“Rules, rules, rules.” Screwball sat on Gear’s chair. “Let’s see. I mentioned the deathmatch thing. You fight till one of these robots is destroyed. Whoever wins gets to be the new leader, none of this voting nonsense. As far as I’m concerned this is a two-on-two match so attacking the pony is no longer against the rules.”
Screwball pointed at the audience and the forcefield separating them from the arena fell.
“And speaking of that!” Screwball’s smile grew in elation. “I hate all of this ‘safety net’ garbage! I’ve had it with how coddled the younger generation is, so stray bullets will just fly into the audience. That should keep them awake, huh?”
Screwball laughed as all the other scientists clambered in objection. Hoity Toity was the first to step forward.
“So you’re saying that Biohazard can fire upon us with no recourse?” Hoity scowled at the idea. “That’s hardly sportspony-like! Were the rumors of you giving ponies a fair chance in your games merely lies?”
“No worries! Of course, I thought of that,” said Screwball. “The rule is as follows. You can shoot with or without intent to kill whomever you please. However! If you land a single hit against any target that can fight back, they will be allowed to counterattack. For example, if Biohazard hits you, you will be allowed to attack Biohazard and only Biohazard as much as you’d like until the match is over. That said, I will immediately kill anyone who interferes with the match outside of that. Any of you trying to flee the castle grounds will be killed as well.”
A chatter arose amongst them all, attempting to find some way of exploiting these rules. Though Rarity was sure the others would help her, doing so would mean either getting shot by Biohazard’s high-caliber round or else facing certain death at the hooves of Screwball.
The obvious solution would be for their robots to take the hit for them. However…
Looking over what remained of them, few were able to function properly. Certainly, none of them would be of much help against this monstrosity, not after taking another blow. It seemed Saccharine’s lust for destruction caught up with them in the end.
Perhaps if she could at least soften a blow for one of them…
Rarity did still have one trump card beyond any of that, of course. She turned to Sweetie Belle sharing a nod with her. Twilight should be out, but it couldn’t be too hard to reach her. Rarity would simply stall the match out until then. The chance to catch Screwball was too much to pass up.
“I know what you’re thinking!” Screwball chuckled and hit a button on the side of the chair and a pedestal with a landline phone rose from the floor.
Screwball took the phone off the hook and beckoned Rarity over.
“Would you like to phone a friend, Rarity?” Screwball smirked and offered the phone to her. “I have the most obvious choice all lined up for you! They’re near a payphone.”
Rarity watched Screwball carefully as she trotted over. There simply wasn’t any way she’d give Rarity a direct line to Twilight, would she? This had to be some manner of trap or trick.
Warry and prepared, Rarity took the phone and put it against her ear, not taking her eyes off Screwball.
Dash glared sideways at the chittering spider and picked up the payphone. She hit the button to turn it on speaker mode as instructed. Pinkie assured her it wouldn’t explode, but still.
“Hello?” Dash kept her eyes on the parrot spider.
“Oh, it is you,” relief filled Rarity’s voice on the other end. “Rainbow Dash! I’m afraid there’s a situation over here.”
“Yeah. The spider guy already told us about that,” said Dash.
“Spider guy?”
“Is Screwball seriously over there?” Dash cut to the chase.
“Yes. She’s leaning against me as we speak. You need to get over here before she escapes.”
On the other end, an unfamiliar pony, presumably Screwball herself, started laughing at the idea. Dash silently vowed that she wouldn’t be laughing for long!
This all might turn out to be a string of luck in the end. They’d expected Screwball to stay hidden in her various strongholds, that it’d take months to track down her location. But here she was, in broad daylight! If they could take out another witch so quickly…
But more immediately, this meant Rarity’s life was in serious danger! Nopony but Twilight would stand a chance against Screwball.
“Pinkie!” Dash called out to her. “You’ll have to fight this guy yourself! The rest of us need to get over there like right now!”
“I can get there a lot faster than you probably think,” Twilight warned loud enough for the ponies on the other side to hear.
