Equestria's Doom

“Pinkie!” roared Dash.

Machine guns screamed around her as the sound of cannon fire deafened her ears. Pieces of debris impacted against her fur and the smell of smoke was her only companion as Celestia’s Majesty rocked under the sudden assault. She became suddenly thankful for her magical armor as embers from burning wood sizzled out against its magically enhanced surface.

Her eyes quickly darted to her left to see a scene of destruction and chaos raging on the deck. Clouds of bat-like demons poured forth from grey cloudbanks to assault a core of soldiers who discharged their rifles furiously into the coming hordes. There were two figures who stood out most clearly amongst the fighting. The first was Applejack, who darted about the deck in a scramble to save lives and kill demons.

The second figure who stood out was Flutterguy and Dash realized with a start why the mysterious stranger had refused to address her. As the pony whipped around with the speed and fury of a thunderbolt to rip off a demon’s head, all while protecting a small crowd of soldiers hiding behind her, Dash realized that even a lifetime of training would never put her or any other pony at the same level.

Her attention turned from the furious fight at her side and to her friend below her. A long, knotted rope dangled from the side of the Majesty and hung out in the thunderstorm. Dash could barely discern Pinkie Pie hanging with all her strength from the rope as the storm raged. Her face opened in a scream that Dash couldn’t hear amidst the gunshots and general chaos of the deckside fighting.

She gripped the rope with her teeth and began to pull with all her might. The thick fibers of the rope tugged at her teeth and threatened to break them loose from her jaw, but she nonetheless strained every muscle in her neck to hold the rope tight. Pinkie, to her relief, began to climb the rope slowly. Fingers of pain streamed from Dash’s neck down to her back and she would have sobbed from the strain of the exertion, had she any energy to spare.

At once, the rope slipped from between her teeth and Pinkie tumbled into the abyss.

Dash stood in shock on the deck for a moment before leaping over the bannister and into the whirlwinds of the storm below.

As she began to dive down, hail and rain bit at her face and forced her eyes shut. She trusted nothing but her own instincts to tell her that she was, in fact, heading downwards and not skywards. No matter how hard she flapped her wings, there was considerable resistance from gusts of air and currents of wind that seemed to be forcing her further into the sky, rather than towards her falling friend.

She pinned her wings to her side and let herself free-fall into the thunderstorm.

The wind continued its assault against her, yet she forced her eyes to open, in spite of the pressure. She could barely see a pinkish splotch tumbling through a nearby cloudbank. She vanished even as Dash watched and she adjusted her trajectory to be closer to her. Now confident that she was at least falling directly onto her friend, she grunted as she spread her wings again and forced herself downwards.

She finally felt herself moving with great speed and the resistance from earlier was gone. The air itself sheared and twisted around her to make room for Dash’s furious ambition. She felt a sudden lack of pressure and dared to open her eyes. She discerned that she had finally cleared the clouds of the storm, from what she could discern.

A landscape blanketed by fog and forests lay far below. Dash furiously scanned the skies in search of her friend and finally saw her. Pinkie appeared as a ball of pink light shooting towards the ground. From how low she was relative to Dash, she knew there was only one thing that had the potential to save her.

Dash pushed herself downwards and spread her wings. She struggled to recall the proper technique and then it came to her. Her lips began to blow about senselessly and the sudden coldness of the air assaulted her teeth and tongue. The sound of rushing air fell away from her as she approached a critical amount of speed.

Then she broke through. Though she couldn’t hear it, the sound of a sonic rainboom exploded into the air.

Dash shot forwards faster than sound towards Pinkie and let out a roar as she transversed the sky. As she flew, the strain of the fight and her flight took her toll on her body and she felt herself tiring.

“Not now. Please, Celestia, not now.” she thought to herself with sorrow building in her heart.

Her breaths came quicker and shallower as she approached exhaustion. There was no more energy left and she was running on reserves that were quickly burning out. Still, she had failed to get close to Pinkie Pie, and her friend had become invisible to her.

Dash felt herself begin to slow.

“No.” she thought in a desperate, senseless defiance.

Energy suddenly surged into her form as if some god had given her a blessing.

She opened her eyes in surprise as her armor began to glow pink. It was becoming hot against her skin and singed her fur to scald the flesh beneath.

“Is this the enchantment?” she questioned.

The armor burst into splinters and fell away from her. She now flew naked, but with a renewed strength that spread from her chest to the rest of her body. Her heavy, aching wings then felt as if they had been replaced with a beautiful design of the gods themselves. Once again, she took deep and steady breaths as her speed increased.

