Filly Fluttershy: Uprising

by Phazon

The Parasprite Hive

Chapter 16: The Parasprite Hive

Fluttershy galloped toward the pair of doors at the end of the hallway. “Heading out!” she said. The doors opened as soon as she reached them, and a powerful gust of wind blew out through them, tugging on Fluttershy mane and causing her hooves to slide toward the portal. “Eep!” Within a few seconds, Fluttershy’s hooves lifted off the ground as she was sucked out through the portal. At first, she found herself above the evening sky, plummeting toward the earth. Before long, a yellow aura of magic spread through her wings, which soon began flapping.

“The Parasprites have been weakened, but not defeated,” Celestia said. “We need to destroy their fleet next.” Fluttershy nodded, and she gazed down at the fleet of blue airships below. She continued in her descent, her wings bringing her closer to the ships with each passing second. “Aim for the green targets, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy was now close enough to one of the ships to see a large, spherical green node sticking out of its hull. Held in her left hoof was a white and blue metallic staff, the Laser Staff. She held the staff out ahead of her and aimed at the fast approaching airship. Her aim was shaky at first, but within a second, she had the staff pointed at the green node and fired. Her shot hit the node head on, but before she could look to see the damage it caused, she had already flown past. Four more airships were below the first one, each one with a green node somewhere on its body. Fluttershy adjusted her aim as she approached each ship, and one by one, she shot each node as she flew by.

After the fifth node, Fluttershy slowed in her descent. She looked back up and saw the five ships, all in flames. As soon as reached a steady altitude, she turned toward the rest of the fleet, where at least a few dozen more ships were already visible to her. “There are so many different ships!” she said. A few Tribytes tried to fly toward her, but she shot them down with her staff.

“Well, yes,” Celestia said. “There are battleships, cruisers, destroyers, kayaks…”

Fluttershy swerved down and to the left to dodge a massive laser from the nose of one battleship. “No, I mean the Parasprites have lots of ships,” she said. On her right, two destroyers fired several smaller laser shots at her. However, these shots homed in on her, and she found herself trying to dodge them. “I doubt they have any kayaks.”

A third destroyer started firing at Fluttershy from two guns on its front. Celestia pulled her away from the two parallel streams of bullets and toward one of the battleships. “There are a lot of them,” she said. “It might be best to get you out.”

“Now why would you want to do that?” Discord said. “Where you pinheads see adversity, I see opportunity!”

“Discord!” Fluttershy muttered.

“For example,” Discord continued, “this battleship looks like it could use a good home. Now your chance, minions! It’s lootin’ time!”

Several Monoeyes floated down around the ship. Fluttershy looked up to see where they were coming from, and was shocked to see what looked like several huge, translucent tentacles hovering above the battleship. The tentacles almost looked like, and could have possibly been, a swarm of Monoeyes, and they moved toward and began to wrap around the battleship’s hull.

“The Underworld certainly is enthusiastic when it comes to thieving,” Celestia said. She turned Fluttershy toward the left, where an enormous spherical structure loomed in the distance. “Up ahead is where the battleships are being hatched.”

“Hatched?” Fluttershy asked. Four Blits began to trace themselves in the air. Fluttershy fired at them with her staff, and managed to destroy two before another four appeared behind them. “Don’t you mean built?”

“Sorry,” Celestia said. “I keep thinking of the Parasprites as a bee colony. And if their smaller troops are drones, their ships are killer bees.”

“Thou art referring to worker bees,” Luna said bluntly. “Drones serve a completely different purpose.”

“If we want to take down their fleet, we need to target the source of the problem,” Celestia added.

“I just hope there’s no Parasprite queen,” Fluttershy said. She began to fly toward the spherical hive, which had a few floating islands surrounding it. She noticed something green flash above her, and looked up to see three Monoeyes and three Miks were moving in a group. The green flash turned out to be a spherical object, which hurtled down and struck one of the Monoeyes. The object continued falling toward Fluttershy, who jerked left to avoid before it could hit her. “What was that?!” she squeaked.

