Sins of Harmony

Volume 3: Crisis to Ashes

Chapter 56: Skirmishes


March 29th, 1008 ANM

Early Afternoon, local time

Equestria, Canterlot

The day court had been suspended for the second day in a row, in wake of the crisis unfolding worldwide.

But there was some good news also, and worse news to follow. Before the ships were destroyed, they reported seeing Princess Twilight and Discord, along with 2 other unconscious prisoners, escaping by teleportation, amidst an attack on the Sowta Prancap island by what was, for lack of a better word, an Alien assailant.

But as soon as that came in, it was clear that Tul'rok's attacks were some sort of retaliation, including the impending skirmish now engulfing Ponyville.

Military from cloudsdale and Canterlot were already on the way, and they didn't have Oceanic Alliance or extensive Hephaestus backup this time, unlike the Migration incident.

Yet from it all, one more development remained to shape the course of the next day, even as the moon continued to be moved, and the 3 craft remained ready above the islands in a geostationary orbit.

A pair of visitors, among the uninvited ships through the gateway. The only two through in those first 5 minutes that were fully aware of what they were getting into.


Royal Palace

As her advisors milled around the throne room to and fro, while Luna's alert tone spoke to her captain, Celestia heard a faint crackle in the air.

All eyes turned to it, including the handful not from Equestria. Nearby Prince Blueblood, Varkan and Caarim had noticed it too, while Starswirl, who had been stood near the door, seemed to ready his horn in anticipation.

A few cries rang out, as a blue-white set of sparks flickered in the middle of the throne room, before a bright flash of the same colour lit up the room with an echoing hum.

Her eyes readjusting, Celestia was first to see the visitors, even as the doors flew open and more guards surged in.

A Wyvern female, light brown and blue striped, clad in metallic, unknown armour of some sort, covering her entire body except her head, which was clad in a digital visor of some kind.

Beside her, a truly unknown creature, shaped like a gorilla, but more slender, sporting a set of insect like wings folded into its back, a pair of whiplike tails, and a lizard like head sporting 4 bright glowing blue/white eyes. The entire body was lined, almost as if the muscle lines of a mammal were exposed, with no skin smoothing it out, but the entire body was grey, and glowing at the linings in the same blue/white, and had a metal sheen to it. It appeared to be a hybrid of muscle and metal in that respect, but more flexible and durable than the rock/metal shells it had used so long ago in its time.

"INTRUDERS!"

"HALT!"

The creature's eyes flashed as it spoke the command, and some subliminal part of all the minds present made them keep quiet. It had said the command both aloud, and into their very minds.

Varkan however, couldn't help but stare at the Wyvern female in shock, who also noticed him.

"Wyvern, male. You have your wish, in time."

Varkan's eyes seemed to widen at this, as he then said calmly back:

"It worked? My people, they exist?"

"On another world, in another time, yes. The cache of embryos developed like the Eternal One Promised. But there is more we have come to do besides sate your desire to secure your future. Problems to address."

"Varkan, who is this!?" Starswirl demanded, but he had a suspicion. The creature addressed the hall again, its voice seeming to echo in their minds too:

"I am Aeternum. This is Ranii, who if not for Tul'rok, would be the only one here today after coming through the gateway. The moment the large craft came through, they messaged me, their maker, of the situation, before Tul'rok took command. I won't allow him to defile my plans with his insanity."

"Tul'rok is attacking Ponyville, many places worldwide, as we speak!" Celestia accused, while the creature merely said, almost dismissively:

"I can see the outcomes, but not the methods of how they come about, otherwise we'd have arrived without our ship crashing in Bullivia. Ponyville shall be only moderately damaged, help is at hand, both the reinforcements you sent, and others beyond even my control. Now please, we have much to discuss, the window of opportunity is approaching."

All eyes shared unsure looks, but at this point, there wasn't much more that could be done.

This was far from the time to question what seemed like help, or someone who knew what was going on.


Same Time

Equestria, Ponyville

Train station

The train station was still loading the train when the attackers came into view.

