The rumbles come louder and faster as the three of us flee the operating room, the hallway shaking as I struggle to keep up with Onyx and Beakbreaker. I've barely gotten the hang of walking; running is nearly impossible.
Onyx hurries up some stairs. “Silverspeak, hurry!”
I trudge up the stairs after him and Beakbreaker. “I'm trying!" Sweet Celestia, I'm like a newborn giraffe who has to learn how to run the day of their birth. But instead of a day, or even hours, I have minutes.
“Did you have any luck with the lockdown?” Beakbreaker asks as we get off the stairs.
Onyx shakes his head. “I patched into the radio system to call for help, but all the channels are going haywire; something's happening at Canterlot... all I could make out was that the entire army is heading there.”
I skid to a stop.
Onyx turns. “Silverspeak?”
”Oh no...”
“Silverspeak, what is it?!”
Everything comes together with perfect, horrifying clarity. “If the army's heading to Canterlot, then that means Chrysalis must already be using the Master Control Crystal!”
“Wait, what?”
“She took the Crystal! She must be summoning the army to Equestria's capital to attack Princess Luna!“
An alarm blares, one loud and irritating enough that it's impossible to ignore it.
“Great, now what?!” Beakbreaker shouts.
Running to a nearby control panel, Onyx yanks it open and reads the displayed text. “Oh, buck!”
Beakbreaker runs over. “What is it?”
“The safeties for the reactor have been destroyed!”
“What?!”
Onyx's hooves fly over buttons and switches, but the alarms continue to flash, and the screen turns from yellow to dark orange. “The city's reactor is going to go critical! If we don't stop it, Genesis is going to fall from the sky!”
I stumble over. “Can you stop it?!”
A hoof smashes into the keyboard. “I can't! All the remote access panels have been disabled. The only way to turn the safeties back on is at the main control panel in the engine bay! Come on!”
Onyx bolts, leaving Beakbreaker and me down several stairs as we head even deeper into Genesis. I struggle to keep up, managing to avoid stumbling and falling the deeper we go.
The air grows hotter as we exit the staircase and head through several security checkpoints, all filled with dead guards and control panels blasted apart by powerful magic. The rumbling grows ever louder, and the ground shake with every step we take.
Onyx turns a corner and comes across a set of armored doors. He fires his magic into the locks again and again, melting them into scrap metal. When the glowing remains crumple to the floor, Onyx shoves the doors open. A blast of hot air shoots into the hall, almost knocking us down. Forcing myself forward, I follow Onyx and Beakbreaker into a chamber so huge I can't see the ceiling. Machines and engines tower above us as we run down a narrow catwalk that stretches over a seemingly bottomless chasm that echoes with the wails of countless alarms. Onyx ignores them as he runs, leading us towards an enormous sphere of steel and concrete, countless pipes and tubes the size of airships diverting power to the machines around us.
The chamber shakes. We're thrown against the railings and barely avoid falling over.
“Hurry!” Onyx yells.
We finally reach the sphere and once again Onyx shoots spell after spell into the sealed door, finally blowing through. We creep past the glowing-hot edges and rush down a hall so hot it feels like we're inside an oven. Beakbreaker and Onyx are already drenched in sweat as we race into a control room filled with consoles and panels that control the unseen reactor keeping Genesis aloft. This is the pounding, churning heart of Glasseye's great city. This is where we could stop the meltdown... if the consoles and panels hadn't been blown apart.
“Buck!” Onyx runs to the closest console, and then another. “Buck, buck, buck!”
A display panel on the wall pulses a dark orange in color.
Beakbreaker runs to Onyx. “Onyx, what do we do?”
Onyx doesn't hear her, cursing under his breath as he runs from console to console.
Beakbreaker grabs Onyx and slaps him. “Onyx, focus! What can we do to get the safety systems back online?!”
Onyx breathes deeply, regaining control of himself. “Okay... there's an emergency override procedure that we can try to restore power. Beakbreaker, go to that red switch over there! I'll take this one; Silverspeak, you go to that one over there!”
I head to far side of the room and grab hold as Onyx and Beakbreaker get into position.
“On three!” Onyx shouts. “One... two... three!”
I throw the switch; sparks fly as it locks into place.
The display panel flickers.
“Come on!” Onyx shouts. “Come on!”
