//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Royal Home Invasion // Story: Gems // by Moheart7 //------------------------------// “Tak the Fuser!” Those words easily made Celestia sick to her very stomach, worse still the fact that he who bears that name was now standing directly in front of her, a cocky grin plastered across his face as he spat out his toothpick and once again started speaking to her. “Celestia,” he said mockingly. “So good to see you again.” “I’m surprised you got here so soon,” Celestia growled in response, trying desperately not to show her fear. “What I would like to know is why.” Tak couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Oh you know me, I was simply in the neighbourhood and I thought I’d invade,” he said, taking a few steps towards the white Alicorn. “How about a little kiss, I hear you’re still single.” At those words Celestia grit her teeth in fury, not only does this vile creature invade her home, but he has the gall to mock her!?! Before Tak could even take even a second step, he soon found himself dodging a scorching beam of light from Celestia’s horn as it narrowly missed his foot and left a blackened spot on the carpet. “That’s far enough, Tak!” she snapped angrily, not wanting him to come even an inch closer. After shaking off the initial shock of what had just occurred, Tak chuckled again. “Still feisty as ever I see,” he mocked. “And you haven’t changed in slightest, have you?” Celestia retorted. “You’re still just as vile as the last time we met.” Tak scoffed at that. “Oh put a sock in it C,” he said casually. “One month out of the slammer and I’m already listening to one of your prissy lectures.” Celestia couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, he really DIDN’T change in the slightest, even his sarcasm hasn’t improved since his imprisonment. “What do you want?” Celestia demanded, earning herself a glare from the blue creature. “You know perfectly well what I want!” he snapped in response. “You and those mutts down in the Tunnels rounded me up and tossed me away like some piece of gutter trash! Do you have any idea what it’s like stuck in a stone goblet for 800 years!?! It’s boring!!!” Now it was Celestia’s turn to scoff. “Such a shame you could have stayed in there at least ANOTHER 800 years,” she said sarcastically. Hearing this Tak couldn’t help but grin, albeit a little forcefully on his part. “Funny Celestia,” he stated. “But as much as I enjoy a good joke I’m not in the mood for humour. You may have evacuated the entire city, but I’m not interested in eating a bunch of bystanders today.” “I can’t imagine why,” Celestia replied, yet another example of how her sarcasm shows how little she cared for this creature. “Don’t try to be smart with me, C!” Tak retorted, his grin soon turning into a fierce snarl as his green eyes glowed violently enough that they could be mistaken for Changeling fire. “I spent 200 years searching all of Equestria for my Mistress before spending 800 more locked up in that prison you and those dogs made for me, that’s 1000 years of wasted time spent apart from she who deserves my loyalty.” As much as she hated this creature’s very existence, Celestia couldn’t help but admire Tak’s devotion, such a shame that such devotion was wasted upon a being dark enough to make Queen Chrysalis herself run for the hills, then again Tak didn’t have any kind of heart any less dark himself. “Now if I couldn’t find my Mistress in any other place in Equestria after 200 years, then it stands to reason that I was always looking in the wrong places,” Tak continued, his egotistical rants ringing in Celestia’s ears as he continued to stare her down. “Then it finally hit me, the one place I didn’t check was also the one place that I would have never have thought to check… right under the nose of the one who stole her away from me in the first place.” Needless to say, Celestia didn’t like where this was going in the slightest, but regardless she kept her composure intact, readying herself for whatever strike Tak was planning, after all if there was one thing Celestia remembered from her last encounter with him, it was Tak’s dark sense of cunning. Soon enough, Tak dared to take another step closer and fix gaze soley upon Celestia’s face. “Now I’m going to ask nicely here…” he uttered, his voice turning darker with each word he spoke. “Where is she?” And there it was, the one question Celestia knew from the start that it would come to, a question that Celestia almost found herself laughing upon the very mention it. “You’re a smart creature, Tak,” she said in a cocky tone. “I’m surprised you even need to ask.” Once again Tak merely chuckled. “Oh don’t get me wrong, I’ve looked into this VERY thoroughly,” he said. “Your old castle: nothing but ruins now thanks to yours truly, nothing there but a bunch of old junk. Everfree Forest: Dead-end, too many dangerous creatures for even you to handle. Which brings us right here, in the city of Canterlot, built shortly after I was imprisoned if I’m not mistaken.” At those words, Celestia’s glare hardened, now Tak was starting to become more serious, granted he was serious before now but in that case he always covered it up with a cruel sense of humour, much like a wild beast who likes to play with his food before