sponsored Rainbow Dash's Obstacle Course of Terror

[Blueblood]

Flying Brick snorted. "If hooves can break iron, hooves can bend iron- yah!" For several minutes, her attention was occupied by another rush of changelings. Where had these come from? Most of the others had been attracted away by the efforts of the others...

It wasn't until the last of the drones had been beaten off, and the cages thoroughly demolished, that she was able to regain her breath and take a look. Ah, right, Pyro had come. She had to disagree with his assessment. "If bar is long enough, can heat one end and hold the other. How you think smith work? Still, is better to have tongs, and we don't." She plucked a bent bar out of the wreckage, tossing it to Gadget. "Can work with that. What are you doing now?"

Brick tried not to sound too impatient. She was relying on him to get the cocoon open, after all.

[Pretzelparty]

Presteza's ears flattened against her head as she heard what sounded like another rush of changeling entering the cave. If she was gonna make a distraction she had to get her brush back, The stallion from before's statement of believing herself was easier said than done. She looked and saw another mob of these disgusting parasite charging her group. While her eyes scanned the scene she noticed that dog pile of copies of hers was rapidly dispersing it seemed having so many changelings tackle the now solidified glob of goo had given it a few cracks.

The young mare went over to brick and told her what she was going to do,"You guys better get dash outta there quick. I'm goin' to start the distraction. It looks like they had some reinforcements." with that the unicorn galloped back into the field. The floor was littered with many unconscious changelings and a few still conscious but seemingly too tired to go on. Her and the approaching mob were rapidly approaching the glob where her brush was imprisoned and at this point it looked like they would just collide and that would be the end of it. Just as the mare reached the glob she lifted up her front legs and slammed her hooves down on the glob... just as the mob of changelings swamped her.

There was a few moments pause as the changelings; once again in a big pile, began to see if the mare had been dealt with. Suddenly a few of them went flying as Presteza used her quick dashing spell from earlier in the race. The mare while having a generous helping of bruises and a bite mark on her hindleg looked ... well she looked like she still had plenty of fight left in her. Upon her face with a wide grin as the paintbrush previously encased in the changeling dash's goo was in her teeth (which even Presteza thought was kind of gross) and her horn lighting up with a bright blue aura.

"Alright! I'm back in business!" The mare shouted proudly before taking the brush in her aura and with a few swings of the artistic implement seemingly painted a magic barrier in front of her as a drone came at her and flattened his face with his own momentum against the barrier with faded after about three seconds.

"Oh! Three seconds tha's a new recor-- oh right gotta keep these freaks off o' those ponies freein' Dash!" With that thought The mare dressed as the princess of the night galloped in front of the small horde. She was alreayd feeling kind of winded and so far what few magic spells she knew were all she had at her disposal. As several of the changeling drones came at her she summoned up that barrier and dashed into them, knocking them back. One crafty drone snuck up on her and fired several shots of that sting spell at her. The first shot took off some of her tail. The second shot got her mane and the last one her leg, the same leg that had been bitten earlier and was starting to hurt more as time went on.

Her prefered method of defending herself on her travels wasn't going to work now. She was too tired from the course and the fighting of this horde to be able to dodge and kick the enemy like she usually would so all she was left with was her dashing spell to evade the invaders, and the few basic wind spells she knew. Each changeling that approached flying brick and her group was blown back by forceful gust. This much casting was getting to her, she hadn't done so much rapid spell casting ever since she was a filly and back then she was just trying to lift things with her telekinesis. She was already getting sloppy and she felt like her horn was on fire at this point. Narrowly dodging another sting blast from these adversaries she glanced back to Flying brick and everypony else.

"C'mon! I dunno how long I can keep goin'!"

[PyroBlaze]

(Neo, Pyro's a guy.)

