Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

Terminal Two: Final Battle

ATLAS STRONGEST TOURNAMENT
~BICO
PART 7: TERMINAL TWO
ACT II: FINAL BATTLE

Pinkie Pie finished packing ordnance into the bore of her cannon and slipped inside. "Alright, Fluttershy, when I give you the signal, I want you to light that fuse."

"You mean..." Fluttershy timidly poked at the wick sticking out the cannon's vent. "This fuse?"

"That's right," Pinkie affirmed.

"O-okay..." Fluttershy said, opening the top of a lighter and flicking the flint with her dextrous alula.

"Let the..." came an echoing cry from the center of the arena.

"Now, now!" Pinkie squealed, ducking down into the base of the bore.

"A-alright..." Fluttershy squeaked, extending her wing as she attempted to lean her body as far from the wick as possible. The flame caught the fuse, and with a gasp, Fluttershy dove for cover. Moments later, the cannon fired, confetti flying everywhere and a pink blur arching over the ring.

"Poooooonyyyyyyyyy coooooommmmmbaaaaaaaaaaat!" Pinkie screeched as she rocketed through the sky. She donned her sunglasses and gave a grin as she saw the cheering crowd. "Now that was some real announci—" She ceased her self-congratulatory comment abruptly upon finding herself flattened upon the protective force field separating the battleground from the audience. "Over, line..." she moaned as she slid down the inside of the shield. "Drop four hundred..."

Back in the ring, Luna disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving the two opponents to their own devices. Neither made a move to attack nor to defend. They merely stood there, sizing each other up.

"I've watched your matches," Scootaloo said, beginning to circle the ring counterclockwise. "I know your moves and your tricks. After three high-stakes matches, you'll be out of surprises."

"And I'm well aware of your particular talents," Rarity replied, moving leftward around the outside of the ring as well. "Your fighting style is little different from Rainbow's, though she relies more on speed and you on skill, which is quite commendable, by the way." She gave her opponent a gracious smile. "I've always valued skill over power and speed, myself. Of course, your special talent gives you an even greater edge. If you've seen all my moves so far, that means you can predict them. Not only that, but you can copy them perfectly so long as you have the physical ability to do so, am I right?"

Scootaloo gave her a shallow nod at about the time the two mares reached each other's starting spots, and they simultaneously turned and began to pace around each other the opposite way. "You don't seem worried. You think you know how this is going to end?"

"Don't you?" Rarity asked.

Scootaloo grinned. "I think I know something you don't, anyway."

Rarity halted, an eyebrow cocked curiously. "Oh? Please, enlighten me."

Scootaloo smirked and leaped over the edge of the crystal spire. As she fell, she opened her right wing and her scooter assembled itself. Her hind hooves touched the deck, and her wings caught the updraft, allowing her to sail onto one of the many midair roads. "I got a new scooter, and it's wicked awesome!"

"Well," Rarity said as she watched Scootaloo race away. "This will certainly make things interesting. Let the hunt begin!"

---

---

Underneath the stadium, Princess Aurelia gazed upon the translucent cocoon containing their draconic prisoner as she and her subjects were pulled slowly down a tunnel upon a large wagon by several undisguised changeling servants. A grimace stretched across her—or rather Scootaloo's—face. "Something's just not right about this."

The changeling who assumed Spike's form furrowed his brow with folded arms. "It's just not coming to me. Shouldn't I be getting new memories by now? It's just a blank."

"You should," Aurelia said. "The cocoon should allow an immediate update of memories that weren't absorbed and transmitted via consumed fighting spirit. This is most unsatisfactory. Without the support of the magic of the cocoons, the memories I've gathered for you will degrade at an accelerated rate as that energy is burned through. What could be causing this interference, though?"

"Perhaps some kind of protective spell was placed on him?" Argent said, turning away from the cocoon that held his original. "I know such mind magic to be within Princess Luna's realm of capabilities, and she does suspect your telepathic powers... perhaps she did anticipate our plan and made moves to protect Spike."

