You are beautiful. To me, you are so beautiful and I love you so much. Others may not see it, but from the moment I saw you, I knew who you were, what you could do. What you were to us... what you were to me.
That is why I did what I did. And I know you will hate me for it, but it was me. This entire time, it was me. Everything you've gone through, everything that's happened, the very reason you are here now, it was me all along. Because I knew we needed you here. I knew it was you that was missing, it was you and you alone who could make all the difference. And no one else saw it, no one but me.
So I broke the rules- all of them. I sacrificed everything I could, traded everything I had to get you the one thing I knew you needed. The one thing I knew you could do anything with, the one thing you could do the impossible with, the one thing I could provide: time.
Now, the darkest hour is upon us. It is up to you to prove if I was right or not. This has never been about convincing me. It's always been about convincing her. I did everything I could for you, gave you all the time I could buy, and brought you here to see if you could make a difference.
Because I believe you can. There is only one question that remains:
Are you ready?
Time's up.
Captain America was the first to swim to the top. The Soviet diving suits they were wearing made it difficult to see, forcing them to use the buddy system in order to stay together. Using his shield, he tried to chip away at the rocky ceiling between them and the surface. Swipe after swipe only revealed what they'd all suspected from the start- that there was far more strata between them and freedom than it appeared.
"It's too thick!" Cap yelled. "We need something stronger to punch through it- a drill or something!"
"Hold on! I'll try to blast it!" Lightning Claw swam up next. He summoned a concentrated ball of electricity- now with his horn repaired, he could control it completely, even preventing the cave water from acting as a conductor and shocking the others. He threw the ball and it exploded, splashing electricity against the rocky surface. But it left not a scratch behind.
"Uhh, crap. Okay, drill. Let me try drilling!" Lightning spun up his hooves and electricity crackled around them. Surges of energy formed rings around his foreleg fetlocks that formed into cones and then drills. He pushed them into the rocky ceiling, but they crackled out with impact. "Gnnnrrrr! Why doesn't this work?! I just got my powers back and now they can't help us!"
Spinner held up her phone. "There's no reception here! I can't even call my boyfriend!"
Fusey tapped her on the shoulder. "I thought your boyfriend exploded in episode 13."
"That was episode 14! And he got better!"
Fusey and her sister shrugged. "Sucks to be you, man. You should really try humans."
"None of you have abilities that will help us!" Captain Springer called. "And this is NOT the time for dating advice!"
"Says the militant fangirl virgin but hey, no judgment," Powdey said, folding her hooves and activating liek a baws mode.
Colress keyed in numbers on his arm pad. "Let me calculate how much electricity we'll need to cut through those rocks."
"Don't bother," Silver Spoon said, hovering close by on Magnezone with the other fillies. "This place will have exploded by the time you come to any real conclusion."
"This is insane!" Lightning yelled. "We didn't have a plan to escape and Dan is getting ready to blow this place up WITH ALL OF US IN IT."
"We should swim back, try to find another way out!" Springer said. Spinner, next to her, nodded in agreement.
Redfield was also in agreement. "I'm with lemon-lime and wildberry on this one, Cap. We're not getting out this way."
"Who are lemon-lime and wildberry?" Spinner, who qualified as 'lemon,' asked.
"Why did we even agree to Dan's 'plan' in the first place?" Lightning raged. "You've all been following Dan for how long now? Is this situation honestly surprising to anyone?"
"Calm it down, Mr. Claw," Apple Bloom warned.
The other CMC took that time to chime in as well. "All the yelling isn't helping!"
"Why are you yelling when you say that then?"
"Because everyone else is yelling!"
"I'M NOT YELLING! YOU'RE YELLING!!"
"WE'RE YELLING BECAUSE YOU'RE-"
"SHUT UP!! SHUT UP!!" Diamond Tiara yelled at them all.
"The song nears its end. It will leave, but it will return. We do not have much time left." Marksaline's voice sounded as if she was speaking while submerged and in fact, she was. It was then they realized Marksaline was not wearing a diving suit. Her horn glowed red and the water around her seemed to almost have stopped, becoming solid water but not ice.
"We need something to cut through this rock. If the core is about to blow, we won't be able to escape it underground," Lightning said. He looked over to the Blasties. "You two! Uh, explodey ones!"
