Twilight sneaked as quietly as she could around the valpony fortress. The moon was already starting to ride high in the night sky, but the moonlight was thankfully bright enough to see, for the most part. Despite being so late, the army inside still seemed to be hard at work. She could see movement just over the walls and hear the distinct sound of stone being chiseled.
“How dare they!” Twilight thought to herself. “Every chip on those stones is damage to our history!”
Dash hung in the air, fidgeting, but Twilight didn't notice.
Continuing around, Twilight noticed that the walls were still being built. As she moved along, she could see around gaps that had yet to be filled in. The entire area of the complex was about the size of a sports stadium. There didn't seem to be any buildings inside as of yet, but some foundations of stone did seem to be in place. There was some kind of monument being erected in the center of the stronghold, but she couldn't tell what is was from there.
“Darn it, here comes another one.” Dash whispered.
With a brief surge of adrenaline, Twilight darted as silently as possible around a few trees to get into a hiding spot, fortunately, the dark hue of her coat and mane lent itself easily to hiding. She couldn't see above the treeline from there, but that also meant anypony above the treeline couldn't see her. She definitely heard the wing beats of a pegasus, though. Looking back out, she noticed her friend wasn't making a motion to hide as well. “Dash, get down!” she whispered urgently.
“Hold on, I got this one.” Dash said, coiling up like she was preparing to jump straight into the air.
“Are you crazy? Get back here!”
“You there!” The guard overhead shouted, making Twilight's blood run cold. “Show your-!”
In a rainbow colored streak, Dash shot upwards, hoof outstretched. She delivered the most powerful uppercut she could muster, contacting square against the guard's jaw with a crack. The valpony spiraled backwards in midair before she collapsed face down on the ground.
“Yeah, you better stay down.”
Twilight jumped out of her hiding place as the valpony landed and immediately used her telekinesis to pull the body back into the trees and out of sight. Relieved of her tension, Dash trotted in after her, a big smile plastered on her face. “Did you see that?” Dash asked proudly “One hit, and pow! Light's out.”
“Do you have any idea what you've done?!” Twilight whispered angrily. “You've blown our cover! This pony knows we're here now!”
“But she's knocked out! She's not gonna tell anypony!”
“For now! This guard is supposed to report in to somepony, and when she doesn't they're going to come looking for her.”
“Okay, okay, fine. So, what do we do with her now, then? Oh! I say we interrogate her! We came all the way out here for info anyway, right?”
“We can't interrogate her when she's unconscious!” Twilight yelled as loudly as she could while whispering.
“Oh, right, my bad.” Dash laughed nervously.
Twilight sighed in exasperation and turned to face their captive. She was very clearly dead to the world, but she was breathing. A little bit of blood dribbled out of her mouth. She likely lost a tooth from the impact, but it was far from fatal. She looked just the same as all the other valponies besides that, with the heavy, intricate armor, and even the same coat and mane coloring. This one was even armed. A spear was hooked to the side of her barding. Twilight levitated it away from her and held it out to Dash, who was hovering overhead to watch. “Here, hold on to this.”
“Awesome!” Dash said, taking the weapon. She swung it around a few times, testing out the weight. “If only we had a some of these back at Appleoosa instead of a bunch of silly pies.”
“Please, that was the last thing we needed back there,” Twilight said irritably, still studying the valpony.
Noticing a few buckles on the backside of the pagasus' armor, Twilight decided to try and remove it. If she were lucky, there might be some personal belongings tucked underneath it she could learn from. Naturally, she concluded, the flanks would be the best place to secure pegasus armor. From the air, pegasi warriors could be attacked from any direction, but so long as they kept flying forward their backsides would be the hardest to hit. Feeling around the plating with her telekinesis, she unbuckled all of it and was able to lift it off of her.
That's when Twilight noticed that the valponie didn't have a cutie mark.
“Dash! Look at this!”