The screen sputters, spurts... and then the alarms renew themselves as it turns red.
“No!" Onyx yells. “No, no, no!”
“Warning. Reactor meltdown imminent,” a voice says over the loudspeakers. “Repeat, reactor meltdown imminent. Reactor melt-”
The screen explodes in a shower of sparks and glass as a spell hits it. Another hits it-
Wait. Wait, that magic isn't from a frustrated Onyx. But if not him, then who fired-
“Changelings!” Beakbreaker yells.
I spin as dozens of the accursed things swarm into the room, launching themselves onto Beakbreaker and Onyx, who fight back as best they can, Onyx taking out his anger as he blasts spell after spell. But Beakbreaker can't keep up with the swarm, and they start to bury her under sheer weight of numbers.
I rush towards the fray. Celestia help me, I can only jog in this body, but I have to help-
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
That voice... it's her! I duck behind a console and peer around the corner as Queen Chrysalis enters the room, flanked by two of her elite guards. Distracted by her presence, Onyx and Beakbreaker are surrounded by the changelings and forced against the walls.
“A couple of heroes trying to save the city, no doubt,” Chrysalis says. “My, my... the head of the city's security, and my servant's marefriend, no less.”
Think, Silverspeak! Think! You can't hide, not now. I can't let Chrysalis do anything to Beakbreaker, and I have the advantage of surprise. None of the changelings or the Queen knows I'm here, and if this body is anything like the prototype Glasseye showed during the convention, a single blow to the neck should drop Chrysalis instantly.
Ducking, I sneak through the maze of consoles, trying to keep my new body from creaking and giving my position away.
“A noble attempt, but fruitless. But don't worry. When the reactor goes, you will be the first to perish.”
Almost there...
Chrysalis goes to an armored door and magically opens it. “Soldiers! Take our guests inside and web them to the walls. Make sure they have a clear view of the reactor as it-”
I charge from behind a console, shrieking at the top of my lungs to throw the Queen off balance. Chrysalis spins as I hit her, sending us both crashing down the stairs beyond the doors. Chrysalis lands hard, kicking me off with a screech, but I'm on her again, barreling through a service passageway, smashing the Queen into the walls and then a security checkpoint, tearing it apart before emerging into a broiling hot room filled with hundreds of pipes and tubes of all sizes. There's no wall to our right, only a giant chamber exposing us to the Genesis' reactor, pistons and gears grinding away as they slowly turn from red to white.
Howling, Chrysalis spreads her wings and takes off, clamping down my neck. There's no pain as I rip free, kicking her into the ceiling. We hit with a thunderous bang, my legs barely absorbing the landing as I charge towards the Queen of the Changelings. I'm going to make sure this monster doesn't leave this room alive.
Chrysalis fires off a spell. I duck. Another one hits a pipe and sends forth a torrent of flame. A third shot almost hits me; only by throwing myself to the floor do I avoid getting hit as it slams into a central column and blows it apart, flames bathing the ceiling and setting off the sprinkler systems. Torrents of water pour down, hissing as they hit hot pipes.
Chrysalis stands, the water washing blood from her skin.
I charge once more, hooves pushing off from the wet floor.
Chrysalis fires another blast, and I hurl myself behind a pillar. It's blown apart moments later, the ceiling falling down around it. Only a last second leap saves me from being impaled by the dozens of pipes crashing around-
I'm flying. I hit a pipe and collapse in a heap. My body tingles, tiny arcs of green magic dancing over metal.
Chrysalis runs at me, her horn charging for another blast.
It's been two years since I last cast a spell, but it's all coming back: Visualize what I want, see it happening, focus my energy, and let it go.
The horn above my head glows green as I focus on a killing blast that'll knock Chrysalis senseless. I feel it charge, and let it go.
A bolt of green magic flies at Chrysalis, but she leaps aside and dodges it.
I swing my legs at Chrysalis' head, trying to get in that all important blow. Just one hit, and the fight ends, and the changelings lose their leader... but Chrysalis is more agile than she appears, dodging all my blows. I swing, and she blasts me back with another magic shot that hits me like an oversized boxing glove. I slide across the floor, hitting a pipe violently enough to dent the metal. There's no pain, but I can somehow sense that my body's been damaged.