"Mmmm, yessss?" They said, looking over their shoulders at him. Unlike the others, they were watching the core instead of the ceiling.
"What are you two even doing?"
"We're waiting for the core to blow up," Fusey said.
"Gonna be goooooood," Powdey added. "I wish we brought popcorn."
"I, too, wish we had brought popcorn to see the imminent detonation of the core of the planet."
"How many other times are we going to get to do this?"
"Probably more than once. Next time, popcorn."
"WHY ARE YOU BEING STUPID AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!" Lighting raged again. He had the urge to yank his own mane out even though it was contained by the helmet, another thing that infuriated him. Even though his body was fixed, his mind was still adjusting to his alicorn-state. He remained a bit unstable despite Marksaline fixing him. "WHY? Why are we letting DAN decide what we do with thermo-nuclear weapons of mass destruction? Why are we following the advice of a man who threatens people when he GREETS them? WHY ARE WE FOLLOWING DAN?!?!"
A giant pincer blasted past Lightning's face. It plunged into the rock wall behind him and immediately started spinning rapidly. Startled beyond belief, he swam out of the way, the thought of an attack fleeting in his mind just for a moment. Magic Gear VOLCANUS clamped onto the wall with its legs and dove both pincers into the rock, drilling through it. Before any of them realized what was happening, Dan and Phoenix were pulled by, holding the Pulse Rifles that were attached to the bailing twine, that was attached to the Magic Gear.
"GRAB ON OR FOLLOW THE CRAB!!" Dan yelled.
Magic Gear VOLCANUS tunneled through tons of rock. The water rose to fill the chasm she created, following them, almost pushing them forward. As they went forward, the water became hotter and hotter, nearly turning to steam on their masks. Was it somehow from the energy collecting below them, around them or something on the surface? Finally, she cut through to the surface and the water exploded outward. VOLCANUS, Dan and the others were all blasted out of the top of a mountain.
"AAAAHHHHH!!!"
"WHHHEEEEEEE!!"
"GAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
Most of them yelled, a few of them enjoyed it, but they all erupted from the mountain like a geyser and then... gravity found them once again. They fell back down, all of them landing on Magic Gear VOLCANUS, the gear herself landing on her back. With the water flowing under her, she began sliding down the jagged cliffs of the mountain like a giant metal sled.
"Oh holy squee," Cap said, catching his breath. "We made it. We actually made it!"
"And we're alive!" Phoenix announced. "We're alive, we're out in the open, we're safe!"
"Uh, I wouldn't call it that safe," VOLCANUS said.
"Why not?"
"Because I can't stop."
"Ah, well that's easy," Dan remarked. "We'll just have Lightning and the other fliers to grab you by your legs and we'll drag you to a steady stop, then we'll all calmly climb off of you and be safe."
"Oh, good," Phoenix said. "That sounds very safe indeed. And calm, for once."
"Haha, yeah," Dan laughed. "It does kind of seem like we're always having to go through the most dangerous, insane and life-risking options just to get by, doesn't it?"
The lawyer nodded. "It does indeed. Happy that's not the case this time." (I love how we're directly referencing our normal circumstances and how they contrast to the ones we're in right now, before we're done with the current situation. Good thing nothing bad ever happens when anyone ever blatantly does that.)
The group laughed, even VOLCANUS and Marksaline, though her laughter had some sort of semi-sinister warbling to it coupled with the screams of horrors from the unknown. They laughed at the karmic moment and all sighed contently.
Lazily, Dan looked over to the Blasties, who were laying on their tummies looking over the back of the gear, back towards the mountain. And they were counting.
"Hey, dynamite duo. What are you guys up to?"
"Two... one..."
The mountain exploded. The peak was blasted to pieces, chunks of earth sent skyrocketing by more water that quickly turned into frothing pink goo and then pure purple magical energy. The ground cracked as energy pulsed into the sky, changing the color from blue to lavender to deep purple, an instantaneous night brought fourth as the stars shone through. The cracks in the ground exploded, erupting with more magical geysers that spewed purple, pink and red-colored goo into the atmosphere.
