A giant worm monster now! Rarity glanced over at Screwball, knowing why she’d send something of that nature out. This ‘attack’ was more about reconnaissance than a serious attempt at victory as she’d said.
Something slow but massive would mean the biggest gun came out for sure. But what did they have at the castle to stop it?
She looked back down at the battle. Biohazard teleported to Saccharine’s left side and fired a spray of bullets at her wound. Most of them bounced off, but it only took one getting through to begin doing real damage to her system.
Rarity could tell from the way Saccharine recoiled that at least one did get past.
The 9100 wave-dashed around to Biohazard’s side, closing the gap with her own burst of speed. Saccharine tore into Biohazard’s damaged leg with her drill, finally cutting it off. At least the enemy was taking damage too.
Biohazard’s flames flared up and Saccharine leaped back before taking another swing.
“Rarity!” Saccharine landed near her side. “I cannot withstand such high temperatures with my armor compromised. I won’t be able to fire the fusion cannon in my current state.”
Biohazard stalked around the group, the missing leg hampering him only slightly as he searched for an angle to attack Saccharine but not Sweetie Belle.
“Biohazard is acting like a first-generation robot,” Saccharine continued her report. “He appears incapable of anything but aggression.”
This was the tightest spot she’d found herself in since standing before Trixie. Even then, she only had one problem to concentrate on. How could she fight so many battles at once?
And then ponies were screaming behind her. Some of them simply lost their cool when the battle started, which was understandable but another problem to add to the list. One more distraction she didn’t need.
Rarity opened her eyes and looked over the others. Or perhaps this was the solution after all.
If Rarity wanted to be a leader, then she would have to start now. If she could take control of this chaos, she could turn everything around!
“Saccharine! Focus on defense,” Rarity commanded her. “Buy me as much time as you can!”
Saccharine leaped forward.
Rarity took stock of all the other ponies in the room and quickly separated them into three groups. The first, and most calm, were the ones discussing ways to help her. Nopony had come forth with any grand solutions just yet.
She decided to delegate some responsibilities to these ponies. That included dealing with the problems at the castle.
Rarity expected the jig was up as far as her compatriots went. They wouldn’t follow her unless she gave them the whole truth from here on out. And Rarity intended to do just that.
“You three!” Rarity beckoned to them. “I need your help!”
They came running immediately, eager to aid her.
“Rarity!” Jet Set began. “I was thinking our best bet would be if some sort of ricochet–”
“Don’t worry about that,” Rarity dismissed the idea. Nopony else here would make as much of a difference even if they did get into the fight. “Your time would be better spent trying to figure out what system those flames and Biohazard’s bursts of speed work on. If you think of anything, let me know.”
Jet Set stammered for a moment, then nodded. His eyes fixed on the fight between Biohazard and Saccharine.
“Hoity Toity! Fancy Pants!” Rarity turned to them next. “Do you have any communication devices? I need to link it to a robot at my castle.”
In a second, they had a direct link from one of Hoity’s robots to an 8100. Though it was incapable of fighting, it could still link them directly to Applejack.
“I’m going to patch you through to an associate,” she said. “I need you to help them deal with the assault there so I can focus on this. There’s a pony name Fluttershy over there. I need you to find some way to get her here while also defending my castle. There’s a pony on the other end who can explain more. She can’t tell you her name at the moment?”
“Rarity?” Applejack’s voice came over, though it was muffled and distorted beyond recognition. Screwball was still there, watching Rarity’s moves carefully. “Can you hear me?”
“Dear, these two are going to be helping you from here out,” Rarity told Applejack. “I want you to tell them anything they need to know.”
“Are you sure about that?” Applejack asked.
“Yes. We have no choice but to trust the others from here out. We won’t be able to keep many secrets from them even if we want to.”
“Well alright!” Hoity nodded. “If that’s the best I can do, then I’ll do it.”
Good! The two of them ducked down, taking cover as they began talking to Applejack.
Rarity scanned the crowd and focused on the second group – those who hid strategically as they tried to repair their robots. Thankfully, most of them seemed to have chosen a single cluster of hiding spots. The stairs at the far end of the great hall provided sufficient cover for them all.
From the sound of their bickering, they’d already come to the same conclusion Rarity had. However, they were wasting far too much time arguing over how to go about it.
“The five of you!” Rarity motioned to Kerfuffle and the four ponies nearest her. “Try to simply get Fuff working. She’s the closest to full functionality we have right now. Cannibalize whatever parts from the other robots you can.”
“But–” one of them tried to speak up, no doubt hoping to convince Rarity that her own robot would be the better idea.
“No arguing!” Rarity tried her best to sound as authoritative as possible. “A good plan now is worth more than the best plan too late.”
Only a brief moment of hesitation remained until they all relented and did as Rarity asked.
Rarity smiled. She was actually getting this under control.
Though still not quite yet, she remembered, as the third group reminded her they existed. One of them was still just screaming and running around. Others were merely cowering behind anything that looked sturdy. Overall, the noise they were making rivaled only that of the actual fight.
Rarity needed some way to calm them down. Having a pony freaking out nearby would only drag down those to whom she’d given more important jobs.
She decided to go with the easiest of the group to deal with first. She ran over to Coco, hiding under a metal table, and crouched down to her level.
“Coco!” Rarity called out to her. “Listen to me. I need you to go to the west tower. I want you and the others to watch if anypony is approaching the castle.”
It wasn’t exactly an important job, but she would be safer there and it would move her from a hindrance to an aid.
“Rarity?” Coco looked up, then closed her eyes tight, retreating to her fetal position. “I can’t move from here! I want to help but… I’m sorry!”
Another explosion sounded and Coco covered her ears with another yell.
“They won’t attack Sweetie Belle,” Rarity reminded her. “Because then she can counterattack. If she’s standing next to you, Biohazard won’t dare fire anywhere near you.”
“Huh?” Coco opened her eyes again. “B-but doesn’t she have to protect you?”
“I’m willing to take the risk to get you to safety,” Rarity promised her. “And it will only be for a moment.”
“Rarity!” Coco scrunched her nose. Her eyes teared up, but this time they came not from fear. She couldn’t possibly bear to refuse helping now, not after seeing Rarity willing to put herself in danger like this. “O-okay!”
Crouched low to the ground, Coco was able to stalk away with Sweetie Belle shielding her. Rarity stayed close by as they moved through the wide-open area to the stairs, though her positioning was no longer optimal.
“Coco is going to head to the west tower!” Rarity called out to anypony who would listen. “Anypony who wants to act as a sentry should follow her.
