It Was a Pleasure to Burn

It Was a Pleasure to Burn

Fire washes the skin off the bone and the sin off the soul. It cleans away the dirt. And my momma didn’t raise herself no dirty boy.

III - ...Lest They Rise From Their Graves Seeking Vengeance

__________

After what seemed like an entire day of fighting, the Zerg forces finally abated. The Dominion troops had been in sustained combat for such a long time it took them several minutes to realize that the fighting had stopped. After an hour of keeping watch, the troops finally decided to rest easy.

Caulk scanned the battlefield around him. The amount of carnage around him was staggering. Corpses from both Terran and Zerg races littered the ground, few in one piece. What bothered him the most was seeing the holes in the glass visors of the marines where the hydralisk spines had entered. Most Terrans visible were Dominion troops, but here and there were the blue-armored bodies of Raynor's Raiders. The devastation was sobering, but as with the Torrasque, he felt no sadness or anger.

As he contemplated his lack of emotion, Caulk heard the rumbling of thunder in the distance, and began to notice what looked like a water droplet roll down his visor. Had something sprung a leak? No, there was nothing near him that contained water. It took him a moment to realize it, but it was in fact raining on Char.

Even if it's acid rain, how can it even be possible for water to condense here? Caulk thought as he looked skyward and saw the unlikely downpour intensify. He wasn't complaining, he liked the rain. The sound it made when it struck Caulk's helmet was a soothing white noise that helped him relax when there was a lull in the fight. Caulk's heart was still hammering from the adrenaline during the fight, but the soft tapping of the rain on his helmet began to slow it.

His mind and body now calm, Caulk became aware of a Dominion marine turning on a nearby radio. He recognized the voice coming through as that of James Raynor, whom he had come to respect greatly as a result of the aid he had given the Dominion forces.

*... But it's our sweat and blood that'll make it happen. After everything we've been through, past all the fire and fury, the one thing I know, is that we can count on each other to get the job done. Or die trying, if that's what it takes.*

As he said this, the rain stopped and the thick, sulfurous clouds above Caulk began to clear, shedding a shaft of light onto the small base camp.

*... Because some things are just worth fighting for.*

Wake up, marine.

