Mega Mare
Chapter 8 – The Muffin Mare
The teleportation effects faded, and Twilight opened her eyes. Before her hooves stretched the deep chasm known as Ghastly Gorge. Sheer cliffs of grey stone led down to a dark abyss, and Twilight could barely see the faint shimmer of water in the darkness. Lining the canyon on the surface was barren ground that faded into grass and trees.
"Scanning the area and generating a map," Spike said. Twilight waited as the holographic visual filled itself in; the red dot representing the coordinates the Shadow Hunters were at was already present. With Canterlot's teleporters unable to pierce the signal disruption caused by the Master's corrupted servants, the system had set them down on the opposite end of the gorge from their target. Twilight's only concern now was if the Shadow Hunter were actually in the gorge itself. She didn't care to look for a path down there. For now she focused on the other data Spike had generated.
Centuries ago, Ghastly Gorge had been as its name implied, two cliffs rising over a muddy stream, and centuries before that it was a rushing river that drained the nearby marsh and swamp system into the sea. But rock slide during a storm had diverted the river, and the former riverbed eroded into the gorge, then into the canyon before her now. Geologists considered it a natural wonder, and the gorge was a common outing for scientists and researchers due to how far the ground had eroded, revealing ancient layers of sediment.
Twilight started walking down the length of the gorge, her eyes watching the trees. "Any sort of hazards around the area to watch for?"
"Besides the two thousand, four-hundred and twenty-six hoof fall?" Spike replied. Twilight's display scrolled to the part of the data feed that mentioned the gorge's depths across its length, the four-digit average depth highlighted. She dismissed the feed before she could read any of the other statistics.
"Yes, besides that. And please keep that to yourself next time."
"Well, I would guess we could expect some crazed ponies, but I'm not scanning any in the area. Monsters called quarray eels inhabited the gorge centuries ago, but they've gone extinct. Other than that, not sure." Spike's report didn't put Twilight at ease as much as she had hoped. If she got attacked out here, it was too possible that one of the crazed ponies could go over the gorge, or that she could suffer the same fate.
"No good worrying about it until it happens; not much we can do but keep the fight away from the edge." Twilight continued on her way but was sure to put more distance between the gorge and her hooves as she could, until she was almost walking along the trees. She kept her eyes on the treeline as she walked, but nopony else was around. The only sounds were wildlife moving in the trees and the fainter sound of whistling wind from the gorge. The sun was high in the sky, and of all the most ridiculous observations Twilight could have made, it was a nice day. Compared to what she had spent her morning doing, for a moment her journey had taken on a pleasant turn.
"Got a reading on something up ahead… not something I recognize either," Spike said. Twilight frowned. She had jinxed it again.
"Something we've never met before, or something you just don't know about?"
"I have zoological files on approximately 94.3% of all know species of animal in Equestria." Spike sounded indignant. "I meant, something we haven't seen yet. I can't get a clear scan of what though. But it's directly ahead of us and is coming closer as we walk."
Twilight looked ahead. She didn't see anything, the forest was quiet and peaceful, and the rocky terrain beyond the treeline contained just a few small rocks and a couple larger formations, but nothing large enough for anypony to hide behind.
"Are you sure? I don't see anything," Twilight said.
"Good point, I guess you the unicorn have better perception than the advanced AI system that's currently sensing every biological lifeform in a fifty-hoof radius."
"Then where is it, Mister Smart AI?"
"Right ahead, like I said."
Twilight looked again. Spike had a point, his scanners had never lead her wrong, but there was nothing there. She had a terrifying though; could the Shadow Hunters somehow have invisibility powers? She knew there were spells for it, though they were highly advanced. But if they were strong enough to trump Celestia's powers, then maybe…
A low rumbling on the ground interrupted Twilight's thoughts. She looked down at her hooves to see small pebbles shaking, then back up. To her surprise, several of the rocks poking up from the ground, along with part of the ground itself, moved. The profile of a long, flat creature appeared, the terrain split apart where it had shifted itself then settled back down. Save for the cracks in the earth, it once again blended in perfectly.
