They-Gay and the Warriors of Social Justice

Twilight was watching a holo-recording. There was a ‘trigger warning’ on the ‘screen’, one of many. And her caretaker, princess Sparkla, again started to cuddle with her hands gradually going for pony’s most intimate parts.

It was only a few days passed from the ‘tower destruction incident’ and the vampire princess had already forgotten her lesson. However, this time Twilight wasn’t busy with the spell, so she just removed a sparkling hand with a slight telekinetic push.

“Well. At least I have a decent name now,” thought Twilight, reminiscing events of not so long past.

And suddenly something drew her attention to the hologram. It was something she had never seen before – like a silver river running across the screen. Except its flow was too arranged – it wasn’t flowing, it was… marching.

When the camera focused on the silver flow, Twilight saw that it was no river. It was a road through the forest, and a column of shiny metal machines was moving along it.

Machines had a roughly humanoid shape, only more angular and their ‘heads’ looked more like discs. Judging by the size of nearby trees they were more than three meters high. And their gait was very calculated and repetitive – mechanical. That’s why Twilight decided they were machines and not just people in armor.

Also, she now noticed other machines. They were walkers too but not really humanoid. Two of them had legs like those of birds and one, the biggest, walked on four legs.

“What are those?” asked Twilight, nodding her head to the screen.

“Rush’n bots,” answered Sparkla, in a whisper for some reason.

“Ah! So those are rush’n bots,” said Twilight after a pause. “I saw those things being mentioned in some books.” Indeed, the lightning cloud spell, that Twilight was studying a few days back and that lead to the whole destroyed tower was described as very effective against those Rush’n bots.

“Yes. They are made in great numbers by specially trained bears that are imprisoned in Patriarchy dungeons. Production is always rushed to meet Patriarch’s demand and that’s where the name comes from. Our headmistress explained to us.”

“Is that really so? It seems really strange,” asked Twilight with her eyes widened in surprise. Though that must have been so indeed – headmistress of Magic School was the most trusted and respected cis white woman in the whole Great Rebellion. She was Sparkla’s mentor and probably the only person whom vampire princess would believe unconditionally. “Though probably not more strange than summoning me to help your cause.” Pony finished after some thought.

She wanted to ask something else but suddenly a battle cry came from the holographic projection niche and several silhouettes appeared right in front of the ‘river’ of marching Rush’n Bots. Those silhouettes dashed towards the bots’ column quickly moving into the camera focus.

When attackers were seen on the screen properly Twilight counted seven of them. Three squad members remained at the roadside. They had large tubes that they placed on their shoulders and started to shoot fireballs with them. Twilight was wondering if it was magic or tech but decided not to ask Sparkla for now.

All three “ranged weapon guys” were wrapped in ragged cloaks and had their heads covered with scarves. All pieces of clothes were green with some stains and streaks of other colors to mask their owners among the trees and underbrush.

Four melee fighters, on the other hand, were all dressed in tight and sometimes in quite revealing clothes. One of them, clearly the leader, was wearing a silvery chain-mail that ended with a short, also chain-mail, skirt. The leader’s dark boots were high, so they left just a small strip of sparkly skin under the skirt. Dark violet hair, this time tied into a ponytail. Even seeing from the back Twilight has no doubt now – the attack was lead by princess Sparkla herself.

The very vampire princess Sparkla, who was sitting right beside her in her gothic and rather revealing dress. And as usual, putting her hands in Twilight's hair or other places. But this time all alicorn’s attention was drawn to the screen.

“You were attacking them in broad daylight?” Twilight voiced one of the many questions that popped into her head at once. But probably it was the most appropriate one since this video was supposed to educate her on the tactics of the war with the Patriarchy. And the daylight was clearly not the best time for vampires to rush into battle. Sun was negating most of their abilities, like turning into a mist, plus physical strength and magical power were also reduced.

“At night they make camp. Too well defended,” answered Sparkla. “We were hoping for the element of surprise.”

Apparently, the hope had been realized. Even with the first charge Sparkla and the warriors, she was leading managed to throw bot column into complete disarray. Twilight saw two or three machines immediately exploded and fall in the dust of the road as a pile of metal scrap. Several more lost their heads or limbs, chopped by attackers’ blades. In hands of vampires, whom all melee fighters apparently were, even cold steel was a dreadful weapon. And blades with runic enchantments sliced enemy metal like paper.

Sparkla’s own sword was thin and light. It looked more like a rapier, especially with a fancy golden guard. But she (or rather he, since Sparkla preferred to identify as a man in battle) artfully stabbed Rush’n bots in their joints, making them unable to fight even without being blasted completely.

Despite the initial disastrous blow, bots managed to regroup. They opened fire, shooting energy bolts from their “hands”. One of the ranged squad members, ones that were hiding among the trees, wasn’t quick enough to dodge and got a bolt right in the stomach. Twilight heard a man’s scream that made her veins turn to ice.