Magic yanks me into the air and then throws me across the room, but I thrust out my wings, slowing myself enough to land hard. I fire off spell after spell, trying to hurt Chrysalis, and-
Oh Celestia, my head! I crumple, grabbing my skull; it feels like it's going to rip open!
Chrysalis grins as she walks towards me, breathing hard but otherwise none the worse for wear. Sweet Celestia, am I even hurting her?!
“And who is this defender of the city?” She snarls. “A soldier? Some guard who escaped my notice? A-”
She stops. For a moment she's puzzled, and then shocked.
“You...”
I glare at her, the headache still too great to cast a spell. I must be casting too many spells too fast.
“Well... I didn't expect this.”
The reactor groans.
“I never thought that the body Glasseye talked of would actually work... but no matter."
Her horn charges.
“It won't help you.”
I fire a spell as quickly as I can; Chrysalis dodges it as I rush deeper into the room and hide behind a console, taking aim at the lights embedded in the ceiling. A simple blast knocks them apart one after another, plunging the chamber into darkness, everything now lit only by the glow of the reactor's flickering flames.
Chrysalis emerges from the smoke, her teeth exposed in a snarl as she walks through the water, eyes and teeth red from the warning lights. She's slow, her ears tilting as her eyes dart to and fro.
She doesn't know where I am.
Can't fire yet... have to wait until she's close...
A spell slams into the wall not two feet away from me.
I freeze.
Hissing, Chrysalis turns and resumes her search.
She didn't see me.
Rising as quietly as I can, I magically take hold of a fallen pipe. One blow to stun her, and another to finish her off...
Chrysalis stops.
I swing.
Chrysalis spins, but she's too late to dodge the pipe as she's knocked into another pillar. I charge, jump, and swing as hard as I can... and my leg embeds itself in the steel as Chrysalis twists away.
No!
Chrysalis kicks me again and again, hitting my body as hard as she can,
The reactor shakes. Tubes almost tear themselves free from their moorings. Pipes and tubes crack, steam mixing with the sprinkler water.
With a beat of her wings, Chrysalis takes flight, battered and bruised, but still alive. “You failed, pony!” she yells, fighting to be heard over the reactor. “Stay here and die with all the others!" She fires a blast into the ceiling and flies through the resulting hole. Seconds later, another blast seals it behind her.
The reactor roars. The room tilts, sending pipes rolling across the floor and over the railing into the reactor's chamber. Confound it, there's no time to go after Chrysalis; even if I could, I'm not sure if this body could take it. I can feel it struggling to operate with all the damage it took.
The reactor's rumble becomes a roar as the gears glow white-hot.
Yanking my leg free, I take off towards the control room. There's no sound of a fight inside; I charge my horn as I rush inside, but no changeling rushes forward to meet me. They're lying across the floor and draped over consoles.
“Silverspeak!”
I turn as Beakbreaker runs up. She's cut and bruised, but alive! I rush to her and take her in my legs.
“Beakbreaker! Are you okay?!”
She nods, adjusting her cracked glasses. “Some cuts and scrapes, but nothing I can't handle... you?”
I look down at my wounds. “The same." I glance around. “What happened here?”
“Onyx and I were able to beat the changelings off after you rammed Chrysalis down the stairs." She stops. “Is she-”
I shake my head. “She got away. Where's Onyx?”
“Here!”
I turn; Onyx is across the room, furiously tapping away at a panel he's jury-rigged to operate with a mass of tumbling cables and wires. I run over as Onyx throws a switch.
“Please tell me Chrysalis is dead,” Onyx says.
I shake my head.
Onyx curses.
“What about the reactor?”
“I managed to get the safeties back on, but that's only going to slow things down." Onyx closes his eyes. “The reactor's reached the point of no return; no matter what we do, it's going to tear itself apart.”
Alarms continue to blare.
“How much time do we have?” I ask.
“Fifteen minutes, at most.”
Sweet Celestia... “What about the lockdown?”
“I managed to disable a section of the city's shields. I sent out a warning for everyone to drop what they're doing and evacuate.”
Something explodes in the reactor chamber. The control room shakes.
“Danger: Reactor failure in progress. Evacuate Genesis immediately. Estimated time to impact: Fifteen minutes.”
