“Zecora!” shouted Twilight as she ran towards the grey woman.
“Hello there, my dear Twilight, always a pleasure to see you so bright,” she replied.
Just behind them were the Twilight’s five new friends, sitting and having a nice break of coffee and tea at a cafe just out of Vanhoover. They smiled and introduced themselves as Zecora did the same.
“So are you going to be the one overseeing us?”
She nodded. “But I will not be watching you alone. My partner shall be waiting in the hot zone.” She approached Twilight and slipped a small disc into her hand.
Twilight looked at it for a moment before cracking into a smile. “Are these the mission schematics?” She looked at Zecora like a child who wanted to go out and play with her new favorite toy.
The agent nodded in response. “I shall meet you there, so I suggest you all prepare.” She turned and hopped back into her grey sedan.
As Zecora drove off, Twilight looked at the tiny device in her hand and returned to her seat around the table.
Rainbow leaned over and looked at the thing. “Is that it?”
“Yup.” She placed it in the center of their table and waved her hand above it. A slight hum sounded from within as the top half opened up. A translucent blue projection of a network of twisting and turning tunnels appeared. Scattered in various places were larger chambers of varying size with some being capable of housing several scaled down cars to being able to house several similarly scaled jumbo jets.
“This is what they were talking about?” asked Pinkie as she squinted at it. “I don’t get it.”
Just as she said that, the word ‘sending’ appeared superimposed on top of the projection no matter what angle you approached it from.
A succession of three monotonous beeps sounded out from each of their pockets.
“So it’s some kind o’ giant ant colony,” said Applejack as her eyes skimmed the report on her phone.
“People in nearby towns have reported crops being raided, large swathes of organized destruction and sightings of thin legged, shiny, bear-like creatures,” continued Fluttershy with a twinge of fear.
“Which can only mean one thing,” Twilight began, “a high concentration of chaos magic.”
Two small grey cubes were ejected onto the table from the disc. Rarity picked both up and twirled them around her fingers like gems. “So our mission is to take one of these to the queen’s chamber and detonate it.” She eyed the two tiny things meticulously. There were runes etched on to them that were so small a magnifying glass—or a designer’s eye—would be necessary to see them.
Rainbow groaned. “Lemme guess, the scans don’t work and all they managed was this map. So we’re supposed to crawl in those dark, dusty, and closed tunnels looking for the queen’s chamber, right?”
”Hmmm.” Twilight sighed as she too realized it. “Looks like you're right, Rainbow.”
“Of course,” she said in a tone so flat it could slice air.
“That does not seem quite effective. Are we really supposed to just go through all of it until we find the right place?” asked Rarity.
“We won’t need to,” said Applejack. “These other chambers look awfully big. Considerin’ the queen’s role, I doubt they’d put her in a tight space.”
Pinkie cupped her chin and squinted at the projection. “There’s three of them and six of us. But one of them is waaay at the bottom. Do we split in three or two?”
“Two teams of three,” Twilight said. “My team checks out the first chamber while Rainbow’s checks the second.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight doubtfully. “You sure about that? Splitting our firepower hardly ever seems to work out.”
“The ants encountered on the surface seemed fairly docile and easy to dispose of so I doubt we’d be having any trouble with them.” she replied. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
A loud smack sounded as everyone turned their eyes to Pinkie, whose palm was making full contact with her forehead. “Twilight!” said Pinkie as she looked the offending party right in the eye. “You should never say stuff like that! Now we’re doomed!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and ignored her. “Is everyone ready to move out? Emergency comms? Sustenance packs? Weapons?” She received three rounds of nods as she returned each in kind. The six of them stood up and split into two groups as they approached two unmarked sedans. One was identical to Zecora’s whilst the other had a longer frame and was a muted shade of red.
Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack got into the red one, whilst Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie into the other.
Large green fields spread out for miles in any direction the girls looked and ended in either a forest or a mountain. The road in front of and behind them seemed to just go on and on.
Applejack looked at the vast, empty wilderness. “On the bright side, at least they seem to be in the middle o’ nowhere.”
Fluttershy was fiddling with a tablet attached to the back of the driver’s seat. “Still. The number of missing pet reports in this area have skyrocketed over the last few days.” She swallowed a lump in her throat as she scrolled through the incredibly long list.
The midsection of the dashboard opened up and displayed a feed of the interior of Rainbow’s car. “We should be roughly over the area the colony’s supposed to be in now, right?”
Twilight nodded. As they crested the next hill she could see a grey sedan parked in the middle of the next field with several mounds of dirt nearby. “There they are.”
