Deviation Actions
Description
Captain Solid Shot story had reached its climax in my Equestria Dreamscape. The crowd of ponies gathered around him that afternoon was hanging on his every word.
“For several seconds Stone Spines and the Royal Sisters just stared at each other. Then Celestia roared in a voice like breaking thunder that shook the very mountain we stood upon.”
‘STONE SPINES! FLAME HIDE! YOU FIENDS! BY BEING HERE YOU HAVE BROKEN THE TREATY OF FIREGLADE! YOU HAVE ATTACKED AND KILLED OUR SUBJECTS WITHOUT REASONABLE CAUSE! I NOW GIVE YOU TWO CHOICES! YIELD AND SURRENDER TO LUNA AND MYSELF AND FACE WHAT JUSTICE WE DEEM FIT FOR YOU, OR WE WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN WHERE YOU STAND! WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER?’
“Stone Spines lowered his to look the Royal Sisters in the eyes, then he spoke.”
‘Oh Celestia!’ Purred the monster. “What pretty armor you and your sister have. It will look so nice on your corpses when I bring them back to council as my trophies at the end of this war! Flame Hide and I could care less about some treaty signed by the addle-brained former head of council. Bent Horn’s days as the head of the council are over, and so are Equestria’s! Those forces loyal to Flame Hide and I will not stop until all of Equestria is reduced to ash and every pony is meat in our belly. Your time in this world is over!’
The crowd gathered around Solid Shot growled at this bit of information. This was something that had not been reported in the papers. He continued his account of that evening.
“Celestia and Luna stood there unfazed by Stone Spines threats. Then Celestia spoke again, but this time to her forces. All of her forces.”
‘Soldiers of Equestria heed my words! All fliers are to immediately fly south of the Dartus River then land and take shelter and close their eyes. All ground forces in the immediate area are to seek shelter as they can find and close their eyes. All forces in Fort Shield, you will run your guns in. Close your shutters and seek shelter in the lower levels of the fort. You have your orders. Carry them out!’
“We were stunned by these orders. As soldiers we were sworn to protect realm, but now we were being asked yield the field of battle and leave our fate to the two ponies we had vowed to protect. Some how the Royal Sisters were aware of the hesitancy amongst their forces. Luna turned around and with eyes blazing white she roared at us.”
‘Soldiers you have been given your orders! Carry them out! Now!’
Solid Shot grimaced. “In my career I’ve been yelled at many a time by a superior officer, but never have words struck me like that. Every soldier who I’ve spoken to who was there that evening swears they thought that Luna was yelling at them specifically.”
“We began to carry out our first orders of closing our gun shutter. However this is when we discovered we had a problem. The force of Stone Spine magic detonating against the Royal Sisters force wall had been so violent that had it caused carriage stop on Massive Mare-e to shear off. With the stop no longer holding it the great steel barrel and sliding carriage assembly in place it had slid forward about a twenty inches or more, but we had been in the process of reloading and the mechanical rammer had been aligned with the bore. Now rammer was jammed in the barrel and we could not close our shutter with it sticking out of our firing aperture. Frantically we started yanking and pulling on the rammer, a couple of unicorns that were galloping to the lower levels of the fort stopped and assisted us. After much cursing we were able to wrench the rammer free. In the process the rammer arm tore free from the rest of the assembly, we pitched it out our firing aperture. Now we had to run Massive Mare-e in.”
“Now running Massive Mare-e out is easy since gravity and the great weight of the barrel makes it wants to slide down the friction carriage automatically. However running her up the angled slope of the friction carriage is something else, usually the gun is already run in because of it recoiling from the last firing but now we had to do manually. Quickly we attached ropes to back of her sliding barrel assembly then the gun team began working the capstans installed in the fort. Slowly, inch by inch the barrel became to move inward.”
“About then I became aware of a new sounds coming from the courtyard below. Over the sounds of ponies yelling and swearing, the creak of capstans and squeaks and groans of sliding carriage there was now a deep ominous throbbing sound that was building in intensity. I took a moment and looked out the aperture. Celestia was preparing her attack”
“The courtyard was floodlit with an intense cerulean blue glow that was emanating from the Princess of the Sun. Large arcs of bluish-purple electricity hundreds of yards in length were bursting from her armor into the early evening sky. They were twisting and weaving themselves into mesh that was forming massive half parabolic dish that covered all of Fort Shield. Around her horn were two pulsating spheres of bluish lights that were spinning and traveling slowly down length of it. As they approached the tip they pulsated with greater and greater intensity. This was the source of the throbbing sound.”
“Luna was still standing by her sisters side and appeared to be preparing something herself. Instead of glowing her armor appeared to emitting black jagged lances of magic that danced around her body like giant black, spastic spider legs. Hovering in front her were two orbs of different sizes, smaller was orbiting the larger. Between the two orbs was a band of twinkling lights. As I watched three of the twinkling lights increased in intensity. Then a black globe enveloped the Princess of the Moon.”
“Stone Spine through all this had not been standing by idly. His eyes were now glowing with the greenish yellow light as his flame. Even his very hide was now beginning to glow in that same hideous green yellow light. A deep rumble of growing ferocity was coming from him. However as I watched I saw Flame Hide launch himself into the air and flee.”
“Massive Mare-e was almost fully run in now. I yanked the emergency lever that cut the counter weight from the shutter. The three-inch thick steel shutter swung down and slammed into Massive Mare-e’s muzzle making the whole barrel ring sharply. She still was not run far enough in. The sounds coming from the courtyard were reaching a horrifying crescendo. The light blazing in from crack between the shutter and stonework was now blinding in its intensity. I went to push my shoulder against the sliding carriage and suddenly I got a sharp static shock from the steel. Other members of my crew were now cursing and swearing as static arcs started jumping from any metal objects in the area.”
“This was bad because even a small static charge can set off a gunpowder charge. In fact we often wear felt overshoes on particularly dry days just as a safety precaution. Now I had a sinking feeling in my belly as Massive Mare-e’s barrel and carriage crackled with electrical energy. The compass mounted on the firing solution table next to her was spinning madly. Then everything happened at once.”
“There was a flash in the courtyard so brilliant that even with just a tiny sliver of an opening left between shutter and wall everything vanished in a burst bluish-white light. We didn’t hear the explosion so much as felt it since it was deafening in its intensity. It violently slammed the steel shutter closed, unfortunately that either created a spark or the static charge had finally become too great in Massive Mare-e. The two powder charges in her barrel went off now in an enclosed room. The combination of explosions threw my crew like rag dolls against the back wall. Mare-e’s muzzle was basically flush against the steel shutter, and since she was effectively already at her fully recoiled position on the sliding carriage the results were catastrophic. The gun crashed into the back of her mount causing the carriage transverse post to rip out of the stonework! Free from any restraint Massive Mare-e slammed into the wall behind her with a sickening crash. A midst all this violence I lost consciousness.”
To be continued.
