*Dead As*

"Fine, wonderful, I'm getting bored." The Queen said and stamps her hoof. There's an aura around her long, jagged horn that encapsulates both Blue and Ayeda as well. Her head lowers, then jerks up, both deceased ponies vanishing upwards like wafts of smoke being sucked into a ceiling vent. With barely a noise, they were gone.

"You!" She looks at the only pony remaining, stomping towards him. "Come on! 5, 4, 3, 2...I want an answer! Now!"

~|~​

The ride back to the surface was nauseating. Well, to a being that still had the required fluids and such to slosh around and cause nausea, this would be nauseating. Instead, this came off as a sensory muddle. Things were flying past their eyes at such a horrible rate that attempting to focus on anything meant it had passed you by nanoseconds before you saw it.

Abruptly as it started, it ends. With a strange spark all over each of their bodies, they seem to just stop. They shunt into a new form, uncomfortably jittering and clattering uncomfortably now that they'd hit reality once more.

"We got two more! Not a moment too soon!" An elder voice said, another old mare trotting around before them and looking nervously out of the window. Her tattered beehive mane had several pens stabbed in the side. She looks towards Blue and Ayeda.

"Can you speak? Can you walk? We'd let you wonder around and get used to this but it's an emergency out there."

 

The pony wth the beehive mane-do canters over to infront of Blue.

"Lovely. Now, raise a hoof then look left and right. Can't send you out to deal with ghosties if you're falling to bits. Raise a hoof then look left and right."

 

Blue would likely discover rather quickly that nothing looked like herself anymore. Not in the faintest likelihood or remotest sense, the metal rivets and plates were not a dead ringer for her former form. The far cry from her hooves would move over to her new face, apparently built like a knight's helmet with the large face guard over the mouth.

If she still technically had one. She seemed to be able to speak OK despite that. In fact, nothing felt unusually heavy. Nothing felt like it was just the battered pieces her body was clearly made up of. Everything felt connected to her, like a real body should. She was alive, kinda.

"Can you walk? After that, we have to upgrade you to shooting at things but I'm sure you can handle it. If you can't, on the job experience is powerful stuff." The old mare rushes to a rack of glowing objects. It was a crystal in a tube, bright pink and discharging against the sides of the tube.

"We have you get you two suped up nowish. Pronto-like in every way so come on up for a little juice!"

 

"Yes, yes. The clanking is you. If I had a bit for every time I had to watch this." This old mare approaches with the energised canister and moves around Blue, out of her sightline. There's a selection of clicks and whirrs which appeared ever so worrying. The mare canters back into view, watching her.

Blue's body began to flare up. A few metal plates popped up then fell back into place, feeling more secure. Every joint zinged, she sparked with exuberant power.

"We'll explain later. First, we work. Head outside while I fix up your friend here."

~|~

Outside, towards the square, something smashes through a crate of oranges spreading the little orbs everywhere. His huge, shaggy maned head looks behind it for just a moment. This black and red streaked creature snorts it's smug declaration of victory before stamping a hoof. Despite appearing not entirely there, it leaves a harsh imprint on the ground while it bends low, looking for it's next victim.

The rows of jagged teeth jutting from it's mouth made speaking something wonderous when it came out so clearly regardless.

"Come out, come out wherever you a-"

This time a crate of strawberries gets blown to pieces behind this hulking, pony shaped thing. It rears up and turns around, pounding the earth below it's mighty hooves.

"Nice goin' hot shot! You missed and made it angry."

"Rainbow, when I round this rowdy spook up, ah'm gonna, gonna..!"

The monsterous pony began to encroach upon them. It leaps into a charge, the ground shaking with every step.

"Quit whining and light 'em up!"

Both mares switch something on, their equipment sounding like it kicked into high gear.

"Smokin'!" Both of them fire.

 

The old mare rolls the glowing canister to Ayeda's hooves as she wonders over to her. The canister hums with concerning potential, giving it's contents an ethereal haze.

"Curiocity is a lovely thing to have, darling. Hokd on to it. Grasp it and then stuff it deeply inside, entrapping it for just a little longer." She pats a hoof on Adeya's side then opens a hatch there. The canister is quickly placed inside the cavety like a battery.

