... Well, this is certainly interesting. Never thought I’d find something like this…
… I wonder what everyone will make of it? Guess I’ll find out after they’re done with that shrieker horde.
Hmm, it’s kind of a lopsided battle, now that I think about it. I’d better even the odds.
All was silent along the tracks; not a sound could be heard through the trees. But not for long, as a faint noise soon arose from around a bend in the tracks, its pitch light and unconcerning. Then it grew in volume, accompanied by the collective trampling of hundreds of footfalls. From around the bend, a mass of gray appeared.
The shrieker horde moved as one, following the general direction the big blob of heat had gone. It couldn’t be sensed anymore, but it seemed to have stuck to the space between the trees. Eventually, they would find it, and feed upon its flesh. Eat. Multiply. Eat. Multiply. That was the collective thought process of each and every shrieker. If an obstacle got in their way, they would take their time to study it, looking for a method of overcoming it to get to their food. They would eat everything, and increase their numbers. Nothing else mattered other than the continued survival of their species.
Finally, they rounded another bend to find the presence of heat sources a little further ahead. Their collective screeches rose in volume as they increased their pace, making a mad dash to get to the food. The heat sources made no effort to run, which neither delighted nor confused the shriekers. Food was food, regardless of whether it tried to run away.
The horde came within a few feet of the heat signatures, but were suddenly knocked back by an invisible force. The following shriekers continued forward, followed by the next row. And the next. The shriekers piled atop each other in an enormous tangled heap. Their screeches turned to mixed agony and fear as the bottommost ones felt the crushing sensation of their brethren piling atop them, while the topmost ones were more alarmed by the supposed threat presented to them. The rearmost shriekers realized what was happening, and halted in their tracks, watching with interest as their brethren began reorienting themselves.
Something had stopped them from reaching their food. Something without heat, so it wasn’t food. An inanimate object, then. But they could still see their food in front of them, so there couldn’t be anything between them. One of the frontmost shriekers barged forward, only to be bounced back onto the ground. Several more shriekers followed suit, only to join their brethren on the ground. Watching their brethren repeatedly fail to claim their prey, realization slowly dawned on the remaining shriekers that there was an obstacle to overcome.
The group watched the creatures futilely barg against Twilight’s shield with interest. Twilight stood front and center, her horn alit, hardly straining from the effort of maintaining her shield. On her left were Pit and Palutena, while the pharaoh, Pikachu, and Samus stood at her right. James, Kirby, Ryuk, Thomas, and the caged creature stood behind them in the center of the shield’s radius.
“You’re good to go everyone,” Twilight said with a nod.
Palutena activated the Miracle of Flight, and Pit’s wings alit in their blue splendor. “Do your best, Pit,” she said with an encouraging smile.
“I’ll do better than my best!” Pit cheered. He shot up into the air and began raining light arrows down on the horde.
I won’t let any of my friends die… again, Samus thought. She somersaulted into the air, her suit shining with yellow energy as she activated her Screw Attack. She made two more ascending jumps, then another to propel herself over Twilight’s shield and onto the ground. The shriekers wasted no time in swarming over her, clamping down with their jaws, but couldn’t bite through her Power Suit’s thick armor. A few punches to the snout allowed her to get them off, and she started shooting them with her Arm Cannon.
Pikachu scurried up the nearest tree within the shield’s range. Perching upon the strongest branch, he began letting loose electric strikes onto the horde, taking care to keep his targets well clear of Samus.
The pharaoh activated his duel disk, and pulled his deck out of the holder at his belt. He selected two monster cards, taking a moment to appreciate them before placing them on two of the duel disk’s monster card zones.
You’re really going through with this, huh?
I understand if you’re worried about tapping into the Power of Darkness, Yugi, but as long as we have the means with which to help everyone, that’s what we should do.
Yeah… You’re right.
Don’t worry, the darkness won’t overcome me.
