Things happened rapidly. Everyone took cover behind anything they could find. There was plenty of places to hide available, but not much time. The alarms were still blaring.
"Girls, hide!" Wendy screamed as she moved behind one of the various brass pillars.
"Sunset Blessing! Your days are numbered! We don't care if we don't make it out of here. We're taking you down! We shall have justice at last!" the unicorn bellowed. "Spread out! Herd her out in the open. Don't worry about the humans; we can deal with the other one after dealing with the original. The Apostate will not rise again."
Wendy had Kristin with her, huddled behind a pillar. Her ankle was in severe pain, but she didn't cry out. She didn't know where everyone else was.
"Can't we just catch the kid? Train her up to be on our side?" one of the other ponies questioned.
"No! What good would she do us anyway without her being a pony? She's a human at heart, has always been, and always will be," the unicorn answered.
"I'm still not happy about the idea of killing a kid, even if it is Sunset Blessing," the other pony answered.
"We don't need to kill anyone else, just the two of them. Now, find them!"
Wendy whimpered. They were going to kill Charlotte! They needed to get out of here. That meant getting to the door and unbarring it.
Something slammed against the door from the other side. Were the police here? Wait, they were in the future. This was Miss Newman's place. She said she had guards. That had to be the guards. If the guards could get in, they could save them. Sprained ankle or not, she needed to get to the door and take the bar off.
There was a scuffle, and Wendy saw a naked human form of Miss Newman run from one pillar to the next.
"I found her! She turned human again!" one of the ponies hunting them yelled.
"What did I say? She's always been a human at heart!" the unicorn yelled gleefully. "Flush her out! She's only made herself more helpless. She can't use her tricks on us as a human."
Why did she go back to being a human? She was a bigger target that way. The only thing Wendy could think of was it gave Miss Newman the ability to see the ponies easier. Actually, she said that spell to bring them here had been a one-time power boost. Miss Newman might not be able to do any magic right now, but these ponies didn't know that.
Wendy prayed that Charles had found Charlotte and was keeping her safe. The ponies were focused on Miss Newman for the moment, that meant she had a chance to try to do something about the door.
She pulled Kristin close to her and whispered. "I need you to stay quiet and out of the way of those ponies. I'm going to try to open the door and let the good guys in."
"But you only have one arm you can use, and you can't walk!" Kristin said fearfully.
Those were excellent points, but points that would have to be ignored. "I can get to the door. It will hurt, but I can do it. Just stay out of sight. Can you do that for me?"
"I don't want you to go! The bad ponies will get you!" Kristin cried. "I'm scared."
She kissed her daughter on the forehead. "You need to be brave, and you need to be quiet. I'll be back soon. Once I get that door open, we'll be safe."
Kristin whimpered but nodded.
Wendy looked at the door, gauging the distance. Deep breaths. This was going to hurt like hell, but it didn't matter. Charlotte's life was on the line. If that door didn't get opened, then Charlotte was as good as dead. No amount of pain or injury would deter her from her goal. A mother would do anything to protect her children.
She stood up, and the mere act of putting that much weight on her leg made her want to scream. Her mouth stayed clamped shut as tears rolled down her eyes. Try to move quickly, using her good arm to balance, and trying to keep as much weight off that leg as possible. If she fell, she would just have to crawl until she reached the door.
The first step nearly sent her down to the ground, but she managed to stay upright. Moving quickly wasn't going to happen. Taking another deep breath, she stumbled a few more steps and hit the ground hard.
"Mom!" Kristin yelled out in fear.
"Hey! That human is trying to make for the door!" one of the ponies yelled.
"Well, stop her, you bird brain!" the unicorn yelled.
The feathery winged pony came flying over at her and landed on her back, forcing her face down on the floor. "Stay down! This will all be over soon."
Wendy openly wept. She'd failed. There wasn't any getting out of this. Charlotte was going to die. Wendy wanted to die instead. How could she have failed to protect her own child?
"Get off my mom!" she heard Kristin yell. A second later, something collided with the pony on her back, sending it hurling away into a wall.
"God! How can a little girl hit that hard?" the pegasus yelled breathlessly as it tried to get back to its hooves.
"Road Cracker! Go help the useless bird brain! We can't let them open that door! I'll focus on the Apostate!" the unicorn yelled in a fury.
The pony without wings or horn charged at them, and Kristin screamed.
"Kristin, get the bar off the door!" Wendy yelled.
Kristin took off towards the door and began trying to lift the bar, there was a latch on the bar that the girl missed at first, and by the time she noticed it, the pony had already reached her and shoved her away.
"Not happening, kid!" the pony hollered at her. He then advanced on her as Kristin retreated, walking backward while crying.
The scuffle was not over yet. Charles came out of nowhere and tackled the pony, trying to restrain it. "Get the door!" he yelled to Kristin.
Kristin started running for the door as the earth pony fought to get its footing against Charles. For such a smaller creature, Charles was having a tough time holding on to it. Kristin reached the door again and started working on undoing the latch on the bar. The fact that someone was still pounding on the other side only slowed down the process. However, Kristin eventually yelped in triumph as she got the latch undone and went to lift the bar.
The pegasus came out of nowhere and slammed into the girl, knocking her away from the door before the bar could be lifted.
"Ha! Cloud Cover finally did something right!" a new female voice cried out in joy.
The feathered pony held Kristin down and glared across the room. "I'm at least useful! Not like you!"
"I'm down a wing and a leg. What's your excuse?" the newer pony protested. "I did most of the early scouting. This is the first useful thing you've done since this began."
"I—" the feathered pony began but cut off as Miss Newman went running by. "It's the Apostate! Get her!"
"Little busy right now!" Road Cracker yelled as Charles refused to let him get his footing. That pony seemed unnaturally strong. If he got his footing, Charles would have no chance against him.
Miss Newman reached the door and threw the bar off. It was a short-lived victory because what looked like a laser blast took her in the back, burning a hole straight through where one of her lungs would be. She dropped down to the floor, probably dying.
"Got her! Mission accomplished!" the unicorn yelled with glee as the door burst open.
Uniformed humans and ponies flooded into the room. Wendy stared in disbelief at the crumpled form of Miss Newman that had been shoved to the side by the door when it had opened. The guards were focused on the hostile ponies, and it didn't even seem like they had noticed her yet.
"Miss Old Lady Pony!" Charlotte screamed. She came running from a nearby pillar towards the form of Miss Newman.
"Charlotte, no!" Andrea yelled, and came chasing after her.
"And there is the final loose end!" the unicorn said with a growl. Wendy watched in horror as he charged up his horn again, uncaring about the guards bearing down on him, eyes locked on Charlotte.
"Charlotte! Get away from there!" Wendy screamed, unable to get up to do anything.
Time seemed to slow down. The unicorn fired off his blast just as the guards reached him. Wendy watched as it arched across the room towards Charlotte, everything seeming to now be moving at a crawl. Charles screamed, she screamed, Kristin screamed. Andrea kept after her sister as Charlotte remained oblivious of her impending doom. Just as it was about to reach Charlotte, Andrea did first, and shoved her little sister roughly to the ground.
Then the beam hit Andrea, going straight through her side in a place it would have to pass through multiple organs, and Andrea went down too.
Wendy let off a wail of anguish. One of her daughters had just taken a lethal shot. Charlotte had survived, but they were going to lose Andrea!
This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.