I apologise for the scattered nature of my thoughts. My own words sound as those of a madman, even to my own eyes. To explain our plight, I must start from the beginning. Of our first meeting with Her, and the sweetened trap She had already lain for us. She spoke of magic, of power, all from a throne of vines in a hidden city, and promised us wealth and riches untold. We only had to deliver these accursed stones to her. And the tool of our destruction? A compass, which pointed not naturally, but by some unknown force to magics both great and small. It’s unearthly glow the only defense we dare still use.
Francis Drake
Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose again, almost sending her glasses flying off her face. Gonna catch those with magic too? After Principal Celestia specifically told us NOT to? she berated herself. It wasn’t like her to forget rules. Especially how strongly the Principal had told them before they left. Even Pinkie was a little quiet after that talk. The last time the principal had asked them not to use magic was apparently the Friendship Games, according to her friends, and even that talk hadn’t been half as intense as this one.
You know, maybe a sunken cruise ship and forty odd strangers on school grounds had something to do with that.
Which is why she thought it would be easy money to bet that Rainbow Dash would have broken first. But no, she just had to get starstruck by one of the most well-travelled, accomplished teens their age. And a cracked cell phone didn’t exactly constitute a “life-threatening situation, magical catastrophe, or otherwise last resort.”
She halfway listened to the conversation in front of her, still feeling mildly chastened, hearing stories of hidden treasures, ancient puzzles, and the intricacies of historical geolocation. She smirked a little as Cassie obviously tried to simplify the topic to not sound too nerdy. Ha! Too late for that, I’m already onto you, She thought excitedly. She hadn’t had a chance to really stretch her knowledge of treasure hunting much since the last Daring Doo convention. Some of the more involved mechanics still went over Dash’s head. You would think flying experience would make understanding triangulation easy.
She was jerked out of her thoughts as a tight turn dug her seat belt into her waist.
“Dang nabbit you tiny thing! That don’t ee’n count as a car! You’re driving my milk crate! Get out the way!” Granny shouted from the front.
The swerve had interrupted the conversation going on between Dash, Rarity, and Cassie, and in the break where everyone was repositioning themselves, Cassie looked back with concern to Twilight.
Twilight tried to smile comfortingly, putting her accidental magic to the side for now. “Oh don’t mind Granny Smith. She’s actually a pretty good driver.”
“Oh,” Cassie said, starting a bit, “No that’s not- this is nothing. My dad is waaaaay worse.” She waved her phone a bit, and Twilight had to force herself not to flinch. “It’s just, my phone’s been acting up ever since we landed. I’m still waiting for a picture my mom sent me like, a half hour ago.”
“Well that’s weird,” Twilight said, reaching out for it, “I’ve got great signal here.” Cassie handed her phone over, and Twilight took an initial inventory. Well-worn case, sturdy, meant for rugged use and impact. Sheesh, she could have let this hit the floor and the floor would have dented. Let’s see, wait… that can’t be right, she thought. Both of them were on AT&T. Twilight pulled out her phone. Yup, full bars and LTE. Meanwhile Cassie had one bar and no data.
“This is really weird,” she said, leaning down the aisle to show Cassie, “Is it ok if I try something?”
Dash leaned forwards, eyebrow raised. “You gonna hack her phone?”
Dang it, Dash. Don’t put it that way! That’s not even- She frantically thought. But Cassie actually looked impressed. She still glared at Dash, so she wouldn’t be encouraged. “I was actually just going to hotspot her.” She said flatly.
“So you can hack phones?” Cassie said incredulously.
“I- well,” Twilight stuttered. What would a normal person say? “Yes?” she said, shrugging slightly. Maybe not that.
Cassie just crookedly smiled, “Awesome.”