The screaming pony realized what this implied and bolted for the stairs before even Coco got there. Nearly the rest of the final group soon took the offer as well, not that they were given a way to stay safe and save face at once.
Outside, dancing blades tried hacking away at the giant grub. It almost seemed as though this monster was specifically designed to counter the blades. Every time they broke through its thick flesh, green blood corrosive enough to melt them came pouring out. Applejack realized the futility of blowing something like that up, even if she thought of a way to do so.
“There can be no doubt that monstrosity is the creation of the Mad Science Cartel,” Fancy Pants informed her, confirming that it was at least designed. “The Bloodstorm Cartel still buys giant monsters from them all the time.”
“Thanks,” said Applejack. “But unless I can just stamp ‘return to sender’ on it, I don’t see how that’s much help.”
“The important detail here,” said Fancy Pants, “is that I’ve dealt with these abominations in the past. They have certain weaknesses, namely the method of controlling them. There’s a device called a hive beacon. Somepony not far away must have it.”
Applejack kept a keen eye on the approaching blob of doom. That made sense. The thing couldn’t possibly be smart enough to take orders the traditional way.
“And what does this beehive doohickey look like, exactly?” Applejack asked.
“That doesn’t matter as much,” said Fancy Pants. “You’ll find it by following the radio super-waves. I’m sure Rarity must have a super-dish somewhere. I’ll talk you through how to triangulate its location.”
Applejack sure was glad she’d volunteered to make robots now. She had some experience using these analytical computers.
Come to think of it, she was particularly well-suited for this sort of mission. Her ability to sink into the shadow realm meant she could go in, grab that device quickly, and come back out. She’d be blind outside in the middle of the day, but a sweetie bot could still navigate her to the right spot.
Rarity had plenty of masks and cloaks to choose from. That’d drop the risk of her being identified.
“Remember,” said Fancy Pants. “You don’t want to destroy it. There’s no telling what it’d do then. You want to control the thing yourself so you can make it turn around.”
“Right,” said Applejack. His warning came just as the location lit up on the map. She turned to Fluttershy. “You go help Rarity. I think I might be able to manage here now.”
Fluttershy nodded and off she went, flying deep below the ground to bypass the fight.
“I’m heading out too,” said Applejack. “You two can control the defenses from there, right?”
“Absolutely!” Fancy assured her. “At worst, your sister will only need to press a few buttons.”
Applejack turned to Applebloom with a frown.
“Ah, come on, sis! I can mindlessly press buttons,” Applebloom promised her.
Applejack frowned. She didn’t like it, but this might be her only choice.
“Alright. I’ll be counting on you.” Applejack put a hoof on her head. “Go ahead and tell me how to find this device.”
Applejack made her way through the white void that was the shadow realm at daytime. She’d wrapped herself from head to hoof with cloaks and put on one of Rarity’s masks. She could almost swear Rarity had prepared for just such an occasion.
Only beneath the trees, where some darkness lingered in midday, could Applejack make out so much as the ground. The Sweetiebot by her side could calculate and report their location on the map based on how far they traveled, but to pinpoint the exact location of the controller, she’d need to exit the shadow realm.
She ducked into a particularly dark corner and came out for one final scan before getting the exact location and returning.
Applejack moved forward the required number of steps. She almost decided to take her chances with a quick exit, unable to see anypony, but noticed something at the last moment. There was a pony nearby, hiding in a makeshift tent of leaves and brush.
The foliage did the opposite of covering them in this instance. Above the treetops and in the gap of their shade existed only a white void. Had they been standing out in the open, the shade and their shadows would have melded together, making it nearly impossible to spot them.
However, in this makeshift cover, there was just enough protection from the sun for Applejack to make out the blobby shape of a pony rising up from its shadow. No way to tell if other ponies stood outside the tent, however.
She braced herself, then jumped out of the shadow realm.
Five ponies with guns surrounded her! Thankfully, they were too surprised by her sudden appearance to open fire on reflex. Most importantly, an unarmed pony sat inches in front of her holding a device that matched the description she’d been given – a small box with a long antenna surrounded by a coil of wires.
She’d decided in advance that if there was more than one of them, she’d grab the thing and run rather than trying to force the operator to comply. The sweetie bot jumped at the enemy as Applejack snatched away the device from the pony in the tent and returned to the shadow realm.
Flashes of light banishing the shadows were the only evidence of a fight Applejack got as she ran back towards the castle. That much she could find without robotic assistance.
The maw of the beast already inched dangerously close to the empty ring that marked the castle grounds. She needed to figure out how to use this thing immediately. There wasn’t enough time to get back to the castle, even.
Arachnado watched from a basement as Silverstorm approached the first button. She was certainly the fastest of the three. Spiders crawled along his back and all through the room as he used his spy spiders to keep tabs on the battlefield.
One day he too would be as a spider. Thanks to Screwball’s aid and the work of the Mad Science Cartel, he had managed to replace much of his body already. His left eye had been replaced with something more suitable - a single, large eye with a constelation of smaller eyes around it. Mandibles had replaced his jaws and an extra set of spiderly limbs jutted out from his withers.
The procedure had turned his fur black and caused his mane to fall out. But no matter. He had no use for such things.
He watched his master’s sister approach the fire station where his deadliest trap awaited. Yes, how unfortunate for her… choosing the most powerful spider of them all. Arachnado clapped his forehooves together in anticipation.
Olyief'Uk! The very living manifestation of the shock and fear one feels upon noticing a spider! A demon summoned from the vile depths of the shadow realm to exact vengeance upon all those stepped upon his fallen brethren without even noticing!
What disgusting, worthless creatures ponies were. And all mammals for that matter! Reacting to spiders with such disrespect. Bah!
His only consolation was that he too would be an arachnid soon enough.
The door opened, his mandibles opened wide with delight!
Olyief'Uk poured out from inside the station the very second the door opened. Not a solid spider, but a swirling mess of black, twisted wires and burning red malice was he! Soon, he stood larger than the station itself… a towering monstrosity of spite only barely resembling a spider rose above Silverstorm, its wires writhing with anger!
Those same black wires shot out, attempting to pierce her from every angle. They had enough force behind them to puncture even the hull of a battleship, he knew, and the poison behind even a single prick from one of those would be enough to kill an elephant!
For a moment, he believed he may very well have eliminated a threat all by himself. How pleased Screwball would be with him!
A ball of white hot plasma surrounded Silverstorm. All the wires on Olyief'Uk flew backward upon contact, forcing him to lose his form. Without missing a beat, Silverstorm discarded her shield aside and cast another spell. Five runic circles on Olyief'Uk’s body, sealing him in place. The demonic energy was held in place. Olyief'Uk couldn’t regain his form or use any of his magic while those remained in place.
