//------------------------------//
// Chapter 95- War of Equestria: Part IV 
// Story: Of Flame and Shadow 
// by Garuda IV 
//------------------------------//

He'd made a grave mistake.

High up in the storm clouds, Light looked down with fearful eyes to see his older brother laying waste to everything in his way. Even though his attempts in breaking Dark did succeed in a way, it wasn't in the way that he'd planed for. While he almost managed to turn Dark into an emotional mess with his revelation of him having killed Light's human self, using their resurrected family and fellow villagers against him pushed him in a far different direction. Instead of emotionally breaking Dark and making him lose his will to fight, Dark had instead gone feral with rage.

He didn't know how it happened exactly. One moment Light saw Dark reach into his pocket and eat something, and the next, he retreated back into his cloud and peeked over as Dark's body suddenly changed with a primal roar. After bursting into a ball of fire, Dark's form was revealed to Light, but not as it was before.

In that brief moment of time, Dark's body had grown three times its size and length. His clothes and his crown were gone, while his Death Reaver sword had grown three times its size like Dark to accommodate for his sudden change. Even his unicorn horn was gone now, having been replaced by four draconic horns instead with two of the horns jutted up from his forehead and curved back, while the other two sprouted from the sides of his head, both curving back behind his head like the first two. That wasn't the only thing that had changed with Dark, though. His blaze-orange coat had turned pitch-black, but managed to show the veins running beneath his skin and fur like small rivers of liquid fire, his golden eyes now like a pair of raging infernos, and his mane was now on fire, along with a tuff of fur that had appeared on the end of his tail that had immediately ignited like his mane. However, unlike his mane after having been Amplified, this didn't allow for Dark to manipulate it as it came from his Rage Shift instead.

While Light was confused as to what had happened to Dark, Nocturne knew. Even though Dark took the Rage Pellet, Nocturne figured that Dark was on the brink of Rage Shifting anyway, and that the pellet was what was needed to bring him to that point. Either way, there wasn't much that he could do now besides try to talk Dark down, seeing as Dark's Rage Shift had turned him from a half-baked kirin, into a full-blooded kirin with his powers.

Unfortunatly for Nocturne, despite his best attempts at calming him, he couldn't get through to Dark as his rage had blinded him. Even so, he did what he could to try and talk to Dark, but for the most part, found himself being ignored as Dark snarled at the risen villagers that were approaching him. Nocturne also noted that the undead dragons behind them were almost on top of them and was about to warn Dark, but before he could, Dark spun around and easily sliced the dragon's head off. For a long while Nocturne watched as Dark paved a path of death in his wake, killing each undead dragon again before moving onto the next one. However, what was becoming more concerning to Nocturne was the fact that the Rage Pellet that Dark ate was supposed to put him in a Rage Shift for five minutes, but that time had long since passed as they just hit ten minutes by Nocturne's count.

His mind filled with rage, Dark's only thought was death and destruction, just like the two elements he specialized in represented. Having slain another undead dragon, Dark's burning eyes narrowed on the large group that were approaching him, with more pouring out from the mine. Growling, Dark stood up and spread his wings as he took in a deep breath. Seconds later, Dark unleashed an eerie roar that echoed throughout the village. However, unlike his other roars, this one had enough force behind it to push back the undead dragons. Not only that, but his breath was laced heavily with his death magic, which immediately started eating away at the undead dragons' rotting flesh, reducing them to bare bones within seconds with not a trace of life left in them, magical or otherwise.

Having dispatched the undead dragons in his immediate front, Dark turned back around to see his skeletal villagers within a few dozen feet of him. Growling angrily, Dark's four draconic horns started to glow a burning-red and crackled with power as he charged them with magic, similar to as though they were a unicorn horn. Roaring, Dark unleashed the magic he'd charged and caused the immediate area in front of him to erupt in a pillar of fire, essentially cremating everypony caught within the blast. Charging again, Dark did the same to the remainders of his undead villagers and family.

Never again, Dark mentally growled.

Dark! About time you answered me! What are you doing-

What I should've done from the start, he heatedly interrupted Nocturne, incinerate everypony so their bones can't be reanimated for something like this. Now, where's Light?

Dark, I don't think that you should be doing this.

Snorting, Dark looked up at the thundering clouds above him.

"Come out and play, Light!" Dark shouted at the heavens, only to get no response from him. "What's wrong? Isn't this is what you wanted?! To fight me without me holding anything back?!"

