Chapter 23: Shining Wind
"Alright! I need everypony to get in closer. I'm starting the teleport now." Twilight looked around to confirm that all of her passengers were within the spell's range.
"Ms. Twilight...?" One of the orderlies approached her, a young stallion named Gauze Roll if Twilight remembered correctly. "Can you really take this many ponies?"
Pursing her lips, Twilight nodded, admittedly feeling a bit reluctant. Theoretically, it should have been within the parameters of her new teleportation spell. When she'd first learned about Terra Heart's impending visit, back around Nightmare Night, Twilight had begun to consider spells that would be useful in aiding a mass evacuation of Ponyville. Naturally, that had meant mass teleports, the most effective way of moving ponies from point A to point B in the least amount of time while minimizing the risk of them getting caught in the collateral damage of the battle itself. Of course...there was the issue of making sure that such a spell actually was safer than the alternative. Twilight dearly wished she'd managed to move to the live-test phase of her spell before being forced to use it.
On top of that, she couldn't ask for a worse draw when it came to the first ponies to accompany her on such a teleport. Twilight had trained herself to shut down the spell in the event that something was in danger of going catastrophically wrong. Thankfully, her training in battle magic under Arkenstone had actually helped to hone both her sensitivity to the flow of magical energy and her reaction time so that she would be able to prevent anything from going seriously wrong. The nurses and orderlies would be fine, if a little singed, if something went wrong. The patients, on the other hoof, might end up even worse than they already were if they were exposed to the unraveling energies of such a powerful spell at close range.
Twilight simply counted herself lucky that the most at-risk patients and those with the most delicate conditions had been given top priority when it came to the evacuation. It also helped that Ponyville Hospital was neither large nor crowded. There weren't too many ponies remaining and those who were still there had relatively minor injuries at worst.
I can do this, thought Twilight, Compared to what Arkenstone is up against, this is easy. Thinking about him helped rally her heart. Twilight took a deep breath and settled herself to begin her spell. As she did, she called upon her hidden asset. A faint sparkle of light emerged from the base of her horn, slowly wrapping around it to form a ring of silver and gold. The arcanasteel ring, a gift that Arkenstone had given her so many months ago, would help her see the spell through.
The ring had numerous, perhaps countless, potential uses. However, those uses technically fell under two categories. Its first and primary role was to serve as a conduit to actualize Twilight's magic. Before she'd received it, it had been her brother's and it had actually been used by numerous former captains of the Royal Guard before that. It conjured armor from actualized magic, magic made material substance (as opposed to magic-made material substances, which was the school of conjuration). Shining Armor and other Royal Guard Captains used the ring to create their armor, as opposed to wearing an actual, physical set. Said armor could be imbued with particular properties by the creator, only limited by their understanding of how to manipulate the qualities of actualized magic.
The second category of uses the ring possessed was magic accumulation. Orichalcum was a powerful conductor of magic. When alchemically married with mithril, a metal that was magically-resistant, the resulting alloy, called arcanasteel, had the unique quality of being at once conductive and resistant to magical energy. The mithril sigils engraved on the ring's outside created barriers that forced magic to flow through the more conductive channels of orichalcum, which helped to shape the discharge of magic channeled through the ring (which was what created the armor itself). The magic flowed to the inside of the ring, which was composed of the actual amalgam of mithril and orichalcum that was arcanasteel itself. The alloy soaked up magic like a sponge, accumulating it and keeping it circulating throughout the ring until needed. Its capacity was enormous. Twilight had been channeling her excess magic into the ring for months to build its charge, but had yet to fully charge it.
She used both those functions now. As the ring around her horn blazed with silver-white fire, Twilight used it to actualize her magic, not around herself, but to cover each pony being teleported with a thin sheath of pseudo-armor, a far cry of what she could create for herself, but more than enough to serve her purposes. At the same time, she drew upon the ring's stored power to supplement the magic she'd channeled out through the horn to build the actual spell itself. Because the magic stored in the ring was already outside of her body, she didn't need to channel it through her horn, which drastically reduced the stress casting such an enormously powerful spell would normally have on her horn's alicorn.
As the spell proceeded, the magic from the ring joined with the magic coming from her horn and shrouded the ponies all around Twilight. The magical field blazed with blinding light and they vanished from the ground in front of the hospital. As Twilight had predicted, managing so much magical energy at once, even with the aid of her ring, was not an easy effort. The magical field shifted and intensified at random times and at random spots. Normally, this would result in light burns and singed fur. However, thanks to the armor of actualized magic she'd encased her passengers in, the ponies riding along the spell with her were untouched.
They arrived at Sweet Apple Acres in an explosion of light and sound. The unrestrained energies of the unraveling spell could have potentially injured her passengers, but instead simply stripped the armor away as it absorbed its maximum capacity for damage, leaving all the ponies Twilight had teleported along with herself unharmed.
"Ya made it!"
Twilight looked over to see Applejack coming up to greet them. "Ah wasn't sure that fancy spell 'o yers was gonna work. Good thing Ah came to make sure the field was clear fer yer landin'."