he eats it. But now, Tak wasn’t playing around, then again since he had been sealed away for 800 years then it was only understandable that he would be so serious. “So I’ll ask you again…” he growled. “WHERE is she?” However Celestia wasn’t going to give Tak the satisfaction, whatever attack he’ll use, whatever scheme he’ll try, there was no way in Tartarus that she was going to give Tak what he wanted. Seeing Celestia’s determined silence as the sign of defiance that it was, Tak let out a heavy sigh. “We gotta do it the hard way,” he said, his gaze suddenly turning to the wall behind Celestia, much to the Princess’s confusion. It was only then that Celestia came to realise just how bad things had truly become… and just how much danger SHE was currently in, for at that very moment she took the moment to turn her head just for a moment, just to see what Tak was staring at. As it turned out, what she first thought was her own shadow was something else entirely, after all… shadows don’t usually smile back at you. Within a matter of seconds, Celestia was temporarily deafened by the ear-piecing shriek that came surprisingly enough, by the shadow that stood before her upon the wall, after which the shadow then slithered down the wall and onto the floor beneath Celestia’s hooves, taking advantage of the sudden distraction it had created by pulling them downward, soon enough Celestia found herself trapped inside her own floor. “What!?!” she gasped, desperately trying to absorb what happened as she tried desperately to pull herself free, but to no avail. However that was just the tip of the iceberg, because seconds later the shadow moved away from Celestia and moved further along the floor, growing in size as it reached further towards the centre, after that Celestia’s jaw dropped in horror as she witness what occurred next. Much like how she was pulled into the floor via the shadow, something, or rather SOMEONE was now beginning to rise out of it, no, a great many someones, not all of them even ponies. But worst of all, even as the shadow faded away and returned to its owner, a zebra by the looks of it, Celestia’s face remained plastered with her look of terror, as she spotted two ponies in particular that she instantly recognised among the new crowd. “Sister!!!” Luna yelled as she tried desperately to pull free from her capture’s grip, only to be instantly pulled back by a large canine encrusted with opals. “No,” Celestia gasped, tears instantly filling her eyes as she witnessed her little sister AND Cadence struggle from their bonds. Needless to say, Tak took a bit of pleasure in seeing Celestia so pathetic, of course he knew Luna and Cadence would be the perfect hostages for the “all-powerful” ruler of Equestria, after all no creature is without vulnerabilities. However even as he relished in the Alicorn’s misery, Tak wasn’t done yet. “GEMNITES!!!” he screamed, his voice echoing throughout the entire room as the glass shook within their windows. However all three Alicorns soon found that the shaking was merely due to the fact that even more new arrivals were simply smashing their way in. Within moments, even more gem-encrusted canines had broken almost every single stain-glass window, destroying countless recorded historical moments in the process, all because they wanted in. Afterward, the entire room was filled with these canines, now known as Gemnites, all of whom seemed to be looking up at Tak with evil grins plastered upon their faces like the obedient dogs they were. However even while Celestia watched her throne room ransacked by these Gemnites, she couldn’t help but notice that while they took up a good majority of Tak’s new forces, there were a few that still stood out, and as luck would have it, Tak felt the need to speak up again. “Allow me to introduce my new cohorts…” he said, casually gesturing towards the arrivals that came via the shadow, specifically the Zebra. “Mister Zeb, finest thief in all of Manehattan, swiped quite the bundle using shadow magic from his old country back in the day.” Zeb? The name did sound familiar even to her, after all his acts of thievery were none short of legend even if it was only in recent years, which in turn did explain how a shadow was able to move about on its own AND make living creatures come from one place to another, after all, that was supposed to have been his magical talent, but he was supposed to be locked up, wasn’t he? Looking him over, Celestia, Luna, even Cadence couldn’t help but think he was quite the handsome Zebra, like all zebras, he had a faded white coat with black stripes, his mane was styled into that of a Mohawk, albeit a small curl just over his forehead, and he wore a pink buttoned shirt under a red jacket that barely covered up his tribal paw-shaped cutie mark, along with a pair of translucent blue sunglasses and a smirk that would make even the most humble of ponies cringe. “What can I say?” he said, taking Tak’s introduction as a compliment. “I’m just THAT good.” At those words, another, much older pony rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Yeah, good enough to get caught!” he commented in a strong southern accent, much to Zeb’s annoyance. However all this quip earned him was a smack across the back of his head much a much younger mare. “Shut