Panting for breath, King Lunarius of Val Roa galloped out to the opening of the cave. He immediately flinched, Queen Azira jostling on his back.
"Good God!" he hissed, squinting into a mess of skystone structures. Every crystalline shard brimmed with energy, and forks of electricity danced between them at an alarming rate. The sky rolled with endless thunder, and the arctic snowfall melted into warm rain within a hundred feet of the constantly crackling energy field. "This place is practically on fire! A flock of birds couldn't fly in this! How do we expect to get picked up?!"
"My love," Azira wheezed, glaring forlornly back into the cave. "The unicorns..."
"Yes, Azira." Lunarius placed her down and leaned her against the solid stone of the tunnel's entrance. "They're doing a marvelous job of holding back those fiends for us."
"No they're not!" Azira exclaimed. "Lunarius, those creatures outnumber us! They'll be diced to ribbons!"
"They knew the risk when they came here," the King said. "We must come out of this alive so we can rescue our son from Sharp Quill."
"The only reason our son has a chance of surviving is because of their intervention!" Azira frowned. "And we're just going to let them die for a foreign nation's cause?!"
"Azira..." Lunarius tilted her chin up. "I'm your husband, and I am not leaving your side!"
Azira's eyes narrowed. "The King I married is capable of great love... but anger too."
"Believe me." Lunarius gritted his teeth. "Nodeer on this entire continent is as angry as I am."
"Would you wish to prove it?"
Lunarius clenched his jaws tight, staring at her.
"Keep moving!" Josho hollered.
"But we gotta hold them back!" Eagle shouted, warding off energy blast after blast with his shield. "We can't let them out of the cave! All that exposed skystone outside...?!"
"Nuts to that! Booster will be landing any minute!"
"But we haven't heard anything from him!" Eagle swung his sword to knock back another lunging eel. "We gotta keep these creeps from touching the Royal couple!"
Just then, a pair of eels split apart, lunging at Eagle from opposite angles.
Eagle Eye swung his sword, deflecting one. But his shield was too slow to block the other. An electrical spine scraped his shoulder. Blood flew as his insides convulsed with loose energy. "Aaaaaaaaugh!"
"Kiddo!" Josho snarled, galloping straight forward. He summoned a huge pulse of energy through his horn, knocking back four eels with sheer telekinetic might. "Rrrrrgh!" When one eel rebounded, he struck it with the butt of his shotgun like a club. WHACK! "Buck off, ya living pipe cleaners!"
"Gnnngh..." Eagle Eye fell to his haunches, struggling to keep his sword and shield floating. "Seeing... stars..." He sputtered. "C-can't..."
"Just pull yourself together!" Josho squatted beside him. Two more are diving down! Can you launch them up high?!"
"I-I'll try!" Eagle readied himself, gnashed his teeth, and lifted his shield like the loose end of a lever. "Httt!"
Thwack! He uppercutted both attacking reptiles, sending them twirling towards the ceiling.
Josho aimed over Eagle's horn with his shotgun. "Now this might cause quite the headache!" He fired.
"Old stall--"
BLAM! The blast impaled one eel, overloading its nervous system. The creature and its sibling both exploded, taking out a chunk of the ceiling immediately behind them. Shards of rock fell in a straight line, impaling several eels, most of which also exploded. Thus, a violent cascade took place, ripping through the cavern and sending bits of shrapnel flying all over the place.
Eagle erected his shield while Josho did his best to crouch behind him. A flying dagger or two of stone grazed the obese unicorn's skin, and he shuddered with pain. Once the electrical cascade had ended, the cave lingered with smoke and glowing embers. However, the shrieks of eels persisted, and both stallions could hear the crackling of oxygen molecules as even more came lunging down the tunnel.
"We gotta move, Princess," Josho said, tugging at the smaller unicorn. "No arguing!"
"I... w-won't," Eagle wheezed, his shoulder bleeding and throbbing. "Are we going to have a last stand?"
"I've always wanted to have one of those," Josho said, backtrotting swiftly while he dragged Eagle. "Always sounded sexy."
