//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - The White Raven // by Rixizu //------------------------------// Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - The White Raven Chapter 20 by Rixizu Trixie tapped a hoof on the ground. It felt good to have her powers back. She enjoyed the dumbfounded look Night Light was no doubt giving her at the moment. Too bad she couldn’t see his face through his helmet. She tried to focus her magic in her horn hoping her transformation would give her it back. Nothing. It was still gone and with it her magic. No matter. She would still smash his face in regardless of having magic or not. Night Light seemed to get back his composure. He snorted in derision. “So, you have your powers back.” He gave out a small laugh. “You really think you will do much better than your little…” Trixie didn't give him time to finish. She punched him. She punched him with everything she had right in the face with all the anger, fear, and frustration she had been feeling over the last few days. Night Light screamed in pain and surprise as he flew out the door and into the street. He didn't stop there though and broke a few carts on the way before crashing into a wall of a nearby warehouse. Trixie summoned her sword and prepared herself for battle. She gave a quick look at Lyra and Twilight. She would draw Night Light as far away as possible. Trixie would let none of her friends be hostages. She gave them a curt nod and ran towards the former noble. Night Light growled as she approached and summoned his own sword. His horn glowed, and he sent a lightning bolt her way. Trixie dodged it with little difficulty, but it was all a distraction for Night Light to teleport behind her. Trixie saw this coming though and ducked under his swipe at her head and gave him a headbutt into the face dazing him. Taking advantage of this, Trixie cut him in the abdomen. He teleported away to avoid another attack. Trixie stood still and waited for him to reappear. He reappeared predictably to her right, and she kicked him in the face right through the nearby warehouse’s wall. “You’re too predictable.” Trixie mocked as she walked inside the warehouse. It appeared to be the fireworks one she saw earlier. “All that power, but you fight like a pregnant cow. I don’t think you can beat somepony unless you are more powerful than them.” Night Light growled at her. He vanished and then appeared and vanished again. Now he was everywhere at once trying to confuse her. Trixie kept her ground and watched his movements with careful eyes. Night Light shot lightning at her. Every time he teleported, he would send another bolt at her. Now Trixie had to deal with lightning from every direction. She did her best to avoid them all, but there were too many of them and she was hit over and over again. She screamed as she was kicked in the face and smashed into a crate of fireworks. Night Light appeared on a rafter above her and shot fireballs down at her. She avoided them, but the balls of flame lit the boxes of fireworks around her on fire causing them to explode. Trixie winced in pain at the loud cacophony of noise. Many fireworks were going off around her. Explosions of a rainbow of colors were all around her. Night Light used this distraction to repeatedly pummel her with his sword, always teleporting out of sight before Trixie could respond. She blocked a few blows, but that was it. It wasn’t long before a strong blow had her writhing in pain on the ground. Trixie struggled to get up as the fireworks died around her. She could see the serious damage they did to surrounding shelves. Black scorch marks covered the shelves and floor. There was a huge mess of used fireworks littering the ground and a smoke cloud covering much of the building. She was glad no workers were here at the moment. It seemed like all the boxes of fireworks near her had already exploded, but she couldn’t get the annoying ringing out of her ears. With a shaky hoof, she picked up her sword ready for Night Light’s next attack. She jumped out of the way just in time as Night Light teleported to her right and kicked him in the face before he could get away. He crashed into the ground and teleported away again. How long could he keep this teleporting crap up? Trixie ducked another swing from above and this time her opponent teleported before he even hit the ground. Trixie sensed Night Light’s approach from the left and blocked his attack this time. An arrow of energy blew him from the air and through a wall. Trixie looked to her right and saw a panting Lyra. “Go!” Lyra commanded. “I will cover you!” Trixie nodded and jumped out the hole Night Light created with her sword at the ready. --- Twilight watched in shame as Lyra transformed and joined the battle against her father. In the end, she wasn’t able to do much and now just laid on the ground exhausted the strain of her battle caused her to revert back to her normal self. She was so tired it was hard to move. Twilight prayed that Trixie and Lyra would be all right. She beat herself up over her uselessness. She wanted to be out there fighting with her friends. Twilight jumped as fireworks exploded. It must be one heck of a battle. She could hear the exchange of blows all the way from here. Twilight gave a weak smile. Trixie was fighting hard and no doubt not making things easy for her father. Why couldn’t she be the same? She envied that power. So much for trying to make amends for the past. All that effort and struggle and for what? Twilight steeled her resolve. This was no time for a pity party. Who cares if the odds are stacked against