Crystal Ballerina

by BlueSkyHeadLeft010

The Crystal Empire: Part 5

I heard someone laughing in the other room... Curious, I turned the corner to instead find someone screaming. She was in pain, but I could not approach. Her body was lit up in green fire and the mere inch I had moved towards her sent pain down my spine. I could do nothing but watch her struggling in vain as the green fire's light reached a crescendo and then a roar was heard....
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Walking out of the melted remains of Sombra's door, we entered a small dome-like room with tall ceiling and jagged black crystals sticking out everywhere.
There was hardly anything of interest here, except for a blue carved out slab of some kind of mineral in the center.

"Is it just me, or are all the crystals pointing at the platform?" Spike said as he shuddered.
He was right, the black crystals strangely were pointed at the one object in the room.
Something was familiar about this place. Something I couldn't put my finger on but remained tugging on my brain trying to break free.

In the meantime Twilight had walked up to examine the blue platform and gently tapped it with a hoof. "There's no spells on it, but I don't understand this strange magic it's emanating..." She frowned as she studied it some more.
Just then a roar shook the whole room as something moved...

What I had thought were just mere parts of the black crystal wall, suddenly slithered about, revealing green specks every now and then.
Moving closer to Twilight I could get a better view of what we were dealing with.
A monstrous black bug crawled out from its resting position, as its green back contrasted the walls, and its long white mane withered angrily. It had a sharp long beak, and its eye rested in the center of its mouth, as it roared and lashed out with its back pincers at us.

I was quicker though...
Once again on autopilot, I quickly grabbed Twilight and Spike before leaping out of the way just at the pincers hit the ground.
It hissed as we landed, and quickly spun around to snap at us.
This time Twilight shot out a beam of condensed magic in its eye as it roared and flew back enough for us to move.

"What the heck is that thing?!" Spike cried as the monster seemed to have regained sight and spat green acid all around.
Twilight panted as she charge up her horn again. "I don't know! Maybe Sombra's guard??" She asked confused as we dodged another glob of green acid and decided to divide and conquer.

On instinct I withdrew my weapon from my forehead and lashed out at one of the many legs of the beast.
It stumbled briefly before shooting out more acid at me.
Spike intercepted at the last moment with a puff of fire that collided with the stream of green and turned it into specks of glitter.

"It's too cramped in here for us to do any real damage!" I yelled, as we circled the beast again.
Twilight shot beam after beam at its head, causing an explosion of magic but no real damage. "Tsk! We don't have much choice!" She sweated, "If it leaves here we won't be the only ones in trouble!"

She had a point.
The back pincers on the monster suddenly lashed out at me as my hands moved to intercept. There was a resounding 'clang' as I fought hard against the crushing pressure of the pincers.
Grck! It's too strong! We'll never be able to-!
An image suddenly flickered in my head as I saw the beast attacking somewhere else... I focused on the fact that two other strange people were fighting off the monster as the red one went in for the kill and punched the face. Then the creature poofed out of existence...

Blinking, I found myself still fighting the pincers off.
Suddenly it clicked.
"Aim for its eye with your magic! That's its weak spot!" I hollered, as Twilight dodged another blast and charged up her horn.
Pushing the appendages back, I had just enough time to watch Twilight fire a beam at point blank, as the creature didn't even have enough time to react, or scream, as the magic hit the eye dead center and then it exploded in a puff of smoke.

There was nothing but silence for a few moments as me, Twilight, and Spike fought to catch our breath.
Ping! Ping! Something suddenly fell from high up that was green and rolled towards me.
It was spherical with a black line running down the middle and around a small circle on one end.

"Is that what's left of it?" Twilight said confused.
I picked up the ball and examined it closely when a name came to mind.
"Centipeedle.." I whispered as I made sure the gem wasn't cracked and carefully stored it in my saddlebags.
"Come again?" Spike said confused as I realized he'd heard my murmurings.

I shook my head, "It's what the monster was called. A Centipeedle." I explained.
"Wait, how did you know it's name?" Twilight said curious.
I shrugged before rubbing the Pearl on my head. "I'm not sure... It just sorta came to me, like the idea of how to defeat it." I frowned as I looked at the room once more and sat down on the blue pedestal.
Twilight followed me along with Spike as we rested.
"So where do you think the exit is?" I asked, before the room was suddenly encased in a bright blue light...
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We're moving...
I realized as we suddenly floated up and then popped back into existence outside.
Confused I looked around before I realized we were at the top of the castle.

"Hey! There it is!" Spike cheered as he pointed behind me and Twilight and we whipped our heads around to find-
"I cant believe it! The crystal heart!" Twilight cheered as we ran towards it.
Suddenly the circular platform underneath us turned black...
"Wh-?" Twilight said confused, before the ground beneath us rumbled and I dashed towards the heart in a panic.

There was a thud, followed by the scraping of objects, before I felt something ram into my side and I blacked out...