Sometimes They Call Me Super

by KorenCZ11

Kaiju V - Applejack - The True Persona

Celestia Iscandor of Equus

---

There are days in which I wish all the legends about me were true. For example, there are ponies who say that I can see the future. False, on every account. There are ponies who say that I have the power to stop everything and anything. I do not. There are ponies that say that I am the most powerful being on the planet. These days, I wonder if that has ever been true. The legacy I’ve built, the ideals I preach, the country I’ve created are nothing new. As the goddess once said,

“There is nothing new under the sun.”

What I have done to achieve all the things I have over my many years, is fail. Repeatedly. Over and over and over again. Mistakes taught me that ideals have logical conclusions. Mistakes taught me that power, in and of itself, is a danger to myself and everypony around me. Mistakes have taught me that life is precious.

Yet, time and time again, history repeats itself. Old mistakes come back to haunt me. Relationships I’ve seen play out before happen again and again, and only when it is too late do I realize that the things I do, the knowledge I pass on, that the ideals I preach, have consequences of their own. I am not perfect. I am no goddess. I am simply a pony whom, only after thousands of years, has finally learned to tame her heart. And even then, I’ve still failed to do that.

I saw it, in the very beginning. A pony I noticed, who was brought to me in a place I never imagined I’d meet her. So much of myself was in that girl. Somepony who had experienced loss after loss, somepony with more power than she knew what to do with, somepony who was trying to live to the best of her ability for her family and locking her own feelings away.

I’ve been her before. Kicked out of my home to a strange land with a child sibling to raise on the back of a teenager with far, far too much power at her disposal. Losing myself in the one instance I had the chance to open my heart to somepony else, and… just as quickly, losing him.

The thin veil of control I had on that power lost in an instant, thousands of lives burned for my ‘righteous vengeance,’ only to realize in the end that I was just a long lived creature in a world that didn’t care about me or anypony else. We live and die on the backs of our actions, and even then, the righteous still suffer and the evil prosper. Justice is an act carried out by ponies who are willing to make the right choice. Who are willing to bear the burden of executioner so that when their time to be judged arrives, their executioner also chooses justice.

Right and wrong are only found when truth is revealed. The ever illusive, the ever obscured, the ever persecuted, hidden truth. History is judged by the future and made in the present. Ignorance is he who fails to see the past when it is his turn to make history.

There is nothing new under the sun. But even the sun does not light every corner of the world. How often it seems that I cannot see the dark shadows cast by those closest to me.

---

“Quickly, lay her on the table!” I called.

Rainbow had just returned after taking friendly fire to the forehead. She was bleeding profusely, and as soon as Twilight brought her and Pinkie back to the castle, I started to apply as much medicinal magic as I could.

“What the hell happened!?” Scootaloo yelled. She was no stranger to blood at this point, but seeing her adoptive sister hurt like this must have been a shock.

Luna was keeping an eye on the live broadcast, using her personal drone for a second video feed and audio capture, but quickly rewinded a third screen to find out exactly that. “I… I believe that Sahaquiel had somehow figured out where Fluttershy was shooting from and redirected fire with his hooves. Such… precision...”

I shivered. How terrifying. Such power in one so young…

Scootaloo laid her hooves on Rainbow, and in an instant, her head wound had healed. The dent in her helm buffed itself out, and ever so slowly, her blood found its way back into her broken wing. She let out a sigh of relief. “Whew. That wasn’t just a minor hit. Where is Pinkie?”

“Oh, I’m over here. I’m really not all that banged up. I think most of my damage is just the backlash from Trump Card.” She in question waved from the living room table, mask and goggles off, greedily emptying a bottle of water.

“Well, get over here so she can heal you! They need you back out there!” my daughter complained.

I shook my head. “Doubtful. As… as much as I believe you could be of use, it’s clear he is already more than we’d planned for. Sahaquiel seems… smarter then we initially thought.”

“Ssh! They’re talking!” Luna warned. We all turned to watch the screen. Applejack and Goose, Marevelous and the Black Knight, were slowly approaching Sahaquiel.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that one was meant to kill. Surely you aren’t already tired of playing with me, are you?” the monster said. Casual and flippant, as if this were a Sunday promenade.

I shivered again. How… horrendously familiar…

“Maybe. But then again, ya did nearly kill one of yer targets with a bullet we fired, so Ah’d rather not have this drag on.”

I chewed on my lip. Are you playing with him? Is this your plan? Please, please, please don’t get caught up in the act. You know better…

“Only nearly? And here I was sure I’d hit just the right spot. You must have an incredible healer on your team to recover from something like that.”

“Damn right we do!” Rainbow exclaimed. I gave her a seething glare and very quickly, she retreated behind her helm.

“Yeah, we certainly do. Ah’m just surprised y’all still wanna play, what with the shape you’re in right now. How are them legs doin’? She gotcha in the knees, it looks like.”

But you know he can regenerate. Though… not as instantly as the others seemed to. Were this Israfel or Sachiel, they would have recovered by now…

“Oh, they’ll be well enough soon. Though clearly not as efficient as my brethren, my regenerative powers are enough to keep me well after something as trivial as a bullet to the knees. The tooth the blue one knocked out is already grown back, you see?”

Sahaquiel smiled to flash his teeth, most a near yellow white, but one fresh and pure as the driven snow.