"Alright, I suppose." Pyro said to Gadget before turning towards the acrobat mare as she spoke. "Yeah, that's how I imagined they did it, using tongs." Pyro said in response to the mare, turning back to Gadget as he made something out of clay and rocks. Pyro tilted his head slightly, watching the stallion work. Pyro glanced at the acrobat mare as she spoke. Pyro caught the bar the mare had thrown with his magic before echoing the mare's question. "What are you doing?" Pyro asked, heating the ends of the bar as he did. Pyro heated both ends until they started glowing with heat. When that was done, he gingerly handed the rod to Gadget. "Here's your rod then." Pyro said before turning towards the mare performing the distraction. The Luna mare told them to hurry up, since she was running out of energy. Since he was done heating the bar, Pyro went and helped the unicorn keep the changelings occupied. Pyro added his fire in with the mare's wind spells, dodging the spells coming from the changelings at the same time. "I'll help you buy them more time." Pyro said to the unicorn next to him. Pyro saw a changeling attacking just before the changeling crashed into him. Pyro reflexively threw up a shield, causing the changeling to run full force into a magic shield. Pyro grunted from the impact, but quickly recovered and continued fighting back.

[Lilia]

Shadowe focused on keeping the wall up, counting the seconds in his mind until the others were freed.

Colby followed Pyro into the cage, sitting in the middle of the group with only a few growls tossed at the changelings outside. These were real ponies, even if they had smelly goo on them from the changelings they fought off. He whined at the pod holding Dash, when he saw it. How could they not see the mare inside? He barked once, attempting to get the attention of anypony nearby.

[NeoExlucky]

Pyro took the middle of the bar with his mouth. He felt the heat start to gradually enter the middle of the bar, and start to heat his teeth. It didn't quite hurt yet, but metal was a conductor, he needed to do this now. Gadget took the bar and with all his might he threw it towards the cocoon, the rod managed to penetrate part of the coccon, but a magical blast that Pyro had dodged hit Gadget in the side of the head, causing him to be thrown into a wall. "Ow..." He moaned from his pile of despair. "You just...need to move it...Brick..." He said point to the rod. He tried to get up but he was too dizzy and fell over. "This is going to take a while." He thought.

[Bramble Rose]

Crud! Not the 'trade stories' defense! Well, this wasn't her first invasion!

"Of course she knows that story!" cried 'Flitter', putting on her finest 'betrayed trust' face. "I love telling that story!" *ack* "Let go of me you stupid *mmph*" She looked pleadingly over and took a psychological shot in the dark. "Who in Ponyville haven't I told that story to? What about that time you had that sports thing and I had that science thing and we were both so angry at each other for missing the other's thing because -" *ACK!* Those fangs *HURT*. OK, that was IT!

​

A black horn suddenly appeared in her head as rage clouded her vision, and a green blast of energy shot Duskfall several yards from her. She got to her feet and stamped her hoof, letting out a soft little hiss as she glared after the traitorous changeling. "Will you GET OFF OF ME you stupid little TRAITOR!? What good are you anyway? These ponies will never love you, and you've given up the love of the hive! You don't belong ANYWHERE! What is life without love, anyway?"

Oh, crud... she'd just blown her cover. She glared at the two pegasus ponies. "FINE!" cried Flitterling, the black horn in her head looking quite incongruous. "You win this round! But I already got what I needed from you, anyway!" With that, she dove into the wall and disappeared...

A swiss-cheese black hoof reached out of the middle of the floor in the battlefield, grabbing a changeling and pulling it under. Then a second, a third... several changelings disappeared into the floor as they were grabbed under. A quick murmured scolding on the idiocy of frontal assualt and a five-second planning session...

Changelings lay groaning all around the cavern, and the last dozen or so were hiding behind cover, throwing green zaps across the cavern to try to disable the ponies over there...

Or at least, to keep their attention.

A black hoof riddled with holes reached up out of the floor and grabbed Colby. With barely a yip, the dog was half-dragged under, and a changeling head popped up out of the floor to spit green goo over the noisy dog's mouth. Pesky mutt... A couple more green globs of goo, and she disappeared under the floor again, leaving the dog half-trapped in the makeshift mess. Not a proper coccoon, but they just needed to buy enough time without the dog making trouble for every changeling...

​

Suddenly, hooves started reaching up out of the floor, grabbing at Flying Brick's hooves, and at Presteza's, at Shadowe's and at Pyro's, at Gadget's and seizing at the dazed Flash. A duplicate of Haywire wearing an identical devil costume leaped out of nowhere and started stomping at the reaching, grasping changeling hooves, dragging Shadowe out of the way, then darting over to stomp at the changelings reaching for Pyro's hind hooves. "LOOK OUT, Y'ALL!" she cried loudly, "VARMINTS ARE COMIN' THROUGH TH' FLOOR!" As soon as she'd established her credibility by 'saving' Pyro, she hid behind his leg. "ACK! Look out, they copied me!" she cried, pointing at the real Haywire. "Get that varmint fer me!"

