Arc 4 – Desert Summit Chapter 3 – We meet again, part II

=================================

Rattling her throat with a cough, the inclement air burst into Ash’s lungs as she emerged into another dimension of the desert’s limitless expanse; the sand harboured no hospitality either—instead of soothing her aching hooves, it burned them with its coarse frigidity; of the Sun remained but a reminder—a bloody aurora rapidly fading into the singed horizon line. And to finish the waxing impression that the portal led her back to Canterlot instead, in the blackness shifted creatures of disturbing appearance.

She squinted at the strange equines and a thought visited her mind—with the day burnt away, pitch-black shadows should have claimed the realm as its domain; yet sickly light bathed her surroundings. But before her eyes could even begin to seek that mysterious source of the silver glow, a scream split the night.

“Sister!”

From a spot that did meet her expectations of impenetrable darkness an alicorn manifested—if those desiccated remains could be called such as that ghastly mare had more in common with Nameless than with Ash. Ribbons of inky vapour lashed at the thin dark body, trying to drag those bones with skin stretched on them back into the abyss—or just under the ground, where she surely belonged. The eldritch equine resisted—growling like a feral beast and with a blaze of inexorable determination in her eyes, she pushed forward.

Instinctively backing away, Ash expected to be returned to the not so unwelcoming anymore wasteland that encircled Canterlot. Yet, her hooves continued to sink into the snow-like sand; quickly glancing over her shoulder, she discovered the doorway gone.

The nightmarish creature reacted to her retreat with even more struggle, calling desperately, “Tia, don’t leave me! Please, not again, I beg you…”

More movement caught Ash’s attention—a pony, marred with dirt to the point she nearly blended into the darkness, appeared beside the abominable amalgamation of flesh and night, recklessly close to the churning shadows; she stared at the white alicorn with eyes open wide and mouth agape.

Confused in addition to being terrified, Ash sought Nameless’ skull for any hint; predictably, it yielded no result, though they backtracked along with Ash. To her annoyance, the Machine Goddess expressed no surprise nor did she answer her panicked look. And the others seemed to share her inclination to get away from the shadow-coated monstrosity.

“Sister, don’t you recognise me?” the skeletal equine addressed her again. “It’s me, Luna.”

Glancing behind herself again, the white alicorn considered her options.

Behind her, the desert did end—with a copse of wilted trees that shied from the blizzard embracing Canterlot in its deathly cloak of shifting snow. The ability to fly would have offered her new ways of retreat, but her wings hung as limply as ever and her shaking hooves might soon buckle under her, too. Finally, with the Sun gone from the sky, Ash doubted she could dip into the source of power she shouldn’t indulge in anyway.

Nameless, simply observing what Ash deemed a critical issue, inflicted on her an additional layer of concern—why an entity with the power of a god idled? Was that danger beyond even their ability?

Nevertheless, she wracked her brain to choose the right words to get at least some assistance from Nameless, absentmindedly snapping at the darkness, “I have no idea what you are.”

The night incarnate abruptly stopped—jerked back even, letting the charcoal tendrils slither around her body and limbs; excruciating pain flooded the slit eyes boring into Ash. Then ‘Luna’, or rather the black equine in the heart of the spreading cloud of black smoke, roared in fury, flinging her gaunt frame onto the surrounding shadows.

“You did this to me!” she howled, tearing into the silhouettes knit of fog and stars.

The ranks of half-formed misty eerie figures, who as if tried to drag the alicorn somewhere, dissolved under the strikes of her chipped hooves only to rise anew behind her back—borne from her tumultuous mane whipping in otherworldly winds.

“You did this to yourself, Luna,” a silky smooth baritone commented. “It’s a shame this reunion failed—it could have led to the most curious development of events.”

Every head—save for those of the Machine Goddess and the alicorn warring with her shadow—snapped to the source of the mocking voice.

In a fashion disturbingly not so different from how Luna emerged from the black smoke, a stallion stepped into the moonlight. A crown and a wicked horn topped his head, the latter faintly glowing like a dying out ember; an immaculate crimson mantle flowed from his shoulders, undulating in the night breeze as his confident steps brought him forward.

As soon as his lips formed a smug fanged grin, from the group of equines huddled together a unicorn stepped out, wobbling on her hooves. That didn’t stop her from taking a battle stance; her horn spurted sparks of sunlight and her eyes kindled with wrath, one—a prosthetic—literally.

With a soft clap of air being displaced, the Machine Goddess materialised betwixt the battle-ready mare and the newcomer, facing the former.

“A truce is in power during this gathering.”

