How Moonstruck Got Her Groove Back

Finite Sledgehammer

Disclaimer: Hasbro's toybox, I'm just playing in it.

Joseph could not wrap his brain around what he was presently doing. He should be flying as fast as he could away from a titan dragon - not towards it. Certainly not with the intent to goad it into a chase. He knew the physics were actually in his favor, but one wrong move would be the death of him.

Yet his wings pumped, and his lungs took in air, and he kept his eyes fixed on the goal ahead. He also kept an eye on the ash cloud that was rising from the volcano. Although as a dragon he had a certain tolerance to much of the noxious gasses volcanoes could produce, he was not immune to them the way larger dragons were. If there was a poison cloud lurking around the volcano, he would have to wait for Magmanus to clear it before he made his presence known.

And going by how slowly the behemoth was moving, that could be a bit of a wait. Joseph was already half way there, and while Magmanus was still slowly drifting towards town, he seemed to have covered more ground simply by stretching out, than by gliding. Or at least, it looked that way. When Joseph was still a good ten miles away, Magmanus seemed to tire of his slow progress and began to pump his undersized wings, propelling himself forward at the speed of an especially determined snail.

The sky began to darken as he approached, the ash cloud blocking out the sun as it hit the top of the shield and began to spread along its curve (which was a very strange sight). It had not yet began to fall, so the air below was about as clear as it ever was. The volcano itself was socked in, and lightening lit up the western sky. Every so often the wind would shift and he'd get a glimpse of magma oozing down the upper slopes. The bulk of the eruption seemed to be explosive, with gas and ash being the predominant byproduct of Magmanus's emergence.

Although he was only a few miles away now, and in plain sight, the titanic dragon showed no indication of noticing him, his massive, green eyes were focused on Bridle-Dur, and the smorgasbord of ponies within.

As the last mile passed by in a blur, Joseph braced himself for what he was about to do. He was higher than the great wyrm, and he waited until he was directly over his snout before he tucked his wings and dove. He had to reach deep to pull every brash, reckless stunt of his youth up to the surface, and combine them to create the most arrogant, foolhardy taunts he could think of – not to mention the courage to actually say them.

He opened his wings at the last moment and landed squarely on the end of Magmanus's snout – right between his flaring nostrils.

"Bugger off you yellow bellied, tick bitten, overgrown lizard geezer! This is my turf now!" Joseph roared, flaring his wings and staring the larger dragon down.

Magmanus blinked several times then nearly crossed his eyes to bring Joseph into focus.

"Yeah, you heard me! You might've been the boss 'round here once, but your time was over centuries ago! Go get your beauty sleep somewhere else!"

For a few tense moments Magmanus did not respond, then he let out a chuckle that rivaled the volcano erupting behind him.

"Insolent whelp!" He rumbled, his voice so low it was felt more than heard. "I will teach you to respect your superiors!"

"Respect this!" Joseph made a rude gesture, then promptly spat his hottest fireball, hitting Magmanus right between the eyes.

He sprang into the air as Magmanus jerked his head back in surprise, and let out a mighty hiss.

Joseph dared to glance back to see that he actually did manage to do some damage; there was now a smoking crater on Magmanus's face where he'd blown a thick scale clean off. Granted, it was a small crater – maybe only a foot in diameter – but it proved that Magmanus was probably about as vulnerable as Lucena. Normally a dragon of that size and age would be pretty well impervious to fire, or molten rock, or pretty much anything.

Vulnerable, but not incapable of defending himself. Joseph darted into a twisting dive as Magmanus swung his jaws around with surprising quickness to snap at him, then breathed a vast column of churning flame in his wake. It was so hot Joseph could feel his tail feathers curl even though he was already well clear of the blast. The ground below exploded from it, and what was left of the surrounding forest was immediately set ablaze.

He looped around and shot upwards, higher and faster than the giant could follow, watching as the dragon banked slowly and pulled his head back to breathe again.

Although Magmanus had an especially long neck, Joseph knew that flying in that position was uncomfortable, and breathing fire like that was downright foolish. He grinned tightly and tucked his wings, sweeping in for another go, aiming for Magmanus' puny wings this time. Three rapid shots left three smoldering holes in the overstretched membranes. Holes that would rapidly expand.

Again Magmanus breathed, this time Joseph dove straight past his shoulder, easily dodging a feeble swat with one great, but withered forelimb. Magmanus really had let himself go! Although his belly was ample, his skin hung loose on his frame, and his dusky scales lacked the usual luster of the gem eating dragons. The spines on his back were cracked and brittle looking, and his head had been covered in old scars. Too the muscles in his wings were all but gone, and if it wasn't for the great strain being placed upon the membranes, he suspected they'd lost most of their stretch. It's possible he'd been asleep for so long his body had atrophied even as it grew. Being under the shield had probably made things worse.

Joseph pulled up and banked sharply about two hundred feet above the ground then curved off to the north, only popping up once to fire off a less powerful fireball at the behemoth to make sure he was following. Joseph had not gotten a chance to explore the western mountains, but he knew from the maps he'd seen that there were no settlements until the Crystal Cut Valley – and that was hours away.

With collateral damage at a minimum, he now had the challenge of keeping Magmanus's attention until Mooney could get here and do whatever she was going to do.

