There finally was a lull in the wind, and the six of us took advantage of it. It seemed to grow darker the further up the mountain we climbed, until we finally reached the peak we had been looking for. Atop the Floating Mountain, atop a single podium, lay a large hunk of crystal. Around it was a massive, massive pit. I had just been about to see if we could do anything to break the crystal and free whoever was trapped inside...
When there was a huge grinding noise from the pit. The podium began to recede into the depths, and a massive golem began to rise from it. One central body, two arms, and a ridiculously tiny head marked this as the guardian of the Floating Mountain's prison. All made of stone, seemingly, and the two hands clenched and unclenched as if the thing was psyching itself up to destroy us. I drew my sword and thought again. How did the party from the game beat the Guardian of the Floating Mountain?...
"The hands!" I said suddenly. "Take out its ability to attack us first, then we'll attack it directly!"
Copper and Zehan teamed up to take one hand out with their usual frost-fire combo, while Justice lit the other one up with his lasers. Gregory added in his magic, causing a jet of water to leap from himself to the hand that Justice had targeted. Both hands reeled back, but came back to the fore, ready to attack.
Something I wasn't going to let happen. I focused my thoughts and held out my hands, intent on calling forth lightning to bear...
Only to see a green spark blossom right in front of the golem. One that sputtered, fizzed...
And expanded into a dome that became filled with power, lightning crackling through the dome and striking the beast multiple times in quick succession. The dome slowly evaporated, though not without blasting out another wave of lightning as it disintegrated. The golem roared again as its hands fell limp and it slumped slightly.
Scorpan took the opening and delivered an uppercut, flying closer with his wings and smacking the creature right in the face. I panted from exhaustion after having used Luminare for the first time. I wasn't even aware that I could do it just yet. I would have to experiment with that again some day. When we weren't being attacked by a giant golem.
The thing roared in pain and straightened up as Zehan and Copper blasted it with magic again, this time aiming for the face. It roared again, just as Justice was...bubbled up to it.
I had no words for the spectacle of seeing a robot encased in a bubble. Even less words for the sight of that somehow adding to the pain he brought down on the creature once the bubble popped. Apparently, Justice and Gregory had worked out a combo attack. One revolving around bubbles, and dropping robots onto monsters.
The creature roared in defiance, and the arms glowed as he sent power through them, before bringing his hands up again. This...would not stand.
"Zehan, Copper, on me!" I shouted. "Let's bring our powers to bear together!"
The zebra and mare stood next to me and began to glow, and I focused on bringing forth just Lightning 2 this time. Zehan glowed bright blue, and Copper gained a fiery red aura. And then the three of us unleashed our powers.
First, I brought down the lightning on the golem and its hands. While it was recovering from that, Copper let loose the fire, roasting it handily. Then Zehan froze it in place, the ice only cracking after it exerted a mighty effort to free its hands. Not long after it had, though, the hands fell limp again. Apparently, our Delta Attack had been too much for it to continue to use its hands.
"Justice, Gregory, use your attack! Scorpan, hit the damn thing!"
Griffon and robot complied readily, as Justice was once again bubbled up above the golem, only to drop down and deliver a world of pain. Scorpan hit it with a roundhouse kick, doing his best to hit the golem as hard as he could. Once I recovered, I looked to Zehan and Copper again and nodded, and the three of us hit it with another Delta Attack.
This time the golem actually reeled back, before firing up its arms again. "Justice, Copper, take one! Zehan, Gregory, take another! I'll finish it all off, then Scorpan, you can hit it again!"
The plan unfolded perfectly, with a flaming robot taking on one hand and a stream of ice water impacting another. I followed it up with another Luminare out of pure accident, finishing off both hands and sending the golem reeling once more. Scorpan hit it with another roundhouse kick, and the thing roared as it fell back into the pit from whence it came.
"Is it over?" Copper asked. "Did we beat it?"
There was a grinding noise as the platform from before was returned from the depths, crystal prison still intact. Then with a flash of light, the prison vanished, revealing a form that was so familiar, those of us who had met him had a reflex action.
"Anima?" Copper, Zehan, Justice, and myself asked.
"Indeed," the stallion said. "I am Anima, the guru of Life. I don't believe I know you all, though." He stretched a little bit before asking a question. "More importantly, what of the underground palace that the queen is constructing? How close is it to completion?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly. Then there was a jolt from the stone beneath us.
