Note: 'Might' look into editting later.
Chapter 9: Homeland.
A pair of eyes watched as its pawn dealt with one of the grey coated flier's, two more were making their way upon its door step. It needed to spread its influence or else it wouldn't be able to get a good foothold into the lands of Equestria. Canterlot the home of the princess sisters was too well defended still, it also couldn't spread its influence wherever the one with half lidded eyes set her hooves. Its pawns attack on that town is distracting one of the sisters. The other wasn't beaten, but just biding her time and power in the bowels of the castle. She was still able to control the sun but most of her power was held in check for the time being.
There was one place it could still spread its influence to that wasn't well defended a small settlement of ponies. The since long trapped being decided to set its eyes on Ponyville. Its pawn could handle defense of the castle, even injured as it was and by the pony it defeated and killed. It decided to summon some soldiers from the abyss to handle the innocent undefended place. No… it wasn't entirely undefended, but it might as well be.
After a thought, the being decided to also launch an attack on Cloudsdale for the very reason that it was home to so many of those winged little horrors that might try to stop it.
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Derpy could feel the chill running through her coat and it felt like the blizzard was almost upon them, turning back to the team they were all shivering as the temperature was beginning to drop. The slope was slowly beginning to end close to a sheer rock wall leading further up the mountain. They'd have to climb the cliff face to continue further.
"We need to find shelter, start looking for a cave! I'm going to focus on climbing, yell if you see something we can use to stop for the night." Derpy saw Trixie nod and turned to yell to Zecora, who in turn would pass it to Twilight to be on the lookout for shelter. Derpy stopped at the wall of solid jagged rocks and titled her head back, it was a long way up and they had no clue where they were going exactly but Twilight said they were heading in the right direction.
Rearing up the mailing mare threw her hoof into the rock. She was creating a small hoof hold for herself, but it hurt to hit solid stone that hard not to mention creating a pathway for the others to climb. She pulled back and slammed the other hoof into a position higher than the previous one. This was going tire her out and fast, but they wouldn't survive the coming blizzard outdoors. So climbing was the only real way to go. Looking up the rock wall she saw the snow slowly start falling.
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Sham stood next to Dipsy who promptly flopped onto the floor of the high altitude cave, the abominable snow beasts outside couldn't get into this small hole but their claws sure tried to rip them to shreds by scratching around the insides of the entrance. There was no way out other than through those beasts, so they were stuck here for a time. The pony had to wonder how Dipsy could fall asleep at the drop of a hat in this situation, much less be snoring peacefully. Her friend was also out like a light, the pony was like a batch honey buttered toast she was soft and chewy if a bit sweet and neigh anywhere near as tough as the crazy grey mare that they followed all the way up here. She idly bats her hoof at her loose braid causing it to swing as she stared at the entrance to the cave where a recent near death experience made her want to stay far away from it.
Dipsy had warned her before she fell asleep not to go outside until she was sure that it was safe and that she'd sleep until it was time for them to leave, her waking up was a sign that they could do so. She also said that Sham could sit watch, eat or get some sleep herself as it was going to take a while what with the blizzard blowing in for those creatures to leave them alone much less leave the cave entirely.
Ach, it'd be just like a Pegasus to know about the weather and it was so boring, Sham wanted to go on an adventure and apparently she dragged her stupid friend who couldn't leave well enough alone into this as well.
But for all her complaining Sham actually liked where she was, she just didn't like where her friend was. Surviving in harsh conditions, finding a way to the as of yet unknown cause of those dang wyverns and she could taste a battle coming a mile away. She wanted a piece of that action, the glory, the struggle and the victory. But most of all she didn't want her friend hurt, she idly sat next to the sleeping Goldenrod wrapped in a blanket and being adorable just laying there her hair fanned out beneath her and twitching every now and then. She'd have to protect the weak simpering idiot with the freaky powers and probably wouldn't see as much action as she thought she wanted, then again the horrible mental images of Goldie torn limb from limb made her exceedingly angry for even thinking that anything was going to hurt her while she was awake. Ditzy was almost like a key to life for her, she was bored out of her skull tossing cabers across a field every day and she still didn't understand why Goldie would follow her out here, but she wasn't happy the mare was practically walking towards danger when she should be resting by a nice fire at home.
When whatever was said and done, what would Sham do with her life? Where was she going with it? She wasn't much of a thinker; any job she'd get would have to be relatively simple if ridiculously hard to perform physically. Her mother said she should learn how to run her own lemonade bar, but that was a boring concept and her mother just wanted to drown herself in free lemonade like the rest of the Rocky Expectations clan. Maybe she could get a job fighting monsters like the ones hanging around outside the cave? Yeah, she could live with herself beating up beasties big or small, maybe even bounty hunter.
Yawning Sham slowly lay down on the floor. Taking up a position and wrapping a blanket around her body she fell asleep between a passed out Dipsy and gently breathing Goldenrod who slowly cuddled up to her.
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It was a quiet evening in Ponyville the foals were finally leaving her care and Dixie couldn't help but think something was up with Ditsy. The mare was relatively quiet and didn't even cause one destructive moment for a laugh or bothered to get into a comedy combat act with Pinkie. In fact Pinkie was less hyperactive then she usually was and both of them were following her around on a stroll dragging their hooves.
Something wasn't right with either of them and Dixie has about had it with their moping, nothing else was wrong with the world as far as she could see. She turned around and opened her mouth to speak but she was cut off by Rainbow Dash coming down for a landing.
"Hey guys what's going on? Is something wrong Pinkie, also where in the hay would you find an anchor this far from the sea?" Rainbow wasn't mad at Pinkie tying her cloud down, but she wondered how Pinkie even managed to rope the cloud in the first place and decided to just leave it up to Pinkie being herself.
