Failure, Eternally Retold, Part Three: Morality

As soon as Luna heard the news of the incoming attack, she slowed the moon's speed across the sky and prepared herself to drop it back to the horizon if need be. Likewise, she woke up Celestia to to bring back the sun and enforce a sunset. They had been against this idea so as to prevent panic, but with things being the way they were now, a bit of a panic was a small concern. The world could end tonight. A few ponies running around not knowing what time it was would be small change in comparison.

Twilight was also pulled from her slumber, as they needed a unicorn that was not slated for combat duty. They let Spike sleep, as he'd gone over the notes multiple times with Twilight, and even if he hadn't, he'd written it all down in his binder. He'd made a good collection of notes, with detailed descriptions of important parts.

Last to be pulled from sleep was Nik. He was to be the focal point of this operation, and he needed to be in the dead center of the event. With him came the waking of all of the soldiers, rushing to their battle stations to fend off the incoming attack. They'd been granted precious little sleep, so a bit of disorganized bumbling was to be expected, but as long as no harm came of it, it would all be forgiven.

The first strike came as Nik and Twilight were making their way up the hill. They alone would be going to the top, everypony else was to guard their perimeter. They heard a scream as a pony in a black cloak, likely not a pegasus, was launched into the air, then heard the cry stop as they were batted aside by Bone's shield, knocking them away from the hill. Seconds later, the sounds of clashing steel radiated around them as the front line defenses came down at full swing.

"Go, go!!" shouted Twilight, urging Nikolas onward. "We have to go all the way to the top!"

Nik rushed to the platform and kneeled down as directed. Twilight scattered the stones as Spike had indicated as Luna and Celestia wrenched the sun and moon back into the position they should have had for the ritual, with the sun in the west and the moon in the east.

As Twilight began casting her spells, clouds began to swirl around them. They started out white, then turned silver, and finally a dull grey. Tiny pockets of green lightning arced through the clouds, whipping out in every direction. They were dim at first, then gradually became brighter and more constant. Soon, the whole battlefield was wrapped in an eerie green glow. To make things more confusing, a purple haze began to discolour everything between flashes.

Twilight was almost done with her long chain of spells when the green lightning stopped hiding in the clouds, and began raining down around them. To her credit, though, Twilight kept her focus. She took moments between spells to breathe, knowing that she had to keep going. If she was struck by lightning, that would be her end, but she could no more redirect lightning than change the location of Canterlot.

Finally, she managed to push out the last spell in the chain. As the burst of energy leaped from her horn into the platform, a ridiculously loud, exceptionally wide bolt of green lightning struck where Nik was kneeling at the center of the platform, blasting her backward, sending her down the hill. She came to a rest, half conscious, propped against the leg of Princess Luna's tent.

The battle raged on, Bone cackling with glee with every swing of his weapons. He was leaping from place to place, generally being able to defend a point all on his own, but instead taking the time to take the pressure off of whichever place nearby was in the process of being overwhelmed. His love of battle and combat were well apparent.

The army he had brought with them were not doing nearly as well. Having no real mind of their own, their brains essentially just a reacting series of neurons zapping muscles without any real directive coordination, they were handy at first. But then some cultist found out that you could sever the head, and the bodies would just stand there, or perhaps just march. The news spread fast, and the outermost defenses fell, with the exception of Bone.

Kai had pulled out his wings, tying his chest together with rope in the hopes that it would keep the weight of his wings from pulling apart the tears in the skin of his back. The bandages had done their job, but he needed to fly for this. Armed with his glaive and ability to land and take to the sky again with ease, he, too, would leap from squad to squad, filling in at whatever roles he could until the point was stable, then moving to the next, sometimes taking out cultists on his way.

Rainbow and Applejack, not really being soldiers, relegated themselves to carrying the injured soldiers to the infirmary. It wasn't the most glamourous job, but it was a necessity. The sooner they were patched up, the better. If they could go back to the front right away, great. If not, they'd be more likely to survive the trip back home. Unfortunately, not all of them would make it.

That's where Fluttershy came in. She may not have been trained in pony medicine, but she was well-equipped to patch wounds. She was used to smaller injuries, but she knew how to clean cuts, patch punctures, fix fevers, battle bruises and heal harm in general. She was quick with a bandage, and even if she was out of her league with helping the injured, she could help the real doctors perform better. If there were more than three surgeons performing at one table, they needed a nurse to monitor the levels and call out to them, and she could do that. She could also sponge the sweat from their foreheads, and prevent it from dripping into the open wounds. Even without a medical degree, she was willing and able to save these ponies' lives.

Her eyes went wide as the tent flaps flew open and Rainbow dash and Applejack carried in the body of Celestia. She had some very nasty burns running from her neck down to her right front hoof, as well as out to her wing. She was holding onto consciousness, but her words were illegible. She'd been struck by lightning, not from the clouds, but from the cultists. Her armour had repelled part of it, but there were gaps around the joints to allow for smoother movement. She'd been struck hard in the shoulder, and it had knocked her out of the sky.