//------------------------------//
// Episode 57: Parting Shots 
// Story: Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls 
// by thatguyvex 
//------------------------------//


Episode 57: Parting Shots 


Transitioning from one world to another was a magical theory that Princess Twilight was familiar with, yet in all her readings on the subject none of them had prepared her for the sensations that came with moving through the mirror portal. Honestly even after doing this many times before, and having no end of days spent studying the portal, she still didn’t fully grasp how it worked or why moving through it felt like having her whole body stretched out like a piece of taffy and then squeezed through a tube of toothpaste while having her senses bombarded by more colors than Pinkie Pie could toss into her most eclectic cake mixes. Twilight hadn’t even known one could taste color until she’d first used this portal, and every time once she was through it she couldn’t help feeling disoriented for a second.

From the groaning noise beside her she imagined Flash Sentry was even more out of sorts than she’d been her first time through.

Blinking three times as breathing in and out each time, a simple exercise she’d taught herself to get her senses back under control, Twilight took stock of her surroundings. She was back in her proper alicorn body, hooves, mane, tail, horn, and wings all accounted for. Beside her Flash Sentry stood as a... not entirely unhandsome mirror image to the pegasus guard she’d met in the Crystal Empire. Only here Flash bore his Soul Reaper robes fitted around his pony form as if the clothes had adapted to his new pony shape. Not unlike how she had manifested clothing for her human form when she'd first traveled to that world. His tail, strangely, carried the white ribbon and wooden Lieutenant badge of his rank, rather than on his foreleg. His Zanpaktou was looped through his sash, having not changed size or appearance. Twilight made a mental note to conduct a study on spontaneous garment manifestation and alteration resulting from inter-dimensional travel when she managed to find the time. 

“Huh, interesting. I wasn’t certain spirit beings would change or retain their form in our world,” Twilight said, suppressing the urge to poke, prod, ask questions, maybe hook him up to a few machines in her basement... she shook her head. Focus! “Nevermind. Flash can you sense anything?”

He stumbled forward a few awkward steps, seeming to have trouble getting his legs to move right. “Whoa, okay, this four legged thing is harder than I thought it’d be. Oh, hey! I got wings! Neat.”

She tried not to find his boyish grin endearing as he experimentally flapped his pegasus wings, clearing her throat. “Flash, please focus. We don’t know who or what’s come through here and we need to find out as soon as possible! We don’t know what they’ve done to the portal or what kind of harm they might have done here! Oh no, I need to find Spike and Starlight! And the sirens, too. I hope they’re-”

The doors to the library swung open under a pale teal glow, and Twilight was at once relieved and puzzled to see Starlight trotting in. Upon seeing Twilight and Flash Sentry, Starlight’s eyes lit up and she smiled. “Twilight, you’re back! I thought I heard the portal in here revving up. So what brings you back? Need more research materials, or just checking in? And hey you brought...uh... that guy, who’s...um... who are you?”

Flash Sentry flushed slightly, rubbing his head, then wobbled a bit on his three hooves before managing to find his balance again. “Gonna guess Twilight didn’t talk about me too much. Flash Sentry. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Starlight Glimmer.”

Twilight found herself glancing back at the portal while that introduction was happening. In Equestria the portal was connected to an ornate gold rimmed mirror. Normally it only opened for a limited duration, but Twilight had built a rather complex magi-tech apparatus around the mirror to adjust the portal’s magical attunement to simulate the conditions of it being naturally opened, allowing it to be active any time she wanted. Given what she’d seen of the portal in the human world closing she had expected to see some kind of tampering with her equipment on this end. Yet the mirror and the apparatus built around it looked completely intact and normal.

“Starlight, did anything strange happen last night?” Twilight asked, “Did you hear or see anything out of the ordinary?”

Starlight gave her an odd look, “Not really. I mean, Trixie dropped by, but that was it-”

“Hold up, Trixie?” Flash nearly tripped over his hooves again as he stumbled forward, “As in speaks in third person, has an ego roughly the size of a continental shelf, and still thinks capes are in good fashion? That Trixie?”

A potent stink-eye entered Starlight’s expression as she frowned at Flash. “As in my good friend Trixie, yes. How do you know her?”

Twilight quickly stepped between them, “She has a counterpart in the human world as well. Look, Starlight, there might not be much time. The portal closed behind us and we don’t know why. According to the instruments I had set up over there something or someone came through it last night. Now, was there anything off about Trixie yesterday? Anything at all?”

Starlight took a hesitant step back as her brow crinkled in thought, her tone gaining a tinge of unease. “She seemed pretty normal to me. As normal as Trixie gets, anyway. She came by early in the afternoon for spell practice. She’s getting a bit bored on the teacup front, so thought I’d show her how to do that invisibility spell I know. Uh, anyway everything appeared normal with her.” She gave Flash another look, her eyes finally seeming to trace over his robes and the sword sheathed at his side. “Wait, you’re one of them aren’t you? One of those Soul Reapers that are from the other world.”

“I am, Miss Glimmer. And since I was hiding what I was in the human world, it's not too far fetched to think the Trixie from our world was also hiding something,” he said, taking a second to close his eyes and concentrate. “And hate to say it, but my senses aren’t likely to be much use right now. I’m trying to feel for spiritual pressures, but it's like everything is being drowned out by this really loud background buzz. I feel like there’s an endless swarm of bees humming around me, and I can’t get a clear sense of anything around us.”

“I was afraid of that,” Twilight said. “Magic is such a rare thing in your world that your senses probably can’t make heads or tails of a world that’s literally vibrant with it.”

“Well, if you’re looking for Trixie, she’s still in the castle,” Starlight said, her tone turning grave, and a shade embarrassed for reasons Twilight couldn’t guess. Starlight even blushed slightly, “She, uh, stayed overnight. She’s in one of the guest rooms right now, right across from those siren sisters. But are you sure she’s who you’re after?”

“Even if she isn’t she can help us find whoever came through the portal last night. So can the sirens for that matter,” said Twilight. Meanwhile, Flash had approached the portal, touching it with his hoof, which caused Twilight to whirl on him and shout, “Flash, be careful, we don’t know what it’ll do from this side!”

He flinched back, but offered her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, just wanted to make sure. Feels like a normal old mirror here. No portal.”

“So it's really closed on this side now?” Starlight approached it, her own eyes gleaming with curiosity as her horn lit up and coating the mirror with a magical glow. “Huh, you’re right. It’s inert. But why? That’s really weird. I’m not detecting any spells on it keeping it closed.” She walked around the mirror, and gave Twilight a shrug when she finished. “I got nothing. It should be working.”

Twilight shook her head swiftly, her patience inversely proportional to her level of anxiety, which at this point was shooting or the moon. “We’ll figure out the portal later. Right now let’s go have a chat with Trixie.”

As they headed out into the crystal hallways of Twilight’s castle, she looked for anything at all that might be out of place, but her home looked the same as ever, down to the way books had been strewn around the library and ready room. Flash was still stumbling a little, but he seemed to quickly be getting the hang of his new hooved form and peered around with alertness equal to Twilight’s own.

“Where’s Spike?” Twilight asked as they hit the spiral staircase heading up towards the castle’s living quarters.

“He went out this morning to hit up the market. Those sirens eat like crazy, especially the blue one.” Starlight shuddered, “I’ve never seen a pantry get emptied that fast. We’ve had to stock up twice this week. I’m wondering if it’s got anything to do with them not having their real gems.”

“An interesting thought, we'll test it out later. So Spike is out of the castle then,” Twilight said, then after a moment. “Good. If things go wrong, I don’t want him getting hurt. Maybe you should-”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Starlight said firmly as they hit the landing to the next floor, “If there’s a problem, especially if Trixie is involved, I’m in to help. If it's really her, I can keep her calm. If it's not, then I want to give a proper thanks for impersonating my friend.”

“Alright Starlight, just be careful, okay? If she really is an imposter then there’s no telling what she’ll be capable of,” Twilight said with a voice weighted with a healthy dose of caution.

Walking down a long, gleaming crystal hallway, the group passed several doorways on either side until they reached the one of the doors in the very center. Starlight walked up and raised her hoof to knock, then hesitated and glanced back at Twilight and Flash. “Play it straight or just barge in?”

Twilight took a deep breath, “Play it straight. If it's just the real Trixie I don’t want to spook her. If she’s an imposter we’ll have to be vigilant and look for any indicator, no matter how small, that she isn’t who she say’s she is.”

Starlight nodded and knocked on the door politely. “Trixie, you in there?” However as she spoke her hoof knocks allowed the unlocked and already slightly ajar door to swing open. All three of them looked inside, blinking at the scene within the modestly appointed guest room.

All the furniture had been moved to the very edges of the room, clearing all the floor space for a large circle that had been carved into the floor, with a strange symbol etched within the likes of which Twilight had never seen before. It almost looked like a stylized spear head or spade with its end points branching into an unusual cross pattern with arrows at the tips. The symbol would have fascinated her more if Trixie wasn’t standing in the center of the circle, which was glowing a faint red, as she chanted under her breath in a language Twilight didn’t recognize. The moment the door swung open Trixie blinked and stared at them.

She broke the silence with a flat, “This isn’t what it looks like.”

This was immediately followed by a loud thump from the room’s closet door, which banged open and another Trixie fell out. This Trixie was wrapped up in bedsheets and blankets to the point of being near hog-tied, with her own cape being used as a gag around her mouth. Wild eyed, this Trixie started yelling and shouting in muffled rage while wildly gesturing with her chin at the Trixie standing in the arcane, red glowing circle.

That Trixie blinked again, then sighed. “Okay, it’s exactly what it looks like.”

The imposter mare immediately turned to leap for the room’s open window to the outside, but Twilight and Starlight were both on the ball, immediately lighting up their horns and catching the “fake” Trixie in a combined violet and teal aura of magic that held her hovering in the air.

“Not so fast.” Twilight said, “What have you done to the portal? Who are you?”

“More importantly, what’s this circle doing?” Starlight asked sharply as she went over to the tied up Trixie and ungagged her. “You okay, Trix?”

Gasping for breath, the real Trixie glared at the other Trixie. “That... that faker came in through my window in the middle of my exceedingly important beauty sleep and assaulted me!”

“Pfft, assaulted you? I didn’t even touch you.” the other Trixie said with a roll of her eyes as she hovered in the air. “You screamed and passed out before I even laid a hoof on you. Lucky thing this castle is so large that your high pitched shrieking didn’t get heard by anyone.”

“The sirens are right next door.” Starlight said in confusion, and the other Trixie shrugged.

“Heard by anyone that cared.”

Twilight stepped in front of her, while Flash flanked her, his eyes narrowed. “Be careful.” he whispered to Twilight, “She’s not normal. I’m close enough I can sense her spiritual pressure. Both her and that circle are humming with reiatsu. More than I might be able to handle if she gets free.”