And in the next moment, the camera passed the corpse. She knew that this person was dead. Even his limbs were still twitching, life was leaving the body through a large hole in the abdomen. Twilight saw now that under the ragged camouflage there was a full-body armor that even included a mask with a respirator. But that armor still failed to stop the energy bolt from going right through the body.

“You had humans fighting alongside you.”

“Yes. He was one of the allies,” answered Sparkla. “And now you see how Patriarchy took his life without any hesitation. We must fight it, so those people’s sacrifices weren’t in vain.”

“But aren’t Patriarchy has soldiers too? I mean, they are living people, aren’t they?”

“Hey, you chrome-dome morons!” cried Sparkla (the one on the screen), jumping on the pile of disabled or exploded rush’n bots. There were already more than a dozen bots fallen, so the pile looked somewhat like a low but wide hill. Remaining bots concentrated fire on her.

“But they are evil. And more importantly, those white men that are at the top, enjoy their privileges in the White Zone, issuing orders from there. All whom they send in the field are thralls, bots, and things in between.”

“Trolls?” Twilight misheard unfamiliar word.

“Thralls. Battle slaves that were raised in a patriarchal toxic culture. All they know is competition and oppression. Sometimes they use their science to implant tech right into their bodies – they don’t tolerate those, whom they see as weak. But in truth – thralls, bots, thralls with bot parts – all of them are monsters, who don’t have even a grain of compassion for those, who don’t share their world view.”

“Monsters,” repeated Sparkla, for some reason in a lower voice.

While they were talking, in the battle recording Sparkla actually managed to draw the fire upon himself – apparently due to “competitive culture” rush’n bots couldn’t resist a chance to take down so lucrative target. Dozens of blasts came at the vampire princess, but he jumped to the side. Then dashed to another direction.

It was a spectacle – to watch princess dodge bolts and explosions. Like a moth dancing among the flames. And in the end, he managed to dodge all of the shots. Even deflect a few with his rune-covered rapier.

For the moment it seemed the advantage was still at Warriors of Social Justice side – all bots around were blasted or crippled. Only a few retreated to the tail of the column, under the protection of larger walkers.

“But aren’t we technically do the same? We fight Patriarchy because they have different views too?” Twilight thought the fight to be coming to an end. So it was a time for questions now.

But before she got an answer, a terrifying screech came from the holographic niche. And a dark shadow flew over the projection of the battlefield displayed there. Apparently something just leaped from the remaining tail of the column where a raw of bots were still firing at the rebels. And the leap was so huge that the dark thing flew over the scrap hill that Sparkla was standing on again and landed right behind his back.

Was this one of the thralls, Sparkla was talking about? It didn’t seem to have any mechanical parts. It looked more like a monster with a body resembling a xenomorph from Aliens, though more “buff” and less “boney”. Its head, however, was more round, remotely resembling one of Venom, with large jaws and sharp pointy teeth. Jaws were complemented by two mandibles as those Predator hunters had.

Of course, Twilight hasn’t watched (or at least didn’t remember watching) Aliens, Predator, or Venom. For her, it was just a dark, roughly humanoid beast, terrifying and graceful at the same time. And this creature used its pike-like tail to stab Sparkla in the back.

Except vampire princess managed to turn around just in time to parry the blow with his runic rapier. Lucky for Sparkla bots stopped firing, so he didn’t need to defend himself from both sides. Still, the force of the monster tail’s blow was enough to push him back. Sparkla stumbled and fell behind the pile of rush’n bots’ carcasses. Two rebel fighters saw that and dashed to help their leader. One was armed with a huge battleax, another with a scythe.

Fighters raised their weapons over their heads and stroke almost simultaneously. Yet, the Patriarchy thrall caught both of them. Grabbed two shafts with its hands which had three fingers with sharp dagger-like claws. But two warriors didn’t even try to free their weapons – they pressed on, pushing the creature back. Blades of the ax and the scythe drew closer to the beast’s shoulders with each step.

In a moment Sparkla jumped back on his feet and ran up the ‘scrap hill’ to hit thrall from the back. But before the vampire princess had a chance to strike, the creature suddenly twisted its arms in a way that its hands stretched back. Ax and scythe blades were pulled the same way and went down right behind thrall’s backside. Shafts of both weapons dropped on the dark gray shoulders and their wielders found themselves right in front of the beast’s head and its maw.

Before any of Sparkla’s comrades even realized what had just happened, a dark creature stretched its neck and bitten off the shoulder of the one who held the ax. Or rather bitten and ripped off by jerking the head to the left. Then it opened its jaws and a torn hand with a shoulder piece flew to the side. A fountain of blood gushed out of the fighter’s wound, right in the face of the ax wielder’s partner.

