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Reach

by ToixStory

Chapter 17: Chapter 16: The Lightning Strike

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They appeared in flash of light, once more inside the city. Starlight’s vision swam for a moment, and the world spun. When her vision cleared, she saw that they were standing in the middle of a street, looking up toward a massive dome.

The dome’s structure wasn’t like the kind she had seen for sporting events. The ceiling appeared to be made of glass, and she could see the tops of trees rubbing against it. A golden glow seemed to emanate from within. Seeing so many trees in the middle of the desert made Starlight wonder if the magic was affecting her mind.

In front of them, the Crystal Heart hovered above the ground, like it was waiting for something. The ghostly visage of Cadance was gone, but Starlight told herself she was still in there . . . or so she hoped.

Sunny was sprawled on the ground beside her. Staten stepped forward and helped his daughter to her hooves while Noctilucent stepped forward and put a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. She looked at her dad, who wore a small, sad smile on his face.

The two IS agents were quiet. They simply stared up at the top of the dome, and Starlight followed their gaze. That was when she saw it. Hovering above the glass enclosing was some sort of . . . jewel. No, an agglomeration of jewels, all kept together.

“The Elements of Harmony,” Cadance’s voice from within the crystal said, answering Starlight’s silent question. “They’ve been controlling this city for some time now.”

Midnight stared up at it. The professor, who had been silent for most of the trip, looked visibly shaken. “Does it notice us? Can it, ah, see us?”

The Crystal began to turn, and Cadance’s voice rang out from it, “I’m not sure, I haven’t—”

A beam of light shot out from the hovering Elements. Where it struck the ground, the asphalt exploded like it had been hit by a bomb. Bits of street pummeled into gravel cascaded down over the shield that had appeared from within the Crystal Heart. Starlight peeked out from behind a hoof that she had used to cover her face.

Behind her, the baby that the IS had brought with them began to cry. Starlight would have told them to shut it up if she didn’t feel like crying herself.

As she watched, the Elements of Harmony began to descend toward them, moving silently through the air. The shield around them gradually dissipated, though the Elements didn’t make a move to try to strike them again. It settled for hovering just outside the entrance to the dome.

It seemed to watch them through its six crystals. Each glowed a different color, and Starlight thought she could see a face in all of them. A face of some pony, even. But, it might have just been her imagination.

When the Elements spoke, it was like a great rumbling that emanated from the earth itself, and seemed to come from everywhere at once. “I was wondering when you would make an appearance,” it said.

Cadance appeared once again as a ghostly hologram from within the Crystal. She seemed miffed, and pawed the ground. “I was hoping that we had seen the last of each other. After all this time, I almost forgot about you.”

A similar hologram appeared from the Elements, but it was not just one pony. It flickered between the image of a purple unicorn with wings, a cyan pegasus, an orange normal pony, and a few others. With every word it said, the image cycled. “You were sealed deep under the ground at my behest, little princess. It was your kind that showed me what ponies were capable of, if you recall. You are lucky I do not strike you and all ponies where they stand.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“I recall another princess telling me that, after she realized I was not some weapon for her to use at her will. I believe she may still be in the heart of the sun.”

Watching the two argue, to Starlight, was like watching a couple of gods fight. She may have been taller and with a horn and wings, but she felt about the size of an ant. Looking at Sunny confirmed that she wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“You were kind to the ponies, I will grant you,” the Elements continued. “And it is for this that I will spare you. Hand over my ponies now so that I may begin the final preparations and you may slumber once more. Perhaps, one day, you may even meet the new race of ponies.”

The Crystal Heart rose higher off the ground. “That’s not going to happen. You’re not going to get to play god with these ponies again.”

A sickening chuckle echoed from within the crystals. For a moment, the hologram seemed to be all six variations at once. “I played God? Would you wish to lecture me over that when I always had ponies’ best interests in mind? It was ponies who tried to use me as a weapon of war! It was your kind who grew corrupt and vicious and forgot what harmony is!

