“TWILIGHT! CATCH ME!”
Twilight looked up and let out a gasp of horror as Sunset came flying out of the broken window leading to the observation booth. She threw up her hands and managed to stop Sunset from impacting with the floor by about six inches. She set Sunset upright and dashed over to her, pounding her fists into her friend's chest.
“You dumb, dumb, stupid, dumb, dumb, dumb--”
“'Bitch?'” Sunset suggested.
Twilight shot her a look. “You said it, not me.”
The sound of powerful fans kicked on and the cloud of gas that had been slowly forming was quickly ventilated out of the room. Sunset looked up at the observation booth. Nobody appeared to be paying them any attention.
She looked actoss the room, where Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity were keeping Frank busy. The Ursa was clearly getting agitated with Rainbow Dash zipping around him, distracting him long enough for Applejack to land a punch or try to grab one of his paws, or Rarity attempting to contain him in her crystals.
Sunset nodded and called out: “Pinkie! Fluttershy!”
The other two quickly came over.
“Okay, we need to get out of here,” said Sunset. “But I may have just made things harder for us.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
Sunset gave her a sheepish grin. “I may have just put the entire base on red alert?”
Twilight slapped her hand over her face. “Dumb, dumb, stupid, dumb, dumb...”
“I was hoping it would trigger an evacuation or something,” Sunset explained. “But I guess I was wrong. It shouldn't be a problem if we can herd Frank towards the doors.”
“Frank is an unstoppable monster right now!” Twilight protested. “Even Fluttershy can't get through to him!”
“He's the only thing we've got!” Sunset countered. “We need an ace in the hole, Twilight!”
“Um...” said Fluttershy.
“Sunset's right,” Pinkie said. “Right now, her, me, and Fluttershy are pretty much useless in a fight, unless I can somehow find a cafeteria or something. We need an edge!”
“Excuse me,” said Fluttershy.
“An edge?” Twilight pointed back to where their other three friends were barely keeping the mammoth bear in place. “Look at him! He's beyond all reason. He's basically an unstoppable killing machine, and I, for one, don't really want to be responsible for getting a bunch of people who are just doing their jobs killed as we escape!”
“This is what they're paid to do, Twilight!” Sunset snapped. “They knew the risks when they decided to join these fascists.”
“Actually...” Fluttershy tried again.
“Are you listening to yourself right now?” Twilight snapped back. “Just two weeks ago, you were a wreck from what we did to stop Firecracker Burst and now you want to unleash giant magic death on people who may not know exactly what this organization does? We know the Director's a creep, but the lower level troops? Most of them are just following orders!”
“Oh, my god,” Sunset rolled her eyes. “I'm not proposing wholesale slaughter, Twilight!”
“Sounded like it to me!”
“GIRLS!” Fluttershy's yell caused the argument to stop immediately. All three turned to Fluttershy who stood there with her hands on her hips, looking stern.
“What I was about to say,” she began, “is that if we purge the magic from Frank, I can probably communicate with him again and convince him to help us.”
“But how does a non-magic bear help us get out of here?” Pinkie asked.
“Well, for one thing, he'd be smaller than he is now, so it would be easier to get him out of here. And for another...”
The three of them stared as a positively evil grin crossed Fluttershy's face. “Even without the magic, he's still a five hundred pound grizzly bear with a grudge.”
There was a very breif moment of silence, then Rainbow Dash crashed to the ground beside them.
“Dash!” Sunset cried. “You okay?”
Rainmbow got to her feet and wiped away the small trickle of blood coming from her nose. “I think we're wearing him down!”
She zipped off in a flash of colors. Sunset turned tot he rest of the group.
“Okay, step one, we fix Frank. Step two, we get the hell out of here.”
“No,” Twilight objected. “Step one, we get out of this room before somebody sends a squad in to tranq us again. No, wait, that's step two.”
Twilight ran over to the large doors leading into the observation room. There was a keycard reader next to them. She raised her hands and wrenched the panel off the wall, exposing the wiring. She quickly grabed a handful of wires and started fiddling with them.
“My kingdom for some wire strippers,” she muttered.
“Here ya go!” Pinkie chirped, appearing beside her with the tool in question. Twilight blinked as she took them and stared at her friend.
“How...?”
“Eh, picked them up somewhere. Nobody ever searches the hair.”
Twilight opened her mouth, but Sunset called out to them.
“Twilight, whatever you're doing, do it fast!”
Twilight clipped a pair of wires, stripped the insulation off the ends, then twisted them together. There was a spark and the smell of ozone. A loud clunk could be heard from the doors. Twilight nodded in satisfaction then dashed to the normal sized door nearby and repeated the process.
As she and Pinkie went back to rejoin Sunset and Fluttershy, a thought occurred to her.
“Wait a minute. You have wire strippers in your hair, but nothing sugary to activate your powers?”
“Well, I did. But y'know...”
Pinkie leaned in close to whisper in Twilight's ear. “... I stress eat.”
Twilight opened her mouth, then thought the better of it. “Come on. Let's go fix our friend.”
Pinky is Pinky
I thought for sure they'd brute force the escape with Frank but It's nice to see them going for the surgical strike instead. Far less risks to themselves without an URSA rampaging about and less moral sacrifices.
Anyway, glad to see this get updated, It's been a hot minute since the last one.
......I'm sorry, I just felt a chill go up my spine upon reading that.
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Any bets on who gets chomped first?
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I vote for the director
Nice chapter as always. I’m happy to see things are becoming epic again.
Love Pinkie being Pinkie. And Fluttershy Honestly, I’m starting to wonder which is the most unpredictable between them in the EG world.
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With Fluttershy giving the commands? ...all bets are off.
So is Storm King gonna get mauled to death by Frank?
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What? And not suffer the consequences of abusing his position of power? We want to make him suffer, not kill him.
You know that excuse didn't fly at Nuremberg, Twilight.
Evil Fluttershy?!?!? Run for your lives people. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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True, but she has a point when we remember that the Director is only giving his own people half-truths or outright lies, so many of them might not be aware that what they're doing is illegal to hell and back.
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If they don't have enough brains to be able to figure it out themselves they shouldn't be in a law enforcement job.
"Dumb, dumb, stupid, dumb, dumb"
Also, I love the edge Flutters showed. She still believes in revenge, it would seem.
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Which is likely why they are part of STORM rather than regular law enforcement.
Great story! Looking forward to the next chapter.