First Contact

“HQ? Come in, HQ. Are you there? Is there anyone on this frequency?! ...dammit.”

He tapped his earpiece and sighed. “Great. Out of contact, on my own, unarmed and lost. Goddamn Sirian technology.” He took a moment to take in his surroundings; the lush, colorful forest he'd found himself in was abuzz with life, and the bright sun above shone on him with a warm light. “Well, at least it's not a desert,” he amended. “I've had my fill of deserts.”

Given nothing else to do, he made his way through the almost ridiculously vibrant forest, only needing a few minutes to find its edge and emerge into a grassy plain. He checked his phone to see if he could get any sort of GPS or satellite fix on his location- only to find that there was no signal of any kind that he could access. “Well, that's not good,” he murmured to himself.

“What's not good?”

“Gyah-!” His hand went for a pistol he no longer had, while he spun around to find the source of the voice. “Where the hell-!”

“Up here!” He froze, then looked up. Above him hovered an exceptionally small horse, flapping a pair of fog-grey wings steadily, while a yellow mane and tail fluttered in the breeze it made. But he noted all that in the background while he was caught by the strange creature's most striking feature: A pair of enormous, cockeyed golden eyes, one looking intently at him while the other sort of wandered off on its own. “What the hell are you?!” he couldn't help but utter.

“I'm a pony!” A goofy grin crossed that expressive face. “What the hay are you?”

“Um... I'm a human.” He wasn't exactly new to the concept of alien species, but this thing took the prize for silliness. He was at least thankful it didn't seem hostile, because shooting something so... well... cute would take levels of detachment he wasn't sure even he could manage. “So. Well... where am I?”

“You're in the Principality of Equestria, it seems.” Another voice sounded off from near the treeline; he and the pony both turned to find a woman in what looked like a hiking outfit, with a zebra roughly the same size as the flying pony walking next to her, clad in a plain grey cloak. He stared at the newcomers for a moment. “You can't be serious,” he deadpanned.

“It does seem rather outlandish, I know. But as we're apparently standing in a land of talking sentient equines, it also makes a certain measure of sense.” The woman chuckled. “Ah, but where are my manners? My name is Lara Croft; my lovely companion here is Zecora. And you are?”

“Sam Stone.” He glanced up at the still-hovering pony. “And this is, uh....”

“I'm Derpy! Derpy Hooves, of the Equestrian Postal Service.” After a moment, surprise crossed the pony's face. “Oh... wait! Sam Stone? Lara Croft? Hang on just a second!” It- or, well, “she”, it would seem- immediately landed and stuck her face into a set of saddlebags strapped across her back, rummaging through it.

“Yeeeeah... well.” Sam scratched the back of his neck. “The last thing I remember is jumping into some half-destroyed Sirian time-lock, plugging a random set of coordinates in and phasing out just before the whole damn planet exploded. Then I ended up here.”

“Hmm. Interesting.” Lara crossed her arms. “I'd uncovered an exceptionally intact Atlantean structure with what looked like an extremely complex transport system. Unfortunately, the part of the complex I was in chose to collapse under its own weight while I was in it... it was either 'use the system' or 'be smashed under countless tonnes of rubble'.” She chuckled. “How I happened to end up here, though... it's a mystery.”

“Two strange creatures arrive, from a faraway place... a coincidence, I cannot call this with a straight face.” Zecora's gaze switched between the two humans. “But to solve this puzzle, my place it is not. I would wish to see you both to the city of Canterlot.”

Sam stared at the zebra for a moment, then glanced askance at Lara. “Does she always talk like that?”

“I find it rather charming.” Lara took a few steps forward, looking around. “Apparently Canterlot is the seat of power here in Equestria. Zecora would like us to meet the Princesses of this place. She tells me there are three, all of them-”

“Right here! Found 'em!” Derpy exclaimed. The others turned to find the pegasus on her rear legs, each forehoof holding up a package wrapped in plain brown paper. “Sam 'Serious' Stone, Lara Croft... special delivery!” she chirped, holding out the boxes.

“You're kidding.” Sam took his parcel. Sure enough, there was his name, written in flowing script. “Well, so long as it isn't C.O.D.,” he joked, tearing off the wrapping. Inside he found a black plastic case with a note taped to it, which he pulled off and read.

“Dear Mr. Stone,

No doubt by now, you wonder how it is you found yourself here within the borders of my nation. Through means of scrying too complex to describe here, I came to see your impending death via teleportation- you were fated to materialize in deep space, to die quickly and meaninglessly. I was able to rescue you from that end, and alter your destination to this world.

I wish I could say I had done this out of simple generosity, but I am afraid an urgent matter requires your assistance. For the last five months, this land- Equestria- has seen an incursion of seemingly demonic origin, an invasion unlike any we have ever known and which we are ill-equipped to repel. This enemy has proven disdainful of negotiation and seeks nothing more than the corruption or destruction of all other life it encounters. I brought you and your fellow human, Ms. Croft, to my nation in hopes that you could give us assistance in fighting off this enemy- to help me protect my ponies, and all the other forms of life that call this world home.

I cannot compel you to aid our cause. If you wish to return to your home, you need only tell me, and I will make all accommodations that I can. But I ask- I beg- of you to do what you can to help us. Ours is a world in danger of obliteration.

My sister, Princess Luna, will be en route as soon as she is able, to guide you. In the meantime, I have tasked this brave mailmare known as Derpy Hooves to provide whatever aid she can, and entrusted her to deliver a gift- something I took great pains to acquire. I believe you will find it useful.

Respectfully yours,

Princess Celestia”

Inside the case was a welcome sight to Sam- a brand-new SOP38 handgun, and one of the new technomagic ammunition replenishers, integrated into a hip holster, that he'd heard rumors about. The magazine of .45ACP rounds included in the case slid easily into the weapon's handgrip. “I don't know who this Princess Celestia is, but it looks like she's been peeking at my Christmas list,” he chuckled.

“And it seems she knows my size as well.” Lara had just finished strapping on the holster and was holding the weapon up. “So, uh, Lara,” Sam said. “Do you know how to handle one of-”

His voice trailed off as the woman expertly cleared and checked the chamber, loaded the weapon and chambered a round, then looked up at him. “I'm sorry, Sam. You were saying?”

“...never mind.” He couldn't help but grin. “So now that we're loaded for bear, what....”

A loud, piercing scream echoed across the plains, coming from the northwest. A thin trail of smoke floated up from the hills in that direction. “My goodness!” Zecora gasped. “A village is that way, of farmers and crafters. Canterlot can wait- we should see what's the matter!”

“Uh... yeah.” Sam frowned. “Hey, I'm always up for killin' monsters. But Zecora, Derpy... maybe you'd better find someplace to hide.”

“No way!” Derpy crossed her forelegs over her chest as she hovered, shaking her head. “Princess Celestia told me that I should stick with you and help you out, and that's just what I'm gonna do!”

Zecora stepped forward to stand between the two humans. “Trouble is ahoof, that is easy to see,” she said in a calm but determined voice. “But when others need help, this zebra will not flee.”

Sam sighed, then shrugged. “Well, if you insist. Lara?”

“I'm sure we'll find their help useful.” She spared a glance towards that column of smoke, which seemed to have gotten thicker. “Sam, I believe we need to be on our way.”

“Gotcha.” The unusual quartet charged across the plain, the two armed humans taking the lead as zebra and pegasus kept close behind. It took a bit more than ten minutes for them to exit the valley and hit the outskirts of the village Zecora had mentioned- barely more than a collection of thatch-roofed homes, a handful of shops, some broad farmland and a windmill. Said windmill was now in flames, as were a few of the other buildings, and panicked ponies raced through the streets, looking for places to hide- and sometimes tripping over the corpses of their fellow townsfolk strewn about.

A sneer crossed Sam's face as he spotted what it was the ponies were running from. Huge, hideous demonic creatures- some hoofed satyr-like bipeds, others almost human but for their discolored skin, and some like tentacled dogs with heads that were almost entirely mouth- harried the survivors, almost seeming to prolong the chase purposefully in order to increase the targets' horror. The ravaged bodies left in the streets showed that the creatures were anything but gentle once the chase ended.

“Okay, I've seen enough.” Sam drew his handgun and clicked off the safety. “Battle plan: Demons over there; kill they ass. Questions?”

“I have one.” Lara had also pulled her weapon, and looked just as eager to move as he did. “What colour do demons bleed?”

He gave her a positively wicked grin. “Let's find out.”

And there, with the first gunshots ever heard in Equestria, the battle was joined.

(-)

The stench that assaulted Lara's nose was, unfortunately, all too familiar- the thick, acrid smell of gunpowder mixed with the coppery tang of spilled blood. It almost takes an effort now to actually realize I'm smelling it, she thought morosely as she jogged back towards the center of town. Seems no matter where I find myself, I'm facing someone or something that wants me dead. I'm beginning to take it all personally.

Sam and Derpy were waiting by the well that marked the middle of the small village. “No more demons in the area that I could see,” she said, glancing around. “Zecora isn't back yet?”

“She's doing a quick final check on the wounded.” Sam leaned against the well. “Looks like she's a capable medic, at least. Does some pretty impressive stuff with potions. I think she knew something was gonna happen, the way she was kitted out.”

“Hm.” She stroked her chin. “While we're waiting... Derpy? What, exactly, is going on here?”

“Oh. Um.” The pegasus frowned, rubbing the back of her neck. “I don't know a whole lot about it, but... about four months ago, stories started going around that some of the griffon communities to the northeast-”

Lara raised a hand. “I'm sorry... did you say gryphons?”

“Yeah, griffons, that's what I said.”

Sam shook his head. “Jesus. Talking ponies, zebras, now gryphons. What's next, minotaurs?”

“No, we haven't heard anything bad from the minotaurs yet. But anyway!” She gave the humans a look. “Some of the griffon communities were... well, just up and vanishing. Something was attacking them, but nopony could get a straight answer out of the griffon government. And then some Equestrian cities started reporting strange monsters wandering around in wild spots. Then, about two months ago, attacks started happening in lots of places at once- almost like some alien invasion! We've had more than half a dozen cities and towns wiped out since then....” Her expression fell, and she went quiet.

“Indeed.” Zecora trotted around the corner of a nearby house. “Where the demons come from is a mystery. But this is the southernmost attack I've seen.”

“So they're advancing.” Sam crossed his arms.

“That seems to be the case, my friend. Which begs the question... towards what end?”

“If we're dealing with the kind of creatures I'm familiar with? Destruction, pure and simple.”

Lara gave the man a look. “What sort of creatures do you mean?”

“I can tell you later. Zecora, what was the casualty count?”

The zebra sighed. “I tended to some before it was too late. But of less than three hundred, they lost... sixty-eight.”

Lara winced. “Poor souls,” she murmured. “Do you ponies not have a standing military to deal with this sort of thing?”

“Our Royal Guard is brave, but their numbers are few- and fewer still have time spent in battle accrued.” She looked down at the ground for a moment. “A millennium of peace Equestria has had, a fact of which- normally- I am quite glad. But a threat of this kind this nation's never known. It seems that, once more, our blades must be honed.”

“You're gonna have to step up your game real quick,” Sam commented. “Because these demons are playing for keeps. There anything else we can do here?”

Zecora took a step away from the man, seemingly taken aback by his brusque manner. “N- no. All that's left is to bury our lost sixty-eight, and give time for the others to recuperate.”

“Not an option. We need to evacuate this place as fast as possible.”

“What?!” Outrage flashed across the zebra's normally calm features. “These ponies have just seen carnage untold! They-”

“Save it. No offense, but you obviously don't know anything about armies.” He pointed a finger at the demon corpses still littering the street. “Armies have commanders that send forces out to complete objectives and then report back. These guys? They're not gonna be reporting back. That means their commanders are going to send more demons. And two humans with handguns aren't going to be enough to stop them.”

Zecora drew in a breath- and then let it out in a quiet sigh. “...you are right, of course, I know,” she murmured. “I will help these ponies prepare to go.”

With that, she turned and cantered back towards the small town hall where the survivors had been grouped up. Lara turned towards Sam with a frown. “That was rather....” she began, searching for a word to use.

“Mean,” Derpy finished, with an even deeper frown. “Zecora's a nice zebra! You didn't have to talk to her like that!”

“Yeah, I did. We don't have time to argue. We're dealing with an enemy with an unknown ability to communicate and coordinate. I'm assuming they're an organized army and that they already know that their attack force met resistance here.” He grunted. “Which means that we're also wasting time standing here talking about it. We need to go help Zecora prep the civilians for evac.”

With that, he jogged off in the direction Zecora had gone. Lara sighed. “He may be rather crude, but he's also right,” she told Derpy. “And I certainly don't wish to leave these poor innocents here to face a second attack.”

The pegasus nodded slowly. “You're right,” she said quietly, before taking on a determined look. “So we've got a lot of innocent ponies to deliver to safety! Mailmare Derpy Hooves reporting for duty!” She threw a sloppy salute that almost sent her hoof slamming into her skull.

Despite herself, Lara couldn't help but chuckle. “That's the spirit. Come along, now.”

(-)

The creaking of wheels echoed across the grassy plain, as wagons that had once been meant to haul produce and other goods now carried injured ponies and foals too young to manage a long trip on hoof. Perhaps predictably, organizing the evacuation hadn't been the most difficult part- that had been actually convincing the population to abandon their village in the first place. Only a very to-the-point explanation from Sam of what was likely to happen if they stayed had convinced the ponies to leave their homes and farms behind.

The strongest of the village's stallions and mares now pulled the wagons through the tall grass, while the others clustered around them, keeping up quiet, nervous conversation. The hooffull of unicorns that called the village home had taken places at the edge of the group, each keeping a pitchfork or pickaxe afloat next to them, nervously watching the plains for any possible attackers, while several pegasi hovered overhead to serve as spotters for anything further out.

Fear was thick in the air; Zecora could quite literally smell it. Not that she could blame the poor, traumatized ponies for being terrified- nothing could have prepared them for events like what they'd just survived. But to their credit, the villagers kept themselves moving in an orderly fashion, refusing to give in to panic. It wasn't the easiest thing to admit, even to herself, but Sam's direct and to-the-point attitude had probably helped as much as anything; being given clear and unmistakable directions was a balm to a panicked mind- it took away a measure of uncertainty, and allowed a fearful pony to focus her attention on what had to be done to follow those directions. He bears the manner of a lifelong warrior, she thought, watching as the human walked just ahead of the caravan, his easy stride not quite hiding his alertness. Not to mention the musculature.

The other human in their midst was much different, and not only in gender. Once the ponies had gotten past Lara's strange appearance, they had warmed up to her quite readily; her gentle voice and supportive demeanor gave them somepony- someone, that is, she corrected herself- they could feel safe near. The fact that the woman had been just as effective in killing demons as her male counterpart didn't hurt that in the slightest. Apparently she comes from a very different background than him, if I'm any judge of personality, but she's had no small amount of experience defending herself and others as well.

She let her thoughts tumble about inside her head while she walked, being sure to maintain a good level of situational awareness just to be on the safe side. I wouldn't be so foalish as to second-guess the wisdom of the Princesses, but these humans... are they trustworthy? I have to confess an inherent distrust towards creatures who can dispense violence so easily, even in defense of others- but these demons are much worse, and apparently care nothing about such things as diplomacy, or fair combat, or even the worth of innocent life. Are ponies capable of resisting such a foe alone? Are any of this world's natives? If the demons could overrun the griffons so easily, what sort of resistance could the likes of ponies, zebras and donkeys muster?

Perhaps we are in need of all the help we can get....

“Ahem. Zecora?” The zebra almost jumped despite the quietness of Lara's voice. “Err... sorry to disturb your thoughts, but I was wondering how much longer it might be until we reach... errr... Whinnipeg, did you call it?”

Zecora nodded. “At the pace we set, three hours, I believe. With luck, we'll see the city before this eve.”

Lara nodded. “We're making better time than I'd expected. Ponies have some amazing endurance.”

Zecora opened her mouth to speak- but her words died in her throat as she saw Sam halt abruptly, bring up one fist into the air for a moment, then raise his index finger and twirl it three times before pointing towards the nearest treeline. “Those gestures he makes, I have never seen,” she half-whispered. “Pray tell me, Lara- what do they mean?”

“Rally everyone up and get them into cover in the woods.” The woman immediately sprinted towards the wagons, and Zecora was right behind, helping to get the ponies pulling the wagons moving in the right direction. “What's going on?” asked one of the harnessed earth ponies- Cinnamon Swirl, if Zecora remembered correctly. “Why are we leaving the road?”

Lara glanced ahead. “Sam seems to believe there's a threat ahead. I'm willing to follow his recommendation.”

“But I don't hear-”

thud

Zecora felt as much as heard the impact- a deep, heavy vibration through the ground that rattled loose planks on the wagons. Somewhere to the northeast, a tree crashed to the ground. Lara visibly paled. “I think we've found what Sam was worried about,” she murmured. “Or rather, it has found us. Everyone! Go! Quickly!”

The procession broke out into a half-panicked gallop, the ponies pulling the wagons somehow able to keep up with the others as they outright fled for cover. Just as the group made it to the treeline deeply enough to be hidden from view, something seemed to explode from the thicker forest north of the road, sending thirty-foot firs and redwoods flying like toothpicks.

The... thing that had uprooted the trees like weeds came into sight a moment later, and Zecora would swear that her heart stopped for a moment in pure mortal terror.

Its overall form was suggestive of armor, something that either of the humans might be able to wear... were they five times the height of Ponyville's Town Hall. Brown-and-purple metallic plates covered every inch of it, with many places bearing accents of a wicked green that would've spelled “poisonous” on any plant Zecora knew of; its chest bore an opening, covered by three bars each thicker than three ponies standing nose-to-tail, through which leaked some unidentifiable glowing-green substance. From its back jutted a pair of thick structures that looked like warped versions of parapets she'd seen rising from Canterlot Castle.

Her ears instinctively plastered themselves against her head as the thing gave off a piercing wail and lurched forward, one enormous foot slamming down into the ground hard enough to throw rocks and soil dozens of feet in every direction around it. She could just barely hear the ponies behind her let out screams of fear, some of them backing further into the forest; none broke away and ran, however, most likely out of some primal fear of being separated from the herd and brought down.

Lara had her weapon in hand, though Zecora figured that to be for a feeling of safety rather than any actual intent to use it; as powerful as the “firearm” was against normal creatures, it would likely have the same effect against this monstrosity as would spitballs versus a dragon. “What in God's name is that?” she uttered.

“No idea.” Sam had his arms crossed, his nonchalance almost comical given the situation. “I've fought bigger things, but usually with a rocket launcher.”

Zecora was about to ask him what difference fireworks could possibly make in this situation when an flicker of movement at the edge of her sight caught her attention. She brought her gaze back to the monster in the distance- and could just pick out a shape flying towards it at high speed, barely more than a black dot at that range. As she watched, that dot seemed to intercept the giant metallic beast-

-and burst through its left arm, sending a cloud of torn metal flying through the air.

The creature, whatever it was, reeled from the impact; its damaged arm creaked, then snapped off above the elbow, crashing to the ground with a deafening roar. Before the towering monster could recover, the airborne speck cut a tight half-circle turn and repeated the trick- this time plowing into its left leg just above the knee. The machine's horrid horn sounded again, sounding for all the world like the cry of a wounded animal, as its leg buckled under the onslaught and it half-fell to the ground; as it struggled to keep from collapsing completely, that speck flew above it- and then seemed to streak through space itself, too fast for the equine eye to follow, spearing through the metal monstrosity's abdomen.

The thing froze for a moment, shuddered, and then fell to the ground in a heap, giving off one final bellowing cry before becoming still and silent.

“What... what did that?!” Zecora heard somepony cry out.

“Hard to tell at this distance.” Sam was holding up an object of some sort, flat and rectangular; a moving image decorated the side facing him. “Looks like a weird sort of pony, though.”

Zecora blinked, then trotted over to have a look for herself. The shape shown in the picture on the object looked familiar, but she couldn't place it- until it held still for a moment, and the image sharpened slightly. “I know her, and her arrival is none too soon!” she exclaimed. “My friends, that is Luna, Princess of the Moon!”

Various cheers rose up from the ponies still hiding beneath the cover the trees provided. “Well, great,” Sam said, “but how's she going to find us from all the way over there?”

“Hm. I may have a solution.” Lara unslung the small pack that hung from her shoulders, opened it, and produced something small and bright orange that almost resembled her firearm- except that the front tube was much wider and shorter. She pushed something red into it, then raised it into the air and pulled the trigger; with a loud pop and a high-pitched whine, a brilliant red spark soared into the air, leaving a thick trail of smoke behind it. “Flare gun,” Sam commented with the barest of grins. “Handy.”

“Vital, sometimes, in my profession,” Lara replied, tucking the flare gun away. Sure enough, the speck in the distance seemed to take notice of the flare, and within the space of a quarter-minute it had covered the distance- until the slightly-disheveled-looking form of Princess Luna landed before them. “I apologize for my lateness.” she said, her cyan eyes flicking across the now-kneeling ponies and zebra. “Other matters demanded my attention. But... why are you all here? I would have expected you to remain at Goldengrass Village until my arrival.”

“Err... pardon me, Your Majesty, but I'm afraid that would've been quite impossible,” Lara replied.

“Why? What has happened-” she went quiet abruptly as she once more looked around at the assembled ponies- and their bandages, their shell-shocked expressions, and the foals whose parents weren't there. “...how many,” she half-whispered to Lara, “still remain at the village?”

Lara let out a soft sigh. “Sixty-eight, Your Highness.”

For the briefest of moments, a look of pure anguish washed over the alicorn's features, before she steeled herself. “I take it that I have the two of you to thank for defending the survivors, and seeing them away from the danger?” she asked, her gaze flicking between the humans.

Lara smiled slightly. “Well, yes, but the efforts of Zecora and Derpy were crucial to tending the wounded and making good time.”

“Indeed. Mine sister chose well to send them to find you.” A brief smile crossed Luna's face. “So I am to take it you are Lara Croft, and your companion is Sam Stone?”

“Yes, Your Highness.” The woman gave a smile and a bow of her head, while Sam merely nodded and grunted out “Yeah, hi”. If the man's lack of manners bothered the lunar diarch, she didn't show it. “Excellent,” Luna said quietly. “And I assume that you seek to bring these unfortunates to Whinnipeg?”

“That's right, Princess,” Derpy answered. “We've still got a lot of hurt and scared ponies who need to get somewhere safe.”

“A laudable goal. Perhaps I can speed the process.” She raised her head, and her voice. “My little ponies!” she called out. “You've nothing to fear now. Your Princess will bring you to safety. Gather 'round me, hence.”

Zecora was heartened to see no hesitation from the ponies who clustered up around the midnight-blue alicorn. Either they've come to accept her, or they simply know there are far more terrifying things she seeks to protect them from, the zebra mused. “Now, my little ponies, ready yourselves,” Luna commanded. “This may prove to feel unpleasant, but it is the quickest way to safety.”

The Princess's horn was enveloped by a jet-black aura that quickly grew to encompass the entire group, and Zecora felt a wave of cold air wash over her as darkness surrounded her- and yet she was still able to see all the others as clearly as before. And then there was an abrupt lurching feeling, as if they all were in some invisible wagon being pulled at great speeds- and pinpricks of light formed in the void, creating white glowing streaks as they zoomed past to disappear behind them.

The ethereal light show lasted for only half a minute before the void gradually faded, to reveal to them a wide paved road leading towards a rather impressive city skyline. A sign posted beside the road read “WELCOME TO WHINNIPEG, HOME OF THE BARBECUE HAYBURGER”. “Hell,” Sam muttered, rubbing his head. “That was some ride.”

“I wanna do that again!” a foal yelled out from one of the wagons, quickly joined by several others. Luna actually smiled for a moment before raising a hoof to catch the attention of a pedestrian further down the road. “You there!” she called.

“Yeah, whatcha need- oh my stars!” The unicorn immediately dropped into a bow. “Princess Luna! I... I had no idea you were coming!”

“Your assistance is required, citizen. Goldengrass has been attacked; these ponies are what remain of its population. They must be seen to in whatever ways are required. All expenses will be paid by the Crowns.”

“Attacked?!” The stallion's eyes went wide. “I... I understand, Princess! Wait here! I'll call emergency services!” He ran off as fast as his hooves could carry him.

It didn't take long for the Whinnipeg Police Department and paramedics from the local hospitals to respond; the officials were quick to take command of the scene, setting up a triage for the wounded on the spot and taking statements from the others. Somepony else had offered to go to the mayor to call for pegasus patrols over the terrain between the city and the village to watch for any advancing demonic forces. As soon as the situation seemed to be under control, Luna took the two humans, Zecora and Derpy aside. “As much as I would like to see to the comfort of these unfortunate ponies, we have greater issues to resolve,” the Princess said.

Zecora nodded in agreement. “You have already saved us hours we would have spent at a tiring trot. Pray tell, Princess- do you intend to see us to Canterlot?”

“If only I could.” A deep frown creased Luna's face. “I must instead take you to an emergency camp in the woods surrounding the mountain base. Mine sister awaits us there, with answers to the questions our human friends here undoubtedly have.”

“Um... Princess?” Derpy's expression was a mixture of worry and confusion. “Why there? What's wrong? Why would Princess Celestia be in some camp instead of the castle?”

Luna raised her head and looked towards the east. “Because, my good mailmare... the city of Canterlot is under siege.”

Winback

“Lara Croft, Sam Stone, Zecora and Derpy Hooves, I present to thee mine sister, Celestia, Regent of the Sun and Princess of Equestria.”

Sam really hadn't been sure what to expect of this “Princess Celestia”, aside from knowing that she had good taste in firearms. All he'd had to go on was the ridiculously childlike appearance of “regular” ponies- even the most rugged-looking farm stallions resembled plush toys, to him- or the somewhat larger and relatively more stern look of Luna. What he hadn't expected was a creature almost as tall than him, with a mane and tail seemingly composed of a pastel-toned aurora, and a full set of barding that looked like it was forged from pure gold.

Any four-year-old girl would've probably squealed in delight. Sam would have been significantly less impressed if he hadn't seen this alicorn's sister tear apart a giant mech like it had been made of tissue paper. From the way this alicorn held herself, she was probably no slouch herself.

As Celestia looked up from the table- large enough to almost reach the walls of the enormous tent they stood inside- covered with maps and parchments, her expression went from fierce determination to vague pleasantness. Sam had seen this before- a distracted commander tolerating an interruption. “I am more than pleased to see you've all made it here unharmed,” she said, in a light tone that seemed completely out-of-place with the situation. “We have much to discuss, so let's dispense with elaborate introductions and simply get down to business.”

“Sister, a moment, prithee.” Luna trotted up to Celestia's side, and the pair exchanged whispers for a few moments; by the barely-visible reaction the larger sister had, Sam figured that she was just now learning about what happened at Goldengrass Village. After a moment, Celestia's horn lit up, and a small red flag floated from the side of the largest map to pin itself next to several others already in place. Several of the other armored ponies in the tent began conversing with each other in earnest, writing notes and moving small markers around the map. “Well,” Celestia murmured, “I see that our situation grows... more problematic. If I could have the four of you join my sister and I outside, I'll explain what's happening here, and the sort of help I need.”

There was a loud commotion outside the tent as they left it. A half-dozen ponies were arguing with some of the guards guarding the perimeter; one of them stuck her head up over the crowd. “Princess! Please tell these guards to let us pass!”

“Lieutenant Whetstone! Have your ponies stand down. Those are the Bearers!” Celestia trotted forward. “Twilight Sparkle? What are you doing here? This place is hardly safe!”

The six interlopers came forward; the one in the lead- an almost ridiculously purple unicorn, apparently named “Twilight”- bowed her head. “I'm sorry, Princess, but... we had to come see them.”

“I'm sorry, Princess,” added an orange pony in a cowboy hat. “I tried t' convince th' girls we oughta stay where it was safe... instead they done talked me into comin' t' see th' humans with 'em.”

“I know my prized, faithful, obedient former student, trained in diplomacy and tact, can be quite persuasive when she puts her mind to it.” Celestia gave the unicorn a flat look for a moment before letting out a sigh. “But... I can understand the desire. Come, but be quick.”

She stepped aside to let the smaller ponies rush forward, stopping in front of him and Lara and staring up at them. “Ahem,” Celestia said with a slight smile. “Girls, may I present Sam Stone and Lara Croft. Sam, Lara, these ponies you see before you are the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony; may I present Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.”

