief vanishes instantly, replaced by a boiling fury- and, in a glance over the edge of the wall she’s currently shooting minotaurs off of, she designates targets for all remaining ‘splode-o-spears.

I’m not sure how she is using six weapons at once… Was that a teapot!?

These little ones really don’t have very many arrows in them- she’s already depleted many of them, back down to that second-largest one she’d been using before- and, she finds amusing, she still has targets to shoot. The idiots don’t know when to give up.

Unfortunately, if that icon in her vision is anything to indicate, this thing’s almost empty too. Then, she hears a voice. Rainbow’s voice.

“Ponyville General Hospital, ward C-3.”

Now she knows where she’s going when she… Well, right now. She just depleted the arrows in this thing- and slaps it back into place on her armor before taking off at maximum speed. Her suicide charge- at least, what she had expected to be one- is over. Rather funny how not one of the minotaur or centaur weapons had been able to so much as scratch the paint on her new armor- and the defensive spells on her Royal Armor underneath hadn’t kicked in. She swoops through Celestia’s bedroom one last time- sorry, walls- before heading for Ponyville. As she does, she witnesses the two big spears touching down- and realizes she now has first-hoof experience in how mushroom clouds are made.

Author's Note

Yes, it's a short one... And Princess Luna has become not only the first pony to spend 15k railgun rounds in under five minutes (15k magazine, 3018 rounds/min, took 4 min. 58.2 seconds), but the first one to run entirely out of ammo! So what happens in Ponyville when she shows up...?

Chapter 14

One would be mistaken, upon evaluation, to believe that the lack of fresh damage to the roadway meant Princess Luna had landed lighter. As a matter of fact, she had landed close to twice as hard- but her Royal Armor has spells in it, designed for hard landings, that negated her velocity at the moment of impact.

The front door is a different story. Whereas Rainbow had paused- however momentarily- to make sure it was open, Princess Luna made no such check. As a result, fragments of it can be found across the lobby. Nurse Readheart manages to save the next door in her path by having it open; the Princess soars over her head in a blur of navy blue. She might walk through doors, but ponies she will detour around.

Finally, the door into the ward is saved by the simple merit of being left open from when Rainbow entered. The loaded armor stand grasped in one hoof wobbles its way to a halt on one side of the bed while the Princess screeches into place on the other side.

“SISTER!”

Princess Celestia startles awake, letting out a pained yelp when this torques her injuries. “Wha… Luna?”

Luna, her faceplate already standing open, bows her head. “I thought you dead.”

Celestia blinks, smiling weakly from her mattress. “I thought you dead.”

“That would explain the sun.”

“What about the moon?”

“Ahh… The centaurs managed to start their curse right before I teleported home. I took him down- hardly a week to full health.”

“Then how…?” Her reviving eyes cast themselves down at her armor… and weapons.

Luna glances down at herself. “Hope. That wall Discord summoned… It’s moving, and fighting for us.” She smiles. “The war’s as good as won.”

“And that…?” A faint hoof gesture, immediately followed by a wince.

“The armor? Hope provided it… It goes overtop my Royal Armor.” She glances back at the big black thing- the one that had shredded everything she pointed it at. “It ran out of arrows.”

Author's Note

Yes, this is the final chapter, the end of the story.

Yes, I plan to make a sequel. Not sure what plot it'll have, though- I'm open to ideas.

At this point, Hope has:
- Major hull breaches, but all (important) systems are protected
- Little/no resources with which to operate repairs/resupply
- Effectively limitless fuel, and the ability to (slowly) manufacture resources
- Approx. 200 missiles, all with chemical warheads
- Probably a few (like, single-digit) unspent rounds for anti-personnel flak cannons or ring penetrators
- ~25% hydrogen stowage for energy weapons (effectively unlimited, against Equestria-scale threats)
- Countergrav-based flight capability, though only very slowly; repairs have not prioritized countergrav
- Total invisibility that Rainbow (and only Rainbow, right now at least) can see through

No, none of that was a spoiler- all this information was offered throughout the story, often blatantly.

Chapter 6

“Princess?”

Princess Luna turns towards the guard returning from the front; they had completed their mass teleport to the pad in the back of Fort Dash just eight seconds ago. “What is it?”

“The walls have not been breached, so much as removed. Something- my guess is a very powerful magical weapon- made a crater half the size of the fort, right where the gate once stood.”

“Say what now?”