Zecora waved at the two vehicles as they approached. Their passengers couldn’t help but notice Zecora’s companion. She was a similarly grey woman wearing pair of rimless glasses behind which was a stare that felt like the unholy mix of a cockatrice’ and a basilisk’s.
Applejack looked to Twilight as they got out. She shrugged in response.
Magitek Officer Raven approached the girls as they assembled into a neat line. “Morning. Agent Zecora successfully delivered the spec; you know your mission, correct?” When she received six simultaneous ‘yes ma’am’s, she continued. “Infiltrate, plant, activate. Once signal is active, MLP systems will pinpoint your location and teleport you out of cave systems. Mission, simple.”
She picked up a suitcase and presented its contents to the girls. They were six pairs of blue-tinted wrap around sunglasses. “Dark-vision glasses. Uses magical energy in the area to simulate vision, will assist in your infiltration.”
An ant the size of a cow growled—in a sense, since they produce smell rather than sound—at the three intruders. Its might was cut short as a small, metallic projectile pierced though it’s chitin and forced it to return to its normal and diminutive size.
Applejack returned Quickdraw to buckle form, but not before trying a bit of a spin for style. As she felt the firearm click into place, she gave it a light pat of delight.
“Glad to see your doing better with that trick,” said Twilight as she let out a small laugh. “Thank goodness you didn’t drop it this time.”
Applejack rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but break into her own smile. “Coach was steamin’ when it shot him in the rear like that. It didn’t even hurt him, just made him mad, if anythin’.”
“Guess you could say he’s got real… buns of steel.” Twilight said with a grin.
The two stared at each other before bursting into laughter at the terribleness of her joke.
Applejack looked behind them at the third member of their team. Fluttershy’s brows were particularly slanted as her eyes bounced around the cavern walls.
“You alright, sugarcube?” asked Applejack.
“Hmmm? Oh, it’s nothing.” Fluttershy waited a moment longer than a moment. “It’s just, do you really have to shoot on sight?”
Applejack sighed. “Well we did try your way—more than once—and it ended up the same every time. It wouldn’t do to have one of us missing a hand for the rest of the mission, now would it?”
“It’s just that-”
“And we aren’t even hurtin’ them really,” insisted Applejack. “Our weapons just put ‘em back to normal. If anything we’re doin’ them a kindness by releasing all that chaos magic.”
“She is right, you know,” said Twilight. “That’s the point of our non-lethal weaponry.”
“I suppose so,” conceded Fluttershy.
Twilight took out her map. “We should be very close to the first chamber.”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed. “Do ya’ll smell that?”
The group paused a moment to sniff the air around them. It was damp, dark, moist and earthy. It smelled like a cave, basically.
“Smell what?” asked Twilight.
“I dunno really.” Applejack looked around the still empty cave, trying to remember what the scent was. “You ever crush an ant and smell it?”
Twilight looked at her flatly. “No.”
Fluttershy gave a small shrug. “Yes.”
“Well basically, it kinda smells like that.”
“Pheromones, then?”
“Probably. I guess it’s just mah farmer’s nose that lets me smell it.”
“Impressively sensitive, but I guess that means we’re close.” Twilight clenched her fists. “Stay on guard. The closer we get, the more likely we are to run into soldier ants.”
The next few corners were distressingly empty. The only sign of life they had was the occasional piece of giant ant excrement. The walls around them became steadily crusty as Twilight and Fluttershy began to smell the ammonia-like odor Applejack had mentioned.
Applejack had taken the lead and carefully watched the ground they walked on. Freshly disturbed earth was scattered around them as she gingerly avoided the larger chunks of soil.
She raised her hand to signal the others to stop and closed her eyes.
She whispered to the others, “Do ya’ll hear that?”
At first they didn’t hear anything as their brains focused out the static-like background noise. Then they realized that what they were hearing wasn’t background noise at all. It was the tiny pitter patter of thousands of oversized ant legs hitting the ground. There was also the occasional snap, no doubt from said ants oversized mandibles.
The team slowly approached the next corner, ready yet also dreading what was surely to come next. They peered over and their eyes all together widened. Straight ahead was their target, the large chamber that could be housing the queen. However, crisscrossing the way were about ten other tunnels from which countless ants appeared and disappeared.
All they could see was a writhing and wriggling mass of reddish chitin, shifting and moving to the tune of organized chaos. Hundreds of tiny antennae could be seen above swaying and scanning like little follicles of hair. From their point of view, the massive processions looked more like a giant hairy caterpillars, making their way across the tunnels.
“That’s bad,” said Twilight as she let out an exasperated sigh.