Arachnado had never seen somepony summon five of these at once! Hell, he’d never even seen a pony create a single seal that looked so powerful before. And she had done it on reflex, her expression remained neutral.
As Arachnado gawked, she moved into the third incredible spell in what felt like mere fractions of seconds. White light poured from her horn, shinning upon Olyief'Uk. His wires wiggled as much as they were able, but faded away like mere snowflakes in scorching daylight.
And just like that, he was gone. Silverstorm trotted into the building, completely unharmed, dragging Trixie with her. She reached the button and began idly mashing it.
Arachnado’s eye twitched. A spider crawled over top it with no reaction from him.
Slowly, he reached over to the phone beside him and picked it up.
“Um, guys?” He hit the dial repeatedly, waiting for his liaison to pick up. “I think we have a situation on my end!”
Panic! Panic!
Arachnado seriously underestimated these ponies. He knew at least one had witch training but this was beyond what he’d seen even from Screwball herself!
If he wanted even a chance to stall them out, he’d need to focus entirely on just one of the three. Not Silverstorm! Pinkie they already knew the power of. That last one… Rainbow Dash! Yes, he’d need to go after her with absolutely everything if he intended to have a glimmer of hope. If she was even half as strong as the other one… or what if she was even stronger?!
The second his message got through, before Pinkie showed up, he’d need to abandon this place.
The grub had its mouth around the forcefield, slowly constricting as if to bite out a chunk. It made a sickening crackling noise like an entire PowerStation shorting out.
Scootaloo wished she could be brave, but she had enemies outside and within.
Scootaloo gripped the white feather as tightly as she could. Without this thing, she absolutely would have lost control before now. She knew her life was in serious danger right now and even in its calmer state, that stupid thing wanted to defend her.
If only there was a way to tell it that she was smarter and that they’d both be better off if it just let Scootaloo make all the decisions.
This was the first time it tried to take control since she’d gotten the feather.
“Just try to stay calm!” Applebloom was having an easier time of that than Scootaloo. “Even if it breaks through the barrier, we can just run away through that portal.”
“Yeah.” Scootaloo breathed in and out. Slowing her heart rate always helped. It made sense. Scootaloo wasn’t in any real danger, not as she could keep herself under control.
And for the first time, it almost felt like the parasite was listening to her now. She could feel its energy waning back down.
Ever since Twilight gave her that feather things were… different. Even with her medicine, that parasite would wake up even more easily now. Yet everything was so much easier because it didn’t freak out the same way.
Before, the second it felt threatened, it would start targeting every single thing in the room, threatening to delete all of it. Now, somehow, it knew to focus its energy only on that giant monster. Scootaloo felt as though even if she did lose control now, Applebloom would be safe.
It was almost like it could see now and hear Scootaloo’s assurances that she had everything under control. She merely had to think as much for it to go back to sleep.
Things were calm again!
Then the abomination at last bit down, collapsing the entire barrier at once.
Scootaloo fell back onto her haunches as the enormous monster clammed onto the ground. The sound of the crash shook the whole castle. Pustules burst, dissolving entire chunks of earth. Then it began lurching towards them.
That bottomless maw opened up and its endless rows of teeth came ever closer, got ever wider.
“Alright! Time to go!” Applebloom ran off down the hall.
A moment later, she came back in.
“Scootaloo?” Applebloom came back up to her. “We gotta go.”
But Scootaloo couldn’t move! Why couldn’t she be braver like Applebloom?
Applebloom grabbed her scruff and tried dragging her out. It’d take too much time! Scootaloo had to stand up!
She braced herself. She just had to get up and run! Yet she couldn’t! She couldn’t move!
Scootaloo felt the parasite waking up. She could almost hear its thoughts… that if Scootaloo wasn’t going to save them then it would do it for her!
Then reality warped!
Scootaloo winced, terrified of what the entity might have done! She calmed slightly upon seeing Applebloom standing, unharmed, back at the camera station.
The grub was still out there, still biting down on the barrier. It’d merely pushed time back a little, made the attack start a few seconds earlier. It was a trick Scootaloo used often. That was certainly more… chill than its usual technique.
Scootaloo stared forward, still trembling. Applebloom noticed her cowering and ran to her side.
“Just try to stay calm!” Applebloom rubbed her hoof in circles on Scootaloo’s back. “My sis will turn that thing around long before it breaks the barrier.”
This time, her assurances were well-founded. The grub stopped biting down just then. It dislodged and rolled to one side with a thud before becoming completely inactive.
“I’m back!” Applejack came charging into the room.
Scootaloo stared forward blankly, afraid for an entirely different reason now.
Did anypony even notice that?
“Dang it!” Hissteria stood up despite himself. “They got the beacon. Oh, well. You see anything?”
The ‘loss’ of the beacon was only a half defeat in the end. The grub itself was a trap, as was the beacon. His only mission here was to see what capabilities they deployed in this situation.
“One of them appeared out of nowhere,” a voice responded. “A mare in some kind of superhero getup teleported in or something.”
“They can teleport that far?” He asked.
“Maybe. I got the whole thing recorded on camera either way. We can analyze it when we get back.”
“Aw well.” He shrugged. It wasn’t like their mission was to destroy this castle anyway. “We got what we came for. No cure for bad luck.”
“None of you are going to say anything about that time magic?” Striking Viper’s voice came over the radio. “That might make it difficult to escape, wouldn’t it?”
“Time magic?” Black Adder’s voice came next. “I didn’t see anything like that.”
“You didn’t see it go backward in time?” Striking Viper asked.
“Did you see whatever he’s talking about, King Cobra?” Hissteria asked.
“Negative.”
Mass Hissteria hummed to his breath, trying to piece together what happened. Striking Viper was the furthest away of any of them, over two miles from the castle itself. That meant whatever happened affected a limited area.
Mass Hissteria blinked, one eye then the other. This seemed familiar but so many bits of data filled his mind it could take time to shift through all of them. Where was it?
Yes! That was right. One of his auxiliary clients.
“I think I know what we’re looking at,” he hissed over the radio. “Yes, yes. I had an offer from Allgood to locate a certain pony. We just picked up an easy two hundred grand, it seems!”
Hissteria laughed to himself.
“I think we got everything we’re going to. Retreat before they clean up this mess.”
Then Hissteria jumped back in a flash, getting out of there as fast as he could.
Rarity managed to focus on the fight from there out. Saccharine needed as much help as possible to hold up against such a relentless assault.
Saccharine’s weapons were slowly going offline one by one. She had such a ridiculous number that this hurt her versatility more than her offensiveness. It seemed Rarity’s paranoia had served her well in the end.