Wake up.

~~~

Celestia had woken up nearly a full day after retiring to her chambers after having pulled the chariot containing the orange machine. While now fully rested, the ordeal left her more sore than she had ever been after a strenuous exercise, restricting Celestia to her chambers. There, she, Luna and Shining Armor were... "discussing" what to do with the massive occupant that currently resided in the dungeon.

"The inscription said, and I quote: 'HEAVY COMBAT!' I wasn't sure at first but now I know that this thing is definitely a threat to Equestria! We should just dig the deepest hole we can, throw it in and bury it!"

"Captain! Calm yourself!" Celestia had to shout to make Shining pay attention. If he was in hysterics when Celestia arrived with the cargo chariot, he had snapped completely now. "It is not a threat while it remains inactive. We have plenty of time to figure out how we are going to deal with it, and I highly doubt it will activate on its own."

"But what if it does? We know absolutely nothing about it! For all we know it could be a walking bomb! You saw the tanks on its back, who knows what's in those?" Shining was obviously refusing to see any other point of view in regards to the now determined alien war machine.

"Well then, we will just have to hope that fighting us is not its prime directive, or if it is, that we can destroy it." Shining simply looked at Celestia askance, dissatisfied with the decision.

Luna, who had remained quiet up to this point, was thinking about something else that stood out at her in the short inscription on the machine.

Finally it hit her. "It is not just a machine."

Shining and Celestia looked at her oddly.

"What do you mean, sister?" Celestia asked, wondering what Luna had noticed that she had not.

"The last word in the inscription was 'suit.' The machine that we see is just that: a suit." Luna had become ecstatic as she explained her revelation.

"I'm... not quite sure I follow," Shining said with his head tilted in confusion.

"Allow me to put it this way," Luna said, hoping that her analogy would be a relatively accurate one, "the guards here have another kind of armor that is only used in combat situations, correct?"

"Yes, of course. The tortoise-armor," Celestia recalled. The so-called 'tortoise-armor' was an incredibly thick, heavy suit of armor that covered the entire body of a pony. It earned its name because the ponies wearing it moved much slower, and if one were to be knocked over while wearing it, they could not get up without help. She had had the new design of the heavier armor variant commissioned to Rarity, one of Twilight Sparkle's friends in Ponyville.

"Now, if one of your guards wearing these suits, Captain, were to be encountered by a more... shall we say 'primitive' society, they would most likely think of him as being made entirely of metal. Just as we see the 'machine' now."

"So... what you're saying is that we do, in fact, have an actual alien in the dungeon, not just one of their creations?" Understanding flooded Shining. He had been under the impression that the entity in question was just a machine with no real intelligence or free will.

"Precisely, Captain. And if the inscription on its armor is anything to go by, it speaks the same language as us." As she said this, an idea began to form in Luna's mind that she knew Shining would disapprove of.

Fortunately for Luna, Celestia had the same idea. Unfortunately, however, Shining did as well, and he happened to take notice that the two princesses wanted to do it.

"Oh no. Hay no! Excuse me ma'ams, but no bucking way! We are not waking it up!" Shining protested, fully knowing that he would not be able to dissuade the princesses.

"Captain, I understand your concern, but I assure you we are not going to attempt to revive the alien until we are certain that all possible precautions are made," Celestia said, still trying to calm Shining. Luckily, this statement succeeded in putting Shining at ease, while causing Luna to adopt a disappointed look. However, Celestia was not done, "But we are going to wake it up. If it can understand us and is capable of independent thought, we can reason with it to refrain from behaving violently."

Luna perked back up again, while Shining collapsed onto the ground, groaning and holding his hooves to his head. He was really not looking forward to the coming ordeal.

~

Shining Armor had been worn thin. For the past twenty-four hours he had been working to re-organize the guards so that the dungeon would be as well-protected as possible. But it wasn't to keep ponies out, it was to keep its contents in. By now, he had finally been able to take every precaution necessary in the event of the alien's awakening. All of the guards were wearing their tortoise-armor for this. He even had a team of guards armed with an enormous net used to restrain dragons. It had been enchanted by Celestia herself to be near unbreakable by a creature's brute force alone, as well as being very resistant to flame attacks.

Now satisfied that all precautions were met, Shining gave Celestia and Luna the go-ahead to wake the alien. Shining ordered all the guards to be on high alert.

Shining, Celestia and Luna marched into the dungeon, the portcullis closing behind them. They marched down the long corridor to the occupied cell. Opening the window slit, Celestia could see that it was still unconscious. Before she gave the order to open the cell, she hesitated for a moment. What would happen if they couldn't prevent it from breaking into violence?

"Open the door, Captain, but be ready to close it right away," Celestia ordered.

"What's your plan, princess?" Shining asked, noting her hesitation.

"We go in, cast the spell to wake it up, and immediately leave and close the door."

Shining was glad that the princess was at least not leaving their personal safety to chance. His horn glowing purple, the heavy machinery for the door turned on with a loud rumble, opening it no more than was necessary. The princesses slipped in, with Shining staying outside, ready to close the door as quickly as possible.

Now that they were in the more brightly lit cell, Celestia could see the alien in better detail than in the cave she had found it in. She noticed that the back of its massive gauntlets held the highest concentration of scrapes and dents, which she assumed to mean that its preferred form of melee combat was a backhand swipe. Judging by the size of the gauntlets, it would be capable of crushing every bone in a pony's body with one good hit. Yet another thing she noticed that Celestia could not see in the darkness of the cave was a hole about as big around as her hoof between the two cones on each gauntlet.

Luna noticed these holes as well, "What do you suppose these cones and holes are for?" she asked.

"Some kind of weapon, maybe?" Celestia wondered.

"They do not look like any kind of weapon I have ever seen."

Celestia sighed. These creatures probably had weapons beyond her wildest dreams, and they were going to awake one who wielded them.

"Come on, Celly, we're not getting any younger here," Luna said encouragingly.

Standing on either side of the colossal alien, Luna and Celestia began to cast the spell to wake it. While casting it, Luna noticed that the spell was far easier to cast than she expected. The creature glowed in a bright white cocoon of energy. The instant the spell was complete, the two sisters dashed out of the cell, and Shining closed the cell door with a loud boom.

The three all looked through the window slit to see what would happen. As they watched, the white glow surrounding the alien faded into oblivion. Ten seconds passed.

"How long does this take to work?" Shining asked, apparently growing impatient.

"Give it a moment..."

Thirty seconds passed.

A minute passed.

A half an hour passed.

After about an hour of waiting, it became painfully apparent that the creature was not going to wake up any time soon. Shining closed the window slit and the three exited the dungeon somewhat dejectedly. Shining informed his chief lieutenant of the failure, and continued on into the palace.

The three sat in their private conference room to discuss how best to wake the alien.

"The typical awakening spell is out of the question, but I do not see what else we can do to wake the creature," Celestia said with a groan.

Shining had become a bit more supportive of the idea once the dungeon had been placed under maximum security, "I think the problem we have is that we know what we want to do, but we don't know how to do it."

"The Captain is right. We have every question that we need to wake it answered except for the 'how,'" Luna agreed, "So now we need some way to go about this."

Celestia thought for a moment. "What about the Elements of Harmony? They seem to possess some kind of direction. As long as you have a definite objective, they find a way to get to it."

Shining was suddenly very upset at this proposal. "WHAT! Princess, I have enough of an issue with getting anypony involved in this, but I'm not going to allow my sister to be put in the way of this thing's path if it turns violent!"

"Shining Armor!" Celestia shouted, once again attempting to calm Shining down, "Twilight has already been in more dangerous situations than any of your guardsponies and came out of them unscathed. I think she will be able to avoid harm!"

"A-apologies, your highness," Shining said, making a conscious effort to calm himself down, "I've just been stressed out by this whole 'alien warrior' thing."

"We understand, Captain," Luna said, "We will give your sister and her friends a choice in the matter and we will inform them of the risk they are taking. Will that be satisfactory?"

Shining sighed, defeated. "Yes, ma'am. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to catch up on sleep." With that, he exited the conference room for his home.

"Say hello to Cadance for me," Celestia called as he left. Turning back to her sister, she said, "I suppose I'd better go write to Twilight now. I just hope she and her friends will agree."