Huh. Well that worked. She turned to the phones to tackle this problem. Just start the hotspot, get this connected, and… what? She glanced quickly between the phones. Her phone said Cassie was connected. She could see that. Then why was Cassie still only displaying one bar and no connection? She went deep into the settings, checking everything twice. DNS was set, MAC filtering shouldn’t even be a problem, there should be nothing wrong! Maybe she should start a traceroute-
Her thoughts were interrupted as she was thrown into the seat in front of her. Ow. “We’re here!” Granny announced enthusiastically.
Twilight readjusted her glasses, sure enough, the mall sprawled out in front of them, taking up much more of the horizon than she’d thought possible. Was that a rollercoaster? She snapped out of her awe as the girls were already filing out of the bus. She tapped a few quick keys on her phone, sending a traceroute routine to work on Cassie’s phone. If it had one bar, it was connected somewhere. She just had to find out where.
“Earth to Twilight!” Dash waved her arms in front of Twilight’s face. “You with us?”
Waving Dash’s arm aside, she handed Cassie’s phone back to her. “Something’s up with your phone. I’m still figuring out what’s wrong, so let me know when it beeps at you.”
Cassie looked at her phone screen, which was now filled with all kinds of path data and packet retrievals. Which now that Twilight thought about it, probably looked like every scene from- “You’re totally hacking my phone!” Cassie said with a laugh.
“I- this isn’t hacking!” she said, blushing. “This is tech support 101!”
“Right,” Cassie said, still smirking, “Good hacking.”
The girls all laughed, and after a second, Twilight couldn’t help but join in. After all, it really did look like it to anyone who didn’t know better.
Their little group merged into the crowd flowing into the main doors, which opened up into the most spacious mall, or well building, that Twilight had ever seen. The mall stretched up three floors, with decorative landings occasionally interrupting the view of the skylights. It was filled with people, all sitting at restaurant tables, filing in and out of every kind of store imaginable, and skating on an indoor ice skating rink.
So that’s why it was cold in here, she thought, shivering.
Twilight pulled out her phone. In a crowd like this, finding everyone else would take forever. She quickly started typing a response to Pinkie’s last text, when over the dull roar of the crowd came the cry-
“TwiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIILIIIIIIIGHT!” A blur of pink hit Twilight in the side with a hug, then immediately disappeared. “Hi Rainbow Dash, Hi Rarity! Hi random new girl who I don’t know!”
Pinkie bounced lightly in front of Cassie. She gasped loudly and spurted out, “You’ll never guess what they have here!” Cassie just stared, wide eyed, mouth opening and closing. Pinkie continued, “A bakery! That’s right, a full bakery! Malls never have a bakery! I thought it couldn’t get any better, but they have a full fondue station! A FULL FONDUE STATION!” She practically vibrated with energy.
Twilight pocketed her phone. “That’s great Pinkie! We should all-”
“I even brought you all some!” She interrupted, pulling out five skewers of still steaming cheese on bread from somewhere. She handed one to each of them, bouncing as she went.
Twilight quickly ate her piece, trying not to drip cheese everywhere. It really did taste amazing, and it was still warm. Somehow. Twilight looked up to see Cassie staring blankly at her bread.
“Might want to eat that before it drips, darling,” Rarity said, placing a hand on Cassie’s shoulder. Cassie jumped slightly, then quickly ate her piece. Her eyes sparkled lightly, a grin forming at the corners of her mouth.
“So, uh, who’re you?” She asked Pinkie tentatively.
Twilight pulled out her phone again as Pinkie excitedly introduced herself. She quickly found Sunset’s number and texted her.
Twilight: So Pinkie found us,
are you all coming soon?
Sunset: We’re on our way.
Pinkie ran ahead and Fluttershy
got distracted by a puppy.
Twilight: Cool, we’re close to the ice rink.
See you soon!
She looked up and everyone was gone. Oh no wait, there they were. They had all moved over to a large map of the mall, and were excitedly pointing out stores they wanted to visit. She pocketed her phone and jogged over.
