//------------------------------//
// Infinity Smash 
// Story: The Supervillain Flu 
// by TheDriderPony 
//------------------------------//

It was getting around that time of day where pedantic ponies start to argue about whether it's 'late afternoon' or 'early evening' when Starlight and Trixie met back up with Twilight and Spike. Neither group was in great condition. Both teams looked worn out and tired with manes that were fraying from stress and exertion. Except for Spike, who didn't have a mane, but whose head frills drooped in fatigue as well.

"Well, this is it." Trixie announced as she flopped to the ground. "Trixie has tried being a hero and decided that you can keep the job. Trixie is tired and worn out and fed up with ponies who can't keep their tenses in place when talking in the third pony!"

"I take it you've been dealing with a lot of sick ponies?" Twilight asked.

Starlight placed a hoof on Trixie's withers and nodded. "Oh yeah. A lot of small robberies, a couple of lover's spats turned magical arms race, and no less than four ponies who seemed to have taken inspiration from Trixie's act and stage character."

"You can't just say  the same words as Trixie and do the same thing! Trixie owns to the rights to her persona and she will see them in court!"

Twilight hid a small laugh behind a hoof, but it turned out to be unnecessary as fatigue stole the air from her. "It's been nonstop for us too. It seems like every time we finish subduing a sick pony and getting them to a friend for supervision, another villain starts maniacally cackling around the next corner! It doesn't make any sense. The flu made it's way through Canterlot and they only had five reported cases of supervillainy in the whole city!"

"Maybe Ponyville ponies just are more inclined towards evil?" Spike offered.

Twilight snorted. "Well, that would certainly explain a lot. Still, despite this statistically ridiculous number of cases, the breakout rate seems to be dropping off, so I feel confident in saying that I think we can rest easy for the night."

And then the sun disappeared.

The sudden absence of the life-giving celestial orb was not, as one might initially suspect, the result of a tired white alicorn who just wanted to hurry the schedule up and go to sleep already after a thankless day of listening to nobles whine. Nor was it the action of a certain draconequus borrowing the heavenly body to use as an after dinner mint to try an remove the aftertaste of his own horribly mangled attempt to grill hayburgers 'the old fashioned way' for his house guest. The sun was in fact, very much where it was supposed to be. There was just an enormous figure obscuring it from Ponyville.

It wasn't so much a pony as it was the absence of one. A black void like a silhouette cut from the very fabric of the universe that sucked in all light. Except for the eyes. Its eyes were like pools of crisp, white starlight in the void; stark and attention grabbing.

Opening a mouth that was a darkness discernible even within the void, it spoke.

CITIZENS OF PONYVILLIE...

FOR YEARS YOU HAVE LIVED YOUR LIVES IN BLISSFUL JOY. FEASTING ON THE FRUITS OF PEACE AND SIPPING FROM A CUP WHICH RUNNETH OVER.  BUT WHEN ONE LIVES ONLY IN LIGHT, THEY FORGET THE DARKNESS AND NO LONGER APPRECIATE WHAT THEY HAVE.

"What is that?!" Trixie cried, scrambling to her hooves.

"I don't know," Twilight replied as she readied her horn for combat, "But it looks... somehow familiar."

The figure reared up to even greater heights, now fully casting the entire town in shadow.

UNTIL TODAY, YOUR LIVES HAVE BEEN LIKE ONE NEVER ENDING PARTY. BUT TODAY, I HAVE DECIDED THAT IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE OF VENUE.  TIME TO TEAR DOWN THE OLD DECORATIONS TO MAKE ROOM FOR NEW. TIME TO THROW AWAY THE OLD CAKE AND START FRESH. DO NOT DESPAIR, FOR EVERY ENDING IS BUT ANOTHER'S NEW BEGINNING. BECAUSE ONCE A PARTY ENDS, THAT'S WHEN THE REAL FUN BEGINS.

"Don't you think," Starlight began hesitantly, "With the shape of it's mane, it almost looks like..."

FOR I.

"No," Twilight gasped, "It couldn't be!"

AM.

"It is." Spike groaned.

AFTERPARTY!

With a roar that shook houses to their foundations and bent full grown trees like saplings, Afterparty announced herself to the world. Meanwhile, the ponies below argued over how to handle her.

"We can't fight her!" Twilight insisted.

"We don't have a choice." Starlight rebutted, "She's going to destroy the town!"

"But it's Pinkie Pie. She wouldn't hurt a fly!"

With Twilight having thoroughly cocked Murphy's gun with that statement, Afterparty smashed her foreleg to the ground, demolishing a block of houses.

"Yeah," Spike added dryly, "But she's not Pinkie right now. Just think of how much damage even normal Pinkie could cause if she went on a rampage, let alone one out of her mind on evil germs!" 

Twilight's mind locked up as warring thoughts clashed. Save the town; that should have been her default priority. But to do that she'd have to fight against a friend, one of her first and dearest friends. Twilight shook her head. No, she couldn't think like that. It wouldn't be a betrayal, it would be... it would be... tough love. Yes! The conflict cleared from her mind like clouds before the dawning of her realization. It was for Pinkie's own good and the good of all the ponies in the town. Sometimes you had to be cruel to be kind, in the right measure of course. 

"Alright." she declared with new strength in her eyes. "For her own good, and the safety of everypony in Ponyville, we have to take Pinkie down. Spike, you go get Rainbow Dash then help start evacuating any ponies that haven't already left on their own. Starlight, Trixie, you're with me. Remember: we don't want to hurt her, she's still Pinkie under all that." 

