Re:Harmony

by starcross7

63 - Tartarus, 4th Movement

Chapter 63 - Tartarus, 4th Movement

“I knew it!” cried Pinkie Pie as she pointed at the crystal centipede laser crab. “It was a robot all along!”

“Pink, that’s Sweetie Belle,” Applejack retorted.

“Sweetie Belle is a robot?”

Applejack couldn’t deliver the second comeback when the centipede laser crab lunged its massive claws on the farm pony. She grounded herself, and used her Geosense to make her body like a rock for a brief and mighty parry with her Sword of Truth clamped between her teeth. Bright sparks flurried out of the clashing blades, and Applejack turned and twisted her neck to divert the scimitar-tipped appendage so she could gallop up the monster’s immediate arm. Quickly she zeroed in for a clean cut at its weakest point, the metal joint, and she softened her high landing thanks to her recent Geosense training. The mechanical arm fell, but then she heard the painful screams of a filly. It did not come out from Apple Bloom’s lips, let alone Fluttershy’s. Apple Bloom was fine, but inside the centipede laser crab’s chest, Applejack caught a glimpse of Princess Sweetie Belle writhing in sweat and pain.

“Wait,” spoke a soft voice.

The attack must have dealt some kind of electric shock to the petite princess. Well, Sweetie Belle needed to grit her teeth and bear through it before Applejack could perform her rescue. But she still had to deal with ninety or so scimitar claws hammering down upon her along with their accompanying lasers. At least forty more needed to be cut down to make any progress, and so Applejack signaled Pinkie Pie to run rounds underneath the centipede laser crab to distract the monster.

As the pink blur zipped across the battle-damaged floor, another claw came down, Applejack leapt up to slice it apart. The petite princess screamed once more.

“Wait,” spoke the soft voice again.

She couldn’t wait. Pinkie Pie could only do so much with her super speed, and Bon Bon, Ingrid, and Bellamena were rapidly running out of ammunition. Applejack needed to lure the centipede laser crab in to get in range of its upper body: segmenting it in half would be faster, barring any possibility of the two halves acting independently of each other. The orange mare shot off towards the monster, which then hovered twenty-five claws before her. Her jaws clamped hard on the katana’s handle once more, and she crouched down ready to leap in for another cut.

“WAIT!”

A powerful aura rippled throughout the cavern, kicking up dust and shaking the pebbles in their place. It had caused the centipede laser crab to reel back briefly before raising its claw to deliver a cutting blow to the rebel mare. Applejack, both confused and frightened by the shout of her pegasus friend, did not have time to muster her intended strike, and instead leapt out of the way before the scimitar claw smashed her. She galloped across the floor before falling in the same small trench from whence she and her comrades began the attack. Here, she stuffed herself once more beside the three Pie Sisters, Bon Bon, Apple Bloom, Aurea, and Lyra.

“If you destroy the monster, you’ll kill Sweetie Belle,” said Fluttershy.

“We can’t save your friend Twilight if we can’t get past her!” cried Aurea.

“No way I’m gonna do that,” said Applejack. “Sure I can cut down other mares and stallions, but fillies and colts? I don’t do that, even if they are the brattiest and the most spoiled.”

“May I remind you that your Elements of Creation have little to no effect against the Empire’s crystals?”

“I ain’t gonna kill a filly!”

“You won’t have to, Applejack,” spoke Fluttershy. “I have an idea.”

“Flutters, what are you--no, you can’t.”

The Element of Empathy: Applejack had only the basic understanding of its power and abilities and she knew right when the golden necklace split into two ethereal butterflies what Fluttershy was planning. One shot out and attached itself to Sweetie Belle’s chest. The other attached to the puffed chest of Fluttershy herself.

“Destroy the monster now!” the pegasus cried.

The centipede laser crab rose up once more and poised two laser claws on top of the small trench where Applejack’s companions had gathered. The center beam crystal in each of its claws glowed red while uttering a foreboding hum.

“Do it now!” Fluttershy screamed.

The rebel mare had no choice. Ingrid and Bellamena gave her a jumping boost to lob off the two scimitar claws before it could unleash its ruinous crimson beams upon her friends and her sisters. In the air, Fluttershy screamed for a second before gritting her teeth and regaining control of her flight. Surely she was in pain, but the determined stare she shot back down to Applejack meant that she was willing to make the sacrifices all for a filly she barely knew. Silently, Fluttershy egged Applejack to keep fighting no matter how much pain she was receiving ten times over, and if the rebel pony should ever waver, the pegasus's stare would intimidate her to continue. It wasn’t fair, but it was the only way to save the petite princess.