“This world was created by me and I can unmake it just as easily. I have to unmake it. Look around you, so-called Princess of Love. The ponies have grown corrupt once again, fighting and bickering over each other while turning the land into a cesspool of industry and ‘progress.’”

“Hey, you can’t just talk about us like we’re not here!” Sunny barked, stepping forward. “Who are you to even decide what we can and can’t do? I don’t remember you exactly helping when we had to work for hundreds of years just to get where we are now!”

“And ruined the land as you did so!”

“What choice did we have? One in four foals used to die before they were even a year old, and that was at the best! What, were we supposed to live in filth and squalor so we could be some sort of perfect society for you?”

Starlight wasn’t sure, but the Elements seemed to sound like they were annoyed. “The so-called filth and squalor was the doing of you ponies. I set in motion a possibility of living in peace and harmony with nature. It was all of you who decided to try to be more.” For the first time, it seemed to see the wing and horn combination on Sunny. “And I see that Cadance has set in motion the changes I had planned.”

“Us having wings and a horn was your plan?” Starlight blurted out. Her heart sank when the Elements turned toward her.

“A magical population needs leaders,” it said. “I needed two—one for the sun, one for moon—to be able to survive. Ponies without leaders are little more than rabble.” It sighed. “It does, however, appear that you two were not ready. A pity, but one that is easily fixed.”

All six jewels began to glow brighter and brighter. If it hadn’t been for her father, Starlight would have been caught in the blast of light that came from the Elements. It incinerated an entire section of the street they were on and cut a hole in the size of a building large enough to drive a car through. Starlight could feel the hairs on her body tingle from the aftereffects.

The Elements began powering up another strike, but a beam of blue light shot out of the Crystal Heart and impacted the center jewel, throwing it back and onto the ground.

“Run!” Candance’s voice shouted from inside the crystal.

None of the ponies needed to be told twice. Sunny sprinted away with the two IS agents and Starlight followed them. Another attack from the Elements cut them off from her father, Staten, and Midnight, who ran to the other side of the street. Starlight didn’t have any time to try to get to them, though. She dove into the runs of a building that the Elements had carved up, falling behind a brick wall along with the agents and Sunny.

They were all panting. Sunny wiped sweat from her forehead and looked around. “So anypony got a plan B?” she asked.

“There was a plan A?” Agent Flower asked. She was breathing hard and holding the squealing foal to her chest.

Agent Night turned to Sunny and Starlight. “Shouldn’t one of you, you know, have some sort of power? It seems like you went through all of this for nothing.”

“If I have some power, it sure would be helpful right now,” Sunny said. “Too bad I don’t feel any different before, other than taller. What about you, Starlight?”

“I haven’t been able to do magic since we were captured by the IS. It just . . . comes and goes. I’d sure like it to come right around now.”

An explosion rocked the street and sent tremors crawling up Starlight’s spine. She peeked around the corner to see a ten-story-tall building collapsing in on itself. The Crystal Heart and Elements of Harmony danced around each other, firing beams of light that seemed to strike some sort of shield that they had made for themselves. Each was powerful, but every blow by the Elements forced Cadance in her heart back. She was losing.

Starlight took a deep breath and mentally repeated to herself that she was insane. “We have to go help Cadance,” she said. “She’s going to get destroyed out there, and then what? The Elements do whatever they want.”

“We literally just got done saying we don’t feel like we can do anything,” Sunny said. “How are we supposed to help?”

“We’ll figure it out, okay?”

Another rumble shook all of them. Starlight didn’t wait around for a confirmation. Truth be told, she was scared out of her mind. Before she could decide to stay behind, she dove out of her cover and into the middle of the street. Cracks had appeared on the glass of the dome, and the glow inside was brighter. The Crystal Heart was almost at street level now, only just defending attacks rather than giving them back.

“Cadance!” Starlight shouted, waving a hoof. “We’re here to help.” Her own heart was beating faster, and she kept casting glances at the Elements of Harmony. A thousand thoughts of how the malevolent jewels could kill her echoed through her mind. The only thing that kept her from running back to cover was the appearance of Sunny at her side.

