Twilight needed a moment to think over her options, and rationalize her decision. She looked down at the crystal that Cadence had given her, studying its intricate, yet delicate nature... It was comprable to Equestria, as she saw it now.
The Trident wasn't always evil... Mark Maker himself said that it helped everyone at the beginning. The original founders had only the continuation of the nation in mind when they formed it, but over the years, people like Reach have corrupted it to be so much colder... caring more for itself than others. If Cadence is right, then the Trident can be fixed. No more Unbranded, no more tyranny, and with an alicorn in control, there would be no chance for any corrupt leaders to come in and sieze the most powerful position.
She looked up at Flak, still knocked out and bound on the wall. She remembered back to when he had told her to finish him off, and what she felt. If I were to murder Reach, I would be just as bad as he is. In all of the problems I have faced... all of the powerful entities my friends and I have fought, even when the fate of the world hung in the balance, we did whatever we could to save everyone's life. She was right. The only potential exception to this would have been Sombra, but even then, that was the Crystal Heart's doing, and Sombra's fault for remaining within the area of effect.
Twilight's mind was made up. She was going to do the right thing. For everyone.
She ran down the hallway on the right, passing a few doors and many blank walls, before encountering a short upward staircase, which she proceeded to briskly scale, not slowing down in the slightest. As she finally reached the top, there was a short hall with only one door at the end, a heavy stone door with the seal of the trident raised off of the otherwise smooth surface. So, after swallowing back any anxiety, she pushed open the door, ready to face Reach and put an end to all of this. What she saw however, she was not prepared for.
The room itself was very large, and narrowed towards the ceiling, indicating that this was the hollowed out peak of the facility. An enormous crystal raised about 20 feet into the air in the center of the room, and tapered off from a wide base to a thin top. The base descended through the floor, where she had seen the crystal in the roof earlier. She hadn't expected it to be this large, though that was not the most shocking sight in the chamber. She saw Reach right off, hovering above the crystal and slowly beating his wings. Yes. Wings.
Cadence wasn't lying, he had on some kind of mechanized exosuit, almost like a second skeleton over his body. The wings themselves looked identical to the ones she saw being demonstrated in the R&D Department back at the Trident facility, and there was a long metallic horn extending from the helmet, glowing with radiant energy.
Reach turned at the sound of the door and grinned, speaking in a loud voice, with a smile that was far more terrifying than it should be, perhaps merely because this was a full, genuine smile from the otherwise flat and subtle individual. "Ah, princess, so nice of you to join me! I was rather hoping your curiosity might bring you here! Although, something tells me you aren't here to tell me that you'll be giving up..."
"Reach!" she cried out, spreading her wings in a show of authority. "Explain yourself!" the princess demanded, using a technique Luna had shown her to amplify her voice.
Reach did not seem startled in the slightest, as he calmly flew down to the ground and stood before her, his own metal wings spread out in a matching gesture, showing off the mechanics of the device. "I did warn you that you would be in for a surprise, didn't I? To think, I was going to let you test this rig to make sure it was safe... but I rather think it's best that I was the first. You may never have wanted to remove it!" He spoke as if rehearsed, but said it all with genuine happiness, which unnerved her, but she stayed focused as she got a closer look at the rig itself.
The setup was almost entirely built out of some kind of very smooth metal, likely some form of steel. It had many rib-like rungs that wrapped around his chest, and a raised spine that emmitted a faint glow from within. Twilight noted eight of the unicorn power containers lined along his back, each hooked into the spine structure, and shielded on top with a metal plate over each. Most prominent, was the layered, metallic horn raised from his forehead, which connected directly to the glowing helmet on his head, shaped mildly like the top half of a skull. Off of the helmet was one wire leading into some kind of headphone in his ear, and a glass information lens over one eye, with data projected onto it. He noticed her observing the suit, but did not attempt to interfere, and waited for her to speak again.
"What are you doing here, Reach? I want answers, no beating around the bush this time," she inquired with force, attempting to maintain her facade of superiority.
He looked delighted at her inquiry, and cleared his throat calmly. "You see, Twilight, Equestria is one prosperous spot in a whole world of nations, other kingdoms and empires across the planet are completely unpredictable, and many uncontacted. What if one of them decides to attack us, Twilight? Or perhaps worse, what if they do nothing? As it stands, the Equestrian economy is starting to go stale... So, I decided to take care of those issues in one fell swoop. I fully intend to spread Cutie Marks to EVERY sentient being on the planet! Imagine: Dragons with their riches suddenly getting generous, Gryphons suddenly wanting to open trade talks, Bison more than willing to hand over land and territory! Equestria will be led into a new golden age, thanks to me!"