“Pinkie Pie!” cried Applejack. “Run circles around that laser crab to distract its fire like last time! Ingrid, Applejack, Bella, and Bon Bon--get ready to fire all the remaining grenades into the hole when I give you the signal. We’re not gonna let Fluttershy’s sacrifice be in vain!”

A pink blur zipped back and forth, left and right, and all around the cavern to make faces at the centipede laser crab, while Ingrid, Bella, and Bon Bon gathered all the strewn munitions scattered throughout. Applejack stood alone as the monster loomed over her to ready another barrage, but the rebel mare quickly dispatched two more laser claws. Fluttershy had now fallen to the ground still writhing in the utter pain transferred from the mechanical monster via Princess Sweetie Belle. Several times she appeared ready to die in shock, but the pegasus sprung back to her wobbling hooves, giving Applejack and the other mares the stare to keep fighting.

“Pinkie!” Applejack cried. “Lure that thing down towards me!”

The pink one saluted in mid-run, and several timed kicks after bouncing off walls straightened the monstrosity and pointed it directly at Applejack. The rebel mare started her decisive sprint, avoiding incoming lasers and swipes of the scimitar claws. Her leaps conquered holes, cracks, and small hills as her view of Princess Sweetie Belle became clearer. Even the centipede laser crab’s eyes tried to ensnare the orange mare, but Applejack, knowing that it might blind her friend, severed them from their stalks.

She was here. She had little time, and Applejack quickly sliced apart Sweetie Belle’s restraints and the profuse of cables attached to her horn. She was still alive. Barely conscious, but alive nonetheless. The filly was now on her back, and Applejack leapt out of crystal mechanical monster’s chest and ran for not just for her life, but also for the petite princess.

“Now!” she yelled.

Ingrid, Bella, and Bon Bon leapt out from their small trenches and fired a repeat barrage of RPGs in the hole. Even without its host, the centipede laser crab rose up to let out one last roar before its entire body exploded segment by segment into millions upon millions of crystals that rained upon all.

The orange pony held her breath as a storm of crystal dust filled the cavern, and she did not inhale for almost a minute until everything settled. Everypony was safe, including Sweetie Belle. But now Fluttershy was unconscious, and Applejack rushed to her side, fearful of the worst. Even though Apple Bloom and Lyra tried to perform first aid to her body, the rebel mare checked her pulse. She felt nothing.

“No,” said Applejack. “Fluttershy… Fluttershy!”

She felt a warmth stirring on her back. The Element of Empathy’s Butterfly Star ejected from Sweetie Belle and reunited with its other pair to reform into the pegasus’s golden necklace. The return of her Element jumpstarted the pegasus's heart, and she came to with a gasp for air. Yet just as regained conscious, Fluttershy fell back down limp. The orange pony wanted to hug her, but she restrained her from doing so lest she cause Fluttershy any more injuries. Her weak smile and blinking eyes assured Applejack of Fluttershy's survival.

“Is she safe?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah,” replied Applejack.

“Good. I think I might need a massage too.”

---

Lyra claimed herself having limited medical knowledge, but she did declare that Fluttershy had suffered dozens of internal injuries without any signs of visible cuts and gashes. An ordinary pegasus warrior would not have survived, Applejack felt. As for Princess Sweetie Belle, the only injuries she suffered were bruises on her horn and hooves.

The pegasus rested on the back of a rickshaw cart alongside Agatha, whose own head trauma had knocked her out for who knew how long. Supplies had been regathered, but almost all their weapons and food had been depleted. They could go back to their secret base underneath the public library, but everypony had to press on upon Aurea's insistence. With time running out, Applejack herself couldn't plan on slowing herself down for the injured and the young. With so many in the group, she had to split everypony up.

“She saved me,” said Sweetie Belle as she watched Fluttershy’s chest heave up and down. “I don’t even know how to begin to thank her.”

"You bein' alive is thanks enough," said Applejack.

"Maybe it's too soon for this," said Bon Bon, "but can you tell us who put you in that mechanical monster?"

"I do know," replied Sweetie Belle. "They're the Empire's viziers, Flim and Flam, and they put me in there or else they're going to kill my stepmom. I didn't even know that I was in the crystal crab monster-machine that was prowling the secret passageways."

"How dare they?” Pinkie exclaimed. “First they rig the eating contest and now Sweetie Belle? This cabal's gotta go."

"And we'll kick some serious flank while we're at it!" added Apple Bloom while pounding her front hooves together.

"You're stayin' behind with Aurea and the others,” said Applejack. “The Pie Sisters and I are goin' on ahead."

"But I'm not--I ain't goin' all the way back up there."