“Those are also Parasprite troops,” Celestia said, pointing out a group of spheres that were falling toward Fluttershy. “They are called Rozzes.”

Two more Underworld soldiers were also hit by oncoming Rozzes, though the other three managed to move away. Fluttershy, however, was left to dodge each of the Rozzes as they rained down toward on her one by one. “So you know the names of all these enemies too?” she asked.

“Well, you can’t actually pronounce the names of Parasprite troops, so I took a few creative liberties,” Celestia said. Eventually, the Rozzes had stopped coming, but were replaced by Quoils. Fluttershy prepared to move in any direction necessary to dodge, only this time, she aimed her weapon and fired at them. Most of the Quoils were destroyed by her staff, and even though she detonated a few approaching Nukleens, circular orange and green mines that exploded when shot, she had less trouble avoiding them.

“Am I the only one paying attention?” Luna said irritably. “Look! Those Parasprite ‘troops’ are merely copies of Underworld enemies!”

Fluttershy looked down, and was surprised to see Parasprite version of Miks and Monoeyes fighting a group of their original counterparts. The copies were identical in shape to the originals, except their bodies were white and their short, stubby tentacles were black and neon green. The Parasprite Miks even had prehensile tongues, which they and their counterparts were using to lash at one another.

“I’ve got to hand it to them,” Discord said. “Those are some pretty decent knock-offs.”

“First they devour planets, and now they are copying enemies?” Luna said in disgust. “Ugh, lowlifes.”

Two of the Parasprite copies, a Mik and a Monoeye, appeared ahead of Fluttershy and started shooting at her. Fluttershy moved away from their attacks, but when she returned fire, a Rezda moved in front of them and blocked her shots. Noticing a solid object in the center of the Rezda’s square-shaped energy barrier, she fired at it instead.

“So maybe the treasure boxes and Exo Tank were also copies,” Celestia said.

“Can’t say for sure,” Luna said.

“Full disclosure here,” Discord said. “The Mimicuties were courtesy of yours truly.”

Fluttershy was busy shooting down more of the Parasprite Miks and Monoeyes, but she paused after hearing Discord’s confession. “It was you!” she said.

“What?” Discord said. “Don’t you like presents, Fluttershy?”

After a while, Fluttershy had finally shot down the Parasprite copies, and even a few Rezdas in her way, and was now approaching the floating islands that lay before the Parasprite Hive. Much of the islands were obscured by a thick blanket of clouds, though the Hive itself was at a slightly higher altitude.

“We’re nearing a floating island,” Celestia said. “You can hide from the Parasprite fleet by taking a lower route.” She guided Fluttershy above the surface of one of the islands and into the cloud mass covering it.

Inside the clouds, Fluttershy saw groups of Tribytes and Parasprite Miks and Monoeyes. She flew in between the island’s towers and other various structures, dodging enemy fire and shooting down enemies as she went. As soon as the last few enemies were destroyed, she continued to fly over the island. Because she was cruising through the clouds, much of the island was obscured by poor visibility. She could have just as easily been flying through a dense fog. Fortunately, she could still see and moved around the islands tallest structures as she went. However, she also saw something else through the clouds, looming over the side of the island. Lasers fired from the looming figure into the clouds and twisted off course, smashing through the island’s towers as they tried to home in on Fluttershy.

“They’ve sent a destroyer in,” Celestia said. “They’re destroying themselves to get to you.”

“I must give credit to the Parasprites,” Luna said. “They don’t fool around.”

Celestia continued to guide Fluttershy through the clouds. She pulled her away from each of the destroyer’s oncoming attacks that continued to target her. Soon, there was a pause in the destroyer’s assault. Using her magic, Celestia took the opportunity to guide Fluttershy out of the clouds, past the floating island, and out of the destroyer’s range.

Past the group of floating islands, Fluttershy came across more of the Parasprite fleet. At least three ships were ahead, from what she could see, and directly behind the fleet, the Hive itself loomed over her. One more detail caught her eyes as she flew toward the ships. Large green nodes were also present on their hulls as well. She readied her Laser Staff and took aim at the oncoming ships.

“None of these battleships seem to have a helm,” Luna said.