"But why would she not protect him from my initial incorporation?" Aurelia stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps she did not know the method by which I absorb personae? Or she did not find out in time? On the other hoof, she could also have been misleading us this entire time..." She turned to Argent. "Could she have?"

Argent shrugged, though his face was tight with concern. "I... suppose. Luna is a very enigmatic mare, after all."

"Indeed she is, which is why this troubles me all the more," Aurelia said. "It's very difficult to predict such a pony. Even Mommy can't predict her next move."

"'Course, she couldn't predict the next move of a pygophilous pink pony princess," Argent muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Aurelia shot him an irate glance.

"Nothing!" Argent gave her a toothy grin.

"Perhaps dragons are merely especially resilient to your telepathy, my Princess," Lulamoon offered with a slight bow. "It is already known that they are resistant to magic. Perhaps you merely need to give it an extra effort. Surely no draconic defenses can stand against your full power."

Aurelia regarded her disguised changeling subject for a moment before smiling. "Yes, of course you're right. I will fix this problem straight away!" She turned back to the cocoon and put her hooves upon it, closing her eyes and concentrating.

The false Spike's eyes flickered a soft pink, and he gasped. "Oh! I... I think I'm getting it, now. Yes, it's flashing right in front of my eyes!"

"Oh," Aurelia said, surprise evident in her voice. "I didn't even think I'd started, yet." She beamed widely. "I guess I really am good!"

Argent, meanwhile, glared skeptically at Lulamoon, who had tugged her hood down partially over her face. That didn't completely hide the soft glow of pink that shone from the general area where her horn was hidden beneath it. "Hey... did you cast a spell just now?"

"Uh..." Lulamoon hesitated, but only for a moment before she thrust her muzzle in the air and sniffed. "Of course. The Dark and Mysterious Lulamoon was merely in need of an air refreshing spell. Some changelings around here obviously haven't taken a bath in a while, and it's really bothersome!"

"Bath?" Argent repeated absently. He lifted his right foreleg and sniffed, and then jerked his head away, his muzzle wrinkled in a sour expression.

"Your terrible smell, aside," Aurelia said. "We have finally released Spike's up-to-date memories, which means we can now deploy our new Applejack!" She turned and addressed a small form that had been sleeping in the corner. "Hey, are you ready for your transformation to begin?"

The tiny pony-shaped creature yawned and looked up at her princess with sleepy eyes. "Huh? Oh, sure..." The young changeling stood, but stumbled to the deck as a wheel hit a small stone. "Oops."

Aurelia sighed and rolled her eyes, and walked up to her subject, green magic beginning to swirl around her. "Alright, just don't move." Applejack's image coalesced around her and then flowed from her body and curled around her target. The ghostly image then stood in front of her, and quickly solidified into a flesh and blood pony. "There we are. Not a bad simulacrum, if I do say so, myself. How do you feel?"

"Kinda weird, I reckon," the false Applejack said. "I ain't never worn nopony else's skin before. An' all these thoughts rollin' through my head. Woo-ee, I sure am glad I don't remember wakin' up from that flank kickin' Rare gave me. I mean... Applejack."

"That's normal," Aurelia said. "Now you just need to go replace Applejack. Our 'Rainbow Dash' is with her, now, and we have to move quickly before she's fully recovered from..." she trailed off as she heard the echo of galloping hooves in the distance. "What is that?"

An orange mare with a cowcolt hat and three apples on each flank ran right in front of the procession, halting suddenly when she noticed the changeling pulled cart. "Wh-whoa!" She looked around. "Did I make a wrong turn? Shoot, I guess that's what I get for bein' in a hurry..."

"How... how is she here?" Aurelia turned to Argent. "Isn't she still at the stadium with our agent?"

Argent nodded slowly. "She... she was only a moment ago when Rainbow reported in last. There's no way..."

