Chapter 62 - Voice of the Heart
Her glittery, curly tail swayed back and forth with each determined gait down the sparkling prison-like catacombs. Majestic Rarity. Brilliant Rarity. Brave Rarity, who barely flinched as her snow-white horn sawed through swaths of ancient spiderwebs that draped from wall to wall. Truly there would be no other level of focus emanating from this Diamond Princess as her manicured hooves mercifully trampled upon dust and small pebbles.
These catacomb dungeons might appear more pleasant the Labs, Rock Prison, or the Cavern of Treasures. Even with its perfectly preserved crystal bars, evidence of the Empire's dark past manifested in the form of dusty chains and shackles leftover in each cell. Spike had a feeling that this prison would be fully operational once more, if the cabal's plans were to come to pass.
Yet as urgent as the situation was, they didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Rarity knew where she was going--or least seemed to know. With little light in the catacombs, she could not gallop, and if she could, she would have requested Spike to ride on her once more. They were going deeper and deeper, but after three basement levels, Spike wasn't sure if they would be able to escape the castle. She had been awfully quiet as of late.
"I don't want to question you, dear Diamond Princess," said Spike, "but you are certain we are heading in the right direction, are we?"
"We are," she replied as her head darted left and right at each passing cell. "I'm just hoping the cabal had in mind to imprison Sweetie Belle here. My goodness, these catacombs are the dirtiest places I have ever been in. After we rescue my sister, I am issuing a royal decree to turn these prison catacombs into these ‘shopping malls’ Pinkie mentioned. These stores will sell only the finest garments the land will ever see. Of course, yours truly will have her own flagship store that will sell the best of the best."
“But you’re a princess. Why do want to be a shopkeeper?”
“Sir Spike, I don’t wish to be a mere Diamond Princess whose Destiny Glyph is only for show. It is not enough that I be the fairest mare of the Empire, because me being a ‘rarity’ is very lonely. I might not be able to sell my clothes directly, but at least my work will empower my customers with all the beauty and grace the Empire has to offer.”
“With an underground mall, wouldn’t it be difficult to for customers to get in? And it’ll be dark as well.”
“I’ll make certain to carve out a grand entrance and decorate the ceiling with the prettiest glowstone chandeliers of the Empire.”
The Diamond Princess stopped. There were now at a dead-end at the sixth basement level because, and there were no stairs leading down. Rarity then began pacing about, tapping her chin with her front hoof while minding the age-old cobwebs hanging above her. When it looked like she remembered, Rarity doubled back and went through a ruined prison cell, something that Spike had missed during his amicable conversation with the most beautiful pony across the land. Inside the cell was a hollowed-out corridor Spike followed Rarity through. Finally, they were getting somewhere.
Then she stopped suddenly for a second time. Spike nearly ran into her behind, and he had to protect her from his unworthy and unclean touch by tripping himself over towards the side. Something began to disturb Rarity, and he began to figure out why. Clanging machines were heard pounding further down the corridor. The smell of oil and astringent metallic dust filled his nostrils to remind him of the dark days upon in the Gaeaopolis labs. As Twilight had taught him, it reminded of the ‘hell’ he was subjected to during the constant experimentation. He journeyed with her in the frozen hell upon his escape. The one down the corridor was the burning hell.
But Rarity pressed on. The acrid scents and pounding sounds of machines grew stronger. A fiery light began illuminating the ever-widening corridor. Light fixtures, wires, and pipes ran down the artificially carved ceiling and walls. Guttural shouts and the snap of whips echoed past the endless line of doorways that suddenly appeared before Spike and Rarity. They heard ponies screaming in agony amidst a cacophony of drills and jackhammers. Rarity's pace slowed almost to a crawl, and her steps became more deliberate. Cautiously, she and Spike poked their heads through the newly cut doorways and found stairs leading down to a set of track rails.
There were ponies down there: citizens of the Empire both crystal and unicorn. They were shackled, chained, and forced by an invisible hoof to push and pull the mine carts filled with harvested crystals in a never-ending slave march.
"Are they slaves?" Spike asked.
"They shouldn't be," Rarity whispered. "Mining underneath the Castle is forbidden, and there is nothing to mine here."
"But aren't those gems?"
"They're just ordinary crystals. Sir Spike, I think your pony friends are right to suspect the Royal Family of any wrongdoing. If Sweetie Belle has been captured, then they better not have forced her into hard labor, or there will be heck to pay. No where's their leader?"