“And I’m not detecting any life forms on the ships either,” Celestia added.

“Something has to be controlling them,” Luna said.

“Weeee aarrrre from outer spaaaaaace,” Discord said, imitating an almost robotic voice.

“Yes, yes, you’re hilarious,” Celestia deadpanned.

Another shot from Fluttershy’s staff hit another green node on one of the Parasprite ships. Moments later, she was flying toward another ship with a node projecting from it; the third one since she’d past the floating islands. “It seems like awfully poor design for these ships to have their weak spots exposed,” she said. After shooting down a Rezda in her path, she fired a shot at the green node, destroying her third Parasprite airship in roughly ten seconds, and spotting a fourth one just a few hundred feet away.

“Or you can thank me for the user-friendly interface,” Celestia said.

“Are you saying that you exposed the ships’ weak spots?!”

“I cast a spell to attach large markers to the ships’ exteriors,” Celestia said. “Those markers connect to the ships’ engines.”

Fluttershy flew by the fifth Parasprite ship and fired her staff at the next green node. “Wow, thank you,” she said.

“Anything to help you destroy the Parasprite fleet,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy flew toward a Parasprite aircraft carrier, where the sixth green node awaited her. Two Jyoks tried to block her path with their lasers, and four Quoils launched themselves at her, but she shot down each of them with her weapon, fired one more shot at the node and continued on past the fleet. Explosions tore through several sections of the aircraft carrier, as well as the last five ships Fluttershy left behind.

The destroyed airships were the least of Fluttershy’s concerns now, because two things still lay ahead of her, and both of them left her feeling anxious. First, over a hundred airships were still positioned in front of the Parasprite Hive. They were all grouped around Fluttershy, and she felt trapped as she flew closer to them. Second, the Hive itself now hung directly above her in the air, adding to the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

Now that Fluttershy was near the underside of the Hive, Celestia led her up the surface of the spherical fortress and toward its face. “We’ve arrived at the Parasprite Hive,” she said. “There’s just one problem.”

“What is it?” Fluttershy said nervously. She fired at several Tribytes in her way, as well as yet another airship with a green node attached to its surface.

“There doesn’t seem to be any way in.”

“There isn’t?” Fluttershy said. She passed by three more ships along the way, each one with one of Celestia’s markers attached to its hull.

“I’m afraid not,” Celestia said. “There’s not a single entry, and we won’t be able to enter by force.” She finally brought Fluttershy in front of the Parasprite Hive, where a yellow energy barrier covered part of the Hive’s surface. More airships, as well as a few Tribytes and other enemies, exited the Hive to join the fleet, passing harmlessly through the yellow energy barrier.

“There is a shield to protect the vessels as they leave the Hive,” Luna said.

“But you always find a way in, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said. “Now what do we do?”

Celestia began to weigh her remaining options, but with less than a minute of Fluttershy’s flight remaining, there was little they could do. Making their own entrance into the Parasprite Hive would take far too long, and any ships they destroyed now would easily be replaced. “At this time, our only option is to fall back,” she said.

“And thou would leave us to fight this battle for ye,” Luna said irritably. “Of course.”

“Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle!” Discord said in delight. “When freaky aliens give you lemons, make freaky alien lemonade! Like… this!”

At first, nothing seemed to happen, and Fluttershy simply hovered in place in the air. Suddenly, Celestia abruptly pulled her to her right, mere seconds before a gold colored battleship rushed past her. “Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked, startled by the ship as it came with feet of ramming into her. Instead, the battleship crashed into the Hive’s barrier head on. The barrier flickered violently as the ship seemed to shatter through a section of it. It continued to flicker and crackle violently, even after the ship’s nose and half of its body were buried inside it. “Well that’s one way to do it.”

“That was… incredible,” Luna said.

“Now just pass through the ship and enter the Parasprite Hive,” Celestia said.

“It’s like a straw stuck in an orange,” Luna added, still in complete shock.