"Perhaps it was a ruse!" Lulamoon interjected. "Yes, a clever ruse. The pony up there with Rainbow must be some kind of imposter. Or perhaps Rainbow is the imposter, and is actually some spy who has replaced our spy in order to feed us false information!"

"That's ridiculous," Aurelia said, frowning at her underling. "But whatever the case, that certainly looks like our target." She turned to her new Applejack and ordered, "Go get her."

Faux-Applejack leaped over the front of the carriage and landed firmly on her face. "Owowowow!"

"You should probably hurry up," Lulamoon said to the disguised Agent Malus before locking eyes with the newly arrived Applejack. "She might use this opportunity to run away."

The intruder gave an almost imperceptible nod before turning and hauling flank down the tunnel, away from the changelings.

"Get her!" Aurelia ordered the changelings who were pulling the wagon. They immediately sprang into action, shedding their harnesses and taking to the air. She turned to her other underlings with a frustrated scowl. "Well? Don't just stand there. Help them!"

Her two subordinates responded with a salute and dove into the fray.

---

Scootaloo took the ramp, careening through the air as crystal projectiles hurled past her. Her wheels hit the next crystal road, though she barely felt the impact. It was like landing on cloud, in fact. There were perks to being friends with an engineering genius, she decided.

Racing around like a madmare wasn't going to win this fight, however. Scootaloo needed to strike back. She tapped a button on her handlebars and a long antenna popped out, waving high in the air. The clouds above crackled with anticipation. She smirked as she prepared herself, for this antenna was magically treated to attract electricity better than any lightning rod. A white arc burned through the sky a moment later, just as she'd expected, and crashed into her scooter. She felt the electricity attempt to course through her body, but she seized it and redirected it, and with a jab of her hoof toward the ring in the distance, she discharged the lightning right at her opponent.

Rarity, for her part, reacted the moment she felt her fur begin to stand on end. With a flash of her horn, a wall of crystal was erected between her and Scootaloo, and a moment later it was destroyed by the pegasus' strike. Rarity flew backward, thoroughly jarred by the shock wave, but she recovered almost immediately.

When Rarity felt the static beginning to build again, she once more brought her defenses up, only to have them knocked down again. This pattern kept repeating itself as Scootaloo launched a barrage assault. Rarity knew she couldn't let herself stay on the defensive for long, though. She leaped off of the spire, herself, and magicked a ledge to land on before disappearing into the mountain.

Scootaloo snorted. "Shoot, now what am I gonna do?" An explosion rocked the side of the mountain and a volley of gems flew toward her. In their midst, she could also spot Rarity's gleaming form rocketing through the air. "Her crystal form?" She scowled. "You wanna play it the hard way, huh?" She ollied from the track and began to alternatively weave through and grind off of the projectiles until she could see the back of Rarity's head through her eyes. She leaped over her handlebars and delivered a powerful jumpkick to her foe's midsection, shattering her into pieces.

"Wh-what?" Scootaloo gazed at Rarity's frozen crystal face as it soared over her head while her legs fell beneath her. Her heart nearly stopped, but it began again quite suddenly when she realized that there was the broken remains of a track leading right into one of the crystal mountain's tunnels dead ahead, and she would be dead ahead of schedule if she didn't get a little extra lift.

With a hasty return to the deck of her scooter and a quick buzz of her wings, Scootaloo managed to land roughly on the track, and zipped into the dark of the cave. As she sped along she thought aloud, "Did I just win? Did I just...?"

A jewel burst from the wall, pelting Scootaloo's hide hard enough to raise a bruise, and she yelped in pain. More began to fire out of the walls like bullets, and the tight corridor prevented her from dodging adequately, leaving her to pour on the speed as she attempted to shield her vital parts with her foreleg. "I guess this is one of those traps Luna mentioned!" she cried.