The urge to laugh at the names was nearly overwhelming, even after finally forcing down the chuckles every time someone mentioned Whinnipeg. But there was something about the purple mare that made him pause; those enormous violet eyes looked even more haunted than had the survivors of the village attack. “I'm so glad the spell actually worked,” she said. “All those calculations, all that sifting through dimensional layers-”

He raised a hand. “Hold it,” he said, maybe just a bit more forcefully than necessary judging by the look of shock on her face; he took a less authoritative tack. “Look. Glad to meet you, nice to have you here, so on. But if this situation's as bad as I'm hearing, then we'd better get started. Right?”

“I, um... right. Yes. Of course.” He could see her wrestling with her own disappointment; these ponies were almost comically expressive for the most part. Zecora and the Princesses were the only creatures he'd seen on this planet who could maintain even a semblance of detachment. “Princess? Can we do anything to help?”

Celestia shook her head. “Not at this moment, Twilight. Not now that we know the Elements are unable to do much to help.”

“Elements?” Lara repeated.

“The Elements of Harmony.” Celestia nodded to Twilight, and the six mares before them closed their eyes; after a moment, a piece of golden jewelry appeared on each of them. “Artifacts of an ancient time,” the Princess continued, “imbued with the power to remove corruption and restore purity. These six mares before you were able to use them to cleanse my sister of an ancient evil, and seal away the physical embodiment of a mad god of chaos.”

“So I'm going to assume there's a reason you haven't been using them to blast these demons,” Sam replied.

The ponies seemed to deflate at his words, and Celestia frowned slightly. “...yes,” she said. “The Elements have no effect against these creatures. Either their corruption is too alien for the Elements to remove, or... or there is no goodness in them to restore. The Elements of Harmony cannot kill.”

“Fortunately, bullets don't have that limitation.” He crossed his arms. “Princess? We getting to that part about what you need us to do anytime soon?”

“Yes, of course.” Celestia's horn glowed; a large parchment map appeared, showing what seemed to be a detailed map of the city of Canterlot. As he watched, a large swath of the map turned red. “This is the latest information we have on their movements. Their entry point appears to have been here-” A darker red circle appeared near the center of the red area- “in the lower residential area. We... have theories on how that might have happened, but at the moment that is a lesser concern.” A bright blue circle surrounded a large building, backed by what seemed to be a mountain wall. “This is the castle. We believe it to be the demons' ultimate goal to take it by force; this cannot be allowed under any circumstances.”

“What is there that the demons would be interested in?” Lara asked.

“Deep within the castle is a vault of ancient magical artifacts, many from before the time Luna and I came to be. The purpose and abilities of many of the artifacts remain unknown to us, but there is no doubt that many could be dangerous if claimed by these demons. Though the vault is hidden and warded, I will not naively believe that it cannot ever be found.”

Sam nodded. “I'm gonna take a guess here and say that the reason you're not flattening the city and every last demon in it is because you didn't get a chance to get all the civilians out.”

A regretful frown crossed Celestia's face as her head and ears drooped. “You are perceptive, and correct. There are still many innocents trapped in the city. I... I cannot bring myself to risk their lives, even given the stakes.”

“Okay.” He nodded. He wasn't about to show it, but his respect for the alicorn had just shot up considerably. “What have we got for entry points?”

“The Royal Guard has established strongholds here, here and here.” Three green arrows appeared along a trio of what looked to be fairly major roads. “All the civilians we can evacuate are brought to one of them. This one, closest to the invasion force, is where we have launched our counter-attacks from- but we haven't met with much success.”

“What kind of opposition are you hitting?”

“Strong, and varied. Many of their number are masters of a form of attack magic we've never seen before, capable of horrible burn wounds; some of our casualties reported feeling as though their very souls had been struck. Others are large, heavily-armored, seemingly impervious to pain, and armed with terrible weapons designed to tear instead of cut. And then there are what seem to be females, who whisper to captured or cornered ponies in order to break their spirits, or torture them for seemingly no reason except pure malice.”

“Well, now we're hitting familiar territory for me.” He smirked; whoever these demons were, they seemed to be cribbing pretty heavily from Mental's playbook. Still, he wasn't one to be complacent. “Lara, have you got a phone on you?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Lemme have it for a minute?”

“Certainly.” She pulled it out of a pocket and handed it over. “But what for?”

“Gonna make it so we can call each other if we need to.” He held up Lara's phone- ridiculously outdated, but by now he'd figured that Lara was from a ways back in Earth's history- and brought his own phone up to it. Immediately, schematics and specifications flashed across his vision, before a single line of text appeared in the corner of his eye: “Modifications Complete”

“Sam, a moment.” Celestia gazed at the phones in his hands. “Those objects... are they communication devices? I believe I just sensed something passing between them.”

“Yeah, though my phone does a bit more than that. Why?”

“If I may, I know a spell that would allow Luna and I to communicate with both of you over them. Having immediate updates of the situation would help us immensely.”

“Yeah, okay, so long as you don't break 'em.” Sam held up both phones, and both Celestia's and Luna's horns flared; a strange grey aura surrounded the phones for a moment, then faded. A few new lines of text formed in Sam's vision. “Contacts added: Lara Croft, Celestia, Luna”

“There,” Celestia said, offering a slight smile as Sam handed Lara back her phone. “Now, Lara, Sam- given this situation, what would you advise?”

“Just a second. I want to grab a good pic of this map for NETRICSA.” Sam held the phone out over the parchment map and pressed one of the side buttons; with a soft click sound effect, the phone snapped a picture, and data rushed through his brain. “Sam,” Luna said, her head turned a bit in curiousity, “whom is Netricsa?”

“Now 'who'. 'What'. It's....” He paused for a moment, trying to work out how to explain an artificial intelligence neural implant to a species that didn't even seem to have electric lights. “It's a device implanted in my brain, specializing in detection, calculation and data-gathering. It gives me wider knowledge of the battlefield than I'd have by myself.”

“In your brain?” Twilight repeated. “Fascinating....”

“Right, right. There's more to it than that, but I never got around to reading the owner's manual. Anyway.” A fully three-dimensional outlay of the city flickered in his vision, with optimal routes of attack highlighted; he pointed them out to Celestia, who marked them down on her map. “Two-pronged attack. One frontal blitz to draw their attention; one attack from above to pick off leaders. Lara, how are you with heights?”

Lara grinned. “I adore them.”

“Great. Though a .45 handgun isn't the best weapon for sharpshooting....”

“Not a problem. Princess, I've seen that some of your unicorn guards are armed with bows. May I requisition one?”

Celestia blinked, then nodded. “Of course. Lieutenant Whetstone!” The guard almost immediately appeared from behind the tent. “Find and procure a bow and ammunition suitable for Ms. Croft,” the alicorn commanded, motioning towards the woman with a gold-clad hoof.

“At once, Your Highness.” The lieutenant made to move, then paused. “Ms. Croft, do you prefer a recurve bow or a longbow?”

“A longbow would suffice.”

“And how much draw are you comfortable with?”

“Forty pounds or so.”

The armored pony considered for a few seconds. “An ash bow, about the height of Princess Luna's shoulder, then?”

Lara smiled and nodded. “That would be perfect, thank you.”

With that, the lieutenant gave a brief nod and then galloped off. Sam cocked an eyebrow. “Done a lot of hunting?” he asked?

“Of a sort,” came the answer, as Lara kept her expression perfectly neutral.

“...right.” He turned his attention back to the map, trying not to grin. “There's a few good spots right around there that you can take shots from,” he said, pointing; a half-dozen or so building tops on the map turned light blue. “Hm. Nix that western one, Princess... I don't see a good escape route if the demons storm the building.”

“Done.” The spot in question lost its coloration. Celestia looked up to see the lieutenant returning, with the requested longbow slung over his shoulder and a wide quiver of arrows dangling from his mouth; he stopped in front of Lara, who gratefully relieved him of his burden, expertly slinging both weapon and ammunition over her shoulder and backpack. “Fifty arrows,” she commented. “I hope I might find replenishment along the way.”

“Not from our stocks, I'm afraid,” Whetstone replied. “That bow may seem a bit small to you, but it's something we ponies would use against armored transports, not enemy personnel- in other words, not something we'd typically carry around ammunition for when sieged. The demons may have arrows you can use; we've had reports that they have archers in their number.”

“I see. I'll have to make every shot count, then.” Lara glanced over at him. “So, Sam, I understand my role. I take it yours will be to lead the charge?”

“That's where I do my best work.” He glanced down at the map again, directly at the exceptionally large splotch of red that covered a large part of it. “I like to work alone, but if you can spare any troops to help direct the demons into a kill lane- harassing them there and there....” He pointed, and two narrow streets began to glow yellow. “That'll help keep them from getting behind me. I prefer a lot of room for fighting retreats.”

Again Whetstone spoke up. “Mr. Stone, we cobbled together something you'd find useful for that. Small hoof-grenades, of a sort, made from blast powder we typically use for fireworks or terrain clearing. They're powerful, but a little touchy, so you'll want to handle them with caution.”

Now he let himself grin. “Grenades? Sweet, I'll take 'em.”

The lieutenant nodded. “I'll have a few of our unicorns bring some caches and leave them along the path you'll be using.”

Celestia raised a hoof. “What of survivors along that route?”

“The area is as clear as we can possibly make it, Your Highness,” Whetstone replied.

“Very well.” Those wise magenta eyes turned back to him. “Sam, I care nothing about property damage in this situation. Buildings can be replaced; lives cannot. I ask only that you use caution in any situation where innocents may be in harm's way.”

“You got it, Princess.” It was a more than fair request, and what he'd planned anyway- though it was an increasingly rare occasion that he ever got to a situation in time for there to be any civilians still alive to worry about. The idea that these demons didn't quite operate the same way as Mental's minions crossed his mind, and he filed it away for further review. “So basically, mission objectives are to keep the demons out of the castle, and push them out of the city. Any survivors we find get directed back to the entry points and evacuated from the city. I'll be taking the demons head-on; Lara's providing sniper support. Anything else?”

Celestia opened her mouth to respond- and was interrupted. “Is... there anything I can do to help?” Derpy asked quietly. “I mean, I don't understand a whole lot about what's going on, but I know there's ponies in trouble and I want to help.”

“The words that gentle Derpy says also apply to me,” Zecora chimed in. “This zebra stands ready to help, whatever the threat may be.”

Celestia's gaze wavered between the pegasus and the zebra. “Your Highness,” Lara put in, “Derpy could serve well as an airborne spotter for me, to give me information and warn me if I might be attacked.”

Sam nodded. “And Zecora's proven she's good with treating wounded on-the-fly. Couldn't go wrong with her working with any recovery teams.”

“So shall it be, then. But I ask all of you to be careful. And as for our human friends....” She stepped forward, her head bowing. “I thank both of you for choosing to help my little ponies. I know this isn't your fight, and were you to ask I would return you to your homes as soon as I was able. That you have chosen to stand with us in this, our hour of need... all of Equestria is in your debt.”

Sam waved a hand dismissively. “Thank me when the only problem you've got is where to put all the dead demons. Are we ready?”

“I believe we are. Twilight, I ask that you and your friends remain here. I would keep the Elements at hoof just in case they're needed.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, Princess. I understand. We'll be on-station.”

Whetstone led the two humans, Zecora and Derpy through a tunnel that led into a guard shack on the edge of the city, then to a reinforced checkpoint set up in an intersection. The lieutenant stopped in front of a large white stallion and saluted. “Captain, the Princess's 'guests' are here and ready to engage the enemy,” he said.

The stallion turned, looked up at him and Lara, and nodded. “Would've liked to see the two of you nine hours ago, but better late than never,” he said. “My name's Shining Armor; I'm the Captain of the Canterlot Guard.”

“It's good to meet you,” Lara replied. “I'm Lara Croft, and my companions are Sam Stone, Zecora, and Derpy Hooves.”

“Zecora and I have met.” Despite the unicorn's obvious exhaustion and impatience, he gave the zebra a smile. “Come to help?”

“However I may, my gallant friend, until hostilities come to an end.”

“Yeah, and I'm gonna keep an eye on Lara,” Derpy put in. “Just in case any mean demons try to hurt her!”

Shining let out a relieved sigh. “Good. We'll take any and all help we can get. What's your plan?”

“I'll be taking the demons head-on,” Sam told him. “Lara's my sniper support, and Derpy's her spotter. Zecora will be helping with triage.”

“You're hitting the front lines?” Shining turned to face him fully. “I'm coming with you.”

“Commander!” Whetstone blurted out. “That's against regulations! You need to remain here!”

“Lieutenant, ask the demons how much they care about regulations.” Shining locked his gaze onto Sam; the man could swear that the stallion was looking right into his eyes despite his sunglasses. “I'm coming with you, Mr. Stone.”

“Yeah, no. I prefer to work alone.”

“This isn't a request.” Shining ignored Whetstone's continued protests. “I'm through with sitting in safety while there are still innocent ponies dying out there. You don't need to worry about keeping me safe.”

“I've heard that line before. Just never from the same guy twice.”

He had to give the unicorn credit for picking up on his meaning immediately. “Well, if I get killed,” came the response, “then I promise not to complain to you about it.”

He just barely stifled a laugh. That was a new one, he had to admit. “There's something you're not telling me,” he challenged.

Shining let out a sigh and nodded. “My wife is still in the castle, and ten minutes ago I got a report that the demons breached the front gate.”

Well, that cinched it. “Ah, hell,” he muttered. “Alright. Just don't get between me and any of the demons.”

“I'll do what I can.” The captain turned to his subordinate, who had at some point run out of protests and just stood there looking unhappy. “Lieutenant, you're in charge of this checkpoint. If they ask, let the Princesses know that I countermanded your sensible and correct misgivings and ran off to be a hero.”

“I don't very much care what the Princesses have to say about it, sir, so long as I don't have to tell them why we suddenly need a new Captain of the Guard.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Lieutenant. But I think that if we don't keep the demons out of the castle, finding someone to replace me will be the least of our concerns.” Shining looked up. “I'm ready when you are, Mr. Stone.”

“Look, just call me Sam. Now let's get moving. Lara, give me a call when you get in position.”

“Will do.” With that, Lara and Derpy took off- literally, in the pegasus's case- down the road, while Zecora galloped along a side alley towards one of the other checkpoints. Sam pulled his handgun from its holster and kept it at the ready as he sprinted along the street, with the Captain keeping pace easily at his side. “Okay, here's my rules of engagement,” he told the unicorn. “Everything hostile dies. The bigger the mess, the better. There is no such thing as 'overkill', only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload'. Violence is not the answer; violence is the question- 'yes' is the answer. Explosions are happiness. Follow me?”

The pony didn't even flinch. “I follow.”

“Good. What can you do?”

“I specialize in defensive spells. Shields, wards, forcefields.”

“Got anything offensive?”

Shining smirked. “What do you call a solid wall of magic hitting something at a third the speed of sound?”

“The start of a fun afternoon.” Sam grinned, even as his eyes swept back and forth across the road they were taking; if past history was any measure, he'd soon be running backwards this way very soon. “Okay, looks like your kids have already set down our explosives. Nice placing, gotta give them that; guess they figured I'd need to make a fighting retreat.”

“The demons seem to prefer attacking with numbers,” Shining told him.

“Trust me, dealing with massed enemies is par for the course for me.” He could hear the demons now, the unmistakable sound of a large force echoing between the buildings, and NETRICSA was giving him warnings of a huge mass of creatures even closer than Celestia's map had indicated.

Then he rounded a corner and saw them. As he gave NETRICSA a moment to scan and analyze them, he watched them mill about; they certainly looked quite a bit like the demons of humanity's mythologies, with a level of technology that matched the ponies'- metallic armor, simple melee weapons and magic. But it was the power, and type, of magic that NETRICSA described to him that brought him short- some of these guys would probably be more than a match one-on-one with all but the biggest or most talented of Mental's frontline troops. “Well, this is gonna make things interesting,” he grunted beneath his breath.

After a moment, an electric-guitar riff played into his earpiece- an incoming call on his phone, from Lara. He tapped the earpiece. “Yeah, Lara?”

“I'm in position. Feel free to start the fireworks at your leisure.”

“You got it.” He tapped the earpiece again, ending the call. “Shining?”

“Yes?”

“Grab a box of those grenades, wouldya?”

A wooden box marked heavily with warning labels settled on the ground by his feet. “Way ahead of you.”

“You any good with trajectories?”

A rose-colored aura surrounded the top of the box, yanking it off. “How many do you want, and where?”

“Four, even spacing, about forty meters from the front of the line. Should give us a nice kill radius and cause some confusion.”

A quartet of the small, gunmetal-grey spheres levitated out of the box, separated, and then shot up into the air. Several seconds later, four columns of smoke, flame and demon gibs flew up from the ranks that filled the street; the blast was powerful enough to shatter windows all up and down the street, and scores of demons were slammed into each other and the ground by the force. “Holy shit!” Sam exclaimed. “I'm gonna order a truckload of these for parties. Give me another volley fifty meters further back, Shining.”

The explosives soared silently into the afternoon skies, not even producing the telltale whistle of mortars as they came down onto the already-abused cobblestone road. Once more, columns of black, grey and red shot up from the now-agitated demonic lines; one demon just getting back to its feet happened to glance his way, and snarled something in a guttural language to its compatriots.

Sam rewarded its diligence with a .45 round to its forehead. If the demon's warning hadn't gotten the attention of its friends, the report of the handgun certainly had- and it looked like they knew what it was, immediately reordering their front lines to bring the most heavily armored to the fore. He emptied the rest of his magazine in their general direction, but the thick platemail of the skirmishers did too good a job of deflecting the heavy, blunt-nosed rounds. “Okay, we got their attention,” he said as he reloaded. “Fall back to the next cache; I'll be right behind you.”

Shining nodded, then immediately galloped back the way they'd come; Sam set one of the remaining grenades next to the crate, fired a few shots to keep the demons interested, then retreated down the road. With a mental command, he had NETRICSA call Celestia; after a single ring, the call connected. “Sam?”

“We've made contact with the demons. Engaging now. We're gonna draw them out along the roads, whittle them down.”

“I understand. The Guard will do what they can to push through and flank the invading force. Are you aware that the demons have reached the castle?”

“Yeah. I've got a plan for that. Just make sure to keep your ponies a safe distance away from me- things are about to get loud.”

“I will. Be careful, Sam, and do listen to Shining Armor- his position in the Guard was absolutely earned.”

The call ended. “How the hell did she know...?” he muttered, before mentally discarding the question and turning his attention back to what was going on around him. The front line of the demon force had just rounded the corner he'd abandoned, marching forward with swords at the ready; the blades were nearly as long as he was tall, and the ease with which the demons held them told Sam that he was probably better off not going toe-to-toe with them.

Fortunately, he didn't have to. As soon as the front of that demonic line finished coming around the corner, he stopped, raised his handgun and aimed carefully, then fired a single shot.

BOOM

The round hit the grenade he'd laid on the ground, setting it off, and in turn detonated the seven still in the crate; the explosion blew a crater in the street- and obliterated most of the first floor of the three-story building next to it, sending the rest of the structure crumbling down on whatever demons hadn't been slaughtered by the blast. “Man, that kinda thing never gets old,” he declared, turning back towards where Shining was waiting. “That oughta slow them down a bit. Now let's-”

FWOOM-crack

“Sam!” He caught a flash of horror crossing Shining's face, and spun on his heel to find a veritable wall of wreckage from the building flying right at him. He barely had time to raise an arm to instinctively shield himself before the tons of broken wood and rock slammed into-

crash

-the rose-colored barrier that formed an instant before the debris would have flattened him. He could actually see a spider's web of cracks form in the magical field, but somehow it managed to hold up to the impact. “Shit,” he muttered. “Okay, bonus points to the pony; that was a good save. But what the hell did that?”

The debris fell to the ground as the shield faded, and through the dust and smoke Sam could see a tall, six-armed female demon, each hand holding a long-bladed scimitar with a spiked hilt. The tip of each weapon still glowed with a dark, wicked-looking form of magic, that intensified as the demon brought the swords to point in his direction-

thunk

-only to have them clatter to the ground as her body pitched backwards, a thick arrow protruding from her forehead. “Okay, we definitely put the right woman in charge of sharpshooting,” he commented as he made it to Shining Armor's side. “Thanks for the save, by the way.”

“You're welcome. I'm glad the shield held- that was a rush job.” The stallion looked up at the pile of rubble in the streets; the demon Lara had brought down had done a good enough job of clearing it for her cohorts to come scrambling over it. “Get some more grenades on them,” Sam ordered, raising his handgun again while consulting the map NETRICSA had stored. “We can pull them back to... Trotsmore Lane, head east-”

“No, bad idea.” Shining yanked the lid off of the grenade crate with his hooves. “Trotsmore had a building collapse; we'd be penned in.”

Sam fired three rounds into the face of an advancing hellhound of some sort; the beast collapsed in a gurgling, twitching heap. “You got a better route?”

Shining's horn flashed, and one of the grenades shot forward like it had been launched by an invisible cannon, striking one of the large armored demons in the chest and blasting it apart- and sending a half-dozen more collapsing from wounds caused by both shrapnel and flying body parts. “West Dressage Avenue. It's residential, lots of alleys and side roads- we can hit them from a lot of places, and your friend on the rooftops will have a good angle to shoot from.”

An arrow streaked out of seemingly nowhere, soaring towards a winged demon with a second face in its chest and striking it in the throat, sending it falling to the ground clutching the wound. “Seriously?” Sam asked. “I don't see any alleys on the map.”

“Too small to matter to the City Planning Bureau.”

“I guess that makes sense.” He fired off a few more shots as Shining launched another grenade; the explosives were definitely having more of an effect than his bullets. “Dammit, I could really use more firepower....”

Something flickered in the corner of his eye as he reloaded his handgun. NETRICSA had flashed a series of notifications onto his retinas- “Equipment Translocation System online / 1 combat unit authorized / deploying combat equipment”. After a moment, a small map of the area imposed itself over his vision, showing a flashing red dot not terribly far from his current location. “Hot damn!” he exclaimed. “Shining, change in plans. We need to get to the corner of Furlong Row and Hitch Avenue.”

“Why? What's there?”

“Proof that sometimes wishes come true.” He smirked at the stallion's confused expression, but Shining gamely kept up as they sprinted across two streets, took a left and passed a bunch of abandoned stores and shopfronts before coming to a flower shop with a torn-open door. Inside the shop was a black crate painted with camouflage colors, and the words “EDF FIREARMS TRANSPORT CRATE” stenciled on the front. “What is that, and where did it come from?” Shining questioned.

“I'll explain in a second. Just need to find out what's in it.” Sam stepped over the wreckage of the door and walked into the store, already reaching out for the weapon crate's latch.

crash

Something heavy and wooden smashed into his shoulder, sending him sprawling over the crate along with an assortment of splinters. He managed a fair job of pulling himself over the crate and into a shoulder roll, coming up with fists at the ready; the demon- a “satyr”, NETRICSA had dubbed it, and the creature wasn't really far off from the ancient myth- was already storming past the weapon crate. Its large, claw-tipped hands were already reaching out for him... until they hit another of Shining Armor's barriers; out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw the unicorn's horn flare, and the magical field slammed the demon into the wall of the shop. “Sam!” Shining's voice came from outside. “Whatever it is you're in there for, get it! The demons aren't waiting for us!”

The latch of the crate snapped as Sam simply forced the lid open with brute strength- and then grinned wickedly at what he found inside. “My old love,” he practically cooed, lifting out the 12-gauge, magazine-fed shotgun. With practiced hands, he loaded a magazine, racked the pump and brought the weapon to his shoulder. “Drop the shield!” he called out.

Almost instantaneously, the energy field vanished. The demon, freed from its impromptu prison, once more started towards him.

BANG

Seven pellets of heavy lead shot, propelled at high velocity and short range, turned most of the demon's head into a thick red cloud. As the body stumbled past him, he nonchalantly worked the pump again, sending the empty shell clattering across the floor, then scooped up the remaining magazines in the crate. “Only sixty shells,” he said to himself. “Have to make each shot count.”

He came out to find Shining- surprisingly only somewhat affected by the killing he'd just witnessed- waiting for him. “What is that thing?” the stallion asked, even as he spun on his hooves and broke out into a canter with Sam right beside.

“We call it a 'shotgun'. It's a good tool for ruining a monster's day.”

“And where did it come from?”

“Earth Defense Force has been working on an experimental system to teleport weapons and other supplies directly onto the battlefield. How the hell the system managed a quantum lock on my phone here, I don't even know... maybe whatever Celestia did to it boosted the signal?” He thought for a moment. “Shit, that gives me an idea.” He gave NETRICSA a few mental commands, then initiated a call to Lara. “Yes, Sam?”

“Lara, I'm gonna skip a lot of technical talk I never really understood myself and just let you know that I've made your phone an authorized replenishment candidate. That means you should start seeing some useful goodies appearing near you randomly. You'll see a locational beacon show up on your phone's maps.”

“How thoughtful! Most men just send flowers.”

“Hey, in my book, nothing shows appreciation like firepower. Shining and I are heading to the west- how's things on your end?”

“Not uneventful. Derpy has been quite effective at spotting would-be ambushers.”

Shining raised his head. “Sam, tell Lara that some of the demons seem to be capable of invisibility or stealth of some kind. The one that attacked you seemed to materialize out of nowhere- it would explain how they've managed to attack our rear lines before.”

“Seriously? Shit, that explains how he coldcocked me like that. Lara, Shining says that some of the demons can pull off some kind of stealth. I'm not sure how well they can do it while moving out in the open, but you and Derpy need to keep your eyes peeled just in case.”

“Will do. Thanks for the heads-up.”

It was a quick run for Sam and Shining to West Dressage Avenue, a much more residential area than what they'd been through so far, with thin colorful rowhomes sporting clotheslines strung between them, and long shady alleys perfect for ambushes and losing pursuers. Sam rang up Lara again. “Hey, do you have eyes on the bad guys coming up this way?”

“Yes, and there's lots of them. What do you intend?”

“A nice happy game of shotgun-hide-and-seek. Have you got a good line of fire from where you're at?”

“I can hit anything on the southern side from here. I hope your delivery service sends me something soon, though- I'm down to fourteen arrows. Derpy volunteered to retrieve some of the ones I've fired, but I feel it too risky.”

“Probably a good call. Just hang tough- the teleports always seem to happen just when you need them.”

“Will do. Be aware, you have demons incoming on your position.”

“Gotcha.” Sam shouldered his weapon. “Shining, you ready?”

The unicorn nodded, his expression hardening into an emotionless mask. “Yes.”

“Then let's rock and roll.”

(-)

Lara would have to admit- she had missed the resonant twang of a bow, the vibration through her arm as the string snapped forward and the arrow flew. And while it had been some number of years since she'd had opportunity to use one, the skills came back to her as easily as if she'd never put her hunting bow in storage.

Prioritising targets was proving to be somewhat more difficult. While many of the demons seemed to stick to a handful of castes, making it easy to determine who was better suited for melee combat and who was a magic-wielder, a few of the races in their number seemed much more versatile- it was only the sort of weapon they carried that made identifying their skillset before an attack possible. Her aim was to leave the front-line troops to face Sam and his exceptionally-effective shotgun, while taking out anything that could be a threat beyond the effective range of his primary weapon.

twang

Another of the six-armed female demons went down with a broadhead-tipped shaft protruding from her chest. Briefly she reconsidered Derpy's offer to retrieve some of her loosed arrows, but seeing random patrols of demons appearing in the gaps between buildings off in the distance made her once again decide against it. The wall-eyed grey pegasus was quick, to be sure, but Lara wasn't going to risk her getting blasted out of the sky by some demonic spell.

Said pegasus was slowly flying in wide circles overhead, still watching out for anything that looked like it wanted to dislodge Lara from her sniper's perch. A small alarm bell went off in the back of Lara's mind as she realised that the last attempt to attack her had been quite some time ago; she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up at the idea of a more carefully-crafted ambush-

“Lara! Duck!”

Her body was moving before her mind finished processing what she'd heard, and just in time- she could feel the light movement of air from the dagger that had been aimed to divorce her head from her neck. But before she could even come up with a counterattack, let alone execute it, a gust of wind almost knocked her to the ground- and a grey blur flashed past her, followed immediately by a heavy thud and a snarl of pain.