Twilight’s horn glowed brighter as her telekinesis held the other Trixie firmer. “Answer the questions. Who are you and what are you doing with this magic circle?”

“Hmph, first of all it's not a ‘magic’ circle, you plebeian pedestrian pony. Not the kind you know at any rate. As for what it’s doing, well you’re too late to stop that. Your portal is officially sealed off, and even if you break this seal the deed is done.”

Starlight turned on the fake Trixie, her eyes narrowing dangerously and her own horn glowing with sharper teal power as she yanked the floating mare closer to her. “Then you’re going to show us how to undo it!”

“Hmm, lemme think about that...” the imposter said, then smirked. “How about no? No sound good to you? Sounds good to me. I mean, what are you going to do little prancy pony? Torture me?”

“How about I strip away you free will until you’re a willing puppet under my command who will tell me every little thing I want to know?” Starlight said, but Twilight coughed loudly, and Starlight gave her a startled look, then sighed. “Or we can not do that and find a less backsliding method.”

The fake Trixie looked at Starlight with a measured look, her smirk not going anywhere, “Interesting. So it's not just the voice and looks you share with her, but some of the chutzpah is there too.”

“What are you talking about?” Starlight asked, backing up a step.

“Oh, never you mind, Starlight Glimmer. You’re still just a poor mirror to the real deal, but hey, maybe when the time comes she’ll let you in on the fun. She has been curious about you. Personally I think you equine counterparts aren’t worth the trouble. I mean, come on, that’s supposed to be me in this world? Not exactly impressive.”

“Hey!” Trixie yelled, “I’ll have you know I not only have the greatest magical act in all Equestria, I saved the country from a crazy bug lady.”

“With help.” Starlight added.

“With help.” Trixie agreed.

“And I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this ‘Trixie’, but you got caught in two seconds while trying to jump out a window,” said Twilight to the imposter, who just turned her smirking look back at Twilight with a look of unpleasant mischief lighting up her features.

“Caught? You think I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, is caught by your paltry pony prestidigitations!? Hah! Perhaps instead it is all of you who are caught by me?”

Starlight glanced at Twilight, “I don’t think she understands the definition of the word ‘caught’.”

“She didn’t even know how to lock a door. I’m thinking maybe this Trixie is even less bright than ours.”

“I hate you too, Twilight.”

Flash abruptly pushed Twilight back towards the door, stepping in front of her as his wings flared out. “She’s up to something! Her reiatsu is spiking up!”

“Sharp senses Soul Reaper,” said the imposter Trixie as her body became framed by a faint blue outline of light, even as her eyes glowed with a shade of red. “Eisenwand; Zeige Dich!”

Black mist swirled out of a small arcane crest that had been invisible up until that point but now glowed red upon the front of the imposter Trixie’s magician’s hat. The mist had a physical force behind it that lashed out and knocked Twilight and Flash both off their hooves, while Starlight was shoved back into the closet with the pony Trixie. The mist continued to twirl around like a localized storm until parts of the mist started to take more solid shape.

Long, shining black equine legs formed below a thick, tall and well muscled stallion’s body, its body almost entirely covered in thick iron armor black as oil. Wind buffeted the room as wings of similarly black metal flared from the stallion’s back. A thick mane and tail formed from the stallion, seemingly shaped from the black mist that continued to swirl around. The stallions’ face bore an armored mask, covering his whole face save for the eyes, which instead of the eyes of a pony there were two solid red gems blazing with inner crimson light.. A tall, sharp horn of iron sprouted from the stallion’s head, shining with a wreath of red energy. The stallion’s proportions were far larger than that of a pony’s, though still shorter and more stockily muscled than an alicorn like Celestia. Twilight thought immediately that this stallion bore a remarkable resemblance to the image upon the Alicorn Amulet that Equestria’s Trixie had onced used to enslave Ponyville. Even the stallion’s chest armor bore a red gem nearly identical to the one the Alicorn Amulet had.

Twilight knew she couldn’t sense spirit energy, but she still felt an aura of power and menace flowing off this dark stallion.

“Mistress, I appear to be an equine. Explain,” said the stallion in a deep, masculine baritone.

“It's just a thing that happens in this world, Eisenwand. Now get me out of here, now!” commanded the human Trixie

“As you command, Mistress,” the stallion said, just as Flash Sentry leaped to his hooves and burst into action.

Wings flared, Flash vanished and moved with speed beyond what Twilight could see, Flash Stepping behind the stallion and drawing his Zanpaktou awkwardly between his forehooves. He struck, but his blade hit something in mid-air just short of the stallion's neck. Forming from the black mist that hung around the stallion, a sizeable lance of dark iron took shape, and the lance swung around on its own to batter Flash aside. With shocking speed the dark stallion swooped around and grasped the human Trixie with one of its forelegs while flaring its wings. Red light glowed around the stallion’s wings, and it zoomed forward, breaking straight through the castle wall like a wrecking ball, showering crystal dust all over the room.

“Dammit, get back here!” Flash shouted, flapping his own wings haphazardly as he floated out of the now giant hole in the wall to give chase.

“Flash, wait!” Twilight shouted, but he was already in hot pursuit, albeit with a shaky, unsteady flight that made some of her first outings in the sky look dignified by comparison.

Twilight quickly went to the closet, “Starlight, Trixie, you two okay?”

Starlight, who’d been knocked head over hooves to land upside down against the closet wall with Trixie laying on top of her in an eye-swirling daze, shook her head and stammered. “F-fine. Fine! Go after them! I’ll try to catch up on hoof as soon as I can!”

From the doorway to the hall two more heads peeked inside, a pair of scaled sea serpent isages, one of violet shades and the other of blue.

“What’s all this damn noise about?” Aria grunted out in clearly only partially awake irritation.

“Yeah, you guys sound like you're bringing the...” Sonata blinked at the massive hole in the wall. “...house down? Wow, did somepony sneeze too hard or what?”

“You two! Didn’t either of you hear anything last night, like Trixie screaming!?” Starlight shouted as she extracted herself from the closet, dragging the bound Trixie behind her.

Sonata smiled in abject lack of caring. “Totally. We thought you and her were just doing, you know, butt-touch stuff.”

Starlight starred, while Trixie’s face turned about as red as the average tomato. Twilight shook her head at the situation and just said, “Look you two stay in you room for now. We’ve got a problem I need to fix-”

“Need help?” Aria asked in a tone that suggested the question might have caused her physical pain.

Twilight suddenly remembered both siren sisters were capable of flying, but without their gems neither siren was capable of using their innate magic for much else. She didn’t want to risk harm to either of them, especially considering she had no idea what the “human” Trixie actually was or what level of power she or that strange black stallions he’d summoned actually possessed.

“Thanks, but this is too dangerous for either of you. Just stay here until I get back,” she said and didn’t wait for a response before she rushed out the hole in the wall, spreading her wings and taking to the air over Ponyville, although she did hear Sonanta call after her.

“Hey, if you die does that mean I can bring quesadillas into the castle again!?”

Twilight ignored the inane question, having a brief shudder at the unpleasant recollection that on day one of allowing the siren pair to stay in her home that Sonata had ambushed her with the horrifically cheesy food and she’d subsequently forbade any more in the castle.

Her flight skills had improved by leaps and bounds since she first got her wings, and she had little trouble gaining altitude to start looking for where the human Trixie and Flash had gone. Neither was all that difficult to spot, one riding upon a large black stallion who stood out against the bright blue sky, and the other being so poor at flying that he was literally flailing across the sky like a foal trying to learn how to swim for the first time.

She streaked after them, catching up with Flash Sentry in no time. “Flash! Stop flapping your wings like that. You’re not coordinating them.”

“What? Coordinate them? I can barely make them move! And do you have any idea how hard it is to hold my Zanpaktou with these hoof things?” He dipped up and down haphazardly in the air as he tried to keep flapping his wings at random, trying to hold his blade between his hooves.

“Use your fetlocks! They can literally grip small handles and other tiny objects! And can’t Soul Reapers walk on the air?”

Flash gave her a mile wide stare, then said. “Oh. Right.”

Suddenly he stopped flailing his wings and instead halted on the air, his hind legs taking up an awkwardly bipedal stands as he stood on the air using particles of reishi. He adjusted his grip on his Zanpaktou until he found the part of his fetlocks that could more easily grip the hilt and he took a deep, confidence boosting breath. “Okay I think I got it. We’re not letting them get away.”

Twilight hadn’t taken an eye off of Trixie or her summoned pet. The dark alicorn-like stallion seemed to be having a bit of trouble with flight as well, although not nearly as much as Flash had. Clearly that body wasn’t what the stallion normally looked like in the human world, but what was he then? Both he and Trixie were heading out towards the Everfree Forest, but were only reaching the outskirts of Ponyville. Twilight and Flash could catch up, she was sure.

They resumed the chase, Twilight flying along a fast as she could, while Flash made great leaps across the air, landing on thin air to jump again in huge yard eating bounds. Ponies down below in the streets of Ponyville looked up at the strange sight, many pointing hooves and quickly gossiping about why the Princess of Friendship was tearing across the sky alongside a pegasus who seemed to be jumping on the air.

“Hey, everypony can see you. Is that on purpose?” she found herself asking.

“Figured it’d be easier to just let myself be seen, since I don’t think you’re going to be able to keep a lid on this. Wrong call?” he asked.

“No, right call. We can’t afford any more secrecy,” she replied swiftly, eyes focused on the dark form of the flying stallion that still bore Trixie on his back. “Look, I can teleport ahead to cut them off.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea Twilight. I don’t know what Trixie is, but that pony she busted out of her hat has some serious spirit power. Not too far behind a Captain's level. Trixie too. If you try to take them alone it could go south real fast. Any chance of you being able to get your fellow Princesses in on this?”

“Maybe. If I teleport straight to Canterlot and use the minimum amount of time to explain it. Luna would be asleep this time of morning, Celestia would have to wake her up. Even at the fastest estimate it’d still take time. Too much I think. Trixie would get away by the time we got back.”

“Any local help?” he asked, to which Twilight hesitated a moment.

“My friends would definitely help, but the only one who’s good in the air is-”

“Heya Twilight! You’re back!” said Rainbow Dash as she zipped up between her and Flash, flying along with a happy smile upon seeing her friend. “Didn’t think we’d be seeing you for few more days yet, egghead. What’s up? Who’s the dude with the sword? Cool sword by the way, but man it hurt seeing you try to fly. What’s with the air walking? That looks awesome!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight gasped, then very quickly got her thoughts together, speaking rapid fire. “That’s Flash. He’s a Soul Reaper. We’re chasing Trixie, only she’s not Trixie. She’s human Trixie. Only she’s not human. I think. Either way she’s doing something bad and we have to stop her!”