"Correct!" a voice echoed through the tunnel as a white hoof suddenly filled Scootaloo's vision. Rarity hammered her opponent's face, lifting her off of her scooter and into the ground. She pressed her attack even as the other pony sprang back to her hooves, twirling through the air inscribing graceful arcs as she punished Scootaloo's body with her precision strikes.

Scootaloo was panicking as hooves flew at her in the darkness. She struggled to counterattack, but it was as if she was fighting a shadow within shadows. She simply couldn't hit what she couldn't see.

"What's the matter, Darling?" Rarity's voice came as she planted a kick into Scootaloo's ribs. "Dash never taught you blind fighting? Funny, since charging in blind was always her thing." She laughed and drove her shoulder into Scootaloo, knocking her back.

"How can you... be this good... in the dark?" Scootaloo gasped.

"Oh, Darling," Rarity said with a hint of mischief in her voice. "Some ponies would say I'm at my best in the dark. Though these night vision goggles I came across help."

"N-night vision...?" Scootaloo scoffed. "That's cheating."

"Au contraire," Rarity said. "It's using the tools available. However, I don't really need them. My master, for all his faults, taught his students how to fight in nearly every situation. I suppose we've already proven whose teaching method is best based on that disparity alone. However, I'll be fair."

Scootaloo flinched as she felt something hit her in the chest. She grabbed onto it, and realized that it was some sort of mask. "Night vision...?"

"Better put it on quick!" Rarity said, and to emphasize she struck Scootaloo again, causing her to backpedal.

Scootaloo hastily pulled the mask over her face and adjusted it. The world around her was suddenly very green and not as clear as she would have liked. However, when she saw Rarity's form advancing on her, she reacted as she would have in daylight, her reflexes crisp as she dodged and countered with expert timing.

"I... see!" Rarity said as she barely dodged a strike to her face. "The difference is like night and day... literally! You haven't really learned anything from Dash at all, have you?"

"What?" Scootaloo replied angrily. "That's stupid. She's my master!" She swung a bit more sloppily as she spat those words, missing her opponent entirely.

"Oh, ho, have you?" Rarity said. "Then why is it that you can meet my every attack with the perfect defense and counter perfectly when you can see me, but when you cannot you act like any little foal fighting in the dark?"

Scootaloo struck true this time, snapping Rarity's head back and eliciting a satisfying squeak from her. "It's hard to know where to punch in the dark is all."

"No, that's not it!" Rarity insisted as she recovered her form and they continued to exchange blows. "You... you rely on your special talent. Those... photographic reflexes of yours let you... understand any moves you see... and even predict when those moves are... coming from another pony based on... the visual cues you pick up from them."

Scootaloo choked when Rarity's hoof struck her esophagus. "Ghka! Yeah, so what?"

"Maybe it's time you stopped relying on your knowledge of how other ponies move, and start trying to understand how you move?" With a flash of her horn, she lit the tunnel up with her magic.

"Augh!" Scootaloo cried as her night vision goggles blinded her with a solid green field of light. She ripped the goggles off her face, but the distraction provided Rarity the opening she needed to lay into her with extreme violence of action. Scootaloo found her back literally to the wall as she was pounded into pulp.

Rarity drove her hoof into Scootaloo's gut, and a warm, sticky fluid splashed on her foreleg. She squealed in horror. "Oh, I hope that isn't what I think it is!"

Scootaloo coughed and said in a raspy voice. "T-to me..."

"Pardon?"

"T-to me," Scootaloo repeated, a bit louder. "My scooter!"

Rarity blinked in the darkness before she was struck in the back of the head by a flying kick scooter.

"Apple Bloom's recall feature sure came in a lot more hoofy than I thought it would," Scootaloo remarked as she collapsed it and tucked it under her wing. She sighed and leaned back against the wall while Rarity groaned, half unconscious, on the ground. Part of the wall felt as if it had depressed, however, and then the ground fell out from underneath her.

---

---

"Are you all serious?" Aurelia growled. Before her, ten changeling soldiers were laid out, and four more were being mercilessly beaten by the Applejack imposter even as they surrounded her.

