There was a gleam of guilt in Twilight's eyes as she followed her magic to the lost collar. She was moving farther away from Despise’s rampage with the full knowledge that she just told her friends to head straight into it. She had to keep thinking to herself that they were okay. They were strong. They were brave.
But then there were the citizens, screaming, flailing and panicking even as far away from Despise as she was. The buildings were filling up, some beyond capacity, with ponies trying to get themselves off the streets, as if they were somehow safer indoors. Others decided to flee the city, making straight lines towards for its limits. Many of them had families and the wailing cries of little fillies and colts acted as a natural siren to everypony else. Twilight pushed and shoved her way through the chaos. She was almost knocked down more than once, but her adrenaline was high and her determination wouldn't allow her to go down.
She only stopped when her magic alerted her that she was in the vicinity. She searched the immediate area, maneuvering her way around any panicked passing ponies. Nothing. Her magic couldn't be mistaken, but the collar was nowhere to be found. Twilight concentrated harder on her magic, hoping that it she could narrow down the exact point but no matter how insistent her magic was that the collar was right in front of her, she couldn’t see it.
Then, her heart sank when she realized that should could, in fact, see it. All around her the ground was littered with debris, and some of that debris was golden in color. The chaotic crowd had unknowingly found Willow's collar first, and trampled it to shards and dust.
It didn't take Spike's long to come to the same realization. "What are we going to do now, Twilight?" he asked in a defeated tone.
Twilight took her time answering as she lowered her head. "I...I don't know Spike."
"But we can't give up," Spike reminded her, "not while Despise's still breathing."
Twilight suddenly jerked her head up. "That's it!" She lit up her horn once more. The shattered fragments of Willow's former collar simultaneously lifted into the air. They then floated towards one another, converging in front of Twilight. Celestia's most gifted student forced the pieces into a little ball and grinded them against one another. In mere seconds, she had a fine, golden powder.
"Put this in your satchel, Spike!" she asked her companion as she hovered the ball of dust over him. Spike opened his bag, and Twilight dropped the former piece of jewelry into it. She then turned around and straightened her pose. "Let's go!" she shouted as she dashed forward. Spike barely had enough time to grip onto her back.
Now her goal was to find Despise, but unlike the collar this required no locating magic. All Twilight had to do was follow the sounds of destruction. The guilt she felt from leaving her friends to the monster was replaced by the fear of having to stand before it herself, but she refused to allow this to deter her.
As she drew nearer to Despise, the horrific noises of the creature's rampage were joined by flying debris. Twilight was quickly collecting scrapes and bruises from the broken shards of who-knows-what, but she pushed through them all. That is, she pushed through them until she collided with one particularly large object that sent her and Spike tumbling backward. Spike flew off Twilight's back and landed a short distance away. Twilight herself was pinned down by whatever had hit them. She looked up to see what it was.
"Rainbow Dash?" she asked the mound of Pegasus laying on her chest.
Rainbow Dash gazed back at Twilight with a wide-eyed stare as her shivering reverberated through Twilight's body. All she could say to her friend was "Run!"
With her oft-touted quick reflexes, Rainbow Dash took to the sky. Twilight rose to her hooves, but immediately had to dodge yet another flying object.
It was entire stage coach. Twilight was nearly knocked down just from the wind as it shot over her head like a cannonball. It crashed into the building behind her less than a story upwards. The building shook with the impact and after the vehicle had dislodged from whole that it made that broke a critical support, began to topple over. It was a small building, but to Twilight it might as well have been a skyscraper. She was frozen with fear as the shadow of its collapsing structure eclipsed hers.
Spike reached out and grabbed her tail to pull her away. The yank snapped her out of her shock and she immediately joined her companion in darting in the opposite direction. The two narrowly escaped the crash as the building hit the ground. They were briefly blinded by the rising dust from the impact and were forced to halt running any further. Both of them coughed heavily as they tried to wave the thick cloud out of their faces. After it cleared, however, the view only got worse.
Standing over the rubble was a wide-grinned pony with hot white eyes whose hair waved around like an octopus's tentacles. Despise was staring directly at Twilight and Spike. "Long time, no see," she screeched, "Each of you owe me a favor, one for the needle and one for the collar. So, who wants to be made a play thing first!?"