She spun on her heel, bracing her other foot behind her, and looked up. Barely a few feet away, one of the satyr-type demons- still recovering from an impact- was clutching a dazed-looking Derpy in one hand, while raising what was probably the very same blade that had been headed for Lara's throat towards the defenseless pegasus.

Once more, Lara's body reacted. She let the bow fall next to her as her leg lashed upwards; her thick hiking boot struck the demon's elbow, shattering bone. The creature howled in pain as its weapon flew from its grasp, skittering across the rooftop, and dropped the half-conscious pony to clutch at its wounded arm. Before it could gather its wits, her foot struck again- this time slamming into the side of its knee, taking its leg out from under it and sending it face-first into the stone rooftop. As quickly as she could, she pulled her handgun and aimed it at the back of the demon's head-

thwack

-only to lose her grip on it as the demon's uninjured arm swung into her shins; she was able to keep from faceplanting into the roof herself, but her weapon clattered across the stone, coming to rest by a stovepipe vent. She could hear the demon scrambling to its hooves next to her, and in desperation went for the only thing she still had on her that qualified as a weapon.

The demon roared in pain as Lara drove one of her remaining arrows into its chest. Unfortunately, she didn't have the physical strength to make it a killing blow- and her attempt at a follow-up stab with a second arrow was cut short with a brutal backhanded strike from the demon's uninjured arm, sending her reeling backwards. She somehow managed to keep herself from falling, and set herself in a hand-to-hand combat stance as the demon pulled the arrow free and threw it aside.

“Shall we dance?” she asked with all the sweetness she could muster.

The demon snarled something profane-sounding and charged, its uninjured arm up to strike- just as she'd expected. It only took her a few steps to reach running speed, and then she dropped into a slide, both feet connecting with its leg and sending the creature into a flip that ended with yet another crashing impact with the rooftop. Her foot brushed against her dropped bow as she slid back into a standing position, and with a quick movement she kicked it into the air and caught it expertly, reaching back to draw one of her remaining arrows.

But the demon was already back on its hooves and charging towards her again, and the bow suddenly became a melee weapon as she swung it, delivering a blow to the satyr's skull hard enough to snap the heavy wooden bow in half. The demon stumbled, bleeding profusely from its head now, and Lara risked a dash past it, running towards where her handgun still lay, gambling that her opponent was too stunned to stop her.

Her luck was elsewhere. One enormous hand closed on her left forearm and pulled, nearly yanking her shoulder out of its socket; her feet left the rooftop as she was bodily thrown through the air back the way she'd come. She managed to turn it into a tumble and came up in a three-point crouch, but her left arm throbbed in pain. “Tough one, aren't you?” she asked the demon, doing her best to hide her injury. It seemed to chuckle, reaching towards her with its one good arm as it took a step forward.

“Leave her alone!” thwack

A familiar grey blur shot past again, and Lara heard bone break as the demon reeled once more. “Lara! Go get your weapon!” Derpy called out, already swooping around for another attack; Lara wanted to call her off in order to keep her safe, but she certainly wasn't winning this battle by herself, and the diminutive pegasus was buying her an opportunity too valuable to waste... so she sprinted by the distracted satyr and did a headlong dive for her handgun.

Just as her hand closed around the weapon, she heard a brief yelp followed by a thud. She was already bringing the sights up on the demon to find it bringing its hoof up to crush Derpy, who lay sprawled out before it, raising one foreleg in a hopeless attempt to fend off the oncoming blow.

bang

A fair amount of the left side of the demon's skull exploded in a shower of gore, and its body teetered for a moment before collapsing onto its side, twitching madly. Lara managed to get to her feet, holstering her still-smoking handgun as she ran towards where her companion lay. “Derpy!” she exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

“That jerk hits like a locomotive....” Derpy stood unsteadily, her eyes spinning in different directions for a moment until she shook her head wildly; Lara could swore she heard a cowbell somewhere. Then the pony glanced over at the bloody mess that had once been the demon's head, shuddered and looked away, visibly paling through her grey coat. “...I think I'm gonna be sick,” she murmured.

“Easy there, now.” Lara knelt down and wrapped her uninjured arm around Derpy's neck. “Come on, sweetie. We still have more work to do.”

“Yeah... like find you another weapon.” One of Derpy's eyes gazed down at the broken bow laying at her hooves. “How are you gonna help Sam now?”

Lara's answer was cut off by a loud beeping from her phone. She yanked it free from its holder on her belt and looked at the screen; the map function had come up, and a red flashing dot had appeared on the top of a building across the street. Looking up, she could make out a black rectangular box that looked out-of-place resting on the roof of a two-story terraced house, almost hidden by a small garden; she could find no obvious paths to it along the rooftops. “I think that package is for me, Derpy,” she said, “but getting to it might be a problem.”

“Well!” Derpy took to the air, showing no serious signs of injury from fighting the demon. “If the mailmare can't deliver the package to you, then she'll deliver you to the package!” She flapped her way behind Lara and carefully slipped her forelegs under her arms. “That doesn't hurt, does it?” the pegasus asked.

“I can bear it. Let's go!” Lara grit her teeth as the pony lifted her off of her feet; her phone- still in her hand- rang, and she brought it up to her ear. “Sam?”

“Lara, you two okay up there? We heard gunfire.”

“Derpy and I had an encounter with one of those stealthy demons. We're okay, but the bow is out of commission- but we've spotted what appears to be that shipment you promised me. We're on our way there now; look overhead.”

Now she could see Sam and Shining in position in an alleyway; both looked up to see Derpy carrying her over the roads. “Damn, the pony's stronger than she looks,” Sam commented.

“She's quite the determined combatant when pressed, as well.” She heard Derpy make an embarassed noise and couldn't keep from chuckling. “Ah, here we are,” Lara said as they neared the far rooftop; her boots made contact with the tarred surface, and she immediately dashed towards the box. “Now let's see what present the Gun Fairy has left under my pillow, hmm?”

(-)

“Sam, do you see that?” Shining raised a hoof to point down the street, where the demons were just now beginning to march through; Sam took a quick peek around the wall to see- and caught sight of an entirely new kind of demon, hovering over its compatriots like some kind of balloon- which it somewhat resembled in shape. The purple bulbous form twisted and turned in midair as it floated forwards, a half-dozen short tentacles dangling from near the bottom of its body, and four glowing eyes glaring out from above a wide, fanged mouth. Words and equations flashed across Sam's vision as NETRICSA evaluated it: Classification- unknown (temporary moniker “beholder”); physical strength- unknown; magical strength- unknown; perception- sentient; threat level- low (awaiting further data)

Then the creature spun to face some perceived threat, and one of its eyes glowed a bright red. A moment later, a fireball- easily a foot across- burst forth and flew into one of the houses further down the road; on impact, it exploded, obliterating the front of the home it struck and tearing apart the houses on either side, sending shrapnel and flames flying everywhere.

The assessment that still hovered over his vision edited itself. Magical strength- medium; threat level- medium (awaiting further data)

He put his hand to his earpiece. “Lara, I got a new priority target for you when you get a chance.”

“I see it. Stand by.” There was a moment's pause, and then a sharp crack echoed through the streets; a white line materialized in the air, from the rooftop where Lara and Derpy had landed, through the beholder and into the demonic ranks beneath it. A fist-sized hole appeared in the beholder's forehead, and the back of its body seemed to explode, spraying blood and guts through a veritable crater of an exit wound. Those demons behind it who weren't similarly perforated had to contend with being coated with viscera. “Holy shit,” he murmured. “Lara, what'd you find?!”

“A lovely little toy called the FR-F2 RAPTOR Marksman Rifle, from what a cursory glance at the instruction manual told me. I think I rather like it.”

“Damn. Those things were still in prototyping, last I heard. How's it handle?”

“Quite well for its power, which my sore arm is thankful for.” Lara paused for a moment. “Sam, be aware, the demons don't seem cowed- they're charging in.”

“Good; I'll give them something to be afraid of. Can you and Derpy stay mobile? If you weren't on their hit list before, you sure as hell are now.”

“We'll do what we can. Call me back if you need a specific target brought down.”

“Will do.” He cut off the call. “The big ugly monsters are coming our way, Shining. You ready to dance with them?”

The unicorn nodded. “Let's get this over and done with. I want to get to the castle as soon as possible.”

“Then let's make some noise and get the bad guys' attention.”

Shotguns were very effective at making noise and getting attention. They were also excellent at putting holes in monsters, as one of the giant, heavily-armed demons- which NETRICSA insisted on classifying as a “felguard”, and giving a “high” physical strength rating- found out to its detriment. As it fell, coughing up what remained of its lungs, Sam pumped the shotgun. “Hey, kids! Over here!” he shouted. “School's out; let's play!”

With that, he signalled for Shining to go further down the alley, and waited with his shotgun pointed towards the near exit. Predictably, one of the demons came rushing around the corner, and got a face full of buckshot for his trouble- and then the chase was on, that old familiar feeling of running backwards while unloading ordinance into angry monsters. Shining did a good job of using his magic to trip up or block crowds that were getting too close and deflecting some of the hostile spells flung his way, and Lara provided superb sniper support, every shot seeming to come from a different angle and bringing down a good half-dozen demons each. It didn't take long for a couple of the alleys to start filling up with corpses- which started becoming problematic for maneuvering; Sam realized he'd gotten too used to the bizarre self-destruction Mental's troops underwent shortly after death. He spared a second to bring the city map back up, then started up a conference call with Lara and the Princesses. “Yes, Sam?” came Celestia's voice.

“Things are getting a little messy here. We're going to cut around Snaffle Square, see if we can't cross them up a little.”

“Understood. Our guards are reporting meeting less resistance from the demons- you seem to be drawing off quite a few of them.”

“Sam,” Lara cut in, “I see a tall building on the map at the northeastern corner of the Square- it would make a perfect vantage point. If Derpy and I head there now, we'll have time to secure it and set up a sniper's nest.”

“Good idea. Do it. We'll try to give you about ten minutes.”

“That should suffice. On our way now.” She left the call. “Princess, can you get any of your troops to Sunrise Boulevard?” he asked. “If we can manage a good push, we can probably get into Equinox Square, and that'd give us a straight shot to the castle.”

“I'll check. One moment.” Sam passed the time by unloading a shell into the face of a canine-looking demon- dubbed “felhound” by NETRICSA- but found his next target to be too busy catching another of Shining's grenades to play with him. “Sam? I have a full squad of Praetorian guards at hoof. They specialize in defense, but I can send them in a charge along that route- once they're moving, they're very difficult to stop.”

“Big ol' armored column? I'll take it. Lemme know when they hit Livery Lane- Shining and I can sweep in behind them and clean up.”

“I'll do so. Expect to hear from me within twenty minutes.”

The call ended; Sam turned to Shining. “You catch all that?” the man asked.

Shining nodded. “We should start making our way there now. I get the feeling the demons won't let us go for a stroll uncontested.”

“Yeah. C'mon.” He led the stallion down the nearest alley to get a head start- only to stop short as an entire crowd of demons stormed around the corner, forming a living blockade. Sam raised his shotgun, fired, jacked the pump- and didn't hear another shell enter the chamber; the magazine was empty. “Fuck, fall back!” he said, letting the weapon drop onto its strap and pulling his handgun free; he let fly a few shots, but the demons were apparently wising up to his tactics, and the rounds pinged off the armor of the brutes in front. “Fall back to the last intersection,” Sam said once they'd gotten out of the alleyway, “we'll-”

“Wait.” Shining Armor skidded to a halt, and turned to face the alley, his horn glowing. A bright purple shield formed across the exit, blocking the demons' pursuit. “That's not going to stop them for long,” Sam told him.

“No, but this will.” Shining's horn glowed brighter, and another wall materialized on the other side of the alley, trapping the already-retreating demons inside. Sam took advantage of the lull to reload his shotgun. “How long's that gonna hold them?” he asked.

“Long enough.” The's stallion's eyes narrowed, and his horn glowed even brighter, enough to make Sam squint despite his shades. The shields blocking off the alley shimmered, shuddered- and then rocketed towards each other with the speed and force of out-of-control trains.

Sam had witnessed plenty of carnage and gore on the battlefield. But seeing and hearing more than a dozen demons violently smashed between a pair of magical walls was definitely something new even to him; the gory mess he could see behind the semi-transparent plane of force was enough to make even him grimace. He glanced next to him to see Shining almost trembling in place, his pupils- and irises, weirdly enough- contracted almost to pinpoints, his expression one of absolute horror and revulsion. “I had to,” he murmured to no one in particular. “They... they just would've killed more ponies....”

“Look, hoss, you know I'm not gonna argue with you, but we need to move! We're on a timetable!” Sam gave the unicorn a rough prod on the shoulder, which seemed to break him out of his state. “...right,” Shining grunted. “Have to move. Too many lives on the line.”

The haunted look didn't leave his face, but he at least got moving and was keeping an eye on his surroundings, so Sam was content to leave it at that. He did have to admit to himself, though, that he hadn't thought the unicorn capable of that level of violence at all; he was going to have to start viewing the pony as an actual asset instead of a likely hinderance- and maybe even start wondering what other unexpected warriors this species was likely to see spring up in this invasion.

That was a concern for later, though. Right now there were still demons to kill, and Sam wasn't going to keep them waiting.

(-)

“I checked all the windows, but I don't think there's anypony inside, Lara.”

Derpy landed at the front doors of the apartment building where Lara was waiting. “Thanks, dear,” the human said. “Can you keep an eye from the outside while I go up the stairs? Just in case. Bang on the windows if you need to get my attention.”

“Sure!” The pegasus took to the air once more, and Lara headed for the staircase, taking the narrow carpeted stairs three at a time, careful to check corners and hallways for any potential attackers. She made it to the topmost floor, the fourth, unmolested, and Derpy hadn't alerted her to any threats, so she chose a room facing the route Sam planned to take, closed the door, then opened the window and beckoned Derpy inside; the pony flapped her way in. “You're not going on the roof this time?” she asked.

“We're too vulnerable to ambush there. This part of the building has a good view of where Sam and Shining will come through, and we can keep the doors closed to keep demons from sneaking up on us. Will you keep an eye on that door while I set up here?”

“Sure, okay. But how do we know there's not any demons hiding in here?”

“We don't, not for sure. But the odds of there being any in here now are low, I'd say. We'll just have to take the risk.”

“Well, I know you know what you're doing, so okay.” Derpy settled herself in a corner where she could watch both the door and Lara, who busied herself with shoving a couch over to the window she'd opened, then leaning herself against it so that she could point her rifle out the window without too much of the barrel showing. “This should do,” she decided, “but we'll not want to take too many shots from here, lest the demons zero in on us- especially with one of those floating creatures. Derpy, be prepared to move to another room should it prove necessary, alright?”

“Okay. Just tell me when.” Derpy flexed her wings for a moment, then folded them back at her sides. “Um... Lara? Can I ask you something real quick?”

“Of course.”

“...why is all this happening?”

Lara paused for a moment, drawing her head away from the rifle's scope to look over at the pony. “I don't know, sweetheart. The Princesses haven't told me or Sam all of what's been going on yet.”

“Well, yeah, I just....” One of Derpy's eyes gazed down at the floor, while the other seemed to wander towards the door. “I just don't understand. Why... why hurt us like this? What did we do to deserve what these monsters are doing to us?”

“It's not a matter of 'deserve', Derpy,” Lara replied gently. “They're just evil, I'm afraid. They simply don't appear to care about the lives of innocents. I truly doubt there's anything you ponies could have done to 'deserve' this.”

“But... but it's just not fair.” Derpy sniffled. “We're not good fighters! Not like the griffons are! But those demons are coming here and... and killing us! Why?!” Her head slumped. “I thought my girls would be safe in Ponyville, for a while at least, but now....”

“Girls?” Lara repeated. “You have daughters?”

“Yeah. Two, both adopted. Dinky and Sparkler.”

Lara gave the pony a brief but heartfelt smile before returning her eye to the rifle's scope. “That's sweet. I'll see if I can ask the Princesses about having them kept someplace safer once everything is settled here, alright?”

Derpy's expression immediately brightened. “You would? Oh, thanks so much, Lara!”

“I'd be glad to do that for you, dear.” Lara did a quick sweep of the Square with the scope. “Okay, it looks like Sam's drawn some attention; we have demons coming. Derpy, I'll need quiet for this, but tell me if you notice anything I should know about. Okay?”

“Yes, ma'am!” The pegasus threw a sloppy salute and then, with a visible effort, got both of her eyes to focus on the door.

“Attagirl.” Lara settled herself against the couch, peered through the scope, and waited. She didn't need to wait long- the demons, apparently spoiling for a real fight, were swarming toward where they expected their foe to travel. She squashed the desire to begin picking off targets right away, instead choosing to wait for Sam and Shining Armor to arrive so that their attack would mask her fire.

It was during a quick sweep of the area that she caught sight of movement in one of the buildings through her scope, and she flicked a lever on its side for better magnification. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized what she was seeing- the face of an absolutely terrified foal peeking through a window, only to disappear a moment later. She moved her hand off of the rifle's grip to grab her phone and dial. “Sam,” she whispered.

The first thing she heard was a shotgun blast, followed by a deep roar. “Kinda busy at the moment, what's up?”

“I've spotted a civilian in one of the buildings along the Square.” She checked the scope's rangefinder. “From my position, range two-zero-five meters, heading one-nine-three. Third floor.”

There was a brief pause on the other end of the call. “Got it. Shining and I will do what we can to effect rescue once we get there. What's your ammo situation?”

“Fourteen rounds. Do you think we might see resupply soon?”

“Kinda hopin'; I'm down to about thirty shells here.”

“Well, we'll make do if needs be. I'm holding fire until you arrive.”

“Gotcha. Sam out.” The call ended, and Lara slipped her phone back in its holder before returning her hand to her weapon's grip.

(-)

Shining fought to get his own thoughts under control. What had just happened should not have gotten to him so easily; he was a trained soldier, a Captain of the Guard, and he'd known from early on that this would not be a bloodless conflict- even before Equestria itself had been attacked, he'd heard rumors that the griffons were taking horrendous casualties from their then-unknown attackers. Of course, he hadn't believed it then- nopony had- but when the remains of the first few pony homesteads to encounter the demons near the northern borders had been found, everypony knew then that this new threat employed violence of a sort that hadn't been seen in hundreds of years.

But bringing down an attacker by sword or spear or spell, or even by hoof- and he himself had been forced to resort to that more than once- was different than what he'd done. He'd had those demons trapped; he could have left those walls up for half an hour if he'd chosen, leaving them pounding away at the insides, helpless. But instead, he'd... he'd smashed them like bugs in a surge of fury, turned them into a sickening smear of blood and gore. Ever since then he'd been trying to convince himself that he'd done it to protect other innocents from the demons, lives the creatures would no doubt have enjoyed extinguishing once they'd gotten free. But he knew, deep inside himself, that at the moment he'd sent those two shield walls hurtling towards each other, he not only knew what the end result would be... he'd wanted it more than anything.

He spent a brief moment wondering if he could ever look another pony in the eye again before Sam's shotgun broke him from his reverie. For just a second, he was tempted to blame his violent outburst on the human... and then he mentally slapped himself for even considering it. While the casual, almost joyful way Sam dispensed slaughter had a certain appeal in a situation like this, it wasn't as though the man was magically controlling his mind- Shining didn't have the luxury of that excuse this time; any draw Sam's mindset had for him was due to the stallion's own moral weakness.

“Shining! God dammit, pay attention!”

Something loomed up ahead of him, and as if a lever had been thrown, his mind cleared in an instant. What seemed to be a bipedal form composed entirely of floating, green-flame-enshrouded boulders stomped towards them; a blast from Sam's shotgun dug into the thing, tearing rock loose from the strangely ribcage-shaped rock that formed its torso, but the construct barely flinched.

Training kicked in, and his mind went into high gear. Sam's weapon, excellent against living targets, was at a disadvantage against a golem- but now Shining had an opponent he could fight without reservation. “Sam!” he shouted. “I have this! Clear us a path to where Lara told us about!”

“Got it!” The human turned his weapon towards more suitable adversaries, while Shining focused his attention on the golem- which was already charging at him, roaring inarticulately. It didn't get far, though- he sent a plane of force the length of a respectable tree slamming into its knees, and by the time it was finished falling he'd already picked up every last piece of debris and wreckage in sight, crushed them together into a wrecking ball of sorts, and was bringing it down onto the construct's back.

crash

The spell he'd been using was suddenly disrupted, the objects inside of it blasting outwards like he'd rigged an explosion. The golem had simply elbowed the ball with enough force to cause his spell to lose cohesion, and while the blast had no doubt damaged it, the one-hit kill Shining had hoped for was lost. The stallion grit his teeth as the creature began to regain its feet.

crack

A thin white line suddenly appeared just above his head, and a hole dug itself through the “chest” of the creature- but it only seemed to stagger it somewhat, and it was back up and coming at him again within a moment. If Lara's incredibly-powerful weapon couldn't even slow it down, he was definitely going to have to earn his pay; he spared a quick glance back and a wave of his hoof to tell Lara to save her ammunition for better targets, then gave a snort, lowered his head and pawed at the road with his hoof.

And then he charged.

The monster seemed to anticipate this, and stopped short at the last moment, raising one of its massive limbs in order to bring it down on his head. But what it hadn't foreseen was Shining creating a flat ramp of shield energy along the ground beneath him, or a small plane behind himself to give him a good push. The enormous boulder that served as the golem's forearm slammed into the cobblestones just behind Shining as he literally skiied along underneath the construct, planted his hooves on the shield wall he created just behind the creature, and leapt onto its back; before it could throw him free, he wove a spike of magic around his horn, reared back and drove it into the golem, then jumped away, landing roughly on the street a dozen or so feet away.

The creature managed to turn to face him before the force spell he'd implanted in its chest went off. Part of its torso shattered, spraying rock everywhere- including the shield spell he'd hastily, almost reflexively formed in front of himself- and it flailed about, its entire body shaking faster and faster until whatever force that animated it gave up, and the rocks that made up its form dropped to the ground lifelessly.

He couldn't stop to congratulate himself, let alone catch his breath. With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself into a gallop, managing to get to the alley Sam was in without any further attacks. “Problem's deal with,” he panted.

“Nice. Got your head in the game now?”

He lowered his head. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“Look, don't sweat it. But you need to squash whatever regrets you've got- we're not done yet, by a long shot. Got it?”

He straightened his neck. “Yeah, I've got it.”

The human seemed to study him for a moment from behind those sunglasses, then nodded. “Good. We're going to make a break for the building Lara told us about- how do you want to play this?”

For just a second, he was surprised that the human was even asking him- but Canterlot was his city, and Sam apparently trusted his knowledge enough to give him the call. “We need to make it quick. We get inside, I'll seal the bottom floor, then we clear a quick path to the room and get the civilian, then get out. I'll run our trapped pony back to our lines while you press on to the castle, then I'll catch up when I can.”

“Good plan. Let's go.” Sam charged out of the alley, and Shining was quick to move behind him.

The plan went better than expected- the demons, while spoiling for a fight, had apparently expected the pair to make a push for the castle, not some random apartment building nearby; by the time they'd gotten any considerable numbers into play, Shining and Sam had already gained the apartments, and Shining had formed a tight shield around the first floor of the building. This, however, left one problem he hadn't foreseen. “Now that they know where we are, how do we get any evacuees back out?” he wondered.

“We'll figure something out. Though now that I'm down to my last magazine....” Sam was just tossing aside an empty one when his phone rang; Shining could hear Lara's voice through the small device resting on Sam's ear. “Sam?”

Sam tapped the earpiece. “Go ahead.”

“My phone's showing another supply crate inside this building. We're making our way there now.”

“Gotcha. We're in the building, gonna find the civvie you spotted.”

“Understood. I'll keep the line open; let me know if anything happens.”

“Will do.” Sam rushed towards the staircase, easily storming his way up at a pace Shining hadn't known anything with two legs could manage; within a minute, they were standing on the third floor. Sam glanced around for a moment, then pointed. “That way.”

Room 309, as it turned out to be, looked just like any others on the floor- at least until Sam kicked the door in. “Hey,” he called out, shotgun aimed towards the floor. “Anyone in here?”

Shining just barely caught a soft gasp from the bedroom; he motioned for Sam to keep watch at the door, then trotted inside. “Hello,” he said, trying to make his voice as reassuring as possible. “You don't need to be afraid. We're here to rescue you. You can come out now.”

Everything was silent for a moment... and then there was a quiet shuffling, and a small earth pony colt- barely a yearling, if that- crawled out from under the bed. “Are... are you one of the guards?” he asked timidly.

Shining gave him a reassuring grin. “Hay yeah. I'm their Captain, even,” he replied. “Is there anypony else here?”

“No... no, I don't think so.” The colt gingerly approached him. “There was an evacuation, and I got separated from my family... then all the monsters started running around, and I just ran into this place and hid in here. I haven't seen anypony else since.”

“Okay. You did good- that was the right thing to do. But me and my friend are going to get you out of here now, and back to your family.” He ushered the foal back out into the apartment's living room. “What's your name?”

“I'm Tree Leaf.” The colt visibly startled at the sight of the human, but calmed when Shining put a reassuring hoof on his back. “That's... that's not one of the monsters, is it?” he asked in a half-whisper.

“Nah, don't worry, kiddo,” Sam answered, giving a grin of his own. “I'm the guy who gives monsters nightmares.”

Shining inwardly winced at that- but Tree Leaf broke out into a giggle. “Wow, really?” he asked. “That's pretty cool!”

Sam chuckled briefly before turning to Shining. “What's our status outside?”

“My shield is taking a beating. I can hold it, but it'll be tough getting Tree Leaf here out in anything resembling safety.”

Sam seemed about to reply when he was interrupted by Lara's voice once again. “Sam, I have good news and bad news.”

“Let's hear it.”

“The good news is I have something here you should find useful. The bad news is that there are far too many demons around your location to get it to you safely.”

“Yeah, we were just talkin' about that. Our civilian's a kid- a little one at that. You got any ideas?”

There was a pause. “Derpy volunteers to bring you what I've got, and to airlift your evacuee out to friendly forces.”

“She'd be a lot faster than me,” Shining put in.

He expected Sam to agree readily, but the human looked pensive for a moment. “Are you sure Derpy can handle this?” he asked. “She's gonna be under some serious fire the minute the demons see her coming.”

“Hey, don't gotta worry about me!” came Derpy's voice. “When I put my mind to it, I'm practically a Wonderbolt. When they come for me, I'll be gone!”

For some reason, Sam put his hand to his face and shook his head for a moment. “I can't believe she actually said that... okay. Send her over, Lara. We've got a window open.”

“Okay. She should be there in two minutes.”

It was actually closer to a minute and a half later when the grey pegasus came sailing in through the window, tumbling into a heap on the living-room carpet as a couple of attack spells smacked into the outside wall of the apartment behind her. Slung across her back was a bulky-looking makeshift backpack constructed from a tightly-tied bedsheet- obviously Lara's work. “Okay, Sam, this is for you!” Derpy exclaimed as Sam untied it. “Lara says she got another one of those 'hand-gun' things that she'd like to keep, if that's okay with you. But she says you'll like what else she found!”

Once the sheet was untied, a number of things tumbled out of it onto the floor. Shining recognized some of them as “magazines” for the shotgun, but others seemed to be a different shape- and then there was what was obviously another weapon, somewhat similar in form to the shotgun but with notable differences. “Oh, Lara, I'd say I got the sweet part of the deal here,” Sam murmured, lifting the object up with all the reverence of a parent with a newborn foal.

“Oh, hey, this must be the foal Lara talked about!” Derpy smiled at Tree, who managed a nervous smile of his own in return. “I'm Derpy Hooves, Equestrian Postal Service. And I'm gonna deliver you back to your folks!”

Tree Leaf's ears pricked. “Is my family okay? Where are they?”

“I'm sure they're just fine, sweetheart.” Her voice became soothing, and something about it reminded Shining of his own mother's voice. “ But we gotta get you out of here before you can see them again. Now let's get you all wrapped up for delivery, okay?”

It didn't take Shining very long to get the colt bundled up and tied securely to Derpy's back. As she flew out- dodging several blasts of magic immediately, whether through deft maneuvering or sheer luck, he didn't know- Sam tapped his earpiece. “The package is on its way, Lara,” he said. “And I got your gift. 5.56 millimeter, my favorite flavor.”

“I had a feeling you'd enjoy it. Are you fine with me keeping the other pistol?”