[Blueblood]

As an athlete, Flying Brick had a considerable amount of endurance training. And performing in the street got one used to acting in hectic circumstances. Even so, there was a limit, after all. She wasn't able to dodge the latest stinger blast, which hit her right in the flank, knocking her back. "Oyowch! Won't be running for a while, comrades." She called out ruefully, hoping that their plan wasn't about to fall apart now.

Presteza had recovered her brush, and Gadget finally had his crowbar, but would they be in time? Already, the changeling leader had switched tactics, and now legs were coming up from the ground! "Eargh!" It was nearly impossible to disentangle oneself from them; even if Brick got out of one grip, there was always another reaching for her. With a sudden lunge, she caught the stuck crowbar in her mouth, but her entangled legs cut down on any of the force she could pull.

She tried her best anyhow, but it was like stirring set concrete. When Haywire started her whole rant (Flying Brick had no idea it wasn't haywire), she grunted in annoyance. "Li'l ishy ear, om'at."* The bar didn't help anything.

*Little busy here, comrade.

[brianblackberry]

Flitter stuck her tongue out at the impostor while a big "pfffft" sound as the fake Flitter tried to argue that the first kiss story was common knowledge. Why would it be common knowledge? Flitter never told any other pony the story of the first kiss between her and Cloudchaser; why would she? Who does that outside of those weird sappy bit store romance novels? This isn't Fifty Shades of Neigh, this is real life! Of course the idea that a Changeling read such material made Flitter start to simply giggle hysterically instead of retorting.

But Flitter didn't need to, as the impostor grew so annoyed at the other Changeling that it finally revealed its true nature and fled. Flitter was confused - from what she understood, all Changelings were pretty loyal to their hive, but this one appeared to oppose what the others were doing. Before she could sort through the confusion, though, the sticky, gooey black floor erupted with grasping Changeling hooves, "Ew Ew Ewwwww! Quick, Cloudy, to the air!!" Flitter lifted up, almost hitting the ceiling, well out of reach of the sickly looking hooves on the ground. Thank Celestia for wings!

Well... for the two of them, sure - but then she realized that the changeling down there had only one good wing of his own! Poor thing ... she didn't know his story, but he'd tried to help them ... "Wait here Cloudy, I'll be right back!" Flitter swooped quickly down and scooped up Duskfall in her hooves. Fortunately, Changelings were as light as Pegasi, and it didn't take much effort for the bow wearing mare to fly him back up into the air with Cloudchaser and her.

"Don't worry, whoever you are! That creepy jerk didn't know what she was talking about! You have friends to back you up! Now let's see about helping the others! What kind of magics can you do with that horn of yours?"

[Lilia]

As a hole-riddled hoof grabbed his broken leg, Shadowe lost his focus and let out scream of pain. Tears filled his eyes as struggled against whatever held his leg, each attempt to free it only causing him more pain.

"Haywire, what happened the day we met? I want both answers...because I remember. Where's Colby, anyway?" He asked, his voice straining as he tried to not show the very evident pain across his muzzle.

Colby whined when he was dragged into the ground, and the panic for the dog began to rise when he was effectively silenced by the goo. Hopefully, somepony would notice his distress...

[Mojo]

"HAY! I'M THE REAL ME, NOT YOU!" Haywire screamed as the determined filly sent a rock barrage off in the fake Haywire's direction before turning to fire off a few rocks on the hoof that was trying to drag Shadowe away. "BACK OFF MAH FRIEND, YA SWISS CHEESE LOOKIN' GOOMER!"

Haywire was too busy flinging rocks to answer Shadowe's question. The filly noticed Colby was in big trouble with the goo, but she was too far away to help and with the fake Haywire blocking the path, the only thing she could do for now was to keep firing rocks and hope she got lucky enough to put it out of commission long enough to rescue the poor canine.

