Final Fantasy: Twilight Elysium

by Matrix7o6

Shining Blight, Nyxing Twilight (Edited)

An elderly-looking man with silver hair and blue eyes sits on his throne in a large throne room. He is wearing gold armor covered by a black robe with silver buttons and a goldenrod trim. The man was informed by his guards that his general has arrived for his status report. His general walks in.

“Ah, General Glacua,” the elderly man states as his general kneels at the base of the throne. “I take it your invasion of Tenebrae was a success?”

“Yes Emperor,” General Glacua replies. “The queen is dead, and the prince and princess are in our custody.” He hesitates for a split second before adding, “However, there is one thing I must address.”

“The girl,” the emperor says with a nod. “Yes, I read your report. This is indeed interesting; she seems to have some powers we have not seen thus far.”

“If I may be so bold to ask, could she be Lucian royalty?” Glacua raised his head to meet the emperor’s eyes. The emperor pondered this question for a moment.

“This would have been my initial suspicion, but why would the Queen of Tenebrae have a Lucian in her custody? It doesn’t make any sense.” The emperor looked slightly puzzled as he spoke. “She could be a champion created by the gods to stop us. Either way, her parlor tricks will mean nothing once the crystal is in our possession.” He smirked arrogantly. “You have done well, General Glacua. But this turn of events leads me to give you new orders.

“I’ll have our Research and Development division look into her powers; if she is Lucian royalty it means that she is no good to us dead. It will also mean that we may have a new weapon. Your new orders are to look after the girl; train her. Teach her how to fight, and in turn we may learn more about her abilities. If she cannot provide anything useful to us, then kill her.”

“Now now, that would be such a waste,” a figure from the back of the room interrupts. The figure walks toward the two. “I sincerely doubt you’re going to be able to get anything useful out of the girl by forcing her to give up her secrets, my liege.” The figure is revealed to be a man dressed in a long, black jacket with red-violet hair and ember color eyes. He smirks at the general and the emperor.

Ardyn,” the emperor addresses in a slightly annoyed tone. “Would I be correct to suspect you were spying on us just now?” The smirk stays on the man named Ardyn’s face.

“My lord, please do not view my intentions as ill toward you. I, for one, am fascinated by this girl.” Ardyn formally bows to the emperor. “This girl not only threw back a magitek trooper by herself, but she was also able to copy General Glacua’s weapon. She seems quite the gift for the empire.

“But, I think it would be counter-productive to force her to join us; she saw the good general murder the Queen of Tenebrae.” He side-eyes Glacua before turning his attention back to the emperor. “It is obvious we are not in a good starting position to force her to fight for us. Why do that when we have the two keys to her loyalty? After all, she used these powers of hers to defend the queen and prince. If the Oracle and the prince are alive and well, we will have the girl’s undying loyalty.” The emperor sat on Ardyn’s words for a few moments.

“You are right. In the mean time, we can run some tests on her. I thank you for your advice, Ardyn. But in the future, if you have anything to say, address me like everyone else.”

“Yes, my lord,” Ardyn replies. He bows and walks out of the room. The emperor sighs after Ardyn leaves and looks to the general.

“You have your orders,” he says. The general bows once more and leaves the throne room. “Why do I get the feeling that this girl is going to be more trouble than she’s worth?” he asks himself.

Twilight sat on the cold bed with Luna as Ravus paced around the cell. He was furious. “Why didn’t he help us?” he asked bitterly.

“Calm yourself, Brother,” Luna replied. “He had his reasons.”

“Tell that to Mother!” he spits back. At that moment, the entire cell echoed with a resounding slap. Ravus’ head was forced to the side with a blazing red hand print on it. Twilight lowered her hand.

“Regis was not responsible for her death,” Twilight mumbled. “I was. She should have died protecting you; instead she died protecting me.” Her tone was distant. Ravus sighs as he rubs his cheek.

“But Regis could have…”

“That’s enough from the both of you,” Luna interrupts. “The king had Prince Noctis to worry about, so he could not help all of us; his responsibility was to his son. Right now, we must worry about complying with demands the empire has for us.” Her voice was stern. The other two children could only look to the floor.