Rainbow Dash then stabbed the tip of her new spear into the ground and balanced herself on the butt of it, looking down at the valponie. “Man, what kind of lamer do you have to be to not have a cutie mark at that age?”
“I … don't know. It's completely unheard of.”
“So, what are we going to do with that, then?”
Twilight looked over and saw that Dash was pointing at the heap of barding she had left on the ground. The she got an idea.
Applejack's group finished circling around and came across Twilight, Dash, and the valpony a few minutes later. They were not expecting to see an unfamiliar pegasus unconscious on the ground, nor were they expecting to see Dash wearing her armor.
“Well, how does it fit? Can you fly like that?” Twilight asked.
“What in tarnation's goin' on here?” Applejack asked, causing Twilight to flinch again. She had just about enough surprises for one evening.
“I'm gonna sneak in there!” Dash said excitedly, as she tried to fly upwards. She wasn't used to having so much weight on her, but she could still manage.
“You are?!” Pinkie shouted.
“Didn't I tell ya' to keep it down?” Applejack said, stomping her hoof. Pinkie bowed her head and smiled bashfully, and AJ turned back to Twilight. “It looks like Fluttershy's pullin' through for us after all. We saw some kind of owl swoopin' about there like he knew somethin'. We didn't see much from our end, just a bunch of pegasi buildin' some kind of wall.”
“Did you see that thing they were building in the center?”
“Not really. The wall's pretty high up there on the far side. We could hardly see a darned thing.”
“Well then, it looks like it's up to me to check it out,” Dash said, finally getting the hang of flying around in heavy barding. She made a few quick turns and sweeps through the air. “I'll be able to get a better look anyway. Who would you guys rather trust, me or some feathered birdbrain?”
They all resisted the urge to state the obvious, Pinkie less so than the others as she chocked back a chortle.
Zecora set down her basket between two branches like she did before so she could open it up and search for a potion. “Take this and hide it in your peytral,” She said, picking up a bottle in her mouth and holding it out to Dash. “Throw it down should chaos starts to fall.”
“Hide it in my what?”
“It's the plate covering your chest,” Twilight said, using her telekinesis to stash it under the armor for her. “Just don't forget the plan,” She reminded her, levitating the spear and hooking it back on as well.
Dash saluted, and with a few strained wing flaps she gained enough momentum to clear the trees overhead. Together, the rest of the ponies made their way back to where they started to meet up with Fluttershy and Rarity, Zecora picking up he potion supply as they did.
Rainbow Dash made her way purposefully towards the stronghold. She kept her cool, or rather it was forcefully restricted by the armor. It didn't fit quite right, and she fidgeted as it started to chafe in a few places. As she approached the wall, she tried to imitate the way Rarity carried herself, hoping that might pass off as a refined, military stance. The barding mostly covered her spectral mane and sky blue coat, so she hoped she wouldn't be recognized.
“You there! Who are you, and where did you get that armor?!” The first valponie shouted that caught sight of her.
“So much for the plan!” Dash shouted, and immediately bolted back to her friends.
“Return here at once!” The valpony shouted, and started to give chase. A few other valponies noticed the commotion, and started to make their ways over the wall as well.
A moment later, the rest of the group noticed Dash incoming with a battalion in tow as they met up at the corner of the field. “Oh, what did she do now?!” Twilight shouted, stomping her hooves. “Everypony! Get ready to fight!”
Applejack and Pinkie formed up on both sides of Twilight, facing down the advancing valponies. Zecora and Rarity stood behind them, and Fluttershy dove for the bushes again. As the battle began, each pony fought with whatever abilities were available to her. Although here described in turn, many events took place simultaneously.
Twilight was the first to act, having the advantage of magic on her side. didn't know a lot of combat spells, but she still had that flare. It wouldn't kill anypony, she admitted to herself, but silently she admitted that she really didn't want to kill anypony either. Bracing herself in a similar stance as before, she fired a couple bolts of magic from her horn. The valpony leading the charge didn't expect it, and was thrown from the air by the impact. The next few missed as the advancing line started to spread. As one got within striking range, she teleported out of the way and continued firing.