Biohazard similarly took notable damage, but not nearly enough to end the fight. He was covered in dings and gashes in his armor. His left arm appeared close to getting blown off. Rarity could manage that much before Saccharine became too damaged to continue, but that wouldn’t be enough. Not unless –
“I have returned!” Fuff’s voice sounded behind Rarity.
Kerfuffle flew to the top of the stands, Fuff leaping up shortly behind her.
The robot itself was largely unrecognizable at this point. Her hind legs had been replaced by wheels and even the front half looked barely pony with all the components attached to her skeleton. All of Archibald’s guns had been welded to her back. Though the pile of guns looked intimidating, and no doubt could still fire, Rarity had no confidence this body could withstand much punishment.
Most critically, they salvaged the rex-caliber gun from the earlier match! Whatever armor plating they had found was placed in such a way as to protect this one weapon.
“We’re only going to get one shot from this, though.” Kerfuffle ran a hoof over the gun. “But I think Fuff is just sturdy enough to take a hit or two.”
“Great!” Rarity smiled. This might be just enough. “Stand close to Saccharine, keep her right side covered. Even if Biohazard refuses to attack you, you can still cover her wound!”
Fuff awkwardly galloped into battle with only a fraction of her previous speed. But she wouldn’t need to move fast for her current job.
“Kerfuffle.” Rarity looked at her from the corner of her eyes, keeping her voice down. “Go join the watchtower group. When a certain pony shows up, I need you to give this note to her before she enters the building.”
Kerfuffle nodded and ran off.
Rarity certainly couldn’t announce her plan for Fluttershy to enter the battle. Even her making an appearance too early could put the plan in jeopardy.
Hoity had already assured her Fluttershy was en route. Rarity just needed to stall out a little longer. Though at the moment, it was starting to look like she could win even without further aid.
Saccharine and Fuff stood still in the center of the arena, side by side with Fuff pressed hard against Saccharine’s wound. Biohazard warped all around the two of them in short bursts of speed, firing at every exposed side of Saccharine.
From any other angle, his attacks proved useless. All the while, Saccharine countered with occasional shots from her sonic cannon. Each shot made Biohazard vibrate violently, bringing his left arm and two damaged legs closer to dislodging.
If they kept this up, Saccharine was sure to win! Biohazard had but one option left.
“Bah!” Gear ran a hoof along his neck. “That flimsy pile of junk will go down easily enough! I won’t let it stall us out! Biohazard! Do as much damage as you can with your first blow!”
Thankfully, her compatriots had thought ahead and put the rex-caliber rifle on Fuff’s left side, sandwiching it between the two robots. Biohazard wouldn’t be able to easily get at it unless…
With another burst of speed, Biohazard appeared just before the two of them. He grabbed Saccharine with one claw, violently throwing Fuff aside in the same motion.
“Whoop!” Screwball raised her hoof. “That counts!”
Then all restraints were off. With his damaged claw, Biohazard let out a torrent of flames that pushed Fuff back further. Fuff was already hemorrhaging body parts! The wheels melted and Fuff merely ejected them to save weight. Several of her guns fell off her back immediately.
That would have been the end, but the damaged claw malfunctioned! With a crackle and a spurt, the flames ended sooner than earlier! Biohazard was forced to withdraw this attack and began circling around Fuff, needing to move on the defensive with two opponents on either end.
Yet this would only last so long. Another burst of speed would mean the end of Fuff.
Should Rarity tell her to fire her big gun now? It was better to pick a target at random than lose it entirely. She could risk trying to destroy the fully-functioning claw or guarantee destroying the damaged one…
“Rarity!” Jet Set called her attention. “I believe I’ve isolated where the chrono breaker is located.”
Chrono breaker? Rarity assumed that was the part responsible for the burst of speed. She didn’t have time to think about that.
“I noticed unusual activity in the tail fin.” He pointed it out. “Right in the center of the two fins!”
“Saccharine! We have to destroy the tailfin!” Rarity called out to her. “Activate temporal distortion drill!”
Saccharine took out one of her last remaining drills.
“The what?!” Gear shouted.
Of course, this was a bluff. Rarity had no such thing. Biohazard still had to choose which of these two would land a hit.
Luckily, he turned to face Saccharine. Biohazard crossed his drills to block the incoming attack. From behind, Fuff fired the Rex-caliber rifle.
The recoil threw Fuff off her two remaining feet and nearly broke the plating holding it in place! She wouldn’t be able to accurately fire it again.
Even with the flames protecting him, in its already damaged state, the gun was strong enough to blow both fins off entirely and continue on to put another hole in Biohazard’s backside.
Then came the ultimate test for Jet Set’s observation. Biohazard’s body glowed slightly. In a flash, he vanished and reappeared but only inches away from where he had been.
It seemed the device hadn’t been broken but damaged enough to render it nearly useless, at least.
Things were starting to feel more under control now! Victory was so close!
Saccharine and Fuff stood side by side, firing all of their weapons at Biohazard. The two of them needed to be in the exact right spot for this to work. Rarity had precisely calculated it. Four meters from the main door, or what was left of it.
To that end, the two robots stood side by side, Fuff covering Saccharine’s gash, as they exchanged fire with Biohazard.
Biohazard took notable damage from this exchange but kept it up expecting to be the clear winner. While his armor was taking slight dents and another one of his legs was blown off, Fuff was losing body parts left and right.
Two of Fuff’s legs came off at once and even then, she made a valiant effort to get back up and fire her last remaining gun before being blown to bits.
Then Biohazard had a clear shot at Saccharine’s weak point.
Saccharine’s eyes flickered and she stumbled in place. Soon they were back on, but Saccharine’s pose lost much of its intensity. She staggered about, giving the impression her internal damage was more intense than it really was.
Finally!
Rarity bit her lip. This was the most critical phase of their plan. If Biohazard took the bait…
Biohazard stopped his charge, hesitated slightly, worried that Saccharine’s odd behavior might be some genius move. But he wouldn’t hesitate too long on such a bluff.
Biohazard closed the gap and swung hard, deepening the gash into Saccharine’s side and sending her tumbling.
Everypony gasped at the brutal hit. Everypony but Brilliant Gear who began his manic laugh once more.
Saccharine began to twitch, and sparks began flying out of her wound. Her drill malfunctioned spinning out of control before it ejected itself.
But it’d be worth it.
“Looks like I’m one blow away from total victory!” Gear declared.
“Um. Actually!” Fluttershy floated out of Saccharine’s body.