Moonstruck found herself in that strangely exciting, yet meditative state she had been drifting in and out of since being "captured" so many months ago. It was the same calm she'd felt the very first time she'd set off dragonslaying. The clarity, the focus, the feeling that she knew she'd walk away from it because it was too absurd not to work.

She'd gotten her cutie mark slaying a dragon, but it wasn't because she'd slayed the dragon. She understood that now. The feeling came about for other things too; spinning intricate webs of lies, narrowly dodging discovery or death with cunning tricks and simple magic used in novel ways - even just sitting down to play cards. But none of that had ever really done it as a filly, it wasn't until she'd used all of that selflessly. Used it for something greater than herself. Only then did her true purpose in life reveal itself. She was a trickster; a gambler with an obscene amount of luck and the power of the cosmos up her sleeves. And right now she was stacking the deck every way she knew how.

She'd gained as much altitude as she dared, keeping a watchful eye on the ash cloud billowing ahead, and the landscape below. Magmanus was plainly visible from thousands of feet in the air, and forty miles away, his great, bloated body a dark slash against the browns and tans of the parched earth. Joseph was not. She wouldn't need to see him to know where he was, however. And as she drew closer, she caught a slight blue-white flash, then Magmanus sprang into action. At least, as close as something so big and slow could spring, that is.

Three more flashes and obvious holes opening up in Magmanus's left wing made her wonder if Joseph could take him out on his own, but she knew that would be something to puzzle out on another day. They needed to bring down Magmanus as quickly as possible, no time for experimental dragonslaying.

She'd use her tried and true method for this one. She slowed as she saw Magmanus turn north, after a faint, fleck of green against the brown and tan landscape. Joseph was silhouetted briefly by a fire burning down below, amazingly close to the larger dragon. Probably to keep his attention, as Joseph didn't strike her as the time to remain in the danger zone of a larger, more powerful dragon without good reason.

Once she was sure the behemoth wouldn't fall over any villages, she stooped into a dive and cast a special shield spell she'd developed years ago. It was a variant on the malleable types that allowed her to alter its shape, but she'd tied it in to the position of her wings. If she kept her wings tucked close to her body, the shield formed a sharp point, forming an arrow that widened around her body then tapered back to a sharp point behind her. That alone added speed to her dive, it also took most of the impact of the wind, making it much easier, and more comfortable to breach the sound barrier.

She honestly wasn't sure how Rainbow Dash could stand doing this without magic – it was risky and difficult enough with magic. Moonstruck opened her wings slightly to adjust course, the shield responding by broadening itself slightly, slowing her as she rolled and selected the point of impact, summoning up a haste spell, but holding off on casting it.

She hadn't used the shield the first time she'd done this. It simply hadn't occurred to her. But after some trial and error, she realized having it there made it infinitely easier. She'd also found some haste spells that she could control the speed of, which allowed her to come at a dragon from nearly any angle, if need be. She'd sweep in from an odd angle, but she was trying to use as little magic as possible to avoid burning out too soon. There was no telling what she might need to do after Magmanus was down.

Joseph sped out over a high valley, dodged a huge column of fire, then looped gracefully back to reply in kind, which clearly disturbed Magmanus no end. Moonstruck grinned tightly then called up his nodestone once he was safely away.

"I'm in position. Get clear." She didn't want him to be caught up in the shockwave.

"Finally!"

She waited for him to jet off towards cover and put a good amount of distance between himself and Magmanus, then cast the haste spell. The world around her began to blur, she felt the shield spell buck and shake under the strain, and pulled her wings in tight against her flanks. The turbulence subsided. She rolled to bring Magmanus's right eye into her sights. Power was flickering weakly around the sharp tip of the shield. She wasn't sure if there'd be a rainboom, but she wasn't going to use the concussive shock of the dive to take him out. Even in his weakened state he might recover from that. He'd take a direct hit. A piercing hit.

There would be only one shot at this, and she'd have to pull up immediately to avoid smashing into the mountains below. Moonstruck let out a long breath, then ramped up the haste spell to full.

The funny thing about sonic rainbooms is that there's no sound when you're the one actually creating it. One moment she was a thousand feet away from the dragon, the next she was practically on top of him. Then there was a brief flicker of darkness, then she snapped her wings open and killed her haste spell, pulling up less than a dozen yards from a ridge. She rode the momentum straight up for a few seconds, then arched her back to curve into an arc, leaving a black, white and red comtrail in her wake.

She grinned as she saw the rainbow arcing away from where she'd broken the sound barrier, spreading out across the land, disrupting the flow of ash from the volcano. Looking back, Magmanus was falling, his right eye gone, blood gushing from the empty socket, and the exit wound towards the back of his skull, and into the air as his wings went slack and his head lolled back. His bloated body sank before the rest of him, and his crooked tail lashed behind like a scaly streamer.

She was moving too fast to check in with Joseph, but she could see him about a mile from Magmanus, towards the south. As she watched a slash of crimson cut in out of nowhere and hit him with a ball of churning flame. She was just at the top of her arc, so she tucked her wings and rolled, ditching the shield spell to avoid going too fast. She didn't dare do another rainboom now – not when she could potentially send Joseph head first into the ground.