Agent Malus was dancing lightly on her back hooves, using powerful punch combinations to beat her opponents into the ground. Her boxing style was quite unlike the mare she was portraying, but she figured at this point keeping up appearances hardly mattered. "A'right, ya mook," she spat as she squared off with another changeling. "Get ready to lose some teeth!" She delivered a double jab followed by a vicious hook that knocked the changeling out cold.

Argent and Lulamoon, meanwhile, were staying back, harrying Malus. Lulamoon, of course, seemed to be doing a better job of tripping up the changelings rather than Malus, as well as getting in the way of Argent's shots. This caused Princess Aurelia no small amount of consternation.

"Hey, Looneygoon!" Aurelia growled. "Do you want her to get away? Is that what this is?"

"Of course not, Princess!" Lulamoon responded. "Why, that would be ridiculous. What possible reason could I have for wanting her to get away?" She stared daggers at the disguised agent, who seemed to be enjoying her brawl far too much.

"I've got a bead on her!" Argent shouted, his horn flaring silver. He fired a shot which exploded at Malus' hooves, knocking her and the changeling with whom she was exchanging blows back.

The hat and the blonde mane on Malus' head toppled to the ground, revealing a light and dark pink striped mane that fell over one eye. She patted her head and sighed. "I kinda liked bein' a blonde for once..."

The two remaining changelings literally leaped at the opportunity to capture the fallen agent, but she quickly proved her prowess when she punched them both in the face at the same time and got back onto all fours. When she moved to charge Argent, however, a rose colored shield appeared around her, and she smashed her muzzled into its very solid interior.

"My princess," Shining Armor greeted the monarch-in-training. "I'm glad that I managed to steal away to check on what's been going on." He smirked at Argent. "I see my counterpart was unable to keep things under control."

Argent rolled his eyes. "Oh, here we go again. This is like that time when you took all the credit for getting red team's flag back in boot camp when I clearly distracted the guard enough to..."

"You do realize that didn't actually happen to you, right?" Aurelia said with a roll of her eyes. "I keep telling you, don't let yourselves become the masks. Ugh. This is why I hate working with larvae."

"You're a larva, too, y'know..." Argent muttered.

"Yes, but I'm a Royal Larva Princess!" Aurelia countered. "Without me, you fools wouldn't be able to take on another pony's shape at all, and those personae in your heads would fade within hours." She scoffed, turning her attention to the captured agent. "However, it's fortunate that you happened to stumble across us, my little pony."

"Yeah?" Malus said, puffing out her chest. "And why's that?"

Aurelia scrutinized her, and then turned her attention to the cocooned Spike. "I've had a... feeling. Something was definitely off about this one." She turned to the changeling Spike and closed her eyes. "Quick, what color are Scootaloo's eyes?"

"U-uh..." the fake Spike stammered. "Sort of a... grayish... mulberry?"

"Wrong!" Aurelia's eyes snapped open to reveal Scootaloo's grayish purple eyes. "It's as I thought. That..." She pointed her hoof at the unconscious dragon. "Is an imposter!" Green magic flared up around her and shot toward the cocoon, enveloping it like a flame, and when it dissipated a gold-spined, blue-scaled, and obviously female dragon lay on the floor.

The changelings all gasped, one shouting, "An imposter? How horrible!"

Aurelia whirled on her subjects. "Alright, I need you..." She pointed at a duo of changelings. "To work that mare over and find out what she knows. You..." She pointed at another changeling. "Tie that imposter dragon up!" She turned to Shining. "I need you to conduct a search of these tunnels. She came from the left, so concentrate your search that way. We will find from where she came and hopefully Spike will be there as well." She pointed at Lulamoon and Argent. "You're going to take my new Applejack and help her replace the original in as efficient and timely a matter as possible." Her eyes narrowed. "I'm going to need a Rarity for the party I'm about to crash."

