Dusk reacted before I did, giving a sudden shove with his magic to knock the gun roughly in its harness. Bullets began to spray wildly into the sky as the heavy-set pony pushed against it, trying to bring the weapon to bear against us. The delay was enough as the crowd behind us charged forward. There was no retreat from the deadly weapon, only neutralization, and most seemed to understand that.
Dust Kicker's ponies got to him, and showed us the hoof-blades worked in a ghastly display of pony carving. They tore the straps that held the minigun in place immediately, letting it crash to the ground with its owner not far behind it, bleeding from more and more wounds as they cut him in both long slices and deep jabs.
"Enough!" I shouted out as I stormed up, waving off the enraged combatants. "You won, he's down." The gunman, or gunpony, was losing blood and life rapidly, but there had been enough pain and blood getting this far. I didn't see why we should let it continue. "Let's not be the hypocrite we're up against. Sandra, can you stop him from bleeding out? Where's that doctor?"
The doctor pushed through the crowd and approached the injured pony. He kicked the gun aside and settled to get to work even as Sandra gingerly wrapped a tongue around the patient. "I'll focus on the internal things, you get the outside, doc."
I could see Sandra wasn't enjoying her new position, and gently pet her, rubbing along and behind her ears in soft motions that seemed to drain the tension from her body. "You're doing a good thing, Sandy. Thank you."
Dust advanced to the entrance. "You're a damned saint, saving someone who was just ready to use this on you." She kicked the minigun further away before peeking into the door into the corridor beyond. "I don't trust a damn thing past here. I don't trust anything." She stomped a hoof. "Neon's proven her allegiances, and they're not to people who aren't Neon."
"You wound me," came a female voice from an intercom. "You betrayed me first, little kicker. I gave you a simple command, and there she is, very alive. What did you do to my messenger? Another victim of a world that needs pacification?"
Hearing the voice of the enemy, who I hoped didn't have to remain as such, I stepped forward. "Hey, Neon? We don't have to fight, you know. I didn't come here specifically to duke it out."
Neon scoffed into the mic. "Pretty words, but you always get your way, don't you? You may not be willing to kill for it, but you're surrounded by happy volunteers. You keep your hooves clean and let everyone else walk through the mud. I'm not fooled, you human-corrupted freak of a princess. If you want peace, just turn around and go away."
For a moment, that actually seemed like a good idea. If her support structure was broken, what actual threat was she, in the long-run? My thoughts were interrupted with distant sirens from underground, and a soft shudder from the same direction. "What are you doing?"
Neon laughed harshly. "I'm going to set the world on fire with the human's finest flint and tinder."
Dust Kicker kicked the wall beside the intercom. "You can't go firing off the missiles! You're mad!"
Dusk rubbed behind his head. "I thought South America didn't even have nuclear missiles?"
Sandra looked at him blankly a moment. "I dunno, they're not supposed to. I suppose we'll complain to their government right after most of life on the planet is reduced to ash in a fiery nuclear exchange."
I stepped forward with all due haste, rushing to get inside. "Time to move, no more talking. Neon, last chance to call off this insanity. This isn't even remotely the right thing to do."
The reply was a curse in a language I didn't know, and the sound of the intercom going dead.
I charged into the bunker with a mob of ponies following after me. The inside was surprisingly clean. The floor was smooth tiling that echoed our frantic clip-clops. One poor soul slid to the ground, knocking several others over. That was enough to slow me down.
"I have this," reported Cindy quickly. "Focus on your hooves, make them sticky." Our pace hastened as we all began to find the tiles to be less treacherous.
The walls on either side of me exploded violently inwards as I triggered a laser trip line that I couldn't see. I threw up a shield on my side as Cindy took the other, blocking most of the larger pieces and only allowing the smallest bits to cut across us. Painful, but it didn't stop us. The constant rumble of preparing rocks was more than enough to get us moving again.
It was a maze. Corridors branched off in different directions. There had been clear markers at one point, but they looked purposefully rubbed off, with only the hints of letters left behind to confuse us. We scattered, hoping someone would get there in time to put a stop to the launch before it was too late for all of us.
I only noticed while running that I'd been separated from the others, rushing along through the bunker alone. The ceiling came down in the corridor ahead with a dull thud of a sealing firewall, then another plunged behind me. A loud hissing noise quickly revealed something was wrong. "How fitting. You'll be put down like the dog you are," came the tinny voice of Neon from another intercom. "Breathe deep and well, and it'll be over that much faster."