By this point, the valponies were starting to draw their spears as they approached. Applejack knew that the strength of her world-famous buck would be at a disadvantage against a weapon with range, so she would have to be careful. As the first valpony singled in on her, she rounded on her front hooves to strike. With a carefully timed side kick she pushed the spear tip outwards, which had the resulting effect of jerking its wielder's body off balance. With her other hoof, she bucked into the center of her attacker's peytral, causing the valpony to spiral off and way from her.
“Catch me if you can!” Pinkie shouted, leaping into the air. She leaped over the first valpony to rush her, and sailed over the pagasus' head onto her back. Mid jump, she pulled a party popper out of her saddlebags and and popped it into the back of the valponie's head. Springing upwards again, she forced the valpony into the ground. Her next target didn't see her coming as she bounced off the side of the warrior pony's armor and flung her into yet another valpony. She continued her ascent, leaping from one pagasus to the next, bursting poppers of throwing confetti as she flew. She wasn't doing any real harm to them, but was making a dent in the organization of their ranks.
Rainbow Dash careened into the ground past the front line and landed next to Rarity. “Quick, you gotta get me outta this thing! I can barely fly!” she begged.
Rarity was not a fighting unicorn either. She had neither Twilight's raw magical ability nor Applejack's brute strength, but she had advanced telekinetic powers, control over clothing, and a quick mind. Her first thought was to interfere with the valponies' armor, but her power didn't lend itself to reforming metal. However, each of those plates were held together with leather and buckles, which she could easily manipulate. Not all at once, but enough to interfere with one or two at a time.
Dash's plea came first, however, and she had to help her out of that hunk of metal. “Hold still!” she shouted and using her magic to unbuckle the straps and trim the leather support. The barding collapsed off of Dash like molting feathers.
“Yeah, now we're talking!” Dash shouted, jumping up and stretching her limbs freely.
Rarity was just about to say 'you're welcome' to Dash until the valpony Applejack had just sent spiraling away then landed between the two of them. The pegasi was followed immediately after by one Pinky jumped from. Catching sight of even more hostile approaching, the two of them got to work.
Dash dug through the pile of scrap metal for the spear, and lifted off with it. By now, the valponies were starting to fight with more focus. Dash didn't have any training with the weapon, but her speed and agility far exceeded that of her armored opponents. Using her weapon more like a club than a lance, she darted from one target to the next, smacking them as she flew by. Most blows glanced harmlessly of their armor, but some managed to graze by unarmored areas along necks and heads. As Rarity began dislocating valpony armor, her strikes became more effective. Noticing how effective her fighting was, some of the valponies veered upwards in an attempt to chase her down.
None of the Equestrians present in the battle had killed anypony before. Some of them lacked the intent or the ability to do so. As Dash flew through the battle with her weapon, she was the first to draw blood of any of them. Before she even realized it, she was also the first to end a life. There was no time for her then to think about such things, she was having too much fun with the exhilaration of flight as she swung her favorite new toy.
As all of this was occurring, Zecora picked a potion from her basket and watched the battle unfold with careful eyes. As valponies continued to fly in from the stronghold, they started to circle around her friends. There were too many enemies, and the seven of them would not be able to hold a line.
The best course of action, then, was to thin out the numbers.
With a large swing of her neck, Zecora flung one of her bottles out over the field towards the advancing valponies. It spiraled through the air, small and largely unnoticed by the approaching pagasi. It landed on the back of one and shattered.
The resulting explosion instantly killed three valponies, and scattered a few more. There was confusion among everypony around, as nopony but Zecora knew where the explosion came from. Several valponies realized it was her and landed on all sides. They poised their spears to strike.