Applejack carefully drew Quickdraw and kept at the ready. “Now what?”
“I’m not really sure. This is the only practical way into the-”
The wall in front of them started shaking as bits of dirt and debris fell to the ground.
“Of course,” said Applejack as she rolled her eyes and pointed her weapon at the wall.
As the hard forceps of the ant burst through, and as its long antennae felt the touch of intruders, it managed without facial features to have the expression of surprise. Right before it emitted an absolutely foul odor that filled the chamber.
With one hand, Applejack held her nose. “What is that?” She fired her gun and put down the offending insect. It shrank back to its normally harmless size.
Fluttershy just wiggled her nose in slight annoyance but Twilight had entered a slight coughing fit. She peered over the edge and saw all the other ants frozen in place. The coughing was augmented by vertigo as she suddenly felt the gaze of hundreds of eyeless ants lock onto her and her friends.
Balls of purple light formed at her fingertips as she drew her hand back. With a mighty swing she sent five tiny spheres into the advancing ant mass. Each one exploded into a colorful symphony of light as each engulfed at least thirty ants. The tight space held her combat method to an advantage.
She started walking forward, throwing plenty of little balls with each step. Applejack had positioned beside her and began taking out the stragglers that were getting a little too close for comfort.
With their attention focused on the main tunnel, they didn’t notice the column that began approaching through the recently caved wall. With no other choice obvious, Fluttershy reached up and pulled her clip—it had the shape of a circle around a compass rose—from her hair. She pressed it and it began to elongate and change itself from dull plastic into shiny, solid yew wood. A strand of hair that came along also began to stretch and expand. One end moved towards a tip, whilst the other extended and tied itself around the other tip until she ended up with a perfectly shaped and formed longbow.
She pulled back on the string as a shaft of light began to form between her fingers. Once the bow was fully extended the light solidified into a plasma like state and sharpened itself at the tip to form an arrowhead. She released, sending the illuminated projectile straight down the corridor. After hitting the first ant it didn’t stop and went on to hit the five other ants lined up behind it. She kept firing arrow after arrow as every ant taken down seemed to be replaced by three more.
Twilight Sparkle took a moment to glance around her. “This is bad. We’ll be overwhelmed soon enough at this rate.” She threw five more magical bombs at the incoming insects.
“Well any ideas sure would be welcome, sugarcube,” said Applejack as she shot two more ants right between the antennas.
Twilight brought her hands together and formed a football-sized light sphere in between her hands. She drove it into the ground below her.
Purple light flooded the tunnels as the ants let out a number of clicks and clacks that could be interpreted as agony, but instead came off as more like a bunch of castanets. The purple light shuffled along the lightwave spectrum appearing as a number of other shades before finally fading into darkness.
Twilight opened her eyes and saw hundreds of regular sized ants scurrying around her feet in all sorts of directions..
“Let’s go check the chamber.” Twilight began to climb the straight incline, watching her toes for the angry little ants and her corners for the angry big ants. The only sounds in the area was the occasional crunch produced by her and her friends as they approached the entrance. She groaned once they got to the top. “No queen,” she said.
Applejack and Fluttershy came up to either side of her.
“Whoa. Was this their stash or somethin’?” said the cowgirl.
The chamber was as large as an old classical theatre and smelled like an old movie theatre. On one side were white boulders which, on closer inspection, turned out to be huge balls of sugar. In a corner was a deposit of stone boulders as well as a few cinder blocks and some red bricks.Another was full of pulped up leaves shaped into spheres the size of volleyballs. The far corner, however, stood out as it mostly contained junk that other ants must have brought in thinking it could be useful. One particularly large item stood on top of the pile. It was one of their grey sedans.
“Oh my,” said Fluttershy as she took in her surroundings and returned her clip to her hair. “It looks like they were starting to stock up for the winter.”
“Well somebody oughta tell ‘em that being in a car is not the most fun place to be in during the cold seasons,” Applejack said.
Twilight walked over to the center of the room. Her eyes were narrowed as she lookeed around. “No queen. If this is storage then she’s obviously in another chamber.” She turned to face the other two. “All right, we’re to head over to sec-”
Without warning, the ground beneath her feet began to loosen and collapse. She struggled and failed to find footing as several tons of raw earth took her down to deeper depths.
“Twilight!” screamed the other two as they dove to catch her. Fluttershy managed to grab her hands, but the sinkhole only continued to increase in size, engulfing even the ground that she was on. As she felt the sensation of falling, she also felt a pair of hands grab onto her ankles.