Twilight felt sick. This time “trigger warnings” appeared to be justified after all. Even while the pony knew that both fighters were vampires and such an injury wouldn’t be fatal for them, this gory sight made her body tremble.

But the fight continued. The fourth vampire rebel, who was using claymore as the weapon of choice, finished another bot, turned around, and rushed to help. But he (subconsciously Twilight assumed gender as the guy looked like a quite buff male) was far away. But Sparkla finally reached the “scrap hill” summit and delivered his blow.

This time it was the monster, who parried. It made a 360 spin, its tale clashed with Sparkla’s rapier and the force of the blow made vampire princess fall back. Again. Though this time he managed to keep the balance and after a backflip to land into an attack stance.

As for two other rebels, they were just thrown in the opposite direction. The one with a maimed shoulder lost the battleax, unable to hold it with remaining left hand strongly enough. The one with the scythe, however, managed to pull scythe’s shaft from thrall’s grip.

Monster brought its hands forward and looked at the rebel’s battleax in one of them. Then it made a few moves with it, spinning the weapon with quite visible proficiency. And then… made a sound that could be a sort of chuckle, throwing the weapon away.

At this moment a guy with a claymore sword finally got to the monster and attacked with a forceful vertical slash. This time thrall tilted its body a bit, not even far enough to dodge the blow. The sword stroke the carapace on the upper back, just at an angle… and slid down without leaving even visible dent.

“What?!” exhaled Twilight with her jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe that this creature’s skin was tougher than the metal but apparently it was.

The fighter with claymore didn’t expect such thing either. He lost his balance and practically bumped into the dark creature. Thrall caught his hands as if it wanted to help the guy get up but immediately spun around once more, pulling the body into the air. Then it slammed him into the metal scarps.

Twilight heard a moan of pain – apparently poor guy ran into some sharp rush’n bot remains. If he was a vampire it was hardly fatal, but claymore was out of the game now. Meanwhile, the monster turned around and looked towards Sparkla. It spread its mandibles in a threatening grimace. Vampire princess, who was now ready to attack, stayed in place and just raised his rapier in a defensive position.

Suddenly, Twilight realized that a trembling sensation she was feeling wasn’t her own. It was Sparkla’s hands – at least she put them on my shoulders and not somewhere else, slipped out of place thought in pony’s mind – that were shaking at the sight of the dark thrall.

“But she was there. She had returned. She had survived!” as these thoughts dashed through Twilight’s head as she saw, how the creature jumped at its prey.

It was like in slow-mo. The beast grouped then sprawled, flying in the air, towards the princess. It opened its jaws wide, stick its claws forward. Would the tiny rapier be enough?… And suddenly a bolt of light came upon the creature right from the sky. Right in the mid-jump that bolt struck and with a force of thousand people pulled it down and pressed into the road dust.

The dust cloud blurred the vision. Twilight could only discern a human shape in it. Then a too familiar pike-ending tail shot up from the ground. The creature was still alive! The tail bent, trying to pierce a person who was standing on its owner. But a black hand in a golden vambrace grabbed it right below the ‘pike’.

“E-e-e-ehh-h!” heard Twilight as the person in the dust cloud spun around, pulling monster in the air.

The spinning scattered the dust cloud and now she saw clearly a person who was holding the thrall by its tail. The next moment they let the tail go and the dark creature flew away for more than ten meters and landed somewhere in the ditch on the side of the road.

“Take that, you ugly dirty inhuman bastard!” cried They-Gay.

Yes, that was They-Gay – the leader of The Great Rebellion and the most equal among Warriors of Social Justice. Glowing in their hand was a hammer that smashed up numerous opponents. Their hair despite the just ended tussle was standing in a neat flattop. Their dark brown skin almost blended with black tights, making an impression of They-Gay athletic body being naked except for several pieces of armor.

There were six pieces. Two vambraces, that could transform into gloves if needed. Two knee-high boots. Breastplate, that was a bit flat but still large enough to encompass breasts (if They-Gay had breasts). And some sort of metal shorts that actually consisted of several segments, so not to restrict movement. By the way, shorts had enough space for a dick too (if They-Gay had a that).

Of course, Twilight didn’t know if They-Gay had breasts and/or dick, as it would be too rude for her to just come up and ask “Do you have boobs or a dick?”. Twilight had asked Sparkla if she knew, though. But didn’t get any answer, only a lecture about how it doesn’t matter if you have a dick or other things – thinking otherwise would be both sexist and transphobic.

“I see, I’m not late for the party,” They-Gay turned to Sparkla, who was standing in speechless admiration for her idol both in combat skill and in gender non-binarity.

“What took you so…” started Sparkla but then a too familiar screech resounded over the battlefield.

A place on the roadside exploded with mud, gravel, roots flying from the ditch all over the place. And a seemingly defeated monster landed on a road once again.

