Diamonds are a girl's worst enemy

by Rarity Belle

Act 1 chapter 16

There they eventually came. All of them poured out of the hallway with the hundreds of them at once. Each of them were looking for the ponies of the company that had taken away their king’s precious gem. The creatures wanted to make them all pay for their deeds by ending their precious lives, or throw them before the mercy of their king. The only problem was that even the creatures were in an area they were not allowed to come. The one place that they feared to thread.

Not even the changelings themselves were allowed to enter the land that was originally from the giants themselves. The very reason was easily discovered when the creatures themselves all of the sudden fell in nothing but silence of their own. They slowly made the realization of just where they had come to hunt. Some were already gulping a bit. Their eyes went from left to right while they wanted to get out as soon as possible.

But it was all just too late already. Out of the crystals they came with a roaring power. The crystalline giants who hadn't been woken up from anything, reacted almost immediately to the smell of the changelings. Massive, hulking bodies of crystal suddenly blocked the way of the creatures and they were trapped like rats in a box. Even though the changelings themselves were near infinite in numbers, the giants had the power to mow them all down in a split second if they wanted.

The siege beneath Canterlot had begun. The team of ponies could only watch as to how the events would pack out. None of them were certain about the fact if it was going to be favorable for the giants or the bugs. It was just unknown and they really didn't wanted to figure out personally.

The eyes of Rarity went into every direction and stopped at one point. To her right she noticed something none of them hadn't seen in days by then. Something that could be leading them straight into freedom. “Look over there!” the mare whispered happily. She had nudged her head towards the something.

Even though most of the others were scared, they still managed to look into the direction. Just one glanced caused them to not believe their eyes. They must have been playing a tick with them. “Is that, what I think it is?” Velvet Fashion questioned before she focused her eyes a bit more.

There wasn't anything wrong with the eyes of the ponies, for they were looking right into genuine sunlight. A hallway that was blocked off by the body of a giant had hidden the place when they were first there. A massive sigh of relief was the thing that made its way through each of the ponies before they heard the massive roar of the giants.

All of their eyes turned themselves back to the hulking figures that were covered in the filthy bugs. One way or the other they still tried to defeat a being that was made out of nothing but solid crystal. Luckily they didn't knew the manner in which Rarity and her team managed to bring two of them down. The danger would only rise if they would have managed to figure it out.

Even though they needed to get away, just rushing over to the place didn't seem like a good idea either. Caution was still something that was highly needed. The team didn't wanted to be crushed by one of the giants, or swept away, as they also preferred to be doing exactly that.

The battle between the giants and the changelings was something that was a quest of might and a show of pure, awesome power. The bugs themselves couldn't do anything against the might of the crystalline giants. The battle was pretty much one sided.

“We have to get out of here or we are being crushed no matter what. How do you think they will react when the changelings are all gone and discover the murders of their own kin?” Rare Thinker questioned aloud. Then he stood up and looked at the distance that needed to be traveled. “One quick gallop should be more than enough to make it and you all know it.”

Even though Rarity wasn't truly able to agree with his words, she still saw the right in them. There was only one way they could be doing the job and that was just to run like hell. “Alright then, let’s do it. Everypony, go. Just go!” Rarity spoke to them all. It took them only a second or two before they were all galloping towards the light of the wonderful sun. They could smell their escape almost.

The only problem happened to be that some of the changelings that were knocked back by the hooves of the giants, actually ended up against the wall the ponies were hiding. With their last bits of strength they managed to sniff out the trail and resume the chase. Half a dozen hungry changelings had set in the hunt once more. Half a dozen of which the group became aware of quicker than expected. Rarity had gotten them in her sights and she dropped down to the rear.

“Quickly now!” Rarity spoke when she had formed the rearguard of the company. She was the only one shooting some magical bolts at the creatures just to be able to fend them off. They were that close to the surface or at least out of the caverns as a whole, they wouldn't give up at all. In the end had Rarity forced her eyes to be shut as she galloped through the portal of light. One could only imagine of the thoughts that went through her mind at the moment of it all happening.

The softness of the grass was to be felt against her belly and legs while the gentle breeze of the wind managed to mess a bit with her mane. She didn't knew where she was, whether it would have been either the gates of heaven or the real world. Either of the two seemed to have been just wonderful to be at.

---

Though the dreamy state was quickly turned into a reality. It happened when she caught the horrified hissing of the changelings as they made their retreat. Quickly sprung the eyes of the mare open and she looked all around her. The sights that she saw were some she never even had expected to be seeing again. For all around her was the wonderful valley of Canterlot. A place where both serenity and calm dominated and the air always happened to have been fresh.

Rarity assumed a more sitting position before a smile was being cracked upon her face. A smile that slowly would have gone over into a small laughter from the adventure. Every bit of stress and caution could be dropped as she knew that it was over and all of them were still there. “Oh dear me, that is going to be quite the tale to tell when we get back home.” The mare then allowed her body to drop itself back into the grass where a deep and rather content sounding squee left from the deepest part of her soul.

The unicorn of grace, fashion and gems was more than happy to be right on the solid ground of the world itself. All while the sunlight fell upon her coat. Many of the team members actually followed her example. All of them thought that their rest was something well earned. The troubles of the cavern, the gem and the princesses would soon be over. Which only left the mysterious book that had fallen into the unicorn’s possession. A book of which the royals themselves didn’t need to know its very existence of.