Applejack positioned her feet against two large rocks sticking out of the ground. “Hold… on… you… two…” she said through gritted teeth. Her eyes widened as she felt her left foot start to slip. “Uh oh.”
One giant ant soared through the air before hitting the wals of the tunnel with a loud crunch. As it began to dissolve into tiny particles of light, three small knives released themselves and returned to an orbit around a white fist. Rarity jumped back from the angry pincers of an ant that got too close. She turned her other arm around and brought the full might of her rapier onto the insect’s thorax.
At the intersection of another tunnel, a streak of blue passed a line of soldier ants. A moment later, they were all neatly and evenly cut into three pieces. Rainbow Dash made and abrupt stop in front of another column and swung her sword arm out. Her aara extended itself to its full length, but not before piling more ants onto it like a crunchy shishkebab.
On the other end of the tunnel a one sided melee was being held. From the ants’ point of view, all they could tell was that there was something bouncing on their heads and hitting them really really hard. Pinkie Pie shuffled her feet and danced a merry jig on an ants head before jumping towards the next and giving it a solid uppercut with her foot. As she hit the ground she began to turn faster and faster like a top, using her powerfists to knock the insects out silly.
Try as they might, the ants could never once get her. Whenever they figured out where she was—or even where she was likely going to be next—she was always one step ahead and in a completely different position.
She grabbed an ant and dug in her heels as her momentum kept her spinning for a little while longer. She leaned closer to the wall and smacked the insect against it, causing it to burst into a spray of particles and leaving behind one very dizzy looking normal-sized ant. “Tee hee. That was my last one.”
“Well the queen definitely wasn’t in there,” said Rarity. “If anything, it looked like they were still expanding that chamber.” She thought about the brief glimpse they had of their target area. “But what do you think those small white spheres were?”
“Eggs,” said Rainbow as her aara morphed back and wrapped itself around her waist. “They were gonna use it as their new nursery.”
Pinkie tilted her head at Rainbow.
She shrugged in response. “My parents got me an ant farm when I was a kid.”
Rarity’s rapier had returned to her wrist. “Indeed. But now that we know this is not our target, and none of us have been teleported back to the surface, I think it’s safe to assume that the others haven’t found the queen either.”
“Then all there is to do is to go to the last chamber!” said Pinkie Pie as she watched a number of their defeated foes walk on her fingers.
“Right.” Rainbow brought out a copy of the colony’s projection. “Any luck contacting the others?” she asked Rarity.
She touched the black bead on her earring. “I’m afraid I’m still not getting anything. The magic here is causing far too much interference.”
“Then we just stick with the plan. If all goes well, we’ll see the others at the last chamber.” Rainbow began to make her way down the next tunnel on their left. “If we follow this, we should be there pretty soon.”
“I just hope we don’t run into more ants until we get there,” said Rarity as she fluffed her sleeve.
Pinkie Pie skipped up beside her. “Oh come on, Rarity. The big brawl wasn’t that bad.”
“Don’t get me wrong, darling. It’s not the fighting I have a problem with.” She brushed off her other sleeve. “It’s the location. This place is far too dusty and compressed for my tastes.”
Rainbow checked the map and took the next left. “Not gonna lie, kinda agree with you.” She returned the disc to her pocket. “This place is waaay too small for me to use my sweet moves.”
“Your fighting style does favor open spaces. But you don’t have to extend yours all the way, correct?” asked Rarity.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at Rarity’s phrasing but dropped it when she saw her serious expression. “Yup. If needed I can just use it as a scimitar.”
“You know, I don’t believe we’ve ever had the chance to go at each other, have we?”
“Nah. They mostly let us spar with juniors from our own divisions.”
“Then perhaps when this is over we could go a round or two?”
Rainbow threw her a smug smile. “Sure, Rares. I’d love the chance to kick your butt.”
Rarity matched it. “We’ll see, darling.”
“Uh oh,” said Pinkie before entering a mild shaking fit. “That’s not good. Does anyone else smell that?”
The walls of the tunnel ahead looked like they were beginning to move as a pitter-patter sound started to echo throughout. The activity in the walls increased making it look like waves until they realized what it really was.
Ants.
Ants the size of large dogs rushed into the tunnel. Some crawled on the wall while the others flooded the floor. They snarled at the girls mouthlessly as they slammed their mandibles together in aggression. The distance between them was closing quickly. In just a moment, they would be completely consumed by the wave of insects.
“Shoot! Let’s get out of here!” Rainbow turned around and grabbed her teammates by the waist. Using her speed, she dashed away from the advance using the strength and reflexes she had trained up to carry her friends and to make sure she didn’t trip on anything along the way.
