When Zodiac regained his balance, he was disappointed but not necessarily surprised by what he saw. Calmly, he tossed aside his crossbow weapon and pawed the apartment floor, snorting and with wings open. He was not afraid of the stallions confronting him, or the two-against-one odds he faced. He was determined to win as only a pegasus stallion could be.
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"You still aren't deterred, young stallion?" Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor asks as he uses his magic to pluck out the syringes embedded in a lobe of his forcefield bubble he had extended over his comrade, Lieutenant Stratocumulus. The syringes had been stopped in mid-air by the sudden extension of the forcefield, leaving Stratocumulus unharmed. Shining now moved them with his magic away from both him and Stratocumulus, then they are tossed like darts at one of the apartment's walls, leaving them stuck in the wall as a result.
Zodiac saw this, and that was his cue. He let out a great shout - Stratocumulus later reported it was a war cry once used by the pre-unification pegasi tribes - and leapt at Stratocumulus. He rebounds off the still-extended forcefield, but flared open wings buffet the impact and allow Zodiac to land on all fours. Shining drops the forcefield, and Zodiac gives another cocky grin as the battle begins in earnest...
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MEANWHILE...
Over the Canterlot train station flew Lieutenant Vesper's squadron - six bat ponies, including the Lieutenant, plus the recently-activated griffon defector Guard Upper Class Excelsior. Vesper had the squad circle to see if Moon Dancer was waiting on the currently-empty platform, but upon seeing no sign of the filly lead the squad in for a landing on the platform.
"Arcturus!" Vesper calls out once the squad had landed.
"Yes sir?" a bat pony stallion with surprisingly bright orange colored eyes responds from nearby.
"Take the griffon and two Lower Classes, check down that way." Vesper orders, pointing a certain direction down the platform.
"Yes sir." Arcturus answers, turning to relay the orders to the appropriate members of the squad.
"You two, follow me." Vesper now says to the two closest squad members, and starts into the station proper with the two other bat ponies following.
Vesper is aware of alerting Moon Dancer of the presence of his squad, so makes all subsequent orders using foreleg motions, having his two subordinates look down in different directions within the station. Still, his hoofsteps are echoing too loudly for his taste.
The bat pony Lieutenant rounds a corner - and notices a small lantern glowing some distance down. Carefully walking closer, he notices a young unicorn mare sitting on the station floor while reading a book by the lamplight, along with a few other books stacked beside her. He suspects it's Moon Dancer, and is able to confirm it as he gets closer to her sitting position.
"What do you want? Who sent you?" Moon Dancer asks contemptuously as she looks up at Vesper from her reading, the lantern giving her angry look a sinister undertone.
"It does not matter who sent me, filly. I'm here because your mother is in grave danger. Someponies want to keep you two apart for their own purposes!" Vesper explains as patiently as he can.
Moon Dancer slams her book shut and contorts her face into a scowl before replying: "Now let me tell you something, Sir. I don't give a buck what happens to my mother, not anymore. I am going to take the Midnight Express with my stallionfriend to start a new life with him. You can arrest me if you want, but you're not going to stop me running away and you're not going to make me help my mother!"
"There is no Midnight Express, young mare! Your stallionfriend lied to you! Hold up your lantern to the big schedule board and you'll see the truth!" Vesper exclaims in exasperation.
Moon Dancer gives Lieutenant Vesper a confused look, then uses her unicorn magic to levitate the lamp she was using high up into the air and close to a big display board in the center of the lobby area. With the lantern moved away, Vesper can only make out Moon Dancer's face by reflected light from her glowing horn. Nevertheless, it is enough to see first her confusion, then dismay and horror on her face as she moves the lantern back and forth via the unicorn magic in front of the board.
There is a moment of breathless silence, then the lantern abruptly is "dropped" by her stopping her magic control over it. Before Vesper can react, the lantern shatters on the floor, plunging the room into total darkness. He hears galloping hoofsteps and sobbing sounds mixed together and echoing across the room, and immediately realizes his mission has failed - he had no idea where Moon Dancer would be headed, and could find another hiding place by the time he called his squad back together to chase after her.
Vesper hears a door opening, and the sounds of some of his subordinates shouting orders to stop, but it was too little too late - she was already galloping in the Canterlot streets, easily able to shake his subordinates if they chased her. He shook his head sadly - there was little more he could do now to help anypony...
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MEANWHILE, IN THE CANTERLOT MOUNTAIN...
"The extraction process for the horn trophy is complete, Agent Snake."
"Good. Dump the mare down the mountainside, she is of no more use to us. Start the preservation treatment for the horn immediately."
"Sir, what about the others?"
"Take the stallion and the filly to the mountain access point and release them back into the city. They have played their part, for now."