“Actually I think she already did the bad thing and we’re just trying to stop her from getting away,” added Flash Sentry. “Mostly so we can force her to tell us how to undo the bad thing.”

It was clear by the glazed look in her eyes that Rainbow Dash was only understanding in the most peripheral of senses, but fortunately this was Rainbow Dash so understanding was completely optional when it came to taking action. She shot off a quick salute, turning herself in the air with the most casual of grace that oriented her with the distant dot that was Trixie and her summoned stallion.

“Say no more! I’ll slow them down long enough for you two slowpokes to catch up.”

“Wait Dash we should take them toge-” Twilight began, but Rainbow Dash had already accelerated away on a band of rainbow light and a burst of air, flying so fast the mach cone was forming around her almost instantly. Flash’s jaw dropped open for a second.

“Wow. That’s... pretty fast. I mean, not Shunpo fast, but still. I’m starting to think we might’ve underestimated you ponies.”

“Rainbow is good at what she does. But we still need to catch up before she gets hurt! Come on!” Twilight said, and poured on the speed herself. She considered risking a teleport, but then saw that it looked as if Trixie and her strange dark stallion were slowing down, angling down to land near the edge of the Everfree Forest.

Why are they stopping? I thought she was trying to escape?

As their quarry landed she saw Rainbow Dash catch up to them in no time, landing to confront the pair right on the small dirt path that led into the depths of the Everfree. Within a few seconds Twilight and Flash caught up, and she already heard Rainbow brazenly challenging the two in front of her.

“Alright you two, I don’t know what you think you’re trying to pull in my hometown and messing with my friends, but I’m giving you one chance to give up quietly before I start to get rough with you.”

The stallion glanced at Trixie with his flat, gem eyes seeming to convey a world of exasperation. “Mistress, may I destroy these annoying fleas?”

Trixie held out a hoof, “First, my scepter please, Eisenwand.”

“Of course.” The central portion of the thick iron plates of Eisenwand’s chest armor shifted, allowing the red gem held within a set of iron claws to detach upon a long, extending shaft of curled, twisted metal. Once the weapon was free it floated in the air for a moment while the hole in Eisenwand’s chest closed up with new plates of armor. The weapon, now a fully formed scepter, flew up of its own accord and not under any magic Twilight could see to rest in Trixie’s waiting hoof. The red orb flashed upon her touch, and she grinned.

“Good. Now we can start with the show. Tell me Twilight Sparkle, how do you prefer your curses? Intensely painful, horrifically humiliating, or both?”

Twilight wasn’t going to deign to give that a response, already preparing her horn to cast spells, when Trixie thrust her scepter forward and a pentagram star of red light formed around it. Twilight still couldn't sense any magic being cast so she had to assume this power, like Eisenwand himself, was somehow connected to spirit energy. Knowing well Sunset’s stories of her and the girls fights with Hollows back in the human world Twilight threw herself to the side as the pentagram flashed bright and flew forward like a physical object, trying to hit her. She evaded it, but the glowing red star impacted the ground not far from where Twilight had been and she saw the grass there wither and turn black.

Gulping, Twilight turned her full attention to Trixie and unleashed a potent but stunning bolt of magical force, the purple beam streaming towards the other mare. However human Trixie clearly showed beyond human, or pony, physical ability by back flipping right over the beam and while still in mid-air, giving off a snicker that was entirely too much like Equestria’s Trixie, she waved her scepter in an arc.

Three more pentagrams appeared, each one flying in a different direction, bending and curving through the air at sharp angles to try to take not only Twilight, but Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry too.

Twilight threw up a shield around herself, encasing her body in a bubble of purple, sparkling magic. The glowing hex hit her shield, and the energy of it seemed to crackle and writhe against the barrier like a parasite trying to crawl its way past a layer of skin. Twilight might not have been able to feel the power behind spiritual pressures, but she could feel the impact it had on her shield, and while they may have been two different types of energy the magic and spirit energy interacted with each other like equal forces. Twilight would’ve been more fascinated if the hex didn’t end up cracking her shield and making it crumble away, even if the pentagram itself failed to get through.

Rainbow Dash had zipped up into the air to avoid the pentagram that flew towards her, while Flash had simply evaded with a swift flicker of high speed movement. However Eisenwand now burst into motion, matching Flash’s speed by vanishing and appearing again in a blink beside Flash and he thrust his lance right towards Flash’s chest. The Soul Reaper turned pegasus barely managed to get his Zanpaktou in the way, and clearly not used to his new body yet he was off balance as Eisenwand’s intense strength drove him back and sent him sprawling to the ground. In the same instant Eisenwand’s mane of dark mist moved like a living tentacle, solidifying and flaring up as it extended to lash at Rainbow Dash.

“Ha! Nice try big, dark, and ugly, but you’ll have to get up way earlier in the morning to tag Rainbow Danger Da-”

Rainbow Dash’s taunts, said while admittedly expertly evading the snapping, whip mane of misty blackness, was interrupted by Eisenwand’s tail also extending and shooting upwards. As insubstantial as the dark gray, ash-like mist looked, it solidly wrapped around Rainbow Dash’s left hind leg like it was solid as a steel cable. It then proceeded to yank Dash out of the sky and slam her into the ground with enough force to shoot up a column of dirt and leave a foot deep crater.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted, unsure of just how hurt her friend was. She’d seen Dash take some ludicrously bad crashes and walk away from them, but that impact looked painful.

“Worry about yourself, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie said with a huff, having landed on the ground from her earlier backflip and now was aiming her scepter at Twilight, a quartet of pentagrams forming in a diamond pattern around the scepter’s red orb. All four flew towards Twilight in a different angle, coming at her from multiple sides. She already knew one of them was strong enough to break a shield made at regular effort, but she wasn’t sure how much more power to pour into a barrier to keep the pentagrams at bay.

So instead she teleported. A flash and pop of violet magic took her from where she was to standing directly behind Trixie in an instant. The four pentagrams collided together where Twilight had been. Grass died, while some of the ground froze over, while a nearby snake that happened to be passing by turned to stone. Twilight guessed that each hex, each “curse” had a different effect, and she was starting to take note of smaller runic patterns inside the pentagrams. If she had time to study them she might figure out which ones had what effects, but there was hardly time for that.

She delved deep into her reservoirs of magic and fired her magical stun bolt at point blank range. A beam as wide as a wagon shot out and impacted Trixie right as the mare was turning around. The beam smashed its way through a lone tree in the field, and Twilight had to cut it off early or risk it flying right back into Ponyville and possibly hurting somepony.

Breathing heavily Twilight was sure she’d taken Trixie out of the fight, but was left with a open mouthed, shocked look as she saw Trixie not only still conscious, but still standing. Grunting in pain, Trixie used magic to pick up her hat and place the floppy affair back on her head.

“Okay. Ow. First point to you, Princess, but don’t think that did more than muss up my hair and ring my bell a bit. You’ll need to hit a lot harder than that to put me down.”

Twilight glanced to her left. She still couldn’t see Rainbow clearly enough to see if she was alright. Flash had gotten back up and had charged in on Eisenwand, his Zanpaktou clashing with the black stallion’s iron lance. The two appeared stalemated for the moment, but she couldn’t tell who was holding back more. Flash hadn’t released his Zanpaktou’s power yet, but Eisenwand barely looked like he was straining himself at this point either.

Twilight decided to risk getting some information. If this Trixie was anything like the one from Equestria, she’d be plenty eager to talk about herself.

“What are you? I know you’re not a Hollow, and you’re not a Soul Reaper or Quincy either. None of them have powers like this. Are you a Fullbringer?”

Trixie smiled in almost identical fashion to the smug look of Equestria’s own personal “Great and Powerful” mare magician and placed a hoof on her chest. “Aw, you want to know more about moi? I can see how you’d be confused. The Soul Reapers don’t like to talk about us.” Trixie’s eyes grew bitter as her lips twisted her smile into a sneer. “Nobody does. Just another dirty secret Soul Society swept under its filthy rugs. But as long as I live the Bount will not be regulated to being the mere filler of history! As the last living Bount-”

“What about the one we met in Budapest several years ago, Mistress?” Eisenwand asked as he parried one of Flash’s slashes.

“...As the almost last living Bount I will revive my race with the help of Starlight Glimmer. The one from my world. Not the one from here who’s clearly got self-esteem issues. Really, what’s with her and this world’s version of me? Are they, like, an item or something? Because I had to wait hours before she left my counterpart’s room the other night. It was extremely uncomfortable.”

Twilight just blinked several times in quick succession. “What? Starlight and Trixie what? Bount what? Okay, nevermind, I’ll ask questions once I have you behind bars. Literally.”

Ever since her less than stellar performance against Equestria’s Starlight Glimmer during that whole incident involving time travel Twilight had been spending more time practicing new spells of a combat oriented variety and how to cast quickly in battle. Her horn lit up with multiple layers of magic, and sparks of lavender light popped from her horn’s tip.

Swiftly did bars of thick, almost seemingly solid purple magic appeared in the air around Trixie. In less than a second she was contained in a cage of glowing force, the bars no more than an inch apart and barely allowing Trixie to shift in place let alone move.

“How about you stay still for a moment?” Twilight said with a smirk of her own, teleporting over to where Rainbow Dash had fallen. With a loud groan and a blurring shake of her head Dash was already shuffling up to her hooves in the center of the crater she’d made.

“D-did anybody get the number of that zepplin?” the pegasus asked in a dazed tone. “I think it violated Ponyville’s air traffic laws.”

“Zeppelins don’t have numbers Rainbow, and it wasn’t a zeppelin but a... I don’t know what he is. Trixie is a Bount and I don’t know what that is either or how she summoned this iron stallion, but we need to take him down before Trixie breaks out of that cage.”

It looked like Trixie was in the process of doing exactly that, her scepter pulsing with ruby flares of light, each one creating a new hex pentagram that impacted with the magical bars of the cage containing her. Twilight could feel the spell slowly degrading under the mare’s, the “Bount’s” strange power. They only had a short window to gang up on Eisenwand.

Flash Sentry was being pressed back by Eisenwand’s quick thrusts, the lance moving so quickly that it looked like a dozen lance tips were seeking Flash’s flesh instead of one. Twilight noticed Flash’s Zanpaktou was still in its sealed state, and she found herself shouting, “Flash, now might be a good time to make with the Soul Reaper powers!”

“I know! I know! Just, ugh, still trying to get used to this body! If I release my Shikai it might make things worse until I adjust to using my hooves.” Flash said as one hard thrust from Eisenwand went straight for his head. Twilight gasped, feeling an instinctive burst of fear, but Flash Sentry managed to get his sword up in time to force the lance to slide by his face in a shower of sparks and losing only a bit of mane in the process. He leaped back, his wings awkwardly flapping. Rainbow Dash winced at the sight.