~~~

Twilight awoke to find the sun glowing through her bedroom window. That was quite a bit later than she usually slept in, as Twilight would typically wake up just as the sun was beginning to rise. She considered berating Spike for letting her sleep in so late, as he knew she had always religiously kept a detailed schedule. After a moment's thought, Twilight figured she would let it slide, as it felt good to get to sleep in.

Pulling herself groggily out of bed and onto her hooves, Twilight steadily made here way downstairs into the library's main room. Once there, she sauntered into the bathroom where she took a swig from a glass of water and straightened out her mane.

Just as Twilight re-entered the main room, Spike walked in through the door with his face buried in a newspaper. The tiny dragon lowered the paper and saw Twilight who was now wide awake.

"Oh hey, you're up. Take a look at this," Spike said, pointing out the paper's headline, "Looks like the Princess found some alien machine out in a cave in the middle of nowhere."

Twilight raised in eyebrow. An alien machine? I've gotta read this.

She levitated the newspaper out of Spike's claws, eliciting a "Hey! I was reading that!" and looked at the front page. Sure enough, in big block letters was the phrase: ALIEN CONSTRUCT DISCOVERED, and beneath it was a grainy image of a large, orange mass that looked to be the size of a dozen ponies. Twilight started reading the article.

Following the conclusion of this year's Summer Sun Celebration in the frontier town of Appleloosa, our Princess Celestia returned to Canterlot with a massive machine of alien origin. Little can be deduced from the machine, other than its general shape. The Royal Guard has stored the machine in the Canterlot dungeon, under the logic that the structure has the ability to contain the machine should it turn on.

One day after the machine's arrival, the Royal Guard has begun drastically re-organizing their presence in the city. Patrols are more frequent, and each now has multiple guards in its composition. Near the dungeon itself, the Guard has enhanced the number of security personnel tenfold, and each guard is wearing what is commonly dubbed the "tortoise-armor." Guard Captain Shining Armor had this to say:

"The princesses have decided that they are going to attempt to reactivate the machine. I don't want to take any chances with it, so security in the city is being tightened up."

Aliens in Equestria? Twilight thought, Even if it is just a machine, this implies that there is intelligent life out there.

Thoughts whirled around in Twilight's mind. Were they friendly or hostile? Did they intend to make contact with us or was the arrival of this machine simply a freak accident? How many were there?

"Spike, how old is this paper?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, I just got it this morning while you were- *urk*" BELCH. Spike coughed up a scroll while he was mid-sentence. He caught it before it could fall to the ground and opened it. Giving it a quick look over, he cleared his throat before reading it aloud.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

It is now that I must request you and the rest of the Elements of Harmony to join me in Canterlot. I realize that you all may have other commitments, but I feel that this is of the utmost importance. Do not worry, there is no present threat to Equestria.