“Aww, come on! That’s it!? I broke my leg on his face!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Quiet!” I snarled. She too, decided to put her mask back on.

“Well, that’s just peachy.” A pause. “Ah guess…” Marevelous lowered herself to the ground. Her hooves were in a particular stance, and I… wasn’t sure I liked how much malice I sensed in that. What are you doing? “We’ll just have ta see how many times Ah need ta kill ya before ya die.”

She launched not unlike a rocket and caught Sahaquiel by the neck with both hooves. He struggled for a second, but in that same second, Marevelous wrapped her hooves around his face and then…

SNAP

I gasped. Sahaquiel fell to the ground and Marevelous backed away.

“Holy shit,” Rainbow said quietly. Not my words of choice, but not far from what I was thinking. I have seen her dreams. I have seen her nightmares. I have witnessed the brutality Applejack is capable of, but… to see it in real time…

“What’s his status? Still alive?” Marevelous asked over our link.

It took Twilight a moment to pull her eyes away from the screen to realize she was being asked. Her broken horn flared with her magic, still unsteady as it has been for two weeks now, and her vitals scan manifested in front of her. What it read was… conflicting, to say the least.

“I… I’m not sure. I still detect a heartbeat, but brain activity has stopped. What did you do?”

“Something I honestly wasn’t sure she was capable of. Damn,” the Black Knight added.

“Really?” Applejack asked. Ah, now that is the tone of an irritated wife.

“Yes, really, geez. It’s not like I thought you were joking or anything, but I didn’t expect you to just slam into him and snap his neck.”

Even I wasn’t prepared for that, and I knew she was going to do it. I can only wonder how the media are going to spin this one. A sigh escaped me. “That isn’t going to look good on camera.” I covered my mouth the moment I realized that the thought leaked into the conversation.

“Who cares how it looks!? It’s either him or most of the populace! Ah didn’t think that was a hard decision ta make!”

I couldn’t argue with her logic, and with just her hooves to work with after the disaster that was trying to use her cables against a pony nearly as fast as Pinkie, things are… likely to only escalate.

“Hold on. Brain activity restarted,” Twilight interjected.

We all turned back to the screen to watch, only slightly horrified, as Sahaquiel rose from the ground and untwisted his neck. I cringed at the sight. It has been far too long since I’ve seen the horrors of war. You’ve grown so very soft in these last sixty years of peace, Celestia.

“Well now! Somepony was serious! To think that I would see death twice, only to be dug up from a shallow grave yet again!” And just like that, Sahaquiel was back on his hooves. “Apparently, it’s going to take more than that to really kill me. You two on the other hoof… aren’t quite so durable!”

The fight restarted as quickly as it had stopped. Sahaquiel was on them both, completely unphased by a second death, and thankfully, my well trained soldiers reacted appropriately. Marevelous moved with precision and foresight, keeping herself and her partner out of harm’s way, even going so far as to prepare and block when Sahaquiel launched a second flurry at her.

His hoof clashed with Marevelous’s defense and they came to a halt. The teenager, this twisted monstrosity, smiled as if he’d just opened a new toy on his birthday. Another… strange pang in my heart made me feel something for this… child, and I…

“What are you!? Having your head bashed against the concrete should’ve killed you, but no, you stand, and still you’re so strong! You see me coming, you protect your comrades, and you counter me with such incredible violence! Marevelous indeed… A monster, just like me!”

My ears twitched at the word, ‘monster.’ I looked to Marevelous’s face, and if only for an instant, I saw her flinch. That… cannot be good.

From behind them, the Black Knight had angled his hips toward Sahaquiel and fired his cable at him. The blade buried deep in his spine, and once secure, the cable retracted with Sahaquiel on it. The Knight reeled his hip back in and raised his knee as the stunned Sahaquiel flew with it. An armored limb came in contact with the teen’s head, and just like that, his body went limp and he spun head over hooves until he came to a stop.

The Black Knight retreated to his mare and stood by her side. “While I figured I might have to push away other stallions trying to make advances on you, I didn’t expect to have to use killing force when I did it.”

Always the pleaser. I’m sure he saw her flinch as well.

Marevelous’s tail wagged ever so slightly, and in that nervous way she does, she scratched her chin. ‘Smitten’ does not even begin to cover it. “Well, you’re a little more gifted in certain places than he is and, well, not a psychopath; so ya shouldn’t be too worried. That kid is some kinda creepy.”

“And I had to work with him! For half a year! I swear, dude’s like... fight-sexual or something,” Rainbow said over the link and out loud. It was… often difficult to believe that this was once the Bloody Crow of Manehattan.

“Speakin’ of, is somepony sendin’ y’all back out soon? Ah… hate ta have ta think like this, but maybe usin’ a sword wouldn’t be a bad idea here. Or… somethin’ that kills him a little faster.”

I shook my head, forgetting that she couldn’t see me, and then answered her. “Considering that she had a half inch wound on her forehead just from one random counterattack, which was stopped just barely by a sheet of enchanted plate mail, I believe that would be unwise. Scootaloo can’t bring ponies back from the dead, unlike our adversary, and you two seem to be the only ones strong enough to endure his attacks.” I don’t like leaving things to just the three of them, but Fluttershy’s beast is an emergency measure, and this is no game.