“We've got to go!” Onyx shouts. “Now!" He dashes to the exit, Beakbreaker behind him. Lights fall from the ceiling and shatter around me as I follow the others, flames shooting out of the control room as we reach the engine chamber. The giant machines rumble and groan as we struggle down the catwalk, pieces of the unseen ceiling raining down around us.
***
Genesis is dying. I feel it falling apart around me as I follow the others through the halls. Pipes explode, steam floods the hallways, and ever-increasing shakes renders the floor beneath our hooves unstable as we run for our lives. I feel the city falling below us; not fast enough to throw us into the air, but quickly enough that I feel unusually light as we race up towards the surface.
We reach a stairwell and start up as the concrete floors and walls rip themselves apart. Steel beams are torn in two as we ascend, pressed onwards by the relentless voice of the computer.
“Danger: Reactor failure in progress. Evacuate Genesis immediately. Estimated time to impact: Eight minutes.”
We reach the top of the stairs, where an exhausted Onyx shoves a service door open and tumbles into the deserted lobby of the Monolith. The chandelier swings wildly as furniture slides around us. We have to keep going, but Beakbreaker and Onyx struggle to catch their breath, sagging just while trying to stand.
“Danger: Reactor failure in progress. Evacuate Genesis immediately. Estimated time to impact: Six minutes.”
There's no time to rest; we've run from the very bottom of Genesis to the main level, a flight of almost fifty stories. Beakbreaker and Onyx are barely able to stand, let alone run, but I don't feel tired in the slightest.
I dash over and spread my wings. “Get on!”
The chandelier rips itself from the ceiling and slams into the ground as Beakbreaker and Onyx climb onto my back. I head to the door and through to the plaza beyond, but there's no safety here; the city beyond the Monolith is falling apart. Building sway and crumble, windows fall and shatter on the elegant tiles as countless small craft and hundreds of ponies tear through the air towards the shield. At the distant airport, airships fire away at the shield, trying to break through to the sky beyond, where clouds shoot upwards at sickening speed.
There's no time to hope that my new wings can take the strain of carrying two ponies. Beating hard, I leap up, the crystals activating and sending us higher with each flap of the wings, soaring up past the Monolith's tilting sides. I start towards the massive flood of ponies and vehicles flying towards the shield, but stop; only a single panel in the shield has been opened, and it's so small that a single mistake would leave us crushed between the stampede of flesh and steel trying to get out.
“Onyx!” I shout over the roar of collapsing buildings. “Can the shields-”
“They're charmed to withstand almost anything! Only alicorn magic can break through it!”
I shoot upwards, charging the biggest, most powerful shot I can muster. The headaches come back, but I ignore them. I have to; this is the only chance we have of getting out! Only when the pain feels like hot daggers jamming my skull do I finally let go. The blast rockets above us and rams the shield, which buckles, bends, and gives... only to snap back, unaffected.
Beakbreaker yells the strongest curse she knows.
A nearby skyscraper implodes.
Think, Silverspeak, think! You can't break the shield, you can't fly out that hole with the others... There has to be a way out of here, but what?! There has to be something you can do to... Wait!
I peer over my shoulder. “Onyx! Can you access Genesis' defense systems from the security office?”
Onyx's eyes light up. He realizes what I'm talking about. “Yes, I can!”
Beating my wings again, I shoot towards the Monolith's peak. As we get close, Onyx charges his horn and blows a hole through the walls, sending out a cloud of steel, concrete, and bronze. I glide inside and land in the lobby just below Glasseye's penthouse. The tilt here is so bad that I can barely stay upright without sliding across the floor.
“Danger: Reactor failure in progress. Evacuate Genesis immediately. Estimated time to impact: Five minutes.”
“Onyx, go!”
Onyx slides off my back and runs to the security station.
“Beakbreaker, hold on!”
“What are you-”
I kick down a nearby door and head into the stairwell beyond, Beakbreaker hanging onto my back as I get off at the hall leading to my penthouse. The ornate walls are cracked as I climb inside, finding furniture tiling and sliding around me, the larger cabinets and tables crushing chairs and stands.
“Silverspeak, what are you doing?!”
There! I go to the largest cabinet and smash my legs into it, reducing the thing to splinters. I yank through it, hunting... oh please, let them still be here!
“Danger: Reactor failure in progress. Evacuate Genesis immediately. Estimated time to impact: Three minutes.”
“Silverspeak!”
