The guard halts and turns as the crash behind grows. In fact, a few of the near-by bookshelves tumble, crashing around the guard and the group in a mass of books, splinters and yet more dust. The precarious stacks of shelves were already on the verge of toppling down to the ground thanks to the higgledy-piggledy arrangement all the way up to the ceiling. Bookshelves of all manner of shapes, sizes and weights that were never designed with towers in mind, easily rocked, swayed and fell thanks to Ria's sudden gust. Now, the damage was severe. The once great maze like library was a mounted heap. Guards pop out from under the avalanche of autobiographies like randomly sprouting daisies, aching and confused. You could now see across most of the room and the guards were on high alert now. The group was still hidden. "WHAT WAS THAT?" echoes around the newly created space. The petulant shriek bounces around the room like a pinball machine. The guard swallows hard and returns to his search again, kicking newly fallen wood out the way to continue reading spines and covers, keeping his head down. The Alicorn striding over the massive book-pile appeared to be of the persuasion that subtly was overrated. All the evidence of this you could ever need is right in the gigantic, eight-barrel mini-gun attached to her saddle. In fact, a small trail of smoke followed on behind her as she walks into view that was coming from a small blowing boiler that appears to power the vicious-looking weapon. Her mane slides over one side of her face. It's long and curves like a sickle but is jet black against her cream coat. A chest plate hanging around her neck clicks slowly, the clockwork internals always ticking away in full view. Her eyes are a hard purple, darting around for somepony to blame. "You idiots have buried any chance of finding the last book with your clumsiness. Find it or I'll use you as a guinea pig instead!"
"It's okay Ria, I doubt they'll be able to find my book easily now that they're all over the place." Cyanside said, trying to comfort the pony. "We might have lost the element of surprise, but we've stalled them for a bit and our targets now in sight." Cyanside turned to the fox that had lead them all here. "So how do we stop her Tyro?"
Tyro thinks, scribbling ideas on the blueprints of his mind. Arrows and notes and ideas explode like a fireworks display in all directions. Unfortunately, a complicated mess is what it stays as. He opens his mouth only to find nothing to make it say. Nothing was coming. That gun could pick any of them off whether she was aiming for anypony or not. It was a bullet spitting machine. There's not much of a warm-up delay with a steam-powered gun over the smaller, lighter clockwork variety. Within seconds, he'd loose somepony. "Err...I can't think of anything that definitely doesn't get somepony shot. Any ideas?" He asks, meeting his comrade's eyes, one by one.
Suddenly, the room was filled of echoes of hooves being dragged across the floor and taunts from guards directed at one pony. Two guards came into the room, with Karl being dragged between them, the two holding the front hooves. They dropped him on the floor infront of the princess, and Karl got up weakly, his legs shaking like mad from the effort. He looked up at Cydonia, his face seemingly normal, except from his crystallite eye, which a black liquid was sipping out from. "Well... hello there, Cydonia, Princess of all the steam-punky stuff in this world." He said mockishly, before he was hit by one of the guards, who shoved his hoof into his side. Karl stammered but regained his balance, leaning towards the guard and breaking his jaw with a well placed hoof to his mouth. The guard falls down to the floor, writhing in pain before two others come and drag him away, looking at Karl with eyes of hatred. Karl simply leaned back so that he could turn around and look at Cydonia with a tired look. "May i ask why you've made your guards drag me all the way here?" (Okay, i was kidding. I'm still in.)
The gun barrels are manoeuvred to line up with Karl's head. A small jet of magic from Cydonia's horn starts their increasing rotation. They spin faster and faster but hold their fire for now. Her head is turned away to call to the rest of the room. "Come out now or your friend is dead. He'll be gaining holes at a rate of a hundred-and-thirty a minute." "What if I ran for it and drew her off?" Tyro suggests.
Steel thought about what tyro said before nodding. "that could work if you distract her I could try to levitate him away to safety with magic".