As you may or may not be aware, I recently discovered what the media believes to be an alien machine in a cave between Canterlot and Appleloosa. My sister, Princess Luna, found that the machine is actually a suit of heavy combat armor, thus implying that there is, in fact, an actual alien inside. We also know for a fact that these particular aliens speak our language.

We have decided that we will attempt to wake the alien in the hopes that we will be able to keep it pacified. Luna and I have already attempted to wake it, but we found that our method was ineffective. We concluded that the Elements of Harmony will be the most capable of waking it, and hence we require the presence of you and your friends. I realize that this is potentially a very dangerous endeavor, so we will understand if you choose not to attend.

Signed,

Princess Celestia."

Twilight sighed. "Guess I'd better go get the girls."

~

Thanks to Ponyville being a fairly small town, Twilight and Spike were able to find the others in less than an hour. They were all currently in Ponyville's library, where Spike had just finished re-reading the Princess' letter.

"Wait, so that thing is a real alien!?" Rainbow Dash was bouncing with excitement at this. "That is so awesome!"

"Ah'm gonna have ta agree with ya on that, Rainbow, but Ah really think we should consider this more," Applejack said, making Rainbow glower slightly, "Ah mean the Princess said it's wearin' a heavy combat suit, right? That means this thing is a warrior of some kind. It might not be the best idea ta wake it up."

"Yes, but if we help it, I'm sure it will be grateful and at least not attack us," Rarity reasoned.

"Probably, but we don't know anything about these things. For all we know, fighting could be central in their culture," Twilight said, apprehensive about the idea of waking up the alien.

"Ah kinda doubt that for some reason," Applejack said, contradicting what she thought earlier, "Ah mean if they were constantly fighting each other, how would they be able to work together long enough to build spaceships?"

"Maybe if we throw a party for it, it'll make it happy and won't want to attack us!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly.

"I hate to break this to you, Pinkie, but I don't think a party can solve everything." Rainbow pointed out, making Pinkie look slightly depressed. Rainbow pat her on the back to try and cheer her up.

"Well... um... it could turn out to be really nice. Just because it's a warrior doesn't mean that it has a bad personality." Fluttershy finally spoke up.

"Right, and we are going to be in the company of both of the princesses and the entire Royal Guard. I think we should be safe there." Rarity brought up.

Twilight thought for a moment. If the alien was violent, the princesses and Guard could restrain it. If it was friendly... Twilight couldn't think of any negatives. If they chose to do nothing, the alien would probably wake up on its own eventually.

"Well, all in favor of waking it up?" Twilight prompted, to which each pony--and dragon--in the room raised a hoof or hand.