"That explains it. It's a cragadile," Spike said.
"And that would be…"
"Reptilian lifeforms, they usually lurk in caves but some make their homes on barren and rocky areas in the open. They build nests of rock and dirt and sleep in them for days straight as hatchlings, and they grow into and merge with the nest as they mature. The result, they have a hide covered in stony armor."
"Are they hostile?" Twilight slowly crept closer to the broken sections of ground she now knew as the cragadile.
"Well, no, but they're not exactly friendly either. They're known to devour ponies but they don't move that fast, so they mostly prefer to eat whatever wanders by close enough to snap up quickly. Just don't provoke it or get too close and we'll be fine."
Twilight carefully edged around the disturbed ground. Closer up she could make out the cragadile's profile better, it wasn't a perfect match for the ground, but somepony not watching for it could easily end up walking over its back. It had its back to her initially, and as she came around the front she saw its eyes open and turn to watch her, beady and yellow. Twilight backed away from it slowly, watching it watch her. The cragadile wasn't moving from its resting spot, but it was still holding its gaze on her and Twilight was on edge for it.
"Hang on Twi, I missed the-"
Twilight heard a growl and took another step back before she registered it or Spike's words. The growl grew louder, and Twilight looked behind her. The ground had fallen away to reveal a long set of jaws in front of another pair of beady yellow eyes.
A set of jaws her rear-most hoof was resting on the end of.
Twilight gulped as she realized what she had just done. "It has a friend."
"Yup."
"And I just stepped on its nose."
"Yup."
The cragadile's jaw opened in a mighty roar, pitching Twilight forward with her hoof in the air. She fell back to all fours and ran away as fast as she could. Fortunately Spike's report had been correct, the cragadile was lumbering after her but not very quickly. The first cragadile had responded to its neighbor's rage by pulling himself from its spot and joining in attacking the lavender unicorn that had disturbed them. Soon Twilight found herself backing away from two advancing enemies.
"Any tips to deal with them?"
"Yeah; heavy artillery. Their backs are heavily armored with years of stone."
Twilight looked down at her Multitool. The plates slid up, aside, and overlaid to form the barrel of the Pinkie Cannon, humming as it powered up. She swung her hoof up at the first cragadile and fired. The pink energy orb arced through the air and hit on the beast's back. The stone shards emerging from the cragadile's back shattered, the explosion blasting them apart. The beast roared and shuddered, smaller pieces of rock falling from its back as it moved. Twilight fired again, and the cragadile's stone-covered back cracked apart, a large slab sliding to the ground. Broken shards of rock were all that remained clinging to its skin. The beast took several steps back and collapsed on its stomach with a groan, its head hitting the ground.
The first cragadile was more cautious now and backing away. Twilight levelled her Multitool at it and thrust it forward. The cragadile growled and snapped its jaws, but kept edging back.
"Spike, how's the other one?"
"He'll have a killer headache for a few hours, but he's fine."
"Good, we're out of here then. Make sure we don't backpedal on a third somewhere behind me."
"Will do."
Keeping the Pinkie Cannon pointed forward, Twilight slowly edged around the two cragadiles. The one she had attacked was still, but she saw an eye slide open to watch her as she passed. The first also kept its eyes on her, but didn't advance. Twilight kept facing them until she was around the other side and several hooves away, then lowered her cannon and turned to gallop. A glance behind her confirmed the cragadiles weren't following her, and she slowed down again.
The journey further along the gorge had Twilight on edge. Spike confirmed that the terrain of the region and their natural armor disrupted his scans, so he hadn't picked up the second cragadile until Twilight was almost on top of it. Now she kept her eyes trained on every outcropping of rock to see the threats for herself, in addition to keeping on alert for the Shadow Hunters. A few more cragadiles emerged from the landscape, but Twilight kept her distance and they didn't bother her. One jumped up and snapped at her once she had passed it, but she was able to run away from it easily.
Looming ahead was the end of the gorge now, and Twilight trotted to reach it faster. Ghastly Gorge merged with a small mountain range at its northern end, where the river that ran through it connected to a nearby mash system. Twilight called up her map. These were the precise coordinates the Shadow Hunters had indicated.