The Heart levitated toward them, extending a shield that protected them from an attack by the Elements. It was a good thing, too, as the pavement around the shield cracked and burst into bits of gravel.

Cadance appeared before them once again. “You two aren’t ready!” she exclaimed. “Your powers have only just begun to manifest. If you don’t stay back, you may have your new powers wiped from you . . . or worse.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Sunny said. “It seems like if we don’t stop these so-called ‘Elements of Harmony’ then it’s going to destroy the whole city! We have to do something.”

Another attack from the Elements came, harder this time. The attack ground down the shield little by little, but it still held. Cadance looked worryingly at the floating jewels, and then back to the ponies in front of her. Her eyes seemed heavy, like a secret weight was heaved upon them. Her mouth turned down into a frown, but she nodded.

“Touch your hooves to the crystal once more,” Cadance said.

Starlight and Sunny didn’t need any prodding. Both of their hooves touched the Crystal at the same time. Starlight closed her eyes, and felt a wave of energy rush through her.

When she opened them, the world was not the same. It was hard to describe, exactly, like telling somepony a dream a day after you had it. Stars pinwheeled overhead. The moon rose and fell rapidly in its everlasting dance with the sun, spinning and moving in a waltz of eternity. She could feel that dance, right down to her bones. The stars felt like pinpricks on her own skin, each one of them a part of her very soul.

Her eyes flashed, and suddenly Starlight was back to the street in Sundown. And yet, she could still feel the stars and the moon. Even in the light of day, they were always there, and being able to feel them gave her the kind of reassurance that she had not felt since she had been separated from Red.

Sunny was reeling and nearly fell to the ground. Starlight moved to help her up, but the mare shook her off and smiled. “You feeling it too?” she asked.

“If by ‘it’ you mean like I can feel the orbit of the moon, yeah,” Starlight said.

“Well for me it’s not exactly the moon . . .”

They were interrupted by another blast from the Elements of Harmony. It finally managed to overtake Cadance’s shield and sent them all sprawling to the ground. The Crystal Heart skidded across the pavement. All that was left between Starlight, Sunny, and the jewels was open air. The Elements hovered toward them, glowing brighter.

“You two were meant to be the saviors of this world!” it blared. “You would have led ponies to utopia, in a brave new world without all this industry and technology!”

Sunny laughed and pawed the ground. “I happen to like this world, you know. It’s not all that bad. Shouldn’t you try to save this one first than destroy it?”

“In the past, I worked to actively save worlds even as I knew they were beyond saving . . . they only grew worse over time. You ponies have a magnificent talent for ruining what you touch.”

“Then what’s the point in keeping us around?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Starlight punched Sunny on the shoulder. The mare blushed and shrugged, then turned her attention back to the Elements. The jewels were still lighting up, growing brighter and brighter for the next attack. It looked to be an even larger attack than the one that had knocked out.

Inwardly, Starlight cringed. Down to her very stars, she could feel that the weight of the attack would come down on her. This would be it. Despite all the power at the tips of her hooves, she didn’t know how to attack or even defend herself. The Elements, it seemed, would win.

She closed her eyes as the beam shot out from the jewels, coalescing into a rainbow wave that rushed toward them. She felt Sunny cringe beside her, and Starlight waited for it to be over.

It wasn’t until she had waited for a few seconds too long that she dared to open her eyes. The rainbow light was still there and pouring around them, but a large shield stuck out in the middle of it. Its surface bubbled and popped and was colored garish blues and reds, but it was a shield nonetheless. It wasn’t until Starlight looked up and saw her horn glowing that she realized that she had cast it. Sunny’s horn was glowing as well.

“That’s new,” Starlight muttered.

The Elements, for once, seemed confused. It flew around the shield, shooting beams of its magic at it but having no effect. The shield may have weakened a little, but overall it held together and stood strong.

Behind them, the Crystal Heart rose from the ground once more. “I’ve altered the game,” Cadance shouted. “You only sought to use these ponies as pawns, but I’ve given them the power you should have afforded them a long time ago! Now just try and stop them!”