After a few seconds had passed with him receiving no answer, Dark snarled and lit his horns up again.

"Fine then!" he shouted. "If you're not gonna come out, then I'll just have to draw you out instead!"

With that, Dark fired several fireballs up into the clouds, each scattered to increase his chance of hitting Light. But, instead of them fizzing out from the rainwater when they entered the clouds, they each instead exploded into a dozen fireballs that soon started raining down on the village ruins, destroying any buildings that they crashed into with an explosion, including a few undead dragons. However, unlike the fires from before, these ones that were left behind here were burning too hot for the rain to put out, and instead evaporated the raindrops before they even touched the flames.

Up in the clouds, Light shook as he was almost hit by several of the fireballs that had rained down from above.

What the buck is he?! he mentally shouted, fearing what the older brother that he'd enraged had become.

Keeping low to the cloud, Light watched as Dark lit his horns again and fired off another volley of fireballs up into the storm cloud he was hiding in. Remaining still, Light watched as the fireballs passed by him before each exploded into another dozen fireballs that started to rain down around him. Carefully, Light dodge round the ones that had gotten too close to him before settling back down in the remains of the storm cloud.

If he keeps this up, he'll destroy the storm clouds, Light nervously thought to himself. And if that happens-

Light paused in mid-thought as the magical aura surrounding his horn gave a pulse of light, indicating that the spell he'd been charging since his retreat had finally been completed. Seeing this, the look of nervousness on Light's face had immediately morphed into a grin.

"About damn time," he said to himself with a hint of impatience.

Pleased that his spell was primed and ready, Light turned his head to look back down. When he did, he saw that Dark's eyes were now glowing gold and directed directly at him, along with a predatory grin on his face. A second later when Dark spread his wings and took off, Light knew that Dark had spotted where he was hiding within the storm cloud. Despite his spell being ready, Light gave a panicked yelp and began bucking the thunderclouds below him, causing it to shoot off bolts of lightning directly towards Dark. However, before the lightning could hit him, Dark tossed up a barrier around him, blocking the lightning bolts as he continued his flight towards Light.

Not liking where this could lead, Light retreated further into the storm clouds in an attempt to remain hidden from Dark. Flying as fast as he could, Light soon lost track of Dark as he would fly in random directions to try and confuse and lose him. After a few minutes of being chased after, Light looked back and stopped when he saw that he could no longer see Dark chasing after him. With him having lost Dark, Light let out a sigh of relief and simply hovered in place as lightning struck in the clouds around him. Feeling safe, Light chuckled to himself for out flying Dark, but it was quickly squashed as Dark suddenly burst up from the clouds in front of him.

Surprised by Dark's sudden appearance, Light barely had enough time to put up a barrier of light before Dark roared at him with his death magic, shielding him from being reducing him to bare bones like the undead dragons were. Having little time in the safety of his barrier, Light focused on the spell he'd prepared for and casted it, causing his body and Dark's to glow in a white light for a few seconds before it died out.

"And with that, my victory is guaranteed," Light said with a smirk.

"What did you do?" Dark growled.

"That I won't be telling you," he teased. "But, just know now that if I go down, I'm taking you with me."

Wincing from Dark roaring in anger, Light quickly drew his sword just in time to block Dark as he swung his sword at him. Though Light did manage to block him and prevent himself from being cleaved in two, the power behind Dark's swing was more than enough to send him soaring through the clouds. After several seconds of careening out of control, Light finally managed to right himself and wince when he felt a shot of pain running through his left foreleg. Taking a look, Light saw that while he did block Dark's sword from cutting him in half, part of his blade did manage cut him. Thankfully for Light, unlike with the undead dragons, he noticed that Dark's sword wasn't bathed in darkness, thus Light didn't start to evaporate into black mist like all the others.

Noticing that Dark was still in there, Light snarled and sheathed his sword before flying back up to the storm clouds and started bucking it repeatedly. Focusing on his pegasus magic, Light caused the entire collection of storm clouds covering Stonewall to convulse with bolts and flashes of lightning. Soon enough, Light heard the roars of Dark as he was finally struck by a bolt of lightning, and later grinned as he saw Dark's form emerge from the clouds as he fell and crashed into one of the houses.

