The Grey Path of Arcane Gears

Minutes before

Arcane slowly rose above the ground and thought back on Glimmer’s trick. A speed spell compounded with a teleport spell. Add a dash of powerful focus and you can appear as if in multiple places at once. The trick was moving so fast that nobody noticed you flicking back and forth between one series of actions to the next.

She could feel the corruption slowly getting worse. It worked so much faster along motor neurons and her spine, but the brain itself seemed to take longer. What she was about to do would accelerate that process from hours to minutes. Still, if worse came to worse she knew the Seven Knights would be more than enough to take her down. One villain in exchange for eight? Seemed reasonable.

A figure along the horizon climbed into the sky and began an arch down to where Arcane hovered. It was only a vague dot in the sky with ghostly chains dragging behind it. Arcane took note of each vampiric connection between Queen and slave. At the other end of each was her target.

“Step one, Divide the consciousness into nine parts. Step two, assign locations, Step three, teleport faster than the naked eye can see between those nine locations. Step four, pray this doesn’t drive me insane.”

—

The Knight of Laughter lived up to her name. Pinkie Pie giggled her madd head off as she straddled her Draconic counterpart, hands gripping her enemies' boney wings to steer her about. The dragon was screeching in panic, or perhaps elation, as they banked in mid air and flew into a spin. Pinkie yanked back on both wings as they met the ground only to rise into the air.

Arcane flicked into existence as they climbed into the clouds. Her hand extended for Pinkie’s face as the mare’s finger tips began to glow. The Knight of Laughter gasped as a shimmer ran through her sky blue eyes.

Arcane felt a stressful second go by. Part of her worried the overload of information would send Pinkie Pie into convulsions. Her worries were quickly pushed aside as she yelled out something about ‘all those pretty colors”. Of course. She was one of the chosen knights. Their power held a heavier burden than anyone’s. Well, perhaps Silent Brook.

“Lady Pie, Break the chain!”

—

The Knight of Honesty grit her teeth in rage as she grappled her dragon self under one arm. The black armored Applejack sprinted through the bleak avenues of Cinder’s slum, thankfully abandoned by now. All of her focus locked onto the brick wall of a dead-end alley. The dragon flailed wildly but couldn’t break the grip. Solid ram-like horns were the first thing to burst through the wall, followed by the earth pony herself.. The building collapsed behind them as Applejack looked for the next thing to bash her opponents head into.

“Damn you, ya’ hard-headed goat-lizard!! Why don’t you just pass out already!?”

Arcane tried repeatedly to keep up with the fellow Earth Pony but it was useless, Applejack was a warrior and Arcane had the Earth Pony equivalent of nerd legs. If she couldn’t beat her in a race then she would just have to cheat. She appeared thirty meters ahead of the black Knight with a glowing hand outstretched. Behind Arcane was a wall scoured in letters made of fire.

‘Break the chain!’

—

To the East of Cinder lay the ‘Baths’. Sinkholes made of hardened clay which emitted steam. Many opened into caverns dotted with pools of warm spring water and simmering underground lakes. Both Flutterys found themselves here suspended upside down by emerald cocoons made of a fishy smelling silk. At the edge of a deep pool a giant face made of jagged fangs and eyes too numerous to count deliberated their fate.

Flutter shy and her dragon-self gazed at the horrifying hybrid of eel and spider with eyes glowing pale yellow. Soft, barely audible voices spoke over one another desperately.

“Free me, Mr. Eel-spider.”

“No, Free me. We are sisters.” The dragon Flutter hissed softly.

An audible grunt echoed off the cavern walls shortly before a large six-eyed fish sailed past the mares and over the beast’s head. The creature abandoned them for the easy meal as hoof clips hastily came closer.

Arcane ran a finger down the green cocoon trapping The Knight of Kindness. A sizzle from her finger tip could be heard as the Earth-mare used a fire spell to destroy the strong cocoon. Once free, Arcane caught Fluttershy before the Pegasus could meet the rock below.

Flutter shy let out a soft squeak as she landed in Arcane’s arms. The Earth mare’s cheeks began to glow with a pink and lavender blush as she looked down utterly, dumbstruck. Flutter shy opted for an enchanted robe instead of armor. The silk rested easily on her body, suggesting it was all she wore. It gave little to the imagination and traced out her gifted form far too well for a notoriously shy pony.

Arcane cleared her throat as she lowered the Knight into her hooves. She passed her hand over those aqua green eyes.

“She isn’t what she seems. Break her chain and save her.”

—

The desert froze over, at least where the Knight of Inspiration fought. Rarity’s dragon counterpart did her best to take to the sky. Her talons clinked on thick sheets of ice that spread meters ahead of her, the hard slick surface making her stumble desperately. Her wings clung to her back, every joint cemented together with thick chunks of frozen co2.

Rarity skated on her hooves with hands behind her back and the poise of a model. Her Diamond-like horn glowed like a beautiful ghost over the Diamond mark on her forehead. She hummed to herself, casually firing pale cyan beams of magic to make sure her opponent never regained flight.

Arcane remembered hoof skating when she was a child. She slid beside Rarity and seemingly waved hello with glowing fingers. The white Unicorn raised an eyebrow at the odd mare before tilting her head and looking past her.

“The chain needs to go, don’t you think, Lady Rarity?”

—

“What the hell do I do now?!”