“Wow does he suck at flying. If we live through this I’m totally giving that dude some lessons so he can stop embarrassing all of pegasi kind.”

Twilight grimaced, “Let’s get in there! Just be careful Rainbow, this guy is strong.”

All those words did was make Rainbow Dash sport a daredevil grin as she spread her wings, ignoring the bruises now covering her. “Oh yeah? Let’s see if he’s strong enough to handle this!”

With a sparkling rainbow band left in her wake Rainbow Dash zipped into the sky, gaining hundreds of feet in mere seconds. Twilight gulped, fearful that Rainbow Dash was going to do something exceedingly reckless, but she could hardly stop her friend and more importantly she wasn’t sure she should. They needed to go all out right now to stop Trixie and her strange, summoned cohort. With that in mind Twilight cast another teleport spell, taking her to the opposite side of Eisenwand where she sent a stream of magic into the ground at his hooves.

The huge black stallion glanced at the ground as a literal chunk of it the size of a small house lifted from the ground under Twilight’s telekinesis and proceeded to start crushing upwards in two separate shelves in an attempt to hold him.

“As if mere stone will contain me.” Eisenwand snorted and sent his mane and tail’s misty forms slicing through the rock like pieces of pie, severing the stone to pieces. Only all this did was give Twilight ammunition in the form of several dozen boulder chunks that she still gripped in her telekinesis and started slamming at Eisenwand in a swift, multi-angled barrage.

To her credit one or two of the rock chunks got through Eisenwand’s impressive guard as he used his lance to shatter most the others. The ones that did slam into him rocked the stallion around, although Twilight wasn’t certain much damage was done. The iron armor covering his body barely looked dented. The stallions’ gem-like eyes flashed with red light as he smirked boldly.

“Ha! See, mere mortal means cannot harm one as mighty as-”

Rainbow Dash streaked down from the sky, the mach cone around her hooves almost narrowed to a spear point, and she impacted with Eisenwand’s back with earth shattering force. Twilight had seen Rainbow demolish Applejack’s old barn with a very similar dive bombing maneuver and knew to throw up a shield around herself before Dash impacted with the ground, or rather impacted Eisenwand into the ground like a cannonball.

The prismatic explosion and small mushroom cloud that followed shook the ground, and Twilight saw Flash shield his face and lose his balance in the air from the shockwave. She grabbed him with telekinesis and lowered him next to her, where the Soul Reaper gave her an astonished look.

“Yeah, think this cinches it, definitely underestimated you ponies.”

Twilight couldn't help but smile. “We have our moments.”

“Oh if you stupid ponies hurt one piece of my Eisenwand I am soooooo going to hex you until you're spitting up internal organs like badly digesting candy!” shouted Trixie, and Twilight noted with some concern that her magical cage was nearly out of juice to hold Trixie for much longer.

When the smoke cleared somewhat from Rainbow’s rather impressive maneuver the mare was standing atop Eisenwand, who was half planted in the ground like a giant, iron carrot. Dash was striking a rather heroic pose, chest out, grinning as she hopped off Eisenwand and strutted out of the small crater she’d just made with her enemy’s body.

“Ha! Now how’s that for awesome?” she said.

Twilight was about to say something along the lines of not dropping their guard yet until they had Trixie better contained, but the words died in her throat as in a flicker of dark motion Eisenwand literally appeared  next to Rainbow Dash and proceeded to slam his hoof into her stomach with enough force to send the pegasus speedster careening like a bowling ball, rolling end over end until she smacked into one of the trees along the edge of the Everfree.

“Acceptable.” Eisenwand said with a snort, bleeding from a split lip and sporting an impressive dent in the armor on his back, but little else. “What more do you have?”

While Twilight gaped, Trixie cheered and with a burst of hexes from her scepter she melted the last of the magical cage and hopped out. “Bravo, Eisenwand, bravo! I thought that irritating technicolor twit actually had you for a moment.”

Eisenwand cracked his neck and shook some dirt out of his ear. “To the mortal’s credit she hit far harder than the Soul Reaper has so far.”

“You, uh, didn’t kill her did you?”

Eisenwand glanced at Rainbow Dash’s crumpled form and just shrugged. “You gave no instructions to hold back, Mistress. If the blue pony still lives, she’s more durable than any mortal I’ve faced, and quite a few Soul Reapers as well. Now, shall we finish this pair?”

“Rainbow...” Twilight gasped, about to run to Rainbow Dash, but Flash put a hoof on her shoulder.

“She’s still breathing. Concentrate. Either of us lose our cool, we’re done for.”

At a second glance Twilight could see Flash was right. She couldn’t see Rainbow Dash’s face from the way she was sprawled facing away from them, but she could see her friend’s chest still faintly rising and falling with breath. She wanted nothing more than to go make sure Rainbow Dash was okay and get her to a hospital if necessary, but Flash was right. If she tried that she’d end up dropping her guard, and with Eisenwand and ‘Bount’ Trixie right in front of her she couldn’t afford to put her focus anywhere else.

“R-right.” Twilight gulped, and glanced at Flash’s sword. “Now would be a really good time to use that Shikai thing, whether you think you’re ready or not.”

He still looked worried, but he met her eyes and she saw the trust in them as he nodded. “You’re right. Hang back, okay? I’ll try to make an opening for you to work some more of your magic.”

She managed an encouraging nod as he started to take steps towards Trixie and Eisenwand, both of whom watched him with careful eyes. He managed to balance himself on his hind legs, using his wings as counterweights while he held his Zanpaktou firmly in his fore hooves. Wind swirled around him as the katana was encased in a neon blue light.

”Serve faithfully; Kochi Yojinbo!” (East Wind Bodyguard)

The weapon that his Zanpaktou flowed into in a wash of wave like blue light was akin to that of something she’d read about once concerning traditional martial arts weapons from the eastern regions; a tonfa. Only in this case instead of the side mounted handle attaching to a club-like block of wood it attached to a large, straight blade that extended a good five feet of total length. Aside from the handle there was also a coil of white cloth that wrapped around Flash’s fore leg above where his fetlock gripped the handle. Twilight didn’t know if that was normal for the Zanpaktou or if that was just how it ended up with Flash being in a pony body, but regardless it looked like he could keep the unwieldy looking weapon well in hoof.

“Oh ho, loverboy is getting serious.” Trixie laughed, “Eisenwand, return the favor.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Eisenwand moved like a dark iron wrecking ball, crashing in on Flash with breakneck speed and thrusting his lance like a bolt of metal lightning. Twilight gaped as it looked like the lance pierced Flash, but she blinked a second later as the image of flash blurred out of view and a moment later it looked as if there were three Flash Sentry’s, all of them coming in at Eisenwand at once with their Zanpaktou slashing in wide arcs.

The black iron stallion of metal spun to meet the attacks, his tail, mane, and lance all moving in different directions. Two of Flash Sentry’s blurring forms were deflected, but the third glanced along the side the Esienwand’s lance and managed to cut a groove through the shoulder of his armor with his bladed tonfa. Eisenwand grunted but otherwise showed no pain as he lashed out with a hoof at Flash, but the pegasus’ form blurred again, vanishing from sight.

Trixie snorted, “What, a speed increase? That’s it?”

“Not exactly.” Flash said, appearing behind her, while two more Flash’s charged Eisenwand from the sides. Trixie snarled and spun around in an impressively fast, bucking kick, showing far more physical prowess than her Equestrian counterpart. Flash flipped away from the attack and lashed out with his Zanpaktou, but Trixie’s scepter glowed red and a pentagram of red energy interposed itself like a shield. Even so the tonfa blade cut through the pentagram, deflected just enough to miss Trixie but still giving the mare a reason to back away.

Meanwhile Eisenwand’s tail speared out at one of the Flash Sentry’s while he engaged his lance with the other, but both blurred out of view only to appear on the metal stallion’s other sides and slashed at him, drawing sparking cuts. The wounds didn’t seem to be slowing Eisenwand down much, but Twilight could see the stallion’s mounting irritation.

Twilight snapped out of her momentary stupor and leaped into motion herself, wings spreading as she took to the air. Flash might have the pair momentarily off balance, but that wouldn’t last long. She had to take advantage of the opening she was being given. Lighting her horn up with multiple layers of deep lavender magic she started to weave a powerful and complex spell, one she hoped would end this fight in one shot.

Trixie, meanwhile, had moved so she was nearly back to back with Eisenwand, and was firing out barrages of streaming hexs, the red pentagrams flying around like missiles to try and tag the constantly moving Flash, or rather Flashs. They kept blurring in and out of view, never more than three at a time, but never in the same place twice. Twilight would’ve made Trixie’s guess that this was some kind of high speed movement, only Flash had just said it wasn’t. So what was it, exactly? She noticed that when his forms blurred out of view it wasn’t with the flicker of motion that a Flash Step made. Instead it was more like...

Like light was bending around him. But that couldn't be it. If it was just an illusion of light then there would only be one ‘real’ Flash, and she’d already seen all three of the Flash Sentry’s make solid strikes. They each clearly had a physical presence.

The answer came when one of Eisdenwand’s lance strikes managed to graze Flash across the arm, drawing a small spray of blood that made Twilight wince and pour more speed into weaving her spell. The exact same wound and grimace of pain appeared on all three Flash Sentry’s.

Suddenly Twilight paid attention to their movements. Aside from the actual placement of their bodies, they were each moving in mirror replicas of each other. As crazy as it sounded, Twilight theorized that Flash’s Zanpaktou didn’t make him faster or bend light, it literally bent space so that he was appearing in multiple places at once!

No wonder he was hesitant to use it while in a body he wasn’t sure how to move in properly. Being in multiple places at once had to be insanely disorienting, and not to mention difficult to time one’s attacks. Flash had to know how to move his body perfectly in order to coordinate his actions while using that Shikai. Being in an unfamiliar pegasus body could seriously throw him off, and even as she had that thought she saw the results as one of Trixie’s hexes caused the ground beneath one of the Flash’s hooves to freeze over and when he tripped, all three of the Flash Sentry’s tripped.

“Gotcha!” Trixie cried in triumph as Eisenwand pounced, his lance spearing towards one of the Flash’s fallen forms.

“NO!” Twilight cried and with a brilliant burst of violet light she threw her spell.

A thick cone of sparkling purple light descended and hit the ground around Trixie and Eisenwand, just a pace short of where Flash had fallen. Immediately the pair halted in place and were forced down by what was essentially a simple variation of the gravity reversal spell Twilight had used once in the Crystal Empire. Only instead of reversing gravity, this spell magnified it. Ten times, then twenty times, and as Twilight saw both Trixie and Eisenwand still slowly trying to move out of the cone she increased it to fifty times normal Equestrian gravity. At that point Trixie fell flat on her face, crying out in pain. Eisenwand was still standing, but the metal stallion gave Trixie a worried gaze and started to move towards her.

