Collision Code

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 13: A Rude Surprise

"Alright, try to spray the tree like I did!" Shining called out.

Corey couldn't feel part of his forehead by this point. He'd definitely used more magic than his human mind could process. He was still trying not to show his fatigue, but he was pretty sure Twilight's older brother had caught on midway through his second attempt. After they took twenty minutes to let Corey's head relax from the magic training, Shining was once again drilling him on both the laser spell and the newly-learned water spell.

The green unicorn concentrated as hard as he could on the water spell. At first, he managed to picture something akin to a low-pressure water gun, and have that be the basis for his learning of the spell. However, as he continued to work on it, he was able to increase the pressure bit by bit. Corey planted his hooves, facing the tree, his horn lighting up bright green.

The glow changed to the same flowing effect Shining's horn had when he used the spell; within a few moments, Corey was spraying the tree. It didn't make nearly as much of an impression as Shining's water spell, but it definitely left a mark on the decayed tree.

"You're getting better!" Shining said.

Corey's left eye half closed. His head was already hurting again, and he was seriously hoping for a break to come up again.

"Now..." The captain continued, "Let's see if you can hit a moving target!"

The former human breathed out a tired sigh, and prepared again.

"Already got another magic headache?" Shining asked, obviously seeing the expression of pain on Corey's face. It wasn't that hard to miss given Corey's lack of tolerance.

"Ye--" Corey began.

"Well it's like physical exercise, the more you do, the easier it becomes..." Shining trailed off, and Corey could have sworn he heard the unicorn say "to a certain degree" as he did.

Well...I guess he does have a point... the former human thought, sighing again, But jeez is it hard to focus on magic when you have a headache...

Corey breathed out, and tried to block out his growing headache as the next task began, trying to keep in mind it would get easier the more he did it.

Minutes turned into hours as Twilight continued her studies in the absence of her brother and coltfriend. She'd managed to learn about several spells she felt would be on the test, including one about altering the gravity on herself so she could fall a long way without hurting herself, or float above the ground temporarily. There were some other spells she picked up on and would need to put into practice as soon as possible. The test was a short five months away and she needed all the time she could.

As morning gave way to afternoon, however, the unicorn's study time was interrupted. There was a knock at the door, and Twilight, in study mode, did what came naturally to her.

"Spike, could you get the door?" she asked, not even bothering to remove her eyes from her book. Right now, her eyes were firmly locked on the entry. The instant the door opened, however...

"Twiley, we're back!" The voice of her older brother greeted her. The fact she still hardly got to see him these days won out over her studiousness after a few seconds, and after inserting a piece of parchment into the book, went down to greet the duo.

I think it can wait a little...

She was greeted by the sight of her brother, and a rather tired-looking Corey. Upon catching sight of her, Corey looked up, one eye half-closed in fatigue. He tried to smile--Twilight was pretty sure he was, and said, "Hey, Twilight..."

The unicorn mare could only show concern, "Is he alright?"

"Just has a really bad magic headache," Shining assessed. "He doesn't have a lot of tolerance built up, but he seemed to want to keep going even when he started to feel one coming on."

Twilight looked from her brother, and back to Corey, who looked away sheepishly upon her looking at him a second time after that announcement.

"Anyway...I thought it was time to take a break and thought you'd want to come along..." said Shining in response.

"I've...I've got to go see Rarity about something, anyway. Maybe we can go there too?" Twilight questioned quickly, trying to hide her sudden...pride, was it--at Corey's determination. It really was sort of like looking in a mirror sometimes when she looked at him.

After Shining left, the day at Sugarcube Corner settled back into a somewhat normal pattern. Pinkie and Ivan took turns at the register and in the back. Pinkie had noticed that Ivan was slowly beginning to doze off again, and took it upon herself to try and snap him to attentiveness in any way that she could. Randomly singing, popping out of anywhere she could that Ivan wouldn't expect her to--at one point even popping out of the register herself much to the surprise of the patrons...anything she could do to keep him awake.

However, this time would be different.