“Sure. I like akimbo, but I've got the shotgun to cover close-up engagements. Enjoy the extra firepower.”

“I will, thanks. What's our next step?”

There was a soft beeping sound, and then Celestia's voice came through. “Sam, Lara, the Praetorian guards are nearing your position now. Will you be able to meet up with them as planned?”

“Should be able to, yeah. Just need to bust out of a blockade. Lara, you ready to provide cover?”

“I am. Though without Derpy to provide airlifting, I'm going to have to keep moving on my own. It looks like I can manage a path along the roofs from here to there, though.”

“What happened to Derpy Hooves?” came the concerned question from the Princess.

“We encountered a lost child- err, foal, Princess. Derpy is delivering him to the nearest friendly forces now.”

“I see. And the demons surrounded you as you did so?”

“Sam and Shining are caught in the building the foal was in.”

“I can have the Praetorians reroute, if you need-”

“Nah, not gonna be necessary,” Sam interrupted. “S.A. and I can handle this. Right, big guy?”

Shining nodded. “You don't have to worry about us, Princess,” he said, loud enough for the small device to pick up. “We'll make the rendevous on-time.”

“Then I leave the situation in your capable hooves and hands. Be safe, all of you,” came Celestia's reply, before the call terminated. Sam unslung his shotgun and held it behind his back; in the space of an eyeblink, it shrunk down until it vanished from sight. Shining started. “Was that magic?” he asked.

“Kinda-sorta. Long explanation.” Sam shouldered his new weapon, operated a couple parts of it, then nodded in satisfaction. “Locked, cocked and ready to rock.”

“Um... right.” Shining coughed. “Let's get the hay out of here.”

He was introduced to the new weapon's differences from the old one mere seconds after he'd let the shield down and the two of them had kicked the front doors open. The shotgun's deep roar was replaced by a stattaco series of cracks, and thin brass cylinders flew out from the side instead of the larger red ones. The weapon could apparently fire automatically, and its rounds did a much better job of penetrating the armor of the larger demons, at a cost of doing less harm overall per round- but at the fantastic rate at which it could fling its deadly projectiles, quantity did an admirable job of replacing quality.

Shining decided to try to replicate it in form, if not in deadliness, firing rapid blasts of pure force spells from his horn. It was more effective than he would have expected, at least against unarmored opponents, and he had the sinking feeling that he was causing more than a few casualties himself despite his best attempts to disable instead of kill. All he could do was keep reminding himself of the innocent lives still depending on him- one of them being his wife's- and press on.

It was almost a shock to him when he and Sam broke through the demonic lines, finding only a smattering of enemies between them and their destination. He heard Sam initiate a call while taking advantage of the lull to reload his weapon. “Celestia, we're at Sunrise Boulevard now,” he said; some part of Shining's brain objected the lack of honorifics, while the rest decided to simply not care. “I think I hear your boys coming.”

Despite everything, Shining couldn't help but grin; he'd been feeling the vibrations through his hooves for the last half-minute, and hearing the thunderous hooffalls of the approaching Praetorian guards as soon as the gunfire had died down. And there, charging around the corner from Hobby Lane ahead of a cloud of dust, was a line of silver-armored ponies; scorch marks and blood stained the platemail of some of them, but none look wounded or even winded.

Shining's grin widened. Unicorn magic was powerful, and pegasus speed useful, but there was something to be said for raw physical strength, and the earth ponies of the Praetorian guard had it in spades. Sam got a chance to see that for himself when a platoon-sized group of demons came rushing from further down the boulevard on an intercept course; the two groups met practically right in front of Shining and Sam.

The demonic line crumpled like tinfoil under the Praetorians' charge. A few of the less sturdy creatures were literally crushed underhoof by the sheer weight of armor and muscle, while the others were smashed out of the way, the shoulder-to-shoulder line not allowing any of the demons past, and the thick helmets and chest plating shattering bone as easily as wood. Sam let out a whoop as the armored line thundered past. “Hot damn!” he shouted. “Talk about plowing the roads. Celestia, we've rendezvoused with your Praetorians and are falling in behind them. Call ya back when we get to the castle.” He tapped his earpiece. “C'mon, Shining, let's get moving!”

With a shout of his own, Shining Armor burst into a gallop.

(-)

Derpy had found an answer for one of the questions that had been lurking in the back of her head since she'd gotten to Canterlot- where were the pegasi? As it turned out, nearly every last flight-capable pegasus in the city had been conscripted into assisting the evacuation of those who were wingless; after delivering little Tree Leaf to safety, only her insistence that she was on an important mission for Princess Celestia herself had kept her from getting roped into the job as well.

Not that she would have minded helping others get to safety, but at the moment Derpy had another task to worry about, and somepony- or rather, someone- else who needed her help. While she knew that Lara was totally capable of defending herself, the demons were hardly fighting fair, and the woman couldn't watch her own back constantly and be effective in battle- which is why she needed a spotter like Derpy to guard her.

That thought lent speed and strength to her wingflaps as she soared over the rooftops of Canterlot. Despite her best efforts, her lazy eye kept straying downwards to look down at the streets, giving her an entirely unwanted view of the carnage and gore spread across them. There were a distressing number of pony corpses scattered about, guard and civilian alike; the invasion seemed to have happened so quickly that, even as well-trained and swift as they were, the Royal Guard hadn't managed to evacuate all of Canterlot's citizens.

She shook her head violently for a moment, forcing herself to focus both her mind and her eyes on the task at hoof. Lara, Sam and Captain Armor had probably moved since she'd left; they wanted to get to the castle, so it would be a smart idea to start at where they had been and head towards the castle herself, and hope that she found them along the way. If they were already there, then her job was done; if not, she was going to help Lara make it there, and any demon that tried to stop them was not going to be happy... even if Derpy had to fight them herself.

She felt a little shudder go through her as she remembered her brief scuffle with the demon that had attacked Lara. Granted, she'd only been a distraction at best; the human had done all of the hard work. But Derpy had never struck anything in anger in her entire life until today... and she couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for the demon after Lara had shot it. It would have killed both of them- it could have been the one who killed any of those poor ponies she was flying over at the moment. If she hadn't been careful to leave Dinky and Sparkler someplace safe....

That thought made her want to be sick, so she simply dropped it completely and once more focused on what was ahead of her- but it was her ears, rather than her eyes, that alerted her to where to go. That distinctive crack that Lara's weapon made couldn't be confused for anything else aside from a particularly powerful bolt of lightning. Derpy let out a whinny of relief and flew as fast as she could, swinging around one of the tallest buildings in the city that wasn't the castle itself- a whopping fifteen stories high!- to find the woman running across a rooftop... with not one, but three demons hot on her tail. Worse, it looked like she was going to try to make a jump to a neighboring building that was too far away for her to reach.

Well, too far away to reach unassisted, anyway. “Lara!” Derpy shouted. “Go for it! I'll catch you!”

The pegasus cut a sharp turn, dropping altitude to angle herself to catch Lara at the apex of her jump- but an unexpected downdraft made her lose too much height, almost sending her plowing into the rooftop before she could recover, and with a thrill of fear she realized that she was on a collision course with the demons chasing the human, with no time to correct if she didn't want her friend to end up taking a short and fatal trip to the streets below.

So Derpy grit her teeth, narrowed her eyes and thrust her forelegs ahead of her, and flapped her wings as hard as she could.

thwack

The demon in the lead never saw her coming, and her hooves slammed into the back of its knee while it was in mid-stride; she thought she heard bone breaking, and the creature howled in pain as its run became an uncontrolled tumble across the rooftop. And there ahead of her was Lara, already leaping off the edge of the roof, arms spread wide, ready to be caught. In one smooth motion, Derpy flared her wings, lifted her head and spread her forelegs.

Her aim was true. Her forehooves slid under the human's arms, and with strong flaps of her wings, Derpy evened out her flight path, carrying the human over to the far building and depositing her on its roof. Lara immediately turned, unslinging her rifle and taking aim at the two demons still standing on the roof.

Derpy's mind froze for a moment as realization hit. She fluttered forward, ignoring the sharp report of the rifle near her, and peered over the edge of the roof- where she saw the body of the demon she'd hit, sprawled in a puddle of its own blood. She barely realized that she'd landed on the rooftop, or that Lara had taken another shot and brought down the other demon still remaining on the building they'd just vacated... all Derpy could think about was that corpse, that creature that had been alive just a minute ago, until she made it fall.

“Derpy!” A gentle but firm shake broke her out of her mental logjam; Lara was kneeling next to her, a concerned expression clear on that strange, muzzle-less face. “Sweetheart, I know you're upset, but we have to go!”

“But... but....” Derpy let out a sigh and closed her eyes for a moment. “I just... I just killed....”

“What you did was save my life, Derpy.” Lara patted her neck. “I understand how you feel right now. But there's a lot of other lives that need saving, and I don't think I can manage without your help. So I need you to pull yourself together for me, alright?”

“I... yeah. Yeah. Okay.” She shook her head quickly, doing her best to put that horrible sight out of her mind. It wasn't easy at all, but after a moment or two she felt the icy feeling gripping her heart- and the roiling sense of nausea- fade away. Her discomfort meant nothing compared to all the suffering that was still going on, in Canterlot, in Equestria... in Celestia knew how many other places. And while Derpy couldn't hope to do much by herself, she could help those more capable- like the two humans who had bravely stepped up to fight for this world's sake. “I... I think I'm ready to keep going, Lara,” she said.

“Attagirl.” Lara smiled before standing up again, and Derpy flapped her way into the air. “Come on, we're almost to the castle.”

“Okay!” The human's confidence was infectious, and Derpy found her concern lightening already. Maybe- just maybe- they could get through this and actually make a difference.

Of course, this close to the castle, there were plenty of demons still looking to put a stop to their advance. But with Sam and the Captain down on street level causing some major havoc, it was easy for Lara- with her mobility and situational awareness helped by Derpy- to move from one point to the next and select her targets at will. In what seemed to be almost no time at all, they made it to the main gates, where a large makeshift barricade had been erected- and then partially destroyed by the demons; more bodies were piled on either side of it- mostly demons, either perforated with arrows, scorched by battle-magic or cut down by more conventional weapons.

While their advance had drawn a large number of demons away from the front gate, plenty more still were there, with a rear guard reinforcing their position- though even as she watched, a number of ponies in the courtyard repulsed an attack, along with a few other creatures she hadn't expected to see. “Wow, is that a minotaur?” she wondered aloud.

“It seems to be,” Lara replied, taking a moment to reload her weapon and then bring out her phone. “Sam?”

“Yeah?” came the response.

“We're in position by the gates. Can the Praetorians manage another charge? The demon forces seem thin enough for them to make a breakthrough, if I cause a little disruption in their chain of command.”

“Yeah, can do. These boys and girls are rarin' to go now that we're close. ETA four minutes. Hey, did Derpy make it back yet?”

“Yes, thankfully. She's right here with me.”

“Okay, awesome. Gatecrasher Convoy is on the move- see you both there.”

“I wonder why he asked about me?” Derpy asked, looking up at Lara while the woman put her phone away.

Lara laid down on the rooftop, propping herself up on her elbows and holding the rifle up. “Well, it's obvious he was concerned about you, I think.”

“Really? I kinda thought he didn't like me.” She paused a moment. “Or, well, anyone.”

“He strikes me as the sort who doesn't much care to show emotion, but I wouldn't take that personally. It's not uncommon for someone who's seen as much combat as he seems to have to develop that sort of outlook as a self-defense mechanism.”

“Oh... I never thought of that. Then again, I've never known anyone who's seen combat. What about you?”

“Hmm? What about me?”

“Have you seen a lot of combat? Are you a soldier or something, too?”

“Oh, no. I'm an archaeologist. It's just that, for some of the things I've gone looking for, there were... hazards to overcome.”

Derpy would admit that she wasn't the most clever pony, but even she could tell it was best to leave that topic be. “Oh, um... okay. I'll get back in the air and keep an eye out for demons.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Lara returned her attention to her weapon, and Derpy lifted off. The pegasus couldn't help but wonder just what life was like for humans- did they deal with battle like this all the time? And if so, with who, or what? She couldn't imagine living her entire life like this- she couldn't have imagined what war was like at all before the demons had started their invasion; all she'd ever heard about the subject was in history classes and the occasional play or movie about the pre-Celestial Sisters era.

But that thought brought the realization that, once upon a time, even ponies had made war- in fact, pegasi had been fearsome skirmishers, if even half the stories of Commander Hurricane and the Crimson Wings could be believed. She'd never thought much about it before, but there was a lot of conflict in pony history before the Princesses rose to power, and even some afterwards. And that pile of dead demons at the gates proved that, when their flanks were against the wall, ponies were more than just helpless victims.

But would it take a return to the bad old ways for ponies to survive? Did they have a choice? The only other option Derpy could see was fleeing- running away from the demons, and hoping they didn't follow. She didn't get the feeling that the demons would stop, ever, and that running would just leave more innocent ponies- and other creatures- defenseless against the onslaught. And as horrible as having to fight seemed, abandoning some poor little foal, or cub, or anything to the “mercy” of these demons was much worse.

And if Derpy had to get her hooves dirty to prevent that... then that was how it had to be.

The resolution gave her a feeling as though she'd just been unhitched from the world's heaviest mail cart. She knew what she had to do, and she had set her mind to get it done-now all she had to do was follow through. Still, she felt plenty relieved when, after a few minutes spent patrolling without event, she saw a line of silver-armored earth ponies followed by a familiar human and a white-coated unicorn. In the crowd of demons still at the gate, a large demon- much more heavily-armored than its compatriots, holding a wicked-looking curved sword- began to roar out orders.

crack

Lara's rifle saw fit to interrupt. The demon's thick helmet didn't do much to protect its head, and as the body tumbled over, the enemy formation began to break up, as some apparently lesser-ranked demons began trying to rally the troops, and others tried taking their own initiative in either seeking safety or finding their hidden attacker. The end result was that their line was completely unprepared to meet the charge of the oncoming guardsponies- and got literally overrun, the Praetorians smashing through not only them but the remnants of the barricade as well. What few demons hadn't been caught in the stampede were quickly mopped up by Shining Armor and Sam as they swept in behind the armored ponies, who were quickly forming a living wall just inside the gates themselves.

And just like that, the demonic siege on the castle had been ended. What had promised to be a drawn-out fight had turned into a rout thanks to one well-placed shot at just the right time. If there had to be war, Derpy decided she much preferred this kind- swift, decisive, and with no innocents or friendlies having to die. It was a pity that she knew, in the back of her mind, that this sort of luck seldom held for long.

Lara was standing up and pulling out her phone as Derpy landed. “Princess, we've broken through the demon blockade and secured the courtyard,” the human said. “It doesn't look like they were able to gain entrance into the castle proper.”

“I'm beyond glad to hear that,” came the solar diarch's reply. “I have news as well. The demonic portal they used as an incursion point has been found, and destroyed personally by my sister. The demons will be seeing no more reinforcements within the city.”

“A portal? Where was it?” Sam questioned.

“I... will include that in my briefing once I am able to return to the castle. With evacuations mostly completed, we can now dedicate more guards to re-securing the city. In the meantime, maintaining hold of the castle is paramount. Sam, could I speak to the Captain for a moment?”

“Yeah, sure.” There was a pause. “Shining Armor here, Your Highness.”

“Captain, your new rally point is the courtyard. Have all available guardsponies stage defenses there. Pegasi will be available shortly for scouting and civilian recovery; any survivors found will be brought to the castle. You are free to conscript any civilian on a temporary basis if required, at your discretion.”

“I understand, Princess.” Everything went quiet again, until Lara spoke up. “Princess, how long do you think it might be until you can make your way here?”

“It's difficult to say. Perhaps half an hour? I am looking to turn matters over to my commander here now that the worst of the crisis has passed, but for certain significant reasons I can't return to the city until a certain level of security is guaranteed. Those reasons I'll also disclose when able. Until then, my friends, please hold fast and continue to protect my ponies.”

There was a quiet click, and with a confused expression, Lara put her phone away. Derpy wasn't entirely sure what was going on either- but she knew that she could trust the Princesses, so whatever reasons Princess Celestia had for this weird behavior, she'd just go ahead and deal with it. Still, her mind chased itself in circles as to what could be going on to keep Celestia away from the castle now that it was back in friendly hooves.

Then Lara's voice broke through her reverie. “So, Derpy,” the human said quietly. “Tell me about your girls.”

If there were five words guaranteed to break Derpy Hooves out of a funk, it was those five. Still careful to keep an eye out for anything approaching, the pegasus sat herself down by the the human and began to tell her all about Sparkler and Dinky.

(-)

“I think I may be sick.”

Twilight had congratulated herself for the brilliant idea of teleporting directly to the courtyard to avoid the majority of the carnage in the city; unfortunately, she hadn't taken into account the fact that the fight at the castle gates themselves would have seen more than its fair share of violence as well. Efforts were being made to move bodies out of the area, but the majority of available resources were being directed towards reinforcing the damaged gates and the castle grounds beyond.

Behind her, Rarity looked positively green; Fluttershy was staring down at the ground, and Pinkie was apparently locked in a state of half-catatonia. Only Rainbow Dash and Applejack seemed to be handling the sight with anything resembling aplomb, though only barely. “We've... seen worse'n this before, Rares,” Applejack replied.

“But that wasn't actually real, Applejack. These were real, living ponies.”

“Yeah, well, we're gonna have to deal with that, aren't we?” Dash challenged. “Because I don't think this'll be the last time we're gonna see... stuff... like this.”

“Girls.” She couldn't blame them for their reactions, but other matters needed attention. “We all need to pull ourselves together here.” She glanced up, seeing a pair of familiar-yet-alien figures walk through the courtyard, flanked by all three Princesses and Shining Armor, with- Zecora and Derpy close behind. Cadence looked absolutely despondent, practically limping along as her husband did his best to support her; Twilight had already heard rumors that the other alicorn had been more active than she would've wished in the defense of the castle- in fact, one guard commented that the Princess of Love now had an official kill count on record.

It was hard, very hard, not to rush over and try to comfort Cadence. But Twilight had absorbed enough training over the last several months to rein in her impulses, and instead fell in alongside her one-time foalsitter along with the rest of the Bearers. “Are you okay?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“No.” The response was almost a croak; Cadence had been crying, though it wasn't visible.

“We'll talk about what happened later. Okay?” Inwardly she wondered at herself- a year ago she would've, at best, meekly asked if maybe they could talk about what had happened at some indistinct point in the future. Becoming a Princess herself really had changed her, it seemed.

“I d-” Cadence cut herself off, lowered her head and sighed. “...yes. I think that'd be for the best. You have... more experience in this sort of thing than I do.”

Twilight felt herself trying to move a wing to embrace the taller pegacorn before remembering her situation. “We'll have some tea and talk, later on, then.”

Cadence simply nodded silently and returned her gaze to the floor. As much as Twilight wanted to continue, the two unusual members of their retinue demanded her attention; she fell back in the formation just a bit to get a better look at them. They were definitely humans, though both were quite different from either of the two she was familiar with. She actually felt mildly relieved that it was easy to tell Lara's gender- accounting for a bipedal stance, her body form wasn't too much different from a mare's, and bore a striking resemblance to a minotaur doe's.

The other human stood out quite well on his own, also, with a physique that would probably make even Iron Will jealous. Oddly enough, there was a symbol on his right shoulder, revealed by what seemed to be a fresh tear of the fabric of his shirt, in the shape of an old-fashioned fused bomb with an angry face on it. She knew humans didn't have cutie marks, so what was its purpose? It could have been decorative....

She shook her head and sighed. The Q&A session would have to wait, unfortunately, at least until after she, the girls and the two humans were fully briefed and some course of action was decided upon. In the meantime, she dropped back a bit further to trot alongside the “rear guard” of this strange formation; she'd heard from a few sources, including Luna, that Derpy had volunteered to head out to where the humans were expected to appear, and that Zecora had simply accidentally stumbled across them on her way back from a plant-collecting trip in the colder climes. Somehow the two had gotten tangled up, along with the humans, in an attack on a small farming town, and had stuck with their new extra-Equusarian friends right up until arriving in Canterlot, where each had then put their skills towards helping the city and its citizens. It warmed Twilight's heart to see her fellow Equestrians step up in a crisis.

Still, the distant and concerned looks on their faces was troubling. “Hey there,” she said quietly. “Are you two okay?”

Zecora practically snapped to attention even as she kept walking. “Ah... err, yes, Princess, forgive me, please,” she replied. “But the events of this day have left me... ill at ease.”

Twilight gave her a friendly smile. “You don't have to use honorifics with me, Zecora. You're one of my closest friends! I'm glad you made it here safely.” She shifted her gaze to the pegasus fluttering next to her. “You too, Derpy. It was really brave of you to volunteer. I'm sure Dinky and Sparkler would be proud.”

“Thanks.” Derpy managed a slight but pleased smile. “Princ-” she cut herself off after a put-upon look from Twilight- “I mean, Twilight... I don't understand a lot of what's going on now, but what are we going to do? If this could happen to Canterlot....”

“Your concerns, dear Derpy, are valid, it's true,” Zecora answered. “And I will admit that I share them, too. But I know the Princesses to be wise and benign, and they will give us the answers we seek- in due time.”

Everyone fell silent again as the group entered the castle. Instead of heading for the throne room, the Royal Sisters commandeered a conference room not far from the entrance; the doors shut as soon as everyone was inside- including Derpy and Zecora- and Twilight felt the peculiar tingle of magic. Obviously the Sisters were warding the room against any form of eavesdropping. “I apologize to you all for keeping you waiting for answers,” Celestia said, moving to the front of the room along with Luna. “I wished to have everyone together for a full and free discussion, without fear of being spied upon.”

“Who'd be spyin' on us, Princess?” Applejack questioned.

“Before I can answer that, I must ask a question of my own.” Celestia looked towards the back of the room. “Zecora, Derpy- you've done more than I could have asked for our nation so far,” she said. “But the discussion we are about to have involves information that could be considered sensitive to the well-being of the Equestrian nation. I would need to swear you both to secrecy as to anything you would learn here. If you would rather leave, I ask you do so now.”

Pegasus and zebra glanced at each other, then back at the Princess. “We've seen this matter through this far, oh Princess of the Sun,” Zecora said. “This zebra will stand beside her friends until this task is done.”

“Yeah! What she said.” Derpy's ears perked. “I gotta do what I can to protect my family and friends!”

Luna's eyebrow rose. “Family?”

“Ah, yes, that reminds me.” Lara stepped forward. “Princesses, Derpy here has two daughters in the town of Ponyville, about whom she is quite worried. Would it be possible to have them relocated somewhere safer?”

The diarchs shared a glance, then nodded. “This can be done,” Luna replied. “We will send a pegasus squad as soon as is feasible.”

Derpy cheered up considerably, and Twilight felt a strange sense of weight lift from her chest; seeing the usually-bubbly mailmare so withdrawn was just wrong in some fundamental way. Celestia's smile seemed to grow just a little as well. “Very well then. With that settled... I will address our primary concern- how the demons managed to gain a toehold in Canterlot.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Fortunately, before destroying the portal, my sister was able to determine how it had formed. It... had been summoned by ponies.”

Twilight felt like her blood had turned to ice. “By ponies, Princess? You're sure?”

“Of this I am certain, Twilight Sparkle,” came Luna's reply. “The... remains... of two ponies were present in the building in which the portal had formed; both were dressed in dark robes, and they and the floor both bore markings consistent in design to runeshapes employed by the demons. It appears they used their own life's-blood to summon and empower the portal.”

“But... but why would anypony do that?!” Fluttershy's voice trembled as she spoke.

“The foul demons subvert our ponies!” Everyone save for Sam and Celestia flinched at Luna's outburst, and the lunar princess immediately lowered her voice. “They have found ways to seduce our ponies with magics, with promises of great power and prestige. They even resort to brainwashing and torture to gain allegiance or secrets! All of our defenses were turned outwards for an invasion from beyond the city walls- when all the demons needed to do was compromise two of the city's own citizens to gain entry!”

“If there were two, then there's probably more,” Sam commented. “You got any way to know who's a double-agent?”

“To be honest, I'm not even certain,” Celestia answered with a frown. “Twilight, perhaps when you are able, you can research ways to detect demonic corruption. In the meantime, however, all we can use is old-fashioned caution and discretion.”

“Okay, I got a question.” Sam crossed his arms. “I saw your sister there tear apart a giant demon mech like it was a toy. Now I can tell you care about these ponies, Celestia, so why weren't you out kicking some demonic ass?”

“Impertinence” was the first term to cross Twilight's mind, followed quickly by “suicidal” when she saw Luna's eyes narrow. But Celestia merely sighed deeply. “I would have been 'kicking some demonic ass', as you say, were than an option available to me, Sam, but I am constrained by the fact that the magic these demons use is capable of causing even my sister and I harm- perhaps fatally so.”

“And as mine sister is responsible for raising and lowering the sun, a task I am not yet able to accomplish myself, her safety is a paramount concern,” added Luna, her deep-sea-colored eyes locked on the man. “Whereas my responsibility, the moon, is within her ability to handle- which allows me a certain freedom to take risks that she does not possess.”

If Sam felt intimidated, he didn't show it, offering a casual shrug. “Your job's moving the sun? That's how things work here? Huh. Okay, question answered.”

Celestia nodded, apparently letting the issue drop; Luna seemed to take a cue from that and relaxed as well. Twilight would swear she could feel a strange tingling sensation at the base of her horn- but she paid it no mind, focusing her attention on her mentor. “Our first priority is to isolate and remove all remaining demons from the city, and secure it from further incursion. Unfortunately this will require a building-by-building check to ensure there are no other portals prepared; between that and assessing damage, all of Canterlot's citizens save essential personnel will have to remain outside the city for the forseeable future.”

“That is a lot of ponies,” Shining put in. “I'll get all support platoons on setting up and supplying a tent area. We'll want to keep the skies clear of rain until we can get that done.”

“A wise decision, Captain. As for-”

thud

The door flew open, revealing an out-of-breath and panicked-looking unicorn guard. “Princesses!” she gasped. “Outside! Something in the skies!”

The poor guard almost found herself trampled as everyone rushed out into the main hall and through the entryway doors into the courtyard. The sight that awaited them made Twilight gasp in shock and confusion- high above them, strange, multicolored streams of light were spreading across the sky from some point far past the horizon to the north; they looked almost like the aurora borealis, but something struck Twilight as innately sinister about them.

Then she realized that the twisting and pulsing of those streams coincided with the weird sensation she was feeling at the base of her horn. “Is that magic?” she wondered aloud. “Princesses, what's going on?”

“I... I don't know,” Celestia stammered. Twilight's peace of mind was in no way assuaged by the expressions the diarchs wore- a mix of wonderment and apprehension. “Luna?”

“It is unlike anything I have ever witnessed,” Luna answered. “Its origin and purpose are unknown to me.”

“What the hey- look over there! To th' south!” Applejack pointed in the opposite direction, where just above the horizon, more of the strange energy streaks were flickering. The ensemble watched in helpless confusion as two streamers reached towards each other, then touched.

There was a flash of light, and a burst of magic so intense that Twilight felt like she'd been kicked in the horn. But she forgot the pain a moment later when, to her horror, both Celestia and Luna collapsed into heaps right in front of her, both screaming at the top of their lungs, clutching at their heads with their forehooves. “What's going on?!” Rarity wailed, her eyes wide in fear. “What's happening to the Princesses?!”

“Get clear of them!” Sam warned, backing away himself and holding his arms out to warn off the contingent of guards that had charged up to investigate.

Twilight couldn't move, only stare in shock as the two most powerful creatures on Equus twiched and convulsed in front of her, voices raw from screams that still tore through their throats; only tangentally did she notice that their manes were changing as she watched, losing their ethereal luster, becoming limp and motionless.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, both Princesses stood- or tried to, each of them collapsing to their knees. Several ponies, as well as Lara, immediately rushed in to help them get back onto their hooves. “Princesses, what happened to you? What's wrong?!” Twilight practically shouted.

Celestia and Luna shared a look, then both turned their gazes up to the sky, which the strange twisting magic had covered completely; it gave the sun a bizarre reddish tint, lending it a menacing appearance. “This cannot be,” Luna murmured, looking almost forlorn.

“...Princesses?” Lara ventured. “You're not quite helping us remain calm... what, exactly, just happened?”

