Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 21: Fortified

Desert Mirage opened her eyes and pushed herself up from her bed, looking at the clock. It was still early, but she had a lot to do, and that included buying some normal clothes that would fit her. She stood up, stretched and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. It felt weird, showering in this body, and it was supremely strange to have Mirage's hair smell of fruits and spices instead of gun oil and gunpowder.

At least her jacket still felt right on her.

As Mirage checked on her old body just as Cadance had instructed, she had to admit it was a good thing Luna had stayed over. She had originally just given her bed to Luna, hoping to have some company in the apartment, while she slept in the sofa... but she had tossed and turned around until Luna had emerged from the master room and dragged her in there to cuddle, resulting in "Sleepy Mirage" passing out seconds after announcing her new name.

Luna was gone however, having stayed true to her intention of leaving early to make it in time to school and now Mirage was alone with her comatose self. Despite the strangeness of the act, performing range of motion exercises was a bit calming. She could feel her own pulse when she held her body's arm up and it gave her some hope that she would be alright in the end.

If she still appeared as logged in, she might be able to just step into GGO with Twilight's help and logout from there. They'd just need to somehow do that while establishing a FullDive connection with an unconscious mind. She didn't know if that was even possible.

However, it appeared that as long—as there was an active WiFi connection around—she still communicate with others she had friended in GGO. If the book was there... her few in-game friends would help her find it, she was sure.

Acting on a hunch, she replied to Surgeon's email.

Hey boss, Sorry about that, my connection reset, but NMM tells me at least it didn't happen fully until the level boss died. Which is good, I'd rather not let my hard work go ignored. Btw, in the logout I might have dropped an item. It's a book with unreadable text in it. Did you guys happen to see it there? ~Mirage

It was too early for any of them to be online, but she cc'd the others just in case any of them had seen it.

After checking the last few details on Cadance's checklist, she brushed stray hairs off of her former face. Was it narcissistic to think she was beautiful? Or was it just longing to be herself again? She looked so peaceful, like she'd never been before in the waking world.

Gulping, she made sure she was comfortably covered, checked the amount of liquid in the IV, and the drop rate before walking out of the room, closing the door behind her.

She made her way to the kitchen and prepared herself some breakfast, setting it down on the table along a stack of papers and pens. It was time to do some magical, trans-dimensional theorizing.

Luna strolled down the hallway towards her office. Thanks to Sunset's place being so close to school—and therefore her own home—she had been able to make it in time for a quick shower, change of clothes and a rush out to still arrive before most students.

Thankfully the cafeteria crew had been already there to provide some much-needed coffee.

"Luna," Celestia called, walking up to her. "You didn't come back home last night."

Luna sighed, giving her sister a disgruntled look. "I am sorry sister, I was needed elsewhere. I should tell you, Sunset Shimmer is not going to be coming to school for the foreseeable future."

Celestia's eyes widened. "Why? What happened? Did you two have a fight?" she ended in a harsh whisper, pulling Luna to the side as more and more students walked past. "Do you want to talk about it in my office?"

Luna shook her elbow free from Celestia's grasp. "No. It's a lot worse. A magical incident. Sunset's in a coma."

The blood drained from Celestia's face, and just as she opened her mouth to ask something else, a scream echoed down the hall, followed by several others.

The two immediately headed down towards the entrance, where several large, reptilian creatures of different shapes and sizes had suddenly appeared in the area around the statue and were attacking their students. There were several anthropomorphic lizards, and worse, a bus-sized reptilian creature with huge black horns, breaking down trees like twigs as it stamped after some of the teachers. Celestia and Luna barely made it to the sides of the doors as, shouting and screaming students barged into the relative safety of the building.

Trying to understand what was happening, Celestia still managed to help one of her students, who had collapsed on the stairs to get up and ushered her in, taking a moment to look at the edges of the campus, where they could see that some sort of energy field had surrounded it, preventing others from entering or leaving. They saw Snips run into it and bounce back falling on his butt and staring at it incredulously before Snails pulled him up. The pair hurried towards the building as fast as they could as the creatures rampaged behind them.

"Celestia!" Luna shouted, making her snap back into the moment.

"Everyone inside, now!" she shouted.

"Principal Celestia! Vice Principal Luna!"

The pair turned to see the Rainbooms running towards them against the throng of students flowing into the building.

"What's going on?" Applejack asked.

"Oh my!" Fluttershy gasped, covering her mouth in horror when Flash Sentry's backpack was slashed by the claws of one of the creatures. Thankfully, Flash was able to roll forward, dropping his shredded backpack and scampering into the building.

As the last two students in sight got past the gates, Celestia pressed the emergency button on the side of the school entrance as soon as he was inside, and heavy metallic security doors slid down, slamming closed just in time to dent from the impact of one of the creatures smashing against it.

It was soon followed by roars, punches, slashes and more dents as all windows and doors on the first floor were fortified.