---

Rarity made her way through the dark caverns with the expertise of an experienced spelunker. Of course, she was rather knowledgeable of cave systems given her years of experience searching for gems, and the gem locating spell that had led to the discovery of her special talent allowed her intimate knowledge of the structure of the interior of the giant crystal she was now within. "And if I'm right," she whispered to herself. "Scootaloo should have ended up right about..."

Upon seeing the cavern to where her horn had led her, Rarity let slip a gasp. It was impressively huge, but also filled with storm clouds both above and below. The clouds roiled with lightning constantly, keeping the entire room lit enough at all times to see clearly.

A lightning bolt streaked from one of the clouds above, hitting right above the small entrance to the cavern. Rarity was forced to gallop along the single crystal road that stretched toward the center of the room to avoid the falling crystals that became a total cave in of the tunnel from which she had just come as more lightning struck the entrance.

Scootaloo emerged from the clouds, a wild grin on her face. "You're in my world, now, Miss Rarity. Time to ride the lightning!" She buzzed along the upper cloud layer upside down, scooping up electricity from the vapor and hurling it at her opponent, who scrambled along the path to avoid it. She gathered a particularly strong charge and blew up the road in front of Rarity, forcing her to back up, and then did the same behind her. "You've got no place to run, now!" She launched a bolt right at Rarity, who screamed and leaped off the path and into the clouds.

Scootaloo's mouth hung open in awe of what her foe had done to avoid her attack. "She... she jumped. Omigosh, she jumped!" She emerged fully from the clouds and buzzed down to the lower layer, her head on a swivel. "Did... did she fall all the way down to the bottom? How far is it? Could she be...?" She gulped.

Behind the panicked pegasus, Rarity leaped from the clouds in a midair pirouette, spitting needles out of her mouth as she did. The needles struck Scootaloo in the back and wings, and she dropped to the clouds below. Rarity's horn began to shine, and a crystal post rose from the cloud below her and she landed gracefully upon it. "These things are everywhere below all this fog, you know. Rather useful for one with my special talent, wouldn't you say, Dear?"

"Ch-cheap trick," Scootaloo seethed as she attempted—and failed—to move her paralyzed wings enough to fly. "Alright... you may have grounded me... or... 'clouded' me... but I still have the advantage!"

"Of course, Darling," Rarity said with an upturned snout. "Let's get to it, then?" She began to gallop toward her foe, crystal pedestals emerging with every step she took to support her, and when she finally met Scootaloo she found herself blown back by a sudden shock.

Scootaloo laughed as she swirled a hoof in the clouds beneath her and electricity sparked. "Like I said, I still have the advantage." She reared up on her hind legs and began to move toward Rarity, sweeping her hooves across the vapor in graceful arcs, spinning around as she delivered her charged attacks.

Rarity attempted to parry or block, but even when she did so, the lightning stored in Scootaloo's limbs burned her when she touched the filly's flesh. "Ooh, that rather smarts." She tried to put some distance between them, and noticed something interesting. "Oh, my... is that ballet?"

"Wh-what?" Scootaloo demanded. "Of... of course not... I mean... maybe it looks a little... it's just effective, okay?"

"Oh, my," Rarity said with a giggle. "I don't think Rainbow taught you that. You're right, though. It really suits you." She grinned and used the momentary distraction to leap to a pillar further back. They were now more than halfway across the cavern from their starting point, and she could see a large hole in the other wall, where the clouds below seemed to be flowing. "Let's see how effective that is against this!" Her horn lit up once more and jewel spikes floated up around her. She began to fire them one by one.

Scootaloo began to swirl the clouds beneath her even more, using some of the techniques she had seen some of the colts in the inner parts of Canterlot use when they danced in the street to more quickly gather her electrical power. She blasted the spikes as they approached, quickly filling the air with crystal dust. "Gonna have to do better than that!" she cried as she deployed her scooter and used it to quickly close the distance.

