I LIED: HAHAHAHAHAHA! *Shot*
Chapter 21 H: Oh look, a bridge!
"The tests where successful as planned. We have finally made the first working atomic weapons and they will soon be massed produced as requested. All that are caught in it's light are wiped away from the face of the earth without a trace. There is nothing that can hide or run from itsdestructive power. This war will soon be over." Flash stated with pride.
"Yeah that's real nice." Maneful bluntly stated as the elements of disharmony played with the snow beneath them. "But you mentioned a red stallion and a purple mare, so what about them."
"The purple mare's name is Twilight, the element of magic. Did Death Fire's reprogramming erase all your brain cells as well?"
"What reprogramming?" Maneful asked confused.
Flash blinked a few times before coughing.
"You don't get the joke do you?" Flash said, covering up his mistake.
"I don't need your jokes, I need answers! Where did they go?!" Maneful demanded.
Flash was about to retaliate with harsh words but remembered quickly who he was talking to.
"You don't need to worry about them anymore."
"Why not?"
"I assure you, they are nothing but ash and will never threaten us again."
"You used the bomb on them?!" Maneful asked in anger. "They were wanted alive by Death Fire and you just killed them?"
"Twilight was suppose to be dead years ago. I simply finished the job that our leader failed to do. Lord Fire will congratulate me and award me with vast wealth for what I have done today. The last hope for the rebellion has been destroyed. Nothing will save them now."
"Did you see them die, did you actually witness their demise?" Eccentric asked with curiosity.
"There was no need….there was no escape for them. I simple relished in their suffering." Flash stated with a dark chuckle.
"So you foolishly cut off connection and just assumed they would stay put to die!" Maneful yelled.
Flash's eyes twitched in anger.
"What do you know about my tactics and strategy! What do you know about war and destruction! You're just a fallen princess who lost her father to the war! Your nothing to me, you're a failure just like Sombra was! YOU LOST YOUR HOME BECAUSE YOU WERE WEAK! SO YOU WILL TREAT ME WITH RESPECT YOU WORTHLESS-
Maneful grabbed his neck and held him in the air, choking him. The guards around Flash were about to attack until the other diselements stood around Maneful and gazed at them a look of warning.
"Ever since you were promoted you have done nothing but run your mouth and proclaim your name for glory. Slaughtered thousands just so you could get our lord's approval, but do you ever wonder why you aren't at the top. Do you wonder why you can't seem to reach your goals and ambitions? Because you are just like everyone one else….worthless and without a purpose. You are the very definition of pride and arrogance and it is why you will soon be replaced….and disposed of…."
Maneful dropped the general and walked over his body, making a statement.
"Twilight is alive because you underestimated her and her companion. They will soon make contact with the rebels and it will be because of your carelessness. If a simple bomb was enough to destroy them then why did Lord Fire command us to apprehend them if they were such easy targets."
Maneful signaled to the others to follow.
"Know your enemies before they know you or I will end you myself."
Flash stood up to his hooves and grit his teeth in rage.
"When this war ends….we will see who gets the last laugh." Flash whispered to himself.
The guards walked up to flash slowly and with slight fear.
"What are your orders?" A timid guard asked.
Flash, completely enraged, screamed and took out his gun, shooting the guard in the head.
"Search the area! Find those traitors and bring them here or I will kill every last one of you!"
The guards scrambled into the forest in fear, leaving only him and several machine ponies behind. He turned to his creations and looked back into the forest.
"No one ever speaks to me that way or will ever again….I'll make sure of that."
"Go! Go! Go!" Night Shadow yelled, deflecting multiple laser and magical blasts away from Twilight and Lighting Dust.
The two mares quickly slid under a fallen tree while Night Shadow continued to walk backwards, returning fire to the soldiers that had followed them. Lasers, plasma, bullets, and anything else you could think of was being fired at Night Shadow in an attempt to slow him down. The red stallion quickly jumped over the fallen tree and caught up with the mares, running beside them.
"You said you left your transport close by! Where is this thing?!" Twilight yelled, jumping over a ditch.
"It's close if you're flying, I didn't think we were going to be running!" Lightning replied.
"How much farther?!" Night Shadow asked.
"It's just past this bridge."
"There's always something isn't it!"
When they came out of the forest, seeing the metal bridge, they witnessed four large tanks roll onto the bridge and form a roadblock dead in the center. Two cybotic ponies then jumped over the tanks and pointed their guns down range. Night Shadow jumped forward and formed a shield, deflecting the disintegrator blasts as they made contact with the shield. Seconds later the tanks turned their guns and aimed right at Night Shadow.