The decision made, Twilight began voicing the confirmation for Spike to send to the Princess.

~~~

After Celestia had received the letter from Twilight saying that she and her friends agreed to help wake the alien, she dispatched a chariot to bring them to Canterlot. The flight had been uneventful enough... for Twilight and her friends of course. The guards pulling the chariot, however, were somewhat less than thrilled with having to carry six ponies plus a dragon that refused to quiet down about the alien.

After they had arrived in Canterlot sometime around noon, the chariot's guards led them to the palace where they were taken directly to the Princess' private conference room. Within were Celesta, Luna and Shining Armor. The guards left soon after, and while they were polite enough, Twilight could tell they were annoyed beyond measure by their behavior on the chariot.

"I'm glad you all decided to come," Celestia said, "But I feel I must put emphasis on this: are you sure you want to be involved with this? It could mean your lives if this all goes haywire."

"You bet we're all for it! We can put this thing down if we need to!" Rainbow spoke for them all. While laying it on a little thick, she still hit on what they all were thinking.

Celestia sighed. She had lost track of all the ways this could possibly go wrong, and there was no way she could think of them all. "Very well then. We can start immediately if you wish." At this, the girls all nodded vigorously. "Right, then. Captain Shining, could you fetch the Elements of Harmony for us?"

"Right away."

"Now, while we wait, does anypony have any questions?" Luna asked, finally speaking up.

"What exactly can ya tell us about this thing?" Applejack asked. This was a question that had been on all their minds; up until now, they did not know much of anything about the alien. All they knew was that it was some kind of armored warrior.

Luna sighed. "Not much, to tell the truth. The best we can say is that it is a kind of bipedal, plantigrade creature with two arms and five digit hands with one thumb. Based on the inscription on its armor we judged that it speaks, or at least understands our language. If the armor itself is anything to go by, they also seem highly skilled in metallurgy and engineering, which I think would be unsurprising."

"So is there anyway the spaceship it came in on could be nearby?" Rarity asked. Aliens came with ships, right? That only made sense.

This time, Celestia spoke. "I do not think it came here in a spaceship, or anything of that like. When I found it, it was in front of a large, glowing ring that died out when I approached it. We believe it to be a portal of some kind, but the design of the portal and our... "guest's" armor are too different to be considered from the same species or nationality."

"So... there could be a bunch of other aliens out there?" Fluttershy peeped out.

"So far as we know, there have been at least two. Whether or not they existed at the same time is debatable."

It was now that Shining decided to walk into the conference room, levitating the chest containing the Elements alongside him. "All right, everypony ready?"

The girls all jumped to their hooves, eager to see the alien with their own two eyes. They all filed out the door, and as they walked, Shining drifted next to Twilight. "Are you sure about this Twily? If this thing wakes up ticked, I'm not sure if we can stop it."

"We came this far, Shining. I'm not backing out now."

Shining looked concerned, but otherwise did not say anything in opposition. Soon, the group arrived at the cavernous dungeon, and uneasily made their way down, the tension in the air increasing with every step. Eventually they arrived at the giant steel cell door that housed the alien.

Shining's horn glowed and the door rumbled open about a dozen hooflengths. The group filed in, with Shining staying outside, ready to slam the door shut. As Twilight and the rest beheld the enormous alien, they all stared at it in wonder. At least, everypony except for Rarity, who was struggling not to gag at the sight of the atrocious design of the armor.

"Y'all right there, Rares? Lookin' a little green 'round the gills," Applejack teased, fully knowing what she was getting worked up about. Rarity simply glared at her, earning a laugh from Applejack.

"This is your last chance to back out," Celestia warned as she passed the Elements to their respective owners. She was met only with silence and a group of unwavering ponies. She wasn't sure if she should be impressed or concerned by their resolve in this situation.

"Now, this is the way it is going to happen: We are going to attempt to wake it using the Elements, and as soon as we are done, we will exit the cell and Shining will shut the door," Luna explained. Clean and simple. Things like that always worked best, in her opinion.

Each of the six Element bearers took a position around the alien's form, with Twilight at its head. Reaching out with her magic, Twilight linked herself with the Elemental tiara on her head, and used its connection to all the others to link them into a single unit. Channeling the energy from each of the Elements into hers, Twilight then attempted to connect to the alien's mind. A white beam of light connected each of the gems of the Elements, and focused in on Twilight's, which then had another white beam that connected to the alien's helmet. Luna and Celestia watched in wonder as the alien began to glow with a white aura.

Twilight didn't know what to expect inside the alien's mind. It was a cloudy haze that was full of... stuff floating around. What that stuff was, Twilight had no idea. The only thing she could detect was pain. Unimaginable, incomprehensible, mind-twisting pain. Not wanting to be in the alien's mind for very long, Twilight poured the energy from the Elements as quickly as she could. She could sense the magic from the Elements manipulating and moving things around in the haze of pain, but she could not observe what it was doing no matter how hard she tried. Finally, after what seemed to be only a few minutes, the process stopped on its own, without having changed much that Twilight could sense.

As the six Element bearers regained their thoughts, they instantly remembered what they were supposed to do after the procedure, and sprinted out through the door, which was slammed shut by Shining.

Celestia, Luna and Twilight looked through the window slit at the alien. There they waited again, until around a quarter of an hour passed.