"Wow!" Rainbow Dash gasped. "When did we get these?"

"After the front of the school was blown up by magical blasts and then almost sent to another dimension," Celestia said, staring at the creatures outside through one of the small viewing holes. She turned to look at Luna. "But they're too strong, even for this. And they're ignoring everything trying to get in here."

"Maybe we can use our power to protect the school?" Pinkie asked.

"You can't blast them?" Celestia asked, looking at the group of girls.

Rarity shook her head. "I'm afraid not, Principal. Sunset Shimmer is the one that channels our magic, and she's not here. But we have been practicing on how to project an aura that could serve as a buffer."

"Well, where is Sunset?" Flash asked, looking around. Most of the other students also searched for their missing classmate. "Or did Rainbow Dash finally manage to chase her away?"

Rainbow Dash grabbed his shirt. "Why, you—"

"We all saw you argue," Flash growled at her, "and from what I heard, she had every reason to be pissed."

Celestia calmly grabbed Rainbow Dash's raised fist and gave her a warning look before turning to stare down Flash. She hesitated. "I'm afraid Sunset Shimmer can't help us now," she said to the gathered students, trying to think through the sounds of the creatures outside. "Any ideas, Luna?"

Luna shook her head. "I recognize them... they're lizardmen and behemoths. But we don't have any weapons to fight them..." she trailed off, pulling her phone and turning away from the others.

"We can fight them!" one of the other students shouted suddenly. "We survived zombification twice, giant man-eating plants and dimensional rifts!"

Celestia was frowning at her sister, but when she heard that, she smiled a little, wincing as the metal behind her screeched as claws scratched against it. "And that's very brave, my student, but these creatures won't want to control you. They're more the slashing and smashing type."

"They look like monsters out of a video game!" another student said. "But how's that possible?"

"We don't know. They might just come from a place that has creatures that look like them," Principal Celestia said. "I don't think they're from Twilight's world, and neither she nor Sunset are around to help. We need to plan. The doors won't hold forever..." she trailed off when, as if to prove her point, the large door behind her bent in slightly and one of the metal coverings on the windows was also suddenly pounded upon.

"The priority here is to keep everyone safe. I want everyone to go to the classrooms on the second floor closest to the emergency exits there. Lizardmen can't jump that high and the doors to each classroom are reinforced. Most likely, if the creatures manage to get in, they'll all rush inside, and we can evacuate while they're busy down here."

The students murmured to each other, unconvinced and Celestia turned to look at Luna, who sighed and put her phone down. "We have help on the way," Luna said, making everyone fall silent.

Celestia frowned. "Who?"

Luna shifted uncomfortably.

"Luna?" Celestia asked. "Did you call the police? I don't think they could help much."

"Students, please make your way upstairs," Luna called out. "Rainbooms, you can start trying to lift a shield around the school, but if it's too strenuous, limit it to students and staff in a smaller room.

The other students followed and soon only Celestia and Luna were left on the ground level.

"Luna?"

"It's a long story, sister. Let's talk about it after the current crisis is over."

Desert Mirage groaned and crumpled another paper before throwing it into the growing pile around the trash can.

"Of course not, idiot," she chided herself, drawing a huge X on top of the next page. "The theumatic input into the matrix can't be the polar opposite of the aethereal channel's aura if I don't want them to explode! A physics student could tell you that! Ugh."

Mirage sipped her tea and glared at the diagram as if it could somehow fix itself. "But the calculations all point towards this. This is so annoying!" She threw her hands up in the air. "It's so annoying I'm talking to myself!" She sighed and pushed the papers away.

She almost gasped in relief when the phone started ringing. When she saw it was Luna, she blinked in confusion. "Hello, Luna? Aren't you at school?"

"Mirage," the voice on the other side of the phone faded for a moment behind the sound of heavy pounding. "We need your help. There's GGO monsters attacking the school... and there's some sort of barrier around it!"

Mirage felt the blood drain from her face. "Oh no." She stood up so fast her chair practically flew back and she was already grabbing her equipment before she thought of responding. "I'm on my way."

She ran out of the apartment and didn't even bother to go down the stairs, jumping over the rail with nary a thought. Magic flowed through her body just like it had inside GGO, and she barely felt the impact as she landed on the floor. In less than a second she was already starting her motorcycle and rushing out.

The flow of power increased as she weaved through the traffic towards Canterlot High, but even as she felt the building energy, she dared not slow down. Fear-fueled scenarios played in her mind of monsters tearing into the school, hurting and even killing people. Her thoughts went to Luna and her friends. They were all foolish enough to think they could fight them. The Rainbooms would try and confront them directly, but their magic wouldn't be focused enough for combat without her.

Luna would think of some crazy idea based on her experience fighting the monsters in the game, but she didn't have any weapons. She wouldn't be able to stop them, and probably would get killed in some foolhardy attempt to save everyone else.

She half expected to see the place on fire when she slid to a stop in front of Canterlot High and took stock of the situation.

