The five ponies watched as the brown monstrosity stopped devouring trees and turned to face them directly. (How it did this without any facial features, none could explain.) The stalemate was broken as the mobile electronic synthesizer came over the last hill and the music that was loud before became deafening. With a roar from a newly made mouth, the ooze proceeded to use its tentacles to smash through another group of trees in an attempt to find and silence its newest opponent.
"CRANK IT UP!!" the pink party pony yelled as she pulled five pairs of earmuffs out of a nearby, unbroken apple tree. Tossing one to each of the others she dodged a tentacle as the synthesizer came to a stop. The reverberations of the pounding base made conversations moot as the remaining trees released their apples on the group. The unicorn behind the turntables smiled maniacally before twisting a few dials and pressing a large red button at the top of the mixer. A brief pause heralded a wave of sound that seemed almost a physical force as it knocked the ponies to the ground.
Even more impressive was the effect it had on the ooze. The monster shuddered as its brown exterior began to harden and crack under the onslaught. Its tentacles smashed more trees and shattered still against others as it began waving frantically in the direction of the synthesizer.
Seeing a chance the group stood once more and began a new assault upon the creature. While beams of magic from the alicorn remained ineffective, bucks and dives from Applejack and Rainbow Dash became much more useful as each blow broke off parts of the creature as it continued to flail about.
Suddenly, the creature surged forward. As its skin began to darken once more, all of its tentacles retracted before one massive spike shot out and mowed through the area in front of it. The ponies barely dodged the weapon as it cleared their heads, but was still low enough to smash into the towers of the synthesizer behind them. The blow demolished the machine as the DJ was thrown back from the attack.
The sudden silence that followed seemed as deafening as the music that preceded it. As Octavia ran to her roommate, Rarity and Fluttershy came out from behind a downed apple tree where they had been observing (not hiding) and grouped up with the other four near the destroyed machine.
"Are you all right, darling?" Rarity asked as she helped Twilight get to her hooves. "That was an impressive show of force. Was it enough to stop it though?"
"I certainly hope so...." Twilight trailed off as she watched the monster. Already the cracks were sealing back up. While the damage they had inflicted had certainly hurt, it was still moving and already regenerating where chunks had been broken off. The one piece of good news seemed to be that the pieces of hardened and broken ooze remained scattered around the creature and showed no signs of life.
"Bummer. Sorry Twi, that was barely three rounds of music. We would need at least six rounds to drop its HP to zero." Pinkie bounced next to Twilight. "And even then, we'd have to really crank up the damage output. We don't have enough melee. Might actually need ten rounds to win."
Twilight's response was cut short as the healing creature bellowed and took another swing at the group of ponies in front of it. "Spread out! I think we made it mad!"
The group scattered as the monster continued to swing its tentacles at individual ponies. Hampered by a lack of visible eyes, most of its attacks missed the quick moving ponies before a lucky swing caught Rainbow Dash on the wing sending the pegasus to the ground.
"I got her!" Applejack dodged a falling tree before tackling the prone pegasus and shoving her away from a falling tentacle. The impact shook the ground and left a crater where the two ponies would have been.
"Rainbow! Applejack! Are you all right?" Twilight asked, as the others ran to the two's aid.
"Ya, I'm fine. How about you, RD?" Applejack shook her head to clear dust from her eyes. "I don't know about y'all but I think we need some new ideas."
The blue pegasus hopped up and shook the dirt from her wings, checking for sprains. "Psh. I've hit the ground harder falling out of your trees." Finding everything in working order Rainbow Dash jumped into a low hover. "I'm gonna distract the blob. You guys think up a new eggheady thing to stop it." With that, she took off once more beginning to fly circles around the ooze to confuse it.
"Alright. We will need another loud source of noise, correct?" Rarity turned to the bouncing pink pony. "Do you have anything left in your, ahem, mane, darling?"
Pinkie Pie ruffled a hoof through her mane, producing a lot of static, but nothing else. "Nope. Still frizzed out. This looked a lot easier last night. I didn't realize how hard it is to produce sonic damage outside of a game."
"This is bad. Very, very bad. I should have had Spike send a letter to Princess Celestia before we left," the purple alicorn began to panic. "She could have given us advice on how to reverse the spell. We don't have the elements anymore. I wish even Princess Luna was here. A blast from her Royal Canterlot Voice would probably send it running for the hills."
The five paused as that statement sank in before a very quiet voice whispered from the back, "But, um, Twilight, you're a princess. Couldn't you do the Royal Canterlot Voice?" Fluttershy wilted as the other four looked at her "Um, if it's not too much trouble that is."
"Of course! Fluttershy, that's brilliant." Brief excitement fled quickly however, "But I don't really know how. I'm not sure if it just happens or requires some kind of special training." Twilight's wings fluttered briefly as she considered other options. "Looks like the only way is to try." Being careful to stay out of the ooze's impressive range, Twilight gave a command with all her princessly might.
"Stop."
The ooze remained as unimpressed as her friends. "Perhaps if you tried from deeper in the diaphragm darling?" Rarity called from behind her. "You have to believe in your own grandeur."
"Trixie does it all the time. I'm sure you can too, Twilight." added the bouncing pink pony.
"Iron Will was able to help me with that," murmured Flutershy. "I believe it was in lesson three of "Fake it till you Make it", "Establishing Dominance"."
Twilight smiled back at her friends before trying a new and more commanding "Stop". Unfortunately, the ooze remained unfazed.
