My Little Equestroid: Stompin' is Magic

by ForeverChasingRainbows

Chapter 4 - Convergence

**Rainbow Dash**

The ponies' progress through the chaotic tunnels beneath their camp site was slow. Between dead ends, collapsed passages, gaps that were too narrow to squeeze through, and Pinkie Pie being distracted by the occasional shiny thing, it was difficult to judge exactly how far they had travelled. Between the earth ponies and Rarity they at least had some idea of which direction to go - towards the weirdness - but with Twilight still feeling the effects of the previous evening, any precise direction-finding was out of the group's reach. Unless they needed to go gem hunting or put on a fashion show, a pair of lights was going to be all the two magic-wielding ponies could manage.

The brown rock walls of the tunnels were dry and dusty, the uneven floors strewn with fresh-fallen rubble and grit. The occasional trickles of sandy material falling from the ceiling were a constant reminder of the continued shifting of the ground around them, and Rainbow Dash was trying extremely hard not to think about that - and to ignore the occasional deep grinding rumbles that could be felt through the ground.

Rainbow was not enjoying herself. The tunnels were too dark and small, and they kept having to double back on themselves after running into some obstacle or other they couldn't bypass. It was almost enclosed enough to make her nervous, if she wasn't so awesome. There was barely enough room to hover in the rough passageways, but Dash was doing her best to avoid touching the ground. All four legs hung limp beneath her as she dragged herself through the dust-choked air, giving voice to her boredom.

"Are we there yet?"

"Yep!" Pinkie Pie replied from the front of the group.

Rainbow's mood immediately brightened, and she almost bumped her head on the ceiling as she perked up. "Wait, really?"

"No," Applejack cut in, "now stop askin'."

"So that's not it then?" Pinkie Pie asked, pointing off down a narrow side passage with a hoof and squinting. "It kinda looks like the place to me."

Twilight stuck her head round the corner to see, and immediately recoiled with one hoof held to her head. "Ouch... yeah, that's definitely it."

"Finally," Rainbow exhaled emphatically, "let's get rid of it already."

"I believe I'm with Rainbow Dash on this one, girls," Rarity added. "It's awfully dusty in here, and it doesn't really feel safe."

"Okay, we're going to have to squeeze through here single file," Twilight said. "Applejack, would you mind going first? You'd probably be best to help pull anypony who gets stuck."

"And I'm the biggest," Applejack added with a lopsided grin. Twilight glanced about nervously, stammering that she didn't mean it like that, but Applejack just kept talking over her. "I know ya don't mean nothin' by it, and it's true anyhow, so don't you go apologisin'. It's a sensible plan. I can prob'ly force my way through, and lend a hoof to all y'all once I'm out."

Rainbow Dash eyed the thin passage nervously. If she was being totally honest with herself, she was not liking the idea of squeezing into a space only a fraction wider than her head. She'd probably have to hold her wings straight up over her back to avoid pulling half her feathers out on the walls, too. As the others clustered around the fissure to watch Applejack's progress, Rainbow asked "Is, uh, is that the only way in?"

She had been shooting for disinterested, but Rainbow Dash was pretty sure that had come out sounding way less confident than she intended.

Applejack's voice floated back out of the mouth of the passage, slightly muffled. "What were ya expectin', a door? Come on, it's not-" Applejack broke off. "Aww, ponyfeathers."

"Are you quite alright in there Applejack?" Rarity asked, concerned.

"Darn it. I think I might be stuck." Shuffling sounds and muffled protests from the passage were followed by a satisfied grunt.

"Never mind, false alarm." Applejack's voice sounded louder, and Rainbow realised she must have reached the other side and turned round to speak into the gap. "The swirly thing don't look like it's doin' anythin' untoward, so I guess it's okay to come on through."

That had sounded like a really short trip to Rainbow's ears - definitely less than a minute. She could totally do that. Hay, if AJ could do it then Rainbow 'Danger' Dash definitely could. Dash took a steadying breath and landed, trotting up to the others huddled around the passage. This was going to be a piece of cake.

Rarity tilted her head towards Rainbow Dash, saying "I suppose you'll be wanting to get through next, then?"

Suddenly Rainbow changed her mind, pausing mid-step with one foreleg hanging in the air. "Uhh... you know I normally would, but..." Dash frantically racked her brain for a reason, any reason, not to have to go next.

"Oh!" Twilight cut in, "I get it!"

Rainbow tensed. No way. She's smart, but no way has Twilight figured it out. I've hidden it way too well for that.

"If Rainbow Dash goes last, then we'll always have her on one side and Applejack on the other if anypony gets stuck. That's a great plan Rainbow!"

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash replied hurriedly, "that." She tried to ignore the look Fluttershy was giving her - understanding, but with a hint of reproof. Rainbow knew she should just tell everypony, they were her friends after all. She just never seemed to find the right time.