From the East, the large craft roared in the distance, as a Blue Dragon male and a Red Fire Drake female charged it midair, flames streaming over the surface of the craft so similar to them in size.

Around them, a half dozen smaller craft flew in, splitting up to begin firing strange red bursts upon the town.

Fighting sounded across the town, and while it wasn't as chaotic as the migration had been, there was much less preparedness this time.

"FIRE!"

Flash Sentry's command was followed by a series of magic bursts at the incoming flying being, who seemed to shake in midair before hitting the railway track sidings 50 metres away with a shower of dirt.

Passengers to be cowered back, fleeing from the train to take shelter inside the station. It was too late to get out now.

The familiar rock and metal bodied creature staggered out, a metallic howl shimmering its grey eyes as it charged, some red energy pulses firing at the station.

Windows shot out, as the red pulses tore through, a few yells coming out as some were too close to the pulses for safety.

Ducking away, Flash felt something tear at his hind leg, and a searing pain came up as he saw a large chunk of his upper leg had been blasted away, as if instantly incinerated off.

The creature charged still, tearing up the ground as it charged, a pair of Pegasi troopers firing with enhanced crossbows being shot clean through the chests each, before one more blasting spell took the creature's head off.

Slumping to the ground, the creature flickered a little brightly, before it detonated with the force of a small missile, about 15 metres from the station.

Flash Sentry was thankful he was already in cover when it blew, as the deafening blast blew out any windows not shot by the drone, and rocked the building.


Northern Ponyville

The smaller drones flew past them, but the large creature seemed to unfold before them before it rammed into Cal'vel mid flight.

Smoulder turned in panic as she saw the pair hit the ground hard, dirt flying as Cal'vel rolled to his feet, the 200 foot dragon standing to face his opponent.

Before him, as Smoulder came to land beside him, a dragonshape drone stood, but it had extra spikes and features that made it a deadly opponent even for them.

Leaning forwards, a white hot beam shot from its mouth, slamming into Cal'vel's chest and drawing a cry of rage and pain from him. Darting forwards, Smoulder flew in to get it while it was occupied.

A grey metallic wing shot out to swipe her out of the way, and shutting off the beam, the drone dragon stomped towards her, both wings darting forwards like another pair of arms attacking.

Ducking back, Smoulder flew up, engulfing the creature in her flames as she flapped to fuel them with more air. The creature fired pulses of red energy blindly from the maelstrom of flames, one clipping her wing. Gritting her teeth, Smoulder saw her charging dragon mate dive into the maelstrom.

Out of the other side, pounding mercilessly, Cal'vel shattered the rocky ground with the blows that missed the dragon drone's head, until the dragon bent unnaturally to grab him by his back, and flip him over to smash into a few stray trees of Everfree forest.

Soaring in, Smoulder headbutted the dragon, but gasped as its elbow drove into her stomach, flooring her briefly. Turning to attack her crouched form, the dragon grunted in a metallic tone when Cal'vel's midair shoulder ram sent it backwards with a mighty crash.

The blue dragon roared in rage he didn't like to use, as he grabbed the dragon drone's arm and pulled.

The grey rock and metal arm wrenched out, and a shriek sounded when the dragon drone then lashed out with its leg to send Cal'vel back. Dropping the arm, he staggered to his feet as Smoulder charged.

Midair, she saw it bend down fast, and tendrils shot from its shoulder and arm to meet, reattatching very fast. Swinging out its newly, half attatched arm, it caught her on the left foot with a powerful haymaker, clipping her as it also ducked.

Yelling as she was knocked midair over its form, Smoulder crashed into the ground, her left foot aching badly. She feared it was broken, by the pain coming from it.

As its arm finished shoring up its attachments, the drone dragon's grey form was suddenly launched skywards, a blue form grabbing its torso and flapping his wings to send them up

Grunting, Smoulder knew she was better off out of the fight with her foot injured. But hearing the commotion in the town's main street, she grunted as she flew, trying not to move her foot.

Elsewhere, one of the drones kept circling the castle, trying its defence turrets as one flew in closer with it.

The closer drone would be later destroyed in combat as it regained flight, by an unknown attacker.