"I know a pony and since I know every single pony in Ponyville it'd be hard for anyone to tell who it is." Pinkie said in a slightly half jubilant tone.
"Rainbow I don't know what's with these two, but their moping is beginning to worry me. I mean everything was going just fine when I had the foals over at Rarity's boutique for arts and crafts. Upon leaving I noticed something wrong. Ditsy has yet to destroy the mayor's house by accident and Pinkie isn't bouncing around, she's actually walking!" Dixie pointing out the nearby house still standing and looked to have been standing since two days ago, Pinkie on the other hand was plodding along behind Dixie alongside Ditsy.
"So?" Rainbow quipped fluttering in front of Dixie.
"Doesn't that seem strange for the two competing mares from the Crazy Ponies Society? You know the society that's known for make things more fun around Equestria and has a single member in at least every organization in the world?" Dixie still couldn't believe she was a member or that she became a member by a random blind drawing of random names, some of which were already members thrown in. That society was that insane.
"Technically it's the Insane Ponies Society or IPS for short. Though we also call it that and the Society for Causing Insanity in Twilight Sparkle, the society seems to enjoy seeing Twilight go acorns so we added that name to the list of names our society goes by. We're up to thirty names thus far." Ditsy was rather forth coming about a secret society that Dixie wasn't so sure why she was a part of it, but she did like the free magazines she got at the mailing office. The magazines were quite weird and topical on the things Dixie liked and it was part of the oddly acquired membership, so who was she to argue.
"I've always wondered why Pinks targeted Twilight almost exclusively with her insane antics. Still, she's right that you two look down in the dumps and not at each other's throats about who's the most insane pony." Rainbow said it idly, but she was more curious then she looked about what had her close friend and relative acquaintance down in the dumps. Ditsy was Pinkie's nemesis aside from Surprise who was a proud Cloudsdale IPS member and had announced it loudly to the world on a loudspeaker.
Ditsy just shrugged not knowing what she felt, but it wasn't like her and while she was considering this silently she looked off to the side at something. Pinkie was notably saddened but she couldn't understand why she felt like a balloon without its helium, especially when she was in top form today having made a bunch of foals, colts and fillies smile.
"Hungry." Ditsy said simply as they were outside the café, Dixie sighed as it looked like she was buying dinner again. She was just glad it wasn't Dipsy; her wallet can't handle that pony's indomitable stomach or her binge eating.
Three extra large calzones with broccoli stuffing, four orders of hay fries and daisy deluxe special later…
"Here, I'll help split the bill; these two have to pay for their own desserts thought." Rainbow felt she had to be generous in this occasion as Ditsy seemed to expect Dixie to pay it all and dessert. She received a whine and a puppy dog look from the two mares, but they ordered dessert anyway when they were denied.
"Thank you so much Rainbow Dash, I feel like I end up feeding all my friends on my own at times. I don't see a problem with it, as long as I can keep Ditsy from surviving off Acorns and Stinkweeds again." Dixie did not want to relive camping with Ditsy or be reminded on the things she had to eat to survive when she did. Plus it took a few showers to get the smell out; at least pinecones weren't the worst things you could eat when out in the wilderness.
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Derpy sat on a small snow covered ledge tired and breathing hard with two other ponies and a pony cousin; she bit off a chunk of pinecone and got a strange stare from Twilight. Both Zecora and Trixie were already eating their own pinecones which came from Trixie's food pack. The snowy winds were blowing and chilling them to the bones.
"How can you three stand to eat those things?" Twilight thought it was disgusting that Trixie actually seemed to be enjoying it.
"I don't know about you in this, but taste is acquired for the pinecones bliss. It's something I can survive off of in my home of Ever; especially when supplies are scarce it's actually quite clever." Zecora continued to nibble at her pinecone gently.
"I've been eating pinecones all my life and I Trixie turned out perfectly fine! Mommy…" It was hard to tell whether or not Trixie was crying when she turned away for a moment, but she was back a second later and continued to eat her pinecone in silence.
"Camping with Ditsy, it's better than plenty of the alternatives." Derpy didn't have to say anything more if what she said about Ditsy's effort to make ridiculous survival lessons out of camping were to be believed.
Twilight being the studious pony was offered a pinecone by Trixie to test her taste buds on one, she was warned to take it slowly and only take a tiny piece in her mouth at first.
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"Dixie, have you ever wondered if we'd always be friends." Ditsy asked suddenly out of the blue, wide eyed staring off into space behind Dixie.
"Of course we will Ditsy, why wouldn't I be you're…" Dixie stopped mid sentence.
In a flash Ditsy had suddenly stood up out of her seat and thrust out both her hooves knocking both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash away from the table. They had been sitting facing each other and they gave indignant yelps when Ditsy suddenly pushed them down. Then with one swift leap Ditsy was behind Dixie and quickly wrapped her hooves gently around the other Pegasus in a comforting hug.
"I'm sorry…" It was then that a sudden impact had knocked Dixie forward and the table in front of them smashed into pieces by the sudden weight of two ponies and something else slamming into it. Ponies started running away from the scene in a panic. "Dixie…"
It took a few moments for Dixie to register anything that was happening around her; slowly her world view had crumbled from a nice evening dinner with friends to something more horrifying. Grey limp hooves were on both sides of her body and they seemed to still be trying to angle in around her, more then that the smell of blood entered the poor mares nostrils and she felt a stickiness run down her back, but she wasn't hurt. Looking to the side slightly she could see blood starting to pool on the ground along with a wide splatter pattern from...
Slowly Dixie pulled herself out from under Ditsy's grasp and turned around and stared in horror at what was sticking out of the mares back. A large dual bladed battle axe had almost perfectly lodged itself vertically along Ditsy's spine at the withers and she wasn't moving, but Ditsy couldn't be dead. She was the invulnerable mare that has houses dropped on her almost daily and on top of all the impossible injuries that she should have incurred upon herself that would kill a normal pony.