No one had said anything about another dragon! This one was long and sinuous, but nowhere near as large as Magmanus. Maybe only twenty or thirty feet from nose to tail, with black feathered wings, mane and tail tuft. Joseph could probably hold his own easily, but he seemed to be having trouble flying. In fact, it looked like he was in pain.

As Moonstruck drew closer, she realized the dragon had a cutie mark. Dragons did not have cutie marks. A green eye with a slitted pupil graced the dragons upper thighs.

Lucena.

Guilty pleasure mingled with righteous rage, and she found herself summoning up the meanest spell she could think of. As soon as she was in range, she shot a bolt of lightening at the transformed alicorn and hit her square in the back, right between her black feathered wings. Lucena let out a mind shattering screech, curled up in a ball, and dropped out of the air. Joseph regained his balance and swept haphazardly towards a nearby plateau.

Moonstruck landed shortly after he set down, looking over her shoulder to make sure Lucena hadn't recovered yet. As weather manipulators, pegasus ponies – and therefore alicorns - couldn't be seriously hurt by lightening, but she'd mixed a pain spell into it, so hopefully Lucena wouldn't be popping up on them anytime soon. By all rights she shouldn't be out here at all – that disruption spell should have kept her out of the fight for a few hours at least.

"Oh geeze, are you okay!?" She panted as she galloped to where Joseph was getting shakily to his feet.

"I think so – what was – was that Lucena!?" He yelped, grimacing and putting one hand on the side of his head.

"Yep!" Although smoke curled from his scales and feathers, he did not appear to be hurt. "Did she try to control you? Is she controlling you now?"

"I… think so? And no. I could sort of hear a voice in my head but it was muddled. Mostly it just hurt!" He shook his head violently. "It still hurts!"

Moonstruck grimaced as well. "I left the willow bark back in the room, sorry!"

He chuckled and opened one eye to squint at her.

A thought struck her, and she pried open her little velvet pouch to pull a random card out of it. She licked it, cast a charm over it, then stuck it to his chest… crop… lower neck area (she still needed to ask about that), just above where the crystal of his necklace rested.

"Here, have a general protection charm – I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

"Eww? Why'd you lick it?" He pulled his head back then tilted his muzzle down and to the side to try to see what it was.

"So it'll stay put. Powerful magic." She waved a hoof mysteriously, amused to note that she'd pulled the queen of hearts out of the deck.

He frowned. "Why didn't you just add the spell to the nodestone?"

"No time."

A great red dragon appeared suddenly, heaving over the edge of the plateau and crash landing a short ways away. Electricity arced over her body as she clumsily flapped her wings and struggled to stand. Blood flowed freely from a few lacerations that she'd likely gained when she'd gotten intimately acquainted with the ground.

Lucenas dragon form was furry, instead of scaly, and she still had a single unicorn horn growing out of the middle of her forehead.

She shook her head violently, then turned it to snarl at them, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. Moonstruck found herself grinning tightly as she stepped in front of Joseph. Offing Magmanus was purely business; she had no strong emotions about it as it was merely a necessary evil. But Lucena… she hadn't exactly planned on fighting Lucena, but if she was offering herself up like this Moonstruck was more than happy to beat the old mare to a pulp.

They glared; Lucenas eyes wide and wild. Moonstrucks narrowed and focused. The sky turned red as the sun sank below the clouds, and the ash at last began to fall.

A few final arcs of electricity crawled over Lucenas wings, then she lunged towards them, letting out a truly horrid screech, and breathing a few wispy tongues of flame. Moonstruck bolted one way as Joseph darted in the opposite direction, forcing Lucena to focus on one or the other.

She chose Joseph, directing what was likely another psychic attack at him, but while it was clear it pained him, it couldn't affect him as strongly as before. He breathed a blue-white fireball at her as Moonstruck lunged in on her opposite flank with a close range ice attack. Lucena threw up a dome shield at the last moment, then crouched and sprang into the air.

Moonstruck opened her wings and bounded into the air after her, dimly aware that she'd left a small crater behind her from the force of her jump. The ice spell she'd just used was oddly taxing, so she switched back to lightening, summoning forth another bolt and crashing it hard against Lucenas shield. Thunder rolled ominously off the parched mountains below.

The raw power contained in the bolt caused Lucenas shield to flicker and buckle slightly, causing her to whip her head around, drawing her attention away from Joseph who still wore a pained grimace.

Lucena had largely been hovering in place, but as Moonstruck geared up to strike again, and Joseph maneuvered around for a simultaneous attack on the opposite flank, Lucena hissed and propelled herself forward, between then beyond them and more or less in the direction of Bridle-Dur, moving more quickly than Moosntruck expected her be able to.

Moonstruck threw a glance at Joseph to make sure he was alright, then worked her wings and sped after Lucena, Joseph keeping pace a few lengths to the right to maintain a flanking position.

Lucena winked out of sight. Moonstruck felt a jolt of alarm shoot up her spine, so she hastily threw up a shield spell of her own and rolled to the side as a bright yellow ball of fire blazed through the space she'd just been in, followed swiftly by Lucena. Moonstruck summoned lightening down from the sky once more, but Lucena winked out of sight again.

"This is gonna be a really annoying fight!" Joseph shouted as they searched the skies.