“-got to go on the rollercoaster. I hear that the turns are so tight, you almost black out.” Dash said, motioning tight curves with her hands.
Thank goodness we ate a light dinner.
They spent the next few minutes looking over their options. Twilight wanted a trip to the hobby store, her drone needed a few replacement parts, Rainbow was dead set on the rollercoaster, and Rarity wanted to check on some peers Fall lines. Pinkie was distracted by a cupcake she pulled from somewhere.
“So what should we do first?” Twilight said, pulling up her scheduling app.
“I think the coaster is closing soon, if you want to ride it,” a voice said from behind her. She quickly turned to see a middle aged man in a long coat behind her. “Just a little tip from someone who lives here.” He smiled and walked away.
“Thanks random person!” Pinkie called after him. Twilight’s stomach turned. She had hoped to stave off the coaster for now, her head still hurt from the car ride over. Perhaps she should have sat upright while fixing Cassie’s phone.
“There y’all are!” Twilight turned to see the crowd part slightly, letting Applejack, Sunset, and Fluttershy merge into their now sizeable group. “Sorry ‘bout that, somebody had to stop and pet every animal in the pet shop.”
Fluttershy gave a small squeak and abashed smile. “They just looked so lonely,” she said quietly, twisting her hair in her hands.
“So,” Sunset said, stepping into the center, “What’s the plan?”
“Rollercoaster!” Dash, Pinkie, and Cassie shouted at the same time. Sunset looked over to Cassie, then turned to Twilight, eyebrow raised. Before she could say anything, Dash stepped in and started introducing Cassie to everyone as a real life Daring Doo.
Twilights phone buzzed softly. Looks like the traceroute encountered a problem. Strange, it should have buzzed Cassie’s phone. She looked at the summary and froze. What in the world was this? The pings she sent had gone all over the place. Scrolling through the sites, there were a lot of unlabeled, unindexed addresses. Was her phone connected to the dark web?
As she kept scrolling, some troubling patterns appeared. It looked like whatever happened, her phone was stuck in a loop around this one site. A proxy site. That meant any and all signals going too and from her phone were probably being monitored. Why, how, what was going on? She needed to know. A few keystrokes later and a cracking program was on Cassie’s phone. Time for some actual hacking. She’d find out who was listening.
“You ok Twilight?” Sunset said concernedly. Twilight looked up to see everyone staring at her.
She started sweating. It’s not like I can say, ‘Oh yeah! Everything’s fine! Someone is just listening to everything we say!’
“Uh, yeah! Everything’s normal! Perfectly fine!” She said, putting on her best smile. “So where are we going now?”
“Duh, to the rollercoaster!” Dash said triumphantly, starting to walk away. Everyone else quickly fell in step behind her, except for Sunset, who glanced concernedly at Twilight.
“Is… everything ok? Really?”
“I, uh, maybe,” Twilight said, fiddling with her phone, “I don’t know for sure yet, I’ll tell you when I figure something out.” She quickly walked to rejoin their group. She avoided looking at Sunset, who fell into step next to her. They were here to enjoy themselves, not worry about a possibly hacked phone.
“No Granny, I really think ya’ shouldn’t ride this one.” Applejack stated firmly.
“Oh fiddle faddle, I’ll ride it if I wanna!” Granny shot back just as firmly.
The girls just laughed and returned to talking about their trip so far. Thinking back, it’d been one of the fastest, least planned trips they’d taken so far. They get a call asking for an emergency rock concert for some scholar at a conference here, with only two days to prepare. Rarity had immediately freaked out, trying to fix up some of their costumes, but ran out of time to finish back at home. Granny was thankfully available to drive, but loading the bus had been a tight, last minute rush. Even with all the rush, Twilight was more interested in the fact that a scholar apparently needed a rock concert.
But hey, they were getting paid very well. Enough that even Principal Celestia had conceded that it was a good idea they go. The delayed homework wouldn’t be fun, but honestly, they were practically being paid a used car each. Which is why a trip to the mall definitely made it into their schedules.