Slowly a dead look took over Dixie's eyes. She didn't cry, her head just slowly lifted and stared down the street a five foot bipedal mass of darkened metal slammed to the ground with loud thud. A bowl shaped helmet with two slots where circular purple eyes made out of pure energy could be seen flowing from the darkness; the armor was designed to fit that like a dragon that walks on their hind legs. The gauntlets were five fingered and ended in talons and its metal pants ended in bladed shoes made for an otherworldly creature that probably kicked puppies not just for fun of it, but to just outright kill it.
Moving forward Dixie slowly wrapped her hooves around the axe handle and she carefully pulled it from her friend's motionless body and her wings started flapping and she was soon airborne with an unwieldy axe in hooves. She immediately angled towards the monstrosity with a frown on her face and accelerated as fast as she could go with the heavy weapon held beneath her.
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Pinkie just stared at the body. Her rival, her nemesis, her friend, her companion at times… no… Pinkie knew she had to be okay, her Pinkie sense didn't say her friend was dead yet. Then again her Pinkie Sense didn't warn her of the falling axe. It probably would have if Ditsy hadn't shoved her away from the table, but by then it would have been too late at the rate that thing was moving as it spun through the air. Ditsy moved them away from the table to protect them and if she got Dixie out of the way some other pony might have gotten hurt.
Rainbow slowly stood up and moved over to the body her wings drooping; she looked off to the side to see Dixie ripping the head off the metal monstrosity with a swing of the battle axe. Only seconds later did its body slowly move and then place its head back over the empty space of the void where its neck should have occupied, bloodlessly the metallic creature turned to Dixie and started to swing its claws at her as it attempted to get at what was once it's weapon.
"Please tell me this can help her, is she alright, is she even alive?" The voice had surprised both Pinkie and Rainbow; they both thought she hated Ditsy. The mayor had a medical kit in hoof and stopped next to them looking unsure what to do next; she looked equally pained and unhappy that Ditsy was actually injured or probably worse.
"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness… move back, please let me check her pulse if that's okay with all of you." Fluttershy flew in and from out of nowhere, but they were all relieved that there was at least one pony with better medical knowledge then stick a band aid on it and hope for the best.
Idly Rainbow watched as Dixie dragged the axe horizontally through the metallic creature bisecting it, minutes later it pulled itself together from that too as it crawled to its legs and with a foggy darkness it fused back together. Dixie looked to be handling herself quite well until four more creatures of the same likeness dropped in unannounced; each one was wielding a different weapon. One had a sword and shield, another a spear and shield, one was on the rooftops with a crossbow loaded with a sickly looking bolt of green energy it readied to fire and the last one was holding a stick in its hands that ended in a sharp curved blade.
Dixie didn't back down and struck out at the spear wielder almost immediately, but it was hopeless. No matter the damage she dealt it would fix itself with time, though she was making a good show of swinging the battle axe around with a fluid spiraling grace that belied her obvious rage.
"Fluttershy?" Rainbow said slowly turning her head away from the fight to the buttery mare that had her right hoof tightly wrapped around Ditsy's left and her head near Ditsy's mouth.
"She's alive, though her spines cracked, she's bleeding badly and she's not breathing. We're going to need some wood to splint her neck and a unicorn to stitch her wound up; we also need someone who can do CPR after we get the splint on. We really need to do this... soon?" Fluttershy looked to the only pony still there.
Rainbow didn't know what she could do at the moment and she didn't know where the other two ponies went. Seconds later Pinkie was back with two small aptly sized planks of wood in her mouth she dropped off in a panic. The mayor came back dragging Rarity along explaining the situation to her.
"Oh, this simply quite dreadful darling of course I will lend my aid as well as I can. Though I've never had to stitch together… ugh… flesh before, do you think you can you lead me through the process?" Rarity was surprised Fluttershy wasn't as squeamish as she was feeling at the moment. She got dragged there by the mayor along with Spike who stayed quiet as he stared forlornly at the body.
Fluttershy carefully put pressure on the wound trying to hold the split skin together and started to carefully instruct Rarity on where she needed to stitch. Turning away from it Rainbow watched in fascination as Dixie twirled the battle axe above her head deflected two green bolts of energy with the flat of the blade and then swung it around into an upward swing that ripped the one that obviously used to own the battle axe clean in half, she turned and brought the axe slamming down on the one holding the scythe that was about to hit her splitting it from shoulder to hip. Turning back to the medical emergency Rainbow witnessed Fluttershy bandaging the wound and Pinkie was assisting Rarity in holding the mare up to her.
Rainbow continued to stare dispassionately as they stuck two pieces of wood to her and Rarity started to wrap the medical tape around the body. That's where they stopped and all turned to Fluttershy.
"Um she's still not breathing… anyone here certified to perform CPR?" Fluttershy's question almost floored all of them with the absurdity of the situation.
"Excuse me for asking this, but are you telling you don't have the training to perform a life saving action!" Rarity's voice almost shrieked, causing Fluttershy to shy away behind her mane as she nodded lightly, she had been meaning to do that and cursed her weakness for not doing so at the soonest convenience.
"I care for all the citizens of Ponyville… even the less reputable ones like her; I guess I shouldn't have put off that CPR retraining while making sure things run smoothly around here." The mayor stated sadly.
"Had my certification revoked for being overly excessive and causing more injury, aheh?" Pinkie drooped as it was made clear she wasn't certified or able to perform without making it worse.
Slowly but surely Rainbow could see where this was all going. She frowned, but if it came down to it she wouldn't dare back out.