She took a step back, and had to take a good, long look at the pony standing before her. His eyes filled with pure, determined success, his stance one of complete confidence. Not only did he completely believe in this plan, but he believed that nothing could stop it. Even his words had sounded a bit memorized, as if reading to her history of that which had already happened. But, there was one thing he hadn't answered... the means.
"And how exactly would you do that?" she asked tentatively, nearly afraid of what he might say. The alicorn-esque suit certainly didn't bode well.
He took a step toward her, making a metal clanking sound on the stone floor, as he began to explain. "Simply put, the broadcast crystal is too weak to actually reach the whole world... as it is right now. It needs a conduit to spread the area of effect, something that can regulate and process the information going in and out for the whole operation... and that's me. This metal exosuit is the result of countless years of research, designing, and preparation. I contain in these energy cells the combined power of eight unicorn archmages... effectively four times as much power as you currently posess. With this rig and this much energy, I can not only boost the range planet wide just long enough to Brand every single sentient being on the planet, but then I can return every once in a while to repeat the process. I have circumvented Mark Maker entirely. You could say that I alone have become the apex of the world, the centerpiece for energy!" He paused here and looked upwards with a fond smirk. "The entire population of a foreign power could suddenly decide to change their views within a moment... with just a single thought from me."
He's a madman! An absolute madman! Twilight thought to herself, backing away and angling her wings to fly at any moment. Reach himself calmly began to fly upwards toward the peak of the crystal again, chuckling to himself. She knew what she had to do, but if what he had said was true... then she couldn't do it alone. The princess placed a hoof on her bag, and silently crushed the crystal within, then flew towards the crazed leader, swallowing back her apprehensions.
"I can't let you do that, Reach!" she boldly exclaimed, and was met with a burst of laughter in reply.
"Alright, Twilight, you're quite intelligent, so let's look at the facts. I have four times your energy level. This suit multiplies my strength to a point where even the strongest earth pony would be unable to take me down, and my wings contain enhanced machinery that significantly increases my flight speed and maneuverability... which doesn't particularly matter in a fight, since I can teleport just like you can. I literally outmatch you in every way," he noted, shaking his head as if admonishing a child for breaking a fairly minor rule.
"Then I'll just have to outsmart you!" she cried, turning herself invisible and quickly flying silently to the other side of the room to prepare a charge... before she was surrounded by a white field of energy and held in place.
"I likely should have mentioned that I can detect energy levels as well, silly girl." He had clearly dropped much of his normally calm demeanor, and in it's place was a cocky, self-assured stallion who believed he held all the chips.
He would be useless without that suit! I need a way to stop it from running... but how..? Twilight closely looked at the unicorn energy containers, protected by a metal sheath each... but otherwise not well guarded... He's four times as powerful as I am, but if I can at least lessen his power supply... She had a plan, and hoped that she could execute it before Cadence arrived.
First, she began flailing as much as possible, as to make him concentrate on holding her still, and stop him from doing what he would with the crystal. Next, to throw off his energy, she began randomly firing shots all over the room, towards the bottom, making him think she was aiming for the crystal base. Finally, using extreme multitasking skills, she slowly began locking on to the containters... There's two... four... six...!
"WHAT IN BLAZES?" Reach cried, attempting to slam her backwards as he caught on... but not before she managed to pull out four of the canisters. "NO!" he shouted angrily, swooping to try and grab them. She managed to destroy two with horn blasts, and cracked a third before he grabbed it. He growled angrily like an enraged timberwolf, as he defiantly stuck the one intact canister back into the rig, and spread a white, static-looking shield over his entire spinal area.
"I underestimated you, princess. I won't be making that mistake again!" he explained, his cockiness gone. He threw her against the ground, causing sharp pain to spread through her side. She had to ignore the horrible pain and scamper away as he charged a triangular beam she had never even seen before, and fired it onto the stone where she had been sitting, leaving a huge crater. "I am still more than TWICE as powerful as you are!" he reminded her, teleporting in front of her, and creating walls on three sides of her.
She teleported to the other side of the room... only to be met with him again. "You aren't the only one capable of recognizing patterns!" Reach said with an angry smile, throwing her swiftly to the side. She recovered just before hitting the wall by spreading out her wings, engulfing herself in a shield as he fired a hard blast at her. Then she got an idea.
Letting her shield dissipate as if his blast had destroyed it, she used the reflection technique that Flak had first used on her, returning the white ball right back at the sender. He attempted to dodge, but when it began to curve, he did something new: instead of reflecting it back, he grunted and made a shimmering, dummy version of himself, then teleported away. The bolt struck the dummy, vaporizing it to dust, and leaving the real Reach unscathed and darkly chuckling.