A few minutes later the cell doors open and General Glacua steps inside. “Greetings, children; I offer my sincerest apologies that our hospitality may be lacking.” The general is joined by two troops.

“What are you planning to do to us?” Ravus asks as he steps in between the general and the girls.

“That all depends on her,” Glagua replies coldly as he points to Twilight. Twilight starts lightly shaking.

“W-what?” she stutters.

“Simply put, your abilities are quite extraordinary. The Emperor has extended his hand in friendship. He wishes for you to join his army.” Twilight’s eyes widened.

“What?! You want me to join you? After what you did?” she shouted. “You killed Sylva, you murdered all those people at the shrine. Are you insane?!” The general only scoffed at Twilight’s rant.

“I hate to say this, but you have little say in this matter. If you refuse the offer,” he gestures to the two troops, “I’ve been given authorization by his majesty to execute these two.” As he finished his sentence, the two troops walk past Twilight and grab Lunafreya and Ravus.

Lunafreya did not struggle against the troop holding her. “Twilight, don’t do it. I don’t care what happens to us; this is your life and no one else should dictate it.”

“Let me join you,” Ravus says, trying to jerk away from the troop. “Leave the girls and you can have me. I will fight willingly for Niflheim. I have the most reason.”

Twilight pondered for several moments while watching the siblings. Protect Luna and Ravus. Sylva’s words echoed through Twilight’s mind. She bit her lip and hesitantly looked at the general.

“Alright,” she whispers. “Alright, I’ll do it.” She looks down in defeat.

“That wasn’t so hard,” the general chuckled. “I’ll be training you, so don’t expect any supportive coaching. Now, follow me. And since the young prince offered himself as well, bring him along.” Twilight follows behind General Glacua while the troop holding Luna releases her; he stays behind Ravus as they are all escorted to the training grounds. Lunafreya sits on the bed as the cell doors close again and softly prays.

“May you find your peace, Brother. And may you be safe, Twilight Sparkle.”

On nights like this in Equestria, one would usually find themselves in the midst of a peaceful slumber. However on this night, like the seven before it, Twilight Velvet (mother of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor) finds herself unable to sleep. Her daughter has been missing for an entire week, and the princess has refused to see her or her husband, Night Light. The stress has been weighing heavy on the both of them. Velvet now spends most nights just waiting for even a hint of news about Twilight.

“I knew I shouldn’t have let her go,” Velvet said to herself as she sat on her sofa. She stared blankly into the household fireplace. Then suddenly, there was a knock at the door. She all but sprang up and rushed to the door. “Please let it be her.” She opened the door.

“Mrs. Sparkle,” Cadence greeted.

“Oh,” Velvet sighed. “It’s you, Cadence. Come in. And stop calling me ‘Mrs. Sparkle,’” the older mare remarked. “It’s Velvet, dear. Now, what brings you to Canterlot? It’s not like you to visit without my Shiny.” Cadence grimaced.

“T-that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Have you heard from Twilight recently? No pony has seen her in a little over a week,” the pink alicorn explained.

“No,” Velvet replied softly. “Shining said she was on a secret mission for Celestia, but…”

“What?” Cadence interrupted. “That’s not right. Twilight renounced her studies with Celestia. That’s why I came; if anything, I thought she’d be home.”

“Why would she do that?” Velvet asked, her voice becoming more frantic. “There’s no way… Is this about the wedding?”

“This all happened at the wedding,” Cadence replied.

“But Shining told me that after everything happened, Twilight had gotten several apologies from her friends, and him,” Velvet explained.

“What?” Cadence gasped. “Twilight renounced her friendship from her friends and told Shining she no longer wanted to be involved in the wedding, or anything involved with him, for that matter.”

“But why would he say everything is okay now?”

“I don’t know… But it’s even stranger that we haven’t heard from her since around the same time my Aunt Luna is ‘indisposed of.’ I think Shining knows more than he’s letting on.” Velvet sighed.

“Then we’ll ask him,” Velvet decided. “I’ll go wake Night Light,” she says as she disappears from the family room.