Grinning at Dark having fallen, Light lit his horn and with another buck to the clouds, directed the lightning directly towards where Dark had fallen. However, being unused to combining magic like this, Light missed his target and ended up hitting the house next to Dark instead. Frowning at missing, Light was thinking about trying it again when he saw that the undead dragons had all exited the mine, managed to surround Dark, and were now closing in on him. Figuring that they could take it from here, Light landed on the rooftop of one of the still standing buildings, content with just sitting back and watching Dark get swarmed. However, before the undead dragons could get close enough, the area surrounding Dark erupted with fire, melting the nearby stone building and ground, and any of the undead dragons that were too close at the time. And there, standing in the center of it, was Dark, with his Death Reaver held high above his head and the gem embedded within it glowing brightly as magic was being poured into it.

"The day after I created this sword, Princess Celestia told me that a single strike from this weapon could destroy a fifth of Canterlot," Dark said, eyes focused solely on Light. "Let's see if she's right."

Even as a pegasus, Light could feel the power growing within Dark's sword. It wasn't until the red glow from the sword's gem became blinding that Light flew up in an attempt to get out of the blast radius. Risking a look back, his eyes widened just in time to see Dark bring the sword down and strike the ground.





Twilight frowned as she track of Spike and Cadence before they disappeared into the battlefield. Though she trusted them and knew what they were both capable of, she was still worried that something might happen to them. As if to show her nervousness, Twilight's body shivered and her wings fluttered, gaining her Celestia and Luna's attention.

"You wish to join then?" Luna inquired, having figured Twilight out.

Twilight glanced at Luna before giving a hesitant nod. "I do. Almost all of my friends and family are out there fighting, and here I am, sitting up here safe and sound because I can't run the risk of hurting my foal." Her expression fell to one of sadness and regret. "Tell me, Princess, am I being selfish?"

Celestia draped a wing over Twilight, remaining cautious of the scythe strapped to her back, and gave her a reassuring nuzzle.

"No, Twilight. Nopony would blame a mother for wanting to protect her unborn child."

"Besides," Luna added, "if you were to go down there, most of the ponies would be distracted in trying to keep you safe from harm, and they're struggling enough as it is."

With a bit of reluctance, Twilight nodded in agreement, deciding that her going down would cause them more problems than it would in helping them. However, any further though of that was cut off as Rarity cleared her throat to gain their attention.

"As true as that is," she began, pointing a hoof over to the other side of the battlefield, "I believe that things are about to become even more problematic."

Following the direction of where Rarity was pointing, Twilight casted a spell for increased vision on herself, Celestia, and Luna. Soon enough, they spotted what Rarity saw, which caused each of their eyes to widen.

"I can't believe it," Twilight muttered. "Rainbow's idea actually worked."

"Did somepony say my name?" Rainbow said over her headset with the sound of cannon fire in the background.

Twilight put a hoof on her headset and held it closer to her ear. "You were right, Rainbow. King Inferno is coming."

"Seriously? I was just saying that as an excuse for me to go after Gunter and beat him up. I didn't think that he would actually show up."

"Regardless, Rainbow Dash, thanks to you, you've forced King Inferno's claw and have drawn him out," Celestia confirmed. "And he's not alone either."

"Indeed," Luna nodded. "He appears to have a contingent of armored dragons accompanying him."

"I count about fifty of them," Twilight reported.

"In that case, where we're in trouble," Shining told them. "We're trying to establish a secondary line, but we're barely holding on as it is, even with Cadence and Spike coming to help us. And now with King Inferno and these armored dragons, we'll soon be both overrun, and overpowered."

"And it's too soon for everypony to use the Rage Pellets yet," Gray added. "If we use them now, we'll all be burnt out and too tired to fight them when the Elements engage King Inferno."

"What we need are reinforcements," Iron Guard said.

"But we don't have any reinforcements!" Shining shouted. "What we have is what there is, so we'll just have to bunker down and hold out as best we can until we get an opening for Twilight and her friends to hit King Inferno with the Elements!"

Worried for them, Twilight took a step closer to the ledge and looked down. When she did and nervously shifted, she felt something bump up against her side from within her saddlebag. Remembering what was in there, Twilight's eyes widened before she hastily reached in with her magic and pulled out an orb of black mist. Looking at the swirling darkness within, a small smile formed on Twilight's face.

"Don't worry guys, help is on the way."

