//------------------------------// // Chapter 7-Level up // Story: The Zeppos // by Trish Hankins //------------------------------// Carrot opened her mouth immediately in reply, a rude dismissal on her tongue. But something made her stop. Living to fight another day sounds pretty good, a cold voice in her head said. I spent all day putting up with this insanity, and now I'm supposed to risk my life too? Huh. So she was going crazy. Considering the day she'd had, that wasn't at all surprising. "Yeah, but I've been going on life-threatening missions for months now. Why is this any different?" she thought back. I had friends, comrades, standing side by side with me then, sharing in the danger. Now I'm alone. Oh. That was a good point. She'd never faced something like this by herself. Isn't this exactly what I've been complaining about all day? Once again I'm charging headlong into danger, and even if I succeed, nopony will know. I'll still be Carrot Top the farmer. At that moment, something in Carrot's mind finally clicked. "That doesn't matter," she replied. "What matters is that ponies are in danger. They have family, family I know. They may not be good friends or anything, but they're still ponies. I might be the only one who can save them, and if I die trying...then I die." "I'll stay," Carrot Top said definitively. She'd expected some reaction from the changeling, but he just stood there, staring at her. His deep, dead eyes were fixed on Carrot. "Why?" he asked eventually. Carrot tilted her head at that. "Does that matter?" There was a long pause. "Yes," he stated. "I don't understand your decision." "Your bomb would kill several ponies whom I consider friends. I have to try and save them." Coxa shook his head. "You mean the Bearers? Our intel suggested you barely know them. Or did you mean your friends outside the barrier? You needn't worry; the magical construct the Element of Magic provided will safely contain the bomb's blast. If you were to leave, they would be unmolested. They've already served their purpose for this plan. While a few additions to the Swarm would have been adequate, any truce we were to form with you would be worth their release." Carrot gave the changeling a serious look. "Do you have any idea what is happening here? There is so much more at stake here than a squabble between our peoples!" "And?" he replied nonplussed. "While my bomb won't kill the Outsider, it should be enough to hurt it. By the time it's recovered, my Queen or Wukong or Celestia will deal with it." His mouth twisted up in a tiny, hollow smile. "I try to plan things based on the assumption that the world will endure another day." The smile vanished as quick as it had appeared. "Why is are you really staying? Don't try another lie or diversion, that will just use up more of your precious time." "Okay," Carrot said, then took a deep breath. "I'm doing it because it's right. Because I'm the only one who can try. And because..." Her sentence trailed off. She looked Coxa straight in the eyes, and with determination in her words finished saying, "Because if I'm going to die, then I'd like to do it for a righteous cause." A short silence followed. Carrot had expected the changeling to respond with a laugh, maybe a big speech about why she sucked or something. Instead she saw a spark of emotion behind his eyes, and he spoke in a hushed bark. "You idiot." Before she could form a confused comeback Coxa was suddenly directly in front of her, hitting her with his hoof. She fell to the ground, her hooves automatically reaching for her face. This made Coxa's next move rather simple. He grabbed her hooves, spun her around, and pinned her to the ground with her arms at her back. Carrot struggled for a few seconds, but resigned herself to defeat. At her best she might have been able to get out of the lock or even reverse it into one on him. Sadly, her exhaustion had caught up to her. If she wanted out, she would have to use her head. What was up with Coxa's reaction to her statement? And why did he keep trying to give her a way out? His words made him seem very pragmatic...there might be something there. Why did the bomb have a cliche countdown timer? And how could she disarm the bomb? Even if she got the casing open, it wasn't as if she had the technical know-how to disarm it. That's assuming it actually ran on some kind of electricity or something; if it was a magic bomb, she would be in even more trouble. Then, there was the biggest stumbling block: the Voidbringer. Even if she somehow managed to give Coxa the slip and stop the explosion, that still left her trapped on a battleground. Carrot thought back to how Twilight looked, and to the sounds of pain coming from inside the library. Carrot wasn't a pessimist, but it wasn't looking like the Bearers would triumph once more. How could she deal with that, that thing when the quintessential heroes of Equestria might not make the cut? Oh. Carrot had to calm herself with a deep breath, stop herself from crying. If she started, she wouldn't stop. The plan sucked. Calling it a "plan" was patently ridiculous; it barely qualified as a vague strategy. But it might work. If she managed to pull this off, the day was saved and all that jazz. You'd be a hero, the cold voice whispered, irony dripping from each word. Well, Carrot thought, that voice could go buck herself. She mentally steeled her mind, and set the "plan" in motion. "Why are you using a countdown timer?" she asked the changeling currently pining her to the ground. No response. "I'm just wondering because, well, your subordinate kept saying you were all effective and stuff. But a countdown timer? According to your plan you were going to be in and out of this place, why would you care exactly how long it took to blow up if you're already on the way back to your hideout? It all seems like unnecessary cliche villainy." "Not bad," he said after a quiet few seconds. "Can you tell me why I would act in a way you deem so odd?" She nodded, or at least tried to. Being pined to the ground sucked for body language. "It doesn't explode at