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, appearing to strain at something, then let out a defeated sigh and allowed her shoulders to slump. “It seems that my sister and I... have lost our connection to the sun and moon.”

Homefront (1/2)

“Okay. Now, you just got done telling me that it would be bad if you weren't around to control the sun and the moon.” Sam tucked his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans. “Now you're telling me that whatever that lightshow up there is, it's cut you off from them. So what consequences are we lookin' at?”

“Catastrophic.” Celestia was leaning against the wall of the hallway they stood in, apparently needing to catch her breath; judging by the ponies' thinly-veiled expressions of horror at this show of weakness, this was a sign of a serious problem. “Due to... problems that occured millenia ago, the sun and moon of Equus require magical guidance to maintain their orbits. Before my sister and I came to power, this was handled by an exceptionally large and talented group of unicorns. When that became... infeasible, Luna and I took to the task.”

Sam was about to call the entire scenario a pile of bullshit when NETRICSA helpfully supplied the results of a scan. Celestia wasn't lying- the sun actually did orbit around the planet... and already there was a very slight but detectable change in the star's movement. “And without you two giving them a good nudge every morning and evening... they're going to come closer, aren't they?” he asked.

“Yes. The danger is slight now, but if we can't correct their paths soon- perhaps within a few weeks- their orbits will be too degraded for us to correct. Equus itself would become an inhospitable, sun-roasted wasteland within a hundred years- and would see the moon impact its surface within two hundred more.”

“Nothing like an end-of-the-world scenario to spice things up.” This complicated things. Ending an invasion of this magnitude wasn't something accomplished over a three-day weekend- even with a modernized, mobile and decent-sized armed force, the timeline for merely reversing the sort of gains these demons had already made would be months at best, let alone pushing them back and making inroads towards destroying whatever the demons were using to project that strange magic field. With iron-age ponies, skilled with magic but unused to using it offensively? That'd run through a calendar or two.

How fortunate it was that this also fell right in Sam's strongest suit. “So then Job One is to find out how the demons are blocking you from the sun and moon, locate whatever assets they're using to do it, and destroy them.”

Luna blinked. “And how, pray tell, would you coordinate a military force of the size required to accomplish such a task, let alone deal with the inevitable attacks it would draw?”

“We won't be fielding an entire force. We'll do it my way- guerilla warfare. Hit critical locations, learn what you can, move on before the enemy can retaliate. I could do the job myself, but I'd rather have somebody along who knows the lay of the land, and who's mobile and okay with being cut off from civilization for a while.”

“I see.” Celestia took on what seemed to be a thoughtful look, moving away from the wall she'd been leaning against to resume their walk; next to her, Luna flicked her tail. “The demons will not sit idly by and observe whilst some small number of us go traipsing about the countryside,” she said, “of this I am certain. Something must be done to repel, or at least forestall, their advance.”

“Agreed.” Celestia nodded slowly. “But those are concerns best addressed with clear minds and filled stomachs.” She reached her destination, and motioned for everyone else to head inside; the room turned out to be a fairly luxurious lounge or waiting room of some kind, with lots of chairs and small tables. As everyone else settled in, the princess practically flopped down on an overstuffed couch, resting her head on one of its arms. Luna looked no less exhausted as she tried at least a somewhat more regal ascent on the other side. “Food will be provided shortly,” Celestia said, “and in the meantime, we can at least rest and talk.”

“Do you guys have coffee?” Sam asked. “Haven't had a decent cup in weeks.”

Celestia nodded. “Of course. I'll have the server take drink orders when the food arrives. And you, Lara?”

“Well, to be honest, I wouldn't object to some tea. Or a warm compress.” The woman fingered a faint but nasty-looking bruise on her arm.

“Oh my goodness!” The little yellow pegasus- Fluttershy, Sam remembered- immediately broke out of her diffident demeanor and flapped over. “Please let me see, Miss Croft. What happened? Doesn't this hurt?”

“She took on a demon all by herself!” Derpy exclaimed. “I mean, she even saved me from it! It roughed her up pretty bad, but she wasn't gonna let that stop her.”

Sam's eyebrow raised. “You took on one of those fuckers hand-to-hand?”

“Not to the degree of success Derpy is implying.” Lara chuckled. “And it was one of those satyr-looking creatures, not the really large ones. But you know what they say, you do what you must.”

“Well, I don't mind admitting I'm impressed.” And honestly, he was. Obviously, despite her cultured appearance, Lara was anything but sheltered.

“As am I,” Celestia said. “We'll have our staff doctor look you over as soon as possible. In the meantime- Fluttershy? What would you recommend?”

The yellow pony was still fussing over Lara, much to the woman's bemusement. “We should definitely get that warm compress. And some tea would probably help- do you like echinacea, Miss Croft?”

“I'm not partial to it, but I don't mind it.”

“Okay, good. Can you hold your arm out for me?”

While the pegasus gave the injured arm a range-of-motion test, the food arrived. Orders were taken for drinks, the staff physician was sent for, and the ponies did their best to relax- aside from Fluttershy, who couldn't seem to stop fretting over Lara, and Twilight, who was having the same issue with the Princesses. Sam didn't really find himself surprised by the lack of meat options in the food; he probably would've been more shocked if there had been any. “Okay, I got a question for you,” he said, pointing a finger towards Twilight. “I heard Zecora and Derpy both call you 'Princess'. Now I don't know how many royals you guys have strolling around here, but out of four I've seen, you're the only one who doesn't wear some kind of crown, or have wings to go with that horn. What's the deal?”

Twilight seemed to consider for a moment, then turned towards Celestia. “Princess? May I?”

The reclining regent, seemingly half-asleep, raised her head slightly. “Hm? Oh... yes. The castle is still warded. Only do it for a short while, though.”

Twilight nodded at that, and then concentrated. A dim purple aura covered her body for a moment- and then, materalizing from seemingly nothing, a pair of broad feathered wings, a bit larger than those on the two pegasi, flared out. Once the glow had faded, Twilight let out a long sigh. “Ugh, I thought I'd never get used to having them, and now being without them feels weird!” she muttered.

Lara raised an eyebrow. “A disguise? What for?”

“Well....” Another sigh escaped the unicorn- or was it alicorn now?- as she frowned. “There's... a complication.”

“An' by 'complication', she means assassins are tryin'a kill 'er,” Applejack helpfully explained.

This was unexpected; Sam sat up in his chair. “What intel have you got on 'em?”

“Not much,” came Twilight's reply. “They call themselves 'the Ashen'. They're small for demons, not much taller than Lara, and not nearly as strong as some of the others. But they're incredibly good at infiltration... and they seem to be able to find me a lot more easily when I'm an alicorn.”

“So they've made a try on you before? Did you manage to capture one?”

“Two, actually, out of four attacks from them. Both times... they dissolved into ash before we could get much information out of them. Apparently they can self-destruct through sheer force of will.”

“It seems their name is quite- oof!- apt.” Lara winced slightly as Fluttershy seemed to find an especially sore spot; the pegasus blushed and stammered out an apology. “Twilight, is there any sort of drawback to maintaining your unicorn form, aside from the lack of wings?”

“Yes. It seriously limits the amount of magic I can use. Thankfully not all the way down to the point where most regular unicorns are- um, no offense, Rarity.”

Rarity smiled and waved a hoof. “None taken, darling.”

“Thanks. But still, there's a pretty low ceiling to how much thaumatic output I can manage while still being able to maintain the form.”

“Even with those limitations, Twilight Sparkle, you may still be the most powerful mage Equestria has seen in a generation.” Luna raised her head to look at the purple alicorn. “And as you are now? Ten generations, easily.” She paused for a moment, seeming to consider her words. “And at this moment, I would dare say that you are likely the most powerful being on Equus.”

Twilight seemed to be the only one who grasped that, as her chin dropped in shock. “Please tell me you're joking,” she begged.

“I would not make such a statement in jest. Without our links to the moon and sun-” Luna glanced over at her sister, who had actually fallen asleep there on the couch, still in full armor- “we have scarcely more magical potential than any reasonably skilled unicorn, nor the speed or strength to match a talented pegasus or earth pony. Rainbow Dash may take comfort in the fact that she is now indisputably the fastest living creature in the world.”

Dash blinked at that, then shook her head. “Not that I don't love the title, Princess, but this seriously is the worst way to get it.”

“Hmh.” Luna's attention was caught by two more ponies entering the room; one of them, dressed up in a typical doctor's white coat, immediately made a beeline towards Lara and Fluttershy, while the other brought in a cart with a variety of drinks and cups. Sam found his mouth watering at the smell of what promised to be some strong coffee. “Sister, awaken,” Luna said quietly, gently prodding Celestia's hind leg.

The sun princess groaned and shifted slightly. “Five more minutes,” she murmured.

A playful smirk spread across the face of the dark-coated alicorn as she leaned in closer. “Tia, thou'rt tardy for class,” she stage-whispered.

“Muh- wha'...?!” Celestia's head jerked up. “Mother will kill me if I'm late again-” She blinked, apparently realizing where she was, then fixed her eyes on her sister. “Not funny, Lulu,” she grumbled.

Sam let himself crack just a bit of a smile while the ponies and Lara let out various laughs and giggles. “I could not resist,” Luna replied. “But perhaps you should partake in a... 'cup of joe', I believe they call it these days? We've still much to discuss.”

Celestia let out a long yawn. “Yes, perhaps that would be for the best,” she agreed, stretching her forelegs. Her horn flared, and- after a long moment- one of the coffee pots lifted up, along with a mug; Sam watched with veiled interest as she seemed to struggle to remotely make herself a cup. “Princess?” Applejack asked hesitantly. “Ya... ya want any help with that?”

“No. No... I can manage this, but thank you.” Celestia's brow furrowed in concentration as she finally finished preparing her drink and brought it to herself. “I'm... just not used to feeling so... powerless.”

“Yeah. About that.” Sam put his mug down. “If word about this gets out- and it's probably gonna, what with all the witnesses we had outside- the odds of you two becoming targets for the demons are gonna go up real fast. And if you're havin' trouble just pouring coffee....”

“He's right, Princess.” Shining Armor spoke for the first time since they'd entered the room, from where he'd sat next to his wife. “You and Princess Luna are high-value targets- and not just for assassins. I don't even want to think what they'd do if they managed to capture you.”

“Yeah, it wouldn't be anything nice, like a 'We're Invading Equus But Just So We Can Bring You Presents' party.” Pinkie scratched her head. “But they didn't send out invitations beforehoof anyway, so I guess that's right out. Unless they got lost in the mail....”

Sam found it almost disturbingly easy to tune out the pink mare's prattle. “Yeah, anyway. Whatever the demons have in mind, best thing to do is get the both of you out of this castle.”

“I could not agree more.” Celestia took a long drink from her mug. “And I have a proposition which could solve both this problem and the issue Luna mentioned.”

“What do you have in mind, Princess?” Lara asked.

“Canterlot is not the only repository of magical artifacts for our nation. Long before this castle was built, the seat of government of Equestria was in another castle- in what is now known as the Everfree Forest. Due to... complications, the castle was abandoned in haste, and many objects of historical and magical value were left behind in vaults even more well-hidden than the ones here. Included in these objects... were weapons of ancient wars, some predating even Luna and I. Unfortunately, the castle lies in ruins, but the vaults- and the traps that protected them- are most likely still intact.”

“Well. That sounds like something down my alley.” Lara was leaning forward as the doctor applied a poultice of some kind to her arm. “What sort of hazards would be waiting along the way, I wonder?”

“The Everfree is dangerous to those who don't use care,” Zecora said. “If you wish to reach the castle, I could guide you there.”

“Your expertise regarding the Everfree Forest would be very welcome, my dear Zecora,” Celestia told her. “But the castle itself is another matter.” She turned her head towards Luna. “Sister, you still remember the layout of the castle quite well, do you not?”

“I... I believe so.” The lunar princess's eyebrow quirked. “Sister, are you suggesting what I am beginning to believe you are?”

“Yes.” Celestia turned back towards Sam. “Sam, you said that you would prefer a travelling companion who could match your pace and knew the lay of the land. I suggest myself. And Lara, Luna would be an invaluable guide once you reached the castle; she oversaw much of its construction, especially the underground areas, after all.”

“Whoa.” Sam raised a hand. “No offense, Princess, but you think you can keep up with me, let alone handle getting your hooves dirty? I think you probably know by now that I tend to make a mess wherever I go.”

She locked her eyes onto his, and for one of the few times in his life he regretted letting his mouth run ahead of his brain. But it was only a mild irritation she betrayed in her voice. “Yes, Sam. You may trust that I am not completely ignorant of conflict.”

“Huh.” He considered the proposal. Much as he really didn't like company while taking the fight to the enemy, he knew pretty much squat-all nothing about this place, and even NETRICSA's enormous database didn't really help; he couldn't hope to do much better for a guide than a ruler who'd literally watched hundreds of generations come and go. It also solved the problem of how to keep her one step ahead of any assassins- while he wouldn't discount the castle guards, these demons were playing on an entirely different level. The only question was... could he tolerate spending so much time travelling with a frou-frou pony princess?

He decided that he'd have to. “Yeah. Okay, I'm seein' the benefits to that. What about you, Lara?”

The woman looked up from the doctor, who was just finishing casting a healing spell to supplement the salves he'd applied to her bruises. “Absolutely. I'd be honored to have you along, Princess Luna.”

Sam heard a quiet choking sound and turned to find Shining staring at the princesses, his face aghast. Celestia let out a quiet sigh. “I take it you have objections to this course of action, Captain?”

“I don't think 'objections' begins to cover it!” he belted out, before obviously remembering himself. “...I'm sorry, Princess, but even before that strange energy covered the sky I would've been against this. Now? The two of you could very well die out there! Right now I wouldn't declare a single square inch of Equestria outside these walls 'safe'!”

“Your concern is both understandable and welcome, Captain, but the situation has changed. I'd go so far to say that not even this castle is 'safe' any longer.” The solar princess raised her head. “Unless this situation is remedied in very short order, it will no longer matter if Equestria has its Princesses, or if Equus its deities. We are now all expendable for the greater cause- Luna and myself included.”

“Remember that we are your Princesses,” Luna added, “and that it is our sacred duty to do all that we must in order to protect our ponies and the peoples of our world. How else would you have us contribute, Captain Armor? Whom would you send in our stead?”

“I... I'm sure I could come up with somepony....” Shining looked almost frantic now, and Sam honestly understood how he felt; this had to be a nightmare scenario for somebody in his position. “There's... um....” He struggled for a moment, then apparently abandoned that argument altogether for a different tack. “But who'll run the government while you're gone? The country is in a state of panic; we need strong leadership more than ever!”

Celestia's eyebrows lowered. “The majority of government work, as always, is being handled by Parliament. Guard movements through Equestria are in control of the Staff Generals. I know for a fact that you and Cadence made similar preparations for the Crystal Empire before travelling to Canterlot... do you think the same cannot be done here?”

The stallon's face flushed, and he looked away, his expression caught somewhere between anger and shame; Celestia's own expression immediately softened. “Forgive me, Shining Armor,” she said quietly. “But there is honestly very little my sister and I can do here now aside from be figureheads. At this moment Equus does not need figureheads- it needs help.”

Shining practically deflated, lowering his head in defeat, as Cadence gently nuzzled him. “...alright, I withdraw my objection,” he said quietly. “But under protest.”

“That will do.” Slowly, Celestia pulled herself off of the couch. “Please, all of you, remain here for the time being. I would like to get this armor off and wash up. Luna?”

The lunar princess glanced up at her sister. “I shall do likewise, upon your return. Until then, I would remain, should our guests have any questions.”

Celestia nodded. “Very well,” she said, before trotting out, followed closely by the physician. Once the door closed behind her, Applejack took off her hat. “This can't be easy on 'er,” the orange mare said. “Um... or on you, I guess, Princess Luna.”

“Nay. Though I daresay this... condition disturbs her even more than I.” After a moment, Luna levitated her helmet off and tossed it carelessly onto the couch. “I have been held powerless before, since our ascension. She has not. Several thousand years is ample time to forget the disadvantages of a mortal body.”

Things went quiet for a few moments, and then Shining- as if hit by inspiration, or desperate for a change of subject- spoke up. “Sam? That thing you use to store your weapons... you said it used magic, didn't you?”

“Huh? Oh... yeah.” He unclipped the technomagic quantum matter compressor- or, as he liked to call it, the Magic Gun Rack- from the back of his belt and laid it on the table next to him; with a mental command translated by NETRICSA into a wireless transmission, it spat up the assault rifle. “That's amazing,” Shining murmured.

This seemed as good a time as any to strip down the gun for cleaning, so he began disassembling it with practiced hands. “Yeah, it basically reduces the amount of space betwen the molecules of whatever you put in it. Only inorganic stuff, though- organics don't come through the process very well, and living things... generally stop living.”

“But... how does it use magic?” Lara asked. “I mean, I've seen some interesting magical artifacts in my time, but since when has humanity started manufacturing things that use it?”

“It's reverse-engineered from alien technology. I suppose it's story-time, huh?” He glanced around, seeing a lot of expectant faces, all but one of them equine. “Okay. In the year 2050, scientists found the remains of an alien installation buried under one of the pyramids in Egypt. It turns out that a bunch of travelers from the planet Sirius came to visit there back when humanity was still figuring out how to make bronze and farm, wound up being worshipped as gods for a while, and built a bunch of things. Unfortunately for them, the rest of their civilzation got wiped out by a creature called 'Mental'.

“So for whatever reason, the Sirians left here on Earth started dying off- probably went crazy from the loss of their civilization. They told the ancient Egyptians stories about what happened to them and how to use their greatest invention- a time-travel machine called the Time-Lock, set to bring anyone back to the instant it was first armed. Then they died off, history turned their stories into myths and legends, and mankind wandered around the Earth for a couple of millenia until we found that chamber.

“We barely understood anything about their technology, but what we learned pushed us forward about three hundred years in the space of twenty. Interstellar travel, energy production, computers and communication- we were living the high life for fifty years or so, spreading across the stars, terraforming worlds to live on. Once we could unlock all the secrets of Sirian tech, humanity was gonna hit a golden age unlike anything we'd ever known.”

“But something went wrong,” Cadence guessed.

“You got that right. I was heading up an expedition to the Sirius system to start up a corporate venture- moisture farms, mining, theme parks for the kids, so on. But there was an asteroid belt around the star that wasn't supposed to be there. I wanted to leave it be, but the head honchos bankrolling the survey pushed me into doing a flythrough. Turned out it was a trap set by Mental to let him know if anybody was doing something stupid like 'not being destroyed'.

“First contact with Mental's forces was three months later. In eight days we lost as many outposts, and within a year seven of the twelve planets we'd colonized were wiped clean. Two and a half years? Ten colonized planets gone, the eleventh in trouble, and Earth right in the crosshairs. Seventy percent of our species exterminated like bugs- that's eight billion people gone. Best projections show us lasting another year before Earth is overrun.” He glanced around again, seeing that the expectant gazes had become horrified, and shrugged. “Hey, I didn't say it was a happy story.”

“H- how....” Luna cleared her throat. “How... could they have overwhelmed you so quickly, when you have such technology at your disposal?”

“Numbers. At the early stages of the war, we were seeing kill counts of sixteen thousand enemy units per soldier... and yet we were still just losing to attrition. Mental's forces are pretty much limitless.”

“Oh my goodness... I'm so sorry to hear that....” Fluttershy made to fly over to him, but he stopped her with a raised hand. “Look, sweetheart, I appreciate the sentiment, but let's not get all mushy, okay?” he said. “Oh, and keep away from the gun, it's dangerous.”

“Oh... um... that's okay, I know that.” She spared the half-disassembled weapon an uncomfortable glance. “The girls and I have seen guns before.”

“...you have?” Lara looked back at her in shock. “But I didn't think you had that sort of technology here.”

“We don't.” Shining's eyes narrowed as he turned towards his sister. “Twily? What's this about?”

Twilight turned towards Luna. “Princess, can we tell them now?” she asked. “I really think it can't hurt anything after all this.”

With a nod of assent from the elder alicorn, Twilight began to tell her own story. And what a whopper it was- even coming from a talking magical pony, it almost seemed unbelievable. “So your first contact with humans,” Sam said once she'd finished, “was getting sucked into some alternate dimension with two of them, having to survive a bunch of nightmare versions of your own world, and then convincing some creature that spanned hundreds of timelines not to kill everyone and everything off?”

“That about covers it, yes,” Rarity answered.

“Hold on.” Lara raised a hand. “Indiana Jones... do you mean Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.?”

The girls immediately perked up. “That's him!” Applejack exclaimed. “Ya know 'bout 'im?”

“Dr. Jones's papers are what inspired me to take up archaeology, actually. Reading about his adventures back when I was a young girl... it made me want to see the world, discover long-lost treasures myself.”

“Ohmigosh!” Rainbow practically flew into her face, stopping just shy of her. “Did you ever get to meet him? How's he doing? Is he still going on those crazy adventures of his?”

Lara's expression fell. “Dash... I'm sorry, but Dr. Jones... passed away, fifteen years ago.”

“...oh.” The pegasus landed, her jaw left hanging open and her lip trembling just a little. “Oh. I... I didn't think of that....”

Applejack had taken off her hat. “How... how did he...?” she asked in a wavering voice.

“Old age.” Lara offered a comforting smile. “He lived a long and exciting life, I understand. I'm actually quite envious that the six of you got to meet him.”

“You would have liked him,” Rarity replied. “He was a true gentleman, dashing and brave. And Jack! Such a stalwart warrior, fearless, and always so polite.”

“Yeah, they were true friends, both of 'em.” Applejack slowly put her hat back on.

“Friends that I never heard about until today. And this happened a year and a half ago?” Shining gave Twilight a critical look. “Why the secrecy, sis?”

“The secrecy was at the behest of myself and Celestia,” Luna answered. “No offense is meant, Captain, but is this tale of extra-Equusian beings and pan-dimensional threats one you would have revealed to the common, everyday pony?”

Shining opened his mouth to speak... then considered for a moment, and sighed. “I suppose I see the logic there, Princess.”

“But now there's not much of a point to trying to hide the existence of life beyond Equus,” Cadence added with a frown. “We have it stomping around in our front yards.”

Everyone went quiet for a moment after that, but Sam's mind was working, as once again he found himself re-evaluating these ponies. The six colorful mares in front of him certainly didn't look so formidable, but if they'd survived an experience as insane that one... well, he absolutely had to admit, that took some serious toughness. Maybe less of this problem was going to ride on his and Lara's shoulders than he'd originally thought....

The door opened, revealing Celestia, who re-entered the room without her armor and looking much more alert. “Luna, there's a hot bath waiting for you when you're ready,” she announced.

“One moment, afore.” Luna gestured her sister closer, and they held a whispered conversation. Sam caught a muffled gasp from Celestia, and saw her mouth the words “eight billion” before giving him an almost imperceptible glance filled with sympathy. A few more words and a subtle nod were exchanged between the two diarchs before Luna trotted out and Celestia resumed her place on the couch. Sam chose not to have NETRICSA fill him in on the conversation- he was here to do a job, not be the guest of honor at a pity party.

He was suddenly aware of Derpy hovering to his right. “Hey, what kind of weird cutie mark is this?” she asked, peering at his tattoo, visible now under the sleeve of his T-shirt that had been ruined by the demon's ambush back in the flower shop.

He gave her a flat look. “ 'Cutie mark'?”

“Yeah, like mine!” Suddenly a storm-grey pony butt was in his face, showing him in great detail the seven bubbles that decorated her flank.

“That's- could you not have your back end in my face? Thanks- not a 'cutie mark'.” He glanced up at the pegasus, who was looking at him- and the table- with a confused expression. “Derpy, humans don't have cutie marks,” Twilight called over to her. “That's probably a tattoo, like some zebras have. Right, Zecora?”

Zecora nodded. “Though my herd did not do so, there are others I have seen. But if I may inquire, Sam... what does that symbol mean?”

“It means I'm angry and always ready to go off.” For the second time that afternoon, he regretted saying something- this time because his face was now plastered against gray horsehair, as Derpy practically wrapped herself around him in a hug. “But you don't have to be angry all the time,” she murmured, patting his back with a hoof.

He had absolutely no idea what to do about the situation, and was grateful to hear another pair of wings flap up to him. “Derpy,” Dash said quietly, “the guy doesn't really like hugs... so could you give him a little personal space?”

“Oh! Oops... sorry.” Derpy backed off, giving him a sheepish apologetic grin, and despite himself he chuckled. The lazy-eyed mare was annoying at times, but there was something about that bubbly exuberance of hers that was endearing.

Things went quiet for a little while, until Luna returned to the room, likewise without her armor and with a fluffy navy-blue towel hung over her neck. The relaxed look she bore, and the look of her mane hanging down in still-drying clumps, could only be described as “adorable”; he could only wonder how he hadn't already contracted diabetes from the relentless cuteness this whole world seemed to ooze from every pore.

“Now that we are all back together,” Celestia said, as her sister returned to her side, “let us begin planning for our journey. We will need to decide where to go, and when, and what our exact goals are to be.”

Everyone had just started murmuring in agreement when the door slammed open again, with an out-of-breath pegasus guard standing behind it. “Princess Twilight,” he panted.

Sam immediately got to his feet. He didn't recognize this pony, but the guards didn't go kicking in doors like that without good reason. “What is it?” Twilight urged, likewise standing.

“Ponyville... is under attack.”

(-)

The first thing Celestia smelled was smoke. Even before Twilight's teleport sphere had completely dissipated, the acrid scent of burning wood and straw reached her nostrils; as her vision cleared, the light from several fires graced her eyes and reflected off the armor she had- reluctantly- re-donned. Thankfully, none of the blazes was very large, and a couple were being tended to by ponies in a bucket brigade. That was a good sign, in her estimation; that meant the attackers had been driven off, or at least forestalled- the second being likely, as she saw signs of barricades set up near the edges of the town. She was just about to speak a reminder to Twilight when she saw her faithful student close her eyes for a moment and once more hide her wings.

“Oh no,” she heard Derpy whimper. “My girls... where are my girls?!”

“Princess Celestia! What should we do?!” Twilight half-shouted.

“You are more familar with Ponyville now than I, Twilight,” she replied, with all the calmness she could muster. “Advise us.”

Her former student's eyes went wide for a moment- and then narrowed in concentration. “We need to secure the town borders and account for all the citizens. Princess Celestia, Sam, go with Derpy to the schoolhouse- all the school-age foals are likely to be there. Princess Luna, Lara, Applejack- head out to the eastern edge of town to make sure we're not vulnerable there, and then check on Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie, Rarity and Zecora, swing north, check on the Cakes and their foals and then have a look at the northern outskirts; Rainbow Dash, go with Fluttershy to the south, make sure we're secure there and then swing out to Fluttershy's cottage to check on her animals. Cadence, Shiny, you're with me- we're going to check on the library, then find the Mayor and see what she can tell us.”

Celestia nodded in approval. It was a good plan, after all, and she was proud at the way Twilight developed it on-the-spot; it seemed her insecure, indecisive pupil had learned quiet a bit over the years since she'd sent the young mare to Ponyville. So she and Derpy Hooves took to the air, heading towards the western edge of the town, keeping pace with Sam's loping run on the ground beneath them. She would have offered to carry him, but with her magic so weakened, she wasn't sure she could have even managed... fortunately, the human was in good physical condition, and kept up a respectable speed the entire way.

Still, it wasn't nearly soon enough for her tastes when they reached the schoolyard. She let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding when she saw the building- it was untouched, though it looked like the door and windows had been blocked off from the inside. Still, to be on the safe side, she did a quick aerial sweep of the area, while Sam checked on places she couldn't see into easily; once she was satisfied that there were no demons nearby, she and Derpy landed and knocked on the front door while Sam hung back a little, on an unspoken agreement not to spook anyone inside.

After a moment, a pair of terrified-looking green eyes peeked out through a gap in the makeshift barricade- then blinked, then disappeared. A moment later the items blocking the entrance were pushed aside, and the door swung open. “Princess Celestia...?” came a quiet, exhausted voice. “Is that you?”

Celestia managed a smile, though inwardly the fear and fatigue in that familiar voice made her heart ache. “Yes, Cheerilee,” she answered. “We've come to check on you and the foals. May we enter?”

“Y- yes, certainly.” The schoolteacher backed away from the entrance, and the trio entered. Cheerilee was just registering Sam's appearance when Derpy almost ran into her in an effort to get further into the building. “Dinky? Sparkler? Are you in here?” she called out.