"You got yerself a more important mission: protectin' Fluttershy, Agatha, and Princess Sweetie Belle while we go on ahead. And don't worry if you can't handle it; Lyra and Bon Bon can back you up.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry yerself, little sister. We’ll go on many more adventures together once all this is over.”

She gave her little sister a quick hug and then an affectionate noogie. Applejack adjusted the Stetson hat on her blonde-topped mane before heading over to join up with the Pie Sisters, though Ingrid and Bellamena were less armed than usual. The Unicorn Hunters still had their machete and bowie knives, and those weapons were plenty for even Applejack to handle should their rivalry resume.

Aurea had kept guard at the giant hole in the wall, and did not move until Applejack and Pie Sisters finally crossed over into the massive crystalline tunnel eventually leading towards the castle. Yet her steps were deliberately slow, and she directed her expression towards Applejack’s gaze making sure that when they would pass, the orange mare would lag behind for a quick and quiet conversation.

“Have you noticed?” Aurea asked.

“I noticed,” replied Applejack.

“Your friend has one of the most powerful Geosense abilities, one that rivals that of the Crystal Queen: the Voice of the Heart. I was worried that her overactive empathic abilities would hinder our mission. But I was wrong about her and wrong about the need to sacrifice lives for the greater good. I am ashamed to admit that I would not be the mare who would save the Empire.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Aurea. You and your group did manage to save several ponies from the cabal’s hooves.”

“Only briefly. Applejack, they still have them, along with my comrades. Please rescue them, but if for any reason you can’t--”

“Don’t say anymore. I’ll rescue them.”

“Indeed. While I was tending to your pegasus friend, she gave me this; you might need it for whatever you’ll encounter.”

Aurea presented on her hoof a necklace containing the black crystal ring. Apparently, Fluttershy still had it, and with her out of commission, nopony else would be able to use it. Maybe Apple Bloom, but Lyra would be there to protect her with whatever magic she had. Still, Applejack was confident that she and the Pie Sisters would defeat the cabal before the rest of her companions reached the Crystal Castle, but she needed to leave right away. She accepted Aurea’s gift, and galloped off while putting on the necklace.

With no unicorn to guide them, Applejack and the Pie sisters had to rely on head-mounted flashlights to navigate their way through, not that they really needed it. The tunnel ran straight for almost forever and was almost unfathomably massive, similar to that of underground laboratories in Gaeaopolis and Cavern of Treasures. Ceilings were so high that they appeared like a stormy sky in the darkness. There were no noises other than the lonely clop of hooves on the hard floor along with Pinkie’s exuberantly squeaky hopping and melodically playful humming.

“Hey, how is she doing that?” Bella asked Applejack. “Is she wearing some joke horseshoes? And what is she singing?”

Applejack shrugged. If Twilight couldn’t figure it out, nopony could, and any thoughts of Twilight made Applejack’s heart beat faster with worry. She almost wanted to charge down the dark tunnel, hoping that in the end she would find her similarly bound like the petite princess, but hopefully not wired to a crystal automaton. Heroically, Applejack would cut down her restraints, catch her in her hooves, and…

She stopped fantasizing when she nearly stubbed her hoof on a crystal rock. It wasn't like her to daydream at a time like this, but she would rescue any friend in such a manner. She did rescue Sweetie Belle, and she harbored no special feelings for her. Why was Twlight's safety keeping her so preoccupied? She tried not to think hard over her, but the act of trying only made her more fidgety and worried.

The deeper they trotted, the stranger the architecture became. Walls were no longer cleanly cut to the standards of the Empire proper. All around, the crystals grew haphazardly, if not chaotically, and many of which adhered or punctured through rusted and ancient metallic walls of an unknown origin. Applejack could not help but notice underneath the crystal facade markings that read “T-4”. If her hunches were correct, she was slowly entering Crystal Hell.

And a hell it was, for Pinkie squeaked in surprise when the flashlight in her mane illuminated a ghastly sight embedded in the wall. A clothed and severely withered husk of a bipedal and gangly creature appeared locked inside of a long and clear cylinder, but this one was one of many. Along the walls, in ceiling, and even below the floor were hundreds, perhaps thousands of these cylinders encasing these creatures. They weren’t quadrupeds, but they certainly weren’t minotaurs. Minotaurs were much taller and muscular. They weren’t monkeys or apes: these corpses appeared hairless save for the top of their heads. They all seemed to have died at the same time, but were they prisoners? Or was this some kind of gruesome hibernation?

“Sister, I don’t like this place,” said Bella.

“They’re just corpses of… whatever used to inhabit this Empire before ponies,” said Ingrid. “We’ve seen worse.”