"Ivaan! It's my turn in the back!" Pinkie chirped, skipping into the kitchen as casually as ever. However, when Ivan failed to respond, she instantly thought to herself how he must have fallen asleep. "Sleepy pony...or human...I still don't know what to say! Gotta figure it out!"

Pinkie was not so caught up in her monologue to zip to Ivan's side. Sure enough, he was asleep, passed out right next to one of the ovens, just like when she first met him, hind end raised high in the air, forelegs dragging the ground, chin on the floor. She mimicked the pose.

"Ivan, you gotta get up, it's your turn..."

Ivan didn't so much as stir. Pinkie had a sudden feeling of deja vu.

"Ivan?"

Once again, Ivan found himself in a dreamlike state. Something inside his pony body had felt...off, and he felt like he had to fall asleep as soon as possible. Sure enough, he was now back in his human body, floating above the pony world. Or rather, Ponyville.

"This again?" Ivan wondered aloud to himself, remembering his first experience with this. "Last time..."

The last time he had passed out and wound up like this, Leo had nearly gotten himself killed. Ivan wasn't one to assume the worst out of something, so he gradually floated along. Life in Ponyville seemed to be pretty normal, the sun was out, the skies were mostly clear, and the ponies in the town seemed to be enjoying the day. Yet, even though everything was warm, Ivan couldn't ignore the fact he felt like he needed a winter coat. Even though it was clear immediately around him, he felt like he was being immersed in snow and crushed ice from the shoulders down.

He couldn't figure out why, but he knew that feeling all too well.

Ivan floated around, unseen by ponies. Soon enough, however, he caught sight of that pony from before, Twilight's brother, with Twilight herself and Corey. Corey looked slightly tired, and Twilight seemed to be concerned for him. The two were heading in the direction of Rarity's shop, but for what reason, Ivan couldn't figure out. And with every step the two took, Ivan felt the icy feeling increase.

"What is this...?" Ivan thought to himself, incredibly intriguied. If this was indeed true, the human had to wonder what this was? Was it simple precognition, or something more? Or was it just an extremely vivid dream?

The sounds of a snarl echoing through Ivan's senses caused the human's spirit to jump.

Corey was just beginning to get over the pounding headache that had plagued him for what felt like days. The former human felt relieved to see the training was over for the moment, but he knew the worst of the captain's training was likely still to come. The siblings talked while Corey lumbered along slightly behind the two, speaking only when addressed so he could concentrate on making his headache pain go away. For the most part, though, Corey floated in and out while they discussed what happened since Shining's wedding.

Apparently, Shining had gotten married to Twilight's foalsitter, who just so happened to be Princess Celestia's niece and the princess of love. And, during that, Cadence, as she was called, was replaced with the queen of the Changelings. Not the ones from Dragonball Z, as Corey quickly found out (thankfully, via eavesdropping and not asking a stupid question), but a race of shape-shifting insectoids. They had intended to feed off the love that was in Canterlot, and had nearly succeeded before Cadence managed to break Chrysalis's influence over Shining and assisted him in sending all the Changelings flying into the distance.

It was unclear of their fate, but they had been blown far, far from Ponyville, so they weren't liable to attac--

"Hm?!" Shining asked, upon hearing a loud thud in the distance. He stopped dead in his tracks, and though Corey couldn't see his expression, he could tell the captain had been alerted by something.

"What's happened?" Corey asked, almost afraid to ask. The last thing he wanted was to be irrepairably drained of emotion.

"I don't know..." Shining said, "But I definitely just heard something..."

Corey's ear twitched as he picked up on this, and he began looking around, in every direction. Just as he heard some ponies scream in terror, another, more important scream came from Twilight herself.

"Corey, behind you!"

Corey turned, just in time to see a grayish-brown fist rushing right for him. He gasped sharply, and a few moments later, found himself several feet away, staring at what had just assaulted him from a different angle. Somewhere deep down, Corey knew he had spontaneously teleported in response to the danger, but he couldn't praise himself for it.