Shining Armor decided to go for a visit to his parents’ house after an intense training session with the royal guard. “Hey everypony,” he greets as he enters the family room.

“Hi Shine,” Night Light greets. “Catch the hoof ball game?”

“Sadly, no,” Shining responds. “With the changeling attack, Celestia wants the royal guard in tip-top shape.”

“Understood, Captain,” Night Light says as he gives a mock-salute. “I have the game recorded. It’ll be like old times.” The older stallion ruffled his son’s hair. “But first, we need to have a talk with you.”

“We?” Shining asks. Just then, his mother and Cadence came into the family room from the hallway.

“Yes, we do,” Velvet answers. She looks at her son sternly. “You have been lying to us Shining. And you don’t lie, to family especially.”

“What?” He slightly backed away. “I’m not lying about anything.”

“Oh really?” Cadence questioned. “You told your parents that Twilight went on a secret mission for Celestia; meanwhile she’s no longer Celestia’s student. And you told them that her friends apologized to her when they haven’t. Twilight broke her ties with her friends and told you she didn’t want to be in our wedding anymore.”

“Twilight was just in a rough spot, Dear,” Shining replies. “She just needed some time and then she forgave her friends, and Celestia.”

“I went to her library and she was nowhere to be seen,” Cadence retorts. Shining’s parents watch their exchange quietly. “Spike said she was gone and her friends say they haven’t seen her. Somepony somewhere is not telling the truth, and we want to know who. Now I’ll ask again; where… is… Twilight?” Cadence’s usual sweet tone had become cruel and demanding enough to make even the captain of the guard flinch.

For a while, Shining stayed quiet. The six pairs of eyes staring at him caused him to shrink as he saw the futility in his lie. He was never a good liar, anyway. He sighs heavily.

“She’s gone.” The room’s previous silence had only seemed to have gotten worse. After what seemed like hours, Velvet broke the silence.

“What?”

“I can explain,” Shining added quickly.

“You’d better,” Night Light said, the fury apparent in his voice. Shining sat on his haunches and prepared to speak.

“A… After what happened to Twilight, Celestia called for me. She showed me that the Element of Magic was dying.” A look of shock broke on Cadence’s face. “Celestia was so concerned about any incoming threats to Equestria, so she devised a plan; rather than take the gamble of Twilight forgiving her friends with time, she would erase Twilight’s memory of the wedding. She thought it would make Twilight happy again because she wouldn’t remember the horrible things that were done to her.”

The ponies stared in shocked silence. However, to the stallion’s dismay, the shock was soon replaced with rage. Sensing his grave had been dug, Shining continued.

“Princess Luna helped Twilight escape into a magic mirror so Celestia couldn’t follow through with the plan. Celestia found out and tried to stop them. The struggle that followed destroyed the mirror, but not before it took Twilight to a different world.” He sighed. “Now, Princess Luna is imprisoned for helping Twilight. The mirror is being repaired, but we’re not sure if we can get her back. I’m so sor…” his apology was cut short by a strong hoof to the face. He looked to see that it had been from Cadence, his princess of love; tears were streaming like a river down her face.

“How could you?!” Cadence shouted. Velvet began sobbing into Night Light’s shoulder. Night Light gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes at his son. “She’s your sister! She’s been there for you at your worst! She came to save you even after you abandoned her at the wedding!”

“My baby!” was all Velvet could stutter out.

“After everything Twilight did for you, this is how you repay her?!” Night Light shouted. “I don’t give a damn what Princess Celestia wanted; I don’t care if she was doing this with good intentions. NO ONE makes a slave out of my daughter!”

“And you just went along with it?!” Cadence continued with her verbal assault. “You just stood there and let her get away with it? You didn’t even try to warn Twilight?!” Behind Shining Armor’s guilty eyes, a rage began building.

“Celestia threatened to strip me of my rank if I said anything to anypony…”

“Twilight is the reason we’re all safe! She loved you! How could you just agree to manipulate her like that?! What’s wrong with you? I thought you loved her? Are you really that cruel?!” Cadence’s incessant questions seemed to have no end.