it pa!” she snapped, her accent matching that of the older pony. Upon seeing this display of family dispute, Tak was then alerted to the presence of his next introduction, and so gestured towards the two ponies, along with a third to the older stallion’s left side. “Ah the Brittles,” he said. “Appleoosan bandits, robbers and rustlers, And they are all just one family, Old Moonshine here’s the daddy, and May Bell and Cornpoke there are his two kids. Now that’s what I call a family business, eh?” To say that these “Brittles, as Tak had called them were a trio of scruffy looking ponies would have been an understatement, in fact they would even the lowest of outlaws to shame just from their appearance alone. The oldest, Moonshine, was an elderly, lime-green pony with a shaggy grey beard and mane, that which was covered by a filthy brown Stetson hat, he also had a gold tooth and as his name suggested, a bottle of moonshine for a cuties mark, giving some indication as to what he favourite beverage was. The two younger ponies, his children, were slightly better on the eyes than their father was, though still a little scruffy, both wore a pair of messy blue overalls, hiding both their cutie marks, and both had a snarky grin plastered upon their faces. The mare, May Bell, had a pink coat, freckles upon her cheeks and a pair of pigtails tied into her blond mane, and the stallion, the one named Cornpoke, seemed to be the more… simple of the two, with a goofy look plastered upon his face, he wore a straw hat over a mess of a dirty blond man, which in turn covered his eyes from view, and he had several oversized teeth sticking out of his bottom jaw, giving him a massive underbite and making him seriously look like he needed a dentist. “Hehe, I love family time,” he said goofily, showing just how dim-witted he was by the way he spoke alone. Of course neither his father nor his sister appreciated his comment, in fact both of them seemed to just roll their eyes at it. At that moment Celestia’s attention was soon drawn to a high-pitched squawk, one that belonged to a strange metallic bird that was perched upon the shoulder of an even larger bird. “Can we please hurry this up!?!” the metal bird screeched, much to Tak’s chagrin. “I’m getting bored here!” Needless to say Tak was unamused by the metal bird’s rude interruption, luckily her owner was there to calm her down before Take could let out his anger on her. “Calm yourself, Razorbeak,” the larger bird said in a relaxed tone, stroking her metal beak with one of his flippers. “We’ll be wrapping this up soon.” Not wanting to become distracted by a mere show of defiance by some pet, Tak shrugged off the metal Bird’s, now known as Razorbeak’s comment, and continued his introductions by gesturing towards the larger bird. “And of course, the infamous Don Charlatan, Master Crime Boss,” he said, almost chuckling at the very sentence. “He’s got so many criminals under his flipper that I had graciously let out along with him, I barely had to ask for his assistance once I sprung him from jail.” Now Celestia, Luna and Cadence were really confused, for they had never seen a large bird like Don Charlatan before, especially one that was wearing such a fancy suit, although now that Celestia thought about it, she did recall hearing about such birds living in the far north, but never actually seen one herself. He was an overweight, stumpy Penguin with a long blue beak and feet, and wore a fancy grey suit with blue trims and carried a diamond tipped cane in his flipper. His pet, Razorbeak, was much smaller, no bigger than the size of Celestia’s own pet phoenix, in fact she even looked like a phoenix herself… albeit a phoenix with metal feathers and blades sticking out of her wings and tail, either way it made her look intimidating. Add these vicious looking characters, along with all the Gemnites currently in the room, and Tak seemed to be more threatening than the last time he and Celestia encountered each other. But something just didn’t seem to add up, from what Celestia could remember Tak NEVER needed help, nor wanted it, in fact Tak would rather EAT ponies than work with them, so what was going through his mind here? However before Celestia could think more on the matter, she found her train of thought interrupted by Cadence’s voice. “How are you able to block our magic!?!” she demanded. That was indeed a good question, even if Tak DID have help no pony, nor penguin could ever be able to capture an Alicorn much less restrain them with their strength alone, it just made no sense, the Alicorns could have easily kept them at bay with their magic. Suddenly it was then that Celestia finally noticed a small change in both the restrained Alicorns’ appearance, specifically a small accessory that was firmly clasped around the necks, one that looked almost exactly like a shiny version of Tak’s own skin. Taking notice of where exactly Celestia was staring, Tak couldn’t help but smirk. “Impressive right? Made these little babies out of my own slime,” he said, giving the collars he made a small flick, causing a small ding like a spoon being tapped against another. Now things were beginning to make a little sense, if those collars were blocking their magic that it stands to reason that Tak made them out of his own