zero. I'm guessing it explodes when it reads around thirty seconds." "Close," Coxa said, a small measure of pride in his speech. "It's actually forty-five seconds. What's your point?" She looked pointedly at the device, which was sitting half a hoof away on the ground near her head. It read 03:44. "My point is that there's a flaw in your current strategy. If you keep me in this lock so I can't foil your scheme, then you'll be here when the bomb blows. When I die, so will you." "What if I use my sleep spell from earlier? Then I could leave now and be clear of the blast entirely." Now for a little logic. "Because if you could do that you would have already. The fact I'm still awake tells me that for some reason you can't cast it right now. So, are you going to let me go or be hoist by your own petard?" An empty little smile showed on Coxa's face. "And what makes you think I won't deem that a necessary sacrifice in the line of duty, an honorable death in the name of my Queen?" Time for the trump card. "Because you're a useful asset to your Queen. Sure, this isn't a dinky operation you have going on, but is the gain of it worth the potential loss of your lifetime of servitude? Does your Queen come out ahead if you die here, tonight?" The next few seconds were some of the most awful and tense in her entire life. The whole plan hinged on this one moment. "Good reasoning," Coxa said as he relaxed his grip. His eyes met hers. "You have potential. Don't interfere with the Swarm's business again." He turned and walked back into the miasma. Carrot struggled to stand up, then grabbed the explosive in her teeth. At least the difficult part was done. Now comes the hard part. It took about a minute of her scant remaining time, but Carrot finally managed to find the hole in the library wall. Miasma was flooding through it too thick to make out anything inside, but that's not what she was after. No, her prey was The Doctor's fallen thingy, which lay on the ground near the hole where she had left it. She looked around, and found neither mane nor coat of the strange stallion. That didn't matter though. She held the Doctor's device in one hoof, and the bomb in the other. Well. this was it then. She took a deep breath, and readied herself... ... for a dramatic moment which was immediately interrupted by a pony being thrown through the wall she was next to. Twilight was gonna pay quite a bit in repair bills, Carrot thought. She turned to look at the pegasus lying on the ground near her: Rainbow Dash. She was getting up and rubbing her head with her hoof. Rainbow Dash looked awful. One of her legs was bending in a slightly wrong angle, several areas on her torso were swollen, and she was missing fur in several patches. Her coat around the bare skin was burnt black. And to top it all off, she was muttering to herself. "...lousy friggin demon, burning my fur and knocking me through walls and junk..." she trailed off as her fever bright purple eyes noticed Carrot staring. "Aren't you that Carrot pony? Are you crazy?! Why'd sneak in here?" Carrot sighed; she was getting tired of certain ponies (and one changeling) talking as if they were experts on sanity. "Rainbow Dash, you need to listen to me." She paused for a second, and while definitely appearing miffed Rainbow made no attempt to interrupt her. Carrot pointed to the bomb in her hoof for extra dramatic effect. "This is an explosive, brought here by somepony to take out you and your friends. It is going to explode in about..." She looked at the display. "...one minute. I have a plan to save you guys. It should make sure you aren't in the blast radius, and it might take out that thing you're fighting." Rainbow Dash smiled a tired grin. "That sounds awesome!" Her eyes focused on Carrot's grim face. "Okay, what's the catch?" The mare didn't say anything. She didn't have to. Rainbow looked into her eyes, and saw the answer staring back at her. "No way!" she snarled. "It's the best option," Carrot said with a morose shake of her head. She stared determinedly at Rainbow Dash. "If you survive this, I have some messages I want you to deliver." Rainbow opened her mouth to argue, but for once listened to reason and just nodded. "Tell Lyra to keep on searching for humans, and to never let her optimism fade. Tell Bon Bon she should go back into voice acting, and that she should stop hiding herself from most ponies. Tell Octavia she's in charge now; she'll know what that means. Tell Vinyl to treat Octavia right. "Tell Derpy to..." Carrot trailed off, and stood silent for a few seconds. "...to take good care of her daughters, and love them twice as much from now on, for me. And tell my parents," she broke off again, tears welling up in her eyes. She wiped them away with her hoof before continuing, "Send my friends to them. Have them explain what's happened, and who I've been since I left. Most importantly, tell them I'm sorry. For everything." Without warning she pushed Rainbow Dash back, and hit the button on The Doctor's wand. Once again the tip burst into azure light, and the sound of life and light filled the night air. An answering screech rang out and before Carrot could even brace herself, she found herself wrapped in a monstrous tentacle. A combination of tenacity and sheer luck kept the bomb in her hoof. She caught a brief glimpse of a ruined Ponyville library as she was drawn further back, into the portal. At this point she was entirely surround by more tentacles, all moving in contrary directions at different speeds. Just as the countdown reached 00:48 it got caught on a sucker, one moving faster towards whatever beast these appendages belonged to. She watched as it slithered faster out of her sight, and braced herself for the explosion. After waiting with her eyes closed for five seconds, she opened them again. The bomb hadn't exploded; it wasn't even in sight anymore. Right before the bomb reached 00:30, she realized she'd been lied to. Just as a blinding white light overcame her vision and burning hot flame engulfed her body, Carrot's last thought was that Lieutenant Coxa was a dick.