"Thanks Applejack," said Twilight with a cheerful nod. When the train had finally ground to a halt, well past the station, Twilight had directed Applejack and Rarity to go meet everypony else at the farm. Applejack's job had been to make sure that Twilight's point of arrival was clear as the consequences for anypony who might have been occupying the site of her intended destination would have been...unpleasant.
More nurses and orderlies joined those who had accompanied Twilight to take charge of the patients and escort them to the Apples' barn. "How are things here?" asked Twilight as she walked over to her friend.
Applejack's face fell. Twilight suddenly noticed that she looked deathly pale beneath her coat and her eyes were red. The small trackways of matted fur where her tears had run down her cheeks also came to Twilight's notice. "Applejack? What's wrong?" Twilight braced herself for the worst.
"It's Red...and Storm," said Applejack, "They tried to stop that...that monster and..." She let out a choked sob. "It ain't good, Twi."
Slowly, Twilight moved to wrap her arms around Applejack's shoulders and hugged her tightly. "It'll be okay," she whispered.
"Ah wish Ah could believe that," said Applejack, "But the doc ain't got much hope fer either of 'em bein' up an' about again, especially since they ain't got a proper hospital."
Twilight frowned. That was a serious problem. Unicorn magic could do a great deal to treat injuries and aid in recovery. However, it required the assistance of a stable, clean environment in order to work best. The Apple Family barn, which, while definitely no cesspit and quite clean, by barn standards at least, was not a proper substitute for a hospital environment.
"Come on, Applejack," said Twilight, slowly guiding her friend back towards the barn, "Let's see if there's anything we can do to help." Twilight sincerely hoped that there was, but felt that it wasn't likely. As she went, Twilight was assaulted by the feeling that she'd forgotten something or someone important. Wait! Where's Spike?
"Darn it! Where did Twilight put those phoenix feathers again?" muttered Spike as he rooted through the trunk next to Twilight's desk. He'd been a bit late in getting the memo about what was going on in town, mostly because, with Twilight gone to Canterlot, somepony had apparently forgotten that he still lived at the library. "Geez. Do a little housesitting and ponies completely forget you exist."
"Ah ha!" At last, Spike managed to uncover the bundle of glimmering red and violet feathers belonging to Ouranos. When set to a letter, the feathers worked in a manner similar to Spike's own fire, setting the letter alight and sending it straight to the phoenix, who would then take the letter straight to Spitfire. Letters sent this method were treated as emergency missives and given the highest priority, which meant that, once she got it, Spitfire would probably head out from Cloudsdale on the double and put a stop to this situation.
But Cloudsdale is still hours away by flight, thought Spike, What if she doesn't make it in time?
But time was the one thing he couldn't afford to waste with doubts. Spike immediately got parchment to quill and set to work penning a quick letter that would hopefully bring Spitfire straight to town. He didn't know if Twilight and Arkenstone had come back yet, but it was best to play it as safe as he could.
Finally, Spike touched the feather to the letter. The parchment and feather burst into a cloud of glittering fire that streamed out the window and headed to Cloudsdale. There. That's taken care of, thought Spike, Time to go join the others.
As he made his way to the door, the young dragon froze as he realized something. The sounds of battle had disappeared completely and silence had replaced them. That's...not good...
Dawn's mind was blank. He'd given up on trying to think long ago...at least...it seemed long ago. It had probably only been a few minutes really. But it felt as though hours had passed to him as he continued with his deadly dance; a dance where his partner was determined to step on his hooves...and the rest of him as well.
No longer guided by thought, Dawn's body moved by instinct, the years of training having ingrained themselves into his flesh and blood at a level beyond that of reflex. Even though he couldn't think about it, Dawn's body knew how to fight. He moved purely by feeling, his eyes staring blankly ahead as his body responded almost completely on its own to the movement of the air as Terra's attacks displaced it.
The attempt to gain an opening by unleashing a tornado had proved futile. Terra Heart had bulled his way through the attack with just as much ease as he had everything else. Dawn had tried to ride the currents of the funnel in order to gain some altitude, only to find that Terra had somehow, once again, managed to climb into the air with him, moving as though the massive stallion weighed no more than a feather. And yet, even up there, when Terra struck, he might as well have weighed tons. It was almost as though Terra could somehow adjust his weight and lighten himself at will. Perhaps that was in the purview of earth pony magic on some level that Dawn wasn't aware of. However, this was neither the time nor place to think about it.
Moving on automatic, Dawn had attacked and attacked and attacked, even as his body dodged countless return blows by a paper's width. Nothing worked. Battering rams of compressed air seemed to simply burst on contact or rebound upon their creator. A whirling, slicing blade of air felled all the trees within a certain radius of the two combatants, but left Terra untouched. Lightning was either knocked aside or simply seemed to ground itself out whenever it came into contact with its target. Yet, Dawn continued to attack whenever he could, desperately seeking some way to breach Terra Heart's seemingly impenetrable defense.
