The Grey Path of Arcane Gears

The Celestial forces didn’t need a week to make their decision. Within five days they began a surprise attack on the Dragon’s capital, Cinder. The first wave came in full force. Unicorns teleported Pegasi to scatter defenses and Earth Ponies to hastily erect bases in a wide circle. Insult added to injury when large blue crystals were mounted at every base. A burst of sapphire magic spread from each crystal tower and merged to form a giant dome around the city.

A decree was displayed across the dome for every Cinderite to read. “Send all that came through your portal back and surrender it.”

The response was typical for dragons. Scaled figures of every shape and color took to the skies with no formation or plan. Some struck at the dome with tools, steel weapons, magical trinkets, and even their own heads. One very lucky command post even had the most amusing sight of the entire war. The Dragon Celestia flicked out of space and attempted to teleport past the barrier. Her body painfully reappeared as it crashed into the blue wall. Thin cracks formed yet mended before she could shake off her daze.

“Like my dome, bitch?!”, Arcane Quill looked up with both hands high in the air proudly displaying her middle fingers.

The white dragon bore her fangs and flicked out of sight. Moments later her undead forces launched themselves on skeletal wings and spread out in eight directions. Their mouths opened and jets of unnatural flame assaulted the wall, making it thin and warp.

Black bones bathed in lavender fire replaced the Draconic Celestia. The ghostly straight hair and color marked this one as Dragon Twilight, or perhaps something that once was.

The clank of metal made Quill turn about. Her eyes went round as Celestia’s seven most trusted soldiers appeared. In the lead was a purple figure in silvery armor and short plum colored skirt. The six pointed starburst on her forehead marked her as the Queen’s very own pupil and future heir, Twilight Sparkle. Beside her was one of the newest but highly talented additions. The heavy armor was almost as thick as AppleJacks, but the orange pony with a Sunset on her forehead bore it with ease.

“Spread out and take these fakes down!” Twilight shouted as the seven knights rushed out of the camp and into the barrier. Pinkie Pie in her Candy cobalt armor and AppleJack in Gun Steel grey rushed out at full speed. Fluttery in her robes and Rainbow Dash in her Platinum plate armor took to the sky. Sunset and Rarity in her leather vanished in a flick of light. Twilight was left. She walked, her eyes locked on what passed for eyes in that dead Draconic twin of her’s. If there was anything to redeem inside that burning black husk, it was hidden by a set of deranged pin pricks of light hovering within hollow eyes.

The fight began with a burst of screams and screeches that never settled down. The main conflict hovered high above between the Pegasi and Dragon. Duels were fought with enemies raising up and swooping back down on their targets. Dragon and Equine alike had to dodge their own while taking opportunities to swipe at passers by. Often enemies switched partners mid-attack or were double teamed by surprise.

The Earth forces played support, for the most part. Medics ran along fields that slowly turned into sanguine muck that smelled strong of iron. Wingless dragons spread along the field to attack, but a swift kick in the jaw proved enough to take the lot of them down.

After the R.E. Units were delivered to the various medical stations Arcane had nothing left to do but blend into the horde of medics darting out into the field. Four terrible hours went by, most of it on her hooves. Blades were slung at her. Fists the size of her head came out of a red haze of sand and smoke, nearly ending her story there. Every single time she returned to her camp she gave a silent prayer to the Goddesses she would return, a living soldier in her arms.

Arcane rested on a bench with dust and splashes of other creatures' blood all over her red-desert camo fatigues. A white arm sash bearing a red cross was singed and tattered from repeated swipes and attempted assaults from the air. Holes torn on her back exposing blooded swipes from dragon talons.

Above her head was a smaller form of the Quill Array, this one made so Ponies could come and go while protecting them from the Draconic forces. Around her were tents filled with the groaning and crying wounded. Past her were teams of two hauling the new injured into triage.

Alongside her were other earth ponies, some that looked frighteningly too young to be here. Nervous mares and stallions carried blank stares, some shivered or bounced their knees. Whatever it took to quell the anxiety.

“Specialist Arcane, you’re up.”

Some of her fellow soldiers let out a sigh, others didn’t seem to notice anything at all. Arcane raised onto her hooves and walked to the clean uniformed stallion with a clipboard and messenger bag. The bag was handed to Arcane. She slung the strap over her shoulder out of pure habit.

“Where and what?” Arcane said mechanically.

“Down Unicorn. Head injury. A CRE is in the pack along with standard medical equipment. Victim is platinum.”

The phrase ‘platinum’ was one Arcane hated. It means the patient is so vital that you ignore anyone injured on the field, even if they are inches from death. You go to your target and you report back. Nothing in between.

She paused for a moment. Something seemed off. She opened the bag to find an oblong orange crystal. Normally the thing would be giving off a quiet chime that would grow louder as she grew closer to her target.

“I’m not getting a ping from the stone.” She said not even looking away from the satchel.

“Run west for about a kilometer. It should start reacting by then.”