Her serene mask gained warning hardness when her intent gaze travelled from one face to another, lingering the longest on an armoured pegasus—who seemed to be the calmest of all—and she even looked at Ash, to her surprise.

That, however, failed to dissuade the bluish unicorn.

“I don’t care—King Sombra is an enemy of Equestria,” she spat. “He’s the enemy.”

The stallion in question chuckled, and she tried to shove the arcanium alicorn away.

The metal statue didn’t bulge; she stated matter-of-factly, “I don’t need a portal to teleport anyone away but I can’t promise opening it at the same sea level as the ground is at.”

The unicorn gave her an incinerating glower—she graced everyone with it—then backed, slumping at the side of another alicorn-like equine, black and reminding Ash of roaches that infested every corner of the Tunnels.

For a few moments, The Machine Goddess kept her gaze fixed on the riotous mare, then walked in the space right betwixt all the ponies and whatnot. Her horn lit up with a gentle white glow and the light swiftly coalesced on the tip of the arcanium spike into an orb; the sphere floated upwards and lingered there, radiating enough light to create a circle of illumination big enough to fit everyone present.

“A good try, but I know you’re here,” she addressed someone in the shadows. “I’m glad you decided to join us after all.”

Ash tensed when a familiar figure walked out of the black dunes—an equinoid so unassuming at the first glance. At her side Nameless instantly started, their hollow gaze drilling into the Prophet.

Despite the goddess’ warning, Ash joined her friend. Though the alabaster alicorn couldn’t help but wonder why Nameless had suddenly found in themselves an intent to deal with the ‘saviour’ of Canterlot and though she doubted she could contribute to a confrontation with him, especially in her current state, she refused to miss a chance to do something that could help Discord.

A copy of the Machine Goddess barred their way.

“Even if your aggression is justified, I didn’t summon you here to let you settle whatever grievances you have—there are things to discuss that are much more important.”

Nameless’ empty eyes sockets locked up with the glimmering eyes of the deity’s double. A few long seconds later they backed away from each other, eerily synchronous; Nameless sat on the sand, prompting a raised eyebrow from Ash. With her hooves already torpid, Ash hesitated to join them, ultimately choosing to stand by their side to eye the Prophet with unhidden animosity and be ready in case he decided to violate the rules.

With peace finally established, if strained—even Luna had come to a sort of ceasefire with Nightmare with the help of the fearless mare by her side—the Machine Goddess spoke, her voice echoing above the rustling murmur of sand and the distant weeping of Canterlot:

“It’s not a secret for anyone here—the realm we’ve been living in for millennia has become unwelcoming. Some might even be aware of how worryingly little time we have before it becomes unlivable.”

The chill of the night air magnified tenfold as those words stole Ash’s breath, replacing it with suffocating despair—she had just escaped a dying city into a doomed world. Her frantic gaze jumped from one face to another in a hope that she overestimated the scale of the problem by the merit of being illiterate; but, no—the expression of deep concern etched itself into the features of every equine present, even of those who supposedly knew already.

Every pair of eyes glued themselves to the Machine Goddess, all enmity towards her or each other forgotten, and she solemnly continued:

“Regrettably, that can’t be prevented—every possible solution is temporary. In a few decades, the decay of Harmony will reach a critical point, causing it to fall apart and the following emission of magic is going to tear apart this planet from inside out.”

Her head turned in the direction of the unceasing snowstorm, her eyes lingering on it for a heartbeat; then her gaze paused on Nightmare and Luna lulled into a trance.

“Even if the Harmony decay is somehow stopped,” she grimly commented on her motions, “this world still will be impossibly far from safe and secure.”

Moon-sized eyes now stared at the arcanium alicorn; even the self-assured king lost his smugness, unwinkingly peering at the equinoid deity from under his furrowed brows. Only Nameless remained unaffected, though Ash could swear their bones radiated deep thoughtfulness.

“However, I didn’t gather you here only to announce our inevitable extinction—it can be avoided if we work together.”

Doubtful looks were exchanged, bearing barely a trace of hope the equinoid’s words implied.

“Despite the advances made by other nations, our collective technological progress is still too dependent on magic, binding the population to the arcanium core. But it can be circumvented—step by step.

“The first part of the plan I offer starts with the Moon.”

Bewildered expressions followed the Machine Goddess’ muzzle raised to the sky, though her focus didn’t go further than the orb of her magic leisurely rotating in the air. In a flash of insight, Ash recognised the similitude of the seemingly arbitrarily created source of light to the pale disk shining forth amidst the twinkling stars.

Half-formed thoughts—questions—infested her mind.

The Moon, once a tale as unbelievable as the Sun… what was it for her? If her designation allowed her to control the Sun, then who moved the Moon? Were they her rival?