Two Monoeyes and two Miks flew out of the crashed ship, apparently evacuating the wreckage. Fluttershy ignored them as she flew in the opposite direction and toward the ship. Smoke rose from a hole in the side of the ship, and as soon as Fluttershy saw it, she flew inside. However, flames had erupted throughout the battleships interior, and Fluttershy was hit by the intense heat almost immediately. “Ow, hot!” she said. “Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot! Hot!”

* * * * * * * * * *

Beyond the crashed battleship and the launch bay of the Parasprite Hive, Fluttershy touched down in a narrow hallway. The hallway’s floors and ceiling were all built from a smooth, reflective material. Overall, the material was blue-gray in color, but the walls, floors, and ceiling all bore a patchwork design reminiscent of the Parasprite floating islands, and each individual patch of the hallway material was in a different shade of blue-gray. Small, rectangular spots lit up randomly behind several sections of the walls, and though it added to the futuristic appearance of the place, its actual purpose was far less clear.

“Now that you’re in the Parasprite Hive, you’re one step closer to stopping their fleet,” Celestia said. “Your objective is to shut down the Hive’s power generator.”

Fluttershy began making her way through the hallway with little resistance. At every turn, she found the hallway to be completely empty of Parasprite troops. It seemed that the Hive wasn’t responding to her presence, but to Fluttershy, it only made the place feel colder and emptier than it already felt. She reached the end of the passageway, where a door opened into a large empty room with a low ceiling. But as soon as she stepped into the room, she heard a loud blaring noise. “Uh-oh.”

“You must have triggered an alarm,” Celestia said.

At the other end of the room, four doors opened, revealing a small alcove with two Quoils and Parasprite versions of a Skuttler and an Urgle all in a row. Holding her Laser Staff in her hoof, Fluttershy fired a charge shot at the Parasprite Skuttler, and took out the Quoils with two smaller shots. Unfortunately, she was too busy with the other three to notice the Parasprite Urgle, which rushed toward her. Placing its large hands underneath Fluttershy’s body, it then flung its arms up, tossing Fluttershy off the ground. Fluttershy’s body slammed into the low ceiling and fell back onto the ground. She groaned as she tried to get back on her hooves, while the Parasprite Urgle stepped back, preparing to attack again. Before standing back up, Fluttershy aimed her staff and the enemy and fired, punching through it with a short-ranged charge shot. With the room clear of Parasprite soldiers, a door at the end of the room opened. Fluttershy moved carefully toward the door and continued through the Hive.

“The ship the Underworld Army hijacked was very heavily damaged,” Celestia said.

“Well of course,” Luna said. “They did crash it into the hive. And not only did that give us a point of entry, but it also cost both Discord and the Parasprites some of their forces.”

“I am thankful for that bit of good news,” Celestia said.

“Um, you’re welcome?” Discord said.

At the end of another hallway, Fluttershy found herself standing at the entrance of an enormous chamber within the Hive. The chamber consisted of a single path that extended from right to left. On either side of the chamber, a red energy barrier was in place over the path, though the path seemed to continue in past both barriers. Fluttershy was about to step inside when she began to hear something on the right side of the chamber. The sound was soft at first, but grew louder with each passing second, and was soon accompanied by a tremor in the ground. “Does anypony hear that rumble?” she asked.

“It’s coming from a behemoth of a vehicle,” Celestia said. From the right side of the chamber, a large dark gray vehicle raced along the path. The vehicle hovered about an inch off the ground, with electricity coursing through the bottom and connecting to the floor. It passed by Fluttershy and continued on, passing through the red barrier on the left side of the chamber. “It looks like it runs on a loop.”

Fluttershy looked in both directions along the vehicle’s track. There were no doors or passageways on her side of the track, or even directly opposite her side. Instead, she saw a few alcoves in the walls to her right, all of them spread out from each other. “I have to get through here to keep going, do I?” she asked.

“As a disclaimer, thy insurance does not cover being run over by alien trains,” Luna said.

“Outer space is a bit out of the coverage area,” Celestia said.

“What I wouldn’t give to have the Thanatos plan right about now,” Fluttershy murmured. She edged closer to the right and looked out at the track. The nearest recess in the wall was on her side of the track, several yards from where she was standing. She stepped back when she heard the train coming around again, and waited for it to pass.

