The being wearing the face of a pony smiled a toothy smile wider than any creature had a right to possess. As the echo of my voice died, Entropy took a step forward, the hazy shadow the surrounded it turning darker.
“Ah,” it sighed. “It’s always so nice to recognized.” It turned its gaze on me. “And I’m surprised that you all came here so quickly. Ponies are usually more prone to panic when faced with my minions. I suppose I didn’t even need to utilize those silly cultists this time, though they were useful in replenishing my numbers and providing me with a face for the time.”
I gritted my teeth. I was starting to hear tiny screams behind every word it spoke, and in the corner of my eyes I saw Twilight and Cadence step forward, wings spread.
“As a matter of fact, had I known it would have been so easy to rile up the princesses so easily,” Entropy chuckled. “I wouldn’t have had to burn down those homes. Well, I likely would have anyway, mind you. It just would have been out of pure fun instead of necessity.”
Anger flared in my chest. Images of my home in flames, ash staining Sunshine and Glory’s coats, the sight of the burned out husks I had seen before we left Canterlot all flickered past as my horn burst into red light.
“You burned those homes?” I growled, the chill of the frozen north creeping into my voice. “Just to get our attention?” I twisted my front hooves, grinding some of the loose gravel and soil down.
“Oh, of course,” Entropy waved a hoof in dismissal. “They would have all burned eventually as the world died, but I needed the you here before I could act myself.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight demanded.
Entropy smiled its shark-toothed grin at us again. “If the Sun and Moon had just returned here as they have throughout time, then I would have been released just as easy as you please. But they had to return incomplete.”
“When they had passed some power to us,” the lavender pony whispered. “They didn’t return with the full power.”
“So you needed them to come here so the full power of the diarchs would be here,” Cadence surmised.
“Oh, I didn’t need them to bring the power here,” Entropy chuckled. “As the diarchs perform their ritual, their missing power would have returned by the end. But they would have also been able to contain me still. But, since you brought it here early…”
Entropy waved a hoof and I staggered as fatigue slammed into my mind. I saw Twilight sag as well, and Entropy’s form seemed to waver, becoming larger and more hazy. The stallion’s body it inhabited seemed more and more just a puppet.
“I may just be able to slip free and bring on the end of the world,” it growled, the ground starting to shake as the words echoed in the cavern. “Starting with Canterlot.”
Sunshine looked up as the palace began to shudder, stepping back as the telescope she had been studying the strange patches of starless sky toppled over.
“Now what?” Tempest growled, hooves held wide to steady herself.
“I don’t know,” Starlight said as she lit her horn and caught a vase that fell from a shelf. “I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
“And the region isn’t prone to seismic disturbances according to my studies,” Moondancer said, her words a little garbled through her swollen lip. She looked at Sunshine, a crack in her glasses making her gaze appear to be doubled. “Do you think this has anything to do with the strange lack of stars?”
Sunshine turned and looked out towards where Sunset and Twilight had flown off. “I don’t know.”
A sudden screech ripped through the air, drawing their attention out the window to a large group of Blights assaulting the castle guard in the courtyard, forgoing their usual shadow globes. Several guards had already been struck down, some writhing as their coats began to burn and split as pustules and blisters formed. Sunshine paled as she saw one of the guards stagger to his feet, a tentacle bursting forth from his jaw, his cry of agony turning into a piercing screech.
“But I hope they hurry if it is.”
I was furious. We had left to try and stop somepony from destroying Equestria and we had inadvertently given them the tools to do just that. Entropy had been laughing since announcing that it had already launched an attack on the palace.
“Shut up,” I growled.
The laughter trailed off. “Excuse me?”
“I said, shut up,” I shouted. The fire of my anger was flowing through my blood. “I won’t let you hurt anypony else.”
Entropy frowned and looked at me strangely, then the shark grin returned. “Ah,” it purred. “You have someone special you care for out there. Maybe I should spare them for last.”
“You’ll have to go through me,” I growled, bringing mana to my horn and feeling it flow along my body as I squared off.
“Oh, please,” Entropy scoffed. “What do you think you can do? A mere ascended pony. I am one of the eternal forces of this world, timeless and endless. You lack the power to stop me.”
“On my own, perhaps,” I uttered, feeling the power building up, the tiny pebbles around my hooves beginning to quake. “But I’m not on my own.”
The pony’s face acted like it was trying to hold in laughter, though the faint voices that drifted around cackled. “Oh, I’m so worried about two Ascended ponies and lost remnant of an old lineage. None of you know how to stop me. I am an unstoppable force of nature!”
I grinned.
Spreading my wings, I stood as tall as I could and spoke slowly and as calmly as I could.
“Armis Solis Invictus.” My words echoed down the cavern, and light exploded from my torc.
I could feel mana surging through my veins as the torc’s enchantment activated, armor appearing around my barrel, legs, and wings. A helm appeared on my head as my mane and tail took on the appearance of flames, tiny flares flying off as I ground my hooves into the ground, feeling power flowing up into my body.
“What is that?” Entropy asked, taking a step back, his shadowy haze contracting for a moment.
“The Solar Bulwark. Armor forged back in the days of the last pony war, worn by Celestia herself.” I felt like I was burning alive as the magic boiled inside me. Light radiated off from me as though the sun had been pulled down and placed between my wings. “With millennia of ambient magic stored within boosting my power to the same level as the Princess.”
I began shunting power into my horn, seeing the bright flares as magic simmered, being held back only by an effort of will.
“And I’ll show you what an unstoppable force is.”