"So, we're here. Where are they?" Twilight stepped out to look over the cliff. A long, narrow bridge of stone extended over this end of the canyon, pillars of rock stretching from below to support the bridge. As far as she could tell the gorge had once ended at the bridge, then the rocks had fallen away behind it leaving the path standing. The wind whistled past this close to the end of the canyon, creating a strong gust over the bridge. Twilight cautiously looked down. The canyon tapered off below, but it was still certainly a long, fatal fall. The path over it was a few hooves wide, enough for a few ponies to march side-by-side, but it would be an uncomfortable trip.
"I'm scanning something coming in from the east," Spike reported. Twilight turned her head, and assumed a fighting stance. A streak of grey was flying towards her, not nearly as fast as Rainbow Dash, but it was coming. She waited and looked at her hoof. The Pinkie Cannon was still active, the cannon barrel humming into the ground. "Um… this trajectory… hang on…" Spike's confusion made her hesitate, and Twilight watched as the incoming pegasus flew over her head.
"Wh-whoa!" The pegasus cried out and clumsily turned in the air, her hooves running on empty air as she circled back around. She flew into the rock bridge, catching her hooves on it while the rest of her body kept going. The result was the pegasus face-planting on the hard stone, her hind hooves still weakly kicking at the air for a moment before going limp.
"Uh, is that her?" Twilight whispered to Spike, giving the pegasus an odd look as she lifted her head and shook it vigorously. She had a long blonde mane and tail, steel covered her flank, only the tail emerging. Her right hoof was a Multitool, and the left half of her face was cybernetic, a bionic yellow-orange eye peering out over the canyon. At least, Twilight thought it was, the eye was rolling around in its socket, coming to rest in a slightly cross-eyed position.
"Hang on a sec," the pegasus called to her, standing up and stumbling slightly. She looked at Twilight, revealing a normal eye on the right side of her face. With an irritated grunt she raised her hoof and banged it on the metal half of her face, three metallic clangs ringing in the air. The bionic eye began to focus, whirs and clicks coming from it as the iris widened and shrank. She blinked rapidly and the eye finally fixed in place to stare forward. The pegasus smiled. "Hi there!"
"Um, hi," Twilight replied. She peered at the grey pegasus, confused. "Can I help you?"
The pegasus raised a hoof to scratch the natural side of her head. "I dunno. I don't think I need help. I'm Derpy."
"I can see that." Twilight muttered under her breath. Speaking louder now, she took a step towards Derpy. "Um, well, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to meet somepony!" Derpy said brightly. "You wouldn't happen to know who Twilight Sparkle is, do you?" Twilight's eyes widened.
"No…" She whispered in her head. "She can't be."
"She can. I'm scanning a massive amount of system corruption," Spike replied. He shared Twilight's disbelief, and Twilight let out an audible groan, her head slumping down.
Derpy cocked her head. "You okay there? Have you seen her?"
"Is it weird I kinda want to tell her the truth?" Twilight thought to herself more than Spike. She looked up. "No. But, uh, she might be around here somewhere."
"Well I've got time, I'll let them know I'm here." An antenna extended from behind Derpy's metal ear, and she raised her Multitool to her mouth, a metal plate on the hoof sliding down to reveal a small microphone. "GPT, this is Derpy, come in GPT."
"So, this is going to seem like a stupid question, but… what now?" Twilight asked Spike. The hologram shrugged.
"Make the first move and be gentle?" Twilight turned her attention back to Derpy.
"Yup, right on time, in position. No sign of Twilight Sparkle yet, nopony else here except a unicorn, and she hasn't seen her either… huh?" Derpy turned her head back to Twilight and leaned around to look at her from an angle. "Yeah… yeah…" Suddenly, her expression changed, and Twilight gulped. Derpy's bionic eye drooped down, and both eyelids narrowed into a glare a moment later. "Oh," Derpy said coldly. "My bad." She dropped down to all four as the antenna retracted into her head and her Multitool began to transforms, vents opening on the sides and the bottom widening.