The train made a loud rumble and caused the ground to shake as it went, but as soon as it passed, Fluttershy went on to the track and ran toward the next alcove. As soon as she reached it, she ran inside and looked out. The next alcove was further ahead, on the other side of the track. Fluttershy retreated further inside the alcove, and as she waited for the train to pass, she checked her left side, where her Laser Staff was magically secured just below her wing.

“Did you know that staffs are generally more powerful from a distance?” Celestia said.

“What do you mean by ‘generally’?” Fluttershy said as she galloped toward the next alcove, continuing the pattern of running along the track while the train was gone.

“Well, there are many different types of staffs,” Celestia said. “Most of them are more powerful when fired from long distances, making them suitable for sniping, though a few are more effective at close range.” Fluttershy ran into the fourth alcove along the track. Looking out at the track, she could see one more alcove ahead of her, and beyond that was the red barrier that the train emerged from. However, when she stepped inside the alcove, a Parasprite Urgle suddenly dropped in from the ceiling. Fluttershy quickly reached for her staff, and as soon as she had it aimed, fired a charge shot. Her shot pierced through the enemy’s body, causing it to disassemble into a few dozen Parasprites before burning to ash. “Then there’s your Laser Staff, which is just as powerful at point-blank range as it is from a hundred meters.”

Fluttershy took a close look at the staff in her hoof. With a long, slender body, tapered muzzle and a blunt, rounded handle, the Laser Staff wasn’t especially different from other staffs. However, Fluttershy took particular interest in the blue lines that ran along its white body. “This staff looks a lot like the Parasprite enemies,” she said.

“Hmm,” Celestia said, examining the weapon for herself. “Aesthetically, there is a resemblance, but there’s nothing in its name or flavor text to suggest that its design was inspired by them.”

“Besides, all of thy weapons have been imbued with the power of the gods,” Luna said.

“Oh,” Fluttershy said. “So are earth ponies able to use them?”

“I doubt it,” Luna said. “Even if they were, these weapons aren’t likely to fall into their hooves.”

“They miss out on a lot,” Discord said tersely.

“Thou know the saying about earth ponies,” Luna started to say, and was soon joined by Discord. “‘Born crying, soon they’re dying.’”

“That’s kind of mean, isn’t it?” Fluttershy said.

“Well I’ve always liked the saying about the gods better,” Discord said. This time, he was joined by both Luna and Celestia. “‘Powerful and frightening, smite everything with lighting.’”

“That one doesn’t sound much better either,” Fluttershy said. “It just makes all the gods sound like violent sociopaths. And Celestia isn’t like that at all, right?”

“Of course not, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.

“As long as thou ask naught of her teen years,” Luna interjected.

“What did she say?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nothing, Fluttershy,” Celestia calmly asserted. “Absolutely nothing.”

Inside the last alcove was a small elevator. The elevator took Fluttershy down one floor when she stepped onto it, and when it came to a stop, she saw a pool of warm water with steam coming from it.

“Fluttershy, there’s a hot spring,” Celestia said.

“Wait,” Luna said, just as Fluttershy started to canter toward the spring. “This is a Parasprite hot spring. Thou know not if it is dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Fluttershy said as she waded into the hot spring. She moved her hoof through the warm, shallow water, and then sat down. “It doesn’t feel any different from the other hot springs.”

After a few minutes passed, Fluttershy stepped out of the hot spring and continued on through a nearby door. The room beyond that door was circular in shape, with a pillar standing in the center. The floor rotated counterclockwise around the center of the room, and three Jyoks and two Nukleens hovered above the ground.

“There’s an Aether Ring to your left,” Celestia said.

“It’s likely a Parasprite imitation,” Luna said.

“I don’t care,” Fluttershy said, spotting the Aether Ring sitting just outside the rotating floor and trotting toward it. As soon as she reached it, she stepped inside and activated the vehicle. Her body floated within the ring, and she placed her hooves on the controls. “As long as it works, I’m going to use it.”

