"It's simple!" Rainbow Dash said, carrying Pilate around the broad, curved balcony of the structure. "We make it back to the door with the Urohringr symbol—"
"Urohringr symbol?!" the stallion sputtered.
Rainbow Dash went on. "I clear the slime from the area, then open the door. You watch my back, and I'll carve us a path back into the heart of the city!"
"Uhhh..."
"Together, we can get that friggin' skystone to the place where Roarke wants it to go!"
"Assuming it all goes well, then how do we get to the others?"
"Uhhhhm..."
"I mean, if we're flying Stratopolis to its doom, then it stands to reason that there won't be any platforms left for us to make into a safe haven!"
"Well, Seclorum's and Lasairfion's group are making their way to the Tarkington."
"Yes." The zebra nodded. "And the Jury?"
"I'm pretty sure we'll still have time to find them and grab them!"
"We will?"
"I will!" Rainbow frowned, then glanced back at him through the glow of the sword. "Look, Pilate. I've got a cybernetic zebra and a glowing godsword."
"Uhhhh..."
"What I'm saying is that it's best not to look a gift-horse in the mouth and just make do with what we've got! Any delay, and we'll actually be putting our friends in danger—"
"There's something ahead of us," Pilate stammered.
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash looked ahead. Sure enough, the pegasus could spot an equine figure standing at the half-open barricade to the interior of the structure. It was a mare, and her hooves fearlessly stood within inches of the bubbling purple muck. "Belle?"
Pilate was already gnashing his teeth as his helmet flickred. "Rainbow, that's not my beloved—"
"Like I'm really that stupid," Rainbow grumbled. She hovered to a stop, frowning. "Look, I've got no time for you shape-shifting creeps anymore! Now get out of the way!" She shook her back, rattling the sword sticking out of her saddlebag with a glow for good measure.
The doppleganger stood in place, staring placidly up at the pegasus.
"Rainbow... I-I don't like this," Pilate wheezed.
"Yeah, well, she's about to like this even less." Plop! Rainbow Dash touched down a safe distance from the ooze. While Pilate teetered on dizzied limbs, Rainbow reached her muzzle back and grasped the sword's hilt. She marched forward with a righteous glow. The muck spread away from her hoofsteps as she trained the sword at her target. "Mrrrmmf..." She spoked in a muffled yet assertive tone. "Unless you wanna become fake pony parmesan, you'd better turn carapace and run. Ya hear me?"
The fake Bellesmith stood her ground.
Pilate tilted his head back and forth. His ears twitched, and he suddenly craned his head towards the cloudy sky.
"Last warning, bucko!" Rainbow Dash took a swipe at the ground. The Sword of Solstice showered sparks, making the slime retreat with ashen fright towards the barricade. "You have no more business here!"
"Belle" blinked... then smiled. "That's impossible, for Mother wishes to speak to you."
Rainbow Dash's eyes twitched.
Pilate gasped. "Rainbow—" He tried reaching for his staff, but it was too late. No less than a dozen shapes broke camouflage, leaping off the contours of the balcony where they had been clinging all this time. Like moths, the materializing monsters swarmed the two, knocking Pilate back onto his spine. "Ooof!"
"Mrmmmf?!" Rainbow Dash spun. Her eyes bugged, and she thrusted forward with the blade.
The line of shape shifters effortlessly split formation, evaded the sword slice, and lunged their limbs forward in a mixed cornacopia of tentacles and pinchers.
"Graaaugh!" Rainbow Dash thrashed back and forth, struggling in the odd array of animal appendages. She slashed her sword at everything that moved, but the creatures anticipated her every tactic. Collectively, they swung her back and suplexed her hard into the balcony's edge.
Cl-Clakkk! The Sword of Solstice flew free, landed, and slid across the granite steps. It came to a rattling stop several feet away, leaning precariously into the wind gusks of Stratopolis along the structure's edge.
Pilate sensed it. He scuffled over, reaching a shivering hoof forward. A hoof stepped on his fetlock, forcing the zebra to yelp in pain. A half-dozen changelings wrangled him off the floor and slammed him against a pillar across from the sword, holding him in place.
In the meantime, the rest of the creatures swarmed Rainbow Dash. Dozens and dozens more came out of the niches and shadowy crooks of the place, until the pegasus was certain that she was being smothered with Stratopolis' entire changeling population.
They covered her like termites, affording her only one sliver of space to see through. Rainbow's twitching eyes glanced past the black shells and quivering wings, and there she saw the smile on Belle's face. It morphed into a fanged maw as a line of green flame cascaded down the undisguised shape-shifter's face.
"Mother would like to thank you, Austraeoh, for unwrapping the greatest gift she could possibly ask for," the creature said as the rest of the monsters lifted Rainbow Dash off her hooves. "The black heart of Stratopolis."