“Mama!” A blonde-maned head poked up from a crowd of foals huddled near the back of the schoolhouse; a moment later, a light-grey blur streaked out, colliding into the pegasus at high speed. “Mama, where have you been?!” the filly wailed, clinging to her mother, tears streaming down her face. “We've been so scared!”

“Mom!” Another foal, this one older and colored a dark pink, came rushing up as well. “Thank Celestia you're here! We were so worried! Where were you?!”

“Mama had to help a lot of other ponies who were in trouble, muffins.” Derpy buried her face in the younger filly's mane, crying as well. “If I'd know Ponyville was in danger I would've been right here.”

Celestia stepped forward. “Your mother is a very brave mare, little ones,” she said quietly. “She helped save many lives today; you should be quite proud of her.”

The younger foal- Dinky, if Celestia remembered correctly, with the older filly being Sparkler- sniffled. “It... it's okay, Mama. We know you always want to help others. We were just so worried about you.”

“Well, Mama's here now. My little muffins will be safe.” As the mailmare embraced her two adopted daughters, Celestia took a moment to look over the rest of the schoolhouse. Desks had been overturned to form a small semicircular barricade around the group of three dozen or so foals huddled near the rear of the building. Most seemed asleep, and the few who were awake and paying attention didn't even spare her a second glance; she couldn't blame them- between her unenchanted mane and her full suit of platemail, it was amazing that even Cheerilee had guessed her identity. Sam got a few more confused looks, but the foals seemed content to trust their teacher's calm demeanor around him.

Her ears pricked at a commotion behind that barricade; a small group of five fillies were engaged in an argument- though it looked more like the pink one was doing most of the talking, the orange, yellow and white ones were scowling at her, and the gray one just looked extremely tired and morose. Eventually, after a moment, the gray filly seemed to hit her limit and turned to her pink companion. “Okay, that's it!” she shouted. “Diamond Tiara, what is wrong with you?! We're trapped in the school with monsters tearing up the town, our parents are still somewhere out there, and all you can think to do is make fun of the blank-flanks?! Just get over yourself already!”

The filly- Celestia remembered who she was now; Silver Spoon, daughter of Sterling Silver and Gold Lamé- cantered away with tears in her eyes; the group of three fillies followed after her, the orange one shooting Diamond Tiara a dirty look along the way. Tiara frowned and scuffed at the floor with a hoof before raising her head and marching indignantly in the other direction.

“Hang on, I'll settle this.” Sam strode forward, his sneakers deceptively quiet in a room full of nervous hoof-clops; Tiara didn't see him coming until he was pretty much right on top of her. She barely managed a terrified squeak before his massive hand covered her mouth.

Then Sam spoke, in a voice so low that any ordinary pony would struggle to hear it from more than ten feet away. But even without her magic, Celestia was no ordinary pony, and her sharp ears caught every word from across the schoolhouse. “Okay, listen up, kid,” the human murmured, his tone grabbing the filly's full attention immediately. “We don't have time for your little schoolyard drama schtick. Things are bad enough without you going around and pushing the buttons of little ponies that are already scared half to death. So you're going to knock that off and play nice- you understand?”

He removed his hand, and Tiara's expression immediately went from horror to anger. “Who do you think you are-” she began.

“I think I'm the guy your Princess brought here to help protect all of you.” His voice had gone even lower, and held just a slight growl to it; Tiara's protest and burst of bravery both died in an instant. “And you? You're making my job harder. Now, I gave my word to Celestia I'd do everything I could to keep her ponies safe- but right now I can come up with at least a dozen excuses to tell her how you somehow managed to blunder your way out of this building and in-between the teeth of one of those demons out there.” He leaned in closer to her and lowered his shades, revealing ice-blue eyes as hard as enchanted steel. “So get with the program, or go on the menu. Your call.”

With that, he stood and walked away, leaving an absolutely horrified Diamond Tiara behind him. The pink filly shivered for a moment, then- seeing the three girls she'd been bullying before coming back towards her- practically threw herself at their hooves begging for forgiveness. The trio were just as shocked as Cheerilee was. “Um... may I ask what that was all about?” the schoolteacher nervously asked.

“Just givin' the girl a lecture on the importance of cooperation during times of crisis.” The human's expression was perfectly flat, a deadpan mask even Celestia would be proud of; she actually had to fight off a giggle and force her own face into its usual serene composure as Cheerilee gave her a glance. After a moment, the overwhelmed earth pony simply shrugged and let out a sigh. “Okay, if you say so,” she murmured. “Princess, what happens now?”

“I'd like to get the young ones out of here and to someplace more defensible, but we need to know that the town is secure before I'll risk it.” She glanced down at where one very brave mailmare was still embracing her adopted daughters. “Derpy, I must ask a favor of you once again,” she said.

“You need me to go find Twilight and get her to tell me what's going on, huh?” One golden eye peeked up from between the heads of the two fillies. “Girls, the Princess needs me to help again. I promise I'll be right back, okay?”

“O- okay, Mama.” Dinky reluctantly let go of Derpy, followed by Sparkler a moment later. “But- but you be careful!”

“Yeah, Mom,” Sparkler added. “Be safe. Please.”

“You kids don't have to worry about your mom.” Sam knelt down and ruffled Derpy's mane. “I've seen her do some pretty amazing stuff. She'll be fine.”

Derpy gave the human an appreciative smile. “Sam, watch my girls for me, please? I know you can keep anything bad from happening to them.” At his affirmative nod, she glanced back down at her daughters. “Girls, Sam is a friend of mine. He's really strong and brave and isn't afraid of any nasty demons, so you stay with him and do what he tells you to, okay? And be sure to mind what Princess Celestia tells you, too.”

“Yes, Mama.” “Okay, Mom.” With that, the mailmare stood and trotted to the door, gave one more backward glance to her daughters, then stepped outside, closed the door behind her and took to the late-afternoon skies. Both fillies let out a sigh and sat themselves down near Sam's feet as the human looked around. “So who did the barricade job?” he asked.

“Um... that was just me.” Cheerilee blushed. “I was in a hurry. We didn't get a lot of warning.”

“Actually, I was gonna say it's pretty good work, all things considered. You did it by yourself?”

“Y- yes. I was the only one who could, really. I had to protect the foals.”

“Huh. Not bad, not bad at all.” To Celestia's surprise, Sam gave the teacher an honest smile. “Just glad it didn't get put to the test.”

“Why... why thank you.” Cheerilee actually blushed a little. “I... where are my manners? We haven't even been introduced. I'm Cheerilee.”

“Sam Stone.” He reached down with one hand; after a second or two, the violet pony caught the meaning and raised a hoof to shake it. “Mr. Stone? Princess?” she asked after a moment. “Are... are things as bad as I'm hearing?”

Celestia chose her words carefully. “This is a dark time for our nation, Cheerilee, and indeed our world... but ponies are not helpless beasts; these demons will not find us as easy to dominate as they might think.”

Cheerilee seemed to roll that around in her head for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Well, I'll do what I can to help, Princess. But these foals are my number-one priority. I have to make sure they stay safe.”

Celestia smiled; that was just the reply she was expecting. “I entrust them to your care, my dear Cheerilee. I hope to have them moved to a safer location further south- would you go with them? I'm certain a familiar, trusted adult will make the journey easier for them. We'll do what we can to have all your necessary effects brought with you.”

The teacher nodded immediately. “Of course! But what about the adults?”

“As the Royal Guard is stretched extremely thin, we will need a number of able-bodied ponies to remain as a defensive force against further demonic attacks while all others are evacuated. The elderly and infirm will be moved after the foals, and then the rest as it proves feasible. As much as I would rather see everyone moved to safety as soon as possible, I won't risk another attack catching our flanks.”

“You mean... we're going to just abandon Ponyville?”

“Cheerilee, I understand that this place is your home. But these buildings, and the things within them, can be replaced. I would trade it all away in a heartbeat to protect the life of a single pony.”

The teacher lowered her head. “Of course, Princess. I'm sorry.”

Celestia smiled, reaching out with one hoof to lift Cheerilee's chin in order to look into her eyes. “You need not apologize, my little pony. I am fond of Ponyville as well.” She glanced over to where the foals were huddled together. “You should reassure the young ones. Once Derpy returns, Sam and I will decide on a course of action.”

Cheerilee nodded and trotted off, putting on a calm expression for the foals. With that handled, Celestia turned towards Sam, leaning over to whisper into his ear. “You didn't actually mean what you told Diamond Tiara, did you?”

“Course not,” came the reply. “Hey, I'll admit I'm an asshole, but even I've got my limits. But sometimes the only way to deal with a bully is to be a bigger one.”

She gave a slight nod, not entirely sure what to say in response to that. Then she decided to broach a different subject. “You seem to respect Miss Cheerilee.”

“Yeah, I've got a soft spot for teachers, I guess.” He shrugged. “Especially teachers who can turn a schoolhouse into a practical hard point all by themselves.”

She couldn't help but smile proudly. “My ponies can be quite resourceful and inventive when pressed.”

“I'm seein' that, yeah.” He approached one of the windows and took a glance outside. “Wonder what's going on out there. I don't like it when it's this quiet... makes me feel like something's building up, waiting to happen.”

Celestia nodded slowly in agreement, also taking a look outside; things seemed almost peaceful from this angle. She only hoped the illusion would hold just a bit longer. “Winds speed your wings, Derpy Hooves,” she murmured, “and bring you back to us with good news.”

(-)

“We've got wounded here!”

Applejack's head jerked up at the human's call. “If'n that weren't the last thing I wanted to hear,” she muttered beneath her breath, pushing herself into a gallop towards the building Lara was standing in front of. What she found flabbergasted her- the woman was standing at the doorway to a bowling alley of all places, her hands raised in supplication, talking quietly to a pegasus in silver armor who had both of his wing-blades extended in a threatening gesture. “...not one of them, I'm only here to help,” Lara was saying.

“What the hay is goin' on here?!” Applejack demanded as soon as she was close enough to be heard, giving the guard a stern glare. “Put them things down afore ya hurt someone!”

“Ma'am, you need to step away from that creature!” the guard replied, his voice wavering despite his show of bravery. “I saw it lurking around outside looking in at our wounded! Obviously it's in league with those demons!”

“This woman is here to help us, Sergeant,” came a low, calm voice. Applejack couldn't help but grin as the pegasus's eyes bulged in shock at the sight of Princess Luna approaching. “At the request of your Princesses, in fact. Please allow her to pass.”

“I....” The guard's wings drooped, and shame crept over his face. “I'm so sorry, Princess. I just....”

“It's alright.” Lara knelt down, offering him a friendly smile. “I don't blame you for being cautious. What's your name, Sergeant?”

“I- I'm Stratus Skimmer... um. Ma'am.”

“Call me Lara, Sergeant Skimmer. We need to know what's been going on and what the status of your wounded is.” She stood up to allow room for Applejack and Luna to enter the building, then closed the door behind. Inside the building were dozens of ponies laid out on blankets, tablecloths, even piles of towels; each was wounded in some way, and most had makeshift bandages applied to them. “What's been going on?”

“My flight group received orders to fly here and retrieve Dinky and Sparkler Hooves for temporary relocation to Fort Latigo. On arrival, we found the town under attack, partially barricaded, with citizens actively combating the invading demons. I made the decision to send our fastest flier, Aircolt True North, back to Canterlot to report while myself and Aircolts Daisy Cutter and Streamline supplimented the town's defense. While there were numerous civilian casualties, the town was held and the attackers driven off. I volunteered to help put together a makeshift triage, and guard it while the casualties were treated.”

“Wisely done, Sergeant.” Luna gave the stallion a brief but full smile. “You say that there were already barricades when you arrived? Were the citizens taking precautions?”

“I was told that somepony had alerted them ahead of time. They're over here if you'd like to talk to them, Princess.” At her nod, the Sergeant led them all towards the back of the hall, where two heavily-bandaged stallions still wearing incredibly familiar hats lay, conversing quietly. A faint gasp escaped Applejack's throat. “Flim? Flam?”

The unicorn brothers glanced up at her with looks of exhaustion and discomfort so overwhelming that she felt her heart sink. “Well, hello, Miss Apple,” Flam said. “Would that we could've had this reunion under better circumstances....”

“...but it seems the times we live in now have little to offer in the way of such niceties,” finished Flim.

Applejack sat down next to the twins. “Sweet merciful Goddesses... what happened t' you two?”

In their usual back-and-forth way, the two brothers related a brief version of their tale- how they were testing a newer version of their cider machine in the easternmost edges of the Whitetail Forest when they caught sight of a demonic scout force approaching the town. Rather than flee for their own lives, they rode their machine out to warn Ponyville... only to nearly be captured, and forced to destroy their creation to effect an escape. That explosion had alerted the town, and the brothers' warning had mobilized its citizens into action; there hadn't been quite enough time to secure the town's borders, but the hastily-prepared defense was enough to drive the attacking demons off.

“Well, that was awful brave of the two'a ya,” Applejack told them. “Y'all gonna be okay? Y' look like ya went through yer ol' Cider Squeezy machine a time 'r two.”

“It looks worse than it is,” answered Flim. “There were plenty of other ponies hurt worse than us. Speaking of- how is your brother doing?”

The blood in her veins seemed to turn to ice. “What happened to m' brother?!”

Flam held up a hoof. “It's okay!” he insisted. “Flim obviously thought you would've seen him first. He's... well, he took one heck of a beating while fighting off an onrush of those horrible creatures. But I've heard that he's expected to recover.” He pointed towads one corner of the hall. “I believe he's over there. If he's awake, tell him the brothers Flim and Flam thank him for the timely rescue.”

“Y- yeah, I'll do that....” Her entire body felt numb as she stood and made her way across the hall, with Lara close behind and Luna choosing to stay and speak to the twins more. Applejack's heart thudded in her chest, and while she'd never admit it to anyone, she was terrified to find out what had happened to her brother. And what about Granny Smith? She both needed and dreaded to find out what had become of her family.

The breath she hadn't known she was holding came out in a relieved sigh when she saw her grand-dam unharmed and asleep, sitting uncomfortably in a bright-orange chair next to a big red form underneath a heavy blanket and a veritable pile of bandages and wrappings. Gingerly she approached, holding back the impulse to charge up and hug them both so as to not disturb Granny.

Big Mac was awake, though, and he raised his head slightly at her approach. “Hey, sis,” he murmured, his expression and voice both muddled; whoever was handing the medical care here probably had him on something for pain. “Glad t' see yer okay.”

“You too, Mac,” she said, trying her best and failing to keep tears from falling from her eyes. “I heard you put up a real fight earlier.”

“Eeyup. Weren't gonna let no demons hurt innocent ponies in mah hometown.”

“Well, I'm glad you two'r okay.” Applejack lowered her head to nuzzle her brother gently- something she hadn't done in years, but she couldn't help herself.

“Ya... ya seen Applebloom?”

“I ain't, but she oughta be over at the schoolhouse... Princess Celestia and a couple other friends were headed over there. Truth be told I'm worried somethin' fierce about 'er, but the schoolhouse would be one'a th' safest places in town, and I know Cheerliee wouldn't let nothin' happen to th' foals.”

She heard Lara kneel down next to her. “Who's Applebloom?” she asked.

“Our li'l sis.” AJ saw her brother's eyes widen at the sight of the human. “Relax, Big Mac, she's a friend,” she told him. “She's here t' help us fight th' demons.”

“Oh. Well... uh... hi.” Mac laid his head back down on the pillow. “Sure wish I knew fer sure if'n Applebloom was okay.”

“Maybe I can help.” Lara pulled something off of her belt and fiddled with it a bit. “It's likely they made it to the schoolhouse by now- I'll call Sam and check on your sister for you.” She held the little device up to her head, and to Applejack's wonderment she heard Sam's voice come out of it. “What's up, Lara?”

“Sam, are you at the schoolhouse?”

“Sure am.”

“What's the situation there?”

“All quiet. The kids are scared but otherwise fine.” Applejack felt like she'd just had a ton of bricks lifted off her back at the news. “How's things on your end?”

“We have some wounded here. One of them would like to talk to his sister. Could you put Applebloom on?”

“Yeah, sure, just a sec, I'll find her.” There were a few muted noises from the woman's device, then a familiar voice came from it. “Uhhh... hello?”

“Applebloom!” Applejack had to keep herself from snatching the device from Lara's hand, settling for leaning in closer when the woman held it out for them to hear better. “Thank Celestia yer awright!”

“Applejack? Izzat really you?!”

“It sure as shucks is, sugarcube. I been worried sick about'cha.”

“I'm so glad yer okay, sis! But where're Big Mac and Granny?”

“They're both right here, dun you fret none. Big Mac... got a little banged up, but he'll be right as rain in no time.”

“Can I talk t' 'im?”

“Sure y' can.” Even despite his condition, there was an undertone of humor to her brother's voice. “You behavin' over there, Applebloom?”

“Yeah. We're all pretty scared but we're gettin' by. We got this 'human' guy here protectin' us... lemme tell ya, if'n I was a demon, I'd be plenty scared of 'im!”

Applejack chuckled. “Well, sugarcube, we're tyin' up some other folks' time when they got important things t' do, so we'll cut this talk short. You stay safe, Applebloom.”

“You too, sis. And bro, and Granny.”

There was a quiet beep sound from the gadget, and Lara put it away again. Applejack let out a long sigh of relief. “That is a load offa mah mind,” she said quietly. “Thankya kindly fer lettin' us use your thingamabobber there to talk to 'er, Lara.”

Big Mac nodded in agreement. “Much obliged.”

“Pleased to help.” She smiled as she stood. “Will you be alright, Applejack? I'm going to have a look at the other wounded, see if there's anything I can do to help.”

“Sure. 'Preciate it, sugarcube.” Applejack watched the human leave, then turned back towards her brother and lowered her head. “I'm so glad you two are okay. Th' whole time I was in Canterlot, I kept thinkin' I oughta be here, defendin' home an' family, not gallivantin' around.”

“Never you mind that, little missy.” She practically jumped at the sound of Granny Smith's voice; the elderly mare hadn't moved a muscle aside from her slow, steady breathing since AJ had gotten there. “Yer onna them there Bearers; that means y' got duties beyond th' rest of us. You were where y' needed t' be.”

“I know, Granny, I know, it's just....” She looked back down at her wounded brother. “Sometimes it's hard t' remember that, 'specially when yer seein' yer kin wrapped up like onna them mummies from th' old storybooks.”

“Dearie, this is about more'n jes our family. This is about our whole world. We all gotta do what we can.” The green mare gave her granddaughter a smile. “I ain't never been so prouda mah kin than today, knowin' that y' both went out there t' protect everypony.”

“Your pride is entirely justified, Madame Apple.” Luna followed her words up to the three ponies, giving a smile and a dip of her head towards them. “How fare thee, Macintosh?”

“Oh... um... Princess?” It was a rare sight indeed to see her brother completely shocked; as wide as his mouth was hanging open, he could've caught a thrown Baldwin apple between his teeth. “I, uh... I guess I'm okay. Got a little roughed up, is all.”

“More so than you let on. I spoke to the pony handling triage. Even given the legendary endurance of earth ponies, you withstood considerable injury to help protect this town. The brothers Flim and Flam Shadetree praised you highly for your efforts.”

“I just did what I had t' do, same as them boys.” His expression fell as a frown crossed his face. “Princess... did we... lose anypony?”

Luna went silent for a moment. “There have been... reports of fatalities, I regret to say. And a number of our ponies are missing and unaccounted for.”

“Do... d'ya know who...?”

“I will not speculate, Macintosh Apple. I would neither raise hopes nor crush them with unfounded guesswork. My primary concern now is to see those ponies still with us away from this place, to somewhere safer.”

“Y' want us t' evacuate, Princess?” Applejack glanced up at the lunar deity. “That don't sit right with me, givin' up our home like that.”

“Nonsense, youngin'. It's th' right thing t' do.” Granny opened her eyes to fix them on her granddaughter. “Family afore all else. I'll plant roots in any valley, field or plain y' point to and start all over from scratch afore I put mah kin in danger. An' that goes fer all th' folks in this town, too- they're all honorary kin in mah eyes.”

“I applaud your wisdom, Madame Apple.” Luna smiled. “Our primary course of action is to transport the elderly, the very young and those too wounded to fight to the south, towards more easily-defended areas, while those still hale and combat-capable remain here to guard their flanks.”

“Are we expectin' another attack here, Princess?” AJ asked.

“I would expect anything at this juncture, Applejack. Complacency could prove disastrous.”

She sighed and nodded in reluctant agreement. “Yeah, I see th' wisdom there. Well, y'know I'm stayin'... but the rest of the Apple family is gonna have to head on out fer safer pastures.”

Big Mac frowned. “I don't like th' idea of leavin' ya here, AJ.”

“You ain't gotta choice, big bro. 'Sides, you done yer part. Y'know what they say about 'live t' fight another day', an' that's jes what we're gonna do.” She leaned down to nuzzle him again. “So you focus on healin' and gettin' back on yer hooves, and protectin' Granny and Applebloom. I know I'll feel better knowin' yer all together and okay.”

“I unnerstand.” He nodded slowly. “And I ain't gotta tell you to be safe too, I hope?”

“ 'Course not. I still got th' girls to rely on, an' they got me too. Come what may, we'll be ready.”

“Okay.” He visibly relaxed, almost seeming to shrink before her, his eyes half-closing. It hurt her deep inside to see him so wounded, so exhausted- but there was also a fierce sense of pride that he'd held out so well, done so much, in defense of kin and neighbor. “Princess,” he murmured, already seeming half-asleep, “Flim an' Flam- how're they doin'?”

“Well enough, it seems,” Luna replied. “Though their wounds necessitate evacuation as well- they are in no condition to fight.”

“Heh, they owe you somethin' fierce fer savin' their flanks, I reckon, big bro,” AJ chuckled.

To her surprise, Big Mac shook his head. “You got them boys figgered wrong, sis. They didn't get that hurt jes' gettin' to Ponyville- they was right up at the barricade, helpin' reinforce it while I kept the demons from breakin' through. They got tore up because summa them demons managed t' slip by me.”

“They were...?” Applejack spared a glance back towards where the two unicorn brothers lay; it looked like they were asleep, or at least simply resting. “I guess Dad was right... ya really don't know a pony 'til ya see what they do in a crisis.”

“Eeyup.” Mac's eyes were closed now, his breathing becoming slow and deep; he was already falling asleep. She gave him one last nuzzle before looking up to see that Granny Smith had dozed off once more as well. “Princess,” she said quietly, “I reckon we oughta go catch up with Lara an' check up on th' other ponies while we're here.”

“A capital idea.” Luna turned to follow her, but both of them paused as Granny spoke up. “ 'ey, Princess?” she called out.

“Yes, Madame Apple?”

“That new manestyle 'a yers? Really suits ya, Yer Highness. Makes ya look pretty.”

“Oh. Um... yes, thank you.” It was a rare thing to see a princess blush, Applejack noted.

Homefront (2/2)

“I'm afraid we don't have a casualty list, Princesses.” Mayor Mare looked absolutely haggard; her normally bouncy grey mane hung limply, and her eyes were puffy, with still-drying tears underneath them. Still, she held Twilight's gaze steadily. “I've had my hooves full just attending to immediate needs like getting supplies to the wounded and anything we can use as weapons or barricades to those still standing.”

“I understand.” And Twilight did, completely. It was a feat in itself that Ponyville hadn't been razed, that the townsponies had managed to hold off the attacking force with so relatively few casualties. “Princesses Celestia and Luna are also with us, Mayor; they're checking on other areas now, and once we're sure that the town is reasonably secure, we'll begin evacuations.”

The earth pony practically deflated in front of her, letting her head lower and her eyes close. “Finally,” she murmured. “This nightmare is going to be over. How do you intend to proceed?”

Twilight laid out the specifics of the plan, asking the mayor for details on who might be best to fill various roles and writing down her recommendations. It didn't take her long at all to put together a roster, which was given to one of the mayor's aides for the purpose of gathering the needed ponies- if they were still healthy, or even could be found. With that done, Twilight began writing up a list of supplies that would be needed along the way once evacuation had begun, while Shining Armor worked with the mayor on a list of candidates to serve as a rear guard.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door, which opened a moment later; a blonde-maned head poked its way in. “Oh hey, there you are!” Derpy exclaimed, cantering into the office. “Pri- uh, I mean Twilight, the schoolhouse is A-okay and all the foals are safe. Miss Cheerilee fortified it more than Fort Hocks!”

“That's a relief,” Cadence murmured. “Miss Hooves, did you see any signs of demon troops while you came here?”

“No, Princess. Though it's getting kind of late in the day... if they were hiding in the shadows, I probably wouldn't have seen 'em.”

“It is getting late,” Twilight commented, taking a look through one of the windows; the sun was approaching the far western horizon, the sunset tinged a weird purple color due to the strange energy field covering the sky. “We'll want to hurry.”

“Twilight, Princess Celestia wants to know what's going on,” Derpy said.

“Okay. Let me write up a quick summary that you can take to her.” Quill, ink and paper came to her magical summons, and she scribbled a report. “Oh, and Derpy?” she said, as she tucked the note into the mailmare's bag.

“Yeah?”

“Could....” Finally, she let her greatest fear come to the forefront of her mind. “Could you... maybe have a look around for Spike, if you get a chance? He wasn't at the library, and....” She trailed off, unable to continue.

“I understand.” Derpy's hoof gently patted her shoulder, and her voice became gentle and soothing. “I'll look for him. You know the little guy- he'd never be satisfied with just hiding, right? He's probably somewhere trying to be helpful. When I find him, I'll send him here.”

Twilight lowered her head and let out a sigh. “Thank you, Derpy. You don't know how much that means to me.”

The pegasus gave her a bright smile before turning and cantering towards the door. Once she'd left, Twilight let out a quiet sigh. “You know, she kind of reminds me of Mom when she talks like that,” she said to Shining.

The stallion chuckled. “You too, huh?”

And that was all the time they had for levity. There was still more preparation to be done, and the clock was ticking.

(-)

“Is he going to be alright, Zecora?”

Rarity watched apprehensively as Mr. Cake flinched, but remained as still as possible while Zecora tended to him. The nasty wound that crossed the side of his head had stopped bleeding, but was still raw. “The salve will stop infection, but bandaged he must be. Could you use your skills to close his wound, friend Rarity?”

“Just a moment.” She was ever so thankful that she'd been practicing her one healing spell since she'd first learned it- though she still wasn't anything close to proficient with it, she could at least be effective. “Hold still, Mr. Cake,” she said quietly, lowering her head to point her horn at him; a stream of pale-blue magic issued forth, spreading across the stallion's injury. As everypony watched, his flesh slowly regenerated, until what had been a laceration that showed bone became much less horrific-looking. Still, it needed bandaging, and she helped Zecora to carefully wrap Carrot's head. “Not too tight, Mr. Cake?” she inquired.

“No, no... I oughta be okay.” He still looked woozy to Rarity's untrained eye, not that she could blame him; he was lucky to still be alive. “Sweetheart, you should lie down for a while,” his wife insisted.

“Mrs. Cake, I would advise you also get some rest,” Zecora said. “Evacuation will require that we all be at our best.”

“Y- yes. I suppose you're right.” The earth pony mare glanced down at her left foreleg, also tightly wrapped with bandages; the bruises still showed through at the joints, left uncovered for mobility. “We'll be on the couch.” She gave her visitors a smile. “Thank all of you for coming to check on us.”

“You're welcome, Mrs. Cake.” Pinkie carefully sidled up next to her employer. “C'mon, I'll help you to the living room. Will you be okay to walk, Mr. Cake? You can lean on me too if you need to.”

“Yeah... yeah, I ought to be able....” It wasn't the most steady of lines that he traveled, but he was able to keep up with Pinkie without assistance. Once they'd left the hallway, Rarity let out a shaky sigh. “I'm not sure how much more of this I can withstand,” she murmured. “Nopony deserves any of this, but especially not the Cakes! Thank the Sisters that the twins are unharmed.”

“The demons learned a lesson; when evil is one's goal- tread with fear the ground between a pony and their foal.” The zebra's brilliant turquoise eyes glanced down the hallway. “Another's strength surprises me, I admit with some contrition. Pinkie acts with great aplomb, given the Cakes' condition.”

“She can truly astound one, sometimes. When we went through that ordeal in Fracture's domain, she was as strong and collected as any of us. She's deeper than she sometimes seems.”