Spike immediately bared his teeth and marched forward, gripping his satchel like a bow. Twilight cried out for him to stop, but it was too late. One of Despise's hair strands reached out and coiled itself around him. Despise pulled him up to her face. "You never learn, do you?" she growled. Her hair tossed tossed Spike into the air. He came back down behind Despise. She kicked him with her hind legs like a soccer ball and sent him flying across the street.
Before Twilight could scream Spike's name, Despise's hair scooped her up as well and launched her in the opposite direction. She shot through the air faster than a Wonderbolt, and just as high. At the peak of her trajectory, she could see the rooftops of Canterlot stretching to limit of her vision. The sight would have been amazing in any other situation, but now Twilight could only scream as gravity quickly pulled her downward, aiming her directly into the nearest building.
Right before impact, though, she felt a different, unexpected impact from the side. Her body had collided once again with Rainbow Dash, who caught her before certain doom. As soon as Twilight got her bearings and caught her breath, she asked her rescuer "Where's Spike?"
"I don't know," said Rainbow Dash, "I only saw you!"
"Over there somewhere!" said Twilight pointing to the street behind Despise. As soon as she did so, she saw Despise lunge forward in Rainbow Dash's direction. However, the monstrous pony was still on the ground and her Pegasus friend was flying high over the city and away from her. Twilight almost sighed in relief.
But then Despise's hair strands grabbed hold of the building in front of her in several places, digging into the brick. They carried her up the building like legs of an insect. She reached the roof in no time. Her hair then reformed itself into the legs of a wild cat and she barrelled across the rooftops, closing in on Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash clenched her grip on Twilight and dove to the right, passing the street below and headed for Spike's presumed location. Despise jumped from the nearest rooftop and leapt across the street, landing on the parallel roof. The chase continued.
Twilight spotted Spike lying on the ground. He appeared unconscious, but uninjured. Rainbow Dash dove towards him and once he was in range Twilight used her magic to levitate him in to her lap. Rainbow Dash dropped suddenly with the additional weight.
"I don't think I can keep up the pace carrying both you," Rainbow Dash advised.
Twilight looked behind her. Despise had dropped to the ground when Rainbow Dash reduced altitude to pick up Spike. There was a circular crack in the road around where she landed. She herself was galloping towards them, this time on her real legs. That didn't mean she was slower, though. In fact, she was gaining. Her living hair was spread in all directions, but standing stiff against the wind, ready to launch itself at Rainbow and her passengers at any moment.
Unable to maintain altitude, Rainbow Dash ducked in between the nearest set of buildings, trying to give Despise an obstacle course to slow her down. As soon as Despise was out of view, Twilight could relax herself enough to ask a question, "Where are the others?"
"They're down a few blocks," answered Rainbow Dash, "They're not in good shape, though."
No sooner that she said that, Despise rounded the corner. Her tendril-like hairs stretched out to the left and right of her, gripping on to the buildings on either side. They propelled their owner forward down the street this way while she dangled in the middle like a sadistic ragdoll.
Rainbow Dash made a right at the buildings' ends and hovered above the adjacent street. She was slowing down and sweat was visible on her forehead. Twilight could feel her rescuer's grip weakening.
Quickly, Rainbow lowered herself and dropped Twilight and Spike safely on the ground. "I can't keep this up," she said to her friend while panting heavily, "Go down the street and meet up with the others. I'll keep her distract—"
Despise cleared the buildings before Rainbow Dash could finish. Twilight had no time to argue. She put Spike on her back and darted down the street. Rainbow, now free of the excess weight took to the air, making sure to fly right past Despise's face. Despise took the bait. Rainbow Dash flew over the nearest building on the opposite side of the street and the mad pony used her hair to vault herself up the building and give chase.
Twilight galloped down the road as fast as she could with Spike on her back. The street was mostly clear of civilians now, save for a few daring — or perhaps stupid — ponies determined to watch the unfolding chaos. However, the street itself was still an obstacle. Twilight had to weave her way around Despise's handiwork, endless piles of debris comprised of rock, wood, and metal. She had never been in a warzone, but she was certain this was what one would look like. Furthermore, she was certain she would find her friends at the epicenter of the destruction.
Only a few blocks down, Twilight heard Pinkie Pie shouting from a nearby alley between two half-destroyed structures, "Twilight! Over here!"