“I wouldn’t be so hasty if I were you!” Arachnado shouted down at her. “Did you forget the part where I’ve gathered hundreds of thousands of poisonous spiders? They’re hidden all over this and the surrounding towns. If any of you try to escape from me, I’ll command them to emerge from their hiding places and start biting ponies. Of course, we’ll be starting with the little foals. Small bodies mean less poison to kill you!”
“You’re really going after little kids?!” Dash nearly dropped the phone.
“Oh, don’t worry! Killing a bunch of little fillies might draw too strong a response. I wouldn’t do it unless you forced me to, of course.” Arachnado chittered. “I just want to play a time-wasting game with you. I’m hiding somewhere within ten miles of this spot. Finding me shouldn’t be too hard, hm? Ehehehe!”
Dash glared up at him.
“Can we really trust this guy?” She turned to Pinkie. “He’s just going to have his spiders bite everypony either way!”
“I know Screwball,” said Trixie. “One thing I’ll say for her is she never goes back on the rules for her ‘games’. She really does let ponies who win go. If Marshmallow can win whatever game Screwball gave her, then she’s not in danger.”
“Oh is that Trixie?!” That voice, which Dash was now certain belonged to Screwball, came on over the phone. “Are your new friends really walking you around on a leash? I thought you weren’t into that kinda thing! I guess they don’t respect a ‘no’ from you, huh?”
“I’m not talking to you!” Trixie kept her eyes set straight ahead, deadpanned but blushing in humiliation.
“Well, she’s right! Nopony would want to play with me if they thought the games were rigged,” Screwball offered her worthless assurances. “They’d just give up and sit in the corner. If Arachnado breaks the rules, he’ll be severely punished. Everything will go exactly as I’ve said and then you’ll know you can trust me, okay?”
Dash seriously doubted she’d ever trust a pony like Screwball. Still, from the sound of things, maybe capturing this Arachnado pony would be a big win in its own right. A pony with this power on Screwball’s side was too much to ignore.
“You might have to do without us for a little while, Rarity,” said Dash. “If you can’t win, stall!”
“I suppose I’ve no other choice,” said Rarity. “I’ll see if I can find help elsewhere.”
“We’re still coming over!” Dash promised. “Just wait!”
But for now, she had no choice but to hang up the phone.
“Alright! What’s this ‘game’ you mentioned?” She asked him.
Arachnado chittered at this minor victory.
“It’s quite simple, really!” Arachnado took a step back. “As I’ve said, I’m not far from where you’re standing right now. If you can come find me and knock me out, I won’t be able to control these spiders any longer. Pinkie should be able to find me no problem, hm? I promise I’m not that tough. Not compared to what you’ve already been through.”
That sounded like way too easy a task given their present company. Dash looked sideways at Pinkie.
The psychic lowered herself to the ground and licked her lips. After considering it for a moment, she straightened back up.
“Right there!” Pinkie pointed to the east. “He’s that way, hiding underground!”
“Very clever. But I wouldn’t be too hasty with this. Think about it! The spiders losing control won’t exactly be a good thing, will it?” He asked. “Yes, most spiders prefer to skitter back into the darkness if left to their own devices. But there are some I’m restraining from slaughtering the masses.”
Pinkie began looking around, sensing the locations of the most dangerous pockets of spiders.
“I suppose there are two ways out of this scenario,” said Arachnado. “There are three buttons hidden in the town. One is right here in front of me and two are next to the most dangerous of my spiders! And what luck! There just happens to be three of you. Press all three buttons at once and I’ll command all my spiders to leave. Or you could destroy the most dangerous ones, then come after me.”
“Three? Do I not count?” Trixie muttered, then sighed at her restraints. “I guess not.”
Pinkie looked left and right. “I think I got the buttons down, but they’re as far from each other as possible!”
“He’s up to something,” Twilight warned. “This was specifically designed to try and split us up.”
“Splitting up?” Dash lowered her head to try and whisper to the others. “But I can’t split up from the rest of you, remember?”