That was a fairly risky, yet easy, battle. Our target is wearing a necklace, similar to the yellow pegasus’, that she donned immediately after my mortar bombardment; she has a good strong kick, as well. Radio- my current nickname for the aforementioned pegasus- then landed nearby, galloping up; it is clear they recognized one another, even through the armor. This is good; I colored the armor to allow for maximum recognizability without making it look weird. After our target- nickname ‘Apple’- dodged an enemy sword strike, Radio put her armor’s strength assist to use and started kicking hostiles. She also started using her wings as weapons; I observed wingless hostiles flying as high as 93.41 meters.

Next, Sergeant- my nickname for the surviving soldier; if the pony ranking system is similar to the Concordiat’s and I have correlated the emblems on soldiers in the fort correctly, that is his rank. He landed shortly after Radio began her show, and immediately offered the hostiles a practical demonstration of the killing power of the MK IV Magnetic Pulse Rifle (Modified). My modification to the weapon is only in the firing gear, such as to make it suitable for a pony to use; function and power remain unchanged. Apple watched him for a couple shots and took a position between the two, striking at any hostiles that attempted to slip in an attack at Radio & Sergeant’s “unprotected” rears.

After Apple had taken out two more hostiles, I finally made my decision. Radio has previously shown shyness, possibly to a fault; while this conflicts with her angry charge during that battle, she showed no inclination to use any of the weapons I provided- even the laser stun guns built into her faceplate. Additionally, Apple had demonstrated the strength to absorb the kickback of the MPR(M)- alongside enough brainpower to use it safely, even without the instructional material I provided Radio and Sergeant. Thus, I remotely disengaged the maglocks holding Radio’s MPR(M); as intended, as Radio ignored this event, Apple retrieved it, studied Sergeant’s stance briefly, and took aim.

I cringed inside at her initial stance; she had first assumed one similar to Sergeant’s, but she lacks the mass of the MK XIV Hostile Environment Exoskeletal Armor (Modified) I have provided him. Without that mass, the weapon would likely knock her over, possibly hurting her. She aims and fires- and, as expected, it knocked her over. She demonstrated a greater level of resilience than expected, though, and hopped right back up, apparently unharmed; she then demonstrated an understanding of physics in her new stance, which allowed her to transfer the kickback into the ground at her hooves with minimal difficulty. My tactical cores cannot devise a stance that would offer more than 3.39% greater dissipation.

Apple’s aim could use some work- but is far more accurate than I expected. Perhaps she participated in military exercises at some point? Her aim is approximately 4.17% better than Sergeant’s would be without his HEEA(M)’s aim assist.

The MPR(M) has deep magazine capacity, but it’s not infinite. Sergeant managed to deplete the 200-round magazine in 2.31 minutes- or approximately one round every 0.693 seconds. He averaged 7.49 kills per shot; this beats Apple’s 4.72 average quite handily- not to mention Apple’s 372.41% slower fire rate. He pulled the trigger on his empty weapon exactly twice after his last shot; he may have suspected a misfire, but evidently flagged it as unusable, returning it to storage position. Apple offered hers to him, but he declined, switching to his MK VII Gravitic Pulser (Modified). This weapon possesses only 37.91% the raw killing power of the MPR(M), and a smaller 50-round magazine, but he has two of them- and demonstrated a willingness to utilize two weapons at once. Apple resumed her fire- and he had a dozen shots or so left in each weapon when I rose over the hill.

Rose is one way to say it, I suppose. It might be more appropriate to say I took off from the hill at 793.41km/h1. I had cast some warnings onto Radio’s and Sergeant’s HUDs, alerting them to my fire plans; Sergeant responded as any soldier might, moving quickly to cover Apple against any possible missed shots- and probably assuming Radio’s armor would protect her. My first tertiary Hellbore fired just 0.731 seconds after takeoff; hardly 1.683 seconds after takeoff, one of my antipersonnel flak cannons released the last low-yield volley, and the last hostile met its end. So, easy. All three ponies then looked around the battlefield as I landed and decelerated towards them. My countergravs remained offline through the entire jump, lasting almost 18.491 seconds. Had I used regular yield ammo in the flak cannons, they would have torn through the HEEA(M)s like tissue paper.