"This is silly." said Ria. "Just let me fly up. Hopefully, she'll aim her gun at me, and you guys find a way to get Karl. I can pretend I'm escaping. And if she catches me, get Karl while she's monologuing. Villians always monologue."
Rifter had been following along quietly. He had planning and listening. Waiting for the perfect moment. Well, perfect moment was gone, so he had to live with now. "What if someone threw a projectile? Something to take off aim? While the aim is thrown off, we get our team-mate back."
Cyanside stared at Cydonia and Karl as the gun barrels spun faster and faster, seeming as though they would let loose their deadly barrage at any minute. She turned her head to the group as they discussed how to tackle the situation, mindful of Karl's death drawing ever nearer. She couldn't let this happen. They had come so close, she wouldn't let any of them die if she could help it... "[size=-2]I'm sorry guys[/size]" She whispered so quietly it was barely discernible, letting tears slide down her eyes as she stepped forward to reveal herself to Cydonia. The rest of the group was still hidden from sight, and fortunately Cydonia hadn't noticed Cyanside yet, the Alicorn looking towards Karl with a malicious grin as she seemed to be about to fill the pony with lead. "I'm here Cydonia. You were looking for my book. So why not have the next best thing?" Cyanside wiped the tears from her eyes, and stared towards the gun-wielding Alicorn, ready to face her fate, whatever it may be. "Me!"
There was a quiet mumble from Cydonia as everypony chips in their ideas quietly, still sheltered from view in the bookshelf alcove that still stood at the edge of the book heap. "This is great but I don't want to put...your..." Something slipped out of view in the corner of his peripheral vision. His heart leaps into his throat while his head wheels around to see who just ran. He spots Cyanside's tail swish out of view behind a book pile. "No-no-no-no-no-no!" He bounds after her barely thinking of whether Cydonia is looking or not. Just as he slides around the corner, he watches the pony walk out into Cydonia's line of sight. "I'm here Cydonia. You were looking for my book. So why not have the next best thing? Me!" Everything tumbles into a sort of slow motion as Tyro's brain rolls into a kind of high alert. It's thick with an information sludge as she stands there waiting for Cydonia to just give Karl up. Cydonia does look to the brave pony and smirks, but the weapon stays where it is. "Guards! Bring her to me!" A few of the guard ponies that were patrolling rather than looking through books approach her, guns ready and waiting. One jabs his gun barrel into her side: "Move." A dark giggle escapes from her mouth which she coquettishly halts with the back of her hoof. "Now, how about the rest of you follow suit or you loose two of your friends today."
"Guys, do you have a plan to save those two because I think I do. See those four guards over there separate from the rest of the group if we could just sneak behind them and launch a surprise attack we could knock them out put on there armour and masquerade as guards". He smiled waiting for the groups response.
"There aren't any others, me and Karl came here alone." Cyanside only hoped that she sounded believable. "But now that you've got all of us, what are you going to do?"
"Oh please..." Cydonia scoffs. "How stupid do you think I am? I know the rest of them are hiding somewhere! That sheriff isn't going to go home crying while I'm here. Neither is the booze-soaked griffin or the other pegasus. No, no, no. I know from experience that at least I'll still have that goodie-goodie fox standing between me and whatever I want. I know that from reading their books. I can't remember hearing about such boring lives. Now..." With a swing of her rig, the Gatling barrels swing into the side of Karl's head before being pointed at him again. "Call your book. Now."
"Oh yeah, of course i'll just call my book, that'll be a good bucking idea. Just one question: Are you stupid or are you acting like it?" Karl stappled once the barrel had hit his head but regained his balance rather quickly. "I would never, even if you threatened me which you are doing, ever call my book for you- imbecile- to read." Karl pushed the barrels away from his head before a large pulse lit up his whole chest and died down slowly. "Also, you might wanna think about immigrating from steam to energy." The black liquid had started to pool and attach to his back legs, hardening as to create armor. Same with the front legs, it was all building up. On his crystallite leg, scales began to form. They didn't overlap, instead they were side to side, and were thick to create what almost seemed like hatches which could be used for different tasks. What they were, would be revealed soon enough. "And, if you shoot me, you'll never get access to either my book or the key to energy equipment instead of steam. It's all your choice." Karl did seem weak, but appearances can always fool.