Zecora picked up another bottle from her basket. Unable to carry all of them at once, she was effectively rooted to that location. “If you want to take me, come get some!” She shouted through her teeth, waving the bottle menacingly. “The first one here shall be blasted to kingdom come!”
Suddenly, a flock of owls emerged from the corner of the woods where Fluttershy had been hiding. By her insistence, they joined the battle, pecking and clawing at the valponies. She hated fighting more than anything else, but she knew that she couldn't just stand by and do nothing. She could do nothing else, though, and simply watched in fear and apprehension from her hiding place.
A dozen or so valponies had been incapacitated to some degree or another, but there were still tens more all around. Some pursued Dash, Pinkie, and the owls through the air, the others circled around the ponies on the ground. At least Rarity has disarmed most of them. Twilight was starting to teleport more often than she was attacking, and some were very close calls. She had taken a few jabs to the side, and a reactive instinct would kick in and teleport her in the opposite direction, whichever way that happened to be.
Another blade struck Twilight, and she teleported again. The stress was getting to her, and she was having a hard time focusing on what would be the most logical action. In an act of desperation, she projected a barrier a few meters wide around herself, pushing everything away. Fortunately, she only ended up hitting valponies in the expansion of magic.
“Twilight! Let me inside! Help!” a voice managed to ring through to Twilight's mind over the din.
The purple unicorn turned and saw Rarity banging on her barrier. She was wounded as well, but only once to the leg. She seemed to have been stabbed in the shoulder, and blood ran down her otherwise pristine white coat. Twilight opened a gap in the barrier to let her limp inside.
“We must get out of here! We can't fight all of them!” Rarity shouted. She used her magic and a scarf from her saddlebags to bandage her wound. She winced as she tightened the fabric around the cut to stem the bleeding.
“There's still too many! We have to at least make an opening first! Do what you can for now, I'll keep us safe!”
Rarity collapsed on the ground and let her injured leg stretch out. She whimpered a little as a few tears slipped from her tightly shut eyes. Another one of Zecora's bombs exploded nearby, the shock wave thew a valpony against Twilight's shield. She knew what she had to do.
Rarity lifted her head high and furrowed her brows as she brought as much of her magic as she could to bear. She used her power to separate one of the discarded armors into a swarm of metal scales. Some of the valponies who witnessed that, by then on to the friend's abilities, flew away from them as fast as they could. The scales veered off after them, each chasing a target.
Some of the valponies tried to break through Twilight's barrier to stop Rarity's telekinesis. They couldn't break the wall, but each impact deformed it a bit, causing Twilight to flinch as she struggled to maintain its form. Those that paused to do so were easier targets for Rarity's scales. The valponies there that still had armor were protected from the projectiles, but the rest found themselves with scale bullets in their backs. Spot of red blood landed on Twilight’s purple shield.
Applejack wasn't faring much better. Trying to fight with her bare hooves was a challenge when faced with armed opponents. She had plenty of spear scrapes, but she was tough enough to shrug most of them off. They circled around her as well. They all knew that the first one to rush her would likely be bucked to the face while only making a scratch on her, and they were hesitant to take that chance. She turned quickly, facing each of them, scowling and snorting, daring them to make a move.
Applejack decided that she had to use a lasso on one of them and quickly pulled the rope out of her bags. Getting a hold of an intelligent pony was much more difficult than a bull rampaging in a single direction. Her first couple shots missed and the opening in her guard left her vulnerable to a few jabs. Applejack was surprised to realize that valpony weaponry wasn’t incredibly sharp. Each of her many blows were drawing blood, but no single one was life threatening.
Finally, Applejack managed to rope one around the neck. Shocked, the valpony tried to lift off into the sky, but the orange pony jerked down on the rope causing the warrior to plummet back down again head first. There was an audible snap as she hit the dirt. Rearing back and pulling with the strength of an earth pony farm worker, Applejack flung the body around herself in a full circle, knocking it into the other valponies surrounding her before the rope snapped at the loop.