“Mistress!”

“Don't’ worry about me you, ugh...fool... get the pony!”

Eisenwand looked up at Twilight and she saw him try to telekinetically raise his lance towards her. Flash had gotten back to his hooves now and was backing away from the cone of relentless gravitational magic as it started to creating a deeper and deeper indent in the ground. He saw Eisenwand’s lance slowly advancing, struggling upwards towards Twilight and Flash called out, “Twilight! Get out of the way!”

Twilight winced under the strain of the magic she was using. Affecting gravity to this extent was far from easy. “Nnff, c-can’t. Have to stop them here!”

With a final push of magic that made her horn look like a miniature star of purple light she nearly doubled the gravity again. The cone of purple magic pulsed with powerful rings of force as Twilight’s power and desperation hit equal peaks. There was an earthquake that shook half of Ponyville as the ground broke up in a deepening pit that grew nearly twenty feet deep and twice as wide before Twilight’s magic cut out. She was left faint, sweating rivers, hovering in the air with tired flaps of her wings as she looked down at the crater she’d just made.

Trixie was flat on her face, barely able to look up at the edge of the crater as she rose on shaking hooves. Beside her Eisenwand was still standing, but his armor was bent inward and warped in multiple places, and his lance was buried in the ground at his hooves. Coughing, sputtering some blood, a sight that made Twilight wince slightly, Trixie called up to them.

“O...okay... I’m willing to be... the bigger person here and... and call it a draw.”

Flash appeared next to Twilight, still holding his released Zanpaktou and pointing it at the pair. “Draw nothing. This is looking like a win from where we’re standing.” He glanced to the side as Starlight Glimmer came galloping up towards them, panting as she arrived at the side of the crater with wide eyes.

“I’m here! Just, whew, took awhile to catch up. I don’t gallop very fast. Need to, huff, get more cardio in.”

“And we just got reinforcements. Want to rethink that ‘draw’?” Flash Sentry asked, then glanced at Twilight and whispered, “Uh, you still got any juice left after that?”

Twilight managed a weak laugh, “I could maybe light a candle or two. Or if you have any paper clips that need levitating... But with Starlight here now I can warm a bench for a bit, assuming these two are still wanting to fight.”

Summoning up all the strength she had left, Twilight held her head high and looked down at Trixie and Eisenwand. “Look, you could decide to keep fighting. But the longer this lasts, the more of my friends will show up. By now the Princesses might have even noticed how much magic I was just tossing around and will come to investigate. I give you my word that if you surrender peacefully you won’t be mistreated.”

Starlight gave her a look, but Twilight just made a ‘leave it’ gesture with one wing and resumed looking at Trixie. “I don’t know why you came to my world or what you think you and this other Starlight Glimmer are trying to accomplish, but if it's a threat to Equestria, it has to stop. Cooperate, and I guarantee your safety, but you will tell us how to undo what you’ve done to the portal!”

Trixie snickered, then coughed again, wiping blood of her lips. “Weren’t you listening earlier? I told you it's already done. There isn’t any ‘undoing’ it. That seal blocked the portal with my own spirit energy. It wasn’t like shutting and locking a door, more like I cemented it up. The only way to open it again would be to break it open with more reiatsu than I used to close it, and you’d have to do it from this side. And since nobody in this world has spiritual power besides loverboy there, who isn't going to cut the mustard, good luck finding someone stronger than me in that department. Sorry Princess, even if you won the fight, you’ve lost the war before it even started.”

Trixie took off her hat and dusted it off, then glanced at Eisenwand. “We’re done here. Take five, Eisen. I’ll call you again when I need you.”

The iron stallion turned to her and did a rather knightly bow, “As you wish, Mistress.”

He then transmuted into the same dark mist that formed him and swirled into the symbol that appeared on Trixie’s hat, which she then plopped back upon her head as she sat on her haunches with a tired huff, holding out her hooves. “Okay, I give up. Clap the manacles on me and take me to ‘pony jail’ or whatever it is you do here in Equestria. Either way, you won’t ever be returning to the human world, so my job is done. Just tell me, do you ponies have peanut butter crackers in prison?”

----------

As weak as she was Zecora still had the strength to move with some amount of swiftness. She was familiar with the interior of Hitsuyo Aku from her visits to check up on Starswirl, but only in passing. She’d never thoroughly explored any branch of the expansive research facility, and hardly knew its every corridor or side room. However among the Captains of the Gotei 13 she perhaps had the sharpest spiritual senses, with only Captain Platinum having the skill to challenge  her on that claim, and even in her weakened state she could use those senses freely.

Guilt was a lead weight inside her. If only she hadn’t allowed herself to be ambushed and captured then none of this would have happened. For all her pride in her senses she sure hadn’t seen that coming. With a deep frown she shoved aside the guilt and focused on what she was doing. She was in the main chamber between the different research branches, feeling for other faint reiatsu signatures in the area. She could feel the battle taking place back where she’d been rescued like the sensation of multiple bonfires exploding like someone was hosing them down with gasoline, which made sensing other spiritual pressures less than simple, but her skills in concentration were highly honed and she tuned out the feeling of the battle to focus on the quieter areas of the facility.

In moments she felt them. Four faint signatures of spirit pressure flickering in the direction of the Biological research branch. Which made sense, it was likely the only area of the facility that would have medical equipment.

The doorway leading into that branch of Hitsuyo Aku was shut firmly, but Zecora knew the proper Kido to bypass the ward, gesturing with several sharp motions of her hand to form a glowing blue symbol of kanji in the air that flashed once before fading out. The doors slid upwards without a sound and Zecora walked through them into a series of brightly lit, sterile stone hallways that branched out like a checkerboard before her. Each section of this part of the lab would be dedicated to different research projects on spiritual biology. Starswirl rarely spoke much of the details of what went on here, and Zecora got the impression he had spent the time since taking over Hitsuyo Aku in attempts to shift some of its research to less... unpleasant focuses. Still she ignored most of the labs she passed, not only because she didn’t sense the spiritual pressures she was seeking inside them, but because she honestly didn’t want to know what was being researched here.

Finding the faint reiatsu didn’t take long. They were in one of the larger rectangular rooms at the back of this section of the facility, a room clearly labeled as a medical lab. While suitable for research it would also double as the facility's medical station for treating injuries. Or testing out new experimental treatments or equipment. Inside Zecora found the room was darkly lit save for the soft glow of green light stemming from somewhere in the back of the room. She breezed by medical tables, cabinets of equipment, and lines of beds until she reached a open area where she found who she was looking for.

Moon Dancer, Meadowbrook, and Smart Cookie were all suspended in thanks of glowing green liquid, their bodies stripped to simple under garments and hooked to tubes and wires snaking out of apparatus both above and below the glass cylinders. Zecora wasn’t familiar with what the tanks were, although Starswirl had made mention once of some experimental healing devices he’d been working on that seemed to match what she was seeing. The liquid was a solution made from enriched reishi and a distillation of several unique chemicals extracted from sources Starswirl was unwilling to disclose. From the weak but steady flicker of each Soul Reaper Lieutenant’s reiatsu Zecora could tell they were alive, but extremely weak. She couldn’t be certain if it was safe to move them without examining them in more detail, but her attention was arrested by the room’s fourth occupant.

Lord Pipsqueak’s tiny body was similarly suspended in a tank of liquid, but rather than a soft green color the liquid filling the cylinder was an angry, pale red color. And unlike the other three’s reiatsu, Pipsqueak’s wasn’t weak, but almost vibrant with an energy that Zecora knew all too well.

The boy’s spirit body was being infused with the essence of a Hollow.

Her first instinct was to smash the cylinder open and remove Pipsqueak from it at once, but the healer inside her knew such a move would be incredibly risky for the boy. But then again so was letting this process of Hollow reishi infusion complete itself. Who knew what such energies might do to the poor child’s mind, let alone his body? Why would Platinum condone this to to be done to her own...

But of course Zecora knew the reason. She was all too familiar with Pipsqueak’s condition. Against her instincts she went to the cylinder and placed a hand upon it, allowing her spiritual senses to focus with pinpoint accuracy and detail upon Pipsqueak’s spirit body. With some concentration it was like looking at a detailed scan of the process taking place on a particle level. She flinched at what she saw.

The solution was indeed infused with Hollow reishi. To such a fine degree she had no way of fathoming how the feat was achieved. It shouldn't have been possible to replace the conventional reishi of the healing solution with Hollow reishi that meshed so seamlessly into another spirit body. The nature of Pipsqueak’s malady was an ever weakening bond of the spirit particles of his body. Over time they simply would degrade until he ceased to exist. Yet the Hollow reishi’s bonds were powerful, and only had to replace one in every five of Pipsqueak’s degraded particles to infuse them with new strength. More strength than they ever had before! Zecora watched in open amazement as she saw the solution of Hollow reishi particles slowly, piece by piece, reconstruct the boy’s spirit body so that the disease would be eradicated.

She had no way of knowing exactly what the end result would be, but Pipsqueak’s body would be entirely free of his disease once the process was complete. What else he might be by that point Zecora couldn’t say, but if nothing else he’d be stronger and healthier than ever before.

He might also be a Hollow hybrid abomination, but perhaps in the eyes of a desperate mother that was better than the alternative. If Zecora was being honest with herself she couldn’t entire be sure of what choice she’d have made in Platinum’s position. It didn’t make the knifing sting of Platinum’s betrayal hurt any less, nor how gruesomely used Zecora felt having been forced to play a part in the whole deception, but if nothing else she could feel a twinge of understanding, remembering every time she’d examined Pipsqueak herself and toiled on finding a cure.

Stepping away from the cylinder, she started to consider how to safely remove the injured from the area when she felt the approach of another who was doing well to try to hide their spirit energy, but they were moving too fast for the motion to not trip Zecora’s senses. She swung around, hand raised to cast Kido.

Zecora didn’t recognize Firefly from any personal experience with the woman, only a passing familiarity with the files on Xcution’s old operations. She hadn’t even been part of the medical end of that project back then, and she held no malice towards the woman, but that didn’t make the energy cannon Firefly was aiming at her seem any less deadly. The two women stared each other down for a moment, Zecora mentally conjuring any number of Kido to lead off the impending fight with, when Firefly lowered the barrel of her weapon.

“If you’re taking your wounded, better get going fast.”

A faint look of startlement wafted across Zecora’s face. “Why would you so easily let us go, knowing that we are your foe?”

Another voice spoke in a pained, tired rasp from the doorway to the room as another woman limped inside. “If I were you, Zecora, I wouldn’t question your good fortune and leave this place with the wounded.”