"She's testing us." Moonstruck growled, casting a spell that allowed her to see invisible things and enhancing it as much as she dared. Spells such as this generally had a limited range, as they could become a bit difficult to contain if senses were stretched out too far. The spells embedded in the nodestone essentially projected a bubble for the wearer, but they wouldn't be able to see any invisible object beyond ten feet away that wasn't linked up to another nodestone. This one was much more powerful. There was no sign of Lucena.

"High, or low?" Joseph asked.

"High." Moonstruck grunted narrowing her eyes. She canceled the spell and stared up at the cloud of smoke and ash. Lucena was likely circling high overhead. Out of range of most detection spells. Invisible. Waiting.

"We're smaller than her, better at terrain flying. She can't get the jump on us from below."

"Mmm." Joseph agreed.

"You know what, two can play at this. I'm gonna flush her, stay low, look like you're searching."

Joseph promptly tucked his wings and dove. Moonstruck watched him, waited for him to level off, then cast a multiple mirror illusion, causing his image to splinter and separate off into dozens of images that fanned out over the mountains. Moonstruck gritted her teeth and fed a little bit of that pesky responsive magic into the doppelgangers to allow them to navigate the terrain without her direction, then pulled up sharply. She repeated the spell on herself, and sent her doppelgangers up towards the encroaching ash cloud while she slipped into stealth mode, and leveled off.

Lucena might be able to figure out which Joseph was the real one, she might even be able to figure out that Moonstruck wasn't among the many Moonstrucks patrolling the ash cloud, but she wouldn't be able to figure out where Moonstruck really was.

Hopefully Lucena made her move sooner, than later, she was quite certain she couldn't keep these spells going for more than five or ten minutes – if that.

One of the doppelgangers swerved abruptly to avoid something, drawing Moonstrucks attention upwards. There was nothing for the doppelganger to avoid. Moonstruck grinned tightly and swept towards the patch of sky, watching as another doppelganger swerved a little. It was a bit further left of the first one. Moonstruck glanced down to see what the Joseph doppelgangers were doing, then back up at the ash. Something disturbed the ash overhead, leaving little vortexes on the underside of the cloud. In fact, it left a faint trail. Lucena was flying too close to the clouds, her wings were stirring them up.

Glancing down, Moonstruck found Joseph – the real Joseph - then back up. Sure enough. Lucena was tracking him. She was cautiously avoiding all of the Moonstrucks; whether or not she realized Moonstruck wasn't somewhere among them she couldn't say. It didn't matter now, she had a particularly fun way to blow Lucenas cover, now that she could track her.

Moonstruck swerved around to near where Lucena would be very shortly and forged a stronger link between each of her doppelgangers overhead. She took direct control of them and subtly moved them into a grid pattern around Lucena. The ash cloud overhead was already so charged with static it would take just a little nudge to set everything off. She waited a few moments to be sure Lucena hadn't noticed the change in flight pattern, then arced power from the dopplegangers to the ash cloud above.

The resulting explosion of lightening was so bright she had to shield her eyes, and the subsequent crash of thunder so loud her hearing would be a tad muffled for a few days afterwords. Lucena dropped out of the sky, her invisibility spell overpowered by the blast. Moonstruck canceled the doppelganger spells, and dropped stealth mode as well, since little arcs of electricity were striking her too, thus revealing her location. They didn't bother her much. It was her lightning, after all.

Lucena was pretty well stunned, a shocked (ha!) expression locked on her face as she plummeted. Moonstruck saw Joseph flying up directly beneath her, as she swept into a dive along Lucenas path of decent.

The transformed alicorn jerked suddenly, sucked in a sharp breath, then locked eyes with Moonstruck.

Moonstruck grinned. She never thought Lucena would show fear, but for the barest of moments the shock flickered to a look of sheer terror. Josephs fireball engulfed her a split second later.

Moonstruck rolled right as Joseph shot left. Lucena let out a deafening screech and exploded out of the fireball, crashing into Moonstruck in a flurry of tooth and claw. Not expecting a physical attack, Moonstruck was caught off guard, loosing her balance and plummeting uncontrollably. For a dazed instant she watched blood – her blood – stream into the air above her, then gritted her teeth, rolled so that her nose was towards the ground, tucked her legs tight against her body and opened her wings.

She arched her back, flipped upside down and kicked as hard as she could at the great red snout that was aiming for her spine. She hit Lucena squarely in the jaw, sending her head flying back. Moonstruck dodged out of the way as Joseph swept in and hit Lucena in the spine, right between her wings. Lucena whirled on him, but he was already away, giving Moonstruck time to loop around and drive her shoulder into Lucenas flank.

Lucena twisted, latching talons into her right shoulder. Moonstruck gritted her teeth against the pain and let the heat that had been boiling her blood as of late to do what it pleased. Lucena screeched as lightening, or perhaps just raw concentrated magic arced off of Moonstruck and bored itself into anywhere she was touching Lucena.

Suddenly free of of the claws digging through her shoulder, Moonstruck tucked her wings and dove after Lucena, even though they were recklessly close to the ground now. The transformed alicorn grabbed a dozen or so small rocks from below and hurled them at her pursuers, managing to slice Moonstruck across the left side of her face.

She hissed and turned her head, sure there was a good sized chunk out of her left ear. Moonstruck used the magic disruption spell to break Lucenas hold on the rocks, then pulled her deck of cards out of her pouch, fanned them out, and sent them after Lucena fast enough to cut.