Afterparty looked down at the group that charged on her position, horns lit and ready.

SO YOU'RE GONNA RESIST THEN? SO BE IT. I'D BE HAPPY TO TAKE THE TIME TO PLAY WITH YOU. AFTER ALL, Her gaping maw split into a predatory grin. NO ONE EVER SAID THAT EVIL CAN'T BE FUN!"

Three magical blasts fired towards Afterparty. One hit but was knocked away. Another hit and was absorbed to no effect. One went wide and somehow managed to miss the titanic figure that took up most of sky.

"Trixie, you keep her attention down here below while we attack from above." Twilight instructed as she took to the sky. Her body covered in a teal glow, Starlight flew after her.

"Sure," Trixie grumbled, "Just leave the illusionist defenseless here on the ground while you two powerhouses go together. I see no problems with this plan." 

Still grumbling, Trixie began conjuring as many eye-catching illusions as she could. Fireworks and flowers, ghostly figures and random bursts of color and light. It worked, all too well, as Afterparty bent down to give Trixie her full attention. Seeing a giant foreleg lowering like an executioner's axe, she yelped and leapt aside, barely dodging it. She just managed to get her footing when she felt the air pressure increase as the other foreleg came into play.  

In the skies, two very powerful magic users primed their horns. Twilight quirked her head to the side as she recognized her student's spellwork.

"You're using Cascade's Magical Disrupter?"

"Of course. What are you using?"

"Starswirl's Arcane Eliminator."

Starlight nearly faltered her magical hovering. "Star- but the power efficiency on that spell is awful!"

"True, but it's also so stably designed that it has no maximum output. I reasoned that it was worth the trade-off." She glanced down below where Afterparty seemed to be playing Whack-a-Trixie in the way that a cat plays with a mouse: timing her swings to only just miss the unicorn each time. "My current plan is utilize a single large blast, knock her out so she's no longer a threat, then deal with her size issues."

"Yeah, about that..." Starlight shifted uncomfortably, "How exactly is she so big? I don't think the supervillain virus could do this."

"It's Pinkie. I'm not surprised at all that she had a unique reaction, and I learned long ago that it's better not to question anything associated with Pinkie." 

Starlight frowned. "That feels more than a little dangerously over-encompassing, but there's too much else going on for me to deal with that right now."

As their magic reached critical levels, the pair fired. Two beams of magic, one pink the other blue, raced towards Afterparty, sizzling through her mane and striking true to the back of her head. 

"OW! THAT STINGS!"

Twilight's mouth dropped in shock and hung there. "Stings? It stings?!" she cried in disbelief, "That shot should have knocked a dragon out!"

"Got a Plan B?" Starlight asked nervously.

"Fire again! Fire everything!"

But blast after magic blast did little more than irritate Afterparty, and her swinging forelegs were making it harder and harder to concentrate on charging and aiming their spells.

"Hey! Did somepony call for air support?"

Rainbow Dash soared onto the scene and did a double-take as she realized just what she was flying towards. "Whoa! Is that... Pinkie?" She grinned. "That mare doesn't half-flank anything does she?"

"Dash!" Twilight called, "Our magic isn't having any effect on her and I'm running out of ideas. We need to knock her out, for her own safety and the town's."

Her worried tone was received with a cocky grin. "Don't worry, I'll hit her with my signature move!"

The pegasus shot skyward, in moments becoming a mere speck in the sky. A speck that suddenly started to get bigger again. Twilight and Starlight fled the impending impact zone, one of them grabbing Trixie as they went. Wisps of rainbow magic started to form around Dash as the angle of her mach cone grew smaller and smaller. Afterparty looked up and grinned as she noticed the rapidly approaching magic corona. 

THAT'S NOT GOING TO WORK!

With a speed and agility that belied her size, Afterparty dodged back a step, grinding a trench in the earth and putting her outside the strikezone. With not enough time to correct her course, all Rainbow could do was continue through with the maneuver. She pulled off in a screeching perpendicular turn barely a pony-length above Afterparty's defensively raised hoof and rode off on the Rainboom's shockwave. Despite being near the point of impact, Afterparty braced herself and weathered the blast, coming out the other side with little more than a ruffled mane.

"It's no good! No matter what we do she just shrugs it off!" Twilight yelled, "R-Retreat! Fall back!" 

"Go! Go!" Rainbow Dash urged, "I'll keep her busy while you come up with a plan. Hey Pinks! Betcha can't catch me!"

Two unicorns and an alicorn retreated to a safe distance, panting and sweating with exertion, while Rainbow Dash busted out her full Wonderbolts stunt routine to keep Afterparty occupied. Once they were safely out of range, Trixie once more collapsed onto the ground. 

"Ok..." she gasped, "This is it. I'm calling it. Trixie votes we submit ourselves to our new giant overlord and just get it over with."

"We can't just give up!" Starlight insisted, "We have to do something!"

All Twilight could do was shake her head despondently. "She's fast, magically and physically resistant, and outweighs us several hundred times. I don't think the four of us are enough. We need help!"

Just then, the air was filled with a noise somewhere between a zipper unzipping and water whirl-pooling down a drain. A portal of swirling colors appeared in the air just before them. With a quiet vworp!, the portal dislodged a yellow figure and vanished.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed, "What are you doing here? I thought you were staying safe with Discord?"