"Well I can't do it, I don't know how either." Rarity was stating in reference to Fluttershy who cowered slightly and started crying.
"Hey, lay off Rarity she did her best. Now step aside, it's time for The Dash to shine. Weather workers are trained for this sort of thing in case a pony takes lightning bolt to the chest. Just don't make fun of me later for this, roll her on to her back please." Rainbow moved over to Ditsy and inhaled gently as Rarity and Pinkie carefully rolled Ditsy onto her back. Rainbow was going to really hate the rumor mills after this one. Slowly she put her lips to Ditsy's and exhaled slowly in the hopes that she could fill Ditsy's lungs, she then carefully place her hooves on Ditsy's chest and pressured it five times
"Why would we ever make fun of you for saving a pony Dashie?" Pinkie watched as Rainbow concentrated inhaling another lungful of air.
"Careful now, we don't want to cause anymore damage to her spine Rainbow." Fluttershy looked worried as Rainbow started compressing Ditsy's chest again after once again breathing into her.
"Don't worry Fluttershy I know what I'm doing here, just need…. to… get…. her… breathing." Rainbows third round and Ditsy finally gasped slightly, but didn't wake up though her chest was beginning to rise and fall a bit. Slowly she her breathing was coming to a halt again.
"What the hay? She shouldn't stop breathing once she's gotten started again." There was a bit of panic in Rainbow's voice as it cracked slightly.
"Maybe it's the damage to her spine. I think… It might have made her incapable of breathing on her own; the axe must have disrupted her nervous system when it hit her." The peaceful Fluttershy looked like she was about to burst into tears.
"Pinkie, go get nurse Redheart and tell her it's a nurse to nurse emergency." The mayor didn't need to ask twice as Pinkie ran off at a blazing speed to find said nurse.
Rainbow cursed to herself and continued trying to save Ditsy; the others should have been busy helping Dixie fight those things off or at least find a way to permanently put them down.
Rarity looked at Dixie and saw she was fending off all five of the metal statue things, but it didn't look like she could win at the rate she was going. How was one supposed to defeat that which pulled itself together from being ripped apart and by a battle axe no less?
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"Now what's going on around here? Whoa, now that doesn't look good." Applejack wandered towards the direction the panicking ponies were fleeing from, only a length of rope and a saddlebag full of apples to aid her against whatever the hay she was walking into. She saw a battle axe rip through a food stand and it was being held by a metal monstrosity; it was being followed by a something wielding a sword and shield and destroying the marketplace.
"Yeah, no kidding Applejack, those things trashed my stand and all my beautiful carrots with it." Carrot Top was the only other Carrot in town other than Mr. Cake, her hair used to be an interesting shade of green till she started dying it orange or maybe it used to be orange and she always dyed it green? The yellow coated earth pony with a bushel of carrots marking her flank was hunkered down behind the ruins of the stand as the two bipedal creatures attacked just about everything in sight.
"Now that ain't right neighborly or friendly at all, I say we give them a piece of our produce." Applejack pulled an apple from her saddlebag and tossed it up in the air. She quickly turned her backside towards the falling apple and smacked with one hind leg sending it flying at one of the creatures helmets knocking it cleaning off with a splattering of apple fragments. There was nothing underneath the helmet and the creature with one gauntlet slowly picked up its own head and placed it back where it belong without showing any sign of discomfort.
"Yeah, how do you like my apples! Now pick on some pony willing to put up more of a fight." Applejack ran out into the street and waited for the living pile of metal to take her offer.
"I'll go get some of my frozen carrots and find Screwball; she always has a novelty sized rubber band on hoof." Carrot took off and away from the creature that started charging in Applejacks direction.
Applejack leapt backwards as the axe slammed into the ground sending a shower of stones from the pavement everywhere. The farm pony figured she forgot something as she held her Stetson to her head, she only saw the one wielding the axe, then where was the one wielding the… not bothering to finish that though Applejack rolled forward between the axe wielders legs as a sword whiffed through the space she once occupied.
"You guys are right smart varmints huh?" Applejack backpedalled from the horizontal swing of the axe as the thing spun around to face her. "None to pleasant to meet in the streets either I reckon."
Applejack waited for the thing to try and vertically slam its axe into her, dodging appropriately and swiftly depending on how the thing swung the axe. Leaping aside she quickly turned her back end towards the thing and gave a sharp buck straight to the center of its mass; she was keeping an eye out for the sword thing to come at her as she did this.
The resulting clang and resounding flying mass of metal flopped onto the ground on its back. Slowly the thing stood up and it's sharply dented armor slowly if noisily popped back into shape, leaving Applejack bewildered as to how she was supposed to stop it.
"Don't attack its body! Destroy its weapon, that's its weakness!" Applejack blinked and looked off to the side to see a male Pegasus who looked to have seen better days with several colors of brown dotting his coat and a bird shaped cutie mark. He was staying well out of the action and looked to have been recently escaped from an infirmary, given he was still wrapped in bandages.
Not questioning how he knew about these creatures weakness, she tried to figure out how to destroy the weapons they kept trying to hit her with. The sword one was stealthy, always trying to get at her backside and nearly took a chunk out of it when she wasn't looking a second ago.
"How the hay is you supposing I do that exactly? They aren't about to hand them over to me handle first." Applejack kept backing away from the two and ducked a nasty looking lunging thrust from the one with the sword.
"Don't know, don't care and whatever you do just don't get hit by those Void Knights. The survival rate for being moderately injured by them is quite low, a few nicks are nothing but if they get a deep enough hit on you the magical poison is quite lethal." When the winged pony said the words 'magical' and 'poison' Applejack became a bit more frantic in staying away from the weapons.
"What do you mean by magical poison?" Of course she would have reason to panic with the knowledge that being struck by the weapons would cause a dire effect on being able to live.