Lucena's telekenisis was wild, but controlled enough to overwhelm a less experienced foe. Managing 51 cards was as easy as breathing for Moonstruck.

Lucena swatted at the cards, sped up, stopped abruptly in a stall, slid to the side, twisted, snarled but she could not shake the cards, nor slake off the onslaught of deep, vexing paper cuts. Finally she spun in a corkscrew pattern and breathed out a plume of red flame, setting the cards alight.

Moonstruck let them go, spotted Joseph in Lucenas blind spot, and drove in for a feint as Lucena sped towards her. Joseph dropped down from above and landed on Lucenas back. He dug his claws into her shoulders, and latched his jaws over her neck.

This time the fear did not last for a scant moment, Lucena was openly terrified, even though Moonstruck was fairly certain Joseph couldn't actually do much damage to the base of Lucenas neck. If he'd grabbed her further up towards her jawline perhaps, but the base of her neck was too thick, and well muscled. It didn't seem to matter, however. The psychological damage was enough.

Lucena teleported away, the jump apparently shorter than anticipated as she faltered in her flight when she realized that Moonstruck and Joseph were still too close for comfort.

"Hold up, I think she's done." Moonstruck grumbled to Joseph as they watched Lucena fly haphazardly away.

"You don't want to finish her off?" Joseph threw her a confused look.

"I don't think we need to." No sooner were the words past Moonstrucks lips did Lucena falter again, and dip towards the ground.

They followed her down to a natural archway that stood between two rocky spires. Lucena landed roughly and let out a screech that made nails on a chalkboard sound like a soothing lullaby. Her limbs shrank, claws reduced and merged to form hooves; her spine compressed, and her tail dissolved into hair. Her mane and tail faded to gray. Not salt and pepper as before, but completely gray. Her coat and wings had faded too, their luster gone.

When her transformation was done, she shakily lifted her head to stare up at them with wide, terrified eyes. Moonstruck was just about to cast her magical disruption spell again to render her completely helpless when Lucena disappeared.

She did not reappear.

"Ugh, how many times can she do that!?" Joseph snarled as they landed on one of the spires.

"Probably not many more." Moonstruck gingerly rolled her right shoulder. She didn't think anything was broken, but she was pretty sure Lucenas claws had hit bone. She hoped it looked worse than it actually was.

"She's gotta be about tapped out. I'm sure my head's gonna start killing me anytime now."

Joseph frowned.

"I think I can just get that westernmost nodestone. I'll teleport us back to the edge of town, then you should go help Max. I think I know where she went."

"Will you be alright by yourself? Your shoulder's a mess." Max frowned and inclined his snout towards her right shoulder, his face falling into a deeper frown as he watched her blood trail down her leg to pool around her right front hoof.

"Yeah, I'll be alright." Moonstruck coughed and squinted up at the descending ash cloud. In a few minutes this stretch of real estate would probably be socked in.

"Alright, we need to get you out of the ash before it gets any worse." Joseph grunted, shuffling closer.

"Heh, yeah." Moonstruck grinned. She was only mildly surprised Joseph wasn't coughing, but he was a dragon. He probably wasn't particularly bothered by this sort of stuff. She closed her eyes and reached out with her senses, searching the area to the south and east for a familiar glimmer of magic. After a minute she could just sense it at the very edge of her range.

"Okay, off we go."

"Lady Glenda, this way!"

Glenda spun as one of the military ponies slid to a stop a few feet away. He saluted smartly, then turned and looked back, waiting for her to follow.

She shook her head and trotted after him, down through a tangle of wires, and half fallen walls. The biggest obstacle they were facing thus far wasn't the crumbling city, nor the river that was quickly climbing out of its banks. It was that no one trusted the military ponies enough to follow them. She couldn't blame them, no one knew the 7th division was actually not horrible. Luckily, having free pegasus among them – especially leading them seemed to dispel much of the fear. Hence her current dubious command of team eight. The ponies in the unit had dubbed her Lady Glenda, something she was more than a little amused by.

The young stallion pushed a large chunk of concrete aside for her then gestured ahead.

"They're holed up in there, we can't get them to come out."

She nodded, then wriggled under a few half fallen beams.

"Hello? Please don't be afraid, we're here to help!" She pushed through a few dusty rags and emerged in a truly tragic hovel. A family of earth ponies huddled in the corner, most of their meager possessions were strewn across the floor from the earthquakes, and their roof was set to cave in at any moment. They gaped at her when they saw she was a pegasus – and an old one at that.

"Come, come! They can't hold your roof up much longer, you must come out! We have healers, clean water, and transport waiting!"

"What's going on?" An older filly asked.

"Magmanus is on his way, but we're trying to evacuate as many ponies as we can."

"If he's on his way, there's no point!" The pony she assumed was fillies father barked.

"He's being dealt with. But the river will still flood, and your home will still collapse." Glenda said firmly, fixing him with an authoritative stare.

The ponies exchanged glances with one another, then reluctantly left their corner. Glenda brought up the rear as they filed out into the darkening daylight as the cloud of ash began to thicken over the sun.

The medics rushed over as soon as they were clear of the rubble, and the trio of unicorns let go of the roof of the building, letting it collapse inwards. The family spun around, surprised to see that unicorns actually had been keeping them from being crushed.