“Because Twilight is so special,” Shining spat through gritted teeth, “because Equestria can’t survive without Twilight. They can’t live without their precious Element of Magic. That’s how it’s always been. Twilight is the special one.”

“Don’t try to make this about you,” Night Light shouted.

“How can it be Dad?!” Shining shot back. “It’s never about me! It’s always about Twilight! ‘Twilight is so smart, Twilight is so cute, Twilight is so special.’ Blah, blah, blah,” he mocks.

“Where do you get off?” Night Light says.

“Wherever I bucking want, Dad,” Shining continues to mock. He turns to Cadence. “You know what, Cadence? If you enjoy praising Twilight so much, why don’t YOU MARRY HER?!” he yells. “She’s obviously better than I ever will be! She’s the Element of Magic. She’s the most gifted unicorn this side of Equestria. And she was the bucking princess’s personal student. And to top it off, she is a super hero.

“You think I like it? You think I like hearing everypony saying, ‘look, it’s the big brother of Twilight Sparkle, the hero.’ It must be so embarrassing for him when his little sister is the one running around saving Equestria while he’s the Captain of the RUN-AWAY-WITH-OUR-TAILS-BETWEEN-OUR-LEGS Guards! I’m so SICK of hearing Twilight’s right, for once, on my special day; our wedding. I wanted Twilight to be wrong. I wanted to show her I can have a moment in the sun without her ‘saving the day.’

“BUT THAT DAMN BUG RUINED EVERYTHING! Oh, and I hate to say I told you so, but Twilight was RIGHT AGAIN! You know what? I’m glad she’s gone! I hope she’s a statue in some alien’s collection! I hope she’s swimming in the belly of some beast! I HOPE SHE’S DEAD IN A DITCH! I’m so sick of hearing how great Twilight is when I try my best for this family, and for you!”

With his rant over, Shining Armor bucks the house door open and stomps out of the house. Velvet, Cadence, and Night Light are left shocked and slack-jawed in the family room as Shining runs off.

For years, the Empire of Niflheim has waged war across the world of Eos in an attempt to conquer the entire land. So far, their efforts have proven successful due to their technological superiority with the utilization of Magitek. The Empire’s campaign for world conquest has only met with one adversary strong enough to oppose them. That adversary is The Kingdom of Lucis; home to the last remaining artifact in Eos’s history that is in direct correlation with the Astrals.

The artifact, “the Crystal,” creates a barrier over the kingdom when combined with the acting king’s power. Even Niflheim’s vast arsenal, the empire cannot break through this barrier. This has caused a rather great deal of trouble for the Empire. However, they have stumbled across an interesting find. After an attempt on the Prince of Lucis’s life, a strange power was found; a little girl with powers the Empire hadn’t seen before.

She managed to repel a Magitek trooper and destroy it despite her young age. The remaining units responded by capturing her. With the successful capture of this young “sorceress” and the prince and princess of Tenebrae, coupled with the death of the queen of Tenebrae, the country had been pacified.

Once the sorceress was captured General Glacua was given permission from Ledolas Aldercapt, the acting emperor of Niflheim, to use the former prince and princess of Tenebrae to “convince” the sorceress to join Niflheim’s military ranks; the sorceress only agreeing under the condition that the former Tenebrae royals were spared and their household untouched. With those conditions met, the sorceress trained to fight for the Empire as promised.

Though reluctant the first few times, the sorceress took to killing in a rather quick fashion. However, she refused to kill unarmed civilians and children. If a Magitek trooper was caught killing any unarmed people, the trooper was quickly destroyed, and disciplinary reactions were taken each time.

With the constant attacks the acting King of Lucis, King Regis, formed the Kingsglaive. The Kingsglaive is an elite group of warriors who are capable of using a fraction of the king’s power. These warriors have bravely fought against Niflheim. But this seemed like a war they had no chance of winning.

The barren ground quaked as hordes of large insects and behemoths charged toward a ruined fortress. As the giant insects made their way up the fortress walls, several people clad in black robes repelled them with lightning spells; if they got to close, the people cut them down with unique-looking blades.

“All Glaives defend the wall. If they break through, it’s over!” a man ordered.