"GOTTA GIT THAT FAKER! WE NEED TA SAVE COLBY!" the furious filly yelled as she continued to take aim at the changling pretending to be her.

[RarityDash]

Fake Flitter tried her hardest to contest that she was real, but Cloudchaser wasn't going to be fooled again. Soon enough, the charade ended and the changeling revealed herself for the big fat fake she was. Chaser glared at her as she reverted to her awful, changeling form and admitted she had been bested. Then the changeling dove into one of the hive walls and changelings began disappearing into the floor. Cloudchaser wasn't really sure what was happening now, but it sure didn't look good.

​

"Ew Ew Ewwwww! Quick, Cloudy, to the air!!"

When changeling hooves started coming out of the floor, Flitter didn't have to tell Cloudchaser to fly twice. She bolted up into the air as quick as she could to a safe distance in the center of the room. She began to survey the scene as best she could, seeing that unfortunately some of the ponies in the area had been grabbed. She just needed to make sure the same didn't happen to her Flitter.

​

"Wait here Cloudy, I'll be right back!"

"Be careful, Flitter! Don't let them snatch you!" she called out in concern, but didn't make a move to stop her fillyfriend.

Flitter swooped in to grab the strange changeling who had helped them deal with Fake Flitter. Cloudchaser nodded as she flew over toward them. This guy had helped them, even if he had inadvertently been a source of confusion in the process. Still, she smiled toward him as she approached.

"Hiya, Mr. Changeling. Thanks for going after that nasty fake back there," she said with a steady nod. "Y'know, I really had no idea there were any good changelings out there. If I did, that whole mess probably would have been a lot easier to sort out!" she added with a small laugh.

​

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro helped keep the changelings away, not noticing that some of the changelings had disappeared from sight. Pyro was too focused on the changelings charging and firing at him to notice the decreased number of them, or Colby's predicament. Only when the hooves started reaching for him from out of the floor did he realize that a number of the changelings had vanished, evidently into the floor. Pyro stomped on the hooves reaching for his front legs, driving them back into the ground. Pyro felt hooves grab his hind legs, but they were soon taken care of by "Haywire." Pyro glanced at the filly behind his legs, not convinced she was the real one. From the small amount of time they had spent together, Haywire didn't seem to be the type to hide behind somepony else. To Pyro, it seemed that Haywire, like himself, preferred to be at the front so she could protect her friends. Pyro looked at the pony that this Haywire was pointing at. The indicated filly shouted back at them, firing off rocks as she went. 'Now that seems more like Haywire, fighting back.' Pyro thought, smiling. Pyro's smile faded as he realized that he was between the rocks and their intended target. Pyro was hit by a couple of rocks, one in the chest and one in a leg, before he could put up a shield around him. Pyro shook out the leg that had been hit, trying to get a feeling besides pain into it. "Where's Colby? He could sort this out easily." Pyro muttered, placing his hoof back down as another rock barrage came, several impacting against the shield Pyro had shaped around him. Pyro turned to the filly behind him. "How do you plan on proving that you're Haywire?" Pyro asked the filly, suspecting that he was talking to the fake and the real one was the source of the rocks impacting against his shield.

[Duskfall]

Duskfall was still trying to hold the other changeling down onto the floor while Flitter worked her magic, so to speak. When finally, she snapped and started barraging Duskfall with insults. "Will you GET OFF OF ME you stupid little TRAITOR!? What good are you anyway? These ponies will never love you, and you've given up the love of the hive! You don't belong ANYWHERE! What is life without love, anyway?"

Checkmate. Duskfall gave the changeling a cheeky grin and a suppressed chuckle. She had just blown her cover. In his mind, however, Duskfall frowned. It's true, the battle to gain the trust of the ponies was an uphill battle with boulders rolling down past. There was only one other pony that trusts Duskfall completely. As the changeling finally broke free from Duskfall's arrest, he watched as she dove into a wall and disappeared. "Huh... that's new to me..."

Suddenly, the floor erupted with the hooves of other changelings, trying to grab whatever was unfortunate to within their reach. One of those hooves almost latched onto Duskfall, which prompted him to begin skittering across the floor, yelling curses with every hoof he dodged. A changeling almost pulled him down into the ground, but the real Flitter had hoisted him into the air before it could make contact. Duskfall smiled. It seems he had just gained the trust of some new ponies.