"You seriously don't want to know, but if you get hit a by a green glowing crossbow bolt, remove it immediately. The longer their weapons are causing injury, the more effective the poison and the only cure would be to destroy the weapon that caused it before the poison kills you, that's all you need to know other than the effects stack with each individual weapon they carry." The Pegasus wasn't entirely forthcoming, but Applejack understood what he was getting at as she dove behind a stand to get a sword shoved in front of her face piercing through the flimsy wood almost cutting her nose.
Applejack figure the best chance she had at getting the weapons from either of the things was to lasso it from them; the axe was more viable option as the swords blade might cut through her rope. If there was one thing the farm pony knew how to do and many a pony could agree, it was that Applejack definitely knew how to go about using a rope. She could wield a lasso with her tail, her front hooves and her mouth, possibly all three at once if she had too. Right now she needed to get some distance to prepare one, she needed a distraction.
The axe wielding metal creature stalked forward as the sword wielding one once again slinked into the shadows, seconds later it was knocked out of the shadows by a Pink blur that promptly trampled over the axe carrying monstrosity that barely managed to take a step forward.
"APPLEJACK, APPLEJACK, JACKIE, JACQUELINE, JILLYJACK …. Do you know where nurse Redheart is? We have an emergency situation. Oh and there are a lot of these mean metal things running around on two legs and they're attacking every pony. It's not very nice, who would attack us ponies? We're really cute and that should be lethal enough to stop anything from wanting hurt us!" Pinkie Pies sudden appearance didn't surprise Applejack in the slightest and she was already working on her rope to form a lasso the second Pinkie rammed her way onto the scene. She didn't want to waste Pinkies prompt interruption as she deftly guided her hooves around her rope.
"Can't rightly tell you where she's at now, last I saw she was over in the residential area Pinkie." Applejack watched as Pinkie zoomed off leaving behind a puff of cloud shaped like her body slowly dissolving away into the air. Shaking her head Applejack turned to the axe carrying creature and started twirling her lasso in hoof specifically her right, the sword creature had its head knocked off by the sudden impact with a hyper pony and was busy trying to get it back so there was time to try and steal the axe to destroy it in some fashion.
With a swift flick of her hoof she sent the loop out and around the axe snapping it tight over the shaft and she pulled with both hooves, apparently the thing noticed what she was trying to do it pulled back with almost enough force to reel Applejack in. She stood her ground and pulled harder tightening her grip on the rope with both her hooves wrapped around it, she gave a strong tug almost getting it to lose its grip on the axe.
The sword wielder ran up and pulled back the sword in its left hand to swing it down on the rope, only it was stopped by a small orange blur that caused a loud plink noise. It staggered back slightly as there was a definitive round hole in its shield which it lowered to reveal it's chest plate had a glistening carrot piercing three fourths of the way into it.
"Good shot, but that won't stop it! Aim for the sword!" The bandaged pegasus who was taking cover behind an overturned table yelled to the one who fired the carrot.
Carrot Top nodded from her position behind a destroyed produce booth's poles which were affixed with a large rubber band around them that had seconds prior given a frozen carrot enough velocity to pierce metal. Next to Carrot was a light pink earth pony mare with thick purple and white hair, she had the oddest purple eyes with spiraling pupils. She was also wearing a propeller beanie cap on her head and her flank had a screw next to a ball on it. She pulled another carrot from a cooler to hoof it to Carrot who put the frozen vegetable into the rubber band and pulled back for a second shot.
The carrot sailed through the air missing the sword, it was quite a small target but Carrot did manage to rip one its legs clean off toppling it a bit. Applejack had time to garner enough strength to yank the axe clean out of the grip of her aggressor while the Void Sword was getting punctured by one frozen projectile after another.
Applejack figured she was going to start respecting carrots more after this was all over with, she maneuvered the rope around in a circle and the rope tightened around the base of the axe's head. With a swift jerk and flick of her hoof she sent the axe slamming into the ground head first as hard as she could. The damage to the axe was minimal, but the Void Knights reaction to bashing the weapon caused it to screech out in pain and stop charging for Applejack and stumble back as it's armor started to crack slightly. Applejack gave a nifty little smile before she reared up raising both her hooves above the axe.
"YEEHAW, well now how do you like that?" With that yell Applejack stomped down on the shaft of the axe breaking it in two causing the Void Axe to scream out in agony as it slowly faded away to dust. Applejack smiled and turned to the Void Sword still trying to approach and was busier just trying to reassemble itself from the beta-carotene assault until they stopped coming. Looking back at the stand Carrot and the pony known as Screwball were occupying, Applejack noticed they had run out of ammo.
"Sorry Applejack, I'm out of carrots." Well that's something Carrot never thought she'd say in her lifetime.
"No problem, I got this thing." Applejack turned to face the sword wielding creature only to see her brother Biggs Macintosh was already in the process of snapping its sword in half like a twig. Red stallion, orange hair and green apple sliced in half on his flank, not to mention he was bulky looking despite barely matching his own smaller sister in strength.
"E'nope, saw you take care of the other one and figured I couldn't let my sister endanger herself further." Big Mac was a stallion of few words and a gentle giant, his sister gave him a playful swat before she looked at all the damage the marketplace had been dealt.
"Well thanks mighty kindly, but I can take care of myself you know. Now we have to warn every pony how to beat them and it's all thanks to… say I didn't get your name." Applejack turned to the bandaged equine with wings and received a light smile.
"Spaniel C. Arro, long range package and letter carrier, built for stamina and distance flying in the duty of Equestria's mailing services currently at your service specifically. I'll tell you how I know about the Void Knights later, but for now we have to get moving there's at least thirty more where those two came from.