They flinched at the sound of a distant explosion, which was unmistakably caused by dynamite. So far, everypony from Spike’s view were safe, the only damage was a few light pebbles falling on his head. Then a drip of a creature’s drool splattered on his head.
He froze, and became too terrified to look up. He wanted to tell Rarity; scream even, but if he did, he would have put her in jeopardy of the threat clinging to the ceiling. All he could do was lift his eyes towards the sight of four, machinegun-toting apish canines garbed in white helmets and armor.
In some ways, the training was harder on her than the ponies doing the actual training. Even when allowed to rest, Fluttershy could hardly sleep knowing that her friends, especially Apple Bloom, were ordered to shatter entire boulders with their bare hooves as part of their ordeal. Even after just four hours or so, Fluttershy witnessed Applejack and Ingrid in their own little world and their own little section eagerly competing to prove to one another on who was stronger: a rock farmer or an apple farmer. Their focus were directed on who could smash the biggest crystal boulder with the minimum amount of strikes, or how many they could shatter with their hind legs under a minute. They were noisy, and the result of the constant training kicked up dust that blew towards Fluttershy’s general direction. She had just dusted before her nap.
Bella, Bon Bon, and Apple Bloom were off at another section honing their skills in Geosense prediction. Blindfolded, each of them tried to strike each other with rocks and pebbles bucked from their hind legs while at the same time trying to dodge them. All three kicked pebbles with enough force to crack floors, walls, and other boulders. All three were determined to hit each other, and yet all three narrowly avoided each other's attacks as if they were in a choreographed dance. There were many close calls, mainly on Fluttershy where a flying rock from their kicks cleanly penetrated a metal teapot she had just been holding. That was her last one.
Pinkie was... well, Pinkie. She remained adamant in referring her Geosense abilities as her patented Pinkie Sense. She did not impress or amuse Agatha with her "Hundred Crack Hoof" while yelling a high-pitched "Atatatatatatatata" before telling the boulder that it had already been smashed. The boulder did collapse, eventually, although apparently Pinkie failed Agatha's expectations since the old mare promptly, albeit temporarily, crippled Pinkie with a hoof-jab to her chest. The old mare then dragged the pink pony by the tail to train on something other than smashing boulders.
Fluttershy wanted to help them anyway she could, but Agatha and Aurea explicitly forbid her or Lyra from doing so, as it would break their concentration and interrupt their all-day training. She didn't see herself as impatient, but even waiting was exhausting. There was nothing else for her to do except for nap, eat, drink, sweep, dust, and take stock of the Unicorn Hunters' weapons.
Lyra busied herself by hammering her hooves on her portable computer’s keyboard and watched colorful images dancing on her monitor. She wasn't as busy as Fluttershy thought, because there were quiet moments when she would stare at the pegasus hard, and then turn away instantly as if in fear or suspicion. The pegasus did not want to upset her stub-horned unicorn with her presence by trying to hide from her view. She moved away from the tent that shielded Lyra and her equipment, and relaxed next to the sole cot and table next to crates of firearms and explosive ordinances. Fluttershy fell asleep once more, but upon opening her eyes sometime around the sixth hour, she saw Lyra hovering a steaming beaker before her. Fluttershy squealed, and ducked behind the cot in the hopes that the unicorn scientist would lose interest in experimenting on her.
“Sorry,” said the green unicorn. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. Oh, this is just hot chocolate. I didn’t have any cups.”
Fluttershy slowly roused from her cowardice and attempted to receive the beaker of hot chocolate. It burnt her hooves without harm, and it made her utter a low squeak. Lyra prevented the beverage from spilling with her magic-telekinesis. Eventually, the beaker cooled enough for Fluttershy to handle on her own.
"You really do look like her," she said.
"Oh," said Fluttershy. "I get that a lot."
"You know, I am kind of bummed that I can't learn Geosense. I know my parents are both earth ponies, but maybe that even if I did try, my abilities would focus through my horn instead of my hooves. I would hazard to say that Geosense is an internally focused art whereas magic and Atmos Manipulation are external. It might make sense on how Gaea got the upper hand in the beginning of the Great Pony War."
"Hand?"
"Sorry, I meant hoof, upper hoof. When you're focused on researching artifacts of the Before Times, you often get into this 'zone' of borrowing words and idioms from long lost cultures. I knew good things would come from following your friend, Twilight Sparkle."