them? Trixie would never give up and so would she. But what could she do? Twilight thought back to the morpher she still had in her possession. If only she could make it work again somehow. She pulled it out and gripped it in her hooves hard. Twilight shook her head and struggled to her hooves. She was determined to offer backup at the very least even if she couldn’t fight and made her way to the warehouse. Twilight tried not to jump again at the sound of an explosion. Her father flew through the warehouse and into the street. He landed on his hooves growling. Lyra shot more arrows at Night Light and he teleported away before they could hit him. They tore through the cement leaving deep gashes in the material. Twilight hid behind a bush. She would lay in wait for the best opportunity to strike. She winced as Trixie was struck in the chest. Sparks flew, but Trixie kicked Night Light back in retaliation. He responded with a kick of his own that swiped Trixie’s out from hooves under her leaving her prone for a moment. Night Light hit a button on his morpher and readied his ultimate attack to finish the prone ranger. Twilight jumped at the opportunity and used her magic to create an orb of darkness over her father’s face blinding him. He threw his face forward to get out of the small sphere. Trixie used this distraction to roll out of the way and get back on her hooves. Night Light glared in Twilight’s direction for a moment before returning to Trixie. Trixie did her best to avoid his barrage of blows that seemed to increase in intensity, but it was wearing her down. Twilight could see a slight decrease in her speed. Night Light sent another swipe at Trixie’s head with his sword in both hooves and she did her best to block with her own sword. She grunted in the effort. “Don’t worry!” Lyra said from inside the warehouse. “I got this!” She readied an arrow and fired at Night Light’s head. Night Light teleported away, and the arrow flew over Trixie’s head. Night Light was now at Lyra’s right flank and prepared to swing right at Lyra’s neck. Lyra used her bow to first block his sword and then to deflect several more attacks. Trixie cursed and made her way towards her friend. Night Light teleported again and shot a bolt of electricity at both of them. Lyra avoided it but Trixie winced in pain as it clipped her side. Lyra growled. “Getting really tired of this teleporting crap.” Twilight tried to think of a way she could nullify her father’s magic but came up blank. She had heard about spells that could do that, but never actually read any spell books on the topic itself. Their only hope was to push him past the breaking point and it didn't look like he was even close to his limit yet. Trixie crouched with her sword in hoof ready for Night Light's next attack. He came in high from Trixie’s right but teleported right before Trixie could retaliate with her own sword. He reappeared and cut at her underbelly. Night Light flew to the ground as Lyra shot him with another arrow. Night Light glared at the archer before disappeared again. He teleported to Lyra's left and shot a fireball at her that she jumped to avoid, but was struck out of the air when he teleported behind her and batted her with his sword. She squirmed on the ground in pain. He readied for another strike, but Twilight shot a magical bolt at her father. Unfortunately, it did little, and he kicked Lyra into a nearby tree smashing it in two. Twilight cursed her uselessness. She was at best a distraction. An annoyance. Still, there was something she could do. She teleported to Lyra’s side and her father paused before he could deliver another strike to the musician. Twilight teleported them both to safety, well out of range of her father’s attacks. She could at least give Lyra some time to recover. Trixie used the distraction to throw her sword at her opponent. Night Light deflected it with his own sword and gave out a derisive snort. She summoned her sword back to her hooves and Night Light and Trixie circled each other counterclockwise. “You okay?” Twilight asked in concern. "Fine," Lyra said in a pained breath. She shook her head to clear it and stood back up. “Though I think I’m at my limit. Wait! I have it.” She turned and stared at Twilight. “Do you have a spell that could hold him for a few seconds?” “Why?” Twilight asked. "I think I have enough for one more super attack," Lyra explained, "that might tip the fight in our favor.” Twilight bit her lip in thought. She couldn’t confine him with her telekinesis. He was too powerful. She thought a web spell might work, but she didn’t know that one. Thinking about it thought, it might be possible to find a book on it and learn to use it. That would take time with no time to practice, but would have to risk it. Learning spells were her specialty. “Leave it to me.” Twilight teleported to the Canterlot library and hoped that it had a book on that or a similar spell at the very least. --- Trixie was on her own again. She ducked under another sword slash at her throat and returned a slash of her own that nicked one of Night Light’s legs. He grunted in pain and distanced himself from Trixie a little waiting for her next move. She could hear that he was breathing hard. Not that hers was any softer. She pondered on the fact he actually got hit that time instead of just teleporting away. How much magic do you have left I wonder? Trixie thought. Thinking about it, he has been using magic less and less the last few exchanges. He must be conserving his magic not being as wasteful and as reckless as he was when they started their fight. Still, Trixie would not let her