As Luna had said, the whole school was covered by some sort of multi-faceted domed barrier, and within it, she could see large shadows moving and trying to break into the school.

Mirage touched the energy dome. It wasn't magic, but it felt familiar. She frowned, then her eyes widened when it clicked: It was an energy force field like the ones in certain dungeons of GGO. They were tough, but not indestructible.

She could try to bring the whole thing down with her magic, but then that would allow the monsters to escape, and that would require chasing them down all over the city, risking people getting injured or worse.

Bringing up her menu, she scrolled down until she found the item she needed: a small explosive that she attached to a facet large enough to let her through.

"Hey! I can see someone trying to get in!" Pinkie shouted, pointing down to the barrier, where a figure was doing something.

"Well, Ah doubt they'll be any help," Applejack muttered.

"What's going on?" Principal Celestia asked, walking into the room with Luna and drawing all the student's attention to them.

"Pinky saw someone outside the barrier," Rarity explained.

Luna and Celestia made their way to the window and looked out, alongside the other students. They gasped when an explosion of some sort blew a part of the dome, and the figure quickly jumped through before the barrier closed behind them.

"Wow! Who is that?" Rainbow Dash asked as the gray-wearing stranger dashed towards the school, pulling out two guns.

Celestia gasped. "Luna! You called Desert Mirage?! But how?"

The students gasped as one of the larger lizards, a lumbering brute with huge claws, tried to swipe at her, but Desert Mirage had jumped up, landing on its outstretched arm and shooting both guns straight at its face, making several students shout in shock.

Mirage looked up at the window and made frantic moves, before jumping back to dodge another sweep.

"Alright everyone!" Celestia spoke up, "Crouch down and move away from the windows! We don't want any stray bullets hitting you!"

"But, Principal!"

"Rainbow Dash," Celestia looked at the young girl with a frown. "I realize you want to see the 'action' but your lives are my responsibility and Luna's and that of every teacher here. I can't have you staying close to the windows where an accident might happen."

"But didn't you say the windows were reinforced? They should stop a bullet, right?" another student asked.

"Not from those guns," Luna muttered, making a few students look at her in confusion. Luna shook her head. "This is not a game, and we still don't know if your powers will be needed to keep the monsters at bay, Rainbow Dash. Now, move!"

The students complied, while Luna stayed behind, taking cover behind a wall next to the window and peeking cautiously outside.

Mirage was moving as she always did in Gun Gale Online, and the behemoth had disintegrated just as if they were in the game after several more shots into its body, leaving no trace behind. The rest of the lizards were a lot weaker than their larger cousin, and it only took a couple of shots each to bring them all down.

She lost sight of Mirage for a few minutes, and she almost jumped when she felt her cell phone vibrate with a new message.

School clear. Will bring down barrier.

She sighed in relief and made her way to her sister, whispering into her ear, "It's over, she took them all down."

Celestia gave her a look before turning to look at the students and teachers. "I want all teachers to make sure all students are present. Any missing students need to be reported immediately to me so we can follow up and make sure they were not caught out there. I'll make an announcement on the intercom and then we'll all go home."

Most of the students nodded, following their teachers out of the room as soon as Celestia had pulled Luna out with her.

Rainbow Dash and the others, however, stayed behind, looking out the window as the barrier shimmered and died.

"Is it me, or was that really weird?" she finally asked.

"Sugarcube, the lizards were a bit much even by this school's standards."

"No, no, that's not what I mean," Rainbow Dash sighed. "I meant, how is it that Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna knew who to call? Who is this 'Desert Mirage' person?"

"It did seem like Vice Principal Luna knew a lot more about it," Fluttershy said, looking down at her fingers and tapping them together.

"Could it be that they contacted a professional monster hunter of some sort after the last few magical incidents?" Rarity asked.

"Oh! Ooh! Maybe this Mirage is a Slayer like my friend Buffy in California!"

"Ah doubt it, Pinkie," Applejack said. "If they had, why would Principal Celestia be surprised to see her?"

"Well, I don't know about you girls, but I want to find out!" Rainbow Dash stated. They all cringed when they heard the metallic doors begin to open.

"Well, for now I suggest we all go back to our classrooms," Rarity said, heading for the door. "We don't want our teachers to get worried, after all."

"Yeah, yeah," Rainbow Dash muttered, following the other girls out. Her eyes caught sight of Celestia and Luna having a heated—but whispered—discussion at the end of the hall, and her eyes lingered on the pair before a thought crossed her mind.

"Wait..."

The girls stopped and looked back at her.

Rainbow gulped. "What do you think Principal Celestia meant when she said Sunset couldn't help us now? Did anyone else notice how she said it?"

The girls looked at each other, and shook their heads. "Why, darling?" Rarity asked. "How did she say it?"

"I-I don't know how to put it... regretful? Guilty? Sad?" Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I just have this feeling... that something happened to Sunset."