Saccharine fell to the ground, lifeless for a moment before standing once again. Gear’s smile faded as he realized what had just happened. Fluttershy had entered Saccharine’s body from below.
“I was possessing Saccharine’s body while she was asleep,” said Fluttershy. “Because robots are basically just dolls when they’re in sleep mode. So Biohazard wasn’t attacking Saccharine, he was attacking me. I think the rules state I’m allowed to help now?”
Screwball looked Fluttershy over before gawking at her eyes.
“Ah, hey!” Screwball stood up, excited. “My sister got a specter to come work for her? I’m honestly impressed! Every ghost I try to hire straight up freezes my other guys.”
She laughed and clapped her hooves, much to Gear’s disdain.
“This doesn’t count!” Gear kept his eyes on Screwball as he pointed desperately down at Fluttershy. “I attacked Saccharine’s body, not hers!”
“I feel it when somepony hits whatever I’m possessing,” said Fluttershy. “So it should count! Th-that punch hurt; you know?”
Screwball leaned back into her throne and hummed as she considered the subject. Everypony watched her with bated breath, but Gear alone began to sweat.
“You know what?” Screwball sat up, smiling. “I’m going to allow this! The spook can attack your robot!”
“What?!” Gear jumped forward, over the arm of the throne to grab Screwball’s sleeve. “But we could seriously lose if you do this! You can’t be–”
Screwball turned and slapped him so fast Rarity could only hear the sound of it. She saw the aftermath too. The blow sent Brilliant Gear rolling across the floor and struggling to get up. It even knocked out one of his teeth!
“Did I give you permission to touch me?” Screwball’s smile at last faded. She stared at his motionless body with a quiet intensity Rarity never expected to see from such a manic pony.
Brilliant Gear slowly got back up. He didn’t get back on all fours, but he didn’t apologize either. The two of them locked eyes, but Gear only lasted a second in that staring contest.
“Pfft.” Screwball turned back to the arena. “First of all, I’m only into pegasi, okay? Second, I don’t cheat in these games. That means I can’t favor my own side. I side with whoever’s doing the cooler thing in these judgment calls always. If I didn’t, nopony would want to play with me.”
“Gah!” Brilliant Gear stood back up and thrust his hoof forward. “Biohazard! Hit that ghost with as much flame as possible! It’s the only way to harm her! I refuse to lose this easily!”
Biohazard opened his pincers and let out a stream of fire in Fluttershy’s direction.
Fluttershy let out an eep and flew underground. Safely out of reach of the flames, she was able to reappear behind him. Then she hit it with her ice magic.
The ice and fire did battle around Biohazard’s body. Ice burst out all around the robot, vanquishing the flames. But Biohazard buckled down and made them flare up again, vaporizing the nearby ice.
The dance continued, giving Biohazard the appearance of a trick candle in a violent gale. Perhaps this would be enough, as there were moments they vanished entirely from his body, and they no longer covered all of it.
Already she could tell Biohazard would outlast Fluttershy. Rarity heard her mention the repulsive nature of hot metal. Poor Fluttershy had her cheeks puff out and her lips pursed as though holding in her own vomit.
“I’m not sure how long that will last.” Rarity turned to Saccharine. “You have to unload everything you have left right now!”
Saccharine had already started on that advice and taken it to a level beyond what Rarity had meant. The reactor for her fusion cannon already made its fourth spin by this time.
“No! You can’t handle the heat generated by the fusion cannon!” Rarity called out.
“It is the only way to guarantee victory.” Saccharine lowered her head
The next moment that the flames vanished, Saccharine fired the fusion cannon one last time. Now there was no defense in place to block it. The plasma hit Biohazard directly between the eyes. The arms melted off, but the head plate endured for a moment. Biohazard tried to dig his remaining legs in but soon they came off one by one.
Then finally, the head plate broke, and catastrophic damage overtook the rest of the robot.
As the stream of plasma died down, Biohazard fell to the ground, reduced to a pile of twisted metal. Brilliant Gear stared forward, stunned, then fell to the ground a moment later. Fluttershy all but rolled off to the side, gagging and coughing.
Saccharine stood a moment longer. A bright red glow came from inside the wound now and smoke billowed out from her joins. Her armor was still largely intact, but her insides were literally burning!
“Well that’s it!” Screwball raised her hoof. “Rarity won. I thought we were going to do better than that. Oh, well!”
Screwball laughed as Rarity ran over to Saccharine. Her robot collapsed a mere second after being announced victorious.
As Rarity sat down by her side, Saccharine lifted her head and tried to speak. Her voice sounded as though it melted as she tried to speak. No doubt her voice modulator had already liquified. They’d won, but somehow Screwball alone appeared elated by the results.
All the other ponies, too many ponies came forward to crowd around Saccharine’s lifeless body. Even from meters away, they felt far too close. Only Sweetie Belle came up to Rarity’s side.
“Is she okay?!” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Nearly all of her systems are destroyed at this point!” Rarity’s eyes began to tear up and she shook her head.
Sweetie Belle shook her head and retreated. Rarity fell to the ground, unable to so much as hold her fallen robot due to the heat.
How had she been this blind? She’d lost so many family members and had sworn
“I’m so sorry!” Rarity sobbed. “I was so obsessed with saving Sweetie Belle that… that I forgot you were my sister now, too.”
A deathly silence fell over the rest as Rarity wept. Before long, Fluttershy came up to the scene, watching with sorrow at Rarity’s tears and revulsion at the smell of the body.
“But she’s a robot!” Fluttershy put her hooves over her mouth. “Can’t you just rebuild her?”
“Can’t I just–?!” Rarity turned to her in a flash of anger, then paused. “Oh, wait! I can just rebuild. Ohoho. Silly me.”
Rarity laughed a bit too hard and whipped away her tears. Though she was so relieved she hardly cared at this point.
“At least, I think I can!” Rarity scrambled as swiftly as possible to check the persona core. That alone was irreparable if severely damaged. With the body so intensely hot, the core might not last too much longer if left alone.
To get it out in the shortest time possible, she had to use her hooves as well as her horn, burning them in the process. Thankfully, the armor itself was still largely undamaged and she was able to eject a glowing, green orb from inside the head.
She held the persona core up with her magic, her hooves threatening to blister already, to assess the damage.
“Yes!” She let out one last sigh of relief. “The body is finished, but as long as this is okay…”
“So, uh.” Coco raised her hoof. “So we won then, right?”
“Yes.” Rarity smiled and held the persona core close to her chest, tears still in her eyes. “We defeated the Bloodstorm Cartel today, thanks to all of you. I understand if any of you blame me for what happened here, but–”
“Rarity!” Fancy Pants interrupted her. “If you are to blame, then you have my sincerest thanks for exposing this racket. I never would have aided a cur such as her even indirectly if given half a choice.”