guard down and expose herself to an unexpected teleport or fireball. The combatants stared each other down. In the corner of Trixie’s eye, she could see that Twilight was reading over a pile of books. This got her excited. Maybe Twilight was trying to learn a super death spell that could make a pony’s head explode. No, wait. She wouldn’t do that to her father. Maybe it was just a powerful beam spell that would leave him a smoldering husk on the floor. At this point, anything would be nice. Trixie wasn’t sure how long she could keep this up. Trixie cried in pain as Night Light’s sword smashed into her face. She crashed into a nearby street lamp bending it in two and causing it to collapsed onto her. Okay, maybe I should pay more attention to the fight. With a little effort, Trixie threw the street lamp off her back and it crashed into the ground. Trixie used her sword to block several incoming blows. Night Light hovered his sword in the air with his magic and attacked her from above. Trixie did her best to fend them off. She rolled to the side when a lightning bolt was sent her way. “Is that the best you got?!” Trixie mocked. “You are getting far too predictable! Do you only know about two or three attacks?” She could almost hear the former noble grind his teeth at the insult. Trixie faced a barrage of vicious attacks that moved faster than she expected. She screamed when she dodged a sword swipe only to get kicked in the ribs then got a lightning bolt shot into her face. She crashed into another wall of a nearby warehouse, and tried to get up only for Night Light to appear above her and smash his sword into Trixie’s chest. “Not so funny now,” Night Light said coldly, “are you?” He kicked Trixie into some crates. As she tried to get her bearings back, Night Light loomed over her. He sent his weapon down at her and she avoided it in time by rolling away on the ground. She got back to her hooves and dodged more sword swipes coming her way. Out of the corner of her eye, Trixie saw that Lyra was trying to get her attention by waving her hooves around. She figured that Twilight was ready to cast the death ray spell or whatever it was. She pretended not to notice but did some hoof stomps to show that she understood. Trixie jumped away from Night Light's attacked leading him away so his back would be turned towards Lyra and Twilight. She used a feint making it seem like her sword would come in from the right, but she interrupted the attack to kick Night Light in the face. Night Light dodged the kick and Trixie almost received a cut to her own head in return. There was a flash, and Twilight and Lyra were behind the distracted Night Light. Twilight shot something gray from her horn at her father but he teleported before it could hit him and kicked Trixie into it when he reappeared. Trixie found herself covered in a gray sticky goop that pinned her to the ground. She tried to push herself free, but that only pushed her back to the ground harder. Twilight stared in shocked horror and Lyra was presumably doing the same under her helmet. Night Light snorted. “What? You didn’t think I didn’t notice what you were doing over there? Thanks for taking care of Lulamoon for me.” He pointed his sword at Lyra. “Now all I have to do is take care of this one.” Trixie struggled harder with her bonds, but pushing harder only made it even worse. The more she tried to free herself, the more the goop constricted around her. Even her monstrous strength did nothing to help her. She watched helpless as Night Light closed in on her friend. Twilight jumped in front of her father defending Lyra before Night Light could do anything. “Enough! You’ve won.” “Not until I finish them both.” Night Light growled. “The shame they brought our family is unforgivable.” “That’s just like you!” Twilight shot back. “You only think of yourself!” Night Light went quiet. It took a few minutes before he found his voice. “I’m just trying to protect you Twilight. I am trying to protect you, our family, and Equestria. It doesn’t need incompetent whelps like Lulamoon guarding it.” He turned away. "If you want to protect Equestria, work with Trixie," Twilight argued, "she's a good pony at heart and you both want the same thing." Night Light shook his head. “With her? Impossible. All she does is seed chaos. She’s reckless, only thinks of herself, and acts before thinking about the consequences of her actions. And think about what happened to you.” Twilight growled in frustration. “Just talk with her. You will see that she isn’t as bad as you think.” Night Light sighed. “Twilight, I want you to trust me on this. You’ve only known her for a few days, but I have watched her for years. I have seen how irresponsible she is. She has squandered everything the princess gave her. She arrogant and selfish and suffers from serious delusions of grandeur and paranoia. She always drives ponies around away from her in the end. The fact that the princess hasn’t banished her yet is a miracle. I don’t think I can understate what an incompetent bumbler she is." Trixie glared daggers at Night Light. Sure, she wasn’t perfect, and admittedly she had made a few mistakes over the years. But that was going too far. “That doesn’t matter.” Twilight shook her head. “I will not let you hurt Trixie or Lyra.” Twilight screamed as Night Light shot an energy bolt at his daughter. She collapsed to the ground in a heap. “Twilight!” Trixie and Lyra screamed. “Relax.” Night Light said sounding tired. “I only stunned her.” Trixie sighed in relief, but the implications made her blood run cold. "I don't want her to see that I'm going to do to you."