The entrance to the chamber they had left was getting closer. A fight that slanted against them in numbers would be much easier to handle in there. They would never make it, though, as the wall on the right suddenly caved as a pair of ant legs struck out and began to dig through what was left.
The sudden influx of loose earth on the ground caused Rainbow to lose her balance and fall.
“Ooomph!” shouted Pinkie as she landed on her rump.
The ant that tunneled through stood over Rainbow as she tried to get up. A knife with a light blue glow bored into its head and caused it to disintegrate and return to normal size. She nodded to her teammate as she stood back up and ran towards them.
Pinkie and Rarity had their weapons drawn and were at the ready.
The earth above Rainbow suddenly came down upon her as she was just a few feet away from her friends. The ground below her was not faring any better either as she felt it her feet begin to fall through. The last thing she saw was her teammates scrambling towards her and another army of ants emerging from the chamber behind them. It was then she felt herself fall and be consumed by earth and darkness.
Rainbow Dash awoke with a large gasp as she struggled to regain her breath. Nearly being buried alive was not an experience she wanted to repeat. Her blazer looked more brown than grey and her hair was thick and unruly with plenty of little particles on it. A bitter and dusty taste filled her mouth.
As she got up and brushed herself off as best as she could, her mind finally processed that she was seeing out of only one eye. The fall had damaged half her visor, leaving her right eye staring into nothing but the dark void. “Dang it,” she said under her breath. Everything else seemed to be in place including the chaos collector.
She opened her projection of the colony. It was obvious that wherever she was, it was not part of the projection. From what she could see, there was only one way in or out of the chamber. Shrugging, she closed the map and went on her way.
She passed brown wall after brown wall after brown wall. The thought of pointlessly going in circles made peeped into her mind. “No,” she said to no one in particular. Seeing nothing up ahead and nothing in the direction being her, she dropped to a knee and entered a runner’s position.
She took off leaving a rainbow trail in all the shades of darkness behind her. As she zoomed past intersections and junctions she heard the occasional click of the ants’ mandibles. Every once in a while she glanced a small chamber being further dug out by teams of workers.
Finally her vizor registered something: faint purple light coming from the next junction. The only problem was the line of worker ants going down the same tunnel as her. She smirked and leaned forward.
The ants were no longer a problem.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle raced down the brown, earthen walls of the cavern. Behind them, the sounds of hundreds of thin legs striking rock echoed closer towards them. In the hazy purple light emanating from Twilight’s hand, they looked to each other and nodded.
Still running, Rainbow drew out her aara and made four precise slices on the corners of the cavern walls. Twilight, with her other hand, sent a ball of energy behind them which then anchored itself to the four slices, forming a glowing, translucent, purple barrier.
From the darkness, they emerged. Ants the size of small trucks with frighteningly long, snappy pincers stampeded towards them. As they hit the shiny wall, it stretched somewhat like jelly, but did not yield to the insects'' weight. The ants, in desperation, began to climb over themselves to get to the two junior-agents. Soon, the tunnel was blocked by a writhing mass of legs, pincers and thoraxes. The barrier, though stretched, held firm.
A ways away, the two had stopped running to check their handiwork. They smirked and gave each other a quick high-five before they continued down the path at a more relaxed pace.
“Did you bump into anyone else on your way?”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “No.”
“Me neither.” Rainbow’s eyes followed suit. “You think they took ‘em to the queen?”
“Probably.”
“How long do we have?”
“Not long. Probably fifteen minutes before she really awakens.”
Rainbow’s eyebrow raised. “Probably?”
“It’s likely the thing we smelled was the workers or the soldiers releasing some pheromones that alerted the entire colony to our presence. Think of it like a natural alarm system. She now knows there are intruders here.”
“Great. To think this day started out so great.”
As they approached the end of the particular tunnel they had retreated into they began to hear a loud chittering coming from their supposed destination. Rainbow grabbed her belt as Twilight clenched her fists. They skidded to a stop as they turned the corner.
Twilight threw her hands up as she desperately tried to keep her balance. Once her footing was back, Rainbow jumped back and grabbed Twilight by the scruff of her blazer and brought them slightly farther from the edge.
Twilight’s took a deep breath as her eyes crossed. “Thanks,” she squeaked. She looked to Rainbow who was crawling towards the edge.
A gulp came from the athlete. “You may wanna come up here and check this out.”
The queen’s chamber could house two airbuses and still have room for a middle class house. The primary courtyard took up most of the floor area with several rocky outcroppings connected to tunnels that served as balconies of a sort. The walls were glazed with a thin layer of a mucus-like substance that helped hold the massive cave together. The scent of raw earth and powerful pheromones gave the air a copper like smell.
