//------------------------------//
// Chapter 20 
// Story: The Edge of Madness 
// by SaltyJustice 
//------------------------------//

	Minty beamed with pride, and turned to her sister.
"See?  See?  She wants to do it too!" she shouted, while Squeaky rolled her eyes.
"I'm on board with it if you are," Squeaky said to me.
Erdrick approached them and pushed them aside to reveal Minty's science project, a rocket about the size of a pony with huge tail fins to help navigate.  It had nine different thruster ports now, last I had seen it only had one and was much smaller, but Minty had clearly been working on it.  She moved to the front and yanked the nosecone off with her mouth and dropped it.
"So, good news, bad news, which do you want first?" she asked as she shoved her head into the opened rocket.  She got it most of the way in, but her ears were still sticking out.
"The good news," I said, and Minty tried to talk while he head was still in the rocket.
"Mmsnsnmslalams," she said.  Squeaky whacked her rump with her hoof, and Minty pulled her head out.
"The good news is I can rig it up for a hell of a bang, I already put a bunch of fireworks in here, just gotta tie them to the fuel source," she said.  I noticed her face had some soot on it.
"So what's the bad news then?" I asked.
"Well..." she trailed off and looked at Squeaky, who returned a confused look.
"I never did solve the navigation problem," she said, looking ashamed.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Do you still have those radio tags?" she asked me.  Midnight overheard us and trotted up, pulling the tags I had given her to store out of her shirt pocket.
"Radio tags?" Squeaky said accusingly.
Minty took a step back, to make sure she was firmly out of bucking range.
"See, I came up with a plan, right?  I tuned it to home in on a radio frequency using a receiver I kinda, borrowed, from Squeaky," Minty said apologetically.
"So that's where it went!  You made me stay up all night building another one!" Squeaky yelled.
"So these tags, right?  They send out a signal and the rocket flies towards it, that's how you aim it," Minty said.  Squeaky looked ready to kill her, but relented as she realized what Minty had done, inadvertently.
"You built a micro-transmitter and stuffed it in this tag?  Minty, you're a genius!  How did you solve the nano-feedback issue?" she asked, and Minty looked confused.
"Nano-what?" she asked.
"We don't have time for this.  How do we use the damn thing?" I asked.
"First, I need a few minutes to reset the charge timers to all go off at once," she said, and she trotted over to the rocket and pulled a plate off the top.
"Squeaky, can you help with the receiver?  I need it calibrated to this tag, the red light will come on when it's locked," she said, and Squeaky went over to the nosecone and started shifting something around inside it.
"Fluttershy, can I borrow you for a moment?" she asked the yellow filly, who had been observing this whole thing.
"I don't know..." she said.
"Look, I had Labamba do it before, but he's not here and I need somepony with tiny hooves to move these jumpers," she said.  Fluttershy looked at the ground.
"Come on, can't you see this is important?" Rainbow said to her.  Rainbow gave her a hug to cheer her up, and while she still looked uncertain, she walked over to the rocket and hopped on top.
I watched them work for a few minutes while Gabby checked over the barricades.  Her face took on a concerned look as she checked the large double doors that led into the main lobby.
"Do you hear that?" she asked Midnight and I.  Erdrick and Gabby led us over to the double doors.  I heard a thumping sound, and I noticed it was a lot quieter outside.
The thumping came again, louder this time, and it was on the other side of the doors.  It came again several more times, and all four of us guessed what was going on at the same time.
A hoof smashed through the door above the barricades and started waving at us, trying to grab us.  We stepped back in unison as another from a different pony crashed through.  Clearly General had decided we'd lived long enough, and was exerting some form of control over the victims.  The barricade wasn't going to hold out long.
"Minty, work faster!" I shouted at her as I pulled out my sword.  Midnight shot a look at me before drawing her own.
"Just a few more minutes!" she said, then she screamed.
A stallion had figured out the balcony was open, and had come in through it during the commotion.  Gabby shot towards him, faster than I've ever seen, and tackled him, knocking him down just as one of the doors on our side gave out and a dozen ponies came in.
They weren't fighting each other, they formed rank and came after us, leaving me little choice.
"Try not to harm them Midnight!" I shouted, and smacked the first pony with the flat of my sword.  He crumpled and fell over, but his head wasn't bleeding from where I had hit him.  Midnight caught the next pony and dropped her sword almost immediately, but used it to her advantage and headbutted him in the chest while picking it back up in one motion.
