"nICE, REALLY NICE" The body opened the door of a bathroom-sized cubicle. "dO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?"
Hlaoo didn't answer.
"It means that I win."
He entered it and closed the door, the glow from the glass cylinder fluctuating faster.
Once he was sure that the body wouldn't go out again, Hlaoo allowed himself to relax and stood up, smiling faintly. He walked to Mirria and started the slow, laborious process of carrying what amounted to a statue to his back.
-º-
They had been walking for a few minutes, Mariela now leading them, when Spike stopped.
"Really?" He pushed a side of his helmet as he said so. "Fine, thanks," He turned back to them. "Twilight says that whatever is going on just picked up in its pace." He grabbed Applejack under his arm like a box and Quibra took Mariela onto his back. "We have to run, Mariela will have to keep up with her indications."
"Wha--" Started Applejack, but was interrupted when Spike and Quibra snapped into a run, their armors alight.
-º-
Hlaoo had nearly reached the door, walking carefully, when it imploded in a shower of splinters. For a second, he could've sworn that a piano was being hammered just behind him.
"You!" a griffon jumped from a diamond dog's back. "You are alive!" She stood hesitantly a few feet away from him.
He rubbed his head and started talking, but was interrupted when the cubicle shook violently.
-º-
"No," Twilight's eyes opened wide, the feel of a gaping void growing in her chest. "No, no no no nO!" Her wings snapped closed, sheets of magic escaping of them, and her horn alighted on its own.mShe fell, clutching her chest, until Reddo caught her.
"What?" Reddo tried to keep her still, but Twilight was too strong and escaped her grasp. "Twilight!"
"I am tired!" She floated in place, her jaw held tight and horn alighted with barely contained power. "I am so, so-" There was a cracking sound when, overloaded, the spells that translated her speech collapsed. "-tired of having to put those I love in risk" Her wings snapped open, light radiating in waves from them. "Of having to b--" Some of her magic escaped, purging the air from a wide area, and everyone but her fell without it.
She moved her wings, barely a nudge, and with a thunderous crack a purple blur shot itself to the big church.