The queen of the colony dominated a good fourth of the chamber’s volume. Her legs were thick enough to support several concrete buildings. Her head was big enough to comfortably fit two sedans. Her pincers looked like they could cut through five inch steel like paper. But none of that could compare to her thorax. From behind, it could be forgiven for thinking it was a downed blimp of some kind. The individual sensory hairs along it twitched and reacted to every movement it the air. The mass of the thing managed to pulsate despite the hard chitin that shielded it.
She emitted a low cracking sound similar to morse as she eyelessly surveyed the legions of gathered ants that filled most of the chamber. In the center of the region, neatly lined up beside each other, were the unconscious forms of Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack.
From the highest outcropping, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle took in the whole situation.
“That is one huge ant,” said Rainbow.
“Yup.” Twilight’s eyes bounced from her friends, to the legion, to the massive leader. “I’m not even sure we can take them by ourselves.”
“What?” Rainbow stared at her with furrowed brows. “Are you serious? We managed pretty well against that chimaera and that was when we didn’t even know what we were doing.”
Twilight smiled. She wasn’t sure why especially since that wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences. “Maybe. What worries me is the others.”
“I doubt they’d be any safer if we just sit here doing nothing. Besides, I don’t see them moving them from here anytime soon.”
“You’re right. The queen must’ve had them brought here for a reason, otherwise they’d probably be kept in the chamber my team found. Still we better concentrate on-”
The sound coming from the queen had changed dramatically. The two practically fell off the ledge as they rushed to check the new development. Their eyes expanded as they both took a sharp breath. Down below, several of the workers started to bring Rarity towards the queen as the the other workers and soldiers present chittered and clicked their pincers in the air.
“Now or never,” said Rainbow as she stood up and gripped her belt.
“Yup.” Twilight assumed a knelt on one knee as she flexed her fingers.
Rainbow leapt off, feet first, and brought her aara out to its full length. She guided herself towards an outcropping with several soldiers and neatly emptied it with a midair twirl. As she approached another ledge, she brought down the tip edge first which caused it to embed into the rock. She swung through the air and bounced off the wall. As she rebounded, she softened her sword to release it.
Twilight had jumped off in a skydiver’s position. The tips of her fingers had balls of purple energy which she sent flying to several of the tunnels. The chamber shook as the various entrances collapsed. If they could funnel any reinforcements into as few tunnels as possible, they had a better chance of keeping the number of ants to a controllable level.
As she got closer to the bottom level, she clapped her hands and threw them forward at where she would land. Two thin bolts of concentrated purple energy shot forth from her palms and smashed into the ground in an explosion of light that dissolved a platoon of the pests.
She changed to an upright position as sweat began to roll along her temples. One particular drop found its way to the tip of her nose. This was the first time she would attempt her new trick outside of a controlled—and more importantly, safe—environment. From her hands and feet she fired several consecutive shots of pressure which gradually slowed her descent. She bent her knees and brought her hands up as she made it to the bottom. Rainbow landed and rolled beside her. As she sprang back out, she swung in a wide arc, taking down a whole row of ants.
“Cover me!” shouted Twilight as she put a small barrier around herself and the other juniors.
Rainbow nodded and turned a smirk at the ants. She felt a bit disappointed that they couldn’t read her expression. She willed her sword to compact into a scimitar and took off for the far wall. The ants, having no sense of sight, could only surmise that the intruder had teleported around their group. Regardless, with the fearsome determination of a one-track hive mind they descended upon her again.
She spun, swung, and brought her blade around. The ants couldn’t even get close. “Is that really all you guys got?” Her expression deflated somewhat as she saw more rush in from the still open tunnels. Movement in the corner of her eye caused her to instinctively jump to the right as she narrowly avoided a potentially painful pinching. She took a look around before compressing her aara and making a beeline straight for the opposite wall, swinging here and there as she went along.
Twilight hands glowed as she waved them above Rarity. She squinted her eyes as she searched, and searched, and searched, and found it. Her mouth curled into a smile as a ball of purple light the size of a marble formed just above her palm. She drove it right into her friend’s chest.
Rarity’s eyes shot open as she lifted herself to a sitting position. Once her mind started to focus on her vision, the first thing she saw was Rainbow dancing and moving around a horde of the ants they were facing. The next thing she noticed was the energy barrier and Twilight kneeling beside her. “What happened?”
“The ants got the drop on us and managed to capture you girls. On the bright side, they delivered us to the queen’s chambers.”
