Ever Free

“Take us up, Rainbow!” Twilight ordered, activating her night-vision spell for the second time that night. The rainbow-manned pegasus behind her hooked her hooves beneath Twilight’s arms, lifting her into the eerie night air. The feeling of the ground leaving her hooves usually didn’t have any effect on her, but tonight, she was almost in cardiac arrest. Only a second after she had left the rooftop, her mind had begun to scream at her to go back to the ground. It’s okay, Twilight… It’s just the fog talking… You’re fine… Everypony will be fine…

The two hit a vantage point above the town, its entirety visible to the pair. Under normal circumstances, at least. At this moment, due to the fog, only the perimeter and town square could be seen. Twilight scanned the perimeter of light, hoping for it to still be in tact. Oh…

“Buck me…” Twilight cursed, growling nearly as low as Darq. “There’s a hole in the wall, east side.”

“Tell me where we go,” Rainbow said, squinting to focus her gaze.

“The square. We need the others,” the unicorn responded quickly. She braced herself, her muscles tightening in preparation for the sudden change in direction and speed that she knew was coming. Rainbow turned sharply to the right, and dove swiftly towards the ground, impaling the fog like a vampony hunter would his prey. She pulled out of the dive swiftly, stalling just before the stage, where Pinkie and the DJ were.

The DJ, previously thought by Twilight to be an earth pony, was actually a unicorn, with an electric blue mane, and violet sunglasses that made it impossible to see her eyes. In addition, a large set of over-the-ear headphones gracefully blended into her mane. She had one hoof up on the turntable, messing with the many levers, dials, sliders, and buttons, and one to her left headphone. A record glowed with an electric blue aura, spinning to the DJ’s will. Heavy bass made ‘wubs’ as they exited the speakers set up all over the square. However displeasing Twilight found this strange loud music, the melody behind it actually kept her attention, and almost made her lose focus of the task at hand. She shook her head and trotted over to Pinkie, who was looking through a box of records.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, her voice as audible as Fluttershy in dead silence. The pink mare did not notice. “Pinkie!”

The physics-defying earth pony looked over, her left ear twitching. “Oh, hey Twilight! Why are you here?!”

“We have a problem! East side, three crystals missing, need backup,” the lavender unicorn nearly screamed to get her voice to carry but half a meter to her friend’s ear. The pink pony responded by looking into the box of records again. Twilight shook her head, frustrated. “We don’t have time for records, Pinkie!”

Pinkie ignored her, selecting a red-trim record from the stack. She bit gently into it, picking it up, and carrying it to the DJ. The white unicorn looked, and took the record, instantly placing it on the open space of the turntable. The record spun, adding a set of vocals to the song that was currently playing. The vocals mixed well enough, but it was clear that they were meant for another song. The DJ proceeded to fade away the current song, leaving the vocals to go solo.

With a quick flash of light, there were two DJs on stage. The one on the right brought another record to the turntable, keeping the concert going. The second one, which was ducking behind the turntable, out of the sight of the public, crawled off stage, unnoticed.

“I hear we have a problem,” the DJ said, looking in Twilight’s direction. “What’s up?”

“Shadows have breached the eastern side, specifically, the road to Sweet Apple Acres,” Twilight elaborated as the others gathered around. “I can’t make any more Light Crystals, so we can’t just reseal the border. We’ll have to fight them.”

“And how do we go about doing that?” Rarity huffed, her air of class coming into play.

“Simple. We buck them with these fancy new horseshoes,” Rainbow answered. “One good kick to the face can render a Shadow completely harmless.”

“She’s right,” confirmed Twilight with a nod. “Direct contact with iron seems to harden their skin too much for them to be able to move.”

“Well that’s simple enough. Anything else we need to know, Twi?” Apple Jack inquired, scraping the dirt with her hoof.

“Sonic booms blow them up, and lightning flashes or brighter will incinerate them,” the purple unicorn answered. Twilight’s eye twitched, realizing that she hadn’t noticed the blue-maned DJ in the group conversation.

As if detecting the eye twitch, the DJ grinned, “Name’s Vinyl Scratch. Don’t worry. Pinkie explained everything, and I think I can help you. Loud noises are kinda my thing.”

“Welcome aboard,” Twilight sighed. “I guess I’ll be trusting Pinkie on this one. Anyway. We need to get moving. Let’s move!”

The group of seven ponies dashed off, down the road towards Sweet Apple Acres. Virtually nopony was outside the square, leaving a dead silence, save for the dull rumble of their hooves. Vinyl skidded to a near halt, quickly moving left down a side-road. She sprinted forwards, staring at a dumpster that provided an easy jump onto a rooftop.

She grinned to herself, leaping up from the dumpster to the rooftop, and continued running. Periodically, she would jump from one roof to the next, carefully plotting the next jump well before she got there. Her shoed hooves scratched the brick tiling just under the thatching, almost compromising her grip a few times. But a quick spell fixed that, and Vinyl jumped onto the ledge of a wall. She smirked deviously, activating another spell, this time directing it at the wall. A sudden tink resonated in the fog as her iron horseshoes were magnetized to the wall. She stood up (relative to the wall) and walked with ease up the ninety-degree slope. She reached the rooftop, with a clear view of the eastern border, just below her. She saw the six other ponies sprinting towards a set of a small gap, the space of which could be filled by three Light Crystals. To her right was a tarp that was actually quite familiar to her. She trotted over, her iron horseshoes scraping against the gravel covered rooftop, giggling devilishly. “I’m going to have way too much fun with this…”