When she laid eyes upon Platinum, Zecora was caught between an urge to immediately fire a binding Kido to try and capture the traitor, and simply being blatantly amazed that the woman could stand at all in her present state. Platinum looked like a half charred corpse that had been dragged through a minefield. One of her arms was completely gone, burned to little more than a blackened stump, and half the flesh of her face was not much better off. Blood soaked the woman’s ragged, torn robes, and Zecora could sense Platinum’s spirit energy was so low it was actually weaker than that of the unconscious Lieutenants being healed in the cylinders.

Slowly lowering her Kido casting hand, Zecora had only one question for Platinum. Zecora dropped all pretence and rhyming, looking at Platinum steadily.

“Before I go, answer this, once and never again comrade. Was it all worth it?”

Platinum’s eyes flicked towards Pipsqueak, floating in the red cylinder like a silent beacon. The light in Platinum’s eyes gleamed fiercely and she spoke with no hesitance.

“Yes.”

Then there was nothing more to say. Zecora simply nodded once, visage faintly saddened, and turned her attention to the cylinders with the three wounded Lieutenants. “Can they be moved without harm?”

Firefly answered that by going over to the cylinder containing Moon Dancer’s floating, unconscious form and tapped a few buttons on a small console attached to the side of the device. The green glowing fluid started to drain from the cylinder at a swift pace.

“Safer than leaving them here. Far as I know Starlight wasn’t planning to take them with us, and when this place goes, anyone not on the guest list is getting left behind. So feel free to carry them out and hit them up with your own healing mojo, for what good it’ll do them. I’m not going to stop you.”

Zecora still wondered why Firefly wouldn’t just take this as an opportunity to kill one of the Soul Reapers who were her enemies, but galling as it was Platinum was right. It was folly to question a stroke of luck when it came along, and with wounded comrades to tend her interests in the murky motivations of the lady Fullbringer were fading fast. In short order she drained and opened the other tanks, Firefly helping detach the comatose Lieutenants while Platinum took to leaning against Pipsqueak’s cylinder, her eyes almost burning with their focus upon the boy within.

It pained Zecora to leave him there, but she was in no condition to fight. Her internal reiryoku was low, and she didn’t even have her Zanpaktou. That loss was still a painfully fresh wound, but there was little to be done about it.

Carrying all three Lieutenants at once was an exercise in awkward positioning. Fortunately none of them were particularly heavy, and weakened or not Zecora was still a Captain of the Gotei 13, and was able to carefully sling them over her shoulders. Before leaving she gave Firefly one last parting look, which the woman returned with equal frankness. The message passing between the two was clear. This was a one time kindness. If they were to meet again, it would likely be a fight.

Feeling the building start to shake with a build up of potent spirit energies, Zecora wasted no more time in quickly rushing from the scene with all the speed she dared to without risking further injury to those she carried.

----------

The last time Sunset had seen the white and golden spires of Canterlot she had been living a very different life. Memories of living as Celestia’s prized pupil washed across her mind like a blast from a cold shower. She could still remember the faint smell of warm coffee and baked goods wafting from the cafes near Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and the way the sunlight from every one of Celestia's mornings would reflect off the stained glass windows to paint the hallways with rainbow light.

She may have left her homeland in a fit of angry ambition and injured pride, but she still loved Equestria. The idea that this Starlight Glimmer was threatening it, that she’d bring the insanity of the human world’s spiritual wars to Equestria, that ignited a fresh new rage inside Sunset that spread to every inch of her until she felt like she could feel the searing heat smelting her bones. All things considered she was surprised her voice was as steady as it was when she spoke, although there was a volcanically heated quality to it.

“What do you plan to do to my home?”

Starlight met her look with a unblinking one of her own, her face still hidden behind her Hollow mask. Her voice was... conversational.

“Nothing much. Certainly nothing I intend to explain to you in detail on the slim chance you find a way to follow me there and try to interfere further alongside your band of merry misfits. Honesty far as I’m concerned your role in this is done. I’ve seen enough to confirm my theory that Equestria’s magic empowers my world’s spiritual energies, and you’ve already played the part of the perfect distraction for Soul Society while I got this plan off the ground. So thank you for that, but I’m done with you now.”

With a sweep of her trenchcoat Starlight turned her back on the girls and walked over to the obelisk console that controlled the Crossgate. She even sheathed her Zanpaktou, her entire stance radiating disconcern as she started to press buttons on the console. Sunset saw the image of Canterlot through the portal shift as if the perspective of the image was moving at blindingly fast speed. A smearing streak of colors passed before the image settled on a dusty desert town that Sunset didn’t recognize, but saw numerous earth ponies trotting around, many wearing country hats.

“Nah, still too close to population centers for my taste. Your planet has to have some nice empty wasteland somewhere, right? Or maybe some wild, untamed mountains? Where would you put a liar if you wanted to go unnoticed for awhile?”

“How about the center of the sun?” Sunset provided as she flowed into an instant Flash Step that took her into a leap above and behind Starlight. Flames wrapped her Zanpaktou in a blazing sheath as she slammed the sword down towards Starlight’s left arm, seeking to sever it.

Starlight didn’t even look up from the console as she raised her left hand and caught Sunset’s wrist, stopping the blow dead.

“Are you for serious? I have to ask because, you know, magical realm and all that. For all I know there’s a legitimate castle or something inside your sun.”

Sunset grimaced, unpleasantly reminded of her encounter with Grogar, but she was more focused and in tune with her spiritual powers than she’d been then. She used Starlight’s grip on her sword arm like an anchor point, flipping her body up and over Starlight so she landed partially balanced on the side of the obelisk. The flames around Hokori flared to brilliant azure light, the heat of the blade matching Sunset’s increasing intensity as her ire at Starlight.

“Why don’t you ask Celestia? I’m sure she’ll give you the guided tour. Aoihi Senko!”

Despite the askew angle she was having to hold her sword at, the versatile nature of the Aoihi Senko’s blue flames allowed Sunset to direct the unmitigated blast of intensely hot azure fire around Starlight like an encompassing sphere of fire that melted the stone around it into a bubbling puddle in mere seconds. Able to easily feel how strong Starlight was Sunset wasn’t too concerned that the flames would do the woman much harm, but she wasn’t really trying to hurt Starlight, just get her away from the obelisk. For all of the anger that she felt brimming with bone melting fury inside her, all she really wanted to do was stop Starlight. But her frustration was mounting. If only she could use her Bankai! But that power was already drained from her final attack on Platinum, and while she could feel it slowly recovering, it was nowhere near ready to be unleashed again.

She felt Starlight let go of her hand, and there was a massive upsurge of reiatsu that flowed out of Starlight in a crushing wave of spirit energy and focused will. Like a waterfall had doused the flames the fires burned out around her and Starlight, her clothing only slightly signed, was giving Sunset a flat look. “I get the feeling that was sarcasm you were using just now. Look, Sunset, Miss Shimmer, however you want me to address you, I’ve already done the climatic battle routine with your friends and Ditzy. I get that you’re the ‘heroine’ of this piece and you want to have a big final showdown with me before I go on my way, but can we just not? It’s been a long day, I’m tired, I really need a cup of coffee, which I’m hoping Equestria has by the way otherwise I’m going to be pissed, and really this whole fighting business is just one big waste of time.”

Sunset just blinked at her for a second. Rage gripped her, mixed with a flat, acidic frustration that filled her features. “That sounds reasonable,” she said in a shockingly calm tone that she was far from feeling. She then smashed her shield into Starlight’s face with all the power her arm could muster.

Starlight took the blow like a brick wall takes a tennis ball bouncing off it. The woman was knocked back slightly, but otherwise she mostly appeared irritated. A loud, explosive sigh escaped her as she twisted Sunset’s wrist and proceeded to throw her across the room like one might toss aside a cat that had stolen one’s spot on the couch.

Sunset wasn’t injured, and got the distinct feeling that Starlight wasn’t even trying to inflict any real harm. Being treated as a non-threat was becoming beyond galling, but Sunset was at least grateful it meant that Starlight was more likely to make a mistake. What the mistake would be Sunset didn’t know, but it had to be coming. Soonish. Hopefully.

“Sunset, dear, are you alright?” Rarity asked, coming up next to Sunset alongside the other girls, forming a line alongside Clover and Ditzy Doo. There was a clear spark of tension among all her friends, most of them looking at her worriedly.

“Yes. Pride is stinging like crazy, and I’m angry enough to boil water by looking at it, but I’m not injured. Sorry, shouldn’t rush in without you girls, should I?”

“Nah, ya needed ta take yer own crack at her,” said Applejack with a wry sidelong look at Sunset. “Now all we need is Dash ta’ git on back an’ we’ll have the whole crew ta stampede this crazy gal with.”

“We don’t have much time,” Clover said with a nervous look, clutching Chishiki tightly. Sunset could see the aura of green energy filling the Zanpaktou’s ring blade was fluctuating wildly. “Chishiki can’t keep Starlight’s Zanpaktou negated for long.”

Sunset felt an intense spike of reiatsu from somewhere behind them, approaching at swift speed, and recognized the spirit energy in question. The other girls felt it too, glancing behind them as Sunset said, “I don’t think we’ll need to wait for Rainbow to show up.”

On the heel of her words there was a rush of wind and a boom of air pressure as Rainbow Dash simply appeared in front of them, almost as if she’d teleported. Sunset hadn’t been able to see more a momentary streak of color, Dash having been moving even faster than she had before. It was plain to see why.

“Oh wow Dashie, you’re looking even spiffier and sparkier than usual!” said Pinkie Pie, the hammer seeming to vibrate with excitement. Pinkamena licked her lips.

“Tastier too.”

She certainly looked different. Rainbow’s Fullbring had changed form, and pulsed with a far larger and sharper sense of spiritual pressure than Sunset had felt coming off it before. The basic form remained the same, yet the central wings had become larger and formed from a prismatic wave of flowing rainbow colored energy. Each of those wings were in turn flanked on top and bottom by four long, blade-like wings of solid blue metal, which in turn connected to a smooth metallic piece of armor that encased Rainbow Dash’s chest. A single pale blue gem sat embedded in the armor above Rainbow’s heart, and Sunset thought she saw crackling bolts of lightning contained inside. It looked impressive, but as she looked at Dash, Sunset felt something was off.

“Um, are you alright Rainbow?” asked Fluttershy, and Sunset also noticed that Rainbow Dash’s expression was different than its usual cocky grin. The girl’s face lacked a smile, or even the headstrong cast to her eyes Sunset was used to seeing. Rainbow Dash instead had a solemn and serious look about her, only somewhat softened by the relief in her eyes as she looked at her friends.

“I’m cool, Flutters. Totally frosty.”

“You’re mom?” Sunset ventured to ask, and Rainbow Dash flinched, her whole expression clouding over.