Sadly, that spider’s hearing was much better than Dash would have guessed.
“Eh?!” Arachnado’s spider jumped forward, eager to pounce on this. “You can’t split up from the others? Oh, how interesting!”
Stupid! She shouldn’t have let something like that slip.
“You can leave one of your crows with me,” Twilight reminded her.
“Right.” Dash let out an exasperated sigh. “Are we really splitting up, though?”
“We do need to end this as fast as possible,” said Twilight. “The question is if I can do this faster with or without the buttons.”
“I can think of a single spell that can end this all rather quickly!” Trixie lowered her head and grinned at Twilight.
Twilight frowned, reluctant to give her too much congratulations, but she knew the one Trixie meant. She cast the spell, summoning a single, large wasp-like insect.
It flew straight into the nearest spider and tore into it with its mandibles. In a flash it became two, then four. They began multiplying out of control until they filled the air. Spiders tried lunging at them, but the wasps were simply too fast and multiplied too quickly for this to be a fair battle.
Before long, Twilight’s swarm had the number advantage and the battle turned into a rout.
The parrot spider kept low to the ground as it looked side to side, watching the other spiders get devoured.
“Ah!” Arachnado chittered. “So you do know the empire swarm spell! How interesting. The implications! I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me where you–”
The wasp-like insects descended upon Arachnado’s parrot spider and devoured it before he could finish that sentence.
“They must have a list of every spell in the Book of Shadows.” Twilight clicked her tongue. “Using too many across the alphabet might raise suspicion. Maybe I should limit myself to using E-H spells while they’re watching?”
The swarm expanded in every direction, slowly clearing up. They still had a lot of ground to cover, and they appeared to be aimlessly zipping about, rather than homing in on each hidden spider.
“These should give us plenty of support, at least,” said Twilight. “But I can’t tell if this will end the battle quickly enough. I say we go with both approaches to make sure this ends as swiftly as possible.”
“So we’re really going to press them all?” Dash asked. “Oh, geeze! Pinkie, which one’s the most dangerous?”
“I think Twilight should go that way!” Pinkie pointed north, then moved her hoof south. “And you should go there! I’ll go for Arachnado.”
And for some reason Dash thought nothing too crazy would happen today! She cast the murder spell, leaving one crow with Pinkie and one with Twilight.
The remaining 18 crows flew off with a contingent of empire wasps to the location Pinkie told her about.
“Anyway, boring stuff's out of the way.” Screwball hung up the phone and jumped back onto the chair. “Match start!”
Biohazard charged forward too fast for Rarity’s eyes to register the motion. He clamped his left claw over Saccharin’s body, slamming down with an audible crash that forced all the ponies to wince.
A drilling sound came next, and sparks rained down from Saccharine’s body. Saccharine struggled but couldn’t free herself.
She did manage to pull out one of her higher caliber magnetic guns, however. It swung out from her side and fired multiple rounds into Biohazard’s eyes. Each connected but with far less impact than it should have had.
Rarity looked down at the ground, noticing no shells were ricocheting off or falling to the ground. She concluded that the flames around Biohazard rapidly dissolved any incoming projectiles, making them lose significant force.
“Go for the joints, Saccharine!” Rarity called out. “Fire at closer targets!”
With some effort, Saccharine managed to swing her gun around to instead point at a joint of the arm that held her. Firing closer meant less time for the bullets to burn away. The shots hit with noticeably more force just as Rarity predicted!
It soon became clear to everypony that Saccharine would break Biohazard’s arm before her own destruction. With no other option, Biohazard pulled back and pitched Saccharine high into the air, bashing her into the ceiling.
Looking up, Rarity saw minimal damage on Saccharine. Rarity let out a sigh of relief. A simple claw attack wasn’t enough to pierce Saccharine’s armor.
In the air, Saccharine managed to unload multiple rockets down at Biohazard. Just a second before they reached the ground, Biohazard vanished from sight with speed beyond sight. Fire filled the stadium, but Biohazard was already gone.