“Sir!” a Glaive responded as he nodded to his comrade beside him. Taking this symbol, both Glaives jumped off the ledge of the wall and stabbed an insect that was trying to crawl its way up. The second the two Glaives hit the ground, they began using the lightning spells to fry several insects that were headed toward them.

“There’s too many of them!” one Glaive shouts as he stabs an insect in the head.

“Keep fighting!” another Glaive yells. This Glaive throws his dagger into an insect and disappears in a flash of blue sparks, reappearing in the spot the dagger landed. He drags it along the monster. The insect lets out a few pained screeches as it falls over dead. The Glaive quickly dislodges the dagger as more insects start to surround him. “The Spellcasters should be finished any second now!”

One Glaive screamed as his arm was being chewed off by an insect. Two other insects gathered and began feasting on the still screaming man. A few yards away, a portly Glaive with combed back brown hair and brown eyes took cover behind some pillars as Magitek troopers marched toward the fortress. He raises his hood and tosses his blade into the air and catches it. With the blade pointing backwards, he strikes the air, which creates particles that conceal his entire body as the troops march by. They were unaware of the Glaive’s presence.

Taking the opportunity, the Glaive quickly slashes the closest trooper. He cuts through another, then turns and strikes another in its helmet. He blasts it back with a burst of lightning. The other troopers start firing at him as he throws up a shield.

“What’s the hold-up Crowe?!” the man yells as he struggles to maintain his shield. Meanwhile, at the top of one of the ruined towers, five female Glaives are heavily concentrating on a spell. Dark clouds begin to form over the heart of the battlefield.

“Almost there,” the girl named Crowe strains out. As soon as she responded, one of the five girls falls over dead. “No!” she shouts. She takes off her hood to reveal a messy brown bun and worried brown eyes. She struggles to maintain the field. On another side of the battlefield, magitek armors began to assault the wall with volleys of missiles.

“Need help; the east wall is going down. Can you get to me?!” a Glaive shouts over his radio as another Glaive dashes toward the wall with a giant insect in pursuit. “Lucis isn’t paying us refugees enough,” he blasts the insect back with lightning as he runs up some rubble, “for this!” The Glaive jumps into the air as the monster bursts through the rubble, giving him the opportunity he needed to bring his blade down on the creature’s head.

The creature quickly died as the Glaive got off the ground. He stares in shock as several large pieces of the wall start crumbling down toward one of his fellow Glaives. Quickly thinking, he threw his blade over to the Glaive, which teleported him beside his comrade. He throws out his shield as the debris came down on them. The shield cushioned the impact of the rubble; however it shattered as the largest pieces were deflected. Once the dust settled, the two exhausted Glaives struggled to stand as a behemoth charged at them.

“How is this fair?!” one of the Glaives asks sarcastically as the behemoth pounced. In a flash of blue, a Glaive runs his blade deep into the beast’s throat, using the momentum to swing across the behemoth’s throat. This created a large gash in the monster.

The behemoth tumbled forward as the Glaive lands in front of his two comrades. He takes off his silver-horned hood to reveal a head of brown hair with a side cut and blue eyes. He smirked at his comrades as he admires his handy work.

“Nyx, I owe you one,” one Glaive said while helping his comrade off the ground.

“You and everyone else,” Nyx replies, his cocky grin never leaving his face. He pauses for a moment as someone started speaking on the radio.

“We need assistance on the east wall. Nyx, where are you?” the voice on the radio called out.

“On my way,” he says.

“Go easy on the magic, ‘hero,’ we have people waiting for you back home!” one of the Glaives calls to Nyx.

“I’m worth the wait.” Nyx hurls his blade through the air and disappears in a flash of blue.

“Show off,” a Glaive remarks to himself as he and his fellow Glaive go to regroup with the others.

Closer to the east side of the battle field, the portly Glaive throws a fire ball at two of the giant insects. Another insect tackles him, only to have its mandibles sliced off by his hatchet. The creature tries to stab him with its leg, only for the Glaive to slice it off and drive it into the monster’s head. He stumbles back as he watches the insect the creature recoil in pain as it tries in vain to remove the leg.