Ash clenched her jaws—that last thought as if it came out of nowhere or, rather, a searing hot breath whispered it in her ear. Even realising how silly it was, she flicked it—just in time.

“Its core is also composed of arcanium,” the Machine Goddess explained as the tiny Moon split in two, revealing a glimmering sphere inside. “However, its output is significantly lower. To fix that, the Crystal Heart—last seen at the Crystal Empire—should be turned into an artificial satellite to connect the leylines betwixt our planet and the Moon.”

Half of that flew over Ash’s head, letting her attention slip, so she had found a more surmountable task—observing the others. She watched how on the mention of the Crystal Empire the pegasus stole a glance at the king, unaware of the roach-horse squinting her poison-green eyes at them; and neither of them paid notice to the mare by Luna’s side, who also perked up.

“Nightmare Moon’s palace can be repurposed into a colony and further expanded to turn the Moon into an operating base. Luna’s and Ash’s role in that stage is critical as the celestial bodies and their orbits will need to be adjusted. And the Prophet’s teleportation technology is the only means to create a stable transport route to the Moon.”

Whilst Ash’s eyes bulged out as she choked on her saliva, the Prophet barely reacted to his potential involvement in deciding the fate of all the living creatures in the world; Luna stared into space, her expression blank.

“The final step is to find a new planet to inhabit and migrate there.”

Barely recovered from her shock of responsibilities she had no idea how to fulfil keeping piling on her shoulders, Ash expected the Machine Goddess to add something—that stage direly needed more explanation. Yet silence followed and the gathered began to fidget uneasily, their worried expressions laden with heavy doubt—their lack of faith in the grand plan that grew with each part sounding less plausible than the previous reached an apotheosis.

The armour-clad pegasus dared to speak up first, taking a step forward to proclaim loud and clear, “That’s the biggest pile of shit I’ve ever known—and I had served Queen Chrysalis for more than four hundred years.”

Even as she spoke a unicorn hobbled to her side.

“I’d rather see the world burn than team up with the Ebony Warlock or,”—she shot an accusing hoof at the Machine Goddess—“you.”

The insect-like mare rushed to her side, her predatory muzzle twisted by a betrayed expression. “Wire, it’s our only chance!”

The crimson locks of Wire’s mane swayed as she sadly shook her head.

“It’s a trap—all of this.”

“Stop this.” The obsidian alicorn stomped her hoof, raising an eddy of sand. “What trap? Enough of your paranoia! Our world is dying and you know that—my children are dying!”

Ash leant to the skull of her friend, whispering, “Nameless?”

Thankfully they got the message and their voice matched Ash’s in volume; though she had to remind herself—she could be the only one hearing it, anyhow.

“Waiting: input.”

The white alicorn’s gaze once more studied each strange equine.

Some of them appeared to be mutants—the roach-horse or the silent unicorn with branching horn and ample mane growing even from her neck; King Sombra didn’t look quite right either. However, Ash didn’t want to hurry with such a conclusion—she was wrong the last time, not to mention it turned out she wasn’t a mutant herself.

Whilst Wire and the pegasus could fit the definition of ‘normal’, if Ash ignored how they challenged a goddess without any hesitation, the pony who lurked in Luna’s shadows certainly did not; and not only because Ash failed to comprehend how someone could be dirtier than her.

“Who are those ponies and other…” her eyes flitted to Nightmare. “...things?”

“Variable: Rainbow Dash; designation: weather control. Variable: Tin Flower; designation: metallurgy. Variable: Red Wire; designation: arcane—”

“That doesn’t help.” Ash canned for later the question of how Nameless knew their names. “Just tell me, should I be wary of them more than I already am?”

“Quick analysis: approximately half of the present entities are able to initiate an end of the world scenario. Data: Ash is capable of initiating an end of the world scenario. Conclusion: Ash shouldn’t be concerned.”

She wasn’t sure what Nameless meant—the issue she had with controlling the possessive destructive force or her absolute lack of understanding of how to deal with her new ability to move the Sun.

“They sound like… uh… “ She grimaced at how foalish that would sound. “...Villains. Wait, why are we here? We aren’t anything like them, are we?”

The pitch of the yells two mares exchanged was about to reach a hysterical quality, though Sombra seemed to take great joy in observing how they neared the point of going for each other’s throat.

And before Nameless came up with any answer, the unicorn shouted, “I resign!”

“What?”

“My job as your adviser is to talk you out of any stupid shit.” Wire’s legs gave up and she awkwardly flopped on the sand. “I’ve failed my duties and I quit.”