How could it move so fast?! Rarity needed to remain calm and analyze the situation!
Biohazard couldn’t possibly move with that speed constantly. Just like the wave glide, he seemed only capable of small bursts of speed. The only question was how? Teleportation? Time manipulation? Something else?
For now, she looked around for either Biohazard or any clue behind his movements.
She turned around to find Biohazard right behind her! Both his claws were opened, and two spheres of purple light grew in either. He was about to launch a massive attack on Rarity and Saccharine was too far away!
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle rushed in between the two, forelegs open, hoping her armor would be enough to protect both sisters.
At the last moment, Biohazard turned its claws upward and fired harmlessly into the air. Purple fire melted a hole in the walls, but Rarity felt nothing.
Rarity blinked, reeling for a moment trying to think of a reason for Biohazard to make such an odd move.
Saccharine charged in a second later, slamming into Biohazard’s side with her drills. She sent the larger robot tumbling off the bleachers, nearly taking off one of its legs.
Sweetie fumbled, but bravely took out her sound cannon– the only weapon she’d used so far.
“Remember!” Screwball shouted a warning to her. “If you attack Biohazard preemptively, I’ll have to maintain order. And I can hit a hell of a lot harder than anything else in this room.”
Of course! If he attacked Sweetie Belle, Sweetie could counterattack. Biohazard would avoid hitting her, the second most dangerous target in the room, at all costs.
Sweetie Belle hesitated but took a step forward as Saccharine leaped after Biohazard.
“Then I’ll just have to force him to attack me!” Sweetie Belle declared. “Th-that’s how this works, right?”
Though Rarity loathed to admit it, Sweetie Belle was more fragile than Saccharine, her biological brain being a glaring weak point. She didn’t have any combat experience and didn’t have the nature to attack an opponent with no restraint as Saccharine did.
But Sweetie looked too determined to do something. Rarity needed to give her some task to keep her occupied.
“No! You’re better off over here!” Rarity called out to her just as Sweetie prepared to rush in. “Biohazard won’t attack me directly if you’re standing in front of me. I need you to be my shield if I’m going to win this.”
Sweetie Belle hesitated, but Rarity’s plan made too much sense. She nodded and stepped back, determined to block any further attacks on Rarity.
“Oh, wow!” Screwball leaned over the edge of her seat in mock excitement. “Hiding behind a small filly? What a heroic tactic! I heard you spent all this time trying to fix her and now she’s just a meat shield to you? Hey, kiddo! You sure your sister didn’t have some other motive for putting you in that robot? Maybe you were just a convenient brain to experiment on. Ever think of that?”
Rarity gritted her teeth. “Don’t listen to her, Sweetie.”
“If we’re fighting dirty, why aren’t you attacking Gear directly?” Screwball extended a hoof to him, getting an annoyed look in return. “Come on! He’s gotta be the easier half of the team to kill!”
Rarity refused to respond and was rewarded with a small frown from Screwball. Rarity knew the type. The only thing that could disappoint her was a lack of response.
But sadly, Screwball just laughed and laughed.
“Oh! You don’t think I can get you to talk to me?” Screwball leaned over the side of her chair, the front half of her body hanging off it. “Maybe you need a reminder on this, but I know where you live.”
“What?!”
“See how easy that was?” Screwball asked. “Yeah! I’m sending another group to attack your castle right now!”
“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity turned to her. She could get word to the castle instantly.
“And that’s not all I have to say, you know.” Screwball rolled back into her chair, rolling her hoof around in circles. “Rainbow Dash lived in Ponyville, right? I’m sending a couple of goons to firebomb the school in that town right now.”
“Excuse me?!” Rarity gasped. “Whatever for? You’re going to kill random children for – for what?”
“Relax! Relax!” Screwball swiped her hoof in the air. “Not everypony who works for me is a professional. I only sent a couple of thugs, okay? I’m sure you can stop that one.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Rarity asked. “Surely a sneak attack would have been more apt?”