Zecora nodded slowly, and opened her mouth to respond- only to be interrupted by Pinkie poking her head back into the hallway. “Um, girls?” she said quietly. “I, uh... I'd like to stick around here and keep an eye on Mr. and Mrs. Cake and the foals, if that's okay. I just....” She trailed off for a moment, looking down at the floor. “I just... kinda don't wanna leave them by themselves right now, you know?”

Rarity nodded. “I understand completely, my dear. Zecora and I will carry on, and return to collect you when need dictates.”

Zecora retrieved a thin vial from her cloak, holding it out towards Pinkie. “Give the Cakes this tincture; a single drop will do. It will help them to recover- this much, at least, they're due.”

The pink mare took the vial and tucked it away in her thick, poofy mane, then wrapped her forelegs around Zecora's neck in a hug. “Thanks, Z. You're the best zebra ever. You girls be safe out there!”

Rarity and Zecora showed themselves out and headed north, to check on the barricade as Twilight had asked. Rarity had heard from the Cakes that that was the direction the initial attack had come from, so it was the most important area of town to check... but deep in her heart, she also knew that she was in for a nightmarish sight, and did everything she could to steel herself for it.

It wasn't enough. She could smell the blood well before they reached the outskirts of Ponyville, and once they'd crested the hill leading to the northern bridge, the sight that greeted them had Rarity galloping to the nearest bush to empty her stomach. The carnage was incredible; blood coated the makeshift wall that had been erected as if someone had sloppily applied a coat of grotesque paint, and a number of demon corpses- not all of them intact- had been left laying haphazardly on the street. Some had been scorched by magic, others bore signs of crushing impact wounds, and a few even had gardening implements or other makeshift weapons still buried in them.

She was dimly aware of hoofsteps next to her. “Rarity?”

“I'm... I'm okay.” It was a lie so blatant that she wanted to vomit again. But instead she levitated a few stray leaves from the ground to wipe off her muzzle, then turned towards her friend, who watched her with an expression of concern. “I'm sorry, Zecora. I... I honestly thought I'd be better prepared for this, after all that happened a year and a half ago.”

“You need not apologize to me, my friend. 'Tis a horrific way for any life to end.” It did make Rarity feel a little better that Zecora- who had no doubt seen lives end during the years she'd spent in the Everfree- was disquieted as well by the sight. Together, the pair traveled a fair distance each way along the fence, the zebra taking close looks at certain portions while the unicorn tested others with her magic. Stars were already visible in the skies when they decided that they'd seen enough. “This part of Ponyville is as secure as we can hope, I think,” Zecora murmured, sounding just as tired as Rarity felt. “Let us return to Twilight and report... and perhaps then have a drink.”

“Mmh.” Somehow, Rarity managed a smile. “I'd daresay we've earned one.”

(-)

“That's the last of 'em, 'Shy.” Rainbow Dash shut the door of the coop, watching the last dozen or so birds take off towards the south. “How's your end?”

“All the bunnies and other small animals are heading out as well. That should be everyone.” Fluttershy glanced around. “We're lucky the demons haven't tried to come this way yet. There isn't much stopping them.”

“Yeah, well, that's why we're bugging out as soon as we can. You can't really defend a place like Ponyville; it's way too open. Honestly I'm surprised they held out as well as they did.” And she was, too- surprised and proud. She never would've guessed that the common, everyday ponies that lived here could have banded together so well with so little forewarning.

“I guess you're right....” Fluttershy's voice trailed off as she slowed to a halt, peering off to the southeast. “Dash? Do you see that?”

“What?”

“Right that way.”

Dash's eyes followed where Fluttershy was pointing. One of the strengths of a pegasus was vision; eyes as sharp as a hawk's were essential to a race that might be expected to pull high-speed maneuvers at any moment- and it was her keen sight that caught the strange blue-purple flicker about half a kilometer away, near the edge of the Everfree. “Some kind of... fire?” she guessed. “Looks like something Zecora would cook up....”

“Except that Zecora's here in Ponyville,” Shy finished. “Do you think it might be the demons?”

“Yeah, it might. Are we done here? 'Cause Twi and the other Princesses need to know about this.”

“Um... let me just find Angel Bunny first. He must be terrified, the poor thing.”

“Yeah, okay. Just be fast. I'll keep watch out here.” And she did so, while the other pegasus quickly rushed into her cottage. “Angel?” came her voice through the still-open door. “Angel Bunny, it's okay, I'm here now. You can come out. Angel?”

Things went worryingly quiet after that, and Dash was about to go inside to find out what was happening when her friend practically galloped back out. “Rainbow Dash, I can't find Angel anywhere!” she panted, panic in her eyes.

“Whoa! Whoa. Calm down.” She put a hoof on Fluttershy's withers. “The demons didn't get here, we know that. And he's smart enough to not have run off into the Everfree or something.” As low as her opinion of that rabbit was, she could admit that he wasn't that stupid. “So he's gotta be in town somewhere. He'll turn up.”

“Oh, I hope so....” Dash could see the fear in those sky-blue eyes. She'd never understand why Fluttershy cared so much about that jerk of a bunny, but she wouldn't question it... out loud, anyway. “So, we should, um... go back to Town Hall, then?”

“Yeah. C'mon.” The pair took to the evening skies, heading back towards the center of town. The sun was just setting, and Dash found herself disturbed by just how uneventful it was; instead of the brilliant glow of Princess Celestia's deliberate sunsets, there was just a deepening of the colors on the horizon, a distortion of the sun's now-dimmed disc as it sank out of view. She remembered how her first two human acquaintances had described their world- a complete absence of magic, a sun and moon that handled their own trips through the sky without magical help- and spent a moment wondering if this was what a sunset looked like on Earth.

Fluttershy's voice broke through her reverie. “Is something wrong, Rainbow Dash?”

“Huh? Nah... just thinkin'.”

“What about?”

“I'll tell ya later. We're here.” She dropped into a steady descent, landing smoothly at the doors to City Hall, with Fluttershy coming down just behind. “Twi, you in here?” she called out as she pushed open the doors- only to find that several others had arrived before her. A corner of Dash's mind realized just how weird it was seeing Twilight without her wings now. “Right here, Dash,” she replied, turning from where she'd been speaking with Rarity and Zecora. “What've you got to report?”

“Everything's quiet around Fluttershy's neck of the woods. We sent all of her animals south, along with the pets- except we can't find Angel. We did see something strange, though.”

“What was it?”

“Some kind of weird blue fire, out near the Everfree. It was too far out to really see what was causing it, but it was small, like some kind of campfire or signal fire.”

Twilight frowned. “Signal fire? I hope that's not what it actually is. Dash, can you tell me exactly where it was located?”

“Uh, yeah....” She thought for a moment. “About... six hundred or so meters east-southeast of 'Shy's cottage. I'd say the heading was around one-fifteen degrees or so.”

“Now there's the precision I'd expect from a member of the Ponyville weather team.” Twilight chuckled for a moment before turning. “Mayor, we'll need a sentry watching the southeast. If that is a signal fire of some sort, we could have demons massing for another attack.”

“The roof of the spa has a good line-of-sight in that direction. I'll send a pegasus there now.” The Mayor trotted away; Dash stepped aside to let her pass, then looked around. “Where's Pinkie?” she asked. “Wasn't she with Zecora and Rare?”

Twilight gave her a quick rundown of the situation- the schoolhouse was secured, Princess Luna's group was likely helping with triage out at the bowling alley, and Pinkie was staying with the injured Cakes and their thankfully unharmed twins. Dash nodded, grateful for the information. “Okay, gotcha. How soon until we start the evacuation? I mean, it's already gotten dark out; the demons aren't gonna just pass up another shot at the town.”

“We're finishing up preparations on that now. I know time is of the essence, but we'll stand a much better chance of repelling an attack if we're prepared than if we're fast.”

Dash found herself ready to argue that speed was always the best option- and shut herself up. Twilight was right; charging out of town with a lightly-defended group might get them out ahead of a demonic attack... but anyone unlucky enough to fall behind would be easy pickings. Rainbow Dash was not going to leave someone to die like that. “Okay, yeah, you've got a point,” she admitted. “But we really need to step things up if we can.”

“I'm not even double-checking my checklists, Dash. I'm moving this along as fast as I can. We can't afford to get this wrong.”

She let out a sigh. For Twilight, that really was a rush-job... and she was still right. “I get you. So what can I do to make things go faster?”

“You can stay here and relay messages for me. Fluttershy, Zecora, Rarity- would you go to the bowling alley and help with triage? Tell them we have volunteers coming soon to get them prepped for evacuation, and to gather up all the useful supplies they can find.”

“Of course!” With more speed than Dash thought her capable of, the yellow pegasus flew back outside, not even seeming to care about the deepening nighttime darkness; Rarity and Zecora were close behind. Dash turned back to Twilight. “Okay, Twi, give me something to do. You know how much I hate just standing around.”

“Don't worry, I've got plenty for you to do.” And she did; there were about twenty ponies on the list she gave Dash that needed to be notified and organized, and time was of the essence. The pegasus gave a quick goodbye before charging out the door and taking to the skies, all doubt and uncertainty cleared from her mind. She had a clear goal to achieve, innocent lives were depending on her, and come Tartarus or tornadoes she was going to get the job done.

(-)

He watched the falling darkness with a rising sense of fear. How was he going to find anypony now? The streets had been deserted since the attack, and he couldn't bring himself to leave his position to search for help. Briefly, he checked up on his unexpected charge; the wound had stopped bleeding, but he still wasn't waking up.

A flash of grey overhead caught his attention. Finally- a pony! And a pegasus at that! He was so overcome by his sudden stroke of luck that he almost forgot to do anything with it- and then, before the pegasus got too far away to hear, he began beating a stick against the trunk of a nearby tree as loudly as he could.

His heart sank as the grey blur flew onward- but then, just as he thought he'd lost his chance, it stopped, hovered for a moment and then circled around. His hopes renewed, he began hopping up and down, alternating between whacking the stick against the tree and waving it over his head, desperately trying to get attention. Finally, the pegasus came close enough for him to see clearly- it was that cock-eyed mailmare, and though he'd never really liked her before, right now he was absolutely thrilled to see her. “Angel Bunny?” she asked as she made a rough landing. “Wow, what are you doing all the way out here? Fluttershy must be worried!”

He gestured for her to follow him, and she complied, trotting behind him as he led him to the small overturned flower cart nearby, half-hidden in a row of bushes. He hastily pulled open the small door behind which supplies had once been kept, then stood back to allow her to look inside; he could hear her gasp in surprise.

“Ohmigosh! Spike?!” She stuck both forelegs into the cart and carefully pulled out the unconscious dragon. “Angel, help me get him on my back! We have to get him to Twilight right away!”

The mare didn't even hesitate to flatten herself belly-first against the ground to make it easier to get Spike onto her back, and Angel quickly hopped on behind before she stood. “Can't fly,” she said to herself, “or else Spike will fall. Gotta run, then. Hang on tight, Angel Bunny!”

Her hoofbeats echoed through dark and empty streets, and Angel hung on as tightly as he could.

(-)

“Will he be alright, Twilight?”

Lara watched as the still-unconscious baby dragon was loaded onto the wagon. Twilight- who was very visibly trying to hold back tears- lowered her head. “I'm not sure,” she admitted. “Fluttershy says that Angel found him already unconscious and bleeding in the market, and has no idea how he ended up there. Angel stowed Spike away in the safest place he could manage and tried to look for help, but he was too afraid to go very far. He didn't know we'd managed to drive the demons out.”

“Didn't you use healing magic on Spike, though?”

“It has its limitations under the best of conditions, and dragons are naturally resistant to magic- even beneficial spells have a difficult time taking effect. Right now we can only wait and see how well he'll recover.”

“The young dragon's wounds are serious, it's true.” Zecora trotted up to them, the saddlebags slung over her back stuffed full of medical items and concoctions. “But rest assured, I will watch over him for you.”

“Thanks, Zecora. We're lucky to have you. Be safe, okay?” Twilight gave the zebra a tight hug, then stepped back to watch her board the fifth wagon they'd appropriated for transporting wounded and those unable to fight. Seeing that all the wagons were ready to move, Lara brought her phone up and placed a call. “Everyone on-board?” came Sam's voice.

“Affirmative; you're ready to roll. The guards and volunteers will follow your orders. Keep them safe, Sam.”

“You got it. See you all at Fort Latigo.”

There was a shout from up ahead, and the wagons began rolling forward, the strong earth ponies pulling each one hardly seeming to strain at all in getting the heavy conveyances on their way. Twilight was just turning to talk to Lara when both of them heard the clopping of hooves running up to them; Lara spotted a lime-green shape galloping up the road. “Twilight!” came a hoarse voice. “Is Bon-Bon on one of those wagons? I can't find her any-”

The shape- now visible as a young-looking unicorn mare- skittered to a stop as soon as she saw Lara; her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, but it didn't look like a fear reaction so much as pure shock. “What the...?” the newcomer murmured, staring up at her. “Twi- Twilight? Is this...?”

Next to her, Twilight sighed. “Yes, Lyra. This is a human.”

“They... they are real.” Lyra raised a hoof and tapped it against Lara's leg briefly, almost seeming surprised when she met resistance. “You are real! Where did you come from? Are there more of you?”

“Lyra, I'm afraid that information's classified by order of the Princesses, at least for the time being.”

“Oh. Um....” Lyra shook her head as if to clear it. “Have... have either of you seen Bon-Bon? I've looked everywhere for her! Was she on one of those wagons?”

“I don't think she was, no.”

The green mare's expression fell. “Is... is she....”

“I don't know, Lyra. I haven't seen her since we got here, and we haven't been able to tally our... casualties. I can't tell you what might have happened to her.”

“Could you describe her?” Lara offered. “I'll keep watch for her, and if she turns up I'll let you know straightaway.”

“W- would you?” The shock that crossed Lyra's face was quickly replaced by hope. “She's an earth pony, about my height, cream-colored coat, and a two-tone mane and tail. Her cutie mark is three wrapped candies.”

The human nodded. “Okay, I've got it. Now, Miss Lyra, we need you and every other able-bodied pony helping with the town's defense until we can organise our second evacuation wave. Can I count on you?”

“Yeah. Yeah... I'll do what I can.” The mare turned and trotted away slowly for a bit, then looked back. “Thank you, Miss... um...?”

“Lara Croft.”

“Thank you, Miss Croft.” With that, the green pony left. Lara scratched her head and looked to Twilight, who was shaking her head with an unreadable expression. “She knows about humans?” Lara asked.

“It's... a long story. I'll tell you when we get back to Canterlot. Right now I want to get things ready for the second convoy.” Twilight sighed. “I wish I had the skill to just teleport everyone there! But even as an alicorn, I couldn't manage more than a third of the populace before needing to rest... and there's no telling what kind of attention I'd attract.”

“Well, we can only make do with what we have. And I would personally prefer if you kept that magic in reserve, should we find ourselves in dire straits.”

“I suppose you're right.” Twilight watched the wagons fade into the night for a moment, then turned. “Let's go, Lara. We'd better get ready for the second convoy.”

(-)

crack

Lara's weapon roared again, the muzzle flash lighting up the area for a split-second, and somewhere in the darkness behind them echoed a cry of pain. How she could even see what she was shooting at was beyond Rarity's understanding- the human had mentioned something about “infra-red scope setting”, though the fashionista had absolutely no idea what that was- but she was certainly thankful that the weapon was giving her the ability to stall the demons that had been chasing their wagon train almost since the moment they'd left Ponyville.

“Twilight?” she heard the human call out. “How much further to the bridge? I'm running somewhat low on ammunition!”

“Half a mile!” came the reply. “If we can just keep this pace it'll only be a couple of minutes!”

“Lara, dear, just how many demons are still out there?” Rarity asked.

The human didn't pause in loading another magazine into the rifle. “You don't want to know,” she murmured, before looking back. “Twilight, do you remember what I said about dire straits earlier? I believe now qualifies!”

In a flash of violet, Twilight materialized on the edge of the wagon just behind Lara. The unicorn's eyes went pale white for a moment, glowing slightly. “Oh my gosh,” she murmured. “I didn't know there were that many! Where did they all come from?!”

“I don't know, but I think we vacated Ponyville just in time.” The rifle fired again. “I'm not sure we'll make the bridge before we're overwhelmed, at this rate.”

In the dim light of the lantern hanging at the front of the wagon, Rarity saw Twilight's expression harden. “...I'm not going to allow that,” the Princess growled, making her way to the very back of their transport. “Everyone, get down!” she shouted, before lowering her head; a brilliant ball of light began to form at the tip of her horn, forcing Rarity to look away.

What she saw behind the wagon made her heart skip a beat. A veritable wall of demons was charging along the thin dirt trail behind them, less than a quarter-furlong behind; she could see fangs and claws gleaming in the illumination from Twilight's magic, could hear the snarls and growls above the thunderous hoofbeats of the ponies pulling the wagon.

And then there was a sound like a thunderbolt going off right by her ear, and the spell Twilight had been charging flew into that crowd of demons.

BOOM

Dirt, pieces of tree trunk and body parts flew into the air like a fountain, torn apart by the magical blast; the explosion lit up the area as bright as day for a moment, allowing everyone to see the demonic force practically disintegrate. Somehow, above the din, Rarity heard a harsh thunk come from the side of the wagon, and a set of claws reached over the edge, followed by an exceptionally angry and fearsome face.

Rarity had no sooner realized that the blast had propelled one of the demons into the cart, and it was trying to capitalize on its luck, than she found herself spinning around and lashing out with both hind legs. She felt bone snap beneath her hooves as they made contact, and with a roar of pain, the demon tumbled to the ground and faded into the darkness.

“I think that's done it! Wait, just a moment.” The rifle barked one more time, and there was a scream further back along the trail. “Now we're good. They won't be able to rally before we reach the bridge.”

Rarity saw Twilight slump against the side of the wagon, and went over to her. “Are you okay?” the fashionista asked, placing a comforting hoof on her friend's neck.

“...yeah.” After a moment, Twilight nodded. “Actually... yeah, I am okay.” She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “If that's the only way to stop these demons, then we'll do what we have to in order to survive, won't we?”

“Yes. Yes, we will.” Rarity spared one more glance out into the darkness; the carnage of this skirmish had already faded from sight, but she had the feeling it would remain in her memories as long as she lived.

She jerked upright in surprise as the rumble of dirt underneath the wagon's wheels turned into the sharp clacks of cobblestone. “We've hit the bridge!” came the call from one of the ponies pulling the cart.

“Thank goodness,” Lara sighed, lowering her rifle for the first time in what seemed like hours to Rarity. “This is the only way across the gorge, Twilight?”

“For at least ten miles in either direction.” The violet unicorn leaned against the edge of the wagon, watching as their cart- the last in the convoy- rolled along the white stones. “It's really a pity,” she said quietly. “This bridge has been here for four hundred years. How many ponies crossed it over all that time? How many dreams were being pursued, how many future loves waited for them on the other side?”

“Twilight, dear, you sound almost like me now,” Rarity chuckled.

“Heh. I know. It's just... it's sad to have to give up a piece of our history just to survive.”

“I understand. But what was built can be rebuilt. This bridge, Ponyville, Canterlot... what we ponies made, we can remake. What matters is that there are still ponies left to do so.”

Twilight nodded slowly, glancing around at the view before them- lit mostly by the strange magic still wavering high above- as the wagon crested the center of the bridge. “For our future,” she murmured, lowering her head and concentrating.

The spell that came forth from her horn glowed brightly, a pulsating sphere that came to a rest on the cobblestones, sitting innocuously as the wagon left it behind. Rarity knew better than to believe its seeming innocence, though, as apparently did Lara. “How long?” the human asked.

“Three minutes. Plenty of time for us to get clear.”

And just as Twilight had said, the convoy was well down the trail south when the spell she'd placed detonated. The shockwave absolutely demolished a good portion of the bridge, sending shards of rock flying everywhere and the entire center half of the structure plummeting into the chasm. What remained of the once-stately span was left with cracks and fractures along most of its body. “Nobody will be crossing that again anytime soon,” Rarity commented.

“And yet I wonder how many innocent ponies we've trapped with the demons,” Twilight murmured in reply.

“A necessary risk, I'm afraid.” Lara gently patted Twilight's back. “Denying the demons this route will save no small number of lives here. Unfortunately, much of war involves tradeoffs.”

Rarity frowned slightly. “You make it sound so... impersonal.”

“But she's right,” Twilight said. “When the whole planet is at stake... what else can we do?”

Rarity had no answer for that, and could only sit in contemplative silence as the caravan trundled along. It was nearly dawn when they finally reached the outskirts of Fort Latigo, and one of the multitude of pegasi scouting overhead spotted them. “More refugees from Ponyville!” she heard the call go out. “Get ready to open the gates!”

The fort was massive, thick stone walls standing up from the ground like a cliff face, and for the first time since all this had begun Rarity felt a sense of safety. “Twilight, this is quite a structure,” Lara said quietly. “How long ago was it built?”

“Long before the rise of the Princesses. It was an earth pony military base during one of the less peaceful times in our history.”

The caravan rolled into the fort's courtyard without problems, and the half-exhausted ponies it carried finally had a chance to get out of their wagons and stretch their legs. Food and drink were immediately brought by some of the fort's current residents; Rarity politely refused, wanting to leave more for the poor refugees who were likely going to be calling this place “home” for some time yet. She had just turned back towards the wagons when a white blur practically tackled her. “Sis!”

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity wrapped her forelegs around her little sister in a tight hug. “I'm so glad to see you're alright. How are the others?”

“We're all okay, sis. It was a crazy ride getting here, though. We got attacked by demons along the way! But Captain Armor and that big human guy, Sam... well, they didn't let any of the demons get us.”

Rarity nodded. “Well, thank goodness for them. Where are they now?”

“I think they're up on the walls somewhere with the fort guards. It's like those two don't need to sleep or something!” Sweetie cocked her head in thought. “Rarity, are you gonna stay here?”

“I can't, dear, at least not in the short term. The Princesses, the girls and I, and the rest of our group will need to return to Canterlot for a while. There's much we need to do.”

“Oh.” The filly frowned, but seemed to take the news in stride. “This whole thing is crazy, isn't it, sis? I guess... I guess we all have to adjust now. Nothing's the same anymore.”

Rarity's heart swelled with pride at her younger sister's understanding and maturity in the face of all that had happened. “You are truly growing into a lady,” she murmured. “Yes, dear, all of this is crazy, just as you say. But I'm so very proud of you for holding out so well.”

“I'm proud of you too, sis.” Their embrace lasted for just a moment longer before the younger Belle pulled away. “I'll let you go ahead, Rarity. I know you've got a lot to do and a lot of ponies depending on you.”

A sad smile crossed Rarity's muzzle. “I'll be back as soon as I can, Sweetie. I promise.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Rarity made sure to close her eye before the last motion of the promise.

“Okay, sis. I know you'd never break a Pinkie Promise.” Sweetie yawned. “I think... I'm gonna catch up with the girls and then try to get some sleep. It's been a really long night.”

“Indeed. Sleep well, dear. I'll probably be gone when you wake up, so... be safe.” She placed a gentle kiss on her sister's forehead, then shooed her off to get some rest. Yet she couldn't help but watch the filly canter off, even as she heard Lara's boots on the hard-packed ground behind her. “I didn't wish to interrupt,” the human said quietly.

“I know. And thank you, darling.” She gave Lara a warm smile. “We should gather up everyone else. I'm certain the Princesses are eager to get back to Canterlot as soon as possible.”

Lara nodded in agreement, and they set off together to round up the rest of their motley crew and have Twilight teleport them back to Canterlot.

(-)

“Y'know, I was really lookin' forward to some shut-eye.”

It wasn't usually Applejack's way to complain; she knew life had its hardships, which were best faced with stoicism and strength. But after the insane day she'd had, even her considerable endurance was running low.

“I understand how you feel, Applejack,” came Celestia's voice from up ahead. Immediately the earth pony felt a pang of guilt; maybe she'd had it rough, but the Princesses of the Sun and Moon had been dragged down to mortality- and Celestia's voice certainly showed the strain of it. “But this is an opportunity we cannot pass up. We need your skills if we are to ensure that this interrogation is successful.”

Interrogation. She didn't like the word, but that's just what was waiting for them- and she had to admit to a certain eagerness for finally getting some answers. “I unnerstand, Princess,” she said quietly.

If questioned beforehoof, Applejack wouldn't really have been able to voice what she would imagine the royal dungeons to be like- but nothing quite so airy and well-lit as what came into view at the bottom of the staircase. It seemed less like a place of punishment and more like a waiting room for less-civilized creatures; even the bars were polished to a light sheen.

And it was in the last cell from the entrance that Applejack saw the prisoner. It- well, she, it seemed- was bound to a chair; a soft humming came from her mouth, carefree and playful, as though she were merely a guest waiting to be seen rather than a prisoner. Applejack strained for a better look between the bars, and what she saw almost made her stop stock-still in shock- a female demon, with the hooves and lower legs of one of the larger male ones, but an upper body resembling Lara's, and dark pink skin showing underneath black leather clothing. Twin tapered horns jutted from her forehead, and behind her hung a pair of small batlike wings, tied tightly together with rope.

“Oh, do I have company? Delightful.” The demon's voice dripped false sincerity right from the beginning, and Applejack found herself scowling reflexively. “Come closer, little equines. I wish to see more of your ever-so-expressive faces.”

“Where was she found?” Celestia questioned the guard who'd led them into the dungeon.

“In one of the servants' passages, Your Highness.” came the reply. “We believe she was preparing an ambush for some unlucky pony and was caught by surprise.”

The creature's glowing green eyes focused on Celestia. “Ooooh, a princess,” she murmured, drawing out the word in a way that made Applejack entirely uncomfortable. “I've never seduced a princess before. Lower royalty, sure, even a duke or two. But this is quite the step up for me.”

“Silence your prattle, creature!” Luna practically growled, stalking out from behind her sister. “You will be asked questions, and you will answer them. Or else.”

Despite the ferocity of Luna's gaze, the demon giggled. “Oooh, you're a spirited one. I can just imagine the wonderful threesome-”

thwack

The magical blow from Luna rocked the demon backwards in her chair, leaving a thick welt across her face- but to Applejack's shock, it only made the creature giggle again. “Mmm, feisty. Well, then, let's get this questioning over with, so that we can move on to the real fun.”

Everything about this demon was just flat-out wrong to Applejack, but she stood attentive, ready to do as her Princesses needed. Unfortunately for the cowpony, the demon was an absolute master at twisting her words, speaking half-truths and giving almost everything she said ambiguous meaning, making it almost impossible for Applejack to catch her in a lie or even be sure the question being asked had been answered. “Princesses, this is gettin' us nowhere!” she whispered during a lull in the interrogation. “She's slipperier than a greased frog in a rainstorm. I can't even tell ya if she knows anythin' 'bout what's bein' asked, let alone if'n she's lyin' about it.”

“Oh, you poor ponies look so troubled.” The demon almost, almost sounded truly sad, but Applejack knew otherwise. “I know your kind can't handle chaos and destruction-” for the first time, she spared the two humans outside her cell a glance- “much unlike the humans you have here. You gentle equines are far, far removed from their barbarism.” Her expression became warmer, almost friendly, and her green eyes flickered. “Won't you let me help you end all this pain and death?” she pleaded. “It truly hurts to see you pretty, delicious little ponies suffer so.”

Next to her, Rarity was speaking, but Applejack found it hard to listen to her; it felt like a blanket had been thrown over her ears, muffling everything but that honeyed voice that came from the demon's mouth. Nor could she stop staring into those glowing green eyes, which glistened like enchanted emeralds.

“It saddens me to see so many potential playmates lost in this pointless war,” the creature continued. “If you would just untie me, I could easily deliver your surrender to the Burning Legion. You would be rewarded for your wisdom! We would grant you your deepest desires, your every whim....”

Something deep inside Applejack was absolutely screaming in panic, telling her that this was wrong, it was bad, urging her to look away. But something else stronger than that was beginning to prod her to step forward, to unlock that cell and set this poor misunderstood creature free.

“Think of the power you would have! The ability to smash your enemies underhoof, to never have to worry about dragons or griffons or all those other nasty monsters invading your lands and destroying your homes. You ponies would be feared and respected; nothing would ever threaten your loved ones again. All you have to do is let me out.”

Applejack watched with bizarrely muted horror as, almost against her own will, she took one step towards the door of the cell.