Their group ambled through the mall, splitting into smaller groups when the crowd pressed tighter. Twilight couldn’t catch up with Cassie, unfortunately, who was up in the front with Dash, Pinkie, and Applejack. She fell back to the rest of their group, ending up next to Sunset.
“So you randomly found a minor teenage celebrity in Rarity’s shop?” Sunset asked.
Twilight laughed softly, “Yeah I guess we did! We met her dad too, who’s a really big deal in the archeological community.” Twilight launched into an explanation about the historical importance of the Drake family’s discoveries, stopping when she noticed that only Granny was still listening.
She blushed. “So yeah! They’re really famous and go on a lot of adventures and stuff.”
Sunset let out a short laugh, “Sound familiar much?”
“Oh gosh, you don’t think we’re that famous do you?” Fluttershy asked.
“Well,” Sunset said, gesturing around the mall, “Some rich guy apparently knew enough about us to call us just for our music.” Her eyes glazed over slightly as she continued, “Imagine if more people knew what else we’ve done.”
Twilight shivered slightly. Being local legends was one thing, but the moment they actually made it on the news… Who knew what would happen then? Probably something similar to Cassie’s phone now that she thought of it.
Her phone buzzed urgently in her pocket. Speak of the devil. She quickly pulled up her program, and frowned slightly. It had gotten a lot less than she would have liked.
“Whaaaaaaaaat?” Dash complained from in front of her. She looked up to see large strips of caution tape blocking off a major hallway. “How are we supposed to get to the coaster now?”
“That’s weird, this is the only way to that whole section of the mall,” Cassie mused.
The girls muttered and craned their necks over the tape, trying to see why it had closed. Just as they turned to each other to decide their next steps, a door to their left flew open, showing a shorter, college age girl in a security uniform, clearly out of breath.
“Hi, are you all looking to ride the coaster?” she asked quickly.
The girls all nodded and agreed.
The security girl waved them over, smiling. “Come on through here then, it’s just this next little section that needed some clean up after an accident. We’re bringing people through here to get to the other side.” This was met with all kinds of cheers and relieved sighs.
As they walked through the side hallway, Twilight turned back to her phone, and the concerning results from her cracking. Out of the little she got, she had a list of all the connections to the proxy intercepting Cassie’s signals. A few keystrokes later, and she saw that a lot of the connections had location data! Now she was getting somewhere.
Tilting her phone to see through the glare of the strange hallway lighting, she sent a list of location data to her map aaaaand… She froze in place.
30 dots pulsed softly on top of the mall. Most around the north section where the coaster was.
“Twilight?” Sunset said concernedly. The rest of their group slowly stopped walking, looking back. Twilight stared at the security guard, who’s smile was becoming more and more strained.
She could sense the cold sweat coming before she felt it. “Uh… uh…” Think! Think harder! “Hey Cassie?” She signaled for her to come to the back of the group. “Can I see your phone real quick?” Someone was after Cassie. That was the only logical conclusion. But why? And why go to these huge lengths?
She glanced quickly behind her, and saw four more “security” guards blocking their way back to the mall. Slowly turning back to the group, she saw Sunset’s eyes widen in fear, and the look started to be mirrored across the group in varying levels.
“Did you… find out what was wrong with it?” Cassie said, nervously shuffling in front of Twilight.
Twilight looked up at her, and spared a quick glance at Sunset, then to Dash at the front of the group. “Uh, yeah, I think we need to actually get going to-”
Sharp clicks echoed in the concrete hallway as all four guards drew pistols from various places.
The girls all froze, and all Twilight could do was meet Cassie’s fearful gaze, and start panicking… er… planning.
Nate liked to think he was a good planner. He thought ahead, he did his research, and he generally made good schedules. It wasn’t his fault life just hated him.
