"You h-hear that?!" a Ledomaritan stammered as the group of survivors galloped through the dark, twisting corridors that led towards the Hold. "They're breaking on through! I just know it!"
"There's no way they can sense us through the walls!" another survivor exclaimed. A gulp, and she timidly glanced at the others. "Is th-there?"
"Just keep friggin' moving," Seclorum said in a growling tone. "We have enough bullcrap to deal with." His glaring expression swam over Bellesmith's face.
Belle bit her lip, carrying "Eagle Eye" on her shoulders.
"Don't let 'em get to you," Josho said, regaining enough energy to march in full stride. "Old Secchy just needs an excuse to be abrasive with somepony."
"So I can imagine." Belle gulped and muttered, "Do you believe that I am me, Mr. Josho?"
"Let's put it this way..." The stallion shrugged in mid-step. "Even if you are in fact a snake-in-the-grass shapeshifting metamorph that leeches off of emotion... I'm happier to have you along than Secchy."
Belle bit her lip. "Well, uhm... th-that is certainly a good thing to know—"
"Nnnngh..." Aatxe collapsed against a wall and slumped to his knees.
Props gasped. "Mr. Aatxe!" She turned around and scampered towards the trembling stallion. "What's the matter, guy-guy?! Get up!"
"I... I-I can't help it..." He panted, his face awash with sweat. "So much galloping around... so much pandemonium..." He gulped, staring ahead with a feverish stare. "I've gotten so out of shape since my piloting days."
"Just take deep breaths and walk it off, dude-bro!" Props shook his shoulders. "We need to get to the Tarkington, and that makes you the pony of the hour! Stick with us, buddy!"
"Easier s-said than done..." He smiled weakly at Props. "Even if I made it out of this place, I'm afraid I don't have much energy to go back to living a normal life." He gulped and patted Props' golden head. "I'm just glad to meet somepony whom Prowse cares so much for. He raised his niece very well..."
"D-don't talk like that! We're gonna get you out of here!" Props looked up, wincing. "Please! Somepony! Anypony! Help me out here—"
The hallways shook with a resounding crash of noise. Rust-tainted air billowed down the corridor, making every pony's muzzle shudder from the purely rancid scent.
"Th-they're breaking on through!" a mare stammered.
"Rehmm vreen threadd siul Nagu'n!"
"Darn it!" Seclorum snarled, breaking into a full gallop. "I knew this was too good to be true!"
"Everypony! Pick up the pace!" Josho shouted, levitating his shotgun at the ready.
"Please!" Props stammered, tugging and pulling at Aatxe's exhausted form. "Help us! They're gonna clobbermunch 'em!"
"Somepony!" Bellesmith stammered, shivering where she stood. "We can't just leave—" A large body galloped past her, nearly knocking her and "Eagle Eye" into the wall.
Arcshod skidded to a stop, telekinetically encased Aatxe in a levitation spell, and threw him over his shoulders. "Hmmph... rekkha'three siurna blen'silaat threem..."
"Easy f-for you to say," Aatxe said through an exhausted grin.
Arcshod galloped forward on thundering hooves. Not far behind him, dark shadows coalesced and surged along the walls. In the penumbra of flouncing manalight, several white eyeballs glittered like stars, multiplying in density along the crest of a rising heartbeat.
"Run, girl!" Props squeaked as she shoved Bellesmith along. The two ponies sprinted away from the sloshing madness while Elma's disguised body clung to Belle's flanks. "Run run run run runnity run!"
"H-how can th-they be this fast?!" Belle panted in mid-sprint. "It's like an animated sea of d-death!"
"Yeah, well death is gonna get a whole lot deader!" Josho stood his ground, firing loud shots into the rampaging mess behind the group. As the walls echoed from his thunderous salvos, he backtrotted briskly, reloading and discharging the shotgun—just as pegasi shapes emerged from the rippling wall of muck. "You're almost to the Hold! Keep going!"
"Blessed Spark, preserve us," Belle stammered, her eyes growing teary. "Preserve Pilate, my beloved..."
"Let us through!" Seclorum shouted. Up ahead, the group had reached the barricade, and the front line of unicorns—both Ledomaritans and Xonans alike—were unravelling the obstruction brick-by-brick with levitation spells. "We've got manacrystals for the Tarkington—but things went from worse to uber worse! Now let us in!"
They were greeted on the other side by a line of ponies with crossbows. The nervous, shivering sentries stammered, "W-we're not letting you in until we g-get a blood test!"
"A blood test?" Belle exclaimed.
"Oh for the love of—" Seclorum rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm not a fan of it either, but if you don't let us through now, something a million friggin' times worse than shape-shifters is gonna rip us all a new one—changelings or ponies alike!"
"S-sorry, sir. But it's your rules! Nopony passes through unless—"
"Rrrrghhh!" Arcshod thundered through, spitting at the tattooed half of the group. "Fre'mukkyr hava'klanna vreem siul rasta, resen vekkomulien trenna'dren! Xon!"
The Xonan warriors shuffled backwards, ears drooped like shamed canines. Arcshod marched on through with Aatxe on his back.
Blinking, Seclorum shuffled along.
"What exactly did the big lug say?" Josho remarked
"You don't wanna know, old friend." Seclorum motioned forward. "Okay, everypony! Into the Hold! Quick, before—"
"It's too late!" a stallion bellowed.
The hallway filled with shrieks.
Seclorum spun around to see the first of many slime-covered pegasi rushing the barricade. With a leap, he threw himself into the torch-lit chamber beyond, then tugged Bellesmith and Props forward with telekinesis.
"Form a line!" Seclorum shouted. "All ponies with a weapon! By me!"
On either side of the chamber entrance, unicorns were feverishly attempting to stack up the debris wall to keep the charging undead out. But at the weak speed at which they were doing so—
"Th-they're here!" Props whimpered, covering her goggled face. "We're gonna be slime pony kibble!"
Josho gritted his teeth, aiming down the corridor as he could now see the whites of the zombie pegasi's glazed eyes. "Well, here goes nothing—"
The ragged monsters climbed the walls, kicked off the floor, and leapt off the ceiling with a combined banshee cry—
Krakowwwwwwwww!" A solid stream of sun-bright mana billowed down the corridor, burning the first wave of pegasi to a crisp and sending the next two layers of undead flying backwards like a puddle of burnt oatmeal. The hallway went dark at the end of the discharge.
Seclorum and Josho glanced aside, muzzles agape.
Prowse leaned on his good three legs, panting. Meanwhile, he held his prosthetic forward, its crystalline tips still flickering with electrical energy. The manaconduits hummed and flickered from the inside out, illuminating his sweaty, stubbled face.
"And that, lads and lassies, is how you fix a bloody boomstick."
"Unky Prowsie!" Props leapt and clung to his upper body with a clingy-clingy hug. She nuzzled his neck and beamed. "Heeeeee! You're the bestiest of the bestiest!"
"Heh... just capitalizing on your genius, lass." He nuzzled her in return. "Glad to have you back."
"Hey, uh..." Seclorum wheezed, his eyes briefly sparkling. "Can I get a nuzzle too?"
"Fart yourself sideways, ya bloomin' bastard."
"Heheh... right..." Seclorum cleared his throat and gestured towards the nearest line of unicorns, snapping them out of their awestruck stupor. "What are you idiots waiting around for? Seal it up! They'll be back any moment!"
Josho leaned in with a smirk. "There's still hope for you yet, Secchy."
"Can it. We're still gonna die, y'know."
"Yeah, well, some faster than others."
"Meh."