Gorilla-shaped dogmen...what else could Corey say about them; that's what they looked like. And they were all wearing the same silvery armor. Some were going bare-handed, others carried lances. It took a while, but considering he had watched Season 1 out of order to see a certain episode in terms of research, he realized what these creatures actually were.

"The Diamond Dogs?!" Twilight exclaimed in surprise, just a split-second after Corey started thinking it.

"Who?" Shining asked, saving Corey the trouble.

"We've run into them before," Twilight said, "But...I thought Rarity whined the greed out of them last time?! What are they doing in Ponyville?"

Corey's brow furrowed as his thoughts took over.

Could this have anything to do with--

He didn't have too long to ponder why the Diamond Dogs were here, however. The sounds of armor clanking around him, along with a "Get 'em, boys!" echoing above the streets, alerted Corey to what was about to happen, and Shining immediately prepared for a fight.

"Here they come!" Shining called out, his horn lighting up purple as he yanked one of the dogs' lances out of their hands and clubbed them over the head with the handle...

"Ivan! Wakie, wakie!"

Ivan immediately snapped back to his senses. He didn't like what he saw. If that was a real vision he just experienced, he knew that Twilight, Shining and Corey were probably in great danger. Even if it wasn't...it beat waiting on ponies.

"Pinkie...we've got a problem..." Ivan began, not quite sure how to phrase his vision. Somehow, though...

"Did you have a vision about our friends who were being attacked by weird doggie-gorillas who looked really mean and had armor on and you're worried if it's true or not?" Pinkie asked, in the most random and oddly specific way she could. Ivan blinked in utter disbelief. First the Pinkie sense, now this?

"Uh...yeah..." Ivan responded, utterly at a loss to describe what had just happened.

Random ponies stuck around and managed to help, but for the most part it was Corey, Twilight, and Shining against the inordinate amount of Diamond Dogs that were scattered throughout Ponyville. The unicorns together tried to push through. Corey levitated small stones and threw them at his opponent's, but he couldn't for the life of him hit them in any other place than the armor. Thankfully, though, his new physiology provided for him a decent amount of physical strength.

He managed to duck low entirely by reflex as one of his adversaries swung, and kicked him in the chest hard enough to make it stagger backward off balance and fall down. Definitely more than he expected out of himself in terms of strength. Concentrating hard, he managed to make the downed dog float, and with a strained effort, threw him into another's side hard enough to make both stagger off-balance.

Corey panted, the lack of rest he'd had already starting to get to him again. As far as he could tell, magic control was basically another muscle he had to build up over time, but it wouldn't build up if he kept using it.

"Corey, watch it!" Twilight cried out, currently tangled up with two Diamond Dogs.

Corey looked, just in time to nearly catch a hit from a club. Reflexively, he managed to get part of a shield up in time, but the attack easily smashed through his feeble defense and he still was sent off his hooves. To add to it, the sensation of the shield being so suddenly shattered left him dizzy, as though he had taken the full force of the hit anyway.

Meanwhile, Twilight managed to warp out of in-between the Diamond Dogs, leaving them to classically crash into one another. Shining busied himself with fending off the mob, all the training he'd had showing through very strongly. For him, a mob of gorilla-canines was no trouble at all. Twilight was fareing only slightly worse, but Corey had struggled his way through the crowd.

"Corey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Corey said, trying to act like this was the case, "Just...never been in this kind of situation before..."

"I wouldn't expect you to!" Twilight responded to his sentiments. "Just...keep doing what you've been doing...but don't try too hard..."

"I could kinda use a little help..." Shining cut in, "At this rate, we'll never get to Rarity's home."

He was casual about it, as though mob battles happened every day, and this was just a minor hindrance.

"Rarity..." Twilight's mind clicked into place. "They must be trying to get revenge, or something! They tried to have her work for them before, but....well, she managed to whine her way out of it."

"What's to say it won't work again?" Corey questioned, readying a water spell, envisioning pressure building up in a rubber hose.