"Don't worry, whoever you are! That creepy jerk didn't know what she was talking about! You have friends to back you up! Now let's see about helping the others! What kind of magics can you do with that horn of yours?"

Duskfall shrugged, "Thanks for the rescue! I never knew changelings could do that kind of stuff with being in the ground. And don't worry about my feelings. I very well knew what I was getting myself into when I abandoned them. As for magic, I don't really know any advanced stuff. Just the basic stuff for changelings to know, levitation, disguises, love feeding. . . honestly, I do much better with my hooves than my horn."

"Hiya, Mr. Changeling. Thanks for going after that nasty fake back there. Y'know, I really had no idea there were any good changelings out there. If I did, that whole mess probably would have been a lot easier to sort out!"

Duskfall sighed. Cloudchaser didn't really understand. Then again, most ponies wouldn't, since Duskfall mostly kept out of trouble. What kind of pony would be prancing along the rooftops beside him? Actually... maybe he could take in that Stalliongrad mare, or maybe the other way around. Digression.

"Yeah, I was a bit confused when you still thought I was against you even though I had beaten up those other two changelings next to me. But such is the way of the changeling mind control spell."

Duskfall found himself chuckling along with Cloudchaser as he smiled once again. "Well, it's all good in the end I suppose. So, where we off to? I'm not the one driving the carriage."

[Bramble Rose]

'Haywire' continued to hide behind Pyro's leg, and lots of Haywire's rocks kept hitting Pyro. She quickly answered Shadowe, "Ah got in trouble, a'course, an' it totally wasn't mah fault, but do we really have t' focus on that now? We got more important things t'worry about!" She ducked a rock, and cried out, "HEY! Like gettin' that FAKE ta stop shootin' rocks at mah friends an' get me mah slingshot back! You are NOT the real me! I'm th' only real me here!"

[brianblackberry]

What could they do? It was a good, yet perplexing question as Flitter looked about the chaos surrounding the trio, having no clue on what to do next. Then she noticed it, a sickly a victim for feeding! Indeed it was clear there was a silhouette of a pony trapped inside although it wasn't possible to make out who. Still it was somepony in need of help! "Say, could you use some of that horn magic to open that pod over there? Or could we just tear it open? We gotta rescue whoever is trapped in there!" Truthfully Flitter had no real clue how to open the pod, they never covered that part in the lessons about the love-sucking species, but Duskfall had to know, he was one of them!

Of course he just needed more friendly encouragement first, a form of love so to speak, in order to will up the energy to free whatever unfortunate soul was encased inside! Flitter was unsure if that theory was sound but it certainly wouldn't hurt to try! The pegasus mare spoke loudly with most cheerful voice she could muster, "Cloudchaser and I, we believe in you! You know you can do it and we have your back, you are among friends here!" Would it work? She was about to find out!

[NeoExlucky]

Gadget struggled to fight off the hooves that were in the ground. He felt them drag at his body, pulling him...somewhere. Maybe it was just a place lower than the cave they were on? Gadget knew it wasn't though, he was never one to be hopeful when he knew something bad had happened. One of his worst nightmare had finally come upon him. His legs felt like jelly, his head was light, he didn't know what to do. He drug himself into a cage, and found that there was nothing else to stop himself from being drug down. He didn't close the door but all hope had been drained from his very being. "I don't...know if we're...going to make it guys..." He struggled to say.

[Bellosh]

Before Flash Sentry knew what was going on, rotten hooves reached out to grab his hindlegs, threatening to pull the stallion with the torn-up costume under the gooey floor. With no strength left in his ailing body, Flash had no means of simply bucking whatever was dragging him under. "HELP, HELP!" he cried out, his forelegs flailing about in the air; "THEY'RE DRAGGING ME UNDER!" Oh man, Radiant Steel wasn't going to enjoy hearing about Flash's tale of failure if he managed to get out of this.....

[Mojo]

(ooc): If you can beat'm, join'm...

As Haywire prepared to fight her double with more rocks, she felt something pulling on her back legs. OH NO! Now the real Haywire was caught in the menacing goo too! Trying to move out of it was futile, the false Haywire was the perfect distraction to capture the real one.