The hours of running and dodging attempts to kill her drove Arcane’s mind into an automatic state. Everything was muscle memory and training, yet this oddity made her pause and notice something she would otherwise discount. The male was grey from head to toe. Last time she saw this stallion he was nothing more than a foal. He now had a mercury symbol on his forehead, but this could be only one pony. She could still remember the awkward scrawny colt that could find Alloy and her whenever the two hid in Alloy’s Orchard to make out.

“Quicksilver? What happened?!”

“Shh! Be quiet. I’m not even supposed to be on duty right now. Her section was hit hard, but she’s really far on the queue. Too many high priority victims in the south-west zone. I can’t go myself because they would notice. Please Arc-“

She began sprinting before another word was uttered. Once past the barrier she was hit with waves of hot wind and dust. She knew it would soon feel like sandpaper but she could care less. In mid stride she reached into her right hip pocket and slid on goggles. Once they were on she pushed everything into her hooves. A burst of pink light came from her foot and sent her ten meters forward. With every hoof-fall she began to bound ten meters at a time and at a sprint. She had to dash off to the side and dodge soldiers that were barely smudges of color in her vision before picking up speed. Miles above her clashes between Pegasus and Dragon flew by, some with brilliant streaks of light and explosions of elemental magic. Once or twice it was Pinkie Pie riding her dragon counterpart like some undead roller coaster, giggling her mad head off. Another instant she watched Applejack in her black iron armor pile drive her double into a crater of red dry clay.

She did her best to ignore any distraction that could send her crashing into another body at 120 kilometers per hour. Thankfully, the stone in her bag began thrumming and letting out a faint noise. She was in range.

Overhead she saw one of those skeletal dragons. This one had dark lavender and cyan fire dancing around its black bones. She found it so odd. The dragon version of Starlight Glimmer, a retired teacher turned diplomat, would be a knight in another life. Granted, the unicorn knew more magic than the Seven knights combined. The magic savant could cast multiple spells with ease. Some say she was even an active threat to the nation once, but the events leading up to her redemption were literally undone using time magic. Fucking time magic.

Then she saw another undead Starlight Glimmer, followed by a third. Her heart sank as the horizon revealed dozens of these creatures tormenting ground forces and even keeping the Queens Luna and Celestia occupied. Gold and Silver beams of light came from the sisters, but these damned clones simply teleported and dodged every last attack.

The stone went from a whisper to a shrill. She was close. Once she saw a set of four dots ahead Arcane leaned back and slid her hooves into the ground. She left a long trail of drying mud in her wake, but thankfully her calculation was right. She came to a stumbling stop just a few normal paces from her goal. Mercifully, the stone went quiet.

Four unicorns crouched around a fifth, each one facing a cardinal direction, ready to cast a spell from horns that burned bright with primed magic. Arcane crawled in between them and opened her bag as she looked over Alloy. She was on her back and groaning, two deep gashes from talons across her forehead.

“Ali-Bear, I’m here. I’ll get you on your hooves in no time.”

Arcane was on the edge of sobs as she rifled through her bag and took out a small spray bottle of Iodine and sterile wrapping. She disinfected the wound as best she could and dressed the gashes with a headband of gauze. Better treatment would come back at a base.

“Ali-Bear?” A pastel blue mare smirked yet didn’t look back. Her focus remained on the thousands of threats above her.

Arcane ignored the tease as she took out a small piercing gun and a tiny box containing a sapphire rosebud earring from her bag.

“Don’t any of you know a teleport spell?!”

Arcane spat as she readied the gun and set the CRE in place.

“Y-yeah. But just myself.”, a white stallion responded.

Arcane sighed, “Well, thanks for keeping her safe.”

She framed the gun’s jaws around Alloy’s left ear lobe and pulled the trigger. Alloy yelped and opened her eyes wide. She let out a series of curses as the little sapphire bud began to bloom.

“Ali- Alloy, can you teleport these foals of yours out of here?”

The green unicorn looked around in a daze before her chocolate eyes landed on her mate. “Arc? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Saving our asses, Ali-Bear”, the blue mare said with a chuckle that caught on to the other three.

Alloy smirked, but thankfully it wasn’t the smirk Arcane knew meant ‘you’re in trouble’. A mint green light came from Alloy’s forehead and twisted into what looked like an angular spiral of cast metal, or an industrial sculpture of a unicorn’s horn. Alloy readied her spell before Arcane put out her hand.

“Wait, Alloy. I need to ask you something. Something I wanted to say a while ago. If I did something absolutely insane, would you still love me?”

“You mean go against orders and run half way across the battlefield to rescue a ‘low priority’ victim?”, she responded with her same smirk.

“More insane than even that.”

Alloy burst into a laugh she quickly regretted. A hand came to her forehead to nurse the aching wound.

“Do you really think I wanted you for your level headed pragmatism? Shit, filly, I’m just as nuts. We are scientists.”

Arcane smiled and felt her eyes burn. She held back tears, the sort of tears that welled up after a deep dread is suddenly wiped clean from one’s mind. Alloy looked her dead in the eye as her horn began to glow bright.

“Just come back alive, okay?”

In a mint green flash of light the five vanished. Arcane stood and looked into the sky as she took a small box out of her left hip pocket.