“The same reason I’m here!” Screwball covered her eye with a hoof. She pulled it away and turned to the side in one fluid motion. A single crow emerged from the spell and flew off. “I know I can’t beat my sister in an honorable duel. We’re not going to fight today even if she shows up.”
Screwball took out an eyepatch and put it over her now-missing eye. Rarity knew just enough about that spell to know that the crow that escaped could turn back into Screwball no matter what happened to this body. She’d be too difficult to track down even if Pinkie and Twilight showed up two minutes from now.
“This is more like a recon mission,” Screwball explained. “Rainbow Dash, Silverstorm, and Pinkie Pie can’t be your only ‘friends’, can they? I want to see who else shows up to help you. I want to know who all of them are. I want all their names. And you’re going to show me all of them, aren’t you?”
The main cards Screwball didn’t know about were Fluttershy and Applejack. Maybe Scootaloo. Screwball would certainly see the defenses around the castle soon. Rarity couldn’t imagine any way out of this besides giving Screwball exactly what she wanted.
Fluttershy wiped her brow off. A purple jelly covered the floor, and a few shelves were knocked over, but she finally got the two fillies to quiet down. They were distracted by a maze book, leaving the jelly to harmlessly ooze about the floor.
“There!” Fluttershy sighed with relief. “See? Great with kids!”
Now she just needed to clean up all this jam before anypony else saw. It looked like it was trying to crawl away, so Fluttershy froze it just to make sure.
“Fluttershy!” An 8100 jumped down the stairs, landing with a heavy thud. “Emergency!”
“What?!” Fluttershy spun around with a gasp. “I can clean it up! I swear! I’m so sorry!”
Sweetie Belle turned her head to the spill, then back to Fluttershy. “No! Not that!”
“Oh, good.” Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief. Then considered the situation. “Oh, wait. No. That’s not good! I think. What was the emergency again?”
“We’re under attack!” Sweetie Belle announced. “Screwball is attacking us and Twilight and she’s sending somepony to attack the castle right now.”
“Oh my.” Fluttershy put her hoof over her mouth and looked left and right. She’d expected at least a few of the others to be here whenever this inevitable attack came. She certainly wasn’t expecting anything so soon. “Um! Applebloom! Go get your sister!”
Applebloom nodded and ran off.
Fluttershy bit her lip trying to think of what else should be done. They’d set up an entire gauntlet of defenses. Maybe Fluttershy wouldn’t even have to do anything?
“I see somepony coming to the castle now!” Sweetie Belle announced. “In the camera. Look.”
Sweetie’s eyes flickered and she began projecting an image onto the wall. These projections always appeared as negatives to Fluttershy’s ghost eyes, but she managed to make it out all the same.
Through it, Fluttershy saw the walkway leading up to the castle. A good deal off, standing at the edge of the barrier, stood a lone pony. He was a pimply-faced teenager carrying a pizza box. He wore a vest with the words ‘No Questions Pizza’ written on one side.
Unsure of what to do, the pizza pony tried knocking on the forcefield.
“Hello?” He called out in a high-pitched nasally voice that cracked often. “It’s me! Pizza Friday! From No Questions Pizza? I got the triple cheese here!”
Fluttershy and Scootaloo both leaned forward
“A pizza delivery pony?” Fluttershy asked. “I suppose that could clog your arteries, but that’s a very long-term strategy, isn’t it?”
“Maybe it’s a pizza monster?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Or a bomb?”
“Please, I could take care of either of those things myself.” Scootaloo grinned. She flicked one of her wings at the potentially sentient jam and it vanished, reverting into its components, all stored safely in their unbroken bottles. “Whoever they send in, I can just make it, so they arrive late enough for Rainbow Dash to get back here!”
Fluttershy wondered why she hadn’t done that earlier, but now wasn’t the time for such questions.
“Well don’t use your powers on them unless it’s an emergency, okay? We don’t want anypony knowing you’re here.” Fluttershy kept her head down. She really hoped to not fight any pizza monsters today. “I suppose I should go talk to him.”