There! I yank out the sneaking suit; thank Celestia Chrysalis didn't find it!
A sudden jerk throws Beakbreaker and me to the floor as the room tilts in another direction, the walls groaning and creaking as we slide towards the walls, the cabinets and the heavy dinner table sliding towards us. Beakbreaker screams; I grab her and fire at the furniture, blowing it apart as we hit the walls beneath the windows.
Wait... is that- it is! I reach out with my magic and grab my saddlebags as they slide down the floor. Yanking them over, I force the suits inside and yank the zippers closed.
The wall cracks; a giant portion gives way as the stove top slams through.
Beakbreaker screams.
Throwing the saddlebags around me, I clutch Beakbreaker to my chest and roll out of the room, plunging down with the debris and broken glass, spreading my wings wide and flying clear.
Beakbreaker keeps shrieking, clutching me so tightly that her hooves are turning white.
I angle around and shoot back towards the Monolith's top floor. Need to get there and help Onyx get the shields down. Celestia, I hope he hasn't been killed; if he is, we're sc-
The shields around us shimmer, flicker, and then fade out.
I grab hold of Beakbreaker, trying not to crush her as I struggle towards the Monolith's top floor. Airships and ponies shoot out of Genesis all around us, racing to escape as the city keeps falling. I fly inside, but there's nowhere to land; the tilt has become too great.
“Onyx?!”
“Silverspeak! Over here!”
I fly to the door leading to the security station as Onyx drags himself out.
“Danger: Reactor failure in progress. Evacuate Genesis immediately. Estimated time to impact: One minute.”
The moment Onyx leaps on, I shoot towards the hole in the wall and fly out, rocketing straight up. The massive skeletal frame of Genesis' dome rushes around us, and in an instant it's gone, leaving us in the cold, salty air. Beakbreaker and Onyx's legs dig into me as I fight to regain control in the turbulence of dozens of ships and hundreds of ponies flying around us.
“Now what?!” Beakbreaker yells over the howling wind.
“We need to get to Canterlot!” I yell back. But how? Flying there would take too long, and... Wait! The Raven! It's pure luck that I caught it in the corner of my eye, but I don't care. I shoot towards it, grab the gondola door, and force it open, crumpling inside in a heap.
Gusty runs inside, an antique rifle in hand. “Hey! What in tartarus are ya... Boss? Boss, is that you?!”
Beakbreaker and Onyx slide off my back as I rush to the door's edge. Genesis is still falling, plunging towards the sea below us. The city almost looks still as it plunges, but that illusion is shattered as it finally slams into the ocean, sending up towers of water that stretch as high as the Monolith itself.
Gusty, Onyx, and Beakbreaker come up beside me. None of us speak as Genesis bobs in the water, rocking back and forth as waves hit it. Amazing... even after such a fall, it doesn't appear to be damaged from the impact. Could the city actually survive this? It looks intact; maybe it will remain floating long enough for rescue workers to save it from plunging to the bottom of the ocean.
As water pours over the edge of the dome, I realize it's a futile hope.
Each wave that enters the city causes Genesis to sink a little more, one after another, until the tipping point is finally reached. Genesis tilts too far, and I can only watch as the ocean mercilessly pours millions of tons of water into the city, flooding the streets, the Colosseum, the parks, the research buildings, the entertainment district... all of it is washed away like a sandcastle before the incoming tide.
Soon, only the Monolith remains above the waves, it's bronze walls glinting, as if the most technologically advanced structure ponies have ever built is trying to resist the inevitable as it is claimed by the sea.
The Monolith vanishes. Only Glasseye's quarters remain. The dome holds out for a moment against the pounding waves... and then it sinks beneath the water. From this high up can I see the dark outline of the city as it sinks into the dark and silent depths of the ocean floor.
Then that too, disappears.
Genesis is gone.
It's quiet inside the Raven as we look towards the ocean. But, as cruel as it feels, there's no time to mourn for the city, or for the poor souls who may have been trapped inside... Nor for Glasseye or... or my old body.
“Gusty... Get us to Canterlot as fast as you can. Burn the engines out if you have to, just get us there.”
Gusty doesn't argue. He slams the door shut and runs to the cockpit. In moments the Raven rockets into the sky as fast as it can go, leaving behind the churning ocean, and Genesis' grave, behind.