“I also dropped it when I got shot, so it’s probably still on the road if somepony didn’t already pick it up,” Rainbow added. Our drone flew up a little to get a better view of the road, and there was Rainbow’s sword. Then, I caught motion out of the corner of my eye.

Before anypony had noticed, Sahaquiel had gotten up and went after Marevelous again. “Ah, ah, ah… don’t look away.”

His hind leg swung around like a whip and slammed poor Marevelous in the side of her head. Her ear twisted in such a way that I can only assume part of her skull had either fractured or broke, and she went flying in the opposite direction. Sahaquiel immediately went to follow up, but the Black Knight warped in front of his mare before he could get that far.

The armored stallion stood staunch in his gleaming armor, taking Sahaquiel’s attacks one after another until finally, he saw an opening. I saw the faintest hint of a magical aura flare in his free hoof just before it launched and slammed into Sahaquiel’s cheek. The punch arced and buried Sahaquiel’s head into the ground, and as a follow up, the Black Knight raised his hind hoof off the ground and above Sahaquiel’s face.

Oh no.

I looked away. I flinched at the sound. One. Two. Three. Have I become squeamish? I… I’ve done that before. Has… becoming a commander and distancing myself from the battlefield after all this time… really made me so faint of heart? My eyes drifted to my daughter. No. that wasn’t the cause. You are.

“Hey, are you okay?” the Black Knight asked. My attention back on the screen, the bloody mess that was Sahaquiel was thankfully half buried beyond the camera’s eye, and The Knight was helping his mare to her hooves.

Unsteadily, Marevelous rose again. “Just a little shook up, that’s all.”

That is… not something Marevelous says. Something is wrong. I don’t like this.

“Diamond, get ready. We don’t know what will kill this guy, but if he’s anythin’ like the others, then the thing keepin’ him alive through all this has gotta be a mirror near is heart. Ah can’t take another hit like that, so we have ta end this, sooner rather than later.

“Target, while he’s still down there, try and plant one right at it. If… if he somehow protects it, then we know what we need ta do. Ah don’t feel like gettin’ shot though, so don’t shoot more than necessary just in case, alright?”

“Ma’am!”

Our drone angled over to Target’s position so the eye had both her and Sahaquiel in focus. A single shot loaded, the white gem active for the highest power the gun could add to the shot, and she took aim.

POW!

Disturbingly, the corpse’s hoof moved in time with the sound and blocked and bounced the slug indiscriminately. Unnaturally floating to rise out of his hole, Sahaquiel’s body turned to face Marevelous and the Black Knight, still partially unformed.

“As it turns out, the third visit only feels nostalgic.”

It was similar to watching Scootaloo heal a burn victim, or a pony with necrosis, but only for the joy of seeing somepony recover to be replaced with the horror of watching a monster repair itself.

“Neck snapped, skull shattered. That’s two, heroes. That is, of course, if two ponies that are the ‘faces of justice,’ as it were, who can so readily kill a teenager should be called as such. I suppose that knowing he’ll come back in a moment or so could ease more tender hearts, but yours are far from that. No, no… those were brutal ways to end a life. Practiced ways to kill, something that speaks of experience with it! How many lives have you ended with those hooves, hmm? Does wearing a cape and killing in the name of the law validate you?”

How disgusting. Poisoned words from the predator to the hunters. To think that I saw this… thing as a pony not but moments ago. May the Goddess have mercy on your demented soul.

“You’re a sick bastard, Ah tell ya what. Not a single thing is right about any of this.”

That made me pause. ‘Not a single thing?’ Applejack, what do you mean by that?

“Guilty as charged. I do derive a certain pleasure from it, but… do you not? The way you fight, the constant struggle for your life, the exhilaration of surviving through it all! To ponies so powerful, ponies strong enough to kill your lowers without so much as a thought, is it not the most wonderful feeling there is?”

I felt a twitch. Movement in my eye had me catch Luna do it too. A deep sigh exited my body. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That’s what she means. There is… nothing right about this. Nopony should ever have the power he does at that age. I… know that we certainly shouldn’t have.

“Sick just doesn’t even begin to cover it. You know what a wonderful feeling is? Knowing you’re loved, that’s a wonderful feeling. Killing for the sake of it, spreading suffering for the sake of it, plunging cities into panic for the sake of it, none of that is anything more than a twisted desire. We are here to protect ponies we care about from you and that freak in the mask, and that’s all there is to it.”

How did you of all ponies turn out so noble? Was it her? Was it your upbringing? Your father? Your mother? Or is it just in your nature? How… fitting it is that you call yourself ‘The Black Knight.’

“Oh, how you wound me! Sickness? Twisted desire? Can that really be all my aching heart wants?” Sahaquiel said with all the pomp and dramatic flare he could. Then he leaned over and stared the Black Knight down in the same malicious way Marevelous had him. “For those of us that have never felt love, I suppose that’s really all there is left for us, isn’t it? SHOW ME HOW IT FEELS!”

In a flash, Sahaquiel had rammed straight into the Black Knight, forcing him back and making his shoes ignite sparks on the road as they went.

“TOKI WO TOMARE!”

“ZA, WARUDO!”

In the blink of an eye, The Black Knight had been pushed out of the way and Marevelous had taken his place, Rainbow’s sword in hoof and pointed directly at Sahaquiel’s heart. Then, my heart sank. All at once I saw everything collapse before my eyes. Marevelous didn’t thrust immediately.