"HOLY SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" The force sent VOLCANUS spinning down the mountain. Dan and the gang were forced to cling to the crab-gear's body to avoid being thrown off. The surface of Equestria erupted with explosions behind them, pushing them forward in a cascade of power and energy released from the core.
"I regret!! I regret making light of this situation now!" Phoenix yelled.
"I regret following you now!!!" Lightning Claw yelled.
"I HATE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Dan roared. The Magic Gear, like a turtle helplessly on its back, slid like a bowling ball down the mountain. They flew over a gorge, the mountain exploding into the sky behind them.
Hahahaha Oooh man... everytime this updates, I get happy, good show man!
The Blasties are just a peach in this, hehe
I also saw what you did at the beginning of the chapter... I'm curious now.
That explosion was beautiful.
At this point, we need Michael Cain to meet East Horse.
You were only supposed to blow the bleeding doors off.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/quotes/qt2469022
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/quotes/qt2472233
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/quotes/qt2479485
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/quotes/qt2834112
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/quotes/qt2477225
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/quotes/qt2464466
Language, Cap!
Dan seems to be going the way of Samus Aran, especially if this keeps up.
Wheeee, giant slide!
Yay, robobugmom joins the team!
Maybe Blueblood will break their fall. >.>
Gasp!
A new chapter means it's ~Sunday~
Time for my weekly dose of Dan-sanity, goes great with a hot cuppa *sips from cup* or even without! *tosses cup away* now lemme see here *dons newreading specs*
Ya know what? For a split second until I really paid attention to the lyrics I thought you were paying tribute to an old song I happen to know: You Are So Beautiful. Just like our Dan-tastic leader I have a rich patchwork of knowledge and it's anyone's guess what I know at any given point in time ... ahem, anyway from the rare red letters scattered in the opening monologue I'm guessing this is Marksaline talking? I swear by Luna's Moon-Branded Booty if Isaac Clarke shows up I'm leaving ... to get a snack then be right back ... Anyway: Still playing 'Countdown to Blastoff Again' (property and trademark of Team Rocket Inc) ...
*Squee* Lightning is an official boy Alicorn! (I wasn't sure if Vice Grip did something to him to make him this way but now I know Frankenpony had nothing to do with it? Yay!) now I'm left wondering what awesome deed he did to earn his wings ... or was it the horn he earned?
Oh yeah, Volcanus joined Team Dan! Let's get the heck outta here, remember to save Cap! ... And Redfield if you have time ... No Boulder punching! Now? We bob-sled down a mountain on Momma-Crab/BugBot, yay
Now for my favourite quotes:
Glad to know the boyfriend got better, though Powdey and Fusey make an awesome point haha!
Listen to the mini-Apple, ya hear Lightning? Dan doesn't like others shouting at the ones only he can shout at (being Team Leader/Boss/Chryssy's Man etc), ya know?
Tell me Fusey's line is a reference to the Voodoo Queen of the Bayou: Mama Odie? Pretty please?
Things never usually go this easy, especially escapes, but maybe this time-Dammit Phoenix you went and jinxed it! First by saying 'very safe' then again by adding 'calm', you double-jinxed it Mr Ace Attorney!
Oh buck me
I know I kinda trimmed this part (a thousand apologies!) but the dialogue alone needs no explanation ... *gestures at dialogue* Come on!
Phew, and that is everything I loved and adored about this week's chapter (especially, as I love it all!) since Dan and Friends are barrelling down a mountain on Momma/Crab/BugBot I can only guess next time they'll either have a Pony-field rendition of "I Believe I Can Fly" playing next time or "Under Pressure", the lyrics practically write themselves: "Under pressure, pressing down on us, crushing Volcanus down, Dan shouts out for!" Hehe, I know it's terrible but I had to try lol
Like always thank you for my weekly dose of Dan-sanity and apologies for the late review, I find myself lazing on Sunday's more and more ... but it will always be Dan-day to me!
Awesome as always and I'll catch you ~next time~
Your Eternal Fan ^_^
Poor Lightning XD
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It said earlier in the story that he was a weather manager for Cloudsdale who used potions and magic make himself an alicorn so he could control weather on a wider scale. He lost control of a storm and the Wonderbolts stopped it, which caused magical feed-back that destroyed the physical structure of his horn. He was fired, and couldn't find work anywhere until Vice Grip found him.