"Just will your cannon to work. It's part of you now. Aim, fire and weaken it. Now get your flank outside. Princesses don't like us as is."

 

They'd emerged from a ramshackle house that was clearly more lab than living quarters. The pair of them now hummed with the energy canister's power, making them feel a little buzzier.

A pegasus suddenly flies over head and crashes into another home. The blue mare peels off the surface and lands on top of a sign for the cafe she'd faceplanted.

Above them both, a creature appears. It disturbs the rooftilesas the apparent bulk of this pony shaped thing stamps closer. With a leap, it caves in the roof then lands on the cafe, staring down from at the mare hanging on the sign.

It rears up and slams it's hooves into the timbres, shaking the entire building.

"Back up!" Another mare cries out. Holstered on her back was a couple of saddlebags filled with weird machines that were crackling and wirring on their own. They were wired up to a strange thing on this mare's leg.

"I'm Applejack. No time to explain. Shoot that thing!" She said, rearing up on her hind legs to then point the contraption on her front hoof at the bizarre, shadowy red creature beating on the cafe roof. The mare on the sign was slipping, though the buildng itself wpuldn't take much more.

With a flick of something on her back, the machine sparks, arcing energy into the ground around her. She then hits the trigger on her hoof and fires.

A purple blast eminates from the end of the device but nothing seems to travel from it. Even so, there are still little bursts of what seems to be magic popping where Applejack fired. Most where missing this thing, with wild eyes and a lion like mane. It dodges and sidesteps most shots but was leaving the mare on the sign alone.

"C'mon! I'm runnin' out of power!"

 

Ayeda's foreleg fans out a little as the energy coarses through the limb, lighting it up with the menace only found in sci-fi reactors gone crazy. Sparks fly from her hoof tip; a mere appitiser to the laser bolt that shot from her hoof and strikes the black and scarlet monster in the side of the head.

Energy arcs over it's body. The little lightning bolts fizzing over it's coat make the creature fade and shimmer. Reminicent of smoke being electrocuted, the dancing form of this creature unvailed a smaller form of a pony underneath.

The monster regains it's composure then leaps from the roof. The ground buckles underneath it's hooves. Clearly angry, it charges for Ayeda.

Applejack raises her own weapon.

*Click click*

"Shoot or get outta the way!!" She cries out. She bolts forwards in a desperate bid to beat the monsterous pony to Ayeda and push her out of harm's way.

 

The shot strikes the creature full in the face. As it cries out it stumbles to the side, skidding to a heavy halt. It's wild mane crackles with the energy shot at it, clearly stunning it. Once more, it's form shimmers into a thin facade, showing the form of a pony inside.

 

There was a quiet titter in the dark caves, echoing in all directions.

"So, how long do you need? I got things to do, ponies to see and I'm putting my neck on the line here for this. But, it's got to be done." This bright white face of The Queen emerges before him, looking down at him with a smile and a slight hint of what could be under that long fringe masking that side of her face.

"I have a shiny new life to hand out to anypony that can save me."

The form around this inner pony shatters and dissipates, falling away into nothing but useless wisps while Applejack comes to a halt before the new, spectral pony before them.

It was a strange thing that would hint at it's former form as it moved. The thing was anxious and angry, morphing between having barely any form to entirely too much; each bone and even gnashing teeth in high fidelity every time this pony snaps at the others. It was backing away slowly, keeping it's 'eyes' fixed on the group. Where it's hooves touched the ground, it's body arcs energy. Little zaps and flashes spark into the floor harmlessly. This pony still bared it's sharp looking teeth, it's jaw viciously lashing out to keep some distance.

"Good work! Now you just gotta wrangle him in. Been chasin' this one for a while. Prides himself on being the strongest. Seem to wish himself into a monster just to be all big and powerful-like."

She looks to Ayeda and Blue Tide with a smile: "Not bad at all. The Professor built you tin-cans pretty well, huh?"

She gives Blue Tide and affectionate nudge with her hoof.