With her hooves on the controls, Fluttershy fired the Aether Ring’s short-range gun at the Jyoks while trying to avoid shooting the explosive Nukleens. The Jyoks were quickly shot down, but two Kolmas, floating wheel-shaped enemies with white plates covering the circumference of their black bodies, appeared in the room to take their place. Fluttershy fired at them, but her shots did little to the protective white plates surrounding them.

One of the Kolmas rose up and began to spin its wheel-shaped body around its axis, causing its plates to fly off at Fluttershy. Fluttershy maneuvered the Aether Ring away from the Kolma’s line of fire. In the process, she moved around the second Kolma and fired at one of its two unprotected circular sides. A few shots from the Aether Ring’s gun destroyed the second Kolma, and by the time she started firing at the first one, it had thrown off all of its protective plates. Once the Kolmas were destroyed, Fluttershy easily shot down a Zaurum and two Parasprite Urgles that replaced them.

As soon as Fluttershy destroyed the last Parasprite Urgle, the two Nukleens vanished from the room. Another door opened, and Fluttershy piloted the Aether Ring into the adjoining hallway. At the end of the hallway, she found a small circular room with a hole in the floor.

“There appears to be a passageway leading downward,” Celestia said. “You should be able to use that Aether Ring to gently hover to the bottom.”

Fluttershy moved the Aether Ring over the hole and decelerated, allowing it to float down the hole and into a shaft below. The Aether Ring came to a stop at a platform just beneath the hole, and Fluttershy decided to look further down the shaft. The shaft was empty for the most part, and the bottom of it wasn’t especially far down with the Aether Ring. However, there were also two recesses in the walls. The first was at the same height as the platform Fluttershy was on, and inside was a spherical blue switch. Fluttershy shot at the switch with the Aether Ring’s gun, activating the switch and causing another platform to appear further down the shaft. This platform extended to one of the walls of the shaft, and incidentally was also at the same level as the second alcove.

Fluttershy moved off of the first platform, allowing the Aether Ring to hover down to the second. As she got closer to the platform, she could see into the alcove and noticed a blue light inside it. Eventually, she realized what it was that she was seeing inside. “Another Zodiac Chamber,” Fluttershy said.

“In the Parasprite Hive?” Celestia said. “What an odd place to find one.”

Fluttershy moved the Aether Ring into the alcove and onto the beacon of light. However, as soon as she hovered over the beacon and let its light wash over her, the Aether Ring disappeared from around her. A second later, she found herself standing on her own hooves inside the Zodiac Chamber. After being unable to find the Aether Ring nearby, Fluttershy approached the pedestal at the other end of the chamber. As soon as she reached it, a thin gray staff materialized above the pedestal. The staff’s handle resembled a scorpion’s pincer, and it bore a sight in the shape of a scorpion’s tail. Fluttershy grabbed the weapon, known as the Scorpio Staff, and once it was secured by Celestia’s magic, she left the Zodiac Chamber.

As soon as she returned to the Hive, Fluttershy dropped down from the platform to the bottom of the shaft. A door at the bottom of the shaft led her to another hallway. She moved through the hallway, and when she reached the door at the end of it, she found herself staring out at the heart of the Parasprite Hive. As far as she could see, everything around her was a clear sky blue. Much of the Hive’s interior was hollow, though several white structures covered the very bottom of the area, bearing a resemblance to arctic ice floes due to the wide open expanse of the area and the blue backdrop created by the walls of the Hive interior.

“I can’t believe all of this actually fits inside the Parasprite Hive,” Fluttershy said.

“It is quite expansive,” Celestia said.

A pair of blue-gray rails appeared in front of the ledge Fluttershy stood on. Fluttershy hopped onto the rails, and their magic went through her hooves and carried her toward the center of the Hive. Along the way, several Parasprite enemies, including four Miks, a Jyok, two Monoeyes and four Tribytes hovered ahead of her. Taking her Laser Staff into her hoof, Fluttershy opened fire on the group of enemies. However, once those enemies were taken out, two more Jyoks and two Rezdas appeared above the rails ahead of her. The Rezdas hovered in place over the grind rails, positioning their energy-based shields over the rails and in Fluttershy’s path. Meanwhile, the Jyoks hid behind the Rezda’s shields, allowing them to aim their lasers from behind safe cover. But before Fluttershy could run into either the Rezdas’ shields or the Jyoks’ lasers, a Blader flew past her and toward the four enemies. The Blader barreled through the center of both Redzas and into the two Jyoks, destroying all four and clearing Fluttershy’s path.