Rarity gasped at the speed Scootaloo could move on her scooter, and nearly didn't react in time when Scootaloo ollied from the cloud to her pedestal, colliding with her. She grabbed onto the scooter as they left the pillar and hit the cloud once again, racing toward the exit.

Though she swatted at the mare that clung to her, Scootaloo was unable to remove the nuisance from the scooter, and found herself on the receiving end of a few good hits. One, in particular, she didn't see coming, which she would later find rather embarrassing given that she was struck right in the eye by Rarity's hoof, and that single strike dislodged her from her vehicle.

Finding herself suddenly sans pegasus with a flight aura that could keep vehicles aloft on clouds, Rarity panicked, grappling with the handlebar for dear life as she searched for a nearby crystal pillar she could conveniently catch herself upon. She summoned one, but the momentum of the scooter was such that she simply bounced off. There weren't very many pedestals on this side of the cavern, however. "I'm doomed!" she cried. "Doomed!" Her hoof hit a red button, and a parachute deployed from the rear of the deck. "Wh-what?"

The wind, which had increased in intensity the closer they got to the opposite wall, caught the parachute and began to drag her toward the large exit. Rarity screamed, her hoof immediately going to her forehead, as she found herself gone with the wind.

Scootaloo, meanwhile, was having trouble of her own. For some reason the clouds here were unusually hard to walk on, and she kept sinking into them. Not only that, they seemed intent on dragging her in a current not unlike that of an ocean. She fought, but the strength of the current only grew. She cursed the needles that were keeping her from simply flying out of the morass. When she exited the larger cavern and entered the tunnel, the situation became even worse as she sank even further into the clouds, and they became so dense she was becoming soaked with water. Then she heard the rushing sound.

"Oh, no..." Scootaloo said as realization dawned on her. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no!" She cringed as she suddenly heard Rarity's screams ahead of her increase sharply in volume and then immediately and quickly recede. "This is going to..."

---

"As everypony can see from the picture in force field view, Rarity and Scootaloo should be out of the mountain, shortly!" Pinkie said from her position high above the stage in a hot air balloon. "Aaand, here comes Rarity, now!"

From the source of the crystal spire's waterfall, Rarity emerged, soaking wet and wild eyed. Her lips were peeled back from her gums as she screeched in horror. She disappeared into the froth below, only partway down the mountain, only to be swept, now unconscious, to the second waterfall.

"Oh, and here's Scoota—"

"Suuuuuuuuuuuck!" Scootaloo screamed loud enough to be heard from the stands even without the sound amplifying spell.

"Scootasuck?" Pinkie asked. "No, I don't think so, though I heard some pony with a crowny thing on her flank call her that, once."

Scootaloo, too disappeared into the froth below, but still fought against the current as it dragged her toward the next drop off. She didn't succeed in diverting her course, and fell once more to the river at the bottom of the spire, shouting, "That's not funny, Diamooo—"

"Huh," Pinkie said. "Well... Princess? I don't suppose...?"

Luna nodded her head. "They are in no mortal danger. I would know if any within my shield were injured enough that they would perish without assistance. They are, however—what is the phrase?—'out cold.'"

Pinkie nodded. "Okey dokey, Loki! Well, folks, it might be awhile before the action starts up again, so let's all go to the lobby. Yeah, let's all go to the lobby! Let's all go to the lobby, and get ourselves a treat."

---

Behind the waterfall, a particularly large crystal boulder moved aside, and two mares emerged. The orange pegasus looked smug as she surveyed their surroundings and turned to the purple-maned unicorn behind her. "Well, you know what to do 'Rarity'."

The white mare saluted and replied, "Yes, Princess. You can count on me."

"Good," Aurelia said with a snicker. "These little ponies won't know what hit them."

---

---

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Beta Reader: Imaginary Valued

Comments

[Ignaltus]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

[Bico]

2398595

Yeah, pretty much.

[Neutrinos are Magic]

The changelings all gasped, one shouting, "An imposter? How horrible!"

Hypocritical Humour at its finest!