Four hours.
It had taken four entire hours for the two Alicorns to identify and release the innocents. The remainder are also being released from the floor- though only to be shackled, for delivery to the Royal Guard. When she had asked, the darker Alicorn- ‘Alpha’- had stated that she prefers to leave matters of law enforcement to the experts.
Now, all of the innocents- save herself- have followed the light-wielding spiders back up to the exit. The three of them, being herself and the two alicorns, are in the hall just outside the storage room as the door closes.
Alpha lets out a deep sigh, slumping against the wall. It’s the first thing she’s done that hasn’t been accompanied by that display of power, muted or not. “That took forever,” she complains, to nopony in particular.
The other alicorn, ‘Beta’, also slumps against a wall. “That was… Exhausting.” She reaches a hoof up to touch her horn a couple times.
Vinyl, with a matching pose against the other wall, raises an eyebrow. “Something wrong?” she asks.
Both alicorns smile. Beta- who has poked at her horn at least a dozen times throughout- chuckles. “No…” She glances at Alpha. “It’s just… Well, I’m a pegasus. Those spiders just stuck a horn to my head a few hours ago… but I can feel it.” She prods the horn again, then tilts her head at the DJ. “What about you…?”
“You said there were only six doctors in Equestria that could heal us, right?”
Alpha nods. “The spiders sliced the horn’s Thaumic Core when you were captured, yes.”
She blinks. “Wow. Um… Well, the pain normally associated with such an injury has been fading… It’s down to a dull ache- and I can feel the pattern behind the thaumic inhibition field again.”
“Oh?”
“Yes…” She closes her eyes, focusing. “It helps that he wanted to use my magic through it… He had to put it in my head.” Her horn flickers, and dies again. She utters a groan. “Ugh… I haven’t recovered enough to cut through the field just yet…” She breaks out into a sudden smile. “But once I have, I can disable the inhibition field emitter toot-sweet!” Her smile fades. “Unless you’ve already got that covered.”
Alpha shakes her head. “Actually, there was no magic involved in that display.” She glances at the door. “I’m not sure how it did it, but it was this…” She taps the floor. “Well, thing.” She looks up at the amber lights for a second. “You remember when you were coming in, before you reached the… metal hallways? The generators they destroyed?”
“Generators? … Uh, do you mean the whirring things with spin enchantments on them…?”
Blink. “Sounds about right.”
“He used my magic to break them, actually… There was the one in that third level basement. When I converted it to a pile of scrap, the door upstairs slammed shut- and a light in the back of the room went out.”
Nod. “The kitchen upstairs- immediately upstairs, that is- will also have become useless.”
“The second one was in the long hallway that led here. He had me incinerate it, but I didn’t notice any effect.”
Another nod, and a scowl. “That’s the part that confuses me.”
“Oh?”
She looks up, smiling. “That second one was powering this. The lights, sounds, the disguises it gave us, the… device healing Rain downstairs, everything.”
“Rain? Who’s that?” She manages to keep the worry out of her voice.
“It’s a nickname,” Alpha states, shaking her head. “You wouldn’t know her.”
“A nickname?”
Nod. “Yep. I gave it to her… Better than no name, right?”
“Candy Stripes.”
Beta tilts her head. “Isn’t that the mare that helps Lyra in Bonbon’s Candies from time to time?”
Alpha raises her eyebrow at Vinyl. “What?”
“That’s who gave the Rain I know that nickname.”
Sigh. She looks at Beta. “I don’t suppose I need to impress the need for this to remain confidential again, do I?”
Beta shakes her head, hoof coming away from her horn. “I… Can I…?”
Alpha tilts her head inquisitively.
Before Beta can answer, her horn falls off. Her mane loses its ethereality at the same time, before fading to pink while her fur turns yellow. All three mares watch with interest.
It takes only fifteen seconds before Fluttershy stands in front of them, no longer disguised as an alicorn. She smiles softly. “Thank you.” Even her voice is back. She reaches a hoof up to rub her forehead, where the horn had been.