The Millennium Puzzle glowed with the power of its ancient magic, soon followed by the two monster cards. The air thrummed with power as the Power of Darkness enveloped the monster cards, studying them, intent on bringing the monsters depicted to life. On the other side of Twilight’s shield, two figures gradually took shape. One was the Black Magician, garbed in his iconic purple robes and pointed hat. The other wore similarly purple armor with spikes with gold outlines, twin purple horns sprouting from its head, and brandished an enormous sword with a golden hilt and adorned with blue gems. Both figures were semi-transparent, an effect of having been summoned using the Power of Darkness. Nevertheless, both were quite real, and capable of dealing tangible damage.
"Nothing will come to harm my master!"
“My blade will not fail!”
“Black Magician and Buster Blader! Attack!” the pharaoh commanded.
The Black Magician aimed his staff and began letting loose magic blast after blast at the creatures, while Buster Blader charged forward and began hacking and slashing his way through the horde.
The area in front of the shield was soon a flurry of guts, crimson, and loud noises as everyone pummeled away at the horde. Shots from Samus’ Arm Cannon would tear clean through creatures’ bodies, leaving baseball-sized holes in their bodies and blowing their guts around. Every time a creature would charge at her, she’d either kick at it and send it flying, or curl into her Morph Ball to dodge out of the way, before resuming fire. Black Magician and Buster Blader had no trouble tearing swathes of creatures apart with their power, not having to fear their pseudo-corporeal forms being overrun. Everywhere they shot or sliced, nothing was left but a pile of mangled, gorey body parts. Pit and Pikachu found their methods to be more slow and methodical, only being able to pick off one or two targets with each strike, but nevertheless helped make significant progress in whittling the horde’s numbers down.
Meanwhile, the remaining members of the group watched from behind with varying degrees of interest or boredom. Thomas didn’t know what to make of the action before him, but the fact that everyone was remaining unharmed made him happy. Kirby’s attention wasn’t even on the battle, instead on the green creature still in Palutena’s cage. He watched as it tried to pry the lid off of that metal can everyone seemed to have forgotten about. If there were snacks inside, then he would get inside and eat them.
“This is interesting,” James said.
Ryuk shrugged. “Eh, mindless carnage isn’t really for me,” he said. “I like high stakes drama for my entertainment.”
“That’s not what I meant,” James replied. “I’m so used to being at the forefront of action; it’s strange to witness it as a bystander.”
“Well, new experiences are good, right?”
“I guess.” James regarded everyone fighting for a moment before turning his gaze upwards. “Any chance I could have something to help out?”
Aza gave no reply.
James frowned. “Aza?”
Nothing.
James waited a few more moments for a reply. Getting none, he shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention back to the massacre.
Saying it was a massacre was an understatement. Everywhere to look across the clearing, the ground was being coated various shades of warm colors with the creatures’ scattered entrails. Blasts of magic and weapons and lightning sent creature blood and guts flying through the air, creating a gory veil that forbade everyone beyond the shield from seeing the landscape past the battleground. All the carnage had the additional effect of leaving the air thick with the pungent scent of death, wafting through the clearing in front of the shield. But of all the combatants, only Pikachu had the misfortune of experiencing the sickly odor, forcing him to use a paw to cover his nostrils so as to not gag, possibly losing his footing and falling to his doom.
Eventually, everyone started winding down their counter-assault, exhaustion beginning to take over. The Miracle of Flight’s five minute time limit was close to running out, so Palutena brought Pit back behind the shield. Even with his spiritual strength, the Power of Darkness would eventually overtake him, so the pharaoh withdrew Black Magician and Buster Blader. Pikachu’s electrical power was all but drained, and getting up close with his melee attacks would be too dangerous, so he too retreated behind the shield. Only Samus continued the fight, stamina being much less of an issue with her Power Suit.
“So far so good,” Palutena said.
Everyone collectively nodded their agreement, before turning to Twilight. The unicorn was starting to show a few small signs of fatigue, with her sweaty brow and reddened cheeks.