A flurry of excited chatter echoed over the nodestone network and the radio headset Glenda wore, prompting her to look up. It had been ages since she'd seen a rainbow, and she'd never seen one roll across the sky like that! She blinked a few times, doubting her eyes, but it continued across the sky, disrupting the ash cloud, and spreading a wave of awe and confusion in its wake.

"What was that!?"

"It's been years since I've seen a rainbow!"

"What's a rainbow?"

"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

"Pretty!"

"A… sonic rainboom? But that's impossible..." The last one was Kyrenai. She stood a few paces away, eyes turned upwards.

"I assume that's Mooney's doing." Glenda grunted as a few more mentions of a sonic rainboom echoed around the nodestone network. "Seems like her style."

"Mooney?" Kyrenai gave her a confused look.

"That's what we call her. You'll probably have to address her as Princess Moonstruck, when she gets back." Glenda smirked.

"The duchess." Kyrenai furrowed her brow. "That… makes sense."

"I don't really know how it works." Glenda shrugged then stepped past her to climb to the top of a pile of rubble. Her team had a dozen ponies in it, plus Kyrenai who'd been hoofed off to her because the others felt she'd be able to manage the sullen wizard better than others for some reason. She supposed she was more patient, but Kyrenai was basically an empty husk who did what she was told. This was the first she'd spoken beyond a quiet "yes ma'am" in the time they'd been digging ponies out of the rubble.

They were already treating the family of earth ponies, and another portion of the team was pulling a few grateful unicorns out of the debris a short ways away. Their troop transport was parked between the two sites. She turned her head towards the river, noted that it had climbed a little further already. It was amazing to think that just this morning they didn't have enough water, but soon they'd have too much. Ash laden, muddy, debris filled, noxious water, unfortunately. She'd never seen a volcanic eruption, so the others had to explain what a lahar was to her; basically a big, nasty, dangerous mud slide. It made her glad she hadn't been caught in one. Of course, she was about to get a front row seat for a good sized one, if the experts were correct.

As she watched, a deer floated to the surface, its limbs stiff and its neck held at an awkward angle. She was surprised anything that big had been living in the mountains, much less close enough to town to be caught in the river mere minutes after the eruption started.

There was another excited flurry of chatter over the nodestone network, echoed a moment later on the radio. Then Max's voice cut in, drowning out all other voices.

"Magmanus is down! I repeat! Magmanus is down!"

Cheers erupted over the networks and all around as ponies got the good news. Glenda grinned and glanced down just in time to watch Kyrenai turn and gaze dumbfoundedly to the west, and the erupting volcano.

"I call dibs on the carcass!" That had to be Geode.

"Geode! Tact!" Lindsey yelped

"What!? I can't let a specimen like that go to waste! I hope the princess didn't mangle him too badly!"

"Geode! Max is on this line!"

"So?"

"It's alright, I'm not, ah, emotionally attached to my father." Max said hesitantly. "I rather dreaded meeting him, actually."

"See, it's perfectly fine!" Geode chortled.

"Fine, whatever."

Glenda chuckled and went back to inspecting the immediate area. Pegasus flitted overhead, some acting as scouts, others pulling flying wagons for speedier transport. In among them were a wide array of flying machines, most commandeered from the tower, some from the 7th division. They had teams covering as much of the city as they could, and the fire brigade had been absolutely ecstatic when several thousand ponies began showing up to help – including pegasus, whom they'd been completely without for centuries.

The fire brigades were about the only city service that did anything useful, it seemed. She was mildly surprised Max didn't try to recruit them for the rebellion, but it was possible he feared that Lucena might do to them what she did to the tower staff.

She shuddered at the thought of the galleries full of corpses. She was no stranger to death, but such disregard for life was an alien and thoroughly disturbing concept to her. Pushing the thought aside, she opened her wings and crouched down.

"Come along Kyrenai, we should go check on the other half of the group."

"Yes ma'am." Kyrenai grunted mechanically.

Glenda shook her head then sprang lightly into the air, spreading her wings to glide a short distance above the rubble, and slowly enough for Kyrenai to keep up. With Magmanus gone, the city would not be burnt to the ground, but they still had an erupting volcano in their back yard, and all the complications that came with it. It would be a long couple of days.

Some distance away in Upriver, Max settled to the top of a building to watch a heavy crane move concrete blocks into place along the banks of the river. The nodestone and radio networks were buzzing with thousands of voices, but he paid them little mind. They needed to fortify this neighborhood, then demolish much of the levees surrounding Rose Lake to let the lahars spread into the slum, which should slow them somewhat before they continued down river to even lower lying areas that were more densely populated. It helped that much of Rose Lake was a park, and that the buildings surrounding it were so bad that few ponies actually lived in the area, and were proving fairly easy to evacuate. He had several teams clearing the district, and shoring up the downstream side of the area in preparation. The spotters they'd sent upstream said they had less than an hour before the wave hit.

Another small earthquake rattled the city, prompting him to pick up his hooves a little with the unpleasant shaking. The Dragon Mount had always been a quiet volcano, aside from a few vents on the northwest slopes, so all of this activity was alien to he and most everypony born in the last fifty years – which was the last time the mountain stirred. Or Magmanus stirred, he really wasn't sure how volcanoes with dragons sleeping in them worked.