Friendship castle

Running as fast as she could, Rarity saw Pinkie holding the front door open, yelling for her to hurry up.

Behind her, a flying drone creature was shot out of the air by a powerful magic blast from the castle's positioned guards, and sent spinning to crash into the streets behind her, whether it was destroyed she didn't know.

Darting inside, Rarity breathed out with her heart racing:

"They hit the train station, I heard it! Oh heavens to think of anypony more killed here!"

"Come on! We need to get further inside, some ponyville folks came in here because its a stronger building!" Pinkie dragged Rarity along the corridors, and sure enough, some ponyville citizens not at the train station were gathered in the more inner rooms of the tree shaped castle.

Outside, the building rocked as one attacker tried to rail away at its hard walls and shields.

"Where's Spike!?" Rarity asked aloud.

"I saw him in the main street, he went off with the Changeling half breed and the other dragon like him!" A market pony cried out, though not at all being insulting as he said it, he simply didn't know the names of the other two.


Main street

Gasping as an energy pulse hit his back, Spike turned to fire some green flames at his attacker, who quickly flew up and away into the air.

The creatures were ruthless, as 3 of them attacked them from all sides, from atop roofs, in the air, or even from underground.

Spike saw Razak flailing, as he scrambled for stuff to throw. As soon as they flew they were shot at more often.

A surging cloud of tiny metal fragments, bolts and nuts came from nowhere, all but ripping apart the creature flying highest above them like a hail of bullets.

Grunting, clutching his head, Ohmen knew he couldn't go as hard in combat as he once could. But this town had less metal to work with anyway.

The drone creature fell apart, this one not blowing up. He must have ruined the implant bomb in his hail attack.

In the midst of it, one creature leapt up from underground, spinning its tendrils from its ape/lizard shaped body amidst a dirt cloud to flay and swat Ohmen backwards in the street.

The Changeling/Unicorn hybrid cried out as he felt a hot welt across his abdomen, and as he rolled back, he felt some broken ribs, and some blood coming from his front, the changeling carapace parts cut deeply on his chest, and what fur he had in patches bloodstained on his front now.

Behind the creature, the second one moved fast, rolling and firing its pulses as it overwhelmed Razak and Spike with its speed. The two dragons tackled it together, clawing and breathing fire as best they could.

Ohmen tried to call a warning, but he found his chest hurt too much.

Both dragon brothers seemed to cry in agony as they shuddered, the drone creature suddenly protruding spikes all over itself, before it then went the way Ohmen feared.

Sure enough, with both dragons gripping it tight, the drone suddenly hummed, and blew up.

The blast tore apart the housing on both sides, as the dust cloud rose, and both dragons lay unconscious, or worse as Ohmen feared, in the rubble on each side, bleeding and out of the fight in the least.

The blast hit Ohmen only slightly, but barely fazed the remaining drone creature as it moved towards him, shifting in shape to reveal and Wyvern body structure.

As smoke from behind, and from elsewhere rose, the Tul'rok lookalike suddenly glowed a brighter grey, as Ohmen sent a feeble attack at him, a vegetable cart flung by its metal wheel axle.

Swatting it aside, the Wyvern's four grey eyes in its rocky body glinted as it spoke:

"I'm surprised you're here, Charge Bolt, and not in Canterlot with your useless former teacher."

"Celestia is far from useless Tul'rok! And don't ever insult her, she's worth more as a being then you ever will be!"

"I doubt that, especially with what I'm doing right now with the moon, or here in this town."

"Doing what in this town? Talking me to death!?"

"Very funny, but just like her sister already is, Celestia will be useless too, very soon. As for you though-"

Tul'rok stamped his foot, and its toes shot underground, just as a set of metallic tendrils shot out of the ground beneath Ohmen, curling around his neck in a constricting manner, crushing him against the ground ever more tightly.

"I think crushing you to death is more accurate for what I'm doing. At least one of her students dies today."

Gasping for air, Ohmen felt the tendril securing him to the ground constrict his windpipe, almost snapping his neck right there.