A tree split in two as Dawn ducked beneath a pair of bucking hind legs. As Terra retracted his legs, Dawn launched himself upwards and backwards in a backflip that carried him between the two halves of the splitting tree. His wings released vacuum blades that cleaved the two halves away from the trunk where they joined. As Dawn's body came out of its flip, he used gusts of wind to launch the two trees at Terra's body just as the stallion turned around.
As he turned, Terra simply swept out a foreleg, brushing aside the two massive chunks of wood and branches as though he were simply brushing off a cobweb and sending them crashing off to the side and moved to pursue Dawn again.
Dawn's body immediately went into a roll as he swept his wings around in the motion, creating a swirling whirlwind that rushed through the grove of trees they were currently fighting their way through. The wind stripped countless leaves off their branches and brought them into a swirling cloud around the colt, obscuring his body as Dawn immediately moved to a new position. Meanwhile, Terra charged towards Dawn's original position, thrusting his hoof into the center of the leafy maelstrom. The whirlwind unraveled, dispersing the leaves. However, Terra's eyes widened when he no longer saw Dawn there.
Silently, a single crescent-shaped blade sliced its way through the air and struck Terra full on in the side. However, the vacuum blade again failed to penetrate. Terra turned towards the source of the attack and was surprised to see Dawn closing in again. This time, Dawn came within a single step of Terra, an orb of swirling energy hanging off the tip of his outermost primary like a single ripe fruit. As Dawn closed in, he slammed his hooves down into the ground and used that motion to propel the wing and the orb of concentrated plasma on its tip straight into Terra's chest.
The fruit metaphor held as the orb seemed to break and then splash over Terra, the energy contained within it washing over his body. To Terra's shock, he actually felt a faint tingle as the attack actually drove him back a pace. What? For a moment, Terra blinked in surprise and stared as Dawn began to fall back from the attack. Terra couldn't quite figure out what that feeling was. It almost felt as though a tiny portion of Dawn's attack had actually worked its way through the magic strengthening Terra' body. But that was impossible. There is no way this demon could possibly have the power to inflict harm on me, thought Terra angrily. In his present state, not even a dragon's fangs or claws could draw his blood. That faint tingling must have been something else. It couldn't have possibly been caused by a slight trickle of electricity from Dawn's last attack actually affecting his body. Shaking off his surprise, Terra pressed forward.
On the other side of the battle, Dawn was beset by an inkling. Even though he wasn't consciously thinking about it, Dawn's awareness had sensed something about that last attack. Gradually, Dawn was growing conscious of a certain sensation, an ebb and flow in the air between him and Terra. The motion of the air had a certain rhythm to it. Sometimes, it was drawn deeply in Terra's direction, only to be expelled back towards Dawn with surprising ferocity, always right when Terra attacked. Depending on the scale of the flow, the attack might be large or small. The rhythm of movement might speed up or slow down, but there was always a consistent beat there.
As Terra actually backed away from Dawn for the first time in their battle, Dawn was suddenly conscious of just what that back and forth movement in the air was. It was Terra's breath. He was sensing Terra's breathing through the wind. What was more, thanks to that, he had a better idea of when Terra was attacking, whether the movements of the attack would be large or small, when Terra was making a feint or actually committing himself to a strike.
A memory emerged from the depths of Dawn's mind, something Arkenstone had told him once. "Breath is central to nearly all martial arts. It is the means by which we generate power, channel it and release it. A pony can mask their presence and their intent, but they cannot mask their breath. Breathing also teaches you their rhythm and intervals, marking the difference between action and inaction. If you can perceive that, then you can move as one with your opponent. If both of you move as one, then it is the same as neither of you moving at all. Then, if add your own motion to your opponent's motion, then you will be the only one moving."
Remembering, Dawn allowed the entirety of his awareness to be drawn into the sensation of Terra's breathing, feeling every time the stallion drew air in and exhaled it back out. When Terra inhaled, Dawn's awareness actually flowed into the stallion and Dawn felt his power. It blazed like a miniature sun, surging and violent. It was larger and fiercer than the compact, contained star that Dawn remembered sensing inside of Arkenstone, but somehow less refined.
As Dawn focused on this new dimension of awareness, the battle progressed. However, the colt now moved with greater ease than ever, slipping between openings in Terra's attacks he wouldn't have noticed earlier, moving in synch with his larger and stronger opponent. As he did, his body's movements became less frantic and abrupt. He'd slip forward directly into Terra's space one second and slink out through the side at an angle as Terra tried to strike him the next, moving smoothly and fluidly, his movements becoming more efficient and easier with each passing moment. Dawn's sense of his own body seemed to bleed away as he became immersed in the fight itself.
Terra's frustration was slowly growing. The fight was dragging on and the colt should have been tiring with each passing minute. However, no matter how hard he tried, Terra simply couldn't find a way to end the battle. If anything, Dawn seemed to be a more difficult target now than he had been at the fight's beginning. Whenever Terra attacked, Dawn's form seemed to simply flow around his hooves without being touched and slip away at some unexpected angle. If Terra could touch Dawn, whether with his hooves, his barrel, or even the tip of his tail, then he could launch a full-force attack through that point of contact. But Dawn Lightwing seemed to have become an intangible phantom.