"Maybe the fact they're attacking here in Ponyville?!" Twilight replied, causing Corey to flinch and lose control of the water spell, reducing the spraying hose to a dripping faucet. "They've got to be after Rarity's gem-finding spell! She did take all their gems last time!"

The trio of unicorns continued to budge through the large mob, avoiding some attacks just by running past the dogs and others by physically attacking. However, while Shining and Twilight were well-adjusted, Corey was still trying to keep up. He was already tired from the training earlier, and the fighting that was going on now wasn't helping any.

"We're almost there!" Twilight called out. "Hopefully they haven't gotten Rarity ye--"

A loud scream, terrified, pierced the unicorns' ears.

"That didn't sound good..." Shining said, gritting his teeth. Sure enough, two Diamond Dogs burst forth from a front window of the Carousel Boutique, one carrying Rarity...

And the other carrying a much smaller pony, a mere foal; white in color with a purple and pink curled mane.

"Let my sister go, you ruffians!" Rarity huffed, struggling against the grip of her adversaries.

"Still as whiny as ever..." commented the guard dog holding her, gritting his teeth as the hooves clipped his teeth. "Stop struggling!"

"Rarity! Hold on!" Twilight called out, "We're gonna help you out!"

"Come get her, if you can..." taunted the dogs holding the siblings, running off with them. The three unicorns began to charge, but several of the remaining armored canines immediately dropped in front of them. Shining casually knocked two aside with partial shields, knocking them back as though the shields were really boxing gloves, continuing the chase. Twilight tried to follow, but one of the remaining dogs began to move.

"Don't think so..."

Corey saw the assailant coming. Pure reflex caused him to grunt sharply and rush forward, managing to run full-speed into the side of the guard dog, causing him to stumble. However, his focus only shifted to the dazed Corey, and he picked up the former human by the head and casually tossed him aside. Corey bounced once, coming to rest against a storefront, writhing around in pain.

"Corey!" Twilight immediately began to rush to Corey's side, immediately after knocking away one of her remaining assailants.

"Hold it right there, little pony," he said, winding up an arm in a cocky manner.

"O-out of my way!" Twilight cried out, her horn glowing as she prepared to fight back. The Diamond Dog, however, wasn't going to move; and certainly not allowing her to finish the spell in time. The brute brought his paw down, but Twilight managed to move out of the way only to be tackled by another Diamond Dog while her guard was down. The Diamond Dog remained pinning her to the ground.

"Get off!" Twilight grunted, trying to shake off the Diamond Dog. It wasn't exactly going to work out, however. The Diamond Dog had at least five times her body weight and she wasn't exactly known for lifting large amounts of weight.

"Hold her down," commanded another Diamond Dog, dragging his club along behind him. "You know, you all had a lot of fight in you...And still do." The dog raised the club in one hand preparing to bring it down. "Let's fix that!"

"No!"

Twilight heard the voice, and the next thing she saw was a large green object leaping right at the Diamond Dog. His jaw clamped down on the dog's bicep, and the Dog grunted in pain. Corey threw his forelegs on the remainder of the wide arm, trying to keep his grip, even as his body and mind both screamed in protest. Corey wasn't sure if he could draw blood with his flat teeth, but he was nothing if not determined to keep them off.

"You little...!" The Diamond Dog shook his arm violently, but Corey was not going to let go. The boy continued to hold on for dear life. "Get off!!" Corey's jaw clamped down a little tighter as the armored canine flailed in pain. "...How's this then!"

The dog switched his aim, and Corey felt something crash down on his shoulder. Pain resonated within him. He was sure that nothing fractured or broke, but all the attack did was convince Corey to tighten his jaw. This time he was pretty sure he drew blood, and he didn't like the taste. The dog, meanwhile, didn't like the feel.

"Get...off!" This time, the dog switched hands, and bashed Corey square on the head, missing his horn by centimeters. This time, the hit was critical enough--Corey's consciousness lapsed for a brief instant, and his grip slackened horrifically. The dog quickly switched the club-holding hand again, and grabbed the pony that was on his arm and threw him to the ground in front of him. Though Corey was able to remain conscious, he wasn't in a position to do much of anything anymore.