The buttery pegasus nodded. "I was. We've been watching you keep the town safe from his living room. At first I felt okay just sitting this adventure out since nopony seemed to really be in real danger and you seemed to have everything covered, but this..." She glanced over to where Afterparty seemed to have devised a game out of trying to catch Rainbow Dash midflight with a pair of wooden poles. "I just couldn't sit back and watch while my friends were in danger!"

Twilight smiled, her heart warmed by the ferocity of the fires of their friendship. "Thank you Fluttershy, that means a lot. However," The ground rumbled as Afterparty shifted her weight in a long-stretched grab which only missed Rainbow Dash by a hair's breadth. "I just don't know how much one more pony is going to help. She's just so powerful!" 

"Well, Discord did give me this, but told me only to use it if the situation looked really bad."  Fluttershy shifted her wings to reveal a small white box tied shut with a red ribbon.

The earth trembled again and a nearby building creaked alarmingly. "I don't think it could get much worse!" Starlight commented.

Nodding, Fluttershy undid the bow and removed the box's lid. Immediately, her hopeful face became clouded with emotions. Apprehension, worry, uncertainty, and no small amount of fear. "Oh." The fear seemed to stand out prominently as she looked back to her friends. "Yes, this might help. But it's risky."

"There's no time to do things by half measures," Trixie warned as she fidgeted, her eyes constantly darting back to the dangerous game of cat and mouse going on unnervingly close by. "We need all the help we can get."

Nodding, Fluttershy reached into the box and pulled out... a hat. An artillery visor cap, for those who kept track of such things. Forest green with a black brim and red trim. The hat was soon followed by a pair of matching pants, boots, a belt, and a long skirted jacket.

Twilight gasped as she realized what her friend was about to do. "No, it's too dangerous. You remember what happened last time."

Fluttershy closed her eyes a moment, took a deep breath, and let it out with a sad smile. "It's alright Twilight. Just... when everything's over... help me remember who I am again."

Twilight nodded solemnly, as did Starlight and Trixie, even though they had no idea what she was talking about.

Wasting no time, Fluttershy began to dress. She pulled up the pants, followed by the thick-soled boots. Her wings slid through perfectly aligned holes in the jacket, lined with red piping. Button after button quickly sealed the pegasus inside her outfit, as did the cinched belt. A strange energy seemed to fill the air as she donned each piece, a static-like charge of anticipation that made her mane frizz and split and crinkle. Finally, Fluttershy closed her eyes and donned the hat. With a swift tug of the brim, it fit snugly into place as though it had been made for her. And when she opened her eyes... they were different.

Gone was the fear, the worry, the trepidation; even the timidity and kindness seemed to have taken a backseat. The void they left behind was filled with a steel that seemed to make everypony present stand up a little straighter. There was power in those eyes. A calm calculating gaze that seemed to take in the world, analyze it, and spit it back out in distaste. There was a fire there too, a ravenousness like a chained dog just waiting to be released.  

Kindness was not home right now, and cold, efficient tactics had taken up residence.

"Situation report." Fluttershy demanded, her voice as hard and unwavering as an anvil.

"Uh, well, you put on a suit and now you're talking like one of the guard." Trixie offered, still completely lost as to what had just happened.

"From someone competent." Fluttershy growled.

Twilight figured out what she was looking for first, having met similarly minded ponies while her brother was in guard training. She needed the relevant information presented to her as quickly and efficiently as possible. "One major opponent." She stated, pointing to where Afterparty was starting to get frustrated with her game. "Infected with supervillain virus and about to start destructive rampage. Very likely Pinkie Pie."

Fluttershy grunted. "So nonlethal strategies then. Her strengths?"

"Very magically resistant, but not entirely. Strength proportional to her size. No signs of Pinkie Sense or her other usual abilities."

Fluttershy nodded as she tracked Rainbow Dash's flight and Afterparty's trailing movements. "And on our side?" 

"My, Starlight's, and Trixie's magic. Rainbow Dash. And you."

The military garbed pegasus scowled. "That's it? That's all we have?"

"There's no one else left." Starlight insisted, "It's just us... and her."

Her scowl deepened. "Not good enough. You said it yourself, we're not enough." Her expression cleared for a moment as an idea came to her, an option she never would have even considered exploiting in her usual mindset, before she cleared her face with grim set determination.

"Alright, Twilight, fly high. Starlight, go low enough that she can't focus on both of you at once. Low powered spells, don't waste your energy, just enough to keep her attention from the town. Trixie-"

"Trixie... Trixie needs a minute to regain her stamina."

"Fine. You'd only get in the way anyway."

"Hey!" But her protests went unheard.

Twilight nodded in agreement, as the plan was similar enough of her previous one. "What about you?" 

"I'll do what I can about some backup. Now go!"

Once again, Twilight and Starlight took off to rejoin Dash while Trixie gave up any pretenses and completely splayed herself out on the ground. Meanwhile, Fluttershy removed a banana-themed field radio from a pocket and extended its antenna. Static cracked for a moment before dying to a low background hum.

"This is Pine Cone calling Blue Fairy. I repeat, Pine Cone calling Blue Fairy. Do you read me Blue Fairy? Over."

"Yeeeello." A tinny version of Discord's scratchy voice echoed out of the tiny speaker. "This is Blue Fairy. What can I do you for Pine Cone?"

"We're getting figuratively slaughtered out here!" she yelled back into the radio, "We need reinforcements, back-up, anything and everything we can throw at this thing! We need you!"