“You feelin’ okay, Twi?” Pit asked.
The corner of Twilight’s mouth lifted into an amused smirk. They’d known each other for less than a day, and Pit was already casually abbreviating her name like they were close friends. “I’m hanging on fine enough,” she replied, and wiped her brow while exhaling deeply. “Can’t hold on forever, though.”
“We took out a good chunk of the horde’s numbers,” the pharaoh noted, before casting his gaze beyond the shield. The creatures had stopped barging against the shield and turned their attention to Samus, who was holding her own shooting every single creature which attempted to tackle her. “One more round and we might be able to finish them off.”
“Sounds about right,” Palutena said. “The Miracle of Flight should be ready to go in about another five minutes.”
Pit hung his head and sighed exasperatedly. “It’s so not fair,” he whined.
“Don’t sulk,” Palutena lightly chastised him, smiling. “It’s undignified.”
Pikachu took a moment to stretch, and casually cast his eyes around while waiting for his strength to come back. Looking beyond the shield, he noticed Samus’ attention had diverted to some point near the rear of the horde. She continued shooting at every creature which tried to tackle her, while also shifting her gaze to whatever had caught her attention, but whatever that was was obscured by the rest of the horde.
Pikachu wondered what could be happening over there.
Dodge roll. Shoot. Dodge roll. Shoot. Occasionally kick, bash, or shake off a creature.
In between that steady rhythm of gradually picking off the creatures, Samus noticed that part of the group was retreating away from the action, dragging the carcasses of some of their fellow creatures with them.
Knowing next to nothing about these creatures, Samus’ gut said that whatever they were doing wasn’t good. The creatures, as primal and instinct-driven as they might have been, were making a noticeable effort to adapt to her fighting style. Some creatures would manage to dodge her shots, while the ones that managed to reach her attempted to gnaw off her Arm Cannon. It wouldn’t be enough to kill her, but their efforts were a legitimate cause for concern.
Blasting apart two more creatures which attempted to tackle her, Samus activated her Screw Attack and hopped up onto a nearby tree branch. The horde followed her and crowded around the tree, staring up at her but unable to reach. With her safety secured for the time being, she focused her attention squarely on the stray group of creatures.
They stopped once they were a fair distance away from the shield, piling the dead creature carcasses into a giant heap against a tree. Samus’ eyes widened in shock and disgust when one of the creatures bit down into one of the carcasses and tore out a huge chunk of flesh. This action was repeated by its brethren, leaving several gaping, bloody holes in the dead creature’s body. The creatures quickly swallowed their impromptu, cannibalistic meals, leaving Samus in a blank state, at a complete loss for words.
Then the creatures began acting up, bringing her out of her state of stupor. They were making motions and sounds similar to a cat throwing up. One by one, little gooey gray balls rolled out of their mouths and onto the ground. The thought that they were eggs was one of the several possibilities that flitted through Samus’ mind as she watched as each creature began gently prodding their balls, like a mother would their young to get them walking for the first time. Bizarre scenarios of the baby metroid she’d more or less adopted threatened to break her attention from them, but she remained focused on the new development.
The balls were confirmed to be offspring as the outer casings broke off of each one, revealing baby creatures about one eighth the size of their parents. Little mews emanated from their tiny mouths as they breathed the air of the world, while struggling to free themselves from their sticky bindings.
Samus blinked. Of everything she thought the creatures were attempting to do, asexual reproduction wasn’t among her considerations.
It suddenly occurred to her why they’d devoured every apple at Sweet Apple Acres. If all the creatures needed to reproduce was a little bit of food, then no doubt they’d scour the land for every speck of sustenance, living or not, that they could find to build up their numbers. And if they couldn’t get to her and the rest of the group for that purpose, it only made sense they’d resort to cannibalism to keep from dying out.