“The Forces of Nature?” Fluttershy said.

“Do not misinterpret my actions, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “I am not here to help thee. It is simply in my best interest to keep thee alive for now.”

A second Blader flew by and joined the first one. Each one fired a laser at one of two Parasprite Monoeyes still in the area before flying off.

“Aw…” Celestia said. “It looks like Little Miss Cactus has a soft spot for Fluttershy.”

“Keep thy voice down!” Luna hissed. “Others are listening! Er…” She paused for a moment, and then switched to a loud, booming voice. “WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT TRYING TO HELP THEE, FLUTTERSHY!”

“Oh really?” Celestia teased.

“That’s fine,” Fluttershy muttered. “I don’t like you anyway.”

“RRGH, THOU ART SO INFURIATING!” Luna shouted. “THIS IS WHY WE KEPT TRYING TO KILL THEE!”

“Really, and dismantling your weapons of mass destruction had nothing to do with it?” Celestia said.

“… That was part of it,” Luna grumbled.

Fluttershy passed over a pair of partially constructed battleships underneath the grind rails as she made her way toward the center of the Hive. Awaiting her at the center was what appeared to be a bluish-white tower, though instead of rising out of any part of the ground, it was floating in the air. “This will take you to the Parasprite Hive’s power generator,” Celestia said. “Destroy the generator to neutralize the entire Hive.”

Fluttershy gazed nervously at the structure as the grind rails brought her closer to it. She entered through a hexagonal opening near the base of the structure. The rails spiraled up the interior of a cylindrical chamber inside and came to an end at another hexagonal opening at the top. Once she reached the end of them, Fluttershy jumped off the rails and landed inside a large room within the structure. A door opened at the other side of the room, and she made her way toward it and the Parasprite Hive’s generator room.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy stood on a ledge overlooking a massive chamber at the center of the Parasprite Hive. A spherical object with several large points extending from it floated in the middle of the chamber, glowing with an intense yellow light. Four pairs of rails, one red, one yellow, one blue and one green, formed their own winding paths around the sphere. “That’s the Parasprite Hive’s power generator,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy brought a foreleg over her face in an attempt to shield her eyes from the generator’s harsh glow. “It’s as bright as the sun,” she said. Turning her eyes away from the generator, she saw that one set of rails came near the ledge she was standing on. Stepping up to the edge, she hesitated for a second before jumping onto the yellow pair of rails. Though she stumbled for a moment, her hooves stayed on the pair of rails, which immediately started carrying her along them.

As soon as she was standing securely on the pair of yellow rails, Fluttershy took the Laser Staff from her side. Aiming it at the generator, she fired a single charge shot. She kept her weapon pointed at her target and waited several seconds for it to charge before firing again. Floating above her were three guard units resembling giant Tribytes. One of them fired a spherical energy shot at her, but because the grind rails carried her along without stopping, the shot was too slow to hit her.

Eventually, she reached a point in the loop where all four sets of rails aligned themselves next to each other. Though she wasn’t yet considering switching to another set of rails, she noticed a section of the green rails on her left become electrified. She continued along the yellow rails and fired another charge shot at the generator. Cracks formed on the surface of the generator with each of her attacks, and one shot even pierced a few inches into it.

After her fourth attack on the generator, Fluttershy noticed something fly into the chamber. As soon as it flew up to the generator, Fluttershy realized that that something was a certain blue unicorn mare. “Trixie?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Looks like you could use a hoof there, and the Great and Powerful Trixie is here to provide it!” Trixie said.

“Actually… I think I’ve got it under control,” Fluttershy said, focusing her attention back on her target.