She hesitated.

I knew better! I know how much she thinks like me! How could I have forgotten!? They’ve been fighting monsters that look like monsters all this time! Rampant hormones, newlywed, and now she’s actively trying to kill what looks like a child to a young mare? She’s always so logical, I… I never considered her feelings. Oh Goddess, what have I done?

In a single fluid motion, Sahaquiel backed off the sword before Marevelous could fix her mistake and kicked the sword high out of her hooves. “I’d been waiting for that little trick of yours. Don’t you know… that dirty tricks only work once?”

This can’t be happening.

“Marevelous, look out!!”

Then, Sahaquiel brought that same hoof back down on the crown of her head. Unprepared, the poor mare took the full brunt of the blow with her back and slowly but surely, fell over.

“Target, me, TOKI WO TOMARE!”

“ZA, WARUDO!”

A blink, and Target Lock had moved closer to the ground and opened fire at Sahaquiel with the Black Knight and Marevelous nowhere to be seen. One, two, three-

“Ahhh!”

No, no, no, no, no! This is a bad simulation playing out in reality! I… I have to intervene, I… I can’t let this go on. But… but… I can’t! If I go out there, so much will be lost! And to reveal myself to the public, to the world as an old legend? This could only be the beginning of everything that could go wrong.

“Get them out of here!” Goose’s voice brought my attention back to the screen.

“I can’t, I just used my powers three times in a row, I’ll need another thirty seconds to recharge!”

“We don’t have that kinda time! He broke her back and she’s bleeding out!”

“I told you not to look away!!!” Sahaquiel was on the move and our camera followed him. He found all four of them, the bleeding sniper, the broken heroine, the time stopping rouge and the Black Knight, his only standing equal.

Quickly, he moved to intercept Sahaquiel, and the moment they collided, they warped away. Further down the road, far away from our hurt soldiers and back where most of the fighting had been done, The Black Knight defended himself while Sahaquiel attacked relentlessly. What ponies might have thought was heat building up from the sheer speed and power of Sahaquiel’s attacks was instead magic building in the Black Knight’s hooves, far more intensely than he had ever been capable of.

Seeing an opportunity, Sahaquiel quickly got behind and above the Black Knight and raised his hooves together to do the same thing to him as he did Marevelous. Only this time, his victim was ready for it. As Sahaquiel moved in for the kill, the Black Knight warped right behind him. Both hooves glowing like the sun, his right hoof shot forward and through Sahaquiel’s back. Wind and dust and debris gathered in a swirl further down and spun into a small tornado on the road, breaking windows as it went, slowly coming to a halt.

Did… did he do it? Did he… did he turn it around?

The Black Knight tossed Sahaquiel off his foreleg, and then stepped on his limp body as the boy coughed and hacked tremendous amounts of blood. With his left hoof raised high, glowing even brighter than before, suddenly, he stopped.

No…

The bloody edge of a sword exited by the base of his neck.

“No!”

The magic faded. The camera was positioned in such a way that we couldn’t have even seen the sword. The Black Knight’s head turned ever so slightly. Just enough that it was tilted toward his mare.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t keep our promise.”

Blood flowed from underneath his helmet. Goose crumpled and fell to the ground.

“Goose!”

Magic started to gather in my horn, but as if I were tazed, it was ripped away.

“Gah! What in the world?”

Suddenly, Twilight collapsed, clutching her head with her hooves. “Aaaah! M-my magic! S-something is wrong!”

The castle was shaking. Any and every magical screen had fallen apart and I could feel all the magic in and around the building… reacting to something. The once blue and violet hues of the crystal castle had shifted to a deep crimson. A dissonant tone started to rise from deep below, and the sound of electricity sparking started to come from all around.

“W-what is this!?” Rainbow shouted. The chairs around the main table in the living room had turned black. The gems at the top of each of them were vibrating and giving off magical discharge, all except for Goose’s. Lightning struck her from the gem atop the chair Goose used to sit in and then began to flow from it to the chair Applejack usually sits in.

One by one, each chair struck its usual occupant with a black lightning, a dark, obscene magic that made me want to vomit simply from being in its presence. The three chairs that had managed to form a misamic bond with their ponies concentrated that all that dark energy at Applejack’s chair, and then in a burst, sent it out of the castle.

And just like that… it was over.

As if nothing had ever happened, the castle returned to normal, all save one detail. The single gem atop Applejack’s chair had turned a deep black with a burning dark aura emitting from it.

“I should have known. The Elements… they were here, all this time, staring us in the face. And not only that… they’ve bonded to ponies… and one of those bonds… was just broken.”

---

Rarity Belle

---

Work, damn it!

In a single instant, a single moment where we were supposed to win, where my powers should have ended the fight for us and won the day, just like they always have before, everything went wrong. Marevelous was broken, Target had passed out and was bleeding profusely from a stomach wound, and The Black Knight was fighting alone.

Then, it happened. It looked like he was going to win. He’d just missed Sahaquiel’s upper torso, his heart, and was ready to land the final blow. Then, I noticed the sword.

I didn’t have time to scream. I didn’t have time to warn him. I tried to stop the world, only to experience magical backlash. The pain was something I knew well. I hardly cared about it. I had to move. I tried to run, tried to gallop to his side, but for the very first time in my life, time had abandoned me when I needed it most.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t keep our promise.”

