Chapter 69 - The Fourth Element
Shining Armor bowed and kissed the jewel-encrusted front hoof of Second Lieutenant Duke Blueblood, whose horn briefly brightened green. The handsome and hypnotized Captain slavishly responded to his master's command, and shot out a spell that loosened the ropes off of the Flim-Flam brothers and shocked them back to consciousness. The Captain stepped back, allowing the Duke to trot daintily across the floor towards the crystal computer console. However, he deliberately slowed his pace just to display his sly and mocking smile at his dear cousin's surprise and shock.
How could he do all this? If anything, he was fussier than Rarity. A pansy wimp like him would have never made it into the Royal Guard if not for his relation to his uncle. After all, there was the cake incident several years ago. But then Rarity dwelled deeper upon his previous actions, and it all started to make sense. Blueblood didn't accidentally burn up the ancient castle plans during the Rebel break in. He knew Rarity couldn't pass off the luster-dusted Spike as a gaudy statue, and that was why he sent the crystal crab machination after and her sister.
"Why?" he asked, as if he knew what Rarity would ask beforehoof. "It's quite simple: I am the world's savior in these dark times. Uncle knew all along about the horrid state of the outside world all along, but rather unwisely, he chose to keep it from you and your sister this whole time."
Lord Umbra, from his orb prison, lowered his head in shame. He knew.
"Would you like to know how he knew?" asked Blueblood. "It's because I told him. Very few ponies have ventured out to the world outside our Empire, but none have returned except for me. I have discovered a nation of hated industrialists who despise everything magical and unnatural that they force creatures that don't conform to their idea of racial purity into death camps. Pegasii wings were clipped, and unicorn horns were sawed off without anesthesia. The former have survived thanks to their warrior code, but the latter did not. These mud ponies, Earthians if you will, aren't even generous to other non-magical hoofed creatures. They even took another tribe's land and put them in derelict reservations.
"As for the pegasii nation, they're no better. In some ways, they are much worse, ruling ground-dwellers as their slaves while pretending to be their saviors. Hypocrites. Liars. Both of them. And their war continues on and on without end. That is why I made a deal with the Diamond Dogs, and allowed them into our Empire to help build up our military for the eventual cleansing of the world under fire and brimstone. Out of the ashes, I shall build a new and glamorous empire: Neo Unicornia."
"But there are still unicorns out there," cried Twilight from her orb-prison. "There's still a Unicornia!"
"Nothing but a backwater underground village full of weak traditionalists," said Blueblood. "If all they could produce are two easily manipulated unicorns, then I have no sympathy for them."
"Cousin, how is all this possible?" Rarity asked. "I didn't notice you were missing."
"You couldn't have known because you were holed up in your bedchambers sewing yourself into the apocalypse. One year was enough to learn about the strength and weaknesses of the two warring nations. One year was enough for me to put my plans in motion. That one year paid off with the timely arrival of this upstart Shining Armor. Pure Shining Armor. Loyal Shining Armor. It was his intense loyalty to his Queen that allowed me to put him under my control.
"Of course, I needed a scapegoat. I initially leaked information about the Spire Cannon to the Crystal Rebels, but by sheer providence these foreign mares and their pesky pets were the perfect scapegoats to stage an assassination attempt of our dear King Lord Umbra, thereby forcing our citizenry to rally behind me under the false pretense of mourning. With nearly the entire population systematically drugged by Flim and Flim's Bliss, I have secured the necessary emotional energies for the Spire Cannon."
"My Nephew," said Umbra. "I had always thought because you would never be able to inherit throne that you've acted this way, but now I know for sure that you will never be fit to rule the Empire as King."
"Silence!" Blueblood flashed. "Those who chose to ignore the facts are traitors to the Empire, and that is why I had to seize power from you Uncle and from the Queen herself. It is unfortunate really. I had dreams of marrying her before the Court decided she should be wedded to you, but all that will be for naught if the Empire succumbs to foreign invasion."
"You may have us captured, cousin," said Rarity, "but we already secured the mines from your lapdogs. Our friends will come up and rescue us."
"Really?"
Upon a tilting motion from Blueblood, a magic monitor manifested above Flim and Flam's computer console to show a live and moving image of armed Diamond Dogs, led by Fido, Spot, and Rover, forcing the enslaved ponies at gunpoint to march over what appeared to be a brightly lit and open area with glyph-like markings running all over the floor. A dirtied Bella was among them, and her wince was testament of both her embarrassment and shame of allowing the Diamond Dogs get the better of them.