Another sonic rainboom exploded throughout the skies and clouds parted in her wake. The ground itself rocketed towards her, but the pony had eyes only for her friend far below her, visible as a beacon of light that emerged from the dullness of the landscape.

The tops of trees shot past her and she could briefly smell the scent of a forest. Rain whipped against her face and soaked every inch of her body as she twirled and twisted amongst branches and the tops of mountains in her chase. Pinkie Pie was no longer a mere pony, noted Dash, but had become a ball of energy that was almost about to hit the ground.

Dash gasped.

In spite of her speed, her friend had hit the ground, but it wasn’t what she had expected.

“Whoopee!” cheered Pinkie Pie in shock and glee.

She bounced off the ground once, twice, then three times before coming to a still.

Her armor had expanded around her to create a glowing sphere of energy. Her legs comically jutted out from the side of the ball in full extension. Each time Pinkie Pie impacted the ground, she would bounce off of it again, the impact of the fall doing nothing to harm it.

Dash facehoofed.

“Is something wrong, Dashie?” asked an exhilarated Pinkie Pie.

“Well, I guess not. I’m just mad that I wasted my armor just for you to do that.” retorted Dash.

Pinkie Pie giggled and continued to roll about. Suddenly, her armor shattered into pieces and she was naked. Her outline returned to normal and the magical ball disappeared as quickly as it had come. Some of the happiness from the moment before left her eyes and a more neutral look came over her as the rain fell around the two.

Dash scooped up her soaking friend and soared back to the ship.

Applejack bucked a demon’s head and sent its gore spewing across the deck.

She turned around to face another one, an orange beast with horribly long fangs, only for its head to disappear in a mist. Her attention was turned to a soldier. His smoking rifle hung from his side and he gave a curt nod to Applejack before turning his attention elsewhere.

An eerie, flickering light from the ship’s energetic mast cast a greenish glow over the deck. The faces of soldiers battling with demons were illuminated in its glow. Debris and pieces of packed luggage streamed over the deck as the ship rocked back and forth in the storm. It served as a light for Applejack as she picked her way through the fighting, occasionally having to dispatch a demon.

No matter how hard she tried, she could find no sign of Twilight Sparkle.

She became aware of a sound of flapping wings from behind her. Her attention was turned upwards and she saw a pair of bat-like demons carrying something monstrous in their claws. It was a demon more terrifying than any she had seen so far. Its skin was blood-red and its muscles were seemingly swollen from their vast and frightening size. Green eyes burned in their sockets. A pair of titanic, gnarled horns jutted out from its skull and sharpened teeth gnashed together in anger as it struggled against its carriers.

It finally wrangled itself free and fell to the deck of the ship.

Applejack gritted her teeth and stood before the demon. It roared at her and charged.

The mare nimbly rolled to the side as it impacted a wall, only for it to rapidly climb back to its feet. It turned its attention to her and gnashed its teeth in fury. The monster took a swipe at her and she yelled as it smacked into her armor. Her entire body felt sore from the impact and she realized she would have died, if not for the protection of Twilight’s armor.

Applejack snorted and began to furiously gallop away from the beast. Rifles cracked as shots impacted its flesh, but the beast totally ignored the gunshots in its rampage. She tumbled off of the deck onto a lower section, clumsily smashing into several barrels. Her nostrils flared as she detected the scent of oil.

She screamed as the oil ignited to give her a second skin of fire. Her eyes squeezed shut and she awaited a pain that never came. She slowly opened her eyes to realize that a layer of magical energy now protected her. The sudden cloud of magic twisted over her body and enhanced the flames that roared about her. They surged and her form became consumed by fire.

Her eyes opened with a furious intensity to behold the baron of hell approaching her. Its walk was slow and measured as it approached the flaming Applejack.

She galloped towards it and it made the mistake of picking her up. The baron dropped the flaming pony and roared in pain as its flesh was burnt. Applejack kicked the demon and it stumbled back with a panicked snarl, to swing its fist at her again. She allowed it to hit and felt no pain from the impact as the beast landed a solid hit on her.

Fire consumed the beast and it stumbled to the edge of the ship in a blind panic. Applejack chuckled and bucked it over the side. The light of the burning demon quickly vanished as it fell into a storm bank and vanished forever. Applejack turned back from the dead demon and began to trot back into the depths of the fighting.