"Corey!" Twilight screamed, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She quit struggling, too stunned to continue.

"You were one annoying little bug, you know..." The Diamond Dog lightly put his foot on top of Corey's body, just enough to keep him from moving. Corey struggled, but realized he couldn't get out from underneath his opponent's foot. His horn glowed, but in his condition he didn't have time to react to what came next. "Why don't I show you what I do to bugs?"

The Diamond Dog guard raised his club, two hands holding on to the weapon, preparing to bring it down.

"No!" Twilight spoke up, "Please...don't hurt him!"

The Diamond Dogs around all stopped what they were doing, and the one holding the club stopped inches from the tip of Corey's horn. He turned toward Twilight.

"And what are you going to do about it?"

Twilight paused, "It's me you want, right...Please...Don't hurt him anymore...and I'll come with you quietly..."

"T-Twilight..." Corey groaned from the ground. "D-don't..."

Twilight ignored his statements, and the Diamond Dog lightened the press of his foot. Corey could move freely, but he was too stunned to move.

"Aw, isn't that cute, the mare saving her coltfriend's sorry hide..." The Diamond Dog derided the former human, which causing a laughing fit among the dogs around them. Corey did nothing, gritting his teeth, his entire body crying in pain, his mind crying in frustration. Once again, he was useless when Twilight and her friends needed him. Shining was occupied elsewhere; when he came back, he was going to be displeased for sure...

"Alright, you got yourself a deal..." The Diamond Dog removed his foot from Corey's side. "Take her in..."

The Diamond Dog that was holding Twilight down now lifted her casually off the ground. She did not resist. "Alright, we're done here, boys, let's head back to the mines..."

As the pack began to disperse, the Diamond Dog turned to the downed Corey, who was overall stunned at what had happened. He wasn't even moving, in total shock. He chuckled again. As soon as Twilight left his vision, he looked down.

"And if I were you, little pony, I wouldn't be getting any ideas..."

The dog's foot lifted, kicking the idle Corey off the ground and off to the side. He didn't even care that he might have just gotten a rib broken.

The former human's heart was far more damaged.

Shining Armor couldn't believe it. With all his training, he should have been able to track the huge, gorilla-like canines through the Everfree Forest and beyond. But a couple of dogs bought time. It wasn't until he heard Rarity's cries of terror that he guessed something was wrong. When he finally reached the source of the sounds, there were at least eight holes dug in the clearing, and it was impossible to determine which one was actually the route of escape.

He did, however, have an idea of where they were heading off to with their "prize". If his sister or her other friends could remember the path they took to the Diamond Mines, it'd be a simple matter to launch an offensive there and get Rarity and the foal back. With this in mind, he hurried back to Ponyville, barely winded from all the effort he'd used since the fight started.

"Twilight! Corey!" he called out, looking for them amid the aftermath of the fight. Windows were broken, some ponies were lightly injured from the brutality of the sudden attack, and there was an odd dog or two lying unconscious. If they had a new HQ, they'd be a viable source of information.

When he got back to where he left his sister and her coltfriend, however, he found only one. Corey lay on the side of the road, on his side, practically in the fetal position, his face hidden by his tail. He had some blood dripping down from the side of his head, and he had a mark on the right side of his ribs that looked more like a pawprint...

"Corey!" he rushed up to the injured pony. Corey only shivered in response, not even responding. "What happened?! Where's Twilight?"

The question forced Corey's face deeper into the green hairs of his tail. He mumbled something incoherent; Shining couldn't even hear what he said.

"Corey, what happened?" Shining used his magic to uncover Corey's hidden face...

And discovered the face of unparalleled sadness.

"Corey!"

Shining's head snapped over to his left. All of Twilight's friends and Corey's friends were arriving, all at once.

"Darn it!" Ivan snapped, for the first time showing any emotion other than neutrality or surprise, "We're too late..."

Shining looked back to Corey, who made no effort to conceal his face, but also no effort to stand. It was pretty obvious now what had happened to Twilight...