"No can do on that last one," he replied, jovial as ever. "Can't directly interfere with this fight. Cosmic ordinance."

Her eye twitched. But before she could really tell him where he could stick his excuses, he continued. "But I can send you someone else to help. Anyone you want, even. Anypony or creature you can think of."

"Send in..." Fluttershy hesitated. She turned back to the battle, where Twilight and Starlight were still firing off their magic to little effect. Who could she call? Who would be best suited to take down a titan? A princess? A villain? Someone with brute strength or someone with incredible skills? She frowned as Rainbow Dash barely dodged a casually swung foreleg that could have leveled a building. Impossible. There was nopony. No one pony had the kind of power or skills or abilities to take down that behemoth on their own!

In a very literal sense (which was probably Discord's doing), a light came on over her head. Maybe that was it. That was the solution. She gave Discord her answer and his grin was audible over the radio. "Roger that, Pine Cone. Brace for incoming reinforcements."

She snapped the banana-phone shut and turned to Trixie, who was still trying to catch her breath. "Trixie," Her cool and collected demeanor suddenly returned, "You said before you know something of supervillains?"

"Huh? What? Ah, I guess?" The magician stumbled at the sudden segue. "I mean, Trixie has read a few comics, but she never claimed to be an expert or-."

"Can you tell me then," Fluttershy interrupted, "What separates a villain from a supervillain?"

"Er... presentation?"

A muffled explosion sounded in the distance. Trixie whirled around, startled, but Fluttershy merely laughed lightly. "That is true, very true. But there is one other thing."

From another direction, a second muffled explosion boomed, this one sounding less fiery and more like stone crumbling and shattering. 

"A villain will do his dirty work and go, regardless of the actions of others or anything other than the focus of their crime. A supervillain..." A sly grin grin appeared on her features. "...hates being upstaged."

Rhythmic thumping echoed from one of the side roads, pounding and pulsing like a great drum. Trixie backed away in fear, cowering behind Fluttershy whose grin had not diminished. "W-Who... who did you call?"

Fluttershy's grin grew and grew until her face was split apart by a truly demonic smile and a mad fire filled her eyes. "Simple... I called in everyone."

"Hey you!" a voice cried from the rooftops. To the west, atop some unfortunate pony's partially destroyed roof, her burlap cape aflutter, Applejack scowled into the fray. "Y'all are blocking out the Sun! I need that for my apples. So you best get to shrinkin' right on back down where you belong or by golly I'm gonna give you such a wallop!"

And then Rarity's boutique exploded.

That's not to say that there was a fireball, but rather, the front walls merely burst outward from within. Ponequins spilled onto the streets, walking in jerky, mechanical movements as the huddled mob quickly aligned itself into ranks. They marched forward in perfect step, in dresses and suits and outfits beyond description like the world's most fashionable army. An apt description, given the circumstances. Soon, a palanquin emerged from the wreckage that had once been the front doors of the boutique, held aloft by a dozen ponequins in matching uniform. Atop it sat Rarity, or rather, The Marchioness, dressed in her finest and most extravagant gown. "Behold!" she declared, "My empire shall expand beyond my current demesne. Soon the world shall know the might of my fashion, starting with Ponyville." She then noticed Afterparty and gasped. "Starting with you! Black on black? This goes beyond a crime against fashion, this is Lèse-majesté against fashion! Lords and ladies of my court!" The ponequins snapped to attention. Snapping her folding fan shut, The Marchioness pointed it at the giant like a conductor's baton. "Remove that offense to style from my sight!"

With a rustle of wings Twilight landed next to Fluttershy and Trixie, who were still grinning and cowering, respectively. "What in the world is going on?" she asked, "Where are--" Cut off mid-sentence, she yelped and leaped aside as the ground began to crumble beneath her hooves. A moment later, the dirt fell away leaving a pony-sized hole out of which popped a gray and purple head topped with a spiked helmet.

"Ah." The mare stated. "Ponyville. We're here. So we did take the right turn at Stallbuquerque." She glanced up and noticed the towering figure of Afterparty. "Oh. This again." 

She deftly hopped out of the hole and gave Twilight a courtesy nod before speaking back into the pit. "Alright boys, time to come out and meet your Aunt Pinkie. Take her down. Non-lethal only."

The ground rumbled for a moment before, of all things, a diamond dog burst forth. "Aye Alpha!" He cried before dashing off towards where others had begun to gather. A moment later he was followed by second dog with another cry of "Aye, Alpha". And then there was another dog. Then another. And another. Followed next by a particularly scrawny one which instead cried "On it, Mama Maud!"

Dogs evacuated the hole in an unending stream before eventually the final one exited. A very small smile crept onto Maud's lips, barely detectable except by those who truly knew how to read her expressions. "Good boys. Now make Mama proud."

Meanwhile, from the East side of town came a noise of clanking metal. A brief light show blinded those who looked at it directly as the low evening sunlight reflected off a sea of metal.

A veritable army of mechanical marvels came down the street in all shapes and sizes. Some were based on animals, ponies, and other creatures while others looked completely inorganic. Boxy beasts rumbled forward on 'borrowed' wagon wheels while others glided on membranous wings of paper and fabric. There was no consistent style or material; like a junkyard or thrift store had suddenly come to life and begun birthing creatures from whatever parts it consisted of.