Gabby came back to help as the four of us wrestled with the invaders, trying to stun them without hurting them.  I cut a few up by mistake, and as soon as I could, ripped off pieces of their clothing to wrap around the wounds.  We'd need to sort this out fast and find a doctor or they'd risk bleeding out or getting an infection, I thought, as I lured another close and socked him with my forehoof.
Another shout came from behind us, but we were too far away to do anything about it.  A mare had found her way in from the balcony and was advancing on the rocket-team, but Rainbow had already moved to engage her.  She was five times the filly's size, and yet, Rainbow was not scared at all.
She flew straight at the attacker and uppercutted the assailant from below.  Before she could recover, Rainbow had looped around behind her and grabbed her rear leg.  She grabbed the other leg with her own rear legs, and then flapped her wings, causing the mare to lose her balance and fall over.
Erdrick flew over to help, but something strange happened as he did so.  Rainbow grabbed the mare's head and brought it close to her own, not in an aggressive way, in fact, I still couldn't figure out what she was doing.  It was like I had blinked at the wrong time, and a split-second later, the mare was laying on the ground again, except she wasn't grey.  Her coat had returned to a dull red, her mane a bluish-white, and she was unconscious.  Erdrick broke off his approach and returned to the fray, and I couldn't look any longer lest I neglect my own front.  Gabby tackled another pony and I stood over her to protect her while she fought with him, eventually lifting him up and tossing him out the door.
More ponies were gathering up outside, and Gabby hefted a nearby table which had been overturned in the fighting.  She quickly propped it up against the door and held her body in front of it, while the rest of us dealt with the remaining attackers.
"Done, got it!" Minty shouted at us.
"Get to the roof!" I shouted back, and they picked up the rocket after replacing the missing panels and flew up out the balcony window.  I held the table in place while everypony else made for the balcony, only dropping it when I saw they were outside and ready to go.
Midnight and I had to carry Gabby up onto the roof, but it was relatively safe up here.  The Science Center was a four-story building, and it seemed only a few of the victims were capable of flight in their modified state.  We had a precious few moments of peace to make the final preparations, as the beast was now only a block away, methodically tearing up the buildings and smashing them.
"Now, one of you is going to have to stick this tag on whatever you want the rocket to hit," Minty said quickly, passing me the brown teabag-like tag in question.
"You can't do it from afar?" Midnight asked.
"Sorry, I never did figure that part out," Minty apologized.
I took a quick look around at my friends, all assembled here.
The beast was close, there wouldn't be a lot of time, and whoever went to drop the tag would be in incredible danger.  A single hit from a tentacle would break every bone in your body, and all of us knew it instinctively.
Gabby couldn't do it, she couldn't fly.
Minty and Squeaky?  I could never separate the two.
Fluttershy?  Rainbow?  They had their whole lives ahead of them.
Midnight?  No, I couldn't ask her to do that.  Not when I could do it myself.
I swallowed hard and looked at the little tag.
"If I don't make it back..." I started.
"Don't talk like that," Gabby said, "you'll be fine."
"I'm serious.   If I don't make it back... just, tell my parents I loved them.  Tell Tia I..." I said, starting to choke up.
Erdrick spoke up.  "Princess, if I may," he said.
"Erdrick?  But what if.." I started.
"Madam, I am as quick as see day I was born, I'll have you know.  If anypony is going to risk it all, it might as vell be see vone vith see least risk," he said.
"Take this, then," Squeaky said, and gave Erdrick a little squat black box.
"Vat is sis?" he asked.
"This is the radio I was going to show off at the expo.  We'll need to tell you how to arm the rocket from as far away as possible, and we don't have a lot of time," she said.
"Test test," the black box crackled in Minty's voice, as she spoke into a much larger version a few meters away.
"Midnight, let's help him carry this thing," I said.  She nodded grimly as the three of us picked up the rocket and took off.
As we flew up above the city, I saw Squeaky and Minty carrying Gabby away, flanked by the two fillies, in a straight line away from the creature.  It overtook the building next to the Science Center, destroying the bottom floors in one swing of its tentacles and causing the building to collapse like a layer-cake.
The radio crackled to life again.
"Listen up, you press the little red button when you want to talk to me.  Say 'over' when you're done, because you can't hear me when you're transmitting.  Over," Squeaky's voice said.