It grated on Terra's nerves. A demon should not have been so capable. The fight should have been over long ago. The creature calling itself Dawn Lightwing and masquerading as a pony was meant to be stamped out. Terra was older, stronger, and far more experienced. More importantly, he was righteous and he was just. Everything was on his side and yet the battle dragged on with no signs of conclusion. Though Dawn's attacks seemed incapable of harming Terra, Terra's own strikes seemed just as incapable of reaching the colt's body.
It was a stalemate, but one that Terra was determined to break. Whatever else might come, Terra Heart was certain that he could outlast Dawn Lightwing. Sooner or later, the body that the foul demon had hijacked would reach its limits and be reduced to a helpless state. Then it would be a simple matter to end it.
Then things began to change. As Dawn slipped around yet another barrage of punches from Terra’s forehooves before falling back from a shoulder check Dawn’s wings flared, slashing through the air like knives. Taking flight directly over Terra’s back, Dawn directed several vacuum blades downwards, aiming, not at Terra, but the ground around him, etching deep lines into the ground. Once again going into a rolling motion, Dawn directed a surge of our down into the gouges he’d just cut out of the ground.
To Terra’s shock, the ground beneath his hooves lifted up into the air, then, with another burst from Dawn’s wings, inverted, while Terra was still on it, thus pinning him beneath the chunk of earth as it fell towards the ground. Growling, Terra reared, planting his forehooves into the dirt at the bottom of the hole and bucking upwards with his hind hooves. The chunk of earth above him shattered, throwing clods of dirt in every direction. Bounding out of the hole Dawn’s attack had left behind, Terra was surprised to find Dawn waiting for him. In fact, as Terra moved towards the colt, Dawn actually flickered and moved even closer still, now right in front of Terra’s chest so that the colt stood just beneath the stallion’s chin.
Getting an even better feel for the flow of Terra’s breath, Dawn had actually reached the point where he found his own rhythm starting to match Terra’s. He was anticipating Terra’s moves and even realizing how to disrupt them. He also realized something else. As he stepped right into Terra’s space, coming right up to the stallion’s chest, Dawn halted scant inches away from his opponent, his breath perfectly in synch with Terra’s, feeling almost as though he had become one with the very pony he was fighting.
At that moment, Dawn attacked. It was nothing more than the most basic of his techniques, a burst of compressed air from one wing at point-blank range. The attack slammed into Terra’s chest and, instead of scattering or rebounding, actually knocked Terra Heart back.
Terra’s breath escaped with a loud huff as his hooves dug grooves in the ground, threatening to send him plunging back into the very pit he’d just jumped out of. It was shocking to the stallion. It had been years since he’d last actually felt pain in battle. The situation was both shocking and novel. How? There is no way this creature should be capable of something like that.
Dawn, on the other hoof, felt exultation rush through him at the realization that he’d finally managed to get through Terra Heart’s seemingly impenetrable defense. However, as he moved to press the attack, he stepped forward and found his foreleg buckling, threatening to collapse out from underneath him. Dawn pulled back and realized his hind legs were behaving in a similar manner. In fact, all his limbs, even his wings, had begun to quiver. The strain of the battle was, at last, catching up to him. Ironically, his embrace of the very principles that had allowed him to perform so well to this point were also what had led him to ignore the growing strain on his body until it was almost no longer capable of moving under its own power.
The feeling was beginning to drain out of his extremities as Dawn tried to summon up what little strength he had left in order to find some way to press the attack. Whatever he did would ultimately be his last effort, so Dawn had to make it count. Another memory rose up in his mind as he tried to settle on a course of action, a memory of a different discussion with Arkenstone. “True mastery of the Gale King will emerge when your separate techniques become one and the same.” At the time, as well as more recently, Dawn had wondered what such a unified technique might entail. He believed he’d approached it during his most recent training sessions. But, ultimately, he had yet to grasp that technique’s true form.
However, now, in this blank state, existing between thought and thoughtlessness, where his body and mind had achieved and almost perfect union, Dawn might have had the answer in his grasp. Though his body was on the verge of collapse, that numb sensation was actually affording Dawn a greater sense of clarity than ever before, very much like the sense he’d gotten when he’d faced the assassin, Willow. In those circumstances, to pierce the veil of Willow’s fog, Dawn had shed each of his senses and, in doing so, had managed to reach a level of perception that surpassed them. Now his senses were fading as a result of his own exhaustion. But it was affording him a similar clarity. Because of that, this would be his best chance to reach for that level of mastery.
As he recovered from the blow, Terra froze when he noticed the trembling in Dawn’s limbs. The colt’s body was finally giving out. Terra’s lips curled up in a triumphant smile before he forced the expression back down. There was no place for such emotion on the battlefield. He needed to focus the entirety of his being on what needed to be done. Sufficiently grim-faced once again, Terra began to march steadily toward the exhausted colt. The end…at last.