All of a sudden the pressure eased up, as the Unicorn hyrbid glimpsed Tul'rok suddenly staring upwards in utter rage:

"KRO'NOGR-!"

A shape landed full force atop the drone, utterly crushing it beneath its foot with force greater than its size let on. The pancaked drone hummed a little, before an orange energy pulse from the hulking figure's arm shut it off before its nearly crushed bomb blew.


Wheezing, Ohmen stared up at the armoured figure, the hulking upper body resembled a hunchbacked ape shape of some kind, but the legs were too long, and the stumpy segment from the torso end [a shrinking tail maybe?], were all visible from the armour's shape.

But a burnt section had been ripped off, and a scaly, circuit infused arm in places was visible. Green and yellow flecked, but covered in some sort of transparent layer that protected it from the atmosphere.

Staring around, the tall, hulking armoured being seemed to grunt some words more to itself, before it leant down. Shaking a little, Ohmen relaxed as he felt a blade extend from the being's four digit hand armour, slicing through the loose tendril around his throat with a heated slice.

Amidst the rubble, the being turned suddenly, hearing commotion in the northern direction. A visible shape, the remaining creature aside from the large one, flew in full speed from the west skies.

Not flinching once, the being grunted to itself, and from behind the flying drones, a large aircraft, equal in size to the larger creature drone, shimmered into view behind the flying drone, decloaking as it rammed through the drone to utterly destroy it, the bomb detonating harmlessly in the air. Midair, it came to hover with only the tiniest of air rustles above the rubble strewn main street.

A hatch opened, and Ohmen could only watch as he saw the being lifted into the air by an unseen force, into the hatch, before it turned while turning invisible, flying away to the east.

In the distance, a resounding crash sounded as the largest attacking craft crashed into the lake shoreline, its dragon shaped, altered form crumpling into the splash as Cal'vel soared upwards, smoking and limping, but still going.

It took off again, pursuing the vanished aircraft to the West, but not before Cal'vel began to tackle and burn it midair yet again.


Nearby, Smoulder flew down, the large fire Drake already using her wing claws to dig out the blasted houses for her two dragon sons.

Staggering to a crawl, Ohmen cupped his seared abdomen with a groan, the Changeling hybrid being spotted by Smoulder as she dug out the bleeding Razak and Spike into the street.

"Ohmen!"

The large drake overshadowed his form as he slumped down, but Ohmen could clearly see cuts, burns and a limp in her back left foot.

"I think its over, your mate can get that thing down."

"We'll get help, the boys will need it too, they're already digging out the train station."

Coughing, Ohmen stared to the east, where the unknown being's ship had flown, and the dragon drone's momentary pursuit direction.


Northern Ponyville

Scrambling over and over the dragon in a midair spiral, Cal'vel suddenly heard something over the roaring air, as a familiar sound of Equestrian air miitia reached his ears.

Leaping off the now battle scarred dragon drone, Cal'vel kept clear while unleashing his own flames on the creature.

From the north, a hailstorm of magic blasts, from Unicorns or magic enhanced weapons manned by Pegasi and Earth ponies, ripped into the drone dragon. Even a drone creature wasn't fully immune to overwhelming attack, whatever form it took.

A few air chariots flew past the hovering Cal'vel, and soon afterwards the lone flying drone circling the Friendship castle was shot down.

Panting slightly, Cal'vel flew off, the large blue dragon in no shape to go into his small mode for anyone's ease, Smoulder too, until he recovered.


2 hours later

Ponyville hospital

Because most of the town had left before today, what was a large incident didn't overwhelm the hospital staff, all of whom had stayed behind.

Flash Sentry had been bandaged up, mostly around his upper leg, the chunk of skin being cauterised by the blast. He had been told he may be able to get it replaced later, but he needed to recover first, as they didn't know if his leg would be as strong with some muscles in his leg literally blasted off.

Around his bed, Ponyville residents had been treated for similar blast wounds, or for bruising and hearing issues from the blast near the train station. Only 5 had died, 3 of them guards protecting the train station.

Elsewhere, only 2 others were killed, though 2 more had come close.