"What do we do now?" I asked, taking the radio from Erdrick and holding down the red button.  As an afterthought, I added, "Over."
"Put the tag in front of the rocket and listen for a little beep.  If you hear the beep, it's locked on, over," she said.  Erdrick put the tag right in front of the rocket and a distinct beeping came from within the nose cone.
"There's a little green wire on the base of the rocket, and it runs into a little compartment.  Open that up and make sure the three vials are full of liquid, over," Minty's voice said, as she took over the arming process.
"Full of liquid, over," I said.
"Flip the switch next to the vial that says O2, and wait until it turns red, over," she said.
Erdrick flipped the switch, and a few seconds later, the vial turned red, a light behind it shining through the glass.
"Now flip the one next to N2 and wait until it goes red, then flip the last one, over," Minty said.  We did as she asked, it took a few seconds for the other lights to come on.
"Ready, over," I said.
"Close that panel and make sure the green wire is sticking out.  As soon as you pull that wire, the rocket will launch, so drop the tag and get ready.  Get as far away from the target as you can, I don't know how big the blast will be, over and out," Minty said.  The radio died down.

"Sis is it," Erdrick said, adjusting his goggles and holding the radio ahead of him.  The rocket was armed, and he had the tag in one hoof and the radio in the other.
"We'll hold it, go drop the tag," I said.  Midnight and I held up the rocket while Erdrick nodded and swooped away.  We lost sight of him as he banked between buildings to get closer to the creature, and we waited for several very long seconds for him to return.  At last he did, flying up out of the buildings again.  He waved at us as relief came over me, he made it, and this was going to work!
"Get clear ladies, I vill take care of see launch," he said, and he hefted the rocket all by himself.  I could see the strain it was taking on him, but for such an old pony, he was handling it incredibly well.
Midnight and I flew off, leaving Erdrick and the radio hovering in midair, about a half a mile away from the creature.  We flew in search of our friends, who had landed on a tall building a ways away, and did not turn around until we had landed with them.  Squeaky looked confused as we did.
"Did something go wrong?  Why hasn't he launched it yet?" she asked.
I turned around to see a speck, still hovering where we had left him, holding the distinct outline of the rocket.  The radio crackled to life.
"I'm very sorry my friends, but see tag vould not stick.  Sere vas no other vay," it said.
"Erdrick, what are you talking about?  What's wrong!" I shouted into the radio.  Screw 'over', screw it all, Erdrick what are you doing?
"I vould have liked to know you better Princess, give my regards to your sister.  Sis, sis is for all my little ponies out sere.  Let sem know sat Erdrick Van Der Belt fears nosing and vill live forever in glory!" he said, and the radio went quiet again.  I saw a speck fall away from Erdrick, a mile away, and I saw his outline climb on top of the rocket.
"Erdrick!"  I shouted, but he had dropped the radio and couldn't hear me.  He pulled the wire and the rocket sputtered to life, loud even at this distance, and quickly gained speed.  He was bent over it, holding the tag in front of the nosecone to guide the rocket and turn it as he went, clutching onto the missile as it arced through the air, downwards towards the beast.
It turned and noticed him as he shot towards it, it clumsily swung a tentacle and missed completely, he was far too fast for it.  The missile slammed into its body and was absorbed into it, along with Erdrick riding atop it, and for a second the creature stopped moving entirely.
It ruptured, the creature split into two as the incredible force of the blast tore it open and blew pieces in every direction.  The explosion, though muffled by the body of the creature, was still enormous enough to hear, deafening as we threw ourselves flat and covered our ears.  Simultaneously, every pony in the entire city did the same, but for another reason, they screamed silently as the corruption was forcibly purged from their bodies.  I felt a wave of it wash past me and cleanse the city, I could feel no disturbance after it had passed.  The creature was dead, and its hold over Los Pegasus, dead with it.
"Erdrick, you idiot," I said, as I stood up.
I turned around to see my friends all huddled in a group for mutual shelter.  The sun, behind them, had set and cast the entire scene in a glowing orange as they stood up, one by one.  Rainbow had stood first, she stared silently at the crater where Erdrick had met the creature, her eyes transfixed.  My friends were checking themselves over for shrapnel wounds though Rainbow was not.  I circled around her to make sure she hadn't been wounded, and I saw her face as I did.
A single tear adorned her eye.  She blinked and scattered it away.