“That's impossible!” Twilight exclaimed that out loud in frustration. No one had ever managed to get up after a blow by They-Gay’s glowing hammer. Either during training or in the duels at the tournament, when they didn’t even use their full strength.

This creature just shrugged off a blow that was supposed to break its spine in half. And before that, it brought down two vampire warriors like it was no big deal. It couldn’t be a simple slave that does master’s bidding. Because if it was just one of the ordinary battle slaves this Rebellion would be already over.

On the screen, Patriarchy troops went to their last counterattack. Not just the thrall, who ran at They-Gay and clashed with them in a black whirlwind of blows, kicks, and stabs. Rush’n bots that so far remained at a safe distance now ran towards rebels too, shooting their energy bolts. And they were joined by one of the larger walkers too. Chicken-legged, with two cubic missile racks on its side (if Twilight played any BattleTech game, she would say this mech looks a lot like Mad Cat).

Sparkla and the scythe guy ran towards the bots. It was a sound decision – neither of them was a match for the thrall but they could at least ensure that bots won’t interfere in its fight with They-Gay. And for a half-a-minute, they managed to do that. Two blades with the fire support with two remained allies were enough to hold rush’n bots at bay.

Then the large walker fired a volley of missiles. Apparently, without much aiming as some of the missiles had stroke Patriarchy own bots and many more just missed. However, one of the rockets, by mere unlucky chance hit the ground right beside They-Gay and the thrall. The explosion sent opponents to the opposite directions. Both of them flew far away and on their fall scratched the ground really hard. Yet both immediately jumped at their feet.

However, thrall found itself right beside Sparkla, who was too busy slashing the bots to notice the threat outright. And when he turned it was too late – the monster grabbed him with its claws by the shoulders. Then opened its jaws and mandibles wide.

“Sparkla, no-o-o!” cried They-Gay and leaped towards the two.

Twilight couldn’t move. Time slowed again as she watched how the beast goes for a bite. But this time it didn’t aim for the shoulder – it was the princess’ head between the jaws. Twilight saw how point-sharp teeth touch the white sparkling neck. And suddenly she realized that it is her own head that monster is going to bite off. She felt its teeth on her own neck piercing her purple skin…

With an ear-piercing scream, Twilight jumped so high that her horn nearly stuck into the cellar ceiling. She also pushed Sparkla, as it was Sparkla who clutched Twilight’s neck so tightly that her nails dived under pony’s skin, to fall back on the floor. Then with the help of her wings, purple alicorn landed. And she had enough time to see Sparkla.

“Are you out of your mind?!” yelled the pony at her appointed caretaker.

“C-calm down ho… Twilight.” Sparkla said in an unnaturally calm and low voice. “Please.” Now there was a clear pleading tone in it.

“Calm down? Calm down?!!!” Twilight screeched.

“You weren’t ready for this kind of imagery. This recording could be very traumatizing for such a delicate psyche as yours.”

“I wasn’t traumatized by the recording. It was your… You…” Twilight stammered in her furious tirade. Her mind was still processing what she saw in the recording. What was happening there... “It was you! It was you, who was traumatized,” she said in a less loud but still angry voice. “Don’t project your own emotions on me. You were in that fight yourself. Why haven’t you mentioned that from the start? About that super-thrall. It’s clear that it gave you…” Twilight paused trying to remember a psychology book that was one of the first she read to prepare for magic studies course. “PTSD of some kind.”

Suddenly, Twilight realized that recording was still playing. She turned around but it was too late – on the screen Patriarchy rush’n bots were already running away without even trying to return fire. Thrall was nowhere to be seen. The camera was showing woods where large walkers went, also trying to escape.

“How did you…” Twilight saw Sparkla rubbing his (her – Twilight corrected herself – at this moment Sparkla identifies as a woman) neck and swallowed the word ‘survived’.

Sparkla remained silent and Twilight didn’t dare to ask more. After all, she can always play the recording again. Maybe with They-Gay as a guide. For now Twilight decided, she should be satisfied with what she got. And she got more than she was bargained for – the real meat of the action, some first-hand footage of what the Patriarchy forces are.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door slammed open with a loud bang.

“What is going on here, people?” They-Gay asked right from the doorway.

They were wearing the same armor suit, except the body-tights were white. And instead of a glowing hammer, there was a keg of beer in their hand.

“I think your scream was heard all around the castle! What were you doing?”

“We were just watching an education video,” answered Sparkla whose voice almost came back to normal.

“About the fight with the Patriarchy,” added Twilight.

“I’ve should have known,” replied They-Gay and drank all the remaining beer in one gulp. “Ahhh. Patriarchy has some pretty scary shit.” Then they made a pause as if thinking. “Let’s go party, so you could forget about this kind of stuff.”