Once I pulled up and dropped a loading ramp, some words were exchanged. I have not yet gathered enough samples- or assembled enough algorithms- for any understanding beyond that which Radio likes saying when I give her stuff, which appears to be an expression of gratitude, similar to ‘thank you’. I have taken to responding ‘you’re welcome’ in Concordiat Standard, whenever she uses those words. Even so, with the addition of Apple, not only have I needed to apply nicknames to them- not numbers, those are boring- but I expect there will be an increase in conversation- thence, lingual samples. Once all three are inside, I retract the ramp once again and set out, scanning the ground around. I also delay Fusion 11’s ignition by another 1.42 minutes by replenishing their spent ammunition and assembling a third suit of armor for Apple. She will be able to control its wings effortlessly, through the powerful neural hardware built into the backplate, as if she were a pegasus.

Applejack had returned the weapon to Fluttershy before they started their journey up the ramp. Fluttershy hadn’t realized it had fallen, of course- and they trot gently up to the top. Before they even reach the top, though, spiders are already showing up- only a couple, though, carrying a couple little metal blocks, not unlike the ones she and Sergeant Stone had inserted into their weapons. Sergeant Stone cringes, but forces himself to remain calm- even if he has to stop walking to do so. He watches as one spider reaches up to the depleted weapon on the outside of his foreleg, popping out the rectangle thing- and he notices the end that pointed into the weapon had changed in appearance as it slips in a new one.

Another thing- that little bar that had slowly shrunk to nothing as he fired that weapon snaps back to full. He’d wondered what arrows it was using- but could those tiny little rods, hardly a centimeter in diameter, have possibly punched through so many centaurs on their own? Perhaps that’s why the weapon doesn’t look anything like a bow, he guesses. He watches as they perform a similar operation on the smaller ones he’d switched to, restoring those quarter-full indicators to full.

Applejack, having watched the whole thing- the same had been done on Fluttershy’s big weapon- then speaks up. “What are they doing?” she asks.

Sergeant Stone answers verbally while Fluttershy shrugs; it would seem his experience as a soldier is offering him insight into the matter. “It’s some kind of quiver,” he answers, “for whatever it is these things shoot. I’d guess there’s a reason they swapped them out for new ones instead of refilling.” He shrugs; the spiders have disappeared- and besides, he’s well on his way to curing his arachnophobia, what with spiders giving him this magic armor and weapons. “We were headed inside- unless there’s somepony else nearby?”

Applejack’s hoof rises to touch her Element, and it glows gently when she does so. Silence holds for a second, and she shakes her head as the glow fades. “Nope.” They then finish their journey, stepping through the door to the room inside it- where the two armored faceplates slide open automatically.

Fluttershy does notice when it begins moving again, though the motion holds to a soft undulation, only noticeable if she looks for it. “We’re moving again,” she mutters, glancing back out at the door.

Applejack nods. “We’ll probably want to check every so often, just in case.”

“This wasn’t a minotaur weapon,” the general states.

Princess Luna nods. “I was thinking the same.”

Rainbow drops back down out of the sky. “Something huge left tracks across the foothills, too.”

Luna raises an eyebrow. “Follow them.”

Sixty seconds later, the ruined Fort Dash lies abandoned once again.

She huddles under the tree. It’s a good hiding place, clear of prying eyes and hidden from passing wildlife. Here, she keeps a constant watch while she rests. She’d run out of magic earlier, in a spell to locate all the Elements of Harmony; she’d been able to confirm they were all alive, despite being scattered half across Equestria. She’d been startled to discover Fluttershy’s condition- but her friend had been reunited with her Element, despite having the lifeforce drained out of her, so she must have pulled off a better escape than her own.

She’d been tempted to run in that direction, but her strength simply would not hold up- besides, Applejack was with her, no lifeforce lost and equipped with her Element. She can only hope this is still the case; the shy mare has difficulty fighting to protect herself, while her farmer friend might even be too good at that for her own good. She shudders, thinking once again of her own escape.

They had come upon her almost as soon as she’d run out of magic. She hadn’t the power left to evade capture, so they had caught her- and, apparently, a nearby unicorn guard that had also recently run out of power. They had taken her crown, beaten her up. Worst, they had used their evil lifeforce-draining spell.

The unicorn had saved her, at the cost of his own life. He had spent his lifeforce- rather than his magic- to teleport her to safety. She didn’t even know his name, but he had willingly given his life to protect hers. Now, she’s attempting to survive in this forest while she gathers her strength. She doesn’t know where in the world she is. She doesn’t know if she can survive to find the nearest fort. Score, she doesn’t know why the ground is shaking.

Author's Note

1 793.41km/h = 493.00mi/h, or approx. 64.25% the speed of sound. It doesn’t take much of a hill to make a long jump at that speed.