Determined features crossed Samus’ face, and she raised her Arm Cannon at the baby creatures. Before she could fire off a single round, a pink tendril came up into her vision and wrapped itself around her Arm Cannon, pulling her off the tree branch. As she fell to the ground, Samus got a glimpse of the creatures stacked atop each other like boxes, reaching up all the way from the base of the tree.
She curled up into her Morph Ball form just before she hit the ground, rolling away a few feet before popping out and re-training her Arm Cannon on the creature horde. She didn’t get a chance to attack as a creature tackled her from behind, knocking her to the ground onto her stomach. She made to lift herself back up, only to feel the jaws of four creatures clamp down on both her arms, a leg, and her helmet. Viciously they shook their heads, trying to tear apart her suit, but to no effect. Samus responded by using her free leg to kick away the creature on her other leg, before firing off a round into the mouth of the creature trying to swallow her Arm Cannon, killing it instantly. Quickly she bashed the remaining two creatures, freeing herself.
Samus got to her feet and turned around to aim her Arm Cannon back onto the baby creatures, only to find her view blocked by all the creatures, which were now all converging on her. Given their behavior up to this point, it was clear they weren’t going to let her pick off the newly hatched younglings. She needed everyone’s help.
With a quick few Screw Attacks, she hopped over Twilight’s barrier. The creatures swarmed in front of the barrier, only to find their progress still impeded.
“Are you okay, Samus?” Palutena asked as the group, minus Twilight, approached the hunter.
Samus flashed a thumbs up, then proceeded to remove her helmet so everyone could see the worry in her face. “We have a problem,” she said, gravely. “The creatures are multiplying.”
The resulting confused looks on everyone’s faces prompted Samus to elaborate. “They’re cannibalizing their dead in order to reproduce themselves. Apparently, they only need to eat in order to multiply.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad, though,” Pit said. His expression turned confident and he pumped his fist. “We just gotta beat ‘em down a little faster is all!”
Palutena glanced beyond the shield, her lips curling down a little. “It’s not going to be that easy,” she said.
Everyone followed her gaze. Beyond the shield, a crowd of the creatures were huddled around a carcass, feasting on its flesh. Milling around them were a bunch of baby creatures, but what drew everyone’s attention was the fact that they were all of varying size.
“They’re growing so fast,” the pharaoh whispered.
As if in direct response to him, one of the adult creatures vomited up a youngling which quickly broke free of its bindings. The fact that it was smaller than all the other baby creatures was enough proof for everyone that the creatures were indeed growing rapidly. They could even see their rapid growing occur with their naked eyes by looking hard enough.
Pit turned to Palutena. “How much longer before you can activate the Miracle of Flight, Lady Palutena?”
“Another minute or so,” Palutena replied, before turning to everyone else. “How about you all?” she asked.
“I’ve still got plenty of fight left in me,” Samus answered.
Small sparks flew from Pikachu’s cheeks as he pumped his stubby little arms. “Pika-pika!”
The pharaoh simply gave a thumbs-up.
Palutena nodded. “Good.”
“Is everything okay up there!?” James shouted.
Palutena turned back with a smile and a wave of her hand. “Everything’s fine!” she answered.
“Hey, uh, everyone…”
The group turned to Twilight. The mare was noticeably redder in the face and huffing, with visible beads of sweat running down her face. Seeing her so exhausted reminded everyone that they were running out of time.
“Hang in there just a little longer, Twilight,” Samus said.
Twilight just gave a weak little nod in response, wiping some sweat from her forehead. Strange… I shouldn’t be getting this weak so quickly.
One by one, everyone returned to the battle as soon as they were ready. Samus jumped over the barrier and resumed firing upon the creatures, primarily any that ventured close to the corpses of their fallen brethren.
The pharaoh re-summoned Black Magician and Buster Blader outside the barrier using the Power of Darkness, but this time used his Fusion card on them. The resulting creature, Black Paladin, wore an outfit overall similar to Black Magician’s but with a dark green color scheme and some of the sharp bladed aesthetic of Buster Blader’s, and his magic blasts were exceptionally more devastating.