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Dixie's breathing was shallow and sweat was pouring off her body, she was standing the axe on its head and had her hooves tightly wrapped around the shaft. Silently she watched as the five Void Knights were in the process of fixing themselves again from very tiny shreds of metal, darkness and possibly fabric as their weapons lay harmlessly on the ground. Slowly more Void Knights started to gather, five more on the roof with those magic missile launcher things, two more swords and one with an oni-club that didn't look to be survivable after a single hit as it was huge for the generic looking evil knights. They all looked the same except for the weapons they wielded in a menacing way.
Dixie started to go back into her memory and tried to remember the good times she had with the mailing ponies of team forty. Her eyes were still blank and lifeless, but some color started to return to them as she remembered something that became a treasured memory for her.
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"Hate to say this to you Ms. Day, but you are a little overqualified to be working here." The steely grey eyes sitting across from Dixie stared her deep in the eyes as the mouth below them spoke to her in a dark tone.
"I'm sure you could find something for me to do around here then… as long as it's not too stressful." Dixie saw a slight amount of amusement spring into the grey eyes as they suddenly became less cold. Dixie was trying to remember if she had ever met this pony before; maybe she had and forgot about it because of her personality.
"Heh, this is the first time I got close to laughing in years and goodness knows Pinkie tries. Well go to the break room and meet your fellow coworkers and we'll see about finding something for you to do around here later. Though I don't know why you chose a job like this if you wanted life to be less stressful, down the hall and to the left. Welcome to the forty's Dixie Day." With that the mare shuffled some papers and idly watched as the pony left her office. Another lime blonde and bluish grey albino Pegasus the dispatcher thought as she smirked to herself, one more and she'd have a squad of what look like sisters working under her.
Trotting down the hallway of the mailing office Dixie couldn't believe she was given a job so easily and then she opened the door to two mares and balked at their particular appearance. They looked exactly like her… except one looked to be sleeping on the floor and choking on a store bought cookie and the other had a crazy wide smile as she was happily playing with a pile of blocks meant for foals. The one playing with the blocks stopping building a small castle and looked at her cheerfully and flew over to her to give her a big hug.
"SISTER, YOU'RE BACK FROM THE YAKON! How was it being one of the Mounties, eh! Please tell me you met a nice Yak out there, did he dump you? That was so mean of him and its aboot time you come to tell us to rough him up for you." Dixie had no clue what was going on and she felt the life draining from her body as she was being choked to death by the mare's impressive strength.
"Ditsy stop killing her for a moment and let her breath, I won't be able to sleep if someone dies in this room on my watch. I'm Dipsy Duh, not surprised that Dolly somehow found another one. Welcome to the team and good luck, you'll need it." With that the now named and introduced Dipsy laid her head back down and was instantly snoring a second later. Dixie felt relieved by the suddenly flow of oxygen as Ditsy released her.
What did Dipsy mean by? Oh well… Dixie could understand that they all looked the same. Then again she hasn't seen this many flying albino pegasi like her in one room together in all of her life. Being an albino wasn't a disorder, it was just a small genetic quirk. Though the fact they had matching hair and tail styles was a little creepy.
"Um… hi I'm… is she asleep? Anyway, I'm Dixie Day." Dixie watched as Ditsy's head turned towards a nearby clock before she turned to the sleeping pony on the floor.
"Ten minutes!" As soon as the words were out of the weird mares mouth Dipsy shot to her legs and was out the door before Dixie could say anything. Looking at the clock and heavily tack marked mailing route on a map, she remembered that Dipsy had a two saddle bags full of mail. How was Dipsy expected to cover that much ground in ten minutes? Much less deliver everything in her bags accurately and to the right place, what kind of mail delivery service was this?
"I like heavy lifting, long walks on the beach and killing eggplant wizards. I'm Ditsy Doo and you're my best friend ever, can I destroy your home and defile your food if it happens to be alive in any way, shape or form? I like killer tomatoes the most!" Ditsy was back to hugging Dixie again in a crushingly painful manner, but was actually allowing her to breathe this time.
Dixie had barely said ten words and she had just obviously met a very insane mare. The situation could only go downhill from there. If only she had known she met really great friends that would protect her with their lives.
It would be weeks later that Dixie really started warming up to the strange demeanors of Dipsy and Ditsy. Some amount of time after that Derpy came along looking really thin and hungry waltzing into the same room meeting all of them for the first time. Before Dixie knew it she was baking and feeding Derpy muffins nonstop, she helped Dipsy with her binge eating bills and was trying to stay friends with Ditsy no matter how odd she got. They weren't very tight nit, but they were a family.
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Slowly she opened her eyes; the Void Knights were wary to approach her and were gathering in number. They had right to be afraid, being basically a kung-pony and having the ability to use anything not nailed down as an effective weapon were quite scary traits. Looking behind her she could see Rainbow Dash inhaling and blowing into Ditsy's mouth… she was… alive? Tears sprung up in Dixie's eyes and the color fully returned from the dull depths they had been, but obviously something was wrong as Redheart was there and looking forlorn over the situation.
Soon Applejack ran up to them and her voice gave Dixie some much needed news as she was tired of swinging around a heavy weapon to do it too much more. Dixie heard the subtle clicks of crossbows being loaded down with green vibrant energy bolts by the Void Crossbow Knights on the surrounding rooftops, she wouldn't allow them to hurt any pony else that she was within range to save. Dixie didn't like fighting, but it would be over her dead body now if any pony else suffered as bad an injury as Ditsy took for her.
"You have to destroy the weapons to get rid of them. They also have this magical poison stuff that does something if you get hurt by them and I've been told it's mighty lethal, but it disappears when they do." Applejack was telling her friends, but she didn't notice Dixie sitting out in the middle of the street away from the café with a determined look on her face as she lifted the axes head away from the ground and high over her head. She also didn't notice the other Void Knights already charging Dixie.