I stopped in my tracks. Blood flowed from under his helmet, and he collapsed. The link… had crumbled. He’d died instantly.

Goose…

My hindlegs felt weak. Before I knew what to do with myself, they’d slid out from under me. I was supposed to keep them safe! It was my job to manage my powers, that’s all I had to do! I still have time, I wasn’t out of time yet, I just needed a little of my magic back! This is my fault! I should’ve been paying attention. I-

Violently, I was ripped out of my own head as I felt something very painful started coursing through my body. Like touching an exposed wire with my tongue, searing electricity shot down my veins. What little magic I had left within was taken away, as if the pain of overload my adrenaline was helping me forget had been overridden, and I couldn’t so much as think.

Burning bile found its way up and out of my throat the moment I recovered. What in the world? Is… am I about to die of magic depletion? My first thought was to check my eyes for blood, but no, there was none to be found. As a matter of fact, all the usual magical webs connected to me by thin threads had been severed. Even my connection to Celestia, which has been ever present for two years, even as far away as across the globe. Something was… very wrong.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a spark. A little streak of lightning that bizarrely cast black shadows around itself that… almost looked to illuminate the space around it. It looked… sickly. As if I wasn’t already nauseous from the strange depletion-esque heart attack I just had, this… strange energy was threatening to make me vomit again.

Behind me, I heard hoof steps. Ears alert, I turned my head. Sahaquiel was back on his hooves.

“Ha ha ha… HA HA HA!

“I LIVE!

“Not your strongest technique, not even using the power of time to aid you, there is nothing you can do to stop me! Hahaha-ha!” He kicked Goose’s corpse away, only to think better of it mid way through and take Rainbow’s sword out of him first.

“Ah, my darling Crow, without you, I wouldn’t even be standing here right now.” He scanned the air, spotted something, then pointed at it with the sword. “When I find you, I think I’ll keep you alive for a little while first. I want to… reward you for saving my life at the expense of your friend’s here.”

It was not like me to abandon my role. It was not like me to escape from the shadows and attempt to stand out. But this… this… monster must be destroyed. “You… horrid creature! How dare you accuse her of helping you!”

Finally, he noticed me. “Oh? And what can… you do about that exactly? You were the one they call… Diamond, correct?” He looked me up and down, leaning on the sword tip and contemplating all the horrible things he could do to me without so much as trying. “Why is it that all the mares in this group seem to be so pretty? Perhaps I should just take all of you alive and use you as my playthings before I kill you? It would be such a waste of fun if I didn’t, wouldn’t you say?”

I’d stalled just long enough. There was just enough time for my magic to recover for one more use of my powers.

“You deserve nothing less than to rot away in the hell you crawled out of! Even if I am the last mare standing, then I will spend every moment I have left killing you!

“TOKI WO TOMARE!”

Sahaquiel launched at me the moment my magic flared, but just before he could reach me, time had stopped, just as I asked it to. With seconds left and a ticking clock, I charged after the sword standing still in the air just over by Goose’s body.

“This is for you… my dear friend…”

Taking it in hoof, I leapt with all the power my rage fueled hind legs could muster and shot one of the cables at my hips at Sahaquiel’s back. The cable aimed directly at his back, the blade tight in both hooves, I let go.

“ZA, WARUDO!”

Time restarted, and just as Sahaquiel noticed I wasn’t where he was aiming anymore, the cable buried itself in his back.

“Die, monster!”

The gears inside the box at my hip whined and reeled me toward my target like a bullet. Just as I was about to arrive, just as I was about to thrust forward and end this nightmare, Sahaquiel turned and blocked the sword with the frog of his hoof. It sank in and through his foreleg, eventually burying itself in his side, but… nowhere near his heart.

Damn it! Using the moment I had from stunning him, I ripped the cable out of his back and leapt away as fast as I could. Just as soon as I was out of reach, Sahaquiel managed to get the sword out of his stomach and swipe it at me.

In an unexpected move, Sahaquiel licked along the dull edge of the bloody blade. “Your blood is much sweeter than mine. I think I like the taste.”

My… blood? I took my eyes off him for a second. The belt holding my cables on my body had been slashed. And so had my suit. Then the red started to stain my white coat. I couldn’t feel it, but acknowledging its existence had me feel a dull burn running across my belly. The cut wasn’t deep, but he still got me.

I looked back up and he’d closed the distance. “You know, that head of yours is starting to get annoying! Let’s take it off so you can’t struggle when we’re done here!” Rainbow’s sword raised out and straight like a razor for a horizontal swing, there was nothing left for me to do.

I had no time. My magic was spent. I couldn’t so much as even defend myself. All my connections were severed. There was nopony I could scream to for help. There wasn’t even time to make a sound.

So… this is how it ends. I never did get to call Formaggio. Will… will father cry for me too? As it turns out… you were right, Sweetie. Please… don’t hate me for earning my Lieutenant Colonel’s badge.

Lightning struck.

I flinched at the sound of thunder. I blinked and Sahaquiel was gone.

“RAAAGH!”

BOOM!

An explosion. To my left, a building caved in on itself. Dust and dirt and debris scattered into the air, filling the empty road as if a bomb had been set off.

What in the world?