Feeling his electric charge returning to normal power, Pikachu returned to his spot high above the ground on the closest tree branch, and resumed his electric attacks upon the horde.
“The Miracle of Flight is ready to go,” Palutena announced. Her staff lit up, and Pit’s wings were quickly enveloped in the miracle’s familiar blue glow. “Fight hard, Pit!”
Pit took to the air, shouting “Time to finish this!” as he soared over the shield. Spotting his first target, he drew back a light arrow and aimed for the creature’s snout. Then something in his eye’s corner caught his attention; something in the air. He turned to see a black speck off in the distance, growing bigger as it came closer. It was followed by another speck. Then another, until there was a sizable swarm of flying creatures approaching the battle.
Details filled themselves in as the swarm drew closer: thin, glossy black skull, reddish body, and tan, fin-like wings. The tops of the creatures’ heads were lifted up, revealing their gooey, gutsy insides, similar to how Samus and Ryuk described the creatures on the ground doing so.
“What are those things, Lady Palutena?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” Palutena’s voice replied in his head. “But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re showing up at the same time as those shriekers.”
Pit arched a brow. “Shriekers?”
“That’s the name I’ve given them after all the shrieking they keep doing,” Palutena explained. “Maybe it’s a little too on the nose?” she added.
“Wait a minute!” Pit’s eyes bulged as a sudden, horrifying thought occurred to him. “If they can fly, then they can bypass Twilight’s shield.”
“You’re absolutely right, Pit,” Palutena said with conviction. “Whatever you do, make sure not a single one touches down here.”
“Got it!”
Pit drew back a light arrow and fired at the frontmost flying creature of the swarm. The arrow struck true, slicing clean through the creature’s skull, making it plummet to the ground with a hard thud. He then repeated the motion for the next few creatures, directly hitting each one. But the following creatures were quickly closing in on him, leaving him without the time to fire from a distance.
“Time to get up close and personal!” Pit said as he separated the bow into its twin bladed halves.
The group of flying creatures split into three groups before it reached Pit. One continued straight towards him, while the other two went for Samus and Pikachu. The one that attacked Pikachu was quickly zapped to a collective crisp, and plummeted to the ground to be claimed by cannibalistic shriekers. The same fate befell the group attacking Samus, except blasted into a million tiny bloody pieces by a Super Missile.
Pit’s group came fast toward him, jaws open in preparation to rip him limb from limb. Pit stood his ground — relatively speaking — with his blades at the ready, waiting for them to get close enough. Once they did, he charged forward with a mighty cry.
The first slash was quick and clean, cutting the creature’s head off while the body continued flying through the air, plopping down somewhere behind everyone not participating in the battle. The second creature followed a similar fate, the two separated halves of its body falling on either side of a very surprised Thomas as a tiny splatter of blood splashed across his face.
The air quickly became filled with plummeting, dismembered limbs and wings and body parts as Pit hacked and slashed at every flying creature that charged him directly or the general space above the barrier. Even with his enhanced physical stamina as an angel, he found his limits pushed to their max as the creatures executed impromptu coordinated air strikes from multiple directions at once, quickly tiring him out. For such simple-minded, instinct-driven carnivores, these creatures were putting the enemy armies back home to shame for putting up a good fight.
“Pit! On your right!” Palutena called.
“What?– Oof!” Pit felt the wind knocked out of him by a hard impact on his right side, followed by a painful sensation in that corresponding arm. The bow fell from his grip, tumbling to the ground below just past the shield.
Pit regained his bearings and looked down to see one of the flying creatures with its jaws clamped down on his right arm. Strangely, it wasn’t applying any pressure to chew his arm off, merely keeping a firm grip on him.
“What the– get off of me!” Pit tried to shake his arm free but to no avail. He tried beating the creature’s snout with his other hand, but that didn’t work either.