“Not a problem for now. Had a... talk. Still need to unpack that. Got my Fullbring competed form the deal, so more ready than ever to do some skull cracking.” She nodded towards Starlight, “I take it she’s been giving you trouble?”

“She’s problematic, yes,” said Rarity, a frown marring her features as she made an idle gesture with one hand and started to create a set of what looked like large, crystalline throwing stars, all of them spinning in an ever growing cloud above her. “After observing her fight, I can only suggest we try to keep her distracted while someone figures out how to stop that machine.”

“I can try to figure the console out, if the rest of you keep her occupied,” said Clover, sweat appearing in buds over her face. Sunset could see the girl was shaking slightly, but was doing well to keep her fear under control. Having gotten a good feel for Starlight’s power she was grateful and impressed with Clover, who wasn’t showing any sign of backing down from such an uneven fight. Meeting Clover’s eyes, Sunset gave her an encouraging nod, and was happy to get a similar nod back from Clover.

“I think we can managed that,” Ditzy said, holding her hands out to the side and generating a swath of condensed red energy around her fingers that formed into long, solid claws. The usually upbeat and bubbly woman’s expression behind her Hollow mask was dead serious. “I’ll lead in, the rest of you follow up.”

There was hardly any more time for talk, just a round of shared looks confirming that they were all together in this. Despite the desperation of their situation they knew there was no backing out. Sunset did find a renewed sense of strength just from having all the girls by her side now. Across the way from them Starlight had turned her attention back to the console on the obelisk, and Sunset could see the portal to Equestria had shifted several more times until it settled on a location Sunset didn’t recognize at all. It looked like a forest of dead, leafless trees in some dry desert of cracked, baked earth.

“That’ll do,” Starlight said to herself, “And I just start the final sequence... and done. Two minutes folks. It’s been fun, but you know the drill; places to go, realities to fix.”

Two minutes. One hundred and twenty seconds. Neither Sunset nor any of her companions wasted further time on talk. Ditzy Doo, true to her word, went in first, although Rainbow Dash was right behind her. Both burst in with such air rending speed that Sunset couldn’t track them for an instant, although her own senses were stronger than they’d been and she could just barely see the way both seemed to intuitively feel each other’s motions and came at Starlight from the sides in a fierce cross-patterned attack.

Starlight simply moved even faster, flickering out of the way in an instant to avoid the digging energy claws Ditzy Doo wielded and the potent, lightning charged punch Rainbow Dash was throwing. Dash showed incredible maneuverability by almost instantly reversing direction and turning her punch into a wild, powerful backhand that fired a massive blast of lightning at point blank range. The bolt was larger and more intense than anything Sunset had seen Rainbow unleash before. It was like the air of the entire chamber was being electrified. Sunset grit her teeth, hoping that this attack might actually put some hurt on Starlight. However Starlight took it head on, pushed back by the lightning as she raised a hand to catch it. Her heels dug into the ground and Starlight’s eyes narrowed in concentration, but she halted the huge onslaught of lightning in a few moments.

“Well then, I’m guessing Firefly had a decent heart to heart with you, if you’re packing this much power now,” Starlight said, a note of actual strain in her voice as she deflected the lightning upward to bore into the ceiling, showering the room with rock chunks. “Just more proof I was right and you girls are stronger than your mothers were. All thanks to that magic from Equestria.”

Sunset growled in frustration, but suddenly a shower of large, red crystal throwing stars descended on Starlight in a downpour, some of them using the falling pieces of rock from the ceiling as cover to try and surprise Starlight. She stood in place but her hands moved around her with such speed she suddenly looked as if she’d sprouted multiple arms, her Zanpaktou drawn in an instant. Even sealed the blade cut through Rarity’s hardened crystal, but she was occupied long enough for Sunset to come in and slip her blade towards Starlight’s chest. She was becoming less concerned with not wounding the woman and more focused on doing whatever it took to stop her before time ran out.

The two Zanpaktou deflected off each other, the blow numbing Sunset’s arm down to the bone, and Starlight whirled on her, eyes blazing behind her Hollow mask. Sunset had to raise her shield as fast as she could to block a flat palmed strike from Starlight. The blow hit with such raw strength that Sunset felt herself propelled across the room and coughed as the air was knocked out of her lungs from impacting the wall hard enough to create a ten meter wide crater. Dazed, she forced herself with a feral shout to land on her feet and stay standing. She was not going down! Not until they stopped this madwoman!

Fortunately her clash with Starlight had drawn the woman’s attention, giving Applejack an opening to rocket up over the woman, carrying Fluttershy with her. The farmgirl, eyes blazing with a fair amount of anger of their own, then blasted downward like a meteor while letting Fluttershy go in a well timed drop that let the girl spread her own pegasus wings and narrowly swoop by Starlight. Applejack slammed her gauntlet clad fists down together, gold energy shooting from her arms and shoulders in a powerful hammerblow. Starlight spun around, blocking Applejack’s strike with one forearm. The blow destroyed the ground beneath her feet, but Starlight held firm while slashing back with her Zanpaktou at Fluttershy in a deadly arc. Eyes wide Fluttershy desperately threw herself back from the blade, bending her body backwards in a nimble dodge. Like a reed rippling in the wind she immediately snapped back and tried to come in with a palm strike at Starlight’s back, but Starlight had gripped one of Applejack’s arms and used the girl like a battering ram to smack her into Fluttershy. Both girls cried out in pain from the ramming blow, sent flying like scattered pebbles.

Even as they were knocked away Pinkamena extended one arm to wrap the pair and gently set them down nearby while her other arm cocked back. With a chilling gleam in her eyes, which bled from shining blue to hungry yellow, Pinkamena slammed the Pinkie hammer into the ground next to Starlight. With a cartoonish sproinging noise the ground literally tilted up like a seesaw, managing to knock Starlight off balance as it tossed her into the air.

Ditzy Doo was there, appearing in the air next to Starlight with her blazing energy claws flashing in crimson arcs. Starlight almost instantly recovered her balance and ducked the blow, ramming a first into Ditzy’s stomach so hard it seemed to distort her back. The mouth of Ditzy’s mask opened, blood spurting out. Purple energy crackled around her fist and Starlight fired a small bullet of power that smashed Ditzy into the ground in a burst of broken stone.

“You know, I feel like I’m talking to myself sometimes. This whole fight is pointless,” Starlight said in a rough hiss, landing in front of Ditzy Doo and stabbing down with her Zanpaktou.

Ditzy, despite her injuries, managed to flip out of the way, ending up landing vertically on the wall. There she spread her claws out, power pouring into them in a growingly intense stream of coiling red strands of power. “It’s not pointless to try and stop someone from making a mistake, Starlight! These girls are stronger than you’re giving them credit for, and we’re going to stop you, one way or another!”

Ditzy launched herself back at Starlight with such force that she broke apart a large portion of the wall in doing so. She let out a feral, feline howl and the claws grew even larger, and writhing flows of red spirit energy burst from her back in torrents. She slashed with both of of her claws, creating a combined X-shaped energy wave of blood red power that cascaded towards Starlight. Even as Sunset watched she could feel the ludicrous power being thrown out. Ditzy Doo wasn’t holding back.

Starlight countered with a raised finger and a gleaming sphere of dark purple power that radiated powerful Hollow reiatsu. That power continued to rise to a crushing height that eclipsed everything else in the room, gripping Sunset with a weight that bore down on her like Starlight had turned the sky itself into solid pressure. Not even Grogar had come close to this soul freezing level of condensed reiatsu, and it made Sunset feel like a flickering candle next to an gale force wind. Yet that only made her inner fire blaze hotter as she gathered her own strength, ready to leap in the moment the opening presented itself.

Starlight discharged a surprisingly thin and concentrated violet colored Cero blast into Ditzy’s attack, and the two currents of power clashing in a powerful explosion that rocked the entire room. The front half of the chamber became little more than a broken crater, and the blast knocked most the girls off their feet. The two attacks appeared to cancel each other out for the most part, but Ditzy Doo hadn’t stopped, and pounced right through the cloud of dust to rush in at Starlight in a series of flickering Flash Steps, finally landing a solid hit with an upward kick that caught Starlight under the chin and managed to throw the woman upwards.

Seeing the moment as the opening she’d been waiting for Sunset leaped up towards Starlight, all of her power and focus coiled into this next attack. At the same moment Rainbow Dash also zoomed in from the other side, clearly having been waiting for this same instant. Sunset saw Dash draw forth a long metal rod from the gem on her chest. Sunset saw that rod blaze to life with two electrical spear tips from either end that Rainbow Dash spun in an arc of crackling power. Sunset similarly poured her strength into Hokori, the broadsword turning into an azure beacon of radiant blue flame.

Both girls struck as one, lightning spear and fiery sword descending on Starlight with equal power and ferocity.

Starlight didn’t bother trying to evade, raising her Zanpaktou to catch Sunset’s blade while using her bare hand to do the same with Rainbow Dash’s twin lightning spear. Electricity and fire burst around Starlight as both girls unleashed their elemental powers onto her with their combined fury. Sunset roared all of her emotion out, Bankai or not she was intent on pouring as much as she could into this attack, concentrating the blue fires of the Aoihi Senko into a point blank blast strong enough to turn steel to ash. Rainbow’s lightning was no less intense, a white blue bolt of god-like thunder that deafened the room. Fire and lightning swirled around in an elemental storm, forming into a potent explosion that knocked both Sunset and Rainbow Dash back as it unleashed its fury upon Starlight.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Applejack threw her hands up and charged the gauntlets on her arms. Next to her Fluttershy put a hand on Applejack’s shoulders and all three of her eyes turned bright with flowing blue light as she poured her own power to augment Applejack’s. A twin golden beam of power erupted from Applejack’s fist and speared through the explosion of fire and electricity that Sunset and Rainbow Dash had created, burrowing into the ceiling above.

As rock and dust filled the ceiling and the growing crater there, Rarity gestured with flinty cold eyes, her whirlpool of blood swirling to form an ornate and deadly storm of arm-length needles. The crystal shower of crimson death flew into the storm of energy above, adding their deadly fury to the combined attack of all the girls, Pinkamena included as she used the Pinkie hammer to knock up a giant chunk of loose stone and smack it like a baseball into the center of the torrent, triggering a final explosions that drowned out all sound for a moment.

More rock and dust fell upon the girls from the breaking portions of the ceiling. To Sunset it seemed like they may have overdone it and that the whole chamber might collapse, but for the moment it held firm. The experiment chamber had been built to withstand these kind of forces, after all. In all the commotion Clover had long since reached the obelisk by the Crossgate and was quickly examining its console. Her eyes flew across the screen, one of her hands tapping keys rapidly.

“We’re almost out of time! Thirty seconds left!” she called out.