At the center of it all was a mechanical pony as tall as Celestia but with a build that could rival Big Macintosh's. White fog escaped from vents on its legs, glossing the ground with frost as it walked. On it's enormous back sat two ponies. One sat coolly behind a turntable-turned-control panel, a wide grin on her face as her horn blinked a rapid sequence of lights; a pattern that many of the machines seemed to repeat. Sitting behind her was a very distressed-looking Octavia, who looked as though she was stuck in the middle of that one particular dream where she's about to perform a solo for the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra but she doesn't have her sheet music and her cello is a fish.

"I'm sorry!" she cried suddenly, seeing ponies gathered ahead of her, "I tried to stop her, but she built so many and then they all left the house at once! And she keeps building more as they loot the stores we pass!" But her voice was practically drowned out by the whirs, clicks, blips, and bloops of the sea of machines in which she was adrift.

Vinyl Scratch's cocky smile dropped as a thudding noise cut into the offbeat notes of her mechanically synchronized choir. She looked up as a shadow fell over her and her mount. Standing twice as tall as her mecha-pony was a bipedal magical golem made entirely out of sofas and quills. Through its face hole one could see it being piloted from within by none other than Davenport. He grinned smugly and waved, an arm and a wing of his magic mech suit moving in sync with his foreleg. A moment later, his smile likewise fell as a shadow was cast over him, much like he had done to Vinyl only a moments before. Mirroring her earlier movements, he turned to the right and saw an even larger figure.. This new contender had seemingly been built from whole trees with many small, wheeled mechanical parts at the joints. From within the small one-room building that made up its head came a battle cry that left no mystery as to its pilots.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Zord Pilots! Yay!"

Davenport and Vinyl both stared, eyes wide and mouths agape. Only Octavia was able to actually vocalize a thought. "My word... How in Celestia's name did you manage to build that?"

"Magic," Sweetie Belle replied.

"Apple trees," Apple Bloom added.

"And a whole lot of tree sap." Scootaloo finished with a cheeky grin.

Sweetie Belle still wore the gown Rarity had given her when she was playing the role of the Duchess, only she'd removed the unwieldy skirt to reveal that it also had leggings built-in underneath. Applebloom and Scootaloo had been gifted similar dresses-turned-speedsuits in orange and cyan, respectively.

"Uh, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash said as she coasted in for a landing where the other round one combatants had converged. "We may have a bit of a problem."

"Yeah, I know. I can see the ponies pouring in from every street."

"What? Oh. Yeah, Them too, but that's not what I meant.

Twilight's eyes widened. ”Wait, then what were you talking about? “

She pointed to something behind Twilight and her companions. “Blossomforth is back, and she brought the whole weather office with her."

With a roar of thunder and crack of lightning, the aforementioned pegasus made herself known. As angry as ever, she rode atop her once-again remodeled place of work, this time accompanied by several other pegasi who looked as equally emotional as her. Between the group of them, they'd re-sculpted the entire Ponyville weather bureau office into a flying galleon like the pegasi warships of old. A mobile fortress thick with defenses and riddled with thunder cannons and lightning dispensers. The proud helm of their mighty battleship was sculpted like the skull of a pony and high energy static discharges arced endlessly within the sockets, lighting them from within and giving the whole ship a ghostly blue glow.

From across the road, a dapper stallion took in the gathering forces with a grim expression. "Well then," he said to no one in particular, "This certainly doesn't look good." For a moment, the armies of robots and animate clothing stands stole away his attention, but with a shake of his head he refocused. "They say it's a dark day when a good stallion goes to war." A shadow fell over him as Afterparty reared higher. "And this is a dark day indeed."

Time Turner knocked a switch with his hoof, bringing to life a pump on the strange device strapped across his body. A piston began to pulse, slowly pressurizing a large tank of water strapped across his back that glowed ever-so-slightly. He flipped another switch, this one connected to the strange changeling-esque device attached to his foreleg. It to hummed to life, illuminated from within by a green light as water flowed into it through tubes connecting it to the pack on his back. "And with a day as dark as this, I think we'll need as many good stallions as we can get!"

He flexed his hoof within the device and shot a stream of sparkling green-tinged water from its muzzle. It splashed onto a small decorative shrubbery, a post box, and some loose stones from one of the collapsed buildings. Moments after contact, all three began to glow, their forms beginning to twist and warp as they grew. With a sudden flash of golden light, they were replaced by three near-identical copies of Doc, excluding his strange device.

"Allons-y!" one cried as he was blessed with intelligence.

"Fantastic!" another grinned as he too join the ranks of sentience.

"Canterlot stands!" announced the third.

"You know what to do, lads," Time Turner stated. The three duplicates nodded, as they shared all of his thoughts up until the moment he pulled the trigger. As one, they all turned and ran towards where the other ponies were starting to gather while the original Doctor primed his device again and switched out the nozzle for multi-shot mode.

Across the rapidly filling plaza, Diamond Tiara's carriage entered the scene at high speed, pulled through the air by some unknown magical means. The filly herself was decked out in as much jewelry and accessories as could be worn by a pony at one time. Every piece of gold and gemstone she wore had the tell-tale glow of an enchanted item, her ensemble easily totaling a small fortune in bits and enough magical potency to put pre-alicorn Twilight to the test.

"No!" she snapped, "I am the biggest, most important pony in town and nopony is allowed to be bigger than me because I'm the richest and therefore the best! I'm the rich filly, I'm the one who wins!"

The Mayor trotted out of her office, a fedora tipped down over her eyes and a pinstripe jacket hung loosely over her shoulders, followed by a line of surprisingly muscular interns. She pointed to Afterparty. "Full salaried employment to whoever topples that eyesore in my picturesque city skyline!"