“Lyra calls them humanoids,” said Pinkie. “She’s been unearthing their ancient civilization across of Gaea.”

“They’re ugly if you ask me.”

“I think they’re cute, like this couple.”

There seemed to be an area in the floor were cylindrical caskets devoid of these humanoids, and yet prominent in the center was single casket occupied not by one but two humanoids, two who faced one another with interlocking claws, or “hands” as some ponies would call them. Despite their shriveled visages and eyes sunk beneath their skulls, their close proximity and the touching of their leathery foreheads seemed to ease Bella and warm Applejack’s heart.

The image of Twilight passed through the orange pony's mind once more, and she imagined herself in a similar position with the purple unicorn, but without a shriveled body and hooves instead of hands.

“A cute, dead couple,” said Ingrid. “We’re wasting enough time here, don’t you agree Applejack?”

The cavern tunnel uttered a low and long rumble, but the source from whence it came, nopony knew. There was only enough force to shift a few pebbles from the side, and one corpse in these clear cylindrical caskets fell against the glass, causing to Bella to shriek as if the creature came back to life.

No other corpse stirred from their glass caskets, and yet Applejack almost wished that was the case. If the cabal had another filly-controlled crystal centipede laser crab, she and the Pie Sisters would be utterly unprepared to fight it without harming anypony. The rumble came back again, and this time she concentrated on the ley lines reverberating through her hooves and into her being.

The motion was constant and mechanical, but not as deliberate as the scuttling monstrosity that was centipede laser crab. There were at least four of them, and they ran nearby at industrial speeds.

This might not be the centipede laser crab, but it gave Applejack a bad feeling all the same. She took charge and point, ignoring Ingrid’s complaints as she pumped her hooves across the smooth floor, galloping further and further down the long tunnel of glass caskets and their sunken visages of the occupants. The arrival at the supposed exit hardly afforded her and her companions of any relief, for when they emerged out of the tunnel they encountered a darker and wider tunnel adjacent to the one they came out of. This time, Applejack and her companions heard the distant pounding of machines and smelled the repugnant of scent of charred metal and dust.

Four points of light suddenly appeared at one end of the dark tunnel right as the rocks on the ground and ceiling began to rattle. Applejack thought about facing the four sources of light head on, but froze when her hooves tapped on something all too familiar to her.

Tracks. Train tracks, and these were made of pure Gaean steel. Now everything she had thought about now has been put into full doubt. The cabal controlling the Royal Family and the Crystal Castle wanted to invade the outside world, but the outside world had already beaten them in reverse. Applejack signaled her friends to dash as the across the four train tracks towards a stack of crates she spotted at the other side. The rumbling became stronger, and the spotlights grew bigger. Train horns echoed their dark siren as the noxious fumes of burning diesel filled the tunnels. The four mares finally made it across and hid themselves behind the crates, which they discovered to be filled to the brim with dynamite.

The trains zoomed past them with a long and incessant line of cars carrying earth knew what, and it seemed to go on forever. When the trains finally stopped, Applejack could finally make out the red, black, and white fascist flag of the Democratic Republic of Gaea painted on the side, but with a streak of yellow graffiti cutting across from it. This vandalism might be appealing to a rebel like Applejack, but tagging was low-level juvenile protest for a freedom fighter. No, somepony in Gaea must have had it in against Chancellor Posey, or an extremist from the rebel cause had found the hidden Empire and decided to use it take revenge against the most powerful nation in the world.

When the doors slid open, a pair of hunched and apish armored canine creatures lowered ramps to the ground so that a third towed several trailers using a gas-powered cart. There were a lot of them in just one car, and there were perhaps a hundred cars per track. These apish canines towed all sorts of equipment, like computer circuit boards, Kevlar armor, boxes of machine gun magazines, and crates of cannon shells, all of which were being delivered into the Crystal Empire.

Comments

[Thisisalongname]

Needs a good edit. Lots of grammer, spelling and punctuation errors.

[xTSGx]

...fascist flag of the Democratic Republic of Gaea...

Wait, they're a Democratic Republic and they're fascist? I thought Dem Rep's were usually communist.

[raw666]

This is one of the best stories out there. Why is it not more popular. Even with errors that are not as obvious as other, it should be more loved. Boggles the mind.
Well, don't discourage and keep up the good work.

[psychosis]

Damnit! Still no human tag

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

3754215 There is little difference between Socialist and Communists.

And the humans in Crystal. CREEPY!

[moonlit scribe]

Finally! The true signs of TwiJack!

[OmalleyCaboose5]

“Sweetie Belle is a robot?”

yes