Applejack considered running for the shelter of Twilight's barrier when she saw it, but there were too many valponies between them, and she knew she'd be useless inside that bubble anyway. There was fighting to be done, and the worst thing she could do was not help out, even if it was risky. Another one of Zecora's potions exploded, and she only hoped that zebra had a throwing neck as strong as her own to not be in range of that blast.
As the valponies recovered from the swing, another blade left a gash on Applejack's side, a good sized one that time. She bucked instinctively and a made contact with a jaw. She was running out of steam, but they would literally have to kill her to make her stop trying to protect her friends.
At the same time, Pinkie continued to ricochet between the valponies in the air. They were catching on to her antics as well and beginning to hold out their spears at her as she dived at them. A little bit of deft maneuvering and pinkie sense was protecting her so far, but she was definitely having less fun than when she started. She had already run out of streamers and poppers anyway. She dove for a valpony that didn't seem to have noticed her, but realized her approach mid jump. The warrior's spear was thrown up defensively. Surprised, Pinkie grabbed on to the shaft of the spear with her hooves, and tried push herself off to the side. The maneuver cost her a gash to the chest, but at least she avoided skewering herself completely. Unprepared to take a hit, she tumbled into the valpony instead of bouncing off of her. The two of them fell through the air towards the ground. Pinkie was the first to recover, and jumped away from the valpony to land. She hit the ground with a tumble, but was mostly unhurt. The valpony spread her wings to try and slow her decent, but landed straight on her outstretched legs, causing them to buckle beneath her. She hit the ground with a crunch and collapsed.
Pinkie wobbled to her hooves and inspected her wound. She looked with fear at the splotch on her coat that was a much darker shade of red than it should have been. She glanced around over the battle around her in horror, seeing valponies lying in the ground in pain and all of her friends hurt in some way even as they continued fighting. Zecora threw a third potion bomb with great effect. The bodies of valponies thrown by the explosion arched over her line of sight, and she watched them fall back to the ground. Then, something changed inside the happy, pink pony.
The look of dread on Pinkie's face slowly changed to that of determination as she started to charge in Applejack's direction as the orange pony was swinging a valpony by the neck. As she crossed the distance the air let out of her mane and tail. Her normally bouncy curls flattened out into a much straighter style.
By the time Pinkie reached Applejack, the lasso had snapped at the knot, reducing it to a normal rope. She immediately bit into the end of it and held on tight, much to the farmer's surprise.
“Pinkie?! What are ya' – yer mane!” Applejack stammered.
“Swing me!” Pinkie screamed.
“What?!”
“Do it!”
Pinkie started to run in a circle around Applejack, still gripping the rope, building up momentum until Applejack would do what she told her. She jumped over and under a few valponies who were recovering from Applejack's previous swing. Her straight hair billowed like a banner behind her.
Pushing aside the pain from her several wounds, Applejack pulled on the rope and started trying to swing Pinkie around like she did the valpony. The rope held this time, and the pink pony was circling around her like a wrecking ball, kicking at any enemy within reach. Although she was worried for Pinkie's safety, she finally had a weapon with range that outmatched the spears.
Back in the air, Dash was beginning to master the use of her spear. She knew that she couldn't face the valponies one on one – they still proved to be more skilled than she was – but she tried them anyway. She would approach one and attempt to clash weapons with her. Her heightened perception developed from years of flying at incredible speeds allowed her to quickly determine when a duel was going against her, and she would dart away before taking a hit. Out of all of the friends, she was one of the two who had yet to be hurt. Pinkie was doing an excellent job of being a distraction while she was up in the air with her, but the blue pegasus started to feel crowded with extra hostiles focusing on her when Pinkie fell. A flock of owls had appeared out of seemingly nowhere and were joining her in the fight for the air. The valponies seemed to be having an ever harder time fighting them off, but it wasn't enough.