"Keep running!" Night Shadow encouraged.
"But what about the-
"I know, I know!" Night Shadow yelled, changing up his horn.
The guards pursuing them appeared from out of the forest and began to fire at them from behind. Placing the shield behind the group, Night Shadow fired a magic blast forward, parting the road block in half right as the tanks fired. Because of that they hit the bridge supports, forcing the bridge to shake violently and almost collapse.
"Get to the end of the bridge, now!" Night Shadow shouted.
The red pony stopped dead in his tracks and turned around just in time to slap away a missile with his magic, firing back with a few energy blasts. The machine ponies and the stallion guards slowly got back to their hooves, focusing fire on Night Shadow and allowing the two mares to reach to other end of the bridge. Twilight turned around and looked back with worry, realising the bridge would give way at any moment.
"Twilight, the transport is just over this hill, come on!" Lightning said.
"I'm not leaving without him." Twilight stated.
"Sure you can, he's doing fine."
Several lasers flew past their heads as a rocket exploded in the background.
"I'm not leaving him." Twilight stated again.
"Are you crazy! He told you to-
"I know what he told me but that doesn't mean I have to listen to him."
"Do you not see what's going on right in front of you?! You're going to get yourself killed!"
"Like I haven't been told that before."
Twilight ran back to the bridge, leaving Lightning alone and annoyed.
"Why do you heros have to be so stubborn." She asked, turning around to get to her vehicle.
As this was happening, Night Shadow grabbed the two nearest tanks with magic and slammed them together before him, shattering their armor. With a strong compression blast, he threw the tanks forward, forcing them to barrel over on their sides and steamroll anything in their way. The two remaining tanks, completely ignored, aimed their cannons at the unicorn and fired. Night Shadow had no time to use magic and with a quick reaction, jumped into the air and barely dodged as he flipped in between their fire. It was then he noticed the tanks weren't firing shells at all, but rather high concentrations of magic mixed with energy, something he could actually control.
Before he could even carry out with his idea, the mechanical ponies closed in on him and engaged him in close quarters while the soldiers with real skin and bones fired from a distance. Finally able to differentiate machine from pony, he increased his power and fought off the machines with his hooves. Each punch, kick, smash, or blast would send them flying all over the bridge, some taking up to ten hits before going down. Even as he did this the ponies never let up as they continued to fire, turning the bridge into a deadly rave party. He could only dodge so much before a stray plasma bolt hit his right hoof, knocking him to the ground.
Two more hit his side as he quickly conjured a shield with his shot hoof, gritting his teeth in pain. The mechanical ponies behind him suddenly took on their blood red color as their eyes and hair changed, becoming just as violent as the ones from before. With his spare hoof, he pushed off the ground and spun, punching one of the machine ponies across the jaw to fire a burst of energy at the ponies firing at a distance. His pain skyrocketed when he roughly landed on his wounded hoof, forcing blood to spew out like a faucet.
"Twilight is going to kill me…." He whispered to himself as the machines tackled him to the ground.
To no real surprise, the machines were blasted off by lavender magic just in time. Twilight slide next to Night Shadow and formed a bubble of magic to shield off the gun fire.
"Do I even have to say it?" Twilight asked, oblivious to the tanks pointing their cannons right at her.
Night Shadow tripped Twilight with his hoof and reflected the blasts with magic, forcing them into the ceiling of the bridge.
"Why don't you ever listen to me?!" Night Shadow yelled.
"Isn't it obvious?!"
They both got to their hooves and stood beside each other. Twilight faced the soldiers and machines while Night Shadow faced the tanks and their way out. Together they formed an impenetrable field of magic that not even the toughest of weapons could penetrate.
"Any bright ideas?" Twilight asked over the noise of gunfire and explosions.
"You're the smart one, why don't you think of something?!" Night Shadow yelled.
"You're suppose to be the fighter here, why are you asking me?"
"Because you're the one who came back to save me. You're telling me you just ran in here without an escape plan?!"
"I thought you had one!"
"Does it look like I have one!"
Both ponies and machine inched closer and closer to them as they fired, threatening to break through the field.
"Why don't we teleport then?" Twilight asked.
"We tried that before and they still found us. We need a way to slow them down or stop them in their tracks."
"Blow up the bridge then!" Twilight jokingly suggested.
"That's a great idea!"