"Did the Elements not work?" Luna asked incredulously.

"I think they did... just not in a way I could understand," Twilight reasoned. She really could not comprehend what happened in the alien's mind. "If they did, I have the feeling it will take a while for them to take effect."

"But... how long will that take?" Fluttershy asked, hoping the alien was just simply a heavy sleeper. Though, she still wondered if there was anything wrong with it.

"I don't know. Hours, maybe."

Everypony, including Celestia and Shining, groaned at the idea of waiting.

"Tell you what, I'll stay here and keep an eye on this thing while you all go wait in the palace," Shining suggested, volunteering his service, "I'll let you know if it wakes up."

~

Shining decided to go and check on the alien again. He had been checking on it by looking through the window slit every half-hour or so. By now, the sun was on its way down, bathing the sky in a beautiful suffusion of reds, yellows, oranges, and pinks. Shining steadily trotted down the corridor, his hoofsteps making sharp clacks that echoed of the cavernous walls.

As Shining approached the cell, something seemed a little off about it. He noticed that the small window slit had begun to glow, incandescent with an extreme blast of heat from the other side of the cell door.

Could the alien be awake? Shining thought, Is it capable of heating the door that much?

His thoughts were cut short by the sliding panel giving way to the intense heat, and from the window erupted a blast of yellow-orange fire that reached almost half-way across the dungeon corridor. Shining watched, dumbstruck, as the dozen hooflength thick steel door turned cherry red, and quickly incandescent. It soon became so bright that it left an afterimage on Shining's vision when he looked away briefly. Suddenly a hole half the size of the door was melted clean through, leaving a puddle of molten metal. From the hole came an even more intense, roaring blast of fire that did go half-way across the corridor, and even further. As the hole reached its maximum size, the roaring flames stopped. The entire process had taken fifteen seconds.

A voice in Shining's mind screamed at him to run, but now his legs were jelly. After a few minutes, the molten metal cooled enough that it was no longer liquid or glowing, but still very hot. Shining watched in shock as the colossal alien stepped through the hole, its feet leaving footprints in the still soft metal puddle. It turned and stared at Shining with a pair of glowing red eyes. Finally, he regained control of his limbs and sprinted for the exit. Behind him, Shining could see the alien giving chase, but thanks to the alien's immense armor it was much slower than him.

Finally, Shining reached the other side of the portcullis.

"DROP THE GATE!" He roared. At his command, the two unicorn guards above the gate broke the chains to the portcullis' counterweights, causing it to fall crashing into place. "Get the net ready!" Shining barked, and watched as a team of pegasi guards spread out the dragon-net, ready to drop it on the alien.

The gate won't keep it contained for very long, Shining thought, But it should at least slow it down some.

As quickly as he could, Shining ran to the roll of paper and quill that he was keeping in case he needed to contact the princesses. Throwing manners to the wind, he simply scrawled: IT'S AWAKE. GET OVER HERE NOW. Without even rolling it up, he lit it with the magic fire that would send it to the princesses. Running back to the top of the ramp, over which was the team of pegasi guards with the dragon-net, Shining saw the alien using its flames--which he found came from each of the cones on its gauntlets--to cut a hole in the portcullis. When it finished, it promptly kicked the loose portion down, and came running up the ramp.

Shining backed far enough away that he would not get caught under the net. As the alien reached the top of the ramp, the dragon-net dropped, making the alien trip and get tangled up into a knot of thick ropes. It flailed its arms and legs, chipping the stonework ground as it struck it, trying to break the ropes which the net withstood. After a few seconds of futile struggling, the alien stopped and pointed one of its gauntlets at a particularly large knot of rope. It let out a short blast of fire, but to no avail.

Perfect, Shining thought with a smirk. They had it trapped.

As he thought this, the alien pointed both gauntlets at the knot, and blasted it with a sustained gout of fire. Shining grew concerned when he saw that the knot was rapidly disintegrating. Within seconds, the knot was burned away and the alien shrugged the net off its shoulders, rising back to its feet.

The guardsponies had now surrounded the alien in a dense ring, which prompted it to now start turning around, observing the circle. Running out of options to restrain it, Shining did the last thing he could do. He approached the alien which was now watching him intently, and cast a bubble shield spell around it, keeping it contained until, he hoped, the princesses could arrive.

The alien began to grow erratic, and swung its massive arm at the shield wall, causing a sharp pain to course through Shining's skull. It swung again, and again, until the headache became too much for Shining to bear, and he released the spell, collapsing to the ground clutching his head. The alien had obviously figured out that Shining was the one who tried to restrain it, and had apparently deemed him as a threat. It walked straight up to him, and now that it was so close, Shining saw that it towered over him, its kneecap being at head level to him when he stood at his full height. It raised one of its gauntlets and pointed it at Shining. He clamped his eyes shut and waited for the blast of heat. It never came.

When Shining opened his eyes, he saw the alien picking itself up the ground, and Luna was standing next to him, her horn glowing a deep blue.

"Are you all right, Captain?" Luna asked, her eyes not leaving the alien.

"I'm fine."

"Good."

The alien finally got back to its feet again, and was now approaching Luna who in turn was also closing the distance. When they were about thirty hooflengths away from each other, the alien lunged forward, rapidly closing the gap. It swung one of its legs around and brought it crashing down on Luna's side, sending her to the ground. The alien then placed a foot on her side without applying pressure, and pointed its gauntlet at Luna's head.