"What about Bon Bon? Why would she help?"
"I dunno. Maybe she owes Applejack and her friends for freeing her from Rock Prison. Then again, we are all fugitives fighting for our lives, so our goals do line up. Gosh, I can't believe I'm having a conversation with a pegasus of all ponies. I expected you to be a brutal warrior, but you're as gentle as a butterfly. I hope I didn’t offend you for saying that.”
“Not at all, but I hope I didn’t disappoint you by not being the kind of pegasus everypony expects me to be.”
“Quite the opposite. I’m relieved because a single pegasus has the ability to annihilate entire towns and villages with their Atmos Arts. Oh, I'm Lyra Heartstrings by the way. Your name is Fluttershy, I believe? Say, where did you come from?"
"The Everfree Forest."
"The Everfree Forest? That's way too far from Pegasopolis's cloudlands. My goodness. Don't tell me you're a--"
"Miss Lyra," said Aurea as she hobbled before them, "I can't seem to find the bandages we set aside."
"I'm pretty sure we moved them away from the ammo boxes. Let me have a look at the cart by my tent."
Aurea's appearance felt premeditated, for her eyes followed Lyra as she trotted ways away from the main encampment. Then her eyes turned towards Fluttershy's, and she stared deep into her as if to penetrate her soul.
“Here’s your bandage, Aurea,” said Lyra as she returned with a bandage roll carried by her golden-colored magic.
“Thank you.” Upon receiving her bandages with her mouth, Aurea cringed at her pain, and dropped her crutch. Naturally, Fluttershy wanted to fly over to assist her, but the crystal pony held her hoof straight out to stop her.
“I appreciate it,” said Aurea, “but I got this.”
Fluttershy couldn’t even help an injured crystal pony. The feeling of uselessness made her even more restless, and that restlessness caused her to wallow on top of the sole cot of the underground encampment. She just helped Apple Bloom escape from the Realm of Truth. Was that her limit of usefulness?
She didn’t even try to watch the remainder of the training, but once or twice loud bangs roused her from lethargy. Between eating and going to the bathroom, she once witnessed Agatha shooting whole crystal boulders across the floor, not for any earth pony to dodge, but to break with their entire bodies. At another time, she found all the earth ponies struggling to balance boulders almost twice their size. At another, she witnessed them trying to pound large holes on the floor to unintentionally create several trenches in this large cave. Fluttershy could almost feel their pain, but she could also felt their unyielding determination to strengthen themselves out for the upcoming battle. Then she went back to the cot and slept for a few more hours.
Then in the middle what she felt was night, the sounds of silence suddenly jolted Fluttershy up from her sleep. The whirring of Lyra’s portable computer was almost enough to drown out the sounds of the pegasus’s own breath and heartbeat. The cave seemed to have amplified the silence tenfold.
She turned her neck and saw Agatha, Aurea, and the rest of the earth ponies scattered about the floor with their eyes closed, unmoving, and barely breathing. With Pinkie, seeing her standing still and silent unnerved Fluttershy, who could only assume that this was also part of the training.
“Amazing,” whispered Lyra whose eyes were glued to the computer’s screen. “It’s almost as if they are generating their own ley lines and spinning them beautifully underneath their hooves.”
What could she mean? Fluttershy’s understanding of Geosense was basic at best, and she barely understood her own abilities as a pegasus. She wanted to get a better look at the meditation, but right when all four of her hooves landed on the cold glimmering crystal floor, she felt a jolt of earthly energy overwhelming her. Where she saw dim light and darkness before, Fluttershy now saw her earth pony companions generating their own powerful aura of many colors that doubly dwarfed their own bodies. They exerted no emotions other than pure and beautiful focus.
Then there was Pinkie Pie, who could not resist hiding her giggling smirk as her pink aura dwarfed her own body ten times instead of twice. A single chuckle warped her power slightly, but a growl from Agatha’s tiger-like aura kept her in line and in focus.
“This is fun!”
Was she hearing her voice? In her head?
“I told you to stay focus, Pinkamena Diane Pie.”
“Sorry, but I couldn’t help talking through my hooves. Ooh, this is really neat. Oh look, there’s an aura that’s bigger than mine. It’s coming from Fluttershy. Hey Fluttershy!”
“You have all passed,” said Agatha. “Release your aura.”