High above the battlefield, Scootaloo hovered, watching with worried eyes as Dawn’s battle with Terra Heart progressed. Dawn had not been kidding about how dangerous it was to get close. The two of them, simply by exchanging blows, had left a swath of destruction behind them leading from the schoolhouse to the park, even tearing apart a few unfortunate houses along the way. Once or twice, she had tried to swoop in closer to better see what was going on, only to be forced to pull back as a burst of wind from one of Dawn’s attacks threatened to send her flight spiraling out of control or a barrage of debris from the impact of Terra’s hooves threatened to perforate her body. When Dawn had created a tornado, Scootaloo had been forced to dodge a few boulders that had been bigger than she was.
However, even at this distance, she could tell that things hadn’t been going well for Dawn. She’d watched as he’d launched attack after futile attack, only to have them break against Terra’s body. The stallion was a rock in all but the most literal of senses. Nothing Dawn did seemed to get through. However, though he should have simply been playing for time, Dawn continued to attack.
Scootaloo noticed something else as well. As the battle progressed through the park, gouging the earth and shattering trees, she noticed that Dawn’s movements were gradually getting smoother and more fluid. He’d often complimented Scootaloo on her grace after watching her go through the forms. But now, as she watched, Dawn appeared to be just as graceful. With each exchange, efficiency increased and wasted motions were trimmed away. Dawn was learning, teaching himself how to move more effectively as the battle progressed. It didn’t seem to be helping him to find any weaknesses in Terra’s defense though.
Then it happened. After pulling that crazy trick of cutting out, pulling up, and flipping over the chunk of ground Terra had been standing on, Dawn had landed an attack…and had actually driven Terra back. Scootaloo’s heart soared as she dared to hope for the first time that Dawn might actually manage to turn the battle around and win against this seemingly unstoppable monster.
But it wasn’t to be. Just as Dawn looked as though he were about to press the attack, he stumbled, first forward, then back. His body began to droop and, in this brief pause in the battle, Scootaloo saw for the first time just how tired Dawn must have been. His coat was matted all over with sweat, peppered with patches of dirt and dust, punctuated by spots and streaks of red where small rocks and other debris had scored his body during the fight. His mane and tail were both ragged and scraggly, hanging in uneven strands, tangled around one another. The feathers on his wings were in disarray, having been worked harder than they’d ever been worked before. His eyelids were half-closed, as though he were on the verge of falling asleep where he stood.
“No…” whispered Scootaloo. She saw Terra pause as he recovered from the attack. She knew that the stallion had seen what she had seen. The fight was almost over…and Dawn was not going to be the winner.
Then, to her shock, she saw Dawn’s posture seem to go entirely limp. He was still standing, but his wings now hung, motionless, by his sides, not folded against them, but hanging down limply. His entire body seemed to relax and Dawn’s eyes fell all the way closed, his head lowering as though bowing in submission before his enemy. It looked as though Dawn was bowing to the inevitable and silently allowing Terra Heart to bring this fight to an end.
“No!” yelled Scootaloo, immediately going into a dive. There was no way she could even remotely hope to fight a monster like Terra. But she had to do something. There was no way in Tartarus that she would allow that jerk to kill Dawn if there was something she could do about it. Dawn was too important to her to be allowed to die like this.
Then, to her utter amazement, Dawn moved…and everything went white.
Dawn allowed his body to relax, releasing the last of the tension that had accumulated over the course of the battle. His eyelids were so low, they might as well have been closed for all the difference that they made. He relaxed to such a degree, that he didn’t even notice as a single strand of drool began to drip down out of his mouth. He simply continued, relaxing everything, releasing everything.
Terra approached, moving step by deliberate, ponderous step, possibly taking his time, savoring his victory. It didn't matter. Dawn wasn't even really thinking about it. His consciousness had spread so completely throughout his body and the air around him that he almost felt omniscient. His own breath moved in perfect synch with Terra's own, the two of them breathing as one, in complete unison.
That had been the key to getting past Terra's defense. Perhaps Dawn could have broken through with brute force if his power had been greater than Terra's by an order of magnitude, but that wasn't the only way to pierce such armor. If you became one with your opponent in consciousness, then his body failed to recognize your attack as an outside force and would not reject it. It wasn't easy, but it was surprisingly simple in practice. Dawn felt as though he understood Arkenstone's words a little better.
Now was the time to try something else along with that. As Dawn relaxed his body, his magic still flowed through his wings, agitating the air between his feathers, producing a faint buzz as a charge slowly built up. At the same time, his control extended to the air around him, stirring it into motion and drawing it in towards him. Finally, his body built up its strength for one last explosive effort as he prepared to unleash his final attack...possibly the final attack of the battle.