body, after all she herself said it was impervious to any kind of magic, thus making it the perfect tool to cancel it out. What’s more, while Tak was keeping Celestia busy, his goons must have used the slime to apprehend Luna and Cadence before they even got the chance to leave the castle. Once again Tak’s cunning was beginning to rear its ugly face, and now Celestia’s dear little sister was paying the price for it. “You see I learnt from my mistakes, Celestia,” Tak continued, feeling the need to pour salt into an open wound. “The reason I failed last time was because I did things alone. But now, I have a whole army of little helpers.” At those words, every single Gemnite cheered with delight, feeling glee at the very mention of their existence. Celestia on the other hand, merely glared again. “So you WERE responsible for everything that’s been happening lately!” She accused, remembering all the terrible events leading up to this day. Once again, Tak chuckled. “Yeah, pretty much,” he replied casually. “But the thing is, the Gemnites are only good at causing mayhem and destruction, aside from that, they’re all completely useless. But they did provide me with the means of recruiting some of the most brilliant criminals Equestria has to offer, after all this job required someone with plenty of cunning to go along with their talents.” Now it was the criminals’ turn to chuckle, each and every one of their laughs ringing in Luna and Cadences ears like nails of a chalkboard. “And each and every one of them are as cold-blooded as they come,” Tak continued, his smirk once again turning into a cold glare. “So unless to want something… messy to happen to your little sister, I suggest you tell me what I need to know.” At those words all three Alicorns gasped in terror, Luna and Cadence because of what might occur next, and Celestia in fear for Luna’s life for she knew full well what lengths Tak would take to get what he wanted. “Celestia, don’t do it!” Luna screamed, only to receive a smack across the back of her head from Charlatan’s cane, knocking her face-first into the floor. “Quiet you!” The Penguin snapped, poking the tip of his cane into the centre of Luna’s back, causing her incredible pain in the process, but not enough to give Charlatan the satisfaction of hearing her scream. Upon seeing this, Celestia had the right mind to use her magic to blast that miserable penguin into dust for causing her little sister such pain, unfortunately Tak was able to since such a notion. “Oh and before you get any ideas…” he said, suddenly taking a deep breath and hacking up a large blob of saliva directly at Celestia’s face. However, while this act was nothing short of all counts of disgusting, it wasn’t the neck the saliva hit, but rather it hovered in mid-air for a moment and wrapped itself around Celestia’s neck, solidifying until it finally turned into a shiny collar, one that resembled the ones Cadence and Luna were wearing to an exact match. That was when Celestia mentally smacked herself for not acting sooner, now SHE was powerless, had she not been so distracted with Tak’s conniving acts of cruelty then she may have been able to avoid being stripped of her magic and perhaps had a chance to free herself from the floor and save both her sister and Cadence from Tak’s clutches. But now, all that was left for any of them was to endure the gelatinous monster’s evil. “Now I won’t ask again,” Tak growled angrily, taking a few proud steps towards the Alicorn and leaning in so that his face was mere inches from hers. “Where is my Mistress? Tell me or Luna loses the wings!” At those words, Tak then snapped his fingers, and a few members of the criminals took it as their cue to act. Within a matter of seconds, Princess Luna found herself pinned down against Charlatan’s flabby foot, while May Bell and Cornpoke each took one of her wings and stretched them out as far as they would go, after that Razorbeak smirked and flew off Charlatan’s shoulder, perching herself in front of Luna’s face and brandishing her bladed wings, indicating that she was readying herself to slice something up. Knowing full well just what that something was, Celestia’s eyes flowed with tears as she watched Tak’s grin widen with every step Razorbeak took closer to the base of her little sister’s wings, finally she couldn’t bear to keep her composure any longer. “STOP!!!” she screamed, throwing any sense of pride out the window and revealing her vulnerability without a single care. “Alright, I’ll tell you!” Satisfied with the result of his threat, Tak’s smile instantly returned. “That’s better,” he said, clicking his fingers once again, forcing Razorbeak to stop in her tracks. After Razorbeak took a few steps away from her sister, Celestia knew then that she no longer had any choice but to comply with Tak’s demand, lest Razorbeak makes another attempt on Luna’s wings. With tears of shame flowing like waterfalls from her eyes, Celestia then allowed Tak to lean in close as to hear her confession as she whispered it into his non-existent ears. With this new piece of information, Tak’s grin once again returned and he turned to his Gemnites with a newfound determination. “Check the lower levels boys!” he commanded. “At the very bottom!” Unfortunately, the Gemnites took things a little too literally