"No, I wasn't being-
Night Shadow blasted one of the remaining supports with an energy blast, causing the bridge tip on it's side. While the tanks slowly slide and crashed up against the safety rails of the bridge, the machine ponies adjusted to the situation and magnetized themselves to the floor. It didn't take long for them to close the distance between the two unicorns, but that didn't mean it was easier for them. Night Shadow only fought harder despite his wounds as Twilight desperately fed more power into the protective field. As Night Shadow dismantled the last machine, he noticed the last operational tank had aimed it's cannon at him once again.
"Twilight, drop the shield."
"Are you insane?!" She asked in panic. "They're still firing at us!"
"Just do it!"
Twilight closed her eyes and dropped the field. At that moment, Night Shadow grabbed her and flipped around her body right when the tank fired, kicking the blast into the crowd of soldiers firing upon them. The red stallion dashed to the tank and smashed it in the side just as it fired again, forcing it to blast another bridge support. When it tried to fire a third time, Night Shadow used his magic to sling the cannon to the side and made it blast away yet another bridge support. With only one support left, the bridge had become unstable, threatening to collapse at any given second. The tank, for the last time, reamed it's cannon for a final shot.
"If you blow up the bridge we won't have time to escape!" Twilight cried in worry.
"Neither will they." Night Shadow whispered.
Just before it fired, Night Shadow ran right up to the cannon and forced his hoof into the barrel. As it fired, the blast was pushed right back into the tank, forcing the blast to fly out from tank and explode in a display of purple fire. Night Shadow redirected the magical blast to swing back around so that it would fly right back at him. Just before it hit, the unicorn deflected the blast into the last support, causing the bridge to shake violently. The red pony grabbed Twilight's hoof and dashed to safety right when the bridge collapsed. He caught the ledge with his wounded hoof while holding onto Twilight tightly with his other hoof. With both his weight and Twilight's, it was only a matter of time before the pain would force him to fall.
Twilight watched as the bridge crashed into the valley below, clinging on for dear life.
"Now would be a good time to teleport, Twi!" Night Shadow cried in panic.
"But I used up all my magic on the force field! I don't have the energy to teleport now." Twilight said in shock.
"Of course you don't…." Night Shadow said bluntly, slowly slipping. "Well, we're dead."
Just as he slipped, Lightning Dust caught Night Shadow's hoof with her own, giving him a warm smile.
"We're even now." She stated.
The three ponies finally made it to the transport Lighting Dust had talked about. Turns out the "transport" was actually a fully fledged military aircraft. When asked how she acquired such a thing or how she learned to fly, she replied that they would find out when the time came. Meanwhile, Night Shadow attempted to hide the fact that he had been wounded during the fight, neglecting common sense in fear that Twilight would freak out. It became obvious though when Lightning saw Night Shadow limping on his hoof.
"You can't just ignore your body, you need to treat that wound." Lightning whispered.
"I will, just not in front of Twilight."
"Why are so paranoid that she will find out? Are you afraid she will see you as weak?"
"I don't want her to be worried. She's brave and courageous, but when it comes down to me being hurt she almost has a heart attack."
"She just cares about you, there's nothing wrong with that."
"It is when she suddenly becomes your mother. I hate seeing her worried about me constantly, especially since it happens so often.
"From what I remember, Twilight is a smart mare. She's going to find out eventually whether you like it or not. So you should just tell her….mares like it when a stallion is honest."
"Yeah, but the truth hurts sometimes. Please, don't tell her, I don't want her to be worried."
"Worried about what?" Twilight asked, stepping inside of the plane. "What are you two talking about?"
Lightning looked to Night Shadow before looking back to Twilight and sighing.
"Night Shadow's hurt."
"Lighting, I told you to not-
"NIGHT SHADOW'S HURT?!" Twilight screamed in terror.
"Twilight, it's nothing major, he's just-
Twilight threw Lightning out of the way with magic and quickly placed Night Shadow on a mattress on the ground.
"Why didn't you tell me?!" Twilight yelled as her eyes watered.
"Twilight, I'm fine! They just shot me a couple of-
"THEY SHOT YOU?! WHERE DID THEY SHOOT YOU?!"
"Once in the hoof and twice on the side…. *sigh*...please don't cry….you know I hate it when you cry."
"How can I not when you always try to play hero?! Why can't you just stick with the plan?!" Twilight yelled, tearing up.
"You act like this is the end of the world. I've been shot several times before, it's nothing new to me."
"Stop being so selfish?! Do you not understand how much I care about you."
"I do the things I do to protect you!" Night Shadow stated a he himself felt the wave of emotion.
"I don't need protection! I just need to know that you're by my side! So why do you keep doing this to yourself!"