Curious as to what she meant, Celestia, Luna, and Rarity watched Twilight and noticed the orb she was holding before she brought the orb down on the rocks. Shattering the glass that contained it, they were met with a torrent of shadows that erupted from the shattered orb before the shadows broke apart and slowly formed into the one thousand, three hundred and fifty Shadow Wraiths that Dark gave to Twilight. Surprised by the sudden appearance of the army appearing before them, Celestia, Luna, and Rarity took a cautious step back, while Twilight grinned and looked up at the army floating above them.

"Your orders are simple," Twilight spoke, her voice firm and authoritative. "You are to assist the ponies and Everfree creatures in defeating King Inferno's army of dragons, salamanders, and what flaming manticores are left. But, we need King Inferno alive, so don't kill him if at all possible."

Crossing their arms in front of their chests, the Shadow Wraiths saluted Twilight as their sign of confirmation.

"Good. Now go!"

Heeding her command, the army of Shadow Wraiths flew off the platform and descended upon the battlefield like a cloud of darkness. However, their presence didn't go unnoticed as their numbers shaded the battlefield below from the sunlight, causing most of the dragons to look up and start breathing fire at them. Scattering, most of the Shadow Wraiths managed to dodge the fires, but a good few hundred of them were still caught within the flames. Despite that, they continued diving down, slicing any flaming manticores and airborne dragons in their way, while avoiding the pegasi and Everfree manticores as instructed. Floating just above the ponies' heads, the Shadow Wraiths then glided forward, stabbing and slicing through Inferno's army with their armblades.

"Heh, looks like somepony was holding out on us," Cadence giggled, seeing the Shadow Wraiths attacking Inferno's army, but were not quite close enough to her to actually get a good look at them yet.

To her side, Spike hovered above and fired another beam of magic from his claws at a nearby salamander. Despite him having a rough time seeing the lifeless bodies all around him and throwing up from the sight of it soon after landing, with a bit of help from Cadence, Spike was able to collect himself to the point where he was at least no longer had the urge to vomit.

"Well, you know that Twilight tends to forget things when under stress and pressure," he reminded her.

A moment later, Spike cast his Magic Claws and slashed through another salamander that got too close to them. With another one down, Spike hovered by Cadence's side and was watching her back again before several Shadow Wraiths paused in front of Spike and eyed him over. Thankfully, with Spike having lived in the castle with Dark and Twilight for so long, and with the Shadow Wraiths seeing him every day and night since their creation, they knew that he was on their side and crossed their arms in a salute before flying off towards one of Inferno's nearby dragons.

"What are those things?!" Cadence yelped in surprise.

"Easy there, Cadence," Spike calmly told her. "They're Dark's Shadow Wraiths. But I don't' get it. They're supposed to be protecting Twilight's castle in Ponyville, so what are they doing here?"

"The night before Dark left, he gave me an orb that contained all of his Shadow Wraiths," Twilight answered him, having heard him and Cadence talking through their headsets.

"If you had it all along, then why didn't you use it before?!" Shining asked.

"Because I was so worried about you, Dark, and all of my friends, that I forgot about it, okay?!" Twilight snapped back.

"Either way," Luna began, "with these added forces, you and the others should start to try setting up another barrier to cover yourselves with before King Inferno and his armored dragons arrive."

"She's right," Iron Guard spoke through his headset. "With them here covering for us, we can start focusing on getting another barrier set up."

There was a brief pause before Shining spoke up. "Then let's make it happen," he said before addressing the guards. "Attention, everypony! Do not attack the Shadow Wraiths. They're on our side and are going to cover us. In the meantime, I want all unicorns to regroup and prepare to cast another barrier. The rest of you, continue to watch each other's backs and fall back."

Knowing that they were already where Shining wanted them to be, Cadence and Spike remained where they were as they continued to cover the ponies retreating back. After seven long minutes, most of the ponies had gathered back and had regrouped. With them back together with Shining now by Cadence's side, and the Shadow Wraiths still distracting Inferno's army, the unicorns and alicorn all lit their horns and readied themselves as they prepared to raise another barrier.

"How long do you think those things will distract them for?" Cadence wondered, but got her answer before Spike or Shining could reply.

As soon as that question left her mouth, a group of dragons used their fire breath, forcing the Shadow Wraiths to part and accidentally open up a gap. Taking advantage of this, a dozens of dragons and even more salamanders ran through the gap and directly towards where they were standing. Their spell not ready yet, and Applejack and Pinkie off to the sides helping hold ends of the line, Shining was about to switch spells for a powerful beam of magic to hold them off when Spike flapped his magical wings and landed in front of the line of unicorn guards, Shining, and Cadence.