There were countless other ponies as well, pouring out from their houses and side streets dressed in all manner of ridiculous outfits and armed to the teeth with whatever they'd been driven to build, steal, or repurpose. Lyra Heartstrings rolled up on a tricycle, a mad grin on her face and a hacksaw in each hoof. Bon Bon stood behind her, decked out in full spy gadgetry restitched with an intimidating skull-and-snake logo. Daisy arrived atop of wagon piled high with produce pulled by her two friends who now wore armor seemingly constructed from other marketplace kiosks. Mr. and Mrs. Cake stood shoulder to shoulder, their manes wildly disheveled as they brandished a pair of razor-sharp knives and an overcharged culinary blowtorch. "Ah, what fortune!" They crooned to each other, "And just when we were about to run out of pies; what providence!"

"That's her!" Dinky Cran-muffin Caesar cried, leaning out a window, "It's her! She's the one!"

"Who is it now?" Derpy asked, her head poking out from behind her daughter.

"Her!" The smaller pony insisted, "The one I've been looking for. The one that causes everything! The one behind it all!" She began to climb out the window.

"What are you doing?!" Derpy leaped forward to catch her daughter just before the unicorn left the window.

"Don't stop me Gingersnap!" She snapped gingerly, "This is my chance, my one chance, to take her down and finally restore balance to the world's little ponies!"

"Oh no you don't." Derpy chastised as she pulled her daughter back inside. "I think you've had more than enough villainy for one day. You're letting the others take care of this one."

"But Mom..." She wailed, childish instincts bleeding through her character. "The evil!"

"No buts, Missy! You can stand by the window and watch, but no daughter of mine is going to get involved in a Citywide no-holds-barred melee against a giant monster from beyond Imagination."

A plaintive "Awww..." leaked out the window as it was pulled close from within.

The pavilion grew silent as the last few ponies and their assorted minions and subordinates trickled in. Tension mounted as the two sides faced off. In the center of the plaza, Afterparty: a veritable mountain of darkness armed with incredible strength and who knows what else up her sleeve. Surrounding her on all sides, the combined forces of Ponyville, bristling with arched collars, hastily restitched Nightmare Night costumes, and every weapon they could lay their hooves on.

OOOOH...!" Afterparty cooed, "SO MANY UNEXPECTED GUESTS. WE'LL HAVE TO MAKE THIS A FAREWELL PARTY TO REMEMBER THEN." She flexed and released a wave of pressure that left airborne pegasi reeling. A ripple traveled down her form. Like a mouse journeying down a snake's gullet, a bulge ran from her head, down her body, and up her tail. When it reached the tip, the end of her tail exploded in another shockwave that rocked the gathered crowd. When they regained their bearings, the threat before them had multiplied.

Pinkies. Countless normal-sized Pinkies clustered around the giant's hooves, dark as their creator and grinning and chittering madly. Trailing from each of their tails was a wiggling streamer of void connecting them to the main body.

The United Villains of Ponyville hesitated. Sensing the time for decisive action, Fluttershy handed Twilight a slip of paper. Surprised, Twilight instinctively read it aloud, her voice easily carrying across the battlefield to all those present. "A Royal Pardon for all the villainy of whoever manages to take Afterparty down!"

There was a moment's pause. And then, with a roar like waves breaking over the ocean, every single pony, creature, robot, and magical construct leapt into battle at once.

And the summoned army of partylings answered their cry for battle in equal ferocity.

The Marchioness's ground troops were the first to make contact with the enemy, given their freedom from the physical limitations of living ponies. They couldn't do much in terms of complex maneuvers, but they coordinated excellently with each other to form large bludgeoning masses.

After that point, the battle descended into pure chaos.

Pegasi swarmed around Afterparty like a cloud of angry insects, bucking, punching and hacking with whatever tools they had. The ground-based forces were no slouch either, pummeling and blasting their way through partylings with every ounce of dedication. It didn't take long for intuitive ponies to find a weakness. If a partyling's tendril connecting it to the main body was severed, the small combatant ceased to exist. Of course, the partylings soon realized this as well, and began fighting in small groups to cover each other's backs.

"I wish there was something I could do," Octavia said wistfully from the sidelines. Seeing all her friends and neighbors fighting for their town (even if they were temporarily evil) made her wish she, unempowered though she was, could do something, anything, to contribute.

"Fweee-Wheeet!" A sharp whistle caught her attention and she looked up just in time to catch a large object hurtling towards her. It was her old cello, one relegated to storage after her last upgrade, though it had undergone a startling transformation since she'd last seen it. Parts of the wood had been replaced with brass and cyan glowing strings now connected to a dangerous looking piece of machinery covered in magic glyphs. Vinyl winked at her as she tossed an equally upgraded bow.

A change came over Octavia as the bow landed in her hoof. Gone was the apprehension, replaced by a renewed vigor. The area around her eyes seemed to darken ominously, like the sockets of a skull, and her pink bow-tie melted into a blood-red ascot. "Thank you, M'dear! I shall make it a performance worthy of this battle!" Electric blue sparks flew from her hooftips as she rosined up her bow. She pulled the bow across the strings and it made an evil hiss, then a band of robots joined in and it sounded something like this.

As everypony became infused with energy from the invigorating music, Fluttershy rose above the battle, her skills borne from years of corralling animals translating surprisingly well into coordinating an army. 