“The way you handled that was amazing!” Kerfuffle cheered. “I would have choked! What am I saying? I did choke. I say we make Rarity the new leader!”
Not one of them had the slightest objection to the idea. On the contrary, soon everypony at once rushed forward and grabbed onto her. She felt all of their relief at once surrounding her, happy to be out of such a tense situation.
The only thing ruining the moment was Screwball joining in on the applause.
“Well?” Hugged by so many, Rarity had to tilt her head back to look at Screwball. “Aren’t you going to leave now?”
“As I promised, you’ll get to leave unharmed. You can do whatever you want with this idiot.” Screwball grabbed Brilliant Gear by the neck and threw him into the crowd. “But I’ll be sticking around just a little longer. My sister is bound to show up before long, from the sound of things.”
Dash had the button in sight. It was right there on the train station platform, just a few yards away. Only problem was she was currently a crow. Crows weren’t that tough unless you had a lot of them. Dash had three left, including her current self.
The button was encased in webbing, only a few small gaps allowed Dash to even see it. Between her and it was plenty of spiders. Two types, in particular, looked like trouble.
First were the spitters. They could shoot acid
A second had a swollen, translucent abdomen through which boiling acid could be seen. Dash saw this one in action a moment ago. They exploded! It took out a few of her crows not long ago.
The empire wasps still swarmed the area. They weren’t smart and kept charging in at the spiders only for the spitters to keep them at bay with acid.
But they had to run out of acid eventually, right? Dash could maybe stall this out… but wasn’t that exactly what Screwball wanted.
Dash turned to one of her fellow Rainbow Crow to see if that one had any bright ideas. She got a caw in response. That meant no. Figured. If Dash didn’t have a good plan then… Dash certainly wouldn’t.
Alright! No choice! Dash would have to turn back into a pony and swarm the button with wave after wave of crow until the spiders ran out of intestinal fluid. That was the main thing she was good at.
She turned back and then–
A screaming maniac freak came bursting out of the ground! A bizarre, black-furred, bald freak with spider parts attached to him lunged at Dash.
Was that the guy?! Wasn’t he supposed to be distracting Pinkie?
Reflexively, she cast the murder spell and flew in every direction. Arachnado didn’t miss a beat. He ripped one of her crows in half with his mandible and stabbed two more with those spidery legs. Apparently, the tips of those were as sharp as spears!
From the hole behind him emerged dozens more of those acid-filled spiders. They jumped into the air and exploded in every direction.
Dash got knocked out of the air mid-flight, managing only to correct herself enough to dart behind the station itself. The explosions continued as her ears rang and she regained enough composure to turn back. Hardly any of her crows had survived that!
Without giving her a second to recover, Arachnado came charging at her, crawling on the wall of the station, screaming the whole way.
Dash spread her wings, transforming one of them into three crows. Arachnado was on her in a second. As one of the crows, she watched her pony-self attempt to fight back. She tried punching him but he ducked to the side.
That guy was too fast! His speed was far beyond what a normal pony could achieve! He slammed his own forehoof against Dash’s extended leg, getting a cry of pain from her. Then he lunged forward with his spider legs, stabbing her repeatedly, screaming the whole time.
Dash turned back before the scene could become gruesome, the pony crumbling to feathers, leaving Arachnado confused for the briefest second. The knowledge she regained from her pony self was less than encouraging. Arachnado had nearly broken her leg with a single punch. Clearly, his physical abilities had been dramatically enhanced by something.
But in one sense, Dash herself was unharmed too. If she could just keep dodging like this, she could slowly wear him down or at least stall until Twilight showed up.
Dash turned into a murder of crows and had most of them fly straight at the spidery abomination. He slashed furiously at the incoming crows, taking most of them out. None of that mattered.
One found an advantageous opening and turned back! In the exact perfect spot, Dash ducked down and bucked him straight in the face as hard as she could!
She felt like her hooves connected to armored plating. His head moved back, but only a little. He grabbed both of her hind legs with his forehooves. Dash panicked and turned her wings into six more crows.
They flew off just in time before Arachnado stabbed into her pony body, only for it too to crumble into feathers. Dash was still unharmed, but what was she going to do now? That didn’t hurt him at all!
“My body has been enhanced by the Mad Science Cartel!” Arachnado shouted at her. “Don’t disrespect me like this! I’m one of Screwball’s elite chimeric agents! I can’t be defeated with half-hearted kicks like that! Use your real power against me!”
Only that was Dash hitting him as hard as she could!
She… she didn’t have anything that could seriously hurt this guy, did she?!
There was still the mass murder spell! Dash didn’t have an actual plan, but she might as well. A truly massive cloud of crows formed and spread all over the station. Some of them went for the button, some flew down at Arachnado.
Arachnado laughed and stuck his spider legs into the ground. Even more of those explosive spiders burst out from the ground all around her. At once they began to explode. Explosions rocked everywhere, blowing out Dash’s eardrums.
The fight didn’t last long at all. There were just too many shock waves and acid. Dash landed hard on the ground. She looked around, seeing no other crow in better shape.
None of the others were turning back meaning… all of them were having second thoughts! None of them had been fully spared from that.
With no other option, Dash turned back into a pony, covered in injuries that would last through another murder spell. She struggled to get back up. She looked around desperately.
There was still an empire wasp around! But Arachnado had too many spiders around for it to start multiplying.
Or maybe like… like she could feed her own crows to it! And if she could make enough of them…!
She panted and struggled to stand up as Arachnado jumped off the roof of the station, landing before her.
“What the hell is this?” Arachnado’s lower eye twitched. “How am I winning? Why were we so afraid of you? How are you rank S? Can you seriously do nothing but turn into crows?!”
“Hey! This isn’t over yet!” Dash took a step back.
“Oh, please!” Arachnado snapped his mandible hard. “I was so worried about this when I saw Silverstorm’s performance but look at how weak and pathetic you are! I’m being paid to waste your time and yet I feel like I’m only wasting my own here! Why does Silverstorm bother with the likes of you?”
“I–” an answer wasn’t forthcoming immediately.
Arachnado took advantage of the moment and lunged forward. A single punch sent Dash back to the ground, wincing in pain.
“Oh! I get it! You’re just using her, aren’t you?” Arachnado opened his normal eye wide and sized her up. “She didn’t know anything about ‘normal’ life after growing up in a cave so you took advantage of her to climb the ranks and become rich? Pretending you had anything to do with her victory over the witches.”
“That’s not true! I–” Dash bit her tongue.