He had glimpsed Spike and Razak in the hospital beds, patched up where a drone's spikes had impaled them as they grappled it, and burns and bruising from that same drone detonating point blank in main street.

If not for Cal'vel donating blood, something he was always nervous of, they'd have died from blood loss. Dragons were durable, but not invincible.

Beside him, Ohmen Magnes, his abdomen bandaged up, shared a look of confusion with Rarity as she spoke to him:

"It just took off and vanished, the guards say they couldn't see it soon after. I watched from the castle, and its just gone."

"GUYS, GUYS!" Pinkie's shrieks followed her blurring fugure, while Nurse Redheard semi yelled:

Calling from where Spike was, Pinkie yelled: "Spike just woke up, and he had a letter flame up too!"

Rarity rushed over, leaving Ohmen curiously looking at Flash. The Pegasus shrugged, saying:

"Something he's always done, must have woken him up."

"Ughhh.." Spike groaned, while beside him, Razak was still unconscious.

"Go back to sleep Spike." Rarity quietly brushed the dragon's brow in the bed, while Pinkie's mane frothed up in excitement:

"TWILIGHT ESCAPED! She sent this letter because she knew Spike would get it!"

"Wha?!" Spike shot up, but regretted it as his vision swam immediately.

"Where is she?" Rarity exclaimed, jubilant in spite of what happened today.


Meanwhile

March 29th, 1008 ANM

Late Evening/Night

Espana, Bulldrid

Equestrian Embassy

Sundown had already happened when they arrived, and Discord finally decided here was safe.

"Away from the seas, less chance of Tul'rok and his minions coming from nowhere."

And it was warm in this part of the world, at least during the day, so Faral and Jorani didn't complain.

As soon as they entered the Embassy, and proved their identities, they were allowed inside. Faral and Jorani, the Komodo and Python females each, had to be cleared more than Twilight and Discord, being non-citizens of Equestria.

As soon as they were all in Twilight sent out letters, knowing the one to Spike, wherever he was, would be one quick way.

They now sat in an Embassy quarters sitting room, having eaten a quick dinner they'd been delivered by the Equestrian embassy staff.

"I wonder what has been going on exactly, at least while I've been gone?" Discord mused aloud, twirling his drink glass midair in his magic as he said this.

Twilight was feverishly looking through the stack of newspapers before her, while Faral and Jorani did the same. Shooting Discord a slightly dirty look, Faral grumbled under her breath incoherently.

"The moon cycle started only about, 3 hours ago. News is still coming in about all that." Twilight said nervously. The Alicorn didn't like being kept out of the loop, and under Aeternum, at least she'd been told news to quell her fears.

Tul'rok had done no such luxury for any of them.

But very soon, they would be up to speed.


Same time

Glaceland, western uninhabited shoreline.

The large island of Glaceland, surprisingly green for its namesake, paid host to an unseen meeting.

The craft that vanished from the Sowta Prancap attack was landed and parked atop a rocky plateau, while the one that fled from the Ponyville intervention came to hover beside it, gently landing alongside.

The two craft belonged to the same cause, being the two craft that had managed to slip away from the gateway, to orbit above the planet undetected, unlike the two that crashed, or the two that were destroyed at the gateway. As for the 3 that vanished to faster than light, they were unknown affiliations.

But both craft sported the same insignia, and were looking for the same target, one that went missing because of this, 'eternal one'.

Now through the gateway, clearly a time portal, where was just as much a question as when was for the two craft and crews.

They had already interfered in the world's affairs amidst their search, hunting down eternal one type beings to try and find their target.

They wouldn't have to search for much longer.


Its only 3 hours since the moon thruster was switched on, and the gateway reopened, and look what has already happened.

To recap, the female Wyvern and Aeternum being from the future were in the craft that crashed in Bullivia, damaged when it came through the gateway. Teh Caninberia crashed alien is still unknown, as are the 3 that went to FTL out of the gate for safety. I won't say more about the two that clearly are working together to look for someone.


As for the attack, it was smaller scale than the migration incident, but not without damage. And all the while, Twilight, Discord and their two companions have arrived to safety.


Please review/critique as one would, detailed critiques welcomed.