and started using their gigantic paws to claw at the floor beneath their feet, much to both their frustration and Tak’s embarrassment. “Use the stairs, you idiots!” he grumbled, feeling the need to smack himself in the forehead. Upon those words, the Gemnite who were digging instantly stopped what they were doing and turned back to Tak with sheepish smiles upon their faces. “Heh… sorry boss,” one of them chuckled nervously. Of course Tak wasn’t amused, in fact the second the words left the Gemnite’s mouth, he snarled at them like a wild animal, instantly scaring them enough that they ran out of the room screaming their heads off. After they and a few other Gemnites left, Tak managed to calm himself down long enough to regain his composure, now that things were beginning to go his way, he had no reason to stay angry over something so petty. “You know C, all this could have been avoided had you been more co-operative in the first place,” he said calmly, once again getting in close to Celestia’s face. “But I guess that’s just how you are… too proud for your own good.” Upon hearing that disgusting whisper in her ear, Celestia couldn’t help but cringe, never in her life had she been so ashamed and terrified, it was without a doubt one of the worst moments in her life. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, one of the Gemnites finally burst back into the room with an excited grin upon his face. “It’s there, boss!” he yelped. “The door is there!” Upon hearing those words, Tak’s grin became so wide, the sides of his head started stretching just to show all of his teeth as once. “Excellent,” he uttered, the glee in his mind too large for description. Celestia on the other hand, couldn’t feel any worse. “Okay you have what you want,” she growled angrily. “Now let my sister and Cadence go!” At those words Tak almost laughed, here Celestia was with no magic, no ability to move, and yet she still makes demands? If he didn’t know any better, Tak would have believed that this Alicorn was as cocky as he was. Still now that he DID have what he wanted, he saw no further use in carrying out this charade any longer. “Very well,” he replied before turning to the other criminals. “Release them all.” Even though all the Brittles, Zeb AND Don Charlatan were taken aback by this request, they didn’t find themselves in need of a death-wish and felt no need to argue with the monster that sprang them from prison, thus they quickly complied with the command. After releasing Luna and Cadence from their grasp, the criminals looked on as Zeb used his shadow magic again, raising a hoof as a guide, Zeb quickly moved his own shadow back towards Celestia’s hooves and forced them out of the floor, freeing her from her own confinement and allowing her to embrace Luna and Cadence into a tight hug, tears of despair flowing down their faces. “Oh Tia, I’m so sorry,” Luna sobbed, burring her face into Celestia’s shoulder. At this point, all Celestia could do now was wrap her hooves around her little sister as much as she could, she couldn’t remember a time where she had been so scared, so helpless. It was downright degrading for all three of them, which was made all the more worse by the fact that everyone else in the room was sniggering at their dismay. “It’s okay, Luna,” Celestia said, trying desperately to give her little sister some comfort. “We’ll be alright.” However those words only brought on an even louder snicker, one that came from none other than Tak himself. “Oh I highly doubt that sweet-cheeks,” he mocked, causing all three Alicorns to glare at him with fury. “As I’m sure you’ve already figured out C, your time of power has already come to it’s inevitable end.” Celestia snarled at that, not a usual expression from a dignified princess but in this case, it was warranted. “Why are you even still here!?!” Cadence snapped, sharing in Celestia’s anger. “Just take what you came for and go, you have no further need of us!” Of course what Cadence didn’t realise at the time, was that those particular words would soon become some of which she would ever regret saying. “Oh I think we do,” Tak chuckled in response, rubbing his hands together with glee. “What I have planned for you three next makes me so happy, I feel like singing!” And that’s EXACTLY what he intended to do, as much as it’ll confuse everyone else in the room, his joy was too much for him to keep in, in fact confusing everyone else made it even more fun. “Maestro!” he declared, pointing towards a nearby Gemnite, calling him out on his command. In an instant the Gemnite pulled out a small accordion that he had wrapped around his neck, the reason as to WHY the little creature had something like that around his neck remaining a mystery to everyone else, after which he began playing a slow, eerie tune that send shivers down everyone’s spine. Once the music began playing, it was then that Tak began to sing his little melody. TAK: When they invented money, they invented greed, And so created thieves, with such a golden need, These crooks are everywhere, beneath each and every stone, But they were just the start, there are worse who’ll chill your bones, As Take continued on with his tune, more and more instruments are added as the first Gemnite found himself being joined by many of his