Twilight turned into the alley. There was Pinkie Pie along with Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie herself seemed untarnished, but she was the only one standing upright. The others were lying on the ground nursing their wounds. Rarity was rubbing her right foreleg with her left, Applejack's left eye was black and blue, Fluttershy's right wing was bent, and all of them were covered in dirt and bruises. Twilight was relieved to have found them, but frowned regardless. There was no point asking how they were doing.
Before greeting them, though, Twilight levitated Spike off of her back and gingerly placed him on the ground.
She put her hoof on his chest and gently pushed against him. “Spike! Spike! Are you okay!?”
After a few pushes, Spike eyes slowly opened. “Ugh,” he groaned as he held his head and painfully pushed himself up on to his feet. “Well,” he said while coughing, “that hurt.” He then turned his head and looked at the others. “Looks like the antaxium didn’t work, huh?”
"Never got a chance to use it," said Applejack.
"I'm afraid that brute Despise is just too quick," added Rarity.
Twilight sighed, "I'm so sorry I sent you guys straight into this."
"Oh, um, it's okay," Fluttershy timidly reassured her.
"Yeah," said Applejack, "I can't say we had any better ideas."
"But...what are we going to do now?" said an unusually worried Pinkie.
"Leave the city!" a voice boomed from above the broken group. All of them looked up to the sky and saw Princess Luna descending from the sky.
Princess Celestia was behind her, hovering the air. "You have all acted nobly today, but my sister and I can take care of the creature for now. I suggest all of you to flee Canterlot and get to safety."
Twilight began to open her mouth to object, but the Princess then observed her subjects more carefully and quickly spoke up again "Where is Rainbow Dash?"
"Here!" a loud screechy voice cried out from behind the group. A blue Pegasus shot out from the other end of the alleyway, spinning like a cannonball through the air. She once again collided with Twilight and the two toppled over onto the ground.
"Ugh," grumbled Rainbow Dash as she tried to get off of Twilight and back on to her own hooves, "Twilight, you have any idea how hard you are!?"
Despise galloped down the the alley, her living hair scraping the sides of the buildings and scattering dust and debris in all directions. She stopped directly in front of the ponies who were in no shape to fight. The monster grinned at them with delight. The injured ponies trembled.
But then, Despise looked up and saw her two new guests. Her hot white eyes narrowed at the site of Luna. "You!"
Luna didn't so much as flinch. She narrowed her own eyes and stared right back at the creature. "You could not defeat me in Willow's dreams," she said to Despise coldly, "You will have no more luck here!"
"Stupid high-and-mighty Alicorn," scolded Despise. "I was made to defeat you!"
Without hesitation, Luna fired an enormous beam of light from her horn. With almost precognitive reaction time, Despise's hair wrapped around its owner's body to shield it. The wall of hair absorbed the shot, but the force of the impact blew Despise backwards, pushing her back the way she came.
Luna and Celestia both flew down the street after her. "We will handle this!" Celestia shouted to her seven most loyal subjects, "Get to safety!"
Twilight called out "But Princess—!" but it was too late. Luna and Celestia had now rounded the corner at the far end of the alley and Despise took off after them.
"We've got to catch up with them, Spike!" said Twilight desperately.
"Uh, why?" asked Applejack.
Twilight told her and the others about Willow's collar, about how it was now crumbled into a pile of dust in Spike's satchel. However, she also explained why it was still useful.
"Well, it sounds like it would help the Princesses subdue that horrible beast." said Rarity.
"And it don't feel right just leavin' the fight to them," said Applejack.
"Exactly," said Twilight, "which is why Spike and I need to catch up with them."
"Why just 'Spike and I'?" said Pinkie. "Why not Spike and we?"
Twilight explained, "I don't know how you managed to stay uninjured, Pinkie—"
"Ninja skills!" Pinkie interrupted.
"..right," Twilight continued, "but everypony else here is in bad shape. Fluttershy probably can't even fly with that wing."
"I...I can walk," said Fluttershy in as determined of a voice as she could muster.
"As can I," Rarity declared.
"This black eye don't affect my legs none!" said Applejack.
"My wings are pretty worn out right now so I think I'll join you all on-hoof," said Rainbow Dash.
Twilight nodded, then smiled. "Thank you, everypony. Now let's go. It's time to end this!"