Arcane felt her heart slamming in her chest. She hovered in darkness that sometimes broke with violent blue bolts of lightning. Sometimes they were natural, sometimes they carried the insane whoop and holler belonging to the Knight of Loyalty and her dragon self.

“Damnit, time to go nerdy. AOE attack!”

Arcane screamed out as she raised her hand. The spell spread in a swelling shell all around her. She could feel that rainbow haired speed demon sail through her area of effect spell. Next came a booming voice. A little bit of thunder spell belted out in an echo that churned the storm clouds.

“Break the chain!”

—

Arcane felt sweat mat the fur to her body. Deserts were hot but there was actual magma in puddles around her. She ran past a rock that had been cut in half, the flat edge still glowing and molten.

All she needed to do was follow a trail of devastation to find the Knight of Redemption. Sunset Shimmer looked fierce with the swirling firestorm for a horn over her blazing sun mark. With hands on fire she shot bursts of flame at her dragon counterpart as it dipped and swooped in attempts to claw and scar her enemy.

“Lady Sunset?”

The Knight looked over for only a split second at Arcane. Those emerald eyes went from scornful to welcoming in two seconds, then scornful again as she focused on frying her dragon counterpart.

“In the fur. How can I help you?”

“I… actually I’m here to help you…”

Arcane said meekly. Arcane formed a crush when she was fourteen and Sunset was a squire. Even when Sunset attacked Celestia and momentarily became a demon she was still smitten. Time and wisdom only made her closer to perfect.

“There’s a chain linking the dragon to our main enemy. Chances are your dragon self doesn’t even want to fight. Here, see for yourself.”

Arcane bashfully spoke out those words and waved her glowing fingertips over Sunset’s blue-green eyes.

—

The Knight of Friendship locked eyes with her Dragon self. Both had hands glowing bright with spells and brains working overtime to anticipate the next move. Both hadn’t moved in over an hour. Knees creaked, heads began to droop yet neither of them could see a window of opportunity. Knowing thy enemy was an advantage, but not if the enemy knew exactly as much as you.

Arcane bit her bottom lip as she silently walked up to Princess Twilight herself. She was about to teach her something! Her mouth went dry as she spoke into Twilight's ear. Her hand waved near the true Alicorn’s purple eyes, but didn’t dare break Twilight’s focus.

“I’m lending you my sight. At her back is a chain that connects her to their Celestia. It’s using Dragon Twilight's remaining life force like a battery. Also, she’s leaning heavy on her left foot. Just call it ‘Earth Pony intuition'. Best of luck.”

“Wait, who are you?”

Arcane heard Twilight speak. That filly-like shyness spiked so high that she just couldn’t parse two words together. Now was a better time than ever to just poof.

—

Glass riddled the beautiful marble floor. Wind whipped the shreds of curtain left behind from Dragon Celestia’s dramatic exit just minutes ago. After a short wait the team figured she would be gone and fighting. If they were going to cut off the enemies only escape and/or source of reinforcements then now was the time.

Ivar Gears stood on her knees with the metallic backing of Celestia’s mirror on the ground. Inside the arcane device were hundreds of small gears carved from an eerie green gemstone. The inner workings spun without any obvious power source nor did any of the gears seemed to have a function. All Ivar had to go on was her years of experience and study with magical devices.

“Can you please hurry this up.” General Raven stood with his back to Ivar, his ebony horn out and the blue CRE glowing from his right ear.

“Have you ever heard of the ‘Broken Mirror’ theory?”, Gears said casually as she ran a thin brass stylus ending with a crystalline tip along one gear at a time.

“In middle school, I think. Why?”

“It’s believed our universe and countless others were created when a mirror much like the one I’m working on broke. This caused a rift that smashed two universes together. The fusion resulted in a singularity that formed hybrid universes plus, paradoxically, the two origin realities where the mirror never broke in the first place.

In other words, there’s a chance I’ve screwed up 600,000 times and don’t know it. So, If you want to see a reality where I shut this thing down safely then stop bitching.”

“Dad?”

Raven and Ivar jumped as a third voice spoke up. Ivar dropped her stylus and leaped back into a three point stance. Raven let out a falsetto scream and shot off a beam of black energy that burnt a whole in the ceiling.

Ivar rushed forward without a word and cupped her daughter's face. “Gremlin, what the hell happened to you? What kind of earring is…”

Arcane leaned into a tight hug before pulling back. “I don’t have a lot of time right now so let’s talk about that later.”, Arcane brushed her white hand along her fathers temple. A glimmer ran over the grey orbs.

“You’re the best saboteur the military has, but I need you to be the fastest. I’m distracting her, I think. Anyway, again, beside the point. Shut this thing down. Just trust your eyes.”

Arcane spoke with haste. The part of her mind that stood in the palace wasn’t aware of the others. This version of her didn't ride on a dragon’s back or awkwardly gave Twilight advice. This version wasn’t seducing the Dragon Celestia to buy them time, but a flurry of vague phantom sensations remained. It reminded her of the feeling just after something brushed against her, the traces of heat or cold left over from a previous contact.

One in particular felt disturbingly penile and dangerously close to her tail.

Ivar looked around slightly dazed, her eyes darting from one corner of the room to the other. In her wisdom she closed her eyes before the overload of information became too much. Arcane gave a bitter sweet smile when she realized something. All those times her power overwhelmed her, all she needed to do was close her eyes.

Her father was the Hero of this story. She always was. Arcane hoped to have a heart like that one day.

“I love you, Dad.”