“You what?” Arachnado narrowed his eye. “Got lucky and distracted Trixie at the exact right moment with a crow? I have trouble believing any more than that.”
Dash lowered her head and grit her teeth at him. That wasn’t true… she did things! Right? Like… like…
“Well rest assured–” Arachnado lifted his head triumphantly.
A bolt of chain lightning flashed into the scene. In seconds, all of the large spiders had been fried by the bouncing wave of electricity.
Arachnado looked left and right in a panic. Twilight teleported in next to him. A single bolt of fire sent him tumbling down along the train tracks. He landed on his back, twitching and singed.
Wasting no time, Twilight lifted him telekinetically and wrapped him tight in chains.
“I put Trixie in stationary mode.” Twilight walked over to the button Dash failed to reach. She hit the button and looked down at Arachnado. “So we completed your stupid task. Are you going to keep your word or not?”
“Damn it!” He struggled as much as he could. “I suppose I’d rather go to jail than have Screwball punish me for breaking the rules. Fine! But she’ll get me out soon. Just you wait.”
The remaining spiders began scurrying off in every direction. They’d won this fight, but Dash was still shaking.
“Ha! That was easy, huh?” Twilight looked over at Dash with a smile. “This guy was pretty weak.”
“Er. Yeah.” Dash stood up, trembling. Weak…
“Are you okay?” Twilight looked her over. “Did any poison touch you?”
“Nah, I’m fine!” Dash forced herself to smile. “I just… one of the explosions hurt my eardrums.”
“That’s good.” Twilight nodded. “I have to get to Rarity as soon as possible… but you should probably get to Trixie before that thing begins electrocuting her.”
Twilight opened a Z-gate portal and exited.
Dang it! Dash kicked the ground.
Why did she think she could beat an elite agent from the Bloodstorm Cartel?! None of that training mattered any more than what she used to do in high school. Dash was still so weak! There was still no way she could fight somepony on such a high level.
Did she just hang around much stronger ponies long enough to delude herself into thinking she was powerful too?
Arachnado chittered and laughed behind her.
Dash turned to glare at Arachnado, helplessly tied up.
“Don’t look so smug. You’re going to jail for a long time for this,” Dash warned him.
“I got exactly what I wanted! The boss will give me a huge reward once I’m out of jail. Hehehe. Yes. I you have more reason to worry than me.”
Twilight teleported into the castle. Screwball, a pony she’d only seen in pictures until now, stood barely two feet in front of her. A scowling crowd stood before her, but she just talked to them all with a big smile like nothing ever happened.
“So then I told him, if it won’t get any bigger, we’ll have to–” Screwball’s story was cut short.
The same blast of fire that rendered Arachnado unable to stand threw Screwball across the room.
“Yowzers!” Screwball rolled with the momentum, skipping to a stop and laughing all the way. Some singed fur was the only evidence she’d been struck by anything. “You are tough! Where the hell have you been hiding this whole time?”
She didn’t take the bait. She wouldn’t let this pony do whatever else she had planned.
A pillar of rock burst through the ground and slammed into Screwball’s head. More physically robust than the other two, she barely even took a step back at an attack that would have knocked most ponies out cold.
Twilight pressed the attack, jumping down to Screwballs level with ethereal swords and chains flying behind her. Screwball merely stood there, allowing the blades to cut her sides and the chains to slam into her, wrapping themselves around her body. In seconds, they’d tied Screwball up entirely.
Screwball just smiled through the pain, making no effort to resist.
Twilight could see why Screwball was so calm. Her eye was missing and not because it’d been injured. She’d used a partial murder spell… one of the more advanced and dangerous techniques. She’d already made her escape, it seemed.
Though now she didn’t understand why Screwball didn’t attack her with wild abandon down here. It didn’t matter what injuries this body sustained as long as that crow was safe. She might as well.
“You’re not going to try fighting me?” Twilight asked.
“Don’t you get it, sis?” Screwball drew in closer, her grin more sinister. “I’m saving you for last. Of all the things I learned today, the most important was which of you is the easiest target.”
“The–” Twilight blinked. Utterly confused by the strategy. “But why would you go after the weakest first? That doesn’t make any tactical sense!”
“Do you not know how ponies like me roll?” Screwball asked. “Tch! You really were sheltered in some cave, weren’t you? Brat! Well rest assured that single combat isn’t the only way to destroy a pony. Just remember my ponies can show up anywhere, anytime. You’ll never be safe again.”
Wherever Screwball’s crow was, it cast the spell to revert. This half of her crumbled into black feathers, her smile the last thing to go before the feathers melted away into nothing.
Another way to destroy a pony?
She was…
Twilight looked at Rarity with wide eyes. Was Screwball really going to go after the other ponies Twilight knew just to try and hurt her feelings?!
On the one hoof, that sounded like such a terrible strategy. Even if Twilight were overly emotional, it wouldn’t give Screwball enough of an advantage to defeat her. Enraging Twilight might even make it harder to win and yet…
Yet the idea frightened her as though this were a clear path to victory.
This whole time Twilight assumed this would all be so easy. She knew she could beat all of the others easily enough. She hadn’t even considered there might be a new vulnerability she’d gained, one her master tried to warn her about.
Rainbow Dash!
“So is this the witch that’s on our side?” A pony with a mustache and monocle asked Rarity. “Because I do have a few questions for her.”
“Sorry!” Twilight looked over the crowd of other ponies. “I… I know I just go here but I have something else to deal with!”
Twilight opened a portal and escaped. She wouldn’t let Rainbow Dash out of her sight again! Not until this was over.
Pizza Friday retraced his listening device and rolled back onto his feet.
He stayed low to the ground for a moment longer, checking for signs anypony was around to see his sudden resurrection. When none were forthcoming, he dropped the aether grenade and galloped off into the woods as quickly as he could.
It seemed ‘Silverstorm’ really was a witch. Moreover, she was Twilight Sparkle in disguise, just as he’d been warned.
The last master witch chose now of all times to become active. That meant she could use aetheric imprinting, making the grenade an unfortunate necessity to cover his tracks.
And that wasn’t all he learned. Applejack was still alive. They were harboring Subject Two, who apparently escaped at some point. Rarity didn’t appear to work for Screwball and now the Mad Science League was mostly under their control.
But he needed to ditch the disguise before anyone else could see him stalking about the forest. He always got way too into these costumes.
He put his hooves right beneath his eyes and dug deep, pulling hard like he was trying to rip his face off. With significant effort, the mask came off. The disguises fell to the ground, melting into a red goo that soon sizzled to total vaporization. Most of the rest of the disguises soon joined it, steaming off of him in every direction.