"I still ain't give'n up without a fight!" Haywire vowed, launching as many rocks as she could at all of the changlings around her before the goo could claim her. But now, fate dealt her a cruel hoof, she had used her last rock and had no way to gather any more. The goo crept up her legs and would soon engulf her filly body, unless there was help coming fast....

(Last post, time to end this thing)

[Bramble Rose]

Once the real Haywire was done shooting rocks at Pyro and Shadowe (and the fake Haywire), and the fake Haywire was done kicking those grasping hooves away from Shadowe again (blast it, I told those morons to skive off once I rescued these two!) She came out from behind Pyro to stick her tongue out at the real Haywire. Then blinked in surprise to see her sinking down into the floor! Idiots! I told them NOT to attack the real Haywire, they're supposed to attack me! Grrrr...

"Ye can fight all y'want, but y'all won't conquer Equestria on mah watch! None of yer tricks will fool us!"

Thread's almost done. Someone free colby to stop her, and free Dash! I'll post again tonight!

[NeoExlucky]

(I didn't want to free dash for fear of god modding, but if that's what it takes...)

Gadget's hopelessness stuck him to the cage, like a magnet to metal. The hooves from the ground couldn't pull him through the bars. He stood their hopeless to everything going on. He heard the small foal say that she wouldn't stop fighting. Gadget knew it was a hopeless endeavor, his crow bar, still heated, was stuck on the side of the cocoon, with enough strength he would be able to pry the top open, freeing Rainbow Dash in the process. His thoughts wandered as he thought of random things, he stuck his hoof up to where his chin would be if it wasn't covered by his mask. The sticky mixture of clay and rocks was still on his hoof. He took the mixture of his hoof and got up. He rolled the mixture into a stick, and threw it somewhere, he didn't need it. He jumped from the cage, and smacked onto the top of the bar, the end of it trying to burn through his costume. The bar acted along with the weight and pulled up, popping the top off the coccon. Gadget took his mask off, as it was all burned, and pulled all of his costume off, since it was singed. He shook Rainbow Dash in the cocoon. He still thought they would lose, but at least Rainbow would have another chance of freedom. "Ms. Dash, wake up!" He yelled.

[Blueblood]

It was taking all of Flying Brick's concentration just to keep the iron bar in position, never mind to pull it. Her hooves were slowly sinking, and no fancy movement was going to delay the inevitable. *Come on, comrades, is there anypony who can give assistance here?*

Slowly, she became aware of a growing force, working with her to move the bar. Gadget was alright! Or at least, alright enough to help; those burns on his costume couldn't be good...

Setting her hooves, the Stalliongrad earth pony gave one last mighty tug, feeling the top of the cocoon wrench clean off. The sudden give was enough to fling her free of the grabbing hooves and send her tumbling into the trapped Colby with a sickening squelch of green goo.

"Ugh, comrades... did it work?" She could barely stand now, exhausted and sticky. Over to the side, through a gunk-clogged ear, she could hear the seeing-eye dog bark. "Sorry doggy, hope I not hurt you." She sighed, she had done her best, hopefully fate would not be so cruel as to rob her of a triumph tonight...

((Last post for me, I think))

[Duskfall]

"Say, could you use some of that horn magic to open that pod over there? Or could we just tear it open? We gotta rescue whoever is trapped in there!"

Duskfall solemnly shook his head. "I don't know. Back when I was working with the hive, I was a messenger. I wasn't a soldier, or an infiltrator, or some special changeling. I was a messenger. . . .

In the end, even though Duskfall had freed himself from the hive, he was still doing the same thing. He took messages, and he brought them to someone else. Already he had disappointed his new friend. "Sorry."

"Cloudchaser and I, we believe in you! You know you can do it and we have your back, you are among friends here!"

"Yea? What's it going to take for me to gain the others' trust? It took me three incapacitated changelings and an almost mind controlled mare to gain yours. You go out there and tell them that I'm friendly and they'll think I have you under some spell. No, just drop me off at the cavern entrance. I'll find my own way home."