The colors vanished, as did their aura pressure. The six earth ponies in training exhaled a loud gasp, and they were now panting and sweating. Bandaged Aurea and elderly Agatha barely broke a sweat when they released their Geosense aura. After the two crystal ponies briefly conversed with one another, Agatha declared to her students that they should rest for the next four hours until they begin to break down the wall.
As such, Lyra rushed to collect Bon Bon as well as wipe her sweat with a magically levitated cloth. Pinkie Pie bounced behind Ingrid and Bellamena as they retreated to their cache of guns where they immediately began polishing their weapons and arranging the magazines, although Ingrid did snap at Pinkie Pie to not touch the grenades or the dynamite.
Applejack carried her little sister over to the vacated cot and began giving her nearby rations and water. Overwhelmed by an urge, Applejack started rambling on about the history of the Apple Clan, starting from the descendants of Smart Cookie, and after skipping a few generations towards Granny Smith’s time, where she and her family managed to, against all odds, secure a plot of land next to the Everfree Forest. Applejack talked about Granny Smith, the most spry and knowledgeable she had ever known. She talked about her father, the strongest and bravest stallion besides Big McIntosh, and her mother, one the most beautiful mares. She told stories of their constant oppression, but she also told stories of how she and her brother managed to outrun the countless bullies during their trips to the Ponyville Slums. Tears fell from Apple Bloom’s eyes, but she was smiling and laughing all the same.
Fluttershy could not deny a small sense of jealousy seeing everypony but her paired or grouped together. Agatha and Aurea were both teacher and student respectively. Lyra and Bon Bon shared a relationship like lovers. Pinkie Pie had her estranged sisters, and Applejack and Apple Bloom had finally reunited. Fluttershy, on the other hoof, had no other pony to call friend or family for most of her life, and her own mother was a racist dictator hell-bent on destroying anything magical or unnatural. She almost wanted to turn away from these displays of special connections and then wallow alone in a corner.
“Flutters, what are ya doin’ there?” said Applejack. “Get over here and come join us, girl.”
She couldn’t exactly ignore her request, and she didn’t want them to think she was cold and aloof. So the pegasus, with her head lowered slightly, trotted over towards the cot where Apple Bloom lay sleeping.
“Um, was it hard on her?” asked Fluttershy.
“It is,” said Applejack, “but the little filly didn’t want to give up no matter what was thrown at her, and I’m proud to have her as part of a Apple Clan. She thinks very highly of you for saving her in the Realm of Truth.”
“She said that?”
“I can see it in her eyes, and that makes you an honorary family member of the Apples.”
“I’m not even related.”
“It’s not about blood, Flutters. It’s about doin’ what’s right for your friends and strangers. Now if you’ll excuse me--ow! I need to rest up myself. All my muscles and joints are on fire.”
“Oh my. Do you need a blanket or another cot?
“This shiny floor’s all right.”
“How about a massage?”
“You know how to massage?”
“Bears, actually.”
“All right, I’ll oblige. If you can massage a bear, then you can massage a bear of a pony like me.”
The orange pony plopped down, and timidly Fluttershy pressed her front hooves on her friend’s back. Hearing her moan and shudder indicated that Fluttershy did something right, and with some renewed confidence, the pegasus continued on. At least she could do this today.
The four hours of rest passed like a blink. Fluttershy stood way off to the side with Aurea and Lyra, the latter of whom kept the detonator poised and ready in her magical hold. Agatha and the six earth ponies lined up tense and ready against the wall bathed in an array of floodlights. It was quiet again, and the only sounds present were the nigh-inaudible buzz of electricity, distant water drops, and Fluttershy’s own heartbeat.
The green unicorn pressed the button, and the charges attached to the wall exploded one by one in sequence to create a rectangular indented outline. Small rocks showered upon the ponies below, though none gave a flinching care. Then they waited, and allowed the dust could settle.
“Now!” Agatha cried.
Agatha and the earth ponies turned their backs against the wall, and every pair of hind legs smashed against its smooth surface. The impact vibrated the wall to create a melodic hum that reverberated all over the cavern for several seconds, and after the passing of the sound, the wall remained steadfast and silent. Did they fail? Fluttershy couldn’t be sure. All the earth ponies stood still and stoic as if they were waiting for a sign.