"Vinyl!" she yelled, "Concentrate your forces on her left side! Davenport! Go aid Applejack and Big Mac, they're pinned down! Dash! Coordinate the pegasi before you all run into each other!"

Across the battlefield, smaller battles broke out as ponies teamed up with neighbors whose fighting styles paired well with their own. Lyra gave her marefriend a look and the former spy shot her back a grin. Gripping the green mare under one leg, she fired a harpoon gun into the air. It caught Afterparty's foreleg in the midst of a wide sweep, yanking the two of them off the ground and after it.

"So!" Lyra yelled as they approached, "You like holding ponies' lives in the frog of your hooves, eh?" The rope began to retract as they flew over the giant hoof in a wide arc. "Well let's see how you like it with no hooves to hold them with!" Reaching out, Lyra dragged her hacksaws around Afterparty's hoof as the rope carried them in a shrinking loop around it. There was no blood but Afterparty roared all the same. Bon Bon cut their rope just before she and her partner were smashed beneath a second hoof, letting them fly free to land on a nearby rooftop. 

Across the plaza, Lily threw her produce throne at the oncoming foe one piece at a time. Though small and light, she threw with a speed and accuracy that made it a veritable vegetable laser, mowing down partylings like a field of wheat. She cut down a rooftop trio who'd been preparing to ambush Cheerilee who'd been backed against a wall. Cheerilee nodded in thanks and continued boxing her way out with a pair of wrought-iron gloves.

Pegasi, some in formation and others on their own, made strafing runs to keep Afterparty's focus on the skies. Twilight was among then, adding her magic to the mix, as did Starlight from atop Snowflake's back. Blossomforth sailed her ship in a slow circle just outside of the giant's reach, firing off batteries of lightning and giving the squadrons a place  to catch their breath between runs. 

But as the battle continued, what had seemed like an even match at first was beginning to shift. For every partyling a pony popped, Afterparty seemed to spawn two more, while the defending side's forces only shrunk as ponies retreated from fatigue or injuries. And despite the best efforts of the airborne forces, Afterparty's injuries still amounted to mere scratches and bruises in comparison. 

On the West flank, a Doctor duplicate received a heavy blow to the back of his head. With a gasp and a burst of golden light, he reverted back to wastepaper basket. Seeing his forces down one, Prime Time Turner pressurized his device for another shot... only for a bare trickle of fluid to leave the pipe. 

"Great Whickering Stallions!" he gasped, "I'm out of magical reagents!" He dashed away from his compatriots and towards the front of the battle, where Fluttershy was still directing the battle like a mad conductor. "The cavalry's run dry!"

"I'm running short myself!" Lily added, her throne of ammo nearly spent.

Fluttershy scowled and clicked her tongue in distaste. "No good, she's got us outmatched in stamina. We can't make this a war of attrition. We need to end this. Now."

Her gaze scanned the battle, countless lessons from books of both history and fiction from her book club bubbling to the forefront of her mind as she sought a solution. Her forces were split along multiple fronts, attacking the partylings from every side as they fought to make their way to the main body. The main body, that was the key. If they could take out Afterparty, then the problem of her minions would fall with her. But she'd seen what happened the first time, before all the reinforcements had arrived. 

...That could work. It was a long-shot plan, and required countless things to all work perfectly in sync, but it could work!

She hastily gave orders to a few dedicated runners before shouting out to the sky.

"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy barked as the  prismatic pegasus dropped out of formation for more orders, "Get some altitude! We need something big to finish this!"

"I already tried a Sonic Rainboom, but she just-"

"Don't worry about that," Fluttershy cut her off, "Leave that to us. Just get up there and wait for a signal."

Rainbow Dash nodded and began to climb, higher and higher into the sky. Recognizing the move, Afterparty grinned. ANOTHER RAINBOOM? DIDN'T YOU TRY THIS ALREADY? ALL I HAVE TO DO IS-

"NOW!" Fluttershy shouted.

With a rumble, the earth fell out from under Afterparty's hooves, dropping her down a few feet. She shifted her weight to regain her balance, only to sink another level deeper. Holes popped up across the battlefield as Diamond Dogs fled their collapsing tunnels like rats from a sinking ship. Every time Afterparty shifted, she dropped deeper, till she was in a hole waist-deep even on her titanic height.

"CLEVER," she commented, "BUT NOT ENOUGH. I CAN ALWAYS-"

"Hit it, Crusaders!" Fluttershy ordered again.

The Crusadinator 9000 shifted into a power stance, legs spread and one arm braced with the other. A hand lifted up, revealing a hollow cannon three ponies wide. From the cockpit, three voices hollered in unison: "Crusader Ultimate Sticky Situation Cannon: Fire!"

A brown glob of tree sap fired like a bazooka, hitting Afterparty before she could even register it. She tried to dodge, only it was a moment too late as she found her left foreleg completely stuck to the ground.

"Diamond Tiara!" The filly who hadn't actually done much for the battle other than hurl insults looked up from her palanquin. "Attack her anywhere except her face."

The magically buffed filly scowled. "Nobody tells me what to do!" With a shriek, every artifact and charmed trinket on her possession began to glow. A pink beam of magic as big as the filly's whole body fired like a railgun straight for Afterparty's face. The behemoth reeled back as it struck, roaring in pain. At that exact moment, Blossomforth gave an order of her own.

"Abandon Bureau-ship!" Pegasi jumped off in droves as the entire vessel rammed Afterparty in the small of her back, filling her with electricity that briefly made her skeleton visible under her skin and making her arch her back.