"Rrrraggghhh." Dixie brought the axes head down to the ground creating a large dust cloud as six bolts of energy flashed at her along with three swords, a scythe and an oni-club. The one Axe Knight without his weapon started to slowly dissolve away. The other ponies present turned to the resulting cloud of smoke as it disappeared and the weapons showed that they had hit nothing but each other.
Rainbow Dash suddenly felt an intake of air from Ditsy as she was about to breath into her and ended up kissing the mare that finally started to live on her own strength, but was still very much out cold. Her face flushed with embarrassment for a few moments.
"Ngghhhn….sea pony stole my pants…" Ditsy grunted in her sleep as soon as Rainbow's lips pulled away from her. Ditsy's chest was rising and falling on its own now, Redheart finally decided to move her to a safer location with Fluttershy's help as moving her beforehand wasn't going to help her condition.
Turning away from the rather embarrassing moment in her life Rainbow turned and charged straight for the Void Knights. She wasn't alone as Applejack and Pinkie joined in at exactly the same time. Rarity stayed back with the mayor as non combatants, they took off to warn other ponies how to fight these things in other parts of Ponyville. Spike carefully stayed out of trouble and off to the side.
On the surrounding buildings the Void Crossbows turned to the three charging ponies to fire only for one farthest behind the others suddenly had its head kicked clean off by Dixie's hind hoof and its weapon wrenched from its grasp and tossed over the edge of the roof. It didn't take long for the other five to turn and open on Dixie flying at them, corkscrewing through several shots she slammed into the next one and twist its arm as it pulled the trigger causing it to misfire. The shot flew over the small scale battle and struck another crossbow destroying it and the knight holding it. With a swift pull and buck to the chest Dixie tore the arm off the knight and smashed the crossbow it still held into the roof before ducking to the other side as three bolts past by her.
"Hehe, can't touch me…. woo that was a close one. Wow, you're not very good at tag are you mister scary guy." Pinkie was busy antagonizing the Oni-club wielder, leaping flips over his horizontal swipes and tiny hops to the side when tried to vertically smash it into Pinkie and sometimes she ducked when she could do so. Upon one a horizontal swing Pinkie disappeared entirely, leaving Void Club confused as it looked for her.
"Hey, up here!" Looking up the Void Club saw Pinkie sitting on the tip top of the club and waving at it. It started wildly swing the club around and Pinkie held on for dear life as it charged forward trying to find something to knock her off with. It ended up bashing through the three Void Swords trying to reach Rainbow with their weapons as she fluttered just out of their reach, she avoided flying too high as the crossbow wielding knights were busy pinning Dixie down behind a chimney with non stop firing. Pinkie finally let go of the club on a horizontal swing sending her flying into the air towards Applejack who managed to get the Void Spears weapon and snapped it half with a single motion as soon as it was caught in her lasso.
"WHHHHEEEE…. Oof." Pinkie slammed into the Void Scythe butt first before it could gut Applejack and she laughed merrily as she was on top of it covering its eyes and caused it to stagger around swinging its weapon blindly trying to at least kill something.
Meanwhile the Void Club heard a hissing sound and twisted it's club slightly to see a line of small red cylinders going all the way down the club and a little fuse that was about to branch off into each little cylinder along the club.
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"Yep, it's another Pinkie Pie Product, these are what I call Sticky Fire CRACKERS, the flaw with these is that they aren't quite normal firecrackers as in firecracker as one big word with an added 'S' meaning multiple of them. These beauties however are two separate words and they do quite the literal meaning of both words, plus they can stick to things. It's why they're labeled Sticky. They only burn hot enough to minimally injure a pony and that's the 'fire' part. The CRACKER part comes in afterwards and while it can't really harm a pony too much it does destroy solid objects quite easily like that nasty big club thing with spikes." Pinkie smiled toothily with an evil look in her eyes.
"Would you believe I invented these for people who had problems breaking piñata's with a stick? Now you can get a show and the candy that comes from a piñata, because if the fire doesn't open it the small compact 'cracking' explosives will. I can use these to do all sorts of things, like safecracking. They work pretty well but are still labeled too dangerous for normal pony use; I might still be a teensy weensy bit into the testing stages though." Pinkie said sweetly, though quite frankly an inanimate object destroying explosive device is quite applicable in this situation. It's also kind of Mary Sue that she'd stop to pick them up for this fight but then again she's freaking Pinkie Pie, so of course she would have something party related for the situation.
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A rapid series of explosions in the street caused a slight pause in the action as the club cracked with each small explosion and when the last one went off it was slightly bigger than all the previous explosions making the club instantly fall to pieces and the Void Knight with it evaporating into thin air.
Rainbow Dash had taken opportunity of Pinkie's antics and had three swords in her hooves; unfortunately she didn't know how she was supposed to break them. She was quite frankly surprised Pinkie's firecrackers did anything to that ugly looking club with spikes sticking out of it haphazardly given it was also made entirely of metal. The spears, axes and crossbows were all easy to deal with as you didn't have to break the metal parts to effectively destroy enough of the weapon to make the thing that was wielding it disappear.
She flew over to Applejack looking for help, Applejack was glad to oblige and got Rainbow to stab one sword into the ground and hold it in place with one hoof while Applejack broke through the flat of the blade with a swift one legged buck. The Void Swords left hurried to stop them from shattering any more of the sword, but it was for naught.
In the background Pinkie could still be seen pulling the scythe from the hands of Void Knight that wielded it and she leapt straight up and swung the blade down into the armor while landing on it, before gently dropping off of the Void Knight and letting her weight snap the blade as it wrenched to the side.