It was such that Star Dancer, hornless and in intense pain, was roughly hauled up a ventilation shaft and tossed out to roll down the mountainside. In the darkness she tumbled, her pain-clouded view constantly inverting and twisting itself, until there was a final merciful stop on a ledge. The pain and her tears took over completely as she drifted in and out of consciousness, wondering if anypony would save her from what seemed to be certain death...
Paralyzed by her injuries and unwanted surgery, Star Dancer had thoughts of both her fillies flitted in and out of her mind, as did thoughts of her long-dead mate. Her breaths came shallow and painful, and she could already imagine seeing her mate again...
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ELSEWHERE...
Zodiac was losing his fight in Star Dancer's apartment against Lieutenant Stratocumulus and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor. His youthful energy and determination simply couldn't match the advantage in numbers and training the two Royal Guard stallions had, and despite repeated use of furniture and knives as improvised weapons he was taking a heavy beating.
There was nowhere for Zodiac to run or fly away to - Shining Armor's shielding spell had been generated to block all windows and doors leading out of the apartment. Exhaustion was setting in, and his previous swagger had since been deflated. He was stubborn and glory-seeking as only a pegasus stallion could be, though, and it would soon be his total undoing.
Zodiac had become locked in a pushing contest on his hindlegs against Stratocumulus, sweat and determination evident on both faces. Stratocumulus smashes his head downward into Zodiac's, knocking the latter off balance and allowing Stratocumulus to knock him down with a hoofsmash. The Lieutenant next attempted to smash downward onto Zodiac, but the younger pegasus rolls out of the way and latches onto his side trying to pull him down to the floor.
Stratocumulus hears Shining Armor call his name and sees the unicorn setting up for a hindleg bucking attack. He rolls forward and to the side opposite where Zodiac was clinging to throw the opponent off-balance again, and looks back to see Shining connecting with both hindlegs in a buck on Zodiac's chest. Zodiac goes flying clear across the devastated apartment, hitting the far wall with enough force to crack a spider-web pattern in it!
The younger pegasus slumps to the floor, the screaming pain in his chest certain indications of broken ribs and fractured breastbone. Flying was now impossible, and any movement of a limb sent a pulse of pain shooting through his body - even breathing was beginning to be painful!
"I've had enough of this!" Shining Armor, dripping in sweat and wearing a few bruises, exclaims in frustration in Zodiac's general direction. "Zodiac, you are under arrest in the name of the princesses of Canterlot on charges of treason, conspiracy to endanger the welfare of others and attacking an officer of the Royal Guard!"
It was only at this point that Zodiac realized that he could not escape "The End". There would be no life with Moon Dancer, no Wonderbolts, no glory. Instead, he would only see the inside of a cold dungeon cell (or at least that's what Agent Snake told him it was like) for the rest of his days. If he was particularly unlucky, he would get "zapped" by Princess Celestia as an execution, just like other Agents of Chaos had.
And Zodiac refused even now to accept that fate. He desperately looked around for an out as Stratocumulus and Shining Armor produced the shackles that would bind his hooves together and make him a powerless prisoner. Out of the corner of his vision, he noticed the two fluid-filled syringes had been knocked out of the wall nearby by his impact, laying on the floor waiting for somepony to inject themselves with.
The pegasus seized the opportunity and lunged in the direction of the syringes. Both Shining Armor and Stratocumulus tried to hold him down, but he wriggled out of their pins and lunged again, this time getting close enough to use a forehoof to roll one of the syringes toward his body. Before either of the other stallions had a chance to do anything, Zodiac stood the syringe point-up on the floor and fell on it, the weight of his body insuring the liquid was injected. After the injection was complete, the pegasus tips over on his side, going completely limp and his eyes closing in the process.
"What did he just inject himself with?" Stratocumulus asks as Shining uses his magic to levitate up the other syringe and look it over with it hovering in mid-air.
"Concentrated cyanide solution." Shining answers with a tone that mixed dismay and depression. "This particular shade of blue you're seeing is from a coloring agent that is added as a warning against drinking it. These doses might've been stolen from the pest control supplies used by the groundskeepers."
"Then we need...!" Stratocumulus begins to exclaim in alarm before Shining cuts him off with a raised forehoof.
"Lieutenant, with the dosage he just received he'll be dead before we can do anything to help him. We don't even have enough time to get to the medical station to get an antidote." Shining Armor explains. "What's most important now is finding out what happened to Star Dancer and her filly. I'll take care of things here, you join the other Lieutenants searching for them. Understood?"
"... Yes sir." Stratocumulus replies, reluctantly turning around and walking out of the ruined apartment to help in the search for the two endangered ponies.
As Stratocumulus leaves, Shining Armor levitates the unused syringe toward the apartment's kitchenette sink and squirts the liquid inside down the sink drain. He then turns back to look at the destruction and the doomed colt of a pegasus laying on the floor, and he shakes his head with a great sadness in his expression. This night was already very bad, and he had to wonder if it would get even worse before it got better...