Terra Heart approached, his eyes focused entirely on his target. It was strange to see Dawn Lightwing in such a passive state after the intense battle they had been through. Terra had expected the colt to collapse, possibly beg for his life or bandy about words to try and undermine Terra's conviction. Part of Terra had been hoping for that. It would have made exterminating the demon all the more satisfying. Instead, the colt looked as though he had fallen asleep on his hooves. Perhaps Dawn had passed out standing up and was actually unconscious at the moment. In spite of it being a rather unsatisfying conclusion to this troublesome battle, Terra felt it was probably for the best. Dawn Lightwing was best disposed of before he could threaten anypony or anything else.
As he got closer, Terra's ears picked up a faint, but familiar, buzz. Lightning? He'd grown quite used to the sound during their fight, given that Dawn had attacked with lightning several times over. However, the colt should have been too weak to muster such an attack. Looking more closely at his opponent, Terra noticed a faint, blueish-white shimmer dancing around the primaries of Dawn's right wing. The shimmer was growing in size, seeming to feed off the air around it and becoming something like a fine white mist that hung about Dawn's wing. What is the demon up to now?
It was time. Dawn could feel that everything was right. He moved. His right wing snapped open and swept upwards like a blade, its motion cutting through the air in front of him. The accumulated electrical energy seemed to merge with the edge of the vacuum itself, though something like that should have been beyond the laws of physics. At the same time, the muscles of his entire body rippled as he lunged into the motion. Even the act of bracing his hooves against the earth helped add power to the motion. All the while, a single clear image formed in Dawn's mind, an image that was translated into reality as the curved edge of a blade of white seemed to carve its way into the world in a blinding flash, rushing straight for Terra Heart. He wasn't certain if the roaring in his ears was an actual sound caused by the technique or it was simply his own body protesting its overexertion. Meanwhile, everything in front of him was swallowed up by the shining wind.
Terra Heart couldn't understand what was happening. He hadn't even really perceived Dawn's movements as an attack until it was too later. However, what he did perceive was the sense of threat. For the first time in years, decades even, Terra truly felt as though he was about to die. His will was unyielding, his power was drawn from the earth itself. There was no force that anypony who was not also a master of the Mountain Root could bring to bear that should have been able to harm him. However, at that moment, he knew that, if he did nothing, he would die. It was an attack that completely surpassed his understanding and it had come when his guard was lowered, when he had been absolutely assured of his victory.
In that shining instant, the battle between Terra Heart and Dawn Lightwing came to an end.
Arkenstone smiled as he observed the battle. His eyes couldn't see Dawn's final attack, but he could sense its power. His nose picked up the hint of ozone in the air, along with another scent, charred flesh. I hope Dawn didn't burn himself. He had arrived only moments ago, ready to jump into the fray, only to pause and find himself waiting as he noticed that Dawn was still able to fight, still able to avoid Terra's strikes and even strike in return. Though he still held no hope for the colt's victory, he didn't want to actually intervene until it was absolutely necessary. Something told him that Dawn needed every minute of this battle.
His movements were improving right up into the very end, thought Arkenstone. Over the course of the fight, the colt had been collecting a wealth of experience and had been unconsciously using that to improve his own ability. Arkenstone felt proud. Though Dawn couldn't really be called his student, Arkenstone felt a certain degree of pride for having provided the colt with a few gems of advice in the past, especially considering how far Dawn had been able to take that advice and make use of it.
He also noted another familiar scent in the vicinity. Scootaloo was also close by, hanging in the air and watching the battle with her own eyes. That was good. Even as an observer, there was a great deal she could gain by seeing her teacher put the skills he was passing on to her to use.
Arkenstone settled back and waited for the fight's end to come.
"What was that?" gasped Fluttershy as she saw a flash of blueish-white light cut through the skyline over the park. It was as though a shining wall had been erected for the space of a few seconds before vanishing just as quickly.
"That was the Little Cub's doing, I'll wager," said Skan with a smirk, his own eyes fixed on the direction of the distant park, "That looked like something he might do."
"If so, that was one of the more impressive things I've seen," commented Rarity as she levitated a pair of binoculars up to her eyes, "To think that our dear little colt was capable of such a display." She reached out with a forehoof and gently patted a shivering Flaxseed's shoulders.
"Of course he is!" chirped Pinkie brightly as she bounced around, "I'm not getting any saddy-baddy feelings from my Pinkie Sense, so everything must be okey dokey hunky dory."
"I-if...if you say so," said Fluttershy, seeming to shrink in on herself slightly.
"He'll be fine," said Caramel, gently nuzzling Fluttershy's shoulder, "He's strong."
"Y-yeah," said Fluttershy, gently ducking her head against her coltfriend's shoulder. However, her heart wouldn't stop thudding alarmingly and her stomach felt heavy with dread. Dawn, please be alright.