“-ar-ty-… Rar-ty-… Rarity! Rarity, are you there!?”

The link had come back online. “Celestia? What’s going on? One moment I think I’m less than seconds away from decapitation, and the next Sahaquiel disappears and a building explodes.”

“I don’t know! The chairs in the castle have gone berserk! The Original, the Elements of Harmony, they’ve been here all this time! They’re out of control, and they’ve sent their magic out of the castle! Where are Target and Marevelous? I can’t get either of them to respond!”

I looked back to where I left them. Target had yet to move. The first-aid I gave her was still holding, but… Marevelous was nowhere to be seen.

“Target is still out cold, but-”

“GRAAAAAAAAH!!!”

The smoke cleared in an instant. An anguished roar cut through the air, dark energy sparking along with it, sending waves of sorrow and rage through my body the way I imagined that sword would feel. Like being cut and stabbed, the burning bite of steel mixed with the creeping cold of blood loss all at once, I felt the need to vomit again.

Again, the collapsed building exploded, and there was… what was once Applejack. Her body had expanded. She grew wings made of light, and a white-black horn of light extended out of her head. Her muscles bulged like some malformed hulking stallion, glowing energy surrounded her entire person not unlike when our earth ponies would use Trump Card, and everything about her made me sick, like I was looking at an affront to the Goddess.

“Princess.”

“Yes, Rarity? What is it? Did you find her?”

I swallowed. “Code: Nightmare Sun.”

Celestia did not say a word. There was only one situation in which I was ever to invoke such a phrase, and it was only known by a hoofful of ponies close to the princesses. I doubt even Twilight knows about such a thing. It was a simple phrase, really. It only had one meaning. What lies before me is a power that, quite possibly, rivals the Princesses in their most powerful forms. Not even standing before death’s door instilled the fear that simply looking at the monster Applejack had become did.

“… I understand. I will be there shortly. Take Target Lock and… if you can manage it, Goose’s body and get back to the castle as fast as you can.”

“Yes ma’am.” Searching and finding him closer, I shot my cables after Goose.

Applejack noticed me. The moment I landed, she stood in my way. This close to her now, the sickness she exuded hit me like a torrent. Had I anything left to puke, I would have, but instead I was only met with dry heaving. She reeled back her shoulders and her chest expanded.

“GRAAAAAAHHH!!!”

My cables were forcibly unhooked from the concrete and my body was thrown away like a plastic bag in the wind. The sheer force and volume of her voice was like being hit with a solid wall of sound. I did what I could to cover my ears, but even still, by the time I landed, I could feel blood trickling out of one, and the other was ringing as if a gong sounded with my head as the mallet. As much as I would’ve liked to bury him, this situation was lost.

At least they’ve both had a little bit of practice using their true forms in the past few days. This city block won’t be standing anymore, and if any part of Sahaquiel is still around, that will certainly be melted or vaporized, but the damage shouldn’t extend too far.

Out of the corner of my eye as I was heading toward Fluttershy, I saw exactly half of Sahaquiel crawling out of the rubble. Applejack noticed him too. He didn’t make it very far. Leaving a trail of after images, Applejack beat light to Sahaquiel’s location, and raised one of her massive hooves.

“No, no, no, no, no!”

“RAAGH!”

Were we any closer to a subway rail, I’m certain it would’ve collapsed beneath her hoof. I wouldn’t have even believed Sahaquiel ever existed, if it weren’t for the fine red mist that filtered through the air. In a single attack from Harmony’s most powerful ally, Sahaquiel was defeated. There wasn’t so much as a trace of him left on this world. All for the… simple price of one life and exposing one of the greatest secrets of the nation to the world.

‘We create monsters out of ponies because only monsters can fight monsters, whether they’re our monsters first, or theirs.’

Years ago, when I first met her and she told me that, I wondered if Celestia was simply trying to make a dark joke or something. If today has taught me anything, it is the simple truth of that phrase. The category of ‘monster’ only grows with each new display of unimaginable power. And even the ones at the top… say that they are not the final bracket.

Another anguished roar from the barely recognizable Applejack had me pickup the pace.

The moment I had Target secure on my back, she started to wake up. “W-wha… Rarity…? What happened?”

“Sahaquiel is dead. And… he took Goose with him. As it stands… Applejack’s fate is uncertain as well.”

“WHAT!?” She coughed and hacked a few times, and I patted her back to soothe her as we retreated from the battlefield. “H-how did… but…! He… he couldn’t, he… w-we were doing just fine! That’s- that’s not fair!”

“I’m sorry darling. As… as much as it pains me to say it, there is… nothing we can do anymore. All we can do now is… get to safety and hope that the biggest monster of them all can save our friend.”

---

Celestia Iscandor of Equus

---

“Luna.”

My sister didn’t so much as look at me. There wasn’t much that needed to be said. The weight of her name between the two of us alone was enough. The final card had to be played.

Luna passed the drone control to Twilight and let out a deep, weary sigh. “I will begin executing protocol. Please do not hurt yourself and… most importantly, save that filly. She has… borne the weight of my mistakes for her entire life. It’s… simply unfair for things to be left the way they are.”

I nodded. “I will do everything in my power.”

One last look, eyes filled with regret, shame, fear, anxiety and sorrow, and Luna flashed away.

Unknowing what to do with herself, my daughter looked to me as if she’d never seen me before. “Mother?”