Bonbon turned her pizza vest inside out and pulled on the internal zipper. When she put it back on, its appearance returned to something more like her normal tuxedo jacket.
She started towards the meeting spot, making the last few adjustments. A few flicks of her hair returned it to its curly nature and normal coloration. Swallowing a lozenge returned her voice to normal.
Already, she was completely unrecognizable as ‘Pizza Friday’. Even if an enemy were to find her at this point, nopony would know who she’d been a moment ago.
Nopony except one, the same who asked her to do this in the first place.
She found him waiting on top of a rock deeper into the forest, staring up at the sunset. His exhausted eyes threatened to give way to sleep at any moment.
Nailbat looked intimidating with his disguise on, but without it, the guy looked like a punk at best, like a homeless beggar more often. Bonbon knew not to underestimate those weary eyes when they slowly turned to her. They saw more than anypony else.
“So?” Nailbat idly scratched his chin, in no hurry for the report. “You believe me now?”
“Everything was as you said.”
As ever, Nailbat was always right, always one step ahead of everyone else. From the sound of things, he pieced this puzzle together near-instantly. Bonbon was tempted to have near-total faith in him at times. It seemed harmless enough. Their political views overlapped almost perfectly. But at the same time, he had a few flaws that kept him from being a truly great leader.
The buck was too impatient, becoming bored or frustrated with anypony who didn’t keep up with the runaway train of his mind. When she asked for his evidence that Silverstorm and Twilight Sparkle were the same, the best he could do was to roll over as if ready for bed and tell her to go see for herself in this very mission.
“Will you tell me what made you suspect this so quickly in the first place?” Bonbon asked.
“Rainbow Dash sent me a letter requesting aid in defeating Twilight Sparkle some time ago,” said Nailbat. “She likely sent letters to the others as well, but I’m the only one who actually read mine without discarding it. The likes of Starlight and Flash Bang have too little respect for the common pony to even consider such a thing. I didn’t bother with it at the time because I thought it best to not stir up trouble with such a powerful entity who hadn’t done anything in so long.”
He produced the letter in question, holding it out and waiting for Bonbon to come and claim it.
Bon Bon knew from the start that ‘Silverstorm’ was lying about the whole thing. This was her specialty. She could estimate a pony’s heart rate just by looking at them and spot a lie with little difficulty. Twilight’s apprehension about talking to strangers in general shielded her from such techniques to an extent, but at Bon Bon’s level, there was no escaping it.
Even still, at the request of Nailbat, she risked lying the others. Not that it mattered at this point. If they lost, Bonbon would be tried for treason and conspiracy in the best-case scenario. In the worst…
“But everypony else has figured out Rainbow Dash went looking for Twilight shortly before this all began by now,” Bonbon pointed out.
“It isn’t enough to make any conclusion. That hardly convinced you of my assertion,” Nailbat pointed out. “Yet acting first gave me a massive advantage. I could retrace Rainbow Dash’s steps, find all the evidence pointing to the truth myself, and destroy it. The ponies who came second would be left only with misdirection. That’s why I couldn’t show you any of the evidence. Beside this letter it’s all gone, replaced by forgeries.”
Nailbat lazily beckoned for the letter returned. Upon taking it, Nailbat took out a lighter and burned the letter. He let it drop to the ground and watch the smoke as it rose out of reach of any other pony.
“There’s going to be a civil war sooner than any of the others expect,” said Nailbat. “Things won’t stay together much longer. We both know Sunset’s ideals of keeping the system intact and merely reforming it won’t work. Chaos will erupt and from the wreckage will come our chance to build something new and wholly divorced from all this madness and injustice.”
Bonbon nodded. That’s what he promised her from the beginning and he had never led her anywhere but closer to that goal. Now it seemed they were at last close enough to victory to be in serious danger.
Perhaps twelve ponies at the highest level knew that Starlight and Flash Bang would meet in lethal confrontation soon. All of them likely assumed it would end there for now, but already Bonbon could tell it wouldn’t.
“We’ll be more prepared for this battle than anypony else.” Nailbat stood up at last and looked back down to Bonbon. “We alone will know the ground where the final battle will be fought.”
“I’m not convinced of that last part yet,” said Bonbon. “I know you value Pinkie Pie’s opinion, but you can’t risk everything on that alone. What if Twilight is an even greater threat than Starlight? Or what if she continues to side with Sunset?”
“Yes. We will have to test Twilight’s character and intentions. I suspect she has no real interest in ruling herself but… well, either way, we can’t directly test her ourselves without giving away everything we know. But we can have somepony else be our canary. That’s why, I think, we’re going to orchestrate somepony figuring out who ‘Silverstorm’ really is at the last moment and watch their reaction.”
Pinkie sat in a phone booth, Derpy on the other end. Derpy had thwarted the bombings and all the other attacks seemed to have petered off at this point.
One lingering, large spider looked up at her but Pinkie told it to get out of there. It hung its little spidery head low and skittered off.
“Yeah, I think that pretty much wraps things up over here,” Pinkie said as the spider juice rained down outside.
She could feel the threats in the area dwindled to nothing after that. Yet, in the waves of aura, she could still feel something. Not exactly malicious or hungry, but definitely something. Something watching her.
“Actually, I think I still got one more plot twist to deal with.” Pinkie squinted at the building the feeling came from.
“Huh?! There’s more?” Derpy asked.
“Maybe! I’ll call you back.” Pinkie hung up the phone and exited the stall.
As if waiting for this exact moment to come, a pink pegasus flew out of one of the windows, landing on top of the phone booth itself. She squinted down at Pinkie with her single remaining eye as though having trouble seeing in the waning light.
Pinkie could only ‘oo’ at the mare’s odd sight. Describing her as a wreck might have been too generous. Her fur and mane were all kinds of messed up. It looked like her purple hair had once been styled in pigtails, but one of the two got severed.
It didn’t take a second look to tell this pony was an animated doll. She could feel the presence of a ghost possessing it, though she felt no malice towards herself in its aura.
There were large gashes all over its body, but instead of blood and guts coming out, it was merely stuffing that spilled forth.
The ghost possessing the doll had made only slapdash efforts to repair this body. Some of the gashes were half-closed with thick, surgical stitching while one particularly big rip across her chest had been closed with large staples.
What was clearly a stallion’s was sewn on in place of her original right foreleg. This new leg was noticeably bulkier than her original, not to mention yellow.
“Pinkie.” The ghost stopped a few feet away from her. She turned aside, reluctant to speak, before looking back to Pinkie. “It’s me, Aria. There’s… something important I need to talk to you about.”