“Hey, can you not give it a challenge?” Sunny asked.

The Elements took her message to heart. It lowered itself toward them and began to press its physical self against the shield. The magic held for a moment but began to part under the pressure.

Starlight took a step back. “Uh, Sunny?” she asked.

“Yeah?” Sunny replied.

“What do we do?”

“I think the good idea might be to run again.”

Starlight turned tail and sprinted toward the Crystal Heart, which bobbed in the air just a few petras behind them. She saw Sunny do the same, and their shield collapsed with a burst of magic. The force of all the magic suddenly breaking free was enough to trip them both, sending the two winged unicorns onto the ground.

They shakily got to their hooves, only in time to see the Elements hovering over them. It stared down at them with all the malevolence that six colored jewels could show. Surprisingly, it was quite a lot. The Crystal Heart threw itself in front of the two.

“We’re . . . not going to win, are we?” Sunny asked, coughing up a mixture of spittle and blood. “All we can do is defend, not fight. And that thing is too powerful for us.”

Starlight looked up. Cadance had given them a shield again, but this one was dying even faster. It seemed that the more they resisted the Elements, the more powerful they got. Starlight wiped blood from the corners of her own mouth. “We have to try something,” she said. “If we don’t, everypony we’ve ever known is going to die.”

We are going to die.”

“Yeah, well, I guess that just sucks, huh?”

Sunny snorted. “And I thought I was the crazy one.” Even so, she took up a stance alongside Starlight. The two of them closed their eyes and began to concentrate. Starlight tried to feel the power of the moon, the force of the gravity and energy that came from it. She didn’t know where she got the idea to try, but it seemed almost natural to her.

Dimly, she was aware that all of that power had begun to make its way into her horn. She focused harder. She wanted to be the moon, to feel every little crater and edifice, and to feel the stars that surrounded it in an endless blanket of space. Science, magic, whatever it was, she wanted to feel it flowing through her.

And, more than that, she wanted those Elements dead.

A shaft of light the color of the night sky shot out of Starlight’s horn. It impacted on the Elements of Harmony—right in the center of the purple jewel—at the same time a similar attack from Sunny struck. Starlight had the chance to look over and grin at her compatriot. It seemed, to her, that she was not alone in her revelation.

The Elements wavered for a moment, then fell back under the brunt of the combined attacks. They didn’t seem to have done any actual damage, but for the first time since they had faced the monstrosity, it had begun to retreat.

Starlight took a step forward, then another. Memories flashed through her mind. The raid from the IS. Running for her life across the country. Getting shot. Being captured. Her father’s betrayal. Every moment piled on top of another and each one was the fault of the Elements. Rage burned inside her, and she ground her teeth.

If the stupid jewels had just stayed buried, nothing would have happened. She could have been happy and back in her bed! Starlight took another step. She could be normal, not some freak with a horn and wings! There wouldn’t be any worry about saving the city or not dying, just normalcy. Was that too much to ask?

Dimly, she was aware of her father, and Staten and all the rest were staring at her. Even Sunny seemed aghast. Starlight didn’t care. She had come too far, done too much, to let some glorified piece of jewelry get in her way!

“You think you can just run our lives?” she growled. “You think you can just come in and dictate what’s best for us? Who are you to even dare!” With a yell, she ran forward until, suddenly, her horn impacted onto the Elements of Harmony themselves.

“Get the fuck out of our lives!” Starlight screamed.

For a moment, nothing happened, even as her body sent energy coursing out of her horn and into the Elements of Harmony. Then the smallest of cracks appeared on the violet crystal in the center of the jewels. It was only as long as a hoof, but it was enough to let out a gust of energy that sprayed across the entire city block.

The Elements went flying end over end, sailing through the air until they landed hard at the end of the road. For a moment, all was quiet, then ponies began to cheer. Starlight slumped over and had to hold her hooves out wide to keep from falling over.

Sunny trotted over. “I thought I was supposed to be the one with the temper,” she said. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

“As long as I don’t have to do that again,” Starlight said. “I don’t think I could handle another one.”