“Watch your back, Libertus; we have more incoming,” a voice over the radio says to the Glaive. Libertus sighs in frustration and scrambles behind some pillars.

“We ain’t gonna last much longer!” Libertus shouts. “CROWE!” Meanwhile, Crowe and her fellow casters finally finish with their spell.

“Yes,” Crowe exclaims as a massive vortex of fire lands in the heart of the battlefield. It was effectively dragging any creatures close by into it.

“All Glaives fall back! I repeat! All Glaives fall back!” the voice over the radio shouts. Unfortunately, a few of the Glaives couldn’t get away quick enough and fell victim to a fiery demise. For Glaives closer to the wall, it was a breath of relief that they finally had a hand over the creatures. Though the caster team’s spells can sometimes take a while to gather enough magic, their spells could often clear out an army.

A Niflheim commander watched as his troops and monsters were decimated by the flaming pillar. “Damn those Glaives,” he grunts while turning over a table. A young woman with long, lavender colored hair and lavender eyes leaned on a wall close by. She was clad in purple armor.

“Maybe if you stopped using the petting zoo, and poured more time into the troops, the Glaives would be dead by now,” she remarks.

“Well if you think you can do better, then by all means,” the commander mocks.

“Gladly.” The woman kicks off the wall. “If you want something done right,” she remarks as she leaves the room. She heads toward a lavender colored transport ship.

“Fair warning, Ma’am,” an engineer interrupts. “You have ten minutes before the Diamond Weapon touches down.”

“A little bit of overkill, don’t you think? But I guess it’s the best time to try out their new toys. It better not get in my way,” she says, walking up the ramp to the ship. “Is my baby fixed?”

“She’s ready to go!” the engineer shouts. “But all the same, I’d avoid running into large rocks.

“Noted.” The woman signals to the other engineers to clear the way as a huge gust of wind blew through the docking bay. Two large steel doors slid open, letting the transport take to the open skies. “Get me close to the flaming pillar; I’ll handle the rest,” she orders at a Magitek trooper. The trooper nodded in compliance.

The transport got as close as it could to the fiery tornado without getting sucked in. The main doors opened, letting the woman step out to the edge of the ramp. She admires the commotion for a moment.

“I’m impressed. But it’s time to snuff out this candle.” She flicks her wrist, and a lavender-colored cylindrical object slides into her hand. The object starts glowing in a lavender color, which sends a similar colored aura to surround the pillar.

The Glaives below look in awe as the aura fully engulfs the flaming pillar. The flames start to slowly die down. “What the hell is going on?!” the voice on the radio asks frantically.

“I don’t know!” Crowe yells. “We’re not doing this!” She frantically racked her brain to think of why the spell was failing. Then her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. “The spell is being countered! She’s here!”

“Shit,” the voice responds. “All Glaives, the Sorceress has arrived!” All the Glaives shot up in alarm.

“This isn’t good,” one Glaive says, brandishing his sword.

“It’s a strong possibility she could be going for the casters,” the voice on the radio addresses. “Protect them.”

Once the pillar fully dissipates, the transport ship lands. The roar of an engine could be heard from the darkness of the transport as several Magitek assassins dash at high speeds toward the fortress. The woman speeds out of the transport on a purple colored Fenrir motorcycle.

“Here she comes!” Libertus yells while preparing spells with his fellow Glaives.

“Fire!” one Glaive shouts. On command, the Glaives let loose several fire balls at the woman. She expertly weaves around the flame spells and debris along with the assassins flanking her on each side.

“Attack!” the woman shouts sternly. The troops run ahead of her and start climbing up the wall. The Glaives try to stifle the climb, and manage to destroy at least two before the others reach the top of the wall. They start to attack the Glaives. Some Glaives attempted to teleport behind the assassins, but were blocked. While the fighting goes on, the woman reaches the wall. She shuts the motorcycle down then makes her way toward Crowe and the other casters.

“Protect the cast…” a Glaive starts to say as he tries to teleport behind the woman, only for him to be impaled in the gut with a lavender colored broad sword.

