Staring at the oversized Minotaur, I catch Dash in my peripheral as she performs a pony-up, when I do the same. That trick from earlier could save us, but I feel like we might not need it. But there's only one problem.
The demon girl from the shadows of the other room I'd seen her in. And she's standing right below him, her eyes glowing a vivid red.
"You're not going anywhere." She spoke to us, with the hollow, echo-like reverb of her voice. We both jump and flinch when she appears near the creatures feet after it just straight up walks through the wall. "Ghalmar The Beyonder wants to know who you are and why you want to stop him from ruling this retched world."
"You will not make us cower," I hear ZeZe yell from behind me, as I keep my eyes on the hooded girl. "For we still have our additional power!" I knew she was hinting indirectly at the two of us. Out of nowhere, she bellows some native war cry, making everybody in the room run straight for the monster, excluding the younger ones of course.
Dash and I share a shocked look, then dash into the quarry with the mind-controlled minions were were told about earlier. I'm continuously wishing I could just return to our other world. I barely register a growing diamond blade as it passes right in front of me, bringing me to a standstill as I return to normal speed and look to my right, where it came from. It was Rarity alright, but she looked exactly the same as the one I knew.
I desperately wanted to tell her or somehow speak to her about the two of us, but it was probably some secret rule that the universe doesn't allow to be broken.
"Rhyan," I hear from behind me. It was JackApples. "We could really use yah help right about now!" I turn to see a huge group closing in on her, so I shift to high speed again.
I begin with shoving, pushing and gently punching the minions around so that they're at least knocked out from the fight. I watch in surprise as I take out some number of them, as the mound of minions above JA starts to bulge. I move over to the growing and expanding pile, pulling each unfortunate victim off as I notice a growing dome of diamond shapes and putting them in a place before tapping their heads to send them to sleep. I got that technique after watching Dash do it just moments ago, well, in our current perception of time anyway.
So many adults and teenagers that were victims of Ghalmar's mind control were entering the warehouse, but I kept seeing beads of sweat coming off of the girl that I remember as Melody from my previous home. I think back, but as I do, a brief flash of red occurs in my vision, bringing me out of superspeed and dropping to the floor in excruciating pain.
"AAAGH, what is this?!" I yell in shock, making some of the teenagers nearby drop their guard and look at me. "It hurts, so, much!" I scream, as I start to hear a ringing in my ears.
All of a Sudden all my senses return to normal, well not so much my hearing, then I look up at Melody again, as if she was the one who'd been in my head. I can see her expression is now a half angered, half bewildered look. I still feel a bit dizzy from the attack, but I begin to stand back up, before I'm attacked again, this time however, I'm attacked by minions.
"How did you defy my mental command?" I hear from Melody, her voice sounding a bit like a broken record, just a little bit though. "Nobody, and I mean NObody, is able to withstand Broken Melody's mental attack!" I take note of how she called herself in the third person a bit like the girl Trixie from my own timeline.
Watching her eyes turn red, I shift into superspeed again, running around and knocking the minions out cold. Something feels strange as I turn one hundred and eighty degrees, appearing face to face with the girl I remember being Sonata, but as a minion. However, I do notice her eyes flickering from the red haze to their natural look. Still in superspeed, I grab her shoulders willing myself to spread my speed to her. In doing so, I had no idea how I did it, but she shifts into my speed and completely loses the look in her eyes, like the connections she'd been under was broken completely.
"Aaaahh!!" She screams, but not before dropping to her knees. "Huh, wha, where, how... Uh, who are you?" I help her stand up, still holding onto her. I notice soft sparks of green snaking down my arms and into her shoulders and her wrists, the places I was basically holding onto her.
"I don't know how, but I recognised you." I say, looking into her face. "Are your sisters any of these minions you see around us?" I watch her start moving and looking around, whilst I still hold her that is.
"No, I don't see any of them." She says, as she recognises some people behind me, then looks back at me. "Wait, how are you doing this?" Her face has a shocked look on it.
"Honestly, I'm as surprised as you are." I reply, watching the minions moving excruciatingly slowly, like they haven't registered us yet. "Hold on, I'm going to take you to the infirmary, if I remember where it is." Walking through the crowd, I actually spot her sisters on some of the computers at the back of the room.
Walking over at superspeed, I realise some of the papers behind me are flying up as I walk past them. I drop Sonata by the two girls, telling her she'll feel a bit disoriented as I feel her starting to slip from the connection we have to move this fast. Running back into the fray, after putting the paper's back, I slow down enough to hear them reunite together. However, I slowed down for long enough to get another psychic blast from Melody. Sorry, Broken Melody.
However, this time I shifted back into superspeed just as the attack hits, getting enough to at least make me sweat and cringe in pain, but not enough to knock me down. I notice the big bad firing red beams into the crowd of attackers, seeing one heading right for Rarity. Running straight for her, I realise I'm running at the same speed the beam is moving at. I don't think I'm going to make it, as I jump, cuddle Rarity gently, floating through the air as the magical beam grazes my right foot.