"Spike! What are you doing?! Get back here!" Shining shouted in worry, only for it to turn to confusion when Spike looked back with a confident grin on his face.

"Don't worry, Shining, I got this," he calmly said.

Ignoring the further pleas from them and a few of the crystal guards who spotted him, Spike dispelled his wings and lowered himself to all fours. Sinking his claws into the ground to anchor himself down, Spike took a few calming breaths before he started to channel his magic and slowly inhale. Paying no mind to the dragons and salamanders that were approaching him, Spike gathered the magic from his claws up in front of his open maw. Remaining focused, he continued to inhale and channel his magic in front of him until a few moments later when the sphere of magic was almost as tall as he was standing.

Reaching the spell's apex, Spike fired off the Flare directly in front of him at Inferno's army. While Spike was pushed back a few feet by force of the recoil, the Flare did it's job as it completely decimated everything in its way. Salamanders that were caught within weren't even given the chance to be reduced to ashes, while the dragons were less fortunate with not having shared their quick deaths. As the Flare continued traveling further down, it tore through any dragons that were in its path. With Spike's smaller size and him having to aim upward slightly to actually hit them, the Flare pierced through the dragons' stomachs, while others farther back were struck in the chest by surprise. Even yeo of the armored Dragons that were accompanying Inferno got hit, the angel of trajectory having hit their head and leaving behind a pair of twitching, headless body.

But Spike didn't stop there. Continuing the Flare, Spike turned his head to his right in an attempt to drag the Flare and take out as many enemies as he could. While he did manage to turn his head and aim it off to the side a little bit, it wasn't much as the strain of the spell wouldn't allow for anymore without running the risk of a serious neck injury. But still, that little bit was enough to get a few more dragons and a few dozen more salamanders.

Ending the spell, Spike fell to his knees as he panted for breath. A few seconds later, he was reminded that he wasn't alone as the guards behind him cheered, mostly from the crystal guards. Giving them a shaky smile, Spike slowly got back up to his feet and as quickly as he could, retreated back to Shining and Cadence's side behind the barrier they'd just started to raise.

"That was quite impressive, Spike," Shining complimented.

"Thanks," Spike said, his panting starting to ease up, "but I'm sure that Dark... could've done that... a lot easier... than me."

"Maybe, but he's also a lot stronger, and he's done this a lot more than most of us."

"Regardless of Spike's lack of combat experience compared to Dark's," Cadence began, "you've definitely given them a reason to hesitate. What's more is that thanks to you, you have given us enough time to get this barrier started up before King Inferno could get here."

Proud of his accomplishment, Spike smiled before sitting down to rest. Despite having used the Flare before, he still wasn't used to it. That, and this one was bigger than any other he'd used before, requiring him to use more magic and tiring him out even quicker.

Letting him rest for now, Shining and Cadence both gave him a quick smile as they helped with raising the barrier. Less than half way through getting it up, though, they watched as the dragons breathed a wall of fire all at once, destroying half of the Shadow Wraiths while the other half barely managed to escape. With the line of Shadow Wraiths broken, Inferno's army charged forward with Inferno himself leading the charge at the center of them.

As the army continued to advance, Applejack and Pinkie redirected their airships more towards the center where they started firing down into the charging army. A few short moments later, they spotted Inferno and began firing their cannons at him, causing him to wince as one of the rounds impacted his right shoulder plate.

Repositioning her airship, Pinkie was moving to take aim with the main cannon when she heard an announcement over her headset.

"Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy," Celestia called, "I need for you four to return back to the command post and gather Twilight and Rarity. It's time for you to use the Elements of Harmony and end this war."

"But how are we gonna get close enough to use the Elements on him without one of those dragons or salamanders getting to us first?" Rainbow questioned.

"What if we were to use one of the airships?" Twilight suggested. "We'll be up in the air away from the salamanders, be protected by the airships cannons if any dragons try to approach us, and we won't get in anypony's way."

"In that case, which one should we use?" Rarity asked.

"Ah suggest we use mine," Applejack voiced. "Ah've noticed that mine is a lot more maneuverable than what Pinkie's is. Plus, the deck will be clear, so we won't have any ropes or chains gettin' in our way like what Pinkie's does."

"Yeah. Guess I really should've though that part of the ship's design out better," Pinkie figured.

"In that case, Ah'll fly over ta ya and you and Rainbow can hop on. By the way, has anypony seen Flutterbat?"