"You suppose the Noble Jury will find us here like this?" Eagle gulped. "Dried out husks like all those dead changelings?"
Josho sighed. "Okay, maybe not so sexy..."
The pile of fallen rocks burst apart as a fresh wave of eels came shimmering through.
"Josho--!" Eagle began.
"I see them!" Josho concentrated hard, raising his shotgun in the air beside him. He fired several blasts from the floating boomstick.
The eels merely dodged and kept on coming, faster and hungrier.
"Can't... h-hold them back!" Josho sputtered. In a burst of energy, he galloped towards the reptilian charge. "Stay behind me, kid!"
"No, Josho!" Eagle cried. "Don't--"
"You wanna dance with the fat horse?!" Josho hollered as he aimed down his sights. "Hope you don't mind if I lead--"
On loud, galloping hooves, King Lunarius came bounding past the two of them, antlers brimming. "Rrrrrrrrrrrgggaaaaaaugh!" He thrusted his head forward, firing a violent wave of mana tendrils.
The buck's energy blast enveloped the entire tunnel, pushing back every single eel. They flailed, shrieked, and collapsed against the stone walls in the distance. Soon enough, the mana beams faded, and the cave became hazy and dim again.
Josho blinked. "Fine, then. You lead."
Lunarius spun around, heaving for breath. "Are you both alright?"
"We are now!" Eagle stammered as Josho helped him up onto all fours. "You took them out, Your Highness!"
"Not for long," Lunarius growled, his antlers still brimming. "They'll be back. And in greater numbers. Now..." He marched forward in a tall stance. "Let us rendezvous with your flying companion."
"You've certainly got my vote, chief!" Josho said.
"Old stallion," Eagle whispered. "It's a monarchy."
"Eh... he knows what I mean."
Immediately outside the cave, Queen Azira spun about at the sound of multiple hooves. She smiled wide. "My love!"
"Sorry that took so long," Lunarius said with a grunt, leading the two hobbling unicorns out of the cave.
"You saved them both!" Azira cooed. "Especially the cute one!"
"Hey, thanks!" Josho spoke ahead of Eagle Eye.
"The entire skystone reserve has run amok," Lunarius said. "Are you certain your companion can land in this?"
"Booster Spice is the best pilot around!" Eagle Eye said, wheezing for breath. "There's... no way that he couldn't... make it work!"
"Look!" Azira pointed. "Above!"
Lunarius squinted. "...is that him now?"
"In a big black ball of metal?" Josho nodded. "You bet!"
"... ... ...are you sure?
Eagle Eye gasped. "By the Spark!"
"Whoah dayum!" Josho gnashed his teeth, because--
Swisssssssssh! Whizzball came hurling down, its skystone engines billowing with smoke and flame. It dove, dove further, and plowed through the summit of several jagged shards. Craaaack! Chunks of skystone and metal hull flew all across the clearing. Whizzball rolled, tumbled, and came to a grinding stop against the stone surface. The bulkheads were exposed, and a savage fissure across the windshield revealed a thoroughly dazed earth pony in goggles lying slumped against his controls, blood trickling down from his twitching ears.
As the debris cloud settled, all four stood up, gaping at the disastrous crash. Before either Josho or Eagle Eye could hear anything, they heard a salvo of shrieks from the tunnel behind them.
Eagle Eye bit his lip.
"Hold them back!" Josho hollered, galloping over to the crumpled Lounge Sphere. "I gotta get him out! If someone could lend me a hoof!"
"Oh, the poor thing!" Azira trotted over, assisting the old stallion in wrenching the loose door off the side. "Nnnngh! Quickly! Surely he can't breathe in there!"
"Soon enough, none of us will be breathing," Lunarius said, standing at Eagle's side and grinding his hooves. "They'll be upon us all in seconds..."
"Ebon..." Eagle Eye gulped, nevertheless lifting his sword and shield as he spotted glowing eyes emerging from the cave. "...wherever you are, I love you... always..."