Cydonia cackles proudly, stopping only to watch the transformation. Although, she didn't drop the gun. Karl still looked to be something she could handle with just a few shots. A grin stretches across her face as she raises her head to look down on Karl. "Why would I need you to find your book? We found that rot-riddled thing already and it's just 'Clockmaker, Clockmaker, murder, Clockmaker, Clockmaker'! Boring!" She then raises her voice, glaring at Cyanide: "Now, call your book."
Capriccio kept her ears flat against her head and took a fearful look towards Tyro, biting her lip. "What is she going to do if she gets his book?" She whispered. "And what's 'calling your book'? Can we teleport them to us or something?"
Cyanside steeled herself and tried to remain relaxed, as long as she could stall Cydonia for time, Tyro and the others could save both Karl and her...and if there was something she was good at, it was stalling. "Well Cydonia, can i call you Cindy? I think Cindy would be a really cute name for you. The thing is, I would you know, call my book and all that, except for one thing...I have no idea how to... Also, how do you get your mane like that? It's really cool."
Rolling her eyes, Cydonia nods to one of the guards keeping Cydonia pinned. His gun barrel shunts into her ribs again. "You call it like a dog. Do it. Now." You can practically see her patience strain and the anger gargle upwards, sloshing around behind the eyes. She was very close to shooting something. Tyro taps a paw against his forehead as though wrestling with an ignition switch. Of all the times to get a creative block, now was not the best of times. This was the worst possible place. He had two lives in mortal danger. He was unsure about Karl being able to simply slink off a bullet to the skull but Cyan was a dead cert. The others weren't in a good spot to help. He had to do something, right? Nothing was coming. His brain was clogged. He'd no idea what the hell to do know. Maybe there was a new perspective he needed...But he wasn't getting that here. Not right now. Well, unless... Suddenly, one of the bookcases topples over. The scribbling novels and half-dead wood smashes over one of the guards, trapping him underneath. Tyro leaps on top and pounces over Cyanside to tackle the other guard before he can get his gun to fire. With the guard now lying in broken clockwork parts, the fox heads for Cydonia who's already beginning to warm up her gun. Tyro produces a couple of fireballs and flicks them at the alicorn. The barrels are left without drive and whir down as she raises a shield against the flames. With nothing readied, Tyro makes his move, dashing straight for Cydonia, teeth bared. With nothing prepared, Cydonia retaliates with a monstrous pistol whip. The barrels swing back and forth, catching Tyro like a golf swing. The light fox is thrown over to another hill in the book avalanche. He regains his balance, swerving around to see the gun barrel almost warmed up. The noise was horrendous, rumbling around the hall. The cacophony can be heard by all. Tyro jerks strangely as he collapses behind the books, vanishing from view. The look of alarm on Cydonia's face is immense. She looks around for one of her guards while the smoking gun winds down. "We can't afford to dawdle any longer! They won't help and aren't going to, we need to get rid of them and we need to get rid of them now!" She barks at those around her, frozen in place by that tone. A tone that is only followed by darkness, chains and prison bars. Or something quicker depending on her mood. "First! I want everypony looking for him. He's still here and he could be anywhere! Secondly! Start the machine! We go with what we have now!" A brave soul pipes up behind her: "Who should be first, your highness?" "Do the so-called Clockmaker first!" Cydonia snarls. "I don't care who with, just get rid of them! He is not going to beat me with that trick again!" Her gaze turns to Cyanside, desperate and winding the barrels up for another volley while a few guards behind her gallop out of the room. "Book. Now."