“It’d make more sense for me to go,” Sweetie offered. Her voice sounded so much quicker than normal, Fluttershy could tell she was desperate to act. “One of my spare bodies, I mean. It doesn’t matter if one or two get smashed.”
Without waiting for a response, Sweetie sent in one of her robots.
Fluttershy watched as the 8100 ran up to Pizza Friday, skidding to a halt.
“Um! I’m sorry, mister, but you can’t be here,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Ah, up to something evil, huh? You don’t need to worry about that!” Pizza Friday’s voice cracked with every other word. “No Questions Pizza guarantees we’ll turn a blind eye to any crime no matter how heinous or your money back! It’s how we cornered this untapped market. But there is a mandatory one hundred percent tip.”
“No! We’re under attack.”
“Oh. Well we charge extra for that.” Pizza Friday barely missed a beat. He took out a little abacus. “Let’s see, uh. That’s, uh, sixty-eight bits.”
“No! We didn’t order a pizza!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “And that’s way too expensive for just one!”
“Looks, that’s the price you pay for convenience,” his voice cracked hard. “Nopony else is gonna deliver out here.”
“Ugh!”
Mass Hissteria lay low in the grass, his belly tightly against the ground. His natural green fur and black mane blended in well with the camouflage of grasses piled up over his back so that only the most skilled hunter would have taken a second look in his direction.
Even then, the only tell would be the flat piece of glass peeking out from behind bits of foliage near the ground – the tip of his telescope. He ran his forked tongue over the tips of one of his fangs as he adjusted the glass for a better view of Rarity’s castle.
As Screwball’s most elite espionage agent, he’d been here for days, waiting just out of the reach of Pinkie’s psychic perception. An illusion coated forcefield, the kind only a witch could produce, surrounded the castle grounds. Even though he couldn’t see past the barrier, he still felt his time here had been valuable.
Namely, he hadn’t seen any other intelligence experts come to scope out this location. Nopony else had pieced all of this together, it seemed. He had to smirk a little, having outpaced everypony else who’d undoubtedly been sent to gather intel on this ‘Silverstorm’ pony. He’d thought for sure Nailbat or Bonbon would be close on his hooves, but apparently not this time.
His smile faltered slightly at the sight of the pizza guy. Something about that pizza pony… was off. His intuition sensed something his conscious mind couldn’t quite piece together.
Not that it mattered.
“Fun fact,” Hissteria whispered over the radio to his underlings. “Pizza delivery pony has the highest mortality rate of any job excluding lumberjack and archeologist.”
Hissteria clicked his tongue, giving the signal to fire an artillery shell directly at the pizza pony. The ensuing explosion decreased visibility in the immediate area. Perhaps it wasn’t a direct hit as he wanted, because the body went flying off to one side rather than vaporizing.
As he refocused his telescope, he saw that robot still unharmed, protected by the barrier. A barrage of artillery fire followed, testing the barrier’s strength from all ends.
Hissteria had a good number of grunts off in the woods, plus three of his own agents. The grunts likely felt very professional right now, having been granted such heavy equipment. In reality, they were nothing but sacrificial pawns and not even his biggest pawn at that.
“Remember! We’re here to see what comes out of there,” Hissteria reminded his ponies. “I don’t care what happens to these grunts, but none of you are running in. The only direction we go is back.”
“Affirmative.” All three responded at once.
It wasn’t long before the heavy cannon fire destroyed the outermost layer of protection, allowing Hissteria to at last see the castle as it truly was. Already he could see what he was up against.
Way more of those robot fillies were pouring out to return fire. He could see dancing blades rising from the ground– a spell he recognized as one Screwball often used. Curious!
And what else? A scarecrow? And finally that ghost, Fluttershy he presumed, came poking her head out from the upper story. She squinted, unable to see in the light of day, then flew back inside.
Finally, there was enough chaos for him to send in his search snakes without fear of giving away his position. They slithered fast across the ground. With one of his own eyes closed, he could see through theirs instead.