BANG

The back of the demon's head exploded like a rotten apple; the chair she was still tied to teetered on its rear legs, then fell back, landing on the floor of the cell. Her glowing eyes flickered and guttered out like spent candles, and her body spasmed for a moment before going still. And just like that, the haze that had come over Applejack's mind lifted, and she turned to find Sam pointing his weapon into the cell, its barrel still smoking. The tinkling of a single brass casing clattering on the floor was the only sound to chase after the gunshot for a long moment before Luna spoke in an unsteady voice. “...a charm spell,” she murmured.

“One powerful enough to cloud even our minds, apparently,” Celestia responded, before looking back at the man. “How did you know?”

“Because even I was starting to listen to her.” Sam holstered his weapon. “No offense to your guards, but you didn't catch her- she let herself be captured, because the demons knew you'd be desperate for answers at this point and you'd have at least someone of importance doing the questioning. The fact that pretty much half of this nation's royalty walked in to handle the job was pure gravy, probably.”

Luna seemed to deflate before him. “We were... incautious. Almost disastrously so.”

“I'm not gonna blame ya. Hell, I shoulda warned you off, but I didn't think these demons could be so subtle. And even NETRICSA didn't pick up on the charm spell. These guys could teach Mental some tricks on being underhanded.” Sam leaned against the bars of the cell, looking at the mess he'd made of the demon's head; Applejack very carefully refrained from following his gaze. “If that's how good they are at 'persuading' others to switch sides, then I'm surprised they haven't turned half the country against us.”

Applejack let out a deep sigh. “I'm sorry I wasn't more of a help, Princesses. I was really hopin' we might get some answers.”

“This failure was through no fault of yours, Applejack,” came Luna's firm reply. “We have consistently underestimated the cunning and brutality of these demons. If we hope to survive, that must end.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “At the very least, however, we have gained two points of knowledge. One: The demons have encountered humans before.” She glanced back at Sam and Lara. “Two: We now have a name to call our enemy.”

“The Burning Legion.” Rarity seemed to roll the name around in her mouth, like a sip of bad wine. “Even their name sounds foreboding.”

Celestia gave a short nod. “In any case, I shall have this... situation cleaned-” she gave a glance at the corpse in the cell, which Applejack still refused to look at- “and we should all get some rest. It has been a long day.”

“What's our plan after that, Princess?” Lara asked.

“A day of preparation.” The alicorn trotted towards the staircase, with the others following. “Two days from now, I expect that we will all be on the road.”

One Last Dance Before We Go

“These were the largest saddlebags we could find, Princess.”

Celestia let out a grunt as her assistant accidentally tugged the cinch tighter; he stammered an apology and loosened it as much as he could. “Is that more comfortable, Your Highness?” he asked.

“It's... tolerable.” She shifted a bit, flexing her wings slightly; next to her, Luna chuckled, and Celestia shot her a glance. “If you so much as think the word 'cake', you're going back to the moon, Lulu,” the solar diarch muttered.

“I would scarce dream of such.” Luna gave her sister her best grin, before her own assistant finished adjusting her saddlebags. “Is that a good fit, Your Highness?” asked the Lunar Guard.

“It suffices. My thanks.” Luna tested the buckles with her magic, making sure she could disengage the pack in an emergency. “We are done here. You may return to your duties.”

The two ponies bowed and left the room. After a moment of quiet, Celestia lowered her ears and sighed. “It's been quite some time since we've gone abroad like this, hasn't it, Lulu?”

“You mean, on our own, without a royal retinue?” Luna nodded. “Quite some time indeed, yes. I admit that I have missed the preparations, the anticipation of new encounters and new knowledge. If only the reason for this excursion were more pleasant.”

“Perhaps... but still, I feel a certain eagerness towards having my hooves on the road again.” Celestia stared wistfully through the window. “It was a long millennium without you, Luna. There were days I felt as imprisoned as you were.”

“The shackles of leadership are heavy indeed.” Luna trotted over to her sister, placing a comforting hoof to her neck. “But now we are both unfettered, as caught within the currents of fate as our subjects. I admit, it is at once exciting... and terrifying.”

“I'm far too angry to feel afraid.” Celestia closed her eyes for a moment. “What right do these creatures think they have, to come to our world and murder its peoples like this? To corrupt us, to twist us like puppets on strings?”

“Might makes right, to those with an abundance of it and no morals to restrain it. That was my reasoning, once.” Luna felt the old feelings of shame swell up, before pushing them down. “But now it is time that we taught these demons a different axiom.”

“And that is?”

“Right is might.” Luna thumped a hoof against the floor, the effect only slightly diminished by the thick carpeting. “Come, sister. We have friends to meet up with, and unwelcome guests to escort off of our world.”

The rest of their diverse group had assembled in the throne room, all of them kitted out for travel. Even Sam wore a bright red saddlebag- or backpack, Luna corrected herself- emblazoned with an image of his tattoo on it. She really was beginning to believe the man's assertion that the device that sent him supplies somehow knew just what he needed and sent him exactly that. “Hail, hail, the gang's all here,” he commented as she and Celestia entered the hall. “Time to get down to business?”

“Absolutely.” Celestia trotted ahead to the large table that had been set up at the center of the room, laden with maps and reports; one in particular caught her attention, and she brought it up to read it. “Hm,” she murmured. “Sister, it seems our... special agent still hasn't reported in.”

Luna frowned; she understood what Celestia meant. “Not that either of us ever expected him to be perfectly punctual, but to go this long? Something must have happened.”

Her sister sighed. “Let me see... perhaps Sam, Derpy and I can investigate his last known location. We might come upon some useful information on demonic strongholds.”

“A capital idea.” It was good to see that Celestia hadn't lost her tactical thinking skills over the centuries. “The course for myself, Lara and Zecora is rather straightforward, but along what path will you travel?”

“That's a good question. Sam, this map has a number of sightings of demonic troop movements... what would you recommend?”

“Lemme have a look.” He approached the table, and there began a spirited discussion between the human and Celestia as to which areas to check and in what order, with Captain Armor, Lieutenant Whetstone and even Twilight Sparkle providing input. As they spoke, however, Luna began feeling a strange sense of foreboding, a tingle in her hindbrain warning her of something, though she didn't know what. She found herself resisting an urge to fidget, to glance around for an unseen threat.

She knew better than to dismiss the feeling as her imagination, though. She trusted her senses and instincts implicitly. She gave a subtle glance to Lara, catching her eye, and got an almost imperceptible nod in return; with a couple of innocent-seeming movements, the woman opened the small flaps that held her weapons securely in their holsters, readying them to be drawn at a moment's notice. Most of the others in the room didn't even catch the subtle motions, but a quick glance and nod from Sam showed that he had. If Celestia understood, she hid it incredibly well- but Luna trusted her sister to be alert.

Then, abruptly, in the middle of a discussion about supply routes, the air seemed to turn to ice around them, and every last lantern, torch and candle in the room went out at once, plunging everyone inside into darkness. “Lights!” Sam bellowed.

The horn of every unicorn and alicorn in the room lit up, but what should have been enough illumination to rival direct sunlight seemed to be swallowed up by the room itself; the best they could manage was a thirty-foot radius, beyond which everything was as black as the Void itself. Sam and Lara had already armed themselves, and the Captain and Lieutenant weren't far behind- but there was no sign of the guards that had been stationed at every door, now lost to the darkness.

“Form a circle!” Celestia called out. “Flank to flank! Watch for movement!”

Sam already had his weapon shouldered- a “shotgun”, Luna had heard it called- and was sweeping the barrel back and forth, watching for threats. “Contact!” he called out, firing a shot- and something in the darkness screeched, followed by a thump.

“There's more!” Shining hollered, sending a blast of magic into the the darkness. Luna just caught sight of a thin, bipedal shape leaping past it before the spell's light was swallowed up. An idea seemed to strike the Captain, and he lowered his head, his horn glowing even more brightly- and then a fast, steady stream of magic pulses shot forth from it, streaking into the darkness, chasing the creature he'd just illuminated before. In an instant, Luna calculated trajectory and distance, lowered her own horn and let loose a spell of her own, watching as the nimble shape tried to evade it- only to have the sphere of pure dark magic detonate just ahead of it, blasting the creature into the hard stone floor.

“Above-” she heard Lara cry out, before something shadowy flicked past the edge of her vision and slammed into Celestia, making her lose her balance. Before anyone else could react, the shape practically bounced off the side of the solar diarch and darted by Lieutenant Whetstone- and then there was the flash of metal, a sickening wet sound, and a gurgling cry escaped the earth pony's mouth as he fell, blood gushing from his slit throat.

Twilight saw. “Rarity!”

“I have it! Fluttershy, hold him still!” Rarity had already practically flung herself towards the stricken guard, magic pouring from her horn into the horrific wound as Fluttershy did her best to restrain his wildly-kicking limbs.

And that was all the attention Luna could spare that situation before she turned it back towards the battle at hand. “Captain! Dome!” she ordered.

“At once!” Shining's horn flashed again, and a bright rose-color shield formed around the group- but it seemed shaky, wavering like an invisible waterfall were pouring over it. “Gah- something's disrupting the spell! I can't maintain it!”

Luna's brow furrowed. Maintaining this aura of darkness around them was one thing, but suppressing one of the Captain's shield spells would require a powerful directed spell- and even with her lessened abilities, she would be able to sense it. So what would be able to do so, yet not trigger the wards that protected every room of the castle-

Realization struck her. “The wards!” she shouted. “Twilight Sparkle- our attackers may be using the castle's ward spells against us!”

“But how-” Twilight visibly smothered the question, and instead looked up towards the ceiling and concentrated. Her horn glowed even brighter, though somehow the extra light seemed to do nothing to drive back the darkness.

“Dome's going down!” Shining warned, a moment before his spell gave way; the energy field shattered under the impact of two more of the creatures, who landed at the center of their formation, forcing the ponies and humans to split apart lest they be sliced to ribbons. The demons immediately dove back into the darkness, lost to sight almost instantly.

“Towards the eastern wall!” Celestia ordered. “Lara, Applejack- guard Rarity and Fluttershy! Captain, keep your light on them! Twilight, we need the wards disabled as soon as possible!”

“I'm working on it! Whatever turned them against us made a complete mess of things!”

“When care is not the wisest course, perhaps one must resort to force!” Zecora advised.

“She is right!” Luna fired another blast into the darkness. “Twilight, tear the wards apart if needs be!”

The color of Twilight's magic immediately went several shades darker, and the darkness seemed to somehow flicker around them as though a pebble had been dropped in a jar of ink. An instant later, a dark shape streaked towards Luna; instinctively she flinched backwards- and felt the dagger aimed for her neck clang against her peytral, scoring a mark across the dark, enchanted metal.

An azure blur shot past her, and the creature's planned escape became an uncontrolled tumble as Rainbow Dash's hooves struck it solidly in the back. “Eat that, chump!” she hollered, managing to stop just shy of the edge of the darkness and quickly flying back towards her friends. “Princess Luna! You okay?”

“Yes! Remain vigilant!” They were nearing the eastern wall, if her estimation was correct, meaning that they'd have only half the room to guard against. But their attackers seemed cognizant of that as well, and apparently chose to push their advantage while they still had it- three more of the creatures bounded into the light from the direction the group was heading, all of them angling towards Twilight, their daggers pointed towards her unarmored body.

BOOM

By some miracle, Sam managed to get a shot on the rightmost one without endangering any of the others in their group; the creature's body practically disintegrated, dissolving into smoke even as it hit the ground. The leftmost zoomed by the human, only to find itself on the wrong end of a spear thrown by Captain Armor, the weapon's tip sinking between the demon's shoulder blades and sending it falling off to the side. But nobody had a clear shot on the one remaining creature, and it nimbly evaded a last-ditch tackle attempt from both Dash and Pinkie, sprinting across the few remaining meters between it and its target, leaping into the air-

-and then Twilight glanced down at it, her eyes glowing a bright white, and the creature literally froze in midair as if time itself had been stopped for it. Just the slightest hint of a scowl crossed the violet alicorn's face for a moment, and as her mouth opened, a voice booming like thunder issued from it.

“Get away from my friends!”

The demon slammed into the marble floor hard enough to crack it, rose up, and slammed down again, then flew off to the side as if it were a doll tossed away by a bored foal. Her work done, Twilight returned her spectral gaze to the ceiling. “Jesus,” Luna heard Sam mutter. “Remind me not to piss her off.”

Maybe that example had temporarily cowed their adversaries, or maybe they couldn't figure out how to make an effective approach, but the main group went unmolested once they'd reached the wall- and, by some miracle, so had the small group still gathered around the prone Lieutenant Whetstone. After a moment, Twilight lowered her head again, her eyes back to normal. “Got it!” she declared.

As if a lightswitch had been thrown, the room reappeared around them. The first thing Luna noticed was the several piles of ash that denoted where their assailants had fallen- and the second thing she noticed was the four guards, two at each entryway, who lay in lifeless piles at their posts, surrounded by pools of their own blood. She could see from where she stood that each had had their throats cut, probably all at the same time the moment the darkness had fallen. “Spread out and stay alert!” she called. “The assassins may still remain.”

The others in her group complied, with Sam taking point on Celestia's other side from Luna, and Twilight cantering forward to check on the other group, where Whetstone still lay. “How is he?” she asked.

“Unconscious and in a bad state from blood loss, but still alive, thanks to Rarity,” Fluttershy answered. “But we'll want to get him to the infirmary as soon as we can.”

Rarity approached her friends. “I was fortunate to be able to get to him so quickly,” she said. “I just don't know how we managed to go unattacked.”

Twilight smiled. “As soon as I could, I turned the compromised ward into a shield bubble for you. You wouldn't have been able to get out, but nothing could get in either. I didn't want to risk saying so, though, in case the demons could understand and try to counteract it.”

“Not one for us, though, Twi?” Dash asked teasingly.

“I don't think I could've managed to hold two of them and still work on undoing the wards themselves, especially having to move one. We were mobile and had more force on our side.”

“Wisely done, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said appreciatively.

“Heh, yeah, that actually was a pretty smart play.” Sam rested his shotgun on his shoulder. “Okay. Let's secure the room, get Whetstone patched up and then hit the road-”

“Sam, look out!” Applejack shouted.

Luna's vision just barely caught movement from the eaves above before something dark and indistinct slammed into the human's back, sending his shotgun clattering across the floor and him face-first into the marble. Before he could even react, the demon raised its wicked-looking dagger to bury it in his unprotected back.

BOOM

The shotgun blast took off the demon's arm at the elbow and shattered the dagger; the creature recoiled, clutching at the wound for a moment, then spun and leapt for the window.

click-clack BOOM

The second shot intercepted it perfectly, turning its dive into a tumble; its body slapped against the plate-glass window it had been jumping for, crumpled against the floor, and then dissolved into ash that blew apart in an errant breeze.

Luna looked back to see Celestia help Sam back to his feet with a foreleg; the shotgun floated by her side, surrounded in her magical aura. “Shit,” the man said. “I didn't expect the pretty pony princess to be such a damn good shot.”

“My little ponies are alien to the ways of war.” Celestia arcanokinetically racked the pump, sending another spent shell clattering against the floor, then held the weapon out towards him, fixing him with a solid, steady gaze. “I am not.”

Sam chuckled softly as he took hold of the shotgun. “Princess... I think we're gonna work well together.”

It was a supreme effort of will for Luna not to break out in the silliest of grins.

(-)

“Tender Care has just reported in. Lieutenant Whetstone is responding well to blood transfusions and healing magic, and is expected to make a full recovery.”

Celestia nodded to her aide. “And the four guards who were slain in the attack?”

“They'll be buried with full honors as soon as a detail can be assembled, Your Highness.”

“Good. Tell their families that the Diarchs are truly saddened at their losses, and that the sacrifices their loved ones made were for the protection of Equus itself.”

Shining could barely restrain a snort of derision. What had happened to those guards was hardly a sacrifice- they'd been murdered, plain and simple, struck down without even the chance to raise a hoof in self-defense. But the diplomatic side of him, honed by intense training in preparation to be a co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, understood the need to maintain morale in times of crisis... though that certainly didn't mean he had to like it in any way, shape or form. From his very first day of active duty, knowing that the risk to his life was slim but never zero, his greatest fear hadn't been dying in the line of duty- but rather dying without the chance to fight back.

The attack had cured him of one misgiving about their plans, though. With the castle's wards subverted- a task Twilight said the demons could have been working on for weeks in secret, and didn't that level of pre-planning by their enemy just turn his bowels to ice water with dread- it was no longer even remotely safe for the Princesses any longer. With no other stronghold they could trust, it seemed that the best hope for the country's diarchs was to simply vanish into the countryside, trading being a target within the castle's stone walls for the freedom of movement that the wide-open lands of Equestria gave.

The retinue continued on through the courtyard and out into the city proper, where barricades and observation points were being erected along the roads. Workers and guards alike stopped what they were doing for a moment to watch the group move, either gawking at the Princesses or staring warily at the humans; Shining knew by now that word had gotten out about the alien creatures and their purpose here, but some ponies seemed far too fixated on their resemblance to the invaders to trust them. Others seemed merely curious, though, or even actively interested.

For their part, the humans accepted all of the strange looks with equanimity. Sam, true to his nature, just didn't seem to care all that much, focused instead on what was ahead of him; Lara was careful to give a reassuring smile or wave on occasion, and even spoke to anypony with the courage to come up to her, actually managing to draw out a short conversation or two before the busy ponies returned to their duties.

Soon enough, though, they left the city proper and made it to the makeshift camp below. The noise and the smell were both remarkable- apparently proper sanitation hadn't been set up yet, leaving the smell of sweaty ponies and other creatures, as well as their various waste products in hastily-constructed outhouses, to linger despite the obvious attempts to keep the air clear. None of the Princesses looked pleased at the situation, and Celestia took aside one of the Royal Guards assigned to oversee the camp to speak to her- only to have her frown deepen. “Sister,” she said quietly, “your nephew seems to be making a pain of himself.”

Luna snorted. “Oh, suddenly he is mine nephew?”

Shining could barely keep himself from cringing as an all-too-familiar voice came from one of the administration tents. “...conditions are intolerable! To expect me to sit, to eat, to bathe with the common pony! My request of a half-dozen of these tents to use as my own quarters is entirely reasonable. Perhaps some of the commoners could be assigned to erecting them; Celestia knows the poor beggars need something to do-”

The tent flap practically flew aside as Celestia's wing flung it open, stepping inside to find Prince Blueblood practically looming over a nervous desk clerk; the stallion who Celestia had the misfortune to call “nephew” turned at the interruption, and a broad smile crossed his muzzle. “Auntie!” he exclaimed. “I'm so glad you're here. You would not believe the things I have had to endure since this whole horrible ordeal began! I....” He slowly trailed off, finally noticing the steel-hard gaze she was giving him; once he'd fallen silent, she turned to the poor pegasus mare he'd been berating. “Winter Wind, perhaps now would be the best time to take a lunch break,” she said quietly.

“Of course, Your Highness.” The poor clerk practically zoomed out of the tent, leaving the Princess and her nephew alone inside; Celestia turned towards the others still waiting outside. “Just a moment's privacy, please,” she said pleasantly, but Shining saw her expression grow cold again an instant before the tent flaps snapped shut.

Whatever was said inside was blocked by a soundproofing spell, but apparently took less than half a minute- which was how long it took Blueblood to come galloping out of the tent like somepony had tied a parasprite to his tail. In his panic he just barely avoided crashing right into Sam, and as the stallion skidded to a halt and realized just who was in front of him, he let out a scream at a pitch most mares would find impressive and backpedaled madly for a moment, pupils and irises constricted almost to pinpricks, before taking off at a full gallop further into the encampment, wailing all the while about monsters coming to eat his vital organs.

Shining looked down and noticed a trail of droplets left by the fleeing prince, yellow in color and with about the scent he expected. Sam seemed to notice as well, and his quizzical expression was plain to see even despite his sunglasses; Celestia gave him a brief chuckle and a shrug. “Just a mild rebuke for unacceptable behavior,” she said quietly. “Nothing important. Come, we've much to do, still.”

The glance Sam and Shining exchanged was silent, but the agreement was made nonetheless- don't even wanna know.

They were stopped two more times along the way- the first by Fancy Pants and his wife Fleur de Lis, both looking like they'd climbed through a razor-edged chimney to get there but neither seeming to care about their appearance; the socialites requested permission to return to their estate to retrieve food and supplies for the refugees, a request that Celestia granted, and Shining assigned a small squad of guards and volunteers to assist. The second, surprisingly enough, was by Tree Leaf and his family- five ponies in all. The little colt regaled his relatives with what was probably, judging by their put-upon but understanding expressions, the latest of many retellings of what had occurred in that apartment building, but what happened next actually shocked Shining- the human knelt down and greeted each of the ponies in turn, complimenting the yearling's bravery under stress. Their uneasiness quickly dissolved under his rough-edged but friendly demeanor.

“So what are you guys gonna do now that the city's off-limits?” the man asked.

Tree's father, Windspeed, considered for a moment. “Well... we've got a cousin who owns a nice little cabin out on Unicorn Range. We might go see if we can stay with him for a while. Mr. Stone, if you happen to find yourself out that way... please, by all means, stop by.”

“Sure, you got it.” Sam gave them a brief smile before standing up. “We gotta roll. You guys stay safe out there, alright?”

“Will do, Mr. Stone!” Tree offered a cute attempt at a salute that Sam returned sharply, before the family trotted off and Sam returned to the retinue, responding to the various stares directed at him with a shrug. “What?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing at all, dear.” Rarity's smile practically gleamed, but Sam either didn't notice or refused to rise to the bait. Shining strongly suspected the latter- the man was as stubborn as a minotaur when he wanted to be, he'd learned.

Not much else was said until the group reached the first major intersection beyond the mountain. Celestia came to a stop and glanced behind her. “Twilight, perhaps you should test your communication spell before we depart,” she said.

Twilight concentrated, and her horn glowed faintly; both Sam's and Lara's phones chimed. “It appears to be working on our end,” Lara said with a smile.

“And on ours as well,” Luna added. “You learn quickly, Twilight Sparkle.”

His sister fairly blushed at the praise. “Thanks, Princess,” she said quietly. “I'll try to keep contact limited to important matters.”

The group had already decided beforehoof on their itinerary- the Bearers would return to Fort Latigo to speak to a selection of refugees from various parts of Equestria, to learn what they could of enemy movements and goals; Shining and Cadence would return to the Crystal Empire to rally its citizens; Celestia, Sam and Derpy would venture behind enemy lines to the northwest to find and destroy any demonic installations or equipment they could find and collect whatever intel they came across; and Luna, Lara and Zecora would travel through the Everfree Forest to retrieve every last magical weapon and treasure they could manage from the old castle. Everything beyond that would have to be managed on-the-fly depending on what was found and what exigent circumstances might crop up.

Luna lowered her head for a moment. “Mine friends, mine dear sister, this may very well be the last time I see some of you,” she said quietly. “Know that your bravery and dedication to our world will be spoken of for as long as any of the civilized species of Equus still live. May Fate and Fortune trot beside us as we travel.”

Leaving behind his Princesses, his sister, and his friends on that lonely intersection was one of the hardest things Shining Armor had ever done in his life, and for the longest time it was only his fierce sense of duty- and his wife's comforting presence- that kept his hooves moving.

(-)

“Twi, I know that look.”

Rainbow Dash glanced downwards. Applejack was right- that by-now-familiar expression of self-incrimination was plain to see. “...huh?” Twilight murmured, seeming to come back to reality from wherever her mind had been.

“Tell us what's on your mind, dear,” Rarity said. “It's plain to see that something is bothering you a great deal.”

“It's nothing, girls, really-”

Dash descended until she was hovering just in front of her friend. “Twilight,” she said. “We've known you way too long to buy that. And you've known us long enough to know that we're gonna get you to talk one way or the other... so could you at least save us some time and do it now?”

“It's like you told me, Twilight!” Pinkie added. “A problem shared is a problem halved!”

Still Twilight looked reluctant- until Fluttershy gently laid a hoof on her withers. “Is this about what happened back in the castle?” the pegasus asked quietly.

“No! I mean... well, kind of.” The neophyte Princesses let out a soft sigh. “I just... I can't stop blaming myself for all this.”

“I thought we talked 'bout that, Twi.” Applejack sidled up next to her. “There is no way, no how, that you could'a known what would happen.”

“But... what if we'd done something different? What if there were signs that I missed, clues that could've warned us?”

“Twilight!” Dash landed and immediately took Twilight's muzzle in both her forehooves. “Stop! Just please stop. You're just gonna tear yourself apart thinking like that.”

“Twilight, we've discussed this before,” Rarity added. “You cannot realistically believe that you could have somehow anticipated that our being teleported into Fracture's domain would lead a demonic army to Equus.”

“But why didn't I check for extraplanar fissures? I mean, we'd been shunted through the dimensional fabric into an entirely artificial bubble universe! I should have known there would be some kind of compound quantum disturbance left over- hormph.”

Her rant was cut off by Dash's hoof. “Twi, I don't even know how to spell most of those words, let alone what they mean, but Rarity is right- you couldn't have known.”

“And besides,” Fluttershy said, “if it weren't for you, we wouldn't have Lara and Sam here to help us now! I know you spent so many nights up late researching that spell, reading through some of the biggest books I've ever seen, and all those complicated notes you wrote....”

“Yeah!” Applejack agreed. “I mean, I don't know nothin' 'bout magic, but... findin' two humans whose lives were in danger, and not only savin' 'em, but managin' to bring 'em here so we could ask 'em to help? 'Member how surprised the Princesses were when you told 'em about yer spell?”

“I specifically remember Princess Celestia saying something along the lines of 'unheard-of complexity in the class of scrying spells'.” Rarity smiled.

Dash nodded. “Yeah, not to mention Luna telling you that even that Startwirl the Hairy guy-”

Twilight gave her a look. “Starswirl the Bearded.”

“-right, that guy... Luna said that he would've been proud to put together a spell like that. So nopony can say that you haven't done everything you can for Equus. Especially not you.” She prodded Twilight's chest with a hoof for emphasis. “And we need you to keep that in mind and stop mentally kicking yourself, because right now our whole world needs you at one hundred percent brainpower, Twi.”

Twilight sighed again and lowered her head for a moment, then nodded. “I'll try. I'm sorry.”

“Silly filly, you don't need to apologize.” Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around the unicorn in a hug. “Just remember that you've got your friends!”

“Yeah.” Twilight paused for a moment. “Yeah, in fact... I need you all to do me a favor.”

“Anything, darling,” Rarity replied.

“You all saw what I did to that demon in the throne room.”

“Uh... yeah. Kinda hard t' miss.” Applejack scratched at the back of her neck lightly.

“I just... I need all of you to keep an eye on me. Tell me if you think I'm resorting to violence when I don't need to. Keep me in check.”

Rarity shook her head. “Twilight, I'm sure you don't need to worry about-”

“Yes I do, Rarity. I'm a lot more powerful now than before. Celestia warned me about the road to tyranny, to 'the ends justify the means', and the first step is always rationalization, using more of one's power than necessary for expediency's sake. And I can't guarantee that I won't fall into that trap. Like you girls told me, you've known me for a long time... and that means you can warn me if it looks like I might be going down that road.”

Dash's mouth hung open for a few seconds. She didn't even want to consider that it was possible for that to happen... but the realistic part of her said it could, and maybe more easily than she was comfortable with- Twilight had made some impressive strides in self-control over the years, but if there were ever a trial by fire, this situation was it. So, after a moment, she nodded. “You got it, Twi,” she said, giving her friend a smile. “We'll keep you level-headed.”

“Well, keeping ponies sane isn't really in my skillset,” Pinkie admitted. “But I'll do what I can!”

The other mares agreed as well, and a look of utter relief washed across Twilight's face. “Thanks, girls,” she said quietly. “That's a load off my back.”

The six ponies continued on, though Dash noticed Pinkie take on an odd look after a moment. “What's up?” she asked the earth pony.

“I was thinking of songs we could sing to make the trip go by faster, but... I dunno. It just doesn't seem like the right time to be singing, I guess.”

“That might be for the best, dear,” Rarity said. “Perhaps we might simply reflect upon what lies ahead of us, and save conversation and the like for when we make camp tonight.”

“Yeah... I guess you're right, Rarity.” Pinkie continued on, and Dash kept pace just a little above her friends, for once caught up in her own thoughts.