comrades, including those who were playing a broken cello and banging on pots and pans from the castle kitchen, one even managed to bring an electric guitar into the mix. Soon enough the pace of the song quicken and Tak found himself being overwhelmed by the bliss of it, so much so that he even snatched up Cadence by her hooves and started forcing her into a waltz as he continued singing. TAK: There are those who just seek gold, there are those who just seek fame, Then there’s the crooks who love the thrill, of driving folks insane, You can’t have good without bad, it simply cannot be, But good has gone on too long, so sing along with me… With each loathsome step of the waltz she was forced to comply with, Cadence felt more and more sick to her stomach, not only because Tak’s disgusting hands were gripping her hooves like a vice, but also because he had the gall to use his slimy, purple tongue to lick her face. Needless to say, this display not only disgusted Cadence herself, but only enraged Celestia and Luna so much that they ignored their instinctive fear and attempted to rush towards the two of them. However this attempt was short lived when a number of Gemnites blocked their path and started pinning them to the floor. After that the music’s pace began to quicken even further, and the criminals Tak brought with him started getting into the melody, so much so that they found themselves singing along when he came to the chorus. TAK: Cause it’s our time! CRIMINALS: (Our time!) TAK: It’s time to bring the pain, I tell you, it’s our time! CRIMINALS: (Our time!) TAK: Now comes our evil reign. It was then that Tak found himself growing bored with his waltz and proceeded to toss Cadence back to the other two Alicorns, who in turn received the full brunt of the impact after the Gemnites pinning them down jumped out of the way in the nick of time. After that the music became somewhat infectious to the criminals in a more vigorous way, so much so that they felt no shame in getting into the Alicorns’ faces as they took the next verse. ZEB: We’ve been locked up for years, MOONSHINE: We’ve spent too long in jail, MAY BELL: All the things that we have missed, why couldn’t have we made bail? DON CHARLATAN: The jury was just too cruel, the judge was just too tense, RAZORBEAK: So you bit off some guy’s ear… DON CHARLATAN: I tell you it was self-defence! At this point even the Gemnites were all dancing along with the music, laughing manically as Tak did a little dance of his own. TAK: But now we’re running free, we’ll be all shining stars, And soon the WHOLE world will know, just how really bad we are, Now it’s evil’s turn to rule, it’s time for us to soar, The skies will burn with flames, made from my Mistress’s claws, Cause it’s our time! CRIMINALS: (Our time!) TAK: Soon we will win the day, I tell you, it’s our time! CRIMINALS: (Our time!) TAK: Now all you chumps will pay! With the music becoming more and more intense as it was brought into a solo on the accordion and guitar, the Gemnites soon began running about the room and beyond, spreading throughout the castle as they began trashing the building, tearing up tapestries, knocking down suits of armour, even using spray-paint on the walls. To say it was chaos would have been an understatement, and worse still, there was nothing Celestia or the other Princesses could do about it, without their magic they were pretty reliant on their own physical strength, and given the fact that they were outnumbered by well over 100 to one, then they would have been overwhelmed easily if they tried to fight. However even if they could, they would have never have gotten the chance, for at that moment, three of Tak’s fingers stretched out like tentacles wrapped around their tails and lifted them up into the air like piñatas, which in turn made the scenario even more dramatic as he brought the song to another chorus. TAK: Yes, it’s our time! CRIMINALS: (Our time!) TAK: I am just so amused, Because, now it’s our time! CRIMINALS: (Our time!) TAK: Now It’s just no use, There’ll be no truce, After our abuse… At this point, the music intensified and the criminals and Gemnites watched in awe as Tak brought the restrained Alicorns closer to his face, allowing him to lean in close as he uttered the last few words of the song. TAK: It’s now our time to say… And just like that, he uttered the last word into Celestia’s ear in a sickening whisper. “…Defuse,” Upon hearing this, Celestia opened gasped in horror for she knew just what was about to happen next, but all too late she did react to such knowledge for no more than 4 seconds later, she along with Cadence and Luna became engulfed in a large cocoon of Tak’s slime, one that was created by Tak’s stretching his fingers even further combined with the collars around their necks. After that, even the other criminals couldn’t help but gulp in horror as they heard the pain-stricken screams of all three princesses as a series of cracks of white light appeared along the cocoons. But oh the screams, the sheer volume of them, it was as nothing like anyone had even experienced, at this point even the Gemnites couldn’t bear to play any more music, by any means it was nothing but silence from everyone else and the only sounds anyone could hear were the screams and Tak’s horrible laughter.