And that sign manifested when the giant wall began rumbling and wobbling. Agatha quickly dashed away and led the earth ponies in a death-defying gallop dozens of feet away from the collapsing wall. The wall came down as an avalanche of near-perfect cubic boulders. Once at a safe distance, Agatha and her earth pony students slid to a halt and spun on their front hooves to face the ensuing result their hard work. The wall had been breached, forming a massive doorway created by the outline from Lyra’s explosive charges. Now a hill of cubic boulders stood between them and the path to the Crystal Castle.
Pinkie Pie could not contain her excitement as she leapt high up to scatter colorful confetti and tooting party horns of everypony’s success. Somehow she had ignited fireworks from her mane and tail, but where she got them was anypony’s guess. As her friends had reminded Fluttershy, it was best not think about it. Pinkie Pie’s act was signal for the others to relax, if only for a short time.
“All right everypony, gear up!” cried Applejack. “We’re gonna rescue our friends and save an Empire!”
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie fell flat on the floor after her latest leap. Her tail started twitching like a rabid worm.
"My tail!" she cried. "My tail! Twitcha twitch!"
"Twitching tail?" asked Applejack. "Does that mean something's gonna fall?"
“Now it’s something else... Oh no. My eyelids. My eyelids are twitching!”
“Eyelids? Then that means--”
Snip. Scuttle. Snip. The familiar jackhammering steps of the unseen machination echoed the entire cavern with a cacophonic rumble. Metal joints squealed as it twisted its numerous axles. Everypony stood still as the thing stepped closer and closer, with each step ensuring ground-shaking and falling rocks.
Agatha galloped up the hill of cubic boulders and caught by the skin of her teeth a massive blur that swung through the giant hole. There it was again, a multi-jointed and crystalline arm with a scimitar claw at the very end, fighting against the powerful resistance that was Agatha’s jaws. Alas, the old mare had age going against her, and after several seconds, the thing finally overpowered the mare with a force that sent her flying far from her position and into the darkness of the caverns. Soon, the crystal-mechanical beast’s other scimitar claw pulled its upper body into full view, and its pair of tentacle ovaloid eyes scanned its pony prey one by one in precise deliberation.
With the scanning completed, the crystal automata swung its scimitar claws and sent the earth ponies scatter all over the massive cavern before grouping up in a the largest trench recently created during their day-long Geosense training.
“Anypony mind tellin’ me what the hay is that?” asked Applejack.
“It’s that crazy giant crystal crab monster machine that chased us in the castle,” said Pinkie Pie.
“What should we do?” asked Bon Bon. “If Agatha couldn’t hold it off, how can we?”
“It could be worse: it could be firing lasers from its claws.”
Pinkie Pie’s tail twitched wildly, and just as her nervous ticks had ended, a pair of red lasers fired right above them and began slicing off crystal stalactites by the hundreds. Overhanging spikes rained down upon the frightened mares, scattering them in a panic briefly before leaping out of the safety of their large trench. Here, Fluttershy turned around for just one moment to confirm Pinkie’s words: the laser crab had just fired another blast of red lasers from its claws. The pegasus galloped before realizing she could fly, but laser was much faster, and she could not fly off in time. Then a brave pony pulled her back down by the tail and took her to a smaller trench the ponies huddled into.
“Well, it could be worse,” said Pinkie Pie. “It could be a centipede laser crab.”
The pair of lasers fired again, joined by another; and another; and another; and another. The lasers fired in the air and began cutting through the ground. Not even the trench was safe, the ponies jumped out and to scatter their numbers in the hopes of avoiding the menace pursuing them. Fluttershy, against her own better judgment turned around for one take and confirmed Pinkie’s words once more: the crystal laser crab monster did have one hundred arms, and it had attached to each arm a laser law. It now emerged in full through the other side of the wall, a giant beast it was. Even coiled like a king cobra, its size took up almost half the entirety of the cavern. Fifty lasers from its right arms were enough to send the ponies running for their lives.
Fluttershy didn’t even bother flying as ten lasers were converging towards her flank, and like last time, she was pulled down by the tail into another trench, one that was much smaller than the first and half the size of the second. Seven ponies now managed to huddle underneath the safety of Lyra’s magical barrier, which protecting them from a rain of falling rocks and a few stray laser blasts. But now the unicorn sweated profusely and her breathing became heavy and wheezy. She was not used to generating this magnitude of magic.
“Well, it could be worse,” breathed Pinkie. “It could be a robot-controlled--”
Several hooves plugged up her mouth to stop her from tempting fate.