"Oh, I hadn't considered that," Rarity said, "that's very forward-thinking of you, Rainbow Dash."

A few short minutes later, after a few brief struggles and complaints about dirt, Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie and the group's saddlebags had made it through the fissure. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were left alone on the outside of the passage.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay to go in there?" Fluttershy asked quietly. Rainbow Dash searched her aqua eyes, but found only honest concern in her friend's gaze.

"Go on," Dash said, shooing Fluttershy towards the gap with a forehoof, "I'll be right behind you."

As soon as Fluttershy moved into the narrow fissure out of the main corridor, Rainbow Dash felt anxiety start to build in her chest. Now she was alone in the tunnel, she felt a little closed in even without going into the smaller passageway. Spurred on by the small spike of fear, Rainbow closed her eyes and tried to think happy thoughts as she chased her friend's pink tail into the split in the rock.

As soon as Rainbow Dash entered the fissure, everything went wrong. She had forgotten to lift her wings as she rushed into the narrow gap, and the added width of the feathered appendages at her sides caused the pegasus to get stuck almost immediately. A brief moment of flailing wild panic left Rainbow back where she started, in the corridor outside.

By herself. In the dark.

Rainbow sat on her haunches, staring at the faint glow coming from Rarity and Twilight's horns on the other side of the fissure. It danced and wobbled as Fluttershy pushed her way through, and Dash tried to marshal her ragged breathing. At least she hadn't squealed or anything, if she tried again quickly nopony had to know.

Okay, okay, I can do this. Rainbow banged a hoof against the side of her head. "Wings up this time, dummy," she admonished herself.

Slowly, Rainbow Dash eased her body back into the narrow opening. Her heart rate shot up as she reached the place where she had got stuck the first time, but with her wings up over her back she just got a sharp poke in her left side from a small outcropping. The glow up ahead brightened suddenly as Fluttershy exited the far end of the tunnel, and a moment later her head reappeared looking back towards Rainbow.

Rainbow heard Rarity's voice from the chamber up ahead. "Fluttershy? Is everything alright?"

"Could you bring the light over here please? If you don't mind, it's just that I don't think Rainbow Dash can see very well in there." Fluttershy replied.

"Oh!" Rarity exclaimed, raising her voice to address Rainbow down the passageway, "I am terribly sorry Rainbow Dash, I was rather distracted by this, ahem... whatever-it-is in here."

The sight of her two friends at the far end of the fissure along with the light put the brakes on Rainbow's rising anxiety. Fluttershy, you are a genius, Rainbow thought as she focused on the light ahead and tried to block out the mental and physical pressure of the walls on either side of her, I am gonna have to do something really awesome to make this up to you later. The distance closed one hoof at a time, and suddenly Rainbow Dash found herself emerging into the chamber at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully everypony else was too busy staring at the chamber's contents to notice her flushed face and rapid breathing, and Rainbow got her first look at what they had been searching for.

There was a large round hole, maybe two or three times the height of a pony, hanging in the air in the centre of the cavern. It was difficult to gauge the size because it was a perfectly flat black, and Rainbow's eyes seemed to slide off the thing if she tried to look straight at it. As she moved up to stand with her friends, her route took her slightly around the side of the object. The shift in perspective seemed to suggest the thing was flat, like a mirror hung on an invisible wall.

Rainbow decided to investigate, and walked further around the chamber as the others discussed what to do next. The object did indeed seem to be a flat disc - so flat, in fact, that there was a spot exactly off to the side of it where it couldn't be seen at all.

"Hey, come look at this!" Rainbow Dash said, interrupting the boring conversation her friends were probably having. "This thing is super thin. If you stand in just the right spot here you can't even see it!"

Twilight bolted across to her excitedly. "Really?! Oh, wow! It really is a cross-dimensional rift!"

"A cross-dyed what now?" Rainbow asked as the others gathered around.

"It's a three-dimensional tunnel," Twilight began, eyes dancing with excitement, "but it looks two-dimensional from our perspective because it's been translated so that one of its lengths is pointing through a dimension we can't perceive. The other end of the cylinder could be... well, almost anywhere, actually. Even in another universe entirely."

"Okay," Rainbow Dash said, expression confused, "if I nod and pretend I understood that, will you skip ahead to the bit where you tell us how to break it?"

"I think I'm with Rainbow on this one, Twi," said Applejack. "If it's leakin' dark magic into Equestria then it don't much matter what it is, we just gotta stop it."

"But there could be a whole other universe on the far side! Aren't you curious at all?" Twilight protested. Then she paused, and looked around the group. "Wait a minute, where's... PINKIE, NO!"

