The curtain weakened, holes appearing along the top of it.  One of those tears was almost directly above me, revealing the door in top of the cage which I had spotted earlier, bound closed with a simple padlock.   I kicked off, sending myself floating upwards, my eyes fixed on the padlock.  I had no bobby pins.  My screwdriver had been stolen from me.

I should not need them.

Manipulating multiple objects that were out of sight was tricky, but I had pulled pins from grenades hidden in a sack.  And I knew locks.  I knew tumblers and internal mechanisms.  I should be able to pick a lock with my magic alone.

Reaching out with my magic, I enveloped the padlock in a gentle glow.  My own horn flared as a second layer of overglow burst around the first.  Streams of light poured from my head.

I felt a bullet lash past me, followed by the sound of a gunshot.  Below, the blows against the double doors were causing the magical energy lance to bend.

I was still floating upward, carrying the unconscious zebra.  We were nearing the cage.  But our ascent was slowing alarmingly.  One of the griffins above fired down at me, but the shot sparked off one of the bars of the cage.

“I can do this!” I told myself repeatedly.

A second shot sparked against the gate itself, inches from the padlock.

Who was I fooling?  I could barely breathe!  My magic faltered, the swirling curtain slipping, wavering.

No!  “I can do this!”

I shifted the tumblers into place.  The padlock sprung open.  My vision swam again.  I nearly lost everything.

The magical energy lance cracked in two.  The doors below swung open and slavers stumbled into the arena.

Frantically, I hovered the padlock away and pushed open the gate.  A moment later, we were through and I was running along the top of the cage as fast as my surviving lung would allow me.  I let everything fall except my grasp around myself and Xenith.  My whole body screamed in pain and exertion.

Fallout: Equestria Chapter 26