Astonished silence held reign for a few uncomfortably long moments, then the black alicorn spoke so softly, Ash barely heard her, “And as my friend? Will you abandon me?”

Wire unsteadily rose on her hooves to face her.

“I’ve always been your friend, Del, and I’d die for you. But I can’t help you to follow a path leading you and your children to something worse than a grave.”

Not waiting for an answer, Wire turned away to shamble into the black desert; a portal soundlessly opened before her and she all but fell into the streets of Hope.

Del’s betrayed expression distorted into a mask of pain and rage; though the portal had already closed, leaving no trace of the unicorn, she screamed into the moonlit void:

“Fine!”

“She’s right, you know,” the mare, who Ash deduced to be Tin Flower, coldly commented, walking from the swirling black mist into the light. “You have to be a complete idiot to believe a plan by the Machine Goddess can do you any good.”

“Then tell me, a complete idiot, what solution do you have?” Del hissed at her.

“Solution…” Flower’s lips formed a wry smile; her greasy mane swung in rhythm with the slow shaking of her head. “That amazing plan offers no solution about Nightmare—unless I’ve missed something.”

She then cast an expectant look at the Machine Goddess, but it was Del who answered her, “Yes, you have—nothing can be done about it.”

“I don’t think so. Luna and I are leaving.”

The little sombre mare let the tide of darkness wash her back into the night and Ash witnessed, slack-jawed, how Luna with Nightmare trailing from her mane obediently followed her into the desert.

“What?” Del galloped after her. “We need you!”

Flower sharply pivoted to snarl at the charcoal alicorn, “You don’t need me, you need Luna. But none seem to care about what she needs—help.”

“Have you listened to anything the Machine Goddess said? Nothing will matter if we—”

A harsh bark interrupted her, “Nothing will matter either if Nightmare isn’t contained anymore. And good luck with the Moon—the place where Nightmare ruled for a thousand years.”

Ash glanced at the Machine Goddess—did she know that? Nothing changed in the unreadable mask of the enigmatic metal alicorn; she continued to observe Del’s struggles with as much care as Luna possessed. Suffering defeat in the battle with Nightmare rendered the skeletal mare nearly comatose, with the disturbing hollowness claiming her expression.

Flower’s answer stunned Del, yet she quickly recovered to catch up with her, a worried look darkening her already grim visage.

“You should tell us what you know.”

Her question went deliberately ignored.

Del crossed her path, demanding, “Where are you going?”

Without sparing the insect-like alicorn a look, Flower called over her shoulder, “Luna?”

The darkness around them rapidly swelled and with her eyes wide open Ash watched how green flames engulfed Del, and from that inferno a gryphon rocketed into the sky, away from the malevolent equine silhouettes forming in Luna’s expanding mane.

The half-eagle landed at a distance from the morbid ‘duo’ and emerald fire lit up the sand once more, leaving behind a searing afterimage and a black equine. Her eyes followed Luna and Flower till they completely dissolved into darkness

Del then stared at Ash.

The alabaster alicorn suddenly realised everyone else also shared that expectant look, aiming it at her.

She glanced at Nameless. It still took her some effort of will to not flinch upon meeting the penetrating gaze of the empty eye sockets or not to shudder at the thought of sitting by a being wielding that much power—and apparently not even realising that. But they cared for her and Ash didn’t intend to leave their kindness, no matter how weird, unpaid.

“I noticed something odd about that plan, too,” she hesitantly began. “It says nothing about Nameless or Discord.”

The pegasus—Rainbow Dash, as Ash judged by her mane—snapped her head at the Machine Goddess. “Discord is out? You should know how dangerous he is—no plan has a chance with him roaming free.”

“I can deal with him,” the sinister king spoke before Ash had a chance to defend her friend.

“Discord doesn’t need to be dealt with—he needs help.” Ignoring how she ended up echoing the two young mares speaking before her, she pointed her hoof at the Prophet. “Against him”

The semi-mechanical stallion raised an eyebrow, but abstained from answering her accusation.

Her eyes ran over the faces of those strangers who she carefully observed through the meeting and she continued, “I don’t see why I should trust any of you—only why I shouldn’t.”

Preparing to also follow Wire’s and Flower’s example of facing the desert, she called Nameless, “Are you coming?”

“Affirmative.”

As Ash’s numb hooves carried her into darkness, she heard the Prophet scoffing:
“I don’t need to be able to see fate to tell that your plan was doomed from the very beginning.

Author's Note

English isn't my native language; though I try my best and use various tools to aid myself, I'm aware that a result is far from perfect. That said, if you notice anything that you think should be fixed—please let me know.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this story so far.
Stay awesome.