“Something wrong?” Alpha asks.
She gives a gentle shake. “Just a little headache. Probably from… The horn.” She gestures at the dismembered horn, lying on the floor in front of her, and looks up, with a smile. “I won’t be telling anypony.”
Alpha nods, then turns back to Vinyl with a sigh. “You’ve caught me, then. Outside Agent Candy Stripes.”
“Field Agent White Noise.”
Princess Twilight Sparkle stamps a hoof. “I’ll give you one last chance! Turn it off, or we’ll destroy it!” The last of her friends, Fluttershy, hasn’t yet arrived. She prays to Celestia that she’s not bluffing.
The unicorn blocking them from getting near his antimagic device scoffs at them. “Oh? Then what, you’ll throw us in prison? I think I’d rather get hit by the Elements.” He lets out an evil laugh.
Twilight utters a low growl, concentrating on her horn but not receiving.
Another local Guardspony tries charging forwards to disable it, being thrown back by another blast of magic.
Twilight scowls. Their device, whatever it is, is even interfering with pegasus and earth pony magics. She probably should be- Oh no.
A little ways down the street opposite the device, she sees the ground heaving upwards very suddenly. Please, not something they need the Elements for!
The unicorns on that side of the device spot it as well, when it flies into the air, in their direction. A quick blasting spell, however, stops the flying stone in its tracks, shattering it into fragments small enough it should only injure any ponies it lands on… Nevermind there’s nopony nearby for it to land on.
Nopony expected the flame-spewing metal spear to emerge from behind the stone, changing course all on its own, as soon as they did. It flashes forwards like a bolt of lightning, leveling off… and passing directly overtop the emitter before it whips down the street to vanish over the rooftops.
“DUCK!” somepony screams.
Every Guard present, just outside the reach of the thaumic inhibition field, ducks.
The two Princesses, however, do not- instead, they look, horns charging.
They have almost two seconds from the moment the shout started to see, target, and stop the… object, before it blazes overhead and disappears over the forest, leaving a blast of thunder in its wake.
They missed.
Field Agent Hidden Light stands on the stern of the airship Secret. She’s not sure exactly why, but as soon as Lyra had teleported Rain away, all of her protective spells had fallen from the ship. She’d noticed immediately, and teleported up here to deflect what she can.
There’s still an occasional flash of light across the hull or gasbag as some weapon she missed strikes against it. She’s been missing more and more; her opponents have engaged in a chase, and her reserves are running low. She’s been trying to let the misses fly past- whenever she can tell they’ll be misses, that is. She’s the one powering the engines, not the… strange thing. It’s controlling their altitude and heading, using an evasion pattern she didn’t know airships could perform to create a whole new level of aiming problems for their pursuers.
Then, something new enters her thaumic sense spell. She’s been using the spell to spot the projectiles long before they reach impact range; with it, she gets as much as six seconds’ warning even the fastest cannon shots. But this something is moving blindingly fast, and from in front of the ship.
She barely has time to turn her head halfway before it crosses the field, making contact with the ship… Wait. She sees, in her peripheral vision, as the streaking object shifts slightly in the airstream, zipping between the cords holding the ship’s hull to the gasbag. Then it blows past her with a shockwave of thunder, heading straight for the pursuing ship.
Her head snaps back forwards, but not fast enough. The object smashes into the pursuing ship while it’s only barely inside her peripheral vision.
She does manage to turn her head far enough to watch the enormous fireball the ship becomes.
She’s still staring, open-mouthed, when the last cannonball whizzes past her left ear, passing harmlessly over the hull and reentering unobstructed airspace without doing any damage whatsoever.
The engines stop thrumming as she passes out.
Agent Sweetie Drops then steps forwards to carry her inside, selecting one of the relatively few undamaged rooms for them to rest in. At the same time, the ship sinks slowly, grounding itself smoothly.