Twilight laughed nervously. "Well, uh, did the report go well?"
"Yup," Derpy replied, her wings flaring. Her eyes flashed a familiar red.
"Ponyfeathers."
Derpy took off flying towards Twilight, and she ducked down to let the pegasus go over her head. Above her, Derpy flew straight up, and tucked in her wings and hooves. She dropped like a stone, her flank slamming into the cliff below. The impact sent cracks running along the ground, a deep rumbling echoing in the air. As Twilight watched, the cliff and part of the bridge fell away, the path crumbling into the abyss below.
"The other side!" Twilight spun and broke into a gallop, but she saw the grey streak shoot past her faster than her hooves could carry her. Derpy slammed her flank down on the opposite cliff and it collapsed as well, leaving Twilight stranded on the rock bridge. Twilight looked over the edges of the bridge and began to panic. Derpy floated down in front of her, hovering in the air.
"Okay, so now that we've got the introductions outta the way." Derpy crossed her front hooves. "We need to have a talk about where we go from here."
"Um, well, usually this is the part where I fight somepony," Twilight said, confused.
"Sure, we could do that. Or, we can discuss some alternatives," Derpy said. "The Master has told us a lot about you. You look like just any other unicorn, but there's something special about you, isn't there?"
"Me?" Twilight shook her head. "I'm just trying to do what anypony would do when ponies are in trouble."
"Nah, there's definitely something different with you. With nothing more than a Multitool and some healing gel, you beat up a lot of our robots, knocked out a lot of our berserk ponies, and rescued all five of Celestia's aides, after beating them each in a straight-up fight." Derpy counted off Twilight's deeds and put her hooves on her hips, staring at the unicorn expectantly.
"I guess I'm just resourceful," Twilight offered.
"No, that's not it. Or maybe it is, I dunno. Point is, somepony like you could come in handy." Derpy floated closer. "The Master is the rightful ruler of Equestria. Once Celestia the Usurper falls, our Master will bring forth a new era of pony unity. You can't stop her, you've only faced her through a proxy, in her true form the Master is invincible. But, she is not without mercy. You seem to care about the Usurper's aides, and the Master has considered-"
"I know where you're going with this," Twilight said. Derpy made a face at being interrupted. "Forget it. I've seen what your Master does to ponies, and how she plans to conquer Equestria. Whatever she's done to your mind has blinded you to that. But I'm going to free you from her, and the other Shadow Hunters too."
Derpy rolled her eyes. Or rather, she rolled her biological eye; her cybernetic eye just wiggled in place a little.
"Oh well! Was worth a shot."
Derpy raised her Multitool over her head and swung it down to point it at Twilight. Twilight saw wisps of air be drawn into the vents on the side, and with a growing hum, the Multitool fired. Twilight ran away, ready to avoid the attack. To her surprise though, the Multitool shot out a puffy grey cloud, which slowly floated down to rest beside the path. Derpy swung her hoof to the side and fired again, then again, then again. As Twilight watched, a row of clouds lined up along the stone path, a few stray ones floating over her head.
"Uh, this is new…" she looked around at them, turning in place. Derpy raised her Multitool to her face and blew a wisp of cloud matter away from the end.
"Thanks for letting me get ready before we do this."
Twilight's eyes widened slightly. "Get ready?"
Derpy smiled, then tucked in her wings. She dove and put out all four hooves, her wings retracting. She landed on the closest cloud, slamming her hooves into it. The cloud's dark grey rolls grew darker, and flashed yellow. A blast of lightning shot out of the side towards Twilight, and she yelped and ducked to the ground. The bolt shot over her head, the air crackling, and another cloud absorbed it.
"Uh-oh."
Derpy made a face and hopped again, another lightning bolt firing from the cloud. Twilight rolled to avoid it and raised the Pinkie Cannon. The pink energy orb fired, and Derpy drew her hooves up and dropped through the cloud. The Pinkie Cannon shot through it and sailed through the air, a distant explosion coming from the gorge below. Derpy flew up on the other side of the stone path and hopped on another cloud. Twilight ran out of the way of the lightning and fired again, but Derpy moved too fast to hit.