OoC: (my second to last if not my last)

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro was torn. He couldn't figure out which of the Haywire's were the real one without hurting the filly, since Colby had seemed to disappear. Pyro saw the Haywire that had the slingshot was being attacked by the changelings. Pyro started to make his way over to help the filly when he felt more hooves grab him from the floor. Pyro struggled for a bit, but that proved to be ineffective. "Hmm, let's see." Pyro said, looking for a way to escape. Pyro realized that he had to think fast, since the changelings had started to pull him under. Soon afterwards, Pyro sighed, resigning himself to the plan he had come up with. Bracing himself for pain, Pyro set off an explosion between him and the floor. The sudden force tore him out of the changeling's hooves and launched him a ways into the air. Pyro groaned from the pain, his eyes shut. Before he fell back down, Pyro opened one eye far enough to see Colby and the acrobatic mare trapped in some of the goo. Pyro started to fall, but right before he hit the ground and was dragged under again, he teleported himself to where Colby was. Pyro emerged and rolled awkwardly on to his hooves. "Ugh, that hurt more than I thought it would." Pyro mumbled before walking the rest of the way over to Colby and the mare. "Now how to get this off." Pyro said, looking over the goo. Pyro glanced around a bit to see what he had to use before sighing and turning back to the two trapped in the goo. Pyro started heating the goo, drying it out until it became brittle and cracked. Then he took one of the bars from the ruined cage and began chipping away the dried goo until Colby was free. Pyro turned to the mare and freed one of her arms. "Here, free yourself with this. I need to go take care of something." Pyro said to her,handing over the bar before picking Colby up and walking determinedly back to the Haywire that had been hiding behind his leg. Depending on the dog's reaction, Pyro was either going to attack the filly or get her out of the cave.

[Bramble Rose]

Dash sat up suddenly from inside the green pod, blinking rapidly. "No, Rarity, not in front of everypon-" She stopped, looked around in confusion. "Um ... " She blinked ... "What's going on?"

​

The fake Haywire kept desperately attacking the hooves reaching up from the floor for Shadowe and Pyro, inwardly cursing the Changelings down there who couldn't follow orders. What were they thinking?! She stomped and kicked and then realized that Pyro was building up a huge explosion. "Wait, what are you-" she started to cry, then scrambled away, leaving Shadowe behind to take the brunt of that blast.

What in the eggless cavern?! What was it with these ponies and their willingness to attack and wound each other just to get at the changelings?! First Haywire keeps firing rocks at her friends, then Pyro detonated an area-of-effect spell at the hooves of his friends. What kind of friends were these?! If she'd realized this beforehand, she'd just have arranged things so these ponies would have beaten each other up, and saved the hive the trouble!

She was so glad to be a changeling, even if her hive-mates were idiots. She might have kicked a few hooves, but she never did anything like this. Fine. She needed to take Pyro out, and she'd saved up enough love from Cloudchaser, and that dog was about to ruin everything ... her eyes started glowing green, then her horn appeared...

Colby sprang out of the grasp of that goo snarling and barking at the fake Haywire, as she knew he would, but her green glowing spell was ready to fire at Pyro. Curse these ponies, they didn't act like they were supposed to!

A rainbow-colored streak briefly obscured her vision from her target, and she felt her horn twanging, a sharp pain shoot through her head at the sudden horn strike. She stumbled backwards, and the green spell rippled and detonated right in front of her, throwing her back a bit, smoking. She shook her head, hissing her insectine hiss, to see Rainbow Dash free and floating in the air - worse for the wear after their fight from before, but freed and fighting! BLAST! Where was that blasted unicorn-

Pyro's hoof in her face knocked her backwards. She wiped the green goo dripping from the corner of her mouth and glared at the group of battered but insistant ponies. "ARGH! This is INTOLERABLE!" Her forces, decimated. Her plans, ruined. "Changelings! Retreat!" she cried, returning to her natural form. "We'll regroup with the other teams, and hope they did better than we did! By the queen, we SHALL return, and defeat you vile bunch of monsters!"

Changelings sprang from the black goo of the ground and walls, a sparse dozen staggering away through the air, fleeing as fast as they could from the determined batch of ponies they left behind.

​

Rainbow Dash shook her hoof after the retreating Changelings. "Yeah, you better run!" Then she fell to the floor, still a bit dazed from being trapped in that pod for so long. "Does someone want to explain what's happening?"

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