Rainbow followed Twilight's gaze to the base of the rift. While they had been arguing, Pinkie Pie had apparently just walked up to the thing and shoved her head into it. Her face reappeared with a pop at Twilight's panicked yell, looking slightly peeved.

"Would you mind keeping it down please?" Pinkie said, "I'm trying to listen."

"Listen to what?" Rarity asked.

"The ponies on the other side, duh."

Twilight went from standing with the group to beside Pinkie so fast Rainbow would have assumed she'd teleported, if her magic wasn't still mostly out of commission. "There's somepony there?! What are they saying?"

"I don't know, I can't hear anything with everypony talking all the time," Pinkie complained.

As Rainbow and her friends gathered around the portal - stopping short of sticking their heads in it at Twilight's urging, despite Pinkie Pie's insistence that it was fine in there - a jagged, violent ripple pulsed out from the centre of the disc along its surface. When it reached the edge, however, it didn't stop. The distortion on the surface of the disc became a warped circle of air, continuing to expand towards the floor, walls and ceiling of the chamber.

As soon as the ripple left the surface of the rift, an echoing boom assaulted the ponies' ears. They all flinched back from the black surface hanging in the air before them, and then the ripple reached the cavern walls. The whole place shook violently, and an ominous rumbling sound came from the passage behind the group. A sheet of rock dust fell from the ceiling, leaving all six ponies blinking and coughing.

Twilight staggered back from the rift, sputtering "I-It's collapsing!"

The sharp edges of the disc began to fray and diffuse into the surrounding air, the formerly sharp black outline becoming a ragged green-tinged cloud.

"In Equestrian, please?" Applejack said between coughs.

Twilight turned to face the group, eyes wide with fear.

"RUN!"

**Thirty-Thirty**

Sometimes, Thirty-Thirty and BraveStarr didn't see eye to eye on the use of violence. The Marshal was always going on about it being a last resort, and sometimes accused Thirty of being too trigger-happy with his Sara-Jane. But even the peace-loving Marshal knew that once the fighting started, you gave it everything you'd got to make sure it was the other guy left lying in the dirt instead of you. BraveStarr might not approve of words like "concussion" and "property damage", but Thirty-Thirty disliked "escape", "resisting arrest" and "horse" just as much.

Right now, at least in Thirty-Thirty's estimation, a fight was about where they were at. Whatever the backstabbing outlaw Tex Hex was up to in the caves north of Fort Kerium, Thirty and his human partner had only just been able to get inside before they were spotted. A quiet bit of investigation had rapidly devolved into a running gun battle with the outlaw gang, as the duo pressed on deeper inside to put an end to whatever scheme the madman had devised. Dashing inside in the initial confusion, BraveStarr and Thirty-Thirty had managed to slip past the majority of Tex's crew. It wouldn't matter that they were surrounded once Tex's plan was dealt with, the Marshal had reasoned; the outlaws would flee as soon as things started to go badly for them.

Thirty-Thirty' mechanical legs strained as he threw himself from a galloping charge into a sideways roll - out of a patch of air that was suddenly bisected by a coruscating lightning bolt. There was only one member of the Carrion Bunch that used a lightning cannon, and Thirty knew he was going to have to fight fire with fire to take Thunder Stick down. The sadistic robot's arm cannon made him a dangerous foe to close with. As the grey-coated stallion came to a halt lying on his back behind a small pile of rubble, he heard his partner's voice from across the small cave.

"You okay big pard?"

"I'm fine, Marshal," Thirty snorted angrily. Being shot at always made him mad. "I'll take this one, keep movin'."

The Equestroid focused on his forelimbs and pushed. With a metallic whine they snapped out, joints reconfiguring as the limbs transformed. Electricity arced across the stallion's body as his scarlet saddle and bridle stowed away, leaving only a few strips of material across his chest and neck to serve as an equipment harness. Shoulders and elbows rotated outward, and the hooves at the end of his forelimbs folded inwards to be replaced by five-fingered metal hands.

Thirty-Thirty immediately put his more flexible reformed shoulder joints to work, and reached behind his back to grip the stock of the sacred gun harnessed to his torso. Sitting up he pulled the weapon free, spinning the huge energy rifle around his right hand before bringing the barrel down onto his left palm with a weighty smack.

"All right Thunder Stick," Thirty yelled across the cavern, "Pre-pare to get STOMPED!" The stallion pumped his weapon's lever action with a berserker grin as his hip joints shifted to allow for bipedal movement.

Throwing his weight sideways again, Thirty rolled from his seated position back into the open - this time lying prone, rifle to his transformed shoulder, rather than upright in a quadrupedal run. Tossing his head to keep his thick white mane out of his face, the stallion sighted in on a flash of silver amongst the rocky debris ahead. Then, Thunder Stick's head dropped back out of sight behind a boulder.