"BECAUSE I'M AFRAID TO LOSE YOU!" Night Shadow said with tears. "I don't want to lose you like the others…..I refuse to let it happen again…."
Twilight and Lightning remained silent as Night Shadow took deep breaths. After what felt like an hour, Lightning turned and opened a compartment full of medical supplies for them to use.
"We're flying in five….I'll leave you alone until then." She said, stepping into the cockpit.
As promised, when the five minutes had passed, the plane was prepped for takeoff. Lightning came back into the room to inform Twilight to buckle down for the ride, knowing the turbulence could potentially be rough. Still worried about Night Shadow, Twilight insisted that they wait a day so he could rest. Lightning turned it down, informing her that Flash's army would soon discover their location. With that said, Lightning assisted Twilight with Night Shadow, securing him into a comfortable seat. As soon as Twilight did the same, Lighting returned to the cockpit and activated the main thrusters.
The jet gently ascended vertically into the air before the engines suddenly shifted and propelled the plane forward. Ten minutes later, Lighting set the jet to auto pilot and walked back to room to lay down and rest.
"If you have any questions, now is the time to ask them." Lightning said, stretching out her wings.
Twilight remained frozen while Night Shadow rested his eyes.
"Do you not have any?" Lightning asked.
"I do….it's just it's a lot to take in." Twilight said.
"I don't blame you for it. I was the same way when I was given my first assignment."
"First assignment?"
"I had to deliver five important packages across the globe, but that was a long time ago."
"How long ago?"
"Seven years….the day we lost the war."
"Oh….." Twilight whispered in regret. "So we've been gone for that long and already so much has happened."
"The day you vanished was the day Death Fire seized the throne of Equestria. From that point on everything only got worse. We were constantly pushed back no matter how hard we tried, always on the run. You have no idea what it's like, Twilight….what he's like…" Lightning whispered. "Death Fire is ruthless and a careless tyrant. He destroyed both Zebrafica and the Gryphon Kingdom just to take their land, killing over eighty percent of both their population to make a point. Those that survived are now mindless slaves working in factories or mine shafts."
"That's horrible…." Twilight whispered.
"We were there when the gryphon's capital fell. I had no idea what was going on at the time, but when I saw it...when I saw hundreds upon hundreds of bombs raining from the sky, crashing into houses full of gryphons oblivious to the attack….it just…."
Lightning shook as memories flooded her mind, almost forcing her to break down.
"The sounds of their screams….the sound children made when they saw their parents lying in a pool of blood….it's just too much."
"How did you escape?"
"We fled through the mountain passage to be escorted to the country of Whiteland. The Gryphon kingdom fell shortly after we left."
"What then?"
"We spent maybe two months at most in the city called Wolfshire before Death Fire tracked us down. It's where Celestia and her allies had their last stand against them."
"Is that when she…." Twilight said with sadness.
"I'm afraid so." Lighting said with remorse. "The battle lasted for hours and we had the upper hand at first, but the Diselements…...Death Fire changed them into savages. He turned my brother into a mindless murderer and forced them to obey without question. Those five ponies broke through our defense and allowed Death Fire's army to infiltrate the city. That's when Celestia gave me my first assignment and teleported me out of the city."
"But what did she give you?"
"Words of encouragement and a second chance."
"I have another question." Twilight said, wanting to change the discussion.
"What is it?"
"Before we left Celestia's old castle, Trixie told me this phrase, I still don't know what it means?"
"What did she say?"
"Where the world ends."
Twilight noticed Lightning's eyes dilate before she stood up and walked to the cockpit. Several moments passed before she returned with a map and laid it on the ground.
"Trixie gave the black book to you so you could locate us. Apparently she wasn't clear about enough though. The message she gave you is a message we are all given before we join. It's an initiation."
"An initiation?"
"A test to prove your determination to stop Death Fire."
"As much as I love tests, why do we need to prove ourselves?"
"It's a rule we have set for newcomers, there's no exception, not even for you."
Lightning unfolded the map, showing all of Equestria and the known world.
"I can, however, give you some advice." Lightning said.
She pointed to a location about a hundred miles away from the border of Equestria.
"This is around the location of where we just were."
She slide her hoof further west on the map, reaching the western shore line.
"This is where I have to stop for fuel and where you two will get off. You will go to the docks and talk to the dock master. When he asks you where you are going tell him what Trixie told you. The test will begin from that point on."
Twilight nodded and looked to Night Shadow, who had fallen asleep in his seat.
"When do we land?" Twilight asked.
"Two hours….get some rest until then." Lightning said, returning back to the cockpit. "You're going to need it."