With most airborne valponies locked on to her, Dash had to switch into evasive mode. Spear tips closed in around her from all directions, and she weaved and rolled over as many of them as she could. It was during this moment that she finally received some scrapes from their attacks. The sensation of being cut on her sides while dodging like that reminded her of the accident from a few months previous. The weight of the danger finally sunk in.
Dash had a fleeting vision of crashing into a branch, of meeting a blue pony with eight legs, of that pony telling her she was dead.
Panic flowed over Dash again. With one big burst of speed, she fled from the battle entirely. The valponies, knowing full well that they couldn't catch her, resigned to descending on the rest of the friends on the ground.
In a continuing wave of emotion, Rainbow Dash knew she couldn't just abandon her friends like that. She banked around and started to head back. On her approach, she saw spears lunging at the purple bubble protecting the unicorns. Zecora had also found her way inside somewhere along the way. She had one last potion in her mouth. The three of them were bandaged up with stylish clothes from Rarity’s saddlebags. Applejack had apparently collapsed where she stood a dozen meters away, Pinkie stood protectively over her and growled at the encroaching valponies.
They needed a miracle, and Dash could only think of one.
Dash poured every bit of strength and energy into her flight. She tucked in her limbs to improve her aerodynamics. She focused on every motion of her wings to refine them as much as possible. She approached the sound barrier, with felt like it was growing thicker the faster she moved.
Try as she might, Rainbow Dash couldn't break through that barrier. She didn't need to, however. The compressed cone of air forming around her was enough of a battering ram to scatter many of the valponies. With a roar of sound, the compressed air shook the field. Those also in the sky were particularly vulnerable to the air cone, and were launched away, unable to right themselves. The owls were also scattered and did not return. Those on the ground were knocked backwards and away from the friends. Everypony inside Twilight's barrier was safe even as the cone popped it. Applejack and Pinkie's hunkered positions allowed them to fare better than the valponies, but they were still knocked back some. In fact, they were shoved along the ground closer to the others.
As Dash swooped overhead to decelerate and land with the rest of the friends, they were arguing about their next move. Rarity immediately started using the last of her clothes to mend Applejack the best she could.
“We must go now, hurry and take flight,” Zecora said. “If we stay, we will not survive this night.”
“Ah can … Ah can fight,” Applejack murmured as she lay on the dirt with her eyes shut tight. She had taking the most punishment of anypony. “Jus' … jus' get me mah lasso”
“We can't go on. We have to get out of here!” Rarity shouted, kneeling at Applejack’s side. Then, she shrieked when she saw the remaining valponies get back up. “Quick, we must go!”
“How are we supposed to get out of here, huh?!” Pinkie screamed. The anger in her voice was a disturbing thing for her friends to hear. “You two can barely move, and those ponies will be on us any second!”
Fluttershy finally emerged from her hiding spot and hurried back to her friends. “Oh, I'll, I'll carry somepony!” she said, trying to be helpful.
“Don't worry, I'm here now! I can get us outta here as fast as a sonic rainboom!” Dash exaggerated, but she fully intended to get them all out.
“No need, I've got this!” Twilight shouted.
As the others were shouting, Twilight was focusing all the magic power she had left. She was once been able to teleport Spike alongside with her, but the baby dragon had been slightly singed by the magical burnoff. She had never attempted moving an entire party in that way, but she had recently learned of a few techniques that granted her powers she never knew she had – Powers she never thought any pony could have.
Twilight’s horn burned with purple unicorn magic as she readied the activation of her mass teleportation. The valponies all around were rising to their hooves and readied their weapons. Twilight reared up on her hind legs and groaned audibly as she was about to release the spell. The valponies charged at the friends for one final rush to finish them off. Twilight stomped her hooves down hard and a flash of brilliant white light emanated from her horn, blinding everypony in sight. As the light vanished, so did the friends.
The valponies came to a stop as the light seemed to surround them. When their sight returned, they looked around, greatly confused.
A couple of valponies then said a single line. It was not said in unison, more like they had each thought to say it at the same time.
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