"You see Twilight? Even with your little trick I am still double your strength... You cannot beat me," he bragged calmly. "I am going to win!"
"No, you won't!" a familiar sounding voice said from across the room. The last time Twilight had heard those words, they were terrifying, but hearing them now was exhillarating. Cadence had arrived.
Reach whipped around with a quick flash of his wings, his back still shielded. "Cadenza. I should have known you would forget your place. Perhaps I was a little too soft on Shining, but I won't be making that mistake again," he threatened, eliciting a flash of rage from her.
"Cadence! Don't listen, these people try to manipulate emotions!" Twilight cried, remembering Flak and Reach's office. Cadence nodded and put herself silently in a battle-ready stance. Twilight did the same, but Reach merely laughed at them both, encasing himself in a white bubble. Twilight looked over at the fellow alicorn, and remembered back to one more technique she had read up on in the Trident HQ: communication without speaking.
Twilight's horn glowed as she sent words to Cadence's mind. It's me, don't freak out, but I have a plan. The other princess was slightly startled, but otherwise listened. He has five energy canisters powering his suit. He had eight, but I managed to take out three. We need to get him to unshield his back long enough to pull the rest out and disable the whole rig.
Cadence thought, and subtly nodded, which earned an odd glance from the protected Reach, until she fired a solid beam at his bubble. He scoffed at her attempt... until Twilight joined in, power growing.
"You may be twice as strong as one alicorn... but now it's even," Twilight began, surging more energy into her beam with a grunt.
"Less than even really, because we can attack from two angles!" Cadence chimed in, her own beam widening in radius as her expression grew more concentrated.
"Is that so?" Reach taunted, conjuring just enough energy to manifest a white ball behind her and fire it towards her, before refocusing on his barrier. He was unaware, however, that Twilight was able to mentally communicate what he had done, and with a slight break in power, the princess put a small energy wall behind her briefly to block the shot, then she poured all her power into the beam.
Reach's eyes widened slightly. His original plan had been to spawn a dummy and teleport to the other side of the chamber again, but he now had to focus all of his efforts on his shield and his back. His expression otherwise remained cool and calm. He had of course faced errors before, but those five canisters he drew from contained a fixed pool of energy. Living magical beings however had the annoying tendency to go beyond their natural power levels when in distress. He was displeased, but determined to succeed. He took power from his back shield and focused entirely on the barrier.
Twilight noticed the drop in guard, and she felt filled with determination, her heart pounding in her ears. Just need to get his barrier down now... just need to overpower it! She poured every ounce of energy she had into the beam erupring from her head, but knew that that alone would not be enough. So, in a dangerous move, she brought to mind every hateful thought she could. Every failure, every death he had caused, all the pain that this new Trident had created for everyone... and as she did so, the solid purple beam from her horn began to darken to a deep lavender... until finally it was solid black.
Reach was strugging to maintain the barrier. As he looked over to Twilight, he felt a twinge of emotion that he had not felt in decades... something deep and primal. Fear. "Dark Energy?!" he exclaimed, pushing the rig to its limits. Dark energy was exponentially more powerful than even the purest form of raw unicorn power, primarily due to its instability, and he knew full well that this suit couldn't handle it. In a very desperate attempt to avoid overloading the system, he fired every wing-assist system he had and flew straight up, his energy warning indicating that his horn apparatus had been overheated by the exertion.
Twilight ceased her beam immediately as he flew upwards, her eyes still faintly glowing black as she rocketed after him. In her state of mind, the look of shock and subdued terror in his eyes was delightful, as she wrapped her hooves around him and barreled into the ground, near where Cadence stood.
Quickly, Cadence locked on to the canisters as Reach attempted to reactivate his horn, but at that point, they had been removed, and his legs had been pinned by a slowly calming princess Twilight, horn glow returning to a normal, purple coloration.
Reach had very few options before him. If he attempted to escape, they would easily grab him. Negatiation was out, as he was in no position to make a deal, he held no leverage. It was very obvious that he would not achieve his grand plan... today. He had one option left, and it was the most rational of them all. He stopped struggling and simply stated, "I surrender."
Twilight was still panting from her energy exertion earlier, but Cadence walked up and nodded happily at her, earning a weak smile. "You are officially under arrest for conspiring against the Equestrian monarchy. Do you confirm your surrender?" Cadence asked professionally.
Even in this, he took on a smug smile, and calmly replied. "Yes, I surrender. I of course would prefer not to fight, you have clearly won this day. It's always better t--" His speech was cut short by a strong hoof to the jaw from Cadence, instantly knocking him out cold.
Twilight looked over to Cadence, who was proudly beaming back. "I always did hate the way he talked," she said, accompanied by the most relieved laugh she had heard in a very long time.