“Five minutes,” he said. “Then we drop the big bait.”
Screwball watched Rarity with a growing grin. She needed to do her best to ignore the smugness of her tormentor for now, she already had too many balls to juggle!
Saccharine had been trying to fire off the fusion cannon this whole time, but Biohazard knew enough to not let her get a shot off. It took too long to charge, and he would always use the sudden burst of speed to interrupt whenever she started up with it.
Rarity hadn’t accounted for this much speed or firepower from Biohazard! He’d been upgraded far past where he’d been last year. They wouldn’t have time to fully charge the fusion cannon.
“Saccharine!” Rarity called out to her. “You’re going to have to fire a partial charge!”
Saccharine wave dashed as far away as she could from Biohazard while simultaneously charging her cannon. After just three spins, Saccharine fired out a glowing stream of plasma. Though much smaller than even the one in the earlier matches, this would still be enough to destroy most robots.
The plasma stream hit Biohazard directly!
Light filled the castle, blinding Rarity directly from the results. A sideways glance at Gear’s smirk convinced her the attack hadn’t gone well.
When the fusion cannon’s attack ended, Biohazard stood unharmed. He appeared more intimidating than before. The flames around him turned white, having absorbed the plasma.
Biohazard lunged forward. All the fire conglomerated into his right claw so that it became a ball of light. Saccharine hadn’t the speed to dodge as he slammed it into her side. The explosion knocked anypony not hiding behind something off their feet as Saccharine went flying.
Even then, she was able to counterattack, firing a high-caliber round at one of Biohazard’s exposed legs. It dealt considerable damage, but Rarity was left to wonder who came out ahead in the trade as Saccharine flew straight through the wall.
At least it revealed that without those flames, Saccharine could quickly dismantle the other robot. But it seemed plasma weapons were less than effective.
Saccharine came rolling back into the building. Her body glowed red hot after the blow. Not necessarily an issue as the heat dissipated quickly but…
It tore a small gash in Saccharine’s armor!
Obviously, Rarity could simply order Saccharine to not use her plasma cannon again, but already this posed a major problem. A tear in the armor meant a weak spot for Biohazard to exploit with his more conventional weapons.
Already he was trying to take the shot, gliding around Saccharine’s side to fire bullets at the cut.
“Aren’t you curious how I knew your big gun was going to be a plasma weapon?” Screwball called out to her. “Well you know, those griffons are right in my backyard. I know Minuette took you there to try and kill you with that zombie horde. And I know you used a massive plasma weapon to destroy them. You can’t hide anything from me!”
“You can’t tell her that!” Gear shouted. “You need to leave it mysterious, so she thinks I’m just magically smart!”
Rarity looked around. Her mind flittered from one problem to another, unable to focus on any one of them to find solutions. The castle, the fire, the speed…
Maybe she could deal with one of those problems.
Applejack kept one ear covered with her hoof and one ear pressed against the phone line leading to the other side. With artillery repeatedly slamming into the side of the barrier, it was necessary to hear Derpy on the other side.
She nodded once in confirmation, then hung up to turn back to the others.
“Alright,” she said. “So Derpy can take care of those other attacks. We just need to focus on here and Rarity.”
Applejack found herself in something of a war room, alone with the fillies and Fluttershy. It looked like she might not be getting any help besides that and the defenses already in place.
Surrounded by analytical engines, Applejack had no less than ten different views of the battle unfolding from all around the castle. She also had a bullet-proof window through which to overlook the front of the assault. The normally loud sounds of the projectors and engines were all but drowned out by the sound of the battle below.
The majority of the attack appeared to be from a distance, cannons fired from too far into the woods for Applejack to see. The robots, she knew, could calculate the approximate position of the attackers and return fire at the artillery pieces. The explosions slowly decreased in frequency, proving to Applejack at least a few were getting destroyed.
Meanwhile, nothing had yet to breach their forcefield. The automated defenses were holding off for now, but there was no guarantee it would be enough. Applejack had no idea how many enemies surrounded the castle, nor if they had anything worse than this.