“I take it the plan is still in effect?”
“Yeah, but I lost my cube meaning we have one shot at this.”
Rarity nodded and pulled her watch, bringing forth her silver rapier. “Attend to the others, I’ll assist Rainbow and see if we can’t get to the queen.”
The purple dome flashed as the violet-haired warrior jumped high into the air. At the apex of her flight, she threw one hand forward and sent five slim metal objects at the closest ants. Five flashes of light completed her landing as she waved her sword at the rest of the approaching insects.
Twilight moved forward under cover of magic and knelt down by Fluttershy’s side. She waved her hands above her as she felt for it. When her eyes shot open, she slammed her palm into the other girls chest causing her to jerk upright. They knocked heads together.
“Oh my goodness,” cried Fluttershy as she grasped the side of her forehead. “Are you okay? Ahhh!” She shimmied closer to Twilight as she nursed her head. “What’s going on?” She pressed herself closer as one particular ant started ramming the shield with its head.
“We’re in the queen’s chamber.” Twilight pushed in the direction of the ant, causing it to fly several feet away. “Fluttershy, I need you to revive the others. It’s the only way we’ll turn this fight in our favor, do you understand.”
The junior medical agent’s cyan eyes watered slightly, but nevertheless steeled themselves as she gave her leader a slight nod.
Twilight returned the nod with a smile and stood up with her arms open wide. The purple barrier expanded quickly and knocked a fair share of the ants around them back.and straight onto other ants. Two balls of purple energy raced through the air and slammed into thick concentrations of the large insects turning them into thick concentrations of regular sized insects.
The way to Applejack and Pinkie was clear as Fluttershy dove straight towards them. She adjusted herself slightly to the right and just barely dodged an ant that brought its head back around. She hit the ground with a roll and found the hard chitin of another ant slide above her vision. She squeezed her hair clip; a lance of light shot out towards the next ant in her path.
In the background, Rainbow had been jumping from ledge to ledge and swung her sword in almost every direction. No matter where she swung she wound up hitting something. Rarity had dropped her sense of grace and focused more on speed. The insects she felled doubled as she stopped the unnecessary parries and dodges and leaned more towards blunt and simple thrusts. Twilight herself had resorted to randomly throwing energy balls at the entrances to the chamber to somewhat quell the nonstop flow of insects.
Fluttershy skidded by Applejack’s side. She placed her fingers on her friend’s forehead and closed her eyes. They twitched every once in a while as she performed a thorough search of her friend’s magical field. She smiled when she found it and gently turned her fingers.
Applejack’s found herself staring at her friend’s smiling yellow face. “Fluttershy? What’s goin’—” Her hand jumped to her buckle and unclasped it. “Get down!”
Far, far above them two sets of eyes were watching six separate screens, each a different color. The action in each alone was enough for the climax of several big budget movies.
Raven’s lip curled as her eyes narrowed at what she was seeing. “Most unexpected. Level of mutation has skyrocketed. Insectoid intelligence, rather impressive.”
Zecora’s eyes were locked on the monitor with a purple frame. “This situation is most bizarre. No mutation has never gone this far.” She winced as her eyes glanced over to the other screens. “These numbers are far too overwhelming. They could never have covered this in training.”
“Being an agent,” began Raven, “entails correct evaluation of surroundings. No retreat orders issued; leader believes they can beat it.”
The scene on the white-bordered screen built up into an ever rising wall of legs and mandibles.
The pink-bordered screen’s view jumped all around the chamber delivering lightning quick strikes. But a few missteps brought it the wonderful view of a corner and the looming forms of too many insects.
Arrow after arrow after arrow shot forth in the yellow screen. The ensuing wave of ants was just barely held back. An ant lunged out of the ranks on the side. What happened next simulated what happens when you put a camera in a tumble dryer. It ended with two massive pincers about to close in.
On the orange-bordered screen, the view quickly turned as several shots were fired directly at an ant on top of Fluttershy. Another that tried to get the drop on her quickly found itself punched with the force equivalent to a tractor slamming it at full speed. After a frenzy of shots and a flurry of punches, she made it to Fluttershy’s side and helped her up.
Zecora looked her superior in the eyes, past the solid glass that separated them. “Wao uko katika shida, Zarana.” She pointed to the screen in front of them. “Tuna kusaidia.“
Raven looked right back at her. “Wao ni mawakala mafunzo, Zecora. Hii ni mtihani wao.” She pointed a grey finger. “Kama sisi kwenda katika, matokeo itakuwa uongo.“
Zecora released her frustration at the sky high above. She grasped the bridge of her nose and took a step back from the monitors. The hole was right behind them. It wouldn’t be hard to get to the chamber now that the girls had found it.