As Derpy landed on the next cloud and Twilight kept running, her hoof extended and shifted, and she turned to fire the Apple Whip. Derpy flapped her wings and was airborne again, the whip shooting to its full length and falling down. Twilight pulled her hoof back to hasten the chain retracting and thought.
"Same problem as Rainbow Dash; pegasi are're too maneuverable in open quarters. Rare Shield wouldn't do any good against lightning, would it?"
"Unlikely, luminance gems only absorb magic, not electricity. And a shock of that power could potentially short out the Multitool components in the gems," Spike replied. Derpy stomped another cloud and Twilight skidded to a halt as a bolt of lightning shot in front of her.
"Flutter Stare would probably work, but if she's flying around like this and gets paralyzed…"Twilight glanced down at the gorge stretching below her as she ran. Even if Derpy was a Shadow Hunter, her eyes had the same red light as Celestia's aides. If she was the Master's controlled servant, Twilight couldn't let her drop to her doom helpless.
With only one option left, Twilight gave the mental command. Her hoof opened up three vents on its sides, the bottom retracted to reveal a grating and a propeller formed behind it. Derpy was close behind her, eyes closed as she bounced from cloud to cloud, her hooves generating more lightning blasts with each hop. Twilight jumped to avoid a particularly low-aimed blast and turned in the air, landing on her back. Pointing her hoof down, her Multitool whirred to life and fired the Rainbow Tornado.
A long, cylindrical blast of air emerged from Twilight's hoof, a rumbling tempest aiming towards Derpy. The cyclone tore the three clouds in its path into puffs of vapor, and Derpy fell down as she tried to jump on one of them. She cried out in surprise and awkwardly flew back into the air. With a break in the attacks, Twilight rolled to her stomach and turned her head about, firing several magic blasts. Derpy took them in the chest and recoiled in the air. She dropped out of sight and Twilight's shots went past her and vanished in the distance.
"That wasn't very nice!" Twilight turned to her head to the other side of the path as Derpy flew up, glaring at her. She pulled her wings in, her momentum fading, and fired her hoof down to create a storm cloud over Twilight's head. She descended, hooves pointed, and Twilight ran as a crackle of thunder split the air and lightning struck the path where she had been a moment before. Derpy's cloud began to follow her, Derpy raising her Multitool and slamming it down. The cloud rumbled and flashed several times, and Twilight turned and fled. Several lightning blasts shot from the cloud, Twilight looking over her shoulder and rolling to avoid one. The gorge below met her gaze when she stopped and she scrambled to her hooves.
Derpy raised her front hooves in the air, and Twilight spun and fired the Rainbow Tornado before she could bring them down. The tempest sliced through the storm cloud, and Derpy dropped to the stone path with a grunt, her cybernetic eye rolling. Twilight ran towards her and fired as many energy bolts as she could at Derpy's side. Derpy pushed out with her hooves and rolled off the path, flying through the air. Twilight stood on her hind hooves with her Multitool charged, looking around for Derpy.
She saw movement and turned to see Derpy flying sideways through the air with her front two hooves held out. Derpy fly into a storm cloud and pushed it forward, lightning sparking out of it. Twilight fired the Rainbow Tornado and Derpy flew up out of the way. The tornado ripped the storm cloud apart, electricity fizzling out in the air. Above, Derpy tucked her hooves in and dropped. Another part of the stone bridge cracked apart and collapsed into the gorge, and Twilight suddenly found her lone safety platform much shorter.
"You can't win this!" Derpy yelled, shooting another storm cloud from her Multitool and delivering it a diving kick. Twilight jumped away as the cloud hit the stone path and burst into a crackle of electricity.
"You don't really want to hurt me!" Twilight called out.
"Wanna bet?" Derpy replied, shooting out several storm clouds to float over her head. Twilight zigzagged along the path as the pegasus bounced along them overhead, lightning raining down around her.
"Yeah! Deep down I think you want me to free you, because if you just wanted me dead, you could destroy this platform like you just did and let me fall!"