"Try it again, but with some magic?" suggested Applejack. "Somethin' to raise your voice?"
Concentrating on her inner alicorn, she focused on the core of magic that had been augmented upon ascension. Remembering the reasons for why she needed this creature to cease its destruction and return to its own plane; Twilight gave a truly impressive shout.
"STOP!"
Not expecting the force from the command, Twilight knocked herself backwards before being caught by her friends. "Oh, wow..." she growled out, "that feels worse then Applejacks special reserve cider." A few coughs and a wheeze punctuated her statements. "How does Princess Luna do that without losing her voice?"
Before her ground-bound friends could answer, a voice from above asked "Hey Twi, that was good! Can you do it again? I think it worked."
The five mares looked at Rainbow Dash before focusing back on their primary target. It had paused again, as it had after destroying the synthesizer, and parts of its body that had hardened began to flake off as it healed up.
"I don't think so, Rainbow Dash." she growled. A cough followed as she cleared her throat. "I don't have the practice or control to maintain it." It had taken moments for the ooze to heal up from the assault and it slowly began to rumble towards them once more. "I think we may need to return to town, I can have Spike send an emergency message to the princess and have her come-"
A cultured voice interrupted, "Excuse me. Sorry to be rude, but we have an idea."
A somber white unicorn mourned the death of her synthesizer. The towering speakers reduced to rubble and customized turntable in pieces. A quick scramble to her roommate proved that the grey mare was still okay, but shaken from the attack. A quirk of an eyebrow was more than enough to start a conversation between the two longtime friends.
"Yes, Vinyl. I am fine. Barely a scratch." Octavia looked over the ruins of her prized machine, "So sorry about your amplifier. I know you two were close."
The unicorn rolled her eyes in response. A gesture mostly lost due to the omnipresent shades upon her muzzle. A tilt of her head brought the two's attention back to the other six as they continued to devise strategies while dodging attacks from an angry ooze.
"I don't know how they do this all the time. To face nigh certain death on a regular basis and still return hale and healthy." Octavia shook her head, "I don't know if I should be terrified or slightly envious." The two watched as a lucky swing caught Rainbow Dash and sent her to the ground, only to be saved by Applejack as both were nearly slammed by another blow. "If this continues, Ponyville could be in danger. We should run back and inform the mayor. She must have a way to get a hold of Princess Celestia."
Watching Rainbow Dash begin to fly loops, the quiet unicorn nodded in agreement as they both turned to run back to town. However, before taking their first steps, they paused together at a command.
Stop.
Looking back, they saw that it wasn't directed at them as Twilight seemed to have regressed to the "asking nicely/begging" stage of negotiations. Vinyl tilted her head in curiosity as her partner asked "What is she trying-"
"STOP!"
Not being the target of the RCV allowed the two ponies to see the quick, devastating effect it had upon the ooze as parts hardened and flaked off immediately. A glance at the group of friends and their wheezing alicorn gave evidence that a repeat performance would not be forthcoming.
The grey mare's vision became filled with white as an excited pony jumped in front of her. "What? Vinyl, calm down." Octavia took a step back to get a better view and the quickly flailing unicorn in front of her. "Slowly. What is it?" The unicorn sat down and slowly but still urgently pointed to the group of ponies, the ooze, and herself in quick order. "Yes. We both want to help, but-" she cut off as Vinyl pointed to herself emphatically. As the white pony pointed to her horn, mouth, and throat, the grey mare paled and almost matched her companion in color. "No! Absolutely not!" The unicorn began waving her hooves frantically in response as she waved at the destruction caused to the orchard and pointed towards the town behind them. "Well, yes, we need to stop it from reaching town. But-" she was cut off once again as the unicorn took a moment to remove her glasses and the brilliant magenta eyes were giving her a very begging look. "No! That's how you got me to go see Rammstein. Put those back on!" A lower lip added to the display. "Blast!" A sigh of defeat followed. "You are a dangerous mare, Vinyl Scratch. Let's go." The now smiling unicorn stood up and followed behind her more vocal companion. "And what, pray tell, am I suppose to say to get them out of here quickly?" A shrug from the happy unicorn was the only response. "That's what I thought."
The grey mare trotted over to the others that were engaged in an animated discussion. "-emergency message to the princess and have her come-"
"Excuse me. Sorry to be rude, but we have an idea." Octavia paused as she received their attention. "Are you aware of the warehouse on this side of Ponyville? Within, is one of Vinyl's more egregious experiments in sound manipulation. The synthesizer is mobile, but not to the degree of this smaller version. If you can get us there, we should have plenty of time to bring it out and utilize it against this creature."
"I remember that one. It shook the apples on the far side of the northern orchard from the south side of town. I thought the Mayor ordered it destroyed?" Applejack looked at Octavia suspiciously. She'd told the truth, but something was held back.
"Technically, it was ordered to be dismantled and removed from Ponyville. It was carefully broken down, and the warehouse is outside the town limits. Nothing said it couldn't be rebuilt there." A crash reminded them of their timetable as the ooze had begun to roll towards them again. "Regardless, we are out of time. Can you do it, Princess Twilight?"
"Yes. Everypony gather as close as you can. I'm going to teleport us to the edge of town. I don't want to leave anypony behind." Twilight watched as they all gathered into a circle. Powering up her horn for the group teleport, she was too focused on the magic to notice the blue-haired unicorn jump out of the group at the last moment. Leaving her behind as they disappeared from the orchard.