She grabbed her bangle and brought forth her staff as she approached the entrance to the colony.
“Zecora!” Raven took a step forward and blocked the path. “Interference? Is that desirable? You cannot keep protecting. Allow them to fight; still capable.” She put a hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “Kuwa na imani ndani yao.”
Zecora glared at the ground to the side before conceding with a nod.
Twilight took a step back and felt something behind her. She spun and found her finger, it’s tip illuminated, right between Applejack’s eyes. She also noticed she was looking right down Quickdraw’s barrel.
The sound of clicks and scuffling drew their attention as they both turned around and fired. Several more ants disintegrated around them as those behind them shortly followed the same fate.
“I’m not too sure... how long I can... keep this up,” said Twilight between breaths.
An ant that had the misfortune of coming too close found that its head made a delightful crunching sound under Applejack’s fist. “Does Rainbow still have her cube?”
“Yes. The problem is we can’t get close enough.” She glanced at the queen as two caves behind her flooded even more insects into the chamber.
“Yeeoowch!!!”
An ant soared past the two as a pink blur emerged from a nearby cluster, rubbing her sore bottom as she landed beside them.
“That really hurt!” cried Pinkie as she gave their opponents a disapproving look.
Rarity jumped towards them as she used the ants as stepping stones. She arm swung around as she directed her knives into as many as she could as she made her way forward. “This is getting out hand.” She said as she backed into her comrades.
A rainbow streak ran across the walls and jumped into a trajectory that would get them right in the middle of the four. Fluttershy let go of Rainbow’s neck as she stood with shake knees.
“There are way too many of them,” she said as she swung her aara into the closest group.
Twilight looked around as she threw sphere after sphere. Beads of sweat streamed down her face as her eyes squinted at the mass before them. Her mind raced to find a way out horrendous horde. A feeling of nausea started to build up as spasm of pain shot up in various parts of her body. He breathing was getting increasingly ragged as she solidified her footing and threw out some more attacks. That circle that they had been holding was getting increasingly smaller as more and more ants poured in from the caves.
It was then that she felt something.
It was then that the first vault in the Canterlot Control Center shuddered.
A sixth sense seemed to awaken inside of her as her mind suddenly became intimately aware of the five presences behind her. She could feel their desperation and their determination as they fended off the ants. Phantom sensation of extra limbs swinging, punching and shooting forth as she felt herself hearing and seeing the same situation from six different perspectives.
As her mind sorted through the new information she was able to make out five powerful emotions represented in five different colors: orange, yellow, blue, pink, and white. She noticed that she herself was represented by the color purple.
Running on nothing but instinct, she let her purple essence grab hold of the other five. When they were all holding hands on whatever ethereal plane she had been seeing, a rush overcame her.
A familiar blinding light engulfed her as she felt the surge of power take hold from within. Electric sensations shot down her arms as emotions of tranquility and harmony filled her up to breaking point as she felt the light shoot outwards of their group.
The first thing she heard was a question.
“What in the hay was that?” asked Applejack as she stood up. He jaw nearly fell off as the chamber stood, emptied save for the six friends and one very dazed-looking queen.
Rainbow held her head as she took to her feet. “Did we… win?”
“I felt it again.” Fluttershy was staring at her hands. It was the exact same sensation she felt when the other Twilight stood up against Sunset Shimmer.
“Woo hoo! Let’s go again,” said Pinkie, no worse for wear and jumping up and down again.
“How about we don’t before we find out what exactly ‘that’ is.” Rarity turned and helped Twilight to her feet. “Care to explain?”
Twilight looked to her with a wide-eyed, utterly dumbfounded expression. “I have no idea.”
“Well whatever it was, looks like it got us exactly what we needed,” said Rainbow. She had a smirk that was brimming with herself as she pointed a thumb at the helpless royal. A moment later, she was at its feet and gave it a mock curtsy before pulling out the cube. She rotated a face here and there and pressed it. It blinked yellow as she attached it to the plump chitin.
Their visors all flashed red as two spools of light wrapped themselves around each girl. The light consumed their vision and delivered a significantly watered down sensation to what they felt a few minutes ago. When it cleared, they found Raven and Zecora standing in front of them.
A large helicopter was landing a distance behind the two.
Zecora was smiling at the six.
Raven nodded to them, “Congratulations. Examination, passed. However…”
The door of the helicopter opened and standing inside of it was Central Officer Celestia.