The Crystal Heart hovered over to Starlight, but Cadance didn’t speak her congratulations. Instead, her holographic form only stared at the fallen Elements. “You gave them a beating,” she said, “but they’re not done yet. All six Equestrian saviors once tried to fight it off . . . and it only consumed them. I’m afraid we’re not out of this yet.”

As if on cue, the ground began to shake. Not just a small tremor, but as if the earth itself would split open. Starlight saw Sunny cry out and fall to her knees.

Before her eyes, the Elements of Harmony rose into the air. The crack that Starlight had struck in it was gone. It spun in the air, all gems glowing. A low rumble emanated from within the interior.

“Who am I to dictate your lives?” it growled. “Who are you to poison this planet, pollute your bodies, and pervert the way of life that you all once cherished? Who are you to claim this world as your own when you cannot take care of it? You have no right to it, and no right to the gifts I have given you!”

While it spoke, the holograms of six ponies appeared before it, mouthing the words in tandem. It sickened Starlight. Worse, when she looked in their eyes . . . all she saw was fear. She had figured Cadance must have bound herself to the Crystal Heart voluntarily, but something told her that those ponies hadn’t been very willing.

“We don’t want your lousy gifts!” Sunny shouted. This only seemed to annoy the Elements, however. The green jewel rotated toward her and let out a shot of light. It struck the mare in the chest and sent her sprawling onto the sidewalk, where she hit head-first into the side of a building.

Starlight’s heart skipped a beat until she heard Sunny moan in pain. Then, she began to back up as the Elements advanced on her. An attack similar to the one that had struck Sunny hit her on the shoulder. Starlight screamed in pain and clutched her shoulder like it had caught fire. Tears welled in her eyes and she bit her tongue hard enough for blood to run out the corners of her mouth.

Another attack hit her in the stomach. It was enough to send her skidding over hard concrete, a couple dozen petras away. She moaned and tried to stand, but her knees wobbled and gave out. Her head banged against the street and her eyes swam.

“Pray to whatever gods you ponies made up,” the Elements said tonelessly. “It was a pity you will not live to see the new age.”

The six gems lit up once more. They seemed to rotate toward one another, until they concentrated on a single point: Starlight. If it was like combining six of those previous attacks at once, she knew, it was all over. The Crystal Heart with Cadance in it had been thrown aside, and Sunny was lying in a heap. Everypony else was only staring.

Starlight closed her eyes. She wondered what her last thoughts could be. She tried to remember birthday parties and walks in the park with her dad and listening to her favorite music. All that came to mind, though, was Red. He would know what to do. Even if he died trying, he would have fought for her.

Just before the beams struck, she opened her eyes. A pony was standing in front of her. For a moment, she thought it was Red. Visions of him coming to save her danced in her head. Then, the pony leaned down and smiled a long, sad smile.

“Dad . . .” Starlight whispered.

“I’m not going to help anypony else take you, not again,” he replied, and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

Then, the six beams of light struck him in a rainbow blast. They had been meant for a pony of her stature, fully powered up with magic and anger, not a simple pony. There was a flash in his eyes. He looked surprised. Then, he pitched over onto the ground, and his eyes clouded over.

Starlight wanted to scream out, to cry, to curse the Elements and all that was associated with them, but she couldn’t find the strength to. There was just no time. As soon as the Elements of Harmony saw it had missed its intended target, it began powering up again. She only had a few more seconds before she would join her father. It was a bitter taste for her to swallow.

Slowly, she climbed to her hooves. “You want to kill me? Fine, but at least do it while I’m standing,” she spat.

At that point, there was nothing to do but wait. Wait as absolute silence settled over the city as everypony watched the deadly beams of light begin to gather again.

It seemed almost absurd when the silence was split by the long, loud drone of a car horn. But it wasn’t just any car horn, Starlight realized as it blared again . . . it was coming from a horn belonging to a certain RV.

Next Chapter: Chapter 17: All You Need Is Love Estimated time remaining: 21 Minutes
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