"We have rounded up all the ponies my Lord," said Red Rover through the monitor.
"Your loyalty shall be rewarded," grinned Blueblood.
A switched was pushed. The glyphs around the captured pony slaves lit up and formed from the surface magical chains around them. Then almost immediately, the same magical chains wrapped around and restrained all the Diamond Dogs, who now howled in pain. She didn't think much of them before, but now the Diamond Dogs' agony began to make Rarity sympathize over their betrayal.
"Lord Blueblood!" cried Rover. "We had a deal!"
"Do you think I want mutts like you running around my new Empire?" asked Blueblood. "You should be back in the dirt where you belong! At the very least you'll be useful in supplying the Spire Cannon with whatever pittance of emotional energy you possess. Flim and Flam; reposition the cannon for our next target: Gaeaopolis."
"No, not my mom!" cried Apple Bloom.
The web of wires and metal beams trembled as the viziers activated the unseen machination that was the Spire Cannon. A low hum began building up. The Crystal Heart started spinning psychotically in its axis. The crackle of electricity flowed in the orb containers, shocking its equine occupants into ready agony as the dreaded weapon sucked from them their emotional energies. A new and larger magic monitor manifested before Flim and Flam, and after they fiddled with the computer's switches and dials, an image of a carved, pure white tower structure came into focus. If this was the capital of the earth pony nation Rarity had heard about, then Blueblood's opinion of the outside world was grossly exaggerated and negative.
"Emotional energies rising above one-hundred percent," said Flim.
"External weather aberrations accounted for," added Flam. "We have a clear shot."
"I am feeling generous, dear cousin," said Blueblood as he pranced before Rarity. "I will spare you the effects of the Greed Gem so you could bear witness the glorious rebirth of our Empire."
"You call this generous?" asked Rarity. "These are ponies' lives we're talking about. You'll kill thousands, if not hundreds of thousands!"
"They are the descendants of ponies who hunted down and murdered our ancestors. The world is an ugly place, and as unicorns it is our divine right to beautify it."
"Indeed. I have discovered that the world is full of liars and murderers, but that does not give us the right to act like them. We are better than that, Blueblood, but you… You must be stopped!"
The Diamond Princess spun to give her traitor cousin a good right hind buck to the face before galloping off towards the computer console. She had expected Flim and Flam to catch wind of her desperate attempt to stop the Spire Cannon's fire, and the two brothers kept sight on her from the corner of their eyes. It was no surprise that when they turned around, they magically levitated before her eyes an awful mace and a tarnished flail. All things considered, the two brothers wouldn't be able to use their magic directly on Rarity due to the black crystal ring still wrapped around her neck. Even if they were to be armed with the mightiest axe or the biggest gun, Rarity was still determined to fight past them.
Or she had hoped. The manic grins on their faces indicated that they were willing to bludgeon a princess--their own Princess--to death. Her own body froze at wanting to choose flight and survival or to dive in and save her friends.
Then in the span of almost two seconds, she heard an object tearing through the sky before it shattered through the magical barrier that made up the Spire's window. A blur of white and wings hind-kicked Flim square in his face, and Flim's face bashed into his brother's face. The very same kick sent the brothers flying off their hooves with enough force to shatter the other magic barrier window of Spire. Rarity now saw her savior, a majestic pegasus mare with the Glyph of the Sun sliding to a stop.
"Hurry and stop the cannon!" she told the Diamond Princess.
The sun pegasus immediately zipped away as Blueblood tried to fire his magic towards her. With them busy, Rarity was now free to stop the Spire Cannon, and she immediately threw switches and pressed buttons. No effect. Her family and friends were still screaming in agony in their orb prisons, and Blueblood zapped a powerful spell that shot down the sun pegasus. She knew not how these infernal machines worked, and the thought of bashing it started to appeal to her. But she had no strength, and the Greed Gem throbbed its avarice as it gathered more and more emotional energies.
That was it. That was the part Rarity needed to get a hold of. Her jaws clamped upon its smooth surface, and she pulled and pulled. Once she fell back, but she immediately grabbed the Gem and tightened her oral grip much harder. Even as she heard Blueblood's advancing hoofsteps and tasted the blood oozing from her gums, Rarity bit harder.
On my life, she screamed from her soul, please give me the strength to save my friends and family!
The Green Gem answered her call, and after a bright flash it ejected itself from the console and floated before Rarity. It now appeared transformed, and the diamond now sported a beautiful purple hue; its true form.
"Thy call hath been heeded."