The cranes and workers below paused for the quake, then did a quick equipment check before continuing. Max smiled to himself, glad to see that even in such a dire situation they were proceeding as safely as possible. There would be no loss of life do to carelessness on his watch!

"Max! We need you in Rose Lake ASAP!" Lindsey barked over the nodestone network.

Max started then spun southwards. "I'll be right there. Buster, did you get all that?"

"Yup. We're good here!" Buster replied from somewhere down near the cranes.

"Good." Max broke into a trot, then launched himself off the building, spreading his leathery wings, then working them to gain altitude and speed.

"I'm on my way, what's the problem?"

"A fissure opened up in the center of the park. The shrine keeper's at the bottom, trapped under the statue of Rosalina. She's alright, but we can't get to her, and we can't get close enough to the fissure to lift the statue."

"Right." They needed a flier with magic. A lot of magic. "I assume you want me to lift the statue?"

"If you can. We think we can slip her out and into a harness before the whole thing caves in, but there's no point if we can't lift the statue."

"Understood."

He sped over the city, leaving Upriver, and the river itself behind as he took a direct route to Rose Lake, passing over slumping buildings, and cracked streets, and a few scattered teams of rescuers attempting to either direct ponies to teleportation points, or dig ponies out. The massive tangle of the rose garden came into view, a troop transport hovered in its center. It was populated by firefighters, one was in a harness dangling below the transport, while a second, empty harness was being lowered next to him. Max was impressed with the pilot, she kept the transport absolutely steady and, he assumed, precisely poised over the pony trapped below.

"Okay, where do you want me?" He asked as he swept over the clearing. The ponies on the ground were giving the fissure a wide berth, and he couldn't blame them. The parched earth was clearly loose near the edge of the fissure, anything could cause it to crumble at any moment.

"Where Lilly is hovering." Lindsey supplied.

Lilly was a predominately white pegasus with three brown socks and a brown patch over her right eye. She waved him over.

He curved around to hover next to her.

"Lady Rosa is right there." She pointed to a mound of dust that moved a little while they watched. "The unicorns think they can keep the walls from caving in for a few seconds, once the statue is out, but we don't have enough to move the statue and keep the walls from caving in."

Max nodded. He flicked his eyes over the statue, wishing he was advanced enough to teleport other ponies from a distance. He knew the nodestones would let anyone grab hold of another pony to teleport them as well, but it was clear putting anyone else down there was exceedingly dangerous. Just lowering the pony in the harness was bad enough. Wait….

"Hold up! Can we get someone with a nodestone in the harness instead?" He asked.

"Why?" Lindsey asked.

"Why lift her out when we can teleport her out?"

"That's – yeah that would be way faster. Uh… Sergeant, we need to get a historical society unicorn in the harness."

Max, apparently did not have the firefighters frequency. He watched as one of the ponies on the transport turned to look at him, then tilted his head to the side as Linsdey explained the plan. He nodded, then gestured for the dangling unicorn to be brought up. Lindsey trotted out to be picked up. Max grimaced, but figured a smaller pony was probably a better choice. Less likely to bump into the oh-so fragile walls when being lowered down. She was quick on the spell casting too, since she'd had a nodestone longer than anyone else in the historical society.

"Where will you go?" Max asked.

"Over to Fern, she's running the medical tent a few blocks west."

"Good call." Max nodded, impressed. One of the things that did bother him about this was that they had so many ponies to keep track of that he didn't actually know where everyone was at any given moment. He'd almost stayed in the command center to keep track of everyone, but he was needed out here more. He was grateful, however, that all of his team leaders were absolutely on the ball so he didn't really need to know where everyone was. Even the 7th division was running smoothly and that usually required more micro-managing than even he liked to get in to.

With the firefighter back on board, the transport swooped over to where Linsdey was waiting and paused just long enough for her to hop on board. They set about strapping her into the harness as the transport moved back into position. By the time the pilot had it back in place, Lindsey was ready to go. They carefully lowered her over the side.

"Your Highness, this is Sergeant Quill. Can you lift the statue?"

"Stars I hope so!" Max laughed nervously. "I've never tried lifting anything this big!"

He scowled and hoped that all of that pulling he and Moonstruck did somehow translated to telekenetic strength. He was confident he could move it were it on a wagon – or even a sledge.

"Having his best friend down there should help." Lindsey quipped.

Max threw her a look, then focused on the statue, waiting for the signal as he sent his senses running over it, trying to gauge how much effort it would take to move, and whether or not it was broken in such a way that the pieces might fall back before he had a chance to catch them.

"Okay, hold still, we're gonna move the statue, then I need to get a leg around you to teleport out." Lindsey said to the trapped pony. Max could not hear a reply.

"We have a work-around, don't worry."

"In position!"

Max went from carefully probing the statue to grabbing hold of it with his magic, he could see unicorns in the safety zone lowering their heads to cast their spells to steady the fissure walls. Letting out a breath, he scowled and carefully started to lift the statue, more than a little surprised when it began to rise slowly and steadily. One inch, two inches, three – dirt began to fall around the statue, but not enough to cause everything to collapse. Four inches, six, eight, ten. Lindsey wiggled forward and put both front hooves on the unicorns shoulders. They disappeared.

"They're clear!" Sergeant Quill shouted.

Max let the statue drop as the unicorns below canceled their spells as well. A cheer went up around the rescuers as the fissure caved in.