"We must flee!" the crystal stallion said. "With the destruction of the guardian, the seals keeping this entire mountain afloat are failing!"
The seven of us fled down the mountain as the rumbling just grew behind us. We'd barely made it to the next stage down when I saw cracks starting to appear in the ground beneath us.
"We'll never make it!" I bemoaned as we kept running anyways. It wasn't like we had another choice.
"We need to try!" Scorpan bellowed. "I'm sure we can do it!"
Thankfully, each section seemed to be on a slight delay, giving us just enough time to cross it and get to the next one before they started to break up. This mad dash back down the floating mountain ended with us landing back in the den of beasts, panting and out of breath as the ramp upwards crumbled behind us. There was a thunderous, sonorous crash as the entire mountain fell behind us, becoming reunited with the earth it had been separated from.
"That," Anima said, "Was nearly too close for comfort. I'm getting too old for mad dashes like that."
"So am I, and that's technically what I do these days," I said.
An hour or so later, once we'd all recuperated from our frantic dash down the mountain, the Guru of Life had led us to a small room in the underground village of ponies and started pacing back and forth.
"Lavos dwells deep within the earth, absorbing its energy for himself," the stallion said. "The Queen envisioned a palace underground to house the Malus machine, so that she could drain even more energy from him. Brought so near to him, though, Lavos may very well awaken..."
"Then we shut it down," Copper said. "There has to be a way."
"As it is right now," we heard from outside the room, "the machine is inactive, and I shan't be turning it on ever again."
The seven of us turned to look at Lumina and Umbra arriving in the doorway. "Lumina!" Anima said.
"When the mountain fell, I knew I'd find you here," Lumina said.
"But what of your mother?" the guru asked the crystal mare.
"It does not matter anymore, for the Underground Palace is complete!" the white mare informed us.
"Then all is lost!" Anima moaned.
"Not quite," the mare said. "For my mother needs me to activate that machine, and I've washed my hooves of it and left the skyway open." She then looked to me and my friends. "Please," she begged us. "If anyone can stop my mother, it is you. You saved Anima, I'm certain you can stop the Malus machine and end this nightmare."
"That would be a travesty," a familiar voice said from behind Lumina. The familiar orange form of Praefectus held a small dagger to Lumina's neck as our eyes fell on him. "It would be such a shame if you weren't there to turn on the machine, little Lumina."
"You-!" I said, going for my sword. In response, the stallion drew the dagger tighter against her neck, causing a thin line of red to bead up against his blade and run down her neck.
"Ah ah ah, don't be too hasty," he said. "I would have no compunctions against killing her. I don't fear the queen. Plus, I'm sure we could find someone to turn the machine on. In some way or another."
I growled as he showed that he didn't fear us or for the life of his hostage. "Now then Lumina, let's go see the queen, shall we?" With that, his horn flashed, and the pair of them vanished from sight.
"Dammit!" I said.
"Indeed," Anima replied. "With her in their grasp, the machine is all but ready. Soon, all will truly be lost."
"Not as long as there's one pony willing to fight for it," Copper said.
Anima seemed taken aback for words. All he said when he looked at the mare was "You..."
"That's right," Zehan nodded. "Even if the odds are impossible and the world is against you, so long as you are willing to fight for what you believe in, you can achieve anything."
"You all would...fight against such odds?" the guru asked.
"And more besides," Gregory pitched in. "Armies could not keep us from our goal, once we have set our eyes on it."
"It's suicide, madness, to go into that place to try and stop whatever is about to happen," the stallion said.
Justice beeped and nodded. "The odds of success are point zero five percent. However, this party excels in beating the odds and crafting bright, shining futures from the most unlikely of situations."
"How, how can you possibly be okay with marching off to your deaths like this?" Anima asked.
"Because together, true friends can accomplish anything," Scorpan rumbled. "Even the impossible."
The line seemed to finally break through to Anima that we were intent on going, and he sighed before pulling something out from his mane. "Take this, then," he said, holding out a small, grey knife to us. "It's made of the same sort of stone as the Malus Machine. With it, you can put an end to the plans of the queen, I'm sure of it."
I gingerly took the small blade and tucked it into my belt. We had a world to try and save. And now...
Now things were rapidly approaching their climax...