Life and this taxi driver.
The car swerved dangerously as Nate struggled to wrestle the gun out of the drivers free hand. He pressed his back against the passenger side door for leverage, and managed to twist the guy’s hand at an awkward angle. The guy yelled and tore his arm from Nate’s grip, bringing it back through the small grate that separated them both.
Nate quickly dove behind the driver’s seat, putting as many obstacles he could between him and the gun.
“Much as I love a good drive, I think this is my stop!” he said, searching the door for an unlock button.
The driver swerved violently, throwing Nate back into the passenger side. “As I started saying,” the driver growled, “You’ll sit quietly... or your daughter gets a bullet.”
Nate’s blood froze, his eyes flicking to his phone on the floor. Message failed to deliver. Great. Just perfect. Keep track of the streets, just keep track of the streets, I still have one way out. He sat against the passenger door, hands behind his back, searching for the lock.
But first, “So I have to be honest, I actually don’t know what this is about, this time.” Still gotta get the guy somehow. Can’t report if he’s unconscious or… he tried not to think about the simpler alternative. Still, he had to buy Cassie some time. Time? Time for what?! She’d never been in this kind of situation before!
“Really?” The driver said, unimpressed, “Cause the boss never stops talking about you.”
Nate slid his phone over with his foot and picked it up, using the movement to try a new spot on the door. “So I guess I get to… re-meet this,” he found the lock, “Guy? Girl? Honestly, for the reception you gave me there’s a lotta names I can pick from.”
They slowed to turn a corner, and Nate mapped it out in his head. Elena was right around the corner from here, and the car had slowed down. One glance showed a set of anti-crash poles along the sidewalk. There was his escape. He hooked his new suit bag in his foot, he’d need the padding, and flipped the lock and handle at the same time.
The driver panicked and brought his gun up again. His last mistake. Nate was already rolling out of the car, narrowly missing the door as it hit the crash pole. The impact dragged the car around to the right, amplified by the driver’s wild swing with his gun, sending the front of the car directly into another pole. He seriously hoped that bang was the airbag, but he didn’t wait. Elena had the car and Cassie was a hostage. He jumped to his feet, suit bag in hand. His only shield for now.
He took two steps before falling to one knee, just now noticing the pain that came with his rollout. Not as young as I was huh? Now I feel bad for Sully, he thought, wincing as the crowd’s screams finally registered. The driver isn’t alone, not by a long shot.
“He has a gun!” he shouted, pointing at the crashed taxi. That did the trick, sending dozens of people panicking and running in every direction. He stumbled back to his feet, rubbing out his back. He needed to get back to Elena. Cassie wouldn’t have much time. He needed to find her before she disappeared, possibly forever.
No! Don’t think about that. Just get to Elena, get to Elena. He took off with a limping trot, praying that Cassie was safe.
The girls were marched further into the deserted area of the mall, the rollercoaster rising imposingly in front of them. All of the storefronts were closed, lights off, with more armed people every few yards down the wide hallway.
Sunset walked near the center of the group, putting Cassie in the exact center next to Granny. A quick tap on Twilight’s wrist and a short burst of magic had told her all of Twilight’s recent memories. She didn’t think Principal Celestia would hold that against her. Over 30 people? She thought, incredulous. She discreetly bumped Rarity, then glanced at their five escorts.
Rarity shook her head slowly. “I work fast, but not that fast,” she whispered, unable to hide the trembling in her voice. No barriers for now then.
They stopped in front of the rollercoaster’s entrance, where a middle-aged man leaned on a ticketing booth. His salt and pepper hair was slicked back and shaved on the sides, but his most prominent features were the scars that covered most of his face. They looked like a combination of cuts and burns, all layered over the top of each other.
When he spoke, though, his voice was smoother than the kiosk salesman who tried to force lotion on her.