Nothing had yet to come out of the forest. The rows of dancing blades merely stood ready to charge in whenever it happened. Applejack frowned at each of the projections. She sent one Sweetie Bot out as a scout but didn’t want to send anything else out into the woods until she knew what she was up against.
For now, the woods looked disturbingly empty.
“How come I can’t do nothing?” Applebloom asked. She pointed to the lone 8100 in the room with them. “I got witch training and Sweetie Belle gets to fight!”
“That ain’t Sweetie Belle fighting.” Applejack gave it a shove to prove its lack of awareness. “Those are on auto. Besides, you don’t have any backup bodies.”
Scootaloo, meanwhile, struggled to turn her former fearlessness into courage once the sound of explosions began erupting all around them.
At first blush, Scootaloo seemed like their highest ace. But it’d be far too dangerous to have her use her powers unless absolutely needed. Just the noise appeared to be affecting her, threatened to awaken the monster sleeping inside her brain.
The 8100 in question blinked in and out of sentience, Sweetie Belle taking control of it every so often to relay information.
“Rarity says if Fluttershy can get here, we can probably win,” said Sweetie Belle.
“I ain’t sure if we can spare that just yet,” said Applejack. “I can’t go out there myself, not when I’m supposed to be playing dead. Fluttershy’s all we got.”
The 8100’s eyes lost their intelligence as Sweetie went back to Rarity’s side of things.
Peering out, Applejack resisted the urge to wonder if she really needed Rarity or even Fluttershy’s help after all. They certainly seemed to be winning for now, but she refused to believe it would be this easy. The Bloodstorm Cartel wouldn’t have come here without an ace.
“Um. Applejack?” Fluttershy whispered to her. “I really can’t see anything during the day when it’s this bright. I see the projectors just fine, but I’d be fighting blind if I went out there. I might be more useful if I get to Rarity’s side.”
She had a point. Applejack would give away too much information by going out there. Scootaloo had both Applejack’s problem, and that she might not be able to control herself just now. Was Applebloom seriously the best option somehow?
“Maybe once I see what we’re really up against,” said Applejack. “I don’t believe for one second they’re just going to shoot a bunch of cannons at us expecting to accomplish anything.”
The ground rumbled and Applejack braced herself. This had to be it! Whatever means they hoped to win with were about to emerge.
Entire trees went flying as the monster burst forth through the earth. At first, it appeared to be a worm, but Applejack soon decided a fat maggot or grub would be a better comparison. Its body was swollen and short compared to its enormous girth.
A hideous maw covered the entire front of its body with rows of disjointed teeth that seemed to continue onward into an endless void. They didn’t end at its mouth, either. Teeth jutted out across the length of the front half of it at awkward angles.
Still, that thing was massive! It rose high above the tree line, the trees like nothing more than chips for it to swallow hole. Applejack imagined the thickness of that hide could be best measured in feet.
The sweetiebots opened fire on it immediately, but even their rockets merely bounced off its thick skin. At best, they’d pop one of its pustules, sending a corrosive glob down to burn away the trees it landed on.
The grub lurched forward, crushing trees and leaving behind nothing but a trail of slime as it went.
If that thing reached the castle…
Applejack didn’t even know if it could attack in any real way, but just rolling over could destroy the entire building! They needed to stop it before it could get close!
The only grace she could find was how slowly it crawled towards them. A filly going for a trot could have outpaced it. Heck, they could have run circles around it were it not so big.
Fluttershy peered out the window next to her, scrunching her muzzle.
“I can’t see it,” she whispered to Applejack.
She couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t try attacking from directly underneath the castle. Applejack knew for sure it wouldn’t have worked; they’d set up precautions for that. But there was no way the Bloodstorm Cartel could have known that. They must have been thinking something else.
“Okay!” Sweetie Belle’s robot sprang to life once more. “Rarity came up with an idea on how you can go outside without anypony noticing.”
“I don’t suppose you can come up with an idea for something else, can you?” Applejack asked.