In her other hand, Chikshiki’s ring blade let out a metallic groan, and the green energy around it broke like shards of glass. The moment that happened Clover’s eyes shot wide.

“Crap! Sunset, watch out! Her Zanpaktou is active again!” Clover shouted in desperate warning, but as she did so Starlight appeared next to her.

Sunset couldn’t believe that despite that massive barrage of attacks Starlight had endured, aside from a few burns and scratches she looked unharmed. What did it take to slow her down!? Was all of this power coming just from that fusion with the Hokgyoku or was Starlight this strong before Discord’s crazy soul-ball thing came into the mix!? Either way it didn’t matter now, because Starlight was right next to Clover! Fear gripped Sunset as she tried to move to help Clover, but she’d drained herself so much from that last attack that even her Flash Step felt slow and sluggish to use.

Clover turned in a desperate move of her own, shock and fear written all over her paling gray features as she raised a palm to cast a Kido spell. Starlight’s free hand gripped the girl’s throat in an instant and lifted her off the ground, squeezing tightly. Without using the command phrase Starlight transformed her Zanpaktou into its pronged staff form, the Shikai’s two prongs touching Chishiki’s ring blade. Clover’s eyes went even wider and she tried to pull her Zanpaktou away, but it was if an invisible force held it fast. With a cold shock of realization, Clover understood that when Sekai Chitsujo overwhelmed Chishiki's suppression power the two Zanpaktou were still technically connected via that power. Chishiki was still using Hitei to try and suppress Starlight's power! Which meant...!  

“Nice Zanpaktou. Think I’ll take it,” Starlight said casually, Sekai Chitsujo glowing as it exerted its power upon Chishiki, forcing the other Zanpaktou to start shimmering into motes of light that were absorbed into Starlight’s staff. Because Chishiki had still been trying to utilize its own ability against Sekai Chitsujo, it could be targeted by Starlight's power. 

Despite being choked, Clover’s eyes flashed with a fierce, almost insane desperation and she shoved a hand into Starlight’s masked face, forcing the Kido chant past her constricted throat. “H-Hado Number Eleven: Tsuzuri Raiden!”

A crack of electricity sprang from her palm and right into Starlight’s face, yellow bolts of energy flowing over Starlight’s body with a boom of thunder. Sunset, finally able to move, started to cross the distance to them. Her own Zapaktou was alight with flames she was ready to set loose, willing to risk losing her own Zanpaktou if it meant saving Clover’s.

Yet Starlight barely flinched at Clover’s Kido attack, and with barely a split second of time the last of Chishiki’s form shimmered out into motes of light and were absorbed into Starlight’s staff. After that she dropped Clover and in a mind numbingly fast movement used the butt of Sekai Chitsujo’s staff to slam Clover in the chest and send her flying like a skipping stone.

Sunset forced the course of her Flash Step to alter and caught Clover mid-bounce, holding the girl tightly with her shield arm while charging flames up in Hokori to unleash them on Starlight... but Sunset hesitated as the other woman raised her own Zanpaktou, its staff shape still glowing with power. The fact that Starlight could do that without the release phrase clued Sunset into the fact that Starlight clearly had Bankai. A part of her had been hoping that maybe the cocky woman hadn’t bothered to take her connection with her Zanpaktou that far. It also signaled just how much Starlight must have been holding back in this fight, if she wasn’t even bothering with Bankai.

“Go ahead. I’ll gladly take your Zanpaktou as well if you want to give it up so freely,” Starlight said with a smug smile, daring Sunset to attack her.

Coughing, Clover shook her head, gripping Sunset’s sword arm. “Don’t, we can’t afford to lose your Zanpaktou too...”

Clover’s voice sounded gutted and hollow. Sunset looked at the girl and saw how hard Clover was trying to keep tears from falling from them. Clover’s body was trembling in Sunset’s grip as Sunset landed lightly on the ground ten or so meters from Starlight. She set Clover down and looked at her with a sea of worry, seeing the twisted look of loss on Clover’s face that the other Soul Reaper was trying very hard to hide as she looked at Starlight’s Zanpaktou

“Give him back!” Clover shouted, teeth clenched. “He doesn’t belong with you!”

“Sorry, beg to differ.” Starlight chided, twirling her staff, then whispering to it a familiar command phrase.

“Seek, Chishiki.”

Immediately the form of Sekai Chitsujo wavered and transformed into the shape of Chishiki, and Starlight held the Zanpaktou with the grace and ease of someone who had used it her whole life. Clover gasped as if punched squarely in her gut while Starlight smiled thinly.

“Nice balance. I can’t wait to test him out, take him for a decent spin.”

Clover’s shaking doubled in Sunset’s grip and the girl tore herself away from Sunset, tears now streaming down her face as she threw a palm out. “Give. Him. Back!”

A frosty blue aura erupted around Clover, particles of water gathering around her like raindrops as she chanted a new Kido spell.

”Hado Number Sixty Six: Shin’en no Kiba!”] (Fangs of the Abyss)

Black water, as if summoned from the darkest ocean depths, formed in four coiling spheres around Clover. Sunset felt the chilling fury contained inside the spell and pouring off Clover, reminding her momentarily of Celestia’s long ago warnings of the dangers of Equestria’s darker magics. With a otherworldly shout Clover fired her Kido, the four spheres of water lancing out with black spears of super-pressurized and condensed water that were so strong they literally knifed through the stone floor like it was butter as they trailed towards Starlight.

Starlight merely hefted Chishiki and spun the Zanpaktou in front of her at insane speed, chanting her own Kido with casual indifference. “Bakudo Number Thirty Nine: Enkosen.” (Round Lock Fan)

A field of disc-shaped, shining yellow force appeared around the spinning Chishiki, the relatively low level defensive Kido empowered by Starlight’s raw reiatsu to easily absorb the crushing blows from the spears of pressurized, abyssal water. As the water sprayed harmlessly around Starlight, Clover, shaking and sweating while staring bleakly at her Zanpaktou in the other woman’s grip, just fell to her knees.

“S-sorry,” Clover said with labored breaths, her eyes turning slightly glazed as sweat dripped from her chin, “I’m so sorry Chikshiki. I didn’t have time to do anything, and I couldn’t move fast enough. I wasn’t strong enough to hold on to you.”

Sunset let go of her shield’s handle, Hikari still tied to her arm by the strap as she held Clover’s shoulder tightly, “Shh, it's okay. We’ll get Chishiki back, somehow. You have my word.”

The rest of the girls all started to surround Starlight in a semi-circle around the obelisk. Each of them looked nearly exhausted themselves. All of the fighting had drained each of them, but all of them were still poised to keep fighting. Not a one of them looked prepared to give up, no matter how bleak things were looking. Even Clover managed to force herself back to her feet with Sunset’s help, and stood ready beside her friends to continue the fight.

However Starlight snapped her fingers and lifted her Hollow mask off her grinning face.

“Aaaand that’s that,” said Starlight, jabbing a thumb at the console. “Time’s up, and I can bid you nuisances a fond farewell.”

The entire room was rapidly bathed in a wash of silvery light as the portal within the Crossgate started to spin like a coin on a table. The image of the strange dead, desert forest blurred into a silvery stream, and the light grew brighter and saturated every portion of the room.

Sunset felt her spiritual senses go haywire as her sense of everything around her grew distorted, as if the very reishi particles making up all the matter around her was vibrating at high frequency. It completely threw off her sense of balance, and she could just barely tell that her friends, Clover, Ditzy Doo, they were all experiencing the same massive disorientation. It wasn’t just as if the world was spinning, it was as if it had turned into a silver bathed kaleidoscope that they were stuck in the middle of.

She heard Starlight’s voice clearly, however.

“If nothing else I do want to thank you, Sunset Shimmer, for bringing all your friends here and wreaking half of Soul Society in the process. I think I’ve seen everything I need to see to say I’ve got a handle on this ‘magic’ from your home.”

Even as it felt like reality was trying to wring her guts out, Sunset still managed to focus upon the twisting image of Starlight she could see and spoke with surprisingly clarity.

“You haven’t seen anything of magic yet. Not mine. Not my friends. But trust me... you will.”

“Aw, that almost sounded like a credible threat. Let me quake in my shoes for a-”

”Quiet!” Sunset growled, and Starlight actually did, leaving Sunset a final moment for one last parting shot.

“We’re coming after you. I promise you, we’re coming after you, and stopping you from harming my home, or Equestria.”

Sound itself was growing distorted now, and Starlight’s voice sounded almost confused. “I thought Equestria was your home?”

“It was. Now this world is. And you’re going to regret screwing with it, and me.”

“...Good luck with that.”

Then everything turned solid, liquid silver and white, vibrating so much that Sunset felt like the world was shaking apart.

An instant later there was a popping noise, and suddenly it was all gone. The world returned and Sunset found herself and her friends hanging in the air above a giant crater in the ground and all of them were falling.

“Whoacrap!” Sunset flailed for a moment before managing to push enough reishi out of her feet to skid along the air.

There was a blur of rainbow motion as Rainbow Dash snatched Pinkamena and Rarity out of the air. Ditzy Doo and Clover were able to stand on the air like Sunset was, while Fluttershy managed a few gentle wing flaps to land on the bottom of the crater safely. Applejack’s armored legs and arms provided thrusters of energy she used to land as well, and in a few moments they were all gathered at the bottom of the crater.

“What n’ the hay just happened!?” Applejack shouted, “Where’d everythin’ go!?”

Ditzy Doo, taking off her Hollow mask and letting it dissipate in a puff of shadow, looked around with a dour expression. “Hitsuyo Aku... she took the whole damn thing. Hooooboy, Discy is not going to have kittens when he hears that.”

“So what, no more baddies to try and nom on? But I’m still hungry!” said Pinkamena, smacking the Pinkie hammer into the ground.

“Ow! Mena, watch the starvation rage!”

Rarity looked at them all with a carefully controlled expression, but Sunset could see the worry brimming in her eyes. “So, what does this mean?”

Rainbow Dash was putting away her lightning spear, merging it back with the gem on her armored chest, her own face no less grim. “Means the bad guys got away with all the toys they wanted, and things are... more complicated than I thought.”

Clover shuddered, her empty hands clenching and unclenching as she looked forlornly at the ground. There was a heavy pall over the group, a moment of tired, exhausted silence that hung like a fog between them all.

Sunset took a deep breath, feeling the angry burn from Hokori, and a gentle coolness from Hikari, both halves of her Zanpaktou filling her with one, strong thought that pushed through the grave malaise threatening to blanket her and her friends.

“It means that for now it's over. It means Celestia and Luna are safe, and Soul Society can get its head out of its rear and lick whatever wounds it's taken. It means that we’re strong enough now that our enemies would rather run than stick around and face all of us together. And it means that once we’ve recovered our strength... we’re going to go save Equestria.”