"I'm right here, Applejack."

Letting out a yelp of surprise, Applejack spun around to see Flutterbat standing there looking at her.

"Gah! Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry, Applejack. I didn't mean to frighten you," Flutterbat apologized while hiding her amused smirk.

"It's alright, sugarcube," Applejack sighed, calming her heartrate from the scare.

Returning to the helm, Applejack steered the Applebreaker up over to where Pinkie's Hammer was hovering and pulled up to the side, just below the runways. They didn't remain there for long, though, as Rainbow flew down to them moments later with Pinkie in her hooves. With the other two now with them, they flew off to pick up Twilight and Rarity, while Pinkie's Hammer flew back into the battle.

"Hey, who's drivin' that?" Applejack asked.

"Oh, that's just Spitfire," Pinkie smiled. "I figured that since she's technically the highest ranking pony in the air right now that she'd like to run my airship while I'm gone."

"Good thing, too," Rainbow nodded in agreement. "She really looked like she wanted to, too."

"Exactly!"

As they made their way to the command post, Applejack called for Braeburn to take over driving for her. Joining her friends on deck, she walked over to the side to join them and watched the battle below. While her airship rained fire down upon Inferno's army, his forces had also reached the fully-formed barrier and were now trying to force themselves through it. This also included Inferno, who was bashing the barrier with his warhammer, which was causing the barrier to start showing a few growing cracks. Making it to the cliff, they pulled up and waited for Twilight and Rarity to board before turning the airship around and heading down to the battlefield.

"Well, girls, this is it," Twilight said. "We'll use the Elements of Harmony of King Inferno, free him of whatever hold Light has on him, and then go find Dark."

Rainbow's ears perked up at Dark's name. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you!"

Twilight looked curiously at Rainbow. "Hmm? Tell me what?"

"When I was facing off against Gunter, he told me that Dark was a dead stallion."

"He was probably just tryin' ta get ya riled up," Applejack dismissed.

"That's what I figured at first too," Rainbow admitted, "but he then let loose some information about Light having new magic. I don't know about you girls, but I'm kinda getting a bad feeling about this."

Twilight nodded. "All the more reason for us to end this as quickly as possible then. Now, are you girls all ready?"

A chorus of cheers sounded off from the five of them as they descended down towards the battlefield, flying out of the dragons' reach up above their heads as they flew towards Inferno.

"Welp. It looks like we're just about to entered into another video game cliché," Pinkie giggled.

"What do you mean, dear?" Rarity questioned.

"Well, almost all of the best video games have at least one boss battle in their series that involves a hero, or a group of heroes, fighting a boss from the deck of a ship. I just thought that it was kinda funny that we're going to get to experience one now is all."

Rainbow was about to comment on that, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the airship's cannons firing below them in an attempt to clear the area near where Inferno stood. Seeing them closing in, Shining held a hoof up to the gem in his helmet.

"Alright, everypony, listen up!" he loudly said in his headset. "The Elements of Harmony have almost reached King Inferno. However, they'll need for us to try and distract his forces while they're busy with him, so now's the time for us to take our Rage Pellets and go all-out on them!"

Heeding his order, every guard and Wonderbolt reached into their armor and uniform respectively, and pulled out a Rage Pellet. A second later, almost as one, the ponies all burst in a flash of light as their coats were turned white, their eyes red, and their manes and tails burst into flames. With this power boost and speed boost for the pegasi, the guards holding the barrier reinforced it further, while the others began pushing back hard against the salamanders and dragons, and the Wonderbolts started to quickly pick off the last of the flaming manticores. Of course, this was made a little easier with the help of the remaining four hundred seventy-six Shadow Wraiths assisting them on the ground and air.

Seeing their forces fighting back and making progress, Twilight directed Braeburn to fly closer towards Inferno. As they closed the distance, the cannons fired at him, hitting him in his armored chest, stomach, and shoulder in an attempt to wind him and slow him down without killing him. Now having his attention, the airship turned so that its starboard side was facing him, along with Twilight and the others, who where lined up near the edge.

"So, the little princess has come to play," Inferno growled, lifting his warhammer into both claws and gripping it tighter.

"We'll give you one last chance, King Inferno," Twilight warned. "Either you cease this and surrender now, or face the consequences."

Raising his warhammer up high, Inferno was about to bring it down upon them, but missed as Braeburn kept his eyes on him and steered the airship away just before his warhammer began to lower.