"Oh, ya can't hide from Sara-Jane that easy," Thirty muttered, dropping his aim a fraction and closing his ears as he pulled the trigger.

Energy weapons were normally quiet devices, at least compared to the deafening explosions produced by more traditional projectile weapons. Sara-Jane, however, was something of an exception, producing a distinctive hybrid of the high-pitched whine of a Neutra-laser and the concussive boom of a large-bore shotgun. The sound echoed around the chamber as the biggest hand-held positronic cannon on New Texas bucked violently against Thirty-Thirty's shoulder, producing a bright red energy bolt that shattered the large boulder into powder.

The powdered rock cleared to reveal a dazed, and now very dusty, humanoid robot lying unmoving on the tunnel floor. Thunder Stick's skeletal metallic body and mustard yellow duster coat were left battered and ragged, and there was no trace of the similarly-coloured hat he habitually wore.

Climbing to his hind hooves, Thirty-Thirty stalked across the room towards the downed outlaw. He kept his rifle raised, but was fairly certain Thunder Stick wouldn't be getting up any time soon. Placing one hoof on the robot's shoulder, with a little more force than was probably necessary, Thirty reached down with his left hand. Gripping the thick power cables connecting Thunder Stick's namesake gun arm to the robot's torso, the stallion braced himself and pulled. With a small shower of sparks, the cables tore free of their mountings - it would take a trip to a machine shop before the outlaw would be bothering anyone again.

"Do yerself a favour'n stay down," Thirty growled. "I'll be back fer you later." The stunned robot probably didn't register the words, but saying them made Thirty feel better.

The sounds of more fighting up ahead drew Thirty's attention. It sounded like the Marshal was really getting into it with somebody. Thirty briefly considered swapping back to all fours to run. Not only did it feel more natural, but it was also faster and less awkward than walking upright on two equine hind legs - even if they were cybernetically augmented. The fight sounded pretty close though, and he'd probably need Sara-Jane ready. Plus it wasn't a proper ruckus until he'd punched somebody, and he needed hands for that.

Thirty edged towards the next bend in the tunnel, back pressed against the wall, and peeked his long muzzle around the corner. The tunnel opened out into a much larger cavern, throughout which was scattered a large amount of machinery. Boxy consoles were placed around the outside of the circular chamber at seemingly random intervals, connected together by pipes and cabling. There was a distinct smell of ozone coming from the chamber, causing Thirty-Thirty's muzzle to wrinkle in distaste.

In the centre floated some sort of flat black disc, a little larger than Thirty stood tall - upright as he was now, at least. On the far side of the object, before a much larger console set into the cave wall, BraveStarr was apparently just finishing his latest scuffle with Tex. The Marshal and the black-coated outlaw were locked together, struggling to land a telling blow.

Tex's sunken face twisted into a grimace as he strained against his opponent. "You ain't winnin' this time, BraveStarr!"

As Thirty rolled around the corner and made his way into the room, the Marshal broke Tex's grip on his right arm. With a cry of "Strength of the Bear!" BraveStarr threw a punch that launched the leader of the outlaw crew through the air.

Tex slammed into the large bank of buttons and levers fixed into the wall and burst into a cloud of purple smoke. Thirty cursed internally - this was always how fights with the gang ended. Whenever they started losing, Tex would call on his magical abilities to spirit himself to safety. At least it looked like the impact had hurt; the machinery Tex had hit was ruined. As Thirty moved up to BraveStarr's side, stowing his weapon behind his back again, the abused console let out a huge shower of sparks and most of the lights on its surface died.

Rather than rushing out of the room and retreating to the Hexagon, as it usually did, the purple fog began to churn and writhe - forming a large cloud with something shifting inside it. Suddenly the head and upper body of a huge scaled predator erupted from the fog. A crude metal exoskeleton was strapped around its forelimbs, and connected to a horned metal headpiece that appeared to be fixed into its skull.

"You meddling INSECT!" the apparition bellowed, glowing ectoplasm dripping from its maw. "What have you done?!"

"Put a stop to your latest plan, Stampede," BraveStarr replied with a satisfied smile. "This world is your prison, and there'll be no jailbreaks on my watch."

Stampede snarled, jaws snapping on empty air. "Maybe not this time, Marshal," Stampede growled, spitting out the official title like a curse, "but even if the rift is now doomed to collapse before it is prepared to admit me, it can still be of use... IN RIDDING ME OF YOU!"

The apparition's open jaws unleashed a blazing torrent of energy, aimed straight at BraveStarr's chest. Thirty-Thirty's metal hind hooves cracked the rock beneath him as the stallion's augmented legs threw him sideways, knocking his partner aside.

An instant later the beam struck Thirty in the head and shoulder, sending him flying backward - directly into the collapsing rift.

Comments

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Nice setup, so far... now let's see how Thirty-Thirty does in an equine civilisation...