Everything felt strangely distant to Dawn. He couldn't feel anything very well anymore. It felt far away, as though his mind and body had become separated. He would have wondered what happened, but thinking was hard. It was difficult to piece together anything that could even be called a coherent thought. The light from his previous attack faded from his eyes and Dawn noticed that the world seemed to have been turned sideways. Had he been more conscious, he would have realized that, actually, he was the one who had turned sideways and fallen onto the ground. But, at the moment, his mind just couldn't grasp the idea...or anything else either. At the moment, Dawn couldn't remember what he'd been doing, why he'd done it, or how he'd ended up like this. Everything felt blank to him. Right now, all he could do was lay and stare.
Then...motion! Some thing moved into his field of vision. Dawn's eyes couldn't really focus on it, perceiving nothing more than a dark-brown blur in front of him. Dawn's ears picked up a faint rumbling sound, somepony speaking maybe, but couldn't make sense of it.
Wha-what...? It was the first coherent thought he was able to assemble. He latched onto the word and began to slowly pull himself back towards something resembling a state of alertness. He was tired...so tired...but there was a sense of overwhelming danger that demanded his attention, that insisted that now was not the time to pass out. Fighting hard, Dawn tried to make sense of what was happening in front of him.
He blinked, though the motion was less a blink and more of a slowly closing and opening of his eyes. When he did so, he finally managed to get his vision to focus on the incoherent blur in front of him. It was a stallion, a very large one. His body was imposing, seeming to have been carved from the side of a mountain. His gray eyes glowered with deep, righteous anger down at Dawn's unmoving form, as though Dawn had did something to insult him.
Slowly, Dawn's mind began to piece together just what had happened and he began to remember. Now he remembered who the stallion was. Terra Heart... That was right. The stallion had come to Ponyville to kill him. They had fought and Dawn had managed to unleash his strongest attack yet. Doing so had completely drained all remaining strength from his body.
His heart sank when he realized that, if he was seeing Terra now, then his attack had failed. Terra had not been defeated. Now Terra was standing and Dawn was helpless before him. It would be the work of less than a second for Terra to kill Dawn and there was nothing Dawn could do to stop the stallion.
Then something else flashed across Dawn's field of vision, something orange. At once, his heart was flooded by a sick sense of fear and dread. No! Scootaloo!
Terra grimaced as he settled his weight carefully on his left hind leg. For the second time that day, he had been forced to actually dodge an attack. It had been so unexpected that Terra had also sustained an injury for the first time in years. Dawn Lightwing's attack seemed to have completely ignored the Terra's magical defense and had cut into him. The blade of shining wind had avoided hitting anything vital. Furthermore, the cut had had been cauterized at the same time it was made, thus keeping the wound from bleeding as well. The consequence was an angry black and red line along Terra's flank, running just under his cutie mark. It burned something fierce and ached terribly. But pain was something Terra could deal with.
Humiliation, however, was a different matter. No matter how Terra looked at it, no matter how he tried to reason or justify it, Dawn Lightwing had managed to harm him. The demon had unleashed a power that Terra had been completely unaware of and had struck when his guard had been lowered. Somehow, that mysterious attack had actually managed to do the impossible and score a mark on Terra's body, which should have been stronger than even mithril at this point. He had to have cheated. There was no way the colt could have accomplished such a feat through actual martial prowess. He could only have drawn on his supernatural power as Nightmare Moon's demonic servant. Disgusting beast, thought Terra with a dismissive snort.
However, Dawn Lightwing now lay helpless before him. The colt's body was motionless, his foul eyes staring ahead sightlessly, as though his mind could no longer comprehend what was happening.
"This fight is over," said Terra, "Creature of Nightmares, your end has come."
"STOP!" A blur of orange and fuchsia swooped down from above and a pegasus filly slammed her hooves into the ground, planting herself firmly between Terra and Dawn. "Don't you dare touch him!" she growled, pawing her hoof against the ground as her wings flared.
Terra looked at her impassively. "It will be over soon. It may be frightening, but you will be free from his thrall once I'm done." Once again, Terra began to advance.
""Nopony is in his thrall!" shouted Scootaloo, "You cultists are always calling him a monster, but you're the ones going out and hurting ponies! Dawn's helped so many since he came here. He doesn't deserve this."
"I am sure that he has made you believe that," said Terra, "But that matters not to me. I will complete my mission. I am afraid that I will have to be a little rough with you, child. When you return to your senses, I am sure that you will understand."
Scootaloo braced herself, preparing to attack. From watching Dawn's fight, she knew it was a futile gesture. Nothing she was capable of would even make somepony like Terra Heart flinch. But she had to do something. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she just let this stallion come and kill her coltfriend without trying to do anything about it.
A whistling sound came from above. At the sound, Terra' froze, his ears shooting upright. For the third time that day, his instincts told him to dodge or he would be killed. Terra jumped backwards as fast as he could manage.
Scootaloo blinked and flinched back as a massive black sword, as long as Ponyville's clocktower was tall, crashed down point first in front of her. The impact threw dust, dirt and stones into the air, but none of them came flying at Scootaloo directly. Had Terra attempted to continue his advance, he would have been impaled by the massive blade.
"Dawn probably wouldn't be happy with you if he were in a position to express his feelings," said a wry voice from behind.