Derpy's bouncing stopped and she hovered in the air, bionic eye swirling about with a whir of machinery as she stared forward. Twilight looked up at her, and Derpy's face lit up in a wide grin.
"Great idea!"
Twilight's jaw dropped.
"What the hay were you thinking!?" Spike raged in her head. "If I had real limbs I'd shake you!"
Derpy dropped down from the sky, her steel flank hitting the platform. Another section of the stone bridge shattered, the support column for the smaller section that had broken away falling back and crumbling when it hit the cliff. Twilight thought quickly and fired the Rainbow Tornado. The dust blew Derpy back and Twilight got a few shots in, but Derpy recovered quickly and fired several more storm clouds. The air was full of the grey puffs of vapor now, and Twilight found herself looking between them trying to track Derpy with her vision limited. Another impact alerted her to another section of the platform being destroyed.
"Well, we're about to die. Any more bright ideas?" Spike asked.
"Yes!" Twilight snapped, her hoof humming loudly.
"Oh goodie."
Ignoring him, Twilight sent a command to her saddle. A hatch clicked open and she seized one of Celestia's energy pellets in her magic grip, and moved it to a slot in the side of her saddle. The capsule clicked into place and lit up a bright yellow.
"When I get low on power, use it!" she ordered. Twilight fired the Rainbow Tornado, dispersing one part of the storm clouds surrounding her. There was the sound of shattering stone again and she fired in response. The Rainbow Tornado tore through the air again and again, the storm clouds clearing. The path was still full of storm clouds on all sides, but Twilight got a fix on Derpy coming down again. She ran forward, her hoof clicking apart and elongating. A mental warning from her saddle came that her Multitool's generator was almost drained. The energy capsule on her saddle went dark as Spike drained its energy, and her hoof recharged.
"Derpy!" Twilight held out her hoof as Derpy stopped and stared at her, surprised to see her. Twilight fired her Multitool and the claw of the Apple Whip shot out, the chain clinking in the air. Derpy reacted too slowly this time and the claw clamped down on her Multitool, pulling her down towards Twilight. Twilight snapped the claw over her head and Derpy came down on the platform behind her, bouncing. Twilight dropped to all floors and her saddle hummed, the lights on it glowing brighter. The Flutter Stare flashed and Derpy collapsed to her stomach, groaning. Twilight reached her and pointed her horn at Derpy's chest, glowing brightly with violet magic.
"Yield." Twilight was panting, her eyes wide. Derpy looked up at her and scowled.
"Not likely!" Derpy's hoof swung up against Twilight's saddle, and Twilight dropped down to avoid a cloud shooting into her side. Derpy growled and rolled, flinging her through the air. Twilight held out her hoof as she went flying from the platform and fired the Apple Whip again. The claw bit into the stone and Twilight swung, the chain going taut. She flew under the rock bridge to the other side and up into the air. She looked down and had a flash of insight.
"Time for one more bright idea!" The Apple Whip loosed and retracted, and Twilight fell as the chain coiled back up her hoof. Her horn lit up in a magic aura as she dropped, Derpy staring at her in confusion. Bracing herself, Twilight looked down and felt the spell take effect.
Twilight's descent halted, her body bouncing slightly. Adrenaline pumped through her body as she realized her gambit worked, and looked down at Derpy. The pegasus was staring up at her with wide eyes as Twilight perched proudly on one of her storm clouds.
"But… you're not… how!?"
Twilight smirked in triumph.
"Cloud-walking spell."
Derpy's face twisted in recognition, and she yelled angrily, wings flapping furiously. Twilight jumped down to the path to avoid her charge, shooting magic blasts up in the air. Derpy came back down to tackle her and Twilight leapt on to another cloud, shooting at Derpy as she passed by. Derpy circled up in the air to come back, and Twilight raised her Multitool and fired the Rainbow Tornado. Derpy's flight path shook and wobbled, and several magic blasts crackled against her underside before she stabilized and swooped lower to avoid the attacks. As Twilight tried to pin her down, Derpy flew through several of the clouds she had created, dispersing them and sending blasts of lightning through the air. Twilight jumped between stone and cloud and cloud again as the bolts almost hit her a few times. Her coat was standing on end from the electricity in the air.