As soon as the lightning faded, but while smoke still leaked from Afterparty's body, Vinyl and her robots made their move. They latched onto her free foreleg, pulling it back and out. One automaton linked with another, who linked with its neighbor, and its neighbor as well. In seconds the sea of machines had formed a single cohesive whole dedicated to the sole mission of hold this hoof  right there.

Meanwhile, in the skies above Ponyville, Rainbow Dash climbed ever higher. She knew she didn't need to go this high, she'd done Rainbooms from half this height, but she wasn't taking any chances. Not when the situation was this serious. She slowly for only a moment as she heard the the crackling of a massive discharge of lightning below. Something big had definitely just happened. Was that the signal? She panicked slightly as she realized she had no idea what the signal was. It took someone else speaking for her to realize she wasn't alone anymore.

"Howdy."

The pegasus blinked. There was a green earth pony above her. Standing on nothing, wearing an ornate black dress, and hoisting a hammer larger than herself. "I'm here to give you the signal."

Rainbow Dash didn't understand how an earth pony was up this high, how she got there or how she wasn't falling, but she did know that this wasn't the time for questions. Besides, it didn't even register on the strangest things she'd seen today. So she simply nodded and began braking, readying herself to make the change from up to down. As she flipped, she felt her hooves land on something solid. She glanced up to see her hooves resting on the head on the hammer, which itself was cocked behind the filly's shoulder.

"Here, lemme give you a boost," she said before grinning alarmingly. Before Rainbow Dash could respond or even react, she'd swung the hammer and pegasus both, sending the rainbow pegasus shooting down at speeds it'd have taken another thousand feet of diving to achieve.

Afterparty blinked uneasily out of one eye, the other remaining shut. As hard as it was to tell from the outside, she knew she was taking damage. But she just had to hold out a little longer. A twinkling in the sky above caught her attention. Her good eye struggled to focus on it, and by the time she made out a blue pegasus with a rainbow contrail, it was too late.

There was no time to counter, no time to dodge, not that she could anyhow. There was only time for one last thought to make the unconscious journey from brain to lips.

OH PHOOEY...

The concussive force of the explosion of magic and rainbows raised a dust cloud that near instantly blanketed the plaza. Ponies grabbed onto whatever sturdy things they could to save themselves from being blown away. And when the echoes of the boom resounding off distant Mt. Canter finally died away... there was silence.

Ponies lay scattered about like the toys of a careless foal, groaning and wincing between piles of fried machinery, tattered garments, and shattered ponequins. Slowly, but assuredly, they began to pick themselves up and congregate by the crater.

For that's all that remained. A giant hole in the middle of town, singed and smoking, with neither hide nor hair to be found of its former occupant. No one said anything. No one could say anything. Then, cutting through the silence, was a scrabbling sound. A noise not unlike hooves seeking purchase on very loose soil and rocks. After a few moments, a pile of pink curls poked over the lip of the hole.

Pinkie Pie, short, pink, and sporting an impressive shiner, crawled over the edge and onto solid ground.

"Phew" she sighed before noticing the gathered crowd and chuckling awkwardly. "Er... Hi everypony. Boy, do I have splitting headache like you wouldn't believe!"

"Pinkie!" Twilight gasped and, through stuttering faltering flaps, hoisted herself above and past the crowd to embrace her recovered friend. "Oh I'm so glad you're okay! I never would have imagined that  would have effected you so severely!"

"...Yes" Pinkie replied slowly, ". Which is definitely the thing that made me do everything. You must've, heh, knocked it right out of me."

Suddenly, a pony gasped and collapsed, followed quickly by another. One by one, seemingly every pony who had participated in the battle was falling on their hooves like so much dead weight. A sickly yellow miasma leaked from their bodies, slinking out of their mouths, their nostrils, and even their pores to disappear into the sky above.

"What's... happening?" Twilight struggled to speak, feeling bonds of fatigue fall over her like lead weights. She registered another pony's hoofsteps and managed to look up to see Fluttershy approaching. The explosion had stolen her hat and knocked her mane back into some semblance of it's usual long and loose style.

"It's the virus." She clarified, her voice also labored, "Discord... supercharged it... so everypony would have a reaction at once. Now... without his power... it's feeling the recoil... and burning out of our systems." She smiled softly, kindly. "Good news, everypony should be over their cold when they wake up."

"And the bad news?"

The pegasus's eyelids fluttered as she struggled to stay awake. "Everypony is going to be really sore from sleeping on the hard ground." With that, she collapsed, her mane and tail naturally curling around her like a blanket.

Twilight could feel it now even as Pinkie slumped out of her hug. Even before the big fight, it had been a long day, and as the adrenaline wore off she began to truly acknowledge just how physically, mentally, and magically exhausted she was. She fell to her knees, Pinkie's curls softening the blow somewhat. In her last bleary moments as darkness crept up the edges of her vision, Twilight noticed one pony that was still standing. "Please..." she whispered, "Sleeping outside... not safe... Get... others home..." And Twilight knew no more.

In a battlefield gone silent, her comrades and enemies littering the ground around her, a single mare still stood.

And she was not very happy about that.

"Great. Just great. Everypony else gets to take a nap, while the Poor and Worn-out Trixie has to stay up to ferry everypony else home. It's not fair! Why couldn't Trixie have been infected? Trixie would make a great supervillain!"

But there was no response to her arguments save for the soft snoring of ponies in recovery.