Trixie scowled at Fluttershy, seemingly taking offense to what the latter said. After a second, she shrugged it off and began to gather the magic in her horn. “This is what you call having it under control?” she scoffed. “Watch and see how my magic handles the job!” Several small blasts of magic rained down from Trixie’s horn and exploded on contact with the generator. However, instead of causing any damage, the energy and flames from her assault spread across the surface and appeared to seep inside. The generator glowed with increased intensity, the three guard units above changed to a pale magenta, and three protective plates materialized around the sides of the generator. “That’s… odd.”

Fluttershy stared in shock at the changes to the generator, and the hoof that held her weapon started to shake. “What did you do?!” she yelled out.

“Apparently, adding heat to heat only makes it hotter,” Celestia said.

“Ha ha ha…” Trixie laughed nervously. “That is to say, oops. My bad.”

“My bad?” Fluttershy said angrily, glaring up at Trixie even as the grind rails kept moving her around the generator. “That’s all you have to say for yourself?!”

“W-Well you said you had everything under control, right? Trixie said. The glare Fluttershy gave her remained unchanged. “But no, the Great and Powerful Trixie has one more message to impart to you. I wish you luck! You’re going to need it. And with that, Trixie must leave you!”

Fluttershy watched as Trixie flew out of the generator room. As soon as Trixie was gone, Fluttershy lifted her weapon hoof to her foreleg in a sort of facehoof. “Arrgh! What an idiot!” she said. Once again, the yellow set of rails returned her to where the four aligned next to each other. This time however, a section of the yellow rails became electrified, as well as the red ones to her right. Bending her knees, she hopped off of the yellow rails and landed on the green ones to her left. She continued along the green rails and aimed her staff at the generator again. “Quick Charge,” she said quietly. Blue light flashed throughout her body, and she fired a charge shot at the generator. Her staff charged up again less than a second later, and she fired another charge shot.

After an additional eight charge shots fired in quick succession, the glow emanating from the generator started to flicker. The three guard units reverted back to their original blue color, and along with the three protective plates, they fell from their positions around the now crumbling generator. Fluttershy stopped riding along the grind rails as a yellow beam of light shone down on her, and within a few seconds, she was extracted from the generator room.

On the outside, the Parasprite Hive was also crumbling on the outside. For a few seconds, the Hive imploded on itself, and every nearby airship in its fleet was pulled in. The implosion reversed after those few seconds, and the Parasprite Hive, its entire fleet of airships, and all of the millions of Parasprites that made them up were caught within a gigantic explosion.

Meanwhile, Trixie hovered outside the blast radius of the Parasprite Hive’s explosion. As the explosion subsided, she looked up at the evening sky. “And now, on to the Parasprite Brain,” she said.

Author's Note:

Ugh, maybe it's because I had a lot of stuff to do last week and sort of rushed to finish this over the weekend. Maybe it's because I don't really go back to the Aurum chapters all that much, and thus hadn't thought out this chapter as much in the last few months as I did many of the game's other chapters. Or maybe it's because I just don't find the Aurum subplot all that interesting and am trying to push through until I reach the next subarc. Whatever it is, this took longer than it should have, and I'm about as confident in this chapter as I am in the Hewdraw and Reaper chapters. Oh well, this subarc's almost done at least.
Also, to those of you who never noticed, there is in fact a fourth, blue grind rail in the Aurum Generator boss fight. It's on the far left when the rails line up with each other, and it actually brings you close enough to the generator to use melee attacks. Keep that in mind for when you want to go into this chapter with a short-ranged weapon, like a club or an arm or claws.
Finally, if you’re wondering where Rainbow Dash is during the Parasprite invasion, scroll up the page a bit. You can’t miss her.

Comments

[Phazon]

2535785 Admittedly, it does contrast with the cartoon violence of My Little Pony and the Critical Existence Failure associated with having a health bar (Kid Icarus: Uprising). Honestly, I didn't want to use the gore tag initially. But I don't think I can pull off Critical Existence Failure in a fanfiction setting, and I don't know whether it was having Fluttershy go after the Phosphora stand-in with Raptor Claws or having the Cragalanche stand-in be... well, I don't want to give too much away. The point is, I figured I would need it.