“You know, Nicole,” he glanced at the girl who brought them into the hallway, “I love hosting guests. I really do!” He stood, and calmly walked towards their group. The girls instinctively pressed closer together, Granny pulling Cassie into a protective embrace.
“But I believe my specific instructions were ‘As alone as possible’, and we have, what?” His head bobbed slightly, “Nine? Nine people? Come on Nicole. That is… a lot of extra clean up.”
Quiet sobbing drew Sunset’s gaze to Fluttershy, who had broken down behind Applejacks protective stance. She clenched her fists tightly. They needed a way out of this quickly. She tapped Twilight’s wrist again, reading her mind, and almost immediately regretted it. The room shattered into a thousand versions of itself, each slightly different than the rest. The sheer number of plans made Sunset break the connection, and hold her head in one hand.
Twilight grimaced, patting Sunsets arm comfortingly. They both glanced at Cassie. In all of Twilight’s plans, she was the part Twilight was least comfortable about. She just didn’t know enough about her to plan far enough ahead. But if Cassie’s tears were anything to go by, she would need to be protected.
Sunset looked back towards their captor. He was staring at his phone, frowning slightly. “I hand Nate to him on a silver platter, and he still manages to screw it up.”
Cassie let out a short gasp through her raspy breathing. Someone she knows? Sunset put a hand on her shoulder and pulsed her magic. Images of a family car trip flashed through her mind. Cassie hugged a rugged, yet kind man. Her dad?
Click.
Sunset broke the connection, only to see the man in front of them level a gun to their group.
“You know Cassie,” he said, steadying his gun at Applejack, “If your Dad knew how to follow directions, there would be a lot less dead people in the world.” A crooked smile broke the crisscrossing scars on his face.
Time seemed to slow as his finger wrapped around the trigger. Sunset’s eyes flicked nervously to Twilight, who had somehow gotten next to Rarity and was gripping her tightly, whispering lowly.
“Nowadays, though, one body should do the trick,” he said.
“NOW!” Twilight screamed in panic. A resounding ping echoed through the mall as bullet met shield mere inches from Applejack’s head. Shocked screams came from both groups, and the guy’s eyes widened in horror.
“Magic!” He screamed, and began emptying his gun at the shield. Rarity screamed from the effort of getting a shield around their small group, bullets raining down from nearly every direction.
“Everyone brace!” Twilight yelled, “Applejack now!” Sunset grabbed onto Fluttershy and Granny, and watched as Applejack wound up.
What was she-
The ground was gone. Or rather, everything in this part of the mall had left the ground from the impact of Applejack punching the floor. Everyone, their kidnappers included, wailed as the floor and it’s shrapnel came up to meet them. Sunset braced as shards of concrete flew towards them, only to have her stomach drop as their group was forcefully thrown across the room into a kiosk down the hallway.
Sunset hit the kiosk full force, cracking the display case. The world span around her, and she vaguely heard Twilight yell something. Seconds later, the ground shook again as multiple explosions rocked the mall. Pinkie’s work probably.
She shook her head, trying to clear the fog. Her vision still swam, but she could make out a rainbow blur shooting off with a Granny colored blob.
Twilight was suddenly in front of her, “Sunset! Sunset can you hear me?” Lound pings sounded as bullets started hitting shields again.
Sunset clenched her jaw, willing the pain to go away. “I’m here,” she said, shakily, waiting as the room came into focus.
Fluttershy was cradling a sobbing Cassie, backs against the kiosk, while Rarity was maintaining a shield around their little bunker. Explosions rocked the hallway as Pinkie passed piles of explosive sprinkles to Applejack, and Twilight threw large chunks of floor at the enemy. Dash and Granny were nowhere to be seen.
“We just need to hold out for two and a half minutes,” Twilight said, struggling to catch her breath. “Two and a half minutes and we can escape.” Desperation had crept into her voice, and her expression was less than inspiring.
Sunset turned to Cassie, who was still crying uncontrollably. “What is going on?” She demanded. “Why, why in the world are people SHOOTING AT US?!”