“We’ve got to do something,” said Bon Bon. “My Lyra cannot keep this up.”
“I wish I had a good plan to take this thing down besides brute force,” said Applejack.
“Brute force is good,” said Bella.
“I agree,” said Ingrid. “Geosense or not, were going to blow that thing to smithereens.”
“Yeah!” cried Apple Bloom.
“Apple Bloom, you’re staying here with Lyra, Fluttershy, and Aurea,” said Applejack. “The rest of us are gonna do what we do best.”
“But I can fight as well.”
“Listen to your older sister, Apple Bloom,” said Ingrid. “Rebel Applejack, are you ready?”
“I hope you are, bounty hunter.”
The Pie Sisters and Applejack leapt out to face off against a flurry of claw-lasers, and Bon Bon soon joined the battle after kissing Lyra on the lips. She could understand Aurea, Apple Bloom, and Lyra not being ordered into the fray, but Fluttershy? Well, it would be understandable. She wasn’t a warrior, and her own Element of Empathy might be the weakest of the three they had collected so far. Even without seeing the fight with her own eyes, she knew her companions were gradually wearing down the centipede laser crab by their constant battle cries. Explosions from bazookas, dynamite, and grenades rocked the caverns, causing gusts of dusts and a flurry of raining rocks. Lasers swept left and right, and Pinkie Pie zipped over and through Fluttershy’s trench dozens of times, mostly using as a launching ramp to help her launch of into the air screaming “Pinkie Gear Kick!” before smashing into the body of the centipede laser crab. Several loud explosions and sword slices later, Fluttershy witnessed two severed scimitar claws flying over the safety of the trench. Then another crashed right beside Fluttershy and magical barrier, and it stood straight up still smoldering from its latest attack.
Fluttershy suddenly sensed a dull pain through three of her legs. Something was wrong, but it wasn’t because of any worry she had for her friends. She peeked her head past the trench’s edge and saw the crystal centipede laser crab raining down its remaining ninety-seven of its monstrous laser claws upon the mares and onto the ground. Pinkie Pie skated the cavern as a pink blur with her Pinkie Gear blazing her left and right and then launching into the air from whatever incline she could fine at the moment. Bon Bon, Ingrid, and Bella ran from giant boulder to giant boulder firing assault rifles and RPG’s whenever they headed out into the open. Applejack confronted the monster head on with her Sword of Truth, parrying the dozens of large scimitar claws that fell upon her. Claws were severed and explosions cracked its crystal armor. Yet at each counterattack, Fluttershy felt the screams of somepony rippling throughout her own weak body.
“Get down!” Aurea cried. A sharp tug on her tail pulled Fluttershy back to the trench, and she faced a stern-eyed Aurea.
“Even if that thing had a soul, it’s still attacking us,” Aurea continued.
“I can hear somepony’s voice.”
“If you really want to save your friend, Twilight, sacrifices will have to be made.”
“No! I don’t want an innocent pony to die for our sake!”
“That thing is no longer a pony!”
She didn’t want to hear anymore. Fluttershy’s wings burned with a flaming desire to fly out to prove her point. Deftly she avoided lasers and the accompanying swings of the massive scimitar claws. She spotted Bellamena Pie jumping behind a boulder to arm herself with a grenade launcher Pinkie had just delivered rocket-powered grenade launcher. With the explosive ammo loaded, the dark-gray mare rolled out into the open and took aim.
Fluttershy swooped in and absconded it. She tumbled in the air before stabilizing herself for her aim. A front hoof squeezed the trigger, and the grenade rocketed out of its barrel, nearly throwing the pegasus off balance and sending her tailspinning. The rocket-assisted grenade fluttered towards the centipede laser crab, somehow dodging the monster’s attacks before striking its chest area.
The crystal-mechanical monster uttered a rumbling moan and thrashed its dozens of scimitar claws angrily at the pegasus in flight, forcing Fluttershy to slalom through each one before taking cover behind a boulder with Bella.
“Please stop fighting,” she said.
“Says the mare who blasted a hole in that thing’s chest,” said the dark gray mare, “but thanks anyway. Sister, we have an opening to the--oh my goodness.”
Even as dozens of lasers filled the air, Bella could not refrain her gasping shock. She saw what Fluttershy had sensed all along. Through the hole in the crystal-mechanical monster’s chest was a semi-conscious Sweetie Belle, shackled and with her horn profusely wired to the beast.