"You two alright?" Max asked, wiping sweat from his brow and pulling up a bit to avoid the dust cloud that billowed out of the fissure.

"Just a little dusty!" Lindsey replied. "Come on over, she wants to meet you!"

"I suppose I can spare a moment." Max glanced up to where he assumed the medical tent was.

"Excellent work!" He said to everyone.

"Thank you for your help, Your Highness." The firefighters bowed to him. For some reason it felt strange now.

"No need for that, we're all in this together." He blurted, mildly surprised at his own words. Perhaps Moonstrucks casual attitude and distaste for decorum were rubbing off on him.

They straightened up out of their bows then shuffled awkwardly.

"Anyway I should… yes. Ahem. Thank you." Max grimaced then dropped out of the hover, made a tight loop, and sped off to the west to locate the medical tent.

It was not difficult to find; a good sized white tent in the middle of a street, surrounded by half-fallen buildings. It was thankfully not particularly busy. The medical tents in the city were more for triage and serious emergencies. Most everypony who went through them were being channeled out to the eastern foothills where all of the evacuees were gathering, and more time and care could be spent on them.

Max landed next to the tent, then ducked inside, heartened to see that while the ponies within were injured, they were being quickly and efficiently patched up enough to move to the teleportation pad outside. The mare they'd just rescued was standing off to the side as two unicorns helped her wash her face, and brush the worst of the dust out of her fur. He had heard of the shrine keeper before, although he had never had the pleasure of meeting her.

"Oh, here he comes. Lady Rosa, this is Max, he lifted the statue."

"You're so casual with the prince, Lindsey!" The old unicorn chided playfully, she toweled off her face herself, then turned her blind eyes towards him.

"Well met, milady. I am honored to finally meet you. I have heard many tales of your wisdom and charity." Max sketched a short bow, even though she couldn't see it.

"Oh! It… actually is the prince." Lady Rosa went pale beneath the remaining mud and dust on her face.

"Who were you expecting?" Lindsey laughed.

"A powerful, but generous unicorn, I suppose." Rosa shook her head. "I've been told that Magmanus is dead."

"He is. We have visual confirmation. Princess Moonstruck should be back at any time." Max nodded.

"Princess Moonstruck." Lady Rosa repeated softly. "Ah, now that makes some sense. There are few ponies in this country that can go about all but undetected. Even your lot made a bunch of noise while invisible. But that one…"

She smiled. "I guessed she was there, one night. But I couldn't say for sure."

"You've met Mooney?" Lindsey quirked a brow.

"No. A phantom came 'round one night. I couldn't tell what she was looking for, or why she'd paid a visit, but I offered up solace all the same. All are welcome, of course. It took me a while to realize it was a foreigner. There are even fewer foreigners in this country than those powerful enough to become a phantom, and they happen to overlap."

Max grinned. He'd heard of Lady Rosas supernatural ability to know when someone was poking around in her grove no matter how softly they trod. She was also known for being able to pick up on why they'd come around in the first place. Many suspected she could hear a ponies troubles from a mile off.

"Oh, she was exploring. And she left a nodestone in the brambles." Lindsey supplied helpfully. "You probably heard us coming and going from there after she joined forces with us."

"Yes. A joyful lot is highly unusual, these days." Rosa chuckled, then turned to Max. "You, young stallion, need to get back to managing this mess."

Max raised his eyebrows. "Is there something I should know?"

"You will soon enough. Now, if someone could direct me to the line to get out of here, I'd like to be long gone before the lahars hit."

"You and me both. This way." Lindsey shook her head and chuckled.

"Catch you later." Max nodded to Lindsey, whom nodded back.

He nodded to Fern as well as he trotted out of the tent, realizing belatedly that many of the townsponies had cowered in fear when he'd wandered in, and were still cowering. He'd been so focused on Lady Rosa that he'd forgotten that most of the ponies around were not in the historical society. He ducked his head then hurried out of the tent, taking wing as soon as he was clear.

He never cared for it when ponies feared him, but right now it seemed to sting especially bad. Perhaps it was because he wasn't in character. No, that was exactly it – it was the same with the firefighters earlier. Prince Maximus was someone to be feared and respected, Max was not. Max was just trying to see to it that everyone got out of this alive. There was no need to bow to Max, much less fear him. And perhaps that was why Moonstruck didn't like it either, why she downplayed her abilities, her status.

"Max! The wave's coming – about five miles upstream!" Buster's voice cut in to his thoughts.

"How are the retaining walls?" He sped up, heading back to Upriver.

"Just finished them. Was just told Rose Lake is ready, and Cypress Downs is about 95% cleared, though they're having trouble with the levees and downstream shoring. We're already pulling out!"

"Good. Be careful! Do you need me for anything?"

"No we've got it."

"Alright, I'll go check on Glenda, then head out to Dirtton."

"Sounds good."

He resisted the urge to go double check the Upriver neighborhood and curved around to head northeast to Cypress Downs. Upriver was one of the first neighborhoods they'd cleared precisely because it was the first neighborhood the river encountered, so even if shoring up the riverbed failed no one would be hurt. He hoped.

A/N: I had a lot of fun researching volcano stuff, and how emergency responders deal with the various complications involved. Apparently you can't stop lahars, but you can redirect them.