“Forgive me,” she says somberly without turning around. She tosses his body over the edge of the wall as the casters prepare for a fight.

“For Lucis!” one of the female Glaives screams as she charges the woman.

“No!” Crowe shouts as the caster clashes with the woman. The caster is met with a knee to the stomach. As she recoils in pain from the blow, the sorceress delivers a slash to the caster’s neck. Crowe could only stare in horror as the female Glaive’s head slowly slips off her shoulders. Blood spurts out from where the head was detached.

Crowe and the other caster charge at the sorceress, coming at her from both sides. The sorceress is quick; she easily blocks the two assailants and kicks Crowe into a wall, then she bisects the other caster.

“Crowe!” Libertus cries, leaping at the sorceress. She turns to face him. “Back off, bitch!” He clashes with the sorceress, who breaks the lock by slashing downwards at him. He rolls out of the way and fires a blast of lightening point blank. She quickly throws up a shield in the shape of a purple start. The force of the blast scoots her back slightly.

“Impressive,” she remarks once again. She hurls her broad sword at him. Libertus dodges the sword, only for it to start glowing. In a white flash and a puff of smoke, the sorceress appears beside him. He is startled by the act and cannot react fast enough to the sorceress bringing her foot down onto his leg, eliciting a sickening crunch. Libertus screams in immense pain as he falls onto his back and tries to scoot away from the woman.

“As fun as this is, I must wrap this up.” The sorceress tries to run Libertus through, but quickly turns and clashes with a blur of blue light.

“Nyx!” Libertus shouts. “Get Crowe out of here!”

“I think Crowe needs to get you out of here,” Nyx responds as he struggles against the sorceress. Crowe took this as a signal and grabs Libertus, dragging him away from the battle. “So,” he says, addressing the sorceress as he kicks her backwards. “Do you have a name, or is it just The Sorceress?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she answers.

“Nyx Ulrich. Cute name. Certainly not the name I’d associate with the feared mystic of Niflheim though,” he says sarcastically.

“What can I say? Every rose has its thorns,” Twilight retorted.

“Oh, don’t I know it.” He chuckles. “Care to dance?”

“I hope you can keep up,” she mocks as she clashes with him.

The two stay locked for a good minute before breaking and delivering blow after blow. Twilight kicks Nyx into a wall and tries to stab him, only for Nyx to throw his blade at her face. Twilight dodges as he appears beside her. He swipes her face, making her step back to block the attack.

“Not bad,” Twilight muses as her sword starts to grow even larger. The cylindrical tip of her horn returns and expands until it takes the shape of a lance. “Let us see how you fair against this.” She smirks and charged at Nyx as the sun finishes setting. Nyx blocked her charge with a shield and blasted her back with lightning.

Twilight blocks the attack with her own shield. She spun her lance as Nyx jumped over her. He threw his blade down at her head, leading Twilight to spin out of its way as Nyx appeared beside it. Twilight was ready for this however, and bashed Nyx across the head with the broad side of the lance. This caused him to tumble into the ground, making him drop his blade. As Twilight readied to run him through, an ominous roar echoed through the sky.

“Damn it,” Twilight grunts. “Out of time,” she whispered to herself. She turns to Nyx. “You’d better get out of here; with the Diamond Weapon on its way, you all won’t last long. Hopefully we’ll see each other again. Doubt it though.” She grabs Nyx’s blade. “One more thing before I go.” She holds the blade against her horn, causing it to glow and bend until it became an exact copy of the blade. She then throws it at his feet. “See ya.”

Twilight pressed a button on her gauntlet which sent out a high pitched signal. The remaining Magitek assassins ceased all fighting and ran toward Twilight’s location. She quickly got back to her motorcycle and sped off on it in the direction of the FOB. Several transports carrying a massive object start to fly across the field.

“Second Lieutenant Sparkle,” a voice says over her radio.

“Go ahead.”

“The emperor needs to see you at once.” Twilight groans in frustration.

“What does the old bastard want now?”

“You’re being reassigned.”

“This had better be good,” she mumbles to herself. The Diamond Weapon was dropped into the field then.