I had seen the corridor beyond, and slipped between worlds, traveling the void that was Cindy's home to pop out just behind the firewall and rush onwards, winded but intact. Teleporting was no easy feat of magic. "You're looking terribly tired. And you're not even going the right way. Such a shame. We'll all get the rest we need soon enough."
Cindy cocked an ear and pointed to the left as we passed an intersection. "That way!" I skidded to a stop and ran back through the hallway, which became stairs leading further downwards into the belly of the earth. Dust Kicker came into view, slamming a mental fist into a door. "This way!" called out Cindy as we ran past her. Dust Kicker was quick to abandon her door bashing and follow after us.
The lights flickered before dying out. "You don't need lights where you're going," taunted Neon. "It's bedtime."
Dust began to glow from her horn brightly, lighting the way for us as we followed Cindy's directions. "Through the door!" The door was a thick metal affair, and was not only locked, but touching it gave a sharp and painful jolt of electricity.
Dust Kicker pawed at the ground. "I won't be stopped by another damned door." Her horn glowed brightly, but I didn't see what she was working on until the door suddenly opened towards us and she grinned. "It wasn't locked from the other side."
We rushed through to find Dusk slumped against the wall, bleeding from wounds I couldn't see. He smiled at seeing me. "Keep going, I'll be alright. Just be careful, there are traps all along this hall. Step on the wrong tile, boom!"
Cindy looked distressed at Dusk's condition. "Are you alright with big tongues?" I had a feeling she was asking me. I sighed and nodded, having a solid idea where she was going.
My jaw snapped loudly as new tongues exploded free of our mouths. Cindy quickly wrapped hers around Dust Kicker even as I reeled from the pain of the new growth. Dust Kicker held still, surrendering her energy to give to Dusk and get him back on his hooves.
"You didn't have to do that for me," he said softly, tail wagging with obvious pleasure that we had gone ahead and done that for him.
The tinny voice of an intercom cut in. "You bastard! You're taking everything of mine. You can't handle the power. You think you can challenge me?!" There was a sudden bang through the intercom. "Little broken ponies, you can't stop me!" The sounds of a whip came through and the cries of some ponies clearly losing the fight with Neon.
We moved past the intercom. We couldn't help them without getting to Neon, or finding a way to turn off the rockets. The explosive tiles looked the same as any other, as I discovered when a hoof found one and pain traveled up that leg, little bleeding gashes torn in the flesh from bits of ceramic digging in, but there wasn't time to mourn the pain, and we pressed onwards. I hobbled as quickly as I could until Cindy suddenly called out, "Right!"
The door there was plain and wooden, like a broom closet. Opening it revealed that it was a broom closet, with several falling out and striking the ground. One hit an explosive tile and was thrown down the hallway. Dust Kicker grabbed the dangling light cord and pulled it, illuminating the tiny room. "What are we looking for in here?"
Cindy shook her head. "I don't know exactly, but a lot of energy is running through here. There has to be something!"
I shoved my head in and did a quick scan before spotting a small metal box on the wall. I practically ripped the cover free to reveal a fusebox. "Perfect!" I began wrenching them out indiscriminately, tossing each to the side. The sirens cut out, then all the lights, and then the air conditioning. Soon there was nothing but our pants for breath, and the ever-so-faint sounds of fighting.
Dust Kicker bobbed her head. "That should delay things, but we still have to find Neon. She'll figure a way to get things going if we give her time to do it.
I felt out for the presence of ponies, and there she was. A great sparkling mote next to a jumble of dim and burnt out specks. "She's... above us, and a little that way." I pointed. "Let's get back upstairs. The others have fought long enough for us."
Dusk bobbed his head. "I'm ready, let's go."
We hurried through the then-darkened hallways. Thankfully we had a lot of horns to choose from for light, and we weren't slowed down terribly for the lack of electricity. We scrambled up the stairs, my leg still protesting its abuse, and arrived at the floor Neon was on. Dust tapped her chest. "Heal up, take mine. You're going to be a lot more useful in this fight than I will be."
"Are you sure?" I raised a brow at her. She nodded with certainty and Cindy quickly ensnared her, squeezing around the barrel and neck gently as she drew away power and put it to work mending the shrapnel. The pain eased away to a dull throb and the bleeding stopped. It was far from perfect healing, but it covered the worst of it quickly.
Dust sank to the floor on her belly. "I'm sorry I was a jerk to you before. Please, stop her."