As sweetly as I could, I answered her. “Yes dear?”

“What’s going on? Are you… are you going out there?”

Again, I nodded. “I am the only one who can, Twilight.”

“But… but… what happens next? Won’t doing this compromise our national security? And Applejack is… didn’t you say she was capable of fighting you? C-couldn’t you get hurt? If… if she’s really in possession of all the magic the Elements of Harmony had been storing up till now… doesn’t that mean…”

“She is likely of equal power to me right now, yes. Possibly even more. The Elements have changed in the last ten years, and only now realizing what this castle is, I… don’t know what they’re capable of anymore. We haven’t seen a threat like this for… centuries, if not longer. Left unchecked, Applejack could accomplish everything Persona was after and more.”

I slowly made my way to my daughter and brought her under my wing. Trembling, she looked up at me with my own eyes, so frightened of the future to come. “I will come home. If even I cannot handle this alone, then I will call upon Luna. Together, there is nothing we cannot do. So please, rest assured. The world will change after today. The balance of power that we’ve delicately managed to project globally for over a century is about to shatter like a pane of glass, and things will be different going forward. But no matter what happens, I will be here.”

I leaned down and nuzzled my baby, only for her to latch onto my neck and nuzzle me back. It only took the fear of loss for Twilight to finally show me affection. Truly, you are your mother’s daughter. After the moment had passed, I pulled away and locked eyes with her again. “I need you to do one thing for me before I go. Can I trust you with this task?”

She nodded, and that was all I needed. My horn alight, I summoned my yoke to my neck and stood a meter away from her. “These words I impart to thee, invoke the sun so that her righteous fury may be brought to the land!”

The chant passed to Twilight, another pony in the new world with the old language of her ancestors in her possession, she said it back, the way it was meant to be heard.

“Oro ut sol et emittam furorem virtutis eius.”

A switch unlocked, a call not heard for hundreds of years, the armor I had sealed away in an effort to protect the world, was needed for its safety. Power coursed through my bones. The burning wealth of energy at my disposal fully realized in my hooves, I rose to my hind legs and stomped the castle.

The glass, was broken.

---

When I arrived, Applejack had already destroyed an entire city block. Malformed into a beast, the visage and power of an old alicorn coursing through her, the blackest energy made of hate and despair rampaging through her, she attacked and attacked and attacked anywhere she could, sending the once fortified infrastructure of one of the largest cities in the world crumbling to dust. However, the moment she felt my light, she turned her attention to me.

“Applejack, my dear… I need you to wake up.”

Already, I could see the signs of my arrival beginning to take their toll. What remained of her suit had started to let of steam like it was being cooked. The shattered road, the brick and mortar walls of desolate stores and living spaces, the steel traffic signals and signs. Heat was beginning to permeate everything. The longer I am here, the more we lose. My voice, however, didn’t seem to have an effect on her. She darted to protect Goose’s body and roared at me.

“GRAAAAH!”

If there was a mind still in there, it was nowhere to be found now. The shell of Applejack was running on instincts and emotions. Signs of intellect had been lost, and reason was out of the picture. As I started to see even Goose let off steam, I quickly used my magic to send him to a secure place. Applejack was displeased with that, however.

The moment my magic touched Goose, the monster she’d become reacted, as if she knew I was stealing her prize. In the blink of an eye, nearly too fast for me to react, Applejack launched and tried to gore me with the ethereal horn that formed above her forehead. Just barely, I managed to avoid getting a hole in my neck, but that was not the end of her assault.

Black magic wings flapped from behind her, and as if I were fighting Luna in earnest, we crashed through an unsuspecting building behind us, burrowing deep into the ground. Good Goddess, how long has it been since I was hit this hard? I felt a slow oozing on my neck where the dark energy of her horn was searing me, only to see a real wound there.

Wearing my armor, all my powers at my hooves, my own city made nearly entirely out of noncombustible material ready to go up in flames at the drop of a spark, and still, she’d injured me. Holding back, attempting to be compassionate, being afraid of hurting her. All of that, had just been thrown off the table.

“I’m sorry, Applejack. But for your sake and everyone else’s, I’m going to have to hurt you.”

With the very technique that I once taught her, I built power in my gold shod hooves and canceled our momentum with my fire. Confused, she attempted to flap her wings again, but didn’t make it very far. Two jabs to the face to stun her, and then one full power left straight to her chest.

“BOOM!”

Applejack sailed from the depth of our hole to the desolate sky. I quickly sealed the wound she’d given me and then flew back up to the surface. Steel was beginning to sag everywhere. Plastic came to a boil, paper combusted, foliage became bonfires, glass shattered and began to glow. Manehattan was on the verge of burning.

Taking in my surroundings, however, was taking my eyes off the prize. Only because I could feel that sickly energy she radiated did I move in time. Like a meteor, rampaging Applejack flew back down to earth, roaring like a hurt animal, smashing directly into the road. Dust, debris, chunks of black top and concrete, broken water pipes, glass, destroyed brick, everything that was once touching the ground vibrated and was ripped from it.

The once flat road formed into a crater that spanned the entire intersection and took the corners of four buildings with it. It was simple luck that we weren’t near anything very tall, otherwise, it would have come down simply with that. No time for a pause, the beast realized she’d missed and came after me again. The smoke cleared as she exited, missing me by centimeters, and for a second there, I thought I heard words.