The creature beat its wings and began pushing Pit over the nearby treeline. Pit beat his own wings as hard as he could, fighting against the creature’s incredibly strong, vice-like grip. Back and forth they struggled in the air, the creature trying to steal Pit from the fight, while Pit tried desperately to return to it before everyone behind the shield was put in danger.
His fears were realized as he saw the last remaining flying creature sail over the shield and land on the ground next to Palutena.
“No! I’ve gotta– let me go!” He resumed pounding the creature’s snout. Suddenly, he felt the power flowing through his wings fizzle out, causing him to dangle in the creature’s maw as the Miracle of Flight was turned off.
The absence of a second set of wings must’ve been too much for the creature, as it struggled to maintain flight just under its own strength with Pit in its mouth, and the two gradually began descending to the ground, all while Pit continued struggling to free himself.
Palutena’s eyes widened in surprise and horror as the flying creature landed right next to her. Immediately it turned and opened its thin, four-pronged jaws, reaching for her leg. Instinctively, she kicked at it, striking it dead under its jaw. Her resulting loss of focus on the Miracle of Flight caused it to tune out, but the ramifications of this sailed over her head as her attention was fixed squarely on the creature as it recovered from her strike, ready to attack her once again.
“Palutena!”
She turned to see all of James, Ryuk, and Kirby rushing forward to her aid. The creature made a few motions toward them with its snout as they approached, but nothing more than that subtle acknowledgment of their presence.
They all stopped some distance away, ready to charge if it made another move. Meanwhile, Twilight’s attention was elsewhere as her magical stamina was nearing its end. The shield began flickering at irregular intervals as a result, clearly on the verge of shutting down. The pharaoh bore witness to the situation, but without his loyal servants at his side for protection, getting involved would only be foolish.
The creature turned and fixed its attention back on Palutena. The top of its head opened up in a similar manner to the other creatures– its purpose still a mystery to the group. Finally, the creature seemed to show genuine interest in the rest of the group as it turned its head toward each one of them as if sizing up who it should attack. Except for Ryuk, whose presence the creature seemed completely oblivious to. Palutena filed that information away for later use, thinking it might be useful to beating the creatures.
Finally, the creature lowered its gorey scalp and turned back to her. It let loose a shrill, ear-splitting cry almost identical to that of the shriekers. The massive heat wave that erupted from the creature as it did this was a surprise to Palutena, and she filed that information away as well for later use. She took a step back out of reflex, and raised her staff. Several options raced through her mind: Miracle of Capture, of Piercing, of Paralysis, and other, more lethal attacks she disdained using but remembered for situations such as this.
But she ended up not having to. While the creature continued shrieking like there was no tomorrow, Kirby waddled forward on his little red feet. All eyes turned to him as he approached the creature, without a hint of fear or even courage. Indeed, his cute little face was as stoic as ever as he walked casually forward toward the carnivorous monster.
He stopped a few feet from the creature just as it stopped shrieking and turned to him. Everyone’s eyes collectively bulged as Kirby’s mouth opened wide, and he began sucking in air. His breath was like a vacuum. The creature stumbled forward as the air currents toppled it over while being drawn into Kirby. It fell on its front, only to find itself being picked up by said currents and go sailing right into Kirby’s mouth. With a small, almost confused cry, the creature disappeared into Kirby’s massive maw, and the little pink puffball closed it, his cheeks puffing to three times their size.
The sounds of battle beyond the shield were completely tuned out as everyone’s brains all but shut down in response to the incredulous sight they’d just witnessed. For Palutena, the surprise was diminished, on account of her having been swallowed by Kirby when she’d first arrived there. For everyone else, words escaped them as they blankly watched Kirby swallow the creature, his cheeks returning to normal, and he waddled back over to the creature in the cage.
“... Well, that just happened,” Ryuk said, breaking the silence.