"Now the trick is ending this fight before we run out of clouds." Twilight shot a stream of bolts as Derpy flew past her overhead, her coat lighting up violet as they narrowly missed her. An idea came to her and looked down at the now quite small stone platform weaving under the clouds. "Spike, analyze her flight patterns, get me trajectories and follow them as she moves."
"Why?"
"Trust me."
Twilight's display appeared, a red dot circling around her. A ghostly red arrow emerged in front of the dot, turning to point in new directions as Derpy turned to swoop through the air. Twilight waited until it straightened into the correct path, and sent the mental command to her saddle.
The lights of the Flutter Stare flashed, and Derpy dropped, her wings going slack. She crashed into a storm cloud, a blast of lightning shooting up her limbs on impact, and bounced off it to land on the stone platform. From her perch up above, Twilight fired down as many energy blasts as she could, bombarding Derpy's flank.
"Hold up!"
Twilight stopped as Spike cut in and watched. Slowly, Derpy climbed to her hooves, staggering back and forth. Her face twisted in a dazed expression, bionic eye rolling around the edge of its socket.
"Derpy?" Twilight jumped down to examine her. "You okay?"
Derpy's bionic eye drooped down as her biological eye focused on Twilight. She giggled slightly, then frowned.
"…I just don't know what went wrong…"
Derpy's eyes closed and her hooves collapsed under her, spraying out as she fell on her stomach. The sound of her steel flank hitting the stone echoed out into the air, and she was still.
"We did it, I think…" Spike sounded just as perplexed by the battle as Twilight was.
"Yeah. That was… something." Twilight looked over Derpy to confirm the pegasus was unconscious. "Anything of use in her databanks?"
"Let's have a look and find out."
Twilight's saddle clicked and hummed as Spike worked, Twilight looking herself over while she did. Although she didn't want to think about what Derpy's lightning blasts could have done to her if she had been hit, she had been able to avoid them easily enough. The electricity shooting around her had frazzled her mane and coat, but she wasn't seriously harmed.
"This will be useful," Spike said. Twilight looked down at her Multitool, still in the form of the Rainbow Tornado. The weapon elongated slightly and the vent on the end slid apart and folded up into the main construct. A small prong emerged on one side of the hoof and slid forward. "Go ahead, try it out." Twilight lifted her hoof and aimed, then fired. A fluffy white cloud emerged from her hoof and floated in the air a few hooves in front of her.
"The cloud Multitool isn't all that different from Rainbow Dash's tornado version in terms of structure, its just the minor details," Spike explained. "Instead of vacuuming in wind on the sides and jetting it out at an accelerated rate with focused intensity, we saturate it with water vapor and supercool it to create clouds."
"Great. What about the lightning?" Twilight asked.
"Well, pegasi rely on their innate magic to avoid shocking themselves most of the time. We don't have that of course, so I configured it to send the clouds out with a smaller charge, not enough to produce lightning yet. The prong on the side of your hoof will jolt them up over the threshold and shoot the lightning in the opposite direction where you made contact. Your hoof is already insulated, so any risk of the current coming back to shock you is minimal."
Twilight looked at her Multitool and focused energy into the prong, seeing it start to spark slightly. She raised her hoof and slammed it into the cloud in front of her. The cloud turned grey and a bolt of lightning shot out the other side, going forward a few hooves before it fizzled out. Twilight grinned.
"A unicorn replicating pegasus magic with a consumer Multitool. Spike, you're a genius!"
"Oh, I don't know about that." Spike's hologram puffed out its chest. "I'm just doing what any hyper-intelligent assistant program would do."
"Well, you do it well. Now then." Twilight fired a cloud in front of her and walked across it, then fired another. Looking behind her, she lifted Derpy in her telekinetic grip and slung the pegasus over her saddle. Slowly she built herself a cloud bridge back to the gorge, and soon was jumping down to solid ground again. She let out a breath and knelt to slide Derpy to the ground.