On the rooftops Dixie was busy gathering shingles and looked around the chimney to nearly get a volt to the face as it whizzed by her cheek and sent her hair fluttering slightly. With a grim look of determination she shot around the corner and proceeded to throw three roofing shingles into the air. Being accurate enough she deflected the first few bolts shot at her as she flew across the street. She took the remaining shingles and did what Ditsy would have done in such a situation. She threw them out all at once and hoped they hit something.
They had caused quite a distraction for the three Void Crossbows, as she managed to cover the distance she turned to the one on the left side of the roof of the fast food restraint they were on and at the same time Rainbow was already aiming at the one on the right side while the last one's crossbow was lassoed and it was pulled from the roof entirely.
Rainbow spun in mid air carrying her momentum and performed a flying buck directly to the crossbow of the Void Knight on her side of the roof. Dixie flew in and the Void Knight fired what would be its last shot point blank at the pony. Her right hoof went up and caught the glowing green arrow centimeters from her right eye and then threw a wild left hoof straight through the crossbow, its chest and out its back. As the thing dissolved Dixie grunted in pain as the metal had cut up her leg before the Void Knight entirely disappeared.
"Well that's all of them is this area. Um, Dixie are you okay… come on let's get you to the hospital." Rainbow said proudly before Dixie's mood stopped her. Dixie was looking down at her bloody hoof.
"HELP, HELP CLOUDSDALE IS IN DANGER, ANY PONY WE NEED HELP!" The female Pegasus that looked exactly like Pinkie except she had a white coat and blonde mane, it was none other than Pinkie's second rival Surprise and she looked frantic.
"What are you talking about Surprise? What's attacking Cloudsdale, is it dragons? Is it griffons?" Pinkie watched as Surprise's frown grew exponentially.
"No, it's worse than that it's under attack by Roc's!" Surprise got an awkward star from the three ponies and a dragon, Dixie however was the only one that truly understood what kind of Roc's was being talked about here.
"Surprise, now is not the time for games, Ponyville is under attack. Besides what are these rocks doing, rolling harmlessly down a hill, Cloudsdale is in the sky Dodo." Apparently whenever one talks about them they are commonly mistaken for the similar sounding word, Rainbow didn't know that a Roc was a giant bird that is capable of airlifting an entire elephant and creating tornadoes with a single flap of its wings. They were also carnivorous and tended to dwell in deserts causing sandstorms.
"But it's not a game; Cloudsdale is really under attack by Roc's!" Surprise received a soft right hoof from Dixie on her shoulder.
"Surprise, give us time to recuperate and we'll be there as soon as we can." Dixie's reassurance caused Surprise to smile slightly.
"That's good enough for me because the local Wonderbolts are barely doing anything to them!" Surprise tended to speak in exclamations and end her sentences in a loud voice.
"Now hold on there missy, you are not going anywhere with a messed up hoof like that and we've got to clear out the rest of these troublemakers from Ponyville before we can stop those stones from whatever it is they're doing." Applejack had lassoed Dixie and pulled her to the ground and was holding her there.
"They aren't rocks as in boulders; she's talking about Roc's as in giant pony eating birds!" Dixie really didn't mean to scream that in Applejack's face and sat there for a moment.
"How big we talking?" Applejack asked slowly as she wanted to comprehend the seriousness of Surprises sudden appearance in Ponyville, like they didn't have enough Pinkie Pie's in the world.
"Bigger then some of fire, aquatic and spiny dragons around here, now either give me some first aid or let me go." Dixie was soon dragged over to the left behind medical kit and Applejack looked to her.
"Do you know anything about how I should go about bandaging your leg?" Applejack got a smile from Dixie. Dipsy had family in Cloudsdale not to mention Derpy and Rainbow's friend Gilda was there.
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Derpy's face was getting numb and the blizzard was starting to get worse, but she had finally found a ledge with a small alcove. Sighing with relief she pulled herself up and over the lip of the cliff and started helping the others up by pulling on the stretchy rope tying them together.
"Trixie is exhausted, she wonders how the muffin lover survived her friends camping trip." Using her magic because her body was spent Trixie helped drag Zecora up the cliff and a shivering Twilight followed as she pulled herself up onto the ledge.
"Up the mountain I am led, I really wish I could go to bed. Tired I am of such physical exertion and we must stop here or our conditions could worsen. Trixie make a fire fast, chilled to the bone we're fading fast." Zecora was being slightly dramatic but she wasn't far off from the truth of the situation.
"I'm glad we packed a small amount of wood, I'll set up the tent. Zecora get out the blankets, Derpy please get out some food; just don't bring out the pinecones." Twilight turned and looked how far they've come up the mountain and saw a void of swirling snowy air, she shuddered to think of a fall from this height. She started to untie the stretchy streamers from around all their bodies.
"Trixie believes Twilight has no sense of taste." Trixie was tired, but not enough to start working up an argument about how Twilight couldn't handle a pinecone like she could.
"Can we not fight here, especially while there is possible danger of doing such is clear?" Zecora was putting what small amount of bark they had into a small circle and motioned for Trixie to launch a fireworks spell into them.
With a colorful flash of energy a fire was lit and they soon were eating, when they went into the tent to sleep they decided to all hunker down under the same blanket.
"Good the night I say to you all, when we start moving again I hope we don't fall." Zecora felt awkward as she tended to prefer her personal space, but in these conditions she wasn't complaining as Derpy was a really warm pillow with her feathers.
"I the tired and cold Trixie just hope to wake up." Trixie snuggled down against Derpy's stomach.
"This is far more then I previously thought we'd be doing." Twilight said silently to herself as she was at Zecora's back, keeping her and Trixie separated for obvious reasons.
"Um… what do we do if we have to go to the bathroom? It never actually came up when I was rock climbing with Ditsy." The question from Derpy caused the three of them to sit up and stare at her.
End Chapter.