“GIVE BACK!”

Give back? She still in there! If I can knock her out, we can get her back!

Applejack twisted around mid air when she realized that she missed and spread her massive black wings.

You have ponies to live for. Ponies you’ve known all your life, ponies you’ve only met in the last few months, and two more you don’t even know yet. Major Jacqueline Apple, I refuse to grant you death.

Taking the very stance I taught her months ago, I let fire fill and coat my hooves, ready to stop her next dive bomb. Her wings flapped, and the very air around her shifted in time. A violent black wave of energy preceded her, only being stopped as it came into contact with my fire. Manehattan was burning. A third of an entire district had been destroyed, but if there is one thing that I know better than anypony else, it’s that it can be rebuilt.

I took two steps forward, cast a barrier on my right foreleg, and behind my rear hooves. The full force of Applejack in her enraged state hit the strongest part of my bone. Even still, I felt breaks run up it as we dug back through the broken streets, forcing the dust and the flames to our sides as if they were bowing before us in a grand precession.

The blazing sun lit the world around me from my right hoof, and just as we reached the end of the knock back she created, I unleashed my flames in an uppercut to her chest.

“It’s time to wake up!”

Set alight, the Applejack screeched as she flew into the atmosphere. Writhing in the sky, flying high, what was left of her suit seared off, and for a second there, I saw the dark magic fade. But, only for a second. The screeching halted, and in the bleak blue sky, Applejack reoriented herself.

Black light formed at the tip of her horn, and suddenly, I realized that not only had she been given the visage of my people, but the powers as well. I started to build flame as fast as I could in my own horn, and with an ear shattering roar, Applejack unleashed hers.

A beam of energy, dark as night and sickly as the stench of death burned forth like a missile toward my head. Just the feeling of the dark magic rushing toward me was enough to send panic down my back, and instead of firing back, I restructured my spell on the fly. Forming a dome above me, I redirected all the heat that was emanating off my body to further power the spell. Manehattan had stopped burning for the moment, but only in an effort to keep from destroying it entirely.

I never got the chance to experience Ramiel first hoof, but I imagined this is what it felt like. Taking the brunt of the energy was like letting Applejack wail on my body with a flurry of powered punches, beating me back and slamming against my head in a constant rhythm. If only for an instant, I thought even my horn would start to crack. But just when the worst was upon me, it ended.

The magic left sparking lightning running across the sky and Applejack was sweating and breathing hard where she hovered. Her wings of black light flapped sluggishly, and she’d paused. Pain flared at my forehead, but I had no time for that. Conjuring a teleportation spell as fast as I could, I flashed behind her, set fire to my fore hooves, and raised both high above my head.

Applejack turned to face me just before I landed my assault. I couldn’t see it before. Things had been moving too fast, and there was a chance that my heat obscured it. All this time, she’d been crying.

I brought both my hooves down and released the magic within them directly on Applejack’s magic horn. It cracked and shattered in two, and from the sky, Applejack shot back to earth.

When the smoke had cleared and I began to feel the sickly energy dissipate, I carefully flew down to check on her. The tears had stopped, and her body had reverted to its natural state. Her eyes were closed, she was bleeding from her forehead, but the black magic still coursed through her, and she was still breathing.

The battle was won.

“Desino!”

Following my call, my armor returned to whence it came, and Manehattan no longer burned. A city once crowded beyond belief with buildings and ponies and towers that broke the sky, for the first time in centuries, had an empty lot. Miles of destruction, burned and melted stone and steel and glass stretched out as if we’d been bombed. Today, I’d made history once again. Just like the Caballo Crater, a memory would forever be engraved on this date, as the day the Princess burned Manehattan. Another black mark to add to my record, and the source of all my troubles, the one responsible for everything that had happened today, had appeared just as it ended to gloat.

“Ha ha ha ha ha~” his voice echoed through the barren land, sounding like his day was made. I turned toward the source, only to see he’d sent drones to my location to project himself before me. The Mask smiled at me from one side, and frowned from the other.

“What you see before you, ponies of Equestria, peoples across the globe, is the true monster that lurks behind the Equestrian throne! The real kaiju, the monster to end all monsters, the legend of old feared by the world over! Your Princess, your Empress, your Dictator, The Radiant Sun!”

The words struck me harder than anything Applejack could’ve done to me. His hatred of Luna, his desire to create monsters, his threat of destroying the country… It was never just about saving his own life… he wanted to draw us out.

“For millennia, these non-pony beasts have been subjugating you! For their power is more than enough to subjugate the world over! They summon soldiers and send them to their deaths in the name of the greater good, they preach to you the teachings of a false goddess, and they lie to you with sweet smiles on their faces!

“For it is they who are the true Persona! A mask they wear to pretend that they are just like you! As my last hope has been destroyed by another monster under the Empress’s command, I no longer have any hopes left! But, it is my fervent wish that the ponies who witnessed the truth here today take their futures in their own hooves and away from the clutches of these immortal tyrants!

“Let the masks of the righteous drop and show your true faces to the world! This is your Princess!”

A recreation of my armored form stood beside me in my battle stance. He’d been watching the whole time. Recording just out of reach of my fire, showing everything to everyone on the planet near a screen.

Yes, the battle was won.

But the wars would only begin.