She pulled the tarp off the object it laid upon. A speaker, roughly the size of Pinkie, stood, plugged in and ready for action. It stood upon a wide tripod, with hoof-handles on the back of it to aim with. A periscope was welded to the back, allowing whoever was to aim it to see what they were pointing towards. She took the handles in her hooves, and adjusted the aim of the large speaker. She aimed past the line of crystals, casting her gaze to the Shadows gathered outside the borders that were moving in on the exposed hole. She smirked, looking around the small rooftop as if searching for—

Ah! There it is! That would be quite important if this thing is to work properly, she thought to herself, trotting over to another corner of the roof. A small black sack had been placed there, as though by design. She picked it up, opening it carefully, finding a large bowl-shaped ring of metal. She picked it up with magic, and carried it back to the speaker. She placed it at the very front, making the speaker look like some sort of strange weapon.

Ah… I haven’t used the Bass Cannon in a long while. This is going to be fun, she thought with glee. She took a look down range. A pony-shaped Shadow was sprinting headlong towards the opening in the wall of light. She smirked knowingly, pulling and holding the left trigger. She looked through the periscope again, setting the crosshairs just in front of the Shadow. With a huff, she depressed the right trigger.

A solid column of sound was thrown forward by the Bass Cannon, guided by magic to fly straight like a projectile. The percussive blast slammed into the side of the Shadow, rupturing its hide. It popped like a balloon, leaving only a small cloud of smoke behind. Squeals of terror erupted from the crowd of Shadows that saw their comrade be utterly destroyed by the Bass Cannon. Vinyl’s lips pulled back in a sadistic grin that could make even Celestia’s smile falter. She adjusted the shape of the bowl over the Bass Cannon, widening it ever so slightly. She turned the heavy weapon, watching the waves upon waves of insect-form Shadows rolled in like the ocean tides towards the hole in the levee of light. She squeezed the triggers, firing another percussive plate of sound towards the hole. The shot spread, nearly tripling in its original radius, hitting a total of eight insects. Each one suffered precisely the same fate as the pony-shaped Shadow had just moments earlier.

She smiled with a sort of sadistic pleasure. She turned a dial on her mounted weapon, her face becoming almost sultry with the fun she was having with this. She took a look through the periscope, watching as Pinkie and the other five ponies on the ground fought hoof-to-hoof with the Shadows. She turned her weapon to the hole, and pulled the trigger.

A concrete beam of bass left the cannon. The long tone flew forward, decimating anything that stood the initial hit. She guided the beam along a long line of insects, their hides rupturing after only a second or two of exposure to the high-decibel beam. Those that tried to enter the small town were devoured by the sonic beam of death.

A tremor rippled through the ground, its ear-shattering bass tone violently shook Vinyl to the ground, her Bass Cannon stopping its onslaught due to her hooves leaving the triggers. She fell on her backside with a drowned out thump. A crack appeared in her signature sunglasses, a tiny shard of glass falling to the rooftop floor. What the hay was that?!

“What the hay was that?!” Apple Jack nearly screamed. A bead of sweat rolled down her face, tickling at her brow. She turned and bucked, squarely hitting a wolf-form Shadow in the chest, just between its forelegs. It flew back a few meters due to the force of Apple Jack’s trained buck. Without a moment of pause, the orange earth pony ducked, just avoiding an insect.

“Incoming!” Rainbow Dash warned, stomping on her storm cloud for the second time that night. A crack of lightning and thunder cut through the misty air. The jagged knife skewered a very large bear-form Shadow, the flash searing it from the inside. The Shadow dissipated into the mist in a cloud of ashes. The thunder rolled outwards, plowing ranks of insect-form Shadows like Big Mac would the carrot fields.

Twilight had not closed her eyes in time, and now had the afterimage of the lightning bolt impressed into her field of vision. She was luckily able to flatten her ears to protect them from the sonic boom that rushed past her with hurricane force. She looked around, trying to use her peripherals to see anything coming. As the afterimage faded, she saw two serpent-form Shadows already in midair as they lunged at her face. Time slowed to a near standstill for Twilight, her life flashing before her eyes.

THUMP!

Twilight’s eyes were wide with pure adrenaline. The two Shadows that were jumping towards her burst like balloons, just inches from her face. Her heart threatened to follow suit, as it had just maxed out in terms of its pace. A cold sweat began to condense on her fur, as her near death experience burned itself into her mind. She looked left, seeing Vinyl Scratch on a rooftop, the Bass Cannon in her hooves, aimed directly in front of her.

Apple Jack ran over, giving Twilight a firm shake. She screamed something that whizzed by unheard. She shook Twilight a second time, gaining no result.

“Everypony gather ‘round!” the orange cow-pony called. The other four ponies immediately fell back to the dazed Twilight’s position. “Twi’s out of it! We gotta protect ‘er as best we can!”

“Fluttershy, I think you should fly her to safety,” Rainbow Dash suggested, holding her almost-depleted first cloud.

Without words, Fluttershy hovered over Twilight and picked the dazed unicorn up. With a look that said ‘I’m on it,’ the yellow pegasus turned towards the center of town.

Another tremor reverberated through the town. Anypony that hadn’t heard the first one definitely felt this one. It sounded and felt massive.

Something was moving through the night. Something that even Darq never wanted to encounter face-to-face. Something that even Discord would fear. Something that would haunt Nightmare Moon’s dreams. Something that could not be stared down by Fluttershy. Something that could strike the purest forms of fear from Celestia herself lurked in the night, and was moving towards Ponyville.