"Victory will be mine this day!" Inferno shouted. " And when I do, the spawn of Dark shall die!"

Any sense of peaceful negotiations that Twilight had were instantly thrown out the window as her horn lit up and her eyes narrowed dangerously at Inferno.

"You're going to regret that."

Remembering the times of when she'd done it before returning them, Twilight focused her magic into the Element embedded within her crown. Second later, the others' Elements started to glow before the magic caused them all to start floating a few feet up above the deck. However, this also left them vulnerable as they couldn't move, which Inferno tried to take advantage of, but was denied by Braeburn steering the airship and evading his strikes, and the cannons firing at him to push him back and keep him at bay. Due to Twilight being a little rusty at this, two ribbons of rainbow magic slowly began to flow out of the Elements from the ends of their line, and began connecting to the ones closest to them. As the seconds ticked by, Twilight and the others focused on their magic while Braeburn and the rest of the Apple crew kept Inferno from hitting them or the airship. Thirty seconds later, the two ribbons of rainbow magic finally converged on Twilight's Element. Feeling it connect, she and the others napped their eyes open, all of their eyes glowing white with magic, while a pair of rainbows shot up into the air, spiraling around each other and converged into a ball of light. A second later, a single beam of rainbow magic shot out at Inferno, starting at his feet and wrapping around him as it climbed upwards.

Despite him swinging his claws, warhammer, and breathing fire at it, Inferno couldn't stop the rainbow as it wrapped around him in a vortex. Feeling the Elements' power working their magic on him, Inferno roared out as he felt them burning and cleansing him. His roar, while intentional, also had the unintentional effect of stopping both forces as they all watched what was happening to him. For ten long seconds this continued until the rainbow receded from Inferno and his sizzling body collapsed.

The magic of the Elements returning back to their gems, Twilight and the others were gently lowered until they felt the wood beneath their hooves. However, while most of them seemed to be alright and even pleased with having used the power again, Twilight fell to her side and held her hooves to her aching head.

"Twilight? Are you alright?" Rainbow asked, her and the others having noticed her condition.

Wincing, Twilight gave a small nod. "Yeah. I'll be alright."

"I'm guessing that using the Elements was too much for you to handle?" Rarity guessed, getting another nod from Twilight.

"Yeah, but I'll be fine. What about King Inferno? Did the Elements work in cleansing him?"

Taking a peek, Rainbow walked over to the side of the airship and looked briefly down to see Inferno slowly moving.

"I'm not really sure," she replied. "It's kinda hard to tell from up-"

Rainbow was cut off by an infuriated roar from below them. Turning back, Rainbow was joined by the others just in time to see Inferno steady himself back up with the support of his Warhammer in his right claw, while he held his left claw against his left eye.

"Don't think that I'm not done just yet, ponies!"

Roaring again, Inferno stood up and breathed fire towards the airship in anger. Seeing their king up again, the other dragons resumed their attack, leaving the ponies standing there confused as to why their plan had failed.





Up on the command post, Celestia and Luna watched the battle resume, both with looks of concern on their faces.

"This doesn't make any sense," Celestia muttered. "How did the Elements not free him of Light's influence?"

Luna frowned. "Perhaps King Inferno wasn't completely under Light's influence, but only just enough to sway him into attacking us?" she guessed. "After all, the last time we saw King Inferno last year, he didn't leave in a very pleasant mood regarding Dark. And Light wasn't with him at the time either, so he may not have been aligned with him at that moment."

Celestia mulled the thought over for a moment. "It is a possibility, but either way, our plan has failed, and we now have a serious problem."

"That's a matter of perspective."

Hearing the voice and hoofsteps behind them, Celestia and Luna turned their heads to look and immediately froze in place with their eyes wide.

"No... this cannot... how is he...?" Luna tried speaking, but failed in her words.

"You... you're still alive?" Celestia whispered in disbelief.

Standing there was a pale-peach earth pony stallion with a burnt-orange mane, tail, and beard, wearing a black cowboy hat and vest, and bearing a cutie mark of a fist. With a small, amused smile at the reaction of the two sisters, he gave a small nod and walked up between them.

"Been a while, hasn't it, Celestia, Luna."

Slack-jawed, Luna slowly looked at Celestia. "Sister... is that really him?"

Celestia slowly nodded.

"It is, Luna," she slowly replied. "He's really here..."

"...Nuck Chorris."