“I DON’T KNOW!” Cassie screamed, straining against Fluttershy’s grip. Sunset groaned in frustration. She had to know something. Sunset pressed a hand against Cassie’s head and pulsed.
Something here. There has to be. Campfires, dig sites, plane trips. This man knew Cassie’s father somehow, but where? Stories, pictures, a closet- The memory caught. There!
Cassie opened up a journal, peeking over her shoulder. If her parents caught her in here, she was so dead. She flipped through the pages, seeing sketch after sketch of artifacts, gold, and architecture. A photograph fell out as she turned another page, and she was surprised to see her parents and Sully sitting on the largest pile of treasure she had ever seen. Even more shocking, though, was Dad with a shotgun slung over his shoulder.
The memory skipped and stories flowed on a boat trip.
“So what was with the shotgun then?” Cassie asked incredulously.
“Well, uh,” Nate looked very uncomfortable, and glanced at Elena, “Some of the people I worked with-”
Elena snorted, “Worked with.” She said in air quotes.
Nate chuckled softly, “Yeah, fair. Competed with, then. They were willing to do anything to get what they wanted. So, when we had different ideas on what good and bad were... we had to be able to… defend ourselves.”
Sunset broke the connection, reeling. Twilight called Cassie’s family treasure hunters and archaeologists. Since when did that involve being proficient in guns! “What did your Dad do?” She yelled over the gunfire.
Cassie stared in shock and confusion. “W- what? What are you- what is- my Dad?” She buried her head in her hands. “What is going on?” She was barely audible over the din of the fight.
Sunset only grunted in response, still shaking off the pounding pain in her head. “Twilight, what’s the plan?”
“30 seconds and we should have a way out,” she said, straining to throw multiple floor chunks at once with telekinesis.
30 seconds seemed a lot longer when multiple people were trying to maneuver their shots around the shield. One guy had even gotten close enough to try and climb over the shield. A rainbow colored flash later, and the guy went skidding across the floor.
“Granny’s on her way,” Dash said, arms full of baseball bats, “Got these just in case though.” Sunset quickly took one, not even thinking where Dash got them. With no offensive magic of her own, she’d take anything she could get right now.
Fluttershy looked up at them in horror. “We’re not actually going to hurt them, are we?”
“A little late for that, Fluttershy,” Applejack said, grimacing as she magically enhanced another sprinkle laden pitch. “I’m tryn’a just scare ‘em away, but-” she cut herself off, diving to the floor as a hail of bullets came over the shield, “-they’re not exactly returnin’ the favor!”
Sunset looked panickedly at Twilight, who was still sweating with the effort of throwing anything she could get her magic on. With a strained heave, most of the potted trees and chairs in the hallway flew towards their captors, sending them screaming for cover. “We need to get to the doors, now!” Twilight yelled, pointing deeper into the mall, where the light of day glimmered promisingly.
Dash dragged Fluttershy and Cassie to their feet, trying to speed them along as the group rushed out of their now rubble laden cover. Sunset quickly took stock of their situation as the room came into view. The constant bombardment from Pinkie, Applejack, and Twilight had left most of the hallway in ruins, craters dotting the floor and storefronts, some of which held a few of their captors. She hoped their slumped forms were just stunned or knocked out. The bat in her hands suddenly felt a lot heavier.
Rarity shifted her shields around them as their remaining captors regrouped from Twilight’s furniture assault and opened fire once more. Sunset caught a glimpse of their captors’ leader, hunkered down by the coaster.
As they passed he stood, a crazed smile visible even from this distance. “You think you’re out? You think you’ve escaped?!” He raised something above his head, object glowing ominously. “I can find you all! You, your families, everyone that would help you!” His crazed laughter followed them away from the mayhem, and echoed in Sunset’s mind as they burst out of the mall.
“You are all alone!”