I lay on my back as time speeds back to normal, drained of my energy, then realise that I'm holding Rarity on top of me right as the beam strikes behind her. I roll over with as much energy as I can muster, blocking the blast wave from hurting her. I open one eye, to see her staring at me like a deer looking into headlights, but her eyes are glistening as she looks at me. We're literally just staring at each other, when I suddenly realise the position we're in. Stuttering a lot, feeling my cheeks glowing strongly, as I hold her hand and help her up.
I'm literally knocked off my feet again as she hugs me. I awkwardly hug her back, then see a slight blush on her cheeks with a tear, before she quickly goes back into the battle. I don't know what came over me, but it must have been my feelings for the other Rarity. Not that the other rarity was mine.. I find myself thinking.
"Whoops! Too slow!" I hear from Dash as I run over to her. "Try again!" She sounds like it's too easy for her, until I see her fly right at me after a blast goes off at her feet, knocking us both down to the floor.
Luckily, I softened her landing. Then I notice a diamondy thing under on my back. I look at Rarity, who winks at me briefly whilst trapping minions in prisms. Wait, why hadn't I noticed those before? I thought to myself, as I notice a whole bunch of them on the other side of the room. I feel like the battle might be in vain, when I remembered what Sunset said about ponying up from a while ago.
"Hey, Moonlight Sparkle!" I yell, running normally over to her, as I see the others make their way over whilst battling minions. "I have a plan, but it requires you, FlutterGuy, JackApples, Pinkie Pie, Dash and I. Could you help me with it?" I quickly run in a circle, throwing some weak bolts of lightning at some minions, knocking them out whilst making their hair smoke a little bit. Oops, my bad.
"Sure, I'll help you Rhyan." She responds, calling the others over. "Okay girls, you too FlutterGuy and Rainbow Dash, according to Rhyan, we need to do something that he calls a pony up.". Out of nowhere, Dash does it right on the spot, making the others look at her in surprise, but only momentarily as she transforms back.
Standing together, Rarity puts up a shield around the six of us, as we all place our hands into the middle. I remember what each of them represent, chanting off their magical elements.
"Generosity," Rarity glows a glittering, pearlescent white. "Kindness," FlutterGuy glows a soft yellow. "Loyalty," Dash glows a soft blue. "Laughter," Making Pinkie glow pink. "Honesty." Making JackApples glow a soft but vivid orange. "And the most powerful of all these elements combined, Magic." Moonlight Sparkle glows a strong purple-ish pink.
Out of nowhere, their elements all combine into a ball of magical energy above our hands, then blasts outwards. However, I don't feel a kick at all. I open my eyes after the huge flash from the blast, seeing we're all coated in a soft pink aura, when I look up I watch in absolute surprise as their hair extends, like it's a tail, with their ears turning into pony ears, like Dash's do. I then realise we're floating a good height from the ground as we face off with Ghalmar at eye height.
Firing a barrage of beams based on their cutie marks, I watch as their attacks severely weaken the beast that's controlling the world. I saw the sky flicker between normal and back to red for a few moments. I then noticed two balls of electric magic in my hands, firing them at Ghalmar The Beyonder. All the minions stop moving below as our attack disables his connection to them. SOme even get hugged by their friends below as they come out of the trance.
Our attack was really strong, but he still wasn't going down. I catch him smirking, as he fires an attack that cancels ours out. It almost reaches us, when I recognise a very, very familiar voice that reminded me of the girl that sacrificed herself.
"Stand aside, Ghalmar," The voice yells, making everybody, and I mean everybody stare at the girl who they all thought was dead. I'd looked down and everyone but ZeZe was staring in shock, whilst she only smiled. "You will be defeated, for you will not be taking this world back anymore! The people have fought you and you will now suffer the most powerful magic of all, the magic, of friendship." Joining us, I notice she's already in her pony form. "NIce to meet you, Rhyan. I've heard a lot about you."
I just stare in shock at her when she mentions my name, still firing my magical beam at the huge brute. I watch as she floats between us in a red aura, firing a red and yellow beam that joins our own beams, pushing back and turning Ghalmar into a ball of energy that shoots into a black portal in the sky that appears for a really quick moment, that you'd blink and you'd miss it.
"Don't worry, I used some magic to create a magical portal to the prison he was in. I was there for a good week before I finally escaped." Sunrise Shimmer says as she drops to the floor with us, when I hear some sobbing. Moving from behind us.
It was the girl I remembered calling herself Broken Melody. But as she was now free from his mind control, she should be enjoying the freedom, not crying. I make my way over to her and place a hand on her shoulder, but we're all surprised when she shocks use with what she does next.
She actually hugs me as she apologises over and over and over and...
... You get the idea.