Palutena sighed with exasperation, before she remembered Pit. Quickly, she reopened her window, allowing her to see through Pit’s eyes. The image moved slow and stilted, passing between trees; the magenta glow of Twilight’s shield could be seen ahead. The view tilted down, revealing sight of Pit’s bow, which he bent down to retrieve before resuming his trek.
Palutena continued watching through the window until Pit emerged from the forest. His arms hung limply at his sides, his head held low, and his left leg limping. His tunic and shorts were cut in several places, and he had scratches and bruises all over his body. His empty hand was bloody, with bits of entrail hanging off.
“Pit!” Palutena cried. “Are you okay!?”
Pit said nothing as he stopped right in front of the barrier. Palutena made to rush forward, but stopped when Pit raised his free hand. With a small, tired smile, Pit made a ‘v’ with his fingers, their bloodiness adding a layer of gruesomeness to the good news. Palutena breathed a sigh of relief, and raised her staff, ready to reactivate the Miracle of Flight to allow Pit to hop over the shield.
A sound not too dissimilar to shattering glass sounded throughout the clearing. Confused, everyone glanced around before realizing it was coming from above. Looking up, they caught sight of hundreds of jagged, baseball-sized chunks of Twilight’s shield breaking off. The pieces fell soundlessly to the ground, dissipating into millions of shimmering sparkles upon impact. Bit by bit, the shield slowly dissolved, falling apart in such a calm manner that contrasted greatly with the horrifying consequences its destruction would bring. In a matter of seconds, the shield had disappeared completely.
Panicked expressions adorned everyone’s faces, and they all turned to see Twilight flat on the ground, her eyes closed and hooves splayed out in front of her. Beyond her, a number of shriekers had already realized the shield was gone and were rushing toward her.
“Twilight!” everyone cried out.
Her ears twitched in response to their call, and her eyes flitted open, allowing her to see the charging shriekers. She tried to light her horn for a teleport, but only a single, fizzling spark breached the tip, quickly winking out of existence. Her magical stamina was all used up, leaving her body physically weakened. She tried to stand up to get away, but her legs didn’t respond. Her body felt like a giant, immovable rock, and even the survival instincts screaming in her mind failed to get an adrenaline rush going.
The foremost shrieker was nearly upon her, jaws opened wide in preparation to claim her as its next meal. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Twilight realized this was the end. She’d fought tooth and hoof for herself, for Celestia, and for all the friends they’d made from across the multiverse to stay alive. But she couldn’t keep it up forever, evidently, and now that reality had finally showed itself to her. She was staring into the— quite literal —jaws of death, and there was nothing she could do about it except cherish the fact that she’d done her best for the team.
Twilight let her head drop to the ground and closed her eyes, accepting her fate with a tired frown.
“I’m sorry, Celestia…”
She waited for the sharp pressure in her skull, followed by the sound of crunching bone and the feeling of encroaching darkness. Instead, all she heard was a shrill shriek followed by a soft thump in front of her, while feeling something spray across her face. She opened her eyes to see the shrieker’s carcass in front of her, a still-steaming hole in its skull.
She blinked, then flinched back as the remaining charging shriekers each followed a similar fate by a series of lavender magic beams coming from beyond her field of vision, within the forest.
Twilight turned, and gasped at the surprising, yet absolutely beautiful sight before her. Through the treeline, standing shoulder to shoulder with each other, were all of her Mirror Pool clones, but what drew her attention was the second line of newcomers standing behind them. They boasted a wide array of colors and appearances, and while most of them were humanoid, they all shared a similar feature. Etched into their faces, or stances for the ones without a visible face, was an ironclad determination.
And in that moment, Twilight knew everyone was saved. Exhaustion finally took over completely, and she fainted.
An especially gruff-looking human male with tattered clothes revved a chainsaw attached to his missing right hand, the whirring noise it made audible over the sounds of battle throughout the clearing. The man appeared to say something before the entire group rushed forward through the trees.