She suddenly shuddered as her flaming armor burst into pieces and vanished, taking the flames it bore along with it. A sudden chill came over and she was naked in the swirling rains.

Before she could feel any sense of victory, she heard a titanic cacophony emerge from behind her.

An icy feeling crept into her chest and she turned around slowly. What faced her was not just one baron, but six of their number, imps and cacodemons accompanying their host. Each one of the demons stood triumphantly as if they were a monument to her own defeat. They beat their hooves on the deck and began to charge at her with the speed and fury of hurricanes brought to life and given form.

Fear shot into Applejack’s mind and her thoughts became senseless and empty.

Her fear vanished as quickly as it had come. She grit her teeth together to steady herself and furrowed her brow as her tail swung back and forth in fury. She stamped a single hoof down on the deck and lowered her head to meet her attackers.

A mighty hoof swept her backwards and sent her tumbling muzzle over hoof. She looked up from the deck where she lay and gasped.

Flutterguy stood defiantly before the demons, her armor completely gone. A purple buzz of magic enshrouded her skin and her face was bent into a hellish grin. Her eyes looked out with a burning desire in them that sickened Applejack in its clearly homicidal nature.

“Quad.” muttered Flutterguy in a low voice.

She leapt forwards and met the first baron head-on. Its body vanished into strips of flesh and piles of clumped up gore that rocketed across the surface of the deck. Applejack gasped and then began to scoot backwards as bones and pieces of intestines exploded outwards in every direction. Not a single baron stood before the hooves of Flutterguy; every last one that the pony struck died in but a single blow.

Applejack shuddered as she heard a dull laughter ring out amongst the intensity of the carnage. Then she felt a warmth come from between her flanks and realized she was wetting herself. Something about Flutterguy’s rampage was unnerving on the level of triggering some childlike instinct from deep within her past. The feeling of ice from earlier had crept over her entire body and she found it suddenly difficult to move from fear.

“Applejack, dear, are you alright?” called a distant voice to her side.

Applejack shakily arose to see Rarity running towards her. She took note that her armor was still intact. She gave a nod in response.

“I was-” Rarity stopped and gasped. “Who-what-did that?”

Applejack and Rarity turned towards the carnage. Flutterguy was nowhere to be seen and the deck was stained with piles of gore. Blood drenched the mahogany and pieces of skulls and intestines dotted the railings and archways of the deck. Horns and teeth lay scattered about as if a pinata of body parts had exploded over the deck as a part of some perverse, warlike celebration.

“She did.” muttered Applejack slowly, slurring her words. “Flutterguy. Never seen a living creature fight that hard, or that brutal. Saved my ass, I’ll admit, but it was scarier being next to that than a tornado.”

“Dear, let’s get below deck with Twilight, at once!” cried Rarity. She led her shocked friend by the hoof to a door that led into the cabin.

Applejack shakily sat down in the room. Several injured soldiers had been put up on cots, while Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash sat in a corner. Dash had trained a rifle on the doorway and lowered the gun as her friends stumbled through while Pinkie Pie slept in her lap. Applejack noted that Seaworthy was in a cot on the corner with a bandage over his eyes and streaks of blood visible down his side. One of his soldiers worked to fix him up and he groaned periodically.

She suddenly became aware of an incredible pain in her side.

“As I asked, dear, who did this?” asked a crying Rarity.

Applejack tenderly touched her side to feel something wet and slimy. She looked down to realize her belly had been torn open. The flesh around the opening was blistered and scorched from the heat of the flames. As she touched it, her vision became shakier and more blurry. Her breaths felt strained and her lungs felt like tiny sacks trying to contain the force of a hurricane.

Rarity shut her eyes and began to concentrate. “I only know a light mending spell, but you need treatment.”

Rarity shut her eyes and magic gathered around her horn. The surface of her armor began to glow before erupting into an explosion of writhing magics that enshrouded the unicorn.

“It’s not worth-” Applejack started to speak and then began to cough. She looked at her hoof to see it flecked with blood.

A powerful pulse shot out from Rarity’s horn and stuck to Applejack’s side. The magic seeped into the core of the mare and she let out a gasp of pleasure as the wound healed entirely. She gingerly touched the spot where the injury had been only moments before. The nasty wound was entirely healed and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Rarity touched her chest with surprise as she realized her armor had vanished.

“Now where’s Twilight?” asked Applejack. “We need to keep track of everypony.”

“I believe she’s up to something very important below deck.” responded Rarity.