"Spike, call up Celestia." Twilight sat and called up her display. It blinked and flashed, Celestia's face appearing in front of her.
"Twilight! Thank goodness you're safe." Celestia smiled. "Is it over then?"
"Sadly, no. It looks like only one of them was out here waiting for us, a pegasus named Derpy. We were able to subdue her. I can confirm as well that the Shadow Hunters, even if they are the Master's best servants, are not willingly following her."
"Understood, and good to hear. I'll bring Derpy back to Canterlot and hopefully we can restore her."
Derpy vanished behind Twilight as she continued. "I'm not sure where the other two Shadow Hunters are, but they're likely not far if they called me out here. I was thinking Spike and I could investigate the area."
"Are you sure? Twilight, I know you want to stop them from hurting their captives, but there are other matters I could use your help with." Celestia gave her student a worried look.
"You said we need those program fragments your aides were working on, right? Do you have them yet?"
"Sadly no, the massive amounts of system corruption have delayed my efforts to interface with them and retrieve the data. It's going to take time."
"Then there's nothing we can do to fight the Master until we have them, so I might as well try to stop his servants in the meantime. Right?" Twilight looked at her mentor expectantly, and Celestia reluctantly nodded.
"I suppose so. I shall contact you the moment we've extracted the five fragments successfully, at that time please return to Canterlot. Until then, be careful."
"I will, Princess. Thank you." Celestia's hologram vanished, and Twilight looked back at Spike. "Any clues on where to find the next Shadow Hunter?"
"Well, I'm scanning the area, and look at this." Spike brought up Twilight's map, zoomed out to a larger view of the gorge and surrounding environs. A large glowing cloud of light was around the area north of their location. "I'm detecting a massive amount of signal interference from the north around Froggy Bottom Bog. Judging from how strong it is, there's a severely corrupted pony there."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Twilight closed her display and turned to the end of Ghastly Gorge where the gorge bottom began to curve up and the river flowed down from the marshlands not far away. Her Multitool reconfigured back to its default setting, and she set off, the steel clanking against the stone. She only got a few steps because she heard a loud rumbling.
Twilight turned to look over the gorge and saw what was left of the stone platform she had fought Derpy on collapse. The pillars holding it up crumbled and the entire construct fell into the gorge, the sounds of rock hitting rock echoing up. Twilight gulped.
"And if we find one of them, let's make sure we fight on solid ground," Spike suggested.
"Agreed."
"Your Grace."
Celestia turned as the doors to her lab slid open and Valiant Spirit entered. He looked spooked, his eyes wide and nervous.
"What is amiss, Lieutenant?"
"We received a transmission from a pegasus guard, Private Regal Tempest, part of the force dispatched to the Everfree with Captain Gilded Stalwart. Private Tempest's report indicates that something befell their group, and he was the only one able to escape to Ponyville." Valiant Spirit hesitated before continuing. "We attempted to lock onto him and teleport him to safety, but it seems the distortion that was jamming our signals this morning has returned to the town. His transmission was lost."
"I see… thank you, Lieutenant."
"Do you have any further orders regarding the town, Your Grace?"
Celestia thought. "Issue a civilian warning to avoid Ponyville at all costs, and cease all transportation and teleportation to the town. Contact Rainbow Falls and tell them to send a weather team to us immediately, send them with an escort to move storm clouds over the town. The official story is that unexpected tornado activity has blown over the town and travel to Ponyville is not safe in such conditions."
"I will do as you ask, Your Grace, but surely there is more we can do?" Valiant Spirit looked at her pleadingly, and Celestia shook her head.
"No. This is a threat that I'm afraid even you most loyal and fierce ponies could not overcome. I thank you for your service, Lieutenant, but all you can do is what I have ordered now."
Valiant Spirit bowed and left the room. Celestia let out a long breath and looked at her console. A map of Equestria blinked to life, zooming in on the mountains south of Ponyville and showing a six-pointed purple star blinking at them.
"If she is moving out now, then there is only one hope to stop her. Please hurry, Twilight… we may not have much time…"
LEVEL COMPLETE
WEAPON ACQUIRED – DERPY THUNDER