Looking back, Scootaloo's eyes went wide for a moment before she let out a relieved sigh. "Arkenstone."
"However, I cannot fault you for wanting to protect someone so dear to you," continued Arkenstone, giving her a warm, encouraging smile as he approached, moving with a slow, relaxed gait, as though he hadn't just chucked a sword the size of a building like it had been a javelin. As he passed Dawn, Arkenstone paused and smiled down at the colt, gently reaching with his hoof to ruffle Dawn's ragged mane. "You did well. I am most impressed by your growth. I would say that Red, Storm, even your Master, were he here, would all be very pleased by your accomplishment." While he spoke, the gigantic sword blade began to crumble away, revealing the shaft of a lamppost embedded in the ground.
A faint grunt accompanied by a slight twitch of Dawn's body was all the acknowledgement that he was able to give.
Arkenstone chuckled. "It's alright. Rest now. You've done more than your fair share this time. I will take it from here."
The only indication Dawn gave that he understood Arkenstone's words was the closing of his eyes as he allowed the last vestiges of his consciousness to slip away.
"Is he...okay?" asked Scootaloo.
"He will probably need a transfusion of magical energy, most likely from another pegasus," said Arkenstone, "Wing Exhaustion is a pegasus' body's response to the overuse of their magic. It forcibly shuts down the flow of power through the meridians to keep anymore energy from being lost. However, Dawn overrode his limits. As a consequence, he went well past that point today. If he doesn't receive treatment soon, his meridians might shut down permanently."
"What should I do?" asked the filly, staring up at Arkenstone with worried eyes.
"One of the doctors should be able to manage a transfusion from another pegasus," said Arkenstone, "You would be fine as a donor. It isn't like blood types. However, you should get him to Sweet Apple Acres as soon as possible so that can be taken care of. We have time, but not a whole lot of it."
"Okay," said Scootaloo, bracing herself. Dawn was usually the one who carried her. Now that it was the other way around, she found herself wondering if she could do it.
"You'll be fine," said Arkenstone, "Take him and go. You don't want to be here when we start."
"I cannot allow that." In front of them, a shadow emerged from the veil of dust that seemed to swirl about the group like a miniature storm. Terra Heart strode through and stood before Arkenstone, glaring balefully at the newcomer.
"You do not have any say in the matter," said Arkenstone, "This foolishness ends here and now."
"On that," rumbled Terra, “we agree. I will put an end to this ridiculous farce myself."
"We do not agree," said Arkenstone, "We have only just met, but I have already had my fill of you." One of his ears swiveled to face towards Scootaloo. "Go."
Scootaloo nodded and gently levered herself under Dawn's body so that she could lift him onto her back. Giving her wings an experimental flap, she checked to make sure she had full movement before trying to take off. Her first effort was ungainly, but she found that the weight wasn't overwhelming and was soon gaining altitude without jostling her passenger. Applying her magic to steady the flow of air as she moved helped maintain her stability.
Terra snarled and took a step to pursue. However, Arkenstone used a forehoof to pry a rock free from the ground. With a flick, he sent it flying like a bullet at Terra. As the stone flew, power crackled around it and it transformed into a sword nearly a meter long slicing through the air, spinning end over end so quickly that it almost seemed like a circular saw. Terra quickly sidestepped the attack as the sword rushed past him, flying all the way to a gazebo occupying the center of the park. The blade made contact and, despite its relatively small size, cleanly sliced the structure in two.
"You are like those deluded fools I encountered in town and that inane mare I once called my teacher," growled Terra, "Your will is too strong to be twisted by the demon's power, yet you continue to aid him. You are a filthy heretic who deserves death."
"The only heretic here...is you," said Arkenstone, a rumble of anger seeping into his own voice as he started to walk towards Terra, "I know who you are, Terra Heart, Cardinal of the Cult Solar...You have hurt and nearly killed good ponies today. You threatened a child on the basis of a false doctrine, the delusions of ponies long dead and even longer shamed. You are a blight, a twisted perversion of everything that Princess Celestia stands for."
As Arkenstone walked, the dust swirling around the two of them began to converge upon the beige stallion. As it approached his skin, the particles of dust seemed to join together, power crackling across as they locked together in something that resembled scales, turning a pitch-black color as they adhered themselves to Arkenstone's skin. Bit by bit, piece by piece, it came into shape, the black scales melding together into smooth plates, forming champron, peytral, flanchard, and more. From the top of his head to the tips of his hooves, Arkenstone was completely encased in black armor, decorated by gold highlights, consisting of blade-like plates that projected outwards, as though it were forged from the blades of swords meshed together. It appeared as much a weapon in its own right as it did a defense. The plates of the champron almost completely encased Arkenstone's head, even covering his eyes, leaving only his mouth visible as he continued to advance on Terra.
"Pray. Pray cultist. Pray to that twisted bastardization of Princess Celestia you have conjured in that deluded mind of yours. Pray for her mercy. It is my hope that she grants it to you…for you shall receive none from me."